Skip to main content

Full text of "Science"

See other formats 


vata y 


PUR AOL! 
' yyy 
Bene Aid NN 
' ee \ ana 
ND 


Vevey, 
evs 


, ( * 2 

i , } e 

aut tpt eran : Haseitita pretended 

‘ , ht PARR AAALAC ROL Ea wi Platet aie teta eat at is 
DO: RON TCR IOUT ® SEAMS } ity { h 

PRE Hav ee es Bt af ay At Wy vitae i 

RNS init HOU AH WEN CO ttt yen) ? 


hie 
Nt bath aa 
ute bi \ ; iiee 
hi * fp ‘ ( ? he A : \ 
NORA ETHIC ORTH MERIC HR EMAY Se Sahat Mis i ? Ge ’ tay 
dials ieee! HUBERT ittt atte ith 


Ie ME te UE 
A LC J ‘ ‘ i 
yey RAH OHTA BUCCAL : Photons i 
reba ‘ yy ey wn 
f i ? r 


Nh 
+) 
he 


VEN Vey 
4) OND i 
) f 
ey ey ? 4 
a vine ry vay) i 


AiG 
eye 
J f } 
} i ) ; EO Abe 
MATA aah) 
AICS ae) 
ete 


hah 

Cys 

fh 

Vari 

aA) ’ 
Way 

j 


» 
i Oi yee oe 
i ur vt 
WARERP YD cee AE a 
HARE EAN eu) 7 anit 
Tbh a f 
i 


five ; WI ¥y ¢ 14 ry isis) * i te ey} 7, 
se) DADE SORU ete tat gs Etats FEE OR HEN 
’ , He ey +! Vere key sea 
DUAR MN HIME tas LAA Sect) 
; 


} 


y Tab Tea 
AiCt ents ' ¥ 
Sate 

aN 


i i Ha 


= 


moe 
ae 


fag ee 
web 
ee 


ee, 


Vhs 
pod Ee ye 
yay na 


Cree 
ved yy 


aay 


Hi ati 


— 


oe 
it 
a! 
eee) 

2 SSses 
erie &, 


a 


rey 

vis Ont 
be hila ’ * 

K Hd aD way es i titi 

PAR A Bit Atelthn DAS 
i PAG ut Pea +5 inn On jia bs 


ait 
Aes 
Pettey 
one aie 
Vasa te 


' 

nai vas 

Pee Mae RTL 

BUR AR 
Thy yet 
iy 


Net CUR LICR i " me 
CCT Ee NCD HEC DN TE} th f ve i ? el iret hit 
i ths V ee 
NTN RTH ayTY ah : neey i 
‘ H “Wi Oe 4 tet its 
i b f 
Jy ga 
Ae eiat 
i) eat 
Liber Te Oe 
ave na f cy 
ani 
ehepeagae 
SAAT Nt 


seas 

EVE 
yi 

voi 


ae Taye 
Vieehepay 
, ¥ 


{ 
i 
| 
rs 
3 
x 
; 


: - 


” 


) . Py 
6 ~] 


ia 
ot 


ee ER OE ET 


wen ic gas ans 


mace yy 
’ 
2 


“ 


a — sits ET IT OO warm: 
~ 


—" 


Biers 


, > 4 
SS 
Q /, up 8 
\ y 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISH- 
ING THE OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


NEW SERIES. VOLUME XXIII. 


JANUARY-JUNH, 1906. 


NEW YORK 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY \Qh2e .e) 
1906 


CONTENTS AND INDEX. 


N.S. VOL. XXII—JANUARY TO JUNE, 1906. 


The Names of Contributors are printed in Small Capttals. 


‘ABBE, C., Government Publications, 669 

Administration, Academie Career as affected by, 
J. JASTROW, 561 

Agricultural Course, Standard, 514 

Alcohol, Tax-free, J. H. Lona, 234; Mixing, E. W. 
BERGER, 787 

Auten, C. E., Wisconsin Acad. of Sci., 579 

ALLEN, G. M., Boston Soc. of Natural History, 818 

Aten, J. A., Heredity and Subspecies, 142; Iso- 
lation, 310 

American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, President’s Address, 1; Report of 
General Secretary, 41; Section A, 49, 460; 
Section C, 56, and Am. Chemical Soc., 321; 
Section G, 81, 201; Section D, 92, 764; Sec- 
tion B, 161, 415; Section I, 178, 601; Section 
F, 241, 257; Section K, 361, 362, 367, 370, 
371, 375, 379; Ithaca Meeting, 796, 861, 888, 
956; Section H, 865 

Ames, J. S., Frick’s Physical Technique, 872; 
Miiller-Pouillet’s Physik, 873 

Ames, L. D., Mo, Soc. of Teachers of Math., 231, 
876 

Ami, H. M., Royal Soc. of Canada, 967 

AwnpkEws, E. A., Crayfish Industry, 983' 

Anthropological, Research, F. Boas, 641; Soc. of 
Washington, W. Hoven, 945 

Anthropology at §S. African Meeting of British 
Assoc., A. C. Happon, 491 

Antiquities, American, 955 

Arctic Expedition, Danish, 925 

Armssy, H. P., A Respiration Calorimeter, W. O. 

Atwater, F. G. Benedict, 741 

Aschan, O., Chemie der alicyklischen Verbind- 
ungen, J. B. TINGLE, 782 

Astronomical, Notes, S. I. Barney, 191, 436, 884; 
and Astrophys. Soc. of Amer., H. Jacosy, 441 

Atmosphere, Primeval, R. H. McKrs, 271 

Atwater, W. O., and F. G. Benedict, A Respira- 
tion Calorimeter, H. P. Armspy, 741 


B., A. P., N. Y. State Sci. Teachers’ Association, 
108; Assoc. of American Geographers, 222 

Bacteriologists, Amer. Soc. of, F. P. GorHam, 205 

Battey, E. H. S., Kansas Acad. of Sci., 33 

Battery, S. I., Astronomical Notes, 191, 436, 884 

Batn, H. F., A Persistent Error, 919 

Baker, C. F., Plant Forms, 804 

Banks, N., Notes on Entomology, 395, 512 

Bargour, EH. H., Morrill Geological Exped., 114 

Barus, C., Rutherford on Radioactivity, 262; Eye 
Anomalies, 390; Corpuscular Radiation from 
Cosmical Sources, 952 

Baver, L. A., Magnetic Survey of Pacific, 475 


BrckwitH, T. D., and K. F. KELLERMAN, Effect of 
Drying upon Legume Bacteria, 471 

BELL, J. M., Tobacco, 904 

Bergen, J. Y., Coll. Entrance Examinations, 981 

BerGer, H. W., Mixing Alcohol, 787 

Berry, E. W., Isolation and Evolution, 34; Mid- 
Cretaceous Geography, 509; Glossopteris in 
British Museum, 780 

Bessey, C. E. Organography of Plants, K. Goebel, 
301; Botanical Notes, 354, 473, 853, 922 

Bicetow, M. A., Biology, N. Y. Acad. Sei., 504 

Biological, Soc. of Washington, HE. L. Morris, 68, 
264; M. C. Marsa, 186, 465, 665, 913; Labo- 
ratory, Cold Spring, 636 

Biology and Medicine, Exper., Soc. for, W. J. 
Giss, 109, 662, 846, 979; N. Y. Acad. of Sci., 
M. A. BicELow, 504 

Buain, Jz., A. W., Mich. Ornithological Club, 745 

Boas, F., Jesup N. Pacific Expedition, 102; 
Philological Aspects of Anthropological Re- 
search, 641 

Bécuer, M., Picard Sur le déyeloppement de 
Yanalyse, 912 

Bogert, M. T., Cohn’s Die Reichstoffe, Semmler’s 
Die Atherischen Oele, 227 

Boremeyre, C. J., St. Louis Chem. Soc., 187, 629, 
700, 918 ; 

Boswortu, A. W., and L. L. Van SuyKe, Car- 
bonated Milk, 712 

Botanical, Soe. of Amer., W. TRELEASE, 221; 
Notes, C. E. Brssry, 354, 473, 853, 922; 
Club, Vermont, L. R. Jonzs, 390 

Botanists, Central, Address, W. TRELEASE, 97; 
Annual Meeting, B. M. Davis, 133 

Botany at the Amer. Assoc., F. E. Luoyp, 201 

Boveri, Professor, Report of Researches, C. S. 
Minor, 115 

Bowditch, Professor, Retirement of, 988 

Briquet, Dr. J., Testimonial to, 637 

British Association, 356 

Brogger, W. C., Raised Beaches in Norway, G. G. 
MacCurpy, 778 

Brown, A. E., Ontogenetic Species, 146 

Brown, T. C., Columbia Field Work, 587 

Buckman, S. S., Brachiopoda, 920 

Bussey, W. H., Amer. Math. Soc., 430, 783 


C., T. D. A., Zoological Nomenclature, 232 

Capy, W. G., Sine Curves, 877 

CatHoun, F. H. H., Clemson Col. Sci. Club, 231, 
630 

California Acad. of Sci., 824, 887; and University, 
757 

CaLKins, G. N., The Protozoan Life Cycle, 367 


iv i SCIENCE. 


Carnegie, Institution, Report of President, R. S. 
WoopwarpD, 121; Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching, 761 

CarreL, A., and C. C. Gururiz, Replantation of 
the Thigh, 395; Transplantation of Kidneys, 
394; of Ovary, 591 

Carrot, J., Mosquitoes and Yellow Fever, 401 

Casey, T. L., Variation versus Mutation, 632 

Casrizr, W. E., Inbreeding, Cross-breeding and 
Sterility in Drosophila, 153 

Carrent, J. McK., University Control, 475 

Census, Twelfth, 594 

CHAMBERLAIN, C. J., Megaspore or Macrospore, 
819 

CHANDLER, C. F., Robert Ogden Doremus, 513 

Cheilobranchus, The Fish Genus, T. GILL, 584 

Chemical Soc., Amer., N. Y. Section, F. H. Pouen, 
140, 347, 629, 848, 946; Northeastern Section, 
A. M. Comey, 141; St. Louis, C. J. Bore- 
MEYER, 187, 629, 700, 918; Washington, C. 
E. WATERS, 230, 389, 503 

Chemistry, Applied, Congress of, H. W. Wiley, 
156; at Amer. Assoc., C. L. Parsons, C. EH. 
Waters, 321; Organic, Notes on, J. B. 
TINGLE, 712, 752, 791; Requirements, J. F. 
SELLERS, 730 

CuILp, C. M., Conklin on Ascidian Egg, 340 

Classification of Flowering Plants, B. L. Rosin- 
son, 81 

Clemson Col. Sci. Club, F. H. H. Catnoun, 231, 
630 S 

Climatology of Tinajas Altas, W J McGrr, 721 

CocKERELL, T. D. A., Evolution of Species, 145 

Cocnitt, G. E., Oregon Acad. of Sci., 230, 582 

Cohn, G., Die Riechstoffe, M. T. Bogert, 227 

Core, F. N., Amer. Math. Soc., 101 

Colorado, Univ. Sci. Soc., F. RAMALEY, 112, 582, 
981; Conference of Science Workers, F. 
RAMALEY, 918 

Color-associations, E. S. Horpren, 270 

Comey, A. M., N. E. Sec. of Amer. Chem. Soe., 141 

Conant, L. L., Worcester Polytech. Inst., 924 

Congress of United States, 76, 116, 316, 516, 595, 
675, 794, 824, 887 

Conklin, E. G., Ascidian Egg, C. M. Cuinp, 340 

Cook, O. F., Please excuse the Kelep, 187; 
Species-formation, 506 

CoguiLtertT, D. W., The Genus Culex, 312 

Crayfish Industry, E. A. ANDREWS, 983 

Croox, A. R., Nature in Popular Magazines, 748 

CRowE LL, J. F., Social and Economic Sci. at Am. 
Assoe., 601 

Cunver, C. A., Reactions in Solutions as a Source 
of E.M.F., 72 

Curry, C. E., Electromagnetic Theory of Light, 
C. E. M., 385 


DauucREN, U., Electric Organ in Astroscopus, 469 

Datt, W. H., Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 31, 
977 

Darwin, E., Letters, B. DEAN, 986 

Davis, B. M., The Central Botanists, 133 

Davis, G. E., Wellesley College Sci. Club, 187 

Davis, W. M., Physiography of the Adirondacks, 
630 

Day, A. L., and E. 8. SHepreErp, Quartz Glass, 670 

Dean, B., Letters of E. Darwin, 986 

DeELABARRE, E. B., Psychology, E. L. Thorndike, 
260 


CONTENTS AND 
INDEX 


De Vries on Evolution, T. W. VAUGHAN, 681 

Dewey, J., Santayana’s Life of Reason, 223 

Discussion and Correspondence, 34, 70, 112, 142, 
187, 232, 268, 307, 348, 390, 433, 469, 504, 
545, 582, 630, 667, 700, 746, 785, 818, 849, 
876, 919, 947, 981 


Donatnson, H. H., Endowment of Research, 282 - 


Doremus, Robert Ogden, C. F. CHANDLER, 515 
Duerden, J. E., Coral, H. V. W., 497 

Dumeste, E. T., Petroleum in Texas, 510 

Dutton, C. E., de Montessus on Earthquakes, 691 
Dyar, H. G., Mosquitoes, 233 


Earthquake, The California, A. C. Lawson, A. O. 
LEUSCHNER, 961; at Stanford University, D. 
S. J., 716; at Ukiah, S. D. Townury, 756; 
Univ. of Pacific and the Cal. Acad. of Sci., 795 

Earthquakes recorded, at Cheltenham Observa- 
tory, W. F. WALLIS, 633; at Albany, N. Y., 
D. H. NEwianp, 851 

Eastman, C. R., History of Nat Sci., 194; 
Stomach Stones, 983 

Eastwood, A., Trees of Calif., A. SCHNEIDER, 68 

Eeological Adaptation and Selection, C. RoBErt- 
son, 307 

EIGENMANN, C. H., Evolution, A. Patterson, 576 

Extot, C. W., Benjamin Franklin as Printer and 
Philosopher, 833 

Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., A. S. WHEELER, 307, 876 

Energy, Partition of, W. F. Macir, 161 

Engineering College and Commercial Tests, D. S. 
JACOBUS, 92 

Entomology, Notes on, N. BANKS, 395, 512 

Evolution, Dr. Cook’s Conception of, A. E. Orr- 
MANN, 667, 947; Rafinesque on, L. STEJNEGER, 
785; Plasticity of Organisms and, M. M. 
MeErcatLr, 786 

Examinations, College Entrance, E. L. THoRN- 
DIKE, 839; J. Y. BercEn, 981 

Eye Anomalies, C. Barus, 390 


FarrcHitp, D., The Smithsonian Institution, 876 

Fartow, W. G., Popular Conception of the Scien- 
tifie Man, 1 

FarnswortH, P. J., Mounds of Lower Miss. 
Valley, 583 

Farrineron, O. C., Meteoric Shower at Modoc, 
Kas., 582 

Fauut, J. H., Laboulbeniacez, 152 

Frreusson, 8. P., Meteorological Phenomena on 
Mountain Summits, 672 

Fertilizers, F. P. Verrcen, 710 

Filariasis and Trypanosome Diseases, H. B. 
Warp, 370 

Fins of Fishes, R. C. OSBuRN, 585 

Foiry, A. L., Molecular Forces in Gelatine, 790 

Folk-lore, Society, Amer., California Branch of, 
A. L. ISrorper, 70, 432, 784, 947; Club, 
Berkeley, A. L. KROEBER, 187, 433 

Fotsom, J. W., and M. U. Wettss, Epithelial De- 
generation and Regeneration in Collembola, 
633 

Forchand, R. de, Chimie, W. A. N., 136 

Forestry at Colorado, 276 

Fourr, C. W., Analytical Chemistry, 67 

Franklin, Benjamin, as Printer and Philosopher, 
Cc. W. Extor, 833; Bi-centenary, 929 

Frick, J., Physical Technique, J. S. Amps, 872 


eet 


New SERIES. 
VOL. XXIII. 


Funter, M. L., Soc. of Geohydrologists, 111, 


140, 267, 348, 501, 628, 817 


GaceR, C. §., Torrey Botanical Club, 307, 345, 
468, 503, 744, 784, 873, 947 

Gawnone, W. F., Soc. for Plant Morphol. and 
Physiol., 421 

Gastroliths, Dinosaurian, G. R. WIELAND, 819; C. 
R. HAsTMAN, 983 

Geodetic Assoc., 887 

Geographers, American, Assoc. of, A. P. B., 222 

Geographical Soc. Royal, Awards of, 594 

Geohydrologists, Soc. of, M. L. Funter, 111, 140, 
267, 348, 501, 628, 817 

Geological, Soc. of Washington, A. C. SPENCER, 32 
266, 305, 695, 814, 915; Expedition, Morrill, 
E. H. Barsour, 114; Excursion, New Eng. 
Intercollegiate, D. W. J., 155; Survey of 
Illinois, 276; Survey, U. 8., Building for, 
794; Section of New Mexico, C. R. Keyes, 
921 

Geology, and Geography at Am. Assoc., E. O. 
Hovey, 286; and Mineralogy, N. Y. Acad. of 
Sci., A. W. GRaBav, 87, 467; Columbia Field 
Work in, T. C. Brown, 587 

GEROULD, J. H., Ameba Blatt, 707 

Gries, W. J., Soc. for Exper. Biol. and Medicine, 
109, 662, 846, 979; Physiology and Experi- 
mental Medicine at the Amer. Assoc., 361 

Gitt, T., The Fish Genus, Alabes or Cheilo- 
branchus, 584 

Goebel, K., Organography of Plants, C. H. Brssry, 
301 

Gooch, F. A., Inorganic Chemistry, E, H. Ketser, 
302 

Gorpon, C. H., and L. C. Graron, Lower Paleozoic 
in New Mexico, 590 

GorHamM, F. P., Soc. of Amer. Bacteriologists, 205 

GouLp, G. M., New World for the Blind, 268 

Grapau, A. W., Geology and Mineralogy, N. Y. 
Acad. Sci., 387, 467 

GREENE, C. W., Howell’s Physiology, 134 

GrirFitHs, D., Prickly Pear from Mexico, 314 

Guuick, J. T., Isolation and Evolution, 433 

GuTuriz, C. C., and A. CarRreL, Replantation of 
the Thigh, 393; Transplantation of Kidneys, 
394; of the Ovary, 591 


Hapvpon, A. C., Anthropology at British Assoc., 
491 

Hatt, G. S., Affiliation of Psychology and Philos- 
ophy with Natural Sciences, 297 

Hatstep, G. B., The Bolyai Prize, 793 

Hamaker, J. I., Zygospores, 710 

Hann, J., Meteorologie, R. DeC. W., 344 

Hareirr, C. W., Collecting Earthworms, 470 

Harper, R. M., Torrey Botanical Club, 69 

Heap, F. D., Nebraska Acad. of Sci., 619 

Heilprin, A., The Tower of Pelée, E. Hows, 29 

HENDERSON, J., Government Publications, 545 

Heredity and Subspecies, J. A. ALLEN, 142 

Herrick, C. J., Zoology at Amer. Assoc., 257 

Herrick, F. H., Flashlights in the Jungle, C. G. 
Schillings, 540; The Lobster Fishery, 650 

Hertwig, O., Biologie, F. R. Lint, 428 

Heumann. K., Chemie, W. A. N., 135 

Hinearp, E. W., Soils for Apples, 70 

Hitt, R. T., Origin of Mounds of Lower Missis- 
sippi Valley, 704 


SCIENCE. Vv 


HopEn, E. S., Color-associations, 270; Bibliog- 
raphie astronomique of Lalande, 548 

Horianp, W. J., Nebula to Man, H. R. Knipe, 
107; Museums Assoc. of Amer., 317, 636 

Horr, L. E., Fellowships of Rockefeller Institute, 
235 

Hopkins, N. M., Electrochemistry, E. F. Smiru, 
812 

Hoskins, L. M., Merriman’s Mechanics, James’s 
Kinematics, 574 

Hovucu, W., Pueblo Environment, 865; Anthro- 
pological Soe. of Washington, 945 

Houston, President, Installation of, 596 

Houston, E. J., Electricity, S. SHELDON, 692 

Howe, E., Mt. Pelée, A. Heilprin, 29 

Howe, M. A., Torrey Botanical Club, 698 

Howell, W. H., Physiology, C. W. GREENE, 134 

Hovey, E. O., Geol. and Geog. at Am. Assoce., 286 


Illusions of Reversed Motion, G. M. Wurerne, 507 

Indiana Acad. of Sci., J. H. Ransom, 139 

Isolation, and Evolution, E. W. Berry, 34; A. E. 
OrtMANN, 71; J. T. Gutick, 433; Ethnic 
Types and, C. WIsSLER, 147; and Non-isola- 
tion, J. A. ALLEN, 310; without ‘ Barriers,’ 
A. E. ORTMANN, 504; by Choice, A. C. LANE, 
702 


J., D. S., Earthquake at Stanford University, 716 

J., D. W., New Eng. Geol. Excursion, 155 

Jacosus, D. S., Commercial Tests and Engineer- 
ing Colleges, 92 

Jacosy, H., Astronom. and Astrophys. Soe. of 
Amer., 441 

James, G. O., Kinematics, L. M. Hoskins, 574 

JAMES, W., Stanford’s Ideal Destiny, 801 

JASTROW, J., The Academic Career, 561 

JEFFREY, H. C., Morphology and Phylogeny, 291 

Jounson, D. W., Magnetism of Diamond Drill 
Rods, 789 

Jones, L. R., Vermont Botanical Club, 390 

JorDAN, D. S., Rambur and the Nature of Species, 

‘ 350; Salmon Hybrids, 434 

JOsuiIn, L. B., Celluloid and Chromatic Polariza- 
tion, 706 


K., G. M., The Walter Reed Memorial Fund, 392 

Kansas Acad. of Sci., E. H. S. Batnry, 33 

Ketser, E. H., Inorganic Chemistry, F. A. Gooch, 
302 

Kelep, 0. F. Coox, 187; W. M. WuHreter, 348 

KELLERMAN, K. F., and T. D. Beckwits, Drying 
Legume Bacteria, 471 

Kewtoce, V. L., Yellow Fever and the Panama 
Canal, 114; Physiological Regeneration, 149; 
Stanford University, 756 

Kemp, J. F., Metalliferous Veins, 14; Human Im- 
plements in Abandoned River Channel, 434; 
Physiography of the Adirondacks, 631 

Keyes, C. R., Geol. Section of New Mex., 921 

Kinnicutt, L. P., Water Analysis, 56 

Kirkwoop, J. E., Onondaga Acad. of Sci., 432 

Kwas, F., Yellow-fever Mosquito, 270 

Kwapp, M. A., Transportation and Combination, 
178 

Knipe, H. R., Nebula to Man, W. J. HoLtanp, 107 

KOHNEE, Q., Yellow Fever, 375 


V1 SCIENCE. 


Krorser, A. L., Calif. Branch of Amer. Folk-lore 
Soe., 70, 4382, 784, 947; Berkeley Folk-lore 
Club, 187, 433 


L., F., Sutton’s Volumetric Analysis, 184; Olsen’s 
Quantitative Analysis, 185 

L., F. A., Museum, Reports, 792; Publications, 
954 

Lang, A. C., Economic Geol. of U. 8., H. Riss, 
225; Isolation, 702 

Langley, Samuel Pierpont, 438 

Lawson, A. C., and A. O. Luuscuner, The Cali- 
fornia Earthquake, 961 

Legislature, N. Y., Bills of Scientific Interest, 796 

Lenses, Fluid, 886 

Leyeretrt, F., The Papaw Tree, 919 

Linu, F. R., Allgemeine Biologie, O. Hertwig, 428 

Luioyp, F, E., Botany at the Amer. Assoc., 201 

Lobster Fishery, F. H. Herrick, 650 

Loeb, J., Physiology, 8S. J. Metrzrr, 742 

Lone, J. H., Tax-free Alcohol, 234 

Lovrgsoy, A. O., Philosophy and Mathematics at 
the Congress of Arts and Sci., 655 

Lunge, G., Techno-chemical Analysis, C. W. 
FouLK, 67 

Lutz, F. E., Spiders’ Webs, 391 


M., C. E., Analytical Theory of Light, J. Walker, 
385; Electromagnetic Theory of Light, C. E. 
Curry, 385 

McCuune, C. E., Amer. Soc. of Zool., 521 

MacCurpy, G. G., Brégger on Raised Beaches in 
Norway, 778 

MacCurdy G. G., The Eolithic Problem, J. C. 


MERRIAM, 659 
McCurdy, J. H., Physical Training, G. L. Meynan, 
626 


McGrxr, W J, Climatology of Tinajas Altas, 721 

McGregory, J. F., Chemical Analysis, C. W. 
FouLk, 67 

McKer, R. H., The Primeval Atmosphere, 271 

MacLean, G. E., Admission to College, 645 

McPixrg, FE. F., Bibliographic Exchange, 547 

Macir, W. F., The-Partition of Energy, 161 

Macruper, W. T., Mech. Sci. and Eng. at Amer. 
Assoce., 764 

Marsa, M. C., Biological Soc. of Washington, 186, 
465, 665, 913 

Mathematical Soc. Amer., F. N. Corts, 101; W..H. 
Bussey, 430, 783; San Francisco Section, G. 
A. Miter, 500 

Mathematics and Astronomy at Am. Assoc., L. G. 
WE Lp, 460 

Mayer, A. G., Summer Schools, 703 

Mayo, W. J., The Medical Profession, 897 

Mechanical Science and Engineering at Amer. 
Assoc., W. T. MaGruper, 764 

Mechanics and Physics, A. ZiweEt, 49 

Medical Profession, W. J. Mayo, 897 

Mettzer, S. J., General Physiology, J. Loeb, 742 

Mendelian Inheritance, E. B. Wr1tson, 112; Char- 
acter in Cattle, W. J. Spirtman, 549 

Merriam, C. H., Is Mutation a Factor in Eyolu- 
tion of higher Vertebrates?, 241 

Merriam, J. C., MacCurdy on the Eolithie Prob- 
lem, 659 

Merritt, G. P., Meteorite from Kas., 391 

Merriman, M., Mechanics, L. M. Hoskins, 574 

Merrirr, E., Amer. Physical Soc., 303, 500, 913 


CONTENTS AND 
INDEX. 


Mercatr, M. M., Evolution, 786 

Meteorological Service, Japanese, S. T. Tamura, 
396; Phenomena on Mountain Summits, §. 
P. Fergusson, 672; Conference, A. L. Rorcu, 
975 

Meteorology, Notes on, R. DeC. Warp, 74, 153, 
192, 274, 314, 472, 511, 555, 592, 714, 822, 852 

Metric System before Congress, 515; Amer. Inst. 
of Elec. Engineers and, 755 

Meynan, G. L., Physical Training, 626 

Mikkelsen, Expedition, 856 

Minter, D. C., Physics at the Amer. Assoc., 415 

Miner, G. A., Am. Math. Soc., San Francisco 
Section, 500 % 

Minot, C. S. Researches of Professor Boveri, 115 

Missouri Soe. of Teachers of Math., L. D. Ames, 
231, 876 

Montessus, F. de, Earthquakes, C. E. Dutron, 691 

Montcomery, Jk., T. H., Chromosomes, 36 

Morphology and Phylogeny, E. C. JEFFREY, 291 

Morris, EH. L., Biological Soc. of Washington, 
68, 264 

Mosquito, Reduction, and Extermination, J. B. 
SmitH, 113, 857; H. C. WEEKS, 379 

Mosquitoes, Classification of, H. G. Dyar, 233; 
and Yellow-fever, F. Knas, 270 

Mounds of Lower Mississippi Valley, A. C. 
VEATCH, 34; R. T. Hitz, 704; P. J. Farns- 
WwoRTH, 583; I. H. WentTWworTH, 818; J. A. 
UnppENn, 849 

Miiller-Pouillet, Physik, J. S. Ams, 873 

Munson, W. M., An Unbalanced Ration, 752 

Museum, Reports, F. A. L., 792; Publications, 
F. A. L., 954 

Museums, Experts, S. M. Tracey, 232; Amer. 
Assoc. of, 859; W. J. Hottann, 317, 636 

Mutation, and Evolution, C. H. Merriam, 241; 
Variation versus, T. L. Casey, 632; Theory, 
W. Strong, 701; Fallacy of, A. E. ORTMANN, 
746 

Mycological Soc. Amer., C. L. SHEAx, 186 


N., W. A., Heumann’s Chemie, 135; Roscoe and 
Schorlemmer’s Chemistry, 136; de Forchand’s 
Chimie, 136 

National Academy of Sciences, 662 

Natural, Science, History of, C. R. Eastman, 194; 
History, Boston Soe. of, G. M. Atten, 818 

Naturalists, Am., Soe. of, Central Branch, 281; 
President Angell’s Address of Welcome, 282 

Nebraska Acad. of Sci., F. D. Heap, 619 

NEWLAND, D. H., Earthquakes recorded at Albany, 
N. Y., 851 

New York Acad. of Sciences, Geology and Mineral- 
ogy, A. W. GRABAU, 387, 467; Biology, M. A. 
BieeLow, 504 

North Carolina Acad. of Sci., F. L. Srevens, 944 

Noyes, W. A., Die Schule der Chemie, W. Ostwald, 
463 


Observatory and Nautical Museum, N. Y., 795 

Ohio, Acad. of Sci., L. B. Waxron, 137; State 
University, 596 

Otsen, J. C., Quantitative Chemical Analysis, 
F. L., 185 

Onondaga Acad. of Sci., J. E. Kirkwoop, 432 

Oregon Acad. of Sci., G. E. Coeurin, 230, 582 

Ornithological Club, A. W. Buatn, JR., 745 


New SERIES. 
VoL. XXIII. 


Ortmann, A. E., Isolation and Evolution, 71, 
504, 947; Dr. Cook’s Conception of Evolu- 
tion, 667; Mutation Theory, 746 

Osporn, H., The Lake Laboratory, 356 

OspuRN, R. C., Fins of Fishes, 585 

Ostwald, W., Chemie, W. A. Noyes, 463 


Panama, F. L. Wapo, 769 

Papaw Tree, Northern Limit of, C. A. WHITE, 
749; F. Leverett, 919; J. A. UpDEN, 920 

Parrott, P. J., Pear-leaf Blister-mite, 73 

Parsons, C. L., and C. E. Waters, Section C 
and Am. Chem. Soe. at New Orleans, 321 

Patterson, A., Evolution, C. H. Eigenmann, 576 

Paulmier, Frederick C., E. B. W., 556 

Peirce, James Mills, 637 

PENHALLOW, D. P., Ward’s Mesozoic Floras of 
United States, 737 

Philosophical Soe., of Washington, C. K. WEAD, 
229, 263, 431, 580, 874, 918; Amer., 236, 
597, 675 

Physical Soe. Amer., E. Mrerrirt, 303, 500, 913 

Physics at the Amer. Assoc., D. C. Minter, 415 

Physiography of the Adirondacks, W. M. Davis, 
630; J. F. Kemp, 631 

Physiological Soc., American, 76 

Physiology and Experimental Medicine at the 
Amer. Assoc., W. J. GiEs, 361 

Picard, E., Sur le développement de l’analyse, M. 
BocuHer, 912 

Preer, C. V., Terminology of Grass Spikelet, 789 

Plant, Morphology and Physiology, Soc. for, W. 
F. Ganone, 421; Forms, C. F. Baker, 804 

Pouen, F. H., N. Y., Sec. of Am. Chem. Soe., 140, 
347, 629, 848, 946 

Protozoan Life Cycle, G. N. CaLKIns, 367 

Prussia, Secondary Schools of, Sciences in, J. W. 
A. YOUNG, 733 

Psychology and Philosophy, and the Natural Sci- 
ences, G. S. HALL, 297 

Publications, Government, J. HENDERSON, 545; C. 
ABBE, 669 

Pueblo Environment, W. Houau, 865 


Quackenbush, L. S8., Conger Hels on L. I., 702 
Quartz Glass, A. L. Day, E. S. SHEPHERD, 670 
Quotations, 73, 635, 674, 881 


RaMALey, F., Univ. of Colo. Sci. Soc., 112, 582, 
981; Colo. Conference of Science Workers, 918 

Ransom, J. H., Indiana Acad. of Sci., 139 

REED, H. §., Parasitism of Neocosmospora, 751 

Reed, Major Walter, U.S.A., Memorial of, 277; 
G. M. K., 392, 956 

Ries, H., Economic Geology of United States, 
A. C. LANE, 225 

RopeRtson, C., Ecological Adaptation and Selec- 
tion, 307 

Roginson, B. L., Classification of Flowering 
Plants, 81 

Rockefeller Institute Fellowships, L. E. Horr, 235 

Rolfe, G. W., The Polariscope, F. G. WIECHMANN, 
627 af 

Roscoe, H. E., and C. Schlorlemmer, Chemistry, 
W. A. N., 136 

ROSENDAHL, C. O., Symplocarpus feetidus Salisb., 


Rorcn, A. L., Meteorological Conference, 975 


SCIENCE. 


Vil 


Royal Society, Conversazione, 854; of Canada, H. 
M. Amt, 967 
Rutherford, E., Radioactivity, C. BARus, 262 


St. Louis Acad. of Sci., Jubilee of, 517 

Salmon Hybrids, D. 8S. Jorpan, 434 

Sanitary Science and Administration, W. T,. 
SEDGWICK, 362 

Santayana, G., Life of Reason, J. DEwEy, 223 

Schillings, C. G., Flashlights in the Jungle, F. H. 
HERRICK, 540 

Schnabel, C., Metallurgy, J. SrRuTHERS, 66 

Scunemer, A., Trees of Calif., A. Hastwood, 68 

Scholarship, Carnegie Research, B. H. BroucH, 235 

Science Teachers’ Assoc. N. Y. State, A. P. B., 108 

Scientific, Man, Popular Conception of, W. G. 
Fartow, 1; Books, 29, 66, 102, 134, 184, 223, 
260, 301, 340, 385, 428, 463, 497, 540, 574, 
626, 655, 691, 737, 778, 812, 845, 872, 912, 
977; Journals and Articles, 31, 137, 185, 
228, 262, 303, 387, 429, 465, 499, 544, 628, 
661, 694, 743, 783, 813, 846, 873, 912, 943, 
978; Notes and News, 38, 76, 117, 157, 197, 
236, 277, 317, 357, 397, 4388, 477, 517, 558, 
598, 638, 676, 717, 757, 797, 826, 861, 890, 
925, 958, 988 

SEDGWICK, W. T., Sanitary Science and Admin- 
istration, 362 

SELLERS, J. F., Chemistry Requirements, 730 

Semmler, F. W., Die Atherischen Oele, M. T. 


BoGErRT, 227 

Sex-production, E. B. WILSoN, 189 

Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate, 869; Memorial 
Fund, 956 


Suear, C. L., Amer. Mycological Soc., 186 

SHELpon, J. L., Paraphyses in Glomerella, 851 

Suetpon, S., Houston’s Electricity in Every-day 
Life, 692 

SHEPHERD, E. S., and A. L. Day, Quartz Glass, 670 

Sherman, H. C., Organic Analysis, A. G. Woop- 
MAN, 845. 

Suerzer, W. H., Glacial Notes, 351 

SIEBENTHAL, C. E. Alluvial Slopes, 748 

Srimonps, F. W., Texas Acad. of Sci., 304 

Stoane, W. M., Town and Gown, 529 

Smiru, HE. A., Post-Hocene Formations, 481 

Smiru, E. F., Electrochemistry, N. M. Hopkins, 


812 
Smirn, H. I., Archeology of Yakima Valley, 
Wash., 551 


SmituH, J. B., Mosquito Reduction, 113; Exter- 
mination, 857 

Smithsonian Institution, D. FarrcHinp, 876 

Social and Economie Sci. at Am. Assoc., J. F. 
CROWELL, 601 

Societies and Academies, 32, 68, 108, 137, 
229, 263, 303, 345, 387, 430, 465, 500, 
628, 662, 695, 744, 783, 814, 846, 873, 
944, 979 

Special Articles, 36, 72, 149, 189, 233, 271, 312, 
350, 393, 434, 471, 507, 549, 584, 633, 670, 
706, 749, 789, 819, 851, 877, 920, 952, 983 

Species, Evolution of, T. D. A. CocKERELL, 145; 
Ontogenetic, A. E. Brown, 146; the Nature 
of, D. S. Jorpan, 350; Formation and Iso- 
lation, O. F. Coox, 506 

Spencer, A. C., Geol. Soc. of Washington, 32, 266, 
305, 695, 814, 915 


186, 
579, 
913, 


vill 
Sprttman, W. J., Mendelian Character in Cattle, 
549 


o 
Stanford’s Ideal Destiny, W. James, 801 
Stanford University Scientific Buildings and Col- 
lections, V. L. Kentoage, 756 
Statistics, Vital, English, 823; Mortality, 987 
Sresnucer, L., Rafinesque on Evolution, 785 
StEvens, F. L., N. C. Acad. of Sci., 944 
Srines, C. W., Generic Types, 700 
SrizitmaAn, J. M.; University Government, 536 
Srone, C. H., Mississippi River Silt, 634 
Stoner, W., The Mutation Theory, 701 
Strabo on Climatology, R. DEC. Warp, 137 
Srrurners, J., Metallurgy, C. Schnabel, 66 
Sutton, F., Volumetric Analysis, F. L., 184 
Survey, Magnetic, of Pacific, L. A. BAuER, 475 


Takaki, Baron, Cartwright Lectures and, 156 

Tamura, 8. T., Japanese Meteorol. Service, 396 

Tauscu, E., Mental Development, 670 

Telesraphone for the Blind, G. M. GouLp, 268 

Texas Acad. of Sci., F. W. Stmonps, 304 

THORNDIKE, BE. L., Heredity in Royalty, F. A. 
Woods, 693; Col. Entrance Examinations, 839 

Thorndike, E. L., Psychology, E. B. DELABARRE, 
260 

TineLe, J. B., Carbon Suboxide, 593; Notes on 
Organic Chemistry, 712, 752, 791; Aschan’s 
Chemie der alicyklischen Verbindungen, 782 

Tobacco, Keeping of, J. M. BELL, 904 

Torrey Botanical Club, R. M. Harper, 69; C. 8. 
GacEr, 307, 345, 468, 503, 744, 784, 873, 947; 
M. A. Howe, 698 

Town and Gown, W. M. SLOANE, 529 

Towntey, S. D., Earthquake at Ukiah, 756 

TowNSEND, C. H., A West Indian Seal, 583 

Tracey, S. M., Museums and Experts, 232 

Transportation and Combination, M. A. Knapp, 
178 

TRELEASE, W., Address before Central Botanists, 
97; Botanical Soe. of Amer., 221 

Types, Generic, C. W. Stites, 700 


Uppren, J. A., Origin of Mounds in Gulf Coast 
Country, 849; The Papaw Tree, 920 

University, and Educational News, 40, 80, 120, 
160, 200, 239, 280, 520, 359, 400, 440, 480, 
519, 560, 600, 640, 680, 720, 759, 800, 831, 
864, 895, 928, 960, 991; Control, J. McK. 


CarTetL, 475; Government, J. M. STILLMAN, 


536 


Van Styxr, L. L., and A. W. BoswortH, Car- 
bonated Milk, 712 

Vaueran, T. W., de Vries and Evolution, 681 

Veaton, A. C., Mounds of Lower Miss. Valley, 34 

Veazin, H. A., Adstivo-autumnal Fever and Mos- 
quitoes, 407 F 

Veircu, F. P., Fertilizers, 710 


W., E. B., Frederick C. Paulmier, 556 

W., H. V., Duerden on Corals, 497 

W., R. DeC., Hann’s Meteorology, 344 

Watpo, C. A., Amer. Assoc. at New Qrleans, 41 © 
Watpo, F. L., Panama, 769 ; 


SCIENCE. 


CONTENTS AND 
INDEX. 


Walker, J., Theory of Light, C. H. M., 385 

Watus, W. F., Earthquakes recorded at-Chelten- 
ham Observatory, 633 

Watton, L. B., Ohio Acad. of Sci., 137 

Warp, H. B., Filariasis and Trypanosome Dis- 
eases, 370 

Ward, L. F., Mesozoic Floras of U. 8, D. P. 
PENHALLOW, 737 

Warp, R. DeC., Notes on Meteorology, 74, 153, 
192, 274, 314, 472, 511, 555, 592, 714, 822, 
852; Strabo on Climatology, 137 

Warder, Robert Bowne, 195 

Water Analysis, L.,P. Kinnicurt, 56 

Waters, C. E., Chem. Soc. of Washington, 230, 
389, 503; and C. L. Parsons, Section C and 
Amer. Chem. Soc. at New Orleans, 321 

Weap, C. K., Philosophical Soe. of Washington, 
229, 263, 431, 580, 874, 918; Crosby-Brown 
Collection of Musical Instruments, 386 

Weeks, H. C., Mosquito Extermination, 379 

WELD, L. G., Mathematics and Astronomy at the 
Amer. Assoc., 460 

WELLES, M. U., and J. W. Fotsom, Degeneration 
and Regeneration in Collembola, 633 

Wellesley College Sci. Club, G. E. Davis, 187 

Wells, H. L., Chemical Arithmetic, C. W. FouLK, 
67 

WeEntwortH, I. H., Indian Mounds in Texas, 818 

Wueeter, A. S., Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 307, 876 

WHEELER, W. M., The Kelep excused, 348 

WHIPPLE, G. M., Illusions of Reversed Motion, 
507 

Wuirtr, C. A., The Papaw Tree, 749 

Wuire, J. H., Yellow-fever, 371 

WircuMan, F. G., Rolfe on the Polariscope, 627 

Wietanp, G. R., Dinosaurian Gastroliths, 819 

Witey, H. W., Congress of Applied Chemistry, 156 

Witson, E. B., Mendelian Inheritance, 112; Sex- 
production, 189 

Witson, J. H., Venus Shells, 821 

Wisconsin Acad. of Sci., C. EH. ALLEN, 579 

WISSLER, C., Isolation, 147 

Wistar Institute, 715 

Woterr, J. E., Die Krystallgestalten der Mineral- 
ogie in Stereoskopischen Bildern, T. Hartwig, 
498 

Woopman, A. G., Organic Analysis, H. C. Sher- 
man, 845 

Woods, F. A., Mental and Moral Heredity in 
Royalty, EH. L. THORNDIKE, 693 

Woopwarp, R. S., Report of President of Car- 
negie Institution, 121 

Waricut, O., and W., Mechanical Flight, 557 


Yellow Fever and Panama Canal, V. L. KeLLoae, 
114, Transmission, J. H. WHITE, 371; Recog- 
nition and Prevention of, Q. KoHNKE, 375; 
and Mosquitoes, J. Carrotn, 401 

Younc, J. W. A., Sciences in Secondary Schools 
of Prussia, 773 


Zrwet, A., Mechanics and Physics, 49 
Zoological Congress, International, 987 
Zoologists, Amer. Soe. of, C. E. McCuiune, 521 
Zoology at Amer. Assoc., C. J. HERRICK, 257 
Zygospores, Cultures, J. I. Hamaxer, 710 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


FRrIpAY, JANUARY 5, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
The Popular Conception of the Scientific 
Man at the Present Day: PRoressor W. G. 


HVAT TS OWWatk fee ncyonetaseneinnaaeen Pe elaueseiche Fb ake levosyele eis 1 
The Problem of the Metalliferous Veins: PrRo- 

FESSOR JAMES FURMAN KEMP............ 14 
Scientific Books :— 

Heilprin on the Tower of Pelée: ERNEST 

Howe. The Belgian Antarctic Hxpedition: 

PrRoressor W. H. Dabh................-. 29 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 31 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Geological Society of Washington: 

ARTHUR C. SPENCER. The Kansas Academy 

of Science: Proressor E. H. S. Batry... 382 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

Isolation and Evolution: EDWARD W. BERRY. 

On the Human Origin of the Small Mounds 

of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Texas: 

PAW CV AT CH ates layers mies shew pave ravers Soueeso 34 
Special Articles :— 

The Terminology of Aberrant Chromosomes 

and their Behavior in Certain Hemiptera: 

Proressor THos. H. Montgomery, JR..... 36 
Scientific Notes and News.................-- 38 
University and Educational News........... 40 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScrENcE, Garri- 
s00-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


THE POPULAR CONCEPTION OF THE SCI- 
ENTIFIC MAN AT THE PRESENT DAY. 
WE are so accustomed to hear reports on 

the progress of science that we have almost 

ceased to ask ourselves what we mean by 
progress. What is or is not progress de- 
pends of course on the point of view. 

Some are so far ahead of the majority that 

they can not see how much progress is 

made by those behind them; others are so 
far in the rear that they can not distinguish 
what is going on ahead of them. We must 
also admit that there are different direc- 
tions in which progress may be made. You 
have all seen the agile crab and been sur- 
prised to find how rapidly he gets over the 
ground, although he never seems to go 
ahead, but to scramble off sideways. The 
erab, perhaps, wonders why men are so 
stupid as to try to move straight forward. 

It is a popular belief, but, not being a zool- 

ogist, I am not prepared to vouch for its 

correctness, that the squid progresses back- 
ward, discharging a large amount of ink. 

One might perhaps ask: Is the progress of 

science sometimes like that of the crab, 

rapid but not straight forward, or, like 
the squid, may not the emission of a large 

amount of printer’s ink really conceal a 

backward movement? So far as the accu- 

mulation of facts is concerned, there is a 

steady onward progress in science and it is 

only in the unwise or premature theorizing 
on known or supposed facts that science 


* Address of the president of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, New 
Orleans meeting, 1905. 


2 SCIENCE. 


strikes a side track or even progresses 
backward. 

As far as botany is concerned the prog- 
ress during the past year has not been 
startlingly rapid, but it has been in the 
direction of an accumulation of facts 
rather than in the formulation of new 
theories and the enunciation of general 
principles, very important if true, but un- 
fortunately not always true, as time shows. 
If there have been no remarkable discov- 
eries in botany during the past year, on the 
other hand it may be said that few of the 
steps which have been taken will need to 
be retraced hereafter. What strikes one 
most in a survey of the botany of the pres- 
ent day is, I think, the fact that it is be- 
coming more and more difficult to say just 
what is and what is not botany. Formerly 
all botanists were cast in pretty much the 
same mold and, as a science, botany was 
sharply limited except, perhaps, in the di- 
rection of zoology. One could pass for a 
very good botanist, although quite ignorant 
even of the rudiments of other branches of 
science. Now we often see in botanical 
journals papers which might almost as well 
have appeared in physical or chemical 
journals and in many cases one is not at 
liberty to form a final opinion as to the 
value of a paper purporting to be botanical 
until physicists or chemists, or perhaps 
both, have also expressed their opinions in 
regard to it. In short, the hard and fast 
lines which formerly shut botanists up in a 
world of their own have been broken down 
and botany has become an inseparable part 
of a broader science. This enlargement of 
the botanical horizon resulting from the 
gradual shading off of the confines of bot- 
any into the domain of other sciences not 
only tends to make it more attractive to 
botanists themselves, but also serves to add 
dignity to botany in the eyes of those who 
are not themselves botanists. Young bot- 
anists with a modern training may be per- 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


mitted to feel confidence in entering on so 
broad a field, but those who are no longer 
young and whose training was that of the 
old school, no matter how much they may 
sympathize with modern conditions, can 
not help feeling distrustful of their ability 
to judge critically of work done in so many 
new directions and by so many diverse 
methods. Botany has, in fact, become so 
broad a science compared with what it was 
not many years ago that no one man can be 
expected to be in position to judge erit- 
ically of work done except in certain 
branches of the subject. Consequently 
there have been formed a number of socie- 
ties each devoted to a special department 
of botany and, if one wishes to know what 
is going on in botany, one is forced to at- 
tend the sessions of the societies affiliated 
with the association as well as those of our 
botanical section. It is to the presiding 
officers of those societies and of the botan- 
ical section that one must look for anything 
like adequate presentations of the present 
state of botany. The views of one man 
are not sufficient, but he who would acquire 
a broad view must listen to the representa- 
tives of different branches. It seemed bet- 
ter, therefore, that, departing from the 
practise of my predecessors, I should not 
attempt what can be done better by others, 
and I have selected for my subject not the 
present condition of botany, but another 
topic which ought to interest us all, viz., 
the scientific man, what he is believed by 
the public to be and what he really is. Do 
not, however, suppose that I am about to 
regale you with personalities concerning 
my contemporaries. I wish merely to eall 
your attention to the estimate which the 
public place on scientific men as a body 
and to consider the question whether they 
really understand the aims and needs of 
persons like ourselves. 

You must have noticed in reading the 
magazines and papers that a change has 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


recently come over the public in their atti- 
tude towards us. They believe that they 
have really discovered what we are, they 
recognize that we are more respectable than 
they used to suppose and the question has 
been asked more than once: What shall 
we, the public, do to help scientific men? 
That that question should be correctly an- 
swered is certainly of extreme importance 
to us. It is, therefore, worth our while 
to consider the recent change in the atti- 
tude of the public toward us, the question 
how far that attitude is correct from our 
point of view and how far their ideas of 
what should be done for us correspond 
with what we really desire and need. 
First, what do they think of us? The 
lights, or the supposed lights of science, 
have always been objects of interest to the 
world. The mass of scientific men have, 
on the other hand, counted for little. The 
public have always needed some idols to 
worship and in their indiscriminate collec- 
tion of gods there have always been a few 
taken from the scientific world. Their 
wonderful achievements have been magni- 
fied beyond all recognition, their precocious 
sayings have been recorded and their opin- 
ions on theology, music, pelitics and many 
other subjects about which they knew noth- 
ing in particular have been paraded before 
us. Once in a while when the flashlight of 
the caricaturist has been thrown upon 
them, they have been shown to have some 
human weaknesses and the learned pro- 
fessor who is supposed to be discussing 
evolution or the vortex theory with his 
neighbor at some fashionable reception has 
been represented as really only making re- 
marks about the ladies present while im- 
bibing fiuids which it is said retard rather 
than aid the metamorphosis of brain tissue. 
Those who were not so fortunate as to be 
counted among the lights of science were 
passed over as having perhaps an academic 
importance, but of no account in the real 


SCIENCE. 5) 


world, being both impractical and impe- 
cunious. The question, what is the good of 
science, was supposed to be unanswerable 
and it seemed to follow as a corollary that 
aman who spent his time on things which 
were good for nothing must himself be 
good for nothing. 

All that has changed and the traditional 
scientific man has disappeared almost as 
completely as the traditional Yankee of 
the stage. The change came gradually 
but the proof that it had come was brought 
before us suddenly. In 1902 there was 
called in New York a meeting of those who 
were designated by the picturesque expres- 
sion, captains of industry. To that meet- 
ing representatives of science were invited, 
not as lions to be stared at, but to sit with 
the leaders of the industrial and commer- 
cial world as representatives of science, and 
not only of applied science, but of pure 
science. As the captains of industry were 
supposed to be men of force im organizing 
and to have a keen insight into men and 
things, we had a right to feel that science 
was honored, perhaps not more than ever 
before, but for a reason for which it had 
not been honored before in this country. 
The fact that since that date the reputation 
of some of the captains of industry has 
suffered an eclipse, does not alter the fact 
that to be considered a captain of industry 
was, in the eyes of the public, enviable. 
The conception of a scientific man as a 
captain of industry means simply the ac- 
knowledgment that science has a practical 
relation to the world and that fortunately 
the public have advanced far enough to 
see, although perhaps somewhat dimly, that 
pure science sooner or later develops into 
applied science. The leaders of science are 
to be placed in the class of organizers, man- 
agers of a sort of scientific trust. This is 
science up to date and the public are right 
when they regard science as an organiza- 
tion. But they are only partly right. 


4 SCIENCE. 


There is a good deal more than that in 
science and, although good managers and 
directors are necessary, it is true that the 
power of organizing and the power of 
investigating are two different things and 
often exist in inverse ratio to each other, 
and it is the latter which is at the basis of 
science. An organizer is of no use until 
there is something to organize and the 
materials on which the organizer in science 
must work are not made by machinery, 
but by the brains of individual workers, 
and it is important that they should be 
placed under the most favorable conditions 
for work. If hitherto there has been per- 
haps too little organization, there is a dan- 
ger that in the future there may be too 
much. In a mill many men are doing the 
same kind of work, but in science one man 
should not duplicate the work of another. 
The object of organization in the one case 
is to secure uniformity of product; in the 
other to encourage diversity of work. 

You have seen the statement in print 
that there are not enough workers in sci- 
ence and it has been claimed that the re- 
wards are so inadequate that many young 
men can not afford to enter on a scientific 
career. It has been proposed to remedy 
that difficulty, and we not infrequently 
hear that something should be done by the 
public. So far nothing very definite has 
been proposed. It has been suggested that 
scientific men should be better paid. 
Against that we have absolutely nothing 
to say, but we are waiting a little impa- 
tiently to learn how they are to be paid. 
The captains of industrial establishments 
make large fortunes and it seems to be a 
principle of economy that in the manage- 
ment of other people’s money a pretty 
large proportion finds its way into the 
pockets of the managers. Others who 
probably recognize the obstacles in the way 
of arranging that scientific men shall be 
better paid would solve the difficulty by 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


having a limited number of great prizes to 
be awarded at intervals. 

It is certainly pleasant to know that the 
public would like to do something for us, 
for with the intention may come later the 
fulfillment. But it may be well to look 
into the matter a little more closely. In 
the first place, assuming that more men 
ought to go into science, it is by no means 
certain that, were the remuneration much. 
greater, the right kind of men would go 
into the field. It would be an easy mat- 
ter, if the pecuniary rewards were great 
enough, to induce any number of men to 
go into science, but a man in search of 
money is not ever likely to do the best 
work in science. Unless a man has a love 
of science for its own sake, apart from the 
money he is to make out of it, he must be 
classed as a business man and not a scien- 
tific man. A more important point to as- 
certain is how many men with a strong 
desire to study science and with good abil- 
ity have been obliged to abandon its pursuit 
and gain their livmg in some other way. 
There are certainly some, but I am unable 
to form a definite idea as to the number. 
There are undoubtedly a good many men in 
the field struggling under difficulties which 
keep them from doing the best work of 
which they are capable. Before attempt- 
ing to draw more men into the field it 
would be better to provide properly for 
those already in it. 

Little need be said on the subject of a 
limited number of great prizes. So far, 
we are in the dark as to what the prizes 
are to be. We can not, of course, adopt 
the plan established in some countries and 
bestow on a few favored sons of science 
titles of nobility or knighthood. This 
method of rewarding merit has something 
to be said in its favor. It costs the be- 
stower nothing and pleases the recipient. 
A chemist with a decoration round his neck 
is, of course, distinguished at once from 


January 5, 1906.] 


other chemists. A physicist in knee- 
breeches and an embroidered coat is im- 
posing and, if a cocked hat under his arm 
be added, quite irresistible. But all this 
glory is not for us in this country—as yet. 
Nor can we expect that the coveted title 
of Geheimrath will be bestowed by our gov- 
ernment. The great prizes must neces- 
sarily be in the form of money, either as 
pensions or gifts. To have any real value 
a pension must be something of which both 
the amount and the date on which one may 
count with certainty on recelying it are 
fixed years in advance. To expect a pen- 
sion, which some one else may receive, is 
hardly a consolation. If money is to be 
given outright how much is necessary to 
be considered a great prize? When we 
consider that even incompetent presidents 
of insurance companies consider their sery- 
ices cheap at a hundred thousand a year, 
one wonders what sum would be considered 
a proper reward for years of valuable work 
done by competent scientific men during 
the best years of their lives. Even at the 
best, the most that could be given to scien- 
tific men would be a mere pittance com- 
pared with what the other captains receive. 
It is unnecessary to try to answer the ques- 
tion, even if modesty did not forbid, for 
the principle of bestowing a few large 
prizes with the expectation of benefiting 
science is a delusion and it is to be hoped 
that no benevolent person will make the 
mistake of establishing one or more great 
prizes. What is wanted is not the possi- 
bility of sometimes receiving a large sum, 
but the certainty that the amount received 
annually will be sufficient to enable one to 
live and work without discomfort in the 
present and without anxiety for the future. 

The ways in which the public may aid 
scientific men are directly by endowments 
for paying salaries and indirectly by pro- 
viding properly equipped laboratories and 
other necessary equipment, and especially 


SCIENCE. 5 


for paying for the services of assistants. 
Both forms of help are necessary, for a man 
capable of managing and getting the great- 
est amount of good work out of a well- 
equipped establishment deserves more than 
a meager salary. On the other hand, those 
with what appears to be a respectable sal- 
ary may have to spend a good part of it 
to make good the deficiencies in their equip- 
ment. In deciding whether a man is well 
paid or not it is necessary to ask not only 
what salary he receives, but what are the 
means of work provided for him. It is not 
my intention here to call attention to the 
special ways in which scientifie establish- 
ments would be benefited by gifts from 
the public nor to discuss the question what 
is a proper salary for a scientific man. 
The latter depends upon too many compli- 
eated conditions and can not be separated 
from the more general question of what 
those in equally important positions in 
other walks of life are paid. The question 
of proper. equipment, including the ques- 
tion of assistants, has already been brought 
before the public on a good many occasions 
and in a good many ways, and a good deal 
has been given in recent years, ste by 
no means enough. 

If, as it appears, the public have reached 
a better conception of the position of the 
scientific man in this country and of his 
pecuniary needs, it may be added that he 
has the right to hope that he can appeal to 
the public not only for pecuniary but for 
moral support, for, in many eases, the pub- 
lie are the final arbiters where differences 
arise and unfavorable conditions often dis- 
appear quickly as soon as it is felt that one 
side or the other is backed by public opin- 
ion. It may, therefore, be well to state 
somewhat explicitly some of the conditions 
which are unfavorable to the progress of 
science in this country or which tend to 
retard it. Here it is not so much a ques- 
tion of money as of a just appreciation of 


6 SCIENCE. 


the true position of scientific men in their 
relation to those for whom their work is 
undertaken. That work, using a rough 
classification, may be considered under 
three heads: that done im technical and 
commercial concerns, that done for the 
government and that done in universities, 
including under that general term all col- 
leges, scientific schools and similar institu- 
tions which have a permanent endowment 
of some kind. 

In chemical, electrical and mechanical 
engieeringe works and other essentially 
commercial undertakings the scientific man 
is occupied mainly with routine duties and 
the number of persons employed in this 
kind of work is large and will be much 
larger in the future. The ratio of demand 
and supply in this case must always regu- 
late the salaries paid and, as scientific ex- 
perts are a necessity in these lines of busi- 
ness, the pay ought to be expected to be 
comparatively as good as in other branches 
of business. Occasionally, as we have seen 
recently in the case of electrical engineer- 
ing, the supply may become suddenly 
greater than the demand in the lower 
erades of work, but these things soon regu- 
late themselves. Hitherto the value of 
biological work in connection with water- 
works and other hygienic establishments 
has not been as fully appreciated as it 
should be and the openings for specialists 
in biology have not been very numerous. 
There has been, however, a change for the 
better in this particular field. It is not, 
however, with the case of those whose work 
is what may be called routine work that 
we are concerned here, but we must ask 
why it is that, in those oceupations which 
are primarily money-making, Americans 
have been so reluctant to employ original 
investigators for the purpose of developing 
their business. For a good many years the 
ereat value of original research in connec- 
tion with manufacturing: concerns has been 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


fully recognized im some European coun- 
tries. The Carlsberg laboratory at Copen- 
hagen is a brilliant example of how much 
scientific work by experts of reputation 
can aid a practical industry, and we all 
know how the employment of experts to 
investigate special questions has helped the 
Germans to comm money in chemical indus- 
tries. We shall have to admit that im cer- 
tain respects we are more stupid than some 
other nations. I have heard of an impor- 
tant firm engaged in the manufacture of 
chemicals who could not be persuaded to 
employ a competent chemical investigator, 
not a mere analyst, to develop their busi- 
ness, because they felt unable to pay the 
prineely salary of $1,500 a year. ‘This is 
the same kind of stupidity which seeks to 
secure foreign trade by sending out agents 
who are unable to speak a word of the 
language of the country to which they are 
sent. If our business men are too stupid 
to take advantage of the help afforded by 
science, although informed as to what is 
done by their foreign competitors, we shall 
not be called on to shed many tears over 
their ultimate failure in the competition 
for business. 

The relations of the national govern- 
ment to science and to scientific men are 
most important, but unfortunately very 
perplexing on account of the numerous 
complicated conditions which have to be 
considered. Although the government is 
concerned only incidentally with science, it 
has in its service more scientific men than 
any other institution. J have said that the 
government is only incidentally concerned 
with science, believing that the object of 
government is to take charge of the work 
of administration entrusted to it by the 
constitution and acts of congress. Varied 
as this work may be, it does not imelude 
everything. For instance, the education 
of the country is fortunately not entrusted 
to the national government and the busi- 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


ness of education belongs to the states and 
the people in general. The theory that 
any department or departments of the 
government are to serve as universities for 
the scientific training of young men is, it 
seems to me, false. The government may 
properly give information to the public on 
certain questions and, in this sense, it may 
be regarded as educational, but these ques- 
tions arise in connection with definite spe- 
cial problems which necessarily affect the 
whole country, such as the subject of epi- 
demic diseases of animals and plants and 
their prevention, questions concerning the 
preservation of forests, of irrigation and 
similar subjects which from their nature 
are of immediate national importance. 
This view, however, is not accepted by 
many, perhaps a majority of scientific men 
connected with the government. There is 
something in the air of Washington which 
seems to make it inevitable that those in 
the government employ should believe that 
it is the business of the government to 
undertake or control all scientific work. 
In some eases this belief has been carried 
so far that attempts of the states or uni- 
versities to carry on explorations or special 
Investigations have been regarded as an 
encroachment on the field belonging by 
tight to the government, and no sooner has 
‘some university or private person sent out 
a party of explorers than a rival party has 
been sent out from Washington. There is 
‘a tendency to forget that there are several 
millions of people in the United States not 
eonnected with the government and that 
large sums are furnished by institutions 
and private individuals for the study of 
scientific questions which can perfectly well 
be investigated without supervision from 
Washington. It has been said that the 
‘government has at its disposal more money 
than any state or institution, and therefore 
it is better able to do all kinds of scientific 
work. This conclusion does not neces- 


SCIENCE. Ul 


sarily follow from the premises, for the 
questions arise: Is the money voted by 
Congress as likely to be spent as econom- 
ically as the amounts available in institu- 
tions not under government control, and, 
in general, is the concentration of scien- 
tifie work under the government as advan- 
tageous for the development of science in 


‘this country as a proper distribution of the” 


work among a number of independent in- 
stitutions? Outside Washington there is 
a belief that, in accomplishing scientific 
work, a given amount appropriated by a 
university or other endowed institution 
will go farther than the same amount ob- 
tained by vote of Congress. In its fiscal 
arrangements the government treats the 
appropriations for scientific purposes as a 
part of a general budget, and the annual 
appropriations which become available in 
July lapse unless spent before the follow- 
ing July. Suppose then it is estimated 
that a given scientific investigation will 
require a certain amount of money. If 
that amount is voted it must be spent be- 
fore the end of the fiscal year, and there is 
no doubt that it will be spent in some way 
or other. But, unfortunately, scientific 
investigations usually require a good deal 
of time and often very much more time 
than was anticipated. As a result, there 
must be additional grants, and to obtain 
them there is a great temptation to show 
that something has been done by printing 
reports of unfinished work. Outside the 
eovernment departments grants made for 
a special investigation do not lapse at the 
end of the fiscal year and such investiga- 
tions can, therefore, be planned more intel- 
ligently and carried out at a less expendi- 
ture of money. Also, in the matter of 
printing, the expense under the govern- 
ment is very great, owing to the large edi- 
tions which are necessary. In the case of 
the better scientific works with numerous 
plates the great size of the edition, which 


8 SCIENCE. 


must be larger than required to supply 
copies to those really competent to appre- 
ciate the work, implies a pecuniary waste. 
But there is still the important considera- 
tion that in attempting to extend the work 
in too many directions, acting on the theory 
that the government should do all kinds of 
scientific work, the point is soon reached 


where no department and no bureau can 


be expected to do the work well, and what 
might be done well suffers by being weight- 
ed with what can not be done well. We 
have seen bureaus which, after acting for 
some years on the theory that any question 
theoretical or practical which could pos- 
sibly be construed as having any relation 
to its work should be undertaken, finally 
break down under the weight of the impos- 
sible task and at last settle down to their 
legitimate, special, practical work. If one 
glances over the large mass of scientific 
publications of the different departments 
one can hardly fail to recognize that the 
most valuable are those which treat of 
special questions in applied science which 
have been conducted with a view to furnish 
information on subjects coming within the 
legitimate limits of investigation by the 
government, since the material to be 
studied can be better obtained by the gov- 
ernment than by state or private institu- 
tions. The publications on pure science or 
on subjects not having a practical bearimg 
are certainly no better, if, as is sometimes 
the case, they are as good as similar pub- 
lications from other sources. Briefly, it 
seems to me that it would be no worse for 
the government and better for the science 
of the country in general if the scientific 
work done by the government were not 
spread over so wide a field. It will be said 
that the universities are also ambitious and 
attempt to do more than they can do well, 
which is perfectly true, but that is no rea- 
son why the government. should make the 
same mistake. ; 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


The consideration of the attractions 
offered by scientific work under the govern- 
ment and the relations of the scientific corps 
to their superior officers is rather a delicate 
matter, for, while one may be allowed to - 
speak of the advantages, as soon as one ven- 
tures to hint that there may be disadvan- 
tages he is likely to be told that he does 
not understand the situation. We can only 
say that, if the scientific employees of the 
government are perfectly satisfied with 
their positions and regard them as ideal, 
they are decidedly more fortunate than 
their fellow scientists in other places. 
What attracts men to Washington is not 
primarily the salaries, except in the case 
of young men just beginning their scientific 
careers, although in general salaries are not 
so small as has sometimes been supposed. 
Nor does the fact that the few, like the 
heads of bureaus, who receive large salaries 
are overwhelmed with administrative work 
prove that they are worse off than the 
better paid professors in universities where, 
until recently, with the higher salaries went 


_more lecturing and more committee work. 


In the universities, however, this state of 
things is gradually improving, but it is 
difficult to see how it can change in the 
government departments. The salary 
which the average man can expect is small 
and, if held to strict accountability for his 
time by the department in which he may 
be, he can not add to it by outside work or, 
if he does, he may be called upon suddenly 
to explain. The attractions are the free- 
dom from lectures and class work, although ~ 
this is to some extent counterbalanced by 

a large amount of official correspondence, 
and the possibility of having clerical and 
mechanical assistants to aid him in his 
work. A still greater attraction probably 
is the fact that one will at not infrequent 
intervals be sent, at government expense, 
on a mission of some kind to different 
parts of the country or abroad, an arrange- 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


ment which relieves the monotony of rou- 
tine work and enables one to see more or 
less of the world. In some universities 
the professors are allowed a year’s absence 
once In seven years, but they are then gen- 
erally on half-pay and have to provide for 
their own traveling expenses out of a re- 
duced income. ‘ 

There is supposed to be a certain glamour 
attached to goyernment positions inall coun- 
tries, but, as far as scientific men are con- 
cerned, those in government employ have, 
like others, to depend for their reputation 
on their merits rather than on their posi- 
tions. Even in the case of Germany, where 
it is generally supposed that official posi- 
tions are more highly esteemed than in this 
country, to be a professor in one of the 
leading universities is a distinction as great 
as to be a government official, that is, in 
the capacity of a scientific worker. There 
is a certain class of men who would always 
find Washington more congenial than any 
other place. To them the interviewing of 
members of Congress and other officials is 
a pleasure. To them the newspaper cor- 
respondent is always welcome. Although 
they may have great scientific and admin- 
istrative ability which enables them to ac- 
complish a great deal of good work, they 
are so constituted by nature that they 
never can be quite contented unless they 
have the opportunity of mixing in the stir 
and bustle of the world and of being heard 
of men and seen of women. ‘This class of 
men is a small one and, I am inclined to 
believe, is growing smaller. It does not 
imelude the great majority of those. whose 
work is of the most value to the govern- 
ment. This large majority prefer condi- 
tions which allow them to work in peace 
and quiet, and security of tenure’in office 
without the feelmg that sooner or later 
there may be an overturning of some kind 
is what they desire most in addition to 
adequate salaries. This possibility of 


SCIENCE. 9 


some unexpected change in policy is the 
great disturbing feature in Washington, 
and that such changes must. occur sooner 
or later is imevitable because the atmos- 
phere of Washington must always be polit- 
ical. This does not mean that the scien- 
tifie men employed by the government need 
concern themselves with politics. In the 
past that may have been the case, but there 
is no reason to suppose that at the present 
day a botanist would have to be a Republi- 
can botanist or an entomologist a Demo- 
cratic entomologist to be sure of his posi- 
tion. Nevertheless, politics must always be 
a disturbing element because the scientific 
workers must be assigned to some bureau 
of some department, and the secretaries, the 
heads of the departments, are always poli- 
ticians and always will be. I do not in- 
tend to use the word in its degraded sense, 
although it might be going too far to use 
the word statesmen as applied to all secre- 
taries. At any rate all will admit that 
they can hardly be expected to be scientific 
men or to have, except in very rare eases, 
any real knowledge of scientific subjects. 
They are appointed because they represent 
some political interest and change with the 
party and generally with the administra- 
tion, so that their service is short. One 
secretary succeeds another at short inter- 
vals and the policy of one may not be the 
policy of another. One may believe that 
there can not be too much scientific work; 
another that science unless sordidly prac- 
tical is worthless. The policy of launching 
out on scientific work of all kinds without 
regard to expense, on the ground that our 
country is rich and that there is no need 
of counting the dollars and cents, is sure 
to be followed by indiscriminate retrench- 
ment. In any ease a secretary is obliged 
to look out for his own interests in relation 
to his party and in political crises no one 
ean tell what may be done. Suppose that 
the presidents of all universities were 


10 . SCIENCE. 


changed once in four years and that the 
new presidents had power to change the 
policies of their predecessors at once. One 
could easily imagine that scientific work 
would suffer. 

The permanency of tenure in the govern- 
ment is supposed to be secured by the ecivil- 
service reculations and these regulations 
have undoubtedly improved the condition 
and raised the quality of government em- 
ployees, but, so far as securing trained sci- 
entific men is concerned, the system, how- 
ever well it may work in the ease of clerks 
and low-grade positions, is not one which is 
so well adapted to the cases of positions 
requiring special scientific traming. The 
recommendations of those under whom a 
man has studied or for whom he has 
worked would appear to be of more value 
than successful answers to a number of 
more or less stereotyped questions. The 
system, while it may keep out a very poor 
man, does not necessarily secure a very 
good man, unless, in some way unknown to 
us, the difficulties of a rigid system are 
softened by a beneficent interpretation of 
the rules. The civil service system, al- 
though acting somewhat to the disadvan- 
tage of a scientific man so far as entering 
the service is concerned, is on the other 
hand undoubtedly a protection to him dur- 
ing his service. 

A recent executive order, however, seems 
to us to be a most unfortunate step back- 
ward, and, whatever may be said, must 
inevitably cause a feeling of insecurity. 
From the somewhat vague accounts given 
in the papers at the time of its promulga- 
tion one would perhaps not have been war- 
ranted in forming an opinion concerning 
the precise object which it was designed to 
accomplish, but the explanation of the order 
given in the president’s recent message is, 
of course, authoritative. It is as follows: 


Heads of executive departments and members of 
the commission have called my attention to the 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


fact that the rule requiring a filing of charges and 
three days’ notice before an employee could be sep- 
arated from the service for inefficiency has served 
no good purpose whatever, because that is not a 
matter upon which a hearing of the employee 
found to be inefficient can be of any value, and in 
practice the rule providing for such notice and 
hearing has merely resulted in keeping in a certain 
number of incompetents, because of the reluctance 
of heads of departments and bureau chiefs to go 
through this required procedure. Experience has 
shown that this rule is wholly ineffective to save 
any man, if a superior for improper reasons wishes 
to remove him, and is mischievous because it some- 
times serves to keep in the service incompetent 
men not guilty of specific wrongdoing. Having 
these facts in view, the rule has been amended by 
providing that where the inefficiency or incapacity 
comes within the personal knowledge of the head 
of a department the removal may be made without 
notice, the reasons therefor being filed and made a 
record of the department. The absolute right of 
removal rests where it always has rested, with the 
head of a department; any limitation of this abso- 
lute right results in grave injury to the public 
service. 

The justice of the last sentence is beyond 
question. There is, however, another ab- 
solute, moral right which is not mentioned 
in this connection, viz., the right of a per- 
son accused to be heard in his own behalf 
by the one in whom the power of removal 
is vested. The expression inefficiency or 
incapacity coming within the personal 
knowledge of the head of the department, 
taken in connection with the previous state- 
ment that experience has shown that the 
rule requiring three days’ notice is wholly 
ineffective to save any man, if a superior, 
for improper reasons, wishes to remove him, 
suggests several unpleasant possibilities. 
In the first place one regrets hearing that 
it is not only possible that persons might 
be removed for improper reasons, but espe- 
cially that experience has already shown 
that the previous rule was powerless to pre- 
vent such removals. Stated baldly, ex- 
perience has shown that persons have been 
removed for improper reasons since the 
establishment of the rule. By whom, one 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


would like to ask? By the heads of de- 
partments in whom is vested the absolute 
power of removal? The expression, per- 
sonal knowledge of the heads of depart- 
ments must, in the case of scientific em- 
ployees, be taken to mean indirect rather 
than direct knowledge, since they are not 
themselves scientific men and must prac- 
tically obtain their knowledge of one scien- 
tifie subordinate from other subordinates, 
and this is an additional reason why, when 
it is a question of removing a scientific man, 
he should be allowed to state his case to 
the head of the department and, if he is 
charged with misdemeanors of any kind, be 
informed by whom the charges have been 
made. It is evident that the new order 
has caused some criticism, since what was 
said in the message was not merely ex- 
planatory, but also in the nature of a 
defense. It is sincerely to be hoped that 
this order, embodying as it does a principle 
which may in practise cause injustice, may 
be revoked and something more specific 
and less sweeping be substituted for it. It 
ts. useless to say that there is no danger 
that the rule will be applied except in cases 
where the incompeteney or indiscretion is 
quite plain.” So long as it exists, knowing 
the weaknesses of human nature, there is 
always a danger that 1t may be applied in 
a way to cause injustice. 

Turning to the universities and other 
similar endowed institutions we also find 
very perplexing conditions, but they have 
been discussed so frequently in print that 
the public is tolerably well informed in 
regard to them. If in the government 
departments the political atmosphere pre- 
vents the highest development of scientific 
life, in the universities the air is chilled, 
as far as scientific men are concerned, by 
the widely spread heresy that too much 
athletics is a good thing for a university. 
So long as a coach receives a higher salary 
than any professor, one is warranted in 


SCIENCE. iL it 


asking whether learning is too cheap or 
athletics too dear. Certainly on pay day 
professors would be glad to be classed as 
coaches. Is the craze for spectacular ath- 
letics ever going to pass away? Appar- 
ently not, for athletic contests, theatrical 
and similar non-academic diversions, are 
naturally more interesting than learning 
of any kind to a by no means small pro- 
portion of those who form the body of stu- 
dents. It is certainly a weak point in our 
universities that there have to be taken 
into account two different classes of men; 
those whose primary object is study and 
those whose interests are mainly or exclu- 
sively athletic and social. It will be said 
that the line between the two is not a sharp 
one, but in the interest of learning it seems 
to me best that a line should be drawn, 
even if it has to be somewhat arbitrary. 
One should avoid, in general, making dis- 
tinetions without differences, but, on the 
other hand, it should not be forgotten that 
im some cases the moral effect of making 
a distinction is to brine out the fact that 
there is a real difference. It would cer- 
tainly be advantageous for scientific men, 
using the word in its broad sense, if the 
public could be given to understand clearly 
that in the universities a real distinction 
is made between the genuine student and 
the student pro forma. They would prob- 
ably feel that the money they give is well 
spent if spent on the genuine student, while 
on the other hand they might be sceptical 
about the good of spending money on those 
who do not care to study more than they are 
forced to do to keep in college. To have it 
suspected that the universities are of a sort 
of Jekyl-Hyde nature, at one time all ath- 
leties, at another all study, would obscure 
their true position. It is of great impor- 
tance that the standard by which the value 
of a professor is estimated should not be 
the size of his classes and the number of 
his lectures. -This method of estimating 


12 SCIENCE. 


’ 


their value used to be universal and, al- 
though the more enlightened part of the 
public have ceased to regard the number 
of students and lectures as the most im- 
portant thing, the old way of estimating 
values is still far too prevalent. At the 
present day, the real distinction of a uni- 
versity depends more on the amount and 
quality of the higher work than on the 
amount of instruction of a low grade. It 
was supposed, a few years ago, that the 
universities and colleges would gradually 
differentiate themselves into classes; the 
better endowed into institutions where the 
higher studies would be made prominent, 
while those with only a moderate endow- 
ment would confine their work to the in- 
struction of undergraduates. But it is not 
likely that this will be the result. ‘The 
advent of the multi-millionaire makes it 
possible that at any time some very rich 
man may leave his millions to one of the 
poorly endowed colleges. Since any col- 
lege may succeed in capturing the millions, 
there is a new inducement for colleges to 
live beyond their means rather than limit 
themselves to what they can do well with 
the money they actually have. In the uni- 
versities, as in the government depart- 
ments, there is a disposition to branch out 
in too many directions and to believe that 
one university must try to do everything 
that other universities are trying to do. 
Sooner or later there must be some limita- 
tion to what any given university can ex- 
pect to do; otherwise, since the amount of 
money which even the best endowed uni- 
versities can expect will never be sufficient 
for them to do everything, some, if not 
many, of the branches of science must be 
kept on a starvation basis. The governing 
bodies of universities are altogether too 
much inclined to ask themselves the ques- 
tion, Is there not some new subject which 
can be introduced? without stopping to 
consider the more fundamental question 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


whether the subjects already included in 
the curriculum are properly provided for. 

Briefly, the main difficulties to be met 
with in the universities are, first, as we 
have seen, the organic connection of a 
studious and a non-studious body which 
would be remedied were it possible to draw 
the line between work of a low grade and 
the higher studies and place those in charge 
of the latter im an independent position. 
Two other difficulties are the excessive de- 
mand on the time and energy of the pro- 
fessors by lectures and class work and, in 
many cases, the insufficiency of the salaries. 
In a way, the two are phases of the same 
difficulty. - If there were plenty of money 
both would disappear. Since so large a 
portion of the income of most universities 
is derived from students’ fees, there is a 
tendency to pay the larger salaries to those 
having the larger classes or, at least, those 
with large classes feel aggrieved that the 
fees should be spent largely on those in 
charge of the higher studies in which there 
must always be a few students. There is, 
it seems to me, no better way of aiding 


universities than by endowing chairs in the 


departments’ of higher studies in which | 
there can never be many students and 
where the amount obtained from fees is 
hardly worth considering. 

Perhaps the most important question 
affecting the future not only of science in 
the limited sense, but of learning of all 
kinds in this country, is that of the proper 
relation of the faculties of the universities 
to the trustees. That the question has come 
into prominence at the present time is due 
to the fact that, since in business the tend- 
ency is toward a greater concentration of 
power in a few hands, so, if we regard edu- 
cation as a business, the control of all edu- 
cational questions should be in the hands of 
a few trustees. In the universities, how- 
ever, there is the purely financial question 
of the management of the funds and the 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


question of education considered from the 
intellectual side, and the two questions are 
not only essentially different in their na- 
ture, but also the training necessary for a 
business man is not the same as that neces- 
sary for one who is to be an educator and 
a scholar. To the trustees belongs the 
_ management of the finances and it would 
be preposterous to entrust purely business 
matters to a numerous body like the faculty 
even were they not unfitted for such work 
by their lack of proper training. ‘To the 
faculty belong the practical work of edu- 
cation and the advancement of learning. 
The difficulty at the present time is that 
when it comes to the question of the gen- 
eral educational policy to be pursued, there 
is an increasing tendency on the part of 
trustees to assume that that is their busi- 
ness and not that of the faculty. Prae- 
tically the board which controls the ex- 
penditure of money can, if it wishes, shape 
the policy without regard to the opinion of 
others. Whether it is better for educa- 
tion and learning that they should do so is 
another matter. Probably a large portion 
of the educated public are of the opinion 
that the faculty are better, qualified than 
the trustees to decide educational questions 
both theoretical and practical, and they 
would certainly agree in thinking that no 
educational policy should be adopted with- 
out the concurrence of the faculty. It 
would surely be a misfortune should the 
publie endorse the opinion said to have 
been expressed recently by a trustee that 
the faculty are merely the employees of the 
trustees and that their opinion is of no con- 
sequence even in eases which seriously 
affect their work and their future. Fur- 
thermore, the farce of asking the opinion 
of a faculty when there was never the 
shghtest idea of following it does not add 
to the dignity of either trustees or faculty 
nor does it tend to bring about the har- 
mony of action necessary to success. The 


SCIENCE. 13 


expression, only an employee, however, may 
not be quite so contemptuous as it at first 
seems, for, after all, the trustees themselves 
are only employees. They are not managing 
their own money on their own account, but 
are simply employed to carry out the in- 
tentions of those who have given their 
money to found and carry on different in- 
stitutions of learning and they are respon- 
sible to the public for the way they per- 
form their duties. They may not be paid 
in money, but they are paid im the honor of 
holding positions which are justly highly 
prized. Unless the public feel that they 


- are administering their trusts wisely and 


in accordance with the intentions of those 
who have given the money, they will sooner 
or later cease to supply more funds and 
there is always need of more money. 

It seems to me that the antagonism be- 
tween the trustees and the faculty is really 
less marked than many suppose and, if the 
opinions of the faculty are at times ap- 
parently disregarded, it may be in part, at 
least, because the trustees find it difficult 
to ascertain just what the collective opinion 
of the faculty is. In the larger univer- 
sities the faculties are so large that, when 
meeting in a body, their discussions are 
apt to be very prolonged and not always to 
the point. It ought to be possible to con- 
trive some way in which the views of both 
boards could be presented in a definite, 
practical way. In one of our universities, 
I understand, there is a joint board com- 
posed of some trustees and some members 
of the faculty, known as the committee 
on education, before which are brought 
questions in which both boards are inti- 
mately concerned, and the recommenda- 
tions of this committee, it is said, have 
always, so far as known, been adopted by 
the trustees. The faculty members of such 
a board should of course be selected by the 
faculty itself and serve only for fixed in- 
tervals, in order that they may really rep- 


14 


resent the views of the majority of the 
faculty at any given time. 

If in discussing the position of scientific 
men in this country I have given greater 
prominence to the conditions which tend to 
retard progress than to those which favor 
it, it is because I believe that the first step 

‘toward the removal of obstacles is to state 
clearly what those obstacles are. It is not 
improbable that some evils will disappear as 
soon as it is generally recognized that they 
are evils. We have seen that the public 
are more interested than they were in the 
welfare of scientific men, and the better 
they understand existing conditions, the 
better for us. If they now believe that 
organization and concentration are neces- 
sary Im science, as in business, they should 
also understand that organization has its 
dangers as well as its advantages. While 
accepting the prevailing idea of the neces- 
sity of organization, we must, at the same 
time, insist that the future of science re- 
quires that a proper balance be maintained 
between general organization and indi- 
vidual independence. Furthermore, the 
organization needed in science does not 
consist in having scientific work placed 
under the control of purely business men 
but of scientific men who have a capacity 
for administration, and such men can be 
found. Purely financial matters must be 
entrusted to non-scientific business men, 
but science itself is something different 
from business in the ordinary sense. Hyven 
when placed in charge of scientific men, it 
is Important to avoid carrying the organ- 
ization of science so far as to repress indi- 
vidual effort and bring about a sort of 
bureaucracy whieh resents unfavorable 
criticism and requires all work to conform 
to a fixed narrow standard. Science should 
be a republic in which, with the approval 
of the majority of workers, the more ca- 
pable become the rulers. Science should be 


SCIENCE. 


t 


[N. S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


well organized, but it should never become, 
im a purely business sense, a trust. 
W. G. Fartow. 


HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE METALLIFEROUS 
VHINS.* 

THe rush of the gold-seekers to Cali- 
fornia in 1849, and the quickly following 
one to Australia in 1851, were notable mi- 
erations in search of the yellow metal, but 
they were not the first in the history of our 
race. There is, indeed, no reason to sup- 
pose that, in the past, mining excitements 
were limited even to the historical period; 
on the contrary, the legends of the golden 
fleece, and of the golden apples of the 
Hesperides, probably describe im poetic 
garb two of the early expeditions, and long 
before either we can. well imagine primitive 
man hurrying to new diggings in order to 
enlarge his scanty stock of metals. Among 
the influences which have led to the ex- 
ploration and settlement of new lands, the 
desire to find and acquire gold and silver 
has been one of the most important, and as 
a means of introducing thousands of vigor- 
ous settlers, of their own volition, into un- 
inhabited or uncivilized regions there is no 
agent which compares with it. In this con- 
nection it may be also remarked that there 
is no more interesting chapter in the history 
of civilization, than that which concerns it- 
self with the use of the metals and with the 
development of methods for their extrac- 
tion from their ores. Primitive man was 
naturally limited to those which he found 
in the native state. They are but few, 
viz., gold in wide but sparse distribution in 


eravels; copper in occasional masses along 


the outcrops of veins, in which far the 
greater part of the metal is combined with 
oxygen or sulphur, copper again, in porous 
rocks, as in the altogether exceptional case 


1 Presidential address before the New York 
Academy of Sciences, December 18, 1905. 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


of the Lake Superior mines; iron in an 
oceasional meteorite, which, if its fall had 
been observed, was considered to be the 
image of a god, descended from the skies ;* 
silver in occasional nuggets with the more 
common ones of gold; and possibly a rare 
bit of platinum. Besides these no other 
metal can have been known, because all the 
rest and all of those mentioned, when 
locked up in their ores, give in the physical 
properties of the latter but the slightest 
suggestion of their presence. Chance dis- 
coveries must have first revealed the pos- 
sibilities of producing iron from its ore— 
really a very simple process when small 
quantities are involved; of making bronze 
from the ores of copper and tin; of making 
brass with the ores of copper and zinc; of 
reducing copper and lead from their nat- 
ural compounds; and of freeing silver from 
its chief associate, lead. All of these proc- 
esses were extensively practised under the 
Chinese, Phenicians, Greeks, Romans and 
other ancient peoples. 

As the need of weapons in war, the ad- 
vantages of metallic currency and the want 
of household utensils became felt, and as the 
minerals which yield the metals became 
recognized as such, the art of mining grew 
to be something more than the digging and 
washing of gravels; and in the long course 
of time developed into its present stage as 
one of the most difficult branches of engi- 
neering. Chemistry raised metallurgical 
processes from the art of obtaining some of 
a metal from its ore, to the art of obtaining 
almost all of it and of accounting for what 
escaped. It is, in fact, in this scientific 
accounting for everything, that modern 
processes chiefly differ from those of the 
ancients. 

Of all the metals the most important 
which minister to the needs of daily life 
are the following, ranged as nearly as pos- 


2 As in the case of Diana of the Ephesians and . 


the deity of the Carthaginians. 


SCIENCE. 15 


sible in the order of their usefulness: 
Tron, copper, lead, zine, silver, gold, tin, 
aluminum, nickel, platinum, manganese, 
chromium, quicksilver, antimony, arsenic 
and cobalt. The others are of very minor 
importance, although often indispensable 
for certain restricted uses. 

The manner of occurrence of these metals 
in the earth, and their amounts in ores 
which admit of practicable working are 
fundamental facts in all our industrial de- 
velopment, and some accurate knowledge of 
them ought to be a part of the intellectual 
equipment of every well-educated man. 
The matter may well appeal to Americans, 
since the United States have developed 
within a few years into the foremost pro- 
ducers of iron, copper, lead, coal, and until 
recent years of ‘gold and silver; but with 
regard to gold, they have of late alternated 
in the leadership with the Transvaal and 
Australia, and in silver are now second to 
Mexico. 

Despite the enormous product of food- 
stuffs, American mining developments are 
of the same ofder of magnitude; and the 
mineral resources of the country have 
proved to be one of the richest possessions 
of its people. 

We may best gain a proper conception of 
the problem of the metalliferous veins, if 
we state at the outset the gross composition 
of the outer portion of the globe, so far as 
geologists have been able to express it by 
srouping analyses of rocks. We may then 
note among the elements mentioned, such 
of the metals as have just been cited and 
may remark the rarity of the others; we 
may next set forth the necessary percent- 
ages of each metal which make a deposit 
an ore, that is, make it rich enough for 
profitable working. By comparison we 
can grasp in a general way the amount of 
concentration which must be accomplished 
by the geological agents in order to collect 
from a naturally lean distribution in rocks 


16 SCIENCE. 


enough of a given metal to produce a de- 
posit of ore; and can then naturally pass 
to a brief discussion and description of 
those agents and their operations. 

If the general composition of the crust 
of the earth is caleulated as closely as pos- 
sible on the basis of known chemical anal- 
yses, the following table results, which has 
been compiled by Dr. F. W. Clarke, of 
Washington, chief chemist of the U. S. 
Geological Suryey.° 


OxGfQO, seovassesposssuasone suo. 47.13 
SUTCoOn) OM Sh ssh caclensrettle secceh eae 27.89 
JNlpormnWM Bowboododo aan ce geno 0008 8.13 
LT OTM Asks Sos tn eco ete hen cee 4.71 
(Ghikelirnapoutyaomuso ba hac oe ep pane 3.53 
IMBGTREEMDIM 5560000000000 00000060 2.64 
LOVARENDIT Ooo oo dasoaGeopcoaeaeods 2.35 
Sodus Gewsseiecisieie ateivclensea stewart 2.68 
ADiEhaVRU GTM oo Sooo moomc-c ica oOo 132 
TRRyGIROGON soonoccasdnocovs0K0000 17 
(Cain OMy sais a ierauenettaitatyeseyeotenesemerer sue uere 6 13 
IPINGRYOINOIWIS soo ocaccaconcess0cson 09 
INDMEENIEXS socoocaogenocoaduccoon 07 
SuilMlawe 5.50 cnooogoneoDoBgHDwoaS .06 
IBD hal pba Weea MOTE Bed ciate saciosa ato eters ee .04 
Chitrommuignin Sonscc0ncecsangaenou so O01 
INGGIKe1S! BAe eae apis caesar sete deus bevel ayeredeeneeds .O1 
SUiMOMMUGIM, Gooooosasodaqvocoeusoog 01 
TLpheowiey an arora. laaece Co ben NOFA Belo a -O1 
(Olnikoraba Tocaig mnie ocr cecrs okra adud 01 
TDR eNYE cis cednid eo. aig Oem. Bhodi:a So 01 

RO GA tera stee ee stand ete Se nto 100.00 


Elements less than .01 per cent. are not 
considered abundant enough to affect the 
total, and equally exact data regarding 
them are not accessible. Among those 
_given only the following appear which are 
metals of importance as such-in every-day 
life: aluminum 8.13, iron 4.71, manganese 
.07, chromium .01 and nickel .01. They 
respectively, in the table, third, 
fourth, thirteenth, sixteenth and seven- 
teenth. Of the five, iron is the only one of 
marked prominence. No one of the re- 
mainine four is comparable in usefulness 
with at least five other metals which are 


§ Bulletin 148, p. 13. 


rank, 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 575. 


not mentioned, viz., copper, lead, zinc, 
silver and gold. 

An endeavor has been made by at least 
one investigator, Professor J. H. L. Vogt, 
of Christiania, to establish some quantita- 
tive expression for these other metals. 
His estimates are as follows:* 

Copper percentage beyond the fourth or 
fifth place of decimals, that is, in the hun- 
dred thousandths or millionths of a per 
cent. 

Lead and zine, percentages in the fifth 
place of decimals or in the hundred thou- 
sandths of a per cent. 

Silver, percentage, two decimal places 
beyond copper—or in the ten millionths to . 
the hundred millionths of a per cent., or 
the ten thousandth to the hundred thou- 
sandth of an ounce to the ton. 

Gold, percentage, one tenth as much as 
silver. 

Tin, percentage in the fourth or fifth 
decimal place, that is, im the ten thou- 
sandths or hundred thousandths of a per 
cent. 

These figures, inconceivably small as they 
are, convey some idea of the rarity of these 
metals as constituents on the average of the 
outer six or eight miles of the earth’s crust. 
But they are locally more abundant in par- 
ticular masses of eruptive rocks which are 
associated with ore deposits. 

In the following tabulation I have en- 
deavored to bring together a number of 
determinations which have been made in 
connection. with investigations of American 
mining districts. Im a general way they 
eive a fair idea of the metallic contents of 
certain eruptive rocks from which were 
taken samples as little as possible open to 
the suspicion that they had been enriched 
by the same processes which had produced 
the neighboring ore-bodies. 

In order to come within the possible 
limits of profitable and successful treat- 

‘Zeitschrift fiir prak. Geologie, 1898, 324. 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


Per Cent. - From. 
in Eruptive 
Rocks. 

Copper, 009 Missouri.® 
Lead, -0011 Colorado.° 
Lead, .008 Eureka, Ney.’ 
Lead, .004 Missouri.® 
Zine, .0048 Leadville, Colo.® 
Zine, .009 Missouri.® 
Silver, -00007 Leadville, Colo.° 
Silver, .00016 Eureka, Nev.’ 
Silver, -00016 Rosita, Colo.” 
Gold, .00002 Eureka, Nev." 
Gold, -00004 Owyhee Co.," Id. 


ment the ores of the more important metals 
should have at least the above percent- 
ages, but that we may grasp the relations 
correctly, it must be appreciated that local 
conditions affect the limits. Thus in a 
remote situation and with high charges for 
transportation an ore may be outside profit- 
able treatment, although it may contain 
several times the percentages of those more 
favorably situated. Iron ores in particular 
which are distant from centers of popula- 
tion, are valueless unless cheap transporta- 
tion on a very large scale can be developed, 
while gold in an almost inaccessible region, 
like the Klondike, may yield a rich reward, 
even when in quantities which, if expressed 
in percentages, are almost inappreciable. 

The nature of the ore is also a factor of 
prime importance. 
the metals readily and cheaply, while 
others, which in the case of the precious 

* Average of eight eruptives from Missouri, 
Anals. by J. D. Robertson. Report on Lead and 
Zine, Mo. Geol. Surv., IJ., 479. : 

“Average of six different rocks, embracing 
eighteen assays; S. F. Emmons, Monograph XIL., 
U. 8. Geol. Surv., 591. 

“One rock, a quartz porphyry, not certain the 
rock was not enriched. J. D. Curtis, U. S. Geol. 
Surv., Mono. VII., 136. 

& Same reference as under 6. 
termined in but two samples. 

“Same reference as under 6, but p. 594. 

“S. F. Emmons, XVII. Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. 
Survey, Part II., p. 471. 

* A. Simundi in Tenth Census, XIII., 54. 


The zine was de- 


Some compounds yield . 


SCIENCE. LY 


metals are often called base ores, require 
complicated and it may be expensive metal- 
lurgical treatment. The association of 
metals is likewise of the highest importance. 
Copper or lead, for example, greatly facili- 
tates the extraction of gold and silver, 
Whereas zine in large quantities is a hin- 
drance. Conditions also change. An ore 
which may have been valueless in early 
days may prove a rich source of profit in 
later years and under improved conditions. 
For instance, from 1870 for over twenty- 
five years Bingham Canyon in Utah yielded 
lead-silver ores and minor deposits of gold. 
It was known that in some mines low-grade 
and base ores of copper and gold existed, 
but the fact was carefully concealed and in 
at least one instance the shaft into them 
was filled up, lest a general knowledge of 
the fact-should unfavorably affect the value 
of the property. To-day, however, these 
ores are eagerly sought and their extrac- 
tion and treatment in thousands of tons 
daily are paying good returns on very large 
capitalization. Another factor is the ex- 
pense of extraction. If simple and inex- 
pensive methods are possible, the area of 
profitable treatment is greatly widened. 
Thus gold may néed little else than a 
stream of water or even a blast of air, 
whereas iron and copper require huge fur- 
naces and vast supplies of coke and fluxes. 

Trom ores are of little value in any part 
of the world unless they contain a mini- 
mum of 35 per cent. iron when they enter 
the furnace, but if they are distributed in 
amounts of 10-20 per cent., in extensive 
masses of loose or easily crushed rock in 
such condition that they can be cheaply 
concentrated up to rich percentages, they 
may be profitably treated and a product 
with 50 per cent. iron or higher be sent to 
the furnaces. Nevertheless, speaking for 
the civilized world at large, it holds true 
that as an iron ore enters the furnace, it 
can not have léss than 35 per cent., and in 


18 SCIENCE. 


America with our rich and pure deposits 
on Lake Superior two thirds of our supply 
ranges from 60-65 per cent. 

As regards copper, a minimum working 
percentage, amid favorable conditions and 
with enormous quantities, is usually about 
3 per cent., but in the altogether excep- 
tional deposits of the native metal in the 
Lake Superior region, copper-rock as low 
as three fourths of one per cent. has been 
profitably treated. This or any similar re- 
sult could only be accomplished with excep- 
’ tionally efficient management and with a 
copper rock such as is practically only 
known on Lake Superior. With the usual 
type of ore, not enriched by gold or silver, 
two per cent. is the extreme and in remote 
localities five, to ten may sometimes be too 
poor. 

_ In southeast Missouri, lead ores are 

profitably mined which have 5-10 per cent. 
lead, but they are concentrated to 65—70 
per cent. before going to the furnace. 

Zine ores at the furnace ought not to 
yield less than 25-30 per cent., and when 
concentrated or selected they range up to 
60 per cent. 

The precious metals are expressed in 
troy ounces to the ton avoirdupois. A troy 
ounce in a ton is one three-hundredths of 
one per cent., and the amount is, therefore, 
very small when stated in percentages. If 
it be appreciated that in round numbers 
silver is now worth fifty to sixty cents an 
ounce and gold twenty dollars, some grasp 
may be had of values. Silver rarely oc- 
curs by itself. On the contrary, it is ob- 
tained in association with lead and copper, 
and the ores are, as a rule, treated pri- 
marily for these base metals, and then from 
the latter the precious metals are later 
separated. In the base ores there ought 
to be enough silver to yield a minimum 
of five dollars or ten ounces in the result- 


ing ton of copper in order.t6 afford enough’ 


to ‘pay for separation. Now 'in a five 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 575. 


per cent. ore of copper we have a con- 
centration of twenty tons of ore to yield 
one ton of pig, or, more correctly stated, 
so as to allow for losses, twenty-one tons 
to one. We must, therefore, have at 
least ten ounces of silver in the twenty- 
one tons, which implies a minimum of 
about one half ounce per ton. Smelters 
will only pay a miner for the silver 
if he has over one half ounce per ton in 
a copper: ore. In a pig of lead, usually 
called base bullion, it is necessary for 
profitable extraction to have fifteen ounces 
of silver. For smelting a lead ore we must 
possess at least ten per cent. lead and may 
have seventy. It is, therefore, obvious 
that from two to twenty ounces silver must 
be present in the ton of lead ore. The 
common ranges are ten to fifty ounces or 
one thirtieth to one sixth of one per cent. 

Gold is so cheaply extracted that it may 
be profitably obtained under favorable cir- 
cumstances down to one tenth of an ounce 
in the ton, but the run of ores is from one 
fourth ounce or five dollars to one ounce 
or twenty dollars. Ores of course some- 
times reach a number of ounces. In cop- 
per or lead ores even a twentieth of an 
ounce may be an object and in favorably 
situated gravels, to which the hydraulic 
method may be applied, even as little as 
seven to ten cents in the cubie yard may be 
recovered or some such value as one two- 
hundredths to one three-hundredths of an 
ounce per ton. 

The tin ores as smelted contain about 70 
per cent., but they are all concentrated 
either by washing gravels in which the 
percentage is one or less or else by mining, 
crushing and dressing ore in which it 
ranges from 1.5 to 8 per cent. The tin- : 
bearing gravels represent a concentration 
from much leaner dissemination in the 
parent veins and granite. Aluminum ores 


‘yield as sold about 30 per cent. of the 


metal. This is an enrichment as compared 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


with the rocks, though not so striking a 
one as in the case of other metals. But the 
great change necessary in aluminum is in 
the method of combination. It is so tightly 
locked up in silicates in the rocks as to pre- 
elude direct extraction by any known 
method. 

Nickel needs to be present in amounts 
of several per cent., say two to five, and 
occurs either alone or with copper. Cobalt 
is always with it’ in small amounts. 
Platinum occurs in exceedingly small per- 
centages. It is almost all obtained from 
gravels in Russia, and the gravels yielded 
in 1899, according to C. W. Purington, 
about forty cents to the yard, platinum 
being quoted in that year at $15 to $18. 
per ounce. There was, therefore, in the 
gravels about one fortieth ounce in the 
yard, or one sixtieth in a ton or about 
5.5 hundred-thousandths of a per cent. 
Platinum in some rocks has been found in 
amounts of one twentieth to one half 
ounce, or from 16 hundred-thousandths 
to 16 ten-thousandths of one per cent., but 
they are rare and peculiar types. 

In order to be salable manganese ores of 
themselves must yield about 50 per cent., 
but if iron is also present they may be as 
low as 40. Chromium has but one ore, and 
it must contain about 40 per cent. Of 
antimony, arsenic and cobalt it is hardly 
possible to speak, since, except perhaps in 
the case of the first, they are unimportant 
by-products in the metallurgy of other ores. 

In summary it may be stated that in the 
ores the metals must be present in amounts 
shown in accompanying table. 

We now have before us some fundamen- 
tal conceptions from which as a point of 
departure we may set out upon the real dis- 
cussion of the subject. We understand the 
gross composition of the outer earth; we 
have some idea of the quantitative distri- 
bution of the metals in the rocks; especially 
in the richer instances; finally we have 


SCIENCE. 


19 
= Percentage 
Teen Ounces to in the 
eae Ton. Parth’s Crust, 
Tron, 35-65 4,7 1 
Copper, 2-10 .0000X 
Lead, 7-50 .0000X 
Zine, 25-60 0000.5 
Silver, 1/12-1/150 2-25 .000000X 
Gold, 1/300-1/6,000  1/20—1 -0000000X 
Tin, 1-3 .000X—.0000X 
Atuminum, 30 8.13 
Nickel, 2-5 01 
Manganese, 50 U7 
Chromium, 40 OL 


seen the extent to which they must be con- 
centrated in order that they may be objects 
of mining. The next step is to establish 
first the agent or solvent which can effect 
the collection of the sparsely distributed 
metals, and second the places where the 
precipitation of them takes place. We may 
then inquire more particularly into the 
source of the agent and the methods of its 
operation. In order to do this in the time 
at command I must remorselessly focus at- 
tention on the large and essential features, 
resolutely avoiding every side issue or 
minor point, however inviting. 

The one solvent which is sufficiently 
abundant is water, and practically all ob- 
servers are agreed that for the vast ma- 
jority of ore deposits it has been the vehicle 
of concentration. Of course it need not 
operate alone. On the contrary, easily 
dissolved and ever-present materials like 
alkalies may, and undoubtedly do, increase 
its efficiency. It does not operate neces- 
sarily as cold water. On the contrary, we 
all know that the earth grows hotter as we 
go down, so that descending waters could 
not go far without feeling this influence. 
Volcanoes, too, indicate to us that there are 
localities where heat is developed in enor- 
mous amounts and not far below the sur- 
face. There is, therefore, no lack of heat ' 
and.we only need tofbe familiar with the 
western country to know that there is‘no 


lack of hot springs when we take a compre- 


0) Bes SCIENCE. 


hensive view. As solvents, hot waters are 
so incomparably superior to cold waters 
that they appeal to us strongly. We may, 
therefore, take it as well established that 
water is the vehicle. The chemical com- 
pounds which constitute the ores naturally 
differ widely in solubility and no sweeping 
statements can be made regarding them. 
Iron, for example, yields very soluble salts 
and is widely, one might almost say uni- 
versally distributed in ordinary waters. 
Its ores are compounds of the metal with 
oxygen, and in this respect it differs from 
nearly all others, which are mostly com- 
bined with sulphur. Although almost all 
of them have oxidized compounds, the lat- 
ter are on the whole very subordinate con- 
tributors to our furnaces.’ 

Iron is everywhere present in the rocks 
and when exposed to the natural reagents 
it is one of their most vulnerable elements. 
Tt, therefore, presents few difficulties in the 
way of solution and concentration by 
waters which circulate on or near the sur- 
face and which perform their reactions un- 
der our eyes. 

The compounds of copper, lead, zine, 
silver, nickel, cobalt, quicksilver, anti- 
mony and arsenic with sulphur present 
more difficult problems and ones into 
whose chemistry it is impossible to enter 
here in any thorough way, but in general 
it may be said that the solutions were prob- 
ably hot, that they were Im some cases 
alkaline, in others acid, and that the pres- 
sure under which they took up the metals 
in the depths has been an important fac- 
tor in the process. The loss of heat and 
pressure as they rose toward the surface no 
doubt aided in an important way in the 
result. 

The first condition for the production of 
an ore-deposit is a waterway. It may be 
a small crack, or a large fracture, or a 
porous stratum, but in some such form it 
must exist. Naturally porous rock affords 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 575. 


the simplest case, and provides an easily 
understood place of precipitation. For ex- 
ample, in the decade of the seventies rather 
large mines at Silver Reef, in southern 
Utah, were based upon an open-textured 
sandstone into which and, along certain 
lines silver-bearing solutions had entered. 
Wherever they met a fossil leaf or an old 
stick of wood which had been buried in the 
rock the dissolved silver was precipitated 
as sulphide or chloride. Sometimes for 
no apparent reason the solutions impreg- 
nated the rock with ore, but the ore seems 
to follow along certain lines of fracturing. 
Again at Silver Cliff near Rosita in cen- 
tral Colorado, the silver solutions had evi- 
dently at one time soaked through a bed 
of porous voleanie ash, and had impreg- 
nated it with ore, which, while it lasted, was 
quarried out like so much rock. In the 
copper district of Keweenaw Point on Lake 
Superior, the copper bearing solutions have 
penetrated in some places an old gravel 
bed and impregnated it with copper; in 
other places they have passed along cer- 
tain courses in vesicular lava flows, and 
have yielded up to the cavities, scales and 
shots of native copper. 

It has happened at times that the ore- 
bearing solutions, rismg through some 
erevice, have met a stratum charged with 
lime, and having spread sideways have ap- 
parently been robbed of their metals be- 
cause the lime precipitated the valuable 
minerals. In the Black Hills of South 
Dakota, there are sandstones with beds of 
ealeareous mud rocks in them. Solutions 
bringing gold have come up through in- — 
significant-looking crevices called ‘verticals’ 
and have impregnated these mud-rocks 
with long shoots of valuable gold ores. In 
prospecting in a promising loeality the 
miner, knowing the systematic arrange- 
ment of the verticals, and having found 
the lime shales, drifts along in them, fol- 
lowing a crevice in the hope of breaking 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


into ore. The very extended and product- 
ive shoots of lead-silver ores at Leadville, 
Colo., which have been vigorously and con- 
tinuously mined since 1877, are found in 
limestone and usually just underneath 
sheets of a relatively impervious eruptive 
rock. They run for long distances and 
suggest uprising solutions which followed 
along beneath the eruptive, perhaps checked 
by it, so that they have replaced the lime- 
stone with ore. The limestone must have 
been a vigorous’ precipitant of the metallic 
minerals. 

The fracture itself up through which the 
waters rise may be of considerable size and 
thus furnish a resting place for the ore and 
ganeue, as the associated barren mineral is 
called. A deposit then results which af- 
fords a typical fissure vein. The com- 
monest filling is quartz, but at times a 
large’ variety of minerals may be present 
and sometimes in beautifully symmetrical 
arrangement. In the latter case the upris- 
ing waters have first coated each wall with 
a layer. They have then changed in com- 
position and have deposited a later and 
different one, and so on until the crack has 
become filled. Often cavities are left at 
the center or sides and are lined with 
beautiful and shining erystals, which flash 
and sparkle in the rays of a lamp, like so 
many gems. There are quartz veins in 
California which are mined for gold and 
which seem to have filled clean-cut crevices, 
wall to wall, for several feet across. More 
often there is evidence of decided chemical 
action upon the walls, which may be im- 
pregnated with the ore and gangue for 
some distance away from the fissure. As 
the source of supply is left, however, the 
impregnation becomes less and less rich, 
and finally fades out into barren wall-rock. 
The enrichment of the walls varies also 
from point to poimt, since where the rock 

is tight the solutions can not spread 
laterally, but where it is open the impreg- 


SCIENCE. 21 


nation may be extensive. The miner has, 
therefore, to allow for swells and pinches 
in his ore. 

Of even greater significance than the 
lateral enrichment is the peculiar arrange- 
ment of the valuable ore in a vein that may 
itself be continuous for long distances al- 
though in most places too barren for min- 
ing. Cases are, indeed, known in which 
profitable vem matter may be taken out 
continuously for perhaps a mile along the 
strike, but they are relatively rare. The 
usual experience reveals the ore running 
diagonally down in the vem fillmeg, and 
more often than not following the polished 
erooves in the walls which are called slick- 
ensides, and which indicate the direction 
taken by one wall when it moved on the 
other during the formation of the fracture. 
The rich places may terminate in depth as 
well, and again may be repeated, but they 
must be anticipated, and for them allow- 
ance must be made in any mining oper- 
ation. 

Ores, therefore, gather along subter- 
ranean waterways. They may fill clean- 
eut fissures, wall to wall; they may im- 
preenate porous wall rocks on either side, 
they may even entirely replace soluble rocks 
like limestones. 

We may now raise the question as to the 


‘source of the water which accomplishes 


these results and the further question as to 
the cause of its circulations. 

The nature of the underground waters 
which are instrumental in filling the veins, 
presents one of the most interesting, if not 
the most interesting, phase of the problem 
and one upon which attention has been 
especially concentrated in later years. 
The crucial pomt of the discussion relates 
to the relative importance of the two kinds 
of ground-waters, the magmatic, or those 
from the molten igneous rocks, and the 
meteoric or those derived from the rains. 
The magmatic waters are not phenomena 


22 SCIENCE. 


of the daily life and observation of the 
great majority of civilized peoples, and for 
this reason they have not received the at- 
tention that otherwise would have fallen 
to their share. Relatively few geologists 
have the opportunity to view volcanoes in 
active eruption, and have but dispropor- 
tionate conceptions of the clouds and clouds 
of watery vapor which they emit. The 
enormous volume has, however, been 
brought home to us in recent years, with 
great force, by the outbreak of Mont Pelée, 
and we of this academy, thanks to the 
efforts of our fellow-member, Dr. EH. O. 
Hovey, of the American Museum of Nat- 
ural History, have had them placed very 
vividly before us. It is on the whole not 
surprising that to the meteoric waters most 
observers in the past have turned for the 
chief, if not the only, agent. I will, there- 
fore, first present as fully as the time ad- 
mits, and as fairly as I may, this older view 
which still has perhaps the largest number 
of adherents. 

Except in the arid districts, rain falls 
more or less copiously upon the surface of 
the earth. The largest portion of it runs 
off in the rivers; the smallest portion 
evaporates while on the surface, and the 
intermediate part sinks into the ground, 
urged on by gravity, and joins the ground- 
waters. Where erevices of considerable 
eross-section exist, they conduct the water 
below in relatively large quantity. Shat- 
tered or porous rock will do the same and 
we know that open-textured sandstones 
dipping down from their outcrops and flat- 
tening in depth lead water to artesian 
reservoirs in vast quantity. As passages 
and erevices grow smaller, the friction on 
the walls increases and the water moves 
with greater and greater difficulty. When 
the passage grows very small, movement 
practically ceases. The flow of water 
through pipes is a very old matter of in- 
vestigation, and all engineers who deal with 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


problems of water supply for cities or with 
the circulation of water for any of its 
countless applications in daily life must be 
familiar with its laws. Friction is such 
an important factor that only by the larger 
natural crevices can the meteoric waters. 
move downward in any important quantity 
or with appreciable velocity. They do sink, 
of course, and come to comparative rest 
at greater or less distance from the surface 
and yield the supplies of underground 
water upon which we draw. 

The section of the rocks which stands 
between the surface and the groundwater 
is the arena of active change and is that 
part of the earth’s crust m which the 
meteoric waters exercise their greatest 
effect. Rocks within this zone are in con- 
stant process of decay and disintegration. 
Oxidation, involving the production of sul- 
phurie acid from the natural metalle sul- 
phides, is. actively in progress. Carbonic 
acid enters also with the meteoric waters. 
The rocks are open in texture and favor- 
ably situated for maximum change. From 
this zone we can well imagine that all the 
finely divided metallic particles which are 
widely and sparsely distributed in the rocks 
go into solution and tend to migrate down- 
ward into the quiet and relatively motion- 
less ground-water. If the acid solutions 
escape the precipitating action of some 
alkaline reagent such as limestone they 
may even reach the ground:waters, and 
their dissolved burdens may be contributed 
to this reservoir, but the greater portion 
seems to be deposited at the level of the 
ground-water itself or at moderate dis- 
tances below it. Impressed by these phe- 
nomena which present a true cause of solu- 
tion, and influenced by their familiar and 
every-day character, we may build up on 
the basis of them a general conception of 
the source of the metallic minerals dis- 
solved in those aqueous solutions which are 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


recognized by all to be the agents for the 
fillme of the veins. 

Let us now focus attention on the 
ground-water. This saturates the rocks, 
fills the crevices and forces the miner who 
sinks his shaft, to pump, much against his 
natural inclination. The vast majority of 
mines are of no great depth, and the nat- 
ural conclusion of our earlier observers, 
based on this experience, has been that the 
eround-waters extend downward, satura- 
ting the strata of the earth to the limit of 
possible cavities, distances which vary from 
1,000 to more than 30,000 feet. To this 
must be added another familiar phe- 
nomenon. The interior temperature of the 
earth increases at a fairly definite ratio of 
about one degree Fahrenheit for each 60- 
100 feet of descent. In round numbers, if 
we start with a place of the climatic condi- 
tions of New York—that is, with a mean 
annual temperature of about 51°, we 
should on descending 10,000 feet below the 
surface find a temperature of about 212°, 
and if we go still deeper, it would be still 
greater. Of course, under the burden of 
the overlying column of water, the actual 
boiling points for the several depths would 
be greater, and it is a question whether 
the increase of temperature would over- 
come the increase of pressure and the con- 
sequent rise of the boiling point so as to 
convert this water into steam, cause great 
imerease in its elasticity, decrease in its 
specific gravity and thereby promote cir- 
culations. At all events, the rise in tem- 
perature would cause expansion of the 
liquid, would disturb equilibrium and to 
this degree would promote circulations. 

There is one other possible motive power. 
The meteoric waters enter the rocky strata 
of the globe at elevated points, sink down- 
ward, meet the ground-water at altitudes 
above the neighboring valleys and estab- 
lish thereby What we call head. ' In conse- 
quence they often yield springs. If we 


SCIENCE. 23 


imagine the head to be effective to con- 
siderable depths we have again the deep- 
seated waters under pressure, which after 
their long and devious journey through the 
rocks may cause them to rise eleswhere as 
springs. The head may in small degree be 
aided by the expansion of the uprising 
heated column, whose specific gravity is 
thereby lowered as compared with the de- 
Scending colder column. 

May we now draw all these facts and 
supposed or assumed phenomena into one 
whole? 

The descending meteoric waters become 
eharged with dissolved earthy and metallic 
minerals in their downward, their deep- 
seated lateral and perhaps also at the be 
einning of their heated uprising journey. 
They are urged on by the head of the 
longer and colder descending column and 
by the interior heat. They gather together 
from many smaller channels into larger is- 
suing trunk channels. They rise from 
regions of heat and pressure which favor 
solution, into colder regions of precipitation 
and erystallization. They deposit in these 
upper zones their burden of dissolved 
metallic and earthy minerals and yield 
thus the veins from which the miner draws 
his ore. 

This conception is based on phenomena 
of which the greater part are the results of 
every-day experience. It is attractive, rea- 
sonable and is on the whole the one which 
has been most trusted in the past. Doubt- 
less it has the widest circle of adherents 
to-day. It is, however, open to certain 
erave objections which are gaining slow 
but certain support. 

The conception of the extent of the 
eround-water in depth, for example, is 
flatly opposed to our experience in those 
hitherto few but yearly increasing deep 
mines which go below 1,500 or 2,000 feet. 
Wherever deep’shafts are located in regions 
other than those of expiring but not dead 


x 


voleanie action, they have passed through 
the ground-water, and if this is carefully 
impounded in the upper levels of the mines 
and not allowed to follow the workings 
downward, it is found that there is not 
only less and less water, but that the deep 
levels are often dry and dusty. Along 
this line of investigation, Mr. John W. 
Finch, recently the State Geologist of Colo- 
rado, has reached the conclusion, after wide 
experience with deep mines, that the 
ground-waters are limited, im the usual ex- 
perience, to about 1,000 feet from the sur- 
face and that only the upper layer of this 
is In motion and available for springs. 

Artesian wells do extend in many cases 
to depths much greater than this and bring 
supplies of water to the surface, but their 
very existence implies waters impounded 
and in a state of rest. 

To this objection that the ground-waters 
are shallow it has been replied that when 
the veins were being formed the rocks were 
open-textured and admitted of circulation, 
but subsequently the cavities and water- 
ways became plugged by the deposition of 
minerals by a process technically called 
cementation, and the supply being cut off, 
they now appear dry. There must, how- 
ever, In order to make ‘the head’ effective 
have once been a continuous column of 
water which introduced the materials for 
cementation. It is at least difficult to un- 
derstand how a process, which could only 
progress by the introduction of material in 
very dilute solution, should by the agency 
of crystallization drive out the only means 
of its production. Some residue of water 
must necessarily remain locked up in the 
partially cemented rock. This residue we, 
of course, do not find where rocks are dry 
and drifts are dusty. In many eases also 
where deep cross-cuts have penetrated the 
fresh wall-rock of mines, cementation if 
present has been so slight as to escape de- 
tection. 


24 SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


If we once admit that this conclusion is 
well based, 1t removes the very foundation 
from beneath the conception of the meteoric 
waters and tumbles the whole structure in 
a heap of ruins. 

While I would not wish to positively 
make so sweeping a statement as this about 
a question involving so many uncertainties, 
there is nevertheless a growing conviction 
among a not inconsiderable group of geol- 
ogists that the rocky crust of the earth is 
much tighter and less open to the passage 
of descending waters than has been gen- 
erally believed; and that the phenomena of 
springs which have so much influenced con- 
clusions in the past, affect only a compara- 
tively shallow overlying section. Such 
phenomena of cementation as we see are 
probably in large part due to the action of 
water stored up by the sediments when 
originally deposited and carried down by 
them with burial. Under pressure a rela- 
tively small amount of water may be an 
important vehicle for reerystallization. 

It has been assumed in the above pre- 
sentation of the case of the meteoric waters 
that they are able to leach out of the deep- 
seated wall rocks the finely disseminated 
particles of the metallic minerals, but the 
conviction has been growing in my own 
mind that we have been inclined to over- 
rate the probability of this action in our dis- 
cussions. In the first place our knowledge 
of the presence of the metals in the rocks 
themselves is based upon the assay of 
samples almost always gathered from ex- 
posures In mining districts. The rock has 
been sought in as fresh and unaltered a 
condition as possible and endeavors have 
been made to guard against the possible in- 
troduction of the metallic contents by those 
same waters which have filled the neighbor- 
ing veins. But if we admit or assume that 
the assay values are original in the rock: 
and, in case the latter is igneous, if we be- 
lieve that the metallic minerals have crys- 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


tallized out with the other bases from the 
molten magma, we are yet confronted with 
the fact that their very presence and de- 
tection in the rock show that they have 
escaped leaching even though they occur 
in a district where underground cireula- 
tions have been especially active. From 
the results which we have in hand, it is 
quite as justifiable to argue that the metals 
in the rocks are proof against the leaching 
action of underground circulations as that 
they fall victims to it. These considera- 
tions tend to restrict the activities of the 
meteoric waters to the vadose region as 
Posepny ealls it, 7. e., that belt of the 
rocks which stands between the permanent 
water-level and the surface. Within it is 
an active area of solution, as we have all 
recognized for many years, but, as pre- 
viously stated, experience shows that the 
metals which go into solution in it strongly 
tend to reprecipitate at or not far below 
the water-level itself. 

It is of interest, however, to seek some 
quantitative expression of the problem and 
the assays given above furnish the neces- 
sary data. 

I have taken the values of the several 
metals which have been found by the assays 
of what were in most cases believed to be 
normal wall rocks, selecting those of 
igneous nature because experience shows 
them to be the richest. The percentages 
have been turned into pounds of the metal 
per ton of rock; this latter value has then 
been recast into pounds of the most prob- 
able natural compound or mineral in each 
ease. I have next caleulated the volume 
of a eube corresponding to the last weight, 
and by extracting its cube root have found 
the leneth of the edge of such cube. If 
now we assume a rock of a specific gravity 
of 2.70, which is a fair average value, and 
allow it 11 to 12 eubie feet to the ton, or 
say 20,000 cubic imches, the edge of the 
eube-ton will be 27.14 mehes. The ratio 


SCIENCE. 25 


of the edge of the cube of metallic mineral 
to the edge of the ecube-ton of enclosing 
rock, will give us an idea of the chance that 
a erack, large enough to form a solution- 
water-way will have of intersecting that 
amount of contained metallic mineral. Of 
course in endeavoring to establish this 
quantitative conception I realize that the 
metallic mineral is not in one cube, and 
that through a cube-ton of rock more than 
one crack passes, but I assume that the 
fineness of division of the metallic mineral 
practically keeps pace with the lessening 
width and close spacing of the erevices. It 
is also realized that the shape of the min- 
erals is not cubical. J am convinced from 
microscopic study of rocks and the small 
size of the metallic particles that their sub- 
division certainly keeps pace with any con- 
ceivable solution-cracks, and that no great 
error is involved in the first assumption 
made. ‘The sides of a cube represent three 
planes which intersect at right angles and 
which are mathematically equivalent to 
any series of planes intersecting at oblique 
angles. Hence if we consider as cubes the 
subdivisions formed in our rock mass by 
any series of intersecting cracks, there are 
three sets of planes, any one of which might 
intersect the cube of ore. We must, there- 
fore, multiply the ratio of probability that 
any single set will intersect it by three in 
order to have the correct expression. The 
chanee, therefore, that a crack, of the 
width of the eubic edge of the enclosed 
mineral, will strike that cube is given by 
the ratios in the last column, which ratios 
I assume hold good with increasing fine- 
ness of subdivision both of metallic min- 
erals and of cracks. 
From the table it is evident that the 
chances vary from a maximum in the ease 
of copper of one in six through various 
intermediate values to a minimum for gold 
of one int over one hundred. This is 
equivalent to sayime that with cracks 


26 SCIENCE. 


4 : g Se, 3 5 
+ in aS 
#2 GS gh Gi Ss Hom SE 
2) OE ES Bis 3 &S cos Sa 
i of ee oF Ls} on Ba 
os a2 ad (6) a oO Pam VS 
Peed sie a aret ea soe Ae 
iS) fax} S 
Copper. .009 18 52 3.42 1.6 1g 1/6 
Galena. 
Lead. 0011 .022 025 092 45 =1/60~—«1/20 
008 = .16.—Ss«s 186 700 .89 1/31 1/10 
004 =.08 =~ .02 340 .70 1/39 1/18 
Zincblende. 
Zine. 0048  .096 128 90 97 1/85 1/12 
0) ik) PY) a) hay pay 
Argentite. 
Silver. .00007 .0014 .0016  .006 18 1/148 1/49 
{00016 0032 0037 014 24 i/118 1/38 
Gold. 
Gold.  .00002 .0004 .0004  .00065 .086 1/318 1/104 
.00004 .0008 .0008  .00130 .109 1/249 1/88 
whose width bears the same relation to 


the width of the rock mass as is borne 
by the diameter of the particle of ore, 
the chance of crossing a particle varies 
from one in six to one in one hundred. 
Or we may say that with eracks of this 
spacing from one sixth to one one-hun- 
dredth of the contained metallic mineral 
might be leached out.12 When, therefore, 
as is often the case in monographs upon 
the geology of a mining district, infer- 
ences are drawn as to the possibility of 
deriving the ore of a vein by the leaching 
of wall-rocks whose metallic contents have 
been proved by assay, the total available 
contents ought to be divided by a number 
from six to one hundred if the above rea- 
soning is correct. This diminution will 
tend to modify in an important manner our 
belief in the probability of such processes 
as have been hitherto advocated. We may 
justly raise the following questions. How 
closely set, as a matter of fact, are the 

“With regard to the flow of waters through 
erevices and the relation of the flow to varying 


diameters or widths a very lucid statement will be 
found in President C. R. Van Hise’s valuable 


paper in the Transactions of the American Insti- - 


tute of Mining Engineers, XXX., aes and in his 
Monograph on Metamorphism. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 575. 


eracks which are large enough to furnish 
solution waterways in the above rocks, 
and can we reach any definite conception . 
regarding their distribution? Some quan- 
titative idea of the relations may be ob- 
tained from the tests of the recorded ab- 
sorptive capacity of the igneous rocks 
which are employed as building stone. G. 
P. Merrill in his valuable work on ‘Stones 
for Building and Decoration,’ pp. 459, has 
given these values for 33 granites and 4 
diabases and gabbros. They vary for the 
eranites from a maximum of one twentieth 
to a minimum of one seven-hundred-and- 
fourth. JI have averaged them all and 
have obtained one two-hundred-and-thirty- 
seventh as the result. That is, if we take 
a cubic inch of granite and thoroughly dry 
it, it will absorb water up to one two hun- 
dred and thirty-seventh of its weight. The 
volume of this water indicates the open 
spaces or voids in the stone. The average 
of the specific gravities of the 33 granites 
is 2.647. If, by the aid of this value we 
turn our weight of water into volume we 
find that its volume is one ninetieth that 
of the rock. For the four diabases and 
gabbros, similarly treated, the ratio of ab- 
sorption is one three-hundred-and-tenth ; 
the specific gravity is 2.776 and the ratio 
of volume one one-hundred-and-tenth. We 
can express all this more intelligibly by 
saying that, if we assume a cube of granite 
and if we combine all its cavities mto one 
crack passing through it, parallel to one 
of its sides, the width of the crack will be 
to the edge of the cube, as 1 to 90. In 
the diabases and gabbros, similarly treated, 
the ratio will be 1 to 110. These values 
are very nearly the same as the average 
of the ratios of the edges of the cubes of 
rock and ore given in the table above, 
it being 1 to 104. We may conclude, there- 
fore, that in so far as we can check the 
previous conclusion by experimental Hoes 
it is not far from the truth. 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


It may be stated that the porphyritic 
igneous rocks which have furnished nearly 
all the samples for the above analyses, are 
as a rule extremely dense, and that their 
absorptive capacity is more nearly that of 
the compact granites than the open tex- 
a4ured ones. It is highly improbable that 
vunderground water cireulates through 
these rocks to any appreciable degree ex- 
‘cept along cracks which have been produced 
in the mechanical way, either by contrac- 
tion in cooling and erystallizing, or by 
faultimg and earth movements. The 
eracks from faulting are very limited in 
extent and in the greater number of our 
mining districts affect but narrow belts, 
small fractions of the total. Of the cracks 
from cooling and erystallizing those of us 
who have seen rock faces in cross-cuts and 
drifts underground, where excavations 
have been driven away from the veins 
proper, can form some idea, if we eliminate 
the shattering due to blasting. My own 
impression is that in rocks a thousand feet 
or so below the surface they are rather 
widely spaced, and that, when checked in 
a general way by the ratios just given, they 
are decidedly unfavorable materials from 
which the slowly moving meteoric ground- 
waters (if such exist) may extract such 
limited and finely distributed contents of 
the metals. 

I have also endeavored to check the con- 
clusions by the recorded experience in 
eyaniding gold ores in which fine crushing 
is so important, and I can not resist the con- 
viction that we have been inclined to believe 
the leaching of compact and subterranean 
masses of rock a much easier and more 
probable process than the attainable data 
warrant. 

As soon, however, as we deal with the 
open-textured fragmental sediments and 
voleaniec tuffs and breccias the permeability 
is so enhanced as to make their leaching a 
comparatively simple matter. Yet so far 


SCIENCE. 27 


as the available data go, they are poor in 
the metals or else are open to the suspicion 
of secondary impregnation. They cer- 
tainly have been seldom, if ever, selected 
by students of mining-regions as the prob- 
able scurce of the metals in the veins. 

Should the above objections to the effi- 
ciency of the meteoric waters seem to be 
well established, or at least to have weight, 
it follows that the arena where they are 
most, if not chiefly, effective is the vadose 
region, between the surface and the level 
of the ground-water. Undoubtedly from 
this section they take the metals into solu- 
tion and carry them down. But it is 
equally true that they lose a large part of 
this burden, especially in the case of cop- 
per, lead and zine, at or near the level 
of the ground-water and are particularly 
efficient in the secondary enrichment of 
already formed but comparatively lean ore- 
bodies. 

Let us now turn to the magmatic waters. 
That the floods of lava which reach the sur- 
face are heavily charged with them, there 
is no doubt. So heavily charged are they, 
that Professor Edouard Suess, of Vienna, 
and our fellow member, Professor Robert 
T. Hill, of New York, have seen reason for 
the conclusion that even the oceanic waters 
have in the earlier stages of the earth’s, 
history been derived from volcanoes rather 
than, in accordance with the old belief, 
voleanoes derive their steam from down- 
ward percolating sea-water. From vents 
like Mont Pelée which in periods of ex- 
plosive outbreaks yield no molten lava, the 
vapors rise in such volume that cubic miles 
become our standards of measurement. 

There is no reason to believe that many 
of the igneous rocks which do not reach 
the surface are any less rich and when 
they rise so near to the upper world that 
their emission, may.,attain the surface, 
we must assign to the emitted waters a. 


-28 SCIENCE. 


very important part in the underground 
economy. 

This general question has attracted more 
attention in Hurope in recent years as re- 
gards hot springs than in America. So 
many health resorts and watering-places are 
located upon them that they are very impor- 
tant foundations of local institutions and 
profitable enterprises. Professor Suess, 
whom I have earlier cited, delivered an ad- 
dress a few years ago at an anniversary 
celebration in Carlsbad, Bohemia, in which 
he maintained that in the Carlsbad dis- 
trict the natural catehment basin was in- 
sufficient to supply the waters and that both 
the unvarying composition and amount 
through wet seasons and dry were opposed 
to a meteoric source. Water, therefore, 
from subterranean igneous rocks, well- 
known to exist in the locality, was be- 
lieved to be the source of the springs. The 
same general line of investigation has led 
Dr. Rudolf Delkeskamp, of Giessen, and 
other observers to similar conclusions for 
additional springs, so that magmatic waters 
have assumed a prominence in this respect 
which leaves little doubt as to their actual 
development and importance. 

All familiar with western and south- 
western mining regions know as a matter 
of experience, that the metalliferous veims 
are almost always associated with intrusive 
rocks, and that im very many cases the 
period of ore formation can be shown to 
have followed hard upon the entrance of 
the eruptive. The conclusion has, there- 
fore, been natural and inevitable that the 
magmatic waters have been, if not the sole 
vehicle of introduction, yet the preponder- 
ating one. 

With regard to their emission from the 
cooling and erystallizmg mass of molten 
material we are not, perhaps, entirely clear 
or well established in our thought. So long 
as the mass is at high temperatures the 
water is potentially present as dissociated 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 575. 


hydrogen and oxygen. We are not well 
informed as to just what is the chemical 
behavior of these gases with regard to the 
elements of the metallic minerals. Hydro- 
chlorie acid gas is certainly a widely dis- 
tributed associate. If, as seems probable, 
these gases can serve alone or with other 
elements as vehicles for the removal of the 
constituents of the ores and the gangue, 
the possibilities of ubiquitous egress are 
best while the igneous rock is entirely or 
largely molten. In part even the phe- 
nomena of erystallization of the rock-form- 
ing minerals themselves may be occasioned 
by the loss of the dissolved gases. Through 
molten and still fluid rock the gases might 
bubble outward if the pressure were insuf- 
ficient to restrain them and would, were 
their chemical powers sufficient, have op- 
portunity to take up even sparsely dis- 
tributed metals. ’ 

On the other hand, if their emission as 
seems more probable, is in largest part a 
function of the stage of solidification and 
takes place gradually while the mass is 
congealine, or soon thereafter, then they 
must depart along crevices and openings 
whose ratio to the entire mass would be 
similar to those given above. They might 
have, and probably do have, an enhanced 
ability to dissolve out in a searching and 
thorough manner the finely distributed 
metallic particles as compared with rela- 
tively cold meteoric waters which might 
later permeate the rock; but as regards 
the problem of leaching, the general rela- 
tions of crevices to mass are much the 
same for both, and it holds also true that 
the discovery of the metals by assay of 
igneous rocks proves that all the original 
contents have not been taken, by either 
process. 

We may, however, consider an igneous 
mass of rock as the source of the water 
even if not of the ores and gangue, and 
then we have a well-established reservoir 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


for this solvent in a highly heated condition 
and at the necessary depths within the 
earth. Both from its parent mass and 
from the overlying rocks traversed by it, it 
may take the metals and ganeue. 

In the upward and especially in the clos- 
ing journey, meteoric waters may mingle 
with the magmatic, and as temperatures 
and pressures fall, the precipitation of dis- 


solved burdens takes place and our ore- — 


bodies are believed to result. Gradually 
the source of water and its store of energy 
become exhausted; circulations die out and 
the period of vein-formation, comparatively 
brief, geologically speaking, closes. Sec- 
ondary enrichment through the ageney of 
the meteoric waters alone remains to in- 
fluence the character of the deposit of ore. 
In brief, and so far as the process of forma- 
tion of our veins in the western mining 
districts is concerned, this is the conception 
which has been gaining adherents year by 
year and which, on the whole, most fully 
accords with our observed geologic rela- 
tions. It accords with them, I may add, 
in several other important particulars upon 
which I have not time to dwell. 

In elosing I may state, that speculative 
and uncertain as our solution of the prob- 
lem of the metalliferous veins may seem, 
it yet is involved in a most important way, 
with the practical opening of the veins and 
with our anticipations for the future pro- 
duction of the metals. Every intelligent 
manager, superintendent or engineer must 
plan the development work of his mine 
with some conception of the way in which 
-his ore-body originated, and even if he 
alternates or lets his mind play lightly from 
waters meteoric to waters magmatic, over 
this problem he must ponder. On its sci- 
entific side and to an active and reflective 
mind it is no drawback that the problem is 
yet in some respects elusive and that its 
solution is not yet a matter of mathematical 
demonstration. In science the solved prob- 


SCIENCE. 29 


lems lose their interest; it is the undecided 
ones that attract and call for all the re- 
sources which the investigator can bring to 
bear upon them. Among those problems 
which are of great practical importance, 
which enter in a far-reaching way into our 
national life and which irresistibly rivet 
the attention of the observer, there is none 
with which the problem of the metalliferous 
veins suffers by comparison. 


JAMES FurMAN Kemp. 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

The Tower of Pelée: New studies of the 
great voleano of Martinique. By ANGELO 
Herperin, F.R.G.S. Pp. 62+ 23 plates. 
Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company. 
1904. 

In the past three years a good deal of litera- 
ture has appeared concerning the West Indian 
eruptions of 1902. A part of this is a simple 
record of observed facts. Perhaps a greater 
portion is devoted to speculative inquiries into 
the cause and nature of the eruptions and at- 
tendant phenomena, especially those of Pelée, 
whose remarkable characteristics have excited 
the curiosity and interest of students in more 
than one branch of science. The solution of 
many of the problems is rendered extremely 
difficult through the lack of sufficient data 
upon which to support hypotheses, and geolo- 
gists often are compelled to admit that certain 
of the problems must remain unsolved. It 
has been impossible, in many eases, to obtain 
much-needed information in the field in re- 
gard to many obscure matters on account of 
the continued activity of Pelée, and this must 
be taken into consideration when an unusual 
diversity of opinion appears in the views of 
different observers. 

In the present work, which was published 
nearly at the same time as Lacroix’s report, 
Professor Heilprin presents his views in re- 
gard to the origin and nature of the tower of 
Pelée. The book contains five short chapters, 
in the first of which the author describes his 
experiences and the impressions he received 
on the occasion of his fourth ascent of Pelée, 


30 SCIENCE. 


in June, 1903; the three following chapters are 
devoted to observations upon the remarkable 
tower of Pelée, and in chapter V. are ‘some 
thoughts on voleanic phenomena suggested by 
the Antillean eruptions.’ 

Stated very briefly, Heilprin regards the 
tower, or spine, which has appeared from time 
to time above the summit, as ‘the ancient 
core of the voleano that had been forced from 
the position of rest in which solidification had 
left it’ (p. 33). After presenting a number 
of objections to Professor Lacroix’s theory, he 
says, on page 34: 

In assuming the tower to have been an ancient 
neck-core which under enormous pressure had been 
lifted from its moorings, we at least require no 
condition that is not provided for by volcanoes. 
There can be no objection to postulating the exist- 
ence of such a core here, as in other volcanoes; 
and if existing, there would seem to be no reason 
why, under the gigantic force of Pelée’s activity, 
it should not have been dislodged and pushed 
bodily outward. The reaction upon this con- 
tained mass of accumulating heat, and the in- 
fusion into it of steam and flows of new lava, 
would help to explain the ‘ burnt-out’ and seragg 
look which from the first had been a characteristic 
of the tower-rock. 


It is, perhaps, unfair to compare this work 
with the report of Professor Lacroix, who 
devoted more than six months to a study of 
what might be termed the daily life of Pelée, 
and who was aided by a corps of able assist- 
ants, but one can not help being impressed 
and possibly influenced by the abundance of 
Lacroix’s observations, the completeness of his 
records, and the lucid exposition of his the- 
ories; while, on the other hand, one hesitates 
to agree with certain of Professor Heilprin’s 
views, not necessarily because they are new, 
but for the reason that they are not supported 
by sufficient evidence. Thus, in the statement 
of his opinion concerning the nature of Pelée’s 
tower, he offers a number of somewhat the- 
oretical objections to Lacroix’s views and has 
little more than suppositions upon which to 
support his own hypotheses; in fact, he does 
not take into account many of his own ob- 
servations. Furthermore, there seems to be 
some inconsistency in his arguments. After 
stating that in his opinion the tower represents 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 575. 


> 


the old core of the voleano, he says, on page 
34: 


It can not be doubted that the tower was vir- 
tually solid to the core, and equally little need one 
doubt that its temperature was not such as to 
maintain a fluidal or semi-fluidal interior. Had 
the tower not been solid, or had it contained 
much incandescent fluidal matter, the numerous 
breakages, whether on the flanks or across the 
summit, which marked the tower’s history, would 
have revealed these conditions many times. 


On page 18 the following occurs: 


On the other hand, that the tower was rifted 
and had irregular passages through it, or through 
parts of it, into which lava was at times in- 
jected, is certain; and the members of the Lacroix 
mission on more than one occasion noticed areas, 
and lines of incandescence in the basal portion 
of the core, which they associated with fiowing 
lava-masses. On the night preceding my fourth 
ascent of the volcano, June 12, 1903, the south- 
west base of the tower was resplendently luminous, 
made so either by actually rising lava or by a 


" partial remelting of that portion of the structure. 


On page 20, in referring to the first appear- 
ance of the tower he says: 


Indeed, I remark in my report [“ Mont Pelée and 
the Tragedy of Martinique’], that it seemed to 
me likely that the two glowing masses of fire 
which shone from the summit, like red beacon- 
lights, in the morning of. August 22, emanated 
from the two (incandescent) horns that capped 
the summit of the mountain. 


Although these statements are not flatly 
contradictory, they at least leave a somewhat 
hazy impression on the reader’s mind. 

It will be difficult, even for those geologists 
who hesitate to accept all of Lacroix’s brilliant 
reasoning and explanation in regard to the 
physical manifestations of Pelée’s eruptions, 
to agree with Professor Heilprin’s views, 
largely because the manner in which they are 
presented must in many cases fail to convince 
the reader. 

In chapter IV. various observations on the 
eruptions are summarized; among them are 
references to the electro-magnetic disturb- 
ances, propagation of sound- and shock-waves, 
etc., together with more local phenomena. In 
chapter V. the broad questions concerning the 
cause of yuleanism in eases of such regional 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


disturbances as those of the West Indies are 
discussed, and the view is expressed ‘that a 
subsidence of the floor of the Caribbean Basin, 
causing displacements of equilibrium and 
forcing molten and other material to the sur- 
face, was the inciting cause of the Antillean 
eruption’ (p. 50). The later paragraphs are 
devoted to an inquiry in regard to the source 
of voleanic steam, and the two theories, the 
penetration of sea water, and of land water, 
are discussed. The author concludes with a 
statement favoring the theory that hydrated 
rocks and the magma of the earth’s interior 
supply the water from which the steam of 
voleanoes is derived. Twenty-three excellent 
half-tone plates of the tower of Pelée, erup- 
tions, etc., complete the volume. 
Ernest Howe. 


THE BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
Resultats du voyage du S. Y. “ Belgica’ en 
1897-98-99, sous le commandement de A. 
de Gerlache de Gomery. Rapports scien- 
tifique: Zoologie. Organogénie des Pinni- 
péedes. I., Les extrémités, par H. Lesouca. 
December, 1904. Pp. 20, pl. I-III. Bo- 
tanique. Champignons par Mmes. EK. Bom- 
meER et M. Rousseau. April, 1905. Pp. 15, 
pl. I-Y. : 
Two more numbers of the fine series of 
Antaretic reports from the Belgian Expedi- 
tion have been received. In the first we have 
a discussion of the nepionic stages of the 
development of the extremities in the Ant- 
arctic seals, Lobodon carcinophaga and Lep- 
tonychotes weddelli4, deduced from a series 
of unborn young. Of these twelve belonged 
to Lobodon and four to Leptonychotes. None 
of the specimens was embryonic, ranging 
in length from fifteen centimeters upward. 
Nevertheless, a study of the progressive devel- 
opment ‘or gradual reduction of the phalanges, 
nails and hair in such a well-preserved series 
is far from uninteresting, and this is what M. 
Leboueq offers, together with some compari- 
sons with known data relating to other seals 
and some cetaceans. 
The fungi collected by the Belgica, with one 
exception, were obtained in Tierra del Fuego, 
where ten species and forms new to science 


SCIENCE. ol 


were obtained. The Antarctic form was found 
among the culms of the sole Antarctic grass, 
Aira antarctica, in the state of mycelium, 
which offers analogies with that of Collybia 
racemosa, and it is possible that it belongs to 
an Agaric related to that species. It comes 
from Danco Land. The Fuegian forms num- 
ber fifteen and are fully illustrated by ad- 
mirably executed plates. 
W. H. Dati. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


THE December number (volume 12, number 
3) of the Bulletin of the American Mathemat- 
tical Society contains the following articles: 
Report of the October Meeting of the Amer- 
ican Mathematical Society, by F. N. Cole; 
Report of the September Meeting of the San 
Francisco Section, by G. A. Miller; ‘ Note on 
Loxodromes,’ by C. A. Noble; ‘Stolz and 
Gmeiner’s Function Theory’ (Review of Stolz 
and Gmeiner’s Hinleitung in die Function- 
entheorie, Abteilung I.), by Oswald Veblen; 
“Cesaro-Kowalewski’s Algebraic Analysis and 
Infinitesimal Calculus’ (Review of Cesaro’s 
Elementares Lehrbuch der Algebraischen An- 
alysis und der Infinitesimalrechnung), by C. 
L. E. Moore; Shorter Notices; Notes; New 
Publications. 


The January number of the Bulletin con- 
tains: ‘On a Familiar Theorem of the Theory 
of Functions,’ by Edmund Landau; ‘ Rational 
Plane Curves Related to Riemann Transfor- 
mations, by H. S. White; ‘On Lamé’s Six 
Equations Connected with Triply Orthogonal 
Systems of Surfaces,’ by J. E. Wright; ‘ Cer- 
tain Surfaces Admitting of Continuous De- 
formation with Preservation of Conjugate 
Lines,’ by Burke Smith; ‘The New Calculus 
of Variations,’ by E. R. Hedrick; ‘ Granville’s 
Differential and Integral Calculus’ (Review), 
by E. B. Van Vleck; ‘The Foundations of 
Science’ (Review of Poincaré’s Science et 
Hypothése), by E. B. Wilson; ‘ La Mécanique 
Statistique’ (Review of Gibb’s Statistical Me- 
chanics), by Jacques Hadamard; Notes; New 
Publications. 


The American Naturalist for December 
contains the following articles: ‘ Ecology of 


32 


the Willow Cone Gall, by Roy L. Heindel, 
showing the importance of galls to the insect 
' world;. ‘Forest Centers of Eastern North 
America,’ by Edgar N. Transeau, the term 
being used to designate the distribution of 
trees about the region where they attain their 
best development; ‘Mandibular and Pharyn- 
geal Muscles of Acanthias and Raia, by 
G. E. Marion, who finds that from the peculiar 
shape of the head the ray possesses a few 
muscles not found in the dogfish. 


Bird-Lore for November-December is a 
thick number, having for its general articles 
‘The Structure of Wings,’ by W. M. Wheeler; 
‘The Growth of a Young Bird,” by E. R. 
Warren, illustrated with pictures of birds at 
various stages of growth; ‘Some Karly Amer- 
ican Ornithologists—Alexander Wilson,’ by 
Witmer Stone; ‘ Blue Jays at Home,’ by Wil- 
bur F. Smith; ‘The Story of a Tame Bob- 
White, by J. M. Graham, and ‘The Feeding 
Habits of the Northern Phalarope,’ by Frank 
M. Chapman. W. W. Cooke contributes the 
thirteenth of a series of papers on ‘ The Migra- 
tion of Warblers’ and William Dutcher the 
seventeenth Educational Leaflet of the Audu- 
bon Societies, devoted to the American gold- 
finch and accompanied by a colored plate. 
The Annual Report of the National Associa- 
tion of Audubon Societies for 1905 covers 
fifty pages and is encouraging reading, show- 
ing steady increase and interest in the matter 
of bird protection. 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain 
for November has articles on ‘ The Formation 
of Local Illustrative Collections in Museums,’ 
by John Maclauchan, showing how much has 
been done in Dundee and what may be done 
elsewhere; ‘The Exhibition of Fresh Wild 
Flowers in Museums,’ by G. A. Dunlop. The 
notes, as usual, form an important part of the 
number. 


The Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis- 
ease for December opens with a discussion 
of the effect of diet upon epilepsy, by Dr. A. 
J. Rosanoff, including the report of some ex- 
periments, from which the author concludes 
that the organism of the epileptic can not 
take care of proteid material as it is taken 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


care of by the healthy organism, and that 
consequently proteids should be replaced in 
his diet by fats and carbohydrates as far as 
is consistent with the general health. Dr. M. 
A. Bliss follows with a report of twenty-four 
eases of multiple neuritis of obscure origin 
observed by him among the patients of an 
insane asylum. Dr. Hecht’s elaborate paper 
on dementia precox, begun in the previous 
number, is concluded in this issue. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
At the 171st meeting on November 22 the 
following papers were presented : 


Artificial Wollastonite and Pseudo-wollas- 
tonite: Mr. Frep E. Wricut. 

Mr. Wright described the results of an ex- 
tended chemical, physical and mineralogical 
study of the mineral wollastonite by Drs. E. 
T. Allen, W. P. White and himself, of the 
U. S. Geological Survey and Carnegie Insti- 
tution. In the course of their investigation 
they not only produced artificial wollastonite 
erystals identical with the natural mineral, 
but also observed interesting facts bearing on 
the conditions of its formation which are of 
geologic significance. It was found that on 
heating both natural and artificial wollastonite 
erystals up to the melting point, 1,512° C., an 
inversion in the solid state took place at 1,180° 
C. to a second form called pseudo-wollastonite 
which has never been found in nature and 
which differs materially from the original sub- 
stance in optical properties. On cooling, the 
second form does not revert to wollastonite 
under ordinary conditions and can only be 
induced to do so in the presence of some flux 
such as calcium vanadate. The importance 
of the inversion temperature (1,180°) as a 
definite point which is uninfluenced by sur- 
rounding magmatic conditions except pres- 
sure, was emphasized, and the inference drawn 
that since pseudo-wollastonite does not occur 
in nature while wollastonite is found usually 
in limestone contact aureoles of eruptive rocks 
where pneumatolytie solutions have been ac- 
tive and all minerals formed contemporane- 
ously, the inversion temperature places a prob- 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


able upper limit on the temperature of solu- 
tions emanating from intrusive magmas. The 
rare occurrence of wollastonite in eruptive 
rocks was also discussed, and difficulties of 
drawing conclusions as to the temperature 
of their intrusion discussed, and the views of 
Dr. G. F. Becker on the subject briefly cited. 
An Area of Faulting in Central Pennsyl- 
vania: Mr. Gro. H. ASHLEY. 

The region deseribed is one in which ex- 
tensive mining operations have permitted the 
mapping of a large number of faults and their 
minute examination in many cases. The fea- 
ture upon which most stress was laid was the 
fact that the great majority of the faults run 
in lines transverse to the general structure of 
the region, and where the whole fault from 
end to end has been found in a single mine 
working, it appears to be of the nature of 
a long transverse buckle, which is broken 
down longitudinally. The resulting faults 
have all the appearance of normal faults and 
often present a much complicated series of 
breaks with the intermediate blocks tilted or 
dropped down, as is common with a broken 
arch. The speaker’s main argument was that 
in attempting to account for the faults, re- 
source must be had to the pressure which 
folded the rocks of the region, their normal 
appearance being due to the fact that unequal 
resistance to that pressure allowed the buck- 
ling of the strata in the lines of pressure, 
which buckles or small folds afterwards broke 
down to the positions in which they at present 
are seen. Several charts were exhibited illus- 
trating the features discussed. 

ArtHur C. SPENCER, 
Secretary. 


THE KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 


Tue thirty-eighth annual meeting of the 
society was held in Lawrence on December 1 
and 2, with_over sixty members present from 
different parts of the state. The address 
of the retiring president, Professor L. OC. 
Wooster, was given on Friday evening on 
“The Development of the Sciences in Kansas.’ 
The academy was divided into two sections, 
for reading of papers, of which sixty-five were 
presented. Among those of more general 


SCIENCE. 30 


interest, the following are noted: “A New 
Repetition of the Foucault Experiments with 
the Pendulum,’ J. T. Lovewell; ‘Some Recent 
High-efficiency Lamps,’ R. H. Freeman; ‘Is 
the Rain-fall in Kansas Increasing?’ F. H. 
Snow; ‘ The Variation of Latitude,’ EK. Miller; 
“Dry Periods in Northeastern Kansas, and 
their Relation to Water Supplies, W. C. 
Hoad; ‘Some Properties of the Alloys of the 
Ferro-magnetic Metals, Considered from the 
Standpoint of Osmond’s Allotropic Theory,’ 
Bruce V. Hill; ‘ Note on Certain Formulas 
for the Design of Reinforced Concrete Beams,’ 
A. K. Hubbard; ‘On the Substituted Ureas,’ 
F. B. Dains; ‘Chemical Reactions in Ben- 
zene, H. C. Allen; ‘A Chemical Study of 
the Lime-and-Sulphur Dip,’ R. H. Shaw; 
“The Gas-and-Oil Engine for Commercial 


‘Purposes,’ P. F. Walker; ‘The Interpretation 


of Transpiration in Plants,” L. N. Peace; 
‘Indicator Diagrams,’ C. D. Corp; ‘ General 
and Special Features of Laboratory Equip- 
ment,’ J. T. Willard; ‘ The Botanical Features 
of the New U. S. Pharmacopeia,’ L. E. Sayre; 
“The Loup Fork Miocene of Northwestern 


Kansas,’ C. H. Sternberg; ‘ Notes on Coleop- 


tera, W. Knaus; ‘A Deep Well in Emporia,’ 
A. J. Smith; ‘ A Little Experiment. in Flower- 
making, Grace R. Meeker; ‘ Hygroscopic 
Structures in the Distribution of Pollen 
Grains and Spores,’ M. A. Barber; ‘ Second- 
ary Increase in Thickness of Smilax; W. OC. 
Stevens; ‘ Notes on the White Sheep,’ L. L. 
Dyche; ‘On the Malaria Mosquito and the 
Relative Number in the Vicinity of Lawr- 
ence, S. J. Hunter; ‘Comparison of the 
Microscopie Structure of Stems and Roots, 
C. M. Sterling; ‘The Disintegration of 
Cement Plaster under Peculiar Conditions,’ 
E. H. S. Bailey; ‘The University of Kansas 
Expedition to the John Day Region of Ore- 
gon, C. E. McClung; ‘A New Qualitative 
Test for Cyanides, H. P. Cady. 

At the close of the session the following 
officers were elected: 

President—F. O. Marvin. 

First Vice-President—B. F. Eyer. 

Second Vice-President—J. E. Welin. 

Secretary—J. T. Lovewell. 

Treasurer—A. J. Smith. 


KE. H. §S, Batney. 


34 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
ISOLATION AND EVOLUTION. 


Ir seems to the writer to be a cause for con- 
gratulation that a variety of possible factors 
of evolution are being discussed at the present 
time. Just as the factors associated with 
Darwin’s name together with those of the 
Lamarckian school overshadowed all others in 
the discussions of the last forty-five years, so 
now we are in danger of having the ‘ mutation 
theory’ of de Vries obscure the botanical eye 
to all other factors. Not that I would en- 
deavor to throw any doubt upon de Vries’s 
facts; they are well authenticated. But they 
do not, like the socialist’s theory of political 
economy, exclude every other factor from the 
problem, and we should not, consciously or 
unconsciously, so consider them. 

I have been greatly interested in President 
Jordan’s article on the part played by isola- 
tion in evolution. While not disputing the 
efficacy of isolation as a factor, I would long 
hesitate to assign it the leading réle to which 
President Jordan assigns it. Professor Lloyd’s 
statement of the floral evidence against Jor- 
dan’s dictum is well put and timely, and 
emphasizes a fact of distribution which is 
well known to botanists. If it were necessary 
to do so, the facts furnished by the distribu- 
tion of the existing flora could be supple- 
mented by paleobotanical evidence in so far 
as facts of this nature are available. For 
instance, during the mid-Cretaceous we have 
a remarkable series of synchronous or nearly 
synchronous leaf-bearing strata outcropping 
from the west coast of Greenland on the north, 
through Marthas Vineyard, Long Island, 
Staten Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary- 
land and Alabama. These plant-beds have 
yielded an abundant flora and each locality 
furnishes a number of closely related species 
which are largely identical throughout the 


series. The following genera might be men- 
tioned: Magnolia, Liriodendron, Laurus, Sas- 
safras, Cinnamomum, Ficus, Aralia, ete. 


*The fact of correlation of the containing strata 
is of no importance for the argument when each 
outcrop furnishes several species which evidently 
lived in the same habitat. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. VoL. XXIII. No. 575. 


Taking the genus Magnolia we have the fol- 
lowing distribution of species in this region: 
Greenland, four; Marthas Vineyard and Ala- 
bama, five; Long Island, eight; Maryland, 
three; Raritan formation (N. J.), eight; 
Magothy formation (N. J.), three. In -the 
genus Wzcus Greenland furnishes three species 
and there are four species in each of the other 
localities, with the exception of Marthas Vine- 
yard. While in many cases leaf species may 
be regarded as variations of a single actual 
species, in numerous other instances we can’ 
be sure that such was not the ease. 

It would seem that isolation has not been a 
primary factor to any large extent in specific 
differentiation, but that it has operated in a 
larger way in the development of generic or 
even larger groups in isolated, particularly in 
insular, regions. In other words, that it gives 
a facies to the flora of any region. This is 
implied in Professor Lloyd’s article and is 
merely the statement of a well-known fact of 
observation. For instance, the Australian 
region has a peculiar flora comparable to its 
marsupial fauna, and it is difficult to imagine 
that the facts are not explained in one case as 
in the other by isolation. If we examine this 
flora we find a number of characteristic types 
of plant-life, the acacias, eucalypts, the many 
Rhamnacerx, Proteacee, Santalacee, Legu- 
minose, ete., the latest with over one thousand 
species. In all these groups we find numerous 
species, in many cases an excessive number, 
closely related, and many with largely ident- 
ical habitats, so that Professor Lloyd’s con- 
tention regarding distribution and specific dif- 
ferentiation receives a large measure of 
support. _ Epwarp W. Brrry. 

MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 

BaLtimMore, Mp. 
ON THE HUMAN ORIGIN OF THE SMALL MOUNDS 
OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND TEXAS. 

Tue following extracts bearing on the the- 
ory of the human origin of the small mounds 
of the lower Mississippi Walley and Texas, 
resuggested in a recent issue of Science by 
Mr. D. I. Bushnell, Jr.,* may be of interest at 
this time: 


1Vol. 22, pp. 712-714. 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


Foster in his ‘Prehistoric Races of the 
United States’ gives the following data: 


“There is a class of mounds,’ remarks Pro- 
fessor Forshey in his manuscript notes, “ west of 
the Mississippi Delta and extending from the 
Gulf to the Arkansas and above, and westward, 
to the Colorado in Texas, that are to me, after 
thirty years familiarity with them, entirely inex- 
plicable. In my Geological Reconnaissance of 
Louisiana, in 1841-2, I made a pretty thorough 
report on them. JI afterwards gave a verbal de- 
scription of their extent and character before the 
New Orleans Academy of Sciences. These 
mounds lack every evidence of artificial construc- 
tion, based in implements or other human vestigia. 
They are nearly round, none angular, and have 
an elevation hemispheroidal, of one to five feet, 
and a diameter from thirty feet to one hundred 
and forty feet. They are numbered by the mil- 
lions. In many places, in the pine forests and 
upon the prairies, they are to be seen nearly 
tangent to each other, as far as the eye can 
reach, thousands being visible from an elevation 
of a few feet. On the Gulf margin, from the 
Vermillion to the Colorado, they appear barely 
visible, often flowing into one another, and only 
elevated a few inches above the common level. A 
few miles interior they rise to two or even four 
feet in height. The largest I ever saw were 

_perhaps one hundred and forty feet in diameter 
and five feet high. These were in western Louis- 
jana. There is ample testimony that the pine 
trees of the present forest antedate these mounds. 
The material of their construction is like that of 
the vicinity everywhere, and often there is a de- 
pression in close proximity to the elevation.” 

Professor Forshey then proceeds to state that 
he encountered hundreds of these mounds be- 
tween Galveston and Houston, and between Red 
River and the Ouichita; and they were so num- 
erous as to forbid the supposition of their having 
been the foundations of human habitations; that 
the borrowing animals common to the region piled 
up no such heaps; and finally that the winds, 
while capable of accumulating loose ‘materials, 
never distribute them in the manner above men- 
tioned. In conclusion, he adds, “In utter des- 
peration I cease to trouble myself about their 
origin, and call them ‘inexplicable mounds.’ ” 


Colonel 8. H. Lockett, in his report on the 
topographical survey of Louisiana, speaks of 
them as follows: 

There is one feature observed in these prairies, 
as well as in much of the bottom lands of Ouachita 


* Foster, J. W., ‘ Prehistoric Races of the United 
_ States, 2d ed., Chicago, 1873, pp. 121-122. 

*First Ann. Rept. Topog. Surv. La. for 1869, 
1870, pp. 66-67. 


SCIENCE. | 35 


and Moorehouse parishes, quite peculiar and strik- 
ing, namely, a very great number of small isolated 
mounds. * * * They are thought by the in- 
habitants to be Indian mounds, and some of them 
have been excavated and Indian relics found; but 
it is hardly probable that so many tumuli, so 
irregularly scattered over so large a scope of 
country, can all be the results of human labor, 
but rather of natural origin and then subse- 
quently used in some cases as burying grounds 
for the aborigines. 


De Nadaillac, in his ‘ Prehistoric America,’ 
says: 


Between Red River and the Wichita’ they (‘the 
Indian garden-beds’) can be counted by thousands. 
According to Forshey, who described them to the 
New Orleans Academy of Sciences, these embank- 
ments can not have served as the foundations for 
homes of men. Other archeologists are more 
positive; they consider that these embankments 
were used for nothing but cultivation, and that 
they are intended to counteract the humidity of 
the soil, still the greatest obstacle with which the 
tillers of the soil of the plains of the Mississippi 
Valley have to contend. 


The writer has assisted in the excavation 
of a number of Indian village sites and 
mounds in Indiana and Kentucky, and has 
observed and described Indian mounds and 
village sites occurring in various parts of 
Louisiana, and feels that the theory of hu- 
man origin is in no way applicable to the 
great class of natural mounds which he has 
observed in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas 
and along the Iron Mountain Railroad in 
southeastern Missouri. The idea of human 
origin suggests itself at once to every observer, 
and it strongly attracted the writer when he 
first examined these natural mounds in Louisi- 
ana in 1898, but more extended study showed 
such a hypothesis to be entirely inadequate. 


** Prehistoric America,’ by Marquis de Na- 
daillac, translated by N. d’Anvers, 1895, p. 182. 

* Now spelled Ouachita. 

°* Catalogue’ of Aboriginal Works of Caddo 
Bottoms, Louisiana,’ La. Geol. Survey, Rept. for 
1899 [1900], pp. 201-203. [Aboriginal Remains 
on Belle Isle, Grande Cote, Petite Anse, Louisiana], 
La. Geol. Survey, Rept. for 1899, pp. 209, 237, 
251-253. “Notes on Indian Mounds and Village 
Sites Between Monroe and Harrisonburg, Louis- 
iana,’ La. Geol. Survey, Rept. of 1902, pp. 171-172. 


36 SCIENCE. 


Opposed to this theory are the following facts: 
(1) The natural mounds in many eases do not 
occur in situations favorable for camp sites. 
(2) They often occur in elevated locations, 
where there is absolutely no reason for arti- 
ficial ‘elevated sites for habitations.” (3) 
Regarded as ruined habitations, or wigwam 
sites, it iS very important to consider their 
vast number and the extent of territory coy- 
ered. On this basis they would indicate, in 
many parts of Louisiana and Texas, an in- 
tensity and multiplicity of life not now dupli- 
eated in any rural community in the world. 
The sustenance of such vast communities 
would be entirely beyond the capabilities of 
the people who built the true Indian mounds. 
(4) The natural mounds generally occur on 
the poorest land in the northern Louisiana 
region, and this fact is strongly opposed to 
any supposed agricultural significance. 

No one doubts that there are numerous 
Indian mounds throughout this region, but 
the natural mounds belong to an entirely dif- 
ferent class and should not be confused in 
this discussion with the artificial ones. 

A. C. VzEatcH. 


U. S. GroLocicaL SURVEY, 
WASHINGTON, D. C., 
December 2, 1905. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE TERMINOLOGY OF ABERRANT CHROMOSOMES 
AND THEIR BEHAVIOR IN CERTAIN HEMIPTERA.- 

Comparative studies of the last few years 
have brought to light the occurrence of dif- 
ferent kinds of chromosomes within the same 
cell, curiously modified or aberrant structures. 
These have been described in the spermato- 
genesis of various insects, as in the Orthop- 
tera (by McClung, Wilcox, de Sinéty, Sutton, 
Baumgartner, Montgomery, Stevens), the 
Hemiptera (by Henking, Montgomery, Paul- 
mier, Gross, Wilson), Odonota (McGill), and 
Coleoptera (Voinoy, Stevens); in Chilopoda 
(by Blackman and Medes); and in Aranez 
(by Wallace and Montgomery). I have shown 
that they are not present in the Protracheata 
(Peripatus). For these a considerable variety 
of names has been proposed, most of which 


*Publications from the Zoological Laboratory 
of the University of Texas, No. 71. < 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 575. 


are good appellatives, but all are inconvenient 
on account of their length or double form. 
There is a pressing need for a conciser and 
more uniform nomenclature, and the follow- 
ing terminology is here proposed to cover the 
three known kinds of chromosomes found to 
occur in the groups above mentioned. 
Chromosome, a name introduced by Wald- 
eyer, to be retained on account of its long 
usage as a convenient collective term, and 
also to be applied in those cases where all the 
chromosomes of a cell show essentially the 
same behavior. But when more than one 
kind occurs in a eell, they are to be distin- 


“ guished as follows: 


1. Autosoma (or autosome), the usual or 
non-aberrant chromosomes, called by me pre- 
viously ordinary chromosomes. 

2. Allosoma (or allosome), the modified 
chromosomes that behave differently from the 
preceding. This term is much more con- 
venient than the appellative heterochromo- 
some previously proposed and used by me, 
for the latter has an excessive length. Two 
kinds of allosomes are known in spermato- 
genesis and may be named respectively: 

(a) Monosoma (or monosome), allosomes 
that are unpaired in the spermatogonia. 
These have been variously termed accessory 
chromosomes (McClung), chromosomes spé- 
ciaux (de Sinéty), chromosomes x and un- 
paired ordinary chromosomes (Montgomery), 
and heterotropic chromosomes (Wilson). 

(6b) Diplosoma (or diplosome), allosomes 
that are paired in the spermatogonia. These 
correspond to what have been previously de- 
nominated chromatin nucleoli (Montgomery), 
Chromosome nucleoli (in parte), small chro- 
mosomes (Paulmier), and idiochromosomes 
(Wilson). 

It is after considerable hesitation that I 
decided to propose these new names, for cell- 
ular nomenclature is already heavily over- 
burdened, and I do so in the hope that they 
may be accepted in the spirit in which they 
are offered, namely, to attain greater brevity 
and convenience in writing. - When one has 
to use words frequently he desires them as 
short as possible. And though I call upon 
fellow workers to discard their previous names, 


JANUARY 5, 1966.] 


an. attitude that would appear ungenerous and 
might even arouse some hostility, yet at the 
same time I relinquish previous names of my 
own that have been employed in various 
papers and have been adopted to some extent 
by others. Indeed, it would have been just 
as satisfactory to me had these emendations 
proceeded from some other worker. 

In the second place a preliminary report 
upon reinvestigations of the spermatogenesis 
of two families of the Hemiptera heteroptera 
will be given in brief. 

In the Pentatomidz there is one pair of 
diplosomes in the spermatogonia, which al- 
-ways conjugate to form a bivalent one in the 
early growth period; these relations are ex- 
actly as I previously described them. Tricho- 
pepla only appears to possess an additional 
pair of very minute components. But I had 
formerly concluded that such a bivalent diplo- 
some in this family always divides reduction- 
ally in the first maturation mitosis, so that its 
two components would be earried to different 
daughter cells (second spermatocytes). Wil- 
son has recently shown, however, that in this 
first mitosis the two diplosomes lie separately 
in the equatorial plate, and that each divides 
there equationally; and he finds that in each 
daughter cell (second spermatocyte) the two 
daughter diplosomes conjugate in the equa- 
torial plate and are there separated by a re- 
duction division. Wilson is quite correct with 
regard to this phenomenon, and I had failed 
to notice (except in Huschistus tristigmus) 
that in the later growth period of the first 
spermatocytes there takes place a separation 
of the components of the first bivalent diplo- 
some. Further, I have recently found that 
in all the genera reexamined each diplosome 
becomes longitudinally split during the growth 
period. As to the number of autosomes in 
the spermatogonia of the Pentatomide: in 
Huschistus variolarius there are usually 
twelve, but in two cells there are at least 
thirteen, and possibly fourteen; the meaning 
of these differences I have not yet determined. 
There are also twelve autosomes in Huschistus 
tristigmus, Nezara hilaris, Perillus confluens, 
Cenus delius and Trichopepla semivittata. 
There are fourteen in Podisus spinosus and 


SCIENCE. 37 


Cosmopepla carnifex; my preparations of 
Peribalus limbolaris have faded to such an 
extent that I was not able to restudy this 
form. 

In the Coreide I had previously described 
the occurrence of monosomes only for Har- 
mostes, Protenor, Alydus eurinus, and sug- 
gested the possibility of the presence of a 
monosome in Chariesterus. Wilson has re- 
cently shown that there is a monosome also in 
Anasa, contrary to the earlier descriptions of 
Paulmier and myself. Reexamination of my 
preparations demonstrates that in all the 
Coreidz studied there occurs a monosome in 
the spermatogenesis. It is the odd chromo- 
some of the spermatogonia, always divides 
in the mitoses of these cells, divides also in 
the first maturation division, but in the second 
maturation division passes undivided into one 
of the daughter cells (spermatids). In all the 
genera studied this monosome retains its com- 
pact form during the growth period of the 
spermatocytes. Further, in each species studied 
of the Coreide there is a single pair of diplo- 
somes in the spermatogonia, these regularly 
conjugate in the growth period, and divide 
reductionally in the first maturation division, 
as previously described by me. To these ob- 
servations I can now add that each diplosome 
becomes longitudinally split in the growth 
period, and that each divides equationally in 
the second maturation division; and that they 
remain compact during the growth period in 
Anasa, Corizus, Harmostes, Protenor and 
Chariesterus, but not in Alydus and Meta- 
podius. The number of chromosomes in the 
species investigated is as follows: Anasa 
tristis, A. armigera, A. sp. (from California), 
Metapodius terminalis: eighteen autosomes, 
one monosome, two diplosomes; in Alydus 
pilosulus, A. eurinus, Corizus alternatus, Har- 
mostes refleculus and Protenor belfragei: ten 
autosomes, one monosome, two diplosomes; no 
clear views of spermatogonic monasters of 
Chariesterus antennator were found, but judg- 
ing from the relations in the spermatocytes 
there are in the spermatogonium probably: 
twenty-four autosomes, one monosome and two 
diplosomes. 

The main errors in my preceding work 


38 SCIENCE. 


arose from having neglected to study in cer- 
tain species the phenomena of the second re- 
duction mitosis. 

The preceding observations apply only to 
the spermatogenesis. Wilson has recently 
shown that in Anasa tristis, Protenor bel- 
fragei and Alydus pilosulus there is one less 
chromosome in the spermatogonia than in the 
ovogonia, and from this most important ob- 
servation has drawn interesting conclusions 
relating particularly to the determination of 
sex. Before the receipt of this last note by 
Wilson I had determined that this is the case 
in Anasa sp. also. 

These observations with further ones on 
other families-will be detailed in a later pub- 
lication. A point to which I would again 
draw attention is the value of chromosomal 
relations as a taxonomic character, discussed 
in a preceding paper, and within a few months 
reiterated by McClung. The number of the 
chromosomes is less constant than relations 
of behavior. All the Coreide have one mono- 
some and a pair of diplosomes; the monosome 
divides in the first maturation division, prob- 
ably equationally, but never in the second; 
the diplosomes conjugate in the growth period 
of the spermatocytes, remain united until they 
become separated by a reduction division in 
the first maturation mitosis, then each divides 


equationally in the second. The Pentatomids 


possess no monosomes; all have one pair of 
diplosomes (Lrichopepla possibly two), which 
regularly conjugate in the early growth period, 
later separate, each divides equationally in 
the first maturation division, they conjugate 
again in the second spermatocyte and there 
this bivalent diplosome becomes reductionally 
divided. Thus one family has only diplo- 
somes, the other these as well as a monosome; 
in the one the diplosomes divide first equation- 
ally, then reductionally, while in the other 
family the sequence of the divisions is just 
the reverse. 

The conviction almost forces itself upon 
one that chromosomal relations not only fur- 
nish the basis for any understanding of the 
processes called heredity and differentiation, 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


but also bid fair to become the basis of 
taxonomy. Tuos. H. Montgomery, JR. 
November 24, 1905. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tur American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science and six affiliated societies are 
meeting in New Orleans as we go to press. 
We hope to publish next week the official re- 
port of the meeting. Reports of the societies 
meeting with the association at New Orleans 
and of those meeting in Ann. Arbor, New 
York and elsewhere will follow as soon as 
possible. Professor Dr. W. H. Welch, pro- 
fessor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins 
University, has been elected president of the 
association. 

Proressor WILLIAM JAMES, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, has been elected president of the 
American Philosophical Association. 

Proressor James R. ANGELL, of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, has been elected president of 
the American Psychological Association. 

M. Henri Motssan, professor of chemistry 
at Paris, has been elected a foreign member 
in the Munich Academy of Sciences, and Dr. 
Warburg, the president of the Reichsanstalt, 
and Dr. Karl Chunn, professor of zoology at 
Leipzig, have been elected corresponding 
members. 

Mr. Orro VEacH has been appointed state 
geologist of Georgia. s 

Dr. Max Une, who for the past seven years 
has been engaged in archeological research in 
Peru as the head of the Hearst Expedition for 
the University of California, has concluded 
the field work of the Hearst Expedition and 
has accepted the position of director of the 
National Archeological Museum of Peru. In 
a letter received from Dr. Max Uhle he states 
that the government of Peru will prohibit the 
exploration of archeological sites by foreign- 
ers, unless under the direction of the govern- 
ment, and will also prohibit all exportation of 
archeological objects after January 1, 1906. 

Wer learn from The Botanical Gazette that 
Dr. J. C. Arthur, of Purdue University, is 
preparing the manuscript on the plant rusts 
of North America for the ‘ North American 


JANUARY 5, 1906.] 


Flora” Any assistance through the gift of 
duplicate specimens or the loan of herbarium 
sheets will be greatly appreciated. 


Dr. Auaust Brauer, professor of zoology, 
at Marburg, has been appointed director of 
the Zoological Museum of the University of 
Berlin. 

Dr. A. ScarreNrRoH, associate professor of 
hygiene at the University of Vienna, has been 
promoted to a professorship and made director 
of the Institute of Hygiene. 


Dr. L. Fropentus, the well-known German 
ethnologist, has undertaken an expedition to 
the region of the Kasai for the study of the 
native tribes of that part of Africa. 


Mr. Auexanper Acassiz, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, sailed for Liverpool, on December 30. 


Proressor W. A. KeLierMan will spend the 
winter in Guatemala with a view to carrying 
forward the mycological researches begun 
there last winter. 


Mayor WEAvER has announced the appoint- 
ment of the following advisory board of physi- 
cians to assist Dr. W. M. L. Coplin, of the 
Philadelphia State Board of Health, in the 
execution of his plans: Drs. S. Weir Mitchell, 
John H. Musser, John M. Anders, Hobart A. 
Hare, J. William White and Henry Leffmann. 


Dr. WiLtiaAM STIRLING, recently appointed 
Fullerian professor of physiology at the Royal 
Institution, London, will deliver a course of 
six lectures on ‘Food and Nutrition,’ at the 
institution during the months of February 
and March. 


A memoriAL to Professor Albert yon Kol- 
licker will be erected in Wiirzburg by the 
German Anatomical Society, of which he was 
an honorary president. 


We learn from Nature that it is proposed 
to erect a statue in Freiburg, Saxony, to the 
memory of the late Professor Dr. Clemens 
Winkler, who was professor in the Royal 
Mining Academy at Freiburg, and died in 
Dresden last year. The proposed memorial 
is to take the form of a large block of granite 
decorated with a medallion picture of the 
deceased investigator and a short account of 
his life’s work. 


SCIENCE. 39 


Tue British Medical Journal states that 
Dr. Czerny, professor of surgery at Heidel- 
berg, has founded a gold medal in memory of 
his father-in-law, the clinician Kussmaul, who 
died in 1908. The medal, together with a 
prize of $250, will be awarded every three 
years for the best German research on thera- 
peutics. 

A MEETING to commemorate the hundredth 
anniversary of the birth of Josef Skoda, 
known for his study of physical methods of 
examination and as the founder of the Vienna 
Medical School, was held on December 11. 
The bronze bust of Skoda in the hall of the 
university was decorated with flowers and an 
address was given by his pupil and successor, 
Professor von Schrotter. 


Water B. Hitt, chancellor of the Univer- 
sity of Georgia, died on December 28. 


Tue death is announced of Dr. Otto Stolz, 
professor of mathematics at Innsbruck. 


Tue United States Civil Service Commis- 
sion announces an examination on January 
24-25, 1906, to fill a vacancy in the position 
of miscellaneous computer at the United 
States Naval Observatory, and other similar 
vacancies as they may occur. Miscellaneous 
computers are paid by the hour and earn from 
$800 to $1,000 per annum. 


The Geographical Journal, quoting from the 
Zeitschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society 
(1905, No. 7), states that a scheme has been 
drawn up for the systematic investigation of 
the geography of the German African ter- 
ritories. Hitherto, it is felt, much has been 
lost by the dissipation of energy among vari- 
ous channels, and it is hoped that more valu- 
able results will be gained by the concentration 
of effort under one organization. The scheme 
is the result of the deliberations of a committee 
appointed last year for the purpose, and it is 
proposed to carry out the objects in view by 
stationing scientific observers at government 
stations, attaching them to expeditions, and 
similar methods. The scope of their re- 
searches will embrace ‘all branches of scien- 
tific knowledge which have to do with the 
earth’s surface, its vegetable, animal and hu- 
man inhabitants.’ 


40, 


We learn from the Journal of the American 
Medical Association that the Copenhagen and 
the Berlin academies of science have united in 
publishing a catalogue of all the Greek and 
Latin medical writings that have been handed 
down to us from antiquity. This catalogue 
is to be preliminary to the suggestion that the 
International Association of Academies of 
Science undertake the task of publishing a 
complete scientific edition of the collected 
works of the physicians of antiquity. The 
plan is to be proposed at the next general 
meeting of the delegates of the association, 
which will be held at Vienna during the 
spring of 1907. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


By the will of the late Dr. George 8S. Hyde, 
$50,000, the income of which is to be paid to 
his brother and sister during their lifetime, 
will on their deaths revert to the Harvard 
Medical School, to be used as the trustees of 
the college see fit. 


Tue following buildings are under course 
of construction at the University of Arkansas: 
a dairy building, an agricultural hall, an 
additional boy’s dormitory, a woman’s dormi- 
tory, a chemical building. 


Av the recent special session of the state 
legislature the University of Wisconsin was 
again authorized to draw its income from 
the general fund of the state treasury, as 
according to the new method of appropriating 
funds for the university by setting aside two- 
sevenths of a mill on all taxes, the university 
income fund does not become available until 
February each year, whereas the university 
budget has always been estimated on the basis 
of the fiscal year, which extends from July 1 
to June 80 of each year. A misunderstanding 
of the circumstances gave rise to a report that 
the university had a deficit, but the report of 
the legislative committee appointed to con- 
sider the matter exonerated the university 
authorities completely and showed that at 
the end of the fiscal year next June there will 
be a surplus, not a deficit, in the university 
accounts. On this point the report states: 
“ According to the budget for the present year 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 575. 


it is estimated that the present appropriations 
for the university are ample and will meet all 
expenses in maintaining the institution, and 
will leave a balance on hand for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1906.2 “That the two- 
sevenths mills tax,” the report points out, 
“together with a special appropriation of 
$200,000, both provided for by chapter 320 
of the laws of 1905, it is estimated will pro- 
vide enough money to pay for the permanent 
improvements above mentioned [the purchase 
of land and preparation for additional build- 
ings] over and above the amount required for 
other purposes.” 

Dr. Grorce W. ArHerton has resigned the, 
presidency of the Pennsylvania State College. 


Miss Auice L. Davison, Ph.D. (Pennsyl- 
vania), has been appointed teacher of chem- 
istry in the College for Women, Columbia, 
S. C. ‘ 

Dr. A. J. Ewart, special lecturer in vege- 
table physiology, Birmingham University, has 
been appointed professor of botany in the Uni- 
versity of Melbourne, in succession to the late 
Baron von Miiller. 


Tuer Council of King’s College, London, 
has elected Mr. Harold A. Wilson, M.A., 
D.Se., M.Se., fellow of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, to the chair of physics vacated by 
Professor W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S. 


Proressor Ruys Davis, secretary of the 
Royal Asiatic Society, has been appointed pro- 
fessor of comparative religions at Manchester 
University. 

Dr. G. A. Buckmaster has been appointed 
assistant professor of physiology at University 
College, London University. 

Tue general board of studies of Cambridge 
University has appointed Mr. J. G. Leathem, 
M.A., fellow of St. John’s College, university 
lecturer in mathematics until Michaelmas, 
1910, and has reappointed Mr. C. T. R. Wil- 
son, M.A., F.R.S., fellow of Sidney Sussex 
College, lecturer in experimental physics for 
five years from Christmas, 1905. 

Mr. Wittam Wricut, D.Se., M.B., Ch.B., 
F.R.C.S., has been appointed lecturer on an- 
atomy at the Middlesex Hospital Medical 
School. 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 


OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, JANUARY 12, 1906. Garp. Isolation as one of the Factors in 
es . Evolution: Dr. E. A. ORTMANN........--. 70 
CONTENTS. Special Articles :— 


Reactions in Solutions as a Source of 
H.M.F.: Cuas. <A. CULVER. Pear-leaf 
IBOISUP UGS 12, Bo IEYNORONIES 5 ooo 550005050 72 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 


The New Orleans Meeting: PROFESSOR 


CLARENCE A. WALDO.................... 41 Quotations :-— 
The Relation of Mechanics to Physics: TRE MICtFRE SUSUGHcoco55200000c0s0a0b0C8 73 
PROFESSOR ALEXANDER ZIWET............ 49 
The Sanitary Value of a Water Analysis: Coumeine Bewes er IBeeOroNOe apy . 
PROFESSOR LEONHARD P. KINNICUTT...... 56 Meteorology at the BHighth International 
idk, =: Geographic Congress ; Report of the Chief of 
Scientific Books :— the Weather Bureau; Health, Disease, 
Schnabe’s Metallurgy: Dr. JosEpH Deaths and the Weather: Proressor R. 
STRUTHERS. Some Recent Books on DE CM NWEAR Dre ucee ai catetooe melee eae era secrieoaee 74 
Analytical Chenistry: DR. CHARLES WILL- 
1AM Foutx. Hastwood on the Trees of The American Physiological Society......... 76 
California: PRorESSOR ALBERT SCHNEIDER. 66 
Societies and Academies -— The Congress of the United States......... 76 
The Biological Society of Washington: Beano 
: : tentifie Note th NGUBo ocx 60800 001056 a06 76 
K. L. Morris. The Torrey Botanical Club: Rete ANC eseand New 
Ronanp M. Harper. The California Branch University and Educational News........... 80 
of the American Folk-lore Society: Pro- : ; 
FESSOR A. Li. KROEDER................... 68 
Di a da ae i MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
ESeUssr On ae eT ae for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri 
The Soils for Apples: PRorEssor E. W. Hit- gon-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE NEW ORLEANS MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


REPORT OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY. 


Tue third meeting of the association was held in Charleston, S. C., in 1850. At that 
time there were 622 members. The number at the meeting is not given. It was prob- 
ably a negligible quantity, for until 1905 the experiment of a meeting in the south was 
not again tried ; though, of course, the failure to meet again in that section was largely 
due to the fact that until recently the only time available for an annual meeting has 
been the hot summer months. The registration at New Orleans was 233. The attend- 
ance of unregistered members of affiliated societies would raise this number to a prob- 
able total of 300. 

It will be noticed that a comparatively small number of affiliated societies thought it 
wise to follow the association on so long an excursion from the usual places of meeting. 
Assurances have been abundantly given that in the New York meeting most of the 
societies usually affiliating will resume that relation to the association. 


42 


The meeting of 1904 reported 4,175 
members. That of 1905 about 4,500. The 
imerease has been larger than usual and 
important. As soon as the association can 
count on 5,000 active members most of its 
financial problems will be solved. It is a 
question whether as a means to this end 
some special arrangement should not be 
made with the members of affiliated socie- 
ties who are not yet members of the asso- 
ciation. Certain it is that the experience 
of America, as well as of France and Great 
Britain, shows that the American Associa- 
tion fills a place peculiarly its own. The 
loss of its unifying influence and its ag- 
eressive propaganda of science would leave 
a void which nothing else could fill. There 
should be no difficulty im reaching har- 
monious relations satisfactory to all in- 
terests. 

The experience at New Orleans makes 


it doubtful whether the experiment of - 


seattermg the vice-presidential addresses 
through the week is a wise departure. The 
meeting loses the initial momentum of a 
more compact arrangement. 

The suggestion was made at this meeting 
that a distinctive badge for life members 
of the association should be designed and 
sanctioned. 
sideration. 

The association has finally acted upon a 
suggestion long discussed and will under- 
take during 1906 two meetings, one in the 
summer at Ithaca, N. Y., the other in 
winter at New York City. 

While the New Orleans meeting was 
small in numbers and somewhat expensive 
to individuals, it has been pronounced a 
decided success. The quality of the wel- 
come to the south has been remarkably 
fine. Those attending believe that an un- 
usual work has been done in the advance- 
ment of science and that, though the meet- 
ings will usually be necessarily small, the 
association should more frequently con- 


SCIENCE. 


The idea is worthy of con- . 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


vene in the remoter and unvisited cities of 
the country. 

The following affiliated societies held 
sessions in conjunction with the associa- 
tion : 

The American Chemical Society. 

The Botanical Society of America. 

The Botanical Club of the Association. 

The Association of Economic Entomologists. 

The Entomological Club of the Association. 

The American Mycological Society. 

The Sigma Xi Honorary Scientific Society. 

In accordance with its established policy 
the association encourages the great na- 
tional societies to meet in connection with 
it. The paid officers of the association 
take charge of all matters of detail without 
charge to the societies. At New Orleans 
the number thus affiliating was much 
smaller than usual, but this was expected, 
because of the great distances of the cen- 
ters of gravity of these associations from 
that place. Those few, however, which 
came south on this occasion with the asso- 
ciation, will join in the conviction that they 
accomplished a genuine service in the ad- 
vancement of science. 

The first session of the fifty-fifth meeting 
of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science was called to order 
in Temple Sinai, New Orleans, at 10 a.m., 
Friday, December 29, 1905, by the perma- 
nent secretary, Dr. L. O. Howard, who 
stated that retirmg President Farlow was 
ill and would be compelled to remain in 
bed during the day, but expected to be well 
enough to deliver his address at 8 P.M. 
Dr. Howard then introduced President 
Calvin M. Woodward, who assumed the 
chair. President Woodward expressed his 
regret at the indisposition of Dr. Farlow 
and said they had met to receive a special 
word of welcome from the great state and 
city which were the hosts. It was a very 
great pleasure to him to eall attention to 
the material and scientific progress which 
had been made in New Orleans. 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


Hon. Charles F. Buck, on behalf of Gov- 
ernor Blanchard, extended a most eloquent 
welcome. He said in part: 

In the name of the people of the state of Louis- 
iana, I welcome you and wish you godspeed to 
your deliberations. Our people are in a mood of 
worship in this regard. Through all the genera- 
tions of the past has hung-a dread, impenetrable 
shadow over our destiny. A mysterious disease 
which baffled human skill in its treatment and 
defied inquiry into its coming and going threat- 
ened all our hopes and expectations indefinitely. 
Science has lifted the shadow and unlocked the 
We look the future in the face with 
Your 


mystery. 
a new hope and an unshaken confidence. 
coming to us, so far away from the usual centers, 
just at this time, appeals to us like a voice of 
succor and a helping hand in a wilderness. The 
association thus suggested touches on the lines of 
the pathetic, and our thanks go out to you with 
our welcome. 

Science, like art, has no country. What it pro- 
duces it produces for the benefit of all mankind; 
yet we have reason to be proud of the achieve- 
ments of American scientists, and we have con- 
fidence that you will accomplish great things in 
the future. We hope that your deliberations will 
be productive of good results; that the fifty-fifth 
session of your association held in the state of 
Louisiana may become memorable in its annals, 
not only in relation to its specific objects, but in 
its personal and social significance. 

There must have been some other motive than 
the pursuit of your technical work in your com- 
ing to this far-off place; you could probably have 
done that so much better elsewhere—nearer home. 
We are bound and we are glad to recognize a 
human sentiment in the visitation here. We can 
not and we do not want to get away from the 
fact that we are compatriots, citizens of the great 
republic which stands for all that ennobles and 
dignifies mankind. - 

In this spirit, in the name of the people of Louis- 
jana, I greet you, and while we wish the associa- 
tion a reunion which shall leave pleasant reminis- 
cences and practical results in the great and 
infinite domain of its work, we hope that also a 
touch of sentiment may go with you, and, when 
you shall have finished your labors and returned 
to your homes and workshops, you will look back 
with pleasure to your visit to the south and 
remember with pleasure that you have been in the 
house of your friends and brothers, whose sincere 


SCIENCE. 43 


prayers for happiness and success will go with 
you. 


Mayor Martin Behrman, on behalf of 
the city, spoke briefly in part as follows: 


We have set out on a progressive march and are 
pressing forward to a great commercial develop- 
ment for the attainment of which we are equip- 
ping ourselves with every modern device and 
facility. Chief among these are our systems of 
sewerage and drainage, as well as one for a 
supply of pure and healthful water, all of which 
are now in course of construction, as will be evi- 
denced in the torn up and almost impassable con- 
dition of many of our thoroughfares. JI have 
been informed that there are in your organization 
members who have made a special study of these 
undertakings. We most earnestly invite them to 
examine our work as far as it has been prose- 
cuted. Arrangements have been made to facilitate 
them in this inspection. We want your sugges- 
tions and advice; we invite your criticism, know- 
ing full well that anything you may have to say 
will proceed solely from your desire to insure our 
betterment and advancement. 

I can assure you that our people appreciate 
highly the fact that among the great features of 
your deliberations in this convention is the sec- 
tion devoted to the discussion of these yery sub- 
jects. We all feel that of the many important 
conventions which have been held in this city, 
this is really the most important. Its delibera- 
tions touch and treat upon so many subjects in 
which our people and our city are so vitally in- 
terested that your discussions will be listened to 
or read eagerly and accepted as authoritative. We 
are pleased sincerely that you have come among 
us, and as the chief executive of the city I deem 
it an honor to extend to you a most cordial 
welcome. 


President EH. B. Craighead, of Tulane 
University, extended a most friendly greet- 
ing to the visitors on behalf of the schools 
and colleges of New Orleans. He referred 
to the fact that here was located the first 
institution of learning for women estab- 
lished in this country, one hundred and 
fifty years ago—the Ursuline Convent. 
This was the home of John McDonough, 
who had made the largest bequest of any 
citizen to the public schools. It was also 
the home of Paul Tulane, who had made 


44 SCIENCE. 


the largest bequest to Tulane University, 
formerly the University of Louisiana, but 
which took his name in honor of its bene- 
factor. It was the home of A. C. Hutchin- 
son, who had left $800,000 to the medical 
department of Tulane University. It was 
the home of Mrs. Dr. T. G._ Richardson, 
who had given $150,000 to the medical de- 
partment of Tulane. It was the home of 
Mrs. Josephine Louise Neweomb, who had 
left $3,500,000 to the Newcomb College, 
the woman’s branch of Tulane University, 
which would be the best endowed college 
for women in the world. He welcomed the 
visitors to the home of such philanthropists 
and hoped their deliberations here would 
be fruitful of much good. 

President Woodward expressed the 
thanks of the association for the welcome. 
A year ago when the members were at 
Philadelphia there seemed to be but one 
thought and that was that they should all 
go to New Orleans. So they decided to 
come, and were here—at least a part of 
them were here—the cream, as it were, of 
the association. They represented every 
state in the union, and were devoted to 
their work. While they loved science for 
seience’s sake, they also loved it because of 
what it did for humanity. He was proud 
of the noble men and women of New 
Orleans who had done so much for educa- 
tion and science. They had built the 
noblest monuments to themselves. In St. 
Louis he had abundant evidence of the 
activity of the people of New Orleans and 
Louisiana, and recalled the reproduction 
of the Cabildo and other Louisiana build- 
ings at the exposition. He was interested 
in two things in New Orleans. He was 
the intimate friend of the great engineer 
who built the Hades Jetties, and they to- 
gether had studied and theorized over the 
problems presented by the work. He was 
glad to see that to-day, because of the suc- 
cess of that work, great ships were lying at 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 576. 


the wharves in New Orleans. That was a 
work of science and an application of the 
law of physics. All that had to be done to 
control the greatest rivers was to under- 
stand these laws. He spoke of the yellow 
fever fight here, how manfully it was 
fought, and what a brilliant triumph it 
was. That also was the work of science. 

He referred to Mr. Buck’s remarks about 
the unity of the country, and said that he 
was glad to be here again. For he came 
here once before, some decades ago. Ona 
train he and a gentleman from New Or- 
leans got into conversation and exchanged 
their opinions of each other which they 
had held forty years ago, and agreed that 
if they had known each other then, as they 
Imew each other now, there would have 
been no war. They were all here now in 
good fellowship; they were compatriots, 
and all working for the progress of science, 
and when they went back home they would 
take with them a mental picture of a 
thriving city on the banks of the Missis- 
sippl. In conclusion he announced that 
everybody was welcome to all the meetings 
of the sections, and he hoped the people of 
New Orleans who were interested in science 
would attend. 

The general secretary, C. A. Waldo, then 
read an invitation from the sewerage and 
water board to inspect the public works in 
progress in New Orleans, with the names 
of a committee of five to facilitate such an 
inspection. 

A resolution presented by Dr. Wm. Tre- 
lease, director of the Missouri Botanical 
Gardens, which had been favorably acted 
on by the council at the session in the 
morning, was presented to the general ses- 
sion for action. It related to the efforts 
to save Niagara Falls from destruction, 
and endorsed the stand taken by President 
Roosevelt. The resolution was adopted 
unanimously. 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


The following committees were appointed 
to serve during the meeting: 

Committee on new members: The permanent 
secretary and secretary of the council. 

Committee on fellows: The general secretary 
and the vice-presidents of the sections, Mr. Waldo, 
chairman. 

Committee on grants: The treasurer and the 
vice-presidents of the sections, Mr. R. S. Wood- 
ward, chairman. In the absence of Mr. Wood- 
ward, the permanent secretary served in his place. 

Mr. Theodore N. Gill was chosen auditor of the 
association. 


After the first session of the council in 
St. Charles Hotel, all others were held 
daily, except Sunday, at Tulane University 
at 9 o’clock am. ‘Two general sessions 
were held on the Friday and Wednesday 
following at 10 am. As in the previous 
year the vice-presidential addresses were 
scattered through the week. 

The general program was as follows: 


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1905. 

Meeting of the executive committee of the 
council at St. Charles Hotel, 12 a.m. 

Program for the entire meeting proofread and 
adopted. 

Privileges of associate membership for the meet- 
ing extended to members of the local committee, 
residents of New Orleans and vicinity and to 
affiliated societies. 

Mr. George BH. Beyer, executive president of the 
local committee, outlined arrangements made by 
his committee for the meeting. 


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1905. 

Meeting of the council at 9:15 a.m., St. Charles 
Hotel. 

In the enforced absence of the retiring president, 
Dr. Farlow, the incoming president, Dr. C. M. 
Woodward, presided without the usual formal in- 
troduction. 

First general session of the association at 10 
A.M. in Temple Sinai. 

Meeting called to order by the permanent secre- 
tary, Dr. L. O. Howard, who introduced the presi- 
dent elect, Dr. C. M. Woodward. 

Addresses of welcome by Hon. Chas. F. Buck, 
representing the governor of Louisiana, by Hon. 
Martin Behrman, mayor of New Orleans, and by 
Dr. E. B. Craighead, president of Tulane Uni- 
versity. 

Reply by President Woodward. 


SCIENCE. 


45 


Announcements by the general secretary. 

Adjournment of the general session, followed by 
the organization of the sections. 

Sections A, B, C, D, HE, F, at Tulane University, 
Section I in the Assembly Room, Board of Trade 
Building, Section K in Tulane University Medical 
College. 

1 pm. luncheon to the members of the asso- 
ciation, provided by the local committee in the 
refectory of the university. 

Addresses of vice-presidents as follows: 
2:30 P.M.) 

Vice-president Ziwet before the 
Mathematics and Astronomy, Gibson Hall. 
“On the Relation of Mechanics to Physics.’ 

Vice-president Kinnicutt, before the Section of 
Chemistry, Chemical Building. Title, ‘The Sani- 
tary Value of a Water Analysis.’ 

Vice-President Smith, before- the Section of 
Geology and Geography, Gibson Hall. Title, ‘On 
Some Post-Eocene and other Formations of the 
Gulf Region of the United States.’ 

Vice-president Merriam, before the Section of 
Zoology, Physical Building. Title, ‘Is Mutation 
a Factor in the Evolution of the Higher Verte- 
brates ?’ 

From 4 to 7 p.m. Mrs. T. G. Richardson re- 
ceived the association at her residence on Prytania 
Street. 

At 8 p.m. the address of the retiring president 
of the association, Dr. W. G. Farlow, was given 
at Sophie Newcomb College. Subject, “The Pop- 
ular Conception of a Scientific Man at the Present 
Day.’ 


(At 


Section of 
Title, 


SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1905. 


Meeting of the council at 9 a.m., Gibson Hall, 
Tulane University. 

Meeting of the sections at 10 a.m. 

At 1 p.m. luncheon to the members of the asso- 
ciation in the refectory. 

At 2:30 p.m. addresses of vice-presidents as 
follows: : 

Vice-president Magie, before the Section of 
Physics, Physical Building. Title, ‘The Partition 
of Energy.’ 

Vice-president Robinson, before the Section of 
Botany, Gibson Hall. Title, ‘The Generic Con- 
cept in the Classification of the Flowering Plants.’ 

Vice-president Knapp, before the Section of So- 
cial and Economie Science, Board of Trade Build- 
ing. Title, “Transportation and Combination.’ 

At 8 p.m. the address of the retiring president 
of the American Chemical Society, Dr. F. P. Ven- 
able, Gibson Hall, Tulane University. Title, 
“Chemical Research in the United States.’ 


46 SCIENCE. 


At 9:30 p.m. general reception by the recep- 
tion committee in the Palm Garden, St. Charles 
Hotel. 

MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 1906. 


Meeting of the council at 9 a.m. 

Meeting of the sections at 10 a.m. 

At 2:30 p.m. address of vice-president as 
follows: 

Vice-president Jacobus, before the Section of Me- 
chanical Science and Engineering, Gibson Hall. 
Title, ‘Commercial Investigations and Tests in 
connection with College Work.’ 

At 8 p.w. public lecture complimentary to the 
citizens of New Orleans, at Sophie Newcomb Col- 
lege, by Elwood Mead, U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture. Subject, ‘ Irrigation.’ 

At 9:30 P.M. meeting of the general committee, 
at St. Charles Hotel. 


TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1906. 


* Meeting of the council in the assembly room, 
Gibson Hall, 9 a.m. 

Meetings of the sections at 10 A.M. 

Excursions to the Kenilworth Sugar Plantation 
and to the power plants and pumping stations 
and sewerage plants of New Orleans. 

At 6:30 P.M. banquet of the Sigma Xi at 
Antoine’s. 


WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1906. 

Meeting of the council, Gibson Hall, 9 a.m. 

Closing general session, Gibson Hall, 10 a.m. 

Trolley ride to all points of interest compli- 
mentary to members of the association, at 3 P.M. 

The courtesies and privileges of the Boston Club, 
the Pickwick Club, the Chess, Checkers and Whist 
Club, the Young Men’s Gymnastic Club, the 
Country Club and the Round Table Club were ex- 
tended to members of the association during their 
stay in New Orleans. 


REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 


On the Study of Blind Invertebrates. 

Mr. A. M. Banta continued his work on the 
fauna of Mayfield’s cave during last winter and 
through the entire summer. I have passed on 
his paper ‘ Mayfield’s Cave as a Unit of Environ- 
ment and the Ecological Relation of its Inhabit- 
ants,’ which is now ‘ready for the printer. It is 
a unique and comprehensive work on the fauna 
of this cave. The work was completed without 
calling on the appropriation made at the last 
meeting for the work of the’ committee. 

It was the plan to have Mr: Banta visit the 
region in Pennsylvania where Professor ° Cope, 


‘been found again. 


(N.S. Vot. XXIII. No. 576. 


years ago, secured his blind catfish which has not 
The finishing of his Mayfield 
Cave paper delayed him so that he was not able 
to do this before going to Harvard University, 
where he holds a fellowship. He is at present 
at Harvard, working on the reactions of cave ani- 
mals. Live specimens have been sent him from 
time to time. 

Mr. Banta will visit How’s Cave in central New 
York during this week. This cave being in the 
glaciated region ought to have a much newer 
fauna than the Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri 
caves, all of which are south of the drift region. 

For unavoidable reasons I have not been able 
to go into the field myself. 

The entire appropriation made for this work at 
the last meeting of the association is available for 
the future work of your committee. 

Respectfully submitted, 
(Signed) C. H. Hicznmann, 
Recorder. 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ELECTROCHEMISTRY. 


A study has been made of the behavior of 
platinum and iridium in chlorine water and in 
dilute hydrochloric acid. Smooth platinum foil 
brought about no evolution of gas even after 
standing 168 hours in chlorine water. Under 
precisely similar circumstances an iridium foil 
caused an evolution of 44.4 of gas, 55 per cent. 
of which was oxygen. The oxygen results from 
the reaction ; 

Cl, + H.O = 2HCl + 0, 


while the chlorine came from the solution, the 
original vapor pressure having been about half an 
atmosphere. This series of experiments showed 
that iridium was a more powerful catalytic agent 
than platinum. A number of electrolytic experi- 
ments were made with hydrochloric acid of dif- 
ferent concentrations. In all cases more oxygen 
was evolved from the iridium anode than from the 
platinum anode. The question as to the final 
equilibrium is still in doubt. 

It was hoped that a tantalum anode could 
be secured for this work, but this proved im- 
possible and the money appropriated for the year 
1905 was not drawn from the treasury. The com- 
mittee asks that this unexpended balance be left 
available for the coming fiscal year. 

Wiper D. BANCROFT, 
Ep@ar F. SMitH, 
L, IKAHLENBERG. 

Verbal reports of progress were made by the 
committees on ‘ The Relation of Plants to Climate’ 
and of ‘ Anthropometric Measurements.’ 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


GRANTS. 


$200 were allotted by the committee on grants 
to Messrs. Parsons, Kinnicutt and Venable to 
assist in the publication of Professor Parson’s 
‘ Bibliography of Beryllium.’ 
_ $100 were allotted to ‘The Concilium Biblio- 
graphicum Zoologicum.’ 


RESOLUTIONS. 
Preservation of Niagara Falls. 

As has been well said by President 
Roosevelt in his message to the fifty-ninth 
congress, ‘there are certain mighty natural 
features of our land which should be pre- 
served in perpetuity for our children and 
our children’s children.’ Chief among 
these natural wonders in the east is Niagara 
Falls, the continuance of which as a scenic 
feature is now seriously threatened by the 
use of the water for the production of elec- 
trie power. Authorities agree that grants 
to existing corporations for power pur- 
poses will, when the now rapidly proceed- 
ing work of development is completed, 
entirely destroy the American fall, also 
making useless the magnificent New York 
State Reservation which has so well pre- 
served the natural beauty of the cataract’s 
surroundings. 

President Roosevelt further suggests 
that if the state of New York can not 
promptly take action to avert this impend- 
ing calamity, ‘she should be willing to turn 
it over to the national government, which 
should in such ease (if possible, in conjunc- 
tion with the Canadian government) as- 
sume the burden and responsibility of pre- 

serving unharmed Niagara Falls.’ 

THEREFORE BE IT ReEsoLVED That the 
American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science hereby records its hearty 
concurrence in these suggestions of Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, and instructs its president 
and secretary to communicate to the presi- 
dent of the senate and to the speaker of 
the house of representatives of the United 
States its strong conviction that Niagara 


SCIENCE. 47 


Falls should be preserved as a natural 
wonder, and further expressing the earnest 
hope that the congress now in session will 
take prompt and energetic action looking 
toward an international consideration of 
the impending danger to Niagara Falls. 
And further, be it 

Resolved, That each member of the Am- 
erican Association for the Advancement of 
Science is hereby urged to write to the 
senators and congressmen of his own state, 
earnestly favoring immediate action for 
the preservation of Niagara Falls. 


An Appalachian Forest Reserve. 

Resolved, That the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, now 
in session at the city of New Orleans, again 
respectfully calls attention to the rapid rate 
at which the forests of the Appalachian 
Mountain region are being destroyed, and 
to the fact that, as a result of such de- 
struction, the streams tributary to the 
Missisippi, as well as those flowing into 
the south Atlantic, are becoming continu- 
ously more irregular in their flow, and 
hence of less value for navigation and 
power purposes. 

Resolved, That the association, therefore, 
respectfully petitions the congress of the 
United States to make such provision as 
may be necessary for the protection of 
these mountain forests, and directs that 
copies of these resolutions be transmitted 
to the honorable, the secretary of agricul- 
ture, and to the honorable, the speaker of 
the house of representatives. 

The above resolution was unanimously 
approved by Section G, American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, at the 
meeting of December 30, 1905; also re- 
ported recommended by Section I. 


AMENDMENTS. 


_ The following amendments to the con- 
stitution were proposed and are to be acted 


48 


upon at the New York meeting, having 
been duly read at the last general session 
of the New Orleans meeting: 


1. Add the words ‘and Psychology’ to the name 
of Section H, making it read ‘ Anthropology and 
Psychology.’ 

2. Add a new section, to be called Section L— 
Education. 


POLICY OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


In accordance with the resolution 
adopted by the last Philadelphia meeting 
through which a number of national scien- 
tifie societies were accepted as having 
qualifications for membership equal to the 
qualifications for fellowship in the Amer- 
ican Association, several hundred members 
from these societies were in the usual way 
made members of the American Associa- 
tion, were then nominated for fellowship 
and were electec. by the council. 

The committee on policy presented the 
following resolutions which were adopted 
by the council: 


1. Resolved, That the terms of office of all 
officers of the association shall begin with the 
close of the meeting at which the elections take 
place. 

2. Resolved, That the position of second assist- 


ant to the permanent secretary be abolished at the 


close of the year, 1906. : 

3. Resolved, That an invitation be extended to 
the National Association for the Scientific Study of 
Education to affiliate with the American Associa- 
tion on the same terms as other affiliated so- 
cieties. 


CLOSING GENERAL SESSION 10 A.M. 
WEDNESDAY. 


The report of the general secretary was 
read. Resolutions of thanks and apprecia- 
tion unanimously adopted as follows: 


Resolved: That the appreciative thanks of the 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science be, and they are, hereby extended 

1. To President Craighead and the board of 
trustees of Tulane University for the provision of 
ample and adequate meeting places for most of 
the sections in the University buildings; further 
to Dr. Chaillé and Dr. Metz for the excellent pro- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Von. XXIII. No. 576. 


vision made for the Section of Physiology and 
Experimental Medicine in the medical school’ of 
the university; to the board of trade for the use 
of its building, granted to the.Section of Social 
and Economic Science through the interest of 
Secretary Mayo, of the New Orleans Progressive 
Union; to Rabbi Heller and the Congregation of 
Temple Sinai for the use of that building for the 
opening session, and to Professor Dixon for having 
the auditorium of the H. Sophie Neweomb Col- 
lege opened for the address of the retiring presi- 
dent of the association, and other purposes. 

2. To Professors Craighead and Anderson and 
their associates in the committee on meeting places 
and equipment for their provision of appliances, 
lantern service and other necessaries for the 
meetings. 

3. To the sewerage and water board for enabling 
the Section of Mechanical Science and Engineer- 
ing to inspect the sanitary improvements now 
under way in the city; to the officials of the United 
States Navy Yard for courtesies shown to the same 
section; to the dock commissioners for exhibiting 
the shipping facilities of the port to the Section 
of Social and Economie Science; to Mr. Charles 
Farwell and Dr. Dyer for a demonstration of the 
workings of the large sugar estate of the former; 
and to Professor Blouin and Dr. Brown for having 
the further privilege accorded the visiting chem- 
ists and others to inspect the Kenilworth Sugar 
Plantation. 

4. To the Boston Club, the Pickwick Club, the 
Chess, Checkers and Whist Club, and the Young 
Men’s Gymnastie Club, the Country Club and the 
Round Table Club, for extending the privileges of 
their houses to all members of the association. 

5. To the Round Table Club for a general 
smoker; to the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 
for an informal reception given to the visiting 
botanists and zoologists; to Mrs. T. G. Richard- 
son, whose home was hospitably opened; and to 
the many other citizens of New Orleans and its 
vicinity whose welcome was so admirably ex- 
pressed by Mr. Buck on behalf of the governor of 
the state, by Mayor Behrman and President Craig- 
head, and who, in one way or another, have made 
our visit pleasurable, without interfering with 
the more serious purposes of the association and 
affiliated bodies. 

6. To the very efficient press committee and 
representatives of the newspapers, who have treat- 
ed our proceedings with unusual interest, intel- 
ligence and care, thus furthering the general pur- 
poses of the association, and at the same time 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


promoting local interest in pure and applied 
science. 

Finally, and in the most comprehensive sense, 
to the local committee and especially to its presi- 
dents, Drs. Craighead and Beyer, its secretary, 
Mr. Mayo, and the chairman of its finance 
committee, Mr. Godchaux—in addition to the 
courtesies already mentioned—for providing ideal 
lunch arrangements, so convenient to the meeting 
places as to avoid a wasteful break in the day’s 
work; for tendering a delightful reception—the 
peculiar charm of which was due in large part to 
the tactful management of Miss Minor and her 
associates in the ladies’ reception committee; for 
a final ride, enabling us to carry away a coherent 
impression of New Orleans and its many points 
of historic interest; and for many acts of thought- 
fulness—individual as well as collective—that will 
cause the past week to remain among the most 
pleasant memories that cluster about the many 
pleasant meetings of the association. 

(Signed) WuLL~iam TRELEASE, Chairman, 
For the Committee, 
Messrs. Trelease, Magie and Newcomb. 


Response to these resolutions and fare- 
well were given for the local committee by 
Professor Geo. E. Beyer, who extended a 
cordial invitation to the association to meet 
soon again in New Orleans. Response by 
President Woodward, who was also for- 
mally thanked by the association for his 
efficient and acceptable work as presiding 
officer. Adjourned. 


GENERAL COMMITTEE. 


At the meeting of the general committee 
on Monday evening, January 1, 1906, it 
was decided to hold a special summer meet- 
ing at Ithaca, New York, to close on or 
before July 3, 1906, and a regular winter 
meeting in New York City to begin on 
Thursday, December 27, 1906. The presi- 
dential and vice-presidential addresses will 
be omitted at the summer meeting and 
given at the winter meeting. 

The officers elected at the New Orleans 
meeting will, therefore, hold over to the 
close of the New York meeting. Chicago 
was recommended as the place of the winter 
meeting of 1907. 


SCIENCE. 49 


The following officers were elected for 
the Ithaca and New York meetings: 
President: Dr. W. H. Welch, Baltimore, Md. 
Vice-Presidents: 
Section A—Dr. Edward Kasner, New York 
City. 
Section B—Professor W. C. Sabine, 
bridge, Mass. 
Section C—Mr. 
York City. 
Section D—Mr. W. R. Warner, Cleveland, O. 


Cam- 


Clifford Richardson, New 


Section H—Professor A. C. Lane, Lansing, 
Mich. 

Section F.—Professor E. G. Conklin, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Section G—Dr. D. T. MacDougall, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 


Section H—Professor 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Section I—Mr. Chas. A. Conant, New York 


Hugo Miinsterberg, 


City. 
Section K—Dr. Simon Flexner, New York 
City. 
General Secretary: Mr. John F. Hayford, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 


Secretary of Council: President F. W. MeNair, 
Houghton, Mich. 
' CLARENCE A. WALDO, 
General Secretary. 


THE RELATION OF MECHANICS TO 
PHYSICS. 

In the historical development of me- 
chanics the names of Galileo, Newton and 
Lagrange mark the principal epochs, each 
of the three periods, from Galileo to New- 
ton, from Newton to Lagrange and from 
Lagrange to our time, covering roughly a 
century. 

When Galileo in 1633, at the age of 
sixty-nine years, was forced by the pre- 
lates of Rome to abjure solemnly the truth 
of the Copernican system of the universe 
to the proof of which he had devoted the 
main efforts of a long and active life, he 
had still to write his most remarkable 
work, the ‘Discorsi e dimostrazioni mate- 


1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section A, Mathematics and Astronomy, of 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, New Orleans, December 29, 1905. 


50 SCIENCE. 


matiche intorno 4 due nuove scienze at- 
tenenti alla mecanica et i movimenti 
locali’ (1638).2 He composed it while con- 
fined to a house at Arcetri, near Florence, 
under the close watch of the Inquisition, 
strictly forbidden to publish anything and 
struggling with ill-health and the infirmities 
of old age which were soon to deprive him 
completely of his eyesight. Considering 
these circumstances of its composition, the 
marvelous freshness and wealth of ideas of 
this work, which makes Galileo the first 
mathematical physicist, would be incompre- 
hensible if we did not know from his corre- 
spondence that the materials for it had 
largely been in his mind ever since his 
early youth. If this be taken into account, 
the beginnings of both mechanics (apart 
from statics) and mathematical physics 
may be dated back to about the year 1600. 

One of the two new sciences originated 
by Galileo in the ‘Discorsi’ is mechanics as 
the science of motion, especially in its appli- 
cation to falling bodies and projectiles. 
The genius of Newton, of Huygens, of 
Leibniz, was soon to prove the correctness 
of Galileo’s prophetic insight in claiming 
for his speculations on motion the name of 
a new science. What Newton and his fol- 
lowers in the eighteenth century did for 
mechanics is too well known to be here re- 
hearsed. By his careful formulation of 
the fundamental postulates and definitions 
and by his bold assumption of the law of 
universal gravitation, Newton laid the 
lasting foundations for astronomical me- 
chanies; and his fluxional calculus opened 


21t is to be regretted that there exists no good 
modern translation of this classical work. The 
German translation published in Ostwald’s 
Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften (Nos. 11, 
24, 25), while it contains some helpful notes, is 
The original 
has recently been edited with great care by A. 
Favaro in Vol. VIII. (1898) of the ‘national edi- 
tion’ of Galileo’s Works. 


not always exact and trustworthy. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


up for this science a wide range of develop- 
ment. : 

The other of Galileo’s two new sciences 
deals with the internal structure of matter 
and the so-called resistance of materials; 


it is the germ of the mechanics of deform- 


able bodies. Progress along this line 
proved a far more difficult task. The 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries con- 
tributed but little to the theory of elas- 
ticity. Indeed, a new mathematical tool, 
the theory of partial differential equations, 


had to be invented, and a physical phe- 


nomenon hitherto neglected, vibratory and 
wave motions, had to attract the attention 
of mathematicians, before the mechanics 
of deformable bodies could become a true 
science. Besides, the conception of me- 
chanics itself had to be broadened; and 
this was accomplished by Lagrange in his 
‘Mécanique analytique’ (first edition 1788, 
second edition 1811-15). 

Tn view of the use made in the course of 
the nineteenth century of Lagrange’s gen- 
eralizations (it may suffice to mention the 
theory of the potential, the Lagrangian 
equations of motion with their generalized 
idea of force, the general ‘principles’ such 
as the principle of least action) it is, I be- 
lieve, not too much to say that Lagrange’s 
work is as great an advance on Newton’s 
as Newton’s was on that of Galileo. 

By the contemporaries of Lagrange this 
advance was perhaps not fully appreciated. 
We find the physicists of the beginning of 
the nineteenth century still very strongly 
attached to. the idea that all natural phe- 
nomena not only may, but must, be ex- 
plained on the basis of Newton’s laws® by 
central forces acting instantaneously at a 
distance. Newton’s mechanics had done 
such admirable service in astronomy that 

3 See, however, Laplace, ‘ Mécanique Céleste,’ 
livre I., Chap. VI. (‘ Oeuvres, Vol. I., 1878, pp. 


74-79), a passage to which E. and F. Cosserat have 
recently called attention. 


JANUARY 12,.1906.] 


it had come to be regarded as the only pos- 
sible means of describing and discussing the 
actions of nature. The gradual abandon- 
ment of this position and the change to the 
modern view according to which all ac- 
tions in nature are transmitted through a 
continuous medium and require time for 
their transmission was accomplished only 
after a lone struggle that occupied the 
greater part of the nineteenth century. 
The more or less conscious part taken 
in this struggle by technical mechanics, 
which in the same period developed into a 
science, has not always been insisted upon 
sufficiently. Technical mechanics has 
always been free of the idea of central 
forces. ‘l'o the engineer the idea of forces 
acting at a distance is completely foreign, 
in spite of the curious fact that, until not 
so very long ago, the typical example of 
such a force, gravitation, was almost the 
only force with which he had to deal. The 
development of thermodynamics, which has 
given us the principle of the conservation 
of energy in its broadest aspect, was closely 
connected with the rise of technical me- 
chanics, but proceeded rather independ- 
ently of the development of the other 
branches of mathematical physics. Its 
fundamental principles are of a very gen- 
eral and abstract nature, and even where 


the molecular hypothesis is well worked © 


out, as in the kinetic theory of gases, the 
idea of central forces is in no way essential. 

Hydrodynamics, elasticity, optics, elec- 
tricity and magnetism, though originally 
based on molecular hypotheses and the 
idea of central forces, in the course of their 
development found themselves more or less 
independent of these notions. Im all of 
them the important common feature is the 
propagation of actions through a medium 
which can be regarded, at least in first ap- 
proximation, as continuous. In hydro- 
dynamics and in the theory of elasticity 
this medium is that unknown something 


SCIENCE. 51 


which we call matter; in optics, and later 
in the theory of electricity and magnetism, 
it was found necessary to postulate the ex- 
istence of another medium, the ether. 

_ It is well known how the ideas of Fara- 
day, of Maxwell, of Hertz, gradually 
gained ascendeney over the older views and 
led to the abandonment of the idea of 
central forces acting instantaneously at a 
distance, in almost all branches of physics 
except in the theory of gravitation. It is 
also known that Maxwell, by a brilliant 
analysis, succeeded in establishing the con- 
nection between his electromagnetic theory 
and the analytical mechanics of Lagrange. 
Thus, at the end of the nineteenth century 
we find a general attitude toward physical 
phenomena essentially different from that 
prevailing at the end of the eighteenth 
century. 

With the rise of the electron theory in the 
course of the last twenty-five years a new 
element has been introduced into this de- 
velopment, an element which seems des- 
tined to affect very radically not only our 
interpretation of physical phenomena, but 
also our general views about the principles 
of theoretical mechanics. The idea of the 
electron has grown out of the idea cf ions 
as used in electrolysis. Each molecule of 
an electrolyte may break up into two ions, 
1. €., two atoms, or groups of atoms, carry- 
ing equal and opposite charges. The 
eurrent passing through the electrolyte 
then consists in the actual transfer of these 
ions to the cathode and anode to which 
they give up their charges. In his Fara- 
day lecture, delivered in 1881, which marks 
an epoch in the ion theory, Helmholtz says: 
“Tf we accept the hypothesis that the ele- 
mentary substances are composed of atoms, 
we can not avoid concluding that electricity 
also, positive as well as negative, is divided 
into definite elementary portions, which 
behave like atoms of electricity.’’ 

These “atoms of electricity,’ since en- 


52 SCIENCE. 


countered in a large number of more re- 
condite phenomena, and often apparently 
free, 7. e., not attached to any matter in 
the ordinary sense, are the electrons. Thus 
physicists have been led to return in a cer- 

tain sense to atomistic conceptions, without 
~ however, abandoning the idea of the propa- 
gation of electric, magnetic and optical 
disturbances through the ether in time. 
Lord Kelvin, in his Baltimore lectures in 
1884, gave expression to this tendency so 
largely developed in the succeeding twenty 
years. The very first words of his first 
lecture are: “‘The most important branch 
of physics which at present makes demands 
upon molecular dynamics seems to me to be 
the wave theory of light.’’ 

Without discussing the experimental 
basis of the electron theory it must here 
suffice to say that on the one hand the dis- 
persion and diffraction of light, on the 
other the phenomena exhibited by cathode 
and canal rays, Rontgen rays, the Becquerel 
rays emitted by radium, ete., all find their 
ready interpretation in this theory. At 
the same time, the electron theory as de- 
veloped by Lorentz, Wiechert, Drude and 
others seems to furnish an excellent basis 
for the whole theory of electricity, mag- 
netism and light.° Indeed, attempts have 
already been made of interpreting matter 
itself as an electromagnetic phenomenon 
and of explaining gravitation by means of 
this electron theory of matter. 

‘See, for instance, W. Kaufmann, Physikalische 
Zeitschrift, 3 (1901), pp. 9 sq., translated in The 
Electrician, 48 (1901), pp. 95-97; O. Lodge, 
Journal of the Institute of Blectrical Engineers, 
32 (1902-3), pp. 45-115; P. Langevin, Revue 
générale des sciences, 16 (1905), pp. 257-276; 
H. A. Lorentz, ‘Ergebnisse und Probleme der 
Hlektronentheorie,’ Berlin, Springer, 1905. 

*It will be sufficient to mention Lorentz’s arti- 
cles in the Hneyklopidie der mathematischen 
Wissenschaften, V., 13, 14, where full references 
are given, and to the systematic work of M. 


Abraham, ‘Theorie der Elektrizitiit, I. (1904), 
Il. (1905), Leipzig, Teubner. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 576. 


It should be observed that the electron 
theory does not upset that beautiful strue- 
ture known as the electromagnetic theory 
of Maxwell and Hertz. It merely modifies- 
it to a certain extent so as to give a more 
detailed account of electromagnetic phe- 
nomena in ordinary matter. It is related 
to the older theory somewhat as the kinetic 
theory of gases is related to the theory of 
heat and of ordinary matter in general. 
The kinetic theory assumes the laws of 
ordinary mechanics for the motion of the 
hypothetical molecule and then tries to de- 
termine the average effects arising from the 
motion of very large numbers of such 
molecules, these averages bemg the only 
thing actually observable. Similarly the 
electron theory must begin with postulating 
laws of motion for the single electron in 
the electromagnetic field and try to deduce 
the average effects due to swarms of elec- 
trons; the comparison of these caleulated 
average effects with the results of observa- 
tion and experiment must serve as verifica- 
tion of the postulated laws. 

If, then, observation leads us to the as- 
sumption that electric charges may exist 
and move about without being attached to, 
or carried by, ordinary matter, what are 
the ‘laws of motion’ of such an electron? 
As the moving object is not ordimary matter 


- we must not be astonished to find that New- 


ton’s laws of motion can not be applied 
blindly. The electron moves according to 
the laws of electrodynamics. We are thus 
confronted with the question as to the rela- 
tion of the fundamental postulates of this 
science to those of ordinary mechanics. 
An electric charge at rest manifests its 
presence only by the field which it excites 
in its vicinity, by the sheaf of lines of force 
issuing from it. To take a simple concrete 
example, a small charged sphere has lines 
of foree radiating as if from its center in 
all directions, and the electric force, or in- 
tensity of the field,oH, at any point P, at 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


the distance + from the center of the sphere 
whose charge is e, has the direction of r 
and the magnitude e/7?. 

If the sphere is in motion it carries its 
field along almost unaltered, provided the 
velocity v of the sphere be small in com- 
parison with the velocity of light. But it 
excites a magnetic field, the magnetic force, 
or intensity, beng H—E x v; 2. e., the 
magnitude of the force at P is —evsin 
(HE, v)/r?, its direction is at right angles to 
E and v, and its sense is such that the 
three vectors E, v, H form a right-handed 
set. The lines of magnetic force are, there- 
fore, coaxial circles about the direction of 
motion. 

According to the electromagnetic theory, 
the energy of the magnetic field is distrib- 
uted throughout the field, with volume 
density (1/87)»H?, where p is the mag- 
netic permeability of the medium. The 
energy of the whole field is readily obtained 
by integrating over the space outside the 
sphere; it is found = 4pe?v?/a, where a is 
the radius of the sphere. This magnetic 
energy, being due to the motion of the 
charge, is analogous to kinetic energy. 

If the charged sphere consists of an ordi- 
nary mass m carrying the charge e so that 
its ordinary kinetic energy is 4mv”, the 
total kinetic energy due to the motion of 
m and e with the velocity v is 


a, & 
Tai (m+ mo), 


that is, the same as if the mass m of the 
sphere were increased by the amount 
ghe"/d. 

The result, then, is similar to that known 
in hydrodynamics for a sphere of mass m 
moving through a frictionless liquid. In 
moving, the sphere sets the surrounding 
liquid in motion; to move the sphere we 
have to set in motion not only the mass 
m, but also that of the liquid around it. 
Thus the sphere moves in the liquid just 
as a sphere of greater mass would move 


SCIENCE. 53 


im vacuo. In the case of a sphere the mass 
is Imereased by one half of that of the 
liquid displaced. But im the case of a 
body whose mass is not distributed as sym- 
metrically as in the case of the sphere the 
mass to be added depends on the direction 
of motion. 

As the apparent mass of the charged 
sphere in motion, owing to the presence of 
the charge e, exceeds the ordinary mass 
m by 2ue"/a, the apparent momentum ex- 
ceeds the ordinary momentum mv _ by 
2ue-v/a; and this additional momentum 
must be regarded as residing not in the 
sphere but in the surrounding field. This 
momentum possessed by the field is what 
Faraday and Maxwell used to eall the elec- 
trotonie state. 

In the case of the free electron we have 
m0; hence the total mass, momentum, 
kinetic energy, is magnetic and is distrib- 
uted throughout the field. Moreover, if 
the velocity of the electron be comparable 
with the velocity of light, the apparent 
mass will depend not only on the direction, 
but also on the magnitude of this velocity. 

Any variation in the velocity of the 
charged sphere, or of the electron, produces 
a variation in the momentum of the field, 
which is propagated as a pulse through the 
field with the velocity of light. If such a 
pulse strikes a charged body at rest, the 
body acquires velocity and momentum, the 
momentum acquired bemg equal to that 
lost by the pulse. As the pulse resides in 
the ether, the law of the equality of action 
and reaction would make it necessary to 
assume an action exerted on the ether it- 
self. In the electron theory of Lorentz 
which does not admit such actions on the 
ether Newton’s third law of motion is vio- 
lated in as much as action and reaction 
take place neither at the same place nor at 
the same time. 

These very brief and imcomplete indica- 
tions will perhaps suffice to call to mind 


54 SCIENCE. 


some of the characteristic differences be- 
tween the fundamental principles of ordi- 
nary mechanics and the modern electro- 
magnetic theory. 
keep these two sciences distinct, or is it 
possible to build them up on a common 
foundation? Such a common foundation 
is certainly desirable; and it will ultimately 
amount to the same whether we try to gen- 
eralize the principles of mechanics so as to 
embrace the electromagnetic theory, or 
whether we follow W. Wien® in deducing 
the principles of mechanics as a particular 
or rather limiting ease from Maxwell’s 
equations. 

The question can be put in a somewhat 
different form. There seem to be two 
things underlying all the phenomena in the 
physical world: the ether and matter. To 
attain the unification of physical science, 
shall we consider the ether as a particular 
kind of matter? Or shall matter be inter- 
preted ‘electromagnetically? The. older 
mechanies dealt exclusively with matter; 
and when it first became necessary to intro- 
duce the ether, this new medium was often 
endowed with properties very much like 
those of matter. The hydrodynamic anal- 
ogy by which the apparent mass of the 
moving charge was interpreted above illus- 
trates this tendency. The physics of the 
ether has, however, reached so full a de- 
velopment that the properties of the ether 
are now known far more definitely than 
those of matter. These properties are con- 
tained implicitly im the fundamental cqua- 
tions of Maxwell and Hertz which in their 
essential features are adopted im the elec- 
tron theory of Lorentz. 

In this theory the electromagnetic mass 
’ of the electron is nothing but the self-induc- 
tion of the convection current produced 
by the moving electron. This mass de- 

® Ueber elektromagnet- 
ischen Begriindung der Mechanik, Archives néer- 
landaises (2), 5 (Lorentz Festschrift), 1900, pp. 
96-107. 


die Méglichkeit einer 


Is it necessary, then, to: 


[N.S. Vou. XXITI. No. 576. 


pends on the velocity of the electron, or 
rather on the ratio of this velocity to that 
of light. Moreover, this mass, or inertia, 
may be of two kinds: longitudinal, as op- 
posing acceleration in the direction of mo- 
tion, and transverse, as opposing accelera- 
tion at right angles to the path. Any 
variation in the velocity is transmitted as 
a radiation through the ether with the 
velocity of light. 

The electromagnetic energy does not 
reside in the moving electron, but is dis- 
tributed through the whole field, with the 
volume density (1/87) (E?-+ H?), if E and 
Hare the electric and magnetic vectors of 
the field. In determining the rate of work 
in any region we must take into account 
not only the time-rate of change of this 
energy in the region, but also the flux of 
energy through its boundary, which has 
the value (c/47) EX H, per surface ele- 
ment, c being the velocity of light. 

M. Abraham’ has shown that the fun- 
damental equations of Lorentz’s theory 
of electromagnetism can be given a form 
that bears a striking resemblance to the 
fundamental equations of ordinary me- 
chanics. But he has pointed out at the 
same time that in spite of this analogy of 
mathematical form the real meaning of the 
equations is essentially different from their 
meaning in the older mechanics. The 
underlying invariant quantity is not or- 
dinary mass, but the electric charge of the 
electron; mass, or inertia, is variable, de- 
pending on the velocity; momentum and 
energy are distributed through the field; 
the flux of energy, given by Poyntine’s 
radiation vector, is essential m determining 
the rate of working of a system. All these 
differences are ultimately due to the mod- 
ern conception of the propagation of all 
actions, not instantaneously, but im time, 
through a medium. ‘This idea, as seems to 


*Annalen der Physik. Vol. 10 (1903), pp. 105- 
179. 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


have been foreseen long ago by Gauss® and 
Riemann,® requires a generalization of, or 
even a direct departure from, the ordinary 
laws of mechanics: the law of the relativity 
of motion, the conservation of linear and 
angular momentum and of energy in a 
closed system, the instantaneous equality 
of action and reaction. 

_It is now pretty generally recognized 
that Newton’s ‘laws of motion,’ including 
his definition of ‘force,’ are not unalterable 
laws of thought, but merely arbitrary pos- 
tulates assumed for the purpose of inter- 
preting natural phenomena in the most 
stmple and adequate manner. Unfortu- 
nately, nature is not very simple. ‘‘As the 
eye of the night-owl is to the light of the 
sun, so is our mind to the most common 
phenomena of nature,’’ says Aristotle. 
And if since Newton’s time we have made 
some progress in the knowledge of physics 
it is but reasonable to conclude that the 
postulates which appeared most simple and 
adequate two hundred years ago can not be 
regarded as such at the present time. 

This does not mean, of course, that the 
mechanics of Newton has lost its value. 
The case is somewhat parallel to that of 
the postulates of geometry. Just as the 
abandonment of one or the other of the 
postulates of Euclidean geometry leads to 
a more general geometry which contains 
the old geometry as a particular, or limit- 
ing, case, so the abandonment or general- 
ization of some of the postulates of the 
older mechanics must lead to a more gen- 
eral mechanics. The creation of such a 
generalized mechanics is a task for the 
immediate future. It is perhaps too early 
to say at present what form this new non- 
Newtonian mechanics will ultimately as- 
sume. Generalization is always possible in 

*Gauss, Werke, Vol. 5, p. 627. Compare 
Encyklopédie der mathematischen Wissenschaften, 
Vol. 12, pp!"45—46. 

“Riemann, Werke, 2d edition, 1892, p. 288. 


SCIENCE. 55 


a variety of ways. In the pres.nt case, 
the object should be to arrive at a mechan- « 
ies, on the one hand sufficiently general for 
the electron theory, on the other such as to 
include the Newtonian mechanics as a spe- 
cial case. 

After the searching criticism to which 
Poincaré, especially in his St. Louis ad- 
dress,*° in 1904, has subjected the founda- 
tions of mechanics and mathematical phys- 
ics, almost the only one of the fundamental 
principles that appears to remain intact 
is the principle of least action. It seems, 
therefore, natural to take this principle as 
the starting point for a common foundation 
of mathematical physics and of a general- 
ized mechanics, but with a broader defini- 
tion of ‘action,’ or what amounts to the 
same, with a generalized conception of 
‘mass’ so as to make the latter a function 
of the velocity. 

A very notable attempt has recently been 
made in this direction by EH. and F. Cos- 
serat.1* And although only a first instal- 
ment of their investigation has so far been 
published, the able way in which the diffi- 
eult problem is here attacked seems full of 
promise for a solution as complete as the 
nature of the case may warrant. 

It may, perhaps, be said that, in de- 
manding a generalization of the founda- 
tions of mechanics on such broad lines, I 
have attached undue importance to the 
electron theory as developed by Lorentz 
and Abraham, a theory which is still in 
the formative stage. There exist electro- 
magnetic theories that appear less radical 
in their departures from the older views 

* Bulletin des sciences mathématiques (2), 28, 
pp- 302-324; English translation in the Bulletin 
of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. X1I1., 
February, 1906. 

“ Oomptes rendus, Vol. 140, pp. 932-934; for a 
more detailed development see the notes con- 
tributed by H. and F. Cosserat to the French trans- 
lation of O. D. Chwolson’s ‘Traité de physique,’ 
Paris, Hermann, 1905. 


56 SCIENCE. 


and not so much open to the objection of 
violating long established principles. But 
if I have insisted particularly on the theory 
of Lorentz, it was just for the purpose of 
bringing out as clearly and forcibly as pos- 
sible the differences between the old and 
the new. 

Besides, there is one minor feature in the 
form of presentation adopted by Lorentz 
and Abraham which appeals to me as 
worthy of attention: it is the consistent 
use of the vector analysis of Gibbs and 
Heaviside. And perhaps this is really 
somewhat more than a mere matter of 
form. Burkhardt? has shown that this 
vector analysis has a rational mathematical 
basis. And after the numerous and mani- 
fold applications that have been made of 
this method its usefulness can no longer be 
questioned. The diversity of notations 
used by different authors can hardly be 
regarded as a serious objection. Have we 
not a large variety of notations even in so 
old and well-established a branch of mathe- 
matics as the differential calculus? The 
important thing about vector analysis is 
that it teaches to think in vectors and 
fields. EH. Picard,** in a lecture, has re- 
cently called attention to the importance 
of the field even in ordinary elementary 
mechanics. A. Foéppl has led the way in 
using vector symbols in an elementary 
treatise on technical mechanics. 

Vector addition is now more or less fa- 
miliar even to the student of the most ele- 
mentary mechanics, largely owing to the 
influence of graphical statics. Is it not 
time to introduce at least the scalar and 
vector products and the time-differentia- 
tion of vectors in the mechanics of the 
particle and the rigid body? The gain in 
clearness and conciseness in stating the 

% Mathematische Annalen, Vol. 43 (1893), pp. 
197-215. 


18*Quelques réflexions sur la mécanique, suivies 
dune premiére lecon de dynamique,’ Paris, 1902. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


more general propositions is certainly great. 
In the mechanics of deformable bodies and 
media (hydrodynamics, elasticity), the 
general theory of vector fields, with the 
fundamental notions of divergence and 
eurl, flux and flow, lamellar and solenoidal 
fields, ete., should surely form the prelim- 
inary mathematical basis for all further 
study; and here the simple symbolism of 
vector analysis is particularly well adapted 
to the subject. 

But whatever may be the form of pres- 
entation selected, the study of the fields of 
scalars, vectors and higher point functions, 
so intimately connected with the modern 
views of physical phenomena, might well 
claim more attention on the part of the 
pure mathematician than it has so far re- 
ceived. 

ALEXANDER ZIWET. 


THE SANITARY VALUE OF A WATER 
ANALYSIS+* 


TWENTY years ago, the vice-president of 
this section, the late Professor William 
Ripley Nichols, took as the subject of his 
address, “Chemistry in the Service of 
Public Health,’ saying: “‘If any are in- 
clined to criticize my choice of that branch 
of applied chemistry with which I am most 
familiar, I trust they will consider that, 
after all, few of us have the opportunity, 
or, let us confess it, the ability to carry 
research and speculation to the height to 
which chemistry is capable of rising.’’ 
Agreeing fully in the sentiment of this last 
sentence, though not at all as applying to 
Professor Nichols, whose marked ability as 
an investigator was recognized by all, I feel 
that I can best fulfill the clause in our con- 
stitution, which requires the several vice- 
presidents to give an address before their 


1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section C, Chemistry, American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, New Orleans, De- 
cember, 1905. 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


respective sections, by taking for my ad- 
dress a subject that does not call for the 


speculative thought of theoretical chem- . 


istry, but rather the careful consideration 
of some one subject in my own field of 
work. J have, therefore, chosen as my 
topic ‘The Sanitary Value of a Water 
Analysis.’ 

A question of great importance to a com- 
munity is the character of its water supply, 
and of equal importance to the individual 
is the purity of the water that is used in his 
household, whether it comes from a city 
main, or an isolated well in the country. 
That this was not always so considered 
hardly requires mention, for it is not a 
great many years since disease was consid- 
ered a direct visitation of providence. The 
first Investigation that attracted public at- 
tention to the fact that there might be a 
connection between the use of polluted 
water and disease may be said to be what 
is known in sanitary science as the ‘Broad 
Street Well Investigation.’ In the epi- 
demic of cholera in London in 1854, the 
parish of St. James, Westminster, which 
im previous epidemics had suffered, on the 
whole, less than many other parts of Lon- 
don, suffered most severely, the death rate 
reaching two hundred in ten thousand. 
The whole parish was not equally affected, 
and the center of infection, or the special 
cholera area was in the neighborhood of 
Broad Street, and attention was drawn to 
the fact that, though city water was sup- 
plied to this district, a well situated on 
Broad Street was used to a very large ex- 
tent for household purposes. An investi- 
gation followed and it was shown that of 
the deaths that occurred during the first 
week of the outbreak among persons living 
in this neighborhood, 82 per cent. were 
known to have used the water from this 
well, and that houses and factories in the 
same radius where the water from this well 


SCIENCE. 57 


was not used seemed to be exempt from the 
disease. 

A strong case between cause and effect 
was thus made out, and when a subsequent 
examination showed that there was direct 
leakage from an open privy into this well, 


- it established as clearly as could be done 


by circumstantial evidence that the epi- 
demic in St. James parish in 1854 was 
caused by polluted water. 

A further striking proof that sewage 
polluted water may become the effective 
vehicle of the actual poison of disease was 
furnished through the cholera epidemic in 
London in 1866, but the theory that water 
is one of the most dangerous carriers of 
infection of cholera and of typhoid fever 
may be said to date from 1872, and to have 
been the result of the careful investigation 
of the typhoid fever epidemic in that year 
in Lausen, Switzerland. To-day we recog- 
nize as one of the best established theories 
of sanitary science that both cholera and 
typhoid fever are water-borne diseases, and 
that the primary cause of the large death 
rate from typhoid fever is due to the use 
of polluted waters. 

The late Professor Thomas M. Drown 
divided all waters into two classes, namely, 
normal and polluted waters, and stated, as 
regards normal waters, that although they 
differ very widely in character from the 
pure colorless mountain brook to the dark- 
colored water from swampy ground, they 
are all characterized by never having re- 
ceived any contamination connected with 
man, and although often far from pure 
waters, differ from a polluted water in one 
most important respect, in that they are 
not capable of producing, as far as known, 
any specific germ disease. 

It is true that many normal waters, on 
account of the large amount of vegetable 
matter they contain, are unfit for house- 
hold use, although they may be sanitarily 
safe waters in the sense of not being the 


58 SCIENCE. 


vehicle of the germs of disease. Hence the 
sanitary value of a water analysis depends 
not on determining the amount of organic 
matter which a water contains, but on 
the amount of information it can give in 
answer to the question, ‘Is a given water a 
normal or a polluted water?’ or, stated in 
other words, ‘How far can analysis deter- 
mine whether or not the organic matter in 
a water is of vegetable or animal origin?’ 

In order to answer this question it is 
necessary to divide natural waters into 
three classes: Surface, subsoil or ground, 
and artesian waters. These waters differ 
so radically in character from each other 
that, although the data from which deduc- 
tions can be drawn as regards pollution are 
practically the same, yet the correct inter- 
pretation of these data depends upon the 
knowledge as to which group the water in 
question belongs, and a clearer idea of the 
subject under discussion can be obtained 
if we first consider surface waters and 
apply the results of this study to ground 
and artesian waters. 

It is often claimed that there is no value 
in a sanitary analysis of a surface water, 
that an inspection of the watershed may 
give all, and often much more, information 
than can be obtained from the analysis of 
the water. If sewage is seen to be entering 
a pond, an analysis is unnecessary to show 
that it is polluted. If the watershed is 
uninhabited, the water can not be polluted. 

There is no question about the value of a 
survey and that a survey not only aids in 
drawing the proper deductions from the 
data of an analysis, but that often it is 
necessary for a correct explanation of the 
data. Still, there are many cases where, 
unless large interests are involved, a care- 
ful and complete survey is practically im- 
possible on account of the expense, and 
where the chief reliance must be placed on 
the sanitary analysis. Further, a survey 
alone, though it may show pollution, does 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 
not tell the amount of pollution, nor show 
the changes that have taken place in the 
polluting substances. A survey alone can 
never give all the desired information, and 
a sanitary analysis, even of a surface water, 
must always have a value. It is from this 
point of view that what I have to say re- 
garding surface waters must be considered. 

Very early in the study of polluted 
waters attempts were made to devise meth- 
ods for detecting certain definite organic 
compounds which were known to be formed 
by the decomposition of the nitrogenous 
products contained in sewage, but without 
success, and there is very little hope that 
much knowledge can be gained as to the 
nature of the organic matter through this 
line of investigation. The decomposition 
of the nitrogenous products contained in 
sewage takes place so rapidly that the isola- 
tion of any particular compound like erys- 
tin, or any group of compounds, like the 
amido group, can only be looked for when 
the pollution is very recent and in very 
large amounts. 

Though it is apparently impossible to 
isolate from a water any particular nitrog- 
enous organic compound known to occur 
im sewage, the amount of nitrogen and the 
amount of carbon contained in these com- 
pounds can be determined, and among the 
first, if not the first, to attempt to deter- 
mine from the amount of nitrogen and 
carbon in a water whether the organic mat- 
ter was of animal or vegetable origin was 
the late Sir Edward Frankland. On ex- 
amining the residue left on evaporation of 
water from peat bogs he found the ratio of 
nitrogen to the carbon was as 1 to 12, while 
in the residue from fresh sewage it was 
as 1 to 2.1, and in the residue from pol- 
luted waters, as water containing leakage 
from cesspools as 1 to 3.1. From these and 
similar observations he coneluded that in 
surface waters the ratio of the organic 
nitrogen to the organic carbon in the residue 


JANUARY 12, °1906.] 


left on evaporation of such waters afforded 
trustworthy evidence as to the source of 
the organic matter. Thus he concluded, 
that if the ratio was as low as 1 to 3 the 
organic matter was of animal origin; if as 
high as 1 to 8 it was chiefly, if not exclu- 
sively, of vegetable origin, and that if the 
ratio was between these two proportions 
the analyst must be guided in his opinion 
by the amount of inorganic nitrogen the 
water contained, and by his knowledge of 
the surroundings of the source of the water. 

This work of Frankland deserves much 
closer study than it has as yet received. 
His idea that reliable information regard- 
ing the source of the organic matter in a 
water can be obtained from a knowledge of 
the amount of organic carbon and organic 
nitrogen is, Im my opinion, undoubtedly 
sound. The reason why this method has 
not been more generally adopted is un- 
doubtedly due to the difficulties in correctly 
determining these two factors by the proc- 
ess used by Frankland, which consisted in 
measuring the amount of carbon dioxide 
formed and the amount of nitrogen given 
oft, by the combustion of the residue left 
on evaporation. If as simple a process 
for determining the organic carbon as we 
now have for determining the organic 
nitrogen could be devised, I believe Frank- 
land’s method for deciding upon the char- 
acter of a surface water would receive the 
careful study it certainly deserves. 

The method of determining the character 
of a water from the ratio that exists be- 
tween the carbon and nitrogen, being recog- 
nized as of comparatively little practical 
worth, on account of the difficulty of de- 
termining the carbon, attention to-day is 
concentrated upon the nitrogen content of 
a water. 

The usual method used for determining 
the nitrogen in the undecomposed nitrog- 
enous compounds is the albuminoid am- 
monia method of Wanklyn. It gives only 


SCIENCE. 59 


an approximation of the total amount of 
nitrogen thus occurring, but taken in con- 
nection with the free ammonia present it 
undoubtedly often gives valuable indica- 
tions as to the source of the nitrogenous 
compounds. 

In fresh sewage the amount of nitrogen 
as free ammonia is from three to four times 
that of the nitrogen in the albuminoid 
ammonia, and in sewage effluents from 
twenty to thirty times, while in peaty water 
or water containing an infusion of leaves 
the nitrogen in the albuminoid ammonia is 
from ten to twenty times the nitrogen in 
free ammonia, hence when a surface water, 
not including rain or snow water, gives a 
ereater amount of nitrogen as free am- 
monia than it does as albuminoid ammonia 
the indications are that the water has cer- 
tainly been polluted by sewage and that 
the source of the organic matter is of 
animal origin, and with a large amount of 
nitrogen as albumimoid ammonia (over 
twenty-five hundredths of a milligram per 
liter), a ratio of the nitrogen of the free 
ammonia to the nitrogen of the albuminoid. 
ammonia of less than 1 to 5 is suspicious. 

Free ammonia contained in a water may 
be rapidly removed by plant life or be 
changed into nitrites and nitrates, and 
then be absorbed by algal forms, the 
plant life thus stimulated again adding to 
the water undecomposed nitrogenous com- 
pounds. Consequently, while a low ratio 
as 1 to 5 between the nitrogen of the free 
ammonia and the nitrogen of the albumin- 
oid ammonia indicates pollution, the re- 
verse can not be said to be a strong indica- 
tion that the water is a normal water, one 
containing only vegetable matter. 

It is a well-established fact that it is not 


* safe to form a judgment of a water from 


the consideration of any single nitrogen 
factor, and that unpolluted surface waters 
are known where the nitrogen, as albu~ 
minoid ammonia, is much larger than in 


60 


certain waters known to be polluted, and 
the same can also be said of nitrogen as 
free ammonia and the nitrogen as nitrites 
and nitrates, and yet something can be 
learned from the consideration of each of 
these factors. Nitrogen as albuminoid am- 
monia in a water analysis, as has been said, 
represents the nitrogenous matter which 
has not undergone decomposition, and it is 
found that in unpolluted waters this 
amount varies greatly, some waters giving 
almost no nitrogen in the above form, 
others as much as one milligram per liter. 
If, however, the nitrogenous substances are 
of vegetable origin the water is usually 
highly colored, and consequently a colorless 
water, containing that amount of nitrog- 
enous matter represented by 0.25 milligram 
of nitrogen as albuminoid ammonia ‘per 
liter is looked upon with suspicion.* 

Free ammonia always indicates organic 


*It has lately been suggested that the deter- 
minations of organic nitrogen should be substi- 
tuted for the determinations of nitrogen as 
albuminoid ammonia in water analyses. There 
is, of course, no question that nitrogen as albumin- 
oid ammonia only gives the amount of nitrogen 
that is present in nitrogenous substances decom- 
posed by an acid solution of potassium perman- 
ganate, and not the total organic nitrogen. With 
waters, however, unless greatly polluted, the 
amount thus obtained equals approximately one 
half of the organic nitrogen, so that the organic 
nitrogen, if desired, can be calculated sufficiently 
closely from the nitrogen of the albuminoid am- 
monia. In sewage work, however, the case is 
very different. There is no fixed ratio between the 
organic nitrogen and nitrogen as albuminoid 
ammonia, and in determining the strength of a 
sewage, and in determining the amount of purifi- 
cation that takes place in various processes of 
treatment, the organic nitrogen is a most im- 
portant factor and should be determined. The 
nitrogen as albuminoid ammonia, on the other 
hand, is of little value, changing as the sewage 


ages, ‘on account of nitrogenous substances not 


acted upon by an acid solution of potassium per- 
manganate breaking down, giving nitrogen com- 
pounds more easily decomposed. The amount of 
nitrogen as albuminoid ammonia, as a _ rule, 
increases as the sewage ages. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 576. 


matter in the process of decomposition. 
In unpolluted surface waters it is rarely 
high, being removed almost as fast as 
formed by vegetable and animal organisms 
in the water and an amount of nitrogen as 
free ammonia above 0.05 milligram per 
liter is unusual, and if it does occur the 
water can not be considered as an unpol- 
luted water unless that fact is clearly es- 
tablished by other data. 

In drawing conclusions, not only from 
the nitrogen as free ammonia, but also from 
the ratio that exists between the nitrogen 
as free ammonia and the nitrogen as al- 
buminoid ammonia, what is known as the 
‘seasonal variation’ must be -considered. 
Namely, that the amount of nitrogen as 
free ammonia in northern surface waters 
is usually greater during the late autumn 
and early winter than at any other time. 
This is due to two facts: first, that in cold 
weather the free ammonia is not absorbed 
quickly by plant life, and second, that as 
cold weather begins the surface water of 
ponds and reservoirs, growing colder, sinks 
and the bottom water rises, bringing with 
it the decaying matter from the bottom, 
increasing the amount of free ammonia 
often to three times the average amount of 
the year. This also affects to a certain 
extent the nitrates, but not nearly to the 
same amount. 

The nitrogen in the other two nitrogen fac- 
tors of the nitrogen content occurs only in 
very small amounts. Nitritesin a water are 
due either to the oxidation of ammonia or 
to the reduction of nitrates, and being un- 
stable quickly undergo change. Formerly, 
nitrogen as nitrites im amounts exceeding 
0.002 milligram per liter were thought to 
be a strong indication of recent pollution, 
and though we now know that unpolluted 
swamp waters may contain over twice that 
amount, still more than 0.002 milligram is 
an unfavorable indication. 

Nitrogen in the form of nitrates indi- 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


eates the amount of nitrogenous matter 
that has undergone complete decomposi- 
tion. It is rarely absent from a normal 
water. It is never present in any large 
amount, seldom exceeding one tenth of a 
milligram per liter. Higher amounts than 
this, being unusual, must be looked upon 
with suspicion. 

The interpretations I have just made 
apply chiefly to reservoir, pond and lake 
waters. River waters differ from pond, 
lake or reservoir waters in the essential 
particular that the former are in rapid 
motion and the so-called nitrogen cycle may 
take place many times during the course 
of their flow. High nitrogen as free 
ammonia, aS albuminoid ammonia and as 
nitrites, characteristic of recent pollution 
im ponds and reservoirs, may, in rivers, 
be due to the decomposition of the alge 
life, which was stimulated by the entrance 
of sewage in the upper stretches of the 
river, and the proper deductions to be 
drawn from these nitrogen data necessitate 
a knowledge of the river. 

Though much valuable information can 
be obtained, as I have tried to show, from 
the careful study of the nitrogen content 
of a water, the water analyst does not de- 
pend alone upon these factors in forming 
an opinion as to the source of the organic 
matter, and turns to other chemical as well 
as to bacterial data to substantiate or 
modify the opinion thus formed. From 
the chemical point of view the most impor- 
tant of these data is the combined chlorine 
that a water contains. This is due to the 
fact that though chloride of sodium occurs 
in rain water, especially near the sea, and 
im small amounts is found in all soils, it is 
a characteristic constituent of sewage, the 
animal body expelling the same amount of 
salt as it absorbs. 

A careful study of the amount of com- 
bined chlorine 
by Professor Thomas M. Drown, showed 


in normal waters made 


SCIENCE. 61 


that in Massachusetts, where salt-bearing 
strata do not occur, the amount of chlorine 
in a surface water depended on its distance 
from the sea, and that for Massachusetts 
it was possible to establish normal chlorine, 
or, as they are commonly ealled, iso chlor 
lines. 

The work begun by Professor Drown has | 
been carried on by other investigators, and 
to-day the iso chlor lines for all the New 
England States and New York and New 
Jersey have been determined. The result 
of this work is that the amount of chlorine 
occurring in the surface waters of the 
above-named states gives most valuable in- 
formation. Chlorine above the normal of 
the region shows pollution. It does not 
indicate whether the pollution is direct or 
indirect, but does: show that sewage, from 
which the organic matter and the germs of 
disease may or may not have been removed 
by filtration through soil, has had access 
to the water. Chlorine above the normal 
is, therefore, always a suspicious sign 
which must be investigated. I know that 
it is claimed that in many of the western 
states, owing to geological conditions, very 
little information can be obtained from the 
determination of chlorine. I believe, how- 
ever, more careful and thorough work is 
necessary to prove that such is the ease, 
and that further investigation may show 
that though it is impossible to construct 
iso chlor lines running through the state, 
the normal chlorine of different localities 
in a state can often be determined. 

Another factor that is often used in the 
attempt to decide whether or not a water 
contains an excessive amount of organic 
matter is the oxygen consumed. The 
oxygen consumed is not, however, a meas- 
ure of the organic matter in a water, but 
only a measure of the amount of mineral 
reducing salts plus a certain amount of the 
organic matter, the amount depending on 
the method of determination used. It 


62 SCIENCE. 


fives, Im my opinion, very little mforma- 
tion as to the character of the organic mat- 
ter, and is only valuable when different 
surface waters are to be compared with 
each other, or when used in filtration ex- 
periments. 

The same may be said as regards color, 
turbidity and the amount of mineral matter 
that a surface water contains, that, though 
of essential importance in deciding on the 
value of a normal water as a potable water, 
they give little information as to pollution, 

In the early days of bacteriology it was 
claimed that the final criterion as to pollu- 
tion of a water would be furnished by aid 
of that science, and though this hope has 
not been fulfilled, the information that can 
be gained by a bacterial analysis is often 
of the highest importance. It not only 
aids in the interpretation of the chemical 
data, but may of itself show, almost with- 
out question, that a given water is polluted, 
for though attempts to isolate special patho- 
genic germs have generally failed, even in 
waters known to contain these forms, 
characteristic sewage forms, like the colon 
bacillus, can be isolated if they occur in 
any number in a water. Occurrence of 
numerous characteristic sewage bacteria 
can point only to one thing, pollution, and 
if such forms are found there is no question 
that the water receives sewage drainage. 
Bacteriology, however, can not determine, 
except very roughly, the amount of pollu- 
tion, or the present condition of the pol- 
luting matter, nor does it give but very 
little, if any, information as to past pollu- 
tion. If the pollution is recent and of 
any considerable amount, a careful bac- 
terial examination will show the fact, and 
probably better and more convincingly 
than any chemical analysis. If the pollu- 
tion is more remote, more information can, 
as a rule, be drawn from chemical than 
from bacterial data. If the polluting 
matter has filtered through the soil before 


[N. 8. Von. XXIIT. No. 576. 


entering the water, bacterial work will not 
indicate the fact. ‘ 

As a general statement, it may be said 
that a bacterial analysis, while giving in- 
formation as regards recent and continuous 
pollution, gives no information as to the 
past history of a water, and in this respect 
differs from a sanitary chemical analysis. 

All natural waters contain bacteria, and 
even if the true colon bacillus does not occur 
in many normal surface waters, one closely 
akin to it can often be found if a sufficient 
amount of the water be taken for examina- , 
tion. The mere presence of bacteria or 
even the colon bacillus, if found only in 
large volumes, does not, therefore, signify 
pollution. 

The number of bacteria found in a sur- 
face water depends not only upon the 
organic matter a water contains, but to a 
greater or less extent upon various natural 
causes, such, for instance, as the character 
of the soil of the watershed, the. rainfall, 
the time of year the examination is made, ~ 
and these considerations must be taken into 
account when attempting to determine the 
character of the water from the number 
of bacteria present. Arbitrary standards 
have been proposed from time to time, and 
of these Dr. Sternberg’s, that a water con- 
taining 500 bacteria to the eubie centi- 
meter is open to suspicion and one con- 
taining over 1,000 bacteria is presumably 
contaminated by sewage or surface drain- 
age, is probably as satisfactory as any that 
could be devised. Though most artificially 
filtered waters and many reservoir waters 
contain not over 100 bacteria to a cubic 
centimeter, to state that a surface water 
showing on a single examination a much 
ereater number than 500 per cubic centi- 
meter was probably polluted, would be 
unjustifiable, and the significance of the 
data can only be determined when the 
average bacterial count of the water under 
examination is known, or when it is con- 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


sidered in connection with the chemical 
data. 

A certain added amount of information 
may be gained as to the weight to be placed 
on the total bacterial content of a water, by 
also determining the number of colonies 
that develop on agar plates at blood tem- 
perature and the number that decompose 
lactose with the formation of acid. Ac- 
cording to Rideal and also to Winslow, in 
an unpolluted water the proportion be- 
tween the total number of colonies ob- 
tained on gelatine plates at 70° Fahrenheit 
and the number obtained on agar plates at 
98 degrees Fahrenheit should not be greater 
than 12 to 1, and Winslow and Prescott 
state that in normal Massachusetts waters 
the total number of organisms growing at 
the body temperature rarely exceeds 50 per 
cubic centimeter, and that acid producers 
are generally absent. 

The information that can be obtained by 
the examination of a water for the colon 
bacillus is much more positive and impor- 
tant than that which can be obtained from 
a bacterial count, for though undoubtedly 
the colon bacillus is not confined to the 
secretions from mammals, the intestines of 
the higher vertebrates form a better en- 
vironment for its growth and multiplica- 
tion than any other which occurs in nature, 
consequently drainage from domestic and 
agricultural wastes of human life must be 
considered as the method by which large 
numbers gain access to surface waters. It 
follows, therefore, that a water containing 
large numbers of colon bacilli must be 
looked upon as a polluted water, and the 
generally accepted statement of to-day is 
that if the colon bacilli occur in sufficient 
numbers in a surface water to be detected 
in the majority of one cubic centimeter 
samples tested (at least six samples be- 
ing taken), it is almost positive indica- 
tion of recent sewage pollution. Failure 
to detect colon bacilli when water is thus 


SCIENCE. 63 


tested is not, however, a proof that the 
water is a normal water, though it is usu- 
ally a proof: that the pollution, if it exists, 
is not recent nor continuous. 

Having attempted to give what I believe 
ean be learned from the sanitary analysis 
of a surface water, ground and artesian 
waters remain to be considered, and with 
these waters the analyses assume far greater 
importance than with surface waters, for 
the area of the source of the water is often 
indefinite and rarely determinable with ac- 
curacy, and a careful and complete survey 
of what may be ealled the watershed is 
very difficult and generally impossible. 

In determining the character of a ground 
water we make use of the same data that 
we have considered in speaking of surface 
waters, but the deductions drawn from the 
data are very different. This is due to the 
fact that the two waters differ so greatly 
in their chemical and biological character- 
istics that they can not be judged by the 
same standards. 

Ground waters are surface waters which 
have percolated through the soil, and the 
changes which they have thus undergone 
are very similar to the changes which take 
place in the process known as slow sand 
filtration and it is from a study of this 
process that we are able to follow the 
changes that take place when surface 
waters pass into the soil. 

In slow sand filtration of water we 
find that odor, color and turbidity are re- 
moved, that about 90 per cent. of the 
nitrogenous organic matter is oxidized, and 
that a part, varying from 50 to 75 per cent. 
of the nitrogen of the organic matter, is 
found in the filtrate as nitrates, that the 
amount of chlorine remains unchanged and 
that the bacteria are to a very large extent 
removed. 

To apply the information thus obtained 
to ground waters it can be stated that an 
unpolluted ground water should be free 


64 SCIENCE. 


from color, odor and turbidity, that the 
amount of nitrogen as free and albuminoid 
ammonia should be very much less than in 
an unpolluted surface water, that the 
amount of nitrogen as nitrates should not 
exceed by more than 50 to 75 per cent. the 
nitrogen of nitrates of normal waters, and 
that the amount of chlorine should be the 
chlorine of the region, and bacterially the 
water should be very pure. 

To go further, and from the filtration 
experiments and from the study that has 
been made during the past twenty years on 
ground waters, and express the statements 
of the last sentence in concrete numbers, 
it might be said that the best ground waters 
should certainly contain not over 0.01 milli- 
eram of nitrogen as free ammonia or over 
0.02 milligram of nitrogen as albuminoid 
ammonia, no nitrogen as nitrites, not over 
0.1 milligram of nitrogen as nitrates in a 
liter of water, and chlorine not above the 
normal of the region. When a water con- 
tains more than 0.05 milligram of nitrogen 
as free ammonia and 0.08 milligram of 
nitrogen as albuminoid ammonia, or 0.12 
milligram of nitrogen as albuminoid am- 
monia, even if the free ammonia occurs in 
very small amounts, it is a sign of imper- 
fect filtration or of subsequent pollution, 
and consequently such water should not be 
used for household purposes. 

In making this statement, the fact that 
the nitrogen of organic matter in a soil 
can be oxidized by ferric oxide to ammonia 
has not been lost sight of. This is, how- 
ever, not of common occurrence, and unless 
it can be proved in a given case to have 
taken place, the deductions that have been 
made must be considered as correct. 

Nitrites in a ground water are a most un- 
favorable indication, though they are some- 
times found in unpolluted well waters, due 
to the reduction of nitrates by iron, sand, 
or iron pipes! through which the ‘water is 
drawn from the well. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 576. 


A ground water containing an amount of 
chlorine much in excess of the normal of 
the region and nitrogen as nitrates ap- 
proaching 3 milligrams per liter, even with 
very small amounts of nitrogen as free and 
albuminoid ammonia, must be considered 
to have been originally polluted surface 
water, and on this account not a water free 
from possible danger. 

Though, as has been stated, the num- 
ber of bacteria in a ground water should 
be small, not over one hundred per cubic 
centimeter, numerous investigations of well 
waters giving no indication of pollution 
have shown that this number is often 
largely exceeded. This may be and is often 
due to the fallmg into a well of air and soil 
bacteria. The number of bacteria in well 
water, if not reaching into the thousands, 
can not, therefore, of itself be considered 
aS an indication of pollution, though the 
cause of excessive numbers requires ex- 
planation. 

A much better indication as to the pollu- 
tion of ground waters is the ratio that 
exists between the number of bacteria de- 
veloping at the temperature of 70° Fahr- 
enheit and the number developing at blood 
heat, and the same conclusions as with 
surface water may be drawn from the ratio 
that is thus found. 

The occurrence of acid forming bacteria 
indicates pollution, and the presence of 
colon bacillus in a ground water is almost 
positive proof that sewage drainage is 
present. 

Artesian or underground waters are 
eround waters which have passed into or 
through underlying rock strata. The sani- 
tary, value of the analyses of such waters 
should be very great, for the pollution, if 
polluted, may be due not only to careless- 
ness, which allows direct and continuous 
contamination from above, at the point 
where the water is tapped, but often to 
eround water which has not been purified 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


by filtration through soil having direct 
connection with the water in the well, owing 
to the seamy or faulty character of the 
rock or to the percolating water wearing 
channels through the rock, as often occurs 
in limestone formations. The source of 
pollution may, therefore, be many miles 
from the well, and through careful study 
of the geological formation, the dip of 
strata and general characteristics of the 
neighborhood should be made, the main 
reliance for deciding whether or not the 
water is a polluted one must often be the 
data obtamed from the chemical and bac- 
terial analyses. 

Unfortunately, however, in the study of 
artesian water perplexing chemical and 
bacteriological results are often obtained. 
In artesian waters so situated that surface 
pollution seems impossible, amounts of 
nitrogen as free ammonia, as nitrites and 
as nitrates have often been found which, if 
occurring in ground waters, would cause 
them to be considered as polluted. The 
nitrogen of the nitrates in these waters may 
be due to fossil remains, and the nitrogen 
as nitrites and as free ammonia to the 
reduction of the nitrates by chemical ac- 
tion, as contact with iron sulphide, and the 
occurrence of the nitrogen as free ammonia 
also sometimes to some salt of ammonia 
existing in the strata through which the 
ground water passes. On this account the 
determination of the nitrogen content does 
not give as satisfactory data from which 
to draw conclusions as those obtained from 
the analysis of ground water. 

The interpretations of the data obtained, 
however, always bearing the above facts in 
mind, are nearly the same as those stated 
when considering ground waters. An un- 
polluted artesian water should not contain 
any nitrogenous or carbonaceous. organic 
matter and consequently the nitrogen as 
-albuminoid ammonia* should not be over 
0.02 milligram per liter and the oxygen 


SCIENCE. 60 


consumed, nitrites and mineral reducing 
substances being absent, should not exceed 
one tenth of a milligram. 

The chlorine factor is of much less im- 
portance in the study of artesian waters 
than in the other two classes, for, as a rule, 
we have little or no knowledge of the nor- 
mal chlorine of deep waters of any given 
region and consequently this datum has 
only the same value that it has in the 
analysis of surface waters in localities 
where the normal chlorine has not been 
determined. 

Baeterially an artesian water should be 
a very pure water and at one time it was 
considered that an unpolluted artesian 
water was a sterile water. To-day, how- 
ever, this is not the case. Hxamination 
of wells has shown that while in a few 
eases the water may be sterile, in the 
majority bacteria are present in varying 
numbers. These are, however, generally 
of slow-growing types and are not indi- 
eative of pollution. Should an artesian 
water, not in a region of thermal springs, 
show bacteria which develop in consid- 
erable numbers at the body temperature, 
the interpretation would be the same as 
in a ground water, that unpurified water 
or sewage was entering the well either from 
the immediate environment or through fis- 
sures and crevices in the lower strata. 
Acid-forming bacteria and the colon bacil- 
lus should never be found in artesian 
waters. 

I am afraid I have already occupied by 
far too much of your time in giving my 
opinion as to the sanitary value of a water 
analysis and the information that can be 
derived from such an analysis, and in con- 
elusion would only reiterate that to form 
a judgment as to the wholesomeness of a 
water the data of a sanitary water analysis, 
the source of the water, whether surface, 
ground or artesian, must be known; that 
a survey, even of a surface water, though 


66 SCIENCE. 


it may show whether or not the water is 
polluted, does not give information regard- 
ine the amount or condition of the pol- 
luting matter; that with ground and ar- 
tesian waters it often gives very little in- 
formation, and that an opinion regarding 
the character of such waters must, as a rule, 
depend on the sanitary analysis. 


Leonarp P. KInNIcUTT. 
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Handbook of Metallurgy. (In two volumes.) 
By Dr. Carn Scunaset, Professor of Metal- 
lurgy at Berlin. Second edition. Volume 
I., Copper, Lead, Silver, Gold. Translated 
by Henry Louis, Professor of Mining at 
Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Eng- 
land. S8vo, cloth covers, 715 illustrations. 
Pp. 1,123. Contains a geographical and 
a general'index. New York and London, 
The Macmillan Company. Price, $6.50. 
This volume, which is the English transla- 

tion by Professor Louis of Dr. Schnabel’s 

elassie work, needs but the mention to declare 
its excellent merit, so widely known are both 
author and translator. The first German edi- 
tion of Dr. Schnabel’s admirable work of two 
volumes appeared in 1898, and was shortly 
afterward translated into English by Professor 

Louis. Both works were so well received that 

Dr. Schnabel issued a second edition, Vol. I. 

in 1902 and Vol. IJ. in 1904. The present 

book under review is Professor Louis’ English 
translation of Vol. I. . The English transla- 
tion of Vol. II., which will also be made by 

Professor Louis, is expected to be published 

in 1906. 

The translation of Dr. Schnabel’s 
work furnished the first complete treatise on 
metallurgy (except for iron) that has appeared 
in the English language, although many small 
text-books, covering the entire field but making 
no claim to thoroughness of detail, have been 
published; as have also several excellent mono- 
graphs dedicated to the metallurgy of indi- 
vidual metals. 

Dr. Sehnabel’s object has been to give a 
complete description of the metallurgical 


great 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


treatment of all the metals, (except iron), 
pointing out the underlying chemical prin- 
ciples, and for each case, giving examples 
drawn from actual practise. His broad 
knowledge of the subject has rendered him 
eminently fitted for this hereulean task, and 
he has supplemented his personal knowledge 
by full reference to and abstract from the 
works of that well-known trio of American 
metallurgical writers—EKgleston, Peters and 
Hofman. So excellent was his work that the 
first edition received vwell-merited praise 
throughout the metallurgical world. A few 
adverse criticisms were made, but these were 
directed mainly to the mechanical features of 
the books—for instance, a collective index for 
both volumes was given at the end of volume 
II. and no index whatever in volume I. This 
objectionable feature of the first edition has 
been removed in the second edition, each vol- 
ume of the latter having its individual in- 
dexes—an improvement of great value in re- 
ferring to the books. 

Another eriticism of Dr. Schnabel’s work 
was that too much space had been given to the 
history of active processes and the description 
of obsolete ones; but knowledge can not be 
too thorough for the earnest student or in- 
ventor who needs a reference work that will 
cover the entire subject. A knowledge of 
both past and present practise is needed in 
order to know not only ‘what to do’ but also 
‘what not to do.? The chemical principles 
which underlie a metallurgical process remain 
fixed and constant, but the application of new 
forces, the development of mechanical appli- 
ances for handling raw materials and part or 
wholly finished products (indeed, in many 
cases, for the physical action of the furnace 
itself) are important factors bearing on the 
proper conduct of metallurgical treatment of 
ore or metal. Frequently, metallurgical proc- 
esses are of such rapid development that the- 
ory to-day becomes practise to-morrow; and, 
as a corollary to this fact, good practise to-day 
becomes merely historical record to-morrow. 
For this reason a comprehensive treatise on 
the subject should contain not only a deserip- 
tion of present practise, but also a record of 
the developments which have led to it. In 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


this respect, Dr. Schnabel has attained success. 

The second edition has been largely re- 
written, as may be appreciated by the increase 
of pages, from 873 to 1,123, and of illustra- 
tions, from 569 to 715. As a whole, the book 
is reliable and should be in the hands of all 
students of metallurgy or metallurgical chem- 
istry and all earnest workers in the practise of 
the art. The material is sufficiently compre- 
hensive to give a thorough review of present 
metallurgical practises and the history of their 
development from early times. 

JOSEPH STRUTHERS. 
New York, 
December 23, 1905. 


SOME RECENT BOOKS RELATING TO ANALYTICAL 
CHEMISTRY. 

A Text-book of Chemical Arithmetic. By 

H. L. Wewts, M.A., Professor of Analytical 

Chemistry and Metallurgy in the Sheffield 


Scientific School of Yale University. New 
York, John Wiley & Sons. Pp. vii + 169. 


12mo. $1.25. 

A Manual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis. 
By J. F. McGrecory, Professor of Chem- 
istry and Mineralogy in Colgate University. 
Boston, Ginn & Co. Pp. xiv-+133. $1.00. 

Techno-Chemical Analysis. By Dr. G. Lunes, 
Professor at the ‘ Hidgenossische Polytech- 
nische Schule’ at Zurich. Authorized trans- 
lation by Atrrep I. Coun, author of ‘ Indi- 
cators and Test Papers,’ ete. New York, 
John Wiley & Sons. Pp. vii+135. 12mo. 
$1.00. 

Wells's Chemical Arithmetic—The subject 
is treated under three general heads: ‘ Calcula- 
tions Relating to Weights,’ ‘ Calculations Re- 
lating to Gases’ and ‘Calculations Relating 
to Volumetric Analysis.’ These chapters are 
divided into sections according to the special 
character of the problems, and the solution of 
each kind of problem is illustrated by ex- 
amples. In addition, a number of problems 
to be solved are added, the answers to which 
are placed in the back part of the book. One 
of the most important features is the first 
chapter on approximate numbers. Those who 
have watched the average student carry out 
the calculations to eight or ten decimals when 


SCIENCE. 67 


the result is defined to one or two decimals 
will appreciate this excellent presentation of 
the subject. Indeed, all through the book this 
matter is kept before the student and in many 
eases the last significant figure of a result is 
underscored to call attention to its being af- 
fected with uncertainty. There are also to be 
found in this chapter several pages on ab- 
breviated multiplication and division and on 
the use of logarithms. 

The book is designed for students of quan- 
titative analysis and contains little that does 
not bear directly on analytical calculations. 
Arithmetical methods are used almost entirely. 
This the experience of the reviewer is against, 
as he has always found algebraic methods 
clearer and more concise. There is no section 
devoted to calculations involving the density 
of solutions, which must be looked upon as a 
serious omission in a work of this sort. 

An appendix contains a small list of the 
usual tables and a table of five-place loga- 
rithms. 

McGregory’s Qualitative Analysis—In the 
preface the author states that his aim is to 
strike between the larger works of the Fre- 
senius type and the abbreviated texts. This 
would seem to be the aim of most authors of 
recent treatises on qualitative analysis, for the 
book at once impresses one as being of the 
same general size and shape as half a dozen 
others. 

The treatment of the subject is also the con- 
ventional one as opposed to some of the later 
works that embody physical-chemical facts 
and speculations in explanation of the reac- 
tions involved. In arrangement, however, 
some special features are to be seen. For 
instance, the usual characteristic reactions 
are given for all the metals and non-metals 
before any analysis proper is reached. The 
usual schematic tables for the systematic ex- 
amination are omitted, the author considering 
this better pedagogically. 

For those who may prefer this peculiar ar- 
rangement the book is to be recommended. 

Lunge’s Technical Analysis —A wide range 
of subjects is presented by this little book, 
there being chapters on technical gas analysis, 
fuels and heating and on inorganic chemical 


68 SCIENCE. 


manufacturing. It goes without saying that 
in so small a compass these subjects can not 
be treated in detail. The book aims to answer 
the question as to what determinations are 
usually made in the examination of technical 
materials. To the average student it would 
be of little value, owing to the briefness of 
its descriptions, but the chemist of some 
training will find it excellent in pointing the 
way to the proper procedures in technical 
analysis. CHARLES WILLIAM FouLK. 


A Handbook of the Trees of California. By 
Auick Eastwoop, Curator of the Depart- 
ment of Botany, California Academy of 
Sciences. San Francisco. 1905. (Occa- 
sional Papers of the California Academy 
of Sciences, IX.) Pp. 80. Plates 52. 
This is a popular manual of the native trees 

of California. The author’s style is simple 

and clear. There is no waste of words and 
the descriptions of the species are in plain 

English, omitting as far as possible the use 

of latinized words so highly favored by some 

systematists. An interesting and most useful 
departure is the introduction of two artificial 
keys, one based upon leaf forms, the other on 
fruit forms. However, the prime excellence 
of the work depends upon the illustrations. 

Some of the illustrations are from the draw- 

ings of Dr. A. Kellogg, one of the founders 

of the California Academy of Sciences. The 
half-tone work is excellent: The trees of 

Washington and Oregon are included, as it 

was found that there were only a few not rep- 

resented in California. 

The trees of California are world-known 
and botanists everywhere will welcome this 
work. ALBERT SCHNEIDER. 


- 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Tue 406th regular meeting of the Biological 
Society was held in the Assembly Hall of the 
Cosmos Club, November 25, 1905, with Presi- 
dent Knowlton in the chair and 69 persons 
present. 

The first paper of the evening was by Dr. L. 
O. Howard, presenting ‘More Notes on the 
Yellow Fever Mosquito. He said that the 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


next morning after presenting the former 
communication on the same subject before the 
society, he left Washington for New Orleans 
and Texas. At that time (October 28) the 
Texas quarantine against New Orleans had 
not been relieved, so that he was obliged to go 
to Texas first by way of St. Louis. He re- 
turned to New Orleans from Texas on No- 
vember 6 and spent some days in the city 
studying the conditions that prevailed at that 
time and talking with the men who had charge 
of the victorious fight against the yellow 
fever, then just concluded. He gave a num- 
ber of observations made by Doctor White, 
Doctor Richardson, Doctor Blue and other 
surgeons in the Public Health and Marine- 
Hospital Service who had been stationed in 
New Orleans during the summer, relative to 
the out-of-the-way breeding places in which 
the yellow fever mosquito had been found, 
and spoke especially of the new culicide dis- 
covered during the summer and which seems 
to be especially effective against mosquitoes, 
without having the deleterious properties of 
sulphur dioxid. Lantern slides were exhibited 
showing New Orleans breeding places, meth- 
ods of fumigating houses, and the general 
characteristics of the portions of the city in 
which the epidemic had been severest. He 
also showed a few slides illustrating sanitary 
conditions at Panama. 

In discussion of this paper, Dr. C. W. Stiles 
said that it is most interesting that our knowl- 
edge of the disease ancludes the facts of its 
transmission, but of its cause. The disease is 
handled by methods of prevention. The 
period of infection necessary to inoculation 
is known. The female mosquito must trans- 
mit the disease to man. In comparison, the: 
best known ticks transmit disease to their 
progeny, then through them to the human 
patient. A recent German paper makes the 
assertion that malaria is transmissible to the 
offspring of the mosquito. A Paris paper 
makes the same statement of Stegomyia. This 
is doubted in this country. There are numer- 
ous men working on the identity of the yellow 
fever parasite. Many known Arthropoda are 
necessary for the transmission of certain dis- 
eases. Cholera may be transmitted by flies. 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


Malaria must be carried by mosquitoes. The 
Crustacea which carry disease are parasitic. 
It looks as if an animal parasite were neces- 
sary for the transmission of yellow fever. The 
course of the disease in man is rapid. In the 
mosquito it is slow. Rapid reproduction is 
characteristic of a non-sexual method; slow 
reproduction of a sexual method. It is prob- 
able that there is an alternation of generations 
in the mosquito and man. Characteristic 
Protozoa which carry disease may be Rhizo- 
poda, Flagellata or Sporozoa. It is probable 
that the yellow fever parasite belongs to one 
ot these classes. 

The second paper was a report of ‘ The New 
York Meeting of the American Ornithologists’ 
Union, by Dr. T. S. Palmer. This meeting 
has been reported in full elsewhere. 

The third paper was by Mr. W. W. Cooke, 
on ‘ Discontinuous Breeding Ranges of Birds.’ 
The speaker showed many lantern slides illus- 
trating the facts of summer range, winter 
range, breeding range, and how in some cases 
these coincide, in others these overlap, and in 
still others these are quite separate seasonally, 
and again even geographically, sometimes by 
distances almost hemispherical. 


EK. L. Morris, 
Recording Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


THE club met at the New York Botanical 
Garden, October 25, 1905, with Professor 
Underwood in the chair and eighteen persons 
present. 

The announced program consisted of ‘ Fur- 
ther remarks on the vegetation of the Ba- 
hamas, by Drs. N. L. Britton and C. E. 
Millspaugh. 

Dr. Millspaugh in ‘opening the discussion 
remarked that the flora of the Bahamas is so 
locally distributed that all the islands must 
be visited before a complete enumeration can 
be attempted, and that a thorough exploration 
of the archipelago at an early date is very 
desirable. He then reviewed the history of 
the exploration of the Bahamas, mentioning 
the work of Brace, Britton, Catesby, Coker, 
Cooper, Eggers, Hitchéock, Howe, Madiana, 


SCIENCE. 69 


Millspaugh, Nash, Mrs. Northrop and Swain- 
son (?); and summarizing the work done upon 
each island. 

It is pretty certain that the islands have 
all been submerged at a very recent geological 
period, so that the question as to whether they 
were ever previously connected with the main- 
land has no significance for the present plant 
population. The flora seems to have more in 
common with Cuba and Hayti than with any 
other region. 

Dr. Britton then described some of the note- 
worthy features of the flora, exhibiting speci- 
mens of several of the recently discovered 
endemic species, and of the palms. 

Dr. Howe discussed some of the marine 
algee of the Bahamas, remarking upon the 
apparently very local distribution of some of 
the species. He exhibited specimens of a new 
Halimeda, and of a new genus, Cladocephalus, 
soon to be described by him in the Bulletin. 

Dr. Barnhart remarked that he had recently 
found some evidence about one Swainson, who 
is supposed to have collected plants in the Ba- 
hamas between 1830 and 1842. Some doubts 
had been expressed as to whether this could 
have been William Swainson, the zoologist, 
who is not known to have been in that part 
of the world at the time indicated, but the 
evidence goes to show that the specimens in 
question had been collected for Swainson by 
some unknown correspondent, and by him 
communicated to the herbarium at Kew, where 
they are now found. 

Dr. MacDougal exhibited a mounted series 
of leaves of two hybrid oaks, Quercus Rudkini 
Britton (supposed to be a hybrid between Q. 
marylandica and Q. Phellos), the original 
specimens of which were recently found to be 
still growing near Cliffwood, N. J.; and Q. 
heterophylla Bartr. (supposed to be a hybrid 
between Q. Phellos and Q. rubra) from Staten 
Island. The specimens exhibited showed an 
interesting range of variation, and acorns of 
both: hybrids have been planted, so that they 
can be studied hereafter in the light of recent 
theories of evolution. 


Rouanp M. Harper, 
Secretary pro tem. 


70 SCIENCE. 


THE CALIFORNIA BRANCH OF THE AMERICAN 
FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. 

Tue fourth meeting of the California 
Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society 
was held in Room 22, South Hall, University 
of California, Berkeley, Tuesday, November 
14, 1905, at 8 p.m. Mr. Charles Keeler pre- 
sided. 

The minutes of the last meeting were read 
and approved. The following persons ap- 
proved by the council were elected to mem- 
bership in the society, the secretary being in- 
structed to cast the vote of the society for 
them: Mr. R. F. Herrick, Mrs. S. C. Bigelow, 
San Francisco; Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, Mexico; 
and Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Maurer, Berkeley. 

The president spoke briefly on the aims of 
the society, reviewed its history, and. an- 
nounced coming meetings. 

Professor John Fryer then delivered a lec- 
ture, illustrated with specially prepared lan- 
tern slides, on ‘Fox Myths in Chinese Folk- 
Lore. Professor Fryer briefly discussed Chi- 
nese folk-lore in general, its hold on the mind 
of the people, the important place occupied by 
superstitions regarding the fox, and recounted 
a number of interesting and suggestive fox 
tales. © 

Two hundred persons attended the meeting. 


Tue fifth meeting of the California Branch 
of the American Folk-Lore Society was held 
in the Unitarian Church, Berkeley, Thurs- 
day, December 7, 1905, at 8 p.m. Professor 
John Fryer presided. 

The minutes of the last meeting were read 
and approved. 

The following persons approved by the 
council were elected to membership in the 
society, the secretary being instructed to cast 
the vote of the society for them: Mrs. M. S. 
Biven, Oakland, Miss G. E. Barnard, Oakland. 

Professor Wm. F. Bade delivered a lecture 
on ‘Hebrew Folk-Lore,’ based primarily on 
folk-lore elements in the Book of Genesis. 

At the conclusion of the lecture a vote of 
thanks was tendered Professor Bade, as also 
the trustees of the Unitarian Church. 

One hundred and fifty persons attended the 
meeting. A. L. KRrorser, 

Secretary. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE SOILS FOR APPLES. 


In connection with the instructive article 
of H. J. Wilder on soils suitable for the 
production of apples (Scmncr, December 1), 
I call attention to one point which is only 
casually mentioned by him. 

I think that in general we may draw very 
useful conclusions as to the primary needs of 
culture plants from the habitats of their wild 
congeners or progenitors. In the case of the 
apple, we have the wild crab apple as a pre- 
cedent; and any one who has paid attention 
to such matters will remember the groves of 
fragrant crab apples on the black prairies of — 
the middle west and southwest, where they 
sometimes form the almost exclusive tree 
growth, though varied occasionally with 
clumps of the large-fruited red-haw (C. coc- 
cinea) and a honey locust here and there. 
The soils of these prairies are all distinctly 
and sometimes strongly calcareous; and where 
the latter is the case we usually find the high- 
est color both of blossoms and of fruit of the 
crab, and also the most abundant crop. The 
tree at times invades adjacent hills, and here 
we may see, by way of contrast, pale flowers 
and fruit, on long branches with a sparse crop. 

The wild apple is distinctly a calciphile 
plant, frequenting the heaviest as well as 
light sandy soils, provided sufficient lime car- 
bonate be present. The latter condition rarely 
exists in the humid region in very sandy soils, 
because from these the lime is quickly leached 
into the subsoil or subdrainage whenever they 
are cultivated. Hence naturally the failure 
of apple orchards to maintain themselves on 
sandy soils for any length of time, as indi- 
eated by Wilder. For it is a priori reasonable 
to suppose that the cultivated apple, while 
tolerating soils poor in lime, will also prefer 
the calcareous soils on which its ancestors 
flourished, sometimes to the exclusion of all 
other tree growth. : 

The fact that a reasonably calcareous soil 
is one of the prime conditions for profitable 
apple culture will, I think, be found abun- 
dantly verified in the apple-producing districts 
of the United States. But it must be under- 
stood distinctly that the current definition of 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


a calcareous soil, viz., one that will ‘ effervesce 
with acids’ (requiring the presence of at least 
three per cent. of carbonate), goes far beyond 
what insures the presence of calciphile plants 
in thousands of cases. I have elsewhere 
summed up what may be said on this point, 
to the effect that while in heavy clay lands 
as much as six tenths per cent. of lime in the 
soil may be necessary to secure the advantages 
of caleareous lands, in the case of light sandy 
soils one tenth per cent. may be sufficient to 
produce natural calciphile growth, and, there- 
fore, also the cultures which, like the legumes, 
demand soils which are not only neutral, but 
which shall be able to supply to them freely 
the lime which forms so prominent an ash 
ingredient. 

In this, the proper sense of the word, cal- 
eareous soils will be found to exist not only in 
limestone districts, but in all derived from 
hornblendice rocks, including black lavas and 
basalts, and also from the rocks containing 
either labradorite or some of the soda-lime 
feldspars. Such soils rarely effervesce, but 
when wetted they show with red litmus paper, 
at the end of twenty minutes, the blue reac- 
tion which is wholly independent of ‘alkali.’ 
Eyen dilute acetic acid will in that case 
readily dissolve from the soil enough lime to 
give a plain reaction with oxalates. 

I trust that this point of view may be made 
the subject of verification by Mr. Wilder as 
-well as others. E. W. Hincarp. 

BERKELEY, CAL., 

December 8, 1905. 


ISOLATION AS ONE OF THE FACTORS IN EVOLUTION. 
Ir was with much pleasure that I read the 
article of President D. S. Jordan on ‘ Isola- 
~tion’ in a recent number of Scrmnon,’ and, 
aside from the fact that I am able to add a 
large number of cases, I have nothing to com- 
ment upon. But the subsequent article by Pro- 
fessor J. A. Allen*® demonstrates again that 
the principle of isolation or separation is not 
generally understood in its full meaning. 
Jordan expresses the opinion that isolation 
is a factor in the formation of every species 
on the face of the earth. I can not strongly 
* Science, November 3, 1905, p, 545 ff. 
* Science, November 24, 1905, p. 661 ff. 


SCIENCE. 71 


enough endorse this view, for it is absolutely 
unthinkable that two species may be derived 
from one ancestral species without the action 
of isolation. All the instances introduced by 
Allen as opposed to this view are rather in 

support of it. He concludes that in variations — 
of certain widely distributed species, which 
pass into each other from one extremity of 
the range to the other, no isolation by barriers 
exists, but that there is continuous distribu- 
tion. Indeed, there is continuous distribu- 
tion, but there is no continuity of bionomic 
conditions. These different bionomic condi- 
tions pass into each other, and, consequently, 
we have varieties, and not species. This is 
clearly the first step toward complete isolation, 
and for complete isolation ‘barriers’ in most 
cases are not absolutely necessary features. 

It is not quite correct to conceive isolation 
only in its coarsest sense, as topographic or 
climatic separation. This mistake is often 
made, but I pointed out, about ten years 
ago, that the real and most important value 
of the principle of separation lies in its gen- 
eral bionomic sense. The same idea was 
maintained long ago by Gulick, and has been 
treated recently by him in an elaborate mono- 
graph= I am fully in accord with most of 
Gulick’s ideas as to the influence of separa- 
tion upon the formation of species, chiefly as 
opposed to the senseless abuse of the term 
species introduced by the de Vries school. 
‘Bionomie separation,’ as used by myself, and 
‘habitudinal segregation,’ as used by Gulick, 
are practically identical terms. 

With Jordan (and with Gulick) I believe 
that ‘ bionomic separation’ is absolutely neces- 
sary for the formation of species, but that it 
is not the only factor taking part in the 
process called ‘evolution.’ With regard to 
this, I may be permitted to quote from a paper 
published by myself in 1896,* which seems to 
have been overlooked generally: 

* * * We have to distinguish fowr factors ac- 
complishing the diversity, development and dif 
ferentiation into species of organie beings: we 

3Gulick, J. T., ‘Evolution, Racial and Habi- 
tudinal,’ Carnegie Institution, Washington, 1905. 

**QOn Natural Selection and Separation,’ Pr. 
Amer. Philos. Soc., 35, 1896, pp. 175-197, espe- 
cially pp. 188-190. : 


72 SCIENCE. 


may call conveniently this whole process: origin 
of species, 

I then proceed to characterize these four fac- 
tors, which are the following: (1) variation; 
(2) inheritance of variations, ‘ consanguinity 
becomes morphologically visible’; (8) natural 
selection, acting upon the material produced 
by variation and inheritance, improving the 
average, and causing, under certain circum- 
stances, ‘mutation’;’ (4) ‘bionomie separa- 
tion’ (p. 190, 7. ¢.), forming what we call 
“ species.’ 

The four factors named, variation, inheritance, 
selection and separation, must work together in 
order to obtain different species; * * * it is im- 
possible to think that one of them should work by 
itself, or that one could be left aside. 


I have further demonstrated in the paper 
referred to, that Darwin already held prac- 
tically the identical opinion, although he did 
not properly recognize ‘bionomie separation,’ 
and introduced, in its place, the ‘ principle of 
divergence.’ In the face of this fact, it is 
only to be regretted that bionomic separation 
or habitudinal segregation has not received 
due attention, and is generally not understood 
in its true meaning by those that have little 
experience in field work; indeed, it is impos- 
sible to get an appropriate idea of it in the 
museum or the laboratory, and also the bo- 
tanical garden is entirely unfit to bring home 
its significance. I hope, however, that its 
real value and real meaning will become more 
generally known by and by. For those that 
have no chance to convince themselves in 
nature of the ever-presence of bionomiec sepa- 


ration, the study of QGulick’s book will be 


advantageous. K. A. Ortmann. 


PirrspurG, Pa, 


SPHCIAL ARTICLES. 
REACTIONS IN SOLUTIONS AS A SOURCE OF E.M.F. 


Permit me to eall to the attention of the 
readers of this journal certain observations 
which I have recently made relative to the 
chemical reactions in solution as a source of 


®' Not the ‘mutation’ of de Vries, which term 
is decidedly ill chosen, being preoccupied long ago 
by Waagen, Neumayr and W. B. Scott, and used 
in an entirely different sense. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 576. 


the electric current. So far as I am informed 
the phenomenon described below has not pre- 
viously been recorded. 

Some time ago, while carrying on a series of 
experiments upon photo-electric effects, certain 
features of the investigation led me to suspect 
that any and all chemical reactions give rise 
to a measurable quantity of electrical energy. 

In order to test this I introduced into a very 
small glass vessel two platinum wires, No. 26, 
to serve as electrodes. These electrodes were 
as nearly identical in dimensions as it was 
possible to make them. They extended down 
into the cell about two centimeters, at a dis- 
tance apart of, perhaps, two millimeters. The 
cell thus constructed held approximately 3 c.e. 
The electrodes were then connected by means 
of a short wire to a sensitive galyanometer. 

About 2 c.c. of silver nitrate solution (5:25) 
were introduced into the cell. Two or three 
drops of concentrated HCl were then added to 
the silver solution in the cell. Immediately 
when the acid came in contact with the salt 
a decided deflection was manifest on the in- 
strument. Stirring the reacting bodies in- 
ereased the deflection and at times reversed 
the direction of the current. The maximum 
deflection was about twenty-five scale divisions. 

At first the acid was introduced between the 
platinum electrodes. Later it was found that 
if the reagent was allowed to come in contact 
with the silver solution about either one of the 
electrodes the direction of the resulting cur- 
rent, as indicated by the galvanometer, could 
be predicted, 7. e., the current im all cases left , 
the cell by that electrode about which the 
reaction was taking place least vigorously. 

Different concentrations of the salt and acid 
were tried. It was found that the deflection 
of the needle was roughly proportional to the 
concentration of the reacting bodies. It was 
also observed that the current ceased when the 
reaction was complete, which, when the solu- 
tion was not sti-red, took at times a minute 
or more. 

Other combinations were tried as follows: 
NaCl and H,SO,; BaCl and H,SO,; CuSO, 
and NH,OH; KOH and HCl. Each of the 
above reactions gave rise to a decided deflec- 
tion of the needle, the current continuing 


January 12, 1906.] 


until the reaction was completed. The most 
decided deflection of the instrument occurred 
in those cases where the reagent was permitted 
to act more vigorously about one electrode 
than the other. 

To test as to the possibility of the phe- 
nomenon being due to a difference in concen- 
tration at the electrodes, the cell was nearly 
filled with water and a saturated solution of 
NaCl was introduced into. the water about 
one of the electrodes. While a very slight 
deflection of the needle was manifest, it was 
not in any case comparable with the result 
mentioned above, being not greater than one 
seale division. 

_ Another possibility is, of course, a thermal 
effect. To test this the cell was again filled 
with water and concentrated H,SO, was in- 
troduced about one of the electrodes. A slight 
deflection was noted—in magnitude about the 
same as in the last-mentioned case, one scale 
division. 

In addition to the above evidence against a 
possible thermo effect might be mentioned the 
fact that the magnitude of the current did not 
appear to be a function of the heat of reaction. 

The above would seem to indicate that the 
current is not due to a difference in concen- 
trations at the electrodes or to a thermo-effect. 
However, the data at present at hand would 
scarcely justify a definite conclusion in this 
respect. 

As to the ultimate cause of the current ob- 
served I am not at the present writing pre- 
pared to venture an opinion. J make this 
communication in order that other investi- 
gators may test the matter for themselves. 

Cuas. A. Cunver. 

RANDAL Morgan LABORATORY OF PHYSICS, 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
October 18, 1905. 


PEAR-LEAF BLISTER-MITE (ERIOPHYES PIRI NAL.). 


As with many of our orchard pests, this is 
an introduced species, and was undoubtedly 
brought into the United States in importa- 
tions of nursery stock. Since its introduction 
it has, largely through the nursery trade, been 
widely distributed in the pear-growing sec- 
tions, where it is usually a familiar pest of 


SCIENCE. 


73 


this kind of fruit. Within the past few years 
added interest has been shown towards this 
species in this state because of its attacks 
upon apple foliage. In 1902 the attention of 
this station was directed to its work in two 
widely separated orchards, but during the past 
two years it has been very conspicuous in 
many orchards in various parts of the state 
where it promises to be an important pest of 
this fruit. 

In the study of the habits and distribution 
of Hriophyes piri in the state of New York, 
two other European species have been found 
upon pear and apple leaves. These have been 
recorded by Dr. Nalepa by the names of 
Epitrimerus piri and Phyllocoptes schlechten- 
dali. The latter are distinguished from Hrio- 
phyes pirt in that the abdominal rings on 
venter are nearly twice as many as on dorsum. 
Epitrimerus piri differs from P. schlechtendali 
by having two longitudinal furrows on dorsum 
of abdomen. The former is found upon apple 
and pear leaves, while the latter has so far 
been detected only on apple foliage. 

P. J. Parrorr. 


N. Y. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 
GeENneEvA, N. Y. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE METRIC SYSTEM. 


Tur American people have a world-wide 
reputation for their ingenuity in devices to 
save time and labor. It is an anomaly that 
such a progressive people has failed to see the 
enormous loss of time and labor incurred in 
the retention of medieval and confusing 
weights and measures. 

- Three fourths of the enormous foreign trade 
of the United States last year was with coun- 
tries having the metric system—the system 
now in use among four hundred and fifty 
millions of people. Merchants import liquids 
by the liter, textiles by the meter, foods and 
drugs by the kilogram, and the innumerable 
consignments must be caleulated into and sold 
by different measures of volume and of length 
and by avoirdupois weight and troy weight 
and apothecaries’ weight. In exporting com- 
modities, on the other hand, quantities, weights 
and measures must be laboriously converted 


74 SCIENCE. 


into the terms of the metric countries to which 
they are shipped. 

One may imagine the time and labor lost in 
these processes and the tendency to prevent 
expansion of our commerce that these vexa- 
tions must exert, for where other things are 
equal the four hundred and fifty millions of 
metric potential customers naturally incline to 
deal with those who speak the same trade lan- 
guage as themselves. The views of exporters 
and importers recently presented through the 
Herald show how keenly they feel this handi- 
cap and how eager they are for the adoption of 
the simple, uniform and widely used system 
which would clear the existing obstructions 
from the pathway of commerce. 

If we had no commercial relations whatever 
with foreign countries it would seem incon- 
gruous that the American people, while pro- 
eressing in all other directions, should have 
failed to adopt such a unified and simple sys- 
tem as the metric for the facilitation of in- 
ternal trade—and this is nearly twenty times 
as large as that done with other countries. 
The first step toward adopting the metric sys- 
tem was taken forty years ago, when Congress 
passed the law legalizing it in contracts and 
court pleadings. Six years after that step 
was taken Germany adopted the metric system 
—and it has contributed not a little to the 
industrial and commercial growth at which 
the world marvels—while we are still weighing 
copper by one ‘ standard,’ silver by another and 
drugs by a third, with other confusions ‘too 
numerous to mention’ in measures of volume 
and length. 

We have been outstripped in the adoption 
of the metric system by Japan and by coun- 
tries that the average American condescend- 
ingly regards as half civilized. The metric is 
taught in our schools, but the children must 
also learn the complicated systems that are 
retained in use, although a full year’s time 
would be saved in their education if these were 
dropped. 
neering, in pharmacy, in industries that de- 
mand nice measurements, like the manufac- 
ture of automobiles, and watchmaking, and in 
numerous other fields the metric system is in 
common use to-day. Why longer continue the 


In electrical operations, in engi-_ 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 576. 


confusion and the loss of time and labor and 
accuracy involved in retaining the obsolete 
weights and measures? Congress should 
awaken to the fact that this is the twentieth 
century and comply with the demand for 
adoption of the metric system. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 


METEOROLOGY AT THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHIC CONGRESS. 

Tur Highth International Geographic Con- 
gress was held in the United States in Sep- 
tember, 1904, and the Report has just been 
published, ‘by courtesy of the United States 
Congress at the Government Printing Office.’ 
The number of papers devoted to meteoro- 
logical and climatological subjects was not 
large, but the matters treated in these papers 
were of some general interest. Dr. Cleveland 
Abbe, Jr., in his ‘ Meteorological Summary 
for Agafia, Island of Guam, for 1902,’ presents 
a discussion, along approved lines, of the data 
collected during one year at Guam, and while 
the period is very short, the tropical condi- 
tions of the island make a long series of ob- 
servations much less necessary than is the 
ease in a higher latitude. Professor A. J. 
Henry,, of the Weather Bureau, in an account 
of ‘A Climatological Dictionary of the United 
States,’ calls attention to the summary of the 
climatological work that has been done in this 
country which is now in preparation by the 
Weather Bureau. The first chapter of the 
new volume, which is really a census of the 
climatology of the United States, will treat of 
the broader features of climate, and the re- 
maining chapters will deal with the climates 
of the several states and territories. The 


records of about 600 stations will be used. 
The ‘Scientific Work of Mount Weather 


‘Meteorological Research Observatory’ is con- 


sidered by Professor F. H. Bigelow; who states 
that the Weather Bureau is ‘looking to the 
future needs of a rapidly developing and in- 
tensely interesting branch of science’ and is 
“trying to build the very best observatory pos- 
sible.’ Frequent mention of the Mount 
Weather Observatory has been made in these 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


notes. The disregard of the cyclonic ele- 
ment in climatological summaries is believed 
by R. DeC. Ward to be a distinct disadvantage, 
in his ‘Suggestions concerning a more 
‘Rational Treatment of Climatology.’ Annual, 
monthly and daily summaries, being concerned 
- with final and definite periods, do not bring 
out the variations of the climatic elements 
under cyclonic control, and yet the irregular 
eyclonic changes are the very ones which most 
closely affect man. In a rather striking way, 
a paper by Dr. H. R. Mill, ‘On the Unsym- 
metrical Distribution of Rainfall about the 
Path of a Barometric Depression crossing the 
British Isles,’ emphasizes the value of a dis- 
cussion of one element of climate—in this 
ease rainfall—on the basis of the cyclonic, not 
the diurnal or weekly, unit. Dr. Mill’s study 
of the distribution of rainfalls in relation to 
the individual cyclones which produce these 
rains is a distinet advance on the usual sum- 
maries of the conventional kind. Papers on 
climate are contributed as follows: Canada, 
by R. F. Stupart, director of the Canadian 
Meteorological Service; Kimberley, by J. R. 
Sutton, meteorologist of the De Beers Mines; 
Natal, by F. W. D’Evelyn; Pamplemousses, 
Mauritius, by T. F. Claxton, director of the 
Royal Alfred Observatory, Mauritius; Ts’ 
Aidam, Tibet, by A. Kaminski; Western 
Australia, by W. Ernest Cooke, government 
astronomer of Western Australia. Two papers 


on meteorological exploration are contributed, 


one (abstract) by A. Lawrence Rotch, ‘ A Pro- 
' ject for the Exploration of the Atmosphere 
over the Tropical Oceans,’ a plan which Mr. 
Rotch was able to carry into effect during the 
past summer; and one by H. Arctowski, on 
“Antaretie Meteorology and International Co- 
operation in Polar Work.’ Mr. Wm. Mar- 
riott, assistant secretary of the Royal Meteoro- 
logical Society, contributes a paper on ‘ Rain- 
fall with Altitude in England and Wales,’ in 
which the data for 1881-1890 are dealt with. 
The increase of rainfall with altitude; the 
greater rainfall in the west than in the east, 
and the greater range of the monthly rainfall 
in the west are the more important points 
brought out. 


SCIENCE. 70 


REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE WEATHER BUREAU. 


THe annual report of the chief of the 
Weather Bureau (for the year ending June 
30, 1904) has recently been published. The 
forecasts of hurricanes, gales, snow, cold 
waves, ete., were successful, and their economic 
value was generally recognized. The River 
and Flood Service is to be extended. Long- 
range forecasts, issued by various persons for 
a month or so in advance, continue to give 
Weather Bureau officials much trouble, and 
the matter is given some attention in the 
present volume. The conclusions reached by 
the bureau (p. xvii) are the logical ones, but 
we are inclined to believe that it is a mis- 
take for our Weather Bureau to pay too much 
attention to these ‘fake’ forecasts. Advertis- 
ing is what some persons most desire, and we 
should suppose that the ‘weather prophet’ 
might inerease the number of subscribers to 
his publications as a result of the ‘notoriety 
gained in this way. It is encouraging to 
note the cooperation of several universities 
and colleges with the Weather Bureau. Some 
of these institutions have given the govern- 
ment land for the erection of meteorological 
stations, and others (Brown and the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin) have provided, without 
cost, office quarters for recently established 
stations. A considerable series of investiga- 
tions to be carried on at Mount Weather is 
enumerated. 


HIEALTH, DISEASE, DEATHS AND THE WEATHER. 


From the earliest times, the relations be- 
tween weather conditions and health have at- 
tracted attention. In recent years, with the 
discovery of the micro-organisms which cause 
many diseases, our notions regarding the 
effects of weather and climate have undergone 
considerable change. Nevertheless, there are 
many direct and indirect relations between 
meteorological conditions and the prevalence 
of, and deaths from, certain diseases which 
ean not fail to impress any one who studies 
vital statistics. For the United States some 
interesting material along these lines may be 
found in the ‘ Vital Statistics’ section of the 
Statistical Atlas of the Twelfth Census, re- 
cently issued. Charts and diagrams show the 


76 SCIENCE. 


death rates from various diseases in selected 
areas, in cities and in rural districts. The 
proportion of deaths at all ages (1900) was 
highest in March; the deaths of children un- 
der five were at a maximum in August. For 
diseases of the respiratory system, the deaths 
are at a maximum in the colder months, as is 
usually the case, for obvious reasons. The 
same is true for diseases of the circulatory 
system and for diphtheria. On the other 
hand, for diarrheal diseases, typhoid fever and 
malarial fever, the maxima come in the warmer 
months. R. DreC. Warp. 


HaARryARD UNIVERSITY. 


THE AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 


At the meeting of this society held in Ann 
* Arbor, Michigan, December 28 and 29, the 
following officers were elected: 


President—Professor William H. Howell, Balti- 


more, Md. 

Secretary—Professor Lafayette B. Mendel, New 
Haven, Conn. 

Treasurer—Professor Walter B. Cannon, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Additional Members of the Council—Professor 
A. B. Macallum, Toronto, Canada; Dr. S. J. 
Meltzer, New York City. 

The following new members of the society 
were elected: Dr. C. L. Alsberg, instructor in 
biological chemistry, Harvard Medical School, 
Boston, Mass.; Dr. E. G. Martin, associate 
professor of physiology, Purdue University, 
Lafayette, Indiana; Dr. John Auer, fellow of 
the Rockefeller Institute, New York City; 
Dr. C. W. Edmunds, lecturer on materia 
medica and therapeutics, University of Mich- 
igan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dr. W. B. Pills- 
bury, director of the psychological laboratory, 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Dr. S. A. 
Matthews, associate in pharmacology, Univer- 
sity of Chicago; Dr. Swale Vincent, professor 
of physiology, University of Manitoba, Winni- 
peg, Canada; Dr. Shinkishi Hatai, assistant 
in neurology, University of Chicago; Dr. V. 
E. Henderson, demonstrator of physiology and 
pharmacology, University of Toronto; Dr. 
William Salant, assistant in physiological 
chemistry, Columbia University and fellow of 
the Rockefeller Institute, New York City; 
Dr. O. P. Terry, assistant in physiology, St. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


Louis University; Dr. C. C. Guthrie, in- 
structor in physiology, University of Chicago; 
Dr. R. S. Lillie, instructor in physiology, 
Harvard Medical School, Boston; Dr. J. H. 
Kastle, chief of Division of Chemistry, U. 8S. 
Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. 

The scientific proceedings of the society’s 
meetings will be published in the February 
number of The American Journal of Physiol- 
ogy. It is probable that the next annual 
meeting of the society will be held in New 
York City during convocation week, 1906-7. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


Tue following bills have been introduced in 
the house of representatives : 


December 18, 1905. 

Introduced by Mr. Needham, a bill (H. R. 
7017) providing for the transfer of certain 
national parks from the Department of the 
Interior to the Department of Agriculture. 
Referred to the committee on public lands. 

By Mr. Lacey, a bill (HI. R. 7019) -for the 
protection of animals, birds and fish in the 
Forest Reserves. Referred to the committee 
on agriculture. 

By Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota, a bill (H. R. 
7108) to authorize the establishment of fish 
culture and biology stations in the United 
States. Referred to the committee on mer- 
chant marine and fisheries. 


December 18, 1905. 

A bill introduced by Senator Teller (S. 21938) 
for a public building for the United States 
Geological Survey at Washington, D. C. Re- 
ferred to the committee on public buildings 
and grounds. 


By unanimous consent upon motion of Sen- 
ator OCullom, a bill passed in the senate on 
December 19, to appropriate the sum of $25,- 
000 to establish a Fish Cultural Station in the 
State of Illinois. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tne American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science having decided to hold its 
next regular meeting in New York City in 
convocation week, beginning December 27, 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


1906, there will be a meeting of the fellows 
and members of the association residing in 
New York City, or within a radius of fifty 
miles; on Thursday, January 18, at 4:30 p..., 
in room 305, Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia 
University. Members of societies likely to 
meet next year in affiliation with the associa- 
tion are invited to be present whether or not 
they are members of the association. 


Ar the New Orleans meeting of the Botan- 
ical Society of America, Dr. F. S. Earle, di- 
rector of the Agricultural Station in Cuba, 
was elected president; Dr. William Trelease, 
director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 
secretary, and Dr. Arthur Hollick, of the New 
York Botanical Garden, treasurer. It is ex- 
pected that the same officers will be elected by 
the Society for Plant Morphology and Physiol- 
ogy and by the American Mycological Society, 
which have effected a union with the Botanical 
Society of America. 


Av the New York meeting of the Astronom- 
ical and Astrophysical Society of America, on 
December 28-30, 1905, the following officers 
were elected for the ensuing year: 

President—E. C. Pickering. 

Iirst Vice-President—G. HE. Hale. 

Second Vice-President—W. WW. Campbell. 

Secretary—G. C. Comstock. 

Treasurer—C. L. Doolittle. 

Councilors—K. B. Frost and Harold Jacoby. 
Councilors Ormond Stone and W. S. Hichel- 
berger hold over from the preceding year. The 
time and place of the next meeting will be de- 
termined by the council. 

Durine the Christmas holidays, in connec- 
tion with the annual meeting at Baltimore of 
the Economic Association and the Political 
Science Association, a new national associa- 
tion, to be known as the American Sociological 
Society, was formed by about fifty sociol- 
ogists who were gathered there for this pur- 
pose. The new organization will meet at the 
same time and place as the American Economic 
Association, and in the constitution adopted at 
Baltimore its objects are stated to be ‘ the en- 
couragement of sociological research and dis- 
cussion, and the promotion of intercourse 
between persons interested in the scientific 
study of society.’ While the new society will 


SCIENCE. 77 


include in its members those ‘ practical sociol- 
ogists, that is to say, social reform workers, 
as well as theoretical and academic sociologists, 
the predominating viewpoint in its discussions 
is to be scientific, rather than popular or prop- 
agandist. The eall for the conference which 
resulted in the formation of the society was 
signed by T. N. Carver, of Harvard; F. H. 
Giddings, of Columbia; S. M. Lindsay and 
S. N. Patten, of Pennsylvania; E. A. Ross, 
of Nebraska; A. W. Small, of Chicago; W. G. 
Sumner, of Yale; C. W. A. Veditz, of George 
Washington University; and Lester F. Ward, 
of the Smithsonian Institution. The officers 
of the new society for the current year are: 

President—Lester F. Ward. 

Vice-Presidents—W. G. Sumner, of Yale, and 
F. H. Giddings, of Columbia. 

Secretary and Treasurer—O. W. A. Veditz, of 
George Washington. 

Haecutive Committee (in addition to the above) 
—A. E. Ross, W. F. Willcox, A. W. Small, S. M. 
Lindsay, D. C. Wells and William Davenport. 


Avr the annual meeting of the Philadelphia 
Academy of Natural Sciences, on December 
19, Dr. Samuel G. Dixon was reelected presi- 
dent; Dr. Hdward J. Nolan, recording secre- 
tary and librarian; Dr. Charles B. Penrose, 
councilor fer three years. and Dr. Horatio C. 
Wood, councilor to fill an unexpired term. 


Av the recent meeting of the California 
Teachers’ Association held at the University 
of California, the section of mathematics 
adopted School Science and Mathematics as 
its official journal and elected the following 
officers for the ensuing year: 

President—Professor G. A. Miller, 
University. 

Vice-President—Professor W. H. Baker, 
Jose Normal School. 

Secretary—Principal J. Fred Smith, Campbell 
High School. 


Stanford 


San 


At the meeting of the Entomological So- 
ciety of France of December 13, three hon- 
orary members were elected to fill the vacan- 
cies in the list of twelve honorary members 
caused by the deaths of Packard, Saussure 
and Friedrich Brauer. Dr. M. Standfuss, 
professor in the Polytechnicum in Zurich, 


78 SCIENCE. 


especially known by his investigations in 
Lepidoptera, in the production of varieties 
by the influence of heat, cold and moisture, 
was elected to fill the vacaney caused by 
Saussure’s death. Professor Antonio Berlese, 
director of the Entomological Station of 
Florence, and especially known for his im- 
portant studies on Coccide, his classical re- 
searches upon the internal phenomena of the 
metamorphoses of insects and his large memoir 
on the Acari, Myriapoda and scorpions of 
Italy, was elected to fill the vacancy caused 
by Brauer’s death. Dr. L. O. Howard, chief 
of the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture at Washington, 
fills the place caused by the death of Packard; 
the reasons given for his election being his 
work in entomology as applied to agriculture 
and medicine and his systematic work upon 
the Chalcidide and other parasitic Hymen- 
optera, especially in their relation to the 
enemies of agriculture. 

Dr. S. T. Tamura, B.Sc, M.A. Clowa), 
Ph.D. (Columbia), a native of Japan, has been 
appointed mathematician in the department 
of terrestrial magnetism of the Carnegie In- 
stitution, with which he has been connected 
as assistant for the past two years. 


A TELEGRAM to the London papers states that 
Sir David Gill has made a public announce- 
ment that he intends to retire from the posi- 
tion of director of the Cape of Good Hope 
Observatory. 

Tv is said that Dr. Koch has been placed at 
the head of an expedition to eastern Africa to 
investigate the sleeping sickness, for which 
the German government has appropriated 
$30,000. 

We learn that the eminent paleontologist, 
Professor W. Amalitzky, of Warsaw, whose 
death at the hands of revolutionaries was re- 
cently reported, is still alive and safe in his 
own house. A grim light, however, is cast on 
the situation in Poland by the fact that it 
took more than a month for the Russian 


embassy in London to obtain this information. ~ 


Dr. R. Burron-Orrrz, adjunct professor of 
physiology at Columbia University, who has 
for some years been the American editor of 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 576. 


the Biochemische Centralblatt, has also be- 
come American editor of the Bio-physikalische 
Centralblatt and of the Hygienische Central- 
blatt, published by Borntriger Brothers, of 
Berlin. American scientific men are re- 
quested to send to Dr.-Opitz, at the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, 437 West 49th St., 
New York, abstracts of their papers and re- 
prints of publications bearing on the subjects 
included in the scope of these journals. 

Dr. Maynarp M. Mercatr, who recently 
accepted the chair of zoology at Oberlin Col- 
lege, will spend the year 1906-7 in Germany, 
and will enter on his work at Oberlin in Sep- 
tember, 1907. In the meanwhile his address 
will continue to be The Woman’s College, 
Baltimore, Md. 

Dr. Orro NorDENSKJOLD gave an illustrated 
lecture before the Geographical Society of 
Philadelphia on January 4. He took as his 
subject, ‘Two Years amongst the Ice of the 
South Pole.’ 

Proressor Rouanp THaxter, of Harvard 
University, has a year’s leave of absence, dur-- 
ing which he will make botanical collections 
in South America. 

Dr. Sven Henry, the Swedish explorer, has 
arrived at Teheran. 

A memortAL medal in honor of Andrée has 
been made by Londberg, the Swedish engraver. 
The artist represents Andrée’s balloon rising 
from the ice. The explorer is looking anx- 
iously toward the north. A group of young 
men are applauding, while an old man looks 
toward the horizon doubtfully. Below is the 
date, July 11, 1897.. On the obverse appears 
the profile of Andrée. 

Dr. Orro A. Moszs, the geologist and chem- 
ist and at one time state geologist of South 
Carolina, died on January 3 at the age of 
sixty years. Dr. Moses founded the Hebrew 
Technical Institute of New York City. 

Cartes Jasper Joy, F.R.S., astronomer 
royal of Ireland, and professor of astronomy, 
at Dublin University, also known for his con- 
tributions to quaternions, has died at the age 
of forty-two years. 

Tre death is announced of Mr. Frederick 
William Burbidge, M.A., curator of the 


JANUARY 12, 1906.] 


Botanical Gardens of Trinity College, Dublin, 
at the age of fifty-nine years. 


Dr. Putnipp-Batuirr, the German meteorol- 
ogist, died on November 6, at the age of sixty 
years. 


Tuer daily papers state that Mr. Radiguet, 
the French instrument-maker and man of sci- 
ence, has died as the result of exposure to the 
Rontgen rays. 


Tue will of the late Charles T. Yerkes, who 
owed his large fortune to the direct application 
of recent advances in science, makes provision 
for three important institutions, which are to 
bear his name. - The Yerkes Observatory, to 
which he has already contributed liberally, re- 
ceives $100,000, the Yerkes galleries and the 
Yerkes hospital are to be established in New 
York City, on the death of his widow, or 
sooner should she wish. The hospital will also 
be established in case of the death of one of 
the two children. After certain bequests to 
Mrs. Yerkes, to his son and daughter and to 
others have been made, a trust fund is estab- 
lished, most of which will ultimately go to 
the support of the hospital. It is said that 
the value of the house on Fifth Avenue to be 
used for the galleries is $1,000,000, and that 
the value of the collections is $4,000,000. 
$750,000 are provided as an endowment fund 
for the galleries, which will be under the con- 
trol of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The 
hospital, which is to be situated in the borough 
of the Bronx, will receive, it is estimated by 
the daily papers, from $5,000,000 to $16,000,000. 


Tue letter of President Roosevelt to Chief 
Justice Fuller, chancellor of the Smithsonian 
Institution, recommending the acceptance of 
the art collections of- Mr. Charles A. Freer, has 
been widely published, and has probably led 
to some misunderstanding. The regents of 
the Smithsonian Institution fully appreciate 
the value of Mr. Freer’s collections and the 
desirability of having them at Washington, 
and his liberality in not only giving the col- 
lections, but in also consenting to provide on 
his death a building to house them. But he 
makes the condition that nothing shall be 


added to or taken from the collection after his ' 


death, and it would be necessary for the Smith- 


SCIENCE. 79 


sonian Institution to provide some $10,000 
for its maintenance. This can only be done 
by a congressional appropriation, and can not 
be definitely promised. 


Dr. Isaran F. Evernarr, of Seranton, Pa., 
has offered to present his natural history col- 
lection to the city, and to erect a $50,000, 


building for its accommodation at Nayaug 
Park. 


Tue public library of New London, Conn., 
will ultimately receive $40,000 by the will of 
Mr. Henry Cecil Haven. 


As an outcome of the formation of the 
division for the investigation of artesian 
waters by the United States Geological Survey 
three years ago a considerable number of 
geologists are now devoting their entire time 
to the investigation of underground waters 
and related geology. The need of a society 
for the discussion of the many problems con-- 
stantly arising in connection with new lines 
of research or investigations of more extended 
scope than those previously undertaken, has 
been felt for some time. Preliminary meet- 
ings looking to the organization of such a 
society were held on December 9 and 11, and 
on December 20 a formal meeting was held at 
which the society was formally organized, a 
constitution adopted, and officers chosen. The 
association, which is known as the ‘ Society of 
Geohydrologists,’ is composed of active mem- 
bers, consisting of residents of the District of 
Columbia or vicinity who are principally en- 
gaged in geohydrologic work, and associate 
members consisting of non-residents who have 
contributed prominently to the science of geo- 
hydrology, making it a strictly professional 
society. Meetings will be held on the first 
and third Wednesdays of each month during 
the winter. 


Proressor Russett H. Cuirrenpen, director 
of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale Uni- 
versity, has announced the following lectures, 
composing the fortieth annual Sheffield lec- 
ture course: 

January 19.—‘ The Panama Canal.’ 
William H. Burr. 

January 26.—‘ Alaska.’ 
Bois, M.E. 


Professor 


Mr. Howard W. Du- 


SUE ee SCIENCE. 


February 2.— The Evolution of the Sense of 
Hearing.’ Professor George H. Parker. 

February 9.—‘ Africa, from Sea to Center.’ 
Herbert L. Bridgman. 

February 16.— Total Solar Eclipses and their 
Significance.’ Professor Charles §. Hastings. 

February 23.— Florida Bird-Life, with special 
reference to the Life History of the Brown Pelican.’ 
Mr. Frank M. Chapman. 

March 2.—‘ The Wheat Country of the North- 
west.’ Dr. Claude F. Walker. 

March 9.—‘ How the Metal Calcium was iso- 
lated; a Story of Chemical Progress.’ Professor 
Edgar F. Smith. 

Mareh 16.— The Colorado Canyon and its Les- 
sons. Professor William M. Davis. 

March 23.— Botanizing among the American 
Indians” Mr. Frederick V. Coville. 


Myr. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tut Pennsylvania College for Women in 


Pittsburg, has been making a resolute strug- 
gle to pay off a mortgage indebtedness of over 
$60,000 resting upon its property, and to make 
a beginning in securing an endowment. $40,- 
000 were pledged to the latter purpose in case 
$150,000 should be subscribed by January 1, 
1906. The necessary subscriptions have been 
secured, and, after the mortgage has been paid, 
the college will possess as the nucleus of an 
endowment fund the sum of $125,000. It has 
a fine landed property and good buildings. 


Mr. ANDREW CarNEGIE has promised to con- 
tribute $50,000 toward the endowment fund 
of Bates College when $100,000 shall have been 
raised for the same purpose by friends of the 
college. 


Tue University of Pennsylvania received 
last month an anonymous gift of $50,000. 


Laxt Forrest University has received $30,- 
000 for a dormitory and the same.sum for a 
commons. 


Tue University of Wisconsin has received 
a bequest of $10,000 by the will of the late 
Mrs. Fannie Parker Lewis, for the establish- 
ment of scholarships for young women stu- 
dents in need of financial aid. 


Mr. Joun Frenny bequeathed sums amount- 
ing to £89,000 towards various institutions 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 676. 


and objects connected with Birmingham and 
district. These include Birmingham Art 
Gallery, £50,000; University of Birmingham, 
£20,000, and the General Hospital, £10,000. 
The bequest to the university is for the pur- 
pose of maintaining a professor, with suitable 
equipment, lecturing on some one or more 
scientific subjects directly connected with some 
one or more of the trades and industries car- 
ried on in or near Birmingham. 


Sir Donatp Currin’s offer of £20,000 to 
Queen’s College, Belfast, on condition that a 
similar sum was raised locally, has met with 
a satisfactory response. The president of the 
college has announced that the conditions have 
been more than complied with, and that with 
the amount secured previously the sum now 
stands at over £70,000. 


THE senate of London University imvites 
applications for the professorship of proto- 
zoology, established by means of funds offered 
by the Royal Society and the Rhodes trustees, 
through the colonial secretary. The salary 
attached to the chair will be £750 per annum. 


At the annual meeting of the trustees of 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College, on 
January 2, at the rooms of the State Board 
of Agriculture, Kenyon L. Butterfield, presi- 
dent of the Rhode Island College of Agricul- 
ture and Mechanic Arts, was elected to fill 
the vacancy in the presidency at Ambherst 
caused by the death of Henry H. Goodell. 
He will assume his duties in July. 


Tue regents of the University of Wisconsin 
have arranged for State Forester EH. M. Grif- 
fith to deliver a course of lectures on forestry 
before the students of the university. 


Dr. Wauter Mutrorp, last year instructor 
in Yale University, has been made assistant 
professor of forestry in the University of 
Michigan. 


M. Bareinxion has been appointed professor 
of technical physics in the University of 
Grenoble. 


Dr. Kart Cuun, professor of zoology in the 
University of Leipzig, has declined a eall to 
Berlin. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fray, JANUARY 19, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 


The Generic Concept in the Classification 
of the Flowering Plants: Proressor B. L. 
INGHINEORT goat bogus peonoo duos obobUdeonD 81 


Investigations and Commercial Tests in Con- 
nection with the Work of an Engineering 


College: Proressor D. 8. JACOBUS....... 92 
Address before the Central Botanists: Pro- 
FESSOR WILLIAM TRELEASE..............- 97 


The American Mathematical Society: Pro- 


IMO Is Wh Cows i casadnob760ds0000000 101 
Scientific Books :— 

Publications of the Jeswp North Pacific 

Expedition: Dr. FRANZ Boas. Nebula to 

Man: Dr. W. J. HOLLAND............... 102 
Societies and Academies :— 

New York State Science Teachers Associa- 

tion: A. P. B. The Society for Haperi- 

mental Biology and Medicine: Dr. Wm. J. 

Gies. The Society of Geohydrologists: 

M. L. Funuer. University of Colorado 

Scientific Society: PRoreEssoR FRANCIS 

IRANI? Jase oe sp ppooebod aoe Don eO ond eno 108 
Discussion and Correspondence : — 

Mendelian Inheritance and the Purity of 

the Gametes: Proressor E. B. WILson. 

The Logical Basis of the Sanitary Policy 

of Mosquito Reduction: PROFESSOR JOHN 

B. Smiru. Yellow Fever and the Panama 

Canal: PRoressoR VERNON L. Ketioce.... 112 
Report of the Tenth Geological Hxpedition of 

Hon. Charles H. Morrill: PRorEssor ERw1 

Pin Ckrmmve BARBOUR: i). aaa nicieiciae .. 114 
Report to the Trustees of the Elizabeth 

Thompson Science Fund of Professor 

Boveri’s Researches: PROFESSOR CHARLES 

SS Minn OMe 255 scaler ties szeh vol Weyer aso siseatar a posted ae 115 
The Congress of the United States......... 116 
Scientific Notes and News.................. 117 
University and Educational News........... 120 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SciENCcE, Garri: 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE GENERIC CONCEPT IN THE CLASSI- 
FICATION OF THE FLOWERING 
PLANTS-+ 
THaT many of the most useful scientific 
terms defy accurate definition is a fact 
which can not be denied. Indeed, the re- 
cent progress of science, at least in biology, 
has been away from, rather than towards, 
any dogmatic form of statement. Many 
terms, which fifty years ago were smugly 
defined in the text-books and manuals of 
the time, are now, when viewed in the light 
of the developmental theory and from the 
diverse points of view of modern investiga- 
tion, either well-nigh obsolete or have, 
through a gradual accretion of varying 
meanings, come to express only the vaguest 
generalities. This change is by no means 
a matter to be deplored. It is, in fact, an 
evidence of advancing thought. Loose and 
eeneral terms are giving place to more 
technical and specific ones at about the 
same rate that the older and vaguer con- 
cepts are being supplanted by the more 

refined distinctions of modern science. 

In some cases, however, the wide use- 
fulness and general familiarity of terms 
have made them, notwithstanding some 
vagueness, far too valuable to discard and 
difficult to replace; and in these cases it is 
a matter of great importance that. scientists 
should from time to time examine such 
terms theoretically in order that they may 
be apphed with reasonable uniformity. An 
excellent example in point is the word 


+ Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section G—Botany—at the New Orleans meeting 
of the American Association for the Advancement 


of Science. 


82 SCIENCE. 


genus, so well known yet so variously used. 
It is in no wise my purpose in the course 
of these remarks to attempt to redefine the 
generic concept, but merely to consider the 
present divergence in the limitation of 
genera and see if there. is any practical 
basis for a greater harmony in this matter. 

Plants are classified according to their 
degrees of likeness or dissimilarity to each 
other. In likeness we see evidence that 
certain plants are related, and by related 
we mean that they are sprung from a com- 
paratively recent common ancestry. Like- 
ness, it is true, no matter how close it may 
be, is not an absolute proof of near rela- 
tionship; but, since in most cases it is im- 
possible to trace conclusively the ancestry 
of existing species of plants, their degree 
of similarity furnishes almost the only evi- 
dence available in regard to their relation- 
ship. I need scarcely say that by hkeness 
is here meant not mere habital resemblance, 
but the sum of all the morphological, 
anatomical and physiological similarities 
between the plants compared. Bearing 
these matters in mind, we may roughly de- 
seribe a genus (when pluritypic) as a 
group of species which from likeness, ap- 
pear to be more nearly related to each 
other than they are to other species. But 
so varying are the degrees of similarity and 
so diverse is human judgment regarding 
them, that such a definition offers only 
an exceedingly vague basis for a uniform 
classification. 

Indeed, the practise of different botan- 
ists in the interpretation of genera has been 
so multifarious that many persons have 
become sceptical as to the real existence 
of such groups in nature and are accord- 
ingly inclined to treat the whole subject 
of generic classification as a mere matter 
of utility, a sort of division of the plant 
world into sections of convenient size by 
confessedly artificial lines analogous to the 
parallels of latitude and meridians of longi- 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


tude. But much may be said for the ob- 
jective reality of genera, at least in certain 
families. Who will wish to contend, for 
instance, that such tolerably uniform 
eroups as Lupinus, Aquilegia, Delphimmum 
or Carex are not far more distinct natural 
categories than are many of the relatively 
vague and ill-defined species of which they 
are composed. There can be no doubt 
whatever that in many families clearly 
definable genera exist and have been duly 
recognized. In other families or parts of 
families, however, the living species do not 
fall into sharply limitable groups, but are 
by character either somewhat isolated or 
more often exhibit highly complex cross 
affinities rendering any simple or convin- 
cing classification into genera impossible.. 
It is im such groups that uniformity of 


’ classification is most difficult to obtain, for 


it is in them that individual judgment has 
the widest play. 

There are two very different methods of 
treating genera. One is to lay much-stress i 
on the idea of a generic type, that is to 
say, a species of the genus in question, 
which is supposed to fix the generic char- 
acter and pass as a sort of sample or gauge, ' 
by comparison with which other nearly re- 
lated species are to be judged. If they 
appear to agree with this type-species in 
the essential characters, namely in those © 
points which in the particular family con- 
cerned have come through accumulated ex- 
perience to be considered of generic value, 
the species are considered congeneric with 
the type and receive the same generic name. 
The other mode of treating a genus is to 
endeavor not so much to group the species 
about some historic type as to indicate the 
precise circumscription of the genus by 
pointing out as clearly as possible just how 
its species as a whole differ from those of 
related genera. A species has sometimes 
been not unaptly referred to as an island 
in asea of death. Carrying out this simile 


- 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


as I believe Mr. Cook has done, we may for 
purposes of illustration consider a genus 
as a sort of archipelago of such islands, the 
members of the group being separated by 
rather shallow channels, while the archi- 
pelago is itself separated from other similar 
groups of islands by deeper channels. It 
has been urged that a type-species, when 
accurately defined, furnishes a sort of lati- 
tude and longitude of one island in the 
archipelago and thus gives one of the best 
means of locating the group as a whole. 
To a certain point this is undoubtedly 
true, yet the information, however impor- 
tant, is by no means sufficient for purposes 
of classification, for it is obvious that to 
know the precise position of an island in 
an archipelago gives no clue to the shape 
and extent of the group. To acquire this 
latter knowledge we must measure and 
sound the intervening channels. Let us 
carry out our figure a little further and 
agree that the breadth of a channel indi- 
cates the extent of actual difference be- 
tween the plants in question, while the 
depth of the channel indicates the fixity of 
this difference. It is obvious that islands 
may be far apart and yet be divided only 
by very shallow water, the space between 
them being from its inconsiderable depth 
very likely to be more or less filled with 
spits, shoals or sand bars. Similarly, as 
we all know, two species may in their 
typical forms be very unlike, yet exhibit 
such affinity that they are more or less con- 
nected by frequent intermediates, hybrids 
or atavistic forms. On the other, hand, two 
islands may be very near together yet 
separated by an exceedingly deep channel, 
in which any intermediate bars, shoals or 
islets are quite impossible; and in like 
manner two species may exhibit close 
habital similarity and yet maintain their 
technical distinctions with perfect fidelity. 

It is, of ‘course, these deeper channels, 
these natural intervals, no matter how nar- 


SCIENCE. 


83 


row and difficult to find, that should be 
diligently sought as yielding the most satis- 
factory limits of a genus. It is by the 
relative or complete absence of intergrada- 
tion that we must recognize differences of 
high antiquity and profound classificatory 
significance. It is not by the visible extent 
of the differences, but by their constancy 
that their importance is to be measured. 
This is, of course, no new thesis. It has 
been reiterated, time and again, in one 
form or another, by many distinguished 
biologists. Yet it is a principle habitually 
disregarded by many systematists, and to 
its neglect is due a large part of the annoy- 
ing diversity in current classification. 
Large genera are daily being divided and 
new ones artificially created on the basis of 
differences which are regarded as impor- 
tant solely from their magnitude or con- 
spicuous character and with scarcely a 
thought as to their constaney. But it is 
easy to see that botanists, who confound 
differences of degree with those of kind, or 
lay great stress on the wide divergence of 
certain type species and fail to take imto 
account the species which are intermediate, 
are like reckless mariners who estimate the 
depth of a channel solely by its breadth. 
The great majority of new generic 
propositions rest upon the examination of 
a comparatively small number of species; 
indeed, a considerable part of them are 
brought out in works relating to some geo- 
eraphically restricted flora. In such eases, 
it is a practise all too common to treat 
the newly proposed generic segregates as 
though they were made up solely of their 
representatives which chance to inhabit the 
particular region studied. In many in- 
stances this enables the writer to define his 
genera with a specious definiteness, which 
may appear very convincing to those whose 
botanical activities are restricted to the 
same local flora, but which, when viewed 
in the light of a broader knowledge of re- 


84 SCIENCE. 


lated extra-limital species, is quickly seen 
to be the merest artificiality. 

This introduces a subject which I would 
earnestly emphasize, namely, that those 
who attempt to alter generic lines should 
always take a broad, a cosmopolitan, view 
of the group concerned. To do so, may, 
it is true, involve great difficulty. It is a 
relatively easy matter to divide into groups 
two or three dozen species of any one of 
the great genera like Huphorbia, Solanum, 
Cyperus, Eupatorium, Polygonum or As- 
tragalus. It is a very different task to 
examine all known species of any of these 
huge genera and show that they may be 
divided into definable and mutually exclu- 
sive groups; but it should be perfectly evi- 
dent that nothing short of a definite dis- 
position of all the component species of a 
genus can be construed as a satisfactory 
and scholarly generic segregation. It 
would probably be within the bounds of 
truth to say that wide-reaching divisions 
of large genera have within the last decade 
been frequently undertaken without the 
examination of more than a quarter or in 
some instances a tenth part of the species 
involved. Such attempts may be compared 
if we return a moment to our marine simile, 
to the guesswork of a negligent explorer, 
who, finding an archipelago entered by a 
deep inlet or bay, should, after sailing a 
short distance into it, conclude that the 
channel continued at the same depth and 
in the same direction through the rest of the 
group, and who should, therefore, record 
such a clear channel on his chart, leaving 
to future mariners who attempt to sail by 
his map the unenviable task of discovering 
by sad experience the real course and depth 
of the channel. Neither such a chartog- 
rapher nor such a botanist is likely to enjoy 
long a reputation for accuracy or scholar- 
ship. 

On the other hand, it may be urged, with 
some plausibility, that many large and tra- 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 577. 


ditional genera contain very unlike ele- 
ments and that those writers who clearly 
perceive this should not be obliged to 
maintain the heterogeneous aggregate, even 
though they may not be in a position to go 
into the great task of examining all its 
foreign representatives and deciding in 
which component group each should be 
placed. It may be argued, further, that 
to impose such a burden of work as a pre- 
requisite to every more sweeping generic 
change would be to retard very greatly the 
progress of classification. These, however, 
are mere excuses for hasty and superficial 
work. In fact, just such expressions as 
‘composed of very unlike elements’ are ex- 
ceedingly apt to be based on differences of 
magnitude rather than those of constancy. 
Persons examining our indigenous species 
of Polygonum might very naturally sup- 
pose the sections Persicaria and Avicularia 
distinct genera. It requires a knowledge 
of the Old World species to perceive 
how untrustworthy are the distinctions 
by which these subordinate groups are 
separated. The caryophyllaceous groups 
Alsine of Wahlenberg and Melandrium of 
Rohlng are commonly maintained as gen- 
era by writers of central Europe and if 
only Huropean species are considered these 
might seem fully worthy of generic rank. 
It is after a study of Asiatic and American 
species that the alleged generic distinctions 
are seen to be weak and inconsistent. It is 
an easy matter to separate sharply our few 
species of Oxalis into groups on the basis of 
homogony and heterogony, on the color of 
the petals, and on the nature of the root- 
stock. It is a very different task to ar- 
range clearly in these proposed genera the 
species of Africa, in which yellow petals 
are sometimes associated with a bulbose 
base and purple petals with elongated leafy 
stems, in which heterogony bears no definite 
relation to color of petals, and in which 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


sealy rootstocks and bulbose base are actu- 
ally found in the same individual. 

The genus Hexastylis of Rafinesque has 
been recently restored and separated from 
Asarwm on the ground that the former has 
a superior ovary, distinct styles, and fila- 
ments shorter than the anthers, while in 
the latter it is said that the ovary is in- 
ferior, the styles united, and the filaments 

are longer than the anthers. This might 
seem to be an excellent generic division 
were it not for Asiatic species of Asarwm 
in which an inferior ovary is combined 
with distinct styles and nearly sessile an- 
thers. Examples of this sort might be 
almost indefinitely multiplied. 

In all these cases the generic segrega- 
tion is weak, ineffective and unscholarly 
because it rests on incomplete observation. 
It is, moreover, distressing to see what a 
strong prejudice there is on the part of 
many investigators against taking a broader 
and more cosmopolitan view of plant classi- 
fication. If genera appear to be good in a 
particular region, that is regarded as quite 
justifying their maintenance in floras treat- 
ing of that part of the world. This tend- 
ency toward insularity is to some extent 
perceptible in the work of different Huro- 
pean nations. It is far more noticeable in 
the growing separation of the taxonomic 
work of the eastern and western continents. 
It is obviously the outcome of the narrow- 
ing influence of specialization and should 
be vigorously combated, for it is seriously 
threatening not only the uniformity and 
harmony, but the normal progress and dig- 
nity, of our subject as a whole. For it is 
quite evident that were it to be once ad- 
mitted that generic limits rest not upon 
species of the world but are to be fixed in 
each flora merely according to their chance 
representatives in that flora, it would in- 
troduce a chaos into classification as ridicu- 
lous as it would be unnatural. Two genera 
might be justifiable in the limited flora 


SCIENCE. 85 


of Connecticut, which would completely 
merge were the other New England species 
considered; or two genera might present 
marked differences in New England, which 
would intergrade in the middle or southern 
states. It is obvious that if we are to ob- 
tain any measure of uniformity or stability, 
genera must be founded not on local, but 
on a cosmopolitan basis. 

It has often been suggested that excessive 
splitting of genera has been due to personal 
vanity of authors who enjoy creating the 
new binomials involved. However this 
may be, I much doubt whether any such 
unworthy motive has played great part in 
the matter, but infer that many authors 
share the view of Rafinesque that large 
genera are unwieldy things; that it is a 
very difficult matter to prepare a good key 
for such large numbers of species and that 
classification is rendered simpler and. clear- 
er if the genus can be broken up into frag- 
ments of convenient size. In regard to 
this it may be said that the subdivision of 
the genus into subgenera or sections ac- 
complishes precisely the same end with no 
confusion of generic nomenclature. Dif- 
ferent minds may work in unlike manner 
when confronted by the difficulties of iden- 
tifying plants. Personally, I should very 
much prefer to have the difficulty at,one 
point rather than at two; that is to say, I 
should rather have generic lines drawn so 
widely that genera would be pretty definite 
and readily recognized, in the manner, let 
us say, of Cyperus, Astragalus or Eu- 
phorbia in the broader and long traditional 
sense. The recognition of such genera re- 
quires little or no mental effort on the part 
of a botanist of any training. The atten- 
tion is left free for the specific identifica- 
tion and this may be undertaken with a 
happy confidence that all the species likely 
to come into question will be found in the 
same group and under the same generic 
name. These species may be inconvenient- 


86 SCIENCE. 


ly numerous, but at least one is not dis- 
turbed by any lurking doubt whether, after 
all, he has got the right genus. I can see 
no real simplification in haying Mariscus 
and sundry other vaguely marked sections 
of Cyperus treated as separate genera, so 
that in identification one must first struggle 
with the generic key and then, haunted by 
some misgivings as to his success in this 
matter, proceed to the specific key. As I 
have said, minds may act quite differently 
in this regard, but clarity of classification 
is after all a very artificial consideration 
and it is dearly bought if secured at the 
expense of misleading statements. There- 
fore, I can not believe that a writer when 
dealing with a limited flora is justified in 
stating that two genera are distinct if he 
is wilfully or carelessly neglecting their 
more or less complete intergradation in 
some other flora. 

It may be thought that the sort of world- 
wide perspective which is here advocated is 
a thine well nigh impossible; that a writer 
who attempts a flora, for mstance, of the 
United States will have his hands quite full 
with the difficulties of his already hercu- 
lean task and that his progress would be 
slow indeed were he forced to estimate each 
generic difference by the large standards 
of the world’s flora. Here I must use a 
much-dreaded word, quite a bug-bear of 
many a self-reliant scientist, namely, aw- 
thority. It is indeed quite impossible for 
any one of us to repeat the accumulated 
work of many decades which has led to 
the recognition of hundreds and thousands 
of genera. We must accept at least a large 
part of them on authority. The absolute 
necessity of this is so self-evident that it 
needs no justification. J am not advo- 
cating any slavish submission to the opinion 
of others, nor minimizing the importance 
of verifying and in every possible way cor- 
recting previous work, but merely urging 
a wholesome respect for the opinion of 


(N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


those whose intensive monographie work 
or broad cosmopolitan outlook has given 
them an exceptional opportunity to see 
just where generic limits may be most nat- 
urally and profitably drawn. 

Fortunately, the genera of flowering 
plants have been comprehensively treated 
in two or three works of high excellence. 
These sources of information are suffi- 
ciently complete and recent to be of the 
ereatest service to writers on restricted 
floras. In addition to such general guides 
there exist for many families very detailed 
monographs embodying the expert opinions 
which are the result of long and critical 
study of all members of the particular af- 
finity concerned. It is not to be denied 
that such monumental works exhibit a con- 
siderable measure of diversity im the inter- 
pretation of genera, but this is not wholly 
a misfortune since it permits a certain 
elasticity in classification and enables a 
certain selection according to varying judg- 
ments. Furthermore, however great the 
divergence may be in these large mono- 
eraphic and cosmopolitan works, it is rela- 
tive uniformity compared with the state 
which would soon obtain were genera to 
be defined in each flora solely according to 
its local representatives. 

One of the most unhappy tendencies ob- 
servable in modern classification is a grad- 
ual letting down of standards, a feeling that 
if a few ill-defined genera are to be found 
in a particular family, the others should in 
the interests of a sort of specious symmetry 
be cut up until all are about of the 
same degree of vagueness and uncertainty. 
When an author who tends to excess in 
dividing genera feels called upon to assign 
a ground for his action, it is in.nearly all 
eases that the segregates he is making are 
quite as good genera as many which already 
exist. 

This process of taking the poorest exist- 
ing work, of others for a guide or as a 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


sample of what is permissible might obvi- 
ously be carried on forever. In the great 
majority of cases this type of classification 
is the work of authors who have quite lost 
sight of the fact that it is not the magni- 
tude but the constaney of the differences 
which is of real significance in classifica- 
tion. There is, for instance, no more dan- 
gerous theory than that because a particu- 
lar trait, let us say the presence of a corona, 
forms an excellent generic distinction in 
one family it must necessarily be of generic 
significance in another. 

The frequent occurrence in botanical lit- 
erature of such expressions as “a generic 
difference,’ “distinctions of generic rank,’ 
etc., seems to indicate a more or less wide- 
spread feeling that differences of a par- 
ticular kind or magnitude, or relating to 
special plant-structures, are in some way 
recognizable as diagnostic characteristics 
of generic value as opposed to those which 
can be used merely for the separation of 
species or varieties. There is a common 
idea, for instance, that a difference of floral 
structure, or especially one of fruit or seed, 
is almost infallibly trustworthy in the sepa- 
ration of genera. This belief has certainly 
the justification that distinctions in the 
essential parts of the flower or in the fruit 
are much more apt to be fixed, are at least 
far more constant, than those of habit, 
foliage or pubescence, since the latter ap- 
pear much more subject to modification 
with varying environment. Nevertheless, 
this theory, as a rule of classification, may 
easily be carried too far. When carefully 
examined, very few differences in the struc- 
ture of flower or fruit will be found to 
be invariably of generic value. Nearly 
all appear at some point. in the plant 
system to be in a fluctuating state. For 
example, the position of the cotyledons, 
although possessmg a high value in sepa- 
rating many cruciferous genera, completely 
breaks down in the genus Lepidium, where 


SCIENCE. 87 


in plants of the closest habital similarity 
accumbent and incumbent cotyledons are 
found. In the Rosacex the unlike adnation 
and connation of the floral parts furnish in 
some portions of the great family excellent 
generic and even tribal distinctions. In 
other rosaceous genera, however, the same 
diversity of adnation and connation occurs 
in species which are obviously of such close 
relationship and so connected by imterme- 
diates that their generic separation is by no 
means convineing. Many other instances 
of this kind might be cited to show that a 
difference having great classificatory sig- 
nificance in one place may be almost value- 
less in another. 

It is fair to mquire how we know this. 
If, for example, genera of the Crucifere 
ean be readily separated by the position 
of the cotyledons, why is it not after all 
the most logical course to treat Lepidiwm 
virguucum, with its aecumbent cotyledons, 
as constituting a genus distinct from the 
other species of Lepidiwm in which the 
cotyledons are incumbent? There are two 
pretty obvious reasons against this. One 
is that in Lepidiwm there are other species 
which have transitional cotyledons, exhibit- 
ine various degrees of obliquity. In the 
second place, the accumbent cotyledons of 
Lepidium virginicum, although a striking 
character, are unaccompanied by any other 
difference of moment. From this fact we 
may reasonably infer that in this particular 
group the difference in the position of the 
cotyledons is of relatively recent origin, 
for it has not had time to become correlated 
with any other trait of significance or con- 
staney. This brings us to a matter of great 
practical as well as theoretical importance 
in classification, namely, that few, if any, 
genera carry conviction as natural groups, 
or, to be more precise, naturally delimit- 
able groups, unless they can be separated 
by more than one feature. The ideal genus 
is certainly one in which several distin- 


88 SCIENCE. 


‘guishine traits are constantly associated. 
When limits are properly drawn it is cer- 
tainly true that a very lareeé number of 
such ideal genera exist. Unfortunately for 
the peace of mind of the systematist, how- 
ever, there are considerable series of species 
in certain families, which quite defy classi- 
fication into genera of this sort. They are 
groups im which we are forced into accept- 
ing a far less satisfactory type of generic 
division, and in some eases it is necessary 
to make the most of a single character. Of 
this fact, the genera Arenaria and Stellaria 
furnish an excellent example. So far as I 
am aware there is no technical distinction 
between these genera except in the petals, 
which are entire in Arenaria and bifid in 
Stellaria, and this difference becomes very 
weak in certain species in which the petals 
are merely emarginate, yet I doubt if any 
systematist at present wishes to unite these 
two large and traditionally maintained 
genera. : 

It is thus clear that by common consent 
we are willing to preserve for the sake of 
practical convenience certain familiar gen- 
era, even though precise technical grounds 
are lacking and a few intermediates occur. 
In other words, there is an historic element 
which will obtrude itself into our classifica- 
tion. Its influence is obviously opposed to 
a truly natural and symmetrical system; 
nevertheless, much as it may be deplored 
on theoretical grounds, it is an undeniable 
fact, and as such demands careful scrutiny 
and consideration. 

Perhaps no large family shows the im- 
portance of the historic element in generic 
elassification better than the Composite. 
The lack of sharp boundaries between such 
genera as Aster, Hrigeron and Conyza, 
Solidago, Aplopappus and Bigelovia, is 
patent to all whose botanical experience 
extends beyond the limits of some local 
flora, yet so far as I am aware no botanist 
has been willing to accept a recent proposi- 


‘tion. 


[N. 8. Vor. XXIIL. ‘No. 577. 


tion’ to merge several of these genera into 


one. The genera have through long recog- 
nition become a practical aid in classifica- 
They are’groups' into which at least 
a very high percentage of the component 
species may be naturally associated, those 
of intermediate character being, notwith- 
standing their undeniable existence, rela- 
tively little in evidence. 

But it may be asked whether the recogni- 
tion of such somewhat ill-defined genera is 
not quite at variance with our fine theories 
that genera should be groups capable of 
clear and mutually exclusive definition, 
archipelagoes separated by deep and safely 
navigable channels. Certainly this is quite 
true, but I must beg you to notice that I 
am in no wise urging any one to recognize 
weak or poorly limited genera; I am merely 
stating the undeniable fact that certain 
groups of this sort are now so widely recog- 
nized as genera that we have no choice in 
the matter. Aster, Hrigeron, Conyza and 
the like have become established facts in 
classification. They fail to reach our 
ideals, but this does not of necessity mean 
that we must let down our standards else- 
where. Attention may be called to the fact 
that when they were first proposed these 
genera were, so far as they were then 
known, quite as distinct as could be desired ; 
their present vague and merging state be- 
ing due chiefly to intermediates discovered 
long after the founding of the genera. 
With the increase of knowledge these gen- 
era which once seemed distinct have grown 
together, the process has been a gradual 
one and at no time has it seemed desirable 
to abandon the idea of these genera, al- 
though it has become increasingly evident 
that it is to a great extent artificial. This 
is one way in which the historic element 
has entered into our classification. We may 
readily admit that the authors establishing 
these old and now merging genera were in 
most instances justified in doing so, because 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


according to the knowledge of their time 
the groups seemed pretty sharply separable, 
yet that does not mean that we should take 
those merging genera as a model for our 
own work. It is, for instance, a very dif- 
ferent matter at this time to pronounce the 
ereat and long united genus Astragalus a 
complex of distinct genera, for with our 
present knowledge of the gradual transi- 
tions between these alleged segregates of 
Astragalus, their treatment as separate 
genera involves a sort of suppression of 
facts. 

It is for this reason that writers who 
divide large genera on the ground that the 
component parts are just as good genera as 
many which are traditionally maintained 
are doomed to the disappointment of seeing 
their propositions neglected. We may 
readily pardon the older writer who in his 
limited knowledge of species made some 
incorrect inferences as to generic lines, who 
pointed out the probable channels about 
his archipelago on the basis of a conscien- 
tious but necessarily restricted exploration, 
made, let us say, with a still imeffective 
sounding apparatus. It may even, for 
purposes of geographic orientation, be 
worth while to let his hypothetical channels 
remain on our charts, their shallowness and 
danger being duly indicated. It is quite 
another matter when we are directed by 
modern writers to record such channels on 
the chart at places where we know that 
they do not in reality exist. But it may be 
asked why, if it is sometimes desirable to 
leave the record of an old error, may not 
the very similar new proposals be equally 
useful for purposes of geographic orien- 
tation. If it is worth while to let old and 
now merging genera stand, why not make 
new ones of the same kind? But this end 
can be accomplished equally well by the 
use of subgenera or sections, and that too 
without our seeming to indicate that differ- 
ences are more constant than they really 


SCIENCE. 89 


are, without our being obliged to record a 
navigable channel where none exists. 

The division of large genera into several 
smaller ones is commonly accompanied by 
a certain loss about which little has been 
said, the obscuring, namely, of the exist- 
ence of the larger affinity which had been 
indicated by the old and more comprehen- 
sive genus. However diverse the elements 
of @nothera may be, it can not be doubted 
that they form a recognizable whole, of 
which the constituent species are more 
nearly related to one another than they are 
to Epilobiums, Gawras or to species of 
other onagracious genera. In other words, 
(@nothera in its comprehensive sense is a 
natural, although perhaps rather loose 
eroup. If we show the narrower affinities, 
by the use of subgenera, we still have the 
word Gnothera left to cover the larger 
relationship.. This is a matter of impor- 
tance, for it gives the student at once the 
information that the affinities of the parts 
of the genus are closer than those of the. 
genus to other genera. If we give up the 
old genus @nothera and substitute a group 
of small component genera, we lose sight 
of the larger affinity and our classification 
is accordingly less clear and rich in its 
statement. It has suffered a distinct loss 
in the abandonment of the genus @nothera 
in the larger sense. An added disadvan- 
tage is that we are making the constituent 
groups, although they are of a nearer affin- 
ity and clearly belong to a subordinate rank 
in classification, appear as if they were co- 
ordinate with other genera which are still 
treated in the larger way. It is clear, 
therefore, that the division of a loose but 
more or less natural genus is attended by 
some'disadvantages quite unconnected with 
any considerations of sentiment or tempo- 
rary inconvenience. 

We have seen that the difficulties of 
classifying plants in a really natural and 
logical way are somewhat increased by the 


90 SCIENCE. 


involuntary and well nigh necessary ad- 
mission of a certain historic element into 
our systems. There is another source of 
this artificiality, besides the temptation to 
allow poor genera to stand, on the ground 
of long usage. The relation of a genus to 
its name is a matter which exerts no small 
influence in this regard. The attempt to 
determine which of several names is to be 
retained for a given genus constantly forces 
us to consider the historic basis on which 
the genus rests and to attach its name to 
some species or group of species to which 
it was first applied, to determine, in other 
words, what was the type of the genus, and 
to maintain the genus in such a way that it 
may always be true to its type. While 
sympathizing to a considerable extent with 
those botanists who desire to place our 
nomenclature upon a more secure basis by 
attaching the names to recognized types, I 
feel that the methods employed will have 
to be very cautiously applied or they will 
tend greatly to imerease the artificial ele- 
ment in our system. The historic type is 
not a natural thing; it is merely that par- 
ticular form of plant life which was, often 
quite by accident, first discovered and, 
therefore, first received the name which it 
bears. Later discoveries often show that 
this first species of a genus is by no means 
of a typical, or, as one may say, central 
character. It is often quite peripheral, 
perhaps even an aberrant or outlying mem- 
ber of the group to which it belongs. How- 
ever important the historic type may be in 
nomenclature, it is obvious that it is of no 
particular significance in classification, and 
any employment of the type method in the 
determination of proper names must not 
on any account be permitted to exercise 
any influence in classification. The word 
type itself is decidedly unfortunate as thus 
appled» to what: is often: very far from 
being typical. In this-as in some other 
phases of taxonomy it is of the greatest 


[N:S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


importance to keep it clearly in mind that 
nomenclature, although very necessary to 
classification, is a thing wholly apart from 
the classification itself. It is, furthermore, 
quite evident that nomenclature should be 
subservient to classification and that the 
clearness and accuracy of classification 
should never be sacrificed in order to give 
beauty or symmetry to any system of 
nomenclature. 

I have now stated my premises and per- 
haps you are looking for some conclusions, 
or possibly some practical suggestions as to 
the best way of obtaining a greater har- 
mony in the matter of generic classification. 
The difficulties of the problem are quite 
apparent. The limitation of genera has 
always in the past rested on individual 
judgment and it must continue to do so in 
the future. There is no way of making all 
people think alike on a subject so intricate 
and I am by no means certain that complete 
unity is really needful or desirable. The 
fact remains, however, that, although the 
genera of the flowering plants have now 
been scientifically studied for about two 
centuries, there is at present in America, 
at least, a degree of diversity in their inter- 
pretation which is rather, discouraging. It 
is disheartening because it is impossible to 
see in it any real progress toward a well- 
rounded and satisfying system, which will 
win the confidence of the professional bot- 
anist, give uniform training to the student 
and command the respect of our colleagues 
in other branches of science. From this, I 
think that it is perfectly clear that botan- 
ical systematists have certain imperative 
duties in regard to this subject. These 
duties are, in the first place, great caution 
in making changes, and in the second place, 
a feeling of obligation, when these changes 
seem necessary, to state the reasons for 
them ‘sojelearly and forcibly that they will 
appeal to all thoughtful and discriminating 
workers in the same field. The burden of 


JANUARY 19;-1906.] - 


proof should always rest upon the writer 
suggesting the change. It is rather sur- 
prising to notice how lightly this matter is 
taken by some, who attempt sweeping 
changes. It is by no means rare to see a 
few habitally similar species of a large 
genus split off and set up as a new genus 
with scarcely any attempt to give accurate 
definition to the new group or tell just 
what traits are of diagnostic value in sepa- 
rating it. The authors of such work in- 
dolently and carelessly shift the burden of 
proof upon others. Their statements re- 
garding genera are scarcely more than hy- 
potheses, but unhappily they are expressed 
not as theories or mere conjectures, but as 
facts. This, however, is not the worst type 
of publication on this subject, for it is even 
more misleading to assign generic charac- 
ters as in the case of the segregates of 
Oxalis, for instance, which do not hold 
good. Do not understand me to say that 
authors have been intentionally misleading, 
for I do not believe that to he the case. 
I merely mean to say that some writers 
who have made rather free changes in 
generic classification have taken so lightly 
their responsibilities in doing so and have 
felt so little the obligation to present any 
complete or scholarly proof of their dog- 
matically stated conclusions, that they have 
been tempted into rash and hurried asser- 
tions, which are in many cases decidedly 
misleading. 

It may perhaps be thought by some that 
this is unduly hard on writers who have 
intentionally adopted a lower grade of 
generic classification than the somewhat 
ideal one described a few moments ago, 
who believe in the practicality of treat- 
Ing as genera minor groups of allied spe- 
cies, although it is by no means maintained 
, that these are sharply defined or non-inter- 
grading. To this it may be saidithat these 
minor groups, being of a different classifi- 
eatory rank from the larger long-established 


SCIENCE. 91 


genera, such as Cyperus, Ginothera, As- 
tragalus, Ranunculus and the like, should 
not in any natural or well-devised system 
be treated as coordinate with them and bear 
the name genus, this name having been ap- 
plied to groups of a superior rank. This 
seems to me a very important matter. For 
if it were considered proper to apply the 
term genus to smaller and smaller groups 
with more and more vague definition, there 
is surely no end in sight and no real prog- 
ress toward a definite and reliable system. 
To draw an illustration from another sci- 
ence, it may be noted that each generation 
sees an added perfection and accuracy in 
apparatus for physical measurements of 
space, time and gravity, but the physicist 
does not feel it necessary on this account 
to shorten the meter scale, make his clock 
run faster, or file down the weights of his 
balance. His old constants remain as 
treasured acquisitions and it is by careful 
reference to them that his progress is made. 

What we need in botanical classification 
is a series of such constants, a number of 
eraded categories which can be generally 
endorsed and properly respected. Stand- 
ards as definite as those of the physicist 
are, of course, quite unattainable in dealing 
with the variable and often imtergrading 
eroups of organic creation. But where 
absolute accuracy and uniformity are im- 
possible, we should the more diligently seek 
to preserve such standards as exist. As 
has been pointed out there are but few 
families of flowering plants which have not 
been comprehensively treated by monog- 
raphers who so far as their particular 
eroup was concerned have been in a posi- 
tion to see pretty clearly where it was best 
to draw generic lines. While it must be 
admitted that there are many minor differ- 
ences in the generic concepts exhibited in 
the scholarly and monumental worksicto 
which I here refer, yet they establish a good 
usage, which on the whole has a consider- 


92 SCIENCE. 


able .measure of uniformity and which 
goes far to establish the rank of such cate- 
gories as genus, species and variety. This 
fact is clearly shown by the contrasting 
work of those free-lances who, armed with 
the less effective weapons of a more re- 
stricted knowledge, have in doing inde- 
pendent battle upon the difficulties of gen- 
erie classification followed other tactics 
and set up new standards. I doubt if they 
have realized how quickly and fully the 
personal equation is recognized in regard 
to their work, or how generally even the 
amateur and layman grasp the fact that 
their generic and specific propositions are 
not up to the standard. No one can change 
the temperature by making the degrees of 
his thermometer smaller. Least of all is 
it possible to make people believe that the 
shortened degree is as important as the 
longer one. Time spent in this mere let- 
tine down of standards and shifting of 
ranks is worse than wasted. The process 
is annoying and confusing, for to the nat- 
ural difficulties of generic classification 
plus a certain inevitable historic element 
of artificiality, it superimposes the most 
awkward and irritating difficulty of all, 
namely, the personal equation. 

Let us get something done and not spend 
our time in endless and profitless strife 
about first principles, thereby bringing 
confusion into what may be regarded as 
fairly well established already. There are 
limitless fields for further profitable work 
in the finer classification of the flowering 
plants without perpetual tampering with the 
boundaries of important and long-studied 
geenera—a type of activity very prone to 
sink to the level of a mere juggling with 
names. Having said so much against gen- 
erie changes of a superficial character, I 
fear some of my hearers may get the im- 
pression that I’ am opposed to generic 
changes in general and perhaps even to 
the further investigation of generic limits; 


[N.S. Von, XXIII. No. 577, 


but this is in no wise the case. There is 
certainly great opportunity for further and 
very profitable study of generic classifica- 
tion. The genera of several families, as 
for instance the Cruciferz, are in many 
cases pretty artificial groups. We need 
much further knowledge of the relation- 
ships of the species concerned. Let those 
who wish to be of real service in this mat- 
ter give us what we so much desire, namely, 
additional light upon the ontogeny, embry- 
ology or finer anatomy of these species, 
sources of information sure to yield data 
of high classificatory importance. 

In closing let me urge that, while we 
remit no effort to secure further light on 
this subject, there should be a general 
agreement to treat the accepted and tradi- 
tional interpretation of large and impor- 
tant genera as sacred and binding until we 
can furnish definite and convincing eyi- 
dence that change is needful, and that for 
the welfare and dignity of our science, all 
should unite in opposing changes of the 
artificial sort, which consist merely in the 
shifting of ranks and modification of stand- 


ards. B. L. Rogrnson. 


HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


INVESTIGATIONS AND COMMERCIAL TESTS 
IN CONNECTION WITH THE WORK OF 
AN ENGINEERING COLLEGE. 

In any school it is necessary, in securing 
the best efficiency in instruction, that the 
professors shall be able to speak with au- 
thority on the subjects which they teach. 
In technical schools those who teach the 
practical engineering subjects can not speak 
with authority unless they have had prac- 
tical experience, Investigations and com- 
mercial tests may serve to give them this 
practical experience, and the question nat- 
urally arises—is it a good policy for pro- . 

1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of 


Section D—Mechanical Science and Engineering, 
at New Orleans, December 29, 1905. 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


fessors to conduct such work in connection 
with their regular college duties? 

Let us consider the various ways in 
which a professor in an engineering school 
may acquire the practical experience which 
is necessary in his work. 

First, he may be ealled to a professor- 
ship from the practical field. 

Second, after teaching for a time and 
finding how necessary a practical experi- 
ence is in his work, he may turn to the 
practical field, and then return to teaching. 

Third, he may undertake practical work 
in connection with his college duties, and 
gain his experience in this way. 

Hach method possesses its own advantages 
and disadvantages. Starting with the first, 
it must be admitted that many of our best 
instructors have entered the teaching line 
after they have had experience in the prac- 
tical field. Such a man has an advantage 
in being able to make use of this experience 
immediately, when he starts in at his teach- 
ing work. There is a disadvantage, how- 
ever, in the fact that should he have se- 
cured a mature experience in the practical 
field, he will necessarily be no longer a 
young man, and it may be hard for him to 
teach and to properly adapt himself to the 
theoretical part of his course. Again, if 
hhe has made a marked success in the prac- 
tical field his financial reward may be so 
great that he would have to make a con- 
siderable sacrifice in this respect should 
he turn to teaching. There are some men 
who, from their love of teaching or through 
the influence of high ideals, have been will- 
ing to do this, but these are few, and the 
college obtaining such a man is, indeed, 
fortunate. This side of the problem is a 
serious one from the standpoint of the col- 
lege, because the man it would like to get 
may be beyond its reach, and those avail- 
able may have made only a partial success 
in the practical field. 

If a young man with a limited practical 


SCIENCE. 


93 


experience becomes a teacher, this will be 
of assistance to him, but not as much as the 
more mature experience of an older man. 
In either case, a professor should not as- 
sume that, having had a practical experi- 
ence, this is all-sufficient, and that it simply 
rests with him to base his teaching on the 
results of this experience. To keep in 
touch with what is going on it will be neces- 
sary for him to spend much of his time in 
studying what is being done in the outside 
field, or to resort to the third method, and 
do practical work in connection with his 
regular college duties. If he does not do 
this he will soon fall behind-hand, and the 
efficiency of his instruction will be de- 
creased. 

The advantages of the second system of 
securing a practical experience, where the 
professor leaves: the teaching field, takes up 
outside work, and then returns to teaching, 
are that during his practical career he will 
be very much alive to the points he should 
look into, and, furthermore, if he returns 
to teaching he will possess the advantage 
of having experience both as a teacher and 
as a practical engineer. We all know that 
there is much more to the right sort of 
teaching than a thorough knowledge of the 
subject to be taught, and that the old say- 
ing “a man must be born a teacher’ con- 
tains much truth. It is, indeed, just as 
necessary that a successful teacher shall 
have the right qualities as an instructor, as 
that he shall possess the necessary knowl- 
edge. The main disadvantage of the sec- 


ond method is that if a professor makes a 


success in the practical field his financial 
reward may, as already stated, be so great 
that it will be hard to tempt him back to 
teaching. 

We will now take up the third method, 
where a professor obtains his practical ex- 
perience by conducting outside work in 
connection with his college duties. In the 
first place, let us consider the subject from 


\ 


94 SCIENCE. 


the standpoint of the man himself. If he 
is an enthusiast, this method of obtaining 
an experience will lead to harder work on 
his part than either of the others. This 
assumes that his college work is not neg- 
lected, and that by doing the outside work 
he is making his course at all times better 
and more useful to the students. In this 
connection something may be said about 
the methods of teaching in engineering 
schools. I believe that the one proper way 
to teach an engineering subject is for the 
professor at the head of a department to 
get down to hard work with his students, 
and to know each of them so well that he is 
thoroughly acquainted with their personal 
characteristics. Certain parts of his course 
can be turned over to assistants, but the 
moment he avails himself of the assistance 
of others to such an extent that he is no 
longer in close relationship with the stu- 
dents, his efficiency in instruction will be 
decreased. In other words, the professor 
must exert himself to the utmost to secure 
the best results with his students, and when 
this is done, there is no harder way to gain 
a practical experience than by the under- 
taking of outside work, and if the professor 
is an enthusiast there is often much danger 
of his breaking down under the strain. On 
the other hand, if he manages to secure an 
experience which will give him the reputa- 
tion of being an authority in his field, he 
usually will make the best sort of a teacher, 
and be a eredit to the college with which 
he is connected. All this assumes that the 
‘elasses are not too large, and I am a thor- 
ough believer in comparatively small 
classes, and also that his teaching roster is 
so arranged that he will have time available 
for the outside work. It would certainly 
be unfair to expect a professor to gain a 
reputation in either research or commercial 
work if his time is so fully occupied with 
elass work that, with the exception of his 
summer vacation, thére would be little time 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


except the evenings in which to do such 
work. One must not be misled, however, 
in thinking that if some definite time, say a 
certain number of days each week, is set 
aside for the purpose that this will make it 
an easy matter for a professor to undertake 
practical work. If he is an enthusiast he 
will find that he must often stand up to his 
task night after night, and unless he is 
willing to do this it is folly for him to 
undertake to gain an experience in the 
way indicated. 

From the standpoint of the college, al- 
lowing the professors to undertake any and 
every sort of work to gain a practical ex- 
perience is a most dangerous one. There 
is a tendency in many cases to do work for 
which the professor has not the proper 
capacity, and in this way he may throw 
discredit on his college. There is nothing 
that will so greatly damage the reputation 
of a professor, and in turn of the college 
with which he is connected, as the issuance 
of a report which shows him to be incapable 
of properly coping with the subject, or 
which is in the nature of an advertisement 
for this or that machine or commodity. 
The outside work undertaken by a pro- 
fessor should be that of a scientific or 
strictly engineering type. In much of the 
work his reports simply recite facts deduced’ 
from various test data, whereas in others 
it is necessary for him to render an opinion. 
There is danger in arriving at false de- 
ductions as well as in advancing false 
opinions, and unless the professor can be 
thoroughly trusted, it would be better to 
eut out all such work. There is also a 
great danger of a professor bringing disre- 
pute to his college if he is careless m his 
testimony as an expert. If his testimony 
in this line is wilfully misleading, or if he 
depart a hairsbreadth from truth, it were 
well that he had never been given the 
chance of lowering the dignity of his pro- 
fessidn. On the other hand, a strictly 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


honest and able man may bring credit to 
his college by his success and acknowledged 
fairness in this same line of work. 

The advantage to a college in having its 
professors do research and outside work is 


that what reflects to the credit of the pro-. 


fessor will reflect to the credit of the col- 
lege. Furthermore, the college will be 
looked to as a source from which an un- 
biased opinion can be obtained, and in 
maintaining this standard it will be ful- 
filling a high and useful mission. The 
results of the investigations may be made 
the subjects of scientific papers to be read 
before the various societies, and any repu- 
tation that a professor gains in this way 
will benefit his college. Furthermore, the 
college gains through the acquisition of 
muéh of the apparatus used in the investi- 
gations. The college will also be the gainer 
financially, because if a professor is allowed 
to do professional work what he receives 
from this source really pays a part of his 
salary. Aside from a financial gain in this 
way, however, it is a question whether a 
college should endeavor to secure any great 
financial return from such work. There 
should be enough earned directly by the 
college to pay for the use of the apparatus, 
the wear and tear, ete., and for providing 
a fund for the purchase of new apparatus 
for the work; but aside from this, it is my 
opinion that the college need not be the 
financial gainer. I say this because if too 
much stress is laid on the money-getting 
side of the problem, it will not be possible 
to do the right sort of work, and to do it 
in a proper way. A party may be willing 
to pay a large sum for an investigation of 
a project where it is evident that no matter 
what results are obtained they will not add 
to the scientific knowledge of those under- 
taking the work, and where it is also evi- 
dent that all that is wanted is the name of 
the professor, and that of the college with 
which he is connected, for promoting.the 


SCIENCE. 95 


project. Such work should never be un- 
dertaken, no matter what the commercial 
returns may be. On the other hand, a 
poor inventor may desire to have a test 
made on some machine which he has con- 
structed, and in which there appears to be 
a possibility of development, and such a 
test might well be undertaken although it 
may give no financial return. The proper 
sort of commercial work to do in connection 
with a college is that of a research char- 
acter, or where scientific results are ob- 
tained. It will be found that when the 
work is limited to this sort that it often 
euts off much that is of a less desirable 
nature, but m which the financial returns 
would be greater. 

In all that has been said so far it is as- 
sumed that it is necessary for certain pro- 
fessors to have an experience in the out- 
side field. I do not think any one will 
question this. One is apt to get into a rut 
in teaching and to have his mental horizon 
narrowed so that he can not perceive his 
own faults, and there is no better way of 
expanding this horizon than to be a co- 
worker with practical men. The main ad- 
vantage that a practical teacher has over 
one who is purely theoretical is that he can 
make his course interesting by the intro- 
duction of practical examples, and in this 
way incite the students to study intelligent- 
ly, which is the real measure of his success. 
He may, however, make the mistake of in- 
troducing too many practical details into 
the course. It is essential above all that the 
fundamentals of the subject shall be mas- 
tered, and the true use of practical prob- 
lems, aside from securing the interest of the 
class, is to show that their solution is based 
on a few broad underlying principles. A 
practical man may also make a mistake in 
thinking that his way of looking at a prob- 
lem is so simple and straightforward that 
it will surely be grasped by the students. 
In teaching, however,,he will find that after 


96 SCIENCE. 


presenting a subject in what he considers 
a way that all must understand, there 
will be many, possibly the majority of the 
class, that have failed to grasp his reason- 
ing. Men’s minds work differently, and 
the path taken to arrive at the under- 
standing of a problem will vary, so that 
unless a subject is presented in several 
ways the explamation given by a professor 


may fail to fall into the line of thought of 


many of his students, and he will be dis- 
appointed in the results obtained. 

It is a fact, however, that there are 
many professors who have had little or 
no outside experience. This often occurs 
where a young man enters the profession 
of teaching directly after his graduation, 
and is placed in such a position that it is 
impossible for him to undertake any prac- 
tical work. Such a professor may make the 
best sort of a tutor, and may be most suc- 
cessful in imparting the fundamentals of 
a subject, but when it comes to being put 
in charge of a practical engineering depart- 
ment, it is here that his lack of experience 
will be very much felt. In a certain sense 
it is unfair for a head professor to secure 
the services of a recent graduate and keep 
him continually at teaching so as not to 
allow him to gain outside experience. 
Much thought has been put on this phase 
of the problem. Mr. Walter C. Kerr, in 
connection with his work as a trustee of 
Cornell University, has been in favor of the 
plan that a professor be thrown upon his 
own resources and be compelled to work in 
the practical field one year out of seven. 
This might appear all right from a business 
standpoint of the college involved, but how 
about older professors who have worked 
long in the teaching line; and have not had 
the necessary outside experience to qualify 
them for taking a position in the practical 
field? It might be very inconvenient for 
such a professor to have to accept a nominal 
salary in order to gain experience, but this 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 577. 


certainly would follow if he had been so 
loaded down with teaching that he was 
given no opportunity to work at the prac- 
tical side of his profession. On the other 
hand, if a professor through hard work 
and diligence has obtaimed experience in 
the outside field, while he is a teacher, and’ 
is forced, at the end of seven years, to enter 
the practical field, it is very probable that 
his success therem may be such that he 
could not be tempted back to teaching. 

From the foundation of the Stevens In- 
stitute to the present time, the professors 
have been encouraged to do practical work. 
At all times this work has been done on 
their own responsibility, that is the imsti- 
tute was not responsible for any of the re- 
ports given out. On the other hand, it has 
been well appreciated that should er- 
roneous or undignified reports be made it 
would reflect discredit on the institute, and 
great care has been taken that this should 
not occur. In 1894 the late Dr. Morton, 
who as you all know was the first president 
of the institute, established what he ealled 
the department of tests, the aims of which 
he deseribed as follows: 


It is part of the institute’s policy to make its 
laboratories and workshops the center of such 
experimental investigations as will be of direct 
commercial importance to the mechanical engi- 
neering profession, and likewise contribute to the 
same valuable technical information by which the 
knowledge of facts and principles which constitute 
the foundation of that profession may be en- 
larged. It is also part of the same policy to have 
its professors so in touch with the most advanced 
practise as to enable them to embody, in their 
courses of instruction, the best results of applied 
science in engineering practise. 

A department of tests has, therefore, been or- 
ganized to undertake measurements of the per- 
formance of steam-engines and other motors, and 
of the efficiency of boilers, refrigerating machines 
and mechanisms generally, including electrical and 
hydraulie apparatus, also to make tests of 
strength of materials, and to make various chem- 
ical and physical investigations, for the general 
public. Such work is assigned by the president 
to the member of the faculty best fitted to suc- 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


_ cessfully undertake any particular investigation, 
and the extensive facilities of the institute in the 
way of working space, apparatus, workshop appli- 
ances, skilled observers and mechanics are placed 
at the latter’s disposal. 

This might make it appear that all test- 
ine work from that time on was to be done 
by the institute as an institution, but such 
was not the case.. No other than personal 
reports have been issued by the professors 
who have undertaken the work, and in 
every case the professors themselves have 
been entirely responsible for the payment 
of all expenses connected with the tests. 
In many cases the expenses of tests are 
quite large, and the payment of these must 
be secured either by obtaining a retainer or 
deposit from the parties for whom. the 
work is to be done, or the professor making 
the test must run the risk of having to pay 
these expenses himself should the parties 
for whom he is doing the work fail to meet 
their obligations. This looking after the 
financial end of the problem is an essential 
one, as it gives the professors experience 
on the commercial as well as the engineer- 
ine side of the work. 

Tt has been claimed that the professors 
of an engineering college should not do 
work in the practical field, as this interferes 
with the consulting engineers who depend 
for their livelihood on just the sort of work 
that would be apt to be undertaken at a 
college. This is a very narrow view to 
take of the matter, and as far as my own 
personal experience is concerned, I can 
testify to the fact that much of the work 
undertaken in connection with my college 
duties has been done for consulting experts. 
The day is past when there can be a strict 
line drawn between the work of the con- 
sulting engineer and that of the professor 
who teaches in the same field. The ideal 
professor in a given line should be able to 
take up the work of the consulting engineer 
in that line, and the ideal consulting engi- 
neer should possess enough technical know! 


SCIENCE. 97 


edge to fit him for beg a professor. There 
should be no jealousy, but rather a bond 
of friendship in that the fundamentals 
which each should master are the same. 


D. S. JAcosus. 
STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 


ADDRESS BEFORE THE CENTRAL 
BOTANISTS. 

THE opening of the year 1902 was 
marked by the assembling in Chicago of 
the American Society of Naturalists, an 
association based on strict professional re- 
quirements for membership, which for rea- 
sons of expediency had limited its meetings 
to the eastern part of the country—a 
limitation specially set aside for the pur- 
pose of holding this Chicago meeting. 
With the Society of Naturalists had become 
affiliated a considerable number of equally 
strong professional organizations devoted 
to branches of nature study. All were 
largely indebted for their existence to the 
need that every student and teacher feels 
of the stimulus of personal contact with 
his peers in the work to which he is de- 
voting his life. 

The great summer gatherings of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, with its greater variety of in- 
terests and less strictly limited membership, 
had seemed not to give opportunity for this 
contact in the way desired, and the general 
and special bodies of naturalists, a large 
part of whom were also members of the 
association, had provided for meetings 
such as they desired in the short college 
recess of the Christmas season. Into this 
recess, lengthened for the purpose by a 
considerable number of colleges, the Amer- 
ican Association had deliberately moved 
its own meeting, in the hope that the active 
workers of the entire country, in every 
field of science, might find it possible to 
meet together as a single great body, impos- 


1 Presidential address at the Ann Arbor meet- 
ing, December 28, 1905. |" 


98 


ing in its numerical strength, ‘stimulating 
in its general program, and affording 
through adequate subject organization all 
of the advantages for which special and 
separate meetings had been arranged. 

The Society of Naturalists itself had 
long exemplified a good model of combined 
organization by occupying on its own gen- 
eral program only such time as was ac- 
tually required for the transaction of 
routine business, an evening when the 
president’s address followed a dinner, and 
one afternoon devoted to a discussion of 
some subject of broad interest, by capable, 
well-informed speakers. All of the rest 
of the time was devoted to meetings of the 
affiliating special societies. 

At the Chicago meeting the discussion 
turned upon the future of the American 
Society of Naturalists in view of the pro- 
posed invasion of its meeting time by the 
Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence. Having been invited by the execu- 
tive committee to participate in the dis- 
cussion, I confess that I went to Chicago 
undecided whether to urge the sacrifice of 
all that the separate meetings of the 
Naturalists seemed to stand for, or the 
transfer of these meetings into the sum- 
mer season—vacated by the association. 
I have never attended so large a meeting 
at which conditions were so favorable for 
personal conference without the formation 
of cliques as at the Hotel del Prado, where 
every post-prandial cigar was the occasion 
of a general discussion participated in by 
the officers and other members of the asso- 
ciation and the society, or of comparison 
of ideas with individuals representing every 
phase of interest involved. I had ex- 
pected to find a feeling of irritation on the 
part of those most vitally interested in the 
society, at the cowp which the association 
had effected, and was not unprepared to 
hear private suggestion that action should 
be advised adverse to meeting in connection 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


with the association. On the contrary, 
whatever irritation may have been felt was 
kept out of sight, every one was disposed 
to try to realize the greater things that 
close union promised if effective, and my 
own mind clearly shaped itself into ap- 
proval of the effort to secure for Convoea- 
tion Week each year a great national meet- 
ing representative of American science as 
a whole. The public discussion did not 
show dissent from this conclusion.” 

In deciding to try to meet with the Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, 
the American Society of Naturalists did not 
for a moment contemplate passing out of 
existence or into desuetude. On the con- 
trary, the decision led to its prompt reor- 
ganization on a national basis correspond- 
ing to its name, with provision for eastern, 
central and perhaps other branches, one or 
more of which should meet as the nucleus 
of the society in affiliation with the asso- 
ciation, according to the place selected by 
the latter for its own meeting. 

The second participant in the Chicago 
discussion began his remarks by quoting a 
resolution prepared for a business session, 
in which provision was proposed for the 
organization of a central branch of the 
American Society. My own opportunities 
for conversation with botanists of this part 
of the country had been many and favor- 
able, and I felt that I presented their opin- 
ion also when I stated my belief that an 
organization of the botanists under such a 
central branch was desirable and probable. 

Before adjournment, the Chicago meet- 
ing of the Society of Naturalists made 
tentative provision for the organization of 
a central branch, and as a member of the 
organization committee for this branch I 
am pleased to see the success that has at- 
tended the effort to provide for an annual 


naturalists’ meeting within reach of every 


cern 


worker east of the Rocky Mountains. That 
2 Science, N. S., 15: 241-255. 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


our western and southern colleagues may 
effect similar organization—with the like 
connection with the national society—is my 
earnest hope. 

Since deciding for it, I have been an 
earnest and consistent advocate of the plan 
for holding the annual national meeting 
in affiliation with that of the American 
Association. The first effort to bring about 
this united action was made in connection 
with the Washineton meeting of the asso- 
elation, a year after that of the naturalists 
in Chicago. Washington is a Mecca for 
every American. The interest of a visit to 
the national capital alone forms a great 
inducement to attend any meeting held 
there, and the attendance at this meeting 
was good and its program ample. Un- 
fortunately, though, the meeting places 
were so scattered that practical difficulty 
was found in getting from place to place, 
and the program seems not to have been 
such as to give the concentration of special 
interest that the naturalists originally or- 
ganized for, although their attendance at 
the meeting was large. I chanced to be 
elosely connected with the provisions for 
the ensuine St. Louis meeting, and was 
able to assist the local committee in avoid- 
ing—so far as was in the power of such a 
ecommittee—dispersal or clash of the many 
interests to be represented. Programs, 
however, are in the hands of the bodies 
that are to meet and not of a committee 
that is to provide conveniences for a meet- 
ing. The affiliating organizations were 
given dignified place on the general pro- 
sram of the association, their components 
were appropriately correlated, and the St. 
Louis committee had the satisfaction of 
winning commendation for a nearly ideal 
provision for the meeting, so far as its own 
duties went. A persistent gratuitous effort 
to adjust the meetings of sections and so- 
cieties of like interests so that they, should 
not clash was also made by the local com- 


SCIENCE. 99 


mittee, and met with the fullest coopera- 
tion of the officers of the association. These 
efforts resulted in very largely removing 
the difficulties that had been experienced in 
Washington, and led to the conviction that 
all clashes might have been removed if a 
little more care had been given to the prep- 
aration of special programs with reference 
to the work of the week as a whole. ° They 
also showed very clearly that far greater 
need exists than is generally and practically 
recognized, for the advance cooperation of 
the secretaries of all bodies that are to meet 
together. 

The trial already made, however, had 
failed to convince the naturalists that the 
experiment of affiliation promised a full 
measure of success. The American Society 
of Naturalists—I thought at the time 
largely out of consideration for its presi- 
dent, who was charged with responsibility 
for the local arrangements for the St. 
Louis meeting—decided to meet again with 
the association; but several of its strongest 
component societies declined to follow the 
time-honored’ custom of adopting its meet- 
ing place as theirs, and the purpose of the 
naturalists not to meet in regular affilation 
with the association seemed to be clear to 
a superficial observer, from what was over- 
heard where men get together, and from 
their selection of a separate meeting place 
for this year, though I understand that a 
very good joint meeting was held at Phila- 
delphia last winter, and one is hoped for 
at New York next year. 

Thus it comes that the Botanists of the 
Central States have as presiding officer at 
this meeting a member of their executive 
committee and not the man whom they have 
honored by election as their president, who, 
called by conflicting duties at places as far 
apart as the Gulf and the Great Lakes, 
finds it possible to greet and thank his fel- 
low members only through the voice of an- 
other—exemplifying in his own person the 


100 


present unfortunate decentralization of our 
national effort. . . 

It should be clearly understood, though, 
that conflicting duties of this kind are of 
necessity to be expected, and that their 
occurrence is not inherently harmful. This 
is a proposition of easy demonstration, 
whatever may be the status of national 
scientific. cooperation. The clearest note 
in the Chicago discussion that preceded 
our own organization was the pressing call 
for local societies. 

It has been generally conceded that meet- 
ings at least once a year are vitally neces- 
sary for men having closely allied profes- 
sional interests. It is equally conceded 
that our land is too large for all workers 
in a given field to flock to a single central 
point. However desirable it may be for 
us to have our interests represented in 
national societiés that do meet together and 
that speak for us all in the way that unified 
action alone can make possible, it is evident 
that more of us must necessarily stay at or 
near home during Convocation_Week than 
can possibly go to any general meeting 
place, even when this chances to be central 
—and the stimulus afforded to local growth 
by great national gatherings in every sec- 
tion is too valuable an agent in the further- 
ance of our purposes to be subordinated to 
the obvious immediate advantage of their 
restriction to easily accessible places. By 
going to the general meeting we shall 
‘always gain personal touch with men whom 
we neyer meet in any other way. But when 
we can not participate in the general meet- 
ing, we can get in the same personal touch 
with a smaller number of equally good men 
by attending the local meeting; and con- 
centration of effort on our own specialties 
without the necessary distraction of con- 
flicting attractions seems likely to yield us 
more real individual good at these local 
meetings. It is also possible that persons 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No, 577. 


who go to remote national meetings may 
be given the privilege of attending those of 
a more local nature by the ultimate shift- 
ing of the latter into the short Easter recess, 
which, though too short for extended travel, 
may be found to suffice for this purpose. 

We Botanists of the Central States may 
unaffectedly congratulate ourselves on the 
successful way in which our organization 
committee has performed its task. A 
charter membership of 124 men profes- 


‘sionally trained in one science affords evi- 


dence of intelligent search for available 
timber. It affords equally gratifying evi- 
dence that botany between the Appalach- 
ians and the Rocky Mountains has enlisted 
the effort of men among whom mutual con- 
tact is to be now more possible than before; 
and in quality the list is as satisfactory as 
in numbers. 

The mechanical trades have largely 
grown out of the journeyman system that 
once gave them a breadth that they no 
longer possess. In our professional life 
the migration of men from college to col- 
lege is frequent and beneficial. Perhaps 
some of our charter members have already 
removed from our territory before the hold- 
ing of our first regular meeting. If so, let 
us urge them to withdraw their names from 
our list and promptly add them to those of 
botanical organizations in their new homes 
—always cultivating the strongest possible 
federation of interests in national enter- 
prise. Others have doubtless come within 
our range since the organization committee 
completed its work, and some already here 
may have escaped even the keen-eyed 
search of this committee. Can I close bet- 
ter than by expressing my earnest hope— 
which I am sure you all endorse—that all 
such, now and always, will promptly unite 
with us? , 


WinuiAM TRELEASE. 


Jit: } §& 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue twelfth annual meeting of the Am- 
erican Mathematical Society was held at 
Columbia University on Thursday and 
Friday, December 28-29, 1905, simultane- 
ously with the meetings of the American 
Physical Society and the Astronomical and 
Astrophysical Society of America. Large 
attendance and extensive programs charac- 
terized this three-fold gathering, in itself a 
noteworthy scientific occasion. Community 
of interest received due attention. A joint 
session of the Mathematical and Physical 
Societies was held on Friday afternoon for 
the purpose of hearimg Professor V. F. 
Bjerknes, of the University of Stockholm, 
who spoke on ‘Experimental Demonstra- 
tion of Hydrodynamic Action at a Dis- 
tance.’ On Friday evening about ninety 
representatives of the three societies at- 
tended a dinner organized in honor of 
Professor Bjerknes. The common luncheon 
between each day’s sessions afforded an 
excellent opportunity to renew and make 
acquaintance and to compare notes, scien- 
tific or otherwise. Informal gatherings 
were also held on Thursday evening. 

The attendance at the four sessions of 
the Mathematical Society included sixty- 
six members, being a slight increase over 
the highest previous record. President W. 
F. Osgood occupied the chair, being re- 
lieved at the Friday afternoon session by 
Professor E. W. Brown. President Carl 
Barus, of the Physical Society, presided 
during the joint session. The following 
persons were elected to membership: Mr. 
R. L. Borger, University of Missouri; Pro- 
fessor W. B. Cairns, Ursinus College; Mr. 
A. J. Champreux, University of California: 
Dr. Emily Coddington, New York, N. Y.; 
Dr. F. J. Dohmen, University of Texas; 
Professor O. E. Glenn, Drury College; Mr. 
E. S. Haynes, University of Missouri; 
Professor J. H. Jeans, Princeton Univer- 
sity; Mr. A. R. Maxson, Columbia Univer- 


SCIENCE. 


101 


sity; Professor J. F. Travis, Georgia 
School of Technology; Professor Vito Vol- 
terra, University of Rome; Miss Mary 
HE. G. Waddell, Orono, Canada. Nineteen 
applications for admission to membership 
were received. The total number of mem- 
bers 1s now 904, a net gain of 31 during 
the year 1905. 

Reports were received from the treas- 
urer, librarian and auditing committee. 
These reports will appear in the Annual 
Register of the society. The number of 
papers read at all meetings during the year 
was 147, as against 148 in 1904. The total 
attendance of members was 280; 161 mem- 
bers attended’ at least one meeting during 
the year. The library now contains about 
2,300 bound volumes. The treasurer’s re- 
port shows a balance of $3,833.01 on hand 
December 16, 1905; of this balance 
$2,132.58 is eredited to the life member- 
ship fund. 

At the annual election, which closed on 
Friday morning, the following officers and 
members of the council were chosen: 

Vice-Presidents—Charlotte A. Scott and Irving 
Stringham. 

Secretary—F. N. Cole. 

Treasurer—W. S. Dennett. 

Librarian—D. E. Smith. 

Committee of Publication—F. N. Cole, Alex- 
ander Ziwet, D. E. Smith. 

Members of the Council, to serve until December, 
1908—C. L. Bouton, L. E. Dickson, Edward Kas- 
ner, E. J. Townsend. : 

The presidential term of Professor Os- 
good extends to December, 1906. 

The following papers were read at the 
meeting : 

R. G. D. RicHarpson: 
Integrals.’ 

A. B. Frizetu: ‘On the Continuum Problem 
(preliminary communication). 

D. R. Curtiss: ‘The Vanishing of the Wrons- 
kian and the Problem of Linear Dependence.’ 

J. I. Hurcurnson: ‘On. Certain Automorphic 


Groups whose Coefficients are Integers in a Quad- 
ratie Field.’ 


“Multiple Improper 


102 


E. V. Huntineton: ‘ Note on the Fundamental 
Propositions of Algebra’ (preliminary communi- 
cation). 

C. J. Kryspr: ‘Concerning a Self-reciprocal 
Plane Geometry.’ 

C. L. E. Moore: ‘ Geometry of Circles Orthog- 
onal to a Given Sphere.’ 

Epwarp Kasner: ‘Invariants of Differential 
Elements for Arbitrary Point Transformation.’ 

A. B. Frizern: ‘A Method of Building up the 
Fundamental Operation Groups of Arithmetic.’ 

G. A. Buss: ‘A Proof of the Fundamental 
Theorem of Analysis Situs.’ 

Q. P. Axers: ‘On the Congruence of Axes in a 
Bundle of Linear Line Complexes.’ 

Perer Firup: ‘Note on Certain Groups of 
Transformations of the Plane into Itself, 

Grorcr Prrrce: ‘On a New Approximate Con- 
struction for 1.’ 

Max Mason: ‘ Curves of Minimum Moment of 
Inertia.’ 

A. G. Wesster: ‘Application of a Definite 
Integral with Bessel’s Functions to the Self-induc- 
tion of a Solenoid.’ 

J. B. Wrrenr: ‘ Correspondence and the Theory 
of Continuous Groups.’ 

J. E. Wricur: ‘An Application of the Differ- 
ential Invariants of Space.’ 

Crara B. Suir: ‘ Abel’s Theorem and its Ap- 
plication to the Development of an Arbitrary 
Function in Terms of Bessel’s Functions.’ _ 

V. EF. Bsrrknes: ‘ Experimental Demonstration 
of Hydrodynamic Action at a Distance.’ 

R. P. SrepHens: ‘On the Pentadeltoid.’ 

M. 1. Purin: ‘ Establishment of a Steady State 
in a Sectional Wave Conductor.’ 

J. J. Quinn: ‘A Linkage for the Kinematic 
Description of a Cissoid.’ 


The Chicago Section held its erghteenth 
recular meeting at the University of Chi- 
cago, December 29-30. The San Francisco 
Section will meet at Stanford University 
on February 24. The next regular meet- 
ing of the society will be held at Columbia 
University, February 24. The summer 
meeting, together with a colloquium, will 
be held at Yale University in August. 


F. N. Cos, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Ha- 
pedition. (Memoir of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, New York.) 
Leiden, E. J. Brill, Ltd.; New York, G. E. 
Stechert & Co. 

The continuation of the publications of the 
Jesup North Pacific Expedition appears, after 
an interval of several years, published by E. J. 
Brill, Leiden. The following notice of the 
publications issued during the year 1905 is 
written by the editor of the series, and for 
this reason contains only a brief statement 
of the contents of the volumes. 

Vol. JIL, Part JII., Kwakiutl Tezts. 
Franz Boas and Grorce Hunt. 

This number closes the volume containing 
the Kwakiutl texts recorded by George Hunt, 
and revised and edited by Franz Boas. The 
material in this volume has been arranged 
according to tribes of the Kwakiutl, begin- 
ning with the extreme south, and proceeding 
northward. The first text in the series is 
given in interlinear translation; while all the 


By 


others are given in parallel columns, Indian 
and English. At the end of the volume is 
given a brief abstract of the traditions, which 
are intended to enable the reader to inform 
himself regarding the contents of the volume 
without reading the full texts. The abstracts 
are provided with page references, which 
facilitate the finding of any particular pas- 
sage. An appendix to the volume contains 
lists of stem words and suffixes, by means of 
which the philological use of the text is 
facilitated. 

The present volume contains almost entirely 
traditions relating to the ceremonies and 
families of the Kwakiutl Indians, and illus- 
trates the exuberance of legends of this char- 
acter that have developed among this tribe. 
In character and contents, these traditions are 
remarkably uniform. They resemble the tra- 
ditions of the northern parts of the North 
Pacifie coast,.and account for the privileges 
of the different families and tribes of the 
Kwakiutl. 

The language is probably, on the whole, 
accurate,,. Mr. Hunt, the recorder, speaks 
Kwakiutl as his own mother tongue, and has 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


been trained in writing the language by long 
practise, and under the guidance of the editor. 
All the texts have been phonetically revised 
with the assistance of other Indians. Not- 
withstanding the care that has been taken, 
there remain many uncertainties and obscure 
points; but the material seems sufficient to 
elucidate all the main points of the Kwakiutl 
language. 

In the eighteenth chapter texts of speeches 
and war accounts are given, translations of 
which were published in Franz Boas’s account 
of the ‘Secret. Societies and Social Organiza- 
tion of the Kwakiutl Indians,’ published in 
the Report of the U. 8. National Museum for 
1895. 

The style of most of the texts is diffuse, but 
it was thought well to retain the full accounts, 
because the stories contain a great many data 
relating to the every-day customs and beliefs 
of the tribe. 

A second volume of texts of this tribe is in 
press. It contains the mythological traditions 
relating to the origin of the world, and sup- 
plements in this respect the material con- 
tained in the first volume. 

Vol. V., Part L., Contribution to the Hthnol- 
ogy of the Haida. By Joun R. Swanton. 
This volume contains parts of the results 

of an expedition undertaken by Dr. John R. 
Swanton to the Queen Charlotte Islands. 
His expedition was undertaken in coopera- 
tion with the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
the understanding being that the linguistic 
results (that is, the grammar and dictionary 
of the Haida language) were to be published 
by the Bureau of Ethnology, while the eth- 
nological results and traditions were to be 
published by the Jesup North Pacific Expe- 
dition. 

The present volume contains, primarily, 
data relating to the social organization of the 
Haida. Jn the first chapter of the book, in- 

teresting information is given on shamanism, 
witchcraft, medicine, customs, taboos and 
games of the tribe. In the beginning of the 
book the cosmic notions of the Haida are 
described, which are of great importance for 

a clear understanding of their social organ- 

ization. It is interesting to noté’ tHat’!the 


SCIENCE. 


e 


103 


supernatural beings of the Haida are divided 
into two groups, in the same way as the tribes 
themselyes—the Raven group and the Eagle 
group. 

Perhaps the most important part of the 
author’s discussion is the description of the 
division of the two sides of the Haida into 
families. The two sides, or clans, are exo- 
gamic, while the families are primarily local 
subdivisions of the clans. The detailed ex- 
planation of this grouping is given in a 
chapter entitled % Haida History,’ in which 
the author endeavors to present the history of 
the present families of the Haida as conceived 
by the Haida themselves. He begins with the 
mythological period, when the islands, the 
home of the Haida, arose from the ocean, and 
continues with the origin of the ancestors of 
the Raven clan and of the Eagle clan, through 
more or less mythical events, down to the 
historical events of the last few centuries, 
deseribing the gradual splitting-up and re- 
combination of various families. Based on 
this discussion, he has reached the interesting 
conelusion, that, according to the idea of the 
Haida, the Raven clan is indigenous, while 
the Eagle clan may possibly represent de- 
scendants of immigrants from the mainland. 
There is, however, some evidence of a tendency 
to make the traditions of the two clans uni- 
form. 

The families settled in the various villages 
have certain prerogatives, the most important 
of which are the crests. A discussion of these 
shows that the principal crests of the Raven 
elan are the killer-whale and grizzly bear, 
while the principal ones of the Eagle clan are 
the eagle and beaver. Besides these, there are 
a great many scattering crests, many of which 
were obtained by purchase or gift, and which 
can not be in any way considered as totems. 

A rather full discussion of the representa- 
tion of the crest and of the myth in art con- 
tains detailed descriptions of a considerable 
series of totem-poles, showing that most of 
these are crest figures of a house-owner and 
of his wife, while others represent incidents 
in myths. Similar representations are found 
on grave-posts and on canoes, and on boxes, 
spoons and other utensils used by the people. 


104 


Several plates of tattooings representing crests 
are also discussed in this chapter, which is 
the most extensive explanation given, up to 
this time, of carvings and paintings from any 
one tribe of the North Pacific coast. 

The description of the secret societies and 
potlatches of the Haida is not as complete as 
we should like to see it; but it is impossible 
at the present time to obtain full information 
on this point, because the old customs have 
~ become obsolete, and, owing to the great re- 
duction in numbers of the tribe, the informa- 


tion which can be obtained now is fragment- 


ary and contradictory. It is interesting, 
however, to note that the secret societies are 
also owned by various families, and that the 
conclusion previously reached of the introduc- 
tion of the more important societies from the 
south is corroborated by information fur- 
nished by the Haida. 

The last chapter of the book contains ab- 
stracts of Haida traditions. These consist of 
two series, one collected in Skidegate, another 
in Masset, and written in these two dialects 
of the Haida language. The Masset texts will 
be published in another volume of the publi- 
cations of the Jesup Expedition. The Skide- 
gate texts were written out by the author for 
publication by the Smithsonian Institution. 
A few texts and the translations of other 
traditions have just been issued as a Bulletin 
of the Bureau of American Ethnology. We 
may perhaps express the wish that a way may 
be found for publishing the full texts, which 


are required for a thorough study of the © 


ethnology of the tribe. The abstracts of the 
traditions are accompanied by notes, giving 
parallel traditions from the North Pacific 
coast. 

The volume closes with lists of the families, 
villages and houses of the Haida. This part 
of the book is accompanied by a number of 
interesting maps, compiled by Dr. Charles F. 
Newcombe, on which the native names of 
places and the locations of towns are recorded. 
These maps also contain many improvements 
on the last issue of the British Admiralty 
Maps. 

Vol. VI., Part I., The Koryak. By Watpemar 

J OCHELSON. ‘4 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 577. 


Mr. Jochelson’s description of the Koryalk 
is based on his studies carried on in 1900-1 
for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. The 
subjects treated are the religion and the myth- 
ology of the tribe. The reason why the author 
began the publication of his studies with this 
subject was the necessity of coordinating his 
publication with that of My. Bogoras, who 
was at the same time publishing his studies 
of the material culture of the Chukchee. We 
obtain here for the first time an insight into 
the peculiar beliefs of the tribes of the Ok- 
hotsk Sea and of Kamchatka, which were first 
deseribed by Steller. 

The first chapter is taken up with historical 
remarks relating to previous information on 
the subject. In the second chapter a detailed 
description of supernatural beings is given. 
The principal of these is Big-Raven. He is 
looked upon by the Koryak as the founder of 
the world. He is also called Creator. In 
this respect, the Koryak belief differs from 
that of the Chukchee, who consider the Crea- 
tor and Big-Raven as separate beings. Al- 
though Raven is the trickster of Koryak 
mythology, he is at the same time the great 
transformer, who has given the world its pres- 
ent shape. He is the first man, father and 
protector of the Koryak. Prayers are ad- 
dressed to him, and he is appealed to in 
incantations. Sacrifices are also made to him. 
Almost all the Koryak myths, with very few 
exceptions, deal with the life, travels, adven- 
tures, and tricks of Big-Raven and his family. 

Besides Big-Raven, the Koryak believe in a 
supreme being, the conception of whom, how- 
ever, is vague. He sent Big-Raven down to 
our earth to establish order, and he seems to 
be the personification of the vital principle 
in nature taken in its entirety. He is de- 
scribed as an old man, living in a village in 
heaven, and haying wife and children. Offer- 
ings are made to him to secure future pros- 
perity, or as an atonement for the transgres- 
sion of taboos. It is their belief, that, so 
long as the supreme being looks down upon 
earth, there is abundance and health, while, 
as soon as he turns away, disorder reigns. 
The ‘supreme being does not seem to interfere 
in detail with the affairs of man. 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


A very important place in the system of 
religious ideas of the Koryak is taken by the 
kalau, or spirits, who appear as invisible be- 
ings. Sometimes they appear as common can- 
nibals. These malevolent spirits are very 
numerous, and cause sickness and death. 
Some of them represent special diseases. The 
Koryak also believe in supernatural beings, 
that appear as rulers of various parts of the 
country, such as the ‘master of the sea.’ 

As a protection against disease and misfor- 
tune sent by supernatural agencies, guardians 
and charms are used. The most important 
among these are the sacred implements for 
fire-making, which are considered the guard- 
ians of the reindeer herd, and to which are 
often attached rude carvings, representing the 
guardians’ assistants. Among the Maritime 
Koryak, the fire-board is essentially the pro- 
tector of the house. Carved wooden figures 
representing human beings are also used as 
guardians. Many of these are ornamented 
with sedge-grass. While many are small, 
there are also carved trees which stand near 
the house,- and which are guardians of the 
house or of the village. Much valuable in- 
formation relating to the significance of 
charms is given in this chapter. 

The Koryak also used divining-stones, 
. which are employed to divine the future by 
their movements when suspended from a 
thong. These are similar to the divining- 
stones of the Eskimo. 

Mr. Jochelson discusses the method of sha- 
manism from two aspects. There are profes- 
sional shamans among the Koryak, who wear 
certain ornaments that distinguish them from 
other people, and who free the sick from dis- 
ease inflicted by the evil spirits. The drums 
used by these shamans are similar in type to 
those used by other Siberian tribes. They 
differ from those of the Eskimo. Each fam- 
ily has also its own shamans, who protect the 

‘family. The peculiar ideas in relation to the 
change of sex of shamans which are found 
among the Eskimo, are also found among the 
Koryak. 

Of especial interest is the description of the 
festivals and sacrifices of the tribe. . The most 
important festival of the Maritime \Koryak 


SCIENCE. 


105 


refers to whale-hunting, and consists prin- 
cipally of the welcoming of the captured 
whale, and of the ceremony accompanying its 
supposed return to the sea. In this festival 
masks made of wood and of grass are worn. 
The wooden masks resemble in type the simple 
masks of the northern Alaska Eskimo. The 
ceremonials of the Reindeer Koryak refer 
principally to the herd, and are intended to 
promote its welfare. A number of minor fes- 
tivals relate to hunting. 

The Koryak offer sacrifices to the super- 
natural beings. Both bloody and _ bloodless 
sacrifices occur. Among the former, the sac- 
rifices of reindeer and of dogs are the most 
important. Mr. Jochelson describes in detail 
the peculiar custom of sacrificing dogs, and 
of attaching their bodies to poles or to the 
trees which represent the village guardians. 

In the description of customs relating to 
burials, deaths and funerals, the complex 
burial customs deserve particular mention. 
The Koryak cremate the dead, who for this 
purpose are dressed in very elaborate cos- 
tumes, which the people carry about during 
life, although they are finished only after 
death has occurred. 

The whole second part of the book is taken 
up with the mythology of the Koryak, the 
material being arranged in geographical order. 
The whole mythology is remarkably uniform, 
dealing essentially with the marriages of the 
children of Big-Raven, and of his struggles 
with supernatural beings. Attention may be 
called, in this connection, to the brief char- 
acterization of Koryak tales given on p. 352 
and the following pages. In the final chapter 
of his book, Mr. Jochelson gives a detailed 
comparison of the incidents found in Koryak 
mythology, with incidents of other mythol- 
ogies of Siberia, of that of the Eskimo and 
of the North American Indians. It would 
seem that some of the elements contained in 
this comparison are so general, that perhaps 
their occurrence in these several mythologies 
may be without significance, so far as evidence 
of historical transference is concerned; but the 
results of Mr. Jochelson’s statistical compari- 
son are of considerable interest. He finds 
that among 122 episodes that belong to Kor- 


106 


yak mythology, 102 are also found in Indian 
myths, 30 in those of the Eskimo, and 25 in 
those of the Old World. He further finds 
that 8 are common to the Koryak, Indian, 
Kskimo and the Old World; 10 to Koryak, 
Indian and Eskimo; but none to the Koryak, 
Eskimo and Old World. From this the au- 
thor draws the conclusion that the interchange 
of mythological elements between the Indians 
and the Koryak must be older than that be- 
tween the Koryak and the Eskimo. 
Vol. VIL, Part I., The Chukchee. 

DEMAR Bocoras. 

The long-continued studies of Mr. Bogoras 
carried on in the Kolyma district from 1889 
to 1898, and his later studies for the Jesup 
North Pacific Expedition at Anadyr and on 
the coast of the Chukchee Peninsula, enable 
him better than any one else to describe the 
ethnology of the Chukchee. His book is full 
of remarks which show the intimate acquaint- 
ance of the writer with the people he is de- 
seribing. Im the present volume, the habitat, 
the general characteristics and the trade of 
the people are described; but the principal 
contents of the volume relate to their material 
culture. The discussion of the methods of 
reindeer-breeding of the Chukchee leads to 
the conclusion that the domestication of the 
reindeer among them is probably recent; that 
in previous times the Chukchee were a littoral 
people, like the Eskimo, and that they lived 
principally by hunting sea-mammals. The 
method of treatment of the reindeer differs 
from that used by the Tungus and other 
western Siberian tribes. The domestication 
of the reindeer is less complete; it is not used 
for riding, but mainly for hauling sledges, 
and the method of harnessing is peculiar to 
the Chukchee. Mr. Bogoras also shows that 
the present method of dog-harnessing, which 
is the same as that used by other Siberian 
tribes, is probably a new one, and that for- 
merly the dogs were harnessed in the same 
way as those of the Eskimo, 7. e., all attached 
at one point, not in pairs, as is customary at 
the present time. The various kinds of 
sledges used for the reindeer and the dog are 
also described in detail. 

The method of hunting sea mammals is 


By WaAt- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


essentially identical with that used by the 
Alaskan Eskimo. In traveling on sea, the 
Chukchee use a skin boat, similar to the 
Eskimo boat. The kayak, with double-bladed 
paddle, is also used. Its distribution is rather 
peculiar. It exists on the Arctic Ocean, it 
is not found on the coast of the Pacific, but 
it appears again on the waters of the Middle 
Anadyr River. Then it disappears again for 
a long stretch, to appear finally on the Ok- 
hotsk Sea among the Maritime Koryak. 

The traps are similar to those of the Es- 
kimo, but a considerable amount of West 
Siberian influence may be noticed. Auto- 
matic bows and spring-traps, such as are 
found also among the Alaskan Eskimo, are 
clearly derived from Asiatic patterns. The 
throwing-board of the Eskimo occurs also 
among all the eastern Chukchee. 

A detailed description of the sinew-backed 
bows and of the composite bow is given. The 
composite bows are similar in type to those 
found in more southern regions of Siberia. 
The throwing-whip (p. 158), which is used 
for propelling darts, is worth mentioning. 
Mr. Bogoras also describes the iron-work, 
which is used particularly for knives and 
lances. These are clearly influenced by the 
iron-work of the Yakut and of the Amur 
River tribes. Of especial interest is a de- 
seription of armor, which was also formerly 
used by the Chukchee. This is made of small 
pieces: of iron linked together and arranged in 
horizontal rows. The head was protected by 
a helmet of similar character, while around 
the neck there was a large wooden protector 
ineased in hide, with movable wings. It seems 
probable that the ivory armor found in Alaska 
was an imitation of this iron armor, which, 
in its turn, may be related to the peculiar 
types of armor current in more southern parts 
of eastern Asia. , 

The detailed description of the Chukchee 
tent brings out the fact that the large and 
heavy tent of the tribe is not well adapted to 
the nomadic mode of life necessitated by the 
care of reindeer-herds. It seems plausible 
that the movable tent must be considered as 
a direct adaptation of the old permanent 
winter-house of the Maritime tribe to the 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


necessities of the present nomadic life of the 
tribe. 

The clay lamps and kettles and other house- 
hold utensils are similar to those of the 
Eskimo of the Yukon River. 

The food of the Maritime Chukchee is to 
a very great extent derived from the sea, con- 
sisting largely of sea-mammals, while the 
Reindeer Chukchee live on reindeer taken 
from their herds. Im connection with this 
subject, the author describes a number of 
taboos. ‘ Vegetable food is used rather as a 
substitute, in case of scarcity of meat, than as 
a side-dish. 

In smoking, pipes evidently related to those 
of Chinese type are used. 

One chapter of the book is devoted to a 
description of the manufactures, among which 
those relating to the preparation and utiliza- 
tion of skins occupy a prominent part. 

The clothing is made of skins, that of the 
men consisting of skin boots and stockings, 
trousers and a double shirt, while the women 
wear combination-suits. It is peculiar to note 
that the fur jackets of the women are cut very 
low. In cold weather separate hoods are worn. 

The women, particularly those of the Mari- 
time Chukchee, are tattooed, and the tattooing 
is believed to have a magical significance. 
Many of the ornaments described by the au- 
thor are also at the same time charms. 

The book closes with a description of the 
games and sports of the people, among which 
tossing on blankets, wrestling and races play 
a prominent part. A number of ball games, 
and some cat’s-cradles are described. The 
book is accompanied by many illustrations 
and by a detailed map, giving exact informa- 
tion as to the present location of the native 
tribes of northeastern Asia. It appears from 
this map that the Eskimo are confined to the 
region north of Anadyr Bay, and that the 
coast regions southwest of this district are 
occupied by the Kerek, a branch of the Kor- 
yak. Another map (p. 17) gives the approxi- 
mate ancient distribution of the tribes before 
the invasion of the Yakut and of the Russians. 


* Franz Boas. 


SCIENCE. 


107 


Nebula to Man. By Henry R. Knipz. With 
fourteen full-page illustrations in color and 
fifty-seven full-page tinted illustrations by 
Ernest Bucknall, John Charlton, Joseph 
Smit, Lancelot Speed, Charles Whymper, 
Edward A. Wilson and Alice B. Woodward. 
London, J. M. Dent & Co. 1905. “Small 
folio. Pp. xvi-+ 251. 

This sumptuous volume, beautiful in typog- 


‘raphy, glowing with splendid illustrations from 


the ‘studies of the most skillful delineators of 
animal life in the British metropolis, is a mar- 
vel in more ways than one. Its publication is 
remarkable from the standpoint both of the 
man of science and of the man of letters. It 
is ‘an attempt to present a sketch of the evolu- 
tion of the earth on the nebular hypothesis,’ 
and this not in prose, but in the form of 
poetry. In six cantos the author traces the 
great drama of mundane evolution. The first 
division of the poem deals with the develop- 
ment of the globe from the nebula out of 
which it was evolved, and the beginning of 
the operations of life upon its slowly cooling 
surface; the next four cantos deal in order 
with the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, the Cenozoic 
and the Quaternary ages; the last canto brings 
Neolithic man into view, and leaves us at the 
threshold of human history. The attempt to 
clothe the latest results of geological and 
paleontological research in the garb of poetry 
is daring. To marshal the facts of the pale- 
ontological laboratory in metric guise and to 
compel the sesquipedalian terms of the geolo- 
gist and comparative anatomist to bend them- 
selves to the service of the muse is bold indeed. 
While not always successful, nevertheless in 
the main the author has forced the cumbrous 
terms of science to do duty with grace, and 
has clothed a vast body of scientific facts in 
the garments of verse. 

The opening lines, which face a splendid re- 
production of a photograph of the great nebula 
in Orion made at the Yerkes Observatory, 
present a graphic picture of the planetary 
system in the making: 

A glowing mist, through realms of space un- 

bounded, 
Whirls on its way, by starry hosts surrounded. 
Dim is its lustre as compared with theirs, 


108 


And more the look of stars dissolved it wears. 
Volumes of heat, from its prodigious stores, 

To endless space, it never ceasing pours. 

Formless and yoid it seems, and yet it holds 

A coming world within its hazy folds. 

A sun lies spread within its depths and heights; 
Planets are there, and all their satellites. 

But still as yet they lie confused and blent, 

Like starry dust, lost in the firmament. 

A fine reproduction of the Spiral Nebula in 
Canes Venatici made at the Lick Observatory 
faces the second page of the book, and then, 
celestial parturition haying taken place, 

Loosed now are all the planets on their ways; 
Each with its burden of collected haze 
To run a destined course; and left alone 
Spins the main core, a glowing central sun. 

* * % * * * * * * 
Here moves our planet, sun-held as the rest,— 
Our mother Earth; but on her molten breast 
No life as yet can dwell; and should the clouds, 
Which gird her round with wind-swept vapour 

shroud, 


Condense and pour their rains, no solid floor 
Has she as yet on which to hold their store. 


The birth of unicellular life, when at last 
the seas are formed, is told, and im rapid suc- 
cession the development from age to age of 
the floras and faunas of the successive geologic 
periods is depicted. The mutations of the 
surface of the earth and the emergence and 
subsidence of the land masses, particularly 
those of Europe, are sketched, and the strange 
forms of vegetable and animal life are por- 
trayed, as the great drama of development 
proceeds, issuing at last in the appearance of 
man upon the scene. 

As an example of the manner of treatment 
employed by the author in delineating the 
main facts as to the animal life of the past, 
the following lines, culled from that part of 
the fourth canto which deals with the Jurassic 
age, may be quoted: 

Great dinosaurs, like those of earlier days, 
Still haunt Europa’s woods and waterways; 

And hold their own through all these Jura times, 
In spite of lands wiped out, and changing climes. 
* * * * * * * * * 

Whilst through Wuropa’s land these monsters 

range, 
Upon Columbia’s scenes are forms as strange. 
Here lumbers Stegosaurus on his fours, 
With high-arched back, a king of dinosaurs. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 577. 


But forms surpassing Stegosaurs are seen. 
In point of size, and of as wierd a mien. 
Some here there are that look like plesiosaurs 
With elephantine legs, as on all fours they creep 
along, 


and reference is then made to ‘knobbed Cera- 
tosaurs,’ ‘necky Brontosaurs’ and ‘ those long 
yards of life, Diplodoci.’ 

The illustrations of the book are particu- 
larly handsome, and represent the latest views 
of paleontologists of reputation. It would be 
invidious to draw comparisons, but the writer 
of these lines can not fail to express his pleas- 
ure at the rather spirited drawing by Miss 
Alice B. Woodward representing a Dzplo- 
docus, a beast with the bones of which the 
reviewer possesses considerable familiarity. 
Miss Woodward’s sketches of Meritheria, 
Paleomastodon, and Arsinoithertwm are re- 
markably fine. There is great animation in 
her drawings, and she has profited to some 
extent, no doubt, by having at her elbow her 
father, one of the most honored and distin- 
guished of living paleontologists, and his col- 
league Dr. C. W. Andrews, whose paleonto- 
logical researches have given him a world- 
wide reputation. Very meritorious are also 
some of the drawings of Smit, which are based 
upon the work of the well-known American 
delineator, Charles R. Knight. The repro- 
duction of the water-color sketch of ‘A Frozen 
Sea’ from the brush of Mr. EB. A. Wilson, who 
has recently returned from the Antarctic 
voyage of the Discovery is appropriately in- 
serted in that part of the poem which deals 
with the glacial epoch. 

Upon the whole the book is most interesting 
and suggestive, and is one of the most enter- 
taining contributions to popular literature 
dealing with paleontology and the doctrine of 
evolution which has recently appeared. 


W. J. Hotranp. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
NEW YORK STATE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 


Tue tenth annual meeting of this body was 
held at Syracuse, December 27-29. The offi- 
cers for 1905 were: 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


President—A. P. Brigham, Colgate University. 
Vice-President—G. M. Turner, Buffalo, 
Secretary—J. E. Stannard, Owego. 


The important matter of a biological survey 
of the state of New York was proposed in a 
paper by Professor Charles Wright Dodge, of 
the University of Rochester, and advocated by 
Director John M. Clarke, of Albany. Messrs. 
C. W. Dodge, of Rochester, C. W. Hargitt, of 
Syracuse University, and C. W. Hahn, of the 
Commercial High School, New York, were 
appointed a committee to further the project. 
The completion of ten years of fruitful work 
on the part of the association was made the 
subject of a special session, in which the four 
sections were represented by Professor Will- 
iam Hallock, of Columbia University, Pro- 
fessor A. D. Morrill, of Hamilton College, 
Principal C. T. McFarlane, of Brockport Nor- 
mal School, and Professor E. D. Roe, of 
Syracuse University. Their addresses re- 
viewed progress and looked into the future. 

The section meetings were strongly sus- 
tained, and were largely given to practical 
discussions arising from the new regents’ syl- 
labus in the several departments. The asso- 
ciation expressed itself favorably as regards 
the federation of the educational bodies of the 
state, provided its identity is fully preserved 
and it retains full liberty in all matters, par- 
ticularly time and place of meeting. Ithaca 
was recommended to the incoming officers as 
the place for the next annual session. The 
association recorded itself as favoring legis- 
lation now pending in congress in regard to 
the adoption of the metric system, and joins 
with other bodies in certain recommendations 
concerning the teaching about narcotics and 
stimulants. The president for the coming 
year is Professor John F. Woodhull, of the 
Teachers College, Columbia University. 

A. P: B. 


THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. e 


Tue fourteenth meeting of the Society for 
Experimental Biology and Medicine was held 
in the Rockefeller Institute, on Wednesday 
evening, December 20, The president, Ed- 
mund B. Wilson, was in the chair. 


SCIENCE. 


109 


Members present—Adler, Atkinson, Auer, 
Beebe, Brooks, Burton-Opitz, Calkins, Cramp- 
ton, Davenport, Dunham, Emerson, Ewing, 
Field, Flexner, Gibson, Gies, Hatcher, Jack- 
son, Levene, Levin, Lusk, A. R. Mandel, 
Meltzer, Morgan, Noguchi, Oertel, Opie, 
Pearce, Salant, Shaffer, Wadsworth, Wallace, 
Wilson, Wolf, Wood. , 

Members elected—W. EH. Castle, H. H. Don- 
aldson, David L. Edsall, Thomas Flournoy, 
R. B. Gibson, Walter Jones, A. S. Loevenhart, 
John A. Mandel, Fritz Schwyzer, Frank P. 
Underhill, Francis C. Wood. 


Abstracts of Reports of Original 
Investigations.” 


The Action of Hosin upon Tetanus-toxin and 
in Tetanus, with Demonstrations: Simon 
FiLexner and Hmryo Nogucui. 

Eosin and certain other anilin dyes have 
the power of preventing in vitro the hemolytic 
activity of tetanus-toxin. Hosin destroys 
tetano-spasmin. Simultaneous injection of 
tetanus-toxin and eosin into rats delays or 
prevents the appearance of the symptoms of 
tetanus. When the symptoms appear they 
progress more slowly than in control animals. 


The Action of Hosin and Erythrosin upon 
Snake Venom, with Demonstrations: HipEyo 
Noeucui. (Communicated by Simon Flex- 
ner.) : 

The hemolytic principles of venom react dif- 
ferently to eosin, depending upon their native 
labilities. The hemolysin of Crotalus venom 
suffers most; that of Daboia next, while that 
of Cobra is most resistant. The toxicity of 
different venoms is more or less diminished 
by eosin in the light. Neurotoxin is little or 
not at all affected by eosin or erythrosin. 


On Decomposition of Purin Bodies by Animal 
Tissues: P. A. Levens and W. A. Beatty. 
The authors have found that the presence 

of 0.5 per cent. of sodium carbonate in mix- 
* Non-resident. 

* The abstracts presented in this account of the 
proceedings have been greatly condensed from ab- 
stracts given to the Secretary by the authors them- 
selves. The latter abstracts of the communica- 
tions may be found in current numbers of Amer- 
ican Medicine and Medical News. 


110 


tures of spleen pulp facilitates the decomposi- 
tion of purin bodies to such an extent that 
even uric acid is broken up by that tissue. 
The products were non-basic in nature. 


On the Biological Relationship of Nucleo- 
proteid, Amyloid and Mucoid: P. A. LnyEne 
and JoHn A. MAanpbsEt.’ 

The authors have subjected nucleoproteids 
to decomposition in acids and alkalis. Among 
the products thus obtained were substances 
resembling glycothionie acids. This observa- 
tion indicates that nucleoproteids, -amyloids 
and mucoids are genetically related. 
Imperfection of Mendelian Dominance in 

Poultry Hybrids, with Demonstrations by 

Photographs and Plumage Charts: C. B. 

DAVENPORT. : 

The author has observed that in poultry 
hybrids the dominant character is frequently 
modified by the presence of the recessive and 
in the direction of the latter. For example, 
white plumage color may dominate over black, 
but the white hybrid shows some black feath- 
ers; white dominates over buff plumage, but 
the hybrids have a buff cast. When the hy- 
brids are interbred the recessive character 
reappears in about one fourth of the hybrids, 
but often so modified as to be scarcely recog- 
nizable. The fact of the mutual contamina- 
tion of characters in hybrids justifies the 
warnings given by breeders as to loss of char- 
acters in hybridization and the care that they 
exercise to maintain pure races. 

The Mechanism of Oonduction and Coordina- 
tion in the Heart, with Special Reference 
to the Heart of Limulus: A. J. Carson. 
(Presented by Russell Burton-Opitz.) 

The author has shown that in the heart of 
LInmulus the rhythm is neurogenic, not myo- 
genic, and that the conduction and coordina- 
tion take place in the nervous and not in the 
muscular tissue. The rate of conduction in 
the intrinsic heart nerves of this animal, as 
found by the author, is 40 em. per second and 
the rate in the motor nerves to the limbs is 
325 to 350 em. per second. 


Further Observations on the Effects of Alcohol 
on the Secretion of Bile: Wiuu1am Savant. 
In continuation of his studies on this sub- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


ject the author has found that intravenous 
injection of alcohol causes diminished flow of 
bile. Introduction of alcohol into the gastro- 
intestinal-canal is almost always followed by 
increased flow of bile. Further experiments 
are 1m progress to determine the explanation 
of these facts. 


Some Effects on Rabbits of Intravenous In- 
jections of Nicotin, with Demonstrations: 
I. Apter and O. Henset. 

After eighteen daily injections of 1.5 milli- 
grams of nicotin slight changes are apparent 
in the bulb and arch of the aorta. After 
thirty-eight daily injections very marked and 
characteristic macroscopic and microscopic 
lesions can be recognized. Aneurysmatic 
dilatations of the aorta are very distinctly 
visible. There may be either a single aneu- 
rysm, or, as is more frequently the case, several 
in various parts of the aorta. These dilatations 
as a rule do not involve the entire circum- 
ference of the vessel, but only a limited por- 
tion, thus presenting the appearance of aneu- 
rysmatic pouches. The more frequently the 
injections are repeated daily the more pro- 
nounced and extensive the alterations appear, 
but they are always of the same character. 
The lesions here referred to have nothing in 
common with human arteriosclerosis. The 
work is still in progress. 


Tumors of Wild Animals Living under Nat-_ 
ural Conditions: Hartow Brooks. 

The author referred to the great importance 
of the etiology of neoplasms and the well- 
recognized fact that research along this line 
must now rest almost entirely on experimental 
studies of fhe lower animals. Of 2,645 living 
animals which have come under the observa- 
tion of the author at the New York Zoological 
Park during the past five years, no case of 
true neoplasm has been found. ‘744 animals 
have died and, as is the routine custom at the 
New York Zoological Park, have been au- 
topsied, either by the resident pathologist or 
by the author. In this series of 744 con- 
secutive cases but one case of tumor has been 
found (white raccoon dog; myxo-sarcoma of 
the, ovary). Tumors of parasitic origin, 
granulomata, tubercles, actinomycotic foci and 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


the like are, on:the other hand, relatively com- 
mon. Numerous examinations of various 
animals taken in the wild were made by the 
author, with the same negative result. Ab- 
normal conditions of life unquestionably in- 
erease the relative occurrence of new growths. 


The 
Material: F. G. Brnepicr. 
William J. Gies.) 

The author found that the average amount 
of nitrogen that was eliminated through the 
skin daily by healthy men at rest was 0.071 
gram. At hard labor healthy men eliminated 
through the skin as much as 0.22 gram of 
nitrogen. The exact nature of the compounds 
in which the nitrogen was eliminated has not 
yet been ascertained, but the author thinks it 
highly probable that urea and ammonium 
compounds are the leading products. The 
author alluded to the great significance of 
these observations in any study of the metab- 
olism of protein, especially in experiments in 
which the total amounts of nitrogen in the 
ingesta and egesta are smaller than normal, 
since the percentage error is thereby propor- 
tionally increased. 


Cutaneous Hxcretion of Nitrogenous 
(Presented by 


The Effects of Intravenous Injections of Solu- 
tions of Dextrose woon the Viscosity of the 
Blood: Russert Burton-Oprrz. 

When small quantities (5 ce.) of a con- 
centrated solution of dextrose were injected 
intravenously, the viscosity of the blood be- 
came slightly greater. By the administration 
of large quantities (50-100 c.c.) the viscosity 
was markedly decreased at first, but reassumed 
its normal value in the course of about one 
hour. By producing artificial glycosuria, the 
viscosity was decidedly increased. In the lat- 
ter series of experiments the surface of the 
panereas was painted with solution of ad- 
renalin. The specific gravity of the blood 
pursued in all cases a harmonious course with 
the viscosity. Witiiam J. Giss, 

Secretary. 


THE SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 


THE first regular meeting of the society was 
held on December 20. J. 

After the adoption of a constitution, Mr. G. 
B. Richardson, to whose initiative the organ- 


SCIENCE. 


111 


ization of the society was due, was elected 
president and Mr. M. L. Fuller, secretary. 
Mr. Fuller spoke on “ The Use of the Term 
“Artesian” as Applied to Wells in the United 
States.” From circular letters sent out to 
geologists, geohydrologists and others working 
on- artesian problems a table was compiled 
showing preferences as to the use of the term. 
It was recognized in nearly all the replies that 
the original application to flowing wells was 
on general grounds desirable, but in view of 
the difficulties of such an application in field 
work there was considerable doubt expressed 
as to the desirability of so restricting its use. 
The replies were summarized as follows: 


From— Favoring Favoring 
Retention. Abandoning. 
IMIGIGL TWB65545 6000800000 23 77 
Men combining field and 
teaching experience...... 50 50 
Teachers with limited field 
GAVAGE. 550000090000 71 29 


The feeling in favor of retaining the orig- 
inal definition was in a general way inversely 
proportional to the amount of field experience, 
those dealing with field problems in most in- 
stances preferring a modified definition. The 
general sentiment was favorable to applying 
the term to all wells in which the water is 
under hydrostatic pressure, regardless of 
whether they flow or not. Some favored the 
dropping of the term altogether because of the 
indefiniteness of its present use. 

Mr. C. A. Fisher spoke on ‘A New River in 
Northern Nebraska. Water first began to 
appear early last summer in low spots along 
a broad shallow valley-like depression in 
Cherry County, gradually increasing in 
amount until a stream was formed, which 
during the summer slowly pushed its way, it 
is reported, forward across Brown, Rock, Holt 
and portions of Wheeler and Antelope Coun- 
ties, a distance of about one hundred miles. 
There is said to be no record of any water 
course in the valley since the region was set- 
tled and numerous more or less fantastic ex- 
planations have been advanced by the inhabit- 
ants to explain its appearance. \ In«reality, it 
probably simply represents the surplus ground- 
water which has been accumulating during 


112 


several seasons of unusual rains, and the river, 
therefore, simply marks a rise of the ground- 
water level to a point above that of the valley 
bottom. It is believed that it will disappear 
when the ground-water is again reduced to its 
normal level. M. L. Fuburr, 
Secretary. 


UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 


During November and December, 1905, the 
society held seven meetings. The papers pre- 
sented were as follows: 

Proressor M. F. Lipsy: ‘ Growth in Childhood 
and Adolescence.’ 

Dr. E. BARBER QuEAL: ‘The Causes of Dys- 
pepsia.’ 

PROFESSOR CHARLES C. AYER: ‘The Phonograph 
in Modern Language Teaching,’ 

Dr. Wint1amM P. Hartow: ‘The Blood in Health 
and Disease.’ 

Juper JUNIUS HENDERSON: 
isting Glaciers of Colorado.’ 

Dr. Luman M. GIFFIN: 
Pure Water.’ 

Proressor M. 8. KetcHum: ‘Sources of Water- 
Supplies and Methods of Distribution.’ 

Dr. Dessie B. Ropertson: ‘ Methods of Bac- 
teriological Analysis of Water. 

Dr. GrorcrE H. CarrerMoLe: ‘The Pollution of 
Water-Supplies.’ 

PROFESSOR FRANCIS RAMALEY: ‘Noted Typhoid 
Epidemics.’ : 

Two evenings were given to the papers de- 
voted to the subject of water supplies. An 
attempt is being made by the society to inform 
the public in regard to proper means of se- 
euring good water. Ata city election held in 
Boulder shortly after these meetings the vote 
was overwhelmingly in favor of the extension 
of the water-works. It is thought that the 
influence of the society was considerable in 
bringing about this result. 

Francis RAMALEY, 
Secretary. 


‘Extinct and Ex- 


“The Necessity for 


BouLpvER, CoLo., 
December 22, 1905. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
MENDELIAN INHERITANCE AND THE PURITY OF 
THE GAMETES. . 
THE communication on the above subject 
by my friend and colleague Professor Morgan, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 577., 


printed in the issue of Sctmnce for December 
29, offers an ingenious if somewhat compli- 
cated interpretation of Mendelian inheritance 
that is at variance with the current conception 
in that it substitutes for a disjunction of 
allelomorphic characters in the gamete-forma-. 
tion a reversal of dominance in half the 
gametes (which evidently involves some kind 
of disjunction of the factors that determine 
dominance). That a complete elimination 
of the dominant character does not take place 
in the production of albinos (this character 
still being present in what Castle has called 
the ‘latent’ state) has been clearly recognized 
by several experimenters and is beautifully 
demonstrated by Cuénot’s work on mice; but 
Professor Morgan’s attempt to find a general 
basis for the explanation of this is a new and 
interesting contribution to the subject. I 
think, however, that his effort to explain the 
very case (that of Cuénot’s yellow mice) that 
suggested his new interpretation, involves a 
negation of Cuénot’s experimental results. 
This observer found that yellow was invariably 
dominant to all other colors, but that after 
crossing yellow mice with pure-bred grays (or 
other colors) the yellow mice of /’,, contrary 
to his expectation, included no pure extracted 
dominants, nor could such a race be obtained 
from them. In order to explain this, Cuénot 
advances the hypothesis that the yellow-bear- 
ing gametes are sterile to one another or do not 
unite, 2. e., a selective fertilization occurs, such 
that the yellow-bearing gametes are fertilized 
only by those bearing other colors. The inter- ~ 
est of the question in relation to sex-production 
(which I have discussed in a paper now in 
course of publication) leads me to offer a word 
of criticism, since I am unable to share Pro- 
fessor Morgan’s belief that his assumption 
will take the place of Cuénot’s hypothesis. 
This belief rests, I think, on a misconception 
of Cuénot’s results regarding the behavior of 
the yellow mice of #, which possibly arose 
through a confusion of Cuénot’s formulas 
with his statement of fact. 

How was the constitution of these mice 
tested? As in all similar eases, by the nature 
of their offspring, and Cuénot clearly specifies 
two methods by which the test was applied, 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


namely, (1) by pairing the yellow mice with 
each other, and (2) by crossing them back 
with pure grays, blacks or browns. In either 
case, pure or homozygous F’, yellow mice (or 
in Professor Morgan’s view those that con- 
tain only ‘latent’ as opposed to ‘free’ gray) 
should give only yellow offspring, owing to the 
uniform dominance of yellow, while mixed or 
heterozygous yellows (yellow mixed with 
‘free’ gray) should produce grays or other 
colors as well as yellows. Cuénot says: ‘J’ai 
essayé par l’une et l’autre méthodes un nombre 
considérable (81) de Souris jaunes * * */ 
“Or, a mon grand étonnement, je n’en ai pas 
trouvé une seule (2. e., homozygote).’ Pro- 
fessor Morgan considers this statement, which 
embodies the principal result of Cuénot’s ex- 
periments, as ‘somewhat ambiguous,’ appar- 
ently for the reason that Cuénot does not in 
this passage actually use the words that all 
the yellow mice produce offspring of other 
colors as well as yellows; but it must be obvi- 
ous that only such a result could justify his 
statement, and if this be not Cuénot’s mean- 
ing I am unable to discover any meaning in 
his paper. In point of fact, however, he states 
specifically on a preceding page (exxvii) that 
the cross between a yellow mouse and a pure- 
bred one of a different color always gives off- 
spring of this color (gray, black or brown) in 
addition to yellows, the numbers being stated, 
in the case of the yellow-gray cross, to be 
equal. 

Now, according to Professor Morgan’s as- 
sumption there should on his own showing 
be two classes of yellow mice in F’,, of which 
“the first group CY(CG) (i. e., those con- 
taining ‘latent’ gray) will breed true, the 
other group CY(CG)(CY)CG@ (containing 
‘free’ gray) will split up in each successive 
generation according to the Mendelian for- 
mula.” Such a behavior of the F', yellow 
mice was precisely Cuénot’s expectation, but 
“to his great astonishment’ it was contradict- 
ed by the results. Professor Morgan, never- 
theless, insists that the case of the yellow mice 
is precisely similar to that of extracted gray 
dominants (both being ‘ contaminated” by the 
recessive character in the latent condition) 
though, as Cuénot was the first to show, the 


SCIENCE. 


113 


latter breed true save for the rare appearance 
of a different color, such as black, probably 
derived from the latent color of the original 
albino used. If the two cases do not. differ, 
why was so experienced an observer as Cuénot 
astonished at his results, and why did he go 
so far out of his way to construct the special 


hypothesis of selective fertilization to explain 


the behavior of the yellow mice as distin- 
guished from those of other colors? 

The difficulty with Professor Morgan’s ex- 
planation is that it proves too much, for it 
explains the special peculiarities of the yellow 
mice out of existence (!). My criticism is 
not directed against Professor Morgan’s gen- 
eral assumption, but I think that it entirely 
fails, as far as he develops it, to account for 
the peculiarities of the yellow mice, and that 
it leaves Cuénot’s hypothesis, which it is sup- 
posed to obviate, exactly where it stood before. 

E. B. Witson. 


THE LOGICAL BASIS OF THE SANITARY POLICY OF 
MOSQUITO REDUCTION. 


Tue excellent address of Sir Ronald Ross 
under the above title published in the Decem- 
ber 1 number of Scimmnon, states the ,general 
rules regarding mosquito distribution with 
great accuracy; but it applies only to certain 
species, including the Anopheles so far as 
known to me and to Stegomyia fasciata. Tt 
does not apply in the least to such forms as 
Culex cantator and C. sollicitans. None of 
the suggestions as to erratic flights that prac- 
tically restrict the distance traveled influence 
these species, which are truly migratory and 
are guided by some motive other than finding 
food or a place to breed. In fact, as I have 
shown, these migrants never propagate their 
kind and where they are to be dealt with, all 
of the carefully reasoned mathematical deduc- 
tions fall. The matter is of great practical 
importance in New Jersey where communities 
within whose boundaries not a mosquito 
breeds, nevertheless, sometimes find life a 
burden because of the insects. Local work in 
such cases is worse than useless. When we 
find the dominant mosquitoes in the Orange 
Mountains to be species whose nearest breed- 
ing place is on Staten Island, time and money 


114 


spent in the Oranges would be obviously 
wasted. 

As applied to the usual inland species the 
argument made is fully borne out by my field 
experience. As to the salt marsh breeders it 
is utterly inapplicable—witness the fact that 
the work done on the Newark meadows re- 
sulted in a marked decrease in the mosquito 
troubles at Paterson many miles to the north. 

Joun B. Smiru. 

New Brunswick, N. J., 

December 15, 1905. 


YELLOW FEVER AND THE PANAMA CANAL. 


To THe Eprror or Science: The continuous 
discussion of Panama Canal affairs suggests 
to me to call attention to the possibility that 
the cutting of the canal may lead to trouble 
from yellow fever in two of our Pacific island 
colonies. In the summer of 1902, spent in 
the Hawaiian and Samoan islands as agent 
of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, my atten- 
tion was forcibly called to the unusual pro- 
portions of the mosquito plague in both these 
island groups. If it were not for the dragon- 
flies which wage effective war against the 
“day mosquitoes, and for the bed canopies of 
netting which protect the sleeper from ‘night 
mosquitoes,’ life would hardly be tolerable in 
Honolulu. In Tutuila (our principal Samoan 
island) mosquitoes are the most obvious fea- 
tures of the above-water fauna aside from 
the brown natives themselves. Now both in 
Hawaii and Samoa one of the most abundant 
of the infesting mosquito species is Stego- 
myia fasciata, which is none other than the 
yellow-fever mosquito, that is, the particular 
mosquito species which harbors and dissem- 
inates, in yellow fever regions, the plasmodium 
or bacterium which is the immediate cause of 
the disease. 

So far no cases of yellow fever have oc- 
curred in Hawaii or Samoa, but this is ob- 
viously not because of the absence of the 
yellow fever host, but, presumably, of the 
yellow fever specific causal agent, the patho- 
genic ‘germ.’ It is to be presumed that ships 
have not yet carried yellow-fever-germ-infested 
specimens of Stegomyia from the West Indies 
to Hawaii or Saméa. Going round the Horn 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 5775 


is probably an effective check to the spread of 
yellow fever from the West Indies to our 
Pacific Islands by reason both of the time 
required and the low temperatures met. Be- 
sides there is little traffic now between the 
two regions. But with the cutting of the 
canal, making possible a direct short-time 
passage of ships from the Gulf of Mexico to 
Hawaii, or to Samoa, all of the voyage being 
within tropical or subtropical latitudes—the 
Hawaiian islands are in 20° north latitude, 
the Samoan islands in 14° south latitude— 
will there not be a real danger of planting 
the dread agent of yellow fever in our Pacific 
colonies in which already the necessary insect 
host exists in enormous numbers? There may 
be obvious reasons why this migration can not 
take place, but they are not apparent to me 
now. It is, at least, a contingency to be had 
in mind by those charged with the responsi- 
bility of public health affairs in Hawaii and 


Samoa. Vernon L.. Kennoae. 
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIF. 


REPORT OF THE TENTH GHOLOGICAL BHX— 
PEDITION OF HON. CHARLES 4. 
MORRILL, SHASON OF 1905. 

THE season of 1905 marked a renewal of _ 
paleontological activity in the University of 
Nebraska, since it so happened that for the 
first time in several years funds became ayail- 
able again for the prosecution of such work. 
By virtue of the liberal support and patron- 
age of Hon. Charles H. Morrill, of Lincoln, 
annual geological expeditions, essentially 
paleontological in character, had been main- 
tained in connection with the state university 
since 1892. In 1901, though his interest in 
the work as well as his good will continued, 
his patronage ceased. This was wholly due 


’ to the overcrowded condition of the state 


museum, coupled with unusual fire risks, 
which plainly endangered public and private 
collections. In the meantime the work of 
making general collections has been pushed by 
the state survey, but the special work con- 
ducted by the annual Morrill geological ex- 
peditions was necessarily of a desultory order, 
the expenses being met by the sale of duplicate 
specimens! "~ 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


Pursuant to recommendations by Chancel- 
lor Andrews and the board of regents, the 
state legislature early in 1905 voted the sum 
of fifty thousand dollars for the erection of a 
portion of the first wing of a fireproof mu- 
seum. With the assurance of safe and ample 
room and increased facilities Mr. Morrill 
again offered substantial support to the 
amount of one thousand dollars annually for 
paleontological research and exploration. 

This is an important sum, especially to a 
young institution and to those living near the 
fossil fields where student labor is to be de- 
pended upon, and where through friendly in- 
terest in scientific investigation the railroads 
of the commonwealth stand ready to extend 
to the university free transportation and other 
courtesies. 

Early in the summer a small party of 
students was organized, and, in response 
to invitations from Mr. James Cook, of 
Agate, Nebr., camped and collected on his 
extensive ranch, which includes some twelve 
miles of Loup Fork exposures along the Nio- 
brara River. The season was spent at one 
spot where, in a thin layer, the bones occurred 
in such numbers that they were literally quar- 
ried. As heretofore the Burlington and Mis- 
souri River Railroad offered free transporta- 
tion for men and material. 

Personnel of the tenth expedition: L. J. 
Pepperberge, H. J. Cook, M. L. Lee, J. H. 
Miller, W. D. Steckelberg and the writer, who 
was in charge. 

Field work in Nebraska is not necessarily 
confined to summer, for fall is a _ pro- 
tracted and open season, and many excur- 
sions are yet to be made before the year 
ends. Collections of the economic resources 
of the state at large are being made by Dr. 
George E. Condra. Special collections of the 
economic resources and fossils of Sarpy 
County are being made by Mr. L. J. Pepper- 
berg, and the work of collecting is now being 
extended to eastern and southern fields by 
Mr. Charles N. Gould, professor of geology in 
the University of Oklahoma, while pursuing 
courses of study leading to his doctorate. 

Plans for a new state museum are drawn 
and approved, and it is promised that the first 


SCIENCE. 


YLo 


portion of a fire-proot wing will be ready for 
occupancy within a year. 

This, coupled with the fact that funds are 
available from several sources, brightens the 
outlook for geological and paleontological 
work in the University of Nebraska, where 
for the past year more than one ton a week 
of the best state collections have been boxed 
and lowered in an abandoned steam tunnel 
under the campus. 

An account of the Morrill Geological Ex- ' 
peditions 1892 to 1900 by Miss Carrie Adeline 
Barbour may be found in Science, Vol. XL., 
No. 283, pages 856-858, entitled ‘Report on 
the Work of the Morrill Geological Expedi- 
tions of the University of Nebraska.’ An 
account of these expeditions may also be 
found in Vol. I., pages 18-24, of the Nebraska 
Geological Survey, under the title ‘ History 
of the Morrill Geological Expeditions.’ 


Erwin Hinckiey Barsour. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, 
November 1, 1905. 


REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE ELIZA— 
BETH THOMPSON SCIENCE FUND OF 
PROFESSOR BOVERI?’S RESEARCHES. 

Tue following report has been received from 
-Professor Boveri and is now published by 
order of the trustees: 

I herewith permit myself to make report 
concerning the investigations which I have 
earried out with the support of the Elizabeth 
Thompson Science Fund. I spent seven weeks 
at the Zoological Station in Naples, where I 
occupied myself, in connection with earlier 
experiments, on the development of dispermic 
sea urchin eggs with the following questions: 

1. It is of fundamental importance for 
the whole problem of dispermy 1o determine 
whether dispermic germs develop patholog- 
ically because they have taken in two sperma- 
tozoa or because they were already patholog- 
ical. I have, therefore, tested this question 
experimentally. One of the experiments suc- 
ceeded in every respect so perfectly that the 
assertion can now be made with complete cer- 
tainty that the same egg which, if impreg- 
nated by a single spermatozoon would have 


116 


developed normally, will, if impregnated by 
two spermatozoa, develop pathologically. 

2. As I have previously stated,” the isolated 
blastomeres of dispermic eggs differ extremely 
in their developmental potency; but it was 
formerly not possible for me to follow the 
single blastomeres in their development so as 
to be able to assert with complete positiveness 
that there had not been during the isolation 
an unequal degree of injury to the blastomeres 
which might have been the cause of the in- 
equality of the development. This I have 
succeeded in accomplishing in my new experi- 
ments. It has been possible to show that the 
early development up to the blastula stage 
proceeds identically in the isolated blastomeres 
of a dispermic germ, and that only later does 
one partial germ strike out in one direction, 
the other in another direction. 

3. In connection with this I have studied 
thoroughly the early development of uninjured 
dispermic germs and they confirmed the cor- 
responding original similarity and later un- 
likeness of the single germ areas. 

4. A further question concerning the devel- 
opment of dispermic germs was whether the 
so-called primary mesenchyme cells which later 
group themselves to form the regular mesen- 
chyme crown for the formation of the eal- 


eareous skeleton always occur only in that- 


area of the germ in which they arise, or 
whether the mesenchyme represents an indif- 
ferent material, the cells of which are distrib- 
uted by accident to the crown of mesenchyme. 
By means of the difference in size of the cells 
and nuclei in dispermic germs, it became pos- 
sible for me to decide this important question 
in favor of the last alternative. 

5. Against the theory which I formerly ad- 
vanced upon the basis of my experiments on 
dispermice development of the different valence 
of chromosomes, the objection might be raised 
that it was not, as I had suggested, the false 
combination, but the incorrect number of the 
chromosomes which was of pathological sig- 
nificance, for it might be said that only when 
the requisite quantity of chromatin is present 


1*Uber mehr polige Mitosen als Mittel zur 
Analyse des Zellkerns,’ Verh. d. phys.-med. Ges. 
Wirzburg, 1902. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 577. 


that. the proper relation of nucleus and proto- 
plasm can exist which is necessary to the nor- 
mal functioning of the cell. In order to 
exclude entirely this objection it must be 
shown that for any given quantity relation 
of nucleus and protoplasm in the starting cell, 
the proper relation of the two constituents 
ean be reached in the larva cell. This could 
be proven by the rearing of fragments of eggs 
of all sizes in which, therefore, the amount of 
the nuclear material remaining constant vari- 
ous amounts of protoplasm were present. 
These experiments were so carried out that 
the egg fragments were reared in quantities 
and in these cultures every thinkable size of 
normal larve was found. Again, various 
sized egg fragments were measured accurately 
and reared isolated, and these also developed 
into normal larve of all sizes. 

6. The important task which I had set my- 
self was the following of dispermic eggs in 
which only one sperm nucleus united with the 
egg nucleus while the other remained inde- 
pendent. J succeeded in rearing twenty-two 
specimens in which this rare and theoretically 
especially important type of dispermy oc- 
eurred. From these I obtained a considerable 
number of gastrule and plutei. These larve , 
consist of one part with large nuclei and one 
with small nuclei, and by this mark it may be 
determined with complete certainty what part 
contains paternal nuclear substance and what 
part contains paternal and maternal nuclear 
substance combined. 

The various experiments enumerated will 
enable me to finish my work on double im- 
pregnation, and I hope that the completed 
memoir will be published in the spring of 


1906. 
CHartes §. Minor, 


Secretary. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


On January 6 a bill was introduced by 
Mr. Kahn, to provide for celebrating the four 
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the 
Pacific Ocean by Vasco Nunez Balboa by 
holding an international exhibition of arts, 
industries, manufactures, and products of the 
soil, mines, forest and sea, at the city of San 


JANUARY 19, 1906.] 


Francisco, California; referred to the Com- 
mittee on Industrial Arts and Expositions. 

On January 8 Senator Smoot introduced a 
bill for the protection of wild animals in the 
Grand Canyon Forest Reserve; referred to 
Committee on Forest Reservations and Pro- 
tection of Game. 

On January 9 Representative Lacey intro- 
duced a bill for the preservation of American 
antiquities; referred to the Committee on 
Public Lands. 

On January 10 Senator Perkins introduced 
a bill for the protection of animals, birds and 
fish in the forest reserves; referred to the 
Committee on Forest Reservations and the 
Protection of Game. 

The bill for the incorporation of the Amer- 
ican National Institute at Paris has passed 
the senate. : 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. Winuiam Rainey Harper, president of 
the University of Chicago, died on January 
10, at the age of forty-nine years. At the 
funeral exercises at Chicago, on January 14, 
addresses were made by President Faunce, of 
Brown University; Chancellor Andrews, of 
the University of Nebraska; Dean Judson, of 
the University of Chicago, and Dr. Lyman 
Abbott, of New York City. It is intended 
to bury the body ultimately in a memorial 
chapel and crypt to be built on the university 
grounds. Memorial exercises were also held 
at Columbia University, addresses being made 
by President Butler, President Wilson, of 
Princeton University, and President Hall, of 
the Union Theological Seminary. 

Proressor J. P. Ippines, of the University 
of Chicago, was elected president of the Geo- 
logical Society of America at the recent 
Ottawa meeting. 

Dr. N. L. Brirton, director of the New 
York Botanical Garden, has been elected 
president of the New York Academy of 
Sciences. 

Dr. A. L. Krorper, of the University of 
California, has been elected president of the 
American Folk-lore Society. 

Proressor Henry M. Hower, head of the 
department of metallurgy in Columbia Uni- 


SCIENCE. 


iY 


versity, has been elected a foreign member of 
the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. The 
other Americans holding this honor are Pro- 
fessor Simon Newcomb, Dr. Samuel Pierpont 
Langley, President Charles R. van Hise, Dr. 
Alexander Agassiz and Mr. Thomas A. Edison. 

Dr. Burton E. Livineston has resigned his 
position in charge of the Division of Soil 
Fertility of the Bureau of Soils, U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, to accept a place on the 
staff of the Desert Botanical Laboratory of 
the Carnegie Institution, at Tucson, Ariz. 


THE resignation of Dr. D. T. MacDougal 
as assistant director has brought about a re- 
organization of work at the New York Botan- 
ical Garden. Dr. W. A. Murrill, who has been 
serving as a curator for parts of two years, 
having succeeded to the position left vacant 
by the resignation of Professor F. 8. Earle to 
accept the work of directing the Cuban Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station, has been. ap- 
pointed first assistant, and the duties of Mr. 
Perey Wilson, administrative assistant, have 
been increased. Dr. C. S. Gager, who has 
pursued investigations at the garden for some 
time under the direction of Dr. MacDougal, 
has been appointed director of the laboratories. | 
Mr. R. S. Williams, who has done much field 
work on behalf of the garden during the past 
five years in the Yukon Territory, Bolivia and 
the Philippine Islands, has been appointed an 
assistant curator. Mr. C. B. Robinson, who 
has been a student of the garden, giving spe- 
cial attention to the study of the stone-worts, 
and to the Philippine Island collections formed 
by Mr. Williams, has also been appointed an 
assistant curator. 

Avr the annual election of the American 
Philosophical Society, held on January 5, the 
following officers were elected for the ensuing 
year: 

President—Kdgar F. Smith. 

Vice-Presidents—George F. Barker, William B. 
Seott, Simon Newcomb. 

Secretaries—l. Minis Hays, Edwin G. Conklin, 
Arthur W. Goodspeed, Morris Jastrow, Jr. 

Treasurer—Henry La Barre Jayne. 

Curators—Charles L. Doolittle, William P. Wil- 
son, Albert H. Smyth. 

Councillors—Patterson Du Bois, Samuel Dick- 
son, Ernest W. Brown, William Keith Brooks. 


118 


Dr. Witttam JAMES, professor of philosophy, 
at Harvard University, is at present lecturing 
at Stantord University, where he will stay un- 
til June. 

Tue fifth lecture im the Harvey Society 
Course will be given by Professor W. H. 
Park, at the New York Academy of Medicine, 
on Saturday, January 20, at 8:30 p.m., his sub- 
ject being ‘A Critical Study of Serum 
Therapy.’ All interested are invited to at- 
tend. 

Dr. E. Pruticrr, professor of physiology, at 
Bonn, celebrated, on December 15 the fiftieth 
anniversary of his doctorate. 

Dr. Max Hetvzs, professor of philosophy, 
Leipzig, celebrated, on December 138, his seven- 
tieth birthday. 

Sir Micwaret Foster and Sir Philip Magnus 
are candidates for parliament from the Uni- 
versity of London. 

A comitTrE has been formed under the 
patronage of Prince Bernhard of Saxe- 
Meiningen for the erection of a memorial of 
the late Professor von Mikuliecz, at Breslau. 


A POSITION as computer at the Yerkes Ob- 
servatory is,now vacant. The incumbent, 
who may be either man or woman, will devote 
considerable time to measuring and reducing 
stellar spectrograms, in addition to performing 
miscellaneous computations. The salary 
which can be offered at present is fifty dollars 
per month. Applications should be made to 
Professor Edwin B. Frost, Williams Bay, Wis- 
consin. 

Tue French Association for the Adyance- 
ment of Science will meet at Lyons, on August 
2, under the presidency of M. Lippmann, pro- 
fessor of physics in the Sorbonne. 

Mr. W. D. D. Crotch has left his residuary 
estate (some £8,000) to the Museum of Zool- 
ogy, Oxford University. His brother, Mr. 
G. R. Crotch, had previously left considerable 
gifts in collections, books and money, to the 
same institution. 

Tue department of entomology of the 
American Museum of Natural History has 
received as a gift from William Schaus, Esq., 
formerly of New York City, a valuable col- 
lection of moths embracing some 26,000 speci- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 577. 


mens, mainly from Mexico, Central America 
and South America. Four years ago the 
museum received from the same gentleman a 
collection of 5,000 butterflies, including many 
rare specimens from Europe, Asia, Africa, 
Australia and New Zealand. 


SeNor Troporo Drnesa, the governor. of 
Vera Cruz, Mexico, has donated to the Car- 
negie Museum, Pittsburg, Pa., a Mexican idol, 
which was regarded as the gem of his archeo- 
logical collection.. The idol was stolen some 
years ago and finally came into the possession 
of the Carnegie Museum, which purchased it, 
without knowing its previous history. When 
the authorities of the museum discovered the 
facts, they offered to restore the specimen to 
its owner, but he has requested them to retain 
it as his gift. : 

It is stated in the London Times that Mr. 
W. O. B. Macdonough, of San Francisco, 
California, has presented to the trustees of 
the British Museum the skull and limb bones 
of the celebrated race horse Ormonde, in the 
opinion of many good judges the best horse 
of the nineteenth century. The remains re- 
cently arrived in good condition, and are now 
in the hands of the museum preparator to be 
mounted for exhibition in the hall of domesti- 
cated animals, which already contains speci- 
mens of several English thoroughbreds, in- 


‘eluding the skull of Bend Or, the sire of 


Ormonde, and the skeleton of Stockwell, of 
whom he was. a lineal descendant. 


ANNOUNCEMENT is made by the board of 
directors of the National Association for the 
Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis of the 
preliminary arrangements for the second an- 
nual meeting of the association, which will be 
held in Washington, May 17-19, 1906. Two 
new sections have been established, one on 
surgical tuberculosis and the other on tu- 
bereulosis in children. The officers of the 
sections are as follows: Sociological section— 
chairman, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Wash- 
ington, D. ©.; secretary, Miss Lilian Brandt, 
New York. Clinical and Climatological sec- 
tion—chairman, Dr. Vincent Y. Bowditch, 
Boston, Mass.; secretary, Dr. Edwin A. Locke, 
Boston, Mass. Pathologic and bacteriologic 


’ 


January 19, 1906.] 


section—chairman, Dr. Edward R. Baldwin, 
Saranac Lake, N. Y.; secretary, Dr. Hugh M. 
Kinghorn, Saranac Lake, N. Y. Section on 
surgical tuberculosis—chairman, Dr. W. W. 
Keen, Philadelphia, Pa.; secretary, Dr. Robert 
G. LeConte, Philadelphia, Pa. Section on 
tuberculosis in children—chairman, Dr. W. P. 
Northrup, New York; secretary, Dr. Roland 
G. Freeman, New York. 


THE lectures on tuberculosis at the tubercu- 
losis exposition, to be held in Philadelphia 
from January 22 to February 38, will be deliv- 
ered by the following: January 23, Dr. Lawr- 
ence F. Flick, ‘The Sociological Importance 
of Tuberculosis’; January 24, Dr. Leonard 
Pearson, ‘State Control of Tuberculosis’; 
January 25, Dr. Charles Dudley, Altoona, 
“The Railroad in Tuberculosis’; January 26, 
Dr. William B. Stanton, ‘Tuberculosis in the 
School’; January 27, Dr. Howard S. Anders, 
“Tuberculosis in the Store’; January 29, Dr. 
Henry R. M. Landis, ‘Tuberculosis in the 
Workman’; January 30, Dr. Samuel McC. 
Hamill, ‘ Tuberculosis in Children’; January 
31, Dr. Thomas Darlington, New York City, 
and Dr. W. M. Late Coplin, ‘ Municipal Con- 
trol’; February 1, Dr. Charles J. Hatfield, 
“Address to Medical Students and Nurses’; 
February 2, Drs. James C. Wilson and John 
H. Musser, ‘ Address to Physicians,’ and Feb- 
ruary 3, Dr. M. P. Ravenel, ‘ Hospitals, Sana- 
toria and Dispensaries.’ Demonstrations on 
pathology will be given from 2 to 6 p.m. daily. 

Mr. K. H. Prumacuer, the American consul 
at Maracaibo, has written the followite letter 
to the assistant secretary of state, under date 
of December 3. 

I should have reported sooner to you about the 
different convulsions of mother earth in this 
consular district during the month of November. 
Excuse circumstances; I was not in a condition 
to report upon such small affairs, as I had enough 
to do to save my reputation. We had since the 
tenth of November two slight ones here but heavy 
felt in the Andes states. Then we had three 


sharp convulsions of little duration coming from 
the southeast. : 

The days were cloudy and no wind but it was 
very hot. In day time those shakings are taken 
rather cooly, but when in night time such freaks 
of nature occur and you hear the rafters creak 


SCIENCE. 


119 


and the tiles on your roof move and your bed 
shakes it is not exactly pleasant. We had them 
but, without much damage. The damage came 
from an unexpected quarter. It began td rain 
from 5 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. in such a style that it 
seems as if tons of water were thrown upon the 
country. I marked five and a half inches before 
10 o’clock a.m. All our houses were floated, no 
tile roof after the shaking could stand such a 
flood. I intended to go to the city anyhow at 
8:30 in the morning on horse-back to see to the 
condition of the consular office in town, but it 
was impossible; a stream of water six feet high 
with the rapidity of lightning came down the 
streets and I knew that was more than horse 
could cross. There was no communication in 
town that day, but next day I was at six o’clock 
in the morning at the office only to find three 
inches of water in all the rooms, not come by 
flooding but by leaking roofs; not much damage 
was done in the office; we can with little expense 
put everything in first class order. The damage 
done to property by the water is great. For 
ten years we had no rain sufficient to serve for 
the agriculture, not speaking of the suffering 
people, but now it came down in such an abun- 
dance that the poor people can drink once more, 
sweet fresh rain water. The cisterns are full, 
everybody can now hope for a good crop and 
there is water enough for the cattle in the plains 
and plenty food for them in a short time. 


The Scottish Geographical Journal gives 
the following details in regard to the plans 
of the Mylius Erichsen expedition: The in- 
etention is to make a start about the middle 
of June, 1906, on board the Denmark, the 
party consisting of twenty-one persons, among 
whom will be a zoologist, a painter, a doctor, 
a botanist and a biologist. Seventy sledge- 
dogs and some motor boats are to be taken. 
The vessel is to be steered for the east coast 
of Greenland, and it is hoped that a harbor 
may be found in lat. 70°. From this harbor 
an expedition consisting of twelve men with 
sledges and dogs will start in March, 1907, 
for the extreme north, where its members 
hope to map part of the unknown coast of 
eastern Greenland. This party is expected to 
return in July, 1907, and if conditions are 
favorable it is contemplated that another 
party may be sent into the interior, or may 
even attempt to cross the country from east 
to west in a high latitude, say along the 70th 


120 


or ‘75th parallel. The expedition is expected 
to finally return in the summer of 1908, and 
the sum of £11,000 is given as its probable 
cost. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mr. N. W. Harris, of Chicago, has pre- 
sented $25,000 to Northwestern University, 
to be used as an endowment for an annual 
series of lectures which are to be delivered by 
some distinguished man, not a professor of the 
university, upon the results of his own investi- 
gations in scientific, literary, economical or 
theological problems. 

By the will of Andrew J. Dotger, of South 
Orange, N. J., the Tuskegee Normal and In- 
dustrial Institute will, at the death of the 
testator’s wife, receive the residuary estate, 
said to be about half a million dollars. 


We learn from Nature that the University 
of Basle, to which the late Professor Dr. 
Georg W. A. Kahlbaum was attached for 
nearly twenty years, has received the sum of 
100,000 francs from the mother of the deceased 
professor. Further, Professor Kahlbaum’s 
scientific library and physical instruments are 
also to be handed to the university. 

Tue corporation of Harvard University has 
decided that students who take more than the 
required amount of work must in addition 
to the regular tuition fee of $150 pay $20 for 
each course. 
course in three years, he must take up four 
additional courses. 

Tur University of Oxford has established a 
diploma in anthropology, awarding a certificate 
of merit after written and practical examina- 
tion at the end of a course of study of not less 
than a year in residence and under supervision. 

Tue college entrance examination board will 
hereafter conduct an examination in zoology. 
The examiners of the board for 1906 in the 
sciences are as follows: 


Mathematics—Professor F. N. Cole, Columbia 
University; Professor H. 8. White, Vassar Col- 
lege; Dr. Arthur Schultze, High School of Com- 
merce, New York, N, Y. 

Physics—Professor EH. L. Nichols, Cornell Uni- 
versity; Professor F. C. Van Dyck, Rutgers Col- 
lege; Frank Rollins, Stuyvesant High School, 
New York, N. Y. 


SCIENCE. 


Tf a student wishes to finish his - 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 577. 


Chemistry—Professor H. P. Talbot, Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology; Professor L. M. 
Dennis, Cornell University; ©. M. Allen, Pratt 
Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Geography—Professor A. P. Brigham, Colgate 
University; Professor Florence Bascom, Bryn 
Mawr College; W. H. Snyder, Worcester Academy, 
Worcester, Mass. 

Botany—Professor W. F. Ganong, Smith Col- 
lege; Professor Henrietta E. Hooker, Mount 
Holyoke College; Louis Murbach, Central High 
School, Detroit, Mich. 


Tue College of Engineering of the Uni- 
yersity of Wisconsin announces a list of non- 
resident lectures for the present year. The 
lecturers selected include some of the most 
prominent authorities on special phases of 
engineering in the country. The lectures are 
not confined strictly to engineering subjects, 
but include a consideration of various indus- 
trial and commercial problems with which the 
engineer has to deal, and embrace the greatest 
possible variety of subjects. The complete 
program is as follows: Mr. F. B. Wheeler, en- 
gineer of the-Semet-Solvay Oo., Syracuse, N. 
Y., two lectures, ‘Gas Engineering.’ Mr. G. M. 
Davidson, chemist for C. & N. W. Railway, 
‘Purification of Water for Locomotive Boilers.’ 
Mr. J. M. Faithorn, president of the Chicago 
Terminal Transfer Co., ‘Regulation of Rail- 
road Freight Rates’ Mr. B. A. Behrend, 
chief engineer of Bullock Manufacturing Co., 
‘High Speed in Modern Engineering.’ Mr. 8. 
Wyer, consulting engineer, Columbus, O., two 
lectures,.‘ Gas Producers and Producer Gas.’ 
Mr. L. R. Clauson, U. W. 797, signal engineer 
of OC. M. & St. P. Railway Co., ‘ Railroad — 
Signaling.’ Mr. Ralph Modjeski, consulting 
bridge engineer, Chicago, ‘The New Thebes 
Bridge over the Mississippi near St. Louis.’ 
Mr. Arthur B. Wheeler, president of the Chi- 
eago Telephone Co., subject to be announced 
later. Professor L. P. Breckenridge, College 
of Engineering, University of Illinois, ‘ The 
Use of Bituminous Coal in Boiler Furnaces.’ 
Mr. Andrews Allen, U. W. 791, construction 
engineer, Chicago, ‘Engineering Construc- 
tion. Mr. Frank Skinner, assistant editor of 
Engineering Record, probably several lectures 
on ‘ Bridge Construction.’ 


CIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


| 


Fripay, JANUARY 26, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


Report of the President of the Carnegie 


Institution 121 


The Annual Meeting of the Central Botanists: 
PROFESSOR BRADLEY M. DavIs............ 


NSeientifie Books :— 
Howells Text-book of Physiology: Pro- 
FESSOR CHARLES W. GREENE. Hewmann’s 
Vorlesungen iiber anorganischen Chemie, 
Roscoe and Schorlemmer’s Chemistry, de 
Forchand’s Cours de Chimie: W. A. N. 
Strabo on Climatology: PRoressor R. DEC. 
WaRD 


133 


134 
137 


NSeientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Ohio Academy of Science: Dr. L. B. 
Watton. The Indiana Academy of Sci- 
ence: PRoFessor J. H. Ransom. The So- 
ciety of Geohydrologists: M. LL. FULLER. 
The American Chemical Society, New York 
Section: Dr. F. H. Pouecu. Northeastern 


Section: Dr. ArrHUR M. CoMBy.......... 137 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Heredity and Subspecies: Dr. J. A. ALLEN. 
The Evolution of Species through Climatic 
Conditions: T. D. A. CocKERELL. Onto- 
genetic Species and Convergent Genera: 
ARTHUR HRWIN Brown. Ethnic Types and 


Isolation: DR. CLARK WISSLER.......... 142 


Special Articles :— 
Physiological Regeneration in Insects: PRo- 
FESSOR VERNON L. Kettoge. A Prelim- 
inary Note on Ascus and Spore Formation 
im the Laboulbeniaceae: J. HoRAcE FAULL. 
Inbreeding, Cross-breeding and Sterility in 


Drosophila; PRoressor W. E. CastLe..... 149 


‘Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Australian Daily Weather Maps; Meteorol- 
ogy of the ‘Scotia’ Hxpedition; Loss of 
Sleep and High Mountain Ascents; Notes: 
Proressor R. DeC. Warp............... 


The New England Intercollegiate Geological 
J 


Bzxeursion: D. W. 155 


156 


‘The Cartwright Lectures and Baron Takaki. . 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScrENcE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


The Sixth International Congress of Applied 


Chemistry: Hi. W. WiILEY.......-...)..... 156 
Scientific Notes and News................. 157 
University and Educational News........... 160 


REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 

In compliance with the provisions of 
article IV. of the by-laws of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washineton, I have the 
honor to submit the following report on 
the work of the institution during the fiscal 
year ending October 31, 1905, along with 
recommendations of appropriations for 
work during the succeeding year, and with 
some suggestions concerning the future 
course and progress of the institution. 

Coming as the writer has to the presi- 
deney of an institution already well organ- 
ized, but still in the earlier stages of its 
development, it is essential for the purposes 
of a report to assume asa point of de- 
parture the plan and scope of operations 
found well under way. Accordingly, the 
résumé of the work of the year given below 
is an account of work planned substan- 
tially by the executive committee of the 
preceding year. Similarly, the -recom- 
mendations made with respect to the ensu- 
ing year are mainly in accord with the 
lines of policy hitherto followed by the 
executive committee. The additional ex- 
perience of this year seems to confirm, espe- 
cially, the wisdom of concentrating the 
resources of the institution on a small num- 
ber of large projects rather than on a large 
number of small projects. Concerning this 


1From the ‘ Year Book’ for 1905: 


122 


mooted question, however, some observa- 
tions will be found im a later section of this 
report. As regards the larger aspects of 
the work of the institution, this report aims 
to give only a few suggestions derived from 
a preliminary reconnaissance of the fields 
of activity already entered. A survey of 
these fields, not to mention other promising 
fields of activity, will obviously require 
more than the available time of one year. 


Hauisting Plan, Scope and Mode of Admin- 
, istration of the Institution. 

As a matter of record, and as a matter 
of information to the general public, which 
takes an enlightened interest in the affairs 
of the institution, it seems desirable to ex- 
plain briefly, in this connection and at this 
epoch, the plan, scope and mode of admin- 
istration of those affairs. Referring to the 
articles of incorporation and by-laws, pub- 
lished on pages 1-8 of the ‘Year Book,’ for 
a full statement of the objects of the insti- 
tution and the rules adopted for its admin- 
istration, the fields in which its activities 
are now concentrated may be summarized 
under four principal heads, namely : 

1. Large projects, whose execution re- 
quires continuous research, usually by a 
corps of investigators, during a series of ~ 
years. Ten such projects are already under 
way. 

2. Small projects, which are usually car- 
ried on by individual experts during a lim- 
ited period of time. About three hundred 
erants in aid of such projects have thus far 
been made. 

3. Tentative investigations, carried on by 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578. 


young men and women who have shown 
aptitude for research and have desired to 
pursue specific problems for one or two 
years. A limited number of persons have 
been aided by the institution in this line of 
work in the hope that some of them might 
develop exceptional abilities. 

4. Considerable sums of money have been 
allotted annually for the publication of 
meritorious works which would not other- 
wise be readily printed, and for the pub- 
lication of the reports and results of the 
investigations carried on under the auspices 
of the institution. This promises to be a 
fruitful field of activity. About forty vol- 
umes of works in diverse fields have already 
been issued. 

Briefly described, the administration of 
the institution is vested in a board of trus- 
tees, which meets annually. During the 
intervals between the meetings of the board 
of trustees, the affairs of the institution 
are conducted by an executive committee, 
chosen by and from the trustees, acting 
through the president of the institution as 
chief executive officer. 

Financial Statement for the Year 1904-5. 

The following table shows the balances 
brought forward from previous appropria- 
tions; the amounts appropriated for the 
year 1904-5 by the board of trustees at 
their meeting of December 13, 1904; the 
revertments during the year; the totals 
available for expenditure during the year; 
the allotments for the year, and the unal- 
lotted balances for large grants, . minor 
erants, research assistants, publication and 
administration, respectively : 


Unallotted |A iati Revertments, Balance 
Oct. 81,1904. | Bee. 81, 1804," |O2t, 81,1904 fo] ‘Total, | Aljofmdutst) || Waatlotied! 
Large grants.......... ......0 $4, 250.00 $310,000 _— $314,250.00 | $304,500.00 $9, 750.00 
Minor grants.............0..0 230.68 148,000 $6,692.33 | 154,923.01 | 130,625.00 24,298.01 
Research assistants........... — 20,000 — 20,000.00 10,400.00 9,600.00 
Publication..............s00e00 24, 683.49 40,000 4,474.73 69,158.22 29,388.15 39,770.07 
Administration ............... 18,195.59 50,000 150.00 68,345.59 36,868.92 31,476.67 
Ste) eIES consonecosoconbacseoss0 $47, 359.76 $568,000 | $11,317.06 | $626,676.82 | $511,782.07 | $114,894.75 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


The following list shows the departments 
of investigations to which the larger grants 
were assigned and the amounts of those 
grants: 


Station for Experimental Evolution..... $ 12,000 
Tortugas Marine Biological Laboratory.. 15,700 
Desert Botanical Laboratory............ 6,000 
ELT onlin Sais Gane A neem ees eormoe 10,000 
Economics and sociology.............-.- 30,000 
Terrestrial magnetism ............-.--- 25,000 
Historical research ..........-....-.--- 14,000 
Solar observatory ..........+..-+++-+-+> 150,000 
Geophysical research: 
{No Ibn IDEN7es coo nsnoonoen ecb 00nGRDOueD 15,000 
CBHI COKE TN par yairo.c velo neiscieles ou \eielloorereste 7,500 
It, 1D, ACHING soo goose popdaodoomoooooS 1,500 
_ Nutrition: 
ii, Gs 1xereuhGks ceacococobangooeN donc 7,500 
‘Tt, 1B, OswruChegoncusoacaenacduccogo 4,000 
i, ial, Chaniuemelsabe 6 goncogosgsGG000000 2,500 
Ibn JBL WIG CCE. Boge cei oie eee moc pic 2,000 
Paleontology (transferred to minor 
ERAS) cosoosvomadoanoegodonoeHe 1,800 
BRGa cd MTSE Takia a cate! odie ies ley oy brstodenedie/suciferiete $304,500 


The fields of investigation to which the 
minor grants were assigned, the names of 
the grantees, and the amounts of the grants 
are shown in the following list: 


‘Anthropology : 

Dome, Go Acoseossandcaccssboce5d $ 3,000 
Archeology: 

unmppellly, Reasocacaos's0ans 99000000 26,000 
American School of Classical Studies: 

ANUIGIE) 5 odds docogopboeormoucosuone 2,500 

IROHID ‘bo.0o CORO Ono a oldie mp Ie ciated Bean 2,600 
Astronomy: — 

IOS, Ihesss-p oop one GUCmG oe Om on 6,000 

(Charenjalellll, Vivo WWieoocasccsecs00ceacn 3,000 

EN VA See Sere ekckshe cepoqcucistiars vteatcvedsheee 1,500 

NGC)" Sard. orc COG coor Ines eA 2,500 

OF ho a ta etched Ei ae Pee ee Pe eee ee 5,000 

Bibliography : 

nv dexsp Ne dicusirrerycistarereley cle enaetcle er sian 10,000 
Botany: 

COOK Olied Se ae gbashoeg becd mame G 2,000 

pSyoeiebtinee, Wo Wlsoacocuscedoseoabonun 600 

Shrisley Wo Isa ncbocoesdacns asenos 1,500 

IDG 1S ABiAmo cece Biome A cecee 500 
Chemistry : 

SAMCLOLG AWD) yes cesueresiecie cles ere okenes 1,000 

BaASkervalle yi Csr. skekcslteyreie ve iers cnare’n «bes 2,000 


SCIENCE. 


123 
Baxter Gs Mee seks a cistcccnsmiiat oeieterare 1,000 
HOMO, IE, Coscsosodscossoooasnacoes 1,000 
IMorsGhelaly IN gacdacane ceos iad )o con 1,500 
Noyes As Aoosseogoscopongenuacaod 2,000 
TRnOnamkg, Wks Woeoscccnnsoanoboocge 2,500 
Geology: 
Chamberlin, T. C................... 6,000 
Willits, TBREMIG oss coc enogadnoouneno 2,475 
History: 
VWiviredius, da Meo ood SoocasonSeoc0cocs 250 
IPAS, Wh Wo osconocnesscodons5a39 300 
lalallainG), Cy lelosscecaccedsconvocg05 1,000 
Paleontology: 
(OPcey WE Oba aca cig bonaaeod boo on oS 800. 
Wey, Os Phososscoooncecpagceccuent 1,800 
Wieland Ge Rvcky-ca.y-}ccvenaleisipiotonstersy= 1,500 
Philology and linguistics: 
MIME Boosoocedocosposuoacc0e3e00 7,500 
Mol, Choo socosccacavoucovo oun HHO 1,000 
Sori wORE), IB WV occaccocceccduocbe se 2,700 
Physics: 
IBaQBUSsyl ©ivesote oy cccieue votes sie etcee Uepoitone been stars , 1,000 
MBAS, Ch IM sosolodgaoncascacc0a sacs 2,500 
WH@OG, IRs Wroasosccosvasddecs06000 1,000 
Ww@oukweurl, 1 Sincoaoncacosnedes000 3,000 
WGN, 15 Wiscachocoooooagoongbonc 1,000 
Zoology : 
Chgwle gil Ihe. oosococcaonc000s 600 
PLOW ATG aii Ola vecletsty cust o's euctereiedevencke 3,000 
Marine biological laboratory........ 10,000 
Naples zoological station........... 1,000 
Aton, We Wisoagoosuepesucecapuars 1,500 
IP Gar an n re sytenc ie peoracaste term ohoterstoy etek 1,250 
IDWENCE Ny do Wocssducaadsconoog000G 750 
$130,625 


The following table shows the fields of 
investigation, the names of research assist- 
ants, and the amounts of their grants: 


Field of i A 
Tmvesuiwations Names of Research Assistants. Rees 
Anthropology | Jones, W..........:.ccccsceeseeeee $1,000 
Botany ........- (Oybiv«) JB, \ivesancaccooanagacaossocs 1,000 
Chemistry ..... Sill, H. F., and Zerban, Fritz) 1,000 
History... ..... rse@nis, Cry \iYoccocneenossonsaonsncens 1,200 
Physics. ........ Whitehead, J. B................. 1,200 
Tetitay) Feenec eel anMenater 1,000 
Sn, Et, LB sssocnoscnooecasabosese 1,000 
Zoology -..-. Johnson, Tete. le L acgasqndeueedeenod 1,000 
Wiomisey| AX, TP) oroonccona9n|s ann|ado 1,000 
URGE) Lanaieoodl acbepcneeaaecaarooacccecabacaweccessaoe $10, 400 


The sources and the amounts of the re- 
vertments during the year are as follows: 


124 


REVERTMENTS FROM NOVEMBER 1, 1904, TO OCTOBER 
31, 1905, 
Minor grants: 
O. P. Hay, from large grants. . $1,800.00 
Southern and Solar Observa- 


tory, grant No. 70......... 657.38 
Archives United States Govern- 

ment in Washington, grant 

No! -2SAB a. Savetemkalsucncieysnctere 984.12 
E. §. Shepherd, grant No. 176. 250.00 


R. 8. Woodward, grant No. 282 3,000.00 


G. Stanley Hall, grant No. 61. -83 

$6,692.33 
Publication: 

We OfAtwaterte nnn ote cae $1,900.00 

JeWe Band's ech heneasecccns 8.25 

We Wi. Coblentz5.% ayes see 474.91 

1B Sb COMERS oo osaebccosco5 679.22 

Jo 1h, IDWENCAN, 2o5cs000n0008¢ 251.40 

H. 8. Jennings.............. 10.85 

ASIP ASIMOTSOS' tro fiepha qa tine 27.85 

George H. Shull............ 51.89 

N. M. Stevens.....:.:...:.: 64.60 

A. C. McLaughlin........... 1,005.76 
4,474.73 


Administration : 
300 copies publication No.. 16 Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania............... 150.00 
$11,317.06 
RESUME OF WORK OF THE YEAR. 


The Larger Projects. 


‘One of the tasks the president has under- - 


taken is that of conferring personally with 
all investigators at work under the auspices 
of the institution and inspecting all labora- 
tories, observatories or other establishments 
where projects of the larger type are under 
way. Since there have been about three 
hundred and sixty men and women at work 
under grants during the past year, and 
since they reside in widely separated locali- 
ties, it has been impossible to complete this 
task in the three hundred days thus far 
available for the work. Nearly all of the 
more important establishments have been 
visited, however, and conferences have been 
held with nearly all of the investigators. 
Considering the wide range and the tech- 
nical character of the researches of these 
investigators, it would be presumptuous to 
attempt in a general report anything more 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXITT. No. 578, 


than a summary of their work, and this 
summary may be brief, since the reports of 
individual investigators, which will be - 
found on pages 51-52 of the ‘Year Book,” 
are designed to give all needed details. 

Specially worthy of mention in this con- 
nection. are. the ten larger projects now 
under way. Without seeking to designate 
them by inelastic terminology, for they are 
in a process of development, they may be 
classified departmentally as shown in the 
followimg list, which gives also the names 
of the ‘principal investigators conducting 
these works of research: 

Experimental evolution in biology: Charles B. 
Davenport. 

Marine biology: Alfred G. Mayer. 

Desert plant biology: D. T. MacDougal and F-. 
V. Coville. } Beda 

Horticulture: Luther Burbank. 

Economies and sociology: Carroll D. Wright. 

History: Andrew C. McLaughlin and J. F. 
Jameson. 

Geophysics: F. D. Adams, George F. Becker and 
Arthur L. Day. ; 

Nutrition: F. G. Benedict, R. H. Chittenden, L. 
B. Mendel and T. B. Osborne. 

Solar physics: George E. Hale. 

Terrestrial magnetism: L. A. Bauer. 

Of these departments of research, four 
have semi-permanent quarters constructed 
or under construction by the institution. 
These are the Station for Experimental 
Evolution in Biology at Cold Spring Har- 
bor, Long Island, N. Y., in charge of Pro- 
fessor Charles B. Davenport; the Marine 
Biological Laboratory at Dry Tortugas, 
Fla., in charge of Dr. Alfred G. Mayer; 
the Desert Botanical Laboratory at Tucson, 
Ariz., at present in charge of a non-resident 
committee of advisers, Dr. D. T. Mac- 
Dougal and Mr. Frederick V. Coville, and 
the Solar Observatory now under construe- 
tion on Mount Wilson, near Pasadena, Cal., 
and in charge of Professor George EH. Hale. 
Although these departments are barely 
started, and necessarily require additional 
time for the formative stages, they are 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


already producing noteworthy results and 
need only the energetic application of pa- 
tience and persistence to insure contribu- 
tions to knowledge of prime importance. 


Biological Investigations. 

The observational and experimental work 
undertaken in animal and plant biology is 
of a fundamental character, and is con- 
templated, it is thought, according to a 
seale adequate for the solution of the very 
difficult problems presented. The system- 
atie study of these for a series of years can 
hardly fail to yield results of signal prac- 
tical and theoretical value. Several publi- 
cations with reference to these investiga- 
tions have already been issued and others 
will soon be ready for publication. The 
advantages for research in botany and zool- 
ogy afforded by our biological stations are 
attracting the attention and stimulating the 
activity of eminent investigators. Several 
of the leading zoologists of America availed 
themselves during the past summer of the 
facilities for the study of marine fauna 
afforded by the laboratory at Tortugas, Fla. 
Similar use has been made of the oppor- 
tunities presented by the station at Cold 
Spring Harbor, N. Y.; while the Desert 
Botanical Laboratory, by reason of the 
novelty and the probable economic impor- 
tance of its work, is an establishment of 
profound interest alike to the scientific and 
to the general public. 


Horticultural Experiments. 

The horticultural experiments and the 
remarkable achievements of Mr. Duther 
Burbank are well known in a popular way, 
though it must be said that the more im- 
portant aspects of his work remain yet to 
be interpreted to men of science as well as 
to the interested public. Owing to the im- 
practicability, during the past year, of 
securing the services of a trained biologist, 
the preparation of a scientific account of 
the ways, means, methods and results of 


SCIENCE. 


125 


Mr. Burbank’s work has been delayed. He 
has continued his experiments, however, as 
related in his report, and it is hoped that 
the necessary arrangements for securing 
the scientific account of his work contem- 
plated by the board of trustees will not be 
long deferred. Little short of five years 
will be required for this work if it is done 
thoroughly well. 


Department of Economics and Sociology. 

As will be seen from the report of Dr. 
Wright, the department of economies and 
sociology has undertaken a comprehensive 
project which should bring, in a few years, 
extensive contributions to the social and 
economic history of the United States, and 
probably also equally important data for a 
forecast of American social and economic 
development. The goal of science is ca- 
pacity for prediction, and although eco- 
nomic and social science are still sometimes 
regarded as somewhat ‘dismal’ in com- 
parison with the older science of astronomy, 
for example, they are plainly destined to 
play an increasingly important réle in the 
progress of mankind. 


Department of Historical Research. 

The department of historical research, 
which was one of the first to be organized 
under the auspices of the institution, has 
attaimed an assured position of prominence 
and approval in the historical world. 
Under the energetie direction of Professor 
Andrew C. McLaughlin, this department 
has stimulated historical research to a note- 
worthy degree. The publications issued 
under his editorship have been widely read 
by students and by investigators, and the 
demand for historical papers and docu- 
ments issued and discovered by the depart- 
ment is constantly increasing. It is with 
regret that the executive committee has 
been called upon to accept the resignation 
of Professor McLaughlin, to take effect at 
the end of the current fiscal year. His re- 


126 


port for this year will be found in the 
‘Year Book,’ and attention is invited to 
the summary he gives of the work of the 
department up to date. Professor Me- 
Laughlin has been succeeded by Professor 
J. Franklin Jameson, formerly professor 
of history in the University of Chicago. 


Geophysical Research. 

Work in geophysics’ has been carried 
on independently by three investigators, 
namely, by Professor Frank D. Adams, at 
McGill University, Montreal, and by Dr. 
George F. Becker and Dr. Arthur L. Day, 
of the U. S. Geological Survey. . Briefly 
characterized, their researches aim to de- 
termine the modes of formation and the 
physical properties of the rocks of the 
earth’s erust. We may confidently expect 
that the results of these researches will be 
of great economic as well as of great the- 
oretic importance. The conditions of oc- 
currence of rock constituents and materials, 
including the precious metals, appear now 
essentially discoverable by means attain- 
able in the laboratory. 

Certain kinds of rocks have already been 
made artificially, and the making of others 
is only a question of time and the applica- 
tion of available resources. Publications 
already issued and in press from this de- 
partment of work are furnishing remark- 
able contributions to our knowledge of the 
properties of matter, alike of interest and 
value to the theoretical physicist and to the 
practical engineer. 


Investigations on Nutrition. 

Some degree of novelty, it may be said, 
attaches to the investigations into the phys- 
ics and chemistry of human nutrition ear- 
ried on by Professor F. G. Benedict at 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. ; 
by Professors R. M. Chittenden and L. B. 
Mendel, at Yale University, New Haven, 
Conn., and by Dr. T. B. Osborne, of the 
Connecticut’ Agricultural Experiment Sta- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vor. XXIII. No. 573. 


tion, at New Haven, Conn. The details of 
these investigations are far too numerous 
and technical to permit adequate descrip- 
tion here. Summarily, however, it may 
suffice to state that Professor Benedict is 
making experiments on men similar to the 
experiments made by mechanical engineers 
on steam-engines and power plants to de- 
termine their physical properties and effi- 
ciencies. An apparatus has been devised 
whereby man as an engine, or power plant, 
may be studied as carefully and as conclu- 
sively as any other mechanical plant. An 
account of this apparatus and of the results 
to be expected from its use will soon appear 
as No. 42 of the publications of the insti- 
tution. Professors Chittenden and Mendel, 
on the other hand, are studying the chem- 
ical and physiological processes and effects 
in man arising from the qualities and quan- 
tities of foods he consumes; while Dr. 
Osborne is engaged in an exhaustive de- 
termination of the chemical properties of 
that large group of foodstuffs known as 
proteids. The prospective value of these 
researches admits of no doubt; and in addi- 
tion to their direct bearing on the human 
economy, in health and disease, they possess 
a peculiar interest arising from the fact 
that the instruments of investigation are 
also the objects of research. 


The Solar Observatory. 


Of the larger projects undertaken by the 
institution the solar observatory ranks first 
in order of cost for initial construction and 
equipment. This cost, however, is no more 
than commensurate with the magnitude of 
the problem attacked, namely, that of the 
physical constitution of the sun and his 
role in the solar and stellar systems of the 
visible universe. The work of construction 
and equipment of the observatory has been 
pushed forward with great energy and effi- 
ciency during the year, so. that the estab- 
lishment may be expected to be nearly if 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


not quite complete by the end of another 
year. Through the courtesy of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, the Snow telescope of 
the Yerkes Observatory has been mounted 
and been in constant use at the solar ob- 
servatory during the past summer. This 
three-foot reflecting telescope has already 
furnished excellent results and justifies the 
sanguine expectations entertained with re- 
gard to the five-foot reflector now nearing 
completion. The unusually favorable at- 
mospherie conditions which prevail day and 
night at the site of the observatory have 
attracted the attention of astronomers and 
astrophysicists generally. During the past 
summer a party under the direction of 
Professor S. P. Langley, secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution, has been there ob- 
serving data for the solar constant; while 
Professor H. H. Barnard of the University 
of Chicago, has utilized the peculiar facili- 
ties of the site by installing the Bruce tele- 
scope of the Yerkes Observatory and ex- 
tending his remarkable photographic charts 
of the Milky Way. 


Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. 

Not very remotely allied to the work 
of the solar observatory is the work of 
the department of terrestrial magnetism, 
though the utility of the latter is perhaps 
more apparent than the utility of the 
former. All of the sciences, however, like 
the phenomena of nature, are more or less 
interrelated, and this is especially the case 
with solar and terrestrial physics. There 
is no doubt, at any rate, that solar activity 


and terrestrial magnetism are in some de- 


gree related. Since the publication of the 
investigations on terrestrial magnetism by 
the illustrious Gauss, during the first half 
of the nineteenth century, comparatively 
little progress has been made in either the- 
ory or practise until within the past decade. 
Tt is but just to remark that the recent 
fruitful renewal of activity in this line of 
work is due chiefly to the enterprise and 


SCIENCE. 


127 


energy of Dr. L. A. Bauer, in charge of 
the department of terrestrial magnetism. 
The execution of the plan he has outlined 


- for a magnetic survey of the oceanic areas, 


as well as of the land areas, can not fail to 
secure data of signal value alike to marine 
transportation and to magnetic theory. By 
means of specially devised instruments and 
apparatus, as explained in Dr. Bauer’s re- 
port, the department has demonstrated the 
practicability of making magnetic measure- 
ments on a moving ship, and the brig Gali- 
lee, chartered at San Francisco and refitted 
for this special purpose, is now engaged 
on such a survey in the North Pacific 
Ocean. Considering that the oceanic areas 
are in the aggregate about three times the 
ageregate of the continental areas, it is 
seen that the fulfillment of the plan con- 
templated will add greatly to our knowl- 
edge of the actual distribution of terrestrial 
magnetism, even if it should not imme- 
diately elucidate this obscure phenomenon. 


Minor Projects. 

Separate mention of the large number of 
investigations carried on by the aid of 
small grants would require undue space 
here. It will be seen from the list 
given above that there were sixty-four 
such grants subject. to payment during 
the year. Many more than this number of 
investigations, however, were under way, 
while a few grantees of the year have been 
unable to begin their projects. A number 
of researches undertaken by aid of grants 
made in previous years have been com- 
pleted and offered for publication. Some 
of these have been issued during the year 
and several of them are now in press. It - 
should be stated also that numerous pre- 
liminary papers resulting from researches 
under way have appeared in the current 
journals. A list of these, obtained by aid 
of the authors themselves, will be found on 
pages 43-50 of the ‘Year Book.’ 


128 


Specially worthy of mention among the 
minor projects are the following, by reason 
of contributions already published or soon 
to be ready for publication, namely: 

1. The archeological and geological re- 
searches of Professor Raphael Pumpelly in 
Turkestan. The first volume of a report 
on these researches has been issued durimg 
the year and a second is in preparation. 
Professor Pumpelly had’ planned to resume 
field work in Turkestan during the past 
summer, but the Russian government de- 
clined to permit him to return there at this 
time. 

2. The preparation by Professor Lewis 
Boss of a fundamental catalogue giving the 
precise positions of about six thousand 
stars, embracing all stars from the bright- 
est down to the sixth magnitude. This 
will make a solid contribution to stellar 
astronomy. 

3. The researches on the moon by Pro- 
fessor Simon Newcomb. 

4. The precise quantitative investigations 
of Professor A. A. Noyes and T. W. Rich- 
ards in chemistry. 

5. The comprehensive researches in geol- 
ogy and cosmology by Professor T. C. 
Chamberlin, whose preliminary papers have 
already proved full of interest and sugges- 
tion to a wide circle of readers. 

6. The work of Professor Carl Barus on 
the nucleation of dust-free atmosphere; of 
Professor EH. W. Scripture on researches in 
phonetics; of Professor G. R. Wieland-on 
American eyeads, and the work of Mr. W. 
lL. Tower on the evolution of beetles, all of 
which are now in press. 


Publications and Their Distribution. 

One of the most pressmg demands that 
fell to the president immediately after as- 
suming the duties of his office was that of 
devising a mode of distribution of the 
publications of the institution. Accord- 
ingly, at the meeting of the executive com- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578. 


mittee held January 9, 1905, the following 
tentative rules were submitted and adopted: 

1. That, unless otherwise ordered by the execu- 
tive committee, the edition of the publications of 
the Carnegie Institution of Washington be 1,000. 

2. That, unless otherwise ordered by the execu- 
tive committee, the publications be distributed as 
follows: (a) to the founder and trustees of the 
institution; (6b) to the leading public libraries 
of the world; (¢) to a few of the principal jour- 
nals which give space to critical reviews of cur- 
rent scientific progress. ; 

3. That, subject to approval by the president, 
authors of publications of the institution be per- 
mitted to designate a list of 100 persons to whom 
copies of said publications may be sent free of 
charge. 

4. That authors be furnished free of charge 
with 25 copies of their contributions published by 
the institution. 

5. That the president have authority to distri- 
bute not to exceed 100 copies of each publication 
of the institution, if in his diseretion it may seem 
advantageous to do so. 

6. That copies of publications not otherwise pro- 
vided for be offered for sale at a price sufficient to 
cover the cost of presswork, paper and binding, 
plus an addition of 10 per cent. 


Soon after the adoption of this basis for 
action, a list of the principal libraries and . 
institutions of the world contemplated un- 
der rule 2 was compiled, and haying been 
approved by the executive committee the 
work of distribution rapidly followed. 

The plan thus adopted has worked with- 
out serious embarrassment up to date, but 
it promises to become madequate to meet 
the demands for gratuitous distribution to 
the less important libraries and to the great 
number of individuals who may be desig- 
nated as bibliophiles rather than as users 
of books. Concerning this matter, some 
suggestions will be found in a later section 
of this report. 

Great pains have been taken to secure a 
high quality of paper and first-class press- 
work for the publications of the institution. 
This has proved no easy task, since it has 
been essential to deal with many authors 
and firms whose desires, standards and 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


judgments are often found in conflict with 
what appears to be for the best interest of 
the work from the institution’s point of 
view. Thus some lack of obviously desir- 
able uniformity in paper, presswork and 
binding has resulted. Certain of these 
defects have been unavoidable, owing to the 
facet that some publications had been in- 
trusted wholly to grantees or authors. It 
is hoped, however, that arrangements will 
soon be perfected whereby the desired uni- 
formity and excellence in paper and press- 
work of the publications of the institution 
may be secured. 

A list of the twenty volumes published 
by the institution during the year will be 
found on page 42 of the ‘Year Book.’ 
They aggregate 2,339 octavo pages and 
1,450 quarto pages, making a total of 3,789 
pages. 


SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING PENDING PROB- 
LEMS OF THE INSTITUTION. 
Large Versus Small Projects. 

Rationally considered, the development of 
a novel institution, like the Carnegie Insti- 
tution of Washineton, can not be expected 
to proceed without encountering difficulties 
and dangers. That the mere establishment 
of such an institution is no easy matter is 
witnessed by the fact that the Congress of 
the United States debated the question of 
founding the Smithsonian Institution for a 
deeade before attaining a definite plan of 
procedure. Although the Carnegie Insti- 
tution of Washington has been free in large 
measure from difficulties in the way of 
initial organization, it has nevertheless met 
with other difficulties of a somewhat 
ominous character. Among these is that 
of the relative merits of large and small 
projects and hence large and small grants. 

In the absence of experience it might well 
appear doubtful whether the income of the 
institution may be best used In promoting 
a small number of large projects not likely 


SCIENCE. 


129 


to be undertaken by other agencies, or 
whether the income may be best used in 
promoting a large number of small projects 
for which the ways and means are already 
in part available. Strong a priori argu- 
ments may be adduced in support of each 
of these extreme methods of administration 
of the income, and the executive committee 
has no doubt acted wisely in taking a mean 
course, testing thus simultaneously, by 
actual experience, the merits of both 
methods. : 

While careful observation and study of - 
these methods during one year only may 
not justify the recommendation of any 
radical departure from the course hitherto 
followed, it seems essential to indicate cer- 
tain grave objections to the policy of award- 
ing numerous small grants. These objec- 
tions are: 

1. The excessive amount of time and 
energy required in the consideration of ap- 
pleations for and in the administration of 
small grants. Thus far the institution has 
formally considered about 1,200 applica- 
tions for such grants and has made awards 
to about 300 applicants; but the amount 
of attention given to the consideration of 
formal applications represents only a part 
of the time and labor consumed by the im- 
portunities incident to, if not inherent in 
the policy in question. Many of the evils 
of the ‘spoils system’ already confront us. 
Some applicants file claims; many are im- 
patient for speedy action; and may, as in 
the case of academic degrees, speak in the 
possessive case with respect to grants lone 
before they are awarded. 

2. The returns from small grants do not 
seem to justify the outlay, especially since 
it is applied in many cases to work which 
would go on as well without aid from the 
institution. Probably a more deliberate 
and searching investigation of the applicant 
than has hitherto been practicable would 
insure better results. It is certain, at any 


130 


rate, that the possession of a laboratory and 
enthusiasm, along with a bundle of recom- 
mendations, should not suffice to qualify an 
applicant for the arduous work of research. 

3. A graver objection to this system of 
small grants lies in its tendency to supplant 
other sources of support for scientific in- 
vestigation in allied institutions, and espe- 
cially im colleges and universities. The 
facts should be known that thus far the 
institution has carried on work through aid 
given to about 270 individuals connected 
with 89 different institutions. Of these 
latter, nearly three fourths are schools, col- 
leges and universities. Since the normal 
condition of an educational institution too 
often borders on poverty, it is only natural 
that mvestigators connected with such or- 
ganizations should look to the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington for relief. An 
easy calculation, however, shows that the 
possible relief from this source in inade- 
quate. Thus, a conservative estimate of 
the men and women connected with Ameri- 
can institutions of learning alone, and cap- 
able of making fruitful researches. would 
include not less than one thousond. The 
smallest average annual grant that would 
be effective in such work is $1,000. Hence 
it is seen that twice the income of the insti- 
tution would not begin to meet the demands 
on it coming from educational institutions 
alone. Depending unduly on another in- 
stitution for support tends also, it would 
appear, not only to dry up the local springs 
of support, but to sap the independence of 
educational institutions. That any of them 
should desire to know how much aid may be 
expected from the institution before ma- 
king up their budgets for an academic year 
is a matter of serious import. Obviously 
it is the duty of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington to avoid the danger of sup- 
planting, while seeking in part to supple- 
ment, the functions of educational institu- 
tions. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 578. 


No similar difficulties or objections have 
arisen in the administration of the larger 
projects of the institution. In the case of 
these projects, however, the ways and means 
are provided by rather than for, and the 
investigators are chosen by rather than for, 
the institution. In short, the institution is, 
in this case, enabled to assume and fix re- 
sponsibility in the conduct of its affairs and 
to push them energetically ; whereas, in the 
other case, responsibility is divided, energy 
is generally lacking, and time and money 
are in constant danger of beine frittered 
away amongst a multitude of minor in- 
terests. 

Summarily stated, therefore, the indica- 
tions are that the policy of awarding 
numerous small grants to self-suggested in- 
vestigators is destined to break down under 
the sheer weight of the importunities it 
entails; that the results to be expected from 
such grants are meager; and that the award 
of them, unless narrowly limited and eare- 
fully guarded, may work grave injury to 
educational institutions. 


New Projects. 

The demands for attention from appli- 
eants for small grants have left scant time 
during the year for the consideration of 
more important prospective work falling 
within the scope of the institution. It has 
been deemed essential, also, to devote most 
of this time to the larger projects already 
under way, with a view to increasing their 
facilities and insuring their success. Never- 
theless, many new projects have been con- 
templated, and several of these may be 
formulated for action without undue delay 
whenever the institution is ready to con- 
sider them. 

Two of these projects which merit special 
attention, by reason of the fact that they 
have been considered at much length by ad- 
visory committees and by the executive com- 
mittee during the past three years, are: (1) 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


an astronomical observatory in the southern 
hemisphere and (2) a laboratory for geo- 
physical research. Referring to ‘Year 
Books’ 1 and 2, therefore, for voluminous 
details with reference to the history of these 
projects, it is desired here to commend them 
as worthy of favorable action by the board 
of trustees as soon as the essential funds 
are available. 

With regard to new projects in general it 
appears fitting here to call attention to the 
desirability of allotting ample time for the 
preparation of plans and specifications and 
to the necessity of allotting ample time for 
their execution. The inevitable dangers 
that confront a research institution are 
dilettanteism and haste for results. Thor- 
ough deliberation in preparation and ener- 
getic patience in execution are indispensable 
to the highest success of such projects. 

Since the query whether different depart- 
ments of research are likely to be equally 
promoted by the institution is often raised, 
it seems worth while to remark that it is an 
obvious duty of the executive committee to 
select those projects which give highest ex- 
pectations of adequate returns. Projects 
of this kind are generally susceptible of 
denite specifications as to ways, means and 
objects. At present, however, judging 
from the great inequalities in definiteness 
of the projects submitted to the institution, 
it must be much easier to formulate plans 
for good work in some sciences than in 
others. Hence, quite irrespective of per- 
sonal prepossessions, it seems best, in this 
case, to follow lines of least resistance, pro- 
moting chiefly those departments of re- 
search which promise sure returns, while 
seeking at all times to raise the less highly 
developed to the level of the more highly 
developed sciences. 


Suggestions on Distribution of 
Publications. 


A difficulty which is likely to beset the 


SCIENCE. 


131 


institution in the near future is that of a 
just and equitable distribution of its publi- 
cations. Society has only lately emerged 
from a period when libraries were main- 
tained chiefly for librarians and _ book- 
binders and when every scholar was either 
his own librarian or a bibliophile. Along 
with this laissez fare system there grew up 
also a system of exchanges, especially be- 
tween learned academies and men of learn- 
ing; but the number of such academies and 
individuals was until lately quite small and 
well within the limits of a possible free dis- 
tribution or exchange of publications. In 
recent decades, however, the number of 
institutions maintaining libraries and the 
number of individuals desiring access to 
publications have greatly increased. The 
needs of individuals, it must be said, have 
been admirably met in a general way by 
the facilities afforded in all of the great 
libraries of the world, so that the worker 
with books can no longer afford to be his 
own librarian any more than he can afford 
to be his own banker. Nevertheless, the 
demand for a free distribution of books 
has increased to an extent far surpassing 
the increase in effective libraries-and effect- 
ive workers with books. This demand has 
erown to large proportions in the United 
States especially, partly by reason of the 
broadeast distribution of public documents. 

Questioning the wisdom of an indis- 
eriminate distribution of the publications 
of the institution, the provisional rules 
given on page 128 above were drawn 
along conservative lines. The experience 
of the year, however, shows that great pres- 
sure will soon be brought to bear on the 
institution by individuals and by smaller 
libraries desiring to be placed on the free 
omnia list. Simee drawing up such a list, 
which embraces about three hundred of the 
leading libraries of the world, an attempt 
has been made to prepare various special 
lists of institutions and individuals to 


132 


which, respectively, publications in the 
varied departments concerned might be 
sent. This attempt has developed certain 
baffling obstacles. Chief among these is the 
awkward duty of discriminating between 
the persons and the institutions which 
should and those which should not receive 
books gratis. The officer called upon to 
decide must necessarily play the réle fre- 
quently of a dispenser of favors, and be 
thus subject to the charge of favoritism. 

The practical questions raised by this 
matter are, first, Is the work entailed worth 
what it costs? And, secondly, Does such 
work advance science? My opinion is that 
both questions should be answered im the 
negative; and my suggestion is that a dis- 
tribution of publications at once practic- 
able, equitable and effective may he at- 
tained by offering all of them for sale 
except those reserved for free assignment 
to authors and to the leading libraries of 
the world. Publications thus distributed 
would be pretty certain to go where they 
are needed, and they would thus also stand 
or fall by reason of their merits or de- 
merits, as the case may be. 


Relations of Institution to the Public. 

Precisely what relations the Carnegie In- 
stitution of Washington should sustain to 
the publie is a question which does not ad- 
mit a ready answer. Experience alone can 
disclose a complete reply, since it must 
evolve with the development of the mstitu- 
tion itself. Clearly, however, it must be 
reearded as a semi-publiec organization, 
somewhat similar to a university. More 
exactly, it may be likened to a university 
in which there are no students. 

Obviously the institution ought to sus- 
tain close relations with universities, since 
they are now the chief centers of research; 
and, within the limits permitted by mutual 
independenee, those relations should be co- 
operative, to the end that time and effort 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 378. 


may be conserved. Similar relations should 
obtain, likewise, between the institution 
and learned societies. But the possible 
methods of effective cooperation remain, 
essentially, to be discovered. 

Much less obvious, though hardly less 
essential of provisional definition, are the 
relations which the institution should sus- 
tain to the larger, non-academic world. 
One of the favorable signs of the times is 
seen in the intelligent interest taken in the 
affairs of the institution by this larger 
world. In spite of a widely prevalent 
tendeney to anticipate the marvelous and 
the spectacular from scientific imvestiga- 
tions, and thus to expect too much, if not 
the impossible, there is manifest a very gen- 
erally just appreciation of such work. 
Hence the commendable eagerness of the 
modern public to learn the results of re- 
condite researches calls for some sort of 
cooperation between the institution and ex- 
isting media for the dissemination of infor- 
mation, with a view to furnishing such in- 
formation in a form at once intelligible and 
trustworthy. This, among many other 
questions concerning the relations of the 
institution to the general public; seems to 
merit special consideration in the near 
future. 

Attention may be not inappropriately 
called here to the fact that while the imsti- 
tution deeply appreciates the mterest im its 
affairs shown by the public, there is no pos- 
sibility of following more than a small frac- 
tion of the suggestion and the advice wel- 
comed from that source, for their abun- 
dance is overwhelming and a choice must 
be made. Out of the chaos of such sug- 
gestion and advice and out of the delibera- 
tions within the institution itself, ways and 
means for growth and achievement will be 
found. In the meantime there will be a 
common need for application of the for- 
bearance and the patience so indispensable 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


to the higher forms of research which it is 
the object of the institution to promote. 


R. S. Woopwarp. 
November 11, 1905.- 


ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CENTRAL BOT- 
TANISTS HELD AT ANN ARBOR, 
DECEMBER 28 AND 29, 1905. 

THE annual meeting of the Central Bot- 
anists was held on the afternoons of De- 
cember 28 and 29 at Ann Arbor, conjointly 
with morning sessions of the Society for 
Plant Morphology and Physiology on the 
same days. The meeting was opened by 
past-president Professor Stanley Coulter, 
and Professor F. C. Neweombe was elected 
president for the ensuing year and pre- 
siding officer for this session. He with the 
past-president, Professor William Trelease, 
and Seeretary-treasurer Dr. H. C. Cowles 
will constitute the executive committee for 
next year. 

The following papers were read: 


The Structure and Dwision of the Oospore 
in Coleochaete: CHARLES E. ALLEN. 
Three species were studied—C. scutata, 

C. soluta and C. pulvinata. The oospore 

contains a large nucleus and eight parietal 

chromatophores, each of the latter contain- 
ing, usually, one pyrenoid and many starch 
grains. In the cytoplasm are many large 
rounded vacuoles, which are not fat drops, 

but which contain varying amounts of a 

substance which stains blue in the triple 

stam. The time of germination in the 
spring depends upon the season, the pro- 
phases of the first division appearing (in 

C. scutata) about three weeks after the 

disappearance of the ice. Divisions were 

induced in the oospore of ©. soluta by 
bringing the plants indoors in the fall and 
keeping them in changing water at a tem- 
perature of about 12°-13° C. ‘The first 
and second nuclear divisions in the germ- 
ination of the oospore display the charac- 
teristics respectively of the heterotypic and 


SCIENCE. 


133 


homeotypie mitoses in the higher plants. 
From these facts it is concluded that chro- 
mosome reduction occurs immediately upon 
the germination of the oospore; there is, 
therefore, no cell generation, except the 
oospore itself, which contains the double 
number of chromosomes, and hence no 
sporophyte generation. 
Spore Formation in Derbesia: BRADLEY M. 
Davis. 
The Life History of Polysiphona: Su1cEo 
YAMANOUCHI. (Presented by Dr. Davis.) 


Variation of Habitat of some Bog Plants 
in Michigan: CHarues A. Davis. 


Spore Formation in the Many-spored Asci 
in Streptotheca and Rhyparobius: J. B. 
OverToN. (Presented by Dr. Allen.) 

The Division of the Nuclei in Living Fila- 
ments of Oscillatoria: EpGar W. OLIVE. 
(Presented by Dr. Allen.) 

Living filaments of Oscillatoria show, 
under dim illumination, two sharply dif- 
ferentiated regions—lens-shaped, refract- 
ive, granular bodies, alternating with clear, 
vacuole-like spaces. The latter are the so- 
called ‘central bodies.’ These on examina- 
tion are seen to be in a state of division, 
and their constriction is accomplished by 
the growth inward from the periphery of 
a ring-formed partition. Every few cells 
apart in a filament will be seen regions 
of maximum division, where constriction 
has progressed farthest, and regions of 
minimum division. Thus maxima and 
minima alternate rhythmically with one 
another. The ‘central bodies’ prove to be 
nuclei, on sectioning and properly staining, 
which are constantly in a state of division, 
since they never appear to enter on a state 
of rest. 


Cortinarus as a Mycorhiza-producing 
- Fungus: Carvin H. KaurrMan. 

It was shown that the red-colored my- 
celium of an undescribed species of Cor- 


134 


tinarius formed ectotrophie mycorhiza on 
at least three forest plants, viz., Acer sac- 
charinum Waneg., Quercus rubra L. and 
Celastrus scandens L. In two eases the 
fruit-bodies were found, attached to the 
strands which were associated with the 
roots. Other trees and shrubs in the same 
locality, even including individuals of red 
oak, had no connection with the fungus. 


Further Studies on the Ascus: J. Horace 

PAULL. 

The differences of opinion regarding the 
systematic position of the Laboulbeniaceze 
have been in a large measure due to igno- 
rance of the nuclear phenomena within 
the spore sac. An examination of a fair 
abundance of material shows that the 
young spore sae is occupied by a fusion 
nucleus, that three generations of nuclei 
follow, that as a rule four of the last gen- 
eration pass to the upper end of the spore 
sac and break down, and that through the 
activity of the rest four spores are formed. 
These spores are formed in a way that dif- 
fers in no essential respect from that al- 
ready described for several of the Asco- 
mycetes. The paper concluded with a 
summary of the essential phenomena of 
Ascus and spore formation in Ascomycetes, 
and with these the phenomena just noted 
in Laboulbena were found to agree. 

Ecological Reconnaissance of the Isle Royal 
Region: W. P. Hime. 
Notes on Nebraska Grasses: 

BESSEY. 


Cuartes EH. 
Brapiey M. Davis, 
Secretary pro tem. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

A Texut-book of Physiology. For medical 
students and physicians. By Wim H. 
Howe tt, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology in 
the Johns Hopkins University. Philadel- 
phia, W. B. Saunders and Co. 1905. Pp. 
905. 8vo. Cloth, $4.00. 

The ‘American Text-book of Physiology,’ 


which had its first edition in 1896 under the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578. 


editorship of Professor Howell, was at that 
time and is perhaps now the most pretentious 
effort of American authors in physiology. It 
was thought that ‘the advantages derived from 
the collaboration method’ would be great in 
that it would give the reader the advantage 
of the specialist’s point of view in every field 
of physiology. As a matter of trial these 
joint author text-books are proving heavy for 
the student and are being relegated to the field 
of the reference book. Users of the ‘ American 
Text-book,’ who are, therefore, familiar with 
the uniform high excellence of the chapters 
written by its editor, will be more than grati- 
fied by the appearance of the present volume 
by Professor Howell. The author’s well- 
known terseness of style and directness of 
statement permeate the book from cover to 
cover. The treatment is kept well within the 
limits set by the title-page, yet Dr. Howell has 
gone far afield into the most recent literature, 
giving us a storehouse of physiological fact 
and scientific theory such as one rarely finds 
in a modern text-book. 

Much new material, evidently the accu- 
mulated experiences of the Johns Hopkins 
laboratories, is presented to the public for the 
first time. The number of new illustrations 
is a feature of the work. Of the two hundred 
and seventy-two illustrations about one half 
are original. 

The author has departed radically from the 
conventional arrangement of subject matter by 
introducing as the second and third sections, 
respectively, the subjects of ‘The Central 
Nervous System,’ and ‘The Special Senses.’ 
Professor Howell has always, both as a teacher 
and a writer, emphasized the necessity for 
laboratory experience by the elementary stu- 
dent as a necessary preparation for the pres- 
entation of the principles of physiology. The 
subject of muscle and nerve, treated in the 
first section of the volume, of all the sub- 
divisions of physiology, unquestionably lends 
itself best to experimental demonstration to 
the student. The facts can be more directly 
observed with less confusion by indeterminate 
factors, and the subject matter can be used to 
give a more rigid training in experimental 
technique. These three chapters, 7. ¢., on 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


“Muscle and Nerve,’ ‘Central Nervous Sys- 
tem’ and the ‘Special Senses,’ prepare the 
way tor the presentation of the complex 
nervous coordinating machinery found in the 
digestive, the respiratory or the circulatory 
systems, for example. The statement of the 
details of the sensory apparatus and the 
afferent nervous system thus early in the text 
seems strictly logical from this point of view, 
and it is gratifying to see an author of 
eminence take the responsibility for the order 
of presentation. 

The relative space allotted to the various 
sections is good, and the subdivision of sec- 
tions into chapters and paragraphs presents 
an analysis that appeals to the reader as both 
logical and exhaustive. This analysis, to- 
gether with the printing of the paragraph 
topics in bold-face type, lends itself to quick 
and satisfactory use as a reference, a feature 
particularly valuable to the advanced medical 
student and the physician. 

The general sections presented are as fol- 
lows: ‘ The Physiology of Muscle and Nerve,’ 
105 pages; ‘The Central Nervous System,’ 
127 pages; ‘The Special Senses,’ 132 pages; 
“The Blood and Lymph,’ 53 pages; ‘The Or- 
gans of Circulation of the Blood and Lymph,’ 
132 pages; ‘ Respiration,’ 68 pages; ‘ Digestion 
and Secretion,’ 149 pages; ‘ Nutrition and Heat 
Production and Regulation,’ 56 pages; ‘ Re- 
production,’ 35 pages; and an Appendix of 13 
pages. 

The section on ‘The Physiology of the Or- 
gans of the Circulation of the Blood and 
Lymph,’ 132 pages, has the following nine 
chapters, each with from 7 to 15 sectional 
topics: the Velocity and Pressure of the Blood 
Flow, 26 pages; the Physical Factors Con- 
cerned in the Production of Blood-pressure, 
9 pages; The Pulse, 8 pages; The Heart Beat, 
19 pages; The Cause and Sequence of the 
Heart Beat—Properties of Heart Muscle, 16 
pages; The Cardiac Nerves and their Physio- 
logical Activity, 19 pages; and The Vasomotor 
Supply of the Different Organs, 16 pages. 

The detail with which each chapter is treated 
is well illustrated by the subtopics on the 
twenty-five pages devoted to the chapter on 
“The Cardiae Nerves and their Physiological 


SCIENCE. 


135 


Action.’ These topics are: Course of the 
Cardiac Nerves, Action of Inhibitory Fibers, 
Analysis of Inhibitory Action, Effect of the 
Vagus on the Auricle and the Ventricle, Es- 
cape from Inhibition, Reflex Inhibition of the 
Heart Beat, the Cardio-inhibitory Center, the 
Action of Drugs on the Inhibitory Apparatus, 
the Nature of Inhibition, Course of the Ac- 
celerator Fibers, Tonicity of the Accelerators 
and Reflex Acceleration, the Accelerator 
Center. 

A notable chapter, not often found in such 
text-books, is introduced at the end of the 
section on the ‘ Central Nervous System’ on 
the neglected subject of sleep. The sectional 
topics of this chapter are: Introductory State- 
ment, Physiological Relations during Sleep, 
The Intensity of Sleep, The Effect of Sensory 
Stimulation, Theories of Sleep, Hypnotic 
Sleep. 

The type and press work, and especially the 
illustrations, are good. The publishers have 
maintained their recognized high standard of 
mechanical excellence. By a choice of thin 
paper the size of the volume is kept within 
reasonable limits. However, it is to be re- 
gretted that a book which will unquestionably 
rank as the leading text-book of physiology 
issued in America could not be printed on 
light-weight linen paper. 

CHarLes W. GREENE. 

UNIVERSITY oF MISSOURI, 

Cotumeta, Mo. 


Karl Heumann’s Anlettung zum Hxperimen- 
_tieren ber Vorlesungen tiber anorganischen 

Chemie. Von Professor Dr. O. Ktnutne. 

Dritte Auflage. Braunschweig, Friedrich 

Vieweg und Sohn. 1904. Pp. xxix 818. 

Price, gbd. 20 Marks. 

The first edition of this admirable work ap- 
peared in 1876. Since then great advances 
have been made in the subject of inorganic 
chemistry. and many of the new discoveries 
have found an appropriate presentation in the 
lecture room. Space has been found for the 
presentation of this new material, partly by 
the omission of parallel experiments previously 
given in several forms, and by the omission’ of 
methods of preparing substances which ‘are 


136 


now easily obtained, partly by the addition of 
one hundred and fifty pages to the book. The 
larger part of the new experiments pertain to 
electrochemistry, but there have been included, 
also, experiments with liquid air, Gold- 
schmidt’s process for obtaining high tempera- 
tures and a considerable number of experi- 
ments to illustrate the principles of the newer 
physical chemistry. One finds, also, experi- 
ments with hydroxylamine, hyrazine, hydrazoic 
acid and with fluorine. The new experiments 
as well as the old are, in general, well selected 
and clearly described. Only occasionally is an 
error to be noted, as where the decomposition 
of ammonia gas by electric sparks is spoken of 
as an electrolysis. Every one who has occa- 
sion to give experimentally illustrated lectures 
in chemistry will find in the book a storehouse 


of valuable material. W. A. N. 
A Treatise on Chemistry. By Sir H. E. 
Roscoz and ©. ScHortemmeEr. Vol. 1, The 


Non-metallic Elements. New edition com- 

pletely revised by Sir H. HK. Roscoz assisted 

by Drs. H. G. Conmman and A. HARDEN. 

London, Macmillan & Co., Ltd.; New York, 

The Macmillan Co. Pp. xii + 931. 

This book has been so well and so favorably 
known since its first appearance more than 
twenty-five years ago that an extended notice 
is not necessary. Those features which made 
the first edition such delightful reading have 
been retained, while, at the same time, the au- 
thors have incorporated with painstaking care 
the results of a very large amount of experi- 
mental work which has enriched our science 
during the past quarter of a century. The 


completeness and accuracy with which this’ 


has been done are really surprising. 

A rather brief discussion of the properties 
of solutions from the modern point of view 
is given, but in matter pertaining to the newer 
physical chemistry the book can not be con- 
sidered as altogether satisfactory. The omis- 
sion of the chapter on crystallography is to 
be regretted. It also seems unfortunate that 
the double standard for atomic weights should 
be used at a time when chemists seem to have 
decided pretty generally in favor of a single 
standard. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Vox. XXTIT. No. 578. 


A very good though rather brief account of 


the gases of the helium group is given. 
: W. A. N. 


Cours de Chimie. A L’Usage des Htudiants 
du P. G. N. Par R. pr Forcuann. Paris, 
Gautier-Villars. 1905. Vol. I., 325 pp.; 
Vol. IL., 317 pp. Price, 10 francs. 

These books, according to the author’s state- 
ment, are intended for the use of students who 
are intermediate in attainment between those 
who are candidates for the bachelor’s degree 
and for the degree of master of arts. They 
are intended to furnish the basis for three 
exercises a week for one year. The plan fol- 
lowed is that of presenting an outline of the 
more important theories of chemistry first be- 
fore considering any details with regard to the 
elements or their compounds—a method which 
may answer for students who have already 
acquired a considerable knowledge of the sub- 
ject, but one which is wholly unsuitable for 
beginners. The theoretical point of view of 
the book corresponds more nearly to that of 
the average chemist fifteen years ago than to 
the present condition of the science. One is 
surprised to find the long-abandoned ‘ principle 
of maximum work’ presented as one of the 
fundamental principles of chemistry; also the 
old formula Cl-O-O-OH for chloric acid. The 
portions devoted to organic and to analytical 
chemistry are so brief as to be quite unsatis- 
factory. In the former many structural for- 
mule are given, but no attempt is made to 
give the student an idea of the means by 
which such formule are developed. 

By an oversight the author has retained the 
old value for the density of hydrogen. Less 
excusable is the value 15.84 for the atomic 
weight of oxygen on the hydrogen basis, cal- 
culated from the value 1.01 for hydrogen, as 
given by the international committee, and that 
too with the statement that the ratio is very 
accurately known. 

The volumes contain no index. 


W. A. N. 
STRABO ON CLIMATOLOGY. 


Klimalehre der alten Griechen nach den Geo- 
graphica Strabos. Von Dr. Hans Ro. 
Kaiserlautern, 1904. 8vo. Pp. 62. 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


Strabo has been ealled the greatest geog- 
rapher of ancient times. His views on geo- 
graphical subjects were remarkably advanced, 
and his statements on the particular division 
of geography which has now become known as 
climatology were in most cases surprisingly 
accurate. In the little volume before us, Dr. 
Rid gives an excellent presentation of Strabo’s 
views on climatological matters. While adopt- 
ing the division of the earth’s surface into five 
zones, which Parmenides had probably orig- 
inally proposed, Strabo recognized the fact 
that the ‘ torrid’ zone, which was then believed 
to be uninhabitable because of the heat, was 
at least partly habitable. He was also the 
first of the Greeks to state explicitly the fact 
that mountain climates have lower tempera- 
tures than the surrounding lowlands. He 
realized that what we now call solar climate 
is much modified by the physical features of 
the earth’s surface, and that a latitude line 
runs through diverse climates. This was a 
distinct step in advance. Some of the rela- 
tions of climate and man were emphasized by 
Strabo in much the same words as those we 
use to-day. The discussion by Dr. Rid will 
prove interesting to classical students as well 
as to climatologists. 


R. DEC. Warp. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


THE October-November number of The 
Journal of Geology gives a biographic sketch 
of Ferdinand, Freiherr von Richthofen, by Mr. 
Bailey Willis. This is followed by the lead- 

- ing article, entitled ‘Structure and Relation- 
ships of American Labyrinthodontidex,’ by E. 
B. Branson. He describes a new genus and 
under it two new species. The article is ac- 
‘companied by fourteen figures. Professor 
John J. Stevenson’s ‘Recent Geology of 
Spitzbergen’ deals mostly with glaciation 
and the submerged channels of the island. 
Professor Stuart Weller, in his article on ‘ The 
“Northern and Southern Kinderhook Faunas,’ 
says: “The interrelationships of the various 
expressions of the Louisiana-Kinderhook- 
Burlington faunas under discussion are such 
as to make their correlation a matter of some 
certainty.” ~The last article of the number is 


SCIENCE. 


137 


an illustrated one on ‘The Development of 
Seaphites,’ by W. D. Smith. The writer con- 
cludes thdt ‘the genus Scaphites is in need 
of revision’ since it is polyphyletie. 


TuE fore-part of the October number of The 
American Geologist is devoted to ‘Ten Years’ 
Progress in the Mammalian Paleontology of 
North America,’ by Professor Henry Fairfield 
Osborn. He traces the lines along which re- 
search has been conducted and points out the 
directions in which future results may be ex- 
pected. Dr. Osborn’s article is illustrated by 
seven diagrammatic figures. ‘Some Geological 
Observations on the Central Part of the Rose- 
bud Indian Reservation,’ by Mr. Albert B. 
Reagan, gives some interesting sections of 
Tertiary and Cretaceous formations and also 
an account of the surface features with a 
geological map of the reservation. Dr. 
August F. Foerste’s ‘ Notes on the Distribu- 
tion of Brachiopoda in the Arnheim and 
Waynesville Beds’ give some valuable infor- 
mation regarding species found associated in 
these beds. In the editorial comment on ‘ The 
Willamette Meteorite’ Professor Winchell 
takes exception to Dr. Ward’s atmospheric 
pressure theory of the formation of the con- 
cavities in its base and regards them as the 
spaces formerly occupied by some such min- 
erals as olivine and troilite which have been 


‘removed since its fall by the ordinary proc- 


esses of rock decay. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 

Tue fifteenth annual meeting of. the academy 
was held in Cincinnati on November 30, De- 
cember 1 and 2, 1905, the president of the 
society, Professor Herbert Osborn, presiding. 
On Thursday evening an informal meeting 
took place at the Museum of the Society of 
Natural History. The sessions on Friday and 
Saturday were held in Cunningham Hall, at 
the University of Cincinnati. 

The address of the president of the society, 
on ‘The Origin of the Wings of Insects,’ oc- 
eurred at 1:15 p.m., on Friday, and at 7:30 
p.M. President Dabney of the University. of 
Cincinnati, vice-president of. the society, de- 


138 


livered an address entitled ‘Our Modern Uni- 
versities.’ Other important papers were those 
by Professor C. J. Herrick, ‘On the Present 
Status of Comparative Psychology, Professor 
M. F. Guyer, on ‘Guinea-chicken Hybrids’ 
and Mr. A. F. Burgess, on ‘A Preliminary 
Report on the Mosquitoes of Ohio.’ 

The following program was presented: 

Ropert F. Griees: ‘Report on the Willows of 
Ohio.’ 

J. H. Topp: ‘The Relation of Medicine to An- 
thropology.’ 

Henry F. Kock: ‘Observations on Huglena 
viridis and Huglena sanguinea.’ 

EK. W. Brrcer: ‘ Habits of the Pseudoscorpionide 
(principally Chelanops oblongus Say) .’ 

H. P. Fiscupacu: ‘Some Notes on a Myxo- 
bolus Occurring in a Diseased Fish (Abramis 
chrysoleucas) .” 

F. J. Hintze: ‘A New Case of Mutation (Com- 
melina nudiflora) .’ 

F. Carney: ‘The Geology of Perry Township, 
Licking Co.,’ illustrated by lantern slides. 

CHARLES Dury: ‘How to Collect and Breed 
Xenos.’ 

L. B. Wauron: “A New Species of Japyx (J. 
macgillvrayt) with some Notes on the Morphology 
of the Hexapoda and Chilopoda, 

J. S. Hrne: ‘ Notes on some Ohio Mammals.’ 

W. A. Kenterman: ‘Corn Rust Cultures.’ 

W. I’. Mercer: ‘The Relation of the Motor 
Nerve-Endings to the Voluntary Muscle in Am- 
phibia.’ 

J. H. Scwarrner: ‘The Reduction of the 
Chromosomes in Microsporocytes.’ : 

A. D. Cot: ‘ Optical Experiments with Electric 
Radiation.’ 

M. F. Guyer: ‘ Guinea-chicken Hybrids.’ 

L. G. WEStTGATE: “ Glacial Erosion in the Finger 
Lakes Region, New York.’ 

L. B. Watton: ‘The Naidide of Cedar Point, 
Ohio.’ 

Harris Hanpcock: ‘The Present State in the 
Development of the Elliptic Functions.’ 

W. C. Minus: ‘Mammilla of the Baum Village 
Site.’ ; 

W. R. Lazenby: ‘ Foreign Trees Naturalized in 
Ohio.’ 

E. W. Brrcrr: ‘Notes on the Fall Webworm 
(Hyphantria cunea) in Ohio, 

J. S. Hine: ‘ Life-history Notes on Three Species 
of Mosquitoes.’ 

A. M. Minter: ‘ Recent Classification and Map- 
ping of Lower Ordovician in Kentucky.’ Tllus- 
trated by lantern slides. 


SCIENCE. : 


[N.S. Von. XXIIZ. No. 578. 


_ S. R. WintraMs: ‘The Anatomy of Boophilus an- 


nulatus Say.’ ’ 
C. J. Herrick: ‘On the Present Status of Com- 


parative Psychology.’ 

W. A. KetiermMan: ‘A Botanical Trip Through 
Gautemala.’ Illustrated with lantern slides. 

HeRBert Osporn: * Further Report on the He- 
miptera of Ohio.’ 

J. M. VanHoox: ‘ Ascochyta pisi, a Fungus of 
Seed Peas.’ 

Lynps Jonrs: ‘ Additions to the Birds of Ohio.’ 

W. A. KeLLteRMAN: ‘Exhibition of Selected 
Gautemalan Plants.’ 


J. H. Topp: ‘The Garden of the Titans—Its 
Geology.’ 
Cuas. Brookover: ‘The Prosencephalon of 


Amia calwa.’ 

E. L. Mosetry: ‘The Cause of Trembles in 
Cattle, Sheep and Horses, and of Milk-sickness 
in Man.’ 

G. D. Hussarp: ‘ Physiography and Geography.’ 

W. C. Minus: ‘Description of a Teepe Site, 
Baum Village Site.’ 

C. E. Batnarp: “A New Gregarine from the 
Grasshopper (Melanoplus atlanis)/ 

W. R. Lazenny: ‘ Habits of Introduced Weeds.’ 
-G. B. Hansrep: ‘An Application of Non: 
Euclidean Geometry.’ z 

W. F. Mercer: ‘Development of the Respira- 
tory System in Amphibians.’ 

GERALD Fowxku: ‘Superficial Geology between 
St. Louis and Cairo.’ 

W. C. Mixus: ‘ Human Jaws as Ornaments.’ 

L. B. Waxron: ‘Some Laboratory Methods.’ 

W. R. Lazensy: “ Notes on the Germination of 
Seeds.’ 

¥. Carney: ‘Glacial Studies in the Vicinity of 
Newark.’ 

A. F. Bureress: ‘A Preliminary Report on the 
Mosquitoes of Ohio.’ 

W. A. Ketterman, H. H. York and H. A. 
Gueason: ‘Annual Report on the State Her- 
barium.’ 

Lynps Jonrs: ‘A Contribution to the Life His- 
tory of the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)? 

F. O. Grover: ‘Notes on some Ohio Spermato- 
phytes.’ 

W. B. Hermes: ‘Studies on Insects that Act 
as Scavengers of the Organic Beach Debris.’ 

ALBERT WETZSTEIN: ‘A List of the Plants of 
Auglaize Co., 0. 

R. E. Brockett: ‘Some Plants on the Campus 
and in the Vicinity of Rio Grande College.’ 

Lumina C. Rippte: ‘ Bembicide of Ohio and 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


Notes on Life History of Microbembex monodonta 
Say, and Bembex texana Cress.’ 

C. F. Jackson: ‘A Key to the Families and 
Genera of Thysanura with a Preliminary List of 
Ohio Species.’ 

Jas. A. Netson: ‘A Note on the Occurrence of 
Sex Organs in Atolosoma.’ 

J. LINDAHL: ‘ Barite in a New Form (Pisolitic) 
from a 1,400 Foot Boring for Oil at Saratoga, 
Texas.’ 

VicToR STERKI: ‘ Preliminary List of Land and 
Fresh Water Mollusca of Ohio.’ 

Victor STERKI: ‘A Suggestion with Respect to 
Local Fauna Lists.’ 

VicToR STERKI: ‘Some General Notes on the 
Land and Fresh-water Mollusca.’ 


Several important resolutions were adopted. 
Among those of local interest was that relating 
to a proposed natural history survey of the 
state, a committee consisting of the retiring 
president, and the president and secretary 
elect, being appointed for the purpose of bring- 
ing the matter before the general assembly. 
A committee was also appointed for the pur- 
pose of securing the cooperation of the 
libraries in the state to the end that scientific 
papers be rendered more available for members 
of the society. - 

A resolution urging the necessity for a 
biological survey of the Panama Canal Zone 
before the cutting of the canal was unani- 
mously adopted and the secretary was in- 
structed to transmit the resolution to the 
proper authorities at Washington. 

After resolutions were passed expressing the 
appreciation of the society for the courtesies 
extended by the people of Cincinnati, the 
faculty of the University of Cincinnati, and 
the officers of the Museum of Natural History, 
and, furthermore, thanking Mr. Emerson Mc- 
Millin, of New York, for his continued in- 
terest in the welfare of the academy, the so- 
ciety adjourned. The following officers were 
elected. 

President—Dr. BH. L. Rice, Delaware, Ohio. 

Vice-Presidents—Mr. Chas. Dury, of Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and Professor Lynds Jones, of Oberlin, Ohio. 

Secretary—Dr. L. B. Walton, Gambier, Ohio. 

Treasurer—Professor J. S. Hine, Columbus, 
Ohio. 4 

Librarian—Professor W. C. Mills, Columbus, 
Ohio. 


SCIENCE. 


139 


Hxecutive Committee (ex-officio)—Dr. E. L. 
Rice, Delaware; Dr. L. B. Walton, Gambier; Pro- 
fessor J. S. Hine, Columbus; (elective) —Dr. M. F. 
Guyer, Cincinnati; Dr. L. G. Westgate, Delaware. 

Board of Trustees—Dr. G. B. Halsted (in place 
of retiring trustee). 


L. B. Watton, 
Secretary. 


THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 


THE twenty-first annual meeting of the 
Indiana Academy of Science was held at 
Indianapolis, on December 1. Forty men and 
women, mostly young scientific workers ofthe 
state, were elected to membership. Eighty-six 
scientific papers were presented to the academy 
which met largely in sections. The papers 
covered topics in physics, chemistry, geology, 
astronomy, mathematics, botany and zoology. 
Among those of more general interest were the 
following : 

Proressor F. B. WAvx, Shortridge High School: 
“Some Scientific Aspects of Tea-drinking,’ 

Bengamin W. Dovueras, Indiana University: 
‘The Use of Peat as Fuel.’ 

Rosert Hesster, M.D., Logansport: ‘The 
Chronic Ill-health of Darwin, Huxley, Spencer 
and George Eliot. 

Proressor Joun A. Mitter, Indiana University: 
“The Solar Eclipse of 1905’ (lantern). 

Proressor J. C. ArtHuR, Purdue University: 
“Notes on the International Botanical Congress 
of 1905, 

Proressor C. H. E1rgeENMANN, Indiana Univer- 
sity: ‘The Habitat and Life History of the 
Cuban Blind Fishes’ (lantern). 


The following resolution was adopted: 


Resolved: That it is the sense of this academy 
that the United States government should im- 


.mediately undertake a complete biological survey 


of the Panama Canal zone. 


The following officers were elected for the 
coming: year: \ 

President—Robert Hessler, M.D., Logansport. 
- Vice-President—Professor D. M. Mottier, In- 
diana University. 

Secretary—Professor L. B. MeMullen, Short- 
ridge High School, Indianapolis. 

Assistant Secretary—Professor J. H. Ransom, 
Purdue University. 

Treasurer—Professor W. 


A. McBeth, State 
Normal School, Terre Haute. ; 


140 
Editor—Professor E. G. Martin, Purdue Uni- 
versity. 
J. H. Ransom, 
Assistant Secretary. 


SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 


Tur second regular meeting of the society 
was held on January 3. ; 

An informal discussion was held as to the 
desirability of substituting the designation 
‘Division of Underground Waters’ for ‘ Divi- 
sion of Hydrology’ as the name for the section 
of the United States Geological Survey de- 
voted to the investigation of underground 
waters. This was followed by the regular 
program. 

Definition of ‘artesian.’ Discussion by M. 
L. Fuller, G. B. Richardson, C. E. Siebenthal, 
©, A. Fisher, W. T. Lee and others. 

Supplementary to the paper presented by 
Mr. Fuller at the preceding meeting sum- 
“maries were presented of the arguments for the 
various usages of the term, including: (1) For 
flowing wells, (2) non-flowing wells in which 
the water rises and (8) deep drilled wells. 
The relations of deep wells were analyzed and 
the established facts bearing on the use of the 
term enumerated. It was agreed that: (1) 
The original use of ‘ artesian’ was for flowing 
wells, (2) that the present usage among scien- 
tists is not uniform, the number favoring the 
restriction of the term to flows varying, in a 
broad way, inversely with the amount of ex- 
perience in underground water investigation, 
(8) the popular usage is likewise exceedingly 
variable, people in areas of non-flowing wells 
applying the term to any deep wells, while 
those in flowing well areas use it for this class 
of wells only, and (4) no definite meaning 
can be assigned to the word in a given publi- 
cation unless a definition is given in the same 
paper. 

Terms to distinguish common wells from 
wells in which water rises, for flowing and 
non-flowing hydrostatic wells, for the hydro- 
static principle, for the hydrostatic basin, for 
confined and for unconfined shallow ground- 
waters were regarded as necessary. It was 
agreed that the term artesian is too expressive 
to ‘beitdropped, notwithstanding its various 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578. 


usages, and that it is the best word for the 
hydrostatic principle, for the hydrostatic 
basin, and for water under pressure. It was 
not, however, considered desirable to extend 
such usage, depending as it does upon well- 
defined properties of liquids, upon definite 
physical laws, and on fundamental geological 
conditions to cover the incidental features, 
like the flows of wells, which are dependent in 
many cases or mere accidents of topography. 
The application of ‘artesian’ to all wells in 
which the water is under hydrostatic pressure 
was favored. 


Indraft Wells in Southern Georgia: M. L. 

FULLER. 

Two wells sunk in the Vicksburg-Jackson 
limestone in southern Georgia, and character- 
ized by a continuous indraft of air, have re- 
cently been reported by Mr. S. W. McCallie, 
who investigated the phenomena at the speak- 
er’s request. One of the wells, located at 
Boston, encountered a rapidly moving subter- 
ranean stream in the limestone at one hundred 
and twenty feet, the sound of which was dis- 
tinetly audible. A strong indraft was noted 
after the completion of the well, which con- 
tinued without change until the well was 
finally connected with a pump. The other 
well, located in the same general locality, 
encountered a similar swiftly moving under- 
ground stream in the limestone and pre- 
sented the same strong indraft. Investigation 
showed that the current was always in. the 
same direction and was independent of baro- 
metric pressure and temperature. Mr. Mc- 
Callie believes that the sucking in of the air 
is due to the friction of the rapidly moving 
water on the air, which is drawn in and ear- 
ried onward until the water rises as one of the 
large limestone springs of the region. The 
conditions are almost exactly reproduced arti- 
ficially in the Richard suction apparatus in 
use in nearly all chemical laboratories. 

M. L. Futter, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
SECTION. 


NEW YORK 


Tue third regular meeting of the New York 
Section, American Chemical Society: was held 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


at the Chemists’ Club, 108 West 55th Street, 
on Friday, December 8. Messrs. Dr. Wm. J. 
Schieffelin, Dr. F. D. Dodge, Hugo Schweitzer, 
T. J. Parker and Leo Baekeland were elected 
councilors and the following papers were read: 


The Biological Effects of Radiwm: Gustave 

M. Meyer. 

A résumé of the results of the investigations 
carried out at the suggestion of Dr. Gies by 
Drs. Gager, Burton-Opitz and Meyer and 
Messrs. Berg, Welker and Hussakoff concern- 
ing the effects of radium and radium rays on 
plants and animals. A preliminary report of 
the same has already appeared in SctEncs, 
Vol. 21, pp. 987-988, June, 1905. 


The Estimation of Minute, 
Arsenic: H. B. BisHopr. 

- For the determination of traces of arsenic 
in sulphuric acid, brimstone, organic matter 
and most substances soluble in or decomposed 
by hot concentrated sulphuric acid, the arsenic 
is separated by distillation with a mixture of 
sulphurous and hydrochloric acids, and is esti- 
mated by a modified Marsh test. By this 
method arsenic-free sulphuric acid has been 
prepared and .0000001 per cent. arsenic has 
been added and accurately estimated. The 
special advantages are that large samples may 
be taken, few reagents are required and the 
arsenic is separated from interfering sub- 
stances without loss, so that the Marsh test 
ean be made under standard conditions. 


Quantities of 


A New Apparatus for the Extraction of Tan- 
nic Acid: ALLEN RocErs. 

For the analysis of tea, coffee and tannin, 
the author has obtained very satisfactory re- 
sults by the use of an extraction apparatus 
consisting of two flasks so arranged and con- 
nected by tubes that the solution may be 
drawn repeatedly over the material to be ex- 
tracted, the temperature being regulated by 
placing the apparatus on a water-bath or other 
source of heat. 


The Synthesis of 6-Brom-quinazolines. M. T. 
_ Bogert and W. F. Hanp. 

The authors describe the synthesis of 6- 
brom-quinazolines from 5-brom-2-amino-ben- 
zoic acid, 5-brom-2-acetaminobenzoic, 5-brom- 


2-acetaminobenzonitrile, and from 5-brom-2- 


SCIENCE. 


141 


acetanthranil. .The following quinazolines 
were prepared, with certain of their deriva- 
tives: 

6-Brom-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 

6-Brom-2-methyl-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 

6-Brom-2-ethyl-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 

6-Brom-2-n-propy1-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 

6-Brom-2-i-propyl-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 

6-Brom-2-i-buty]-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 

6-Brom-2-i-amy]-4-ketodihydroquinazoline, 
_ 6-Brom-2-methyl-3-phenyl-4-ketodihydroquinazo- 
line, 

6-Brom-2-3-o-tolyl-4-ketodihydroquinazoline. 
The Constitution of Quinine: B. L. Murray. 

A review of our knowledge of the molecular 
constitution of quinine as ascertained from its 
ehemical reactions, so far as we are able to 
interpret them to-day. Quinine is so readily 
decomposed into two different classes of bodies, 
that its molecule is regarded as consisting of 
two separate halves; the one a metho-oxy- 
quinoline, the other a hydrogenated pyridine 
with side chains at beta and gamma. One 
side chain is unsaturated, while the gamma 
side chain is connected both to the nitrogen of 
its own nucleus, and to the gamma carbon of 
the quinoline nucleus, thus serving to join 
the two half molecules. The hydroxyl of 
quinine is located in this connecting chain, 
and the methoxy group is found in para- 
position on the quinoline nucleus. 

F. H. Poveu, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NORTHEASTERN SECTION. 


THE sixty-fourth regular meeting of the sec- 
tion was held Friday evening, December 22, at 
Simmons College, with President Parsons in 
the chair. About forty members were present. 

Professor James A. Norris addressed the 
section on ‘ An Investigation of the Elemen- 
tary Nature of Tellurium,’ in which he dis- 
eussed the position of tellurium in Men- 
delejefi’s classification, and reviewed the work 
of yarious chemists on the atomic weight of 
that element, and described his own work in 
preparing pure basic tellurium nitrate, and 
determining the atomic weight of tellurium 
by converting that nitrate into tellurium di- 


142 


oxide. - The tellurium was purified from the 
members of the other groups of the Men- 
delejeff’s table by precipitating the chloride 
with sodium thiosulphate, and treating the 
Na,S,TeO, formed with an alkali. The Te 
thus obtained was further separated from 
members of the same group by fractional sub- 
limation of TeO, “The results obtained for 
the atomic weight of tellurium agreed very 
closely with that previously obtained by 
Brauner, Kothner and others, and the con- 
clusions were drawn that the atomic weight 
of Te has been accurately determined, that the 
Te used contains no other element known or 
unknown, and also that the atomic weight of 
iodine has been correctly determined. The 
position of Te in the sixth or eighth group 
of the table was also discussed. 
Arriur M. Comry, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
a - HEREDITY AND SUBSPECIES. 

I wave read with deep interest, and some 
surprise, two recent articles in this journal 
_ by President David Starr Jordan, entitled, re- 
spectively, ‘The Loch Leven Trout’* and 
“Ontogenetic Species and Other Species.’* To 
take them up in sequence, the facts presented 
in the first article are, in substance, that a 
trout found in Loch Leven differs from the 
trout of neighboring lakes and streams in its 
‘large size, more silvery color, sparcity of 
spots, the red spots and ocelli characteristic 
of the brook trout_* * * being usually 
wanting,’ while ‘the orange edge of the adi- 
pose fin, characteristic of the brook trout, is 
wanting in the Loch Leven trout.’ These dit- 
ferences are so marked that the Loch Leven 
trout (Salmo levinensis) ‘has been usually 
considered as a valid species, distinct from 
the other trout of Great Britain.’ President 
Jordan cites Dr. Day as stating that the Loch 
Leven trout changes into the ordinary brook 
trout of England (Salmo fario), ‘when 
planted in streams of Gloucester or Guilford, 
the colors of the Loch Leven trout being seen 

*Scrence, N. §., Vol. XXII., No. 570, pp. 714, 
715, December 1, 1905. 

? Ibid., No. 574, pp. 872, 873, December 29, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 578. 


on exceptionally well-fed individuals only.’ He 
also quotes Dr. Day as regarding some fifteen 
or more other commonly recognized species of 
trout inhabiting the lakes, streams and 
estuaries of Great Britain and northern 
Europe as ‘all forms of one and the same 
species’; and adds: 
* A member of one of these so-called species would 
be changed to one of the others if it grew up 
under the same surroundings. These forms are 
not subspecies, for that implies a divergence which 
should be hereditary, however slight. They are, 
if this view is correct, local variations of one 
species, * * *, 
Elsewhere in the same article, President Jor- 
dan states the results of transferring Loch 
Leven trout to the waters of the Yosemite 
National Park in California, where in the 
course of ten years they have come to be ‘ ex- 
act representatives in form and color of the 
common brook trout as seen in the streams 
of England.’ He further says: ‘These Loch 
Leven trout in the Yosemite are typical 
Salmo fario, or brown trout of England.’ 
While these facts are of extreme interest, 
and have an important bearing on the evolu- 
tion and character of local forms, they merely 
emphasize and confirm conclusions derived 
from general considerations, and not based on 
experimental research; or, as in this case, on 
the incidental results of fish-culture. They 
point the way, however, to a field of investiga- 
tion evidently pregnant with interesting re- 
sults, to which President Jordan: has forcibly 
ealled attention in his later article on ‘ Onto- 
genetic Species and Other Species.’ In this 
paper, however, he takes a position that seems 
to me quite new, and directly antagonistic to 
the views held, I think, by the generality of 
students of geographical variation in birds and 
mammals, as regards the nature of species and 
subspecies. He says, for example: 
- It remains, however, to be determined whether 
these environmental forms—these species and sub- 
species produced by the direct influence of heat, 
cold, humidity and aridity—are ‘ ontogenetic 
species’ * * * or whether they have a real ex- 
istence outside the lifetime of the individuals 
actually composing the group or species. We 
do not know which of the traits induced by 
direct action of the environment, if jany, are 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


actually hereditary and which are not. If we 
find that the dusky woodpeckers of Vancouver 
Island retain this shade when reared in Arizona, 
then humidity would be a real factor in the forma- 
tion of species. If such birds, transferred im the 
egg to a region, should develop in the fashion 
of the local race of this region, and not like their 
own parents, then the duskiness is not a true 
specific or subspecific character.2 The real char- 
acter of the species would be found in the tend- 
ency to develop dark plumage in humid surround- 
ings and pale feathers under other conditions. 
In such case humidity would be merely a factor 
modifying individual development but not con- 
nected with the origin of species.® 

It is hard to believe, on reading the above 
paragraph and the adjoining context, that the 
writer has duly weighed the real conditions of 
the problem; if such be the case, he must have 
a concept of species and subspecies different 
from that of most of those who have been 
most intimately concerned with their consider- 
ation. It is also hard to understand the mean- 
ing of the term ‘hereditary’ as used in the 
above transcript. 

Young mammals in the nursling stage have 
a pelage different in color and texture from 
that later acquired; young birds have a char- 
acteristic nestling plumage different in color 
and texture from that of the adults, or from 
that acquired with the first moult. Every 
experienced mammalogist and ornithologist 
knows that the local differentiation in color 
- between the subspecific forms of a given group 
is often (but not always) much more strongly 
expressed in the first pelage or plumage of the 
young than in the adults of the same forms. 
In view of such facts it seemingly goes with- 
out saying that local differentiations are trans- 
mitted from parent to young, and are heredi- 
tary in the usual sense of that term; doubtless, 
no one questions their continued transmission 
from generation to generation so long as the 
environment remains stable. Probably also 
few would question that were representatives 
of a strongly marked local form (in the case 
of birds, either as eggs or mature birds) to be 
transplanted to a region markedly different 
climatically from their natural home, they 
would gradually lose their original character- 


5 Not italicized in the original. 


SCIENCE. 


143 


istics and become, after a number of genera- 
tions, more or less modified, in better agree- 
ment with the new conditions of life. But it 
would be apparently rash to expect a very 
material change in a single generation. There 
is apparently not the least probability that an 
ege of a large dusky Vancouver woodpecker 
taken to Arizona would hatch into a smaller 
pale form like the race native to Arizona. 

The case may be somewhat different with 
fishes, which have a more lax organization, 
are lower in vital energy, and are probably 
much more plastic than birds; yet it would be 
of interest to know whether the eggs of the 
Loch Leven trout, when taken to other waters, 
hatch into trout like those that are native to 
the waters to which the Loch Leven trout eggs 
had been transferred. In the waters of the 
Yosemite it appears to have been eight or ten 
years after the introduction of the Loch Leven - 
trout before it was discovered that they had 
become indistinguishable from the English - 
Salmo fario. It would further be of interest 
to know whether, through’ actual comparison 
of specimens, it has been found that Salmo 
levinensis, in losing its Loch Leven characters © 
in California waters, has not also acquired 
gome slight differences from the true S. fario; 
for the California environment must be greatly 
different from that of England. 

So far as known to me, no similar phe- 
nomena have been observed in birds, through 
their transference from one climatic area to 
another. During the last twenty-five years it 
has been a common practise to restock certain 
localities in southern New England and other 
parts of the northern tier of states with south- 
ern quail, in places where the northern birds 
had nearly disappeared in consequence of 
severe winters or other causes. It is even said 
that pure northern stock is now hard to ob- 
tain; and I have heard ornithologists congratu- 
late themselves that they had in their collec- 
tions a few specimens of the original northern 
bird, taken before the introduction of quail 
from the south. It is also commonly believed, 
by those who are in position to know, that the 
quail of the northern states are now a mixed 
race. As, however, the imported birds’ have 
been brought from the middle portion of the 


144 


eastern United States, as West Virginia, Mis- 
souri and Kansas, it is not probable that they 
would differ enough f¥om the northern birds 
to be easily distinguishable from them. The 
introduction of birds from Florida and the 
Gulf Coast has not been in favor with sports- 
men’s clubs, owing to their small size and 
their probable inability to withstand such a 
radical change in climatic conditions. 

‘It may be added, as vaguely bearing on this 
point, that some years ago (in 1889) a prom- 
iment New York ornithologist (now deceased) 
received four skins of quail (two pairs) said 
to have come from South Dakota, which so 
greatly differed from the other forms of quail 
known to him that he looked upon them as a 
new species, of which he prepared a description 
for publication under the name Colinus 
dakotensis. As they were small and dark, 
they were later compared with quail from 
southern Florida and found to be practically 
the same, and the supposed new species was 
suppressed. The conclusion reached was that 
these peculiar South Dakota quail had been 
imported from Florida; but whether these 
birds were part of the original importation or 
from a later generation was never satisfactorily 
established, and the ease is, therefore, without 
special significance in this connection. The 
following, however, has a rather direct bearing 
upon the matter at issue. 

In Cuba there is an indigenous species or 
subspecies of quail (Colinus virginianus cuban- 
ensis), nearest to the Florida form (C. v. 
floridanus), but differing from it in a marked 
degree. According to the late Dr. Gundlach* 
quail were introduced into Cuba about one 
hundred years ago, from just where is not 
stated, but most probably from Florida.. And 
there doubtless have been other importations 
since. In 1892 Mr. Frank M. Chapman, of 
the American Museum of Natural History (to 
whom I am indebted for the suggestion of this 
ease), collected specimens of the indigenous 
form and of a form impossible to distinguish 
from the Florida bird. These latter were un- 
doubtedly descendants of birds long previously 
introduced into Cuba from Florida, which 

‘ Journ. fiir. Orn., XXII. Jahrg., Juli, 1874, pp. 
300-303),5 5° ‘ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 578. 


for many generations had maintained in a 
large degree the characters of the Florida bird. 
There also occur in Cuba quail that are inter- 
mediate in characters between the true Cuban 
form and the Florida form, due possibly to 
interbreeding, but also possibly to the action 
of environment upon the introduced Florida 
stock. 

There are, however, good reasons for believ- 
ing that the eggs of small southern forms of 
widely dispersed species would not, if taken to 
northern localities, hatch into large birds like 
those of the new region to which the eggs were 
transferred. For not only does the size of 
the bird, in species of wide latitudinal range, 
decline southward, but also (very naturally) 
the size of their eggs; and there is, further- 
more, as a rule, a reduction in the number 
forming the set, as made known by me in 
1876, mainly- on the basis of information 
furnished by the late Major Charles Bendire, 
than whom there is no higher authority on the 
eges of North American birds. Thus eggs of 
the cowbird from New England average 23 x 16 
mm., and those from Arizona 19x14.7 mm. 
It is perhaps of interest to note that in the 
American tropics the number of eggs in a set, 
in most passerine birds, is two or three, while 
in temperate North America the number is 
four or five, five occurring here about as fre- 
quently as three in the tropics. 

A word now as to ‘ ontogenetic species,’ and 
‘species’ and ‘subspecies.’ President Jordan 
apparently has, as already said, a different 
concept for subspecies from that of those who 
first gave currency to the term. The names 
of all groups in biology are of course con- 
ventional terms, employed by common consent 
as a convenient means of arbitrarily designa- 
ting groups of greater or lesser comprehen- 
siveness, and having definite relations to each 
other in any taxonomic system. In intro- 
ducing the trinomial system of nomenclature, 
in 1886, the A. O. U. committee on nomencla- 
ture stated® that this system, as a matter of 


5° Geographical Variation in the Number and 
Size of the Eggs of Birds,’ Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 
I., 1876, pp. 74, 75. 

s¢ A. O. U. Code of Nomenclature and Check- 
List of North American Birds,’ 1886, p. 31. 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


experience, had been found to be “ particularly 
pertinent and applicable to those geographical 
“ subspecies,’ ‘ races’ or ‘ varieties,’ which have 
become recognizable as such through their 
modification according to latitude, longitude, 
elevation, temperature, humidity. and other 
climatic conditions.” This has been till now, 
and in general still is, the sense in which the 
term subspecies has been employed and under- 
stood by the large number of ornithologists 
and mammalogists who constantly and sys- 
tematically make use of it in designating 
geographic forms that, while well-marked, are 
known, or supposed, to intergrade. If we are 
to take President Jordan literally, heat, cold, 
humidity, aridity or other environmental con- 
ditions, are merely factors ‘modifying indi- 
vidual development but not connected with 
the origin of species.’ It all depends, it is 
claimed, upon whether or not the characters 
shown by the forms commonly designated as 
subspecies are ‘actually hereditary.’ If their 
persistent transmission through practically 
endless generations be not hereditary, there 
seems necessary also a new definition for hered- 
ity, as well as for subspecies. While the ac- 
tion of all such influences is doubtless onto- 
genetic, and is by many recognized as such, 
any attempt to distinguish ‘ ontogenetic 
species’ from other species, or subspecies, 
tends to confusion of ideas rather than to any 
useful discriminations. It may be that 
President Jordan has failed to clearly express, 
in the paragraph quoted near the beginning of 
this article, the ideas he intended to convey, 
for it seems to me—perhaps through some 
special obtuseness on my part—that there is 
lack of coherence, if not actual contradiction, 
between the parts I have italicized and the 
portion that intervenes. 
J. A. ALLEN. 


THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES THROUGH CLIMATIC 
CONDITIONS. 

THE very interesting paper by Dr. J. A. 
Allen (Scrmencz, November 24), under the 
above title, like all really useful discussions 
of evolution, inevitably suggests further ob- 
servations. The facts presented are of the 
highest importance, and for this very reason 


SCIENCE. 


‘viduals. 


145 


we want to be quite sure of them in every case: 
When two ‘subspecies’ are joined by inter- 
mediates, the transition may be uniform all 
along the line, or it may not. In the diagram 
here given, the vertical line indicates differ- 
ence of size; the horizontal one, of latitude; 
and the ‘ curves’ are plotted in the usual way. 


mazA. 
N 


Size. 


Mir. 


N ar. s 


The two more or less parallel lines indicate 
the extremes of individual variation. Now if 
‘the variation in size from the north south- 
ward is as gradual and continuous as the 
transition in climatic conditions’ (Dr. Allen, 
l. c., p. 664), the phenomenon will be expressed 
by the dotted lines, except that in nature the 
slope will never be quite so uniform, because 
the change of climate is not perfectly uniform. 

If, however (as is surely true of some of the 
cases Dr. Allen cites), we have two practically 
uniform subspecies, each true to its own type 
within a certain area, but haying between 
them a region in which they completely inter- 
grade, the curve will resemble the solid lines 
of the diagram. The slight slope of the lines 
from A to B, and C to D, will be explicable as 
the direct result of environment upon indi- 
In such a ease, it is clear that the 
two subspecies, in the regions where they re- 
main true, are in fact isolated from one an- 
other, and that it is exactly where they are 
not isolated, that they fail to conform to any 
single definable type. Such a condition of 
affairs might very well be produced if two 
distinct forms had arisen in isolated places, 
and their ranges had subsequently overlapped, 
their evolution not having proceeded far 


146 


enough for them to be incapable of breeding 
together,* 

It will be readily apparent that it is ex- 
tremely difficult to absolutely demonstrate a 
ease like that represented by the dotted lines. 
Perhaps in no instance is the series of speci- 
mens so complete as could be desired, and 
usually it is not nearly adequate. The case 
may be complicated by the existence of half 
a dozen subspecies, occupying small areas, 
justifying the nomenclature of the ‘ aspiring 
young naturalist.’ 

Last year I published a revision of Hy- 
menoxys, a genus of plants (Bull. Torrey Bot. 
Club, September, 1904). I found in that 
genus a case which seemed to me to exactly 
agree with those postulated by Dr. Allen, ex- 
cept that the large form was southern, the 
small one northern. The difference between 
the extremes was such as to almost constitute 
a reductio ad absurdum of my classification; 


yet when I had the whole series (borrowed. 


from several large herbaria) spread out on a 
table I did not know where to draw any hard- 
and-fast lines. I accordingly called them all 
subspecies of Hymenoxys chrysanthemoides, 
but a comparison between plates 22 and 23 
of my paper will doubtless cause many readers 
to wonder how I could do it. 

Having myself attempted to demonstrate 


* Homo sapiens, who offers a classical example 
of segregation without physical barriers, is now be- 
ing subjected to this very process. The result will 
probably be greater racial uniformity, or rather 
the breaking down of racial differences, with in- 
ereased individual variability, due to the fact 
that while the individuals will cross, many of 
their characters have become so far differentiated 
that they will not do so. The mongrel dogs in 
the street afford an illustration of this. How all 
this will affect the development of the higher 
human attributes, is a question which deserves 
serious thought. The increase of insanity and 
erime in civilized countries, though obviously due 
largely to quite other factors, may be partly ex- 
plicable as a result of incongruous combinations, 
produced by ‘Mosaic inheritance.’ Genius, if 
produced in good quantity, may become more 
erratic. On the other hand, no doubt such evils 
as war, famine and pestilence will be gradually 
overcome, };:} 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578.: 


this case, I perhaps ought not to object to any 
of Dr. Allen’s; but all I wish to urge is, that 
the evidence should be made more complete 
and the different classes of cases should be 
distinguished. In the case of the Hymenozys, 
we do not know what results would come from 
sowing Texas seed in the vicinity of the City 
of Mexico, and vice versa. Experiment might 
show that while the characters of the herba- 
rium specimens overlapped, there were in 
reality several distinct plants, constitutionally 
and essentially different, and that even most 
of the apparent intermediates were really hy- 
brids. Experiment might show, on the other 
hand, that several so-called subspecies were 
merely phases of one thing, the individuals 
directly modified by the climate. This has 
been demonstrated for certain mountain 
plants, by dividing a single individual and 
growing the halves at different altitudes. I 
do not anticipate these results in the case of 
Hymenoxys chrysanthemoides; but it would 
be very well worth while to see whether they 
are attainable. 

Finally, it is by no means to be assumed 
that the ‘effects’ of climate are necessarily 
direct, and not brought about through the 
agency of natural selection. This, however, 
is a large question, not requiring discussion 


at this moment. 
T. D. A. CockERELL. 


ONTOGENETIC SPECIES AND CONVERGENT GENERA. 


Tue recent exchange of views in SCIENCE, 
between Dr. Jordan and Dr. Allen concerning 
“environmental species,’ gives occasion to 
notice the widening gap between the formal 
conception of species entertained by the biolo- 
gist as units of evolution, and the actual no- 
tion of species used by the systematist in 
working over a group, or the specialist in 
arranging a collection. For if ‘ ontogenetic 
species’ do occur, as there seems reason to 
believe, a marked distinction must be made 
in theory between them and the phylogenetic 
species, as they might be termed, denoted by 
the older, or Darwinian, definition which re- 
quires the feature of inheritance of the char- 
acters marking them. In practise, of course, 
this feature has usually been taken for granted 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


by the systematist, or has rarely been consid- 
ered at all, for he has no means of testing it, 
and to him the two sets of adaptive characters 
must be equally specific, whatever their origin. 
Nor is it easy to see how a universal measure 
of discrimination can ever be supplied, for 
even if a few general laws were derived, as 
doubtless they will be, from experimental ob- 
servation of the kind suggested by Dr. Jordan, 
it is not likely that they would be serviceable 
in special cases much, if at all, beyond the 
limits of what we now call local or climatic 
variation, and, manifestly, it is out of the 
question that every uncertain case can be 
brought under such experimental conditions 
as those which have shown the real relations 
of the Loch Leven trout. Organic selection 
has much emphasized this difference between 
the logical and the practical ideas of species, 
and has supplied the taxonomist with a prob- 
lem of which he has no solution in sight. It 
seems probable that the lack of such a solution 
is behind the most extreme of the opinions 
held by the authors of the respective theories 
of ‘mutations’ and ‘isolation.’ 

Quite another modifying influenee upon 
present methods of classification appears in 
the facts of analogous evolution, of which 
paleontologists have been accumulating evi- 
dence. If like environments tend to induce 
similar modifications in unrelated groups, it 
at once becomes evident that systems of classi- 
fication based upon such likenesses of struc- 
ture may not in all cases reflect the genetic 
connection which, since Darwin, we have be- 
lieved them to approach. Therefore, classifi- 
cation in the modern sense being worthless if 
it fails to correspond to descent, it seems not 
unlikely that geographical considerations may 
come to enter more largely into the composi- 
tion of genera than has hitherto been the case 
with conservative naturalists, for in a strictly 
genetic system it would not be permissible to 
place in the same genus species so widely 
separated by present or past geographical bar- 
riers that we are forced to believe that they 
can not have developed: from the same source. 

ArtHuR Erwin Brown. 

THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 


SCIENCE. 


147 


ETHNIC TYPES AND ISOLATION. 

RECENTLY several articles have appeared 
in this journal discussing geographical isola- 
tion as a factor in the differentiation of spe- 
cies, and the illustrative observations taken 
from both the animal and plant life of North 
America correspond in a way to well-known 
ethnographical facts. The writer does not 
intend to discuss the virtues of the isolation 
theory as a condition of biological variation, 
but wishes to call attention to the fact that 
such a theory seems to account for a number 
of differences in the culture of Indian tribes. 

It is customary to divide the aboriginal in- 
habitants of North America into linguistic 
stocks and it is estimated that there are at 
least fifty distinct linguistic families north of 
Mexico. These were distributed in a very 
striking way. In the Mackenzie basin we 
have the Athapascan stock, around the Great 
Lakes, Hudson Bay and Labrador, down the 
Ohio River and east to the Atlantic Ocean, 
the great Algonquin group with an intrusive 
Iroquois stock in the vicinity of New York 
state. In the Gulf states were the Caddoan, 
the Muskhogean, and a number of small 
groups. The great plains and prairie area 
was dominated by the Sioux and Shoshone 
stocks. If in contrast to this we examine the 
Pacific coast we find in California alone 
twenty stocks and between the northern boun- 
dary and Alaska ten other stocks. The Pueblo 
region to the south presents conditions some- 
what similar. Thus a brief résumé of the 
distribution of linguistic stocks in North 
America brings to view relations strikingly 
similar to the distribution of species as noted 
by President Jordan. 

Some one has proposed to account for the 
great number of Indian languages in Cali- 
fornia by assuming that a few young children 
lost now and then in the isolated valleys of 
the country would, if they survived, develop 
new languages. While ethnologists do not 
take this theory seriously they often give ex- 
pression to a similar view, viz., that a people 
without a written language living for a long 
time in a given area separated from the parent 
stock will gradually form a new order of 
speech. This is a theory of differentiation by 


148 


isolation. It has often been stated that the 
geographical character of California was such 
as to make it, if not the incubator of living 
stocks, at least their nursery. 

However, no satisfactory explanation has 
been given for the great diversity of languages 
in North America. The fact that tribes have 
wandered from Canada to New Mexico and 
California and after ages of separation still 
retained their former language indicates a 
conservatism in linguistic change that renders 
the isolation theory an unsatisfactory one. 

If, however, we do not consider linguistics 
at all and look at the cultural habits of the 
people in their more psychological aspects we 
find more reason for assuming isolation to be 
an important fact. Notwithstanding the 
great number of linguistic stocks in Cali- 
fornia all present cultures that can be distin- 
guished from the cultures of other geograph- 
ical areas by certain common characteristics. 
In the plains we find two large powerful 
stocks with a culture that had other distinctive 
characteristics in common. Again, in the 
east were the Iroquois and the Algonquin with 
the same culture. Plains culture stopped at 
the woods and woods culture stopped at the 
grass line; California culture kept to the west 
of the mountains and the plains culture to the 
east of them. Thus we have well-defined ecul- 
ture areas corresponding to well-defined geo- 
graphical areas. In one case high mountains 
isolated a culture, in the other the woodlands 
were the cause of separation. The woodlands 
presented no great physical barriers to the 
plains people, but the latter had acquired food, 
shelter and transportation habits that made 
the woods uncomfortable and a place to be 
dreaded. A people accustomed to traveling 
over the free and open plains must have felt 
uneasy and afraid when traversing the woods, 
because of inability to see what was just be- 
yond, and the people of the woods must have 
felt the insecurity of the plains because there 
were few hiding places and no one could 
travel without being seen. We all know how 
the at-home feeling ties us to the tenement 
or the palatial dwelling, as the case may be. 
Then, again, a people that had been trained 
to chase the buffalo on an open plain would 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578... 


not understand hunting in the woods and 
would be driven back to the plains by the. 
demands of an empty stomach. It is difficult 
for a race to change its food habits, perhaps 
much more difficult than for us to change our 
most pampered ways. Transportation habits 
will hold a people to the watercourses, the 
upland, the lowland, ete., as the case may be. 
Even shelter habits may be binding, as the 
snow-house building of the Eskimo and the 
adobe wall-structure of the Pueblo. In gen- 
eral it seems that culture is often confined to 
a given area because the inhabitants are pre- 
vented by physical barriers and cultural habits, 
such as those of food, shelter, transportation, 
ete., from affiliation with the culture of other 
areas. The force of this theory in ethnog- 
raphy is augmented by the fact that the bar- 
riers are psychological rather than physical. 
Yet, as psychological structures they are 
erected upon physical foundations. It is the 
character of the surface and climate with the 
concomitant fauna and flora that reacts upon 
the ethnic life of the more primitive inhabit- 
ants of a given area. 

The fact that so many linguistic stocks 
with the same culture are found in the same 
area is probably due to migration, for if a 
people do surmount the culture area barriers 
and survive they soon take up by imitation 
the habits of the older population, thus adopt- 
ing the culture of the area. On the other 
hand, they retain their language and physical 
characteristics, which may be considered as 
habits of greater stability. The fact that 
California presents a culture area comprising 
a large number of linguistic stocks in contrast 
to the small number of stocks in other areas 
may be due to the physical barriers that have 
discouraged intermarriage and sociability, but 
not the dissemination of ideas or practical and 
religious knowledge. Thus the observed dis- 
tribution of linguistic stocks is apparently not 
a contradiction to the assumption made in the 
foregoing. d 

Without attempting to enumerate all the 
factors that tend to isolate a culture*area we 
may conclude that from a strict ethnie point 
of view types of culture are due to geograph- 
ical isolation in concomitance with psycho- 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


physical conditions. We have based this dis- 
cussion upon North American types because 
the physical aspect of the barriers are not so 
pronounced as in some other parts of the 
world and because we wished to emphasize the 
psychological aspect of these barriers. Al- 
though the writer knows nothing of the bio- 
logical problem that has been discussed in 
these pages, he ventures to suggest that the 
habits of animals formed in response to en- 
vironmental conditions may become psycholog- 
ical barriers to diffusion. There may be a 
kind of psychophysical at-home feeling that 
ties a species to certain areas. 


Ciark WISSLER. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL REGENERATION IN INSECTS. 


Morean in ‘ Regeneration’ (1901), p. 19, 
defines physiological regeneration as follows: 


Finally, there are certain normal changes that 
occur in animals and plants that are not the 
result of injury to the organism, and these have 
many points in common with the processes of re- 
generation. They are generally spoken of as 
processes of physiological regeneration. The an- 
nual moulting of the feathers of birds, the periodic 
loss and growth of the horns of stags, the break- 
ing down of cells in the different parts of the 
body after they have been active for a time, and 
their replacement by new cells, the loss of the 
peristome in the protozoon, Stentor, and its re- 
newal by a new peristome, are examples of physio- 
logical regeneration. This group of phenomena 
must also be included under the term ‘ regenera- 
tion’ since it is not so sharply separated from that 
including those cases of regeneration after injury, 
or loss of a part, and both processes appear to 
involve the same factors. 


Again, on p. 25 (ibid.), Morgan says that 
he will use the term physiological regeneration 
to include such changes “as the moulting and 
replacement of the feathers of birds, the re- 
placement of teeth, ete—changes that are a 
part of the life-cycle of the individual. In 
some cases it can be shown that these processes 
are clearly related to ordinary regeneration, 
as when a feather pulled out is formed anew 
without waiting for the next moulting period, 
and formed presumably out of the same rudi- 


SCIENCE. 


149 


ment that would have made the new feather in 
the ordinary moulting process.” 

Finally, on pp. 128-131 (ibid.), Morgan 
refers to the general fact that ‘in the same 
animal certain organs may be continually 
worn away and as slowly replaced, and other 
organs replaced only at regular intervals,’ 
and he lists a number of familiar instances 
of regularly recurring physiological regenera- 
tion, as the moulting of snakes, the throwing 
off of deer antlers and their renewing, and 
also the moulting of insects. As this is the 
only instance of physiological regeneration in 
insects mentioned by the author, and as it 
seems to be desirable to know, especially as a 
basis for any discussion of the relation be- 
tween ‘physiological regeneration’ and the 
more familiar restorative phenomenon called 
simply ‘regeneration,’ of any other instances 
of physiological regeneration occurring among 
the lower animals—almost all. the cited cases 
of physiological regeneration are among the 
vertebrates—I wish to point out briefly cer- 
tain important and widespread phenomena in 
insect biology which should be included in the 
category of physiological regeneration proc- 


esses. Indeed, Morgan specifically refers to 
the need of such further knowledge. “ How 
far,” he says, “physiologital regeneration 


takes place in the tissues of the lower animals 
we do not know at present except in a few 
eases, but far from supposing it to be absent, 
it may be as well developed as in higher 
forms.” 

First may be mentioned the radical regen- 
eration of the digestive epithelium of the 
ventriculus, common to all(?) imsects, a 
phenomenon long known, albeit in a rather 
hazy way perhaps, to students of insect mor- 
phology, but in the last ten years carefully 
studied and satisfactorily worked out for a 
number of insect forms representing several 
widely separated orders. (See the papers of 
Mobusz, Rengel, Van Gehuchten, Needham 
and others.) This process consists of.the con- 
stant senescence and complete degeneration of 
the nuclei and cytoplasm of the large epithelial 
cells of the ventricular portion of the alimen- 
tary canal and of the equally constant appear- 
ance of new nuclei in conspicuous small 


150 


groups or ‘nests’ near the basal membrane, 
their increase in size (growth) and migration 
toward the lumen, with an accompanying new 
formation of surrounding cytoplasm. The 
vigor of nucleus and cytoplasm seems to be 
exhausted after the secretion and discharge of 
a certain amount of digestive fluid, and rapid 
and perfectly obvious senescence and histolysis 
take place. Inspection of cross-sections of 
the ventriculus of any feeding caterpillar will 
show this normal physiological regeneration 
phenomenon in most illuminating manner. 
While this regenerative process was, when first 
noted, considered to be a part of that extensive 
general histolysis and histogenesis which regu- 
larly accompanies the post-embryonic develop- 
ment of insects with ‘complete metamor- 
phosis,’ it is now known—thanks especially to 
Needham’s discriminating work—to be a phe- 
nomenon also accompanying or incident to 
digestion, occurring all through the feeding 
life of the insect, and not limited to that 
period in late larval life (pre-pupal life) when 
the radical histolysis of the larval organs 
oceurs, preparatory to, or coincident with, the 
new-building (histogenesis) of the imaginal 
(adult) organs. There is, however, probably 
always a marked and unusual degree of re- 
generation of alimentary epithelium during 
the prepupal and early pupal stages, 7. e., at 
the time of the radical transformation phe- 
nomena. This has been recently well shown 
in the case of the water-beetle Cybister, by 
Degeener.* 

A more striking phenomenon, or group of 
phenomena, of physiological regeneration in 
insects is that extraordinary double process 
of degeneration and moulting on the one hand 
and regeneration and complete new-building 
on the other which characterizes the ontogeny 
(in post-embryonic life) of the insects with 
so-called ‘ complete metamorphosis,’ 7. e., those 
insects which come from the egg in a form 
(larva) radically different from that of the 
definitive adult condition. From the butter- 
fly’s ege there hatches a caterpillar without 
wings, without compound eyes, with eight 
pairs of legs, with minute, short two- or three- 


*Zool. Jahrb., v. 20, pp. 499-676, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 578. 


segmented antennez, with biting and chewing 
mouth-parts composed of heavy mandibles, 
jaw-like maxille, and flap-like labium, with 
musculature for worm-like and creeping loco- 
motion, and with simple, straight alimentary 
canal for the manipulation and digestion of 
bits of solid food (leaves, ete.). But the but- 
terfly into which the caterpillar develops has 
wings, compound eyes, long, many-segmented 
antenne, only three pairs of legs, sucking 
mouth-parts composed of a curious long flex- 
ible tube made up of the maxille alone, with 
mandibles wholly wanting and labium reduced 
to a small fixed sclerite, complex musculature 
for flight, and a long twisted alimentary canal 
with conspicuous sac-like diverticula for hold- 
ing and digesting flower nectar. In even 
greater degree do the larva and adult of the 
Diptera and Hymenoptera differ, and in only 
slightly less degree those of the Neuroptera 
and Coleoptera. Now in all these specialized 
insects the development from larva to adult 
(usually achieved in a few days or weeks) is 


“not accomplished by a slow, gradual transfor- 


mation of the parts of the larva into those of 
the adult, but is distinguished by the curious 
fact that many, if not most, of the larval 
organs are either wholly cast aside by moult- 
ing at the time of pupation, or undergo a 
radical histolysis resulting in complete dis- 
integration. The larval mouth parts and an- 
tenne are completely discarded at pupation 
(ast larval moulting) and have their places 
taken by wholly new and usually markedly 
different mouth parts and antennz; the larval 
musculation, parts or the whole of the ali- 
mentary canal, the salivary glands and Mal- 
pighian tubules, and parts or the whole of the 
tracheal system degenerate, and have their 
places taken by radically new muscles, ali- 
mentary canal, salivary glands, Malpighian 
tubules and trachexe, produced (regenerated) 
from elementary cell groups called histoblasts 
or imaginal buds. This phenomenon of whole- 
sale histolysis and histogenesis characteristic 
of all the members of all the orders of insects 
with complete metamorphosis (with some 
Coleoptera and some Neuroptera the break- 
down and new-building is slight) is to be 
looked on as a wholesale and extreme case of 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


physiological regeneration. It is a normal 
part of the ontogeny of these specialized in- 
sects, but it is an interpolated, a cenogenetic 
condition. That is, although now a regularly 
recurring phenomenon in the life of these in- 
sects, it is distinguished only by the inevitable- 
ness and regularity of its occurrence from any 
occasional processes involving profound regen- 
eration. It seems to me quite analogous with 
such cases of regularly recurring physiological 
regeneration as the moulting and new-growth 
of the plumage of birds, the casting off and 
new-building of the antlers of stags, the loss 
of the peristome and the formation of a new 
one in Stentor, ete.; in other words, with all 
those cases mentioned by Morgan in illustra- 
tion of his definition of physiological regen- 
eration. 

In the two special cases of physiological re- 
generation in insects here called attention to, 
we may distinguish between regeneration of 
the ventricular epithelium from tissue (cells) 
of its same kind, and the regeneration of 
wings, legs, mouth parts and antenne from 
cells not belonging to similar organs but 
simply forming part of the continuous larval 
derm. In this latter case of regeneration, too, 
the ‘ regenerated’ parts are in all cases differ- 
ent from preexisting parts and in some cases 
(wings, for example) are wholly new parts. 
One might say that. this is not regeneration 
at all, but simply development (ontogeny). 
But in numerous cases of true restorative 
regeneration the new parts do not agree exactly 
with the replaced ones; often they are mark- 
edly smaller, they lack segments, they lack 
many details; they are cases of teratogenesis. 
For example, the cockroaches (Blattide) have 
the capacity of regenerating lost legs, or rather 
parts of legs; but whereas the normal leg has 
always five tarsal segments, the regenerated 
one has always four. All regeneration may, 
of course, be looked on as a phenomenon of 
ontogeny; a regulation. In practically all 
animals which can regenerate at all, the ca- 
pacity for regeneration is much greater in 
immature life than in adult life: in many, 
indeed, it exists only in the immature stages. 

In connection with this brief reference to 
the occurrence of physiological regeneration 


SCIENCE. 


151 


in insects, it may not be amiss to refer, even 
more briefly, to our present knowledge of 
ordinary or what is called, for the sake of a 
provisional distinction between the two cate- 
gories, restorative or accidental regeneration 
among insects. It has long been known that 
certain insects of incomplete metamorphosis, 
notably many Orthoptera, have the power of 
regenerating lost parts of legs, antenne and 
certain other externally produced organs, as 
tracheal gills. Associated with this regen- 
erative capacity occurs, in some insects, at 
least, self-mutilation or autotomy. In addi- 
tion, it has also long been known that if the 
legs or antennz be cut off from the larva of 
certain insects with complete metamorphosis 
(moths, beetles and others) the adult will ap- 
pear with ‘ regenerated’ legs or antennze, some- 
times perfectly normal in size and form, some- 
times normal in form but reduced in size, 
and other times abnormal (usually lacking 
distal parts) in form. But, as I have already 
pointed out in a paper on the regeneration of 
the larval legs of silkworms, this latter 
kind of ‘regeneration’ may not be restora- 
tive regeneration at all, but a phenomenon 
of physiological regeneration incident to the 
regular process of development of the im- 
aginal legs, antenne, ete. of insects of 
complete metamorphosis in the course of 
which the larval organs disintegrate and the 
imaginal ones get formed from histoblasts 
which lie in such position, at least in early 
larval life, as to be uninjured by any cutting 
of the larval legs. Finally, as I have shown 
in the paper just referred to, the larve of at 
least one species of moth, Bombyx mori, have 
the capacity of regenerating during larval life 
both thoracie Gointed) legs and abdominal 
(prop) legs. Tornier*® also states that the 
larve of the meal worm, Tenebrio molitor, 
can also regenerate, before pupation, cut off 
legs, or parts of legs.* 


? Jour. of Eaper. Zool., Vol. 1., pp. 593-599, 
1904. 

5 Zool. Anzeig., Vol. 24, 1901. 

*¥For accounts giving reviews and bibliography, 
in some degree of completeness, of the recorded 
cases of experiments and observations of regenera- 
tion, in insects, see Brindley, ‘On Certain Char- 


152 


Because of the importance that regenerative 
phenomena have in the consideration of cer- 
tain fundamental biologic problems, one might 
be tempted to try to find some significance 
in whatever special examples of regeneration 
happen to come under one’s own observation. 
The relation between physiological regenera- 
tion and restorative regeneration is a subject 
‘yery near at hand, if one were to look for 
something to speculate about in connection 
with what I have noted in this paper on re- 
generation in insects. But with Morgan, it 
seems to me that ‘we do not gain any insight 
into either of the processes, so far as I can 
see, by deriving one from the other, for the 
process of restorative regeneration may be in 
point of time as old as that of physiological 
regeneration.’ Indeed, among the imsects we 
have good grounds for believing restorative 
regeneration older than the particular proc- 
esses of physiological regeneration which 
regularly accompany the post-embryonic deyel- 
opment of insects with complete metamor- 
phosis. For these insects are admittedly the 
recent, the post-Tertiary, ones, while the Or- 
thoptera, among which, especially, restorative 
regeneration is widespread and unusually well 
developed, are among the oldest of living in- 
sect orders. They make up the bulk of insects 
known from pre-Tertiary times. The most 
extensive and radical of physiological regen- 
eration processes occur precisely among the 
most specialized, the most recent, insects. 

Finally, as concerns the large question of 
whether regeneration is to be looked on as a 
certain primary, primitive, attribute of organ- 
isms whose manifestation becomes weaker as 
complexity in structure and function is at- 
tained (in course of descent), or whether, as 
is held by the Neo-Darwinians, it is to be 
looked on as an adaptation which has been 
transmitted through a long and many-branched 
course of descent, gradually weakening during 
this transmission until in the more complex 
organisms it is largely lost, although, in con- 
sonance with need, often retained even among 
acters of Reproduced Appendages in Arthropoda, 
Particularly in the Blattide,’ Proc. Zool. Soc. Lon- 
don, 1898, pp. 924-928; and Tornier,;Zool. Anzeig., 
Vol. 24, 1901, pp. 634-664. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 578. 


higher forms, this is a question J shall refer 
to only in so far as to say that the evidence 
presented by all that we know of regeneration 
in insects, taken together, certainly does not 
warrant any such definite conclusion as 
Tornier expresses on‘ the basis of his experi- 
ments with certain dragon-fly and May-fly 
laryee, viz., that regeneration in insects is an 
adaptation produced by natural selection. 


Vernon L. Ketwoae. 
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CAL. 


A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON ASCUS AND SPORE 
FORMATION IN THE LABOULBENIACE. 


ConcrrninG the systematic position of the 
Laboulbeniacee many opinions have been ex- 
pressed. DeBary (1884) included them in 
his doubtful Ascomycetes; Thaxter (1895), of 
all best qualified to speak, referred them to 
the Ascomycetes; Karsten (1895) maintained 
that they were not Ascomycetes at all, but 
that they occupied a position intermediate be- 
tween the smuts and the Pyrenomycetiner, 
while Engler (‘ Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien,’ 
1903) has elevated them to the rank of a class 
quite removed from both the smuts and the 
Ascomycetes. These differences in opinion 
have arisen from a lack of knowledge of the 
actual phenomena of spore production, a gap 
due to difficulties in obtaining and manipu- 
lating material suitable for cytological in- 
vestigation. 

In the course of recent investigations on the 


Ascomycetes I have given some attention to 


these peculiar and interesting forms, and an 
examination of microtome sections of well- 
preserved perithecia has revealed features that 
are apparently of undoubted significance in 
their bearing on the problem of the phylo- 
genetic position of this group. 

As for the spore sac, it has been discovered 
that each is primarily occupied by a fusion 
nucleus. . Three successive nuclear divisions 
follow. The spore initials are delimited from 
an abundant epiplasm under the superintend- 
ence of the last generation of nuclei. The 
young spores are bounded by a plasma mem- 
brane, and the cavities in the epiplasm in 
which they lie are lined by a membrane of 
similar character. Indeed, the phenomena of 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


sporogenesis agree in all essentials with those 
already described for the Ascomycetes (Faull, 
“Contributions from the Cryptogamic Labora- 
tory of Harvard University,’ LXI., in which 
there is a complete bibliography). Details 
and further researches in this group, which 
heretofore has not been subjected to micro- 
tonic methods, will be described in’a forth- 
coming paper. 
J. Horace Fautt. 
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, 
December 2, 1905. 


INBREEDING, CROSS-BREEDING AND STERILITY IN 
DROSOPHILA. 


A SERIES of breeding experiments with the 
common pomace-fly, Drosophila ampelophila 
Loew., conducted during the past five years 
principally by my pupils and still in progress, 
has yielded certain results which it is the pur- 
pose of this note to summarize. A fuller ac- 
count will soon be published elsewhere. Those 
who have taken part in the work are Thomas 
Ordway, Austin H. Clark, F. W. Carpenter, 
S. O. Mast, W. M. Barrows and myself. The 
part of each will be indicated in the final 
publication. The more important conclusions 
reached may be stated thus: 

1. Inbreeding probably reduces very slightly 
the productiveness of Drosophila, but the pro- 

‘duetiveness may be fully maintained under 
constant inbreeding (brother with sister) if 
selection is made from the more productive 
families. 

2. In crosses of a race of low productiveness 
and frequent sterility (race A) with a race of 
high productiveness (B) it has been found 
that a female of race A does not have her 
fecundity increased by mating with a male of 
race B, and conversely, a female of race B 
does not have her fecundity diminished by a 
mating with a male of race A. Hence every 
male not actually sterile furnishes an abun- 
dance of functional spermatozoa. 

3. The cross-breds produced by the mating, 
B female X A male, are all of high product- 
iyeness. ; 

4. The cross-breds produced by a mating 
A female X B male are usually, but not al- 
ways of high productiveness. 


SCIENCE. 


153 


5. The children of both sorts of cross-breds 
(see 3 and 4) are some of high productiveness 
like race B, others of low productiveness like 
race A, 

6. Low productiveness is inherited after the 
manner of a Mendelian recessive character in 
certain of the crosses made, skipping a genera- 
tion and then reappearing. In other cases it 
has failed to reappear in generation F’,, indi- 


_ eating its complete extinction by the cross. 


In a few cases it has failed to be dominated 
by high productiveness in generation F,. In 
such cases the female parent has always been 
of race A. Hence low productiveness (or 
sterility) of the female may be transmitted 
directly through the egg from mother to 
daughter, but only indirectly through the 
sperm, the character skipping a generation. 

7. A cross between two races, one inbred 
for thirty or more generations and of low 
productiveness, the other inbred for less than 
ten generations and of high productiveness, 
produced offspring like the latter in product- 
iveness, but not superior to it. 

8. The same two races crossed after an addi- 
tional year of inbreeding (about twenty gen- 
erations) produced offspring superior to either 
pure race in productiveness. 

9. Inbreeding does not affect the variability 
in number of teeth on the sexual-comb of the 
male. 

10. This character is closely correlated with 
size. 


W. E. Castte. 


ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, HARVARD COLLEGE, 
January 11, 1906. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
AUSTRALIAN DAILY WEATHER MAPS. 


In 1904 the Public Schools Associations in 
New South Wales appealed to the Sydney 
Daily Telegraph to publish daily a weather 
map for Australia in order that the pupils in 
the schools might be given instruction in 
meteorology by means of the maps. The 
Telegraph thereupon applied to the Sydney 
Observatory for a daily chart, to be supplied 
not later than 2 P.M., in order that it might 
appear in the evening editions which réach the 
country in time for use in the schools the 


154 


next day. Since October 11, 1904, the daily 
weather map (isobars, wind direction and 
shaded areas of rainfall) has appeared regu- 
larly in the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper 
supplies the observatory with a small number 
of reprints of the maps each day, and through 
the courtesy of Mr. H. A. Hunt, acting 
meteorologist, New South Wales, the compiler 
of these notes has received a set of the maps 
bearing dates from May 24 on. We have no 
doubt that general interest in meteorology 
will be greatly stimulated by the publication 
of these weather maps in the Daily Telegraph. 
In the United States several papers have at 
odd times attempted a daily publication of 
weather maps. There is at present at least 
one newspaper, the Boston (Mass.) Herald, 
which still prints them regularly. A short 
account of ‘The Newspaper Weather Maps of 
the United States’ appeared in the American 
Meteorological Journal, Vol. XI., 1894-5, pp. 
96-107. 


METEOROLOGY OF THE ‘SCOTIA’ EXPEDITION. 
R. C. Mossman, meteorologist of the Scotia 


Expedition, contributed to the August number _ 


of the Scottish Geographical Magazine a dis- 
eussion of the meteorological results obtained 
after October, 1903, chiefly concerning the 
observations at Laurie Island, South Orkneys. 
The observations made at sea and at the Falk- 
land Islands will be discussed later. The 
station at Laurie Island has, it may be re- 
membered, been taken over by the Argentine 
Meteorological Service ‘since February 22, 
1904. One of the most interesting meteoro- 
logical phenomena is the foehn winds. These 
come from the west-northwest over a consider- 
able area of high land, and may produce as 
high a temperature in midwinter as in mid- 
summer. Inversions of temperature were 
common during anticyclones. The summer 
is the cloudiest season, as is usually the case 
in the polar latitudes. The prevailing wind 
direction is northwest and west-northwest. 
Precipitation, chiefly granular snow, amount- 
ed in 1904 to 10.41 inches, although the actual 
fall may be fifteen inches. Thunder-storms 
occurred twice, and distant lightning was seen 
twice. The cyclones show a very rapid fall 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Voi. XXIII. No. 578. 


of the barometer in the front, and a slow rise 
in the rear. The rapid fall is associated with 
light winds, but heavy gales prevail on the 
rear. 


LOSS OF SLEEP AND HIGH MOUNTAIN ASCENTS. 


Dr. Buttock Workman, whose high moun- 
tain climbing in the Himalayas is well known, 
has recently brought out the point that very 
high ascents may be rendered impossible by 
loss of sleep due to the difficulty in breathing 
while lying down. He notes that while in 
camp at 19,358 feet his party was kept awake 
by lack of breath, and when the members dozed 
off, they would awake with a start, gasping for 
breath. Dr. Workman adds: “If camps could 
be established at heights of 23,000 feet to 
25,000 feet and above, as they would have to 
be, sleep might be entirely prevented or inter- 
fered with by deficient oxygenation of the 
blood to such an extent that a party would be 
incapacitated from this cause alone from go- 
ing any higher.” (Bull. Am. Geogr. Soc., 
XXXVII., 1905, 671.) 


NOTES. 

In Symons’s Meteorological Magazine, Sep- 
tember and October, 1905, R. H. Curtis urges 
the use of Beaufort’s scale by observers on 
land who have not anemometers, and suggests 
that such observers would make much more 
accurate estimates of wind velocities if they 
accustomed themselves to associating the ob- 
servable effects of the wind with the actual 
wind velocities, which could be published 
every day. 


THE crop of meteorological observations 
made during the recent solar eclipse is be- 
ginning to be gathered in. Among the data 
published we note the following: At Fal- 
mouth (England) the thermograph showed a 
slight depression at 12:30 p.m., and the fall 
continued slightly until 1:15 p.w., well after 
the maximum -:phase. The barometer rose 
throughout the day, with a little more pro- 
nouneed rise between 1 and 2 P.M., but no 
irregularities were noted. At Broughton-in- 
Furness a decline of temperature was dis- 
tinetly shown, from nearly 60° at noon to 56° 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


at 1:15 p.m., when a rise began, giving 60° 
again at 3 P.M. 


We learn from Symons’s Meteorological 
Magazine (November, 1905) of the establish- 
ment of a lectureship on meteorology in the 
University of Manchester. Mr. George C. 
Simpson, who occupies this position, is the 
first university lecturer on meteorology in 


Great Britain. R. DeC. Warp. 


THE NEW ENGLAND INTERCOLLEGIATE 
GHOLOGICAL EXCURSION, 1905. GHOL- 
OGY OF THE NANTASKET AREA. 

Tue New England Intercollegiate Geolog- 
ical Excursion for the year 1905 was held-at 
Boston, on Saturday, October 28, under the 
auspices of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. Professor T. A. Jaggar, Jr., 
was in charge, Professors J. B. Woodworth, of 
Harvard, and D. W. Johnson, of the institute, 
cooperating in the work. 

On Friday evening, October 27, an informal 
conference was held in the library of the de- 
partment of geology at the institute, the 
meeting being well attended. Professor 
Jaggar outlined the plans for the following 
day, and presented a brief account of the geo- 
_ logical history of the Boston Basin, together 
with a more detailed description of the lava 
flows, dykes and sediments of the Nantasket 
area. Professor Johnson followed with a dis- 
cussion of the recent changes which have 
taken place in the drumlins and beaches of 
the harbor, particularly those which have 
affected the development of the present Nan- 
tasket Beach. 

The party, consisting of forty-five teachers 
and students, left South Station at 8:43 Satur- 
day morning, going by train to Point Allerton 
at the northern end of the beach. After 
noting the different stages of marine erosion 
shown by the remnants of the Allerton drum- 
lins, the party walked southward along the old 
abandoned beaches which were formed a con- 
siderable distance west of the present shore. 
The consecutive stages in the development of 
the present form of Nantasket could be made 
out from the succession of beaches with inter- 
vening ‘slashes,’ converging at the north to 


SCIENCE. 


155 


pass a little south of Point Allerton Hill 
(drumlin), and indicating a former seaward 
extension of the beaches; and converging at 
the south to join the northern side of the 
Strawberry Hill drumlin. It was seen that 
the smaller waves from the protected harbor 
are now cutting into these older beaches from 
the west, destroying the work accomplished 
by the larger Atlantic waves in a former time, 
and building out to the northward a much 
smaller beach made up largely of the material 
eroded from the older beaches. The presence 
of a peculiar protuberance in the outline of 
the western shore was shown to be due to the 
former existence of a drumlin at that place, 
the drumlin having been removed largely by 
marine action, but partly by man. The 
splendid example of an abandoned marine cliff 
on the southeast side of the Strawberry Hill 
drumlin, the prominent crescentic cliff in the 
next drumlin well to the south, and numerous 
minor ‘nips’ in the several drumlins, indicate 
successive positions of the eastern shoreline as 
the different beaches were added without any 
apparent change in relative elevation of the 
land, and point to the probable existence of 
former drumlins which profoundly influenced 
the development of the beaches, but which 
have since been destroyed by the waves. The 
general features of this succession were called 
to the writer’s attention by Professor Davis, 
of Harvard, and the detailed study of the 
region forms the subject of a paper which will 
be presented at a future time. 

After the study of the old beaches and 
abandoned marine cliffs the party divided into 
two sections, one division under the direction 
of Professor Jaggar, the other under that of 
Professor Woodworth. The detailed structure 
of the Nantasket ledges of south-dipping con- 
glomerates, slates, lavas, breccias and sand- 
stones were pointed out, and the origin of the 
most interesting features discussed. Inter- 
secting dykes of diabase, sometimes contain- 
ing inclusions of the underlying granite, some- 
times almost entirely removed from between 
the hard walls of country rock by the action 
of the waves, afforded many points of interest. 


_ The ‘ volcanic bombs’ in the melaphyr, and.the 


extensive beds of conglomerate contemporane- 


156 


ous with the lavas and tufis, make an excep- 
tionally complete ancient voleanie section. 
The fault phenomena of the region were con- 
sidered, especially the effect of the major east- 
west faults in bringing the underlying granite 
up in contact with the sedimentary and vyol- 
canie series, and in preserving the higher 
. members of the voleanie series. 

Dinner was provided at one of the hotels 
near the beach, through the courtesy of the 
departments of geology of Harvard and the in- 
stitute. At 3:40 in the afternoon the steamer 
was taken at the Nantasket pier, the boat ride 
up the harbor giving a good opportunity to see 
the cliffed drumlins which constitute the 
greater part of the harbor islands. 

The largest delegation to the excursion came 
from Williams, Professor Cleland bringing a 
‘party of fifteen of his students. Among the 
other institutions represented were Mt. Holy- 
oke, Smith, Radcliffe, Yale, Brown, Tufts, 
Boston College, Harvard and the Institute of 
Technology. D. W. J. 


THE CARTWRIGHT LECTURES AND BARON 
TAKAKI. 

Tue Cartwright lectures of the Alumni 
Association of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of New York will be given on 
Thursday, January 25, Monday, January 29, 
and Friday, February 2, by Baron Takaki, 
on ‘Military and Naval Sanitation, Experi- 
ences drawn from the late Japan-Russia War.’ 

Dr. Takaki belongs to one of the Samurai 
families of the Satzuma clan, as do his con- 
temporaries, Generals: Oyama, Kuroki, Nogi 
and Nodzu and Admirals Togo and Kamura. 
During his youth he was sent by his govern- 
ment to study medicine in England, where he 
eraduated with honor from St. Thomas’ Hos- 
pital School, studied the sanitary system of 
the British Navy, and passed examinations 
for the degrees of F.R.C.S. and F.R.C.P. 

On his return to his native country he di- 
rected his chief attention to the reformation 
of the sanitary and medical systems of the 
newly born navy of Japan. IJt was not only 
reorganization that he accomplished, but the 
creation of an entire medical equipment and 
medical sanitary service for the Japanese 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXII. No. 578. 


navy. He was rapidly promoted to the rank 
of surgeon general of the navy, which posi- 
tion he held until the time of the Japan- 
China war. As a recognition of his great 
services rendered to the emperor and his coun- 
try he was created a baron after the conelu- 
sion of that war. At present he is in the 
naval reserve. ’ 

During his active service in the. navy, 
Baron Takaki initiated and carried out cer- 
tain fundamental changes in the dietary and 
sanitary regulation of the navy which resulted 
in the almost total suppression of beriberi, 
which, up to that time, had seriously impaired 
the efficiency of the service, affecting annually 
almost one quarter of the navy’s personnel. 
Baron Takaki has also been president of the 
Naval Academy of Japan, president of the 
Tokyo Charity Hospital, councillor of the 
Association of Sanitary Improvement of 
Japan, and has held other important positions. 
He has been active in spreading the prin- 
ciples of the Red Cross Society in Japan, and’ 
it is to his efforts that the large number of 
Red Cross members in that country is chiefly 
due. 

Baron Takaki has received the honorary 
degrée of doctor of medicine of the Japanese 
government, a degree issued only by the De- 
partment of Education, and not the same as 
the degree of M.D. conferred on the graduates 
of the university. He is a member of the 
house of peers of the parliament of Japan, 
having been directly nominated by the em- 
peror. 


THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 


OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY. 

Tue Sixth International Congress of Ap- 
plied Chemistry will assemble at Rome, on 
April 16, Easter Monday, 1906. It is impor- 
tant that delegates who expect to be in time 
should sail not later than April 1. 

The Italian steamship line, La Veloce, 29 
Wall Street, New York, offers first-class pas- 
sage from $55 up to Genoa or Naples. The 
agent indicates that a party of delegates may 
secure superior quarters at minimum rates if 
sailing together. 

The Italian Royal Steamship Co., 11 Broad- 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] . 


way, New York, offers berths at the lowest 
rates, provided that it is informed in time to 
write to the Home Office to obtain concessions. 

The Hamburg-American Line, 35 and 37 
Broadway, New York, offers berths as follows: 
On the Moltke, $90. and up, on the Hamburg, 
$85 and up,.and on the Prinz Oskar and Prinz 
Adalbert, $75 and up. They say that if a 
party should sail at a time when the steamers 
are not crowded: ‘We shall be glad to give 
them better accommodations than the above 
rates call for.’ Particulars of sailing can be 
obtained by addressing any of the offices above 
mentioned. 

The organization of the society into sections 
is set forth in this Journan for July and 
August, 1905, pages 66 and 72, respectively, of 
the proceedings. 

Intending members may send their subserip- 
tions, twenty francs, directly to Professor E. 
Paterno, or may send a check for four dollars 
($4) to the undersigned, who will forward the 
amount of the subscription to Rome. 

American chemists intending to become 
members and send papers are urged to act 
without delay. Papers should be typewritten 
on thin paper and may be sent directly to the 
secretary or to the undersigned at Washington, 
who will undertake to forward them. The sec- 
tion before which the paper is to be read 
should be specified. It is suggested that the 
typewritten copy be carefully revised by the 
author to see that it is in form for printing, 
as the Italian authorities will follow the copies 
implicitly in printing the reports, and thus 
avoid all possible errors. 

The Italian railways offer a reduction of 
sixty per cent. on first-class rates to all mem- 
bers of the congress who may wish to use the 

_ railways while in Italy. 

Forty subscriptions have already been for- 
warded by the chairman of the committee, and 
many others have sent their subscriptions 
directly. At the present time it appears that 
fifty or sixty members of the American chem- 
ists have become members of the congress. 
It is to be hoped that a much larger number 
may be secured. 

The chairman of the American committee 
urges upon intending members the desirability 


SCIENCE. 


157 


of preparing papers for the congress, in order 
that American chemistry may be as well 
represented in this congress as it was at the 
last one in Berlin. 

This will be the final notice published con- 
cerning the congress unless some additional 
instructions be received from the Italian com- 


mittee. 
H. W. WILey, 
Chairman of the American Committee. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

We learn from the ‘ Year Book of the Car- 
negie Institution,’ just published, that Mr. 
Alexander Agassiz has resigned as trustee of 
the institution and that Dr. R. S. Woodward, 
the president, has been elected a trustee to 
fill the vacancy. The vacancy in the board 
caused by the death of John Hay has not been 
filled. Dr. Charles D. Walcott has resigned 
the secretaryship of the board and is succeeded 
by Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge. 


Tue Nichols medal of the American Chem- 
ical Society for the year 1905 has been award- 
ed to Professor Marston Taylor Bogert, of 
Columbia University, for his researches on the 
quinazolines. The medal will be formally 
presented at the meeting of the New York 
Section on February 9. 

Proressor A. Peper, F.R.S., director of 
public instruction in Bengal, has been knight- 
ed by King Edward. A 

Dr. Apvotr Lirsen, professor of chemistry 
at Vienna, has been awarded the Lavoisier 
medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 
He has also been elected a foreign member 
of the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome. 

Tue Lagrange prize of the Belgian Academy 
of Sciences has been awarded to Professor 
Hecker, of the Geodetic Institute at Potsdam. 

Dr. Wattruer Nernst, professor of physical 
chemistry at Berlin, has been elected a mem- 
ber of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 

Dr. Dantet Ouiver, F.R.S., emeritus pro- 
fessor of botany in the University of London, 


has been elected an honorary member of the 
Royal Society of New South Wales. 


Tue past and present house officers of the 
Johns Hopkins Hospital are to have a life- 


158 


size portrait painted of Dr. Henry M. Hurd, 
superintendent. It will be hung in the ad- 
ministration building. 

THE fishery steamer Albatross will soon pro- 
eeed on an extended cruise to the western 
Pacifie for the purpose of conducting scien- 
tific and fishery investigations in the interest 
of the Bureau of Fisheries. The principal 
work will be done in the Japan seas. Dr. 
David Starr Jordan will be in immediate 
charge. 


Proressor HreLe-SHaw has returned to Eng- 
land from South Africa, where for the past 
two years he has been engaged in organizing 
technical education. 


Tue State Bacteriological Laboratory, au- 
thorized by the Connecticut General Assembly, 
has been opened at Wesleyan University under 
the direction of Mr. James A. Newlands. 


Dr. Waiter Remsen BrRINCKERHOFF, assist- 
ant pathologist at the Harvard Medical 
School, has been appointed pathologist in 
charge of the new hospital and laboratory for 
the study of leprosy on the island of Molokai, 
Hawaii. 

Dr. James H. Hystop, of New York City, 
has been offered the secretaryship of the 
American branch of the Society for Psychical 
Research, vacant by the death of Dr. Richard 
Hodgson. 


Proressor W. D. Taytor, professor of rail- 
way engineering in the University of Wiscon- 
sin, has resigned to become chief engineer of 
the Chicago and Alton Railroad. 


Dr. Orro NorDENSKJOLD spoke in the geolog- 
ical lecture room of Harvard University, on 
January 12, on the scientific results of the 
Swedish Antarctic expedition, 1901-1904, of 
which he was the leader, making special refer- 
ence to the fossils of late Mesozoic and Terti- 
ary formations from which large collections 
were secured. On the evening of January 13, 
Dr. Nordenskjéld was the guest of the Har- 
vard Travelers Club at a house meeting in 
Boston, where he gave a general narrative of 
his Antarctic voyage. 


Own February 21 there will be a civil service 
examination for the positions of plant pathol- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXVIII. No, 578. 


ogist and entomologist in the Experiment Sta- 
tion at Porto Rico, and also for the posi- 
tion of statistical expert in the Geological 
Survey. The salaries of these positions are 
$1,200. 


In accordance with the recommendations of 
Professor John B. Smith, a bill has been intro- 
duced into the New Jersey legislature appro- 
priating $70,000 a year for five years for the 
extermination of mosquitoes. 


Tue Carnegie Museum has acquired by pur- 
chase the yaluable and extensive collection of 
shells made by Dr. Victor Sterki, of New 
Philadelphia, Ohio. The collection contains 
a great many types and cotypes. 


THE department of ethnology of the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History has received 
as a gift from George S. Bowdoin, Esq., a 
member of the board of trustees, a valuable 
collection illustrating the culture of some of 
the tribes of Central Africa. The collection 
includes implements of warfare, idols, fetiches 
and masks, clothing, baskets and musical in- 
struments, household utensils of bamboo, pot- 
tery and brass, bracelets, necklaces and house- 
hold adornments of beads, shells and brass. 
A large gold bead weighing three ounces and 
seven carved ivory tusks from Ashantee are 
worthy of particular mention. 


THE cornerstone of the High Altitude Labo- 
ratory, proposed by Professor Angelo Mosso, 
has been laid on the col d’Ollen, 3,000 meters 
above the level of the sea. The Italian, Bel- 
gian, German and Austrian governments have 
contributed towards the cost of erection. It 
is expected that the building will be completed 
in 1907, and will be open to men of science of 
all nations in 1908. 


We learn from the London Times that the 
Institute of Archeology of the University of 
Liverpool has despatched an expedition to make 
explorations and excavations in the vicinity of 
Esna, in Upper Egypt. The funds have been 
privately subseribed by Liverpool citizens. 
The excavations will be under the charge of 
the university reader in Kgyptian archeology, 
Mr. J. Garstang, assisted by Mr. E. Harold 
Jones. A third member of the staff of the 


JANUARY 26, 1906.] 


same institute, Mr. Perey E. Newberry, is 
already at work in Kgypt upon the history of 
the ancient civilization of that country, under 
the endowment of Sir John Brunner. 


Tue New York Medical Record states that 
according to recently published statistics, the 
number of medical students has been steadily 
decreasing in Germany. In the year 1902-3 
the total number of aspirants for medical 
degrees in all the German universities was 
6,232, which was the lowest figure noted in 
about twenty years. The maximum was 
reached in 1887-8, when 8,513 medical stu- 
dents were enrolled. In 1890-1 the number 
of medical students to 1,000 students in all 
departments was 296; in 1902-3 the proportion 
was only 178. In 1892-3 more students chose 
medicine than any other profession, but ten 
years later both philosophy and law were more 
popular. 


THE highest recorded velocity of under- 
ground waters has been discovered by Mr. H. 
'C. Wolff, of the department of mathematics 
of the University of Wisconsin, in the course 
of an investigation which he carried on in 
Arizona during the Christmas holidays. The 
rate of movement of underground water in 
gravels near Tucson he found to be 144 feet 
in twenty-four hours, while the highest previ- 
ously rated by observers was only about 100 
feet. Mr. Wolff was commissioned by the 
chief hydrographer of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey to spend the Christmas recess 
giving instructions to the members of the 
engineering department of the University of 
Arizona in the methods of measuring the rate 
of movement of under-flow streams. The 
University of Arizona is carrying on this 
work for the purpose of developing the water 
resources for irrigation in the neighborhood 
of the city of Tucson. 

THE inaugural address of the Manchester 
Literary and Philosophical Society was deliv- 
ered, on October 17, by Sir William H. Bailey, 
the president of the society. The address, 
according to the abstract in Nature, took the 
form of an interesting historical account of 
the society since its foundation in 1781, and 
included appreciative references to the work 


SCIENCE. 


159 


of many distinguished members whose names 
are to be found in early volumes of memoirs. 
The founders were the chief scientific men of 
Manchester. Among the honorary members- 
were Erasmus Darwin, Dr. Franklin, Lavoi- 
sier, Dr. Priestley, William Roscoe, of Liver- 
pool, the poet and grandfather of Sir Henry 
Roscoe, Dorning Ramsbottom, Josiah Wedg- 
wood and others. The chief tools of the work- 
shops of the world, not only those where steam 
engines, locomotives and steamships are built, 
but also of the textile factories of the world, 
were invented in Manchester or within thirty 
miles of it. The records of the society con- 
tain the names of many of these inventors who 
were members, for the men of Lancashire were 
the first to use steam power for spinning and 
weaving, and for punching, cutting and shap- 
ing metal. Prominent among the inventors 
was that genius Richard Roberts, who was 
always in the front rank in advocating tech- 
nical education. His chief inventions were 
the slide lathe, planing machine and self-act- 
ing mule for spinning cotton. Then there 
was Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam-ham- 
mer, Sir William Fairbairn and Sir Joseph 
Whitworth. Finally, Sir William Bailey re- 
ferred to the great work of the illustrious 
members Dr. Dalton and Dr. Joule, whose 
effigies in marble are in the entrance to the 
Manchester Town Hall. 


Dr. Lupwic Monp has written to the vice- 
chancellor of Cambridge University: “I un- 
derstand that a fund exists for the augmenta- 
tion of the endowment of the Stokes and 
Cayley university lectureships in mathematics, 
and that the object of such fund is to set free 
the time of two distinguished resident mathe- 
maticians for the promotion of advanced 
mathematical science by public teaching and 
research. JI further understand that the in- 
come of such fund will in about three years’ 
time be reduced by £300 a year. I have the 
pleasure in enclosing herewith a check for 
£1,750, which I trust will enable the lecture- 
ships to be maintained by the university for 
a further period. I desire that this sum 
should be separately invested and the income 
thereof accumulated until the time when the 


160 


income of the said fund shall become reduced 
as above mentioned, and that from and after 
that time the investments representing the 
said sum and accumulations should from time 
to time be applied so far as they will extend 
in augmenting the income of the said fund to 
the extent of £300 a year. Further, that if 
from any cause the lectureships or either of 
them should cease to be maintained, the said 
investments or such part thereof as shall not 
have been then applied as aforesaid should be 
applied for the promotion of advanced mathe- 
matical science and research in the University 
of Cambridge as the vice-chancellor for the 
time being of such university shall in his abso- 
lute discretion determine.” 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mrs. Isapenia Enper has bequeathed to the 
Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical Col- 
lege £5,000 to provide for a course of popular 
lectures on astronomy. ; 


THE new entomological laboratories of the 
University of California, which are under the 
eharge of Professor C. W. Woodworth, were 
dedicated in connection with the joint meet- 
ing of the State Teachers’ Association and 
State Farmers’ Institute, on December 27. 
The building is 38x44 feet and is three 
stories high, besides attic and basement. Dur- 
ing the past year there have been over 400 
students enrolled in the department. 


THE annual report of the treasurer of Har- 
vard University shows that the funds of the 
university, up to July 31, 1905, amount 
to $18,036,025.71, which is an increase over 
last year of $1,280,271.61. The largest item 
of the new funds is $736,225.28, which is the 
amount of the ‘teachers’ endowment fund 
which had been turned over up to July 31, 
1905. The amount of the fund is $2,240,000, 
of which already $1,800,000 has been paid in. 
The deficit in the university, college and 
library accounts for the year was $30,743.06, 
or about $5,000 less than last year. The deficit 
did not cause the ineurrence of any debts as 
it was charged to the principal of the insur- 
ance and guaranty fund, thus reducing the 
amount of income yielding capital. There 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. yo. 578. 


will be a large measure of relief, however, from 
the new unrestricted funds and from the in- 
creased income from the new system of tuition 
charges. In the medical school there was a 
deficit of $24,853.93, which reduced the credit 
balance to $5,560.57. The accounts of the 
Arnold Arboretum show a surplus of $9,855.39. 


Dr. JosppPH ERLANGER, associate professor of 
physiology in the John Hopkins University, 
has been appointed professor of physiology in 
the University of Wisconsin. In the same 
institution Dr. E. A. Ross, of the University 
of Nebraska, has been made professor of 
sociology, and Dr. A. C. McLeod, of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, instructor in soils. Dr. 
W. S. Marshall has been appointed to an asso- 
clate professorship of entomology. 


Dr. CaswEtt Graver, Ph.D., has been ap- 
pointed professor of biology and director of 
the Biological Laboratory of the Woman’s Col- 
lege of Baltimore in place of Dr. Maynard M. 
Metcalf, resigned. Dr. Grave is a graduate 
of Karlham College (B.S.) and of the Johns 
Hopkins University (Ph.D.). At the latter 
university he has been scholar, fellow, Adam 
T. Bruce fellow, assistant demonstrator and is 
now associate in zoology. He was for one 
season on the staff of instruction of the Marine 
Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and has 
for four seasons been director of the Bureau of 
Fisheries Laboratory at Beaufort, N. C. 


Dr. FLorENcE Prrsies has resigned her posi- 
tion as associate professor of botany at the 
Woman’s College of Baltimore, to give all her 
time to zoological research. Forrest Shreve, 
Ph.D., has been appointed in her place. Dr. 
Shreve is a graduate (A.B. and Ph.D.) of the 
Johns Hopkins University, where he was 
scholar and fellow and is now Adam T. Bruce 
fellow in botany. He is at present on leave of 
absence studying at the Cinchona Botanical 
Garden in Jamaica. é 

Proressor ALBRECHT PENcK, of Vienna, has 
accepted the professorship of geography in the 
University of Berlin, vacant by the death of 
Professor yon Richthofen. 

’ Dr. K. Drierrict, of the Hanover Technolog- 
ical Institute, has been called to the chair of 
physies at Rostock. ; 


Sc reNCekE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Pripay, Fesruary 2, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 


The Partition of Energy: PRorrssor W. F. 
Macis 


Transportation and Combination: 
Hon, MaARrin Al IGNAPP. 0... .0.00.--0-5 


Scientific Books :— 
Sutton’s Volumetric Analysis, Olsen’s Quan- 


titative Chemical Analysis: FP. L......... 184 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 185 


Societies and Academies :— 
The American Mycological Society: C. L. 
SHEAR. he Biological Society of Wash- 
ington: Dr. M. C. Marsu. The Wellesley 
College Science Club: Grace E. Davis. 
The Berkeley Folk-lore Club: PROFESSOR 
A. L. Krorper. The Chemical Society of 


St. Lowis; C.J. BORGMAYER.............. 186 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Please Hacuse the Kelep: O. F. Coon...... 


Special Articles :— 
A New Theory of Sea-production: Pro- 


HESSORME MEBs VWVILESONG rina siee ceeeineisnlae 189 


Astronomical Notes :— 
The Figure of the Sun; Relation between 
the Motion im the Line of Sight and the 
Variation in Brightness of Variable Stars: 


Proressor §. I. BaAmLey.................. 191 


Current Notes on Meteorology :— 


Brief Comment on Recent Articles: Pro- 
BESSOR R. DEC! WARD.................. 


Notes on the History of Natwral Science :— 


Hippocratean Fishes; The Real Unicorn: 
JOR CE Wits IRASINENINO Gis cignic a nonem oom es 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScImNcE, Garri. 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE PARTITION OF ENERGY 

As I rise in this place to address you, 
I recall a dear friend, who stood before 
you in a similar position three years ago, | 
and whose premature death has dealt so 
severe a blow to this association and to the 
sclence represented in this section. The 
name of DeWitt Bristol Brace will always 
be honorably remembered in the history of 
physics. While a student at Boston Uni- 
versity, he began the study of that science, 
and after his graduation in 1881, he pro- 
ceeded to Johns Hopkins University to 
devote himself exclusively to it. After two 
years of study there, he went to Berlin, 
where he heard the lectures of Kirchhoff, 
and worked in the physical laboratory 
under the direction of Helmholtz. It was 
in Berlin that he definitely settled the 
whole course of his subsequent scientific 
career, by insisting on taking up, as his 
subject of research, the difficult question 
of the exact mode of transmission of a 
polarized ray which is undergoing magnetic 
rotation. This question was out of the line 
along which the work of the director and 
of his students was proceeding at that time, 
and Brace not only set the problem for 
himself, but owed entirely to his own in- 
ventive genius the brilliant method which 
he proposed for its solution. I remember 
how difficult it was for Brace to convince 
our director of the possibility of transmit- 
ting the ordinary and extraordinary beams 
in a common direction in a erystal of Ice- 

* Address of the vice-president and chairman of 


Section B—Physics, American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, New Orleans, 1905. 


162 


land spar; and the doubts of the director 
of the realization of the demonstrated con- 
ditions, even if they could be proved pos- 
.sible in theory. After Brace had suc- 
ceeded in experimentally obtaining the con- 
ditions which his theory called for, he ap- 
plied them to the examination of the ques- 
tion of the transmission of a polarized ray 
in a magnetic field. He was not able at 
that time to answer the question which he 
had in mind, but he was able to produce a 
memoir full of discoveries and ingenious 
suggestions, which culminated many years 
afterward in his final resolution of the 
problem, by the actual separation of the 
plane polarized ray in a magnetic field into 
two circularly polarized components. 

Brace took his doctor’s degree in 1885. 
After a short service at the University of 
Michigan, he became, in 1888, professor of 
physics at the University of Nebraska, 
where he devoted himself, with the con- 
scientious fidelity which was a part of his 
nature, to the duties of his position. These 
duties he did not interpret in any narrow 
sense. He conceived that it was a large 
part of the obligation, which lay on him, 
to —promote the progress of physics, not 
only by his own researches, but by organ- 
izing and assisting a corps of fellow work- 
ers. By his enthusiastic zeal, and by the 
wise administration of the facilities afford- 
ed him, he was able to draw around him a 
number, of men who caught inspiration 
from his spirit, and who have, by their 
published researches, for several years past, 
been giving to the institution in which they 
worked an honorable prominence. 


In the midst of his official duties Brace 


gave what time and strength he could spare 
to his own investigations. His mind was 
exceedingly fertile in the invention of 
methods of observation. The subject of 
optics, in which his first original work had 
been done, remained the subject of his 
choice throughout his life. As that science 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S8. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


has developed in connection with certaim 
theories of electricity, fundamental ques- 
tions have arisen, principally relating to 
the general subject of the relative motion 
of matter and the ether, which can only be 
answered by carrying observation to a de- 
eree of refinement which was not attained 
in the classical experiments of the great 
French and English investigators. Brace 
was profoundly interested in this great sub- 
ject, and his principal task, for several 
years, was to improve the methods of ob- 
servation to such a degree that indubitable 
conclusions might be drawn in regard to 
the results of experiments left doubtful by 
earlier investigators. By the union of in- 
ventive power with great experimental skill 
he succeeded in extending the range of ob- 
servation in his repetitions of the experi- 
ment of Lord Rayleigh, to test for possible 
double refraction in an isotropic medium; 
the experiment of Mascart, to test for 
a differential effect on the natural rota- 
tion of the plane of polarization; and the 
experiment of Fizeau, to test for a possible 
change in the azimuth of the plane of 
polarization of a ray, polarized by refrac- 
tion, to so high a degree of accuracy as to 
be able to confirm with confidence the nega- 
tive results of Rayleigh and Maseart, and 
to assert with equal confidence that the 
positive result, which Fizeau believed he 
had obtained, must have been due to some 
experimental error and not to the cause 
to which it is sometimes ascribed. He had 
in mind other experiments to test the same 
general question, and we who knew the rare 
combination of powers which he possessed 
did not even despair of his succeeding in 
making the final test which is necessary, by 
the determination of the velocity of light 
when transmitted in one direction only. 
This is not the place to enumerate 
Brace’s contributions to science. It is suf- 
ficient to notice that part of his work in 
‘which his activity culminated, and which 


Frsruary 2, 1906.] 


was most closely connected with his hopes 
for the future. All his other work showed 
the same distinguished qualities; unusual 
ability of invention, great experimental 
skill, and the faculty of choosing central 
subjects to which to devote his powers. 

Brace was for several years a member of 
this association, and was vice-president and 
chairman of Section B for the year 1901-2. 
He was also a member and vice-president 
of the Physical Society, and considering 
the distance between his home and the 
usual place of meeting of that society, a 

frequent attendant at its meetings. He 
very greatly enjoyed the opportunities af- 
forded by them to meet with his friends. 
Under a somewhat retiring manner he con- 
cealed a warm heart and a sincere and un- 
selfish admiration of other men’s abilities 
and successes. His encouragement and 
sympathy were always given to those who 
came to him to talk about their scientific 
projects; and it renews my own sense of 
bereavement when I recall the cordial way 
in which he discussed with me the subject 
of the present address. His life of untir- 
ing devotion to duty and of genuine good- 
ness will always remain a sweet memory 
to his friends; as his lofty and unselfish 
zeal for the promotion of knowledge will 
be an example and a stimulus to those who 
know the story of his work. 

In the retrospect of the progress of phys- 
ics during the past year, the attention is 
first and most forcibly attracted to the 
work which has been done in the general 
subject of radioactivity. By the continued 
labors of J. J. Thomson and of those in 
his immediate circle of fellow-workers, of 
Rutherford and Bragg, of Lenard and 
Kauffmann, and of many others, our knowl- 
edge of the details of the radioactive proc- 
ess has been very much extended. Some 
progress, though not so great, has been 
made in the development of the theory. 
But the main result, which, it seems to me, 


SCIENCE. 


163 


can be considered as attained during the 
year, is the final appreciation of what we 
may call the electrical theory of matter, or 
at least of the possibility of explaining the 
properties of matter, even those of the most 
fundamental character, by the laws of elec- 
trie action. Of course such an explanation 
can not yet be given, but it seems to me 
that, so far as we can judge by the hints 
and the obiter dicta which appear from 
time to time, the belief in the ultimate pos- 
sibility of such an explanation has at last 
become general. 

I doubt if the history of science affords 
another instance of so fundamental a 
revolution in modes of thinking, occurring 
in so short a time. For it is only ten years 
ago that Rontgen discovered the peculiar 
radiation that is known by his name, and 
I think we may fairly date the beginning 
of the study of radioactivity from that 
important discovery. On the one hand, the 
facility with which gases can be ionized by 
the Rontgen rays aided J. J. Thomson 
materially in his study of ionization, which 
led to his discovery of the electron and his 
investigation of its properties. On the 
other, hand, the fluorescent effects of the 
Rontgen rays imeited Becquerel to his ex- 
amination of uranium, and led to his dis- 
covery of its radioactive properties; and 
from this to the isolation of radium by 
M. and Mme. Curie, and to the splendid 
series of researches which have been car- 
ried out on that substance and on other 
allied substances, the way is clear. Ront- 
gen’s discovery was made only ten years 
ago, and it is a marvelous illustration of 
the large sum of human effort applied to 
the study of science, and of the active, I 
might almost say the radical, tendency of 
the modern mind, that in so short a time 
we have obtained so great a body of estab- 
lished knowledge, and experienced so com- 
plete a revolution in our most fundamental 
modes of scientific thought. 


164 


In the domain of opties, also, there has 
been considerable progress, of which a very 
important part is due to our lamented 
friend, whose work I have already consid- 
ered. In other parts of our science, the 
work which has been done is not of so con- 
secutive a character, nor has it been pro- 
ductive of such important results as to call 
for particular mention. 

The subject upon which I wish to speak 
to you to-day is that of the partition of 
energy. As is well understood, the energy 
here referred to is the kinetic energy of the 
moving particles, which, according to the 
kinetic theory of matter, constitute a body. 
The general theorem which I wish to dis- 
cuss may be stated by saying that the kin- 
etic energy of the body is so distributed 
among the degrees of freedom, by which 
the state of the body as a dynamical system 
is described, that an equal share is, on the 
average, allotted to each degree of freedom 
of each type of molecule. 

Since the enunciation of this theorem as 
applied to gases, by Maxwell, in 1859, it 
has from time to time attracted the atten- 


tion of the mathematical physicists. Lately : 


it has again been brought forward, and the 
difficulties which surround it very consid- 
erably removed, by the work of Jeans. 
This author has collected the results of his 
own researches, in combination with a his- 
torical and eritical study of previous work 
on the question, in a recently published 
book, which covers the ground so com- 
pletely as to supersede any independent 
study of the subject which I could have 
made; but I trust that the exposition of it 
which I shall give will be of interest as an 
introduction to the experimental matter 
which I shall adduce; and that this will at 
least indicate a way in which we may hope 
to obtain some confirmation of the theorem 
of equipartition. 

The questions which have always been 
raised about this important theorem of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


Kinetic theory at once come to our minds. 
First, is the theorem true, or rather, does 
it state what would be true for an ideal 
system of particles moving freely within a 
containing vessel? second, is the proof of 
the theorem impeccable? third, is there any 
experimental evidence that it applies to 
real bodies? 

I would remark about the first question 
that the theorem is so distinguished by its 
simplicity, and by its aspect as a sort of 
unifying principle in nature, that few men 
ean set it fairly before their minds without 
at least desiring to believe it true. Most 
of those who have recognized that Max- 
well’s original demonstration was not flaw- 
less are still convinced of the truth of his 
conclusion, or at least believe his conclusion 
to be so probable as to make it worth while 
to try for a more accurate demonstration. 
Their state of mind is like that of Clausius 
and of Lord Kelvin, when they perceived 
that Carnot’s theorem respecting the effi- 
ciency of a reversible engine could not be 
proved in the way in which Carnot tried 
to prove it. 

With respect to the second question, it 
was very soon pointed out that Maxwell 
had made in his proof an assumption that 
could not be justified by immediate inspec- 
tion, and which was itself in need of demon- 
stration or of avoidance. The later dem- 
onstrations of Maxwell and Boltzmann have 
been likewise subjected to criticism, and 
can be shown to involve assumptions that 
will not be granted on inspection. The 
difficulties that arise in these proofs come 
from the necessity of applying in them the 
calculus of probabilities, and center around 
the question of the legitimacy of the appli- 
cation of that calculus. It is commonly 
agreed that Maxwell and Boltzmann have 
assumed a condition of the system of moy- 
ing particles, as a requisite for the applica- 
tion of the caleulus of probabilities, which 
is contradicted by many systems of which 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


we have certain knowledge, and can not 
without proof be admitted as likely to ob- 
tain in other systems; about which less is 
known. In the method employed by Jeans 
the application of the calculus of probabili- 
ties is made in a different manner, and does 
not necessitate the introduction of the hy- 
pothesis of Maxwell and Boltzmann. It 
seems to me that, in this last form of the 
theory, the difficulties which have en- 
vironed the subject have at last been mas- 
tered. 

In respect to the third question, that 
concerning the experimental evidence for 
the truth of the theorem, it is well known 
that, m general, Boyle’s law follows as a 
consequence of the general principles of the 
kinetic theory, that Gay-Lussac’s law is an 
immediate consequence of a relation plau- 
sibly assumed between temperature and the 
kinetic energy of the molecule, that the 
_ motion of the radiometer and the laws of 
transpiration and many other properties of 
gases can be deduced from the general 
theory ; and, in particular, that Avogadro’s 
law follows from the simplest form of the 
theorem of equipartition. But further 
proof of this theorem in its general form 
is still needed. Such proof as we have will 
be diseussed later in this address. 

Let us consider a little more fully the 
proofs of the theorem of equipartition. It 
was first enunciated in 1845, in a paper 
presented by Waterston to the Royal So- 
ciety, but this paper was not published at 
that time, and Maxwell’s paper of 1859 
first brought the theorem to the attention 
of the scientifie world. In that paper Max- 
well undertopk to prove that when two 
systems of molecules move in the same ves- 
sel the mean vis viva of each particle will 
become the same in the two systems. 


The proof of this proposition by Max-. 


well is the one still commonly employed in 
elementary expositions of the kinetic theory 
of gases. As applied first to a single gas, 


SCIENCE. 


165 


he considers the molecules or particles of 
the gas as elastic spheres, and represents 
the average number of particles which have 
a velocity in one direction lying between 
two very near limits as a function of that 
velocity. To represent the average number 
of particles which have a velocity in either 
of the other two rectangular directions 
lying between certain near limits, he uses 
the same function, and he then supposes 
that the three velocities thus used are inde- 
pendent of each other, so that the average 
number of particles which possess all three 
velocities at once will be given by the 
product of three independent probabilities. 
Since this number depends only on the 
relative motions of the particles, and not 
on the particular directions in which the 
coordinate axes have been drawn, it may 
also be represented by a function of the 
resultant velocity of the particles, or by a 
function of the sum of the squares of the 
component velocities. Equating these two 
expressions, a functional equation is ob- 
tained, the solution of which leads to the 
well-known exponential law of the distribu- 
tion of velocities among the molecules. 

By extending the method just described 
to the consideration of the relative motion 
of the particles of two gases, Maxwell pro- 
ceeded to show that the probable number 
of particles, whose velocities differ by a 
certain amount, is expressed by the same 
exponential function as that already ob- 
tained ; and he shows further that the prob- 
able mean relative velocity is the square 
root of the sum of the squares of the mean 
velocities in the two systems. 

On the basis of this proposition, Max- 
well proves that the average kinetic energy 
of the molecules of two or more gases, 
when they are mixed, will be the same for 
each. ‘To do this he shows simply that the 
difference of the mean kinetic energies of 
the molecules of two gases will be dimin- 
ished by collision, so that it is only neces- 


166 


sary that a sufficient number of collisions 
take place to reduce this difference to zero. 

The defect of this demonstration lies in 
the assumption that the velocities in the 
three rectangular directions can be con- 
sidered as independent. As they do not 
enter independently in the equations of 
collision between the molecules, we might 
fairly expect them to be related to each 
other, until they are proved to be inde- 
pendent. 

I have dwelt on this first method of Max- 
well’s, because of its historic importance, 
and because it illustrates the difficulty of 
deciding by inspection on the conditions 
which may legitimately be assumed for the 
application of the calculus of probabilities. 
In the elaborate method subsequently de- 
veloped by Maxwell and by Boltzmann, the 
same difficulty is met with in another form. 
In this method the molecules are considered 
as spheres, freely moving about within a 
vessel and colliding with each other. The 
effort is made to determine the character- 
istics of the motion of the assemblage of 
molecules which must obtain if the condi- 
tion of the assemblage is to be, to outside 
inspection, uniform. To do this, we con- 
sider a number of molecules belonging to a 
certain class characterized by possessing 
certain component velocities before colli- 
sion, and certain other component velocities 
after collision, and a number of molecules 
belonging to another class characterized by 
possessing the same component velocities in 
the reverse order, and, considering the 
probable number in each of these classes as 
a function of the component velocities, we 
write down the expression for the probable 
number of molecules of these two classes 
which oceupy the same element of volume 
and so are in collision. With this expres- 
sion we can obtain an expression for the 
average increase in the number of mole- 
cules in one of the classes, due to collisions, 
and this ought to be'zero if the condition 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


of the assemblage is to be uniform. From 
the discussion of this last expression follow 
Boltzmann’s H-theorem, the formula for 
distribution and the theorem of equipar- 
tition. 

When the mode is analyzed in which the 
expressions giving the probable numbers 
of molecules in the two classes are com- 
bined, it appears that an assumption is in- 
volved in it which is not evident on inspec- 
tion: namely, that the probability of the 
presence of a molecule of one class in an 
element of volume is independent of the 
coordinates of that element, or, what 
amounts to the same thing, of the proba- 
bility of the presence, in the same element 
of volume, of a molecule of the other class. - 
The gas to which this assumption applies 
is called by Boltzmann unordered with 
respect to the distribution of the molecules 
(molekular-ungeordnet). Jeans uses for 
this condition of a gas the very convenient 
phrase ‘molecular chaos.’ 

Now we evidently can not assert off-hand 
that this chaotic condition will obtain in 
all systems of particles which represent 
real gases. When Boltzmann tries to de- . 
fine it he does so by negative instances, 
showing what the condition of the system 
might be which would be ‘ordered’ with 
respect to the distribution of the molecules; 
and then leaves us to infer that the vast 
majority of distributions do not possess 
any peculiarities which would put them in 
the ‘ordered’ class. But this inference is 
not readily drawn. It is evident that any 
condition of the system is ordered, in the 
sense that the successive conditions follow 
on mechanical principles from the initial 
condition. All that we can do by imspec- 
tion is to cherish the hope that, while all 
systems are ‘ordered’ in this sense, yet a 
vast number of them—an infinite number 
of them, it may be, in comparison with 
those ‘ordered’ in Boltzmann’s sense—are 
still ‘unordered’ in:sucha sense that the 


Frepruary 2, 1906.] 


application of the caleulus of probabilities 
to them, as made by Maxwell, may not lead 
to an erroneous result. To assert that this 
is sO requires: proof. 

An alternative method of dealing with 
the theory of gases, of which the latest 
development is due to Jeans, proceeds by 
treating a gas as a single dynamical system, 
specified by the positional coordinates and 
the component velocities of its molecules. 
We then, to use Jeans’s words, consider 
“an infinite number of systems, starting 
from every conceivable configuration, and 
moving over every path; and investigate, 
as far as possible, the motion of this series 
of systems, in the hope of finding features 
common to all.” Jeans carries out this in- 
vestigation by representing each particular 
phase of the system by a point in a general- 
ized space. ‘The successive phases through 
which one of the systems will pass will be 
represented by the points along a line in 
the generalized space. Jeans shows that 
these lines will be ‘stream lines’ in the 
space; and that to investigate the infinite 
number of systems already supposed comes 
to the same thing as to suppose the gen- 
eralized space filled with a fluid, moving 
along stream lines determined by the dy- 
namical equations of the gas, and to in- 
vestigate the motion of this fluid. This 
motion is found to be a ‘steady motion.’ 
The advantage of this mode of procedure 
is that the applications of the calculus of 
probabilities are made to the elements of 
the generalized space, and are obviously 
legitimate. 

By an argument based on this funda- 
mental mode of representation Jeans shows 
that all but a neeligcibly small fraction of 
the generalized space represents systems in 
which the density of the gas is uniform; 
and that within that part of the generalized 
space which represents states of the system 
in which the energy is constant, all but an 
infinitely small fraction represents systems 


SCIENCE. 


167 


in which the velocities are distributed ac- 
cording to Maxwell’s exponential law. 
Such a state of the system Jeans calls the 
‘normal state,’ and his conclusion is that 
it is infinitely probable that a gas in or- 
dinary circumstances will be in the normal 
state. 

We may consider this result as an a pos- 
teriort proof of the hypothesis of molecular 
chaos. 

By a treatment that is essentially similar, 
and without using the hypothesis of molec- 
ular chaos, it follows that it is infinitely 
probable that the energy of the gas is, on 
the average, distributed equally among the 
degrees of freedom corresponding to mole- 
cules of different types, and also among the 
degrees of freedom of each type considered 
independently. 

When Maxwell attempted to prove the 
law of equipartition for the time averages 
of the energy associated with the different 
degrees of freedom of a single system, he 
introduced the hypothesis that the system 
goes through all possible phases, consistent 
with the conservation of energy, before 
returning to its initial phase. It is difficult 
to see how this can be the case in a system 
self-contained and entirely subject to the 
laws of dynamics, such as, for example, a 
gas within the smooth envelope ordinarily 
postulated in the theory. But if we think 
of the envelope as itself an assemblage of 
moving molecules, it may be that the 
courses of the gas molecules will be changed 
so irregularly by impacts at the boundaries 
that the gas may be thought of as ex- 
periencing so many fortuitous disturbances 
that it will practically fulfil the condition 
of passing through all possible phases. In 
this case the law of equipartition can be 
extended to the time average of any one 
degree of freedom. 

Lord Kelvin has taken exception to this 
form of the theorem of equipartition, as- 
serting that the proof is invalid, and that 


168 


it is not true in fact. To demonstrate the 
latter statement, in default of any direct 
experimental method, he has resorted to 
the calculation of the paths and velocities 
of a moving body within an envelope of 
some assumed form, and a comparison of 
the kinetic energies associated with each 
degree of freedom. To introduce the ele- 
ment of chance, the courses of the body 
were mapped out by the help of numbers 
obtained by drawing numbered cards from 
a pack. The results obtained differed con- 
siderably from the exact equalities deduced 
from the Maxwell-Boltzmann theorem. I 
do not pretend to be able to show that these 
results of Lord Kelvin are of no value as 
evidence against the truth of the theorem, 
but I would remark that we can at least 
justify a doubt about them by noticing 
how small a deviation in the experiments 
from perfect impartiality of conditions will 
suffice to produce a large deviation from 
the expectation of the theory of probabili- 
ties. To test this, and remembering that 
when I used to play whist we noticed that 
a black card turned up as trump oftener 
than a red one, I procured a new pack of 
cards, which ought to be impartial and 
unbiased, if anything is, and cut it a num- 
ber of times, noting the suit of the card 
exposed by the cut. In 312 cuts the black 
suits were recorded 196 times, the red suits 
116 times. Spades were recorded 111 
times, clubs 85 times, diamonds 68 times, 
hearts 48 times. Practically the same ratio 
(184-121) between the black and red suits 
was obtained with an old pack, though the 
order of suits was different. 
sistent departure from the expectation of 
an equal number of each color and of each 
suit indicates that for some reason the 
eards are not impartial; and a scrutiny of 
a new pack shows, I think, the reason for 
this. When the pack is examined, the bot- 
tom card is usually the ace of spades, and 
then the spade suit follows in order. The 


SCIENCE. 


Such a per-- 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


uppermost suit is generally the hearts. I 
believe that, when the pack is trimmed, the 
knife is pressed out as it goes down, so 
that the upper cards are cut a little smaller 
than the lower ones. The difference in 
size ean be seen if the pack is evened up on 
a smooth surface. Some cards will then 
appear a little wider than the others, and 
if they are picked out, they will generally 
be found to be black cards. Now I do not 
know how Lord Kelvin’s pack of cards was 
made, or how the cards were drawn, but I 
think we may fairly suppose that the dis- 
erepancies of 15 per cent. or so, which ap- 
peared in his experiments, may have been 
due, not to a failure of the theorem of 
equipartition, but to triflme departures 
from impartiality in his method of experi- 
mentation. 

We are now ready for the examination 
of the experimental evidence for the appli- 
eability of the theorem of equipartition to 
real bodies. The most important evidence 
that bears on the question is found in the 
observed values of the specific heats of 
eases, and of the ratios of their specific 
heats of constant pressure and of constant 
volume. If we consider the distribution of 
the energy which enters a gas at constant 
volume when its temperature rises one 
degree, designating its specific heat of con- 
stant volume by C,, the increase in the 
energy of translation of the molecules by 
C,, and the ratio of the two specific heats 
by y, it is easy to show that 
: 2C, 

Vie talc 

Now if each degree of freedom acquires 
an equal share of kinetic energy, say k, 
the energy of translation increases by 3h, 
so that 


y—1= 


S|s 


Furthermore, C,, will equal k times the 
total number, ”, of degrees of freedom of 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


the molecule, added to an unknown amount, 
P, of potential energy. We thus get 


2k 


Y rae 


If we assume that the molecules of the 
gas do not take up potential energy, so that 
P=0, and then assume that the molecules 
are practically points, so that n=3, cor- 
responding to the three translational de- 
grees of freedom, we have y=5/3. This 
is the number found for this ratio in cer- 
tain cases, in one of which, at least, that 
of mercury vapor, we have independent 
reasons to believe that the molecule is 
monatomic. If we set »—5, as would be 
the case if the molecules were solids of 
revolution, we get y—7/5, which is the 
value found for several diatomic gases. If 
n = 6, as would be the ease if the molecules 
were irregular solids, we get y= 4/3, a 
number not often found as the value of the 
ratio, the numbers obtained for gases not 
belonging to the other two classes being 
generally less than this. So far we seem 
to have an imperfect agreement with the 
theory, but the conditions assumed are evi- 
dently not those of real molecules. Staig- 
miiller has shown a way, to which I shall 
direct particular attention, to modify the 
formula so that it can be applied to real 
gases; but before doing so, I wish to con- 
sider the general question, which will not 
be settled by our being able to find that 
certain assumed values of n will give ob- 
served values of y. Have we a right to 
believe that the number of degrees of free- 
dom of a molecule, other than the three 
degrees of translational freedom, are ever, 
in any case, so few as we must suppose to 
get the results referred to? Are we not 
rather bound to believe, from the evidence 
of internal vibration afforded us by the 
spectroscope, that the molecules or the 
atoms of all gases are vibrating in many 
modes, or are compound bodies whose parts 


SCIENCE. 


169 


are executing vibrations? And should we 
not therefore set our number n of degrees 
of freedom very large, and so obtain a 
value of y practically equal to unity for all 
gases, In entire disagreement with the ex- 
perimental results? The view of the con- 
stitution of the atom which prevails at 
present, that it consists, at least in part, of 
an assemblage of electrons having the essen- 
tial properties of mass and moving in orbits 
with enormous velocities, supports the evi- 
dence of the spectroscope, and makes it all 
the more necessary for us to admit that the 
molecule of gas will have a great number 
of degrees of freedom. 

A reconciliation of these views with a 
modified doctrine of equipartition has been 
made by Jeans. The proofs of the theorem 
of equipartition apply to a conservative 
system, and fail as soon as they are applied 
to a system in which the energy is not con- 
stant. Now we know that, as a matter of 
fact, every material system is transferring 
energy to the ether—indeed, as Jeans re- 
marks, our seeing it at all depends upon 
that operation—and it appears therefore 
that we ought not to expect the theorem of 
equipartition to apply to real systems with- 
out further examination. To carry on this 
examination we conceive of a system so ° 
constituted that the energy which corre- 
sponds to certain of its degrees of freedom 
can and does pass rapidly into the ether, 
while that corresponding to the remaining 
degrees of freedom is dissipated by transfer 
to the degrees of freedom of the first class. 
On this supposition Jeans shows that the 
energy resident in the system may be di- 
vided among the degrees of freedom ac- 
cording to a modified mode of equiparti- 
tion; those coordinates whose energy is not 
transferred directly to the ether possessing 
equal amounts of energy, corresponding 
to the temperature of the body indicated 
by the thermometer and to the formula 
mv> = 3RT, while those coordinates whose 


170 


energy is directly dissipated into the ether 
also possess equal amounts of energy, dif- 
ferent from the other amounts, and corre- 
sponding to another function t, whose 
dimensions are those of temperature, and 
which conforms to a formula similar to the 
one just given, with the same constant £. 
The two temperatures thus introduced 
Jeans calls the principal and subsidiary 
temperatures, and the degrees of freedom 
to which they correspond, the principal 
and vibratory degrees of freedom. He 
shows that, provided the product of the 
time occupied by a collision between two 
molecules and the frequency of the atomic 
vibration is large, the transfer of energy 
from the principal to the vibratory degrees 
of freedom goes on very slowly, and he 
shows further that we may believe that the 
postulate here made applies to real bodies; 
so that, when a gas is heated, we may con- 
sider that practically all the energy which it 
receives is taken up by the principal degrees 
of freedom. If this be granted, we may 
ignore, for practical purposes, the multi- 
tudinous vibratory degrees of freedom, and 
are brought back to the simpler view of the 
constitution of the molecule as ‘a collection 
of atomic masses bound together into a 
system. . We have thus set before us the 
task of making plausible estimates of the 
number of principal degrees of freedom in 
the various gases, and of calculating the 
specific heats of these gases and the values 
of the ratio of their two specific heats. In 
doing this we shall follow the procedure of 
Staigmiiller. 
In the formula 


eee 


ree 7S 


the denominator nk + P represents the en- 
ergy received by the molecule, when its 
temperature rises one degree. We assume 
that the potential energy P is entirely that 
due to the displacements of the atoms in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


the molecule, and that the motions of those 
atoms are simple harmonic, so that the 
mean potential energy corresponding to 
each internal degree of freedom is equal to 
the mean kinetic energy. Using a to rep- 
resent the number of degrees of freedom of 
the molecule as a whole, and 2 to represent 
the number of internal degrees of freedom, 
we have 


n=at+i, P=ik, and y= +1. 


2 
at 2% 
When we use 6 to represent the sum a-t 21, 
the formula takes the simple form 


942 
AY i 


Our task is to estimate the values of a and 
2 in particular cases, and to calculate there 
from the values of y. 

Before proceeding to do this we will cal- 
culate the expression for the specific heat 
of constant volume in terms of the degrees: 
of freedom. Denoting again by & the en- 
ergy corresponding to one degree of free- 
dom, which a gram-molecule of the gas 
receives when its temperature is raised one- 
degree, and by m the molecular weight, we 
may write C,m—k6, and may calculate 
k as follows: 

We know from Joule’s calculation, that 
the velocity of mean square for hydrogen 
is 1.842 x 10° centimeters per second. 
From this we get the total mean kinetic 
energy of translation of a gram-molecule- 
of hydrogen, one third of which is the 
amount of kinetic energy apportioned to 
one degree of freedom. We then get the 
change in the energy apportioned to one 
degree of freedom, which occurs when the 
temperature rises one degree, by dividing 
by the absolute temperature 273, and re- 
ducing the result to gram-degrees, obtain 
for k the value k 0.9886. This value is 
so nearly equal to 1 that for many of our 
subsequent calculations & will be taken 
equal to 1. 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


We are now in position to caleulate not 
only the values of y for various gases, but 
also their molecular heats, that is, the heat 
capacities of their gram-molecules, from 
estimates made of the probable number of 
their principal degrees of freedom. 

In the case of a monatomic gas we sup- 
pose the molecules to act either as points 
or as smooth spheres, for which the only 
effective degrees of freedom are the three 
translational ones. For these, therefore, 
we have 

9=3, COm= 4.943, 


I do not know that the molecular heats of 
the monatomic gases have been measured, 
but the values of y obtaimed for mercury 
vapor, krypton, helium and argon range 
from 1.666 to 1.64. 

For the diatomic gases, while we still 
treat the atoms as points or smooth spheres, 
we notice that 5 coordinates are necessary, 
being also sufficient, to determine the posi- 
tion and orientation of the molecule, in 
view of the fact that its orientation about 
the line joming the two atoms is indif- 
ferent. The only other principal degree 
of freedom which the molecule can possess 
is the smmgle one which determines the dis- 
tance between the atoms. If this distance 
is fixed, we have 10, and 6=5; if it is 
variable, 21, and 6=7. From these 
assumptions we can calculate the constants 
for comparison with the results of observa- 
tion. 


y=3=1.66+. 


SCIENCE. 


yl 


When we consider the triatomic mole- 
cules, we find several of them of the type 
of which the molecule of water vapor is an 
example, in which we may suppose that 
the bivalent atom stands between the other - 
two similar atoms, at the center of gravity 
of the molecule. If we can conceive the 
atoms thus placed and take the coordimates 
not fixed by this assumption as correspond- 
ing to subsidiary degrees of freedom, we 
may consider the energy of the molecule as 
determined by the 5 degrees of freedom 
which fix the position and orientation of 
the molecule, and by one additional degree 
of freedom, determining the distance be- 
tween either of the univalent atoms and 
the center of gravity. On these assump- 
tions we obtain 6=7. 


= 7, (942) = 8.9974. (9 + 2)/9 = 1.286. 


Cm y 
Water vapor........... ‘| HO 8.649 1.29 
Carbon dioxide........... CO, 8.91 1.285 
Hydrogen sulphide...... HS 8.33 1.276 


For reasons which I will not stop to give, 
Staigmiiller considers the molecule of bi- 
sulphide of carbon to be of a different class, 
in which the above described symmetry 
does not obtain, so that we have a= 6, and 
each of the sulphur atoms determined as to 
its distance from the center by one coor- 
dinate, so that i= 2, and 6=—10. 


$—10. (S+ 2)—11.863. (3 +2)/9 =1.200. 


| | Cm | y 
S=5. «(F+2)=—6 9202. (9 +4+2)/9 —1.400. : : | | 
Carbon bisulphide....../ CS, | 12.12 | 1.197 

CG 

clas if For the two vapors, phosphorous chlo- 
ely dozen Diba mewea set i pe 1.402 ride and arsenious chloride, we may think 
Oxygen | Of | 6960 | 1402 of the univalent atoms as free to move in 
Nitrous oxide............. NO 6.951 = planes at right angles to the directions of 
Hydrogen bromide.......| HBr 6.642 1.400 


o=7. x(F+2)—8.8974. (9% + 2)/%—=—1.286. 
Chlorine. Cl, 8.811 1.33 
Bromine.. Br, 8.88 1.293 
odin @ a sssssasasescaessees I, 8.50 1.294 


the valencies of the trivalent atom, each 
with 2 degrees of freedom, while 6 more 
are needed to determine the position and 
orientation of the molecule. We have thus, 
in these cases, = 18. 


172 
9=18. «(9 4+2)=19.77, (F+ 2) —1.111. 
Aiea | es om | ‘y: 
Phosphorous chloride...) PCl, 18.49 | = 
Arsenious chloride......| AsCl; | 20.82. | = = 


For the vapors silicon tetrachloride, 
titanium tetrachloride, and tin tetrachlo- 
ride, we make the same assumptions as in 
the last case about the freedom of the 
chlorine atoms, and get 6= 22. 


0 = 22. «(9+ 2) = 23.726. (8+ 2)/F=1.091. 
| Cm | y 
Silicon tetrachloride....| SiC], | 22.47 ss 
Titanium tetrachloride.| TiCl, | 24.77 _— 
Tin tetrachloride........ SnCl, | 2441 | — 


There is a difficulty which I can not solve 
about the methane derivatives. Their spe- 
cific heats have been determined only in 
two cases, but we have two sets of values 
of y, one obtained by Miiller, the other by 
Capstick. Miiller’s values conform fairly 
well to the hypothesis that the hydrogen 
atoms of the methane (CH,) molecule are 
fixed, and that each chlorine atom substi- 
tuted for a hydrogen atom introduces 2 
interior coordinates. 


| o | (+219 | 7 

CHP eek: less 1.333 1.32 

(OS H(0) ee eee en | 10 1.200 1.20 

CHIC sai | 14 1.142 1.12 

CHOMS ee 1800 ei Hea 
The agreement is very good. On the 


other hand, Capstick’s numbers for y are 
different, and generally larger than Miul- 
ler’s. They do not fit easily into any sim- 
lar scheme. 

The constant / = 0.9886 may be used to 
ealeulate the atomic heats of the solid ele- 
ments. To do this we make the hypothesis 
that the aggregation in these solids is 
atomie rather than molecular, and that 
each atom vibrates in simple harmonic 
motion about a position of equilibrium. 
On this assumption each atom will re- 


SCIENCE. : 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 579. 


ceive, when heated, twice the energy that 
is taken up by its three translational de- 
grees of freedom. On the principle of 
equipartition, the energy taken up by one 
such degree of freedom is the same as that 
taken up by one translational degree of 
freedom of the hydrogen molecule, or is 
equal to the constant k. The atomic heat 
should therefore equal 6k, or 5.93. A com- 
parison of this with the observed values of 
the atomic heats, which range from 5.5 to 
6.3, indicates that the hypothesis upon 
which the result is obtained is in the main 
correct. It is useless to speculate on the 
reasons for the different values of the 
atomic heats of the different elements. We 
can account for them without denying the 
doctrine of equipartition by supposing that 
the vibrations of the atoms are not strictly 
simple harmonie. 

Hitherto we have followed Staigmiller. 
It seems to me clear, after studying his 
results, that it is possible to account for 
the specific heats of gases by supposing the 
energy distributed equally over certain de- 
erees of freedom; and it seems to me, fur- 
ther, that the explanations which Staig- 
miller has given of his choices of the 
number of degrees of freedom which he 
selects for each type of molecule are at 
least plausible. The most striking feature 
of these choices is the small number of 
internal degrees of freedom assigned to the 
atoms. It seems as if the atoms were— 
at least with respect to certain directions 
of displacement—rigidly bound together. 
Lord Rayleigh has remarked that, on the 
ordinary theory of equipartition, no matter 
how small the play of an atom may be in 
the sense of a coordinate, the degree of 
freedom thus indicated must have its full 
share of energy; so that nothing short of a 
truly rigid connection in one direction will 
allow us to neglect the degree of freedom 
in that direction. From this difficulty we 
may escape by the use of the distinction 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


between principal and vibratory degrees 
of freedom. We may suppose that the 
forces between the atoms of a molecule 
vary with exceeding rapidity for relative 
motions im certain directions, while they 
do not vary nearly so rapidly for motions 
in other directions. If this is so, the period 
of the vibration due to the rapidly varying 
force will be very small, and the vibration 
will be of the type which communicates 
energy rapidly to the ether, so that motion 
in that sense will correspond to a vibratory 
degree of freedom. The other motions, of 
longer period, will correspond to principal 
degrees of freedom, and will alone be op- 
erative in taking up energy when the gas 
is heated. 3 

It does not seem possible to extend 
Staigmiiller’s method directly to other 
more complicated molecules, for which it 
would be impossible to assume the atomic 
arrangement. But if we accept it as veri- 
fied by its success in describing the specific 
heats of gases, we may use it to calculate 
the degrees of freedom in more complicated 
molecules from their known specific heats, 
and can then see if the numbers thus ob- 
tained appear to have any relation to the 
numbers and kinds of atoms in the mole- 
ecules. ° 

To exemplify this mode of procedure let 
us take the case of methyl alcohol. Its 
molecular formula is CH,O; its molecular 
weight is 32; its specific heat between 5° 
and 10° is given by Regnault as 0.59; its 
molecular heat is therefore 19. If we may 
neglect the potential energy of the mole- 
eules with respect to each other in com- 
parison with their kinetic energies, this 
molecular heat is distributed among 6 de- 
erees of freedom of the molecule and the 
unknown number of internal degrees of 
freedom which is to be determined. From 
Staigmiiller’s formula, C,m—k(a- 21%), 
we get for 7, 6.5-+. Of course this is an 
impossible value for 7, which should be 


SCIENCE. 


173 


integral, but the specific heat of Regnault’s 
specimen of methyl alcohol is almost cer- 
tainly too high, on account of the presence 
of water. We may take 6 as the most 
probable integral value for 7. We might 
speculate about the possible assignment of 
these degrees of freedom to the different 
parts of the molecule of methyl alcohol 
according to its structural formula, but 
such a procedure would be too arbitrary 
to carry conviction. What is immediately 
noticeable is that the number of degrees of 
freedom thus obtained is equal to the num- 
ber of atoms in the molecule; so that if we 
assign one degree of freedom to each atom 
we can reproduce the molecular heat of 
methyl alcohol. This would be nothing 
more than a coincidence if it were not the 
ease that the same relation holds for the 
other alcohols, whose specific heats are 
given in Landolt and Bérnstein’s tables for 
about 0°. 


| No of Atoms. a 
Methyl alcohol Re 6.5 
Ethyl] alcohol............. y | 9 9.5 
Propy] alcohol............ | 12 12.5 
Isobuty] alcohol 600 | 15 | 15 
Isoamyl alcohol 18 eo) 


The general tendency of the values of 7 
is to run above the sum of the atoms. This 
may be taken account of by a special as- 
sumption, as, for example, by assigning 
two degrees of freedom to the hydrogen 
atom in the hydroxyl group; but it is very 
likely that the specific heats given in the 
tables are too high, on account of the diffi- 


No. of Atoms. i 
Ethyl ether. 15 | 15.5 
IBenzol tives: sreesenec cee es 12 | 10.7 
Oil of turpentine 26 | 25 
Piexan’ each ele C,H, 20 18.5 
Efe pianie eee es || Sh 
Octanedenowsnce ones 26 | 26 
Decan....... 32 33 
Dodecan... 38 40 
Tetradecan... 44 46.5 
Hexadecan | ; 50 | 53 
Toluoless cites cee ee ¢ 15 | 13.5 


174 


culty of freeing the alcohols entirely from 
water. The same general rule holds for 
many other organic compounds. 

In the case of several of the organic 
liquids, the caleulated degrees of freedom 
can be reproduced by assigning 2, or some- 
times 3, degrees of fredom to the hydrogen 
atoms. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 579. 


In the cases of cane sugar and anhydrous 
milk sugar we can not assume the differ- 
ence between the molecular heats to be due 
to the cause previously assigned, but if we 
examine the structure of these large mole- 
cules, we shall find that four of the carbon 
atoms are differently connected in the mole- 
cule from the other eight. If we suppose — 


i Estimated. 


z Calculated. 


Isoamyline. ........... C5Hyo 25 24.5 
Acetic acid............. C,H,0, 12 12 
Naphthaline ......... C\)Hy 26 24.5 
Formic acid........... CH,O, 9 9 


And in several compounds containing ni- 
trogen the same rule holds. 


a0, and assign 2 degrees of freedom to. 
each of the group of eight carbon atoms in 
the one case, and to each of the group of 
four carbon atoms in the other case, we 
obtain a fair agreement with the calculated 
numbers of degrees of freedom. 


i Estimated. | 7 Calculated. 


i Estimated. | 7 Calculated. 


Nitrobenzol......... C,;H;0,N 19 18.5 
Aniline............2.. C;H,N 21 21 
p- and o-toluidine.| C,H,N 26 26 


Other such compounds can not be treated 
with success so simply. 

We may examine a few of the solid or- 
ganic bodies by the same method. Let us 
begin with the three pairs of isomers, dex- 
trose and levulose, mannite and dulcite, 
resorein (and hydroquinone) and pyro- 
eatechin. The molecular heats of the two 
members of each of these pairs differ by 6, 
and we have suggested to us at once that 
one characteristic difference of two such 
isomers may be that the molecule in one 
of them may retain an individuality that 
the molecule of the other loses, and may 
‘vibrate about its position of equilibrium 
as a whole, so that the value of @ will con- 
tain @=6, while that of its isomer will 
not. If we admit this, we obtain values 
of the internal degrees of freedom which 
are satisfied by assignine one degree of 
freedom to each atom. 


i Estimated. |i Calculated. 


Dextrose, levulose.| C,H,,0, 24 25 
Mannite, dulcite...| O,H,,0, 26 26 
Resorcin, pyrocate- 

ai ee | C,H.0, 14 14.3 


Cane sugar........ C,C,H.,0;, 52 53 
Anhydrous milk 
RULES onodosctted C,C,H.,01 49 51 


In leyulose and dextrose one of the ear- 
bon atoms is peculiarly connected with the 
other constituents of the molecule. If we 
assign to it 2 degrees of freedom, we obtain 
an exact agreement with the calculated 
number of degrees of freedom. 

When these organic solids are dissolved 
in water or alcohol, their apparent molec- 
ular heats, that is, the molecular heats 
calculated for them from the specific heats 
of their solutions, on the hypothesis that 
the specific heat of the solvent remains 
unchanged, are constants for all ordinary 
concentrations, and differ with the different 
solvents. These apparent molecular heats 
are generally greater than those of the 
same substance in the solid state. It may 
be that the dissolved molecules have so 
united themselves with the surrounding 
water as to weaken the bonds of the water 
molecules and have thus increased their — 
degrees of freedom; but it is also possible 
that the degrees of freedom of the dissolved 
molecules themselves have been increased 
by the process of solution. If we adopt 
the latter hypothesis, we may construct 
schemes apportioning the degrees of free- 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


dom among the atoms of different sorts 
which will reproduce the calculated degrees 
of freedom. 


SCIENCE. 


oie | 8 Cave 
©) it) © aa Raina: 
Dextrose...........| CgH,,O, | 1 | 2|1] 36 37 
Levulose........... C3Hi.0, | 1 | 2) 2) 42 42 
Mannite............ CQ;Hy.0, | 1] 2) 3) 52 51.5 
Dulcite)........:.-: CgHy,0O, | 1 | 2) 2) 46 46 
Resorcin............ @;H,0, | 1) 3) 2) 28 29 
Pyrocatechin...... C,H,Q, | 2 | 3) 2)| 34 30 
Pyrocatechin in 
alcohol.......... |) Bi il} Bo 26 
Phenol.............. CH,0 | 2|3)2) 32 33 
“in alcohol 1 Sis lle 25 23 


The supposition made before in the case 
of the sugar molecules, assigning different 
degrees of freedom to the two groups of 
carbon atoms, must be made again in this 
case. 


| 2 Esti- | 7 Cal- 


Cs es at mated. |culated. 
Cane sugar.| C,C,H,.0,,{ 1 | 2 | 2} 1} 75 74 
Milk sugar.| C,C;H,.0),] 2| 1) 2})1) 71 71 
Maltose...... CiC3HO1 | 2) 12 2) 7a 69 


When we turn to the liquids which con- 
tain other atoms than those of carbon, 
hydrogen and oxygen, we find that for a 
number of them, containing atoms of the 
chlorine group, the caleulated degrees of 
freedom can be reproduced by assigning 
one degree of freedom to each atom of car- 
bon and of hydrogen, and three to the re- 
maining atom or atoms. 


i Estimated. | i Calculated. 
Ethyl chloride....... C,H;Cl 10 11 
Ethyl bromide....... C,H; Br 10 9.5 
Ethyl iodide.......... C,H,1 10 8.8 
Ethyl sulphide ...... C,H,)8 17 17 
‘Chloroform..... ...... CHCl, 11 iil 
Carbon dichloride...| C,Cl, 14 13.3 
Ethylene chloride...| C,H,Cl, 12 11.3 
Ethylene bromide...|C,H,Br, 12 14 
Xylol bichloride.....|C,H,Cl, 22, 21.7 
Xylol bromide....... C,H,Br, 22 21 
Xylol tetrachloride.|C,H,Cl, 28 26.5 


In the case of the ordinary solid oxides, 
the general rule is that the calculated de- 
grees of freedom can be reproduced by 


175 


assigning 3 degrees of freedom to each 
metallic atom and 1 or 2 to the oxygen 
atom. 

The chlorides and sulphides of the metals 
conform to the choice of 3 degrees of free- 
dom for the metallic atom, and 3 also for 
the atoms of chlorine or sulphur. 

A question of a peculiar kind and of 
special interest comes up when we examine 
the heat capacities of dilute aqueous solu- 
tions of electrolytes. Julius Thomsen has 
shown that these solutions exhibit the very 
remarkable peculiarity that the apparent 
molecular heat of the solute diminishes as 
the dilution increases, so that it even be- 
comes negative after a certain dilution is 
reached. Now it is evident that this can 
not be accounted for except by supposing 
that the water is so associated with some 
part, at least, of the solute as to have its 
own heat capacity diminished. The heat 
capacity is evidently an additive property 
of the solution. When we think of the 
solute as associated with some of the water, 
we may conceive of the solution as made 
up of the following parts: (1) the water 
lying outside the groups of water molecules 
affected by the solute; (2) the undisso- 
ciated molecules of the solute with the 
water molecules joined with them; (3) the 
dissociated ions of the solute with the water 
molecules joined with them. Each of these 
parts will have its own heat capacity. 

This conception of the composition of a 
solution leads to a simple formula for its 
heat capacity, of the form 


H=W-+A(1—p) + Cp, 


in which W is the heat capacity of the 
water used to make up the solution, p is 
the dissociation factor (it beg understood 
that one gram-molecule of the solute is 
used in making up the solution) and A and 
C are constants. The A equals the heat 
capacity of the undissociated molecule 
added to the difference between the heat 


176 


capacity of the water molecules associated 
with it and that of the same molecules 
when free. The C is a similar quantity 
referring to the dissociated ions. 

The formula may most easily be tested 
in the form H—=W-+A-+Bp, when 
B=C—A. We may determine the dis- 
sociation factor from Kohlrausch’s values 
of the electrical conductivities. Testing 
the formula for those solutions for which 
Thomsen and Kohlrausch furnish sufficient 
data, we find that it reproduces the ob- 
served heat capacities exceedingly well. It 
breaks down sometimes for concentrations 
so high as to contain one gram-molecule of 
the solute to 20 of water. 

The formula obtains additional credit 
from the circumstance that a precisely sim- 
ilar formula gives excellent reproductions 
of the observed volumes of solutions; these 
volumes being also additive quantities. 

In the cases examined, the constant A is 
positive, the constant B, negative, and the 
constant C= A + B, also negative. 


SCIENCE. 


Sodium chloride.............. NaCl 39 31 
Potassium chloride........... KCl 97 55 


Sodium hydroxide........... 
Potassium hydroxide........ 
Ammonium chloride........ 
Hydrochloric acid... ... 
Sulphuric acid.. ......... 
Magnesium sulphate......... 


If this conception of a solution is ad- 
mitted, it leads to the view that the element 
of the solute is associated with several, at 
least with more than one, molecules of 
water. This is not in agreement with the 
hypothesis made by Traube and by Poyn- 
ting, by which they have explained the laws 
of osmotic pressure by means of molecular 
attractions. They suppose that one, and 
but one, molecule of water is intimately 
bound with the molecule or the ion of the 
solute. We can examine this hypothesis 
by means of the values obtained for (. 
This constant represents the sum of the 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


heat capacities of the ions of a molecule 
and of the difference between the heat 
capacity of the water molecules attached 
to the ions and their heat capacity when 
free. We may express this by writing 
C=a-a(¢—s), in which a is the heat 
capacity of the ions, a the number of water 
molecules in the aggregations around the 
ions, and ¢ and s the two heat capacities 
of one water molecule. The values of C 
are all negative and whether we know the 
value of a or not, it is certainly positive, 
and not less than that correspondine to 
the translational degrees of freedom of the 
ions, or 6 for a solute that splits into 2 ions. 
Then a(¢?—s) is surely negative and 
numerically as great as C+ 6. If we set 
a= 2, as Traube’s and Poynting’s theories 
call for in the case of such solutions as 
those of sodium chloride and hydrochloric 
acid, we find, from the values of C, that 
¢ — s is negative, and numerically equal to 
or greater than 18. But s is equal to 18, 
the heat capacity of a gram-moleecule of 
water, and we are led to the conclusion 
that ¢ is zero or negative; that is, that the 
heat capacity of the water molecules united 
with the ions disappears entirely or be- 
comes negative. This result is evidently 
inadmissible, and J am forced to believe 
that more than one molecule of water, in 
all probability several molecules, are asso- 
ciated with each ion. 

One serious objection may be raised 
against this conception, namely, that if it 
were true the molecular conductivities of 
all binary electrolytes ought to be nearly 
the same; for the natural supposition is 
that the molecular aggregates are pushed 
by the electric force, and whatever the ions 
at their centers may be, they all contam 
about the same number of water molecules, 
so that they will experience about the 
same frictional resistance to their motion, 
and will moye at about the same rate. , We 
may evade this objection by considering 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


the ageregates as unstable, and supposing 
the ions to slip along through continually 
changing groups of water molecules. This 
hardly seems compatible with the consider- 
able interaction which must take place be- 
tween the ions and the water molecules, to 
reduce their degrees of freedom as much 
as the figures indicate; but it is the best 
way out of the difficulty that I have found. 

I may remind you that Jones and his 
fellow workers, in their study of the 
freezing poimts and boiling points of con- 
centrated solutions, have found deviations 
from the laws of van’t Hoff and of Ar- 
rhenius, which they have accounted for by 
the assumption of the formation of such 
molecular aggregates as I have described. 

One is tempted to follow out the sug- 
gestions of this hypothesis to see if any gen- 
eral relations can be found in the constants 
Aand C. There are really too many un- 
known quantities in the expressions for 
these constants to make it possible to pro- 
ceed at all except by conjecture, and I have 
already rioted so much in conjecture, that 
to go further may seem to carry me beyond 
the bounds of reason. Yet, if you will 
indulge me, I will describe such indications 
of general law as I have detected. Hach of 
the terms A and C is a sum of the heat 
capacity of part of the solute and of the 
change in heat capacity experienced by the 
water molecules when they unite with it. 
A refers to the molecules, © to the ions. 
We need a knowledge first of the heat ca- 
pacities of the molecules and of the ions 
of the solute. In the case of sulphuric 
acid, its heat capacity in the liquid state is 
34, sufficiently near the value of A, which 
is 37, to make it possible to suppose that 
its undissociated molecule either does not 
associate water molecules to itself or, if it 
does do so, does not affect their heat ca- 
pacities. To get the heat capacity of the 
ions, I am reduced to adding together their 
atomic heats obtained from the tables. In 


SCIENCE. 


Mae 


all but one case where a comparison is pos- 
sible between this sum and the heat ca- 
pacity of the solid solute, the two agree 
well together. The sum for sulphuric acid 
is 27, agreeing with the heat capacity 26 
of the solid acid. Using this number for 
a in the formula C—=a-+a(¢—s), we 
get a(?—s)=—70. The symbol a ex- 
presses the number of water molecules af- 
fected by the presence of each ion, of which 
there are 3 for each molecule of sulphuric 
acid. If we venture to suppose that the 
number of water molecules affected by 
each ion is 8, the value of a is 24, and 
¢—s=—3. Now the heat capacity of 
the water molecules is 18, so that, on these 
suppositions, the loss of heat capacity of 
each water molecule due to its association 
with an ion of the solute is one-sixth its 
original heat capacity. This would involve 
a loss either of 3 external degrees of free- 
dom, translational or rotational, or of one 
external and one internal degree of free- 
dom. I choose the number 8 for the num- 
ber of molecules of water affected by the 
ion, because such might be the number of 
those standing nearest the ion in a regular 
arrangement which would be compatible 
with freedom of motion. We may think 
of the ion as at the center of a cube, with 
the water molecules at its corners. If the 
ion reaches out to more distant molecules, 
the next larger group it will affect will 
contain 14 molecules. 

To a close approximation the values of 
C and a for hydrochloric acid, ammonium 
chloride, sodium chloride and sodium hy- 
droxide, lead to the same value — 3 for 
¢ — Ss, on the supposition that a—16, or 
8+8. The same result for ¢—s is 
reached for potassium chloride and potas- 
sium hydroxide if we set a= 22, or 14+ 
8. In the case of magnesium sulphate the 
value of C is extraordinarily large, and 
indicates a much larger group of water. 
molecules around the magnesium ion. That 


178 


this element can affect water powerfully is 
shown from the circumstance that its sul- 
phate crystallizes with seven molecules of 
water of crystallization. 

The values of A are not, except in the 
eases of hydrochloric acid, magnesium sul- 


phate, and of sulphuric acid, already cited, - 


the same as the heat capacities of the mole- 
cules of the solute, but are larger than they 
are. It is hard to account for this as we 
did in the corresponding case of the in- 
creased heat capacity of the non-electrolytes 
when they were in solution, by supposing 
an increase in their own degrees of free- 
dom. We are led rather to suppose that 
the molecule of solute affects the surround- 
ing water so as to increase its heat capacity. 
On the assumption that the number of 
water molecules affected is 8, except in the 
ease of the two compounds containing 
potassium, and that for them the number 
is 14, we get in general the value 3 for the 
change in the heat capacity of each water 
molecule affected, or an imerease of one 
sixth its heat capacity. 

Of course such statements as these are 
merely suggestions. I hope that in time the 
specific heats of electrolytic solutions will 
be so accurately known as to make it pos- 
sible to feel certain whether or not a law 
really obtains in the values of the constants 
of the formula. 

Considering the bearing of the relations 
that have been adduced upon the general 
question of the equipartition of energy, it 
seems to me that their general consistency 
with that principle, especially the way in 
which the heat capacities of the organic 
compounds can be portioned out among the 
atoms by means of simple assumptions 
about their degrees of freedom, does afford 
some confirmation of the principle. Mere 
chance can hardly account for so large a 
number of successful coincidences. 

W. F. Maciz: 


PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


TRANSPORTATION AND COMBINATION. 

WE are so constituted that each of us 
looks at the problems of life from a some- 
what different standpoint. The opinions 
we form, the principles we uphold, the 
policies we advocate, are all influenced 
more or less by the work in which we en- 
gage and the kindred range of our reflec- 
tions. It is natural, therefore, that I 
should find the origin of many present-day 
questions in the facts of modern trans- 
portation and communication, and that I 
should entertain views, perhaps indulge in 
fancies, which those facts suggest. 

The primitive man traveled on foot and 
moved his scanty belongings by carrying 
them.in his arms or on his back. Even the 
rude vehicles and water-craft which he 
eventually learned to construct were pro- 
pelled by his own muscle, and we can only 
euess how long it was before he obtained 
any other motive power for the transfer of 
his person or his property. In every way 
his life was meager and isolated, for he had 
not acquired the art of writing, and inter- 
course with his fellows was confined to 
ordinary speech. Outside the family to 
which he belonged, or the tribe with which 
he gathered, he had no community of in- 
terest, felt no friendship and desired no 
alliance. His associations were as limited 
as his means of conveyance. 

In a later but still very remote period 
there came a great increase of motive power 
by the subjugation of animals, and their 
employment for transportation on land, 
and by the use of sails and rudders which 
multiplied many times the efficiency of 
water carriage. When these two results 
were secured, man had added to his own 
bodily powers the superior strength of 
beasts of burden and the enormous energy 

t Address of the vice-president and chairman 
of Section -I—Social, and Economic Science, 


American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, New Orleans, 1905. 


Fresruary 2, 1906.] 


derived from the winds of heaven. This 
Was an immense advance and marked the 
beginning of that wonderful civilization 
which slowly followed. The animal king- 
dom was brought into service for the vari- 
ous functions of land distribution, and the 
ship which could be sailed and guided made 
every waterway subservient to man’s re- 
quirements. Karly in this period also he 
learned to express his ideas by symbols or 
written words, and thus was enabled to 
transmit his thoughts by the same agencies 
that transported his possessions. 

This leads to a fact of history which 
seems to me not merely significant, but pro- 
foundly impressive. With the subjection 
of animals and the use of wind-propelled 
vessels, both of which achievements reached 
a high degree of perfection in the unknown 
past, the means of transportation, broadly 
speaking, remained unchanged and unaug- 
mented until almost down to the present 
time. Long before other agencies of con- 
veyance were dreamed of, while ox and 
horse, oar and sail, were the only means of 
transport, the race had occupied most of 
the habitable globe and reached high levels 
of national greatness. Strong governments 
were established, vast populations engaged 
in varied pursuits, and opulent cities 
crowded with every luxury. The institu- 
tions of society had acquired strength and 
permanence, the arts of leisure and refine- 
ment had approached the limits of perfec- 
tion, and inductive science had laid firm 
grasp on the secrets of nature. Great in- 
ventions and discoveries had widened the 
fields of activity, furnished the means and 
incentive for multiplied vocations, and 
opened up in every direction alluring vistas 
of advancement. In a word, there was the 
developed and splendid civilization of only 
little more than threescore years ago, be- 
fore any new or different motive power was 
utilized for production or distribution. 

To my mind it is a matter of fascinating 


SCIENCE. 


179 


import that the long procession of progress 
down to the century just ended was condi- 
tioned by and dependent upon agencies of 
transportation which were themselves es- 
sentially unprogressive and incapable of 
important betterment. True, there were 
minor modifications from time to time in 
the line of mechanical adjustment, but the 
general methods employed, and the results 
obtained, showed no marked improvement 
or material alteration from those applied 
in the earliest days of commerce. Reduced 
to the forms in ordinary use, there were at 
the last as at the first the beast of burden 
on Jand and the oar and sail on water. 
Yet thus hampered and restricted in the 
means of transportation, which is the basis 
of all development, there was built up in 
the long process of years the varied and 
advaneed civilization which the last cen- 
tury inherited. 

Then all at once, as it were, into and 
through this social and industrial struc- 
ture, so highly organized, so complex in 
character, so vast in its ramifications, yet 
so adjusted and adapted to the fixed limita- 
tions of animal power, was thrust the new 
mode of conveyance by mechanical force, 
the sudden wonder of transportation by 
steam. The advent of this new and mar- 
velous agency was the greatest and most 
transforming event in the history of man- 
kind. It wrought an immediate and rad- 
ical change in the elemental need of society, 
the means of distribution. The primary 
function was altered both in essence and 
in relations. The conditions of commercial 
intercourse were abruptly and fundamen- 
tally altered, and a veritable new world of 
energy and opportunity invited the con- 
quest of the race. 

No other triumph over the forces of na- 
ture compares with this in its influence 
upon human environment. It has directly 
and powerfully affected the direction and 
volume of commercial currents, the location 


180 


and movements of population, the occupa- 
tions and pursuits in which the masses of 
men are engaged, the division of labor, the 
conditions, under which wealth is aceumu- 
lated, the social and industrial habits of the 
world, all the surroundings and character- 
istics of the associated life of to-day. The 
world has seen no change so sudden and so 
amazing. 

The next fact to be noted is hardly less 
remarkable. Not only are the new methods 
of transportation imcomparably superior in 
speed, cheapness and capacity, but, unlike 
those which have been supplanted, these 
new methods are themselves capable of in- 
definite increase and expansion. The maxi- 
mum efficiency of an animal is so well 
known as to amount to a constant quantity, 
and this unit of power is virtually un- 
changeable. Substantially the same thing 
is true of a vessel of given dimensions and 
given spread of canvas. For this reason 
distribution remained, as I have said, the 
one fixed and inflexible element to which 
all other activities, however elastic and 
progressive, were necessarily adjusted and 
by which they were limited. 

Now, a special and most suggestive fea- 
ture of transportation by steam, electricity 
and other kinds of mechanical force is that 
its capacity is not only unmeasured and 
unknown, but will doubtless prove to be 
practically inexhaustible. That is to say, 
no certain limits can be assigned to the 
operation or effect of these new agencies as 
compared with those which have been 
superseded. Therefore, speed may reach 


many times the rate now attained, the size. 


of vehicles may be greatly increased and 
the cost of carriage for the longest dis- 
tances reduced to an astonishing minimum ; 
so that as progress goes on in developing 
the means and methods of distribution, the 
habits and needs of men will be more and 
more modified, with consequences to social 
order and the general conditions of life 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


which may be far greater than have yet 
been imagined. 

But this is not all. Another fact is 
still more wonderful. Coincident with this 
sudden transfer from animal power to 
steam have come the new and amazing 
means of transmitting intelligence. In a 
brief generation the barriers of time and 
distance, hitherto so formidable, have been 
swept away by telegraph and telephone. 
No longer limited to the agencies by which 
material things are transported, we send 
our thought and speech with lightning 
swiftness to the four quarters of the globe, 
and hold all lands and peoples within the 
sphere of instant intercourse. “So recent is 
this miracle that we are still dazzled by its 
marvels without realizing its tremendous 
import. 

That this substitution of steam and elec- 
tricity as the instruments of commerce and 
communication has been an immeasurable 
gain is witnessed here and everywhere by 
half a century of unparalleled progress. 
Along these wondrous pathways the world 
has literally leaped. Released from de- 
pendence on beasts of burden, the entire 
realm of industry has been quickened and 
enlarged; productive energy has been vivi- 
fied by new and limitless means of distribu- 
tion; the products of the whole earth are 
embraced in wide circles of exchange; all 
the luxuries of all lands are brought to 
every household; wealth has multiplied 
until we are almost surfeited with its 
abundance, when other people possess it; 
the genius of invention has been stimulated 
to larger exercise, the sphere of thought 
grandly extended, the impulses of charity 
awakened to nobler activity, while keener 
sympathy through closer contact is point- 
ing the road to real brotherhood. 

But these manifold benefits have not been 
secured without many and serious evils. 
The potent energy which produced such 
prodigies of utility and convenience has 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


eenerated an array of forces which already 
test with severe strain the structure of 
modern society. So radical a change in 
the methods of distribution, and conse- 
quently of production, was sure to be at- 
tended with peril as well as beneficence, 
and to entail a series of results, immense 
and far-reaching. Passing by those acute 
abuses which are incident to the process of 
development, which are transitory and must 
eradually disappear, we may well consider 
the more profound and permanent effects, 
what I venture to call the economie effects, 
of present and future methods of trans- 
portation and intercourse upon the whole 
range of social activity. This brings into 
view again the impressive fact mentioned 
at the outset, and suggests some graver 
consequences than those that appear on the 
surface and appeal to ordinary observation. 

When movement was measured by the 
streneth and endurance of animals, only a 
limited area could be reached from a com- 
mon center. Its slowness and expense con- 
fined all inland distribution within narrow 
bounds. Only eighty years ago it took a 
week to send a letter, and cost $125 to 
move a ton of freight, from Philadelphia 
to Pittsburg; and the average price for 
carrying the necessaries of life was not less 
than twenty cents a ton for each mile of 
distance. On such a basis most commodi- 
ties were shut off from distant markets, 
and farm products, for example, would 
seldom permit of conveyance more than 
100 or at most 150 miles. Only such ar- 
ticles as were of small bulk and weight com- 
pared with their value were moved to any 
considerable distance from the place of 
production. For this reason the require- 
ments of an ordinary family were almost 
wholly supplied from near-by sources. 
And this means—without amplifying the 
statement—that productive energy, for the 
most part, was restricted by the consuming 
capacity of the surrounding neighborhood. 


SCIENCE. 


181 


The forces outside each little circle were 
but feebly felt and had slight influence 
upon its separate affairs. Broadly speak- 
ing, the business of each locality was ad- 
justed to its own conditions and was prac- 
tically undisturbed by like operations in 
other places. What we call competition 
was held in check by slow and costly means 
of conveyance; its effects were moderate 
and limited, its friction seldom severe. 

But the use of steam for motive power 
and electricity for sending news increased 
enormously the range of accessible markets, 
and at once intensified competition by the 
eelerity and cheapness of distribution. In- 
dustrial strife has already become world-: 
wide in extent and distance an ineffectual 
barrier against its destructive assaults. 
For distance as a commercial factor is not 
at all a matter of miles, it is merely a ques- 
tion of time and money. So the effect of 
cheap conveyance and quick communica- 
tion is to bring remote places closer to- 
gether. For all the practical needs or en- 
joyments of life Manila is nearer New 
York now than Montreal was a century 
ago; and the whole world could be easier 
governed from Washington to-day than 
could the United States when the capital 
was located on the Potomae. 

Our grandparents got their supplies 
mainly in the neighborhood where they 
resided, and only a few persons were con- 
cerned in their production. To-day it may 
safely be said that five millions of people 
and five hundred millions of capital are 
directly or indirectly employed in furnish- 
ing’a family dinner. When merchandise 
of every description is moved by the ton 
at great speed from one end of the land to 
the other, and at an average cost of less 
than three quarters of a cent a mile, as is 
now the ease, the expense of transport is 
but a trifling impediment to the widest dis- 
tribution. 

Nor should we forget that it was the 


182 


opening up of new and ever enlarging mar- 
kets, by the cheapness of steam transporta- 
tion, which gave the first opportunity for 
the extensive use of machinery; and this in 
turn quadrupled the capacity of labor and 
ereatly reduced the cost of large scale pro- 
duction. By this revolution in the methods 
of manufacture—caused by the railroad 
and steamship—the mechanic was sup- 
planted by the operative, and the skilled 
and independent craftsman of former days 
found his occupation gone. For what 
chance now have hand-made articles when 
the factory-made product is carried across 
the continent at nominal cost? But the 
tactory without the railroad would be only 
a toy shop. If its wares had to be hauled 
over country roads by mules and horses, 
the points they could reach would be few 
and near by, and thus contracted sales 
would limit the size of the plant and the 
volume of its business. It is simply be- 
cause transportation 1s now so speedy, so 
cheap and so abundant that great establish- 
ments have become profitable and driven 
their smaller rivals from the field. 

These facts—which might be multiplied 
without limit—bear directly, as I think, 
and with a force not fully perceived, upon 
the whole problem of industrial competi- 
tion. The argument runs this way: As 
the means by which industrial products are 
distributed become more convenient, quick- 
er in action and less expensive, the area of 
distribution rapidly enlarges, and as the 
area of distribution enlarges the competi- 
tion of industrial forces increases in some- 
thing like geometrical ratio. The’ move- 
ment of property by rail in the United 
States alone already exceeds four millions 
of tons every twenty-four hours. Think of 
the rivalry of products, the strife of labor, 
the strain and strugele of trade, which such 
a movement implies. | With the constant 
acceleration of that movement, which is 
certain to happen, how long can the fric- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 
tion be endured? How soon will it become 
unbearable? 

The truth is that new conditions have 
arisen and new methods must be adopted. 
All the pressure of modern life impels to 
the coordination of effort. We see that 
discord and antagonism, to say nothing of 
their moral bearing, have far less efficiency 
than harmony and cooperation. The world 
is searching for economies. It is intolerant 
of needless expense. The way a thing can 
be done the easiest and cheapest is the way 
it is bound to be done and the way it ought 
to be done. We want the best results and 
find that they come from combination. 
The old aphorism, ‘in union there is 
strength,’ takes on a new meaning. It is 
the law of growth and increase. It applies 
to industries as well as to individuals. To 
unite is to advance. The concentration of 
process is the expansion of output. 

Thus the potent agencies by which distri- 
bution is now so rapidly and cheaply ef- 
fected, which so combine and intensify the 
forces of production, are fast altering the 
conditions and changing the character of 
industrial development. And the end is 
not yet; it outruns imagination. What 
will be the ultimate effect of these meth- 
ods of conveyance and intercourse when 
brought to higher perfection and employed 
with still greater efficiency? When these 
agencies of commerce are increased in num- 
ber and capacity, as they will be; when cost 
is still further and greatly reduced, as it 
will be; when speed is doubled, as it will 
be, and quadrupled, as it may be; when the 
whole United States shall have reached the 
density of population now existing in 
Great Britain—how can industrial compe- 
tition possibly survive? 

When Adam Smith wrote ‘The Wealth 
of Nations,’ it took two weeks to haul a 
wagon-load of goods from London to Edin- 
burgh, and such a thing as a business or 
industrial corporation was virtually un- 


FEesruary 2, 1906.] 


Inown. To-day the great enterprises of 
the world are in the hands of corporations, 
and the time is fast approaching when they 
will absorb all important undertakings. 
Why? Simply because the railroad and 
the steamship—cheap and rapid transpor- 
tation, all the while growing cheaper and 
quicker—ever widening the area of profit- 
able distribution, furnish the opportunity, 
otherwise lacking, for the employment of 
larger and still larger capital. This op- 
portunity permits and encourages the con- 
centration of financial resources; so that, 
within limits not yet ascertained, the larger 
the business the greater its possibilities of 
gain. But the legitimate, the inevitable 
offspring of corporations is monopoly. 
Why? Simply because the operation of 
these massive forces—reaching and oppos- 
ing in every market of the world—begets 
an extremity of mutual danger which al- 
ways invites and often compels a common 
agreement as to prices and productions; 
that is, a trust. Just as the implements of 
warfare may become so devastating in their 
effects that nations will be forced to live 
im amity, so the destructiveness and ex- 
haustion of commercial strife in these 
larger spheres of action will make combina- 
tion a necessity. 

So, in the measureless and transforming 
effects of modern transportation, and the 
ends to which it resistlessly tends, I find 
the primary cause of the economic revolu- 
tion upon which we have entered. The 
incoming of these new and unfettered 
forces not only changed the basic function 
of society, but greatly disturbed its indus- 
trial order. In the effort to restore a work- 
ing equilibrium strange questions arise and 

novel dfficulties are encountered. Already 
we are compelled to doubt the infallibility 
of many inherited precepts and to reopen 
many controversies which our grandsires 
regarded as finally settled. The ponderous 
engine that moves twice a thousand tons 


SCIENCE. 


1e3 


across an empire of states, the ocean 
steamer that carries the population of a 
village on its decks and the products of a 
towuship in its hold, the vast mergers of 
producing and distributing machinery 
whose colossal grasp covers land and sea, 
are indeed splendid evidences of construct- 
ive genius and financial daring, but more 
than this, they are economic and social 
problems whose complexity bewilders and 
whose magnitude dismays. They force us 
to diseredit the venerable maxim that ‘com- 
petition is the life of trade,’ and warn us 
I think, that the political economy of the 
future must be built on a nobler hypothesis. 
If it be’true in the long run, as I believe 
experience teaches, that where combination 
is possible competition is impossible, is it 
not equally true that combination becomes 
possible just in proportion as transporta- 
tion becomes ampler, speedier and cheaper ? 
So the opportunity, if not the necessity, for 
combination has already come in many 
lines of activity and will certainly come 
in many more. For the cireumstanees that 
permit competition, its sime qua non, is 
mainly difference of conditions. Practically 
speaking, this difference is chiefly found 
in the means.of distribution. As that dif- 
ference disappears, with the constantly 
diminishing time and cost of transport, the 
ability to combine will increase and the in- 
ducement to do so become overwhelming. 
That seems to me the obvious tendency of 
industrial and social movements to-day, 
and that tendency, I predict, will be more 
and more marked as time goes on. 

How fast the process will develop, or 
what phases it will assume, does not yet 
admit of confident forecast. Many experi- 
ments will be tried, many failures occur, 
before the readjustment is accomplished. 
Remedies will be sought in profit-sharing, 
in the distribution of corporate stocks 
among employees, in the socialization of 
public utilities, in largely increasing the 


184 


functions of government. By whatsoever 
road reached the ultimate if not early out- 
come will probably be some form of central- 
ized control with diffused or decentralized 
ownership. Meanwhile, the exactions of 
monopoly, the feebleness of legal re- 
straints, the heaping up of fabulous for- 
tunes, the prejudice of the ignorant, the 
envy of the incapable; and through all and 
over all the inappeasable voice of labor de- 
manding, not without reason, a larger share 
of the wealth which it produces. 

That these great consolidations are 
wholly desirable I certainly do not pretend. 
On the contrary, they occasion much cause 
for regret and not a little for grave appre- 
hension. The utilization of new forces, the 
transfer to new methods, the control of 
producing and distributing agencies by 
huge combinations, must in the nature of 
the case inflict many hardships and involve 
many surrenders. But a great principle 
underlies this movement, the principle of 
industrial peace and efficiency, the principle 
of cooperation. Beside all question that 
principle is to govern, despite all draw- 
-baeks its operation will be beneficent. 

So, in the unrest and discontent around 
us, deep-seated and alarming here and 
there, I read the desperate attempt to avoid 
the effects of industrial competition and a 
tremendous protest against its savage re- 
prisals. Every trust and combination, 
whether organized by capitalists or by 
artisans, every strike and lockout, is a 
repudiation of its teachings and a denial 
of its pretensions. The competitive theory 
may have answered the age of mules and 
sailboats and spinning-wheels, but it fails 
to satisfy the interlacing needs, or to sus- 
tain the interdependent activities, which 
are founded on modern methods of inter- 
course and distribution; it is a theory un- 
suited to the era of railways and wireless 
telegraphy, this era of ours, so restless in 
thought, so resistless in action. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


I much mistake, therefore, if we are not 
entering upon a period of great transi- 
tions, a period of difficulty and many dan- 
gers. The whole structure of industry and 
social life is liable to be subjected to a 
strain—possibly to a shoeck—for which ex- 
perience furnishes no guiding precedent. 
We have settled the administrative ques- 
tions; we can collect taxes, build court- 
houses and pay the policeman. We have 
settled the political questions; the nation 
lives and will live, the greatest and grand- 
est in all the earth. But the further test 
is now to come, the test of the ocean liner 
and the limited express. Can we settle the 
economic questions? Can we raise this 
wide realm of industry from selfishness to 
charity, from strife to friendship, from 
competition to cooperation, from the war- 
ring instinets of the savage state to the. 
larger and nobler needs. of associated life? 
This is the problem of railroad and steam- 
ship, of telegraph and telephone, of the 
subtle and limitless forces of modern life, 
the problem which will test the wisdom of 
statesmanship and tax the resources of 
publie authority. 

Marvin A. Knapp. 


SOCIANTIFIC BOOKS. 

A Systematic Handbook of Volumetric An- 
alysis. By Francis Surron, F.1.C., F.C.S., 
ete. Ninth Edition, revised and enlarged. 
Philadelphia, P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 
Sutton’s ‘ Analysis’ is so well known that 

the highest praise that can be paid this book 

is the statement that it is even better than 
the eighth edition. But few new chapters 
have been added, the most important being 
on magnesium and the azo-dyes. The indi- 
vidual chapters have been but little changed. 
Few new methods have been added and fewer 
obsolete processes dropped. Conservatism is 
undoubtedly necessary in a work of this kind, 
but it may be carried too far. The book 
would be more valuable if the author with his 
large experience were more ready to discard 


Fresruary 2, 1906.] 


old methods and adopt new ones. The Eng- 
lish journals are referred to almost entirely 
throughout the book and one gets the impres- 
sion that the continental periodicals have been 
neglected. The table of contents now contains 
a list of the tables throughout the book. This 
will be found useful and will save time. On 
the whole this book is certainly the best of its 
kind in the English language and it will 
always occupy an important place on the table 
of the working chemist. 19, Ie 


A Text-book of Quantitative Chemical An- 
alysis. By J. C. Ousen, A.M., Ph.D., 
Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the 
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, formerly 
Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University. 
Pp. xix-+513. New York, D. Van Nos- 
trand & Co. 

As stated in the preface, Professor Olsen 
has not attempted to produce a reference book 
for experienced analysts, but rather a book for 
college students. Accordingly he has devoted 
considerable space to theory and the explana- 
tion of the various steps in an analysis and 
has followed the sequence in which he presents 
the subject to his classes. The first chapters 
treat of ‘General Operations and the Deter- 
mination of Water,’ then follow chapters on 
“Gravimetric Analysis of Metals, Acids, Al- 
loys and Minerals,’ ‘Electrolytic Methods,’ 
‘Volumetric Analysis,’ with special chapters 
on ‘ Oxidation and Reduction’ and ‘ Precipita- 
tion Methods,’ ‘Technical, Water, Oil, Fat 
and Gas Analysis’ and finally ‘ Stoichiometry,’ 
and tables. There is not such a mass of facts 
as in Fresenius and yet enough methods are 
given for the teacher to choose good and inter- 
esting work for everybody. The last few 
chapters are particularly important, intro- 
ducing as they do technical methods into the 
ordinary course. It is to be regretted that 
the author has not given in the first chapters 
a fuller discussion of the application of the 
ionic theory. Though apparently less essen- 
tial, it is as necessary to the correct under- 
standing of ordinary gravimetric methods as 
to those that are purely electrolytic. Perhaps 
the author assumes that no student is now 
allowed to take up quantitative analysis until 


SCIENCE. 


185 


he understands the ionic theory, but a review 
will do no harm. The directions are clearly 
given throughout and the student is made to 
feel that there is a reason for every step. The 
author tries to do away with the ridiculous 
practise of calculating results far beyond any 
significant figure but goes to the other extreme 
when he tells the student: “If an analysis is 
carried out by a process or for a purpose in- 
which an error of one per cent. may be present 
no pains need be taken to secure greater ac- 
curacy than this in any step of the process.” 
If this were logically carried out and there 
were ten steps in the process a loss of one 
per cent. in each step would certainly not give 
a result within one per cent. The student 
ean be taught to work with all possible care 
and accuracy without attributing too small an 
error to his results. A chapter on stoichiom- 
etry should not be necessary in a work of 
this kind. Students with a proper under- 
standing of the atomic theory and the simplest 
mathematics should be able to make all neces- 
sary caleulations. It has evidently been the 
experience of the author, as of all teachers of 
the subject, that a majority of students need 
special training in stoichiometry. There is a 
fundamental fault somewhere in the student’s 
course either in chemistry or in mathematics. 
Would it not be well for the teacher to force 
the student to work out all these problems by 
himself without any aid but the atomic theory 
and the rule of three? The reviewer hopes 
that Professor Olsen: will omit the chapter on 
stoichiometry from the next edition of his 
book and he feels that there will soon be a 
second edition of so good a work. 


193 Io 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Tue leading article in the Journal of Nerv- 
ous and Mental Disease for January is a 
study by Dr. H. C. Gordinier of two unusual 
brain tumors, one a multiple cylindroma of 
the base of the brain, the other a neuro- 
epithelioma of the choroid plexus of the fourth 
ventricle. This is followed by Dr. Onuf, of 
Craig Colony, with a study of a number of 
eases of epilepsy presenting partly muscular 
atrophies, partly defective muscular action 


186 


with clearly demonstrable atrophy, with defi- 
nite distribution of these disturbances. The 
paper is clearly illustrated from photographs 
of the patients. Dr. Morton Prince con- 
tributes a short paper on a case of multiform 
tic including automatic speech and purposive 
movements which was presented by him at 
the meeting of the Boston Society of Psy- 
chiatry and Neurology, March 16, 1905. This 
issue includes reports of the New York Neu- 
rological Society for October 3, 1905, and of 
the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neu- 
rology for October 19, 1905. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

THE society held its third annual meeting 
in connection with the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science at New Or- 
leans, January 1, 1906. 

In the absence of the president, Professor 
Charles H. Peck, the vice-president, Professor 
¥F. S. Earle, presided. 

The new constitution recommended by the 
committees of the Botanical Society of Amer- 
ica, the Society for Plant Morphology and 
Physiology and the American Mycological 
Society, as a basis for the union of the three 
societies, was adopted and the present officers 
continued as a committee with power to co- 
operate in the completion of the details of 
reorganization. 

The following papers were presented at the 
meeting: 

J. C. ArrHuR: ‘Some Reasons for Desiring a 
Better Classification of the Uredinales.’ 


S. M. Tracy: ‘ Uredinex of the Gulf States.’ 

W. G. Farrow: ‘Some Peculiar Fungi New to 
America.’ 

F. S. Harte: ‘North American Gill Fungi.’ 

Bruce Fin: ‘Lichens and Recent Conceptions 
of Species.’ (Read by title.) 


E. M. Freeman: ‘The Affinities of the Fungus 
of Lolium temulentum, 

C. L. Sunar: ‘ Peridermiwm cerebrum Peck, and 
Oronartium Quercuum (Berkeley) -’ 

C. L. Smear: ‘ Ramularia: An Illustration of 
the Present Practise in Mycological Nomenclature.’ 

P. H. Ronrs: ‘Notes on Cultures of Colleto- 
trichum and Gleosporiwn.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 579. 


Preritey SpAuLpING: ‘The Occurrence of Pusoma 
parasiticum Tubeuf in a tits Country.’ 
P. H. Rotrs: ‘ Notes on Pachyma cocos.’ 
P. H. Routes: ‘Penicillium glaucum on Pine- 
apple Fruit.’ C. L. SHear, 
Secretary-Treasurer. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Tue 26th annual and 408th regular meeting 
was held on December 23, 1905, and the fol- 
lowing officers were elected for the ensuing 
year: 

President—F. H. Knowlton. 

Vice-Presidents—T. S. Palmer, W. P. Hay, E. L. 
Greene and EH. W. Nelson. 

Recording Secretary—M. C. Marsh. 

Corresponding Secretary—W. H. Osgood. 

Treasurer—David White. 

Councilors—A. D. Hopkins, J. N. Rose, A. K. 
Fisher, L. Stejneger and A. B. Baker. 

President Knowlton was nominated for 
vice-president of the Washington Academy 
of Sciences. 


Tue 409th regular meeting was held on 
J eae 6, 1906. 

. J. W. Titcomb exhibited a mud nest 
oe thirteen pounds, of the red oven- 
bird or hornero (F'urnarius rufus) from Ar- 
gentina, South America. 

Dr. L. O. Howard gave an account of the 
symposium on ‘ Yellow Fever and Other In- 
sect-borne Diseases’ held under the auspices 
of the section on physiology and experimental 
medicine at the recent New Orleans meeting 
of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 

Mr. Henry Van Deman exhibited two fine 
specimens of winter apples from the Hood 
River Valley, Oregon. These represent two 
eastern varieties, the Newtown and Esopus, 
which have gained markedly in excellence by 
transplantation to the Pacific slope. 

The paper of the evening was presented by 
Mr. Alvin Seale, ‘ Notes on the Natural His- 
tory of the South Pacific Islands. He gave 
an account of the general features of several 
groups of islands visited, with descriptions of 
the characteristics of the native populations. 
His remarks were well illustrated by a series 
of lantern slides. M. C. Marsu, 

Recording Secretary. 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


THE WELLESLEY COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 


At the November meeting of the Wellesley 
College Science Club, Dr. J. C. Bell presented 
a paper on the ‘ Reactions of the Crayfish to 
Sensory Stimuli.’ : 

His experiments show that the animals re- 
act negatively to white light of different in- 
tensities in the proportion of two to one. 
Difference of intensity, within the limits used, 
causes no change in the proportion. Increase 
of temperature slightly increases the propor- 
tion. Green, yellow and blue, when compared 
with white light, show only a slightly greater 
number of reactions, but in the combination 
red-white the red has 73 per cent. of the 
reactions. 

Experiments upon the chemical sense, which 
are still in progress, go to show that the ani- 
mals are sensitive to chemical stimuli over 
the whole surface of the body, but particularly 
upon the anterior appendages. There is no 
evidence whatever of hearing, and the animals 
depend chiefly upon touch for the seizure of 


food. Grace E. Davis, 


Secretary. 


THE BERKELEY FOLK-LORE CLUB. 


Tur second regular meeting of the club 
during 1905-6 was held in the Faculty Club 
of the University of California, on Tuesday 
evening, November 28. President Lange 
called the meeting to order. 

The minutes of the last meeting were read 

and approved. The following new members 
were elected: Professor H. A. Overstreet, Mr. 
A. H. Allen and Professor W. F. Bade. 
_ Professor F. B. Dresslar read a paper on 
“Some Studies in Superstition, based on super- 
stitions known to and in part credited by 
advanced school students on the Pacific coast. 
Special attention was paid to the degree of 
eredence given to superstitions. Particular 
attention was also given by the speaker to the 
subject of mental preference for odd numbers. 
At its conclusion Professor Dresslar’s paper 
was discussed by the members. 

The meeting was adjourned. 

, A. I. Kroger, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


187 


THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF ST. LOUIS. 
Tue St. Louis Chemical Society held its 
usual monthly meeting on January 8. Mr. H. 
E. Wiedemann presented a paper entitled 
‘The By-products of the Packing House.’ 
Special emphasis was laid on the successful 
work of the chemist, which has transformed 
the waste-heap of former days into a large 
number of useful products. 
C. J. Bore mayer, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
PLEASE EXCUSE THE KELEP. 

To tHe Epiror or Science: It is naturally 
a deep disappointment to learn from a recent 
number of Science that my efforts to eluci- 
date the habits of the kelep have fallen so 
far short of the high ideals of entomological 
literature which Professor William Morton 
Wheeler advocates. This is largely my own 
fault, no doubt, as Professor Wheeler seems 
to intimate. But with sufficient scolding one 
must needs improve. The devotion of so 
many columns of ScreNncE to this missionary 
effort is certainly to be appreciated. That 
Professor Wheeler has felt it worth while to 
resume his admonitions constitutes also a wel- 
come assurance that the future no longer ap- 
pears altogether hopeless, for the last of his 
previous instalments closed with a despairing 
vow of eternal silence ‘until the Greek Kal- 
ends,’ or something to that effect, if 1 remem- 
ber correctly. 

Nevertheless, my efforts are largely fore- 
doomed to failure, on account of the very 
backward and unscientific habits of my insect 
pets. Unlike true, civilized ants, they have 
not learned the gentle art of regurgitation, 
but persist in going about with large, round 
drops of nectar on their bills. They regularly 
carry it into their nests in this way, and feed 
it to their friends and families without having 
once swallowed it, or spewed it up again. 
This incredible conduct is very easy of obser- 
vation. It has been witnessed by a dozen or 
more of my colleagues, and I have no doubt 
that Professor Wheeler will be able to verify 
it whenever he has time to undertake an in- 
vestigation of the subject. 


188 


In the matter of breeding habits, too, there 
is no longer a hope of meeting Professor 
Wheeler’s wishes. The queens seem never to 
leave the nest voluntarily, or to fly about, as 
ants should. Instead of raising an annual 
brood of sexual individuals, there are young 
males and females in the nests at all seasons 
of the year. Males were seen at many differ- 
ent times going about freely in the kelep- 
protected cotton fields of Guatemala, and were 
sometimes captured by workers and taken 
down into their nests. Copulation inside the 
nest has been observed by Mr. Argyle Mc- 
Lachlan at Victoria. 

It is needless to multiply such fatal dis- 
erepancies between the habits of the kelep and 
those ascribed to the insects which Professor 
Wheeler has studied. There remains only to 
beg for merey for these misguided creatures, 
and for one who is made to suffer so much 
embarrassment for having placed on record 
facts which do not coincide with ‘the litera- 
ture of the subject.’ 

My mistake with Leptogenys was especially 
stupid and careless, for, as Professor Wheeler 
reminds us, he had already published, in three 
different papers, the statement that the queens 
are indistinguishable from the workers, except 
by their distended abdomens. But to me they 
appear to be distinctly larger insects, of a 
distinctly more reddish color, resembling in 
these respects the queens of the keleps. Can 
it be that Professor Wheeler had only laying 
workers of Leptogenys, and not true queens ? 
Such a possibility might naturally suggest 
itself, but one must hesitate to believe that 
Professor Wheeler could repeat for a fourth 
time a statement which might prove so easily 
to be erroneous. Of course, one would not 
make such minor discrepancies the basis of a 
general criticism of Professor Wheeler’s ex- 
cellent work on Poneride and ants; it is men- 
tioned now only because his own reference to 
it appears somewhat inconsiderate. 

If one were to generalize on this series of 
entomological episodes the deduction would 
be that adequate ignorance of literature is a 
necessary qualification for learning the habits 
of a new insect like the kelep, for at each 
important step the investigation has been met 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


by Professor Wheeler’s non possumus. Last 
year he was quite as unable to believe that the 
keleps would kill boll-weevils as he is to credit 
now their failure to regurgitate nectar. After 
surviving so many of these literary dangers 
it is only natural that one become a little reck- 
less, and venture even to hope that in the 
course of another year the additional facts, at 
present so objectionable, will receive due 
credence, having now become a part of ‘ litera- 
ture of the subject.’ 

Regarding the classification of the poneroid 
insects, Professor Wheeler can be entirely re- 
assured. The kelep does indeed haye some 
habits comparable with those of honey-bees, 
but these traits have not seemed to require its 
removal from its systematic position next to 
the Poneride. The several families of un- 
expectedly diverse insects which have been 
included hitherto in the Poneride still consti- 
tute a natural group, of higher systematic 
rank, coordinate on the one hand with the 
drivers, and on the other with the series of 
families which may be referred to still as 
“true ants,’ though these may prove to be an 
artificial assemblage, their phylogenies not 
having been traced. The differences ‘of social 
organization appear to forbid a close alliance 
of the true ants with the poneroid series, or a 
derivation from them. Ants and keleps are 
similar, it is true, as all hymenoptera are, but 
many of the resemblances prove to be super- 
ficial and indicative of parallel development 
rather than of any recent community of 
origin. Biological history abounds in such 
instances where groups popularly supposed to 
be closely alike have been found to be essen- 
tially different. 

To permit the new facts and modifications 
of doctrine to be properly assimilated, it is 
now highly desirable that peace be restored in 
the happy family of entomology. If I promise 
to be very careful to write future papers on 
the kelep as well as ignorance and other lim- 
itations permit, it may be that Professor 
Wheeler will deem it safe to renew and abide 
by his former pledge of silence; not, indeed, 
till any too remote a period like the Greek 
Kalends, but perhaps until he has seen and 
studied some living keleps, or at least some 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


other members of the family Ectatommide. 
The mistakes he would then discover would 
be, I realize, still more embarrassing than 
those he has detected at so much longer range, 
but the discussion of them might have a cor- 
respondingly greater scientific value. And 
yet it may be that even in this I am still beg- 
ging the question or asking an unfair advan- 
tage, for increasing knowledge often sets cruel 
limits in the free fields of literary sport. 


O. F. Cook. 
Victoria, TEXAS, 
December 16, 1905. 
SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


A NEW THEORY OF SEX-PRODUCTION.” 


Tue last volume of the Proceedings of the 
German Zoological Society contains an inter- 
esting address by Professor Richard Hertwig 
in which is developed a new theory of sex- 
production based on his long-continued ex- 
periments on protozoa and applied to the in- 
terpretation of the results of new experiments 
by himself on amphibia and those of his 
pupils Issakowitsch and von Malsen on daph- 
nids (Stmocephalus) and on Dinophilus. 
Professor Hertwig’s conclusions demand espe- 
cial attention, since they are on the whole 
antagonistic to the view, which has been 
widely accepted in recent years, that sex is 
already determined in the fertilized egg, 
though he does not. deny that such early de- 
termination may exist in some cases. 

The new experimental results brought for- 
ward are as follows: The work of Issakow- 
itsch (since published in full in the Bviolo- 
gisches Centralblatt) proves that in Simo- 
cephalus sex-production shows a definite reac- 
tion to temperature changes. At 24° C. a 
parthenogenetic production of females, with 
only the occasional appearance of a male, con- 
tinues until the culture dies out; while a 
reduction to 16° quickly leads, and reduction 
to 8° immediately leads, to the appearance 
of males and later (sometimes immediately) 
to the production of winter eggs. Issakow- 
itsch also shows that a similar effect may be 

*R. Hertwig, ‘ Ueber das Problem der sexuellen 
Differenzierung, in Verhandlungen der Deutschen 
Zoologischen Gesellschaft, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


189 


produced by starvation without change of 
temperature, and hence he concludes (like 
Nussbaum in the case of rotifers) that the 
change of temperature probably acts indirectly 
through its effect on nutrition. Von Mal- 
sen’s work on Dinophilus shows that in a cul- 
ture maintained for months at 10°-12° C. 
male and female eggs are produced in a ratio 
of 1:3, while at 25° the ratio rises to 1: 1.75, 
and sometimes reaches 1:1. Both these cases 
seem free from the objection that applies to 
so many of the earlier experiments on sex- 
modification that the statistical results may 
be vitiated by different rates of mortality in 
larve of different sexes. Unfortunately the 
same can not be said of Professor Hertwig’s 
own experiments on frogs, ingenious and in- 
teresting as they are. Experiments with 
changes of temperature gave no really satis- 
factory result, though Hertwig seems inclined 
to believe that higher temperatures favor the 
production of females. On the other hand, 
either over-ripeness or under-ripeness of the 
eggs (a condition obtained by artificially de- 
laying or hastening fertilization) led in every 
ease to a large excess of males. Like those of 
earlier observers, these results are not very 
convincing, owing to the high mortality of the 
larve, which must be reared to the time of: 
metamorphosis before the sex can certainly be 
determined. The most satisfactory results 
appear to have been obtained from a culture 
of over-ripe eggs in which 20 per cent. to 30 
per cent. of the fertilized eggs were reared 
to this period, the result being 317 males to 
13 females; and in one case of under-ripe 
eges 40 larve that were successfully reared 
were all males. These results can hardly be 
ascribed to accident; but the dubious charac- 
ter of the statistical data obtained by rearing 
tadpoles and other larve through long periods 
of time has been so clearly shown by the ex- 
perience of many other observers that the true 
interpretation of the facts in this case seems 
by no means clear. 

Hertwig’s general theory of sex-production 
was primarily suggested by his own earlier 
experiments on the relation between nucleus 
and protoplasm in the protozoa. These ex- 
periments led him ‘to the conclusion that the 


190 


ratio between the nuclear and the protoplasmic 
mass (the ‘ Kernplasmarelation,’ expressed by 
the formula &/p) tends towards a normal value 
that is in the long run constant for the species, 
though it undergoes cyclical changes both in 
the individual cell and in successive genera- 
tions of cells. In ordinary or ‘functional’ 
growth the value of k/p undergoes a tem- 
porary. decrease, owing to the more rapid 
growth of the protoplasm, but this induces a 
subsequent more rapid ‘ divisional’? growth of 
the nucleus which raises the value of k/p to 
a point above the normal, and finally leads to 
cell-division by which the normal ratio is 
again approximately restored. Long-contin- 
ued ‘ autogenous” (7. e., vegetative or asexual) 
reproduction causes, however, a gradual per- 
manent increase in the value of k/p (1%. e., a 
‘nuclear hypertrophy) and this necessitates a 
reorganization by conjugation through which 
the normal condition is restored. The value 
of k/p may also be experimentally altered by 
conditions of food, temperature and the like; 
and here, according to Hertwig’s view, lies the 
possibility of affecting the sexual relations by 
external conditions. 

Professor Hertwig’s application of this con- 
ception to sex-production in the metazoa is, 
we think, open to serious criticism. His cen- 
tral assumption is that the ‘ Kernplasmarela- 
tion’ differs in the two sexes, having a higher 
value in the male (7. e., the nuclear mass is 
assumed to be relatively greater in that sex), 
and any influence that tends to increase this 
value, whether in the gametes, in the zygote, 
or in the developing embryo, favors or de- 
termines the production of the male condition, 
and vice versa. Since the egg contributes te 
the germ the entire mass of protoplasm and 
half the nucleus, while the spermatozoon con- 
tributes only half the nucleus, ‘the ege nat- 
urally takes the lion’s share’ in the determina- 
tion of the ‘ Kernplasmarelation’ and hence 
in the determination of sex. In case of the 
frog, over-ripe and under-ripe eggs tend alike 
to produce males, because in the former (long 
retained in the oviduct) the nuclear substance 
has increased at the expense of the protoplasm, 
while in the latter the protoplasm has not yet 
completed its growth—either case giving a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


relatively high value to k/p. In view of the 
fact that the nucleus breaks down and the first 
polar spindle is formed at the time the egg 
leaves the ovary, this explanation does not 
seem very convincing, at least in the case of 
over-ripe eggs. As applied to the cases of 
Simocephalus and Dinophilus the argument 
becomes too involved for detailed review here, 
since the two cases are diametrically opposed, 
a higher temperature favoring in the one a 
continued production of parthenogenetic fe- 
males, and in the other the production of 
males; but here too Hertwig attempts to show 
that an explanation may be found in the as- 
sumption of alterations in the value of k/p 
directly or indirectly traceable to the effect of 
temperature. 

It is somewhat surprising to find on how 
small a basis of actual fact the central as- 
sumption of the hypothesis rests. No new 
cytological evidence is brought forward, and 
the only facts given in direct support of the 
assumption are, first, that the value of k/p is 
enormously greater in the spermatozoon than 
in the egg, and secondly, that in all cases 
(such as Dinophilus) where male and female 
eggs are distinguishable before fertilization 
the former are smaller than the latter. It is 
difficult to see how the first of these facts bears 
on the problem, for the question is how the 
male or female value of k/p is produced in 
the zygote, which results from the fusion of 
one gamete from each sex whether it pro- 
duces a male or a female. The second fact is 
assumed by Hertwig to mean that the male- 
producing eggs have a relatively high value 
of k/p, owing to a deficiéney of protoplasm. 
‘Nach allem, was wir tiber Befruchtung wis- 
sen, miissen die Kerne dieser Kleineier (of 
Dinophilus) ebenso gross sein, wie die der 
Grosseier’ (p. 196). But Korschelt’s figures 
of Dinophilus show the nuclei of the small 
eggs very much smaller than those of the large 
ones, \in the ovaries, in the new-laid eggs 
within the capsules, and in the early and late 
cleavage-stages, and there is no actual evi- 
dence, either in these eggs or in any of the 
other cases, that the value of k/p is greater 
in the males than in the females. On the con- 
trary, in the only known cases of nuclear dif- 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


ference between the sexes (the protoplasmic 
mass being the same as far as can be observed) 
it is the female, not the male, that has the 
larger quantity of nuclear material. This 
fact has recently been demonstrated by the re- 
viewer in a dozen different species of hem- 
iptera, representing eight genera, and the 
structure of the spermatozoa shows that the 
same is undoubtedly true of many other spe- 
cies. The difference is here one of nuclear 
constitution and is irrespective of temporary 
changes of nuclear volume such as are com- 
mon to all cells. But even here we can not 
regard the quantitative difference of the nu- 
elei as being primarily responsible for the 
sexual differentiation, for in some of the 
species of the same group no perceptible dif- 
ference in this respect exists between the sexes. 
Without questioning the interest and value 
of Professor Hertwig’s experimental results, it, 
therefore, seems to us that his theory of sex- 
production is without real foundation, and 
that, in the specific form that he has given it, 
it is untenable. KE. B. Witson. 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 


THE FIGURE OF THE SUN. 


Two articles by Professor Charles Lane 
Poor have recently appeared in The Astro- 
physical Journal dealing with a variation in 
the figure of the sun. This research comes 
with special interest at the present ‘time, when 
so many writers are trying to trace relation- 
ships between various terrestrial phenomena 
and different forms of solar activity. 

Among the remarkable photographic work 
done by Rutherfurd was a series of photo- 
graphs of the sun. These are still of such 
unimpaired excellence that they permit ad- 
mirable determinations of the sun’s diameter. 
From a series of such plates extending over 
the years 1870-1872, measurements were made 
of the polar and equatorial radii, from a dis- 
cussion of which it appears that the polar 
radius is sometimes greater and sometimes less 
than the equatorial radius. The individual 
determinations of this difference (polar radius 
—equatorial radius) vary between -—+ 0.77” 
and — 0.72”, and the means are as follows: 
for 1870, September! 22, + 0.50” + 0.10”; for 


SCIENCE. 


LOL 


1871, July 19, — 0.32” + 0.16”, and for 1872, 
July 2, + 0.22” + 0.09”. There is thus in- 
dicated a change in the relative values of the 
polar and equatorial diameters of the sun. 
This conclusion, if true, is of great impor- 
tanee, and it is not strange that Professor 
Poor desired to verify his results by reference 
to other and independent determinations of 
the form of the sun. 

A large number of heliometer measurements. 
of the diameter of the sun were available from 
a very thorough discussion, by Dr. Auwers, of 
the transits of Venus, in 1874 and 1882. Dr. 
Auwers reached the conclusion that the diam- 
eter of the sun at distance unity is 1,919.26”, 
and that the polar diameter slightly exceeds 
the equatorial diameter. This difference, 
however, was attributed by him to the personal 
equation on the part of the observers between 
measures of vertical and horizontal diameters. 
The observations as discussed by Auwers gave 
no indication of a variation in the relative 
values of the different diameters, but were 
rearranged in a form suitable for this dis- 
cussion by Professor Poor. 

Measurements were also made of a short 
series of photographs of the sun taken at 
Northfield by Dr. Wilson. Both the heliom- 
eter determinations and the Northfield pho- 
tographs seem to confirm the results obtained 
from the Rutherfurd photographs. Professor 
Poor thus sums up his conclusions: 

The present investigation would seem to show, 
therefore, that the ratio between the polar and 
equatorial radii of the sun is variable, and that 
the period of this variability is the same as the 
sun-spot period. The sun appears to be a vibra- 
ting body whose equatorial diameter, on the 
average, slightly exceeds the polar diameter. At 
times, however, the polar diameter becomes equal 


to and even greater than the equatorial—the sun 
thus passing from an oblate to a prolate spheroid. 


In a second paper Professor Poor extended 
his investigations to include the elaborate 
heliometer determinations of the sun’s dimen- 
sions, carried on at Gottingen by Shur and 
Ambronn. These observations covered a full 
sun-spot period, from 1890-1902. Ambronn, 
who discussed the observations, gave his spe- 
cial attention to the mean diameter of the 
sun,’ so’ that again* it became necessary to 


192 


rediseuss the results. This Professor Poor 
has done. His conclusion is that these ob- 
servations, when properly interpreted, also 
confirm his theory of the variable form of the 
sun, and curves are given which confirm his 
views. 

It should be stated, however, that the dif- 
ferences derived from the Géttingen observa- 
tions are extremely small, and that Ambronn 
was of the opinion that the differences between 
his determinations of the polar and equatorial 
diameters were due to accidental errors. 


RELATION BETWEEN THE MOTION IN THE LINE OF 
SIGHT, AND THE VARIATION IN BRIGHTNESS 
OF VARIABLE STARS. 


The discovery of new variable stars has 
gone on with increasing rapidity in recent 
years, until now about three thousand va- 
riables are known. The majority of these 
have been found by photographic means at 
the Harvard Observatory. Fair progress has 
been made also in the study of the light- 
eurves of these stars, and definitive elements 
have been found for several hundred of them. 
It can not be said, however, that great progress 
has been made in the determination of the 
underlying causes which produce the varia- 


tions. Im the case of the Algol stars it is 
sure, both from theoretical considerations, 
and from spectroscopic determinations of 


their motion, that the variation is caused by 
a relatively dark, eclipsing body. The bril- 
liant lines of incandescent hydrogen, which 
appear near maximum in the spectra of many 
stars of long period indicate with considerable 
certainty that the variations in their light 
are associated with eruptive disturbances of 
some sort. It was long ago pointed out that 
our sun is probably a variable star of long 
period and small range, and many variable 
stars may exist, whose changes are caused by 
spots of greater or less size. Nevertheless, it 
still remains true that for the great majority 
of variable stars no sure key has been found 
to the seeret of their changes. 

Two recent bulletins of the Lick Observa- 
tory (Nos. 62 and 83) have dealt with a new 
and extremely important phase of this ques- 
tion. In these, Dr. Ralph H. Curtiss, of that 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXTII. No. 579. 


observatory, shows that for the well-known 
variable star W Sagittarii there is a most 
intimate relation between the velocity of 
motion in the line of sight and the changes 
in brightness. This was well indicated by a 
comparison of the Lick determinations of 
motion with the early observations of the 
light-eurve by Schmidt. The similarity is 
most strikingly shown, however, when the 
velocity-curve is compared directly with the 
light-eurve derived from recent photometric 
measurements by Professor Pickering, given 
in the Harvard Annals, Vol. 46, Part 2. A 
comparison of these curves shows a close re- 
semblance even in the details, and proves 
conclusively that both phenomena are due to 
the same underlying causes. Incidentally a 
striking proof is furnished of the accuracy 
of the two widely separated investigations 
thus critically compared. Dr. Curtiss’s work 
marks a distinct step in advance in the study 
of variable stars, and it is to be hoped that 
the research may be extended to as many and 
as faint variables as possible. 
S. I. Batmey. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
BRIEF COMMENT ON RECENT ARTICLES. 


Iy the recent numbers of the Meteorologische 
Zeitschrift (Nos. 7-10, Vol. XXII., 1905) 
there have been many contributions of gen- 
eral scientific interest, on which the following 
brief comments are made: 

The exploration of the free air at great 
heights has been giving records of very low 
temperatures. On March 2, last, at a height 
of 9,717 meters, the temperature was — 85.4° 
C., and on April 4, at 11,010 meters, it was 
—79.6° C. These records were obtained by 
means of ballons-sondes sent up from Vienna. 
So rapid has been the accumulation of data 
from the free air that the mean annual tem- 
perature and the vertical temperature gradi- 
ents at each interval of one kilometer up to a 
height of eleven kilometers have been deter- 
mined, using the results obtained on nearly 
600 balloon ascents. 


Anrarctic meteorology is making rapid 
progress. On the Swedish expedition, under 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


Otto Nordenskjéld, observations were con- 
tinued for twenty months, from March, 1902, 
to October, 1903, on Snow Hill Island (at. 
64° 29’ S.), and for seven months on Paulet 
Island (lat. 63° 22’ S.). The low mean an- 
nual temperature, 10.8° F., resulted from the 
low summer mean of 28.2°, this being the 
lowest Antarctic summer mean on record with 
the exception of that of the Discovery expedi- 
tion. The minimum was —42.5° F.; the 
maximum, 48.7° F. The maximum tempera- 
tures occurred in spring and fall. The pre- 
vailing wind was southwest, and wind veloc- 
ities showed no striking relation to pressure 
changes. Rain fell occasionally. The cirrus 
clouds moved from between west and west- 
southwest, and the same direction was noted 
in the intermediate clouds. The winter was 
clearer than the summer, when fogs prevailed. 


Tue “ Magnetic and Meteorological Obser- 
vations made by the ‘Southern Cross’ Ant- 
arctic Expedition, 1898-1900,” under the direc- 
tion of ©. E. Borchgrevink (London, 1903), 
include the records made at Cape Adare from 
March 3, 1899, to January 28, 1900, the first 
winter records from the Antarctic continent 
(lat. 71°18’ S.; long. 170° 9’ E.). Anti- 
cyclonic winds from east-southeast to south 
prevailed (41 per cent.); calms were noted 
nearly half of the time (41 per cent.). The 
curious fact was noted that the lowest pressure 
sometimes occurred with the end of a storm. 


Tue laws governing the size of rain-drops 
have received some attention, notably of late 
at the hands of Defant, of Innsbruck, who 
reaches the following conclusion. The forma- 
tion of drops depends upon the combination of 
smaller droplets, but, contrary to the views of 
Reynolds and Lenard, this union is between 
droplets of the same size, or of nearly the same 
size. Drops of unequal size unite less easily 
the greater the difference in their sizes. 

As the result of actinometrical measure- 
ments made on Mont’ Blane in August and 
September, 1904, Hansky finds the most prob- 
able value of the solar constant 3.23 calories. 

Das Gewitter, by Albert Gockel, 2d edition, 
Koln, 1905, is an excellent ‘popular’ discus- 
sion of present knowledge concerning thunder- 


SCIENCE. 


193 


storms, including lightning, lightning rods 
and atmospheric electricity in general. 


Cirrus clouds, on account of their delicacy 
and beauty, offer an attractive field for indi- 
vidual non-instrumental study, which may 
lead to interesting conclusions regarding the 
various methods of formation of these clouds. 
Osthoff, of Cologne, has recently made a con- . 
siderable investigation of this sort, which will 
prove interesting to any one undertaking a 
similar quest. 


THE transparency of fog has been experi- 
mentally investigated by Haecker, of Kiel, by 
means of a new method depending on exact 
photometric measurements of the visibility of 
surfaces at different distances. The instru- 
ment used is a ‘ polarization-photometer.” A 
practical result of such work would be the 
application of the results to lighthouses, ships’ 
lights, ete. 


A REMARKABLE ‘dust fog,’ observed in the 
Malay Archipelago in October, 1902, of such 
density as to interfere with navigation, has 
been investigated by the Batavia Observatory 
staff, large numbers of circular letters of in- 
quiry having been sent to ship captains whose 
business took them to those seas at the time 
in question. The causes of this remarkable 
dust fog have been sought in the deficient 
rainfall of the year 1902; in extended forest 
fires, especially in Borneo and southern 
Sumatra, and in the transportation of dust by 
the southeast trade from Australia. As the 
progress of the dust from Australia could be 
followed, by successive stages, northward, the 
latter cause was doubtless the most impor- 
tant one. 


Mernarpus of Berlin has been paying special 
attention to the relation between the general 
winds, the circulation of the water in the 
North Atlantic Ocean and the weather of 
adjacent lands. His latest conclusions are 
summarized as follows, A and B being groups 
of conditions which occur in association with 
one another. 

A. 1. Weak Atlantic 
February). 7 

2. Low water temperatures on the European - 
eoast .(November—April). 


circulation (August— 


194 


3. Low air temperatures in central Hurope 
from February to April. - 

4. Little ice off Newfoundland in spring. 

5. Heavy ice off Iceland in spring. 

6. Bad wheat and rye harvests in western 
Europe and northern Germany. 

B. 1. Strong Atlantic circulation 
February) . 

2. High water temperatures on the Huropean 
coast (November—April). 

3. High air temperatures in central Hurope 
from February to April. 

4. Heavy ice off Newfoundland in spring. 

5. Little ice off Iceland in spring. 

6. Good wheat and rye harvests in western 
BKurope and northern Germany. 


(August— 


THE wind observations made during the 
Antarctic expedition of the Gauss show that 
the station was on the poleward side of the 
barometric depression which surrounds the 
Antarctic ice. There were few winds from the 
western quadrant, and an increase of pressure 
to the south, with an anticyclone in that direc- 
tion, must be assumed. ‘The station was, on 
the whole, nearer the cireumpolar low-pressure 
ring than the anticyclone. Cyclonic weather 
waS more common than anticyclonic. Low 
temperatures prevailed with westerly winds 
and during calms. Easterly winds brought a 
rise of temperature. 

MerroroLocicaL observations during the 
solar eclipse of August 30, last; made at 
Bernau, in southern Germany, showed that 
the temperature fell from 65.8° to 59.7° in ten 
minutes, and then rose again. The wind fell 
from a moderate velocity to a calm during the 
eclipse, and then increased again. 

R. DEC. Warp. 


NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF NATURAL 
SOIENOE. 


HIPPOCRATEAN FISHES. 

IncLupED in the Corpus hippocraticum is, 
next after Herodotus, one of the oldest of 
Greek prose writings, a work ‘On Regimen,’ 
in four books, by an unknown author, yet re- 
garded by Galen as not unworthy of the 
“father of medicine’ himself. Throughout 
all antiquity, this work, especially the second 
book, was held in high esteem; nor ean its in- 
terest be said to have vanished at the present 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


day, whether regarded from a historical, 
literary or purely scientific standpoint. In 
that part of the second book which treats of 
the dietetic value of various plants and ani- 
mals, as many as fifty-two species of the 
latter are enumerated, seventeen of which are 
fishes; and their order of arrangement is such 
as to have suggested to Burckardt’ the idea of 
a definite system, called by him the ‘Coan 
scheme of classification.’ 

Notwithstanding the large number of fishes 
mentioned in this work, some of the names 
occurring here for the first time, I have been 
unable to find any reference to it in ichthyo- 
logical literature. Both Littré and Fuchs, in 
their translation of the text—there is no Eng- 
lish version—attempt a precise identification 
of species, but judged by the standard set by 
Hoffman and Jordan in their ‘ Catalogue of 
Greek Fishes,’ it can not be said that these 
classicists have been uniformly successful. A 
comparison with the catalogue referred to 
shows that at least ten of the Hippocratean 
species can be recognized with certainty, five 
are doubtful, ahd the remaining two may be 
despaired of as hopeless. One of these, 
@legitis, also written éegytis, seems to be 
peculiar to the work in question, and no one 
has ventured a conjecture as to its meaning. 

Of great importance for the early history of 
ichthyology are the abundant notices con- 
tained in Athenzeus, 90 species of fishes being 
enumerated by him in alphabetical order. 
The extent to which this author drew upon 
Dorion’s compendium, and the sources from 
which this in turn was derived, have been set 
forth in an extremely interesting essay by 
Wellmann.” From this we take the following 
estimate of Dorion’s treatise, citations from 
the latter occurring in thirty-four passages of 
Atheneus: 

Die erhaltenen Fragmente zeigen, dass das Werk 
in ziemlich umfassender Weise die Fischwelt be- 

2°Das koische Tiersystem,’ Verh. Naturf. Ges. 
Basel, XV., pp. 377-414, 1904. 

* Hermes, Vol. XXIII., pp. 179-193 (1888). 
Other valuable references to the early literature 
are given in the chapter contributed by Eugene 
Oder (‘Ueber Fische und Fischfang’) to 
Susemihl’s ‘History of Alexandrian Literature,’ 
Vol. I., 1891. 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


handelte und nicht blos tiber die verschiedenen 
Namen eines und desselben Fisches und deren 
Schreibung, tiber die verschiedenen Arten, deren 
Unterschiede und Aufenthaltsorte Aufschliisse 
gab, sondern auch auf Vorschriften tiber Kochen 
und Braten derselben einging. 


THE REAL UNICORN. 

In his review of Dr. Murray’s recent work 
on museums, Mr. F. A. Bather* observes that 
the author refrains from any attempt to de- 
cide what the unicorn really was, notwith- 
standing that numerous endeavors have been 
made to identify fabulous creatures with mod- 
erm quadrupeds. It would have been very 
agreeable had Mr. Bather chosen himself to 
enlighten us on this matter; since he does not, 
the following note is suggested. 

What appears to have been the origin of the 
“real unicorn,’:that is to say, of the creature 
made known to the western world under that 
name by Ctesias, has been set forth in several 
interesting essays by German writers, amongst 
whom it will be sufficient to mention Schrader, 
Hiiders, Lauchert and Goldstaub, the two last- 
named concerning themselves especially with 
the history of the ‘ Physiologus.’* Excellent 
reason is shown by these authors for freeing 
Ctesias of the charge of deliberate invention ; 
he is believed to have recorded things pretty 
nearly as he saw them; no attempt is evident 
on his part to impose upon the credulity of 
others; although proved to be mistaken in 
some particulars, it is possible for us to dis- 
eover the reason, the unicorn furnishing a 
‘ease in point. 

One can readily see that the description of 
the ‘ Monoceros’ which we owe to Ctesias does 
not repose upon living specimens, any more 
than does that given by Herodotus of the 
Phenix; what the former actually saw, and 
correctly depicts, are animal reliefs graven 
upon the walls of the Persian court at Per- 
sepolis, the like of which exist to this day. 
Among these representations the figure of the 


1 Museumskunde, Vol. I. (1905), p. 170. 

?ZLauchert, F., ‘Geschichte des Physiologus’ 
(Strasburg, 1889). Goldstaub, M., ‘Der Phys- 
iologus und seine Weiterbildung.’ Philol., Sup- 
plement, Bd. VIII. (1901), pp. 337-404. 


SCIENCE. 


195 


unicorn ig several times repeated, being, in 
fact, conventionalized profiles of an Asiatic 
ruminant new to the Greeks, with the two 
horns appearing in side-view as one. Excel- 
lent copies of these figures are to be found in 
standard works on ancient Persian and As- 
syrian art. 

The post-classical history of the unicorn, 
together with the whole menagerie of folklore, 
has been a favorite study of French writers, 
the important works of Berger de Xivrey,’ le 
P. Cahier, Hippeau and others leaving little 
further to be desired in their line. In par- 
ticular these authors have traced the extent to 
which popular natural history traditions be- 
came modified, early in the Christian era, 
through the influence of moral and religious 
interpretations. Thereafter, the stream of 
popular ideas relating to animals divides into 
two parallel branches, which remain for many 
centuries distinct: the one manifesting itself 
in the numerous versions of the Bestiary, the 
other in that purely fabulous natural history 
which gained wide circulation under the title 
of ‘Wonders of India,’ and whose source ap- 
pears to have been a forgery of a letter from 
Alexander to Aristotle concerning the Indian 
conquest. Despite its unauthenticity, a pro- 
totype of the fraudulent document in question 
would seem to have been current as early as 
the Alexandrian period. 

C. R. Eastman. 


ROBERT BOWNE WARDER. 


Rosert BowNE WaRDER died at his home in 
Washington, July 23, 1905, after an illness 
extending over nearly a year. 

Professor Warder was born in Cincinnati, 
O., March 28, 1848, and spent his early life in 
his country home at ‘ Aston,’ North Bend, O. 
His character was formed under the influence 
of the Society of Friends, and this faith re- 
mained the dominant feature of his life. 
From childhood he showed the effect of his 
parents’ training and example, in a broad and 
catholic view of the ethics of life, and in a 


-love of truth and scientific investigation. This 


devotion to truth was an especial characteristic 
and governed his life and actions throughout. 


* Traditions Tératologiques (Paris, 1836). 


196 


He was graduated from a Friends’ institu- 
tion, Harlham College, at Richmond, Ind., in 
1866, and afterwards spent some time at the 
Illinois State University at Champaign, where 
he was instructor in chemistry and natural 
philosophy. This work of teaching seemed 
to show Professor Warder his natural bent, 
and his energy was thenceforth devoted to 
studying the broad principles underlying all 
natural science. He spent some years in 
traveling, chiefly in the western half of the 
United States, in connection with the different 
state geological surveys. In 1873 he went to 
Harvard, where he was graduated as B.S. in 
chemistry in 1874. 

After graduating at Harvard he spent a 
year traveling in Germany, studying at Gies- 
sen under Heinrich Will, and at Berlin under 
Hofmann. His attention was, however, espe- 
cially devoted to methods of teaching chem- 
istry in the German universities, and the 
application of theoretical chemistry to the 
practical sciences. His chief aim was to fit 
himself in the broadest sense for his work of 
teaching. This was his main desire through- 
out life, to help others, and he never faltered. 
On returning to this country he was asso- 
ciated with Professor F. W. Clarke at the 
University of Cincinnati from 1875 to 1879 
as professor of chemistry and physics. Pro- 
fessor Warder early saw the close relation be- 
tween these then distinct branches of natural 
science, and his papers on ‘The Speed of 
Saponification of Ethyl Acetate’ and ‘ Kvi- 
dence of Atomic Motion within Liquid Mole- 
cules’ were pioneer investigations in the field 
of the physical chemistry of to-day. 

He was engaged in this line of research 
from 1879 to 1883, when he accepted the chair 
of chemistry at Purdue University, where he 
remained until 1887. This position carried 
with it the duties of state chemist, work of a 
commercial character rather foreign to his 
natural tastes, but to which he gave the same 
painstaking devotion that characterized all 
his work. 
made to pay tribute to physical chemistry, as 
is shown by papers on ‘Influence of Time in 
Fertilizer Analysis,’ ‘Speed of Dissociation of 
Brass,’ ete. 


SCIENCE. 


Even these routine analyses were \ 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


In 1884 he married Gulielma M. Dorland, 
who also belonged to the Society of Friends, 
and like himself was interested in evangelical 
work. Their life together was one of perfect 
harmony. 

It was probably about this time that Pro- 
fessor Warder felt more keenly than ever the 
call to help others in another field than chem- 
istry. His philanthropic and evangelical 
work had always been foremost in his mind 
and labors, and in 1887 he accepted the pro- 
fessorship of chemistry at Howard University 
in Washington. Here he labored until he 
died, teaching chemistry and physics, but 
above all setting an example and teaching the 
principles of a Christian life with an unselfish 
devotion. 

In spite of lack of facilities, his work at this 
period on ‘ Dynamical Theory of Albumenoid 
Ammonia,’ ‘Recent Theories of Geometric 
Tsomerism,’ ‘Cross Fertilization of the Sci- 
ences’ and ‘The Major Premise in Physical 
Chemistry’ showed his natural inclination to : 
this phase of chemistry. 

Professor Warder’s later papers were chiefly 
devoted to applying the laws of mass action 
to and showing the speed of chemical reac- 
tions for the analytical data obtained by other 
investigators. 

He was essentially a critic and his devotion 
to truth caused him to scrutinize the investi- 
gations of others with the same zealous care 
with which he looked for flaws in his own 
work. This high standard, coupled with an 
unusual modesty, often caused a hesitation 
which sometimes obscured his really profound 
knowledge. 

No one went to Professor Warder for » 
and was turned away empty-handed. What 
he had was given freely, and he seemed to feel 
that no labor was too great in his fundament: 
desire to help others. 

At a meeting of the Washington Section of 
the American Chemical Society, held on No- 
vember 9, 1905, the following resolutions were 
adopted: 


WHEREAS, death has removed from earth our 
friend and co-worker, Robert Bowne Warder. 

Resolved, That in his death chemistry has lost 
a disciple who gave to her service the enthusiasm 


Frepsruary 2, 1906.] 


of his youth, the strength of his manhood and 
the counsel of his riper years. 

The American Chemical Society has lost a mem- 
ber who through both his experimental researches 
and his theoretical studies and especially by his 
now classical work on reaction velocities has made 
unusual contributions to the advancement of the 
science for the promotion of which this society 
exists. These distinguished services have placed 
all who are interested in chemistry under lasting 
obligations, and his name will be honored so long 
as this science is cultivated. 

The student of chemistry has lost a friend who 
was always ready to extend a helping hand and to 
contribute freely from his rare store of knowledge 
and extended experience. 

The community has lost a man who by his civic 
virtues, his high ideals, his willingness to as- 
sume and faithfulness to perform duties of an 
unusually trying kind, his catholicity of views 
and of interests, and his tolerance of and kindly 
sympathy for the opinions of others commanded 
the respect and admiration of all with whom 
he came in contact. 

His life was a benefaction, his presence a bless- 
ing, his practical christianity a continual source 
of edification and his career one of great useful- 
ness to man. 

We ask that this tribute to his memory be 
spread upon the minutes of the society; that it be 
printed in the proceedings and in ScrENncE, and 
that a copy be forwarded to Mrs. Warder. 

On behalf of the society, 

FRANK V. CAMERON, 
F. W. CLARKE, 

Won. H. SEAMAN, 
FREDERIC P, DEWEY. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tur German emperor has conferred on 
Professor Simon Newcomb the order ‘pour 
le mérite’ in science and the arts. 

Proressor Emm Fiscuer, of Berlin, has 
been elected president of the German Chem- 
ical Society. 

Tue Technical Institute at Munich has 
conferred the honorary degree of doctor of 
engineering on Dr. Felix Klein, professor of 
mathematics at Gottingen. 

THE Geological Society of London has made 
the following awards: The Wollaston medal 
to Dr. Henry Woodward, formerly keeper of 
the geological department of the British Mu- 


SCIENCE. 


197 


the Murchison medal to Mr. C. T. 
Clough, of the Geological Survey, known for 
his excellent work in Scotland; the Lyell 
medal to Professor F. D. Adams, the Canadian 
geologist, whose petrographical work is well 
known; the Prestwich medal to Mr. William 
Whitaker, whose long labors on the Tertiary 
deposits of England render him a most fitting 
recipient. The funds are awarded as follows: 
The Wollaston to Dr. F. L. Kitchin, who, not 
long ago, was appointed paleontologist to the 
Geological Survey of Great Britain; . the 
Murchison to Mr. Herbert Lapworth, who has 
followed in his father’s footsteps with excellent 
work on the Welsh border; the Lyell is divided 
between Mr. W. G. Fearnsides and Mr. R. H. 
Solly; the Barlow-Jameson goes to Mr. H. C. 
Beesley. 


seum ; 


Dr. A. B. Renpuz, who has been an assistant 
in the botanical department of the British 
Museum since 1888, has been appointed keeper 
of that department in succession to Mr. George 
Murray, recently retired. 

Proressor T. J. J. Sen, U. S. Navy, has 
recently been elected to membership in the 
Société francaise de Physique, Société as- 
tronomique de France, Cireolo Mathematico 
di Palermo, and to life membership in the 
Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 

Mr. G. W. Rowers, instructor in sugar anal- 
ysis in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, has been given leave of absence for 
several months in order that he may go to 
Porto Rico to take charge of a sugar planta- 
tion on the Constancia estate. 

Proressor Francis E. Luoyp, of the depart- 
ment of biology of Teachers College, Columbia 
University, has resigned to accept a position 
in connection with the Desert Laboratory of 
the Carnegie Institution. 

In accordance with the terms of the fund 
established anonymously, a. course of eight 
lectures will be delivered by Harvard pro- 
fessors at Yale, following the first lecture 
under the fund delivered by President Eliot on 
November 13, on the subject, ‘ Resemblances 
and Differences among the American Univer- 
sities, and printed in this journal. The re- 
mainder of the series will be on philosophy. 


198 


Professor Palmer will give seven lectures on 
“Some Aspects of Ethics’ and Professor 
Miinsterberg will give one lecture. 

Proressor WILHELM OstTWALp, of the Uni- 
versity of Leipzig, has completed his courses 
at Harvard University, and has since been 
giving a course of lectures on ‘The Relations 
of Energy to Life and Thought’ before the 
psychological department of Columbia Uni- 
versity, and a course of lectures on ‘ Physical 
Chemistry’ before the chemical department. 
Professor Ostwald will return to Germany 
next week. 

Tue sixth lecture in the Harvey Society 
course was given by Professor Lewellys F. 
Barker, of Johns Hopkins University, at the 
New York Academy of Medicine on January 
27 on ‘The Neurones.’ 

Prorsssor J. J. THomson lectured before 
the Royal Institution on January 19 on ‘ Some 
Applications of the Theory of Electrie Dis- 
charge to Spectroscopy,’ and on February 2 
Professor §. P. Thompson lectured on ‘The 
Electric Production of Nitrates from the 
Atmosphere.’ 

Ir is said that a library building to be 
erected on the campus of the University of 
Chicago is to be the memorial of the late 
President Harper. It will be erected on the 
Midway Plaisance, between Lexington and 
Ellis Avenues, and the cost is to be defrayed 
by popular subscription. 

Ir is planned to present to the city of Phila- 
delphia a statue of Dr. Joseph Leidy, to be 
erected in the City Hall Plaza. Dr. Leidy, 
who was born in that city in 1823 and died 
there in 1891, added much to its scientific 
eminence, and as president of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences, professor of human and 
comparative anatomy and zoology in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, and president of the 
Wagner Free Institute of Science, accom- 
plished much for these institutions. The sum 
of $10,000 is being collected for the memorial. 
Contributions may be sent to Mr. Edward B. 
Smith, treasurer of the Leidy Memorial Com- 
mittee, 511 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 


We learn from The British Medical Journal 
that in,connection with the centenary of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 579. 


birth of Joseph Skoda the Vienna Medical 
Society has decided to issue a complete edition 
of the famous physician’s writings. A com- 
mittee has been formed for the purpose of 
carrying this scheme into execution; it con- 
sists of Professors Chrobak, yon Schrotter, yon 
Neusser, Benedikt and MHeitler, with Pro- 
fessors Neuburger and Tdéply as representa- 
tives of the historical sciences. In this edi- 
tion will be collected Skoda’s lectures in the 
University of Vienna, the articles contributed 
by him to medical journals, and the special 
scientific opinions and judgments often deliv- 
ered by him, together with the other published 
works of the great clinician. ~ 


We learn from Nature that a memorial to 
the late Dr. George Salmon, F.R.S., provost 
of Trinity College, Dublin, was unveiled on 
Friday, January 5, in the national cathedral 
of St. Patrick’s, with which Dr. Salmon was 
officially associated during the best years of 
his life. An account of the ceremony ap- 
peared in the Kensington Hapress of January 
5, from which we learn that the memorial con- 
sists of two windows in St. Peter’s Chapel, the 
work of Mr. C. E. Kempe, depicting scenes 
in the career of St. Peter, and a medallion of 
Dr. Salmon, by Mr. A. Bruce-Joy, with a 
Latin inscription of which the following is a 
translation: “That the name of George Sal- 
mon may abide in the memory of mankind 
this monument has been erected by his faith- 
ful friends and grateful pupils. Fellow of 
Trinity College, Dublin—afterwards regius 
professor of divinity, and finally provost, he 
was for thirty-three years chancellor of this 
cathedral church. A mathematician both 
adroit and powerful, he probed with keen in- 
sight the beginnings of christian history, and 
specially the origin of the New Testament 
Books; as teacher and councillor he was un- 
wearied in the servi¢e of the Irish church. 
Shrewd, courteous, serious, kindly. He was 
born in 1819, and died in 1904. The fear of 
the Lord is the distinction of wisdom, and be- 
fore honor is humility.” 


Dr. H. J. P. Sprencen, F.R.S., the inventor 
of the mercury air-pump, died on January 14, 
aged seventy-two years. 


FEBRUARY 2, 1906.] 


Tue deaths are announced of Professor H. 
Ravyl-Riickhard, docent in anatomy at Berlin, 
and of Dr. Chelius, professor of geology in the 
Technical School at Darmstadt. 

By the will of Marshall Field, filed on 
January 24 in Chicago, the city receives 
$8,000,000 for the endowment and maintenance 
of the Field Columbian Museum, now situ- 
ated in Jackson Park. The bequest is on 
condition that within six years from the death 
of Mr. Field there shall be provided a satis- 
factory site for the permanent home of the 
museum. 

By the will of W. C. Putnam, the Daven- 
port (lowa) Academy of Sciences becomes 
prospectively one of the most richly endowed 
institutions of its kind in the world. Mr. 
Putnam left an estate of $700,000 with pro- 
visions for limited incomes to relatives, the 
remainder of the revenues to be paid the 
academy and the entire estate to go to that 
institution, at the death of the surviving 
brothers and sisters. His art collection and 
library, each the most valuable private collec- 
tion in the state, are left to the academy, with 
provision for a fireproof building in which 
they are to be installed. 

Ar its annual meeting on January 24 the 
board of regents of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion adopted a resolution accepting the offer 
of Mr. Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, to convey 
to the institution the title to his art collection, 
and to bequeath $500,000 for the construction 
of a fireproof building in which to house it. 
Mr. Freer is to make the conveyance at once, 
although the collection is to remain in his pos- 
session until his death. 


By the will of the late Charles H. Nelson, 
of Grafton, Mass., his home and $75,000 is to 
be given to the city of Grafton for a library, 
and $10,000 is to be given to Vassar College, 
both bequests to take effect after the death of 
his widow. 


By the will of the late Dr. John C. Warren, 
professor of anatomy and surgery at Harvard 
University, who died in 1856, the most perfect 
mastodon skeleton in the world and many 
other specimens of great value are likely to 
pass into new hands. Dr. Warren wrote a 


SCIENCE. 


199 


still classical monograph on the ‘ Mastodon 
Giganteus of North America’ in 1852, in 
which the skeleton in question was described. 
He put it into a private museum of his own 
in company with many other curious speci- 
mens. There is the great ‘Shawangunk’ 
head, which is that of a still larger mastodon. 
There are many non-articulated bones of the 
Baltimore mastodon. The very fine collection 
of fossil foot-prints may be mentioned, but 
the reader is referred for further details to 
the Harvard Bulletin of January 17, 1906. 
Dr. Warren left this collection to be held by 
his children in trust as long as any should 
survive, after which it is to be shared by the 
living grandchildren. The time has now come 
for the latter to consider what disposition they 
will make of it. Professor J. Collins Warren 
and Professor Thomas Dwight, both of the 
Harvard Medical School, are among the heirs. 


THE Royal Botanic Society, London, has re- 
ceived £1,000 from Dr. Robert Barnes, £200 
from Lord Lister and other gifts. 


Tue department of mammalogy of the 
American Museum -.of Natural History re- 
ceived in December a series of eight hippo- 
potamus skulls showing various stages of 
growth from the young to the adult from Lake 
Ngami, South Africa. The department has 
also secured four huge giraffe skulls from 
Bechuana Land, South Africa. Comparison 
with the skull of the museum’s 
giraffe skeleton shows that these newly ac: 
quired skulls must have belonged to animals 
18 feet high. 


THE government of Brazil has decreed a 
prize of $10,000 for any one who exhibits 100,- 
000 Manicoba rubber trees within 18 months 
from the date of the announcement, and three 
other prizes for the three next largest planta- 
tions, the smallest of which, in order to gain 
a prize, must not be of less than 20,000 trees. 


We learn from the London Times that the 
first expedition sent out to West Africa by 
the Liverpool Institute of Commercial Re- 
search in the Tropics left the Mersey on 
January 6 by the Elder-Dempster steamer 
Zungeru. The members, who are conducted 
by Lord Mountmorres, director of the insti- 


mounted 


2U0 


tute, are—as chemist, Mr. Kenneth Fisher, 
senior demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, 
who has been for some time engaged on re- 
search work at Jena University; as botanist, 
Mr. L. Farmer, assistant curator of herbarium 
at Kew; as entomologist, Dr. Slater Jackson, 
of McGill University, and formerly curator 
of the Canadian government biological sta- 
tion; and as commercial adviser, Mr. Coates, 
a trader who has long acted as buyer on the 
West Coast of Africa for Mr. John Holt, one 
of the best-known of African merchants. The 
expedition is proceeding to Dakar, Bathurst, 
Konakey,. and, if possible, to the Cameroons. 
Being only an experimental expedition, the 
stay on the West Coast will not be of very 
long duration; in fact, Lord Mountmorres is 
to return in time to visit the exhibition of 
rubber at Ceylon in April. But should the 
results prove satisfactory, there is every prob- 
ability that the institute will despatch a second 
expedition to spend a long period in Africa. 
Sir Alfred Jones (president of the institute) 
and many leading Liverpool gentlemen were 
present on board the Zungeru, and gave the 
members of the expedition a most cordial 
send-off. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


ANNOUNCEMENT is made that Mr. John D. 
Rockefeller has given $1,450,000 to the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. Of this sum, $1,000,000 
is for the permanent endowment, $350,000 to 
cover the current expenditures or deficit of 
the various departments of the university to 
July 1, 1907, and the remaining $100,000 is 
to provide a fund, the interest of which is to 
go to the widow of the late President Harper 
during her lifetime. 

Brown Universiry will build a library as a 
memorial to John Hay. Mr. Andrew Car- 
negie has consented to give one half of the 
cost, which is estimated at $300,000. 

Mr. Jonn D. Rockrreter has given $115,- 
000 to Acadia College, at Wolfville, N. S., a 
Baptist institution. 

A NEw building is to be erected immediately 
at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute to be 
devoted to the department of electrical engi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von, XXIIT. No. 579. 


neering. For some time past the quarters 
have been inadequate for the work, and the 
increasing size of the entering classes for the 
past three years has finally resulted in the 
decision on the part of the trustees to proceed 
immediately with the erection of this new 
building. Last fall a course in eléctrie rail- 
way engineering was added. In the erection 
of the new building it is proposed to provide 
ample facilities for the course of instruction 
in this work and also to introduce the most 
complete experimental facilities possible. The 
quarters which have in the past been occupied 
by the electrical engineering department will 
be divided between the departments of physics 
and of chemistry, thus affording to each of 
these departments much needed relief. 


Messrs. Marurckroptr, of St. Louis, offer 
$500 for the year 1906-07 to a student of 
chemistry in the Graduate School of Harvard 
University, on condition that he serve the sub- 
sequent year in the Mallinckrodt chemical 
works at a suitable salary. 


By the will of the late Sir J. S. Burdon- 
Sanderson, formerly regius professor of medi- 
cine at Oxford, the laboratory of the patho- 
logical department of the university is be- 
queathed the sum of £2,000, as an endowment 
to provide for pathological research there, the 
fund to be vested in the professors of human 
anatomy, physiology and pathology, who are to 
have absolute discretion as to the application 
of the fund, 


THE widow and children of the late Dr. von 
Siegle, of Stuttgart, have, as we learn from 
Nature, presented 50,000 Marks in memory of 
the deceased to the chemical institute of the 
University of Tiibingen. 


Dr. Louis Copserr has been appointed pro- 
fessor of pathology, and Mr. L. T. O’Shea, 
professor of applied chemistry, in the Univer- 
sity of Sheffield. 


Mr. CrHarurs S. Brapiery, practising elec- 
trician of New York City, known for his con- 
tributions to electricity and chemistry, has 
been elected acting professor of chemical 
practise in the Carnegie Technical Schools, 
Pittsburg. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frppay, Frepruary 9, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 

Section G—Botany: PROFESSOR FRANCIS E. 

Lioyp 


Society of American Bacteriologists: Pro- 
TESSOR KF. P. GORHAM................... 205 


The Botanical Society of America: PROFESSOR 
Wrnt1aM TRELEASE 


The Association of American Geographers: 
Nas TR BR et ibaa cy ihe Gi a Gone Oe Re eR Ie ER 


Scientific Books :— 
Santayana’s The Life of Reason: PROFESSOR 
Joun Dewey. fies’s Economic Geology of 
the United States: Dr. A. C. Lane. Cohn’s 
Die Reichstoffe, Semmler’s Die atherischen 


Oele: Prorrssorn Marston Taytor Bocrert 223 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Philosophical Society of Washington: 
CHarLtes K. Wrap. The Chemical Society 
of Washington: C. E. Waters. The Ore- 
gon State Academy of Sciences: PROFESSOR 
G. E. Cocuirt. The Clemson College Sci- 
ence Club: F. H. H. Catnoun. The Mis- 
sourt Society of Teachers of Mathematics: 
ALDER AIMEE Jf srarenstaeen sirtaten eters aybieneveucieutee 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Relation of Museum to Eaperts: §. M. 
Tracy. The Letters K and W in Zoological 
Nomenclature: T. D. A. CocKERELL..,.... 


229 


232 


Special Articles :— 
The Classification of Mosquitoes: Dr. Har- 
FESS ONE Crop D) YIM es ones seer evens ua otis ae ne 


The Question of Tax-free Alcohol: PROFESSOR 
PBEM ON Gerad tatiea this cre texsiny axe sere csunnses 


The Andrew Carnegie Research Scholarship. . 


233 


234 
235 
Scholarships and Fellowships of the Rocke- — 

feller Institute for Medical Research..... 
The American Philosophical Society......... 
Scientific Notes and News................. 


University and Educational News........... 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
tor review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri: 
*son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 
VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
SECTION G—BOTANY. 

Section G of the American Association © 
for the Advancement of Science met at 
New Orleans during convocation week. In 
the absence of the chairman, Dr. Erwin F. 
Smith, the meetings of the section were 
presided over by Professor S. M. Tracy, 
and by Professor B. L. Robinson, past- 
chairman and vice-president of the asso- 
ciation. The vice-presidential address, by 
Professor Robinson, has been printed in 
full in this journal. 

The following papers were presented: 


The Secretion of Salt by the Leaves of 
Spartina Stricta: F. H. Bruures. 


Improvement of the Quality of Grapes: 
T. V. Munson. 


The Preparation of Non-toxic Distilled 
Water: B. H. Livineston. 


Ascidia in Fraxinus: Gore H. SHULL. 
Specimens, photographs and drawings 
were exhibited to show the occurrence of 
ascidia in Fraximus Americanus, and this 
occurrence was construed as a strong sup- 
port for the thesis that variations of plants 
and animals:are narrowly limited in kind 
by the characters they already possess. 
Although this abnormality must be ex- 
tremely rare in Fraxinus, and has never 
been recorded, there is a group of young 
trees near the station for experimental 
evolution on which it is a frequent ocecur- 
rence. Of thirty trees taken consecutively 
eleven bore 103 ascidia, the other trees be- 
ing entirely normal. The relation of these 


202 


abnormal leaves to the normal pitchers of 
Sarracenia and Nepenthes, and to the pel- 
tate leaves of many other species, was re- 
called, and it was shown that the relation 
between the pitcher and the peltate leaf 
rests upon the ratio between radial and 
tangential growth of the leaf tissue, and 
that this ratio fluctuates about a definite 
mean value for a particular position in 
any given species, whether the development 
occurs in a complete circle or in a broken 
cirele. This ratio determines the narrow- 
ness of the ascidium, as well as many other 
details of leaf form, such as plications, 
eurled and upturned edges, ete. It was 
observed that this ratio was apparently 
greater in the ascidia than in a normal leaf 
and it was suggested that this appearance 
is due to the development of a sector of 
leaf tissue in the place of the normal sinus, 
and that this sector must be taken into 
account when comparing the ascidium with 
the normal leaf. Exception was taken to 
the frequently expressed idea of fusion, the 
essential feature of the ascidium being de- 
scribed as due to the retention of a capacity 
for further radial development by certain 
cells in the median dorsal line, which cells 
normally lose this capacity at a very early 
stage of development. It was noted that 
the ascidia could be referred to two types, 
the more common form involving the basal 
margin of the leaf, the other being located 
within the leaf and leaving the basal mar- 
gin normal. The former was called a 
seamless ascidium. It comprised a little 
over 50 per cent. of the cases, and the 
seamed ascidia were found in about 47 per 
cent. Several peculiar combinations of the 
two types were noted. The stalk of the 
seamless ascidium differs from a normal 
petiolule in that it is cylindrical and con- 
tains a single concentric bundle, the nor- 
mal stalk containing, in addition to this, 
two small collateral bundles running be- 
neath two ridges which are continuous with 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


the leaf margins. A strongly marked 
periodicity in the position of the ascidia 
in the leaf was found to agree closely with 
that found by Miss Tammes for their oc- 
currence on the branches of Tilia, which 
fact suggests the morphological similarity 
of leaf and branch. This period for 
Fraxinus was as follows: Of 103 ascidia 
96 were on terminal leaflets, five on the ulti- 
mate pair of lateral leaflets and two on the 
penultimate pair. This occurrence of as- 
cidia on the terminal leaflets agrees with 
recorded observations on other species 
having polyphyll leaves and this fact was 
adduced as further evidence of ortho- 
genesis. When the two leaves at any node 
spread laterally, they show a _ strong 
tendency to be symmetrical with regard to 
the occurrence of ascidia, but when they 
spread in a vertical plane, only the lower 
leaf bears an ascidium. The extreme local- 
ization of ascidia-bearing ash trees was pre- 
sented as evidence of their recent origin at 
this particular spot, and the fact that a 
large number of individuals of various 
ages possess this structure was held to be 
strong ‘evidence in favor of their inherit- 
ability, but both the origin and inheritance 
must await demonstration by pedigree- 
culture. 


Phytogeography of Florida: P. H. Rours. 

(1.) A diseussion of the general con- 
formation of Peninsular Florida giving a 
general outline of the topographic regions. 
(II.) The distribution of pine woods. 
Plants associated with this formation. 
(III.) The serub formation and its plant 
association. (I1V.) The mangrove forma- 
tion and its associates. 


The Florida Strand: P. H. Rours. 

A discussion of the Florida strand show- 
ing the principal plants with effect of loca- 
tion on various species. 

The Everglades: P. H. Rours. 
A general description of the everglades 


Frsruary 9, 1906.] 


giving the plant societies and conformation 
of the surface. 


The Development of Armillaria mellea; 
The Development of Agaricus campes- 
tris: Gxo. F. ATKINSON. 


These papers described the development 


of the sporocarps from the homogeneous 
condition up to the differentiation of the 
parts of the mature structure. 


The Behavior of the Pollen Tube in Hous- 
tonia cerulea: CHESTER A. MATHEWSON. 
The ovules of this plant are without in- 

tegument and there is therefore no micro- 
pyle. The course of the pollen tube is 
analogous to that described by Lloyd for 
other Rubiacee. It follows the style as 
far as the basal element of the ovary parti- 
tion. Here it enters the tissue of the pla- 
centa stalk, and following this it enters the 
placenta. It reaches the ovule through 
the funicle and is then directed to the egg 
end of the embryo sac. 


Ring Formation in Artificial Cultures: 

Grorce C. HEDGCOCK. 

Further studies have been made of the 
formation of fruiting rings in artificial 
cultures on agar media of Cephalotheciwm 
and Penicilliwm, and the same character 
noted in cultures of other fungi. Cultures 
were grown in the dark, and in ordinary 
Tight, establishing that the type of forma- 
tion studied occurs only under the influence 
of light. Next, cultures were grown under 
rays of light transmitted through solutions 
of orange, red, blue and green in addition 
to the previous conditions. Under the 
effect of blue rays and in the dark no rings 
were formed, while rings were formed 
under the other conditions. The rings 
formed consist of alternating daily masses 
of denser spore formation. Daily fruit 
rings were observed with cultures of Mucor 
and Hormodendron, in addition to those 
already reported. These rings must not 
be confused with those of the type de- 


SCIENCE. 


203 


seribed by Milburn on certain kinds of 

media with Hypocrea rufa, since the latter 

were not formed daily, each occurring dur- 

ing a much longer period. 

Notes on the Morphology and Embryology 
of the Nympheacew: Meu. T. Coox. 

As a result of the recent work of Conard 
and others the writer has again taken up 
the study of this family, using Cuban ma- 
terial for the work. Members of the genus 
Nymphea correspond with the writer’s 
previous work upon this group. Members 
of the genus Castalia show some differences 
in that the embryo sac is not so long and 
the embryo has a suspensor. Members of 
the genera Bracenia and Cabomba corre- 
spond with Nymphea in the enlargement 
of the embryo sac. All embryos show 
monocotyl characters, but some show char- 
acters similar to those of dicotyls. _ The 
Cuban species of Castalia show more 
striking dicotyl characters than our north- 
ern species. 

North American Species of Peridermiwm: 

J. C. ArtHur and F. D. Kern. 

This paper dealt with certain fungi 
growing on the leaves of various coniferous 
trees, and sometimes on the limbs. A half 
dozen kinds form large swellings on the 
branches and trunks of pines and do much 
injury, not only decreasing their value for 
lumber, but ruining small trees im nur- 
series. Altogether twenty-six species are 
described, a number of them being new. 
Stomatal Action and Transpiration im 

Fouquieria splendens and Verbena cili- 

ata: KF, KE. Luoyp. 

Thevevidence derived from the compara- 
tive study of these two types leads to the 
conclusion that there is no close correlation 
between transpiration and stomatal action. 
The maximum opening of stomata is 
reached some hours earlier than the maxi- 
mum of transpiration, and, further, wide 
variations in the rate of transpiration may 
take place without any change in the size 


204 


of stomatal openings. 
found for the ‘ temporary opening ’ of Fr. 
Darwin. 


Absorption of Atmospheric Moisture by 

Desert Shrubs: V. M. SPAupIne. 

The prolonged period during which Fou- 
queria splendens and some other desert 
shrubs remained in full leaf in the summer 
and fall of 1905 suggested the probable 
connection of this fact with the unusually 
high relative humidity “which prevailed 
during that period. 

Experiments were -carried out with 
twelve different species of perennials to 
ascertain whether they are capable of ab- 
sorbing water vapor directly from the at- 
mosphere. Leaves and other parts were 
accurately weighed before and after ex- 
posure to a saturated atmosphere. 

The leaves of Fouquieria do not absorb 
water from the atmosphere, but the buds 
and branches are capable of such absorp- 
tion. In the case of Celtis pallida and a 
number of other species there is no satis- 
factory evidence of the absorption of water 
vapor from the atmosphere by the living 
parts of the plant before pathological 
changes set in. Experiments with Covillea 
tridentata indicate a positive, though lim- 
ited capacity for leaf absorption. Other 
plants vary in their deportment in this 
respect. 

There is no evidence that the extremely 
small amounts of water absorbed in this 
way are utilized in the body of the plant, 
but there is every reason to conclude that 
high relative humidity proves to be a de- 


cided advantage to various desert plants in ° 


time of drouth by preventing excessive 

transpiration of the leaves and thus pro- 

longing the period of their physiological 

activity. 

Correlation between Ovules and Matured 
Seeds wm Legumimous Fruits: J.. A. 
Harris, 


SCIENCE. 


No evidence is 


[N.S. Von. XXTIT. No. 580. 


The paper is a study of the variability of 
ovules and matured seeds in the fruits of 
Cercis, Cassia, Wisteria and a garden bean.. 
The series of constants is as yet too small to: 
permit of any comparisons of the co- 
efficients of regression of matured seeds on 
ovules with those found in inheritance, but 
the material promises some interesting re- 
sults along this line. The regression would 
seem to be an obstacle to the fixing of the 
extremes of fluctuating variability by 
natural selection. . 


The Structure and Cytological Changes 


accompanying Secretion im Nectar 
‘Glands of Vicia faba: CHaruEs R. 
STOCKARD. 


The author finds that the nectar glands 
on the stipules of Vicra faba contain layers 
of cells whose contents have different chem- 
ical reactions, which fact is indicated in 
living material by their. differences in 
color. This probably points to a difference 
in metabolic activity in the cells, smee 
those of definite layers have similar reac- 
tions. The color response of the cells to 
acids and bases is the typical litmus 
change; acids causing the cell contents to 
become red, bases changing it to blue. 

The nuclei are granular in structure, 
often coarsely vacuolated with one or more 
plasmosomes surrounded by vacuoles. 
Their shape tends toward spherical, but 
in old glands they become shrunken and 
slightly irregular in form. The position 
of the nucleus in the secreting cell varies” 
ereatly, but is more often near the cell 
center. It is never observed to give out 
eranular material directly to the cyto- 
plasm, though evidence is strongly in favor 
of the fact that it does transmit a sub- 
stance to the cytoplasm which finally 
forms, or causes to form, granules that 
take in the older glands the nuclear stains. 


- In rare eases the nucleus loses its chro- 


matin in old glands.and colors with plasma 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


stains, staming with*the acid fuchsine of 
Auerbach. 

The cytoplasm undergoes changes in 
structure as secretion progresses, first be- 
coming vacuolar, then slightly granular, 
still takmg plasma stains, and finally 
densely granular staining with the nuclear 
dyes. There is evidence to indicate that 
the cytoplasmic changes are controlled by 
the nucleus. 

The nucleus seems to be the center of 
metabolic activities participating in the 
formation of the secretion substance, but 
playing a passive role in the actual process 
of secretion or extrusion of material from 
the cell. 

The following are the titles of papers 
presented at a joint meeting of the section 
and the American Mycological Society: 
Some Reasons for Desiring a Better Classi- 

fication of the Uredinales: J. C. ARTHUR. 
Uredinee of the Gulf States: S. M. Tracy. 
North American Gill Fungi: F. S. Haru. 
Lichens and Recent Conceptions of Spe- 

cles: BRUCE FINK. (By title.) 
Cultures of Colletotrichum and Glaospo- 
rium: P. H. Rours. 

The Affinities of the Fungus of Loliwm 
temulentum: EK. M. FREEMAN. 
Peridermium cerebrum Peck and Cronar- 

tuum Quercum (Berkeley) : C. lL. Suear. 
Ramularia: An Illustration of the Present 


Practise in Mycological Nomenclature: 
C. L. SHER. 


-Notes on Pachyma cocos: P. H. Rours. 


Pemcillium glaucum on Pineapple Fruits: 
P. H. Rowers. 


The Occurrence of Fusoma parasiticum 
Tubuef in this Country: PErury Spaup- 
ING. 

Some Peculiar Fungi New to America: 
W. G. Fartow. 

Franois E. Liuoyp, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE. ie 


205 


SOCIETY OF AMERICAN BACTERIOLOGISTS. 

THE seventh annual meeting of the So- 
ciety of American Bacteriologists was held 
in the New Medical Building, University 
of Michigan, December 28 and 29, 1905. 

Professor Edwin O. Jordan, president of 
the society, gave the introductory address 
on ‘Variation in Bacteria.’ 

The following papers were presented: 


Preliminary Communication upon a Spiro- 
chetal Infection of White Rats, and Ob- 
servations upon the Multiplication of the 
Spwochetes in Fluid Medium: Drs. 
Norris, PAPPENHEIMER and FLOURNEY, 
Pathological Laboratory, Bellevue Hos- 
pital, New York. 

With the blood of a case of relapsing 
fever, the authors were able to inoculate 
successfully monkeys and white rats. The 
following is a summary of the results ob- 
tained : 

1. A subeutaneous inoculation in white 
rats, with blood containing spirochetes, is 
followed in the course of two or three days 
by the presence of more or less numerous 
spirochetes in the circulating blood. These 
persist from one to three days. 

2. Unlike the spirochetal infection of 
man and monkeys, no relapses’ occur. 

3. The rats show no obvious symptoms 
of illmess, no local reaction, no visceral 
lesions of consequence, save turgescence 
and enlargement of the spleen. 

4, In all, a series of about twenty-five 
generations have been kept alive through 
rats. 

5. Observations show that immunity is 
conferred by previous infection. Inocula- 
tion of spirochetal blood, plus small doses 
of serum from animals that have gone 
through a previous infection, retards, or 
completely inhibits, the development of the 
spirochetz in the circulating blood of rats. 
Subeutaneous inoculation of serum, fol- — 


206 r 


lowed several days later by injection of 
spirochetal blood, has not, in the few ex- 
periments made, prevented the develop- 
ment of the infection in rats. 

6. There is no evidence that longitudinal 
division ever occurs. On the other hand, 
the constant occurrence of organisms show- 
ing an extreme attenuation in the central 
portion, as well as organisms lying end to 
end, with their pointed extremities in close 
approximation, strongly idicates trans- 
verse fission or possibly fragmentation. 
Long thread-like forms showing several 
areas of attenuation are seen at times. 

7. No evidence of an enveloping or un- 
dulating membrane was seen in specimens 
stained by Wright’s, Giemsa’s, Prosca’s or 
Lioeffler’s methods. Likewise no evidence 
of distinct cilia was obtained. The spiro- 
cheetes, therefore, more closely resemble the 
bacteria than protozoa. 

8. In human and rat blood to which has 
been added sodium citrate to prevent coag- 
ulation, there can be seen within twenty- 
four hours after inoculation with a few 
drops: of rat blood containing spirochetes, 
a very evident increase in the number of 
these organisms. The spirochetes are vast- 
ly more numerous in the smears from the 
culture fluid than in control smears taken 
at the time of inoculation, notwithstanding 
the dilution of infected blood with approxi- 
mately thirty to fifty times its volume of 
medium. 

By inoculating several drops of this first 
generation into a second blood tube, the 
organism was found in approximately the 
same numbers in the transplant. A third 
generation, however, failed to grow. 

Multiplication apparently occurs in the 
undiluted citrate blood from infected rats, 
kept overnight at room temperature. More- 
over, citrated blood, kept at room tempera- 
ture for, six days, retains, unimpaired, its 
infective properties. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


Spirochete Obermeieri: F. G. Novy and 
R. 8. Kwapp, University of Michigan, 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 

The spirochete studied was obtained 
through the kindness of Dr.-Norris. It — 
has been kept alive by successive passage 
through white rats for over two months. 
As a result of intraperitoneal imoculation 
the parasites appear in the blood in thirty- 
six to forty-eight hours after inoculation 
and disappear within twenty-four hours, 
and do not reappear. The rats are then 
immune to subsequent inoculation. The 
disappearance of the spirochetes was shown 
to be due to the formation of anti-bodies. 
Spirochetal blood when kept im vitro re- 
tains its virulence for more than fifteen 
days. 

The blood of rats which have been given 
repeated injections of spirochetal blood 
exerts a most marked preventive and cura- 
tive action. When injections of such blood 
are made, before inoculation with spiro- 
chetes, the latter fail to appear. Sim- 
ilarly, when simultaneous injections of 
immune and spirochetal blood are made no 
infection results. Hven when the immune 
blood is injected ten, twenty-five and thirty- 
six hours after imoculation with spiro- 
cheetes, that is to say, at any time before 
the spirochetes actually appear in the 
blood, they will fail to appear, whereas in 
the controls they become numerous. 

The curative action of the immune blood 
is equally pronounced. In rats which have 
from five to ten spirochetes per field of the 
one-twelfth-inch objective an injection of 
two ecubie centimeters of immune blood is 
followed within one hour by a total dis- 
appearance of the spirochetes from the cir- 
culation (as actually demonstrated before 
the society). After this the parasites do 
not appear, while in the controls they per- 
sist for twenty-four hours. This remark- 
able curative action of immune blood in the 
ease of the white rat will form without 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


doubt the basis of curative treatment in 
relapsing fever and in tick fever of Africa. 
It is the intention of the authors to work 
on the practical application of the principle 
discovered. 

Spirochetal blood which has been di- 
luted with ten parts of salcitrate solution 
and filtered through a Berkefeld filter, 
under a pressure of fifty pounds, yields a 
filtrate which, when injected into white 
rats, produces typical spirochetal infec- 
tion. The spirochetes, as in the case of 
cultures of Trypanosoma Lewisi, are filter- 
able through a Berkefeld filter. Impor- 
tance of this fact in its bearing upon the 
so-called ultra-microscopic organisms was 
pointed out. 

All attempts thus far to cultivate the 
spirochete on blood agar have failed, but 
this subject will be followed further. The 
spirochetes multiply by transverse divi- 
sions and show other characteristics which 
belong to bacteria. On the other hand, the 
transmission of spirochetal diseases by in- 
sects, the persistence of the organisms in 
such insect hosts for months, and the infec- 
tion of the eggs of such insects, are the 
main -facts known at present which point 
to a possible protozoal nature of the para- 
sites. 

The persistence of the spirochetes of tick 
fever in the blood of rats for three to eight 
days, as shown by Dutton and Todd, would 
indicate that this organism, though closely 
related, is, nevertheless, different from that 
studied by us. It goes to show that tick 
fever of Africa and the relapsing fever of 
Europe are due to different species of 
Spirochates. 

This paper will shortly appear in the 
Journal of Infectious Diseases. 


Mosquito Trypanosomes: F. G. Novy, W. 
J. MacNerau and H. N. Torrey, Univer- 
Sity of Michigan; Ann Arbor, Mich. 

In a previous paper on bird trypano- 


SCIENCE. 


207 


n 


somes it was pointed out that these organ- 
isms grew readily in the test tube on blood 
agar and that the resulting forms resem- 
bled the flagellates which Schaudinn found 
in the gut of mosquitoes which had fed on 
owls infected with Halteridivum and with 
H. Ziemanni. In other words, the position 
taken was that the flagellates observed in 
the mosquitoes did not represent stages in 
the life history of intracellular parasites, 
but were actually cultures in vivo of tryp- 
anosomes present in the blood of the birds 
used. In confirmation of this position it 
was desirable to show that trypanosomes 
could actually grow and multiply im the 
eut of mosquitoes and that such forms 
actually did correspond to those which 
would be obtained in witro. 

Accordingly, large numbers of mosqui- 
toes were captured along the river bank - 
and allowed to feed on perfectly clean ani- 
mals, such as rats, guinea-pigs and pigeons. 
At varying intervals, thirty-six to seventy- 
two hours after feeding, the contents of 
the stomachs of the mosquitoes were ex- 
amined in living and in stained prepara- 
tions and cultures on blood agar were made 
at the same time. Of more than 800 
mosquitoes which were examined in this 
way about 120, or 15 per cent., were found 
to have a flagellate infection of the in- 
testinal tract. Im some this was very 
marked; large masses of rosettes, flagella 
inside, completely filling the lumen of the 
tube. 

Several distinct forms of trypanosomes 
were met with; the most common of these 
was a Herpetomonas (probably Herpeto- 
monas subulata) and Crithidia fasciculata. 
Owing to the large numbers of bacteria 
usually present much difficulty was experi- 
enced in obtaining cultures of these flag- 
ellates. Eventually, however, the Her- 
petomonas was isolated in mixed culture 
associated with a minute coécus, whilé the ° 
Crithidia was obtained in association with ” 


208 


a yeast. These mixed cultures have now 
been grown in the laboratory for some six 
months. Several other cultures were ob- 
taimed, but these were soon outgrown by 
the accompanying bacteria. 

The cultural forms of these two organ- 
isms are exactly the same as that seen in the 


gut of the mosquito, thus confirming the 


view expressed that the flagellates found 
growing in the intestinal tube of insects 
represent cultural forms 7 vivo, and, as 
such, correspond to those obtaimed im vitro. 
In both conditions not only was the form 
and size the same, but the blepharoplast 
was anterior to the nucleus. The Herpeto- 
monas was characterized by the presence 
of two diplosomes in the posterior part of 
the cell. These bodies were found in the 
parasites within the mosquitoes as well as 
in those grown in culture. Animals inocu- 
lated with the cultures failed to show an 
infection. _- 

When mosquitoes are allowed to feed on 
T. Brucei or T. Lewisi these parasites may 
be detected in the blood in the intestine of 
the mosquito twenty-four hours after feed- 
ing, and even later, and rats inoculated 
with such stomach contents develop typical 
infection. 

The trypanosomes which have been met 
with by various investigators in the stom- 
achs of tsetise-flies, lice, leeches, ete., are 
distinetly ‘ cultural forms,’ since they show 
the blepharoplast in a position anterior to 
the nucleus. This fact indicates that all 
such forms can be cultivated in the test 
tube. The Herpetomonas forms found in 
flies and mosquitoes are true cultural 
trypanosomes, and, without doubt, future 
studies will reveal the blood parasite from 
which they are derived. The Crithidia 
show no undulating membrane, in the or- 
dinary truncated form, and on account of 
their peculiarity for the present at least 
are to ‘be considered as representing a dis- 
tinet genus. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXTIT. No. 580. 


Isolation of Trypanosomes from Accom- 
panying Bacteria: F. G. Novy and R. S. 
Kwapp, University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor, Mich. 

In general, it may be said that bacteria 
once introduced into a culture of trypano- 
somes tend to outgrow and check the de- 
velopment of the flagellates. Im excep- 


tional-instances, however, the bacteria thus 


introduced exert little or no interference 
and may be even apparently beneficial. 
While in the former case the trypanosomes 
die out, in the latter instance the mixed 
culture may be kept for six months or 
longer. 

The isolation of the trypanosomes in 
pure form from such mixed cultures is a 
matter of some importanee, especially when 
it is desired to study the pathogenic action 
of the flagellates. The need’ of some meth- 
od of separation was particularly felt in 
connection with the study of the mosquito 
trypanosomes which, since they are present 
in the intestinal canal, are always accom- 
panied by various bacteria and yeasts. 
After many ineffectual attempts the fol- 
lowing method was successfully employed 
for the isolation of pure cultures of Her- 
petomonas and Crithidia. 

By means of a small glass spatula, made 
by drawing out the end of a glass rod, a 
little of the mixed culture was spread in a 
series of streaks over six Petri dishes con- 
taining solidified blood agar. The Petri 
dish, known as the ‘Kriegsministeriums- 
Modell 2,’ made by Greiner and Friedrichs, 
is particularly adapted for this purpose, 
inasmuch as it can be sealed effectually by 
means of a wide rubber band. The sealed 
dishes are then set aside at room tempera- 
ture for ten to twelve days. The last plate 
or two of the series will be found to show 
isolated colonies of trypanosomes which 
can be transplanted in the» usual way to 
the test tube. This method will undoubt- 
edly be found useful in future studies of 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


the flagellates found in the intestinal canal 
of insects and other sanguivora. The in- 
testinal contents can be spread directly 
over the plates in the manner indicated. 


The Action of So-called Complementoid in 
Immune Serum: W. H. Manwarine, 
Indiana University. 

Working with goat serum, immunized 
against ‘sheep corpuscles, the action of so- 
called complementoid was estimated quan- 
titatively and plotted graphically. From 
the eurves so obtained, the following con- 
clusions are drawn: 

1. Hemolytic ‘complementoid,’ added in 
imereasing amounts to hemolytic serum, or 
to an artificial hemolytic amboceptor-com- 
plement mixture, causes, at first, a rapid 
imerease in hemolytic power. 

2. This increase soon reaches an apparent 
maximum, after which a further increase 
in “complementoid’ causes: (I.) no change, 
(IL.) a rapid diminution in hemolytic 
power, or (III.) a slow increase in that 
power. 

3. This variability in the action of ‘com- 
plementeid’ when used in large amounts, 
depends, at least in part, on the leneth of 
time the serum is heated to produce the 
“complementoid.’ 

4. The action of ‘complementoid’ is so 
pronounced that quantitative work that 
does not take its presence into consideration 
is practically valueless. This applies to 
such experiments as those forming the basis 
for the doctrine of ‘deviation of comple- 
ment.’ 

5. It would be difficult to explain the 
action of ‘complementoid’ by means of any 
of the existing hypotheses regarding the 
action of immune serum. 

6. No conclusion is yet drawn as to 
whether the so-called complementoid is 
realy a degeneration product of comple- 
-ment, or whetheriat may not»be a mixture 
of spilt-products of other serum compo- 


SCIENCE. 


209 


nents, or, in part at least, certain thus-far 
unrecognized thermo-stable components of 
normal serum. 


Abnormal Cheese Trowbles due to Lactose 
Fermenting Yeasts: H. L. Russeuu and 
EH. G. Hastines, University of Wisconsin. 
The defective trouble m cheese here de- 

seribed is due to the presence of a milk 

sugar splitting yeast. This type of micro- 
organism grows rapidly in milk or whey, 
especially when the same contains a con- 
siderable amount of acid. The milk sugar 
is decomposed and alcohol and carbonic 
acid formed in abundance, as well as unde- 
Sirable flavored products. The organism 
causing this trouble is destroyed at the 
temperature of 60° C. in ten minutes, but 
is capable of resistmg the high tempera- 
ture (55° C.) for thirty-five minutes, which 
is used in the manufacture of Swiss cheese. 

This type of organism is introduced into 
the milk primarily through the medium of 
certain customs that commonly prevail in 
Swiss cheese factories. First, the cold 
process of recovering the butter fat. Whey 
is held over from one day to the next in 
order to permit the fat to rise, and this 
gives an opportunity for the souring proc- 
ess to go on, and consequently favorable 
conditions for the development of these 
yeasts. 

Second, soaking the natural rennets in 
old sour whey and adding this rennet ex- 
tract solution to the fresh milk. These 
processes afford ideal conditions for the 
growth of the yeast germ and consequently 
permit of the infection of the fresh milk. 

Studies of the distribution of this type 
of organisms show them to be much more 
abundant in regions where Swiss cheese is 
made than where the American cheddar 
system is practised. Yeasts have not here- 
tofore been recognized as important fac- 
tors in dairy processes, except in a few 
cases, but where conditions of manufacture 


210 


permit of the development of lactic acid 
the conditions become favorable for the 
erowth of this type of germ life. 

The complete paper appeared as Bulletin 
No. 128 of the University of Wisconsin 
Agricultural Experiment Station. 


Lactic Acid Bacteria: W. M. Esten, Wes- 
leyan University. 

Since the publication of the paper on 
‘Acid Organisms of Milk’ in 1896 the in- 
vestigations as outlined in that article have 
been continued. The extent of territory 
then studied was only from Ohio to Maine. 
Since then samples of milk have been re- 
ceived from nearly every section of the 
United States and from Canada. There is 
probably no class of bacteria which has 
caused so much confusion in regard to 
names and classification as the lactic acid 
eroup. Quite a number of investigators 
have been studying the same organisms 
under different names. 

In the results of these investigations are 
found two distinet groups of lactic acid 
bacteria. First, the gas-forming bacteria 
and, second, the non-gas-forming bacteria. 

The first group is of much less importance 
than the second. It consists of Bacillus 
coli commumns, which is not very generally 
found in milk, and Bacterwm lactis aero- 
genes with all of its varieties. This is the 
Bacillus acidi lactici. of Hueppe and also of 
Eekles. The only difference between B. 
coli and B. lactis aerogenes seems to be that 
of motility. This group is distinctly the 
aerobic one. This group may be consid- 
ered as a detrimental contamination to 
milk and its products. 

The second group is the facultative an- 
aerobic one and never produces gas in the 
sugar media. Their function seems to be 
principally the production of lactic acid. 
Although there may be several species of 
bacteria in this group, the author is of the 
opinion that only one species of bacterium, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou, XXIII. No. 580. 


with its varieties, belongs to this group or 
division, namely, Bacterium lactis acidi, 
using the name given to it by Leichman as 
being the most appropriate. In the. pub- 
lication of 1896 it was called Bacillus 
acidi lactici through an error, also made 
by Gunther, thinking it was Hueppe’s Ba- 
cillus acidi lactict. Names given to this 
organism by investigators are as follows: 
Streptococcus acidi lactici (Grotenfelt), 
Bacillus acidilactici (Gunther), Bacterium 
lactis acid’ (Leichman), Bacillus lactart 
(Dinwidie), Bacillus a (Freudenrich), and 
some others. In a former publication B. 
lactis acidi I. and Il. were supposed to be 
recognized. As the result of later investi- 
gations the No. II. should be discarded, 
it probably being a devitalized or degen- 
erate form of No. I. : 
The characters of B. lactis acidi are al- 
ways distinctive if grown on lactose-litmus- 
gelatine as a small colony scarcely more 
than one quarter to one half millimeter in 
diameter. It avoids growth on the surface 
almost entirely. Under mica plates it 
erows more robust and produces more acid. 
Colonies vary from dark opaque to light- 
colored ones with dark specks or granules 
in the central portion. Stumpy spines or 
processes may or may not be present, a 
character determined by the thickness and 
amount of moisture, in the gelatine. In 
sterile milk at 37° C. it curdles in from 
twelve to twenty-four hours, after which 
there is no further change. On lactose-free 
agar it grows but slightly and lives only a 
week or two on any kind of agar. The 
best kind of media for its growth is milk, 
milk-agar, lactose and dextrose bouillon. 
There is probably no organism, with the 
exception of some soil bacteria, of more 
benefit to mankind, when we consider that 
milk which does not contain this organism 
is a dangerous product if kept for any 
length of time. Milk free from these lactic 
bacteria is a good medium for the growth 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


of all kinds of putrefactive bacteria and 
disease germs, while milk which contains 
B. lactis acid soon has all other forms de- 
stroyed by the acid or the growth of the 
lactic bacteria, and, further, when we dis- 
cover that every properly ripened lot of 
cream with the most desirable flavor, and 
every normally ripening cheese, has from 
90 to 99 per cent. of this organism present. 


The Microscopic Estimate of Bacteria in 
Milk: Francis H. Stack, M.D., First 
Assistant Bacteriologist, Boston Board 
of Health Laboratory. 

The special apparatus used for centrif- 
ugalizing the milk samples consists of ‘an 
aluminum dise and covers ten inches in 
diameter and five eighths inch in depth, 
fitted to hold twenty small glass tubes, 
arranged radially. These tubes hold about 
two cubie centimeters each and are closed 
at both ends with rubber stoppers. 

The samples in the tubes are centrifugal- 
ized ten minutes at a speed of 2,000 to 
3,000 revolutions a minute, thus collecting 
the whole sediment from each sample on 
the outer stopper. 

The sediment is obtained by breaking up 
the cream, pouring out the milk and care- 
fully removing the stopper with the ad- 
hering sediment, not allowing any milk to 
run back on the sediment to disturb it. It 
is then evenly smeared with a drop of 
sterile water over a space of 4 sq. em. on 
a glass slide, dried and stained with 
methylene blue. 

Microscopie examination shows the ap- 
proximate number and morphology of bac- 
teria present as well as the presence of pus 
and streptococci. 

The number of bacteria found in a rep- 
resentative one twelfth oil immersion field 
bears a fairly constant relation to the 1— 
10,000 plate culture (grown for twenty- 
four hours in a saturated atmosphere at 
~ 37° C., 1 per cent. agar being used with 
a reaction of + 1.5). 


SCIENCE. 


211 


Thus, as a rough estimate, each coccus, 
bacillus, diplococcus or chain m a repre- 
sentative one twelfth oil immersion field 
represents 10,000 bacteria to a cubic centi- 
meter in the sample of milk examined. 

Advantages are: rapidity of examina- 
tion, accuracy, easily learned technique, 
lack of costly apparatus. r 

The writer believes the method can, in 
experienced hands, safely be used for certi- 
fying milk, certifying those samples in 
which no bacteria are found, the large 
number of samples which could be exam- 
ined and the inereased efficiency of the 
supervision more than compensating for a 
shghtly greater accuracy in plate counts. 


The Quantitative Determination of Leuco- 
cytes in Milk: Arcurpatp R. Warp, 
University of California. 

The determination of leucocytes in milk 
has been suggested by several writers as a 
means for the detection of dairies market- 
ing milk from cows with inflamed udders. 
A series of duplicate determinations from 
the same sample of milk were made by the 
method of Doane and Buckley, of the 
Maryland Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, College Park, Md., and by the method 
deseribed by Dr. Stewart, of the Philadel- 
phia Bureau of Health. The Doane-Buck- 
ley method gave more satisfactory results 
with duplicate determinations than did 
that of Dr. Stewart. The numerical re- 
sults by the Doane-Buckley method varied 
from four to forty times higher than those 
obtained by the Stewart method. 


Kinds of Bacteria concerned in Sowring 
of Milk: P. G. Hernemann, University 
of Chicago. 

All so-called lactic acid bacteria belong 
to two groups, the colon aerogenes group 
and streptococcus group. This arrange- 
ment is arrived at by a comparative study 
of culture characteristies of pathogenic, 
sewage, fecal and milk streptococci. The 


212 


coagulative power of pathogenic, sewage 
and fecal streptococci becomes equal to that 
of milk streptococci by repeated passages 
through milk. Streptococci from milk 
form in long chains in lactose broth, and 
the chains disappear upon inoculation in 
litmus milk, and characteristic diplococci 
and short chains of three to six members 
appear instead. Artificial lactic acid fer- 
mentations, produced by imoculation of 
pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria of 
either group or of cow feces in sterilized 
milk, closely resemble the natural process. 
Investigations lead to the following con- 
clusions: . 

1. Bacillus acidi lactici is a myth. The 
ordinary bacteria producing lactic fer- 
mentation are Bacillus aerogenes var. lac- 
ticus and Streptococcus lacticus. The pos- 
sibility of B. coli participating in lactic 
fermentation is not excluded. 

2. Streptococcus lacticus (Kruse) agrees 
in morphological, cultural and coagulative 
properties with pathogenic, fecal and sew- 
age streptococci. 

3. Souring of milk is caused by coopera- 
tion of both groups of bacteria, and is par- 
ticipated in by peptonizing bacteria always 
present im milk. 

4. Gas is produced by B. aerogenes var. 
lacticus, but as a rule is held in check and 
ultimately stopped by the presence and 
final ascendency of Streptococcus lacticus 
(Kruse). 

5. Acid is produced during lactic fer- 
mentation by both classes of organisms to 
a marked degree. B. aerogenes var. lac- 
ticus 1s more sensitive to the presence of 
acid than Streptococcus lacticus (Kruse). 
This results in the presence of B. aerogenes 
in large numbers in initial stages of fer- 
mentation, S. lacticus (Kruse) becoming 
master of the field in terminal stages. 

6. Lactic acid bacteria are of intestinal 
origin and gain aceess to milk with par- 
ticles of cow feces. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 580. 


7. Artificial lactic acid fermentation in 
sterilized milk can be produced by imocula- 
tion of pure cultures of bacteria of either 
group or better by the two groups com- 
bined. 

8. Since Streptococcus lacticus (Kruse) 
is invariably present even in fresh milk 
collected with good precautions, the sani- 
tary significance of streptococci in market 
milk will need further investigation. 


A Note on the Indol-producing Bacteria 
in Milk (preliminary communication) : 
S. C. Prescort, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology. 

The occurrence of indol-producing bac- 
teria in milk suggests the possibility of 
some connection between these organisms 
and the intestinal diseases often so preva- 
lent in children fed on raw milk, especially 
that received in the larger cities, where the 
milk may be forty-eight hours old before 
it reaches the consumer. 

A large number of samples of fresh milk, 
collected from about 175 different farms, 
have been examined to determine if there 
is any numerical relation between the indol- 
producing bacteria and the total number 
present in the milk. The samples were in 
general about six hours old at the time of 
the examination. The total numbers were © 
determined in the usual way by plating on 
agar (reaction +1) and incubating at 
37.5° for twenty-four hours. Dilution of 
1-10,000 was employed. Indol was de- 
termined by inoculating 1/100 ¢.c. of milk 
in a tube of peptone solution, incubating 
three days at 37.5°, and then testing for 
indol by adding a minute amount of sodium 
nitrite and 1 ¢.c. of 1:1 sulphuric acid. 

In all 524 samples were examined, rang- 
ing in total numbers from less than 5,000 
to 121,000,000 bacteria per cubic centi- 
meter. Of these but 38 samples exceeded 
1,000,000 in ‘total count; 132 samples, or 
almost exactly 25 per cent., gave strong 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


indo] reaction; 278 samples in which the 
determination was carried out quantita- 
tively showed the following relation be- 
tween total numbers and occurrence of 
indol: 


= No. showj 
aioe, ae ee? Cail 
Above 1,000,000..... 13 - 9 70 
Between 500,000 
and 1,000,000..... 2 1 50 
Between 100,000 
and 500,000........ 34 14 41 
Below 100,000........ 229 32 | 14 
25,000 or below...... 133 17 | 12 


SCIENCE. 


Absorbent Cotton as a Medium for Dis- 
tributing Pseudomonas radicicola: H. 
A. Harping and M. J. Prucua, Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 
Absorbent cotton wrapped in paper and 

tin-foil is now widely used as a means of 

distributing P. radicicola. 

The large number of failures to get re- 
sults with this method contrasted with the 
high percentage of success when the germs 
were shipped im soil, lead to an examina- 
tion of the packages of inoculated cotton. 


In these examinations the directions on ° 


the packages were followed as closely as 
possible except that sterile solutions were 
used in order to confine the resulting 
erowth to the germs actually upon the 
cotton. 

Repeated examinations of twenty-five 
separate packages of cotton gave only an 
oceasional colony resembling P. radicicola 
and in most cases not a single suspicious 
colony was found. 

As a check upon the accuracy of these 
examinations duplicate samples from six 
packages were examined in the laboratories 
of Professor F. D. Chester and Drs. C. E. 
Marshall, E. M. Houghton and J. G. Lip- 
man. 

An explanation of the absence of P. 
radicicola from the inoculated cotton was 
found in the inability of the germs to with- 
stand the accompanying desiceation. © 


215 


Two separate laboratory trials with 
bouillon cultures of P. radicicola, placed 
upon sterile absorbent cotton showed that 
all but an occasional germ died within a 
few days. 

Under farm conditions the contamina- 
tion which enters the fluid usually represses 
the few surviving P. radicicola. 

The details of the work are given in the 
New York Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion Bulletin 270. 


The Bacteria of the Root Nodules of the 
Leguminosee: Karu F. KenuerRMAN and 
T. D. Beckwiry, Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, Washington, D. C. 

For the present preliminary work organ- 
isms from four species of legumes have 
been studied: velvet bean, soy bean, garden 
pea and alfalfa. 

Our laboratory results are summarized 
briefly as follows: 

Beef agar (made according to formula 
adopted by the American Public Health 
Association): surface colonies, circular in 
outline, somewhat convex, rather wet, 
shining, tinged with straw color, 1 to 6 mm. 
in diameter. Submerged colonies, lenticu- ~ 
lar in outline, convex after reaching sur- 
face, 3.5 by 5 to 0.25 by 0.5 in diameter. 

Synthetic agar, low in nitrogen (agar 
flour, 10 g.; magnesium sulphate, 0.2 ¢.; 
potassium phosphate (monobasic), 1 ¢.; 
cane sugar, 10 ¢.; filtered tap water, 1,000 
e.e.): surface colonies, circular, translu- 
cent, convex, wet, shining, 1.5 to 4 mm. in 
diameter. Submerged colonies, lenticular, 
convex after reaching surface, 0.5 by 1 to 
2.0 by 5.0 mm. in diameter. 

Synthetic agar (same as above plus 4 g. 
dibasic ammonium phosphate): surface 


colonies, circular, somewhat convex, wet, 


shining, faintly tinged with cream, 1 to 
5 mm. in diameter. Submerged colonies, 
lenticular, convex after reaching surface, 
0.25 by 0.5 to 2.5'by 5 mm. in diameter. 


214 


Does not liquefy beef or synthetic gelatin; 
does not form indol. Aerobic; does not 
form nitrites or nitrates; does not form gas. 

Litmus milk: with velvet bean there is 
apparently no change in seven days at 
28° C.; after sixteen days the litmus is 
almost decolorized and some acid has been 
produced. Soy bean is similar, except the 
milk becomes scarcely acid, and subse- 
quently a very slow precipitation of the 
casein takes place. Alfalfa, on the other 
hand, produces alkali very distinctly, and 
forms a viscous pellicle. 

Potato cylinders: the velvet bean organ- 
ism produces a colorless to grayish-white, 
even growth. The soy bean has a very 
spreading growth, between clay and cream 
buff. Alfalfa, colorless to grayish-white ; 
the colorless areas separated from the 
whitish ones, giving a coagulated appear- 
ance. 


Variations in Gas Production by Bacteria- 
producing Soft Rot in Vegetables: H. A. 
HaArpinG and M. J. Prucua, New York 
Agricultural Experiment Station. 
During the past five years the group of 

organisms connected with the soft rot of 
vegetables has been studied jointly by the 
Botanical Department of the University of 
Vermont and the Bacteriological and 
Botanical Departments of the New York 
Avyricultural Experiment Station. In this 
study about forty-five cultures, including 
six which have been described in literature 
as distinct species, have been studied in de- 
tail. A comparative study of their points 
of difference has been repeated ten times in 
most cases. 

This group lies just on the border line of 
gas formation from dextrose, lactose and 
saccharose in Smith tubes. In all cases 
there is growth in the closed arm and 
production of acid. A majority of the 
cultures produce gas, ranging in amount 


from a small bubble to a ee. These 


SCIENCE. 


eolor. 


[N.S. Vox. XXITI. No. 580. 


determinations have been made each time 
in duplicate or in triplicate. _ 

As optimum conditions are obtained an 
increasing number of cultures produce gas 
from all of these different sugars. A 
culture known as Vermont XLVIII. which 
has long been considered as a type of the 
class fermenting only lactose was recently 
induced to produce gas from dextrose at 
the Vermont Laboratory. 

Some striking differences still remain. A 
culture known as 0.2e was studied in the 
laboratory about a year and then inoculated 
into a plant in the greenhouse. It there 
produced the typical soft rot. A culture 
isolated from this experimental plant was 
called 0.2f. The second culture agrees with 
the first in pathogenicity and in all other 
cultural characteristics except that of gas 
formation. While 0.2f ferments all three 
sugars 0.2e forms gas only from lactose and 
saccharose. This notwithstanding that 
these two cultures have now been studied 
together for some years. 

Other similar instances have been ob- 
served but this will suffice to indicate that 
there are cases where a single routine test 
of fermentation may lead to errors in classi- 
fication. 


The Employment of Glycerin as a Doffer- 
entiating Medium for Certain Bacteria: 
Epuarpo ANprADE, Florida Board of 
Health. 

It has been determined by previous in- 
vestigations of the writer that the addition 
of glycerin to nutrient media increases the 
acid-producing power of some intestinal 
bacteria. As an indicator for this change, 
acid fuchsin Griibler is neutralized to the 
point of decolorization with caustic potash. 
Both imorganie and organic acids react on 
the indicator, changing it to red. Alkalies 
decolorize it and change it to a light yellow 
The indicator is extremely sensi- 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


tive; 0.00003 of a gram will indicate 0.001 
of a gram of hydrochloric acid. 

The addition of the indicator to the or- 
dinary culture media does not influence 
the growth of bacteria. The delicate 
changes in reaction are best obtained by 
Dunham’s peptone solution, containing six 
per cent. glycerin and two per cent. of the 
acid fuchsin. In the ordinary culture 
media, such as beef peptone bouillon and 
beef peptone gelatin and agar, the results 
are not delicate or constant. Their differ- 
ences are probably due to the changes in 
the reaction in sterilization. 

The dysentery group shows quite a range 
in acid production, as to both amount and 
the time it occurs: 

B. dysenterie Shiga, acid slight, four to five 


days, neutral after three weeks. 
B. dysenterie Kruse, acid slight, four to six 


days. 

B. dysenterie Flexner, acid slight, four to six 
days. 

B. dysenterie New Haven, considerable, four to 
six days. 

B. “Y” Hiss and Russell, none, alkaline in ten 
days. 


Paracolon Group. 

B. paracolon Kurth, none, alkaline in fourteen 
days. 

B. paracolon Strong, none, alkaline in fourteen 
days. 

B. paracolon Badash, none, alkaline in fourteen 
days. 

B. paracolon Gwynn, considerable in four days. 

B. paracolon Miller, considerable in four days. 

B. paracolon Buxton, considerable in four days. 

B. paracolon Cushing, considerable in four days. 
Hog Cholera Group. 

B. cholera suis, none, alkaline in ten days. 

B. icteroides Sanarelli, considerable in four 
days. 

The study and growth of the above or- 
ganisms in media containing glycerin, and 
the acid fuchsin indicator, shows that they, 
so far as acid production is concerned, 
arrange themselves in groups, the Bacil- 
lus “Y’ of Hiss and Russell, B. paracolon 


Strong and Kurth, forming a distinct, 


group... ww ot 


-10! 


SCIENCE. 


520. 


215 


Agglutination and Biological Relationship 
im the Prodigiosus Group: Mary Hur- 
FERAN, University of Chicago. 

A series of organisms with cultural char- 
acteristics like those of B. prodigiosus were 
examined for agglutinative activity. This 
series had been under the writer’s observa- 
tion for five years and the biological rela- 
tionship of the twenty-two different mem- 
bers of the group had been fairly well 
determined.t Agglutination tests showed: 

1. A high degree of interaction among 
those members of the group which were 
classed together by the sugar fermentation 
test. 

2. Identity of reaction of races known to 
have been derived from the same culture 
eight or ten years previously, and kept in 
different laboratories. 

3. Agelutinative reaction among those 
members of the group which tend to lose 
the power of pigment production, including 
one race which produces only a soluble rea 
pigment. No reaction was obtained in this 
ease with B. fluorescens liquefaciens or B. 
lactis erythrogenes. 

4. Much confusion and inequality of in- 
teraction among other members of the 
group closely related biologically. 

The difference between agelutinogenic 
power and agelutinability was clearly due, 
im some eases, to a viscid capsular condition 
of the bacilli. On the other hand, readily 
agglutinable cultures did not possess cor- 
respondingly high agglutinogenic power. 

Experiments made to determine the op- 
timum temperature for the agglutination 
process. showed that better results were 
obtained at either 0° or 55° C. than at 
room temperature or at 37° C. The action 
of convection currents in the tubes of 
serum dilution and bacilli at high and low 
temperatures was suggested as an explana- 
tion. 


+ Centralbl. f. Bakt., 1904, 11, pp. 311, 397, 456, 
(ddr i 


).9 


216 


It was found that the addition of one 
per cent. formalin to salt solution suspen- 
sions of cultures made no difference in the 
agelutination results, if the cultures thus 
formalinized were allowed to stand for some 
time. Freshly added formalin seemed to 
inhibit agglutination. 

Further experiments are under way to 
determine more exactly the action of for- 
malin in the agglutination process. 


Note on the Thermal Death Point of B. 
dysenterie Shiga: W. D. Frost and 
Mary W. Swenson, University of Wis- 
consin. 

Four different strains of B. dysenterie 
were tested; one of the Shiga type and 
three of the ‘Flexner-Harris’ type. The 
method used was that suggested in the 
“Procedures Recommended by the Bac- 
teriological Committee of the American 
Public Health Association,’ except that the 
reaction of the medium was 0.0 on Fuller’s 
scale instead of 15+ and also in some 
cases only 5 e.c. of bouillon was used in- 
stead of 10 ec. Im the latter cases the 
5 ¢.c. of bouillon after exposure was mixed 
with an equal amount of double-strength 
agar and plated. Exposures were made at 
temperatures ranging from 55° to 72°. It 
was found that the majority of the cells 
were killed between 55° and 60°, but that 
frequently a relatively small number, pos- 
sibly one individual in a hundred thousand 
or a million, may persist at much higher 
temperatures, even 70°. The cause for 
this wide variation in resistance to heat 
among the different cells is apparently due 
not to variation in the reaction of the cul- 
ture medium, for both an alkaline and an 
acid medium were used, nor to variations 
in the composition of the medium, since the 
same batch of medium was used through- 
out, but to some undetermined cause or 
causes. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 680. 


A Study of the Laws Governing the Resist- 
ance of B. coli to Heat: StEpHEN DEM. 
Gace and Graczk VAN E. SrTouGHTON, 
Experiment Station, Lawrence, Mass. 
Experiments were made in which it was 

determined that the great majority of the 

bacteria in any B. coli culture are destroyed 
by five minutes’ exposure to some tempera- 
ture between 50° and 60° C. A few indi- 
viduals, however, in each culture will sur- 


‘vive much higher temperatures, In some 


cases remaining alive after exposure to 
90° C. The very close range (about 10° 
C.) of temperature at which the destruc- 
tion of the majority of the individual bac- 
teria occurred, as compared with the con- 
siderable range (about 35° ©.) in the 
temperatures at which complete steriliza- 
tion was effected, would indicate that the 
determination of this majority death point 
would be of more value in species identifi- 
cation than is the determination of the 
absolute thermal death point.as at present 
employed. 

Using thermal death point tests alone, 
this culture of B. coli would be included 
among the sporulating bacteria, although 
there was no morphological evidence that 
true spores (endospores) were produced. 

Experiments were also made to deter- 
mine whether, by successively selecting 
cultures originating from individual or- 
ganisms which had survived temperatures 
above the majority death point and sub- 
mitting these cultures to the death point 
tests, a race of organisms could be propa- 
gated in which the majority of the indi- 
viduals would be able to resist higher tem- 
peratures than was the case with the orig- 
imal culture. The experiments failed not 
only to produce such a race, but the results 
indicated the tendency toward the produc- 
tion of a degenerate race whose majority 
death point remained the same as for the 


original eulture, and whose absolute ther- 


mal.death point was reduced toward the 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906. ] 


majority death point as the number of 
successive generations was increased. 

To be published in the Technology Quar- 
terly. 


Bird Plague (a preliminary note): J. J. 

Kiyyoun, Glenolden, Pa. 

Beginning in May, 1905, the writer ex- 
amined several dead birds, received from 
a dealer in Washington, D. C. On exam- 
ination all these presented certain definite 
lesions. The organs notably affected were 
the liver and spleen. A provisional diag- 
nosis was first made of tubercule, but on 
examination it was negative. The lesions 
found in the liver and spleen were yellow- 
ish nodules of varying size, which projected 
from the surface of the organs. The ma- 
jority of the nodules were surrounded with 
a well-marked zone of inflammatory tissue. 
There were also spots of coagulation ne- 
erosis interspersed between the nodules. 
There was also found a catarrhal exudate 
affecting the upper air passage. In a few 
instances there was enteritis. Direct mi- 
croscopical examination showed a small 
bacillus with rounded ends and morpholog- 
ical and tinctorial propensities resembling 
Bacillus pestis. The organisms were pres- 
ent in enormous numbers in the nodules, 
particularly in those of the spleen. It 
could also be identified and easily isolated 
from the heart’s blood and all other organs. 
The cultural characters are: it grows rather 
shghtly on ordinary peptone bouillon agar, 
it does not liquefy gelatine, nor does it 
ferment any of the sugars except mannit. 
Grown on Hankin’s salt agar it assumes 
pleomorphinism; closely resembles the or- 
ganism of bubonic plague. It grows best 
in peptone bouillon or agar containing a 
small amount of sterilized horse or calf 
serum. Calf serum agar containing two 
‘per cent. is coagulated. It is-pathogenic 
to rabbits, guinea-pigs, white mice,“pigeons, 


SCIENCE. 


217 


sparrows, canaries, finches, mocking-birds, 
thrushes, parakeets. Chickens are immune. 


Notes on Class-room and Laboratory Work: 
F. C. Harrison, Agricultural College, 
Guelph, Ontario. 

1. Method of keeping lecture notes. 

2. Material for table tops. 

3. Demonstration of gas production— 
(a) with absorbent cotton, (b) with small 
tube inside test tubes, (c) modified Dun- 
ham tube. 

4, Prevention of moisture in agar plates. 

5. Method of preparing gelatine plates 
for demonstration and museum purposes. 

6. Various forms of colony counters. 

7. Method of keeping stock cultures. 

8. Test-tube containers for sterilizing. 

9. Flagella staining for class purposes. 

10. Ink for writing on glass. 


How Shall the Potency of Antitetanic 
Serum be Determined? EH. M. Houcu- 
TON, H. C. L. Mmurr and F. O. NorrHey, 
Detroit, Mich. : 
Experience has shown that the Ehrlich 

test for determining the strength of anti- 

diphtherie serum is very reliable, and has 
been adopted by the U. S. Department of 

Public Health and Marine Hospital Service 

as a method of standardizing this serum. 

Many methods are employed for measuring 

the strength of antitetanic serum, but none 

have been generally adopted in this coun- 
try. The results of laboratory tests indi- 
cate that the sera found on the market vary 
enormously in strength, as tested by the 
modified Behring method. It would seem 
desirable that a method be adopted for 
testing antitetanie serum similar to that in 
use for determining the strength of anti- 
diphtherie serum, but it seems to. the 
writers that the test animals should be 
guinea-pigs and that the units of strength 
should be such that a curative dose of ten 
cubie centimeters of antitetanic serum 


218 


would contain approximately the same 
number of units as the curative dose of 
antidiphtheric serum, as recommended by 
the U. S. Pharmacopeia. 


A Method of Isolating the Pnewmococcus 
in Mixed Cultures, Such as Throat Oul- 
tures: Gustav F. Rurpicer, Memorial 
Institute of Infectious Diseases, Chicago. 
Starting with Hiss’s demonstration that 

pneumococci ferment inulin while strepto- 

cocci fail to ferment it, Ruediger has pre- 
pared a blue litmus inulin-agar medium in 
which the pneumococci form red colonies. 

This medium is composed of sugar-free 

agar with the addition of litmus and inulin 

and is prepared as follows: 

(a) Peptone (Witte), 10; agar, 15; 
sugar-free beef broth (neutral), 1,000. 
Dissolve by boiling one hour, adding water 
from time to time. Heat in the autoclave 
for fifteen to twenty minutes (to prevent 
subsequent precipitation while sterilizing), 
clarify with ege and filter through cotton, 
making the volume up to 800 cc. with dis- 
tilled water. 

(b) Dissolve 15 grams of pure inulin 
in 200 e.c. of boiling distilled water and 
add this solution to (a). Now add 20 ce. 
of a  five-per-cent. solution of litmus 
(Merck’s highest purity) and tube, putting 
7 to 8 «ec. of medium into each tube. 
Sterilize in the autoclave under ten pounds 
of pressure for fifteen minutes. As some 
pneumococci do not grow well in this 
medium it is necessary to add 1 ce. of 
heated ascites fluid or serum to each tube 
of melted agar (which has been cooled to 
45°) immediately before using. In this 
mixture the pneumococci grow well and 
form red colonies in twenty-four to sev- 
enty-two hours. 

Ruediger has shown further that pneu- 
mococei are practically the only mouth 
bacteria that ferment inulin. It is not 
fermented by streptococci (Hiss), staphylo- 


SCIENCE. 


“of the bacterial suspension used. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


cocci, pseudodiphtheria bacilli, Micrococcus 
catarrhalis, Micrococcus tetragenus and 
Bacillus mucosus. Among ten cultures of 
diphtheria bacilli was found one which 
fermented inulin. Twenty-two cultures 
which were made from red colonies in 
plates that had been inoculated with ma- 
terial from throats of pneumonia and scar- 
let fever patients were studied in detail. 
All are Gram-positive cocci which grow 
chiefly in pairs on blood agar slants, but 
some also form chains in liquid media. All 
ferment inulin and all but four form green 
colonies in blood agar plates. Capsules 
could be demonstrated on more than half 
of the cultures. 

The full paper will be published in the 
Journal of Infectious Diseases, January, 
1906. 


Observations wpon the Phagocytic Power 
of the Blood of Normal Human Beings: 
JosEPH McFartanp and Epwarp M. 
L’Enewusr, Philadelphia. 

The blood of fifteen presumably normal 
individuals was examined by the method 
devised by Leichman and modified by 
Wright and Douglas and by ourselves. 
Twenty-four-hour cultures of Staphylococ- 
cus pyogenes awreus were used in all the 
experiments. We found that the phago- 
cytic index varied from 23.125 to 4.35. In 
two cases in which the counts were repeated 
at intervals of five days there was a re- 
markable uniformity in one case and a dis- 
tinet variation in the other. The experi- 
ments were all performed between the 
hours of three and five in the afternoon. 
All of our blood preparations were stained 
by Marino’s method, which we have found 
the most satisfactory for our purposes. 
We also found that the number of bacteria 
taken up by the leucocytes varies: with 
great regularity according to the strength 
Hence, 
we have endeavored to use a uniform sus- 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


pension in all of our experiments. The 
clinical bearing of these experiments is in- 
dicated by the fact that those individuals 
whose phagocytic index was lowest had 
suffered from carbuncles or boils or become 
easily mfected from slight causes. 

Conclusions.—1. Leishman’s method of 
determining the phagocytic power of the 
blood, as modified by Wright and Douglas 
and by ourselves, is a very simple method 
adapted to clinical application. 

2. Marino’s stain is most appropriate for 
demonstrating the leucocytes and the con- 
tained bacteria. 

3. There is no uniformity in the phago- 
eytic indices of the bloods of supposedly 
healthy individuals. 

4. The phagocytic index of the same in- 
dividual may be constant or it may vary 
upon different days. 

5. An exceptionally low phagocytic count 
usually indicates a present or past predis- 
position to suppuration (the phagocytic 
index in this regard being determined by 
the use of Staphylococcus pyogenes au- 
reus). 

6. The phagocytic index may not be be- 
low the average in all cases in which there 
has been a tendency to suppuration. 


The Value of the Voges-Proskauer Reac- 
tion: NormAN Mach. Harris, University 
of Chicago. 

The red coloration at times met with in 
fermentation tubes after testing the gas 
composition with KOH solution, was first 
described by Voges and Proskauer in 1898 
as occurring in fermentation tube cultures 
of certain members of the hemorrhagic 
septicemia group of bacteria, and the re- 
action was advocated by them as a test for 
differentiating members of this group. 
However, as proposed by them, the test is 
without value, because their observations 
were made on bacilli which we now clearly 
recognize as belonging to the hog cholera 


SCIENCE. 


219 


eroup, not to the hemorrhagic septicemia 
group. 

The color reaction has sinee been pro- 
posed by Durham and MacConkey as a dif- 
ferential test whereby B. lactis aerogenes, 
B. mucosus capsulatus (Pfeiffer), and B. 
cloace and bacteria of such types may be 
distinguished from certain intestinal and 
other forms of bacteria. Howe and Mac- 
Conkey likewise recommend it as possess- 
ing value in the bacteriological analysis 
of water. z 

Contrary to the views of the foregoing 
observers, the writer finds that the reac- 
tion occurs irregularly with such bacteria 
as B. colt, B. lactis aerogenes, B. mucosus 
capsulatus (var. Pfeiffer, and Friedlaind- 
er), B. cholere suis, B. enteritidis, B. icter- 
odes, B. paratyphosus (several races), B. 
proteus vulgaris, B. cloace, B. faecalis 
aligenes and B. typhosus and Streptococcus 
pyogenes. 

Conclusions.—1. By Voges and Pros- 
kauer the reaction was obtained not with 
any member of the hemorrhagic septicemia 
group of bacteria, but with one of the hog- 
cholera group. 

2. The writer finds that the reaction is 
not confined to any one particular group 
of bacteria, as found by Durham and Mac- 
Conkey, but occurs widespread and irregu- 
larly amongst bacterial species. 

3. As a differential test, the Voges-Pros- 
kauer reaction is of little value. 

4. Its nature is at present unknown. 


The Protection of Cotton Stoppers during 
Sterilization: W. H. Manwarine and R. 
A. Axtn, Indiana University. 

The falling of condensation-water in the 
autoclave is largely prevented by a disc of 
thinnest sheet copper, suspended about a 
quarter of an inch below the top of the 
autoclave, by means of a threaded bolt, 
placed in the opening to the pressure 
gauge. This bolt is flattened on two sides, 


220 


so as to permit free passage of steam to 
and from the gauge. The stoppers of 
flasks are further protected by means of 
small beakers, inverted over the necks of 
the flasks, during sterilization. Test tubes 
are protected, in a similar way, by small 
pans of thinnest sheet copper, made to fit 
over the wire baskets containing them. 


The Production of Acid and Alkali by 
Bacteria: BE. O. Jorpan, University of 
Chicago. 

Since Theobald Smith’s work in 1895 it 
has been known that the acid reaction that 
develops in the broth cultures of many 
bacteria is produced by the action of the 
bacteria upon musele-sugar. It has not 
been definitely recognized, however, that 
there are other substances besides sugar in 
the ordinary nutrient media which, under 
the influence of bacterial activity, lead to 
the production of a strongly acid reaction. 
One prominent text-book, indeed, affirms 
that ‘the formation of free acid is pos- 
sible only upon nutrient media containing 
sugar.’ Asa matter of fact, I have found 
the liquefaction of gelatin by bacteria or 
their sterile enzymes always gives rise to a 
marked acid reaction which may amount 
to as much as nine per cent. (B. subtilis) 
on the acid side of the phenolphthalein 
neutral point. A reaction of plus four per 
cent. is quite common in cultures of lique- 
fying species. This is not surprising when 
it is remembered that substances like glyco- 
coll and the amino-acids are conspicuous 
among the digestion products of gelatin. 
The simultaneous production of ammonia 
by bacteria tends to diminish the acidity 
of liquefied cultures, in some eases (é. g., 
B. pyocyaneus at 20°) the acidity being 
nearly or quite overcome. The acidity is 
not confined to the liquefied area, but, as 
might be supposed, diffuses throughout the 
medium, altering the reaction of the gelatin 
at quite distant points.’ In nutrient agar, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 580. 


on the other hand, the diffusion of alkaline 
produets alters the reaction of the medium 
in the opposite direction. A standard re- 
action for culture media, therefore, is valid 
only as an initial reaction. Gelatin and 
agar, inoculated with liquefying species, 
begin to diverge from the start and in a 
short time may become totally different. 
Bacteria make their own reaction in broth, 
gelatin and agar and, useful as a standard 
reaction may be, it has distinct limitations. 
Some writers have attempted to establish 
a fundamental distinction between acid and 
alkali production by bacteria. Thus Got- 
schlich in Kolle and Wassermann’s “Hand- 
buch,’ 1, p. 100, expresses himself as fol- 
lows: ‘‘In general it may be said that acid 
production always depends upon a split- 
ting of sugar (or similar substances, like 
elycerine, ete.); while alkali formation is 
a synthetic process and stands in intimate 
causal relation with the growth and in- 
erease of bacteria.”’ Such a yiew would 
seem to be eminently artificial, since the 
ammonia to which an alkaline reaction is 
due is as truly a decomposition product 
of nitrogenous bodies as the amino-acids 
formed in the digestion of gelatin of the 
lactic acid in the fermentation of sugar. 
Both processes go on simultaneously, and 
the reaction of a culture medium in which 
bacteria are growing depends not only on 
the ability of the species to attack certain 
food substances, and on the chemical con- 
stitution of those food substances them- 
selves, but also on the precise period of 
erowth at which the reaction is tested. 


Experiments on the Staining Properties of 
‘Bacteria, with Special Reference to the 
Gram Method: D. H. Brereny, University 
of Pennsylvania. 
Careful search in text-books fails to re- 
veal definite information as to the factors 
concerned in the Gram method of staining. 


There’ is even confusion in different :text- 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


books as to the properties exerted by the 
ingredients employed in the Gram method. 

Investigation shows that the Gram reac- 
tion follows the employment of the para- 
rosanilin dyes, especially the violet dyes of 
this group, such as crystal violet, methyl 
violet, or mixtures of these known as gen- 
tian violet. The influence of the iodin is 
to form a new compound with the stained 
protoplasm of certain bacteria, which com- 
pound is insoluble or feebly soluble in alco- 
hol. The alcohol serves as the decolorizing 
agent. 

The exact difference in the chemical con- 
stitution between species of bacteria that 
stain positively and those that stain nega- 
tively by the Gram method is not definitely 
known, but the chemical constitution of 
the bacterial cell influences the behavior 
of the organism toward the Gram method. 

Experiments along these lines are still in 
progress. 

The following new members were elected: 

Professor Erastus G. Smith, Beloit College, 
Beloit, Wis. j 

Doctor Hideyo Noguchi, assistant, Rockefeller 
Institute, New York City. 

Doctor Francis H. Slack, first assistant bac- 
teriologist, Boston Board of Health Laboratory. 

Doctor Eduardo Andrade, bacteriologist, State 
Board of Health, Jacksonville, Fla. 

Doctor Howard T. Ricketts, instructor in pa- 
thology, University of Chicago. 

Doctor Gustav F. Ruediger, assistant, Memorial 
Institute for Infectious Diseases, Chicago, III. 

Professor Wilfred H. Manwaring, Indiana Uni- 
versity. 

Professor Edwin G. Hastings, University of 
Wisconsin. 


The officers for the ensuing year are: 


President—E. F. Smith, Washington, D. C. 

Vice-President—F. P. Gorham, Brown Univer- 
sity. 

Secretary-Treasurer—S. C. Prescott, Massaehu- 
setts Institute of Technology. 

Council—. O. Jordan, V. C. Vaughan, Simon 
Flexner, Joseph McFarland. i Us 

Delegate to, American Association -for: thes Ad- 


SCIENCE. 


221 


vancement of Science—W. T. Sedgwick, Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology. 


F. P. GorHam, 


Secretary. 
Brown UNIVERSITY. 


THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, 


THE twelfth annual meeting of the 
Botanical Society of America was held at 
New Orleans, in affiliation with the Ameri- 
ean Association for the Advancement of 
Science, from the first to the fourth of 
January, 1906. While the attendance, as 
in the case of the association, was not large, 
the meeting was a good one, and the pro- 
gram which follows contained papers of 
unusual interest. 

As officers for the year 1906 were elected, 
President, Professor F.. 8. Harle, Santiago 
de las Vegas, Cuba; Vice-president, Pro- 
fessor F. E.’ Clements, Lincoln, Nebr. ; Sec- 
retary, Professor William Trelease, St. 
Louis, Mo.; Treasurer, Dr. Arthur Hollick, 
Bronx Park, New York City. In addition 
to these officers and Past-president Harper, 
of Madison, Wisconsin, the council was com- 
pleted by the election of Professor B. L. 
Robinson, of Cambridge, Mass., and of 
Professor N. L. Britton, of Bronx Park, 
New York City. Professor E. A. Burt and 
Dr. D. T. MacDougal were appointed to 
represent the society on the council of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. Drs. A. F. Blakeslee and G. H. 
Shull were elected to associate membership. 

A vote of thanks was passed for the effi- 
cient service of the retiring secretary, Dr. 
MacDougal. 

The treasurer’s report showed a balance 
in the treasury of $3,201.43, of which a 
erant of $150.00 was made to Dr. C. J. 
Chamberlain, of the University of Chicago, 
as an aid in a further field study of Dioon 
and in a morphological study of Ceratoza- 
mia, anda: grant of $100.00 to Professor J. 


222 


C. Arthur for a continuation of his study of 
Uredineae. 

As a result of long continued conferences 
between committees of the Botanical Society 
of America, the Society for Plant Morphol- 
ogy and Physiology and the American 
Mycological Society, and in connection with 
similar action on the part of the other 
bodies named, the society adopted a new 
constitution by which the three societies are 
federated under the name The Botanical 
Society of America, details of the federation 
under the new constitution being placed in 
the hands of the officers. 

The following papers were presented : 

J. C. Artirur: ‘ Cultures of Uredineae in 1905.’ 

G. F. Arkinson: ‘ The Development of Ithyphal- 
lus impudicus (L.) Fries, from France.’ 

F. E. Lioyp: ‘Some Physiological Aspects of 
Stomata.’ 

B. KE. Livineston: ‘ Relative Transpiration.’ 

G. H. SHuLL: ‘Comparative Variation and Cor- 
relation in Three Mutants and their Parent.’ 

G. H. SHuti: ‘Some Latent Characters of the 
White Bean.’ 

D. T. MacDoveat: ‘ Origin and Heredity of Bud 
Sports.’ 

D. T. MacDouecat: ‘ The Induction of Mutation 
by Artificial Stimulation.’ 

D. T. MacDoucat: ‘New Mutants of the Eve- 
ning Primrose.’ 

W. A. Cannon: ‘ Topography of the Chlorophyll- 
apparatus of Some Desert Plants.’ 

D. 8. Jounson: ‘A New Type of Embryo-sac in 
Peperomia,’ 

E.'C. Jerrrey and ArtHur Hoxtiicxk: ‘ Affinities 
of the Cretaceous Plant Remains referred to the 
Genera Dammara and Brachyphyllum. 

B. J. Howarp: ‘The Tannin Cells of Persim- 
mon. (By invitation.) 

VY. M. Spatpina: ‘Some Problems in Desert 
Botany.’ (By invitation.) ; 

An interesting feature of the meeting was 
the exhibition of a large number of excellent 
photographs of European fleshy fungi, 
made by Professor Atkinson by the aid of a 
grant made at an earlier meeting of the 
society. 

WituiAM TRELEASE, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.8. Vox. XXIIT. No. 580 


THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN 
GEOGRAPHERS. 


THE second annual meeting of the Asso- 
ciation of American Geographers was held 
in New York City, December 26-27, 1905, 
under the presidency of Professor W. M. 
Davis, of Harvard University. The Ameri- 
can Geographical Society generously 
offered the use of its house, at No. 15 West 
Highty-first Street, and served luncheon to 
the members present on both days of the 
meeting. The annual dinner was held at 
the Hotel Endicott on the evening of De- 
cember 26. It will appear from the pro- 
eram as given below that the several phases 
of geography, particularly the organic, 
physiographic and educational, were well 
represented. All the papers here named 
were read by their authors, and others were 
read by title. About forty members and 
invited speakers were present. 


W. M. Dayis, president’s address: ‘An Induce- 
tive Study of the Content of Geography.’ 

A. H. Brooks: ‘ The Influence of Geography on 
the Exploration and Settlement of Alaska.’ 

J. Water Frewkes: ‘The Sun’s Influence on 
the Orientation of Hopi Pueblos.’ 

MartHa KruG GENTHE: ‘ Valley Towns of Con- 
necticut.’ 

E. O. Hovey: ‘ Geographical Notes on the West- 
ern Sierra Madre of Chihuahua.’ 

A. P. Brigwam: ‘Lake Loen (Norway) Land- 
slip of January, 1905,’ 

Emory R. Jonnson: ‘ Political Geography as a 
University Subject.’ 

Cyrus C. Apams: ‘Map-making in the United 
States.’ 

CLEVELAND ABBE: ‘ A Modified Polar Projection 
Adapted to Dynamic Studies in Meteorology.’ 

IsalaH Bowman: “ Hogarth’s ‘The Nearer East’ 
in Regional Geography.” 

R. M. Brown: ‘Notes on the Mississippi River 
Floods of 1903 and of Other Years.’ 


Henry G. Bryant:-‘ Notes on Some Results 
from a Drift Cask Experiment.’ 
~N. M. Fenneman: ‘An Example of Flood 


Plains produced without Floods.’ 

D. W. Jonson: ‘ Map Studies for Engineering 
Students; therClassification of Contour Maps on 
a Physiographie Basis.’ ; - 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


WILLIAM LIBBEY: 
Jordan Valley.’ 

LAWRENCE Martin: ‘Observations Along the 
Front of the Rocky Mountains in Montana.’ 

_ A. Lawrence Rorcn: “Proofs of the Existence 
of the Upper Anti-trades.’ 

R. S. Tarr and Lawrence Martin: ‘ Observa- 
tions on the Glaciers and Glaciation of Yakutat 
Bay, Alaska.’ 

P. S. SmirH: 
Geography.’ 

F. P. GuLLiver: ‘ Home Geography.’ 

J. Russert SmirH: ‘The Place of Economic 
Geography in Education.’ 

Marrna Krug GENTHE: ‘Some Remarks on 
the Use of Topographie Maps in Schools.’ 

D. W. Jonnson: ‘Drainage Modifications in 
the Southeastern Appalachians.’ < 


President W. M. Davis presented brief 
summaries of papers by G. C. Curtis, on 
© Glacial Erosion in the New Zealand Alps,’ 
and by E. Huntington, on ‘ Border Belts 
of the Tarim Basin, Central Asia.’ Pro- 
fessor Davis concluded the program with a 
paper bearing the title, ‘ Physiographic 
Notes on South Africa.’ Many of the 
papers were illustrated with lantern views. 

The association does not sustain any 
regular publication. Through the courtesy 
of the American Geographical Society, 
their bulletin for February of this year will 
be mainly devoted to the proceedings of the 
meeting. 

The officers elected for 1906 are as fol- 
lows: 


“Physical Geography of the 


* Practical Exercises in Physical 


President—Cyrus C. Adams. 

First Vice-president—Angelo Heilprin. 
Second Vice-president—William Libbey. 
Secretary and Treasurer—Albert P. Brigham. 


Councilors—Three years, W. M. Davis; two 
years, I. C. Russell; one year, H. C. Cowles. 
A. P. B. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The Life of Reason, or the Phases of Human 
_ Progress. By Grorce Santayana. First 
volume, ‘ Introduction and Reason in Com- 
mon Sense’; second yolume, ‘Reason in 
‘Society. New York, Cas Seribner’s 
Sons. 1905. we AT 


SCIENCE. 


223 


These two volumes, to be followed by three 
others upon ‘ Reason in Art, in Religion and 
in Science,” afford more than the promise, 
they afford the poteney, of the most -stgnificant 
contribution, made in this generation, to 
philosophic’ revision. The volumes evade 
labeling by any of the nicknames of philo- 
sophie schools. Since probably they do this 
of conscious choice, it is discourteous to at- 
tempt a labeling. . In calling the view set 
forth naturalistic idealism, I shall, accord- 
ingly, be understood to wish to phrase the im- 
pression left upon my own mind, and to sug- 
gest that impression to the reader, rather than 
to classify the author. That reason is real, 
that it is a life, that its life is the significant 
and animating principle of all distinctively 
human activity, that is, of commerce, gov- 
ernment and .social intercourse; of religion, 
art and science as well as of philosophy; that 
the life of reason so-expressed is one with the 
reflective principle in its simplest, most direct 
expressions in common sense, that is, in the 
perception of objects, the acknowledgment of 
persons, and the entertaining of ideas—this 
may well be called idealism, in the classic, if 
not in the modern epistemologic, sense. But 
equally marked is Dr. Santayana’s insistence 
that reason is natural and empirical; that it 
is a direct outgrowth of natural conditions, 
and that it refines and perfects the nature it 
expresses; it is not transcendental either in 
its origin, its objects—the material with 
which it occupies itself—or in purpose. 

Nature shows itself in a life of sentiency 


and of impulse. But some sentient mo- 
ments mean more, satisfy more, and are 
at a deeper level, than others. The signifi- 


cance of such moments, persistently enter- 
tained, constitutes reason. For so enter- 
tained, they afford standards of estimation, of 
criticism, of construction; they become the 
starting-points of sustained effort to bring all 
experiences into harmony with themselves. 
Vital impulse gives moments of excellence; 
these excellences, grasped and held, modify 
vital impulse which now veers in sympathy 
with the judgments of past and the anticipa- 

1The first two of these are now (Jan., 1906) 
published?” 


224 


tions of future thus instituted—just because 
reflection is a consciousness of relative worth, 
it perforce is a new attitude of will. These 
better moments, while they satisfy, or are 
agreeable, are not just pleasures; ‘for a bet- 
terment in sentience would not be progress 
unless it were a progress in reason, and the 
increasing pleasure revealed some object which 
could please’ (p. 4). Neither, of course, is 
reason the abstract formula of the intellec- 
tualist. It is the value of feeling consciously 
operative in the judging and reconstructing 
of experiences. In reason, the pleasures of 
sense are included in so far as they can be 
intelligently enjoyed and pursued. 


In the Life of Reason, if it were brought to 
perfection, intelligence would be at once the uni- 
versal method of practice and its continual re- 
ward (p. 5). 

Again, 

The Life of Reason is simply the unity given to 
all existence by a mind in love with the good. 
In the higher reaches of human nature, as much 
as in the lower, rationality depends on distin- 
guishing the excellent; and that distinction can be 
made, in the last analysis, only by an irrational 
impulse. As life is a better form given to force 
by which the universal flux is subdued to create 
and serve a somewhat permanent interest, so rea- 
son is a better form given to interest itself, by 
which it is fortified and propagated, and ulti- 
mately, perhaps, assured of satisfaction. * * * 
Rationality * * * requires a natural being to 
possess or to impute it. When definite interests 
are recognized and the yalues of things are esti- 
mated by that standard, action at the same time 
veering in harmony with that estimation, then 
reason has been born and a moral world has 
arisen (pp. 46-47). 

This conception is made the basis of an 
appreciation of Greek philosophy, the wisest 
and most suggestive, though one of the 
briefest, known to the present writer; and 
of a criticism of liberalism (that is, of conven- 
tional naturalism—always a contradiction), 
for failing to see that meanings, values, ideas, 
are supremely real, are quintessentially, nat- 

*The context shows that ‘the good’ is inter- 
preted naturalistically and empirically. It is the 
persistent consciousness of one’s most excellent 
experiences as these are,,standards of, appraisal 
and of action. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXTIT. No. 580. 


ural; and of transcendentalism, for hyposta- 
tizing ideals into causes and substrates of the 
universe; for introducing mythology by trans- 
lating meanings into underlying substances 
and efficient causes, and thus into physical, 
instead of moral realities, which have their 
energy and career in the aspiring and voli- 
tional life of thought which effects, and which 
is, human progress. 

The working of this discriminative sense of 
excellence, and its increasing control of vital 
impulse, through union with it, is then traced 
through ‘the discovery of natural objects,’ 
“the discovery of fellow minds,’ the develop- 
ment of ideas, or of universals as themselves 
coneretions, the relationship of things and 
ideas, and the sense in which (although con- 
sciousness is inefficient) thought practically 
operates, thus making a transition to the dis- 
cussion of the ordinary practical life in which 
ends, purposes, are pursued. It is impossible 
to do justice to the volume, delicacy and justice 
of the observations herein contained, or to the 
pellucid, informed and pregnant style in 
which these observations have found their 
natural expression. A superficial reader, even 
the philosophic reader who does not think 
what he reads, may infer that there is a 
lack of system; the ordinary logical machinery 
is kept out of sight. But Dr. Santayana has 
not only swallowed logical formule; he 
has digested them. There are many books 
with much pretence of system and coherent 
argumentation that have not a fraction of 
the inevitableness and coherency of these 
chapters. In the main, Emerson’s demand 
for a logic, so long that it may remain un- 
spoken, is fulfilled. 

Of course, disagreements, divergencies of 
estimation will arise. To me, for example, 
it seems that Dr. Santayana does scant justice 
to modern philosophy, to the Lockeian-Kan- 
tian movement; and that, in spite of his sym- 
pathy with and appropriation of Greek 
thought, Dr. Santayana’s own position would 
be inconceivable, without this movement. 
One may believe (as the present writer is 
inclined to), that Dr. Santayana forces too 
far the doctrine of the inherently chaotic or 
maniacal character of consciousness by itself, 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


suggestive as is that idea, and ignored as has 
been the element of truth in it. One may 
also think that in failing to see how brute 
conflict naturally evokes thought, he under- 
estimates the part played in the progress of 
mankind by the ventures and insistencies of 
just brute vital impulse, however uninformed ; 
and that accordingly, at times, the pale cast 
of thought is too emphasized and the fear of 
individualistic assertion too acute. Again, it 
seems to me that he gives the indifferency of 
facts to ideas, to purposes, too absolute a char- 
acter, failing to see the full strength of the 
pragmatic doctrine that in a universe in which 
ends are developed in conception and insisted 
upon in action, thought must, as a part of the 
inherent machinery of such conception and 
realization, attribute indifferency and disre- 
gard to the ‘world of facts "—in order, that is, 
to free and multiply ends, and to liberate and 
vary the selection and use of means. 

But, with whatever of criticism and qualifi- 
eation, those who think, as does the present 
writer, that the really vital problem of present 
philosophy is the union of naturalism and 
idealism, must gratefully acknowledge the ex- 
traordinary force and simplicity with which 
Dr. Santayana has grasped this problem, and 
the rich and sure way in which he has inter- 
preted, in its light, the intricacies and depths 
of our common experiences. It is a work 
nobly conceived and adequately executed. 

JOHN DEWEY. 

CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


Heonomic Geology of the United States. By 
Hertnricu Rims, A.M., Ph.D., Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Economic Geology at Cornell Uni- 
versity. New York, The Macmillan Com- 
pany. 1905. 

This book at once invites comparison with 
its predecessor of the same title, by the same 
publishers, and by an author from the faculty 
of the same institution. One is pleased to 
find that it is no revision, but an entirely new 
work, worthy of Dr. Ries, who has done so 
much good work in special reports in the field 
it covers. Though it contains fewer pages 
than Tarr’s ‘Eeonomic Geology’ (435 against 
525), it contains quite as much matter on eco- 


SCIENCE. 


225 


nomic geology, and a host of good and illustra- 
tive illustrations. This comes about in three 
ways. In the first place all general introduc- 
tory geological or mineralogical matter is 
omitted. The reader is supposed to have ac- 
quired that. In the second place a slightly 
smaller type is used for less important matter. 
In the third place the style is condensed to 
the last degree. 

This is not, however, at the expense of 
clearness, which is French. Indeed, the short 
crisp sentences often need qualification, which 
will (p. 230, 1. 28) sometimes be found in an 
adjacent sentence or paragraph. N 

The author begins, inverting Tarr’s order, 
with the lower priced but more important non- 
metallic substances. This is natural, as Dr. 
Ries’s work has been mainly in this field, but 
it seems to the reviewer logically preferable 
also. He begins with the fuels. The biblio- 
graphic additions at the end of each chapter 
are noteworthy, giving the latest references, 
not cumbered up with a lot of obsolete mat- 
ters, yet retaining the more important books 
of any age, and they enable the student, or the 
business man who cares, to pursue any subject 
farther readily and effectively. It seems to 
me they are decidedly preferable to a general 
list at the end of the volume. 

From fuels he passes to building materials, 
and does not give a disproportionate treat- 
ment to clay, upon which he has done so much 
work. Indeed, he might well have let him- 
self out a little. Thence he passes to salt, 
salines, gypsum (the order should logically be 
inverted), fertilizers, next to which soils and 
road materials might well have come, abra- 
sives (here a little discussion of diamond and 
other drilling might have been appropriate) 
and water. This latter subject is handled in 
somewhat stepmotherly fashion, considering 
that at present in the work of the United 
States Geological Survey the Hydrographic 
Division is the tail that wags the dog. Evyi- 
dently the author thinks that water power and 
irrigation are not properly handled in eco- 
nomie geology, or, perhaps, he thought that if 
once he started in he would not know where 
to stop. The second part, on ‘ Metallic Min- 
erals andOres,’ bégins' with a clear and fair 


226 


condensed statement of present beliefs and 
theories as to the occurrence and formation of 
ore deposits. It is marked by good common 
sense. Iron, copper, gold and silver, silver- 
lead (a genetic group) follow roughly in the 
order of their importance. Then follow very 
brief statements regarding a host of minor 
metals, the sources, distribution, uses and 
production of which are briefly given, with 
valuable lists of references. 

Throughout the book one can often see 
where one might wish more added, but there 
is little to correct or omit. Each teacher will 
naturally supplement as circumstances de- 
mand. A few comments on matters in the re- 
viewer’s province may be pardoned. 

The occurrence of the copper ‘beneath 
higher ground’ is the weakest of the argu- 
ments for the rdle of descending waters and 
lateral secretion in the formation of the Lake 
Superior copper deposits. Indeed, the fact it- 
self is rather questionable. The reviewer 
probably misled Dr. Ries by mentioning it 
first in the paper cited by him, but that was 
done to attract local interest to the matter. 
The progress of developments seems to show 
that the prevalence of mines on higher ground 
is mainly due to ease of discovery. 

So, too, the reference (p. 290) to electrolytic 
refining of Lake Superior copper needs to be 
qualified. That has not been the normal 
method of treating these deposits of native cop- 
per, though very unfortunately, as it seems to 
me, western copper has been brought into the 
district and treated electrolytically. There 
are certain grades of concentrates from the 
Quincy and Calumet and Hecla which it pays 
to treat electrolytically to save the associated 
silver, and there has been a little copper, like 
the Mohawkite from the Mohawk Mine, where 
the amount. of arsenic and nickel was enough 
to warrant electrolytic treatment, together with 
the product of the impure slags and various 
drippings and skimmings and oxidation prod- 
ucts that go to the cupola. But the vast bulk 
of genuine lake copper has not been handled 
electrolytically. It reduces the toughness a 
little. 

Recent and up to date as the book in general 
is, it is not recent enough: to recognize the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


report of the joint committee on the Lake 
Superior stratigraphy and the triple division 
of the Huronian. Nor is the statement that 
the ‘archean iron-bearing formations are un- 
productive’ true so long as the Vermillion 
Range is left in that variously delimited 
group. ‘ 

A word of especial commendation should be 
given to the illustrations. Numerous cuts 
and small but clear maps of distribution are 
inserted in the text, which is printed on un- 
glazed paper of good quality, while the half- 
tones are well brought out by being generally 
inserted on glazed paper. This is easier on 
the reviewer’s eyes, and probably easier on the 
binding than the use of glazed paper through- 
out as in Chamberlin and Salisbury’s new 
‘Geology.’ Comparatively few are expressly 
drawn for the work, but that is no criticism, 
for they are recent (almost all of the last ten 
years), clear and pertinent. Im fact it is a 
positive favor thus to skim the cream of the 
various state and special reports. One could 
hardly ask for more, except perhaps a few 
diagrams of production such as are so valu- 
able a feature of Branner’s syllabus. 

The proof-reading seems exceptionally clean, 
but a few errors of sense have been obtained, 
mainly from the author, and are appended.” 

* Journal of Geology, 1905, p. 104. 

? Errata: Page 15, fifth line from bottom, read 
(1,3) instead of (13). Page 22, eighth line from 
top read 10,000,000,000 instead of 10,000,000. 
Page 28, twelfth line from below, read 250 in- 
stead of 150. Page 36, reference 21, read ‘ Coosa.’ 
Page 38, last line, read 1863 imstead of 1883. 
Page 72, sixth line from top, omit ‘per cent.’ 
after 20. Page 115, analysis of chalk should have 
4.42 SiO.. Page 142, ninth line from top, plate 
reference should be placed after Alabaster on line 
above. Page 163, line 10 from below, insert 
natural before abrasive. Page 202, SiO., of first 
analysis, should be 63.07 instead of .07. Page 
286, line 19 from top, read ‘2,000 or 2,500.’ Page 
306, Fig. 62, pattern for Potosi limestone, is wrong 
in legend; the Potosi limestone is represented by 
upper one fourth inch of left and right end of 
section. Page 329, fifth line from bottom, read 
“the metals.’ Page 429, under Michigan, insert 
iron ores, 256, 261, 265. Page.434, under Texas, 
take out ‘Suller’svearth,’ 175. 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


On the whole the book may be pronounced 
excellent—one that every broad-minded busi- 
ness man should have, and that deserves the 
wide acceptance in the colleges that it is find- 
ing. 

To be adopted as a text-book on economic 
geology by such an authority on that par- 
ticular subject as Professor Geo. P. Merrill is 
enough to show that it is indeed a good one. 


A. C. Lane. 
Die Riechstoffe. By Dr. Gorge Conn. 
Braunschweig, F. Vieweg und Sohn. 1904. 
Pp. 219. 


This is Section II., Group 2, Vol. VI., of 
Bolley-Engler’s well-known ‘Handbuch der 
chemischen Technologie,’ which is now pub- 
lished in this separate form for the con- 
venience of those interested in the study of 
the perfumes. 

The book is divided into the following 
chapters: I., Definition of a Perfume; II., 
Literature; III., History of Perfumes; IV., 
Occurrence of Perfumes in Nature; V., Prepa- 
ration of Perfumes; VI., Physical Properties 
of Perfumes; VII., Chemical Behavior of 
Perfumes; VIII., Quantitative Estimation of 
Perfumes; [X., Physiological Action of Per- 
fumes; X., Use of Perfumes; Addenda, and 
Index. 

Certain branches of organic chemistry have 
developed so rapidly during the past few years 
as to have risen almost to the rank of separate 
sciences. The chemistry of the dyestuffs and 
of the synthetic drugs, are cases in point. 
While the chemistry of the perfumes has not 
experienced so great a development as these, 
it has, nevertheless, reached the point where 
special books on the subject are necessary, and 
many have already been published. The his- 
tory of perfumery goes back to remotest an- 
tiquity, but that of the chemistry of the per- 
fumes is comparatively recent. 

The book under review gives a concise sum- 
mary of our present knowledge of the subject, 
including the chemical, physical and physio- 
logical properties of the various perfumes, 
together with their methods of preparation. 


SCIENCE. 


The synthetical preparation of perfume sub-, 


stances, and the methods of obtaining per- 


SAS 


227 


fumes from natural sources, particularly, are 
treated very fully. 

All plants which yield ethereal oils are 
classified according to their natural families; 
and this list is supplemented by an alphabet- 
ical tabulation of all known ethereal oils, 
giving their physical constants and chemical 
constituents. The composition of various 
artificial ethereal oils, at least so far as ascer- 
tainable from the patent literature, is given 
in a later chapter (X.). 

In the special part (included in chapter V.), 
108 pages are devoted to a detailed discussion 
of the various perfume substances. The classi- 
fication is based upon chemical structure, and 
includes the following groups: Hydrocarbons, 
alcohols, acetales, ethers, esters, lactones, alde- 
hydes, ketones, phenols and phenolic ethers, 
nitro compounds, and bases. The methods of 
preparation and the characteristic reactions 
of the various groups are given. 

The references to the literature throughout 
are numerous. The importance of the patent 
literature is recognized, and not only are refer- 
ences given to patents in the text, but there is 
also a separate classified list of all German 
patents covering methods of isolation or prepa- 
ration of perfume substances. The different 
European factories which manufacture per- 
fumes are also noted. 

Trade statistics, however, are almost wholly 
lacking. Many reports have been published 
in recent years on the production of ethereal 
oils and perfume substances in various parts 
of the world, the consumption of flowers for 
this purpose, cost of same, percentage of oil 
yielded per pound of flowers, and so forth. 
A résumé of such data would have been in- 
teresting. 

The book should prove a useful compilation 
for all interested in this branch of organic 
chemistry. 


Die datherischen Oele nach ihren chemischen 
Bestandteilen unter Beriisksichtigung der 
geschichtlichen Entwicklung. By Dr. F. 
W. Semmurr, ord. Honorarprofessor an 
der Universitat Greifswald. Leipzig, Von 
Veit & Company. 1905. Erste Band; 
Erste Lieferung; Allgemeiner Teil. Large 


i 


228 


8vo. Pp: 192. 

ferung. 

According to the announcement, the above 
work is to consist of three volumes, published 
in twelve separate parts, and will be completed 
in 1906. The first volume will contain the 
general part and the methane derivatives; the 
second, the hydrogenized cyclic compounds; 
and the third, the benzene derivatives, fol- 
lowed by a general index. 

The appearance of this great work will be 
welcomed by all interested in the chemistry of 
the essential oils. The name of its author is 
sufficient guarantee that the work will be well 
and thoroughly done, for Professor Semmler’s 
twenty years’ experience in this field has made 
him exceptionally well qualified to undertake 
such a task. It is not too much to say that 
when complete this is destined to be the 
standard reference work on the subject, for, 
if carried out as at present planned, it will be 
the most extensive separate treatise extant on 
the chemistry of the constituents of essential 
oils. It is likely also to impart an added 
stimulus to investigations in this branch of 
organic chemistry, and thus produce a rich 
fruitage of results of both theoretical and 
practical value. 

This first part contains the chapters on the 
methods by which the ethereal oils are ob- 
tained, their origin and occurrence in plants, 
and the general properties of their constitu- 
ents, both physical and chemical. In dis- 
cussing the general chemical properties of 
these constituents, the latter are classified 
according to. their structure, and the fol- 
lowing groups are taken up in this first 
part: (1) hydrocarbons; (2) aleohols; (8) 
aldehydes and ketones; (4) oxides; (5) acids 
and esters, and (6) phenols (in part). 

The subject matter is well arranged and 
clearly presented. The type and paper are ex- 
cellent. The work is one of such importance 
that it should, of course, be in every well- 
equipped chemical library. That it will really 
be completed in 1906 is not unlikely, as Pro- 
fessor Semmler is now hard at work in Berlin 
on his manuscripts and proof. 


Price, Mk. 7.50 per Lie- 


Marston Taynor Bocert. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No, 580. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Museum Journal for Janu- 
ary is styled the Crepidula Number, the 
leading article, by B. E. Dahlgren, being 
“The Development of a Mollusk’ and intended 
as a guide to the series of models illustrating 
the development of Orepidula fornicata, re- 
cently placed om exhibition. Another article 
briefly describes ‘The Collections Jllus- 
trating the Rocks-and Minerals of Manhattan 
Island,’ and it is noted that a complete list 
of the minerals would include about one hun- 
dred species and varieties. ‘The Department 
of Vertebrate Paleontology Explorations of 
1906’ notes the discovery on the last day of 
a six years’ search, of a specimen of 
Orohippus, and the end of the work in the 
famous Bone Cabin dinosaur quarry, a locality 
which has yielded many and very perfect 
specimens of these huge reptiles. We are 
also told of the discovery of the huge car- 
nivorous dinosaur, nearly forty feet long, ap- 
propriately named Tyrannosaurus rex, the 
tyrant reptilian king. Many interesting notes, 
and a schedule of the lecture courses are in- 
eluded in the number. 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
December contains an account of the his- 
tory, development and arrangement of the 
Hastings Museum, Victoria Institute, Wor- 
cester, by W. H. Edwards, and suggestions 
for ‘A Zoological Theatre’ to form an ad- 
junet to a zoological garden. Among the re- 
views of museum publications, those of several — 
American museums are very favorably men- 
tioned. There are the usual numerous and 
interesting notes. 


The Musewm News of the Brooklyn Insti- ~ 
tute for January has a brief article on ‘ Edu- 
cational Features of the Central Museum,’ 
calling attention to some special features of 
the exhibits; there is a description of some 
important Roman mosaics from North Africa 
recently placed on exhibition and a note on a 
group of mountain goats just added to the col- 
lection. The leading article in the section de- 
voted to the Children’s Museum is ‘ The Story 
of a Piece of Coal.’ Lectures are announced 
for both museums. 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


The Bulletin of the College of Charleston 
Museum is a comparatively recent addition 
to the list of publications whose object is to 
popularize the work of museums and keep the 
public informed of what is being done. The 
December number is mainly devoted to an 
article on whales and dolphins and gives a 
brief account of the cetacea, notes on some 
of the museum examples of this group and a 
list of books on whales. The number also 
contains references to the occurrence of the 
roseate spoonbill near Charleston. Under the 
direction of Mr. Rea, the curator, the Charles- 
ton Museum is being rearranged, relabeled 
and generally ‘modernized.’ 


Wirn the beginning of the present year, the 
American Electrician has become part of the 
Hlectrical World and Engineer, and the jour- 
nal will be known as The Electrical World. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 608th meeting was held on December 
2, 1905. 

Mr. J. E. Burbank spoke on ‘ Recent Work 
in Atmospheric Electricity,’ with exhibition 
of instruments of the Carnegie Institution. 
The fundamental problem in atmospheric 
electricity is the source of the earth’s electric 
field. The recent researches of Professors 
Elster and Geitel, Ebert, Gerdien and others 
have brought four new factors into the study, 
namely, the rate of dissipation of the earth’s 
so-called permanent charge into the atmos- 
phere; the ionization of the atmosphere; the 
action of the radioactive emanations present 
in the atmosphere, and the circulation of the 
atmospheric electricity in the form of vertical 
and convection currents. 

The paper was largely devoted to a descrip- 
tion of the instruments and methods used in 
measuring the ionization. The dispersion 
apparatus of Elster and Geitel and Ebert’s 
aspiration apparatus or ion counter were de- 
seribed. 

A new instrument recently devised by Dr. 
Gerdien, of ‘Gottingen, Germany, was then 
shown. This is similar to’ Ebert’sand con- 
sists of an outer cylinder 20 em. in diameter 


SCIENCE. 


229 


through which air is drawn by means of a fan 
driven by hand. The inner electrode consists 
of a tube 1.4 cm. in diameter and 24 em. long 
and is mounted on the post which carries the 
aluminum leaves of the electroscope. The 
loss in charge of this inner electrode is found 
for an interval of time, usually five minutes, 
during which air is drawn through the appa- 
ratus. From the known dimensions and elec- 
trostatie capacity of this cylinder condenser 
and its loss of potential we can calculate in 
absolute units the quantity A represented by 
the product of the ionic charge (e) into the 
number (7) of ions per e.c. and into mean 
specific velocity (v) (ems./sec. volts/em.), 
and is known as the specific conductivity. 
The discussion of the formula showed that 

—=env was independent of the velocity of 
the air current within wide limits; hence in- 
dependent of wind, ete. The specific con- 
ductivity is not a constant as with metals, 
but varies with the ionic content of the air. 

Dr. Gerdien has used this instrument to 
measure conductivity in balloon ascensions to 
a height of 5,700 meters, and from a series of 
such observations together with observations 
of potential gradient has deduced values for 
the intensity of the vertical currents. These 
currents on the earth’s surface amount to 
about 2.4 101 amperes per sq. cm.; at a 
height of 2,500 meters 0.8 ><10-1*, and at 
5,000 meters 0.3  101® amperes, per sq. cm. 

This instrument can be used in dense fog's 
or even during rain. The author secured 
some results on a sea voyage from Liverpool 
to Boston showing that i for positive charges 
was of the same magnitude as for negative 
charges. Curves were exhibited showing the 
values of the conductivity when passing into 
and through a fog bank and also during a 
light shower. The values of X in dense fog 
are about one tenth to one twentieth the value 
in clear air, but curves for both positive and 
negative conductivity follow each other very 
closely even in-very rapid changes of ioniza- 
tion. 

Professor Ebert has reported to Dr. Bauer 
that the eclipse observations on August 30, 
1905, made by him at Palma, Majoréa,in the 
Mediterranean with his ion counter gave a 


230 


marked decrease in the negative ionization of 
the air during totality. The observations of 
conductivity taken with this new instrument 
by Mr. Bowen, a member of the Carnegie 
Institution party at Battle Harbor, Labrador, 
seventy-five miles south of totality belt, show 
also a marked decrease in the negative con- 
ductivity during the eclipse. The observa- 
tions at Cheltenham, Md., with a similar con- 
ductivity instrument showed a fair agreement 
with the others, but in much less degree. 

Mr. G. K. Burgess then spoke on the ‘ Mono- 
chromatic Radiation of Metals.’ The object 
of the paper was to interpret the observations 
of Dr. Waidner and the author on the depart- 
ure of platinum from black-body radiation for 
red, green and blue light in terms of the now 
better known values of the higher tempera- 
tures involved and as expressed by Wien’s law 
in a form first suggested by Lucas. Discus- 
sion of the formule leads to the conclusion 
that the reciprocals of the temperatures of a 
black body and any substance having the same 
photometric brightness are directly propor- 
tional. For platinum the ratio is about 1.03; 
so the temperatures obtained from a platinum 
optical pyrometer, without correction, would 
be from 6 to 9 per cent. too low. But 50 
observations between 996° and 1,988° absolute, 
using red light, furnish constants for the 
formule, by the aid of which the nominal 
temperatures are corrected, the maximum dif- 
ference being only 3.5°; thus 1,814° observed 
is raised to 1,989.1°—a difference of only 1.1° 
from that given by the standard Holborn- 
Kurlbaum optical pyrometer. The important 
result follows that for many purposes a simple 
platinum strip may replace the elaborate ex- 
perimental black-body. 

Similar results were obtained with pal- 
-ladium. The speaker also gave a comparison 
of the electrical and thermal constants of 
several metals having high melting-points. 
(See Bulletin, Bureau of Standards.) 


Tue 609th meeting was held on December 
16, 1905. 

The retiring~ president, Mr. George W. 
Littlehales, of ‘the Hydrographic Office, deliv- 
ered an address on ‘The Progress of Science 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 580. 


as Exemplified in Terrestrial Magnetism.’ 
He gave a very clear sketch of the history of 
this branch of science, pointing out the phases 
that the problem had assumed and the specific 
contributions to the modern theory made by 
the leading magneticians. 
Cuartes K. Weap, 
Secretary. 


THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tuer 163d regular and the 22d annual meet- 
ing of the society was held on January 11, 
1906. : 

Mr. Maximilian Toch, of New York, gave 
an illustrated lecture on ‘The Trip of the 
Society of Chemical Industry through Eng- 
land.’ It was thoroughly enjoyed by a large 
audience. 

Following this the reports of the secretary 
and treasurer were read. The finances of the 
society are in good condition, and there has 
been a net increase of 27 in the number of 
members, the total now being 189, with four 
local associates. During 1905 there were 
ten scientific meetings held, besides three 
“smokers.’ Twenty-one papers were present- 
ed, three of them being by investigators in- 
vited to address the society. 

The officers for 1906 were then yoted for, 
with the following result: 

President—L. M. Tolman: 

First Vice-president—A. W. Dow. 

Second Vice-president—Jos. S. Chamberlain. 

Secretary—C. E. Waters. 

Treaswrer—¥. P. Dewey. 

Additional Members of the Hxecutive Com- 
mittee—K. A. Hill, E. T. Allen, G. H. Failyer and 
A. Seidel. . 


The congratulations of the society were ex- 
tended to Dr. W. F. Hillebrand on account 
of his election as president of the American 
Chemical Society. C. E. Waters, 

Secretary. 


THE OREGON STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENOES. 

Papers have been presented before the Ore- 
gon State Academy of Sciences, meeting in 
Portland, as follows: aia 

May 20— The Precipitation of Barium Bromide 
by Hydrobromice Acid,’ Professor N. C. Thorne, 


Frsruary 9, 1906.] 


Portland Academy. ‘Curing and Mounting Wild 
Flowers, Dr. M. A. Flinn, Portland. 

June 17—‘ Agriculture in the Philippines,’ Pro- 
fessor F. Lamson-Scribner, Washington, D. C. 

August 19— Mammals of Oregon,’ Dr. Marcus 
'W. Lyon, Jr., Washington, D. C. ‘The Develop- 
ment of the Ovule and Pollen Tube in the Oregon 
Grape, Elda R. Walker, University of Nebraska. 

September 16—‘ The Forests of Oregon,’ Mr. Ed- 
mund P. Sheldon, Portland. 

October 21—‘ Science and the Farm,’ Dr. J. R. 
Withycombe, director of the Oregon Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Corvallis. ‘Some Insect and 
Fungous Diseases of Fruits,’ Professor A. B. Cord- 
ley, State College of Agriculture and Mechanic 
Arts. 

November 18—‘ The Indians and their Care of 
the Forests, Dr. Harry E. Lane, Portland. ‘ Pre- 
localization in the Egg and Correlated Develop- 
ment,’ Professor -G. E. Coghill, Pacific University. 


The academy has endorsed a plan for be- 
ginning a natural history survey of Oregon 
by formulating check lists of all the museum 
collections in the state, and of all recorded 
collections from the state. It is the purpose 
of the academy to follow these check lists with 
monographs on various groups as circum- 
stances permit. 

Action has been taken to secure permanent 
rooms for the academy in Portland. It is 
expected that adequate quarters will be pro- 
vided for the library of the academy and for 
a museum which the academy hopes to acquire 
as time goes on. The private herbarium of 
Mr. Edmund P. Sheldon, president of the 
academy, has been loaned by him for deposit 
in the academy rooms. This herbarium con- 
sists of about 10,000 specimens. It will be 
properly mounted and made accessible for the 
work of the academy. 

G. E. CocHtnt, 
Corresponding Secretary. 


THE CLEMSON COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 

Tue 59th regular meeting of the club was 
held Friday, November 17. 

Dr. Calhoun gave an informal talk upon 
his work in the west this summer. His talk 
was illustrated by material which he collected 
for the museum of natural history in the min- 
ing regions of Colorado and Utah. 


SCIENCE. 


231 


The principal paper of the evening was 
given by Dr. Metcalf upon -‘ Sanitary Con- 
ditions in South Carolina.’ Dr. Metcalf gave 
a brief statement of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of sanitation and the special condi- 
tions which govern their application in South 
Carolina, such as subtropical climate in cer- 
tain portions, rural population, and a large 
negro element. The conditions leading to the 
annual prevalence of typhoid fever were de- 
duced from specific instances. The results of 
three hundred bacterial examinations of the 
water of a typical open well; the results of 
observations of the surroundings of this well 
and the adjacent privy and a study of the 
bacterial flora brought by flies into the din- 
ing room of the nearby house, were presented 
in outline. The speaker closed with a brief 
discussion of the hypothetical occurrence of 
forms resembling B. coli on the surface of 
the plants, and the possible bearing of this 
on the standard water tests. Portions of this 
discussion haye been published in Bulletin 89, 
South Carolina Experiment Station and in 
Science, October 6, 1905. 

F. H. H. Catnoun, 
Secretary and Treasurer. 


THE MISSOURI SOCIETY OF TEACHERS OF MATHE- 
MATICS (AND SCIENCE). 


THE Missouri Society of Teachers of Mathe- 
matics (and Science) met in Jefferson City, 
December 27 and:28, 1905, in conjunction with 
the State Teachers’ Association. Two after- 
noon sessions were held and were well at- 
tended. Mr. H. C. Harvey presided. The 
following papers were presented : 


G. R. Deen, Rolla: ‘Maxima and Minima.’ 

OuiverR GLENN, Springfield: ‘ Laboratory Meth- 
ods in Algebra Teaching.’ 

A. M. Witson, St. Louis: ‘The Treatment of 
Limits in Elementary Geometry.’ : 

TuHos. JAUDON, Kansas City: ‘Some Problems 
of Arithmetic in the Grades,’ 

Round Table Discussion: ‘What should be 
taught in Arithmetic and what omitted?’ U. 8. 
Hall, Glasgow; G. B. Longan, Kansas City; H. 


* Proposed amendments to the constitution pro- 
vide for the additiom of the words ‘and Science’ 
to the name of the society. 


232 


H. Holmes, Kansas City; H. C. Hamey, Kirks- 
ville; E. R. Hedrick, Columbia. 

At the business meeting provision was 
made for the submission to the members of 
amendments to the constitution providing for 
the enlargement of the society so as to include 
teachers of science. In future mathematics 
and science sections will be held in addition to 
the general meetings. The next meeting will 
be held in April or May at Columbia. A 
more complete report of the meeting may be 
found in School Science and Mathematics. 

L. D. Ames, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


RELATION OF MUSEUMS TO EXPERTS. 

To tHe Eprror or Scrence: The letter from 
Dr. Holland on ‘The Relations of Museums 
to Experts and Systematists who are Engaged 
in Working Up and Naming Collections,’ 
published in Sctrncr for December 15, seems 
to me altogether too general and too sweeping 
for universal acceptance. While I agree with 
Dr. Holland, fully, in his idea that all ma- 
terial borrowed from a museum or from a 
collector should be promptly and scrupulously 
returned, I think there are many cases in 
which a monographer or a student of a special 
group is fully entitled to retain material which 
may be sent him for identification. We are 
all supposed to be working for the advance- 
ment of science—for the establishment of 
definite facts. If a collector happens to find 
material which he is incompetent to use, which 
he ean not place and of which he can not 
recognize the value he should, as a true and 
philanthropic student, send it to some one who 
has the ability to use it for the help of other 
workers. Museum material is worthless so 
long as it remains unknown and unidentified, 
and can be made of value only when it is 
recognized as forming a certain link in the 
chain. The specialist who visits a museum 
is in honor bound to leave its specimens in- 
tact, but the museum maker, the collector, 
has no right to ask busy workers for their 
time and labor without some courtesy in the 
form of a return: In: my own work I have 
sent hundreds of specimens to specialists for 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 580. 


identification and description of new species, 
and haye never asked, or expected, that the 
material would be returned to me. I have 
also worked over many collections made by 
others and have not hesitated to retain such 
specimens as I wanted for myself. When a 
specialist is willing to take the time and 
trouble to study a collection—at my request— 
the smallest courtesy I can offer him is the 
retention of the material with which he has 
worked. If I do not have full confidence in 
him as an authority in that particular group 
I do not send him my unstudied material. 
Of course there are cases in which a collector 
finds a specimen which he ean not place, but 
which he recognizes as being rare or unique, 
and then he is perfectly justified in submitting 
it to an expert and asking for its return, but 
such eases should not constitute a general rule. 

Dr. Holland expresses the idea that all ma- 
terial studied should remain the permanent 
property of the original owner. It seems to 
me that a distinction should be made. When 
a worker in any line visits a museum, or se- 
cures the loan of material for study, he is the 
party favored, and can have no claim; but 
when a museum or a collector asks the special- 
ist to work a lot of unrecognized material the 
worker is justly entitled to such reward as he 
may find in the retention of the specimens to 
which he has given his time and work. 


S. M. Tracy. 
Binoxt, Miss. 


THE LETTERS K AND W IN ZOOLOGICAL 
NOMENCLATURE. 


In Scrence of September 29, page 399, I 
referred to a practise prevalent in certain 
quarters, of changing the letters k and w to 
¢ and vy, respectively, whenever they occur in 
generic and specific names of animals. At 

‘I there attributed the change of Kogia to 
Cogia to Dr. D. G. Elliot; but I find that he did 
not originate it. The form Cogia was used years 
ago by Wallace (1876), Blanford (1891) and 
Lydekker (1891). The late Dr. W. T. Blanford 
had curiously little respect for the original form 
of names, and even went so far as to alter the 
name of the well-known ant-genus Pheidole to 
Phidole, in Col. Bingham’s work on the ants. of 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


the end of the article I suggested that if work- 
ing zoologists would send me their votes for 
or against these proposals, I would list the 
names and forward them for publication. I 
give below a list of those voting, all against 
the changes referred to. Many of the voters 
added strong expressions, condemning the 
practise of altering names, and some wrote 
long and interesting letters. Not a single 
voice was raised in favor of the changes. It 
will be seen that the list, while only moder- 
ately long, includes a highly representative 
series of names: 

FRANK C. Baker, Chicago Academy of Sciences. 
[Mollusea.] 

PauL BARTSCH, assistant curator, Division of 
Mollusea, U. S. Nat. Museum. 

CG. J. S. BeTHUNE, editor Canadian Entomologist. 

Pure P. Catvert, University of Pennsylvania. 
[Odonata.] 

Tuomas L. Casry, U.S. A. 
lusea. ] 

H. L. CrarKk, Olivet College. [Echinoderms.] 

Epwin W. Doran, Biological Department, James 
Millikin University. 

BE. P. Fert, state entomologist of New York. 

L. S. Frierson, Frierson, La. [Mollusea.] 

K. W. Gente, assistant professor of natural 
history, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. 

JOSEPH GRINNELL, Pasadena, Calif. [Birds.] 

JuNIUS HENDERSON. curator of museum, Univer- 
sity of Colorado. [Birds, Mollusea.] 

L. O. Howarp, chief of Bureau of Entomology, 
U. S. Department Agriculture. 

Davip Stare Jorpay, president of Stanford Uni- 
versity. 

J. Percy Moors, University of Pennsylvania. 
[Vermes. ] : 

Henry F. Nacurriss, professor of animal biol- 
ogy, University of Minnesota. 

J. G. NeepHam, Lake Forest, Ills. 
ogy. ] 

Oscar W. OznstLuND, University of Minnesota. 
[Aphidide.] 


[Coleoptera, Mol- 


[Entomol- 


Gro. W. PeckHAM, Milwaukee, Wis. [Arach- 
nida.] 
Mary J. Ratusun, U.S. Nat. Museum. [Crus- 


tacea.] 
H. M. Smiru, Bureau of Fisheries, Washington. 
CHas. P. SiceRroos, professor of zoology, Uni- 
versity of Minnesota. 
India (which he>was editing) /°quite without the 
approval of the author himself! 


SCIENCE. 233 


C. W. Stings, Public Health and Marine Hos- 
pital Service. [Helminthology.] 

F. M. Wessver, Bureau of Entomology, U. 8S. 
Department of Agriculture. 

It occurs to me that it might become a use- 
ful custom to take votes on questions of wide 
interest through the agency of ScrmNcr; not 
for the purpose of enforcing rules or decisions, 
but in order to bring out and crystallize public 
opinion. When there were many votes on 
each side, the editor or the voters might be 
asked to choose one on each side to present 
the arguments in full. 

405 IDs AX, Cb 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF MOSQUITOES. 


Recent authors have subdivided the Cu- - 
licidee in various ways, although using mainly 
the same set of characters. It seems, how- 
ever, that the best and most natural group- 
ing consists in the recognition of three sub- 
families, as follows: 

I. AnopuEninz. Defined by the long ellip- 
tical compressed thorax; the palpi are long in 
both sexes; the metanotum is without hairs. 
The larve have a short sessile breathing ap- 
paratus and are surface feeders, being supplied 
with fan-shaped tufts on the dorsum, which 
serve as an attachment to the water film. A 
ventral brush or rudder is present on the last 
segment after the first stage. The larve live 
in all kinds of water, from that in hollow 
trees to the edges of swift streams, depending 
upon the species in question. They all re- 
quire a comparatively extended surface, owing 
to their habits of surface feeding. Contains 
the genus Anopheles and its subdivisions. 

II. Cunicinz. Defined by the short round- 
ed thorax; the palpi are generally short in the 
female, sometimes short in the male also; the 
metanotum is without hairs. The larve have 
a long breathing tube, always longer than wide, 
and are not surface feeders. A ventral brush 
or rudder is present on the last segment after 
the first stage. The larve live in permanent 
or temporary stagnant pools or puddles; sev- 
eral species are addicted to hollow trees and 
one lives only in water-worn holes in rocks. 
A: few species are predaceous, feeding ex- 


234 


clusively on the larve of other species. So 
far as known, all the species live free in water, 
although it should be noted that one genus, 
Tenorhynchus, has defied all attempts at 
learning its life history by the ordinary 
methods of dipping in puddles. 

Contains the genera Megarhinus, Psoro- 
phora, Culex, Grabhamia, Theobaldia, Stego- 
myta, Verrallina, Aédes, Howardina, Urano- 
tena, Deinocerites, ete. 

III. Saserninaz. Defined by the presence 
of hairs on the metanotum; the palpi are gen- 
erally short in both sexes. The larve never 
have the median ventral brush or rudder on 
the last segment, nor any pecten on the air 
tube in the species known. The air tube is 
long. The larve live in small bodies of water 
confined usually in parts of plants, such as the 
leaves of the pitcher plant, leaves of Brome- 
lias, flower sheaths of Canna, cocoanut shells 
and cacao husks, sometimes with surprisingly 
little water. A majority of the species in- 
habit the moist tropical regions. 

Contains the genera Sabethes, Sabethordes, 
Wyeomyia, Dendromyia, Joblotia, Phoni- 
omyta, ete. Harrison G. Dyar. 


THE QUESTION OF TAX-FREE ALCOHOL. 


Av various times during the last fifteen 
years attempts have been made to secure legis- 
lation providing for the sale of alcohol for 
technical and other industrial uses free from 
the revenue tax. These attempts have re- 
sulted in failure and this country, in conse- 
‘quence, is practically prevented from develop- 
ing certain important industries. In Ger- 
many and France, tax-free alcohol is used in, 
enormous quantities for manufacturing pur- 
poses and is even employed as a fuel. The 
aleohol so employed must be ‘ denatured’ or 
treated with some substance to render it unfit 
for drinking. : 

A few years ago the ‘Committee of Manu- 
facturers formed to assist in securing cheaper 
Alcohol for Industrial Purposes’ was organ- 
ized and has been very active in educating the 
public as to the advantages of cheap alcohol, 
and also in the direction of suggesting legisla- 
tion at Washington. This committee is now 
favoring the passage of the bill recently in- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


troduced in the House of Representatives by 
Mr. Calderhead, which provides that no in- 
ternal revenue tax shall be levied on ethyl 
alcohol of domestic production which has been 
rendered undrinkable or unfit for use as a 
beverage, prior to withdrawal from distillery 
bonded warehouse. 

As chemists are naturally and properly in- 
terested in the alcohol question, a committee 
was appointed nearly two years ago by the 
American Chemical Society to cooperate in 
every legitimate way with the Committee of 
Manufacturers in securing the desired end. 
This committee of the Chemical Society con- 
sists of Ira Remsen, H. W. Wiley and J. H. 
Long. At the recent New Orleans meeting of 
Section C of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and the Chemical 
Society, in joint session, a brief report of prog- 
ress was made by Mr. Long, chairman of the 
committee. This report called out a very live- 
ly discussion, following which Section C ap- 
pointed the same committee to bring in cer- 
tain resolutions at the next session. The 
resolutions when read were adopted unani- 
mously by the chemists present. They are 
as follows: 

In! view of the fact that alcohol enters 
largely into the production of many articles 
of common use and that the development of 
certain industries depends directly on the cost 
of alcohol, 

And in view of the further fact that in the 
United States there is no provision for the 
sale of tax-free alcohol for manufacturing 
purposes and that consequently many of our 
manufacturers of chemical products work un- 
der a serious disadvantage as compared with 
the manufacturers of Germany, France and 
England, where the laws permit the sale of 
tax-free alcohol for use in the arts and in- 
dustries, ; 

And in view of the further fact that the use 
of cheap alcohol in this way would stimulate 
enormously many industries in the United 
States, and benefit the farmer, the chemical 
manufacturer and the ordinary consumer, 

Be it resolved by this section of the Ameri- 
can Assdéiatiof “for the’ ‘Advancement of ‘ 
Science that we heartily endorse the efforts 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


of the Committee of Manufacturers, which 
was formed to assist in securing cheaper 
alcohol for industrial purposes, in their work 
in urging the passage of an act through con- 
gress providing for the sale of tax-free alcohol 
under proper restrictions, and that we recom- 
mend that the widest publicity be given to this 
expression of our views through publication in 
the daily press, in the Journal of the Ameri- 
can Chemical Society and in SciENcE. 

The literature sent out by the Committee of 
Manufacturers shows the many uses of tax- 
free alcohol in European countries and the 
directions in which it would be most valuable 
if available in the United States. This litera- 
ture may be obtained from the chairman, Mr. 
Henry Dalley, 21 William Street, New York. 

J. H. Lone. 


THE ANDREW CARNEGIE RESEARCH 
: SCHOLARSHIP. 


A research scholarship or scholarships, of 
such value as may appear expedient to the 
council of the Iron and Steel Institute from 
time to time, founded by Mr. Andrew Carnegie 
(past-president), who has presented to the 
Tron and Steel Institute eighty-nine one-thou- 
sand dollar 5 per cent. debenture bonds for the 
purpose, will be awarded annually, irrespective 
of sex or nationality, on the recommendation 
of the council of the institute. Candidates, 
who must be under thirty-five years of age, 
must apply on a special form before the end of 
February to the secretary of the institute. 

The object of this scheme of scholarships is 
not to facilitate ordinary collegiate studies, 
but to enable students, who have passed 
through a college curriculum or have been 
trained in industrial establishments, to con- 
duct researches in the metallurgy of iron and 
steel and allied subjects, with the view of 
aiding its advance or its application to indus- 
try. There is no restriction as to the place of 
research which may be selected, whether uni- 
versity, technical school or works, provided it 
be properly equipped for the prosecution of 
metallurgical investigations. 

The appointment to a scholarship shall be 
for one year, but-the council. may. at.their dis- 
cretion renew the scholarship for a further 


SCIENCE. 


2395 


period instead of proceeding to a new election. 
The results of the research shall be communi- 
cated to the Iron and Steel Institute in the 
form of a paper to be submitted to the annual 
general meeting of members, and if the council 
consider the paper to be of sufficient merit, the 
Andrew Carnegie gold medal shall be awarded 
to its author. Should the paper in any year 
not be of sufficient merit, the medal will not be 
awarded in that year. 


Bennett H. Broueu, 
Secretary. 
28 VictorIA STREET, LONDON. 


SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS OF THE 
ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE FOR 
MEDICAL RESEARCH. 

Tue Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re- 
search purposes to award for the year 1906— 
1907 a limited number of scholarships and 
fellowships for work to be carried on in the 
laboratories of the Institute in New York 
City, under the following conditions: 

“The scholarships and fellowships will be 
granted to assist investigations in experimen- 
tal pathology, bacteriology, medical zoology, 
physiology and pharmacology, and physiolog- 
ical and pathological chemistry. 

“They are open to men and women who are 
properly qualified to undertake research work 
in any of the above mentioned subjects and 
are granted for one year. 

“The value of these scholarships and fellow- 
ships ranges from six hundred to one thousand 
dollars. 

“Tt is expected that holders of the scholar- 
ships and fellowships will devote their entire 
time to research. 

“ Applications accompanied by proper cre- 
dentials should be in the hands of the secre- 
tary of the Rockefeller Institute not later than 
April 1, 1906. The announcement of the ap- 
pointment is made about May 15. The term 
of service begins preferably on October 1, but, 
by special arrangement, may be begun at an- 


ther time.” 
OG Eee L. Emmet Hott, 


Secretary. 
14 West 55TH STREET, © Bef 
New York City. 


236 


THE AMBRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 


THe American Philosophical Society will 
celebrate, at Philadelphia, from April 17 to 20, 
the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
Benjamin Franklin. The program is as fol- 
lows: 


Tuesday, April 17—8 P.M.: Meeting for recep- 
tion of delegates and of addresses. 

Wednesday, April 18.—10 a.m. and 2 P.M.: Gen- 
eral meeting for presentation of papers on sub- 
jects of science. 8 p.m.: Addresses— Franklin’s 
Researches in Electricity,’ by Edward L. Nichols, 
Ph.D.; “Modern Theories of Electricity and their 
relation to the Franklinian Theory,’ by Ernest 
Rutherford, D.Se., F.R.S. 

Thursday, April 19—11 aA.M.: Conferring of 
honorary degrees by the University of Pennsyl- 

3 P.M.: Ceremonies at the grave of Frank- 
9 p.m.: General reception. 

Friday, April 20—l1 a.m.: Addresses 
Franklin “Citizen and Philanthropist,’ by 
Horace Howard Furness, Litt.D.; ‘Printer and 
Philosopher, by Charles William Eliot, LL.D.; 
‘Stateman and Diplomatist, by Joseph Hodges 
Choate, LL.D., D.C.L. 7 p.m.: Banquet. 


vania. 
lin. 
on 


as 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. Ewatp Herne, professor of physiology 
at Leipzig, has been made a corresponding 
member of the Academy of Sciences at St. 
Petersburg. 


Ir is proposed to invite Mr. John Sargent 
to paint a portrait of President James B. 
Angell, to be placed in the Michigan Union 
Club House, shortly to be erected. The por- 
trait will be a gift from the faculty, alumni 
and students of the university. 


Sik Purr Macnus, superintendent of the 
Department of Technology of the City and 
Guilds of London Institute, has been elected 
member of parliament from London Univer- 
sity, defeating by a small majority Sir Michael 
Foster, professor of physiology at Cambridge 
from 1883 to 1903. 


Baron Gurrne has been elected president of 
the Paris Geographical Society. 


Dr. W. Scuersner, professor of mathemat- 
ics at’ Leipzig, celebrated, on January 8, his 
eightieth birthday. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXII. No. 580. 


Tire was an error made in a recent num- 
ber of ScmmncE in regard to the presidency of 
the Geological Society of America. The offi- 
cers of the society for the ensuing year are 
as follows: 


- President—Israel C. Russell, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Vice-Presidents—W. M. Davis, Harvard Univer- 
sity; E. A. Smith, University, Ala. 

Secretary—H. IL. Fairchild, University 
Rochester. 

Treasurer—I. ©. White, Morgantown, W. Va.. 

Editor—J. Stanley-Brown, New York City. 

Librarian—H. P. Cushing, Western Reserve Uni- 
versity. 

Councilors—H. M. Ami, Canadian Geological 
Survey; J. M. Clarke, Albany, N. Y.; J. F. Kemp, 
Columbia University; A. C. Lane, Lansing, Mich.; 
G. P. Merrill, U. S. National Museum; David 
White, Washington, D. C. 


of 


Leave of absence for next year has been 
granted to Professor F. P. Whitman, of the 
department of physics of Western Reserve 
University. 


A Lerrer has been received at Stanford Uni- 
versity from Dr. D. H. Campbell, written just 
as he was leaving Rangoon, Burmah, for Man- 
dalay. He was to sail shortly from there for 
the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradenya, 
Ceylon. 


Proressor FReppRICK Svarr, of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, who set out for Central 
Africa last September to study the Pygmies, 
has entered the jungles as appears from a 
letter mailed on December 17, at Leopoldville, 
which is 1,200 miles inland from the east coast. 


Mr. Watrer WELLMAN has signed a contract 
with M. Godard, of Paris, for the construction 
of an airship, in which he will try to reach 
the north pole. It will weigh 750 pounds and 
have three motors, respectively of 50, 25 and 
5 horsepower. : 


Tue Duke of Abruzzi (Prince Amadeo of 
Savoy-Aosta), a cousin of King Victor Em- 
manuel, has almost completed arrangements 
for a voyage of exploration into the heart of 
Africa. The duke, who will start early in the 
spring, has been assured that the British and 
French government official#in Africa will as- . 
sist him in every possible manner. 


FEeBRuARY 9, 1906.] 


Tue U. S. government has commissioned 
President David Starr Jordan, of Stanford 
University, and Professor Charles H. Gilbert, 
head of the department of zoology, to conduct 
an investigation of the fish and fisheries of 
Japan and the Island of Sakhalin during the 
coming summer. Professors J. O. Snyder and 
Harold Heath, of Stanford University, and 
Professor H. H. Torrey, of the University of 
California, will also accompany the expedi- 
tion. 


Proressor P. H. Roxrs left the Subtropical 
Laboratory at Miami, Fla., on January 31, 
being succeeded as pathologist in charge by 
Dr. Ernst A. Bessey. Professor Rolfs began 
on February 1 his duties as director and horti- 
eulturist of the Florida Experiment Station at 
Lake City. 


Dr. H. E. Parren, instructor in physical 
chemistry in the University of Wisconsin, has 
accepted a position in the Bureau of Soils, 
Washington. 


Dr. Fritz Zerpan has returned from the 
University of Berlin to take up the Carnegie 
research assistantship to Professor Baskerville, 
in the place of Dr. Leo. F. Guttmann, who has 
been appointed tutor in physical chemistry at 
the College of the City of New York. 


Proressor Kocw is said to have decided to 
apply the Nobel prize recently awarded to him 
to the publication of a complete edition of his 
scientific writings. 


Tue seventh lecture in the Harvey Society 
course will be delivered by Professor Frederic 
S. Lee, of Columbia University, at the New 
York Academy of Medicine, on February 3, 
at 8:30 p.m., his subject being ‘ Fatigue.’ 


Professor W. B. Scorr,.of Princeton Uni- 
versity, was announced to lecture, on February 
7, before the Geographical Society of Phila- 
delphia, on ‘The Geology of South Africa, 
Notes of a Journey from Cape Town to the 
Falls of the Zambesi.’ 


Dr. Frepertck V. Covinie, curator of the 
National Herbarium and botanist of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C., gave, before the Philadelphia College of 


SCIENCE. 


237 


Pharmacy, on February 2, a lecture on ‘ The 
Uses of Plants by the American Indians,” 
which was illustrated with a number of lantern: 
slides. 


Cartes A. Scorr, of the United States: 
Forest Service, manager of the Dismal River. 
Forest Reserve, has just completed a course of 
lectures on practical problems in forestry be- 
fore the students in the forestry courses of the 
University of Nebraska. 


THe death is announced of Dr. Karl you: 
Fritsch, professor of geology and paleontology 
in the University of ‘alle. 


Iv is proposed to place a bust of the late Dr. 
E. Ziegler in the pathological laboratory of the 
University of Freiburg. 


The Journal of The American Medical Asso- 
ciation states that a large oil painting of John 
Morgan, founder of the medical school of the 
University of Pennsylvania, has ‘just been 
added to the collection of portraits owned by 
the university and will occupy a position on 
the walls of Houston Hall. The portrait is 
the gift of the Hon. David T. Watson, Pitts- 
burg, who is a descendant of John Morgan. 
The tablet fastened to the frame is inscribed 
as follows: “Dr. John Morgan, born 1735, 
died 1789. Copy of original by Angelica 
Kauffman, in Rome, 1763-64.” Dr. Morgan 
was born in Philadelphia in 1735, and was. 
eraduated in 1757 with the first class of the 
College of Philadelphia, which later became 
the University of Pennsylvania. He subse- 
quently studied medicine in Philadelphia, 
later in Edinburgh, Paris and Padua, obtain- 
ing his professional degree from Edinburgh in 
1763. He became the first teacher of medi- 
cine in the College of Philadelphia, and with 
William Shippen organized the medical school 
of the University of Pennsylvania. He was 
one of the early members of the American 
Philosophical Society, and also the first gen- 
eral director of the medical service of the 
continental army. 


A MEETING of the committee of the Inter- 
national Association of Academies will be held 
at Vienna on May 30, 1906. 


238 


Tue department of zoology of the Univer- 
sity of California announces a series of twelve 
illustrated lectures by members of the depart- 
ment on the problems of marine biology, to 
which the public is cordially invited. The lec- 
tures will be based in part upon the work of 
the Marine Biological Station at San Diego. 


Tuer Philippine wood collection of the 
American Museum of Natural History has 
been removed to the corridor on the ground 
floor leading from the north wing to the engine 
room, where it will be installed in a manner 
to show to the best advantage the beautiful 
grains and colors of the specimens. ‘This col- 
lection is the most complete that ever has been 
made, and it represents all the woods of the 
Philippines which are valuable for manufac- 
turing purposes. 

Wu learn from the British Medical Journal 
that an exposition of inventions, appliances, 
and other objects connected with hygiene, per- 
sonal and public, will take place under the 
patronage of the Archduke Leopold Salvator 
in Vienna in March and April, 1906. Among 
the members of the honorary committee are 
Professor von Esmarch, of Kiel; Professors yon 
Leyden and Rubner of Berlin; Professors Frei- 
herr yon Hiselberg, Schauta, von Stoffella, 
Benedikt and von Wagner, of Vienna; Dr. 
Neumayer, deputy burgomaster, Staff-Surgeon- 
General Professor Kratschmer and Professor 
Schattenfroh, president of the Vienna Insti- 
tute of Hygiene. 


Tue annual general meeting of the Entomo- 
logical Society of London was held on January 
17, at the rooms of the society, 11 Chandos- 
street, Cavendish-square. The report showed 
that, for the first time in the society’s history, 
the number of ordinary fellows had reached 
200. The officers and council were elected for 
the session 1906-7 as follows: President, Mr. 
F. Merrifield; hon. treasurer, Mr. A. H. Jones; 
hon. secretaries, Mr. H. Rowland-Brown and 
Commander J. J. Walker, R.N.; librarian, Mr. 
G. C. Champion, F.Z.S.; other members of the 
council, Mr. G. J. Arrow, Mr. A. J. Chitty, 
Mr. J. E. Colin, Dr. F. A. Dixey, Mr. H. Goss, 
Mr. W. J. Kaye, Mr. H. J. Lucas, Professor 
E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., Mr. L. B. Prout, Mr. E. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


Saunders, F.R.S., Mr. R. S. Standen and Mr. 
CO. O. Waterhouse. 


We learn from the Scottish Geographical 
Magazine that Mr. Henryk Arctowski, late of 
the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, is engaged 
in developing a scheme for the international 
exploration of the South Pole. He proposes 
to begin the systematic exploration of the 
Antarctic regions by a preliminary cireum- 
polar expedition, which is to be organized in 
Belgium, and is to leave Antwerp next autumn 
with the object of exploring the most unknown 
portions of the Antarctic in the hope of find- 
ing new lands and suitable places for the 
establishment of winter stations. These would 
be utilized by future expeditions, the inten- 
tion being to establish a series of scientific 
stations in South Polar regions. Mr. Are- 
towski proposes to utilize an automobile of 
special construction to penetrate the interior 
of the Antarctic continent. If the experiment 
proves-a success, it might be possible to set 
up a station far within the continent, whose 
scientific data would add greatly to the value 
of the observations made at the other stations 
which it is proposed to establish. 


Iv is stated in Natwre that at Christiania, 
on December 29, 1905, there gathered together 
under the presidency of Mr. John Sebelien a 
number of men interested in questions of agri- 
culture and scientific subjects to celebrate the 
acquisition of national independence in the 
past year. A fund was opened for the purpose 
of fostering research in the subject of Nor- 
wegian agriculture, to which fund all Nor- 
wegians, both at home and abroad, are invited 
to subseribe. When the sum of $4,000 has 
been subseribed, it is proposed to invite prize 
essays on particular questions, and to reward 
Norwegian scientific work in certain branches 
of learning; and later still it is intended 
financially to aid research work in agricultural 
science directly. 


Consut Krrne, of Geneva, reports that the 
opening of the Simplon Tunnel, which was 
fixed for April 1, has been postponed to May, 
by action of the Swiss authorities. He says: 
“ The official opening of the new international 


FEBRUARY 9, 1906.] 


line through the Simplon Tunnel, after hay- 
ing been advertised for April 1, 1906, is now 
reported as being postponed until May 1. 
After having been for a considerable time 
under discussion, the mode of traction between 
Brigue and Domo d’Ossola—z. e., on 40 kilo- 
meters (about 25 miles)—is reported to be 
electrical, in accordance with a decision re- 
cently made by the Federal Department of 
Swiss railroads. The Swiss system of trac- 
tion now in use on the railroad Berthoud- 
Thoune, in the Canton of Berne, will be ap- 
plied with up-to-date improvements on the 
Simplon line. The first two electrical engines, 
when delivered at the end of the year, will first 
be tried on the Italian electrical lines of the 
Valteline. Electrical traction on Swiss rail- 
roads is a new thing; but it seems only natural 
that Switzerland, so rich in ‘ white coal, be- 
gins to utilize its wealth of water, and super- 
sedes, by the power derived from it, the enor- 
mous quantity of coal imported from Germany, 
France, Belgium and England. This new trial 
of electrical power on such an important new 
line will be watched with keen interest. If 
successful, the new mode of traction will cer- 
tainly be employed all over the country, and 
there may be openings for our manufacturers 
»at home in that line.” 


The Journal of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation states that the German national com- 
mittee in charge of arrangements for the ap- 
proaching International Medical Congress, to 
be held at Lisbon in April, will present the 
following two proposals at the Lisbon congress 
and urge their adoption: “1. The organization 
of an international bureau for the general 
medical congresses, which will act during the 
intervals between the congresses. The mem- 
bers of the bureau to be the presidents of the 
past and approaching congresses and the mem- 
bers of all the national committees. This 
central office should have its headquarters in 
Paris, and its task will be to preserve con- 
tinuity and order in the arrangements of the 
congresses, especially in the making out of 
the programs, regulating the sections, appoint- 
ing topics for discussion and selecting speak- 
ers to present the various themes, and the 


SCIENCE. 


239 


honorary presidents, working always in co- 
operation with the committee of organization 
of the congress. Motive: The need for some 
international body to serve as a court of ap- 


~peal in matters affecting these international 


congresses has long made itself felt, to prevent 
or smooth away differences that may arise 
between the committee of organization and 
the representatives of the special sciences. At 
the same time, such an international body 
would serve by regulating the relations be- 
tween the great general congresses and the 
international specialist congresses, and also 
with the medics. congresses in the different 
countries. 2. The general international med- 
ical congresses should be held not oftener than 
once in five years. Motive: It is generally 
acknowledged that the international congresses 
have lost in prestige of late years. This is 
due principally to the brief interval between 
them. In case they occurred only once in five 
years the preparations for them would prob- 
ably be more carefully made, and more energy 
would be devoted to the solving of scientific 
problems, these forces now being drained away 
by their being called on so constantly for scien- 
tific gatherings of such kinds. Besides this, if 
the international congresses were not held ‘so 
frequently, it would be easier to find suitable 
places at which to hold them.” Waldeyer and 
Posner are chiefly responsible for the drafting 
of these resolutions. They are to be submitted 
to the various national committees for discus- 
sion in the hope that something tangible will 
result in the way of the desired reforms. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Av the midyear meeting of the board of 
trustees of Syracuse University, Chancellor 
Day reported an increase in attendance at the 
university of 325 over last year, and the pur- 
chase of the Renwick ‘castle.’ Plans for a 
men’s dormitory on College Place, to cost 
$100,000, were accepted. It was also decided 
to expend $100,000 for the erection of a new 
chemical laboratory. The board decided that 
the ‘castle’ be converted into a college of 
pedagogy. &s 


240 


Presipent JAMES, of the University of 
the establishment at 
Urbana of a new school of railway engineering. 
It will be opened for work next September. 
The school will have three departments, in- 
tended to cover the entire range of railway 
work. 


Tilinois, announces 


Aside from the faculty in the various 
departments, prominent railway officials will 
give special courses to emphasize the value and 
the practical features of the curriculum. 


Ar the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania 
State Board of Agriculture, on January 24, 
public announcement was made of a change 
in the organization of the agricultural work 
of the Pennsylvania State College which, it is 
understood, has been in contemplation for some 
time. 
with the respiration calorimeter which have 
been carried on by the Experiment Station for 
the past seven years in cooperation with the U. 
‘S. Department of Agriculture are, under the 
mew arrangement, to constitute a separate de- 
partment of the college, to be called the Insti- 
tute of Animal Nutrition. Dr. H. P. Armsby 
is to be the director of the new department and 
is to be relieved of executive duties so as to 
enable him to devote his entire time to this 
special line of work. The duties of the direc- 
tor of the Experiment Station and of dean of 
the School of Agriculture are to be combined 
and the dual position filled by a new appoint- 
ment, which, it is expected, will be announced 
in the near future. 


The investigations in animal nutrition 


Tue recently completed Agricultural Hall of 
the University of Nebraska was formally dedi- 
cated on January 23, 1906. The principal 
address was given by the Honorable William 
‘G. Whitmore, regent of the university. The 
building is of gray brick construction, with 
‘solid oak finishing internally. It contains the 
agricultural library, an auditorium, and class 
rooms and laboratories for most of the depart- 
ments in the University School of Agriculture. 
‘The administration building is nearing com- 
pletion. Its construction is of plain brick 
with ornamental terra cotta finish. It is to 
contain the offices of the chancellor, deans of 
the colleges, university registrar, treasurer, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 580. 


secretary, superintendent of grounds and build- 
ings, ete. 


THm new administration building of the 
University of California, for which the last 
legislature made an appropriation of $250,000, 
has been dedicated with addresses by President 
Wheeler, Governor Pardee and others. 


THE entire main building Gneluding the 
library and the physical and chemical labora- 
tories) of the Fifth District Agricultural 
School of Alabama, was destroyed by fire on 
January 5. Nearly all the laboratory appa- 
ratus and the Experiment Station library 
were saved. The academic operations are con- 
tinued as before in other quarters. The loss 
is about half covered by insurance. 


THE position of research assistant in serum 
pathology in Indiana University for 1906-1907 
is open for applicants. Candidates must have 
completed at least two years’ work in a med- 
ical school of high grade, and must have a 
fair knowledge of bacteriology, of general 
pathology and of volumetric and gravimetric 
methods of quantitative chemistry. Prefer- 
ence will be given a medical graduate. Ad- 
dress: Department of Pathology and Bacteriol- 
ogy, Indiana University, Bloomington, In- 
diana. 


Apram W. Harrts, president of the Jacob 
Tome Institute, Port Deposit, Md., has been 
elected president of Northwestern University, 


.to sueceed Dr. Edmund Janes James, now 


of the University of Illinois. 


THE president of the board of education has 
appointed Professor W. W. Watts, M.A., F.R.S., 
of Birmingham University, to the professor- 
ship of geology, at the Royal College of Sci- 
ence, South Kensington, vacant by the retire- 
ment of Professor Judd. 


THE council of King’s College, London, has 
elected Mr. Harold A. Wilson, D.Se., M.A. 
(Cambridge), as professor of physics in suc- 
cession to Professor W. A. Adams, M.A., 
D.Se., F.R.S. 


Dr. F. Himsvrept, professor of physics, has 
been elected prorektor of the University of 
Freiburg. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Prsruary 16, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


'The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 

Is Mutation a Factor in the Evolution of 

the Higher Vertebrates? Section F—Zool- 


ogy: Dr. C. HART MERRIAM.............. 241 
Section F—Zoology: PRoressor C. JuDSON 
FEUWIRRIGS Faves sin. s)he sine sles er esisme ai Nteue a) oth ie Sue iets 257 


Scientific Books :— 
Thorndike’s The Hlements of Psychology: 
Proressor EH. B. DeLABaRRE. Rutherford 
on Radio-activitiy: PRorrssor C. Barus.. 260 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 262 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Philosophical Society of Washington: 

CHARLES K. Wrap. The Biological So- 

ciety of Washington: E. L. Morris. The 

Geological Society of Washington: ARTHUR 

C. SPENCER. The Society of Geohydrol- 

OGisuS2, ais ALE Tieatinas oe coe niengen ead ror 263 
Discussion and Correspondence :-— 

A New World for the Blind: Dr. GrorGE 

‘M. Gounp.  Color-associations with Nu- 

merals: Dr. Epwarp §. Honpen. The 

Yellow Fever Mosquito: FREDERICK Knap. 268 
Special Articles :— 

The Primeval Atmosphere: PROFESSOR 

InAitizist Isl, IMWONGI Ty wos ae dooce ana oceans 271 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 

Temperature in Cyclones and Anti-cyclones ; 

A Laboratory Manual; Notes: PRrormssor 

SMD E Oe VVISIRD sro) ecyoyaiauers eeu Sie sell ae 274 
A Colorado School of Forestry............ 276 
The Geological Survey of Illinois.......... 276 
The Memorial of Major Walter Reed....... 207, 
Scientific Notes and News................. 207 
University and Educational News........... 280 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of Scimncz, Garri. 
so0n-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 

IS MUTATION A FACTOR IN THE EVOLU- 
TION OF THE HIGHER VERTEBRATES?* 
Tue stir created among botanists and 

horticulturists by the recent work of de 

Vries, particularly by his Berkeley lec- 

tures (1904) on ‘The Origin of Species 

and Varieties by Mutation,’ has led certain 
zoologists to believe that species of animals 
as well as plants may arise by the sudden 
assumption of new characters. Thus 

Davenport, mm a recent review, expresses 

the conviction that ‘as good an argument 

might be made from the zoological side as 
de Vries has made from the botanical.’ 

The promulgation of these views by so 

eminent a student of evolution as Daven- 

port, m connection with the circumstance 
that more or less similar views are held by 
others, has led me to reexamine certain 

eroups of birds and mammals, of which I 

had previously made systematic studies, 

for the purpose of discovering evidence, if 
such exists, of the formation of species by 
mutation.” 

But first let us be sure of de Vries’s 
meaning. He states that mdividual plants 
of a certain species of evening primrose 


THE AMBRICAN 


* Address of the vice-president and chairman of 


Section F—zoology—at the New Orleans meeting 
of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. n 


*Tt is important that the terms used by de Vries 
should be understood. What we systematists have 
been in the habit of calling spontaneous variations 
or ‘sports’ he calls ‘mutations’; what we call 
“individual variations’ he calls ‘ fluctuations’; 
and what we call the ‘characters’ of species he 
calls ‘ qualities.’ 


242 


which he kept under observation for a 
period of years, suddenly developed ab- 
normal new characters or ‘qualities’ that 
were inherited and gave rise to permanent 
new species, which continued to exist side 
by side with the parent species. This proc- 
ess he calls ‘the origin of species by mu- 
tation.’ While admitting the extreme 
rarity of occurrences of this kind, he ap- 
pears to have been carried away with 
enthusiasm over his discovery and jumps 
to the conclusion that species in general 
originate by mutation—and in no other 
way ! 

After stating that species ‘are not in 
the main distinguished from their allies by 
quantities nor by degrees; the very qual- 
ities may differ,’ he goes on to say that if 
the differences in quality can not be ex- 
plained “by the slow and gradual accumu- 
lation of individual variation,’ and if the 
sudden variations called sports or muta- 
tions, “can be shown to occur in nature as 
well as they are known to occur in the 
cultivated condition, then in truth Darwin- 
ism ean afford to lose the individual varia- 
tions as a basis.’ Continuing the areu- 
ment, he declares: ‘Then there will be two 
vast dominions of variability, sharply 
limited and sharply contrasted with one 
another. One of them [that of individual 
variation] will be ruled by Quetelet’s law 
of probability and by the unavoidable and 
continuous occurrence of reversions. It 
will reign supreme in the sciences of an- 
thropology and sociology. Outside of 
these, the other [that of sports or muta- 
tions] will become a new domain of in- 
vestigation, and will ask to be designated 
by a new name’’—the origin of species by 
mutation. There would seem to be no 
doubt as to de Vries’s meaning. The ques- 
tion is, are his assumptions justified by the 
facts in nature? It will be observed that 
he deems the perpetuation of individual 
variations jeopardized ‘by the unavoidable 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


and continuous occurrence of reversions.’ 
Let me ask in all seriousness if sport varia- 
tions are less likely to disappear by rever- 
sion than are individual variations? 

Let us now examine the ‘2f and ands’ of 
de Vries’s argument. ‘The first of these is: 
If the differences in quality [characters] 
‘ean not be explained by the slow and 
gradual accumulation of individual varia- 
tions * * *,’? May one venture to ask, 
Why can they not be so explained? Is it 
not true that up to the time of the an- 
nouncement of his new theory a little more 
than a year ago it was the practically 
unanimous belief of zoologists and botanists 
the world over that the differences in quality 
that go to make species do originate in pre- 
cisely this way? And has any reason been 
brought forward to justify—much less ne- 
cessitate—a change in this belief? Are we, 
because of the discovery of a case in which a 
species appears to have arisen in a slightly 
different way—for after all the difference 
is only one of degree—to lose faith in the 
stability of knowledge and rush panic 
stricken into the sea of unbelief, unmindful 
of the cumulative observations and conelu- 
sions of zoologists and botanists? 

De Vries’s second and third zfs are: “‘If 
such strains [produced artificially among 
cultivated plants] can be proved to offer 
a better analogy to real systematic species, 
and if the sudden changes can be shown 
to occur in nature as well as they are 
known to oceur in the cultivated condition, 
then in truth Darwinism ean afford to lose 
the individual variations as a basis.”” The 
logic of this is hard to see, for is it con- 
ceivable that ‘strains,’ or varieties pro- 
duced artificially among cultivated plants, 
‘can be proved to offer a better analogy to 
real systematie species’ than species pro- 
duced in the normal way by the perpetua- 
tion of individual variations? ‘And if the 
sudden changes [sports or mutations] can 
be shown to occur in nature’—and I admit 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


that they can—how does it follow that 
‘then in truth Darwinism ean afford to lose 
the individual variations as a basis.’ Is 
not this a case of enthusiasm run wild? Is 
it not like arguing that if it can be proved 
that a man ate meat for breakfast, then of 
course he could not have eaten bread! To 
my mind the striking fallacy of de Vries’s 
argument is his assumption that because it 
ean be shown that sports occur in nature, 
and that im rare cases species arise there- 
from, then the theory that species are pro- 
duced by the progressive development of 
slight imdividual variations must be 
abandoned. Why ean not species origi- 
nate in both ways? The occurrence of 
sports among animals and plants being 
admitted, the question arises as to what 
becomes of them. According to Darwin, 
Weismann, Dall, Jordan and a host of 
others they are lost by the swamping effects 
of interbreeding. That this is the usual 
result in both plants and animals T think 
every one will admit, for even de Vries 
frankly states that their perpetuation in 
Siving rise to new species is so exceedingly 
rare that he is able to cite only a single 
authenticated case. I do not assume to 
be a botanist; nevertheless, for more than 
a quarter of a century I have been an 
earnest field student of plants in their rela- 
tions to geographic environment. These 
studies have convinced me that with plants, 
as with animals, the usual way in which 
new forms (subspecies and species) are 
produced is by the gradual progressive 
development of minute variations. 

But we are not now concerned with 
plants. The question before us is, ‘Do 
species among the higher vertebrates origi- 
nate by the sudden acquirement of new 
characters?’ In seeking an answer I have 
passed in review more than a thousand 
Species and subspecies of North American 
mammals and birds without finding a single 
one which appears to have originated in 


SCIENCE. 


243 


this way. Among the higher vertebrates, 
therefore, the conclusion seems justified 
that 1f species ever originate from sports, 
such mode of origin must be exceedingly 
rare. My own conviction is that the origin 
of species by mutation among both animals 
and plants is so uncommon that as a factor 
in evolution it may be regarded as trivial. 

If species do not ordinarily originate in 
this way, it is fair to ask, ‘How do they 
originate?’ My answer is, “By the slow 
but progressive acquirement of characters 
that have their beginning in minute varia- 
tions.’ 

Tt is hardly necessary in the present con- 
nection to review the theories concerning 
the inception of variation, for whether or 
not we believe in the potency of dynamic 
influences, we all admit that individual 
organisms vary, and most of us are agreed 
that in the struggle for existence the bene- 
ficial variations are likely to be preserved, 
the harmful ones eliminated, by the action 
of natural selection. Some of us go fur- 
ther and believe that the universal and 
irrepressible tendency of organisms to vary 
results in the perpetuation, not only of 
distinetly useful departures, but sometimes 
also of those which, though not harmful, 
seem to be of not the slightest service to 
either the individual or the species. These, 
according to Dr. David Starr Jordan, owe 
their inception to geographic isolation. Dr. 
Jordan states: “‘The adaptive characters 
a species may present are due to natural 
selection or are developed im connection 
with the demands of competition. The 
characters, non-adaptive, which chiefly dis- 
tineuish species, do not result from natural 
selection, but from some form of geograph- 
ical isolation and the segregation of indi- 
viduals resulting from it. * * * Adapta- 
tion is the work of natural selection; the 
division of forms into species is the result 
of existence under new and diverse condi- 
tions.”’ Jordan’s view is that ‘the char- 


244 


acters by which one species is actually 
known from the next are rarely traits of 
ntility.”* 

This was Darwin’s view also, for he says: 
“*Tt is a strange result which we thus ar- 
rive at, namely, that characters of slight 
vital importance to the species are the most 
important to the systematist.’’ T. H. Mor- 
ean goes even further, expressing his en- 
tire disbelief in the production of species 
through natural selection. Had he been 
familiar with the characters that distin- 
euish many of our species of mammals, 
birds and reptiles he could hardly have 
held this view, for while in some groups 
the characters naturalists make use of in 
defining species are mainly of the indiffer- 
ent kind, in others they are largely of the 
adaptive and useful kind. Thus among 
mammals, birds and reptiles dozens of 
species and subspecies are distinguished 
from one another by adaptive characters 
alone. At the same time it should be 
understood that, as a rule, species are 
based not on one but several characters, 
some of which may be adaptive, others 
non-adaptive. 


PRESSURE OF THE ENVIRONMENT: 

Darwin’s definition of natural selection 
or the survival of the fittest is: ‘‘The pres- 
ervation of favorable individual differences 
and variations and the destruction of 
those that are injurious.’’ 

Whether a particular variation is bene- 
ficial or injurious depends of course on 
the environment. It follows that varia- 
tions in order to be beneficial must be in 
harmony with, or meet demands of, the 
environment. Whether such adaptations 
should be attributed wholly to the slow 
action of natural selection, or whether one 
may be allowed to cherish the belief that 
the environment not only invites but com- 


*Scrence, N. 8., Vol. XXII., p. 558, Nov. 3, 
1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


pels variation, involves a distinction as 1m- 
portant as it is difficult of demonstration. 
Is there not a hidden force which independ- 
ent of, or superadded to, the general tend- 
eney of organisms to vary acts as an in- 
centive in initiate useful variations? 
Have we not evidence of this in the in- 
ereased length of toes and feet in species 


‘inhabiting soft or marshy ground; in- 


creased thickness of bill in birds that 
habitually erack seeds or nuts; imerease 
in the length of the canine teeth in mam- 
mals that catch and hold struggling prey; 
imerease in the size of the carnassial teeth 
im mammals that crunch bones of other 
animals; special modifications of the feet 
to fit them for special purposes, as for 
wading, swimming or grasping; and also 
such variations as appear to result from 
prolonged and oft-repeated effort, as in- 
ereased length of leg in species whose wel- 
fare depends on fleetness of foot, and 
greater development of the external ear, or 
ereater complexity of the internal auditory 
apparatus which seem to be a consequence 
of long continued strain in listening for 
the approach of enemies or of prey? This 
subtle influence I like to call the pressure 
of the environment. 

Dall was once bold enough to. assert: 
““The environment stands in relation to 
the individual as the hammer and anvil to 
the blacksmith’s hot iron. The organism 
suffers during its entire existence a con- 
tinuous series of mechanical impacts, none 
the less real because invisible.’’* These are 
weighty words, well worth remembering. 

While a number of our ablest natural- 
ists hold this view, the current feeling 
among morphologists and physiologists is 
undoubtedly against it. Thus Thomas 
Hunt Morgan in his book on ‘Evolution 
and Adaptation’ (1903), says: “‘We ean 
profitably reject, as I believe, much of the 


** Dynamic Influences in Evolution,’ W. H. Dall, 
Proc, Biol. Soc. Wash., VI., 2, 1890. 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


theory of natural selection, and more espe- 
cially the idea that adaptations have arisen 
because of their usefulness.”’ 

Is not the fact that such diverse opinions 
are held by thoughtful men of science in 
itself an illustration of the pressure of en- 
vironment? For is it not obyious—since 
those who spend their lives studying species 
in nature hold one view, while those who 
spend their lives peering into microscopes 
and inventing theories hold another view— 
is it not obvious that such antagonistic 
views are the outgrowth of different en- 
vironments ? 

To those who admit the existence of 
dynamic influences it 1s conceivable that 
the inception of the resulting variations, as 
lone ago pointed out by J. A. Allen, is not 
confined to a single individual, to be lost or 
saved by natural selection, but bemg the 
response of organisms to forces applied 
alike to all members of a species in a given 
area, takes place simultaneously in a large 
number of individuals and is thus estab- 
lished more quickly and with much greater 
certainty. 

VARIATIONS. 

It is convenient for the systematist to 
consider variations under four heads: (1) 
Fortuitous variations; (2) dynamic varia- 
tions; (3) sexual variations; and (4) sea- 
sonal variations. 

1. Fortwitous variations are such as arise 
without apparent cause—for it is im the 
nature of organisms to vary. They origi- 
nate in a single individual, and occur every- 
where, in all species of animals and plants. 
They may be beneficial, neutral or in- 
jurious. The beneficial are likely to be 
preserved by natural selection and in- 
ereased so long as the increase is beneficial 
to the possessor; the neutral may either 
disappear or persist; the injurious are 
promptly eliminated. According to degree 
of development at the time of their first 
appearance they may be designated ordt- 


SCIENCE. 


245 


nary mdividual variations, or sport varia- 
tions. This is an old story. 

2. Dynamic variations are such as arise, 
apparently, m response to pressure of the 
environment. They are necessarily bene- 
ficial, arise simultaneously in a number of 
individuals, and are cumulative so long as 
the increased development is helpful—that 
is until a condition of equilibrium is estab- 
lished between the organism and the en- 
vironment. They may be functional or 
geographic. Those that are functional 
may be local or general; those that are 
eeographic may be local or progressive. 
Variations resulting from change of food 
habits, or from the necessity of coping with 
a new enemy, or from the too rapid spread 
of a species from one area to another, may 
progress to full maturity in a given local- 
ity; but in the case of ordinary geographic 
variations the change progresses laterally 
from one district to another. Thus in 
species that undergo geographic color varia- 
tions, the change as a rule takes place so 
eradually that specimens from adjacent 
localities may be hard to distinguish, while 
those from the two borders of the belt of 
intergradation may be markedly unlike. 
In this ease the intergrades, as well as the 
extremes, are in complete accord with the 
surroundings, the members of the species. 
at each step along the geographic line of 
intergradation having attained a state of 
equilibrium with reference to the environ- 
ment at that poimt. 

Usually the movements of animals and 
plants in acquiring new territory are slow, 
allowing time for the necessary adjust- 
ments to take place along the line of ad- 
vance, so that no great change at any one 
locality is required. But it is conceivable 
that in certain cases the advance may be 
too rapid for this, brimging a species into 
an area to which it is not yet adapted, in 
which ease the struggle for existence would 
be unusually severe and the development 


246 


of adaptive characters would proceed with 
corresponding rapidity. 

Illustrations of functional and _ geo- 
eraphic variation in the same animal are 
afforded by the kangaroo rats (genus 
Dipodomys)—a group of American mam- 
mals highly specialized for life on arid 
deserts. These’ animals have numerous 
enemies and a multitude of competitors, 
which means that the struggle for existence 
is always severe. They are of small size 
and have big heads, big eyes, small fore 
lees and feet, exceedingly long hind legs 
and feet, and very long tails. The long 
hind legs and tail are special adaptations 
for saltatory progression—for leaping in- 
stead of running. Another general func- 
tional character is the extraordinary devel- 
opment of the internal organ of hearing, 
which forms more than half of the bulk of 
the skull, enabling the animal to detect the 
approach of its mortal enemy, the soft- 
footed desert fox. 

In addition to functional variations of 
this kind, which are general or common to 
the group, there are others that are local in 
character and confined to particular species 
or subspecies. Of these may be mentioned 
the increase in size of the hind foot in 
forms inhabiting soft or yielding soils—an 
adaptation that is even more marked in 
certain other groups. 

Turning now from functional to geo- 
graphic variations, we find in certain spe- 
cies a marked decrease in size from the 
north southward. In Dipodomys specta- 
bilis, which ranges from north-central New 
Mexico to southern Chihuahua—a distance 
of about 700 miles—the actual decrease in 
length is 52 millimeters (2 inches); or 14 
per cent. of the total length. This is in ac- 
cord with the general law of decrease in 
size from the north southward, announced 
by J. A. Allen many years ago. 

The kangaroo rats furnish illustrations 
of still other matters of interest to the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXTIT. No. 581. 


student of evolution. Passing the subject 
of color adaptations, of which much might 
be said, let us look for a moment at certain 
facts brought to light by a study of bodily 
proportions. Tabulation of the measure- 
ments of upwards of 500 adult specimens 
of the several species shows that individual 
variation is great, amounting in the hind 
foot to 15 per cent., in the total leneth to 
20 per cent., in the length of tail to 24 per 
cent.—thus affording, ample material for 
the evolution of new forms characterized 
by differences of proportion—but none such 
are developed. Indeed, the mean measure- 
ments throughout the genus are remarkably 
constant, the ratio of hind foot to total 
leneth varying only 2 per cent. ; of tail only 
4 per cent. We have here a case of wide 
range of individual variation coupled with 
surprising constaney of proportions. What 
does this mean? It means, if I interpret 
the facts aright, that all the species of the 
genus Dipodomys have come to a halt along 
a common line, like soldiers in a well-drilled 
regiment, indicating that in the course of 
their evolution from a generalized to a 
specialized type they have already reached, 
with respect to the environment and mode 
of life, a state of equilibrium or equipoise, 
from which any marked departure is in- 
jurious if not fatal. The possibilities in 
the way of divergence are shown by the 
large range of individual variation, which, 
however great, ceased long ago to operate 
in the production of new forms. All de- 
partures from the type are clearly disad- 
vantageous and hence are promptly elim- 
inated by natural selection. The operation 
of dynamic causes has resulted in the pro- 
duction of fixed conditions so far as the 
proportions are concerned—and no further 
modification need be looked for unless a 
marked change should occur in the environ- 
ment. 
SUBSPECIES. 
It is obvious from de Vries’s, writings 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


that his studies of plants have been mainly 
with species as modified by man rather 
than with species in a state of nature. For 


_ instance, he says: ‘‘The same original form 


can in this way give birth to numerous 
others, and this single fact at once gives an 
explanation of all those cases in which spe- 
cies comprise numbers of subspecies, or 
genera large series of nearly allied forms.’’ 
In the present connection it is necessary to 
notice only two of the fallacies embodied 
in this sweeping assertion—the two con- 
cerning subspecies. As a matter of fact, 
subspecies in nature do not occupy the 
same ground with the parent form, but an 
adjacent area; hence it is hard to see how 
they could fulfil his geographic require- 
ment, which is that forms arising by muta- 
tion occur side by side with the original 
stock. And since subspecies differ from 
the parent form only by small differences, 
how can they arise from sports, which are 
distinguished from the parent form by 
large differences—differences of at least 
specific value? 

_ From this it appears that de Vries’s con- 
ception of subspecies and their relations in 
nature is somewhat hazy. In order to 
understand the relations and mode of origin 
of subspecies it is necessary to study them 
on the ground where they are formed, 
which means that it is necessary to con- 
sider them geographically. To do this in- 
telligently one must study species in a 
region large enough to embrace belts of 
transition from one faunal (or floral) area 
to another, for it is in these transitional 
belts that the changes from one species or 
subspecies to another take place. The fail- 
ure to recognize this simple but all impor- 
tant fact accounts for most of the current 
misconceptions concerning subspecies.° 


5 For present purposes it is immaterial whether 
subspecies are based on actual known intergrada- 
tion (the point of view of the A. O. U. Code of 
Nomenclature) or on degree of relationship (the 


SCIENCE. 


247 


DO SPECIES ARISE INDEPENDENTLY OF GEO- 
GRAPHIC ISOLATION ? 


According to de Vries: ‘“We must con- 
clude that new species are produced side- 
ways by other forms, and that this change 
affects only the product and not the pro- 
ducer.’’ Two of his seven ‘laws’ relate to 
this phase of the subject. These are: ‘(1) 
New elementary species appear suddenly, 
without intermediate steps; (2) they spring 
laterally from the main stem (not replacing 
it).’ In thus burdening his mutation the- 
ory with the additional requirement that in 
giving off new forms the old is not altered, 
but continues to exist side by side with the 
new, he restricts its application to an ex- 
ceedinely small number of cases, thereby 
materially weakening the theory itself. 
For in the case of the birth of a new species 
the new quality or character may be either 
neutral or beneficial. If neutral—of no 
value to its possessor—it is conceivable that 
the resulting new species may continue to 
exist in the same area with the old; but if 
beneficial the new species in the struggle 
for existence will eventually destroy and 
supplant the old—unless it diverges geo- 
eraphically so as to inhabit a separate area. 

Dr. D. S. Jordan has recently expressed 
the belief that well-defined species arise 
only as a result of geographic isolation, but 
IT am not sure that he means by this just 
what the reader might infer. His words 
are: “‘It is now nearly forty years since 
Moritz Wagner first made it clear that geo- 
graphical isolation was a factor or condi- 
tion in the formation of every species, race 
or tribe of animal or plant we know on the 
face of the earth. This conclusion is ac- 
cepted as almost self-evident by every com- 
petent student of species or of the geo- 
graphical distribution of species.’’ A little 
point of view of the morphologists and of some 
systematists), the material point being that they 


must be closely related to the parent form—either 
directly, or indirectly through other subspecies. 


248 


later he says: ‘‘The contention is not that 
species are occasionally associated with 
physical barriers, which determine their 
range, and which have been factors in their 
formation. It may be claimed that such 
conditions are virtually universal’; and 
again: ‘‘Given any species in any region, 
the nearest related species is not likely to 
be found in the same region nor in a re- 
mote region, but in a neighboring district 
separated from the first by a barrier of 
some sort.’’ 

J. B. Steere, in a paper on the distribu- 
tion of birds in the Philippines, published 
in 1894, formulated the same idea in the 
following words: ‘“‘No two species near 
enough alike structurally to be adapted to 
the same conditions will occupy the same 
area,’’ and added that the facts ‘‘show 
isolation to be the first and the necessary 
step in the formation of species.’’® 

I fully admit the potency of isolation in 
the production of species, but can not for 
a moment admit that complete isolation is 
a necessary factor in their evolution, mere 
dwarication from a common center being 
in many cases sufficient. Neither can I 
admit that a barrier must be absolute, or 
that it must be interposed between species 
in order to be effective. This is proved in 
the case of climatic barriers, which, while 
not keeping contiguous species apart, never- 
theless restrain each from trespassing far 
on the territory of its neighbor. 

It is quite possible that Dr. Jordan’s use 
of the word barrier, which occurs over and 
over again in his recent paper’ is suffi- 
ciently elastic to cover most of the apparent 
discrepancies, so that the exceptions to his 
rule are really few. Still, there are in na- 
ture many groups of closely related species 
whose ranges follow one another in geo- 
graphic series, the one beginning where the 
other stops, with no barrier of any kind 

°Auk, XI., 239, 1894. 

*Scrence, N. §., XXII., November 3, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


between, as will be shown directly. In 
such cases it is often difficult to say whether 
the adjacent species have been established 
by differentiation from one another under 
existing geographic conditions, or have been 
developed from preexisting species along 
geographically divergent lines, and after- 
ward have met by extensions of range. 
These points may be made clear by actual 
examples: 

Among the kangaroo rats of the genus 
Dipodomys are two large and closely re- 
lated species inhabiting our southern des- 
erts. One of these, D. deserti, ranges from 
the Colorado and Mohave deserts in Cali- 
fornia easterly to a little east of Phcenix, 
Ariz.; the other, D. spectabilis, from a little 
east of Phcenix to western Texas. The 
geographic division between the two is an 
invisible line a little southeast of Phoenix 
in a desert area devoid of barriers of any 
kind, even climatic. The case, therefore, 
appears to be an exception to the law of 
isolation. 

Turning now to another group, illustra- 
tions of at least two kinds of variation 
among closely related species are afforded 
by the ground squirrels of the genus Am- 
mospermophilus, of which three distinet 
species and three subspecies are recognized. 
These animals resemble one another in form 
and markings and in the habit of carrying 
the tail closely appressed against the back 
so that its under side is uppermost and is 
presented to the view of the observer. In 
one species the under side of the tail is 
dark; in the others white or nearly white. 
The three species and their geographic 
ranges are (see map, Fig. 1) : 

Ammospermophilus nelsoni, restricted 
to the hot southern end of the San Joaquin 
Valley in California, where it occupies a 
detached area and is isolated by the en- 
circling mountains, which by interposing a 
climatie barrier cut its range off from that 
of the parent species, lewcwrws. It has ac- 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


quired a yellowish color which serves to 
distinguish it from all other members of 
the group. 

Ammospermophilus harrisi, mbhabiting 
the southwestern half of Arizona and ex- 
tending south far into the state of Sonora; 
separated from its neighbor (lewcwrus and 


interpres 


Fie. 1. Distribution of Ground Squirrels of the 


Genus Ammospermophilus. 


subspecies) on the west, north and east by 
two kinds of barriers—on the west by the 
absolute barrier of the Colorado River; on 
the north and east, along the southern edge 
of the Arizona plateau and its southerly 
continuation in New and Old Mexico, by 
the climatic barrier interposed by the ele- 
vation of the land. 

Ammospermophilus leucurus, inhabiting 
the Colorado and Mohave deserts in Cali- 
fornia and thence, passing north of harrisi, 
ranging northerly and easterly over the 
Sonoran deserts of the Great Basin and 
easterly over northern Arizona to the Paint- 
ed Desert and the Puerco, where it changes 
into subspecies cinnamomeus, which con- 
tinues easterly to the Rio Grande Valley 


SCIENCE. 


249 


near the center of New Mexico. On the 
opposite side of the Rio Grande (east of 
Albuquerque) another subspecies, inter- 
pres, begins and follows the Rio Grande 
southerly and easterly as far as the valley 
of the Pecos. A third subspecies, penin- 
sule, occurs in the peninsula of Lower Cali- 
fornia. It thus appears that lewcwrus, in- 
eluding the subspecies, surrounds harrist 
on three sides—west, north and east—form- 
ing a complete horseshoe open only at the 
south. The nature of the barriers sepa- 
rating it from harris: has been mentioned 
under the latter species. 

Of the three subspecies of lewcwrus, two 
—cimnamomeus and penmnsule—have the 
under side of the tail white and are only 
moderately accentuated color forms, con- 
tinuous in distribution with the parent 
form and intergrading with it by imper- 
ceptible steps. The third subspecies, in- 
terpres, has some black mtermixed in the 
white of the tail, and specimens from the 
El Paso region, where geographically in- 
terpres approaches nearest to harrisi, have 
more black than specimens from near Al- 
buquerque, suggesting the possibility that 
intergradation may take place in the in- 
tervening area, in southwestern New Mex- 
ico. Unfortunately we have as yet no 
specimens from this area. If intergrada- 
tion should be shown to occur, then we 
shall have an example of two well-defined 
species occupying adjacent areas and in- 
tergrading at the point of contact while 
remaining distinet everywhere else. In 
other words, the species are perfectly dis- 
tinet wherever barriers exist separating 
their ranges, and intergrade when there are 
no barriers. In distribution and behavior, 
therefore, these animals conform to the 
usual rule, that closely related species sepa- 
rated by impassable barriers remain dis- 
tinct, while those not separated by such 
barriers intergrade. 

But the most significant and complicated 


250 


case is that of the western chipmunks 
(genus Hutamias), one of the most elegant 
. and attractive groups of American mam- 
mals. The genus occupies a vast area in 
western North America, extending from 
Lake Nipissing, Ontario, westerly to the 
Pacific Ocean, a distance of 2,000 miles, 
and from the Mackenzie River a little north 
of Great Slave Lake southward to the 
mountains of Zacatecas in Mexico, a dis- 
tance of fully 3,000 miles. Most of the 
species dwell in forests, but a few inhabit 
the great sage brush plains. Faunally they 


contribute distinctive species to every life . 


zone from the Upper Sonoran to the Arctic- 


Mertlami 


Fic. 2. 


SCIENCE. 


Upper Sonoron 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. , 


continental life zones, each of which is 
characterized by peculiarities of climate 
and by a definite association of species of 
mammals, birds, reptiles, trees and shrubs. 
There are no gaps between the belts, the 
upper border of one being coincident with 
the lower border of the next, so that indi- 
vidual animals of different species meet 
along the border lines of the several zones. 
In some cases only a single species inhabits 
a zone, but in one case not less than three 
occur together. These three however, as 
would be expected, are so very distinct 
from one another that they could not pos- 
sibly have arisen by mutation. 


<Qwens alley, 
White luts 


Diagram Showing the Zone Ranges of Chipmunks (genus Hutamias) in an east-west sec- 


tion of the middle Sierra and White Mountains in eastern California. 


Alpine. In mountainous regions the spe- 
cies are commonly distributed in parallel 
belts, the borders of which are not only in 
absolute contact, but even slightly overlap 
for long distances. 

As it will be impossible in’ the time at 
our disposal to consider more than a few of 
' the species, I have selected for illustration 
those that inhabit eastern California, along 
an east-and-west line extending from the 
west base of the Sierra Nevada to the sum- 
mit of the White Mountains. On the egrad- 
ually rising slopes of the Sierra the species 
are arranged one above the other, from base 
to summit, in definite belts or strata (see 
diagram, Fig. 2). Field studies have shown 
that these belts are the same as the trans- 


Beginning at the foot of the Sierra on 
the west side, the first species encountered 
is a large, dark, long-tailed form (Hwutamias 
merriamt), whose range coincides with the 
limits of the digger pine or Upper Sonoran 
zone. Immediately above this is the broad 
belt of ponderosa pines and giant sequoias 
of the Transition zone. The chipmunk of 
the zone below does not occur here, but is 
replaced by a striking long-eared species 
(quadrimaculatus) which fills the zone and 
is restricted to it. Along the line where 
the yellow pines of the Transition zone 
change to the Murray pines of the Can- 
adian no less than three species (ame@nus, 
senex and speciosus) begin abruptly and 
range upward throughout the Canadian 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


zone. Above this still is the Hudsonian 
zone, and it also has its distinctive chip- 
munk—a small but highly colored species 
(alpmmus)—which fills the zone completely 
and climbs up a short distance on the alpine 
slopes above timber line. Crossing the sum- 
mit and descending the steep east side of 
the Sierra, the Canadian zone is found to 
be inhabited by the same three species that 
occupy this zone on the west slope. Below 
this, in the nut pine belt of the Transition 
zone, 1s a brilliantly colored species (pana- 
mintinus) very different from any we have 
seen. Still lower, im the Upper Sonoran 
sage brush of Owens Valley, is a small ‘gray 
species (pictus) not related to any of the 
others. Owens Valley is a long narrow 
and deep valley between the Sierra and the 
White Mountains. Crossing this valley 
and ascending the west slope of the White 
Mountains we reenter the nut pine belt and 
find the same chipmunk (panamintinus) 
that we found in the same belt on the other 
side of the valley (on the east slope of the 
Sierra). Continuing the ascent we enter 
the Canadian zone, which covers the greater 
part of the summit of the White Moun- 
tains, and in it find a widely different chip- 
munk (inyoensis), which proves to be an- 
other member of the beautiful speciosus 
eroup—a group we have already found 
represented in the same zone on both east 
and west slopes of the Sierra. 

Thus in a distance of a hundred miles, 
from the west base of the Sierra to the 
summit of the White Mountains, are in- 
cluded the ranges of no less than nine spe- 
cies of chipmunks. This is made possible 
by the height and steepness of the moun- 
tains, the abrupt changes in altitude with 
consequent differences in temperature com- 
pressing the life zones into narrow parallel 
belts; whereas in level regions, as well 
Inown, these same belts are spread out 
broadly over the land. 

The Sierra chipmunks furnish striking 


\ 


SCIENCE. 251 


illustrations of the occurrence of species 
without isolation, and some of them of the 
evolution of species without isolation, for 
not only are there no visible barriers be- 
tween the ranges of adjoining species, but 
the species themselves actually overlap 
along the zone borders, individual animals 
belonging to the zone above and the zone 
below occurring together on the same 
ground. But while there are no barriers 
between the species, each belongs to and is 
characteristic of a definite climatic life 
zone; and the fact that the life zones over- 
lap slightly along the edges explaims the 
slight geographic overlapping of the spe- 
cies themselves. The reason the species do 
not intergrade along the lines of contact 
doubtless is that they are not closely enough 
related—their differentiation into fully de- 
veloped species (with the probable excep- 
tion of speciosus and imyoensis) having 
taken place long ago. 

The question now arises as to the origin 
of the nine species. Most of these, if 
studied independently of their relations in 
other parts of the country, resemble one 
another sufficiently to justify the ference 
that they have been derived from one 
another. 

Far from holding this view, however, my 
belief is that some of them came from 
closely related forms in remote geographic — 
areas, others from antecedent forms now 
extinct, and not more than three or four 
from species still inhabiting the region. 
The ease is of a class often encountered by 
the systematist and student of distribution, 
where, without a comprehensive knowledge 
of the relationships and geographic distri- 
bution of the group as a whole and of its 
component species and subspecies, there is 
little hope of arriving at correct conelu- - 
sions. Let us look closely at.the facts, for 


- they have an important bearing on more 


than one problem in evolution and distri- 
bution. 


252 


The Hudsonian species alpinus, now re- 
stricted to the lofty crest of the southern 
High Sierra, appears to be distantly re- 
lated to oreocetes of Montana, but has no 
near relative. 

Another of the Boreal species, amenus, 
ranges northward over the Cascades in 
Oregon and is only subspecifically distinet 
from a form inhabiting the boreal forests 
of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. 

The speciosus group, it will be remem- 
bered, is represented in the east California 


section by two forms (speciosus and wmyo- 


ensis), which may be called species or sub- 
species, as you like—the fact being that 
they are more closely interrelated than are 
any of the other forms of the region, al- 
though intergradation has not been proved. 
But instead of occupying different faunal 
zones, as do the other species, they occupy 
different parts of the same zone—speciosus 
inhabiting the Boreal slopes of the Sierra, 
inyoensis the corresponding Boreal crest of 
the adjacent White Mountains (here sepa- 
rated from speciosus by the Upper Sonoran 
and Transition zones of Owens Valley). 
But where did the speciosus type come 
from? Investigations carried on by the 
Biological Survey show that the same spe- 
cific type still inhabits the upper slopes of 
the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Moun- 
tains in southern California, that a more 
distantly related form (quadrwittatus) 
occupies the Transition zone in Colorado, 
and that between the two, on an isolated 
mountain peak rising from the arid deserts 
of southern Nevada, is another species 
(palmeri), more strongly differentiated in 
consequence of local peculiarities of en- 
vironment. These facts show not only 
that the speciosus-quadrivittatus group is 
a very old one, but also that its ancestors 
once inhabited the Great Basin itself. In 


those days the arid deserts of this region . 


were in their infaney, and must have been 
completely bridged by continuity of econif- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581, 


erous forests, connecting the Sierra and 
Rocky Mountain areas. 

The Desert Range species, panamintinus, 
which occupies the Transition zone on both 
sides of Owens Valley, occurs south of the 
White and Inyo mountains in the Coso and 
Argus mountains, and farther east, in the 
Panamint, Grapevine, Providence and New 
York mountains in the desert region of 
eastern California, and on Mount Magruder 
in western Nevada. It belongs to a group 
of which only one other species is known— 
E. hopiensis, of the high desert mesas of 
northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah 
and southwestern Colorado. In this ease, 
as in that of two other groups already dis- 
cussed (the amenus group and the spe- 
closus-quadrivittatus group) the range of 
the type comprises localities on both sides 
of the Great Basin. It appears to be an 
aberrant offspring of the speciosus-quadri- 
vittatus group and probably originated 
from the ancestors of that group in the by; 
gone days when they inhabited the ancient 
forests of the Great Basin. 

Eutamias senex appears to have origi- 
nated in the Siskiyou Mountains, on the 
boundary between California and Oregon, 
as an offshoot from the redwood chipmunk, 
ochrogenys—which in turn is closely re- 
lated to townsend: of the northwest coast 
of Oregon and Washington. From the Sis- 
kiyous, senea ranges north along the Cas- 
eades nearly to Mt. Hood, and-south in the 
Sierra to the latitude of Yosemite Valley. 
In time it may be expected to push on to 
the south end of the Boreal Sierra in the 
Mt. Whitney region. JH. senex appears to 
be the parent form, directly or indirectly, 
of two other species—quadrimaculatus and 
merriami—whose ranges now occupy con- 
siderable stretches along the flanks of the 
Sierra. It seems probable that quadri- 
maculatus originated near the north end of 
its present range and under existing geo- 
eraphic and climatic conditions. While, 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


as we have already seen, it occupies the 
Transition zone, directly below the Boreal 
zone inhabited by senex, and while the 
ranges of the two are in direct contact for 
many miles, both species remain true, show- 
ing no tendency to intergrade. The his- 
tory of merriami is by no means so simple, 
and the road by which it reached its present 
home by no means so direct. It is not an 
immediate offshoot from senex, for before 
attaining its present status it passed 
through another form, known as pricet. 
The story, as I interpret it, is this: In the 
northern part of California, south of the 
Siskiyous and west of the northern Sierra, 


the Boreal senex gave off a Transition zone - 


form which spread and became differen- 
tiated in two directions: to the southward 
along the west flank of the Sierra it de- 
veloped long ears and the peculiarities of 
coloration that distinguish quadrimacu- 
latus; to the westward it developed the 
long tail and other peculiarities that dis- 
tineuish pricet. The latter pressed south- 
ward through the coast ranges to Monterey 
Bay, south of which it underwent another 
change, assuming the characters by which 
merriami differs from pricet, and continued 
in the same direction to the Santa Barbara 
Mountains, and then easterly to Mt. Pinos, 
where its range forked, the north branch 
following the Tejon and Tehachapi Moun- 
tains to the southern Sierra and thence 
northward to a little beyond the Yosemite ; 
the south branch pushing southeasterly over 
the Sierra Liebre, Sierra Madre, San Ga- 
briel and San Bernardino mountains, and 
then south over San Jacinto and Palomar 
to the San Pedro Martyr Mountains of 
Lower California. In the Sierra region 
merriami is restricted to the Upper Son- 
oran zone, while its immediate ancestor, 
pricet, belongs to the Transition zone, and 
its remoter ancestor, senex, to the Boreal 
zone. The change from Boreal senex to 
Transition zone pricei and quadrimaculatus 


SCIENCE. 253 


is merely a zone adaptation to an imme- 
diately adjoining area; the change from 
pricet to merriamé is simpler and at the 
same time more interesting, for the belt 
occupied by pricei, while mainly Transi- 
tion, possesses the climatic peculiarity of 
mild winters and relatively cool summers 
and fulfils the temperature requirements 
of both Transition and Upper Austral 
zones, permitting an overlapping or ad- 
mixture of the distinctive species of both. 
In this belt merriami became adapted to 
Upper Austral conditions, so that in ex- 
tending its range back to the Sierra it was 
natural that it should adhere to the Upper 
Sonoran zone. 

The three Sierra members of the senex 
eroup (senex, quadrimaculatus and mer- 
riamt) therefore have reached their appro- 
priate zones from opposite directions— 
senex and its offshoot quwadrimaculatus 
from the north by direct continuity of 
range; merriami from the south (after 
passing through another form) by the 
roundabout way of the Coast ranges and 
the Tejon and Tehachapi mountains.® 

To sum up the story of the California 
chipmunks from the standpoint of their 
geographic origin: Of the nine species in- 
habitmg the middle Sierra region, six 
(senex, amenus, speciosus, merriami, pana- 
mintinus and pictus) appear to have come 
in from contiguous territory in their pres- 
ent condition—as fully formed species— 
although it is possible that one of them 
(amenus) originated here and extended its 
range northward; and three (quadrimacu- 


The chipmunks afford admirable illustrations 
of a number of phases of variation and distribu- 
tion besides those. here discussed—as the occur- 
rence of closely related forms end-to-end in the 
same zone; the spreading out of a species in cer- 
tain parts of its range to cover an adjacent zone 
which elsewhere is avoided; the development of 
protective and directive coloration anu markings; 
the utility or non-utility of characters used in the 
discrimination of species, and so on. 


254 


latus, imyoensis and alpinus) appear to 
have been developed within the region in 
the areas they now inhabit. So far as 
origin is concerned, therefore, we have to 
do with only the last three. Of these, one 
—inyoensis—was clearly derived from the 
speciosus stock by the gradual accentuation 
of minute variations; another, quadri- 
maculatus, appears to have originated from 
senex in the same way, as already ex- 
plained, leaving only one, alpinus, whose 
history is by no means obvious. Since 
alpinus has no near relatives, there is little 
in the way of a clue to its ancestry. As 
already suggested, it may be the remnant 
of an Arctic-Alpine group, of which it and 
oreocetes of the high mountains of western 
Montana are the sole survivors. In any 
case its origin must be sought far back in 
the past. 

I have dwelt thus at length on the Cali- 
fornia chipmunks for three reasons: (1) 
The problems they present to the student 
of variation and evolution are fairly repre- 
sentative of problems presented by other 
groups; (2) the compact distribution of 
the species in close-lying parallel belts in 
conformity with the life zones has the ad- 
vantage of bringing them into near rela- 
tions, so that the facts of variation and 
behavior are easily discerned; (3) the study 
of the group emphasizes the necessity of a 
knowledge of the geographic distribution 
of species in order that their interrelations 
and probable origins may be understood. 

The term geographic distribution must 
not be taken to mean merely the area a 
species occupies, to be shown by a color 
patch on the map, but includes a compre- 
hensive knowledge of the geographic en- 
vironment, taking into account the climate 
and the aspects of nature with which each 
species is associated and by which it is 
profoundly impressed. Moritz Waener, in 
a paragraph recently quoted by Doctor 
Jordan, said: It is ‘the study of all the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


important phenomena embraced in the 
geography of animals and plants, which is 
the surest guide to the study of the real 
phases in the process of the formation of 
species.’ To the systematist and student 
of evolution this knowledge is so funda- 
mental that it is hard to see how correct 
conclusions can be reached without it. In 
studying problems in nature the geo- 
graphic point of view is the natural method 
of approach; it is a method so full of sug- 
gestions and explanations that we ean ill 
afford to do without it. And how ean it 
be otherwise, for do we not all admit that 
organisms are profoundly affected and 
modified by their environment? The utter 
hopelessness of attempting to work out the 
variations, affinities and probable origin of 
a group of related species of animals or 
plants without givine heed to the geo- 
graphic distribution of the various forms 
has just been illustrated by the case of the 
Sierra chipmunks. If to a knowledge of 
present distribution can be added a few 
facts from the paleontological history of 
the group a flood of light is at once thrown 
on the problem. ; 


INTERGRADATION AND REGIONAL INFLUENCES. 


In studying geographic variation in the 
various groups of terrestrial animals and 
plants one soon learns that among closely 
related species and subspecies some forms 
intergrade while others do not; and that 
among those that do intergrade, the change 
from one to another may take place ab- 
ruptly in a narrow belt, or gradually, by 
imperceptible steps, over a wide area. 
These two kinds of intereradation do not 
usually occur in the same area, for the rea- 
son that each is associated with a definite 
set of geographic and physiographic condi- 


_tions of which climate plays the most im- 


portant part. As a general rule it may be 
asserted that where the geographic change 
from one faunal area to another is gradual, 


FEBkKUARY 16, 1906.] 


the change in the species is gradual; and 
conversely, where the geographic change is 
abrupt the change in the species is abrupt. 
Changes in a north-and-south direction are 
likely to be gradual; those in an east-and- 
west direction are likely to be more abrupt. 
In both eases, the controlling power of en- 
vironment is easily recognized. It follows 
that one species does not change here, an- 
other there; the rule—to which there are 
exceptions—is that all change in a common 
belt or area. It thus comes about that 
American students of species, from Baird’s 
time to the present, have learned to recog- 
nize certain geographic areas, usually in 
the form of belts, where the transition from 
one set of animals and plants to another set 
takes place. These belts of intergradation, 
broad or narrow as the case may be, are 
always flooded with intergrades, which, 
though the bane of the museum man, are 
of great importance to the student of vari- 
ation and evolution.° 

‘In order to make the matter perfectly 
clear—for it is one of no small importance 
to evolutionists—let me cite a few ex- 
amples. 

The common prairie ground squirrel or 
striped spermophile (Citellus tridecemline- 
atus) splits up into four geographic forms 
or subspecies. The range of the species as 
a whole extends from the plains of the 
Saskatchewan on the north to the coast of 

Texas, and from the extreme eastern edge 
of the prairie country in the Great Lake 


* Among the belts of this kind are the overlap- 
ping boundaries of the life zones and certain other 
lines which mark the change from one physi- 
ographic or physiognomic type to another. 
Among these may be mentioned a strip along the 
western edge of the deciduous forests, where wood- 
land gives place to prairie; a belt near the ninety- 
ninth meridian, where the humid prairies change 
to the arid plains; a belt along the east base of 
the Rocky Miountains, where plains forms change 
to mountain forms; and similar or corresponding 
areas in the Great Basin and in the interior of 
California. 


SCIENCE. 


255 


region westerly to and a little beyond the 
Rocky Mountains (see map, Fig. 3). Typ- 
ical tridecemlineatus occupies the eastern 
and more humid part of this area. In 
ranging westward it undergoes a change, 
becoming paler and smaller as it enters the 
arid plains. The change occurs between 
the one-hundredth and one hundred and 
first meridians, from South Dakota to 
middle Texas, and the resulting pallid form 
(subspecies pallidus) continues westerly to 
the foot of the Rocky Mountains. In pass- 
ing southward’ from the Upper Austral to 
the Lower Austral zone tridecemlineatus 
develops another form (subspecies texen- 
sis), which occupies a broad belt in Okla- 
homa and eastern Texas, east of the range 
of subspecies pallidus. But this is not all, 
for the plains form (pallidus) in pushing 
westward over some of the passes of the 
Rocky Mountains gives off still another sub- 
species (parvus), which occupies the Green 
River Basin in Wyoming, and extends 
thence southerly in an irregular and inter- 
rupted belt along the border between Colo- 
rado and Utah, and occurs in isolated col- 
onies in New Mexico and extreme eastern 
Arizona. Between these several forms are 
the belts of intergradation, as shown on the 
accompanying map (Fig. 3). 

The case is one in which a well-marked 
species splits into four geographic forms 
or subspecies in conformity with the cli- 
matic and physical features of the region 
inhabited. Hach form is fairly constant 
throughout the major part of its range and 
develops intergrades in the transitional belt 
between it and the next form. 

Among North American mammals and 
birds there are hundreds of such cases, and 
more than 1,000 species and subspecies, 
connected with other forms by series of 
intererades, might be enumerated. 

It may be set down as a general law that 
wherever a species or subspecies passes into 
another, intergrades occur, not side by side 


256 


with the typical form, but replacing it in 
the territory between it and that occupied 
by the new form, so that as a rule all the 
individuals from the transitional territory 
are intergrades. This fundamental fact 
in geographic biology seems to have escaped 
the keen eye of Darwin, who, in speaking 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vou. XXIIT. No. 581. 


The only explanation I think of to account 
for Darwin’s and Morgan’s failure to 
recognize this fact is limited or unfayor- 
able field experience, and limited experi- 
ence in handling specimens from the per- 
ipheries of geographic areas large enough 
to cover the transition from one faunal 


= c. tridecemlineatus pallidus |" 
C. tridecemlineatus texensis 


a 


Z 


cnnerLvanta he 


Fie. 3. 


of the difficulties and obstacles in the way 
of his theories, said: 

““Why, if species have descended from 
other species by fine gradations, do we not 
everywhere see innumerable transitional 
forms? Why is not all nature in confu- 
sion, instead of the species being as we see 
them, well defined?’’ One of his eritics, 
Thomas Hunt Morgan, thinks this a very 
serious matter. My reply to both Darwin 
and Morgan is that they are mistaken in 
their premises, for in nature transitional 
forms are so abundant as to be a source of 
annoyance and embarrassment to system- 
atists and museum curators—men who are 
continually handling specimens which they 
desire to refer to one species or another. 


Distribution of the Prairie Ground Squirrel, 
species. 


Citellus tridecemlineatus and  sub- 


division into another—in other words, fail- 
ure to study the behavior of species in 
nature from the geographic standpoint. 
One might spend a lifetime in studying 
animals and plants in the interior of al- 
most any of the faunal areas without en-— 
countering transitional forms or inter- 
erades, for it is at the peripheries or bor- 
ders of these areas that the intererades 
occur. It would seem, therefore, that Dar- 
win, in his effort to present fairly all ob- 
jections to his theory, imagined a difficulty 
which does not exist, and that his critic 
Morgan solemnly shook his head at a man 
of straw. 

Conclusion.—Inasmuch as all species 
have their beginnings in variations, and 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.]. 


imasmuch as sudden or sport variations are 
exceedingly rare while slight variations are 
exceedingly common, does it not follow that 
the vast majority of species must originate 
from slight variations? My argument is 
not that species of plants may not in rare 
cases arise by the perpetuation of sport 
characters, as de Vries believes they do, 
but admitting this, my contention is that 
the overwhelming majority of plants, and 
so far as known all animals, originate in 
the generally recognized way, by the grad- 
ual development of minute variations. The 
theory of the origin of species by muta- 
tion, therefore, far from being a great prin- 
ciple in biology, as some seem to believe, 
appears to be one of a hundred minor fac- 
tors to be considered in rare cases as a pos- 
sible explanation of the origin of particular 
species of plants, but so far as known not 
applicable in the case of animals. 


C. Hart Merriam. 
U. S. BroLocicaL SuRvVEY. 


SECTION F—ZOOLOGY. 

SECTION F was organized at the New 
Orleans meeting with the following offi- 
cers: 

Vice-President—Henry B. Ward, Lincoln, Nebr. 

Secretary—C. Judson Herrick, Granville, Ohio. 

Councilor—Herbert Osborn. 

Member of General Committee—B. L. Seawell. 

Press Secretary—C. Judson Herrick. 

Sectional Committee—C. H. Merriam, Vice- 
president, 1905; Henry B. Ward, Vice-president, 
1906; C. Judson Herrick, Secretary, 1905-6; C. 
H. Eigenmann, for one year; Henry B. Ward, for 
two years; Frank Smith, for three years; W. E. 
Ritter, for four years; A. M. Bleile, for five years. 

On the afternoon of December 29 the 
vice-president’s address was delivered by 
C. H. Merriam, on the subject, ‘Is Muta- 
tion a Factor in the Evolution of the 
Higher Vertebrates?’ The section met for 
the reading of papers on December 30, and 
joint sessions were held on January 1 with 
the Section of Physiology and Experi- 


SCIENCE. 


257 


mental Medicine, and on January 2 with 
the Association of Hconomic Entomologists. 
The following papers were read before the 
section : 


Preliminary Observations on the Varia- 
tion of Utethesia venusta, Dalman: Muu. 
T. Coox, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. 
The literature recognizes three species 

(U. bella, U. venusta and U. ornatrix) and 

three varieties (hybrida, terminalis and 

stretchu) of this genus. These species 
cover a very wide range. The distinctive 
characters are primarily color characters. 

After examining a large number of speci- 

mens, many of which were reared in cap- 

tivity, the writer concludes that inter- 
gradations are such as to reduce these three 
species and three varieties to one species. 


Filaria loa, a Study on the Dispersal of 
Parasites: Henry B. Warp, University 
of Nebraska. 

Of the African eye worm (Filaria loa) 
the author has recently published a list of 
86 old and 8 new eases. The first six cases 
on record were from the West Indies, as 
also twelve in the first 21. But since 1845 
no cases have been recorded there, its intro- 
duction having ceased with the cessation of 
the slave trade. All cases were in negroes 
and most had recently come from West 
Africa. Five cases reported from France 
all originated in the French Congo, as also 
cases from Switzerland and Belgium. One 
specimen removed in Germany came from 
Kamerun, and five in England from Old 
Calabar. 

Hight cases in North America since 1890 
were all in missionaries and all but one 
came from Kamerun. Thus all extra- 
Afriean eases are distinetly traceable to a 
known or a possible infection in the west- 
ern part of that continent where the para- 
site is endemic. Here the review of cases 
indicates clearly that the parasite is dis- 
tributed over the entire coast from about 


"new regions. 


258 
5° north of the equator to at least 10° 
south, and various observers say that im 
certain regions nearly every inhabitant suf- 
fers from it. This is recorded for the 
Ogowé River by Miss Mary Kingsley, the 
well-known African traveler. 

How far it may penetrate into the in- 
terior of the continent is as yet unknown. 
Certain it is, however, that cases occur 
more than 120 miles from the coast, while 
a recent paper records its presence in a 
post-mortem made in Kassai, approxi- 
mately 600 miles from the coast on one of 
the chief tributaries of the Congo. 

The occurrence of Filaria loa in negro 
slaves, in travelers, in government, officials 
and in missionaries points out distinctly 
the certainty with which any kind of inter- 
course between nations and geographic 
areas tends to transfer to new races and 
territories the diseases of the old. In- 
creased means of communication and grow- 
ing freedom of movement contribute clear- 
ly to the spread of maladies and eall for 
better means to check their advance into 
It is not to be doubted that 
some of the persons who brought F. loa 
into the United States now harbor its em- 
bryos in the blood. Though we know 
nothing precise of its life history, the possi- 
bility lies close at hand that some blood- 
sucking insect may furnish these embryos 
proper conditions for further development 
and may thus bring about the introduction 
of a new disease into our territory. Such 
eases as these of F’. loa show clearly the 
gradual spread of disease through national 
intercourse. 


A New Bothriocephalid Parasite of Man: 
Henry B. Warp, University of Nebraska. 
The specimens were obtained from a 

child six years of age, born and brought 

up in the prairie region. The report of 
the mother that the child had been found 
some months ago chewing a piece of raw 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


fish probably serves to explain the mode 
of infection. The specimens do not belong 
to the common bothriocephalid found in 
man (Dibothriocephalus latus), but to an- 
other species apparently undescribed as 
yet. A complete account of the anatomy 
of the species will be published later, to- 
gether with a discussion of its relationship. 


An American Species of Lwmbriculus 
Grube: FRANK Smiru, University of Tlli- 
nois. 

The species, Lwmbriculus variegatus 
(Miller) is the best known representative 
of the family Lumbriculide and is the only 
recognized member of its genus. It has 
thus far been found only in Europe. Re- 
cent papers by Wenig and Hesse have ex- 
tended our knowledge of the reproductive 
organs of that species and have lessened 
the supposed differences between it and 
Thinodrilus inconstans Smith, described in 
1895 from Illimois specimens. After a 
further study of these specimens, the writer 
is convinced that the Illinois specimens 
should be included in the genus Lwmbric- 
ulus. The details of structure and com- 
parison on which this conclusion is based 
appear in the paper which will soon be 
published in the Bulletin of the Illinois 
State Laboratory of Natural History. 


A Mendelian Character in Cattle: W. J. 
SpintMAN, U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture. 

The data presented indicate that im 
crosses between polled and horned cattle 
the inheritance of the horn-producing 
character is in accordance with Mendel’s 
well-known law of segregation of character 
pairs. The paper was based on the prog- 
eny of seven polled bulls bred to horned 
cows. The polled character is dominant, 
though the hybrids frequently have ‘scurs’ 
—imperfectly developed horns. 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


The Actwity of the White Rat at Different 
Ages: JAMES ROLLIN SLONAKER, Stan- 
ford University. 

Three preliminary experiments have 
been carried on and others are in progress 
to determine the normal daily activity of 
the white rat from birth to natural death 
due to old age. The rate of growth as 
determined by weight and the daily activity 
as determined by the number of revolu- 
tions of revolving cages are carefully re- 
corded and tabulated. From the prelim- 
mary experiments the followmg conclu- 
sions may be drawn: 

1. A marked difference in daily activity 
is noticed in rats of different ages. 

2. The very young rat and the old rat 
are each noticeably inactive. 

3. The period of greatest activity ap- 
pears to be when the rat has reached the 
age of 100 days. At this age the weight 
is but little more than half that of the 
adult. 

4, The period of daily activity occurs al- 
most wholly during the night-time. They 
show little or no activity. during the day- 
time. This, I think, is due mainly to the 
anatomical structure of the eye and to in- 
herited tendencies. 

5. The curve of activity rises gradually 
until the rats have reached about the age 
of forty or fifty days, after which there is 
a very rapid ascent. 

6. Great individual variations are mani- 
- fested, which necessitate experimenting on 
a larger number of individuals. 

7. Owing to the premature termination 
of these preliminary experiments, a curve 
representing the activity from birth to 
death due to old age could not be con- 
structed. Experiments now in progress 
will furnish the data for such a curve. 


The Physiological Effects of Changes in 
Water Density and Salinity on Fishes: 
‘F. B. Sumner, College of the City of 
New York. 


SCIENCE. 


259 


The Poison Glands of Noturus and Schil- 
beodes: H. D. Resp, Cornell University. 


The Osteology and Relationships of the 
Percopsidw: H. D. Rerp, Cornell Uni- 
versity. 


Descriptions of a New Genus and Nine 
New Species of Spheromde: Harrier 
RICHARDSON, Smithsonian Institution. 
In this paper a number of new species 

belonging to several well-known genera are 

described, and diagnoses of genera hereto- 
fore established are more fully drawn up, 
together with the definition of a new genus, 

Cassidias. The species described come 

from off Cape St. Roque, Brazil; off Rio de 

la Plata, Argentine Republic; from Hako- 
date Bay, Japan, and Cape Town, Africa. 

The types of all are in the collection of the 

U. S. National Museum. <A few remarks 

are offered in regard to the species of the 

genus Tecticeps and both 7. alascensis and 

T. convexus are redeseribed and additional 

figures given. 


The Embryology of Corymorpha: Harry 
Beau Torrey, University of California. 
Fertilization is external; the eggs are 

amoeboid until fertilized. Cleavage is ap- 
proximately equal. The gastrula cavity is 
formed between the cells of a solid endo- 
dermic mass of planula. The latter is 
never ciliated and has no free-swimming 
stage, but may creep slowly. The hy- 
dranth is formed by a transformation of 
the distal half of the embryo; the axes of 
the tentacles arise’ from cells pushed out 
from the epithelial endoderm. Rootlets 
appear similarly. Tentacles arise accord- 
ine to a modified quartet plan governed 
probably in large measure by mechanical 
conditions. Ccenosareal canals, numerous 
in the adult, are derived from a single 
larval cavity by ingrowth and enlargement 
of epithelial endoderm cells. Morphal- 
laxis plays an important role in develop- 
ment. 


260 


The Relation between the Nerves of Taste 
and Touch in Fishes: C. Jupson HEr- 
RICK, Denison University. 

It has been shown that certain teleosts, 
notably catfish and carp, are provided with 
taste buds freely distributed in the outer 
skin, that the fishes taste with these organs 
and habitually localize their food by the 
combined action of cutaneous organs of 
touch and taste. Inasmuch as these sense 
organs belong to totally distinct systems 
(somatic and visceral, respectively) whose 

_ peripheral nerves and primary cerebral 
centers are wholly unrelated, considerable 
interest attaches to the question of the cen- 
tral relations of the tactile and gustatory 
systems of neurones with one another. The 
gustatory reflex paths within the brains of 
these fishes have been fully worked out, 
and the present paper reports the discovery 
of a broad and complex area of correlation 
with the tactile centers in the funicular 
nuclei at the lower end of the medulla ob- 
longata. 


The Problem of Wing Origin and its Sig- 
nificance in Insect Phylogeny: HERBERT 
OsBorn, Ohio State University. 

The origin of the insect wing is a difficult 
problem to solve, since on account of its an- 
tiquity the evidence, both morphological and 
developmental, is much obscured. Fossil 
forms show the occurrence of winged insects 
as far back as the Paleozoic, and the strue- 
ture must, of course, have arisen at some 
time prior to or during that period. The 
reduction of types of venation to a common 
form indicates a common origin for wings 
of all orders, and the inclusion of trachez 
suggests a respiratory function. A respira- 
tory function indicates aquatic life in the 
ancestral form, a suggestion which is cor- 
roborated by the method of musculature and 
the development so far as it can be traced. 
That they are not to be associated with any 
existing forms of aquatic insects is believed 


SCIENCE. 


-all make us acquainted.” 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


to be shown by the secondary character of 
aquatic adaptation of modern orders. The 
explanation of aquatic origin becomes con- 
ceivable, however, if we assume a primitive 
tracheate form, perhaps peripatoid in char- 
acter, which became adapted to aquatic life 
before or during Paleozoic time, this primi- 
tive aquatic form returning to terrestrial 
habit and the tracheated respiratory gills 
being modified to wmgs. Of the existing 
orders then arising, some have become in 
part or quite entirely aquatic by adapta- 
tion in more recent time. Diagrams indi- 
cating the appearance of the different or- 
ders of insects in time and their lines of 
derivation as suggested by this conception 
of the evolution of the Pterygota were 
shown. f 
C. Jupson Herrick, 
Secretary. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The Elements of Psychology. By Epnwarp L. 
THORNDIKE. Pp. xix-+ 351. New York, A. 
G. Seiler. 1905. 

Hardly a year passes now-a-days without 
the appearance of several new text-books of 
psychology. One’s first impression in noting 
this fact is that there must be as yet in this 
still youthful science comparatively little 
agreement among its individual expositors as 
to the body of facts to be presented, or as to 
the laws which account for the existence of 
the facts, or as to the best manner of presenta- 
tion. Professor James, indeed, in a justi- 
fiably laudatory introduction to this book by 
Thorndike, maintains that these many text- 
books “so far as students go, are practical 
equivalents for each other. * * * The differ- 
ences in them are largely of order and em- 
phasis, or of fondness on the authors’ parts 
for certain phrases, or for their own method 
of approach to particular questions. It is one 
and the same body of facts with which they 
This is. certainly 
true. There is a large body of facts with 
respect to which there is general agreement. 
Yet after all, the mere presentation of facts 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


in their isolation is one of the least important 
of the functions of a text-book. What are 
the great all-embracing laws which bind these 
facts together into the orderly unity of an in- 
dividual life and of the universe of conscious 
facts; what is the solution of the old dis- 
puted problems concerning determinism and 
indeterminism, parallelism and interaction; 
what are the ultimate elements out of which 
every moment and kind of consciousness is 
constructed, and in what sense do they exist; 
which ones of the established and of the as- 
sumed facts need emphasis in order to con- 
vince the elementary student of the truth of 
these unifying principles, and to make his 
knowledge of laws and of facts of real value 
to him by enabling him to better understand 
his daily life—these are questions of funda- 
mental importance to the very existence of 
psychology as a true science, and are yet the 
very ones in regard to whose solution there 
does not seem* to be practical agreement 
among psychologists. That the teachers of 
the science feel this is evidenced both by the 
number of them who publish text-books of 
their own, and by the eagerness with which, 
if we may trust the announcements of pub- 
lishing firms, a new text-book is adopted 
widely in the hope that it may prove more 
satisfactory than the last. 

These matters of ultimate theory and of 
emphasis are apparently of decisive impor- 
tanee in determining the selection of a text- 
book; and the ideal text-book in these re- 
spects seems not yet to have appeared. To the 
present reviewer Professor Thorndike’s book 
seems to approach it in more important re- 
spects than any other. The reviewer regrets 
the absence of any or sufficient discussion of 
many principles and facts that seem to him of 
essential importance. But it would be only 
on grounds of preferred emphasis that he 
would eriticize the book, and as this is purely 
a matter of individual opinion, criticism may 
well be dispensed with, and the more striking 
merits of the book alone pointed out. 

The book is designed, as its author says, 
‘to serve as a text-book for students who 
have had no previous training in psychology, 
who will not in nine eases out of ten take 


SCIENCE. 


261 


any considerable amount of advanced work 
in psychology, and who need psychological 
knowledge and insight to fit them to study, not 
the special theories of philosophy, but the gen- 
eral facts of human nature.’ Professor 
Thorndike is a born teacher, as well as an able 
investigator, and he has accomplished his task 
well. His treatment of the subject is given 
under three main headings. In Part I, he 


-deals with descriptive or structural psychol- 


ogy and in it ‘the rich variety of human 
thought and feeling is shown to be divisible 
into three natural groups: first, feelings of 
direct experience; second, reproductions of 
direct experience; and third, feelings meaning 
or referring to direct experience.’ This is, 
perhaps, in its analytical thoroughness, the 
least satisfactory portion of the book. In 
Part II. he discusses ‘the tremendously com- 
plex physical basis of mental life, the nervous 
system, with the aid of numerous photo- 
graphs and drawings, in accordance with the 
most recent views, and with the aim of fur- 
nishing the student with a conception of it 
which shall be truly explanatory with refer- 
ence to mental facts. Part III. is coneerned 
with dynamic or functional psychology, and 
presents admirably the laws which account 
for the psychologically important bodily ac- 
tivities, and for the occurrence and sequence 
of mental states. In his selection and man- 
ner of statement of the facts he is through- 
out apt, clear and connected. In addition to 
the simplicity and clearness of his account, 
one is struck forcibly and favorably by the 
wealth of helpful illustrations, of practical 
applications and of useful and well-chosen 
exercises. Any teacher of psychology who, in- 
stead of preparing a text-book for himself, 
prefers to use that of some one else, supple- 
mented by his own lectures, may feel con- 
fident that no other is better suited to his 
purpose than this. It not only ensures to the 
student a clear grasp of the science as a theo- 
retical whole, but is well calculated to make 
it vital and real to him, and helpful in the 
understanding and conduct of his own prac- 
tical life. 
Epmunp B. DELABARRE. 
Brown UNIVERSITY. 


262 


Radio-activity. By E. Rutuerrorp, D.Sc., 
F.R.S., ete. Second edition, 1905. Cam- 
bridge, The University Press; New York, 
The Maemillan Co. Cambridge Physical 
Series. Edited by F. H. Nevirte, F.R.S., 
ete., and W. C. D. Wuertruam, F-.R.S., ete. 
8vyo. Pp. xiv-+ 580. Price $4.00. 

It is but a short time ago since the first 
edition of this work (1904) was reviewed at 
length in these columns. The rapid appear- 
ance of a second edition is characteristic of 
the energy of the author; but it also bespeaks 
the intense interest which the subject has 
aroused and the adequacy with which the de- 
mand has been met by Mr. Rutherford. The 
new treatise gives evidence of the same skilful 
presentation and arrangement as the old, 
though there has been expansion in bulk from 
389 to 580 pages. Among the more conspicu- 
ous novelties are the chapters on the trans- 


formation products of uranium, thorium, ac- 


tinium, radium and on the rate of emission 
of energy. In other chapters the recent 
growth of our knowledge of the alpha rays is 
noteworthy. The book is provided with an 
excellent index. 

The present very carefully edited work of 
Professor Rutherford, together with the two 
ponderous volumes of original papers just 
issued on behalf of the French Physical So- 
ciety by MM. H. Abraham and P. Langevin, 
not to mention other sources, places the whole 
domain of radio-activity within easy reach of 
the student. All this information is virtually 
given at first hand. What remains to test his 
endurance is the ever-growing mass of re- 
search with which the subject is barricading 
itself, and the increasing difficulties of treat- 
ment. 


C. Barus. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for January is an 
unusually interesting number, being devoted 
to live, or living, subjects. The first article 
on ‘Flying-fish Flight, and an Unfixed Law 
of Nature, by C. D. Durnford, brings forward 
evidence to support the views of those who 
believe that the flight of this fish is active and 
not purely a sail. It may be said that this 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 581. 


view is held by many good observers and that 
additional testimony may be found in Forest 
and Stream for January 27. G. H. Parker 
discusses ‘Double Hen’s Eggs,’ concluding 
that they are due to the retention of an egg 
in the oviduct and its surrounding by a second. 
W. A. Cannon treats of the ‘ Biological Rela- 
tions of Certain Cacti,’ including their root 
structure and adaptations for the absorption 
and storage of water. H. Drexler and L. 
Freund present some welcome ‘ Contributions 
to [our knowledge of] the Physiology and 
Biology of the Dugong,’ a common but little- 
known animal. There is a notice of a congress 
of oceanography to be held this year at Mar- 
seilles. 


The Journal of Comparative Neurology and 
Psychology for January contains an article 
ot 109 pages, with 16 plates, on ‘ The Struc- 
ture of the Teleostean and Selachian Brain,’ 
by Dr. C. U. Ariens Kappers, of Amsterdam, 
comprising as complete a description of ‘the 
microscopic anatomy of these brains as could 
be made from Weigert sections, together with 
full digests of all important literature. Such 
a comprehensive study has long been needed 
and will probably serve as the point of de- 
parture for more special studies in the neurol- 
ogy of fishes for a long time. 


Popular Science Monthly for February con- 
tains the following articles: 

CHaRLES Keyser Epmunps: ‘The Passing of 
China’s Ancient System of Literary Examinations.’ 

JOSEPH JASTROW: ‘The Lapses of Speech.’ 

Epwin W. Bowen: ‘ What is Slang?’ 

S. Tersu Tamura: ‘ Recent Advances in Meteor- 
ology and Meteorological Service in Japan.’ 

Ernest W. Brown: ‘ With the British Associa- 
tio in South Africa.’ 

C. A. Miniter: ‘Some Recent Tendencies in 
Mathematical Instruction.’ 

A. C. LANE: ‘ The Wealth of the Commonwealth, 
its Consumption and Conservation.’ 

W. Ly Conte Stevens: ‘The Honor System in 
American Colleges.’ 


The Bulletin of the South Carolina College 
for January, the most recent addition to mu- 
seum publications, deals with the rehabilita- 
tion of the museum of that institution and 
includes articles on various branches of mu- 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


seum work. The chapter on ‘The Mineralog- 
ical and Geological Cabinets,’ by D. S. Mar- 
tin, contains many interesting references to 
Cooper, Le Conte, Holmes and others of our 
earlier mineralogists and geologists. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

THE 610th meeting, the 35th annual meet- 
ing, was held on December 30, 1905, President 
Littlehales in the chair. 

The report of the secretaries showed 126 
members on the active list, a small net gain 
during the year, and 74 on the absent list. 

The report of the treasurer showed an in- 
come of $802.19 and expenses of $413.27 dur- 
ing ‘1905. 

The following officers were elected for the 
year 1906: 

President—Cleveland Abbe. 

Vice-Presidents—A. L. Day, EH. B. Rosa, L. A. 
Bauer and J. F. Hayford. 

Treasurer—Bernard R. Green. 

Secretaries—C. K. Wead and G. K. Burgess. 

General Committee—W. A. DeCaivelry, W. S. 
Hichelberger, L. A. Fischer, C. Adler, R. A. 
Harris, J. Page, C. G. Abbot, L. J. Briggs and 
I. Winston. 


To this committee there will be added such 
of the past-presidents residing in Washington 
as shall consent to serve on it. 


Tue 611th meeting was held on January 13, 
1906, President Abbe in the chair. 

Mr. C. G. Abbott read a paper on ‘ A Stand- 
ard Pyrheliometer and its Use on Mt. Wilson 
in California,’ 

Three independent lines of research are be- 
ing carried on by the Smithsonian Astrophys- 
ical Observatory to determine if the output of 
solar radiation is variable. One of these con- 
sists in obtaining values of the ‘solar con- 
stant’ of radiation outside our atmosphere, 
by the spectro-bolometric method of homo- 
geneous rays practised many years ago by 
Mr. Langley on Mt. Whitney. The author 
was in charge of a Smithsonian Observatory 
expedition to Mt. Wilson in California to 
determine solar constant values during the 
past summer and autumn, and had with him a 


SCIENCE. 


263 


complete duplicate of the outfit simultaneous- 
ly used for the purpose in Washington. 

Measurements by the pyrheliometer or 
actinometer of the total radiation reaching 
the surface of the earth are necessary, as well 
as spectro-bolometric observations. Distrust 
was entertained of the accuracy of all instru- 
ments heretofore proposed as standard actin- 
emeters or pyrheliometers, for the reason that 
the rays are always received upon a front, or 
outside surface, while the measurements of 
temperature are made behind or within. 
Hence the absorbed heat has a path of direct 
escape to the surroundings and no allowance 
for this can be made either by cooling cor- 
rections, by reading with the temperature re- 
cording apparatus at the temperature of the 
surroundings or otherwise. In illustration, 
the nature of the error in the instruments of 
Pouillet, Angstrom, Nichols and Hull and 
others, was pointed out. 

No easy method of determining the Pe 
tude of the error being found, a new instru- 
ment in which the rays are absorbed at the 
conical rear end of a tube-like blackened and 
diaphragmed chamber was devised. This 
chamber is approximately the ‘black body,’ 
or perfect absorber, of Kirchhoff, so that no 
correction for reflection is needed. On ac- 
count of its shape there is great hindrance to 
the escape of heat by radiation or convection, 
so that the heat will almost wholly be retained 
somewhere on the walls. The chamber walls 
are bathed by a spiral current of water whose 
difference of temperature before and after 
passage is determined by a platinum ther- 
mometer. To assure that no heat is lost, a 
known current of electricity can flow through 
a coil of wire near the rear within the absorb- 
ing chamber, and this known heating can be 
determined as if it came from the sun. The 
mean of nine comparisons made in this way 
on Mt. Wilson indicated 100.4 per cent. of the 
heat introduced found, with a probable error 
of less than half per cent. Sun heat is more 
favorably received than coil heat and should 
be more exactly measured. 

The instrument is naturally perfectly con- 
tinuous in its action, and was mounted equa- 
torially on Mt. Wilson, the galvanometer 


264 


measuring the rise of temperature of the 
water recorded photographically, and the rate 
of flow of the water, and time of observation 
were also automatically recorded. This con- 
tinuous, self-recording and proved instrument 
is thought to be a standard pyrheliometer. 

In the general discussion that followed, at- 
tention was called to Professor C. A. Young’s 
observations with a faulty Pouillet pyrheli- 
ometer in 1872 at Sherman, Wyo., and by Mr. 
Rosa to the analogy of the new instrument 
to his great calorimeter used in physiological 
experiments at Middletown. 

Mr. L. J. Briggs then described the ‘ Cen- 
trifugal Methods of Soil Investigation’ used 
at the Department of Agriculture, where some 
3,000 soil analyses are made per annum. 
Since a force 2,000 times that of gravity is 
available it is easy to produce stratification in 
a five-gram sample of soil and then to de- 
termine the percentages of sand, silt or clay. 
Further, the water-content of such soils that 
remains after exposure to a drying force is 
found as a function of the force and of the 
percentages of the soil-constituents. Lantern 
slides illustrated the apparatus and many re- 
sults. The velocities used run up to 5,000 
turns per minute; but a steam turbine has 
been ordered capable of reaching 30,000 turns. 

CuHarLEes K. WEAD, 
Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 407th regular meeting of the Biological 
Society of Washington was held December 8, 
1905, with the president in the chair and 
thirty-seven persons present. 

This meeting was in celebration of the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of 
the society, at which the following papers 
were read: 

The Potomac-Side Naturalists’ Club (here 
given in full): Professor J. W. CuicKErInG. 
In the Florz Columbiane Prodromus, com- 

piled by John A. Brereton, M.D., U. S. A., 

and ‘printed in Washington by Jonathan 

Elliot, and sold at his store on Pennsylvania 

Avenue’ in 1830, we find it stated in the pref- 

ace that 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


During the spring of the year 1825, after the 
dissolution of the late Washington Botanical So- 
ciety, a few gentlemen of this city, devoted to 
the science of botany, formed an association, with 
an earnest determination to explore and to in- 
vestigate, de novo, the indigenous plants growing 
in the District of Columbia. 

This association under the name of ‘The Bo- 
tanie Club,’ consisted of Wm. Mechlin, Alex. 
McWilliams, M.D., Wm. Rich, the compiler, and 
during the following year, of James W. Robbins, 
M.D. 


One result of this association was the pub- 
lication of this ‘Prodromus’ containing 1,922 
species. How long ‘ The Botanic Club’ lasted, 
we know not. 

In the ‘ Records,’ which have come into my 
possession, of the Potomac-Side Naturalists’ 
Club, it is set down that in January 29, 1858, 

With the view of forming a scientific club, 
especially devoted to Natural History, the follow- 
ing gentlemen met at Mr. Simpson’s house at 
seven o’clock in the evening: Mr. T. R. Peale, Dr. 
EK. Freman, Prof. G. GC. Schaefer, Dr. C. Girard, 
Dr. F. V. Hayden, Dr. T. G. Cooper, Mr. Robert 
Kennicott, Mr. W. Stimpson, with Professor Tur- 
ner and Mr. W. R. Smith recognized as present 
in spirit and thus original members. 

They adopted the name of Potomac-Side 
Naturalists’ Club, with the provisions that: 


The meetings shall be held every Monday eve- 


ning. The members shall severally entertain the 


club in rotation in alphabetical order. 


The member whose name follows the enter- 
tainers, shall at each meeting, deliver a lecture or 
read a paper upon some subject in natural science 
chosen by himself. 

This meeting adjourned at 2:30 a.m. 

In this catalogue are found the names of 
about fifty members, only a very few of whom 
still survive. 

Two very interesting record books still re- 
main, with accounts of each meeting, mem- 
bers present, papers read, and discussions fol- 
lowing. 

In the various departments of investigation 
and discussion, geology most frequently oc- 
cupied the evening, with zoology, botany and 
general science, following closely after, in fre- 
quency of notice. 

The average attendance was ten to fifteen. 

At one meeting we find a note. 


Fesruary 16, 1906.] 


That every active member of the club shall in 
each current year or session of the club be re- 
quired to perform the amount of duty imposed 
in common upon all, 7. e., to read a paper, to re- 
ceive the club, and preside at a meeting, and that 
his failure to do so shall be regarded as sufficient 
reason for erasing his name from the list of 
members. 

Field meetings were held frequently, and 
botanical novelties exhibited when discovered. 

Photography was a frequent subject of dis- 
cussions. 

In 1864, being the seventh year of the ex- 
istence of the club, the second volume of the 
records was begun, recording the 128th meet- 
ing. 

But on March 26, 1866, the record of the 
146th meeting closes with ‘adjourned sie 
die. 

On May 1, 1873, a meeting was called of 
those interested in the formation of a Nat- 
ural History Society for Washington and 
vicinity, at the house of Professor W. H. 
Seaman. 

Among others present were Professors 
Baird and Gill, who gave a brief sketch of 
the two previous societies, and their instru- 
mentality in promoting scientific research and 
social enjoyment, but adding that they both 
went to pieces upon the same rock, that of 
expensive entertainments. Mr. W. R. Smith 
presented and confirmed the same views. 

In the light of these historical reminis- 
cences, it was voted that we resuscitate the 
old Potomac-Side Naturalists’ Club, with 
meetings at each other’s houses, on alternate 
Monday evenings, but that all refreshments 
be dispensed with at these meetings. From 
that time on, meetings were held with toler- 
able regularity and much of interest, espe- 
cially in the department of botany. 

The members interested in that specialty 
set themselves to work upon a re-investiga- 
tion and re-determination of the flora of the 
district, and a careful comparison of the 
species found now, with those enumerated in 
Dr. Brereton’s ‘ Prodromus.’ 

During the floral season, the meetings were 
largely devoted to the exhibition and examina- 
tion of species brought in, or reported as hay- 
ing been found by the botanical members. 


SCIENCE. 


265 


Out of this activity grew, in large meas- 
ure, the ‘Guide to the Flora of Washington 
and Vicinity,’ by Professor L. F. Ward, that 
most valuable aid to the student of botany in 
this region, published under the direction of 
the Smithsonian Institution in 1881. 

The list of members of this reorganized so- 
ciety numbers fifty-eight, embracing a large 
number of the well-known scientists of Wash- 
ington. The average attendance was six to 
fourteen. 

A very interesting feature and help to its 
existence and activity, was the publication by 
Mr. Charles R. Dodge, of Field and Forest, 
Bulletin of the Potomac-Side Naturalists’ 
Club, a monthly magazine, containing records 
of the club meetings, the papers read, and 
other papers by specialists. \ 

This was continued from 1875 to 1878. 

In a circular sent out by. the secretary in 
February, 1876, is found the following state- 
ment: 


Our club, since its reorganization in 1875, has 
kept up its meetings, fortnightly, except during 
the summer vacation. 

Since April, 1874, it has found comfortable 
quarters in’ the Franklin School building, fur- 
nished on condition that the club deposit there a 
collection of the flora and fauna of the district. 

Such a collection is gradually accumulating, 
and a large amount of material is now im the 
hands’ of individual members. awaiting suitable 
cases for exhibition and preservation. 


I fear this hope was never realized. 

The club continued its meetings and its 
activity for about five years, till we find in 
the record book under date of February 11, 
1878, the record of the 218th meeting, but 
nothing further, and no note of dissolution, 
so that the organization remained in a state 
of ‘innocuous desuetude,’ till the organization 
of the Biological Society, in 1880, attracted 
most of the members, and seemed to fill the 
place, formerly occupied by the old Potomac- 
Side Naturalists’ Club. 

Its place is now occupied by a number of 
societies, but its interesting records and its 
pleasant memories still remain with the few 
surviving members. 


266 


The Early Days 
THEODORE GILL. 
Then followed numerous notes regarding 

the work, former and recent, by members of 

the society, these being given by Mr. Henry 

Ulke, Dr. L. O. Howard, Dr. E. A. Schwarz, 

Professor W. P. Hay, Dr. C. E. Waters, Mr. 

W. H. Osgood. 


The Present and Future of the Biological So- 
ciety: President F. H. Knowtton. 
EK. L. Morris, 
Recording Secretary. 


of the Biological Society: 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


At the thirteenth annual meeting of the so- 
ciety held on December 13, 1905, the address 
of the retiring president, Dr. George P. Mer- 
rill, entitled ‘Development of the Glacial 
Hypothesis in America,’ was presented. 

The following officers were elected : 

President—George P. Merrill. 

Vice-Presidents—Waldemar Lindgren and M. R. 
Campbell. 

Secretaries—George Otis Smith and Arthur C. 
Spencer. 

Treasurer—M. L. Fuller. 

At the 173d meeting of the society, January 
10, under the head of informal communica- 
tions, Mr. Fuller described several blowing 
wells in Georgia. In the case of a certain 
well investigated where there were in-draft 
from early morning until about 10 a.m, and 
after that an out-draft until evening, observa- 
tion extending over several days showed that 
the change accompanied a fall in the barom- 
eter. Instances of constant in-draft were ex- 
plained by drawing an analogy to the familiar 
hydraulic filter pump of the chemical labora- 
tory. 

Mr. Gilmore gave an interesting descrip- 
tion and exhibited photographs of a skeleton 
of Triceratops from the Laramie formation 
of Wyoming which he has recently articu- 
lated at the National Museum. 

Mr. R. 8S. Bassler exhibited some fossil 
eystids from the Chazy-Black River strata of 
the Virginia valley. The speaker stated that 
when these forms oceur in slaty beds they are 
always greatly deformed, and it is only in the 
limestone strata that their original globular 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


shape is retained. In specimens where the 
surface plates are well preserved each plate 
is reinforced by a column of calcite having 
approximately the same shape as the plate 
against which it terminates, and each column 
is found to be a single erystal. The columns 
extend toward the center of the cystid, which is 
frequently hollow, so that the whole aftair 
constitutes a small geode. 
The regular program was as follows: 


Algonkian Formations of Northwestern Mon- 
tana: Mr. C. D. Watcorv. 

This was a repetition of the paper given 
by Mr. Walcott before the Geological Society 
of America at Ottawa, which will appear in 
the forthcoming volume of the Bulletin of 
that Society. 


The Franklin Mountains, Texas: Mr. G. B. 

RicHARDSON. 

The Franklin Mountains are the southern 
extremity of the long, narrow range, known 
locally by different names, that extends south- 
ward from the Rocky Mountains and delimits 
the Rio Grande Valley on the east as far as 
El Paso. The mountains are about fifteen 
miles long, average three miles in width, and 
rise 3,000 feet above the adjacent low lands. 
The western face is relatively little dissected 
and constitutes a dip slope. The eastern side, 
on the contrary, is much dissected and exposes 
cross sections of the rocks. From a distance 
the range appears to be simple, but closer in- 
spection reveals complex conditions. — 

The oldest rocks in the Franklin Mountains 
are of pre-Cambrian age and include two dis- 
tinet formations which aggregate 3,400 feet 
in thickness. The lower one consists of light 
and dark quartzite and subordinate slate which 
have been cut by a few thin diabase dikes. 
These rocks are succeeded by a bed of rhyolite 
tuff, ranging from zero to 400 feet in thick- 
ness, above which is a mass of porphyritic 
red rhyolite over 1,000 feet thick. Three hun- 
dred feet of indurated, fine-textured sandstone, 
carrying upper Cambrian fossils, overlies the 
rhyolite and contains rounded pebbles of the 
latter in the basal bed. The sandstone is suc- 
ceeded by a considerable thickness, amounting 
to at least 5,000 feet, of massive, gray lime- 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


stone which lithologically is dificult to sub- 
divide, but paleontologically is separable into 
three main* parts which are referred to the 
Ordovician, Silurian and upper Carbonifer- 
ous. The Devonian and Mississippian are 
not represented by sediments. All of these 
rocks, from the pre-Cambrian to the Carbonif- 
erous, are structurally conformable and dip 
westward at angles varying from 20 to 45 de- 
grees in different parts of the range. A con- 
siderable amount of coarse, red granite of 
post-Paleozoic age occurs in the mountains, 
chiefly associated with lines of faulting. No 
sediments of early Mesozoic age are here 
present, but Cretaceous strata, including the 
Washita and Benton groups, occur in isolated 
areas west and south of the range. The ad- 
jacent lowlands are underlain by unconsoli- 
dated material to a depth of over 2,000 feet. 

The rocks are traversed by two prominent 
sets of joints, striking north-south and east- 
west, and the distribution of the strata reveals 
several large faults in both of these directions. 
The main faulting is parallel with the north- 
south trend of the range, and as the strata dip 
invariably toward the west, the internal struc- 
ture shows a series of tilted blocks. Whether 
the whole range is a large block limited on 
the east and west by faults can not be de- 
termined since the mountain bases are buried 
under deep accumulations of débris. The 
fact of recent movements is proved by the 
presence of minor faults in a sand bank in 
the northern part of El Paso. These displace- 
ments follow the same trend as the principal 
faults in the mountains. A detailed descrip- 
tion of this region will appear in the forth- 
coming El Paso folio of the geologic map of 
the United States. 


The Santa Fe Peneplain: Mr. M. R. Camp- 
BELL. 

Mr. Campbell spoke of the existence of a 
surface of low relief in the vicinity of Santa 
Fe and its extension northward along the val- 
ley of the Rio Grande into San Luis Park, 
and suggested the probable correlation of this 
surface of erosion with the peneplain of the 
great plains region. i 

ArtTHuR C. SPENCER, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


267 


THE SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 

Tue third regular meeting of the society 
was held on January 17. The following pro- 
gram was presented: 


Method of Sinking Wells in the Sahara: W. 

T. Lee. 

The wells of the Sahara, as. described by 
recent visitors to the region, are still sunk in 
the same way as they have been for a thousand 
years. A hole about eighteen inches square is 
dug to a gypsum layer overlying and confining 
the water bed at a depth of about 200 feet. 
The capping is then punctured with a bar by a 
man at the bottom of the well. In the rush 
of water which follows the driller does not 
always escape. 


Depth Reached by the Deepest Borings: B. L. 

JOHNSON. 

In this paper only wells or borings having 
depths over 4,000 feet are considered. Data 
regarding 48, which are distributed as follows 
have been obtained: Transvaal, 24; United 
States, 10; Germany, 6; Queensland, 6, and 
New South Wales, 1; South Australia, 1. 
The six deepest are given below in the order of 
their depth. They are separated from the 
next deepest by a considerable gap: Paruscho- 
witz, Upper Silesia, Germany, 6,572.6 feet; 
Schladebach, near Leipzig, Germany, 5,735 
feet; Springs, 25 miles east of Johannesburg, 
Transvaal, 5,582 feet; West Elizabeth, 12 
miles southeast of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
5,575 feet; Doornkloof, Transvaal, 5,560 feet; 
Aleppo Township, Greene County, Pennsyl- 
vania, 5,322 feet. 


Recently Reported Blowing Wells: SamuEL 

SANFORD. 

In connection with the collection of well 
records and samples many new instances of 
blowing wells have come to light. Previous 
instances have been mainly from Nebraska 
and adjacent states, but several in the eastern 
states, including Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, 
Louisiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, 
New York, South Carolina and Georgia, are 
now known. Those of New -York, Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Jowa are in the drift; those of 
Missouri and Arkansas in cavernous lime- 
stone; those of Louisiana, Georgia and South 


268 


Carolina in coastal plain deposits; and those 
of Indiana in sandstone. 

Continuously sucking wells are reported in 
Georgia and Nebraska, but in general the 
wells are of the breathing type, the movement 
being outward or inward according to baromet- 
rie pressure. 


Symbols for Representing Underground Water 
Data: Discussion by members of the so- 
ciety. 

To secure uniformity it is considered ad- 
visable to adopt some simple set of symbols 
for use in reports. A circle for wells and a 
cirele with a short irregular line leading off 
from it (suggesting a stream) for springs were 
favored. For successful wells the circle is to 
be made solid (dot), while for unsuccessful 
wells the circle alone is to be used. Mineral 
wells are indicated by a dot within the circle. 
A vertical bar for waters which rise in the 
wells, a cross (consisting of vertical and hori- 
zontal lines) for flows, and a horizontal bar 
for thermal properties in springs were sug- 
gested, each to be superimposed on the fixed 
symbol for common or mineral wells and 
springs. M. L. Fuuier, 

Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
A NEW WORLD FOR THE BLIND. 

In Harpers Magazine for January, 1860, 
there is a story by J. D. Whelpley called, 
“The Atoms of Chladni.’ The tale itself has 
interest for the curious only, but it pivots 
upon a contrivance which, as described, is an 
illustration of the fact that the faney of man 
has often anticipated the scientific discoveries 
of a succeeding time. ‘The old discoveries of 
Chladni’ are alluded to as the initial idea 
whence sprang the mechanism devised by 
‘Bonsall,’ the Merlin and Mephisto of the 
tale. A broad plate of thin metal is described 
as suspended from the ceiling by thréads of 
silk. This plate may be ‘electrified by vibra- 
tion.’ 

The mirrors of your ceiling are each a vibrating 
plate. From the upper surface of these rise 
wire conductors of the electric power generated 
by the vibration. This is faint and feeble at 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 581. 


first, but, by passing through metallic threads 
coiled a thousand times around small magnets 
each geometric division of the plate corresponding 
with a magnet and with a radical sound of the 
human voice—it- has power to connect and dis- 
connect the keys of the batteries. * * * Thus 
are pinned more or fewer points in this strip of 
paper, from which, by such wonderful means, has 
been read off and written every clearly articulated 
sound uttered in your apartments. There are 
ninety distinct entries of the record, said Bonsall, 
closing the book, and-of these more than twenty 
are conversations between the same pair of affec- 
tionate lovers. All must have taken place in 
your room. Your villainous machine records 
words spoken in your room, aboye the mirror, as 
clearly as if they had been uttered below it, in 
my chamber. 

Within the past year or two there have 
appeared in the magazines and newspapers of 
the world accounts of a remarkable invention. 
From one of these—The Boston Hvening 
Transcript, October 14, 1905—I quote the fol- 
lowing account : 

Conceive a piece of steel wire, generally known 
as ‘piano wire,’ stretched between two points, or 
a steel plate. Take an ordinary electromagnet 
and connect the coil of it in cireuit with the sec- 
ondary of an induction coil, the primary of which 
is in cireuit with a microphone and battery. On 
speaking into the microphone induced currents 
of electricity produce continuous variations in the 
field strength of the electromagnet, and if we 
slide the electromagnet along the steel wire or 
over the plate the magnetic fluctuations of the 
electromagnet affect the steel wire or plate in 
the form of variable magnet intensities. There 
have been impressed on the steel surface undula- 
tions of magnetization, a kind of writing that is 
virtually permanent, and which faithfully records 
the articulations of the voice. If the coils of 
the electromagnet are connected with the tele- 
phone receiver, and the magnet is made to travel 
over the steel wire again, the telephone receiver 
repeats what was spoken into the microphone; 
or, in other words, acoustic vibrations analogous 
to the original vibrations of the microphone are 
produced in the telephone receiver. The records 
thus made will last for years. The steel wire 
or plate may be polished without disturbing it. 
Rust has no effect upon the record. The message 
remains there until a heavier magnet is drawn 
over the wire, when it is wiped off or demagnetized. 

In one form of the machine a steel plate is 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


used. In its manner or operation it resembles 
the ordinary gramophone. The disk is rotated 
in the same way. ‘The records aré not reproduced 
with the loudness of the gramophone; still, they 
are (distinct and free from the scratching and 
hissing occasioned by the stylus as it passes over 
the wax surface. The steel disk which receives 
the message is about five inches in diameter. As 
the disk rotates, the magnet and coil, which are 
held in a carrier, are gradually moved toward 
the center of the disk by a micrometer screw. 
The speed of rotation is increased as the magnet 
approaches the center of the disk, so that the 
disk rotates beneath the magnet with a constant 
linear velocity of one half a meter per second. 
The record is easily erased by passing a bar mag- 
In place of a pair of magnets 
the two coils, which characterize the earlier ma- 
chines, a straight magnet is now employed. This 
magnet is a pointed needle which can be lifted 
out and renewed, the coil being imbedded in an 
insulating composition and held in a small ebonite 
cylinder. 

In yet another form a steel piano wire is em- 
ployed, wound off one wheel to another between 
two magnet poles by an electric motor contained 
in the base of the instrument. The speed is about 
10.64 feet per second. Hnough wire is carried on 
the reels to make a record three quarters of an 
hour in length. Should only a part of the record 
be used at a time, its position can be noted by an 
indicator finger which rotates at a speed equal 
to that of the reels. In this machine three pairs 
of magnets and coils are used, each pair consist- 
ing of two magnets and coils similar to the 
straight magnets previously described. The mag- 
nets are placed horizontally, one on either side of 
the wire. The sounds are recorded by the middle 
pair of magnets, the pairs on either side serving 
for demagnetization or erasure. As the wire 
winds off the magnet carrier travels back and 
forth, serving both to hold and guide the wire on 
and off. 


net over the disk. 


As to the genuineness of this discovery, 
Lord Kelvin, Professor Silvanus Thompson, 
Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, Mr. Marconi and 
other scientists have borne abundant testi- 
mony. I understand that the invention is 
soon to be placed before the public, the instru- 
ments to be rented to subscribers precisely as 
the telephone is now supplied. 

The sole object of the present writing’ is 
to call the attention of philanthropists, edu- 
cators, social economists, and the medical pro- 


SCIENCE. 


269 


fession, to an application of the invention 
which was probably not dreamed of by Mr. 
Poulson, the Danish engineer who made the 
discovery. JI have spoken into the machine all 
sorts of messages in every tone and strength 
of voice, and at once have heard the same 
speeches returned to my ears with the same 
qualities of timbre, pitch and intensity, and 
without any mechanical additions or unpleas- 
ant effects. 

All of this being true, of what use the now 
ludicrously cumbrous, expensive, slow and 
wearying embossed letters and libraries for 
the blind—the Braille, New York Point, Line 
Letter, Moon Type, etc.? How vastly may be 
increased the ease of methods of reading to 
the sick, the infirm, the aged, of instruction 
of teachers, of the young and others! A book 
can be read to the sightless or to the invalid 
by the machine, while the patient lies in bed. 
Lectures, concerts, recitations—what one 
wishes, may be had at will. Skilled readers, 
or expert elocution teachers could be em- 
ployed to read into the wires entire libraries, 
and every taste would thus be easily supplied. 
Of course the invention could not help those 
who, in addition to being blind, are deaf. 

Letters may be dictated or spoken upon the 
thin sheets of steel, and these, after being sent 
by mail to the distant friend, are placed in 
the machine and the voice is exactly repro- 
duced as regards inflection, emphasis, timbre 
and pitch. The record does not wear out, 
and may be used again and again, as often 
and as long probably as one may wish. 

The expense could not possibly be a tithe of 
that required in the use of the raised or em- 
bossed systems of book-making for the blind. 
The saving of the time of the reader or 
listener would, of course, be immense. I 
know nothing about the financial methods or 
plans of the company which is putting the 
telegraphone upon the market. I take it the 
owners of the patent are human and would 
respond to the double argument that a gift 
or a sale of the machines at the cost of manu- 
facturing would undoubtedly in the end prove 
profitable. Even if it were not so philan- 
thropy could be relied upon to furnish the 
deserving blind of civilized countries with the 


270 


machines. There are several hundred thou- 
sand blind persons in the civilized world, and 
benevolence has long vied with charity in 
lightening the burden of their afflictions, and 
mitigating the tragedy of their lives. One 
can not imagine a more speedy and effective 
means than this of stimulating their esprit 
de corps, arousing mental, educational and 
social progress, and of placing at their com- 
mand the learning and science of the world. 
We are too slowly learning that there is no 
occupation, whether farming, mechanics, man- 
ufacturing, merchandising, or professional 
life, that may not be worthily, and that has 
not been successfully, carried on by those 
without sight. To place within the reach of 
these this most helpful and noble device would 
put them at a bound so in touch with one an- 
other, and with profitable employment, that 
other charities in their behalf would lessen in 
demand and in significance. 


Grorce M. Gounp. 
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. 
/ 


COLOR-ASSOCIATIONS WITH NUMERALS, ETC. 
(FOURTH NOTE.) 1882-1906. 

I HAVE given in various places’ some account 
of the associations of colors with numerals 
and letters at epochs in the years 1882, 1883, 
1885, 1887, 1889, 1891 and 1895, in the case 
of my daughter Mildred. The note in Nature 
for July 9, 1891, is the most complete and 


gives a table which can be consulted by any . 


one interested in this matter. I have recently 
(January 16, 1906) asked her to give me a 
list of the colors that she associates with 
(1) the days of the week; (2) the letters of 
the alphabet; (3) the numerals 1--- 10. Her 
answers are exactly the same as those given in 
Nature for June, 1891, except for the follow- 
ing very slight differences: 

Friday, white with tiny dots; 2, pink; K, 
grayish: brown?; P, green, not very clear; Q, 
purplish blue, not very clear; S, cream, nearly 
yellow; V, white; Y, yellowish cream; 8, 
white; 9, blue; 10, black and cream (and both 
colors are seen); 0, cream. 

‘Science, Vol. VI., O. S., 1885, p.. 242; ibid., 
Vol. I., N. S., 1895, p. 576; Natwre, Vol. 44, 1891, 
pp. 223-4. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


The series of notes seems to be of value, as 
it records the results of experiments extending 
over a period of twenty-four years, made 
under exceptionally good conditions. To 
make the record complete it should be added 
that my daughter married some two years ago 
and is herself the mother of a daughter. It 
will be interesting to inquire if this child in- 
herits color associations of the sort from one 
or both parents. I, myself, see no colors as- 
sociated with numbers or letters. 


Epwarp S. Hotpen. 
U. 8. Mitirary AcapEmy, 
West Pornt, 
January 18, 1906. 


THE YELLOW-FEVER MOSQUITO. 


To tHe Eprror or Science: The communi- 
eation of Professor Vernon L. Kellogg, printed 
in the number of Science of January 19, im- 
plies that yellow fever and the mosquito 
Stegomyia fasciata do not occur on the Pacific 
coast of America. Guayaquil, Ecuador, is a 
notorious hotbed of the disease and there have 
been numerous outbreaks at points along the 
Mexican and Central American coast—not to 
mention Panama. Caldera, the former Pacific 
coast port of Costa Rica, was abandoned on 
account of an epidemic, undoubtedly of yellow 
fever, which swept off a great part of the in- 
habitants. Upon a recent trip through Mex- 
ico and Central America, in the interest of 
Dr. L. O. Howard’s forthcoming work on the 
Culicide, the writer found Stegomyia fasciata . 
abundant in the following Pacific coast ports: 
Acapuleo and Salina Cruz in Mexico, Cham- 
perico and San José in Guatemala, Corinto in 
Nicaragua and Puntarenas in Costa Rica. 
The only port visited which appeared to be 
free from, this mosquito is Acajutla in Sal- 
vador, although the species was found at Son- 
sonate, about twenty-five miles inland. Per- 
haps on account of its very small size and the 
scattered disposal of the houses, Acajutla does 
not offer favorable conditions for this emi- 
nently domestic mosquito. 

It would seem that at present the greatest 
danger of the introduction of yellow fever into 
Hawaii lies in the transportation route across 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which will soon 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


be connected by a line of steamers plying be- 
tween Hawaii and Salina Cruz. 
FREDERICK Kwap. 
WasuineTon, D. C. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE PRIMEVAL ATMOSPHERE. 


Tue geological import of certain chemical 
work’ carried out at the University of Heidel- 
berg by Professor Krafft and his students 
seems to have been overlooked. 

Krafft has determined for a number of 
metals the lowest temperatures at which they 
evaporate in a nearly perfect vacuum. He 
estimates the vacuum obtained as having a 
pressure of less than one millionth of an at- 
mosphere. In order to avoid all action of 
gravity the evaporation temperatures were 
determined in a tube (1 to 1.5 cm. diameter) 
placed horizontally. 

He has also determined the boiling points 
in yacuum of the metals, 7. e., the temperature 
it is necessary to reach to force a steady ‘ satu- 
rated’ stream of vapor upwards from the 
liquid against the force of gravity. 

In boiling under ordinary pressure it is 
necessary to force the stream of vapor. up- 
wards against gravity plus the atmospheric 
pressure. 

Krafft finds that it requires the same num- 
ber of degrees rise, within the limit of error 
of the experiment, to pass from the tempera- 
ture at which evaporation in a vacuum begins 
to the temperature at which boiling in a 
vacuum occurs as to pass from the latter tem- 
perature to the temperature at which boiling 
at atmospheric pressure (760 mm.) occurs. 

In other words, that the same rise of tem- 
perature is required to overcome the force of 
gravity at the earth’s surface as to overcome 
the atmospheric pressure and from this the 
conclusion is drawn that gravity and atmos- 
pheric pressure are equivalent. 

Krafft’s experimental data are given in the 
following table, also the differences between 


* Ber. d. chem. Ges., XXXVI. (1903), pp. 1.690 
and 4,344; XXXVIII. (1905), pp. 242, 254 and 
262. A brief review of the work is given by Pro- 
fessor Renouf, Am. Chem. Jour., XXXIIT. (1905), 
p. 506. 


SCIENCE. 


271 


the temperatures of the beginning of evapora- 
tion and boiling in a vacuum (Differences I.) 
and between boiling in a vacuum and boiling - 
at atmospheric pressure (Differences II.). 


ee e Be | Sales HES 
Sane n Bas n a5 Oo. 
eaaq| 8 Séa | 8 aoe 
Element. 5S g 5 ae 3 | 8 Bea a 
y=) ao 2 |) so 5 og AS 
icine | ler 3 mens 
A 8 2 | Be A 4 
Mercury....|\— 40° 195° | 155° | 202°] 357° 
Cadmium..| 156 294 450 299 TAY 
Zinc ........ | 184 366 550 370 920 
Potassium.! 63 302 365 302 667 
Sodium.....| 98 320 418 324 742 
Bismuth...) 270 723 | 993 707 | 1700 
Silver ..... | 680 680 | 1360 | 680 | 2040 
2,880° | 12,8842 


It will be noted that, whether a metal of low 
boiling point or one of high boiling point is 
taken, the two differences are for any given 
element very nearly the same. The lack of 
exact agreement is probably largely due to the 
experimental difficulty of measuring some of 
the temperatures. \ 

The writer .wishes to direct attention to the 
bearing of the above on the question of the 
character of the primeval atmosphere and on 
the theories of world formation. 

The atmosphere is held about the earth by 
the action of gravity and from the above we 
are forced to the conclusion that the mass of 
the atmosphere is as great as gravity is able 
to control. Perhaps this will be made clearer 
by the crude comparison of the interaction of 
the earth and the atmosphere to that of a 
rotating bar magnet and its iron filings. 

The magnet is capable of exerting a certain 
attractive force. When the filings are present 
in full amount, 7. e., when the magnet can 
hold no more filings, the attractive force of 
the magnet for the filings is exactly equal to 
the attraction of the filings for the magnet. 
If a less amount of filings were present the 
attractive force of the magnet would be greater 
than the attractive force exerted by the filings. 
If a larger amount of filings were placed in 
contact with the magnet a certain amount, 
the ‘full amount’ mentioned above, would be 
held and the rest would be thrown off, 7. e., 
the attractive force exerted by the iron filings 


272 


is never greater than that exerted by the 
magnet. 

In the case of the earth and its atmosphere 
Krafft has given us our first measurement of 
the attractive force of the earth (gravity) 
and the attractive foree of the atmosphere for 
the earth (atmospheric pressure) in the same 
unit of measurement (degrees of heat). His 
measurements show that the two are equal 
and we must, therefore, conclude that the 
present atmosphere of the earth is the largest 
it is capable of holding. If from any source 
additions were made to our atmosphere a cor- 
responding amount would be thrown off, 7. e., 
escape from the atmosphere into space.’ The 
portion thrown off would probably consist of 
those molecules having the highest molecular 
velocities lying in the upper strata of the at- 
mosphere.” 

The various theories of world formation all 
give gravity a smaller value in the past than 
it has at present. There is yet to be found 
the first evidence tending to show that gravity 
has ever been greater than at present. If 
gravity has never been greater than at present 
then from Krafft’s results we must conclude 
that the atmosphere of the earth can never 
have been greater than the present atmosphere 
and the atmospheric pressure never greater 
than 760 mm. of mercury (14.7 pounds). 

We here find ourselves in decided disagree- 
ment with the Laplacian hypothesis common- 
ly accepted by geologists and astronomers. 

Geikie® says: “Tt is certain that the present 
gaseous and liquid envelopes of the planet 
form only a portion of the original mass of 
gas and water with which the globe was in- 
vested. Fully half the outer shell or crust 
of the earth consists of oxygen, which prob- 
ably once existed in the primeval atmosphere.” 


*Compare the articles on the conditions of the 
escape of gases from the atmosphere, by G. John- 
stone Stoney, in which he has shown that the 
molecular velocities of hydrogen and helium are 
so large that the earth is unable to retain them 
in its atmosphere. Trans. Royal Dublin Soc., 
1892, p. 563; ibid., 1897, p. 305. Astrophys Jour., 
VIII. (1898), 316; XI. (1900), 251 and 357; XII. 
(1900), 201. 

**Text-book of Geology,’ 4th ed., Vol. I., p. 34. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 581. 


Dana, in discussing the subdivisions of 
Archzan time, gives perhaps the best state- 
ment of the prevalent view: 


The astral won, as it has been called, or that 
of the fluid globe haying a heavy vaporous en- 
velope containing the future water of the globe or 
its dissociated elements and other heavy vapors 
or gases. * * * The lithic era: commencing 
with earth as a solid globe, or at least solid at 
the surface; the temperature at the beginning 
above 2,500° F.; the atmosphere still containing 
all the water of the globe (amounting to 200 
atmospheres, according to Mallet,® 1880), all the 
carbonic acid now in the limestone and that corre- 
sponding to the carbon now in the carbonaceous 
substances and organic substances (probably 50 
atmospheres), all the oxygen since shut up in 
the rocks by oxidation, as well as that of the 
atmosphere and of organic tissues. 


Other calculations of the primeval atmos- 
phere give it the same or even a greater extent, 
e. g., Prestwich® by a calculation later than 
Mallet’s reaches the same value for the water 
vapor. TT. Sterry Hunt’ finds the carbonic 
acid alone 200 times the present atmosphere. 

A small primeval atmosphere is just as 
much out of harmony with the idea of the 
formation of the globe by the contraction of 
a quasi-gaseous swarm of meteorites, as sug- 
gested by Lockyer and by Darwin, and with 
all other hypotheses requiring for the earth 
at any time a surface temperature above that 
of boiling water, as it is with the Laplacian 
hypothesis. It is, however, in excellent agree- 
ment with the planetesimal hypothesis devel- 
oped by Chamberlin and Moulton,’ in which 

** Manual of Geology,’ 4th ed., p. 440. 

° Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., XXXVI., p. 112. 

°* Geology,’ Oxford, 1886, Vol. I., p. 417. 

‘ Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1878, Trans., See. C, p. 544, 

’Compare Darwin’s classic paper, ‘On the Me- 
chanical Condition of a Swarm of Meteorites and 
on the Theories of Cosmogony,’ ZJ'rans. Phil. Soc., 
1888. 

® Best presented by Dr, Chamberlin in ‘ Funda- 
mental Problems of Geology,’ Year Book No. 3 
(1905) of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
pp. 195-258. Compare also Chamberlin, Jour. 
Geol., V. (1897), p. 653; VIII. (1900), p. 58; 
IX. (1901), p. 369; Moulton, Astrophys. Jour., 
XI. (1900), p. 103; Chamberlin and Moulton, 
Scrence, XIT. (1900), p. 201. 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


they show the possibility of a building up of 
the earth and the present solar system by the 
gradual accumulation of small bodies. The 
investigations by Lunn in connection with the 
study of the planetesimal hypothesis have 
shown that the probable progressive conden- 
sation of the earth under the influence of 
gravity is sufficient to account for the heat 
requirements of past geologic ages as well.as 
the present high temperature of the interior 
of the earth. 

It is generally held that the warm and moist 
climate of the Carboniferous and Tertiary 
eras was due to an atmosphere much more 
dense and of much greater extent than the 
present atmosphere. According to the high 
authority of Dr. Svante Arrhenius it is not 
necessary to make such a supposition. An 
analysis of Langley’s experiments gave data 
showing that the competence of carbon dioxide 
to retain solar heat is so great that its addi- 
tion to the extent of only one tenth of one 
per cent. of the present atmosphere would 
give us a climate like that of the Tertiary 
era and that the removal of one fiftieth of one 
per cent. would bring on glaciation. By later 
and somewhat more exact experiments of his 
own Arrhenius obtained results indicating 
that the percentage changes of carbon dioxide 
would have to be slightly greater than those 
ealeulated from Langley’s experiments. We 
must conclude that our present atmosphere, 
with but very slight variations, would account 
for the great changes of climate that have 
occurred in past geologic ages. 

The immense deposits of limestone and 
coal” have been taken to imply a primeval 
atmosphere containing large amounts of car- 
bon dioxide. Closer examination” has shown 

*To be published by the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington. 

* Phil. Mag., 8. 5, XLI. (1896), p. 237. 

*“Wosmische Physik,’ IJ. (1903), p. 503. 

The coal deposits while large in themselves 
are insignificant in comparison with the lime- 
stone. The total coal corresponds to less than 
four tenths of one per cent. of the carbon con- 
tained in the limestone. See Dana, ‘Manual of 
Geology,’ 4th ed., p. 485. 

* Compare ‘The Influence of Great Epochs of 
Limestone Formation upon the Constitution of 


SCIENCE. 


273 


that it is much more probable that the deposi- 
tion of limestone and coal has been periodic, 
as if the atmosphere had been alternately 
enriched and depleted of carbon dioxide. As 
a source of carbon dioxide T. Sterry Hunt” 
has suggested that it has been received by the 
earth, from time to time, through the fall or 
near contact of meteorites, since small amounts 
of carbon compounds are found in these bodies. 
The planetesimal hypothesis considers the 
earth as largely formed from bodies of the 
general character of the meteorites that reach 
the earth’s surface. Concerning the com- 
petency of these to furnish the gases of the 
atmosphere no better can be done than to 
quote Dr. Chamberlin :* 


Meteorites carry on the average several times 
their volume of condensed gas; so do many, prob- 
ably most, igneous rocks of the earth. * * * 
Atmospheric material is carried into the earth’s 
body by them to-day in quantities that are large 
relative to their masses. The gases chiefly 
occluded in meteorites and the crystalline rocks 
are hydrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide 
in leading amounts, and marsh gas and nitrogen 
in small amounts. The atmospheric material 
thus condensed within the growing earth could 
become part of the atmospheric envelope only by 
extrusion. * * * It may be assumed that the 
internal gases were given off progressively and fed 
the atmosphere. 


That the planetesimals were quantitatively 
sufficient to furnish the gases necessary to 
supply the earth’s water and atmosphere, in- 
eluding the carbon dioxide which has at dif- 
ferent stages been taken from the atmosphere, 
will now be shown. The water and atmos- 
phere” at present about the globe are estimated 
to be about 1/5,000 of the earth’s mass.” If 
water be considered as formed by the action 
of hydrogen on ferric oxide, as there is ex- 
perimental ground for believing provided the 


the Atmosphere, T. C. Chamberlin, Jour. Geol., 
VI. (1898), p. 609. 

% Loc. cit. 

*Year Book No. 3, Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, p. 236. 

“The mass of the atmosphere is but 1/200 of 
that of the water and in the present roygh calcu- 
lations may be entirely omitted. 


** Chamberlin, Jowr. Geol., V. (1897), p. 673. 


274 


right temperature and pressure are present, 
then, as hydrogen is but one ninth of water, 
the amount of hydrogen used to form the 
water of the earth would be 1/45,000 of the 
mass of the earth. If we add the amount of 
carbon dioxide which went to form limestone 
and carbonaceous substances” we will add one 
fourth the amount of the water, 2. e., 1/20,000 
of the mass of the earth. The sum of these, 
1/14,000 of the mass of the earth, will be the 
amount of gas which has been driven out 
from the original material by pressure and 
heat, and which is now represented by our 
present water and atmosphere and the carbon 
dioxide which has been from time to time 
withdrawn from the latter. If the planetesi- 
mals had on an average a density of three, this 
being the density of the average rock of the 
earth’s surface, and contained on an average 
two times (Chamberlin above says ‘several 
times’) their own volume of gas of the average 
density of water vapor, then the amount of 
gaseous substances mentioned above (1/14,000 
of the mass of the earth) would be about one 


Meters ABovE 


0 500 
' Mean Pressure 29.646”, Temp. 48.4° 44.2° 
Mean Pressure 30.157”, Temp. 48° 43.7° 


seventh of the mass of the gas contained by 
the planetesimals from which the earth was 
formed. This may be shown as follows: An 
average gram of material contained in a 
planetesimal would contain two thirds of a 
cubic centimeter of gas (density taken as 
18/32 of that of oxygen), weighing .00051 
gram at 15°. If it gave off only the amount 
mentioned above, 1/14,000 of its mass, it would 
give .00007 gram, which is about one seventh 
of .00051 gram, the amount it is capable of 
giving off. 
Rate H. McKee. 
LAKE Forrest UNIVERSITY, 
January 6, 1906. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
TEMPHRATURES IN CYCLONES AND ANTICYCLONES. 
In the Archives of the Imperial Academy 
of Sciences of St. Petersburg for June, 1905, 
* Dana, loc. cit. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


of which a reprint has lately been received, 
Mr. A. Lawrence Rotch reported upon the 
results obtained by means of kites at Blue 
Hill Observatory regarding the temperature 
of the free air in cyclones and anticyclones. 
Thirty-four ascents showed a vertical decrease 
of temperature in cyclones and anticyclones 
at a much lower rate than the adiabatic rate 
of cooling in ascending air, and also showed 
almost the same rate of decrease in low and. 
high pressure areas up to 3,000 meters. In 
view of this latter fact, as Teisserenc de Bort 
pointed out, the temperature of these two col- 
umns of air, up to height of say 4,000 meters, 
depends to a large extent on the season and 
upon geographical conditions, as well as upon 
the relative position of the pressure system. 
The thirty-four cases were distributed equally 
among cyclones and anticyclones, and among 
different seasons. Yet the mean sea-level 
temperature at a mean pressure of 29.646 ins. 
was 48.4°, and at 30.157 ins. the temperature 


was 48°. The following table summarizes the 
results. 

SeA LEVEL. Mean. 

1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 0—3,000 
39.2° 34.389 31.5° 28.0° 22.6° 35.4° 

Bho BP BLO BO Bil Si, 11° 


A better method, first used by Mr. Clayton 
in connection with kite ascents in 1899 and 
1900, is to determine the temperatures at the 
same heights for several days in succession 
while changes of pressure and temperature 
are taking place at the earth’s surface. By 
this method it was found that the maximum — 
temperature at all heights up to about 4,000 
meters nearly coincided with the minimum 
pressure at sea level, but was somewhat ahead 
of it, and that the minimum temperature at 
all heights coincided with a sea-level pres- 
sure above normal, but preceded the latter at 
a considerable distance. 


A LABORATORY MANUAL. 


A vERY convenient form of laboratory note- 
book is found in Professor Frank W. Dar- 
ling’s ‘A JLaboratory Manual in Physical 
Geography’ (Atkinson, Mentzer & Grover, 
Chicago and Boston, 1905). All teachers who 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


have had the labor of handling large num- 
bers of papers and maps in laboratory exer- 
eises in physiography and in meteorology will 
appreciate this publication. In flexible covers, 
we have, on separate sheets held together by 
paper fasteners, fifty-five exercises, in very 
direct and precise form, designed to call the 
attention of the student to the essential points 
in each subject discussed. The exercises can 
be put in any order that is desired, and any 
teacher can add, subtract or multiply as he 
At the 
end of the note-book there are a number of 
extra pages of blank paper, and also sheets 
of section paper, and outline maps of various 
kinds. Several copies of each of these maps 
are included, for use in different exercises. 

About one half of the exercises are meteor- 
ological in their character, and are on the 
whole satisfactory and well worded. It is 
easy to say that they might be improved, 
because they probably do not exactly fit the de- 
mands of any large number of teachers. But 
with all the limitations which must be ex- 
pected in any scheme of laboratory work de- 
signed by some persons for other persons, we 
may, nevertheless, commend Professor Dar- 
ling’s ‘ Manual’ as a very useful, compact and 
effective laboratory guide, which can not fail 
to improve and systematize laboratory teach- 
ing in physiography and meteorology. We 
suggest that the blank tables for entering the 
meteorological records are too rigid, and do 
not call for that variation from week to week 
which is an essential in keeping up interest in 
the subject. And we fail to see how the out- 
line weather maps can be copyrighted, for 
they seem to us nothing more than a repro- 
duction of the regular Weather Bureau sta- 
tion map. 


sees fit, or as his opportunity permits. 


NOTES. 

OBSERVATIONS of temperature during the re- 
cent solar eclipse made on board the P. and 
O. steamship Arcadia, off the coast of Spain, 
showed a fall from 82.4° to 72.5°. 

Dr. J. M. Pernter, whose book, ‘ Meteor- 
ologische Optik,’ covers a field in meteor- 
ology which had not previously been occupied, 
has recently published two additional studies 


SCIENCE. 


275 


along the same line. These are entitled: 
“Erklirung des falschlich ‘weisser Regen- 
bogen’ benannten Bouguer ’schen Halos,” and 
“Zur Theorie des yon einer kreisformigen 
Lichtquelle erzeugten Regenbogens.’ Both 
appear in the Svtzwngsberichte of the Vienna 
Academy of Sciences, June and July, 1905. 

Apropos of the recent note in ScmmNncr con- 
cerning the results obtained by Mr. Clayton 
during the past summer in sounding the free 
air over the tropical Atlantic, it may be worth 
while to call attention to two papers by 
Hergesell on this same subject in the Bez- 
trage zur Physik der freien Atmosphare, Vol. 
I., No. 4, 1905. In these papers are discussed 
the results obtained by Hergesell while on the 
yacht of the Prince of Monaco in the sum- 
mers of 1904 and 1905. 

The U. S. Weather Bureau eclipse party at 
Daroca, Spain, observed a fall of 8° in tem- 
perature during the eclipse. 
notable change in the wind. 


There was no 


THe November number of Hducation con- 
tains an article by Dr. Frank Waldo, on 
“The Study of Meteorology,’ which deals 
chiefly with meteorological and climatological 
instruction given at Harvard. 


‘“HOHENKLIMA und Bergwanderungen in 
ihrer Wirkung auf den Menschen’ is the title 
of an elaborate work just issued in Germany. 
The authors are teachers at the University of 
Berlin (Loewy and Muller), and at the 
Landwirthschaftliche Hochschule in Berlin 
(Zuntz and Caspari). The book numbers 
nearly 500 pages, and presents the results of 
experimental studies on high mountains and 
in the laboratory. It contains many illustra- 
tions. 


Tue self-recording rain-gauge designed by 
S. P. Fergusson, of Blue Hill Observatory, is 
now constructed and for sale by the Inter- 
national Instrument Company, of Cambridge, 
Mass. 


A SMALL-SIzE, relatively inexpensive, so- 
called piesmic barometer, designed by A. 8S. 
Davis, is for sale by F. Darton & Co., St. 
John Street, London, E. C., for £1 to £1 15s. 
This barometer has a tube seven inches long, 


276 


whose mouth can be closed by a serew when 
the instrument is being carried. 
R. DreC. Warp. 


A COLORADO SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 

TurouGH the generosity of Gen. William J. 
Palmer and Dr. Wm. A. Bell, of Colorado 
Springs, Colorado College is to have a School 
of Forestry. These two gentlemen, who take 
great interest in forestry, have given to the 
college the beautiful tract of land known as 
Manitou Park, with its 15,000 acres of forest, 
haylands and lakes. A conservative estimate 
places the value of this gift at $150,000. 

The park is twenty-five miles northwest of 
Colorado Springs on a plateau, 7,550 feet above 
sea level. The climate and soil are typical of 
the mountains. Many years ago the whole 
tract was deforested, but at present there is 
a fine new growth of conifers. In évery re- 
spect it offers excellent opportunity for field 
work and the practical study of silviculture 
and forest botany. The theoretical and lec- 
ture courses in this new department will be 
given at Colorado College. The new science 
building completed in 1903, with its modern 
and well-equipped laboratories makes possible 
the study and research which this new move- 
ment entails. 

No better location could be found for such 
a school than Colorado College. Situated at 
the foot of Pikes Peak, .where the Rocky 
Mountains touch the arid plains, it affords 
fine opportunities for the study of irrigation, 
as well as of forestry problems. The whole 
irrigation problem must, in the last analysis, 
be determined by the forest coverings of the 
mountains, for the mountains are the natural 
sources of water supply for the plains. Where 
they are denuded of forest, they can not hold 
water; rain and the snow water rush off in 
torrents that can not be utilized. The forest 
covering equalizes the water supply of the 
plains by restraining the water, allowing it 
to flow down slowly and gradually so that it 
ean be properly distributed. The Pikes Peak 
forest reserve is also near; here the central 
government has established three nurseries 
to provide trees for the reforesting of denuded 


slopes. On Pikes Peak and other near-by 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


mountains are found a great variety of cli- 
mates, from the arctic-alpine down to the 
more temperate. 

The establishment of this School of Forestry 
means much for the Rocky Mountain region. 
It is said that the first settlers in the state 
of Colorado found 36,000 square miles of 
forest area covered with various kinds of 
valuable pines and spruces. Since that time 
30,000 square miles of the virgin forests of the 
state have been destroyed. Evidence intro- 
duced in the Kansas-Colorado water suit 
showed that the cutting away of the forests 
on the mountain sides has greatly decreased 
the amount of water available for irrigation. 
The influence of the school will do much 
toward checking this waste and establishing 
better economic conditions. 

Professor Gifford Pinchot, forester, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, has agreed to 
nominate a man to act as head of this new 
department of Colorado College, which will 
be opened next September. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Ol ILLINOIS. 

Tue State Geological Commission, at its 
meeting at Springfield last week, completed 
the corps and arranged for the season’s work. 
The following appointments were made to the 
regular force, and in addition the director was 
authorized to make such temporary appoint- 
ments as might be necessary, subject to con- 
firmation at a succeeding meeting of the com- 
mission. 


Professor C. W. Rolfe, of the State University, 
consulting geologist in clay work. 

Professor R. D. Salisbury, of the University of 
Chicago, consulting geologist, in charge of educa- 
tional work. 

Dr. U. S. Grant, of Northwestern University, 
consulting geologist in lead and zine work. 

Professor S. W. Parr, of the State University, 
consulting chemist in coal work. 

Dr. Edward Bartow, director of the State Water 
Survey, consulting chemist in water work. 

Mr. F. B. Van Horn, recently of the Missouri 
Geological Survey, assistant geologist. 

Mr. F. F. Grout, recently of the West Virginia 
Geological Survey, assistant chemist. 

Mr. H. B. Fox, of the State University, as- 
sistant geologist. 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


J. A. Udden, professor in Augustana College, 


geologist. 

W. W. Atwood, of the University of Chicago, 
geologist. 

Dr. Stuart Weller, of the University of Chicago, 
geologist. 


Mr. Ross ©. Purdy, of the State School of 
Ceramics, ceramist. 

Not all of the men appointed will be able 
to devote their full time to the survey work, 
but assurances have been received that all 
will give some time to it. Professor Rolfe 
and Mr. Purdy, assisted by Mr. Fox, will de- 
yote particular attention to the clay resources 
of the state beginning their work probably 
with a study of paving brick and the clays 
used in its manufacture. 

Professor Parr, Mr. Grout, Mr. Van Horn 
and the director of survey, Mr. Bain, will 
devote their time largely to a study of the coal 
fields. It is proposed to take samples of the 
various seams and to study their qualities as 
well as their distribution in the field. In the 
latter work Dr. Weller and Mr. Atwood will 
assist. 

Professor Udden will devote his time to a 
study of the underground waters of the state 
with a view to the determination of the limits 
of the various artesian basins and the depth to 
which it is necessary to go to obtain good 
water for municipal and other purposes. In 
this work he will be assisted by Dr. Bartow 
and the State Water Survey, which will make 
the necessary analyses and laboratory tests. 

Dr. Grant, with such assistance as may be 
necessary, will take up the study of the lead 
and zine fields found near Galena continuing 
the work done by the state of Wisconsin. 

Professor Salisbury, assisted by various 
others yet to be appointed, will prepare a series 
of bulletins for use in the schools, descriptive 
of the geography and the geology of impor- 
tant type localities within the state. So far 
arrangements have been made for such bul- 
letins covering the lake shore from Evanston 
north, the Illinois Valley near Peoria, and 
the Mississippi Valley between Savanna and 
Rock Island, and at East St. Louis. The first 
of these bulletins is now being prepared by 
Mr. Goldthwaite, of Northwestern University, 
and Mr. Atwood, of Chicago. 


SCIENCE. 


217 


THE MEMORIAL OF MAJOR WALTER REED, 
(fo Io Al 


THE executive committee of the Walter 
Reed Memorial Association, consisting of 
Daniel C. Gilman, George M. Sternberg, 
Chas. J. Bell, A. F. A. King, J. R. Kean, 
W. D. McCaw and Calvin DeWitt, has issued, 
under date of February 1, the following letter: 


You are doubtless aware that to Major Walter 
Reed, surgeon U. S. Army, is due, in a very large 
degree, the demonstration that yellow fever is 
propagated by a mosquito. By this demonstration 
the spread of the pestilence has been averted, and, 
when proper precautions are taken, the danger is 
almost annihilated. The immense benefits which 
have come to humanity from this discovery cam 
hardly be estimated. 

Under these circumstances, a general desire has. 
been shown to honor this great benefactor, and 
likewise give to his widow some recognition of his 
An incorporation has been 
formed in Washington which is endeavoring to 
raise a fund of $25,000, the income to be paid to 
his widow and the principal to be reserved for a. 
permanent memorial in the city of Washington. 
The amount now subscribed is somewhat over 
$16,000; by far the largest number of contribu- 
tors are of the medical profession. There is 
one subscription of $2,000, two of $1,000, two 
of $250, several of $100, and many of less amount. 
The association in charge of this movement con- 
siders that the time has now come to appeal to 
a wider circle than has yet been reached and to 
ask their subscriptions. 

Your support is respectfully solicited, and any 
amount that you may be disposed to contribute 
may be sent to the American Security and Trust 
Company of Washington, D. C., the president of 
which, Mr. Charles J. Bell, is treasurer of the 
fund. To complete the fund and cover incidental 
expenses, including a marble bust of Major Reed, 
$10,000 is needed. The desire of the committee 
is to close the subscription before the end of this 
month. Communications should be addressed to 
the secretary at No. 1707 21st Street, N. W., 
Washington, D. C. 


service to mankind. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical 
Society at Burlington House, London, on 
February 9, Ambassador Reid received the 
gold medal for 1905 conferred by the society 


278 


on Professor William Wallace Campbell, of 
the Lick Observatory. 

Iv is announced that Major-General A. W. 
Greely, who was advanced to that rank by the 
promotion of General Bates to be lieutenant- 
general and chief of staff, will be sent to com- 
mand the southwestern division, with head- 
quarters at Oklahoma City. 


Present W. G. Ticut, of the New Mexico 
University, Albuquerque, has been seriously 
injured by an explosion of gasolene while ex- 
perimenting in his laboratory. 


Proressor J. J. THomson,. of Cambridge; 
Mr. Oliver Heaviside, of London; M. Henri 
Becquerel, of Paris, and Professor P. Zeeman, 
of Amsterdam, were made honorary doctors 
of the University of Gottingen, on the occa- 
sion of the dedication of the new physical 
laboratory. 

Dr. Paut Drupg, professor of physics in 
the University of Berlin, has been elected a 
member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 


Proressor Kari von DEN STEINEN, of Ber- 
lin, has been made an honorary member of 
the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain 
and Ireland. 

Dr. Konrap Pressen, the engineer-in-chief 
of the Simplon tunnel, has been made an 
honorary professor in the Technological Insti- 
tute of Munich. 

Proressor Joss Royer, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, has given during the last two weeks, 
at the Johns Hopkins University, a series of 
lectures ‘Aspects of Post-Kantian 
Idealism.’ 

Proressor JT. H. Morcan, of Columbia 
University, will deliver the ninth of the Har- 
vey Society lectures, on February 17, at 8:30 
o’clock in the hall of the New York Academy 
of Medicime. The subject will be ‘The Ex- 
tent and Limitations of the Power to Regener- 
ate in Man and Other Vertebrates.’ 

Mr. Benyzamimy Kopp delivered at the Royal 
Institution, on February 1 and 8, lectures on 
“The Significance for the Future in the The- 
ory of Evolution.’ 

Tuer Court of St. Andrews University has 
appointed Mr. Andrew Carnegie, rector of the 


upon 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


university, to attend, as a representative of 
the university, the celebration to be held un- 
der the auspices of the American Philosophical 
Society, in Philadelphia, in April, of the two 
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Ben- 
jamin Franklin, who in 1759 received from St. 
Andrews the honorary degree of LL.D. 


THE triennial Rinecker prize given by the 
medical faculty of Wiirzburg, Germany, was 
awarded this year to Dr. E. Overton, assistant 
at the Wurzburg Institute of Physiology. 
His researches have been on the osmotic prop- 
erties of cells, the mechanism of narcosis and 
the importance of the mineral elements for the 
functions of the cells. 

Dr. Orro NorpENSKJOLD and Capt. Milk- 
kelsen were the guests of honor at’a dinner 
given by the Arctic and Explorer’s Clubs in 
New York City, on February 7. It was an- 
nounced that Dr. Nordenskjéld would sail on 
the 8th inst. for his home in Sweden, to 
arrange for another voyage in search of the 
south pole. Capt. Mikkelsen is getting ready 
an expedition to the Beaufort Sea, an unex- 
plored Arctic area west of the Parry archi- 
pelago. 

Tur Hlectrical World says: “The city of 
Brantford, Canada, has, it is said, determined 
to set a good example to those cities that wait 
to honor a distinguished son until he is dead. 
The town’s recognition of Alexander Graham 
Bell’s services to humanity in inventing the 
telephone will take the shape of a memorial 
to be erected some time this year. To arrange 
details a committee has been formed. It has 
been suggested that the old Bell property at 
Brantford should be bought and maintained 
as a park. Dr. Bell’s father went from Hdin- 
burgh to Brantford in 1870 and some of the 
very earliest experiments of a telephonic na- 
ture by Bell are said to have been made from 
his father’s house to that of the Rev. T. Hen- 
derson in June, 1875.” 

Dr. WituiaAm Oster, who is at present in 
Canada, expects to return to England at the 
end of the month. 

Prorsessor ANGELO Hemprin, who has now 
in preparation his final report upon the phe- 
nomena of the Pelée eruptions, sailed from 


FEBRUARY 16, 1906.] 


New York on the tenth of this month on his 
fourth journey to Martinique. 

Dr. Grorce Byron Gorvon, of Philadelphia, 
and Dr. Charles Peabody, of Cambridge, have 
been appointed delegates from the American 
Anthropological Association to the Interna- 
tional Congress of Anthropology and Prehis- 
toric Archeology to be held at Mocano, April 
16, 1906. Mr. David I. Bushnell, Jr., who is 
in Europe making a special study of the 
American collections in the museums of Italy, 
France and England, has been appointed a 
delegate from the Peabody Museum of Har- 
vard University to the congress. 

Own February 6 Dr. Wm. E. Ritter, professor 
of zoology in the University of California and 
scientific director of the Marine Biological 
Station of San Diego, sailed from San Fran- 
cisco on a journey around the world. He will 
spend a month in the Hawaiian Islands, two 
or three months in Japan, and will attend the 
Congress of Oceanography and Fisheries at 
Marseilles, France, as a representative of the 
oceanographic and marine biological investi- 
gations being carried on by the University of 
California through the San Diego Marine 
Biological Station. During Dr. Ritter’s ab- 
sence from America, Professor C. A. Kofoid 
will be acting-director of the San Diego work. 
Inquiries concerning the laboratory may be 
addressed to him at Berkeley, Cal., until May 
15. After this date, during the summer, his 
address will be La Jolla, California. 


Tue Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 
Christchurch, New Zealand, has opened a fund 
with the object of establishing a memorial to 
the late Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., presi- 
dent of the New Zealand Institute. It is pro- 
posed to devote the fund to the encouragement 
of original research in natural science in New 
Zealand by making grants for original re- 
search, and by the award of a bronze medal, 
to be called the ‘Hutton medal.’ 


Emerror WILLIAM, of Germany, celebrated 
his forty-seventh birthday on January 27. 
In honor of the birthday a Leibnitz medal 
has been established to be awarded annually 
by the Berlin Academy of Sciences for notable 
scientific achievements. 


SCIENCE. 


PES) 


Dr. Joun StaneE Eny, professor of the 
theory and practise of medicine in. the Yale 
Medical School since 1897, died on February 
47, as a result of a fracture of the skull due 
to a fall from his horse. Dr. Ely was born in 
New York City, in 1860. He had been as- 
sistant in pathology in the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and 
professor of pathology in the Woman’s Med- 
ical College. 


Proressor Kari von KorisrKa, formerly 
professor of geodesy in the Technical Insti- 
tute of Prague, has died at the age of eighty 
years. 

Miss Eten B. Scrivrs, of La Jolla, Cali- 
fornia, has addressed a letter to President 
Benj. Ide Wheeler and Professor Wm. E. 
Ritter, of the University of California, signi- 
fying her intention of giving $50,000 to the 
board of regents of the university for the 
Marine Biological Station at La Jolla. This 
gift is in recognition of the need of buildings, 
equipment and endowment for the station, to 
the support of which Miss Scripps and her 
brother, Mr. E. W. Scripps, of Miramar, Cali- 
fornia, have previously contributed consider- 
able sums. 
that a laboratory building be erected some- 
where in the vicinity of San Diego to be 
known as the George W. Scripps Laboratory. 


Miss Seripps expresses the wish 


Ir is hoped that the Cancer Institute, in the 
foundation of which Professor Czerny has 
taken a leading part, will be opened at Heidel- 
berg on the occasion of the Cancer Congress 
which is to be held there in the middle of 
September next. Already a sum of $175,000 
has been contributed towards the cost, and the 
government of the Grand Duchy of Baden 
and the University of Heidelberg have be- 
tween them undertaken to maintain the insti- 
tute for at least fifty years. 


Tut Hamburg Institute of Marine Pathol- 
ogy and Tropical Diseases is about to be en- 
larged. Both the teaching staff and the ac- 
commodation for workers will be increased; 
the course of study for medical officers of the 
army, navy and colonies will be extended, and 
the library enlarged. It is proposed to offer 


280 


the post of scientific assistant in zoology to 
Dr. Schaudinn. 


Tur Edison medal committee of the Amer- 
ican Institute of Electrical Engineers, Mr. 
John W. Howell, chairman, has issued a 
circular to the educational institutions of the 
United States, calling their attention to the 
fact that funds are available for the award of 
the medal this year and pointing out the condi- 
tions under which students. can enter in com- 
petition for it. 


THe commission for the methods of ex- 
amining and methylating aleohol, appointed 
by the French government, has decided to 
offer the following prizes for open competition, 
irrespective of the nationality of the competi- 
tors: (1) a prize of 20,000 franes for a method 
of methylating alcohol, which shall be prefer- 
able to that now in vogue in France, and 
which at the same time shall prevent any de- 
frauding of the revenue; and (2) a prize of 
50,000 franes for a system which shall permit 
of the use of alcohol for illuminating -pur- 
poses under the same conditions as those for 
the use of petroleum. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


At the last meeting of the trustees of Co- 
lumbia University gifts amounting to $318,- 
000 were announced, including $150,000 from 
Mrs. Marie H. Williamson to establish a fund 
in memory of Edward R. Carpentier, the in- 
come of which is to be used for a professorship 
or lectureship on the origins and growth of 
civilization, and $100,000 from Mr. George 
Blumenthal for the endowment of a chair of 
polities. 


Tue fund collected by the alumni of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 
current expenses within the next five years 
amounts to $211,000. There are eleven hun- 
dred subscribers. 

Cotonet JI. H. Wine, of Batfield, Wis., an 
alumnus of Bowdoin College, has given the 
college $50,000 to endow the chair of mathe- 
matics. 


Mr. Anprew Carneciz and Mr. Bartlett Doe 
have each given $50,000 to Bates College. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 581. 


Mr. Carnegie has also offered to give Swarth- 
more College $50,000 for a library building, 
on condition that an equal sum be raised from 
other sources. 


By the will of the late Dr. 8. Stanhope 
Orris, formerly professor of Greek at Prince- 
ton University, the institution receives a be- 
quest of $25,000 to found ten new scholarships 
for undergraduates. 


By the will of Mrs. Mary C. Daniels, of 
Litchfield, Conn., the sum of $6,000 is be- 
queathed to Trinity College, Hartford, for a 
‘scholarship. 


Syracuse University will erect at once a 
three-story chemical laboratory, 150 >< 100 
feet, and expects to have it ready for occu- 
paney by September, 1907. 


A pit has been prepared for presentation 
to the New York legislature establishing a 
university in Brooklyn. 


McGint University is to establish an affili- 
ated college in Vancouver, British Columbia, 
to be known as the University College of 
British Columbia. 


Tur mechanical engineering building of 
the University of Pennsylvania was completely 
destroyed by a fire which broke out the night 
of February 6, the loss sustained being nearly 
$100,000. Most of this amount was covered 
by insurance. As the new engineering build- 
ing is almost completed, the faculty has de- 
cided to transfer the department to it. 


Yuan Sui Kat, viceroy of Chi Li province, 
has discharged Professor C. D. Tenney, the 
foreign director of education, who organized 
the new school system in this province. 


Tue trustees of Rutgers College have elected 
Dr. W. H. D. Demarest president of the col- 
lege, to succeed Dr. Austin Seott. Dr. Dem- 
arest has been acting president for several 
months. 


Upon the nomination of the Prussian Min- 
istry of Education, the trustees of Columbia 
University have appointed Dr. Hermann Schu- 
macher, professor of political economy in the 
University of Bonn, to be honorary professor 
in Columbia University for the year 1906-7. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


| 


Frmppay, Frpruary 23, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The Society of American Naturalists :— 
Meeting of the Central Branch.......... 


Address of Welcome by President Angell... 
Some Aspects of the Endowment of Re- 
search: PRorEssoR Henry H. DoNALDSON.. 


American Association for the Advancement 
of Science :— 

Section H—Geology and Geography: Dr. 

EpmMunD OTIs Hovey......... rsh see Stere eee 


Morphology and Phylogeny: PRoFESSoR EH. C. 
JEFFREY 


The Affiliation of Psychology with Philosophy 
and with the Natural Sciences: PRESIDENT 
GASTANEEY HAG. <j. 0c eens soe ae. 


Scientific Books :— 
Goebel’s Organography of Plants: PRo- 
FESSOR CHARLES E. Bessey. Gooch’s Out- 
lines of Inorganic Chemistry: PROFESSOR 
EDWARD H. K&EISER.................00:5 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— 
The American Physical Society: PROFESSOR 
Ernest Merritt. The Texas Academy of 
Science: PRorESSOR FREDERIC W. SIMONDS. 
The Geological Society of Washimgton: 
ARTHUR C. SpENcER. The Torrey Botan- 
ical Club: C. Stuarr Gacer. The Elisha 
Mitchell Scientific Society: PRoressor A. 
SL. WAH. oo sacoebocasccscnD0nnODODOD 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Heological Adaptation and Ecological Selec- 
tion: CHARLES ROBERTSON. ‘ Barriers’ 
and ‘ Bionomic Barriers’; or Isolation and 
Non-isolation as Bionomic Factors: Dr. J. 


Special Articles :— 
On the Breaking-up of the Old Genus Culex: 
D. W. Coquittett. Importations of the 
Prickly Pear from Mexico: Davin 
Ginpmaiiis sbousee0ccudooccbacececbod fara 


Current Notes on Meteorology :-— 
Moisture for Heated Houses in Winter; 


297 


301 
303 


303 


307 


312 


Royal Meteorological Society; Annual Rings 
of Tree Growth; Cloud Studies im the 
Pyrenees ; Investigation of the Upper Air in 
England; Temperature and Relatwe Hu- 


midity Data: PRorEssor R. DEC. Warp... 314 
The Congress of the United States......... 316 
The Coming Meeting of the Musewms Associa- 

tion of America: Dr. W. J. HOLLAND..... 317 
Scientific Notes and News................. 317 
University and Educational News........... 320 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
tor review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Garri 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN NATURALISTS. 
MEETING OF THE CENTRAL BRANCH. 


THE Central Branch of the Society of 
American Naturalists held its annual meet- 
ing at the University of Michigan during 
Christmas week, the American Zoological 
Society, the Association of American Anat- 
omists, the American Physiological So- 
ciety, the Society of American Bacteriolo- 
gists, the Society for Plant Morphology 
and Physiology, and the Botanists of the 
Central States meeting in conjunction with 
it. About 150 members were present, and 
on the evening of December 28 the societies 
were entertained by the president and 
regents of the university at a reception 
at which, after an address of welcome by 
President Angell, the president of the Nat- 
uralists delivered his address, which ap- 
pears in this number of ScIENCE. 

The officers for the current year are: 
President, Dr. J. Playfair MeMurrich, of 
the University of Michigan; Secretary, Dr. 
W. J. Moenkhaus, of the University of 
Indiana. 


282 


ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY PRESIDENT 
ANGELL. 


Ladies and Gentlemen: I am glad to 
Inow that I can properly use this familiar 
style of address. For I see before me 
several ladies who have by their learning 
fairly earned their place in this society of 
scientists. 

Tn the name of the regents and the facul- 
ties of the university I extend to you all 
a hearty welcome to our halls. We thank 
you that you have done us the honor to 
choose this as your place of meeting. We 
are proud to see under our roof so many 
eminent representatives of colleges, uni- 
versities and learned societies, so many who 
have by careful study and investigation 
done much to enlarge the boundaries of 
human knowledge. 

Perhaps you will permit me as your 
senior to say that when I look back to my 
college days—now nearly three score years 
in the past—nothing is more striking to 
me than the change which has been wrought 
in the attitude and methods of the teachers 
of science in our schools of higher learning. 

In my student days in the curriculum of 
the best colleges a very brief period, from 
six to twelve weeks, was given to any sci- 
ence. The instruction consisted mainly in 
compelling students to memorize text-books. 
A few illustrative lectures with experi- 
ments performed by the professor were 
sometimes given, which often instructed us 
by their failure rather than by their suc- 
cess. Laboratories there were none in any 
institution. The professors who made any 
original investigation or who betrayed any 
knowledge much beyond the range of the 
text-books were not numerous. From such 
teaching not much inspiration could be ex- 
pected. 

One of the first men to startle us and 
inspire us by the revelation of new methods 
was Louis Agassiz. He accomplished this 
not alone by his training of pupils at Cam- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 582. 


bridge and Penikese, but by his popular 
lectures. As I recall some of these I feel 
again kindling within me the glow of en- 
thusiasm with which we listened to him, 
as with his winsome French accent he told 
us of the development of animal life, and 
with his skilful and rapid drawing he made 
a fish fairly flop out of the blackboard. 
His enthusiasm for research was contagious 
and soon we had votaries of all the sciences 
questioning nature at a hundred points. 

From those days progress was rapid. 
And so now the spirit of research is dom- 
imant among all scientific men. The per- 
functory and mechanical teachers have 
largely disappeared, and happily the pres- 
ent generation of students are taught to 
observe, to investigate, to make careful 
inductions and to work in the true scientific 
spirit. 

We are glad to meet you as you come to 
us from your laboratories and various fields 
of research, your faces aglow with the en- 
thusiasm of investigators and discoverers, 
to whom nature has been compelled to yield 
up some of her choicest secrets. Your 
presence and companionship will stir us 
with a new passion for truth, and when 
you depart, we shall feel that the priests 
of science have dwelt under our rooftree 
and left a blessmg on the gates of our 
dwelling. 


SOME ASPECTS OF THE ENDOWMENT OF 
RESHARCH~+ 

In the days of ancient Rome the return- 
ing conqueror borne on his triumphal car 
must listen to a slave who bade him to re- 
member some joy-dispelling facts. 

After the lapse of many centuries the 
Naturalists, oddly enough, revived this 
pagan ceremony. By them each year a 
slave is chosen who, at the next season of 


+Address at the meeting of the Society of 
American Naturalists at Ann Arbor, December 
28, 1905, by Henry H. Donaldson, chairman of 
the Central Branch. 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


their triumph, is permitted to make a few 
remarks intended to hold down to earth 
those who are leading the procession. 

It is a good custom, but wearing on the 
slave. One experience generally does for 
him. Yet, his privilege implies an obliga- 
tion and in pursuance of this obligation, 
which our usage thus imposes, I have 
chosen for my theme ‘Some Aspects of the 
Endowment of Research.’ 

The questions which this topic conjures 
into life have lately pressed themselves 
on my attention, and it appears that the 
only way to put them decently at rest is 
to sentence them to death—in an address 
—and then allow them to be buried—in 
the records of our learned society. 

The events which have brought the en- 
dowment of research into special notice 
during the last decade are known to all. 
As examples of the thing I have in mind, 
let me cite the Carnegie Institution, the 
Rockefeller Institute and the Nobel prizes. 

Such notable foundations have claimed 
our attention because they were recent, 
involved great sums of money and closely 
touched our interests as working nat- 
uralists. : : 

But we should view them in their his- 
torical relation in order to appreciate their 
broader significance, and when this is done 
it will be plain, I think, that their novelty 
depends most largely on the fact that in a 
measure they can be devoted to the aid of 
biological investigation. 

Eyen in our own young country such 
foundations are by no means new. Our 
academies and learned societies have long 
had funds for the encouragement of in- 
vestigation. To be sure, these have been 
mainly applied to the domain of the phys- 
ical sciences—a fact which needs no ex- 
planation when we recall that the physical 
sciences were the first to be pushed for- 
ward by the wave of modern interest. 

Nevertheless, such foundations as the 


SCIENCE. 


283 


Smithsonian Institution and the Elizabeth 
Thompson Fund have for many years con- 
tributed to biological progress. Inade- 
quate as these provisions are to meet what 
we may courteously call the reasonable 
wants of workers in this field, they serve 
to show that, here and there, an individual 
has recognized the need of larger re- 
sources for scientific work, and has sought 
to supply them. When we look across the 
water, we find provisions of this sort to 
be an old story to the older world. 

Throughout Great Britain and the conti- 
nent, academies and societies for genera- 
tions have had at their disposal no incon- 
siderable sums of money—indeed, in 
many instances, far greater sums than we 
are wont to Imagine. 

The expenditure of these moneys has 
been mainly for work outside the natural 
sciences, but even within this latter group 
biological work has had the lesser share. 
This is said in no spirit of complaint, but 
merely to suggest why this condition of 
affairs in the scientific world at large is so 
rarely forced on our attention. 

But there are still other ways in which 
the expenses of scientific work have been 
defrayed. States and nations, as well as 
individuals, have been contributors. The 
former have expended really great sums on 
the various branches of science in the con- 
duct of surveys, commissions, bureaus, ob- 
servatories and expeditions. The move- 
ment has been coextensive with the civilized 
world, and the outlay much greater than 
that for the corresponding scientific work 
in institutions of higher learning. On this 
topic it is not necessary to enlarge, but I 
will only add that the work accomplished 
has been enormous and without state aid 
would have been well-nigh impossible. 

It is plain, however, that we should dis- 
tinguish in a general way between govern- 
mental science work supported from the 
public funds and the other kinds, repre- 


284 


sented by university science and that which 
has developed under the special endow- 
ments for research, for the responsibilities 
of the investigation are often very different 
in the two cases. But these distinctions 
need not be elaborated, and are here noted 
merely for the sake of clearness later on. 

My point is made, if by these remarks 
your attention is directed to the fact that 
the endowments, which to-day are to us 
best known, stand merely as the latest in a 
long list of gifts left with the hope of aid- 
ing the advance in knowledge, and if these 
bequests of the last few years are in any 
way peculiar, they are chiefly so by the 
reason of the generosity of the donors and 
the arrangement of the donations to in- 
elude biology. 

Yet, if we take the broadest view of the 
situation, as represented by the scientific 
returns, it appears that it is within the 
universities that the more advanced and 
fundamental scientific work has been ac- 
complished. 

It is possible that this last remark will 
not command unqualified assent; and yet 
when the smoke of argument has cleared 
away it will, I think, remain essentially 
unmodified. But in reaching your con- 
clusions, I beg you to remember that in 
an address like this it is necessary to speak 
broadly. and to trust that one will be gen- 
erously understood. 

To present rightly the reasons for uni- 
versity productiveness, it will be needful 
first to say a word concerning the normal 
progress of scientific interest and also to 
make a little more precise the idea of re- 
search. 

As this company is well aware, interest 
in any scientific field passes through a 
regular series of progressive phases. At- 
tention and effort are first concentrated on 
the collection and classification of the 
material. This constitutes what may be 
termed the systematic phase. But only 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 582. 


after this portion of the task has been in 
some measure accomplished, can compari- 
son and experimentation be undertaken as 
a basis for inductions which shall yield 
new knowledge and enlarge our philosophic 
view. 

It is the sort of work that characterizes 
this second phase of our advancing interest 
which is best designated by the term re- 
search, and in this paper we use the word 
in such a sense. 

It is contended then that the universities 
furnish the conditions in which research 
grows best—and if true, this fact is worthy 
of examination. 

Broadly speaking, the effect of these fa- 
vorable conditions is best seen in the mental 
attitude of the investigator towards his 
work. The men of the universities have 
been freer than any other group to follow 
the leadings of their own investigations, 
and, to solve the next problem which log- 
ically confronted them, or, at least, to 
spend their time, mayhap their lives, and 
not infrequently their patrimony, in seek- 
ing a solution. 

It is true, however, that such scientific 
freedom does not by any means always 
exist where work in science is in progress. 
Sometimes, in the case of the endowments 
intended for research, and much more 
often in the case of scientific work de- 
pendent upon the public funds, the ex- 
penditures have been applied for assigned 
work where the plan or program ran even 
into petty details; statements of progress 
or reports of activity being expected or 
demanded. 

Unfortunately research can not be thus 
assigned, because there is nothing to assign. 
The investigator, like an adventurous ex- 
plorer, thinks ‘the country to the west looks 
interesting’ and he makes a start. It may 
be years before we hear from him again, 
and no man can justly predict success or 
failure. We do not ask of such a man 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


that he should first draw a map of the 
unknown region, or engage to see that those 
who sent him are kept regularly informed. 
His energies and time belong to other work. 

In many fields the hard, laborious initial 
work has been so largely done that the see- 
ond phase of interest is the one before us 
and we must cast about for the best and 
surest way to meet the problems which are 
thus presented. If these have had their 
best solution thus far in the universities, 
let us look that way for our enlightenment. 

It is safe to assume that this company 
knows the drawbacks—some of them at 
least—which inhere in university life, but 
with your consent that topic may be put 
aside. On the other hand, the advantages 
should be briefly stated. They are these— 
immediate association with productive col- 
leagues; the vitalizing contact of the stream 
of youth; no responsibility save to the high 
court of one’s fellow workers; no assign- 
ments or programs imposed from without, 
but full liberty to follow where the research 
leads—time not being ‘of the essence of the 
contract.’ 

These are conditions which make for 
intellectual growth and accomplishment; 
these are the conditions which in the uni- 
versity surround the research worker, and 
these are the conditions which the effective 
endowment of research should struggle to 
preserve. 

If such views are sound, then isolation— 
the kind that withdraws a worker from his 
colleagues and the stream of youth—is to 
be looked on with suspicion. There may be 
moments when the investigator, finding his 
days broken into little bits and his energies 
dissipated by irrelevant and trivial aftairs, 
is fascinated by an opportunity which hints 
at isolation and promises relief, forgetting 
that, if to escape the ills he also sacrifices 
the advantages of his university surround- 
ings, he has put himself in a position where 


SCIENCE. 


285 


few men hold their own. 
seribes it thus: 


Lady Dilke de- 


The man who for any cause utterly forsakes 
the paths of his fellow-men is by them given up, 
as lost, and becomes as one of no account—being 
reckoned a dreamer of idle dreams. 

Therefore let him beware who hears that call— 
be it ever so alluring—which bids a man separate 
himself from his company, lest in the following 
after its strange music he should become a cast- 
away. 


But among the other features of the 
academic world which endowment should 
preserve, and perhaps the most important, 
is freedom from the limitations which nat- 
urally follow from assignment. The mat- 
ter here is passing delicate. 

It so happens that even investigators 
have failings—more or less human—and 
these must be considered. If it pleases us 
to Imagine that our prototypes in the by- 
gone days were the voyagers and adven- 
turers of the Renaissance, let us take a 
sample of their point of view. Columbus, 
just anchored off the western isles, writes 
to his royal patron on the morning of that 
first Sunday that ‘he and those with him 
have come thither to bring the light to 
them that sit m darkness and slake the 
thirst for gold which all men feel.’ To-day 
we do not say it so naively, but yet we 
know how Columbus felt. It is this un- 
fortunate combination of two powerful 
desires in the investigator’s heart which 
causes trouble. How ean such complex 
beings be made to bend all their energies 
to ‘bringing light,’ and at the same time 
be induced to properly neglect their ‘thirst.’ 
This is the problem which confronts those 
who are responsible for the wise manage- 
ment of research funds. There have been 
times when it was felt that assignments and 
limitations calling, as it were, for so much 
light per hour would accomplish the result. 
But any such device is contrary to the very 
spirit of research. What then, you ask? 


286 


Simply that when in the course of events 
an investigator is given great opportunities, 
it should be assumed that he is a heaven- 
born Lucifer, and will act accordingly. 
Should he prove unequal to the trust re- 
posed, and his ways be ways of darkness— 
not of light—another must be entered in 
his place, but a truce to half-way measures. 
Research with a string to it suffers too 
many drawbacks. 

Yet, even with freedom and right intel- 
lectual surroundings, we as investigators 
can hardly lay too much emphasis on the 
frame of mind in which we approach the 
problems that confront us. By our com- 
mon methods, and even by our metaphors, 
we too often seem to advance upon the 
undiscovered country as though the chief 
desire were to reclaim it anyhow and any 
way, so that it were done rapidly and before 
others could arrive. This is a notion bor- 
rowed from the creed of economics, but it 
does not fit research. The endowment of 
research can foster more than this. Just 
as the frontier is not only the locality of 
active advance, but also the place where 
Strong frontiersmen grow, so the chief gain 
coming from those stationed on the boun- 
-daries of science is not the mere reclama- 
‘tion of the wilderness, but far more, the 
improvement of the scientific breed, for as 
‘we advance the problems become rapidly 
more difficult, and it is only the abler men 
who can push on the work. For us then 
it becomes a privilege, if not a duty, to so 
work together that in this country the en- 
dowment of research shall be adjusted to 
preserve the intellectual stimulus and the 
scientific freedom which the universities 
afford, while it removes some of the draw- 
backs ‘thereunto appertaining,’ and so ad- 
ministered that in stimulating scientific 
activity, it shall do this not only and not 
mainly for the sake of immediate returns, 
but also, and even more, for the sake of the 
effect which the experience must have on 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 582. 


those who do the work—aiming to develop 
the better man to meet the greater problem. 
Henry H. Donanpson. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 
VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
SECTION E—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

THE section was called to order by Pro- 
fessor Hugene A. Smith, retiring vice-presi- 
dent, who introduced and resigned the 
chair to his successor, Professor William 
North Rice. On motion Professor L. C. 
Glenn, of Vanderbilt University, was 
elected secretary pro tem. in the absence 
of the regular secretary of the section, 
EK. O. Hovey. President C. R. Van Hise 
was elected a member of the council, Pro- 
fessor EH. H. Barbour a member of the 
general committee and Professor L. OC. 
Glenn press secretary. Fifty-nine mem- 
bers of the association were recommended 
for promotion to fellowship, forty of them 
on the basis of their membership in socie- 
ties of high technical standing. 

The address of the retiring Vice-president, 
Professor Eugene A. Smith, was on the 
subject ‘On some Post-Hocene and Other 
Formations of the Gulf Region of the 
United States,” and will be printed in full 
in ScreNcE. Eleven other papers were 
upon the program, six of which were read 
in full by their authors. The other five 
were read in abstract or in full by the 
seeretary pro tem. in the absence of their 
authors. Abstracts of all the papers read 
follow : 


On the Use of the Words Synclinorium 
and Anticlinorium: Wituam Norte 
Rice. 

A technical term once introduced should 
be retained in the original sense. If in 
the progress of thought the concept which 
a word expresses ceases to be useful, the 
word may become obsolete, but should not 
be used to express a totally different idea. 


*New Orleans meeting. 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


Secondly, a technical term should be ety- 
mologically appropriate. 

The words synclinorium and anticl- 
norium were introduced by James D. 
Dana.2 According to the form of the con- 
traction theory of mountain-making devel- 
oped by Dana, most monogenetic mountain 
ranges were believed to have been made by 
the crushing of the strata in a geosyncline. 
Such a range he proposed to call a syn- 
clinoriwm. The final part of the word is 
from épos, mountain, and the word is alto- 
gether appropriate etymologically. Dana, 
however, recognized that a somewhat per- 
manent line of elevation might be formed 
as a geanticline, a considerable area of the 
crust being elevated into a gentle arch with- 
out any considerable disturbance of the 
strata. Such a range he proposed to call 
an anticlinorium. As an example of an 
anticlinorium he cited the ‘Cincinnati Up- 
lift’ formed in mid-Paleozoic time, nearly 
contemporaneously with the Taconic syn- 
elinorium. 

The words synclinorium and _ anticli- 
norium are accordingly not stratigraphic, 
but orographie terms. They denote two 
types of mountain elevations. 

I believe the anticlinorium type is more 
important than Dana himself supposed. 
The Appalachian range, for instance, was 
formed as a synclinorium in post-Carbon- 
iferous time, subsequently peneplained, 
and reelevated as an anticlinorium in Ter- 
tiary time. This remark is made in pass- 
ing, as it is not my purpose at present to 
discuss the theory of mountain-making. 

It is much to be regretted that several 


recent writers have used the words in en- — 


tirely different senses. Van Hise unhap- 
pily set the example in his masterly—his 
really epoch-making—studies of rock de- 
formation. He uses the words in a purely 
2 American Journal of Science, Series 3, Vol. 5, 
pp. 431, 432. 
§ Journal of Geology, Vol. 4, p. 319. 


SCIENCE. 


287 


stratigraphic sense, making an anticlino- 
rium simply a compound anticline, and a 
synelinorium a compound syneline. He 
distinguishes syneclinorium and anticlino- 
rium from geosyncline and geanticline, 
using the latter pair of words substantially 
in the sense in which Dana used them. 
The etymology of the words synclinorium 
and anticlinorium is as inappropriate in 
the new sense as it was appropriate in the 
original sense. 

Sir Archibald Geikie* and Scott’ follow 
in the footsteps of Van Hise, distinguishing 
synelinorium and anticlinorium from geo- 
syneline and geanticline, but using the 
former pair of words in the sense simply 
of compound folds. Geikie explicitly at- 
tributes to Dana the usage which he fol- 
lows, but has apparently taken his defini- 
tions from Van Hise without referring to 
Dana’s paper. 

Chamberlin and Salisbury® have intro- 
duced a further confusion by treating syn- 
clinorium and anticlinorium as synonyms 
respectively of geosyncline and anticline. 

It is, perhaps, too late to restore the 
words to their original sense, after they 
have been used in other senses by writers 
of so high authority. Yet such restoration 
seems very desirable. 


The Overlap of the St. Stephens Limestone 
on the Lower Tertiary Formations m 
Crenshaw and Pike Counties, Ala.: 
Kucene A. SMivTH. 

The paper described, with the aid of a 
map, a case of overlap of the Vicksburg 
limestone on the Nanafalia division of the 
lower Tertiary, where the former occurs 
in detached patches in the territory of the 
latter. The whole series of the intervening 
Tertiary formations outcrops between these 

4°Text-book of Geology,’ latest edition, pp. 678, 
679. 


°* Introduction to Geology,’ pp. 236-238. 
°“ Geology,’ Vol. 1, pp. 480, 481. 


288 


isolated patches and the regular outerops 
of the Vicksburg. 


On the Jackson Anticlinal im Clarke 

County, Ala.: Eugene A. SMITH. 

A well-defined anticlinal fold in Clarke 
County, Ala., shows some rather peculiar 
features of erosion and other phenomena 
which were described with the aid of an 
illustrative map. 


Erosion at Ducktown, Tennessee: Li. C. 

GLENN. 

Ducktown is situated on an old pene- 
plain now uplifted into a plateau and thor- 
oughly dissected so that the actual surface 
consists of slopes many of which are steep. 
It is a region of deep surficial rock decay, 
of heavy annual rainfall and of thick 
forest-covering under natural conditions. 

The roasting and smelting of copper ores 
in the recent past has entirely destroyed 
the vegetation and left the surface per- 
fectly bare. Surface erosion is rapidly 
removing the soil covermg. The slopes are 
already deeply scarred with gullies only a 
few years old which are still rapidly grow- 
ing. 

The waste from the steep slopes has 
buried the former surface along the stream- 
lets between them and is rapidly building 
up waste planes, so that neither slope nor 
narrow flood-plain is of any value for agri- 
culture or grazing. Reforestation will be 
a very slow and difficult process. 

Floods on these small streams rise higher 
and more rapidly than formerly and sub- 
side more quickly. During dry seasons 
some springs that were formerly perennial 
go dry and others almost cease flowing. 

The case has peculiar importance as an 
illustration of not only the possibilities but 
the certain results of deforestation by man 
in other parts of the southern Appalach- 
ians, and of the need of adoption by the 
general government of a policy of forest 
preservation in these mountains. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 582. 


The Hydrology and Geology of the Gulf 
Embayment Area of West Tennessee, 
West Kentucky and Southern Illinois: 
L. C. GLENN. 

Unconsolidated deposits of Cretaceous or 
later age consist from below upward of 
Coffee, Rotten Limestone, Ripley, Porter’s 
Creek, La Grange, Lafayette, Loess, Loam 
and Alluvium formations, the last four be- 
ing surficial, but giving character in much 
of the area to waters from springs and 
shallow wells. Structurally the rocks dip 
gently from the edge toward the center of 
the embayment area. 

The Coffee, Ripley and La Grange are 
water bearing and form one or more avail- 
able sources of potable deep water over 
practically the entire region. The La 
Grange covers the greatest area and is most 
important. Deep waters are gotten at 
depths varying according to local condi- 
tions from 150 to 700 or 800 feet, the ma- 
jority ranging from 200 to 400 feet. The 
water flows out at the surface in many 
cases and rises nearly to the surface in 
many others. The quality of the deep 
water is generally good. If any mineral 
matter is present it is apt to be a small 
amount of iron carbonate. Calcium and 
magnesium carbonate and sulphate may be 
present in some cases, usually in small 
quantities. 

Inereasing attention is given by the in- 
habitants of the region to these deep 
waters, and wells are sunk not only for 
corporate and industrial supply but for 
many private families. The beneficial 
effect of the deep water on the health of 
the users is marked. 

The Skull of Syndyoceras: ERwin H. Bar- 
BOUR. 

A new fossil mammal, allied to Proto- 
ceras of the Oligocene and to the modern 
antelope, was discovered by the Morrill 
Geological Expedition of the University of 
Nebraska during the past season in the 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


Loup Fork Tertiary of Sioux County, Neb. 
The skull of this genus, which has been 
~named Syndyoceras, is characterized by 
two prominent frontal horns which curve 
inward and by two maxillary horns which 
_rise from a common trunk and curve out- 
ward. The anterior horns divide the an- 
terior nares into two parts, the posterior 
of which resembles a blow hole. The lower 
canines have become incisiform by migra- 
tion, and likewise the first premolar has 
become distinctly caniniform. 

The following abstracts were read by 
the secretary pro tem. in the absence of 
the authors of the papers: 


The Keweenawan at Lake of the Woods in 

Minnesota: N. H. WINCHELL. 

A visit in August, 1904, to the south 
shore of the Lake of the Woods, disclosed 
large areas of gabbro, apparently identical 
with that of the Keweenawan seen at 
Duluth and at other points in northern 
Minnesota. 

An examination of specimens collected 
by J. E. Todd for the Minnesota Geological 
Survey, now in the museum of the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota, warrants the assumption 
not only that this rock, under some shades 
of variation, occurs widely on the south 
shore of this lake, but also that it is asso- 
ciated with heavy basaltic rocks quite 
similar to the black basalts of the Lower 
Keweenawan, as well as with red granite. 

This discovery, while correcting the prev- 
alent idea of the ‘Laurentian’ age of the 
rocks of the south shore of Lake of the 
Woods, indicates that the strike of the 
Keweenawan from Duluth passes north- 
westwardly, and probably includes the out- 
crop of copper-bearing amygdaloid lately 
announced by the Canadian Geological 
Survey, occurring in the prairie at the 
north end of Lake Manitoba, where the 
strike of the formation is northwest and 
southeast. 


SCIENCE. 


289 


Some Sink-hole Lakes of North Central 

Florida: BE. H. SELLArRpDs. 

The porous and very soluble limestone 
underlying the Florida peninsula has occa- 
sioned some unusual topographic features. 
Owing to the surface mantle of sand, the 
porous limestone and the general flatness 
of the country, a very small part only of 
the rainfall passes off as surface water, 
the greater part going at once into the 
ground. The dissolving effect of surface 
water is shown in the enlargement of 
stream basins through limestone. The 
solvent effect of underground water is indi- 
cated by numerous sink-holes throughout 
parts of the peninsula. By far the greater 


number of these sinks are small. Some, 
however, reach considerable size. All are 
more or less perfectly circular. In time 


the banks become less steep through decay 
of rocks, and the sink thereby enlarged. 
In limestone regions with little or no clay 
above, sinks often remain open at the bot- 
tom, thus forming natural underground 
entrances for such rivulets or streams as 
drain to them. In regions holding some 
clay the sinks are likely to become perma- 
nently clogged and fill with water, afford- 
ing a starting point around the sides for the 
hardwood species of plants. Occasional 
sink-holes occur of such size as to be entitled 
to mention as small lakes. Illustration of 
this kind of lake is taken from a series of 
sinks on the proposed university grounds 
at Gainsville. The largest of these spreads 
over something more than an acre. The 
banks are thickly clothed with the hard- 
wood, or ‘hammock’ types of vegetation, 
and while steep on one side are sloping on 
the other. The overflow in the rainy sea- 
son is carried away by a small stream head- 
ing near the sk. The sink presents many 
of the features of a small lake, yet is not 
so old or so far developed that its sink-hole 
origin is not clearly evident. Small, cir- 
cular, possibly solution, lake basins are ex- 


290 


ceedingly numerous in Florida. The ‘sink- 
hole’ origin is assumed, however, to apply 
to a very few only of these. 


Old Age in Brachiopods: H. W. SHImMEr. 

Brachiopod shells show old age along 
lines parallel to that exhibited by higher 
animals; when maturity is passed the tis- 
sues cease growing so rapidly and finally 
begin to shrink. As the mantle, the prin- 
cipal shell-secreting organ, shares in these 
states, it must express them in its growth. 
After a species has attained its fully ma- 
ture size, which size varies in different 
individuals, the decreasing rate of growth 
is shown in the more or less sudden change 
in the angle of curvature from the beak to 
the front of the shell. This is followed 
in very old individuals by the development 
of a groove at the contact of the two valves, 
indicating that actual shrinkage of the 
mantle has occurred. Some of the other 
accompaniments of old age are the lamel- 
lose condition of the concentric growth 
lines, development of spines and nodes, and 
the thickening of the valves by internal 
addition, especially around the muscular 
impressions. Hxternally, old age char- 
acters appear first at the cardinal angles 
and advance progressively to the front of 
the shell. 


Dipnoan Affinities of Arthrodires: C. R. 

EASTMAN. 

By means of a new interpretation of the 
jaw parts of Arthrodires, which is here 
suggested, homologies are established be- 
tween them and the corresponding ele- 
ments of dipnoans. The arrangement of 
mylostomid dental plates is shown to be 
closely paralleled in early stages of 
Neoceratodus, and the functional lower 
jaw is similarly articulated with the head- 
shield. Intimate structural resemblances, 
not only as regards cranial characters, but 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 582. 


throughout the entire organization, are 
brought out through comparison of Arthro- 
dires with modern lung-fishes, and these 
are scarcely to be explained except on the 
theory of a common origin. All available 
evidence points to the correctness of New- 
berry’s original interpretation of Arthro- 
dires as armored dipnoans, a view which 
is not now commonly entertained. Their 
origin is traced through primitive ances- 
tral ceratodonts to the elasmobranch stem, 
independently of crossopterygians. 


The Great Catalogue of the Heber R. 
Bishop Collection of Jade: G. F. Kunz. 
The magnificent collection of jade which 

was made and presented by Mr. Heber R. 

Bishop during his lifetime to the Metro- 

politan Museum of Art, in New York, has 

been installed in a room which Mr. Bishop 
himself designed and had decorated by the 
noted firm of Allard Fréres, of Paris, to 
make it the finest example on this con- 
tinent of the style of Louis XV. The col- 
lection is here placed in some fifteen elegant 
eases, of gilt, bronze and plate glass, all in 

Louis XV. style, which with the decora- 

tions of the room illustrate a permanence 

and richness of material never excelled 
even in the time of the artistic French 
monarch himself. 

The catalogue which is the subject of 
this note is issued in two magnificent vol- 
umes, and is limited to an edition of one 
hundred copies, none of which goes to a 
private individual and none of which will 
be sold. These volumes (stately folios) 
are printed on the finest quality of linen 
paper, and weigh, respectively, 69 and 55 
pounds, or 124 pounds together. They 
contain 570 pages (Vol. I., 277 pp., Vol. 
II., 293 pp.), measuring nineteen by 
twenty-five inches. There are 150 full- 
page illustrations, in the highest style of 
execution—water-color, etching and lithog- 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


raphy—and nearly three hundred pen-and- 
ink sketches in the text. 

No expense or care was spared in the 
execution of the work; some thirty scien- 
tifie men and art specialists, both in Hurope 
and in America, were engaged to contribute 
their views upon various aspects of the 
whole subject; and the illustrations were 
prepared in the finest manner possible, 
Chinese and Japanese artists being em- 
ployed to execute many of them, and color 
experts being freely consulted, under the 
supervision of Mr. Bishop himself. The 
catalogue has, moreover, a special value 
from the fact that all the scientific investi- 
gations described there were made upon 
material taken from the specimens in the 
collection itself. 

This whole work, from its inception by 
Mr. Bishop in 1886 to the final distribution 
of the volumes, has required about twenty 
years, and was entirely planned and 
thought out by him. It is a cause of much 
satisfaction that the enterprise has been so 
fully and successfully completed along the 
lines which he laid down; but it is also a 
source of profound regret that he could 
not himself have lived to witness its final 
accomplishment. The whole cost has been 
met by the lberality of Mr. Bishop’s pro- 
vision, carried out by the care and thought- 
fulness of his executors. 


Attendance at the meetings of the section 
was discouragingly small, there being but 
seven geologists present during the whole 
time of the association meeting, and two of 
these did not arrive until after the ad- 
journment of the section. 

The foregoing account of the meeting 
has been prepared from the full notes kept 
by the secretary pro tem. 

rte Epmunp Otis Hovey, 
Secretary. 
AMERICAN MUSEUM oF NATURAL History. 


SCIENCE. 


291 


MORPHOLOGY AND PHYLOGENY. 

We are at the present time passing 
through a season of morphological thaw. 
The doctrine of definite and fixed morpho- 
logical types has been somewhat slower 
than that of the fixity of species, in melting 
under the fierce light, which beats on all 
scientific generalizations; but its disappear- 
ance has not been less final or less complete. 
This breaking up of the ice of morpholog- 
ical formalism, which has so long needlessly 
restrained the course of morphological and 
phylogenetic research, is not altogether 
unattended with the dangers which accom- 
pany the opening of a new spring. On the 
part of some there is fear or even hope, 
that not only the ice, but the banks of the 
river as well, will be swept away by the 
raging flood. There is, however, no more 
need to dread the final result for phylog- 
eny, than there was to fear the disappear- 
ance of the doctrine of fixity of species, 
half a century ago, as subversive to taxon- 
omy. On the contrary, we may reasonably 
expect that, as in the ease of the sister 
science, morphology and phylogeny will in 
the long run vastly benefit by getting rid 
of the constraint of mere formalism. 

It is now more than a generation since 
any considerable number of biologists has 
believed that species were created once and 
for all, and unchangeable until they became 
extinet. At the present time this doctrine 
enjoys scarcely even a pagan persistence in 
some of our more belated schools of learn- 
ing. Whatever may be our individual 
views in regard to the doctrine of descent 
or evolution, we are in general agreed that 
species are derived by modification and 
change from previous species and not by a 
special creative fiat. This conclusion, as 
Darwin pointed out many years ago, in 
his ‘Origin of Species,’ is at bottom a mor- 
1 Presidential address delivered before the So- 


ciety for Plant Morphology, Ann Arbor, December 
29, 1905. 


292 


phological one. Since the appearance of 
the ‘Origin of Species,’ we have had de- 
veloped, particularly in the realm of plants, 
the conceptions of the special science of 
ecology or epharmony. The rapid growth 
of this science has led to the clear realiza- 
tion of how remarkably the external form 
of plants may be assimilated by similar 
modes of life. Later still is the appear- 
ance in a pronounced form of the doctrine 
of mutational or saltatory evolution of 
species. The establishment of these two 
new disciplines, both having firm scientific 
foundations, has tended to weaken the hold 
of morphology on the scientific mind. For 
if the form of plants may be instantly and 
profoundly modified by the still occult 
process of mutation, or more slowly but not 
less surely by the more obvious influence 
of external conditions, then it is not un- 
natural that less importance should be at- 
tached to form and structure, which are 
the subject matter of morphology. And 
yet the doctrine of descent, the great out- 
standing generalization of the biological 
sciences, which few of us probably expect 
to see overthrown, is bound up with the in- 
tegrity of the science of morphology. The 
doctrine of descent or phylogeny depends 
for its validity on the correctness of the 
inference that marked similarities of struec- 
ture indicate a more or less close degree of 
relationship. In the existing situation, the 
new studies of ecology and mutation, still 
in the first gloss of their novelty, tend to 
outshine the older yet not less firmly 
founded science of morphology, which 
through lapse of time has suffered as it 
were a certain degree of surface tarnish. 
Newer aspects of morphology are, however, 
coming to light at the present time, which 
promise to restore to the subject all its 
former brillianey. It is my intention this 
morning to give some brief account of 
these new developments. 

A prevailing principle in the past in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 582. 


morphology has been to trace back organs 
or tissue-systems to a similar mode of 
origin from the growing point or young 
organ and hence to infer their morpholog- 
ical equivalence. Thus, for example, the 
morphological essence of a sporangium has 
been thought to exist in the possibility of 
deriving its sporogenous tissue from a 
clearly defined and early developed pri- 
mordium known as the archesporium. 
Similarly the morphological value of the 
central cylinder or fibrovaseular system of 
the higher plants is thought by many mor- 
phologists to depend on its origin at the 
egrowing-point of the organ, root, stem or 
leaf, from that so-called primary meristem, 
known as the plerome. In the ease of the 
sporangium, the illuminating researches of 
Professor Bower have made it clear that 
not only may spore-produeing cells arise 
outside the so-called archesporium, as in 
Equisetum, but also sterile or asporogen- 
ous tissues may originate from mother cells 
apparently destined to form spores, as in 
Tmesipteris and Isoetes. In the case of the 
sporangium, it is accordingly clear that its 
fundamental characteristic is that it pro- 
duces spores and not that its sporogenous 
tissue origmates from an archesporium. 
There ean be no doubt whatever that in 
the vascular plants a spore is to be re- 
garded as morphologically a spore, whether 
its mother cell comes from the so-called 
archesporial complex or not. In the case 
of the central cylinder of stele, the clash 
of many minds has not yet resulted in a 
similar general clarity of reasoning. If 
we, for example, choose the case of the cen- 
tral eylinder of the root in the Angio- 
sperms, which the recent very. exact re- 
searches of Schoute show to be derived 
definitely and entirely from the plerome 
strand of the growing-point, we have a 
result which is in so far satisfactory from 
the standpoint of the older morphology. 
If we, however, proceed to the consideration 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


of the mode of origin of the secondary 
roots from such a root, we find that they 
are formed in all their parts, entirely 
within the central cylinder or plerome 
strand of the mother root. We have thus 
the cortex and piliferous layers of the 
daughter root, which are properly the 
derivatives of the apical meristems known 
as the periblem and the dermatogen, and 
not of the plerome, originating in this case 
from the plerome or its equivalent. <A 
logical fallacy thus arises, if we regard the 
morphological value of the tissue-systems 
of the root as determined from the meri- 
stems from which they take their origin. 
Further, if we take the case of the stem 
of the Pteridophyta, where alone among 
stem organs, the so-called apical meristems 
can in general be somewhat clearly distin- 
guished, we reach equally illogical con- 
clusions. let us, for example, follow cer- 
tain recent writers in regarding the whole 
complicated fibrovascular system of the 
rootstock of the common bracken fern, 
Pteris aquilina, together with its interposed 
ground tissue, as constituting a single 
hypothetical cireular stele or central cyl- 
inder, because all these tissues are derived 
from the plerome strand of the growing 
end of the rhizome. If in all cases the 
plerome were as generously large as it is 
in Pteris aquwilina and sufficiently broad 
to include the fibrovascular strands, to- 
gether with their interposed fundamental 
tissue, we might successfully sustain the 
thesis that there is but one central cylinder 
and the plerome is its prophet. Unfortu- 
nately, however, in some cases the plerome 
proves to be a misfit and is smaller than 
the central cylinder, which it should en- 
tirely include. As a result in some of the 
true ferns, essential tissues of the fibro- 
vascular bundles, such as the pericycle, the 
phloem and even part of the tracheary 
tissues are left in outer morphological 
darkness, because they do not originate 


SCIENCE. 


293 


from the plerome, but from the periblem. 
In a recently published work, Professor 
Campbell even states that in the mature 
stem of Hquisetum only the pith is 
formed from the plerome, all of the fibro- 
vascular tissues being left outside. He 
eoneludes that in Hqwisetwm the fibro- 
vascular bundles do not form a part of the 
central cylinder. This is surely Hamlet 
with Hamlet left out, and may perhaps 
stand as the reductio ad absurdum of 
erowing-point morphology. If our not 
very remote posterity compare our specula- 
tions in regard to the morphological value 
of the growing point in plants, with those 
well-known discussions of medieval doctors 
as to the number of angels who might suc- 
cessfully stand on the point of a needle, 
our neglect of logic will probably not ap- 
pear less absurd than their entire disregard 
of facts. 

The two examples just discussed suffi- 
ciently illustrate the present condition of 
transition in morphology. Although the 
ancient doctrine of preformation has long 
been consigned to the limbo of oblivion, it 
has nevertheless a disguised survival in the 
hypothesis that the organs of tissue-sys- 
tems of the higher plants can definitely be 
traced back to an origin from certain 
definite primordia. This hypothesis ap- 
pears destined to become as obsolete in 
morphology as that of predestination is 
in theology. We have in fact arrived at 
that stage in morphological enlightenment 
where, with the complete abandonment of 
all obscurantism, we call a spade a spade, 
meaning by a spade that which performs 
or has performed the functions of a spade. 
Nothing appears clearer in the present 
stage of our knowledge than that with Pro- 
fessor Goebel we must regard the organ as 
the tool or apparatus of a function and the 
organism as a complex of apparatus com- 
bining a number of functions. Yet even 
if it be true that the organ is but the tool 


294 


or apparatus of the function, it by no 
means follows, as is too often assumed, that 
morphology disappears as such and _ be- 
comes merged with physiology. The 
methods of nature are economical in the 
extreme, and when she needs a ploughshare, 
she fashions it from a no longer useful 
sword, or if a pruning hook be required, 
she straightway makes it from a spear, 
without in either case too carefully obliter- 
ating the signs of former use. By reason 
of this fact, with changing conditions, the 
apparatus of obsolete functions is not cast 
aside and replaced by other apparatus con- 
structed anew to suit the new functional 
demand, but is merely modified more or 
less profoundly for the new duty. This 
makeshift character of organs is the solid 
basis of morphology. Morphology thus 
takes cognizance of the conservative tend- 
encies which inhere in form and structure, 
and is clearly separated from physiology 
which deals with the actual functions alone 
and their apparatus. 

Since the conservatism which inheres in 
the form and structure of plants is the 
peculiar province of plant morphology, it 
can not afford to neglect the earlier and ex- 
tinct vegetation which once peopled the 
earth. Almost until the present moment 
botanical morphology has labored, how- 
ever, under a peculiar disadvantage im this 
respect. In the case of fossil vertebrated 
animals, which may be appropriately com- 
pared with vascular plants, the processes 
of deeay, which accompany fossilization, 
only serve to make the skeletal tissues, mor- 
phologically the most important, stand out 
the more clearly, so that they thrust them- 
selves, as it were, on the gaze of the be- 
holder and thus at once suggest comparison 
with the similar structures of animals still 
living. You are all aware of the extremely 
important advances made in the earliest 
third of the last century by the great 
French anatomist Cuvier in the study, 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 582. 


particularly of the vertebrate skeleton. 
Since the publication of his “Ossemens F'os- 
siles’ and his ‘Regne Animal,’ there has 
aways been on the part of the zoologists a 
sufficient attention to the morphological 
and phylogenetic significance of the hard 
parts of animals, which are fortunately not 
only morphologically constant, but also ex- 
traordinarily resistent to decay. In the 
ease of plant fossils the conditions have 
unhappily not been so favorable. Al- 
though it has been realized, especially in 
recent years, that the adaptations to en- 
vironment, which so quickly affect the out- 
ward form of plants, act with extreme 
slowness on their fibrovascular skeleton, 
comparatively little advantage to mor- 
phology has resulted. Vegetable fossils, 
during the process of fossilization, are 
more subject to the ravages of decay than 
are those of animals, and the decay is gen- 
erally not of such a character as to set their 
skeletal and morphologically important 
parts in strong relief. Indeed it is very 
frequently these parts which suffer first, 
owing to the fact that they do not often 
contain the antiseptic substances which are 
generally present in the softer tissues. 
Thus, for example, if it were not for the 
remains of the leaves of dicotyledonous 
plants in the Cretaceous, we should have 
little evidence for the occurrence of the 
Angiosperms at so early a geological epoch. 
The only relics of dicotyledonous woods 
which have come down to us are those 
somewhat rare ones of the upper Cre- 
taceous which have been carbonized by 
fire. Thus in the Raritan beds there are 
quantities of dicotyledonous charcoals, but 
no remains of wood in the lignitic or other 
ordinary conditions of fossilization. Hyen 
when plant remains do show the very 
significant hard tissues preserved, the 
microscope is generally necessary for their 
diagnosis. Plant fossils then, if we ex- 
eept fossil leaves, do not ordinarily pre- 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


sent the significant structures in such a 
form that he who collects may read. For 
this reason large quantities of valuable ma- 
terial have been in the past thrown aside 
by the paleontological collector as undiag- 
nosable. The skill of the lapidary- too has 
often to be brought into play, before it 
becomes possible to satisfactorily identify 
a vegetable fossil or detect its affinities. 
This state of affairs has brought it about, 
that no such important results flowed from 
the labors of the great French paleobot- 
anist, Brongniart, as from those of his 
more fortunate zoological contemporary 
Cuvier. Indeed such anatomical observa- 
tions as were made by Brongniart and his 
more immediate followers were so mis- 
leading that they resulted in the conclu- 
sion that secondary woody growth was a 
phanerogamic character and consequently 
the mistake was made of putting the cala- 
mites and sigillarians with the gymno- 
sperms and not with their real affinities 
the horsetails and clubmosses. This error 
proved to be very tenacious of life and was 
only finally overthrown towards the end 
of the last century. 

The cheapening and improvement of all 
kinds of apparatus, which is one of the 
most gratifying features of modern scien- 
tific progress, has made it possible in the 
last decade or two to satisfactorily begin 
the investigation of the past history of the 
higher plants. Out of this study of the 
structure of the more ancient vascular 
plants, especially when carried on by those 
adequately equipped for such a task, by 
the knowledge of the anatomical structure 
of allied plants still living, have emerged a 
number of important general morphological 
principles, which are destined to have an 
influence on the development of botanical 
morphology and phylogeny, not less impor- 
tant than the investigation of Cuvier, in 
the last century, on fossil animals, have 
had on zoology. 


SCIENCE. 


295 


One of these important general prin- 
ciples, namely, the repetition of phylogeny 
in ontogeny is not confined to plants, but 
has had few exemplifications heretofore on 
account of the fact that our knowledge of 
the past history of the vegetable kingdom 
has been so woefully meager. Of this prin- 
ciple one example will suffice. The re- 
searches of the paleobotanists have made 
us acquainted with the structure of a paleo- 
zoic transitional group of gymnosperms, 
the Medullose. These had the numerous 
concentric stem-bundles of many existing 
ferns, but differed from these in the 
fact that their bundles had secondary 
growth. Their anatomical structure other- 
wise strongly suggests the cycads, and 
Potonie has expressed in fact the opinion 
that the existing cycads have come from 
this fossil stock. This view has recently 
received a remarkable confirmation by the 
discovery of the French anatomist Matte, 
that in certain instances in the seedling of 
the living cyeadean genus Zamia, concen- 
trie bundles resembling those of the Medul- 
lose are present. Many other similar ex- 
amples might be cited from recent litera- 
ture. 

Perhaps the most important and most 
novel general principle which has resulted 
from the comparative study of living and 
fossil vascular plants is the elucidation 
of the tendency of ancestral character- 
istics to persist strongly in the repro- 
ductive axis or flowering stem. For ex- 
ample, it has been pointed out by Graf zu 
Solms that the arrangement and course 
of the departing foliar traces in the cyeads 
is not of the complex type found in the 
vegetative stem of the living genera of that 
eroup, but of the simple type occurring in 
the leafy stem of the ancient cycadoidean 
stock, the Bennettitales. Dr. Scott has 
added to this the important observation that 
in certain cases the structure of the bundles 
of the eyeadean reproductive axis resem- 


296 


bles that found in the vegetative stems of 
some of the very ancient Cycadofilices. 
Similarly the present speaker has observed 
that the structure of the woody axis of the 
cone in living species of Pinus differs 
strikingly from that found im the vege- 
tative stem, and strongly resembles that 
found in Cretaceous Pityoxyla. This im- 
portant principle of the persistence of an- 
cestral features in reproductive axes is 
particularly significant, because it offers 
an independent support for the time-hon- 
ored practise of the systematic botanist, 
who attaches great importance to the floral 
structures and their arrangements, in tra- 
cing lines of affinity in the flowering plants. 

Another important new phylogenetic 
principle, which has recently emerged, and 
which is likewise the special property of 
the botanical morphologist, is that ancestral 
characters are extremely likely to persist 
as structural features of the leaf. For ex- 
ample, the leaf-bundles of the cycadean 
gymnosperms are the exact counterpart of 
the stem-bundles of some of the extinct and 
probably ancestral Pteridosperme. This 
principle might also be illustrated by many 
examples if time permitted. 

We have thus three important phylo- 
genetic laws resultmg from our more com- 
plete knowledge of the older vegetation of 
the earth. These principles or laws having 
been elucidated by the comparison of living 
with fossil forms may now fruitfully be 
extended as general working rules to the 
comparison of living groups with one an- 
other. The importance of these principles 
can scarcely be overestimated; for they 
enable us at once to put the sporophytic 
generation in the foreground as the basis 
of phylogenetic study. This is particularly 
fortunate, because it is precisely the sporo- 
phyte which allows fruitful comparison 
with extinct forms, since the gametophyte 
does not ordinarily become fossilized. More- 
over, since the time of Hofmeister, the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXITI. No. 582. 


gametophytic generation has performed 
such an important role in morphological 
investigations that in recent years, in spite 
of the important discoveries of chalazog- 
amy, the antherozoids of the cycads and 
Ginkgo, and double fertilization in the 
angiosperms, it has begun to show signs of 
exhaustion. The next half century, with- 
out neglecting the gametophyte or the 
earlier stages of the sporophyte, will doubt- 
less give a great deal more attention to the 
later development and mature structure of 
the sporophyte, which being the predom- 
inating and unreduced generation, in the 
vascular plants, will yield, as our knowledge 
of the ancient forms becomes more com- 
plete, the most important morphological 
and phylogenetic results. 

A further fruitful field for morpholog- 
ical exploitation is that of experimental 
morphology. This field, although much 
discussed and canvassed at the present 
moment, is as yet practically untouched 
from the phylogenetic side. It is diffi- 
cult to see how it can be successfully culti- 
vated by those who have not a reasonably 
complete knowledge of what may be ealled 
the normal anatomy of living and fossil 
plants. We appear as yet to be no nearer 
to the possibility of experimentally orig- 
inating new species. Indeed, if we ever 
succeed in penetrating the veil with which 
nature conceals this part of her workings, 
the hypothesis that acquired characters can 
not be transmitted will have to be given up. 
For if by experiment we are able to bring 
it about that species acquire and transmit 
new characters and thus become new spe- 
cies, the doctrine of the non-transmission of 
acquired characters will become ipso facto 
obsolete. 

In conclusion, it may be said that there 
appears to be no immediate prospect that 
the practise of making genealogical or phy- 
logenetie trees will have to be abandoned. 
In constructing these trees, however, we 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


shall do well to avoid inferences as to rela- 
tionship based on a single character. Phy- 
logenies of the angiosperms based on the 
structure of the root-tip, or of the conifers 
on the supposed occurrence of a ligule in 
the Araucarinee, or of the Pteridophyta 
derived from the presence or absence of a 
suspensor in the embryo or a basal cell in 
the archegonium, have in the past been far 
too common. We wmorphologists have 
sinned the sins of youth in this respect and 
have often provoked the just censure of 
the taxonomists. We must avoid, too, the 
using, for phylogenetic purposes, of charac- 
ters which can be easily modified by en- 
vironment, in other words characters which 
are formal or physiological. In making 
our phylogenetic trees, as Professor Coulter 
has recently happily expressed it, we have 
begun with the topmost branches and then 
have followed downward into the trunk. 
May we successfully continue this down- 
ward progress, so that in the fullness of 
time our perfect tree may stand firmly 
rooted in the earth, drawing strength and 
nourishment from every stratum which 
contains a vestige of the former vegetation 
of the world. KH. C. JEFFREY. 


HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 
CAMBRIDGE, MAss. 


THE AFFILIATION OF PSYCHOLOGY WITH 
PHILOSOPHY AND WITH THE NAT- 
URAL SCIENCES. 


I am embarrassed that this discussion of 


+This was the topic on the program of the 
joint meeting of the Philosophical and Psycholog- 
ical Associations at Harvard, December 27, 1905. 
The introductory exercises of this session con- 
sisted in dedicating the new Emerson Hall with 
addresses by President Eliot, Dr. Emerson and 
Professor Miinsterberg. The last named opened the 
discussion of the above question by arguing that 
philosophy and psychology, now under one roof, 
should be one and inseparable. The address here 
printed follows exactly as it was given except 
that part of the first paragraph was spoken in 
the discussion at the end. 


SCIENCE. 


297 


the relations between philosophy and psy- 
chology immediately follows the exercises 
which have so emphatically and reiter- 
atedly pronounced them one. I had writ- 
ten my brief paper purposely im a slightly 
more partisan than judicial spirit because 
asked to represent one side, and informed 
that others would represent the other. I 
had no idea, however, that I must read 
just at a moment which makes me seem to 
be trying to put asunder what Harvard 
has just now joined together. Objections 
to marriages are usually called for before 
the ceremony itself, and I almost feel that 
the proprieties of the hour should make me 
hold my peace here, though not forever 
afterwards. I feel like a divorce lawyer, 
thrusting his professional card into the 
hands of a wedded pair before they have 
left the church. However, the hospitality 
of our hosts will be, I am sure, more than 
adequate, and of course there was no 
thought of projecting the momentum of 
this occasion into the discussion to place 
my side of it at a disadvantage. At least, 
I will assume that the program takes pre- 
cedence over any such proprieties and pro- 
ceed with what I have written, which is as 
follows: 

To me it seems only a truism to say that 
we do not and, perhaps, never can know 
any more of the ultimate nature, origin 
and destiny of the soul than we ean and 
do of the nature, origin or destiny of 
matter or of life. In this sense psychology 
may do very well for the present without 
a soul as physics may do without an ulti- 
mate definition of force, or biology without 
a theory of life. This, moreover, is a posi- 
tive and gnostic and not an agnostic stand- 
point except to those who place meta- 
physics, meta-biology or meta-psychology 
above these sciences themselves. Defini- 
tions of our science and even of each sense 
of will, cognition, feeling and the rest, 
may, perhaps, be divided into the following 


298 


kinds: (a) generalizations from facts which 
have at best only a classificatory and at 
worst a repeative, attenuated, verbal sense, 
from which the red blood of meaning has 
begun to evaporate; (b) attempts at logical 
interpretation or statements of genus and 
difference, with the corpses of which the 
pathway of our science is so thickly strewn 
and which are usually haunted with all 
kinds of personal and philosophic biases in 
which no two agree; (c) those prompted 
by man’s inveterate longing for finality, 
which have a certain sacrosanct character 
because they are so satisfying to the author 
and which, therefore, constitute precious 
psychological data to be collected and used 
empirically for future generalizations con- 
cerning human nature. Of the soul and 
each of its powers it can be said, as 
Schleicher said of language, all discussion 
of the origin and definition of which was 
long forbidden by the Société de Linguis- 
tique, ‘Es ist was es wird.’ Thus every 
new fact in psychology changes the defini- 
tion of it and, perhaps, makes some older 
ones obsolete, because the definition of the 
science is nothing more nor less than the 
science itself in its present state. Only the 
tyro in any subject seeks to begin with 
definitions, while the connoisseur only ends 
with them if he reaches them at all. But 
(d) there may be definitions made only for 
the purposes of speculation or of contro- 
versy. These should be expressly provi- 
sional and ought to be transcended at the 
end of every discussion. My definition of 
psychology is expressly of the latter kind 
and is as follows: It is a description as 
accurate as can be of all those facts of 
psychic life, conscious and unconscious, 
animal and human, normal and morbid, 
embryonic and mature, which are demon- 
strable and certain to be accepted by every 
intelligent unbiased mind who fully knows 
them. They must also be so ordered, like 
to like, and organized that they can all be 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 582. 


known with the least effort, and so that 
each is nearest to that it is most akin. To 
this I would add that the best principle or 
organization of these facts, wherever it is 
justifiable, is evolutionary because the best 
explanation and definition of anything is 
a complete description of its developmental 
stages. From this definition you can fore- 
see about all I have to say upon this topic. 
Psychology deals with the facts, meas- 
urable and immeasurable, of sense and the 
inner life under conditions controlled in 
the laboratory, with statistics based on 
large numbers, with the myth, custom, be- 
lief and language of races, and is excluded 
from no field of experience, inner or outer, 
or of life, conscious or unconscious, re- 
ligious, social, genetic, individual, that can 
be studied on the basis of valid empirical 
data. The individual speculator or sys- 
tem-builder who goes beyond these facts 
contributes nothing save one more personal 
set of data for the future generalizer. 
Consciousness, too, is an island in the midst 
of the shoreless, unconscious sea, or, better, 
in Huxley’s simile it is a tallow dip illu- 
minating only one room of the great mu- 
seum of man-soul. Consciousness can only 
give us a glimpse of the experience of the 
individual and hardly that of the race. 
From this it follows that psychology must 
more and more rest upon induction and 
that its closest allies in the future are to 
be biology, physiology and anthropology. 
What should it exclude? My answer is 
that it is Just as proper, and no more so, 
for it to concern itself with the relations 
between mind and body as for physics to 
speculate about the relations between force 
and matter. It is no more pertinent for 
it to discuss parallelism or interaction than 
it is for abnormal, genetic or comparative 
psychology to do so. It makes no possible 
difference for any scientific fact of psy- 
chology whether the soul is a spirit, a mesh 
of neurons or a monad in Howison’s sense. 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


These are meta-psychological considerations 
which we can neither prove nor disprove; 
they are matters of taste in philosophy, of 
individual bias, popular oracles to which 
those of literary proclivities or those who 
love the ancient developmental history of 
psychology can appeal. They are matters 
of creed, and often with some, and it may 
be great, practical value. The same is true 
of the old issue between dualism and mon- 
ism, of freedom versus determinism, the 
nature of time, and still more so of space. 
These old problems in all their restate- 
ments, including that of the priority of 
psychic or somatic changes in feeling, the 
question of the educability of the pure 
absolute quality of retentiveness, have high 
pedagogic value and have impelled many 
ingenuous minds to the study of psychol- 
ogy, and their motivation is hard to exor- 
cise in the present state of psychology, even 
from the stage of scientific maturity. As 
old sailing ships were trimmed by rolling 
heavy ballast chests full of old chains to 
starboard or larboard, according as the 
ship listed this way or that, so the ship 
of life sometimes needs to be ethically 
trimmed by changing the stress of these old 
and broken fetters of the soul; but not till 
the far-off day when pragmatism has quite 
absorbed and digested the concept of pure 
science should these be confused with the 
precious cargo of facts. 

So of all attempts to define knowledge 
and its relations to reality, to deliminate 
subject and object and to decant the uni- 
verse from one into the other, or to de- 
termine how many parts of each are found 
in the mixture of experience, whether the 
ego is constituted of flitting, disconnected 
present states or is the stream bed in which 
they flow, or whether, on the other hand, 
every change of attention is an expression 
of the basal and eternal will to live. If 
homo studiosus were less isolated from the 
daily struggle for existence, suffered less 


SCIENCE. 


299 


from psychic anemia, if, imstead of being 
pampered with a second-hand, attenuated 
book knowledge, he had had in his own 
person more of the experience he attempts 
to analyze, and if his selfish interest in a 
future life were entirely eliminated, all 
those questions would fade into dreams and 
shadows. Neither the abnormal nor the 
selfish impulses which animate these impul- 
sions are scientific, and therefore these 
questions should be segregated from psy- 
chology, for which they have no more 
pertinence than they have for chemistry 
or astrophysics. 

Again, psychology inherits from philos- 
ophy a passion to classify the soul into 
activities, parts, faculties; to attempt to 
organize the different sciences; to legislate 
what should be done in each field and under 
each name; to demarcate boundaries be- 
tween esthetics, ethics, logics, psychology 
and the rest. The age when this work can 
do much good or harm ended with Hegel 
and Comte, unless it have some value for 
the pedagogy of curricula or be of use to 
the maker of the scheme in putting his own 
mind in order. Logie never led to the dis- 
covery of anything, not even of a new 
method of investigation. At best it fol- 
lows the discoverer, often at a distance, 
and may at best afterwards tell how his 
work was done. Psychology seeks its own 
in any and every field where psychic action 
is intense and manifold. But all schemat- 
izations of the relation of different fields 
are only tenuous formulations of the per- 
sonal equation, and if they could be valid 
for a day are sure to be shattered by the 
next fruitful research. More than this, too 
long acquaintance with the breezy altitudes 
of philosophy at the same time predisposes 
and disqualifies’ for this task because it 
tends to a nimbleness impossible for a mind 
which carries a heavy cargo of facts. In- 
tellectual temperance is not its forte. In 
the day of Borelli, and again with Fechner 


300 


and Herbart, and now with Karl] Pearson, 
men of our craft have lost poise and become 
mathematical methodists, forgetting Aris- 
totle’s injunction to the effect that it is 
the mark of an amateur to insist on a 
greater degree of accuracy than the subject 
permits. So years ago when a man of 
science said that memory was a continuity 
of vibrations and that heredity and even 
the properties of matter were a form of 
memory, this speculation found place in 
many a text-book almost as if it were a 
new category, and here it stood as if con- 
substantial with the basal facts which all 
admit. When hypnotism showed the im- 
portance of suggestion, it was interpreted 
by some of the very ablest philosophic 
minds as including about every form of 
mental action, and originality and spon- 
taneity themselves were eclipsed by it, 
while others argued that even heredity was 
a form of suggestion. In a similar holo- 
phrastic way, irritability, reflex action, 
electrical stimulation, tremors and vibra- 
tions, the atom concept in the form of reals 
and monads, the ego, the feeling of abso- 
lute dependence, the emotions, the intellect, 
the will, memory, and many more, have 
been overworked or made the key for an 
entire system. This constitutes at once 
the charm and the confusion of the history 
of philosophy. It imfects the mind with 


the idea that a new principle can be found . 


to explain, or an old one stretehed to in- 
elude, or be made the key to unlock, the 
entire universe; that the secrets of mind 
are to be taken by storm and perhaps by 
brilliant individual soldiership instead of 
step by step by a long siege. This is the 
very opposite of the Aristotelian temper- 
ance with its motto—‘Nothing too much.’ 
It is this that has caused psychology, espe- 
ciany in America to-day, to be shot through 
with surds, with metaphysical problems in- 
jected up from ancient fires like dikes, here 
an established conclusion from the labora- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 582. — 


tory or a fact from field work, in the next 
paragraph a discussion of its bearings upon 
some venerable. philosophical problem. 

In all this I mean no disrespect to phi- 
losophy, the history of which I have always 
taught and tried to understand and held 
worthy of highest honor as the culmination 
of culture history. Are we not all a little 
in the unhappy state of an importunate 
lover of two mistresses who either finds 
it hard to choose between them, and there- 
fore may die without issue, or seeks to wed 
the preferred one without relinquishing his 
hold upon the other? 

Again, psychiatry is Just now coming 
our way. Its extreme subserviency to 
neurology is abating. Wernicke and the 
somatologists whose chief paradigm was 
general paresis, the outcome of which was 
sure death and which showed brain lesions, 
is giving way to Ziehen, Janet and 
Hughlings Jackson, whose type diseases 
are epilepsy, hysteria, ete., and who pro- 
ceed from function to structure and not 
conversely. This opens up an unprece- 
dented opportunity for normal psychology 
to influence psychiatry: But, alas, owing 
to the infections of our field by metaphys- 
ies, we are not unified enough to profit by 
this opportunity. This is a large and vital 
chapter I ean only allude to here. 

Finally, should not psychology now prac- 
tically accept the more modest ideal of 
Bateson in biology and for a time be con- 
tent to find and describe facts so as to 
broaden the base of the pyramid, refuse to 
accept its problems from speculative or 
even ethical philosophy, suspend judgment 
and even refrain from indulging the lit- 
erary passion, if we have it, by writing 
attractively concerning insoluble questions? 
Thus, while keeping open the perspective 
by teaching the history of philosophy to 
every experimenter, must we not admit 
that we are all materialists and idealists, 
realists and phenomenalists, necessitarians 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


and freedomists, pantheists and atheists, 
scholastics and empiricists at the same 
time, and that to affirm the one exclusively 


is to expel a minority of faculties of the. 


infinitely complex thing we call soul, and 
that one who truly knows himself can be 
any one of these only by a working ma- 
jority of his powers? Accepting our cue 
from Aristotle, who called metaphysics 
those studies that come chronologically or 
developmentally after physics, and apply- 
ing them also to all logic and epistemology, 
should we not recognize that the present 
glowing twilight of psychology is that of 
the dawn and not of the evening; that ulti- 
mates are chiefly for senescence and should 
be only prelusive for youth; that they bet- 
ter befit old than new sciences; and realize 
that if psychology is ever to become the 
queen of humanistic studies she must avoid 
all surds and extravasations and deal ef- 
fectively with the great problems of human 
life, health, reproduction, disease and vital 
experience, and find the center of her field 
where psychic life is most intense, and thus, 
widening her boundaries from physiological 
psychology to biological philosophy, strive 
to become what, as we have just heard in 
the able address of his son, Emerson, for 
whom this admirable building was named, 
thought it should be, viz., a true natural 
history of the soul. Some of us deprecate 
this identification or organic unity of specu- 
lative philosophy with scientific psychol- 
ogy, and hope that, despite their proximity, 
neither will interfere with the purity of 
the other, and that progress may be made 
in evicting the many metaphysical, logical 
and epistemological and other utterly in- 
soluble, though fascinating, questions from 
the domain of scientific psychology. 


G. StanntEy Hau. 
CLARK UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Organography of Plants, especially of the 
Archegoniatae and Spermophyta. By Dr. 


SCIENCE. 


301 


K. Gorsen, Professor in the University of 
Munich. Authorized English translation by 
Isaac Bayney Batrour, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., 
King’s Botanist in Scotland, Professor of 
Botany in the University and Regius Keep- 
er of the Royal Botanie Garden of Edin- 


burgh. Part II., Special Organography, 
with 417 wood cuts. Oxford, the Clarendon 
Press. 1905. Pp. xxiv-+ 707. Large 8vo. 


It is five years since the English edition of 
Part I. appeared. That volume was devoted 
to ‘General Organography,’ including the gen- 
eral differentiation of the plant-body, relation- 
ships of symmetry, differences in the forma- 
tion of organs at different developmental 
stages, juvenile forms, malformations and 
their significance in organography, and the 
influence of correlation and external forma- 
tive stimuli upon the configuration of plants. 
It has proved its value by its wide use in ad- 
vanced botanical teaching in this country and 
England. Part II. has now appeared as a 
bulky volume and, although the German edi- 
tion from which this was translated was com- 
pleted in 1901, the preface informs us that 
‘ Professor Goebel has read all the proof-sheets, 
and has modified the text in several places, 
and added additional notes.’ The volume is 
thus brought down to the present, and conse- 
quently is the most recent work on plant mor- 
phology, as it is the most important. The 
subject is taken up systematically, about one 
hundred and fifty pages being given to the 
liverworts and mosses, fifty pages to the 
gametophyte of the Pteridophyta, and over 
four hundred to the sporophyte of the Pterido- 
phyta and Spermophyta. It is under the lat- 
ter that we find the fullest discussion of the 
morphology of the higher plants, the matter 
being treated under such topics as—the organs 
of vegetation, including root and shoot (leaf, 
branching of the shoot, division of labor, the 
shoot in the service of reproduction), and the 
organs of propagation, including the sporo- 
gonium of Pteridophyta apospory, and the 
sporangium of Spermophyta. 

It is interesting to note here the greatly 
broadened use of terms, which an older mor- 
phology concerned itself with narrowing. 
What would the botanists of the last genera- 


302 


tion have thought of the common use of 
‘spore’ and ‘sporangium’ in the description 
of the structure of the flowering plants, and 
how they would have denounced the use of 
‘flower’ and ‘ placenta’ in the similar descrip- 
tion of the ferns and their allies! Surely the 
old boundaries between lower and higher 
plants are rapidly being obliterated when we 
find such a free borrowing of terms once 
thought to be peculiar to this or that portion 
of the vegetable kingdom. Here is the present- 
day definition of a flower—‘ a shoot beset with 
sporophylls,’ originated many years ago by 
Schleiden, but generally rejected by botanists 
until within a comparatively short time. In 
this broad definition we may include the spore- 
bearing cones, not only of Lycopodinae and 
Hquisetinae, but also the whole fern (sporo- 
phyte) when it is bearing spores. On page 
472 we have a chapter heading ‘The Sporo- 
phylls and Flower of the Pteridophyta’— 
which would have puzzled and no doubt 
shocked the old-time botanists, and quite as 
puzzling would have been the section (page 
400) devoted to ‘the cotyledons of the Pteri- 
dophyta.’ 

In this fine volume, which must at once 
come into very general use, we have another 
illustration of the excellent translations made 
by Professor Balfour, and the high quality of 
the printing and binding done by the Claren- 
don Press, in the remarkable series of volumes 
which have appeared during the past twenty 
years. 
Cuar.es EB. BEssey. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


Outlines of Inorganic Chemistry. By FRANK 
Austin Goocu, Professor of Chemistry in 
Yale University, and CLaupE FReperic 
Waker, Teacher of Chemistry in the High 
School of Commerce of New York City. 
New York, The Macmillan Co. Pp. xxiy + 
233 +514. S8vo. $1.75. 

Until some few years ago the teacher of 
general chemistry considered that he had coy- 
ered his subject pretty fully if, in addition to 
the descriptive facts concerning the elements 
and compounds, he had given his students cor- 
rect ideas concerning the laws of chemical 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 582. 


combination, molecular and atomic weights, 
the periodic law and the theory of valence. 
The development of physical chemistry, how- 
ever, in the last fifteen years has brought into 
prominence a number of new laws and prin- 
ciples and it is necessary that these should 
find a place in every modern course of instruc- 
tion in chemistry. This has given rise to a 
demand for new text-books in which these new 
generalizations are clearly set forth. 

One of the first text-books which gave prom- 
inence to the laws of physical chemistry was 
Ostwald’s ‘Grundlinien der Anorganischen 
Chemie’ which was published in 1900. This 
book may be said to have been a veritable mine 
of information for teachers and it has un- 
doubtedly had a great influence in modern- 
izing courses of instruction in inorganic chem- 
istry. Ostwald’s book, however, is too ad- 
vaneed and contains too much detail for the 
average undergraduate. A number of smaller 
text-books have appeared in which the attempt 
was made to simplify the subject and adapt it 
for college classes. 

This new text-book by Professors Gooch and 
Walker is entirely different from these books 
that were patterned more or less closely upon 
the lines of the Ostwald. It is divided into 
two distinct parts. In the first or inductive 
part there is a consecutive experimental de- 
velopment of the principles and theories of the 
science. In the second or descriptive part the 
facts concerning the elements and compounds 
are clearly and concisely set forth. 

The first seven chapters of part one deal 
with chemical change, elements, compounds, 
the laws of combination and equivalent 
weights, hydrogen, oxygen, air and nitrogen. 
Then electrical equivalents and ions, acids, 
bases and salts form the subject matter of the 
eighth and ninth chapters. Then follow equi- 
librium, mass action, the phase rule. The 
last chapters are upon heat and thermal equiv- 
alents, valence and atomic and molecular 
theories. It is here shown that the chemical, 
electrical and thermal equivalents represent 
proportionate numbers of mass units or atoms 
and atomic and molecular weights are defined. 

In the second or descriptive part, after a 
chapter on classification and the periodic law, 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


the elements are taken up in series beginning 
with hydrogen. Under each element all the 
more important facts concerning it and its 
compounds find mention. A great many 
graphic formulas and equations are here given. 
The rare elements are also briefly noticed. A 
very large amount of information together with 
the latest and newest facts is here brought into 
small compass. The statements are clear and 
concise and the book is remarkably free from 
errors. There are few important omissions. 
The transition point of mercuric iodide is 
given, but not that of sulphur nor that of tin. 
Freezing mixtures are mentioned, but no ex- 
planation is given of their action. On the 
whole, however, this is an excellent text-book, 
it is planned on new and original lines and it 
deserves the careful consideration of all 
teachers of chemistry. 
Epwarp H. Ketsmr. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Bulletin of the College of Charleston 
Museum for January contains the report of 
the director, Dr. Paul M. Rea, and is an en- 
couraging account of progress, though under 
difficulties. The museum has important col- 
lections and, as Dr. Rea points out, with the 
funds and assistance necessary to put these 
in order and make them available to the 
public, will become an important educational 
factor. 


Bird Lore for January-February has for its 
most extended article the Sixth Christmas 
Bird Census, containing records from Maine 
to Louisiana and British Columbia. There 
are good illustrated articles on ‘An Experi- 
ence in Tree-top Photography,’ by Bert F. 
Case; ‘My Chickadee Family,’ by Marion 
Bole; ‘The Dipper in Colorado, by Evan 
Lewis, and ‘The Little Green Heron,’ by Rett 
E. Olmstead. In the report of the Audubon 
Societies it is noted that the murderer of 
Game Warden Bradley was not even indicted. 
As an offset to this are the resolutions passed 
by the Millinery Jobbers Association at the 
Louisville Convention, pledging themselves 
not to buy song birds, gulls, grebes or herons 


SCIENCE. 


303 


after January 1, and not to sell after July 1, 
1906. 


The Zoological Society Bulletin for Jan- 
uary contains a well-illustrated article on the 
“Pheasant Aviary and its Inmates’ which 
comprise forty species of gallinaceous birds. 
The ‘ Founding of a New Bison Herd in the 
Wichita Forest Reserve’ is announced and it 
is hoped this may lead to the starting of herds 
in other localities while the bison are yet 
available. It is stated that the female giraffe 
received in 1903 has grown one foot and eleven 
inches and the male two feet and ten inches, 
the one standing twelve feet high, the other 
thirteen feet and six inches. Barring acci- 
dents, they should before long reach their full 
height of between sixteen and seventeen feet. 
There is an article with several good pictures 
of the smaller cats and, finally, a summary 
ef the larger items of work accomplished 
during 1905. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 


THE annual: meeting of the Physical So- 
ciety was held in Fayerweather Hall, Colum- 
bia University, New York City, on Friday, 
December 29, and Saturday, December 30, 
1905. 

The presidential address of President Barus, 
on ‘Condensation Nuclei,’ was delivered on 
Saturday, December 30, at 11 a.m. 

Friday afternoon, December 29, a joint ses- 
sion of the American Physical Society and the 
American Mathematical Society was held in 
Havemeyer Hall, at which a paper on the 
“Experimental Demonstration of Hydro- 
dynamic Action at a Distance’ was presented 
by Victor Bjerknes. 

The following papers were presented: 

A. W. Ewe: ‘The Electrical Production of 
Ozone.’ 

E. RUTHERFORD: ‘Some Properties of the Alpha 
Rays from Radium, II.’ 

E. RuTHERFORD: “On the Magnetic and Electric 
Deviation of the Alpha Rays.’ 

HE. P. Apams: ‘The Absorption of Alpha Rays 
in Gases and Vapors.’ 

H. A. Bumsreap: ‘The Heating Effect pro- 
duced by Réntgen Rays in Different Metals and 


304 


their Relation to the Question of Changes in the 
Atom.’ 

W. J. Humpnpreys: ‘An Attempt to Explain 
the Cause of the Pressure Shift and the Broad- 
ening of Spectrum Lines.’ 

E. H. Hau: ‘Thermoelectric Heterogeneity in 
Certain Alloys.’ 

F. L. Turrs: ‘The Relative Conductivities im- 
parted to a Flame of Illuminating Gas by the 
Vapors of the Salts of the Alkali Metals.’ 

C. B. Tuwine: ‘On the Specific Electrical Po- 
tentials of Metals in a Chemically Inert Atmos- 
phere.’ 

H. A. CparK: 
Carbon.’ 

H. L. BLACKWELL: 
Double Refraction.’ 

Wm. B. CaRTMEL: ‘The Optical Properties of 
Extremely Thin Films.’ 

EpGaR BUCKINGHAM: 
Temperature Scale.’ 

C. H. McLrop and H. T. Barnes: ‘ Differential 
Temperature Records in Meteorological Work.’ 

S. R. Cook: * On the Velocity of Sound in Gases 
at Low Temperatures and the Ratio of the 
Specific Heats.’ 

K. E. Gurue: ‘A New Determination of the 
E.M.F. of the Clark and Cadmium Standard Cells 
by means of an Absolute Electro-dynamometer.’ 

G. W. Pierce: ‘ Experiments on Resonance in 
Wireless Telegraph Circuits.’ 

Epear BuckineHam: ‘ Methods of Soil Hygrom- 
etry.’ 

H. N. Davis: ‘ Longitudinal Vibrations Analo- 
gous to those of a Violin String.’ 

A. D. Cone: ‘On the Use of the Wehmet Inter- 
rupter with the Righi Exciter for Electric Waves.’ 
(Read by title.) 

E. F. Nicwors: ‘ Notes on the Possible Separa- 
tion of Electric Charges by Centrifugal Accelera- 
tions.’ (Read by title.) 

FRANK WENNER: ‘The Adjustment of the d’Ar- 
sonval Galvanometer for Ballistic Work.’ 

W. J. Humpnreys: ‘The Purpose and the Pres- 
ent Condition of the Mount Weather Research 
Observatory.’ 

Lyman J. Brices: ‘An Hlectrically Controlled 
Thermostat operable-at Room Temperatures.’ 

Lyman J. Briggs: ‘On the Use of Centrifugal 
Force in Soil Investigations.’ 


‘The Optical Properties of 


“Dispersion in Electric 


“The Thermodynamic 


On Saturday morning, tellers being duly 
appointed, the ballots received in the annual 
election of officers and members of the council 

- were counted, and the following named were 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 582. 


declared elected: President, Carl Barus; vice- 
president, Edward lL. Nichols; secretary, 
Ernest Merritt; treasurer, William Hallock; 
members of the council, R. A. Millikan and 
A. Trowbridge. Ernest Merrirt, 
Secretary. 


THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 


At the formal meeting of the Texas Acad- 
emy of Science held June 14, 1905, the elec- 
tion of the following officers for the year 
1905-6 was announced: 


President—Dr. Thos. 
Austin. 

Vice-president—Dr. James HE. Thompson, Gal- 
veston. 

Treasurer—Mr. R. A. Thompson, Austin. 

Secretary—Dr. Frederic W. Simonds, Austin. 

Librarian—Mr. P. L. Windsor, Austin. 

Members of the Council—Hon. A. Lefevre, Vic- 
toria; Professor J. C. Nagle, College Station; Dr. 
Eugene P. Schoch, Austin. 


H. Montgomery, Jr., 


At the regular meeting of the academy held 
in the chemical lecture room of the Univer- 
sity of Texas, October 27, 1905, Dr. Mont- 
gomery delivered the annual address of the 
president. He chose for his subject ‘ The 
Ksthetic Element in Scientific Thought.’ 

The point was made that the key-note of the 
enthusiasm of the scientist, therefore of his 
wish to work, is the attraction he finds in the 
formal beauty of the objects of study. This 
generally arises in early years, and probably 
continues as long as his enthusiasm lasts, 
though in maturer years the scientist finds a 
greater beauty in the interpretation and rela- 
tions of phenomena. ‘The scientist is distin- 
guished by this love of the formally beautiful, 
the well-spring of his enthusiasm, and thereby 
shows a close community with the artist and 
poet. On the other hand, there is nothing in 
common between the scientist and the tech- 
nical expert, for they have entirely different 
aims; the scientist is to be trained like 
an artist, not like a technician. From this 
love of the natural phenomenon arises a rey- 
erence for nature, which brings it about that 
no true scientist can be without a religion. 
The great naturalists and great poets have all 
recognized this kinship. 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


At the regular meeting held in the chemical 
lecture room of the university, November 24, 
1905, Dr. Lindley M. Keasbey addressed the 
academy upon ‘The Science of Economics.’ 
The following brief abstract will show the 
scope of his remarks: 


In the last instance, economics is an elabora- 
tion of the weal relation, which is as follows: 
Demand tends towards utility, utility necessitates 
utilization, and utilization results in supply. 
Consequently the science consists of three parts: 
Economic psychology, economic geography and 
demography, and economic history. 

1. Hconomic Psychology.—Demand tends toward 
utility because all men seek to satisfy their wants 
and utility is the quality of satisfying such wants. 
The first term of weal relation therefore requires 
an analysis of human wants, resulting in a hedonic 
classification and a hedonic calculus. 

2. Hconomic Geography and Demography.—The 
qualities of satisfying wants are circumstances of 
persons and things, hence potential utilities may 
be said to reside in man’s physical and social en- 
vironments. The study of these environments 
with a view to determining their potential 
utilities constitutes the second part of the science: 
economic geography and demography. 

3. Economic History.—In striving to satisfy his 
wants, man is compelled to convert potential 
utilities into actual utilities. The study of this 
process of utilization constitutes economic his- 
tory, the third part of economics, the dynamics 
of the science, as it were. In short the subject- 
matter of economic science may be said to be: 
The system of activities whereby the potential 
utilities pertaining to persons and things are 
through utilization converted into actual utilities. 


On the evening of December 28 and the 
morning of December 29 joint meetings of 
the Texas Academy of Science and the Scien- 
tific Society of San Antonio were held in the 
rooms of the latter organization in the Stevens 
Building, San Antonio. The program for the 
evening session included a lecture upon ‘ Iron- 
smelting and Steel-making, illustrated with 
many steriopticon views, by Mr. Edward C. H. 
Bantel, of the engineering department of the 
University of Texas. The speaker’s familiar- 
ity with the subject from residence and study 
in the center of the Pennsylvania steel district 
enabled him to handle it in a most interesting 
and detailed manner. Mr. Bantel was fol- 


SCIENCE. 


305 


lowed by Captain T. J. Dickson, U.S.A., 
Chaplain of the Twenty-sixth Infantry, Fort 
Sam Houston, San Antonio, who presented 
two papers: ‘Fighting Asiatic Cholera’ and 
the ‘ First Ascent of Mount Isarog,’ both of 
which were illustrated with stereopticon views. 

Mount Isarog is a famous volcano in south- 
ern Luzon. The speaker, with eight soldiers 
and five Filipino cargadores, made the first 
and only ascent in June, 1903. The summit 
is a sharp, jagged contour, about two miles in 
diameter. The trees are knotted and dwarfed 
and evidence the mighty battle they have 
waged while contending with the storms that 
raged around the summit. It has the appear- 
ance of a deep soup bowl with one side chopped 
out. It was possible for members of the party 
to climb out on the limbs of trees and look 
down a distance that was estimated one mile. 

The last number on the program of the 
evening session was ‘Facts furnished by the 
Study of Radium and Deduction leading to 
the Present Electron Theory,’ by Dr. Eugene 
P. Schoch, of the school of chemistry, Uni- 
versity of Texas. This exercise, which was a 
demonstration rather than a lecture, attracted 
much attention, as outside of the university 
nothing like it had ever before been seen in 
Texas. In the audience were a number of 
officers of the regular army stationed at Fort 
Sam Houston. It is a pleasure to note the 
interest these gentlemen have taken in science 
and the promotion of the scientific spirit 
within the state. 

At the morning session, on December 29, 
Dr. W. L. Bringhurst, of San Antonio, read 
a paper upon ‘Some Recent Experiments in 
Biology,’ dealing chiefly with the results of 
the interbreeding of different varieties of the 
domestic fowl. 

Freperic W. Simonps, 
Secretary. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

At the 174th meeting, on January 24, under 
the head of ‘Informal Communications,’ Dr. 
David T. Day bespoke the céoperation of the 
geologists of the society in furthering the in- 
vestigation of black sands, and especially of 
heavy material derived from sluice boxes by 


306 


placer miners. In collecting samples it is 
especially necessary that the amount of gravel 
represented by the concentrates should be 
noted. 

The following papers were then presented: 


Geological Reconnoissance Map of Alaska: 
Mr. Aurrep H. Brooks. 

Gypsum Beds and Water Storage in the Pecos 
Valley of New Mexico: Mr. Wiuuis T. Ler. 
An irrigation system has been in operation 

for eleven years in the Pecos Valley near 
Carlsbad, N. M. ‘The storage reservoir of the 
system at McMillan began to lose water by 
underground leakage soon after its comple- 
tion, and this loss became progressively more 
serious until at the present time the reservoir 
is almost useless. This paper deals with the 
geological conditions which have resulted in 
the leakage of the reservoir. and possible 
remedies are being inyestigated by the rec- 
lamation service. 

The rock formations are the ‘red beds’ of 
the plains which in this region contain strata 
of gypsum to a depth of 1,500 feet. Rock salt 
occurs in large amounts near Carlsbad and 
the distribution of salt springs indicate that 
it may have formerly extended throughout the 
Carlsbad region. Sink holes exist wherever 
the gypsum occurs near the surface in the 
vicinity of the river. These sinks connect 
with caverns formed by solution of the gyp- 
sum beds and they are numerous enough to 
warrant the assumption of a general honey- 
combed condition throughout the gypsiferous 
formation. Removal of the soluble strata and 
the falling in of the caverns produced must 
undoubtedly have permitted a gradual depres- 
sion of the surface of the ground, and it is 
suggested that this process has been the effect- 
ive cause in producing the basins in the valley 
near Carlsbad. This hypothesis has been ap- 
plied by Mr. ©. A. Fisher, of the United 
States Geological Survey, to account for the 
origin of the Roswell Basin north of Carlsbad, 
where the fractured and insoluble mass of 
residual strata is reported to be more than 
1,000 feet in depth. In the Carlsbad region 
details have not been worked out, but the in- 
soluble strata are undoubtedly in a fractured 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 582. 


condition, allowing free circulation of water 
under ground. In part, at least, the water 
which runs into the ground at the McMillan 
reservoir returns to the surface above Carls- 
bad. In the ease of one large spring below 
the dam the rate of flow depends upon the 
height of water in the reservoir, but it is by 
no means certain that the supply of this 
spring is entirely leakage from the reservoir. 


Glacial Phenomena in the San Juan Moun- 
tains: Mr. Ernest Howe. 

In addition to the drift that has long been 
recognized in the San Juan Mountains, cer- 
tain detritus has been observed at various 
places that is evidently older, but in regard to 
the origin of which information has hitherto 
been lacking. Quite recently evidence has 
been found in the Uncompahgre Valley which 
suggests that certain of these deposits may be 
of glacial origin. 

The events of the later stage of glaciation 
are recorded in a slight but characteristic 
modification of the topography, and in an 
abundance of drift in the form of moraines 
and outwash gravels, oxidized but little, and 
upon which subsequent erosion has had slight 
effect. Post-glacial erosion has been insig- 
nificant in the higher mountains, and it is 
believed that glacial conditions continued to 
exist until comparatively recent times. 

The older detritus occurs farther from the 
mountains than the more recent material and 
rests upon the remnants of an old topography 
that was deeply dissected prior to the last 
stage of glaciation. The form of the deposits 
suggests that they have undergone much modi- 
fication, and the materials composing them 
have been more or less decomposed by atmos- 
pheric agents. The evident greater age of 
this detritus is in strong contrast to that of 
the drift deposited by the last glacial ice. The 
large size of individual boulders, the hetero- 
geneous character of the material and the 
distance from its source suggest transporta- 
tion and deposition by glaciers as an explana- 
tion of the origin of these deposits. 

Stratified deposits of water-worn gravels, 
closely related to the older drift in age and 
position, extend far out from the mountains 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


and are regarded as outwash deposits incident 
to the earlier glaciation. Between these 
highest gravels and the valley train of the last 
stage of glaciation several intermediate gravel- 
covered terraces occur that are believed to 
have been developed during the period of in- 
terglacial erosion which accomplished the dis- 
section of the old surfaces upon which the 
early drift was deposited. 
Artuur C. SPENCER, 
Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


A MEETING of the club was held on January 
9, at the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory, with President Rusby in the chair. Six- 
teen persons were present. 

The annual reports of the treasurer, secre- 
tary, corresponding secretary, editor and the 
editor of Torreya were then read and placed 
on file. The committee on phanerogams, and 
the committee on ecryptogams reported prog- 
ress. 

The following officers were elected for the 
ensuing year: 

President—Dr. H. H. Rusby. 

Vice-Presidents—Dr. Edward 8. Burgess, Pro- 
fessor L. M. Underwood. 

Recording Secretary—Dr. C. Stuart Gager. 

Corresponding Secretary—Dr. John K. Small. 

Editor—Dr. John Hendley Barnhart. 

Treasurer—Dr. Carlton C. Curtis. 

Associate Hditors—Dr. Alex. W. Evans, Dr. 
Tracey E. Hazen, Dr. Marshall A. Howe, Dr. D. 
T. MacDougal, Dr. W. A. Murrill, Dr. Herbert M. 
Richards, Anna Murray Vail. 

A request from Mrs. E. G. Britton for a 
grant of $100 from the Herrman fund to be 
used in illustrating new species of mosses 
from the southern states and the West Indies 
was read and the application approved by the 
elub. 

C. Stuart Gacer, 
Secretary. 


THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

THE 162d meeting was held in the chemical 

lecture room, on Tuesday, January 23, 7:30 

P.M. Under the topic ‘Tropical Notes,’ Pro- 


SCIENCE. 


307 


fessor W. C. Coker described in a most inter- 
esting way a recent botanical trip to southern 
Florida and Cuba. Numerous specimens of 
plants were exhibited. The program was con- 
cluded by Professor Archibald Henderson, 
who discussed ‘A Group of Cross Ratios.’ 

A. S. WHEELER, 

Recording Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


ECOLOGICAL ADAPTATION AND ECOLOGICAL 
SELECTION. 


Ir seems that in the recent discussion of 
evolution there is too much importance at- 
tached to variation. It is not so certain that 
variation itself, or the elucidation of the ques- 
tion how certain species came to have certain 
characters, is the most important question in 
the origin of species. The segregation of 
species may be only an ecological. process in 
which the matter of structural variation is of 
secondary importance. In fact the Darwinian 
theory does not require the supposition that 
the origin of a new species begins with a 
change of structure, so that to insist upon the 
importance of ecological selection is only to 
emphasize a factor already recognized by Dar- 
win. By limiting the development of species 
to the assumption of structural characters the 
theory of natural selection is made to appear 
at an unfair disadvantage. Species are char- 
acterized by non-competitive habits rather 
than by adaptive structures. Indeed, I hold 
that the origin of a new species begins with a 
change of place or habits and that the char- 
acters by which species are distinguished, as 
well as adaptive structures, follow as a conse- 
quence. 

In the ‘ Origin of Species’ there are several 
passages in which a change of habits is speci- 
fied as a condition of selection. “For as all 
of the inhabitants of each country are strug- 
gling together with nicely balanced forces, 
extremely slight modifications in the structure 
or habits of one species would often give it an 
advantage over others” (p. 64). “The more 
diversified the descendants from any one spe- 
cies become in structure, constitution and 
habits, by so much the more will they be en- 


308 


abled to seize on many and widely diversified 
places in the polity of nature, and so be en- 
abled to increase in numbers” (p. 87). “The 
more diversified in habits and structure the 
descendants of our carnivorous animals be- 
come the more places they will be enabled to 
occupy ” (p. 88). “TI will now give two or 
three instances both of diversified and of 
changed habits in the individuals of the same 
species. In either case it would be easy for 
natural selection to adapt the structure of the 
animal to its changed habits, or exclusively 
to one of its changed habits. It is, however, 
difficult to decide, and immaterial for us, 
whether habits generally change first and 
structure afterwards” (p. 141). Im view of 
the fact that in the ordinary cases the changes 
of structure are not adaptive, it seems to me 
quite material to recognize the change of 
habits as in itself adaptive and as an impor- 
tant condition of selection. ‘“ He who believes 
in the struggle for existence and in the prin- 
cipal of natural selection will acknowledge 
that every organic being is constantly en- 
deavoring to increase in numbers; and that 
if any one being varies ever so little, in either 
habits or structure, and thus gains any ad- 
vantage over some other inhabitant of the 
same country, it will seize on the place of that 
inhabitant, however different it may be from 
its own place. Hence it will cause him no 
surprise that there should be geese and frigate 
birds with webbed feet living on dry land and 
rarely alighting on the water; that there 
should be long-toed corncrakes living in mea- 
dows instead of in swamps; that there should 
be woodpeckers where hardly a tree grows; 
that there should be diving thrushes and 
diving Hymenoptera, and petrels with the 
habits of hawks” (p. 145). These quotations 
may give an idea of Darwinism quite different 
from that suggested by some current defini- 
tions which the authors have not felt obliged 
to connect with Darwin’s writings. 

By ecological adaptation is meant the kind 
of adaptation which occurs when a species 
occupies a favorable position without showing 
any obvious adaptive characters, except such 
as are common to other members of the same 
genus or larger group. By ecological selec- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 582. 


tion is meant the kind of selection which is 
conditioned upon the species occupying a 
favorable position without developing any 
obvious adaptive characters. i 

No ecological position is favorable for an 
unlimited number of individuals. The mul- 
tiplication of species results from the fact 
that the dominant species produce more indi- 
viduals than can occupy the same position. 
Whenever the number exceeds the optimum, 
even when there is no kind of inferiority 
among the individuals, wholesale extermina- 
tion must occur, or some of the individuals 


must avoid competition with the dominant 


form by a change of place or habits. 

Change of place seems to be the easiest and 
most natural means of avoiding competition 
and one of the most obvious conditions of 
selection. I am inclined to regard this as the 
most important factor and the one which will 
explain the most cases. I think the students 
of geographical distribution can show a thou- 
sand incipient species where the mutationists 
ean show a doubtful one. In a local fauna it 
is remarkable how few species belong to the 
same genus. It is almost certain that the 
nearest relatives of any form will be found 
outside the district. The homogeneous ele- 
ments diverge from a given habitat and the 
heterogeneous elements converge there. What 
happens to the migrating form seems to me 
of less importance, if it can be shown that the 
migration was a condition of selection. This 
may be hard to show. It is obvious enough, 
if we contemplate the return of all of the 
forms to their original starting point. Modi- 
fication of the geographical segregate by the 
intererossing of its more or less isolated mem- 
bers, by the operation of the selective condi- 
tions of the new environment, or by the local 
influences which give an impress to large ele- 
ments of the fauna, are all secondary to the 


selective conditions which induced the migra- 


tion. 

But a considerable proportion of species 
may have originated in the same place. In 
this case the condition of selection is the 
adoption of habits which relieve them from 
the pressure of competition with the dominant 
forms. If a form occupies a favorable posi- 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


tion, it will produce a great number of indi- 
viduals forming what we call a common and 
polymorphic species, probably more or less 
variable in habits, or polytropic. When the 
number of individuals approaches the maxi- 
mum, the pressure of competition increases 
until the position becomes unfavorable to a 
certain proportion of the individuals. The 
pressure is least on the set of individuals hay- 
ing the most divergent habits. There is a 
tendency for the polymorphous polytropic 
group to break up into a number of more 
uniform oligotropic groups. If the parent 
species is itself oligotropic, it may give rise 
to a form of quite different habits. The orig- 
inal form retains the original position and 
the derived form changes to a new position. 
Usually all that is required to place a form in 
an absolutely new ecological position and 
make it the progenitor of a varied line of 
descendants is a mere change in the kind of 
food. The assemblage of bees owes its exist- 
ence to the fact that some aculeate hymen- 
opteron abandoned the pursuit of other in- 
sects and provisioned its nests with honey and 
pollen. 

Whenever competition becomes severe, nat- 
ural selection may operate upon two sets of 
individuals, those which have the original 
habits and those which show a change of 
habits. In the first set it retains the most 
perfectly adapted individuals. This merely 
keeps’ the original species adjusted to the 
original habits. The second set becomes the 
new species and natural selection may further 
operate to fit it to the new habits. When an 
old organ is used for a new purpose, we can 
understand how, after competition has again 
become severe, individuals in which the organ 
is best fitted for the new use will have the 
advantage. The theory of natural selection 
itself as applied to adaptive structures implies 
that the development of a new organ is pre- 
ceded by a change of habits, for how is natural 
selection, to improve an organ for a certain 
purpose unless the organ is already being used 
for that purpose ? : 

Those who attach so much importance to 
structural modifications as a condition of 
selection seem to me to overlook an important 


SCIENCE. 309 


element in the nature of adaptation. Adapta- 
tion is determined by the nature of the posi- 
tion as well as by the presence of structures 
fitting the organism for it. The bird which 
became the progenitor of the humming birds 
was better adapted to its new place than any 
of its more modified descendants, not because 
it was structurally better fitted to get nectar 
from flowers, but because it occupied a more 
favorable place. The favorable nature of this 
place is shown in the fact that it could pro- 
duce 400 specific forms in a comparatively 
short time. The absence of adaptive struc- 
tures does not show that a species is wanting 
in adaptive habits of the most distinct kind. 
It does not show that natural selection has 
been any less operative in producing segre- 
gation. : 
As an example of ecological adaptation 

may mention several species of the bee genus 
Colletes which occur in my neighborhood. 
They are distinguished by structural differ- 
ences of the labrum, antennz, metathorax, by 
size and punctation and by the color and 
arrangement of the hair. The proboscis and 
pollen-carrying apparatus are the same in all, 
and, as far as I ean see, the species do not 
have any adaptive structural differences. The 
nine species so differ in habits and in seasonal 
distribution that only three are in competi- 
tion. C. inequalis is polytropic and flies 
from March 20 to May 31. (C. e@stivalis gets 
its pollen exclusively from Heuchera hispida 
and flies from May 8 to July 1. C. brevicornis 
is an oligotropic visitor of Specularia per- 
foliata and flies from May 29 to June 29. 
C. willistonizi flies from May 28 to September 
5, and C. latitarsis from June 13 to September 
29. Both of these are competitors for the 
pollen of Physalis, but they are not closely 
related. C. latitarsis is more common and its 
flight begins and ends later. OC. eulophi flies 
from May 28 to October 9. It is polytropiec, 
but gets most of its pollen from Composite. 
It is a competitor of the following species 


only in 40 per cent. of its days and in 22 


per cent. of its observed flower visits. Three 
species are autumnal and get their pollen 
exclusively from Composite: ©. armatus, 
August 17 to October 7; C. americanus, 


310 


August 18 to October 23; C. compactus, 
August 26 to October 19. The times of flight 
of the three species nearly coincide and they 
are competitors in the order named by 80 per 
cent., 66 per cent. and 45 per cent. of their 


observed visits. According to the views ex- 


pressed here, three closely related species hay- 
ing the same habits would not be expected to 
originate in the same neighborhood. A spe- 
cies having an abundant food supply will 
simply increase in the number of individuals. 
The three species above mentioned are not 
closely related. They have evidently become 
competitors by migrating from the outside. 

In Andrena there are three species, each an 
oligotropie visitor of willows and each having 
a form, or closely related species, in which 
the female has the abdomen red. At least as 
far as these species go, it will refute my view 
if it can be shown that the red form indicates 
the development of a new species having the 
same habits and the same range. I regard the 
red form as a southern geographical race, or 
species, and hold that the forms in their dis- 
tribution merely overlap here. 

The views here stated may be expressed in 
the following propositions: 

1. To occupy the same ecological position 
two species must have the same geographical 
and phenological range and the same food 
habits. 

2. No ecological position is favorable for an 
unlimited number of individuals. 

3. The origin of new species results from 
the fact that the dominant species produce 
more individuals than can occupy the same 
position. 

4. Natural selection then operates in fayor 
of any set of individuals which changes hab- 
itat or habits so as to avoid competition with 
the dominant form. 

5. The dominant form retains the original 
position. : 

6. The new form becomes specialized in ad- 
justment to the new position. 

7. The least specialized members of a group 
occupy the original position. The special- 
ized members of a group have not driven 
out the original forms from the original posi- 
tion, but have been driven out by them. The 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 582. 


highest specialized members are the ones 
which have most frequently been driven out 
of their positions by the competition of lower 
forms. 

8. Specific characters usually are not adapt- 
ive. 

9. Specific characters are the result of the 
intercrossing of the members of an ecological 
segregate and are the result rather than the 
cause of the segregation. 

10. Adaptation to a position is determined 
by the nature of the position rather than by 
the characters fitting the organism for it. 
Usually it does not require the development 
of adaptive characters and usually is not asso- 
ciated with them. 

11. Adaptive characters are the result of the 
operation of natural selection after the eco- 
logical segregation takes place and do not 
precede the occupation of the new position. 

12. An ecological position is more favorable 
to a limited number of individuals with im- 
perfect adaptive structures than to a great 
number of individuals having more perfect 
structures. 

18. An ecological basis for morphology is 
found in the change ef habits which requires 
an old organ to be used for a new purpose. 
An ecological basis for eyolution is indicated 
by the endless taxonomic difficulties resulting 
from adaptation to function. - 

14. Species having the same habits are pro- 
duced by geographical migration. 

15. Species having different habits are pro- 
duced by ecological selection. 

CHarLes Ropertson. 


‘ BARRIERS ’ AND ‘ BIONOMIC BARRIERS’; OR ISOLA- 
TION AND NON-ISOLATION AS BIONOMIC FACTORS. 


During the last three months there have 
appeared in Scimncr a most interesting series 
of communications, contributed by both zool- 
ogists and botanists, on the influence of isola- 
tion as a factor in the evolution of species and 
subspecies. While there has been some dis- 
agreement as to the facts in the case, especially 
from the side of the botanists, the zoologists 
appear to differ mainly in respect to the appli- 
cation of terms to phenomena about the exist- 
ence and relations of which there is practically 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


no disagreement. Following President Jor- 
dan’s original statement of the case in the 
issue of Scrence for November 3, 1905, and 
my own comment thereon in the issue for 
November 24, 1905, is a communication by 
Professor HE. A. Ortmann, in the issue for 
January 12, 1906, entitled ‘Isolation as One 
of the Factors in Evolution,’ about which I 
wish to offer a few words in the way of 
comment. 

In this communication Professor Ortmann 
states, apropos of the previous papers by Jor- 
dan and myself, that he ‘can not strongly 
enough endorse’ Jordan’s view ‘ that isolation 
is a factor in the formation of every species 
on the face of the earth’; ‘ for,’ he continues, 
‘it is absolutely unthinkable that two species 
may be derived from one ancestral species 
without the action of isolation” To continue 
the quotation further, Ortmann says: 


All the instances introduced by Allen as op- 
posed to this view are rather in support of it. 
He concludes that in variations of certain widely 
distributed species, which pass into each other 
from one extremity of the range to the other, no 
isolation by barriers exists, but that there is 
continuous distribution. Indeed, there is con- 
tinuous distribution, but there is no continuity 
_ of bionomic conditions. These different bionomic 
conditions pass into each other, and, consequently, 
we have varieties, and not species. This is clearly 
the first step toward complete isolation, and for 
complete isolation ‘barriers’ in most cases are 
not absolutely necessary features. 


Under the new definitions of ‘barriers’ and 
‘isolation’ this may, in large part, be con- 
ceded as true, but as not wholly true, even 
under these new premises. If President Jor- 
dan originally meant by isolation and barriers 
“bionomic isolation’ and ‘ bionomic barriers,’ 
as he has since stated that he did,’ and as 
Professor Ortmann now claims that he did, 
instead of isolation and barriers as commonly 
accepted by students of the geographic distri- 
bution and geographic evolution of animals, 
the case is, of course, quite changed by the 
afterthought of fuller definition. Jt may, 
further, explain Ortmann’s statement that my 
presentation of the case ‘demonstrates again 


1 Scrmnce, N. S., Vol. XXII., No. 570, p. 715. 


SCIENCE. 


oll 


that the principle of isolation or separation 
is not generally understood in its full mean- 
ing.’ 

But let us consider for a moment just what 
are the real facts covered by the statement: 
“Indeed, there is continuous distribution, but 
there is no continuity of biologic conditions.’ 

Students of the geographic distribution and 
geographic or climatic evolution of species 
and subspecies, and also of minor local vari- 
ants, among North American birds and mam- 
mals, both in the field and through handling 
vast numbers of museum specimens, are, per- 
haps, as familiar with the general facts of 
geographic variation as are investigators in 
any other field of biology. Let us apply a 
little of this ‘common knowledge’ to the 
statement that “for complete isolation ‘ bar- 
riers’ in most cases are not absolutely neces- 
sary features.”” We may take for illustration 
any one of hundreds of conspecific groups, 
such as the song sparrows, the quails, grouse, 
woodpeckers, ground squirrels of several gen- 
era, tree squirrels, hares, field mice of various 
genera, etc., where an intergrading group of 
well-marked geographic forms has collectively 
a continuous range of hundreds, and often of 
several thousand miles in, it may be, both 
an east and west and a north and south direc- 
tion. The extremes, or the peripheral forms, 
are so diverse in size, coloration, food habits, 
ete., that if one of these extreme forms were 
to be transferred to the home of the other it 
would be impossible for the two to intermingle 
through interbreeding, or for either to survive 
the changed conditions of environment. Yet 
between them there is no impassable physical 
barrier to continuous distribution, nor any 
break in the continuity of intergradation. 
Between such forms there is evidently a bio- 
nomic barrier. They have, indeed, become so 
divergent that were the connectant forms 
swept out of existence over a wide area by an 
epidemic of disease, or by some topographic 
or climatic change of conditions, the surviving 
extremes of the series could be considered by 
systematists in no other light than as fully 
segregated and sharply defined species. 

But how is it between two contiguous and 
less differentiated forms? In eastern North 


312 


America, from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, 
there are no abrupt and insuperable barriers, 
either topographic or climatic, to the continu- 
ous distribution of many forms of life; the 
diversity of conditions, due primarily to cli- 
mate, however, is so great that few, if any, 
species of mammals range throughout this 
whole area, or of birds that have a breeding 
range of this great extent. Each climatic 
zone has its peculiar associations of life, made 
up by the overlapping of the ranges of dif- 
ferent sets of species, whose final boundaries 
are formed for each by a particular combina- 
tion of climatic conditions. Aside from the 
temperature zones, just considered, other cli- 
matic factors, as especially that of rainfall, 
become active in passing from the eastern 
border of the United States westward to the 
Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. 
There thus arise a large number of faunal 
areas aside from those dependent on zones of 
temperature. The transition between these 
also is not sufficiently abrupt, except where 
locally complicated with topographic barriers, 
to prevent the continuous distribution of many 
species of birds and mammals. But the transi- 
tion at certain points between contiguous 
forms is much more rapid over certain com- 
paratively narrow belts than elsewhere. If 
we take some central point in the eastern 
United States, as for instance Columbus, Ohio, 
we may go east, west, north or south for sev- 
eral hundred miles in an area where the 
amount of local or climatic differentiation is 
so small as to be practically indistinguishable; 
in other words, we are in the central portion 
of a large area where the conditions of life 
are comparatively uniform, and are reflected in 
the practically constant characters—color, 
size, ete.—of its animals. If, however, we 
pass westward to about the ninety-eighth 
meridian, on the same parallel, we meet with 
wholly different conditions; we are then in a 
transition belt, where the characters of the 
animals are unstable; we have left the eastern 
phases of many of the mammals that range 
continuously westward, but have not yet 
reached the Great Plains phases that come in 
and for a long distance take their place as 
stable western forms representing the equally 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 582. 


stable eastern forms we have left behind. We 
are in a comparatively narrow belt of inter- 
mediates—in some respects the béte noir of 
the systematist, in others constituting an in- 
valuable key to otherwise intricate problems 
in evolution—which in turn reflect the action 
of intermediate conditions of environment 
between two well-marked areas. There is no 
barrier, topographic, climatic, or even bio- 
nomic, under any reasonable use of these 
terms; the transition belt is narrow, seldom 
more than thirty to fifty or a hundred miles 
in width; there is every opportunity for inter- 
breeding, and no barrier other than the seden- 
tary disposition of individual animals. If 
this fulfills Professor Ortmann’s definition of 
“no continuity of bionomic conditions, and 
meets President Jordan’s definition of ‘ isola- 
tion,’ we at least understand each other. 
J. A. ALLEN. 
AMERICAN MusEUM oF NATURAL HISTORY, 
New York City, 
January 21, 1906. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
ON THE BREAKING-UP OF THE OLD GENUS CULEX. 


Wirnin the past two years attempts have 
been made to break up the old genus Culex in- 
to smaller genera based chiefly or wholly upon 
the structure of the claspers of the male. 
That too great stress has been laid upon this 
character in many cases is the opinion of more 
than one systematic worker in the Diptera. 
Thus such very closely related species as 
sylvestris and cantator are separated into dis- 
tinet genera, while, on the other hand, such 
very diverse forms as sollicitans, squamiger, 
bigotu, annulatus, janitor and discolor are 
placed in one and the same genus. In this as 
in other cases, any attempt at a classification 
founded upon a single character is certain to 
produce unsatisfactory results; only by taking 
into consideration the habits and entire life 
cycle of the various forms can anything ap- 
proximating a natural grouping be formu- 
lated. 

The writer has recently been able to make 
a long-contemplated study of the species of 
this country placed by Theobald in the genus 
Culex in the first two volumes of his mono- 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


graph, with a view to the bringing about of 

a more natural grouping of these forms, for 

use in a circular soon to be issued by Dr. L. 

O. Howard; as the character of that publica- 

tion precludes the giving of an exposition of 

the subject, it has been thought best to give 
this in the pages of ScIENCE. 

I first made a critical study of the members 
of this genus in the year 1895, and was im- 
pressed with the importance of the structure 
of the tarsal claws of the female—whether 
toothed, or simple—and later began all of my 
published synoptic tables of the species with 
this character. The present study has but 
confirmed the correctness of that first impres- 
sion—that all of the species with simple claws 
in the female are more nearly related to each 
other than they are to any species in the series 
haying the claws toothed, and vice versa. 
Several months ago Miss EH. G. Mitchell ex- 
pressed the opinion that those species which 
lay their eggs in masses form a natural group 
by themselves, and stated that their larve 
possess important structural characters not 
found among those belonging to the single- 
egg group. That the difference in the manner 
of egg-laying is an important one admits of 
no argument; even the enveloping membrane 
is structurally different in the two kinds of 
eges. Applying the egg-laying habit, so far 
as this is at present known, to the members of 
the two tarsal-claw groups, it was ascertained 
that all those with toothed claws deposit their 
eggs singly, while those with simple claws lay 
their eggs in masses with the exception of a 
single genus (Grabhamia). This was sufii- 
cient agreement to indicate an evident correla- 
tion existing between the egg-laying habits 
and the character of the tarsal claws. Next, 
by taking jointly the more prominent char- 
acters from both adults and larve a rational 
and natural grouping resulted, as may be seen 
by reference to the accompanying table: 

A. Tarsal claws of the female simple, scales of 
the mesonotum and the outstanding ones on the 
wing veins narrow and almost linear. 

B. Eggs laid in masses. Larva having more 

than one pair of tufts or of single hairs on 


*See the Canadian Entomologist for 1896, page 
43. 


SCIENCE. 


313 


the breathing tube, or else with ten or more 
bristles in continuation of the two rows of 
spines. Tarsi of the adult white at each end 
of some of the joints, or else wholly black, 
in which latter case the abdomen is black 
scaled, sometimes with basal light colored 
bands on the segments. 

C. Hind cross-vein of the wings more than its 
own length distant from the small, palpi 
of the male exceeding the proboscis by more 
than the length of the last joint, densely 
long-haired. Larva with more than one 
pair of tufts or of single hairs on the 
breathing tube, the two rows of spines never 
continued by bristles, antennal tuft situated 
in a distinct notch (pipiens, etc.) . 

Culex Linné. 

CC. Hind cross-vein less than its length from 
the small, palpi of the male scarcely ex- 
ceeding the proboscis, sparsely short-haired. 
Larva with only one pair of tufts om the 
breathing tube, situated close to its base, 
the two rows of spines continued by ten or 
more bristles, antennal tuft never in a 
notch. 

D. Seales of the wings uniformly dis- 
tributed (absobrinus, etc.) . 
Culiseta Felt. 
DD. Scales much more dense on some por- 
tions of the veins than on other portions 
(annulatus, ete.). 
Theobaldia Nev. Lem. 
BB. Eggs laid singly. Larva having only one 
pair of tufts on the breathing tube, the two 
rows of spines composed of from four to six 
spines each, the rows never continued by bris- 
tles, spines on either side of the eighth seg- 
ment of the abdomen very large, from four 
to six in number, arranged in a single row. 
Tarsi of the adult white at the bases’ only of 
some of the joints, or else wholly black, in 
which case the abdomen is black scaled and 
with the front corners of the segments white 
sealed (jamaicensis, etc.). 
Grabhamia Theob. 
AA. Tarsal claws of the female toothed in at 
least the front and middle feet. Eggs laid 
singly. Larva with only one pair of tufts on’ 
the breathing tube (except in cinereoborealis), 
the two rows of spines composed of ten or more 
rather small ones in each row, the latter not 
continued by bristles. 
E. Seales of the mesonotum narrow, almost 
linear. 
F. Outstanding scales of the wing-veins nar- 


314 


row, only slightly tapering toward their 
bases (confirmatus, etc.) . 
Ochlerotatus Arrib. 
FF. Outstanding scales chiefly very broad, 
strongly tapering toward their bases, sev- 
eral of them emarginate at their apices 
(type, squamiger).  Lepidoplatys n. gen. 
EH. Scales of the mesonotum chiefly rather 
broad, obovate, outstanding scales of the 
wing veins narrow (type, cyanescens). 
Lepidosia n. gen. 
For want of knowledge of the egg-laying 
habits, the genus Cuwlicella is omitted from the 
above table; also the genera Melanoconion 
and Pneuwmaculex, both of which have rather 
broad scales on the wing veins. The synon- 
ymy of the other proposed names, so far as 
these can be made out at the present writing, 
is as follows: 


Cutrx Linné: Heteronycha Arrib., Neoculex 
Dyar. 


GraBHamiA Theob.: Feltidia Dyar. 


Ocutrroratus Arrib.: Culicelsa, Culicada, 
Heculex and Protoculex Felt; Pseudoculex 
Dyar and Grabhamia Dyar (not of Theo- 


bald). D. W. Coguintert. 
U. S. Nationan Musrum, i 
January 19, 1906. 


IMPORTATIONS OF THE PRICKLY PEAR FROM 
MEXICO. 


THE United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, through the Office of Grass and Forage 
Plant Investigations, has within the past three 
months made some large importations of spe- 
cies of economic cacti from the plateau region 
of Mexico. ‘There is probably no region in 
the world where these plants are of so much 
importance as food for man and beast as they 
are in the great highland region of this re- 
public. While some of the recent accounts 
of these plants which have appeared in the 
popular journals are spectacular and much 
overdrawn, there is still a great deal of well- 
founded popular and scientific interest in the 
prickly pears in this country. The impor- 
tance of the prickly pear in the region above 
mentioned is apparent to all who have traveled 
in Mexico and observed Mexican habits and 
customs at all closely during any season of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 582. 


the year, for there is scarcely a day through- 
out the year that the fruits, to say nothing of 
portions of the plants themselves, are not 
offered for sale on some of the markets in the 
cities of the republic. 

The following brief list of imported varie- 
ties will serve as an illustration of the wealth 
and variety of material which the Mexican 
people have at their command: Nopal agua- 
mielillo, nopal amarillo, nopal amarillo-blanco, 
nopal amarillo-liso, nopal arton, nopal blanco, 
nopal blanco-liso, nopal charol, nopal caidillo, 
nopal camueso, nopal cardon, nopal cardon- 
blanco, nopal eastillo-blanco, nopal cascaron, 
nopal cenizo, nopal chamacuero, nopal cha- 
veiio, nopal cochinero, nopal cogonoxtle (car- 
dencha), nopal colorado, nopal cristalino, 
nopal cuijo, nopal duraznillo, nopal duraznillo 
blanco, nopal duraznillo colorado, nopal fafa- 
yuco, nopal huevo de perro, nopal encarna- 
dillo, nopal jarillo, nopal jocoquilla, nopal 
joconoxtle, nopal joconoxtle-chato, nopal joco- 
noxtle-cuaresmaro, nopal lJeonero, nopal liso, 
nopal loco, nopal mameyo, nopal manso- 
morado, nopal naranjado, nopal negrito, nopal 
opalillo (apalillo), nopal pachon, nopal pala- 
mito, nopal paloaltefio, nopal San Juanero, 
nopal sarco, nopal tapon, nopal tapon liso, 
nopal teca, nopal temperanillo, nopal vinatero, 
nopalito de jardin. About as many more un- 
named economic forms in addition to the 
above have been imported. 

Some of the above popular names refer to 
the same plant, being different appellations 
for the same thing from different localities, 
and others are varietal names only, but it is 
believed that the majority of them represent 
good botanical species. 


Daviw GRIFFITHS. 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
MOISTURE FOR HEATED HOUSES IN WINTER. 


Tue dryness of the air in our furnace or 
steam-heated buildings in winter has often 
been referred to, and has also been experi- 
mentally investigated. Recently Mr. G. A. 
Loveland, section director of the Nebraska 
Climate and Crop Service, has made some cal- 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


culation regarding the amount of water needed 
to moisten the air indoors to a reasonable de- 
gree (Mo. Weather Rev., XX XIII., 208). He 
finds that in southeastern Nebraska, in a 
house containing 14,000 cubic feet, from 
twenty to forty quarts of water should be 
evaporated daily. This amount of evapora- 
tion does not increase the relative humidity 
by more than ten per cent. Experience has 
shown that, under the conditions of Mr. 
Loveland’s experiments, the humidity indoors 
should not exceed forty per cent., otherwise 
condensation on windows will be trouble- 
some. Double windows doubtless allow a 
greater increase in humidity without the 


disagreeable result here referred to. The 
ten per cent. increase makes a decided 
difference in the feeling of the air. The tem- 


perature of the room was kept about as high 
with the added moisture as if the air had been 
drier. (In some experiments made a few 
years ago by Dr. Henry J. Barnes, of Boston, 
the moisture added to the air by means of a 
‘humidifier’ made the room comfortable at a 
temperature several degrees lower.) 


ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 


RecENT meetings of the Royal Meteorolog- 
ical Society, as reported in the Quarterly 
Journal of the society, brought out several 
papers of general interest. An address on 
“The Growth of Instrumental Meteorology,’ 
by Richard Bentley, laid emphasis on the 
seven great weapons of the meteorologist, the 
thermometer, hygrometer, rain gauge, barom- 
eter, anemometer, kite and heliograph, and 
directed attention to our indebtedness to Italy 
in this science, as in others. W. H. Dines, in 
“An Account.of the Observations at Crinan 
in 1904, and Description of a new Meteoro- 
graph for use with Kites,’ reported upon the 
kite work carried on under the direction of a 
joint committee of the Royal Meteorological 
Society and of the British Association. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1904 a naval vessel was 
placed at the disposal of this committee by the 
Admiralty. Richard Strachan, in a paper on 
“Measurement of Evaporation, thought it de- 
sirable to estimate, even empirically, the prob- 
able amounts of evaporation and percolation. 


SCIENCE. 


315 


“Normal Electrical Phenomena of the Atmos- 
phere’ were discussed by George C. Simpson, 
who stated the chief lines along which investi- 
gations have been made during the last few 
years, the conclusions arrived at, and the chief 
problems awaiting solution. A paper by S. P. 
Fergusson, of Blue Hill Observatory, described 
the automatic pole star recorder, and the om- 
broscope in use at Blue Hill. The latter in- 
strument records with great exactness the 
time of commencement and the duration of 
rain. 


ANNUAL RINGS OF TREE GROWTH. 

In the Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 
XXXITI., 1905, 250-251, Professor EH. E. 
Bogue, of the Agricultural College at Lan- 
sing, Mich., gives the results of an investiga- 
tion made by him of the seasonal and annual 
rapidity of growth of trees in Stillwater, Okla., 
between October, 1898, and September, 1901. 
Twenty-seven trees were studied, nearly all of 
them being yearlings or two-year-olds. The 
results show that there was a close relation 
between rainfall and tree growth. At Lan- 
sing, Mich., an investigation was made into 
the average width of the annual rings of 
growth of forty-two trees, during the period 
1892 to 1904, in relation to the annual pre- 
cipitation. The data show that a precipita- 
tion of 30 to 35 inches gives a width of ring 
of from 0.11 to 0.15 inch, and that abnormally 
large or small precipitation is evidenced by 
the tree growth of the following year. 


CLOUD STUDIES IN THE PYRENEES. 


TuHE results of detailed cloud studies carried 
on at the Pic du Midi Observatory and at the 
base station, Bagnéres, have been discussed by 
Marchand (Met. Zeitschr., Nov., 1905). Of 
general interest may be noted the following 
conclusions. Three different elements occur 
in clouds: (1) Water drops; (2) small, more 
or less crystalline ice particles, without definite 
forms; (3) small, regular, transparent hexag- 
onal crystals (plates, stars, needles, etc.). 
Cirrus and cirro-stratus are composed of the 
third of these elements. Cirro-cumulus clouds 
also contain these erystals, but probably are 
chiefly made up of ice particles of distinct 


316 


erystalline form and much less frequently of 
sub-cooled water drops. Cumulus, nimbus, 
stratus, alto-cumulus and strato-cumulus are 
composed of water drops, which may be sub- 
cooled, or of ice pellets, sometimes mixed with 
small regular erystals. 


INVESTIGATION OF THE UPPER AIR IN ENGLAND. 


Nature (December 14, 1905) reports that 
the Meteorological Committee has assigned 
from the parliamentary grant under its con- 
trol a sum for promoting the investigation of 
the upper air by kites and other means. It is 
proposed to establish an experimental station 
for kite ascents and other experimental in- 
vestigations; to develop and extend the in- 
strumental equipment, so that facilities may 
be afforded for the cooperation of other ob- 
servers upon sea and land, and to provide for 
the publication of the observations. Mr. W. 
H. Dines will undertake the direction of the 
operations for the Meteorological Office. The 
cooperation of marine observers will be en- 
listed, and several offers of assistance in the 
work at land stations have already been re- 
ceived. 


TEMPERATURE AND RELATIVE HUMIDITY DATA. 


Butietin O of the United States Weather 
Bureau contains a useful collection of data 
concerning the temperature and relative hu- 
midity of the United States. The tables in- 
elude the following: highest and lowest tem- 
peratures recorded at Weather Bureau stations 
for each month (with charts); monthly and 
annual mean maximum and mean minimum 
temperatures; monthly and annual mean rela- 
tive humidity. If we are not mistaken, these 
data have all been published in the ‘ Annual 
Reports of the Chief of the Weather Bureau,’ 
but it is very convenient to have them in a 
separate Bulletin, of less bulky proportions 
than the annual reports. 


R. DeC. Warp. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


January 15.—The Secretary of the Treasury 
transmitted a communication from the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, submitting an estimate 
of appropriations for the International 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 582. 


Seismological Association. Referred to the 
Committee on Appropriations of the House 
of Representatives. 

January 26.—Mr. Lacey introduced a bill in 
the House to protect birds and their eggs in 
game and bird preserves. Referred to the 
Committee on Public Lands. 

Mr. Babcock introduced a bill to prohibit 
the killing of birds and other wild animals in 
the District of Columbia. Referred to the 
Committee on the District of Columbia. 

January 30.—Mr. Cushman introduced a 
bill for the protection and regulation of the 
fisheries of Alaska. Referred to the Committee 
on the Territories. 

February 1—A bill to establish a fish-eul- 
tural station in the state of Utah was con- 
sidered as in committee of the whole. It pro- 
poses to appropriate $25,000 for the establish- 
ment of a fish-cultural station in the state of 
Utah, including purchase of site, construction 
of buildings and ponds, and equipment,. at 
some suitable point to be selected by the Secre- 
tary of Commerce and Labor: The bill was 
passed in the Senate. 

A bill to appropriate the sum of $25,000 un- 
der similar conditions to those of the first bill, 
to establish a fish-eultural station in the state 
of Wyoming, was also passed. 

A bill to establish one or more fish-cultural 
stations on Puget Sound, state of Washing- 
ton, was considered as in committee of the 
whole. It proposes to appropriate $50,000 
for the establishment of one or more fish-cul- 
tural stations on Puget Sound, state of Wash- 
ington, for the propagation of salmon and 
other food fishes, including purchase of sites, 
construction of buildings and ponds, purchase 
and hire of boats and equipment, and such 
temporary help as may be required for the 
construction and operation of the fish-cul- 
tural stations, at a suitable point or points 
to be selected by the Secretary of Commerce 
and Labor, the number of fish-cultural stations 
to be determined by the Secretary of Com- 
merce and Labor.. Passed in the Senate. 

February 8—The bill to establish a fish- 
cultural station in the city of Fargo, North 
Dakota, passed the Senate. 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


The act to provide for the protection of the 
salmon fisheries of Alaska, approved June 9, 
1896, was amended in the Senate by the pas- 
sage of the following section: 

See. 2. That it shall be unlawful to fish, catch, 
or kill any salmon of any variety, except with rod 
or spear, above the tide waters of any of the 
ereeks or rivers of less than 500 feet width in the 
Territory of Alaska, except only for purposes of 
propagation, or to lay or set any drift net, set 
net, trap, pound net, or seine for any purpose 
across the tide waters of any river or stream for 
a distance of more than one third of the width 
of such river, stream, or channel, or lay or set 
any seine or net within 100 yards of any other 
net or seine which is being laid or set in said 
stream or channel, or to take, kill, or fish for 
salmon in any manner or by any means in any of 
the waters of the Territory of Alaska, either in 
the streams or tide waters, except Cook Inlet, 
Prince William Sound, Bering Sea, and the waters 
tributary thereto, from midnight on Saturday of 
each week until midnight of the Sunday follow- 
ing; or to fish for or catch or kill in any manner 
or by any appliance, except by rod or spear, any 
salmon in any stream of less than 100 yards in 
width in the said Territory of Alaska between the 
hours of 6 o’clock in the evening and 6 o’clock in 
the morning of the following day of each and 
every day of the week. 

The bill to prohibit aliens from taking fish 
from the waters of the District of Alaska, 
passed the Senate. 

The House bill authorizing the Secretary of 
the Interior to lease land in Stanley County, 
South Dakota, for a buffalo pasture, was re- 
ported from the Committee on Public Lands, 
of the House, and referred to the Committee 
of the Whole. 


THE COMING MEETING OF THE MUSEUMS 
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA. 

On the fifteenth of May, at the American 
Museum of Natural History, Central Park, 
New York, a meeting will be held in order to 
organize ‘The Museums Association of Am- 
erica. Already the administrative heads of 
almost all of the more important museums, 
both of art and of natural history, in the 
United States and Canada have signified their 
intention, if possible, to be present at this 
meeting, and many have signified their pur- 


SCIENCE. 


S17 


poses to read papers upon important subjects 
connected with the work of museums. The 
trustees of the Botanical Garden in Bronx 
Park have invited those attending this pre- 
liminary meeting to accept their hospitalities 
during one day’s session, and have tendered 
a luncheon to the association. The committee 
of arrangements desires all who may be con- 
nected with museums in official capacities, or 
who take an interest in the work of museums, 
and who may desire to enroll themselves in 
such an organization, to signify that fact to 
the undersigned, who will, upon receipt of an 
intimation of their desire to be enrolled as 
members of the association, send to them at 
once the proper papers to be filled out. 

It is hoped that this invitation will meet 
with a general response. W. J. Hobuanp. 

THE CARNEGIE MusrEuM, 

PITTSBURG, Pa. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


A BILL granting permission to Professor 
Simon Newcomb, U. S. N., to accept the 
decoration of the order ‘Pour le Mérite, fur 
Wissenschaften und Kunste,’ tendered by the 
emperor of Germany, passed the senate on 
February 8. 

M. H. pr CuaTeier, professor of chemistry 
in the Collége de France, has been elected a 
corresponding member of the Berlin Academy 
of Sciences. 

Emprror WILHELM has appointed Professor 
Ernst von Bergmann a member of the upper 
house of parliament (Herrenhaus) for life. 
This is the first time that such an honor has 
been conferred on a member of the medical 
profession. 

Dr. W. J. Houuanp, the director of the Car- 
negie Museum, has accepted the invitation of 
the editor of the ‘ Encyclopedia Britannica,’ 
London, to prepare the article upon Natural 
History Museums for the twelfth edition of 
the encyclopedia. 

Guascow University will confer its doc- 
torate of laws on Robert E. Frasher, F.R.S., 
superintendent of the admiralty experiment 
works and member of the admiralty committee 
on warship designs. 


318 


Tue Argentine government has decided to 
continue the Scotia Bay Meteorological Sta- 
tion for still another year, and has appointed 
Mr. Angus Rankin, late of the Ben Nevis 
Observatory, to take charge. Mr. Rankin left 
Edinburgh for the south on October 11, and 
was accompanied by two other former mem- 
bers of the Ben Nevis staff, Mr. R. H. Mac- 
Dougall and Mr. William Bee. 


We learn from the University of New 
Mexico Weekly that President W. G. Tight, 
after about two weeks in the hospital, is re- 
covering from the accident due to an explosion 
in his laboratory. 


Dr. Joun B. Smrru, professor of entomol- 
ogy at Rutgers College, has sailed for Europe, 
having been granted three months’ leave of 
absence. 


Proressor W. R. Ornoorrr, of Oornell 
University, has left for a stay of several 
months in Europe. He will attend the World’s 
Congress of Chemists at Rome in April. 


Proressor W. Z. Riptey, of the department 
of economics of Harvard University, has been 
given leave of absence for the second half- 
year. 


Dr. Lrwettys F. Barker, professor of 
medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, 
makes one of the principal addresses at the 
celebration of its thirtieth anniversary, on 
February 22. 

A STATED meeting of the Geographic Society 
of Chicago was held in the rooms of the 
Municipal Museum, in the Public Library 
Building, on February 9. An address was 
given by Professor C. K. Leith, of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, on ‘The Iron Ore Re- 
sources of the Lake Superior Region.’ The 
lecture was illustrated. 


Proressor 8. A. Mircueny, of Columbia 
University, lectured before the New York 
Academy of Sciences on February 19 on ‘The 
Total Eclipse of the Sun of August, 1905, 
The lecture was illustrated by stereopticon 
views from photographs taken during the 
eclipse. 


Dr. H. S. Jennies, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, has finished a course of five 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXITT.. No. 582. 


lectures before the Woman’s College of Balti- 
more on ‘The Behavior of Micro-organisms.’ 


Coursss of lectures bearing on anthropology 
will be given this term at Oxford by Professor 
Tylor on ‘ Primitive Man, by Mr. McDougall 
(Wilde reader) on ‘Social Psychology,’ by 
Mr. Bell on ‘The Neolithic Age,’ by Mr. 
Myres on ‘Prehistoric Greece,’ by Professor 
Vinogradoff on ‘Early Legal Institutions,’ 
and by Mr. Marett on ‘The Social Institu- 
tions of Savages.’ Informal instruction will 
also be given by Dr. Evans, of the Ashmolean 
Museum; by Mr. Balfour, of the Pitt Rivers 
Museum; by the professor of classical archeol- 
ogy and others. 

THE original date of the Sixth International 
Congress of Applied Chemistry has been 
changed from April 16, as stated in the issue 
of Sctence for January 26, to April 26, 1906. 

Av the Washington meeting of the Inter- 
national Geographical Congress in 1904, the 
invitation extended by the Swiss government 
and the Geneva Geographical Society to meet 
in 1908 in Geneva, was accepted. Steps are 
already being taken in Switzerland to set on 
foot the necessary preparations, and a circular 
has been issued by the Geneva Geographical 
Society announcing that the meeting will be 
held between July 27 and August 6, 1908. An 
organizing committee will shortly be formed, 
and it is hoped that a provisional program 
may be issued in the course of the year. 

AccorpInG to a despatch to the daily papers 
from Washington, the Carnegie Institution 
has purchased a tract of six acres in the north- 
west section of Washington, near Rock Oreek 
Park, where it will erect a permanent home. 
The site is near the building of the United 
States Bureau of Standards, and is in a com- 
manding position, overlooking the entire city. 
The purchase price was $3,500 an acre, and 
a building costing $100,000 will be erected at 
once. 

Proressor FLaHauut, director of the Bo- 
tanical Institute of the University of Mont- 
pelier, has established by his own gift a moun- 
tain botanical garden on the slopes of 
PAigoual, at an altitude of thirteen hundred 
meters. 


FEBRUARY 23, 1906.] 


Proressor WILLIAM JAMES and Dr. James 
H. Hyslop, vice-presidents of the American 
Branch of the Society for Psychical Research, 
have issued the following letter: “In the 
death of Dr. Richard Hodgson, the secretary 
of the American branch since its foundation, 
the society, as well as his personal friends, 
has suffered a great loss. The work of the 
branch, however, will be continued under the 
direction of its vice-presidents or those ap- 
pointed by them for the purpose, until a satis- 
factory and efficient permanent arrangement 
can be made. In the meantime, it is im- 
portant that past subscriptions to the society’s 
-work should be continued, and new ones ob- 
tained if possible, as there is a mass of docu- 
mentary material collected by Dr. Hodgson 
which awaits the completed critical treatment 
he would have given it had he lived, and which 
should now be dealt with. And there are also 
certain new and important possibilities of in- 
vestigation which have just come into sight.” 


Accorping to the Scottish: Geographical 
Magazine a silver medal has been given by 
Mr. William S. Bruce to the members of 
the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, including 
the scientific staff, officers and crew of the 
Scotia, as well as the home staff, who have 
served throughout the expedition, as a token 
of appreciation of the work done by them. 
The obverse side represents the terrestrial 
globe floating in space swathed in clouds, 
showing especially the Atlantic Ocean and 
the neighboring American, European, African 
and Antarctic continents—the scene of the 
labors of the expedition. Below is the ship 
beset in heavy ice off Coats Land in 74.1° 
south latitude, with a typical flat-topped 
Antaretie iceberg in the background. En- 
circling this design is the legend, ‘ Scottish 
National Antarctic Expedition,’ with a figure 
of St. Andrew and the Cross. The reverse 
side represents Omond House, built specially 
by the officers and crew of the Scotia at 
Seotia Bay, South Orkneys, showing the beach 
and the adjacent mountains. Encircling this 
is a wreath of thistles supported by two flags— 
one the Scottish Lion, the other the St. 
Andrew Cross with the letters S. N. A. E.— 


SCIENCE. 


319 


the expedition flag. Above is a scroll bearing 
the inscription, ‘for valuable services’ with 
the recipient’s name. The dates 1902-1904 in- 
dicate the duration of the expedition. 


‘Tuer daily papers state that the eruption of 
Mount Vesuvius is assuming alarming pro- 
portions. The funicular railway track has 
been damaged at six points, and the principal 
station is threatened with destruction. The 
authorities are taking precautions to prevent 
loss of life. 


AN eruption of Mt. Etna began January 5. 
The Corriere di Catama, January 7, 1906, 
contains this notice: 

The Royal Observatory sends the following com- 
munication: Etna, since the important eruptive 
manifestation of July—August, 1899, has, ending 
with yesterday, passed through a period of almost 
absolute inactivity, interrupted, now and then, by 
some very brief appearance of more or less emana- 
tions of white vapor from the central crater, which 
sometimes, but only rarely, assumed the form of 
slight eruptions, forming on the top of the moun- 
tain, crests which turned now in one direction, 
now in another, according to the direction of the 
high atmospheric current. Yesterday (5-6, Janu- 
ary) there oceurred a notable eruption of ashes 
from the central crater of Etna, which, falling on 
the white mantle of the recent snows, formed a 
long, wide, dark zone on the southern slope of 
Etna from the summit down to the region of 
Monte Nero, Passo Cannelli, etc., where the snow 
belt ends. The north wind carried the ashes as 
far as, and probably beyond, Catania, where on 
the terrace of the Observatory one could gather 
a considerable amount. 

ACCORDING to a despatch from Washington 
to the Boston Transcript, dated February 18,. 
New England experts in the extermination of 
the gypsy and brown tail moths were given a 
hearing before the house committee on agri- 
culture, that morning. Efforts were centered 
in support of Representative Robert’s bill pro- 
viding $250,000 to be used under the direction 
of the Department of Agriculture cooperating 
with ‘authorities of Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, New Hampshire and Maine in ex- 
terminating the moths, $15,000 to be used in 
importing and distributing parasites. A. H. 
Kirkland, superintendent of the extermina- 
tion work in Massachusetts; General Francis 


320 


Henry Appleton, of the State Board of Agri- 
culture, and first vice-president of the Massa- 
chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture; 
W. H. Gowker, member of the first ‘moth’ 
commission; Professor C. H. Fernald, state 
entomologist and member of the faculty of 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College; E. P. 
Hitchings, of Maine; H. J. Wheeler, of Rhode 
Island; E. Dwight Sanderson, of New Hamp- 
shire—all state entomologists—explained the 
serious conditions, the spread of the pest and 
the state efforts made to exterminate the 
moths. Dr. L. O. Howard, of the Agricul- 
tural Department, was present at the hearing. 
He confirmed the statement that Massachu- 
setts has the best available methods for ex- 
terminating the moths in the parasites already 
placed in the infected sections as a result of 
his trip abroad. While yet a matter of ex- 
periment here, they have been effective in 
European countries. 


Tur Peabody Museum, Harvard Univer- 
sity, has recently acquired a fine collection of 
Indian relics from the northern coast of 
America, southern Alaska, British Columbia 
and northern California. They are the gift 
of Mr. L. H. Farlow. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Present Tuomas, of Bryn Mawr College, 
has announced a gift of $80,000 from John D. 
Rockefeller, to enable the college to meet the 
expenses incurred by the trustees over and 
above the gift of $250,000, in 1902, for the new 
library. Mr. Rockefeller has contributed in 
all $455,000 to the fund that secured the 
library, the new dormitory and the heating 
and lighting plant. The total of this fund, 
including Mr. Rockefeller’s gifts, is $738,- 
529.18. 


McGint University receives $50,000 from 
the estate of the late Edwin H. King, former 
general manager of the Bank of Montreal. 
His widow recently died. 


AN equipment of microscopes for the depart- 
ment of physiology, College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, Columbia University, has been pre- 
sented to this institution by Dr. David L. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIIT. No. 582. 


Haight, a graduate of the medical school in 
1864, 

Tue Rockefeller Hall of Physics, at Cornell 
University, will be dedicated at the beginning 
of July, during the Ithaca meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. 

By the will of Mr. R. C. Brereton, Cam- 
bridge University receives about £12,000 for 
the promotion of classical studies. 

Tue electors to the Allen scholarship, of 
Cambridge University, are prepared to re- 
ceive applications from candidates. A candi- 
date must be a graduate of the university, 
whose age did not exceed 28 years on January 
8, last. The scholarship is of the value of 
£250, tenable for one year only, the holder 
not being capable of reelection. This year 
the scholarship is open to candidates who pro- 
pose to undertake research which comes within 
the department of any of the following special 
boards of study—namely, medicine, mathe- 
matics, physics and chemistry, biology and 
geology or moral sciences. 

We learn from the New York Evening Post 
that in the College of Engineering of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati, Melvin Price has been 
made professor of mechanical engineering. 
Professor Price is a graduate of Purdue, took 
advanced work in Columbia, and was recently 
head of the department of mechanical engi- 
neering in the University of Nebraska. E. L. 
Shepard, from the University of Missouri, has 
been appointed instructor in civil engineering. 

I. C. Perrir is appointed instructor in elec- 
trical engineering, at Cornell University, in 
place of R. J. McNitt, resigned. 

Av Sheffield University, Mr. Louis Cobbett, 
F.R.C.S.,. has been appointed professor of 
pathology, and Mr. L. T. O’Shea, B.Se. 
(Lond.), professor of applied chemistry. 

The Journal of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation states that Nothnagel’s vacant chair, 
at Vienna, has been offered to Quincke of Kiel 
and to Striimpell, but each declined the honor. 
Minkowski of Griefswald and yon Noorden of 
Frankfurt-on-the-Main were then proposed by 
the Vienna faculty of medicine, and late ad- 
vices state that von Noorden has accepted. 


Sree NCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Marcu 2, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
The New Orleans Meeting of Section C of the 
American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science and of the American 


Chemical Society: Dr. C. E. WATERS...... 321 


Scientific Books :— 
Conklin on the Organization and Cell- 
lineage of the Ascidian Egg: Dr. C. M. 
Cuitp. Hann’s Lehrbuch der Meteorologie: 

340 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Torrey Botanical Club: C. Sruart 
GacreR. The American Chemical Society, 
New York Section: Dr. F. H. Poucw. The 
Society of Geohydrologists: M. L. FULLER 3845 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Kelep Hacused: Dr. WILLIAM Morton 


Win poo omnes aaeenpdomaoAcomon congo 348 
Special Articles :— 

Rambur and the Nature of Species: PRESI- 

DENT DAvID STARR JORDAN. Glacial Notes 

from the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks: 

WY lal, Soisate7A3, ean slosondsneodsscodcd 350 
Botanical Notes :— 

The Missouri Botanical Garden; Labora- 

tory Outlines for General Botany; More 

Philippine Plants; The North American 

Flora: PRoressoR CHARLES H. BESSEY.... 354 
Work at the Lake Laboratory for the Season 

of 1905: PRorEssoR HERBERT OSBORN..... 356 
The British Association................+:+- 356 
Scientific Notes and News................. 357 
University and Educational News........... 359 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScrENcE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE NEW ORLEANS MBETING OF SECTION 
C OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 
AND OF THE AMERICAN CHEM- 
ICAL SOCIETY. 

THE meetings were held in the chemical 
laboratory of Tulane University. In the 
absence of C. F. Mabery, the vice-president, 
Section C was presided over by L. P. Kin- 
nicutt. 

At the first meeting the minutes of the 
preceding meeting at Philadelphia were 
read by the secretary, Charles L. Parsons. 
J. H. Long was elected a member of the 
council of the association, Charles H. Herty 
as a member of the general committee, W. 
J. Gies as a member of the sectional com- 
mittee and C. EH. Waters as press secretary. 

J. H. Long read the report of the com- 
mittee on tax-free alcohol for manufactur- 
ing purposes. This has already appeared 
elsewhere in SCIENCE. 

In the afternoon the retiring chairman 
of Section C, L. P. Kinnicutt, delivered an 
address on ‘The Sanitary Value of a Water 
Analysis.’ This has already been pub- 
lished in Screncz, January 12, 1906, p. 56. 

The American Chemical Society was 
then called to order by President FE. P. 
Venable. Harvey W. Wiley delivered an 
address on ‘Some Important Problems in 
Agricultural Chemistry.’ 

The realm of agricultural chemistry was 
formerly supposed to be confined to exam- 
inations of soils and fertilizers. In late 
years, however, investigations of agricul- 
tural chemistry have extended far beyond 
the original confines. The term agricul- 


December 29 to January 2. 


322 


tural chemistry no longer represents a kind 
of chemistry, but the field in which all 
kinds of chemistry are utilized. 

It is true that there are many problems 
yet unsolved relating to the source of plant 
fertility and even to definitions. For in- 
stance, the chemists and botanists use the 
term plant food in a different sense, thus 
creating more or less confusion. 

The chemist regards plant food as that 
which enters the plant from without and 
is utilized for its growth and development. 
The botanist does not regard water and 
carbon dioxide as plant food, but only as 
food materials, which do not become real 
foods until united by photosynthesis. 

In this country another problem relates 
to the supply of potash, which it is possible 
may yet be obtained by grinding potash- 
bearing feldspars. 

Another problem relates to the composi- 
tion and nutrition of foods. This problem 
now oceupies the attention of a great many 
agricultural chemists, who, perhaps, are 
known also as physiological chemists. 

The realm of physical chemistry is 1m- 
portant here, since most of the phenomena 
of plant growth rest upon the principles 
of physical chemistry. Agricultural chem- 
istry also follows foods through their prep- 
arations, and supervises their purity and 
ascertains their nutritive value. 

Agricultural chemistry also has occupied 
the field of technical chemistry in all the 
processes which utilize the raw material 
produced from the field, the forest and the 
farm. Thus the chemical problems of 
tanning, paper making, sugar manufactur- 
ing, ete., come within the domain of re- 
search of agricultural chemists of the pres- 
ent day. 

It is thus seen that every department of 
chemical activity and research may be 
utilized for the advantage of agriculture. 

Dr. Wiley was followed by Louis Kahlen- 
berg, whose address on ‘Recent Experi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


mental Researches in Osmosis’ will appear 
in the Journal of the society. 

On Saturday morning Wm. L. Dudley 
delivered an address on ‘Laboratory De- 
signing and Construction.’ His ideas on 
the subject were illustrated by plans for a 
chemical laboratory. James F. Sellers 
followed with an address entitled ‘A Sym- 
posium on Chemistry Requirements in the 
South.’ 

C. A. Browne, Jr., told of ‘Recent De- 
velopments in Industrial Chemistry in the 
South.’ 

The writer restricts his paper very 
largely to Louisiana. The developments in 
the fertilizer industry, manufacture of ice, 
preservation of wood, distillation of turpen- 
tine, tar, methyl alcohol, etc., from wood 
and the utilization of wood waste for the 
manufacture of ethyl alcohol by Claassen’s 
process are briefly discussed. The utiliza- 
tion of cottonseed by-products in a number 
of new ways is alluded to, and reference is 
made to a new process for extracting oil 
from rice and the improvement of the rice 
by-products for cattle feeds. The re- 
mainder of the paper is devoted to a dis- 
cussion of recent developments in the sugar 
cane industry, particular stress being laid 
upon the recent work in improving the 
varieties of sugar cane and in the utiliza- 
tion of the by-products of the sugar house 
—the bagasse and molasses. 

The address of the retiring president of 
the society, F. P. Venable, was on ‘The 
Growth of Chemical Research in the 
United States.”. It will appear in the 
February number of the Journal of the 
society. 

The reports of the secretary, editor and 
treasurer were next read. The member- 
ship of the society is now 2,919, a net gain 
of 244 members. <A new local section has 
been organized in Iowa and also one in 
western New York. An application for a 
local section in Minnesota is pending. 


Marcr 2, 1906.] 


During the year 197 papers were submitted 
for publication, only 33 of which were un- 
suitable for the Journal. Reviews on dif- 
ferent branches of chemistry were pub- 
lished. The total number of pages in the 
Journal, including the ‘Review of Amer- 
ican Chemical Research,’ was 2,361. 

The treasurer’s report showed the finan- 
cial affairs of the society to be in a satis- 
factory condition. 

The officers for 1906 are: 

President—W. F. Hillebrand. : 

Vice-Presidents—The presiding officers of the 
local sections. 

Secretary—Wm. A. Noyes. 

Treasurer—A. P. Hallock. 

Librarian—k. G. Love. 


The report of the librarian was followed 
by the report of the committee on uni- 
formity of technical analysis. This will 
appear in the February number of the 
Journal of the society. 

At the meetings of the different sections 
the following papers were presented on 
Saturday: 


PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. 
Louis Kahlenberg, chairman. 


The Antimony-Tin Alloys: W. D. Ban- 

CROFT. 

Reinders thought that antimony and tin 
formed two series of solid solutions and 
two compounds. It is now found that no 
compounds occur and that there are four 
series of solid solutions. The f crystals, 
counting from the antimony end, are un- 
stable below 309°. The paper will be 
published in the Journal of Physical 
Chemistry. 


Amorphous Sulphur: ALEXANDER SMITH 
and R. H. Brownuzz. (By title.) 


The Thermochenustry of Chemical Com- 
bination: J. W. RicHARDSs. 
The paper discussed the real heat rep- 
resenting chemical combining energy, and 


SCIENCE. 


320 


one conelusion was that in order to elimi- 
nate from the measured heat of combina- 
tion all physical heat effects, the reaction 
should take place from solid constituents 
to the gaseous products; because if liquid 
or gaseous constituents are brought to- 
gether, the heat evolved will contain their 
latent heats of fusion or vaporization, 
and if the product condenses to the liquid 
or solid state, the heat evolved will contain 
its latent heat of vaporization or sublima- 
tion. The real chemical heat of reaction 
is that of solid constituents to gaseous 
products at the absolute zero. The heat 
of reaction at any other temperature is 
then equal to 


Qr=Q%+T (Sn constituents —Sp products), 


where Qr is the heat of the reaction at 
any absolute temperature 7, Q, the true 
heat of chemical combination at the abso- 
lute zero, Sm the mean specific heat from 
absolute zero to 7. Another way of ex- 
pressing this is the well-known Helmholtz 
formula 


d 
Qr=G +7 


where the differential coefficient repre- 
sents the mean variation of Q with chang- 
ing temperature between absolute zero 
and 7’. 

The paper further discussed the great 
thermochemical generalization that the heat 
of formation of salts taken to dilute solution 
is additive, and concluded therefrom that 
(1) a salt in dilute solution is in a condi- 
tion closely analogous to the gaseous state, 
(2) that the phenomena of osmotic pres- 
sure also substantiate this view, (3) that 
since for this condition the first great gen- 
eralization of the thermochemistry of 
chemical combination has been discovered, 
and applies with exactness, that, therefore, 
the state of being in dilute solution is with- 
out question the most uniform and com- 
plete state of chemical combination known, 


324 


thus absolutely debarring any idea of dis- 
sociation in any sense whatever. 

The paper concludes with a careful dis- 
cussion and tabulation of the most probable 
values of the thermochemical constants of 
bases and acid radicals, on the arbitrary 
basis of hydrogen gas being zero. 

The paper should be published in the 
Journal of the society. 


On the Specific Inductive Capacity of 
Solutions of the Oleates of the Heavy 
Metals: Louis KAHLENBERG. 


The Separation of Solutes from Solvents 
by Absorbing Media: F. K. CAamEron 
and J. M. Butt. 

Examples of the separation of organic 
solutes (dyes) from water or from one 
another, their separation from inorganic 
substances, and the selective absorption of 
ionized products were given. The absorb- 
ing media principally used were blotting 
papers, cotton and soils. A specially in- 
teresting case on account of its wide prac- 
tical significance, was the absorption of 
the base from blue litmus test papers or 
solutions, leaving the residue apparently 
acid. An important practical feature of 
such separations is the relative rates at 
which solutes move capillarily through the 
absorbing media. It was found that such 
movements followed an empirical law, 
y" ==kt, where y represents the distance 
through which the movement has taken 
place, ¢ the time of movement and n and & 
constants depending on the nature of the 
substances used, although n approximated 
2.3 in most of the cases to which the 
formula has so far been applied. While 
this formula appears to hold remarkably 
well when neither the distance nor time is 
large, it ceases to hold whenever one of the 
variables assumes any considerable magni- 
tude as in the cases so far recorded in the 
literature. For instance, the movement of 
water in soils has generally been measured 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


at intervals of many hours or days, and 
through secondary gravitational or possibly 
other effects this formula ceases to hold. 
For the study of separations, however, the 
formula gives promise of much usefulness. 


Molecular Absorption: F. K. CAMERON and 
B. HK. Livineston. (By title.) 


The Absorption of Potassium by Soils: 
OsWALD SCHREINER and G. H. Fatyer. 
The absorption of potassium by soils has 

been studied in a manner identical with 

that of the phosphate. As far as investi- 
gated the potassium absorption can be rep- 
resented by the equation 


dy _ 
7 E(A—9)s 


where AK is a constant, A the maximum 
amount of potassium the soil can absorb 
under the conditions of the experiment, 
and y the amount it has absorbed when the 
volume v of potassium solution has passed 
through the soil. The removal by water 
of the absorbed potassium is rapid at first, 
but the concentration of the percolates soon 
reaches a constant value, although only a 
fractional amount of the absorbed potas- 
sium has been removed. As far as the 
observations have been made the solutions 
obtained by percolating a solution of potas- 
sium chloride through the soil have always 
been acid. 


The Absorption of Phosphate by Soils: 
OswaLD SCHREINER and G. H. Fryer. 
In view of the importance of the sub- 

ject to a proper understanding of the 

chemistry of the soil and of soil solutions, 

a systematic study of the behavior of sey- 

eral soil types toward different phosphates 

was made. The phosphate solution was 
percolated through the soil at a slow and 
constant rate In an apparatus especially 
designed for this purpose. The separate 
fractions were then analyzed for phosphate 
and thus the amount absorbed by the soil 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


determined. The graphical representation 
of the results indicates that the soils are 
approaching a saturated condition for phos- 
phate, as is shown by the fact that each 
curve is evidently approaching a horizontal 
asymptote. It has been found that these 
absorption phenomena are quite accurately 
described by the differential equation 
oY K(A—y), 

which is of the same form as the equation 
for a reaction velocity of the first order 


and other analogous processes. Integrat- 
ing we get 
log (A — y) —log A =— Kv, 


where K is a constant, A the maximum 
amount of phosphate the soil can take up 
under the conditions of the experiment, 
and y the amount it has taken up when 
the volume v of the phosphate solution has 
passed through the soil. A may, therefore, 
be defined as the specific absorptive capac- 
ity of the soil for phosphate. This ab- 
sorptive capacity for phosphate varies 
greatly in different soils, being most pro- 
nounced in the clays and loams as a rule 
and less so in the sandy soils. The solu- 
bility of the phosphate originally present 
in the soils was also determined by percolat- 
ing water through the untreated soils in 
the above-mentioned apparatus. It was 
found that the concentration of the sepa- 
rate fractions of percolate was practically 
a constant for each of the soils studied. 
If this concentration is reduced through 
any cause, such as the absorption by plants 
or influx of rain water, the original con- 
centration will be again restored by more 
of the phosphate of the soil entering into 
solution. If, on the other hand, the solu- 
tion is somewhat stronger than the natural 
concentration for that soil through any 
cause whatever, such as the application of 
a soluble phosphate, the concentration is 
reduced by absorption to the original 
strength. This is strikingly shown by the 


SCIENCE. 


325 


absorption results with the first few hun- | 
dred cubie centimeters of phosphate solu- 
tion. This constancy in the strength of 
the soil solution, so far as phosphate is 
concerned, is further shown by the removal 
by water of the absorbed phosphate, which 
has been similarly investigated. It was 
found that the concentration of the sepa- 
rate percolates decreases rapidly until the 
concentration is reduced approximately to 
that of the original soil solution: This 
concentration of phosphate is then main- 
tained with much persistence, although 
only a fractional amount of the absorbed 
phosphate has been removed, thus indicat- 
ing that while the absorbed phosphate is 
apparently rendered insoluble, it is, never- 
theless, slowly but constantly going into the 
soil moisture and is, therefore, available to 
plants. 


Citric Acid: F. L. Kortricut. 

A discussion of various unsuccessful at- 
tempts to make anhydrous citric acid ac- 
cording to the method of Buchner and 
Witter, was followed by a description of 
two methods used in getting the equi- 
librium relations between citric acid and 
water. The eryohydrie point.of the mono- 
hydrate and water, the transition point of 
the monohydrate to the anhydrous acid, 
and the transition point of one form of 
anhydrous acid to another, have been deter- 
mined. The work is to be continued. 


The Action of Metals on Complex Cyanides 
in Aqueous Solution: G. McP. Smiru. 
(By title.) 

Electrolysis and Endosmosis in the Study 


of Rock Decomposition: A. 8. CUSHMAN. 
(By title.) 


AGRICULTURAL AND SANITARY CHEMISTRY. 
H. W. Wiley, chairman. 

Filtration and Purification of the Missis- 
sippi River Water at New Orleans: J. L. 
Porter. (By title.) 


326 


A Method for the Determination of Small 
Amounts of Copper in Water: H. B. 
PHELPS. (By title.) 


A Trade Waste Study: Copper Salts in 
Irrigation Waters: W. W. , SKINNER. 
(By title.) 


The Availability of the Phosphoric Acid 
of the Soil: G. S. Fraps. 

The various factors which influence the 
amount of phosphoric acid dissolved by 
solvents are considered—nature of the soil 
phosphates, solution of soil constituents 
thereby exposing more phosphoric acid, 
fixation by the soil, and availability of the 
dissolved phosphoric acid. These factors 
appear to exclude the use of water, carbon- 
ated water, one per cent. acetic acid and 
N/200 hydrochlorie acid. Soils must be 
divided into different classes according to 
the solubility of their constituents. 

There is a relation between the chem- 
ically available phosphoric acid and soil 
deficiency in phosphoric acid, according to 
pot tests on a number of soils. The action 
‘of the plant makes available a considerable 
‘amount of phosphorie acid. Cotton and 
ow peas have a higher solvent power than 
rice or corn, corn being very low. Though 
cow peas and cotton take up nearly equal 
quantities, the soil was deficient for cotton 
and not for cow peas, showing that cotton 
requires more. With a given amount of 
‘chemically available plant food, the soil 
may be deficient for one crop and not for 
another with higher solvent power or lower 
needs. 


The Effect of Climate on the Composition 

of Cotton Seed: G. S. FRAps. 

rom observations during two seasons, 
meal from the western part of the state 
appears to be much richer in nitrogen than 
meals from eastern Texas. The climate of 
the former section is semi-arid. No close 
relation could be traced between the rain- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 583. 


fall and distribution of the meal. Texas 
meal appears, on the average, to be richer 
than meals from other sections. 


On the Presence in Soils and Subsoils of 
Substances Deleterious to Plant Growth: 
W. K. Cameron and B. HE. Livineston. 
(By title.) 


The Fermentation of Sugar-Cane Prod- _ 
ucts: C. A. BROWNE, JR. 

In the first part of the paper the writer 
discusses the influence of the various en- 
zymes of the sugar cane upon the composi- 
tion of the juice. The action of invertase 
in windrowed cane, the coloration phe- 
nomena produced by oxydases, and the 
physiological importance of the oxydases 
and catalases in the matter of protection 
against microorganisms are briefly pre- 
sented. 

The second part of the paper is devoted 
to a description of a few typical fermenta- 
tions produced by bacteria, yeasts and 
molds, in cane juices, syrups and molasses. 
Particular attention is paid to the different 
compounds, dextran, mannite, cellulose, 
chitine, fat, ete., produced by these organ- 
isms and the influence of these upon the 
composition of the cane products is dis- 
eussed. The writer concludes by noting 
the bearing which several of these com- 
pounds, such as glycerol and acetyl-methy]l- 
carbinol, have upon the physiology of cer- 
tain fermentations. 


The Quantitative Estimation of Salicylic 
Acid: W. D. BickLow and W. L. DuBois. 
This paper is an attempt to define as 

exactly as possible the conditions to be 

followed for the estimation of salicylic acid 
by extracting with organic solvents and 
comparing the color given by treating the 
extracted salicylic acid with ferric solu- 
tions, with solutions containing a known 
amount of salicylic acid. The errors most 
frequently made in the use of the method 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


are pointed out and exact conditions for 
its use prescribed. 

The results obtained on uniform samples 
by twelve collaborating chemists using 
miscellaneous methods and also using the 
method suggested by the writers, are given. 
It is demonstrated that with proper pre- 
cautions results can be obtained which are 
reasonably accurate. 


The Estimation of Hydrocyanic Acid in 
Cassava: C. C. Moorn. (By title.) 


The Artificial Coloring Matter in Whiskey: 
P. H. Wauxker and J. H. A. SCHREIBER. 
A series of tests for artificial coloring 

matter in whiskey were described and a 

summary of results on a very large number 

of whiskies, both pure and artificially col- 
ored, discussed. 


A Uniform Method for the Determination 
of Reducing Sugars: P. H. WALKER. 
The same solutions and manipulations 

are used in the determination of both dex- 

trose and invert sugar. The alkaline tar- 
trate solution is the same as Soxhlet’s; but 
the copper solution contains 40 grams of 

erystallized copper sulphate to 500 e.e. 

Adhering to the directions given, the values 

for varying amounts of dextrose and invert 

sugar were determined and a table pre- 
pared showing the weight of cuprous oxide, 
dextrose and invert sugar corresponding to 

each milligram of copper from 10 to 466. 


The Extraction of Tanning Materials for 
Analysis: F. P. VeitcH and H. H. Hur. 
(By title.) 


The Ripening of Oranges: W. D. BicELOW 
and H. C. Gore. 

This work is in connection with the sys- 
tematic study bemmg made by the writers, 
of changes that occur in fruit during its 
growth and ripening. The oranges in- 
ereased in actual weight of total solids and 
sugars from the beginning to the full 
maturity of the fruit. At all stages of 


SCIENCE. 


327 


the growth of the fruit, the total sugars are 
divided about equally between reducing 
sugar and sucrose. The mare of the 
orange is formed very early in its history 
and remains constant in weight during its 
growth and development. The acids are 
also formed at an early stage and appar- 
ently imerease gradually but almost im- 
perceptibly. 

Storage of the fruit at all stages of its 
development results in slight loss of total 
sugar, a marked increase of reducing sugar, 
and a corresponding loss of sucrose. The 
loss of total sugar noted above is to be ex- 
plained as in the case of apples, by the 
consumption of reducing sugar as a result 
of the respiration of the fruit. The weight 
of mare remains practically constant and 
the weight of acid appears to decrease 
slightly on storage during the various 
stages of the development of the orange. 


The Growth and Ripening of Persimmons: 
W. D. Bigetow, H. C. Gore and B. J. 
Howarp. 

This paper is a partial report on the 
systematic study of the ripening of fruits 
which is being conducted by the writers. 
In the other fruits thus far studied, the 
quantity of tannin was so low as to pre- 
clude any deductions from the results ob- 
tained at various stages of their growth. 
The persimmon was selected largely be- 
cause of its content of a relatively large 
amount of tannin. 

The weight of the pulp increases steadily 
during the entire period of observation and 
a marked increase was also noted in the 
ease of total determined solids, sugar and 
mare. The sugar was found to consist 
almost entirely of invert sugar. The 
amount of suerose is apparently almost 
within the limit of analytical error. The 
percentage of acids is also very low. Dur- 
ing a later portion of the period of observa- 
tion, the tannin was found to decrease in 


328 


proportion to the increase in the weight of 
the mare. 

The results obtained by the writers prove 
beyond.a doubt that the tannin is not de- 
composed and does not actually disappear 
in the ripening of the fruit, but that it is 
converted into an insoluble form within 
certain specialized cells. No evidence was 
found of the combination of tannin with 
any other body in the formation of this 
insoluble compound. It apparently goes 
into insoluble form without entering into 
combination with any other substance. 

At each date of picking sub-samples 
were ripened-in the laboratory as in the 
ease of fruits previously studied by the 
writers. The changes occurring on storage 
were similar to but more rapid than those 
occurring in the natural ripening of the 
fruit. Decreases are found in the solids 
and sugar of the stored fruit while the 
weight of mare in the fruit is found to 
imerease owing to the tannin becoming in- 
soluble. 

INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY. 

S. W. Parr, chairman. 


The Cotton Oil Industry of the South: 

Davip SCHWARTZ. 

An interesting account of some of the 
methods used in purifying cotton oil, illus- 
trated by samples of the seed, the crude 
and purified oil and some of the by- 
products. This will appear in full in the 
Mareh number of the Journal of the so- 
ciety. 

A Comparison of Methods used in De- 

termining Total Soluble Bitwmen im 

Paving Material: L. Avery. (By title.) 


The Durability of Cement Plaster: H. H. 
S. Bamey. 


The material sold as cement plaster is — 


made from the gypsum dirt, or ‘gypsite,’ 
which occurs throughout many of the states 
of the central west, in patches of a few 
score of acres, by heating in a kettle to 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox, XXIII. No. 583. 


drive off most of the water of crystalliza- 
tion. This material, mixed with sand, is 
used in the place of lime mortar for plas- 
tered walls. In addition to the calcium 
sulphate and water, it contains considerable 
calcium and magnesium carbonates, silica 
and oxides of iron and aluminum. 

A peculiar case of disintegration of the 
plastered wall of a room in which there was 
a fan blower for ventilating and warming 
the building, was investigated. It was 
noticed that in the upper part of the room 
the plaster crumbled and fell. The an- 
alysis of the hard plaster and of that which 
had fallen showed that the fallen plaster 
contained about 2 per cent. of moisture, 
while the hard plaster contained 4.5 per 
cent. This would indicate that the air 
which was heated by passing over steam 
pipes as it came into the fan room, had its 
capacity for absorbing moisture so much 
increased that it removed the water from 
the plaster of the wall, and so the erystals 
of gypsum disintegrated, and the plaster- 
ing fell. 

(Published in full in the Trans. Kans. 
Acad. Scz., Vol. XX.) 


Note on Sampling and Analysis of Coal: 
A. BEMENT. 
Laid stress on the need of painstaking 
care in preparing samples of coal for an- 
alysis, in order to obtain reliable results. 


The Examination of Writing Inks: lL. S. 

Munson. 

The paper gave the results of examina- 
tion of a number of writing inks, made for 
the purpose of determining the suitability 
of these inks for record purposes. 


Standard Samples of Iron and Steel: J. 

R. Cain. 

A brief statement was made with regard 
to standard samples of iron and steel which 
can now be furnished by the Bureau of 
Standards at Washington, and charts show- 


Maroxu 2, 190v.] 


ing analyses of these samples by different 
well-known chemists were exhibited. 


A Study of the Lignites of the Northwest: 
G. B. Franxrorter and HE. P. Harpine. 
(By title.) 


A Description of Improved Apparatus and 
of a Modification of Drehschmidt’s Meth- 
od for the Determination of Sulphur m 


Illuminating Gas: H. P. Harpine. (By 
title.) 
Notes on Typewriter Ribbons: A. M. 


Doyiz. (By title.) 


The American Chemist and the Gas In- 
dustry: H. B. Harror. (By title.) 

On Saturday afternoon there was an 
excursion across the Mississippi to see the 
New Orleans Acid and Fertilizer Works 
at Gretna. In the evening there was a 
general reception of the association in the 
Palm Garden of the St. Charles Hotel. 
On Sunday morning some of the chemists 
visited a sugar plantation some miles from 
the city. 

On Monday morning there was another 
session of Section ©. In the absence of 
C. F. Mabery his address was read by 
Charles E. Coates. It was entitled ‘The 
Composition of Petroleum from American 
Fields— Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Kan- 
sas, Wyoming, Colorado, Kentucky and 
California.’ It will appear in full in the 
March number of the Journal of the society. 

S. W. Parr delivered an address on 
“The Service Waters of a Railway System.’ 
Numerous tests to determine the loss of 
efficiency due to scale having an average 
thickness of one eighth inch agree in show- 
ing approximately ten per cent. increase 
in fuel consumption. On the basis of a 
total annual cost for fuel of $1,500,000, 
and assuming the average condition of the 
locomotives as fifty per cent. better than 
the above the loss due to this cause aggre- 
gates $75,000. This expense is duplicated 


SCIENCE. 


329 


by another which would represent approxi- 
mately the cost of overhauling and repairs 
chargeable directly to the presence of scale. 
We thus have a sum representing the an- 
nual interest on an investment at five per 
cent. of $3,000,000. This takes no account 
of accidents or disasters, due more or less 
directly to the use of poor water. At least 
five principal railway systems of the middle 
west have in operation, or are in process of 
installing, purification plants for the treat- 
ment of their service waters. This marks 
a decided advance over the condition of ten 
years ago, when in the same region no such 
plant was in existence. 

Concerning treatment within the boiler 
itself, while this method is often applicable 
to stationary boilers, in the case of loco- 
motives the construction and exigencies of 
service make such methods inadvisable. 

The usual method of rating a water with 
reference to its scaling ingredients is no 
longer applicable. New types of water 
are now common, which involve entirely 
different properties, such as foaming and 
corrosion. For example, some twenty-five 
samples of water have been examined from 
Cairo to New Orleans on the lines of the 
Illinois Central Railway having less than 
fifty parts per million of scaling matter 
(three grains per gallon). 

Two marked characteristics are present 
in these waters aside from their very low 
amount of scaling matter. One is the high 
content of organic matter and the other is 
the presence of free sodium carbonate. In 
general the first type mcludes the waters 
from streams or bayous and shallow wells, 
while the second characteristic is present 
in those samples from wells from 100 to 
800 feet in depth, one well, indeed (at 
Hammond, La.), having a depth of 2,100 
feet. 

With these waters two problems, other 
than that of scaling, present themselves— 
first, corrosion, and second, foaming. A 


330 


number of experiments were detailed, indi- 
cating the conditions which promote the 
corrosion of iron. As nearly as possible, 
the conditions existing inside a boiler were 
reproduced, using an autoclave, within 
which were placed vessels containing sam- 
ples of iron submerged in various solutions 
and the whole maintained at 100 pounds 
steam pressure. 

Briefly stated, the results showed active 
corrosion to occur in presence of organic 
material, especially the tannins, also when 
oxygen or carbon dioxide was generated 
with the steam, as well as with the well- 
known conditions where salts of calcium or 
magnesium nitrate or chloride were pres- 
ent. These results readily explain the 
cases of corrosion met with in these south- 
ern waters. The other difficulty, that of 
foaming, occurs in general when the alka- 
lies of whatever sort are present to the 
extent of fifty grains and over per gallon. 
But this difficulty is greatly accentuated 
by the presence of free sodium carbonate 
and for the reason, as seems evident from 
experience, that the finely divided precipi- 
tate which results, in conjunction with the 
free alkali, are the chief elements in the 
promotion of foaming. 

Along the same line is the explanation 
for foaming when the use of a water con- 
taining free alkali is followed by the addi- 
tion of a turbid water, like that of the 
Mississippi River. 

The very extended use for sanitary rea- 
sons in the regions farther north, of deep 
well waters has revealed the fact that this 
type of water having from three to fifteen 
grains per gallon of free sodium carbonate 
is distributed over very wide areas and 
brings into prominence their behavior when 
applied to locomotive use. 

It is thus seen that the problems connected with 
' railway service are altogether different from those 


that attend the use of stationary boilers. They 
involve no very profound chemical principles and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 583. 


perhaps on that account have received little at- 
tention, but the industrial importance of the 
matter is very great and if for no other reason 
the subject may be worth noting here as an illus- 
tration of an improved and more healthy state 
of affairs in the industrial world, which shows 
itself in giving attention to wastes and greater 
care in small economies. When we acquire, and 
there are many indications that we are attempt- 
ing, the habit of looking after all possible wastes 
and losses from principle, the profits are more 
sure to look out for themselves. 


This will appear in full in the Journal 
of the American Chemical Society. 

W. D. Baneroft delivered an address on 
‘The van’t Hoff-Raoult Formula.’ 

The apparent osmotic pressure depends 
on the molecular weight of the solute and 
on the heat of dilution. If the latter is 
zero, aS at infinite dilution, the apparent 
and the theoretical osmotic pressures coin- 
cide. If the addition of one liter of solvent 
to one liter of a normal solution causes a 
heat effect of one gram calorie, the appar- 
ent molecular weight of the solute may be 
ten per cent. in error at 0°. In all eases 
in which there is a marked evolution of 
heat on diluting the solution, the apparent 
molecular weight will decrease with in- 
creasing concentration. Instances of this 
are sodium in mercury, resorcinol in aleo- 
hol, sulphuric acid, caustic potash, or cu- 
pric chloride in water. The abnormal 
behavior of sodium chloride in concentrated 
aqueous solution is due to another cause. 
The paper will be published in the Journal 
of Physical Chemistry. 

After this the meetings of the sections 
were resumed. 


BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 
Wm. J. Gies, chairman. 
Investigations on Salts of Casein: J. H. 
Lone. 


The Relation of Carbon Dioxide Excretion 
to Body Weight: G. O. Hictey. 


MarcH 2, 1906.] 


The Relation between Barometric Presswre 
and Carbon Dioxide: G. O. HigLey. 

The Separation of Proteoses and Peptones 
from the Simpler Amido Bodies: W. D. 
BieeLow and EF. C. Coox. 

The paper gives the results of the ex- 
amination of several methods that ‘have 
been employed for the purpose mentioned. 
It was found that the Sjerming method, 
employing a solution of tannin and sodium 
chloride, gave the most satisfactory results, 
but much better results could be secured 
by increasing the amount of both tannin 
and sodium chloride in the reagent. The 
maximum results were obtained when the 
proteid bodies were precipitated in a solu- 
tion containing 15 grams of sodium chlo- 
ride and 5 grams of tannin per 100 e.c. 

The claim of earlier writers that an ex- 
cess of tannin has a solvent effect on the 
precipitate was not confirmed, although 
solutions containing 7.5 grams of tannin 
per 100 ¢.c. were employed. It was found 
that when the precipitation and filtration 
were conducted at from 12° to 15° C. much 
more satisfactory results were obtained, 
and clear filtrations were much more readily 
secured than in the case of room tempera- 
ture. 

Attention is called to the fact that the 
precipitating power of various prepara- 
tions of tannin is not quite uniform, and it 
is suggested that a uniform tannin be used 
in the prosecution of any particular in- 
vestigation. It is also essential that correc- 
tion be made for the nitrogen content of 
the tannin employed as reagent and that 
blanks be run with the reagent in order to 
determine the amount of nitrogen precipi- 
tated from the tannin of the tannin-salt so- 
lution. Attention is called to the fact that 
tannin undergoes fermentation and loses to 
a large extent its power of precipitating 
proteids. The reagent should, therefore, 
be kept in a cool place and for not more 
than a few days at a time. 


SCIENCE. 


331 


The effect on a number of amido bodies 
of a solution containing 15 grams of sodium 
chloride and 5 grams of tannin was also 
studied. No precipitation was obtained 
with glycocoll, alanine, glutamic acid, as- 
partic acid, allantoin, asparagine, betaine, 
creatinine, glutamine, guanine, xanthine, 
hypoxanthine, leucine, diphenylamine, acet- 
amide and sarcosine. Precipitates were 
obtained with creatine, trimethylamine and 
phenylenediamine. It is probable that 
phenylenediamine and trimethylamine do 
not oceur in meat, but the latter is found 
im considerable quantity in fish and in beet 
root. The error occasioned by the partial 
precipitation of creatine may be corrected 
by determining creatine, before and after 
the precipitation with the tannin salt solu- 
tion, by means of Folin’s method for the 
estimation of creatine in urine. 


The Influence of Salicylic Acid on the 
‘Excretion of Urea and Uric Acid, and a 
Comparison of the Morner-Sjiquost and 
Braunstein Methods for Determining 
Urea: E\. C. WEBER.: 


The Influence exerted by Chemical’ and 
Physical Agents on the Virulence and 
Speed of Development of Mouse Tumors: 
G. H. Cuowss. 


The Effect of the Rays of Radiwm on 

Plants: C. S. Gacnr. 

Experiments of the writer show that the 
rays of radium and of other radioactive 
substances, such as radio-tellurium and 
thorium, act as a stimulus to the various 
life processes of plants. There are doubt- 
less minimum, optimum and maximum 
points, depending upon the strength of the 
radium preparation, the distance and time 
of exposure, and the intervention of sub- 
stances more or less opaque to the various 
rays. The quantitative determination of 
these points has not yet been made. 

When seeds, either dry, or during the 
imbibition of water, are exposed to radium 


332 


bromide of 1,500,000 and of 10,000 activity 
in a sealed glass tube, for twelve hours or 
more, germination and subsequent growth 
are retarded. If the same radium prepara- 
tions are inserted in the soil in pots con- 
taining germinating seeds, there is a de- 
cided acceleration of germination and 
growth. In such plants there is a marked 
increase in the number and length of 
root-hairs. 

When plants are grown under a bell-jar 
containing decaying radium emanation 
drawn from a hollow tube lined with 
Lieber’s radium coating, germination and 
growth are either retarded, completely in- 
hibited, or acceleratel, according to the 
amount of the emanation supplied, and the 
duration and distance of exposure. 

When the stimulation is of such intensity 
as to accelerate growth, the rate of growth 
at first inereases, and then gradually de- 
creases until it falls below that of the con- 
trol plants. 

Marked anatomical changes are effected 
by exposure to the rays, the cross-section 
of the stem of a radiated plant, for ex- 
ample, showing no signs of cambium. 

Respiration and alcoholic fermentation 
may be accelerated. By strong exposure 
chloroplasts in the cell take up a position 
similar to that assumed under intense sun- 
light, and eventually the radiated portion 
becomes etiolated. 

It is hoped to be able still further to 
study the effect of the rays on cell activities 
by means of radioactive microscopic slides 
now being-prepared at the writer’s sug- 
gestion by Mr. Hugo Lieber, of New York. 
Grateful acknowledgement is here made of 
Mr. Lieber’s liberality in supplying some 
$2,000 worth of radium preparations, with- 
out which these experiments would not have 
been possible. 


Experiments to Determine the Effects of 
Radium on Minute Animals: L. Hus- 
SAKOF. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII, No. 583. 


These experiments were intended pri- 
marily to show the influence, if any, of 
radium rays on the protoplasm of Am@ba 
proteus. Other microorganisms (Vorti- 
cella, Paramecium, ete.) were also subjects 
of experiment. Radium bromide prepara- 
tions of 600, 1,000, 10,000 and 1,500,000 
activity (in thin glass tubes) were used, 
and several celluloid rods covered with 
Lieber’s ‘radium coatings’ of 10,000 to 
25,000 activity were also employed. The 
radium container was held in the water 
within from 1 mm. to 3 mm. of the organ- 
ism under observation. 

Under these conditions no visible effects 
were produced, by even the strongest 
radium preparations, during periods of ob- 
servation of about an hour. The water 
surrounding the animal may have pre- 
vented radiant effects. 


The Effects of Intravenous Injection of 
Radium Bromide in Dogs: R. B. Opirz 
and G. M. Meyer. 

The paper dealt principally with effects 
on circulation and respiration. Light ether 
narcosis was employed. With radium 
bromide of 240 and 1,000 activity there was 
a marked rise in blood pressure, caused by 
a general vaso-constriction, followed by a 
marked decrease in the frequency of the 
heart, causing fall in pressure. These effects 
are the same as obtained with pure barium 
bromide. With radium bromide of 10,000 
activity there was a much less noticeable 
initial vaso-constriction, and the short 
forcible contractions of the heart which 
caused the pressure to rise suddenly in 
jerks beyond any ordinary level, are now 
succeeded by slow pulsations. The blood 
pressure thus remained below normal. A 
moderate decrease in the frequency and 
depth of respiration was noted. 


The Radioactivity of the Organs of Dogs 
after Administration of Radiwm Bro-. 
mide: G. M. Mpymr. 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


The organs were incinerated in a porce- 
lain dish and tested for radioactivity by 
means of a quadrant electrometer. With in- 
jections of radium bromide of 240 activity 
only the blood was radioactive. If injec- 
tions are made for several days and time 
is given for the radium to be eliminated, 
the blood is no longer active, though the 
kidneys, urine and feces are. With radium 
of 10,000 activity most of the organs 
were radioactive. There was consider- 
able salivation and the saliva was active. 
Though the radium is excreted through the 
kidneys and intestines, the latter do not 
become radioactive. 


Experiments to Determine the Influence of 
Radium Bromide on Protein Metabolism 
in Dogs: W.N. Bere and W. H. WELKER. 
The experiments are being carried out on 

dogs in nitrogenous equilibrium. Radium 
bromide preparations of 240, 1,000 and 
10,000 activity have been employed. One 
animal (6.6 kilos) has been fed 1.100 gms. 
240 activity, 0.250 gm. 1,000 activity, and 
0.125 gm. 10,000 activity in small amounts 
daily (during twelve days), without caus- 
img any gross symptoms, except diarrhea 
during the period of administration of the 
preparation of 240 activity with its large 
content of barium. Proteid metabolism 
did not appear to be materially affected. 
Total sulphate (SO,) in the urine was 
markedly increased, especially during the 
period following the administration of the 
preparation of highest activity, and when 
diarrhea as well as constipation was en- 
tirely absent. 

In control experiments with barium 
bromide, much larger quantities per os (as 
much as 0.5 gm. daily to a dog weighing 
only 4.5 kilos) were without any gross 
symptoms whatever. In the ease of 
barium, also, proteid metabolism was prac- 
tically unaffected by the quantities used. 
The quantity of total sulphate in the urine, 


SCIENCE. 


- used. 


339 


unlike the result with radium, appeared to 
be practically unaffected by the barium 
bromide. 

Injection (subcutaneous) experiments 
have also yielded negative results. 


The Cutaneous Excretion of Nitrogenous 

Material: K. G. Benepicr. 

During rest, there is an average excre- 
tion in the perspiration of 0.071 gram of 
nitrogen per day. That it is in large 
measure urea or ammonium compounds is 
highly probable, though the presence of 
soluble proteids is not at all impossible. 
With hard muscular labor the amount of 
nitrogen excreted may amount to 0.22 gram 
in one hour. The amount excreted is 
roughly proportional to the work done. In 
accurate metabolism experiments these 
amounts should be taken into account. 


The Incapacity of the Date Endosperm for 

Self-digestion: R. H. Ponp. 

The conclusion drawn from a number 
of experiments conducted under varying 
conditions is that the endosperm of 
Phena dactylifera is incapable of auto- 
digestion. 


The Influence of Aluminium Compounds 
on the Growth of Lupin Seedlings: H. 
D. Houst and Wm. J. Gis. 

Aluminium sulphate, nitrate and chlo- 
ride, aluminium sodium chloride and 
potassium and ammonium alums were 
In nearly all cases little or no 
effect was produced by solutions of 
1/65,536-molecular concentration, but at 
greater concentrations growth was usually 
markedly inhibited. At greater dilutions 
there was usually a stimulation to growth. 


Studies on the Banana: L. B. MENDEL and 

EK. M. Batey. 

The behavior of green bananas subjected 
to various abnormal atmospheres and to 
inert surface coatings has been studied 
with reference to the effect on ripening 


334 


processes. Chemically considered the phe- 
nomenon of normal ripening is essentially 
an almost complete conversion of a large 
store of starch into soluble carbohydrate, 
attended by a decrease in the total carbo- 
hydrate. Failure to effect this chemical 
change, together with an absence of char- 
acteristic color changes of the peel, is taken 
‘as evidence of non-ripening. Bananas 
placed in atmospheres (hydrogen, carbon 
dioxide, illuminating gas) in which avail- 
able oxygen was lacking failed to produce 
notable amounts of soluble carbohydrate, or 
to show any considerable decrease in total 
carbohydrate, the same being true when 
they were enveloped by an imert surface 
coating such as paraffin. Furthermore, the 
respiratory products of the fruit appeared 
to effect an inhibitory action upon its 
healthy development and ripening. Two 
experiments with an atmosphere of oxygen 
indicated that this gas somewhat acceler- 
ated ripening processes. These studies 
were preliminary to an attempt to detect 
and isolate enzymatic agencies which may 
be present. Autolyses with the green 
pulp, or the green pulp and scrapings of 
the inner surfaces of the peel, or of the 
partially ripened pulp, carried out with 
toluene water under varied conditions, have 
yielded negative results. The investiga- 
tion is being extended in various directions. 


The Action of Hosin upon Tetanus Toxin 
and in Tetanus: S. Fipxner and H. 
Nogucui. 

1. Hosin and certain other aniline dyes 
have the power of destroying im vitro the 
hemolytic property of tetanus toxin. 

2. EHosin when used in sufficient quan- 
tity destroys tetano-spasmin im vitro. 

3. Simultaneous injection of tetanus 
toxin and eosin into rats delays or pre- 
vents the appearance of the symptoms of 


tetanus. When the symptoms appear they 
progress more slowly than in control 
animals. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 583. 


4, Spores of tetanus bacilli when intro- 
duced in threads into rats together with 
immediate eosin injections, do not produce 
tetanus. The treatment of animals with 
eosin, after the first appearance of the 
tetanic symptoms following spore-infection, 
may prevent the further developments of 
the symptoms of tetanus. Hosin injections 
into the same locality as spore inoculations 
are the most effective, but injection imto 
other parts of the body delays or modifies 
the tetanus process. 

5. Rats are more resistant to tetanus than 
euinea-pigs, and hence are more easily 
protected by eosin from tetanus poison. 
But in guinea-pigs the fatal issue can be 
delayed by eosin. 


The Action of Eosin and Erythrosin upon 
Snake Venom. H. NoaucHt. ( 
1. The hemolytic principles of venom re- 

act differently to eosin depending upon 

their native labilities. The hemolysin of 

Crotalus venom suffers most; that of 

Daboia next, while that of Cobra is most 

resistant. 

2. The toxicity of different venoms is 
more or less diminished by eosin in the 
light. Cobra is least affected; Crotalus 
and Daboia venoms are most affected. 
Crotalus venom loses its toxicity chiefly by 
destruction of hemorrhagin; and Dabora 
by destruction of coagulin. 

3. Neurotoxin is little or not at all af- 
fected by eosin or erythrosin. 

4, There is a parallel between the sus- 
ceptibility of the toxic principles of snake 
venom to fluorescent anilines and their sus- 
ceptibility to other injurious influences. 
Hemorrhagin and coagulin are less stable 
at high temperatures than neurotoxin, and 
more easily destroyed by acids than neuro- 
toxin and hematoxin. 


On the Decomposition of Purine Bodies by 
Animal Tissues: P. A. Lnvenr and W. 
A. BEATTY. 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


The authors aimed in this work to study 
the products of decomposition of purine 
bodies in the tissues. Jones, Schittelhelm 
and Levene have observed that amino- 
purines are transformed into oxypurines. 
It is well known that purine bodies under- 
go complete destruction in the course of 
tissue autolysis. 

The authors have studied the conditions 
most favorable for the process of purine 
decomposition by animal tissues and have 
endeavored to ascertain the general nature 
of the substances formed during the 
process. It was found that the presence 
of 0.5 per cent. of sodium carbonate in mix- 
tures of spleen pulp facilitated the decom- 
position of purine bodies to such an extent 
that even uric acid is broken up by that 
tissue. It was also noticed that the de- 
composition products were non-basic in 
nature, for they were not precipitated by 
phosphotungstie acid. On decomposition 
of uric acid by tissue extracts, formation of 
ammonia could not be detected. 


On the Biological Relationship of Nucleo- 
proteid, Amyloid and Mucoid: P. A. 
LEVENE and JoHn A. MANDEL. 

The authors endeavored to ascertain the 
nature of the carbohydrate groups in the 
proteid molecule. It was found that by 
heating nucleoproteid on a water bath with 
a 5 per cent. solution of sulphuric acid, a 
product could be obtained that had the 
properties of a polysaccharide or of a 
glucosoid and which contained in its mole- 
eule a small proportion of sulphuric acid 
(S=0.5 per cent.). On treating nucleo- 
proteids with alkali, substances were ob- 
tained containing a much greater propor- 
tion of sulphurie acid (S=3.5 per cent.; 
N=8.8 per cent.). The substances thus 
obtained were found to possess the prop- 
erties of glycothioniec acids containing small 
quantities of nucleic acid. 

Glycothionie acid has hitherto been rec- 


SCIENCE. 


335 


ognized as a constituent of mucoid and 
amyloid. The results of this investigation 
place the three groups of substances in 
genetic relationship. 


Contributions to our Knowledge of the 
Chemistry of Carbamates: J. J. R. 
Macteop and H. D. Hasxins. 

A deseription of a method for the quan- 
titative determination of carbamates, even 
in the presence of soluble carbonates and 
ammonium salts. Also a study of the 
formation and stability of carbamates 
under these conditions. 


The Effect of Alcohol on the Secretion of 

Bile: WM. SAuANT. 

With dogs there is a diminished secretion 
of bile following intravenous injection of 
aleohol. There was also a decrease in the 
organic and inorganic constituents, though 
little change in their relative amounts. 
When alcohol was injected into the stomach 
there was from 30 to 365 per cent. increase 
in the amount of bile. The solid con- 
stituents were also markedly increased, in 
one case as much as 132 per cent. The 
increase in inorganic matter did not keep 
pace with the organic matter excreted. 


The Relation between the Concentration of 
Hydroxyl Ions and the Rate of Tryptic 
Digestion in Dilute Solutions of Various 
Bases: W. N. Brre. 

Experiments were made in which the 
speed of tryptic digestion, in solutions of 
various bases, which contained the same 
concentration of hydroxyl ions, was meas- 
ured. 

The results seem to show that the speed 
of tryptic digestion is a function of the 
concentration of hydroxyl ions; but the 
accompanying action and non-ionized mole- 
cules also affect the speed. In the solu- 
tions of the bases used the speed was fairly 
uniform when the concentration of hy- 
droxyl ions was the same. 


336 


On the Decomposition of Thymus Nucleic 
Acid by an Extract of Pig’s Spleen: 
WALTER JONES. 

1. Fresh dog’s spleen converts guanine 
into uric acid, the ferments of this spleen 
not being different from those of ox spleen. 

2. By the action of an aqueous extract 
of pig’s spleen on thymus nucleic acid 
guanine is produced in considerable quan- 
tity; xanthine, not at all. 


Concerning Peptone: lL. B. STOOKEY. 
This paper is a continuation of a study 
of peptone carried out in the laboratory of 
Professor Hofmeister. One of the frac- 
tions, designated as ‘I B Benzoyl Chloride 
y’ has been investigated further. This 
substance gives the following reactions: 
Biuret, Molisch and an extremely faint 
xanthoproteic. Hopkins and Millon are 
negative. Sulphur is not present. Five 
grams were boiled with five per cent. sul- 
phurie acid until the Biuret reaction dis- 
appeared. A residue remained. This 
residue gave the Molisch reaction more in- 
tensely than the original substance. It is 
not impossible that the residue was glu- 
cosamine benzoyl chloride. The filtrate was 
examined in the usual manner. Neither 
arginine nor histidine could be detected. 
Liysine was present and was identified as 
the picrate. Neither aspartic nor glutamic 
acid could be found. Alanine was isolated 
and identified as a copper salt. On ac- 
count of the small amount of substance ex- 
amined, these findings can not be looked 
upon as conclusive; yet the fact that a con- 
densation product of two benzoyls, one ly- 
sine, one glucosamine and one alanine would 
have the following composition: C 57.80 
per cent., N 9.30 per cent., H 6.31 per 
cent., O 26.57 per cent., while this fraction 
gave as follows: C 58.68 per cent., N. 8.96 
per cent., H 5.88 per cent., O 26.48 per 
cent., may be regarded as suggestive and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


might indicate a molecular formula of 
Cr5HsgN,04o. 


On the Composition and Toxic Properties 
of Ibervillea Sonorew: Jutia A. EMERSON 
and W. H. WELKER. 


The Comparatwe Chemical Composition 
of the Hair of Different Races: P. B. 
Hawk and T. A. RUTHERFORD. 


On the Chemical Composition of the Nasal 
Mucous Membrane: B. Russenu and 
Wm. J. Gis. 

The following percentage data on general 
composition represent average results of 
analyses of tissue from many oxen: 


i i Organic | Inorganic 
Honton Water. | Solids. Matter. Matter. 

Anterior...,.......... 76.69 | 23.31 22,34 0.97 
Median...........--.- 78.68 | 21.34 20.34 1.00 
Posterior............. 79.61 | 20.39 19.38 1.01 
Longitudinal sections 

selected atrandom.} 77.64 | 22.36 21.49 0.87 
Transverse sections 

selected atrandom.| 77.74 22.26 21 46 0.80 


The quantity of ether-soluble material is 
equal to about 8 per cent. of the solid mat- 
ter. Reducing substance was absent from 
the aqueous extracts. Neither proteolytic 
nor amylolytic enzymes have thus far been 
detected. Autolytic changes will be in- 
vestigated. 

Much of the proteid in the tissue dis- 
solves in water and salt solutions. Succes- 
sive extractions of the fresh tissue in water, 
5 per cent. sodium chloride and 0.5 per cent. 
sodium carbonate yielded solutions from 
which the following quantities of pure pro- 
teid (in terms of percentage of fresh tissue) 
were precipitated: water, 4 per cent.; so- 
dium chloride, 2 per cent.; sodium earbon- 
ate, 0.5 per cent. A collagenous residue, 
amounting to 10.5 per cent. remained. 

Conspicuous among the soluble proteids 
present in the extracts is an acid-precip- 
itable material, equal to about 2 per cent. 
of the fresh tissue. Its properties have 
not yet been distinguished in detail. It 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


appears to be nucleoproteid or a mixture 
containing nucleoproteid in large propor- 
tion. It does not appear to be coagulable. 
Preliminary tests have failed to show the 
presence of mucoid in the extracts. 

Nearly ten per cent. of the fresh tissue 
is indigestible in artificial pancreatic juice, 
and gelatin is readily obtained from this 
residue. Only about one per cent. of the 
fresh tissue remains undissolved in artifi- 
cial gastric juice. This residue contains 
nuclein. 


ORGANIC AND INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
Wm. L. Dudley, chairman. 


Some Hydrocarbons in Louisiana Pe- 
troleum: C. H. Coatss. 

In the investigation of the petroleum 
from Jennings, Louisiana, the lighter frac- 
tions were found to consist of the com- 
pounds C,Hy,, CyHis, CioHis, CH; 
C,.H,,, ete., all of the series C,H,, 5. The 
petroleum is of an asphaltic base and the 
substances C,,H.., C,,H.,, ete., seem to be 
identical with those previously obtained 
from asphaltum and asphaltic oils. These 
have been assumed to be derivatives of 
dihexahydrodiphenyl because C,.H,, was 
the lowest known member. The occurrence 
of members still lower would seem to make 
this theory improbable. The series is, 
therefore, of a constitution as yet unde- 
termined. 


Diphenylamine Compounds of Chloral: 
A. S. WHEELER. (By title.) 


The Chlor-hydrochlorides of Pinene and 
Furpene: G. B. FRANKFORTER and F. G. 
Frary. (By title.) 

Aluminum Phenolate: A. N. Coox. 
title. ) 


The Methoxy- and Ethoxydibromphenan- 
threnes and Some of their Isomers: G. 
B. FRANKFORTER and C. R. Cressy. (By 
title. ) 


(By 


SCIENCE. 


oo7 


Hthyl Oxomalonate and its Behavior to- 
ward Ammonia: R. S. Curtiss. 

Ethyl oxomalonate, has always been a 
costly substance to make in any consider- 
able quantity. It can be readily prepared 
with a large yield (95 per cent.) by the 
action of nitrous anhydride on ethyl malo- 
nate at a low temperature. The product 
is purified by vacuum distillation. 

Dry ammonia gas reacts strongly with 
ethyl oxomalonate, or: with its hydrated 
form, ethyl dioxymalonate. Under cer- 
tain exact conditions it produces a white 
erystalline substance, dioxyiminodimalonic 
ester, 


HO. _CO,C,H 
iN 2Vetts 
C<CoresH,) 


Coe 00.0.8% 
HO’ ~CO,C,H,; 


This body is very unstable, and dissociates 
into ammonia and ethyl dioxymalonate if 
allowed to stand in moist air. The same 
change occurs rapidly if it is placed in 
water. 


Note on the Action of Hot Cupric Oxide 
on Sulphuric Ether: J. P. ATKINSON and 
H. Duranp. (By title.) 

We noticed while examining medicinal 
prescriptions, containing ether, for methyl 
(wood) alcohol, that we invariably ob- 
tained a strong formaldehyde reaction, both 
by odor, Hehner’s test, and the morphine- 
sulphuric acid test. 

Believing that it was impossible that all 
the prescriptions could be adulterated, we 
tested samples of pure ether separately, 
and found that this compound would yield 
formaldehyde upon oxidation with hot cop- 
per oxide. We have since tested many 
samples of ether of undoubted purity, 
manufactured by the best known chemical 
houses, and have always obtained the same 
result. 

The reaction can be written as follows: 


C,H, 


>0 4Cu0 = 4HCHO + 4Cu + H,0. 
C,H 


338 


In Watt’s ‘Dictionary of Chemistry’ 
platinum black is mentioned as a reagent 
which produces this reaction, but since a 
hot copper spiral is usually used in the 
qualitative method of determining the pres- 
ence of methyl alcohol, we eall attention to 
this reaction. 


The Use of Porcelain Dishes in Silicate 


Analyses: F. L. Kortricut. 

Platinum dishes are usually preferred 
for evaporations in silicate analyses, on the 
assumption that porcelain dishes are liable 
to be corroded and thus an excess of silica 
obtained. In a few cases where a loss of 
silica is assumed to oceur through the use 
of porcelain dishes, the statement is made 
that the loss occurs through not being able 
to see the silica adhering to the white sur- 
face of the porcelain. 

It has now been found that the difficulty 
in seeing the adhering silica is not the chief 
cause of loss when porcelain dishes are 
used, but that a portion of the silica ad- 
heres so tightly to the dish that it is not 
possible to remove it by any ordinary 
methods. In one case where 17.93 per 
cent. of silica was obtained by using a 
platinum dish, only 17.09 per cent. of silica 
was obtained when a porcelain dish was 
used. By suitable treatment with am- 
monia, however, the silica adhering to the 
porcelain dish was separated, and the total 
silica, when using a porcelain dish, was 
then found to be 17.97 per cent. Other 
determinations of silica in porcelain were 
reported, and although the variations from 
the values obtained in platinum were not 
so striking, the results were all low when 
ordinary methods were employed for re- 
moving the silica from the dish. 


An Occurrence of 
Oconee County, Ga.: H. C. Wurre. 
title. ) 


Natiwe Sulphur wm 
(By 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 583. 


Report on the Water of Death Gulch, Yel- 
lowstone National Park: G. B. FRANK- 
FORTER. (By title.) 


The Determination of Sdica: N. Knieut. 
(By title.) 


On the Occurrence of Helium in Natural 
Gas: H. P. Capy and D. F. McFaruane. 
(Read by HE. H. S. Bailey.) 


PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. 
Louis Kahlenberg, chairman. 


The Transition Temperature of Sodium 
Bromide. A New Fixed Point i the 
Thermometric Scale: T. W. RicHARDS 
and R. C. Weuus. (Read by the chair- 
man.) 

The results of this paper may be summed 
up in the following sentences: 

1. Pure sodie bromide is not to be ob- 
tained by reerystallizing the ordinary com- 
mercial samples, but must be made from 
pure bromine and pure sodic carbonate. 

2. Prepared in this way, our salt upon 
analysis was found to correspond very 
closely with the new atomic weight of 
sodium, 23.008, if silver be taken as 107.93, 
and bromine, 79.955, therefore, it was pre- 
sumably pure. : 

3. The less pure material on successive 
reerystallization gave in every case a slight- 
ly rising , transition temperature as the 
erystallization proceeded. Only the pur- 
est material melted at a perfectly constant 
point, therefore, constancy of melting 
point is an indication of purity; but it is 
safer to analyze the salt as well. 

4. When all precautions are taken it is 
possible to duplicate the results for the 
transition temperature with samples of salt 
prepared in different ways and at different 
times without great difficulty; a value 
within .01 of the truth may be easily ob- 
tained and further precautions make a 
much greater accuracy possible. There- 
fore, the point is one suitable to use in the 


Marox 2, 1906.] 


calibration of thermometers, although its 
determination requires more chemical skill 
than that involving sodic sulphate. 

5. The actual value of the transition tem- 
perature on the international hydrogen 
seale is 50.674°. 

_ (To be published in the Proceedings of 
the American Academy and the Journal 
of the society.) 


A Method of Standardizing Thermometers 
Below Zero: T. W. RicHarps and F. G. 
JACKSON. (Read by the chairman.) 
This paper describes a simple method of 

calibrating thermometers at temperatures 

below the freezing point of water, by using 
as a standard of comparison the depressions 
of the freezing point caused by given addi- 
tions of hydrochloric acid. Data, based 
upon a very accurate thermometer stan- 
dardized at the Bureau International at 

Sévres, are given for the construction of a 

eurve enabling direct comparisons of a 

thermometer to be made with a minimum 

of labor. The manipulation consists sim- 

ply im stirring hydrochloric acid into a mix- 

ture of pure ice and water until the desired 

point on the doubtful thermometer is 
reached. Analysis of the solution then 
gives, by reference to the curve, the true 
freezing point; and the difference between 
this value and that read on the thermom- 
eter gives the error of the thermometer. 

The method is shown to be both practically 

and theoretically satisfactory. This paper 

is preliminary in nature, and does not pre- 

tend to give final values, because only a 

single standardized thermometer was used. 
(To be published in the Proceedings of 

the American Academy and the Journal 
of the society.) 

The Heat of Dilution of Resorcinol in 
Alcoholic Solutions: S. T. Lincoun. 

The Solubility of Gypsum in Solutions of 


Ammomum Sulphate: J. M. Brut and 
W. C. Taser. 


SCIENCE. 


339 


The solubility of gypsum in ammonium 
sulphate solution has been investigated by 
Droeze, Cohn and Sullivan at temperatures 
not exceeding 25° C. At 50° C. the au- 
thors have found that the compositions of 
solutions lie on three curves, one represent- 
ing solutions in equilibrium with gypsum, 
one representing solutions in equilibrium 
with ammonium sulphate, and the third 
representing solutions in equilibrium with 
a double salt which was found to have the 
composition CaSO,-(NH,).SO,-2H.0. 


The Solubihty of Gypsum in Solutions of 
Magnesium Sulphate: F. K. Cameron 
and J. M. BrEtu. 

Owing to the difficulties in determining 
small amounts of calcium in the presence 
of large amounts of magnesium the au- 
thors have adopted the following method 
for the determination of the solubility of 
gypsum in solutions of magnesium sul- 
phate. Weighed plates of selenite were 
placed in known amounts of solutions of 
magnesium sulphate of concentrations 
which had been determined previously. 
The loss in weight of the plates is a meas- 
ure of the solubility in these solutions. The 
solubility curve at 25° is rather remark- 
able, as it has both a minimum point and a 
maximum point. At low concentrations 
of magnesium sulphate the solubility of 
gypsum decreases as the content of mag- 
nesium increases, but above 14 grams 
MgSO, per liter the solubility of gypsum. 
increases up to a concentration of about 
100 grams MgSO, per liter. From that 
point the solubility decreases again. The 
solution in equilibrium with both solid 
phases contains 355 grams MgSO, and 
0.50 gram CaSO, per liter. 

Two tentative explanations are offered 
to account for the peculiar shape of the 
eurve. The change of density of the 
solvent due to the presence of solutes (con- 
cerning which change practically nothing 


340 


is known) may account for the peculiar 
curve. The second explanation is that the 
magnesium ion, the sulph-ion and the un- 
dissociated MegSO,, the proportions of 
which change with the concentration, have 
altogether different effects upon the solu- 
bility. of gypsum. 

On Monday afternoon the society visited 
Audubon Park and the sugar experiment 
station, where opportunity was given to 
witness all the processes of sugar-making, 
from the growing eane to finished sugar. 

On Tuesday morning a special train was 
chartered on the Louisiana Southern Rail- 
road to take the party to the Braithwaite 
Sugar Factory where about one thousand 
tons of cane are worked up per week. In 
the afternoon a sugar refinery and the Na- 
tional Rice Mills were visited. 


CuHas. L. Parsons, 
Secretary of Section C, 
C. EH. Waters, 

Press Secretary. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

The Organization and Cell-lineage of the 
Ascidian Egg. By Professor EH. G. Conxiin, 
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sci- 
ences of Philadelphia, Second Series, Vol- 
ume XIII., Part I., 1905. 

The work on cell-lineage which produced so 
large a number of papers a few years ago has 
very naturally led to the study of the visible 
organization or differentiation of the egg, not 
only during cleavage, but in earlier stages. 
The search for cell homologies has given place 
in large measure to the search for ‘forma- 
tive substances,’ ‘morphogenic substances’ or 
“morphoplasmie substances’ as' the visible dif- 
ferentiations of the egg have been variously 
called. And since it is true in biology as 
elsewhere—perhaps more so—that ‘they that 
seek shall find,’ our knowledge of the visible 
differentiations of the egg-substance is rapidly 
increasing. 

The paper under review constitutes an im- 
portant contribution to this subject. It is an 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 583. 


exceedingly careful study, based primarily 
upon the egg of Cynthia (Styela) partita 
Stimpson, with comparative observations on 
the eggs of Ciona intestinalis (L.) Flemming 
and Molgula manhattensis Verrill. 

The titles of the seven sections, which with 
the introduction compose the paper, indicate 
its scope: I., ‘The Ovarian Ege’; II., ‘ Ma- 
turation and Fertilization ’ STIL, ‘ Orientation 
of Egg and Embryo’; IV., ‘ Cell-Lineage’; 
V., ‘Later Development’; VI., ‘Comparisons 
with Amphioxus and Amphibia’; VII., ‘ The 
Organization of the Keg.’ 

The most important cytological observa- 
tions concern the character of the spindles in 
maturation and the first two cleavages. The 
maturation spindles are without centrosomes 
and are formed wholly within the nuclear 
area: at first their fibers radiate in all direc- 
tions, but finally form a barrel-shaped spindle. 
Influence of centrosomes and traction of 
spindle fibers are not concerned in the separa- 
tion of the chromosomes in the maturation 
divisions. , In the first cleavages a small 
nuclear spindle similar to the maturation 
spindles lies between two large asters. 

The spermatozoon enters near the lower ~ 
pole and rotates after entering. The centro- 
some is derived from the middle piece and 
gives rise to the cleavage centrosomes. As 
regards orientation of the ascidian. egg much 
difference of opinion has existed. Conklin 
reviews the various systems of orientation, 
viz., those of Van Beneden and Julin, Seeliger, 
Samassa and Castle, and gives what appears 
to be convincing evidence in favor of the first 
mentioned. According to this the first cleay- 
age plane corresponds with the median plane, 
the spindle being eccentric toward: the pos- 
terior pole. The second cleavage is trans- 
verse. The intersection of these two planes 
corresponds with the dorso-ventral axis of the 
gastrula and the third cleavage separates 
dorsal from ventral cells. 

The account of cell-lineage is complete to 
a stage consisting of 218 cells. Gastrulation 
begins at about the 112+cell stage. Develop- 
ment is remarkably rapid, Cynthia and Ciona 
attaining the tadpole stage in twelve hours 
after fertilization and Molgula in eight hours. 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


Extensive cytoplasmic movements during the 
earlier cleavages are described. 

Conklin differs from Castle in maintaining 
that the nervous and muscular systems do not 
arise from a common primordium and that 
there is no nerve ring around the blastopore. 

Comparison of the early development of 
ascidians, Amphioxus and amphibians shows 
agreement, according to Conklin, as regards 
axial relations of egg and-larva, bilaterality 
of cleavage, method of blastopore-closure, and 
probably also as regards origin and position 
of neural plate chorda and. mesoderm. 

But the paper is primarily concerned with 

eo organization. Hypotheses of formative 
substances and organization are receiving 
much attention at present, but have been sub- 
jected to but little analysis and criticism. It 
has seemed desirable, therefore, although the 
writer does not oyer-value destructive criti- 
cism, to attempt in connection with this re- 
view ‘a brief critical examination of some of 
the more important conclusions set forth in 
this paper. 

The earliest indication of polarity consists 
in the location of the yolk matrix on one side 
of the nucleus and a slight eccentricity of the 
latter toward the animal pole. 

Since the yolk matrix is derived, according 
to the author, from the sphere of the last 
oogonic division and supposedly contains the 
centrosome, he is inclined to identify the polar 
axis of the egg with the cell axis in general 
and suggests that polarity may thus*be handed 
down from one generation to another. 

In the living eggs of Cynthia, Ciona and 
Molgula, when first laid, three regions are 
distinguishable, a peripheral layer of clear 
protoplasm in which the test cells lay in earlier 
stages and which in Cynthia contains sparse 
yellow granules, the central mass of yolk and 
the large germinal vesicle. When the nuclear 
membrane disappears at the beginning of 
maturation a large amount of clear protoplasm 
passes into the cell-body and forms a mass 
eccentric toward the animal pole and distinct 
from the yolk and: peripheral layer. 

The spermatozoon enters on the lower hemi- 
sphere, apparently at any point within 30° 
of the vegetal pole. After entrance rotation 


SCIENCE. 


34] 


occurs and the aster precedes in later move- 
ments. 

Immediately after the entrance of the sperma- 
tozoon the yellow and clear protoplasm flow 
rapidly to the lower pole where the yellow proto- 
plasm collects around the point of entrance; the 
clear protoplasm lies at a deeper level. The yel- 
low protoplasm then spreads out until it covers 
the surface of the lower hemisphere. 

The withdrawal of protoplasm from the upper 
pole leaves the maturation spindles closely sur- 
rounded by yolk. The polar bodies are thus 
formed at the middle of a yolk-rich hemisphere, 
which is, however, the animal pole and not the 
vegetal pole as was claimed by Castle. 


Castle’s conclusion that the polar bodies are 
formed at the vegetal pole of the ascidian egg 
has stood since its appearance in disagreement 
with our knowledge of most other eggs. Conk- 
lin’s observation of the movement of the 
chief protoplasmic portions of the egg toward 
the vegetal pole is important in that it clears 
up this error. 

The sperm nucleus moves from the point of en- 
trance toward the equator in a path which is 
apparently predetermined. This path lies in the 
plane of the first cleavage and the point, just be- 
low the equator at which the sperm nucleus stops 
in its upward movement, becomes the posterior 
pole of the embryo. All the axes of the future 
animal are now clearly established, antero-pos- 
terior, right-left, dorso-ventral. 

Conklin’s statements regarding the path of 
the spermatozoon appear to the writer to be 
in serious conflict. If the spermatozoon 
enters at any meridian of the egg and moves 
from its point of entrance along a path which 
corresponds with the plane of the first cleay- 
age, as Conklin states, the only possible con- 
clusion would seem to be that the point of 
entrance determines the plane of the first 
cleavage. Yet Conklin regards this path as 
predetermined. The only evidence offered in 
support of this view is that the spermatozoon 
apparently does not always take the shortest 
path to the equatorial region, but sometimes 
crosses the egg axis on its way. ‘This con- 
clusion in turn is based on the study of sec- 
tions. If the copulation path of the sperm is 
predetermined penetration must be followed 
by movement into the predetermined meridian 


342 


in all cases except where the point of entrance 
happens to lie in this meridian. No evidence 
for such movement is given; indeed, it is by 
no means demonstrated that the spermatozoon 
always moves in a meridian of the egg. The 
movements of the spermatozoon constitute the 
only indications that bilateral organization 
exists before fertilization and they seem to the 
writer to oppose rather than to support the 
conclusions drawn from them. 


As the sperm nucleus moves to the posterior 
pole the clear and the yellow protoplasm move 
with it; the latter collects into a yellow crescent 
with its middle at the posterior pole and its horns 
extending about half way around the egg just 
below the equator. This position it retains 
throughout the whole development, giving rise to 
the muscle and mesenchyme cells. 

After the sperm and egg nuclei haye met at 
the posterior pole they move in toward the center 
of the egg and the clear protoplasm goes with 
them; the only place where the latter remains in 
contact with the surface is along the upper border 
of the crescent. At the close of the first cleavage 
the nuclei and clear protoplasm move into the 
upper hemisphere, and thereafter, throughout de- 
velopment, this hemisphere contains most of the 
clear protoplasm and gives rise to the ectoderm. 

The yolk which before maturation was central 
in position is shifted toward the animal pole when 
the protoplasm flows down to meet the sperma- 
tozoon; when the sperm nucleus and surrounding 
protoplasm move to the posterior pole the yolk 
is moved down around the anterior side of the egg 
to the lower pole, and when the clear protoplasm 
moves into the upper hemisphere of the yolk is 
largely collected in the lower hemisphere. This 
yolk-rich area gives rise to the endoderm. 


At the end of the first cleavage the chorda 
and neural plate areas are visibly different 
from surrounding regions, since they contain 
less yolk. Later muscle and mesenchyme be- 
come distinguishable, the former being deep 
yellow, the latter light yellow or clear. 

These are the most important facts regard- 
ing the ‘ organ-forming substances.’ 

Before turning to Conklin’s general con- 
clusions a brief consideration of the grounds 
for believing that the differentiated regions 
represent formative substances is necessary. 
And first, what are the formative substances ? 
The visible differentiations of the egg are due 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 583. 


not to visible differences in the protoplasm 
itself, but to the localization of the inert sub- 
stances, yolk and the yellow granules. Conk- 
lin does not regard these inert substances as 
formative, but apparently believes their local- 
ization indicates a corresponding localization 
of different ‘kinds of protoplasm.’ We are 
justified in inferring from the presence of 
different inert substances that different kinds 
of activity have occurred in the past, but cer- 
tainly a single ‘kind’ of so complex a sub- 
stance as protoplasm is capable of various ac- 
tivities under different conditions. Moreover, 
the significance of inert substances in proto- 
plasm is primarily retrospective, not pro- 
spective. 

The protoplasm containing yellow granules 
in the Cynthia egg gives rise to muscle and 
mesenchyme, according to Conklin. Yet the 
yellow granules are not confined to this region, 
but appear about all the nuclei during cleay- 
age, about the nuclei of the test cells, and in 
the viscera of the adult. In other words, there 
is no indication that this region contains any 
specific kind of protoplasm not found else- 
where. During ovarian stages the test cells 
invade the peripheral layer of the egg. It 
seems at least not improbable that the yellow 
granules are associated with the earlier pres- 
ence of the test cells. ° 

The yolk spherules are similarly inert; their 
localization in the egg can be as readily ex- 
plained on physical grounds as by postulating 
a specific kind of protoplasm in the region 
where they exist. It is quite probable that 
the presence of yolk granules determines spe- 
cial activities in the protoplasm about them, 
and indeed it is not unlikely that the yolk 
itself is the important entodermal formative 
substance. But that there is no special 
formative substance corresponding to the yolk 
region is indicated by the fact that parts of it 
go to other than entodermal regions. 

The fact that the clear protoplasm from the 
nucleus and the yellow protoplasm move down- 
ward to meet the sperm and accompany it in 
its movements does not necessarily indicate 
anything more than greater mobility of these 
areas in consequence of the absence of yolk. 
In certain other eggs, where no such areas 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


exist, the protoplasm from between the yolk 
spherules gathers about the spermatozoon. 
There is, moreover, no certainty that the same 
protoplasm remains continuously in a given 
region. The regions persist, but in view of 
the observations on ectosareal activities in 
eggs and the extensive flowings of cytoplasm 
to which Conklin himself has devoted so 
much attention, it seems very probable that 
there is extensive physical interchange of pro- 
toplasm between various parts of the egg. For 
example: is there any certainty that the area 
of clear protoplasm escaping from the nucleus 
at maturation and later giving rise to ecto- 
derm really consists throughout of the same 
protoplasm? ‘There is no visible boundary be- 
tween it and other portions of the cytoplasm. 
In short, how can we identify the actual 
formative substances, if such exist, and how 
can we be certain that they do exist? Caution 
is certainly necessary along this line; observa- 
tion alone does not afford a sufficient basis. 

The final section of the paper is devoted to 
a general discussion of the problem of egg 
organization and its genesis. The first part 
of the section is largely a résumé of our 
knowledge and opinions regarding polarity, 
symmetry and localization and only certain 
points need be considered. 

In the opening sentences of the section the 
following statement occurs: 

For our present purposes the organization of 
the germ cells * * * may be held to include 
phenomena of polarity, symmetry and localiza- 
tion; it obviously includes other things also, such 
as regeneration and regulation, which are not, 
however, objects of investigation in this work. 

In the discussion of localization the position 
is taken that experiments with egg fragments 
are no test of the presence or absence of dif- 
ferentiation and the ascidian égg is cited as 
a case in point; here the cleavage is deter- 
minate, the differentiations of the various 
parts of the unsegmented egg are very great, 
yet experiments have apparently demonstrated 
the totipotence of the first four blastomeres. 
From consideration of these facts Conklin is 
led to the following conclusion: 

Just as some adult forms show little capacity 
for regeneration or regulation while others of 


SCIENCE. 


343 


equally complex differentiation show this power 
in high degree, so it seems that the capacity for 
regulation shown by eggs is more or less inde- 
pendent of their differentiation. 

Incidentally it would be interesting to know 
on what facts the first half of this statement— 
that regarding adults—is based. To the writer 
there seems to be no escape from the conclu- 
sion that an isolated blastomere capable of 
producing a whole embryo is in some way 
more like the whole egg than another without 
such power. Moreover, it was admitted in 
the sentence quoted a few lines above that 
egg organization must include the phenomena 
of regulation. Even if we follow Conklin and 
adopt Roux’s view of two different methods 
of development, direct and indirect, the or- 
ganization must provide for each. There is 
something very like a dilemma here. 

This is an excellent example of the difficul- 
ties involved in maintaining the position that 
the visible cytoplasmic differentiations are 
formative in character. How far that is the 
ease observation alone can never determine. 
Conklin says ‘all the experiments in the 
world could not have shown as satisfactorily 
as direct observation has done the remarkable 
cytoplasmic differentiations and! localizations 
of this egg ’—viz., the ascidian. But it is 
equally true that all the observation in the 
world could not have shown as satisfactorily 
as experiment has done—and we may add, 
will do—how far these cytoplasmic differen- 
tiations and localizations are from represent- 
ing the actual formative powers of the egg. 

As regards the genesis of egg organization, 
Conklin believes that the differentiations of 
eggs, blastomeres and possibly other cells also 
are the result of two processes, the genesis of 
unlike substances and their localization. The 
escape of nuclear material into the cell body, 
and the formation there of specific substances 
and their localization are regarded as. afford- 
ing a specific mechanism for nuclear control 
of development ‘and as harmonizing the facts 
of cytoplasmic organization with the nuclear 
inheritance theory.’ As a ease in point, the 
distribution of the sphere material from the 
last oogonie division is cited. Conklin holds 
that a part of this material forms the yolk 


344 


matrix and a part passes into the peripheral 
layer. If the sphere material is derived from 
the nucleus as is the case in Gasteropods, 
according to Conklin, then both the mesoplasm 
and entoplasm receive substances derived 
from the nucleus at the preceding division. 
Again, the clear protoplasm (ectoplasm, Con- 
klin) escapes from the nucleus at the first 
maturation division. 

The various substances arise epigenetically 
even in the nucleus, but ‘all the evidence 
favors the view that back of the organization 
of the eytoplasm is the organization of the 
chromosomes which is definite, determinate 
and primary. Thus from visible formative 
substances we pass to invisible, hypothetical 
substances and end not far removed from 
Weismann in the organization of the chromo- 
some. 

The term ‘ organization’ is much employed 
of late, apparently as an explanation. But 
organization alone is the dynamo without 
electricity. The important question regard- 
ing all hypothetical organization in biology is, 
will it work? It would seem that at least 
some suggestion as to how it may work should 
be offered. How and why, for example, do 
the formative substances form what they are 
assumed to form? How and why does the 
nucleus give rise to ectodermal substance at 
one time and to mesodermal substance at 
another? If we have truly abjured vitalism 
organization must be reducible to terms of 
physics and chemistry. Why should we not 
make the attempt to reduce it instead of 
clinging to the vague term. If it is not so 
reducible then organization is a vitalistic con- 
cept. To the writer it seems at least a ques- 
tion whether a ‘definite, determinate and pri- 
mary’ organization of the chromosomes is 
reducible to terms of physics and chemistry. 

Four types of germinal localization are dis- 
tinguished by Conklin: the annelid-mollusk, 
the ectenophore, the echinoderm and the as- 
cidian. Among these there is no convergence 
in passing from later to earlier stages. Pre- 
cocious segregation is rejected as an explana- 
tion of egg organization. This organization, 
like adult structure, must in the final analysis 
depend upon the chromosomes in the germ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 583. 


cells. The structure of later stages is the 
result, not the cause of the structure of the 
germ cell. Extensive modifications of adult 
structure may therefore be brought about by 
slight changes in germinal organization. 

In conelusion, one or two minor matters 
should, perhaps, be mentioned. The author 
uses the words ‘ ovocyte’ and ‘ ovogonie,’ but 
also the word odplasm. The first two are ex- 
amples of those mongrel words with which 
biology has been frequently afflicted; the last 
is a word of good parentage. 

Addition of the plate numbers to the refer- 
ences to figures would certainly facilitate the 
finding of particular figures. 

j C. M. Cum. 


Von Dr. Juuius 
8vo. Leipzig, 


Lehrbuch der Meteorologie. 
Hann. Second edition. 
1906. Pp. xi-+ 642. 
What Hann’s ‘ Handbuch der Klimatologie,’ 

in its first and second editions, is to clima- 

tology, the same author’s ‘ Lehrbuch der Me- 
teorologie,’ in its first and second editions, is 
to meteorology—a comprehensive, well-di- 
gested, thoroughly authoritative text-book; 
absolutely indispensable to every worker in 
this science, and to every one else who seeks 
information on any special point in meteor- 
ology and who wishes to go to headquarters 
for an answer to his question. The first edi- 
tion of the ‘ Lehrbuch’ appeared in 1901 (see 
review in Sorence, Vol. XIV., N. S., Decem- 
ber 20, 1901, pp. 966-967), and although but 
four years have elapsed since then, a second 
edition is now before us, with all the latest 
advances of the intervening period set fully 
and clearly before the reader. What we said 
in our notice of the first edition can be re- 
peated, with added emphasis, of the second. 

Hyerything is brought down to date. For ex- 

ample, in the earlier edition it was stated that 

the results of the international cloud year 

were incomplete, but would probably give a 

fairly conclusive answer to questions regard- 

ing cloud heights and velocities. On p. 208 of 
the new edition it is stated concerning these 
results that they have given an answer to 
almost all questions as to cloud heights and 
velocities. This is typical of the treatment 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


of every subject in which advance has been 
made within four years. To give one other 
example, on pages 384-5 of the later edition 
the evidence concerning the movements of 
the upper air currents around cyclones which 
has been obtained by means of ballons-sondes 
is added to what was included in the first 
issue. The most important additions nat- 
urally concern the results obtained in the free 
air with balloons and kites, and all the im- 
portant results obtained up to the time of 
printing the book are discussed, including the 
newer investigations of Bigelow, Shaw and 
Hildebrandsson. The recent Antarctic ex- 
peditions have contributed towards making 
this volume thoroughly complete up to date. 
The second edition differs from the first 
in having larger type for the main portion 
of the text, which improves the book decidedly, 
and in the omission of a good many of the 
fine-print passages which rather clogged the 
first edition so far as easy reading was con- 
eerned, although they contained much valu- 
able matter. There have been added a useful 
table of monthly and annual mean tempera- 
tures for about 140 different stations scattered 
over the world, many of these means having 
been newly determined by the author; a small 
table of monthly rainfalls for some of the 
more important stations; a vapor-pressure 
table, and a table for the convenient calcula- 
tion of differences of altitude from barometer 
readings. The first edition had 805 pages; the 
second has 642. There is thus a considerable 
reduction, brought about by the omissions 
just referred to, but in spite of this shorten- 
ing, the new book is extraordinarily complete, 
and for all ordinary purposes will serve as 
the authority beyond which there is no need 
of goimg. For detailed investigations of 


special points, however, it will be necessary | 


to refer to the fuller bibliographical notes of 
the earlier edition. For the working meteor- 
ologist both books are needed. The clima- 
tologist also, in spite of the extraordinary 
richness of the material in the same au- 
thor’s ‘ Handbuch der Klimatologie,’ will find 
many of the data and discussions in the 
‘Lehrbuch’ invaluable as supplementary to 
the ‘ Handbuch.’ 


SCIENCE. 


345 


Meteorologists may well congratulate them- 
selves on haying the ‘ Lehrbuch’ in its new 
form. Their fellow workers in other sciences 
may well envy them. For it does not hap- 
pen to every scientist that the master mind in 
his subject produces a volume so wholly be- 
yond the possibility of unfavorable criticism ; 
so indispensable; so sure to last for years 
as the undisputed authority. 

R. DEC. W. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


Tue meeting of November 14, 1905, was 
called to order by President Rusby in the 
American Museum of Natural History. 
Twenty persons were in attendance. 

Dr. C. Stuart Gager was elected recording 
secretary to succeed Mr. Edward W. Berry, 
resigned. 5 

The first number on the scientific program 
was a paper by Dr. D. T. MacDougal on ‘ Bud 
Sports.’ 

The speaker gave an outline of the subject 
of bud sports and described some illustrative 
eases. Three striking examples from the cul- 
tures of the evening primroses in the New 
York Botanical Garden in 1905 were dis- 
cussed. Im one, a hybrid gave a flowering 
branch which sported into the characters of a 
sister hybrid; in the second, a fixed hybrid 
produced a branch constituting a reversion to 
one of the parents, a third, a mutant of the 
common evening primrose, produced a branch 
which resembled the parental form. Atten- 
tion was called to the fact that all mutations 
are essentially vegetative and, therefore, a 
greater terminology would necessitate the use 
of the terms ‘bud sport’ or ‘bud mutant,’ or 
“seed sport’ or ‘seed mutant.’ While seed 
mutants may theoretically be traced to one 
cell, it seems difficult to do this in the case of 
bud sports. The action of the growing point 
in the protection of buds was illustrated with 
diagrams, and an enlarged photograph of one 
of the bud sports was exhibited. 

Dr. Tracey Hazen exhibited a hybrid between 
Asplenium murrare and A. trichomenes from 
Vermont. 


346 


THE meeting of January 31, 1906, was held 
at the New York Botanical Garden.  Presi- 
dent Rusby presided, and twenty-seven per- 
sons were present. 

Dr. Britton exhibited the photographic re- 
production of the ‘ Dioseurides Codex Aniciz 
Juliane picturis illustratus, nune Vindobo- 
nensis: Med. gr. I phototypice editus,’ recently 
acquired by the Library of the New York 
Botanical Garden. 

This work is of the utmost importance in 
the study of the history of botany, on account 
of the large number of pictures of plants 
which were for the most part based on orig- 
inals presumably of the fifth century, and are 
now here reproduced in facsimile for the first 
time. The original manuscript is one of the 
treasures of the Imperial Library of Vienna. 
It is said to date from 512 a.., and was 
written and the miniatures painted for the 
Princess Anicia Juliana, of Byzantium, and 
is the basis of all the early herbals. The work 
is Vol. 10 of the ‘Codices Greci et Latini 
Photographici Depicti, a series of reproduc- 
tions of valuable manuscripts issued under 
the editorial supervision of Dr. de Vries, the 
librarian of the University of Leyden. It 
consists of two folio volumes bound in heavy 
oak boards and is a faithful facsimile of the 
celebrated original, reproducing it down to the 
smallest fragment. The plates are of great 
beauty and remarkable for a certain vigorous 
distinction and decorative character that illus- 
trators of the present day would do well to 
study. Not the least interesting are the 
miniatures showing groups of physicians and 
botanists in conclave, painters at work on 
plant pictures, the portrait of the lady Juli- 
ana, herself, and lastly a most beautiful orna- 
mental title page. Historical, prefatory and 
descriptive matter are by Anton yon Premer- 
stein, Carl Wessely, and Joseph Mantauni. 

Previous to the present reproduction, plates 
of this manuscript were prepared under the 
supervision of Jacquin, two impressions of 
which are known to be in existence, the one 
having been in the possession of Linnzus is 
now in the library of the Linnean Society of 
London; the other was sent to Sibthorpe to 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


be used in the compiling of his ‘ Flora Grzca.’ 
This last copy is now preserved at Oxford. 

The first paper on the program as an- 
nounced was by Professor L. M. Underwood, 
on ‘Six New Fern Genera in the United 
States.’ Professor Underwood gave a brief 
account of the additions to the fern flora of 
the United States since the year 1900. Six 
genera and over forty species are included in 
the list which also includes several species 
new to science. The list will appear in the 
Bulletin for March. The genera new to the 
country, and some of the more interesting 
species were exhibited. The paper was dis- 
cussed by President Rusby and Dr. Murrill. 

The second paper was by Mr. H. A. Gleason, 
entitled, ‘Notes on the Flora of Southern 
Illinois. The southern portion of Illinois is 
erossed by an eastern prolongation of the 
Ozark Mountains, which have a marked in- 
fluence on the rainfall. The flora is char- 
acterized by the presence of about four hun- 
dred species of distinctively southern plants, 
constituting three separate floras, each of 
which has entered the state from a different 
direction. Of these, the most sharply defined 
is the coastal plain flora which has entered 
the region by migrating up the Mississippi 
River from the south. The extensive cypress 
swamps are largely composed of coastal spe- 
cies. An Alleghenian element has crossed the 
highland region of Kentucky and southern 
Indiana, and is well represented in Illinois in 
the area of heavy rainfall along the Ozark 
hills. The third is a southwestern flora, char- 
acterized mainly by xerophilous species. They 
have migrated along the Ozark uplift through 
Missouri, but in Illinois they have for the 
most part left the hills for the arid region just 
to the north. The three migration routes 
all follow ecological isotones and the three 
floras are never associated. 

The last paper was by Mr. R. S. Williams, 
on ‘ Plant Collecting in the Philippines.’ The 
speaker gave an account of his recent botan- 
ical journey to the islands, describing briefly 
the country and its inhabitants, and some of 
his experiences in collecting. 

Professor Underwood was asked to act as 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


delegate to the council of the Scientifie Alli- 
ance for 1906. C. Sruart GaAGER, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. NEW YORK 
SECTION. 

Tue fourth regular meeting of the season 
was held at the Chemists’ Club on Friday, 
January 5, at 8:15 p.m. The vice-chairman, 
Dr. A. A. Breneman, presided. The follow- 
ing papers were presented. 

Is the Optical Rotatory Power an Additive 
Property of Asymmetric Oarbon Atoms? 
M. A. Rosanorr. 

In the memoir founding the science of 
stereo-chemistry in 1875, van’t Hoff made the 
well-known assumption that when two or more 
asymmetric carbon atoms are associated in a 
molecule, the rotation due to each is inde- 
pendent of the rotations due to the others. 
The assumption was made the subject of ex- 
tensive experimental inquiry, carried on be- 
tween 1893 and 1896, on the one hand by 
Guye (of Geneva) and his pupils, on the other 
hand by Walden (of Riga). The results 
seemed to establish the correctness of the as- 
sumption beyond possibility of doubt, and the 
verified assumption was incorporated in stereo- 
chemistry as ‘The Principal of Optical Su- 
perposition.’? The author now demonstrates 
that Guye’s and Walden’s experimental 
method was theoretically faulty, so that the re- 
sults fail to serve the object of the experi- 
ments. Having thus reopened the question 
as to the correctness of van’t Hoff’s assump- 
tion, he considers it in the light of facts that 
do have a bearing on it, and comes to the con- 
elusion that van’t Hoff’s principle is wrong 
and should be replaced by a new principle, 
provisionally formulated as follows: The ro- 
tatory power of an asymmetric carbon atom 
depends upon the composition, constitution 
and configuration of each of its four groups. 
On 5-Amino-J-ketodihydroquinazoline and 5- 

Amino - 2- methyl - -ketodihydroquinazoline : 

Victor JoHN CHAMBERS and Marston Tay- 

tor Bogert. 

The authors prepared the above quinazolines 
by reducing the corresponding nitro com- 
pounds. Of the 5-amino-4-ketodihydroquina- 


SCIENCE. 


347 


zoline, its hydrochloride, chlorplatinate; bib- 
rom, acetyl, benzoyl and phenyluramino de- 
tivatives were investigated; as well as its re- 
actions with nitrous acid, chloroform and 
potassium hydroxide, and with benzaldehyde. 
Of the 5-amino-2-methyl-4-ketodihydroquina- 
zoline, beside the free base, only the hydro- 
chloride and chloraplatinate were prepared. 


On Phosphotungstates of Amino Acids: P. A. 

LEVENE. 

In the course of a study of the products of 
tryptic digestion of gelatine the author made 
the observation that glycocol formed a erystal- 
line precipitate on treatment with phospho- 
tungstie acid. This observation led to an in- 
vestigation into the conditions required for 
the formation of this phosphotungstate as well 
as for the formation of insoluble phospho- 
tungstates of other acids. 

It was noted that insoluble phosphotung- 
state could be formed with glycocol, alanin, 
leucine, glutanic and aspartic acids. Further 
it was observed that the physical properties, 
and the solubilities of the phosphotungstates 
differ to such an extent as to make possible a 
separation of the individual acids by means of 
their phosphotungstates. 

Dr. Beatty and the author at present are en- 
gaged in an effort to apply the method to the 
study of the products of hydrolysis of proteids. 
While this work was in progress there ap- 
peared a publication by Skraup in which men- 
tion is made of the property of glycocol of 
analin to form crystalline phosphotungstates. 


THE section held its fifth regular meeting 
of the season at the Chemists’ Club, on Friday 
evening, February 9. 

The president of the American Chemical 
Society, Dr. W. F. Hillebrand, presented to 
Professor Marston Taylor Bogert, of Columbia 
University, the Nichols medal, which was 
awarded to him for his researches on the 
quinazolines. 

The regular program of the evening was 
then taken up and the following papers read: 
The Osazone Test for Glucose and Fructose, 

as influenced by Dilution, and by the Pres- 

ence of other Sugars: H. C. SHermMan and 

R. AH, Wittiams. 


348 


In pure glucose solutions tested at constant 
volume with fixed amounts of phenylhydrazine 
hydrochloride and sodium acetate, the time 
required for the precipitation of osazone varies 
with the amount of glucose present and is 
nearly constant for any given dilution. Pure 
solutions of fructose show similar variations 
with concentration, but always yield a pre- 
cipitate of osazone in about one third the 
time required by the same amount of glucose. 
Invert-sugar reacts almost as readily as fruc- 
tose. Maltose retards precipitation of glu- 
cosazone, interfering much more seriously 
with glucose than with fructose. Lactose 
interferes in a similar manner and to a 
greater degree than maltose. 

Some Derwatives of Citronellal: F. D. Dopcs. 

The paper is a continuation of the author’s 
previous work on citronellal (American Chem- 
ical Journal, XI., XII.). The preparation 
and properties of the so-called citronellal- 
phosphonic acid and a number of its salts are 
deseribed. 

The decomposition of the sodium salt by 
heat yielded a secondary alcohol, apparently 
identical with the iso-pulegol of Tiemann. 
This reaction, together with the general prop- 
erties of the acid indicates that it is really a 
derivative of iso-pulegol, and should properly 
be ealled iso-pulegol-phosphonic, analogous to 
the phosphonic acids of the aromatic series. 

The formation of this acid may be utilized 
for the identification of citronellal, when the 
latter is present in large amount, and even 
small quantities of the acid can be detected 
by means of the characteristic silver salt. 
The author was unable, however, to confirm 
the alleged occurrence of citronellal in oil of 
lemon by means of this reaction. 

F. H. Poueu, 
Secretary. 


THE SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 

A SPECIAL meeting of the society was held 
on January 29 for the purpose of discussing 
the significance of the term ‘ artesian’ and of 
adopting definitions covering its use. As a 
result of the discussion the following defini- 
tions were provisionally adopted, subject to 
such changes in wording as may be necessary: 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


DEFINITIONS OF ‘ ARTESIAN.’ 


Artesian Principle—The artesian principle, 
which may be considered as identical with what 
is often known as the hydrostatic principle, is 
defined as the principle in virtue of which water 
confined in the materials of the earth’s crust 
tends to rise to the level of the water surface at 
the highest point from which pressure is trans- 
mitted. Gas as an agent in causing the water 
to rise is expressly excluded from the definition. 

Artesian Pressure—Artesian pressure is de- 
fined as the pressure exhibited by water confined 
in the earth’s crust at a level lower than its 
static head. 

Artesian Water.—Artesian water is defined as 
that portion of the underground water which is 
under artesian pressure and will rise if encount- 
ered by a well or other passage affording an out- 
let. 

Artesian System.—An artesian system is any 
combination of geologic structures, such as basins, 
joints, faults, ete., in which waters are confined 
under artesian pressure. 

Artesian Basin.—An artesian basin is defined 
as a basin of porous bedded rock in which, as a 
result of the synclinal structure, the water is con- 
fined under artesian pressure. 

Artesian Slope-—An artesian slope is defined 
as a monoclinal slope of bedded rocks in which 
water is confined beneath relatively impervious 
covers owing to the obstruction to its downward 
passage by the pinching out of the porous beds, 
by their change from a pervious to an impervious 
character, by internal friction, or by dikes or 
other cbstructions. 

Artesian Area—An artesian area is an area 
underlain by water under artesian pressure. 

Artesian Well—An artesian well is any well in 
which the water rises under artesian pressure 


when encountered. M. L. Fuuuer, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE KELEP EXCUSED. 

Ir Dr. Cook will revert to my paper pub- 
lished in Science, Vol. XX., 1904, pp. 766-768, 
he will notice that I did not promise to keep 
silence till the Greek Kalends, but merely 
expressed my willingness to wait till that date 
for the extermination of the cotton boll-weevil 
by the keleps he had introduced from Guate- 
mala. And Iam still waiting. I did, indeed, 
promise to let the insect rest, as I supposed 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


that Dr. Cook would confine himself to its 
economic aspect, a subject on which I had 
nothing further to say. But he has seen fit 
to make his observations on the kelep the 
basis for certain general statements which, if 
true, would go far towards revolutionizing our 
knowledge of the social insects. Under the 
circumstances I craved the privilege of the 
“positively last appearance’ accorded to some 
ot the members of other professions than my 
own. Nor have I had oceasion to regret this, 
for may there not be a distinct gain to science 
in Dr. Cook’s admission of some of his errors 
and his promise to be more careful in the 
future? In his latest article there are still 
a few matters which do not seem to me to be 
fairly stated, and if I again ask for a little 
space in SCIENCE, it is not for the purpose of 
continuing my ‘scolding’ and,-perhaps, too 
drastic criticism, but merely for the sake of 
setting my previous remarks in a proper light. 
Dr. Cook says: 

If one were to generalize on this series of 
entomological episodes the deduction would be 
that adequate ignorance of literature is a neces- 
sary qualification for learning the habits of a 
new insect like the kelep, for at each important 
step the investigation has been met by Professor 
Wheeler’s non possumus. Last year he was quite 
as unable to believe that the keleps would kill 
boll-weevils as he is to credit now their failure 
to regurgitate nectar. After surviving so many 
of these literary dangers it is only natural that 
one become a little reckless, and venture even to 
hope that in the course of another year the addi- 
tional facets, at present so objectionable, will re- 
“ceive due credence, having now become a part of 
“literature of the subject.’ 


There can be little doubt that scientific in- 
vestigation is often impeded rather than fur- 
thered by too much attention to the ‘ literature 
of the subject.’ Many a piece of zoological 
research may be perverted from the outset by 
an incessant appeal to what has been written, 
for reliance on a knowledge of the literature, 
especially in entomology, may not only clog 
the free movements of the investigator, but 
may lead him to waste much valuable time in 
the blind bypaths of his science. Investiga- 
tion and publication are, however, two very 
different matters. One may investigate a 


SCIENCE. 


349 
thousand things, experience all the thrills of 
first discovery in every one of them and still 
never care to inflict one’s results on one’s fel- 
low beings. But whenever one does decide to 
publish, it is necessary to reckon with the 
great ‘paper memory of mankind,’ the con- 
served experience of other workers who have 
loved and investigated the same things. It 
then becomes a duty to study the ‘literature 
of the subject, if only for the purpose of 
bringing the new work into intelligible, or- 
ganic relation with the old. Failure to do 
this may be justly interpreted as carelessness, 
sloth, ignorance or conceit. 

After making his observations with com- 
mendable enthusiasm and in great freedom of 
spirit, Dr. Cook failed in his full duty to 
other investigators—hinc ille lacryme. That 
even now he does not seem to be fully aware 
of his omissions is obvious from the following 
considerations : 

1. His grounds for concluding that no 
nuptial flight occurs in the kelep have little 
value, because it is known that some species 
of ants, like certain species of Camponotus 
and Prenolepis, which celebrate this flight at 
regular intervals, nevertheless retain males 
and winged females in their nests during the 
whole or several months of the year. More- 
over, copulation within the nest has been ob- 
served in species like our common tent-build- 
ing ant (Cremastogaster lineolata), which has 
a typical nuptial flight. Miss Fielde has even 
photographed a number of mating males and 
females of this species in one of her glass 
formicaries. Hence there is nothing in Mr. 
MelLachlan’s observations on artificial nests 
of the kelep to demonstrate the absence of a 
nuptial flight. Like all similar negatives, this 
would, in fact, be extremely difficult to prove. 

2. Dr. Cook’s remarks on Leptogenys are in- 
comprehensible to me. The queens of J. 
elongata are, indeed, little more than egg- 
laying workers, as he would have noticed had 
he read my account of these insects. No one 
has ever been able to find a winged queen of 
any of the numerous species of this tropicopol- 
itan genus or of its subgenus Lobopelta, al- 
though egg-laying workers, similar to those 
which I found functioning as queens in L. 


350 


elongata of Texas, have been seen in an Indian 
species. 

3. It is not I, but Dr. Cook, who has been 
studying the habits of the kelep. I have been 
trying to interpret his observations in the 
light of what I have seen in other ants. He 
claims that I ‘was quite unable to believe that 
the kelep would kill boll-weevils.’ Reference 
to my previous papers will show that this is 
an unfair and purely gratuitous statement. I 
have never doubted his observations on this 
point, but merely the ability of the ants to 
keep at the good work of killing the pests 
with suflicient concentration and perseverance 
to make them a considerable factor in the 
extermination of the boll-weevil. 

4. Dr. Cook endeavors to show that I am 
wrong in inferring that the keleps can in- 
gurgitate and regurgitate liquid food. He 
says that they “persist in going about with 
large, round drops of nectar on their bills. 
They regularly carry it into their nests in this 
way, and feed it to their friends and families 
without having once swallowed it, or spewed 
it up again. ‘This incredible conduct is very 
easy of observation,” ete. If this observation 
were beyond suspicion, I should be the last to 
reject it as a proof of Dr. Cook’s contention, 
for the very reason that it agrees so well with 


the many primitive habits I have detected in - 


the Ponerine that have come under my own 
observation. But I still have serious doubts 
on this subject, not because Dr. Cook’s state- 
ment conflicts with anything in the ‘ literature 
of the subject ’—on the contrary, it confirms 
my own statements on Cerapachys—but be- 
eause I have seen large camponotine ants 
carrying drops of liquid on their mouth parts 
when they had ingurgitated as much food as 
they could hold in their crops. Is Dr. Cook 
sure that none of the liquid is drawn into the 
crop of the kelep and that this is not regurgi- 
tated to members of the family after the hang- 
ing drop has been disposed of? Remarkably 
concise observations would be required to make 
sure of this point, and as soon as Dr. Cook 
can produce these I shall be only too glad to 
accept them. 

5. Dr. Cook’s remarks on the phylogeny and 
classifications of the ponerine ants are thrown 


SCIENCE. 


EN. S. Vor. XXIII. No. 583. 


off in a haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion not at 
all reassuring to those who can appreciate the 
long and serious study devoted to these sub- 
jects by men like Gustav Mayr, Roger, Forel, 
Emery, Ernest André and others. Tracing 
phylogenies is at best a very dubious and high- 
ly speculative performance, but it may be said 
that the phylogenies in question have not only 
been traced, contrary to Dr. Cook’s assertion, 
but they have been so conscientiously traced 
that there is practical unanimity on the sub- 
ject among myrmecologists. The ants of the 
higher subfamilies (Myrmicinez, Dolicho- 
derinze and Camponotinz) have been derived 
from the Ponerine, and it has long been known 
that this primitve subfamily embraces more 
disparate groups of genera than are to be 
found in any of the subfamilies of recent 
development. This is, of course, quite in har- 
mony with what is known of many other 
archaic groups of animals and plants. 
Witn1am Morton WHEELER. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
RAMBUR AND THE NATURE OF SPECIES. 


In a volume entitled ‘Histoire Naturelle 
des Insectes,’ published in 1842, by Dr. M. P. 
Rambur, prior to Darwin, Wallace and Wag- 
ner, there are certain very sage reflections on 
the nature of genera and species. My atten- 
tion has been called to this work by Mr. For- 
dyce Grinnell. I append an extract which is 
worth reading even at the present day. I 
place the sentences referring to the effect of 
varied environment on species-forming in 
italics. 

Dr. Rambur says: 

Il ne faut pas se faire illusion, la classification 
n’est pas la science, n’est pas Vhistoire naturelle, . 
elle n’est quwun moyen factice pour arriver 4 la 
connaissance des différents étres qui se trouvent 
dans la nature. Certes c’est un progrés heureux 
de lVavoir basée sur des rapports plus ou moins 
naturels (quoique quelquefois insuffisants) ; mais 
la science est surtout la connaissance de létre 
qu’on appelle espéce, histoire naturelle est cette 
connaissance, et celle des rapports nombreux 
dorganisation et de moeurs que les espéces pré- 
sentent entre elles. Il ne faut done pas reculer 
devant le mot espéce, il faut chereher 4 le com- 
prendre; toute la science est 1A; cest s’en écarter 


Marcy 2, 1906.] 


que de dire comme certains naturalistes qu’on ne 


doit faire des espéces qu’a son corps défendant, _ 


et de se lamenter sur le nombre de celles qui se 
trouvent dans les catalogues. Je suis convaincu 
qu’on n’a pas reconnu toutes celles qui existent 
dans les collections, ou que beaucoup sont encore 
confondues sous le méme nom. Si nous ne pouvons 
reconnaitre les modifications presque infinies de la 
nature, nous ne devons nous en prendre qu’a la 
faiblesse de notre intelligence; mais vouloir les 
borner et les restreindre, c'est une petitesse 
desprit, cest s’éloigner de toute étude philo- 
sophique, c’est vouloir abaisser la nature 4 son 
niveau, mais non chercher 4 la comprendre. I1 y 
a bien plus d’inconvénients de confondre une 
espéce, que de présenter une variété, comme une 
espéce; en effet, dans le premier cas il se trouve 
offrant de trés-grands rapports d’organisation et 
de meurs avec les espéces voisines, présente aussi 
quelques différences, qui lui sont propres, et qui 
constituent sa spécialité; c’est un trés minime 
anneau de la grande chaine, qui necessairement 
unit, ou se lie d’une maniére intime avec ceux 
qui lui sont proches; c’est un passage, une nuance 
de rapports qui nous échappe; c’est un fait de 
moins dans la science. Dans le second eas, c’est 
un étre étudié sous plus de rapports; c’est un 
fait de plus dans la science. Ici la science s’est 
enrichie, 14 il y a ignorance; et, qu’importe qu’on 
ait donné un nom 4 cette variété, puisqu’elle 
mérite étre notée, l'étude des variétés n’est-elle 
pas le complément nécessaire de Vhistoire de 
Yespéce; mais l’erreur reconnue, il n’y a qu'un 
nom de trop, le fait reste. On me dira ce que 
un étre omis, méconnu, qui cependant, tout en 
vous appelez espéce, nous l’appelons variété, et 
nous l’avons noté; mais il est évident que si cet 
étre efit été suffisamment étudié dans tous ses 
caractéres, on en aurait fait une espéce. Je ne 
chercherai pas 4 définir V’espéce, on a dit que 
eétait un étre qui dans ses générations successives 
présentait toujours les mémes caractéres d’organ- 
isation, et il faut ajouter dans les mémes localités 
et les mémes circonstances extérieures; car il y a 
des variétés qui dans certaines localités et circon- 
stances, présentent des différences constantes, et 
qui pourtant ne paraissent pas des espéces, ce 
sont des modifications locales que la sagacité de 
Yobservateur doit reconnaitre; mais quelquefois 
la chose est difficile: c’est dans ce cas surtout qu’il 
vaut beaucoup mieux les présenter comme des 
espéces,, car en agissant ainsi on sera porté 


*Certaines localités peuvent quelquefois influer 
d'une maniére remarquable sur les espéces; ainsi, 
dans les iles de Corse et de Sardaigne, qui ne 


SCIENCE. 


dol 


davantage a les étudier sous tous leurs rapports. 
Les espéces sont certainement dues & une différence 
des localités ou des circonstances extérieures. 
Ainsi les espéces enfouies dans la terre et qui ont 
été détruites par les cataclysmes, sont toujours 
différentes des nétres, et les espéces sont générale- 
ment différentes aussi, selon les divers points de 
la terre; mais il est impossible de comprendre 
pourquoi, et 4 quelle époque la nature a mis pour 
ces étres un terme dans leur modification et les 
a constitués espéces; et quoique bien certainement 
il ne paraisse plus s’en former, il est cependant 
certains insectes qui semblent & peme limités dans 
leur modification. Davin STARR JORDAN. 
STANFORD UNIVERSITY. 


GLACIAL NOTES FROM THE CANADIAN 
AND SELKIRKS. 

INVESTIGATIONS upon the largest of the ac- 
cessible glaciers along the line of the Canadian 
Pacific Railway were begun by the writer in 
1902, carried forward during the season of 
1904 under the auspices of the Smithsonian 
Institution and continued duting the season 
just closing. The precipitation from the coast 
to the Rockies during the winter of 1904-5 
was exceptionally light. At Victoria for the 
months September to April, inclusive, the 
total precipitation reported was but 21.18 
inches, or only 57.1 per cent. of the normal 
for this region. At Banff, east of the Conti- 
nental Divide, the total amount for these 
months was 5.83 inches, or but 53.3 per cent. 
of the normal. The official records for Gla- 
cier, in the Selkirks, are incomplete, but the 
snowfall for the winter is reported as fifteen 
feet, which is but one quarter to one third of 
the usual amount. Following this exception- 
ally mild winter the summer has been bright 


ROCKIES 


sont que la méme chaine interrompue, des insects 
du continent qui se présentent toujours sous leur 
véritable type dans la plus grande partie de 
Europe, ont éprouvé dans ces iles, dont certains 
points ne sont pas 4 cinquante lieues en mer, une 
modification telle, que Vobservateur se demande 
avee doute si ce ne sont pas des espéces réelles; 
ainsi notre Vanessa urtice est deyenue V. ichnusa; 
mais aussi la larve se nourrit d’une nouvelle 
espéce d’Urtica. Les Satyrus megera, semele, se 
sont modifiés en Sat. tigelius, aristeus. Chez les 
uns la modification est plus prononcée que chez 
d’autres. 


302 


and warm and much melting over and about 
the glaciers has occurred. Snow has been 
removed from portions ordinarily covered 
throughout the year, exposing numerous cre- 
vasses and concentrating relatively large quan- 
tities of foreign material upon the surface of 
the ice. The dirt zones, dirt bands, stratifica- 
tion and all the phenomena based upon the 
differential melting of the ice have stood forth 
with unusual clearness, so that the season has 
been an exceptionally favorable one for glacial 
study. A reexamination was made of the five 
glaciers upon which a preliminary report was 
published in May, 1905.’ 

I. Victoria Glacier.—Located at the head 
of the Lake Louise Valley, this glacier is nour- 
ished by the snow which falls between Mount 
Lefroy and Mount Huber, the snow and ice 
which are ayalanched from these mountains 
and Victoria and that supplied by the double 
tributary. The avalanches during the spring 
and summer have been exceptionally numer- 
ous and heavy from the hanging glaciers, par- 
tially making up for the loss occasioned by 
the unusual warmth of the summer and the 
diminished precipitation of the past winter. 
Along the oblique front the retreat has been 
much greater for the year than for any other 
since observations began in 1898. From Sep- 
tember 18, 1904, to September 2, 1905, this 
amounted to 20.35 feet, the average retreat for 
the last six years being, at this point, 14.5 
feet. Some 300 feet farther down the valley 
the retreat between the above dates amounted 
to 13.2 feet. 

The real nose of the Victoria glacier is 
completely veneered with rock debris, so that 
the ice is not visible and is effectually pro- 
tected from melting. The last episode here 
was one of advance, the glacier having in- 
vaded the forest and mounted an ancient 
moraine. From July 9 to September 13, 
1904, a small stream of clear, ice-cold water 
was observed to flow from this part of the 
glacier and stones embedded in the front had 
settled back an inch. During the year this 
very small amount of recession has been made 
up, the points selected upon the boulders lack- 

*Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Quar- 
terly Issue, Vol. 47, Pt. 4, pp. 453-496. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 583. 


ing but .03 to .06 of a foot of regaining the 
position occupied when the stations were es- 
tablished, and the nose has been practically 
stationary. 

July 9, 1904, a line of 18 steel plates was 
set across the Victoria glacier, approximately 
100 feet apart and 3,600 feet back from the 
nose. Although the glacier is here straight, 
the maximum movement was found to be two 
thirds of the way across, at plate No. 18, and 
averaged for 20 days (July 9 to July 29) 2.74 
inches daily. In remeasuring the distances 
moved by the series of plates (July 29, 1904, 
to September 5, 1905) it was found that plate 
No. 11 had made the greatest advance, 71.8 
feet, giving a daily average of 2.14 inches, 
or 80 per cent. of its midsummer motion. 
Forbes’s dirt-bands were located in 1904 from 
the surface of the glacier itself and their dis- 
tances approximately determined. This sea- 
son it was found that their upper margins 
were sharply defined, when seen from a dis- 
tance of two thirds of a mile, or more, and 
with the help of an assistant these margins 
were marked by means of small cairns and 
their distances afterward measured with a 
steel tape. From the base of the ice slope 
upon which they are formed some 19 bands 
were thus located, their distances apart, ex- 
pressed in feet, running as follows: 159, 174, 
126, 124, 113, 109, 100, 88, 75, 100, 86, 88, 57, 
81, 66, 83, 83 and 45. These bands, which are 
transverse to the glacier at the time of their 
formation and but slightly curved, become 
more and more convex down stream and indi- 
cate by their shape the locus of maximum 
surface motion, and there is reason for think- 
ing the approximate annual motion of the ice. 

Il. Wenkchemna Glacier—As reported pre- 
viously, this is a piedmont type of glacier, near 
the head of the Valley of Ten Peaks, made 
up of. some twelve component streams, placed 
side by side. It lies close in upon the north- 
ern side of the great Wenkchemna series of 
peaks, which form here the Continental 
Divide. These’ peaks supply the snow, protect 
the meager névé field from the noonday sun 
and contribute quantities of rock debris with 
which the glacier is almost completely covered. 
In August, 1904,-a series of eight stations was 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


established along the front and accurate 
measurements made between definite points 
upon boulders firmly planted in the front of 
the glacier and others in the moraine and tem- 
porarily stationary. During a period extend- 
ing over 34 days in 1904 (August 9 to Sep- 
tember 12) it was found that the extremities 
of some of the component streams were sta- 
tionary, some slowly wasting and others ad- 
yanecing. From September 12, 1904, to Sep- 
tember 8, 1905, all the blocks carried at the 
front of the glacier indicated an advance, the 
horizontal component of which varied from 
15 foot to 1.7 foot. The least movement 
occurred about the ends of those streams which 
make up the eastern half of the glacier, while 
the greatest was about half-way up the long 
front, opposite Mount Deltaform, where the 
rolling stones from the glacier are now cutting 
trees. All the evidence points to the fact that 
we have here an exceptionally sluggish glacier, 
which owes its existence to the peculiar condi- 
tions under which it has been formed and is 
now maintained. 

At the head of Paradise Valley, the next 
valley to the west, the Horseshoe glacier is 
also of the piedmont type, with some fifteen or 
sixteen component streams. The supply of 
snow is meager and derived from Mounts 
Hungabee, Ringrose and Lefroy. The glacier 
carries much less surface debris than the 
Wenkchemna and is in slow retreat, the west- 
ern end haying already separated from the 
main body. In front of each portion there 
lies a collection of coarse, weathered frag- 
ments of the mountains, which are to be cor- 
related with the ‘block moraines’ of the 
neighboring glaciers. 

Ill. Wapta Glacier—This imposing ice 
stream occupies the head of the picturesque 
Yoho Valley, to the west of the Continental 
Divide, and is nourished from the great 
Waputehk snow-ice field. From its great 300- 
foot archway issues the north branch of the 
Kicking Horse River. The nose of the gla- 
cier lies to the east of this stream and rests 
upon bed-rock, over which it has been slowly 
retreating. During the past year (August 
' 18, 1904, to August 31, 1905) this retreat has 
amounted to 9 feet, as compared with 23 feet 


SCIENCE. 


303 


of the previous year. The average annual 
retreat for the past four years is 30 feet. 
From certain data discovered last season it 
was calculated that the glacier is shrinking 
laterally down the eastern mountain slope at 
the rate of five to six feet a year. Upon the 
west side of the river the ice front at one 
point has receded 4.6 feet during the past 
year. 

IV. Illecillewaet Glacier—Passing west- 
ward to the Selkirks, we have two glaciers 
occupying adjoining valleys, the larger of 
which has more visitors each year than any 
other glacier upon the western continent. 
Owing to its size and easy accessibility it has 
been longer under observation than any other 
of the Canadian glaciers. Since 1887 it has 
been in continuous retreat at a mean annual 
rate of 33.6 feet. For the last seven years 
this rate has been 25.6 feet. The retreat for 
the year 1903-4 was 11 feet and for 1904-5 
(September 1 to August 25) was but 2.1 feet. 
This diminution in the recession of the ice 
front suggests that the glacier is preparing to 
inaugurate an advance, which would probably 
have been begun this season had the summer 
been less warm. Such a result was to have 
been anticipated from observations made in 
1899 by George and William Vaux. Upon 
comparing their photographs of the glacier, 
taken from the same view point in 1898 and 
1899, it was noted that the ice was increasing 
in volume in the upper part of the glacier. 
Along the western side of the glacier, near the 
nose, a wall of ice about 60 feet high has with- 
drawn 2.4 feet from the bed-rock, in two 
years. Around upon the eastern side, at two 
stations, there has been a retreat of 14 and 16 
feet, respectively, during the past year, while 
higher up the ice has practically held its own 
for two years. 

V. Asulkan Glacier—Owing to its cover- 
ing of fine gravel and glacial sand the nose of 
this glacier has behaved exceptionally during 
the past six years. In August, 1899, the Vaux 
brothers established a line of reference, mark- 
ing the position of the nose. During the year 
following the nose withdrew up the valley a 
distance of 24 feet. On September 17, 1903, 
the writer found that the nose had pushed its 


304 


way 13.5 feet beyond this line, was ploughing 
into ground moraine and overturning boulders. 
August 27, 1904, the nose stood 12.5 feet be- 
yond the Vaux line, indicating but little 
change. August 27, 1905, it was found to 
have retreated 34 feet from its position of 
last year, with its nose embedded in debris, 
standing 21.5 feet back from the reference 
line of 1899. This nose now consists of a 
thin slab of ice, sloping to the west and 
veneered with fine debris, so that a small 
amount of melting will lead to a further reces- 
sion of 30 to 35 feet. The ice in the left 
lateral moraine is seen to extend four feet 
beyond the reference line, 25.5 feet beyond 
the nose, and probably extends several feet 
farther. Thus while its neighbor, the Ille- 
cillewaet, seems preparing for an advance, the 
Asulkan has made an unusually, for it, great 
retreat and seems ready, the coming year, to 
repeat the performance. 
W. H. SHeErzer. 


Micuican Stare NORMAL COLLEGE. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 


THE administrative report for 1905, of 
which advance galleys have been received at 
the office of SciENCcE, is an unusually long and 
full one. The officers of the board of trustees 
preface their annual financial statement by 
an abstract history of the institution for the 
sixteen years during which it has been under 
their charge. 

Attention is called to the fact that while 
the gross revenue from the Shaw estate has 
increased 32.5 per cent. general taxes have 
increased 62 per cent., while heavy special 
street and sewer taxes have compelled close 
economy in the administration of their trust 
and ultimately absorbed a large fund saved 
out of the revenue to meet these or other 
emergency calls. By the conversion of un- 
productive property bequeathed for the sup- 
port of the garden into income-yielding prop- 
erty, however, they are hoping to largely 
increase their reyenue; and the belief is ex- 
pressed that the full realization of the pur- 
poses of the founder of the garden and the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


plans of its director is only a question of time 
—the foundation being ample and safe. 

The value of the original garden, with per- 
manent improvements, is said to have nearly 
doubled, and details are given of the larger 
items of improvement. Its area has also been 
increased nearly one half. Plant houses and 
frames have been more than doubled in ca- 
pacity, and the collection of living plants has 
grown from not over 3,000 to about 16,000 
species. The library has been enlarged from 
about 5,000 to over 50,000 books and pam- 
phlets, and is valued at $84,248. The her- 
barium, from about 60,000 unmounted speci- 
mens, has increased to 524,000 mounted sheets, 
valued at $79,216. 

From a gentleman’s country estate, the in- 
stitution has thus been brought into a well- 
grounded scientifie establishment which now 
has exchange relations with 859 institutions 
interested wholly or in part in gardening, hor- 
ticulture or forestry. The average annual 
expenditure on its maintenance is said to be 
$43,675.33, of which the larger items are 
$23,271.39 for gardening, $5,217.67 for office 
expenses, $4,418.82 for the library, $2,531.91 
for the herbarium, $930.34 for the instruction 
of garden pupils and $1,000.83 for research 
purposes. An average of 83,500 persons visit 
the garden yearly. 

Training in gardening has been given to 
39 persons, of whom 15 completed the four 
years’ course; and twenty of the number are 
stated to be now responsibly and successfully 
employed. Im addition to participating in 
undergraduate botanical work in Washington 
University, with which the garden is closely 
allied, though it is independently managed, 
graduate opportunities have been offered which 
have enabled five persons to win the master’s 
and six the doctor’s degree, with major work 
in botany. Through the entire period, the 
policy of administration has been to afford 
the freest use of the garden facilities for 
investigation, and to provide for the research 
use of a part of the time of capable employees, 
and the Annual Reports of the garden are 
well known for their original contributions 
to botanical knowledge. 

It may not be generally known that the 


Marce 2, 1906.] 


following courses in botany are given in the 
Shaw School of Botany: (1) ‘Elementary Mor- 
phology and Organography,’ (2) ‘ Cytological 
Technique,’ (8) ‘Plant Physiology, including 
Eeology,’ (4) ‘Systematic Botany,’ (5) ‘ Plant 
Pathology and Applied Mycology.’ When one 
takes into the account the growing plants in 
the garden, the great collection of dried speci- 
mens in the herbarium, and the large library, 
it is evident that here are admirable oppor- 
tunities for study by those wishing to obtain 
a thorough knowledge of botany. 

The report of the director shows that the 
customary growth has occurred in the year 
just closed: 1,769 species of living plants were 
added to the collections; 34,535 specimens 
were incorporated in the herbarium, and 5,382 
books or pamphlets and 97,676 index cards 
were added to the library. The number of 
visitors reached 100,830—of whom nearly one 
fourth were drawn by a successful exhibition 
of 211 choice varieties of chrysanthemums, in 
November; and the director reports an in- 
ereasing loan-use of the herbarium and library 
by investigators who are unable to go to St. 
Louis for study. i 


LABORATORY OUTLINES FOR GENERAL BOTANY. 

Unoner this title, Professor Schaffner, of the 
Ohio State University, has prepared what 
must prove to be a very useful laboratory 
guide in general botany for college students. 
It is a pamphlet of nearly a hundred pages, 
and includes suggestions for one hundred and 
six studies, distributed throughout the vege- 
table kingdom. After three studies of living 
cells the student is started up the series be- 
ginning with Plewrococcus, Merismopedia, 
Lyngbya, ete. to Closterium, Spirogyra, 
Vaucheria, Hydrodictyon, Cladophora, Fucus, 
ete. Then follow Mucor, Hmpusa, Sapro- 
legnia and Plasmopara, and after these Chara 
and Polysiphonia. Some higher fungi follow, 
as Morchella, Uncinula, Ustilago, Puccinia, 
Fomes, Psalliota, Bovista, with the lichen- 
fungi Parmelia to Cladonia. Following these 
are Oedogonium and Coleochaete, leading to 
’ Riccia, Marchantia, Sphagnum, Polytrichum 
and Anthoceros. He then takes up Ophio- 
glossum, Botrychium, Adiantum, Pteridiwm, 


SCIENCE. 


300 


ete., and Lycopodium and Selaginella, finally 
reaching the seed plants, where he takes 
Cycas, Ginkgo, Pinus, ete. Im the angio- 
sperms he properly begins with Sagittaria, 
Ranunculus and Alisma, following with Se- 
dum, Trillium, Cypripedium, Catalpa, Cornus, 
Ageratum, Chrysanthemum and Taraxacum. 
This is an admirably arranged series, and it 
brings out clearly the author’s idea of the 
evolution of the vegetable kingdom, and the 
natural relationship of the various groups. 
The twenty histological studies and the pages 
on microtechnique will be useful to those who 
wish to give some time to the elements of 
cytology. Tle book might be introduced into 
many botanical laboratories with great profit 
to the students. 


MORE PHILIPPINE PLANTS. 


From the Bureau of Government Labora- 
tories at Manila we have Bulletin 29, bearing 
date of September, 1905, and containing two 
papers, viz: (1.) ‘ New or Noteworthy Philip- 
pine Plants, III.,’ and (11.) ‘The Sources of 
Manila Elemi,’ both by Elmer D. Merrill, 
botanist. In the first paper seventy-two new 
species are described, and twenty-seven hith- 
erto described species are included and in 
some cases further described. Since many 
new species were described in bulletins 6 and 
17 under the same title, a full index to all 
the species in the three bulletins is added for 
the convenience of botanists who may wish 
to consult them. The species of two genera 
are summarized, viz: Medinella (with 21 spe- 
cies) and Rhododendron (with 14 species). 
Of the former eleven species are new, and of 
the latter four. 


THE NORTH AMERICAN FLORA. 

Unper date of December 18, 1905, Part 2 
of Volume 22 of the ‘ North American Flora’ 
was issued by the New York Botanical Gar- 
den. Hight families are monographed, viz: 
Saxifragaceae and Hydrangeaceae (by Dr. 
Small and Dr. Rydberg), Cunoniaceae, Itea- 
ceae and Hamamelidaceae (by Dr. Britton), 
Pterostemonaceae (by Dr. Small), Altingia- 
ceae (by Perey Wilson), and Phyllonomaceae 
(by Dr. Rusby). The family Saxifragaceae 


356 


is by far the largest of those treated in this 
part, having 255 species. In this family the 
largest genera are Lithophragma with 20 spe- 
cies; Heuchera, 712; Therefon, 10; Saxifraga, 
7; Muscaria, 7; Micranthes, 56; Spatularia, 
7, and Leptasea, 15. The next family in 
number of species is Hydrangeaceae with 52, 
and here the genus Philadelphus is the domi- 
nant one, with 36 species. Of the remaining 
families only Cunoniaceae and Hamamelida- 
ceae have more than one species, the former 
haying two and the latter four. The total 
number of species described in this part is 
317, among which one finds a considerable 
number of new species. 


Cartes E. Bessey. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


WORK AT THE LAKE LABORATORY FOR 
THE SEASON OF 1905. 

THE work in the past summer.at the Lake 
Laboratory was, perhaps, the most successful 
of any session that has been spent there and 
distinctly encouraging for successful sessions 
in the future. Of the twenty-six students 
enrolled, eleven were college or university 
graduates; two having the title of Ph.D. and 
five that of master. Fifteen of the number 
were engaged in advanced or research work 
of university or graduate grade and in most 
eases for university credit; four were engaged 
in advanced work under the direction of the 
instructors, while six were doing independent 
research work for part or all of the time. 
Seven of the number are teachers in a uni- 
versity or college and two teachers in high 
schools, eleven being now or recently engaged 
in teaching in some capacity. 

The following institutions were represented 
there this season: Cincinnati University, Co- 
lumbia University, Denison University, De 
Pauw University, German Wallace College, 
Johns Hopkins University, Kenyon College, 
Ohio University, Ohio Northern University, 
Ohio State University, Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 
versity and Miami University. If we include 
institutions which have been represented with- 
in the last few years we should add to these, 


Chicago, Michigan, Nebraska, Stanford, Am- - 


herst, Cornell, Antioch and Fargo, which have 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXITI. No, 583. 


been represented either by investigators or by 
students. 

A very enjoyable and profitable feature of 
this season’s session was the meeting of the 
American Microscopical Society which brought 
a number of prominent scientific workers from 
various parts of the country and: especially 
from Ohio, the Ohio Academy of Science hold- 
ing a field meeting at the same time. This 
meeting consisted of the presentation of a 
number of scientific papers which were read 
at the laboratory and to which all the stu- 
dents were invited; an evening lecture by the 
president and social meetings, the most prom- 
inent of which was the luncheon’ which the 
university gave to the visiting members. 

As heretofore, much attention has been 
given to original investigation and some of 
the more important topics studied this year 
are: ‘The Brain of Amia, by Professor 
Charles Brookover, Buchtel College; ‘ The 
Naidide of Cedar Point,’ by Professor L. B. 
Walton; ‘Studies on the Life History of the 
Catfish and Investigations of Protozoa,’ by 
Professor F. L. Landacre; ‘Studies of the 
Insects which act as Scavengers of the Beach 
Débris,’ by W. B. Herms; ‘ Correlation Studies 
of Toads,’ by Professor W. E. Kellicott; ‘On 
the Flora of Cedar Point, by Otto E. Jen- 
nings, and on the ‘ Protozoa of Sandusky Bay,’ 
by Miss L. C. Riddle. The results of some of 
these studies will appear in published papers 
in the near future; others will doubtless be 
continued for more complete results. 


HeErsert Ossorn. 


THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 


Tue list of officers for the seventy-sixth 
meeting of the British Association, which will 
open at York on August 1, next, is now prac- 
tically completed. The meeting promises to 
be one of great interest. It was at York that 
the association came into being in 1831, when 
Lord Milton (afterward Lord Fitzwilliam) 
was president, and the attendance numbered 
only 353 persons. Thirteen years later the 
association again met in York, with the Rey. 
G. Peacock as president, and yet a third time 


1The London Times. 


Marcu 2, 1906.] 


im 1881, when the association met for the 
fifty-first time and celebrated its jubilee. Lord 
Avebury (then Sir John Lubbock) presided, 
and the growth of the association during the 
half-century was indicated by the attendance, 
which, though not the largest recorded during 
the interval, numbered 2,557 persons. When 
the association meets in York next summer 
for the fourth time it will have attained the 
respectable age of 75 years. The president- 
elect is Professor Ray Lankester, and the list 
of sectional presidents and vice-presidents, as 
now appointed by the council, is as follows: 

Section A (Mathematical and Physical Sci- 
ence): President, Principal E. H. Griffiths; 
vice-presidents, Professor A. R. Forsyth and 
Professor H. L. Callendar. 

Section B (Chemistry): President, Pro- 
fessor Wyndham Dunstan; vice-presidents, 
Mr. G. T. Beilby and Professor A. Smithells. 

Section C (Geology): President, Mr. G. W. 
Lamplugh; vice-presidents, Professor H. A. 
Miers and Professor J. W. Gregory. 

Section D (Zoology): President, Mr. J. J. 
Lister; vice-presidents, Mr. G. A. Boulenger 
and Mr. A. KE. Shipley. 

Section FE (Geography): President, Sir 
George Taubman Goldie; vice-presidents, Dr. 
J. Scott Keltie and Major Close. 

Section F (Economie Science and Statis- 
tics): President, Sir George S. Gibb; vice- 
presidents, Rev. Dr. W. Cunningham and Mr. 
Ashley. 

Section G (Engineering) : President, Mr. J. 
A. Ewing; vice-presidents, Sir Colin Scott 
Moncrieff and Mr. W. Cudworth. 

Section H (Anthropology): President, Mr. 
E. Sidney Hartland; vice-presidents, Dr. A. C. 
Haddon and Mr. D. G. Hogarth. 

Section I (Physiology): President, Pro- 
fessor Francis Gotch; vice-presidents, Colonel 
D. Bruce and Dr. Bevan-Lewis. 

Section K (Botany): President, Professor 
F. W. Oliver; vice-presidents, Mr. Harold 
Wager and Dr. D. H. Scott. 

Section IL (Kducational Science): Presi- 
dent, Professor M. E. Sadler; vice-presidents, 
Mr. Grant Ogilvie, Sir Philip Magnus, M.P., 
and Mr. Dyke-Acland. 


SCIENCE. 


300 


As regards the medal fund which was started 
last year to commemorate the visit of the 
British Association to South Africa, it is pro- 
posed to call a meeting of the subscribers to 
be held on March 2, for the purpose of re- 
ceiving the report of the executive committee. 
We understand that subscriptions have been 
promised to the amount of over £700, and 
since the council of the association has re- 
solved to add to the fund the balance of the 
special funds raised to meet the expenses of 
the South Africa meeting, the total sum to be 
disposed of is between £1,500 and £1,600. 
Finished sketches of obverse and reverse de- 
signs for the proposed medal have been pre- 
pared by Mr. F. Bowcher, and will be laid 
before the subscribers by the executive com- 
mittee. The committee’s report, of which the 
adoption will be moved by Sir George Darwin, 
the president of the South Africa meeting, 
recommends that the fund, together with a die 
for the medal, be offered to the president and 
council of the British Association for trans- 
mission to South Africa, there to be held in 
trust by the South African Association for the 
Advancement of Science. It is proposed that 
the medal, struck in bronze, together with the 
balance of the income on the fund after pay- 
ing for the medal, shall be awarded ‘for 
achievement and promise in scientific research 
in South Africa,’ and that as far as circum- 
stances shall allow, the award shall be made 
annually. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
WE regret to learn that Dr. S. P. Langley, 
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, died 
on February 27. 


Sir Witt1am Crooxes has been elected a 
corresponding member of the physical section 
of the Paris Academy of Sciences in succes- 
sion to the late M. Bichat. 

Sr. ANDREWS University has conferred the 
degree of LL.D. on Dr. Albert ©. L. G. 
Gunther, of London, the well-known authority 
on reptiles and birds. 

Tue Geological Society of London, at its 


annual meeting on February 16 elected the 
following officers: President, Sir Archibald 


358 


Geikie; Vice-presidents, R. S. Herries, J. E. 
Marr, A. Strahan and J. J. H. Teall; Secre- 
taries, W. W. Watts and EK. J. Garwood; 
Foreign Secretary, Sir John Eyans; Treas- 
urer, H. W. Monckton. This is the second 
occasion on which Sir Archibald Geikie fills 
the presidential chair. He has been specially 
elected in view of the approaching centenary 
of the society. 


We learn from Nature that a portrait of 
Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., subscribed for pri- 
vately, and presented by the subscribers to the 
University of Sheffield, in commemoration of 
Dr. Sorby’s scientific work and labors as one 
of the founders of the university, was un- 
veiled on February 12. Dr. Sorby was unable 
to be present at the ceremony, but he ex- 
pressed his appreciation of the honor in a let- 
ter to Alderman Franklin. The portrait is a 
replica of one painted by Mrs. M. L. Waller, 
now hanging in the rooms of the Sheffield 
Literary and Philosophical Society. 


Mr. Epwarp K. Putnam, instructor in 
English in Stanford University, has resigned 
to become trustee for the Putnam Memorial 
Fund for the Davenport Academy of Sciences. 
His brother, Mr. W. C. Putnam, bequeathed 
more than $500,000 to the academy. 


Nature states that Dr. Lewis Gough has 
been appointed to assist Dr. Gunning in the 
management of the museum at Pretoria. The 
department for which he will be responsible 
will be that containing the fishes, the 
amphibia and reptiles—groups of animals 
which were especially under his charge when 
he was an assistant in the museum at Stras- 
burg. Recently Dr. Gough has been working 
at Plymouth on the plankton of the British 
Channel in connection with the British 
Marine Biological Association. 


Dr. J. P. Lorsy has been made director of 
the National Herbarium in Leyden. 


Proressor ZIMMERMANN, director of the 
Agricultural Station at Amani, German East 
Africa, has been appointed director of the 
Agricultural Station in Salatiga, Jaya. 


THE tenth lecture in the Harvey Society 
course was delivered by Professor Charles S. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


Minot, of the Harvard Medical School, at the 
New York Academy of Medicine, on February 
24, on ‘ The nature and cause of old age.’ The 
eleventh lecture in the course will be deliy- 
ered by Professor J. ©. Webster, of Rush 
Medical College, on Saturday, March 3, at 
8:30 p.m., on ‘ Modern views regarding placen- 
tation.’ 


Dr. James Warp, professor of mental phi- 
losophy in the University of Cambridge, will 
deliver in the sessions of 1906, 1907 and 1908, 
the Gifford lectures at St. Andrews. Dr. Ward 
was Gifford lecturer at Aberdeen in 1895-1897. 
The subject of his Gifford lectures at St. An- 
drews will be ‘The realm of ends.’ 


A Memortat tablet has been unveiled at the 
house at Eisenach, in which the late Professor 
C. Abbe, the optician, was born. 

A sust of Liébault, founder of the Nancy 
School of Psychotherapy, was unveiled on 
February 8 in the Ecole de Psychologie, Paris. 


Prawns are being made to erect in Munich 
a monument in memory of the late Professor 
A. Hilger, professor of pharmacy in the uni- 
versity. 

It is proposed to erect a monument in honor 
of the late Eduard Grimaux, the chemist, in 
Rochefort-sur-Mer, his native town. 

THE death is announced of Dr. H. Ritten- 
hausen, professor of agricultural chemistry in 
the University of Konigsberg; of Dr. Alex- 
ander Popow, professor of physics in the 
Electro-technical Institute at St. Petersburg, 
and of Dr. Karl y. Koristka, professor of 
geodesy in the Technical Institute at Prague. 

Tue fourth annual conference of the Col- 
leges of the Interior was held on February 21 
and 22 at Colorado College, Colorado Springs. 
This conference represents twenty-six colleges, 
with about 10,000 students. 

Puysicians of Toronto, representing the 
local branch of the British Medical Associa- 
tion, appeared February 7 before the premier 
and the provincial cabinet to ask for assist- 
ance in entertaining the association next Au- 
gust, $7,500 being the amount requested. The 
dominion government has partially promised 
$10,000, and the city of Toronto is expected 
to contribute $5,000. 


MarcH 2, 1906.] 


Tue forty-fourth Congrés de sociétés sa- 
vantes will be held at the Sorbonne, Paris, 
from April 17 to 20. 


Tue second congress of the German Rént- 
gen Society will be held at Berlin on April 
1 and 2, under the presidency of Professor 
Eberlein. 


THE Queensland branch of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society of Australia proposes to 
celebrate its twenty-first anniversary in June. 
Arrangements are being made for the delivery 
of a series of special addresses by eminent 
authorities on geographical science. 


Tue Warren triennial prize will be awarded 
for researches on some special subject in 
physiology, surgery or pathology. Disserta- 
tions should be presented not later than April 
14, 1907. The prize was founded by the late 
Dr. J. Mason Warren in memory of his father. 
The judges are the physicians and surgeons of 
the Massachusetts General Hospital. The 
amount of this prize for the year 1907 will be 
$500. 


SEVERAL changes have recently been made 
in the American board of editors of the 
Botanische Centralblatt; Dr. E. C. Jeffrey 
and Dr. George T. Moore having resigned on 
account of pressure of other work. In their 
places there have been appointed Dr. M. A. 
Chrysler, of Harvard University, who will re- 
view papers on morphology and Dr. William 
R. Maxon, of the United States National Mu- 
seum, who will review papers on archegoniates 
and algae. Botanists are requested to note 
these changes and to send separates of their 
papers to the respective editors so that they 
may be reviewed at the earliest possible date. 


PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT has issued under date 
of February 10 the following executive order: 
It is hereby ordered that Indian Key, an 
island in Tampa Bay, Florida, containing 
ninety acres, and located in sections 10 and 15, 
township 32 south, range 16 east, as the same 
appears upon the official plat of survey of 
said township on file in the General Land 
Office, be, and it is hereby reserved and set 
apart for the use of the Department of Agri- 
culture as a preserve and breeding ground for 


SCIENCE. 


309 


native birds. This reservation to be known 
as Indian Key Reservation. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mrs. A. A. AnnrERSoN has given $100,000 to 
Barnard College, Columbia University, toward 
the establishment of a course in science lead- 
ing to the degree of bachelor of science. 


Tue New York Hvening Post states that 
a movement has been started to increase the 
salaries of professors at Pennsylvania. The 
gift of $50,000 made recently by Eckley Brin- 
ton Coxe, Jr., is to be used for this purpose. 
The fund itself was invested in a dormitory, 
and the income is to be applied to the pur- 
pose designated by Mr. Coxe. 


It is now virtually assured that Swarth- 
more College will receive the conditional gift 
of $50,000 from Mr. Andrew Carnegie for a 
library building. Mr. Isaac H. Clothier has 
started the subscription for the additional 
fund required with $10,000; Mr. Joseph Whar- 
ton, president of the board of managers, has 
also subscribed $10,000 and two other friends 
of the college have indicated their willingness 
to contribute liberally. Mr. Morris L. 
Clothier, class of 790, has offered to assume 
the responsibility of raising the remainder of 
the $50,000 required. 


During the month preceding the holiday 
vacation, Oberlin College received in gifts and 
bequests about $145,000. For the last few 
years the college has been engaged in raising 
a fund of half a million dollars. This is now 
almost complete. The fund was started by 
an anonymous donor of Boston who promised 
$100,000. At the time of the trustees’ meet- 
ing in November the fund had reached $335,- 
000. Since then the following gifts have 
been made: $5,000 for library endowment, by 
CO. M. Hall, of New York; $2,000 by members 
of the trustees for additions to the women’s 
gymnasium; $5,000 each, by A. C. Bartlett 
and Miss Grace Sherwood, of Chicago, toward 
a men’s building; $33,000 from the estate of 
Dr. CO. N. Lyman, of Wadsworth, O., which 
will be devoted to library endowment; $75,000 
by Miss Anne Walworth, of Cleveland, to be 


360 


used as endowment for the Slavic Department 
of the seminary; $10,000 from her estate, for 
the same purpose; $10,000 from the estate of 
Mrs. Helen G. Coburn, of Boston, for library 
endowment, and $5,000 from an anonymous 
donor for the art building. In the total of 
$485,000 thus raised is counted $125,000, 
promised by Mr. Carnegie for a library, on 
condition that $100,000 be raised for library 
endowment. To complete the fund, there- 
fore, it will be necessary for the college to 
raise about $50,000 more. It is expected that 
this will be done before commencement. 


A MEETING of the alumni of the University 
of Maryland was held on February 21 to pre- 
pare for the celebration in May, 1907, of the 
one hundredth anniversary of the medical 
department. 


THE University of ‘Wisconsin experiment 
station has established three experimental 
farms in northern Wisconsin. This step is 
the beginning of a system of experimental 
farms at various points in which typical con- 
ditions for the different agricultural areas of 
the state may be studied. Beside the investi- 
gation side of the work these farms will make 
possible the practical demonstration to the 
farmers of the surrounding country of the 
principles worked out at the central station 
at Madison. 


THE second session of the Graduate School 
in Agriculture under the auspices of the Asso- 
ciation of American Agricultural Colleges and 
Experiment Stations will be held at the Uni- 
versity of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, beginning 
July 2, 1906, continuing four weeks. The 
school is under the charge of Dr, A. C. True, 
director of the Office of Experiment Stations, 
Washington, D. C. About one fourth of the 
instruction will be given by investigators con- 
nected with the Illinois Experiment Station, 
and about three fourths will be given by those 
connected with agricultural education and 
research in other American institutions, It 
is the purpose of this school to bring to the 
attention of the students the recent develop- 
ments in agricultural science. Accordingly 
the attendance is limited to graduates of agri- 
cultural colleges or graduates of other colleges 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 583. 


with special experience in agriculture. Com- 
munications regarding courses of study should 
be addressed to Dr. A. C. True, Office of Ex- 
periment Stations, Washington, D. C.; those 
relating to attendance or registration should 
be addressed to EK. Davenport, registrar, Ur- 
bana, Illinois. 


The Spectator says: “The final report of 
the departmental committee on the Royal Col- 
lege of Science has been issued. It will be 
remembered that this committee, under the 
chairmanship first of Sir Francis Mowatt and 
then of Mr. Haldane, has been considering 
for the past two years some comprehensive 
scheme to provide advanced scientific instruc- 
tion and research, especially in its application 
to industry. We have not space to do more 
than summarize the main results. It is pro- 
posed to establish at South Kensington an 
institution, or group of associated Colleges of 
Science and Technology. The Royal College 
of Science, the School of Mines and the Cen- 
tral Technical College will come into the 
scheme. The government will contribute the 
existing buildings and an annual grant of 
£20,000, the London County Council is pre- 
pared to contribute a similar amount, and a 
capital sum of £100,000 has been offered by 
the firm of Messrs. Wernher, Beit and Co. 
for initial equipment. The report provides 
for a governing body of forty members to 
begin with, of whom ten shall be government 
nominees, and five each appointed by the Uni- 
versity of London, the London County Coun- 
cil, and the Council of the City and Guilds 
Institute. These will act as the first manage- 
ment authority, and discuss the further details 
of organization. It is an admirable and most 
needful scheme, and we trust that no time 
will be lost in putting it into operation.” 


Dr. Crarence A. SKINNER, assistant pro- 
fessor of physics at the University of Ne- 
braska, has been made head of the department 
in succession to the late D. B. Brace. 


At Wellesley College, Miss Margaret Fer- 
guson has been promoted to a professorship of 
botany, and Miss Elizabeth F. Fisher to be 
associate professor of geology and mineralogy. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Marcy 9, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science; Section K—Physiology 
and Haperimental Medicine :-— 


Executive and Scientific Proceedings: Pro- 
FESSOR WM. J. GIBS...........,...2.+.55. 


The Experimental Method in Sanitary Sci- 
ence and Sanitary Administration: PRro- 
FESSOR WILLIAM T. SEDGWICK............ 


Symposium on Yellow Fever and Other 
Insect-borne Diseases—The Protozoon Life 
Cycle: PRoressoR Gary N. CALKINS; 
Filariasis and Trypanosome Diseases: Pro- 
FESSOR HenRyY B. WaRD; The Practical Re- 
sults of Reed’s Findings on Yellow Fever 
Transmission: Dr. J. H. WHITE; Difficulties 
of Recognition and Prevention of Yellow 
Fever: Dr. Quitman KoHNKE; The Prac- 
tical Side of Mosquito Extermination: Dr. 
HENRY CLAY WEEKS............-....00 


Scientific Books :— 
Walker's Analytical Theory of Light, 
Curry’s Electromagnetic Theory of Light: 
C. E. M. Catalogue of the Crosby Brown 
Collection of Musical Instruments : CHARLES 
IKEA SONS OWWIEED)ait 5 cys)as)-yeis sien} eie/ears eve actos 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— 
The New York Academy of Sciences, Section 
of Geology and Mineralogy: PRoressor A. 
W. GRABAu. The Chemical Society of 
Washington: Dr. C. E. Waters. The Ver- 
mont Botanical Club: Proressor L. R. 
ONES Wy eertrucractcterct sou yt emus egeteraneisysre exh chcte cere 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Hye Anomalies: ProressoR CARL BARus. 
Preserving Spiders’ Webs: Dr. FRANK E. 
Lutz. A New Meteorite from Scott 
County, Kansas: Dr. Grorcr P. Merrit. 
The Walter Reed Memorial Fund: G. M. K. 


Special Articles :— 


Results of a Replantation of the Thigh; 
Successful Transplantation of Both Kid- 
neys: ALEXIS CARREL and C. C. GUTHRIE.. 


Notes on Entomology: Dz. NATHAN BANKS.. 


Japanese Meteorological Service in Korea and 
China: Dr. S. 'T. TAMURA............... 


861 


362 


367 


385 
387 


387 


390 


Scientific Notes and News................. 
University and Educational News........... 
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 


tor review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. ¥ 0 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
SECTION K—PHYSIOLOGY AND EXPERI- 
MENTAL MEDICINE. 


EXECUTIVE PROCEEDINGS. 
Orricers elected for 1906-1907: 


Vice-president and Chairman of the Section— 
Simon Flexner. 

Secretary—William J. Gies. 

Member of Couwncil—Alexander C. Abbott. 

Sectional Committee—W. T. Sedgwick, vice- 
president, 190506; Simon Flexner, vice-president, 
1906-07; William J. Gies, secretary, 1905-07; 
Frank Baker (one year), C. 8. Minot (two years), 
J. McK. Cattell (three years), Ludvig Hektoen 
(four years), Graham Lusk (five years). 

Member of General Committee—James Carroll. 


SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. 
Morning Session. 
Vice-presidential Address—The Haperi- 
mental Method in Sanitary Science and 
Sanitary Admimstration: Wim.uamM T. 
SEDGWICK. (Presented by A. L. Metz.) 


Symposium on Yellow Fever and other 

Insect-borne Diseases. 

Introductory remarks by the acting chairman, 
Alexander C. Abbott. 

Gary N. Catkins: ‘The Protozoon Life Cycle.’ 

Henry B. Warp: ‘ Filariasis and Trypanosome 
Diseases.’ 

J. H. WuitE: ‘The Practical Results of Reed’s 
Findings on Yellow Fever Transmission.’ 


Afternoon Session. 
QuITMAN KOHNKE: ‘ Difficulties of Recognition 
and Prevention of Yellow Fever.’ 


362 


‘The Practical Side of 
(Presented by A. C. 


Henry CLAY WEEKS: 
Mosquito Extermination.’ 
Eustis. ) 

JAMES CARROLL: 
can be no Yellow Fever.’ 

H. A. Veazig: ‘ Adstivo-autumnal Feyer—Cause, 
Diagnosis, Treatment and Destruction of Mos- 
quitoes which spread the Disease.’ 

Discussions of the various papers by 
Messrs. James Carroll, G. N. Calkins, L. O. 
Howard, J. H. White, S. E. Chaillé, A. C. 
Abbott, A. L. Metz, H. B. Ward, Quitman 
Kohnke, A. C. Eustis and others. 

Wm. J. Gigs, 
Secretary. 


THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD IN SANI- 
TARY SCIENCE AND SANITARY 
ADMINISTRATION. 

THE value of experimentation in all 
branches of inquiry is now generally recog- 
nized; its philosophical significance and_ its 


limitations are less often understood and: 


appreciated. In the present paper I pro- 
pose to show that there is no hard-and-fast 
line between the results of experiment and 
those of experience, and that in the field of 
sanitation, in which of necessity laboratory 
experiment is difficult when not impossible, 
the data of experience carefully studied 
and rigidly verified are capable of yielding 
results no less-valuable than those derived 
in some other subjects by experiment. 

To avoid confusion let us understand 
clearly at the outset exactly what we mean 
by the terms experiment, experience and 
observation. Originally signifying much 
the same thing as experience, namely, both 
the processes and the results of trial or test, 
the word experiment has in recent times 
come to be used chiefly for a prearrange- 
ment, and an artificial arrangement, of con- 
ditions in such a way that specifie questions 
shall be answered; while the term experi- 
ence has come to be used most often to 


* Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section K, American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, New Orleans, December, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


“Without Mosquitoes there 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No. 584. 


describe a result rather than a process—a 
result, moreover, obtained without prear- 
rangement, and under natural or unpre- 
meditated, rather than artificial or pre- 
meditated, conditions. We speak, for ex- 
ample, of an experiment upon the strength 
of materials and an experience with a 
broken rail, or railway bridge. The term 
observation requires no special comment. 
Without this, both scientific experiments 
and scientific experience are worthless. 
Verification is, of course, the checking, con- 
trolling or testing of the data and results 
of experiments or experiences, in order to 
determine their accuracy or degree of 
truth; and we are still indebted to George 
Henry Lewes for his striking exposition of 
the fundamental and indispensable func- 
tion of verification in all sound and scien- 
tific inquiry. 

Now a little reflection will show that 
experiment, in the somewhat narrow sense 
here laid down, is necessarily comparative- 
ly limited, and very likely to be confined 
largely to the laboratory, for the reason 
that any prearrangement of conditions 
which shall be actual tests or trials of nat- 
ural phenomena must oftenest be made 
under cover, in limited space, with com- 
paratively few objects, and at comparatively 
small cost. Hence it has come to pass that 
the experimental sciences have been chiefly 
those which could be advantageously pur- 
sued in laboratories and workshops, and 
upon the small, rather than the large, scale. 
There can be little doubt that this fact has 
tended to magnify the importance of sub- 
jects or parts of subjects lending themselves 
readily to laboratory experimentation, and 
has served to draw off attention from, and 
thus to hinder, the development of other 
sciences, or portions of sciences, quite as 
important as those capable of advancement 
by laboratory experimentation. In phys- 
ies, for example, we may well suspect that 
materials at hand, such as air or water, 


Marce 9, 1906.] 


and problems at hand, such as the behavior 
of bodies at various moderate temperatures, 
have received more study than their in- 
trinsic importance requires, while remoter 
objects such as the heavenly bodies, and 
very high and low temperatures have not 
received the attention which they deserve. 
Doubtless the same fact holds in the biolog- 
ical sciences, including physiology and 
medicine. Experiments upon the physi- 
ological action of drugs have probably re- 
ceived, especially in the past, relatively too 
much attention, because of the ease with 
which they could be carried out; while the 
more difficult and more costly experiments, 
for example those required to determine 
the purity of large bodies of water, such as 
rivers and lakes, or those upon the purifica- 
tion of sewage, have until recently received 
but little attention. 

There is danger, moreover, that in the 
instinctive recognition of the difficulties of 
laboratory experiments upon large and dif- 
ficult problems, investigators shall turn 
aside from the careful study and verifica- 
tion of the data and results of another class 
of experiments which, for the sake of differ- 
entiation, we may call natural rather than 
artificial experiments, and which in every- 
day language are described as experience. 
It is, for example, obviously unwise to re- 
gret our inability to test by the methods of 
ordinary artificial experiment the effects of 
polluted drinking water upon large com- 
munities, when there are frequently being 
exhibited, all about us, by such communi- 
ties, natural experiments on a grand scale, 
the conditions of which can often be accu- 
rately determined, even after the fact, and 
the results of which are as capable of veri- 
fication as are those of artificial experi- 
ments prearranged to answer specific ques- 
tions. 

When, in 1893, the city of Lawrence, 
Mass.—long in the habit of drinking the 
unpurified water of the polluted Merrimac 


SCIENCE. 


363 


River, into which only nine miles above the 
intake of the Lawrence waterworks the raw 
sewage of the city of Lowell was poured— 
set up between that water and its citizens 
a barrier of defense (a sand filter) per- 
meable by water but impermeable by dis- 
ease germs, an experiment was undertaken 
under conditions quite as clear and as fa- 
vorable as those under which many labora- 
tory experiments are conducted. The data 
at hand concerning this experiment—con- 
cerning its cause, inception, conduct and 
consequences, were such as to enable those 
having the opportunity to study it to reach 
results, and to draw conclusions, of high 
accuracy, and even to predict with confi- 
dence the consequences of similar experi- 
ments elsewhere. This experience of a 
modern American municipality was also an 
experiment in the narrower sense—al- 
though not a laboratory experiment; for it 
was made artificially, and by prearrange- 
ment, in order to solve a specific problem, 
namely, to get rid of typhoid fever in a 
community in which that disease had long 
been, in the old phraseology, ‘endemic.’ 
One experiment often leads to another, 
and so also an experience often leads to an 
experiment. Years before, in 1872, acting 
under the best engineering and scientific 
advice of the time, the city of Lawrence 
had introduced for the benefit of its citi- 
zens a public water-supply drawn directly 
from the Merrimac River nine miles below 
the mouths of the sewers of Lowell, as al- 
ready stated above. In doing this there 
was no thought of making any scientific or 
sanitary experiment, but only of supply- 
ing the city with water for fire purposes 
and domestic convenience. Unwittingly, 
however, an important experiment was 
really being made by that municipality. 
As surely as if by premeditation and pre- 
arrangement a trial was being made, day 
by day, and year by year, of the effect upon 
the public health of the city of the use of a 


364 


water-supply polluted with human excre- 
ments; and when, in 1890, typhoid fever 
appeared among the citizens to such an 
extent as to constitute a terrible epidemic, 
and to cause careful observation and study 
of the past as well as the present, it became 
evident that a most important experiment 
had been going on ever since 1872—quietly, 
naturally and unobserved—and an experi- 
ment not merely dire in its consequences, 
but rich in its sanitary teachings. 

Careful studies of the various phases of 
this long-continued and tragically-ending 
experiment showed that the citizens of 
Lawrence had submitted themselves to, 
and participated in, conditions such as no 
premeditating experimenter in his wildest 
flights of faney would have dreamed of 
proposing; for they had, for twenty years, 
been drinking the diluted excrements and 
other wastes of a large and dirty city. 
Further studies revealed the fact that so 
long as these exerements were unmixed 
with those of typhoid fever patients no 
excess of typhoid fever ordinarily appeared 
in Lawrence, but that if typhoid fever 
abounded in Lowell then, after the lapse of 
a period of time such as would be required 
for its transmission to the citizens of Law- 
rence, and for its usual incubation, typhoid 
fever invariably appeared in the lower city. 
In the end, this unpremeditated experiment 
proved to be remarkably instructive, for 
while Lawrence and Lowell were thus un- 
consciously experimenting, Haverhill, on 
the same river a few miles below, and 
Nashua, a few miles above, experimenting 
with relatively pure water supplies, suf- 
fered no excess of typhoid fever. These 
facts threw great light upon the cause of 
a constant excess of typhoid fever long 
characteristic of Lowell, and calmly ac- 
cepted by the local physicians and sanitary 


officials as ‘endemic’— whatever that might . 


mean—and regarded by them as unavoid- 
able. For when the opportunity came to 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


test their theory by a premeditated experi- 
ment, namely, the purification of the water, 
this ‘endemicity’ of typhoid fever in Law- 
rence disappeared. It then became clear 
that the so-called ‘endemic’ was really an 
epidemic condition; an epidemic condition 
characterized by the constant existence of 
a moderate number of cases, rather than 
the occasional existence of a great number, 
1. €., by constancy, rather than magnitude. 

These simple facts will serve quite as well 
aS any more extended discussion to estab- 
lish the fact which I desire especially to 
emphasize in this paper, namely, that the 
experimental method is not necessarily con- 
fined to laboratories, or applicable only to 
individuals. Some of its best examples, 
and some of its richest fruits, may be found 
in sanitation, as well as in physiology or 
hygiene; in the environment, as well as in” 
the individual.” 

The practical importance of the recog- 
nition of these facts is very great. Com- 
paratively few physicians or sanitarians 
are in a position to conduct artificial ex- 
periments of great importance, whether in- 
side or outside the laboratory, but almost 
any wide-awake observer, whether he be 
physician, physiologist, sanitarian or en- 
gineer, may, if he will, find going on all 
about him natural experiments, the condi- 
tions of which may often be learned with 
great accuracy even after the experiment 


? The author believes that a natural and service- 
able distinction may be drawn between hygiene 
and sanitation, the former term being kept for 
those aspects of general hygiene, or the public 
health, affecting chiefly individuals or groups of 
individuals, the latter for those affecting chiefly 
environments. He has used this distinction with 
advantage for some two or three years past in his 
teaching and in his writing, e. g., in the Hncyclo- 
pedia Americana, Vol. XIV., article ‘Sanitary 
Science and Public Health,’ New York, 1904, and 
in a paper, ‘The Readjustment of Education and 
Research in Hygiene and Sanitation,’ in the forth- 
coming volume of Proceedings of the American 
Public Health Association. 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


is completed, and which may yield conclu- 
sions quite as capable of verification as are 
those of experiments made in the labora- 
tory. This should be a matter of no small 
encouragement, especially for younger 
workers who, wherever they are, and what- 
ever they may be doing, may safely rest 
assured that if they will bring to bear 
upon the experiments which nature is 
making all about them the same careful 
observation, generalization and verification 
which they would apply to laboratory ex- 
periments, they are no less likely to reach 
results of the highest consequence, as well 
as to win the cordial appreciation of all 
competent scientists. 

Many communities, moreover, are nowa- 
days embarking upon new phases of water 
supply, sewerage, and sewage-disposal 
which, rightly considered, constitute veri- 
table experiments in sanitary science and 
sanitary administration. And one of the 


most encouraging signs of the sanitary | 


times is the custom, now universally ap- 
proved and already widely adopted, of in- 
stituting elaborate and often extensive ex- 
periments, before embarking upon costly 
and far-reaching improvements, the out- 
come of which would otherwise be doubtful 
or uncertain. The establishment by the 
State Board of Health of Massachusetts in 
1886 of a sanitary research laboratory and 
water and sewage experiment station, on 
the shore of the Merrimac River, in Law- 
rence, marked the beginning of a new and 
important era in practical sanitation, be- 
cause it was the introduction of the experi- 
mental method into a field of human ac- 
tivity in which hitherto the results of nat- 
ural experiments had been the only guide. 
Imbued with the scientific spirit, and con- 
vineed of the importance of the experi- 
mental method in sanitary science, as dem- 
onstrated at the Lawrence Experiment Sta- 
tion, where they were among the earliest 
workers, Messrs. Allen Hazen and George 


SCIENCE. 


365 


W. Fuller, now sanitary engineers of the 
first rank, caused the same methods to be 
invoked and applied before embarking 
upon the actual purification of the water 
supplies of Pittsburgh, Albany, Louisville, 
Cincinnati and other cities, with which they 
have had to deal. Still more recently, Mr. 
Fuller has planned and conducted, at an 
expense of $50,000 or more, a series of 
elaborate experiments in order to determine 
the best methods for the purification of the 
sewage of the city of Columbus, Ohio. The 
results of all these experiments are every- 
where conceded to have been so valuable 
and instructive that well-advised munici- 
palities to-day rightly hesitate to embark 
upon large and costly schemes of sanitation 
without first having made extensive experi- 
ments, locally conducted, bearing upon the 
solution of their own peculiar problems. 
It has been learned, moreover, by both 
experiment and experience, that the terms 
‘water’ and ‘sewage’ which have so long 
been used in the abstract in sanitary sci- 
ence, when applied to conerete natural 
waters, and municipal or manufacturing 
wastes, ought rather to be made plural, for 
the reason that the waters of various parts 
of the country, and the sewages of different © 
communities, differ so widely, one from an- 
other, as to require widely different meth- 
ods for their successful treatment. 

In other forms of sanitary practise also, 
such as the drainage of marshes, the petrol- 
izing of ponds or stocking them with fish, 
the experimental method has been usefully 
employed. Experiments upon the improve- 
ment of cows and cow-stables have given 
good results in cleaner and more normal 
milk. Experiments in street cleaning have 
shown that dirty streets are an evil, but not 
a necessary evil. Hxperiments in the sepa- 
ration and utilization of wastes have yield- 
ed results of sanitary and financial impor- 
tance. Experiments like that of the city 
of Munich on the effect of sewerage upon 


366 


the public health; experiments upon the 
cost and importance of systems of heating 
and ventilation; experiments upon the effi- 
cieney of copper sulphate as an algicide; 
experiments on the influence of pasteurized 
milk upon infant mortality—all these, and 
many more that might be given, testify to 
the value of the experimental method in 
sanitation. And yet, in most cases of this 
kind, we have to say, as Adams said of 
political experiments, ‘these can not be 
made in a laboratory or determined in a 
few hours.’ 

There remains, however, one department 
of sanitation, viz., that of sanitary admin- 
istration, in which the results of experience 
are more abundant than those of experi- 
mentation, results, too, which can not be 
regarded with either pride or satisfaction. 
I refer to the constitution and sanitary 
work of our various state and local boards 
of health. In some few cases these boards 
are well constituted, courageous, intelligent 
and efficient. In a few cases they are even 
famous for their good work. In some other 
eases, although themselves incompetent, 
boards of health have had the good sense, 
or good fortune, to employ as their agents 
real experts, and to delegate to these their 
sanitary work. But experience shows that 
some state boards, and many local boards, 
of health, in the United States, are badly 
constituted, inefficient if not ignorant, and 
cowardly. The experiment has now been 
fully tried of appointing to such boards 
mere place-seekers and incompetents, with 
the natural results of poor public service 
and dangerous neglect of the sanitary in- 
terests of the people. It requires some 
knowledge, skill, courage and wisdom, to 
administer the sanitary affairs of a modern 
community, and few indeed are the Amer- 
ican cities or towns which have made the 
experiment of organizing their boards or 
commissions of health to meet these re- 
quirements. Too often a hack politician 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 584. 


or two, a second-rate doctor or two, and 
one or more vain or place-seeking nobodies 
—useless but not harmless—make up our 
local boards of health; and as no stream 
can rise higher than its source the services 
of such boards are disgracefully small in 
quantity and poor in quality. It requires 
no further use of the experimental method, 
to predict from such direction or control 
of sanitary affairs, in further trials, dismal 
consequences. 

Worst of all, this foolish and almost 


_ criminal experimenting is going on while 


we have to-day in America opportunities 
for some of the most interesting sanitary 
experiments that any scientist could desire. 
We are establishing model dairies, model 
municipal water filters, model sewage and 
garbage disposal-plants. Why can we not 
also experiment with a few model boards 
of health, which shall boldly set to work, 
and themselves make the experiment of try- 
ing to give to the city or town under their 
care the best possible sanitary (and I may 
add hygienic) conditions? Why can we 
not have more boards constituted, like that 
of Montclair, N. J., of one or more leading 
physicians, one or more good civil engi- - 
neers, one or more good lawyers or business 
men? Why can we not have more boards 
experimenting upon the control of milk 
supplies, as are to-day the boards of 
Montelair, of New York and of Boston? 
More boards studying experimentally the 
conditions required to secure proper heat- 
ing and ventilation of public halls and 
publie conveyances? More boards experi- — 
menting upon the suppression of the smoke 
nuisance, the dust nuisance, the noise nuis- 
ance? It is of comparatively little use 
to make good laws if no one will enforce 
or obey them, and improved methods of 
sanitation (and hygiene) are of small value 
unless intelligent, courageous and energetic 
boards of health adopt and enforce them. 
In Massachusetts the district medical ex- 


14 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


aminer has displaced, with great advantage 
to all concerned, the aforetime local coroner. 
And if, as there is much reason to suspect, 
local influences and prejudices make it al- 
most everywhere difficult to secure able and 
ageressive local boards of health, then the 
experiment should be tried of having dis- 
trict, county or state officials, authorized 
and willing to do the necessary sanitary 
work. The present plan is a failure ex- 
perimentally demonstrated; let us continue 


to invoke the experimental method, in 


which we believe, but abandoning our pres- 
ent customs, which have been experiment- 
ally proved—for the thousandth time—to 
be hopeless, and trying something more 
promising. We can not do much worse; 


_ we ought to do much better. 


WiuuiAm T. SEDGWICK. 
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE oF TECHNOLOGY. 


SYMPOSIUM ON YELLOW FEVER AND OTHER 
INSECT-BORNE DISEASES. 
The Protozoon Lnife-Cycle: Gary N. CaL- 

KINS. 

The wonderfully successful results ob- 
tamed in New Orleans in the struggle 
against Stegomyia fasciata has shown that 
in yellow fever, as was long the case in 
smallpox, protective measures may be un- 
derstood and applied, although the specific 
cause of the disease is unknown. 

I do not intend to discuss the question 
as to whether this specific cause is a bacillus 
or a protozoon, nor to consider the various 
organisms that have been found in infected 
yellow-fever mosquitoes. I purpose, rath- 
er, to speak upon some of the general bio- 
logical phenomena distinctive of protozoa, 
and of the variations in vitality at different 
periods of the life-cycle, and then’ to point 
out in how far the present data regarding 
the yellow-fever organism agree with these 
established facts. 

The protozoa are minute animals, con- 
sisting for the most part of single cells 


SCIENCE. 


367 


having an independent life. They vary in 
size from minute forms, too small to be 
seen with the highest powers of our mod- 
erm microscopes, to giant forms from two 
to three inches in diameter. The vast 
majority thrive in seas and lakes, stagnant 
pools and ditches, and are absolutely harm- 
less to man; indeed, they become a boon to 
him by giving to thousands of microscopists 
the materials for a fascinating pastime. <A 
small minority are parasitic, but these few 
cause vast epidemics among silkworms, fish, 
and domestic animals, and have been the 
means of great economic loss, or, through 
malignant human epidemics, have terror- 
ized whole communities and have brought 
about untold loss of life. 

A protozoon rarely retains its individu- 
ality more than a few hours. It then 
divides into two, or, in some eases, into a 
larger number of daughter individuals. 
The parent organism has not died, there 
is no unicellular corpse, but the protoplasm 
of which that organism was composed is 
now distributed by division among two or 
more individuals. The process is repeated 
again and again, and thus it continues, a 
repetition of growth and reproduction. We 
can not speak, therefore, of the life-cycle 
of an individual protozoon, but must con- 
sider rather the protoplasm of which that 
individual is composed. It is this proto- 
plasm that goes on through generation after 
generation of individuals, and through all 
the phases that constitute the aggregate of 
phenomena which has been termed the life- 
eycle. 

It was formerly believed that this pro- 
toplasm, having all of the necessary func- 
tions required for an indefinitely continued 
existence, gives to the protozoon the at- 
tribute of an endless life—physical immor- 
tality. Experiments made within ecompara- 
tively recent times have shown, however, 
that this is not true and that the protoplasm 
of a given protozoon gradually loses its 


368 


vitality with continued division or asexual 
reproduction, until it ultimately dies of old 
age no less surely than does the protoplasm 
that makes up the tissues and organs of 
higher animals. It is known that a pro- 
tozoon immediately after conjugation with 
another of its own kind, a process which 
agrees in essentials with the fertilization 
of an egg by a spermatozoon, has a high 
potential of vitality which enables it to live 
and multiply asexually for a long period, 
with, however, a gradually decreasing vi- 
tality which, unless renewed by conjuga- 
tion, ultimately gives out, the protoplasm 
dying of old age. Conjugation, then, ap- 
pears to be a process of rejuvenescence and 
has been so interpreted since the classical 
experiments of Maupas in 1888 and 1889. 

In every protozoon life-cycle, in free 
living and parasitic forms, we can make 
out, with more or less precision, three 
phases which correspond with analogous 
phases in the life of a metazoon. The 
vigorous, actively dividing forms are found 
in the period immediately after conjuga- 
tion and this period corresponds with the 
period of youth. The conjugating period, 
or the time when the protoplasm is capable 
of renewing its vitality by conjugation, 
corresponds with the period of adolescence, 
or maturity, and, in the forms which have 
not conjugated, the period of increasing 
degeneration and old age compares with 
the old age of metazoa. 

The study of many types of protozoa has 
shown that with decreasing vitality there 
are frequently marked changes in the form 
of the body and in the physical composi- 
tion of the protoplasm. These changes are 
most marked at the period of sexual ma- 
turity, when they frequently give rise to 
structural modifications as widely different 
as the egg and the spermatozoon. It is 
while in this condition of the protoplasm 
that sexual union take place and, through 
this, renewal of vitality and return to the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


type form. This condition of the proto- 
plasm, which indicates a modification of the 
physical organization of the protozoa at 
periods of adolescence, comes: sooner or 
later in the history of any life-cycle, but 
it can also be induced artificially in many 
cases. Thus it has been possible to change 
ordinary asexual flagellated protozoa into 
sexual forms by increasing the density of 
the surrounding medium through addition 
of sugar, ete.; or by lowering the tempera- 
ture, perhaps again, a matter of density. 
In a number of parasitic forms, some of 
which affect the welfare of human beings, 
a similar change in environment is a normal 
part of the life-cycle, and is brought about 
by insects, sometimes mosquitoes, sometimes 
ticks and sometimes flies. The asexual 
protozoon organisms are transferred from 
the warm blood of birds or mammals, or 
man, to the cold environment of the insects’ 
digestive tract. This is accomplished in 
the case of malaria by mosquitoes belong- 
ing to the genus Anopheles; in the case of 
bird malaria by mosquitoes belonging to 
the genus Culex; in the case of sleeping 
sickness by the tsetse-fly; in the case of 
Texas fever among cattle by ticks belong- 
ing to the genus Boophilus. Where the . 
full life history has been made out, it has 
been found that conjugation takes place — 
within the body of the insect and here, 
therefore, vitality of the parasite is re- 
stored. 

What is known to take place in some of 
these well-authenticated cases is presum- 
ably true in the ease of yellow fever. The 
blood with the organisms in it is taken 
into the digestive tract of the mosquito 
(Stegomyia fasciata), and here, or in some 
other organ, the germ probably passes 
through some developmental cycle, for a 
period of twelve days is necessary before 
such infected mosquitoes can transmit the 
disease to another human being. The sim- 
ilarity to the malaria organisms in the 


Marcu 9, 1906.) 


period of incubation, as well as in the 
change of hosts, is a striking argument in 
favor of the protozoon nature of the yellow- 
fever germ. 

The different forms which protozoa as- 
sume at various periods of the life-cycle 
have been frequently mistaken for different 
species or different genera, and well-known 
cases such as Plasmodium and Polymitus, 
or Coccidiwm and Eimeria, where the dif- 
ferent phases were regarded for a long 
time as distinet types of organisms, justify 
the view that the entire life-cycle should 
be taken into consideration when describing 
species. The changes in form at the dif- 
ferent periods are due, as I believe, to the 
differences in vitality. 

[Here a number of lantern slides were 
shown illustrating the variations in struc- 
ture, ete., im various types of protozoa. | 

In Tetramitus the free-living asexual 
forms have a definite membrane and a 
definite body form and continue to multiply 
by simple division for a period of two or 
three days, when the definite membrane be- 
comes plastic and the body assumes more 
or less ameeboid forms resembling the genus 
Mastigameba. In this condition of the 
protoplasm two individuals upon coming 
together fuse into a common mass, their 
nuclei unite and conjugation is effected. 
After conjugation a firm eyst is secreted 
within which the protoplasm divides into 
hundreds of parts, which escape from the 
eyst, finally, as young flagellates. 

In Polystomella the polymorphism is 
shown by two types of shell and by differ- 
ent forms of the young organisms. In the 
microspheric type there is a characteristic 
fragmentation of the nuclei into many 
chromatin particles of small size. This is 
followed by formation of amceboid spores, 
which develop into shelled forms of a dif- 
ferent type from the first (macrospheric), 
and these in turn give rise to flagellated 
spores which conjugate. 


SCIENCE. 


369 


The decrease in vitality can be measured 
in a rough way and the relative vitality at 
different periods can be easily compared. 
This has been done in the case of some of 
the free living infusoria, for example in 
Paramecium, Oxytricha, ete. For such 
comparisons a single individual is isolated 
and within twenty-four hours it divides. 
The daughter cells are similarly isolated, 
and this process is repeated until the pro- 
toplasm under observation dies from ex- 
haustion of vitality, in one case (Parame- 
cium) after twenty-three months of ob- 
servation, during which time 742 divisions 
were recorded. When averaged for ten- 
day periods these divisions gave a satisfac- 
tory measure of the vitality at different 
times during the cycle. It was found in 
these experiments on Paramecium that 
after about 200 generations the vitality is 
apparently exhausted, but that it can be 
restored by artificial means and stimulated 
to a new cycle of about 200 generations. 
Ultimately, however, artificial stimuli failed 
to renew the vitality and the race died out 
in the 742d generation. Such artificial 
stimulation suggests the possibility that in 
certain human diseases, such as malaria, 
the organisms may become exhausted so 
far as the division energy is concerned, but 
may remain quiescent in the system, hiber- 
nating, as it were, in some organ until, 
owing to some change in the chemical com- 
position of the blood, an artificial stimulus 
renews the division energy and a recur- 
rence follows. 

Turning now to the data that have ac- 
cumulated in regard to the organism of 
yellow fever, we must note that the rapid 
development in the blood indicates a high 
potential of vitality; that the disappear- 
ance from the blood indicates that the 
organisms have been killed off through 
excess of their own toxins, or by aceumula- 
tion and action of the anti-bodies. The 
long period of incubation in the mosquito 


370 


indicates that processes are taking place in 
the development of the germ which can be 
explained only on the supposition that con- 
jugation phenomena, analogous to those in 
the malaria mosquito, are taking place, and 
this supports the view that in the human 
blood the organisms are endowed with a 
high potential of vitality. Again, the fil- 
tration experiments in which it has been 
demonstrated that the organisms may pass 
through the finest filters known to us, indi- 
cate that the organism is among the small- 
est of living things, and belongs to that 
group which is rapidly becoming more than 
hypothetical, the ultra-microscopie forms. 
The small size may be a result of rapid 
multiplication, and it is not improbable 
that after the incubation period larger 
forms will be recognized in the digestive 
tract of the mosquito and in the salivary 
glands. 

Finally, if the organism is a protozoon 
there is only a limited possibility as to its 
systematic position. Larger forms like 
Trypanosoma would not pass the finest 
filters; corpuscular parasites like Piro- 
plasma would likewise be filtered out, be- 
sides which the yellow-fever organism is 
known to be a plasma parasite. A single 
genus of protozoa is known at the present 
time that fulfills all of the conditions of 
the yellow-fever organism; amongst its spe- 
cies are some that are at times ultra-micro- 
scopic; that have a characteristic change of 
hosts from warm-blooded forms to mosqui- 
toes and that are characterized by remark- 
able virulence. This is the genus Spvro- 
cheta and in it alone, at the present time, 
do we find the type that satisfies all of the 
conditions known of the organism of yel- 
low fever. 

Dr. James Carroll said in discussing 
Professor Calkins’s paper: ‘‘I have listened 
with the greatest interest to Professor Cal- 
kins’s exposition of the life histories of 
protozoa and I am reminded by it of a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIIT. No. 584. 


series of hypothetical experiments that for 
some time I have felt a great desire to 
see performed and which might throw 4 
flood of light on the nature of the para- 
site of yellow fever. Reasoning from the 
standpoint that the organism is an obli- 
gate animal parasite, a series of passages 
through the human being by means of 
direct inoculations with blood, without the 
intervention of the mosquito, should gradu- 
ally bring about attenuation or eventually 
render it incapable of further reproduction 
in man, by restricting its existence to a 
single phase of its life-cyele. Such a result 
would almost conclusively indicate the king- 
dom to which it belongs, but the deterring 
factor is, of course, the risk to human life.’’ ~ 

(Ss Mere 
Filariasis and Trypanosome Diseases: \- 

Henry B. Warp. 

The presence of microscopic nematodes 
in the blood was recognized as early as 
1872, though their separation into distinct 
species has not even yet been fully accom- 
plished. The best known of these embry- 
onic forms is that belonging to Filaria ban- 
croftt; it was shown by Manson to manifest 
definite periodicity in its occurrence in the 
peripheral circulation, and hence was desig- 
nated Filaria nocturna. During the day 
this form retires to the capillaries of the 
lungs. For further development it must 
be taken up into the stomach of a mosquito, 
from which it wanders out actively into the 
thoracic muscles and there assumes a qui- 
escent stage. There appears to be no defi- 
nite generic adaptation as in the case of the 
malarial and yellow fever organisms, but 
various species of Culex and Anopheles 
may serve as intermediate hosts. After a 
period of rest and growth covering four- 
teen to twenty days the larve become mi- 
grants and move through the lacune of the 
body into the proboscis. The precise 
method of transference into a new host is 
not yet clearly demonstrated, but the filaris 


ARAN yen 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


are next found as adults coiled in lymph 
glands. The enormous mass of embryos 
produced by the females blockade locally 
the lymph vessels and the resulting lymph 
stasis leads mechanically to dilatation of 
the tissues and increase in the size of parts 
which shows itself as varicose glands, chy- 
luria, or elephantiasis. After brief refer- 
ence to other species which are only insuf- 
ficiently known, reference was made to the 
occurrence of these forms in the western 
hemisphere and to their presence also in 
various parts of the United States. The 
auther emphasized the need of careful 
studies on the anatomy of both adult and 
larva to enable the diagnosis of various 
species, and on the life history and trans- 
mitting agents to explain the spread of the 
parasite and the means of prevention. At- 
tention was also called to the relations of 
these forms to various domestic and wild 
animals as facultative hosts and possible 
means therein of the multiplication and 
spread of species, while the advisability of 
search for the embryo forms in the blood 
and the need of more detailed and accurate 
knowledge of the pathological changes in- 
duced in the human body were noted. 
After brief discussion of the morphology 
of the Trypanosomes their occurrence in a 
pathogenic role was discussed for the 
nagana, or tsetse-fly, disease of Africa, the 
surra of India, China and the east, the 
dourine of horses in the Cireum-Mediter- 
ranean region, and the mal de caderas 
among horses on the Pampas of South 
America. Dutton in 1901 discovered a re- 
lated species in the blood of a European 
who had been resident on the Gambia River 
in Africa, and the relative frequency of 
such cases together with their distribution 
over the territory bordering on the Gambia 
and Congo was noted. The same form was 
discovered by Castellani in 1903 in the 
cerebro-spinal fluid of negroes suffering 
from ‘sleeping sickness’ and gave the key 


SCIENCE. 


301 


to the etiology of that disease. The life 
history of these forms has not yet been 
elueidated unless the recent work of the 
Koch expedition to Africa has succeeded 
in solving it. It is reasonably clear, how- 
ever, that these organisms pass through one 
phase in the life-cycle in the body of some 
transmitting agent, which is probably a 
blood-sucking insect. The discovery by 
MacNeal and Novy of a method by which 
such forms may be cultivated in the labora- 
tory marks a great advance and has been 
successfully used to detect the presence of 
forms not demonstrable in preparations of 
the blood itself. It has not availed as yet 
to furnish any method of treatment for the 
diseases produced by the organism. The 
phase represented in such cultures is un- 
doubtedly only the asexual. A brief dis- 
cussion followed of related forms, such as 
the Spirocheta of the owl studied by 
Schaudinn, of the species present in syph- 
ilitic lesions and of the Leishman-Donovan 
bodies ; and the importance which these ob- 
servations have, though incomplete, was 
pointed out in indicating the life history 
and pathological significance of the group. 
The author also indicated the necessity of 
study to determine the intermediate hosts 
which subserve various parasites, to secure 
more perfect knowledge of normal blood, 
and emphasized the value of more general 
and precise examinations of the excreta 
and body fluids which would be likely to 
disclose the presence of other organisms 
ef this type as yet unsuspected. 


The Practical Results of Reed’s Findings ~ 
on Yellow Fever Transmission: J. H. 
WHITE. 

1. For the first time since Reed, Lazear 
and Carroll did their great work in Cuba, 
the opportunity offered, in 1905, in the 
city of New Orleans, to demonstrate on a 
scale of such magnitude as must needs be 
impressive, the true value of that work. 


312 


2. I have no desire to underrate the work 
done in Havana. It was a noble accom- 
plishment, and one that should immortalize 
its doers, but we must remember that the 
Cuban city had a population ninety-five 
per cent. of whom were immune, and was 
built upon high and dry ground, while the 
population of New Orleans was at least 
seventy-five per cent. non-immune, the city 
itself being a perfectly natural habitat for 
the mosquito. 

The fight began in Havana in the early 
spring, against two or three eases. It be- 
gan in New Orleans under the blazing sun 
of late July, and against hundreds of cases. 

3. There were two distinct organizations 
in the city of New Orleans, each one having 
the same object im view and working in 
cooperation with each other. The Citizens 
Volunteer Ward Organizations sought to 
destroy all mosquitoes by the screening and 
oiling of cisterns, by the oiling of eutters 
and pools, and a desultory sulphurization 
of houses. This last they could only ac- 
complish by pleading with the people to do 
it, and nothing like perfection in this line 
was ever attaimed at any time, the laissez 
faire of the attitude of the people in gen- 
eral upon this question being too well 
known to need comment. 

4. The regular organization consisted of 
a central headquarters, with, at first, six- 
teen, and subsequently eighteen, ward 
headquarters, corresponding, practically, 
with the political geography of the city. 
Each of these subheadquarters was in com- 
mand of a medical officer, provided with 
from one to six medical assistants, accord- 
ing to the needs of his station, and kept 
in touch with the central office through the 
medium of an officer who served as adju- 
tant. Hach subdivision had its own gangs 
of inspectors, screeners and fumigators, 
and was furnished with all necesary sup- 
plies from a purveying depot established 
for that purpose. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


5. Upon the report of a case of fever, 


‘either suspicious or yellow, to the city 


board of health, the central headquarters 
or the ward headquarters, the information 
was immediately conveyed to the command- 
ing officer of the ward concerned, and a 


‘screening gang at once started for the 


house, placing sereens and, if need be, 
mosquito bars around the patient, who, if 
his condition permitted it, was moved into 
another room, his own room fumigated and 
he then returned thereto, the rest of the 
house being at once fumigated. All cracks 
were pasted over from the inside and all 
chimneys attended to at the earliest possible . 
moment in order to prevent their becoming 
the hiding-place of the infected Stegomyia. 
Before the expiration of twelve days, a 
second fumigation was resorted to in order 
to be sure that no infected mosquitoes es- 
eaped. i 

6. Our work with its results fully justi- 
fies the assertion made by Dr. Carroll, that 
the best policy is to treat all cases of fever 
as worthy of suspicion. There is no doubt 
that during this fight there were thousands 
of unnecessary disinfections done, but it 
was just as necessary as any other part of- 
the work, as long as no man ean always be 
relied upon to make an exact diagnosis in 
any disease, the causative entity of which 
is not definitely known, hence we did not 
wait for definite diagnosis, but disinfected 
first and secured the diagnosis when we 
could. 
7. Of course any sick persons willing to 
go there were removed to the emergency 
hospital provided for the purpose, and so 
carefully sereened and safecuarded against 
mosquitoes In every way as to render the 
use of mosquito bars unnecessary. 

In the original infected area house-to- 
house inspection, and, indeed, house-to- 
house disinfection, were kept up continu- 
ously from the latter part of July until 
about the first of October. All over the 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


city house-to-house inspections were made 
to some extent, and this work was largely 
instrumental in forcing the report of cases 
which, otherwise, might never have been 
reported and might have served as seed for 
a future distribution of the disease. 

8. With a view to the general elimina- 
tion of the mosquito, we salted 750 miles 
of street gutters, using some 3,000,000 
pounds of rock salt to form a minimum 
solution of five per cent., and in so doing 
incidentally cut the malaria rate down to 
almost al. 

9. One of the most serious problems of 
yellow fever has ever been, and was this 
year, that of transportation. In order to 
satisfy public clamor, we disinfected cars, 
both passenger and freight. We relayed 
passenger coaches and cut out Pullman 
traffic, so far as direct entry into the city 
was concerned. 

10. I am strongly of the opinion that 
most of this car disinfection and relaying 
was unnecessary, and in support of that 
view I wish to call attention to the fact 
that, having an abiding faith in the ideas 
which I shall hereafter state, I purposely 
omitted any relay or disinfection of the 
Louisville & Nashville coaches out of New 
Orleans, going to the Alabama state line, 
where they were relayed. These coaches 
went from the city of New Orleans, tra- 
versing the entire width of eastern Louisi- 
ana and southern Mississippi, a distance of 
116 miles, every day and every night, with- 
out any precautions whatever being taken 
until some weeks after the beginning of 
the outbreak, and then the windows were 
sereened. 

These cars were boarded by Mississippi 
National Guardsmen who served as quaran- 
tine guards, and who traveled in the cars 
with the passengers, from the western to 
the eastern border of the state of Missis- 
sippi and back again, day and night, in 
dry and in humid weather, for the whole 


SCIENCE. 


BY Es) 


period during which yellow fever existed 
in New Orleans. There were some score 
of them so exposed to any infection which 
might have existed in these coaches, but 
not a single one of those men so acting as 
train inspectors, nor any of the train crews, 
was taken sick with any kind of fever what- 
soever, and I wish, in concluding this par- 
ticular portion of my remarks, to accen- 
tuate the fact that these coaches traveled 
up and down Elysian Fields street in the 
city of New Orleans, on both sides of which 
street the infection was rampant, as well 
as up and down the river front of the city, 
passing the original infected area where 
the infection was most prevalent, thus de- 
termining, at least to my mind, as strongly 
as circumstantial evidence may determine 
anything, that the infected stegomyia does 
not travel to any noticeable degree; that 
she remains, as nearly as she may, at the 
place where she first tastes blood, and will 
not voluntarily leave a house, much less 
eross a street. 

11. The case in which she can not find 
food, water and seclusion in the habitat 
she chooses at her birth is rare indeed, and 
finding these, she needs no more. 

She can not abide the glare of a mid- 
day sun, as shown by Berry, of the Public 
Health and Marine Hospital Service, who 
found this species killed by two minutes’ 
exposure to a noon sun, in Texas, in 1903. 

We must not attempt to reason from 
analogy with other species, and be led into 
error because others do travel. The Stego- 
myia is a domesticated species and may be 
justly likened to the quiet German peasant, 
while the Culex solicitans, like a wandering 
Bedouin, rises from her native marsh and 
willingly drifts with the wind. Unlike the 
Stegomyia, she has no home and wants 
none. She is not choice as to her meal of 
blood—any old hide will answer the pur- 
pose. 

The rarity with which the stegomyia 


374 


migrates has been indicated many times by 
the frequency with which houses so close 
to the infected dwelling as to be almost 
contiguous, have escaped infection. It is 
further illustrated along the same lines as 
those I have already mentioned in regard 
to railroad cars, by the fact that in each 
case in which we have been able to trace 
the manner of infection in a city or town, 
it has been found that the locality was 
infected by some person who, arriving 
there during the incubative period of the 
disease, subsequently developed the fever. 
In no instance has there been any legiti- 
mate evidence which would poimt to any 
other method of infection. 

I believe the idea prevailing among some 
people with regard to the traveling of the 
infected mosquito, to be a bugaboo, though 
I do not desire to be understood as saying 
that the stezomyia never does travel. It 
unquestionably does, but only because in 
the incipiency of its life it has taken up its 
habitat in a car instead of a house, or be- 
cause accidentally imprisoned in a box or a 
drawer, it is carried, nolens volens, but 
rare, indeed, are such cases. 

I have been quoted by Dr. Rosenau, in 
his work on disinfection and disinfectants, 
as saying that ‘disease more often crosses 
the street in a pair of shoes than in any 
other way.’ It was to yellow fever that I 
alluded in our conversation about this in 
1898. 

12. So confident were we of the absolute 
truth of the mosquito law, that right from 
the beginning we brought yellow fever pa- 
tients from points outside of the city, and 
placed them in the hospital here, believing 
that in so doing we ran no risk of inecreas- 
ing the infection. We allowed people from 
infected points in the state, such as Pat- 
terson and Tallulah, and from the infected 
localities of Mississippi, to come into this 
city with no other precaution than that 
they should be provided with a certificate 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


that they were not from an actually in- 
fected house and were in good health when 
they started. We had no trouble what- 
ever on this score, and to the credit of 
American manhood and womanhood be it 
said, the addresses given by these people 
as their intended residences in the city 
were absolutely and invariably correct, and 
all of them were inspected, without diffi- 
culty, during the first six days of their 
sojourn here. The only trouble we had 
from incoming persons was occasioned by 
those who sneaked in from contiguous 
localities, and consequently evaded the 
daily inspection, as they had already ig- 
nored the requirement that none who came 
from an actually infected house should be 
admitted. 

13. Yellow fever is so easy of control, if 
only the medical profession and the people 
will be frank and honest with the health 
officers, that, it seems a crime against hu- 
manity that we must needs quarantine such 
a disease. There is no more rationalism in 
quarantining yellow fever than there would 
be in quarantining typhoid. Indeed, there 
is less, because it may be stated as an abso- 
lute and invariable law, that a case of 
yellow fever known in the first two or three 
days of its existence, and to which proper 
measures can be applied, presents abso- 
lutely no menace to the community, nor 
even to the family resident in the house 
with it. Until, however, such laws are 
enacted and enforced as will make the con- 
cealment of a case of yellow fever, either 
through the complaisance of the family 
physician or the cowardice of the family, 
a crime and an absolute impossibility, there 
will continue to be more or less of quar- 
antine—probably more. Such laws are 
deemed by many people an interference 
with individual liberty and incompatible 
with the rights of American citizenship, 
and similar bunecombe, ad libitum. The 
only other alternative, and a most excellent 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


one, too, will be the passage and enforee- 
ment of laws insuring the proper sanitation 
of our cities, this bemg a matter which 
offers so many other advantages in addi- 
tion to the removal of yellow fever, as to 
make it appear to my mind the most im- 
perative need that confronts the south as 
a whole, and the really proper solution of 
the entire matter. 

14. It would be a false claim, if set up 
by any of our great northern cities, that 
they intelligently got rid of yellow fever, 
for it is a fact which must be apparent to 
all of us, that they did nothing of the kind. 
They intelligently provided themselves 
with municipal utilities which appealed 
strongly to their ideas of creature comfort 
and general cleanliness, and which, inci- 
dentally and entirely accidentally, elim- 
inated the mosquito at the same time. 
These public utilities were a thoroughly 
controlled water supply, sewerage, drain- 
age and pavements, and these four, not 
one, but all of them, were essential to the 
end attained. 

We may rid the city of New Orleans of 
yellow fever, but we shall never rid it of its 
susceptibility to that disease until these 
four requirements are complied with, and 
the possession of these public utilities will 
also do away with many of the other ‘ills 
that flesh is heir to.’ 

It is irrational to go on, year after year, 
fighting only the infected mosquito, when 
we can, with a little more trouble, destroy 
all mosquitoes once and for all. To put 
the matter plainly to the business man who 
is, after all, the court of last resort, make 
an investment now in good health, and it 
will pay you enormous dividends in in- 
creased business, in reduced loss of time by 
yourself and your employees, and in that 
priceless boon that comes only to the man 
free from any taint of disease—the one 
only thing that makes our north superior 
to our south—the pure joy of living. 


SCIENCE. 


315 


I would briefly summarize the matter 
thus: 

1. The only true way to fight yellow 
fever is to wipe out all mosquitoes by water 


supply, sewerage, drainage and paving. 


2. As a palliative measure or temporary 
expedient pending the first proposition: 
(a) Compel the report of all fevers. 

(6) Sereen all fever patients. 

(c) Use a eulicidal agent in all dwellings 
of the sick, at once, and again before twelve 
days have elapsed since patient sickened. 

(d@) Authorize inspection by health of- 
ficer of any patient. 

Though perhaps out of place, let me pay 
a well-deserved tribute to the patriotism 
of the citizens as a whole, and to the citi- 
zens’ committee, the clergy and the medical 
profession, and finally, to that gallant band 
of officers, some sixty in all, who worked» 
in the dust and sweat of August with un- 
tiring zeal, and particularly the score who 
were my captains and did such duty as, 
had it been rendered to the first Napoleon, 
would have been rewarded by a marshal’s 
baton. 


Difficulties of Recognition and Prevention 
of Yellow Fever: Quitman KoOHNEE. 
The doctrine of the mosquito conveyance 

of yellow fever, for the practical applica- 

tion of preventive measures based thereon, 
may be expressed thus: : 

The immediate causative factor, the germ 
of the disease, is accessible to the only nat- 
ural vehicle of infection, the mosquito, 
during the first three days of the fever, 
and the germ after entering the mosquito’s 
stomach requires twelve days to reach one 
of the salivary glands, from which the in- 
sect, while feeding, may inject it into the 
blood stream of its victim, in whose system 
the period of incubation is usually from 
three to five days, rarely six. 

The human subject of the disease may be 
considered infectious, therefore, to the mos- 


376 


quito during the first three days of the 
fever, and not thereafter; the mosquito 
being infectious after the twelfth day from 
the date of inoculation, and not before. 
Its victim shows the first symptom of dis- 
ease usually in less than five days after 
infection by the insect. 

The exceptions to this rule are not suffi- 
cient to suggest its modification, but in 
actual practise the patient is considered 
possibly infectious during four days, and 
the mosquito possibly dangerous on the 
tenth day. 

A ease of yellow fever can not occasion 
another case in less time than the period 
of incubation in the mosquito, which is 
twelve days, added to the period of incu- 
bation in its human victim, which is not 
less than three; fifteen days completing the 
minimum cycle of infection. We may say 
approximately that explosions of infection 
should be expected, and are observable 
semi-monthly, and the result of disinfection 
can not be determined earlier than fifteen 
days thereafter. We can not say how 
many cases may result in about two weeks 
from one ease untreated sanitarily, but 
we can say positively that no ease will 
result if there are no mosquitoes present of 
the Stegomyra variety. Conversely we 
may apprehend a great infection in the 
presence of great numbers of mosquitoes. 

The application of the mosquito doctrine 
to the prevention of yellow fever is all 
that need be done in any emergency, but 
to accomplish this is a problem not to be 
solved by any set formula. It is an easy 
matter to set down on paper and in an 
office a lot of rules in the abstract to be 
carried out in the field, but it is a different 
matter to apply these rules concretely to 
actual cases to obtain results. 

Circumstances and conditions met with 
in actual practise may radically change the 
relative value of details, esteemed of para- 
mount importance theoretically. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 584. 


As applicable to a locality or community, 
I wish to place before you three proposi- 
tions, upon the first two of which is based 
the third, which is offered in the nature of 
a conclusion. 

1. Quarantine against yellow fever can 
not be made absolute in its protective value. 

2. Early recognition of the presence of 
yellow-fever infection is difficult always, 
and at times impossible. 

3. The most dependable measure of pre- 
vention of yellow fever is destruction of 
the Stegomyia fasciata before the possi- 
bility of infection. — 

’ Extensive argument is not necessary in 
an assembly of this kind whose every mem- 
ber is qualified to do his own thinking and 
form -his own conclusions upon the evidence 
presented. 

Quarantine.—In quarantine against yel- 
low fever two essentials are to be consid- 
ered, and nothing else. Detention of per- 
sons exposed to infection for not less than 
the period of incubation of the disease, 
and the prevention of entrance of infected 
mosquitoes. 

The increasing rapidity and facility of 
travel makes quarantine more difficult and 
less reliable. However near to perfection 
may be our own maritime quarantine sys- 
tem, we shall always be exposed to infection 
by rapid land transportation from ports 
not themselves infectible, or which are less 
careful for other reasons. Quarantine, 
though important and necessary, can not 
ever be all-sufficient. 

Early Recognition.—Harly recognition of 
yellow fever, so essential to the prompt 
application of sanitary remedial measures, 
is rarely to be expected. The history in 
this respect of 1897-8 and 1899, as well 
as that of 1905, exemplifies this, not only 
in New Orleans, but elsewhere, even in 
Havana, where better preparation is made 
and better opportunities offer for the 
prompt discovery of early cases. . 


Marcx 9, 1906.] 


We should not relax our constant watch- 
fulness during the season of danger, but 
we must realize that knowledge of the 
existence of first cases requires a combina- 
tion of factors not always obtainable and 
not within our practical control. 

Destruction of Stegomyta.—Finally, we 
must, I think, conclude that the destruction 
of the only natural transmitting medium 
is the surest preventive of yellow fever. 
This measure also is subject, of course, to 
imperfect application in practise, and in- 
complete results. It is not sufficient, alone, 
to guarantee against infection, but it offers 
the important element of time during which 
to encourage its thorough application; and 
in the event of the failure of quarantine 
and of the prompt recognition of infection, 
the spread of the disease is modified by 
even a partial destruction of the conveying 
medium, and this gives time for perfecting 
organization against the infected insects. 

The health authorities of this city were 
convinced of the truth and importance of 
the mosquito doctrine of yellow-fever con- 
veyance upon its first announcement, and 
of the importance of mosquito destruction. 
Twice a law such as is now operative was 
proposed and rejected, and our belief is 
now, as it was then, that the destruction of 
Stegomyia mosquitoes prior to the intro- 
duction of yellow fever is the ounce of pre- 
vention that is better than the pound of 
cure. 

I show three charts of mortality for three 
separate years, one of which, 1905, is a 
yellow-fever year. 

The causes of death are those under 
which yellow fever may be concealed, in- 
tentionally or not. 

A careful analysis of these records does 
not bear out the notion, expressed by some, 
that: yellow fever should have been recog- 
nized earlier than the middle of July 
through an inspection of the mortality 
from these causes. 


SCIENCE. 


377 
1905 
- a mo n 2 j 4 
s en | So | se ms | te 
g | Se | d2 | eee| de | 82 
CSB ee se) GS fos 
5 ra <3) a SI a 
January. 0 6 60 11 11 32 
February. 4 3 51 10 2 7 
March. 2 7 42 7 8 16 
April. 3 3 35 25 6 26 
May. 5 8 48 | 116 6 19 
June. 5 4 44 91 11 24 
July. 11 6 32 38 28 | 114 
August. 6 5 43 18 13 31 
September. 2 4 27 24 5 26 
October. 2 5 34 11 3 12 
November. 5 8 44 14 6 16 
1904 
d | o8 | 22 | 258| 22 | 38 
[2] SA sa “1 Olo Peis} o iS) 
s | 23 | 2 | Fo] 2 | 68 
| ba QA <3) a i=) is) 
January. 4 5 38 9 9 16 
February. 3 5 40 3 a 15 
March. 5 8 41 16 2 8 
April. 4 7 37 80 6 18 
May. 6 3 | 32 | 70 | 10 | 28 
June. 5) 4 42 50 13 28 
July. 4 5 42 40 11 45 
August. 6 6 25 22 14 58 
September.| 13 5 32 19 12 37 
October. 9 10 47 17 10 26 
November. 6 8 42 16 10 26 
December. 3 5 56 12 7 31 
1903 
2 | 98 | 2g | 258| 22 | of 
= = a {>} B vo 
2 | £2 | B2 | 2Fo| #8 | 36 
r= z | RA | aE) Ae a 
January. 3 4 53 13 5 16 
February. 1 a 53 12 4 8 
March. 4 2 53 10 6 13 
April. 2 5 39 20 6 13 
May. 9 5 41 82 8 28 
June. 11 5 30 73 18 55 
July. 10 3 39 56 16 59 
August. 9 3 51 26 21 79 
September.| 8 3 54 11 14 66 
October. 11 7 51 17 8 25 
November.| 10 6 49 18 2 24 
December. 3 5 50 17 11 26 


The value of mortality charts is historic, 
not prophetic, in respect to yellow fever. 

Investigation of individual cases, whose 
circumstances, together with the given 
cause of death, excite suspicion, is more 
reliable than an observance of increase in 
numbers, and is earlier available. This is 


378 


our routine summer practise during the 
danger period, and was done during the 
past summer with negative results. 

The explosion of infection in New Or- 
leans this year was due to an unfortunate 
combination of unfavorable conditions, to 
which was applied the spark of introduced 
infection. How the fever entered the city 
is not the official concern of the health 
officer, who has no function or authority 
in maritime or inland quarantime. When 
it got here, however, it found ideal factors 
for its development and spread. The sec- 
tion of the city first infected is the most 
densely populated, the people are for the 
most part ignorant of our language and 
illiterate in their own. Their habits are 
unsanitary and their customs such as tend 
to secretiveness and improvidence. They 
are not, as a rule, vicious, but fearful of 
police authority, and exceedingly clannish; 
as is not unnatural for foreigners in a 
strange country. Medical attention in case 
of illness is usually delayed until the se- 
verity of symptoms demands it, and any 
but severe ailments are likely to be followed 
by recovery without medical interference. 
They are attended when ill mainly by 
physicians of their own nationality, some 
of whom are unfamiliar with yellow fever. 
They are apt to resent the reporting of any 
case of communicable disease to the au- 
thorities, and are likely to dismiss the at- 
tending physician for this reason. Imagine 
a erowded population of this kind whose 
water supply consists in large part of river 
water, kept for settling purposes in numer- 
ous open barrels, each one an ideal breed- 
ing place for the Stegomyia mosquito. 

For more than four years the health of- 
ficer, encouraged and supported by the 
board of health, had pointed out the dan- 
ger; had explained, urged, begged and 
prophesied, but other considerations were 
deemed of greater importance than the 
destruction of mosquitoes. When the dis- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIIT. No. 584. 


aster came, however, the people of New 
Orleans, awakened from a lethargic sense 
of security, rose to the situation and dem- 
onstrated their willingness and ability to 
fight the greatest battle that was ever 
waged against yellow fever; and théy con- 
quered. The united forces of the combined 
authorities of city, state and nation and the 
whole people of New Orleans succeeded in 
turning a great calamity into the most 
glorious victory of modern times. For the 
first time in New Orleans an epidemic of 
yellow fever was fought with the weapons 
suggested by the doctrine of mosquito con- 
veyance of the disease, and for the first 
time extensive yellow fever was controlled 
as early as August. 

The first victory over yellow fever was 
in Havana, the greatest in New Orleans. 

The pictures exhibited show the charac- 
ter of the neighborhood first infected, its 
nearness to the landing place of the Havana 
steamers (I do not claim, however, that our 
infection came from Havana) and the 
facility with which infection could have 
gotten, and probably did get, to the lug- 
gers, the landing place for which is in close 
proximity; these luggers beimg connecting 
links with the gulf coast of Louisiana. 

Suspicion was directed to this neighbor- 
hood of the city about the middle of July, 
but subsequent knowledge indicated the 
real beginning of yellow fever infection to 
have been probably several weeks earlier. 
At no time in the history of New Orleans 
did an epidemic of yellow fever begin to 
decrease as early as did the latest and we 
hope and believe the last one. 

Never before was an epidemic of yellow 
fever in New Orleans fought in the same 
way, and the most skeptical of reasonable 
persons must conclude that the control of 
what would have been one of the greatest 
of yellow-fever epidemics was due solely 
to the prevention and destruction of mos- 
quitoes. 


Marcx 9, 1906.] 


Dr. James Carroll said in discussing 
Dr. Kohnke’s paper: ‘‘The chart by 
which Dr. Kohnke shows that there was 
a marked increase in the death rates from 
pernicious malaria and acute nephritis in 
New Orleans during the months of May 
and June, 1905, proves conclusively to my 
mind that fatal cases of yellow fever oc- 
eurred in the city during those months and 
that the disease was probably also present 
during the month of April. They recall 
forcibly to my mind an incident that oc- 
eurred at Pinar del Rio, Cuba, in 1900. 
During a localized outbreak of yellow fever 
a number of deaths took place and though 
some post mortem examinations were made 
the cases were diagnosed ‘pernicious ma- 
laria with acute nephritis.” The unusual 
mortality rate attracted attention and upon 
investigation it was found that the disease 
prevailing was yellow fever. As the 
records of imnumerable epidemics show 
that where yellow fever is wrongly diag- 
nosed it is usually regarded as pernicious 
malarial or bilious remittent fever, and as 
death from yellow fever is usually accom- 
panied by acute nephritis or parenchyma- 
tous degeneration of the kidneys, the ex- 
planation suggested is probably the correct 
one. This opinion is borne out by the 
record for July and the following months 
during which the excessive number of 
deaths from pernicious malaria and acute 
nephritis no longer appears, seemingly for 
the reason that yellow fever was declared 
in the month of July.”’ 


The Practical Side of Mosquito Eatermi- 
nation: Henry CiAy WHEKs.  (Pre- 
sented by A. C. Eustis.) 

In essaying to speak on such a theme be- 
fore a body of scientists, it must not be 
understood that the purely scientific side 
is to be subordinated or is imagined to be 
of less importance than the practical. On 
the reverse, the methods under whieh prac- 


SCIENCE. 


379 


tical work has been most successful are 
based entirely on the scientific work of the 
entomologists. It is through their patient 
labor that others have been encouraged to 
carry into practise their findings to their 
legitimate results. The scientific work of 
the bacteriologists too has given great 
strength to the demand for practical work. 

Without diminishing their share in the 
movement it may be truly said, however, 
that entomologists have always known the 
fact that the mosquito must have water in 
which to develop from the larval and pupal 
stages to the adult. But, as is very gen- 
erally the case, these students have been, 
in former years at least, engrossed with the 
study of the life, habits and structure of 
these pests and did not carry, and indeed 
were formerly hardly expected to carry, 
the knowledge gained into the practical 
realms of extermination. They may be 
said to have been working at too close a 
range to see all the results which their 
knowledge implied. There was needed the 
more general survey over the entire sub- 
ject by practical minds of persons, who 
knew, perhaps, only the basal facts about 
these pests, to bring about a great reform. 
Just as in the case of some one who con- 
fines his attention elosely to his line of 
business, another in a different line will see ° 
opportunities of extension and profit which 
his closeness of application precludes. 
Thus there has grown up a profession of 
men who go from one business house to 
another more thoroughly practicalizing 
businesses of which they before knew little 
or nothing. 

In this ease, exceptionally, the suggestion 
of relief came from Dr. L. O. Howard, who 
combined both the student and the prac- 
tical mind, and by his experiments and an- 
nouncements brought hope that practical 
extermination on a wide scale was possible. 
And when Dr. Howard saw that there was 


380 


even a broader and more radical relief pos- 
sible than the use of oil (which idea he dis- 
covered to be of great practical though 
limited results) he was the first to encour- 
age the broader idea of drainage when he 
observed this plan urged in the scientific 
press, as it was nearly seven years ago, and 
it was he who gave the necessary inspiration 
and encouragement to practical men who 
were interested. The death knell of the 
mosquito then began to sound when Dr. 
Howard inspired the carrying into effect of 
known resources of destruction. To use 
a bull, some concluded that the best of ex- 
termination methods was to destroy the 
mosquito before he was born and he en- 
dorsed the idea. 

The world has moved toward practical- 
izing scientific knowledge rapidly in the 
last few years and this matter thus early 
fell into line. The mind of the entomol- 
ogist who forcefully recommended the 
larger use of oil as a remedy was simply 
going a step beyond his real field and ap- 
plying his knowledge to practical uses— 
which should be the object of all scientific 
study and not the thing per se. And then 
this line of thought inspired the idea that 
if oil was good in a limited way why not 
go further, and to the root of the matter, 
and destroy the breeding places. The seed- 
thought, however, had been dropped some 
time before when a casual remark had been 
made that a certain place, before experi- 
enced by this speaker as unendurable, had 
been cleared of mosquitoes by a piece of 
commercial drainage, but it was the work 
of the entomologist, as before stated, to 
nurture the idea to fruitage. 

So when plain, practical men, who knew 
little of entomology, saw that water was 
needed to develop the pest, they were just 
so practical, or unpractical, if you please— 
such visionaries—as to say, let us do away 
with all water in inhabited sections where 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


the pests breed. They simply put two and 
two together while heretofore these factors 
had been widely separated. And so widely 
and so long were they apart, that when the 
union was proposed the world laughed 
aloud, and a few of a certain caliber of 
mind are laughing yet. 

There has been many a great idea re- 
tarded for ages because of this spirit of 
ridicule, and many a man has gone down 
under such opposition who had a thought 
which, if encouraged, would have blessed 
mankind ages before its final acceptance. 
We can all think of instances of this. In- 
sistency often has been lacking. 

But, fortunately, the mosquito cranks 
were as persistent as the pests themselves. 
They kept at the subject until they reversed 
the universal practise and they themselves 
began to draw blood. And so, probably, 
no crusade, which at first seemed so chimer- 
ical, ever made such strides as has the mos- 
quito crusade, in the last three years or so, 
until now, that which less than a score of 
years ago began as an oiling experiment in 
a summer resort in the Catskills has spread 
to a crusade of drainage, filling and the 
like; and oil, which is indispensable in 
certain limited conditions, is now largely 
supplemented by extensive engineering 
operations. Now, engineers of national 
reputation are applying to their work the 
solid foundation laid by scientists and urg- 
ing broad remedies upon communities and- 
cities which have been sadly injured by the 
mosquito nuisance. 

In a report (1903) on the improvement 
of a river in New England, an engineer, 
whose abilities have brought him into large 
projects in many sections of the country, 
makes the mosquito, and hence the malaria 
question, one of the moving causes for a 
proposed improvement. He ealls to his 
aid a Harvard pathologist of world-wide 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


reputation who devotes many pages of this 
report to the mosquito question. 

And in 1904, the same engineer reports 
on the improvement of another river, and 
gives prime attention to the results of in- 
vestigations by the scientific experts from 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
Based on their reports, he is led to state: 

The results of this inquiry were startling. 
Every physician who was consulted testified that 
malarial disease was already prevalent and that 
it was apparently increasing and slowly extending. 

He says: 

I was thus obliged at the outset to face a great 
* sanitary problem which for the time overshadowed 
the other studies, for questions of public health 
are paramount and should have precedence over 
landscape design and facilities for brick-making 
or maket gardening. 

We may interject just here, that when 
health and all improvements go together, 
as can be planned, then is the greatest good 
accomplished. The experts speak of 700 
acres of a fresh pond marsh section (300 
of which are constantly wet and soggy) 
where ‘physicians report that every person 
in every house has had the fever,’ and 
many of them state that this is ‘the most 
dangerous section in twenty-five miles.’ 
While the poor who live in this swampy 
territory were mostly affected, the report 
shows the disease spreading into the best 
districts where it is hilly. 

These lines of investigation and the re- 
sults are in exact conformity to the work 
done and reported upon by the North Shore 
Improvement Association of Long Island, 
some years previously. And it is most en- 
couraging that engineering works are now 
being undertaken with such a strong appre- 
ciation of the importance of the mosquito 
question. ; 

Landscape architects are seeking inform- 
ing literature and are studying the subject 
and discovering that their profession also 
ean materially aid the crusade and are 


SCIENCE. 


381 


recommending plans with a view to this 
question. 

These two professions have been sadly 
blind to their opportunities for good. Not 
only has their work been simply negative— 
that was bad enough with their oppor- 
tunities—but they have actually aided 
breeding in most eases. Within a few days 
the speaker has interested an owner in a 
badly infested home-site who has been 
spending thousands of dollars in following 
the plans of eminent landscape architects 
as to the lay-out of the wide lawns in front 
of his dwelling, while just in the woods be- 
hind there has existed for ages and still ex- 
ists a breeding place extensive enough to 
ruin the pleasure which his home should 
yield him; and a surplus of pests to curse 
his neighbors. Now, this man is moving 
vigorously to get rid of this pest place, not 
that it has not been known heretofore that 
mosquitoes would breed in such places, but 
solely because it has been demonstrated that 
such work is entirely practical and certainly 
is highly desirable for comfort, for health, 
for increase in the value of his property 
and in the vast improvement to scenic 
effects. This is simply a case of neglecting 
a grand opportunity, but when these pro- 
fessions actually produce breeding grounds, 
their acts become a positive wrong to the 
publie. 

A gentleman of large means, recently 
met, has been encouraged to work on these 
lines on his vast property and now assures~ 
the speaker that he considers the question 
one of the most far-reaching before the 
people. This we have been endeavoring to 
show for nearly a decade. He feels that 
no money he is spending on roads and other 
improvements will pay him better. He 
also assures us that in the immediate 
vicinity where he has done work, which 
this crusade encouraged, he plainly notices 
a great difference in the number of pests 


382 


and he is going to continue the work with 
vigor for its absolutely paying results. 

A little town in New England of less 
than a thousand inhabitants, whose chief 
industry is fishing, has recently become im- 
pressed with hope, founded on experiences 
elsewhere, that something might be done 
so that its thousands of acres of breeding 
grounds might be redeemed to agriculture, 
its desirable building sites relieved from 
the curse of mosquitoes which has always 
existed, and thus its lands become habitable, 
its taxable valuations increased, and so the 
town be greatly benefited. Inspired to 
join the crusaders, it had been working in 
a limited way and found excellent results, 
but it is now in a movement for raising and 
expending a large sum of public money to 
carry out very radical plans recommended 
to make these benefits assured and is asking 
the necessary legislative authority. 

We know the case of the gentleman who 
bought a beautiful and extensive estate 
with the ban on it, that no one could live 
on it in July and August, but who was 
impressed with the anti-mosquito theory, 
by that same entomologist with the prac- 
tical turn of mind, and went to work in 
good earnest and has made his large tract 
one without mosquitoes. His success led 
him naturally to wish others to be blessed 
likewise and he was instrumental in a cam- 
paign of greater proportions. One in this 
wider territory wrote the speaker within a 
few weeks that the success of the work was 
still continuing, although four summers 
had passed; and a person in another state 
has stated within a few days that he was 
visiting in the district in question this sea- 
son and went through parts which he knew 
once to be infested beyond human endur- 
ance and he did not raise a mosquito. So 
much for the lasting effects of work. thor- 
oughly and practically executed. 

But I am sure I do not need to rehearse 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 584. 


smaller instances when all know of the 
transcendent achievements of Dr. Gorgas, 
both in Havana and in the Panama zone 
almost entirely as the result of practical 
mosquito extermination. Nor do.you need 
to be reminded that the practical work of 
this kind in New Orleans, first under Dr. 
Kohnke and others and taken up later by 
the general government with all its prestige 
and power, through its Public Health and 
Marine Hospital Service under Surgeon 
General Wyman, with his able corps of 
specialists all working against the mosquito 
—that this brought about the end of the 
scourge of yellow fever here this season 
without the aid of frost and has added 
to the demand that this scourge and its 
attendant ruimous results to commerce 
through quarantine, be treated solely as a 
mosquito proposition and not as an in- 
serutable order of Providence. The speak- 
er well recalls the force with which Dr. 
Kohnke at the second convention of the 
American Mosquito Extermination Society 
urged the necessity of screening the cisterns 
of New Orleans and spoke of his efforts to 
legally compass this. But his warning was 
acted on too late. He was then ahead of 
his time, but we are glad to say he is not 
now. 

The demand is simply: Stop breeding 
mosquitoes and stop it by practical meas- 
ures—no chimerical plans—nothing but 
what a child may comprehend. But do it 
thoroughly—do it so that results will last. 
Abolish forever the breeding places and be. 
careful not to make new ones. Communi- 
ties should put up money as they would to 
build a fine road—as is often the ease, 
$10,000 a mile through a mosquito-infested 
section—and do it before building the road, 
and then the road, when built, can answer 
its full purpose of comfortable travel and 
traffic. 

How much is the quinine bill of the 
country? And who can estimate, besides, 


Marcy 9, 1906.] 


the sum of the misery and loss from ma- 
laria? Who will compute how far the loss 
in a yellow-fever epidemic would go to 
make everything safe along practical, com- 
mon-sense lines? Is it not a fact that the 
expense of tardy work and the indirect and 
direct commercial losses resulting from this 
season’s experience would easily have paid 
for New Orleans’s exemption? How long 
are we to suffer these evils and pay the 
enormous and wretched penalty before 
people will rise and demand that this great 
erusade shall have complete course? This 
age is not the time to say that the work is 
too great. Put one year’s loss and the cost 
of remedies, the country over, into the 
crusade, and it will be a paying investment 
financially, not to include other considera- 
tions. But again, do it thoroughly, so that 
you will not have to come back again in 
another year, or in ten years, for more 
money. Otherwise you have set back the 
cause for years. Note the radical work 
which the general government is doing in 
Panama and which it considers as neces- 
sary in every way before work is fully put 
under way. We said a year ago that the 
government could well spend a million dol- 
lars to make the zone safe. That has been 
spent already and results will justify the 
outlay and many times as much more. 
Chairman Shonts, of the Isthmian Commis- 
sion, in an address last month, expressed 
the well-grounded hope that yellow fever, 
that supreme terror of the tropics, was ex- 
tirpated—never to return again to Panama. 
Can one conceive all that such a statement 
means in relation to the cost and humanity 
of this great work? 

Assistant Surgeon General Gorgas, in his 
report dated November 9, 1905, just to 
hand, reports that of the 22,000 employees 
during October, of which 4,000 were non- 
immunes, there was but one case of yellow 
fever and no deaths. He pertinently con- 
trasts conditions for the same month in the 


SCIENCE. 


383 


zone now and under the French régime 
before the mosquito theory was known. 
Then there were reported 21 deaths and 
84 cases, and many of each were not re- 
ported. Now he has eare of one third more 
non-immunes and there is only one ease. 
He maintains ‘the results are solely and 
entirely due to the sanitary measures put 
in force.’ He has an anopheles brigade 
reporting thousands of feet of ditches dug 
and cleared and other remedial work; and 
a stegomyia brigade reporting and remedy- 
ing tanks, cisterns, barrels and other breed- 
ing places. To overcome the dangers from 
these pests which get to wing, he has a 
fumigating brigade, reporting houses fumi- 
gated containing 12,000,000 cubic feet, 
using 18,000 pounds of pyrethrum and 
7,800 pounds of sulphur. Dr. Gorgas finds 
a steady decrease in cases of yellow fever 
under this work, while there is a steady 
increase in the number of persons suscep- 
tible. He considers the sanitary question 
in Panama settled—that the largest neces- 
sary force of laborers can work there with- 
out suffering from yellow fever and that 
‘the general health can be kept as good as 
if they were digging a canal in the healthy 
part of Maryland.’ Now all this you may 
hear stated by others, but bear in mind it 
is the practical side of mosquito extermina- 
tion we are trying to emphasize, and this 
is all practical and highly profitable in 
every way and bears well to be repeated. 
Also recognize that to some extent such 
work is necessary in many communities in 
the states and that it is just as profitable 
here in a humanitarian view as a financial 
proposition and in other aspects. 

No progressive man will object that the 
general government is spending hundreds 
of millions on good roads, on irrigation, on 
river and harbor improvement; that the 
Empire State votes 150 millions for good 
roads and canals; but when it is considered 
that in some of these cases the benefit will 


384 


come only to sparsely settled sections and 
result in aiding comparatively limited areas 
and valuations, the thought arises, why 
should not some of these vast sums be used 
in blessing the country by driving out the 
mosquito and malaria and yellow fever, 
bettering the condition of the less favored 
people—for they suffer most—changing 
marsh and swamp areas into places of fer- 
tility, beauty and oftentimes into places of 
pleasant habitation? When it is considered 
that such work is largely needed in close 
centers of population where thousands will 
be benefited instead of scores, and where 
resultant increase of tax valuations will 
shortly entirely repay cost, the urgency of 
the subject as a public work is manifest. 
This body and all others working for the 
general good should state and reiterate this 
position until we get public action. 


It has taken some years to get strength 


enough in the idea to obtain appropriations, 
but these are now coming in many places. 
Numbers of cities and communities are 
awakening and acting. The Department 
of Health of the city of New York has 
been expending this season in one borough 
—Richmond—an appropriation of $17,000 
under Dr. A. H. Doty, the health officer of 
the port, and it is to be hoped the results 
will encourage work in other boroughs. 
But all public work particularly, we repeat, 
should be done most thoroughly or the 
press and people will raise such opposition 
as to cause a set-back in the practical work 
of a thoroughly scientific problem. 

The city of New York is also helpfully 
acting in the reform by utilizing part of 
its inorganie waste in filling in breeding 
places instead of carrying it out to sea and 
dumping it so that much floats back on to 
adjacent shores. In the southern part of 
the borough of Brooklyn, Coney Island 
Creek is being filled in, which, guardedly 
done, will prevent its waters from satu- 
rating hundreds of acres of marsh land 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584: 


where mosquitoes are now famous. This 
evil and this benefit were pointed out some 
seasons ago when a crusade was initiated 
there by the late Mr. Wm. C. Whitney. 

Some two or three years ago we were 
greatly encouraged in learning that the. 
Itahan government had made a contract 
with some German capitalists to drain the 
great marshes about Rome—to destroy the 
breeding places of mosquitoes and thus 
render the section healthy and inhabitable. 
But it seems that this great improvement 
and blessing to a race has been kept back 
until now by the obstruction of a few 
sporting noblemen (in title) who wished 
to have the marshes left for their personal 
pleasure. Now the press informs us the 
work is to go forward and the promoters 
are to be paid in hitherto worthless land. 
What a suggestion for our country along 
lines of marsh improvement and the ob- 
struction met from personal interests of a 
few seek pleasure or profit. 

The great benefits of mosquito extermi- 
nation we feel, are to be accomplished by 
a careful education of the public mind and 
a judicious effort for laws and public ap- 
propriations, by cooperation of general and 
state governments, of cities and rural sec- 
tions, of individuals and public men in a 
short, strenuous campaign. What need of 
taking decades in these moving times? 
And it is on these lines that the American 
Mosquito Extermination Society is earnest- 
ly working, and I bespeak for it your influ- 
ence and cooperation. 

It would take too much of your time to 
speak of this phase—the basal work, edu- 
cation—education of the publie school chil- 
dren of the country, the lawmakers, the 
editors and press writers, the civic organ- 
izations, the professions interested, the 
great mass of the people. But this work 
our society is striving to do and has its 
members distributed well over America, to 
whom our literature is scattered, and we 


MagrcxH 9, 1906.] 


frequently hear of its bearing good fruit 
in campaigns. In our society, either as 
officers or on the advisory boards, are many 
men of broad influence in the country. 
Among these the earliest to go into the 
movement, inspired by the entomologist 
before referred to, were Matheson, Kerr, 
Miller, Hoyt, Cravath, Rand and Wetmore 
—pbusiness men of largest affairs. 

We have got such men together, with 
many others known over the world, into a 
society, which, according to its constitu- 
tion, seeks ‘to unite in a general body, per- 
sons believing in the various great evils 
resulting from the unrestrained breeding 
of mosquitoes in civilized sections, and in 
the practicability of their extermination 
therefrom, by private and public system- 
atic operations.’ 

For these worthy objects we ask your 
active cooperation with us and.in closing 
thank you for your attention. 

(To be continued.) 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

The Analytical Theory of Light. By JAMES 
Waker. New York, The Macmillan Com- 
pany. Pp. xv-+412. $5 net. 

The Electromagnetic Theory of Light. By 
CuarLes Emerson Curry. New York, The 
Macmillan Company. Part I. Pp. xv+ 
400. 

Walker’s ‘ Analytical Theory of Light’ is, 
perhaps, the most complete treatment of the 
subject so far attempted from the standpoint 
of the general wave theory, without any special 
assumption as to the character of the waves 


or the nature of the transmitting medium. ~ 


With this restriction in mind, it is not sur- 
prising to find relatively much more space 
given to the older and more worked-over parts 
of the subject, such as interference, diffrac- 
tion, isotropic -and crystalline reflection and 
refraction and the interference of polarized 
light, as contrasted with absorption, dispersion 
and magneto-opties, those portions which at 
present seem more fruitful of interesting and 
important results. While the book is built 


SCIENCE. 


385 


on a rigorous analytical framework, never- 
theless frequent comparison with experimental 
facts, and more sparing application of theory 
to instrumental methods keep the reader in 
touch with the physical side of the subject— 
to which end numerous references to the 
literature of the various special fields also 
assist. The book is written in a clear and 
attractive style, and its value as a reference 
work is increased by an index as well as by 
appendices dealing with the properties of 
Bessel’s, Struve’s and Lommel’s functions. 

It is in one sense hardly fair to criticize a 
book because it is too exactly what its author 
intended it to be; at least one should, while 
questioning his judgment, commend his 
pertinacity of purpose. This applies to the 
second of the above books, Part I. of Curry’s 
‘Electromagnetic Theory of Light,’ in which, 
as is stated in the preface, ‘empirical facts’ 
are referred to ‘ only where a comparison with 
theoretical results seemed of interest.’ One 
must regret that so few cases ‘seemed of in- 
terest ’"—for the result is a book unnecessarily 
abstract, which, while entirely modern in treat- 
ment, and sufficiently cognizant of recent 
theoretical discussions, is out of touch with the 
experimental side of the science. While this 
general method of treatment has been most 
successfully applied to the more finished sci- 
ence of mechanics, it hardly seems at present 
the best for the less developed field of optics. 
This point of view is, perhaps, responsible for 
one or two rather amusing misstatements, as 
for instance (p. 13) that the varying sensi- 
bility of the eye to different wave-lengths, fol- 
lows because the usual expression for the in- 
tensity of a ray of light 


242 ey 
( Te peas ‘a ) 
contains the wave-length. 

The treatment is throughout based on the 
electro-magnetic theory of Maxwell, but a very 
considerable amount of space is given to the 
discussion of ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ 
waves, the exact definition of which and their 
special treatment is due to the author. Aside 
from this the ground covered is about the 
same as in the earlier chapters of Walker’s 
treatise, with, however, emphasis laid on dif- 


386 


ferent points. Besides the introductory chap- 
ters there are the following headings: General 
Polarized Oscillations, Interference, Huy- 
ghen’s Principle, Diffraction, Reflection and 
Refraction at Isotropic Media, and Propaga- 
tion of Waves through Crystalline Media. 
In accordance with the general plan men- 
tioned above, no application of theory to in- 
strumental methods is anywhere given. The 
large amount of ground left for the second 
part will, if covered in the same detail, make 
the treatise as a whole the most ambitious and 
extensive available in English; and while one 
ean not but admire the power and generality 
of treatment, to the present reviewer, at least, 
the book seems greatly handicapped by the 
attitude already referred to and by a certain 
rather formidable style. 
C. E.. M. 


Mapison, WISs., 
February, 1906. 


Catalogue of the Orosby Brown Collection of 
Musical Instruments of all Nations. TIY., 
Historical Groups. Gallery 39. New York, 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1905. 
Pp. xvii + 168; pl. 12, partly folded. 
Earlier parts of the catalogue of this rich 

collection have been reviewed in ScIENCE. 

The present volume deals with a fifth gallery 

opened to the public in 1903. The exhibits 

in it include: (1) a number of prehistoric 
instruments, originals or copies; (2) a dozen 
plaster casts of ancient sculptures showing 
musical instruments; (3) about 230 drawings 
of instruments used from the earliest times to 
the thirteenth century A.D., grouped by types 
and countries to the east or west of Assyria 
and Egypt; (4) the leading European instru- 
ments with their kindred forms in different 
countries; (5) details of the construction of 

the violin, flute, cornet, piano and organ; (6) 

some keyboard instruments, in part recently 

acquired, showing especially the development 
of the piano and several of the earliest Amer- 
ican pianos. 

The mere enumeration of these groups 
shows that a new stage has been reached in 
the history of the great collection. Begun 
merely with the purpose of decorating a music 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 684: 


room, it soon outgrew private walls and came 
to include nearly every existing kind of in- 
strument that could be obtained. These were- 
classified, catalogued and described. But the 
collection lacked specimens of the almost un- 
obtainable instruments of ancient and prehis- 
toric times. This gap is now at least partly 
filled by the many reproductions and drawings. 
These latter are of great variety, value and 
interest; the list of books from which figures 
are copied is a long one; but too many of the 
‘authorities’ get their illustrations at second- 
hand instead of first-hand, and copies are 
rarely accurate; the addition or omission of a 
line by a draftsman who does not thoroughly 
understand the instrument not infrequently 
makes the figure unintelligible or misleading. 
It is unfortunate that the most easily acces- 
sible references are the voluminous and rather 
antiquated books by the uncritical Carl Engel. 

A peculiarly interesting feature is the col- 
lection of partly-finished instruments of the 
five kinds named above, with the tools and 
specimens of materials used in their manu- 
facture; all the parts are carefully named 
and the exhibit is accompanied by technical 
descriptions. All this recalls the remarkably 
full and accurate descriptions of all arts and 
industries in the great French Encyclopédie 
before the Revolution. The models of a 
tubular pneumatie and an electro-pneumatic 
action for organs are very perfect and illus- 
trative. 

This volume impresses the reader as mark- 
ing an advance over the earlier ones; there 
was here opportunity for a more compre- 
hensive grouping of instruments illustrating 
the long story of musical development, and the 
opportunity has been well used; therefore, 
much of the book is as useful to the reader 
anywhere as to the visitor. The copious bibli- 
ography and several full indexes are note- 
worthy. Acknowledgments are again made 
to Mr. Galpin, of England, and for the first 
time to Miss Fannie Morris, who has done a 
large part of the work on all the catalogues. 

This series of catalogues being now, we 
believe, completed, one looks forward with in- 
terest to see in what way the collection will 
be utilized by the donor, the authorities or 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


independent students for the advancement, of 
knowledge and the sympathetic study of man’s 
instruments of musical expression. It is al- 
ready clear that the problems are not so simple 
as would appear from the ordinary presenta- 
tion of Helmholtz’s theories; for the materials 
accumulated in the forty years since he wrote 
require an ampler framework. 
CuHarLtEs Karson Weap. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


THE February number (volume 12, number 
5) of the Bulletin of the American Mathe- 
matical Society contains the following ar- 
ticles: Report of the Twelfth Annual Meet- 
ing of the American Mathematical Society, 
by F. N. Cole; ‘ Note on Certain Groups of 
Transformations of the Plane into Itself,’ by 
Peter Field; Report of the Meran Meeting of 
the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, by 
EK. A. Miller and Elijah Swift; ‘The Present 
and the Future of Mathematical Physics,’ by 
Henri Poincaré (translated by J. W. Young); 
Shorter Notices (Koénigsberger’s Jacobi Fest- 
schrift, by James Pierpont; Schloémilch’s 
Uebungsbuch zum Studium der héheren An- 
alysis, by James Pierpont; Hedrick-Goursat’s 
Course in Mathematical Analysis, by Wm. F. 
Osgood; Willis’s Elementary Modern Geom- 
etry, Part I., by Virgil Snyder; Classen’s 
Zwolf Vorlesungen iiber die Natur des Lichtes, 
by E. B. Wilson); Notes; New Publications. 

The March number of the Bulletin con- 
tains: Report of the December Meeting of the 
Chicago Section of the American Mathemat- 
ical Society, by T. F. Holgate; ‘The Groups 
Containing Thirteen Operators of Order 
Two,’ by G. A. Miller; Review of Hunting- 
ton’s Types of Serial Order, by Oswald Veb- 
len; Review of Fine’s College Algebra, by 
KE. V. Huntington; Review of Freund’s Trans- 
lation of Ball’s History of Mathematics, by 
D. E. Smith; Shorter Notices (Abhandlungen 
zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissen- 
schaften, by D. E. Smith; Bucherer’s Ele- 
mente der Vektor-Analysis, by E. B. Wilson; 
Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes pour 
VYAn 1906, by E. W. Brown; Jordan’s As- 
tronomical and Historical Chronology, by E. 
W. Brown); Notes; New Publications. 


SCIENCE. 


387 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
January has for its leading article a paper on 
‘The Relation of Provincial Museums to 
Local Institutions,’ by John Minto. While 
the subject is one that appeals to foreign 
museums rather than to those of this country, 
yet the article itself is a most excellent essay 
on the objects of museums and fairly teems 
with good things. Most museum officials will 
appreciate such sayings as “ Most of our mu- 
seums, I regret to say, are lamentably deficient 
in storage accommodation.” “ Hach group of 
objects (in a teaching collection) should have 
in view the teaching of some definite lesson.” 
“There are many instances of museums 
which, having secured the services of local 
enthusiasts for a period of years * * * have 
on the severance of the connection fallen upon 
evil days,” and (this should be in large type) 
“Tt will take years to do away with the idea 
of museums still entertained by many * * *, 
as storehouses of curiosities. * * *” The 
many notes show that, aside from the Man- 
chester Museum, there seems to be a liberal 
and growing support of such institutions in 
England. As for the Manchester Museum, 
those who know the extent and high standard 
of its work will be surprised to learn from its 
report the mere pittance that it receives for 
its support. In discussing Dr. Holland’s re- 
cent article on ‘Museums and Outside Ex- 
perts,’ the comment is made: “ Needless to 
say, all type-specimens should invariably be 
returned to the museum, but it is usual to 
allow the expert to retain a selection of dupli- 
cate specimens. In our opinion, however, 
nothing should be handed over to the expert 
until all the material has been returned by 
him to the museum.” 


A sourNAt entitled Annales de Paléontologie 
has been established at Paris, under the editor- 
ship of M. Boule, professor in the Museum of 
Natural History. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 
Meeting of October 9, 1905.—In the absence 
of Vice-President Hovey, President J. F. 


SECTION 


388 | 


Kemp called the meeting to order in the large 
lecture hall of the American Museum of Nat- 
ural History and presented the speaker of the 
evening, Professor R. T. Hill, who gave an 
illustrated lecture on the Republic of Mexico, 
its physical and economical aspects. 

Meeting of November 6, 1905.—Vice-Presi- 
dent Hovey presiding. 

Professor J. F. Kemp read a paper on ‘ An 
Interesting Discovery of Human Implements 
in an Abandoned River Channel in Southern 
Oregon,’ which will be printed in Science. 

Professor J. J. Stevenson, under the title 
of ‘A Bit of Quaternary Geology,’ described 
a small area in northwestern Vermont. His 
conclusions were that after withdrawal of the 
ice, clay was deposited along the-streams to 
an altitude of about 750 feet above tide; that 
upon this sand, gravel and boulders accumu- 
lated to a thickness of about 450 feet. He 
traced the steps in reerosion of the channel 
ways as shown by the successive terraces. The 
area in question is the northward extension 
of Professor C. H. Hitchcock’s third basin of 
Winooski River as defined in the ‘ Geology of 
Vermont.’ 

The third paper of the evening was by Dr. 
A. A. Julien, ‘ Notes on Glaciation of Man- 
hattan Island. The evidences of plucking 
action of the continental glacier upon the 
crystalline schists of the island consist partly 
of jagged broken surfaces beneath the till, 
with angular transported blocks in the mo- 
raine to the southeast; and partly of rounded 
but roughened hummocks, pitted apparently 
by a modification of semilunar cavities, such 
as have been discovered in perfect condition 
on scored surfaces of our limestone. 

Channels and pipe-like troughs were also 
described and attributed to the action of sub- 
glacial running waters, probably once con- 
nected with waterfalls through crevasses in 
the great glacier. The allied feature of pot- 
holes, found just beyond the limits of the 
island, was then discussed, and another hy- 
pothesis advanced to account for their forma- 
tion. 

A sudden southward change in the direction 
of the glacial furrows over the island, their 
asymmetric form, and distinct southward 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 584. 


curvature, were described as evidences of a 
decided slope of the general surface toward 
the south-southwest, at the time of its sub- 
sidence during the glacial movement. A 
topographical modification was also referred 
to, through the undercutting of joint planes 
facing the northeast. 

Dr. George F. Kunz stated that during the 
spring of 1905 there had been shown to him 
some precious garnet, pyrope, in rounded ir- 
regular grains, transparent, measuring from 
two to five millimeters in diameter. That 
these had been found in the tunnel extension 
of the New York subway, about 1,200 feet 
south of Pier No. 1, North River, under New 
York harbor, at a depth of 110 feet below the 
bed of the bay. That upon visiting the local- 
ity he found that the entire walls of the 
tunnel had been covered with the iron arches, 
and it was impossible to see the rocks them- 
selves, but that upon the dump heap he found 
a number of masses of serpentine weighing 
from two to one hundred pounds each. The. 
serpentine was a rich yellow, a trifle darker 
than that found at Montville, N. J. Cleav- 
ages of feldspar nearly a foot long, black 
tourmaline, almandite, garnet in grains and 
in erystals were noted, but no peridotite itself 
was seen. This was probably due to the fact 
that nearly all the material taken from the 
tunnel was removed by barges to the deep 
ocean and dumped. Dr. Kunz stated that it 
was most unfortunate that what was undoubt- 
edly the evidence of a peridotite dike upon 
New York island should have been lost. A 
mass of the gneissoid wall, measuring six 
feet by ten and nearly covered by rich stilbite 
was noted. Mr. C. Wotherspoon, the engineer 
in charge of the night work, was most cour- 
teous in giving information and in collecting 
specimens. 

Meeting of December 4, 1905.—Vice-Presi- 
dent Hovey in the chair. 

Dr. Kunz reported the death of Dr. Augus- 
tus C. Hamlin, of Bangor, Me. Voted that 
a committee be appointed to make a minute 
of Dr. Hamlin’s death. Dr. Kunz appointed. 

Dr. Geo. F. Kunz described the Modoc 
meteorite that detonated over Modoe, Scott 
County, Kansas, at 9:30 Pp. M., September 2, 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


1905. First a very sharp, loud. report was 
heard, then followed a rumbling for thirty 
seconds, when a shower of over a dozen stones 
fell, weighing from one ounce to twelve 
pounds each. The stone is an almost white 
pulverulent mass with minute specks of na- 
tive iron or troilite, with occasional white 
glassy cleavable feldspar inclusions. 

Mr. J. Howard Wilson discussed ‘ Notes on 
the Glacial Geology of Nantucket and Cape 
Cod.’ Mr. Wilson outlined the various re- 
treatal phases of the Nantucket and Long 
Island glacial lobes, and discussed the history 
of Glacial Cape Cod Lake, in which were 
built the sand plains of Truro, Wellfleet and 
Eastham. The paper was illustrated by lan- 
tern views and maps. 

The last paper was by Mr. Thomas T. Read, 
entitled, ‘Gold Mining in the Southern Ap- 
palachians. Mr. Read first pointed out that 
this region was one of the first to which the 
search for gold was directed after the dis- 
covery of the new world. After tracing the 
early development up to the present, the geo- 
logic structure of the region and the methods 
of occurrence of the ore were described. 
After touching on the methods of working 
-and the present state of the industry a few 
remarks were made as to the probable future 
worth of the deposits. 

A. W. Grasau, 
Secretary. 


THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE 164th regular meeting of the society 
was held on February 8, 1906. 

Mr. L. S. Munson, of the Contracts Labo- 
ratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, read 
‘a paper on ‘ Writing Inks,’ giving in detail 
the results of work recently done by himself 
on thirty kinds of ink. Twenty-seven of 
these were iron-tannic (or gallic) acid inks, 
the remainder being logwood-bichromate inks. 
They were classed as writing, copying and 
combined copying and writing inks. They 
were tested by exposing to sunlight, and by 
treating with hypochlorites, alcohol, water, 
ete., stripes made upon white paper, so as to 
get an idea of their relative permanence. 


SCIENCE. 


389 


Only one third of the samples were found to 
be satisfactory for record inks, and the copies 
made from most of them were even less per- 
manent, owing to the small amount of iron 
tannate taken up by the copying paper. 

A paper on ‘Typewriter Ribbons, by Miss 
A. M. Doyle, of the same laboratory, was also 
presented. Forty-three kinds of ribbons, both 
new and worn-out, as well as of different 
colors, were studied. Tests were made of the 
ribbon fabric and of the ink itself, and the 
ribbons were rated according to the original 
writing, copies made from it, and their per- 
manence when exposed to sunlight and the 
action of reagents. Inks containing the most 
lampblack are most permanent, though they 
give poor copies, as this is insoluble. The 
aniline dyes present soon fade. Variations 
in the excellence of the writing depend largely 
upon variations in the fabric. 

Mr. F. C. Weber, of the Bureau of Chem- 
istry, exhibited a Zeiss immersion refractom- 
eter and explained its varied applications. It 
can be used for the estimation of sugars, for 
testing alcoholic beverages, for detecting 
watered milk, methyl alcohol in ethyl alcohol, 
ete. 

Mr. Rufus F. Herrick, a visiting member, 
exhibited an alcohol lamp with Welsbach 
mantle, and, in connection with it, enumer- 
ated some of the advantages of having tax-free 
denaturized alcohol. 

Mr. Herrick was followed by Mr. Leonard 
V. Goebbels, of the Otto Gas Engine Com- 
pany, who told of some tests in which de- 
naturized alcohol was used in gasoline engines. 
It compares favorably with gasoline, as far 
as cost and efficiency were concerned, and is 
a much cleaner fuel to handle. 

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley spoke in favor of 
denaturized alcohol, and said that, in his 
opinion, the cost and risk of removing the 
denaturizing substances are so great that it 
would practically never be attempted. Be- 
sides, the obvious advantages to manufac- 
turers are so great that there is no good reason 
why the bill before Congress, authorizing the 
sale of tax-free denaturized alcohol, should 
not be passed. 

Dr. C. E. Waters exhibited Bishop’s form 


390 


of the Marsh apparatus, slightly modified for 
greater convenience. The original apparatus 
is described in the February number of the 
Journal of the American Chemical Society. 
By means of an improved method of distilla- 
tion and concentration, and this apparatus, 
Bishop detected one part of arsenic in a bil- 
lion parts of sulphuric acid. 
C. E. Waters, 
Secretary. 


THE VERMONT BOTANICAL CLUB. 

Tue eleventh annual meeting of the Ver- 
mont Botanical Club was held at the Univer- 
sity of Vermont, January 17 and 18. Some 
twenty papers were presented, including 
“Recollections of the Botanical Work of 
Joseph Torrey,’ by Miss Mary Torrey; ‘ The 
Thorn-apples of Vermont, by W. W. Eggles- 
ton; ‘The Flora of Hawaii,’ by Professor G. 
H. Perkins; ‘The Finding of Aspidium Piliz- 
Mas in Vermont, by Miss N. Darling; 
‘Reminiscences,’ by Cyrus G. Pringle; ‘ Va- 
riations Among Violets,’ by Ezra Brainerd. 

It was decided to begin the publication of 
an annual bulletin of which the first number 
will appear this spring. ~The next field meet- 
ing will occur about July first on Mt. Mans- 
field; the next annual winter meeting at St. 
Johnsbury. The officers were reelected as 
follows: 

President—Ezra Brainerd, Middlebury College. 

Vice-President—C. G. Pringle, University of 
Vermont. 

Secretary—L. R. Jones, University of Vermont. 

Treasurer—Mrs. N. F. Flynn, Burlington. 

BHaxecutiwe Committee—Dr. H. H. Swift, Mrs. E. 
B. Davenport, Miss I. M. Paddock. 

L. R. Jonss, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


EYE ANOMALIES. 

I Have recently found that my eyes are 
abnormal in a way which is quite new to me, 
and which seems to be outside of the usual 
group of symptoms utilized by the physicians. 
The effect is interesting and I venture to ask 
whether any reader of Science can enlighten 
me. Both eyes are near-sighted but free from 
astigmatism. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


1. In the first place I see double images. 
with each eye. A black circle, about four 
centimeters in diameter, regarded from a dis- 
tance of six meters with one eye, appears as 
two circles with their centers on a line about 
45 degrees to the horizontal, intersecting so 
that the center of one lies nearly on the cir- 
cumference of the other. The images are 
about equally strong, naturally quite black 
where they intersect and there seems to be a 
dot at the center of each. There is some 
vague color. With the left eye there is a 
tendency to repeat this phenomenon sym- 
metrically; 2. ¢., the circles lie with their 
centers at an angle of 135 degrees to the hori- 
zontal, but they are much further apart, often 
tangent to each other. This eye is more near- 
sighted. Moreover, when the eye is under the 
influence of belladonna (or even at other 
times) there may be two or more pairs of 
images, a strong pair at 1385 degrees outside 
each other, and a weaker pair at about 45 
degrees tangent to these; or the figures may 
be even more complicated. All circles have 
central dots. With appropriate glasses the 
images of both eyes become nearly clear. No 
explanation which has occurred to me (reflec- 
tion from non-centered systems, split-lens 


. effect, polarization) exactly meets these cases. 


2. A second phenomenon which may hold 
the key to the preceding is the following. If 
at night I look at a distant electric light (100 
feet off, or more) with the left eye and with- 
out glasses I see the usual patch of light of 
the near-sighted eye. This patch, however, is 
not a uniformly bright dise about one de- 
gree in angular diameter, but contains an 
accurately drawn circle in black of a diameter 
somewhat less than one third that of the dise 
and placed a little above the center to the 
right. There is no appreciable color effect 
or successive annuli. The circles, though 
scarcely visible within fifty feet, from the ~ 
light naturally increase in size with the dis- 
tance of the source. There is no doubt that 
with an appropriate Wollaston prism (depart- 
ing somewhat from the ophthalmometer) they 
could be used for the measurement of this dis- 
tance. In explanation of these phenomena it 
seems to me that a globule of relatively low 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


refractivity imbedded in the lens would come 
nearest. Such a bubble would replace a con- 
cave lens in front of the eye, and the rays 
brought more nearly to a focus would leave a 
deficiency around the area of convergence. 
Possibly the images in the preceding para- 
graph may be explained in the same way. 

3. A third phenomenon is probably quite 
well known, though I must here also confess 
my ignorance. The diffuse and faint (false) 
corona which most people see around a dis- 
tant point source, changes to an intensely 
brilliant and narrow colored ring with the 
blue packed close upon the red, whenever the 
pupil is opemed by belladonna. That no true 
(objective) corona is in question may be 
proved at once by blotting out the point source 
with the sharp end of a pin, whereupon the 
phenomenon vanishes completely, although the 
region in which the corona was localized is 
still almost wholly visible. As the effect of 
the stimulus subsides the aperture of the red 
annulus, which is about 7 degrees in the bril- 
liant and narrow state, with all colors close 
together, expands to about 9.5 degrees for the 
faint and diffuse case with the colors far 
apart, during the three or four days of con- 
traction of the pupil. 

The observation here in question is not lack- 
ing in interest for the physicist; yet I have 
often been provoked at not finding any allu- 
sion to such an obtrusive phenomenon in the 
treatises on optics with which I happen to be 
acquainted. 


Cart Barus. 
Brown UNIVERSITY, 
PRovIDENCE, R. I. 


PRESERVING SPIDERS’ WEBS. 

Spipmrs’ webs are so interesting in them- 
selves and each web is so characteristic of the 
particular species to which its maker belongs 
that their study is one of the most fascinating 
of natural history pursuits. However, if I 
am not mistaken, it is not generally known 
that they can be easily and permanently pre- 
served for future study or display. One 
method of doing this occurred to me several 
years ago while watching Mr. Jas. H. Emerton 
spraying webs for photographing, and I have 


SCIENCE. 


391 


since used it so successfully that it scems 
worth deseribing. 

The web to be preserved is sprayed with 
artist’s shellac from an atomizer, in much the 
same way that crayon drawings are fixed, and 
immediately a clean glass plate is pressed 
against it, carefully breaking, at the same 
time, the supporting strands so that the web, 
which will stick to the glass, is freed from its 
former surroundings. Since every strand of 
the web is covered with minute droplets of 
shellac, they are rendered plainly visible and, 
furthermore, they adhere very tightly to the 
glass. In a short time the shellac will thor- 
oughly dry and the plates holding the webs 
ean be filed away in a cabinet or hung up for 
display. If desired, the web may be protected 
by covering it with another glass plate in the 
way that the film of a lantern slide is pro- 
tected, but this is not usually necessary. 

The above directions apply paticularly to 
the flat webs of the Epeiride, but with a little 
ingenuity almost any spider’s web may be 
preserved in its natural form. For instance, 
I obtained a permanent mount of the dome- 
shaped web of Linyphia marginata in the fol- 
lowing way: A branched twig was cut and 
stripped of its leaves. This was fastened in 
an upright position on a suitable base and 
several females of L. marginata put on it after 
sunset. The next morning I had a beautiful 
web with a perfect dome and all the outlying 
threads. The only thing that remained to be 
done was to spray it with shellac and set it 
away. The Theridide also give very satisfac- 
tory specimens in much the same way. But 
for the orb webs I think the glass plates are 
preferable. 4 


Frank E. Lurz. 
STATION FOR EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION, 
Cotp Sprinec Hargor, L. I. 


A NEW METEORITE FROM SCOTT COUNTY, KANSAS. 


A wiTHERTO unreported meteorite fall took 
place on the night of September 2, 1905, about 
9:30 p.m., in Scott County, Kansas. The fall 
was attended with the usual explosion, light 
and sound, variously compared to cannonading 
and the roll of heavy wagons. 

Thus far fourteen pieces of the stone have 


392 


come to light, the largest of which, weighing 
4.61 kilograms, is at present in the National 
Museum. A broken surface shows the stone 
to be indistinctly chondritic, of a very light 
gray color, and under the microscope is found 
to consist essentially of olivine and enstatite, 
with a very small amount of plagioclase 
feldspar. It evidently belongs to Brezina’s 
group of veined chondrites (Cwa), and will be 
known as the Scott County meteorite. 

For the above information the writer is 
indebted to Mr. J. K. Freed, of Scott City, 
Kansas. This fall adds one more (the 
twelfth) to the remarkable list for which 
Kansas is becoming noted. 

Grorce P. Merritt. 


THE WALTER REED MEMORIAL FUND. 

To tHe Eprror or Scrmnce: It is gratifying 
to note, that the executive committee of the 
Walter Reed Memorial Association, under the 
able leadership of Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, is 
making a final effort to raise a fund of $25,000, 
the income to be paid to the widow of Dr. 
Reed and the principal to be reserved for a 
permanent memorial in the city of Wash- 
ington. 

It may not be amiss to recall the fact that 
Dr. Reed’s greatest achievement for science 
and humanity was his contribution to the 
cause, spread and prevention of yellow fever. 
The experiments which he planned and con- 
ducted in Cuba in 1901, demonstrated con- 
clusively the causal relation of the mosquito 
species Stegomyia fasciata to yellow fever, 
and have given man control over that fearful 
scourge. The practical value of this brilliant 
demonstration has been proved by the com- 
plete eradication of yellow fever epidemics in 
Havana, New Orleans, the Gulf states, the 
Isthmus of Panama and wherever his teach- 
ings have been subjected to a crucial test. 
Competent critics are agreed that his work is 
the most valuable contribution to medicine 
and public hygiene which has ever been made 
in this hemisphere. The results to humanity 
are incalculable and as well expressed by 
General Wood, the military governor of Cuba: 

Hereafter it will never be possible for yellow 
fever to gain such headway that quarantine will 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 584. 


exist from the mouth of the Potomac to the 
mouth of the Rio Grande. * * * His discovery 
results in the saving of more lives annually than 
were lost in the Cuban War and saves the com- 
mercial interests of the world a greater financial 
loss each year than the cost of the Cuban War. 


The full significance of this statement will 
be apparent when we recall the fact that, 
according to competent authorities, yellow 
fever in the United States alone, from 1793— 
1900, prostrated not less than 500,000 persons 
and carried off over 100,000 victims. Accord- 
ing to Dr. Horlbeck, of Charleston, S. C., the 
great epidemic of 1878 in the states of Louisi- 
ana, Mississippi and Alabama resulted in the 
loss of nearly 16,000 lives, and the estimated 
total loss to the country resulting from this 
epidemic was not less than $100,000,000; in- 
deed the actual cost of the epidemic of that 
year to the material resources of the city of 
New Orleans has been estimated by Dr. 
Samuel Chopin at $10,752,000. 

In view of the great economic importance 
of Dr. Reed’s discovery it is somewhat sur- 
prising to learn that by far the largest num- 
ber of contributors are of the medical pro- 
fession, and that so far the executive com- 
mittee has failed to enlist the sympathy and 
support of the commercial interests, especially 
in the Gulf states, which will be most bene- 
fited by Dr. Reed’s great work. While the 
medical profession has erected monuments to 
Benjamin Rush and Samuel D. Gross, who 
rendered distinguished services to American 
medicine and surgery, it must be conceded 
that Dr. Reed’s beneficent work deserves a 
broader recognition and men of science should 
not be expected to sustain this laudable under- 
taking without material aid from other 
sources. Dr. Reed was a native of Virginia, 
and it seems peculiarly fitting that his work, 
which affects the lives, happiness and material 
interests of the people of the south Atlantic 
states, should be appreciated by popular sub- 
seriptions. There should be no difficulty in 
raising the modest sum of $25,000, and the 
writer expresses the hope that men of science 
will bring the merits of the case to the atten- 
tion of their friends able and willing to con- 
tribute to this noble cause. Mr. C. J. Bell, 


441 ARCH 9, 1906.] 


president of the American Security and Trust 
Company, Washington, D. C., is the treasurer 
and General Calvin De Witt, 1707 21st Street, 
Washington, will gladly supply literature. 
G. M. K. 
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, 
February 15, 1906. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
RESULTS OF A REPLANTATION OF THE THIGH. 


Ir has previously been shown that a satis- 
factory circulation may be established in a re- 
planted thigh.’ 

We wish here to record a summary of ob- 
servations made on a similar experiment 
extending over a longer post-operative period. 

The animal employed was a small white 
bitch. Through a longitudinal incision the 
vessels of the thigh were exposed and cut 
above the point of Scarpa’s triangle. The 
skin was circularly severed and the thigh com- 
pletely amputated above the junction of its 
lower and middle third. After a few minutes 
the limb was replanted. The ends of the 
bone, the muscles, the vessels and the sciatic 
nerve were united. The circulation was re- 
established after having been interrupted for 
one and one quarter hours. The pulsations 
of the popliteal and ‘saphenous’ arteries were 
normal. The dark blood circulated very 
actively through the femoral and saphenous 
veins. Red blood flowed from the small 
arteries of the peripheral part of the cut limb. 
The skin was sutured and a plaster dressing 
applied to the limb and trunk. 

After the operation the general and local 
conditions of the animal remained very satis- 
factory. It drank and ate normally and 
walked on its three sound limbs. The skin 
of the replanted foot remained normal, but 
its hue was redder and its temperature higher 
than that of the normal foot. The anterior part 
of the foot soon became moderately swollen. 

Seven days after the operation the dressing 
was partially removed. The limb presented 

‘From the Hull Physiological Laboratory, Uni- 
versity of Chicago. 

*Carrel and Guthrie, ‘Complete Amputation of 
the Thigh with Replantation, The American 
Journal of the Medical Sciences, February, 1906. 


SCIENCE. 


393 


neither cedema nor trophic troubles. The 
edema of the anterior part of the foot was 
doubtlessly due to pressure by the lower edge 
of the bandage, as the swelling completely 
disappeared within a few hours after correct- 
ing the fault of the dressing. The skin 
was normal and the wound had united “per 
primam intentionem’ without evidence of in- 
flammation. The temperature of the skin 
was higher below than above the line of 
suturing. 

Eight days after the operation the foot ap- 
peared normal in size, all edema having dis- 
appeared. 

On the tenth day, during the afternoon, the 
temperature of the replanted foot became 
lower, 2. ¢., similar to that of the normal foot. 
The dressing was then removed. It was 
found that, owing to a slipping of the plaster 
bandage, some urine had got into the cotton 
dressing and caused infection of the upper 
part of the longitudinal incision. A small 
subcutaneous abscess had developed, along the 
vessels. The general conditions of the ani- 
mal were excellent, and the nutrition of the 
limb satisfactory. As the arterial pulsations 
were much weakened and as it was considered 
important to accurately determine the cause 
of this change, the animal was etherized and 
the vessels examined through cutaneous in- 
cisions, after which the animal was killed. 

This dissection ‘in vivo’ gave the following 
results: The point of the vascular anastomoses 
was surrounded by the small subcutaneous 
abscess. The venous anastomosis was good. 
The arterial anastomosis was partially oc- 
eluded by a small clot. All the other portions 
of the vessels appeared perfectly normal. The 
circulation through the limb was yet satis- 
factory, as the obliteration of the anastomosis 
was not complete. The union of the skin, the 
muscles and the sciatic nerve was normal. 
The process of consolidation of the bone was 
beginning. It is probable, but not certain, 
that if the animal had been allowed to live, 
the arterial stenosis would have gradually in- 
ereased and that in the end the circulation 
would have been interrupted. Then, no 
doubt, gangrene of the limb would have oc- 
curred, which result would have been due 


394 


primarily to the secondary infection of the 
skin. This shows that in such experiments 
asepsis must be rigidly observed, not only 
during the operation but during all the post- 
operative period. 

Conclusions—(1) The circulation of a re- 
planted limb, reestablished an hour and a 
quarter after interruption, by end-to-end 
anastomosis of the femoral artery and vein, is 
normal, as judged by the metabolism of the 
limb. (2) No trophic trouble occurs (at least 
during ten days). (38) Healing of the severed 
tissues appears to be as rapid and complete as 
after an ordinary surgical wound. 

ALEXIS CARREL, 
C. C. GuTHrie. 


SUCCESSFUL TRANSPLANTATION OF BOTH KIDNEYS 
FROM A DOG INTO A BITCH WITH REMOVAL OF 
BOTH NORMAL KIDNEYS FROM THE LATTER. 


THIs operation was performed by our new 
method of transplantation in mass, which 
yields good results in the transplantation of 
organs. By this method the organs are per- 
mitted to retain their normal connections with 
a portion of their nervous apparatus, in such 
a manner that after transplantation their 
functions are soon reestablished. 

A large-sized terrier was anesthetized and 
both kidneys and the upper part of the ureters 
were removed, together with their vessels, 
nerves, nervous ganglia, the surrounding con- 
nective tissue, the suprarenal glands, the peri- 
toneum and the corresponding segments of 
the aorta and vena cava. The mass was then 
placed in a yessel of isotonic sodium chloride 
solution, and the dog killed. 

A small young bitch was then anesthetized 
and the abdomen opened through a half cir- 
cular transversal laparotomy. The aorta and 
vena cava were cut a little above the mouth of 
the ovarian vessels. The kidneys of the dog 
were then removed from the salt solution and 
put into the abdominal cavity of the bitch, 
and the segments of the aorta and vena cava 
were interposed, by biterminal transplantation, 
between the cut ends of the aorta and vena 
cava of the bitch. The circulation was re- 
established, after having been interrupted for 


one hour and a half. The kidneys imme- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 584. 


diately became red and turgid, as after a 
simple transplantation, but about half an hour 
later the state of the circulation became nor- 
mal, so that no difference could be detected 
between the transplanted and the normal kid- 
neys. Clear urine flowed abundantly from 
the transplanted ureters, which were united 
to the normal ones. 

Both normal kidneys were dissected and 
extirpated. The appearance of the trans- 
planted and normal organs is so similar 
that in extirpating the latter, it is necessary 
to examine the pedicle in order to be certain 
of their identity. The operation was com- 
pleted by suturing the abdominal wall and 
applying the dressing. Two hours after the 
operation the animal walked about her cage. 
In the afternoon she drank and urinated 
copiously. The following day and subse- 
quently, up to the present time, her diet has 
largely consisted of meat. She drinks, eats, 
walks and, when permitted to, mingles with 
other dogs, but in the latter case she is care- 
fully watched, as she shows a strong disposi- 
tion to fight. As far as can be detected, her 
condition is normal, The urine has been 
clear throughout, showing no evidence of con- 
taining blood. The total amount appears to 
be somewhat increased. On the seventh and 
eighth days several samples were collected and 
analyzed, the results of which showed a slight 
variation in composition, but entirely within 
normal limits. The only abnormal constitu- 
ent detected was coagulated proteid, the largest 
amount present in any of the samples being 
less than 0.25 per cent. A brief result of the 
analyses is given below: 

Urine collected on the eighth day after the 
operation. 

Color—pale yellow. 

Odor—normal. 

Reaction—slightly alkaline. 

Urea—1.95 per cent. 

Uric acid—trace. 

Chlorides, sulphates and earthy and alkaline 
phosphates, normal. 

Kreatinin, doubtful; indoxyl, none. 

Coagulable proteid, less than 0.25 per cent. 

Sugar and petone, none. 

It was inconvenient to collect the total urine 


4iARCH 9, 19U6.] 


for twenty-four hours, as it was deemed ad- 
visable to allow the animal to move about 
freely. Therefore, no exact quantitative fig- 
ures for the urine per diem can be given for 
this period of the experiment. She will be 
kept as long as possible in order to continue 
the observations on the functions of the trans- 
planted kidneys. ALExis CARREL, 
C. C. GuTHRIE. 


NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY. 


AmerRIcAN plant lice have unfortunately 
been studied from the standpoint of locality, 
and published in non-entomological serials. 
Mr. Sanborn in his ‘Kansas Aphides’* has 
continued this practise. This article deals 
only with Kansan species, but the entire title 
indicates that catalogue and plant-lists are 
to follow, we hope in the near future. Mr. 
Sanborn has prepared his descriptions in a 
most systematic and careful manner, and in 
many eases refrained from naming species 
that could not be satisfactorily determined. 
He has given descriptions of all the genera 
recorded from the United States, yet we fear 
that he has not studied them as carefully as 
demanded by the confused nature of the sub- 
ject. The numerous (twenty-two) plates are 
good, and a great help in identification. 
There are several confusing mistakes in the 
arrangement of the text; such as Myzus bien- 
nis, p. 78, and Siphocoryne avene, p. 61, due 
to the fact that the author did not supervise 
the publication of his paper. 


ANOTHER considerable installment of Wyts- 
man’s ‘Genera Insectorum’ includes some 
groups of particular interest to American 
entomologists. Pastor F. W. Konow has 
treated of the entire Chalastogastra or saw- 
flies, in three fasicles, 27 on the Lydide, 28 
on the Siricidz, and 29 on the Tenthredinide. 
These list some 2,700 species arranged in 185 
genera. The author seems unjustly inclined 
to lump many American species, doubtless on 
account of insufficient material. Fascicle 30 
by H. Schouteden is on the subfamily Grapho- 

**Kansas Aphidide, with a Catalogue of North 
American Aphidide, and Host-plant and Plant- 
host List, Kans. Univ. Sci. Bull., I11., No. 1, 
pp. 3-82, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


395 


somatine of the Pentatomide. Only a few 
species in three genera are from the United 
States, the group, as a whole, belonging to the 
Indo-Asiatic fauna. Fascicle 31 by H. Stichel 
on the Discophorine, a group of butterflies, 
contains only tropical forms. Fascicles 32 
and 383 are on the Megascelide and Megalo- 
pidz, small groups of the Chrysomelide, and 
under the joint authorship of M. Jacoby and 
H. Clavareau. The forms are mostly tropical, 
chiefly from South America. Fascicle 34-by 
Gy. Szepligeti includes a number of small 
sub-families of the Ichneumonide, from the 
Pharsalinine to the Porizontine. Many 
North American species are included in his 
catalogue. Fascicle 35 is by J. Desneux on 
the Paussidz, an old-world family of curious 
beetles, many of which occur in the nests of 
ants and termites. 

Lizrerune No. 22 of ‘Das Tierreich’ treats 
of the Heliconide, a family of tropical Amer- 
ican butterflies. It is by H. Stichel and H. 
Riffarth. Very properly they have refrained 
from dividing genera and species to the ut- 
most limit, but have placed many forms as 
subspecies and varieties. While there are but 
87 species, there are nearly 150 named forms. 
The descriptions are longer and more detailed 
than in earlier ‘Lieferungs’ of the work. 
Our Heliconius charithonia is the typical 
form of the species; another subspecies, H. c. 
peruvianus, occurs in northwestern South 
America. 


M. Lass treats of the structure of the fe- 
male flea." He has examined especially the 
anatomy of several internal organs, but also 
writes of external morphology. He finds that 


‘the larva, pupa and adult have each ten ab- 


dominal segments, that the sex is recognizable 
in half-grown larvee, that the larve have no 
eyes, and that there is no hypopharynx. He 
thinks they have few relations with the Dip- 
tera, and considers them a special order be- 
tween Diptera and Coleoptera. 
NatHAn Banks. 

2*Beitriige zur Kenntnis der histologisch- 
anatomischen Baues des weiblichen Hundeflohes 
(Pulex canis Dugés s. Pulex serraticeps Taschen- 


berg),’ Zeitsch. wiss. Zool., LXXIX., pp. 73-131, 
2 pls., 1905. 


396 


JAPANESE METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE’ IN 
KOREA AND CHINA. 

A GUANCE at a map of the orient will clearly 
show how serious and difficult a matter it is 
to predict weather in Japan. Japan stands 
under the direct influences of the Pacific 
Ocean and the Asiatic continent, and also of 
the tropical and polar ocean currents, so that 
meteorological as well as climatic conditions 
in Japan are, indeed, very complex. Very 
often a continental cyclone and a typhoon, 
which of course comes from the tropics, pass 
through Japan simultaneously, thus bringing 
complexities to the weather. On account of 
this, the Japanese government has felt the 
necessity of establishing new meteorological 
stations along the coasts of Korea and China. 

Nine stations have been established at first, 
in Korea and Manchuria, and their approxi- 
mate geographical coordinates are as follows: 


Localities. Latitude, Longitude, Height, 
N. E. Meters. 

1. Fusan, 35° 6’ 129° 37 23 
2. Mokpo, 34 41 126 4 8 
3. Chemulpo, 37 629 126 37 70 
4. Wonson, 39 «9 127 26 3 
5. Yongampo, 39 56 124 22 5 
6. Tairen, 38 55 121 34 5 
7. Yinkow, 40 40 122 14 3 
8. Mukden, 41 45 123 23 57 
9. Josin, 40 40 129 20 4 


Three new stations at Port Arthur, Niko- 
loisk and Alexandrosk have been added to the 
above, and there are four others which are at 
the same time marine semaphore stations. 

The Chemulpo Meteorological Observatory 
is of the first order, and the other stations are 
mostly of the second order and subordinate 
to the former. These stations make six ob- 
servations daily, at 2, 6, 10 a.m., and 2, 6, 10 
P.M. on one hundred and thirty-fifth meridian 
time (east of Greenwich). Hach station is 
provided with a Fortin barometer, an August 
psychrometer, a maximum thermometer, a 
minimum thermometer, a Robinson anemom- 


For the Meteorological Service in Japan, see 
a short account of ‘Recent Advances in Meteorol- 
ogy and Meteorological Service in Japan,’ pub- 
lished in The Popular Science Monthly, February, 
1906. rt 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 584. 


eter with electric device, a vane, a pluviometer 
of two decimeters (eight inches) diameter, an 
atmometer of the same diameter, a Jordan 
heliograph or sunshine recorder, a Richard 
barograph, a Richard thermograph and a 
Richard hygrograph. The central Chemulpo 
Observatory possesses, in addition, an anemo- 
graph, an anemo-cinemograph, a pluviograph, 
a micro-seismograph, earth thermometers for 
different depths and a sufficient number of 
accessories and apparatus, such as marine 
chronometers, a theodolite, a sextant, photo- 
graphic apparatus, ete. 

The Chemulpo Meteorological Observatory 
and the whole meteorological service in Korea 
are under the direct supervision of Professor 
Y. Wada as the chief of the service. Ever 
since 1879 Professor Doctor Wada has been 
connected with the meteorological service in 
Japan, and has been for many years the chief 
of the service of predictions in the Central 
Meteorological Observatory. Japan. owes a 
great deal to him for his important investi- 
gation of meteorological conditions in Japan 
and for the organization and completion of 
our weather service. At the beginning of 
the recent Russo-Japanese war Professor 
Wada was entrusted by the Japanese govern- 
ment with completing the work as the chief 
of that service. The Chemulpo Meteorolog- 
ical Observatory receives every day telegraphic 
reports of three meteorological observations 
at 6 AM., 2 P.M. and 10 p.m. from the prin- 
cipal stations in Japan and from those in 
Korea and Manchuria, with the addition of 
telegrams twice a day from Tientsin, Chefoo, 
Zikawei, Nankin, Hangchow, Hankow, Shan- 
shi, Amoy and Manila. Thus it will be seen 
that the reports abundantly suffice to enable 
this observatory to give weather predictions 
and storm warnings to semaphore stations. 

The building for the observatory, construct- 
ed temporarily and opened since the beginning 
of the year 1905, is situated on a little hill 
quite near the Japanese concession at Chem- 
ulpo, at the mouth of Kanko River. Besides 
the observatories above mentioned, a large 
magneto-meteorological observatory is now 
planned to be established in Pekin by the 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


government of Japan, and also several stations 
in the southern part of the Chinese empire. 
S. T. Tamura. 


WASHINGTON, D. C., 
January 22, 1906. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Proressor A. A. MicHEnson, of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, and Professor F. Kohlrausch, 
of Berlin, have been elected honorary fellows 
of the Physical Society of London. 


Rear Apmirat Corpy M. CuHesrer, super- 
intendent of the U. S. Naval Observatory, 
was placed on the retired list on February 28. 
He will be retained in temporary active duty 
in the Bureau of Navigation. Rear Admiral 
Chester will be succeeded in charge of the 
Naval Observatory by Rear Admiral Asa 
Walker. 


Tue fiftieth anniversary of the connection 
of Professor Frederic Ward Putnam with 
Harvard University has been celebrated by the 
presentation of a volume, handsomely bound, 
containing autograph greetings from forty of 
his former students, who are now actively en- 
gaged in scientific work, most of them in the 
field of anthropology. Dr. H. C. Bumpus, 
director of the American Museum of Natural 
History, has been authorized by President 
Jesup to offer Professor Putnam ethnological 
material sufficient to illustrate fully the life 
of the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, 
leaving him to make such disposition of the 
collection as he may think best. 

A comMiTrEE has been formed in Great 
Britain to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 
the discovery, by Dr. W. H. Perkin, of mauve 
dye, the first of the coal tar products. 

We learn from Nature that Sir Alexander 
B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., has been elected a 
member of the Atheneum Club under the 
provisions of the rule which empowers the an- 
nual election by the committee of three per- 
sons ‘of distinguished eminence in science, 
literature, the arts, or for public services.’ 

Prorsessor J. C. ArtHur and Mr. F. D. 
Kern, -of Purdue University, held research 
scholarships at the New York Botanical Gar- 
den for the month of January. Their atten- 


SCIENCE. 


397 


tion was devoted to the collection of plant 
rusts in the cryptogamic herbarium. 

A. J. Cox, A.B., A.M. (Stanford), Ph.D. 
(Breslau), has resigned an instructorship in 
chemistry at Stanford University to accept 
the position of physical chemist in the gov- 
ernment laboratories at Manila. 

Dr. J. W. Breve, of Indiana University, 
who has studied the upper Carboniferous and 
Permian formations from Nebraska to Texas, 
has been engaged to take charge of the detailed 
mapping of the Permian formations of Kan- 
sas next summer for the University Geological 
Survey of Kansas. 

Among German men of science who have 
signified their intention of attending the Bos- 
ton meeting of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation are Professor Trendelenburg, Leipzig; 
Professor von Rosthorn, Heidelberg; Professor 
Dihrssen, Berlin, and Professor yon Frey, 
Wiirzburg. 

Dr. NicHotas SENN has been selected to 
deliver the oration on surgery at the Interna- 
tional Medical Congress, Lisbon. 


Tue Middleton-Goldsmith lecture of the 
New York Pathological Society was delivered, 
on February 23, by Dr. Ludwig Hektoen, of 
the University of Chicago and the Memorial 
Institute for Infectious Diseases, the subject 
being ‘ Phagocytosis.’ 

M. L. Futter, of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey, will give a course of lectures 
in April at the University of Chicago on the 
hydrologic work of the government. 


Dr. Grorce Grant MacCurpy, of Yale Uni- 
versity, gave a lecture on ‘ Prehistoric Scan- 
dinavia’ before the Ethnological Society of 
America at the American Museum of Natural 
History on February 28. 


The Journal of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation states that Judge McEwen, of the 
Superior Court, has rendered a decision 
against the Chicago Medical Society in its 
efforts to maintain in Grant Park a boulder 
placed there in memory of Dr. Charles Guthrie 
and his pioneer work on chloroform. 


On June 29, 1903, a meeting was held at 
the Mansion-house, under the presidency of 


398 


the Lord Mayor, to inaugurate a memorial to 
the late Sir Henry Bessemer. At that meet- 
ing the following resolution was moved by 
the Duke of Norfolk, seconded by Professor 
H. M. Howe, of Columbia University, and 
unanimously adopted: 

That this representative meeting heartily en- 

dorses the proposal to commemorate the great 
achievements of the late Sir Henry Bessemer, the 
inventor of the metallurgical process which bears 
his name; and it strongly affirms that such com- 
memoration should have for its object some edu- 
cational work as far-reaching in its beneficent 
influence as are the results of Bessemer’s great 
invention. 
The committee, with Sir William Preece as 
chairman, now announces that it is intended 
to let the memorial take the form of the es- 
tablishment of memorial scholarships tenable 
in Great Britain or abroad, for the equipment 
of mining and metallurgical memorial labo- 
ratories in the Royal School of Mines at South 
Kensington as the center of the memorial, 
and for the erection of a statue of Bessemer 
in the Royal School of Mines. Towards the 
considerable sum required for the memorial 
the sum of £8,000 has been subscribed. 


Tue body of Dr. S. P. Langley, secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution, was interred 
in the Forest Hill Cemetery, Boston, on 
March 3. Professor John Langley, of Cleve- 
land, a brother, accompanied the body from 
Washington. An address was delivered by 
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Among the 
honorary pallbearers were the Hon. Richard 
Olney, Dr. Bell, President Charles W. Eliot, 
Professor E. ©. Pickering and President 
Henry M. Pritchett. 

Dr. Axen N. Lunpsrr6m, professor of plant 
physiology in the University of Upsala, died 
on December 30. 

Tuer following examinations are announced 
by the U. S. Civil Service Commission: On 
March 21, for the position of surveyor in the 
Philippine Service, at a salary of $1,400 a 
year, and for topographic draughtsman on the 
Isthmus of Panama, at $1,200; on March 28, 
for laboratory helper in the Department of 
Agriculture, at $600; on April 18, for scien- 


tific assistant in the Department of Agricul- — 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 584. 


ture, at salaries ranging from $800 to $1,400 
a year. 


A MEETING has been held at the University 
of Berlin in support of the establishment of a 
Chemische Reichsanstalt. 


Nature states that active steps are being 
taken at York to ensure the success of the 
meeting of the British Association to be held 
there next August. At a large and distin- 
guished assembly, over which the Lord Mayor 
of York presided, the arrangements in connec- 
tion with the forthcoming visit were advanced 
a further stage. A reception committee rep- 
resentative of the city and county was elected, 
and it was resolved to raise a fund of not less 
than £2,500 for the necessary expenses of the 
meeting. In an appropriate speech, the Lord 
Mayor moved “ That this meeting agrees cor- 
dially to welcome the British Association to 
York this year from August 1-8, and in doing 
so attaches special interest to the fact that the 
association began its existence in York sey- 
enty-five years ago.” The dean of York 
seconded this resolution (which was carried 
unanimously); and in supporting it Dr. Tem- 
pest Anderson referred to local connections 
with the association, the first officials of which 
included some of the leading members of the 
Yorkshire Philosophical Society. The local 
reception committee is said to be an unusually 
strong one: the president is the Lord Arch- 
bishop of York; chairman, the Lord Mayor 
(Mr. R. H. V. Wragge); vice-chairman, Dr. 
Tempest Anderson; treasurer, Sir J. Sykes 
Rymer; and secretaries, Mr. R. Percy Dale 
and Mr. C. E. Elmhirst. Pro-chancellor A. 
G. Lupton (University of Leeds) and Pro- 
fessor W. M. Hicks (University of Sheffield) 
both spoke at the meeting, and expressed the 
desire of their universities to assist in making 
the forthcoming meeting of the association a 
success. 


Tue twenty-fourth spring lecture course at 
the Field Museum of Natural History, Chi- 
cago, given on Saturday afternoons at three 
o’clock is as follows: 

March 3.—‘Colors of Flowers, Fruits and 


Foliage,’ Professor W. H. Dudley, Platteville, Wis- 
consin. 


Marcu 9, 1906.] 


March 10— Some Aspects of Archeological 
Work in Central America,’ Dr. Alfred M. Tozzer, 
Harvard University. 

March 17—‘ The Work of a State Geological 
Survey, Professor H. Foster Bain, director, 
Illinois Geological Survey. 

March 24.—‘ How People live in Congo Land,’ 
Dr. D. W. C. Snyder, lecturer for the board of 
education, City of New York. 

March 31‘ Love and War among Animals,’ 
Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, New York. 

April 7.— Glaciers,’ Professor N. M. Fenne- 
man, University of Wisconsin. 

April 14—‘ The Seri Indians of Sonora,’ Dr. 
W J McGee, director, St. Louis Public Museum. 

April 21—‘ How Plants breathe, Professor C. 
R. Barnes, University of Chicago. 

April 28—‘ The Monuments of a Prehistoric 
Race, Professor Frederic I. Monsen, San Fran- 
cisco. 


OrFiciaL notice has been received from the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna an- 
nouncing the recognition of the Wistar In- 
stitute as the central imstitute for inter- 
academic brain research in the United States. 
Some three or four years ago, at the sugges- 
tion of Professor His (Leipzig), the Inter- 
national Association of Academies appointed 
a central commission for interacademic brain 
research. Among the duties of this commis- 
sion was the selection of certain laboratories 
in yarious parts of the world to act as central 
institutes and the organization of an extensive 
plan for the cooperative investigation of the 
brain. It is in connection with this general 
plan that the Wistar Institute is accepted as 
the central institute for brain research in the 
United States. Recently Dr. Donaldson, Dr. 
Mall (Johns Hopkins Medical School) and 
Dr. Minot (Harvard Medical School) have 
been elected members of the central commis- 
sion for interacademic brain research and the 
conduct of this work at the Wistar Institute 
will be under the direction of Dr. Donaldson. 


In the summer of the present year a per- 
manent station for the study of arctic sci- 
ence will, as we have already noted, be estab- 
lished on the south coast of Disco Island in 
Danish West Greenland. The cost of the 
foundation has been defrayed by a gift from 
Mr. A. Holck, of Copenhagen, and the Danish 


SCIENCE. 


399 


government has promised an annual grant of 
$3,000 towards its maintenance. We learn 
from a letter from Dr. Morten P. Porsild, 
director of the laboratory, that it is equipped 
with appliances and instruments, especially 
for biological researches, and that work-places 
will be furnished for visiting naturalists, 
foreign as well as Danish. The establishment 
of two such places is contemplated at present. 
The visitors will obtain the free use of the 
instruments, traveling outfit and library of the 
station; lodging will be free and a small fee 
will be charged only for board. Cheap fare 
to and from the station, via Copenhagen, will 
be provided. The first visitors can be re- 
ceived in 1907, and notices, inviting appli- 
cation, will be issued in due course. A 
library of arctic literature is to be founded 
at the station and to be made as complete as 
possible, but in view of the limited resources 
of the station, only a small proportion of it 
can be purchased. The director will, there- 
fore, be pleased to receive gifts of publications 
relating to the arctic regions and especially 
to arctic biology. 


We learn from the London Times that 
at a meeting of the Linnean Society of 
London, held on February 1 at Burling- 
ton House, Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner gave 
an account of the Perey Sladen trust ex- 
pedition in his Majesty’s ship Sealark to 
the Indian Ocean. Mr. Gardiner was leader 
of the expedition, which was the first to benefit 
by the Perey Sladen trust. Professor Herd- 
man, F.R.S., president of the society, re- 
minded the audience that Mr. Perey Sladen 
was for many years the honored zoological 
secretary of that society, and his widow, whose 
death had recently oceurred, was the first of 
their lady fellows whom they had lost. Mrs. 
Sladen was the generous donor of a fund to 
commemorate her husband, and it was by that 
fund that Mr. Gardiner had been assisted in 
his explorations in the Indian Ocean. Mr. 
Gardiner then proceeded to describe, by means 
of maps and. charts exhibited upon a screen, 
the region visited by his expedition, and ex- 
plained the method by which they made their ” 
soundings and dredgings, many of which pro- 


400 


duced results of great interest and impor- 
tance. The flora and fauna of the various 
islands visited were described, together with 
the geological formation of the rocks and the 
changes which are in progress. A large col- 
lection of specimens both from the land and 
the sea was made during the expedition, and 
was exhibited by the lecturer. 


Nature says: “The real existence of the 
n-rays, discovered by M. Blondlot, has been 
the subject of much discussion, there being a 
general consensus of opinion outside France 
that the effects produced are physiological. 
The Comptes rendus for January 15 contain 
two papers of considerable interest on this 
subject. The first of these, by M. Mascart, 
gives details of a series of measurements of 
the points of maximum intensity in the 
spectrum produced by the refraction of the 
m-rays through an aluminium prism, by a 
number of independent observers. The phos- 
phorescent screen was mounted on the carriage 
of a dividing engine, and each of four ob- 
servers (Messrs. Blondlot, Gutton, Virtz and 
Mascart) made independent measurements of 
the points of maximum intensity. The most 
concordant figures were those obtained by M. 
Blondlot, but the general agreement of the 
results left no doubt as to the position of the 
lines. M. Mascart gives the results without 
comment. The second paper, by M. Gutton, 
is an attempt to prove the objective existence 
of the n-rays. It had been noted that if 
these rays are allowed to fall on the primary 
spark of a Hertzian oscillator, the luster of 
the secondary spark diminishes. This effect 
has been secured photographically, the dif- 
ference being clearly marked in the whole of 
the thirty-seven experiments. The apparatus 
is described in detail, and the precautions 
necessary for success pointed out. These two 
papers certainly provide material for con- 
sideration by those who maintain that the 
whole phenomenon is a physiological illusion.” 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 


THe annual report of the treasurer of 
Princeton University states that $1,000,000 


NEWS. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXITI. No. 584. 


has been raised by the committee of fifty 
toward the fund to endow the new preceptorial 
system. 

Contracts have been let for a new build- 
ing at Swarthmore College, to be used for 
engineering shops. The building is to cost 
twenty thousand dollars, and is to be two 
stories high and will be made fireproof. In 
the basement the shops for forging will be 
located. The machine shops and metal works 
will be installed on the first floor, while the 
second floor will be given to wood working. 


Oxtp NortH CoLiece, a dormitory of Wes- 
leyan University erected in 1827, was de- 
stroyed by fire on March 1. The loss, which 
is said to be $80,000, is covered by insurance. 


Mr. Alfred Beit, of London, the South 
African financier, has given $500,000 to es- 
tablish a university at Hamburg, where he 
was born in 1853. 


Tue Association of American Universities 
will hold its seventh annual conference in 
San Francisco on March 14. 


A CONFERENCE of college and university 
presidents of New York state, and representa- 
tives of the Department of Education held a 
meeting in Albany last week. Preliminary 
steps were taken for the formation of an Asso- 
ciation of Colleges of the State of New York, 
and a committee consisting of First Assistant 
Commissioner Rogers, as chairman; Chan- 
cellor Day, of Syracuse University; President 
Rhees, of Rochester University, and Dean 
Crane, of Cornell University, was appointed 
to prepare a constitution to be presented at a 
meeting at Columbia University, on April 19 
and 20. 


Tue New York alumni of the Johns Hop- 
kins University held their annual dinner on 
March 2, the principal address being made by 
President Remsen. Dr. Charles Lane Poor, 
professor of astronomy at Columbia Univer- 
sity, was elected president for the ensuing 
year. 


Rionarp S. Lun, associate professor of 
zoology in the Massachusetts State Agricul- 
tural College, has been appointed assistant pro- 
fessor of paleontology at Yale University. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fray, Marcy 16, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
Section K—Physiology and Haperimental 
Medicine ; Symposium on Yellow-fever and 
other Insect-borne Diseases, II.: With- 
out Mosquitoes there can be no Yellow 
Fever: Dr. JAMES CARROLL. Aestivo- 
autumnal Fever, Cause, Diagnosis, Treat- 
ment and Destruction of Mosquitoes that 
spread the Disease: Dr. H. A. VEAZIE..... 


Section B—Physics: PRoressor Dayton C. 
MILLER 


The Society for Plant Morphology. and 
Physiology: PRoFESSoR W. FE. GANONG.... 
Scientific Books :— 
Hertwig’s Allgemeine Biologie: PROFESSOR 
PRANK R. LILE........0..8..2... renee 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 
Societies and Academies :-— 
The American Mathematical Society: W. 
H. Bussry. The Philosophical Society of 
Washington: C. K. Wrap. The Onondaga 
Academy of Sciences: J. HE. KiRkwoop. 
The California Branch of the American 
Folk-lore Society; The Berkeley Folk-lore 
Club: PRoressor A. L. KROEBER.......... 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Isolation and the Evolution of Species: 
Dr. Joun T. Guuicxk. Salmon Hybrids: 
PRESIDENT DAVID STARR JORDAN.......... 
Special Articles :-— 
An Interesting Discovery of Human Im- 
plements in an Abandoned Riwer Channel 
in Southern Oregon: PRoresssor J. F. 
Kemp 
Astronomical Notes :— 
The New Solar Observatory of the Carnegie 
Institution; Double Variable Stars; Posi- 
tion of the Awis of Mars; Recent Comets: 
Proressor §. I. BAMEY................. 


401 


415 


421 


428 
429 


430 


434 


Samuel Pierpont Langley.................- 438 
Scientific Notes and News................. 438 
University and Educational News........... 440 


MSS. intended for publication sud books, etc., intended 
tor review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


SECTION K—PHYSIOLOGY AND EXPERI-— 
MENTAL MEDICINE. 
SYMPOSIUM ON YELLOW FEVER AND OTHER 
INSECT-BORNE DISEASES. I. 


Without Mosquitoes there can be no Yellow 
Hever: JAMES CARROLL. } 
It seems incredible, but is, nevertheless 

true, that at the present time there are still 

in the United States many physicians who 
oppose the idea that the mosquito is the 
sole means by which yellow fever is carried 
from one person to another. They refuse 
to believe that the natural disease can not 
be contracted in any other way than 
through the bite of the mosquito. The 
fact, however, has been repeatedly demon- 
strated and the evidence in its support has 
now become overwhelming. The tremen- 
dous importance of this subject, in a city 
which, by reason of her location and com- 
mercial intercourse with Central and South 

America, may be regarded as the gateway 

through which a disastrous epidemic may 

at any time be introduced into the United 

States, is my apology for again taking up 

so trite a subject. It is the duty of those 

who are familiar with the facts to com- 
municate them to the members of the pro- 
fession, for the people must rely upon their 


402 


physicians in all matters pertaining to the 
preservation of health and the prevention 
of disease. We can not expect that the 
active practismg physician shall keep 
abreast of all modern advances in scientific 
medicine, and the numerous contradictory 
statements that have been made in regard 
to yellow fever have afforded full justifica- 
tion for skepticism on the part of such as 
aim to be conservative. While strong con- 
servatism is to be commended, persistent 
skepticism is to be condemned. It is per- 
fectly justifiable to refuse to receive state- 
ments that revolutionize our accepted ideas, 
so long as they are based upon the asser- 
tions of a single observer or a single set of 
observers, but when these observations have 
been confirmed by competent unbiased per- 
sons in different parts of the world, such 
statements must then be accepted as facts, 
just as we accept other statements in re- 
gard to history, geography and the sciences 
in general. 

It is well known that a number of dis- 
ease-producing animal parasites are never 
found in nature outside the body of a living 
host.. They pass their whole existence first 
in one animal and then in another, alter- 
nately, being carried to and fro by means 
of biting insects, by the ingestion of in- 
fested food, ete. It is only necessary to 
consider here the group of parasites that 
is transmitted by the blood-sucking in- 
sects, such as the tick and the mosquito, 
the latter in particular. We know that 
the Texas fever of cattle is caused by an 
exceedingly minute microscopic parasite 
which spends its whole existence in bovines 
and in the tick. If cattle are kept free 
from ticks they can not contract the fever. 
Furthermore, the tick is now accused, and 
with good reason, of being the transmitter 
of relapsing fever. It is equally well 
Inown and proved beyond question that 
the mosquito transmits filarial infection 
and malarial fever to man. No one would 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


think of asserting in print to-day that 
malaria is contracted through exposure to 
night air, to unhygienie surroundings or 
by drinking the filthiest water, for such 
statements would justly be characterized 
as absurd. The renowned experiments of 
Sambon and Low in Italy, in 1900, showed 
conclusively that persons can live in the 
most pestiferous malarial regions and re- 
tain perfect health, so long as they protect 
themselves against the bites of mosquitoes. 
In the same year these observers shipped 
living malaria-infected mosquitoes from 
Italy to England, where they were applied 
to two persons in perfect health in a region 
where malarial fever is unknown. Within 
a short time both of them suffered typical 
attacks of malaria, during which the para- 
sites were frequently demonstrated in their 
blood. Fortunately the various stages in 
the development of the malarial parasite in 
man and in the mosquito can be demon- 
strated with the microscope. We Inow 
that the phases it passes through in the 
insect are entirely different from its cycle 
of development in man, and no one has as 
yet succeeded in demonstrating the exist- 
ence of this parasite elsewhere than in a 
living host. Such a demonstration is not 
necessary, for with our present knowledge 
we can explain all the known facts relating 
to the contraction and dissemination of the 
disease and we can insure absolute protec- 
tion against it. We no longer attribute 
malarial infection to the inhalation of gase- 
ous poisons emanating from swamps in the 
nighttime, or to bad water. We lnow 
that swampy places simply furnish breed- 
ing grounds for the malaria-carrying mos- 
quito, which flies at night, and whose bite 
is necessary for the contraction of the 
fever. The insect must previously have 
bitten a person suffering with malaria, and 
an interval of at least a week must have 
elapsed, otherwise no infection can result. 
The recent brilliant discovery by Koch, 


Marcy 16, 1906.] 


that apparently healthy negro children in 
the pestilential districts of Africa constant- 
ly earry large numbers of malarial para- 
sites in their blood, explains the source 
from which the mosquitoes obtain these 
parasites; it also explains the relative im- 
munity against this infection enjoyed by 
the negro. 

If we now consider the numerous points 
of similarity between malaria and yellow 
fever they will be found to be very striking. 
Both are diseases of low-lying districts; 
both infections are contracted chiefly at 
night; both may be conveyed by direct 
inoculation of the blood of a patient; both 
are most prevalent in the places and sea- 
sons where and when mosquitoes are most 
numerous; both infections are impossible 
after severe frosts, which cause the mos- 
quitoes to hibernate. These constitute 
strong points of resemblance between the 
two diseases, which differ from each other 
in that the duration of yellow fever is very 
short, while malarial infection may persist 
for years. Unfortunately, the parasite of 
yellow fever has never been found, in spite 
of claims to the contrary, and notwith- 
standing the use of the best powers of the 
microscope, and even the ultramicroscope, 
in the efforts of skilled observers to dis- 
cover it. That there is a yellow-fever 
parasite we feel assured, because it is not 
possible to explain the continuous propaga- 
tion of the disease upon any other hypoth- 
esis, and apart from its invisibility, the 
manifestations of its presence are in com- 
plete accord with the behavior of parasites 
that are well known. We must not forget 
that the minimal limits of creation in na- 
ture may be beyond our conception, and 
we must be prepared to learn, if necessary, 
that there are living bodies too minute to 
be defined with our present instruments. 

The report of the latest scientific investi- 
gation of this disease by Otto and Neu- 
mann, of Hamburg,t members of the 


SCIENCE. 


403 


German commission, working in Rio de 
Janeiro within the past year, states that 
they were totally unable to find anything 
either in the blood or in the cerebro-spinal 
fluid of patients suffering with yellow fever, 
that could not be found in similar material 
obtained from persons suffering with other 
diseases and from persons in good health. 
In this work they used the ultramicroscope 
of Siedentopf and Zsigmondy. Neither 
could they find anything in the infected 
mosquito after dissecting it in the fresh 
state, nor after hardening and sectioning 
it, that they felt justified in regarding as 
the cause of the disease. 

How then are we to explain this failure to 
discover a parasite in an apparently para- 
sitie disease? And, if a parasite be pres- 
ent, to what class does it belong? It seems 
quite rational to exclude it from among the 
bacteria because: (1) It has never been 
cultivated nor stained by any of our known 
methods; (2) the work of Marchoux, Salim- 
beni and Simond has shown that the blood 
of a patient after its withdrawal loses its 
power to infect within two days, if kept 
exposed to the air, and within five days if 
air be excluded; (8) the disease has been 
shown to be absolutely non-contagious in 
regions where Stegomyia fasciata is not 
present, 7. €., in Petropolis near Rio de 
Janeiro; (4) we know no bacteria that live 
in the tissues of animals, as the yellow- 
fever organism does in the mosquito, for 
months, as a harmless parasite. The log- 
ical conclusion, therefore, would seem to be 
that the parasite of yellow fever belongs to 
the animal kingdom, because: (1) It is 
absolutely necessary for its continued exist- 
ence that it pass alternately through man 
and the mosquito, and its parasitic existence 
in these hosts is obligatory; (2) the fact 
that a period of about two weeks or more 


1M. Otto and R. O. Neumann, Zeitschrift f. 
Hygiene u. Infectionskrankheiten, LI., 3, Novem- 
ber, 1905. 


404 


must elapse before the contaminated mos- 
quito is capable of infecting, points to a 
definite cycle of development in that insect; 
(3) the limitation of its developmental 
cycle to mosquitoes of a single genus, and 
to a single vertebrate, conforms to a natural 
zoological law and does not agree with our 
present knowledge of the life history of 
bacteria; (4) the effects of climate and tem- 
perature upon Stegomyia, and upon the 
rate of development of the yellow-fever 
parasite within the body of that insect, are 
exactly the same as the effects of the same 
conditions upon the Anopheles mosquito 
and the malarial parasite. 

Consequently, although on account of its 
minute size no one has ever been able to 
identify the organism of yellow fever either 
in human blood or tissues, or in the mos- 
quito, we feel justified in regarding it as 
an obligate animal parasite. If this be 
correct it can not maintain its vitality in 
water, in soil nor in any other material, no 
matter how badly they may chance to have 
been contaminated. Experience and ex- 
periments have shown that such is actually 


the case; that dead bodies can be freely 


handled and dissected by non-immunes 
without danger; that non-immune persons 
may live in intimate contact with the gar- 
ments, bedding and clothing used and 
soiled by yellow-fever patients, under the 
same conditions and in the same climate 
where yellow fever has prevailed, and suffer 
no inconvenience. And further, it has 
been shown by the French commission that 
this organism fails to survive in blood, a 
most excellent culture medium, after it 
has been kept for forty-eight hours under 
ordinary conditions. This undoubtedly 
proves the inability of the organism to 
maintain its vitality im filth or decomposing 
organic matter. 

Yellow fever is non-contagious, for in our 
medical literature numerous instances are 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 585, 


recorded where numbers of patients were 
brought to certain places for treatment and 
no secondary cases resulted. This was be- 
fore the days of disinfection, before any 
precautions were taken against mosqui- 
toes, and at a time when intercourse with 
the sick was free and unrestricted. These 
strange occurrences were observed in Spain 
during a severe epidemic at Barcelona in 
1821, during which, under the supposition 
that the air of the city was infected, there 
was a general exodus to the country. Here 
hundreds came down with the disease and 
were treated, but not a single case was re- 
corded to have appeared in a person who 
had not visited the city. Yet tons of 
furniture and baggage were carried from 
infected houses into the country. All this 
took place in a warm climate and during 
the ravages of a devastating epidemic. 
Such remarkable occurrences were inex- 
plicable mysteries that puzzled the most 
brilliant medical minds of the day; they 
could only be explained upon the theory 
that the air of the city had become con- 
taminated. And so it had, but not with 
poisonous gases and noxious vapors as they 
supposed, but with infected mosquitoes. 
In the light of the mosquito theory the ex- 
planation is clear. An epidemic prevailed 
in Havana during the early part of that 
season, and a number of cases appeared on 
vessels after leaving there for the Spanish 
port, where the epidemic appeared later in 
the season. The first cases in Barcelona 
were seen on the vessels from Havana, lying 
in the harbor; then persons living in the 
city, but who had visited or were em- 
ployed on the vessels, were taken sick; and 
later, the epidemic raged throughout vari- 
ous parts of the city. It is quite evident 
that the vessels carried infected mosquitoes 
as well as others that were not infected; 
these mosquitoes bred rapidly in the houses 
on shore and the conditions then became 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


ripe for a rapid extension of the disease 
after the introduction of a few cases. It 
is to be noted that vessels were constantly 
arriving from Havana; cases appeared on 
the ships during the voyage, and, until 
suspicion was aroused, patients from the 
vessels were treated on _ shore. The 
Stegomyie introduced from the vessels, be- 
ing house mosquitoes, remained in the city, 
while the country districts were free from 
them, and for that reason free from any 
extension of the fever. The absence of the 
proper mosquito is the only explanation 
that can be offered, and in the light of 
our present knowledge, it is all-sufficient. 

In the United States, both before and 
since the epidemic at Barcelona, there have 
been similar outbreaks, always introduced 
by importation, though frequently regarded 
as of endemic origin, 7. ¢., at Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, Norfolk and New Orleans. In 
the latter city the danger is particularly 
great, because Stegomyia, being always 
present, will readily spread the infection 
if it encounter a sufficient number of non- 
immunes. 

Another good ease in point is Petropolis, 
twenty-five miles from Rio de Janeiro and 
at an elevation of 3,000 feet. Yellow fever 
is never known to occur there, spontane- 
ously, and for that reason it has been made 
the home of non-immunes who spend the 
night at Petropolis and visit Rio during 
the day, for the transaction of business. 
While there are no Stegomyie at Petrop- 
olis, the French commission showed three 
years ago that the disease can be produced 
there by inoculation with infected insects. 
At the present day one who seeks can find 
abundant evidence to show not only that 
the mosquito transmits yellow fever, but 
that without the agency of the mosquito 
it is impossible to have yellow fever, except 
by means of experimental inoculations. 

Since the first demonstration of the mos- 


SCIENCE. 


405 


quito theory by the army board in 1900, 
confirmatory experiments have been made 
by Dr. John Guiteras of Havana, Ribas 
and Lutz of Brazil, the French commission 
from the Pasteur Institute, Working 
Parties No. 1 and No. 2 of the U. S. Public 
Health and Marine Hospital Service; and 
lastly the German commission from Ham- 
burg, admit no other possibility. The lat- 
ter, whose report was published only two 
months ago, lay great stress upon the neces- 
sity for the extermination of mosquitoes in 
localities where yellow fever appears in epl- 
demic form, because, they say, without the 
mosquito, extension of the disease is impos- 
sible. Theyadvocate complete extermination 
of the insect, and speak with enthusiasm of 
the success that has been attained in Rio, 
in spite of the opposition of a number of 
local physicians and of a rather large pro- 
portion of the population. As a result of 
their observations in Rio, they maintain 
positively that the natural form of yellow 
fever can be contracted only through the 
bite of an infected mosquito of the genus 
Stegomyia; they are so firmly convinced of 
this fact that they decline to consider the 
possibility of any other mode of infection, 
since they could find no evidence in support 
of it. They found the yellow-fever. mos- 
quito everywhere in the city of Rio, but in 
Petropolis, where the French commission 
before them could not find it-and where 
yellow fever is known never to spread, they 
failed to discover a single specimen. If 
one could say the same of New Orleans 
another outbreak of yellow fever there 
would be an impossibility, exeept when the 
mosquito as well as cases had been intro- 
duced. According to Otto and Neumann,? 
the authorities in Rio are about to adopt 
the admirable system of providing a mos- 
quito-proof barrack for laborers in the har- 
bor and docks, and they will keep the men 


The German commission. 


406 


under medical supervision, in order that 
any cases occurring among them may be 
protected at once from mosquitoes. This 
will insure that no secondary eases shall be 
produced by infection from them. They 
urge the necessity for protecting patients 
from mosquitoes during the first three or 
four days of the fever, because it is only 
during this period that the mosquito can 
acquire the infection. They state em- 
phatically that in combating an epidemic 
all preventive measures should be directed 
against this insect and its relation to the 
patient. After proper protection of the 
patient all suspected mosquitoes must be 
destroyed, and efforts should then be made 
to exterminate all Stegomyiw present in 
the locality, if possible. 

Under the efficient management of the 
director of public health, Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, 
who is himself an experienced scientist, 
over $65,000 per month was expended in 
Rio de Janeiro, from April to December, 
1903, in the war against mosquitoes. Even 
the main sewers were fumigated and 
myriads of mosquitoes destroyed in them 
‘by the use of sulphurous acid. A sani- 
tary brigade was organized into sections 
for operation in the different districts into 
which the city was divided. The person- 
nel of this brigade comprised about 2,000 
men, including 80 physicians. Their duties 
were specifically defined as: 

(1) The isolation of yellow-fever patients and 
their protection from mosquitoes, including the 
necessary arrangement of the isolation rooms;, (2) 
the destruction of mosquitoes in the house and its 
surroundings and the destruction also of their 
breeding places; (3) the removal of the patient 
in a screened conveyance from his. home to the 
hospital, if he desired it, or if it were impossible 
to isolate him in the house and the public interest 
demanded it. : 

All suspicious eases were treated as 
though they were eases of yellow fever and 
half-way measures were not tolerated. 

A manifesto setting forth the relation of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


the mosquito to the disease and the neces- 
sity for the measures instituted was pub- 
lished on April 26, 1903, for the instruction 
of the people, and I can not do better than 
cite a few extracts from it to show the 
positive conviction of those in authority, 
who had already witnessed the confirma- 
tory experimental work of the French and 
Brazilian commissions. 


EXTRACTS FROM THE MANIFESTO.® 

* * * * * * * * * 

2. Yellow fever is not conveyed from person to 
person, nor is it transmitted by means of soil, or 
articles used during illness, the sole means of 
transmission is by the mosquito, as has been fully 
determined. 

3. Several days after biting a case of yellow 
fever the mosquito acquires the power to trans- 
mit the disease, and it preserves that power for 
some time, two and one half months or more. The 
domestic habits of the mosquito explain sufficiently 
why yellow fever is a disease that establishes it- 
self in houses and why it is contracted only in 
cities. 

* * * * * * * * * 

8. During epidemics, when the disease is at 
hand, all healthy persons should have mosquito 
nets upon their beds at night, and they should 
take care not to be bitten by mosquitoes during 
the day, because yellow fever mosquitoes bite also 
in the daytime. 


The new harbor regulations for vessels 
entering with yellow fever on board are in 
part as follows :* 


* * * * * * * * * 

(a) The sick are immediately removed and iso- 
lated with mosquito netting. 

(6) The mosquitoes in the entire vessel are 
killed systematically and their breeding places are 
destroyed. 

(c) Passengers who intend to stay in the har- 
bor receive a health certificate and are subjected 
to medical supervision for twelve days.* 


* J. Dupuy, ‘ Epidemiologie de la Fievre Jaune,’ 
Revue d’Hygiene et de Pol. San., Paris, 1905, 
XXVIII., 13-29. 

*Otto and Neumann. 

5This is based on the prolonged periods of in- 
cubation reported by Marchoux, Salimbeni and 
Simond, and is unnecessary, because it has never 
been shown conclusively that an incubation period 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


(d) The vessel is then admitted to free inter- 
course, but admits a health inspector on board, 
who will accompany the vessel to its last Brazilian 
port and who proceeds as follows: (1) He ex- 
amines daily, with care, all the passengers and the 
erew, and isolates with netting any who show 
symptoms of fever. (2) If mosquitoes be present 
their immediate destruction is ordered at once. 


* * % * * * * * * 


I have cited only a few paragraphs to 
show that the authorities have thoroughly 
grasped the situation and their ultimate 
success is assured. The gigantic nature of 
their undertaking in an unsanitary sub- 
tropical city of more than a million in- 
habitants can hardly be conceived, and 
their enlightened and determined efforts are 
exciting the admiration of the scientific 
world. With continued perseverance they 
will eventually attain the same degree of 
success that has been achieved in Cuba and 
their example will be followed by the 
smaller Central American republies. 

After four years of immunity Cuba has 
been caught napping. According to the 
last report of the U. S. Public Health and 
Marine Hospital Service® she has had 
seventy cases of yellow fever, with fifteen 
deaths, between October 16 and December 

‘17. Two of the cases were imported. Ac- 
cording to the newspapers six additional 
eases have been reported up to December 
25. While the condition is serious, there 
is no epidemic and the authorities have the 
situation under control. The large num- 
ber of cases relative to the deaths reported 
shows that but few, if any, cases escape 
detection. I feel sure that the disease will 


of more than six days and a few hours can follow 
a simple mosquito inoculation. In every instance 
in which a longer period of incubation is proved 
the subject received injections of either serum or 
blood. These observations therefore can have no 
practical bearing on measures directed against 
the natural infection which is produced by the 
mosquito alone. 

* Public Health Reports, Washington, December 
22, 1905, p. 2,739. 


SCIENCE. 


407 


be eradicated within the next two months. 
One or two or a few cases may appear in 
the early spring because some of the in- 
fected mosquitoes may escape fumigation 
and survive through the short winter. 
There is no reason to apprehend, however, 
that Havana will again become seriously 
infected. 

Although I am now two years beyond 
the half-century mark, I think I can rea- 
sonably expect to live to see the day when 
yellow fever shall have been exterminated 
from the whole American continent, and 
that means practically from the world. 
Let us hope that the beautiful city of New 
Orleans will never again be devastated by 
the American plague from which she has 
suffered so terribly and so often. The price 
of safety is eternal vigilance; the greatest 
danger from yellow fever lies in the escape 
of mild and doubtful cases. One of the 
first to apprehend the full import of the 
mosquito theory was Dr. Quitman Kohnke, 
and I ean recall with what pleasure I 
listened in Washington, several years ago, 
to his able, courageous and masterful con- 
tention for it, before a rather unsympa- 
thetic audience. 

In the sad experience here during the 
past summer, we have seen an effectual 
demonstration by the various officials under 
Doctor White of the efficacy of measures 
directed against the mosquito. With this 
and the evidence already brought forward 
by Guiteras and the French, German and 
Marine Hospital Service commissions, it 
should never again be necessary to contend 
for the well-proved fact that without the 
agency of mosquitoes there can be no yellow 
fever. 


LE stivo-autumnal Fever—Cause, Diagno- 
sis, Treatment and Destruction of Mos- 
quitoes which spread the Disease: H. A. 
VEAZIE. c 
This fever interests the whole world, es- 


408 


pecially Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Florida, and New Orleans in par- 
ticular, as it has been and will be mistaken 
for yellow fever. I only hope that this 
second paper on this fever may at least 
save a few lives, and call the attention of 
physicians to its proper recognition, treat- 
ment and prophylaxis. 

Synonyms: ‘Summer-autumn fever,’ 
“pernicious malarial fever,’ ‘congestive 
malarial fever,’ ‘hemorrhagic malarial 
fever,’ ‘up-river yellow fever.’ 


Geographical Distribution.—This is a . 


fever that prevails in nearly all parts of 
the world where the Anopheles mosquito is 
found, influenced to a greater or less extent 
by climate; a pseudo-epidemic fever that 
prevails in tropical countries the year 
round. In semi-tropical and temperate 
climates it prevails from about July 1 to 
frost. In some years it prevails as an epi- 
demic in tropical and semi-tropical coun- 
tries, this being due to conditions favorable 
to the Anopheles mosquito. The condi- 
tions favorable to mosquitoes are frequent, 
light rains, and a temperature of about 
70° to 90° F. JI am quite certain a lower 
temperature is not incompatible with its 
spread, as I have found in this city Ano- 
pheles quite active at a lower temperature, 
but frost seems to cause the hibernation 
of nearly all of our mosquitoes. Extremely 
dry hot weather is unfavorable to the 
breeding of mosquitoes of all kinds; hence 
there is not as much malarial fever in the 
heat of summer. 

History.—The history of malarial fever 
dates back from the time almost beyond 
history. The physicians of Egypt in the 
time of the Pharoahs wrote of it. In some 
of my past reading, and I am sorry to say 
that I have forgotten where I noticed it, I 
read that a physician of Egypt, whose name 
was Mah, stated that malaria was a disease 
produced by a parasite in the blood, but 
the organism was so small that the human 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


eye was unable to see it. It was due to 
the labors of the immortal Laveran, a 
French army surgeon stationed at Con- 
stantine, Algeria, that the malarial para- 
site was identified and proven to be the 
cause of malaria (in 1880). Mechel in 
1847 also described them, the ovoid bodies 
and pigment. Our own Professor Joseph 
Jones also did the same a few years later, 
he using the pigment as a means of diag- 
nosis. He also shows quite a good rough 
sketch of malaria parasite in his ‘Medical 
Surgical Memoirs.’ It would be impossible 
for me to even read the names of men 
identified with the history of malarial 
fever. I must, however, mention Welch, 
Grasin, Councilman, Thayer, Manson, 
Young, Ross, Warner, Bastanelli, Golgi, 
Marchiafava, Celli and many, many others 
who labored hard and lone to solve the 
malarial problem. 

Etiology.—The cause of xstivo-autumnal 
fever is a parasite, a living micro-organism, 
a protozoon in the blood which enters the 
red blood corpuscles and destroys them, 
and in time is destroyed by the white blood 
corpuscles if the patient lives; otherwise, 
the destruction of the red blood corpuscles 
and toxins formed by the parasite kills the 
patient if proper remedies are not used, or if 
the white blood corpuscles are not sufficient- 
ly strong to overpower the parasites. Such 
cases are spontaneous cures. This parasite 
of xstivo-autumnal fever was studied ex- 
tensively by Welch, and named by him the 
Hematozoon falciparum. I. do not think 
that any one has yet completely settled its 
entire life history, as it seems most eccen- 
trie in its eyele of existence. A study of 
this alone would take years of patient work. 
However, the parasite is now well known 
and can be easily identified by proper stain- 
ing, also in the fresh blood. A peculiarity 
of this parasite is that it seems to like to 
abide in the internal organs such as the 
liver, spleen, kidneys, bone marrow and 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


even the brain; hence, many of the cerebral 
symptoms. This parasite is the third form 
of malarial parasites. There may be a 
fourth form which causes what we now 
eall yellow fever, and like many other dis- 
eases it may become obsolete as to name 
and possibly be classified as malarial. I 
have almost at times convinced myself that 
the two diseases were one and the same, 
but for the following reasons: in yellow 
fever there is no change in the number of 
red blood corpuscles; whereas, in malaria 
there is great change. In malaria the 
fibrin seems all right as to coagulative 
properties; in yellow fever the fibrin of 
the blood loses that important charac- 
teristic. 

To get back to the estivo-autumnal para- 
site: What does it look like? Where and 
how does it develop? Where does it come 
from? How did it get into the blood? 
With a one-twelfth oil immersion lens, the 
best working objective for blood work, we 
see in a red corpuscle in the first stage a 
very small ring-like refractive body which 
gradually gets larger and larger until the 
pigment is formed and the corpuscle is 
somewhat shunken or crenated. The pig- 
ment increases preceding segmentation of 
the parasite and the formation of crescents 
and also before the escape of the parasite 
from the red blood cells and the throwing 
off of the flagella. The flagelle enter other 
blood corpuscles and repeat the cycle of de- 
velopment, unless destroyed by the white 
blood ecrpuseles or by some anti-toxin 
or anti-malarial drug such as quinine or 
arsenic in the blood serum. Where this 
parasite comes from is hard to say. How, 
when or where the first case originated is 
still one of the mysteries of nature. 
How does the parasite get into the blood? 
This is now well understood. It is 
through the agency of the Anopheles mos- 
quito, and in all probability the Anopheles 
crucians, as the prevalence of this fever 


SCIENCE. 


409 


corresponds quite well with the flight and 
distribution of that mosquito. I would 
not consider this the only host for this 
parasite. Let us consider all mosquitoes 
as guilty, and destroy them at least for 
sanitary purposes. It is well known now 
that the mosquito bites an infected indi- 
vidual and the infected blood is taken into 
the stomach of the mosquito, there the 
blood is digested and the micro-organisms 
after going through certain changes, which 
are quite well known, form spindle-shaped 
objects which perforate the stomach walls. 
These are the zygocytes which go through 
different changes and finally get into the 
salivary glands of the mosquito, and are 
injected into the tissues of man’s body, 
then in going through other series of 
changes produce the malarial - parasite 
which we see in the blood of persons suf- 
fering from malarial fever. The various 
changes which take place in these bodies is 
quite well known, and almost any text- 
book on medicine describes the whole proc- 
ess minutely. 

Period of Incubation.—It is not defi- 
nitely known for this fever. 

Clinical History.—This disease is usually 
ushered in with a chill of greater or less 
severity. The fever rises rapidly to 102° 
F., and as high as 105° F., even higher in 
bad cases. The pulse varies in different 
individuals from 100 to 160 per minute, 
and varies in various stages of the disease 
and condition of the patient. I have seen 
it as low as 40 per minute. Nausea, 
violent headache, backache and pains in the 
limbs usher in the disease. The fever usu- 
ally declines at the end of ten hours and 
gradually disappears, possibly to return, 
or perhaps cured by nature or medication. 
If the infection is great or the patient is 
not taken care of, the fever assumes a 
more continuous character and many cases 
go into a state of collapse after a few 
days; the pulse in this case is slow and the 


410 


temperature low (subnormal). There is 
jaundice, with hemorrhages, albuminuria, 
black vomit, uremia, and death occurs in 
a manner very closely resembling that 
caused by yellow fever. The clinical 
charts vary as to pulse, respirations and 
temperature. The face and chest are 
quite red, the eyes congested—little photo- 
phobia— pupils about normal for amount of 
light present. Ophthalmoscopiec examina- 
tion of the retina shows it somewhat con- 
gested, the optic disk slightly so. The lips 
are somewhat red, during chill quite blue. 
The gums are usually normal or slightly 
red, except in bad cases, when they are 
spongy and bleeding. The tongue is some- 
what broad, with yellowish coating, some- 
times indented. There is tenderness over 
the stomach, liver and spleen both some- 
what enlarged. Jaundice is usually noticed 
after the first day. The urine is increased 
in quantity, then diminishes, and often con- 
tains bile, albumin, casts and blood. The 
blood taken from the lobe of the ear or 
from finger-tips shows estivo-autumnal 
parasites. In the year 1899 this fever 
was investigated by Dr. J. D. Bloom, 
then surgeon of the Charity Hospital 
of this city; Dr. O. L. Pothier, patholo- 
gist and bacteriologist of the Charity 
Hospital; Dr. G. S. Bell, visiting physi- 
cian of the Charity Hospital; Dr. S. 
Y. Mioton, assistant pathologist of the 
Charity Hospital; Dr. Maurice Couret, 
assistant pathologist of the Charity Hos- 
pital, and the speaker. In every ease 
we found the estivo-autumnal parasite 
where the blood was examined. This was 
done in over a hundred cases. The blood 
of one hundred and thirteen persons (not 
ill) was examined out of that number, 
and eleven had the parasites in their blood, 
and on tracing the history of the eleven 
six had the fever and five were afterwards 
taken ill. I will now detail one of Dr. G.S. 
Bell’s cases simulating yellow fever with 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIIT. No. 585. 


black vomit, ending in recovery, recorded 
by collaborators in the article published 
in the New York Medical Journal, May 19 
and June 2 and 9, 1900, to which I would 
refer any one who wishes further cases, 
clinical charts, ete. 


M. G. A boy sixteen years old, born in Bayou 
LaFouche, La., family history good; previous his- 
tory good. Patient came to New Orleans two 
weeks before taking sick, but had been feeling 
bad for a while in LaFouche. Complains of pains 
throughout the body, chilly sensations, impaired 
appetite, tired feeling, etc. On October 18, he was 
taken sick with fever, headache, no appreciable 
chill (no chill), vomiting, pains all over the 
body. The same symptoms continued the next 
day, October 19, 1899. Dr. G. S. Bell was called 
for the first time to see the patient on October 20, 
1899, and found the following conditions: The 
patient was very nervous, restless and suffering 
with intense headache; eyes slightly jaundiced; 
stasis, but not very marked; gums slightly soft. 
He had profuse diarrhea. It was stated that the 
patient had twenty actions from the bowels; they 
were watery but of natural color. Temperature 
was 104° F., pulse 120, respiration 40. Dr. Bell 
making a careful physical examination found heart 
normal, lungs normal, liver slightly enlarged, 
spleen distinctly enlarged and tender on palpation. 
On examination of the blood he found malarial 
parasites, urine contained two per cent. of albu- 
min, hyaline casts, bile, no granular casts. Or- 
dered five grains of bisulphate of quinine in water 
every three hours. October 21 (fourth day of ill- 
ness): Temperature 102.4° F., pulse 112, respira- 
tion 32. Other symptoms about the same, ma- 
larial parasites still present in the blood. Urine 
contains two per cent. of albumin, bile, hyaline 
casts. Ordered five grains of bisulphate of 
quinine; continued every three hours. No other 
treatment. October 22 (fifth day of illness): 
Temperature 101° F., pulse 112. Patient vomit- 
ing black. He had black vomit three times while 
Dr. Bell was at his bedside. The blood still con- 
tains a few malarial parasites. The stomach 
being irritable, Dr. Bell stopped the quinine by 
mouth, and gave him five grains of bisulphate of 
quinine hypodermically every three hours and 
stopped all nourishment. He saw the patient 
twelve hours after; stomach was less irritable, 
vomiting had ceased; patient feels better. Octo- 
ber 23 (sixth day of illness): Patient feels much 
better, temperature 100° F., pulse 80, respiration 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


28. Stomach in good condition. The patient re- 
tained five grains of bisulphate of quinine every 
three hours, also retained small quantities of milk. 
Jaundice did not increase. October 24 (seventh 
day of illness): Patient still improving and feels 
much better; stomach in good condition, tempera- 
ture 100° F., pulse 78, respiration 24. October 25 
(eighth day of illness): Temperature normal, 
981° F., pulse 60, respiration 20. October 26 
(ninth day of illness): Temperature 9812° F., 
pulse 48; respiration 20. October 27 (tenth day 
of illness) : Temperature 98.4° F., pulse 48, respi- 
ration 18, urine normal. Patient went on to un- 
interrupted recovery. 

Dr. Bell’s cases total fifty-five in number, 
carefully observed microscopically, phys- 
ically and every way possible. 

Total number of cases seriously ill, fifty- 
five ; total number of cases which were very 
ill but not in danger of death, twenty-one; 
total number of recoveries, fifty-four; total 
number of mild cases, fifteen; only one 
death—all treated with quinine. Of the 
fifty-five cases, fifty-three were natives of 
New Orleans and lived in New Orleans 
up to the time of illness. One was born 
in New Orleans, but lived in LaFouche 
ten years. Of the fifty-five cases forty- 
eight cases occurred in forty-eight different 
houses; the remaining seven occurred, as 
follows: Two cases in one house; two in 
another. No family visited by Dr. Bell 
consisted of less than five members; seven 
had had yellow fever. 

Sex of Patients—Males, thirty-five; females, 
twenty. Race.—White, 50; colored, 5. We all 
had many cases of this fever, but I quote Dr. Bell’s, 
as all records were bedside records carefully taken. 

Pathological Anatomy (gross).—Autopsy No. 
900. Lungs: right, twenty-three ounces; left, 
twenty-three ounces. Spleen: nine ounces. Pan- 
creas: two ounces. Heart: fourteen ounces. 
Liver: eighty-four ounces. Kidneys: right, six 
ounces and one quarter; left, six ounces and one 
half. Body of white man slightly jaundiced 
about face and neck, conjunctiva yellow; pupils 
slightly contracted; post-mortem rigidly marked; 
heart, normal; lungs, edematous; spleen, soft, 
muddy, enlarged and intensely congested. 

Liver.—Fatty degeneration marked. 


SCIENCE. 


411 


Gall Bladder —Full. Pancreas, normal. Kid- 
neys congested; granular, slight fatty degeneration. 

Diagnosis—From post-mortem, Dr. O. L. 
Pothier, pathologist; acute pernicious malarial 
fever. 

Microscopical Pathological Anatomy.—In 
acute or primary eases there is slight or no 
pigmentation of organs, but the organs 
mostly infected are found full of malarial 
parasites, especially the spleen, the liver, 
kidneys and brain. I fear if I go too far 
in minutie I shall tire you. In this estivo- 
autumnal fever the patient is either dead 
or well before the usual evidences of ma- 
laria are produced. Hence, the finding of 
the crescent, or ovoid bodies in the various 
organs is the most reliable sign. Nearly 
every organ is in a state of congestion. 

Diagnosis.—This disease in the first day 
or two can be confounded with almost any 
disease beginning with chill, fever and high 
temperature. If the patient lives in the 
country or suburbs the malady is likely 
malarial, as this fever usually occurs in the 
country or suburban districts. That is the 
case in this city; whereas, yellow fever 
usually starts in the older quarter, thickly 
populated districts near the wharves and 
shipping, and among newly arrived persons. 
The finding of the crescents or wxstivo- 
autumnal parasites is proof positive that 
the patient has this fever beyond question. 
Whether it is a mixed infection or not is 
another question; it is possible but not 
probable. Sir John Hunter was right in a 
measure, but we do know that sometimes 
there occurs mixed infection—say, typhoid 
and yellow fever. At times malaria also 
complicates both of these diseases. Under 
these circumstances, the wisest and most 
astute physician may be puzzled. When 
you find the patient has the malarial para- 
site in the blood, he certainly has malaria, 
and very seldom anything else. The find- 
ing of the parasite is a certain indication 
of malarial infection. The test of Torti, 


412 


the giving of quinine, and if the patient 
recovers rapidly, show that it is simple 
uncomplicated malaria. If not, the test 
of Widal for typhoid and the Faget law 
for yellow fever until we find better 
means. The yellow fever parasite or 
materies morbi must be a parasite, but 
extremely small, and will be found in the 
fibrin or serum of the blood, or as a captive 
in the white blood corpuscles, as the red 
ones do not appear to suffer in numbers 
from yellow fever infection, but greatly so 
in all forms of malarial infection. So 
the diminution of red blood eells is a diag- 
nostic factor and a very important one in 
malarial infection, and its absence in yellow 
fever helps us to separate the two diseases. 

The presence of free pigment in the blood 
is also diagnostic of malarial fever, and 
was greatly relied upon by my honored and 
respected preceptor, Professor Joseph 
Jones, M.D., of the medical department of 
the University of Louisiana—now medical 
department of the Tulane University of 
Louisiana. I am in hopes that the organ- 
ism recently found by my friends of the 
Charity Hospital and Emergency Hospital, 
of which very little has been written, will 
prove to be the cause. This organism is 
still swb jwdice, and I would prefer that 
they describe it, as to them is due the 
honor of discovery. I hope at last that 
the long-sought-for yellow-fever, organism 
has been found. We must wait, however, 
for more proof—the greatest of honors 
to the man or men who find it, as it has 
long been sought. The malarial patient 
is more quiet, not as alert as the yellow- 
fever one. The eyes are not watery in 
malarial patients, though they may be red. 
The yellow-fever eye is pink rather than 
red and watery—‘like a person who has 
been exposed to irritating smoke.’ The 
malarial eye is not so bright. The yellow- 
fever eye actually shines in the first twenty- 
four or forty-eight hours, then may get 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 585. 


dull. I think Faget’s law is quite char- 
acteristic of yellow fever, but is not cer- 
tain by any means, as charts of sstivo- 
autumnal fever do show the same want of 
correlation. A positive diagnosis can hard- 
ly be made of yellow fever to differentiate 
it from malarial fever, unless the malarial 
parasite is found; and Torti’s test with qui- 
nine is positive, when we should conclude 
that the patient had malarial fever and not 
yellow fever. Still he might get well in 
spite of the quinine or other treatment, even 
if he had yellow fever, so it is best to treat — 
sanitarily all eases of fever by screening, 
at least with a bar to protect them and 
others from mosquitoes, even if it is ma- 
larial. Bile, albumin and casts in the 
urine, so long thought characteristic of 
yellow fever, are often found in estivo- 
autumnal fever. A point which was 
brought most forcibly forward by an old 
physician of this city was this: He said in 
years gone by they did not question the 
diagnosis of yellow fever, but when an 
epidemic of fever would break out, they 
would ask one another: Does quinine break 
the fever this year? I think that is quite 
significant as to the close resemblance of 
the two fevers when it comes to clinical evi- 
dence alone, and with the means at hand 
of the older physicians—no microscopical 
Inowledge, no record of temperature. The 
only guides for them were those gained by 
inspection and taxis. The pulse, as we 
know, gives some help, but little, however, 
when these two diseases are to be diagnosti- 
cated one from the other. We have made 
but little advance, however, in our means 
of positive diagnosis. It is more positive 
as to malaria, and when the estivo- 
autumnal parasite is found the cases are 
ninety-nine in one hundred malarial, and 
quinine will cure them. I could write 
pages of symptoms, such as peculiar facial 
expression of yellow-fever patients; the 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


tongue, odor, ete, but none are at all 
reliable. 

Treatment.—In the alkaloids of Peruvian 
bark we have the specific quinine given in 
the form of the bisulphate or chlorid. The 
older form (sulphate) does not seem to 
kill so effectually or quickly this form of 
malarial parasite, because, for some reason, 
it is not absorbed; if so it may not have 
sufficient solubility to affect the parasite. 
I have been in consultation with physicians, 
and they have said that this disease can not 
be malarial, as I have given large doses of 
quinine, and the patient did not improve. 
They were giving the sulphate in capsules, 
and the patient did not absorb it. I give 
the bisulphate of quinine in capsules, and 
perforate each capsule at each end just 
before administering it. If you perforate 
the capsule some time before administer- 
ing, the quinine sifts out and the patient 
gets the bitter taste. If the stomach is so 
irritable that the quinine is rejected, then 
_ give, per rectum or hypodermically, either 

the bisulphate or the chlorid dissolved 
in sterilized water. Fifteen or twenty 
grains daily are usually sufficient, except 
in malarial coma when I give more. I 
gave as much as one hundred and twenty 
grains of the sulphate by rectum, some 
years ago, when I did not know of the 
utility of the bisulphate. When giving the 
hypodermiecs insert the needle deep into the 
thigh or arm, and abscesses are not so liable 
to oceur. Fifteen to twenty grains in 
twenty-four hours is effectual, continued 
until you can medicate by mouth. I 
usually give in the ordinary cases a simple 
purge, such as calomel and soda. followed 
by a saline purge, or simply a seidlitz 
powder, citrate of magnesia, in fact any 
purge is efficient. Then push the quinine 
in doses of fifteen or twenty grains daily 
until the fever is gone. The patient must 
be kept in bed and under the infiuence of 
an antiperiodic for at least twenty-eight 


SCIENCE. 


413 


days, or the multiple of seven, as there are 
usually four generations of parasites to get 
rid of. The diet should be liquid during 
the febrile stage (soups, milk and broths) ; 
solids should be given gradually; plenty of 
water such as vichy and other alkaline 
drinks are desirable. Mortality of this 
fever is practically nothing, if properly 
treated and cared for. If not, then you 
have a most fearful condition of affairs, 
and you can imagine yellow fever or most 
anything else. What means should be in- 
stituted by communities to prevent this 
disease from spreading? Our esteemed 
friend and collaborator, Dr. J. H. White, 


‘makes the assertion that yellow fever can 


not be introduced into a community except 
by a sick person. It is the same with this 
fever. The mosquito. in both instances 
must be infected from a person infected ; 
otherwise, its sting is simply painful for 
a few minutes and conveys no disease. Con- 
sequently quarantine against freight is use- 
less and harmful to all concerned. It is 
the sick person we must look out for; the 
infected person. 

Sanitary measures necessary to prevent 
the spread of this disease are the same as 
those for yellow fever. Screen the patient, 
destroy all mosquitoes and their breeding 
places; have no mosquitoes and we will 
have no malaria or yellow fever in our 
midst. When making extensive improve- 
ments either in a city or country, observe 
this well, as it is very important from a 
sanitary standpoint. In these improve- 
ments the previously existing drainage 
natural in the country, artificial in cities, is 
usually interfered with and stagnant water 
accumulates and mosquitoes breed. There- 
fore, see that no still or stagnant water 
exists. The greatest friend we have is the 
little minnow, the top minnow or Gambusia 
affims. This little creature abounds in 
nearly all southern states, and is one of the 
greatest enemies to the mosquito, so cherish 


414 


them and have them in ponds or undrain- 
able accumulations of water. Screen your 
cisterns, or water tanks; salt your gutters, 
as was done by Dr. J. H. White, in this 
city last summer. ‘Two and one half per 
cent. solution is sufficient, or oil them with 
kerosene as has been suggested and done by 
Dr. L. O. Howard. Both methods are ex- 
tremely successful as I have seen in this 
city during the past summer. It was 
thought by our citizens that we could not 
get rid of mosquitoes, but it was certainly 
done by Dr. J. H. White and the citizens 
of this city. The past summer was the 
first summer that I can remember having 
slept without a mosquito bar, and many 
thousands in this city can say the same. 
The Stegomyia colopus, which is the cor- 
rect name, as I am lately informed by Dr. 
L. O. Howard, was hard to find after the 
measures were adopted. I had hard work 
to find them for experimental work; before 
this summer I could go into any house, 
and get all I wanted. I tried in every 
way to see if I could get larve by the 
usual method of placing uncovered recep- 
tacles holding water, and for two months 
no larve appeared. I have not seen any 
stegomyia in my house since the screening 
and work done for their extermination. 
The anopheles mosquito, or malarial mos- 
quito, breeds in the swamps or large ponds 
where there are no minnows or fish; so, 
drain, fill, stock them with numerous fish, 
salt or oil them. 

The destruction of infected mosquitoes 
in homes, ships, ete., is best done by 
culicides. Sulphur kills them and other 
insects, but is so destructive to things such 
as furniture, delicate fabrics, ete. that 
people will not use it; pyrethrum is expen- 
sive and does not kill; it simply stupefies. 
Dr. J. H. White, knowing these difficulties, 
appointed a committee to investigate eculi- 
cides. This committee was composed of 
the following members: Dr. J. H. White, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 585. 


president; Dr. Rupert Boyce, vice-presi- 
dent; Dr. Donald Currey, Dr. W. H. Per- 
kins, purveyors; Dr. Q@. Kohnke, Dr. H. 
A. Veazie, secretaries. 

The committee, after trying various sub- 
stances, tried the eculicide of Mr. J. C. 
Mims, the analytical chemist of this city, 
and chemist to the city board of health. 
This culicide was first used by him to kill 
mosquitoes, after years of experimenting 
with various substances. He tried equal 
quantities of gum camphor and erystallized 
earbolie acid, and found that it was most 
effectual as a culicide, and I am quite cer- 
tain it is a most excellent germicide, as it 
should be theoretically and as has been 
shown in some recent experiments. This 
eulicide is made of equal quantities by 
weight of carbolic acid and gum camphor; 
the erystals of the carbolic acid being 


‘melted by gentle heat and poured over the 


camphor, and the clear liquid colored blue, 
by methylene blue, simply for safety’s sake, 
and the liquid volatilized by heat. The 
vapors kill all insects, mosquitoes most ef- 
fectually, and destroy or injure nothing 
whatsoever except animate things. This 
eulicide and disinfectant was used most 
extensively last summer in the most ele- 
gant houses, Pullman ears and ships with 
the most satisfactory results. Every im- 
aginable insect, such as mosquitoes, flies, 
roaches, ete., was killed by it, and nothing 
whatsoever, except living things, injured. 
The expense of this culicide is between 
that of sulphur and pyrethrum. It is 
far better than either. It is safe when 
properly used, and kills insects from the 
top of the room to the floor, when used in 
proper quantities, three ounces to the thou- 
sand eubic feet. All broken panes of glass 
must be covered and pasted, ventilations 
closed, and fireplaces of room closed up so 
that none of the vapor escapes. The only 
trouble was that connected with generators, 
which had to be effectual and safe, as the 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


liquid is somewhat inflammable but not 
explosive. 

I have constructed a generator which 
answers all purposes and is safe. I am in 
hopes of having them made in quantities, so 
that if necessary, this culicide can be used 
extensively. It is absolutely certain that 
this culicide and disinfectant injures noth- 
ing but living things—the most delicate 
fabries, metals, ete. I would be pleased to 
give any information to any one as to its 
efficiency. Kor lack of time, I ean not 
speak further of this most wonderful agent. 

I thank you all for your kind attention. 


Wituiam J. GIES, 
Secretary. 


SECTION B—PHYSIOS. 

THE annual meeting of Section B, Phys- 
ies, of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, was held in the 
Physical Laboratory of Tulane University, 
in New Orleans, on December 29 and 30, 
1905, and on January 1, 1906. The pre- 
siding officer was the vice-president of Sec- 
tion B, Professor Henry Crew, of North- 
western University. The other officers in 
attendance were the retiring vice-president, 
W. F. Magie; the secretary, D. C. Miller; 
member of the council (no election) ; mem- 
ber of the general committee, H. T. Eddy; 
members of the sectional committee, Henry 


Crew, W. F. Magie, D. C. Miller, A. Trow- 


bridge (elected at this meeting to serve for 
five years), H. L. Nichols and EF. E. Nipher; 
press secretary, J. R. Benton. 

It was decided by the general committee 
that the next annual meeting would be held 
in New York City in convocation week, 
1906-7; and that those sections desiring 
to do so might hold a summer meeting in 
Ithaca in the latter part of June. The 
desirability of such a meeting for Section 
B will be determined by letter ballot. The 
presiding officer for these meetings will be 


SCIENCE. 


415 


the vice-president elect, Professor W. C. 
Sabine, of Harvard University. The other 
officers for these meetings, so far as now 
determined, are: 

Retiring Vice-President—Henry Crew. 

Members of the Sectional Committee—W. C. 
Sabine, Henry Crew, D. C. Miller, A. G. Webster, 
G. F. Hull, F. E. Nipher, E. L. Nichols, A. Trow- 
bridge. 

Secretary—Dayton C. Miller, Case School of 
Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. 


On December 31 the retiring vice-presi- 
dent, Professor W. F. Magie, of Princeton 
University, gave a most interesting address 
on ‘The Partition of Energy’; this address 
was printed in full in Scrmnce for Feb- 
ruary 2, 1906. 

Because of mutual interest in the papers 
offered in Sections B and D, and because 
the programs were short, two joint sessions 
of these sections were held. The program 
of papers presented is given below, with 
abstracts of all but one of those belonging to 
Section B; the abstracts of the other papers 
will be given in the report of the secretary 
of Section D. There was ample time for 
full discussion of the papers, and advantage 
was taken of this opportunity, adding much 
to the enjoyment of those attending. 

Although the attendance was small 
(there were about thirty-five present at 
each meeting), yet the quality of the meet- 
ings in every respect was quite up to the 
average, and all were unanimous in ex- 
pressing the opinion that the sessions had 
been both profitable and enjoyable. Ex- 
cursions to the pumping and drainage sta- 
tions, to a sugar plantation and mill and 
to a sugar refinery, as well as the miscel- 
laneous attractions peculiar to New Orleans 
as a city, were greatly enjoyed by those in 
attendance. 


An Experiment on Easterly Deviation Be- 
neath the Harth’s Surface: F. W. Mac- 
Natr, Michigan College of Mines. 


416 


During the investigation of the cause of 
divergence of long plumb lines hung in 
the No. 5 shaft of the Tamarack Mine’ 
attention was drawn to the old Cornish 
method of plumbing a shaft by dropping 
a spherical shot, the vertical beimg assumed 
as the line joming the point of suspension 


with the point of striking at the bottom. 


A rough ealeulation of the probable easterly 
deviation which might be expected of a 
body dropping from surface to the foot of 
the lines, forty-two hundred feet, led to the 
announcement that it was in the neighbor- 
hood of four feet. This is obtained by 
taking the difference in velocity between 
points on the two cylinders about the 
earth’s axis, one including the small circle 
of latitude and the other that through the 
foot of the plumb lines, and multiplying by 
the seconds allowed for the fall. 

A deviation admitting of consistent meas- 
urement in feet was impressive enough to 
create a demand for an opportunity of wit- 
nessing it, and an experiment was devised 
to gratify this desire. It was performed 
at the close of a certain day’s ‘plumbing’ 
‘im No. 5 shaft and consisted in suspending 
a steel sphere by a thread at the collar, get- 
ting it as quiet as possible, then burning 
the thread while observers below watched 
for its striking a prepared clay bed. 

It was a little over five feet from point 
suspension of sphere east to shaft timbers. 
In a vacuum between sixteen and seventeen 
seconds would be occupied in the fall. The 
ball failed to appear at all. 

Another sphere hung in the center of the 
shaft compartment about three feet from 
the eastern timbers, when dropped, also 
failed to appear below. Afterward a 
sphere, presumably this one, was found 
lodged about eight hundred feet from sur- 


*See Screncr, Vol. XV., page 994. Also Hngi- 
neering and Mining Journal, April 26, 1902. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 585. 


face. Further experiments were not then 
feasible. 

Crude as was the whole proceeding and 
devoid of serious purpose, it yet drew the 
attention of those concerned to the possi- 
bilities offered by the deep vertical shafts 
of the copper district of Michigan for the 
investigation of easterly deviation. 

The author suggests that an accurate 
mapping of the path of a falling body be- 
neath the surface might possibly afford in- 
teresting data bearing on the distribution 
of the earth’s matter. He hopes at a sub- 
sequent time to present a properly elabo- 
rated plan of investigation of this path. 


A Device for producing an Instantaneous 
Arc at any Phase of an Alternating Cur- 
rent: Henry Crew, Northwestern Uni- 
versity. 

The essential features of this instrument 
are as follows: (1) A pair of electrodes, 
one of which has a motion of pure trans- 
lation; the other, a motion of pure rota- 
tion. (2) The rotating electrode is driven 
on the shaft of a synchronous motor. (3) 
The are is fed by the same transformer 
which drives the motor. (4) The phase of 
contact between the moving electrode and 
the fixed one is read off on a divided cirele. 

The object of this device is to obtain a 
comparatively cold (?) carbon are in the 
neighborhood of zero-phase. The region 
between the poles of a continuously oper- 
ated carbon are shows no carbon bands, in 
its spectrum, at zero phase. But a carbon 
are of the type indicated above shows the 
earbon bands at the lowest phases that can 
be examined, say, from 0° to 2°. The ex- 
planation of this difference lies probably 
in the fact that, owing to the greater heat, 
the current of the continuous are at small 
phases is carried by the ions of the metallic 
impurities; while in the discontinuous (or 
instantaneous) are the conduction is made 


- Marcu 16, 1906.] 


possible by ionization, by incandescence, of 
carbon, the incandescence being secured by 
Joule heat. 


Distribution of Gas Presswre in a Closed 
Tube Rotating on a Transverse Axis: 


Francis E. NripHer, Washington Univer- - 


sity. (To be published in the Transac- 

tions of the Academy of Science of St. 

Louis.) 

The paper is a mathematical discussion 
deducing the pressure at the axis, and 
showing that it is independent of the length 
1, and angular velocity w of the tube, if the 
velocity vol is constant. The pressure 
at any other point is also determined, in 
terms of its distance r from the axis of 
rotation. 

The pressure at the free end of the tube 
due to rotation is greater than the external 
pressure against the tube due to its mo- 
tion through the external air. If the outer 
end terminates in an L with open mouth 
exposed to the air through which it is ad- 
vancing the air within the tube is forced 
out in the teeth of the wind. If the tube 
be also opened at the axis, the air will pass 
out in a current through the open end of 
the Z at the free end of the tube. 


A New Type of Frequency Meter: A. S. 
Lanesporr, Washington University. (To 
be published in The Electrical World.) 
Section D. 


Report of Progress in Expermments on 
Ether Drift: Epwarp W. Morury and 
Dayton C. Miuusrr, Cleveland. 

At the Philadelphia meeting an account 
was given of experiments to detect ether 
drift. The observations indicated that 
there is no drift of the ether. It has been 
suggested that the negative result was due 
to the influence of the heavy stone walls 
of the building within which the apparatus 
was mounted. The interferometer has 
since been mounted on high ground near 


SCIENCE. 


417 


Cleveland and covered in such a manner 
that there is nothing but glass in the direc- 
tion of the expected drift. Observations, 
though difficult, have been made; but cold 
weather interrupted them before a definite 
conclusion had been reached. The obser- 
vations are to be completed at the first op- 
portunity in the spring of 1906. 


A Critical Analysis of Methods of Swpply- 
ing Power to Branch Telephone Ex- 
changes on the Common Battery: Karu 
Kinsuey, University of Chicago. Sec- 
tion D. 


A New Form of Mercury Still: Coarizs T. 

Knipp, University of Illinois. 

This still makes use of the mercury vapor 
lamp. In it are found, roughly, conditions 
necessary for the purification of mercury, 
such as heat by the passage of the electric 
current, and a more or less perfect vacuum. 
By fusing to the mercury vapor lamp a 
properly shaped condensing chamber, mer- 
cury of a high degree of purity may be 
obtained. The electrodes of the apparatus 
are mereury and are in communication with 
two vessels containing the supply mercury 
through narrow tubes about 80 em. long. 
The condensed mereury flows from the still 
through a long capillary delivery tube bent 
in the form of an S at its lower end. The 
action of the mereury dropping into this 
tube is that of a continuous mereury pump. 
The apparatus is initially exhausted by 
means of a power Geryk pump (or other 
equally effective pump). The are is 
started by employing a side connection as 
deseribed by Weintraub.” — 

In this form of still the rate of distilla- 
tion is about one pound per hour, and the 
cost is approximately one cent per pound. 

To test the action of the still zine amal- 
gams were used. The test for zine was 


* Phil. Mag., Vol. VII., February, 1904. 


418 


made by the electromotive force method 
recently described by Hulett and Minchin.* 

One millimeter deflection of the gal- 
vanometer corresponded approximately to 


.0005 volt. The results are given in the 

following table: 

No. Zine Distillate from Zine Defi. of 
% Amalgam, Amalgam. Galv. 
2a | 1:'700,000 — 2.17 mm. 
5 — 1: 3,000 approx. | 1.51 ‘“ 
3 es 1: 10,000 * 1.69 ‘« 

100 | 1: 370,000 a 4.00 
a — 1:1,740 aC ie 
b — 1: 1,740 —.19 ‘“ 
e pee 1: 1,740 BO! 


From the above a deflection of 1 mm. 
corresponds to the presence of zine in the 
ratio of 1:1,500,000. In numbers 5 and 3 
the degree of zine impurity was known 
only approximately, and since there was 
also present some lead and tin little weight 
should be given these results. In numbers 
a, b and c the ratio of zine to mercury was 
definitely Known. The distillate from 
this zine amalgam condensed in three sepa- 
rate condensing chambers showed prac- 
tically no trace of zine. The mercury 
against which the above was balanced in the 
test cell was carefully and repeatedly puri- 
fied by the ‘wet’ method. The degree of 
purity indicated above was altogether un- 
looked for, since the physical conditions 
in the still-temperature, vacuum, ete., are 
such as favor the vaporization of zine too, 
and hence we should naturally expect zine 
present to a more or less extent in the dis- 
tillate. The result seemingly points to a 
suppressing action exerted by the electric 
forces upon the zine ions. This phase of 
the phenomena is the subject of further 
imquiry. 


Difference wm the Coefficient of Discharge 
of Steam through a Single Orifice and 
through a Number of Orifices near Each 


5’ Phys. Rev., Vol. XXI., December, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


Other: D. 8. JAcosus, Stevens Institute 
of Technology. (To be published in the 
Transactions of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers.) Section D. 


Note on the Distribution of Energy im 
Fluorescence Spectra: Epwarp Li. NicH- 
OLS, Cornell University. 

The fluorescence spectra of solids and 
liquids are, so far as known, confined to 
the visible wave length. Observers in this 
field of optics have until very recently 
contented themselves with a description of 
the appearance of the fluorescence band or 
bands and an indication of its approximate 
limits towards the red and violet. Pro- 
fessor Merritt and the present writer have, 
however, succeeded in making spectropho- 
tometric measurements of the fluorescence 
of numerous substances and have published 
curves in which the distribution of inten- 
sities of fluorescence spectra are expressed 
in terms of the intensities of the corre- 
sponding wave lengths in the spectrum of 
the acetylene flame.* 

By means of measurements of this source 
of light made by G. W. Stewart and inde- 
pendently by W. W. Coblentz, using a 
mirror spectrometer with rock salt prism 
and a radiometer, a curve showing the dis- 
tribution of energy in the visible spectrum 
may be plotted. The writer® has published 
im a recent paper a curve based upon these 
data which gives the distribution of energy 
in the acetylene flame and has checked the 
values thus obtained by means of spectro- 
photometric comparisons between the Hef- 
ner and the acetylene flames and Ang- 
strom’s curve for the distribution of en- 
ergy in the spectrum of the Hefner flame. 

This curve makes it possible to convert 
the spectrophotometrie curves for the flu- 
orescence of any given substance into 
eurves of the distribution of energy in its 


‘Nichols and Merritt, Physical Review. 
5 Nichols, Physical Review, Vol. 21, p. 147. 


Marcy 16, 1906.] 


fluorescence spectrum and enables us to 
secure data for this distribution in the case 
of spectra the intensity of which is far too 
weak to admit of direct measurements of 
the energy. In the present paper such 
curves for four typical fluorescent solu- 
tions, sulphate of quinine in water, fluo- 
rescin, rhodamin and chlorophyll in alco- 
hol (together with the energy curves of the 
absorption spectra of these substances), are 
presented. These curves and a discussion 
of their properties will be published in the 
Physical Review. 


Conditions Which Change the Resistance 
of the Selenium Cell: F. C. Brown, Uni- 
versity of Illinois. 

The paper reviews the conditions that 
produce change in the electrical resistance 
of the selenium cell—those that produce a 
remarkable change such as is not found in 
any other element : 

Light, which changes the resistance as 
much as ten times. 

Heat, which changes the resistance al- 
most as much as does light. 

Hydrogen peroxide decreases the resist- 
ance thirty per cent. when the selenium is 
placed three em. from the surface of the 
liquid. 

Increase of E.M.F. in the circuit may de- 
crease the resistance as much as 1,000 times. 

Hydraulic pressure decreases the resist- 
ance even more than sixty per cent. The 
accompanying curves show how uniform is 
the effect of pressure. The cells used 
were, in general, patterned after those of 
Bidwell. 

In five of the curves which were shown, 
for three different cells, the pressure coeffi- 
cient is quite constant, as is shown by the 
following approximate values: 


.00103 ohms per gram pressure. 
.00105 ohms per gram pressure. 
.00120 ohms per gram pressure. 
.00109 ohms per gram pressure. 
.00107 ohms per gram pressure. 


SCIENCE. 


419 


Other conditions which produce minor 
changes of resistance according to different 
investigators are: X-rays, radium rays, 
Hertzian waves, ozone treated caoutchoue.. 

The following data for one of the selen- 
ium cells at low temperatures seem to 
show that the resistance is not much dif- 
ferent from ordinary room temperatures, 
and that the sensitiveness to light is about 
three times as great: 


Resistance—ohms. Temperature 16 c.p. lamp 8 em. 
deg. Cent. from cell. 

86,000....... 1G tae eee oft 

825000 Fee —— 160!) bende off 

NOOO>s 20000 == (O04) sgccouc off, room darkened 
MNOS Moose soar Usa beers Sener off 

JOIN, soon 6a ie hafceeactate es off 

Va OOOR eee vtaestece eee tetD off 

114,000... —58 to —60.8... off 

PLANO. 5 000. pa ite} aria electors on 

WAADOOs sachoe bie cidioticatco on after 2 min 
WH AOOe s osn56 Sania arma. on after 4 min 
IBSANO sob co6 Sf acer pao on after 6 min 
TOO scoss0c 2 Mae eis on after 8 min 
155600 Ree == 16 onic off 

25,600....... al Meercetercicl a off after 1 min. 
26,800....... Ry, ved oat off after 5 min. 
28,400....... Goo mo maeeo off after 7 min. 
32.00 0ne eee Uh revetment BD off after 17 min. 
SEONG scacac TN eysertiatcree off after 19 min. 
45,000....... SO ee aati care off after 45 min. 
Mo O00 Renae —— al () ier etapeusisicis off after 55 min. 
119,000..... roomtem. ...... off after 5 hrs. 


Those conditions which decrease the re- 
sistance very much probably do so for the 
same reason. 

The theory that has been most generally 
accepted as to the cause of decrease of re- 
sistance, is that of Bidwell. He said that 
it was due to a selenide which was found 
more or less in every selenium eell, and 
which made the cell a better conductor 
when the light fell upon it. Up to the 
present time, we are not at all assured that 
a selenide plays any important part. 

Another theory has been given, namely, 
that light produces erystallization, and 
since some kinds of crystals conduct better 


420 


than others, the change of resistance is 
due to the formation of crystals in unstable 
equilibrium. 

Another theory is that in the selenium 
cell there is a form of selenium called met- 
allic, which conducts electricity well and 
which is a sort of solution with the non- 
conducting selenium. Light causes the 
metallic selenium to make better contact 
and thereby reduces the resistance. 

As selenium has a coefficient of expansion 
about five times that of ordinary metals, 
the author was led to the study of pres- 
sure effect, thinking that the change of 
resistance might be due to contact differ- 
ences. But this is, at present, only a 
theory. 


Elastic After-effects im Crystals: J. R. 
Brenton, Geophysical Laboratory of the 
Carnegie Institution. 

The elastic properties of solid bodies 
vary with different specimens of the same 
substance, and in the same specimen when 
it is subjected to varying preliminary treat- 
ment. There is reason to believe that the dis- 
erepancies are due to irregularity of struc- 
ture, such as is known to exist in metals 
and many other solids. If this explanation 
is correct, there should be no irregularity 
in the elastic behavior of single crystals. 
To test this, experiments were planned for 
observing the elastic after-effect, elastic 
liysteresis and permanent set, in erystals. 
The present paper describes the first part 
of these experiments, which deals with 
elastic after-effect. | Observations were 
made on the torsion of mica, and on the 
flexure of selenite, kunzite and rutile; they 
show that the elastic after-effect is not en- 
tirely absent, as was hoped would be the 
case, but is very small as compared with 
that in most solids. The reason why it ap- 
pears at all probably lies in the fact that 
absolutely perfect crystals can not be se- 
cured for the experiments. 


SCIENCE. 


nee 4 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


The Percentage Bridge: A. C. LonepEn, 

Knox College. 

Five or six years ago, a paper entitled 
“A Percentage Bridge’ was presented to 
the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, and also to the American 
Institute of Hlectrical Engineers, by Mr. 
H. C. Parker, of Columbia University. 

The instrument as deseribed by Mr. 
Parker is essentially a four-gap slide wire 
bridge in which the two inner gaps are 
used for the comparison of resistances, and 
the auxiliary resistances in the outer or 
end gaps have such a relation to the resist- 
ance of the bridge wire that a change of a 
hundredth of one per cent. in the ratio of 
R, to R, shall produce a change of one 
millimeter in the position of the balancing 
point on the bridge wire. The test coil, 
however, is not balanced directly against 
the standard, but one of the resistance gaps, 
R,, for example, is used as a substitution 
gap, and a standard resistance in this gap 
is balanced against a resistance approxi- 
mately equal to it, and then the test coil is 
substituted for the standard and the bridge 
is again balanced. ‘The distance in milli- 
meters on the bridge wire between the two 
balancing points indicates the difference be- 
tween. the two coils in hundredths of one 
per cent. 

This method seems to have a number of 
real advantages over the Carey Foster 
method for comparing standard resistances. 

The simplicity of the percentage method 
is greatly in its favor and ought at least 
to entitle it to serious consideration. It 
does not eliminate the resistance of the end 
connections, nor does it necessarily make 
them so small as to be negligible, but it 
makes the total value of the end resistances 
so large that even if they differ by a hun- 
dredth of an ohm, the error in the result 
will only be one part in twenty million! 

A mereury commutator is suggested for 


Marcn 16, 1906.] 


substituting one coil for another in the per- 
centage bridge, which is less complicated 
than the Carey Foster commutator. 

The most serious disadvantage of the 
percentage method is pointed out and a 
remedy suggested. 

The percentage bridge is an instrument 
of great simplicity, great sensitiveness and 
relatively great range; and one in which 
the standard resistances are automatically 
protected from heavy currents. It is not 
only a very superior instrument for the 
comparison of standard resistances, but one 
which lends itself admirably to a variety 
of special purposes, such as calibrating 
rheostats, determining temperature coeffi- 
cients, ete. 


Priming Caused by Poor Circulation in a 
Bower: D. S. JaAcosus, Stevens Institute 
of Technology. Section D. 


Dual Degree for Engineering Courses: 
P. C. Nucent, University of Syracuse. 
Section D. 


Panama: Discussion of Present Conditions 
and the Prospect: F. Li. Waupo.  Sec- 
tion D. 


Panama: A Sea-Level Canal: W. R. 
Warner, Cleveland. Section D. 
Dayton C. Mitusr, 


Secretary. 


THE SOCIETY FOR PLANT MORPHOLOGY 
AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

THe ninth annual meeting of this so- 
ciety was held, in conjunction with the 
meetings of the Western Branch of the 
American Society of Naturalists and the 
Affiliated Scientific Societies, at the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 
December 27, 28, 29, 1905, under the presi- 
dency of Professor EH. C. Jeffrey. Though 
small in point of numbers, the meeting was 
otherwise one of great profit and enjoyment. 


SCIENCE. 


421 


In effect it was a joint meeting with the 
Botanists of the Central States, for this so- 
ciety held sessions only in the mornings 
and the Botanists of the Central States 
only in the afternoons, each society attend- 
ing the sessions of the other. The new 
members elected were Messrs. Mel. T. Cook, 
of the Agricultural Experiment Station of 
Cuba, Raymond H. Pond, of Northwestern 
University, and W. W. Stockberger, of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. 
The society voted to accept the constitution 
recommended by its committee on union of 
botanical societies in ease it is accepted by 
the Botanical Society of America and the 
American Mycological Society, and on this 
basis to unite with those societies into a 
single new society to be called the Botanial 
Society of America. Pending the action 
of the other societies no new officers were 
elected, but the officers of this meeting were 
continued until the union of societies should 
be effected, or until the next annual meet- 
ing, with authority to perfect all details of 
the union. The address of the president, 
entitled ‘Morphology and Phylogeny’ has 
appeared in full in Sctmence. ‘The society 
expressed by a special vote its great ap- 
preciation and thanks for the gracious 
hospitality of the university, and for the 
admirable arrangements of the local com- 
mittee, which contributed so much to the 
interest and success of the meeting. 

Since the Ann Arbor meeting the Botan- 
ical Society of America and the American 
Mycclogical Society, at their meetings at 
New Orleans, have taken action with re- 
spect to a union of botanical societies sim- 
ilar to that taken by this society at Ann 
Arbor. Accordingly a union of these three 
societies into a single society of the widest 
scope has been agreed upon and is expected 
to be brought into effect during the present 
year. The Ann Arbor meeting, therefore, 
was the last to be held by this society 


422 


separately; next year it will meet in New 
York, as part of the new society. 

The papers presented before the meeting 
were the following. All were presented 
in full and discussed. The abstracts are 
by the authors. 

The Induction of New Species: Dr. D. T. 

MacDoueau, Carnegie Institution. 

The author deseribed some experimental 
researches by which forms, potentially new 
species, were secured as a result of chemical 
and osmotic action exerted on unfertilized 
ovules. Solutions were injected into the 
ovaries of Raimannia immediately previous 
to pollination and fertilization, which then 
apparently ensued in a normal manner. 
Among the seeds secured were a number 
which produced plantlets, differing from 
the normal, or typical of the species, nota- 
bly in physiological qualities and general 
anatomy. Some of the atypical derivatives 
thus secured had come to maturity and 
produced seeds, and are to be considered as 
mutants of the parental type. ‘The series 
of experiments demonstrates conclusively 
that factors external to the protoplast may 
exert a profound influence upon its heredi- 
tary characters, and call out qualities not 
hitherto exhibited externally by the line of 
descent affected. 

The author had not yet succeeded in 
analyzing the manner in which the treat- 
ment described had infiuenced the normal 
activity of the embryonic cells, but sug- 
gested that the readiest explanation lay in 
the suggestion that the externally applied 
reagents had interfered with the normal 
course of the succession of the enzymes 
during the stages immediately preceding 
ege-formation, and also that the results 
were indicative of unequal influence upon 
individualized chromosomes. 

Some Factors Concerned in Color Produc- 

tion in a Species of Fusarium: Dr. J. B. 

Pouiock, University of Michigan. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


The species of Fusarium used was ob- 
tained from the eut ends of Indian corn 
stubble, in autumn. One of its characters 
is the bright salmon-pink color usually 
found under natural conditions. This 
eolor also develops on many artificial 
media, under proper conditions. Among 
the conditions necessary for its develop- 
ment, direct sunlight, or at least strong 
light, is of primary importance. Diffuse 
light is scarcely any better than complete 
darkness. In absence of light only a pale 
cream color is produced, generally without 
the faintest tinge of red. . 

Cultures removed from diffuse light to 
direct sunlight showed a marked develop- 
ment of color within five hours. 

Moisture also has a considerable influence 
on the development of color. The moister 
the medium the less the color shows, but 
even submerged in a liquid medium there 
may be some color produced in light. Be- 
sides light and moisture, the composition 
of the medium also influences the produc- 
tion of the red color. Under similar con- 
ditions of light and moisture, after seven 
days’ growth, the red color was very pale 
on cornstarch, while on carrot, hubbard 
squash and cornmeal the color was between 
roseous and testaceous of Sacecardo’s color 
chart; on apple, onion and potato it was 
almost exactly ochraceous, on wheat flour 
it was slightly paler than orange, and on 
buckwheat flour it was darkest red, slightly 
redder than testaceous. 

On raw dahlia tubers the growth be- 
comes bright red, but if they are steamed 
in the autoclave almost no red color is pro- 
duced even in the light. Also on steamed 
dahlia tubers the fungus produces a green 
color, and this was produced on no other 
medium used. All the soft tissue of the 
medium turns green, and on some cultures 
the fungus growth above the surface is 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


green also. The green color is produced 
in both light and darkness. 


The Traumatic Reactions of Living and 
Extinct Araucarians: Professor HE. C. 
JEFFREY, Harvard University. 

Among the Abietineze Abies and its allies, 
although possessing normally no resin 
canals in the secondary wood, form trau- 
matic resin canals as the result of injury. 
The presence of resin canals as a constant 
and normal feature of the first woody ring 
of the root in Abies, ete., as well as their 
oceasional occurrence in the first annual 
ring of the vegetative and reproductive 
branches of the stem, leads to the inference 
that the traumatic resin canals of the 
abietoid Abietines are a reversionary fea- 
ture. The examination of a considerable 
number of species of the living aracaurian 
genera Dammara (Agathis) and Araucaria 
has resulted in the conclusion that the liv- 
ing Araucarinee do not produce traumatic 
resin canals. The present author has been 
able to extend this conclusion to certain ex- 
tinet Araucarians from the Cretaceous beds 
genera Dammara (Agathis) and Araucaria 
oxyla of the Cretaceous beds of the eastern 
United States, however, show a very differ- 
ent wound reaction from that found in 
Agathis and Araucaria, for they form 
traumatic resin canals very abundantly as 
a result of jury. These occur in the 
usual tangential rows characteristic of 
traumatic canals and contain mucilage as 
well as resin, as is commonly the case in the 
cortical resin-canals of the living Arau- 
earner. The Araucarioxzyla which react 
in this way are characterized by the small 
size of their tracheids and the complete 
absence of the resin-eontaining elements, 
which are found in the wood of living 
Araucariner. There is good reason to be- 
lieve that these Araucariozyla are the wood 
of Brachyphyllum Broneniart, which thus 


SCIENCE. 


423 


takes its place among the Araucarinee and 
in that most ancient group, which includes 
Walchia, Ullmannia, Pagiophyllum, ete. 
Traumatic resin canals have been found in 
araucarioxylous material from the Raritan 
formation of Staten Island, from Martha’s 
Vineyard and from the much older deposits 
of the Potomae. The writer is of the 
opinion that these facts will turn out to 
be of considerable phylogenetic significance. 


Some Experments in the Control of 
Color in Plants: Dr. Hpnry Kramer, 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. 

In a paper presented to this society a 
year ago the author gave the results of 
some morphological and chemical studies 
on the color substances of plants. An ex- 
amination of a large number of the un- 
organized or eell-sap color substances 
showed that they readily react with various 
chemicals, a marked change in color being 
produced in many instances. For example, 
the majority of plant-color substances turn 
green with calcium hydrate, deep red with 
organic acids, rich purple with potassium 
and aluminum sulphate, and blue with fer- 
rous sulphate. While the color substances 
in plants are considered to be in the nature 
of metabolic products, still it is likely that 
the various tints and shades are due to cer- 
tain associated substances, as organic acids, 
phosphates, calcium salts, ete. 

It has been repeatedly observed in the 
study of certain chromogenic bacteria that 
the intensity of the pigment is dependent 
in great measure upon the nutrient media 
used. The addition of chemicals like mag- 
nesium sulphate, potassium phosphate and 
grape sugar, is found to be necessary for 
the development of the pigment. Overton 
found some years ago that by feeding cer- 
tain plants with glucose there was an in- 
erease in the red coloration of the leaves. 
Katie has recently published some cbserva- 


A424 


tions on this subject. He has fed plants 
with cane sugar, potassium, calcium and 
magnesium salts, and reports that he has 
obtained positive results. He, however, 
adds that other factors must be taken into 
consideration, as the presence of oxygen, ex- 
posure to light and the maintenance of a 
certain temperature. 

Certain more or less fanciful notions have 
heretofore prevailed with regard to the in- 
fluence of chemicals on the color of flowers. 
The blue-flowered form of Viola lutea has 
been supposed to owe its color to the pres- 
ence of zine in the soil. The blue color in 
flowers of hydrangea has been attributed to 
the presence of an excess of iron or alum in 
the soil, and it is a common practise among 
rose growers to treat the soil with a solution 
of ferrous sulphate for intensifying the 
color of red roses. 

About November 1, 1904, through the 
courtesy of Dr. George T. Moore, the au- 
thor began a series of experiments in the 
greenhouses of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture at Washington, for the purpose 
of determining the effects of certain chem- 
icals on the color principles of plants. The 
plants selected for study were carnations, 
roses and pansies. The followimg chemicals 
were used: Aluminum and potassium sul- 
phate, aluminum phosphate, aluminum 
sulphate, aluminum and ammonium sul- 
phate, iron and ammonium sulphate, iron 
citrate, iron salicylate, iron malate, iron 
succinate, ferrous sulphate, potassium 
eyanide, potassium hydrate, potassium ni- 
trate, potassium iodide, water of ammonia, 
ammonium nitrate, acetic acid, citric acid, 
formic acid, malic acid, salicylic acid, phos- 
phorie acid, sulphuric acid and iodine. 

The work thus far must be regarded as 
more or less preliminary, as the experiments 
showed that it is necessary to establish 
control conditions in order to determine 
the effects of the chemicals supplied, apart 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


from other factors. Some effects have al- 
ready been noted, but these could perhaps 
be ascribed to other factors than the chem- 
icals used. For instance, in the case of La 
France roses the petals became of a uni- 
form pink color when the plants were sup- 
plied with iron citrate and citric acid. 
Maroon roses became dark red when the 
plants were supplied with phosphoric acid, 
iron and ammonium sulphate or sulphuric 
acid. In fact, the color of the maroon roses 
approached that of the crimson roses when 
treated with sulphuric acid, and they also 
tended to singleness. 


Channels of Entrance and Types of Move- 
ment in Bacterial Diseases of Plants: 
Dr. Erwin F. Sirs, United States De- 
partment of Agriculture. 

Using the blackboard for purposes of 
illustration, the speaker discussed the 
various ways in which bacteria enter the 
living plant, viz., through wounds and 
through natural openings. The question 
whether there is ever any entrance of the 
bacteria except through tissues injured by 
other causes was also discussed. It is still, 
perhaps, a matter of doubt whether in case 
of certain stomatal infections which take 
place when drops of water stand on the 
plant for a long time, there may not be 
suffocation of a few cells in the substomatie 
chamber prior to the multiplication of the 
bacteria. Such, however, does not appear 
to be the ease, and certainly in water-pores, 
where the tissues are accustomed to be 
bathed in excess of water an infection con- 
ditioned exclusively on preliminary suffo- 
cation would seem to be improbable. The 
writer obtaimed rather promptly, viz., 
within a few days, numerous small, round, 
dead spots on cotton leaves sprayed under 
tents with water and then with pure cul- 
tures of Bacterium malvacearum. But 
these spots, which he regards as genuine 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


suffocation spots, did not enlarge much, 
did not contain any organisms, and bore 
no relation whatever to the genuine bac- 
terial infection spots which appeared in 
great numbers some weeks later on these 
same plants, and passed through the typical 
stages of the angular leaf-spot. The au- 
thor has since learned from Mr. W. A. 
Orton that similar sterile spots occur nat- 
urally on cottons in the field in rainy sea- 
sons. Attention was then called to the 
various mechanical obstacles which the 
bacteria meet with in the plant, and the 
methods by which these are overcome, to 
wit, by growth: (1) through vessels; (2) 
through parenchymatic tissues by way of 
the intercellular spaces, with the eventual 
formation of cavities; and (3) from cell 
to cell without the primary occupation of 
the intercellular spaces. The transpiration 
stream appears to have little to do directly 
with the movement of bacteria in the stems 
of diseased plants. It appears to be made 
out with reasonable certainty that in some 
cases bacteria pass from cell to cell through 
pits or thin places without crushing the 
cell-wall or dissolving any great portion of 
it. Such would seem to be the manner of 
movement of Bacillus amylovorus in some 
tissues of the pear. The writer spoke of 
the fact that new leaf-spot diseases due to 
bacteria are constantly turning up, the 
latest one being a disease of the Gloire de 
Loraine begonia, cultivated in hothouses 
for winter blooming. Some observations 
were also detailed respecting the curious 
distribution of starch in young potato 
tubers diseased by Bacterium solanacearum. 
This organism, as is well known, has very 
little diastasic action on potato starch. The 
irregular distribution of the starch in such 
tubers seems to point, therefore, not to a 
solution of starch grains already laid down 
in the amyliferous tissue, but to the paral- 
ysis or death (by enzymic action or other- 


SCIENCE. 


425 


wise) of considerable areas of tissue sur- 
rounding the bacterial foci, so that it is 
impossible for the plant to lay down starch 
in such cells. Sections of such tubers from 
paraffin infiltrated material show the starch- 
less areas to be roughly proportionate to 
the size of the central bacterial focus; if 
this is large, 7. e., of some age, there will 
be a correspondingly large area of the sur- 
rounding tissue which is destitute of starch 
grains or which bears them only in oc- 
casional cells. If the bacterial focus is a 
small one, the area destitute of starch will 
be correspondingly reduced in size. In 
tubers infected after they have reached a 
greater age the starch grains are present, 
and even in the center of a bacterial focus 
remain undissolved, and, so far as can be 
determined microscopically, are not cor- 
roded even on their margins by the action- 
of the organism. 

Report from the Committee on the College 
Entrance Option: Presented by Pro- 
fessor W. F. Ganone, Smith College. 
A committee of the Society for Plant 

Morphology and Physiology, the present 

members of which are Professors W. F. 

Ganong and F. EH. Lloyd, was appointed 

in 1900 to formulate a college entrance op- 

tion in botany. The committee has pub- 
lished three reports, well known to mem- 
bers; and the course there formulated, based 
upon earlier educational reports and the 
approval of a large number of the prom- 
inent teachers of botany throughout the 
country, has been adopted by the college 
entrance examination board and by a large 
number of schools. The committee had 
been continued as a standing committee of 
the society with instructions to keep the 
option in touch with educational advance, 
and from time to time to report such 
alterations as may seem desirable. In the 
present report the committee stated that 
it had been gathering evidence as far as 


426 


possible upon the working of the option. 
The only serious criticism that has devel- 
oped has been with reference to the number 
of topics, which has been found by most 
teachers to be too great for the time the 
option is supposed to take (one year). The 
committee accordingly recommended the 
omission of certain minor topies which will 
render it about one tenth shorter than at 
present, and improvements in certain minor 
details. These changes will soon be pub- 
lished in the Plant World, and will be laid 
before the college entrance examination 
board. The committee also called attention 
to the fact that although many schools now 
offer this full-year course in botany, com- 
paratively few students take the college 
entrance board examination in that subject. 
This is obviously due to the fact that few 
colleges as yet include a year course of 
botany among their entrance options, and 
this, no doubt, largely because the existence 
of a definite highly-graded course in that 
subject has not yet been brought officially 
to the attention of the authorities. The 
recommendation was made by the committee 
that the members of the society who are 
teachers should at least make sure that the 
matter is not going by default in their own 
institutions. 


The Formation of Yetraspores in Grif- 
fithsia: Professor D. S. JoHNSON and 
Mr. I. F. Lewis, Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity. 

The tetrasporangia are borne in whorls 
at the junction of two cells of the thallus. 
Hach tetrasporangium rudiment arises as 
a papilla-like outgrowth from the apical 
region of the cell of the thallus. By a 
horizontal division this outgrowth gives 
rise to two cells, a basal stalk cell and a 
terminal tetrasporangium. The tetraspo- 
rangial cell increases in size and the nu- 
cleus divides into two, then into four, the 
ruclei lying peripherally in the cell. The 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 585. 


nuclei then travel toward the center of the 
cell, and simultaneously partitions grow in 
from the periphery. The four nuclei lie in 
a central mass of rather dense cytoplasm, 
the partitions just reaching the outer bor- 
der of the central mass. In this condition 
the tetrasporangium is shed, the actual 
separation of spores taking place in the 
water. 


The Curly Top or Western Blight of the 
Sugar Beet: Dr. C. O. TowNsEND, United 
States Department of Agriculture. 

This paper consisted of a discussion of 
twenty-three theories that have been in- 
vestigated during the past five years, rela- 
tive to the cause of the curly top or western 
blight of the sugar beet. The theories dis- 
cussed included parasites, unfavorable soil, 
climatic and cultural conditions, inherent 
tendencies in the plant toward the disease, 
and a weakened condition of the plant due 


.to poor seed. None of the theories investi- 


gated gave positive results in regard to the 
cause of the disease under the conditions 
in which the experiments were conducted. — 
The bacterial theory has probably received 

more attention than any other possible 
cause of this disease, but the results thus 
far indicate that none of the organisms 
isolated are the sole cause of curly top. In 
some localities the disease is accompanied 
by insects so persistently that at first sight 
they seem to be the cause of the trouble, 
but their almost total absence from other 
badly diseased fields throws considerable 
doubt on this theory. The fact that a 
parasitic fungus was found in the tissues 
of the roots in several microscopic sections 
eut from diseased plants, points to this 
theory as one that needs further investiga- 
tion. However, inoculations made with 
this fungus in healthy plants in the field 
and in the greenhouse have not produced 
the disease under the conditions employed. 
It is possible that a combination of un- 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


favorable conditions is necessary to pro- 
duce the curly top. The most important 
practical result obtained so far in the 
study of the disease is the fact that it does 
not usually attack beets in the same locality 
or even in the same field two years in suc- 
cession. 

About twenty lantern slides were used 
to illustrate the paper. 

Distribution of Upland Plants near Ann 
Arbor: Dr. G. P. Burns, University of 
Michigan. 

The physical features of the country 
around Ann Arbor are largely the result 
of glaciation. The region is made up of 
morainal ridges between which are nu- 
merous valleys. In some cases the depres- 
sion forms a ‘pot-hole.’ These are filled 
with swamp or bog flora. 

The soil conditions vary as much as the 
topography. The glacial deposits are dif- 
ferent in various parts of the same section. 

large contour maps were made and on 
them the exact locations of the various 
plant societies plotted. These maps show 
that our hills are covered with hydrophytic 
and mesophytic as well as xerophytic 
plants. 

The factor of greatest importance in de- 
termining the distribution of upland plants 
in this region is the position of the im- 
pervious layer. 

Demonstration of the Geotropic Sensitive- 
ness of the Elongating Zone of Roots: 
Professor F. C. Newcomssr, University 
of Michigan. 

The well-known work of Czapek claimed 
to demonstrate the limitation of the per- 
ception of gravitation to the apical 1.5 mm. 
of the root-tip. The present report was 
divided into two parts, (1) arguing that 
Czapek had neglected to take account of 
the inherent tendency of roots to crow 
straight, and hence had failed to prove the 
localization of geotropic sensitiveness; and 
(2) exhibiting a preparation of twelve 


SCIENCE. 


427 


seedlings of Vicia faba that had just been 
removed from a centrifuge revolving for 
six hours with a speed about four times the 
acceleration of gravitation. From each 
root 3 mm. of the tip had been removed 
six hours before, and yet all but one of the 
roots showed distinct outward curves, the 
bends being within 2 to 4 mm. of the ends 
of the roots. 

There seems no escape from the conelu- 
sion that the elongating zone is sensitive to 
gravitation. 

On the Erroneous Physiology of Elemen- 
tary Botanical Text-books: Professor W. 
F. GANONG, Smith College. 

The author pointed out that the recent 
simplification of methods and appliances 
of plant physiology accompanying its ex- 
tension into elementary education, while 
admirable in some respects, had often 
resulted in crude, slipshod and _ illogical 
apparatus manipulation and reasoning. 
Various examples of erroneous experi- 
ments current in the elementary text-books, 
especially connected with photosynthesis, 
root-absorption and transpiration, were de- 
seribed. These errors have arisen partly 
from a neglect of control experiment, 
partly from a too-great reverence for the 
authority of very fallible leaders in sim- 
plification. The remedy is to be found in 
the application to elementary experiment- 
ing of the same logical and control methods 
we should use for investigation, in concen- 
tration upon a few important experiments 
rather than in spreading over many of a 
more showy type, and in the use of more 
exact and workman-like apparatus which 
it is often more economical to buy than to 
make. The paper will soon appear in 
School Science and Mathematics. 

The Growth-energy of Trees as Measured 
by the Bands of the Common Bagworm: 
Dr. HERMANN VON SCHRENK, United 
States Department of Agriculture. 

The common bagworm (Thyridopterix 


428 


ephemereformis) weaves a band of silk 
around the smaller twigs of many trees 
about the beginning of September. The 
cocoons remain on the trees over winter 
and in the great majority of cases drop to 
the ground in May or June of the following 
year, because the bands which hold them 
are torn as the twig imereases in diameter. 
Now and then, however, the bands are so 
strong that they act as a ligature, causing 
the swelling of the tissues on one or both 
sides of the band. The swellings on the 
upper and lower sides usually joi after 
several years, imbedding the band com- 
pletely. Swellings were described and 
shown on soft maple, sycamore, red gum, 
oak, Virginia pine, sassafras, red cedar, 
arbor-vite, apple, robinia, deodar cedar, 
willow, cottonwood, cypress. 

Several hundred bands were broken to 
test their strength, and the radial pressure 
which they exerted on the twig was calcu- 
lated. As most of the bands are broken by 
the growth of the twigs every year, these 
bands were taken as a measure of the en- 
ergy exerted by the twig. The pressure 
necessary to break them was determined to 
be about 35-45 atmospheres per square 
millimeter. Under pressures of 20-30 at- 
mospheres the cambium still forms wood 
cells, which differ from the normal wood in 
having thicker walls, and a smaller lumen. 
A smaller number of vessels are formed. 
The results are considered as preliminary 
and more extended data were promised. 


W. EF. GANONG, 


Secretary. 
NorTHAMPTON, MAss. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Allgemeine Biologie. Zweite Auflage des 


Lehrbuchs ‘Die Zelle und die Gewebe.’ 
Von Oscar Hertwic. Pp. 649, mit 371 
Abbildungen im Text. Jena, Gustav 
Fischer. 1906. 


This book is a second edition of ‘ Die Zelle 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 585. 


und die Gewebe,’ which originally appeared 
in two parts, the first dealing with the general 
morphology and physiology of the cell, in 
1892, and the second dealing with the cell in 
heredity and development, in 1898. Since 
the publication of the first part fourteen years 
have elapsed, and eight years since the pub- 
lication of part two. These have been very 
fruitful years in the history of the subjects 
with which Professor Hertwig deals; concep- 
tions of the morphology and physiology of 
the cell, current at the time of the first edition, 
have in some cases been greatly enlarged by 
new discoveries, and in other cases entirely 
superseded. Facts and ideas of prime impor- 
tance concerning the chemistry of protoplasm, 
the so-called tropisms, the phenomena of cell- 
division, of maturation, fertilization, the 
physiology of development and the origin of 
species, have been set forth by numerous 
writers. The value of the present book must, 
therefore, be measured largely by the author’s 
assimilation of the new data and by their in- 
corporation within his original system in a 
logical manner, or else by logical development 
of a new system rendered necessary by the 
new data. 

Let us see to what extent the new edition 
measures up to these requirements: (1) The 
number of pages of the new edition is 649, 
and of the two parts of the first edition 610; 
the number of figures has been increased from 
257 to 871. There has been, therefore, con- 
siderable expansion; in many places new mat- 
ter has replaced the old, entire sections have 
been completely rewritten, new sections have 
been added and there has been a certain 
amount of rearrangement. The main addi- 
tions are Chapter IYV., dealing with the con- 
ception of causation as applied to biology, 
part of Chapter VIII., dealing with problems 
of karyokinesis, and most of Chapter XI., 
dealing with the maturation phenomena of 
ova and spermatozoa. (2) On the other hand, 
the author has not attempted to incorporate 
any of the results of the chemistry of proteids 
or of the applications of physical chemistry to 
the study of protoplasm, although there is a 
chapter on the chemistry of the cell; he has 
not availed himself of any of the. literature 


MarcxH 16, 1906.] 


since 1891 in the chapter on the phenomena 
of irritability (Ch. VII.), although a large 
part of the most important literature, on the 
theory of tropisms especially, is more recent; 
and he has not included any of the data con- 
cerning cell-lineage or germinal localization 
in the parts dealing with the theory of em- 
bryonie development, although (or because) 
these data render his own point of view un- 
tenable. @ 

In general, then, though the author has in- 
cluded some of the new literature on certain 
subjects with which he deals, there are grave 
omissions of data necessary to the discussion 
of other subjects with which he also deals. 
It would be unreasonable to expect an ex- 
haustive treatment of the vast field covered 
by general biology, and no criticism is due 
for the omission of certain problems entirely; 
it is due, however, for the omission of the 
most significant data in subjects actually 
discussed. 

Professor Hertwig occupies precisely the 
same theoretical ground that he did at the 
time of the publication of the first edition. 
He declares himself in advance against all 
purely physico-chemical conceptions of the 
cell (pp. 15 and 16), “since they are funda- 
mentally irreconcilable with the conception of 
the elementary organism, which runs through 
this text-book like a red thread.” This point 
of view constitutes at the same time an apol- 
ogy for an inadequate and antiquated treat- 
ment of the chemistry of protoplasm. Most 
biologists will no doubt agree with the author 
that ‘protoplasm is a biological conception,’ 
not a name for a simple chemical substance, 
and that, even if the chemist could synthesize 
all kinds of proteids, he would still be far 
from the synthesis of an organism; but most 
would value more highly than does the author 
the contributions from the physico-chemical 
side to our comprehension of protoplasm. 

The second part of the book is essentially a 
theory of ontogenetic development with its 
phylogenetic implications; it was originally 
published as a separate work in 1898, and was 
reviewed at that time by the present writer.’ 
The second edition contains very little matter 

1Scrence, N. §., Vol. VIII., No. 198, 1898. 


SCIENCE. 


429 


that was not included in the first, and the 
theoretical standpoint is exactly the same; so 
that the review of the first edition might serve 
equally well for the second. The author be- 
lieves in the inheritance of acquired char- 
acters, and adopts a Lamarckian point of 
view in regard to evolution, without seriously 
examining the difficulties or availing himself 
of new data; for instance, de Vries’ ‘ Muta- 
tionstheorie’ is not mentioned, though it bears 


-a date of publication three years earlier than 


Hertwig’s book. Similarly on the side of 
ontogeny the author finds the full and suffi- 
cient explanation of development in the mul- 
tiplication of cells and in their manifold rela- 
tions with the environment, again without 
serious examination of the difficulties and 
with scant respect for important recent lit- 
erature. 

What was really needed was not a second 
edition, but a new book, for which Professor 
Hertwig either had no leisure or lacked 
realization of the need. It is unfortunate 
that he should have permitted himself to issue 
a second edition under such circumstances. 


Frank R. Linn. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Sup- 
plement No. 2, February, 1906. Some of the 
papers presented to the laboratory section of 
the American Public Health Association at 
the Boston meeting, September 25, 1905: 


Witt1am Hattock Park: ‘Some Observations 
upon the Agglutinization of Bacteria.’ 

Epwarp K. Dunnam: ‘Comparative Studies of 
Diplococci Decolorized by Gram’s Method, Ob- 
tained from the Spinal Fluid and from the Nares 
of Cases of Epidemic Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis.’ 

Mary E. Goopwin and Anna I. von SHOLLY: 
“The Frequent Occurrence of Meningococci in the 
Nasal Cavities of Meningitis Patients and of 
Those of Direct Contact with Them.’ 

OsKaR Kutorz: ‘Temporary Alteration of 
Character of an Organism Belonging to the Colon 
Group.’ 

H. L. Russe~t and C. A. Funtmr: ‘The Lon- 
gevity of Bacillus Typhosus in Natural Waters 
and in Sewage.’ : 

GrorGe C. WHIPPLE and ANDREW MAYER, JR.: 


430 


“On the Relation between Oxygen in Water and 
the Longevity of the Typhoid Bacillus.’ 

GrorcE A. JOHNSON, WILLIAM R. CoPELAND and 
A. Exiiotr Krmperty: ‘The Relative Applicabil- 
ity of Current Methods for the Determination of 
Putrescibility in Sewage Effiluents.’ 

Grorcr A. Jonnson and A. ELLIoTr KIMBERLY: 
“A Comparative Review of Current Methods for 
the Determination of Organic Matter in Sewage.’ 

A. Extiorr Kimperty and M. G. Roperrs: ‘A 
Method for the Direct Determination of Organic 
Nitrogen by the Kjeldahl Process.’ 

A, Extiorr Kimperty and Harry B. HomMon: 
‘The Practical Advantages of the Gooch Crucible 
in the Determination of the Total and Volatile 
Suspended Matter in Sewage.’ 

H. W. Crarg: ‘The Resistance to Decomposi- 
tion of Certain Organic Matters in Sewage.’ 

SrepHEN DeM. Gace and GrorGE O. ADAMS: 
‘The Collection and Preservation of Samples of 
Sewage for Analysis.’ 

Ernest C. Leyy: ‘A Ready Method for Pre- 
paring a Silica Turbidity Standard.’ 

Grorcre C. WHIPPLE and ANDREW MAYER, JR.: 
‘The Solubility of Calcium Carbonate and Mag- 
nesium Hydroxide and the Precipitation of These 
Salts with Lime Water.’ 

GrEoRGE C. WHIPPLE and Francis F. LONGLEY: 
‘Experience with the Use of a Nonbasic Alum in 
Connection with Mechanical Filtration.’ 

H. W. Ciark and S. DEM. Gace: ‘The Use of 
Copper Sulphate in Water Filtration’ 

H. W. Ciark and STEPHEN DEM. Gace: 
the Bactericidal Action of Copper.’ 

Frep B. Forses and Ginpert H. Pratt: ‘ Notes 
in Regard to the Determination of Copper in 
Water.’ 

Hrssert Winstow Hitt: ‘A Notable Source 
of Error in Testing Gaseous Disinfectants.’ 

Francis H. Stack: ‘Methods of Bacteriolog- 
ical Examination of Milk’ 

Hissert WINSLow Hitt: ‘Suggestions for 
Change in the Schedules for Making Broth, 
Gelatin and Agar, Recommended in the Last Re- 
port of the Committee on Standard Methods of 
Water Analysis.’ 

HisBert Winstow Hix: ‘A Device for Filter- 
ing Toxins, ete., by the Use of Water Pressure.’ 


‘On 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue one hundred and twenty-seventh regu- 
Jar meeting of the American Mathematical 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


Society was held at Columbia University, on 
Saturday, February 24, 1906. Professor W. 
F. Osgood, the president of the society, oc- 
eupied the chair. Thirty members attended 
the meeting. The council announced the 
election of the following nineteen persons to 
membership in the society: Mr. M. J. Babb, 
University of Pennsylvania; Mr. William 
Betz, East High School, Rochester, N. Y.; 
Mr. G. D. Birkhoff, University of Chicago; 
Mr. W. D. Breuke, Harvard University; Mr. 
B. E. Carter, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology; Dr. H. L. Coar, University of 
linois; Miss Anna Johnson, Harvard Uni- 
versity; Mr. W. D. Lambert, U. S. Coast Sur- 
vey; Mr. W. A. Luby, Central High School, 
Kansas City, Mo.; President W. J. Milne, 
New York State Normal College; Professor 
Richard Morris, Rutgers College; Mr. W. J. 
Newlin, Harvard University; Miss R. A. 
Pesta, Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, 
Ill.; Dr. H. B. Phillips, University of Cinein- 
nati; Mr. A. R. Schweitzer, University of 
Chicago; Mr. ©. G. Simpson, Michigan Col- 
lege of Mines; Mr. A. W. Stamper, Columbia 
University; Mr. F. C. Touton, Central High 
School, Kansas City, Mo.; Mr. M. O. Tripp, 
College of the City of New York. Ten appli- 
cations for membership were received. 

The . following papers were read at the 
meeting: 

W. H. Bussry: ‘On the tactical problem of 
Steiner.’ 

Ipa M. Scuorrenrets: ‘On linear fractional 
transformations of functions of the complex 
variable w-+ ev, when &=0’ (preliminary com- 
munication). 

C. J. Keyser: ‘On the linear complex of circle 
ranges in a plane.’ 

E. B. Wison: ‘ Note on integrating factors.’ 

Miss R. L. Carstens: ‘A set of independent 
postulates for quaternions.’ 

W. B. Forp: ‘On the analytic extension of func- 
tions defined by double power series.’ 

OswALD VEBLEN: ‘Remark on a measure of 
categoricalness.’ 

VirGIL Snyper: ‘Surfaces generated by conics 
cutting a twisted quartic curve and a line in the 
plane of the conic.’ 

Ciara E. Smiru: ‘Development of a function 
in terms of Bessel’s functions (second paper).’ 

L. P. EtsenwArT: ‘Surfaces with the same 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


spherical representation of their lines of curvature 
as spherical surfaces.’ 

PauL SrAcKkeL: ‘Die kinematische Erzeugung 
yon Minimal-flichen (erste Abhandlung) .’ 

Oskar Bouza: ‘A fifth necessary condition for a 


strong extremum of the integral iE PB ( a, y, y’) dx. 


A regular meeting of the San Francisco 
Section of the society was also held on 
February 24, at Stanford University. The 
next meeting of the society will occur on 
Saturday, April 28. The Chicago Section 
will hold its nineteenth regular meeting on 
Saturday, April 14, at the Northwestern Uni- 
versity Building, Chicago. The date of the 
next annual meeting of the society has been 
fixed as Friday and Saturday, December 28-29. 
The summer meeting and colloquium will be 
held at Yale University during the week 
September 3-8. A preliminary announce- 
ment of the colloquium lectures will be issued 
in May. W. H. Bussey, 

Assistant Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Tue 612th meeting was held on January 
27, 1906. 

Mr. Briggs concluded his communication on 
‘Centrifugal Methods of Soil Investigation, 
pointing out as a third use, to extract the 
liquid contents of a sample of soil, and fourth, 
to determine capillary flow of water through 
soils. 

Mr. W. W. Coblentz, of the Bureau of 
Standards, then presented by invitation a 
paper on ‘The Infra-red Radiation of Gases.’ 
This part of the spectrum has been investi- 
gated by photography to 1.2 and by phos- 
phorescent plates to 1.7; beyond this point 
the thermopile, bolometer and radiometer 
have been used up to 15p. The speaker had 
used an unusually sensitive form of the last- 
named instrument. He exhibited in ten 
charts the distribution of radiation from 
various bodies; as a ‘black body,’ burning 
gases, a Welsbach mantle, metals in the car- 
bon are and gases in a vacuum tube. 

Previous investigations on emission lines 
had extended to 2y. He had noticed that 
this was the limit of the lines predicted by our 
spectral series formule, hence the object of 


SCIENCE. 


431 


his investigations was to determine whether 
emission lines could be found beyond this 
region. 

The main points shown were that inert 
gases like helium and nitrogen have strong 
lines just beyond the red, while CO and 
CO, have a strong emission band at 4.75 p. 
He showed that for gases in a vacuum 
tube all lines increase in intensity with 
increase in current, keeping the pressure 
constant. On the other hand, for constant 
current and variable pressure the emission 
lines at 1p have a maximum intensity at 
about 1.5 mm. pressure, while the intensity of 
the 4.754 band does not pass through a 
maximum. From this he concludes that the 
lines at 1p belong to those in the visible 
spectrum, while the 4.75 band is not thus 
related, but seems to be of a thermal instead 
of an electrical origin. For the are between 
metal electrodes and for the salts of the metals 
in the carbon are he found no lines beyond 
2,. Another interesting point was that the 
violet vapor of the carbon are has no infra- 
red emission lines except possibly at 1 p. 

Mr. J. F. Hayford then exhibited the new 
Swiss ‘ Millionaire’ multiplying machine and 
discussed the speed and limits of accuracy in 
practical computing of approximate written 
multiplication, the slide-rule, logarithms, 
Crelle’s table and machines. The new ma- 
chine, unlike the familiar Thomas-Burkhardt 
type, requires both multiplicand and multi- 
plier to be set up; but then a single turn of 
the crank is enough for each figure of the 
multiplier even though the figure be 9. In 
practise only about half as many manual op- 
erations are required as on the older machine. 

Each of the papers gave rise to considerable 
discussion. 


Tue 613th meeting was held on February 
10, 1906. 

President Abbe brought forward informally 
the problem ‘ How is the peculiar noise asso- 
ciated with a meteor passing through the 
upper air produced and communicated to us?’ 
No adequate solution has yet been given. 

Mr. F..B. Littell described in detail ‘The 
New Transit Circle of Kiel Observatory’ of 


432 


eight and one half inches aperture, made by 
Repsold, and having many novel features. It 
is mounted in a double-walled semi-cylindrical 
dome with shutter ten feet wide; the masonry 
piers have means for observing their stability. 
The tube is of steel and is shielded. There 
are three objective screens to reduce all stars 
to the same magnitudes; a reversion prism and 
the new transit micrometer are provided. 
Novel provision is made for determining the 
errors in collimation, azimuth and level, from 
flexure and irregularity of pivots, and in 
graduation of the circle. Mr. Updegraff spoke 
of the history of such instruments and stated 
that the first steel-tube transit was made under 
direction of Professor Harkness in 1889. 
Messrs. Hayford and Abbe defended the accu- 
racy of the spirit-level when properly used. - 

Mr. L. W. Austin then spoke on ‘The 
Emission of Negative Particles Produced by 
_the Impact of Canal Rays on Metals.’ 

In the work described an attempt was made 
to find whether the positively charged canal 
rays which pass backward through a perforated 
cathode in a vacuum tube give rise to reflected 
rays when they come in contact with a metal 
plate connected to earth. No reflection of the 
canal rays was discovered, but it was found 
that the impact gaye rise to an emission of 
negative corpuscles. Like the well-known 
negative emission produced by cathode rays 
this emission increases with the angle of in- 
eidence of the canal rays, being about two and 
one half times as great at 70° as at perpen- 
dicular incidence. The negative corpuscles 
appear to have some considerable velocity, but 
how great this velocity is has not been de- 


termined. 
cant CuHarLes K. Weap, 


Secretary. 


THE ONONDAGA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


THE academy held its regular monthly meet- 
ing in Syracuse on February 16. 

Miss M. L. Overacker spoke of ‘A Few 
Devonshire Ferns, and exhibited material 
collected in England during the past summer. 
Among other ferns, particular interest was 
expressed in the abundance of Aspleniuwm 
Rutamuraria L. and in the abundance and 


\ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 585. 


variability of Phyllitis Scolopendrium (L1.) 
Newman. 

Mr. George T. Hargitt also presented a 
paper on ‘ Regeneration and Growth,’ an ab- 
stract of which follows. 

A preliminary report of a series of experi- 
ments which was started at Woods Hole dur- 
ing the past summer, to determine the condi- 
tions necessary for regeneration and growth. 
The animals so far studied include several 
species of hydroids and the medusa Gonione- 
mus. The results obtained show the effect 
upon regeneration of acid and alkali, and also 
of various salts, especially those found in the 
sea water. These solutions and salts were 
added to normal sea water and also to a syn- 
thetic sea water. 

The general results suggested were as. fol- 
lows: Acids have a tendency to retard or in- 


hibit regeneration, while alkalies have a tend- 


eney to accelerate regeneration. Both acids 
and alkalies may sometimes act as disturbing 
rather than as definitely accelerating or re- 
tarding stimuli. .The effect of these and 
other chemical stimuli is largely dependent 
upon the state of vitality and sexual maturity. 
of the anima}s. Calcium and potassium seem 
to be necessary for regeneration and growth, 
but may be present in variable quantities, 
especially the calcium. 

The experiments will be continued during 


the present year. s 
J. EK. Kirkwoop, 


‘Corresponding Secretary. 


THE CALIFORNIA BRANCH OF THE AMERICAN 
FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. 


Tue sixth meeting of the California Branch 
of the American Folk-Lore Society was held 
in the Unitarian Church, Berkeley, on Tues- 
day, February 13, 1906, at 8p... Mr. Charles 
Keeler presided. 

The minutes of the last meeting were read 
and approved. 

The following persons approved by the 
council were elected to membership in the 
society, the secretary being instructed to cast 
the vote of the society for them: Mr. F. Rossi, 
San Francisco; Professor O. M. Johnston, 
Stanford University. 


Marce# 16, 1906.] 


Dr. William Popper delivered a lecture on 
“Superstitions of the Arabs,’ based on his re- 
searches and personal experiences among the 
Arabic-speaking peoples of the Orient. 

One hundred and thirty-five persons at- 
tended the meeting. A. L. Krorser, 

Secretary. 


THE BERKELEY FOLK-LORE CLUB. 

Tue third regular meeting of the Berkeley 
Folk-Lore Club during 1905-6 was held in the 
Faculty Club of the University of California 
on Wednesday evening, January 31. Presi- 
dent A. F. Lange presided, Professor W. F. 
Bade acting as secretary pro tem. Dr. W. 
Popper and Dr. A. W. Ryder were proposed 
for membership in the club and unanimously 
elected. Professor G. R. Noyes presented the 
paper of the evening on ‘ Servian Heroic Bal- 
lads” Mr. Nikolitzsch, who was present as 


the guest of the club, read one of the ballads . 


in the original.. The paper was discussed at 
length by the members. 
A. L. Krorser, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


ISOLATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES. 
I Have read with the greatest interest the 
discussion on isolation and its relation to 
evolution, commencing with President Jor- 
dan’s article in Science for November 3, 1905. 

There are many reasons for believing that 
in the earlier stages of the segregation that 
produces two or more species from one, geo- 
graphical isolation, or at least some degree of 
local isolation, has had in many cases an influ- 
ential part. It is, however, important to ob- 
serve that, when the local variety multiplies 
and passes over into areas occupied by the 
original stock, its continued separate evolu- 
tion must depend on some other form of iso- 
lation. 

One form of isolation that may prevent the 
variety from being swamped by free crossing 
is seasonal isolation due to its having gained 
a separate season for propagating. This form 
of isolation is mentioned in one of the quota- 
tions given in President Jordan’s article.” 


1See page 552. 


SCIENCE. 


- the prevention of free crossing. 


433 


Another form of isolation is what Romanes 
has ealled physiological isolation, which he 
defines as the prevention of free crossing due 
to physiological incompatibility between the 
reproductive cells of different groups of crea- 
tures.” b 

But this extended use of the word isolation 
is not found in the works of Darwin, and even 
at the present time many writers follow his 
usage by treating the term as meaning the pre- 
vention of free crossing due to geographical 
separation. This limited meaning of the word, 
as used by Darwin and the writers of his time, 
led me for many years to seek other terms 
when discussing the broad problem of the 
prevention of free crossing. Separation and 
segregation are the terms I have chiefly used.’ 

I observe that E. A. Ortmann in his dis- 
cussion entitled, ‘Isolation as One of the 
Factors of Evolution,’ appearing in ScimmNcE 


for January 12, 1906, also uses ‘separation’ 


as an equivalent for isolation when meaning 
In some of 
the previous discussions on the subject it has 
been pointed out that sometimes the nearest 
allies of a species are found in the same dis- 
trict. In such cases the point of chief in- 
terest is that some other form of separation 
will be found to prevent free crossing between 
the different races and species. Closely allied 
plants may bloom at separate seasons and so 
occupy the same district without crossing. In 
other cases the pollen of each variety may be 
prepotent on the stigmas of the same variety. 
Varieties of birds and mammals differing 
chiefly in color may be held apart by sexual 
or social instincts. These and many other 
forms of isolation have been pointed out in 
my work on ‘Evolution, Racial and Hab- 
itudinal,’ published by the Carnegie Insti- 
tution. 

I have also brought together many reasons 
for believing that without isolation one spe- 
cies can not be transformed into two or more 

2 See ‘Darwin and After Darwin,’ Part IIl1., 
entitled ‘Isolation,’ pp. 43-47. 

3 See my three papers published in the Linnean 
Society’s Jowrnal, between 1872 and 1889, also 
three articles published in the Amer. Jour. of 
Science for 1890. 


434 


species; while with complete isolation more 
or less divergence may result before diversity 
of selection comes in to intensify the segre- 
gation. 

Of selection I also discover many reflexive 
forms due to the influence of members of the 
same species upon each other, as well as nat- 
ural selection and artificial selection due to 
influences lying outside of the species. 

In considering the factors producing dif- 
ferent inheritable types of related organisms 
we have to distinguish between the factors 
dividing the original stock into separate inter- 
generating groups and those producing di- 
versity of inherited character in the separate 
groups. The former process we may call 
racial demarcation through isolation, and the 


latter racial intensification through survival | 


resulting in selection. Isolation and selec- 
tion we find to be cooperating factors in con- 
trolling racial segregation. 

Our investigation of the factors producing 
evolution will, however, remain very incom- 
plete unless we study the influences producing 
different social groups, in which different 
habits of dealing with the environment are 
originated and maintained, not by variation 
and heredity, but by innovation and tradition. 
Here again we must distinguish between the 
influences dividing the original group into 
separately associating groups, and those that 
establish a diversity of habits and acquired 
characters in the separate groups. The former 
process we may call habitudinal demarcation 
through partition and the latter habitudinal 
intensification through success resulting in 
election. Partition and election we find to be 
cooperating factors in controlling habitudinal 
segregation. 

In the bionomic history of many species 
the great significance of habitudinal segrega- 
tion is found in the fact that it is he fore- 
runner of racial segregation. 

For illustrations of the influence of hab- 
itudinal segregation on racial segregation I 
would refer to my work on evolution published 
by the Carnegie Institution. 


JoHN T. GuLicg. 
OAKLAND, Cau. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


SALMON HYBRIDS. 

To THE Eprror or Science: I have received 
from Mr. C. W. Dorr, of the Alaska Packers’ 
Association, certain notes by Mr. J. A. Rich- 
ardson on experiments in hybridization of 
salmon, undertaken in the hatchery at Kar- 
luk, Alaska. These will be of interest to 
zoologists. Davin Starr JORDAN. 


Mr. Richardson writes as follows: 

Crosses have been made of all of the salmon 
family except the steelhead. These experi- 
ments have been made for the novelty of it. 
The peculiarities of each are invariably the 
same from year to year, and practically none 
of the fry survive. 

The cross between the red salmon and king 
salmon produces a very queer lot. Out of 
many thousand eggs hatched, ninety per cent. 
of the fry will have no eyes; the nose is long 
and pointed; the sac is of very light color and 
quite watery in appearance. Only two per 
cent. or three per cent. are reasonably well 
formed fish, and the most of these die. 

The number of eggs which fertilize is about 
normal, but it is noticed that a larger number 
than usual of the white eggs removed from 
the baskets contain embryos that have ceased 
to develop. This cross has been made both 
ways. 

It has been demonstrated that the cross be- 
tween the red salmon male and the humpback 
female is very superior to other crosses—so 
much so that it leads to the belief that there 
is closer relationship between these two species 
of the salmon family. An extended experi- 
ment by crossing these two species is now be- 
ing carried on. The loss of eggs and fry is 
being counted and notice taken of general 
conditions. We have fine specimens from the 
season 1904 (eggs taken in 1903) of this cross. 
They are about eight months old, two inches 
long, and bright, clean, silvery fish, rather 
long and slim. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY OF HUMAN IMPLE- 
MENTS IN AN ABANDONED RIVER CHANNEL 
IN SOUTHERN OREGON. 


Durine July and August, 1905, the writer 
was in the field in southern Oregon under the 


Marc# 16, 1906.] 


direction of Dr. David T. Day, chief of the 
Division of Mineral Statistics of the U. S. 
Geological Survey. The work assigned was 
the collection of black sands and crude gravels 
from the placer mines of this section for the 
experimental concentrating plant of the sur- 
vey at the Portland exposition. While visit- 
ing Waldo, Ore., the following occurrence of 
human implements in the gravels of the Deep 
Gravel Mining Company was met, and with 
the permission of the Director of the Survey 
is herewith communicated. 

Waldo is situated on the stage line from 
Grants Pass on the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
one hundred miles south of west to Crescent 
City on the coast, and is forty miles from 
Grants Pass. It is in Josephine County, a 
few miles north of the California line. 

Waldo was the scene of the earliest dis- 
covery in Oregon of stream placers in the 
country back from the ocean. Sailors pene- 
trated to it in 1853 and found rich pay-streaks 
in the bed of a small stream which heads up 
in the ancient gravels of what must once have 
been a large river. The discovery received 
the name of the Sailor Diggings and the 
name Waldo came later. The ancient gravels 
are now on top of a ridge and have remained 
in relief while the former banks have been 
removed by erosion. The course of the river 
was to the north, since its bed-rock declines in 
this direction. The bed-rock as exposed in 
the placer mines is chiefly serpentine, but in 
one place the rim-rock is fossiliferous sand- 
stone, which has been studied and determined 
by J. S. Diller. The boulders are chiefly 
eruptive rocks of various sorts and are much 
softened as a rule by decomposition. The 
exact relations of the old drainage would re- 
quire more investigation for their elucidation 
than the writer could give in the brief time at 
command, and it can only be stated that they 
cover a rather wide area—east and west— 
having been mined at intervals for half a 
mile or more across the main course, but 
whether this is from forking of the old main 
channel or not was not determined. Some 
shallower gravels are probably due to the 
washing down of ‘the old high channel deposit 


SCIENCE. 


435 


over the slopes and on to the flats on either . 
side of its crest. 

Pestles appear to occur in the gravels as a 
not specially exceptional phenomenon. The 
operators of the mines speak of their occa- 
sional discovery as a matter which does not 
excite surprise. The following instance, how- 
ever, of two mortars and of one or two pestles 
attracted the attention of Mr. W. J. Wimer, 
the manager and part owner of the Deep 
Gravel property, and although the objects 
were brought to light in the hydraulicking 
during the night shift, he carefully recorded 
the details early the next morning. The fol- 
lowing extract from a letter of Mr. Wimer, 
written at my request, gives the facts. I par- 
ticularly inquired about the possibility of the 
bank’s caving in so as to make implements 
from the surface appear as if buried in the 
deeper gravels, but this possibility seems to 
be guarded against both by the auriferous 
cement in the large mortar and by its actual 
detection in the bank by the pipe man. The 
mortars and pestles are now in the possession 
of Col. T. Waln-Morgan Draper, a well-known 
mining engineer, at whose summer home, a 
few miles from Waldo, the implements now 
are. 

The mortar is about twelve inches high by nine 
inches across, and is made of the hardest granite. 
Two of our night men piped it out in 1902, when 
it was firmly embedded in a blue cement gravel 
(the pay channel), fifty-eight feet from the sur- 
face. They had to resort to picks to get it 
out and the bed or hole out of which they pulled 
it remained, showing its perfect mould. I went 
to the mine in the morning and those two men 
formally presented it to me. It was still packed 
tightly to its very rim with blue cement gravel. 
With a sharp pick I carefully picked the gravel 
loose so that I could clean it. I was some time 
doing so. I then washed the detritus and got 
eight pretty large colors of gold. 

H. M. Pfefferly and D. W. Yarbrough were the 
finders. The place was in the 8.W. % of N.W. 
4; Sec. 21; T. 40 S.; R. 8 W.; W.M., Josephine 
County, Oregon, on the property of the Deep 
Gravel Mining Co. The other mortar is what 
Colonel Draper terms a quartz mortar having a 
saucer-like cavity on its top. The gold from the 
ground where it was piped out was pronounced 
by the Selby Smelting Company in San Francisco 


436 


to be ‘quartz gold,’ their receipt to us being so 
marked. This mortar was probably about 10 
feet under the surface. It was 300 yards from 
the other one and on Sec. 20, being therefore the 
S.E. 4% of N.E. 44. It was found in 1901. The 
pestles were discovered with it; they were in 
pay dirt. 

Those occurrences add one more instance 
to the list of stone implements which have 
been found in the auriferous gravels of the 
Pacifie coast. The writer fully realizes the 
criticism which has been brought to bear upon 
them and the skepticism with which their 
authenticity is regarded by many. The Waldo 
case may be stated upon the testimony of Mr. 
Wimer and Mr. Pfefferly and may add its 
contribution to the general mass of evidence 
regarding the antiquity of man in the far 


west. J. F. Kemp. 
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 
THE NEW SOLAR OBSERVATORY OF THE CARNEGIE 
INSTITUTION. 


Tue Carnegie Institution of Washington 
has established a solar observatory on Mount 
Wilson, near Pasadena, southern California, 
under the direction of Professor George H. 
Hale, former director of the Yerkes Ob- 
servatory. The late Secretary Langley, of 
the Smithsonian Institution, whose bolometric 
studies of the solar radiation during many 
years have added so much to our knowledge 
of the sun, was active in urging the claims 
of such an observatory. He desired to see 
the observatory established in a tropical or 
subtropical region, with a large equipment 
and endowment, especially for the study of 
the solar radiations and their possible fluctua- 
tions. 

The Mount Wilson Observatory is the out- 
come of much thought and investigation by 
ditferent astronomers, and may be depended 
upon to furnish splendid results. Mr. Lang- 
ley, however, in a communication to the com- 
mittee on astronomy of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion, in 1902, made the following statement: 

It has thus far proved, and, so far as can be 
seen, always will prove, impossible to determine 
from near sea-level with any precision by any 
observations, however careful or long continued, 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vox. XXIII. No. 585. 


the ‘constant’ of solar radiation. There is no 
good way to eliminate the complex effect of at- 
mospherie absorption except to observe at the 
highest practicable altitude, preferably near the 
tropics, but most certainly in a dry and clear 
atmosphere, and preferably where there are two 
stations in view of each other, the first of which 
is at a notably greater altitude than the second, 
though the latter is itself at least some thou- 
sands of feet above sea-level. Temporary expedi- 
tions with meager outfits have gone from time 
to time to high mountain stations for solar ob- 
servations, and small meteorological stations have 
even been longer continued. What is needed is 
rather a permanent astrophysical observatory 
equipped with the most powerful and refined 
modern apparatus for solar research and located 
at the highest and clearest station it is practic- 
able to occupy. 

These are very strong words from a very 
eminent authority. It may not be out of 
place to inquire whether Mount Wilson ful- 
fils the required conditions. Those who have 
read Professor Hale’s description of the con- 
ditions which exist on the mountain during a 
large part of the year, and have seen the re- 
sults already accomplished, will gladly ac- 
knowledge that Mount Wilson offers excep- 
tional advantages for such an observatory. 
That it is the best which the world furnishes, 
or that the ‘last word’ can be said from it 
in regard to the solar constant may be doubted. 
The institution on Mount Wilson will un- 
doubtedly justify itself, and is probably the 
best site which could be occupied under the 
circumstances. There may be several eleya- 
tions, however, which more closely meet the 
conditions imposed by Mr. Langley. The 
writer is familiar with one, which could 
hardly meet the requirements more exactly if 
it had been made to order after that com- 
munication was written. The voleanic peak, 
El Misti, near Arequipa, Peru, rises to an 
altitude of 19,000 feet. It looks down upon 
the Arequipa station of the Harvard Observa- 
tory, whose altitude is 8,000 feet. The whole 
region is extraordinarily dry and clear. From 
the summit of El] Misti the sky is most 
strikingly dark and free from haze. This 
summit is readily accessible by a mule-trail 
during nearly the whole year, and its use as a 
permanent station presents few difficulties 


Marcu 16, 1906.] 


other than those associated with mountain 
sickness. Im this region the railway reaches 
an altitude of more than 14,000 feet, and some 
of the moutains rise to more than 20,000 feet. 
Probably no other part of the world can fur- 
nish lofty mountains which are as accessible 
as those of southern Peru and northern Chile. 

Much of the extremely valuable work which 
has been planned by Professor Hale for the 
solar observatory on Mount Wilson, whose 
altitude is 5,886 feet, could not be carried on, 
perhaps, at an elevation of 19,000 or 20,000 
feet; but for certain problems, especially that 
of the solar constant, it may be that the future 
will demand the fulfillment of the conditions 
imposed by Dr. Langley. 


DOUBLE VARIABLE STARS. 


Two interesting cases have recently been 
discovered by Mrs. Fleming, at the Harvard 
Observatory, of double stars, both of whose 
components are variable. That two variable 
stars should be close together, where variables 
occur in large numbers, as in the dense 
globular clusters, or to a less degree in the 
Magellanic clouds, would not be especially sur- 
prising. Even here, however, as a matter of 
fact, very few really close doubles are found. 
In the sky as a whole, away from such special 
regions, the number of known variables in the 
40,000 square degrees of the sky is not much 
more than 600, or one in 67 square degrees. 
The chance, therefore, that two of them should 
come within a few seconds of are of each 
other, unless there is some physical connec- 
tion between them, is extremely small. 

The first double-variable consists of the well- 
known variable star S Lupi and a close com- 
panion, distant only 13’, so close, indeed, that 
it may often have been mistaken for S Lupz 
itself, especially when it was bright and J 
Lwpi faint. S Luwpi has a period of 346 days, 
and varies in light about three and a half 
magnitudes, between 9.6 and 13.1. The close 
companion varies between 10.4 and 12.8, and 
its period appears to be irregular. 

Another variable pair has just been an- 
nounced. The components are 40” apart. 
The first component varies between the magni- 


tudes 10.0 and 10.6, and the second, between — 


SCIENCE. 


437 


10.0 and 12.4. It will be of the greatest in- 
terest to determine whether there is any rela- 
tion between the light-changes of the com- 
ponents, but this has not yet been possible. 

It is well known to astronomers that Mrs. 
Fleming has discovered nearly 200 variable 
stars by examination of photographic spectra, 
made with an objective prism, in connection 
with the work of the Henry Draper Memorial. 
By discovering that the spectra of long-period 
variables usually contain the bright lines due 
to hydrogen, she has been able to ‘pick up’ 
large numbers of variables of this class, while 
engaged in other spectroscopic studies. It 
would have been quite impossible for a single 
observer, or, perhaps, for half a dozen, by 
visual methods, to find such a number in a 
lifetime. The results illustrate the power of 
photographic methods when the correct inter- 
pretation has been found. In this, as in some 
other lines of astronomical discovery, it would — 
be almost a waste of time for an observer, 
unless for purposes of recreation or amuse- 
ment, to carry on the investigation visually. 
He would succeed about as well as a person 
who should attempt to race on foot with a 
fifty-horsepower automobile. This seems 
really a pity, as there is undoubtedly a greater 
charm, at least to the outsider, in the older 
method. An observer sitting at a desk with 
photographs about him, in a pleasant room 
in broad daylight, appeals to the imagination 
much less than the old-time astronomer, who 
was supposed to sit through the long, cold 
night with his eye glued to his telescope. 
However, there are many fields in which the 
visual observer still has the advantage. 


POSITION OF THE AXIS OF MARS. 


In a communication to the Monthly Notices 
of the Royal Astronomical Society, Professor 
Percival Lowell, director of the Lowell Ob- 
servatory, gives an account of his observations 
of the polar cap of Mars, for the determination 
of the position of the martian axis. He also 
compares the results of his own determinations 
at three oppositions with those of Schiaparelli, 
Lohse and Cerulli. From a study of all the 
determinations Professor Lowell arrives at the 
conclusion that the most probable values are 


438 


as follows: Pole of Mars, R. A. 317°.5; Dec., 
54°.5. Epoch 1905. Tilt of martian equator 
to martian ecliptic, 23°59’. This value of 
the inclination of the martian equator is some- 
what less than that which has been generally 
accepted heretofore. 


RECENT COMETS. 


DurineG the year 1905 three comets were dis- 
covered for which orbits were determined. 
Two of them were found by Giacobini, and 
the other by Shaer. So far during the pres- 
ent year two comets have been discovered, by 
Brooks and Kopff. None of these has been of 
much popular interest. For an unusually long 
period no spectacular object, such as the great 
comets of 1843, 1858, 1881 and 1882, has ap- 
peared. One may appear at any time, but 
of this there is° no certainty. However, 
Halley’s periodic comet will be due about 
1910, and it will probably be bright. 

S. I. Barnny. 


SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY. 


Avr a memorial meeting of the board of 
regents of the Smithsonian Institution, on 
March 6, the following resolutions were passed : 


Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution express their profound 
sorrow at the death, on February 27, 1906, of 
Samuel Pierpont Langley, Secretary of the Insti- 
tution since 1887, and tender to the relatives of 
Mr. Langley their sincere sympathy in their be- 
reavement. 

That in the death of Mr. Langley this Institu- 
tion has lost a distinguished, efficient and faith- 
ful executive officer under whose administration 
the international influence of the parent Institu- 
tion has been greatly increased, and by whose 
personal efforts two important branches of work 
have been added to its care—the National Zoolog- 
ical Park and the Astrophysical Observatory. 

That the scientific world is indebted to Mr. 
Langley for the invention of important apparatus 
and instruments of precision, for numerous addi- 
tions to knowledge, more especially for his epoch- 
making investigations in solar physics, and for 
his efforts in placing the important subject of 
aerial navigation upon a scientific basis. 

That all who sought the truth and cultivated 
science, letters and the fine arts, have lost through 
his death a co-worker and a sympathizer. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


That the Executive Committee be requested to 
arrange for a memorial meeting to be held in 
Washington. 

That Doctor Andrew D. White be invited to 
prepare a suitable memorial which shall form a 
part of the Records of this Board. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Sir Grorce Darwin, K.C.B., Plumian pro- 
fessor of astronomy, will represent the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge at the celebration of the 
two hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
Benjamin Franklin by the American Philo- 
sophical Society. 

At a meeting held at the Mansion House, 
on February 27, the Lord Mayor of London 
presiding, Lord Halsbury moved “That, in view 
of this being the fiftieth year of the founda- 
tion of the coal-tar color industry, it is desir- 
able that steps should be taken to memorialize 
the event and to do honor to Dr. W. H. 
Perkin, the founder.” After this motion had 
been supported and carried, Lord Rayleigh 
moved “That an appeal be made in this 
country and abroad for subscriptions for the 
purpose of carrying out the following objects: 
(1) The presentation to Dr. Perkin for his 
life time of an oil portrait of himself, executed 
by an eminent artist, the portrait to become the 
property of the nation at his death. (2) The 
execution of a marble bust of Dr. Perkin to be 
placed in the rooms of the Chemical Society. 
(3) The establishment of a ‘Perkin Research 
Fund’ for the promotion of chemical research 
to be administered through the Chemical So- 
ciety.” After this motion had been supported 
by Sir William Ramsay and Sir Henry Roscoe 
and carried, arrangements were made for the 
appointment of a general committee and an 
executive committee for carrying out the ob- 
jects of the resolution. 

Dr. Hans Dretscu, of Heidelberg, has been 
appointed Gifford Lecturer in Aberdeen Uni- 
versity for 1907-9. 

Tue University of Heidelberg has conferred 
the Victor Meyer prize on Dr. Ernst Stern for 
his investigations in organic chemistry. 

Dr. Rosert Kocu will return to East 
Africa, in April, to continue his investigations 


MaxrcuH 16, 1906.] 


on sleeping sickness under the auspices of the 
German government. 

Dr. Wattrer R. BrinckerHorr, of the patho- 
logical department of the Harvard Medical 
School, has been appointed director of the 
Leprosy Station at Molokai, Hawaii. 


THE thirteenth lecture in the Harvey So- 
ciety course will be delivered by Professor W. 
H. Howell, of Johns Hopkins University, at 
the New York Academy of Medicine, on 
March 17, at 8:30 p.m., on ‘ The Cause of the 
Heart Beat.’ This is the last lecture of the 
series given during the present year. The 
twelfth lecture was delivered by Professor 
Theobald Smith, of the Harvard Medical 
School, his subject being ‘The Parasiticism 
of the Tubercle Bacillus and its Bearing on 
Infection and Immunity.’ 


Proressor Huco MUNsTERBERG will give the 
last of the Harvard lectures at Yale Univer- 
sity this year, on March 16. The subject will 
be ‘Science and Idealism.’ 


Proressor GEeorGE H. Howison, of the Uni- 
versity of California, will give a course of 
lectures at Yale University on ‘The Human 
Import of Philosophy.’ 

Dr. G. Marconi will lecture before the New 
York Electrical Society, at Columbia Univer- 
sity, on March 28. It is said that he will 
come to the country especially for that pur- 
pose. ; 

Mr. Anprew Carnecie has contributed 
£9,300 to complete the fund for a memorial 
to James Watt, which will take the form of 
a commemorative public building and statue 
at Greenock, his birthplace. Subscriptions to 
the fund from Great Britain amount to £700 
and from the United States to £190. 


A MpMoRIAL tablet has been erected by the 
London County Council, on the house, No. 
110 Gower Street, where Charles Darwin 
lived from 1839 to 1841. 

We learn from The British Medical Journal 
that the late Dr. Domenico Barbieri, of 
Vienna, bequeathed a sum of 300,000 crowns 
for the creation of a fund to be called by the 
name of Theodor Billroth. Dr. Barbieri was 
an assistant and a close personal friend of the 


SCIENCE. 


439 


famous Vienna surgeon, who entrusted him 
with the administration of the anesthetic in 
some of his most daring operations. The in- 
terest of the fund is to be given in bursaries 
to poor students in the Second Surgical Clinic 
of Vienna, of which Billroth was the head, 
and, if possible, also to students in the First 
Clinie. The bursaries, which are to be 
awarded by the professorial college without 
distinction of nationality or creed, are of the 
yearly value of 2,000 crowns, and are tenable 
for three years. 

Tue death is announced of Professor Jean 
Louis Cabanis, the well-known ornithologist, 
for many years curator in ornithology at the 
Berlin Museum. 


ANNOUNCEMENT was made at the opening, on 
March 5, of the Widener Memorial Home for 
Crippled Children, that Mr. P. A. B. Widener, 
who gave $2,000,000 for the building, has given 
$3,000,000 for a maintenance fund. 

THE Verein Deutsche Ingenieure, which has 
more than 20,000 members, will celebrate its 
fiftieth anniversary this year, the meeting be- 
ing held at Berlin from June 10 to 14. 


Tue Royal Sanitary Institute will, this year, 
hold its congress in Bristol from July 9 to 
14, under the presidency of Sir Edward Fry. 
The Snell prize of the institute consists of 
£50 and a medal which is offered this year for 
an essay on ‘Suggestions for improvements in 
sanitary appliances for use in workmen’s 
dwellings and laborers’ cottages under the 
varying conditions of water supply and drain- 
age usually obtaining in towns and villages.’ 


On La Zacualpa plantation in Chiapas, 
Southern Mexico, there has been established 
a botanical station, the principal object of 
which is to study the Central American rubber 
tree (Castilla elastica), its culture, and the 
preparation of commercial rubber from this 
tree. On La Zacualpa and affiliated planta- 
tions there are now planted over three million 
trees and at least two additional million trees 
will be planted. In connection with the bo- 
tanical station, there is a laboratory for chem- 
ical and physiological investigation of the 
latex. A complete meteorological observatory 


440 


will soon be ready on La Zacualpa, and two 
meteorological substations will be established 
in the mountains close by, where simultaneous 
observations will be made at the elevations of 
9,000 and 3,500 feet. The main station is 
situated at 250 feet above the sea, twelve miles 
from the Pacific Ocean, on the lowlands at the 
foot of Sierra Madre, about sixty miles from 
the border of Guatemala. The director of 
the station is Dr. Pehr Olsson-Seffer from 
Stanford University. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Princeton Universiry has been made the 
residuary legatee of the estate of Mrs. J. 
Thompson Swan, which is said to be worth 
about $300,000. The legacy will be used by 
the graduate school. ; 

THE late Edwin Gilbert, of Georgetown, 
Conn., has left public bequests amounting to 
$250,000, including $60,000 for the model farm 
of the Connecticut Agricultural College. 

Harvarp University has received a gift of 
$50,000 from Robert Wilcox Sayles, A.B. (01), 
of Norwich, Conn., to establish a fund, prefer- 
ably for the ‘acquisition, preparation and 
maintenance of collections suitable for a 
geological museum.’ 

Lorp RayrigH has sent to the vice-chan- 
cellor of Cambridge University £7,733 12s. 
8d., being the amount of the Nobel prize 
awarded to him in 1904. Lord Rayleigh de- 
sires that £5,000 of this should be employed 
in erecting a new building in connection with 
the Cavendish Laboratory, and that the re- 
mainder should be devoted to the purchase of 
scientific books and periodicals for the Uni- 
versity Library. 

AT a recent meeting of the faculty of arts 
and sciences, of Harvard University, last week, 
it was voted to establish a department of edu- 
cation. Heretofore all courses in education 
have been included in the department of phi- 
losophy. Professor Paul H. Hanus is at the 
head of the new department. 

Dr. Lester F. Warp, who has long been 
connected with the U. 8. Geological Survey 
and the U. §S. National Museum, and is 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S8. Von. XXIII. No. 585. 


eminent for his contributions both to sociol- 
ogy and to paleobotany, has been elected pro- 
fessor of sociology at Brown University. He 
will take up the work of the chair in Sep- 
tember. 

Dr. C. S. Minor, professor of histology and 
embryology in the Harvard Medical School, 
has been appointed James Stillman professor 
of comparative anatomy. 


Dr. WiLuiAmM Hatiock, professor of physics, — 


Columbia University, has been appointed dean 
of the faculty of pure science. 


Mr. Rennie W. Doane, A.B. (Stanford, 
96), has been appointed instructor in economic 
entomology and curator of the entomological 
collections at Stanford University. 


Me. E. T. Wuirraker, F.R.S., has been ap- 
pointed Andrews professor of astronomy in 
the University of Dublin and royal astron- 
omer of Ireland, in succession to the late Pro- 
fessor O. J. Joly, F.R.S. 


At Manchester University Dr. William 
Mair, Riddell demonstrator in pathology and 
bacteriology in Queen’s College, Belfast, has 
been appointed demonstrator in pathology; 
Dr. John Cameron, junior demonstrator in 
anatomy, has been appointed a senior demon- 
strator; Mr. C. M. Craig, has been appointed 
a junior demonstrator in anatomy; and Dr. 
F. W. Gamble, lecturer and demonstrator in 
zoology, has been appointed a senior assistant 
lecturer. 

Mr. Cuartes H. Less, lecturer in physics 
and assistant director of the physical labora- 
tory of the University of Manchester, has been 
appointed professor of physics of the East Lon- 
don College. 

Dr. F. Krucer, docent in philosophy at 
Leipzig and assistant in Professor Wundt’s 
laboratory, has accepted a call to a chair of 
philosophy in Buenos Ayres. 

Dr. A. Kotur, of the Institute for Infec- 
tious Diseases at Berlin, has been appointed 
professor of hygiene and director of the Sero- 
therapeutic Laboratory at Bern. 


Dr. Clemens Schliiter is about to retire from 
the chair of geology and paleontology at Bonn. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


| 


Fray, Marca 23, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The Astronomical and Astrophysical Society 
of America: PRorESSOR HAROLD JACOBY... 


The American Association for the Adwance- 
ment of Science :— 

Section A—Mathematics and Astronomy: 

PROFESSOR LAENAS GIFFORD WELD....... 


Scientific Books :-— 
Ostwald’s Die Schule der Chemie: DR. WILL- 
TAMIA, TEN OYIES He wale latte hele classed ened veh ie 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Biological Society of Washington: 
M. C. Marsn. The New York Academy 
of Sciences, Section of Geology and Min- 
eralogy: PRroressoR A. W. GRaBau. The 
Torrey Botanical Club: C. Stuart GaGER. 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
A New Type of Electric Organ in An Ameri- 
can Teleost Fish: Dr. Uric DAHBLGREN. 
A New Method of Collecting Harthworms 
for Laboratory Use: PROFESSOR CHARLES 
Wis: ELAR GUD. Jerecey shat evga c talevedicn eters: afsgarenet st jae 


Special Articles :— 
Effect of Drying upon Legume Bacteria: 
Karz F, KeELtterMAn and T. D. BecKwiTH. 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Helm Clouds in North Carolina; Daily 
March of Temperature in the Tropics; 
Rainfall of Mexico; Notes: PRoressor R. 


ADE CS WWIABD itis ret sl terete tenstamier acts: wn ovoyoeeeen 
Botanical Notes :— 
Botanical Articles im Recent Periodicals ; 
Cryptogamae Formationum Coloradensium ; 
Recent Botanical Bulletins; The Kew Pub- 
lications; Montana Botany: PROFESSOR 
CHARLES H. BESSEY...................- 
The Magnetic Survey of the Pacific Ocean: 
1D, I, vals IDNR G po bGbopaDooDbOcnoeeuad 


441 


460 


463 
465 


465 


469 


471 


472 


University Control: Proressor J. McK&Een 


CATED erie stele yekotersielicrerepaiiate i svalleselct erates 475 
Scientific Notes and News...............-. 477 
University and Educational News........ .. 480 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of SclIENCE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL 
SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 

THE seventh annual meeting was held 
December 28 to 30, 1905, at Columbia Uni- 
versity, New York. Some sixty members 
were in attendance and forty papers were 
on the program. 

As usual, a number of pleasant social 
gatherings occurred during the meeting. 
On December 29 all lunched together in 
the department of astronomy, and in the 
evening were received by Mrs. Henry 
Draper at her house on Madison Avenue; 
many members also attended a dinner of 
the Mathematical Society and the Physical 
Society on the same evening. 

The election resulted as follows: 

President—h. C. Pickering. 

First Vice-president—George EH. Hale. 

Second Vice-president—W. W. Campbell. 

Secretary—George C. Comstock. 

Treasurer—C. L. Doolittle. 

Councilors for 1906—S—H. B. Frost and Harold 
Jacoby. 


The council designated Harold Jacoby to 
act as editor for 1906. 

We give below a list of papers presented 
at the society’s sessions, together with brief 
abstracts furnished by the authors. Some 
of these have been slightly condensed by 
the editor. 


442 


PAPERS PRESENTED, 


Davin Topp: ‘Saturn as seen with the Hight- 
een-inch Clark Refractor of the Amherst College 
Observatory.’ 

S. I. Bammry: ‘Some Variable Star Problems.’ 

Annie J. Cannon: ‘Maxima and Minima of 
Variable Stars of Long Period.’ 

E. C. Pickering: ‘A Systematic Study of Faint 
Stars.’ 

G. C. Comstock: ‘ Distribution of the Stars.’ 

F. H. Seares: ‘Photometric Investigations.’ 

Mrs. W. P. Firemine: ‘Some Peculiar Spectra.’ 

E. B. Frost: ‘Burnham’s Forthcoming General 
Catalogue of Double Stars.’ 

C. L. Poor: ‘The Figure of the Sun.’ 

J. A. Parkaurst and F. C. Jorpan: ‘ Photo- 
graphie Photometry of Rapidly Changing Variable 
Stars.’ 

S. A. Mircnett: ‘ Spectrograms 
Daroca, Spain, August 30, 1905. 

KE. B. Frost: ‘ Observations of Radial Velocities 
of Stars.’ 

G. H. Prerers: ‘The Solar Corona, as observed 
by the U. S. Naval Observatory Eclipse Expedi- 
tion, August 30, 1905, at Porta Coeli,. Spain.’ 

N. E. Grupert: ‘ Polarized Light in the Corona, 
KEelipse of 1905. 

C. C. TRowBRInGE: ‘ Resemblances between Per- 
sistent Meteor Trains and the Afterglow from 
Electrodeless Discharges.’ 

H. HE. Barwarp: ‘ Vacant Regions of the Sky.’ 

G. C. Comstock: ‘A Proposed Method for the 
Wholesale Determination of Velocities in the Line 
of Sight.’ (To appear in the Astrophysical 
Journal.) 

H. C. Pioxerine: ‘ Determination of Absolute 
Positions of Stars by Photography.’ 

D. P. Topp and R. H. BaxKer: ‘Local Predic- 
tions for the Total Eclipse of 1907 in Turkestan 
and Mongolia.’ 

J. A. BRASHEAR: ‘On Some Evidences of Perma- 
nent Set in Optical Surfaces.’ 

F. H. Seares: ‘The Polaris Vertical Circle 
Method of Determining Time and Azimuth.’ 

Eric Doorirrre: ‘Determination of Adjust- 
ment Errors for the Polar Axis of an Equatorial.’ 

Eric Doorirrie: ‘The Hough Double Stars.’ 

Davip Topp: ‘On the Practical Requisites for 
Securing Perfect Definition in Eclipse Photog- 
raphy.’ 

E. B. Frost: ‘The Observations of Sun-spots 
by the late C. H. F. Peters.’ 

D. P. Topp and R. H. Baxer: ‘ Computed Tracks 
and Totality-durations of Total Solar Eclipses in 
the Twentieth Century.’ 


taken at 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


A. O. Lruscuner: ‘An Analytical Method of 
Determining the Orbits of New Satellites.’ 

W. H. Picxertne: ‘ Planetary Inversion.’ 

C. G. Anpsor: ‘A Standard Pyrheliometer and 
its Use on Mt. Wilson, California.’ (Abstract in 
Scmnce, XXIII., p. 203.) 

B. L. Newkirk: ‘Tables for the Reduction of 
Photographic Measures.’ 

R. T. Crawrorp: ‘A Contribution on Astro- 
nomical Refractions.’ 

Saran F. Wuitine: ‘A Solar Planisphere.’ 

B. L. NewxirK: ‘ Investigation of the Repsold 
Measuring Apparatus of the Students’ Observa- 
tory, Berkeley, Cal.’ 

W. W. Dinwippie: ‘The 40-foot Camera of the 
U. §S. Naval Observatory Eclipse Station at 
Guelma, Africa.’ 

C. D. PrRRINnE: ‘ Polarized Coronal Light, Au- 
gust 30, 1905. 

F. SCHLESINGER and G. B. Buarr: “ Anomalous 
Refraction.’ 

Henrietta §. Leavirr: ‘New Variable Stars in 
the Small Magellanic Cloud’ 

R. 8. Duean: ‘ Magnitudes and Mean Positions 
of 359 Pleiades Stars.’ 

Davin Topp: ‘ Results of Amherst Eclipse Ex- 
pedition to Tripoli, 1905.’ 

M. B. Snyper: ‘The Philadelphia Observatory 
and the Disastrous Fire of March 9, 1905.’ 

R. T. CRAwForD and A. J. CHAMPREUX: ‘ Orbit 
of the Seventh Satellite of Jupiter.’ 


Saturn as seen with the Highteen-inch 
Clark Refractor of Amherst College 
Observatory: Davin Topp. 

This new telescope, which has especially 
fine definition and a very dark field, was 
used the past autumn on the Saturnian sys- 
tem. Pending completion of the microm- 
eter, to be employed on the satellites, at- 
tention was given particularly to the rings. 
and ball. Differences of illumination in- 
the detail of different zones of the rings 
were carefully observed and embodied in a 
drawing. The shadings of the belts on the 
ball were also set down in estimated posi- 
tions, and a watch was kept for spots by 
which to determine anew the rotation time. 


Totalhity-predictions for the Solar Eclipse 
of 1907, January 13-14, in Turkestan 
and Mongolia: Davin Topp and RosBertT: 
H. BAKeEr. 


Maxce 23, 1906.] 


Attention is called to the importance of 
this eclipse in advancing our knowledge of 
the corona. Of eclipses in the immediate 
future, although a total one occurs every 
year from 1907 to 1912, that of 1907 is 
likely to be the most important because the 
paths of its successors are for the most 
part inaccessible. The best region for the 
1907 eclipse is available by means of rail- 
ways recently constructed in Russian terri- 
tory. Also, about 600 miles northwest of 
Peking, the eclipse track is rather difficult 
of access in Mongolia. The writer has 
computed, among other things, the positions 
of ten possible stations, exact local times 
of the four phases, durations of totality, 
position angle of first contact, and sun’s 
altitude and azimuth at middle of eclipse. 
(To be published in The American Journal 
of Science.) 


Some Variable Star Problems: S. I. BAtLEy. 

About ten years ago more than five hun- 
dred variables were found in globular 
clusters; and further discoveries of this 
kind are possible with instruments of large 
size among the faintest stars in the clusters 
already examined, and in clusters which 
have not yet been searched. 

The variables in the clusters Omega Cen- 
tauri, Messier 3 and Messier 5 have now 
been studied. There are in these clusters 
348 variables; for 273 of these periods have 
been determined, averaging about half a 
day. Changes in brightness are very 
rapid, and in many cases the regularity 
of the periods is so great that these stars 
would serve as good celestial time-keepers. 

We have observed the clusters from five 
to twelve years, obtaining from five to ten 
thousand returns of maxima, so that 
periods are obtained which are correct 
within a few tenths of a second. For 
seventy-five of the variables periods have 
not been determined. Of these, sixty-five 
are too difficult, on account of nearness of 


SCIENCE. 


443 


other stars, smallness of the range of varia- 
tion, or both. The remaining ten variables 
present peculiarities not yet understood. 

While our observations for most of these 
variables are satisfied by a simple, uniform 
period, there are a number of cases in 
which it has been necessary to introduce 
a second term, implying a secular variation 
in the period. Several have been found 
which are best explained by the supposi- 
tion that they are doubles, both components 
varying with the same period but with 
alternate maxima. 

The presence of large numbers of vari- 
ables in some clusters, and few, or none, in 
others, calls for an explanation. It may 
be that the axes of revolution of all mem- 
bers of such stellar systems are parallel. 
Variability, if associated with revolution, 
might then depend on the direction from 
which the system is seen. Stars which 
vary for us may be unvarying when seen 
from some other point in space. Again, 
variability doubtless marks an epoch in the 
development of stars. This epoch may be 
in the past for some, present for others, 
and future for still others. 

The typical form of light-curve for vari- 
ables in clusters is difficult to explain on 
the theory of axial revolution. But Dr. 
Curtis has shown recently that a relation 
exists between motion in the line of sight 
and variations in brightness in the case of 
W Sagittarii. Much may be learned by an 
extension of this research to other variable 
stars. 


Maxima and Minima of Variable Stars of 

Long Period: ANNIH J. CANNON. 

The original form of the bibliography of 
variable stars undertaken several years ago 
at Harvard College Observatory and for 
which all the material has been collected, 
was recently modified owing to duplication 
of much of the work by the Gesellschaft 
Committee in their proposed complete 


t44 


“Catalogue of Variable Stars.’ Tables of 
observed maxima and minima for class II., 
or long period stars, are now being printed. 
Proof sheets of such tables for stars be- 
tween 0 and 6 hours right ascension are 
now submitted to the society. These tables 
give in successive columns, calendar date 
of the observed phase, Julian date, magni- 
tude, name of observer, reference, epoch 
and residual from a period computed by 
a formula following the name of the star. 
Residuals have been calculated without the 
use of a second term in the formula: by 
plotting residual curves the form of cor- 
rection to the period may often be found. 
Residual curves of J Andromeda, o 
(omicron) Ceti and S Urse Majoris were 
shown to the society. The residual curve 
of S Urse Majoris, drawn from observa- 
tions extending from 1843 to 1905, shows 
the need of a sine term in the formula. 
The residual curve of 7’ Andromede is in- 
teresting in connection with the discussion 
concerning the period of this star soon 
after its discovery. Observations of o Ceti 
have extended over a longer time than 
those of any other long period variable. 
The residual curve, computed from obser- 
vations since 1596, shows many irregular- 
ities and explains the difficulty of deducing 
a formula to represent the phases of this 
star. 

It is hoped that these tables, by bringing 
together so much material in a convenient 
form, may prove of some use in investigat- 
ing the variables of long period. 


Systematic Study of Faint Stars: BH. C. 

PICKERING. 

This paper described work that has been 
in progress at Harvard College Observa- 
tory, during the past five years, in study- 
ing the faint stars. The sky was divided 
into 48 exactly equal parts, as explained 
in detail in Harvard Annals, XIV., 477, 
and used in various publications of the ob- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIIT. No. 586. 


servatory during the last twenty years. 
Portions of the sky, one degree square, in 
the centers of these regions, have been 
chosen for detailed study. The epoch em- 
ployed is 1900. A sequence of fifteen stars 
of magnitudes 7.5 to 12.5 has been selected 
and measured with the twelve-inch merid- 


ian photometer, in each of these regions. 


Photographs have been taken with two 
hours’ exposure, using the twenty-four-inch 
Bruce telescope, showing stars of magni- 
tude 16, and brighter, and these have been 
enlarged to a scale of 20” 1mm. Photo- 
graphs of the spectra with small dis- 
persion, showing stars to magnitude 11, 
have been taken, and charts in and out of 
focus have been obtained. Photographs of 
these regions have also been made at the 
altitude of the pole, and for comparison the 
pole itself was photographed with the same 
exposure upon the same plate. The photo- 
graphic magnitudes of all stars in the 
sequences mentioned above can thus be 
determined on the same scale. The meas- 


urement of photometric magnitudes from 


isochromatice plates is now in progress. 

Nearly all photographs of the thirty-six 
regions north of declination — 30°, and 
many of the others, have been completed; 
the entire work would probably have been 
finished, had the appropriation of 1902 
been continued. 


Distribution of the Stars: Gro. C. Com- 

STOCK. 

This paper deals with the extent of the 
visible universe and with the arrangement 
of the stars composing it. The data avail- 
able and utilized for the discussion are of 
two kinds, (@) the number of stars per 
square degree of the sky as shown by the 
enumerations and gauges of Pickering, 
Argelander-Seeliger, Celoria and the Her- 
schels, extending from the brightest stars 
down to the faintest visible in the Herschel 
telescope, about the fourteenth magnitude; 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


and (b) the average distances of the stars 
of each individual magnitude. These dis- 
tances are obtained from a combination of 
the velocity with which the solar system 
moves through space and the resulting ap- 
parent displacement of the stars in the sky, 
the solar motion being determined spectro- 
scopically and the displacement of the 
stars by means of the meridian circle. 
Kapteyn has obtained in this way the mean 
distances of stars from the third to the 
ninth magnitude; the present paper sup- 
plements this by a new determination of 
distances for stars between the ninth and 
eleventh magnitudes. 

Based upon a part only of the above 
material, current astronomical doctrine 
affirms that the visible universe is a stellar 
system of limited extent whose boundaries, 
at least in some directions, lie within reach 
of our present telescopes. This view is 
opposed in the present paper, where it is 
pointed out that the evidence in favor of 
limited extent is obtained by ignoring two 
important factors of the problem; when 
these factors are taken into account the 
supposed evidence vanishes. 

The first, and more important, of these 
factors relates to the intrinsic brightness 
of the stars. It has been commonly as- 
sumed that the fainter stars appear faint 
because of their greater distance from the 
earth and that there is no reason to sup- 
pose them to be intrinsically less luminous 
than the bright ones. The first part of 
this statement is unquestionably correct as 
far as it goes; the second part is wholly 
wrong. The faint stars, according to the 
writer, are less luminous than the bright 
ones, and stars of any given magnitude 
emit, on the average, only ninety per cent. 
as much light as do stars a magnitude 
brighter. 

The second factor omitted im. previous 
discussions is not here ignored, but re- 


SCIENCE. 


445 


jected as useless. The known existence of 
dark matter or cosmic dust scattered 
through space leads naturally to the sup- 
position that it may in some manner affect 
the transparency of interstellar spaces and 
cause an appreciable diminution in the 
light of fainter stars. Although this view 
has been rejected from current theories, it 
is evident from mathematical discussion of 
the data here considered that there is such 
an absorption and that approximately five 
per cent. of light is lost in transmission 
over a distance equal to a million times the 
diameter of the earth’s orbit. 

In abandoning the concept of a stellar 
system of limited and measurable extent 
the writer considers, provisionally, the con- 
sequences that result from the hypothesis 
of a system indefinitely extended on every 
side, with substantial uniformity in the 
direction of the Milky Way but thinning 
out on either side of the Milky Way, be- 
cause the stars are here less numerous, or 
less brilliant, or because a denser cosmic 
dust more effectually quenches their light. 
It is impossible, now, to decide between 
these alternatives, but something of the 
kind is operative, and any one of the alter- 
natives or a combination of all suffices to 
explain every feature of the stellar system 
for which the current theory accounts. 
The new hypothesis also brings out features 
hitherto unrecognized or unexplained. 

The stars are not all of one kind, but 
differ among themselves in physical condi- 
tion and properties which the spectroscope 
is able to detect and analyze. By far the 
larger part of the stars fall into one of 
two classes which the spectroscopists desig- 
nate as type I. and type II., and which 
they regard as different stages of develop- 
ment of the individual, a star of type I. 
passing over with inereasing age into type 
Il. Now Pickering has shown recently 
that these stellar types are not scattered in- 


446 


discriminately throughout the sky, but that 
the younger stars, type I., show a more pro- 
nounced tendency to cluster along the milky 
way than do the mature ones, and this tend- 
ency grows more and more pronounced with 
diminishing brightness of the stars. It is 
difficult to see why this should be so; why 
one part of the universe should lag behind 
the rest in development, but the new 
hypothesis indicates at once that such is 
not the ease. The distribution found by 
Professor Pickering is only an apparent 
one depending upon the known fact that 
the type I. stars are intrinsically brighter 
than their companions of type Il. This 
fact alone in a system such as is here sup- 
posed would produce an increasing accumu- 
lation of faint, and therefore distant, stars 
of this type in the region adjoining the 
milky way, although, in fact, the two types 
may be everywhere distributed with a uni- 
form ratio of frequency. 

Other matters can be touched upon here 
in a summary way only. It is qn im- 
mediate consequence of the present hypoth- 
esis that any considerable group of stars in 
a part of the sky remote from the milky 
way must on the average be nearer to us 
than a group of similar stars in the milky 
way. Although this relation has not been 
recognized hitherto, the writer finds from 
his own observations of faint stars between 
the ninth and twelfth magnitudes that such 
is the fact, the stars in the milky way be- 
ing twenty-eight per cent. more distant 
than the mean of all other stars. It is com- 
monly stated that the brightest stars emit 
an amount of light enormously greater 
than that given by the sun, 1,000 or 10,000 
times as much, but from the measured 
magnitudes and distances of the stars it 
appears that while the large majority are 
brighter than the sun, few if any are more 
than two hundred times as bright. 

Much of the investigation contained in 
this paper is summed up in a series of for- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


mulas, one of which shows the number of 
stars in the sky that are brighter than a 
given magnitude, e. g., the tenth. Another 
shows the average distance of the stars of 
any assigned magnitude. A partial proof 
of the substantial accuracy of the numerical 
work contained in the paper is found in 
the fact that this last formula, although 
based solely upon distances of the fainter 
stars, derived by an indirect process, is in 
excellent agreement with the directly meas- 
ured distances of the brightest stars. 


Photometric Investigations: EF. H. SEaRzs. 

This paper is a summary of results in an 
investigation of the wedges belonging to a 
Pickering equalizing stellar photometer. 
Two wedges were examined; one of photo- 
eraphic film, the other of shade glass. Ab- 
sorption curves were determined by means 
of a disc photometer. The magnitude 
scales underlying these curves were then 
compared with that of the Miller and 
Kempf catalogue of Pleiades stars. Magni- 
tude differences of twenty-one pairs of stars 
were measured and the results compared 
with the catalogue. The stars observed 
range from 7.24 to 10.76 magnitudes; the 
magnitude differences, from 0.80 to 3.52 
magnitudes, with an average of 1.8 mag- 
nitude. 

Hight observations were made with the 
shade glass wedge upon each pair. With 
three exceptions, each pair was measured 
upon at least four different nights. The 
results for this wedge are: P.H. of a single 
observation of four comparisons, = 0.066 
mag.; average deviation of mean magni- 
tude difference from the catalogue differ- 
ence, 0.07 mag.; deviation of wedge magni- 
tude scale from the scale of Miller and 
Kempf, for the range 8.2-10.0 magnitudes, 
+ 0.028 mag. The scale agreement is to 
be considered satisfactory, since the devia- 
tion is not greater than may arise from 
personality alone. 


MarcwH 23, 1906.] 


Results for the photographie wedge were 
derived from five observations upon each 
pair, measured on three nights. The re- 
sults are: P.E. of a single observation of 
four comparisons, = 0.078 mag.; average 
deviation from the Miller and Kempf mag- 
nitude difference, 0.12 mag.; scale differ- 
ence, — 0.073 mag. The two scales can 
be brought into agreement by multiplying 
the ordinates of the absorption curve of the 
photographie wedge by the factor 0.961. 

The photographie wedge has been dis- 
carded in favor of that of shade glass. 

Details of the investigation are to be 
found in Laws Observatory Bulletin No. 7. 


Some Peculiar Spectra: Mrs. W. P. PuEM- 

ING. 

The examination of stellar spectrum pho- 
tographs at Harvard College Observatory, 
forming part of the work of the Henry 
Draper Memorial, has enabled us to follow 
new Stars until they became gaseous nebule, 
too faint for observation. Since we can 
pass from gaseous nebule to stars of class 
O, or type V., in which characteristic bright 
lines extend from wave-length 4600 to 4800, 
thence to stars having several hydrogen 
lines bright with dark lines of helium also 
present, and from the latter through classes 
B, A, F, G, K and M, we may assume that 
we have a key to the formation of the 
stellar universe. 

In putting together results from an ex- 
amination of variable stars whose spectra 
_ are of class Md it was found that a few 
stars were assigned to several subdivisions 
extending from Md1 to Md10, the most 
marked case bemg S Carinae. Further 
examination showed actual changes in the 
spectrum, which probably (as in the case 
of 8 Lyra) follow closely the variations in 
light. & Scuti also shows changes, and 
quite recently & Cygni, another long period 
variable, has been added to this list. 

The spectrum of the star (now known 


SCIENCE. 


447 


to be a gaseous nebula) — 12° 1172, mag. 
9.2, when found on Harvard photographs, 
has always led to an examination of the 
list of nove before that of nebule, since in 
this spectrum the bright nebular lines at 
wave-lengths 5003 and 5007 are quite faint, 
the hydrogen lines, Hé, He, H8, Hy, and 
HB are bright and of normal intensity, 
while the most marked feature is the broad 
bright line at wave-length 3724. This is 
not generally well defined in photographic 
spectra of gaseous nebule, in which the 
strong line in the violet end is 3868, of 
slightly shorter wave-leneth than Hé. 

The star 7.C. 185 1935, mag. 9, shows a 
peculiar form of spectrum not yet assigned 
to its class. The continuous spectrum con- 
tains strong, dark bands of which the most 
marked extend from 4650 to 4710. This 
agrees closely with the strong character- 
istic bright line in spectra of the fifth type. 
A few other stars with similar spectra have 


been announced in Harvard Circulars. The 
variable star—Crucis, R.A. =12"50™.7, 
Dee. = — 57° 21’ (1900), has a spectrum 


similar to that of 7.C. 18" 1935, but in it 
the hydrogen lines Hy and HB are bright, 
as in variables of the earlier subdivisions 
of class Md. 

No other spectrum has yet been found 
on these photographs like that of 7’ Gruis, 
but that of R Cygni, as photographed on 
December 2, 1890, bears a closer resem- 
blanee to it than any other spectrum yet 
photographed here. 


Burnham’s Forthcoming General Catalogue 
of Double Stars: Epwin B. Frost. 
With Professor Burnham’s permission a 

brief statement is made here regarding 

this important undertaking, the basis for 
which has existed in manuseript for many 
years. A grant from the Carnegie Insti- 
tution in 1903 made publication possible, 
and rather more than four fifths of the 
work has now been set up and electrotyped. 


448 


Tt includes about 13,000 double stars north 
of 31° south declination. 

Part I. consists of a tabular catalogue, in 
quarto form, giving in order of right as- 
cension the position, first measures, ob- 
server and other data, in eleven columns. 

Part II. contains notes on the stars, 
selected measures (up to date of print- 
ing), showing motion or otherwise, present 
relation of the components, and references 
to all published measures. 

This part will include some 10,000 un- 
published observations made at the Yerkes 
Observatory in the last five years, and 
about as many more furnished principally 
by Messrs. Aitkin and Hussey of the Lick 
Observatory and Hrie Doolittle of the 
Flower Observatory. 

It is hoped that the work may be pub- 
lished during the year 1906. 


Photographic Photometry of Rapidly 
Changing Variable Stars: J. A. ParK- 
HuRST and F. C. JORDAN. 

The light-ceurves of certain rapidly 
changing variables were determined from 
a series of short exposures on a single plate, 
_ taken with the twenty-four-inch Yerkes re- 
fleeting telescope. In order to utilize fully 
the advantages of the method: (1) the ex- 
posures were made short, so as not to 
smooth out the light-curve; (2) a number 
of comparison stars were used; (3) diam- 
eters of the focal images were measured to 
0.001 mm. under the microscope. 

The variable stars investigated by this 
method were: 


Number of Number of 

a Star. lates. Exposures. 
U Cephei, 1 20 
W Urse Majoris, 3 35 
RW Tauri, 7 55 
14. 1904 Cygni, 8 53 
32 Cassiopeia, 4 72 

Results.—(1) -U Cepher. The vwell- 


known: curve was reproduced, with average 
residuals of = 0.04 magnitude.isu(2) W 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


Urse Majoris. The curve is similar to that 
drawn by Miiller and Kempf; with correc- 
tions to their ephemeris for epoch 1777, 
+ 2™; epoch 1945, +13". (3) RW 
Tauri. The range is 34 magnitudes, the 
most rapid change at the rate of three 
magnitudes per hour; the correction to 
Pickering’s ephemeris at epoch 2598 is 
+ 38"; epoch 2602, + 37™. (4) 14.1904 
Cygni. The range is 0.7 magnitude, the 
period. is 38 1™ 268.4; the curve resembles 
the ‘cluster type.’ (5) 32 Cassiopeia 
(suspected variable). No variation was 
found beyond accidental errors of meas- 
urement, the mean residuals for the four 
plates, each covering the greater part of the 
suspected period, being + 0.05, + 0.05, 
= 0.06 and + 0.04 magnitudes. 


Spectrograms taken at Daroca, Spain, 
August 30, 1905 (U. S. Eclipse Expedi- 
tion): S. A. MircHEL. 

Five spectrographs were employed; three 
eratings and the other two alike having a 
dispersion of one weak prism. Weather 
conditions were perfect. Results with the 
two larger mstruments are as follows: 

1. Parabolic grating, diameter four 
inches, with 14,438 lines to the inch and 
a focal length of five feet. The dispersion 
of this instrument is about the same as the 
Bruce three-prism spectrograph of the 
Yerkes Observatory and the Mills spectro- 
graph of the Lick Observatory. The dis- 
tance from D, to H is almost exactly seven 
inches, the total length of the photographed 
spectrum being 9.5 inches. The definition 
is excellent throughout the whole length of 
the flash, which extends from D, to 3300, 
and shows a very great number of lines. 

The spectrum taken near mid-totality 
shows some interesting coronal rings. The 
ereen ‘coronium’ ring appears very plainly 
and two rings in the extreme ultra-violet 
are just as prominent on the photograph 
as the green ring. « As the plate used has 


MarcwH 23, 1906.] 


a photographie action which is just as in- 
tense in the ultra violet as in the green, it 
would seem that the corona is very rich in 
ultra-violet rays. The following coronal 
lines are seen at approximately, AA3381, 
3388, 3455, 3648, 3984, 4228, 4565, 4618 
and the ‘coronium’ line at 49303. 

2. Flat Grating, with 15,000 lines to the 
inch, and a ruled surface 3} x 6 inches. 
The lens is a Clark five-inch visual with a 
foeal length of about six feet. On the 
photographs the distance from D, to H is 
eight mehes. In the flash spectrum lines 
can be seen beyond D toward the red al- 
most to C. This is the end of the spec- 
trum most desired, and the focus is excel- 
lent from F to the extreme of the red. 
The green (coronium) ring also appears 
on the plates taken near mid-totality. 


Observations of Radial Velocities: EDWIN 

B. Frost. 

The four principal programs of observa- 
tions with the Bruce spectrograph of the 
Yerkes Observatory are: (1) standard ve- 
locity stars; (2) stars of Orion type; (3) 
visual binaries; (4) miscellaneous variable 
stars. About 500 plates of over 100 stars 
of program (2) have been measured (many 
in duplicate) ; three or more satisfactory 
plates have been obtained of 135 stars of 
the Orion type, and one or two plates of 
forty more. 

It is important to secure at this epoch 
good determinations of the sight-line ve- 
locity component for visual binaries of 
program (3). With Burnham’s assistance 
an observing list was compiled containing 
120 stars known to be binary, and bright 
enough to be observable with the Bruce 
spectrograph, at least with one prism. 
Preference was given to pairs differing in 
magnitude sufficiently to prevent confusion 
of spectra, and for which the brighter com- 
ponent would have fairly sharp lines. 


SCIENCE. 


449 


The writer’s measurements of P Cygni 
show that the strong and broad bright com- 
ponents of the hydrogen and helium lines 
have only a very small displacement, cor- 
responding to a radial velocity of about 
12 lm. per second of approach; while the 
dark components, sharply defined at each 
margin, and comparatively narrow, yield 
very large displacements toward the violet, 
differing for hydrogen and helium. If 
interpreted by Doppler’s principle, the 
velocities (approach) would be about 190 
Im. for hydrogen and 150 km. for helium; 
the three blue silicon lines seem to have no 
bright components, and from these a con- 
sistent value of about 80 km. (approach) 
is derived. An attempt to account for 
these differences as a result of overlapping 
of the dark and bright lines has not yet 
been successful. A comparison with Belo- 
polsky’s observations of this star made in 
1899 indicates that the displacements are 
not variable. Physical eauses may be re- 
sponsible for this remarkable spectrum. 

Spectrograms of the variable star R T 
Cygm, obtained in conjunction with Park- 
hurst, when the star was of magnitude 7.5, 
showed bright Hy and H8 with an ex- 
posure as short as 45 minutes. These 
bright lines were very strongly displaced 
toward the violet, corresponding to an ap- 
proaching radial velocity of 100 km. per 
second. It now seems probable that this 
did not vary during the first half of De- 
cember, 1905, which period included the 
five plates obtained. 

It is possible that variations occur in the 
bright lines of Pleione, which were very 
weak, if present, on three plates recently 
obtained, although they were shown on 
spectrograms taken by the writer at Pots- 
dam in 1891, and on Harvard plates. The 
spectrum of a Columbe is peculiar, and » 
Orionis has been found to be ‘a spectro- 
scopic binary. 


450 


The Solar Corona, as observed by the U. 8. 
Naval Observatory Eclipse Expedition, 
August 80, 1905, at Porta Cali, Spain: 
G. H. PEerErs. 

The observing station was near the east- 
ern coast of Spain, north of Valencia. It 
was located about ten miles north of the 
southern limit of the shadow path, for the 
purpose of studying especially the regions 
about the southern pole of the sun. 

The corona at this eclipse, occurring near 
the sun-spot maximum, had a structure 
entirely different from those of 1900 and 
1901. The polar rays were nearly oblit- 
erated by numerous streamers and wings, 
which were nearly equally prominent 
throughout the whole circumference. The 
entire corona exhibited a mass of fine de- 
tails, considerably striated, and to a great 
extent intermingled. 


Vacant Regions of the Sky: HE. HE. BARNARD. 

There are two distinct classes of these 
vacancies. The commonest form has all 
the appearance of real openings in the bed- 
work of stars—through which there is an 
uninterrupted view of space. The other 
class, mainly found in Ophiuchus and 
Scorpio, suggest the presence of a nebulous 
substratum among the stars. The appear- 
ance of these latter regions is widely dif- 
ferent from ordinary vacancies, their 
marked features being areas devoid of 
stars, yet apparently filled with some other 
substance in which blacker holes occur, as 
if there were a nebulous veiling pierced 
with holes and rifts. 

The most remarkable of these regions are 
those about 6 and p Ophwechi, the latter 
being connected with the great nebula of 
p Ophiuchi. From this latter region a 
straggling vacant lane runs easterly for a 
distance of some 15° and connects with a 
great chasm just east of 6 Ophiuchi. Some 
vacancies near this latter star are very 
small and very curious, all showing more 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIL. No. 586. 


or less the appearance of vacancies within 
vacancies. 

Attention is called to the probable rela- 
tive smallness of stars forming the bed- 
work of the Milky Way near Antares. 
The small stars here seem to be intimately 
related to the great nebula of p Ophiwche. 
But the nebula certainly involves such 
naked eye stars as p Ophiuchi and o Scor- 
pti, and appears to involve even Antares. 
Reasoning from this that the nebula, the 
small stars of the Milky Way, and the 
brighter stars here, are at relatively the 
same distance from us, the natural coneclu- 
sion is that the apparently great difference - 
in size between the above-named stars and 
the groundwork of small stars of the Milky 
Way at this point is not so much due to a 
ereater distance of the smaller stars as to 
their being actually very much smaller. 


Determination of Absolute Star Positions 
by Photography: KH. C. PIcKERING. 

It is proposed ‘to determine the absolute 
positions of a zone of equatorial stars by 
means of photography. <A telescope of 
long focus is pointed to the intersection 
of the equator and meridian, and motion is 
given to the photographie plate equal to 
that of the stars. Reference points are 
furnished by holes through which a small 
incandescent light shines on the plates. 
Current is sent from a standard clock, 
which should be kept underground at a 
uniform temperature and pressure. As 
observations would extend over one year 
at least, errors depending on the sun’s posi- 
tion should be eliminated. The only parts 
of the apparatus that need be rigid are the 
objective and the plate carrying the refer- 
ence holes. So long as the images, which 
have an exposure of about a minute, are 
sensibly circular, or uniformly elongated, 
slight motions of the photographic plate 
are unimportant. The principal advantage 
of this method is that stars as faint as the 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


tenth or eleventh magnitude may be re- 
corded, and a large part of the entire re- 
gion may be photographed in a single 
night. It might be better to photograph 
a zone a little north of the equator in mid- 
winter, at a station so far north that ob- 
servations could be made continuously dur- 
ing twenty-four hours. Many forms of 
small systematic error would thus be elim- 
inated. 


The Polaris Vertical Circle Method of De- 
termining Time and Azimuth: F. H. 
SEARES. 

The vertical circle method of observing 
for time and azimuth has been known for 
a century or more, is capable of affording 
very precise results, but has never found 
general acceptance on account of a lack of 
satisfactory methods of reduction. The 
most important methods have been devised 
by Déllen and Harzer. The formule of 
Déllen are not sufficiently accurate for 
many purposes; moreover, the Ephemerides 
necessary for the use of his formule are 
no longer published. The method of re- 
duction proposed by Harzer lacks nothing 
im precision, but the calculations are un- 
necessarily long. Laws Observatory Bul- 
letin No. 5 contains a method which affords 
the desired precision, and permits of a 
saving of three tenths in the labor of eal- 
culation as compared with the process of 
Harzer. The present paper separates the 
features which are essential for the prac- 
tical application of the method from cer- 
tain purely theoretical considerations con- 
tained in Bulletin No. 5, and is intended 
to exhibit more clearly the simplicity and 
brevity of the operations involved in the 
employment of the writer’s formule. 

Although it is not contended that the 
vertical circle method can profitably re- 
place the older methods in all cases, the 
following advantages are claimed: 


SCIENCE. 


451 


1. A saving in labor when it is necessary 
to determine both time and azimuth. 

2. A gain in precision and a saving in 
labor in the determination of time with 
unstable instruments, especially when it is 
desirable to secure all possible accuracy. 

3. A frequent saving in time and labor, 
irrespective of whether the instrument be 
stable or unstable, when it is necessary to 
work through clouds. 

4, When applied to the engineer’s tran- 
sit, it affords a very simple and precise 
method of determining time in the field, 
and frees the observer from any necessity 
of waiting for an elongation of Polaris in 
order to secure observations for azimuth. 


Determination of Adjustment Errors for 
the Polar Axis of an Equatorial: Eric 
DOoouiTtLe. 

The method consists in measuring the 
position angle of a pair of stars close to the 
pole. Hach measure gives an equation for 
determining the position angle, supposed 
unknown, and the instrumental errors. 
From several measures at different hour 
angles the latter can be determined with a 
degree of accuracy probably higher than 
by any method in which the circles of the 
instrument are used. The ordinary for- 
mule must, however, be considerably modi- 
fied for this purpose. 

Two determinations of the error of ad- 
justment for the 18-inch equatorial belong- 
ing to the Flower Observatory were made, 
the results agreeing within 1 second, and 
the probable error of each result being less 
than 1.5 seconds. 

The advantages of the method are that 
observations are very easily made, that 
there is no moving of the dome or observing 
chair, and that the time need only be known 
very roughly. The setting circles are not 
read, and hence their errors of graduation 
do not affect the result. The disadvantage 
is that the subsequent labor of reducing 


452 


positions of polar stars to apparent place 
is so great as to preclude the method be- 
coming of much practical value. 


The Hough Double Stars: Kric Doo- 

LITTLE. 

Work on the 622 double stars discovered 
by Hough has been carried on, only about 
50 of them now remaining unmeasured. 
It is hoped that these may be finished dur- 


ine the present year. 


The Observations of Sun-spots by the Late 

C. H. F. Peters: Enwin B. Frost. 

It has been for many years a matter of 
regret to students of the sun that the solar 
observations by this careful observer have 
remained inaccessible. In 1904 the Car- 
negie Institution decided to publish them, 
and the writer was requested to edit them. 

The observations cover the decade from 
May, 1860, to May, 1870, with some inter- 
ruptions, and more than 13,000 heliographic 
positions of spots were accurately deter- 
mined on over 1,100 days. ‘The first year’s 
observations overlap the last year of Car- 
rington’s series, and Spoerer’s observations 
at Anclam extend from 1861 to 1871. 
While it is thus decidedly ~ unfortunate 
that Peters’s results could not have been 
published thirty-five years ago, their value 
for comparative purposes is still great, and 
they were obtained with better instru- 
mental equipment than the other two con- 
temporary series. 

The manuscript was supposed to have 
been left by Dr. Peters in a condition for 
printing, but some abridgment of the tab- 
ular data has now seemed desirable. No 
manuscript has been found describing the 
method of observation or procedure used 
in obtaining the constants of reduction, 
which constants in fact have to be inferred. 
The galley proofs of the tabular part have 
now been read, and it is hoped that the 
volume can be issued during 1906,5: 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


Computed Tracks and Totality-durations of 
Total Solar Eclipses in the Twentieth 
Century: Davin Topp and Rosrrt H. 
Baker. 

Their tracks of visibility have been caleu- 
lated and charted as accurately as possible. 
This has been done from Oppolzer’s tables 
(Canon der Finsternisse), the most reliable 
at present in existence, and Oppolzer’s own 
charts corrected. The longest eclipses of 
the next half-century are: 


1911, April 28, duration 514 minutes. 


1919, May 29, duration 7 minutes. 
1922, September 21, duration 61% minutes. 
1923, September 10, duration 4 minutes. 


1926, January 14, 
1929, May 9, 
1937, June 8, 
1940, October 1, 
1944, January 25, 
1947, May 20, 
1955, June 20, 


duration 44% minutes. 
duration 514 minutes. 
duration 74 minutes. 
duration 6 minutes. 
duration 44% minutes. 
duration 514 minutes. 
’ duration 742 minutes. 


An Analytical Method of Determining 
Orbits of New Satellites: A. O. LnuscH- 
NER. 

This paper contains formule for the com- 
putation of osculating elements of a ma- 
terial point moving under the attraction 
of more than one mass, from three or more 
geocentric observations. It is applicable 
to satellites, comets or asteroids which are 
ereatly disturbed during the time over 
which the observations available for the 
computation of an orbit extend. ‘The re- 
sulting osculating elements are the elements 
that would result from a solution irrespec- 
tive of the perturbations if the observed 
right ascensions and declinations of the 
material point could be corrected in ad- 
vance for the perturbations, starting with 
an arbitrary epoch of osculation within the 
range of the observations. As in the short 
method proposed by the writer for deriving 
orbits of comets and asteroids, the right 
ascension (a) and declination (8), their 
velocities (a’, 8’), and accelerations (a”’, 8”), 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


are determined empirically for the date of 
an observation near the middle of the avail- 
able data. Being accurately determined 
from the disturbed geocentric coordinates, 
these six quantities correspond to the oscu- 
lating elements. 

In the case of a distant satellite of 
Jupiter disturbed by the sun, let be: 


p, a, 6, c=p cos 4, ~, n, §= geocentric coordi- 
nates of the satellite. 

7, a, b, S=r cos b, x, y, =Jovicentric coordi- 
nates of the satellite. 

fr], [a], [6], [8] =[r] eos [6], [2], [y], fe] = 


heliocentric coordinates of the satellite. 


(p), (a), (6), (¢)=(p) cos (6), (&), (nm), 
(¢) =geocentrie coordinates of Jupiter. 
(r), (a), (6), (s)=(r) cos (6), (#), (y), 


(2) =heliocentrie coordinates of Jupiter. 

R, A, D, S=R cos D, X, Y, Z=geocentric 
coordinates of the sun. 

(k)?=mk?*, where m=mass of Jupiter. 


Then from the equation of motion of the 
satellite referred to Jupiter’s center as 
origin : 

ax x [2] (x) 
ee Wa 
and the corresponding equations in y and 2, 
three equations are deduced which give 
Pp, p> p, in terms of known coordinates, 
velocities and accelerations, and in terms 
of the unknowns (7) and [r]. The com- 
plete expression for p is 
B 
[rls 
A, B and C being expressed, as indicated 
above, in terms of known quantities. The 
solution of this equation together with the 
equations 
[7]? = R? + p?—2Rp cos [y] 
= (p)* +p’ —2(p)p cos (p) 


A 
Dies 4 @h 


gives all the values of p corresponding to 
the various possible solutions. In practise, 
the solution of these equations is very sim- 
ple. From p the value of p’ is derived. 
The remaining steps leading to the oscu- 
lating elements are similar to those of the 


SCIENCE. 


453 


short method. The short method, itself, is 
a special case of that under discussion, 
terms depending upon the mass of Jupiter 
dropping out and the motion being referred 
to the center of the sun. 

Among other special cases of this analyt- 
ical method is that obtained by omitting 
the terms depending upon the solar attrac- 
tion in these formule. The resulting 
formule will then be those for the deter- 
mination of the undisturbed motion of the 
satellite. The general method is applicable 
to material points moving under the attrac- 
tion of any number of masses. The method 
presents the advantage that it is free from 
all arbitrary assumptions, whether intro- 
duced with the assistance of graphical con- 
struction or otherwise, and that it reveals 
all possible sets of osculating elements 
which will represent the disturbed geocen- 
tric positions given by observation. 


Planetary Inversion: Wimiutam H. Picx- 

ERING. 

This paper was illustrated with a gyro- 
scope. . The subject’ has already been 
treated theoretically in other places, and 
the present paper is therefore purely ex- 
perimental. The gyroscope was arranged 
so that it could turn about an axis passing 
through the plane of the wheel, and also 
about a vertical shaft which supported it. 

According to the nebular hypothesis, 
when the rings or spirals surrounding a 
central sun broke up into planets, each 
planet should, by Kepler’s third law, have 
a retrograde rotation. The fact that nearly 
all planets rotate in the opposite direction 
has always been held a serious objection to 
the hypothesis, and several different sug- 
gestions have been offered to explain the 
discrepancy. None of these even attempted, 
however, to explain the rotation of Uranus, 
which lies in a plane practically at right 
angles to the orbit. 

The gyroscope was set spinning in a 


454 


retrograde direction. The stand which 
supported it was then held by the speaker 
at arm’s length, while he gave himself a 
slow direct rotation upon his feet, thus 
imitating the motion of a retrograde planet 
in its orbit. By applying friction to the 
vertical shaft, and thus introducing the 
effect of an annual tide upon a planet, it 
was shown that the gyroscope would slowly 
shift its plane of motion. Its equator first 
became inclined to the orbit, like that of 
Neptune, and later nearly at right angles 
to it like that of Uranus. The shifting 
of the plane of rotation continuing in the 
same direction, the rotation itself now be- 
came direct, and its plane gradually ap- 
proached that of the orbit. The inclina- 
tion was before long the same as that of 
Saturn, and later the same as that of 
Jupiter. The two planes now practically 
coincided, and the rotation and revolution 
were in the same direction. 

When this became the case the plane of 
rotation had reached a position of stable 
equilibrium, unaffected further by tidal 
action. Reversing the direction of orbital 
motion again shifted the plane of rotation, 
which now also became retrograde, showing 
that the phenomenon exhibited was a real 
property of the gyroscope, as had indeed 
been proved theoretically, and was not an 
effect due to some faulty construction of 
this particular instrument. 


Tables for the Reduction of Photographic 

Measures: Burt Ll. Newkirk. 

These tables are intended to facilitate 
the transformation from standard rect- 
angular coordinates to differences of right 
ascension and declination as well as the 
converse transformation, and the correction 
for refraction, including terms higher than 
the first order in the measured coordinates. 
Being intended primarily for use in the 
reduction of plates made with certain lenses 
belonging to the Berkeley Astronomical 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vox. XXIII. No. 586. 


Department, which cover a field some ten 
degrees in diameter, they are applicable to 
stars whose right ascensions differ from 
that of the center of the plate by ten de- 
grees or less and whose declinations differ 
from that of the center of the plate by five 
degrees or less, no matter what the declina- 
tion of the center of the plate may be. 
The tables for the transformation of 
standard rectangular coordinates into in- 
tervals of right ascension and declination 
and its converse are based upon Professor 
Turner’s fundamental relations: 
n= tan (d —6,) 
tan d= tan 6 see (a — a) 
tan (a — a) 


=sec d= ——_—_—_ 
cos (d — 6) 


Three tables have been constructed, giving 
quantities A, B, C, such that, given: 

Qo, 8, €, 1) 

ad —6,=kn — A, 


a—a,— késec i — OC, 


d—sé6 =B, 
giving: 

s— 5 —=ad—  — (d—d), 
or, given: 

Qo, 5, a, 5, 

d—65=B, 

kn =d—6, +4, 

késecd= (a—a,) + C. 
In which 


%, 5, = coordinates of center of plate; 
a,6= coordinates of star; 
£,7=standard coordinates of star; 

k=scale value factor. 


The tables for the determination of the 
refraction correction are also based upon 
formulas of Professor Turner: 

Ar= (X— a)t, 
Ay= (Y—y)t, 
‘l+e4+y9 
t=yul+aX+yY 
In which 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


e x }=tme coordinates of zenith and star pro- 
ve jected on plate; 


Ag Bers ; 
A | — projections on plate of total displace- 
“ ment of star due to refraction; 


“#==refraction constant. 


The fables are so construeted that the 
terms of Az and Ay, which represent the 
displacement common to the star and the 
center of the plate, have been omitted. 
Those terms of Av which are proportional 
to ~ and the terms of Ay which are pro- 
portional to y have also been omitted, these 


corrections being automatically applied in - 


the determination of the plate constants. 


A Contribution on Astronomical Refrac- 
tion: RUSSELL TRACY CRAWFORD. 

An investigation of the constant of re- 
fraction was made in the year 1899 which 
resulted in the discovery that this so-called 
constant is a function of the zenith dis- 
tance. The observations were made with 
the Repsold meridian circle of the Lick 
Observatory and reduced by a method 
which is the converse of Talcott’s method 
of determining latitude. 

This method has both its advantages and 
disadvantages. Among the former, the 
most important are: first, total elimination 
of the latitude, and hence also of its varia- 
tion; second, elimination of the nadir read- 
ing; third, there is no wait of twelve hours 
or six months in order to observe a star at 
both culminations; fourth, only one half 
of any error of observation or in the 
declinations used enters into the reduc- 
tions; and, finally, the simplicity of the 
observations. Z 

The greatest disadvantage lies in the fact 
that the declinations have to be considered 
known. But by taking fundamental stars, 
such as those of Professor Newecomb’s new 


‘Fundamental Catalogue,’ and by taking a 


large number of these stars, this difficulty 
will be nearly completely eliminated. 


SCIENCE. 


455 


Two independent series of observations 
were made for this investigation. One was 
made during the summer months, giving 

A log 4 = 0.000101 (56°.6 — 2). 


The other made during the winter months 
gives 

A log 4 = 0.000117 (59°.3 — z). 
Combining these into one solution, the two 
constants of the expression become 


+ 0.000108 + 0.000010 and 58° + 8°, 


so that the Pulkowa tables should be cor- 
rected by 


A log «= 0.000108 (58° — z) 


where z is the zenith distance in degrees. 

The efficiency of tables constructed by 
applyimg this correction to the Pulkowa 
tables may be shown by comparing a series 
of observations reduced by the two. In 
his preliminary reductions of his observa- 
tions of the Piazzi southern stars, Tucker 
has used the Pulkowa refractions. In his 
final reductions, he has corrected his 
declinations for errors in refraction which 
are given as a functien of the zenith dis- 
tanee. Auwers has published further cor- 
rections to reduce Tucker’s results to his 
fundamental system (Abhdlg. z. d. A. N., 
No. 7). The differences between the cor- 
rections Auwers + Tucker and those re- 
sulting from this investigation are less than 
the probable errors of observations found 
by Tucker. 


A Solar Planisphere: SARAH FE. WHITING. 

In connection with the students’ labora- 
tory work at Whitin Observatory, Welles- 
ley College, a device for working problems 
in relation to the hours of day, night and 
twilight, at different latitudes at different 
times of year, has lately been worked out 
chiefly by EH. Rebecea Ellis, assistant. We 
do not find this simple contrivance, which 
we eall a solar planisphere, elsewhere de- 
seribed. 


- are also drawn. 


456 


Using a stiff card, the sphere is projected 
on the plane of the meridian. The horizon 
and twilight circles eighteen degrees below 
Upon another smaller 
circular card, pivoted to the first at its 
center, the six-o’clock hour-circles through 
the poles, the equator, and diurnal paths 
of the sun at the solstices are projected in 
straight lines. Harmonie projections of 
the hour-cireles for every twenty minutes 
are marked on these. 

By revolving the movable card the pole 
ean be set to the proper elevation for any 
latitude, and the number of hours of dark- 
ness, twilight and daylight can be read. 
The time of sunrise and sunset and the 
meridian altitude of the sun at noon or 
midnight can also be measured. 

These fundamental phenomena should be 
made clear even in preparatory schools, but 
from our observation of college students it 
is evident they are not. To put such a 
piece of apparatus into the hands of each 
student, with which he can solve a set of 
problems, would be another move im the 
direction of individual laboratory work in 
general astronomy which it seems so diffi- 
cult to secure. 

The model has been entrusted to the 
Arthur Hall Scientific Company, of Bos- 
ton, for reproduction, in the hope that it 
may be of service. 


The Repsold Measuring Apparatus of the 
Students’ Observatory, Berkeley, Cal.: 
Burt L. Newkirk. 

This paper contains an investigation of 
the instrument, with a determination of 
corrections which must be applied to meas- 
ures made with it. The method employed 
in measuring division errors of the scales 
is essentially the one employed by Gill for 
the scales of the Cape heliometer and Rep- 
sold measuring apparatus. Corrections 
are determined for each line of the X scale 
and for seventy lines (from line 230 to line 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


300) of the Y scale. The corrections are 
given to ten-thousandths of a millimeter 
and are accurate to within a few units of 
the last place. 

The irregularities of the X micrometer 
throughout three revolutions have been in- 
vestigated and a table of the corresponding 
corrections determined by the method out- 
lined in Briinnow’s ‘Spherical Astronomy,’ 
p. 426, fourth German edition. Two inde- 
pendent determinations yield results differ- 
ing by about .0003 mm. in the maximum. 

The straightness of the cylinder which 
determines the Y axis and of the bar which 
determines the X axis was also tested, as 
well as the perpendicularity of the direc- 
tions of these two parts of the apparatus. 
The cylinder and bar were found to be very 
satisfactory and their directions are made 
perpendicular by adjustment. 

The measurement of the distance be- 
tween two well-defined points on a plate, 
first as a difference of X coordinates and 
then as a difference of Y coordinates, yields 
results differing by slightly more than the 
error of measurement, indicating that the 
Y scale is not exactly parallel to the plate. 
The maladjustment in this particular 
would introduce an error into the measures 
that would in general be entirely negligible. 

Tables are added for applying the neces- 
sary corrections to measured coordinates. 


The Forty-foot Camera of the U. S. Naval 
Observatory Eclipse Station at Guelma, 
Africa: W. W. DINWIDDIE. 

This instrument was mounted horizon- 
tally and the light was led to it by the mir- 
ror of a Gaertner ccelostat. Three ven- 
tilating doors were made in the lower side 
of the forty-foot tube, which, operated in 
connection with the trap doors in the roof 
of the building at the plate end of the tube, 
eave perfect ventilation and kept the whole 
instrument cool. 

The shutter used in making the exposures 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


during totality was placed in a nearly hori- 
zoutal position above the mirror, and not 
between the lens and mirror, as is cus- 
tomary. The sunshade over the building 
and tube, and the wall of the tube, which 
was on the opposite side from the sunshade, 
were all whitewashed with ordinary lime. 
The sunshade was of opaque black cloth, 
and all the inner surfaces were black. 

At the time of the eclipse eight exposures 
were made as follows: 28, 58.2, 138.2, 
1™288.1, 388.3, 68.8, 58 and an exposure of 
one fourth second about ten seconds after 
third contact. All the negatives are sharp 
and clean. The unusual completeness of 
the series gives every part of the corona in 
fine detail on one or more of the plates. 
The first exposure shows a very large group 
of prominences. The short exposure made 
after the reappearance of the sun shows 
the entire ring of the corona. On this 
plate the prominences on the bright limb 
are shown in fine detail, and from it good 
measures may be made of the height of the 
chromosphere. 

The first and fourth contacts were ob- 
served visually from the image on the face 
of the focal plane shutter, and recorded by 
a stop-watch. I think that this method of 
observing the outer contacts has advantages 
over the ordinary method of observing the 
limb with a small telescope. The times of 
the exposures were marked on the chrono- 
eraph by a key operated by an assistant 
who looked after the celostat clock, set the 
mirror, ete. 

The plates were thoroughly backed with 
water-color lampblack, which was carefully 
wiped off before development. Distilled 
water was used in developing and fixing, 
and after washing, the plates were rinsed 
in distilled water. 


Polarized Coronal Light, August 80, 1905: 
C. D. PERRINE. 
Observations of polarized light in the 


SCIENCE. 


457 


corona were made by the Lick Observatory- 
Crocker Eclipse expedition to Alhama, 
Spain. A double-image prism was used 
in connection with a camera of twenty and 
three fourths inches focal length, in con- 
tinuation of the work at Sumatra in 1901. 

More efficient apparatus was designed for 
the recent eclipse, and plane glass mirrors 
were used as analyzers. These cameras 
were of fifty inches focal length and yielded 
sharp images of good scale for photometric 
measurement. Strong radial polarization 
is shown on all the negatives. 


Anomalous Refraction: FRANK SCHLES- 

INGER and C. B. Buatr. 

Under ordinary circumstances the atmos- 
phere is disposed in horizontal strata of 
uniform density; but these strata may be 
inclined occasionally to the earth’s surface, 
giving rise to anomalous refraction. 

In this case the usual expression for re- 
fraction should be replaced by a somewhat 
different one, deduced by the writer. The 
new formula has been applied to observa- 
tions made in 1900 and 1901 at the six 
international latitude stations, with the ob- 
ject of discovering whether the effect of 
anomalous refraction is large enough to 
justify the frequent, but vague, appeals 
which have been made to this source of 
error in order to account for inconsistencies 
in meridian work. From this discussion it 
appears that observers have little to fear 
from this cause. 

An important corollary to this conclusion 
relates to Kimura’s recently discovered 
term in the latitude variation, independent 
of longitude. The present paper makes it 
highly probable that this phenomenon has 
a real existence and is not due, as has been 
suggested, to anomalous refraction. 


New Variable Stars in the Small Magel- 
lanic Clouds: Henrietta §. Leavitt. 
At the meeting of the Astronomical and 

Astrophysical Society held in Philadelphia 


458 


in December, 1904, a brief account was 
given by the writer of methods and results 
in a study of faint variable stars recently 
undertaken at Harvard College Observa- 
tory. The most remarkable regions as yet 
examined are the Nebula of Orion and the 
two Magellanic clouds. These were men- 
tioned a year ago, when it was reported 
that the numbers of variables in the large 
and the small Magellanic clouds were one 
hundred and fifty-two and fifty-seven, re- 
spectively. In the autumn of 1904, a series 
of sixteen plates was taken at Arequipa, 
covering the region of the small Magellanic 
cloud. These arrived at Cambridge in 
February and were examined with great 
interest, as it was expected that the number 
of variables would be. considerably in- 
ereased. The result of the examination, 
however, exceeded all anticipations. So 
many were found that it was April before 
the preliminary study of the plates was 
completed and it could be announced that 
nine hundred new variables had been dis- 
covered. The number has since been in- 
ereased to nine hundred and seventy, and 
new ones are still being discovered from 
time to time. Measurements of the posi- 
tions of all these, selection and measure- 
ment of a large number of sequences of 
comparison stars, and the determination 
of a provisional light-scale, have necessarily 
consumed much time, so that it is only 
within a few weeks that it has become pos- 
sible to begin actual observation of the 
brightness of the variables. Light-curves 
thus far deduced are of well-defined types. 
Periods of many of the variables appear to 
range from one and a quarter to four days. 
A number, mainly among the brighter ones, 
have periods of from one to two weeks, 
while very few appear to have long periods. 
A preliminary examination of recent photo- 
eraphs of the large Magellanic cloud shows 
that it resembles the region now under dis- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. VoL. XXIII. No. 586. 


cussion and it is probable that a very large 
number of variables will be found to exist 
within its limits. Preparations for meas- 
uring the positions and brightness of these 
are already being made. 

The question as to whether there are 
other regions containing such remarkable 
groups of variable stars, is of the greatest 
interest. Not less important is the general 
problem of the distribution of these fainter 
variables. An exploration of new regions, 
therefore, is being undertaken as time per- 
mits, and even negative results, though less 
immediately interesting, are valuable as a 
contribution toward an ultimate solution 
of the problem. 


Amherst Eclipse Expedition to Tripoli, 

1905: Davin Topp. 

Instruments installed on the rigid roof- . 
terrace of the British Consulate-General. 
Six departments of observation: 

1. Observations of the geometric con- 
tacts. 

2. Coronal photography with a twelve- 
inch Clacey lens of nine feet focus, photo- 
graphically corrected. Eighteen exposures 
with semi-automatic movements. Baily’s 
beads also photographed before second con- 
tact. My modified form of Burekhalter 
revolving occulter was employed on the 
corona. Corona photographed to 30’. 

3. Duplex Clark lenses (photographic) 
of three inches aperture and eleven feet 
focal length, for long exposures on the 
cireum-solar stars and the outer coronal 
streamers. No intra-mercurial planet re- 
vealed on 14x17 plates of the highest 
sensitiveness, stars to seventh and eighth 
magnitude. 

4. A three-and-one-half-inch Goerz 
doublet of thirty-three and one half inches 
focus, attached to one of the automatic 
movements used on my previous expedi- 
tions of 1896, 1900 and 1901, secured 63 
fine pictures of the corona during the 186 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


seconds of totality. Some of these show 
the coronal streamers to exceptional length. 

5. Sketches of the corona with usual re- 
sults. 

6. Observations of shadow bands begun 
at least ten minutes prior to totality: bands 
wavering and narrow, moving swifter than 
one could walk, at right angles to the wind, 
their length with it, and waxing and 
waning five times during the interval of 
observation preceding totality. These 
observations communicated in detail to 
Mr. Lawrence Rotch of the Blue Hill Ob- 
servatory. Other results in the Astrophys- 
ical Journal. 


The Philadelphia Observatory: MonrRoz B. 

SNYDER. : 

The Philadelphia Observatory, an out- 
erowth of the old Central High School Ob- 
servatory (1837-1900), was planned by the 
writer for an astrophysical observatory to 
begin with the twentieth century. The 
plan included a city station, chiefly for 
solar work and necessary popular instruc- 
tion, and a suburban station, not yet real- 
ized, where certain lines of celestial pho- 
tography could be undertaken. Peculiar 
difficulties delayed completion of the build- 
ing and equipment, and there was a marked 
absence of financial and other support for 
the scientific work, so that not until early 
in 1905 was the really superb equipment, 
designed for both stations, received, and, 
as far as possible, erected at the city sta- 
tion in the new building of the Philadelphia 
Central High School. 

On Mareh 9, 1905, a destructive fire 
(probably originating in a combination gas 
and electric-light fixture), and long feared 
by the director of the observatory and 
others on account of municipal neglect of 
the usual fire precautions, swept the tower 
and destroyed an equipment and astro- 
nomical library valued at approximately 
$55,000, and produced a loss in equip- 


SCIENCE. 


459 


ment and building of more than $100,000. 
The equipment destroyed represented in a 
number of respects the very best attainable 
in instruments of moderate size, and in- 
cluded: A fifteen-inch refractor with 
Warner and Swasey mounting, the finest 
for its size, and provided with both a visual 
objective and a photographie objective of 
excellent definition, by Brashear; a Wads- 
worth-Hale spectroheliograph designed to 
photograph the sun in three different wave- 
lengths simultaneously; a large Keeler 
spectroscope and spectrograph, attached to 
the telescope on the day of the fire for the 
purpose of rediscovering (during maxi- 
mum solar activity) Hale’s disturbance in 
the sun’s spectrum; a Warner and Swasey 
filar micrometer; a four-inch portable 
transit instrument with the writer’s elec- 
trical transiter attached; clocks and 
chronographs (partially destroyed); a 
five-inch Rowland concave grating finely 
mounted by Brashear; a goodly equipped 
mechanical shop and photographie labo- 
ratory; and many smaller but valuable 
physical appliances. 

The loss of a carefully selected library 
of some four thousand volumes represent- 
ing the chief periodicals and literature in 
astronomy and astrophysics almost com- 
pleted the destruction of years of effort. 
An eight-inch refractor and an unmounted 
set of Brashear eight-inch curved plate 
star cameras were rescued. 

The main purpose, under the conditions 
of work hitherto allotted, was not only 
that the equipment should as a whole ex- 
press the best current science, but that 
certain instruments like the spectrohelio- 
graph and its method of operation, the 
transiter, the new form of Hough printing 
chronograph, and the large curved plate 
star cameras should represent distinct ad- 
vanees in observatory equipment. 

The observatory is in process of recon- 
struction. 


460 


Orbit of the Seventh Satellite of Jwpiter: 
R. T. Crawrorp and A. J. CHAMPREUX. 
This paper gives results of an applica- 

tion of Leuschner’s ‘Analytical Method of 

Determining the Orbits of New Satellites.’ 

Three solutions were made which are 

designated in the tabulation given below 

by (Cr. & Ch.),, (Cr. & Ch.), and (Cr. & 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


tions in rectangular coordinates. With 
these perturbations it 1s expected to repre- 
sent recent observations closely. Outstand- 
ing differences will serve to correct the 
third set of elements. With each of the 
three sets, a second solution with retrograde 
motion was obtained. 
HaARoup JACOBY. 


ELEMENTS OF THE SEVENTH SATELLITE OF JUPITER (DIRECT MOTION) REFERRED TO THE EARTH’S 


EQUATOR. 
Computer. | Q t w e Period. a 

fo} a Md 9 if “ jo} Ul “a d / “ 
(Gite GY Clit )oodcoaabosconcooade 279 45 8 26 27 14 006 28 42 0.12576 201.1415 49 48 
(Cr. & Ch. )o....--..00+ .-.| 289 47 45 25 39 42 189 15 19 0.13195 259.5376 50 20 
(Cr. & Ch. )g..........- 288 19 59 25 39 23 187 29 41 0.12152 258.9424 50 47 
Perrine (prel.) ---| 275 47 26 15 182 6 0.24 200 43 48 
Ross (final).........0..s.s0000- 281 7.8 26 12 331 16.8 0.0246 265.0 52. 54 


a (Cr. & Ch.) for log (p) = 0.72124 ; a (Ross) for log (p) = 0.71624. 


Ch.);. The orbits are based on Perrine’s 
positions of January 3, February 8 and 
March 6, 1905. The first set of elements 
was derived irrespective of any perturba- 
tions. The second represents the first ap- 
proximation to elements osculating Hebru- 
ary 8 by taking immediate account of the 
attraction of the sun. The third set is the 
result of a close representation of the ob- 
servations on the same basis. For com- 
parison, the elements by Perrine (L. O. 
Bulletin No. 78) and by Ross (lL. O. 
Bulletin No. 82) are also tabulated. The 
first set of elements does not represent an 
observation of August 9 any better than 
those by Ross. The third set, however, 
gives the residuals (O — C): 

Ap=-+ 2°.7 

As =-+ 5’ .2 


the computed positions being derived di- 
rectly from the third set of elements oscu- 
lating for February 8 without applying the 
solar perturbations February 8 to August 
9. The solar perturbations are being com- 
puted for all observations secured since the 
discovery observations, by an adaptation 
of Encke’s method of special perturba- 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. SECTION 
A—MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 


Vice-president—W. 8. Wichelberger, United 
States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. In 
the absence of the vice-president, Professor Alex- 
ander Ziwet, the retiring vice-president, presided 
at the meetings of the section. 

Secretary—Professor L. G. Weld, State Uni- 
versity of lowa, lowa City, Iowa. 

Member of the Council—President C. 8. Howe, 
Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Sectional Committee—Dr. W. S. Hichelberger, 
vice-president, 1906; Professor Alexander Ziwet, 
vice-president, 1905; Professor L. G. Weld, secre- 
tary, 1904-1908; Professor J. R. Eastman, one 
year; Professor Ormond Stone, two years; Pro- 
fessor EH. B. Frost, three years; Professor E. O. 
Lovett, four years; Professor Harris Hancock, 


five years. 
Members of the General Committee—Professor 


G. B. Halsted. 
Press Secretary—The secretary of the section. 


Dr. Edward Kasner, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, was elected vice-president for the 
year 1907. 

The address of the retirimg vice-presi- 
dent, Professor Ziwet, on ‘The Relation of 
Mechanics to Physics,’ was presented on 
dhe afternoon of December 29, in the gen- 
eral assembly room in Gibson Hall, Tulane 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


University. This address has already been 
published in Science for January 12 of 
the current year. 

At the regular program meeting of the 
section, held on the morning of December 
30, the following papers were presented: 


On the groups of Order p™q having 
Abelian Subgroups H pmn of Type (n, n, 
-+--n): Dr. O. F. Gunn, Drury College, 
Springfield, Mo. 

This paper is supplementary to one pre- 
sented by the author at the Philadelphia 
meeting of the association, im which the 
case »—1 was discussed. The defining 
relations of all groups described in the 
title are tabulated, and their properties 
discussed in relation to the properties of 
the Galois field GF[p”™”] determined by 
the automorph of the subgroup H. It is 
found that all of the groups in question 
are members of a general family and have 
one general set of defining relations. 


A New Straight in non-Euchidean Geom- 
etry: Professor G. B. Haustep, Kenyon 
College, Gambier, O. 

The paper sets forth the discovery that, 
in Riemannean non-Huclidean geometry, 
the six mid-points of the parts of the six 
rays from the vertices of any triangle ob- 
tained by prolonging the sides, are co- 
straight. This is a new and noteworthy 
straight associated with every triangle. 

The theorem is demonstrated, and then 
interpreted in ordinary Huclidean space. 


A Chapter in the Present State of Develop- 
ment of the Elliptic Functions: Professor 
Harris Hancock, University of Cincin- 
nati, Cincinnati, O. 

The paper is an attempt to show that 
practically all (American and European) 
writers on the elliptic functions have been 
giving too much emphasis to certain parts 
of Weierstrass’s theory, while they have 
neglected many of the lines of thought 


SCIENCE. 


461 


which Weierstrass 
fundamental. 

It is shown that the so-called Weier- 
strassean normal-form is not due to Weier- 
strass. The introduction of new functions 
gives a different aspect to the presentation 
of the elliptic functions, although little that 
is new has been added thereby to the theory 
itself. Weierstrass’s great work lies in a 
somewhat different direction; with him 
the problem of determining all analytical 
functions which have algebraic addition- 
theorems is the leading idea. 

The paper also brings into evidence sey- 
eral fundamental theorems of Hermite and 
shows some of the characteristics of Rie- 
mann’s theory. 


himself considered 


A Catalogue of 1,607 Zodiacal Stars for the 
Epochs 1900 and 1920, Reduced to an 
Absolute System: Mr. H. B. Heprick, 
U. S. Naval Observatory, Washington, 
D. C. 

This cataloeue was prepared by the 
writer, in the Nautical Almanae Office, in 
order to fill the widely felt need of more 
fundamental positions of stars within the 
zodiae. 

In its construction fifty-two observa- 
tional catalogues were used. Systematic 
corrections were applied to each catalogue 
to reduce it to the same absolute system as 
that of the ‘Catalogue of Fundamental 
Stars,’ by Professor Simon Newcomb, pub- 
lished in the ‘Astronomical Papers of the 
American Hphemeris,’ Volume 8, Part 2. 

Definitive positions were obtained by 
least square solutions of all the observations 
of each star. Right ascensions, declinations, 
variations and proper motions are given for 
two epochs, 1900 and 1920. Other fea- 
tures are the reference numbers to well- 
known catalogues, the Besselian star con- 
stants for 1910 for each star, and an index 
of stars by letter and constellation or by a 
special name. : 


462 


This paper will be printed in the ‘ Astro- 
nomical Papers of the American Ephem- 
eris,’ Vol. VIIL., Pt. 3. 


A Class of Central Forces: Dr. Epwarp 
Kasner, Columbia University, New 
York City. 

There exists no field of force in which a 
particle started from an arbitrary position 
with arbitrary velocity will describe a 
circular path. In the case of a central 
foree the only possible circular trajectories 
are, in general, those whose centers are at 
the origin of force. If, however, the force 
varies according to a function of the form 
br(7? — a)—%, then a quadruple infinity of 
the trajectories are circular. In the sim- 
plest case, arismg when a vanishes, the 
force varies inversely as the fifth power of 
the distance, and the circles all pass through 
the origin. In the general case they are 
orthogonal or diametral to a fixed sphere. 


Solar Photographs: Professor F. H. Loup, 
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, 
Colo. . Presented by title. 


The Groups of Order p™ which contain 
Haactly p Cyclic Subgroups of Order 
p*: Professor G. A. Minurr, Stanford 
University, Cal. 

The main theorems proved in this paper 
may be stated as follows: If a group of 
order p™, » being-any odd prime, con- 
tains exactly p cyclic subgroups of order 
p%, a > 2, it contains exactly p cyclic sub- 
groups of every order which exceeds p 
and divides p”—1. Hence it is one of the 
two non-eyelic groups of order »™” which 
contain operators of order p”™—!. When 
a2 and p > 38 the theorem is still true. 
In fact, the only possible exception occurs 
when a2, p=3 and m=4. In this 
special case there are three groups which 
contain exactly p cyclic subgroups of or- 
der p*. 

When p — 2 the preceding theorem is re- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


placed by the following: If a group of 
order 2” contains exactly two cyclic sub- 
groups of order 2%, a > 2 it can not contain 
more than two cyclic subgroups of any 
higher order. If a group of order 2” con- 
tains exactly two cyclic subgroups of order 
28 but does not contain any cyclic subgroup 
of order 264, then m can not exceed 26+. 
These theorems involve the fundamental 
properties of all possible groups whose 
order is a power of any prime p and which 
involve exactly p eyelic subgroups of any 
given order p*. From a well known 
theorem it follows that a is not unity, but 
it can have every other possible value less 
than m. 


Inversion and Inversors: Professor J. J. 

Quinn, Warren, Pa. 

In this paper are presented two new 
theorems relating to inversion, besides an 
explanation of the construction of certain 
linkages exhibiting the operation of in- 
version. 


Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse of 
1905, August 30, at Tripoli, Barbary: 
Professor Davin Topp, Amherst College, 
Amherst, Mass. 

Observations were undertaken under six 
different heads, as follows: 

1. Observations of the geometric con- 
tacts. 

2. Coronal photography with a twelve- 
inch Clacey lens photographically cor- 
rected. Professor Todd’s modified form 
of Burekhalter revolving occulter was em- 
ployed. The corona was photographed to 
30’. Bailey’s ‘beads’ were also photo- 
eraphed before the second contact. 

3. A duplex Clark lens of three inches 
was used for long exposures on the circum- 
solar stars and the outer coronal streamers. 
Neither these nor any intra-Mercurial 
planets were revealed, although 14x17 
plates of the highest sensitiveness were 
used. 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


4. With a three-and-one-half-inch Goerz 
doublet of thirty-three and one half inches 
focus (used during the previous expedi- 
tions of 1896, 1900 and 1901), attached to 
one of the automatic movements, sixty-three 
fine pictures of the corona were secured 
during the 186 seconds of totality. Some 
of these show the coronal streamers to ex- 
ceptional length. 


5. Sketehes of the corona were made 
with the usual results. 
6. Observations of the shadow bands 


were begun at least ten minutes prior to 
totality. The bands were wavering and 
narrow, moving faster than one could walk 
and at right angles to the wind, their 
leneth with it. They were observed to 
wax and wane five times during the in- 
terval of observation preceding totality. 

These observations have been communi- 

eated in detail to Mr. Lawrence Rotch, of 

Blue Hill and embodied in his exhaustive 

study of this phenomenon. 

Computed Traces and Totality-Durations 
of the Total Solar Eclipses of the 
Twentieth Centwry: Professor Davin 
Topp and R. H. Baker, Amherst College, 
Amherst, Mass. Read by title. 


A Possible Extension of the Theory of 
Envelopes: Professor L. G. WeLp, State 
University of Iowa, Iowa City, Ia. 

‘(a) In the equation f(x, y,a) =0, rep- 
resenting a family of loci, by giving to a, 
first an increment and then a corresponding 
decrement, each of magnitude Aa, solving 
the resulting equations for the coordinates 
of the point of imtersection and, finally, 
letting Aa = 0, there will be obtained 

a’ =$(a), y =y(a). 

These equations define a point of the en- 

velope of the given family of loci and 

eliminating a between them gives 
F(a’,y’) =0, 

the equation of the envelope. 

The point (2’, y’), determined as above, 


SCIENCE. 


463 


may be ealled the tracing point of the locus, 
that is, the pomt which, for the moment, 
is tracing the envelope. It was shown in 
the paper, by way of illustration, that the 
tracing point for the envelope of the family 
of ellipses, 


is the Fagnagni point. 

(b) The inverse of the above notion was 
next developed with reference to the right 
line, viz.: A point on the line 


x Yine: 
arg 


being assigned at will, to find the func- 
tional relation between the intercepts, 
(a, 6B) =0 

(i. e., the law governing the motion of the 
line), in order that the given point may 
trace an envelope and, finally, to obtain 
the equation of the envelope. The re- 
quired relation is given by either of the 
differential equations, 


a2 B? 
v/ =$(a, B)= y =¥(a, B) ap 
on as Pe 
In general both equations will be needed 
in order to determine the constants of in- 
tegration. Having thus obtained the func- 
tion , which is, in effect, the tangential 
equation of the envelope, the equation in 

rectangular coordinates readily follows. 
Several examples applying the principles 
were presented and its application to other 
families of loci was suggested as a prom- 
ising field of investigation for the amateur 

mathematician. 
LaENAS GIFFORD WELD, 
Secretary. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

Die Schule der Chemie. Erste Hinfuhrung 
m die Chemie fiir Jedermann. Von Wit- 
HELM OswaLp. Zweiter Teil. Die Chemie 
der wichtigsten Elemente und Verbind- 
ungen. Braunschweig, Friedrich Vieweg 
und Sohn. 1904. Price, bound, 8 Marks. 


464 


This little book will be of service to two 
classes of people: to schoolboys of ten to 
fifteen years, for whom it was primarily in- 
tended, and to teachers. It is doubtful if 
the average American schoolboy would be at- 
tracted by the method of presentation, even 
in an English translation, though it would be 
an interesting experiment to try and we should 
be glad to hear of the results. But every 
teacher will find the book worthy of a most 
eareful reading. Professor Ostwald has se- 
lected with very great care that material which 
appears to him most fundamental and most 
interesting for the beginner in chemistry and 
he has secured a clearness and accuracy in 
presentation which deserve very high praise. 
In both directions teachers will find here a 
mine of useful suggestions. 

The author follows, of course, his well- 
known attitude toward the atomic theory. He 
is too good a teacher not to recognize and 
make use of the ‘ hypothesis’ for didactic pur- 
poses, but he evidently does this because of 
the hardness of chemists’ hearts and wishes he 
could escape the necessity. This dislike for 
the theory sometimes betrays him into inac- 
curate statements or false reasoning. Thus 
on page 38 he explains that the formula~of 
sulphuric acid is written with two combining 
weights of hydrogen, because otherwise we 
should have to write HS,,0, and ‘the rule has 
been laid down that fractions of combining 
weights shall never be written.’ He neither 
gives a reason for such an arbitrary rule nor 
does he explain why a combining weight of 16 
might not be given to sulphur and the formula 
written HSO,. It is not, of course, essential 
that these matters should have been explained 
at this point, but so misleading a reason 
should not have been given. 

On page 42, in answer to the question, ‘ Are 
not the atoms, then, just as certain as the 
natural laws?’ the author replies, ‘ Not at all, 
for natural laws are not based on an arbitrary 
assumption, as is the atomic hypothesis, but 
they express definite relations between quan- 
tities which can be measured and proved.’ In 
this statement he appears to overlook the fact 
that the natural laws are all based on two 
assumptions: first, that phenomena repeat 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586, 


themselves with absolute uniformity under 
the same conditions and, second, that simple 
relations exist between the quantities which 
we measure. Hach of these assumptions is 
arbitrary and neither can be proved. They 
differ from the assumptions which lie at the 
basis of the atomic theory in being more 
simple but not in their fundamental nature. 
To illustrate: We believe in the law that the 
atomic heats of the elements are equal because 
many similar simple relations have been 
found and we assume that a simple relation 
exists here also, though we can not prove it 
and are well aware that the deviations from 
the law are very far in excess of the experi- 
mental errors in the measurement of the 
quantities involved. The assumption here is 
clearly an arbitrary one and is based on far 
less satisfactory evidence than that almost 
infinite variety of phenomena which form the 
basis for our assumption of the existence of 
atoms. The writer of this review does not 
claim that the existence of atoms has been 
proved, but he does claim that the truth of 
natural laws is also not proved, and that while 
natural laws and the atomic theory differ 
greatly in the complexity of the phenomena 
on which they are based, they do not, philo- 
sophically speaking, differ in their funda- 
mental nature. 

On page 48 he suggests the term ‘molar 
weight’ in place of molecular weight. This 
would be very unfortunate in English since 
the word molar is used by us in a quite dif- 
ferent sense. 

On page 112 we find the erroneous state- 
ment that ‘sulphuric acid is bibasie because 
it contains two combining weights of hy- 
drogen.’ 

On pages 82 and 139 it is stated that every 
transformation or reaction produces the less 
stable form of an element or compound. Pro- 
fessor Ostwald seems to accept this law as a 
sort of axiom without attempting to give any 
reason for it. It appears to the writer of this 
review as closely related to Berthelot’s erro- 
neous law that every chemical reaction takes 
place with the evolution of the maximum 
amount of heat. Both laws are based on a 
desire to explain chemical reactions by a 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


simple consideration of the energy relations 
involved. If the law were true, all reactions 
which give oxygen at ordinary temperatures 
should give it in the form of ozone. The fact 
that some such reactions give ordinary oxygen 
while others give ozone is doubtless connected, 
in some cases, at least, with the structure of 
the reacting compounds as well as with their 
inherent energy. And no one has thus far 
told us how a satisfactory account of matters 
connected with chemical structure can be 
given without the aid of the atomic theory. 
One hesitates to criticize a book of such 
surpassing excellence and one destined to be 
so very useful. But those very qualities which 
have made Professor Ostwald so much beloved 
by all of his acquaintances and which have 
given him such an extraordinary hold on his 
students, seem to lead some of them to accept 
almost without question everything which he 
writes and it seems right that a divergent 
view should sometimes find expression. 
Wituram A. Noyss. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for February con- 
tains articles on ‘The Unity of the Gnathos- 
tome Type,’ by Howard Ayers; ‘Old Age in 
Brachiopoda—a Preliminary Study,’ by H. 
W. Shimer; and ‘The Habits of Necturus 
maculosus, by A. C. Eycleshymer. Dr. Ayers 
concludes that the Marsipobranchs are true 
Gnathostomata and that the only living 
Acraniate is Amphioxus. Dr. Shimer’s article 
gives a summary of the principal characters 
that accompany old age in the brachiopods 
and includes many illustrations of typical ex- 
amples besides presenting suggestions as to 
their origin and meaning. Professor Kycles- 
hymer discusses the habits of Necturus at some 
length, giving much new and interesting in- 
formation in regard to its nests and breeding 
habits. We quite agree with him that any 
specimen over a foot in length is unusually 
large. 


The University Bulletin, University of 
Michigan, for December, 1905, contains the 
report of the curator of the museum. Mr. 
Adams is to be complimented upon having 


SCIENCE. 


465 


accomplished much with a small expenditure of 
money and on having done much by collecting, 
and rearranging and labeling the museum 
collections, to promote its efficiency. The 
chief accessions were 131 skins of mam- 
mals, representing 23 species, and 298 birds of 
111 species. 


Colorado College Publications, Science 
Series, No. 46, is devoted to an annotated list 
of ‘The Mammals of Colorado,’ by E. R. War- 
ren. This a very considerable 
amount of information compressed into a few 
pages and is accompanied by a bibliography. 


The Quarterly Record of Additions to the 
Museum of Hull, England, is an excellent 
device for economical and extensive publica- 
tion. Objects of interest are described in the 
Eastern Morning News, electrotypes made of 
the articles, and each quarter these are com- 
bined and issued in pamphlet form as one of 
the museum publications. 


contains 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 412th regular meeting was held on 
February 17, 1906, with Vice-president 
Palmer in the chair and thirty-two persons 
present. 

Professor Paul Bartsch presented a paper 
on ‘ Variation in the Shell of Goniobasis vir- 
ginica, with an Outline for Breeding Experi- 
ments.’ He described and illustrated with 
lantern slides the wide differences among in- 
dividuals of this species. Collections from 
the vicinity of Mount Vernon in tidewater 
subject to an occasional slight salinity are 
constant in form. Those from the Shenan- 
doah at Harpers Ferry likewise show little 
variation, though plainly recognizable from 
the Mount Vernon representatives of the 
species. About Washington the shells show 
extreme variation. Intergrades everywhere 
exist and the subspecifie groups all run 
together. Without attempting to account for 
these variations, experiments were proposed 
ealeulated to throw light on the subject. 
These consisted substantially in transplanting 
the local forms and studying their progeny 
under the new conditions. In the Shenan- 


466 


doah at Harpers Ferry are to be held, in a 
series of screened troughs, a few thousand 
specimens of the Mount Vernon form, in an- 
other series a mixture of equal numbers of 
Mount Vernon and Harpers Ferry specimens, 
a third series to be empty as a check upon the 
results. At Mount Vernon or at the southern 
limit of the range of the species, and at Wash- 
ington, these series are to be repeated. Such 
trials would be expected to yield interesting 
and valuable, even if negative, results. 

Under the title ‘The Nature of Evolution- 
ary Motion’ Mr. O. F. Cook gave an exposi- 
tion of his kinetic theory, and showed how the 
interpretation of evolutionary factors differs 
from that of other doctrines. It was held, in 
particular, that isolation and natural selec- 
tion are not at all factors of evolution in any 
strict and scientific sense; they conduce to 
the differentiation of new species (speciation), 
and to increased fitness (adaptation), but have 
no power to actuate the process of organic 
change in species (evolution). The principal 
agent of evolutionary progress is the normal 
interbreeding of the normally diverse indi- 
viduals of which species are composed. Evolu- 
tion is thus an intraspecific phenomenon, in- 
stead of being interspecific. The intraspecific 
differences which contribute most to evolu- 
tionary. motion are not those which arise as 
adjustments to different conditions of the en- 
vironment (artism), but those which are inde- 
pendent of environmental adjustments (heter- 
ism). 

Outlines and diagrams were shown in ex- 
plaining the bearing of these distinctions upon 
the four principal types of evolutionary the- 
ories, static, saltatory, determinant and kin- 
etic. Static theories were defined as those 
which view the species as normally stationary, 
though moved occasionally by environmental 
eauses. Saltatory theories prescribe motion 
of an intermittent character and at remote 
intervals. Naegeli’s determinant theory held 
that species move in a single definite direction 
as a result of causes inherent in the organisms. 
The kinetic theory provides for an indeter- 
‘minate, composite motion resulting from the 
continuous interbreeding of the diverse indi- 
viduals of the species. Selection does not 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


cause this motion, but can restrict and deflect 
it, and can thus lead evolution in adaptive 
directions. Saltatory and determinant the- 
ories do not provide for any practical adaptive 
influence on evolution. Although completely 
denying the current assumption that selection 
is the cause or active principle of evolution, 
the kinetic theory provides better than any 
other for a practical explanation of the man- 
ner in. which selection induces adaptation. 


Tuer 418th meeting was held March 3, 1906, 
President Knowlton in the chair and thirty- 
two persons present. Dr. L. O. Howard pre- 
sented the first paper on ‘ The Gypsy Moth and 
the Brown-tailed Moth and the Introduction 
of their European Parasites,’ illustrated with 
lantern slides. He described the accidental 
introduction of the gypsy moth into Massa- 
chusetts by the escape of an egg mass from 
some breeding experiments in 1868. In 1900 
after spending a million dollars in fighting 
the insect the state stopped the work and the 
moth gained ground until last year when the 
state appropriated $300,000 to be spent during 
three years. $10,000 was also appropriated 
for the introduction of its parasites and one 
half this sum was turned over to Dr. Howard 
for the furtherance of this object. He has 
imported from Sardinia 2,500 of the parasite- 
infested larve. The moth has American 
parasites, but the percentage of infected larvee 
is lower, and the tree infection much greater 
in America than in Europe. The illustra- 
tions showed graphically the entire defoliation 
of trees caused by the caterpillars and the large 
scale in which the campaign against them is 
conducted,—by banding trees, creosoting the 
egg masses and burning over underbrush with 
the blast torch. 

The brown-tailed moth was brought over in 
the winter cocoon stage, a nest of leaves bound 
together and containing larve. Unlike the 
gypsy moth the adult is a good flier and, there- 
fore, disseminates more directly and rapidly 
and its spread is a foregone conclusion. 

Professor A. S. Hitchcock read a paper en- 
titled ‘ A Synopsis of the Genus Tripsacum.’ 

Tripsacum is a genus of grasses extending 
from the southern United States to South 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


America. The common species, 7. dactyloides 
(L.) Willd., is found from southern New Eng- 
land along the coast to Mexico, and in the 
interior as far north as Iowa and Nebraska. 
A subspecies occurs in Mexico (7. dactyloides 
hispidum Hitcheock). Two other species 
oceur in the United States, 7. floridanum, con- 
fined to the vicinity of Miami, Florida, and 
T. lemmeni confined to southern Arizona and 
northern Mexico. Four additional species in- 
habit Mexico and Central America, 7. fascicu- 
latum, T. lanceolatum, T. pilosum and a new 
species, 7’. latifolium. In order to show the 
relationship of this new species to the others 
of this genus the whole group was worked over. 
The paper consisted of a key to species fol- 
lowed by descriptions, citation of specimens 
and eritical notes. The genus was divided 
into two sections. The staminate spikelets are 
in pairs at each joint of the spike. In sec- 
tion J. these spikelets are both sessile (7. 
dactyloides and its allies). In section II. one 
of the spikelets of each pair is pedicelled (7. 
fasciculatum and its allies). 
M. C. Marsu, 
Recording Secretary. 
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SECTION 
OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 

Meeting of January 8, 1906.—Vice-Presi- 
dent Hovey in the chair. The following 
papers were read: 


Geological Notes on the Western Sierra 
Madre of Chihuahua, Mexico: Dr. Epmunp 
Oris Hovey. 

The paper gave a concise résumé with the 
aid of Jantern slides, of observations made by 
the author upon an expedition made for the 
American Museum of Natural History in 
February, March and April, 1905. The route 
lay southwestward and southward from Ciu- 
dad Juarez to Ocampo, thence to the railroad 
again at Mifiaca. The development of bolson 
deserts in arid regions and the similar bolson 
basins in the less arid regions was described. 
These bolsons have normally no external drain- 
age, but in many cases they have been invaded 
by streams from without. The Aros River has 
cut through several such enclosed basins, as 


SCIENCE. 


467 


is shown by the remains of local conglom- 
erates and sandstones. The section exposed 
in the deep canyon of the Aros shows that a 
foundation of Cretaceous (?) limestone has 
been covered by old andesitic eruptives; that 
continental movements have raised, tilted, 
faulted and metamorphosed the limestone, 
producing schists from clayey beds; that 
granite has been intruded under and into the 
limestone; that later and moze acid lavas 
and tufis (dacites and rhyolites) have been 
poured out or deposited over the region; that 
the latest outflows were of basaltic lavas; that 
the local conglomerates and sandstones have 
been formed in constructional basins by the 
disintegration of the mountain slopes. Many 
other points of geologic interest were brought 
out in the photographs. 


Discovery of the Schoharie Fauna in Mich- 
igan: A. W. GRABAU. 

Recent examination of the limestones of 
the Mackinaw region for the Michigan Geo- 
logie Survey showed the existence of the 
Schoharie fauna in the basal portion of the 
Dundee formation, in a number of localities 
in the northern part of lower Michigan; 
notably at Mill Creek, near Mackinaw City, 
and on Mackinaw Island. Such typical spe- 
cies as Trochoceras clio, Atrypa wimpressa, 
Ehipidomella alsa, Conocardeum cuneus, 
Phacops cristatus, etc., characterize this 
fauna. The strata containing it rest directly 
upon beds with Leperditia cf. scalaris, and, 
therefore, of lower Manlius (Greenfield lime- 
stone or Cobleskill) age, from which they are 
separated by a pronounced disconformity. 
The finding of this fauna fixes the date of the 
great mid-Devonic transgression. 


Preliminary Note on Sporadic Occurrence of 
Diamonds in North America: Grorce F. 
Kunz. 

Dr. Kunz pointed out the general features 
of the occurrence of diamonds in North 
America, reserving the more complete discus- 
sion for the next meeting. 


A. W. Grapau, 


Secretary. 
CotuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


468 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

THE meeting of February 13 was called to 
order at the American Museum of Natural 
History by the secretary, at 8:30 o'clock. 
Owing to the absence of the president, Dr. N. 
L. Britton was called to the chair. Twenty- 
three persons were present. 

A paper by Dr. Arthur Edwards, on the 
‘Origin of the Bacillaria,’ was read by its title 
and referred to the board of editors with 
power. 

The paper of the evening was an illustrated 
lecture by Mr. George V. Nash, on the ‘ Gen- 
eral Botanical Features of Orchids.’ 

There seems to be a general misconception 
among many as to just what an orchid is. 
Any plant which grows on a tree, or has some 
peculiar feature is, without hesitation, called 
an orchid. This mistake is frequently made 
in regard to the pitcher plants, Nepenthes, or 
to the tail-flowers, Anthuriwm. In order 
more clearly to define the structure of the 
orchid flower, a large flower of the genus 
Cattleya was illustrated on the sereen. The 
uniting in one organ, called the column, of 
the stamens and pistils, serves at once to dis- 
tinguish this family from all related ones. 
The diandrous and monandrous forms of this 
column were described and illustrated with 
lantern slides, as were the other features of 
the family. The two kinds of pollinia were 
explained, that which develops appendages at 
the base, and that which is without append- 
ages, or develops them at the apex, the former 
associated with the persistent anthers, the lat- 
ter with the deciduous anthers. Attention was 
called to the thickened stems of most orchids. 
In some the stem is very short and much en- 
larged. Such stems are known as pseudo- 
bulbs. Oncidiwm and Odontoglossum are ex- 
amples of this sort. In others the entire stem 
is thickened, as is the case in Cattleya and 
Dendrobium. The lateral and terminal forms 
of inflorescence were described, the former 
arising from the base of the pseudobulb, the 
latter from its apex. The venation of the 
leaves, whether conyvolute or conduplicate, was 
illustrated. The manner of growth, whether 
limited or unlimited, was indicated; the lim- 
ited in such genera as Hpidendron, Oncidium, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


Odontoglossum, Masdevallia and in fact the 
greater part of the orchids; the other, the 
unlimited, in such genera as Vanilla, and 
Angrecum, in which the axis ascends con- 
tinuously. 

The latest comprehensive treatment of this 
interesting family is by Pfitzer, in Engler and 
Prantl’s ‘ Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien.’ In 
his classification he utilized the characters and 
habits of growth referred to above. 

The orchid family is a large one, embracing 
some 6,000 or 7,000 species, mostly distributed 
in tropical regions. Comparatively few are 
found in the warm temperate, and almost 
none in the cold portions of the temperate 
zone. The center of their distribution in the 
old world is in India and the Malay region. 
Such genera as Dendrobium, Vanda and Bul- 
bophyllum represent these. In the new world 
they are found in the greatest numbers in 
Brazil and northern South America. Such 
genera as Cattleya, Lelia and Masdevallia 
illustrate these. Im the United States there 
are about 150 species, representing 44 genera. 
These are mainly terrestrial, the comparatively 
few epiphytes being confined to Florida and 
the gulf states. 

By far the greater part of the orchids grow 
in hot humid regions, where they are found 
almost exclusively growing on trees, or epi- 
phytic. The terrestrial species in the tropics 
are relatively few. The epiphytes usually 
have thick fleshy leaves, and these and their 
thick stems serve as storage organs, for their 
water supply is precarious. While it is true 
that most orchids like humid conditions, this 
is not always the case. During an exploration 
of the Inaguas, which are extremely xero- 
phytic, great masses of epidendrons were 
found growing on the bases of the small 
shrubs or trees, or on the hot limestone rock; 
and to emphasize this desert condition, was a 
species of Agave growing among them. They 
seemed to flourish, for the pseudobulbs were 
strong and vigorous. 

Nearly all tropical orchids are epiphytie, 
while in temperate regions they are terrestrial, 
the soil around their roots protecting them 
from the extreme cold of winter. As a rule 
terrestrial orchids have thin leaves, for their 


oe 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


water supply is not so limited as is the case 
with epiphytic orchids. 

In distribution orchids are very local. Few 
genera are common to both the old world and 
the new, and when they are common to both, 
the distribution is a zonal one. The genus 
Cypripedium, as at one time understood, was 
a supposed exception to this. Recent authors, 
however, basing their conclusions upon well- 
defined structural differences in the flowers, 
have divided this, at one time cosmopolitan, 
genus, into four genera, each of the four 
genera with a well-defined geographical dis- 
tribution. We have now, instead of the one 
big genus, the following: ; 

Selinepedium, new world, with 8 species, 
known only from Central America to Brazil. 

Cypripedium, old world and new, but zonal 
in distribution, with 28 species, north tem- 
perate. 

Phragmipediwm, old world, with 11 species, 
tropical America only. 

Paphiopedilum, old world, with 46 species, 
tropical Asia, Malaya, Philippines, ete. 

As genera typical of a zonal distribution, 
there were mentioned: Cypripedium, Pogonia 
and Limodorum. Among the genera peculiar 
to the new world are: Masdevallia, Plewro- 
thallis, Epidendron, Cattleya, Lelia, Lycaste, 
Maxillaria, Odontoglossum, Miltonia, Oncid- 
qm and Dichea. 

Among those confined to the old world are: 
Thunia, Coelogyne, Pleione, Ansellia, Phagus, 
Dendrobium, EHria, Bulbophyllum, Cymbidium, 
Phalenopsis, Vanda, Angrecum and Afrides. 

The different features were illustrated with 
lantern slides, many of them colored. The 
latter were the work of Mrs. Van Brunt, and 
were kindly loaned for the occasion by her. 

Alluding to Mr. Nash’s discussion of the 
satisfactory breaking up of the old genus 
Cypripediwm into four genera, and the restric- 
tion of Cypripedium to its type species and 
immediate relatives, having a well defined 
zonal distribution, Dr. Britton remarked upon 
the wide application of this principle in the 
progressive study of plants and animals, caus- 
ing the recognition of very many more genera 
than were believed to exist by most botanical 
and zoological students inthe last century. 


SCIENCE. 


469 


The vastly greater number of species now 
known, and their more critical comparative 
study in the field and in collections, as well 
as the more exact understanding of long- 
recognized species, show that the number of 
homogeneous groups which we call genera, 
existing in nature, is larger than previously 
supposed. The genus Habenaria has recently 
been subdivided into several genera, and this 
subdivision has been a distinct advance in the 
taxonomy of orchids. 

C. Stuart Gacsr, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


A NEW TYPE OF ELECTRIC ORGAN IN AN AMERICAN 
TELEOST FISH ASTROSCOPUS. 


JORDAN in his last book on fishes (1905) 
mentions that Astroscopus gives an electric 
shock, quoting Gilbert and others as his au- 
thorities. He also states that Professor 
Agassiz and others felt an electric shock from 
Urophycis regius. Dr. Gilbert, of Stanford 
University, kindly wrote me, in answer to 
inquiries, stating that he had felt electricity 
in Astroscopus, and that another collector had 
felt it in a Pacific specimen. These facts were 
mentioned in the bulletin of the National 
Museum. 

I have examined Urophycis carefully and 
find no trace of electric organ, but haye found 
that Astroscopus does possess a highly devel- 
oped if small electric organ. 

It consists of two masses of tissue, one 
lying behind each eye and extending as an 


“approximately round column from the bare 


spot on the skin behind the eye down to the 
roof of the mouth. Like Torpedo it is com- 
posed of thin electric plates or ‘ electroplaxes’ 
that lie in a horizontal position. 

The electroplaxes do not occupy the full 
width of the column, but are much smaller and 
overlap and imbricate. Each one is a wide, 
thin syneytium, markedly different from any 
form yet described. 

Its neuro-electrie surface is smooth and has 
a thin structureless layer containing very few 
nuclei. Its other surface is raised into a 
elose-set series of long, evaginated papille that 


470 


anastomose somewhat. They project into the 
jelly tissue that fills the remainder of the 
compartment. 

A remarkable feature is the striation of 
the substance of the electroplax. Even in the 
poor alcoholic material at my command, it 
stands out almost as marked and clear as in 
striated muscle, and it has much the same 
structure. As in Raja, these lines of stria- 
tion are parallel but not straight; but, differing 
from Raja, they have an intermediate line and 
they are found in all parts of the papille and 
up to the electric layer. The presence of so 
much striated substance does not accord with 
Ballowtiz’s view of the specialization and effi- 
ciency of electric tissue. That so small an 
organ should give so marked a shock puts it 


on a level with Gymnotus and Torpedo, both - 


of which are supposed to have specialized 
their striated substance out of existence by 
developing the network for greater power. 

However, it is not proper to go further into 
the question until I have prepared fresh ma- 
terial and studied the details of nerve endings, 
‘rod-net,’ and coarse and fine network. Mr. 
C. F. Silvester has undertaken to work out 
‘the gross anatomy as part of this paper. 


Uric DAHLGREN. 
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, 
January 28, 1906. 


A NEW METHOD OF COLLECTING EARTHWORMS 
FOR LABORATORY USE. 


For the benefit of teachers of biology who 
use the earthworm as one of the laboratory 
types it has seemed worth while to briefly re- 
port a method which has been successfully 
employed in my laboratory during the past 
two years, and which in the saving of time 
and labor we have found a very great im- 
provement over the old methods of capturing 
them at night by the aid of a lantern, or by 
digging over the earth by means of a spade 
or such implement. 

The method was first called to my attention 
by the care-taker of the golf greens on the 
university campus, who used a proprietary 
article, sprinkling it over the greens, follow- 
ing which the worms would emerge in great 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


numbers from their burrows, and were then 
swept up and destroyed, thus relieving the 
surface of the annoyance of the castings. 

This preparation is known by the name of 
“Rushmore’s Concentrated Worm Destroyer,’ 
and may be had by the barrel of the manufac- 
turer, Garden City, N. Y. It is, as indicated, 
a concentrated liquid, and for use must be 
diluted with about one hundred and fifty 
times its bulk of water. In using, it is simply 
sprayed over the lawn, where worms are 
known to abound, from an ordinary watering 
pot till the surface is well saturated. Within 
five minutes, usually, the worms begin to 
emerge from their holes and may be collected 
and placed at once in clean water, which 
should be changed several times in order to 
remove all trace of the irritant, in order that 
they may not distort themselves and thus be 
injured as specimens. They may then be 
narecotized after the usual method and pre- 
served in either alcohol or formalin. In using 
such specimens for dissection they have been 
found to be quite as good as those taken by 
older modes of collection. 

We have found it quite important to use a 
greatly diluted preparation, otherwise it tends 
to drive the specimens deeper into the burrows 
and thus fail of its object. : 

Commenting upon the method among some 
of the students it was discovered that similar 
methods haye been used by others, though 
involving greatly differing media. For ex- 
ample, it was said that when using a very 
dilute solution of corrosive sublimate, one part 
in ten thousand, for killing potato ‘ bugs,’ in 
many cases earthworms would emerge in the 
same manner as in the former. Again, it was 
also learned that to obtain angle worms for 
bait a decoction of mustard in water had been 
sprinkled over the ground, in response to 
which specimens would readily come to the 
surface. 

It would seem, therefore, that probably any 
of several such means might be employed 
successfully. The proprietary article has a 
considerable use among keepers of golf links, 
and where so used one may easily take advan- 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


tage of it to secure an abundance of speci- 
mens at little or no cost. ; 


CuarLes W. Harcirt. - 
SyRACUSE UNIVERSITY, 
THE ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
EFFECT OF DRYING UPON LEGUME BACTERIA. 


THE almost simultaneous appearance of 
Bulletin No. 270 of the Geneva (New York) 
Experiment Station and Farmers’ Bulletin, 
No. 240 of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, the one stating that cultures of 
nodule-forming bacteria dried on cotton were 
worthless for practical purposes and that the 
failure of these cultures was inherent in the 
method of their preparation, the other stating 
that the Department of Agriculture did not 
consider cultures dried on cotton entirely sat- 
isfactory and would instead distribute liquid 
cultures hermetically sealed, has perhaps nat- 
urally resulted in unwarranted and unfairly 
severe criticism toward the cultures dried on 
cotton. 

The most misunderstood feature in the de- 
terioration of dried or partially dried cultures 
is the distinction between the effect of desicca- 
tion per se and the effect of small quantities 
of moisture present for some length of time, 
either because of slow drying or because of 
absorption of water vapor from a humid at- 
mosphere after the cotton had been thoroughly 
and rapidly dried. It has, therefore, been 
considered desirable to publish at once an 
explanation of the simple paradox that the 
rapid drying of cultures of nodule-forming 
bacteria causes a relatively insignificant in- 
jury to them, while the partial drying of sim- 
ilar cultures will cause them to deteriorate 
and die rapidly. The time of danger to a 
drying culture is the time of high concentra- 
tion of the soluble substances. This condi- 
tion necessarily obtains when the culture is 
almost dry. Whether one wishes to base his 
explanation chiefly upon the antiseptic action 
of concentrated sugar and salt solutions’ or 

* Sternberg, ‘Manual of Bacteriology,’ 1893, p. 
156. : 


* John Golding, Journal of Agricultural Science, 
Vol. I., Pt. 1, p. 59-64. 3 


SCIENCE. 


471 


upon the deleterious action of by-products” 
which must also be highly concentrated in 
the almost dry culture, it is necessary to admit 
that the longer a given culture is exposed to 
these adverse conditions the fewer bacteria 
will be able to survive; and as the necessary 
corollary, the more often a properly dried cul- 
ture is allowed to become’ moist the greater 
will be the deterioration of that culture. 

This explanation is deduced from the fol- 
lowing facts: 

1. Cultures of nodule-forming bacteria have 
been rapidly dried, kept in a desiccator for 
thirty days, sixty days and ninety days, and 
revived with no apparent difference in the 
three series. 

2. Cultures dried as above have been ex- 
posed to moist air for ten days and for twenty- 
four days. In some cases contaminations de- 
stroyed the proper organism; in others com- 
plete sterility obtained; in a few cases a few 
organisms remained in cultures otherwise 
sterile. 

3. Cultures ten days old were evaporated in 
vaeuo, and into the concentrated broth heavy 
inoculations were made. These tubes were 
sterile at the end of seventy-two hours. 

4. Our regular sugar-broth was made up 
approximately twenty times as concentrated 
as our regular formula, and this medium was 


heavily inoculated with actively growing cul- 


tures. By the end of seventy-two hours these 
tubes were sterile. 

5. A culture has been placed on cotton, half 
of which was placed in a sterile petri dish, to 
make drying very slow, half was dried rapidly 
and kept over calcium chlorid. After twenty- 
five days the cotton in the petri dish was 
sterile; the cotton from the desiccator was a 
pure culture in good condition, containing 
numberless organisms. 

We may summarize briefly as follows: 

The nodule-forming bacteria of the Legum- 
inosee may be dried rapidly and kept in a dry 
condition for long periods, and may then be 
revived successfully. 

Cultures properly dried may be killed by 
exposure to moist conditions. 

3See also Bulletin No. 71, Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry. 


472 


Slow drying will kill a culture that will 
remain in good condition after rapid drying. 
A highly concentrated medium comparable 
to that which the almost dry cultures must 
endure will kill the bacteria in question in an 
exposure of a few days. 
Kart F, Ke_ierMan, 


T. D. Beckwith. 
BuREAU or PLanT INDUSTRY, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
HELM CLOUDS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

In the Monthly Weather Review for Oc- 
tober, 1905, Frank W. Proctor mentions the 
occurrence of standing clouds in atmospheric 
waves at Waynesville, N. C. (see also Sciencz, 
May 1, 1908, page 712). This place is sur- 
rounded on three sides by high and steep 
mountains, and the topography is favorable 
for the formation of such clouds. On the 
day when the observation was made the wind 
was southwest, and blew across the mountain 
range which forms the head of the valley. A 
large dense standing cloud was formed over 
the mountains, carried down on the lee side for 
a short distance, and was seen to evaporate 
at its leeward edge as fast as it developed to 
windward. About a quarter or a half a mile 
to leeward, at the same level approximately, 
and separated from this main cloud by a clear 
space, there was a second, detached, standing 
eloud of good size, also forming to windward 
and evaporating to leeward like the primary 
eloud. The wind at the level of the clouds 
was blowing at the rate of twenty miles an 
hour, yet the clouds were stationary, dissolving 
as rapidly at one side (lee) as they formed at 
the other (windward). Mr. Proctor’s account 
of these helm clouds in the mountains of 
North Carolina is the second mention of this 
phenomenon. The first was made by Pro- 
fessor W. M. Davis (Bull. Geogr. Soc. Phila., 
TIL. No. 3, 1903). 


DAILY MARCH OF TEMPERATURE IN THE TROPICS. 

Hann has undertaken an extended investi- 
gation of the daily march of temperature in 
the tropics, the first part of which has been 
published (‘Der tigliche Gang der Tempera- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


tur in der inneren Tropenzone,’ Denkschr. k. 
Akad. Wiss., math.-naturw. Kl., Vienna, 1905, 
Vol. LXXVIII.). The reason for taking up 
this study is found in the fact that the mean 
temperatures of many stations in the tropics 
are placed too high because of the application 
of imaccurate corrections in computing the 
true means. The present work is to be re- 
garded as an extension of that of Dove, pub- 
lished in 1846 and in 1856 (‘Ueber die tig- 
lichen Veraénderungen der Temperatur der 
Atmosphire,’ Abhandl. Berl. Akad.), and in- 
cludes the latest available observations from 
stations between the equator and latitudes 
+ 15° N. and S., in Africa, the West Indies, 
Central and South America, southern Asia, 
northern Australia and the tropical oceans. 


RAINFALL OF MEXICO. 

A REPORT on the ‘ Regimen of the Rainfall 
of Mexico,’ in the twelfth volume of the 
Annals of the Association of Engineers and 
Architects of Mexico, by Romulo Escobar, 
brings to light an interesting fact. Most of 
the stations show a steady diminution in rain- 
fall for a long period of years, but this de- 
erease has already begun to be followed by 
an increase. Our gulf states from Texas to 
Alabama and Tennessee have shown a similar 
decrease, but the expectable increase has not 
been observed everywhere, owing, as Professor 
Abbe believes, to the frequent changes in the 
rain gauges and their exposures. It is to be 
noted with satisfaction that in this report on 
Mexican rainfall there is no indiscriminate 
comparison of a long record at one station 
with a short record at another, the rainfalls 
being averaged for each station by lustra, so 
that mean annual rainfalls for the same period 
may be compared (Mo. Wea. Rev., Oct., 1905). 


NOTES. 


Accorpine to a list recently published in 
Petermann’s Mittheilungen (1905, p. 91) it 
appears that out of forty-four universities 
and technical schools using the German lan- 
guage, thirteen recognized meteorology as 
worthy of special mention in their courses of 
instruction offered during the past summer 
semester. 


Marcu 23, 1906.] 


TuE third annual issue of the volume on 
‘Meteorology’ of the International Catalogue 
of Scientific Literature, dated October, 1905, 
contains chiefly titles belonging to the year 
1903 and the earlier part of 1904. The num- 
ber of pages is 235, as against 296 in the 
second annual issue (1902) and 184 in the first. 
Such a bibliography as this, unsatisfactory as 
it is In some respects, is certainly a very great 
help to the working meteorologist and cli- 
matologist. 


OBSERVATIONS at the meteorological observa- 
tory at Perpignan during the solar eclipse of 
August 30, last, showed a fall of 6.7° in tem- 
perature; a rise of 12 per cent. in relative 
humidity; no ‘eclipse wind, but rather a 
ealm (Ciel et Terre, December 16, 1905). 


REFERENCE has been made in Science to the 
work carried out by the Blue Hill Observatory 
staff at St. Louis in 1904 with the aid of 
ballons-sondes. Mr. A. Lawrence Rotech, in 
the Proceedings of the American Academy of 
Arts and Science, Vol. XULI., No. 14, De- 
cember, 1905, describes this investigation 
under the title ‘On the First Observations 
with Registration Balloons in America.’ 


R. DrC. Warp. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
BOTANICAL ARTICLES IN RECENT PERIODICALS. 


In the Jowa Naturalist, for October, R. I. 
Cratty monographs the Juncaceae of Iowa, 
distinguishing nine species of the genus 
~ Juncus, and two of Juncoides. -In the same 
number, IT. J. Fitzpatrick publishes his treat- 
ment of the Melanthaceae of Iowa, in which 
he includes one species of Zygadenus, one of 
Melanthium, one of Veratrum, and three of 
Uvularia— The Willows of Ohio’ is the title 
of a monograph by R. F. Griggs in the Pro- 
ceedings of the Ohio State Academy of Sci- 
ence (pt. 6, Vol. IV.). It covers fifty-eight 
pages and includes keys, descriptions and half- 
tone reproductions of photographs by means 
of which the twenty-two species and varieties 
are well distinguished.—F. L. Sargent’s arti- 
cles, ‘ Lichenology for Beginners,’ published in 
the Bryologist ini1905, have now been issued 
as a twenty-page pamphlet. It presents in 


SCIENCE. 


473 


simple language the essential structural facts 
in regard to lichens. The text is made still 
plainer by a number of cuts of fruits and 
spores. The pamphlet closes with a useful 
artificial key to the common eastern species.— 
It is a pleasure to record the completion (De- 
cember, 1905) of Forbes and MHemsley’s 
‘Enumeration of all the Plants known from 
China proper, Formosa, Hainan, Corea, the 
Luehu Archipelago, and the Island of Hong- 
kong, together with their Distribution and 
Synonomy,’ which has been in course of publi- 
cation in the Journal of the Linnean Society 
for many years. The enumeration contains 
8,271 species, of which 4,230 are not known to 
oceur outside of the Chinese empire. It is 
estimated that the total number of species 
when known, will reach at least twelve thou- 
sand—In the Records of the Botanical 
Survey of India (Vol. IV., No. 2), Sir J. D. 
Hooker publishes an epitome of the British 
Indian species of Impatiens. He records 
sixty-three species from the eastern Himalayas 
from central Nepal to Upper Assam, and fifty- 
two species from the Burmese region. The 
well-known cultivated species, Impatiens 
balsamina, occurs wild in both regions.— 
Engler’s ‘Pflanzenreich’ has reached the 
twenty-second ‘heft’ which is devoted to the 
family Primulaceae, elaborated by F. Pax and 
R. Knuth. The 530 species are assigned to 
twenty-two genera, in five tribes. Of the lat- 
ter, the tribe Androsaceae is by far the largest, 
containing 361 species. The larger genera’ are 
Primula with 208 species; Androsace, 84; 
Dodecatheon, 30; Cyclamen, 16; Lysimachia, 
110; and Anagallis, 94. The treatment is con- 
servative, both as to generic and specific 
limitations. No new genera are set up, and 
few new species are described. However, when 
some modern species-maker gets into the 
family, he'll find an abundance of varieties 
ready to his hand for elevation to specific rank. 


CGRYPTOGAMAE FORMATIONUM COLORADENSIUM. 

Foua years ago F. E. and E. S. Clements 
issued their ‘Herbaria Formationum : Color- 
adensium,’ consisting of about six hundred 
sheets «of! specimens ‘of higher plants, ar- 


474 


ranged so as to illustrate the vegetative forma- 
tions of the Pike’s Peak region of Colorado. 
Every set was promptly taken, showing that 
there is a demand among botanists for some- 
thing more than the old-time collections of 
mere specimens. This fact has encouraged the 
authors to begin the publication of a similar 
set of lower plants, under the title of ‘ Crypto- 
gamae Formationum Ooloradensium,’ cen- 
turies I. and II. of which were issued to sub- 
seribers some months ago. This is apparently 
the first serious attempt to treat adequately 
with respect to their ecological relations the 
lower plants (eryptogams) of a particular re- 
gion. The centuries thus far issued include 
of Pyrenomyceteae 50 sheets; Fungi Imper- 
fecti, 19; Discomyceteae, 62 (23 ‘ lichens’) ; 


Uredineae and Ustilagineae, 24; Basidiomyce-" 


teae, 39; and Musci, 6. Three new genera 
and twelve new species are represented. With 
the specimens are forty photographs, consist- 
ing of plant portraits, and views of fungus 
and moss communities. 


RECENT BOTANICAL BULLETINS. 


Amone the recent botanical bulletins may 
be noticed Kellerman and Robinson’s ‘ Inocula- 
tion of Legumes’ (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 240, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture), in which 
directions are given for the practical use of 
cultures of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The 
conditions under which soil inoculation is de- 
sirable or undesirable are clearly set forth for 
the guidance of the farmer.—The ‘ Wild 
Medicinal Plants of the United States’ are 
brought together in a useful annotated alpha- 
betical list by Alice Henkel (in Bulletin No. 
89, of the Bureau of Plant Industry). Brief 
descriptions are given, with the range of each 
species, the scientific and common names, and 
the family to which each belongs.—The same 
author discusses ‘ Peppermint’ in Pt. III. of 
Bulletin No. 90 of the Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, and Albert CC. Crawford, ‘The 
Poisonous Action of Johnson Grass’ (Sorghum 
halapense) in Pt. IV. of the same bulletin. 
Apparently this grass must. now be added to 
the already considerable number of plants 
which produce hydrocyaniec acid in poisonous 
quantities under certain conditions—In Cir- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 58v. 


cular No. 36 of the Forest Service, Giftord 
Pinchot tells what the service is, and how it 
deals with forest problems. Its perusal will 
no doubt be quite enlightening to many people. 
—Sugegestive and helpful are Chapman’s 
“Working Plan for Forest Lands in Berkeley 
County, South Carolina’ (Bull. No. 56), and 
Clothier’s ‘Advice for Forest Planters in 
Oklahoma and Adjacent Regions’ (Bull. No. 
65) in which photographs and maps help the 
earefully written text——Of more direct inter- 
est to the botanist, is Kellogg’s ‘ Forest Belts 
of Western Kansas and Nebraska’ (Bull. No. 
66) in which he discusses the distribution and 
natural extension of the forest belts in these 
two states on the great plains—In the Report 
of the Experiment Station Committee of the 
Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, for the 
year 1905, a considerable amount of space is 
given to the newly established division of 
pathology and physiology, to the directorship 
of which Dr. N. A. Cobb (of New South 
Wales) was called less than a year ago. The 
laboratory with some of its peculiar apparatus 
and mountings is described, and a program of 
the work to be undertaken is given with some 
detail. With such an outfit, and apparently 
with ample funds, we may look for good work 
from Dr. Cobb and his corps of assistants. 


THE KEW PUBLICATIONS. 


In the last Bulletin of Miscellaneous In- 
formation (No. 1, 1905) of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens of Kew, is given a ‘select list’ of the 
works prepared by members of the staff or in 
collaboration with such members. About eighty 
titles are cited, ranging from such serials as 
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, and the Annals 
of Botany, to the standard works like Flora 
Australiensis (7 vols.), Biologia Central- 
Americana (5 vols.), Genera Plantarum (3 
vols.), Sachs’s Teaxt-Book of Botany, and 
finally to thin pamphlet hand-lists and guide 
books. It is a most useful and instructive 
list, especially to botanists who are trying to 
fill their libraries with desirable books. In- 
cidentally it will serve to show what a center 
of botanical activity these gardens have been 
during the past forty or fifty years. A very 


Makou 23, 1906.] 


useful feature of the list is the citation in 
every case of the time and place of publica- 
tion, and the name of the publisher. 


MONTANA BOTANY. 

Wiruin the past few months Professor 
Blankinship has published numbers 1, 2 and 
3 of the ‘Montana Agricultural College Sci- 
ence Studies, including three botanical papers 
of much more than usual interest. The first 
of these, ‘A Century of Botanical Exploration 
in Montana,’ includes a chronological list of 
seventy-four collectors who have worked in the 
state, beginning with Meriwether Lewis, of 
the Lewis and Clarke expedition in 1805 and 
1806, and ending with Millie M. Smith and 
Arthur Lehman in 1904. The bibliography 
includes eighty-three titles. 

The second paper is a ‘Supplement to the 
Flora of Montana,’ and includes additional 
species, and corrections of the list given in 
Dr. P. A. Rydberg’s ‘ Catalogue of the Flora 
of Montana and the Yellowstone National 
Park’? (Memoirs N. Y. Bot. Gard., 1900). 
There are about three hundred and eighty- 
six additions, seventy-eight corrections and 
twenty-eight new species and varieties. Ap- 
parently the author has been conservative in 
his treatment of both old and new species, and 
apparently the corrections have been made 
with care. This list is a valuable and notable 
addition to our knowledge of Montana flower- 
ing plants, and must prove very helpful when 
the descriptive botany of the region comes to 
be written. 

The third paper consists of lists of the com- 
mon names of Montana plants. Every plant 
is entered twice, once alphabetically under its 
common name, and again in a similar list in 
which the scientific names are arranged 
alphabetically. It is a valuable contribution 
to the botany of common names, and serves 
very well to show how variable and unreliable 
such names are. CHarutes KE. Bessey. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


THE MAGNETIC SURVEY OF THE PACIFIC 
OCEAN: SECOND CRUISE. 


Tue Yacht Galilee, engaged in the mag- 
netic survey of the Pacific Ocean under the 


SCIENCE. 


475 


auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 
ington, left San Diego, California, on March 
2, to enter upon her second cruise. She is 
expected to make the following circuit of 
about 20,000 miles by the end of this year: 
San Diego, Fanning Islands, Samoan Islands, 
Fiji Islands, Marshall Islands, Guam, Yoko- 
hama, Aleutian Islands and back again to 
San Diego. 

It was necessary to reorganize the scientific 
personnel as those of the former staff belong- 
ing to the U. 8S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 
were obliged to return to their official duties 
at the expiration of their furloughs. The 
command of the vessel has accordingly now 
been entrusted to Mr. W. J. Peters, formerly 
of the astronomical and topographical corps 
of the U. S. Geological Survey. He has had 
considerable experience in difficult geograph- 
ical work, was second in command and in 
charge of the scientific work of the recent 
Ziegler Polar Expedition as the representative 
of the National Geographic Society. 

In connection with the latter expedition, Mr. 
Peters made a valuable series of magnetic, 
meteorological and tidal observations at 
Teplitz Bay, Franz Joseph Land. 

The other members of the present staff are: 
Mr. J. P. Ault, magnetic observer (likewise a 
member of the former staff), Mr. J. C. Pear- 
son, magnetic observer (formerly instructor of 
physies at Bowdoim Oollege) and Dr. H. HE. 
Martyn, surgeon and recorder. The sailing 
master is Captain J. T. Hayes. While the 
vessel was at San Diego some additional 
changes and improvements were made both in 
the ship and in the instruments employed. 
Sufficient funds have been allotted so as to 
permit carrying on this work continuously 


throughout the year. L. A. Baugr. 
DEPARTMENT TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM, 
March 10, 1906. 


UNIVERSITY CONTROL. 


In the colleges from which our universities 
have developed the problem of administration 
was comparatively simple. The faculty and 
the president met weekly and consulted daily; 
each was familiar with the work of the entire 


476 


institution; a spirit of cooperation and loyalty 
naturally prevailed. The trustees also un- 
derstood the economy of the college and were 
able to work intelligently for the general good. 
But when a university covers the whole field 
of human knowledge, when it is concerned 
with professional work in divergent directions, 
when it adds research and creative scholar- 
ship to instruction, when both men and women 
are admitted, when there are 500 instructors 
and 5,000 students, it is no longer possible for 
each trustee and for each professor to share 
intelligently in the conduct of the whole insti- 
tution. We appear at present to be between 
the Seylla of presidential autocracy and the 
Charybdis of faculty and trustee incom- 
petence. The more incompetent the faculties 
become, the greater is the need for executive 
autocracy, and the greater the autocracy of 
the president, the more incompetent do the 
faculties become. Under these conditions it 
appears that the university must be completely 
reorganized on a representative basis. It 
should not be a despotism and it can not be a 
simple democracy. Autonomy should be given 
to the schools, departments or divisions. The 
administrative, legislative and judicial work 
must be done by experts, but they should 
represent those whom they serve. 

In the course of the past few months there 
have appeared in various quarters articles 
discussing the problems of university and 
educational administration. Two of these 
contributions—one by Ex-president Draper in 
The Atlantic Monthly and one by President 
Andrews in the Hducational Review—laud 
the university president and his office, but the 
other articles which have come to my atten- 
tion are criticisms of the absolutism and 
commercialism that are alleged to obtain in 
university control. Editorial discussion from 
this point of view has appeared in The Nation, 
The Outlook, The Dial, The Congregationalist 
and other journals. Articles by President 
Pritchett in The Atlantic Monthly, by Pro- 
fessor Stevenson in The Popular Science 
Monthly, by Mr. Munroe in Scrmncr and by 
the present writer in The Independent adopt 
a similar attitude. 

The articles referred to are in the main 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 586. 


attacks on the transference to university ad- 
ministration of methods current in business 
and in polities. Several suggestions of a con- 
structive character have, however, been made. 
Thus Professor Stevenson proposes that the 
presidency as it now exists should be abolished 
and that the faculty should make all appoint- 
ments to the teaching staff, and Dr. Pritchett 
and Mr. Munroe suggest a joint council or 
committee of trustees and faculty. 

The present writer ventures to propose 
tentatively the following form of organization 
for our larger universities, to be reached as 
the result of a gradual evolution: 

1. There should be a corporation consisting 
of the professors and other officers of the uni- 
versity, the alumni who maintain their in- 
terest in the institution and members of the 
community who ally themselves with it. In 
the case of the state universities part of the 
corporation would be elected by the people. 
This corporation should elect trustees having 
the ordinary functions of trustees—the care 
of the property and the representation of the 
common sense of the corporation and of the 
community in university policy. The trustees 
should elect a chancellor and a treasurer who 
would represent the university in its relations 
with the community. 

2. The professors or officers, or their repre- 
sentatives, should elect a president who has 
expert knowledge of education and of univer- 
sity administration. His salary should not 
be larger, his position more dignified or his 
powers greater than those of the professor. 

3. The unit of organization within the uni- 
versity should be the school, division or de- 
partment, a group of men having common 
objects and interests, who can meet frequently 
and see each other daily. It should be large 
enough to meet for deliberation and to repre- 
sent diverse points of view, but small enough 
for each to understand the whole and to feel 
responsible for it. The size of this group is 
prescribed by a psychological constant, its 
efficient maximum being about twenty men 
and its minimum about ten. 

4. Each school, division or department 
should elect its dean or chairman and its 
executive committee, and have as complete 


MarcH 23, 1906.] 


autonomy as is consistent with the welfare of 
the university as a whole. It should elect its 
minor officers and nominate its professors. 
The nominations for professorships should be 
subject to the approval of a board of advisers 
constituted for each department, consisting, 
say, of two members of the department, two 
experts in the subject outside the university 
and two professors from related departments. 
The final election should be by a university 
senate, subject to the veto of the trustees. 
The same salaries should be paid for the same 
office and the same amount of work. The 
election should be for life, except in the case 
of impeachment after trial. The division 
should have financial as well as educational 
autonomy. Its income should be held as a 
trust fund and it should be encouraged to 
increase this fund. 

5. The departments or divisions should elect 
representatives for such committees as are 
needed when they have common interests, 
and to a senate which should legislate 
for the university as a whole and be a body 
coordinate with the trustees. It should have 
an executive committee which would meet 
with a similar committee of the trustees. 
There should also on special occasions be 
plenums of divisions having interests in com- 
mon and plenums of all the professors or offi- 
cers of the university. There should be as 
much flexibility and as complete anarchy 
throughout the university as is consistent 


with unity and order. 
J. McKeen Catreqt. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Farner J. G. Hacen, S.J., professor of 
astronomy in Georgetown University, and di- 
rector of the observatory, has been offered the 
directorship of the Vatican Observatory. 

Mr. ArrHur Srantey Eppineron, B.A., 
B.Se. (Manchester), of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, senior wrangler in 1904, has been 
appointed chief assistant in the Royal Ob- 
servatory, Greenwich. 

Dr. Paut G. Woox.ey, director of the serum 
laboratory of the Bureau of Science in the 
Philippines, has accepted under the govern- 


SCIENCE. 


ATT 


ment of Siam the directorship of the patho- 
logical laboratory, which it is proposed to 
start as soon as Dr. Woolley can reach 
Bangkok. 


Proressor JAMES Minus Price, Perkins 
professor of mathematics and astronomy at 
Harvard University, has presented his resigna- 
tion to take effect a year hence. Professor 
Peirce was appointed tutor in mathematics at 
Harvard in 1854. 


Proressor C. W. PritcHett has retired at 
the age of eighty-three, after thirty years’ ser- 
vice, from the directorship of the Morrison 
Observatory at Glasgow, Missouri. He is suc- 
ceeded by Mr. H. R. Morgan, formerly of the 
U. S. Naval Observatory. 


Dr. Wittiam Oster, regius professor of 
medicine at Oxford University, has been 
elected a member of the Atheneum Club, un- 
der the provisions which empower the annual 
election of nine persons ‘of distinguished 
eminence in science, literature, the arts, or 
for public services.’ 


Proressor Percy F, FRANKLAND was elected 
president of the Institute of Chemistry of 
Great Britain and Ireland at the twenty-eighth 
annual meeting held on March 1. Professor 
Frankland’s father, Sir Edward Frankland, 
was the first president of the institute. 


Dr. Huco pe Vriss, professor of botany at 
Amsterdam, will present a paper on ‘ Elemen- 
tary Species in Agriculture,’ at the meeting 
of the American Philosophical Society, on 
April 18. 

Dr. E. D. FisHrr has been appointed chair- 
man of the committee on the centennial cele- 
bration of the Medical Society of the County 
of New York, which will be held at the Hotel 
Astor on April 4. 


Mr. Duptey Moutrton, A.B. (Stanford, ’04), 
has been appointed a field agent of the Divi- 
sion of Entomology; U. S. Department of 
Agriculture. 


Dr. W. OC. FarasBez, instructor in anthro- 
pology at Harvard University, took a party 
of Harvard students to Iceland during the 
summer. Mr. V. Stefansson, Hemenway fel- 
low in anthropology, and Mr. J. W. Hastings 


478 


(Harvard, ’05) explored old Icelandic burial 
places and made a collection of skeletons of 
the earliest people of the island. Mr. Has- 
tings also made anthropometric measurements 
of many of the Icelanders. The caves of Ice- 
land are of voleanic_ origin and show no indi- 
eation of having been occupied by man. No 
stone implements have ever been found on the 
island. These investigations led to the con- 
clusion that the island was probably not in- 
habited prior to its settlement by the Nor- 
’ wegians in A.D. 874. Researches and collec- 
tions were made by members of the party in 
geology and ornithology. 


It is announced that the ‘Reale Istituto 
Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti’ has de- 
cided to undertake a systematic study of the 
geophysical phenomena which, directly or in- 
directly, concern the lagoon of Venice. A 
special committee has been appointed for the 
purpose, and preliminary investigations on 
the subject of the tidal waves of the upper 
Adriatic, and the rivers flowing into it and the 
lagoon of Venice have been set on foot. They 
have been placed in charge of Dr. G. P. 
Magrini, who will be assisted by Professors 
L. de Marchi and T. Gnesotto, of the Univer- 
sity of Padua. 


Dr. Henprix Antoon Lorentz, professor of 
mathematical physics in the University of 
Leiden, will give a course of lectures at Co- 
lumbia University on the theory of electrons 
and its application to the phenomena of light 
and radiant heat. The program is as follows: 

Friday, March 28, 4 to 6 p.m.; Saturday, March 
24, 10 to 12 a.m.; and Friday, March 30, 4 to 6 
P.M.—General principles; theory of free electrons. 

Saturday, March 31, 10 to 12 a.m., and Friday, 
April 6, 4 to 6 p.m@.—Emission and absorption of 
heat. 

Saturday, April 7, 10 to 12 a.m.; Wednesday, 
April 11, 4 to 6 p.m.; and Thursday, April 12, 
4 to 6 p.uw.—The Zeeman effect. Propagation of 
light in ponderable bodies. 

Thursday, April 26, 4 to 6 p.m., and Friday, 
April 27, 4 to 6 p.mM.—Optical phenomena in moy- 
ing systems. 

Proressor ALEXANDER Minier, known for 
his work in agricultural chemistry, has died 
in Rysby, Sweden, at the age of seventy-eight 
years. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


ONE or two computers will be needed in the 
near future at the Pasadena office of the Solar 
Observatory of the Carnegie Institution. 
Their work will consist in the measurement 
and reduction of photographs of the sun and 
of solar spectra. Applications may be sent 
to Mr. W. S. Adams, superintendent of com- 
puting division, Solar Observatory Office, 
Pasadena, Cal. 


A BEGINNING has been made with the build- 
ing of the new Magnetic Observatory at Esk- 
dalemuir, which is to take the place of the 
present observatory at Kew. The observations 
at Kew have been affected by disturbances 
caused by electric installations, ete. Eskdale- 
muir is fifteen miles from a railway, in a 
high-lying pastoral district. 


Tue daughters of the late Dr. Edward Sang 
have given his collection of trigonometrical 
and astronomical calculations in manuscript 
to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The gift 
also ineludes a collection of scientific manu- 
scripts by Dr. Sang. 


THe twenty-third congress for ‘Innere 
Medizin’ will take place at Munich from 
April 23 to 26, under the presidency of Pro- 
fessor von Striimpell. An exhibition of med- 


ical preparations, apparatus and instruments 
will be held. 


The Medical Record states that in spite of 
some opposition on the ground of interference 
with state rights, the house committee on 
interstate and foreign commerce has agreed 
to make a favorable report on a committee 
substitute for the Williams bill to extend 
federal control of quarantines. According to 
the plan proposed the secretary of the treas- 
ury is placed in direct control of quarantine, 
and is to administer it through the Public 
Health and Marine Hospital Service. The 
bill carries an appropriation of $500,000. 


A situ has been introduced into both houses 
of the New York legislature, which prohibits 
the manufacture and sale of medicinal prepa- 
rations containing alcohol or other narcotic 
or poisonous drugs unless the formula, both 
qualitative and quantitative, is printed on the 
label in plain English. 


MaRcH 23, 1906.] 


We learn from the Journal of the American 
Medical Association that arrangements have 
been completed for the transfer of the medical 
department of the Newberry Library, Chicago, 
including the Senn collection on medical his- 
tory, to the ownership and management of the 
John Orerar Library. This has been done 
partly because the natural relation of these 
books to the chosen field of the John Crerar 
Library and the lack of such relations to that 
of the Newberry Library make the transfer 
in many ways mutually advantageous, and 
partly because the medical profession of Chi- 
cago has urged strongly the desirability of a 
more central location. 


Tue Boston Transcript states that the Gray 
Herbarium, connected with the Bussey Insti- 
tution, has recently received from the Botan- 
ical Museum at Copenhagen a valuable col- 
lection of some 300 specimens of Scandinavian 
and Iceland flora. The North American col- 
lection has been enlarged by exchanges with 
the Geological Survey of Canada. Mr. F. S. 
Mathews has been added to the herbarium 
staff as artist. 


We learn from The Geographical Journal 
that in consequence of the archeological dis- 
coveries made by Professor Griinwedel at Tur- 
fan (EHastern Turkestan) in 1903, the German 
government sent an expedition to the same 
place in the following year under the direction 
of Dr. A. von Lecoqg, of the Royal Prussian 
Ethnological Museum. Dr. von Lecoq, as- 
sisted by Herr Bartus, arrived at Chugut- 
chak in October, 1904, and thence traveled to 
Kara Khoja (Dakiyanos), in the vicinity of 
Turfan, remaining there nine months, and 
excavating a number of caves and stupas. 
The finds have been most abundant, some hun- 
dred boxes of antiquities having been sent to 
Europe. These antiquities consist of heads of 
statues, showing Greek and Indian influence, 
well-preserved wall paintings from ruined 
temples, coins, and a large quantity of manu- 
seripts in no less than seven kinds of writings, 
namely, Uigur, Brahmi, Tibetan, Kiik Turki, 
Manichean (some manuscripts illuminated), 
Syriac and Chinese. Dr. von Lecoq and Herr 
Bartus left Turfan for Kashgar in October 


SCIENCE. 


479 


last, and at Kashgar they have been joined by 
Professor Griinwedel and Herr Phurt, who 
have arrived from Berlin via Russian Turke- 
stan. The party is now preparing to go to 
Kuchar, where systematic excavations are to 
be undertaken. 


At a meeting of the Zoological Society of 
London, held on February 22, it was an- 
nounced that it had accepted an interesting 
and valuable collection of Indian animals. The 
collection has been made by the government 
of Nepal for presentation to the Prince of 
Wales, who had kindly agreed to send it to 
the society’s gardens for exhibition. The Duke 
of Bedford, the president of the society, had 
generously promised to defray the cost of 
transport to England. The council expect 
the animals to arrive in June of this year, 
and hope to arrange for their exhibition in 
the gardens as a separate collection during the 
coming summer and autumn. 


In its annual report to the Carnegie Trus- 
tees, the executive committee of the trust 
stated, as we learn from the London Times, 
that, under the scheme of allocation for five 
years of an annual grant of £40,000 among 
the four Scottish universities, which became 
operative in January, 1903, sums amounting 
to £38,860 had been claimed and handed over 
during the year 1905, making for the past 
three years a total expenditure of £97,240. On 
the subject of the scheme of endowment of 
post-graduate study and research for the aca- 
demic year 1905-6, the report stated that ap- 
pointments were made to sixteen fellowships 
and twenty-seven scholarships; and grants of 
various amounts were made to forty-three ap- 
plicants. The total expenditure under this 
scheme was £4,526. In the research labora- 
tory of the Royal College of Physicians, Kdin- 
burgh, the superintendent had reported that 
during the past year thirty-six workers held 
places and had been engaged in forty-nine in- 
vestigations. Of these workers, thirty-two 
were graduates of Edinburgh University and 
nine held grants from, or were in other ways 
beneficiaries under the Carnegie Trust. The 
payment of class fees of beneficiaries had been 
carried out as in previous years. The total 


480 


number of beneficiaries from the institution 
of the trust in 1901 until December last was 
6,325; and the total amount paid in fees on 
behalf of students for class attendances for 
the year 1905 was £47,853, as against £45,903 
in 1904, £44,104 in 1903, and £40,285 in 1902. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mrs. W. S. Butwarp, of Boston, has given 
$50,000 to the Harvard Medical School, to 
establish a chair of neuro-pathology. 


Mr. Anprew Carneciz has offered to give 
$75,000 to Amherst College on condition that 
an equal sum be given by others for the con- 
struction and endowment of a building for 
biology and geology. 


Mrs. Joun CO. Waitin, who gave the present 
observatory and the now practically completed 
addition to Wellesley College, has added a 
residence for the members of the observatory 
staff. 


Tur Clarke School for the Deaf at North- 
ampton, Mass., will receive an annual income 
of $1,500 to enlarge the training school facili- 
ties from the fund recently received by the 
Association for Teaching Speech to the Deaf, 
given to them by Dr. Graham Bell. Dr. Bell 
became heir to about $75,000 from the estate 
of his father, Dr. Melville Bell, the inventor 
of the system of visible speech, and he made 
over this sum to the association. His condi- 
tion was that it should be used as a permanent 
memorial of his father’s connection with the 
‘subject, the homestead in Georgetown, D. C., 
to become the office of the association, for 
printing, etc., and about half the property to 
have its income devoted to the training of 
teachers of the oral method. 


Tur William H. Baldwin, Jr., Memorial 
Fund for the Tuskegee Institute amounts to 
more than $150,000. 


Tue Goldsmiths’ Company has made a grant 
of £10,000 to the Institute of Medical Sciences 
Fund, University of London, on the assump- 
tion that a site will be provided for the insti- 
tute at South Kensington. 


Tur Association of American Universities 
held its annual meeting at the University of 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Vou. XXIII. No. 586. 


California, Stanford University and San 
Francisco last week. The scientific program 
was as follows: 

Interchange of professors in universities: 
Papers presented on behalf of the University of 
California, by President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, 
and of Harvard University, by Professor William 
James. 

To what extent should professors engaged in re- 
search be relieved from instruction: Papers pre- 
sented on behalf of Leland Stanford Junior Uni- 
versity, by President David Starr Jordan, and 
of Yale University, by Professor Theodore S. 
Woolsey. 

The reaction of graduate work on the other 
work of the university: Paper prepared by Presi- 
dent Jacob Gould Schurman, presented by a 
representative of Cornell University. 
~The organization of the American university 
with especial reference to the changes in the con- 
ception of a ‘faculty’: Paper presented on be- 
half of Princeton University, by Professor An- 
drew F. West. 

Norton A. Kent, Ph.D., has been elected to 
the chair of physics at Boston University and 
will enter upon his duties at that institution 
in the fail. 

Dr. James Barnes has been elected associate 
in physics in Bryn Mawr College. 

Dr. James Burt Miner, B.S. (Minnesota, 
97), Ph.D. (Columbia, 03), has been ap- 
pointed assistant professor of psychology at 
the University of Minnesota. Dr. Miner is at 
present assistant professor of philosophy at 
Towa University. He will have charge of the 
new laboratory now being equipped at Min- 
nesota and also of the work in educational 
psychology. 

Dr. E. C. Moors, professor of education at 
the University of California, has been ap- 


pointed dean of the coming session of the: 


University of California Summer School. 
After the summer session Dr. Moore will go to 
Los Angeles to assume the duties of superin- 
tendent of schools of that city. 


Proressor Grorce H. Paumer, of Harvard 
University, has been elected lecturer in ethics 
for next year at Yale University, and Dr. 
Henry Rutgers Marshall of New York City 
has been elected lecturer in esthetics and psy- 
chology. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


CONTENTS. 
Fripay, Marcu 30, 1906. 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 

On some Post-Hocene and other Formations 

of the Gulf Region of the United States: 

PROFESSOR EuGENE A. SMITH............ 


Anthropology at the South African Meeting 
of the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science: PRoFESSOR ALFRED C. 
EDAD DONT ete iny ay schists vatainystoe enevaneleny © etaileelsteylel eis 


Scientific Books :— 
Duerden on the Coral Siderastrea Radians 
and its Post-larval Development: H. V. W. 
Hartwig’s Die Krystallgestalten der Min- 
eralogie in Stereoskopischen Bildern: PRo- 
FESSOR JOHN H. WOLFF...............4.- 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— 
The American Physical Society: Ppamseae 
Eenest Merritt. The San Francisco Sec- 
tion of the American Mathematical Society: 
Proressor G. A. Minter. The Society of 
Geohydrologists: M. L. FULLER. The 
Chemical Society of Washington: Dr. C. BE. 
Waters. The Torrey Botanical Club: C. 
Stuart Gacer. The New York Academy 
of Sciences, Section of Biology: PROFESSOR 
IVISVACS BI GEEOW sift evels\a) sores alaly ercrey ere verslaiaye 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
A Case of Isolation without Barriers: Dr. 
A. HE. Ortmann. Factors of Species-forma- 
tion: Dr. O. F. CooK............... ones 
Special Articles :— 
The Possibility of Psychical Factors in 
Illusions of Reversed Motion: PRoressor 
Guy Montrose Wurerte. A Note on Mid- 
Cretaceous Geography: EpwaRD W. BERRY. 
Age of Petroleum Deposits: E. T. DUMBLE. 


Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Temperature in Cyclones and Anticyclones ; 
Clouds and Health; Notes: Proressor R. 


Entomological Notes: Dz. NATHAN BANKS.. 


Robert Ogden Doremus: PROFESSOR CHARLES 
CHANDLER nis. \seae a caer eee 


A Standard Agricultural Course........... E 


The Metric System before Congress........ 
The Congress of the United States.......... 


481 


491 


497 


499 


500 


504 


507 


The Jubilee of the Academy of Science at St. 


WL OULS i elayrantany etepotetel =| aren eteetenetene slayekevasictvanetate 517 
Scientific Notes and News..............+-. 517 
University and Hducational News.......... 519 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of SclENCE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
ON SOME POST-EOCENE AND OTHER FOR- 
MATIONS OF THE GULF REGION 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 

In 1871 Dr. Eugene W. Hilgard, for- 
merly state geologist of Mississippi, read 
before the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science a paper ‘On the 
Geology of the Gulf of Mexico.’ This 
paper was supplemented in 1881 by an- 
other, ‘On the Later Tertiaries of the Gulf 
of Mexico,’ in which account was taken of 
the geological investigations made in the 
interval. 

In both these papers that problematical 
formation, the Grand Gulf, held the chief 
place of interest, and the hypothesis of a 
temporary and partial isolation of the gulf 
from the Atlantic Ocean was urged as be- 
ing necessary to account for its phenomena. 

On the present occasion, I purpose to 
speak of some additions to our knowledge 
of the geology of the gulf coastal plain, 
since 1881, and especially of the post- 
Hocene formations; and if in this summary 
I shall be thought to dwell too much on 
Alabama, I shall urge in explanation that 
the opportunities for the study of these 
formations in Alabama are, perhaps, better 
and more favorable than in the other states, 


482 


and I might add that my personal ac- 
quaintance with these formations in Ala- 
bama is much larger than in the other 
states concerned. 


CRETACEOUS. 


In the Cretaceous, the principal advance 
seems to have been the discovery or dis- 
crimination of a lower division, represented 
in Texas, the Indian Territory and Ar- 
kansas by the Comanche series, and in the 
Gulf states east of the Mississippi, by the 
Tuscaloosa formation. 

The Comanche includes in ascending order, 
three groups, the Trinity, the Fredericksburg and 
the Washita. By méans of its flora the Tusca- 
loosa formation has been correlated with the 
Raritan formation of New Jersey, which is placed 
at the top of the Lower Cretaceous (Potomac 
group) of that region. A somewhat similar un- 
studied flora occurs in the Cheyenne sandstone 
of southern Kansas, which is certainly in the 
upper portion of the Comanche series and prob- 
ably within the Washita group. The Tuscaloosa, 
therefore, seems to be about on the horizon of the 
Washita group and may represent it in whole 
or in part.* 

The Tuscaloosa strata were well and 
fully deseribed by Hilgard in his ‘Geology 
of Mississippi,’ but both by himself and by 
Tuomey, of Alabama, were included in 
their Eutaw formation, as its lowest mem- 
ber; but subsequent study im Alabama, 
especially of the plant remains of the for- 
mation, led to the separation of these beds 
from the other Eutaw strata and the estab- 
lishment of their equivalencies as above 
indicated. 

It has also been recently shown that very 
much of the Rotten Limestone division of 
the Cretaceous is largely composed of for- 
aminiferal shells and is, therefore, of the 
nature of chalk, and in Alabama the name 
Selma chalk has been given to it. 

It may further be noted as a matter of 
interest that the suitability of the purer 


*T. W. Stanton, letter of November 1, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


beds of this chalk as material for the manu- 
facture of Portland cement has been amply 
demonstrated by the success of the Demop- 
olis (Alabama) cement plant. 


TERTIARY AND LATER FORMATIONS. 


These I prefer to consider together, for 
the reason that the precise line between the 
Tertiary and post-Tertiary can hardly be 
said to be definitely fixed as yet. 

Since 1881 much geological work has 
been done in the Tertiary formations of 
Alabama, especially in the beds below the 
Lower Claiborne or Buhrstone (the North- 
ern Lignitic of Hilgard), and their strati- 
graphic relations along the Tombigbee, 
Alabama and Chattahoochee rivers have 
been carefully worked out, and described 
in Bulletin 43 of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey, and more fully in the Re- 
port on the Coastal Plain of Alabama, pub- 
lished in 1894, by the Geological Survey 
of Alabama. 

While in Mississippi in these lower beds 
the lignitic character is more pronounced, 
in Alabama the marine facies is better de- 
veloped, and the existence of a number of 
beds with well-preserved marine shells has 
made possible a greater degree of differ- 
entiation than could be obtained in the 
adjoining states; though several of these 
marine deposits of the Alabama Liegnitic 
have been traced into Mississippi on the 
one hand, and into Georgia on the other. 

In 1880, while acting as special agent 
of the tenth census, the present speaker 
showed that the Vicksburg limestone was 
the underlying formation of the Florida 
peninsula down nearly to the Everglades, 
and that this limestone at a number of 
points was overlain by another limestone 
or marl containing Miocene shells.” 

The Miocene localities then observed 
were, however, mostly on the Atlantic side 
of the peninsula, to which region our in- 

*Vol. VI., Quarto Reports, Tenth Census. 


MagrcxH 30, 1906.] 


vestigations were mainly confined. 

Little or nothing was done in continua- 
tion of these observations until 1887, when 
Daniel W. Langdon, of the Alabama Geo- 
logical Survey, discovered on the Chatta- 
hoochee River a series of marine Tertiary 
beds of Miocene age directly overlying the 
Vicksburg limestone, which, before that 
time, had been considered the uppermost 
of the marine Tertiary formations of the 
Gulf coast.2 By this capital discovery in- 
terest in the later Tertiary formations of 
this region, especially in Florida, was 
greatly stimulated, in part because of the 
great number and beautiful state of pres- 
ervation of the fossil shells, and the geolo- 
gists, paleontologists and shell collectors of 
the U. S. Geological Survey were soon 
abroad in the land, with the result that 
other occurrences of Miocene strata were 
speedily made known, especially east of the 
Chattahoochee River, at Coe’s Mill and 
other localities down the western side of 
the peninsula where the exposures are more 
numerous and continuous. 

West of the Chattahoochee also, on 
Chipola River not far from Alum Bluff, 
on Shoal River in Walton County, and 
even as far westward as Oak Grove on 
Yellow River in Santa Rosa County a few 
miles below the Alabama line, beds with 
Miocene shells in an almost perfect state of 
preservation were quickly added to the list 
of desirable collecting grounds. 

North of Oak Grove and on the banks 
of the Conecuh River near Roberts in 
Escambia County, Alabama, some poorly 
‘preserved but still identifiable shell casts 
of Miocene forms were found by Mr. L. C. 
Johnson, of the Alabama Geological Sur- 
vey, in beds which were very close above 
the Vicksburg limestone and consequently 
near the horizon of the lower Chattahoo- 
chee. The westernmost occurrence of the 


? Report on the Coastal Plain of Alabama, Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, 1894. 


SCIENCE. 


483 


post-Hocene marine Tertiaries was also dis- 
covered by Mr. Johnson near Merrill in 
Greene County, Mississippi, at the conflu- 
ence of Leaf and Chickasawhay rivers, 
which make the Pascagoula. Here in the 
banks of Chickasawhay is a bed made up 
almost exclusively of the shells of a small 
gnathodon or rangia, along with some large 
but very badly preserved oysters (O. Vir- 
ginica). ; 

Inasmuch as this was in _ territory 
mapped by Hilgard as Grand Gulf, and as 
the strata of the latter formation, contain- 
ing lignitized and silicified trunks of trees, 
formed the upper two thirds of the bluff 
at the place, the gnathodon bed was con- 
sidered as a part of the Grand Gulf, and 
the name Pascagoula was given to it. Pro- 
visionally, at least, the horizon was de- 
termined to be Miocene and equivalent to 
the uppermost of the Alum Bluff beds, 
but the subsequent determination by Mr. 
Dall of the oyster above mentioned, as O. 
Virginica, would make the horizon Plio- 
eene, since O. Virginica is not known in 
strata older than the Pliocene. 

It may be here remarked that this shell- 
bearing bed is not a part of the Grand 
Gulf, since in a deep well bored in Mobile, 
Ala., in 1894-5, it was penetrated at the 
depth of 700 feet, while the Grand Gulf 
there is at the surface. ~ 

But the Chattahoochee River section still 
held the first place, as alone showing clearly 
and unmistakably the order and succession 
of most of these beds; for, from Chatta- 
hoochee Landing down to Alum Bluff, as 
first demonstrated by Langdon and since 
verified by numerous geologists, there is 
a practically unbroken series of marine 
strata exposed along the banks and bluffs 
of the river. 

At several points, and especially in the 
upper part of the Chattahoochee series, 
there are beds with well-preserved shells 
which have been studied and described 


484 


mainly by Professor Dall, who has classed 
them as Oligocene and Miocene. 

Their thickness, as estimated by Messrs. 
Pumpelly and Dall, is 200 feet, but the 
well borings in Mobile have since shown 
that a greater thickness must probably be 
allowed. 

It will be remembered by those who have 
kept pace with the progress of gulf coast 
geology that up to 1881, when the last 
paper of Hilgard’s above referred to was 
written, the Grand Gulf, a non-marine 
formation, had always been observed to be, 
along its northern border, in contact with 
the Vicksburg limestone, and to oceupy the 
surface of the coastal plain (of Mississippi, 
at least), thence southward to within ten 
miles of the gulf shores. 

No other Tertiary formation younger 
than the Vicksburg had then been observed 
underlying it, or indeed outcropping at all 
in this coastal plain, and none overlying 
it older than the Stratified Drift or Orange 
Sand (since called Lafayette), and its posi- 
tion in the geological column seemed thus 
to be definitely fixed, leading Hilgard to 
the conclusion that ‘its rocks alone repre- 
sented on the northern border of the gulf, 
the entire time and space intervening be- 
tween the Vicksburg epoch of the Eocene 
and the Stratified Drift.’ 

This view was generally accepted by the 
geologists of the gulf coastal plain, since 
similar relations between Vicksburg and 
the Grand Gulf beds had been observed 
and described at various points from Texas 
to the Perdido River. 

At this time (1881) the Grand Gulf beds 
had been identified in Alabama through 
Washington and Baldwin counties to the 
Perdido River, the boundary between Ala- 
bama and western Florida; and in Georgia 
the siliceous strata of the wire-grass region, 
since designated Altamaha grit, were cor- 
related by Drs. Loughridge and Hileard 
with the Grand Gulf of Mississippi and 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 


Alabama;* but neither in Alabama, nor in 
Florida, nor in Georgia, had the superficial 
distribution of these beds been at all fully 
mapped; only detached occurrences had 
been noticed. West of the Mississippi 
River, also, the Grand Gulf had been 
identified and partially mapped through 
Louisiana and Texas. 

The discovery by Langdon of the marine 
Miocene beds of the Chattahoochee oceupy- 
ing a part at least of the position hitherto 
thought to be monopolized by the Grand 
Gulf, naturally necessitated some modifi- 
cation of Hilgard’s view, and this necessity 
was emphasized by the subsequent discov- 
eries mentioned of beds with marine and 
estuarine shells of Miocene and Pliocene 
age at other localities in Mississippi, Ala- 
bama and Florida, in territory known to 
be occupied, superficially at least, by un- 
questioned and unmistakable Grand Gulf 
strata. 

At first, as we have seen, the supposition 
was put forward that the Pascagoula bed 
was an estuarine deposit im the Grand Gulf 
and a part of that formation, then, con- 
sidering the conditions at Roberts im 
Escambia County, Ala., where typical 
Grand Gulf sandstones and clays (from 
the relative positions of their surface out- 
crops) appeared to lie between the Vicks- 
burg limestone and the beds with the 
Miocene shells, the Miocene age of the 
Grand Gulf, and the fact of the gradual 
replacement, coming eastward, of its non- 
marine beds by marine equivalents, were 
thought to have been established; and 
finally, in the Chattahoochee River section, 
it was thought that we had proof of the 
complete replacement of non-marine by 
marine strata. 

At that time the presence of Grand Gulf 
beds of the characteristic non-marine type, 
overlying, and neither interstratified with 
nor replacing, the marine Miocene beds of 

‘Tenth Census Report, Vol. V. 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


the Chattahoochee series, had not been 
demonstrated as has since been done by 
many observations, and in reaching the 
above-mentioned erroneous conclusions re- 
garding the Miocene age and equivalents 
of the Grand Gulf, we were dominated by 
the idea suggested by its relations to the 
Vicksburg limestone, which it almost every- 
where immediately overlies, that it must, 
therefore, be the immediate successor of 
this limestone in the geological sequence. 

It seems almost impossible to eradicate 
this belief, notwithstanding its absolute dis- 
proof by the records of the Mobile well 
alone. 

Other equally incontestable, though per- 
haps not quite so obvious, proofs of the 
true position of the Grand Gulf in the geo- 
logical column have been obtamed by the 
field investigations in Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Florida and Georgia during the 
years 1900-1904. As long ago as 1860, 
Dr. Hilgard, that most sagacious of south- 
ern geologists, described and mapped cor- 
rectly the Grand Gulf as covering all the 
lower part of Mississippi from the Vicks- 
burg outcrop down to within ten miles of 
the gulf, and with no formation overlying 
it older than the Stratified Drift or La- 
fayette. In Alabama, west Florida and 
Georgia a similar condition of things exists, 
as will be evident from the following in- 
stances : 

1. From Healing Springs in Washing- 
ton County, Ala., down through Mobile 
County to within a few miles of the gulf, 
the surface formation is everywhere the 
Grand Gulf with its usual capping of 
Lafayette. 

2. A little further east in Alabama, begin- 
ning in Clarke County and coming south- 
ward through Baldwin to Perdido Bay, we 
find again nothing at the surface save 


Grand Gulf with its Lafayette capping. 


At Montrose on the eastern shore of Mo- 
bile Bay and a little below the latitude of 


SCIENCE. 


485 


Mobile, these Grand Gulf clays and sands 
of the most characteristic type make the 
Red Bluff, seventy-five feet in height, with 
the usual thin capping (fifteen or twenty 
feet) of Lafayette red loam and pebbles. 
Continuing on down to the southern end 
of the county we find the same materials 
making a bluff, twenty-five or thirty feet 
in height, washed by the waters of Perdido 
Bay, 2. e., the Gulf of Mexico. So here in 
Alabama, the Grand Gulf most certainly 
overlies everything except the Lafayette 
and more recent strata. 

3. Again along the L. & N. R. R. we 
have followed the same combination, Grand 
Gulf with Lafayette capping, from above 
Evergreen down to Pensacola, where they 
form a bluff some thirty to forty feet in 
height overlooking the Bay of Pensacola. 

4. Again in Escambia. County, Ala., 
starting north of the Conecuh River near 
Roberts, we find the Grand Gulf overlying 
and in contact, first with the Vicksburg 
limestone, then with the Miocene clayey 
sands which there directly overlie the 
Vicksburg; then, coming southward into 
Florida, the same formation with its cap- 
ping of Lafayette occupies the surface 
down to the latitude of Oak Grove and be- 
yond ; the Oak Grove bed with its beautiful 
Miocene fossils cropping out in the bank 
of the river, the Grand Gulf on the up- 
lands one hundred feet above. 

5. Eastward of Escambia County the 
northern limit of the Grand Gulf laps over 
formations still older than the Vicksburg, 
and we see it in Covington County near 
Andalusia, overlying the Claiborne and the 
Buhrstone ; and in Barbour County and the 
adjoining (Quitman) county in Georgia, 
opposite Eufaula, it overlies the Ripley 
beds of the Cretaceous. Thence, its land- 
ward border takes a northeasterly direc- 
tion, and indurated beds identical with 
those of the type locality in Mississippi 
(here called Altamaha Grit) begin to make 


486 


a small percentage (not more than one 
one hundredth of one per cent. according 
to Dr. Harper) of the rocks of the series, 
eastward of Flint River. 

From this northern border it may be 
traced southward to the southern limit of 
the state, and beyond, at least to Chatta- 
hoochee in Florida, where it occupies as 
usual, the summit of the plateau with only 
the red loam and pebbles of the Lafayette 
over it; and along the road leading down 
from this plateau to the Old Chattahoochee 
Landing, it may be seen resting directly 
_ upon the Miocene limestone first identified 
as such by Langdon as above mentioned. 

While our recent observations have not 
extended any further south along the 
Chattahoochee than this point, we have 
good reason for the belief that the same 
Grand Gulf and Lafayette mantle occupies 
the summit of Alum Bluff itself. 

Keeping in mind the fact that the Grand 
Gulf mottled clays overlie directly the 
Miocene limestone at Chattahoochee Land- 
ing, let us consider what the deep borings at 
Mobile, at Alabama Port, Mobile County, 
and at Bon Secours Bay in Baldwin 
County, reveal. In all these wells, with 
the Grand Gulf capped with the Lafayette 
forming the surface, the Gnathodon bed 
of the Pascagoula Pliocene is penetrated 
at the depth of 700 to 800 feet; and be- 
low that, to the depth of 1,600 feet, follows 
a succession of beds with well preserved 
and easily identifiable shells, characteristic 
of the several horizons of the Chattahoochee 
(Miocene) River section. The borings end 
in these beds before reaching the top of 
the Vicksburg. 

The most remarkable thing in connection 
with these later Tertiary strata and that 
which has caused so much perplexity among 
the geologists is the rarity of their out- 
erops at the surface west of the Chatta- 
hoochee River. There are several known 
exposures in west Florida already noticed, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


2. e., on Chipola River, Shoal River and at 
Oak Grove; only one locality has as yet 
been noticed in Alabama, 7. e., on Conecuh 
River near Roberts in Escambia County; 
only one in Mississippi, viz., that, of the 
egnathodon bed near Merrill on Chicka- 
sawhay River. We hear of none in Louis- 
jana, and none in Texas; yet in the latter 
state the deep borings at Galveston and 
Beaumont, after passing through 458 feet 
of recent and Pleistocene strata, and 1,035 
feet of beds of doubtful age, penetrate at 
least 650 feet of beds referred to the Upper 
Tertiary, and 917 feet of beds containing 
characteristic shells of Miocene age.® We 
know the reason of this in Alabama, for 
the surface of the country here in which 
they should outerop is covered by an un- 
determined thickness of the beds of the 
Grand Gulf and Lafayette. Probably the 
same explanation would apply to the other 
states. 

From the facts detailed above, the con- 
clusion seems unavoidable that the Grand 
Gulf, lies above any Tertiary formation 
as yet described in the Gulf states; it be- 
ing, on the testimony of the Mobile wells, 
at least 700 feet above the Pascagoula beds 
which from the O. Virginica which they 
contain, must be assigned to the Pliocene. 
The additional fact that no formation 
older than the Lafayette has yet been ob- 
served overlying it, betokens its compara- 


tively recent age. 


The only escape from the conclusion thus 
foreed upon us seems to be the assumption 
that Wailes, Hilgard, Hopkins, Lough- 
ridge, Hill, Kennedy, Dumble and the other 
geologists who have made this region a 
study, have been mistaken in their identifi- 
cations of the Grand Gulf, and have con- 
founded it with something else. 

Let us, therefore, look at it from an- 
other point of view. The usual place as- 


> Gilbert D. Harris, Fourth Annual Report, Geo- 
logical Survey of Texas, 1892, pp. 91-95. 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


signed to the Grand Gulf is between the 
Vicksburg and the Chattahoochee lime- 
stones; or between the members of the 
Chattahoochee River series; or else as be- 
ing equivalent to the whole of the above 
series. 

We ought, if this assignment be correct, 
to find it somewhere or other underlying 
some of the Post-Vicksburg Tertiary rocks. 
Tt has never yet, so far as the records show, 
been seen in these relations. 

That it does not come in between the 
Vicksburg and Chattahoochee is amply 
proven by the observations of Professors 
Pumpelly, Foerste, McCallie, Burns, Dall 
and others who have described the contact 
of these formations in southwestern Georgia 
and in Florida, with no sign of anything 
that could possibly be referred to the 
Grand Gulf coming in between them. 

Characteristic Grand Gulf beds were 
observed by Mr. S. W. McCallie and my- 
self in 1904, on Withlacoochee River in 
Lowndes County, Ga., near the Florida 
line, overlying limestones holding Miocene 
corals referred to the Chattahoochee hori- 
zon, this limestone in its turn resting on 
the Vicksburg; and I can personally bear 
witness to the fact that the Grand Gulf 
overlies the Miocene limestone at old 
Chattahoochee Landing, and along the road 
from Chattahoochee town to River Junc- 
tion. From Chattahoochee Landing down 
to Alum Bluff, the succession of Marine 
Tertiary beds along the river is unbroken; 
in the words of Professor Dall, ‘While the 
series is not complete in any single section, 
taken collectively there is no gap outstand- 
ing between the beds, and, humanly speak- 
ing, no room for misapprehension as to 
their position and age.” Certainly no 
Grand Gulf beds form any part of this 
Chattahoochee River section, which ranges 
from upper Oligocene, according to the 
latest decision of Professor Dall, up to the 

° Bulletin Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 5, p. 162. 


SCIENCE. 


487 


Chesapeake Miocene of the Alum Bluff ex- 
posure; but they do overlie in turn each 
member of this series. 

But we have also seen above that east- 
ward of Escambia County, Ala., the Grand 
Gulf beds are to be found overlying strata 
older than the Vicksburg, e. g., the Clai- 
borne, the Buhrstone, the Lignitie, the 
Clayton and even the Ripley of the Cre- 
taceous. It has not occurred to any one 
to assign to the Grand Gulf an age older 
than that first referred to, because of its 
resting directly upon any of these sub- 
Vicksburg formations. 

By way of parenthesis I might here say 
that this transgression of the Grand Gulf 
over the older formations in the eastern 
part of Alabama, finds a kind of parallel 
on the St. Stephens limestone. We have 
recently identified isolated patches of this 
limestone so far out of its usual position 
as to be directly in contact with the Nana- 
falia beds of the Lignitic and upon the 
very verge of the Clayton. This is the 
ease, for instance, at Rutledge and Luverne 
in Crenshaw County and at Brundidge in 
Pike County, Ala. Between these out- 
lying patches and the regular outerop of 
the St. Stephens is the usual succession of 
the outerops of the other Lignitic and Clai- 
borne beds, with none of the Vicksburg 
remnants, as yet detected, overlying them. 

We may sum up the evidence above pre- 
sented, in the two following statements: 
(1) No one has yet seen or recorded the 
Grand Gulf actually in place beneath any 
Tertiary formation, Eocene, Oligocene, 
Miocene or Pliocene. (2) On the other 
hand, it has been observed overlying, and 
in direct contact with, every one of these 
Tertiaries, to say nothing of the Ripley of 
the Cretaceous. 

It has been inferred that it passes below 
all the Tertiaries above the Vicksburg, sim- 
ply because of the usual position of its 
northern boundary, ignoring what Hilgard 


488 


long ago emphasized, that, apart from local 
steep dips in any direction, its strata could 
nowhere be shown to have anything else 
than approximately horizontal position, on 
an average; and ignoring the still more 
convincing circumstance that, with a thick- 
ness of only 200 to 300 feet, it spreads over 
an area in the state of Mississippi, of at 
least 120 miles from north to south. If 
it had the usual observed dips of the other 
Tertiary formations in that state, the 
Grand Gulf would lie between 3,000 and 
4,000 feet below the surface at points near 
the Gulf where it is certainly known to 
be at the surface. 


MATERIALS. 


The materials of the Grand Gulf are essentially 
clays and sandstones, the latter generally alu- 
minous and soft, and of white, gray and yellowish- 
gray tints; the sand being very sharp. Beds of 
loose sand are unusual; but the clays are often- 
times quite meager, though the sand contained in 
them (as is the case in the sandstones) is usu- 
ally quite fine. 


To this description by Hilgard it might 
be added that the sandstones and the mas- 
sive clays, which are often indurated into 
a mudstone grading into a sandstone, are 
frequently mottled with irregular red 
splotches, in this particular, as well as in 
others, resembling some of the material of 
the Tuscaloosa formation of the Cretaceous. 

Stratified clays in thin layers are also 
common in Alabama, and these nearly 
always have a pink color. Pebbles of 
small size, one fourth to one half inch in 
diameter, are not uncommon in thin irres- 
ular bodies, generally at the base of sandy 
beds. Much stress has been laid on the 
occurrence of the sandstones and other in- 
durated strata as being only in the presu- 
mably lowermost (because most northerly ) 
beds of the formation; but this is a mis- 
take, since one of the most conspicuous ex- 
amples of this occurrence is at Fort Adams 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 


on the Mississippi River, in the southwest- 
ern corner of Mississippi, at the Louisiana 
Ime. In Alabama they occur down to the 
Florida line, and in the Altamaha Grit re- 
gion of Georgia—as shown by McCallie, 
Harper, Burns and others—these indurated 
beds, in every respect identical with those 
of the type locality in Mississippi, have 
been observed sporadically in eighteen 
counties and in every part of this region, 
down nearly to the Florida line in south- 
western Georgia, and to within twenty-five 
or thirty miles of the Atlantic coast on 
Oemulgee River. Accordine to the esti- 
mate above referred to of Dr. Harper, who 
has devoted several years to the study of 
this region, these rock outcrops do not 
constitute more than one one hundredth of. 
one per cent. of the area of the formation. 

The marks on the map before you will 
show this clearly enough, and ought to dis- 
pose of the statement so often made that 
the indurated parts of the Grand Gulf are 
older than the rest—or that they represent 
a different form from the less consolidated 
parts. One might as reasonably hold that 
the indurated crusts so often seen in the 
Lafayette constitute a distinet formation 
worthy of a distinct name. In general, 
however, the statement of Hilgard holds 
good, that ‘there is a gradual inerease in 
elayeyness and a decrease of hardness, un- 
til in the seaward portions of the forma- 
tion we find chiefly stiff blue or ereen and 
more or less massy clays,” and I might 
add for Alabama, laminated clays and 
coarse sands. 

Lignite and eypsum are characteristic 
of the materials both in Alabama and in 
Mississippi, and in both states the wood is 
often silicified. The lignitie facies is, how- 
ever, more common in Mississippi. The 
lignitic matters generally occur in rather 
limited lenses in the other strata. Some 


“Am. Jour. Sct., Vol. XXII., p. 59. 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


of the trunks of trees have been observed 
one half silicified, the other half lignitized. 


TOPOGRAPHY. 


The topographical features of the coun- 
try covered by the Grand Gulf strata are 
quite characteristic. Near the northern 
border where the Vicksburg limestone is 
not far below the surface, lime sinks and 
deep ponds are common, and the surface 
of the country is often uneven, occasionally 
rugged; but going southward one finds the 
surface becoming gradually smoother until 
it assumes the character of ‘flatwoods.’ 
But these flatwoods are not necessarily low 
lands, since in Baldwin and Mobile and in 
the adjoining county of Florida (Hs- 
cambia) the land, where not lowered by 
stream erosion, is from 150 to 300 feet 
above tide. One of the most characteristic 
features of this flat land is the frequent 
occurrence of shallow depressions which 
are hardly ever more than four or five feet 
deep, in which water may collect in shallow 
ponds a few yards to forty or fifty in 
diameter. These are lined with a shrubby 
growth of haw bushes, gum or cypress, 
or sometimes of herbaceous plants only. 
Other depressions, frequently of larger size 
than those above mentioned, may be free 
of water, thus giving rise to the sarracenia 
flats and to savannahs, covered with high 
erass and supporting a sparse growth of 
stunted long leaf pine. Along with the 
prevailing grass are many bright-colored 
fiowers peculiar to the region, and the im- 
pression 1s made upon the traveler that 
he is im a well-kept park.” Lower lymg 
lands timbered with long leaf and Cuban 
pine are known as ‘pine meadows,’ in 
which the shallow ponds are not so fre- 
quent, but where the surface is gently un- 
dulating and mostly clothed with a growth 
of tall grass and flowers, like the savannahs. 

Tt is not easy to account for these shal- 
low depressions; they are certainly not due 


SCIENCE. 


489 


to any underlying limestone near the sur- 
face, nor is there, so far as we are aware, 
any sufficient amount of soluble matters 
in the soils to give rise to them. The only 
explanation as yet suggested is that they 
are due to the uneven surface of the under- 
lying clayey beds of the formation, which 
are reached almost everywhere in wells at 
shallow depth. 


THICKNESS. 


The thickness of the formation is very 
difficult to estimate. Dr. Hilgard long ago 
observed that ‘the position of the Grand 
Gulf strata could rarely be shown to be 
otherwise than nearly or quite horizontal 
on an average,’ and during a recent trip by 
Mr. Aldrich and myself in a skiff, from 
Bucatunna to Merrill in Mississippi, a dis- 
tance of fifty miles in direct line north and 
south, we could discover no sensible dip in 
the strata. Dr. Hilgard puts the thickness 
at 250 feet, stating that in the absence of 
deep borings in the gulf territory this can 
be best observed on the northern edge of 
the formation, where it forms high ridges, 
from which there is an abrupt descent 
northward into the level prairie country of 
the Vicksburg territory. The deep borings 
since made in the gulf territory have not 
settled the question, for it is not as yet 
possible to draw sharply the line between 
the Grand Gulf and other strata there 
penetrated. In Baldwin county, where 
these beds come down to salt water at Mon- 
trose on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, 
the bluff itself is some 70 or 75 feet high, 
and the level plateau, a mile or two back 
from the bay, can not be less than 150 feet. 
This is about the height of the Spring Hill 
plateau at Mobile, and at the foot cf that 
ridge is the boring in which the Pascagoula 
bed is struck at about 700 feet. For the 
first 180 feet of this boring the material 
ean not well be distinguished from Grand 


490 


Gulf. This, with the 150 feet of the hill, 
would make the thickness something over 
300 feet. 

From its structure and distribution it is 
difficult to avoid the conclusion that the 
Grand Gulf is a sort of blanket or mantle 
formation spread over part of the Vicks- 
burg; in places over parts of older forma- 
tions; and over all the Miocene and later 
Tertiaries, with practically no general 
southward dip more rapid than the descent 
of the general land surface. In this it 
resembles the next overlying formation of 
our coastal plain, viz., the Lafayette, or 
Orange Sand of Dr. Hilgard. The latter, 
however, overlies a far greater number of 
formations, including the entire coastal 
plain series and even part of the Paleozoics 
and Crystalline schists. The Lafayette is 
also composed of siliceous materials, but 
my experience in Alabama is that the clays 
are comparatively rare. The prevailing 
material is a red sandy loam with beds of 
rounded, water-worn pebbles in irregular 
bodies at the base. Very often the red 
loam passes into a sandier phase of lighter 
color—generally yellowish—before the peb- 
bles are reached. The thickness can rarely 
be shown to be more than twenty or twenty- 
five feet at any one place, unless the ma- 
terials are filling erosion hollows in the 
underlying formations. A characteristic 
feature in Alabama is the almost total ab- 
sence of evenly stratified beds of any kind; 
the red loam at the surface seldom shows 
any lines of stratification; the sands and 
pebbles almost invariably exhibit cross- 
stratification or false-bedding, due to depo- 
sition from swiftly flowing currents; lami- 
nated clays I have not seen at all in this 
formation in Alabama. In this we have a 
very marked distinction of the Lafayette 
from either the Tuscaloosa or the Grand 
Gulf, with both of which it has some fea- 
tures in common. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


GENESIS. 

To account for many of the phenomena 
of the Grand Gulf formation Dr. Hilgard 
has from the first insisted that foremost 
among the conditions of its accumulation 
was exclusion of the sea,® or at least such 
obstruction of the communication across 
the still submerged peninsula of Florida as 
to render the influx from the interior of 
the continent predominant over the orig- 
inal supply of sea-water.. Later, in 1881, 
after soundings in the Gulf of Mexico had 
revealed the topography of the gulf bottom, 
and the existence of a submerged shelf of 
100 to 130 miles width along the coast, he 
suggested that even an elevation of 450 
feet (which seems to be proven for the 
Mississippi embayment) would convert 
the whole gulf border into a region of 
shallows out to the 100-fathom line, in 
which the waters would be kept perma- 
nently freshened by the continental drain- 
age. It may be remarked in this connec- 
tion that such an elevation would also raise 
a portion of the present sea bottom into 
dry land, and would not help to explain 
the accumulation of Grand Gulf strata far 
inland of the present coast, unless we as- 
sume that this uplifting of the submerged 
shelf was accompanied by a downward 
warping of a belt farther inland. Nor 
would it help in the explanation of the 
occurrence of this formation on the At- 
lantie side of the Georgia watershed, and 
through South Carolina. 

In the Tuscaloosa or Potomac formation 
of the Cretaceous we have an almost par- 
allel case. In their component materials 
and in their mode of accumulation the two 
formations show striking similarities; in 
both are only vegetable remains, or those 
of land and fresh-water origin; both must 
have been accumulated in sounds, partially, 
at least, cut off from the sea, and the diffi- 
culties in suggesting the precise nature and 

® Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. II., December, 1871. 


Marcu 30, 1906.j 


origin of the barrier by which this exclu- 
sion of the sea was effected, are as great in 
the one ease as in the other, but in neither 
greater than the difficulties met in account- 
ing for the other great fresh-water forma- 
_ tion of the coastal plain—the Lafayette. 

In the ease of this Lafayette formation, 
two explanations of its origin have been 
offered, viz. : 

(1) That it was deposited along the bor- 
ders of the Gulf and Atlantic during a 
period of depression, when the shore line 
was at the landward margin of the forma- 
tion, and that the deposit was, therefore, a 
marine or estuarine one. 

To this the structure of the formation, 
its position upon a deeply eroded surface, 
and the entire absence of fossil remains 
appear to be well-nigh insuperable ob- 
jections. 

(2) That the materials were drifted 
down the channels of ancient streams, in 
places coincident in position with the mod- 
ern streams, and were thus of the nature 
of alluvial fans. All this would naturally 
happen during a period of elevation rather 
than of depression. In Alabama, the La- 
fayette does not seem to be confined to 
well-marked channels such as Dr. Hilgard 
finds im Mississippi, but it appears to have 
been spread over the whole face of the 
coastal plain of the Gulf as well as of the 
Atlantic, reminding one of a coalescence of 
alluvial fans on-a large scale, as they spread 
out upon the plain, much after the fashion 
of the ice of the Piedmont type of glacier 
as displayed by the Malaspina. This view 
of the genesis of the formation would ac- 
count for many of the phenomena, and 
certainly for the absolute lack of all trace 
of fossils. 

In the nature of their materials; beds of 
sand often intricately false-bedded and of 
bright colors; beautifully lamimated and 
gaily colored clays; great beds of massive 
clays of every variety, white, gray, reddish, 


SCIENCE. 


491 


purple and variously mottled; in their 
structure and in the general impression 
which they make upon the observer in the 
field, the two formations, Potomac and 
Grand Gulf, are astonishingly alike, so that 
in the absence of fossils it would be impos- 
sible to distinguish the one from the other 
if both occurred in the same area. On the 
other hand, the Lafayette has a character 
of its own, different from either, and so 
well marked that the observer with any rea- 
sonable degree of experience will scarcely 
ever remain long in doubt as to its identity 
or be likely to confound it with anything 
else, even though it holds no fossils to guide 
him. 
HuGcEeNE A. SMITH. 
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA. 


ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN 
MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIA- 
TION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 
SCIENCE, 1905. 

ONLY a few communications were brought 
by the over-sea members, and they all had 
a bearing upon South African anthropol- 
ogy. The president’s address presented a 
brief summary of our knowledge of South 
African anthropology and pointed out lines 
for future inquiry, with an urgent appeal 
for immediate and more thorough investi- 
gation in the field. Mr. Henry Balfour 
gave an account (illustrated by lantern 
slides) of certain musical instruments of 
South Africa, dealing more especially with 
the musical-bow group of instruments. 
Mr. EK. S. Hartland read an elaborate paper 
on the totemism of the Bantu, in which he 
pointed out that the totemism of the Bantu 
had been of a type similar to that of the 
Australians and North American Indians, 
but that everywhere it has fallen into decay 
and become more or less replaced by an- 
eestor worship, and concomitantly father- 
right has replaced mother-right. Professor 
F. von Luschan gave an abundantly illus- 


492 


trated lantern demonstration on artificial 
deformation in Africa. The majority of 
the deformations, he holds, have been in- 
troduced from elsewhere and form part of 
an extensive amount of cultural borrowing 
by Africa from the Hast; perhaps indig- 
enous are ‘tattoome in relief’ and the de- 
formation of the lips. A second paper by 
Dr. von Luschan dealt with the origin of 
the Hottentots; he came to the conclusion 
that they were originally of Hamitie stock, 
mixed with Bushman blood, and that they 
are not, as generally believed, a Bantu- 
Bushman hybrid. Miss B. Pullen-Burry 
read a paper on the social and political 
position of the American negro. This was 
the only paper which did not deal directly 
with South African matters, but it had a 
definite bearing upon problems that are 
exercising the minds of colonists. All re- 
maining papers were by local authors. 
Stone implements of various kinds and 
the flakes and chips which resulted from 
their manufacture are very numerously and 
widely distributed in South Africa, and are 
receiving the attention of several collectors, 
who are attempting to allocate them to the 
various periods and types recognized by 
European archeologists. The refractory 
nature of a given rock or the lack of skill 
of the operator has a marked effect on the 
implement; but apart from these there are 
certain methods of technique which char- 
acterize Huropean implements of known 
relative date. A great diversity of forms 
has been found in South Africa and most 
of these forms can be perfectly matched by 
European types, and to this extent South 
African archeologists are justified in speak- 
ing of paleolithic or neolithic or of inter- 
mediate types. Mr. J. P. Johnson, of 
Johannesburg, even goes so far as to dis- 
tinguish eolithie types in South Africa, or 
at all events types intermediate between 
eclithic and paleolithic implements. Tech- 
nique is, however, a very different matter 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


from chronology, and until the stratigraph- 
ical evidence has been more satisfactorily 
studied it would be rash to speak of a South 
African paleolithic period as being neces- 
sarily synchronous with that of Europe; 
but our South African colleagues are thor- 
oughly alive to this point. A further prob- 
lem is the racial affinities of the makers of 
the stone implements, and here again evi- 
dence is slowly being accumulated. We 
had papers by Messrs. L. Peringuey and 
J. P. Johnson on these subjects, and they 
exhibited many types of stone implements. 

A paper on the arts and crafts among 
the natives of South Africa by Dr. S. 
Schonland conveniently summarized our 
knowledge on the subject. This was fol- 
lowed by a paper by Mr. W. A. Squire on 
the art of Bushmen, which was illustrated 
by the exhibition of copies of Bushman 
paintings; these, and some other drawings 
that were exhibited, were a revelation to 
us all of the spirited and realistic skill of 
these clever, draughtsmen. 

The remaining papers by government 
officials and missionaries dealt with the 
ethnography of various Bantu peoples. 
Among the more important of them were 
the following: One on the mental charac- 
teristics of the Bechuana, as deduced from 
a study of their language by the Rev. 
Canon Crisp, threw a new light to many of 
us on the intellectual capacities of these 
people and on their extraordinary command 
of language. Mr. H. EH. Mabille presented 
a valuable memoir on the Basuto, an inter- ~ 
esting tribe that still retains some measure 
of independence. M. Junod, who has al- 
ready published two valuable works on 
natives, gave us an account of the Thonga 
tribe and still further enlivened his bright 
paper by singing native songs; he also pro- 
vided a native to sing and play upon a 
xylophone. The Rey. W. C. Willoughby 
read an instructive paper on the totemism 
of the Beewana. The totem was a sacred 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


animal, an old and tried friend; its wor- 
shippers (if we may call them so) did not 
hunt or eat it or wear its skin, but avoided 
it as far as possible; they sang songs and 
danced in its honor. In the old days there 
is no doubt that the totem was regarded as 
the supernatural friend and ally of the 
tribe; it was respected and protected and 
men swore by it as by a sacred thing; but 
this sacredness had begun to vanish before 
the white man came. There is no trace in 
philology, customs or folk-lore of any saeri- 
ficial rite connected with the totem animals 
of these tribes. The author described cus- 
toms associated with useful plants and do- 
mestic animals which, in his opinion, were 
connected with totemism; an account was 
also given of the girls’ initiation cere- 
monies, in which it is evident there is a 
close connection between food and sexual 
relations. ; 

Very interesting was the account given 
by Mr. C. A. Wheelwright, C.M.G., on the 
circumcision lodges of the natives of the 
Zoutpansberg district of the Transvaal. It 
is extremely difficult to get any information 
on this subject, so these ‘Notes’ are of espe- 
cial value. The lodges usually last three 
months and public opinion forces the youths 
to attend. The lads are taught to sing, 
dance and drill, sexual matters are fully 
gone into and the laws and customs of the 
tribe are mnculeated; they are subjected to 
cold, whipping and privations to harden 
their physique and make them manly. 

The Rey. E. Gottschling gave a sketch of 
the history and customs of the Bawenda. 
The Bawenda inhabit the northeast corner 
of the Transvaal, between the Limpopo and 
the Levuva, but it is not yet known where 
was the original Wenda, the cradle of the 
tribe; the people, who are typical Bantu, 
apparently come down from the lake dis- 
trict of eastern Africa. Owing to their 
mountainous country they have been little 
affected by outside influences. The moun- 


SCIENCE. 


- ‘feast.’ 


493 


tain kraals are protected by stone walls 
six to eight feet in height and from four 
to six feet thick at the base; the two faces 
of the walls are carefully built, the inter- 
mediate space being filled up with earth. 
The huts of the chief occupy the highest 
terrace in the kraal. Near the entrance of 
a chief’s kraal is an oblong, fortress-like, 
walled enclosure, or tondo, which is the 
‘school’ where the initiates are made into 
men, and in times of unrest it serves as a 
watch-house for the town guard. In the 
tondo stands a little round shed in which 
all the fetishes of the tribe are kept, to- 
gether with a carved wooden image of their 
totem and images of a man and his wife; 
these are carved in ebony and are about two 
feet in height; they are called votambo, or 
The Bawenda have a dim idea of 
a Creator, Kosane his executive officer is 
the god Ralowimba, and Thovela is a be- 
nign mediator. They pray at the annual 
sacrifices to Modzime, who is the totality of 
the good souls of their ancestors with the 
founder of their tribe as head and the rul- 
ing chief as living representative. Prayers 
at these sacrifices are never directed to 
the three gods above mentioned, but always 
to the ancestors; but in every-day life they 
pray to Ralowimba. Three phases of re- 
ligious development are here seen existing 
at the same time: totemism, ancestor wor- 
ship and the acknowledgment of gods. 
These people would repay a more careful 
study as it is possible that they are con- 
nected in some way with the erecters of 
the stone buildings of Rhodesia. 

Mr. I. Randall Maclver, of Oxford, gave 
a lecture on the ancient ruins of Rhodesia, 
which he had been commissioned to report 
upon to the British Association. These 
widely spread and most interesting ruins 
have of late received a considerable amount 
of attention, especially Zimbabwe, the most 
elaborate of them all. The generally ac- 
cepted view is that the oldest of them were 


494 


built by, or under the direction of, a Semitic 
people, the favorite idea being that these 
forts protected the old mines from which 
King Solomon obtained his gold. Mr. Mac- 
Iver was bold enough to express the opin- 
ion that there is no evidence that strangers 
erected or directed the erection of these 
buildings; indeed, he believed they were 
entirely of native origin and were, as a mat- 
ter of fact, more or less specialized chiefs’ 
kraals. Further he stated that no proof 
has been produced that any of the ruins are 
more than a few hundred years old and he 
frankly speaks of them as medieval. This 
problem has thus entered upon a new phase, 
and we may expect a lively discussion in 
consequence. 

Although, taking them as a whole, the 
papers read before Section H were well up 
to the average merit, or indeed above it, of 
papers presented to this section at previous 
meetings of the British Association, the 
value to the anthropological members of the 
South African meeting was immeasurably 
greater than has hitherto been the case, for 
it has been one long demonstration in the 
field of the social life of various races of 
mankind and of their relations with each 
other. 

We came into contact with a large num- 
ber of government officials of every rank in 
the several colonies, as well as with mission- 
aries and others, and from them we were 
able to obtain a considerable amount of 
definite information concerning natives and 
the way in which they are governed. At 
first it is somewhat bewildering to note the 
different ideals concerning the native ques- 
tion and methods of treatment of the na- 
tives by the governments of the different 
colonies and protectorates. These are set 
forth at length, and with many contradic- 
tory conclusions by individual witnesses in 
the four volumes, ‘Minutes of Evidence,’ 
of the South African Native Affairs Com- 
mission, 1903-5. The ‘Report’ itself sums 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 
up a good deal of the evidence and gives 
the conclusions to which the commissioners 
have arrived, and it will not fail to prove 
of interest to sociologists in the United 
States who are concerned with somewhat 
analogous problems. We had no time to 
enter fully into the native problems of the 
several colonies, but we learned sufficient to 
enable us to approach these problems with 
more appreciation of local conditions than 
was previously possible, and we are less 
likely in the future to settle the problems to 
our own satisfaction in an off-hand manner 
or in a purely academic spirit. One can 
not help feeling that it would be worth 
while for a deputation of representatives 
of various colonies of South Africa to visit 
the United States of America with a view 
to seeing what has been done, wisely or 
unwisely, in the past with regard to the 
negro problem, and to note the trend of 
public opinion; since the experience of 
the United States may prove immediately 
beneficial to South Africa in some respects 
and also save future trouble. 

The native question in South Africa 
presents many aspects. In Cape Colony 
there is a large population of half-castes 
which is practically absent elsewhere. In 
all the colonies the natives are numerous 
and very prolific. Some tribes are still 
under the old tribal system, but in other 
communities this has been destroyed. A 
few natives live in towns, many in loca- 
tions near towns, where they are massed for 
labor purposes in a somewhat similar man- 
ner to the compounds in the mining centers, 
with the exception that in the latter, wives 
and families are absent. In the native 
reservations the natives are allowed great 
freedom and they live their lives in the 
old manner so far as the altered conditions 
of the dominance of the white man, the 
diminished authority of the chiefs and the 
destruction of their cattle by rinderpest 
and red-water fever permit; some of these 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


communities are under direct missionary in- 
fluence, others are almost untouched by 
foreign teachings. Questions of present 
importance are: To what extent shall these 
natives be educated? How can they best 
be made to contribute to the industrial de- 
velopment of the country? How much 
should they contribute to the revenue? 
What is to be their social status? Are 
they to have representation in Parliament, 


or are native councils to be instituted, and, . 


if so, on what basis? or Are they to have 
no representation at all? The government, 
capitalist, missionary and colonist have 
usually very diverse opinions upon most of 
these points and we shall await with interest 
the compromises that will have to be made. 
A factor that complicates some of these 
problems is the spread of the Hthiopian 
Church, the socio-religious propaganda of 
which is largely directed by emissaries of 
the African Methodist Episcopal Church of 
America, and this movement may readily 
take political aspects which would require 
eareful handling. 

The older colonies of Cape Colony or 
Natal contain a large oriental population, 
‘Malays’ and Indians. As a rule these 
communities keep largely to themselves and 
do not intermarry with other nationalities. 
The Indian element seems to be increasing 
in Natal and is going to prove a serious 
problem as the coolies and traders can un- 
dersell white men. From information ob- 
tained in Natal, it would seem that the 
Indian coolies who were introduced to 
labor on the sugar estates start market- 
gardening on their own account and they 
can afford to give a higher rent for land 
than its value for growing sugar cane; if 
this spreads land-owners wil! let the land 
to the Indians and the sugar industry will 
suffer; thus there is a danger that the In- 
dians may destroy that very industry they 
were introduced to foster. 


The experiment of the introduction of 


SCIENCE. 


495 


Chinese labor into the mines of the Trans- 
vaal is being watched very carefully, and 
already a diversity of opinion is being ex- 
pressed by those who are most interested 
in the problem; the two main issues being 
economie and social, (1) is it economical 
from the point of view of wages and out- 
put? and (2) is it desirable to introduce a 
new alien element into the colony ? 

Besides these sociological problems that 
are more immediately concerned with 
colored men, there are others confined to 
the white races. The last word has not 
yet been said on the relations between the 
Boers and the Britons, or between the 
transitory agents of capitalists and the 
colonial who makes the country his home. 
We were able to see something of the social 
effects of mining centers, of distributing 
and agricultural communities, as well as 
of frontier townlets, recent towns of great 
size, and long-established towns. Wher- 
ever we went we were confronted with 
insistent social problems of very varied 
character which ranged from the native 
savagery to the latest phase of civilization. 

With such a field it does seem a pity 
that there is no central bureau or institu- 
tion where information could be amassed 
and the multifarious problems studied. 
There is practically no systematic study of 
the natives anywhere in South Africa, so 
the great amount of individual knowledge 
which undoubtedly exists among many local 
persons is either unrecorded or uncoordi- 
nated when recorded. Thus South Africa 
affords a most favorable field for the study 
of the ethnology of the lower races and 
the sociology of the higher. 

Local ethnology is inadequately repre- 
sented in all the South African museums, 
and if the museum authorities do not bestir 
themselves it will soon be very difficult, if 
not impossible, to make exhaustive collec- 
tions, for changes are taking place with 
ereat rapidity. Museums are expensive 


496 


institutions, and as South Africa is under- 
going a period of financial depression the 
present does not seem a favorable oppor- 
tunity for asking for increased expendi- 
ture; but the need of collecting is so press- 
ing that it should be undertaken immedi- 
ately, even if the specimens can not now be 
exhibited. 

The native departments of various 
colonies and of Rhodesia took a great deal 
of trouble to assemble natives for the in- 
spection of members of the section and it 
is due to their thoughtful efforts on our be- 
half that we were able to examine, measure 
and photograph representatives of many 
of the tribes of South Africa. Prison au- 
thorities also gave us facilities and by these 
means Bushmen, Hottentots and represen- 
tatives of various Bantu-speaking peoples 
were studied. The compound managers at 
several mines likewise gave special oppor- 
tunities for the examination of native 
laborers and our hearty thanks are due to 
all these gentlemen for their kindness. 

The managers of the large sugar factory 
at Mount Edgecombe, near Durban, enter- 
tained a large party and organized a series 
of native dances on a very large scale. A 
similar treat was two days later provided 
by the Natal government at Henley, near 
Pietermaritzburg, where some 2,000 or more 
natives danced war and other dances for 
our delectation. These were very remark- 
able performances; many old residents had 
mever seen the like and it is improbable 
that they will ever be repeated on a similar 
scale. At Henley the opportunity was 
taken to celebrate the marriage of Mhlola, 
the young hereditary chief of the Inadi 
tribe of Zulus, to a young woman whom 
he had selected to become his chief wife 
and mother of his principal heir. The 
ceremony was very lengthy, but it was most 
interesting ; the lobolo, or bride-dowry, con- 
sisted of ten head of cattle. An elaborate 
dance of a large number of representatives 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No, 587. 


of various tribes was organized by the au- 
thorities of the Village Main Reef Hig at 
Johannesburg. 

Small parties of those specially inter- 
ested, by private arrangement, made visits 
to several Zulu kraals in Natal and had an 
opportunity of seeing the native at home. 
Much insight into the life of the natives 
was obtained, which will enable us to study 
the literature on these people with in- 
ereased appreciation. The Rhodesian gov- 
ernment gave us similar facilities, and it 
was owing to its generosity and to the kind- 
ness of several officials that we were able 
to make long excursions from Salisbury and 
Umtali to visit Mashona and other kraals. 
These villages differ very considerably 
from those of the Zulus, as the Middle 
Bantu people of South Africa belong to a 
different stock from the Hastern or Zulu- 
Xosa stock; and a comparison between the 
two types was very instructive. Small col- 
lections were made at these kraals and 
many photographs were taken. Informa- 
tion was also obtained on special points 
from the elder men, with the assistance of 
the government official who accompanied 
us. Ona rapid excursion of this kind very 
little real work can be accomplished, but 
general impressions were gained and pre- 
vious accounts verified, and thus great bene- 
fit accrued to the visitors. 

The voyage home was not without its. 
valuable lessons. In Portuguese East Af- 
rica we witnessed a barbarie dance in the 
middle of one night, and at Beira, Mozam- 
bique, and Mombasa we visited three types 
of coast towns and saw various types of 
natives. Finally we finished off with a day 
or two in Egypt and noted the medley of 
races in Cairo—a veritable ethnological 
kaleidoscope. 

Our extensive, though rapid, tour through 
and around Africa enabled us to see samples 
of nearly all the races and of many of the 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


tribes of that continent, and in this way it 
proved to be a very valuable demonstration 
in comparative ethnology. 

ALFRED C. Happon: 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The Coral Siderastrea radians and its Post- 
larval Development. By J. EK. Duxrrpen. 
Washington, U. S. A. Published by the 
Carnegie Institution. December, 1904. Pp. 
130, with 11 plates. 

This handsome Carnegie memoir contains 
the record of an investigation begun at the 
Institute of Jamaica and subsequently car- 
ried on at the Johns Hopkins University and 
the American Museum of Natural History 
in New York. The author’s prolonged resi- 
dence in the West Indies gave him unusual 
opportunities in the way of command over 
living material, and the memoir makes valu- 
able additions to our knowledge on many 
points of coral morphology. 

An introduction deals with the systematic 
zoology and the habits of the species which is 
abundant and accessible in Kingston harbor. 
The form is obviously one of those convenient 
hardy types destined to play a part in labora- 
tory investigations of histological and physi- 
ological character. Both the adult colony 
and the young polyp after metamorphosis 
grow in confinement and may be hand-fed. 
There follows an ample description of the 
anatomy of the adult. The species, like other 
West Indian corals, is possibly protogynous, 
although Professor Duerden calls to mind that 
Gardiner has established the converse phe- 
nomenon, protandry for Flabellum. Duer- 
den takes up the question as to the way in 
which the coral skeleton, as a product of cel- 
lular activity, is produced. He confirms Miss 
Ogilvie’s observation that the corallum can 
be seen in favorable parts of the adult and 
young polyps to be composed of minute skel- 
etal units of a polygonal shape and exhibiting 
a fibro-crystalline structure. But whereas 
Miss Ogilvie interpreted these bodies as actual 
cells which were produced through the pro- 
liferation of the ectoderm, becoming calcified 
as fast as produced, Duerden regards them 


SCIENCE. 


497 


as secretory products which are laid down 
wholly external to the ectodermal cells. In 
support of this view, essentially that advanced 
by von Koch, Duerden finds that the layer of 
ectoderm concerned in the production of the 
skeleton is always a simple layer, and that, 
moreover, it is always separated from the 
corallum by a homogeneous mesoglcea-like 
stratum. It is in this stratum of homogene- 
ous matrix that the author believes the eal- 
eareous crystals forming the skeleton are first 
deposited. 

A third section deals with the post-larval 
development. The larve, of the usual coral 
type, were obtained in July, and were kept 
under continuous observation for some months 
after attachment. Many valuable facts con- 
cerning the succession of the tentacles, mesen- 
teries and various parts of the corallum are 
recorded in this section. A feature of in- 
terest lies in the attention paid to individual 
polyps. The partial transparency of the 
young animal permits of instructive views 
during life, and thus in one and the same 
individual the correlated development of the 
various organs could be followed from day tr 
day. A result of this method was that periods 
of rapid growth and relative rest could be 
distinguished. The author points out that a 
phylogenetic significance possibly attaches to 
some of the more persistent stages, such as, 
for instance, that in which complete pairs of 
mesenteries (directives) are found at the two 
ends of the esophagus, with two pairs, each 
consisting of a long (complete) mesentery 
and a short one, on each side of the esophagus. 
This condition continued unchanged for a 
period varying from three weeks to three 
months. The author’s theoretical views as to 
the meaning of this particular stage are 
summed up as follows: 

The long retention of freedom of the fifth and 
sixth pairs of protocnemes suggests to my mind 
an ancestry in which the mesenteries as a whole, 
including the metacnemes, were alternately long 
and short, excluding, of course, the axial directives. 
Among modern examples this is retained in the 
mesenterial system of the zoanthids, Porites, and 
Madrepora, and was perhaps characteristic of 
the Rugosa. 


498 


The building up of the corallum is followed 
out in detail through the formation of the 
third cycle of permanent septa. Among the 
illustrations of this part of the work special 
mention is due the microphotographs of 
macerated skeletons of developing polyps, and 
the figures of living polyps with the beginning 
skeleton im situ. Much interest attaches to 
Professor Duerden’s account of the develop- 
ment of the septa. It has been hitherto as- 
sumed that the septa of a new cycle appear in‘ 
the exoceles (7. e., the space between two 
pairs of mesenteries), but are later embraced 
by the newly appearing pairs of mesenteries 
in such wise as to lie in the entoceles (1. e., 
the space between the mesenteries of a pair). 
Thus the same septa would be first exoccelic 
and then entocelic. In opposition to this 
scheme Duerden’s observations lead him to 
the conclusion that while exosepta are formed 
in successive cycles, they never become ento- 
septa. The cycles of entosepta are strictly 
new formations, appearing as do the primary 
six septa in entoceelic spaces. The succession 
of the cycles of exocelic septa is maintained 
through the continued peripheral bifurcation 
of preexisting exocclic septa. The bifurcated 
extremities become the (exocelic) septa of a 
new cycle, while the main septum is incor- 
porated in the growing body of one of the last 
formed cycle of entosepta. Having respect 
only to the actual facts as observed in Sider- 
astrea, it has been found that any one of the 
permanent septa, later than the first six, has 
a double origin. Jt is in part a new forma- 
tion (entocelic), and in part a preexisting 
formation (exoccelic). The two parts fuse, 
and the fusion is interpreted by Professor 
Duerden as the incorporation by a growing 
organ of the remnant of a vanishing organ. 
In a developing corallum according to this 
view exosepta are formed at each stage of 
growth, only to disappear as the permanent 
septa, entosepta, come into existence. Thus 
the development of coral septa affords an ex- 
cellent example of substitution: temporary 
organs precede and are replaced by perma- 
nent organs performing the same function 
as the former. As a corollary to this conclu- 
sion the author expresses his belief that the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


exoseptal predecessors of the permanent septa 
do not wholly disappear in all corals, as inde- 
pendent structures, but persist in some species 
in the shape of the pal found in front of the 
larger septa. EVE We 


Die Krystallgestalten der Mineralogie am 
Stereoskopischen Bildern. Von Professor 
TuHeEopoR Hartwic, Professor at the Staats- 
realschule in Steyr, Upper Austria. Vienna, 
Verlag von A. Pichler’s Witwe und Sohn. 
As the author says in his description of the 

set, the method of stereoscopic illustration 
has been applied within a few years in medi- 
cine, in technical science, as for instance in 
drawings of machines, for the representation 
of microscopic objects, and in the measure- 
ment of terrestrial and astronomical distances. 
In this application to crystallography Pro- 
fessor Hartwig has prepared 120 stereographiec 
drawings of crystals, which are printed on 
white cardboard and placed in a simple stereo- 
scope with adjustable focus, the whole packed 
in a neat box. 

The drawings are divided into two sets, 
(A) the simple crystal forms and separate 
projections of the axes of the six systems, and 
(B) the more usual combinations in examples 
of natural crystals. The usual clinographic 
projection is used, modified of course for the 
stereoscope, and in all cases the axes are pro- 
jected inside the forms. The effect of solidity 
produced by these drawings and the clearness 
of the relations shown is surprising; in some 
ways they surpass the usual glass models with 
colored threads inserted to represent the axes. 
In the development of hemihedral forms from 
the corresponding holohedral the effect is 
particularly good and yet something is left 
to the imagination of the student in com- 
pleting their derivation. The drawings are 
intended to supplement solid models, espe- 
cially in individual instruction, and perhaps 
in some cases to replace the more expensive 
glass models, as with the hemihedral forms 
mentioned above. 

JoHNnN E. Wotrr. 


1Zeitschrift fiir Lehrmittelwesen und paidagog- 
ische Literatur, Vol. 1, No. 7, 1905, pp. 217-220. 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


SOIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

The Journal of Experimental Zoology, Vol. 
TIT., No. 1 (February, 1906), contains the fol- 
lowing papers: Edmund B. Wilson, ‘ Studies 
on Chromosomes, III.: The Sexual Differences 
of the Chromosome-groups in Hemiptera, 
with some Considerations on the Determina- 
tion and Heredity of Sex.’ This article pre- 
sents the final result of a comparison of the 
chromosome-groups in the Hemiptera-heter- 
optera, and shows that the two sexes exhibit 
constant differences that are traceable to the 
mode of fertilization, the spermatozoa being 
predestined in equal numbers as male-pro- 
ducing and female-producing forms. <A gen- 
eral discussion of sex-production in relation 
to the chromosomes is given. David D. 
Whitney, ‘An Examination of the Effects of 
Mechanical Shocks and Vibrations upon the 
Rate of Development of Fertilized Eggs.’ 
Fertilized eggs of Arbacia, Asterias, Fundulus 
and Ctenolabrus were subjected to slight and 
violent mechanical shocks and vibrations from 
a few seconds to several hours with no accel- 
eration of cell division occurring in the early 
stages, provided the temperature was kept 
uniform. John W. Scott, ‘Morphology of 
the Parthenogenetic Development of Amphi- 
trite. A close comparison is made between 
the early development of the eggs of Amphi- 
trite and the development produced in un- 
fertilized eggs by certain salt-solutions or 
mechanical agitation. Charles R. Stockard, 
‘The Development of Fundulus Heteroclitus 
in Solutions of Lithium Chlorid, with Appen- 
dix on its Development in Fresh Water.’ 
Lithium chlorid in both fresh and sea water 
solutions was found to produce characteristic 
abnormalities in various stages of the devel- 
opment of the fish; varying the concentration 
of the solution varied the degree of abnor- 
mality induced. Fundulus eggs developed in 
fresh water more slowly than normally; only 
a small percentage hatched and these died 
very soon after. EH. A. Andrews, ‘ Partial 
Regeneration of the Sperm-receptacle in 
Crayfish’ Removal of the phylogenetically 
new but physiologically necessary external 
sperm receptacle of adult female crayfish was 
followed by regeneration of an organ very 


SCIENCE. 


499 


similar to the early larval state of the normal 
receptacle. A. J. Goldfarb, ‘ Experimental 
Study of Light as a Factor in the Regenera- 
tion of Hydroids.’ Colonies of Hudendrium 
ramosum, under the influence of previous il- 
lumination, regenerate hydranths, whether the 
colony be exposed or not; when not under such 
influence little or no regeneration takes place, 
unless colony be exposed; and exposure of one 
tenth to one sixth of a minute may sufiice. 
An exposure of three to five hours, though 
generally not less than two days, is required 
for regeneration of hydranths of Pennaria 
tiarella. 


Tur November-December number of The 
Journal of Geology opens with a paper by 
Dr. T. W. Stanton on ‘The Morrison Forma- 
tion and its Relations with the Comanche 
Series and the Dakota Formation.’ Dr. Stan- 
ton says that these beds have been under dis- 
cussion since 1877 and that the question 
whether the Morrison formation is Jurassic 
or Cretaceous is still to be answered. Dr. G. 
M. Murgoci, of the University of Bucharest, 
contributes an article on the ‘ Tertiary Forma- 
tions of Oltenia (the western part of Rou- 
mania) with regard to Salt, Petroleum and 
Mineral Springs.’ This is illustrated by a 
map, eleven figures and a synoptic table. The 
concluding contribution is a discussion of 
“The Pleistocene Formations of Sankaty 
Head, Nantucket,’ by J. Howard Wilson. 


The American Geologist for November con- 
tains a paper by Professor G. Frederick 
Wright, on ‘Glacial Movements in Southern 
Sweden, which is illustrated by one plate. 
This is followed by W. G. Tight’s article on 
the ‘Bolson Plains of the Southwest.’ Mr. 
Warren Upham discusses the ‘ Glacial Lakes 
and Marine Submergence in the Hudson- 
Champlain Valley.’ Professor C. R. Keyes 
contributes a paper on ‘ The Jurassic Horizon 
around the Southern End of the Rocky 
Mountains.’ Anna I. Jonas gives a review of 
the occurrence and origin of the known ‘ Ser- 
pentines in the Neighborhood of Philadelphia’ 
and W. O. Hotchkiss gives ‘An Explanation 
of the Phenomena seen in the Becke Method 
of Determining Index of Refraction.’ 'Those 


500 


who expect to attend the International Geo- 
logical Congress in the city of Mexico next 
September will be interested to read the paper 
by F. N. Guild on ‘ El Instituto Geologica de 
Mexico.’ The number concludes with an in- 
teresting editorial on the consolidation of the 
Geologist with Hconomic Geology. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 


A REGULAR meeting of the Physical Society 
was held in Fayerweather Hall, Columbia Uni- 
versity, New York city, on Saturday, February 
24, 1906. President Barus presided. 

On motion the president, the secretary and 
FE. B. Rosa were made a committee to prepare 
a memorial to Congress urging the passage of 
the pending bill providing for the use of the 
metric system in all the government depart- 
ments. 

On motion a committee was appointed con- 
sisting of A. G. Webster (chairman), M. I. 
Pupin and P. C. Hewitt, to consider the prac- 
ticability of securing for the Physical Society 
an endowment fund, the income of which shall 
be available to meet the expense of committees 
appointed by the society to investigate and re- 
port on special topics of importance. 

The following papers were read: 


W. G. Cavy: 
Declinometer.’ 

W. G. Cavy: ‘A Machine for Compounding Sine 
Curves.’ 

A. W. Smita: ‘The Damping of a Ballistic 
Galvanometer.’ (Read by title.) 

iE. L. NicHois and Ernest Merritt: ‘ Further 
Experiments on the Decay of Phosphorescence in 
Sidot Blende.’ 

H. L. NicHors and Ernest Merritt: “The De- 
cay of Phosphorescence in a Certain Specimen of 
Willemite.’ ; 

E. B. Rosa: ‘The Gray Absolute Electro- 
dynamometer.’ 

B. B. Botrwoop: ‘ On the Relative Proportion of 
the Total a-ray Activity of Radioactive Minerals 
due to the Separate Radioactive Constituents.’ 

H. M. Danvovurtan: ‘The Radioactivity of 
Thorium.’ 

CarL Barus: ‘Nucleation and Ionization in 
CO, and Coal Gas.’ 


“A Direct-recording Magnetic 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


H. T. Barnes: ‘Temperature Records of Noc- 
turnal Radiation.’ 

ii. F. Nicuons: ‘On the Possible Separation of 
Electric Charges by Centrifugal Accelerations.’ 


The spring meeting of the society will be 


held in Washington. EgNue Mena 
b= > 


Secretary. 
THE SAN FRANCISCO SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


Tur ninth regular meeting of the San 
Francisco Section of the American Mathe- 
matical Society was held at Stanford Uni- 
versity, on February 24, 1906. Sixteen mem- 
bers of the society were in attendance; in 
addition to these there were present a number 
of high school teachers of mathematics who 
are not members of the society. The fol- 
lowing papers were read and discussed during 
the two sessions of the section: 


Dr. J. H. McDonaup: ‘ The theory of the reduc- 
tion of hyperelliptic integrals of the first lind 
and of genus 2 to elliptic integrals by a trans- 
formation of the nth order.’ ‘ 

Dr. W. A. Mannine: ‘On multiple transitive 
groups.’ 

Mr. Arruur Ranum: ‘A new kind of congru- 
ence-group and its application to the group of 
isomorphisms of any abelian group.’ 

Proressor D. N. Lenmer: ‘ On the orderly list- 
ing of substitutions.’ 

Proressor D. N. Lenmer: ‘ Note on the values 
of 2 of given modulus which give maximum or 
minimum values to the modulus of a given ra- 
tional integral function of ¢.’ 

Proressor R. E. ALLARDICE: 
gendre’s equation.’ 

Proressor R. E. Atnarvice: ‘On the multiple 
points of unicursal curves.’ 

Proressor E. J. Witczynskr: ‘Outline of a 
projective differential geometry of curved sur- 
faces.’ 

Mr. E. T. Bett: ‘ Method of dealing with the 
problems connected with prime numbers.’ 

Dr. T. M. Putnam: ‘ Theorems on perfect num- 
bers.’ 

Dr. J. H. McDonaxp: ‘A method of simul- 
taneous approximation to two consecutive roots 
of an algebraic equation of degree n all whose 
roots are real.’ 

Dr. J. H. McDonaxp: ‘Remarks on the caleu- 
lation of roots of Bessel functions.’ 


“Note on Le- 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


Proressor M. W. HasKkexu: ‘On collineations.’ 

Proressor G. A. Mrtier: ‘Groups in which 
every subgroup of composite order is invariant, 
and a new chapter in trigonometry.’ 

Proressor G. A. Minter: ‘The groups which 
contain exactly thirteen operators of order 2.’ 


The next meeting of the section will be 
held at the University of California, on Sep- 
tember 29, 1906. G. A. Mruerr, 

Secretary. 


THE SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 


Tue fourth regular meeting of the society 
was held on February 7, the following papers 
being presented: 

Decline of Artesian Head and Flows at Monte 
Vista and Denver, Colorado: C. E. Smmprn- 
THAL. 

At Monte Vista in the San Luis basin the 
wells to the different aquifers show great uni- 
formity of flow, although outside of the town 
the wells to the same beds vary considerably 
in head and discharge. There is, likewise, an 
averaging of temperatures in the wells in 
town. These inconsistencies are explained by 
the mingling of the waters of the different 
aquifers owing to faulty casing or the absence 
of casing below the first flow. The flow and 
head are both much less than when the wells 
were first sunk. 

In the city of Denver there has been a sim- 
ilar decline, the head having fallen from 80 
or 90 feet above the surface in 1882-3 to 140 
feet below the surface in 1904, with the pros- 
pect of going still lower. The depression, 
however, is local, as the wells in the Platte 
Valley both north and south of the city still 
flow. 


Warm Mineral Springs in the Bighorn Basin, 

Wyoming: C. A. FIsHer. 

The Bighorn Basin in northwestern Wy- 
oming is essentially a broad structural valley 
formed between two large anticlinal folds, the 

, Bighorn Mountains on the east and south and 
the Rocky Mountain front range on the west. 
Around the outer portion of the enclosed 
valley there are a number of minor folds which 
are roughly parallel to the larger uplift. 
These folds are crossed in several places by 
the larger streams draining the basin which 


SCIENCE. 


501 


have cut in them deep narrow canyons. In 
these canyons or at their upper or lower ends 
hot mineral springs occur which are usually at 
or near the water level of the river. The 
largest of these is in the southern part of the 
basin near Thermopolis. It is situated about 
thirty feet above the Bighorn River near the 
axis of an anticline which exposes in its crest 
upper carboniferous rocks. The water has a 
temperature of 135° and the flow has been 
variously estimated at from 1,000 to 2,000 
gallons a minute. Hot springs of a similar 
nature are found at the lower end of Shoshone 
Canyon which crosses Rattlesnake Mountain 
anticline in the northwest part of the basin. 
The springs occur at the water level of the | 
Shoshone River and the temperature is 98°. 
In the northeast part of the basin where the 
Bighorn River crosses Sheep and Little Sheep 
Mountain anticlines in Black and Sheep 
canyons, respectively, a similar phenomenon is 
observed. Here the springs occur in the 
canyons at the level of the river. The water 
is warm and somewhat mineralized. The 
water of these springs, which is under artesian 
pressure, is probably derived from some of the 
deep-seated porous formations outcropping 
high on the slopes of the surrounding moun- 
tains. The high temperature of the water 
may be caused either by its circulation in the 
porous formations at great depth (not by 
chemical action), or possibly by contact with 
bodies of heated igneous rocks at considerable 
depths. 


Tue fitth regular meeting of the society 
was held on February 21, the following pro- 
gram being presented: 

Underground Water in the. Vicinity of El 

Paso, Texas: G. B. RicHARDSON. 

El] Paso, Texas, which is the commercial 
center of a large area in southwestern United 
States and Mexico, is located in a region 
where the annual rainfall is less than ten 
inches and the water supply a fundamental 
problem. The Rio Grande is the main asset, 
although the flow of the stream is irregular. 
The bed of the river has been dry for seyeral 
months at a time but during floods the flow is 
enormous. Irrigation has been practised in 


502 


the valley below El Paso for more than three 
hundred years, but recently, owing to in- 
ereased irrigation on the head-waters of the 
river, the water supply has materially dimin- 
ished. Relief is expected from the proposed 
dam near Engle, New Mexico. 

Supplementing surface water, during the 
past few years, pumping plants for irrigation 
have been in successful operation. Water is 
found in sand about fifteen feet beneath the 
flood plain of the river and the wells are com- 
monly sunk to a depth of sixty feet where a 
bed of gravel is encountered. It has been 
supposed that the source of the underground 
water is the underflow of the Rio Grande, but 
recent tests, made at the narrows above El 
Paso, have established the fact that the under- 


flow there is insignificant, amounting only to ' 


about fifty gallons a minute, the velocity of 
the water being less than three feet in twenty- 
four hours. There is, however, a close rela- 
tion between the position of the water level 
in the valley wells and the stage of the river. 
Instead of the wells tapping a strong under- 
flow, it appears that the supply is derived 
from water stored in sand and gravel which 
are replenished chiefly during periods of 
floods. At such times the scour of the river 
is strong and the cover of silt is swept away 
so that there is direct access of water to the 
underlying porous material. Except in time 
of floods the river deposits silt, through which 
little or no water seeps. 

Until recently the water supply of El 
Paso has been derived from valley wells, 
but the quality of the water is poor, and since 
October, 1905, the city has been supplied from 
wells on the ‘mesa’ six miles northeast. In 
1903 an experimental hole 2,285 feet deep was 
drilled there, probably all the way through 
unconsolidated material, in which little or no 
water was found below the well-known hori- 
zon between 200 and 300 feet beneath the 
surface. At that depth in fine sand and 
gravel there is an excellent quality of water 
under a slight artesian head, but whether the 
supply is equal to the demand remains to be 
determined. The water company has sunk 
about a dozen wells of ten- and twelve-inch 
bore from which the water is raised by com- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587, 


pressed air, petroleum being used for fuel, 
and the city is supplied with about one and 
a half million gallons a day. ‘Tests are being 
made of the capacity of the plant. 


Underground Water Conditions along the 
Lower Colorado River and Vicinity: Wiis 
T. Ler. 

After outfitting at Kingman on the Santa 
Fe railroad a trip was made northward 
through the Hualpai Valley to the Colorado 
River. Notwithstanding that water often 
stands for considerable periods in ‘ Red Lake’ , 
in the lowest part. of the valley, borings have 
proved the non-existence of groundwaters 
down to 700 feet, the greatest depth yet 
reached, the absence being attributable to 
leakage into the Colorado River, which cuts 
the valley to a depth of about 1,400 feet. 
The conditions are similar in the Detrital- 
Sacramento valley and in the Cottonwood, 
Mohave and similar basins through which the 
river cuts. 

A boat was constructed at the Colorado 
and towed a few miles up stream to the 
mouth of the Grand Canyon near the point 
where the river strikes the Nevada state line, 
from which point the banks were examined 
to Yuma near the Mexican boundary. The 
present position of this part of the river is 
very clearly due to superimposition, moun- 
tain ridges and basins being cut indiscrimi- 
nately. An old valley, which was even deeper 
than the present canyon, but which was filled 
before the cutting of the latter, was seen at 
several points. A number of places were noted 
where dams might be erected to furnish power 
for mining purposes, but the height to which 
the river water would have to be lifted (500 
and 2,000 feet) is too great to admit of the 
economic irrigation of the uplands. Some 
springs occur, but they are not of economic 
importance. Below Black Canyon there are 
considerable flood plains which might be irri- 
gated from the river, but levees will be neces- 
sary to protect the land from the river during 


floods. The silts are so fine that little water 
ean be obtained from them. i 
M. L. Futter, 
Secretary. 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

THE 165th meeting of the society was held 
in the Cosmos Club on Thursday, March 8, 
1906. 

Dr. Edwin A. Hill read a paper on ‘The . 
Use of Physical Properties in Confirming 
Stereochemical Inferences as to Molecular 
Structure,’ illustrating his ideas by means of 
models. He pointed out the relation existing 
between the melting- and boiling-points of 
the cis and trans forms of stereoisomers, and 
showed that, in doubtful cases, this relation 
may be of use in supplementing chemical 
data as to structure. He also explained his 
ideas regarding the plane projection of stereo- 
chemical formulas of open and closed chain 
compounds, speaking especially about the 
parafiin hydrocarbons and the sugars. 

Dr. William Frear, chairman of the stan- 
dards committee of the Association of Official 
Agricultural Chemists, spoke of the objects 
and work of that committee. He stated that, 
in their attempts to establish standards of 
purity for food products, they were at first 
strongly opposed by the manufacturers, many 
of whom now endorse their work. 

C. EK. Waters, 
Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

Tue club met at the museum building of 
the New York Botanical Garden on February 
28. Vice-president Professor L. M. Under- 
wood presided, and twenty-one persons were 
in attendance. 

The first paper on the scientific program 
was by Dr. W.,A. Murrill, on ‘A Destructive 
Disease of the Chestnut Trees.’ The disease 
in question was discovered last summer by 
Mr. H. W. Merckel in the New York Zoolog- 
ical Park, where most of the chestnut trees 
were found to be affected and many of them 
injured beyond hope of recovery. Besides 
being abundant about New York City, it is 
known to occur also in New Jersey, Maryland 
and Virginia, and its presence is suspected in 
Georgia and Alabama. The disease is appar- 
ently unknown to all our mycologists and the 
fungus appears to be undescribed. By cul- 
tures, inoculations and field studies, its mor- 
phology and life history have already been 


SCIENCE. 


508 


quite well determined; but no treatment be- 
yond clean culture can as yet be suggested. 
The paper was illustrated by specimens, pho- 
tographs, drawings and cultures. 

The second paper was entitled ‘ Crategus 
of Dutchess County, N. Y.,’ by W. W. Eggle- 
ston. Many herbarium sheets were shown. 
The paper will appear in the April number 
of Torreya. It was briefly discussed by Pro- 
fessor Underwood. 

The last paper, by Miss Alice A. Knox, was 
entitled ‘A Cucurbitaceous Stem of the 
Desert.’ Jbervillea Sonore, an American 
desert species of the Cucurbitacez, is note- 
worthy for its enormously thickened perennial . 
stem, which frequently reaches a diameter of 
forty centimeters. This stem can exist an 
indefinite time without water, sending up 
yearly long flexible shoots. Its anatomy 
shows in general the ordinary stem structure 
of cucurbitaceous plants. There is a double 
ring of bicollateral bundles, a ring of stere- 
ome, and collenchyma in the cortex. Pecu- 
liarities of its histology are the irregular 
number of bundles, the absence of interfas- 
cicular cambium, and the great breadth of the 
medullary rays. An active cambium is found 
within as well as without the hadrome regions. 
Seattered sieve tubes occur in the periphery, 
and an elaborate system of secretory canals 
adjoins the leptome regions ramifying also 
through pericycle and cortex. In the older 
stems supernumerary leptome bundles develop, 
often accompanied by pitted ducts which are 
eut off from the primary hadrome by the 
renewed activity of the wood parenchyma. 
A large periderm gradually forms, its cells 
finally encrusted with calcium carbonate. It 
is difficult to trace the age of these tubers, as 
the medullary rays are not formed yearly, but 
judging by the increase at the base of old 
shoots and by the development of young 
plants, they may sometimes be the product of 
half a century of growth. The paper was il- 
lustrated by drawings and living specimens. 
The paper was discussed by Dr. Rydberg, who 
mentioned the stem characters and geograph- 
ical range of Cucurbita. 


C. Stuart Gacer, 
Secretary. 


504 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 

THE January meeting was devoted to re- 
ports by members who had attended the scien- 
tific meetings at New Orleans and Ann Arbor. 

At the February meeting Professor Britton 
presided in the absence of Vice-president 
Crampton. Professor F. 8. Lee presented the 
results of his recent studies on ‘Acid and 
Fatigue.’ In previous communications to the 
academy the author discussed the physical 
phenomena of fatigue and the relation to them 
of lack of carbohydrate. The present paper 
presents the results of further researches on 
the causation of fatigue. The physiological 
action on muscle of sarcolactie acid, potas- 
sium sarco-lactate, mono-potassium phosphate, 
and carbon dioxide has been studied in detail. 
All of these substances are markedly fatiguing, 
their action consisting in general of a diminu- 
tion of lifting power and a slowing of con- 
traction. These substances, which are pro- 
duced during muscular activity, are rightly 
named fatigue substances. The author be- 
lieves, moreover, that fatigue in many patho- 
logical states, such as diabetes mellitus, fevers, 
carcinoma, angzmia, various disorders of di- 
gestion and inanition, is largely due to the 
pathological acids that are present and pro- 
duce the so-called acid intoxication of these 
diseases. He finds, for example, B-oxy-butyric 
acid, and its salts, which are characteristic of 
diabetes mellitus, to be fatiguing, like the 
physiological acid fatigue substances. Not 
unfrequently in pathological, as in normal, 
states both lack of carbohydrate and accumu- 
lation of acid are present as factors in the 
causation of fatigue. This is notably so in 
diabetes, fevers and inanition. 

Dr. B. T. Terry gave a résumé of recent 
work on the spirochete of relapsing fever. 

Dr. C. W. Hahn ealled attention to the pro- 
posed biological survey for the state of New 
York. M. A. Bicrtow, 

Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND OCORRESPONDENCE. 

A CASE OF ISOLATION WITHOUT ‘ BARRIERS.’ 

I was glad to see Professor J. A. Allen’s 
article on ‘barriers’ in a recent number of 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587 


Scrmnce (February 23, p. 310), not only be- 
cause it convinced me that we are practically 
upon the same standpoint, but also because it 
has directed my attention to a possible im- 
provement in the expression of my views. 

I have maintained* that in cases of a wide 
distribution of a species, where there are dif- 
ferent forms (varieties) within the range, 
which pass into each other, no continuity of 
ecological (bionomic) conditions is present. 
The word ‘continuity’ apparently does not 
exactly express what I meant to say, and 
Professor Allen, in the article referred to, 
defiries the question again, and asks whether 
a ease, where there are no barriers of any 
description, and where the different conditions 
of the extremes of the range of the supposed 
species pass into each other, would fall under 
my definition of discontinuity of bionomic 
conditions. If this should be so, he believes 
that we understand each other. 

Indeed, this is the case. As I have said in 
the former note, I consider this the first step 
toward complete isolation. Since I believe 
that species are formed gradually, by small 
steps, out of varieties, and that only complete 
isolation is the criterion by which it is pos- 
sible to judge whether a certain form is a 
species or not, it necessarily follows that com- 
plete isolation is also attained by degrees, and 
the first step in this direction is a differentia- 
tion of external conditions within the area of 
an existing species. Although, in the begin- 
ning, gradual transitions are present, and al- 
though the different conditions form a con- 
tinuous series from one extreme to the other, 
there is no wniformity, and I possibly should 
have used the latter word, instead of ‘con- 
tinuity.’ 

On account of the transitions present in 
such cases, isolation is not yet complete, and 
we can not distinguish species, but only varie- 
ties. But if the transitions disappear, and 
isolation becomes complete, the paramount 
condition is fulfilled for the distinction of 
species. In many, possibly in most cases, 
complete isolation is marked by more or less 


1 Science, January 12, 1906, p. 71. 


Marce 30, 1906.] 


distinct barriers; but, as I have said before, 
barriers are not always necessary. Professor 
Allen says (p. 312), that the ‘sedentary dis- 
position of individual animals’ may act as a 
barrier, and this is, indeed, what I am think- 
ing of, namely, the tendency of the individual 
to stick to certain surroundings, to keep close 
to certain ecological conditions. 

A case among the crawfishes of Pennsyl- 
yania may serve as an illustration. 

The southwestern corner of Pennsylvania 
and northern West Virginia, between Chest- 
nut Ridge to the east, the Kiskiminetas, Alle- 
gheny and Ohio Rivers to the north, and the 
Ohio River to the west, contains two burrow- 
ing crawfishes (chimney builders), namely, 
Cambarus monongalensis Ortm. and Cambarus 
diogenes Gir. Both are very closely allied, 
but they are good species, no transitional 
forms ever having been found. (Weight may 
be added to this by the statement that I col- 
lected, of either form, upward of 300 speci- 
mens, at 53 localities; at eight places both 
species were found associated.) 

C. monongalensis is restricted to the area as 
defined above, while C. diogenes largely goes 
beyond it. But within the above boundaries 
both species are found everywhere, often in 
very close vicinity, so that their ranges, in 
this section, truly are overlapping. Moreover, 
I have reason to believe that their centers of 
origin are in this same region (southwestern 
Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia), 
in the physiographical division called the. Alle- 
ghenian Plateau (more specially: between an 
Old Tertiary and a Late Tertiary base level, 
the latter lying below the plateau). 

Here we have a case where two closely allied 
species became differentiated in the same re- 
gion, their centers of origin being identical, 
their present areas being largely overlapping, 
and they actually living often side by side. 

Nevertheless, there is isolation, and indeed 
complete isolation, but of purely ecological 
character. Both are burrowers, but C. mon- 
ongalensis lives in and near springs with pure 
and cold water, while C. diogenes is a swamp 


See C. H. Merriam, Scrence, February 16, 
1906, p. 247 ff. 


SCIENCE. 


505 


form, being content with any kind of water, 
but preferring more or less stagnant water 
along ditches, streams and in the river bot- 
toms. While C. diogenes is not very par- 
ticular, C. monongalensis is, and the conse- 
quence is that both species are isolated from 
one another, the one (monongalensis) occupy- 
ing places in the neighborhood of springs, the 
other (diogenes) appearing a little farther 
down stream. A further consequence is, that 
both species are separated to a certain degree 
according to elevation: C. monongalensis is 
found generally at altitudes between 1,200 
and 900 feet, while CO. diogenes goes down 
from about 1,000 to 600 feet. 

As has been said, at certain places, both 
species come into contact, and, generally, they 
are never far from each other. Thus we can 
not talk of a ‘barrier’ between them, in the 
ordinary sense of the word. Nevertheless, 
they are separated, but the separation is 
brought about by—as Professor Allen puts it 
—the ‘sedentary disposition’ of these animals, 
that is to say, by their ecological habits, they 
being restricted to certain ecological condi- 
tions, and refusing to leave them. It would 
be an easy thing for C. monongalensis, for 
instance, to follow down the stream at the 
spring of which it lives, and to settle in any 
swampy places farther below. But it does not 
do so, and, if single individuals are accident- 
ally swept down, they do not prosper, because 
they do not find congenial conditions, namely, 
pure and cold spring water, which, in this 
case, seems to be essential. 

This is a case of ‘ecological (or bionomic) 
isolation,’ where no ‘ barriers’ in the ordinary 
sense are present. It seems that such cases 
are less frequent than topographic or climatic 
isolation, but I believe more will be discovered, 
as soon as attention is called to them, and I 
have no doubt that Professor Allen is able to 
quote similar cases offhand from his own 
rich experience. I called, years ago, atten- 
tion to a ease which, indeed, suggested the 
whole idea to my mind, namely, the case of 
different species of the decapod genus Uca 
(fiddler crabs), living closely associated on 
the coast of East Africa, but each preferring 


506 


a certain ‘facies,’ that is to say, each possess- 
ing different ecological habits.° 

Further particulars about the ecological 
habits, geographical distribution and life his- 
tory of the crawfishes mentioned above will 
be given in my memoir on the crawfishes of 
the state of Pennsylvania, which is now ready 
for publication. A. EK. OrTMANN. 

CARNEGIE MusEuM, 

Pirrspure, Pa., March 1, 1906. 


FACTORS OF SPECIES-FORMATION. 


To THe Epitor or Science: The short note 
by Dr. Ortmann in Sctmnce of January 12, 
1906, no less than the larger work of Gulick 
to which he refers, as well as much of the 
recent discussion of isolation as an evolution- 
ary factor, are all rich in illustrations of the 
need of a simple distinction. 

Unfortunately for the progress of evolu- 
tionary science among his contemporaries and 
immediate successors, Darwin began the title 
of his first book on evolution with the fateful 
words, ‘ The Origin of Species.’ Around this 
ark of a new biological covenant the chosen 
people of science have waged fifty years of 
sanguinary warfare, and it is now a very un- 
gracious task to convince them that the spe- 
cies-origination box never did contain the 
sacred relics of evolution. But if science is 
to seek truth rather than tradition, we may 
not close our eyes to the perception that the 
factors of species-formation are not at all 
factors of evolution. 

Questions of species-formation are gener- 
ally debated because of interest in evolution, 
though for purposes of scientific study and 
explanation the two lines of investigation are 
as completely distinct as gravitation and hy- 
drostatics. Isolation, in one form or another,” 

3See Ortmann, ‘Crustaceen’ in Semon, Zool. 
Forschungsreisen in Australien, ete., Jenaisch. 
Denkschr., 8, 1894, p. 67; and Ortmann in 
‘Bronn’s Klass und Ordn. d. Tierreichs.,’ 5, 2, 
1899, p. 1,202. 

1 Chronological isolation may be quite as effect- 
ive for species-formation as separation in space, 
and permits species of common origin to become 
diverse while still occupying the same region. 
Many plants and insects, of tropical as well as of 
temperate regions, have their flowering times or 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 


is an indispensable factor in the subdivision 
of species, but to evolution it contributes 
nothing whatever. Isolation may sometimes 
retard or prevent evolution, but it is not an 
evolutionary factor except in a minor and 
negative sense. The two groups of phenom- 
ena belong to entirely different categories; 
stirring them together only keeps the emulsion 
from clarifying into the two component solu- 
tions. 

Evolution is a process of organic change 
and development, universal and continuous, 
and due to causes resident in species. Spe- 
ciation, to give the other process a name, is 
the origination or multiplication of species 
by subdivision, usually, if not always, as a re- 
sult of environmental incidents. Speciation 
is thus an occasional phenomenon which does 
not cause evolution, and is not caused by evo- 
lution. One procession of organisms may be 
divided into two, but it does not appear that 
the new groups will travel in any different 
manner than before, nor that they will go any 
faster or any farther than if they had not 
been separated. The subdivision enables the 
two parts to follow different roads and to 
arrive at different destinations, but it does 
not assist the evolutionary locomotion nor give 
us any clue as to how it is accomplished. The 
evolutionary interest of isolation is that each 
ease affords additional evidence of continuous, 
progressive change as the normal evolutionary 
condition of all groups of interbreeding or- 
ganisms. The isolation of a new group is an 
interesting biological event, a crisis, as it were, 
in speciation, but it gives us no special oppor- 
tunities of studying the causes of evolution. 
Perception of these elementary facts would 
have saved the writing of many books, and 
breeding seasons restricted to annual occasions of 
extremely short duration. In some groups a 
considerable series of years may intervene be- 
tween periods of propagation, as in the bamboos 
and periodical cicadas. 

2A more extended presentation of this distinc- 
tion is to be found in ‘ Evolution Not the Origin 
of Species,’ Popular Science Monthly, March, 
1904. The paper was reprinted in revised and ex- 
tended form in the Smithsonian Report for 1904, 
pp. 397-412, under the title ‘The Evolutionary 
Significance of Species.’ 


MarcxH 30, 1906.] 


many unprofitable controversies. General 
theories of evolution are not to be established 
on speciation, either by natural selection, iso- 
lation or mutation. 

Gravitation furnishes what might be called 
a background for hydrostatics, and evolution, 
in a similar way, makes speciation possible. 
Isolated groups of organic individuals always 
become different. The vital equilibrium of 
specific bodies of organisms is sustained by 
interbreeding and evolutionary motion. An- 
alogies of physical phenomena of rest and 
inertia do not apply. To hold organic types 
uniform and stationary by selection has been 
attempted many times, but degeneration 
promptly ensues. Diversity and change are 
not the results of special evolutionary causes 
acting at rare intervals of species-formation, 
but are the normal and necessary conditions 
of organic existence. 

To understand species-formation, evolution 
must be taken for granted, as an Irishman 
might say, and as many sayants of other 
nationalities have unconsciously written. If 
we are interested merely in the positional re- 
lations of the automobile, it is enough to know 
that the handle can be turned and that the 
wheels go round. Our progress can then be 
nicely explained by a few properly selected 
factors, such as: (1) Wheel-turning (con- 
tinued, inherited ‘ variation’); (2) roads to 
travel (by selection); (3) handle-turning (ac- 
commodation), to steer around corners and 
mud-holes. But to ask how the machine was 
constructed, how the handle turns it, and how 
the wheels happen to revolve, are bothersome 
questions of details with which taxonomic 
observers of automobiles do not need to con- 
cern themselves. Species travel because they 
are built that way, not because the environ- 
ment pushes them.’ ach species is equipped 
on the inside with the factors of its own evolu- 


*Darwin and some of his followers appear to 
have tacitly assumed what might be termed a 
specific constant of variability, so that natural 
selection by shearing off one side of the species 
could compel the other side to grow out, and thus 
roll the species along. How isolation could serve 
as an evolutionary factor seems not to have been 
indicated. 


SCIENCE. 


507 


tion, such as heterism, symbasis and mitapsis, 
for maintaining the normal individual di- 
versity and the broad network of descent 
which are requisite for sustained organic efli- 
ciency and evolutionary progress. But all 
this is another story. The factors of species- 
formation afford very interesting matters of 
discussion, but let us not confuse ourselves 
further by imagining that they are factors of 
evolution. 
O. F. Coox. 
WASHINGTON, D. C., 
January 27, 1906. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE POSSIBILITY OF PSYCHICAL FACTORS IN 
ILLUSIONS OF REVERSED MOTION. 
OnE of the most interesting chapters in 
psychological: optics is concerned with what 
have been variously termed ‘ after-images of 


_motion,’ ‘ antirheoscopic phenomena,’ ‘ subjec- 


tive complementary movements,’ or ‘ illusions 
of reversed motion,’ These illusions are quite 
easily observed, e. g., by fixating a rotating 
dise on which a heavy spiral line has been 
traced, or a rotating drum on which lines have 
been drawn at right angles to the direction 
of movement, or by watching the landscape 
from the window of a moving train or the 
waves of a stream from its bank. A very 
pretty demonstration (the ‘water-fall illu- 
sion,’ first described by Addam in 1834) may 
be secured by fixating for a half-minute some 
convenient mark seen through the falling 
spray of a water-fall, and then transferring 
the gaze to a neighboring cliff, which will 
promptly ‘flow’ upward in a most striking 
manner. Indeed, some observers experience 
all the unpleasantness of a vertigo from this 
simple experiment, and several writers relate 
the two phenomena by giving similar theo- 
retical explanations. 

These illusions of reversed motion have been 
under observation from time to time since the 
first published account by Purkinje in 1825, 
and have been experimentally examined in 
numerous ingenious ways, first by Plateau in 

«Evolution of Cellular Structures, Bull. 81, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture. 


508 


1849, and subsequently, to cite the best-known 
researches, by Oppel (1856), Helmholtz 
(1866), Dvorak (1870), J. J. Hoppe (41879), 
Thompson (1879), Zehfuss (1880), Bowditch 
and Hall (1880-2), Budde (1884), Exner 
(1887, 1888-9, 1899), Heuse (1888), Stern 
(1894), J. Hoppe (1894), Borschke and Hes- 
cheles (1902) and Szili (1905). 

The theoretical explanations of these phe- 
nomena may be roughly divided into those 
based upon psychical processes and those based 
upon physiological processes set up in the 
visual apparatus. Zollner explained the phe- 
nomena that had been deseribed by Plateau 
and Oppel, as he did his own well-known illu- 
sion, as a purely psychical falsification of 
judgment. Budde, somewhat similarly, at- 
tributed them to false interpretation of cor- 
rectly reported sense-impressions. ‘The phys- 
iological explanations, to follow Szili, may be 
subdivided into three groups, according as the 
essential basis of the illusion is found (a) in 
eye-movement, (b) in the ‘tailing-off’ of the 
retinal excitation or (¢) in specific retinal 
after-images of movement. The first position 
is represented by Purkinje and, more notably, 
by Helmholtz; the second by Johannes Miller, 
W. Stern and Wundt; the third, with vari- 
ous modifications, by Plateau, Dvorak, Mach, 
Zehfuss, J. Hoppe, Exner and Szili. 

With the general conclusions of the last- 
named group of investigators I do not wish to 
quarrel, but I have noted indications that, 
under certain conditions, there may be an 
illusion of movement of apparently ‘ central,’ 
if not strictly psychical, origin. As my ob- 
servations were but incidental to other work, 
and as I have had no opportunity to make ex- 
tended experiments, I can but report them, 
with apologies for their incompleteness, in the 
hope that some one may be interested to pur- 
sue the matter further. 

While experimenting in the Cornell Educa- 
tional Laboratory upon the transference of 
habits, Mr. Althaus, one of our graduate stu- 
dents, had occasion to teach the telegraph 
alphabet to several observers. To insure uni- 
formity in ‘sending’ the dots and dashes, suit- 
able perforations were made in a sheet of 
kymograph paper, which was then placed upon 


SCIENCE. 


. servable. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


the revolving drum: contact between the metal 
drum and a flexible copper brush operated the 
sounder at each perforation. These and other 
conditions obliged the experimenter to watch 
the passage of the perforations past the tip 
of the brush for one to two hours daily dur- 
ing a period of two months—perhaps forty- 
five hours in all. 

My experimenter was, at first, ignorant of 
the illusion of reversed motion, as appeared 
rather amusingly by the fact that for two 
weeks he had regularly thrown the brush out 
of contact whenever he stopped the kymo- 
graph, under the impression that there was an 
objective backward movement of the drum 
that might damage the contact point or the 
paper. Now, shortly after this, he reported 
that the drum appeared to reverse slightly 
whenever he glanced at it, without its haying 
been seen just previously in motion—as, for 
instance, when first entering the laboratory 
for the afternoon’s work. This new illusion 
became stronger as the experimentation went 
on, and finally became so persistent that, after 
six weeks’ disuse of the kymograph, it was still 
strong, and, after eight weeks, still definitely 
present. 

To test this observation, I placed on the 
drum a sheet ruled with vertical black stripes 
4mm. wide and 15mm. apart. Close to the 
drum was placed a fixation-point, for which 
I found most satisfactory a bit of black card- 
board 9mm. square, provided with a small 
white center 3mm. square and supported on 
a slender wire. When the drum (rotating 
about its vertical axis) was driven at moderate 
speed—say four revolutions per minute—the 
usual phenomena of illusory reversal were ob- 
Furthermore, by nearly continuous 
observation for forty-five minutes, I was able 
to secure a slight, but definite, reversed mo- 
tion just at the moment of glancing at the 
drum, though after an interval of from ten 
to fifteen minutes of non-stimulation. But I 
was not able, in the time at my command, to 
establish the illusion so that it would persist 
several hours or days, as was Mr. Althaus with 
his prolonged tests. Recently, Professor Sea-_ 
shore has reported to me a somewhat similar 
indication of ‘central’ factors in an illusion 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


of reversed motion secured during a lengthy 
train journey. . 

If one admits the accuracy of these observa- 
tions, they seem to me somewhat to modify 
the current theoretical explanations of the 
illusions of reversed motion. Such an asser- 
tion as that of Bowditch and Hall, for in- 
stance, that ‘it is impossible to conceive how 
this persistent after-impression of motion can 
be a product of experience or association,’ 
may, perhaps, be satisfactory so far as their 
observations g0, but does not seem satisfactory 
when our observations after prolonged stimu- 
lation are also considered. Still, it may well 
be, and J think is, true that the illusion 
we are deseribing is independent of the illu- 
sion of reversed motion generally secured. 
On the other hand, an observation of Exner’s, 
to the effect that an after-image of movement 
can be engendered by passing the eye over 
resting objects as well as by the usual method 
of moving objects past the resting eye, may 
possibly furnish the cue to the explanation of 
the matter under discussion, without the as- 
sumption of an illusion of judgment or of 
any other ‘central’ process. It may be that 
continued and intent scrutiny of the perfo- 
rated drum-paper induced a habit of eye-move- 
ment in my experimenter, and that the sight 
of the drum was thereafter a stimulus which 
innervated unconscious eye-movements, even 
after the lapse of considerable time-intervals. 
This hypothesis, however, would appear to 
necessitate the acceptance of the rather de- 
batable theory of unconscious eye-movement 
propounded by Helmholtz. 


Guy Montrosr WuirpLe. 
CoRNELL UNIVERSITY. 


A NOTE ON MID-CRETACEOUS GEOGRAPHY. 

In his Berne address, published in the 
October number of the American Geologist, 
Professor Osborn refers* to the apparent geo- 
graphical unity between North and South 
America during the mid-Cretaceous and con- 
tinuing possibly to the basal Tertiary. This 
connection is indicated by the fauna of the 


2 Osborn, H: F., Amer. Geol., 36: 213, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


509 


Notostylops beds of Patagonia.* Hauthal, 
who has done more or less stratigraphical work 
in the region referred to, published a brief 
note on some of these formations several years 
ago, which is of some interest in this connec- 
tion because the same observer discovered a 
plant-bearing layer at one horizon, which 
yielded a number of forms of great interest, 
particularly from the view-point of the phyto- 
geographer. These plants were worked up 
by Kurtz.“ His paper, from the fact that it 
was not illustrated and because of its place of 
publication and language, being in Spanish, 
is not likely to attract the attention of paleon- 
tologists which it deserves, and is worth re- 
calling at this time.’ 

The plants oceur at Cerro Guido in the 
provinee of Santa Cruz, in a layer of fine gray 
sandstone which grades upward into a coarse 
greenish sandstone, the whole fifty to sixty 
meters in thickness and overlain by beds con- 
taining Tertiary fossils. 

The Argentine geologists correlate the lower 
Notostylops beds containing a rich vertebrate 
fauna and this plant horizon with the Ceno- 
manian. If the determinations are correct, 
which fact it is difficult to properly estimate, 
because they are not figured, the plants fur- 
nish striking confirmation of this 
There are thirty-one forms described, in- 
cluding a new species in Abietites, Araucarites 
and Perseophyllum. Eliminating these from 
our calculations, we have twenty-eight forms, 
of which twenty-one, or seventy-five per cent., 
are characteristic types of the Dakota group 
flora. It is a significant fact that the meager 


view. 


*Ameghino, F., ‘Sinéptico de las formaciones 
sedimentarias, terciarias y cretaiceas de la Argen- 
tina. Anal. Museo Nacional Buenos Aires’ 
(iii.), 8: 1-12, 1902. 

*Hauthal, R., ‘Ueber patagonisches Tertiar, 
ete., Zeitsch. Deutsch. geol. Gesell., 50: 436-440, 
1898. 

“Kurtz, F., “Contribuciones 4 la paleophytologia 
Argentina-Sobre la existencia de una Dakota 
Flora en la Patagonia austro-occidental,’ Revista 
Museo La Plata, 10: 43-60 (1899), 1902. 

®*Wilckens, Neues Jahrb. f. Min. Geol. wu. 
Paliéont., 21: 98-195, October, 1905, gives a quite 
full historical review and admirably summarizes 
our present knowledge of Patagonian geology. 


510 


flora from the heretofore most southern known 
Dakota outcrop containing plants, namely, the 
Woodbine formation of Texas, contains two 
species which are identical with Argentine 
forms. Four identical forms are found in 
the Magothy and three in the Raritan of the 
Atlantic coastal plain, two occur in the Atane 
beds of the west coast of Greenland, which are 
usually classed as Cenomanian, and one occurs 
in the Patoot beds (Senonian) of the same 
region. ‘Two forms are common to the Ceno- 
manian of Bohemia and one is found in the 
Senonian of Prussia and Bulgaria. The only 
possible lower Cretaceous form contained in 
this flora is one which Kurtz identifies as 
Asplentum Dicksonianum, which, as currently 
understood, ranges from the Kootanie and 
Kome beds into the upper Cretaceous. This 
view is probably erroneous, as I have a number 
of facts in support of the view that the lower 
Cretaceous forms which have been referred to 
this species are distinet from those which 
occur in the upper Cretaceous. Kurtz iden- 
tifies one species with a basal Eocene form of 
North America and another with a basal 
Eocene species of Belgium. 

The flora as a whole has an entirely Ceno- 
manian facies and its remarkable similarity 
to that developed in the central west during 
the mid-Cretaceous certainly points very 
strongly to a community of origin. Were the 
evidence less convincing in its array of forms 
it would be an easy matter to infer that 
Kurtz’s Liriodendron Meeku was a legumin- 
ous leaflet, and that his species of Cinnamo- 
mum, Litsea and Sassafras were simply the 
Cretaceous precursors of the abundant Laura- 
ceous forms which occur in the modern flora 
of South America, but such a view is entirely 
untenable in the light of the disclosed species 
of Liquidambar, Cissites, Persea, Menisperm- 
ites, Platanus, Populus, Betulites, Quercus, 
ete. 

These facts will suggest to some the possi- 
bilities of a southern origin of our upper Cre- 
taceous floras quite the opposite of the usually 
accepted view that they had their origin in 
the far north. However this may be, the evi- 
dence, it seems’ to me, conclusively points to 
a geographical connection between North and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 


South America during the mid-Cretaceous, at 
which time the mid-Cretaceous North Amer- 
ican flora extended southward, reaching .Ar- 
gentina and displaying a Cenomanian flora at 
a somewhat later time than that assigned to 
it by the Argentine geologists. In other 
words, that while these South American beds 
are homotaxial they are not synchronous with 
the North American Cenomanian, the time 
interval between them being that which was 
necessary for the northern flora to spread from 
about the latitude of Texas to that of Pata- 
gonia. 

Further than this, such facts go a long way 
toward discrediting Von Ihering’s theory, ap- 
provingly quoted by Ortmann in the Princeton 
Expedition Reports, that northern and south- 
ern South America are to be regarded as 
genetically different and separated, at least 
until well into Tertiary times, by a sea con- 
necting the Atlantic and Pacific. 

Epwarp W. Brrry. 

MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 

BALTIMORE, Mp. 


AGE OF PETROLEUM DEPOSITS, SARATOGA, TEXAS. 


WHILE careful watch has been kept on the 
drilling of a number of wells in this district, 
it is only within the present month that fos- . 
sils have been found in such condition as 
permitted their accurate determination and 
the recognition of their geological horizon. 

A bed of shells was noticed in one or two 
wells drilled by the Rio Bravo Oil Co. at a 
depth of approximately 1,100 feet, but the 
specimens were so fragmentary that nothing 
could be made of them. Mr. Robinson, who 
is drilling a well west of the proven field, 
found this same bed at 1,158 feet and was 
fortunate enough to get a number of fair 
specimens. He turned these over to the 
writer, who sent them to the United States 
National Museum for identification. 

Dr. W. H. Dall, under date of January 18, 
makes the following report on them: 

In regard to the small lot of fossils from 1,158 
feet, Robinson well, Saratoga, Texas, referred to 
by Dr. Dumble in the letter of January 12, here- 
with returned, I have to report as follows: it 
contains— 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


Donaz (sp. nov.?). 

Corbula inaequalis Say. 

Divaricella dentata Wood. 

Mangilia sp. (ef. cerina K. & §.). 

Natica sp. fragm. 

Terebra (Oxymeris) var. indenta Dall—fragm. 

Anachis sp. fragm. 

Pecten sp. fragm. 

Spine of Cidaris? fragm. 

These are almost certainly upper Miocene shells 
of the same age as those of the Galveston well, 
reported on by Professor Harris. 


As the bed from which these shells were 
gotten is between the upper and lower oil 
sands, and as there is no appreciable difference 
in the character of the sediments above and 
below, including the lower oil horizon, it 
would seem most probable that the age of this 
oil pool is the Upper or Deep Well Miocene 
of Harris. 

It is interesting to note that this is the 
first locality in Texas outside Galveston Island 
at which these fossils have been found. 


E. T. DumBLe. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 


TEMPERATURE IN CYCLONES AND ANTICYCLONES. 
It is known to readers of these ‘ Current 


Notes on Meteorology’ that the temperatures . 


obtained by means of kites in cyclones and 
anticyclones at Blue Hill Observatory do not 
agree with the results obtained by Hann, 
Teisserene de Bort and others in Europe. In 
the November number of the Meteorologische 
Zeitschrift, Hann discusses a recent paper by 
H. H. Clayton, which appeared in the Bez- 
trage zur Physik der freien Atmosphare, No. 
8, and was recently briefly summarized in 
these columns. Hann points out the differ- 
ence in the method of treatment adopted by 
Clayton on the one hand, and by Teisserene 
de Bort and himself on the other, and notes 
that in general in dynamic meteorology baro- 
metric maxima and minima do not mean the 
erests and troughs of pressure waves at a 
given place, but the regions from which the 
pressure (at least as a whole) decreases in all 
directions (maxima) or increases (minima). 
Hann and Teisserene de Bort, in their studies, 
used the daily weather maps as the basis, and 


SCIENCE. 


511 


not the barogram at a single station, for they 
are of opinion that the vertical distribution 
of temperature above a single station at those 
times when the trough or the crest of a pres- 
sure wave passes over it has no clearly defined 
physical significance. “This method has led 
to the conclusion (observations on mountains 
and those obtained in the free air by means 
of balloons are in agreement on this point) 
that, at least in winter, the mass of air in 
cyclones averages colder than that in anti- 
eyclones (as Hann first pointed out in April, 
1890). This does not imply that there may 
not also be smaller cyclonic whirls, especially 
in summer, which are relatively warm. The 
thermal conditions of tropical cyclones are 
still uncertain, and it would be a mistake to 
attempt to refer all atmospheric whirls back 
to the same cause.” 


LIFTING POWER OF ASCENDING AIR CURRENTS. 


In the Monthly Weather Review for Sep- 
tember, 1905 (issued November 29), H. H. 
Clayton cites some cases of the lifting power 
of ascending air currents in quiet summer 
weather. On August 6, 1894, at Blue Hill 
Observatory, a kite was caught in an ascend- 
ing current about fifty feet above the top of 
the hill, and rose rapidly toward the zenith, 
circling as it rose. A large cumulus cloud 
was passing at the time, and the kite followed 
this cloud toward the east, until, being drawn 
out of the ascending current, the kite fell 
rapidly to the ground. On September 8 last, 
as reported by John Ritchie, Jr., a piece of 
paraffine paper was carried nearly vertically 
upward from the top of Mt. Chocorua, N. H., 
reaching a height of at least 1,000 feet. There 
was very little wind stirring at the time, and 
the paper rose steadily upward, not as if blown 
by a gust of wind. Both kite and paper were 
probably lifted by ordinary ascending cur- 
rents of air such as commonly exist on sum- 
mer days. 

CLOUDS AND HEALTH. 

Magor Cuas. E. Wooprurr, U. S. A., who 
has recently written a book on the effects of 
tropical light on the white race, setting forth 
the view that the sunlight is a very important 
factor in the problem of acclimatization in 


512 


the tropics, has advanced the opinion, which 
will seem highly revolutionary to most per- 
sons, that the low death rates in the cities on 
our northern Pacific coast result from the 
cloudiness of those places. Dr. Woodrutf 
holds that races are colored in a way to resist 
the effects of too much sunlight, and that the 
white race is fitted, not for the most sunny 
latitudes, but for the least sunny ones. Fur- 
ther, he believes that the blonds are gradually 
eliminated through greater susceptibility to 
disease in the lighter parts of a country, while 
the brunettes survive, being stronger and less 
injuriously affected. 


NOTES. 

THosre who are interested in the very in- 
genious cipher code used by our Weather 
Bureau in the transmission of its observations 
will find an account of ‘Weather Bureau 
Cipher Codes,’ by Professor KE. B. Garriott, in 
the Monthly Weather Review for October, 
1905. 


Proressor W. H. Picksrmye has recently 
published a paper on ‘ Martian Meteorology’ 
in the Annals of the Harvard College Ob- 
servatory, Vol. LIII., No. VIII. In the 
Monthly Weather Review for October, 1905, 
Professor Cleveland Abbe gives a brief sum- 
mary of the investigations on this subject. 


It has been noted that when hailstones are 
melting away in a pail of water they end their 
eareer by giving up a large bubble of air 
which had evidently been enclosed, under 
great pressure, in the white snow at the center 
of the hailstones. Observations of this fact, 
and also of the size of the cavity that appears 
to contain the air and of the size of the bubble 
as it ascends through the water, are desired by 
the editor of the Monthly Weather Review, 
Washington, D. C. 


Das Wetter for December, 1905, contains 
the results of an investigation of the value of 
radiation from the sky, carried out by W. 
Gallenkamp by means of an apparatus de- 
signed by himself for this work. This subject 
has received but little attention as yet. 


R. DeC. Warp. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 


ENTOMOLOGIOCAL NOTES. 


EXNpDERLEIN has found a curious wingless fly 
in Germany, which has much resemblance 
both in shape and movements to a Thrips.’ 
He refers it to the Bibionide. It has halters, 
and rather large long legs; only one female 
specimen is known, and doubtless the male 
will be winged. 


Mr. S. Grarnicurr has investigated the 
larval habits of several parasitic bees and 
obtained some highly interesting results. In 
the three cases of Stelis with Alcidamea, 
Celhioxys with Megachile, and Hpeolus with 
Melissodes he finds that the parasitic larva is 
provided with sharp mandibles and an aggres- 
sive temperament, so that it attacks any larva 
it meets in the nest, even of its own kind. In 
some cases the larva loses its sharp jaws at a 
later moult, and thereafter feeds on the honey 
and pollen stored by the host-bee. The larva 
of the host-bee has blunt jaws, and though 
often larger than its enemy, never attacks it. 


Mr. Cart Hartman is the author of an 
interesting paper on the habits of some Texan 
solitary wasps. He has watched, more or less 
thoroughly, the habits of twenty-eight species, 
belonging to various families. Several species 
are shown to vary in the method of making 
and closing the nest, and in stinging and 
carrying their prey. Some species are 
extremely fastidious in choice of prey, but 
Microbembex will take any insect, dead or 
alive, to provision her nest. He considers 
that the primary purpose of the sting is to 
paralyze the prey, but in some cases it 
also kills them. In finding their nests 
he believes that these wasps are guided by 
sight, and a memory of landmarks; and he 
adduces some evidence to show that varia- 
tion in habits is proportionate to the physical 


1«Thripsomorpha paludicola, n. gen. n. sp., eime 
neue deutsche fliigellose Fliige,’ Zool. Jahrbiicher, 
Abt. Syst., XXI., pp. 447-450, 1 pl., 4 figs., 1905. 

2*Some Observations on the Life History and 
Habits of Parasitic Bees,’ Bull. Wise. Nat. Hist. 
Soc., I1I., pp. 153-167, 1 pl., 1905. 

8* Observations on the Habits of Some Solitary 
Wasps of Texas, Bull. Univ. Texas, No. 65, pp. 
72, 4 pls., 1905. 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


variability of the species. Like all who have 
studied these creatures, he finds that Amno- 
phila is the most remarkable, the most intel- 
ligent and interesting; and the most attractive 
of his twenty-four photographs refer to this 
wonderful wasp. 


Tue Festschrift Mobius* contains four ento- 
mological articles. The first is by Dr. K. 
’ Kxraepelin, on ‘ Die geographische Verbreitung 
der Scolopendriden,’ pp. 167-194. The author 
tabulates the distribution of each subfamily, 
from which it is seen that the neotropical 
region is especially rich in Cryptoptine, the 
oriental region in Otostigmine, while the 
African and neotropical regions have equal 
claims as the home of the true Scolopendras. 
The family, as a whole, is more fully repre- 
sented in South America than elsewhere, with 
seventy species, nearly equally divided among 
the three subfamilies. It may be noted that 
although the palzarctic region has fewer spe- 
cies than the nearctic, yet it has more endemic 
species. 

The second article is ‘Ueber die Ent- 
wicklungsstufen der Steinlatifer Lithobiide, 
und Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Chilopoden,’ 
pp. 195-298, 3 pls., by Dr. K. W. Verhoeff. 
He describes the immature stages of several 
species of Lithobius, showing the increase in 
number of segments, legs, antennal joints and 
ocelli in each stage. He finds eight stages 
before maturity, the last four of which he 
designates as follows: fifth, agenitalis; sixth, 
immaturus; seventh, prematurus; eighth, 
pseudomaturus. The number of legs does not 
increase beyond the ‘ agenitalis’ stage, while 
the antennal joints and ocelli increase in 
number to maturity. The remainder of his 
article consists of notes on the morphology of 
various parts of the body, and an account of 
a ease of cannibalism. - 

Dr. H. J. Kolbe presents the third article, 
“Ueber die Lebensweise und die geographische 
Verbreitung der coprophagen Lamellicornier,’ 
pp. 475-594, 3 maps. The author gives a 
résumé of the known life history of the vari- 
ous species, and then enters a long discussion 
of their geographical distribution; tabulating 


*Zool. Jahrb., Suppl., Bd. 8, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


513 


the subfamilies and genera (with number of 
species) for each region. From these studies 
he divides the Palearctic region into four 
subregions: Europzo-Siberian, Mediterranean, 
Turkestain and Chino-Japanese. The African 
region he subdivides into Tropical, South Af- 
rican and Madagascar. The Indian is di- 
vided into Upper Indian (neluding South 
China and Formosa), Lower Indian (ineluding 
Ceylon) and Indonian (including the Philip- 
pine and Sunda Islands). The Australian 
region he divides into Melanesian, New Hol- 
land (including islands of the South Seas) 
and New Zealand. The Neotropical fauna is 
grouped in the Argentino-Patagonian (in- 
eluding Chile), the Brazilian, the Central 
American and the Antillean subregions. The 
Nearctic he divides into but two subregions, 
the cismontane, and the transmontane or Cali- 
fornian. Africa appears to be the most fertile 
region for these insects. 

The last article is by Th. Kuhlgatz, on 
‘Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Metamorphose ge- 
fliigelter Heteropteren, pp. 595-616, 13 figs. 
He treats of the morphology of the thorax as 
indicating the age and development of the 
individual; of the relation of the scutellum to 
the wings; and, as less important, the shape of 
the head and abdomen, and the color as in- 
dicative of maturity. NatHan Banks. 


ROBERT OGDEN DOREMUS. 


ProBaBLy no educator has ever left more 
pupils to mourn his loss and recall his many 
estimable qualities as a teacher and lecturer 
than Dr. Robert Ogden Doremus, who died on 
March 22, 1906, in the eighty-third year of his 
age. 

Dr. Doremus was born in New York City, 
on January 11, 1824. He was descended on 
his father’s side from Anneke Jans, who early 
settled in New York and on his mother’s side 
from Robert Ogden, one of the founders of 
Princeton University. He was at one time 
a student in Columbia College, but completed 
his college education at New York University, 
receiving the degree of B.A. in 1842, the de- 
gree of M.A. in 1845, the degree of M.D. in 
1850, and the degree of LL.D. in 1871. 

Dr. Doremus early manifested a special in- 


514 


terest in natural science, especially physics 
and chemistry. From 1848 to 1850 he was 
assistant to Dr. John W. Draper, the dis- 
tinguished English chemist who made his 
home in New York, and he had charge of the 
chemical laboratory of the medical department 
of the university. He spent some time in 
Paris pursuing the study of electrometallurgy. 
In 1849 he was elected professor of chemistry 
in the New York College of Pharmacy, and 
in 1850 he was one of the founders of the New 
York Medical College, where he equipped a 
chemical laboratory for medical students. 
Later he was instrumental in founding both 
the Long Island Hospital and Medical College 
and the Bellevue Medical College and oc- 
cupied the chair of chemistry and toxicology 
in both institutions. He was for many years 
professor of natural history in the College of 
the City of New York, and about 1882 was 
made professor of chemistry and physics, a 
position which he retained until he gave up 
teaching in 1903. At the College of the City 
of New York he established a large chemical 
laboratory in which hosts of students received 
practical instruction. Upon his retirement 
from the duties of instructor he had com- 
pleted sixty years of continuous work as a 
teacher of chemistry and physics and it is 
doubtful if any other instructor in this 
country has ever lectured to so many pupils. 

Professor Doremus paid special attention to 
toxicology and distinguished himself by the 
thoroughness of his work in medico-legal in- 
vestigations and the improvements which he 
made in some of the most important tests for 
poisons. 

He made some important improvements. in 
the preparation of cartridges of compressed 
gunpowder for army use, which attracted es- 
pecial attention in France where he was in- 
vited to make experiments before the Emperor 
Napoleon III. and his generals. Dy. Doremus 
was especially interested in the application of 
chemistry and physics to the practical affairs 
of life and was often consulted by manufac- 
turers and by sanitary authorities. 

Dr. Doremus was especially successful as a 
public lecturer, he was a man of commanding 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


presence, most agreeable voice, and eloquent 
and clear in his presentation of the facts and 
principles of science. He spared no trouble 
or expense in the preparation of his experi- 
ments, and many old New Yorkers will re- 
member with pleasure the brilliant and 
dazzling experiments which he made in the 
Academy of Music in demonstrating the 
phenomena of light and heat as developed by 
various forms of combustion and by elec- 
tricity. Dr. Doremus was very musical in his 
tastes, a skillful performer on the cornet, and 
was several times president of the Philhar- 
monic Society. He was warm, cordial and 
friendly in his relations with others and en- 
deared himself to the hearts of all who knew 
him. Cuarures F. CHANDLER. 


A STANDARD AGRICULTURAL COURSE. 


At the recent meeting of the Association 
of American Agricultural Colleges and Ex- 
periment Stations held in Washington, D. C., 
the subject of courses in agriculture and hor- 
ticulture and allied subjects was discussed by 
Professor F. W. Rane, of the New Hampshire 
College, before the section on college work and 
administration. 3 

The speaker recommended that the funda- 
mental sciences of the course should be placed 
in the first two years and that the require- 
ments be uniform for all the various institu- 
tions teaching agriculture. He showed that 
at present from an extensive study of com- 
parative courses in the various institutions, 
there exists no uniformity, subjects being 
given in some institutions in the freshman 
year, while in others the same subject is offered 
in the senior year. After emphasizing the 
importance of having the basal or funda- 
mental work the same, he would then require 
sufficient of the applied or economic subjects 
to give the agricultural student a general 
broad grasp of agriculture, as shown in the 
accompanying table, the student then being 
allowed a free and unrestrained will to elect 
in the junior and senior years the subject that 
most appeals to his tastes and likings. 

The cultural subjects recommended by the 
speaker are practically those recommended by 


Marcu 30, 1906.] 


a previous committee of the same association 
on methods of teaching agriculture. Pro- 
fessor Bailey, of Cornell University, in dis- 
eussing the course, gave his general approval 
of at least the first two years and said it in 
many ways corresponded to the course now 


SCIENCE. 


515 


such use still exists, they have striven to create 
the impression that the metric system has made 
but little progress among nations, and that the 
expense and difficulty of its introduction into this 
country are insurmountable obstacles to its em- 
ployment. 

To support these contentions they are solicit- 


being offered at Cornell University. The ing every one they can influence to write letters 
course recommended was as follows: to their representatives in Congress, urging them 
Freshmen. Sophomore. Junior. Senior. 
Botany.............00000+ Botany. ...0....-...0..- 100 Agron. ... 50 Rural Engineering... 60 
Chemistry Chemistry 100 | Agr. + Zoot. 200 190 Rural Economics...... 60 
Physics..... Geology ...... . 100 Agro...... 40 Land Gardening 
Zoology. .... Physiology 100 | Veterinary Medicine.. 100 | Plant Breeding........ 
Geom. & Trig Agron. Climate, Soils, Surveying .... ... 40 | Hist. & Pol. Sci....... 
English CLs secouobooenoos 50 | Shop Work...... --- 30 | Bthics ..............000-+6 
Modern Languages... 150 | Plant Propagation... 50 | Forestry................... 30 | Elective................+ 
English...............-. 100 Pom...... 50 | 
Modern Languages.. 100 Oler. 50 
Drawing. ...........+.. 50 | Hort. Flor. ..... 30 | Heo 
L. Hort.. 20) 
Psychology.............. 
Modern Languages.... 50 
unt Bee lective tees ses-rewenna 100 sas 
750 750 750 780 


750 


750 


THE METRIC SYSTEM BEFORE CONGRESS. 


As most readers of Science know, a bill is 
now before congress which, if enacted, will 
require the use of the weights and measures 
of the metric system by the government after 
July 1, 1908. The committee on publicity of 
the American Metrological Society, of which 
Professor Simon Newcomb is chairman and 
Professor James H. Gore, secretary, have sent 
out the following letter: 


It is well known to those interested in the 
matter that certain persons have for the past 
three years been actively engaged in opposing the 
use of the metric system of weights and meas- 
ures in the United States by all means in their 
power. In order to accomplish their purpose 
they have sent out a great deal of literature in 
which a distorted picture of the real state of the 
ease is presented to their readers. By ignoring 
some facts, minimizing others, and by the ex- 
aggeration of the importance of the residual em- 
ployment of the old weights and measures where 


to oppose the passage of any bill by Congress in 
favor of the metric system. They persistently 
endeavor to create the impression that the bills 
proposed are intended to forcibly compel the im- 
mediate use of said system, by imposing penalties 
on those engaged in ordinary trades and occupa- 
tions, and they also exaggerate in every possible 
way the alleged prospective difficulties of a change 
from the customary system. 

Members of Congress who are acquainted with 
the subject, and who honestly are endeavoring to 
find some way by which our country can adopt 
and enjoy the benefits of the international sys- 
tem of weights and measures, in which all the 
real progress of the world is now made, find 
themselves handicapped in their efforts to make 
their fellow members of Congress see the subject 
in its proper light by the apparent lack of inter- 
est, on the part of the friends of the metric sys- 
tem in our country. The opponents of the sys- 
tem, though few in number, are creating as much 
noise as possible, while the friends of the system 
confident of success are doing little to convince 
Congress of its advantages. We, therefore, earn- 


516 


estly request you yourself, to write and also 
secure from other friends of the system as many 
letters to representatives in Congress as possible, 
so that they may see that public sentiment is not 
one-sided as might seem from the statements of 
the opponents of the system. 

Notwithstanding these misleading statements, 
the metric system during the past thirty years 
has made the most substantial and important 
progress of its history. By the establishment of 
the International Bureau of Weights and Meas- 
ures in 1872, the metric system became in the 
fullest sense an international system. Its sub- 
sequent introduction into actual and general use 
in Germany and the neighboring countries have 
given it the character of a real international sys- 
tem, and secured for it a commanding position 
which neither the British nor any other system 
ever possessed, and which make it as near a 
permanent institution as any human arrangement 
can be. At the same time it is among Hnglish 
speaking people themselves, the medium in which 
all scientific research is carried on, the system in 
which all electrical measurements are made, and 
in which all higher education is given, for which 
reason thousands of our young people are al- 
ready acquainted with it. 

Under present conditions the British system is 
an ugly exerescence on the world’s literature and 
practical arts which the general welfare requires 
we should abolish as speedily as possible. Al- 
ready the conflict of two systems is a serious 
obstacle to international trade and a hindrance 
to international cooperation in every direction. 

For these reasons, among others, we earnestly 
request you to obtain the largest possible ex- 
pression of opinion favorable to the introduction 
of the system into all government work by Act 
of Congress, by writing yourself, and getting all 
friends of the system to write to members of 
Congress in both houses, requesting them to pass 
the act now pending which provides for the intro- 
duction of the metric system into government 
use. The sentiment in favor of the metric sys- 
tem is so far advanced in the British Empire 
that it is a question whether we will not be antici- 
pated in its adoption. 

The expression of boards of trade, educational 
bodies and colonial governments leave no doubt 
but that England would immediately follow us in 
the adoption of the metric system should we be 
fortunate enough to first take the step. 

In the present state of affairs individual let- 
ters are more effective than the resolutions of so- 
cieties, most of which are already on record. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No, 587. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

February 21.—Mr. Humphrey, of the state 
of Washington, introduced a bill for the pro- 
tection of game animals, birds and fishes in 
the Olympic Forest Reserve in the state of 
Washington. Referred to the Committee on 
Public Lands. 

February 23.—House Resolution, 13,190, to 
protect birds and their eggs in game and bird 
preserves, passed the House of Representatives. 

February 28.—A bill (15,849) was intro- 
duced to protect wild water-fowl on the Po- 
tomae River and its tributaries. Referred to 
Committee on Agriculture. 

March 5.—House Resolution, 13,542, au- 
thorizing the Secretary of the Interior to 
lease land in Stanley County, South Dakota, 
for a buffalo pasture, passed the Senate. 

House Resolution, 13,538, incorporating the 
Carnegie foundation for the advancement of 
teaching, passed the Senate with amendments. 

February 15.—The Secretary of Commerce 
and Labor transmitted a letter to the House 
of Representatives, with a draft of proposed 
legislation to enable the Bureau of Fisheries 
to continue the exchange of fish eggs with 
foreign governments. 

February 19.—The same matter was laid be- 
fore the Senate, with the added proviso that 
the Department of Commerce and Labor be 
authorized to donate to foreign governments 
living fish and other water animals and their 
eggs, ete., when the efficiency of the Bureau of 
Fisheries would be enhanced thereby. 

The Committee on Public Lands, to which 
was referred the bill to protect birds and their 
eggs in game and bird preserves (H. R. 
13,190), reported the same with amendment, 
accompanied by a report. The bill and re- 
port were referred to the House Calendar. 

February 26.—Wouse Resolution, 13,190, to 
protect birds and their eggs in game and bird 
preserves, was referred to the Senate Com- 
mittee on Forest Reservations and the Pro- 
tection of Game. 

March 12, 1906.—Mr. Lacey, from the Com- 
mittee on the Public Lands, to which was re- 
ferred the bill of the House (H. R. 11,016) for 
the preservation of American antiquities, re- 


MagcuH 30, 1906.] 


ported the same amendment, accompanied by 
a report (No. 2,224); which said bill and re- 
port were referred to the Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union. 

A bill to appropriate $25,000 for the estab- 
lishment of a fish-cultural station in the State 
of Nebraska, to be located at a point to be 
selected by the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor, passed the Senate. 


THE JUBILEE OF THE ACADEMY OF SOI- 
ENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 

Tur Academy of Science of St. Louis, 
which is the oldest body of its kind west of 
the Alleghanies, held its first meeting and 
adopted a constitution on March 10, 1856, 
fifteen of the organizers being present. The 
week of this year which ended with March 
10 has been celebrated by the academy in a 
modest but fitting manner. 

The regular meeting of the week, on the 
evening of the third, was given up to remin- 
iscences, including a sketch of the history of 
the academy, accounts of its treasury and col- 
lections, an analysis of its scientific publica- 
tions, and recollections of some of the men 
who have made it known while winning per- 
sonal recognition in science. 

The anniversary evening was selected for 
a banquet, at which about one hundred per- 
sons were seated. Invitations had been sent 
to the honorary and corresponding members 
of the academy and to learned societies with 
which it exchanges publications, comprising 
the principal learned societies of the world. 
Greetings were presented by letters and tele- 
grams from something over one hundred cor- 
responding societies, while thirty-one were 
represented by delegates who delivered their 
congratulations in person. In addition to the 
speeches of welcome and greeting, admirable 
and inspiring addresses were delivered by 
Dean Edward A. Birge, of the University of 
Wisconsin, and Professor Thomas C. Cham- 
berlin, of the University of Chicago. 

As lasting souvenirs of the occasion, the 
committee of arrangements presented to the 
academy a panel of portraits of the members 
who attended the organization meeting fifty 
years before, and a medal bearing on the 


SCIENCE. 


517 


obverse the quaint seal of the academy with 
its dedication ‘Humane Scilicet Scientiae et 
Potentiae,’ and on the reverse a portrait of 
George Engelmann, the prime mover in the 
organization of the academy and for many 
years its president. A replica of the medal, 
in bronze, was given to each person present at 
the banquet and to each society represented 
by a delegate. 

Like most organizations of its kind, the 
St. Louis Academy of Science was founded 
and has been sustained through the self- 
sacrificing efforts of a few men interested in 
the promotion of its purposes. A few years 
ago it was given a home by a lady of St. Louis. 
Its officers are now hoping that the celebration 
of its semi-centennial anniversary may bring 
it to the notice of those who can foster its 
work, if they will, and lead to a suitable en- 
dowment being provided for its maintenance. 
A fund is needed for the enlargement of its 
museum, and binding the great library of 
exchange publications received from other 
learned societies. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Proressor E. C. Pickrrine, director of the 
Harvard College Observatory, has been elected 
a corresponding member of the Berlin Acad- 
emy of Sciences. 


Dr. Henry F. Ossporn, professor of zoology 
at Columbia University, and curator of 
paleontology at the American Museum of 
Natural History, and Dr. O. Hertwig, pro- 
fessor of zoology at the University of Berlin, 
have been elected foreign members of the Lin- 
nean Society of London. 


Proressor Ernst Harcken, of the Univer- 
sity of Jena, had hoped to attend the meeting 
of the American Philosophical Society in 
memory of the two hundredth anniversary of 
Franklin’s birth next month, but his health 
is such that his physicians have forbidden him 
to make the voyage. 

Proressor B. K. Emerson, of Amherst Col- 
lege, has been appointed geologist in the U. S. 
Geological Survey. Since 1883 he has ranked as 
assistant geologist, and by the new appoint- 
ment will be in charge of all the geological 


518 


work of Massachusetts, with the exception of 
the extreme western part and sections around 
Boston. 

Dr. Frwrgor Nansen, who was appointed 
Norwegian minister at London last November, 
has been raised to the rank of ambassador. 

Tur Hebdomadal Council of Oxford Uni- 
versity has appointed William Osler, D.M., 
Hon. D.Sce., F.R.S., student of Christ Church, 
regius professor of medicine, representative of 
the university on the council of the Lister In- 
stitute of Preventive Medicine in the place of 
the late Sir John Burdon-Sanderson, Bart., 


D.M., F.R.S., honorary fellow of Magdalen - 


College. 


Tue University of Heidelberg has awarded 
the Kussmaul prize to Professor Bier, of 
Bonn, for his work on artificial hyperaemia as 
a therapeutic process. 


Tue title of emeritus professor of civil engi- 
neering and surveying has been conferred by 
the council of London University on Mr. L. 
F. Vernon-Harcourt, who occupied the chair 
of civil engineering at University College for 
twenty-three years. 


Dr. Frank E. Ross has been promoted to 
be astronomer in charge of the International 
Latitude Observatory at Gaithersberg, Md., 
vacant by the resignation of Dr. Herman S. 
Dayis. 

Proressor P. Tremo Scuwarz has been ap- 
pointed director of the Benedictine Observa- 
tory at Kremsminster, to fill the vacancy 
caused by the resignation of Dr. P. F. Schwab. 
Professor P. B. Zélss has been appointed ob- 
server in the same observatory. 


THE medical staff of the Widener Memorial 
Home for Crippled Children at Philadelphia, 
which was formally opened March 3, will be 
composed of the following men: Surgeon-in- 
charge, Dr. DeForest Willard; assistant sur- 
geon, Dr. Edward B. Hodge, Jr.; visiting 
physician, Dr. Albert D. Ferguson; pediatrist, 
Dr. Alfred Hand, Jr.; neurologist, Dr. Wil- 
liam G. Spiller; ophthalmologist, Dr. G. Oram 
Ring; assistant ophthalmologist, Dr. Carl S. 
Williams; laryngologist, Dr. Francis R. Pack- 
ard; dermatologist, Dr. Jay F. Schamberg, 
and pathologist, Dr. Robert L. Pitfield. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 587. 


Dr. Epwarp L. Nicwous, professor of phys- 
ics at Cornell University, lectured before the 
Society of Sigma Xi at Ohio State University 
on the evening of February 21. The subject 
of his lecture was ‘ Phosphorescence.’ 


Proressor JoHN Minne, F.R.S., gave the 
Bakerian lecture before the Royal Society on 
March 22, his subject being ‘Recent Ad- 
vances in Seismology.” 


On March 17 Mr. J. E. Marr gave the first 
of three lectures at the Royal Institution, 
London, on ‘The Influence of Geology on 
Scenery. These are the Tyndall lectures. 
On March 19 Professor Bertram Hopkinson 
began a course of three lectures on ‘ Internal 
Combustion Engines,’ with experimental illus- 
trations. The Friday evening discourse on 
March 23 was delivered by Lord Roberts on 
‘Imperial Defence.’ On March 30 Professor 
Zeeman will speak on ‘Recent Progress in 
Magneto-Optiecs, and on April 6 Mr. W. B. 
Hardy on ‘The Physical Basis of Life.’ 


WE learn from the Journal of the American 
Medical Association that the international 
journal devoted to the history of medicine 
and medical geography, Janus, in its issue for 
February, pays homage to the oriental student, 
Moritz Steinschneider, who reached the age 
of ninety on March 30, 1906. He is still 
actively engaged as occasional assistant at the 
Berlin Royal Library. His researches on the 
pharmacology, toxicology, medicine and nat- 
ural sciences of the Arabian and other writers 
during and just preceding the middle ages 
are said to be a mine of information. 


Repuicas, in bronze, of the medal commem- 
orating the semi-centennial of the Academy 
of Science of St. Louis, bearing an excellent 
portrait of George Engelmann, may be se- 
eured from the secretary of the academy at a 
cost of $1.00 each, if ordered before the end 
of April. 


A wemortat of the late Professor Nothnagel 
is to be erected in the great quadrangle of the 
University of Vienna. A fund will also be 
established, the interest of which will be de- 
voted to the delivery of an annual commem- 
orative lecture. 


Maxcu 30, 1906.] 


Proressor JAMES Mints Peirce, who was 
appointed tutor in Harvard University in 
1854, and has been Perkins professor of as- 
tronomy since 1885, died from pneumonia at 
his home at Cambridge on March 21. 

J. James R. Crozs, a well-known civil engi- 
neer of New York City, died at his home at 
Yonkers, on March 14, aged seventy-two years. 

Dr. Apert Prescott Marsie, associate 
superintendent of public schools in New York 
City and a writer on educational topics, died 
on March 25, at the age of sixty-eight years. 

Tue death is announced of Mr. J. G. Good- 
child, a British geologist and naturalist, long 
connected with the Geological Survey and the 
Edinburgh Museum. 

Dr. J. Wopricu, professor of geology in the 
Bohemian University of Prague, has died at 
the age of eighty-one years. 

A Reurer telegram from Stockholm says 
that the auditors of the Nobel foundation state 
in their report that the five Nobel prizes will 
this year amount to £7,696 each, that is, £25 
more than last year. 

THERE will be civil service examinations, on 
April 18, to fill the position of chief of the 
Sugar Laboratory Bureau of Chemistry, De- 
partment of Agriculture, at a salary of $2,000 
a year, and the position of technical assistant, 
Division of Pharmacology, Hygienic Labora- 
tory, Public Health and Marine Hospital 
Service, at a salary of $150 a month. 

A COLLECTION of Japanese plants, sent to 
the New York Botanical Garden in exchange 
for North American plants, has just arrived 
from Akita, Japan. The collection, contain- 
ing two or three hundred specimens belonging 
to various plant groups, was made last sum- 
mer by Mr. Yuushun Kudo on Mt. Moriyoshi, 
at an altitude of 7,000 feet. 

WE learn from Popular Astronomy that the 
Detroit Observatory of the University of 
Michigan under the new director, W. J. Hus- 
sey, is undergoing extensive repairs, including 
a new addition. The improvements extend to 
the observatory library, which connects di- 
rectly with the residence. Mr. EK. J. Madden 
has been appointed instrument-maker to the 
observatory. He was formerly employed at 


SCIENCE. 


519 


the Lick Observatory in this capacity, and 
later at the Solar Observatory at Pasadena. 
An instrument shop is being installed for his 
work. To meet these expenses the university 
has appropriated $5,000. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


It is understood that by the will of Dr. 
William T. Bacon his estate is given for life 
to Mrs. Bacon, but that at her death the 
Hartford Medical Society will receive an en- 
dowment of $100,000, and Yale University 
will receive a part of the residuum of the 


estate, which is understood to be worth nearly 
$300,000. 


It is reported that Mrs. John B. Stetson 
has offered to give $100,000 to Stetson Uni- 
versity, founded by the late Mr. Stetson at 
Deland, Fla., on condition that the present 
trustees resign. 


Parsons Coubecr, Fairfield,. Iowa, has re- 
cently received $80,000 additional endowment 
through the will of Col. Charles Parsons, of 
St. Louis. This inereases the donor’s gifts 
to $146,000 and the resources of the college 
to over $350,000. ; 

TurRouGH the generosity of a Chicago phy- 
sician (anonymous) and of Dr. Benjamin 
Taylor Terry, of New York City, Indiana 
University has received offers of two endow- 
ments for pathological research. The first 
endowment is for a research fellowship in 
serum pathology; the second for a similar 
position in pathological physiology. The in- 
come of each fellowship is $750 a year. Both 
offers are made under the condition that Indi- 
ana University provide adequate library and 
laboratory facilities for such work. 

THE bequest to Cambridge University by 
F. J. Quick is to be used for the establishment 
of a Quick professorship of biology, the 
holder of which shall devote himself to the 
study of protozoa, especially of such as cause 
disease. 

Lorp RAYLEIGH, president of the Royal So- 
ciety, laid the foundation stone of a new sci- 
ence building at Dulwich College, on March 
3. The building is to be erected at the cost 
of £18,000. 


520 


‘Tur trustees of the Carnegie Foundation 
will meet on Monday, April 9, at the offices of 
the foundation in New York City. At that 
time it is expected that a definite plan for the 
disposition of the income will be adopted. The 
wide scope of the institution is outlined in the 
act of incorporation passed by congress and 
approved by the president, March 10. The 
act confers large powers, and in it the purpose 
of the founder in the establishment of the 
fund is clearly stated to be the establishment 
of a system of retiring pensions in the higher 
institutions of learning of the English speak- 
ing countries of North America, and in gen- 
-eral the advancement of the profession of the 
teacher and the cause of higher education. 
The institution is named in the new act of 
incorporation the ‘Carnegie Foundation for 
the Advancement of Teaching.’ 


A new building for the department of elec- 
trical engineering of the Worcester Poly- 
technic Institute is to be erected immediately, 
.and it is hoped that this building will be avail- 
able for the use of the students early in the 
next college year. The building will contain 
a lecture room for experimental demonstra- 
tion lectures and capable of seating about 300 
‘persons; a standards laboratory; a department 
reading-room and library with a capacity for 
2,000 volumes; an electrical engineering de- 
sign room; a photometric laboratory; a tele- 
phone laboratory; a general laboratory to con- 
tain most of the present equipment of the 
department; a laboratory for the study of high 
potentials phenomena, and an electric railway 
engineering laboratory. 


A DESPATCH to the Boston Transcript states 
that impetus has been given to the movement 
for the extension of technical education in 
Nova Scotia at a meeting of the Mining So- 
ciety at Halifax, on March 22. An address 
was made by Professor R. H. Richards, of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who 
told of the great progress the United States 
has made in technical education, and urged as 
good politics as well as good patriotism the 
use of taxpayers’ money to start and carry on 
the work of training young men ‘for higher 
positions in connection with industrial life. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 587. 


Premier Murray announced that the govern- 
ment was dealing with this phase of education 
and its policy would be on the lines of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 
new advisory board of education, for the ap- 
pointment of which legislation is now before 
parliament, will deal with the problem. 


Vicz-consut ScHLEMMER, of Mannheim, 
tells of the establishment of an Academic 
Information Bureau in Germany for the bene- 
fit of foreign students and visitors. It is 
located at the Berlin University, and its 
sphere embraces all public institutions of the 
empire as well as of other countries. In- 
formation will be furnished as to all the par- 
ticulars necessary to be observed in entering a 
university or attending lectures or in regard 
to schools, laboratories, museums, libraries, 
hospitals, art galleries, ete. Dr. W. Paszkow- 
ski is at the head of the institution, and all 
services are furnished without charge. 


WE are requested to state that a number of 
fellowships will be open next year in the de- 
partment of chemistry at Ohio State Univer- 
sity, Columbus, Ohio. Application blanks 
may be obtained by addressing the professor 
of chemistry. 


At Yale University, Dr. Bertram B. Bolt- 
wood and Dr. L. P. Wheeler have been ap- 
pointed assistant professors of physics and 
Dr. E. H. Cameron has been appointed in- 
structor in psychology. Mr. Roy R. Marston 
has resigned an assistant professorship of 
forestry. 

Miss Jean BroapHurst, instructor in biol- 
ogy at the New Jersey State Normal School, 
has been appointed instructor in biology and 
nature-study at Teachers College, Columbia 
University. With the exception of one course 
transferred to Barnard College, Miss Broad- 
hurst will have charge of the plant work 
formerly conducted by Professor F. E. Lloyd. 


Dr. S. T. Tamura, mathematician in the 
department of terrestrial magnetism of the 
Carnegie Institution, has been offered a pro- 
fessorship of dynamics and ship’s magnetism 
in the Naval Staff College, Tokyo, which is 
the graduate school for Japanese naval officers. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Aprit 6, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
The Proceedings of the American Society of 
Zoologists: PRorEssor C. HE. McCuune... 521 


Town and Gown: PROFESSOR WILLIAM MIL- 


TRG AINA HI SLOANE sia 0fa\ <rciclinis cioietaratteiectaeiela ae 629 


The Organization of University Government: 
PROFESSOR JOHN Maxson STILLMAN...... 536 
Scientific Books :— 
Schillings’s Flashlights im the Jungle: Pro- 


FESSOR FRANCIS H. HERRICK........... .. 540 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 544 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

The Distribution of Government Publica- 

tions: JUDGE JUNIUS HENDERSON. A Sug- 

gestion for an International Bibliographic 

Hzchange: Euerne F. McPIKe. The 

Bibliographie astronomique of Lalande: 

Dr. Epwarp S. HOLDEN.................. 545 
Special Articles :— 

A Mendelian Character in Cattle: W. J. 

SPILLMAN. Preliminary Notes on the 

Archeology of the Yakima Valley: HaRrLan 

Jishy PSECIEMELH! SiclE nibians erly Season eon ice uedloiaeee 549 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 

Cyclonic Distribution of Rainfall; Climatic 

Notes on the Sahara; Meteorology of the 

South Atlantic Ocean ; Meteorological Serv- 

ices in South America; Protecting Cran- 

berries from Frost; Notes: Proressor R. 

DORON EA bo Stain Oa Boelnailid das Ho EEE 555 
@rederick C. Paulmier.....:.....-.....-.- 556 
WED PAGAL TNG Hing bop ckooneeoonossuneense 557 
Scientific Notes and News................. 558 
University and Educational News.......... 560 


© MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of Sciencz, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN 
SOCIETY OF ZOOLOGISTS. 

Tue fourth annual meeting of the Cen- 
tral Branch of the American Society of 
Zoologists and the second triennial meeting 
of the entire society was held in the 
museum lecture room at Ann Arbor, on 
December 27, 28 and 29, 1905. There 
were elected to membership in the Central 
Branch, Professor Burt G. Wilder, Pro- 
fessor W. J. Baumgartner and Professor 
S. J. Hunter; in the Eastern Branch Dr. N. 
M. Stevens, Professor Francis B. Sumner, 
Professor Charles G. Rogers, George 
Thomas Hargitt, Professor Edwin Linton, 
Dr. H. H. Newman, Dr. Emily R. Gregory 
and Dr. William E. Kellicott. 

Officers of the Central Branch were 
elected as follows: 

President—C. C. Nutting. 

Vice-president—Geo. Lefevre. 

Secretary-Treasurer—T. G. Lee. 

Member of Haecutive Committee—J. G. Need- 
ham. 

In the absence of any of the officers of 
the Eastern Branch they were reelected for 
another year. 

The following papers were read: 

The Ling Egg of Anodonta as an Object 
for the Study of Maturation and Fertil- 
ization: CHARLES ZELENY, University of 
Indiana. 

The living eggs of Anodonta may be of 
considerable value to inland laboratories 
where the lack of suitable material has been 
very striking as compared with the rich- 
ness at the seashore. Contrary to the con- 
dition in Umio, the living eggs of A. grandis 


522 


and A. edentula, because of their transpar- 
ency, are very suitable objects for the study 
of maturation, fertilization and early cleav- 
age. The maturation divisions can be fol- 
lowed with ease and even the chromosomes 
can be made out as highly refractive bodies 
in the equator of the spindle. A study of 
the approach of the male and female 
pronuclei confirmed the observations of 
Lillie on sections of the Unio egg regarding 
the disappearance and reappearance of the 
‘central sphere. The central sphere at the 
side of the male pronucleus disappears as 
the two pronuclei approach each other and 
for a considerable period there is no sign 
of a central sphere in the egg. Then a 
central sphere forms in connection with 
each pronucleus and astral radiations ap- 
pear around it. The two central spheres 
thus produced serve as the centers of the 
first cleavage spindle. 


On the Interpretation of the Maturation 
Chromosomes of the Orthoptera: C. EH. 
McCuune, University of Kansas. 

A very general interest centers about the 
interpretation of the chromosomes of the 
grasshoppers since every possible deriva- 
tion of the tetrads has been described as 
showing itself in their spermatocytes. Thus 
Wilcox detects a double cross division, de 
Sinéty a double longitudinal one, while I 
and my students are convinced that m most 
of the tetrads there are present for the 
first spermatocytes a plane of longitudinal 
cleavage and for the second a eross division. 
Montgomery, from a brief study of one 
species, argues for a cross division in the 
first spermatocytes and a longitudinal in 
the second. From the fact that all these 
interpretations have been based upon prac- 
tically the same material, it is important to 
determine which is the correct one, for it 
will materially strengthen the assumption 
that this is the type that is generally prevy- 
alent. I have recently gone over a large 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 588, 


number of species of Acrididse and am con- 
vineed that my early conception of the 
tetrad as a rod split lengthwise and again 
at right angles to this, with the mantle fibers 
attached at the level of the cross split, is 
the correct one. These two planes of divi- 
sion have been found in the very early pro- 
phases and traced through the two sperma- 
toeyte divisions. The ring figures present 
indisputable evidence that the first cleavage 
of the rod is along the length of the chro- 
matin thread. These facts are demon- 
strated by a large series of photomicro- 
graphs. 


The Chromosome Complexes of Hespero- 
tettix speciosus and H. viridis: C. BE. 
McCuune, University of Kansas. 

As I reported at the preceding meeting 
of the society, the genus Hesperotettia has 
a peculiar grouping of the chromosomes 
that characterize the Acrididz. This mani- 
fests itself particularly in the multiple 
chromosome which is constituted of one of 
the large tetrads and the accessory chro- 
mosome. The two species of the genus. 
show differences in size and shape that are 
striking and unmistakable, but which are 
not easy to describe. A full series of illus- 
trations will be presented in a subsequent 
paper. Accompanying the chromosomi¢ 
differentiation there is also one of the 
spindle of the first spermatocyte. This in 
H. speciosus is long and full while in Z.. 
viridis it is short and weak. In another 
species, H. pratensis, that is just being 
taken up for study, the same elements are 
characteristically different from the other 
two species, but have the generic features 
equally well marked. 


Purther Observations on Artificial Par- 
thenogenesis: GHORGE LEFEVRE, Univer- 
sity of Missouri. 

In a former communication’ some pre- 


1 Scormnce, N.\S., Vol. XXI., No. 532, p. 379,. 
March 10, 1905. : 


Apri 6, 1906.] 


liminary results were reported from a study 
of artificial parthenogenesis in the echiuroid 
Thalassema mellita Conn. At that time it 
was stated that unfertilized eggs of this 
worm may be induced to develop into ac- 
tively swimming trochophores by immersion 
for a few minutes in dilute solutions of 
acids, both inorganic and organic. 

Continued and more detailed examina- 
tion of the material has yielded many addi- 
tional facts of interest. 

The parthenogenetic development in 
many cases involves a perfectly normal 
maturation, a more or less regular cleavage, 
and the usual processes of differentiation 
leading up to the formation of the normal 
larva. 

The unfertilized ege of Thalassema when 
left im sea-water exhibits no developmental 
changes, and the germinal vesicle remains 
intact until the ege dies. After a short 
exposure to the acid-solutions, however, 
the egg rounds out upon a return to 
pure sea-water, and throws off a typ- 
ical fertilization-membrane. As a rule, 
both polar bodies are extruded, and 
sections show that in these eges the matura- 
tion-mitoses occur in a normal manner. 
After maturation, the ege-centrosome and 
aster disappear; the pronucleus forms 
from the reduced number of chromosomes 
and moves to the center of the egg; the two 
cleavage-asters with their centers appear 
de novo and simultaneously at opposite 
poles of the egg-nucleus; the first cleavage- 
figure is then formed, and division of the 
egg into two equal blastomeres takes place 
normally. 

In many eases, subsequent cleavages oc- 
cur in a normal manner, as far as they can 
be followed, although the rhythm of divi- 
sion is more or less disturbed; in such 
cleavages, cytoplasmic division regularly 
accompanies division of the nucleus, and 
the mitotic phenomena involved are in all 


SCIENCE. 


523 


respects normal in appearance. The re- 
duced number of chromosomes (12), how- 
ever, persists, and has been repeatedly 
counted even in late blastula- and gastrula- 
stages. 

Gastrulation consists of the insinking of 
an entoblastic plate of cells which multiply 
by division and give rise to the enteron; 
the latter becomes secondarily divided into 
stomach and intestine; the csophagus is 
formed after gastrulation by an ectodermal 
invagination which is subsequently placed 
in communication with the stomach. These 
processes of differentiation, together with 
the formation of the prototrochal band and 
apical flagella, are in all essential respects 
identical with the corresponding normal 
events. 

In addition to the cases mentioned in 
which the normal differentiations are close- 
ly paralleled, many abnormal processes 
have also been observed. In some experi- 
ments only one polar body was extruded, 
and in others neither was formed; upon 
sectioning such eges, it was found that 
either one or both maturation-mitoses take 
place well below the surface and without 
accompanying cytoplasmic division. Cer- 
tain interesting phenomena are associated 
with these unusual processes, to which only 
a reference can be made in this place. 

The formation of large monasters was 
not infrequently observed, the rays appear- 
ing and disappearing rhythmically and the 
chromosomes dividing repeatedly without 
cleavage of the cytoplasm. 

Nuclear division occurring in the absence 
of cytoplasmic division often results in a 
multiplication of chromosomes, which may 
then be gathered into a single giant nucleus 
or grouped on a single giant spindle. 

An endless variety of abnormal cleay- 
ages, similar to those described by others, 
have been observed; such cleavages fre- 
quently lead to the formation of ciliated 
structures, which, however, depart more or 


524 


less widely from normal embryos and 
larve. 

Differentiation of the ege does not oceur 
in the absence of cleavage, and all ciliated 
bodies observed, whether normal or ab- 
normal, possess a cellular structure. 


The Keimbahn of Chrysemys: BENNETT M. 

ALLEN. 

Morphology of Celoplana: J. KF. Assort, 

Washington University. 

Ample material was rediscovered in Ja- 
pan. Careful histological study shows that 
contrary to frequently expressed opinion 
Celoplana has practically no planarian af- 
finities and can not be considered a primi- 
tive form, but rather a highly specialized 
etenophore. The adoption of littoral hab- 
its has produced great divergence from the 
typical organization of ctenophores. On 
the other hand, there are many points of 
structure characteristic of pelagic Cteno- 
phora that are retained in Ow@loplana as 
vestigial structures, apparently useless to 
a crawling animal, but indicating a pelagic 
origin. Among the points worked out in 
Celoplana new to ctenophore morphology 
are the development of respiratory dorsal 
tentacles, the normal sloughing off of di- 
gestive epithelium from the gastric canals 
and a method of origin of the adhesive cells 
of the tentacles at variance with the de- 
scriptions of other investigators. 


The Origin of the Proglottids in the Ces- 
tode Crossobothrium laciniatum: W. C. 
Curtis, University of Missouri. 

The method accepted as the universal 
one by which the proglottids of a cestode 
originate, does not obtain in the species C. 
lacimatum. This cestode, instead of form- 
ing its proglottids by the appearance of 
each new one between the scolex and the 
most anterior proglottid of the chain, 
shows the proglottids originating in the 
following manner: there appear at the pos- 
terior end of the young worm segments 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


which we will term the ‘posterior proglot- 
tids.’ These extend over about the pos- 
terior fourth of the body and arise from 
behind forward after the manner described 
for other cestodes. When about fifty 
such ‘posterior proglottids’ have appeared, 
others, which we will term the ‘anterior 
proglottids,’ begin to develop in the region 
just behind the scolex. These ‘anterior 
proglottids’ appear in the reverse direction 
so that the oldest is the one next to the 
scolex. From this time on the worm is, 
therefore, segmenting from both ends to- 
ward a point somewhat anterior to the 
middle of its length. 

The anterior end produces upwards of 
fifty, the posterior upwards of two hun- 
dred, proglottids before the two meet and 
all sign of the transition from one region 
to the other disappears. 

After reaching such an ‘adult’ condition, 
no more proglottids are formed until the 
ones already in existence have been greatly 
reduced in numbers by the liberation of 
motile proglottids from the posterior end. 
When this reduction has progressed so far 
that the reproductive organs are beginning 
to appear well into the region occupied by 
proglottids which had an anterior origin, 
the part of the worm between the scolex 
and the most anterior proglottid elongates 
into a neck which eventually segments into 
posterior and then into anterior proglottids 
as did the young worm. 

The bearing of these facts upon current 
explanations of the nature of the cestode 
body will be discussed in a forthcoming 
paper. 


Some Observations on Gastropod Nerve 
Cells: W. M. Smatuwoop and GC. G. 
Rogers, Syracuse University. 

This report includes studies on the opis- 
thobranchs, nudibranchs and especially the 
pulmonates, Planorbis and Limar. Many 
cytological observations have already been 


ApRiL 6, 1906.] 


made on the finer structure of invertebrate 
nerve cells, but no one has combined to any 
extent physiological experiments on the 
same animal. So many terms have already 
been proposed for the structures described 
by other writers that no attempt 1s made 
to homologize these several terms. 

In the cytoplasm of Limax and Ham- 
imea there is present in the animal taken 
from its normal habitat a varyimg number 
of lymph spaces which exhibit neither a 
constant shape nor a constant position. In 
some instances the limiting wall of the 
lymph space takes a definite stam, while 
in others there is no indication of a struc- 
ture which we might designate as a wall. 
These lymph spaces in Limax are either 
free from any solid staining bodies or there 
may be as many as a dozen different bodies 
in a single space. To be sure that these 
spaces and bodies were normal character- 
istics of the cytoplasm, the nerve collar was 
dissected from the living snail and indi- 
vidual nerve cells studied. The spaces can 
be seen in the unstaimed living nerve eell, 
but the bodies only when some neutral 
methylene blue is introduced under the 
cover glass. 

The experimental evidence indicates that, 
contrary to the usual observations on nerve 
cells, the nucleus shows no evidence of 
shrinkage. When JLimaxz is stimulated 
until exhausted by induction currents or a 
needle the bodies which are so prominent 
in the unfatigued animal have disappeared. 
In order to ascertain what became of these 
bodies the living nerve cell was mounted 
on a slide between electrodes of platinum 
foil and the alternating current from an 
induction coil was then passed between the 
electrodes. Within a half hour the dark 
bodies began to break down; within an 
hour or an hour and a half they had en- 
tirely disappeared. After a period of rest 
new bodies similar to the old ones again 
appear in the cytoplasm. It seems to us 


SCIENCE. 


525 


highly probable that these bodies are stores 
of energy giving stuff which may be called 
on im emergency to renew the protoplasm 
of the cell. 

The bodies found in Planorbis seem to 
be entirely different from those found in 
Iumax. When Planorbis is fed on chest- 
nuts for a few weeks a large number of 
golden-yellow bodies can be seen in the 
unstained nerve cell accumulated chiefly 
around the base of the axone. These bodies 
do not stain with methylene blue nor dis- 
appear when subjected to an electrical 
stimulus. 

Experiments and analyses are under way 
to determine the nature of these bodies. 


The Nematocysts of Hols: O. C. GLASER, 

University of Michigan. 

The evidence of Wright (758), Grosamor 
(7047) and myself (‘04 and later) that 
the nematocysts in the cerata of Holis are 
derived from cclenterates was reviewed 
and found valid. The adaptiveness of 
these transferred nettling organs, however, 
is not as easily determined as their origin. 
Since they discharge and inflict pain, they 
are as efficient in these respects as before 
ingestion. My observations show, however, 
that despite their great concentration in 
Eolis, they are not as generally effective 
as has been supposed. In combats with its 
own kind, the cerata are attacked directly 
and eaten voraciously. 

When irritated, Holis curls up; the 
cerata project like quills from a porcupine, 
or are cast off by autotomy. An attacking 
fish is certain to fill its mouth with nemato- 
cysts, both because the appendages contain- 
ing them are numerous and because they 
are most conspicuously colored. 

Various fishes behave differently in the 
presence of Holts. The blennie, which lives 
in great numbers on the same hydrids with 
Holts, ordinarily is indifferent to the pres- 
ence of the latter, but when aroused by 


526 


hunger, or another cause, crops the cerata 
until none remain. 

Fundulus at first is excited in the pres- 
ence of Holis, but on longer acquaintance 
will take detached appendages if offered. 
I have never seen a Fundulus repeat this 
act, though it will devour, even after hav- 
ing taken detached cerata, an Holis devoid 
of them. This seems to indicate that the 
colors of the appendages are warning 
colors. 

The elaborate preparations made by the 
enidophore sacs for receiving and storing 
the nematocysts indicate the advantage to 
Eolis of ridding itself of these structures. 
Probably their use as weapons, in cases in 
which they so serve, is secondary and acci- 
dental, the real and original function of 
the enidophore sacs being the elimination 
of the nematocysts. 


The Sense Organ of the Bill and Lateral 
Line of Polyodon Spathula: Henry F. 
Nacutries, University of Minnesota. 


Correlated Abnormalities in the Scutes and 
Bony Plates of Chelona: H. H. New- 
MAN, University of Michigan. 

An examination of the carapaces of large 
numbers of Graptemys geographica and 
Chrysemys marginata show that there is 
always a precise correlation of supernu- 
merary or deficient scutes and plates of the 
marginal series. In the neural series corre- 
lation is frequent between extra procaudal 
plates and the supernumerary scutes of 
that region. 

No correlated abnormalities were found 
in connection with the true neural or costal 
plates which are produced by periosteal 
expansions of the ribs and neural spines of 
the vertebre. 

Correlations occur only in regions where 
plates of dermal origin exist—in the mar- 
ginal and procaudal regions. This may be 
used as evidence in support of the theory 
that there existed at one time a dermal 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 588. 


carapace composed of tubercular or flat- 
tened chitinous elements (scutes) with 
cores or supports of dermal bone. The 
rapid secondary expansion of ribs and 
neural spines rendered these dermal bony 
supports superfluous in the large central 
portion of the carapace, but in other re- 
gions they persisted as the marginal, 
nuchal, procaudal and pygal plates. 

In these regions, then, we should not be 
surprised to find correlated recurrences of 
lost scutes and plates, since a genetic con- 
nection exists. The procaudal and pygal 
plates are distinctly in serial homology 
with the dorsal processes of the tail of 
Chelydra, leading to the belief that such 
processes at one time extended much fur- 
ther forward. 4 

Vestiges of dermal bones in the mid- 
neural region of the carapace were found 
in Graptemys in just the places where they 
would be expected—beneath the keels of 
the second, third and fourth neural scutes. 
A considerabie amount of additional evi- 
dence in support of this view will appear 
in a paper now in press. 


The Production and Control of Infertility 
by Inbreeding: W. J. MomnKHAus, Uni- 
versity of Indiana. 


The Direction of Differentiation m a 
Regenerating Appendage: CHARLES 
ZELENY, University of Indiana. 

The problem of the direction of differ- 
entiation in a regenerating appendage was 
studied in the antennule of the common 
brook sow-bug, Asellus, which is excep- 
tionally favorable because of striking and 
constant differences in the segments. It 
was found that the visible differentiation 
starts at the basal and terminal ends and 
proceeds toward the middle of the regen- 
erating tissue. The basal differentiation, 
however, appears slightly in advance of the 
terminal one. 


Aprit 6, 1906.] 


The Regeneration of an Antenna-like Or- 
gan in place of the Vestigial Eye of the 
Blind Crayfish: Cuarues ZELENY, Uni- 
versity of Indiana. 

In the blind erayfish (Cambarus pel- 
lucidus test) the eyes have become degen- 
erated to such an extent as to be perfectly 
functionless. The retinal structures if 
present at all are represented merely by a 
few small groups of granular cells. The 
right eye-stalk was removed in nine speci- 
mens of this crayfish. Three lived for a 
year after the operation. One of these 
regenerated an antenna-like organ in place 
of the removed eye-stalk. The new organ 
is segmented and the terminal half is cov- 
ered with tactile hairs. All appearances 
point toward the supposition that the organ 
is a functional one and its function is prob- 
ably tactile in character. The instance, 
therefore, represents a case of the regen- 
eration of a functional organ to replace a 
removed non-functional one. 


The Young of Scutigerella immaculata: 

S. R. Wiuu1ams, Miami University. 

A Scutigerella, ‘which had remained 
quiescent for ten days beneath a glass 
slide (in a bubble of air) in a stender dish, 
laid eight eggs on May 25, 1904. 

She remained with the eggs continuously 
until they hatched on June 6. June 7 
one was removed. It proved to have six 
pairs of legs, as was previously stated to be 
the probability at the St. Louis meeting of 
the Association for the Advancement of 
‘Science. 

The disturbance of the nest caused the 
- mother to desert the remaining young and 


by the morning of the following day these ' 


had all disappeared. It is practically cer- 
tain that they were eaten by the other 
Scutigerellas in the stender dish. 


The San Diego Marine Biological Associa- 
tion and its Work: C. C. Nurrine, Uni- 
versity of Iowa. 


SCIENCE. 


527 


Some Points on the Habits and Anatomy of 
Placobdella Pediculata, N. Sp.: Henry 
F. Nacutries, University of Minnesota. 


An Ecological Survey of Isle Royal, Lake 
Swperior: Cuas. G. ApaAms, University of 
Michigan. 


The Pearl Organs and Spawning Behavior 
of American Suckers and Minnows and 
their Bearing upon Current Theories of 
the Origin of Secondary Sexual Charac- 
ters: J. ReIiG@HARD, University of Michi- 
gan. 


Some felations of Protozoa to Certain 
Tons wn their Medium: A. W. PETERS 
and M. H. Rens, University of Illinois. 
In one series of experiments the resist- 

ance of Paramecia to low concentrations 

of H and OH ions was tested by keeping 
the animals in media consisting of pure 
salt solutions made to contain a serial range 
of known concentrations of H and OH ions. 

Tests were also made with distilled water. 

No food or other organic matter was pres- 

ent in any of these media. The numerical 

results showed a greater resistance in the 

OH than in the H media. In another 

series of experiments further tests upon 

the resistance of Paramecium and Colpid- 
wm to H and OH ions were made under 
conditions as nearly natural as possible. 

The original nutritive media were sub- 

jected to quantitative chemical and phys- 

ical examination and in different portions 
of these media a serial range of concentra- 
tions in H and OH was produced and also 
quantitatively estimated. The animals 
having lived for twenty-four hours or 
longer in media so prepared, were sub- 
jected in the same media to instantaneous 
killing tests, one of which consisted of pure 

HCl, the other of HC1+ NaCl. The least 

gram ionic concentration of H which killed 

instantly was accurately determined and 
was taken as the measure of resistance. 

Curves representing all the results show 


528 


that the animals that have lived in media 

containing OH ions have a lower resistance 
to HCl than the animals that have lived in 
media containing H ions. Colpidia have 
a higher resistance than Paramecia, for 
both H and OH media. The HCl + NaCl 
solution has a greater effect on both Para- 
mecium and Colpidiwm than the same con- 
centration of HCl used alone would have. 
Experiments here made show that the NaCl 
used alone is physiologically favorable. 
The increased effect when both are used is 
due to greater gram ionic concentration of 
H which would be expected in the mixed 
solutions in accordance with conductivity 
measurements of Lincoln and of Jones and 
Knight. 


Phagocytosis in a Mammalian Embryo: 
M. M. Mercaur, Oberlin College. 

On the Réle of the Substantia reticularis 
in the Evolution of the Vertebrate Brawn: 
J. B. Jounston, University of West 
Virginia. 


The vertebrate nervous system consists 


of somatic sensory, visceral sensory, somatic 
motor and visceral motor divisions. Each 
of these divisions is represented by central 
and peripheral structures in each segment 
of the head and trunk, except where the 
organs to be innervated are wanting. The 
central portion of each division constitutes 
a continuous zone or column in the spinal 
cord and _ brain. These longitudinal 
columns are the fundamental divisions of 
the central nervous system. In addition 
to these there are in the central system 
numerous cells which are left over after 
the four main columns are differentiated. 
These cells serve functions of connection 
and correlation between the four columns 
and between distant segments of the cen- 
tral system, and constitute the substantia 
reticularis grisea. The cells of the sub- 
stantia reticularis are indifferently scat- 
tered throughout the four divisions, and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


when one or other division is absent they 
form the whole gray matter in its place. 

The very important réle which this sub- 
stance plays in the formation of higher 
brain centers is illustrated by the gustatory 
and olfactory centers and by the evolution 
of the cerebral hemispheres. The gusta- 
tory central apparatus in fishes includes a 
secondary nucleus in the cerebellar seg- 
ment and a tertiary nucleus in the inferior 
lobes of the diencephalon. Both of these 
are probably differentiated from the sub- 
stantia reticularis occupying the primitive 
visceral sensory zone. The relations of 
these structures in fishes should serve as a 
euide in discovering the gustatory centers 
in man. ‘The olfactory apparatus has sec- 
ondary nuclei in the forebrain and tertiary 
nuclei in the inferior lobes and in the nuclei 
habenule of the diencephalon. These 
tertiary centers belong to successive neuro- 
meres of the primitive brain and to the 
same chief zone. The cerebral cortex comes 
from two sources. ‘The one is the visceral 
substantia reticularis called epistriatum in 
lower fishes, which forms the hippocampus. 
The other is an unknown starting point 
possibly identical with the center of the NV. 
terminalis in fishes, which forms the gen- 
eral pallium whose functions are primarily 
the direction of actions with reference to 
the outside world. 


A New Form of Cutter for Wax Plates: HE. 

L. Marx, Harvard University. 

An Oil-Immersion Paraffine Bath: GEORGE 

Lereyre, University of Missouri. 

A paraffine-bath was described which has 
been designed upon a new principle. Hach 
cup or vessel used for holding paraffine is 
suspended in a well containing oil, which 
is, therefore, in contact with the sides and 
bottom of the vessel. By the application 
of heat through the mantle of oil, a uni- 
form temperature throughout the paraffine 
is obtained, and, owing to the low con- 


Aprit 6, 1906.] 

ductivity of the oil, the surface of the 
paraffine may be exposed to the air indefi- 
nitely without congealing; and, further- 
more, since a film of warm oil adheres to 
the outside of the vessel when the latter is 
taken from the well, the paraffine remains 
melted off the bath for a considerably 
longer time than it does without this pro- 
tection, thus making possible a much more 
leisurely process of embedding. 

The advantage of immersing the vessel 
in oil is especially conspicuous in embed- 
ding free, minute objects, like small eggs, 
which have been saturated with paraffine 
while contained in glass vials and which 
must be handled by means of a pipette. 

The oil which has been usually employed 
in the bath has been olive oil. 


A Case of Dibothrocephalus latus Infection 
Acquired in America (Minnesota): W. 
S. Nickerson, University of Minnesota. 
The author reports the first known in- 

stance of locally acquired infection by the 

broad human tapeworm. A Finnish child, 
born in Minnesota, which had never fed 

upon imported fish of any kind, passed a 

specimen of Dibothrocephalus latus seven 

feet in length. Since infection from this 
worm can take place, so far as known, only 
from eating fresh-water fish that are in- 
fested with the larval form (plerocercoid), 
it is practically certain that American 
fishes have become the hosts of this para- 
site. In endeavoring to account for this 
condition the author suggests that the sew- 
age from cities with a large foreign popula- 
tion may be sufficient to furnish the re- 
quired infection of the intermediate host. 

Since at least ten Huropean species of fish 

serve in this capacity, it is not unreasonable 

to conclude that there would be found in 
this country some forms in which the larvz 
of the worm would thrive. 


C. E. McCiune, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


529 


TOWN AND GOWN. 

On an old French sun-dial is a motto to 
this effect: All passes in time and time it- 
self; but eternity does not, nor love. This 
last is the permanent thing, in which the 
universe and human society are founded. 
So these hundred and fifty years of our 
university, just past, being as they were 
but a moment in the morning of its life, 
compel us to look not backward, but at the 
present and the future. The Greek fool 
who ran so far to get a start that he could 
not Jump when he reached the mark is per- 
haps a symbol of some university men who 
spend their lives in preparing to live; but 
not of the university itself, which renews 
its strength in action and endures forever, 
if true to itself. Founded in faith and de- 
voted to liberal learning, Columbia has suc- 
cessively welcomed faculties of the learned 
professions and faculties of natural and 
applied science, fearless, persistent, ageres- 
sive. The boughs rival the trunk; action 
and reaction develop a wholesome struggle; 
the air hereabouts is keen and sometimes 
both tense and tumultuous. We have not 
merely renewed our youth, we have trans- 
formed ourselves and start afresh. 

Among the questions of our new morn- 
ing is this: Have we a new conscience 
and what about the moral sense of our 
community? For example, certain trade- 
marks have a high commercial value. 
Such an one is the bachelor of arts. Its 
chief renown, however, is intellectual and 
social. The reason is that for ages it con- 
noted a certain training. Those who held 
it have been the heirs of human experience ; 
they have understood the continuity of 
thought, the organic nature of society and 
its institutions, the value of order and pro- 
portion, the charms of faney and imagina- 
tion, the interpretation of the past for use in 
the present and future. From them comes 
the birthright because among them were 


* Address at the opening exercises of Columbia 
University, 1905. 


530 


the kings of thought 
Who waged contention with their time’s decay 
And of the past are all that cannot pass away. 


Somewhat more than a generation since, 
the cry arose for a training in the science 
of nature equally thorough with that in the 
sciences of man. The call was heeded be- 
cause it was Just. The machinery of scien- 
tific education was set in motion, and for 
nearly forty years the munificence of the 
American world has lavished untold wealth 
to improve it. Never was a movement bet- 
ter adapted to the humor of the time and 
to the designed end. The brand to be put 
on its product was either a technical degree 
or the newly invented bachelor of science. 
The world of to-day is grateful to the men 
who hold those proud and honest degrees. 
To them the world is indebted for ineal- 
culable well-being, and Columbia is proud 
of those she numbers among her children. 
The liberal elements she inspired and in- 
fused into their scientific training gave life 
to inert things and related matter to mind. 

The spread of this education has been 
so rapid and its work so fruitful that its 
quality has been misjudged; unfortunate 
comparisons have been instituted; and at 
last the specious effort is making, here and 
elsewhere, to erase the name of science 
from the label. The hue and ery has gone 
up that so much work on any material is 
as valuable as the same amount on any 
other. If this were true, what a dull mo- 
notony would life and nature be! What 
is really meant is, however, even worse; 
because it is not merely untrue, but mis- 
leading. It is the demagogue’s claptrap and 
soft-sawder, that all work and all subjects 
and,all men are equal and identical and 
are to be designated by the same badge. 
If this really indicates the state of our 
minds, it is time for self-examination. The 
evolution which has brought us to this is 
strange indeed and the situation is so new 
and anomalous that the relation of Colum- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


bia to her home, the duty of the University 
to the City, the service which Gown may 
render to Town, suddenly loom up, not 
as vague, intangible matters, but as con-. 
erete realities of the first importance. 
Where and when was there an imperial 
city so heterogeneous in population, with 
the masses in absolute control through the 
free ballot, with equal rights of every sort 
guaranteed and enforced by the nation, 
with ignorant and unskilled mechanics in 
charge of the most delicate and complex 
social machine hitherto devised—an organ- 
ism which has been the evolution of cen- 
turies, the frail heir of the past, the an- 
cestor of ages yet to come? The reaction 
of the university and its environment 
under such conditions must be something 
powerful for untold weal or woe to mil- 
lions. Let us not be blind fatalists; the 
battle is to the strong. Our example is 
just as subtle and our responsibility just 
as great, as is the moral force of this 
anomalous aggregation of mankind upon 
us. What we do in our own affairs may 
change the course of empire; and if we say 
that white is black, that the potter is the 
clay, that one sort of training is identical 
with another, and so on through the whole 
weary round of quibbles and evasions, we 
stultify ourselves and lead our blind fol- 
lowers into the ditch. Is it for this we 
have renewed our youth? Are these great 
throngs of students, is this great com- 
munity, to learn such lessons, far more im- 
portant than the learning of the schools? 
Does the outward splendor of this acropolis 
house faculties and professors who change 
with the winds of doctrine that blow from 
off the broad expanses of untilled social 
alluvium around what ought to be our 
mountain of sacrifice? Certainly not; our 
opportunity to till these fertile fields is 
almost too splendid, if we can seize it. 
Here is the Orient, projected into the 
West; the earliest and the latest Hast, un- 


Aprit 6, 1906.] 


changed and unchanging in its own lands, 
thrown into a society whose highest ambi- 
tion is change. The Jew, the Levantine, 
the Mongolian; these are all here in a 
countless host with all their virtues and all 
their faults. In seinen Gottern malt sich 
der Mensch. Their religion is their all; 
their jurisprudence, their politics, their 
morals. If they lose their awe, their trust, 
their national cult, their lords of battle, 
their great prophets—what do we give 
them instead, bread or a stone? Here is 
not only the ancient world, but the middle 
age; a political feudalism, a social hier- 
archy, almost as perfect as those of the 
thirteenth century; a medieval church in 
unsurpassed majesty, festivals of an age- 
worn ereed and system that vie with our 
national holidays and even surpass them in 
the interest of the celebrants. And thirdly, 
in regard to numbers at least, we have to 
search with a lantern for the Dutchman, 
the Huguenot, and the Briton, Hnelish, 
Scotch or Irish, who were once in control 
of this metropolis. But they can be found, 
few as they are; they are here-and in 
power; responsible still for the moral 
standards which guide this civic life; re- 
sponsible too for the immorality that 
seethes beneath the surface of commercial 
life, responsible, let us hope, for the lance 
and probe which open the periodic sores of 
both to the healing light of day and airs of 
heaven. 

How are we to perform our réle, to do 
our imperative duty, in the midst of this 
amazing congeries of unrelated parts? 
How are we to reap the rich harvest which 
may be garnered for ourselves and for hu- 
manity in this the most fertile social field 
ever enclosed? The mixed races of the 
world have been its conquerors. What 
Greece devised, Rome, that imperial com- 
pound of Latin, Celtic, German and Ori- 
ental ingredients, imposed by force on the 
then known world. Another mixed race, 


SCIENCE. 


531 


the Turks, overwhelmed Byzantium; and 
in the Western Empire, the blend of Angles, 
Saxons, Jutes, Danes and Celts, a mingled 
drift flung afar on the rocky confines of 
Gaul and Britain, established its sway, dis- 
seminating the heritage of Rome, Christian 
and Pagan, to the ends of the earth. So 
we, in turn, a still more wondrous con- 
glomerate of all peoples, nations and lan- 
guages that dwell upon the earth, may 
grasp a still larger inheritance, and in our 
turn transmit it to all mankind; the United 
States of the world. 

In Lessing’s great dialogue on free-ma- ~ 
sonry, he shows how every individual man 
has secrets and aspirations which he ean not 
reveal, even if he would. Those on which 
he touches are largely political and belong 
fortunately to history. But, for a familiar 
example, here is the mystery of our very 
being. Do we really exist or are we phan- 
tasms? We can prove nothing absolutely, 
one way or another; but for all that we do 
exist, we do live and think; and we behave 
according to that conviction. Where is the 
proof of sense-perception? Yet we do per- 
ceive; and behave accordingly. What can 
we know? Nothing absolutely, perhaps, 
but something, even though relatively, 
something actually, because we conduct 
ourselves according to convictions based on 
reality, as the test of action proves. Man 
ean not live without political organization, 
yet it is the bloody struggles of states that 
destroy men, physically and morally, as 
does no other cause. We have discarded 
the doctrine of races as unscientific; yet 
race-strugele is an uppermost question im 
the mind of every serious man. By an- 
alogy with these instances, university theo- 
ries and ideals reduce themselves when 
carefully considered to matters of conduct, — 
to an attitude of mind and a course of be- 
havior. Theories and ideals, much vaunted 
as they are, seem very unreal and elusive; 
morals are concrete and vitally important. 


5382 


The hour for discussion, profession and ex- 
periment has passed, our works must now 
speak for us. 

Far and near throughout the country 
this university morality, this mental pose 
and whatsoever proceeds from it, have in a 
high degree displaced the older sanctions 
and been erected into a sort of cult. This 
will prove a disaster, unless we are most 
conservative. Our standards, though not 
very precise as yet, are very genuine and 
very real. As yet, too, they have en- 
grossed attention from the inner eirele 
only, and have not engaged the eritical at- 
tention of the great world. But the tran- 
sition is on us and is beginning; here we 
stand. We make our appeal for support 
in the new era, no longer to sympathetic 
friends alone, but to all givers—to the com- 
munity, for money and for sympathy. 
The community asks: what do you want it 
for? Because of the service we render. 
And, pray, what is the service? We fur- 
nish the best citizens. Is that so sure? 
Many worshipers of the main chance are 
university men. We advance knowledge: 
Give the items. We mould opinion: That 
is an open question. And so on, and so on. 
On all these points we can offer proof and 
make a stand; but the proof is not con- 
vineing to every one. We are compelled to 
go further back and state our principles; to 
say, what we exist for is the maintenance 
of standards; the service we render is the 
ereation of ideals by faith and sympathy, 
and, far above this, the practice of what 
we profess, the realization of those ideals 
in education, citizenship, politics and reli- 
gion. Our banner is a tricolor and its 
stripes are three: firmness, tolerance and 
temperance. 

No wonder that men worship at the 
shrine of natural science. Before and 
since Pilate, men have been asking: What 
is truth? As the world understands it, 
selence professes to tell us first that the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIIT. No. 588. 


search is vain, there is no absolute truth; 
and secondly, that what relative truth 
there is, she alone has discovered and of it 
she is the sole guardian. This is a proud 
claim, and science, like many men, has been 
largely taken at her own estimate of her- 
self; especially since by her means the face 
of nature has, within a century, been 
changed more than in all the centuries pre- 
ceding taken together. Especially since 
further, the man of science, fearless, daunt- 
less, adventurous, self-confident, steps forth 
with an imperious demand for leadership. 
Faith and ideals seem to be hollow terms in 
his ears: reality, investigation, knowledge, 
utility, these are the staple terms of his 
vocabulary. Yet his firmness is not that of 
which we speak and for which we plead, or 
at least not all of it, nor even much of it. 
In no period known to me, throughout the 
course of history, has the ‘cocksureness of 
science’ aroused such antagonism. Just in 
proportion as it has seemed to say: all truth 
is relative and material, the common soul 
has eried louder for pity, for sympathy, for 
balm in suffermg and for the sustenance 
of love. Never have we known such a re- 
erudescenee of superstition, nor a longer 
catalogue of mysteries, each and all protests 
against the limitations of natural science 
and its scanty supply of food for the soul. 
A starved soul is, as the Romans thought, 
a malignant ghost, the most dangerous dis- 
turber of the public peace. When fed on 
negations, or on materialism, or on any 
husks which human experience has long 
since rejected, the natural, kindly, human 
mind becomes either a credulous dupe or 
a wolfish freebooter. Both sorts abound 
among us in dangerous proportions. 

This, I suppose, is what my predecessor 
on this stage intended, when he wittily di- 
vided the field of knowledge into humani- 
ties and inhumanities. If I caught his idea, 
I ean not altogether agree, for the con- 
trast is not so alarming as that. One with- 


Apri 6, 1906.] 


out the other is like bread without salt, and 
both are necessary to a wholesome intel- 
lectual diet. The heart-searchings and 
modesty of the great souls in science are 
unknown to the world. The leaders need 
interpreters. The cocksureness of science 
is its danger; to be cocksure of different 
things at such short intervals does not in- 
spire confidence in the conclusions, which 
have to be adjusted accordingly. It is the 
admixture of scientific research and the 
historical sciences—philosophy, philology 
and politics—that will produce the type of 
assurance which properly characterizes the 
university spirit. Here stands either a 
pharos or a wrecker’s beacon; do we cast 
athwart the storm a broad beam of firm- 
ness in maintaining tried and tested ex- 
pedients of life; or does a sputtering arc- 
light of novelty gather the moths and gnats 
to wonder and stare and perish? 

“ Aurum accepisti,’ said Vincent of Le- 
rino, ‘awrum redde.’ Ages ago the stand- 
ard yardstick was deposited in the Tower 
of London. It is, if you like, a clumsy, 
arbitrary standard; but it has kept order 
in the affairs of millions, generation after 
generation. Its value is in its perma- 
nence: fixed, true and immutable, though 
imperfect as other mundane things are, it 
has been an invaluable guide and has not 
been superseded, because nothing better has 
been found for homely daily use. So with 
the value of other standards and measures; 
their value is partly in their accuracy, but 
far more in their homely honesty, their 
maintenance of an intelligible and familiar 
standard. Some may desire for excellent 
reasons to substitute the meter for the 
yard, but no one has suggested that the 
yard be called a meter or the meter a yard. 
If the public desires one and rejects the 
other, very well; but it will have no jug- 
gling with the name. 

Like other living organisms, Columbia 
needs new resources every day and hour. 


SCIENCE. 533 


She was richly endowed for certain definite 
purposes by the founders; the deposit she 
received from them of learning, of morality 
and of religion, she must guard as talents 
entrusted to her by her master; and, like 
the faithful servant, she must win there- 
with other five. In the painstaking per- 
formance of this duty she has appeared to 
the thoughtless quidnunes to be a very 
weather-cock of public fickleness, sensitive 
to public clamor in the never-ceasing adap- 
tation of her course of study to public 
demands, a sort of department store of 
knowledge, with wares for every customer. 
It is estimated that even now by the doc- 
trine of permutations and commutations 
and probabilities, we should be compelled 
to take fifteen thousand bachelors of art in 
order to find two who had done the same 
work for that degree. 

Many wonder whether we do not respond 
too easily to the zephyrs of novelty blown 
every hour from off the Mars Hill of edu- 
cation in the American Athens. The idea 
is baseless. It is but fair to ourselves and 
our great community to announce from the 
housetop that, after three years of stock- 
taking and careful analysis of all the re- 
sults of our experiments, we have reached 
a decision as to the meaning and nature of 
our degrees which shows us still fixed on 
the rock of our inheritance, accepting the 
old responsibilities as well as the new and 
performing the duties they entail. In this 
we want, as we believe we have, the en- 
thusiastie support of all intelligent New 
Yorkers. Our society is not asking for 
revolutions or devolutions, but demands 
just such a trained leadership, bold and 
steady, loyal to tradition and history. The. 
latest arrival among us is proud of the 
city’s past and eager to catch its spirit. 

And tolerance! What does this mean 
and how are we to exercise it? Does a 
tolerant spirit mean an indifferent one? 
Specialization and devotion mark the great 


534 


men of the age. Bismarck was a narrow 
person, a Pomeranian squire; Tennyson 
was a devoted man, a Victorian Briton; 
Lincoln was a Kentucky frontiersman, and 
Gladstone a devout Scotch boy with a pas- 
sion, not for the British empire, but for 
Britain within the four seas. Moreover, 
one and all, they changed but little, keep- 
ing their character and standpoint to the 
end. It was by the leverage of their in- 
tense personality that they moved the 
world of the nineteenth century. But 
from the impregnable fortress of their 
convictions their outlook was sympathetic, 
and such prejudice as they began with 
gradually yielded to the catholic temper 
which made them world-heroes. Religious 
tolerance is an anachronism in the noon- 
time of complete religious liberty. Is this 
equally true of race and social tolerance in 
a world of full civil and political liberty? 
Alas, no. Close association with Ameri- 
cans of the old stock, with those of the 
newer stock and with the latest throng of 
eastern immigrants—either personal ex- 
perience or the best evidence proves the 
existence of a sorry bigotry and fanaticism. 
Tn this, Columbia has had and can have no 
share. An examination of our statistics 
shows how accurately our students and 
graduates are proportioned among the race 
and denominational elements of the great 
town and greater country. Let it be our 
purpose to banish prejudice and so to reap 
from the ripe harvest field at our door, for 
the benefit of the whole community, the 
fruits of the known world; from the 
Orient, ever old and ever new, its repose, 
its simplicity, its sense of unity, its mm- 
perious permanence; from medievalism its 
chivalry, its order, its trusting faith and its 
imperial sway; from modern Protestant- 
ism its free spirit and critical temper, its 
political and legal instinct, its powers of 
administration and disciplinary self-re- 
straint. With such an ideal, we may be 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588; 


true to ourselves, keep academic peace with 
honor, command a catholic support and 
press onward to the goal of complete effi- 
ciency. 

It might seem as if firmness and toler- 
ance were incompatible virtues; to the 
stern logician they are, but in the moral 
order they are not. There is a sister grace 
which, though a third and separate one, 
enfolds and harmonizes the other two: 


the grace of moderation, temperance, 
patience. As the pure reason and the 
judgment, though equally potent and 


almost antipodal in their workings, are 
united in the mind by a faculty higher 
than both, viz., the practical reason, just 
so the moral force of temperance combines 
constancy and meekness into the very 
foundation of society. Not far from here 
is the home of reckless avarice, of self-in- 
dulgent greed. As long as the millions toil 
and save, the enormous aggregate of their 
economies will tempt the adventurous and 
the unscrupulous. Just so long must mod- 
eration be preached and practised by all 
who claim that mere mass and numbers 
count nothmg beside contentment-and the 
resources of a trained mind; the mind 
which, in Macaulay’s definition of educa- 
tion, has acquired self-knowledge, accuracy 
and habits of strong intellectual exertion. 
Think of the door wide open before men so 
equipped! Of the grain nodding and 
drooping for the sickle! In one pivotal, 
fundamental point every human being of 
our island-city becomes an American, 
almost in the twinkling of an eye. Ration- 
ally or instinctively, every soul is aware 
that his civil and political rights in this 
commonweath are inherent in his own man- 
hood, not a matter of inheritance or of 
privilege either bought or granted from 
above. They are not the gift of ancestry 
or the grant of organized society, but the 
term and mode of life itself. 

Equality? no, except in opportunity; 


eer > 


ApriL 6, 1906.] 


fraternity? only in embryo, and in prin- 
ciple as yet; liberty? yes, with only the 
effort of emancipation from old-world 
thraldom and old-world, old-time preju- 
dice. The conflict is hard, there are fierce 
lions on the path, the road is rough and 


‘steep. But courage! the devil of feudalism 


is dying, the student and the scholar mean 
to keep watch and ward, to fight if need be 
for the right. The struggle for social and 
economic liberty is quite as grand as that 
for political independence or liberty, and 
in it the meanest sweatshop worker or 
humblest day laborer acquires the dignity 
of his standard, narrow and selfish as his 
personal motive may be. Moreover, he 
knows his chance, slight as it appears; 
though the morning sun may never rise 
full on the plodding recruit, yet its strug- 
sling beams are rays of hope, and if he 
perish it will be in the dawn, with his face 
heavenward, and with the full assurance 
that his children may stand before kings. 
This and only this is the reason for our na- 
tional and civie existence. There is truth 
in Hume’s contention that all the king’s 
state, his armies and fleets, his offices and 
treasuries, all the paraphernalia of govern- 
ment, existed only to get twelve good men 
into the box, and enforce their decision. Is 
our property to be safe? be just to the mil- 
lions; are our lives to be secure? give the 
common man his chance; is education to 
thrive? share it with all. Open every door 
to every career. 

In other words, let the university set up 
its standards and maintain them; let it 
conquer, not by the rude force of assertion 
nor by the leverage of society, commerce 
and athletics, but by the soft influences of 
precept and example, of tolerance, patience 
and endurance. Only with regard to tem- 
perance and moderation must there be an 
imperious voice. Among the doctrines of 
natural science which have become winged 
words is ‘the struggle of life.’ It is true 


SCIENCE. 535 


as the law of unregenerate nature ; so is the 
practise of gluttony, luxury and idleness. 
But no discipline has been so untrue to it- 
self as science in this regard; witness its 
untiring efforts in medicine, penology and 
philanthropy generally, to preserve and 
save the unfit in their struggle for exist- 
ence, when by its own profession it is 
exactly these classes who ought to perish 
from off the face of the earth. It is in this 
law of regenerate nature, in this super- 
natural and moral law of moderation and 
contentment, that the equal chance to all 
may be secured. A fair field and no favor 
is all that the toiling millions ask. This 
moderation is not, as many seem to think, a 
structural ornament of our social edifice. 
It is the cornerstone of the building; the 
university which hews and lays it truest is 
the architect of a temple, not merely fair 
without, but solid and foursquare like the 
walls of the new Jerusalem in the Apoc- 
alypse. 

There is no finer definition of hfe than 
that it is the reciprocal interchange of re- 
lations. In this exchange the university 
attitude must be neither conventional nor 
artificial. To combine the fixed mainte- 
nance of undeviating standards with toler- 
ance and self-sacrifice, we must be ever 
alert, adroit and versatile. The habit of 
the community must not enchain us, nor its 
fickleness divert us. The university man 
in the professions must be aggressively 
honest, intellectually as well as otherwise; 
in citizenship he must be watchful, un- 
selfish and unsparing; and above all else in 
commercial life he must be temperate and 
self-denying. The extremes of shallow op- 
timism and hopeless pessimism are the 
Seylla and Charybdis of university life, of 
university character; we must keep the 
middle course or we stultify ourselves. 
The excuse of legality must not be the de- 
fense of our dealings, nor the taint of ex- 
pediency rest on our honors and degrees. 


536 


Columbia must open wide the flood gates of 
Imowledge, but it must not sully the 
stream of education. It must be no mere 
department store for the delivery of intel- 
lectual commodities; there are bargain- 
counters for that elsewhere. Graduate or 
undergraduate, liberal or professional, 
male or female, every holder of a Columbia 
degree must be stamped with a hallmark of 
genuineness; must be sterling, or at least 
exactly as represented, if we are to serve 
the community which maintains and sup- 
ports us. 

Finally, though our task be a very hard 
task indeed, the hardest of all tasks, the 
task of setting a good example, let us still 
take courage. The history of our country 
is not one of degeneracy from noble origins. 
We are not like the potato, with the best of 
us underground. Just as our tasks have 
become more and more complicated and 
our responsibility heavier and heavier, our 
wits have grown keener and our shoulders 
broader. Never yet have we shirked when 
Apollyon offered us battle. Sound money, 
the civil service, the emancipation of the 
slave; these are some of the problems which 
the fathers bequeathed and we solved. 
Our Anglo-Saxon universities have made 
the new Japan, the new Egypt, the new 
Balkan kingdoms; at least their makers 
were men with the inspiration of either 
English or American universities—and 
other men of like training seemed destined 
to regenerate the whole Orient. At home 
the great offices in church, state and in- 
dustry are held in the main by those who 
are trained to the flexibility of the univer- 
sity mind, men who, with the few excep- 
tions which emphasize the rule, practise at 
the same time the firmness, toleration and 
moderation which have been our theme. 
What others have done and are now doing 
we may do in even higher measure; but 
only by keeping the fountain pure. If we 
are to deliver to New Yorkers the goods 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 588. 


which New Yorkers need, we must not 
stand nor recede, but improve both the 
quantity and the quality; we must make 
them attractive and trustworthy; we must 
label them as they are; and as we succeed 
or fail, we show our viability or our un- 
fitness. 
Platitudes are a stumbling block to the 
shallow novelty hunter, and axioms are a 
weariness to the multitude; but to the 
earnest they are the renewal of wisdom 
every morning; they rekindle and illu- 
minate the common sense of humanity 
which at times burns very low. Those 
which we have considered are among the 
most helpful. Three things are vain in our 
university life: faith without works, mo- 
rality without religion, and precept with- 
out example. All our investigating and 
teaching and professing; all our sapience 
and assurance and mannerisms, will go for 
naught without a labor which is worship, 
a sympathy which is self-denial, and per- 
manent standards which we adopt only for 
the better realization of the ideals which 
they express. Complexity without con- 
fusion is essential to high living; the won- 
derful organism of Columbia seems made 
for the task of harmonizing the discords in 
its urban home. : 
WinulAM MILLIGAN SLOANE. 


THE ORGANIZATION OF UNIVERSITY 
GOVERNMENT. 

THE ideals and methods of university 
government have received considerable at- 
tention of late, stimulated by the recent 
discussions at the Conference of University 
Trustees at University of Illinois. There 
have been several able presentations of dif- 
ferent points of view respecting the rela- 
tive functions of trustees, president and 
faculty in the control of the university. 


From these discussions it would appear that 


while the responsibility for financial and 
legal affairs, and, in certain emergencies, 


Aprin 6, 1906.] 


for other matters of university administra- 
tion must rest with the trustees, the general 
policy of development and administration 
should lie with the president and faculty. 
As to the relative shares which should be- 
long to the president and the faculty there 
were developed decided differences of opin- 
ion, some, as ex-President Draper, stand- 
ing for the policy of selecting a wise and 
strong president and entrusting him with 
the entire responsibility of the policy and 
administration, and others, as President 
Pritchett, favoring a policy of control by 
the faculty, relegating the president to a 
position of more limited authority. Cer- 
tain facts may be considered as fairly es- 
tablished by the consensus of opinion of ex- 
perts. 

First. The trustees, usually men of 
affairs devoting but a limited portion of 
their time to university administration, are 
not often and can not often be experts in 
academie administration. While their 
education and experience may make them 
appreciative of the aims of university edu- 
eation, and may qualify them to administer 
wisely the financial and legal business of 
the wniversity, their experience in univer- 
sity administration does not qualify them 
to conduct the internal administration nor 
the educational aims of the university. 

Second. The faculty and the president, 
if he is, as he always should be, a univer- 
sity scholar of experience, are the real ex- 
perts in educational policy and internal 
administration. They are selected because 
of their ability as scholars and educators 
and their whole attention and experience 
are given to the profession. They know, 
aS no trustees can know, the needs and 
internal conditions of the university. 

Third. It seems to be quite generally 
admitted that a strong, wise and experi- 
enced president with authority centered in 
his control is the most powerful agent for 


SCIENCE. 


537 


the effective growth and development of 
the university. 

The problem, then, is how to preserve a 
proper balance of power between trustees, 
president and faculty so that all three fac- 
tors shall most effectively cooperate for the 
material and intellectual development of 
the university, how to preserve the energy 
and initiative of the strong president, to 
utilize the administrative experience of 
trustees and the expert knowledge and ex- 
perience of the faculty. 

There is experience to justify the opinion 
that when trustees assume to manage the 
university and to control the policy of 
president and faculty, disorganization and 
weakness result. There is experience also 
to justify the opinion that a faculty uncon- 
trolled by a strong guiding hand is not an 
effective governing body and that eventu- 
ally control is assumed by the trustees or 
the president selected by them. This is 
particularly true with respect to such regu- 
lation of the personnel of the teaching force 
as 1s necessary to preserve a proper eftect- 
iveness and proportion in university devel- 
opment. Among other reasons for this are 
the fact that there is a divided responsi- 
bility, and a ‘professorial courtesy’ which 
stand in the way of needed reforms, and a 
dislike to take the initiative in personal 
discriminations which are sometimes neces- 
sary. 

The most successful university adminis- 
trations in this country are those in which a 
strong president has been legally vested 
with large powers of administrative con- 
trol, or, because of his personal force, has 
been tacitly given and has used such con- 
trol. Unquestionably government by a 
strong president who keeps in sympathy 
with his faculty and consults freely and 
frequently with its members and who also 
keeps in sympathy with and has the confi- 
dence of his trustees, is the most effective 
government and most economical of the 


538 


time and energy of the whole university. 

But the organization of the university 
should make provision for less ideal condi- 
tions, so that taking trustees, president and 
faculty as they are likely to be, the system 
of government may tend to utilize to the 
fullest possible extent the wisdom and en- 
ergy of all, and prevent the possibility that 
the influence of any one of these factors 
may be overridden or ignored. 

The plan of government now established 
in Stanford University endeavors to con- 
serve these ends in the following way. 

The authority is vested in: 

First. The trustees, who, in addition to 
the management of financial and legal af- 
fairs, make all appointments to the faculty 
and fix their compensation, but have dele- 
gated to the president all nominations for 
appointments or promotions and recom- 
mendations as to salaries. 

Second. The president, in whom by the 
deed of trust is lodged the authority to 
prescribe the duties of instructors, to re- 
move instructors at will, and such other 
powers as are necessary that he may be 
held justly responsible for the efficiency of 
teaching and the competency of teachers. 
In addition to these duties, by the acts of 
the trustees, the president is made pri- 
marily responsible for discipline in the 
university, is ex-officio chairman of the 
academic council and of its executive com- 
mittee, and the official medium of com- 
munication between the faculty and the 
trustees, and between the students and the 
trustees. The president has also the ini- 
tiative in all matters of appomtments and 
fixing of salaries, subject to the approval 
of the trustees. By these provisions is 
sought to be maintained the effectiveness 
in administration due to the initiative of 
the president. 

Third. The faculty—in which is vested 
through the Acadenuc Cowncil, consisting of 
all professors, associate professors and such 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 588. 


assistant professors as have been in the 
service of the university for three years, 
the power to initiate and decide upon all 
matters of academic character—such as re- 
quirements for admission or graduation, 
advanced degrees, curricula, general uni- 
versity regulations, policies of all standing 
committees of the faculty and of depart- 
mental faculties—subject, of course, to 
such control by the trustees as is necessary 
for the proper exercise of their responsi- 
bilities. f 
The influence of the faculty upon such 
administrative matters as belong to the re- 
sponsibilities of the president or the trus- 
tees is exerted through the Advisory Board, 
a body of nine professors elected by ballot 
without previous nomination, three each 
year, by the academic council. Of these 
nine members, one is elected by the whole 
council from each of five departmental 
groups into which the departments of the 
university are divided, and the remaining 
four are elected without reference to their 
positions in any such group. Each mem- 
ber must receive a majority of all votes cast 
for election. The members of this board 
are elected presumably on the basis of 
their qualifications as safe and wise coun- 
sellors of the president or the trustees. The 
duties of the board are to act as confidential 
adviser to the president upon matters which 
are not under control of the academic 
council, but belong to the executive respon- 
sibilities—to pass approval or disapproval 
upon all nominations for appointments, 
promotion, dismissals, the creation or aboli- 
tion of chairs or departments. It is pro- 
vided, however, that no recommendations 
for appointments, promotions or dismissals, 
or the fixing of salaries, shall originate with 
the advisory board. The initiative in these 
matters must come through the president. 
This provision had for its object protection 
against pressure brought to bear on the 
board by colleagues or others, and the pre- 


Apri 6, 1906.] 


vention of any development in the board of 
an influence in such matters which might 
unnecessarily disturb the relations of the 
members of the board to their colleagues or 
to the president or trustees. 

On the other hand in matters of univer- 
sity policy in general the board is privi- 
leged to make such recommendations to 
the president as it may decide to be ex- 
pedient. To further the full and free dis- 
cussion of all matters which may come be- 
fore the board, and to assure independence 
of judgment, it is provided that while the 
president of the university shall have free 
access to the board for purposes of infor- 
mation and consultation, he shall not be a 
member of it, and all conclusions of the 
board are discussed and formulated in 
executive session. : 4 

Decisions of the advisory board are com- 
municated directly to the president and to 
no other university authority, and the 
president communicates them to the trus- 
tees in connection with his official recom- 
mendations. The trustees may at. their 
diseretion take cognizance of any differ- 
ences of opinion between the president and 
advisory board thus brought to their at- 
tention. 

Tt will readily be understood that such a 
board will exert a powerful conservative 
influence upon the executive from the fac- 
ulty standpoint. It would be difficult for 
any serious differences to exist between 
president and faculty without the trustees 
having the issues thoroughly presented. 
As a conservative check the influence of 
such a board is doubtless more thoroughly 
effective than that of a committee of trus- 
tees, because the board is composed of 
members more nearly expert on university 
administration and local conditions than 
are the trustees usually. It has been ob- 
jected that a board composed of members 
who hold their positions in the university 
at the will of the president will not exer- 


SCIENCE. 


539 


cise independent judgment, but this con- 
sideration will hardly have weight with 
those conversant with the character and 
temper of university faculties. On the 
contrary, there is much more danger that 
such a board with its constant sense of 
responsibility as representative of the fac- 
ulty, will tend to be ultra-conservative in 
the matter of such changes in the faculty as 
may be needed in the interests of the effect- 
iveness of university work. 

While thus necessarily acting to a certain 
extent as a conservative restraint upon the 
president and indirectly at times upon the 
trustees, on the other hand the duty im- 
posed upon the board to act as confidential 
adviser to the president, affords a natural 
and established channel for the president 
to keep in touch with representative faculty 
sentiment and to secure more carefully con- 
sidered and responsible advice on certain 
classes of questions than is otherwise easily 
obtained. 

The efficiency of the influence on the ad- 
ministration of such a board will in the 
long run depend upon the attitude of the 
trustees and of the faculty towards its fune- 
tions. If the trustees systematically con- 
sider the decisions of the board in connec- 
tion with the nominations or recommenda- 
tions of the president, they will have addi- 
tional assurance of the wisdom of the acts 
they are called upon to enact. If they sys- 
tematically ignore the action of the board, 
its functions will soon become perfunctory 
or obsolete. 

If the faculty systematically elect the 
members of the board with reference only 
to their judgment and discretion in the 
often difficult and delicate matters en- 
trusted to their consideration, the influence 
of the faculty upon administration will be 
steadily strengthened. If, on the other 
hand, other less relevant considerations 
should enter into these elections, the influ- 
ence of the board might easily be seriously 


540 


impaired and its conclusions discredited. 
The experiment at Stanford University is 
now in its second year, and, thus far, has 
met with very general approval, at least 
so far as the writer’s knowledge goes. By 
this plan, the initiative of the president is 
sought to be preserved, but he is provided 
with a board of counselors, representative 
of the faculty, to advise him in the most 
important of his administrative acts. This 
influence can not amount to a veto unless 
sustained by the trustees, while it all the 
time cooperates with him by keeping him 
in constant touch with representative fac- 
ulty opinion which has been carefully con- 
sidered and formulated. 

Certain purely administrative functions 
are placed under the control of the presi- 
dent rather than under the faculty. Such 
are the maintenance of discipline, the con- 
duct of athletic, social and literary student 
activities, and public health. The presi- 
dent appoints committees from the faculty 
to assist him in these functions and the 
membership of these committees is also sub- 
ject to the approval of the advisory board. 

Other committees dealing with strictly 
academic questions are directly under the 
control of the academic council and an- 
swerable to the council. 

The Executive Committee of the council 
is entrusted with much of the work which 
consumes so much time and energy at fre- 
quent and long-drawn-out faculty meetings 
at many universities. It consists of the 
president of the university, the vice-presi- 
dent and the registrar, as ex-officio mem- 
bers, and ten other members, two from each 
of the five department groups, elected by 
the council, much as the members of the 
advisory board are elected. The executive 
committee appoints the other standing com- 
mittees of the faculty and controls their 
policy, subject to the approval of the 
academic council, and subject to instruction 
by the council. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


The teaching force of each department 
of the university is organized as the De- 
partment Faculty under the chairmanship 
of an executive head appoimted by the 
president, with the approval of the ad- 
visory board. The department faculty 
conducts the internal affairs of the depart- 
ment, subject to the control of the academic 
council in such matters as involve relations 
with other departments, and with the uni- 
versity at large. 

The academic council thus controls 
through its various committees and depart- 
mental faculties the educational policy and 
machinery of the university, the president’s 
influence herein being conserved by his 
position as presiding officer of the council 
and of its executive committee. Speaking 
generally the whole idea of the organiza- 
tion is to commit the business of the uni- 
versity in all its activities to the direction 
of those who are most qualified experts, to 
preserve the initiative and influence of the 
trustees, president and faculty within their 
respective spheres, to protect the rights 
and privileges of all arms of the university 
authority, and to insure, in so far as may 
be, the interests of the whole university as 
paramount to the imterests of any one 
factor. 


JOHN Maxson STILLMAN. 
STANFORD UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

Flashlights in the Jungle: A Record of 
Hunting Adventures and of Studies in 
Wild Life in Equatorial East Africa. By 
C. G. Scuiniines. Translated by FREDERIC 
Wuyte, with an introduction by Sir H. H. 
Jounston. Illustrated by 307 of the au- 
thor’s untouched photographs taken by day 
and night. Pp. xxii+ 782. New York, 
Doubleday, Page & Co. 1906. 

Herr Schillings’s work on the wilderness of 
East Africa, called in its latest English edi- 
tion ‘Flashlights in the Jungle,’ should in- 
terest a wide class of readers, but in particular 


=: 


APRIL 6, 1906.] 


the naturalist and all who find the truth about 
animals often stranger and always infinitely 
better than fiction. One should not look here 
for biographies or detailed studies of any of 
the animals, nor for a critical analysis of 
their behavior, nor, indeed, for a hint of many 
of those problems which appeal most to a 
philosophic naturalist of the type of Dar- 
win, or Wallace, and the author’s zoolog- 
ical training is evidently not that of the 
schools. His frequent reference to ‘my 
genus’ and ‘my species’ takes us back to a 
period when the aims of natural history were 
too apt to reach a climax in the discovery of 
new forms. But we should not expect every- 
thing of a hunter of big and dangerous game, 
who is a good field naturalist in the bargain. 

Taking it all together this author’s accom- 
plishment is remarkable, whether considered 
as a record of travel and adventure, as a 
portrait gallery or rather as a panorama of 
the great world of animal life under the 
equator, or as the journal of a field-naturalist 
whose sole object, as he tells us, was to study 
the lives of the animals. 

It should be added that this narrative is 
not the only outcome of Herr Schillings’s 
labors, for aside from the discovery of many 
plants and animals, ranging from giraffes and 
antelopes to imsect-parasites, and including 
several species of birds, he was the first in 
recent times to take alive to Europe the East 
African rhinoceros, the white-bearded gnu, 
and other interesting denizens of the velt; he 
himself collected, and, at his private expense, 
with the help of a large caravan, prepared and 
forwarded to Berlin, and to the museums of 
other German cities, thousands of the skins, 
skulls and skeletons of the vanishing fauna 
of the great East African velt, besides col- 
lecting embryos and other anatomical or bio- 
logical material. 

This signal work has been achieved literally 
through the sweat of his brow, with the help 
of a physical constitution happily more than 
a match for the fevers which often laid him 
low, with the aid of a private fortune which 
seems to have been ample—in the famine year 
of 1899 his provisions alone (for he never had 
less than 130 men) cost him oyer five thousand 


SCIENCE. 


54] 


dollars—with a keen enthusiasm for nature, 
and as he would add, with the aid of a lucky 
star which never left him for long at a time. 

Schillings’s book now authoritatively trans- 
lated and published in this country makes a 
large and handsomely illustrated volume. It 
is admirably printed upon thin, highly pol- 
ished paper, which serves well the purposes 
of engraving, even if it does not keep the size 
of the volume within bounds. The publishers 
seem to realize what many have not learned, 
that good half-tone engravings do not require 
the heavy weight of paper so often employed, 
and that the prints once made are easily 
marred by careless handling when fresh from 
the press. The illustrations are exceptionally 
free from ‘pencil marks’ produced in this 
way. 

Preceding this edition by a few weeks there 
appeared an abridged translation of the same 
work, but under another title,» which the pub- 
lishers of the complete and better edition 
denounce as ‘pirated.’ The illustrations of 
the lesser volume, which apparently were 
made direct from the engravings of the Ger- 
man work, rather than from the original pho- 
tographs or blocks, are necessarily inferior, 
and do but scant justice to the beauty of 
much of Schillings’s photographic work. One 
of these half-tone engravings, entitled ‘Ibis 
Nests’ (see p. 46), is even placed bottom-side 
up, but really it matters not how it is regarded 
on the page, for it is only a blur of printer’s 
ink, and illustrates nothing. 

There is an introduction by Sir H. H. 
Johnston, the discoverer of the okapi, and 
author of a recent elaborate work on the 
native races of man in Hast Africa, entitled 
“The Urganda Protectorate. The transla- 
tion seems to be well done, and the text is 
extremely interesting from end to end. Ap- 
pendices give full lists of the vertebrate ani- 


-mals discovered and collected, but the reader 


will look in vain for either an index dr a map. 
Both author and editor make an eloquent 


**With Flashlight and Rifle, Photographing 
by Flash-Light at Night the Wild Animal World 
of Equatorial Africa, translated and abridged by 
Henry Zick, Ph.D., pp. xiv + 422, with 123 illus- 
trations; Harper and Brothers, New York, 1905. 


542 


and moving plea for the salvation of at least 
a remnant of the great Tertiary fauna of 
Africa—the lions and elephants, the hippo- 
potami and rhinoceroses, the zebras, giraffes 
and big antelopes, which have all but vanished 
from South Africa, and which are now rap- 
idly falling before the bullets of both whites 
and blacks all along the equatorial belt. The 
fate of these great beasts and many others 
besides is in the balance, and the history of the 
American buffalo is already being repeated in 
one section after another of the dark con- 
tinent. 

The world will, indeed, become very unin- 
teresting if, as the author of the introduction 
remarks, man and a few domestic animals, 
with the mouse, the rat and the sparrow, are 
the only survivors among terrestrial verte- 
brates. 

As an illustration of the reckless slaughter 
of the big animals by white travelers or tem- 
porary residents, the case of a certain German 
doctor is mentioned, who in the course of two 
or three years of fanatical zeal killed one hun- 
dred and fifty rhinoceroses (a companion 
having killed one hundred and forty more), 
and all for no useful purpose, “each one be- 
ing a far more interesting mammal than him- 
self. At the end of this career of slaughter, 
a rhinoceros killed him—perhaps appropri- 
ately.’ Notwithstanding such onslaughts, 
Herr Schillings thinks that the rhinoceros 
will survive, to impale such prodigies of hu- 
man greed and folly, for generations to come, 
because of their fierce habits, their great 
numbers, and the inaccessible character of 
the mountain fastnesses over which they 
range. It would seem as if nothing short of 
disarming the native, and international legis- 
lation could save anything more than’-a rem- 
nant of those amazing hosts of interesting 
animal forms, which it has taken nature long 
geological ages to bring to perfection. The 
natives, equipped by the white traders, have 
already devastated South Africa. The white- 
tailed gnu, the true quagga, the mountain 
zebra, the Cape buffalo, the elephant, black 
and white rhinoceroses, the giraffe, the hippo- 
potamus and the South African ostrich have 
been totally wiped out there with the excep- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 588. 


tion of a few preserved individuals. The 
retreating squadrons have reached their limits 
under the equator. There they must be pre- 
served now, if at all, for in a few years it will 
be too late. 

While Herr Schillings disclaims any skill 
as an artist, his pictures reveal an artistic 
appreciation, and he is able to describe the 
scenes which he has witnessed with admirable 
vividness and enthusiasm. The great velt, 
the mysterious wonder-world of German East 
Africa, which, as he declares, must forever 
remain a forbidden and uninhabited land to 
the northern races of Europe, with its annual 
succession of flood and drought, and corre- 
sponding periods of rapid vegetable growth 
and decadent life, burning the traveler by 
day and almost freezing him at night, its 
pestilential marshes, its arid, salt-encrusted 
plains, its diversified surface and scenery, sug- 
gesting in places, during the wet season, great 
open parks in England and northern Europe, 
in others presenting perfect chevaua-de-frise 
of thorn bushes, impassable to every animal 
but a mouse or an elephant; flat in some 
places, in others undulating, with broken hills, 
lofty tablelands, vyoleanoes and almost in- 
terminable mountain ranges, the highest peak 
of which, Kilimanjaro, rises 19,500 feet above 
the sea, is crowned with eternal snow, and 
bears a whole upper world of glaciers under 
the tropical sun. 

The most celebrated animals of the equa- 
torial fauna, all of which Schillings has 
hunted, photographed and studied at close 
range, the great-tusked elephant, the fierce 
rhinoceros, the saber-like horns of which in 
old cows are sometimes nearly five feet long, 
the hippopotamus, the lion, the leopard, 
dreaded for its stealth and swift attacks, the 
fleet zebras and egnus, the strange giraffes, 
hyenas and antelopes of many kinds stalk 
through his pages in all the semblance of life, 
and, as a German zoologist has remarked, will 
live on in some of his admirable pictures 
‘long after they have been sacrificed to the 
needs of advancing civilization.’ We see the 
largest of these, the elephants and rhinoc- 
eroses, in their endless migrations between 
the high mountains and the plains, following 


APRIL 6, 1906.] 


the water courses, and the advancing growth 
of new vegetation with umerring precision, 
living among the clouds as readily as on the 
ever-changing plains of the great velt. Says 
Schillings: 

The velt is a book difficult to decipher, being 
written all over with the tracks and trails of the 
animal world. Right and left in our path, trees 
of vast strength are to be seen broken like bits 
of straw, showing where a herd of elephants have 
made their way. Large holes in the ground are 
come upon, which have been made by the elephants 
in the wet season, and which remain visible for a 
year or more. . . . The rhinoceros, too, leaves 
his mark. For many miles long tracks, which 
cross and recross, are found leading to the water- 
ing places. . . . And like the elephant the rhi- 
noceros levies toll upon the shrubs and thorn- 
bushes. 


Herr Schillings’s first expedition to East 
Africa was made in 1896, when he determined 
to study the velt, and to obtain specimens of 
its representative animals, as well as photo- 
graphs which should be transcripts from na- 
ture, and really illustrative of zoology. His 
last journey was undertaken in 1903. The sec- 
ond expedition failed in photographic results, 
owing to the unsuitable character of his appa- 
ratus. Accordingly, he returned to Europe, 
and after many trials succeeded in construct- 
ing at the celebrated Goerz establishment at 
Friedenau, a metallic camera and flashlight 
apparatus, strong enough to stand not only 
the strain of travel in tropical jungles, but 
more especially the effect of the powerful ex- 
plosives employed. 

Returning to Africa for the third time, he 
started for the interior with a caravan of one 
hundred and thirty people, but after an ill- 
ness of three months from acute heart disease 
and malaria, he was obliged to throw up 
everything, and return again to Europe to 
recover, if possible, his health. On his fourth 
expedition to the dark continent he learned 
that ‘a naturalist traveling on his own ac- 
count encounters almost insuperable difficul- 
ties, and his application to explore English 
territory was refused apparently because an 
Englishman had recently been debarred from 
German East Africa. 

To appreciate the great advance in book 


SCIENCE. 


543 


illustration one has but to take from the shelf 
some works of travel and exploration, like 
those of Sir Samuel Baker of a half or even 
a quarter of a century ago. How ridiculous 
many of the pictures really are, and how they 
shame the text! ‘ 5 
Since most of the large animals are noc- 
turnal, Herr Schillings was obliged to resort 
to the flashlight, and some of his night pic- 
tures, obtained in spite of the greatest difficul- 
ties and hazards, are remarkable. The tele- 
photo lens seems to have proved useful also, 
but he does not appear to have been equipped 
with a reflex camera, although this is a Ger- 
man invention, the improved forms of which 
are now fifteen years old, while the principle 
has been known for half a century. At least 
the lack of such an instrument would seem 
to account for so many of his moving objects, 
like birds, being out of focus. The lack of 
sharpness, on the other hand, lends to some 
of his landscapes a peculiar attraction. Thus 
some of his pictures of-gnus and gazelles sug- 
gest the sentiment and poetry of a master like 
Corot. As evidence of this the reader should 
examine two charming pictures on pages 327 
and 481—a herd of gnus and zebras taking 
flight from beneath the shade of a huge 
monkey-bread tree, and another herd of seven 
curious gnus all facing the camera and lighted 
from behind. In both of them what looks 
like a ‘painted’ sky is really the steep slope 
of a distant towering range of mountains. 
Some of the rhinoceros pictures, showing 
these huge pachyderms feeding on the velt, 
bathing in the jungle, coming to the stream- 
courses and water pools at night, all most 
hazardous to obtain, are among the best in 
the book. The ‘rhino’ is dull of sight, but 
has keen ears, and a most phenomenal power 
of scent. When aroused it is up in an in- 
stant, swings quickly around, snorting loudly, 
to get the scent. Now is the opportunity for 
the photographer, but it lasts only a second, 
and the hand which releases the camera must be 
quick to seize the rifle. The animal is almost 
sure to charge, and when it does so, it comes 
with the speed of an express train; escape by 
running or dodging is no more effective than 
climbing imaginary trees or pulling oneself 


544 


up by the boots; a bullet well placed, and that 
quickly, can only check the fury of the beast, 
and there may be more than one adversary 
with which to reckon. Possessed of such a 
wonderful scent, together with certain other 
habits which are described, not to speak of 
memory, it is not surprising that they seem 
to possess such unerring knowledge of the velt. 

Many interesting facts in natural history 
are recorded in the pictures and text. The 
South African ostrich breeds in September 
and October, and nests were found with eight 
to twenty-five eggs during those months, while 
a single egg was taken from the ovary of a 
female shot at the end of February. This 
sporadie activity of the reproductive organs 
outside of the breeding season, attributed to 
excessive feeding on newly sprouted grass, was 
often observed by the natives, who frequently 
found single eggs scattered over the velt. 
Many similar cases among our own wild birds 
could be given. 

The common stork, Ciconia ciconia, which 
winters in vast numbers in equatorial East 
Africa, were preparing to migrate in early 
February, while some even remained until the 
first of April. On April 2, 1904, I saw great 
numbers of these storks, on the desert in 
Nubia above the first cataract of the Nile, 
huddled together like a dense flock of sheep. 
They were very wary and would not allow 
even a rider to approach them. Five days 
later the advance guard had reached Edfu, 
sixty miles northward, and were fraternizing 
with Arabs in the ploughed fields. Though 
bound for Europe, they appeared to be ad- 
vancing at the leisurely pace of twelve to fif- 
teen miles a day. 9 

Schillings speaks of hawks*seizing locusts 
on the wing, of ‘sign-post’ trees of elephants, 
or rubbing places, some of which he thinks 
must have been in use for hundreds of years: 
of the sleeping places of hippopotami on 
islands, ‘which seem to have been in use for 
ages,’ and their deep-worn paths leading down 
to the water; of the tail-language and dumb- 
ness of the giraffe, the harmony of the zebra’s 
stripes with the coloring of the velt, the cun- 
ning of the ostrich in enticing the lion from 
its nest and young, the alarm-calls of the reed- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von, XXIII. No. 588. 


bucks heeded by birds, the watchfulness of 
the yellow baboons, and their wonderful alert- 
ness in flight, the tameability and affection of 
the marabou storks, the attachment which 
sprung up between a young rhinoceros and an 
East African goat, and the often fatal policy 
of first shooting at the lion when the lioness 
is near. 

The connection between malaria and mos- 
quitoes is well illustrated by the following 
account of the usual sequel to a night of 
shooting and photographing on the velt, al- 
though the very brief incubation here sug- 
gested does not accord with the common type 
of this disease: 


When the morning breaks I return to the camp, 
feeling as if broken to pieces, stung all over by 
mosquitoes, and with that peculiar sensation 
which unmistakably heralds an attack of fever. 
I was not deceived, and for two days I am con- 
fined to camp by a bad attack of malaria. 


The water-famine in the dry season, the 


“terrible pests of mosquitoes and flies of many 


kinds, which the traveler to the Nile valley in 
March and April should be able to appreciate, 
the scourge of malaria and dysentery follow- 
ing in their wake, not to speak of many other 
enemies which make the white man’s burden 
well-nigh insupportable on the velt, will for 
long postpone the day when Herr Schillings’s 
studies on the general natural history and 
photography of animals in equatorial Hast 
Africa are equaled or surpassed. 
Francis H. Herriox. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

The Journal of Comparative Neurology for 
March contains the following articles: Mar- 
garet F. Washburn and J. Madison Bentley, 
‘The Establishment of an Association Inyoly- 
ing Color-Discrimination in the Creek Chub, 
Semotilus atromaculatus.” An association in- 
volving the discrimination of red from green 
in the feeding reactions was quickly estab- 
lished under rigid experimental control. H. 
H. Newman, ‘The Habits of Certain Tor- 
toises.’ Detailed observations upon five Amer- 
ican fresh-water species. T. H. Boughton, 
‘The Increase in the Number and Size of the 


Aprit 6, 1906.] 


Medullated Fibers in the Oculomotor Nerve 
of the White Rat and of the Cat at Different 
Ages. The increase in number of medul- 
lated fibers is more closely correlated with the 
advance in body-weight than of age. The 
medullated fibers increase in size during the 
life of the animal. The two types, ‘large’ 
and ‘small,’ increase in diameter at the same 
rate. Dr. Edinger contributes a criticism of 
Dr. Yerkes’ article on the sense of hearing of 
frogs, published last year, and this is followed 
by a reply from Dr. Yerkes. 


The Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis- 
eases, for February, opens with a paper by Dr. 
Charles L. Dana on those forms of muscular 
atrophy which are progressive in character, 
and are degenerative and central in origin, 
yiz., progressive ophthalmoplegia, bulbar paral- 
ysis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and the 
‘yarious types of spinal progressive atrophy, 
whether beginning in the arms, legs, shoulders 
or hip girdle. The paper presents a clinical 
study of seventy-two cases, and is illustrated. 
Dr. Hoppe follows with a discussion of hyster- 
ical stigmata caused by organic brain lesions. 
Dr. C. K. Mills reports a case of crural 
monoplegia, probably representing the early 
stage of a unilateral ascending paralysis due 
to degeneration of the pyramidal tracts, and 
Dr. Spiller discusses briefly the question of 
separate sensory centers in the parietal lobe 
for the limbs. 


Tur Journal of the Outdoor Life, pub- 
lished at Trudeau, N. Y., in the Adirondack 
Mountains, has been made the official organ 
of the National Association for the Study and 
Prevention of Tuberculosis, of which Dr. 
Herman M. Biggs, medical director of the 
New York City Health Department, is presi- 
dent. The membership of the association in- 
eludes the leading workers in the field of 
tuberculosis, both lay and _ professional, 
throughout the United States and Canada. 
The Journal of the Outdoor Life aims to be 
helpful to persons suffering from or having 
a tendency toward lung trouble. It deals 
with the outdoor treatment of tuberculosis in 
an intelligent and scientific manner and, while 


SCIENCE. 


545 


not advocating self-treatment by the laity, or 
attempting to supplant personal medical ad- 
vice, it points out some of the common pitfalls 
that beset the unwary health-seeker. It ad- 
vocates fresh air, nourishing food, carefully 
regulated exercise and competent medical 
supervision, 


Iy the near future the Schweizerische 
Naturforschende Gesellschaft intends to pub- 
lish a national journal containing investiga- 
tions by Swiss students of science. It will be 
supported by the Federal Government. At 
present the details concerning the character 
and form of the journal are being discussed by 
the various Cantonal branch societies. 


Ir is announced that American Medicine, 
edited by Dr. George M. Gould, will hereafter 
be published monthly instead of weekly. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. 


To THE Eprror or Science: On page 7 of 
the issue of Science for January 5, 1906, in 
the address of the president of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
appears the assertion that the large editions 
of government publications imply a ‘pecu- 
niary waste,’ because many of the copies fall 
into the hands of persons not competent to ap- 
preciate them. That seems a very short- 
sighted view, explainable only upon the theory 
that the distinguished speaker considered all 
who were not in position to receive, or buy, 
or secure access to limited editions are not 
competent to appreciate them. Large edi- 
tions are greatly to be commended and are 
certainly not # pecuniary loss in the end, for 
with the constant increase of public and quasi- 
public libraries and consequent search for pub- 
lications to complete the collections, and the 
increased demand arising from constantly in- 
creasing numbers of scientific workers, the 
great majority of copies of all worthy works 
sooner or later reach the hands of men who 
can use and appreciate them, or become avail- 
able in school or public libraries. The high 
prices of many publications issued by educa- 
tional institutions and private publishers pro- 


546 


hibit their possession by struggling and ~ 
poorly paid workers in scientific fields both in 
and out of colleges and universities, who are 
fully able to use them and who could do more 
and better work if they had the volumes in 
their own libraries, instead of being compelled 
to waste so much valuable time in visiting 
public libraries. Are such investigators en- 
titled to consideration, or should only a 
favored few be provided with proper facili- 
ties? Again, the limited editions of such pub- 
lications only supply the immediate demand, 
leaving none for the investigators or colleges 
and public libraries of the future. The large 
editions of the government publications, on 
the other hand, make it possible for all work- 
ers and institutions to obtain them. The 
writer has found it practically impossible to 
obtain some university publications, while he 
has never had much difficulty in obtaining any 
of the government publications at very reason- 
able prices, from dealers in such works, the 
reason being the larger editions. The copies 
which pass into the hands of people who can 
not or do not wish to use them are not lost 
to the world, but soon find their way into the 
market places, where they may be had by the 
constantly increasing army of students. 

The learned men of our eastern institutions, 
where books have been accumulating for a 
century or more and all of the early volumes 
of serial publications are available, can not 
appreciate the fact that any competent stu- 
dent can possibly be situated where he has not 
access to such literature. There are hundreds 
of competent men and women throughout the 
land, far from large libraries, doing excellent 
work in the advancement of science and 
eapable of much better work with better facili- 
ties. Their very isolation from other workers 
makes the need of literature bearing upon 
their lines of work more necessary. The goy- 
ernment gives them much information with- 
out cost and much more at merely nominal 
cost. Students of ability, making great sacri- 
fices, living far from the centers of civilization 
in order to work up the flora, fauna or geo- 
logical phenomena of sections unfrequented 
by scientists, are compelled, because of ina- 
bility to consult the literature, to turn over 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


the fruits of painstaking work to more promi- 
nent writers for publication, the real workers 
getting but scant credit therefor. It may sur- 
prise some eastern scientists to learn that 
many publications less than twenty years old, 
issued by educational institutions and learned 
societies, as well as important scientific maga- 
zines, are unavailable to Rocky Mountain 
students except by travelling hundreds of 
miles. The western libraries are compara- 
tively young and lack endowments. The 
prices of many works preclude their acquisi- 
tion, and limited editions of others make 
their acquirement impossible because they are 
already in possession of public and quasi-pub- 
lic libraries. This great need of the west is 
well worthy the consideration of wealthy men 
who wish to endow a noble cause. In the 
meantime the matter of limited editions 
should be discouraged as far as possible and 
large editions commended. The author of the 
sentiment herein criticized might learn a valu- 
able lesson by noting the number of papers 
marked ‘out of print’ in the catalogues of 
university and society publications, including 
those of his own institution. Should ‘out of 
print’ be said of any publication, and should 
a work which the government can produce for 
from one to two dollars cost from eight to 
twenty-five dollars when issued by a great 
educational institution ? 

Another great misfortune is that so many 
publications are attempting to cover the same 
ground. This is particularly unfortunate in 
systematic zoology and botany, where one does 
not dare publish a new species without first 
searching the proceedings of all the local 
scientific societies, the publications of all the 
educational institutions and innumerable 
other works, unless he concludes to depend en- 
tirely upon general indices, which are usually 
quite incomplete. Every naturalist knows 
that descriptions of species are continually ap- 
pearing in the most out-of-the-way and un- 
expected places. Zoologists and botanists 
should rise up in arms and protest against 
publishing such descriptions in any except 
serials devoted largely to such matters. 
One university has adopted an iron-clad rule 
that all original descriptions of species shall 


a 


Aprin 6, 1906.] 


be excluded from its publications, requiring 
them to be first sent to some prominent maga- 
zine devoted to the particular line. If others 
would do the same it would greatly simplify 
the work of naturalists. 


JuNtIUS HENDERSON. 
MuseuM, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, 
BOULDER, CoLo. 


A SUGGESTION FOR AN INTERNATIONAL 
BIBLIOGRAPHIC EXCHANGE. 

We, in the United States, have long looked 
forward to the creation of a bibliographical 
institute in this country which will exercise 
supervision over all affairs coming within its 
scope. Two things are wanting: first, the 
requisite endowment, and, second, a wide and 
responsive spirit of cooperation. It is with 
the latter that this note will attempt briefly to 
deal. The writer recently suggested in the 
Library Journal (30: 857-858) that a biblio- 
graphic bulletin be issued by the Library of 
Congress to disseminate bibliographic intel- 

_ligence, prevent duplication and incite coop- 
eration. This would be an important step 
toward a solution of the problem, but there is 
yet another plan that seems also to give 
promise of immediate results. 

Let the various historical and scientific 
societies adopt and distribute, in duplicate, a 
uniform blank calling for reports (titles and 
scope) of special bibliographies in preparation. 
Nearly every investigator is compiling a refer- 
ence-list more or less extensive. The societies, 
upon receiving reports, should preserve the 
originals and transmit the duplicates, if of a 
scientific character, to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution of Washington, or, if not of scientific 
import, to the Library of Congress. The two 
last-named bodies could likewise distribute to 
their own clientele, single copies of a similar 
uniform blank. Jn fact, it might be well to 
have one of those two inaugurate the work, 
their formal blanks to be used as models by 
the societies, ete. 

Example is better than precept. A plan 
analogous to that above described was suc- 
cessfully carried out by the librarian of the 
New England Historic Genealogical Society, 
18 Somerset Street, Boston, Mass., who se- 
cured more than five hundred reports of 


SCIENCE. 547 


genealogies in preparation. These are pre- 
served in Tengwall files, in strict alphabetic 
order by surnames, and data therefrom are 
promptly supplied to inquirers. If one society 
of restricted scope can accomplish so much, 
what might reasonably be expected as re- 
sponses to a like invitation extended by the 
Library of Congress or the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, having all literature and the whole 
learned world upon which to draw? ‘This 
knowledge of inedited collections is often 
necessary and important. It is characteristic 
of our national impatience that we are not 
content with published material. Like the 
Athenians of old, we seek constantly that 
which is new. Nor is this altogether un- 
reasonable: history and science are making 
such rapid progress that if a student expects 
adequately to review any subject, he must, 
perforce, ayail himself of the very latest re- 
searches, bibliographical included. Hence, a 
growing list of special bibliographies in prepa- 
ration would be very useful and would aid 
greatly in that general diffusion of knowledge 
for which one of our oldest institutions so 
nobly stands! 

The suggestion made is one involving a 
minimum of expense; in fact, the cost would 
be merely nominal, with probable returns of 
manifold value. Means would thus be af- 
forded for opening intercommunication be- 
tween those interested in any subject. In this 
good work it must not be forgotten that the 
London Notes and Queries has quietly but 
unquestionably become the chief factor. 

The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
as well as many universities and colleges, 
could collaborate with the proposed exchange, 
to their mutual advantage. In this simple 
plan, therefore, seems to lie the possible de- 
velopment of universal cooperation or at least 
a nearer approximation thereto than has yet 
been manifested. A reviewer in the Library 
Journal (30: 428) commented on the extreme 
dificulty of arousing cooperation in biblio- 
graphic work, but is there not now within our 
power a way to gain even that desideratum ? 

Evucene F. McPirz. 

Cutcago, ILL., 

December 12, 1905. 


548 


A SUMMARY OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHIE ASTRONOMIQUE 
OF LALANDE FOR THE YEARS A.D. 130 TO 1473, 
THE EPOCH AT WHICH SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
BEGAN TO BE PRINTED. 


Tur following paragraphs give the skeleton 
of an investigation that was begun half a 
dozen years since and that is not likely to 
be carried further by the present writer. It 
is accurate so far as it goes, and those who 
are interested in astronomical anatomy may 
be glad to see the figures here set down, and 
will know how to clothe them with flesh. They 
constitute a very small but a genuine contri- 
bution to the early history of astronomy. 


SUMMARY OF LALANDE’S TABLES. 


During the II. century 2 authors are mentioned. 
During the Ill.century 2 authors are mentioned. 
During the IV.century 3 authors are mentioned. 
During the V.century 5 authors are mentioned. 
During the VI.century 2 authors are mentioned. 
During the VII. century 2 authors are mentioned. 
During the VIII. century 2 authors are mentioned. 
During the IX. century 5 authors are mentioned. 
During the X.century 4 authors are mentioned. 
During the XI. century 8 authors are mentioned. 
During the XII. century 13 authors are mentioned. 
During the XIII. century 14 authors are mentioned. 


During the XIV. century 19 authors are mentioned. 


Lalande’s data are incomplete but, even so, 
they exhibit a fundamental fact.’ The renais- 
sance of astronomy in Europe began in the 
twelfth century, or even earher. 

About the year 1440 the art of printing 
began to be practised in Europe, but it was 
not until 1471-3 that works on astronomy 
were put forth. The ‘ Bibliographie Astro- 
nomique’ of Lalande, the catalogues of the 
great astronomical library of the Imperial Ob- 
servatory of Pulkowa, and other works of the 
sort, contain lists of astronomical books ar- 
ranged in the chronological order of publica- 
tion. 

We can follow the movement of European 
thought very closely by following such lists 
year by year. The titles of the books give 
precise information as to the matters upper- 
most in men’s minds; the number of publica- 
tions in each decade exhibits something like 
a numerical measure of their activity; the re- 
prints of the works of classic authors show 
how much each generation leaned on the past; 


SCIENCE. 


/ 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 588. 


and the number of really original books indi- 
cates how far men were depending upon them- 
selves. It is, moreover, very interesting to 
note how the places of publication slowly 
change from Germany to Italy. A true esti- 
mate of each century can, of course, be based 
only upon an examination of the books them- 
selves. Rude statistics of the kind indicated 
are, however, of value. 

I have, therefore, used the standard bibliog- 
raphies of the years from the invention of 
printing (1440) to the date of the publication 
of the great work of Copernicus (1543) to 
prepare the little table that immediately 
follows. 


TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF ASTRONOMICAL 
BOOKS PUBLISHED IN EACH DECADE 
FROM 1472 TO 1600. 

N. B.—The numbers are the sum of the titles 
named in Lalande’s Bibliographie Astronomique 
and in the Catalogues of the Library of the Im- 
perial Observatory of Pulkowa, excluding dupli- 

cates. 


Undated books XV. century, 18 works. 


1472-1480, 34 works. 
1481-1490, 55 works. 
1491-1500, 83 works. 
XV. century (total), 190 works. 
1501-1510, 73 works. 
1511-1520, 88 works. 
1521-1530, 81 works. 
1531-1540, 152 works. 
1541-1550, 130 works. 
First Half XVI. century, 524 works. 
1551-1560, 181 works. 
1561-1570, 134 works. 
1571-1580, 208 works. 
1581-1590, 171 works. 
1591-1600, 191 works. 
Second Half XVI. century, 885 works. 
XVI. century (total), 1,409 works. 


The foregoing table exhibits the growth of 
astronomical publication very clearly. It 
shows a steady growth during the whole period 
from 1472 to 1600, and marks a decided in- 
crease of activity at the end of the first third 
of the sixteenth century, just before the ad- 
vent of the epoch-making book of Copernicus. 

Epwarp S. Ho.pen. 

U. S. Minirary AcapEemy, 

West Point, March 22, 1906. 


Aprit 6, 1906.] 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
A MENDELIAN CHARACTER IN CATTLE. 


Cursory observation led me some years ago 
to suspect that the polled character in cattle 
might be a Mendelian unit character. The 
importance of such fact, should it prove to 
be a fact, may be inferred when it is remem- 
bered that every year hundreds of thousands 
of cattle are dehorned, while certain breeders 
who are trying to breed polled specimens of 
the ordinary horned breeds are able to dispose 
of polled animals at prices double those of 
horned animals of similar breeding. During 
the past summer I had the opportunity to col- 
lect sufficient data on this subject to show 
that the character is in all probability actually 
Mendelian, and have worked out rules of 
procedure for breeders who wish to rid their 
cattle of horns. The data on which my con- 
clusions are based are presented below. Be- 
fore discussing them I wish to call attention 
to the real meaning of the term ‘ Mendelian 
expectation,’ which I fear is overlooked by 
some biologists, who, like myself, are only 
slightly familiar with the mathematies of the 
laws of chance. 

Let us consider the case of a cross between 
a hybrid (DR) with its corresponding reces- 
sive (R). Suppose the cross results in 4 
progeny. Ordinarily we would say that the 
Mendelian expectation is 2 DR and 2 RF; or, 
in greater detail, 


Parents. Gametes. Conjugations. Results. 
Male DR 2Dand2 Rk NRO 2DR 
Female R 4k 2kRxXR 2k 


Here it is an even chance whether a gamete 
of the female parent shall be fertilized by a 
D or an F gamete of the male parent. The 
four may, therefore, be fertilized in any one 
of the following five ways: 


Probability 

of Hach Case. 
1. By 4 D gametes and 0 R gametes, 1 
2. By 3 D gametes and 1 F gametes, 4 
3. By 2 D gametes and 2 RF gametes, 6 
4. By 1 D gametes and 3 #& gametes, 4 
5. By 0 D gametes and 4 R& gametes, 1 

16ths. 


SCIENCE. 


549 


The probability of each of these five possible 
cases depends on the number of ways in which 
each can occur. Cases 1 and 5 can occur in 
only one way each; 2 and 4 can occur in four 
ways each; 7. e., the first individual may be 
R and the remaining 3 DR; the second may 
be & and the others DR, ete. The third case 
can occur in six ways. And so on. Alto- 
gether there are sixteen ways; hence the 
probabilities shown in the last column. This 
means that, in sixteen such cases, on the 
average one case will result in 4 DR progeny, 
four will result in 3 DR and 1 F# progeny, 
ete.; and this is the real Mendelian expecta- 
tion. As the combination 2 DR and 2 R 
would occur oftenest (six in sixteen times) 
we usually designate it as the Mendelian ex- 
pectation, but the case 4 DR is also to be 
expected, though it will not occur so often. 
It would be more accurate to refer to the 
combination 2 DR and 2 RF as the highest 
(but not the only) expectation. Deviations 
from this highest expectation are to be ex- 
pected, and the number and character of such 
deviations can be calculated from the laws of 
chance. 

In studying the progeny of polled Hereford 
bulls bred to horned cows, the very interesting 
fact developed that the polled character is 
dominant, but the hybrids frequently have 
imperfectly developed horns, called scurs by 
breeders. No case has thus far been found 
im which a hybrid had fully developed horns. 
Whether scurs always appear on the hybrids 
has not been ascertained. Many of the hy- 
brids examined had no visible scurs, but many 
of them were calves only a few months old. 
Breeders state that rather large scurs occa- 
sionally develop, especially on males, on ani- 
mals a year or more of age. 

It was not practical to examine all the 
hybrids observed closely enough to determine 
the presence or absence of very small scurs. 
Questions not fully determined, and which 
warrant further study, are: (1) Do the hy- 
brids always develop scurs? Final examina- 
tions should not be made before the animals 
are about fifteen months old. A breeder re- 
ports one case in which large scurs developed 
at fourteen months. (2) Do the hybrids ever 


550 


develop perfect horns? ‘No case of this kind 
was observed in my studies. 

The table below gives the data secured dur- 
ing the past season. In the column headed 
‘breeding,’ the symbol for the male parent 
stands first. 


PROGENY OF POLLED HEREFORD BULLS. 
P= polled; H=horned; Ph = hybrid. 


Highest 
No. of Progeny. Expectation. 
Breeding. Bull. Cows. Por Ph. H. Por Ph. H. 
PX No. 1 5 5 0 5 0 
PX Ph RON ah 6 6 0 6 0 
cea) 56 28 28 28 28 
19 20 or 
“9 9) 
3 39 17 22, 20 19 
“og 12 7 5 6 6 
“5 9 5 Bolte E Os 
ER 3 4or 
“ 
6 7 2 pst a 
4 &) 8 or 
GON AVIS HY aN 
74 66 70 70 
Omitting 6and7 57 59 58 58 
Highest 
No.of Progeny. Expectation. 
Breeding. Bull. Cows. PorPh. H. Por Ph. H. 
No. 5 6 5 1 5 1 
Gog 6 2 4 4 2 
PhX Ph “7 3 3 0 8 0 or 
2 1 
Totals 10 5 11 4 


From the above table it will be seen that 
the highest expectation is realized or very 
nearly so in nearly every case. Of the three 
cases in which the departures are considerable, 
in two the numbers of progeny are small 
(bull No. 6); in addition there is probably 
an error in the records in this case (see below). 
In the other (bull No. 7, Ph K H), the records 
are incomplete, and may be in error, as ex- 
plained below. Omitting these two bulls from 
the third group, the results are very near in- 
deed to the highest expectation. 

Bull No. 1.—This animal is long since dead. 
The data concerning his breeding and his 
progeny were obtained from the records of 
the owner. His ancestry was such that he 
might have been either a pure poll or a hybrid. 
On the theory that he was a pure poll, and that 
the polled character is dominant, his progeny 
from both five horned and six hybrid cows 
(cows having one horned parent) are all 
polled, as they should be. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


Bull No. 2.—This is a so-called ‘ freak,’ or 
polled bull from horned ancestors. His nu- 
merous progeny show him to be a hybrid. 
Some of his near relatives were polled, and it 
is probable that his dam was a hybrid with 
large scurs. This, at least, would account for 
his evident hybrid character. 

Bull No, §—This was another ‘freak,’ but 
with some polled kin. He is clearly a hybrid. 
His first owner bred him to five horned cows, 
and all the progeny had horns (or large 
seurs (4?) ). His next owner bred him to 
34 cows and secured 17 polled and 17 horned 
ealves. 

Bull No. 4—This bull was from No. 2 
(hybrid) and a horned cow. He has rather 
large seurs, rather loosely attached to the 
skull, and both his breeding and his progeny 
show him to be a hybrid. 

Bull No. 5—Out of a horned cow and by a 
polled bull, hence a hybrid. His progeny in 
both the third and fourth groups meet the 
highest Mendelian expectation. 

Bull No. 6—This is another ‘ freak,’ a regis- 
tered Hereford. He has small scurs. How 
he came by his apparent hybrid character is 
unknown. It will be noticed that when bred 
either to horned or hybrid cows his horned 
progeny are in excess of the highest expecta- 
tion. This is probably an error. His owner, 
for fear of misrepresenting facts to pur- 
chasers, states that he has always counted 
large scurs as horns, and they so appear in his 
records. Although the number of progeny is 
small, and might, therefore, depart widely 
from expectation without vitiating the results, 
it is probable that a careful examination of 
his progeny, which I was unable to make ex- 
cept in a few cases, would show that the actual 
numbers agree more closely with expectation 
than those shown. 

Bull No. 7.—In this case the departure is 
very large, in the case of progeny from horned 
cows. By his breeding he must have been a 
hybrid, unless his owner erred in recording 
the dam as horned when she was really a 
hybrid with large scurs. Both sire and dam 
are dead, and this point can not now be de- 
termined. It is possible, however, that this 
error was made, as the owner is the breeder 


Aprit 6, 1906.] 


who, as above stated, recorded large scurs as 
horns. If the dam was really a hybrid, as I 
suspect, and the two horned calves in the third 
group had large scurs instead of horns, the 
results would agree exactly with the admissible 
theory that he was a pure poll. On the other 
hand, no record was made of a number of his 
get from common cows, so that, on the theory 
that he was a hybrid, the missing horned 
calves in group 3 may be the progeny of these 
unrecorded common cows. 

From the above it will be seen that the only 
results not agreeing closely with theory are 
doubtful, while in every case where no doubt 
exists the results are in very satisfactory 
agreement with theory. These facts render 
it highly probable that the polled character is 
a dominant Mendelian unit character. 

Dehorning a Breed of Cattle-—Assuming 
the above conclusion to be true, the dehorning 
of a breed of cattle is fairly simple. A single 
hybrid animal would suffice for this purpose, 
though this would require some inbreeding. 
It would be better perhaps for several breeders 
to cooperate, so as to avoid the necessity of 
inbreeding. An occasional polled animal oc- 
eurs in all breeds of cattle, and these can be 
used in such a manner as to produce a new 
polled breed. In some instances polled ani- 
mals of other breeds have furnished the start- 
ing point, it being possible to transfer the 
single character desired from one breed to 
another. 

Suppose several breeders secure polled bulls 
(either pure polls or hybrids) to head their 
herds. These are bred to large numbers of 
horned cows. The get of the pure polls will 
all be polled hybrids, and half the get of the 
hybrids, in this case, will be polled hybrids. 
Now, by breeding these polled hybrids together 
we get one fourth pure polls, one half hybrid 
polls and one fourth horned. The pure polls 
thus obtained may become the basis of the 
future polled herds. The pure polls can be 
distinguished from the hybrids as follows: In 
the first place some (may be all) the hybrids 
will have scurs. In the second place, we may 
distinguish them by their progeny. Breed 
the animal to several horned animals; if the 
progeny are all polled, the polled parent is a 


SCIENCE. 


5ol 


pure poll; if half the progeny are horned, the 
polled parent is a hybrid. 

In the case of males, if we breed to twelve 
horned cows and secure twelve polled calves, 
the chances that the male is pure and not a 
hybrid are 4,096 to 1. (Twelfth power of 
29—4,096.) If any of the twelve progeny 
develop perfect horns the chances are great 
that the bull is a hybrid. 

It is more difficult to determine whether a 
polled cow is pure or hybrid. If she have 
scurs, even very small ones, she is hybrid. If 
not, so far as we now know, she may be either 
pure or hybrid. If she regularly produces 
polled calves from horned sires she is pure. 
But, when breeding for polled animals, it is 
expensive to test a polled cow in this way. 
The better plan is to be sure as to the males 
in all cases and treat all females as pure polls 
unless they have scurs or horns. Jn time the 
horns will disappear from the breed. It is 
highly important to remember that when a 
horned calf occurs in a polled breed, either it 
is a hybrid with horns, a thing not yet cer- 
tainly known, or both of its parents are hy- 
brids. There are undoubtedly a few, such 
hybrids in all polled breeds, and when two 
such hybrids mate, one fourth of the progeny 
is horned. The number of such hybrids in a 
breed may be rapidly reduced by discarding 
both sire and dam of all horned animals that 
occur. The same thing will be accomplished 
less rapidly by discarding only the sires. The 
occurrence of scurs, but not perfect horns, 
in an established polled breed indicates that 
one parent only is hybrid. 

W. J. SPmuMan. 


U. S. DepartTMENT or AGRICULTURE. 


PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE 
YAKIMA VALLEY, WASHINGTON.” 


Archeological explorations’? were made in 
the Yakima Valley, Washington, for the 
American Museum of Natural History in the 


+ Published by permission of the trustees of the 
American Museum of Natural History. 

* The first report of these explorations appeared 
in The American Museum Journal, pp. 12-14, 
Vol. IV., No. 1, January, 1904. It was slightly 
revised and appeared in Screncg, N. S., pp. 579- 


502 


first part of the field season of 1903. These 
resulted in the discovery of a number of speci- 
mens and human skeletons, as well as the 
securing of several dozen photographs and a 
mass of field notes. Other data have been se- 
cured, both before the expedition and since, 
from collections and museums. The following 
preliminary account is made up from these 
results which may not be published in full for 
some time to come. 

Central Washington is arid. In most re- 
spects the climate resembles that of the south- 
ern interior of British Columbia to the north. 
The summers are perhaps warmer and the 
winters colder. There is less vegetation and 
no trees are seen except in river bottoms or 
where irrigation has been successfully prose- 
euted. The prehistoric people had no great 
staples and had to rely upon perhaps even a 
greater variety of natural products than did 
the people farther north. 

A glance at the linguistic map of Washing- 
ton shows the great number of tribes inhabit- 
ing the general region. This suggests the 
possibility of the existence of more than one 
culture area within the same territory, al- 
though, of course, we may find several tribes, 
especially if they be subjected to the same 
environment, all within one culture area. 

Definite age can not be assigned to the 
archeological finds, since here, as to the north, 
the remains are found at no great depth or in 
soil the surface of which is frequently shifted. 
Some of the graves are known to be of mod- 
ern Indians, but many of them antedate the 
advent of the white race in this region or at 
least contain no objects of European manu- 
facture such as glass beads or iron knives. 
On the other hand, there was found no posi- 
tive evidence of the great antiquity of any of 
the skeletons, artifacts or structures found in 
the area. 

The implements used in securing food in- 
clude many chipped projectile points of bright- 
colored agates, chalcedonies and similar stone. 
Several small quarries of this material with 


580, Vol. XTX., No. 484, April 8, 1904, and Ree- 
ords of the Past, pp. 119-127, Vol. IV., Part IV., 
April, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


adjacent workshops were found. While the 
bulk of the stone used was quite different 
from the black basalt employed to the north, 
yet a few points chipped from that material 
were also found. Points rubbed out of stone 
or bone were rare. Digging stick handles 
were seen, but no sap-serapers were found. 

Some small heaps of fresh-water clam shells 
were examined, but these being only about 
five feet in diameter and as many inches in 
depth are hardly to be compared to the im- 
mense shell heaps of the coast. Net-sinkers 
were made by notching and also by grooving 
pebbles. Such sinkers were very rare to the 
north and much more numerous here than on 
the coast, except near the mouth of the-Co- 
lumbia River, where grooved sinkers, usually 
slightly different from these, are found. 

For preparing food pestles were used. These 
differ from those found either to the north or 
on the coast, many of them being much longer. 
Some had tops in the form of animal heads. 
Fish knives made of slate were not found and, 
it is believed, pottery was not made in the 
region. 

Sites of ancient semi-underground houses, 
like those found in the Thompson River 
region, were photographed. Here, however, 
stones were seen on top of the embankment. 
No saucer-shaped depressions were seen, but 
circles of stones were found, which similarly 
may mark lodge sites, since the modern Indian 
has a lodge identical in shape with that found 
to the north, where saucer-shaped depressions 
occur. Pairs of arrow-shaft smoothers were 
seen. 

An idea of the ancient form of dress was 
obtained from a costumed human figure carved 
in antler.” It had a feather head-dress like 
that of the present Indians of the region from 
here to as far east as the Dakotas. The hair 

* Figured and described in the Bulletin of the 
American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XX., 
Article XVI., pp. 195-203, and abstracted in The 
Scientific American Supplement, pp. 23876-8, Vol. 
LVIII., No. 1490, July 23, 1904, and in Records 
of the Past, l. c. Data has since been secured 
which verifies most of the conclusions and com- 
pletes other parts but disproves certain minor 
speculations. 


Apri 6, 1906.] 


was dressed and ornamented with dentalium 
shells. The body is represented as painted 
and with a fringed apron around the lions. 
The costume indicated is unlike that of the 
coast, but resembles those of the plateaus to 
the south and the plains to the east. 

Besides a tubular form of pipe, one type 
consisting simply of a bowl was found. This 
is not seen among archeological remains from 
other parts of the northwest, although pipes 
used by the Thompson River Indians seem to 
resemble it. The fact suggests that the cul- 
ture of this region is somewhat more closely 
related to that further east than are the cul- 
tures of the areas to the north and west. 

Art work was found here as in the other 
areas. The object made of antler, engraved 
on one surface to represent a human figure in 
costume, which was found in the grave of a 


little child, is of good technique and artistic. 


execution. The circle and dot design was 
common. Paintings‘ made with red and white 
on basaltic cliffs, many of which represent 
human heads with head-dresses and some the 
whole figure, were also seen. These were made 
up of lines and were pictographic in character. 
Sometimes such pictures were made by peck- 
ing into the surface of the columns, instead 
of by painting.” A design, similar to the part 
of these pictures interpreted as representing 
the head-dress, was also found pecked into the 
surface of a grooved net-sinker. Some of the 
pestles had knobs in the form of animal heads, 
but in general the art of the region tended to 
line work of geometric and pictographic pat- 
terns. The general style of art shows little 
resemblance to that of the coast but a strong 
relationship to that of the plains. 

There were three methods of disposing of 
the dead. In this arid region are stretches 
of country locally known as ‘scab-land,’ on 
which are occasionally groups of low dome- 
shaped knolls from about fifty to one hundred 
feet in diameter by three to six feet in height. 
These knolls consist of fine voleanic ash, and 
apparently have been left by the wind. This 
ashy material has been swept from the inter- 


*A few of which are figured and described in 
loc. cit. 
* Loc. cit. 


SCIENCE. 


553 


vening surface, leaving the ‘scab-land’ paved 
with fragments of basalt imbedded in a hard 
soil. The prehistoric Indians of this region 
have used many of these knolls, each as a site 
for a single grave. These graves, which are 
located in the tops of the knolls, are usually 
marked by large river pebbles, or in some cases 
by fragments of basalt that appear as a cir- 
cular pavement projecting slightly above the 
surface of the soil. In one only did we find 
a box or cyst. This box was formed of thin 
slabs of basaltic rock, some placed on edge and 
two large flat slabs covering the cyst so 
formed. Above this, as was usually the 
ease above the skeletons in this sort of 
grave, the space was filled with irregular 
rocks or pebbles. The skeletons were found 
flexed, on the side. In the graves arti- 
facts, such as dentalium shells, were deposited 
at the time of burial. Simple graves in the 
level ground were not found. The rock slides, 
as in the region to the north, had frequently 
been used as burial places. In these the skele- 
tons were always in a flexed position. Objects 
were found to have been placed in some of 
these graves. Rings of stones were also seen 
and on excavation within them cremated hu- 
man remains were found usually several in 
each circle. In such places dentalium shells, 
flat shell beads and shell ornaments were 
usually seen. 

The prehistoric culture of the region was 
apparently similar to that of the present 
natives. 

Numerous evidences were found of the close 
communication of the people of this culture 
with tribes of the southern interior of British 
Columbia. The preponderance of chipped over 
ground points, digging stick handles, sites of 
semi-underground houses, pestles with tops 
in the form of animal heads, pairs of arrow- 
shaft smoothers, as well as tubular pipes, an 
incised decoration consisting of a circle with 
a dot in it and engraved dentalium shells each 
of a particular kind, besides rock-slide sep- 
ulchers and the custom of burying artifacts 
with the dead, were found to be common to 
both regions. Certain pestles and clubs made 
of stone differed from those found in British 


504 


Columbia, while the chipped implements were 
made of a greater variety of stone, and more 
of beautifully colored material were found. 
Notched and grooved sinkers were much more 
common, and sap-serapers were not found. 

Considerable material of the same art as 
that found in the Dalles region was seen. It 
is clear that the people living in the Yakima 
Valley had extensive communication not only 
with the region northward, as far as the 
Thompson Valley, but also southward as far 
as the Dalles of the Columbia. Im this con- 
nection it is interesting to note that the pres- 
ent Indians of the region travel even more ex- 
tensively than would be necessary to distribute 
their artifacts this far. 

Much less evidence of contact between the 
prehistoric people of the coast and that of the 
Yakima Valley was discovered. Many of the 
pestles and clubs made of stone were different 
from those found on the coast, where, it will 
also be remembered, artifacts were not found 
with the dead. A pipe, however, and sea 
shells of several species were seen. The pipe 
is clearly of the art of the northwest coast. 
It was found far up the Toppenish River, one 
of the western tributaries of the Yakima. 

In general the culture of the prehistoric 
people resembled that of the present natives 
and was afiliated with the cultures further 
east, but differed from both the prehistoric 
and present culture of the coast to the west 
and even of the southern interior of British 
Columbia to the north and The Dalles to the 
south. 

From the whole series of archeological ex- 
plorations, in British Columbia and Washing- 
ton, begun in 1897 for the Jesup North Pacific 
Expedition and continued in 1903 for the 
American Museum of Natural History, we 
have learned that the material culture of the 
prehistoric people and the present natives was 
similar in each area examined; that the cul- 
ture of the coast is of one sort, that of the 
interior of southern British Columbia of an- 
other; from which that of central Washington 

* Mentioned in Museums Journal and Science, 


l. c., figured and mentioned in Records of the Past, 
Uae; 


SCIENCE. 


Bae) 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 588. 


' 

differs somewhat; and that there are several 
small culture areas lying adjacent to these. 
We find that each culture apparently devel- 
oped independently or at least more in accord 
with its own environment and local tradition 
rather than with any outside influence, but 
that at various times, especially in the past, 
each has been influenced by one or more of the 
others. 

In general the culture of the North Pacific 
coast does not extend far inland. Northward 
its limits are unknown, but southward it 
coalesces with that from the Columbia River 
in the region between Seattle and Shoalwater 
Bay. In the interior we have a plateau cul- 
ture of which, likewise, that part to the north 
differs somewhat from that to the south. 

Experience in this work emphasizes the ad- 


visability of conducting archeological investi- 


gations in cooperation with students of living 
tribes. A study of the modern Indian living 
in a country under investigation usually 
throws light on archeological finds made there, 
while an understanding of the antiquities of a 
region often helps in the study of the present 
natives. Besides, in this way the continuity 
of the historical problem is met by a con- 
tinuity of method. 

In selecting successive fields of operation it 
seems best always to continue explorations in 
an area so far distant from one already ex- 
amined that new conditions will be encoun- 
tered. This will make it probable that new 
facts will be discovered; possibly a new culture 
area. -At the same time the new field of opera- 
tions should be near enough that no culture 
may intervene. Thus the boundaries of cul- 
ture areas may be determined and new areas 
discovered. This method of continuation from 
past fields of exploration allows any experience 
there gained to be of service in each new and 
adjacent field, while the discoveries in each 
new region may always lead to a better under- 
standing of the areas explored and that per- 
haps in time for incorporation in the results 
to be published. 

It remains to determine the northern, east- 
ern and southern limits of the general plateau 
culture, how far it may be subdivided into 


Apri 6, 1906.] 


local culture areas, the interrelation of each 
of these, and of each to outside cultures. 

But few specimens have been found in the 
whole area extending from the central Arctic 
region to the Columbia River, and from there 
southward along the coast to the Santa Bar- 
bara Islands, thence to the Pueblo region and 
eastward as far as the mounds of the Missis- 
sippi Valley. Literature on the archeology of 
the area is scanty. That whole region, north 
to the Arctic, across all the plains towards the 
east, and the plateaus south throughout 
Nevada, remains to be explored. 


Haruan I. Smirn. 
AMERICAN MousrEumM oF NATURAL HISTORY. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
CYCLONIC DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. 


Mention has several times been made in 
these columns of the great value of discussions 
of weather elements, not on the basis of 
monthly and annual averages, but on that of 
eyclonie control. A further contribution to 
such investigations is a report by J. A. Udden, 
“On the Cyclonic Distribution of Rainfall’ 
(Augustana Library Publications, No. 4, 
1905). The method employed is the one 
familiarly known as the composite portrait 
method. The general region of a cyclone is 
divided into twenty-five areas, separated by 
four concentric circles and by a series of eight 
radii. The precipitation, wind direction and 
cloudiness shown on the 8 a.M. weather maps 
for a series of selected stations were entered 
in the appropriate divisions, and the results 
then summarized and charted. The stations 
are Davenport (Iowa), Amarillo, Dodge City, 
Wichita, Oklahoma, Helena, Miles City, 
Leander, Boise City, Detroit and Buffalo. In 
some cases the observations relate to the year 
1899 only; in others the period covers several 
years. 

CLIMATIC NOTES ON THE SAHARA. 


Last summer Professor E. F. Gautier, of 
Algiers, crossed the Sahara between Algeria 
and the Niger River, being the first explorer 
to cross this wide part of the desert since 
Laing was murdered near Timbuktu in 1826. 

Gautier says that the Sahara, viewed as a 


SCIENCE. 


500 


desert, is much less extensive than has gen- 
erally been believed. The Adrar plateau, 
from 2,300 to 2,700 feet above sea-level, is not, 
properly speaking, a waste; and while he was 
still 360 miles from Gao on the Niger he 
reached a wide belt of steppe, which is the 
merging of the Sudan with the Sahara. This 
steppe region has its rainy season with about 
six to twelve inches of precipitation every 


year. This quantity suffices to cover the land 
with ponds and grass. Animal life is abun- 
dant. 


Gautier distinguishes between the Tuaregs 
who ride on camels and those who use horses. 
The first inhabit the drier regions; the Tua- 
regs who use horses are on the whole more 
numerous and live in the steppe region and 
along the Niger. 

The explorer found abundant evidences that 
this part of the Sahara once had a very large 
population of the Neolithic period of develop- 
ment. His finds included many arrow-points 
and axes of polished stone. Even the waste 
regions were inhabitable until a comparatively 
recent period. Proofs of this are found in 
the thousands of drawings upon the rocks, the 
graves in which, everywhere, the same kinds 
of implements and other objects were found, 
and the stones used for grinding grain. These 
stones show that agriculture was practised 
here, and that civilization was considerably 
advanced. Y 

The gradual desiccation of this region ad- 
vanced from the Sudan. To-day, however, 
the rain-belt is again extending more and 
more to the north. Gautier distinguishes 
these three epochs: the first was marked by 
dense population; the second by desert condi- 
tions, and in the third, or present period, the 
land is again assuming a steppe-like character. 
—Bull. Am. Geogr. Soc., Jan., 1906. 


METEOROLOGY OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN. 


Tue Meteorological Committee (London) 
has published a twelve-page pamphlet on the 
relation between pressure, temperature and 
air circulation over the South Atlantic Ocean, 
this being a summary of the facts set forth 
on a series of elaborate charts published pre- 
viously by the hydrographic department of 


556 


the British Admiralty. The new pamphlet 
contains charts which show the variations, the 
' position and the intensity of the anti-cyclonic 
areas, and their relation to the doldrums, the 
distribution of gales, fog, ete. Gales reach 
the South Atlantic by crossing the southern 
part of South America, or by rounding Cape 
Horn to the eastward. Fogs are rarely found 
north of the thirtieth parallel, except near the 
land on either side of the ocean, but it is 
increasingly frequent in higher latitudes.— 
Nature, January 11, 1906. 


METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES IN SOUTH AMERICA. 


Tue latest information regarding meteor- 
ology in South America may be found in the 
Monthly Weather Review for September, 1905. 
Previous accounts of the South American 
meteorological services are those of A. Law- 
rence Rotch, ‘ The Meteorological Services of 
South America,’ American Meteorological 
Journal, XI., 1894-95, 187-191, 201-211; and 
R. DeC. Ward, ‘ Meteorology in South Am- 
erica, Scrmnop, N. S., V., 1897, 523-525. 


PROTECTING CRANBERRIES FROM FROST. 


A CRANBERRY grower at Cameron, Wis. 
(Mr. A. C. Bennett), protects his cranberries 
against frost in the following way. The 
marsh is surrounded by banks twenty-five to 
thirty-five feet high, with sloping sides. The 
principal reservoir is northwest of the planta- 
tion, and a trout stream is diverted around 
and outside of the marsh, forming a succes- 
sion of reservoirs entirely surrounding the 
latter, from five to thirty rods wide. As the 
cold air descends from the high surrounding 
banks it must cross these reservoirs of water 
and pass over the dams before it can reach the 
vines.— Mo. Wea. Rev., Oct., 1905. 


NOTES. 


Promptep ‘by what has been urged against 
it by English physicists and others,’ and ‘ by 
the inconclusive nature of the supposed re- 
sults obtained by those who approve of it,’ 
J. R. Sutton, of Kimberley, South Africa, 
has devoted some time to the black bulb 
thermometer in vacuo. His results have been 
published in Trans. So. Afr. Philos. Soc., 
XVI., Part 2, Oct., 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 588. 


Tue typhoon of June 30 and July 1, 1905, 
is discussed in the Bulletin of the Philippine 
Weather Bureau for July, lately received. 
Curves showing the barometer readings at 
Aparri and at Santo Domingo (the latter a 
barograph curve) are given. Students of 
tropical eyclones will find the frequent discus- 
sions of individual typhoons which are pub- 
lished in these Bulletins of great interest. 

ANOTHER account of a tropical cyclone is a 
very much belated one of the West Indian 
hurricane of August 11, 1903, by Maxwell 
Hall, in the Monthly Weather Review for 
September, 1905. Several sets of barometer 
readings during the passage are given. 

THE rapid progress which is being made in 
the exploration of the free air is evidenced 
by the fact that the British Weekly Weather 
Report for January 6 contains, for the first 
time, observations made during kite ascents 


during the first week in January. 
R. DEC. Warp. 


FREDERICK C. PAULMIER. 


Freperick C, Pauntmimr, Ph.D., zoologist to 
the New York State Museum, died in New 
York, March 4, in the thirty-third year of 
his age. Dr. Paulmier was a graduate of 
Princeton University of the class of 1894 and 
received the degree of M.S. in 1896. He held 
a university scholarship in zoology at Co- 
lumbia in 1896-97, was appointed to a fellow- 
ship in 1898-99, was assistant in zoology in 
1899-1900 and received the degree of doctor of 
philosophy in 1900. In the same year he 
became assistant in zoology at the New York 
State Museum at Albany, and in 1904 was 
appointed to the position that he held at the 
time of his death. During his connection 
with the museum he published a number of 
systematic zoological papers including cata- 
logues of the reptiles and batrachians of the 
state (in conjunction with E. C. Eckel), of 
the higher crustacea of the region of New 
York City, and of the squirrels and other 
rodents of the Adirondacks (now in press). 
He also published papers on the crab fisheries 
of Long Island and on the life-history of the 
edible crab. His most considerable contribu- 


Apri, 6, 1906.] 


tion to zoology was, however, an earlier paper 
(published as his doctor’s dissertation) on the 
Spermatogenesis of Anasa tristis, which 
formed one of the first careful studies of the 
history of the ‘ accessory chromosome’ since its 
discovery by Henking, and which gave impor- 
tant data for the general study of the repro- 
duction problem in animals. He was a good 
observer, an enthusiastic field naturalist, and 
a master of the finer laboratory technique. He 
bore with cheerful courage a malady that for 
many years formed an obstacle to his scientific 
activity and at length caused his death. He 
had many interests outside the field of his 
special work and was a generous and helpfnl 
friend. 
E. B. W. 


MECHANICAL FLIGHT. 


Messrs. OrvinbE Wrichr and Wilbur 
Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, under date of March 
12, 1906, have addressed the following state- 
ment to the Aero Club of America: 


Though America, through the labors of Pro- 
fessor Langley, Mr. Chanute, and others, had ac- 
quired not less than ten years ago the recognized 
leadership in that branch of aeronautics which 
pertains to bird-like flight, it has not heretofore 
been possible for American workers to present a 
summary of each year’s experiments to a society 
of their own country devoted exclusively to the 
promotion of aeronautical studies and sports. It 
is with great pleasure, therefore, that we now find 
ourselves able to make a report to such a society. 

“Previous to the year 1905 we had experi- 
mented at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with man- 
carrying gliding machines in the years 1900, 1901, 
1902 and 1903; and with a man-carrying motor 
flyer, which, on the 17th day of December, 1903, 
sustained itself in the air for 59 seconds, during 
which time it advanced against a 20-mile wind a 
distance of 852 feet. Flights to the number of 
more than 100 had also been made at Dayton, 
Ohio, in 1904, with a second motor flyer. Of 
these flights, a complete circle made for the first 


Sept. 26 17,961 meters (1114 miles) 
Sept. 29 19,570 meters (12 miles) 
SepessOmy neon isiy cite Cnvencla sey tepetad stat RRA. 
Oct. 24,535 meters (1514 miles) 


(2034 miles) 


3 
Oct. 4 33,456 meters 
5 (241% miles) 


38,956 meters 


SCIENCE. 


5d7 


time on the 20th of September, and two flights of 
3 miles each made on the 9th of November and 
the Ist of December, respectively, were the more 
notable performances. A 
“The object of the 1905 experiments was to de- 
termine the cause and discover remedies for sev- 
eral obscure and somewhat rare difficulties which 
had been encountered in some of the 1904 flights, 
and which it was necessary to overcome before it 
would be safe to employ flyers for practical pur- 
poses. The experiments were made in a swampy 
meadow about 8 miles east of Dayton, Ohio, and 
continued from June until the early days of Oc- 
tober, when the impossibility of longer maintain- 
ing privacy necessitated their discontinuance. 
“Owing to frequent experimental changes in 
the machine and the resulting differences in its 
management, the earlier flights were short; but, 
towards the middle of September, means of cor- 
recting the obscure troubles were found, and the 
flyer was at last brought under satisfactory con- 
trol. From this time forward almost every flight 
established a new record. In the following 
schedule the duration, distance and cause of 
stopping are given for some of the later flights. 
“Tt will be seen that an average speed of a 
little more than 38 miles an hour was maintained 
in the last flight. All of the flights were made 
oyer a circular course of about three fourths of 
a mile to the lap, which reduced the speed some- 
what. The machine increased its velocity on 
the straight parts of the course and slowed down 
on the curves. It is believed that in straight 
flight the normal speed is more than 40 miles an 
hour. In the earlier of the flights named above 
less than 6 pounds of gasoline was carried. In 
the later ones a tank was fitted large enough to 
hold fuel for an hour, but by oversight it was not 
completely filled before the flight of October 5. 
“Tn the past three years a total of 160 flights 
have been made with our motor-driven flyers, and 
a total distance of almost exactly 160 miles coy- 
ered, an average of a mile to each flight, but until 
the machine had received its final improvements 
the flights were mostly short, as is evidenced by 
the fact that the flight of October 5th was longer 
than the 105 flights of the year 1904 together. 


Exhaustion of fuel. 
Exhaustion of fuel. 
Hot bearing. 
Hot bearing. 
Hot bearing. 
Exhaustion of fuel. 


18 min. 9 see. 
19 min. 55 see. 
17 min. 15 see. 
25 min. 5 sec. 
33 min. 17 sec. 
38 min. 3 sec. 


558 


“The lengths of the flights were measured by 
a Richard anemometer which was attached to the 
machine. The records were found to agree closely 
with the distance measured over the ground when 
the flights were made in calm air over a straight 
course; but when the flights were made in circles 
a close comparison was impossible because it was 
not practicable to accurately trace the course over 
the ground. In the flight of October 5th a total 
of 29.7 circuits of the field was made. The times 
were taken with stop-watches. In operating the 
machine it has been our custom for many years 
to alternate in making flights, and such care has 
been observed that neither of us has suffered any 
serious injury, though in the earlier flights our 
ignorance and the inadequacy of the means of 
control made the work exceedingly dangerous. 

“The 1905 flyer had a total weight of about 925 
pounds, including the operator, and was of such 
substantial construction as to be able to make 
landings at high speed without being strained or 
broken. From the beginning the prime object 
was to devise a machine of practical utility, rather 
than a useless and extravagant toy. For this rea- 
son extreme lightness of construction has always 
been resolutely rejected. On the other hand, 
every effort has been made to increase the scien- 
tific efficiency of the wings and screws in order 
that even heavily built machines may be carried 
with a moderate expenditure of power. The 
favorable results which have been obtained have 
been due to improvements in flying quality result- 
ing from more scientific design and to improved 
methods of balancing and steering. The motor 
and machinery possess no extraordinary qualities. 
The best dividends on the labor invested have in- 
variably come from seeking more knowledge rather 
than more power.” 

Very respectfully, 
(Signed) ORvimnLE WRIGHT. 
(Signed) Wimsur Wsricut. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. WaLTHER NeERNST, professor of physical 
chemistry in the University of Berlin, will 
give this year the Silliman lectures at Yale 
University. 


Sir George Darwin arrived in New York on 
March 23. He will represent the Royal So- 
ciety, the British Association, the Royal In- 
stitution and the University of Cambridge at 
the anniversary meeting of. the American 
Philosophical Society to commemorate the two 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von, XXIII. No. 588. 


hundredth anniversary of the birth of Ben- 
jamin Franklin, its founder. 

Dr. Herrich Bruns, professor of astron- 
omy at Leipzig, and Dr. Hugo von Seeliger, 
professor of astronomy at Munich, have been 
elected corresponding members of the Berlin 
Academy of Sciences. 


Proressor Ropert Kocu, of Berlin, has 
been elected a foreign member of the Brussels 
Academy of Sciences. 

Proressor J. M. Prernter, director of the 
Vienna Meteorological Bureau, has been 
elected an honorary member of the London 
Meteorological Society. : 

Proressor Wittiam A. KeLiprMan, of the 
Ohio State University, has returned from 
Guatemala where for three months he has been 
studying and collecting parasitic fungi. He 
reports a very interesting and satisfactory trip, 
and brings from several sections, especially 
from the higher altitudes including three vol- 
canoes, a very large quantity of material for 
critical study. No mycologist has traversed 
these regions before, and it is expected that in- 
teresting results will be secured. 

Dr. Paut Kucxkuck, curator of the Biolog- 
ical Institute of Heligoland, has been granted 
the title of professor by the German goyern- 
ment. 


M. Bouquet has been appointed astronomer 
in the Paris Observatory. 

Dr. F. W. Care, professor of mineral 
chemistry, George Washington University, 
will give a special course of lectures in chem- 
ical geology on Mondays at 4:50 P.M. as 
follows: 

April 2.—‘ Introductory: The Elements and the 
Atmosphere.’ 

April 9.—‘ The Hydrosphere.’ 

April 16.— The Magma and the Igneous Rocks.’ 

April 23.—‘ The Sedimentary Rocks.’ 

April 30.— Ore Deposits.’ 

May 7.— Coal, Petroleum and Natural Gas.’ 

Mr. Winuiam Sowersy, for many years 
secretary of the Royal Botanic Society, Re- 
gent’s Park, died in Hertfordshire, on March 9. 

Tue death is also announced of Dr. Her- 
mann Lorberg, associate professor of physics 
in the University of Bonn; of Albert Nilsson, 


Aprin 6, 1906.] 


lecturer in the School of Forestry at Stuttgart; 
and of Dr. y. d. Crone, assistant in plant 
physiology in the Agricultural School at 
Bonn-Poppelsdorf. 


THERE will be a New York state civil ser- 
vice examination, on April 14, to fill the posi- 
tion of zoologist in the education department, 
vacant by the death of Dr. F. C. Paulmier. 
The candidate should be well versed in sys- 


tematic and descriptive zoology and possess an | 


acquaintance with the species of the New 
York fauna, especially those of mammals, 
birds, reptiles, fishes and mollusks. Museum 
experience in the care of such collections, in 
mounting, labeling and disinfecting, is essen- 
tial, as the work is in a large degree curatorial. 
The salary is $1,200. 


We learn from the daily papers that, on 
March 27, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell’s tetra- 
hedral kite was put to use in some experiments, 
near Washington, with wireless telegraphy. 
It has been found troublesome to send’ mes- 
sages across the Atlantic for want of towers 
in midocean. The idea of sending up kites 


of the tetrahedral pattern from midocean sta-. 


tion steamers would solve the problem. Dr. 
Bell loaned one of his largest kites, having 
930 cells, which was operated by W. F. Bed- 
win. The kite was sent up 2,000 feet, and 
from antennz 400 feet long messages were 
caught and transmitted down over a steel 
wire. Messages were received from the United 
States naval wireless station at the Washing- 
ton navy yard, from the De Forest station at 
Galilee, N. J., near Atlantic Highlands, and 
from the steamer Bermudian, 100 miles out 
from New York and more than 350 miles 
from the kites. 


Tue New York Hvening Post states that 
Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, professor of pathol- 
ogy at Columbia University and a graduate 
of Yale University, has given to the Peabody 
Museum of Yale University his collection: of 
archeological objects connected with the an- 
cient cliff-dwellers and Pueblos of southern 
Utah, southern Colorado, and the territories of 
Arizona and New Mexico, as well as some 
modern Pueblo material. The collection con- 


SCIENCE. 


559 


sists largely of pottery, textile fabrics, orna- 
ments and objects used in ancient religious 
rites. With the collection Dr. Prudden gives 
the necessary cases, his field notes, and a map 
of the region drawn by himself. 


THE sixth meeting of the Association of 
Teachers of Mathematics in the Middle States 
and Maryland will be held at Teachers College, 
Columbia University, on April 14. 


We learn from Nature that the position of 
the South Africa medal fund for the endow- 
ment of a medal and scholarship or student- 
ship in commemoration of the visit of the 
British Association to South Africa in 1905 is 
stated in a circular just issued by Professor J. 
Perry, honorary treasurer to the fund. The 
subscriptions promised or ‘paid amounted to 
£752; and to this the council of the British 
Association has resolved to add the unexpended. 
balance of the special South African fund, 
amounting to about £800. The following re- 
port of the executive committee was adopted 
at a meeting of subscribers on March 2, and 
approved by the council of the British Associa- 
tion:—(a) That the fund be devoted to the 
preparation of a die for a medal to be struck 
in bronze, 24 inches in diameter, and that the 
balance be imvested and the annual income 
held in trust; (b) that the medal and income 
of the fund be awarded by the South African 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
for achievement and promise in scientific re- 
search in South Africa; (c) that, so far as cir- 
cumstances admit, the award be made an- 
nually. 

THe German government has decided to 
establish a meteorological station on Lake 
Constanee, near Friedrichshafen. It will 
cost $15,000, the states of Bavaria, Wirttem- 
berg, Baden and Alsace-Lorraine joining in 
the expense. Extensive study of the atmos- 
phere will be made daily by means of kites 
from specially constructed boats on the lake. 
Similar stations already exist in northern 
Germany at Lindenberg and Hamburg, and 
plans are being made to erect another station 
in the northeast. 


Mr. Fer writes, in a consular report, that 
the new standard time for India was adopted 


560 


in Bombay, on January 1, and is gradually 
overcoming the prejudice incident to a new 
departure. He further says: “The Indian 
standard time is in advance five hours and 
thirty minutes of Greenwich time, being nine 
minutes faster than Madras time, about 
twenty-four minutes slower than Caleutta 
time, and about thirty-nine minutes faster 
than Bombay local mean time, the longitude 
of the city of Bombay being 72° 52’ east of 
Greenwich. Five hours and thirty minutes 
advance of Greenwich time would be the local 
mean time for longitude 82° 30’ east of Green- 
wich. This parallel of longitude passes 
through India at about the eastern mouth of 
Godavery River in the Bay of Bengal, and 
near Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, 
on the Ganges River. It is the local mean 
time of this parallel that now sets the stan- 
dard of time for all India. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mr. Anprew Carneciz has given $2,000,000 
in addition to previous gifts for the mainten- 
ance of the Carnegie Technical Schools, Pitts- 
burg. It is also announced that Mr. Carnegie 
has expressed a desire that the Margaret 
Morrison Carnegie School for Women be com- 
pleted as soon as possible, and has assured the 
committee that he will meet the expense. 


By the will of the late Andrew J. Dotger, 
of South Orange, N. J., the Tuskegee Insti- 
tute will receive $655,000 on the death of his 
wite. 

Ir is announced that about $50,000 has al- 
ready been raised for the new professorship of 
lumbering in the Yale Forest School of the 
$150,000 which is sought as an endowment. 
In fourteen western states $44,000 was raised 
from sixty contributors, representing in the 
main corporations and firms. 


OFFICIAL announcement has been made of 
the establishment of a Colonial School to be 
conducted by Yale and Columbia Universities. 
The school is intended to prepare students for 
work in foreign countries, in federal service, 
business enterprises or missionary or scien- 
tific work. The courses include six divisions 
—languages, geography, ethnography, history, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXITI. No. 588. 


economics and law. There will be a three- 
year course for candidates for the consular 
service and two years for other candidates. 
Students will receive a joint certificate, 
signed by the presidents of Yale and Columbia 
Universities. 


Tue Morton Memorial Laboratory of Chem- 
istry of the Stevens Institute of Technology, 
erected at a cost of $150,000 by the alumni in 
memory of Dr. Henry Morton, former presi- 
dent of the imstitute, is now occupied by 
classes. 


THE main building of the University of 
Idaho was destroyed by fire on March 30. 


Proressor A. W. WricHt has announced 
his intention to retire from active service as 
professor of experimental physics and direc- 
tor of the Sloane Physical Laboratory of Yale 
College, at the close of the present academic 
year. Professor Wright graduated from Yale 
University in 1859, received the degree of 
doctor of philosophy in 1861 and has been 
professor there since 1872. He will be suc- 
ceeded by Dr. Henry A. Bumstead, assistant 
professor in the Sheffield Scientifie School. 
Professor Eugene L. Richards, who graduated 
from Yale in 1860 and has taught there since 
1868, will retire from the chair of mathematics 
at the close of the present year. 


Proressor Howarp Epwarps, who holds the 
chair of modern languages in the Michigan 
Agricultural College, has accepted the presi- 
dency of the Rhode Island institution to suc- 
ceed Kenyon L. Butterfield, who has been 
called to the presidency of the Massachusetts 
College. 

Dr. Ratew B. Perry, assistant professor of 
philosophy at Harvard University, has de- 
clined the call to a chair of philosophy at 
Leland Stanford University. 


Mr. Louis A. Martin, Jr., M.E. (Stevens), 
M.A. (Columbia), has been promoted from in- 
structor to assistant professor of mathematics 
and mechanics in Stevens Institute of Tech- 
nology. 

Dr. W. A. THornton has been appointed to 
the newly-created professorship of electrical 
engineering at Armstrong College, Newcastle. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Apri 13, 1906. The Installation of President Houston...... 596 
5 The American Philosophical Society........ 597 
CONTENTS. Ena 
; i Scientific Notes and News...............4. 598 
The Academic Career as affected by Admin- 
istration: PROFESSOR JOSEPH JASTROW.... 561 600 


Scientific Books :-— 
Merriman’s Elements of Mechanics, James’s 
Hlements of the Kinematics of a Point and 
the Rational Mechanics of a Particle: Pro- 
FEssoR L. M. Hoskins. Patterson’s The 
Other Side of Evolution: Proressor C. H. 


EIGENMANN : 574 


Societies and Academies :-— 
The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts 
and Letters: CHartes E. Aten. The 
Philosophical Society of Washington: 
CHARLES K. Weap. The Oregon State 
Academy of Sciences: PROFESSOR GEORGE H. 
CoeHinn. University of Colorado Scientific 


Society: PROFESSOR FRANCIS RAMALEY 579 


Discussion and Correspondence :-— 
Meteorite Shower at Modoc, Kansas: 
OutiveR C. Farrineton. Capture of the 
West Indian Seal at Key West, Florida: 
Dr. C. H. Townsend. On the Origin of 
the Small Mounds of the Lower Mississippi 


Valley and Texas: P. J. FARNSWORTH..... 582 


Special Articles :— 

The Fish Genus Alabes or Cheilobranchus: 
Dr. THEeo. Gint. The Functions of the 
Fins of Fishes: PROFESSOR RAYMOND C. Os- 
BURN. Oolumbia Field Work im 1905, In- 
tercollegiate Field Courses im Geology: 
THomas C. Brown. The Hmbryogeny of 
Symplocarpus Foetidus Salisb.: C. Orro 
RoseNDAHL. Lower Paleozoic Formations 
in New Mexico: C. H. Gorpon, L. C. 
Graton. A New Method for the Homo- 
plastic Transplantation of the Ovary: 
ALEXIS CARREL and C. C. GUTHRIE........ 


Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Annals of Mont Blanc Observatory ; 
Meteorologische Zeitschrift; Forests and 
Rainfall; Notes: PRoressor R. DEC. 
\WWARINE BRE Garibcomina ddd Sb on ouAte Babe oaae 


584 


Carbon Suboxide: Dr. J. BisHop TINGLE.... 593 
Analysis of the Results of the Twelfth Census 594 
Awards of the Royal Geographical Society.. 594 
The Congress of the United States......... 595 
‘The Ohio State University................ 


University and Hducational News.......... 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of SclENCE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THH ACADEMIC CAREER AS AFFECTED BY 
ADMINISTRATION. 


IT is my purpose to discuss, in accordance 
with the central theme of this conference, 
the influences exerted upon the academic 
career by the present administrative con- 
duct of university affairs. Whether or not 
we are prepared to admit that whatever is 
best administered is best, it seems both fair 
and profitable to judge the value of admini- 


+In view of the appearance in ScIENCE of Pro- 
fessor Cattell’s proposals for university organiza- 
tion, I have decided to avail myself of the wider 
publicity for my own treatment of a related 
issue. My presentation, in common with that of 
Mr. Munroe (Scrmnce, December 29, 1905) was 
read before the Trustees’ Conference held at the 
University of Illinois in October, 1905. My per- 
sonal judgment endorses the complete reconstruc- 
tive plan that Professor Cattell proposes; 
I have, however, confined my constructive 
suggestions to two urgent but simple meas- 
ures that may be looked upon as the minimum 
step in the ‘ gradual evolution’ by which the com- 
prehensive plan is to be established. The public 
discussion of this problem and the indication of 
the defective status of university organization and 
tendencies, are in themselves decided gains in 
shaping opinion. The danger to the academic 
career seems to me the most serious menace. 
Any steps taken for the relief of this situation 
will most directly further the cultural interests 
of the nation. 


562° 


strative provisions by the success with 
which they further the vital ends to which 
they are but means. Clearly the admini- 
stration of a university is no end in itself, 
but only a subordinate contributory meas- 
ure for advancing the real interest of the 
higher education. Boards of trustees, and 
presidents, and deans, and committees 
would be only a hindrance and not in 
the least a help to the cause for which 
universities exist, if these offices could not 
justify their existence and the methods of 
their maintenance by their furtherance of 
worthy educational ideals. Altogether too 
long has there prevailed alike an unques- 
tioned assumption that such is the ease, 
and—still more unfortunately—a timid 
suppression or impatient frowning down of 
any questioning in regard thereto. 

It would be desirable, but may not be 
practicable, to consider in an _ historical 
temper, how American conditions have de- 
veloped a distinctive scheme of university 
administration—a system that departs from 
the models of the old world in a direction 
peculiarly incompatible with our national 
ideals and principles. To say that the 
government of our universities is undemo- 
eratic may be no fatal condemnation; but 
it indicates a singular departure from the 
spirit that animates many of our formal 
administrative measures even outside of 
the political field. The situation, moreover, 
is the more notable because foreign uni- 
versities in pronounced aristocratic coun- 
tries offer the contrast of placing the wel- 
fare of the cultural and academic life—the 
authority as well as the responsibility— 
upon those whose life-work is bound up 
with and furthered by such institutions, 
and of thus adopting for monarchical uni- 
versities a thoroughly democratic form of 
government. President Pritchett’s review 
of this and allied situations? may be cor- 
. dially commended. He does not hesitate to 
? Atlantic Monthly, September, 1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


say that our autocratic methods of univer- 
sity management would be nothing less 
than intolerable to the German scholar, 
while emphasizing that the German method 
is precisely what the spirit of our institu- 
tions would presumably favor. This incon- 
sistency of university government with the 
national ideals which university teaching 
is called upon to foster is certainly signifi- 
cant. 

Tt needs no discernment to discover that 
the actual and authoritative government of 
our colleges and universities does not rest 
with the faculties thereof; it rests with 
the president and the board of trustees or 
regents. In spite of the diversity of prac- 
tise, the distribution of authority has un- 
mistakably emphasized, and increasingly 
so, the importance of the presidential office 
and the regulative function of the board, 
and has given to the faculty a less and less 
influential voice in the actual direction of 
affairs, in the initiative of educational ex- 
pansion and in the shaping and control of 
the academic career. The central question 
that can not and should not be longer 
avoided, but which should be asked in a 
perfectly amicable, thoroughly helpful, 
wholly impartial temper, is whether pres- 
ent arrangements are to be approved and 
gradually improved; or whether they are 
to be regarded as fundamentally unfortu- 
nate, as something of a menace to the se- 
eurity of our educational future. If any 
profit is to come from the discussion, the 
same frankness that approaches so serious 
a question with honest doubt, but without 
timidity, must be adopted both by those 
who uphold and by those who oppose the 
spirit and issues of actual institutions. In 
this spirit I place myself with those who 
look with alarm upon the further growth 
of present-day tendencies, and who believe 
that both logic and policy point to an ad- 
ministration of university affairs that shall 
be based upon a different emphasis of 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


principles, upon a different administrative 
temper. 
Doubtless many of the conditions, both 


favorable and unfavorable, have grown up 


in very indirect connection with any well- 
matured policy. They have taken shape 
rather by the stress of circumstance, by 
provisional expediency, by the necessity of 
advancing as one could if one were to ad- 
vance at all; and this fact offers not only 
a large measure of excuse for existing de- 
ficiencies, but also lightens the task of those 
who question whether future wisdom lies 
where the prudent compromise of the past 
has directed. I repeat, then, that the 
fundamental standard by which adminis- 
trative means are to be judged is that of 
meeting the cultural ends for which univer- 
sities are called into being. And with 
equal confidence it is urged that those 
whose training and talents and purposes in 
life are concerned professionally with these 
cultural ends are best fitted and most justly 
entitled to the shaping of the policy and 
the practical direction of affairs of the in- 
stitutions whose guidance is an intimate 
part of their lives. The appeal of these 
principles to the judgment of those either 
conversant with or appreciative of matters 
intellectual, seems to me so overwhelmingly 
strong, that the mere placing of them in 
this fundamental formative position is ade- 
quate to command general assent. 

The practical interests transfer the dis- 
cussion to the limitations and possible 
dangers of too formal a following of this 
doctrine. For above all, the situation is a 
practical one; here, as elsewhere, a condi- 
tion confronts us, but also here, as else- 
where, a condition that derives illumina- 
tion from the application thereto of an ap- 
propriate theory. American conditions, as 
they affect universities, are so complex, so 
unprecedented and so entirely unprovided 
for by governmental or other regulations, 
that we must solve the problems of their 


SCIENCE. 


563 


maintenance more independently than 
would be the case in older communities. It 
has been our national fate to be called upon 
to feel our way by practical wisdom, often 
by a hand-to-mouth policy, with justifiable 
satisfaction at the notable achievements 
that followed so closely upon the remote- 
ness from opportunity of the pioneer. 
This intensely practical development found 
natural expression in assigning the man- 
agement of academic, as of all other pub- 
lic concerns, particularly as matters of 
finance, to a non-professional body of citi- 
zens; and to this body has been given the 
largest authority and indirectly a pecul- 
larly formidable control of the entire 
university interests. That this control 
has in the past been variously unfortunate 
is not a point upon which I wish to dwell. 
Let the past stand as it is, and serve its 
worthiest purpose in warning against the 
dangers of the future. The practical issue 
arises not so much from the constituted au- 
thority as from the mode of using it. Here 
is the nub of the whole matter; and here 
some measure of human psychology enters. 

It seems difficult for our civilization to 
foster the type of man who has authority, 
but finds the highest use of this possession 
in the restraint thereof, holding it m check 
for an emergency. Why have authority if 
not to exercise it freely and conspicuously, 
even to the show of power for the sake of 
showing power! Other ways may be better; 
but what we say ‘goes,’ as the phrase of the 
street has it. Naturally such an impulse 
can find consoling excuse for its distrust to 
yield to others any share of vested author- 
ity, can readily overlook that not the statu- 
tory provisions, but the spirit in which they 
are carried out, forms the essence of all 
that is writ in the laws and the prophets. 
Tt is possibly because this quality of human 
nature—for which the American idiom has 
evolved the term ‘boss ’—is less pro- 
nounced in the academic man than in 


564 


almost any other, that he finds it difficult 
to realize how vitally it affects the motives 
and actions of men devoted to other affairs. 
I confess that I found incomprehensible the 
declaration of one whose character com- 
mands my admiration, that he would far 
prefer to be mayor of Chicago than Presi- 
dent of the United States; and for no other 
reason than that the exercise of the per- 
sonal power of which the former officer dis- 
poses, would furnish him with the keenest 
satisfaction, with the most deeply felt trib- 
ute to his own success. That such type of 
man possesses many qualities of great value 
must be admitted; but such qualities are in 
no situation less appropriate than in the 
governing boards of universities. There, if 
anywhere, is needed one who finds within 
him no impulse to use power wantonly, no 
tendeney to control where cooperation 
alone is desired, to interpret his office in 
any other spirit than of determining, with 
generous confidence in expert opinion, what 
ends are most to be desired, and of using 
his practical wisdom in aiding the purposes 
of the common cause. As the national ex- 
periments in benevolent assimilation have 
been more notable for the success of the lat- 
ter than of the former quality, so has the 
trustees’ interpretation of cooperative con- 
trol emphasized the latter to the disparage- 
ment of the former element. That the cor- 
rection for this tendency lies neither in the 
abolition of boards of trustees, nor neces- 
sarily in their reconstruction, but only in 
the transformation of the policy by which 
the division of authority between them and 
the faculty shall be regulated, will appear 
in due course. 

Let us remain a moment longer with the 
bare description of things as they are.® 


’T must here intrude a word of explanation. 
My task requires that I speak frankly of existing 
conditions; and were any one disposed to misin- 
terpret the spirit in which that is done, personal 
considerations and the reference to particular men 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


The status quo, summarily exhibited, re- 
cites that the board and. the president dis- 
pose of many, most or all of the measures 
that affect im any decisive manner the 
growth and official welfare of the univer- 
sity, and that affect the personal and pro- 
fessional welfare of the professor. The 
board in framing its edicts looks to the 
president as the source of initiative; sets 
ereat store by the president’s approval; 
follows his lead in determining academic 
sentiment or university needs; awards 
medals of gold or silver or bronze, or dis- 
misses with honorable mention or without 
it, in accordance with his verdicts; decides 
what shall be done first and what last and 
what not at all, largely according to his 
judgment or preferences. In all this it 
depends, as a rule, wholly upon the tem- 
perament of the president whether he con- 
sults or does not consult faculty opinion. 
His measures may, and most of them do, go 
directly to the board; they are announced 


or institutions might be read into a discussion in 
which they have no place. I shall offer no 
affront to any who may be interested in what I 
have to say by implying any such misconstruc- 
tion. The discussion will be maintained upon a 
wholly objective basis. As is regarded as proper 
in speaking of the dead, I shall refer to no partic- 
ular institution except to praise it. Yet I would 
not have it said that I am speaking of imaginary 
or exaggerated conditions, not of real ones. I 
have constantly in mind actual conditions in 
definite institutions; I find it necessary to exer- 
cise caution not to refer to them so definitely that 
their identity will be surmised. A deliberately 
cultivated acquaintance with many members of 
many faculties, a considerable range of earnest 
and confidential discussion of actual conditions are 
the basis of my observation. My observations may 
be faulty; but they are free, they are honestly 
acquired and have been slowly matured. Some 
may be inclined to consider the conditions over- 
drawn, because they have in mind the few most 
exceptional universities in which the spirit of 
administration is far more favorable than I. 
picture it. It is the average, not the exceptionally 
best, that counts in this discussion; and it is the 
average to which I address myself. 


Arrin 13, 1906.] 


by the president to the faculty as final de- 
cisions; and the faculty is called upon to 
carry out the decision in reaching which 
they have had no part. Officially and 
authoritatively, the faculty enjoys—as one 
is said to enjoy bad health—painfully re- 
stricted rights. Its members naturally 
make their influence felt through unoffi- 
cial, mainly individual, prestige. Yet in 
many academic autocracies, the president 
would look askance upon the direct con- 
ference of a member of the faculty with a 
member of the board, especially to urge 
views opposed to his own. This is the 
situation stated in its mildest, most ob- 
jective terms. Introduce a tactful, sym- 
pathetic personality, and the even tenor 
of academic life is likely to proceed with 
reasonable serenity. Many colleges—par- 
ticularly the smaller ones, with simpler 
problems, more unified interests—will be 
happily governed by any system and under 
such leadership as they are likely to ac- 
cept. But surround the situation with the 
actual complexities of a great and expand- 
ing university, and inject into this relation 
what the gods oceasionally or oftener give 
unto masterful men—personal ambition, 
a secretive habit of mind, a protective in- 
sensibility, a pseudo-diplomatic behavior, 
and the love of power that seems to come 
with the executive title—and you have a 
situation that may vary from the ridicu- 
lously irritating to the sublimely intoler- 
able. 

I am tempted to refer, though main- 
taining the incognito, to a recent experi- 
ence. A member of a faculty propounded 
to me the attitude of its president as a 
psychological problem. I was unable to 
give any enlightenment, but this is the en- 
lightenment that I received, the result of a 
careful inductive study. (1) Whenever 
President X. announced to his surprised 
faculty that the board had adopted such 
and such a measure, it proved to mean that 


SCIENCE. 


565 


the president had proposed the measure to 
the wholly innocent board, and that it was 
a measure that the faculty, were it given 
a chance, would have cordially opposed. 
(2) When a measure was ‘up’ before the 
faculty, and opposition unexpectedly de- 
veloped, an announcement was made by 
President X. that there were reasons, which 
unfortunately he could not disclose, that 
really made the measure necessary, and 
this meant that if not approved by the 
faculty, the board would take the proposed 
step anyway. ‘There were two other types 
of situations that entered into this psycho- 
logical analysis; but they are too individ- 
ual to make it proper to cite them. 

The academic comment that occasionally 
reaches the college president’s ears to the 
effect that his troubles are largely of his 
own making is intended to remind him 
that he encourages, or complacently accepts, 
does not, at all events, protest against 
and strive for the abolition of the condi- 
tions out of which troubles naturally grow. 
When the presidential policy, or better, the 
university policy, shall favor the settle- 
ment of intrinsically educational questions 
by the faculty and not for the faculty, the 
president’s lot will be a happier one. The 
principle that the essential questions, the 
critically formative and expanding meas- 
ures, the issues that make or mar the 
academic career, shall be shaped by faculty 
consideration, equally demands that they 
shall not be authoritatively or virtually dis- 
posed either by the board or by the presi- 
dent. As to the actual business of the 
faculty: it is a rather dreary tale. De- 
tails, routine, student affairs, occasionally 
a real issue that somehow reaches that 
body, but in regard to which they can act 
only conditionally, not authoritatively ; 
such is the situation that naturally en- 
courages inconsequential talk, inefficient 
deliberation, restrained initiative. It is 
nothing short of absurd to withdraw from 


566 


faculty discussion all the real educational 
issues, and expect a company of scholarly 
men to grow enthusiastic over the privilege 
of wearily debating how a sophomoric at- 
tempt to vault over or climb around the 
regulations shall be thwarted, or whether 
the mandolin club both played and behaved 
so badly upon its last venture that its lead- 
ing strings should profitably be shortened. 
One can comfortably resign oneself to pick- 
ing the bones when one has dined off the 
fowl, but to have the bird presented after 
it has been shorn of its attractions at the 
first table makes a sorry feast. 

At this stage we must examine with the 
practical purpose of this discussion, the 
types of questions and interests that re- 
quire consideration in university affairs. 
There is first the appointment of the in- 
structional staff. In this respect enlight- 
ened opinion has accomplished a notable 
success. In the best type of universities, 
those most closely concerned have adequate 


means of making their opinion effective; . 


the president and the board take those ex- 
ecutive and formal steps that lead to the 
election of the candidate and adjudicate 
where some final authority must assume 
responsibility. Where this is not the case, 
the tendency is at least favorable to such 
a consummation ; though abuses of privilege 
are by no means obsolete. Yet the fact 
that this phase of the situation has ap- 
proached a most commendable status should 
be as frankly emphasized as other less satis- 
factory phases should be frankly con- 
demned. In principle many prefer the 
practise of Yale University, in which such 
nominations are presented for the approval 
of the faculty. With the proper spirit the 
essential ends are accomplished by either 
procedure. 

When we come, secondly, to the matter of 
promotions and salaries, the situation ac- 
quires a somber cast. In some few insti- 
tutions the methods, though not perfectly 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


so, are commendable, in many others mod- 
erately perverse, in the rest intolerable. 
Merely because that is another story, yet 
a closely related one, do I reluctantly pass 
by the burning question of the inadequacy 
of professors’ incomes. I content myself 
with the expression that were those salaries 
as nearly adequate as they could readily 
become were sentiment properly effective, 
certain of the administrative problems 
would find readier solution; yet in saying 
this I wish also to emphasize the converse: 
that were our administrative provisions 
more suitable, the professor’s financial 
status would have been far more favorable 
than it now is—and of this more anon. 
That there obtain widely different opin- 
ions as to what a professor should be paid 
is Inevitable; that there should prevail such 
general misconception as to what influences 
should determine his compensation, is not 
inevitable, only unfortunate. This text, 
also, I must not allow myself to elaborate, 
though there is strong temptation to do so. 

As an administrative policy, the salary 
problems should be and in large measure 
ean be solved by preventing them from 
arismg. Policy is here all important. 
With many others, I hold as desirable 
above all other arrangements, an effective 
provision that shall pledge a definite and 
dependable living for worthy service. This 
would go far towards avoiding the con- 
stant and irritating perplexities that from 
time to time, and in some institutions at 
the close of each academic year, present 
themselves with threatening features to be 
somehow appeased. A system of this gen- 
eral type is well established at Harvard 
University. What I emphasize as essential 
therein is that men are elected to positions 
of definite rank, for definite periods, with 
definite understandings. The central issue 
that is to be determined at the close of the 
period is whether the university desires to 
retain the services of the occupant; if so, 


Apri 13, 1906.] 


he steps to the next grade with constantly 
increasing salary. A normal line of ad- 
vancement is thus provided. More rapid 
promotion is always open to promptly es- 
tablished worth and efficiency, and should 
indeed be the rule, not the exception. Such 
measure of elasticity the system designedly 
retains. There is always opportunity for 
any one to present such considerations as 
may be proper, and to reenforce them by 
such arguments as may be suitable, to urge 
promotion at such time and in such degree 
as the circumstances warrant. Speaking 
generally: for all whose fitness for the 
academic life has been established, the 
question of salary is as nearly as possible 
disposed of and advancement is secure. 
Such a system represents about as prac- 
ticable a compromise between ideal and 
available measures as present circumstances 
permit. It has at all events the supreme 
advantage of minimizing, and in a fortu- 
nate environment, of avoiding wholly the 
endless disaffections and positive injuries 
that are inevitable when such matters de- 
pend wholly upon the decision of one or 
two men, whose natural inclination under 
present circumstances is only too likely to 
regard the salary item in the budget as the 
one that admittedly should be first, but is 
likely to come last. The administrative 
feeling creeps in or is openly defended, 
that so long as places ean be filled, salaries 
are not the first consideration. It is this 
phase of the president’s activity that es- 
tranges him from colleagueship with his 
faculty. 

How far down in the academic scale this 
system is applicable can not be determined 
offhand. Yet in the spirit of an institu- 
tion in which such a system is liberally ad- 
ministered, it should be easy to place the 
‘greatest emphasis upon offering to the men 
of promise in the oncoming generation the 
utmost encouragement to rise rapidly in 
their profession; and to do this as is done 


SCIENCE. 


567 


in all learned professions, by the judgment 
of their peers with reference to true aca- 
demie standards. The poimt is important 
as indicating how one set of administrative 
measures largely avoids difficult and unde- 
sirable situations, that another deliberately 
invites. It is important that a living 
within the academic fold should not be re- 
garded as a reward to be given to the ex- 
ceptionally deserving, when circumstances 
indicate that the only method of retaining 
their services is to yield what for years 
has been unwisely and unjustly withheld; 
but is to be regarded as a natural privilege 
for all worthy of the academic life. There 
is not the slightest discrepancy in the in- 
evitable fact that A and B, men of quite 
unequal merit and value to their institu- 
tions, should be enjoying the same incomes. 
There is nothing in the slightest degree 
disconcerting in so inevitable a consequence 
of human variability; and in a less com- 
mercially minded community, no one would 
think of remarking upon so obvious a situ- 
ation. A man’s academic worth should 
not and can not in the least be measured 
by his salary; and any attempt to do so is 
a deep injury to the profession. If some 
one has made a mistake in judgment in 
asking the wrong man to fill a chair, when 
better men were available, and if the mis- 
take can not be remedied without repudia- 
ting obligations already incurred, it is far 
better to seek any solution of the situation 
than the one that sets the emphasis upon 
the very point that has no place in the 
academic life. Endowed professorships 
ensuring adequate livings are for this rea- 
son a far more ideal system than American 
circumstances make practicable. 

I have thus dwelt upon the more serious 
of the unfortunate consequences of the 
dominant systemless practises in American 
institutions and of the possibilities of their 
correction. It is even more than a mis- 
fortune; it is indeed an indignity that a 


568 


scholar of tried worth and reputation—one 
who in another country would be an homme 
arrivé, with a secure living—should still 
find the very wherewithal of his sustenance, 
and the appraisal of his rank meted out to 
him by the uncertain esteem of one or two 
of his colleagues—for such the president 
and dean are—placed in a position of au- 
thority by reason of qualities unrelated to 
any such Jupiterian function. His help- 
lessness in a situation for which inadequate 
administration or administrative autocracy 
has left no place for remedy, hardly even 
for protest, may well invite despair. 

The disastrous consequences of this un- 
fortunate situation appear most notably in 
the discordant notes that break into what 
remains of the cherished harmony of the 
academic spirit; and it appears in the loss 
of appeal of the academic career to those 
best fitted by endowments and interest to 
enter its ranks. The drift within the uni- 
versity is towards winning those marks of 
success upon which administrative domi- 
nance sets greatest store. Colleges engage 
in what the press is pleased to call a 
friendly rivalry to secure the largest crop 
of freshmen; and undue influences are set 
at work upon departments and professors 
to attract large classes. Facilitation of ad- 
ministrative measures and some practical 
executive efficiency are more apt to meet 
with tangible rewards than are more 
academic talents. It takes a sturdy de- 
termination, a sterling character and a 
large measure of actual sacrifice to with- 
stand this manifold pressure. Those who 
resist it least, or are least sensitive to any- 
thing to be resisted, are likely to find 
themselves in the more prominent places; 
and so the unfortunate emphasis gathers 
streneth by its own headway. The spirit 
of academic intercourse, the influence of in- 
dividual character, the stamp of the domi- 
nant occupation, subtly yet mevitably lose 
their finer qualities. There comes to be 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. 


developed a type of academician (sit venia 
verbo) who pursues his career in a decid- 
edly ‘business’ frame of mind. At the 
worst, he degenerates into a professorial 
commus, keen for the main chance, ready to 
advertise his wares and advance his trade, 
eager for new markets, a devotee to sta- 
tistically measured success. At the best, 
he loses with advancing years that mellow 
ripening of the scholar, lays aside all too 
willingly the protecting gis of his ideals 
and his enthusiasm, and fails to maintain 
in his activity the very vital quality that 
appreciative students should, and com- 
monly do look upon, and look back upon, 
as the choicest advantage of their academic 
intercourse. 

If any one consequence of this serious 
situation may be rated more serious than 
the rest, it is the effect of it all upon the 
younger members of the instructional staff 
during the most valued portions of their 
lives. A Teutonie student of our educa- 
tional situation recently pointed out to me 
this disastrous phase of our unadjusted 
university arrangements as the most potent 
reason for our unproductiveness in original 
effort, and as the chief obstacle to our cul- 
tural advance. He contrasted the situation 
with that of the Privat-docent, who, though 
with most precarious income, found no 
hindrance, when once launched upon acad- 
emic seas, to shaping his career according 
to his talents, in steering for such ports and 
by such routes as his survey of the chart 
directed. That intense and crippling sense 
of accountability—to which President Prit- 
chett has likewise directed attention—is all 
but absent from the Privat-docent’s career, 
as it is likely to crowd out by its insistent 
demands almost every other serious pur- 
pose of the young instructor. Confessedly 
the advantages are not all on one side; but 
the unnecessary hazards placed in the way 
of the academic aspirant among us, make 


APRIL 13, 1906.] 


the academic career partake altogether too 
largely of the nature of an obstacle race. 

I am aware that the objection may arise 
to the sombre tones of my pattette, that 
will protest that such a delineation is the 
natural result of viewing things through a 
murky atmosphere or through congenitally 
disposed obliquity of vision. The delusion 
is, however, a rather general one; the dif- 
ficulty is only that it does not find public 
expression. It is in the confidential talk 
with others of kindred spirit and experi- 
ence that a man’s real opinions come to the 
fore. The front that he shows to the world 
—and that without any fair charge of hy- 
pocrisy—is wholly different from his pri- 
vate opinion for home consumption only. 
I have in mind a professor of national rep- 
utation, with a quarter century of success- 
ful experience in distinguished institutions 
of the land, with many honors to his name, 
and with many public addresses to his 
eredit extolling the successes of American 
education. This scholar had no hesitation 
in admitting to me confidentially, that in 
any true sense, we had no universities in 
this country, and certainly no academic 
life; and that in his own career a larger 
measure of his success than he eared to re- 
flect upon, was probably due to his yielding 
to influences that his ideals condemned. 
With not the slightest breach of honesty in 
his purpose as conceived by approved 
standards, but with the inevitable compro- 
mise to practical necessities, his career had 
deviated from what under more favorable 
conditions it might well have been. Such 
a man is not to be censured; he is the victim 
of an unfortunate situation; and it is only 
because such situations may in large meas- 
ure be relieved by a proper administrative 
temper, that it becomes proper to cite the 
instance in this connection. 

It is well to return to the practical aspect 
of the situation. What the average univer- 
sity presents in lieu of an academic provi- 


SCIENCE. 


569 


sion is little more than a corporation of an 
industrial type, in which groups of men 
have been engaged to perform given tasks. 
The tasks are often liberally conceived, and 
personal worth properly regarded. Yet the 
temper is such that commercial considera- 
tions enter; and the tendency is rarely ab- 
sent that makes the first duty of the man- 
agement, that of securing the work done 
upon the most economical basis possible. 
The irrelevancy of this attitude is too com- 
plex a tale to attempt to disentangle here. 
Ideals and policy must come first; and 
practise can only be worthy when the mo- 
tive force of such ideals can find expres- 
sion. With the absence of the weakness of 
worthy ideals, lower ideals inevitably enter. 
In the present consideration it may be em- 
phasized that a university can be built up 
about a group of professorships and about 
nothing else. Academic benefactors will 
not have accomplished their highest degree 
of efficiency, until they recognize in such 
endowments the most intrinsically valuable 
form of aiding universities. Whatever 
hastens the day of liberally provided pro- 
fessorships will ennoble and simplify the 
administrative problems of universities. 

A further class of administrative meas- 
ures relates to the direction of university 
growth, the nature of its extensions, the 
distinetive character of its purposes, its 
mode of meeting public needs. These ques- 
tions are far more pressing in so rapidly 
developing a community as ours, than they 
are in older civilizations in which the pur- 
poses of university activity have become 
fixed by convention. It is in regard to this 
set of measures that the initiative is so com- 
monly taken by the president alone; and it 
is precisely with regard to these that the 
principles to which I adhere, favor and de- 
mand a vital and authoritative considera- 
tion on the part of the faculty. It is be- 
cause a portion of these measures must be 
determined by the provisions of the budget, 


570 


that to some extent the budget itself must 
be included in this group. As it is, faculty 
opinion has in most institutions no oppor- 
tunity to express itself in regard to that 
which concerns the faculty most intimately. 
Upon this aspect of the matter I have 
touched in the general statement. 

There is finally a group of minor admin- 
istrative details, also involving financial 
matters, which intimately concern the aca- 
demic activities. I refer to such matters 
as modes of conducting laboratories, of se- 
curing material and all the inevitable busi- 
ness of handling apparatus, and the house- 
keeping side of instructional and investiga- 
tive work. This is clearly partly a business 
matter, and as such belongs to the board, 
but likewise is it in equal part a matter 
that affects the efficiency of the laboratory 
and its work. The contention thus seems 
just that some mode of administration shall 
be devised which shall be as satisfactory to 
the director of the laboratory in the matter 
of meeting his needs, as it shall be to the 
administration as business procedure. This, 
as many another question, is one that con- 
cerns jointly these two cooperating parts of 
university administration; and can be met 
only by joint consideration. 

And now let us bring these various con- 
siderations into mutual relation. The sys- 
tem that so generally prevails and whose 
deficiencies detract from the value of the 
academic career may be called ‘government 
by imposition.’ Possibly this is a harsh 
word; but to the professor who is obliged to 
pursue his calling under it, the measures 
which it enforces are often harsh measures. 
The system which is advocated to replace it 
may in like brevity be termed ‘government 
by cooperation,’ with the explicit interpre- 
tation that the government is by the faculty 
and the cooperation the function of the ad- 
ministrative officers, including the presi- 
dent and the board. The management of 
the university’s material affairs advantage- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXITI. No. 589. 


ously falls to the board; and what shall be 
ineluded under this head is not likely to be 
a serious point of contention, if once it be 
admitted that many material provisions di- 
rectly influence the work of the faculty, 
and that for such the faculty shall have a 
voice in determining how these material af- 
fairs shall be administered. Assent must 
be gained for the view that the faculty is 
quite capable of determining whether the 
needs of the institution make it preferable 
to administer certain details themselves or 
have them otherwise regulated. So long as 
measures are not imposed, but are the issue 
of deliberation of both bodies acting co- 
operatively, concord and progress are as- 
sured. For the most part the material ad- 
ministration may well remain where it now 
is placed; but the right of discussion, of 
opinion and of protest should be freely ex- 
ercised. Hven with similar measures, the 
spirit of the administration and the dignity 
and security of the academic career, would 
be wholly different under the two systems. 

To what measure the present system of 
administration is due to the irrelevant 
transfer of methods suited to a business 
corporation, to institutions flourishing un- 
der conditions of wholly opposed character, 
I can not stop to discuss. Many eritiecs 
find in this perverse application of glorified 
business procedure the source of academic 
inadequacy; others count it as but one of 
several influences, and not the chief. What 
is unmistakable is the pernicious dominance 
of the business spirit both in the adminis- 
tration and in the academic interests. I 
prefer to speak of the internal influences as 
more closely allied to my thesis. There is 
at work among American universities a 
spirit of intense rivalry, a desire for each 
to measure its own work by standards of 
tangible material success. College presi- 
dents like to be remembered by the build- 
ings which were erected through their ini- 
tiative, by the departments which have been 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


added, and the enrollment which has been 
increased. It is by urging these needs and 
presenting these successes that funds are 
secured. If such were really the standard 
by which educational ends are to be ap- 
praised, then the business methods might 
well be adapted to university affairs. It 
is against this false standard that the war- 
fare must be actively directed. It would 
undoubtedly be the most beneficial fate that 
could happen to many of our universities 
to-day, if for a considerable period they 
built no new buildings, added no new de- 
partments, found their enrollment gradu- 
ally decreasing and centered all their en- 
ergies upon the internal elevation of true 
university ends, upon providing, for stu- 
dent and professor alike, the intellectual 
environment in which those interests thrive, 
for which student and professor come to- 
gether, by which the academic ideal is in- 
spired. 

The same spirit is felt throughout every 
detail of university life, from athletics up 
or down as our standards may be. It 
tempts the professor to spend his energies 
in securing large classes; it sets depart- 
ments to devising means to outrank in num- 
bers the devotees of other departments; it 
makes the student feel that he is conferring 
a favor upon the university by coming, and 
then upon the professor, by choosing his 
classes ; it leads the administration to value 
the professor’s services by his talents in 
these directions, to appraise executive 
work, at least financially, far more highly 
than professorial service; and, worst of all, 
it contaminates the academic atmosphere 
so that all life and inspiration go out of it, 
or would, if the professor’s ideals did not 
serve as a protecting gis to resist, often 
with much personal sacrifice, these unto- 
ward infiuences. 

In bringing these considerations to a 
close, I must first defend my position 
against certain objections that are appar- 


SCIENCE. 


571 


ent, and then focus the discussion upon the 
remedial aspect of the situation. Iam con- 
fident that I do not undervalue the services 
that have been done for American educa- 
tion by the very types of administration 
against which I protest. A strong case may 
be made out for the opinion that for the 
work that had to be done and the conditions 
that obtained, it was the only method avail- 
able and a good one. My face is turned to 
the future; and the recognition of past 
achievement and fitness is no token of in- 
creasing service under more developed 
conditions. The general advantages of 
the presidential form of government are 
equally obvious. The cause and the 
strength, I can not bring myself to say the 
justification, of the conditions which with 
so many others I deplore, are not far to 
seek. Those who defend present academic 
arrangements bring forward pertinent con- 
siderations, to which any one approaching 
the issues in a practical temper will give 
due weight. The advantages of centralized 
power will not lightly be set aside; nor is 
there any reason for losing the most essen- 
tial of them in such reconstruction as is 
needed to rehabilitate the academic career. 
We need not repeat the common educa- 
tional mistake, so neatly pictured in the . 
German phrase, of tumbling out the child 
with the bath. Wisdom as well as sanity 
is the name for a certain perspective of 
values. In company with those who share 
the attitude of my protest, I am keenly sen- 
sitive to the obligations that our educa- 
tional welfare has incurred to the very of- 
fices whose policy and activity I cite as but 
slightly commendable. I am ealling atten- 
tion to the fact that these pearls of price 
will have been too dearly bought, if they 
lead to the deterioration of the academic 
eareer through loss of dignity and attract- 
iveness to those to whom they should make 
the worthiest appeal. The very qualities 
upon which emphasis is laid bring types of 


572 


men into high office and into the academic 
chairs who have not within them the pos- 
sibilities that contribute to the inspiration 
of the institution of which they become an 
organic part. Confining the issue to the 
administrative aspect only, I am content to 
repeat the comment of one of the speakers 
of this conference, whose point of view is 
hardly likely to be regarded as prejudiced. 
He tells us that ‘Young men of power and 
ambition scorn what should be reckoned the 
noblest of professions, not because that pro- 
fession condemns them to poverty, but be- 
cause it dooms them to a sort of servitude.’ 
And as a forecast of the future in the en 
of the present, this: 

Unless American college teachers can be as- 
sured . . . that they are no longer to be looked 
upon as mere employees paid to do the bidding 
of men who, however courteous or however 
eminent, have not the faculty’s professional 
knowledge of the complicated problems of educa- 
tion, our universities will suffer increasingly from 
a dearth of strong men, and teaching will remain 
outside the pale of the really learned professions. 

. The problem is not one of wages; for no 
university can become rich enough to buy the in- 
dependence of any man who is really worth pur- 
chasing. 


A situation that calls forth such earnest, 
disinterested protest can not but be somber 
in tone. Yet I am anxious to reveal the 
touch of optimism that makes the world 
akin, and record that the brighter colors 
have as legitimate a place in academic 
portraiture as my enforced selection for 
this occasion of the neutral and the darker 
grays. The compensations of the academic 
life are real enough: they simply form, 
like much else that I have omitted, an- 
other story. I should be sorry to have it 
inferred that a happy academician must be 
sought by the despairing light of a 
Diogenes lantern; though I have implied 
that in one’s less hopeful moods, the lamp 
of learning seems a precarious illumination 
amid the blinding ineandescence of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8S. Vou. XXTIT. No. 589. 


rival interests of our intensely modern life. 
The devotion to the purer, more sensitive 
flame is in fact endangered; and those 
whose responsibility and consolation it is 
to hand it on to others with undiminished 
ardor, have cause to feel that their voca- 
tion is shorn of favoring fortune, is beset 
by lack of power to order their lives by 
appropriate standards, is embarrassed by 
needless and remediable adversities. 

I must also forestall the deduction, which 
would be quite wide of my purpose, that I 
am in any sense advocating the abolition 
of presidencies and boards, and am pro- 
posing measures far too radical to be prac- 
ticable. On the contrary, I concede that the 
present mode of administration, if it can be 
freed, as there is good reason to believe it 
ean, from the spirit of its practise that 
now seems dominant, is a very efficient and 
commendable method of accomplishing a 
purpose which from the outset has been set 
forth as a subsidiary means to an end. If 
it furthers that end, it would in my judg- 
ment hardly be worth while to change it, 
even if that were readily possible. If the 
present spuit of administration is the in- 
evitable result of the present method, then 
the method can not be commended, how- 
ever modified. Here the ways divide; and 
the judgment of expediency has a more 
commanding voice, which it should not 
raise, however, in defiance of principle. 

It would be possible to frame an aca- 
demic decalogue, the obedience to which, 
though it would not ensure the realization 
of all ideals, would guard against the more 
obvious transgressions. I shall content 
myself with suggesting but two of the pro- 
visions. The first is the introduction of a 
definite system of salaries with such liber- 
ality as may be possible, that provides for 
promotions and inereases, and establishes 
the academie applicant upon a definite 
footing. This measure is not proposed as 
a panacea, and can at best be but negatively 


ApRIL 13, 1906.] 


effective. Yet it has great positive value 
under present circumstances, for the rea- 
son that only when this phase of the matter 
is disposed of, is it possible satisfactorily 
to consider other weighty issues. It is 
most unfortunate that this financial as- 
pect must be placed so prominently in 
present discussions; for such prominence 
but enforces the inadequacy of the aca- 
demic situation. It would, however, be 
foolish to disregard this irritating stum- 
bling-block, which must be removed if 
academic freedom is to be maintained. The 
professor desires money in order that 
money considerations may not enter dis- 
turbingly into his life; and universities 
should once for all determine matters of 
salary, in order that their energies may be 
more profitably expended. 

The second provision is that no measure 
shall be decided by the president or the 
board without giving the faculty an op- 
portunity to decide whether it cares to ex- 
press itself upon that measure or not. 
Such provision inevitably carries with it 
the right to have a share in deciding in the 
first place what division of questions shall 
be made between faculty and board. To 
accomplish this end, an advisory committee 
of the faculty seems an efficient means. 
Such committee should decide in each case 
whether and how far questions should be 
considered by the faculty; and naturally 
the president, as a member of such a com- 
mittee, will bring before it first and for 
approval all measures that he regards as 
worthy of the attention of the board. An 
arrangement of this type is in force in Le- 
land Stanford University. With slight 
change in the apportionment of the present 
authority, such a measure will be adequate 
to bring to the faculty a voice on all ques- 
tions upon which, in its own judgment, its 
expression of opinion would be for the 
best interests of the university. Such com- 
mittee would attend the meetings of the 


SCIENCE. 


573 


board and participate in its discussions, 
though without right of vote. The presi- 
dent would serve as the formal spokesman 
of the faculty influence, and could then be, 
what it should be his highest ambition to 
be, the leader, not the governor of the 
faculty, and a defender of the academic 
life. 

I have no desire to lay minute stress 
upon particular remedies, which must 
always take their shape from local condi- 
tions, though in still larger measure must 
they be framed by ideals and purposes, 
that are much the same wherever the aca- 
demic spirit is cherished. I desire only to 
remove the objection that practical meas- 
ures to remove difficulties can not be readily - 
devised. I know very well that changes 
of ideals and purposes must first inspire 
confidence and enthusiasm before they 
reach practical possibilities; but I am en- 
couraged by the example of so many other 
educational and national evils, that, once 
clearly recognized, have in astonishingly 
brief time been swept away by the strenu- 
ous purpose of the national temper. It is 
in such a movement that the present dis- 
cussion would find the most desirable con- 
summation. 

I am fully aware that no such admin- 
istrative reform is to be looked for until 
the ambitions that universities and partic- 
ularly their presidents cherish, are consid- 
erably altered. When internal cultural 
measures are acknowledged to be the lead- 
ing issues of the academic life, it will fall 
more and more to the faculty to carry them 
out; there will be less and less need of the 
present type of president, less temptation 
to develop the office primarily for those 
functions which it now serves. The type 
of individual that will then be sought for 
the position will be selected by a different 
perspective of considerations; and the 
academic career will have greater promise 
of reaching a worthier status than it now 


574 


cecupies. First as last, it is directly 
through ideals and indirectly through ad- 
ministrative provisions that further ideals, 
that the welfare of academic concerns is 
determined. 


JOSEPH JASTROW. 
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Elements of Mechanics; Forty Lessons for 
Beginners in Engineering. By Mansrieip 
Merriman, Professor of Civil Engineering 
in Lehigh University. New York, John 
Wiley and Sons. 1905. 


Hlements of the Kinematics of a Point and 
the Rational Mechanics of a Particle. By 
G. O. James, Ph.D., Instructor in Mathe- 
matics and Astronomy, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

Professor Merriman believes that “there 
should be given in every engineering college 
two courses in rational mechanics, an elemen- 
tary one during the freshman year in which 
only as much mathematics is employed as is 
indispensably necessary, and an advanced one 
after the completion of the course in calculus.” 
The forty lessons contained in this book on 
the ‘ Elements of Mechanics’ are intended to 
cover the suggested elementary course. Its 
seven chapters are entitled Concurrent Forces, 
Parallel Forces, Center of Gravity, Resistance 
and Work, Simple Machines, Gravitation and 
Motion, Inertia and Rotation. The treatment 
of these topics is characterized by the sim- 
plicity of statement and illustration which 
are familiar to users of the author’s numerous 
other text-books for students of engineering. 
His aim seems to be to give the student work- 
ing rules in the quickest and most direct man- 
ner, and to this end strict logical rigor and 
accuracy of definition and statement are some- 
times sacrificed. 

There is no formal statement of the laws 
of motion in their ordinary form, but ten 
‘axioms’ are given which presumably are 
designed to appeal more directly to the ex- 
perience of the beginner. It is to be feared 
that certain of these are stated with too little 
care as regards accuracy (for example, ‘ when 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. 


only one force acts upon a body it moves in a 
straight line in the direction of that force’), 
and that others will be found too vague to be 
of much service. This vagueness is due in 
part to the failure to give definiteness to the 
conception of force. No student can think 
clearly and correctly about force until he has 
grasped the elementary notion that every force 
is exerted by one body or portion of matter 
wpon another, and that a force exerted by A 
upon B is always accompanied by an equal 
and opposite force exerted by B upon A, the 
two forces constituting the action and reac- 
tion of Newton’s third law. _ This funda- 
mental principle is not expressed nor even 
implied in the ten axioms given in this book; 
on the contrary, the author’s explanation of 
his third axiom involves a wholly erroneous 
statement of the law of action and_reaction. 

It is, however, -to the practically minded 
student rather than to the stickler for logical 
rigor that Professor Merriman addresses him- 
self primarily, and from his point of view 
such defects as are here criticized are of minor 
importance in comparison with simplicity and 
directness in the presentation of working 
rules. With this point of view many teachers 
of mathematical subjects to students of engi- 
neering will largely sympathize, and they will 


- find in this book the merits which are con- 


spicuous in the author’s ‘previous text-books. 
Not the least of these merits is the large num- 
ber of examples, mostly numerical, to be solved 
by the student. ‘ 

The book of Dr. James is designed as an 
introductory course in rational mechanics, 
but it is addressed not to students of engi- 
neering but to those whose interest is in pure 
science. It contains little of application, but 
aims at a rigorous and thoroughly sound 
formulation of fundamental principles. 

The treatment of kinematics; which oc- 
eupies Part I., is clear and concise throughout. 
This conciseness is aided by the free use of the 
notions and language of vectors, especially 
the notion of the geometric time-derivative in 
the treatment of curvilinear motion. The use 
of the term displacement to designate the 
position-vector of a moving particle seems, 
however, singularly inappropriate. 


Aprin 13, 1906.] 


‘ The opening chapter of Part II. gives the 
author’s formulation of the axioms or funda- 
mental principles of mechanics. His point 
of view here is that of those critics who reject 
force as a physical reality and state the funda- 
mental laws simply in terms of acceleration. 
The term force is afterward introduced and 
defined as a convenient name for the product 
of mass into acceleration. In the statement 
and explanation of the second of the three 
‘principles’ the term ‘ field of force’ is, how- 
ever, used in advance of the formal definition 
of force. 

The three ‘principles of mechanics’ 
stated as follows: 

An isolated particle has no acceleration with 
respect to the absolute axes. 

The acceleration which a particle takes in a 
resultant field of force is the geometric sum of the 
accelerations produced by the component fields, 
and is undlgnealeas of the particle and of its 
motion. 

Two isolated particles under their mutual ac- 
tions take accelerations in opposite directions 
along the line joining them, and these accelera- 
tions are in a constant ratio. 


are 


Regarding this formulation and the accom- 
panying explanations two matters invite com- 
ment. The first is the definition of the abso- 
lute axes, the second the explanation of the 
meaning of ‘component fields ” in the second 
principle. 

The notion of the fixed axes is first intro- 
duced at p. 23: 

But while, in kinematics, the choice of the 
absolutely fixed system is perfectly arbitrary, it 
is no longer so in mechanics, and there we shall 
see that the fixed stars must be chosen as the 
system of reference. 


Again on p. 104: 

In kinematics the choice of the absolute axes 
was arbitrary. The state of affairs in mechanics 
is different. The principles just spoken of are 
asserted true of the motion of a particle referred 
to a particular set of axes moariably connected 
with the so-called fixed stars. These I term the 
absolute axes. Referred to any other set the 
principles must be modified. 


This method of defining the absolute axes 
has been adopted by several critics who are 
unwilling to accept Newton’s doctrine of ab- 


SCIENCE. 


575 


solute space and time. To eall the axes deter- 
mined by the fixed stars ‘ absolutely fixed axes’ 
is, however, to evade rather than to avoid 
whatever difficulty there is in Newton’s con- 
ception. From the Newtonian point of view 
axes thus defined are not really absolutely 
fixed, but are merely the axes most nearly 
fixed in direction which it is possible to specify 
practically. We can not doubt that the stars 
move relatively to one another, and that the 
line joining the centers of two stars really 
changes in direction, although observation does 
not detect such motions; and we thereby im- 
plicitly assume the reality of a more funda- 
mental base of reference than the fixed stars. 
Whether or not we are willing to adopt New- 
ton’s language and speak of absolute space 
and time, we are driven to substantially his 
position when we attempt to define the axes of 
reference for which the fundamental prin- 
ciples of mechanics are true. 

The meaning of component and resultant 
fields in the statement of the second principle 
is explained substantially as follows: If a 
system of particles n is made up of systems 
p and q, the field due to n is the resultant 
of two component fields, one of which is the 
field which p would produce if q were absent, 
the other the field which g would produce if p 
were absent. The ‘principle’ affirms that the 
acceleration of a particle due to n is the 
geometric sum of the acceleration which p 
would cause in the absence of q and that 
which q would preduce in the absence of p. 

The second principle as thus explained 
affirms more than should really be included 
in the law of composition. An accurate 
formulation of this law involves the law of 
action and reaction. The essence of the two 
laws may be stated as follows: Considering 
any system of particles, the actual accelera- 
tion of any one particle due to the influence 
of all the others may be vectorially resolved 
into components regarded as ‘ due to’ the sev- 
eral other particles; and these components may 
always be taken in such a way that the law of 
action and reaction is satisfied, 7. e., that the 
acceleration of any particle A due to B and 
the acceleration of B due to A are in the in- 
verse ratio of the masses of A and B and 


576 


oppositely directed along the line AB. This is 
all that the laws of motion imply. They do 
not imply that the acceleration of A due to B 
is the same when a third particle C is present 
as when it is absent, although this implication 
is often read into them. 

The supposition that the mutual action be- 
tween two particles A and B may depend in 
part upon the influence of a third particle C 
has been called the hypothesis of modified 
action. Pearson, while emphasizing the pos- 
sibility that such a hypothesis may represent 
the truth for molecular or ethereal actions if 
not for actions between particles of gross mat- 
ter, states that ‘one of Newton’s laws of mo- 
tion distinctly excludes this hypothesis.’ To 
thus interpret Newton’s laws seems, however, 
a mistake. The essence of these laws may be 
summed up in the principles of the constancy 
of linear and of angular momentum for any 
isolated system. These principles do not ex- 
elude’ the hypothesis of modified action. 

The second principle of Dr. James also goes 
too far in asserting that the acceleration of a 
particle in a field of force is ‘independent of 
the particle’ (7. e., of its mass). That this is 
true in a particular case such as that of gravi- 
tational fields is a consequence not simply of 
the laws of motion but of the law of gravita- 
tion, and the possibility of cases in which it 
is not true may be admitted without thereby 
questioning the universal validity of the New- 
tonian laws. 

The foregoing comments have been made 
because of the intrinsic interest of the ques- 
tions raised, rather than from any desire to 
eriticize adversely the presentation of Dr. 
James, which in the main is admirably clear 
and logical. The remainder of the book is 
devoted mainly to a discussion of the direct 
and inverse problems of the mechanics of a 
particle—%. e., the determination of the law 
of force when the motion is known, and the 
determination of the motion when the law of 
foree and the imitial conditions are known. 
These problems are treated for both the case 
of fixed axes and that of moving axes. In 
particular considerable space is given to mo- 
tion relative to the earth. 


1*Grammar of Science,’ second edition, p. 319. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


On the whole, the book is one that is well 
worthy the attention of any one who is inter- 
ested in the rigorous treatment of the funda- 
mental principles and problems of mechanics. 


L. M. Hoskins. 
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY. 


THE OTHER SIDE OF EVOLUTION.’ 


Books are rare which, in their last sentence 
“look hopefully to God for that only which 
will deliver the church from this [evolution] 
and all other pestilent evils, theoretical and 
practical,’ and I owe, perhaps, an apology to 
the readers of ScreNcE for not sooner calling 
their attention to ‘The Other Side of Evolu- 
tion.’ y 

The scope of the book is given in the 
preface: 


It will be shown that evolution is not accepted 
by all scientists and scholars; that it is rejected 
by some of the greatest of these; that it is ad- 
mittedly an unproven theory; that it has never 
been verified and can not be; that not a single 
ease of evolution has ever been presented, and that 
there is no known cause by which it could take 
place. Its arguments will be considered one by 
one and their fallacy shown. It will be shown 
to be, by its own principles, unscientific and un- 
philosophical, and simply a revamping of the old 
doctrine of chance clothed in scientific terms. 
Finally, it will be shown that it is violently op- 
posed to the narrative and doctrines of the Bible 
and destructive of all christian faith; that it 
originated in heathenism and ends in atheism. 


A sharp distinction is not always drawn in 
this volume between evolution in general and 
organic evolution, but in the ‘ Foreword’ we 
are told (p. 2): “The theory of evolution 
asserts that from a nebulous mass of primeval 
substance, whose origin it never attempts to 
account for, there came by natural processes, 
as a flower from a bud, and fruit from flower, 
all that we see and know in the heavens above 
and the earth beneath”; and on page 4: “ The 
theistic and the atheistic evolution, however, 


1©The Other Side of Evolution, an Examination 
of its Evidences,’ by Rev. Alexander Patterson, au- 
thor of, ete., with an introduction by George Fred- 
erick Wright, D.D., LL.D., F.G.S.A: The Winona 
Publishing Co., Chicago, Ills. Winona Lake, Ind. 


APRIL 13, 1906.] 


agree in saying that man was descended from 
the brute. * * * This doctrine as to man is 
the vital part of the whole theory and in this 
all evolutionists are practically agreed.” This 
leaves no doubt as to where the shoe pinches. 

However, we are further informed (p. 60) 
that 

The central point in the whole theory is the 
descent of man from the brute. It is this which, 
as stated, gives it importance to the christian. 
But for this, the hypothesis would be but a 
curious scientific theory. It is a matter of com- 
parative minor interest how the universe or the 
various species came. 


Chapter I. deals with evolution [organic] 
aS an unproven, unaccepted theory and the 
Uncertainty of Scientific Theories in General. 

Chapter II. deals with: (1) The Origin of 
Matter; (2) The Origin of Force; (8) The 
Formation and Orderly Arrangement of the 
Universe; (4) The Origin of Life. 

Both chapters I. and Il. are mere skirmish 
lines; the real attack begins in chapter IIL. 
which deals with The Evolution of Species. 
“Not a Single Instance of Evolution is 
Known,’ under which caption we have: 

The world has been ransacked for evidence, the 
museums are full of specimens, the secrets of 
nature have been explored in every land, the 
minutest creatures discovered and analyzed. We 
have the remains of animals and plants of many 
kinds thousands of years old, such as the mum- 
mied remains from Egypt, and yet not a single 
instance of the change evolution asserts has ever 
been known! 


Other items in this chapter are: ‘No Cause 
of Evolution Known,’ ‘How Evolution Orig- 
inated Species.’ Under the last head are ‘ ab- 
breviated, and rendered into untechnical lan- 
guage, the thoughts of evolutionary writers’ 
as follows: 


Eyes originated from some animal having pig- 
ment spots or freckles on the sides of its head, 
which, turned to the sun, agreeably affected the 
animal so that it acquired the habit of turning 
that side of the head to the sun, and its posterity 
inherited the same habit and passed it on to still 
other generations. The pigment spot acquired 
sensitiveness by use and in time a nerve developed 
which was the beginning of the eye. 

In a time of drought some water animals, 


SCIENCE. | 


577 


stranded by the receding waters, were obliged 
thenceforth to adopt land manners and methods of 
living. Although, strangely, the whale by the 
same cause was forced to the water, for it was 
once a land animal, but in a season of drought 
was obliged to seek the water’s edge for the scant 
remaining herbage; and, finding the water agree- 
able, remained there and its posterity also, and 
finally, the teeth and legs no longer needed, be- 
came decadent and abortive as we see them now. 

The same drought produced another and wonder- 
ful change, for it is to this that the giraffe owes 
his long legs and neck. The herbage on the lower 
branches withering up, he was obliged to stretch 
his neck and legs to reach the higher branches. 
This increased, as all such changes increased, in 
his posterity, and finally after many generations 
produced the present immense reaching powers 
of the giraffe. So that the same drought de- 
prived the whale of his legs and conferred them 
upon the giraffe. 


Still other items in this chapter are the 
Arguments from Geology, classification,  dis- 
tribution, morphology, embryology and ‘ Facts 
Opposing Evolution of Species.’ Again, under 
‘The Argument from Embryology’ we have: 


Evolution derives it greatest arguments from 
the study of the embryo. It makes three claims. 
First, that the germ of everything, plant and ani- 
mal, is the same, neither chemical analysis nor 
the microscope showing any difference. 


This is indignantly refuted by: 


Protoplasm, of which the germ is composed, 
differs and is not homogeneous material. That 
which builds the muscle is one kind and that which 
builds brain and nerves is entirely different, * * * 
Nor could the germs be alike, for the plant 
breathes carbon, the animal oxygen. 


That ought to settle it. 

Chapter IV. deals more particularly with 
the evolution of man. The argument from 
rudimentary organs is vigorously repudiated: 


Shall we condemn the whole race to a bestial 
origin on the same evidence? All arguments 
founded on such facts are weak, puerile and un- 
worthy of scientists. * * * Shall we suspend a 
philosophy of the universe upon a few long hairs? 
Shall we allow the guess as to the origin of the 
tip of the outer ear to revolutionize theology? 
Shall we risk our eternal destiny on the supposed 
uselessness of the so-called ‘gill-slits’ in prema- 
ture puppies? 


578 


The Neanderthal skull “ was claimed by the 
evolutionists as from two to three hundred 
thousand years old. Dr. Meyer, of Bonn, 
examined the evidence, and found it to be the 
skull of a Cossack killed in 1814.” 

Chapter V. shows Evolution Unscientific 
and Unphilosophical. Chapter VI. contrasts 
Evolution and the Bible, and the last chapter, 
VII., considers The Spiritual Effect of Evo- 
lution.. 

In this last chapter evolution is accused of 
many misdeeds: 

It is, indeed, a fact that many young men have 
started with high purpose to prepare for the min- 
istry and even for foreign missions, and have, 
after adopting modern theories, abandoned their 
purpose. * * * This apparent increase of faith 
[sometimes brought about by the adoption of evo- 
lution] simply prepares the way for its utter 
ruin. Instead of looking for a regeneration, a 
revolution of the inner state, the believer in evolu- 
tion necessarily looks for a change from educa- 
tion or other form of development. It is, there- 
fore, worse than unbelief.2 It is antagonism. It 
is enmity! Once committed to this theory, there 
is no extreme the person may not reach. When 
openly advocated and taught, it is useless to seek 
revivals among those so taught. 


As a consequence of all this we have the 
lamentable fact: 


Education received in the United States over 
$200,000,000 in gifts during the last few years, 
to say nothing of the many-fold more received 
from incomes and public funds. * * * Whether 
this is the final form of unbelief is difficult to say. 


* For the benefit of the Rev. Patterson attention 
should probably be called to the fact that he is 
rather hard on St. Augustine and other church 
fathers who interpreted the story of creation in 
Genesis to mean the planting of the seed of crea- 
tion, not the actual special creation of species, re- 
jecting “Special Creation in favor of a doctrine 
which, without any violence to language, we may 
call a theory of evolution.” Furthermore, that 
Patterson’s method of interpreting the story of 
creation was introduced into the church by the 
Spanish Jesuit Saurez near the middle of the 
16th century. Fortunately the followers of Suarez 
who “suspect the study of nature as if God were 
a hypocrite and did one thing in his work and 
said another in his Word” are growing fewer in 
number. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. 


* * * It bears the marks of anti-christianity the 
apostle speaks of. * * * All satanic methods be- 
fore this have been crude and coarse compared 
with this last invention. It is the most subtle 
and sweeping of all evil methods to ensnare the 
mind of man. 


It certainly must be, for it has captured 
Patterson himself. He is evidently not con- 
scious of the fact, and he would no doubt 
repudiate the accusation in appropriate Eng- 
lish. We will, therefore, permit him to again 
speak for himself. The italics are mine. 
Patterson does not realize that the trend of 
evolution may be downward as well as up- 
ward and that specialization frequently goes 
with the reduction of parts. 


(P. 47): Bearing in mind that this conclusion 
[the descent of Hippus from Eohippus] is pure 
assumption, and only inference at best, let us re- 
mark that it violates the primal law of evolution 
laid down by Spencer, that of evolution from the 
simple to the complex. It should have shown 
first the one-toed horse, then his development into 
a two-toed animal, and so on up to a horse having 
five toes. This would be evolution. As it is, we 
see the opposite of evolution, degradation, which 
often occurs in nature * * *. 


This notion that degeneration is not eyolu- 
tion is also brought out in connection with 
the air-bladder of fishes, and Cope is quoted 
against evolution: ‘ The retrogradation in na- 
ture is as well or nearly as well established as 
evolution’ and (p. 53): 


The wild varieties of plants and animals are 
far inferior to the cultivated kinds. The older 
species are far superior to the present. The saber- 
toothed tiger is far superior to the present animal. 
* * * Progress is not seen to be upward in the 
flowers. So also parasitism is degeneration both 
in plants and animals. (P. 81): The late find 
of skeletons at Croatia, Austria, is heralded as the 
discovery of a connecting link. But these are 
skeletons of men and not of brutes. They are 
degraded men and nothing is better known than 
the possibility of degeneracy in man. (P. 89): 
We have seen that modern man has not developed 
in brain capacity above prehistoric man. It is 
also true that he has not developed physically. 
* * * Indeed, we have degenerated in many re- 
spects. We have almost lost the sense of smell 
as compared with savage peoples or even animals. 
Our teeth are certainly not improving. If we are 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


to find perfect specimens we do not look at the 
most advanced classes, but to the reverse. Those 
who live to extreme old age are generally in the 
lowly ranks. But why has physical development 
ceased at all? Why are there not some superior 
beings by this time? But alas, there are no 
marks or indications of wings or halos on either 
the great saints or scientists of the day. 


Alas, there are not! 
Cart H. EIGENMANN. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ARTS 
AND LETTERS. 


Tue thirty-fifth annual meeting of the Wis- 
consin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 
was held at Madison, February 8 and 9, 1906, 
the president of the academy, Dr. John J. 
Davis, presiding. On the evening of February 
8 a dinner, complimentary to visiting mem- 
bers, was given, followed by an address by 
the president on ‘ The Academy—Its Past and 
Its Future. During the four regular ses- 
sions the following program was presented: 


RicHarp G. Norron: ‘An Investigation into 
the Cause of the Breaking of Watch Springs in 
Greater Numbers during the Warm Months of 
the Year.’ 

C. 8. SxicutEer: ‘The Limitations of a General 
Method of Approximation in Hydrodynamics.’ 

C. S. Sricuter: ‘A Fundamental Existence 
Theorem for Linear Homogenous Differential 
Equations.’ 

JAMES-L. BartLerT: ‘The Climate of Madison.’ 

A. R. Wauitson: ‘The Influence of Soil Tem- 
perature on the Occurrence of Frost.’ 

G. C. Comstock: ‘The Luminosity of the 
Brightest Stars.’ 

Epwarp T. Owen: ‘ Hybrid Parts of Speech.’ 

Nina M. Suetpon: ‘The Supernatural Ele- 
ments in the English and Scottish Ballads.’ 

ArtHuR Bratty: ‘English Dramatic Origins— 
A Protological Study.’ 

F. C. Suarp: “A Study of Moral Standards.’ 

RevuBen G. THwaires: Memorial Address— 
‘James Davie Butler.’ 

Cuartes E. Brown: 
Implements.’ 

ArtHurR C. Boaerss: ‘The Period of Anarchy 
in Illinois, 1782-90.’ 

Soton J. Buck: ‘The Occupation of Govern- 
ment Land in Oklahoma Territory.’ 


‘“Wisconsin’s Quartzite 


SCIENCE. 


579 


J. F. Ditworra: ‘ Life in the Beguinages before 
the Reformation.’ 

KE. K. J. H. Voss: ‘A Nuremberg City Ordi- 
nance of the Year 1562, Issued during the Time 
of the Black Death.’ 

D. L. Parrerson: ‘ Alexander and the Council 
of Worms.’ 

D. C. Munro: ‘ The Children’s Crusade.’ 

- G. C. SeLtery: ‘Suspension of habeas corpus in 
the Civil War.’ 

Urricn B. Puiniipes: ‘ Problems of Colonization 
as Illustrated in the Province of Georgia.’ 

C. R. Fis: ‘Tables Illustrating the Progress 
of Rotation in Office.’ 

Wm. V. Pootey: ‘Causes Affecting the West- 
ward Movement of Settlement Prior to 1850.’ 

W. F. Kortxer: ‘Note on the Nature of the 
Hydrocarbons Occurring in Wisconsin Oil Rock.’ 
Louis KAaHLENBERG and ALonzo S. McDAnIE.L: 
“On the Differences of Potential between Man- 
ganese and Lead Peroxides and Various Aqueous - 

and Non-aqueous Solutions.’ 

L. A. Youtz: * Nitrogen from the Atmosphere 
and Its Use in the Annealing of Brass Wire.’ 

V. Lenuer: ‘ Nitroselenic Acid.’ 

W. D. Frost, R. WHITMAN and R. E. Minten- 
BERGER: ‘ Effect of Desiccation on Bacillus dysen- 
terie Shiga.’ 

Grorce WAGNER: ‘A Note on the Chemotaxis 
of Oxytricha aeruginosa.’ 

Grorce WacneR: ‘Some Points in the Natural 
History of the Spoon-bill Catfish.’ 

G. A. Tatpert: ‘ Variations of the Brachial and 
Sciatic Plexus of the Frog.’ 

G. A. TarBert: ‘Cerebral Localization from a 
Clinical Study.’ 

C. B. HarpENBERG: ‘Comparative Studies on 
the Trophi of Scarabeide.’ 

E. A. Biree and V. LENHER: 
Wisconsin Lakes.’ 

E. C. Case: ‘ Wave-rolled Snowballs.’ 

W.S. Minter: ‘ The Mesothelium of the Pleural 
Cavity.’ 

S. Weipman: ‘An Additional Driftless Area in 
Wisconsin.’ 

J. J. Davis: ‘ Notes on a Few Parasitic Fungi 
of the Pacific Northwest.’ 


R. H. Denniston: ‘ Gasteromycetes of Wiscon- 
3 


“The Gases of 


sin. 
C. E. AtiEN: ‘ The Life History of Coleochete.’ 
Grorce M. Reep: ‘Infection Experiments with 
the Mildew on the Cucurbits.’ 
R. A. Harper: ‘The Nature of the Variation 
of the Spore Number in the Ascus.’ 


580 


W. MARQUETTE: 
Cells of Isoetes.’ 

E. W. OLtIve: 
Basidiobulus.’ 

J. B. Overton: ‘On the Permanence of the 
Chromosomes in the Calla Lily and the Elm.’ 

A. H. CuristmMan: ‘Spore Formation in the 
Primary Uredo.’ 

B. M. ALLEN: 
Chrysemys.’ 


Hon. John W. Hoyt and C. Dwight Marsh, 
both of Washington, D. C., were elected dele- 
gates to attend the celebration of the two- 
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benja- 
min Franklin at the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, April 17-20, 1906, and Dr. Ernest R. 
Buckley, of Rolla, Mo., was chosen to repre- 
sent the academy at the dinner commemora- 
ting the fiftieth anniversary of the founding 
of the St. Louis Academy of Science at St. 
Louis, March 10, 1906. 

The following officers were elected by the 
academy for the ensuing three years: 


‘Polar Organization in the 


‘Cell and Nuclear Division in 


“The Origin of the Sex Cells of 


President—Louis Kahlenberg, Madison. 

Vice Presidents—Charles H. Chandler, Ripon; 
Henry HE. Legler, Madison; EH. C. Case, Milwaukee. 

Secretary—Charles BH. Allen, Madison. 

Treasurer—Rollin H. Denniston, Madison. 

Librarian—Walter M. Smith, Madison. 

Curator—Charles BE. Brown, Milwaukee. 

Publication Committee—The president and the 
secretary ea officio, KE. B. Skinner. 

Library Committee—The librarian ex officio, 
Herbert J. Farley, George W. Peckham, Hiram D. 
Densmore, George Wagner. 

Committee on Membership—The secretary ex 
officio, R. H. Halsey, Miss Harriet B. Merrill, D. 
C. Munro, L. A. Youtz. 

Cuarues E. ALLEN, 
Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Tue 614th meeting was held February 24, 
1906. 

Professor J. H. Gore gave a new demonstra- 
tion that o/o is indeterminate, using the 
formula for the straight line through two 
points and making the points coincident. 

The problem presented at the last’ meeting 
by President Abbe regarding the sound from 
a meteor was called up by Mr. Buckingham, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. 


who pointed out that the wavefront is ap- 
proximately conical and the sound appears to 
reach the observer from a direction normal 
to this front. Mr. Nutting showed that with 
the assumed velocities by Déppler’s principle, 
the intensity of the sound before and after 
passing the observer would be about 700 to 1. 

Mr. E. R. Frisby then spoke on ‘ The Prog- 
ress of the Coast Survey Work in the Philip- 
pines. This is carried on at the joint ex- 
pense of the United States and Insular 
governments. The problem is unique since 
there are 3,146 islands in the 115,000 square 
miles; a third of them have areas of less than 
one tenth of a square mile. Owing to com- 
mercial needs, the astronomical position of a 
number of points was first determined and then 
harbor surveys were made, coast survey and 
triangulation being postponed. Plumb-line 
deflections are found to follow the topograph- 
ical indications. .The work was done by four 
or five parties in five ships. The early and 
smaller charts were printed in Manila. 

Mr. F. H. Bigelow then discussed ‘The 
Formation of Cyclones and Anticyclones,’ in 
the light of the information furnished by the 
European and American kite and balloon as- 
censions made during the past ten years. A 
historical summary of early efforts to solve 
this problem showed that Ferrel’s cyclone, as 
well as the type of vortex employed by Guld- 
berg and Mohn, or Oberbeck, depended upon 
a symmetrical distribution of the temperature 
around a central axis. On the other hand, 
the modern observations show that the tem- 
perature distribution is asymmetric, one half 
of the respective areas being warm and the 
other half cold. Diagrams of the pressure, 
temperature and velocity in the several levels 
from the surface to 10,000 meters give the 
changes in passing from one level to another, 
the systems being the same in each hemi- 
sphere. Especially the temperature-gradients, 
or temperature-falls per 1,000 meters, were 
worked out for the anticyclone and cyclone 
as a whole, also, in each quadrant of these 
separately, the result being that there is a wide 
departure from the adiabatic law, and that there 
is a remarkable variation in each quadrant. 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


These must be accounted for in any theoret- 
ical solution, and an exhibit was made of cer- 
tain formulz which are being tried to ac- 
count for the observed velocity, pressure, tem- 
perature and heat contents in the several 
levels. 


THE 615th meeting was held March 10, 1906. 

Mr. H. C. Dickinson discussed ‘ Thermal 
After-effects on Thermometer Glass,’ describ- 
ing experiments made at the Bureau of 
Standards on new unseasoned tubes of Jena 
glass. At about 400° C. glass is plastic to 
internal strains while still rigid to external 
strains. So by prolonged heating at high tem- 
peratures the strains are relieved which have 
been set up on manufacturing the instru- 
ment and which cause a rise in the zero-point. 
The Jena normal thermometer glass, which is 
easy to work, is used up to 450° C.; the Jena 
borosilicon glass, which is very difficult to 
work, is used up to 550° with an internal 
pressure of twenty atmospheres. The results 
were shown by lantern slides of curves that 
indicated the change of zero as a function of 
the temperature of annealing and the dura- 
tion of exposure at this temperature. The 
exposures were made in an electric furnace in 
which the temperature was kept quite constant 
for many days. 

Mr. R. A. Harris presented a paper entitled 
“On Function-Theory Analogues Relating 
Chiefly to Mathematical Physics.’ The chief 
object of the communication was to show how 
complex variables other than x-+ iy can be 
utilized in spatial and physical problems. 

Since 2,, y, in the equation 

@ + ty, = €-19(@ + ty) 

are coordinates of the point x, y referred to 
axes § degrees in advance of the original axes, 
it follows that 2,, y,, 2,, given below, are co- 
ordinates of a point in space referred to a 
new system defined by the Eulerian angles 
¢, 6 and y. In the equations 

@, + ty, + je, = e—1b(@ + iy) + je, 

Yo Ws + JX,=e—(y, + t2,) + jar, 

By + Ws + Jey = et (@,+ WY2) + Jer, 
qj, like 2 and 1, is a separating symbol; also 
+=) —=—1. By eliminating all quantities 


SCIENCE. 581 


whose subscripts are 1 or 2, 2, y,, 2, become 
expressed in terms of xz, y, z and the angles 
¢, 6 and y. 

The equation 

(a@—1b) (a, + ty.) = (a@ + 2b) (2 + ty) 

signifies that the point z,, y, is the point a, y 
displaced by a rotation through an angle @ 
where 
a 


cos 30 = —____—_ = q if a’ +b? =1 
2 VeLe , 
b 
sin 40 = ——___ — 4 if a*-+ 6?=1. 
3 Var b? 


Similarly the equation 


(a — 1b —je) (x, + iy, + jz) = 
(a+ b+ je) (w+ iy + jz), 


if the a-term be omitted from the products 

as having no spatial interpretation, and if 

a+b’+c’=1, signifies that the point 

Lj Yy, 2, 18S the point x, y, z rotated about a 

line in the yz-plane passing through the origin. 
Again, the equation 


(a— ib — je = ijd) (a, + iy, + ja) = 
(a+ ib + je + ijd) (w + iy + jz), 


if the 7-terms be omitted from the products, 
and if a + b°’+ c’+ d@ =1, is the general ex- 
pression for a displacement by rotation about 
a line passing through the origin. The quan- 
tities a, b, c and d are essentially Rodrigues’ 
parameters and have the values 


a=cos¥%4w, b=cosysin 4 w, 
c=—cosfsintzaw, d=cosasin % a, 


a, 8 and y denoting the direction-angles of 
the axis of rotation and w the angle of dis- 
placement. 

The use of a complex quantity was pointed 
out in connection with expressions for the ac- 
celeration when a moving particle is referred 
to polar coordinates—the complex used being 
a sort of extension of the ordinary symbol for 
angular velocity. 

A semi-mechanical method of transform- 
ing from one plane to another by means of 
hyperbolic complexes of two dimensions was 
outlined. An example of such transforma- 
tion haying a physical application is implied 
in the equation 


582 
a + ijw= cos (X + ijW) 


where X, W take uniform increments. 

A three-dimensional analogue to conformal 
transformation was briefly noticed. 

By means of functions of complex quanti- 
ties an infinite number of solutions of La- 
place’s equation can be obtained, as well as of 
other analogous partial differential equations. 
Moreover, each solution obtained by Taylor’s 
theorem yields several other solutions, the 
number depending upon the nature of the 
complex used. 

Mr. L. A. Bauer spoke informally of dis- 
turbances just recognized on the record sheets 
at Cheltenham (Md.) magnetic observatory, 
that so far can be explained only as due to 
electric railroad currents, although the nearest 
point of such a road is thirteen miles away. 
He also described the precautions taken to 
protect the German observatory at Potsdam 
from trolley currents. 


CuarLtes K. Wap, 
Secretary. 


THE OREGON STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


Tur following papers have been presented 
before the Oregon State Academy of Sciences: 

December 16, ‘The Development of the 
Mushrooms and other Fungi’ (illustrated), 
Professor A. R. Sweetser, State University. 

January 20, ‘General Motions of the At- 
mosphere’ (illustrated), Mr. Edw. A. Beals, 
U. S. Weather Bureau, Portland; ‘ Animals 
in Mt. Rainier National Park,’ Alden Samp- 
son, Washington, D. ©. 

The first annual meeting of the academy 
occurred on February 17. President Sheldon, 
in his annual address, spoke on ‘ The Past and 
Future Work of the Academy.’ Following 
the reports of the retiring officers, officers were 
elected for the ensuing year as follows: 


President—Edmund P. Sheldon. 

First Vice-president—A. L. Knisley. 
Second Vice-president—C. Lombardi. 
Third Vice-president—W. A. Beals. 
Recording Secretary—Ernest Barton. 
Corresponding Secretary—G. E. Coghill. 
Treasurer—M. W. Gorman. 

Librarian and Curator—lL. L. Hawkins. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. 


Trustee (for three years)—President Campbell, 
State University. 
G. E. Cogn, 


Corresponding Secretary. 


UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 


Durine January and February, 1906, the 
society held eight meetings. The papers pre- 
sented were as follows: 


Proressor JosEpH H. Barr: ‘ Recapitulation, 
and its Bearing on the Problems of Life.’ 

Proressor JoHN B. EKELEY: ‘Important Com- 
pounds of Carbon.’ 

Dr. Grorce H. CaTTERMOLE: 
Heart and Blood Vessels.’ ; 

ProressorR Freperic L. Paxson: ‘The In- 
fluence of the West in American History.’ 

Mr. G. S. Dopps: ‘ Microscopie Plant and Ani- 
mal Life of Ponds and Ditches.’ 

Dr. Martin E. Mites: ‘ Preventive Medicine.’ 

Dr. Saunt Epsreen: ‘The Cost of Life Insur- 
ance as viewed from a Mathematical Standpoint.’ 

Mr. Grorce M. Cuapwick: ‘The Development 
of Musical Form.’ é 


‘Diseases of the 


The meetings have been well attended, 
chiefly by members of the faculty and by 
citizens of Boulder. The attendance has 
been from fifty to one hundred. 


Francis RaMALEy, 
Secretary. 
BOULDER, COLo., 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
METEORITE SHOWER AT MODOC, KANSAS. 


Investication has been made by the writer 
of the meteorite fall which took place at 
Modoe, Scott County, Kansas, about 9:30 
p.M., September 2, 1905. Mention of the 
fall was made in the local paper at the time, 
and in Sorence of March 9. The phenomena 
of the fall were observed by a large number of 
the inhabitants of Scott and the adjoiming 
counties. The course of the meteorite, as 
learned by the writer through inquiries in 
several counties, was nearly due east. The 
phenomena were a sudden lighting up of the 
sky by a swiftly moving fireball, ‘as big as a 
washtub, which quickly exploded with three 
successive and widening discharges. ‘The ex- 


Apri 13, 1906.] 


plosion must have occurred not far from 
Tribune, Greeley County, Kansas, since the 
interval between light and sound there was 
but a few seconds. The fall of stones, how- 
ever, occurred at Modoc, about forty miles 
further east, the interval between light and 
sound there being between two and three 
minutes. It would appear, therefore, that 
after the explosion the stones traveled about 
forty miles before reaching the earth, at a 
velocity of about one third of a mile per 
second. Up to date thirteen fragments and 
individuals have been found, the heaviest 
haying weighed eleven pounds. The other 
individuals and fragments found range in 
weight from seven pounds to a few ounces. 
The area over which they were scattered is 
one of about seven miles in length by two 
miles in width, extending nearly due east 
and west, the larger stones being found at 
the east end of the area. The principle 
that the smaller stones would fall first is 
thus corroborated. The stones appear to be 
of the type of white or gray chondrites 
and to have the usual composition of meteor- 
ites of this character. They are coated, for 
the most part, with a thick, black crust, al- 
though considerable breaking up took place 
in the atmosphere, so that some fragments 
have only a secondary crust or none at all. 
The total weight of individuals thus far col- 
lected is thirty-two pounds. 

Six distinct meteorite localities are already 
known in western Kansas. Of these, one, 
Saline, Sheridan County, is an observed fall 
which took place at 9:30 p.m., November 15, 
1898. That another fall should occur so soon 
within an area previously so favored seems to 
indicate some combination of forces relative 
to the area. 


Ottver C. FARRINGTON. 
FIELD Museum or NATURAL History. 


CAPTURE OF THE WEST INDIAN SEAL (MONACHUS 
TROPICALIS) AT KEY WEST, FLORIDA. 

Own February 25, 1906, a party of fisherman 
killed a West Indian seal about five miles 
from Key West, where the specimen is now 
on exhibition. 

It is a female, nine feet long and appar- 


SCIENCE. 


583 


ently quite old. The teeth are worn flat, the 
canines being worn down to the same level 
as the other teeth. 

When discovered the animal was promptly 
harpooned and then killed with a shotgun. No 
one in Key West had succeeded in identifying 
it, and the exhibitors called it a sea-lion, until 
my arrival. It is, I believe, about thirty years 
since Monachus tropicalis was last seen in the 
Florida region. Mr. H. LL. Ward collected a 
few specimens on the Triangle Islands in the 
Bay of Campeachy just twenty years ago. It 
has practically disappeared from the West 
Indian region. 

Two specimens have been exhibited alive at 
the New York Aquarium, one of them from 
1897 to 1903. These were also captured at 
the Triangles. 

The Key West specimen is for sale and al- 
though badly mounted, the skin is apparently 
in good condition for remounting. The skull 
is mounted in the skin. 

The specimen is in the possession of 
Jonathan Cates, Jr., Virginia Avenue, near 
North Beach, Key West, Florida. 


C. H. Townsenp. 
Nrw YORK AQUARIUM. 


ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SMALL MOUNDS OF THE 
LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND TEXAS. 

In Science for January 5, Vol. XXIII, p. 
35, Mr. A. C. Veatch, of the U. S. Geological 
Survey, takes up the question of the origin 
of the small mounds of the lower Mississippi 
and Texas, referring to an article of Mr. D. I. 
Bushnell in Vol. XXII., p. 712, followed by 
a lengthy quotation from Foster’s ‘ Prehis- 
toric Races of the United States,’ citing from 
the manuscript notes of Professor Forshy: 
“There is a class of mounds west of the Mis- 
sissippi Delta and extending to the Arkansas 
and above, and westward to the Colorado in 
Texas, that are to me, after thirty years of 
familiarity with them, entirely inexplicable.” 
He also quotes from the report of Colonel S. 
H. Lockett’s topographical survey of Louisi- 
ana and from De Nadaillac’s ‘ Prehistoric 
America,’ and gives the result of his own ob- 
servations. 


584 


They are unaccountable to all of them. 
“They are not ant hills or animal burrows, 
and were not made by Indians.” 

I think the explanation is very simple and 
easily verified. The memories of the observers 
will confirm it. They are the marks of up- 
rooted trees. They appear in every part of 
our country where there are forests and where 
they have disappeared. They are more nu- 
merous in certain light soils and in swamps 
and sometimes in overflowed lands. 

Trees blown down in gales turn up a large 
mass of earth, which as the tree and roots 
decay settle into low, generally oblong, ‘knolls’ 
or mounds. On the New England farm 
where I spent my boyhood was an old pasture 
that had many such mounds. It had been 
timbered with hemlock and some hard wood, 
which had been cut down and burned up to 
make ‘a clearing.’ A crop or two had been 
taken from it, but the soil was too thin and 
poor to pay for cultivating. It was given over 
to pasturage. I recognized their character 
from seeing them in process of formation in 
the adjoining woods. One autumn a tornado 
passed over the farm, cutting a swath through 
the forests. Every tree of any size in its path 
was either overturned or broken off. A few 
years ago I visited the old place. A new 
woods had grown up, but the track of the 
tornado could be traced by the little hillocks. 

I lived at one time for some years in the 
pine woods of Mississippi, near the central 
part of the state, and there witnessed the 
formation of such mounds. It was more 
rapid than at the north. The annual fires in 
a year or two burned up the pitchy tree and 
roots and the mound was soon rounded up. 

On the prairies of Iowa, where trees never 
grew, there are no such mounds. On the 
flood plains of the rivers that are usually 
timbered they occur, and in the valley of the 
Mississippi where I reside I have met with 
much larger ones than those of the uplands, 
large trees and a soft soil. J think, therefore, 
that this solution is very obvious and satis- 
factory. 


P. J. Farnswortu. 
Crinton, lowa. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. _ 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE FISH GENUS ALABES OR CHEILOBRANCHUS. 

NearLy a century:ago (in 1817) a group of 
eel-like fishes was named ‘les Alabés’ by 
Cuvier in his ‘ Régne Animal’ (II., 235). All 
the information given was that they, like the 5 
Synbranchi, had a single undivided branchial 
aperture under the throat, well-marked pec- 
torals with a small concave disk between them, _ 
a small operculum, three branchiostegal rays, 
pointed teeth, and intestines like those of the 
Synbranchi. Only one small species from 
India (‘la mer des Indes’) was referred to, 
but left unnamed. 

This species ever since has remained un- 
noticed and unnamed till recently. In 
March, 1906, the concluding part of an article 
(‘Le genre Alabés de Cuvier’) by Leon 
Vaillant, published in the Nowvelles Archives 
du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle (4), VIL, . 
145-158, was received, which throws some light 
on the subject. Vaillant identifies the genus 
with Cheilobranchus of Richardson. The 
alleged disk is so superficial that only a trace 
exists in some individuals and not at all in 
others, the so-called pectorals are rayless and 
approximately in the place of ventrals of 
many jugular fishes, the dorsal and anal are 
rayless, and the caudal has eight or nine 
(‘huit ou neuf’) articulated rays and is in- 
serted around the margin of a hypural plate; 
there are intermaxillaries with imbricating 
ascending posterior processes and behind them 
small supramaxillaries; the teeth are com- 
pressed and blunt. 

Such a combination of characters indicates 
a very peculiar type certainly not closely re- 
lated to Synbranchus; Vaillant fully recog- 
nizes this and suggests (p. 156) that the genus 
is most nearly related to the Blennioidea and 
especially the Blenniide. The latter view is 
very questionable, but not enough has been 
made known to permit an authoritative opin- 
ion to be formed. Vaillant has overlooked a 
couple of references including important or 
original data. 

Henri Cloquet, (‘H. C.’) contributed to the 
‘Supplement’ (p. 99) of the first volume of 
the ‘ Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,’ an 
article on ‘ Ataprs, Alabes (Ichtyol)’ defining 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


it'as a genus (‘genre’) in essentially the same 
terms as Cuvier had done but adding data 
respecting the intestines. The additional data, 
however, were simply taken from Cuvier’s 
definition of Synbranchus on the assumption 
that what was true of the latter was also of 
the former. The date of the title page of the 
‘Dictionnaire’ is 1816, the year previous to 
that of the title page of the ‘Régne Animal’ 


(1817). 


loquet’s notice is important inasmuch as 
Cuvier gave only the French form (‘les 
Alabés’) of the name which many naturalists 
of the present day would regard as inadmis- 
sible. Cloquet’s addition of the Latin name 
is also prior to Oken’s Siu 2 action (Isis, 
1817, 1183). 

A. Valenciennes furnished for the ‘ Diction- 
naire Universel d’Histoire Naturelle’ (1., 237, 
1841) a notice of the genus Alabes defining it 
by the single jugular branchial aperture, small 
pectorals, small opercle, and three branchio- 
stegal rays, ignoring the alleged disk. He 
also ignored the attribution of the Indian 
habitat, and referred to Péron as the collector 
—‘ On ne connait encore qu’une seule esp. de 
ce g., rapportée par Péron, lors du voyage du 
capitaine Baudin aux terres australes.’? This 
solves the question as to habitat raised by 
Vaillant (p. 148). 

I had long ago considered the possibility of 
the identity of Alabes and Cheilobranchus but 
the evidence was altogether insufficient to 
certify it, and had not the determination been 
effected by means of the types of Alabes, it 
might have been better to have rejected that 
name as indeterminable. As it is, it is per- 
haps necessary to revive it as the prior desig- 
nation of Cheilobranchus and at the same time 
to substitute the family name ALABETIDZ and 
the superfamily term ALABETOIDEA. In 1872, 
recognizing the decided difference between the 
genus and the Synbranchide, I proposed for it 
the family Chilobranchide and later (1896) 
further removed it from the Synbranchide as 
a superfamily (Chilobranchoidea). I have 
always regarded the group as having no deter- 
minate relationship to the typical Symbranchia 
and in 1872 retained it doubtfully among the 


SCIENCE. 


585 


Apodes (‘ Apodes? incerti sedis’). In 1885 
(‘Standard Natural History,’ IIT., 100), con- 


.trasting it with the true Symbranchia I have 


remarked, ‘on the other hand, the Chilo- 
branchide (a family of doubtful relationship) 
have only about twenty-one abdominal and 
fifty-two caudal vertebre.’ The data are still 
quite insufficient to determine the affinities of 
the genus but sufficient to assure us that it is 
not related to either the Symbranchia or the 
Blenniide. It is to be hoped that a com- 
parative study of the skeleton may be made. 
It should above all be ascertained what is the 
nature of the paired ‘fins’ and for this pur- 
pose the morphology of the supporting bones 
Gf any) should be elucidated. 
THEO. GILL. 


THE FUNCTIONS OF THE FINS OF FISHES. 


THE communication in a recent number of 
Science (December 15, 1905) by A. Dugés, 
entitled ‘Note on the Functions of the Fins 
of Fishes,’ deserves some attention, if only to 
correct some of the impressions it leaves with 
the reader. While the observations recorded 
in the above-mentioned paper are interesting 
enough as evidence from one more source, it 
must not be thought, as the author states, that 
the functions of the various fins have not been 
‘treated in a practical manner up to the 
present,’ nor is it true that the regeneration 
of the fins ‘has not yet been observed, or at 
least not published.’ 

For the latter point I refer the author to 
the work of Professor T. H. Morgan on ‘ Re- 
generation in Teleosts’* and ‘ Further Experi- 
ments on the Regeneration of the Tail of 
Fishes,’ * dealing with the results of experi- 
mentation on the regeneration of paired and 
unpaired fins in five genera, Tautogolabrus 
(Ctenolabrus), Opsanus (Batrdchus), Fundu- 
lus, Stenotomus and Decapterus. 

As to the use of the fins, H. Strasser pub- 
lished in 1882° a good account of the move- 

‘Archiv fiir Entwickelungsmechanik der Or- 
ganismen, X., 1900, pp. 120-134. 

2Tbid., XIV., 1902, pp. 539-561. 

**Zur Lehre yon der Ortsbewegung der Fische 
durch Beugungen des Leibes und der unpaaren 
Flossen.’ 


586 


ment of fishes, dealing especially with the 
caudal as a ‘propulsatorisches Organ. The 
use of the tail and the flexion of the body 
have been generally recognized by writers on 
the fishes. The experiments performed by 
Dugés were made on sharks twenty years ago 
hy Paul Mayer and aceurately described in 
‘Die unpaaren Flossen,’* with practically the 
same results. 

The account of Mr. Dugés called to mind 
certain of my own observations made several 
years ago, but not published. As these were 
not entirely in accord with those of the above 
writer I decided to repeat the studies for the 
sake of confirming either my own work or 
that of Mr. Dugés. Director Charles H. 
Townsend, of the New York Aquarium, very 
kindly granted me.space and material. I have 
to thank also Mr. W. I. DeNyse, of the aqua- 
rium, who assisted me in many ways and 
confirmed some of the observations. The ex- 
periments were chiefly upon Fundulus hetero- 
clitus, a hardy species in which the fins are 
of rather large size. 

Space will not permit the recounting here 
of all the experiments made by removing the 
fins in all possible combinations, but a few 
of the results may be stated. When a single 
pectoral fin was removed the fish tended to 
turn partly on one side, due probably to the 
action of the pectoral of the opposite side. 
This, however, the fish soon learned to regu- 
late. After the removal of both pectorals the 
fish when swimming slowly apparently moved 
as usual, but when forced to turn quickly it 
was unable to accurately balance or otherwise 
undergo movements requiring nice adjust- 
ment. This is much more marked in the 
short, compressed or rhomboidal type of fish. 
A scup (Stenotomus chrysops) with both pec- 
torals removed is very helpless when attempt- 
ing to undergo certain movements which are 
ordinarily performed with the greatest ease. 
A study of the movements of the many species 
of fishes in the New York Aquarium is en- 
tirely confirmatory of the view that one func- 
tion of the pectoral is to balance and accu- 
rately adjust the fish in swimming. 


*Mitth. z. Zool. Sta., Neapel, VI., 1886. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 589. 


Another very evident function of the pec- 
toral, at least in many species, is locomotion. 
Fundulus occasionally swims slowly forward 
with the use of the pectorals alone, or it can 
reverse the movement and swim backward: 
very slowly, and I have even seen them swim 
slowly in a circle using only one pectoral. 
These are not to be considered the most or- 
dinary movements in Fundulus, but at least 
they show that the fins are capable of being 
used for these purposes. In this connection 
the doctor-fish (Teuthis hepatus) is one of the 
most interesting. This active fish swims 
rapidly around the aquarium tank with the 
body apparently quite rigid and, using the 
pectorals like a pair of wings, can swim either 
forward or backward. The tautog (Tautoga 
onitis) often swims leisurely, using only the 
pectorals and dorsal. 

Another well-marked function of the pec- 
torals is their use as a drag or brake in stop- 
ping. It can be noted in the movements of 
many fishes in the aquarium that in stopping 
the pectorals, and often the pelyics also, are 
thrown out at right angles to the body, thereby 
increasing very greatly the resistance to the 
water. Fishes with the pectorals removed 
would at first frequently run against the side 
or bottom of the tank, but later they learned 
to avoid this by a strong movement of the 
tail. During the course of my experiments 
on this point I was pleased to find in Dr. H. 
H. Swinnerton’s latest paper’ a statement to 
the same effect, and in a recent conversation 
Professor R. S. Lull offered the same sug- 
gestion. 

With regard to the observation made by 
Mr. Dugés that the pectorals are moved when 
the fishes are stationary in order ‘to produce 
currents in the water to renew the portions of 
this which had already yielded their oxygen 
to the gills and remained charged with car- 
bonie anhydride,’ I must say that, while at 
first glance it looks like a probable explana- 
tion, a little study of various types of fishes 
will serve to show the fallacy of the statement. 
In the first place the water is not renewed at 

S°A Contribution to the Morphology and De- 
velopment of the Pectoral Skeleton of Teleo- 
stomes, Q. J. M. S., November, 1905. 


Apri 13, 1906.] 


the gill region in breathing but is taken in at 
the mouth and forced backward over the gills 
and out in a backward direction. Secondly, 
there are certain types of fishes which possess 
no pectoral fins and yet manage to keep up 
their supply of oxygen. Thirdly, there are 
certain fishes which live upon the bottom, like 
the skates, or even buried under the sand, as 
the flounders, which are unable to make any 
such use of the pectorals and yet breathe 
without difficulty. Lastly, it is a point of 
observation without a single exception in my 
experience that the ordinary, actively swim- 
ming type of fish when resting on the bottom 
does not move the fins at all. Observations 
of several years’ standing, on fishes in and 
out of aquaria, have recently been supple- 
mented by careful studies at the New York 
Aquarium on many different types of fishes, 
both fresh water and marine, and the result 
is invariably as above stated. 

On the other hand, all the fishes that I have 
observed use the pectorals when they are sus- 
pended in the water. Moreover, other fins 
are often brought into use at the same time. 
Thus the elongate pike (Lucius) and gar 
(Lepisosteus) are seen to move the pelvic fins 
slowly, coordinately with the pectorals, and 
short-bodied forms such as the butterfly-fish 
(Chetodon) move the pectorals and caudal, 
while in species intermediate in form the 
eaudal, anal and dorsal may, any or all, be 
used in addition to the paired fins when sus- 
pended in the water. This array of facts 
makes it quite clear that the function of the 
pectorals when the fish is stationary is that 
of equilibration and not the removal of water 
charged with carbon dioxide. 

It is impossible to formulate a rule for the 
pectoral fins which will cover all cases, since 
in the more or less aberrant species this fin 
may be used for creeping on the bottom or 
even for progress on land or in the air, or it 
may enter into the formation of a sucking 
dise, or rarely may be absent; but as far as 
the usual swimming type of fish is concerned, 
the following uses are most in evidence: 


Guiding and balancing the body in swimming; 
To act as a brake in arresting the progress; 


SCIENCE. 587 


Hquilibration when suspended stationary in the 
water, and 
Locomotion, either forward or backward. 


The pelvic fins are generally used much in 
the same way as the pectorals, though of less 
importance. ‘The vertical fins may assist the 
caudal in locomotion or the pectorals in bal- 
ancing. In terete types of fishes the dorsal 
and anal seem to have much the same function 
as a centerboard on a boat, to prevent the 
body from slipping sidewise through the water 
when the caudal portion is flexed in making 
the stroke. In fishes of this type which have 
had these fins removed the body is seen to 
wriggle to a greater extent than in those which 
possess the fins. 

In conclusion, I wish to say that no one 
appreciates better than the writer the highly 
adaptive character of the fins, especially those 
of teleosts, and that any one who searches for 
exceptions will find them—it would probably 
be much more difficult to find two species in 
which all the fins are used in exactly the same 
manner—and yet I believe that the general 
functions of the fins are about as above out- 


lined. Raymonp OC. Osspurn. 


CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY, 
January 18, 1906. 


COLUMBIA FIELD WORK IN 1905 INTERCOLLEGIATE 
FIELD COURSES IN GEOLOGY. 


Durine the latter part of May and early 
part of June, 1905, a party of nine graduate 
students from the department of geology, 
Columbia University, under the guidance and 
direction of Professor A. W. Grabau, made a 
somewhat extended field trip through New 
York State, visiting and studying in consider- 
able detail many of the type localities and 
typical developments of the Paleozoic forma- 
tions. The object of the trip was, by actual 
field work, to make each student familiar with 
the general appearance and lithological char- 
acter of the various formations as they occur 
in the field, as well as their stratigraphical 
relation to one another and to the underlying 
erystalline rocks, and by personal collecting, 
to make him familiar with the characteristic 
fossils of each formation. Whenever oppor- 
tunity was afforded a study was also made 


588 


of structural, tectonic and physiographic fea- 
tures. 

The party left New York on May 20, and 
made its first stop in the vicinity of Rondout 
and Kingston. Here, in the exposures laid 
bare in the quarries of the Vlightberg Hill, 
on the North Hill, and along the railroad 
tracks toward Whiteport, Binnewater and 
Rosendale, excellent exposures were found of 
the Ordoyicie (Hudson River group), uncon- 
formably overlain by the Siluric, including 
the Schawangunk conglomerate, Binnewater 
sandstone, Rosendale cement, Cobleskill lime- 
stone, Rondout waterlime and Manlius lime- 
stone. These are in turn conformably over- 
lain by the lower and middle Devonic, namely, 
the Coeymans limestone, New Scotland shale, 
Becraft limestone, Port Ewen limestone, Oris- 
kany sandstone and limestone, Hsopus grit and 
the Onondaga limestone. The Siluro-Devonic 
contact between the Manlius and Coeymans 
is so sharp and distinct that a member of the 
party secured a hand specimen Siluric at one 
end, Devonic at the other and the dividing 
line clearly marked in the middle. A careful 
study was also made of the structural features 
of this region, including the overthrust fault 
and repeated formations of the Vlightberg 
and North Hill described in the Report of the 
New York State Paleontologist for 1902.* 

The next stop was made at Hudson, whence 
visits were made to the Hudson River shales 
at Mount Merino and to the various for- 
mations exposed at Becraft Mountain. At 
Becraft Mountain upon the upturned and 
eroded Hudson shales is deposited the Manlius 
limestone and this is followed directly and 
conformably by the Coeymans, New Scotland, 
Becraft, Port Ewen, Oriskany, Esopus, Scho- 
harie and Onondaga. Hach of these forma- 
tions was studied in considerable detail and 
characteristic fossils were collected. Atten- 
tion was also called to the tectonic features 
of the mountain and the tendency of streams 
to flow and swamps to form at the contact 
between the Oriskany and overlying Esopus 
beds. 

*New York State Museum Bull. 69, pp. 1063- 
1065, by A. W. Grabau, and pp. 1176-1227; by 
Gilbert Van Ingen and P. Edwin Clark. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 589. 


Passing on to Schoharie, a day was devoted 
to the study of the Silurie and Devonic forma- 
tions as exposed there. A part of the time 
was spent in carefully studying and collecting 
fossils from the formations exposed from the 
bottom of the Schoharie Creek to the summit 
of West Mountain. In the bed of the creek 
were found sandstones of the Hudson group, 
and resting upon these were the Salina sand- 
stones (Binnewater) and shales (Brayman). 
From this as a starting point we ascended the 
West Mountain and in doing so passed over 
and examined the Cobleskill, Rondout and 
Manlius of the Siluric; the Coeymans, New 
Seotland, Becraft, Port Ewen, Oriskany, 
Esopus, Schoharie and Onondaga of the 
Devonie, the Onondaga limestone forming the 
hard resistant capping of the mountain. This 
locality furnished a splendid illustration of 
the behavior of the various formations under 
weathering, the hard resistant limestones 
forming cliffs while the shales and softer beds 
formed wooded or cultivated slopes. Later 
in the day the party visited and carefully 
examined the formations exposed in the lime- 
stone quarries east of the village. 

A short stop was made at Little Falls to 
examine the Beekmantown limestone and its 
contact with the underlying crystalline rocks 
and to note the peculiar physiographic fea- 
tures of the Mohawk Valley at this point. 
Then the party moved on to Utica, whence 
trips were made to Trenton Falls and Wash- 
ington Mills. At Trenton Falls the Tren- 
ton beds were carefully examined in the 
walls of the gorge and fossils were collected 
both from the beds in place and from the 
material excavated and thrown out by the 
Utica Electric Light and Power Company 
when installing their plant at the side of the 
river. At Washington Mills were found ex- 
cellent exposures of Utica shale and lower 
Loraine, and resting’ disconformably* upon 
the latter the Oneida conglomerate, which in 
turn is succeeded conformably by the Clinton 
beds. These Clinton beds were studied in the 
gorge of Swift Creek, the type locality. 

At Pulaski, along the gorge of Salmon 


?Grabau, Science, N. S., Vol. XXII., pp. 534, 
1905. 


AFrRin 13, 1906.] 


River, a few miles from Lake Ontario, were 
found extensive exposures of the upper Lo- 
raine shales, and these in certain layers were 
found to be very fossiliferous. 

From Syracuse a short trolley trip was made 
to the Solvay quarries at Split Rock and the 
upper Siluric and lower Devonic formations 
were examined, and the Siluro-Devonie con- 
tact noted. Owing to the fact that this trip 
was made on a very wet afternoon, no detailed 
work was done. 

From Syracuse a side trip was also made 
to Tully, where the type locality of the Tully 
limestone was visited, and fossils were col- 
lected from the Hypothyris cuboides fauna, 
famous as representing the mingling of Euro- 
pean and American faunas at the beginning 
of upper Devonic time. The Moscow shale, 
underlying the Tully limestone, was examined 
and many fossils collected from it where it is 
exposed near the Solvay salt wells, a few miles 
from Tully village. Tinkers Falls, some six 
or eight miles from Tully, was visited. Here 
a small: creek has cut a gorge through the 
black Genesee shales above and falls over the 
edge of the exposed Tully limestone. This 
limestone, some twenty or thirty feet thick, 
projects out from the cliff for nearly thirty 
feet, the soft Moscow shales below having 
been eroded away. 

At Rochester the party made a short stop 
and hasty examination of the lower Siluric 
formations as exposed in the Genesee gorge, 
and then went on to Niagara Falls and 
vicinity. Here a very careful study was made 
of the Medina, Clinton, Rochester and Lock- 
port formations, and many fossils were col- 
lected from them. An attempt was made to 
picture the region as it was in preglacial time, 
when the watercourses were very different 
from what they are now, and to understand 
the cause and meaning of the physiographic 
features now existing. After spending several 
hours at the Upper Rapids, Goat Island, the 
Lunar and American Falls, the party followed 
the gorge along the American side, walking 
down the tracks of the New York Central 
Railroad as far as Lewiston. Then a car was 
taken up the Canadian side and stops were 

.made at the Whirlpool Rapids, and at some 


SCIENCE. 


589 


of the best points for viewing the Horseshoe 
Falls. 

After completing the work at Niagara, the 
party went south to Eighteen Mile Creek and 
the shore of Lake Erie. Eighteen Mile Creek 
was followed from the Lake Shore Railroad 
bridge to where it empties into Lake Erie, 
then we walked along the Lake Shore section 
for several miles to both the north and south 
of the creek. Here were found excellent ex- 
posures of the Hamilton and Portage groups, 
including the Ludlowville shales, Encrinal 
limestone, Moscow shale, Styliolina limestone, 
Genesee, Middlesex, Cashaqua and Rhinestreet 
shales. An abundance of fossils was collected 
from most of these beds, and many of the beds 
were followed for miles along their excellent 
and continuous outcrops. 

From Buffalo short trips were made to Lan- 
caster, Williamsville and North Buffalo. At 
Laneaster the Stafford limestone was found 
and many fossils collected from it. The pe- 
culiar position of this limestone between two 
beds of middle Devonie shale was carefully 
examined in an endeavor to understand why 
it was there and how it was caused—whether 
by change of sedimentation or continental os- 
cillation. The party saw evidence of the fact 
that after Onondaga time there was a gradual 
shoaling of the waters over central and west- 
ern New York, as is indicated by the deposi- 
tion of shales instead of limestones. Twice 
during Marcellus time there was a return of 
pure water conditions, with an invasion of a 
western fauna. One of these is marked by 
the Agoniatite limestone and the other by the 
Stafford limestone. 

At Williamsville were found the Bertie and 
Cobleskill (Greenfield), with the Onondaga 
resting disconformably upon the latter. In 
the Onondaga, where it was being quarried, 
was found a most perfect example of a Paleo- 
zoic coral reef. The reef in the center of the 
quarry was made up of massive coral heads, 
some of them five and six feet across. On 
either side the bedding planes sloped gently 
away from the center of the reef. Quarrying 
operations were stopped when the reef was 
reached because the massive unstratified lime- 
stone could not be readily worked. 


590 


In the quarries at North Buffalo the dis- 
conformity between the Bullhead and Onon- 
daga was studied. This time-gap is faintly 
marked, but very careful study has shown that 
a thin layer of sandstone, in some places 
hardly more than a single layer of Quartz 
sand grains, lies between the two disconform- 
able formations. In one place there is a 
remarkable dike of the intervening sand in- 
jected into the underlying formations, extend- 
ing clear through the Bull-head into the 
Bertie. 

On the return trip from Buffalo to New 
York the party made one stop at Portage to 
examine the upper gorge of the Genesee River, 
and the upper Devonic formations exposed 
there. Members of the party who desired to 
do so then joined the students from the School 
of Mines for a week’s field work in the region 
about Newburgh, where the erystalline rocks 
of the Highlands and the stratigraphy and 
structure of the Skunnemunk Mountain re- 
gion were studied and mapped in detail. 

THomas C. Brown. 

CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE EMBRYOGENY OF 
SYMPLOCARPUS F@TIDUS SALISB. 


Last year Mr. W. H. Lippold, while en- 
gaged in graduate work in the botanical de- 
partment of the University of Muinnesota, 
undertook a study of the embryo-sac de- 
velopment and embryogeny of Symplocarpus 
fetidus Salisb. 

The work was not carried to completion, 
some important points being left undecided 
because of lack of material. The writer, upon 
the suggestion of Professor Lyon, has taken 
up the unfinished work and hopes to bring 
out in a subsequent paper an account of the 
observations made. 

Some interesting facts have already been 
established and it seems advisable to call at- 
tention to these at the present time. Briefly 
stated they are as follows: 

The gynecium is almost always 
chambered, although two chambers 
quently occur. 

The oyule is solitary, axial, orthotropous 
and pendant from the roof of the chamber. 


one- 
infre- 


SCIENCE. 


r 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 589. 


The two integuments which are formed do 
not completely enclose the nucellus. 

A massive endosperm develops and rapidly 
consumes the nucellus, the inner and outer 
integuments, and pushes back into the basal 
tissue of the ovule. 

The protocorm soon assumes a somewhat 
campanulate shape with a short, thick sus- 
pensor at its narrower, proximal end. 

The radicle and plumule are both differen- 
tiated at the suspensor end of the protocorm. 

The developing protocorm completely con- 
sumes the endosperm as well as all the re- 
maining ovular tissue except the base of the 
hilum, which remains closely appressed to its. 
broad end. 

The embryo, therefore, comes to lie free in 
the chamber of the gynecium without any 
trace of seed coats or enveloping membranes. 

The mature embryo is nearly spherical and 
measures 8-11 mm. in diameter. 

The epidermal and subepidermal cells have 
their -walls considerably thickened, while the 
walls of the former are distinctly cuticular- 
ized. i 

The metacormal axis is short and bent back 
upon itself, the plumule lying close to the 
radicle. 

The so-called ‘seeds’ of Symplocarpus fe- 
tidus are naked embryos. 


C. Orro RosEnpDAuL. 
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. 


LOWER PALEOZOIC FORMATIONS IN NEW MEXICO. 

Tue older Paleozoic strata have generally 
been considered absent in New Mexico. Dur- 
ing the past summer, while engaged in field 
work for the U. S. Geological Survey, under 
the direction of Mr. Waldemar Lindgren, the 
undersigned found Cambrian, Ordovician, 
Silurian and Devonian formations at various 
places along a belt which crosses Grant, Sierra 
and Luna counties, and extends from the east 
side of the Rio Grande westward beyond the 
Arizona line and probably connects with the 
similar formations of the Clifton copper dis- 
trict in Arizona.” 

* Published by permission of the director, U. S. 
Geological Survey. 

*W. Lindgren, professional paper, U. S. Geolog- 
ical Survey, No. 43. 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


The localities where these rocks are best 
exposed are the Caballos Mountains, the Hills- 
boro and Kingston mining districts on the 
east side of the Black Range, in the vicinity 
of Cooks Peak and the Florida Mountains. 
In these places the Cambrian, Ordovician and 
Devonian are found. At Lake Valley and 
west of Silver City, near the mines of Chloride 
Flat, in addition to the foregoing formations, 
true Silurian limestone separates the Devonian 
and Ordovician strata. 

A more extended account of these forma- 
tions will appear in a forthcoming number of 
the American Journal of Science. 


C. H. Gorpon, 
L. C. Graton. 


A NEW METHOD FOR THE HOMOPLASTIC TRANS- 
PLANTATION OF THE OVARY. 


Tue transplantation of the ovaries has been 
performed by Knauer, Gregorieff, Arendt, 
Ribbert, Schultz, Herlitzka, Foa, Guthrie, ete. 
These experiments showed that young ovaries 
are often able to ‘prendre’ (or grow success- 
fully), while the transplantation of adult 
ovaries is practically umsuccessful. These 
negative results are probably due mainly to 
the defective technic employed, the usual 
method being to sew the transplanted ovary 
to the peritoneum, and leaving to nature the 
reestablishing of the circulation. In order to 
obtain constant results, it is necessary to use 
a much mére precise method. Therefore, we 
attempted to transplant an ovary by modify- 
ing as slightly as possible its circulation, its 
innervation and its connections with the 
Fallopian tube. 

We used our method of transplantation in 
mass, which permits the transplantation of 
ovaries of cat, with their vessels, and preserves 
a part of the nervous apparatus of the organ. 

The abdomen of a cat A being open, a large 
peritoneal flap, extending from the right ovary 
to the portion of the aorta corresponding to 
the mouth of the ovarian artery, is cut by 
proper incisions. The Fallopian tube is sey- 
ered near its fimbriated extremity. The pos- 
terior surface of the peritonéal flap is care- 
fully separated from all the posterior tissues 


SCIENCE. 


591 


excepting the ovarian vessels, which are per- 
mitted to retain their connection with it. 
Then the segments of the aorta and vena cava, 
from which the ovarian vessels originate, are 
extirpated. The specimen consisting of the 
ovary and a part of the Fallopian tube united 
to the segments of the aorta and vena cava 
by a cellulo-peritoneal ribbon and the ovarian 
vessels, is then placed in a glass of isotonic 
sodium chloride solution. 

The abdomen of a cat B is then opened by 
performing a right half circular transversal 
laparotomy. The right ovary and the ex- 
ternal part of the Fallopian tube are resected. 
The aorta and vena cava are cut at the point 
of the mouth of the ovarian vessels. The 
anatomical specimen taken from cat A is re- 
moved from the salt solution and put into the 
abdominal cavity of cat B. The segments of 
the aorta and vena cava of cat A are inter- 
posed between the cut ends of the aorta and 
vena cava of the cat B. The peritoneal flap 
is stretched on the posterior abdominal wall in 
such a manner that the transplanted ovary 
takes the place of the normal ovary. The cir- 
culation through the aorta and vena cava is 
reestablished. The red blood flows through 
the ovarian artery, the ovary becomes rosy, 
and the dark circulation is slowly established 
through the venous plexus and the ovarian 
vein. After a few minutes the circulation 
appears similar to that of the normal ovary. 
The end of the transplanted Fallopian tube is 
united to the end of the normal one. At last 
the suture of the abdominal wall is performed. 

This operation is not dangerous, for the 
animals after a few hours appear to be in 
normal condition. Our experiments were per- 
formed on ordinary laboratory animals of 
uncertain breeds. They are interesting, there- 
fore, only from a technical point of view. 
We intend to very soon perform a series of 
similar operations on pure bred animals, pref- 
erably dogs or pigs, with a view of studying 
the problem of transmission of characters and 
related problems. : 

Arxis CARREL, 
C. C. Gururm. 
Tne HuLL PHysioLocicaL LABORATORY, 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 


592 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
ANNALS OF MONT BLANC OBSERVATORY. 


Vou. VI. of the Annals of the Mont Blanc 
Observatory (Vallot), bearing the date 1905, 
bears witness, in the author’s preface, to the 
difficulties under which M. Vallot has labored, 
and to the indomitable energy with which he 
has pursued his work in spite of severe handi- 
caps. A rheumatic affection, contracted 
during his long sojourns on Mont Blanc, has 

‘prevented M. Vallot from continuing his as- 
cents to the observatory, and even from re- 
ducing his observations. The present volume 
was begun in 1904, but another severe illness 
prevented its completion until the year 1905. 
Although in much better health, the author is 
not yet sufficiently strong to undertake the 
ascent of Mont Blane. 

Vol. VI. contains as its most important 
paper, M. Vallot’s ‘ Expériences sur la Respira- 
tion au Mont Blane dans les Conditions habit- 
uelles de la Vie’ (136 pp.), in which a de- 
tailed account is given of a large number of 
observations of physiological importance, made 
by the author on himself as well as on other 
persons, during the ascent of, and during so- 
journs on, Mont Blane. This is one of the 
most complete accounts of the physiological 
effects of high altitudes that we have seen. 

A second paper, by MM. Mougin and Ber- 
nard, inspectors of forests, ‘ Etudes exécutées 
au Glacier de Téte-Rousse,’ deals with the 
interesting observations made by these officials 
with a view to preventing in the future another 
catastrophe such as that which destroyed the 
baths of Saint-Gervais some years ago. The 
meteorological station established by M. 
Vallot on the Grands Mulets, and which he 
could not make use of owing to his illness, 
was taken by MM. Mougin and Bernard to 
the Téte-Rousse, where a series. of observations 
has been carried on regularly throughout the 
summer months, at about 3,200 meters above 
sea level. The publication of these results 
has been entrusted to M. Vallot, and begins in 
the present volume. 

Two other papers concern cartographic sub- 
jects in connection with the Mont Blane 
area. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.8. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


METEOROLOGISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT. 


Tue Meteorologische Zeitschrift, which has, 
since 1889, been published in Vienna (Holzel), 
is transferred to Braunschweig (Vieweg) with 
the first number for 1906. Vol. XXIII. of the 
Zeitschrift begins with this number. When 
the volumes of the Zeitschrift der k. k. 
Oesterreichischen Cfesellschaft der Meteorol- 
ogie are taken into account (these two publi- 
cations having been consolidated in 1884) the 
number of the new volume is XLI. There is 
no change in the editorship, Hann and 
Hellmann continuing in charge, as before. 
This invaluable meteorological journal seems 
to have gained new vigor with the beginning 
of a new year. Woeikof contributes three 
papers, one on the relation between the tem- 
perature of the lower air and that of the upper 
surface of land and water, and two on the 
character of rainfalls. Rainfalls are classi- 
fied by Woeikof in the following four types: 
(A) Thunderstorms of moist regions, short, 
heavy rainfalls; (B) rains of dry regions, 
very short, and usually of moderate amount; 
(C) monsoon rains in their best development, 
long duration, but of moderate intensity; (D) 


rains of higher latitudes, especially in au-. 


tumn and winter, long duration, but generally 
light. 

Gotz, of Munich, contributes a discussion of 
the progressive change in the condition of the 
soil as regards moisture, which is of interest 
im connection with the prevailing popular 
views concerning changes of climate. Von 
Ficker deseribes the development of valley 
haze from the dissipation of stratus clouds. 
Hann gives the results of a new determination 
of the mean temperatures of the whole earth, 
as well as of the eastern and western hemi- 
spheres. These temperatures have been deter- 
mined a good many times before, but these 
latest results include the data given in Mohn’s 
table of normal temperatures of latitudes 60° 
to 90° north (Report of the Nansen Expedi- 
tion), In which the observations made by the 
Fram Expedition were utilized. This is a 
very important addition to our knowledge of 
the temperatures of the Arctic, and naturally 
leads to revision of previous calculations of 
mean temperatures for the earth. 


Aprit 13, 1906.] 


FORESTS AND RAINFALL. 


Proressor J. ScHuBERT, director of the 
meteorological division of the Prussian for- 
estry experiment station work, has made ‘a 
study of the relation of forests and precipita- 
tion in Silesia, taking as a basis the rainfall 
map publisked by Hellmann in 1899. The 
conclusion reached—the author himself says 
that his estimates. are to some extent uncer- 
tain—is that forests seem to produce an in- 
erease in precipitation. If one half of the 
observed difference is set down as being due to 
the inereased protection of the gauges set up 
in or near the forests, the actual effect of the 
trees themselves would roughly correspond to 
an increase in altitude of 40 meters (Met. 
Zeitschr., December, 1905). 


NOTES. 

A NEw aeronautical observatory is to be es- 
tablished at Friedrichshafen, on the shore of 
the Lake of Constance, for carrying out 
meteorological observations in the free air by 
means of kites. The money for original 
equipment, and for annual expenses, is to 
be contributed by Germany, Wurtemberg, 
Bavaria, the Duchy of Baden and Alsace- 
Lorraine. Observations are to begin Janu- 
ary 1, 1907. Boats of special construction are 
to be built for flying the kites (Cel et Terre, 
January 16, 1906). 


Tue French Glacier Commission has been 
carrying out a series of measurements of 
snowfall at different altitudes on Mont Blane. 
Im general it appears that the snowfall in- 
ereases with altitude between 1,000 and 3,200 
meters, but the individual gauges do not give 
satisfactory results (Met. Zeitschr., December, 


1905). R. DeC. Warp. 


CARBON SUBOXIDE. 


THE interesting announcement of the dis- 
covery of a new oxide of carbon has just been 
made by Messrs. O. Diels and B. Wolf,’ work- 
ing in EK. Fischer’s laboratory. When the 
vapor of diethyl malonate is passed over 
phosphorus pentoxide, heated at 300°, it suf- 
fers the loss of two molecules of alcohol, 

+ Ber. d. Chen. Ges., 39, 689, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 


593 


which, of course, is immediately converted 
into ethylene and water, and there results an 
oxide of carbon, C,0,; this is one of the two 
possible anhydrides of maloniec acid, the other 
being 

CH. <5 > 0. 


The reaction which takes place is represented 
by the following equation: 


CH. (COOC.H;).—> 2C,H, + 2H,0 + OC: C: CO. 


The new compound is a colorless, highly re- 
fractive, very volatile liquid, boiling at 7°; 
it has an intense odor of acrolein and mustard 
oil, and rapidly attacks the mucous membrane 
of the eyes, nose and respiratory organs. 

Chemically, it is extremely reactive; with 
water malonic acid is quickly regenerated; 
dry hydrogen chloride gives malonyl chloride, 
CH,(COCl1),; aniline and ammonia yield 
malonanilide, CH,(CONHC,H,) and malon- 
amide, CH,(CONH.,),, respectively. 

Although carbon suboxide can be volatilized 
under reduced pressure, so as to admit of the 
determination of its vapor density, yet it 
slowly undergoes spontaneous decomposition 
at the ordinary temperature. The product is 
a dark red solid, which dissolves in water, 
giving an intense eosin red color. At 37° the 
decomposition of the suboxide is much more 
rapid and at 100° it is instantaneous. Under 
these conditions there is formed a deep black- 
ish-red, very hard substance. The two solids 
appear to be the oxides of carbon, C,O, and 
C,O,, which were described about thirty years 
ago by Brodie and by Berthelot. 

Eyen from the brief description of carbon 
suboxide given above it will be seen that its 
properties and mode of formation are in ad- 
mirable accord with the formula OC:C:CO, 
and that it possesses three series of relation- 
ships, according to whether it is regarded as 
being: (1) an oxide of carbon, (2) an an- 
hydride of malonic acid, (3) a carbon car- 
bonyl, similar to those of nickel and iron, 
Ni(CO), and Fe(CO),, which excited so much 
interest at the time of their discovery some 
years ago. 

J. BisHop TINGLE. 


594 


ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OF THE 
TWELFTH CENSUS. 

Tuer Bureau of the Census has just issued 
a special report analyzing and discussing 
statistics collected and published at the 
twelfth census, particularly statistics of popu- 
lation. This work was prepared under the 
direction of Professor Walter F. Willcox, of 
Cornell University, who was formerly one of 
the chief statisticians in the Census Office. 
The title of the volume is ‘ Supplementary 
Analysis and Derivative Tables: Twelfth Cen- 
sus,’ and, as this title suggests, the work com- 
prises two parts. The first part, or ‘ Supple- 
mentary Analysis’ is a series of statistical 
studies, some of which have already been pub- 
lished by the Census Bureau in bulletin form, 
while others are now given to the public for 
the first time. These studies discuss in an 
interesting manner such topics as growth of 
population, marital condition, illiteracy, inter- 
state migration, proportion of children in the 
population and proportion of breadwinners. 
One unique feature is a summary prefacing 
each study and stating concisely the conclu- 
sions reached by the writer. To some extent 
the work is a collaboration, for while most of 
these analytical studies or chapters were writ- 
ten by Professor Willcox, some have been con- 
tributed by other writers—the chapter on age 
statistics, by Professor Allyn A. Young, of 
the University of Wisconsin; the chapters on 
illiteracy and interstate migration, by Dr. 
Joseph A. Hill, of the Bureau of the Census; 
the chapter on vital statistics, by Dr. John 
Shaw Billings; and that on the negro farmer, 
by Professor W. E. B. DuBois, of Atlanta 
University. 

The second part of the volume, the ‘ Deriva- 
tive Tables,’ is a series of tables derived from 
the published data of the twelfth census. One 
feature of special interest in these tables is 
the classification of population according to 
the size of the place of residence. This brings 
out the differences and contrasts between the 
city and country population; also in many 
instances between the population of large 
cities, of middle-class cities and of small towns 
and rural districts. Thus one may study 
statistically the influence of city as compared 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 589. 


with country in connection with such ques- 
tions as age and sex, immigration, marriage, 
illiteracy, school attendance and size of fam- 
ilies. The tables include, also, an extended 
classification of population by birthplace, 
giving the numbers born in each state or 
territory and in each of the principal foreign 
countries which have contributed to the growth 
of our population by immigration. Certain 
derivative birthplace tables give ratios for 
each of the last six censuses, thus making it 
possible to trace for each state and territory 
the changes in the composition of the popu- 
lation brought about during the half century 
by the immigration of foreigners, as well as 
by the interstate migration of natives. * 


AWARDS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL 
SOCIETY+ 

THE council of the Royal Geographical So- 

ciety has decided to award the royal medals 
and other honors for 1906 as follows: 
\ With the approval of the King, the two 
royal medals have been awarded to M. Alfred 
Grandidier and Dr. Robert Bell, F.R.S. The 
founder’s medal is awarded to M. Grandidier 
for the results of his many years’ work on the 
Island of Madagascar. Since 1865 M. 
Grandidier has devoted himself to the explora- 
tion of the island and to the publication of its 
results. He spent five years in the island, 
traversing it three times throughout its breadth. 
The result of this exploration included geog- 
raphy, geodesy, geology and natural history in 
all its branches; it enabled a valuable map of 
the coast of the Imerina and of the Central 
Province of the Hova kingdom to be made. In 
1875 he began the publication of his great 
‘Histoire Physique, Naturelle, et Politique 
de Madagascar’ with the cooperation of the 
various savants. The whole when completed 
will form about 52 large quarto volumes. 
Altogether M. Grandidier’s lifework has been 
of the highest value in scientific geography, 
and forms the basis of our knowledge of Mada- 
gascar. 

The patron’s medal has been awarded to Dr. 
Robert Bell, F.R.S. During 45 years of field 
work he has mapped a large area of Canada 

1From the London Jimes. 


Ne 


Arrm 13, 1906.] SCIENCE. 595 
previously unknown, including the Gaspé dolf regions were explored by him under 
Peninsula; the coasts of the lLabrador Major Austin in 1899 and 1901. In 1902-4 he 
Peninsula, including its Atlantic, Hudson worked under Colonel Delmé Radcliffe on the 


Strait and Hudson and James Bay sides; most 
of the southern coast of the Island of Baffin- 
land, some of the large islands of the north- 
ern end of Hudson Bay, nearly the whole coast 
of Hudson Bay, the great rivers flowing into 
James Bay, and many of the great lakes. He 
has written 200 reports on various scientific 
subjects, and has greatly extended our knowl- 
edge of vast areas of the western continent. 

The Victoria research medal has been 
awarded to Professor W. M. Ramsay, D.C.L., 
LL.D. Professor Ramsay has been working 
at ancient geography for nearly 30 years, and 
is the acknowledged leader of all Europe in 
that branch of study. His work in Asia 
Minor has revolutionized the methods upon 
which such study is based, and has originated 
a whole school of students in this country and 
in France and Germany. What he has done 
for history can hardly be exaggerated. Tull 
his advent it was impossible to understand 
either the campaigns which ended in the 
Roman occupation or those which marked 
stages in the long struggle of Christianity and 
Islam. Professor Ramsay’s surveys and notes 
have been of invaluable service to the cartog- 
raphers of Asia Minor. 

The Murchison award has been given to 
Major H. R. Davis for his explorations in the 
Shan States, Kachin Hills, Yun-nan, Siam 
and Sechuan. 

The Gill memorial has been awarded to 
Major A. St. Hill Gibbons for the important 
exploring and survey work which he has done 
in Barotseland on his two expeditions in 1895- 
96 and in 1898-1900. 

The Cuthbert Peek fund has been awarded 
to Major H. H. Austin, C.M.G., D.S.0., R.E., 
for his exploration in tke Lake Rudolf region, 
the Sobat region, and his hazardous expedition 
from Omdurman to Mombasa vid Lake Ru- 
dolf in 1900 and 1901. 

The Back bequest goes to Major R. G. T. 
Bright, C.M.G., for his eight and one half 
years’ exploring work in the Sudan, Uganda 
and east Africa. The Sobat, Akobo and Ru- 


Anglo-German boundary commission west of 
Victoria Nyanza. In 1904-6 he worked under 
Colonel Smith on the Anglo-German bound- 
ary commission east of the Lake to Kiliman- 
jaro. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


March 24, 1906.—Mr. Henry, of Connecti- 
cut, from the Committee on Agriculture, to 
which was referred the bill of the House 
(House Resolution 7,019) for the protection of 
animals, birds, and fish in the forest reserves, 
and for other purposes, reported the same 
without amendment, accompanied by a report 
(No. 2,494); which said bill and report were 
referred to the House Calendar. 

March 26, 1906—The bill authorizing Pro- 
fessor Simon Newcomb to accept a decoration 
conferred upon him by the Emperor of Ger- 
many, passed the House. 

A bill for a public building for the United 
States Geological Survey at Washington, was 
introduced by Mr. Sherman and referred to 
the Committee on Public Buildings and 
Grounds. 

March 27, 1906——Mr. Capron, from the 
Committee on the Territories, to which was 
referred the bill of the House (House Resolu- 
tion 13,543) for the protection and regulation 
of the fisheries of Alaska, reported the same 
with amendment, accompanied by a report 
(No. 2,657); which said bill and report were 
referred to the House Calendar. 

March 29, 1906.—Mr. Lacey, from the Com- 
mittee on the Public Lands, to which was re- 
ferred the bill of the House (H. R. 15,335) for 
the protection of game animals, birds, and 
fishes in the Olympic Forest Reserves of the 
United States, in the State of Washington, 
reported the same without amendment, accom- 
panied by a report (No. 2,744); which said bill 
and report were referred to the House Cal- 
endar. 

United States Senate: March 28, 1906.— 
Mr. Fulton, from the Committee on Public 
Lands, to whom was referred the bill (S. 
4,487) granting to the State of Oregon certain 


596 


lands to be used by it for the purpose of main- 
taining and operating thereon a fish hatchery, 
reported it without amendment, and submitted 
a report thereon. 


THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. 


Tue Ohio State University has just emerged 
from a somewhat strenuous struggle to have 
the legislature of Ohio declare a policy for 
higher education. The necessity for such a 
declaration arose from the fact that there are 
three other educational institutions in Ohio 
that receive part of their income from the 
state. One of these is an institution for col- 
ored people and is not an important factor. 
The other two are venerable institutions, 
founded on government land grants, prior to 
the organization of Ohio as a state. These 
did not receive state aid until recently, but 
haying once begun to receive it, became in- 
creasingly ambitious in their plans, until it 
became necessary for the state to decide 
whether it should distribute its funds among 
three institutions, in which event none of 
them could ever reach a really high position 
among the colleges of the land, or concentrate 
it upon one, which should be made a univer- 
sity, in fact as well as in name. 

The latter course was finally adopted in a 
specific declaration of principle, so unequi- 
vocal that it will probably prevent the reopen- 
ing of the question hereafter. It provides for 
one state university with an unlimited future; 
the two other schools are maintained as col- 
leges of liberal arts, with moderate incomes 
which are not to be hereafter increased, but 
they are prohibited from going into the field 
of technical or professional instruction. The 
normal schools which are attached to each col- 
lege are maintained, with provision that the 
normal work may be increased as need arises. 

In addition to this declaration of policy, 
the legislature made more liberal appropria- 
tions to the university than ever before. For 
the two-year period, 1906-08, the appropria- 
tions stand as given in the table. This is 
an increase over the preceding two years of 
18 per cent. 

The university also suffered from the op- 
position of the private sectarian colleges for 


SCIENCE. 


_ April 18-19, 1906. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


many years, but this has gradually become 
less vigorous and practically ceased two years 
ago. In the present struggle, the sectarian 
colleges were either inactive or supporting the 
state university. 

The happy settlement of these two con- 
troversies leaves the future path of the insti- 
tution free from serious obstacles, and it may 
now be expected to make rapid progress. 


A levy of .16 mill on all taxable prop- 
entysot hep sateen shia b siete $ 692,000.00 
Part of a building for electrical and 


mechanical engineering .......... 75,000.00 
A woman’s dormitory.............- 60,000.00 
Buildings and equipment for the Col- 

lege of Agriculture.............. 90,000.00 
90 acres of land for the College of 

JNO MAGE. 6 6H O56 Josooboeoe Ho 5.00 45,000.00 
Equipment for chemistry, physics, 

School of Mines, Civil Engineering 

and Architecture ............... 54,500.00 

Total appropriation ........... $1,016,500.00 

To which should be added the other 
revenues of the university........ 242,000.00 
Grand total eect iey twee ioe tee $1,258,500.00 


THE INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT 
HOUSTON. 

Tue public exercises attendant upon the in- 
auguration of Dr. David Franklin Houston as 
president of the University of Texas will take 
place at the Main University, Austin, on 
Advantage has been taken 
of this occasion to hold three meetings for 
the consideration of educational questions: 
(1) A meeting of the affiliated schools super- 
intendents and principals for the discussion 
of advanced entrance requirements, the high 
school curriculum, character training and 
similar questions. (2) A meeting of county 
school superintendents for the discussion of 
matters appertaining to rural schools. (38) 
A meeting of representatives of Texas colleges 
for an interchange of views regarding ad- 
vanced entrance requirements, transfers and 
eredits, the quality and amount of work to 
be tequired of students, and effective moral 
agents in colleges and universities. Formal 
installation exercises will be held on the morn- 


ArFrin 13, 1906.] 


ing of April 19. Addresses will be made by 
Hon. S. W. T. Lanham, governor of Texas; 
Hon. R. B. Cousins, state superintendent of 
public instruction; Hon. T. T. Connally, of 
Marlin, representing the alumni; Dr. George 
P. Garrison, professor of history, representing 
the faculty; Hon. T. S. Henderson, represent- 
ing the board of regents, a representative of 
the student body; President Benjamin Ide 
Wheeler, of the University of California; 
President George Edwin MacLean, of the State 
University of Towa; and Chancellor James 
Hampton Kirkland, of Vanderbilt University, 
following which President Houston will de- 
liver his inaugural address. 

Dr. Houston is a graduate of South Caro- 
lina College and Harvard University. From 
1894-1902 he filled the chair of political sci- 
ence in the university over which he has now 
been called to preside; from 1899-1902 he was 
dean of its faculty, and from 1902-1905 he was 
president of the Agricultural and Mechanical 
College of Texas. 


THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 


Av the general meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society, to be held in memory 
of the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth 
of Franklin in Philadelphia from April 17 
to 20, the following program will be presented: 


Tuesday evening, April 17, at Witherspoon 
Hall, Walnut Street, below Broad Street. 
The delegates, invited guests and members of 
the society are requested to meet in West- 
minster Hall, fourth floor, at 7:45 p.m. 


Opening Session—8 P.M. 

Address by the president, Edgar F. Smith; re- 
ception of delegates from learned societies and 
institutions of learning; presentation of addresses; 
an informal reception will be held in the assembly 
room, after adjournment. 


Wednesday, April 18, in the Hall of the 
Society, on Independence Square (104 South 
Fifth Street). 


Meetings for the reading of papers on subjects of 
science—10 A.M. and 2 P.M. 
Proressok Wm. Keira Brooks, of Baltimore: 
‘Heredity and Variation, Logical and Biological.’ 
Proressor THoMAS C. CHAMBERLIN, of Chicago: 


SCIENCE. 


597 


“On a possible Reversal of the Deep Sea Cireula- 
tion and its Effect on Geological Climates.’ 

FRANK WIGGLESWORTH CLARKE, Se.D., of Wash- 
ington: ‘The Statistical Method in Chemical 
Geology.’ 

Stir GrorceE Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S., of Cam- 
bridge, England: ‘The Figure and Stability of a 
Liquid Satellite. (With lantern slides of dia- 
grams.) 

PROFESSOR WILLIAM Morris Davis, of Cam- 
bridge, Mass: ‘Was Lewis Evans or Benjamin 
Franklin the first to recognize that the Northeast 
Storms come from the Southwest ? 

Proressor FRANCIS BARTON GUMMERE, of 
Haverford, Pa.: ‘Repetition and Variation in 
Poetic Structure.’ 

Proressor Paun Haupt, of Baltimore, Md.: 
‘The Herodotean Prototype of MUHsther and 
Sheherazade.’ 

PRESIDENT Davip StTaRR JORDAN, of Stanford 
University, Cal.: (Title to be announced later.) 

Prorressor ALBert A. MICHELSON, of Chicago: 
(Title to be announced.) 

PRoressor Hpwarp C. PICKERING, of Cambridge, 
Mass.: ‘An International Southern Observatory.’ 

Proressor JosiaHw Royce, of Cambridge, Mass.: 
‘The Present Position of the Problem concerning 
the First Principles of Scientific Theory.’ 

PROFESSOR WILLIAM B. Scott, of Princeton: 
‘Notes on a Collection of Fossil Mammals from 
Natal.’ 

ProrEssoR Hueco DE Vries, of Amsterdam, Hol- 
land: Elementary Species in Agriculture.’ 
Executive Session—12:30 P.M. 


Luncheon will be served in the hall at one 
o’clock. 


Evening Session—8 P.M., at Witherspoon Hall, 
Walnut Street below Broad Street. 


ADDRESSES. 


ProressoR Epwarp lL. Nicuots, Ph.D., of 
Ithaca: ‘ Franklin’s Researches in Electricity.’ 

Proressor Ernest RvUTHERFORD, F.R.S., of 
Montreal: ‘The Modern Theories of Hlectricity 
and their Relation to the Franklinian Theory.’ 


Thursday, April 19, at the American Acad- 
emy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, 
11 A.M. 


Conferring of honorary degrees by the University 
of Pennsylvania. 
Oration by the Hon. Hampton L. Carson, 
Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania. 


598 


At Ohare Chureh Burying Ground, Fifth 
and Arch Streets, 3 P.M. 


Ceremonies at the grave of Franklin under the 
auspices of the Grand Lodge of F. & A. M., of 
Pennsylvania. The delegates and members will 
assemble in the hall of the society, on Independ- 
ence Square, at 2:30 o’clock and proceed to the 
grave of Franklin. 


At the Bellevue-Stratford, Broad and Wal- 
nut Streets, 9 p.m. Reception. 


Friday, April 20, at the American Academy 
of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, 11 a.m. 
The delegates, invited guests and members 
will meet in the foyer of the academy at 
10:45 a.m. 


Addresses in Commemoration of Benjamin Frank- 
lin. 

Horace Howarp Furness, D.Litt. 

‘As Citizen and Philanthropist.’ 
CHARLES WILLIAM Exior, LL.D.: ‘As Printer 

and Philosopher.’ 

JosEpH Hopers Cuoatr, LL.D., D.C.L.: 

Statesman and Diplomatist.’ 

Presentation of the Franklin Medal to the Re- 
public of France (in accordance with the Act 
of Congress), by the HonoraBLe Evinvu Root, 
secretary of state (by direction of the Presi- 
dent). 


7 P.M., dinner at the Belleyue-Stratford. 


(Cantab.) : 


“As 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue National Academy of Sciences will 
hold its annual meeting at Washington, be- 
ginning on April 16. 

Dr. A. Granam Bewu has sailed for Eng- 
land; he will return in time to attend the 


meeting of the regents of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution on May 10. 


Proressor Ira N. Hows has been ap- 
pointed delegate of Harvard University at the 
fiftieth anniversary meeting of the Society of 
German Engineers, to be held at Berlin from 
June 11 to 14, 1906. 


Proressor Eucen Kttunemann, of the Uni- 
versity of Bonn and at the same time rector 
of the Royal Academy organized at Posen in 
1903, will lecture at Harvard University next 


year, representing Germany in the inter- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


change of professors between Harvard Uni- 
versity and the German government. Pro- 
fessor Kiihnemann is known for his contribu- 
tions to philosophy and literature. 


Tue students of Edinburgh University 
propose to honor Sir William Turner, prin- 
cipal of the university and formerly professor 
of anatomy, on the oceasion of his having com- 
pleted fifty years of active official academic 
connection with the university. 


Dr. C. J. Keyser, Adrain professor of 
mathematics at Columbia University, has been 
elected a member of the Circolo Matematico 
di Palermo. 


Dr. G. A. ScHWALBE, professor of anatomy 
at Strasburg, has been elected a foreign mem- 
ber of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. 


Dr. A. Hem, professor of geology at Zurich, 
has been elected a corresponding member of 
the Paris Academy of Sciences. 


Tue council of the Anthropological Insti- 
tute of Great Britain and Ireland has ap- 
pointed Professor F. W. Putnam, as its senior 
honorary fellow in America, to represent the 
institute at the meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society which is to be held next 
week in celebration of the bi-centenary of 
Benjamin Franklin. Dr. George Grant Mac- 
Curdy, of Yale University, will represent the 
Paris School of Anthropology and the Paris 
Society of Anthropology on the same occasion. 


Dr. Hermann M. Bices, medical officer of 
the Board of Health of New York City, is to 
leave shortly to make a three months’ official 
tour of inspection of the European hospitals 
and water filtration plants. 


Dr. Duncan S. Jounson, of the Johns Hop- 
kins University, sailed for Jamaica on April 
5 to spend two months at the Cinchona sta- 
tion of the New York Botanical Garden. He 
will be joined there by Messrs. W. D. Hoyt 
and I. F. Lewis, students at Johns Hopkins 
University. Dr. Forrest Shreve, Bruce fel- 
low of the same institution, is spending the 
year at Cinchona in work on the physiology 
and ecology of the forest of the Blue Moun- 
tains. 


Aprin 13, 1906.] 


Proressor J. B. Woopwortu, of Harvard 
University, will conduct a geological excursion 
to Yorktown, Va., during the April recess. 
The principal object of the expedition is to 
secure a collection of Miocene fossils. 


A Reuter telegram states that M. Mylius 
Erichsen’s Danish expedition to the northeast 
coast of Greenland will leave Copenhagen at 
the end of June, and will proceed wid the 
Ferée Islands and east Iceland to the east 
Greenland pack-ice, through which the ex- 
plorer expects to be able to penetrate into east 
Greenland between 57° and 77° northern lat. 
Tn addition to the Danish members, the explor- 
party will probably include Dr. A. 
Wegener, from Germany, as physicist and 
meteorologist, and Dr. Baron Firchs, from 
Russia, as geologist. 


ing 


THE sum of $23,000 has been subscribed for 
the Finsen memorial. The committee reports 
that $9,500 will be used for a special memorial, 
and the balance will be devoted to enlarging 
the Finsen Light Institute. 


Dr. NatTHanisL SOUTHGATE SHALER, pro- 
fessor of geology at Harvard University and 
dean of the Lawrence Scientific School, died 
on April 10, aged sixty-five years. 


WE regret to record the death, at the age 
of seventy-one years, of Dr. Weston Flint, 
formerly librarian of the Public Library, 
Washington, D. C., and secretary of the An- 
thropological Society of Washington. 


Proressor Lions, S. Bratz, F.R.S., emer- 
itus professor of medicine at King’s College, 
London, well known for his publications on 
the microscope, died on March 28, at the age 
of seventy-eight years. 


Proressor ApotrF HmMMeEerLING, docent for 
agricultural chemistry at Kiel, died on March 
17, at the age of sixty-four years. 


THERE will be on April 4 and 5 a civil 
service examination to fill vacancies in the 
positions of assistant geologist and geologic 
aid in the Geological Survey, at salaries 
ranging from $1,000 to $1,600 per annum. 


SCIENCE. 


599 


THE advisory board of anatomists of the 
Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, will hold its 
annual meeting on April 16 to 18. 


Accorping to a despatch received at the 
office of the department of terrestrial mag- 
netism of the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 
ington, the Yacht Galilee engaged in the mag- 
netic survey of the Pacific Ocean arrived 
safely at Fanning Island on March 31, having 
accomplished the trip of 3,500 miles from San 
Diego in 29 days, besides executing success- 
fully magnetic work along the entire cruise. 


Governor Hicers, of New York, has recom- 
mended the creation of a commission to make 
arrangements for the celebration of the three- 
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the 
Hudson River .and the centenary of the use of 
steam in navigation on the river. 


Lorp RayueicH presided at the annual meet- 
ing of the general board of the National 
Physical Laboratory on March 16. According 
to the abstract in the London Times the report 
of the executive committee showed progress in 
all directions. Some 14 scientific papers of 
importance haye been published officially, 
while members of the staff have contributed 
nine others to various journals. The second 
volume of ‘Collected Papers’ is in course of 
preparation. The scheme of work for 1906 
includes a research into the resistance of 
materials of construction to impact, the con- 
tinuation of the wind pressure and steam 
researches, the completion of the work with 
the Ampere balance, and some experiments of — 
great interest on the effect of the continued 
application of high pressure to insulators. In 
the metallurgical division a research into the 
properties of aluminium bronze promises in- 
teresting results. The report announced the 
intention of the government, communicated to 
the Royal Society in December last, to grant 
a sum of £5,000 for buildings during the year 
and the increase of the annual grant by £500. 
Tt referred also to the very successful meeting 
in the House of Commons last August, under 
the chairmanship of Mr. Haldane, which led 
up to a petition, signed by 150 members of the 
house, asking that the grants should be in- 
creased, and the chairman was able to an- 


600 


nounce that the chancellor of the exchequer 
had recently intimated his intention of making 
the building grant for the year £10,000, in- 
stead of £5,000 as originally contemplated. It 
was also stated that the Goldsmiths’? Company 
had made a donation of £1,000 with the re- 
quest that it should be devoted to some spe- 
cific object. 


Minister Witson, of Brussels, transmits a 
Belgian invitation for American scientific 
men and geographical societies to participate 
in the proposed formation of an international 
association for the exploration of the polar 
regions. Among the inclosures from the 
minister is a circular letter from Mr. G. 
Lecointe, scientific director of the Royal Ob- 
servatory of Belgium, who furnishes a report 
of a special committee of the Congress of Mons 
relative to the study of the polar regions. This 
committee was appointed during a session of 
the congress in September, 1905, under the 
auspices of His Majesty King Leopold IL., and 
the presidency of Mr. Beernaert, minister of 
state, to formulate plans for the formation of 
an international polar-region association. The 
Belgian government is not as yet officially 
identified with the proposed association. The 
present purpose of the committee having the 
matter in charge, is simply to invite an 
exchange of views between scientific organiza- 
tions, official or otherwise. The minister also 
incloses a pamphlet entitled ‘ Projet d’une ex- 
ploration systématique des régions polaires,’ by 
Henryk Arctowski, a member of the recent 
Belgian expedition to antarctic regions. 


At the annual meeting of the Audubon So- 
ciety of the state of New York, which was held 
at the American Museum of Natural History, 
New York City, on Friday, March 16, 1906, 
Mr. Frank M. Chapman presiding, the follow- 
ing resolutions were unanimously carried by 
the members present: 


Wuereas, The legislature of the state has by 
wise enactments provided that no game of any 
kind shall be sold during the closed season, and 

Waereas, The court of appeals has unanimously 
pronounced such legislation necessary in order to 
protect the native game of the state, and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 589. 


WHEREAS, The said court of appeals has also 
unanimously pronounced such legislation consti- 
tutional, therefore be it 

Resolved, That the Audubon Society of the 
state of New York protests most emphatically 
against the passage of any bill to modify or 
change the present law or that will permit any 
corporation or persons to sell foreign game in 
this state during the closed season, and 

Resolved, That the Audubon Society is opposed 
to any special legislation for the benefit of a few 
persons at the expense of and against the inter- 
est of the majority of the citizens of the state, 
and Meg 
Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be 
sent by the secretary to the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission, the members of the legislature 
and to the press of the state. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

ADELBERT COLLEGE, Western Reserve Uni- 
versity, has received $150,000 from the grand- 
children of Joseph Perkins, formerly a trustee 
of the college. The money is to be used for a 
department of sociology and a chemical labo- 
ratory. 


Puans have been completed for the con- 
struction of the new buildings for the mining 
department of the University of Idaho at 
Moscow. It is estimated that the two build- 
ings will cost $40,000, exclusive of apparatus. 
The appropriation was made by the last Idaho 
legislature for this purpose. The metallurg- 
ical building, 96x68 feet, will contain ten 
ore bins, giving a total capacity of fifty tons. 
The ore will be conveyed by automatic appa- 
ratus to the crushing and sampling depart- 
ments. 


In August, 1908, the University of Jena 
will celebrate the three hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of its foundation. 


Dr. Epw. AntHony SprrzKa, fellow and dem- 
onstrator of anatomy, College of Physicians 
and Surgeons (Columbia), has been elected 
professor of general anatomy at Jefferson 
Medical College, Philadelphia. 


Dr. Hue M’Lran, senior assistant in 
physiology, has been appointed lecturer in 
chemical physiology, in Aberdeen University. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Aprim 20, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The American Association for the Adwance- 
ment of Science :— 


Section I—Social and Economic Science: 


Dr. JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL............ 601 
The Nebraska Academy of Sciences: PROFESSOR 
THD ETS ATED)=: wichesivevsisle aeterereres seereriatve nets 619 


Scientific Books :— 
MUcCurdy’s Bibliography of Physical Train- 
ing: Dr. Guo. L. Meytan. Rolfe’s Polari- 
scope in the Chemical Laboratory: Pro- 
FESSOR F. G. WIECHMANN................ 626 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 628 
Societies and Academies :-— 
The Society of Geohydrologists: M. L. 
Fuuuer. The New York Section of the 
American Chemical Society: Dr. F. H. 
Poucu. The St. Lowis Chemical Society: 
C. J. BorcmEyrer. The Olemson College 
Science Club: Freep H. H. CAaLHouN...... 628 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Physiography of the Adirondacks: 
Proressor W. M. Davis, PrRoressor J. F. 
Kemp. Variation versus Mutation: Mason 


AUIS. Ib, CN oisoo pouonBeebooenUoUOEb OS 630 
Special Articles :— 

Bpithelial Degeneration, Regeneration and 

Secretion in the Mid-intestine of Collem- 

bola: Justus W. Fotsom, Miriam U. 

WELLES. Harthquakes recorded at Chel- 

tenham Magnetic Observatory: W. fF. 

Wats. Analysis of Mississippi Silt: 

COPEL STONE uch Wi ayaa rctssn enone aya svelte lyrabepiatta eves 6383 
Quotations :-— 

TUNG TCG) INOGKAD a son's odo soesobabuebous 635 
The Museum Association of America....... 636 
The Cold Spring Biological Laboratory...... 636 
Testimonial to Dr. J. Briquet.............. 637 
dames Mills Peices 2. nie ace ene 637 
Scientific Notes and News................. 638 
University and Educational News.......... 640 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc. ,!intended;for 
review should be sent to thezditor of ScleNcE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
SECTION I—SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC 
SCIENCE. 

THIRTY-FIVE papers were on the printed 
program, of which seventeen were read in 
person, seven by title with abstracts of 
contents presented and eight papers were 
never forwarded by the authors, for vari- 
ous reasons. The statistical paper by 
Professor Arthur Lefevre on ‘Public Edu- 
cation in Texas,’ arrived too late for use. 

Professor W. R. Lazenby’s paper on 
‘Relations of Forestry to Soil and Climate’ 
will appear in the Proceedings of the Ohio 
State Forestry Society at some future date. 

The paper read by Professor Bruce R. 
Payne, University of Virginia, on ‘The 
Social Service of the Public High School,’ 
will also be published later. 

Attendance at the meetings ranged from 
fifteen to fifty persons. Holding the ses- 
sions at the board of trade rooms was a 
mistake. The business people did not at- 
tend, and we were too far away from the 
other sections to admit of their members 
attending. 

The following officers were elected: 

Sectional Committee—Irving Fisher, Charles A. 
Conant, Carroll D. Wright (five years), HE. L. 
Corthell (four years), W. R. Lazenby (three 
years), Frank A. Rutter (two years) and B. E. 
Fernow (one year). 

Member of Council—Marcus Benjamin. 

Member of General Committee—Le 
Powers. 


Grand 


Possibilities of Cotton Warehousing from 
the Producer’s Standpoint: HuGcENE 
WiuuiAMs, Waco, Texas. 


602 


An elementary principle in political 
economy is that the raw product should 
remain at the most available market near- 
est its field of production until required 
for actual consumption. Such a policy 
will save to the cotton belt losses estimated 
at over $100,000,000 annually from coun- 
try damage, waste, violent fluctuations in 
prices, and other unbusiness-like results. 
The country damage alone to the crop of 
1904-5 is estimated at from $5,000,000 to 
$10,000,000, an amount sufficient to erect a 
most efficient warehouse system through- 
out the entire cotton belt. To save these 
losses for the next and all succeeding crops 
a warehousing system should be established. 
This weather damage is a slight loss com- 
pared with the costly results which follow 
the inexperience of farmers as salesmen 
and the outrageous effects upon the market 
brought about by artificial influences. 

The prices actually paid for single bales 
of cotton on the streets of a country mar- 
ket town, contrasted with the prices re- 
ceived by farmers who concentrated their 
several small holdings in a small galvanized 
iron warehouse in the same town, show that 
this single warehouse, by bringing under 
its friendly control a few hundred bales of 
cotton offered and sold in lots, realized 
from one eighth to one third of a cent per 
pound, or from 60 cents to $1.60 per bale, 
more than if sold by the single bale on the 
farmer’s wagon. This rate of increase in 
price would realize from six to sixteen 
million dollars on the entire crop. 

Therefore, I favor erecting a small ware- 
house in every town marketing approxi- 
mately 1,000 bales of cotton, or over, an- 
nually, as contrasted with a few large city 
warehouses, because: (1) The farmer 
would be willing to hold his cotton in his 
market town, but would not be willing to 
ship it to a distant city warehouse; (2) 
the farmer would sell his cotton at a loss 
rather than ship to a distant city ware- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


house; (3) a local warehouse full of farm- 
ers’ cotton would bring the increase in 
price to the farmer, whereas the large city 
warehouse, full of exporters’ cotton, would 
not help the farmer who produces it; (4) 
the local warehouse full of farmers’ cotton 
would bring to the local banks for deposit 
the increased volume of money flowing 
from the excess in price received by the 
farmer for his cotton; (5) cotton held by 
farmers in local warehouses would provide 
for local banks the best possible collateral 
for farmers’ loans to carry the cotton; (6) 
the increase in deposits and choice collat- 
eral for loans would tend to decrease the 
rate of interest and multiply manifold the 
local bank’s volume of business and its 
profits, while serving its customers better 
and upbuilding its home town; and (7) 
small warehouses would: do more to en- 
courage cotton mills in the cotton belt than 
all other influences combined. Large ware- 
houses at distributing centers would take 
care of themselves. 


Factors Determining the Price of Sugar: 
Dr. FRANK R. RurtTer, Washington, 
D. C. 

The remarkable increase last year of 50 
per cent. in the price of German raw sugar 
for exportation was due to a decrease of 
only 74 per cent. in the total sugar produc- 
tion of the world. The price of clarified 
sugar in New Orleans advanced over one 
cent a pound, but this year has returned to 
its former level. 

The main part of the paper deals with 
deviations in the sugar prices of the United 
States from the world prices as represented 
by German quotations for export sugar. It 
is shown that the tariff reductions in favor 
of sugar from particular islands—from 
Cuba, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philip- 
pines—has considerably depressed prices 
for raw sugar in the New York market 
during the months from December to June, 


Aprin 20, 1906.] 


of each year, when these sugars usually 
more than suffice for the requirements of 
refining. Louisiana sugars are at a disad- 
vantage from being marketed within this 
period. From 80 per cent. to 85 per cent. 
of the total receipts of New Orleans are 
sold in November, December and January. 
Besides this, the prices for refining grades 
are then invariably reduced, from thirteen 
to nineteen cents per hundred pounds be- 
low New York quotations, simply because 
it would cost approximately that amount 
to ship Louisiana sugar to New York. But 
this is merely a relic of the time when large 
quantities of the Louisiana product were 
shipped by water to the Atlantic ports. It 
does not seem to be justified under present 
conditions, when New Orleans possesses 
large refineries, has more advantageous 
freight rates than New York to interior 
territory, and annually imports between 
March and September, from 100 to 500 
million pounds of foreign sugar. The de- 
pression in the price of raw sugars by no 
means causes a corresponding reduction in 
the price of refined, which is almost uni- 
formly kept above the price at which Ger- 
man refined sugar could be imported after 
paying the full customs duty. 


Relation of Higher Education to the 
Economic Development of the South: 
Chancellor J. H. Kirkuanp, Vanderbilt 
University, Nashville, Tenn. 

The relation of economic development to 
education is most intimate. The work of 
the world is done by mind, not muscle. 
There is not enough muscular power avail- 
able to reap the wheat crop of a single 
year. Universal elementary education is 
the first condition of material progress. 
Industrial training is also desirable for a 
large class of our population, but such 
training should develop the head as well as 
the hand. 

1. Universities have largely modified 


SCIENCE. 


machines. 


603 


their courses in response to the demands 
of practical life. Professional courses are 
offered for the training of engineers, chem- 
ists, electricians, manufacturers, and in 
every science applied courses open to 
all students the new lines of industrial 
development. Universities contribute to 
economic development by fundamental in- 
struction in the general principles of sci- 
ence. Abstract mathematical research lies 
at the foundation of every science. 

2. Universities contribute to economic 
development also through work done in 


‘philosophy, history, political science and 


economics. We need, as industrial leaders, 
men of broad sympathies and wide vision. 
The application of ethics to industry is as 
important as a new invention or an im- 
provement in machinery. 

3. Universities should also propagate 
sound economic doctrine. They should edu- 
cate the public. Political education must 
be coextensive with the ballot. Heonomic 
fallacies are peculiarly dangerous when 
they receive a political embodiment. 

4. So far as the south is concerned, its 
universities have been too poor to fulfil the 
tasks outlined. Scientifie instruction is 
still meager, and our laboratories poorly 
equipped. But little is done in the depart- 
ments of history, economics and political 
science. The south should take advantage 
of the experiences of other sections in 
achieving its great economic progress. For 
example, we do not need to build up our 
factory system on the pernicious fallacy of 
child labor. This question has been fought 
out in old England and New England. 
The south has learned the failure of slavery 
as a source of wealth and child labor is not 
far removed from slave labor. 

5. Politically the south has inherited the 
spirit of leadership and the traditions of 
good government. But we, too, have built 
up an art of politics and developed our 
We have deified party fealty. 


604 


But we have yet to work out the reign of 
intelligence in political life. We have yet 
to learn that our chiefest political issues 
are clean, honorable, frugal and efficient 
administration of the simple duties of 
publie office. We have yet to learn the 
intimate relation between righteousness, 
intelligence and economic prosperity. 


Teaching Agriculture in Rural Schools: 
Professor W. F. Massey, North Caro- 
lina Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Raleigh, N. C. 

1. The agricultural colleges have been 
greatly handicapped in their development 
of efficiency for want of preparatory 
courses in agriculture in the secondary 
schools. 

2. Though the time is not yet ripe for 
the general establishment of district schools 
for agriculture, the great need of the times 
is some elementary instruction in the form 
of branches of study applicable to the work 
of the farm. 

3. The next great need is the training of 
teachers. This is beginning to be met by 
summer-school courses at our colleges of 
agriculture. School children’s interest 
should center not only on the natural pro- 
ductions of the locality, but also on the 
study of the soil, methods of tillage, infiu- 
ence of sunshine, rain and the weather gen- 
erally on plant life and growth. At the 
St. Louis Exposition 8,000 specimens of 
corn were exhibited which that number of 
boys in Illinois had raised, 1,250 of whom 
took prizes ranging from 50 cents to $500. 

4, The south needs this work especially, 
and must begin with a kind of kindergarten 
work with the youngest, to be followed by 
the school garden work for the older or 
more advanced pupils. The children of 
the farmer will see in this occupation the 
future which they seek—a future which 
will keep them not only from forsaking the 
old homestead, but result in multiplying 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIIT. No. 590. 


homesteads, where abandoned fields now 
await the magic touch of scientifie intel- 
ligence. 


Some Problems of Agriculture in Texas: 
Professor G. S. Fraps, Texas Experi- 
ment Station. 

The problems of Texas are on the whole 
those of a rapidly developing country, a 
search for men, money, crops adapted to 
the soil and markets to sell them. The 
maintenance of the soil fertility is begin- 
ning to be of importance. The cotton men 
have the boll weevil, the boll worm, dead 
cotton; the rice men, to institute a rotation 
and soil treatment which will maintain the 
productiveness of their soils. The cattle 
men are improving their stock. Fertilizers 
are being used, and their use is increasing. 


Utilization of the By-products of the Cane- 
sugar and Rice Mills: Professor W. 
R. Dopson, State Experiment Station, 
Baton Rouge, La. 

Louisiana leads all other states im the 
union in the production of these by- 
products, and has done more than has been 
done elsewhere in determining their real 
value and encouraging their utilization. 

There are three main by-products in the 
rice mills of Louisiana: rice hulls, rice bran 
and rice polish. Rice hulls are practi- 
eally of no value as foodstuffs, while rice 
bran and rice polish are of great value as 
such. Rice polish is now worth from $22 
to $24 per ton, and it ranks high as a con- 
centrated foodstuff. Compared with wheat 
bran, it contains 20 per cent. more digest- 
ible carbohydrates and 4 to 44 per cent. 
less digestible protem. Rice polish is very 
valuable foodstuff for swine. Rice bran 
has been greatly adulterated as it rose in 
public estimation and in value as foodstuff. 
The adulteration is principally with ground 
rice hulls, which are practically of no value 
as food. Sometimes mixed rice and wheat 
bran are found for sale on the markets in 


Aprgin 20, 1906.] 


Louisiana, being sold as pure wheat bran. 
In these instances analysis reported on rice 
meal indicated that there had been an addi- 
tion of rice hulls. The law in Louisiana, 
which has been in existence for about one 
year, requiring the manufacturer to tag 
each sack of bran, giving the composition 
of protein, carbohydrates, fat and fiber, 
has served to some extent to check the 
wholesale adulteration of rice bran. 

With regard to the by-products of the 
sugar mills, molasses, which a few years 
ago was held to be refuse, and was either 
given away to be taken out of sight and out 
of the way, and which often was dumped 
into the plantation ditches, is now consid- 
ered a most valuable ingredient in the feed 
of stock, and is worth at least $8 per ton. 


Relation of Schools to Cwic Improvement: 
Louise Kurt Miter, Curator of School 
Gardens, Cleveland, Ohio. (Illustrated 
by stereopticon. ) 

An instructive description of work done 
in Cleveland, under public school auspices, 
with private cooperation, by which many 
vacant lots were transformed into flower 
beds and vegetable gardens, especially in 
portions of the city where such properties 
are often neglected or used as dumping 
grounds. Back yards, from being cheerless 
and uninyviting, by proper encouragement 
of the young as well as the aged, became 
sources of enjoyment where the first lessons 
of horticulture and vegetable gardening 
were learned, thus contributing to the pride 
_ and pleasure of the people in their homes 
as well as to the health and beauty of the 
neighborhood. 

At the end of five years the Home Gar- 
dening Association, through which this 
work is developed, finds its work more 
widely known and its aim better under- 
stood. This is manifest in a number of 
ways. The occupant of a small house is 
furnished an incentive to make the yard 


SCIENCE. 


605 


attractive. The real-estate dealer recog- 
nizes the improvement in the appearance 
of property and appreciates the consequent 
imerease in values. The teachers and school 
officials, almost without exception, concede 
the vital interest aroused in the pupil and 
are ready to make use of this aid to school 
work. People concerned for the improve- 
ment of city conditions are satisfied that 
this is one of the effective means to secure 
that most desirable result. Inquiries from 
other communities are increasing, and, in a. 
number of instances, work along similar 
lines has been started. 


Southern Cotton-mill Workers: Their Con- 
dition and Needs: Rey. J. A. BALDwIn, 
Piedmont Industrial School, Charlotte, 
N. C. 

Before the war the poor white people 
had very meager educational advantages, 
and consequently most of them were illit- 
erate. Much has been done for their de- 
scendants at the mills, but so much still 
remains to be done that the situation is 
really appalling. The public schools are to 
be found at every mill, and are doing much 
good, but there is much to be done which 
they are not doing and can not do. Some 
kindergartens have been established. There 
ought to be many more. With shorter 
hours of labor, which are sure to come, 
special impetus will be given to night 
classes. But there are thousands of young 
people who can not read and write, and 
very few of the others can do much more. 
They have in them wonderful possibilities, 
as evidenced by the fact that most of the 
superintendents and practically all the 
room overseers have come right up from 
the lowest places in the mill. These young 
people are beginning to be interested in 
education. They are awakine from the 
sleep of generations. But there are no 
schools that suit them. 

They are too old to go into the schools 


606 


for young children. They must have their 
needs met in other ways. In addition to 
common school courses suited to their 
needs the boys should have a textile course, 
and the girls a course in domestic sci- 
ence. The more favored classes have their 
colleges and universities; the negroes 
have their Hampton, their Tuskegee and 
other schools. The cotton-mill people of 
the south have nothing. A thoroughly 
equipped boarding school, giving the course 
as indicated, with expenses low, and giving 
opportunity for students to work part of 
the time in the mill and on the farm, will 
prove of incalculable service to humanity. 
Such a school has been established as a 
private enterprise at Charlotte, N. C., the 
center of the cotton-mill industry in the 
Piedmont section. After two years the 
school has an enrollment of 120 pupils. It 
is working with an endowment of 277 acres 
of land located in a rapidly growing sub- 
urb, where many of the students work half 
of their time in the mills and attend school 
the other half. Mr. Baldwin’s intention is 
to establish later, if possible, a small cotton 
mill, where the students can put in a por- 
tion of their time working out their tuition. 
The curriculum has been arranged with a 
view of adaptation to the needs of the op- 
eratives and includes courses in English 
branches, textile training, agriculture and 
domestic science. 


Industrial Training and the Negro Prob- 
lem in the Umted States: Principal EH. 
LL. BuacksH#AR, Prairie View, Texas. 
Herbert Spencer’s conception of educa- 

tion as the correlating of the human unit 

to his physical and social environment has 
grown into the modern complex notion and 
system of industrial training which is 
physical on one side and intellectual and 
moral on the other. Objectively, it is the 
training of muscular energy and sense-per- 
ception in intelligent physical process, di- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


rected to a final cause or end; the realiza- 
tion of the ideal; the training of hand and 
eye. Subjectively, it is the discovery of 
the means, methods and process by which 
the ideal is to become real and useful, in- 
volving the exercise and development of 
observation, analysis, discrimination, eriti- 
cism, choice and will; the formation of the 
work-habit, with its properties of persist- 
ence and fidelity; and the creation of char- 
acter, with its endowments of self-control, 
self-culture and self-support in their rela- 
tion to serviceableness to the general good. 

It is obvious that this form of training 
is just that needed to adjust a primitive 
people like the ex-African negroes to highly 
specialized industrialism of the American 
politico-economie system; it is the training, 
too, that must be applied to the Filipino 
and to the African natives if these back- 
ward peoples are to become progressive and 
self-sustaining. ; 

This theory was first put into practise 
by General Armstrong in a system of 
training for the emancipated blacks at 
Hampton, Va. This work gave birth to 
the Tuskegee Institute, under Booker T. 
Washington, and established a system of 
manual and industrial training for the 
blacks on the only principles which give 
reasonable promise of a solution of the 
negro problem involving the enhanced 
value of the race to American society. 

As evidence that it is worth while we cite 
proofs for the productive value of negro 
labor. The negroes are doing the bulk of 
the hard, undesirable labor of the south in 
all lines—its menial, agricultural and heavy 
contract work, track-work, grading and ex- 
cavating, heavy mill and foundry work, 
and the work of the stevedore. They do 
some of the work of the mechanic and 
probably the bulk of the hard work con- 
nected with the culture of cane, cotton, 
sugar, tobacco and rice. 

Further, negro labor is the most effective 


Aprit 20, 1906.] 


cheap labor and the cheapest effective labor 
the south ean get; and the whole country 
is calling for labor. If it were not for 
European emigration, the United States 
would be at a great economic disadvantage. 
But immigration may not continue always 
and in the keener competition of the future 
between the commercial nations, the labor 
of the negroes may be very useful. 

As to the relation of training for negroes 
to the race problem, that is to the problem 
of how best to maintain normal and helpful 
relations between the whites and the blacks, 
it can be said that industrial training will 
help to better relations by making negro 
labor useful to the white employer of labor 
and hence more necessary to the successful 
conduct of the business and industrial op- 
erations of the south. The chief complaint 
made against negro labor has been that it 
is not prompt and not regular, faults which 
training will remedy. 

By way of summary, the applicability of 
industrial training to a race in the condi- 
tion of the negro; the industrial capacity 
of the race as shown by the African tribes 
and ex-African slaves; the testimony of the 
existing poorly equipped negro industrial 
schools; the present distribution of negro 
laborers among American industries and 
their relative success in them; the extent 
to which the south uses negro labor in 
domestic, industrial and agricultural lines, 
the large acreage of southern farm lands 
worked by negro farm labor; the large per 
cent. of negroes engaged in the useful in- 
dustrial pursuits in all parts of the Union; 
the eagerness of the negro youths to secure 
industrial training; the sentimental and 
historic obligation of the American people 
to the blacks in view of their responsibility 
for their presence in America; the economic 
debt the nation still owes them for genera- 
tions of unrequited labor and for tremen- 
dous present values accruing from that 
labor—these and other considerations point 


SCIENCE. 


607 


to industrial training as the need of the 
hour for the negro people, and as the solu- 
tion of the race problem, as well as to the 
duty of the nation through federal agency 
to make provision for the establishment of 
a chain of schools to accomplish this great 
and beneficent purpose. 


Social Work of the General Federation of 
Women’s Olubs: Mrs. A. O. GRANGER, 
Chairman Child Labor Committee, Car- 
tersville, Ga. 

The General Federation was organized 
by Sorosis in New York City in March, 
1889, and now includes working clubs in 
Alaska, England, India, China, Hawaii, 
Mexico, Porto Rico, Chili and Western 
Australia. The central point toward which 
all its work tends is the child. The men 
and women of to-morrow are the children 
of to-day, and everything that tends to 
make the conditions of child-life better is 
of importance. As a federation it seeks to 
coordinate the great variety of women’s 
clubs upon this central aim, and its policy 
is best expressed by its motto—unity in 
diversity. It seeks to enable the less for- 
tunate to share the enjoyment of the better 
things in our civilization. It avoids fields 
already covered by social effort and trains 
its members to fill the gaps and to do the 
work neglected by others. 

Among its most active committees are 
one to develop true art in school work; 
another to further the use of good litera- 
ture, working with the committee on library 
extension among our schools; a third on 
household economics for the better conduct 
of home affairs from the business stand- 
point. The pure food committee quickens 
the public conscience against adulteration. 
The civic committee occupies itself with 
several lines of work—sanitation, training 
for citizenship, municipal morality and the 
beautification of the city. Its committee 
on civil service reform helps to mold the 


608 


sense of official honor. The committees on 
forestry, on education, industrial condi- 
tions, on child labor, have helped to develop 
an enlightened public opinion on all these 
vital questions in an effort which covers 
the entire country. 


Progress of the Negroes of Virgina as 
Property Owners: CHARLES EH. EDGER- 
TON, Washington, D. C. 

This is an examination of the rate at 
which property has been acquired by the 
negroes of Virginia, with especial reference 
to the question whether the economic char- 
acter of the present generation of negroes, 
as indicated by this test, is inferior or 
superior to that of the generation which 
was trained in slavery and freed by the 
war. The data are derived from the 
census and from the local assessments for 
taxation. The property of negroes was 
first shown separately on the assessment 
books in 1891, and the last assessment here 
used is that of 1903, giving an interval of 
twelve years. 

The number of negro farmers in Virginia 
who owned their farms free of encumbrance 
in 1890, according to the census, was 
18,097. If we assume that the negroes 
started without property in 1865, the num- 
ber of negro farmers in the state who ac- 
quired full ownership of their farms be- 
tween 1865 and 1890 amounted on an aver- 
age to 524 a year. But during the next 
ten years the number was 913 a year, or 
75 per cent. greater. If all farm owners, 
mortgaged as well as clear, are included, 
the number was 547 a year from 1865 to 
1890, and 1,394 a year, or two and a half 
times as many, from 1890 to 1900. 

On the same assumption that the negroes 
had no property at the close of the war, 
the assessments for taxation indicate that 
they acquired 26,000 acres of land a year 
from 1865 to 1891, and 38,000 acres a 
year, or almost half as much again, from 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 590. 


1891 to 1903; and rural buildings to the 
value of $53,000 a year from 1865 to 1891, 
and to the value of $110,600, or more than 
twice as much, from 1891 to 1903. 

In proportion to their numbers, the 
negroes increased their acreage of land, 
and the total value of their rural real es- 
tate, two fifths faster from 1891 to 1903 
than from 1865 to 1891, and the value of 
their rural buildings twice as fast. 

The number of negro farmers who 
owned their farms clear of encumbrance in 
1890 was only 26 per thousand of rural 
negro population, according to the census; 
in 1900 it was 42. The negroes had only 
a third as many unencumbered farm 
owners as the whites in proportion to their 
rural population in 1890; in 1900 they had 
half as many. 

The assessed value of town real estate 
owned by negroes was $4,650,000 in 1891, 
and $6,350,000 in 1903. It imereased in 
considerably greater ratio than the town 
negro population, while the assessed value 
of the town property owned by whites did 
not increase in so great a ratio as the white 
town population. 

In Virginia, at least, the negroes have 
increased their property holdings more 
rapidly since the ante-bellum negroes 
ceased to be an important economic factor 
than they did while the older generation 
occupied the stage. In view of this un- 
questionable statistical fact, it can hardly 
be doubted that the economic efficiency: of 
the present generation, at least in Virginia, 
is greater than that of the generation that 
was trained in slavery. 


Railway Conditions in Texas: O. B. 
ConguiTT, State Railway Commission, 
Austin, Texas. 

How much of the stock and bond issues 
of Texas railroads is ‘fictitious’ no man 
can- tell without access to the old books 
of the companies, almost all of which have 


Aprit 20, 1906.] 


passed through the ‘wrecking’ period, 
and in many instances new companies 
formed to take over the property of the 
wrecked company. The total of stock and 
bonds outstanding June 30, 1893, the year 
the stock and bond law went into effect, 
was $392,726,113, on 9,198 miles of road, 
an average of $40,250 per mile. The com- 
mission’s estimate of what it would cost 
to reproduce all the railroads in Texas on 
June 30, 1904, was $16,244 per mile. The 
estimate was made on what it would cost 
to reproduce the roads—the old roads—in 
their condition at the time they were 
valued, the materials, cost of labor, right 
of way, ete., being figured at average prices 
prevailing at time of valuation. On the 
average estimated cost of reproduction, 
the 9,198 miles of operated railroad in 
1893 were worth $149,422,312, showing 
$243 303,801 of the outstanding bonds and 
stocks to have been ‘fictitious.’ 

Management, under apparently like con- 
ditions, has much to do with state railway 
regulation. They had equal privileges 
conferred. Of three examples cited, the 
first is laid in a populous, rich section, 
running from north to south, and the 
earnings and accumulations have been 
great. Years of operation make a good 
showing of surplus which is in the hands 
of its owner in New York. 

The second, running from south to 
north, in a rich and populous section of 
the state, had a large income from opera- 
tion, but either spent it in ‘riotous living’ 
or so merged it with that of its dominant 
Owner as to show a condition of bank- 
ruptey on its own books. 

The third is in a sparsely settled part of 
the state, unassisted by domination, and 
aided alone by its own energy and pru- 
dence, and with the same rates prescribed 
by the state for the others, has prospered, 
and distributed its surplus earnings to the 
numerous holders of its shares of stock. 


SCIENCE. 


609 


Which of these three do you say has em- 
ployed its privileges to the best advantage 
and to the greatest credit of the state? 

This brings us to a discussion of freight 
rates. What is the proper basis for rate- 
making? Shall they be fixed with refer- 
ence to the capital invested? Should they 
be made with reference to the value of the 
commerce transported? Should they be 
fixed upon the theory that they should be 
‘all that the traffic will bear’? Or must 
they be fixed and adjusted so as to pay all 
fixed charges, operating expenses, better- 
ments, ete., and leave something for the 
stockholders ? 

If the latter basis should be adopted 
how would you adjust the rates to meet the 
showings made by the three roads I have 
taken for illustration? The management 
of one road might, on the same rate, with 
the same tonnage, same capital and in- 
vestment make money, and another lose. 
You ean never fix rates that will be rea- 
sonable to the shipper on that basis unless 
you have control of the finances and oper- 
ate the line independently. One Texas 
line paid out $30 per 100 train miles for 
maintenance of equipment, while another 
paid only $15 last year. 

If you base rates on the theory that they 
shall be ‘all the traffic will bear,’ the move- 
ment of freight on such rates will be re- 
stricted to the actual, economical require- 
ments of all freight-paying commodities. 
Such a rule will not stimulate the move- 
ment of commodities of small value. 

From what I have already said it is also 
conelusively shown that you can not use 
the bond and stock issues of the roads as 
the proper basis for rate-making. 


Proposed Solutions of the Railway Rate 
Problem: H. T. Newcoms, Washington, 
D.C. 

This paper applies especially to com- 
mercial rates as related to the work of the 


610 


interstate commerce commission. ‘This 
commission is a federal agency of high 
authority and the law under which it ex- 
ists is a broad and compréhensive statute 
which has strongly influenced the economic 
life of America since its enactment in 1887. 
It forbids every unreasonable interstate 
railway rate and every undue discrimina- 
tion among rates, and the commission has 
the right to condemn any unlawful rate 
or practise. Much of the work of the 
commission is accomplished through its 
agencies for publicity and by conciliation ; 
at least eighty per cent. of the complaints 
it receives are settled by its informal and 
mediatory action; seventy per cent. of its 
formal orders are voluntarily obeyed. In 
nearly nineteen years only forty-seven 
cases of disobedience to its orders have 
been presented to the courts, and of the 
thirty-five final decisions rendered all but 
four have been that the order disobeyed 
was unlawful. In four cases the orders 
have been enforced by the courts, thus 
proving that the power exists when the 
commission acts lawfully. In addition the 
Elkins law has proved a prompt and 
effective remedy for unjust discrimination. 

So much for existing law. Many pro- 
posals for new legislation are now before 
the congress and the people. This paper 
has been prepared especially to point out 
certain broad principles in connection with 
them. The measures proposed fall plainly 
into two classes. There are proposals 
which contemplate: (A) A single act of 
legislation leaving the enforcement of the 
law to the ordinary executive and judicial 
machinery supplemented, as at present, by 
the interstate commerce commission, and, 
(B) suceessive acts of legislation, each 
specially adapted to the conditions peculiar 
to a particular ease. 

The conclusion reached from a study of 
existing methods and conditions is that, 
with our Jaws as they are, there is no 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


genuine instance of injustice in interstate 
railway rates which can not be remedied 
under the present law, and that the exist- 
ing remedies can be applied as promptly as 
those which government provides or can 
provide for wrong of any sort when the 
interests concerned are of great magnitude. 
To adopt the other theory would be to rely 
on law-made rates instead of rates deter- 
mined by the market. 


Methods of Developing Traffic, Industry 
and Immigration by a Modern Railway: 
J. EF. Merry, General Immigration 
Agent, Illinois Central Railroad. 

The fact that more than 98 per cent. of 
the $1,975,174,091 collected and disbursed 
by the railroads of the United States in 
1904 was from traffic, and less than 2 per 
cent. from all other sources, presents a 
good and sufficient reason why the rail- 
road companies of this country should em- 
ploy only the best methods of extending 
this almost exclusive source of revenue. 
There are many ways by which traffic may 
be increased, but the followmg methods 
have been, and are still, in use by all 
modern railroads: 

1. A study of the agricultural resources 
and possibilities of the country on and ad- 
jacent to its lines and the encouragement 
of every legitimate effort to develop them. 

2. A careful study of the mdustrial con- 
ditions that obtain in all the territory 
through which its lines run and the taking 
of such steps as will permanently locate 
factories at as many points as practicable 
for the manufacture of raw material, and 
the employment of labor and eapital. 

3. Providing modern equipments and 
quick service for the handling of merchan- 
dise and the products of the farm and 
factory. 

Methods of development by the Illinois 
Central began with turning its 3,700 acres 
per mile of road into freight-producing 


APRIL 20, 1906.] 


territory. The grant of 2,594,115 acres 
was marked at from $1.25 to $2.50 per acre. 
Soon every public highway was lined with 
covered wagons from New England and 
the middle states, from Ohio and Michigan, 
filled with men, women and children as 
pioneers in the peopling of the prairies 
along our line, so that by 1870 the state 
of Illinois was nearly as densely populated 
as the east. Before 1880, the fruit com- 
mission men at Chicago had never seen a 
consignment of fruits and vegetables from 
south of the Ohio River. About that time, 
as the eastern states could no longer 
supply the west with table luxuries, this 
road began experiments with strawberries, 
peaches and other varieties of fruits and 
vegetables in Tennessee, Mississippi and 
Louisiana. Much of this was done on cut- 
over forest lands supposed then to be of 
no agricultural value whatever. The first 
earload from south of the Ohio over this 
line reached Chicago in 1881. In 1903 
there were shipped to Chicago alone 128 
carloads of strawberries from points be- 
tween Grenada, Miss., and Keener, La., not 
counting the earlier and later shipments 
by express. In the same year 1,805 cars 
of vegetables were shipped north from the 
same territory, mcludmg New Orleans. 
The road had 35 refrigerator cars of 14 
tons each in its entire service when the 
experiments began; since then the company 
has placed in the service 2,491 cars of 60 
tons capacity, in addition to 1,510 fruit 
cars, making a total of 4,001 cars. From 
one point in Louisiana 200 carloads of 
strawberries, and from another in Missis- 
sippi 800 carloads of vegetables, were 
shipped in one season, as grown on land 
too poor to be cultivated in cotton and 
thought to be of no value for anything. 
These fruits are hauled to market in re- 
frigerator cars provided with springs that 
make them ride as easily as a passenger- 
coach. 


SCIENCE. 


611 


The Restriction of European Immigration: 
O. W. Unprerwoop, Member of Congress 
from Alabama. 

During the year ending June 30, 1905, 
there came into the United States 1,026,000 
alien immigrants; a greater number of 
people than all of the people who came 
here from Europe between the first landing 
at Jamestown and the Declaration of In- 
dependence, one eightieth of the people 
of the United States; and in ten years at 
the present rate it would equal an addi- 
tion of ten million aliens, or about one 
tenth of the present population. 

From the discovery of America down 
to the year 1880 the greater portion of the 
immigrants who settled in North America 
were from northern Europe. In the mean- 
time the steamship companies had found 
that immigrants coming to America were 
a source of large revenue. When they 
found that this immigration was falling 
off they adopted artificial means to stimu- 
late it. They found that it was more diffi- 
eult to induce the people of northern 
Europe to come to America than it was to 
encourage immigration from southern and 
eastern Hurope, where the conditions of 
the people were less favorable, and where 
they were more willing to leave their old 
homes. The result has been that the char- 
acter of the immigration since 1880 has 
almost entirely changed: out of a total 
immigration for the year ending June 30, 
1905, of 1,026,000 people only 221,019 were 
of Teutonic origin and 124,218 of Celtic 
origin. The balance were of Iberic, Slavic 
and Mongolian origin mostly. Ultimately 
we must assimilate and absorb these 
peoples. 

We are now getting the weakest of Huro- 
pean peoples, instead of the strongest. 
The steamship companies are indifferent to 
the quality of immigration if they can 
only get the quantity. There is scarcity 
of labor, to be sure; but many of our best 


612 


citizens are moving to Canada to escape 
competition with these very immigrants at 
home. The remedy is a head tax, in- 
creased from two to twenty-five dollars to 
prevent assisted immigration, and a re- 
quirement to read and write the constitu- 
tion of the United States in some language. 


The Jews in Russia: Their Economic and 
Social Position: J. M. Rusrnow, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Of the five millions of Jews living in 
Russia, 95 per cent. live in the pale—that 
part of Russia in which Jews are permitted 
to live, and which constitutes only one fifth 
of European Russia. Only rich business 
men and professional people are permitted 
to live outside the pale. Even within the 
pale a Jew may not live outside the city 
limits. Many professions and trades and 
even agriculture are practically forbidden 
fields. In high schools and universities 
the Jews must not exceed a small percent- 
age of the total number of the students. 
Petty commerce and hand trades and fac- 
tory labor are, therefore, the only occupa- 
tions left open to the majority of the Rus- 
sian Jews. The result is congestion in 
these trades, cut-throat competition and 
poverty. To these conditions the Russian 
government intentionally remained blind 
and encouraged the preposterous claim that 
the Jews were prosperous exploiters of the 
Russian people, using the prejudice against 
the Jew as a safety-valve of the popular 
discontent, and not stopping short of direct 
organization of anti-Jewish riots, whenever 
the discontent became very acute. 

But out of these abnormal conditions the 
remedy is gradually evolving. The pov- 
erty and congestion of the towns in western 
Russia produced a free labor market, which 
stimulated growth of manufacturing in- 
dustry. And factories brought with them 
a powerful labor movement, more power- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 590. 


ful for the many battles it had to wage, the 
battle of the Jew, of the Russian citizen 
and the horribly exploited workingman. 

An organization was formed seven years 
ago, the so-called ‘Bund,’ which combined 
all these elements, and the results of its 
short activity are wonderful. It shortened 
the labor day from sixteen hours to ten or 
eleven, raised the pay of the workingmen 
and commercial employees about fifty per 
cent., and besides this narrow activity, has 
taught the Jews to stand up for their 
rights, to demand and not to beg reforms, 
to organize in self-defence against the anti- 
Jewish excesses, and what is more impor- 
tant, to create a strong movement for a free 
democratic government in Russia. The 
movement inevitably had far-reaching psy- 
chological effects. The patient, suffering 
and defenseless Jew of olden days was 
transformed into the energetic fighter for 
civic liberty, the enthusiastic labor-union 
man. The Russian Jew has finally re- 
gained his self-reliance and self-respect. 

These important changes have a signifi- 
cant bearing upon the question of Jewish 
immigration into the United States. The 
Russian Jew, having determined to fight 
for his rights in his own land, is sure of 
accomplishing his purpose in the not dis- 
tant future, and the victory will greatly 
diminish, if not altogether stop, the Jewish 
immigration to the United States. In the 
immediate future, however, due to the 
awful events in the southern cities, the 
current of immigration will continue un- 
abated for some time. But the Jewish 
immigrant, being an ardent union man and 
enthusiastic warrior for the rights of labor, 
the usual objections against the immigrant 
from eastern Europe can not be applied to 
him; the new Russian Jewish immigrant is 
not a danger, but a powerful ally, of the 
American workingman in his struggle for 
economic and social betterment. 


APRIL 20, 1906.] 


The Child-labor Problem: A Study in 
Degeneracy: A. J. McKeuway, Assistant 
Secretary, National Child Labor Com- 
mittee, Atlanta, Ga. 

The conditions of the child-labor prob- 
lem in England at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century and in some of our 
American states at the beginning of the 
twentieth are so much alike, that the fore- 
seeing of the same result is inevitable. Cer- 
tainly there is no more pressing subject for 
consideration for patriot or philanthropist 
than the welfare of the coming race. As 
President Roosevelt said to our committee 
only last month, political questions like the 
tariff or the currency are insignificant, in 
comparison with a social problem like this. 
The life is more than meat and the body 
than raiment. Certainly there could befall 
a people no greater catastrophe than race 
degeneracy. It is sufficient to say here 
that this catastrophe is not only threaten- 
ing, but already impending. 

In the manufacturing states of the north 
and east the legislative problem has been 
largely solved and there remains only the 
problem of the adequate enforcement of the 
law. The industry which was chiefly 
eursed by child labor in England is the 
characteristic and commanding industry of 
the south, the manufacture of cotton; and 
the northern problem differs from the 
southern in being chiefly a foreign problem. 
It is the children of the French Canadian 
and the Portuguese and the Greek that 
demand protection in New England, the 
children of the Italian and the Slav in 
Pennsylvania. No child of American 
parentage has yet been found at work in 
the sweatshops of New York City. In the 
south it is especially an American problem, 
for it is concerned with the depreciation 
of the purest American stock on the con- 
tinent. And this gives us another point 
of comparison between England and the 


SCIENCE. 


613 


south, namely, the similarity of the racial 
stock. 

The same race degeneracy which pro- 
eressed for a hundred years in England to 
its dire culmination is beginning already 
in the south. There has already been de- 
veloped in our manufacturing communities 
a ‘factory type’ easily recognizable, the 
children distinguished by their pallor and 
a certain sallowness of complexion. Harly 
employment tends to independence of pa- 
rental restraint. The breadwinner becomes 
a man too, and early marriages are the 
rule. The wife and mother continues her 
work in the mill, since the wages of the 
husband are not enough for the support of 
the family. What must be the children 
born of such unions and their children? 
Diseases of the throat and lungs are com- 
mon and also diseases peculiar to women, 
brought on by employment long continued 
at the critical period of a young girl’s life. 

We must save these children. for their 
country. We must protect them from the 
consequences of untimely toil, the sapping 
of physical vitality, the marring of the 
mind and the spoiling of the spirit that 
come with the denial of the rights of child- 
hood. 


Why Advancing Civilization in America 
Increases Crime: Some Methods of Re- 
lief: Judge N. B. Fracin, Birmingham, 
Ala. 

To train the citizen to live aright, to 
observe the moral and physical law, so that 
mankind may attain the highest possible 
perfection in physical, mental and moral 
manhood, is the duty of organized society. 
The Duke of Argyle in the middle of the 
nineteenth century said that the home, the 
church and the state were Hngland’s great- 
est civilizing factors. The state, through 
wise laws, justly interpreted and properly 
administered, can assure the citizen the 
protection of life, liberty and property, 


614 


and the pursuit of happiness. The wisest 
economy for the state is the greatest care 
and culture of the citizen from birth to 
death. This gives strength to good char- 
acter and force for good citizenship that 
will exalt the nation. 

Recapitulation of Causes.—(1) Advan- 
cing civilization increases crime, because of 
irrational methods. (2) By dealing with 
results instead of causes, relying more upon 
repression and reformation than upon 
formation and prevention. (3) By allow- 
ing officials interested pecuniarily in the 
arrest, confinement and conviction of of- 
fenders to have supervision over them. 
(4) By releasing offenders upon society 
worse morally and physically than when 
arrested. 

Some Methods of Relief.—(1) Quicken 
the publie conscience for the amelioration 
of social and economic conditions. (2) 
Remedial legislation in providing juvenile 
courts, detention homes and schools, proba- 
tion system or suspension of sentence and 
the indeterminate sentence. (3) Efficient, 
intelligent and humane officials for the 
proper enforcement of these laws. (4) 
The substitution of salaries for fees for 
officials who deal with offenders. (5) Re- 
liance upon formative and constructive 
methods rather than adherence to repres- 
sive and retributive ideals of justice. (6) 
A thorough revision of our legal provisions 
and methods of administration so as to re- 
lieve the state of the odium of participation 
in the creation of criminals. 

These methods have passed the experi- 
mental stage; they are in accord with the 
dictates of law and philosophy, of science, 
morality and religion; and if adopted and 
wisely enforced in all our states, civiliza- 
tion will continue to advance and crime 
will decrease. 

Race Degeneracy: Professor JEROME 


Down, Wisconsin University, Madison, 
Wis. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXTIT. No. 590. 


Among savages the degenerate and de- 
fective individuals were considered be- 
witched and hence speedily put out of the 
world. Even down to the eighteenth cen- 
tury mental and corporal afflictions were 
largely explamed as demoniae possessions. 
The development of hospitals for the in- 
sane gave rise to the science of psychiatry. 
and the effort to trace insanity to natural 
causes. Then the success of the psychia- 
trists stimulated the criminologists to in- 
quire whether the moral perversities of the 
thief, the forger, the murderer, ete., were 
not also the result of inherited physical 
and mental defects. A still further step 
in the study of degeneracy was to inquire 
if the man of genius was not also, as the 
insane man and criminal, the result of a 
deteriorated physical or mental organism. 
Lombroso in Italy and Nisbet in England 
have attempted to show a necessary con- 
nection between degeneracy and genius. 
Nisbet cites in his book a long list of great 
men with the peculiar evidences of de- 
generacy which characterized each of them. 
Shakespeare, he says, belonged to a very 
degenerate stock, the average length of life 
of the children of his parents being only 
thirty-two years, and he himself died of a 
sort of ‘epileptic seizure.’ Milton was 
blind at the age of forty-four years, and 
his daughter Anne was lame and otherwise 
defective. Only one of his daughters had 
offspring, and she gave birth to ten chil- 
dren, of whom only three lived to attain 
adult age. 

Advancing a step further in the study 
of degeneracy, Max Nordau, in Germany, 
has attempted to show that degeneracy is 
not a peculiarity of criminals, lunatics or 
men of genius, but that it is characteristic 
of all modern civilized races. Many of our 
celebrated men have all the special stig- 
mata of the criminal or lunatic, but they 
manifest their defects in a way which es- 
capes general notice. They are, however, 


ApriIL 20, 1906.] 


no less injurious to society. Instead of 
using the knife of the assassin or the bomb 
of the dynamiter, they use the pen and 
pencil. 

Some sociologists, as Gumplowiez and Le 
Bon, have taken up the idea of degeneracy 
and declare that modern civilizations are 
destined to an inevitable decay and death. 

Are there any reliable facts which would 
support the argument in favor of race de- 
generacy? Hxamining into the statistics 
of the insane, blind, deaf and criminal, the 
data are so imperfect that it is impossible 
to say whether conditions are becoming 
better or worse. The signs of family de- 
generacy are more serious than those of 
physical degeneracy or crime. ‘There is‘no 
doubt about the increase of divorces and 
im many countries there is an increase of 
illegitimate children. Adultery seems to 
be less offensive now to public sentiment. 
The New York committee of fifteen recom- 
mended its erasure from the category of 
erimes. Abandonment of children to in- 
stitutions suggests Plato’s state control of 
child-rearing. In France 80 per cent. of 
the juvenile male criminals are illegitimate. 

In spite of all the facts bearing upon 
degeneracy there are as yet no positive 
evidences of degeneracy and no oceasion for 
alarm, but the present conditions and tend- 
encies are far from satisfactory. 


Economic Aspects of Accounting and 
Auditing: F. W. Larrentz, President 
American Audit Company, New York. 
Many states of the union have passed 

appropriate laws under which accountants 

may qualify and obtain certificates from 
proper governing boards. 

Accountancy is not only applied mathe- 
matics, but also applied economics. The 
accountant must know the theory of values 
in order to properly understand his pro- 
fession; and here is where he must consult 
the economist. He should guard against 


SCIENCE. 


615 


becoming a theorist pure and simple, how- 
ever. It is necessary for him to be prac- 
tical in the application of theory. He 
must know, for instance, when to stop in 
his analytical work, so as not to burden a 
business with detail that it is unable to 
earry. In other words, he must learn to 
adapt system to business and not business 
to system. 

The documents in which the accountant 
sums up (epitomizes) the transactions re- 
corded for any given undertaking are the 
balance sheet and the profit-and-loss ac- 
count. The balance sheet shows, on the 
one hand, the goods that are owned by the 
business, and commonly described as assets. 
Now, the setting up of the assets in the 
balance sheet means merely the making of 
an inventory of the things owned; but in 
order to do that the accountant must set 
a value upon them. Here is where the 
knowledge of the accountant is put to the 
severest test. Not only must he know the 
valuation of all marketable staples, but he 
must know how to deal with the difficult 
problems of used machinery, dilapidated 
buildings, and that most elusive of all as- 
sets—good-will. 

On the credit side of the balance sheet 
he will set up the debts for which the goods 
owned are a lien, so to speak, and which in 
ease of liquidation must be deducted from 
the results gained in the disposition of the 
goods. If the goods are more than suffi- 
cient to meet these liens, the residue will 
be the net worth of the proprietor, the 
capital of the proprietor. The balance 
sheet, therefore, states the condition of 
wealth. 

The net worth of the proprietor at a 
given time, when compared with his net 
worth at a different date, will show the 
inerease or decrease in his wealth—or his 
profit or loss during the interim—and the 
reasons for such change will be found in 


616 


the profit-and-loss account, for it states the 
flow of wealth during a given period. 

This account sets forth six features: (1) 
The business done as a whole and by de- 
partments; (2) the cost of sales, on the 
same basis; (3) the gross profits, on the 
same basis; (4) management expenses, 
which should not -vary greatly with the 
volume of business; (5) profit or loss on 
the theory that sufficient capital is invested 
in the business; (6) the net result, profit 
or loss, after all allowances. 

Here, then, we find mathematics and 
economics going hand in hand in aid of 
the accountant; for in the theories on 
which he bases his mathematical conclu- 
sions we recognize the theories of the sci- 
ence of economics. The themes of the 
economist, such as capital, profit, income, 
expenditure, value, property, labor, are the 
terms employed here. The forecasts of the 
economist, based upon economic principles, 
are brought into contrast with the actual 
results attained by the accountant. These 
results ought to be studied by the econo- 
mist, so that he may keep abreast of the 
times, because the factors in the produc- 
tion and distribution of wealth change, and 
calculations based upon ancient conditions 
must necessarily be modified. 


Honest, Safe and Economical Life Insur- 
ance: L. G. Powsrs, Bureau of Census, 
Washington, D. C. 

Fundamental principles on which life in- 
surance is based: 

Some important facts relating to life in- 
surance. 

Life insurance, to be honest and safe, 
must fully recognize the scientific facts on 
which all such insurance is based. 

These facts most fully recognized by the 
so-called old-line insurance companies. 

Statement of the practical workings of 
insurance in such companies, by which 
they can furnish honest, safe and econom- 
ical life indemnity. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 590. 


Conditions under which assessment and 
fraternal insurance companies are unsafe 
agencies for securing life imsurance, and 
also under which they may be trusted for 
furnishing the same. 

Limited-term insurance the best form 
for those needing large life protection but 
who are temporarily receiving very limited 
incomes. 

Old-line insurance with low expense of 
management preferable for all who have 
an income permitting of the accumulation 
of savings, and who wish insurance for a 
long term of years. 

Old-line insurance with present large ex- 
penses of administration less desirable for 
the average individual for caring for sav- 
ings and securing insurance than the best 
managed fraternal insurance companies. 

Fraternities will become more scientific 
in their management and accumulation of 
reserves, and old-line companies will in 
time become less expensive in their manage- 
ment, and by both classes of companies the 
public will come to have more economical 
life insurance as well as honest and safe 
insurance. 


The Census Returns on Manufactures: Ep- 

WARD ATKINSON,’ Boston, Mass. 

The classification of manufactures by 
the Federal Census leaves much to be de- 
sired in the following respects: (1) The 
collective branches of industry which are 
conducted in large factories and work- 
shops by great division of labor, distinctly 
manufacturing, according to the conven- 
tional use of that term; (2) the arts which 
are conducted by the use of modern tools 
and appliances, but yet remain distinctly 

1Born, Brookline, Mass., February, 1827; died, 
December 11, 1905. Mr. Atkinson joined the 
American Association in 1880. He has been a 
constant contributor to Economie Science. An 
incomplete list of titles of articles published be- 


tween 1877 and 1905, inclusive, credits him with 
183 subjects. 


Apri 20, 1906.] 


mechanie arts, calling for the guiding hand 
of the artisan, notably the building trades; 
(8) the lesser branches of industry, both 
manufacturing and mechanic arts, con- 
ducted in small shops by combination of 
mechanism, improved tools and hand work. 

A eareful study may enable economists 
to establish very valuable deductions when 
these facts and figures are plainly stated. 
The deduction which I have made from 
such study as I can give is that the tend- 
eney is toward individualism rather than 
collectivism. That is to say, the arts which 
are conducted by large numbers of persons 
under one roof, subject to great division 
of labor, are becoming more and more auto- 
matic, and although giving employment to 
a large aggregate in each decade, they are 
giving employment to a less proportion of 
persons occupied as the decades go by. 
In some arts one can foresee the time when 
the only persons occupied will be those who 
keep the machinery in order and there may 
be none of the class now called operatives 
to attend to the product. On the other 
hand, the arts which require individualism, 
capacity, mental energy and manual skill, 
like the building trades, and many other 
of the arts listed under the title of manu- 
factures, are calling for an increasing pro- 
portion of a constantly increasmmg number. 
-I also find in every art that I have investi- 
gated a confirmation of the rule laid down 
by Henry C. Carey and Frederic Bastiat 
seventy years ago, namely, ‘‘in proportion 
to the increase and effectiveness of capital, 
the share of the annual product falling to 
capital is increased in the aggregate, but 
diminished in its relative proportion; while 
the share falling to labor or to the work- 
men and women is increased both abso- 
lutely and relatively.’’ 

I find in the history of every art, the 
course of which has not been interrupted 
or broken by tariff taxes. (these arts being 
very few in number), that the persons who 


SCIENCE. 


617 


do the manual, mechanical work of the 
nation, constituting in the narrow sense 
the working classes, have been and are se- 
curing decade by decade an increasing 
share or proportion of a constantly increas- 
ing product to their own use and enjoy- 
ment. 


The Twelfth Census of Manufactures: W. 
M. Steuart, Census Office, Washington, 
1D), Cl, 

At the census of 1900, when it was found 
that out of the 640,194 schedules secured, 
343,233, or considerably more than half, 
were for the hand trades or for small shops 
with an annual product of less than $500, 
and also that the cost of collecting the 
schedules for the small shops was about 
the same per schedule as for the factories; 
for this and other reasons given in part 
I. of the report of manufactures, it was 
recommended that these industries be ex- 
cluded from the twelfth census. 

To recapitulate, the reports of the 
twelfth census show: 

1. A clear demarcation between the 
neighborhood and mechanical trades and 
the factory industries. 

2. There is a provision of law which ex- 
cludes the neighborhood and mechanical 
trades from the census of 1905 and it is 
probable that they will be omitted from all 
subsequent censuses. 

3. All new industries and industries that 
have developed from the household in- 
dustries and passed into the factory sys- 
tem, such as the manufacture of textiles, 
should be considered as a part of the in- 
dustrial development of the country. 

4. The word ‘manufactures’ is defined 
in the census reports, but its definition can 
not be used as a eriterion to separate the 
neighborhood and mechanical trades from 
the factory industries. 

5. The gross value of the annual prod- 
ucts of all classes of manufactures can be 
used to show relative increase. 


618 


6. The duplications in the value of 
products are eliminated in the census re- 
ports and either the net or gross value can 
be used. 

7. The average wages should not be as- 
certained by dividing the total wages by 
the average number. ; 

8. The number of wage-earners shown in 
the statistics of manufactures as employed 
in the different branches of industry can 
not agree with the number given in the 
statistics of population by occupations. 


Currency Reform and Postal Savings Sys- 
tem: Dr. M. PrerrzycKi, Dayton, Wash. 
It is proposed to create a special depart- 

ment of the government under the title, 

‘The Bank of the United States,’ with 

powers and duties as follows: 

A. To issue all national currency, this 
currency to be full legal tender without 
restrictions. 3 

B. To redeem, cancel or destroy cur- 
rency. 

CO. To organize and operate a postal 
savings system in connection. 

A. The issuing of the currency is to be 
made only on bond security and under uni- 
form and strict rules: (1) On national 
bonds, (2) on bonds of the states, (3) on 
bonds of the irrigation and reclamation 
districts, (4) on first-mortgage bonds of 
railroad companies. 

B. This would require of the bank pro- 
posed that— (1) it redeem in coin any legal 
currency presented, (2) as new currency 
was issued present currency including 
ereenbacks should be retired and de- 
stroyed, (3) as matured bonds were paid 
off corresponding proportions of the na- 
tional curreney should be destroyed. 

C. Postal Savings System.—The ‘Bank 
of the United States’ should organize and 
conduct an efficient postal savings system, 
receiving, under suitable rules, deposits of 
money from the people, and paying inter- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 590. 


est on these deposits at the rate of 24 per 
cent. per annum, or less, as may be by the 
‘bank’ from time to time determined, and 
on sums that have been on deposit sixty 
days or longer. 

The government should, therefore, con- 
stantly keep a sufficient supply of gold to 
be able, and must be willing, to redeem the 
currency on demand. 


Our Commercial Relations with Latin 
America: Harotp Bouce, Washington, 
D. C. 

It is customary to speak in jubilant 
terms of our commercial destiny in Central 
and South America. Up to the present, 
America’s share in the foreign commerce 
of the southern islands and republics of 
this hemisphere is insignificant. The latest 
figures show that the foreign trade of the 
countries (exclusive of South America) 
washed by the Caribbean amounts to $462,- 
000,000. When to that sum is added the 
value of the external commerce of the 
Atlantic republics of South America, the 
total is found to exceed one billion dollars. 
Of this splendid trade, to reach which no 
canal is necessary, the United States gets 
a pitiable ten per cent. 

Of that ten per cent., nearly one half 
consists of food-stuffs, lumber and kero- 
sene, practically non-competitive products. 
As a people, we have made almost no effort 
to get the trade of Latin America. But 
for the presence of American colonies in 
Mexico and the West Indies, our south- 
borne exports would be too paltry to enu- 
merate in the totals of American pros- 
perity. At the present rate of our ship- 
ments of merchandise to all lands between 
our border and Patagonia, it will require 
over one thousand years for the total value 


-to equal the sum of the exchanges in 1905 


in the clearing houses of the United States. 
We look forward to sailing through the 
Panama Canal to a large commercial des- 


Apzin 20, 1906.] 


tiny. But we are ignoring a billion dollar 
commerce on the Atlantic side of the isth- 
mus. We have the wide sea as a trade 
path to the markets of the West Indies, 
Central America and the eastern portion 
of South America. To reach these fields, 
we have no more need of a canal at Panama 
than of the Northwest Passage. By the 
time we complete the Panama Canal, Japan 
may be the dominant commercial power of 
the Pacific. Hven if the Chinese Empire 
were to remain friendly to America and the 
awakening of the whole orient be post- 
poned until we are ready to travel through 
our waterway, the canal itself would not 
secure us the commerce of the far east any 
more than the Atlantic and Caribbean have 
secured us the trade of the eastern seaboard 
of Latin America. 
JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL, 


Secretary. 
New York City. 


THE NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

THE sixteenth annual meeting of the 
Nebraska Academy of Sciences was held in 
Mechanic Arts Hall, University of Ne- 
braska, February 2-3, 1906, under the 
presidency of Dr. R. H. Wolcott. 

Resolutions were passed approving and 
urging the passage by Congress of the 
Adams bill providing for an increase in the 
appropriation granted to the Agricultural 
Experiment Stations; that creating the 
Mesa Verde National Park, and the Lacey 
bill providing for the preservation of 
American Antiquities. 

The following officers were elected for 
the ensuing year: 

President—Dr. S. R. Towne, Omaha. 

Vice-president—Professor G. R. 
Lincoln. 

Secretary—Dr. F. D. Heald, Lincoln. 

Treasurer—Dr. H. H. Waite, Lincoln. 

Directors—Dr. C. H. Bessey, Lincoln; Mr. G. A. 
Loveland, Lincoln; Dr. J. B. Hungate, Weeping 
Water; Dr. H. B. Lowrey, Lincoln. 


Chatburn, 


SCIENCE. 


619 


The following papers were presented: 


President’s Address—Biological Conditions 
in Nebraska: Ropert H. Woucort. 
Nebraska, owing to its geographical posi- 

tion, topography, climate and vegetal con- 
ditions, may be divided into five faunal 
areas: (1) a wooded Missouri River bluff 
area, (2) a prairie area, (3) the sand hills, 
(4) the plains, (5) a pine-forest foothill 
region in the northwest. These correspond 
closely to the floral regions. In early days 
the two wooded regions were sharply lim- 
ited, but the planting of groves, orchards 
and shrubbery, together with the extension 
of the natural growth of timber and thick- 
ets, have led to the extinction of prairie 
and plains forms and the spreading into 
these regions of woodland species. Further 
and more pronounced changes are to be 
expected in the future. Of these areas the 
first two named belong to the Carolinian 
life zone as defined by Merriam, the next 
two to the Upper Sonoran, the last to the 
Transition. Merriam shows a close corre- 
spondence between life zones and crop 
zones. With the changing biological con- 
ditions in the state, agricultural possibili- 
ties are becoming increased. Crops may 
now be confidently expected which under 
former conditions could not have been se- 
eured. A biological survey of the state 
would bring out these possibilities, supple- 
menting the work done by the experiment 
station, and furnishing a scientific basis for 
that work. Such an enterprise would be for 
the academy most appropriate, and would 
render its labors of great practical value, 
and would furnish a powerful argument 
upon which to base an appeal for support 
from the people of the state. 


The Drifting of Sunspots: G. D. Swrzzy. 

Observations of the sun were made every 
clear day from October 26 to November 24, 
1905, and the position of the principal sun- 
spots on the sun’s disk was measured. 


620 


Taking account of the changing position 
of the sun’s axis during the period in which 
a sunspot was visible, the projection of the 
computed diurnal path was compared with 
the actual apparent path for ten well- 
defined spots, in order to determine the 
drift of the spot with reference to the solar 
surface. Some of them were found to 
maintain a very constant latitude; others 
drifted several degrees north or south; 
contrary to the usual rule, those within 
fifteen degrees of the equator drifted, if 
anything, away from the equator and those 
in high latitude, both north and south, 
drifted a little towards it. 

The period of the sun’s rotation as de- 
duced from these ten spots varied from 
twenty-five to over twenty-eight days, those 
nearer the equator giving, as a rule, the 
shorter periods, but with some exceptions. 


Ancient 
Rocks: A. KE. SHELDON. 


Picture-writing on Nebraska 
(With lantern.) 


Observations on Glacial Accumulations of 

Nebraska: G. H. Conpra. 

The glacial deposits in this state are thick- 
er, better defined and more important than 
is generally known. Tull composed of clay, 
sand, pebbles and boulders is about one hun- 
dred feet thick in the uplands near Lincoln. 
An oxidized clay, which is occasionally con- 
fused with loess, at places constitutes a 
large percentage of the till plain. Glacial 
clay and loess are usually distinguished 
quite readily by their structure and color. 
The brownish-colored subsoil in the uplands 
at Omaha, Nebraska City, Lincoln and Pon- 
ea is till, not loess. ~ The till plain les on 
Pennsylvanian, Permian, Cretaceous and 
Tertiary formations. Its western border 
is poorly defined, grading into a sand plain 
and concealed by loess. Just how the fill 
and sand plains are related we do not know. 
Boulders are found in the latter farther 
west than Fairbury. Tertiary and glacial 
sands are confused at places. Boulders 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


show in largest numbers where the loess 
and finer glacial materials have been re- 
moved by streams, as on valley slopes. By 
this means the coarser parts of the till have 
been concentrated locally as ‘boulder 
areas,’ the best known of which are near 
Endicott, Humboldt, Falls City, Lincoln 
and Hartington. Further investigation 
may force the conclusion that Nebraska has 
more than the one drift sheet which is 
known as the Kansan. 


Bud Rot of Carnations: F. D. Heap. 

The study of a troublesome bud-rot of 
carnations due to a species of Musarium 
was described. The rotting buds always 
contained a mite in addition to the fungus. 
Pure cultures were made of the fungus, 
and successful inoculations were carried 
out. The fungus was again isolated and 
new inoculations made which indicated that 
the fungus alone was capable of producing 
the rotting. The experiment tried with 
inoculations of the mite into the buds did 
not produce the disease. It was suggested 
that the mites act only as carriers of the 
fungus and intensify its severity. The 
Lawson carnation was noticed as the most 
susceptible variety. 


A New Distome of the Family Holo- 
stomeew: F. D. BARKER. (By title.) 


The Strength of Nebraska Woods: G. R. 
CHATBURN. (By title.) 


The Bumble Bees of Nebraska: M. H. 

SWENK. 

In arranging about six hundred speci- 
mens of Nebraska bumble bees and their 
inquilines contained in the collection of 
the University of Nebraska, an unusually 
rich fauna of these insects was found for 
the state. This collection includes records 
of seven species of Bombias, eight species 
of Bombus and three species of Psithyrus, 
making eighteen species in all, or more 
than have been recorded for the whole of 
the United States east of the Mississippi 


Aprit 20, 1906.] 


River. The distribution of these species in 
the state and their relative abundance was 
noted, and in addition a brief outline of 
their general habits was given. 


Seasonal Rhythms of Growth: W. W. 
Hastines. (By title.) 


The Latest Enumeration of Nebraska 

Grasses: C. Bi. BESSEY. 

In a recently published catalogue of the 
grasses of Nebraska in the Annual Report 
of the Nebraska State Board of Agricul- 
ture (1904), one hundred and fifty native 
and fifty introduced species are recorded. 
This is the largest number ever included in 
any authentic list of the grasses of the 
state. While recent reexaminations of 
certain specimens make a few changes of 
names necessary, the aggregates remain as 
already stated. It is not unlikely, how- 
ever, that a still more critical study of the 
wild grasses will add a number of species 
to the present list. The popular impres- 
sion that the number of species of grasses 
in the state is diminishing is erroneous. 
Of certain species there are fewer indi- 
viduals, but there are few if any cases in 
which any grasses have completely disap- 
peared from a region. 


The Oil Region around Cleveland, Pawnee 
County, Oklahoma: E. G. WoopruFr. 
The most important oil field in Oklahoma 

to-day is the one surrounding the city of 
Cleveland in eastern Pawnee County. A 
brief history of this field was given, with 
notes on the number of wells, the amount 
and nature of the oil, and the enormous 
gas flow. One four-inch pipe line carries 
a stream of crude petroleum night and 
day; another line of six-inch diameter is 
almost completed. The city is heated by 
natural gas from the wells, and street lights 
burn night and day, while millions of cubic 
feet of gas are going to waste. 


Ou and Gas Possibilities in Nebraska: G. 
E. Conpra. 


SCIENCE. 


621 


The possibility of oil and gas in paying 
quantities in Nebraska has led to a demand 
for a careful stratigraphic study, especially 
in the southeastern part of the state. The 
stratigraphic relations of the Carbonifer- 
ous series of Nebraska to the oil regions to 
the south was studied during seven trips 
across Kansas, Oklahoma and the Indian 
Territory. Certain Pennsylvanian forma- 
tions and at least two members of the 
Permian that outcrop in southeastern Ne- 
braska were found to extend, with little 
change, to near the oil and gas fields. The 
study of the stratigraphy of southeastern 
Nebraska has shown that the Cherokee 
shales, the principal oil-bearing beds of 
Kansas, lie 2,000 feet below the Nemaha 
Valley. Only one well has been put down 
to this depth. Further west in Nebraska, 
in the region around Cambridge, the pos- 
sible oil- and gas-bearing formations are 
the Grandose and the Dakota, but neither 
formation yields much oil in any region. 
There are a few favorable indications that 
oil and gas may occur in paying quantities 
in Nebraska, but many of the conditions 
are unfavorable. 


Some Structural Peculiarities of the Rice 

Pistil: ELDA R. WALKER. 

Rice pistils show several peculiarities 
which seem to indicate that they are tri- 
carpellary. In the pistil there are three 
fibro-vascular bundles. Of these one goes 
to each of the two style branches and the 
other bears the ovule. This bundle typi- 
cally stops a short distance above the ovary 
cavity near the level at which the style 
branches separate. However, in a few 
eases pistils are found with three style 
branches. It seems then that the style 
branches of the typical pistil represent two 
carpels and that the other carpel is re- 
duced, only extending to the top of the 
ovary. The pistil is then apparently com- 
posed of two sterile carpels and the reduced 
fertile carpel. , 


622 


The Use of Carbon Tetrachloride with the 
Soxhlet Apparatus: Roscon H. SHAw. 
Various chemicals have been advocated 

and used as extractants in the determina- 
tion of fat in foods and agricultural prod- 
ucts. Hther is most extensively used and 
its use has become official. Carbon bisul- 
fide, petroleum ether and carbon tetrachlo- 
ride are also used to some extent. The 
last named has many advantages over the 
others. It is cheap, it can be purchased 
pure and its vapor is non-explosive, non- 
inflammable and non-poisonous. Ether 
can not be obtained anhydrous and must 
be kept over sodium and redistilled just be- 
fore using. It is expensive and its vapor 
is explosive. The unpleasant odor and 
poisonous property of the vapors of ear- 
bon bisulfide restrict its use. Petroleum 
ether is a mixture of the lighter oils of pe- 
troleum and consequently has no definite 
chemical composition or boiling-point. 

Samples of corn and linseed meal were 
extracted with both ether and carbon tetra- 
chloride. The heat for those with ether was 
supplied by a steam bath and for the carbon 
tetrachloride direct flame with an asbestos 
plate interposed. Soxhlet’s extractors were 
used in each case. It was found that the 
tetrachloride made the complete extraction 
and gave identical results with the ether in 
about one third of the time required by 
the latter, and that a previous drying of the 
samples was unnecessary. Extractions on 
other grains will be made and reported at 
the next meeting. 

Some Carboniferous Corals from WNe- 
braska: EH. H. BarBour. 
Forest Planting in Eastern Nebraska: 

FRANK G. Mier. 

This paper dealt mainly with that part 
of the state east of the ninety-ninth meri- 
dian. It reviewed briefly the history of 
forest planting in Nebraska, in which it 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


was noted that the state has about 300,000 
acres of planted timber, approximately 
250,000, or 83 per cent., of which are in the 
region east of the ninety-ninth meridian. 
The observation was also made that in the 
eastern portion of the state the planted 
area is decreasing. Owing to the rapid ap- 
preciation in the price of land, together . 
with an increased timber supply, due to the 
efforts of the early settlers, the activity in 
forest planting so characteristic of pioneer 
days has gradually declined, till in the past 
few years the amount of planting done in 
most parts of the region under considera- 
tion has been very small, and this has been 
more than offset by the large amount of 
former planting that is being harvested. 
Tree planting declined very rapidly from 
about 1894. The outlook for future plant- 
ing is more hopeful, as there is a distinct 
revival of interest in forest planting at the 
present time. In mentioning the purposes - 
for which forest plantings should be made, 
their protective value was especially em- 
phasized. The ability of wind-breaks and 
shelter belts to protect planted fields and 
orchards from the aridity of the wind and 
thus inerease crop production is not only 
attested by common observation, but has 
been demonstrated by experimentation. 
This is one of the most vital questions con- 
nected with tree planting on the plains, 
since the importance of any agency that 
will retard the velocity of the wind and 
thus check evaporation becomes at once ap- 
parent. For commercial purposes, com- 
mon cottonwood and willow were recom- 
mended for fuel. For fence posts, hardy 
catalpa, honey locust, green ash, Osage 
orange, European larch and red cedar were 
named; while for lumber production, com- 
mon cottonwood and black walnut are the 
most available trees. 

EK. W. 


Cantor’s Numbers: 


Davis. 


Transfinite 


APRIL 20, 1906.] 


The Skulls of Syndyoceras and Protoceras: 

Erwin H. BARBour. 

The skull of the Oligocene Protoceras 
with its many horns or protuberances was 
compared with that of the four-horned 
Miocene artiodactyl Syndyoceras. Though 
representing widely divergent types, Syn- 
dyoceras seems to be more closely related 
to Protoceras than to any known form. 
The main horn-cores or protuberances in 
Protoceras seem to become true horn-cores 
in Syndyoceras. The more prominent dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of Syndyoceras 
are the four grooved horn-cores; the ‘mid- 
nares’ or ‘blow-hole’ (of doubtful func- 
tion) ; the tube eyes; the incisiform canines 
and the caniniform premolars of the man- 
dible. ; 


Additional Notes on the Cladocera of Ne- 
braska: CHARLES F'ORDYCE. 

Since the appearance of the two former 
papers on the Cladocera of Nebraska (For- 
dyce, 1901 and 1904), the author has found 
five additional species, which, added to the 
forty-five prevtously reported makes a total 
of fifty species thus far reported from Ne- 
braska. The species described in this paper 


‘are embraced in the following three fam- 


ilies: Daphnide one, Bosminide one, Lyn- 
ceide two. The additional species are as 
follows: Simocephalus serrulatus n. var., 
Bosmma nu. sp., Alona quadrangularis O. F. 
Miller, Pleurozus hamatus Birge, Pleu- 
rocus trigonellus O. F. Miller. These 
forms are all new to Nebraska; the first two 
are new to science, and the last three are 
rare in this country. 


The Accuracy of Acquired Habitual Move- 
ments: WH. L. HouuineswortH. 
Contemporary psychology is paying in- 

ereased attention to the general subject of 

movement. While the psychophysics of 
inactive perception has become fairly well 
organized, the more active modes have dis- 
closed less regularity and the need is felt 


SCIENCE. 


623 


for a more careful study in this field. The 
comparison of series of naive and practise 
tests of the accuracy of the standing, walk- 
ing and sitting reflexes affords the follow- 
ing suggestions: 

(1) The lack of uniformity displayed by 
modes of perception in which movement is 
involved is due to the complex conditions 
under which the movements are made, the 
general activity of the refiex, its functional 
correlation with static and orientation 
sense, ete. (2) The extremely delicate dis- 
crimination possible to even the most mas- 
sive reflex is worthy of remark. (3) There 
is a practical minimum below which the 
threshold can not be reduced, and this 
threshold is about the same for all indi- 
viduals. (4) Practise results may be mani- 
fested either in the reduction of the thresh- 
old, or, if the threshold remain constant, in 
the gradual definition and increased cer- 
tainty of the criteria of judgment. (5) 
The more activity involved in a movement, 
and the more closely connected it is with 
static perception, the more susceptible is 
the movement to the reduction of the ob- 
servable difference threshold by practise. 
The less activity involved the more likely 
is practise to result in the definition of the 
criteria. (6) The correlation of sensory 
and motor factors in the process of learn- 
ing is seen to be advantageous. The more 
activity involved in an act of learning, the 
more quickly will the process be mastered. 
Since motor correlations are in general 
more persistent than sensory, it is also prob- 
able that the acquirement will be longer re- 
tained. 


The Composition of Some Unique Feeding 

Stuffs Used in Nebraska: S. AVERY. 

The following unique feeding stuffs were 
analyzed: burned alfalfa, the soapweed of 
the sand-hills, a water plant known as horn- 
wort, and the much-abused Russian thistle. 
Burned alfalfa loses about 700 pounds, 


624 


weight per ton, which loss falls mainly on 
the erude fiber and the carbohydrates. The 
protein content is high, 24.75 per cent., but 
experiments indicate that it is much less 
digestible than the protein of prime alfalfa. 
Soapweed contains 9.09 per cent. protein 
and the hornwort 17.68 per cent. The high 
protein content of the Russian thistle, 17.95 
per cent., indicates that the former pest 
has a feeding value that makes it a source 
of profit to the western rancher. 


New and Lnttle-known Plant Diseases in 

Nebraska: ¥. D. HEALD. 

Notes were given upon the following dis- 
eases: 

(1) Twig-girdle of the apple due to a 
Phoma-like fungus. (2) Trunk rot of the 
cherry due to Schizophyllum commune. 
A small orchard of trees five to six years 
old was completely destroyed by this fun- 
gus. (3) Wheat leaf-fungus, Leptosphe- 
ria tritici. Among other things, its dis- 
tribution over the same area as the Hessian 
fly was noted. (4) Bacterial leaf blight of 
wheat. A bacterial blight of the leaves was 
common on the leaves of wheat in the breed- 
ing-plot at the experiment station and was 
also observed elsewhere. (5) Bacterial 
blight of soy bean. This disease was quite 
serious on soy bean used as an orchard 
cover crop at the experiment station. (6) 
Moldy corn due to a fungus provisionally 
referred to Diplodia Maydis, but differing 
in several points in habit and structure. 


A New Limestone in the Indian Territory: 

G. E. Conpra. 

This new stone represents an abnormal 
development of calcareous oolite in the 
Hunton formation and is underlaid by sev- 
enty-five feet or more of Sylvan shale. 
This stone forms a single massive ledge 
without distinet jointing and bedding, the 
thickness averaging ten feet. The forma- 
‘tion where exposed is a hogback of the Ar- 
buckle Mountains dipping three to five de- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 590. 


grees northeast. The stone is very plainly 
oolitic, much more so than the Bedford, 
and approaching the famous English oolite. 
The spherules range from .5 to 2 mm. in 
diameter, the largest being in the lower 
part of the ledge. The spherules are held 
together by a matrix of clear olive-green 
crystallized calcite, giving the stone a beau- 
tiful surface when polished. The oolite is 
a very pure limestone, in fact a marble, 
running as high as 98 per cent. CaCO. 
The stone and the underlying shale are 
to become the basis of several industries 
which will furnish building stone, orna- 
mental stone, carbonate, lime, cement, 
brick, tile and ballast, all of which are in 
great demand in that section of the country. 


The Causes of the Dwarfing of Alpine 
Plants: FREDERIC E. CLEMENTS. 
Preliminary work upon the mountain 

vegetation of Colorado from 1896 to 1899 

seemed to show clearly that the prevailing 

opinion that light was the primary factor 
in alpine dwarfing was erroneous. A large 
number of species was found to exhibit 
dwarf and normal forms at the same alti- 
tude, and often in close proximity. In 
every case the dwarf form grew in dry soil, 
and the normal one in wet soil, indicating 
that the difference was one of water con- 
tent. Owing to lack of instruments, satis- 
factory determinations of light intensity 
were not obtained until 1904. The latter 
naturally showed no differences in dry and 
wet habitats at the same altitude. Read- 
ings taken at Manitou (1,900 m.), Minne- 
haha (2,600 m.) and on Mount Garfield at 

3,600 m. gave practically the same light in- 

tensity for the three altitudes. The great- 

est intensity on Mount Garfield was 1.2, 

the intensity at Manitou being 1. This dif- 

ference is altogether too slight to account 
for the dwarf habit of alpine vegetation as 
compared with that of the plains. Accord- 
ingly, in 1905, recording psychrometers 


Apri 20, 1906.] 


were located at the same stations to obtain 
complete records of humidity. Light read- 
ings were again made as for the year pre- 
ceding with the same results. It was found 
that the humidity was much less upon the 
alpine summits than upon the plains. This 
leads necessarily to the conclusion that al- 
pine plants, compared with those of the 
plains, are dwarfed because of excessive 
transpiration, while, among alpine forms, 
those that grow in dry habitats are dwarfed 
by virtue of a low water supply. 


University Extension and the Prevention 
of Disease: H. H. Watts. 

Aitention was called to the growth of 
the university-extension movement in the 
United States during the last decade. The 
general government and many states ap- 
propriate annually large sums of money to 
defray the expenses of investigating dis- 
eases of animals and plants. At the pres- 
ent time only a limited number of indi- 
vidual states have appropriated money and 
established laboratories for the investiga- 
tion of disease in man. The importance of 
educating the people in regard to the 
origin, means of dissemination and meas- 
ures to be taken to prevent the spread of 
infectious diseases, were briefly discussed. 
The infectious diseases especially consid- 
ered were tuberculosis, typhoid fever and 
diphtheria. The excellent chances of re- 
covery from or arrest of tuberculosis in 
its early stages, provided the patient is 
given accurate instruction as to the regula- 
tion of his daily life, was strongly empha- 
sized. Statistics from all parts of the 
world prove that diphtheria antitoxin since 
its introduction has reduced the death rate 
by more than fifty per cent. Since its ad- 
ministration is attended with little or no 
danger to the individual, the public should 
so clearly understand this as to demand its 
introduction as both a curative and a 
prophylactic measure. 


SCIENCE. 


625 


Tillering in the Corn Plant: BH. G. Mont- 

GOMERY. 

The ‘tiller’ in a corn plant is a lateral 
branch, usually arising at or below the sur- 
face of the soil. In dent corn the number 
of tillers varies from none to three or four, 
depending largely on conditions. The num- 
ber developing is directly affected by rate 
of planting, fertility of the soil, rainfall, or 
their development seems to be correlated 
directly with the favorableness of the en- 
vironment. The following data show the 
effect of rate of planting when the hills 
were 44 inches apart each way: 

No. of Plants No. Tillers 

in a Hill. Developed, 
For every 100 plants, 4 

For every 100 plants, 3 25 
For every 100 plants, 2 
For every 100 plants, 1 


In the same way the number of tillers in- 
creased on fertile land and in seasons of 
good rainfall. The tendency to tiller was 
found to be more or less hereditary, but 
this tendency was more than overcome in 
most cases by the environment. Tillers 
also have an important economic value. 
On good soil where the stand happens to 
be below maximum, they are capable of 
producing good ears. When suckers were 
removed from a portion of a field for two 
seasons, the yield was decreased an average 
of 17 bushels per acre, but the yield where 
suckers were left on was 81 bushels per 
acre while it only averaged 64 bushels 
where they were removed. 


Aboriginal Pottery of Nebraska: EH. EH. 

BLACKMAN. 

The Nebraska aborigine made pottery 
very much as his Huropean brother did. 
He used it for burial vessels as the ancients 
of the old world used the first pottery made 
by them. He also used it as household 
utensils. He ornamented it as much as 
they did, and all the pottery of northern 


626 


tribes, both in this country and Europe, 
has a recognizable similarity, while the 
same is true of tribes of warmer countries. 
There is little similarity between the pot- 
tery of the Nebraska aborigine and the pot- 
tery of the Mexican aborigine. There is 
much similarity between the pottery of the 
Nebraska aborigine and the aborigines of 
England, Ireland and Scandinavia. The 
pottery which we know to be the oldest in 
Nebraska shows a greater degree of art 
than the specimens we know were made 
just prior to contact with the whites. 


Preliminary Work in Eaperimental Evo- 
lution: FrmpEric EH. CLEMENTS. 

The work done at the Alpine Laboratory 
at Minnehaha near Pikes Peak during the 
past six years concerns itself chiefly with 
measuring the physical factors of the many 
habitats, and the study of plant and vege- 
tation differences arising from them. In 
1905 a beginning was made in the matter 
of tracing the evolution of new forms. 


The problem was attacked simultaneously . 


from the three standpoints of variation, 
mutation and adaptation. Careful obser- 
vations were made upon variable and 
mutable species, and a number of plastic 
and stable species were moved from their 
original homes to new and widely different 
habitats. The seeds of a number of species 
which had already produced new forms by 
adaptation to two or more habitats were 
planted in the greenhouse in order to de- 
termine to what degree the new characters 
had become fixed. 


Species of Filaria found in Human Blood: 
H. B. Warp. (With lantern slides.) 
Cireulating in the human blood at times 

are found minute round worms which are 

denominated collectively microfilarie. They 
are embryonic forms, and though exceed- 
ingly uniform in general appearance, rep- 
resent at least ten or twelve species of 
filarie. Their structure is simple and only 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


imperfectly known in detail, while the gen- 
eral size constitutes the common means of 
distinction. Certain of these forms mani- 
fest a periodicity in their appearance in the 
peripheral circulation which causes them 
to be classed as nocturnal or diurnal. In 
some forms the greatly attenuated vitelline 
membrane persists as a delicate sheath sur- 
rounding the circulating embryo and offers 
another mark of distinction. It has been 
shown that some species pass the next stage 
of their life history in a mosquito, from 
which they are enabled to pass to a new 
host when the insect is biting. They reach’ 
maturity in the subdermal connective tis- 
sue, or in lymph glands, whence the 
myriads of embryos produced by the fe- 
male enter the blood to begin anew the life 
cycle. The life history of other forms is 
entirely conjectural. A synopsis of known 
forms was presented. 
F. D. HEAL, 
Secretary. 
Linconn, NEBRASKA. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

A Bibliography of Physical Training. By 
J. H. McCurpy, M.D. New York, G. E. 
Stechert & Co. Published by the Physical 
Directors’ Society of the Y. M. C. A. of 
North America. Springfield, Mass. 1905. 
8vo, pp. 869. Price $3.00. 

One of the greatest obstacles that workers 
and students in the field of physical education 
have encountered has been the lack of a bib- 
liography on the subject. The literature of 
physical training embraces such a wide range 
of topics that several individuals and com- 
mittees who attempted to compile it, very soon 
gave up the task. That Dr. McCurdy had the 
patience and perseverance to keep on with the 
work for nearly fourteen years is evidence of 
his ability and his devotion to the cause of 
physical training. 

The author had exceptional opportunities 
for doing the work thoroughly, for the library 
of the International Training School, with 
which Dr. McCurdy is connected, contains 


Apri 20, 1906.] 


one of the largest collections of physical- 
training literature, and the files of the Bib- 
liographica Medica, Concilium Bibliograph- 
icum, American Index Medicus, Surgeon 
General’s Index of the United States Gov- 
ernment, Poole’s Periodical Index, etc. Also 
complete files of the technical periodicals on 
physical training which are not as a rule 
classified in Poole’s Index. 

This volume contains a classification of 
physical-training literature (pp. 9-16) which 
is an amplification of No. 613.71 of Dewey’s 
‘Decimal Classification. This classification 
has already passed through two editions; it is 
the result of many years of practical use and 
is invaluable for library classification of phys- 
ical training literature. 

The index (pp. 17-22) serves as a guide to 
the foregoing classification and to the bibli- 
ography, which fills the last 3846 pages of the 
book. 

The bibliography includes some 4,000 titles 
arranged under eight main heads and numer- 
ous subheads as follows: 

I. General Works. (1) Philosophy, (2) 
compends, (3) ecyclopedias, (4) periodicals, 
(5) societies and conferences, (6) normal 
education, (7) systems. 

Il. The Subject of Training—Man. (1) 
Physical, (2) mental, (8) spiritual, (4) social. 

Il. The Exercises—Gymnastic. (1) Med- 
ical, (2) calisthenics, (8) defensive, (4) heavy 
~ apparatus, (5) indoor games, (6) developing 
apparatus. 

IV. The Hzxercises—Athletic. (1) Track 
athleties, (2) field athletics, (8) indoor ath- 
letics, (4) outdoor games, (5) outdoor recrea- 
tions, (6) sporting. 

V. The Exzercises—Aquatic. (1) Boat and 
eanoe building, (2) sailing or yachting, (8) 
rowing and paddling, (4) fishing, (5) ice 
sports, (6) snow sports. 

VI. The Organization. (1) Scope, ete., (2) 
local organization, (3) salaried officials, (4) 
methods. 

VII. The Place. (1) Gymnasium, (2) ath- 
letice field, (8) public playgrounds, (4) aquatic 
plant. 

VIII. History of Physical Training. () 
Biography, (2) schools, (8) Young Men’s 


SCIENCE. 


627 


Christian Associations, (4) other societies and 
clubs. 

The bibliography includes practically all the 
literature printed in English up to January 
1, 1905, as well as the titles of the most sig- 
nificant books, articles and pamphlets in Ger- 
man, French and other tongues. 

The titles of books and articles which are 
considered most important by the author and 
his co-workers are indicated by an asterisk. 

This book can hardly fail to receive imme- 
diate recognition from all workers in the 
field of physical training, and the more they 
use it, the more they will appreciate it. 

Gro. L. Meryuan. 


The Polariscope in the Chemical Laboratory, 
an Introduction to Polarimetry and Related 
Methods. By Grorce Witu1Am Rotre, A.M. 
New York, The Macmillan Co. 1905. 
This book differs from most books on polari- 

scopic analysis by laying stress on the use of 

the polariscope in other industries besides the 

sugar industry. The author’s experience as a 

technical chemist and his position as a 

teacher of polarimetric methods at the Massa- 

chusetts Institute of Technology qualify him 
to write understandingly on the subject he 
has chosen. 

The contents of the book embrace a brief 
discussion of the fundamental principles un- 
derlying polariscopic analysis, a description of 
polariscopic apparatus and laboratory manipu- 
lation, a condensed account of sugar-house 
and refinery methods as well as of the starch 
industry, and an outline of the application 
of polarimetry to scientific research and to 
chemical analysis of sundry substances. 

It appears to the reviewer that it would 
have been of decided advantage to the stu- 
dents of this book if the author had more 
strongly emphasized the methods of the Inter- 
national Commission, which methods are at 
the present time the standard methods of 
Europe and which no doubt will soon find 
general application in this country. 

Concerning the alleged influence of tem- 
perature on the specific rotation of sucrose it 
is stated (p. 44): “ Although these values for 
temperature correction seem well established 


628 


by careful investigation, they are disputed by 
some, and have not yet been applied in com- 
mercial testing.” 

Apparently the author is not familiar with 
the critical examination of the investigations 
above referred to, nor with the facts brought 
out in the recent trial of American sugar 
importers against the United States govern- 
ment. In that suit government officers in 
charge of the polarization of sugar imported 
into New York testified under oath that the 
application of the so-called corrections made 
to counteract the alleged influence of tem- 
perature on the specific rotation of sucrose, 
eaused the polariscopic test in 30 per cent. or 
more of the foreign sugars imported in New 
York, to run over 100 per cent.—the excess 
amounting to as much as 0.3 or 0.4 of one 
per cent. In other words, apparently, fully 
one third of all sugar imported into New York 
is not only chemically pure, but more than 
chemically pure! 

A defect noted in some parts of the book 
is the lack of logical arrangement of the 
topics discussed. There is no apparent rea- 
son why the notes applying to special instru- 
ments (pp. 68-86) should not have been in- 
corporated with or placed in immediate 
sequence to pages 15-88, on which the author 
discusses polariscopes. 

As the text stands, some thirty-seven pages 
of discussion on the accuracy of saccharimeter 
measurements and notes on apparatus and 
laboratory manipulations, intervene between 
the description of one type of half-shade 
saccharimeter—that of Peters, and that of 
another half-shade saccharimeter—that of 
Schmidt and Haensch. 

It is also questionable whether the joint 
treatment of technological processes—in 
sugar-houses, refineries and glucose factories 
—and of analytical methods used in the con- 
trol of those processes, is the most advan- 
tageous way of presenting the topics. 

The book is written in good style, the de- 
scriptions of methods and manipulations are 
concise, yet sufficiently explicit. The tables 
given are those usually found in books of this 
description and the bibliography appended 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 590. 


cites the more important works of reference. 
The make-up of the volume—paper, type and 
print—is entirely satisfactory. 

FE, G. WiEcHMANN. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

Tue first number of the Journal of Ab- 
normal Psychology, edited by Dr. Morton 
Prince, of Tufts College Medical School, and 
published by the Old Corner Bookstore, Bos- 
ton, contains the following articles: 

Dr. PIERRE JANET, Professor of Psychology, Col- 
lege of France: ‘The Pathogenesis of Some Im- 
pulsions.’ 

PRoFEssoR W. vy. BECHTEREW, St. Petersburg: 
‘What is Hypnosis?’ 

Dr. James J. Putnam: “ Recent Experiences in 
the Study and Treatment of Hysteria at the 
Massachusetts General Hospital, with Remarks on 
Freud’s Methods of Treatment by ‘ Pyscho- 
Analysis.’ ” 

Dr. Morton Prince: ‘The Psychology of Sud- 
den Religious Conversion.’ 

Dr. JoHN FRANKLIN CROWELL, secretary of 
the Section of Social and Economie Science, 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, has become a member of the editorial 
staff of The Wall Street Journal. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 
Art the sixth regular meeting of the so- 
ciety, which was held on Wednesday, March 
7, the following papers were presented: 
Thermal Springs of the Simplon Tunnel: 
B. L. JoHNson. 


Tidal Fluctuations of Certain Wells in Japan: 
F. G. Cuapp. , 
The seventh regular meeting was held 

March 21, the following paper being pre- 

sented : 

Occurrence of Water in Crystalline Rocks: 
M. L. Furr. 

The investigation, which formed a part of 
the work of the division of hydrology of the 
United States Geological Survey, was under- 
taken at the writer’s request by Mr. E. E. 
Ellis for the purpose of securing definite in- 
formation as to the probabilities of obtaining 
water supplies from granites and other crystal- 
line rocks. The work included a study of the 


Apri 20, 1966.] 


wells in such rocks in Connecticut, and an 
examination of the quarries showing joints 
and other openings affording passages for un- 
derground waters. The results show that the 
prospects for obtaining adequate water sup- 
plies are much better than has often been 
supposed, less than two per cent. of the wells 
failing to get water, while all but ten per cent. 
get enough for the purpose for which they 
were drilled. The yield varies considerably 
with the character of the rock, averaging 
thirteen gallons per minute in granite, schist 
and gneiss, and thirty gallons or more in 
granodiorite. The wells show little variation 
of yield, even in dry seasons. 

The water occurs wholly in joints, the most 
favorable points being at the intersection of 
two vertical systems, or of a horizontal with 
a vertical system. The average depth of the 
wells is a little over one hundred feet. In 
general the amount of water increases down to 
a depth of two hundred feet, beyond which it 
decreases. It is not advisable to sink wells 
to depths of more than two hundred and fifty 
feet. The yield of the wells is about the 
same on hills or plains and in valleys, but 
only about half as much water is obtained 
from wells on slopes. All of the water is 
under artesian pressure and a considerable 
number of the wells actually flow, at least 
when first drilled. 

The occurrence of the water has a very 
definite relation to the presence of drift, which 
acts as a feeder to the joints when it is porous 
and as a confining layer giving artesian pres- 
sure when impervious. M. L. Futter, 

Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NEW YORK SECTION. 

Tue sixth regular meeting of the section 
was held Friday, March 9, at 8:15 p.m., at the 
Chemists’ Club. 

The program of the evening was as follows: 
Specific Atomic Volumes of the Periodic Sys- 

tem: Cuas. S. PALMER. 

The periodic arrangement of the chemical 
elements is usually given in one of two 
‘forms: One in short and long series; the other 
_in a condensed grouping of all short series. 


SCIENCE. 


629 


After a popular illustration of the conception 
of the ‘atomic volume,’ Lothar Meyer’s well- 
known curve of atomic volumes was discussed. 
This is definite but very irregular, and with 
no special geometrical symmetry. By reduc- 
ing the atomic volumes to a common denomi- 
nation (as by referring them to the atomic 
volume of hydrogen as unity) for the ordi- 
nates; and by reducing the correlative atomic 
specific gravities to a similar common denomi- 
nation (by dividing each atomic weight by its 
respective absolute atomic volume) as abscissas 
—a new form of curve is obtained which 
clearly shows that each independent series be- 
ging with an alkali element and closes with a 
halogen. Hence the second form of the 
periodic system is in error, except as it is a 
convenient typographical condensation. Other 
illustrations of the advantages of the short- 
and-long series arrangement were given. 

The rest of the evening was devoted to a 
discussion of ‘ Legislation for Safeguarding 
the Sale of Narcotic Drugs,’ by Messrs. A. L. 
Manierre, Gilman Thompson, S. H. Adams 
and Wm. Jay Schieffelin. 

F. H. Poves, 
Secretary. 


THE ST. LOUIS CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


Art the meeting of the St. Louis Chemical 
Society, Monday, February 12, Mr. Carl Ham- 
buechen presented a paper on ‘ Electrolytic 
Tron.’ The paper referred to work done at 
the University of Wisconsin by Professor 
Burgess and the speaker. The chief points 
brought out were that iron can be produced 
electrolytically at a cost which is within rea- 
sonable limits. The electrolyte can be main- 
tained in good condition for months with little 
trouble and expense. A product has been 
obtained containing more than 99.9 per cent. 
iron. The only impurity is hydrogen, which 
is given off on heating the product. The 
immediate product is very hard and brittle. 
It resists oxidation at the ordinary tempera- 
ture to a remarkable degree. The fusing 
point of pure iron seems to be near that of 
platinum. One obvious use of the product 
would be the making of alloys of iron of ex- 
actly known composition, with a view to study- 


630 


ing their properties. The investigation is 
still in progress at the University of Wis- 
consin. So far a ton of the material has 
been produced. C. J. BorGMeryer, 
Corresponding Secretary. 


THE CLEMSON COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 

THE sixtieth regular meeting of the club 
was held on Friday evening, January 19. The 
following program was given: 

Dr. R. N. Brackett: ‘The Contact Process of 
Making Sulphurie Acid.’ 

Proressor F. T. Darean: 
Laboratory Apparatus.’ { 

Dr. L. A. Krery: ‘New Developments in the 
Prophylaxis and Treatment of Tuberculosis.’ 

Proressor 8. B. Earte: ‘The Internal Com- 
bustion Engine with Especial Reference to the 
Diesel Engine.’ 


‘Modifications in 


Frep H. H. CanHoun, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE ADIRONDACKS. 

To tHE Epiror or Sctnce: An article by 
Professor Kemp in the March number of the 
Popular Science Monthly with the above title 
treats a subject on which I have been desirous 
of getting fuller information for some years 
past, namely, the origin of the mountain and 
valley forms in the Adirondacks; but there 
is a certain phase of the subject which still, 
to my reading, remains in doubt, namely, the 
age of the faults by which the mountain sides 
—or valley sides—are determined. The ques- 
tion arises whether the faults may not be rela- 
tively ancient rather than ‘of no great geolog- 
ical antiquity,’ and whether the valley-side 
scarps which now indicate the course of the 
faults may not be, not ‘ obviously the result of 
faulting,’ but the result of differential erosion. 

It is well known that the scarps which follow 
fault lines are of two kinds. Of one kind are 
those scarps which are the direct result of 
faulting or displacement, modified more or 
less by later erosion on the scarp face. Such 
a scarp is found along the western base of the 
Wasatch Mountains in Utah; and I believe that 
a similar fault scarp marks the base of the 
Rocky Mountains a few miles south of Colo- 
rado Springs. In both these cases, the dis- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 590. 


placement seems to have been progressive and 
to have continued through so long a period of 


‘time that the upper part of the fault face has 


been much dissected and worn back by erosion; 
the true fault scarp is seen only along the moun- 
tain base, where the face of the most recent 
uplift is comparatively little changed. It is 
evident that, as time passes, such fault scarps 
will be more and more worn back, and that 
in time they will be topographically obliterated. 
Topographically obliterated faults are common 
in the Appalachians where the faulting is of 
remote date. 

Of another kind are those scarps which truly 
follow fault lines, yet which are directly the 
result of erosion rather than of faulting. For 
example, the Hurricane Ledge or escarpment 
in the Arizona plateaus north of the Colorado 
canyon. This scarp was originally described 
as wholly the direct effect of faulting; but 
later study has given good reason for believing 
that it is the effect of differential erosion; that 
the original effect of the displacement was ob- 
literated in a past cycle of erosion, and that 
in the present cycle the scarp has been brought 
to light again by the removal of the weaker 
strata on the west of the displacement, while 
the more resistant strata remain in strong re- 
lief on the eastern side. Similarly in the 
Triassic formation of Connecticut, numerous 
scarps in the trap ridges are here known to 
follow fault lines; yet the faults are demon- 
strably so old that their original topographic 
effects were completely obliterated in a past 
cycle of erosion, and the fault scarps as now 
seen result from the revival of erosion follow- 
ing a general uplift of the worn-down region 
and the consequent removal of the weaker 
rocks on one side of the fault line, leaving the 
resistant trap sheets on the other side in strong 
relief. (This statement does not apply to the 
western faces of the trap ridges, which are 
merely retreating escarpments entirely due to 
erosion; but to the oblique escarpments, where 
the trap ridges are cut off by the faults.) In 
the same region there are a few narrow graben- 
like troughs, enclosed by steep walls; they are 
not due to recent faulting, but to the removal 
by modern erosion of the zone of shattered 


Apri 20, 1906.] 


rock that follows a comparatively ancient 
fault. In all these cases, it is true enough that 
erosion has been guided by a fault; but it is 
certainly desirable to distinguish between 
scarps of that kind and scarps directly pro- 
duced by faulting. 

It is not easy to determine, on reading Pro- 
fessor Kemp’s article, whether the scarps that 
he describes are of one kind or of the other. 
Certain supposable conditions, not excluded by 
anything in his article, would allow an ancient 
date for the faulting, and would leave the 
freshness of the scarps to relatively modern 
erosion, especially to glacial erosion. It is of 
course possible that the full knowledge which 
Professor Kemp possesses of the rock struc- 
tures in the Adirondacks may enable him to 
exclude these supposable conditions. 

There is one feature of the Adirondacks 
which seems to me to favor the idea of a re- 
mote date for at least those faults by which 
the graben-like valleys are determined. This 
may be made clear by the following alternative 
considerations. If the graben-like valleys 
were the result of faulting of so modern a 
date that their scarps are still steep as a direct 
result of displacement, it is evident that the 
date of such faults must be of later date than 
the general erosion of the region. In this 
ease there should not be expected any partic- 
ular relation between the course of the older 
valleys and the course of the new graben. On 
the other hand, if the faults are of ancient 
date, the general valleys of the region might 
have been eroded along them, and might have 
gained a wide-open expression appropriate to 
their advanced age; while the graben-like val- 
leys might then be due to more modern erosion 
—especially to glacial erosion—along the zones 
of fault-shattered rock. Im this case there 
should be a close association between the direc- 
tion of the general valleys and the course of 
the graben. As far as I know the region from 
its maps the latter relation seems to prevail. 


W. M. Davis. 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


To THE Eprtor oF SciENcE: Professor Davis 
has kindly submitted his letter to me before 
publication and I gladly embrace the oppor- 


SCIENCE. 


631 


tunity to add a word regarding the points 
raised. I assume that the relief is admitted 
to be primarily due to faulting and that the 
question of faults as against joints or other 
influences I need not take up. While faults 
in the central region of crystalline rocks are 
less easy to demonstrate than in the outer and 
contrasted sediments, yet in the areas of the 
latter they are frequent and they can be fol- 
lowed in instances into the mountains them- 
selves. 

Generally speaking, the region of the Colo- 
rado River can not with justice be compared 
with the Adirondacks, because in the former 
we have canyons alone; whereas in the Adiron- 
dacks we have both canyons and broad, open 
valleys of equal depth and believed with rea- 
son to be older topographic forms. Rivers, 
even if following faults, could under the cir- 
cumstances scarcely yield canyons, since they 
would be tapped off by the older valleys long 
before they could accomplish much; but two 
opposing faults with a dropped strip or a 
“Grabensenkung’ could. If we had one scarp 
produced because a stream worked down a dip, 
on a hard stratum and against a soft one, 
erosion without faulting could be urged, but, 
in these old erystallines, we usually have no 
contrasts in hardness, which would lead to 
sapping, and in the valleys we very often have 
precipitous fronts on each side. 

The production of the scarps by other proc- 
esses than faulting chiefly centers around the 
work of the ice sheet. The question essen- 
tially boils down, as soon as we know the coun- 
try, to the decision whether or not the ice 
alone was able to pluck away the fronts of 
single escarpments and to carry off the inter- 
vening rock between two so as to leave the 
“ Grabensenkung.’ ; 

Evidences of an old plateau or peneplain 
are found in certain flat-topped mountains. 
Dr. I. H. Ogilvie has remarked a striking 
one on Treadway Mountain in the Para- 
dox Lake quadrangle (Bulletin New York 
State Museum, No. 96, p. 468) and an- 
other appears in Coot Hill in the north- 
eastern portion of the town of Crown Point, 
Ticonderoga quadrangle. We have imagined 
these and others like them to be remnants of 


632 


the Cretaceous peneplain—Coot Hill, for ex- 
ample, itself consisting of hard granite-gneiss, 
fronts Lake Champlain with an almost pre- 
cipitous escarpment 1,200 or 1,400 feet above 
the flat Ordovician, Beekmantown limestone, 
which abuts sharply against its base. There 
is surely a great fault between the two and 
the question arises is the relief due in large 
part to a fault-scarp not yet obliterated or 
did the ice-sheet take away 1,200—-1,400 feet of 
Chazy, Trenton and Utica strata which must 
otherwise have stretched eastward from it? 
Or again, did some pre-glacial river aid in 
the work? My own disposition is to place 
confidence in faulting of date since the Cre- 
taceous and not yet obliterated. 

I have never been able to establish post- 
glacial faulting either by dislocated drift or 
broken glacial striz, although both possibilities 
have been kept in mind. 

As Professor Davis states, the graben-like 
valleys do run usually with the general struc- 
tural trend, but there are occasional ones 
which strike across this direction. The 
valley of the Cascade lakes, shown in Fig. 7 
of my paper, is such an one (Popular Science 
Monthly, March, 1906). The sides are quite 
steep and lofty and the lakes are almost 
at the crest of a divide. A similar cross- 
canyon lies just north. The little cross-valleys 
mentioned on p. 201 have similar relations. 

On p. 203, the fifth line from the bottom, 
“Needles’ should read ‘ Noses.’ The old New 
York name for this uplift is the ‘ Noses.’ 

J. FE. Kemp. 


CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


VARIATION VERSUS MUTATION. 

THE suggestion of weakness in the mutation 
theory of evolution given by Dr. Merriam in 
a recent number of this journal, from evi- 
dence afforded by living faunas as affected 
by geographic environment, contrasts greatly 
with apparent evidence in favor of the muta- 
tion theory advanced by Professor White in 
the preceding volume. Both are able exposi- 
tions, but from very different standpoints, the 
one from living evidence, the other from such 
information and rational inferences as we 
have been able to derive from paleontology. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 590. 


The facts in both instances are well known, 
for no biologist could for a moment deny that 
geographic isolation plays an important part 
in modifying and frequently originating spe- 
cies, though to a wonderfully variable extent, 
some forms remaining constant throughout 
very extended ranges, while others are much 
more plastic, giving rise to species or sub- 
species in almost every large mountain valley. 
The change wrought in many winged Cole- 
optera when established on oceanic islands is 
frequently alluded to, the wings becoming 
aborted and other modifications supervening 
which eventually give rise to what must be 
considered distinct species. 

At the same time we must admit that spe- 
cies are succeeded by other species in succes- 
sive strata of a geological formation, with 
such abruptness and frequently with such 
marked divergencies, as to preclude the idea 
that the modifications could be brought about 
by simple changes of climate. It would ap- 
pear that something else has affected the 
stability of species to give rise to these ob- 
served facts, and, as the development of spe- 
cies by mutation has proved to be at least 
possible, this seems at present to be the most 
plausible hypothesis in many instances. A 
so-called sport is much more difficult to com- 
prehend than any modification brought about 
by visible alteration of environment, and is 
probably caused by some let-up in the multi- 
tude of environmental conditions that hedge 
about a species in nature and cause it to 
maintain its constancy. There is no reason 
to assume that if this sudden change in the 
surrounding conditions should be maintained 
the sport might become a firmly established 
species, and this mode of evolution seems, 
from paleontological evidence, to have become 
much more universal at certain epochs of the 
earth’s history than at others. 

In other words, there is probably much 
truth in both the hypotheses that have been 
advanced to account for evolution, and it 
seems to me that Dr. Merriam condemns the 
mutation theory much too sweepingly—there 
may be a good deal in it. 


Tuos. L. Casey. 
St. Louis, Mo. 


Apri 20, 1906.] 


_ SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


EPITHELIAL DEGENERATION, REGENERATION AND 
SECRETION IN THE MID-INTESTINE OF 
COLLEMBOLA. 


In Collembola, a degeneration of the inner 
half of the epithelial wall of the mid-intestine 
oceurs in connection with each ecdysis. The 
cells of the mid-intestine become confluent and 
important changes of alveolation ensue; nearly 
half the nuclei migrate toward the intima, 
while the rest of the nuclei remain near the 
basement membrane; a wall now forms be- 
tween the two sets of nuclei, dividing the 
epithelium into two concentric layers. The 
inner of these two layers degenerates; the 
cytoplasmic reticulum disintegrates; the 
nuclear membranes disappear and the chro- 
matin granules become scattered, but remain 
intact; much of the fluid substance is resorbed 
into the remaining layer of cells. The dis- 
organized epithelium, surrounded by a peri- 
trophic membrane, is expelled through the 
rectum shortly after the external moult. 

The process is an excretory one. By this 
means, the rapidly accumulating concretions 
of sodie urate are removed from the cells of 
the mid-intestine, as are also, but incidentally, 
certain unicellular parasites (Gregarinide). 

The nuclei lost by degeneration are replaced 
by the mitotic division of the remaining nuclei 
—this occurring before the inner portion of 
the epithelium is cast off. 

‘The peritrophic membrane, which always 
envelopes a food-mass, is formed by the split- 
ting of the intima, and is, therefore, a secre- 
tion from the epithelium of the mid-intestine. 
The wall that divides the originally single 
layer of cells into two layers, splits into two 
membranes, one of which surrounds the degen- 
erating epithelium as a peritrophic mem- 
brane, while the other forms the new intima 
of the-mid-intestine. 

The formation of new cells takes place 
throughout the epithelium by mitosis; this 
regeneration does not occur from local centers, 
or ‘crypts,’ as it does in other insects; further- 
more, no amitotic divisions are found at any 
time. : whe HGS Fics 

Secretion is performed (1) by the general 


SCIENCE. 


633 


epithelium of the mid-intestine; (2) by special 
clear cells in the middle region of the mid- 
intestine; (3) by specialized cells in the pos- 
terior region; these last give off proliferations 
into the lumen, which become constricted off, 
as free, rounded, cytoplasmic vesicles, which 
break down in the alimentary canal and mingle 
their contents with the food (much as in other 
insects). 

The novel réle of the mid-intestine as an 
organ of excretion is correlated with the ab- 
sence of Malpighian tubes in Collembola. 

: Justus W. Fousom, 
Miriam U. WELLES. 


ENTOMOLOGICAL LABORATORY, 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 


EARTHQUAKES RECORDED AT CHELTENHAM MAG- 
NETIC OBSERVATORY JANUARY 24-31, 1906.1 


1. January 24: 


North-South East-West 
Component. Component. 
Beginning 2h.04m.10s. 2h. 04m. 28s. 
Beginning principal portion 2 04 10 2 04 28 
End principal portion 2 08 18 Bo 03 9 Bi 
End 2 88 656 2 29 48 
Maximum amplitude 2.0 mm. at 1.8 mm. at 
2h. 06m. 323s. 2h. 06 m. 08 3. 
Average period of waves: 
Maximum 11.08, 10.8 3, 
End 7.2 8.6 
2. January 24: 
Beginning 2h.42m.12s. 2h. 42m. 38s. 
Beginning principal portion 2 43 20 2 43 03 
End principal portion 2 46 12 2 45 34 
End 2 62 . 50 Zu) 51539) 
Maximum amplitude 1.5 mm. at 2.2 mm. at 
5 2h.44m.14s, 2h, 44m. 483. 
Average period of waves: 
Maximum 10.5 g. 12.3 8. 
End 7.2 8.6 


3. January 24: 


Beginning 16 h. 58 m. 508. 16 h. 58 m. 208. 
Beginning principal portion 16 59 20 16 59 20 
End principal portion 17° (02 ft) ale? 0B 30 
End 17- 10 50 17 08 30 


0.6 mm. at 
17 bh. 01 m. 34. 17 h. 00 m. 25s. 


Maximum amplitude 


Average period of wares: 


Maximum 11.6 8, 9.2 3. 
Beg. prin. portion 9.1 — 
End prin. portion 8.8 Hell 


1Communicated by the superintendent of the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, Mr. 0. H. Tittmann. 
The observatory is situated at Cheltenham, Md., 
in latitude 38° 44’.0 N. and longitude 76° 50’.5 
west of Greenwich. The times~ recorded are 


634 


4. January 25: 


Beginning 15 h. 47 m. 00s, 15h. 46 m. 45s. 
Beginning principal portion 15 47 15 15 49 14 
End principal portion 15 «48 15 16 50 45 
End 1b) 4) 00 1b 68) 24 


1.0 mm. at 1.5 mm. at 
15 h. 47 m. 38s. 15 h. 49 m. 448. 
Average period of waves: 


Maximum amplitude 


Beginning 3.2 8 3.3 8. 

Beg. prin. portion 3.4 8.9 

Maximum 3.2 8.9 

5. January 27: 
Beginning 5h.19m.00s. 5h. 19m.1738. 
Beginning principal portion 5 21 58 by Pal 52 
End principal portion ya 7) 08 sy P48) 02 
End 5 43 00 By Bile 2? 
Maximum amplitude 1.4mm. at 2.2 mm. at 
5h. 26m.58s. 5h. 27m. 02s. 

Average period of waves: 

Beginning 25,13. 26.0 3. 

Principal portion 19.0 16.2 

Maximum 16.8 17.9 

End 13.6 16.0 


6. January 31: 


Beginning 10h. 43m. 44s. 10h. 43m. 33s. 
Beginning principal portion 10 50 23 10 49 43 
End principal portion ll 16 Psy oe | 06 
End 144 #08 00 14 18 £00 
Maximum amplitude ? 77 mm. at 66 mm. at 
11h. 02m. 43s. 11 h.07m.46s, 

Average period of waves: 

Beginning 3.65 2.8 S. 

Principal portion 25.2 18.0 

End 18.5 18.0 


Multiplying ratio of both pointers, 10. 
Period of north-south component pendulum 
about 25 seconds, of east-west component pen- 
dulum about 20 seconds. 
W. F. Watts, 


Observer in charge. 


ANALYSIS OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SILT. 


On October 13, 1905, there appeared in 
Science a complete analysis of the water of 
the Mississippi River, and toward the close 
of it the author made the statement that the 
silt from the water sample had been saved and 
would be subjected to a plant-food analysis 
at a later date. Such an analysis has now 


seventy-fifth meridian mean civil time, counting 
the hours continuously from midnight to mid- 
night. 

*The maximum amplitudes of this earthquake 
were too large to be recorded. The pendulums 
struck the brushes on both sides. The ampli- 
tudes given were measured on the trace and are 
probably much too small. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


been completed and the results are submitted 
in this article. The methods followed were 
the ones officially adopted by the Association 
of Agricultural Chemists, and the results are 
expressed in percentages of the moisture-free 
sample. It is to be regretted that the carbonic 
acid could not be determined, but the lack of 
material made it impossible: 


Insoluble matter ................ 67.71 
Sol 7S Os Pee Se ee reel 22, 
CO Goldds pASeoduoauaodaacucTasS 1.26 
INO Panes: ics) RL AB ovatain eyp.clg.6.0.6 0.13 
CaO ees seattle Stee ae eeegepetehaseeeter 1.83 
Wel O inert Socio Omend Gos Oooo Ge 1.64 
Mn Oyster votre eie notes sereepae 0.18 
Fe,0;A1,0, (mostly Al)........... 17.90 
LAO Nooo oo dae ou ae BOB ODO OO a0 0 OO 0.25 
SOP Masse emeeieta con dee tke: 0.28 
Water and organic matter........ 7.00 
Total nitrogen .................. 0.15 


Some facts in connection with this analysis 
are of peculiar interest. Im the first place the 
per cent. of soluble matter is large and the 
greater part of it is Al. This gives some 
insight into the origin of the silt. Another 
noteworthy feature is the large amount of 
potash and its ratio to the soda. While in 
eastern soils it is usual for the potash to be in 
excess of the soda, the proportion seems larger 
than customary. In western soils the soda is 
generally in excess of the potash, and this 
would indicate that the silt analyzed originally 
came from a semi-arid or humid region. How- 
ever, considering the analysis as a whole, there 
would be no question about pronouncing this 
silt to be an excellent soil. All this plant 
food is being removed from the land and 
carried either to the sea or to the mouth of 
the river. For the sake of argument let us 
assume that the above analysis represents the 
average composition of the silt carried by the 
Mississippi during the entire year. This is 
doubtless not quite true, but will serve as a 
basis for some calculations. One estimate of 
the total ‘amount of silt carried by the Missis- 
sippi during a year places the figures at 443,- 
750,000 tons. Assuming this to be true, the 
following table gives in tons the amount of 
various substances removed in this silt dur- 
ing the year: ; 


AFRIL 20, 1906.] 


IE ORUNHON akhen ome Goon aero 79,431,250 
IMGT Oe ato as on eaten Sie 798,750 
(CRYO) FAG iam eed cle et ene erre eae 8,120,625 
IMO iin nctanetel am RMeec ot ska a tel ees 7,277,500 
INE OM ialeraicralt cia ees ssn ai caer 576,875 
GOS Sa erate ey Ceci meee 5,591,250 
LEA asa ain a eicr enh ae aceies Aeon eae 1,109,375 
Oswarrcraster ant ale sRretade auevato! siete se 1,142,500 
RO UAIEING ESA Se cteyefeeteiste were. o 665,625 


Water and organic matter... 31,062,500 


For most of these substances it is impossible 
to assign any definite commercial value, but 
for four of them it is possible to compute the 
actual cost of restoring them to the soil in 
the form of fertilizer. In the following table 
such calculation has been made. It has been 
assumed that the potash would be bought in 
the form of K,SO,, the phosphoric acid as 
superphosphate and the N as NaNO, The 
figures are of course not absolute, but they 
convey a good idea of the loss which the land 
has sustained. 

Value of plant food removed in silt by the 
Mississippi River during one year: 


(SEXO): cialis neue aia ar Sea O a $ 40,603,125 
TO). oI area! 559,125,000 
TEA OY ie yA tame neat a Gay 110,937,500 
TNT oc oR Wie coe RE 222,984,375 


These figures are stupendous and worthy of 
eareful consideration, and when we consider 
that this same process of denudation of the 
land is being carried on by all the streams of 
the country, to a greater or less extent, we 
gather some faint idea of the loss to agri- 
cultural interest from this cause. A sys- 
tematic study of this question avyould be of 
great value, and should it ever be made, it is 
believed that it will lead in some localities at 
least to the employment of measures to check, 
in some degree, this vast pecuniary loss to 
the country. 

C. H. Stone. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 

Tur Royal Society, like every other asso- 
ciation of human beings, has from time to 
time to provide itself with a new chief magis- 
trate. More fortunate than the larger society 


SCIENCE. 


635 


of which we are all members it does this at 
fixed periods and with dispassionate gravity 
and decorum. Yesterday witnessed one of 
these recurrent changes, when, at the anni- 
versary meeting, Sir William Huggins sur- 
rendered the presidency of the society into 
the capable hands of Lord Rayleigh. The 
astronomer, whose labors haye done so much 
to give English astronomical science the dis- 
tinguished place it occupies in the astronom- 
ical opinion of the world, is succeeded by a 
physicist who, by the breadth and variety of 
his research, the profundity of his knowledge, 
and the skill with which he has carried on the 
interrogation of nature, will rank among the 
greatest of those who have promoted that in- 
crease of natural knowledge which is the 
fundamental object of the Royal Society. It 
is worth noting—as Sir Henry Roscoe noted 
last night—that both men belong to a class of 
scientific investigators which, if not an ex- 
celusively English product, has certainly found 
more numerous representatives in this country 
than in any other. That is the class of men 
who live for science, not by science—men 
whose means render them independent of 
exertion, whose position offers many tempta- 
tions to inaction, and whose abilities, if 
turned to remunerative pursuits, would ensure 
rich rewards of the kind that satisfies vulgar 
ambition. To men of this class—men who, 
according to one definition of amateurs, would 
have to be called amateurs, but who lift 
the word high above all vulgar connotation 
and restore its etymological significance— 
English science owes a debt that is simply 
incaleulable. In that class, already suffi- 
ciently illustrious, we must include men like 
Michael Faraday, denied by fortune the power 
to give of their wealth to the cause of science, 
but nobly content to live in the utmost sim- 
plicity upon a pittance less than the wages of 
a skilled artisan, while working out discoveries 
that have changed the face of the world. It 
would be an evil day for England were the 
succession of gifted enthusiasts to come to an 
end, not only because their work is of a higher 
and more vivifying kind than that of ordinary 
men, but also because we are, and apparently 
are likely for some time to remain, very far 


636 SCIENCE. 


behind in the organization of professional 
science. As Sir William Huggins pointed 
out in his annual address, we are also far 
behind in the general diffusion of elementary 
scientific ideas. 

The catholicity of the Royal Society is dis- 
played by the fact mentioned by Lord Ray- 
leigh, that all the medals which can be given 
to foreigners have this year been awarded to 
men of science in other countries. Assuming, 
as we must, that this has not happened 
through any desire to favor foreigners unduly, 


the pleasure derived from contemplating the - 


impartiality of the Royal Society must be 
tempered by the inevitable reflection that we 
ean hardly be keeping pace at home with what 
is done abroad. Peculiar interest attaches 
in the circumstances of the moment to the 
presence among us of Professor Mendeléeff, 
whose brief leave of absence from official 
duties covers, we believe, no more than the 
time required to receive in person the Copley 
Medal awarded to him by the Royal Society. 
Though his own distinction as a chemist and 
as a man besides of wide and varied practical 
ability is a sufficient reason for the award, he 
modestly and rightly treated it as being also 
a testimony of sympathy with his country in 
her present trials. Official good-will is prop- 
erly expressed through the Russian ambas- 
sador, who sat at the side of the president, 
but the sympathy of intellectual England with 
intellectual Russia finds weleome expression 
in the honor decreed to Professor Mendeléeff. 
The dichotomy is sincerely regretted by the 
people of this country, who have no other 
desire with regard to Russia than that she 
may speedily find.a way to reconcile the best 
thought of her educated people with the spirit 


of her administration and the form of her 


institutions.—The London Times. 


THE MUSHUM ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA. 


In response to the invitation extended 
through the columns of Scrence and by cireu- 
lar to those who might be supposed to be 
interested in the formation of a Museum Asso- 
ciation, analogous to that which exists in 
Great Britain and Ireland, numerous replies 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


have been received, not only from all parts of 


the United States and Canada, but also from 
various South American countries, and the 
West Indian Islands. While it is not possible 
for some who reside at great distances from 
the city of New York to be present on May 
15, all who have written to the undersigned 
have expressed their sympathy with the move- 
ment, and their desire to be recorded as 
participating in the organization of the asso- 
ciation. How many delegates from the vari- 
ous museums of science and art will be present 
at the gathering in New York on May 15, it 
is impossible at this writing to state exactly, 
but that a large number of the museums of 
the country, both small and great, will be 
represented is certain. Many of those who 
intend to be present at the meeting have sig- 
nified their intention to present papers upon 
different phases of the activity of museums. 

It appears that the coming gathering will 
be one of interest, and the invitation to all 
those who are concerned in the work of mu- 
seums to participate in it is renewed. 

W. J. Houwanp, 


Director Carnegie Museum. 
PiIrTsBuRG, PaA., 
April 14, 1906. 


THE COLD SPRING BIOLOGICAL 
LABORATORY. 
THE seventeenth session of the Biological 
Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts 
and Sciences, located at Cold Spring Harbor, 


. Long Island, will be held, beginning July 5 


and will continue for six weeks. Investi- 
gators may, however, be accommodated for a 
much longer period. The courses offered will 
include one in Field Zoology by Dr. C. B. 
Davenport, of the Station for Experimental 
Evolution, Carnegie Institution, and Mr. H. 
E. Walter, of Harvard University; Bird 


_ Study, by Mrs. Walter; Comparative Anat- 


omy, by Dr. H. S. Pratt, of Haverford Col- 
lege; Invertebrate and General Embryology, 
by Professor H. E. Crampton, of Columbia 
University, and Professor W. J. Moenkhaus, 
of Indiana University; Animal Bionomics 
and Evolution, by Dr. Davenport; Crypto- 
gamic Botany, by Professor D. S. Johnson, 


a et 


Aprit 20, 1906.] 


of Johns Hopkins University, and Mr. H. H. 
York, of Columbia University; Ecological 
Botany, by Dr. EH. N. Transeau, of Alma 
College, and Microscopic Methods, by Mrs. 
Davenport. 

Among the improvements at the laboratory 
is a new fire-proof dormitory and dining hall, 
which is promised by the opening of the ses- 
sion. This building is a gift to the labora- 
tory by Mrs. EK. G. Blackford as a memorial 
to Mr. Blackford, the first president of the 
board of managers of the laboratory. 

The laboratory fee, including all privileges, 
is $30. Board and room costs from $6 a week 
up. The investigations carried on at the 
laboratory deal principally with an analytical 
study of the bionomics of plants and animals 
of the harbor and surrounding country. 

Copies of the announcement may be ob- 
tained on application to the director, Dr. C. 
B. Davenport, Station for Experimental 
Eyolution, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, 
NES 

Mrs. E. G. Blackford has given to the Bio- 
logical Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute 
of Arts and Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor, 
Long Island, a building in memory of her 
husband, who was the prime mover in the 
establishment of the scientific community at 
that place, which includes the Station for 
Experimental Evolution, Carnegie Institu- 
tion; The Biological Laboratory of the Brook- 
lyn Institute, and the New York State Fish 
Hatchery. Mr. Blackford was the first presi- 
dent of the board of managers of the biolog- 
ical laboratory, from 1888 until his death in 
December, 1904. The building, which will 
cost $10,000, will be furnished by Mr. Black- 
ford’s daughters. The building will be con- 
structed of reenforced concrete. The main 
floor contains an assembly room, 32 x29 feet; 
a dining room, 32x49 feet, and a kitchen 
and pantry, 20x36 feet. The dining room 
and the adjoining veranda, 18x28 feet, com- 
mand a fine view of the harbor. The second 
and third floors will be devoted to dormitory 
purposes. 


SCIENCE. 


637 


TESTIMONIAL TO DR. J. BRIQUET. 


In view of the great services rendered by 
Dr. J. Briquet during the International Bo- 
tanical Congress of Vienna in questions of 
nomenclature, a number of members of the 
congress decided to organize an international 
demonstration in his honor, and a committee 
consisting of the following members was 
formed: Messrs. N. L. Britton, T. Durand, A. 
Engler, Ch. Flahault, J. W. ©. Goethart, H. 
Harms, H. Hua, CO. F. O. Nordstedt, E. Perrot, 
D. Prain, ©. Schréter, O. Stapf, W. Trelease, 
H. M. Ward, E. Warming, R. v. Wettstein and 
J. N. Wille. 

A circular letter issued by the foregoing 
body resulted in the subscription of a sum 
amounting to 2,615 kronen, from the follow- 
ing sources: 


Kronen 
Belgium (by T. Durand).................. 94 
British Hast Indies (by D. Prain).......... 54 
Denmark (by E. Warming)............... 102 
Germany (by A. Engler and H. Harms).... 372 
France (by Ch. Flahault and H. Hua)...... 534 
Great Britain (by O. Stapf)............... 203 
Italy (O. Mattirolo)................-....-: 10 
Holland (by J. W. C. Goethart)............ 60 
Norway (by J. N. Wille).................. 40 
Austria and Hungary (by R. vy. Wettstein).. 397 
Russia (by A. de Jaczewski).............. 63 
Sweden (by C. F. O. Nordstedt)............ 41 


Switzerland (by C. Schréter and EH. Burnat). 242 
United States of America (by N. L. Britton 


andes Wearebrel ease))riaerers terete eile ener ection. 
Total 


The funds thus obtained were devoted to 
the purchase of a gold watch with congratu- 
latory inscription in addition to a cheque for 
9,000 frances for the furtherance of Dr. 
Briquet’s scientific work and an illuminated 
address, as a grateful recognition of his labors 
on behalf of botanists. 

The presentation afforded the occasion for a 
friendly gathering in Geneva on January 13, 
1906, arranged by MM. E. Burnat and P. 
Chenevard; Mr. C. Schréter made the pre- 
sentation in the name of the committee. 


JAMES MILLS PEIRCE. 


Tue Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Har- 
vard University has adopted the following 


638 


minutes on the life and services of the late 
Professor Peirce: 


“The Faculty of Arts and Sciences desire 


to put on record their sense of the great loss 
which they have sustained in the death of 
Professor James Mills Peirce. 

“Born in Cambridge within sound of the 
College bell, a member of the faculty of Har- 
vard College at twenty, serving for nearly fifty 
years, not as teacher merely, but successively 
as secretary of the academic council, as dean 
—and almost as father—of the graduate 
school, and as dean of the faculty of arts and 
sciences, he spent the whole of a long life in 
and for the university. 

“He was an admirable teacher, steeped in 
his subject, not buried in it, and always in 
close sympathy with his students, to whom he 
was ever a generous and inspiring friend. 
Broad-minded and many sided, his scholarship 
was of that wide, human kind which unites 
learning with recognition of every accomplish- 
ment of grace of life, with interest in every 
intellectual problem, and with good will to 
every earnest man. All his work was char- 
acterized by thoroughness and finish, and by 
a kind of fervid loyalty. He had a high and 
large conception of academic freedom, and, in 
age as in youth, he looked forward and not 
back. Of a peculiarly lovable nature, courte- 
ous and kindly, he was known to all who met 
him for his friendly greeting, his earnest 
speech, at once measured and impetuous, and 
his scorn of everything narrow, or crooked, or 
mean.” 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Nortick has been received that Professor 
Theodore W. Richards has been designated 
by the German government as Harvard visit- 
ing professor at the University of Berlin for 
the academic year 1906-7. Professor Rich- 
ard’s term of service will probably fall in the 
second semester. 


Dr. THomas A. Jacaar, Jr., professor of 
geology at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology and assistant professor at Har- 
vard University, sailed for Europe on April 
12 to visit the scene of the present eruption 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 590. 


of Vesuvius. His special object is to study 
voleanie phenomena along certain lines of 
observation which he followed at Mt. Pelée in 
1902, and to make a collection of rocks, vyol- 
canie deposits and photographs. Professor 
Jaggar has undertaken this expedition at the 
request of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, and has 
been granted six weeks’ leave of absence for 
the purpose. 


Dr. Wittiam H. Wetcu, professor of pathol- 
ogy at the Johns Hopkins University, has been 
elected an honorary member of the Gesell- 
schaft der Aertze of Vienna. 


Present WitiiaM F. Stocum, of Colorado 
College, has been elected a member of the 
board of the Carnegie Foundation for the 
Advancement of Teaching in succession to the 
late President Harper. 


Tue title of emeritus professor of zoology 
has been conferred by the University of Lon- 
don on Professor E. Ray Lankester, director 
of the British Museum of Natural History. 


Tuer Paris Geographical Society has awarded 
a gold medal to Major C. H. D. Ryder for his 
geographical work in connection with the 
Tibet Mission. 


We learn from The Harvard University 
Gazette that the Société Asiatique of Paris 
recently elected Professor Charles Rockwell 
Lanman, of Harvard, an honorary member. 
The society was founded in 1821, and its 
honorary list numbers twenty-nine. At the 
same meeting, the like distinction was con- 
ferred upon the assyriologists, Delitzsch of 
Berlin and Pinches of the British Museum, 
Rhys Davids, the historian of Buddhism, the 
Sanskritist Pischel of Berlin, and the well- 
known Bible critic, Wellhausen. The Royal 
Society of Sciences of Géttingen, Prussia, 
founded 1751, has also elected Professor Lan- 
man to membership. Four other Americans 
now share the same honor: Mr. Alexander 
Agassiz and Professor Gross, of Harvard, Pro- 
fessor Simon Newcomb, of Washington, and 
Professor Penfield, of Yale. 


Proressor RapHaEL Metpoua, F.R.S., pro- 
fessor of chemistry at Finsbury Technical 
College, has been made an Officier de l’Instruc- 


Aprit 20, 1906.] 


tion Publique of France by the French Min- 
ister of Public Instruction for services ren- 
dered in connection with the foundation of 
the Alliance Franco-Britannique, of which 
organization he is the honorary secretary. 

ANNOUNCEMENT is made in the Harvard 
University Gazette that Professor Richards 
has recently received an additional grant of 
$2,500 from the Carnegie Institution at Wash- 
ington, and Assistant Professor Baxter one 
of $1,000. i 

THe Academy of Sciences in Munich has 
made a grant of 500 Marks to Professor Oscar 
Schultze, of Wiirzburg, for an investigation 
of the minute anatomy of the electrical organs 
of fishes, and a grant of 2,500 Marks to Dr. 
Rosz, curator of the Botanical Museum at 
Munich, for zoological and botanical studies 
in Central America. 

Av the British Meteorological Office Mr. R. 
G. K. Lempfert, M.A., has been appointed 
superintendent of the statistical branch; 
Mr. Ernest Gold, B.A. (Cambridge), third 
wrangler, 1903, and natural sciences tripos, 
1904, has been selected for appointment as 
superintendent of the instruments branch. 

Dr. ANpDING, professor in the University of 
Munich, has been appointed director of the 
observatory at Gothe. 

Dr. Pavut Gutunicr, of Bothkamp, has been 
appointed astronomer in the Royal Observa- 
tory at Berlin. 

It is announced that Professor von Reck- 
linghausen, who has been head of the Patho- 
logical Institute of the University of Stras- 
burg since it was constituted a German uni- 
versity, will retire at the end of the current 
semester. Professor von Recklinghausen is 
in his seventy-third year. 

Mr. M. L. Future, of the Division of Hy- 
drology of the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, gave a course of lectures at the University 
of Chicago during the week beginning April 
2, on the hydrographic and hydrologic work of 
the survey, including stream measurements, 
flood studies, studies of underground waters, 
investigations relating to the quality and uses 
of water, and the engineering work of the 
Reclamation Service. 


SCIENCE. 


639 


THE fourteenth ‘James Forest’ lecture of 
the British Institution of Civil Engineers will 
be delivered by Mr. R. A. Hadfield on May 2, 
the subject being ‘Unsolved Problems in 
Metallurgy.’ 


A commMirTEE has been formed to raise a 
memorial to the late Professor yon der Goltz, 
formerly director of the Bonn-Poppelsdorf 
Academy. A marble bust will be erected in 
the academy and scholarships will be es- 
tablished.’ 


We learn from The Auk that Dr. Paul 
Leverkiihn, a corresponding fellow of the 
American Ornithologists’ Union, died suddenly 
of pneumonia at Sophia, Bulgaria, on De- 
cember 5, 1905, in the thirty-ninth year of his 
age. He was a private secretary to the Prince 
of Bulgaria, and director of his scientific in- 
stitutions and library. He was the author of 
a large number of ornithological papers, many 
of them bibliographical and _ biographical. 
Among the latter may be mentioned his biog- 
raphy of the three Naumanns in the first 
volume of the new edition of Naumann’s 
“Vogel Deutschlands,’ later issued separately. 


THE death is announced of Dr. H. Lorber, 
associate professor of physics in the University 
of Bonn. 


TuE annual meeting of the American Social 
Science Association will be held in New York 
City on May 2-4. 


At a meeting held at Chicago, on March 
31, an organization was effected of the State 
Geologists of the Mississippi Valley. Messrs. 
Lane, of Ohio; Norwood, of Kentucky; 
Blatchley, of Indiana; Buckley, of Missouri; 
Haworth, of Kansas; Bain, of Illinois, and 
Assistant State Geologist Bownocker, of Ohio, 
were present. W. S. Blatchley was made 
chairman and H. F. Bain secretary. It is 
proposed to arrange for field conferences from 
time to time and for the frequent interchange 
of reports and notes of progress among the 
members of the association. It is expected 
that through friendly criticism and advice the 
work of the various surveys may be unified 
and improved. 


640 


Tur third annual meeting of the Botanical 
Symposium will be held from July 2 to 9, 
at Mountain Lodge, Little Moose Lake, Old 
Forge, N. Y. Through the courtesy of the 
members of the Adirondack League Club, the 
privilege of occupying the Club House for one 
week is extended to the members of the con- 
ference. Tickets should be bought to Fulton 
Chain Station on the Adirondack Division of 
the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Single fare from 
New York City $6.46. Board $2.50 to $3.00! 
a day. Stages will meet the party at Fulton 
Chain Station. Botanists are requested to 
notify Mr. Joseph Crawford, secretary, 2824 
Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., if they 
intend to attend the symposium. 

Iy an account of the recent jubilee of the 
Academy of Science at St. Louis, it was 
stated that this academy was the oldest body 
of its kind west of the Alleghenies. <A corre- 
spondent reminds us that the California 
Academy of Sciences was organized on May 
16, 1853, and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary 
nearly three years ago. 

Nature states that the government of India 
has decided, with the approval of the secretary 
of state, to establish an institute in India as 
a center for practical instruction of medical 
officers and subordinates in the use and man- 
agement of Rontgen ray apparatus, and as a 
depot for the storage and repair of such appa- 
ratus. The institute will be located at Dehra 
Dun, and will be under the superintendence 
of an officer of the Indian Medical Service. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

We learn from The Evening Post that the 
report of the royal commission of the Univer- 
sity of Toronto recommends that financial sup- 
port of $275,000 a year be given by the prov- 
ince, and an endowment of at least one million 
acres of land. 

Ir is said that the failure of the legislature 
to appropriate $50,000 to the Johns Hopkins 
University will delay indefinitely its removal 
to the new suburban site. 

THE cornerstone of the engineering build- 
ing for the University of Tennessee will be 
laid on April 23. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vo. XXIIT. No. 590. 


’ THE Chemical Laboratory of the Johns Hop- 
kins University has been remodeled in part, 
so as to accommodate the growing number of 
graduate students in the various branches of 
chemistry. A part of the second story has been 
divided into six smaller rooms adapted to ad- 
vanced students carrying on research. These 
rooms will be occupied by those who are work- 
ing in physical chemistry. This new arrange- 
ment will relieve the congestion which had 
gradually come to exist in the laboratories 
originally designed for organic chemistry, due 
to the fact that more and more space had to 
be provided in them for the work in physical 
chemistry. The three divisions of chemistry— 
organic, inorganic and physical—will each 
haye its own separate quarters, but they will 
all be closely related, as in the past. 


Tue Grand Trunk Railway is offering two 
free scholarships, covering four years’ tuition 
in the faculty of applied science of McGill 
University, subject to competitive examina- 
tions, to apprentices and other employees of 
the company under twenty-one years of age, 
and to minor sons of employees. 


Tue University of Southern California at 
Los Angeles, Cal., will elect an assistant in 
the department of botany for next year at a 
salary of about $700. The botanical and 
zoological laboratories, recently completed, 
have now been furnished throughout, and the 
new equipment has been received. 


Av a recent meeting of the board of trustees 
of Indiana University, Dr. E. R. Cumings 
was promoted to the position of associate pro- 
fessor of geology, and Dr. J. W. Beede to that 
of assistant professor of geology. 


Proressor E. A. Minchin has resigned the 
Jodrell chair of zoology of University College 
in view of his appointment to the new chair 
of protozoology in the University of London. 
The council of University College will shortly 
proceed to fill the vacancy in the Jodrell chair 
of zoology thus created. 


Dr. C. von WissELincH, of Amsterdam, has 


-been appointed professor of mathematics at 


Groningen. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Aprit 27, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


Some Philological Aspects of Anthropological 
Research: PROFESSOR FRANZ BOAS........ 641 


The Conditions of Admission to College: 


PRESIDENT GEORGE E. MacLEAN.......... 645 
Effective Protection for the Lobster Fishery: 

Proressor Francis H. HERRICK......... 650 
Scientific Books :— 

Philosophy and Mathematics at the Con- 

gress of Arts and Science: PROFESSOR 

ArtTHuUR O. LovEsoy. MacCurdy on the 

Holithic Problem: ProrEssoR Joun C. 

PTR EAC rspepeye yore iierevatoniedaus)sxcieueta)c} evelolseey sets 655 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 661 
Societies and Academies :-— 

The National Academy of Sciences. Society 

for Experimental Biology and Medicine: 

ProressoR WILLIAM J. GIES. The Bio- 

logical Society of Washington: M. C. 

VIPAT Speer ee hee ener sre leven lle ove (ate nsuclat agater= iets 662 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

Dr. O. F. Cook’s Conception of Evolution: 

Dr. A. E. Ortmann. The Distribution of 

Government Publications: PROFESSOR CLEVE- 

LAND ABBE. The Mental Development of 

Individuals: Dr. Epwin TAUSCH......... 667 
Special Articles :— 

Quartz Glass: Dr. ArtHuR L. Day, E. S. 

SHEPHERD. Meteorological Phenomena on 

Mountain Summits: S. P. FERGUSSON..... 670 
Quotations :— 

The California Uniwwersities.............. 674 
The Congress of the United States......... 675 
The American Philosophical Society........ 675 
Scientific Notes and News................. 676 
University and Educational News.......... 680 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of Sci=NcE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


SOME PHILOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF AN- 
THROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH. 

Ir is, perhaps, partly due to accident 
that American anthropologists meet to-day, 
for the first time, jointly with the Amer- 
ican Philological Association and with the 
Archeological Institute of America. Never- 
theless, I welcome our joint meeting as a 
significant fact, because it emphasizes the 
growing feeling of anthropologists that our 
science may profit from the methods devel- 
oped by classical and oriental archeology, 
and by the well-established methods of 
philological and linguistic research. We 
hope that it may also express the growing 
feeling among philologists and archeologists 
of the importance of anthropological re- 
search for their own studies. 

Our cooperation with your societies indi- 
cates a radical change in the attitude of 
students of anthropology. Up to the pres- 
ent time we have affiliated with societies 
representing the natural sciences and psy- 
chology. This is due to the development 
of modern anthropology under the stimulus 
of the theory of evolution, and to the im- 
portant incentives that it has taker from 
the methods pursued by the natural sci- 
ences. It has been the endeavor of anthro- 
pologists to discover universal laws, like 
the laws of physics and of chemistry. This 
tendency has been somewhat modified by 
the influence of those historical methods in 
the biological sciences which endeavor to 

*Paper read at the joint meeting of the An- 
thropological Association, the Archeological In- 


stitute, and the Philological Association, at 
Ithaca, N. Y., December 28, 1905. 


642 


explain the present types as the result of a 
long-continued development from previous 
forms. 

Owing to the peculiar. conditions under 
which it has grown up, American anthro- 
pology has been devoted almost exclusively 
to the study of North American problems. 
As we have penetrated more deeply into 
these problems we have observed that the 
general laws for which we have been search- 
ing prove elusive, that the forms of primi- 
tive culture are infinitely more complex 
than had been supposed, that a clear under- 
standing of the individual problem can not 
be reached without taking into considera- 
tion its historical and geographical rela- 
tions. 

As this new point of view becomes more 
and more clearly established, the tendency 
must increasingly develop of turning away 
from the comparative methods of the nat- 
ural sciences, and taking up more and more 
systematically the methods of history. 
While the first problem that presented 
itself to the anthropologist was the puzzling 
sameness of traits of culture in remote 
parts of the world, and while his endeavor 
was directed towards the discovery of the 
psychological causes that bring about such 
sameness, we begin to be inclined to view 
each cultural trait not primarily in com- 
parison with parallel traits found in re- 
mote regions, but rather in connection with 
the direction taken by the whole culture of 
a tribe or a people. We begin to see that 
sameness of cultural traits does not always 
prove genetic relation, but that diverse 
traits have often tended to converge, So as 
to develop similar thoughts and activities; 
while, on the other hand, other traits have 
tended to diverge, and to assume in dif- 
ferent regions different forms. 

With the appreciation of this fact, the 
necessity of a much more thorough and 
detailed knowledge of primitive culture is 
recognized. While hitherto we have been 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


satisfied with disconnected fragments of 
observations on the customs of the various 
tribes, we begin to see more and more 
clearly that the student must have a full 
grasp of all the forms of culture of the 
people he studies, before he can safely 
generalize. A 

It would seem to me that the classical 
archeologist or the classical philologist 
must always have an indulgent smile 
when he hears of serious anthropological 
studies carried on by investigators, who 
have neither the time, the inclination, nor 
the training to familiarize themselves with 
the language of the people whom they 
study. According to the canons of philo- 
logical research, would not the investigator 
who is not able to read the classics be 
barred from the number of serious stu- 
dents? Would not the historian who in- 
vestigates the history of the civilization of 
the middle ages, and who can not read the 
literature of that period, be excluded from 
the number of investigators? Would not 
the student of Oriental countries, who has 
to rely for his information on the assist- 
ance of interpreters, be considered an un- 
safe guide in the study of these countries? 
Still, this is the position which has con- 
fronted anthropology up to the present 
time. There are very few students who 
have taken the time and who have con- 
sidered it necessary to familiarize them- 
selves sufficiently with native languages to 
understand directly what the people whom 
they study speak about, what they think 
and what they do. There are fewer still 
who have deemed it worth while to record 
the customs and beliefs and the traditions 
of the people in their own words, thus 
giving us the objective material which will 
stand the scrutiny of painstaking investi- 
gation. I think it is obvious that in this 
respect anthropologists have everything to 
learn from you; that until we acquire the 
habit of demanding such authenticity of 


Apri, 27, 1906.] 


our reports as can be guaranteed only by 
philological accuracy of the record, can 
we hope to accumulate material that will be 
a safe guide to future studies. 

The time must come when we must de- 
mand that collections of traditions obtaimed 
by means of the garbled Hnelish of inter- 
preters, descriptions of customs not sup- 
ported by native evidence, records of in- 
dustries based only on the objective ob- 
servation of the student, must be consid- 
ered inadequate, and that we must demand 
from the serious student the same degree 
of philological accuracy which has become 
the standard in your sciences. 

It is true that m many eases this ideal 
can not be obtained. The general break- 
down of native culture, the fewness of 
numbers of certain tribes, the necessity of 
rapidly accumulating vanishing material, 
may sometimes compel the student, much 
against his will, to adopt methods of col- 
lecting which he recognizes as inadequate. 
Nevertheless, an important step forward 
will be made if we acknowledge that such 
collections are makeshifts that should be 
supplemented as soon as feasible, and 
wherever feasible, by more painstaking 
records. ‘ 

Taking this standard as a guide, we must 
‘acknowledge that very little, if any, of our 
literature is sufficiently authentic. Per- 
haps the most valuable material that has 
been collected from this point of view is 
the long series of texts obtained from the 
Ponka and Omaha by the late James Owen 
Dorsey. It is true that they embrace only 
a limited aspect of the life of the tribe, but 
so far as they go, they give us a deep in- 
sight into the mode of thought of the 
Indian. Jn the whole range of American 
anthropological literature there is hardly 
anything that may be compared to this 
publication. We have short series of texts 
from a few tribes which are highly wel- 
come, but as they stand, they are but frag- 


SCIENCE. 


643 


ments of what is required. The tribes thus 
treated are the Sioux, the Klamath of Ore- 
gon, the Kwakiutl, the Chinook and the 
Haida, and there is also a considerable 
amount of material available from the 
Eskimo, although most of the published 
material in that language is overlaid with 
Danish culture. 

If we consider the whole range of native 
life that should be treated in the same man- 
ner, we see how utterly imadequate the 
available collections are. To take, as an 


instance, the best—that of Mr. Dorsey— 


the contents of the volume are a collection 
of myths, records of war-expeditions and a 
long series of personal letters. These 
topies cover only a narrow range of the life 
of the Ponka. The whole material culture, 
their knowledge of the country and of 
neighboring tribes, their rituals and ritual- 
istic myths, their social organization, their 
beliefs have not been recorded, and are 
known to us only by brief notes collected 
by the author. 

If we acknowledge the correctness of the 
requirements here outlined, the work that 
is before us is stupendous. Let me remind 
you that in North America we have prob- 
ably about fifty-five distinct linguistic 
stocks and at least three hundred and fifty 
distinet dialects. If full information on 
all of these is to be gathered, the most in- 
tensive work of a great number of students 
is immediately required, because the in- 
formation is rapidly disappearing, and 
probably almost all of it will be lost inside 
of fifty years. The demand for thorough- 
ness of method of collection must, there- 
fore, be brought forward with great em- 


_ phasis. 


I have spoken here of the linguistic and 
historical method only as an adjunct of 
ethnological research. It is, however, true 
that the linguistie problem itself is one of 
intense interest, and one which will gain by 
a Imowledge of the methods applied by 


644 


Indo-European philology. The forms of 
the Indian languages differ enormously. 
It is often assumed that there is one type 
of American language, but even a super- 
ficial knowledge of representative dialects 
of American stocks shows that much great- 
er than their similarities are their differ- 
ences, and that the psychological basis of 
morphology is not by any means the same 
in the fifty-five stocks that occur on our 
continent. The scientific problems which 
are involved in their study have hardly 
been touched. J must say with regret that 
the anthropologist of the present day is 
not the man to solve these problems; that 
we require not only the stimulating ex- 
ample of philologists, but also their assist- 
ance. You must give preliminary training 
to the men who are to take up the prob- 
lems of American languages; because the 
centuries of experience and of labor that 
have been bestowed upon the development 
of philological methods have given you the 
advantage of settled lines of approach of 
linguistic problems. If you are willing 
to lend us your assistance in this important 
investigation, I foresee a field of important 
discoveries which will in their turn be of 
great benefit to the science of language. 
The psychological foundation and morpho- 
logical development of American languages 
are so peculiar that their study must be a 
revelation to the student of Indo-European 
or of Semitic languages. Well-known 
problems which you have discussed for 
years appear in new aspects, and broad 
points of view for discussion of linguistic 
questions present themselves readily to the 
student who takes up the types of lan- 
guage peculiar to our continent. 

I beg to be allowed to make the direct 
appeal to you here, asking you to turn the 
attention of your younger students to this 
promising field. It is virgin soil, and he 
who takes up the subject with a fairly ade- 
quate equipment is sure to find most ample 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 591. 


compensation for his toil in new and val- 
uable discoveries. Without your help we 
shall never be able to solve this task, which 
requires the speediest attention and the 
cooperation of many investigators. 

When we once have the equipment such 
as I have tried to outline, when we have 
investigators who collect the material in 
authentic form, and when we have students 
who will apply themselves to a painstaking 
analysis of the collected data, our problems 
will probably appear in entirely new light. 
The connection between prehistoric archeol- 
ogy and modern ethnology will necessarily 
become of the same character as the rela- 
tion between early classical archeology and 
the study of classical literature. It is true 
our problems will always remain more ob- 
secure and more difficult than yours, because 
we have no historical documents that carry 
us back through any considerable length of 
time, while, by the necessities of the case, 
we are compelled to use, instead of his- 
torical methods, geographical methods. 
We have to trace historical transmission 
and historical contact by studies of geo- 
graphical distribution. Often we find our- 
selves confronted by contradictory evi- 
dence, but, notwithstanding all these diffi- 
culties, the little progress that has been 
made during the last twenty years indi- 
cates plainly that, from this: point of view, 
the historical problem of anthropology may 
be approached with the hope of a certain 
amount of success and that we may be able 
to reconstruct important historical facts. 

I have given expression here to the grow- 
ing need of the introduction of sounder 
philological methods of collection and of 
historical methods in the treatment of an- 
thropological problems. I do not wish to 
be understood as advocating a dissociation 
of anthropology from psychology and the 
natural sciences. The source from which 
modern anthropology has grown up, the 
problems that have presented themselves to 


Apgin 27, 1906.] 


us from the point of view of the student of 
natural sciences, who takes human nature 
for his subject, are novel and are impor- 
tant. They touch upon the fundamental 
questions underlying the history of human 
civilization, and their clear formulation 
must be recognized as a distinet contribu- 
tion of anthropology to the scientific de- 
velopment of the day. Most important 
among these results is, perhaps, the recog- 
nition of the fundamental sameness of the 
traits in human culture the world over and 
of the psychic unity of mankind. The data 
on which these conclusions are based have 
not been without influence upon modern 
history and modern philology, and I do 
believe that if we have to learn much from 
you, we can also offer in return a point of 
view that will prove fertile in your work. 
The modification of the theories of the de- 
velopment of mythology, the better appre- 
ciation of the earliest development of Greek 
and Oriental culture, would hardly have 
come about if anthropological points of 
view had not made themselves felt in the 
minds of archeologists and philologists. If 
it must be our endeavor to broaden our 
methods by learning from you the founda- 
tions of historical research, we may offer 
to you also the results of many honest at- 
tempts of applying the methods of natural 
science to the phenomena of human culture. 
Let us hope that our first joint meeting 
may introduce a period of closer contact, 
of greater readiness on the part of anthro- 
pology to learn from her older sisters, and 
of a better understanding of the aims of 
anthropology by students of language and 
of history. FRANZ Boas. 


THE CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO 
COLLEGE. 
THE topic assigned me springs out of a 
paper given at the July meeting of the 


*Can there be a coordination of the examining, 
certificate, and accrediting (including school in- 


SCIENCE. 


645 


National Educational Association upon 
another topic assigned me: ‘Which is bet- 
ter, the western plan of admitting students 
to colleges and universities by certificates 
from duly inspected secondary schools, or 
by the eastern method of admitting only 
by examinations conducted by representa- 
tive boards or otherwise?’ An abstract of 
my treatment of this subject may best serve 
as an introduction to the topic of to-day: 


Within a few years it may be determined which 
plan, with all it implies in shaping far-reaching 
educational ideals and practises, shall be na- 
tional. The term ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ must 
not import provincial pride, or sound a note of 
sectionalism. 

The examination by the separate college of the 
individual candidate, giving ‘ personal contact,’ has 
failed on account of the increase in numbers. 

The college entrance examination board organ- 
ized in 1900, examined some 2,100 candidates this 
year—a Lilliputian effort as compared with the 
need to examine some 66,000 candidates. It has 
all the disadvantages of massed examinations, 
making it a gamble for the entering student and 
of judgment simply upon paper. 

The New England college certificate board cares 
for some 2,000 candidates and has the virtue of 
resting upon the judgment of the teacher ac- 
quainted with the pupil. But it lacks any note 
of nationality and is without provision for any 
proper inspection and accrediting of the schools. 

President Hadley has just announced that for 
the present Yale will adhere to the separate ex- 
amination system. Yet President Hadley per- 
sonally would give teachers of proved ability the 
opportunity to recommend for provisional admis- 
sion to the freshman class. Thus President 
Hadley is not far from the kingdom of the out- 
right accrediting system for which we hope he 
may become a leader, not only amongst his 
brethren of the eleven colleges in the New England 
college entrance certificate board, but throughout’ 
the nation. The whole thing might be done if 


spection) systems for admission to college looking 
toward a common or national administration in 
the interests of students, colleges and the preser- 
vation of the standards? Discussion opened by 
President George E. MacLean, of the State Uni- 
versity of Iowa, at the meeting of the National 
Association of State Universities, Washington, 
D. C., November 13-14, 1905. 


646 


Commissioner Draper and President Butler be- 
came his coadjutors. 

The so-called ‘ western’ is really a development 
from the German plan. It, in some form, logic- 
ally accompanied a state public school system 
crowned by a state university. It has been 
adopted also by private universities so that it 
covers the entire territory from the Ohio to the 
Pacific, and overflows into southern and eastern 
states. At present there are twelve state or state 
university inspectors in as many great western 
states—supplemented by visitors from great 
private institutions. In the north central asso- 
ciation of colleges and secondary schools, there 
has been for six years a commission on secondary 
schools and college entrance requirements, at the 
heart of which is a board of high school inspectors. 
Uniform standards and entrance blanks have been 
prepared. But now a list of first-class schools 
meeting the standards of the commission is be- 
coming an accredited list throughout the entire 
northwest. 

The accrediting system has raised the standard 
of the work done. It has linked the secondary 
school into one system with the college. It 
has given an increase of students entering col- 
lege, and with better average preparation. At 
the university of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1901, 
of those entering by examinations 49 per cent. 
were conditioned as against only 29 per cent. of 
certified students. An investigation by Principal 
Ramsay showed that the certificated students ex- 
celled in mental ability five to one. In the gen- 
eral performance of college duties they excelled 
three to one. Professor Whitney, of Michigan, 
found that the average standing of the certified 
student was more than 1.5 per cent. higher than 
for the examined student. 

Professor I. Gregory Foster in the report of the 
Alfred Mosley commission rejoices that it is a 
fundamental principle in American universities 
that the man who is fit to teach is also to be 
trusted to examine his own students. He says 
the accrediting system of the middle west is a 
most significant plan and one rapidly spreading 
into the east. 

In the states where it has been adopted the 
whole educational system has been unified and 
strengthened. The barriers between various 
grades of teachers are being removed. The teach- 
ing of all classes of teachers is thereby made more 
direct, more stimulating and attractive to stu- 
dents. The accrediting system as versus the older 
leaves the teacher and the taught free and thereby 
stimulates to better training. 


! 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou, XXIII. No. 591. 


Professor Foster quotes President Harper as 
opposed to the accrediting system when he left 
Yale, but now as a firm believer in it as a result 
of his experience. The professor concludes, ‘It 
is perhaps one of the most noteworthy contribu- 
tions of America to educational progress.’ 

What we do we must do quickly. A national 
system (meaning thereby governmental coordina- 
tion and possible inspection in harmony with the 
voluntary cooperation in many western states, 
coneatenating secondary schools, colleges and uni- 
versities) will give modern interstate educational 
privileges, long needed to keep up with interstate 
commerce and life, and heightening national ideals 
and power. 


That there can be local coordination of 
the examination, certificate and accredited 
systems for admission to college is clear, 
because it is already accomplished in fact. 
It is true in many institutions- We have 
an excellent illustration in the report for 
1904-5 of President Schurman of Cornell. 
He says: 


In the year 1904-05 the number of matriculants 
presenting certificates in satisfaction of the en- 
trance requirements was 317, and the number of 
schools they represented was 154. It is some- 
times alleged that the scholarship of students ad- 
mitted on certificate is lower than that of students 
who are required to pass examinations. But the 
experience of Cornell University does not support 
this contention. And consequently the faculty 
sees no reason for disturbing an arrangement 
which, as Dean Crane points out, ‘is convenient 
both for the schools and the university.’ Never- 
theless, Cornell has from the first cooperated with 
the College Entrance Examination Board and 
many of its matriculants enter by the way of the 
board’s examinations. Thus of 1,817 taking the 
board’s examinations in 1904 not less than 251 
announced their intention to enter Cornell Uni- 
versity. A third avenue to the university is the 
regents’ diploma for New York state students; 
and with this credential 238 matriculated in 
1904-05. There remains the method of entrance 
by examinations at the university, which are now 
given only in September, and of this method 27 
availed themselves in 1904-05. The remaining 
members of the freshman class were admitted on 
credentials from other universities and colleges, 
or on medical students’ certificates.* 


2 Cornell University, President’s Report, 1904— 
05, pp. 36-37. 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


The Cornell case, showing that there can 
be a local coordination, shifts the emphasis 
of our discussion to the question whether 
there can be a common or national admin- 
istration in the interest of students, colleges 
and the preservation of standards. That 
there are a tendency and need and a long- 
ing for a common, and indeed a national 
administration, is evident. The tendency 
springs from axioms of economic science 
like that of ‘planless production makes 
waste.’ The spirit of this era of coopera- 
tion and combination intensifies the long- 
ing and the need becomes positive as rapid- 
ity of transportation and communication 
facilitates migration. The unifying of the 
republic, the emphasizing of American 
ideals with a deepening consciousness of 
our world-wide relations, unite the tend- 
ency, longing and need into an aspiration 
and positive demand for the recognition 
and development of a national system of 
education. 

This appears in unexpected ways. Presi- 
dent Schurman in his report, referring to 
Mr. Carnegie’s professorial pensions and 
Mr. Rockefeller’s subsidies for general 
education in colleges, says: 


Both philanthropists have risen above the idea 
of a single institution and have grasped the 
conception of a national system of higher edu- 
cation. And the bounty is as splendid as it is 
unparalleled in the history of higher education 
in America. But relatively to the ideal of an 
efficiently organized system of higher education 
in the United States, it is only a beginning.® 


President Hadley’s last report,* true to 
the spirit of Yale, breathes with the 
thought of becoming national. He would 
gladly appropriate the genius of the state 
university. He cites Yale’s work in for- 
estry as ‘including the kind of public work 
which makes the modern university some- 


*Cornell University, President’s Report, 1904— 
05, p. 74. 

“Science, October 27, 1905, p. 514 and fol- 
lowing. 


SCIENCE. 


647 


thing more than a mere group of schools 
and elevates it to its highest possible rank 
—that of a public servant.’ He dwells 
upon considerations of public duty as af- 
fecting the requirements for admission. 
He says: 


Tf the Yale requirements should get so far out 
of the line of work furnished by the better kind 
of high schools in the country that we could not 
expect to get boys from those schools, we should 
soon become a local institution. _ Yale would be a 
school for boys of one kind of antecedents, instead 
of for boys of all kinds of antecedents; and as 
soon as it became a school for boys of one kind 
of antecedents only, it would lose its value as a 
broadening influence to its students and as a fac- 
tor in the life of the whole nation. 

Our policy with regard to entrance requirements 
is thus governed by two separate considerations: 
our duty to ourselves of not admitting boys ex- 
cept those who are able to do the kind of work 
which will be required of them, and our duty to 
the public of admitting all kinds of boys who can 
do this, on as equal terms as possible. Our 
student body must be at once hard working and 
national.’ 


He then makes this surprising applica- 
tion of this splendid doctrine: 

In order to make ourselves national we admit 
boys to our undergraduate courses by examination 
only and not by certificate. We believe that the 
examination method is fairer to boys who come 
from distant places. The certificate system is 
the natural one for the state university, which 
draws its pupils chiefly from the schools of one 
locality and can inspect and examine those 
schools; but if a national university tries to apply 
this system it gives either an unfair preference to 
the boys from schools near at hand, or an inade- 
quate test to the boys from remote ones.° 

The (plausibility of this conclusion dis- 
guises the logic of the actual present con- 
ditions. As if one institution could be- 
come national by refusing recognition to 
the arrangements of great national groups 
of secondary schools and colleges like those 
of the New England College Entrance Cer- 
tifieate Board, and those of the College 


5 Science, October 27, 1905, p. 518. 
° Tbid., p. 519. 


648 


Entrance Examination Board of the Asso- 
ciation of Colleges and Preparatory Schools 
in the Middle States and Maryland, and 
the acerediting system of the state and 
private universities and colleges, particu- 
larly as unified through the Commission of 
Secondary Schools and Entrance Require- 
ments, with its board of high school in- 
spectors, in the North Central Association 
of Colleges and Secondary Schools! How 
can an institution hope to become national 
by becoming isolated and local in setting 
its own examinations? Under this idea 
confusion becomes worse confounded as in- 
stitutions multiply with aspirations to be 
national, but insisting upon making their 
own examinations. What a reversion this 
is is evident in the light of the approxima- 
tion to something national which began to 
appear through the three or four great 
provincial organizations just mentioned, 
covering most of the national territory. 
By the same token that the certificate sys- 
tem is a natural one for the state univer- 
sity, it would seem to be the one for a 
national university. 

The great state universities draw their 
students from many states and countries 
and have learned by a system of comity 
that they can safely accept the inspection 
and acerediting of sister state universities. 
In fact, with the exception of but three 
prominent institutions, Harvard, Yale and 
Princeton, have we not arrived at a prac- 
tical coordination of the examining, certifi- 
cate and accrediting system in that the in- 
stitutions in the great provincial organiza- 
tions above referred to, upon occasion 
accept the testimonials issued by the au- 
thorities of any one of these systems? It 
only remains to see that what the student 
migrating from one of these great provin- 
cial groups to another accomplishes in en- 
tering an institution, is safeguarded from 
fraud or misinterpretation, and that posi- 
tively uniform and high standards are 


SCIENCE. 


LN. S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


maintained by the establishment of a 
proper channel for exchange of documents. 

A common administration could be es- 
tablished through a delegacy consisting of 
secretaries of the existing provincial or- 
ganizations. Indeed, the College Entrance 
Examination Board affords a hint as to a 
way to do it. It provides that repre- 
sentatives of the secondary schools on that 
board may be appointed by the New Eng- 
land Association of Colleges and Prepara- 
tory Schools, the Association of Colleges 
and Preparatory Schools of the Middle 
States and Maryland, the Association of 
Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the 
Southern States and the North Central 
Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools. 

‘Hach association may appoint one sec- 
ondary school representative for every 
three colleges and universities represented 
in such association and admitted to mem- 
bership in the board’;’ but under the lim- 
itation that the colleges must be admitted 
by vote of the board to membership, and 
that the number of secondary schoolmen 
appointed by any one association shall in 
no case exceed five. 

The scheme of the College Entrance Ex- 
amination Board strictly interpreted, it 
will be seen, is not automatic; it requires 
election and is exclusive, and necessarily 
under their scheme, of anything but the 
examination system. 

Let these associations inaugurate a move- 
ment by having a conference of representa- 
tives from the associations, to which also 
representatives of Harvard, Yale and 
Princeton might be asked. 

The first step of a common administra- 
tion, coordinating the examining, certificate 
and accrediting systems, seems relatively 
easy. When we import the term national 
administration in the higher or govern- 


1 Aducational Review, October, 1904, p. 265. 


Apri 27, 1906.] 


mental sense, the, difficulties are greatly 
imereased and differences of opinion will 
multiply. For one, however, I venture to 
believe that the movements under way will 
not rest until in some conservative way we 
have a national attachment—that is, a gov- 
ernmental point of attachment. It must 
be conceded in the words of Commissioner 
Andrew S. Draper, upon the legal status 
of public schools, ‘that while they are not 
national, neither are they local institutions 
—rather are they state institutions."* In 
another place he says: at the close of the 
Revolution, ‘it was easily conceived to be 
a function of government to encourage 
schools. ’® 

Since the American school system has come to 
be supported wholly by taxation, it has come to 
depend upon the exercise of a sovereign power. 
In the United States the sovereign powers are not 
all lodged in one place. Such as have not been 
ceded to the general government are retained by 
the states. The provision and supervision of 
schools is one of these. Hence the school system, 
while marked by many characteristics which are 
common throughout the country, has a legal or- 
ganization peculiar to each state.” 

Great as are the systems of state schools 
covering the most of the land and culmi- 
nating in New York in the most complete 
state system, unifying the public and pri- 
vate institutions, they do not satisfy, but 
on the contrary they feed the hunger for 
a national system, but better, for a federal 
coordination of the state systems. The 
state of New York blazes the way for an 
analogous plan blending the private and 
state institutions and relating them to the 
federal government. 

An objector will recall the legal status 
above conceded, and specifically that the 
Bureau of Education is only advisory, a 
collector of statistics and an educational 

5 Proceedings and Transactions, N. E. A., 1889, 
p. 183. 

°* Education in the United States,’ edited by 


Nicholas Murray Butler, Vol. I., 1900, p. 5. 
© Ibid., pp. 17-18. 


SCIENCE. 


649 


clearing house.** But as ‘necessity is the 
mother of invention,’ and brought forth 
after the Civil War with the need of edu- 
cation in the south for the freedman and 
for the immigrants, through the advocacy 
of a Barnard and a Garfield, in 1867 the 
Bureau of Education, so again, following 
the Spanish-American War, necessity for 
education in our new. possessions, including 
Alaska, has tended to a development of the 
Bureau of Education.” 

The committee on resolutions of the Na- 
tional Hducational Association, Nicholas 
Murray Butler, chairman, brought in a re- 
port adopted by the association earnestly 
urging 

Upon the Congress the wisdom and advisability 
of reorganizing the Bureau of Education upon 
broader lines; of erecting it into an independent 
department on a plane with the Department of 
Labor; of providing a proper compensation for 
the Commissioner of Education; and of so consti- 
tuting the Department of Education that, while 
its invaluable function of collating and diffusing 
information be in no wise impaired, it may be 
equipped to exercise effective oversight of the 
educational systems of Alaska and of the several 
islands now dependent upon us, as well as to 
make some provision for the education of the 
children of the tens of thousands of white people 
domiciled in the Indian Territory, who are with- 
out any educational opportunities whatever. 

Such reorganization of the Bureau of Education 
and such extension of its functions we believe to 
be demanded by the highest interests of the people 
of the United States, and we respectfully but 
earnestly ask the congress to make provision for 
such reorganization and extension at its next 
session. The action so strongly recommended 
will in no respect contravene the principle that 
it is one of the recognized functions of the na- 
tional government to encourage and to aid, but 
not to control, the educational instrumentalities 
of the country.* 


Dr. Butler in an editorial in the Hduca- 


“History of Education in the United States,’ 
Dexter, p. 202. 

2“ Addresses and Proceedings,’ N. EH. A., 1901, 
p. 435. 

**“ Addresses and Proceedings,’ N. E. A., 1900, 
p. 31. 


650 SCIENCE. 


tional Review, 1901, follows up the subject 
conservatively : 

Questions of erecting the Bureau of Education 
into an executive department, with a seat in the 
Cabinet, as was proposed by Senator Hansbrough’s 
bill, introduced into the Fifty-sixth Congress, or 
of organizing it on the same plane as the De- 
partment of Labor, are not necessarily involved, 
and may wisely be postponed until public opin- 
ion on the subject is better informed and more 
clearly formulated. All immediate necessities 
could be met by an amendment of existing law 
that should provide for a bureau of education 
with two divisions: a division of statistics and 
reports, to do the work now done by the bureau; 
and a division of supervision and administration, 
to take up the oversight of the school systems of 
Alaska, of the white residents in Indian Terri- 
tory, of Porto Rico and of the Philippine Is- 
lands.“ 

With our eyes opened by foreign needs 
in this era of a new nationalism, would it 
not be well to turn them upon our greater 
domestic educational needs and the needs 
of our own white children for developing 
the bureau as shown by the subject we have 
in hand. Some sense of such needs stirred 
this association a year ago to appoint a 
committee consisting of Presidents Van 
Hise and Jesse to draft a memorial to 
enlarge the function of the Bureau of Edu- 
eation.® Without an amendment to the 
act establishing the Bureau of Education, 
might it not find. authority with compara- 
tively small addition to its expenditures, to 
act in place of, or in conjunction with, the 
delegacy above proposed? The law says it 
shall ‘aid the people of the United States 
in the establishment and maintenance of 
efficient school systems and otherwise pro- 
mote the cause of education throughout the 
country.’ Let it federate and coordinate 
our present school systems. Let it endorse 
and promulgate national standards. Local 
systems and institutions would be free to 


4 Hducational Review, Vol. 21, 1901, p. 528. 

% Transactions and Proceedings, National Asso- 
ciation of State Universities of America, 1904, p. 
23. 


(N.S. Vou. XXIII. No, 591. 


accept them or not; indeed, national in- 
spectors might complement state and insti- 
tutional inspectors; the national inspectors 
visiting upon invitation and without au- 
thority, as indeed is the case with the ma- 
jority of state inspectors. The national 
inspectors could validate the work of local 
inspectors for remote parts of the country. 
The individual colleges would upon occa- 
sion, now in this, now in that subject, be 
at liberty, as they now are even in the most 
highly developed accrediting systems, to 
give examinations to an entering student. 

In fine, the proposals of this paper apply 
the doctrine of evolution. We grow from 
the systems we now have. We cérrelate 
them. We leave liberty to each institution 
and group of institutions to favor the sys- 
tem or lack of system it may have. All 
that is asked is an open-door policy instead 
of an exclusive one. Ultimately the best 
system or combination of systems will sur- 
vive. In the meantime, there will be a 
germinal genuine American system looking 
toward a national one in harmony with our 
new nationalism. 


Grorce EH. MacLean. 
THE STATE UNIVERSITY oF Iowa. 


EFFECTIVE PROTECTION FOR THE LOBSTER 
FISHERY. 

THE main biological facts concerning the 
lobster are now well in hand, and form a 
logical basis for the protection of the fish- 
eries of this animal. 

In restricting the size of marketable lob- 
sters the following methods are entitled to 
consideration by the legislator who regards 
the question upon its scientific merits alone: 
(1) partial protection of young and adult, 
with emphasis upon the young; (2) partial 
protection of adult and young, with em- 
phasis upon the adult. Such regulations 
may be supplemented by various other pro- 
hibitions, relating to close seasons, the de- 
struction of ‘berried’ females and the sale 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


cf broken lobster meat. We are now main- 
ly concerned with the restrictions placed 
upon the fisherman in dealing with lobsters 
which enter his traps. The protection of 
the young alone, or what is the same thing, 
unrestricted slaughter of adults, would be 
equivalent to slaying the goose which lays 
the golden eggs and must be ruled out at 
once, for to get young we must have eggs, 
or, what is the same thing, adults which 
produce the eggs, and the more of them 
the better. 

Protection of the adult alone is neither 
practicable nor desirable, for the markets 
should be supplied with animals of fair 
size, and the period of sexual maturity 


fiuetuates between rather wide limits. It. 


would, moreover, be folly to permit the 
unlimited sacrifice of the young of all sizes 
which could be enticed into the traps, al- 
though the fishery might be better able to 
stand such a drain than the wholesale sac- 
rifice of adults. 

The keepers of domestic animals practise 
what may be described as ‘a judicious pro- 
tection of the adult.’ That is, the relative 
proportion of young to adults beimg known, 
a balance can be struck and maintained, 
or any desired ratio between them estab- 
lished. In marine animals like the lobster, 
this ratio between young and adult is an 
unknown and unknowable quantity, and 
this is why comparisons drawn between 
domestic animals, which are under human 
control, and the invisible inhabitants of the 
depths of the sea are likely to be mislead- 
ing. No selection or balancing of numbers 
is possible in the way that the poultryman 
or ranchman maintains the integrity of his 
flocks or herds. The lobster is seldom seen 
except when caught in a trap and brought 
to the surface. The fishermen follow the 
lobsters in their movements to and from 
the shores, and when the animals which 
enter their traps become smaller and fewer, 
or cease altogether, they begin to wake up 


SCIENCE. 


651 


to the highly probable fact that the wild 
‘flock’ has been exterminated. Yet the 
fisherman is not to blame for this, since the 
laws have sanctioned what practically 
amounts to an indiscriminate slaughter of 
the adult. 

Thus we are left to choose between the 
methods given above. In the first, where 
the fullest protection is given to the young, 
the aim has apparently been to allow the 
adult to breed at least once before it is 
sacrificed. But this desirable end is fre- 
quently not attained because, as will be 
seen later, many animals pass the legal 
limits—nine to ten and one half inches— 
before becoming sexually mature. This 
method has been given more than a fair 
trial, and has proved sadly lacking. The 
second method, as stated above, essentially 
means protecting the adults permanently 
beyond a certain size, and the young up to 
a certain limit. Between these two per- 
manently protected classes stand the imma- 
ture or adolescent and the smaller adult 
animals, which alone it would be permis- 
sible to destroy. This plan was first pro- 
posed in 1901 by Dr. George W. Field.t 
He advocated a reversal of the existing 
policy of protecting chiefly the young, by 
placing the weight of restrictive laws upon 
the adult animal above a certain size, when 
it is becoming most prolific, and, therefore, 
most valuable to the fishery. This may 
be described as partial protection of the 
adult and young, with emphasis on the 
adult, and it must be admitted that such a 
method has all the weight of biological fact 
and sound common sense on its side. In 
the abstract of his report which was pub- 
lished in this journal,? the various reme- 
dies which have been tried in vain to instil 
new life into the waning fisheries are ably 

* Report to the Massachusetts Commissioners of 
Fisheries and Game, 1902. 


* Science, N. S., Vol. XV., pp. 612-616, April 
18, 1902. 


602 


discussed. In this connection it is profit- 
able to’ read also the discriminating re- 
marks of the late Capt. Joseph W. Collins, 
in 1903.8 

The existing laws for the regulation of 
the lobster fisheries (see method 1 above) 
are designed, as we have seen, to shield 
mainly the young, since they give but par- 
tial protection to the adult animal, it being 
illegal to possess, sell or destroy any lobster 
under nine or ten and one half inches in 
length, or any female beyond these limits, 
with external eggs. The larger limit of 
ten and one half inches is in favor in most 
of the states. Dr. Field would protect the 
young up to a certain length, as nine 
inches,* permit the capture of all adoles- 
cents and adults between nine and ten and 
one half inches, and permanently protect 
all adults beyond this size. That is, he 
would reduce the protection afforded the 
young, but greatly enhance that given to 
adults. 

I formerly advocated the retention of 
the ten and one half inch law, and opposed 
any reduction of this standard, because 
under the present methods (see No. 1 
above) this would eut out nearly every 
vestige of protection afforded adult ani- 
mals, which, as was pointed out, is very 
little at best. On the other hand, I am 
heartily in favor of reducing the legal size- 
limit of marketable lobsters to nine inches, 
provided the larger adults are placed in a 
permanently protected class. 

In dealing with the zoological side of the 
question the facts which chiefly concern us 
are: (a) the period of maturity of adult 
lobsters; (6) the number of eggs borne by 
the females, or the size of the broods, and 
(c) the frequency of spawning, or succes- 
sion of broods. 


**Report upon a Convention held at Boston, 
1903, to secure Better Protection of the Lobster,’ 
Boston, 1904. 

‘This in my opinion is much better than his 
earlier suggestion of six to ten inches. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


I have found that the period of maturity 
is very variable as regards both age and 
size, female lobsters coming into the bear- 
ing condition between the size limits of 
approximately seven to twelve inches in 
length. Comparatively few animals lay 
eges before reaching a length of nine 
inches, when their broods are still rela- 
tively small, while on the other hand the 
reproductive period is seldom deferred to 
the eleven- or twelve-inch stage. When 
ten to ten and one half inches long the 
female lobster has, as a rule, reached her 
first reproductive period, and many have 
carried two or three broods. We thus see 
why, according to present methods, by 
simply reducing the legal length-limit, we 
rob the adult of the very meager protection 
which it now enjoys. 

The number of eggs produced increases 
with surprising rapidity from the very be- 
ginning of sexual maturity, the first batch 
of eges being relatively small, whatever the 
size of the lobster. The average number of 
eges produced by lobsters eight inches long 
is approximately 5,000, at ten inches 10,- 
000, at twelve inches 20,000, and at four- 
teen inches nearly 40,000. Out of 532 
animals examined at the ten-and-one-half- 
inch stage the smallest, largest and average 
number of eggs borne were 5,000, 36,000 
and nearly 13,000. Lobsters fifteen and six- 
teen inches long have been taken off Cutty- 
hunk Island in Buzzard’s Bay, for the use 
of the hatchery at Woods Hole, bearing 
nearly 100,000 eggs, all of which shows how 
rapidly the value of the lobster as a breeder 
increases after the nine- or ten-inch length 
is attained. 

The male lobster matures as early as the 
female, and possibly somewhat earlier. It 
is certain that the female lobster may be 
impregnated at any time, and by more than 
one male; the sperm, moreover, possesses 
great vitality. As a rule the female lobster 
lays her eggs every other year, that is, the 


Aprit 27, 1906.] 


reproductive cycle is not a one-year but a 
two-year period. 
With respect to reproductive ability, and 


of the females in particular, we may divide' 


the lobsters in the ocean into three classes, 
as follows: (1) young and adolescents 
mainly, from swimming larva to the nine- 
inch stage; (2) intermediate class—adoles- 
cents and adults—nine to ten and one half 
inches long; (3) adult class mainly, from 
ten and one half inches and upward. in 
length. 

The existing laws from New York to 
Maine vary but little, the legal length-limit 
being placed at nine or ten and one half 
inches; in some cases females in spawn are 
also protected, and there is a close season 
in Rhode Island. 

In the Dominion of Canada and the 
maritime provinces the legal size varies 
from eight to ten and one half inches, while 
in the former territory seven distinct close 
seasons of varying limits are maintained 
in certain geographical districts, extending 
from late spring to midsummer on the one 
hand, and from winter to spring on the 
other (beginning May 30 to August 10 and 
ending December 15 to May 25). Notwith- 
standing these and various supplemental 
regulations, the fishery in the dominion has 
steadily declined. This is not surprising 
in view of the fact that in 1903, according 
to the official reports, 855 canneries were 
operated on the coast, and that, as a Can- 
adian commissioner admitted, the canneries 
ean legally use almost everything in the 
form of a lobster which the fisherman 
catches. 

In general, both in the states and in the 
provinces, reports of an increased yield of 
the fishery should be construed as an evi- 
dence of decline, for it can be shown that 
the greater yield is due to one or more of 
the following functions: imerease in the 
’ number of traps and efficiency of the gear, 
in the number of fishermen, in the time of 


SCIENCE. 


653 


the fishing season, and in the area of the 
territory covered. While the number of 
lobsters caught may increase, the size and 
weight of the individual animals steadily 
diminish. 

The tendency in past and present legisla- 
tion has been to protect classes 1 and 2 as 
named above, in addition to female lobsters 
with eges attached to the body. This is 
accurately described as protection of the 
young, and partial protection of the adult. 
It may sound very well, but weak spots 

“appear upon a closer analysis. Class 1, 
the beginning of the series, in the course 
of nature must be recruited mainly by 
elass 3, that is, from eggs of the largest 
producing adults, and by the very class 
which under present conditions is being 
wiped out. This policy shifts the duty of 
maintaining the first class upon class 2 
—or upon the small producers—a task 
which it is theoretically unable to bear, as 
well as practically incompetent to sustain, 
if one can draw any conclusions from the 
reports of the fisheries. No doubt there 
are many experienced persons who are 
ready to maintain that the present laws are 
good enough when properly enforced, but 
there is no way of getting over this grave 
defect. 

The decline in the lobster fisheries is 
clearly due to the fact that more lobsters 
are being annually destroyed than are be- 
ing reared in the course of nature. You 
ean not get lobsters without eggs, and the 
egg-producers belong chiefly to class 3. It 
is further said that the protection of the 
female in spawn should remedy this defect. 
In reply to this we have to consider the 
fact, which I have demonstrated beyond 
reasonable doubt,° that the female lobster 
lays her eges but once in two years. Con- 
sequently we should not expect to find more 
than one half of this class with external 


*°The Reproductive Period in the Lobster,’ U. 
S. Fish Commission Bulletin, 1901. 


654 


eggs at any given time. This at once re- 
duces the protection designed by such a law 
by one half, and the other half shrinks al- 
most to the vanishing point, since between 
the climax of the period of hatching (June 
15) and that of the spawning period 
(August 1) there is an interval of about 
six weeks when the majority of all adult 
females are without eggs, whether old or 
new, and therefore derive no benefit from 
such laws. Nor is it possible to ignore the 
fact that it is an easy matter for any fisher- 
man to strip off the eggs from the female, 
and place her among his ‘counters.’ 

In dealing with all such questions every 
one should avoid the common error of as- 
suming that because any animal produces 
a large number of eggs, there must be a 
large number of adults reared from those 
eges. This form of egregious logic is alto- 
gether too common among fish culturists 
in both England and America. On the 
contrary, the teachings of biology compel 
us to draw a very different conclusion. As 
I have elsewhere pointed out, the essential 
question—what is the ratio between the 
number of eggs hatched and the number 
of young reared, is strangely neglected. 

An egg represents a chance of indi- 
vidual survival, and where the chance of 
survival is slight, the number of chances is 
increased. 
ably mean certain destruction to all but a 
remnant of the host. JI have also shown 
that a survival of two lobsters in every 
10,000 hatched would be a large allowance, 
two in twenty or thirty thousand being, 
without doubt, nearer the truth. This 
further fortifies the conclusion that the vast 
numbers of eggs required to recuperate 
the first class can not be expected from 
the second class, but only from a perma- 
nently protected body of adults in full re- 
productive vigor. When the adults are 
permanently protected they form a grow- 
ing class, since they will constantly receive 


SCIENCE. 


Vast numbers of eggs invari-: 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


as recruits all those animals which success- 
fully run the gauntlet beyond the pre- 
seribed limit. 

Those who object to a change of policy 
and to the adoption of method 2 given 
above might affirm that if class 3 has been 
practically exterminated, and if we proceed 
to wipe out class 2, soon there will be no 
more lobsters. This may be a serious ob- 
jection, but on general principles we are 
assured that the change ought to be made, 
and made generally wherever the lobster is 
trapped; the sooner it is done, the better. 
No doubt if the legal length of the lobster 
were reduced from ten and one half inches 
to nine inches, the market supply would be 
inereased for a number of years, and this 
might be followed by a stringency, but 
there would be a growing protected class 
at work all the time, and this would be 
bound to tell favorably in the end. 

Many fishermen, accustomed for a life- 
time to look upon the larger lobsters as 
their legitimate prey, would doubtless rebel 


against what might seem to them as op- 


posed both to nature and to their own 
interests, but this would settle itself in 
course of time. Certain changes would be 
necessary in the construction of traps—in 
limiting the size of the funnel or the dis- 
tance between the slats—but these would 
not entail serious expense. 

To apply the principle of protecting the 
adult I should favor fixing the limits of 
length between which it would be legal to 
sell and destroy lobsters at eight to ten 
inches, permanently protecting all above 
and below these sizes. It might be an 
easier step from present conditions to set 
these limits between the nine- and ten-and- 
one-half-inch stages, which I am informed 
by Dr. Field is the plan favored by the 
department of fisheries and game in Massa- 
chusetts. This is not a vital matter so 
long as the principle of protecting the 
adult is maintained, and this is best done 


Aprit 27, 1906.] 


by placing the bar close to the average 
period of beginning sexual maturity, or 
approximately at the ten or ten-and-one- 
half-inch length. 

Francis H. Herrick. 


WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, 
February 12, 1906. 


SOIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Congress of Arts and Science, Universal 
Hzposition, St. Louis, 1904. Edited by 
Howarp J. Rogers, A.M., LL.D., Director 
of Congresses. Vol. I., Philosophy and Math- 
ematies. Boston and New York, Houghton, 
Miffin and Co. 1905. Pp. ix-+ 626. 

On account of its comprehensiveness of 
plan, the large attendance of foreign scholars 
of the first eminence, and the picturesqueness 
Gn several senses) of its attendant circum- 
stances, the Congress of Arts and Science of 
the St. Louis Exposition was doubtless the 
most memorable and impressive scientific 
gathering ever held in America—as it was 
certainly the most creditable and original 
thing connected with the exposition. The 
more permanently valuable of its results will 
come less from the preservation of the papers 
read than from the stimulating influence of 
the actual assembling of so many great spe- 
cialists for the comparison of methods and 
conclusions; from the informal discussions of 
workers in kindred fields, over restaurant 
tables or in the barracks where so much 
learning was housed in the midst of amateur 
soldiers, flying-machines and blanket-Indians; 
from the closer acquaintance brought about 
between scholars of a dozen different nations; 
and from the manner in which the congress 
brought home to the consciousness of a part 
of the world not hitherto adequately awake to 
such ideas the dignity of productive research, 
its central place amongst the functions of 
universities, and the primacy of its office in 
relation to all the work of modern civilization 
and to the increase of all forms of human 
power and wealth. For all this American 
men of science are in no small measure under 
obligations to all concerned in the organiza- 
tion and management of the congress—espe- 


SCIENCE. 


655 


cially to the officials of the exposition, to the 
exposition’s committee on congresses, to the 
boards responsible for the determination of 
the plan and scope of the congress, and to the 
foreign scholars who entered into the plan, 
often at considerable sacrifice of personal com- 
fort and convenience. Much mention of per- 
sonalities would be invidious; but it appears 
that the most distinctive features of this con- 
gress are to be credited to Mr. F. J. V. Skiff, 
director of exhibits, who insisted ‘to the ex- 
ecutive committee of the exposition that the 
congress work stand for something more than 
an unrelated series of independent gatherings,’ 
and induced the committee to appropriate a 
sum sufficient to make practicable a project so 
extensive; to the late Mr. F. W. Holls, who 
suggested the idea of selecting and remuner- 
ating the speakers; and to Professor Miinster- 
berg, whose imagination conceived the de- 
tailed plan finally adopted, and whose energy 
provided much of the driving power thet made 
it possible to carry the plan through. 

The present volume, the first of eight, con- 
tains a large amount of prefatory matter: a 
history of the congress by the editor of the 
series, Dr. H. J. Rogers; a paper on ‘The 
Scientific Plan of the Congress’ by Professor 
Miinsterberg; and the eloquent opening ad- 
dress of the president, Dr. Simon Newcomb, 
on ‘The Evolution of the Scientific Investi- 
gator.’ Then follow the proceedings of ‘ Divi- 
sion A’ of the congress—sixteen papers in 
philosophy and eight.in mathematics—cover- 
ing the field of what is called ‘ Normative 
Science.’ 

Minsterberg’s classification of the sciences 
for the purposes of the congress has already 
been pretty widely criticized. No imaginable 
scheme of arrangement could fail to have its 
own special disadvantages. But there unde- 
niably seems to be a supererogatory amount 
of perversity, and a needless sacrifice of prac- 
tical convenience and naturalness of connec- 
tion, in an arrangement which, e. g., widely 
separates esthetics from psychology, theoret- 
ical from experimental physics, the philosophy 
from the history of religion, while bringing 
an edifying but rather preachy exposition of 


656 


Carlyle’s ‘Gospel of Work’ into close prox- 
imity with a disquisition on ‘The Theory of 
Invariants of Quadratic Differential Quan- 
tics.’ Moreover, the scheme, with its uniform 
recurrence of ‘divisions,’ ‘departments’ and 
‘sections,’ has an undue a priori rigidity, and 
does not properly take account of the actual 
contemporary interlacings of the problems of 
different sciences. The congress would prob- 
ably have been more fruitful if the metaphor 
chosen to express its purpose had been, not 
the unification, but the cross-fertilization, of 
the sciences. In that casé, perhaps, a greater 
proportion of the participants would have been 
at pains to make themselves intelligible and 
directly serviceable to men in other though 
not alien specialties; and we might have had 
a useful series of indications of just the light 
that workers in each field most need to have 
thrown upon their problems by workers in 
other fields. As it is, the ‘unity of knowl- 
edge’ sometimes shows only in a pretty ab- 
stract sense; and now and then the ‘ unifica- 
tion of the sciences’ seems to owe more to the 
bookbinder than to the philosopher. 
Concerning the propriety of grouping phi- 
losophy and mathematics together as ‘norma- 
tive sciences’ much might be said; but the 
arrangement at all events serves to bring into 
clearer relief one of the real tendencies of the 
moment: the disposition to merge logic, meta- 
physics and mathematics together in a more 
fundamental science, a morphology of the pri- 
mary formal concepts, which shall yield a new 
logic of relations. To-day—in the opinion of 
an influential group of thinkers, both philos- 
ophers and mathematicians—as at the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century, philosophy is 
to be revivified by a transfusion of blood with 
mathematics; and mathematics is to be made 
more simple, more clear and more fruitful 
than ever before. As the subject is a favorite 
one with Professor Royce, he naturally im- 
proved the occasion, in his general address on 
the field of the whole ‘ division,’ to insist upon 
the epoch-making significance of this new 
mathematical logic, and especially of the work 
of Kempe (which later is again set forth by 
Bocher). It is an evidence of the strength 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


of this tendency that the names of certain 
protagonists of the movement, Dedekind, 
Weierstrass, Cantor, Peirce, Peano, recur 
throughout the volume with greater apparent 
frequency than the name of Kant. It is of 
interest also to note that, partly because of 
this and partly because of other tendencies of 
contemporary thought, Leibniz, ‘the first and 
greatest of German philosophers’—as he is 
called in Professor A. E. Taylor’s very inter- 
esting paper—is enjoying a notable revival, 
much at Kant’s expense. The signs of this 
appear alike in the papers of Royce, Taylor 
and Howison. This inclination to go ‘back 
of Kant’—whose reputation has long been 
chiefly an obstruction to the progress of logic 
and metaphysics—is, so far as it goes, an en- 
couraging symptom. There are those, how- 
ever—and the present reviewer is among them 
—who find in much of the new mathematics 
only a straining of the concepts of ordinal 
arrangement and of correspondence into log- 
ical functions for which they are not fitted; 
who do not make out how, after all, the con- 
cepts of quantity and number can be reduced 
to anything else; who suspect the antinomies 
to be one of Kant’s really sound contributions 
to logic; and who, in any case, can not share 
Royce’s confidence in the direct serviceable- 
ness of the new logic of relations in the more 
concrete branches of philosophy. These, 
however, are too large matters to be argued 
out here. In emphasizing the tendency in 
question, the present volume at any rate gives 
a true picture of one striking feature of the 
contemporary situation. But another not less 
conspicuous tendency of the period—that 
known as pragmatism—is hardly so well rep- 
resented. But for two or three brief refer- 
ences by writers unfriendly to the doctrine, 
no reader of this collection of papers would 
guess that pragmatism is the theme which, 
above all, fills our philosophical journals with 
controversy. 

Of the two general papers in philosophy, 
Professor Howison’s, on ‘ Fundamental Cen- 
cepts and Methods’ is only a torso. The com- 
prehensive survey promised in the introduc- 
tion does not appear; the part printed consists 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


chiefly in a fresh exposition of the author’s 
own well-known system of pluralistic idealism 
—an exposition more technical and at points 
more thorough than any of the earlier ones. 
In view of Professor Howison’s association, a 
generation ago, with the St. Louis group of 
philosophers, who did so much to introduce 
the German philosophical tradition into 
America, a certain historic appropriateness 
attaches to his place on this occasion as the 
first of the special representatives of philos- 
ophy and as the spokesman of a new argument 
which seeks to utilize the Kantian and the 
Hegelian logic to reestablish the Leibnitzian 
monadology. The other ‘departmental’ paper 
—one of the longest in the volume—by Pro- 
fessor Ladd, on the development of philosophy 
in the past century, is disappointing. The 
theme was a most alluring one; nothing could 
be more interesting than a review of the 
genesis and gradual growth and ramification 
of the several new fundamental concepts and 
presuppositions which were chiefly the dis- 
coveries of nineteenth-century thought—the 
idea of evolution, in its several phases, the 
invention of the philosophy of history and of 
the historical and genetic fashion of dealing 
with all problems, the manifold applications 
of the idea of relativity, the vicissitudes of 
the eighteenth century’s favorite ‘ principle of 
contradiction’ in subsequent logic and meta- 
physies, ete. But Ladd’s treatment is pretty 
conventional, and, but for a few inconclusive 
generalities about the relations of philosophy 
and the scienees, consists largely in a dry cata- 
logue of philosophers and their tendencies. 
Nor is the catalogue entirely accurate. It is, 
é. g., misleading to speak of Reinhold as “ re- 
jecting Kant’s arbitrary and _ self-contradic- 
tory ‘ thing-in-itself’”” Though the Ding-an- 
sich has a rather odd status in that system, it 
is nearer the truth to say with Falckenberg 
that Reinhold ‘changed the thing-in-itself 
from a problematical negative, merely limit- 
ing concept, into a positive element of doc- 
trine’ The summary in which F. Schlegel is 
disposed of is true only of his first period. 
Such figures as Lamennais, J. de Maistre— 
the great representative of the extreme reac- 


SCIENCE. 


657 


tion against the spirit of the Aufklarung— 
and Dihring, go unmentioned, while room is 
found for such names as Whedon, Hazard, 
Day and Tappan. The portrayal of the con- 
temporary situation in philosophy is indefinite 
and inadequate. 

Hight of the most important papers—those 
of A. EK. Taylor (metaphysics), Hammond 
(logic), Woodbridge (logic), Ostwald (theory 
of science), Erdmann (validity of the causal 
law), M. Bécher (mathematics) and Boltz- 
mann (applied ‘mathematics)—though seat- 
tered through different sections, form a con- 
nected group dealing with essentially the same 
topic—logie or epistemology. It is a pity 
that the program did not explicitly provide in 
advance for a single many-sided discussion of 
the logical foundations of the sciences, by 
the representatives of a number of distinct dis- 
ciplines; here is a case where the mechanical 
uniformity of the scheme of the congress de- 
featedits own purpose. But even as it is, these 
papers, read together, present an instructively. 
diversified array of reasoning upon the same 
set of problems—the relation of logic to psy- 
chology, to metaphysics, to mathematics, the 
connection of the formal and the empirical 
elements in knowledge, the existence of intui- 
tive or necessary truths, the ultimate criterion 
of validity in inference, the relation of the 
judgment to the ‘transcendent object.’ The 
result seems to show a general need of a better 
digestion of the work of the epistemological 
century—the eighteenth. For much that is 
ostensibly novel in the views presented seems 
due less to a real transcending of earlier posi- 
tions than to a forgetting or an imperfect con- 
sideration of them. The question of the exist- 
ence of ‘necessary’ truths and their relation to 
experience (a question, surely, that is capable 
of clear logical determination) still evokes 
a sharp conflict of opinions. Taylor declares 
that recent mathematical logic has only the 
more clearly shown the reality of self-evident 
principles and their primacy in knowledge, 
though it has also shown them to be reducible 
to a small number. Erdmann, in a similar 
spirit, observes that ‘the assertion of modern 
scientific empiricism .. . that there is no 


658 


such thing as necessity of thought, goes alto- 
gether too far.’ Bdécher takes a middle posi- 
tion, apparently holding to the validity of the 
criterion of mental necessity or ultimate self- 
evidence, as such, but doubting whether we 
ean at any given time be sure that we can 
apply that principle to any specified proposi- 
tion: 

We must remember, when we are tempted to 
put implicit confidence in certain fundamental 
logical principles, that . .. no very great 
weight can be attached to the mere fact that these 
principles appeal to us as obviously true; for 
other modes of reasoning which are now uni- 
versally recognized as faulty have appealed in 
just this way to the greatest minds of the past. 


Ostwald, speaking of the conclusion that if 
B follows A and C follows B in any well- 
ordered series, then (@ comes after A, says: 

The correctness and validity of this proposition 
seems to us beyond all doubt. But this is only 
a result of the fact that we are able to demon- 
strate it very easily in countless single cases, 
and have so demonstrated it. . . . To call such 
a proposition, however, a necessity of thinking 
does not appear to me correct. . . . To base the 
proof for the correctness of a proposition upon 
the impossibility of thinking its opposite is an 
impossible undertaking, because every kind of non- 
sense can be thought. 

And Boltzmann deprecates an ‘ immoderate 
trust in the so-called laws of thought’: 

Our problem cannot be to quote [sic the trans- 
lator] facts before the judgment seat of our laws 
of thought, but to fit our mental representations 
to the facts. 

Yet, somewhat oddly, Boltzmann is (in the 
same paragraph) sure that 
in facts there can be no contradictions. As soon 
as contradictions seems unavoidable we must test, 
extend and modify that which we call laws of 
thought, but which are [sic] only inherited, cus- 
tomary representations, preserved for sons for 
the description of practical needs. 

As the requirement of non-contradiction is 
itself commonly understood to be nothing but 
the most fundamental of the laws of thought, 
the paragraph seems to show that contradic- 
tions are at any rate possible in the reasonings 
of a great physicist—when he turns aside into 
epistemology. The whole discussion of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


question shows an undue amount of mental 
confusion and divergence of view, which it 
ought to be possible to get rid of, if philos- 
ophers and men of science would generally 
agree to study the history of philosophy un- 
derstandingly and then ‘get together’ for an 
open-minded, patient, Socratic examination 
of their own meanings and of one another’s 
views. 

On the relation of logic to psychology, 
Taylor, Hammond and Woodbridge substan- 
tially agree in—I can not but think—misap- 
prehending the matter. All three, while 
recognizing obvious points of contact, insist 
that (in Hammond’s phrase) ‘the essence of 
the logical problem is not touched by psy- 
chology, and should not be mixed up with it,’ 
since psychology merely describes judgment 
and other mental processes, while logic in- 
quires concerning ¢ruth in judgments. ‘The 
psychological laws of the formation of con- 
cepts and beliefs are exemplified equally in 
the discovery and propagation of truth and 
of error,’ says Taylor. But surely the only 
verifiable test of an absolutely true judgment 
Gf there be such a thing) is the subjective 
fact that I can neither believe nor conceive 
its opposite; or of a probable judgment, that 
I find no adequate consideration which im- 
pels me to believe its opposite. At any given 
moment of inquiry, verifiable truth can, for 
anybody, only mean unescapable belief; proba- 
bility can only mean belief conformable to 
preponderating, experience-engendered mental 
ease and habit. And the determination of 
the general sort of mental content in the 
presence of which such necessities of concep- 
tion or deeply-rooted preferences of belief 
arise is certainly nothing but a question of 
introspective psychology. A normative prin- 
ciple can only be a way of stating a peculiar 
kind of descriptive fact, viz., a necessary (and 
supposably universal) judgment-reaction ex- 
hibited by the mind in the presence of certain 
carefully analyzed meanings or ideational 
content. This was not unfamiliar to Locke or 
to Hume or to the Leibnitzians; but it seems 
of late to be too little considered. So, again, 
Woodbridge’s vigorous and well-written argu- 


Aprit 27, 1906.] 


ment for the realistic implications intrinsic 
in the judgment as such seems, after all, 
curiously like a mere relapse into a pre-Car- 
tesian, even a pre-Protagorean, dogmatism. 
Doubtless a cognitive process purports to be 
“connected with something other than itself,’ 
and the truths which thought thinks are meant 
to be ‘true, not about thought, but about 
things.’ But it is also a peculiarity of the 
mind that it has the power of self-conscious- 
ness, and so is capable of doubting its own 
success in achieving this ‘ transcendent refer- 
ence. Such a self-conscious ‘ going-behind’ 
the immediate content of consciousness, such 
a distinguishing of the thought-process from 
its potential object, necessarily supervenes in 
the history of philosophy and in any thorough- 
going reflection by the individual; and for 
any modern logician or metaphysician this 
reflective situation is already presupposed. 
The implications of the proposition that man 
is a self-conscious animal, Woodbridge hardly 
seems to have sufticiently considered. 

At a moment when a renascence of realism 
is in fashion among metaphysicians—Dr. W. 
P. Montague even contending, in one of the 
shorter papers here printed, for the physical 
reality of the secondary qualities—it is inter- 
esting to turn to Poincaré’s remarkable essay 
on the present condition of theoretical physics. 
He exhibits—in a fashion that will seem para- 
doxical enough to physicists of an older school 
—all the working principles which physics has 
long employed, as now subsisting in a very 
problematical and parlous state, and the con- 
cepts of matter and energy as surviving only 
in a singularly eviscerated form. The uncer- 
tainty and provisionality which are thus re- 
vealed in the theoretical foundations of the 
most fundamental of the physical sciences, by 
one who is perhaps its most eminent living 
representative, make this paper a noteworthy 
document in the history of science. 

Erdmann’s new rehabilitation of the con- 
cept of necessary causality appears in a rather 
bafflingly unidiomatic translation; but so far 
as one can follow the argument, it does not 
seem likely to render obsolete Ostwald’s re- 
mark in the immediately preceding paper, that 


SCIENCE. 


659 


“all attempts to prove the general validity of 
the law of causality have failed, and there has 
remained only the indication that without this 
law we should feel an unbearable uncertainty 
in reference to the world.” Erdmann’s reason- 
ing, however, is (though distantly related to 
the argument of Kant’s ‘Second Analogy of 
Experience’), original and gedankenreich, 
and it would be profitable to attempt an an- 
alytical discussion of it; but the paper is the 
longest of the series, and a commensurate 
treatment of it here is forbidden by considera- 
tions of space. Like considerations make it 
necessary to mention a number of the more 
specialized papers only by title: those of Or- 
mond on ‘ Present Problems of Metaphysics’; 
of Pfleiderer and Troeltsch on the ‘ Philosophy 
of Religion’; of Sorley and Hensel on 
‘Ethics’; of H. R. Marshall and Dessoir on 
‘Esthetics’; of Pierpont on the ‘ History of 
Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century’; of 
Picard and Maschke on ‘ Algebra and An- 
alysis’; of Darboux and Kasner on ‘ Geom- 
etry. As has been sufficiently shown, the 
volume covers a very wide and very mixed 
field. The selection of these last-named 
papers for so brief mention is not due to any 
lack of interest and value on the part of most 
of them; it is rather due, partly to the limits 
of the province of this journal, and partly to 
the limitations of the present reviewer. Those 
who attended the sessions of the congress will 
remember that a number of the ‘ ten-minute 
papers’ were by no means the least profitable 
part of the proceedings. Of these a few in 
philosophy, but none in mathematics, are 
printed—in each case in abridged form. The 
volume is not free from bad misprints; and 
most of the translations from French and 
German (that of Dessoir’s paper, by Miss E. 
D. Puffer, is one exception) seem to be hasty 
renderings into that unknown tongue which 
only translators employ. 
Artuur O. Lovesoy. 


The Holithic Problem—Evidences of a Rude 
Industry Antedating the Paleolithic. By 
GrorceE Grant MacCurpy.* 


*American Anthropologist, N. S., Vol. 7, pp. 
425-479, with five half tone plates reproduced 


660 


Within the last decades some of the prin- 
eipal questions regarding the Paleolithic stage 
in the evolution of man have come to be con- 
sidered on a fair way to settlement, and the 
frontier of investigation in prehistoric an- 
thropology has been pushed back into epochs 
representing the early Quaternary and the 
Tertiary. Some of the more important prob- 
lems now under discussion concern the pre- 
Paleolithic or Kolithie stage and its culture. 
To these problems relating to the earliest cul- 
ture of incipient man great interest attaches, 
and Dr. MacCurdy has materially assisted in 
making them understood in this country by 
presenting a clear and admirably constructed 
paper discussing the present stage of investi- 
gation in this field. He has taken the direct 
route to knowledge by visiting the original 
European localities and collections in company 
with investigators who have studied them, 
and his opinions are those of an unprejudiced 
observer with the original materials immedi- 
ately before him. The paper includes an 
account of the early discoveries, special dis- 
cussions of the finds in England and Belgium, 
a chronology of the stone age, and a very 
useful bibliography of the subject. 

Technieally, the Eolithic problem concerns 
the existence in Europe of implement-making 
and implement-using primates in periods ante- 
dating that of the Chellean or early Paleolithic 
industry. The time of the Chellean industry, 
or of the beginning of the Paleolithic, is not 
generally supposed to date back as far as the 
beginning of Quaternary time. The industry 
of this epoch is commonly acknowledged to 
represent a grade of development in imple- 
ment making too advanced to be considered 
as the first stage. The stage of Holithic man 
represents the epoch of beginnings, in which 
the first use was made of primitive imple- 
ments. It is described as commencing at 
least as early as Miocene time, and extending 
upward into the early Quaternary. 

The industry of Puy-Courny in France rep- 
resents the late Miocene; the industry of the 
Chalk Plateau in the south of England, so 
from photographs of eoliths, and six text figures 
illustrating the geological relations of implement- 
bearing beds. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


fully discussed by Prestwitch and others, is 
held to be Pliocene. Other industries of 
France and England are referred to the late 
Pliocene. The numerous occurrences in 
Belgium to which Rutot has devoted himself 
are early Quaternary. 

In a study of the implement-like objects 
attributed to the work of primitive man-like 
forms living in the earlier divisions of the 
Kolithic epoch great difficulties are necessarily 
met. The first implements were evidently 
unmodified natural objects. If selected, they — 
were chosen because their original form was 
more suitable for the purpose in view than 
that of other objects. The first artifacts were 
probably unintentionally chipped by use, and 
this class of objects grades into that showing 
intentional modification of form. The series 
leads then from the typical implement to the 
unmodified natural object, and considerably 
before the beginning is reached we arrive at 
a point where it is almost impossible to deter- 
mine whether or not one is dealing with arti- 
facts. 

Haying seen a little of the original local- 
ities and collections examined by Dr. Mac- 


- Curdy, it has appeared to the writer that the 


Kolithic question is really rather sharply 
divided. The problem of the Belgian Kolithie 
flints of early Quaternary age seems hardly 
the same question as that relating to the 
Pliocene eoliths of the Chalk Plateau in 
England, or that of the French specimens 
from the Miocene of Puy-Courny. As is 
shown by Dr. MacCurdy, the Belgian Eolithie 
remains, to which he attaches the greatest im- 
portance, exhibit in many cases almost un- 
deniable evidence of intentional modification 
by man. They belong moreover to a period 
not far antedating the industry of the Chel- 
lean epoch, and are not so far removed from 
the present but that a paleontologist might con- 
ceive of the type of primate which made them 
as existing up to the present day without 
radical physical changes. On the other hand, 
the age of the older deposits representing the 
earlier portion of the Eolithic epoch is so 
great, that to any one acquainted with the 
rapid changes of mammalian types in time, it 


Aprit 27, 1906.] 


is difficult to conceive of a form closely related 
to recent man as extending back to this period. 
The most that we could imagine would be 
that the place of man was occupied by some 
form not higher than the Javan Pithecan- 
thropus, and possibly considerably lower than 
that type, and a question naturally arises as 
to whether a primate of this stage of evolution 
would or could make use of implements. 

In the case of the eoliths of the Kent 
Plateau, Dr. MacCurdy has produced evidence 
which seems to favor intentional modification 
of form. On the other hand, M. Boule in a 
recent article’ has figured and described most 
remarkable flint forms resembling eoliths, but 
produced by the impact on each other of nu- 
merous flints carried about in swiftly running 
water at a cement factory. In such a case 
as this, in which from the very nature of the 
problem the discrimination between natural 
and artificial becomes increasingly difficult, it 


would appear that other evidence must he’ 


called in before we can reach definite con- 
clusions. Apparently the ultimate decision 
concerning many of the most important points 
relating to the very early history of man must 
be determined by purely paleontological obser- 
vations upon his skeletal remains, and the 
European record of these is as yet practically 
a blank for the Eolithic epoch. We shall, 
however, always obtain a large part of our 
information concerning early man from stud- 
ies of the industries which represent him. 
In whatever way the question of European 
Pliocene and Miocene man is finally settled, 
the present discussion is furnishing the oc- 
easion for considerable contributions to our 
knowledge of the origin and distinctive char- 
acters of flaked flints both natural and arti- 
ficial, and will lead to a much better under- 
standing of this side of the problem. Cer- 
tainly no possible line of investigation which 
can furnish us information concerning the 
earliest man-like types should be neglected. 
Whether or not we are willing to agree with 
the investigators in all their conclusions in 
this particular case, we must certainly com- 


2M. Boule, ‘ L’Origine des Holithes,’ L’Anthro- 
pologie, 1905, T. 16, No. 3, pp. 257-267. 


SCIENCE. 


661 


mend the earnest and painstaking effort which 
is being made to come to a clear understand- 
ing regarding the significance of the interest- 
ing materials now under consideration. 


JoHn C. Merriam. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for March con- 
tains ‘Notes on Reptiles and Batrachians of 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware,’ by 
Witmer Stone; ‘Anatomy of Acmza testudi- 
nalis Muller, Part I., Introductory Material 
—External Anatomy,’ by M. A. Willcox; 
“Affinities of Certain Cretaceous Plant Re- 
mains commonly referred to the Genera 
Dammara and Brachyphyllum, by A. Hol- 
lick and E..C. Jeffrey; ‘A New Pyenogonoid 
from the Bahamas,’ by L. J. Cole; and ‘ Addi- 
tional Notes on Bahama Snakes,’ by T. Bar- 
bour. 


Bird-Lore for March-April has a _ well- 
illustrated article by Herbert K. Job, entitled 
‘Some Bird Notes from the Magdalens,’ ‘A 
Familiar Sparrow Hawk, by N. C. Brown, 
and ‘ Legs and Feet of Birds,’ by C. William 
Beebe, showing their many modifications to 
adapt them for various uses. Under the sec- 
tion ‘For Teachers and Students’ we have 
the fifteenth paper on ‘The Migration of 
Warblers,’ by W. W. Cooke, and a ‘ Brief Gen- 
eral Classification of the Songs of Eastern 
North American Wood Warblers, by Gerald 
H. Thayer. In the Audubon Societies is 
noted the recent unanimous decision by the 
court of appeals that the sale of foreign game 
may be prohibited during the close season for 
similar native species. The Educational 
Leaflet is devoted to the belted kingfisher and 
includes a fine colored plate. 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
February contains the program for the July 
meeting of the Museums Association, which 
will be held at Bristol. There is an article 
on the ‘Future of Museums,’ by H. Bolton, 
which deals with the relations of provincial 
to government museums, a phase of museum 
administration that does not apply to the 
United States. ‘Museums and Private Col- 


662 


lections,’ by S. L. Moseley, shows how much 
harm may be wrought by the private collector 
and pleads for a more public spirit. The 
number is specially rich in notes on art mu- 
seums and records the ‘ discovery’ of a num- 
ber of paintings by Turner in the cellars of 
the National Gallery. 

The Museum News of the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute for April contains articles on ‘ Zuni Pot- 
tery-making,’ the ‘Great Anteater’ and ‘ The 
Care of an Aquarium,’ besides numerous notes 
relating to the collections and libraries of the 
museums. ; 

The Bulletin of the College of Charleston 
Museum has articles on the ‘Birds of the 
Coast Region of South Carolina’ and a syn- 
opsis of the museum lecture on typhoid fever. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
THE regular annual session of the National 


Academy of Sciences was held in Washington, _ 


April 16 to 18, inclusive. 

The following members were present during 
the session: Messrs. Abbot, Agassiz, Becker, 
Billings, Boss, Brewer, Brush, Campbell, Cat- 
tell, Chittenden, Crafts, Dall, Dutton, Km- 
mons, Gill, Hague, Hale, Holmes, Howell, 
Merriam, Morley, Morse, Newcomb, Noyes, 
Osborn, Peirce, Pupin, Remsen, Trelease, 
Walcott, Webster, Welch, Wells and Wood- 
ward. 

The following new members were elected: 
Benjamin O. Peirce, Cambridge, Mass.; Wil- 
liam B. Seott, Princeton, N. J.; Josiah Royce, 
Cambridge, Mass. 

Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, of Leipzig, and 
Professor H. A. Lorentz, of Leiden, were 
elected foreign associates. 

Messrs. Billings, Chittenden, Hale, Osborn, 
Welch and Woodward were reelected members 
of the council for one year. 

The Draper medal was presented to Mr. W. 
W. Campbell at a dinner given by Mr. Alex- 
ander Agassiz at the New Willard Hotel on 
Tuesday evening, April 17. 

The following program was presented: 

J. McK. Carretr: ‘ The Distribution of Ameri- 
ean Men of Science.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


C. S. Prmrce: ‘Recent Developments of Ex- 
istential Graphs and their Consequences for Logic.” 

THEO. Ho~m: ‘Commelinacee. Morphological 
and Anatomical Studies of the Vegetative Organs 
of Some North and Central American Species.’ 
(Presented by Theo. Gill.) 

A. Agassiz and H. L. CuarK: ‘On the Classifi- 
cation of the Cidaride.’ 

THEO. GitL: ‘Interference of Oviposition of a 
Sargasso Fish with a Flying Fish.’ 

H. F. Osporn: ‘Faunal and Geological Succes- 
sion in Eocene and Oligocene Basins of Rocky 
Mountain Region.’ 

W. J. Stncxair: ‘ Volcanic Ash in the Bridger 
Beds of Wyoming.’ (Presented by H. F. Osborn.) 

C. E. Dutton: ‘ Radioactivity and Volcanoes.” 

C. D. Waucort: ‘Cambrian Faunas of China’ 
(with lantern illustrations). 

GrorcE E. HALE: ‘ Recent Solar Investigations” 
(with lantern illustrations). 

W. W. CAMPBELL and C. D. PERRINE: 
Recent Solar Eclipse Results.’ 

M. I. Pupin: ‘Feeble Rapidly Alternating 
Magnetization of Iron.’ 

J. M. Crarts: ‘Primary Standards for Tem- 
perature Measurements between 100° and 350°. 

AsapH Haun: ‘Biographical Memoir of Ad- 
miral John Rodgers.’ 

W. M. Davis: ‘ Biographical Memoir of George 
P. Marsh.’ 

THEO. GILL: ‘ The Life History of Pterophryne.’ 


* Some 


SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. 

Tue fifteenth meeting of the Society for 
Experimental Biology and Medicine was held 
in the Physiological Laboratory of the New 
York University and Bellevue Hospital Med- 
ieal College on Wednesday evening, February 
21, 1906. The president, Edmund B. Wilson, 
was in the chair. 

Members Present—Auer, Beebe, Brooks, 
Calkins, Emerson, Field, Gies, L. Loeb,” Lusk, 
A. R. Mandel, J. A. Mandel, Meltzer, W. G. 
MacCallum,” Murlin, Opie, Park, Richards, 
Salant, Shaffer, Sherman, Torrey, Wallace, 
Wilson, Wolf. 

Members Hlected—Walter R. Brinckerhoff, 
Warren P. Lombard, B. T. Terry, E. E. Tyzzer. 

Officers Hlected.—President, Simon Flexner; 
vice-president, E. K. Dunham; librarian, Gra- 


1 Non-resident. 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


ham Lusk; treasurer, Gary N. Calkins; secre- 
tary, William J. Gies. 


Abstracts of Reports of Original 
Investigations. 

On the Intermediary Metabolism of Lactic 
Acid: A. R. Manpen and Granam Lusk. 
Administration of phlorhizin to a dog 

poisoned with phosphorus causes excretion of 

dextrose, the mother substance of lactic acid, 
and the latter then disappears from the blood 
and urine. On the other hand, d-lactic acid 

(Kahlbaum), when given to a diabetic dog, 

may be completely converted into dextrose. 


The Primary Factor in Thrombosis after In- 
jury to the Blood Vessels: Lro Lors. 

The author has observed that in inyerte- 
brates as well as in vertebrates an agglutina- 
tion of blood-cells or of blood plates may take 
place around foreign bodies or at the place of 
injury of the vessel wall. The formation of 
such agglutination thrombi was found to 
correspond to the clumping of the same cel- 
lular elements outside of the body, where the 
agglutination can take place without being ac- 
companied by a coagulative process. This 
phenomenon is observed in vertebrate as well 
as in invertebrate blood. 

In birds the injection of hirudin does not 
materially alter the readiness with which a 
thrombus is formed. In dogs, on the other 
hand, it is very probable that injections of 
hirudin delay or may sometimes prevent the 
formation of agglutination thrombi. The 
effect, however, is not directly due to the in- 
hibition of the coagulation of the blood, but 
probably to changes in the blood which will 
have to be determined. 


Granula and Ameboid Movements in the 
Blood-cells of Arthropods: Lno Lors. 

- The author’s investigations of the changes 

in freshly drawn blood of Limulus and other 

arthropods show that the fate of the granules 


?The abstracts presented in this account of the 
proceedings have been greatly condensed from ab- 
stracts given to the secretary by the authors them- 
selves. The latter abstracts of the communica- 
tions may be found in current numbers of Amer- 
acan Medicine and the New York Medical Journal. 


SCIENCE. 


663 


of the blood-cells depends upon certain me- 
chanical conditions and that the apparently 
spontaneous dissolution of cell granula can be 
inhibited, to a large degree, by preventing cer- 
tain mechanical irritations of the cells. It 
seems probable that the ameboid movements, 
the spreading out of the cells and the dissolu- 
tion of the granules are caused by certain 
metabolic changes which are induced in each 
instance by similar conditions. 


On a Course in the Pathological Physiology 
of the Circulation, with Demonstrations of 
Tracings, Anatomical Specimens, Instru- 
ments, etc.: W. G. MacCaium. 

The author described the course given by 
him during the past year in the new laboratory 
of experimental medicine at Johns Hopkins 
University. It was the aim of the course to 
reproduce experimentally such diseased condi- 
tions as are seen by medical students in the 
wards of the hospital, so that the diseases 
might be studied with the aid of any or all 
of the methods at the command of the physiol- 
ogist and of the pathologist. The author’s de- 
scription and demonstrations made it evident 
that the object of the course has been attained 
with an unusual degree of success. 


On the Blood-pressuré Relations in Haxperi- 
mental Mitral Insufficiency and Stenosis, 
with Demonstrations of Tracings and 
Anatomical Specimens: W. G. MacCattum 
and R. D. McCuure. 

Blood pressure was recorded in various por- 
tions of the circulatory system after mitral 
insufficiency had been produced by introducing 
a curved knife hook into the left auricular ap- 
pendage and cutting some portion of the mitral 
valve. A systolic murmur could then be heard, 
which was especially loud over the auricle and 
along the pulmonary veins with usually a 
thrill felt over the auricle. The hypertrophy 
of the right ventricle was studied and dis- 
cussed. 

Mitral stenosis was produced by means of a 
clamp or by a coarse suture passed through the 
heart and about the mitral ring. The pressure 
is seen to rise yery high in the pulmonary 
circulation, but, because of the smaller amount 


664 


of blood to circulate there, it is lower 


throughout the systemic circulation. 
Paramecium Aurelia and Mutation: Gary N. 

CALKINS. 

In March, 1905, a pair of conjugating 
Paramecium caudatum was isolated from a 
culture in an epidemic of conjugations. The 
ex-conjugates had all of the characteristics of 
P. aurelia. One died before many generations 
in culture, the other is still living and is now 
in the 346th generation. This one retained 
the characteristics of P. aurelia until about 
the 45th generation after conjugation, when 
it lapsed again into the P. caudatwm form, 
with one micronucleus and other character- 
istics of P. caudatum. The latter characters 
are still maintained. 

The observation indicates one of two things. 
Hither, this is an interesting case of mutation 
of species, with lapse into the parent form after 
several generations, or the specific character- 
istics are inadequate and P. caudatwm and P. 
aurelia are but variants of one species. The 
latter is the more reasonable hypothesis, and 
on grounds of priority the common forms of 
paramecium should he ealled paramecium 
aurelia. 


Haperiments with some Saline Purgatives 
gwen Subcutaneously: Joun AUER. 

The author’s experiments lead to the con- 
clusions that the subcutaneous injection of 
sodium sulfate and sodium phosphate does 
not produce purgation in rabbits, and that 
the pendular movements of the small intestine 
are moderately increased. 


The Effects of Eatra Stimuli upon the Heart 
in the Several Stages of Block, together with 
a Theory of Heart Block: JosrpH ERLANGER. 
(Presented by S. J. Meltzer.) 
The author’s observations suggest the fol- 
lowing theory of heart block: Clamping the 
auriculo-ventricular bundle reduces the effi- 
cieny of the cardiac impulses that reach the 
ventricles. With a certain degree of pressure 
the impulses become subminimal with respect 
to the irritability of the ventricles. Such an 
impulse would, therefore, fail to elicit a con- 
traction of the ventricles. The next following 
auricular impulse would be no stronger than 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 591. 


the preceding one, but in the interval the 
irritability of the ventricles has increased to 
the extent that the weakened auricular im- 
pulse now acts as an efficient stimulus. In 
this state of affairs the rhythm would be 2:1. 
A further reduction in the efficiency of the 
auricular impulse would give higher degrees 
of partial block and finally complete block. 
With this theory as a basis it becomes possible 
to explain all of the important phenomena of 
heart-block. } 


On the Nature of the Reflexes Controlling the 
Successive Movements in the Mechamsm of 
Deglutition: S. J. Meurzer. 

The experiments demonstrate that the func- 
tion of deglutition is provided with two sets 
of reflex mechanisms. One mechanism has 
only one initial afferent impulse which travels 
within the center independently of any fur- 
ther aid from the esophagus; it is very sensi- 
tive to anesthesia and may be called a higher 
reflex. The other is a lower reflex, consisting 
of a chain of local reflexes which are very re- 
sistant to anesthesia. 


The Enzymes of Inflammatory Hxudates. A 
Study of the Hnzymes concerned im In- 
flammation and their Relations to Various 
Types of Phagocytic Cells; Eucunr L. 
OprE. 

The phagocytic cells of an inflammatory 
exudate contain two enzymes. One of these 
ferments, characterized by its power to digest 
protein in an alkaline medium, is contained 
in the polynuclear leucocytes with fine granula- 
tion, and since it is derived from the bone 
marrow, may be designated myelo-protease. 
The second ferment characterized by its power 
to digest only in acid medium, in this respect 
resembling the autolytic ferments of other 
organs, is contained in the large mononuclear 
cells of the exudate and is increased in lym- 
phatie glands adjacent to the seat of inflam- 
mation; it may be designated lympho-protease. 
Experimental Myocarditis. A Study of the 

Histological Changes following Intravenous 

Injections of Adrenalin: RicHarp M. 

Prarce. (Presented by Eugene L. Opie.) 

The author gave many detailed results of an 
elaborate study. He stated that there is little 


ApRiL 27, 1906.] 


evidence to support the theory of a direct toxic 
action of adrenalin on the heart muscle. In- 
deed, the limitation of degenerative lesions to 
the heart and larger blood vessels and their 
practical absence in all other tissues contra- 
indicate a toxic action and point to some in- 
fluence of a mechanical nature affecting these 
structures alone. That some of the more un- 
usual forms of fibrous myocarditis in man 
which are difficult of explanation may be due 
to circulatory disturbances of the same gen- 
eral nature as those caused in rabbits by 
adrenalin can not be denied. It is to these 
only that the results of this experimental in- 
vestigation appear to have any relation. 


Stable and Detachable Agglutinogen of 
Typhoid Bacil: B. H. Buxton and J. C. 
TorREY. 

By heating an emulsion of typhoid bacilli 
to 72° CO. for half an hour a detachable ag- 
glutinum may be separated from the bacilli. 
This may be obtained in the filtrate after pas- 
sage through a Berkefeld filter. Rabbits which 
have been inoculated on the one hand by this 
filtrate and on the other by the heated bacilli, 
which have been thoroughly washed, show 
specific differences in their serums, as regards 
agglutination. The animal inoculated with 
the washed bacilli or stable agglutinum, pro- 
duces a serum which agglutinates normal 
typhoid bacilli very slowly and with the forma- 
tion of fine clumps. In contrast to this, the 
filtrate containing only detachable agelutinum 
gives rise to serum which clumps normal 
typhoid bacilli rapidly and with the formation 
of large flocculi. 

Absorption experiments, furthermore, show 
that the s or stable agglutinin and the d or 
detachable agglutinin are distinct in char- 
acter. 

It has also been determined that the sub- 
stance in typhoid bacilli which gives rise to 
precipitins for filtrates of typhoid cultures is 
split off from the bacilli, together with the de- 
tachable agglutinums. The possibility sug- 
gests itself that the d agglutinin and the pre- 
cipitin in a typhoid serum are identical. 


SCIENCE. 


665 


The Effect of Alcohol on Hepatic Glycogenesis 
(Preliminary Communication): Wiitt1aM 
SALANT. 

Thus far in his experiments the author has 
found that the administration of alcohol, even 
in relatively large doses, is without effect on 
glycogen metabolism in the livers of fasting 
rabbits. 


The Viscosity of the Blood during Fever and 
After Injection of Phenylhydrazin: R. 
Burton-Opirz. 

The viscosity was increased in these experi- 
ments, whereas the specific gravity was de- 
ereased. These results agree with the au- 
thor’s previous observations, to the effect that 
the viscosity and the specific gravity of blood 
may vary independently. 

Winuram J. Girs, 
Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 414th meeting was held March 17, 1906, 
with President Knowlton in the chair and 31 
persons in attendance. Mr. J. W. Gidley 
presented the first paper, ‘ Evidence bearing 
on Tooth-Cusp Development, based on a Study 
of the Mesozoic Mammals.’ A study of the 
Mesozoic mammal collection in the U. S. Na- 
tional Museum has led to some discoveries of 
importance bearing on the question of tooth- 
cusp homologies in the mammalian molars. 

According to the tritubercular theory, as ad- 
voeated by Osborn, the primary cone in the 
upper molars is always to be found on the 
inner or lingual side and is the homologue of 
the central cone in such forms as T'riconodon. 
Against this theory Scott has shown, from 
paleontological research, that in the upper 
molariform premolars the primary cone is on 
the outside. M. F. Woodward has found 
from embryological studies of certain groups 
of insectivores that the main anterior external 
cusp is the first to develop, not only in the 
premolars, but in the molars as well, while 
the internal cone (protocone) is third in 
making its appearance. 

Notwithstanding this opposition evidence, 
Osborn still supports the hypothesis of an 
internal position for the primary cone in the 


666 


upper molars, and as conclusive evidence of 
the correctness of this view has cited the upper 
molars of Triconodon, in which the main 
cone is central, and Dryolestes and other 
forms, in which he states the main cone is 
internal. 

Owing doubtless to the incompleteness and 
minuteness of the teeth examined, Osborn was 
apparently led to error in observations, for 
instead of three cusps, one internal and two 
external, as stated by Osborn, the upper molars 
of Dryolestes have five distinct cusps, one in- 
ternal, three external and one posterior 
median. This arrangement admits of a dif- 
ferent interpretation of the cusp homologies. 
The three outer cusps supported by two fangs 
now appear to be homologous with the three 
main cusps and two fangs of Triconodon, the 
inner cusp being readily interpreted as a sec- 
ondary or internal heel development. This 
view is strengthened by a third type, Dicrocy- 
nodon, in which the outer portion of the upper 
molar is very similar to that of Dryolestes, but 
the large-inner cusp is totally different. In 
Triconodon a broken external cingulum and 
two incipient inner heel-like cusps preclude 
the probability, at least, of this form of molar 
ever passing to a typical triconodont stage 
through the outward shifting of its lateral 
cusps. These forms, therefore, apparently 
represent distinct types of molars separately 
derived from the simple cone, and Triconodon 
and Dryolestes do not represent successive 
stages in the development of the trituberculate 
melar, as supposed by Osborn. 

Thus, the evidence of the Jurassic mammals 
apparently agrees with the embryological evi- 
dence and supports the ‘ premolar-analogy’ 
theory, while it lends no support to the tri- 
tubercular theory in so far as it involves the 
position of the primary cone. 

The second paper was by Mr. M. C. Marsh, 
on ‘ Hemoglobin Estimates and Blood Counts 
in Fishes in Health and Disease.’ The species 
observed were the brook trout and rainbow 
trout. Apparently normal brook trout from 
the Au Sable River in Michigan varied widely 
in hemoglobin and no norm was established 
gave a very broad one. ‘Thirty-five specimens 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 591. 


gave an average reading of 43 with the Dare 
hemoglobinometer, 100 representing normal 
human blood. The readings varied from 33 to 
59. The hemoglobin of domesticated brook 
trout averaged 34 from 23 observations. Wild 
rainbow trout, represented by only two closely 
agreeing readings, were 92 in hemoglobin, 
while the same species domesticated averaged 
54 from 19 observations. The chief con- 
clusions of interest derived from these figures 
are that trout blood is lower in hemoglobin 
than human blood, that the brook trout, 
whether wild or domesticated, is considerably 
lower than the rainbow in the corresponding 
condition, and that domestication is attended 
with a considerable falling off in hemoglobin 
content. This latter fact is possibly corre- 
lated with the increased susceptibility to dis- 
ease in domesticated fish. Such a correlation 
is more forcibly suggested by the comparative 
insusceptibility of rainbow trout, even in 
domestication, to a bacterial disease which un- 
der exactly the same conditions attacks readily 
the brook trout. - The question is raised of 
the possibility of increasing the hemoglobin 
in the blood of the latter species by feeding 
iron salts, as in human medicine. 

The wild brook trout has about one million 
red corpuscles per cubic millimeter and the 
number is not diminished in domestication. 
The rainbow trout domesticated has 1,487,000, 
being the average of eleven individuals, while 
a single observation of the wild rainbow 
showed 1,830,000. 

Trout in fish-cultural ponds have occa- 
sionally true neoplasms of a malignant nature 
located in the region of the gills and causing 
a pronounced anemia. ‘Ten brook trout thus 
afflicted had an average hemoglobin reading 
of 17. An apparently primary anemia in the 
young of this species has been observed, in 
some individuals so extreme that the gills in 
life were white. The red cells had fallen off 
greatly in number, the lowest count recorded 
being 38,000. 

On the other hand, the most destructive 
epidemics of protozoan and bacterial infection 
in trout are not attended by any marked 
anemia. 


Aprit, 27, 1906.] 


Mr. Austin H. Clark read the last paper of 
the meeting, describing ‘A Case of Melanism 
in West Indian Honey Creepers.’ 

M. C. Marsu, 
Recording Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
DR. 0. F. COOK’S CONCEPTION OF EVOLUTION. 


In Scrmncz, March 30, 1906, p. 506, Dr. O. 
F. Cook expresses the opinion that in the re- 
cent discussion of isolation as an evolutionary 
factor there is ‘a need of a simple distinction,’ 
and asserts that isolation does not play a part 
in evolution. A similar idea, that neither 
isolation nor natural selection nor mutation 
factors in evolution, had been maintained 
by him previously in a series of publications, 
the last of which is a paper printed by the 
Washington Academy of Sciences.’ 

This astonishing view should be carefully 
investigated and analyzed, for up to the pres- 
ent time every writer on evolutionary subjects, 
no matter what his standpoint, has taken it 
for granted that any of the factors introduced, 
if they are admitted at all, are admitted on 
the ground that they are factors cooperating 
in the general process called evolution. Dr. 
Cook, however, believes that isolation, natural 
selection, mutation, etc., have nothing to do 
with evolution, and that the last is a different 
process, due to ‘causes resident in species.’ 

Looking more closely upon his views, it 
becomes evident that Dr. Cook’s conception 
of ‘evolution’ is different from that of other 
writers, and, of course, the propriety of his 
criticism of the latter depends on the correct- 
ness of his new conception of evolution. 

As every student of evolution knows, and 
as also Dr. Cook admits, ‘evolution, as the 
word implies, was originally intended to char- 
acterize the whole process by which the or- 
ganic world has been formed. According to 
the view of Linneus, the organic world, as it 
now exists, divided up in species, was created 

10. F. Cook, ‘The Vital Fabrice of Descent,’ 
Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., 7, March 19, 1906, p. 
301 ff. 

20. F. Cook, ‘Evolution not the Origin of 
Species, Pop. Sci. Mo., 64, 1904, p. 445. 


SCIENCE. 


667 


so, and the number of existing species has 
remained permanent since their creation; ac- 
cording to Cuvier, a number of successive 
creations of species have taken place, each de- 
stroyed by a catastrophe. The ‘theory of 
evolution’ is opposed to the assumption of a 
permanency or stability, and introduces the 
view that the present organic world has devel- 
oped out of preexisting forms, the former be- 
ing evolved, or developed, or descended from 
the latter, and it admits the possibility of the 
splitting up of one species into two or more. 
Thus ‘evolution’ becomes a concept contrary 
to permanency or stability, and expresses the 
belief that organisms have reached their pres- 
ent state by degrees, by a change or trans- 
mutation, which they have undergone during 
the process of descent from their ancestors, 
connected with a differentiation. Since this 
theory has been proposed in order to explain 
the present condition of things, chiefly the 
separation of the organic world into a large 
number of species, the whole process of eyolu- 
tion has been called by Darwin ‘origin of 
species, and Darwin’s theory is known as 
the ‘theory of evolution,’ or the ‘theory of 
descent,’ and the terms ‘evolution,’ ‘ descent,’ 
‘ development’ have been used as synonyms. 
But this is wrong, according to Dr. Cook. 
Already Darwin’s phrase ‘origin of species’ 
(the ‘species-origination box,’ as Dr. Cook 
very elegantly calls it) does not include the 
factor of ‘ evolution,’ for evolution is different 
from ‘speciation,’ or the making of species. 
Evolution is a ‘ process of organic change and 
development, universal and continuous’; it is 
a ‘continuous progressive change’; it is the 
‘progressive development of organisms’; it is 
a ‘process of change in species’; which means 
to say that it is characterized by a continuous 
change of the organisms, which becomes evi- 
dent and visible by the fact that the descend- 
ants differ from their ancestors. This change 
observed in the organic world is paramount in 
Dr. Cook’s conception of ‘evolution’; he re- 
stricts this term thus, and uses it exclusively. 
to express this fact. What happens later to 
the changed organisms through the action of 
natural selection, segregation, etc., is entirely 


668 


outside of ‘evolution,’ and is another process, 
ealled by Dr. Cook ‘speciation.’ Both proc- 
esses are connected only in so far as evolution 
furnishes the material for speciation. 

This analysis shows at a glance that what 
Dr. Cook ealls ‘evolution’ is in fact nothing 
but the well-known process of ‘ variation’;° 
possibly it is only a special form of it, since 
according to Dr. Cook’s statements, a progress 
or advance is implied in ‘evolution.’ Be this 
as it may, evolution in Dr. Cook’s sense is 
certainly included in the old concept of varia- 
tion, that is to say in the general and funda- 
mental axiom of the Darwinian theory that 
organic beings, during the process of develop- 
ment, change or vary, that the descendants 
may differ from their ancestors, that a change 
of characters takes place during the phylo- 
genetic development of organic forms. 

Thus Dr. Cook’s idea is new only in so far 
as he tries to restrict the original meaning of 
the term ‘evolution.’ In previous literature, 
‘evolution’ includes all factors that con- 
tribute to the development of the organic 
world: it includes variation as well as inherit- 
ance, natural selection and segregation* and 
several others, which have not found universal 
recognition as independent processes. But 
now Dr. Cook tries to teach us that the word 
‘evolution’ should be deprived of its general 
meaning, and should be used only in place of 
‘variation,’ with a peculiar restriction. 

It hardly seems advisable to accept this 
change of the meaning of a word used in the 
same sense by all previous writers. Although 
Dr. Cook feels the necessity of doing so, and 
in spite of his criticism of the ‘ chosen people 
of science’ for their failure to see the pro- 
priety of this change, I for my part prefer to 
call the whole process of development of the 
organic world, from its beginning to its end, 
by the name of ‘ evolution,’ which is synonym 
to ‘development,’ and also to ‘origin of spe- 
cies,’ ‘descent,’ and also to ‘Darwinian the- 


**Evolution . . . is the journey of which 
individual variations are steps.’ O. F. Cook, in 
Pop. Sci. Mo., 64, 1904, p. 449. 

*For particulars see Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 35, 
1896, p. 188. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von, XXIII. No. 591. 


ory. Dr. Cook’s ‘simple distinction’ between 


‘evolution’ (= variation) and ‘speciation’ 
(=—all other factors) is not simple at all, but - 
highly confused and confusing, since the 
meaning of a well-established word is arbi- 
trarily changed, without the slightest neces- 
sity (other terms being available). Thus I 
must positively decline to accept Dr. Cook’s 
conception of ‘ evolution.’ 

To the disinclination of other men of sci- 
ence to accept the terminology suggested by 
Dr. Cook is apparently due his complaint that 
the ‘very ungracious task to convince’ them 
of the correctness of his position falls upon 
his shoulders. But there is no need for him 
to complain. The distinction recommended 
has actually been made before, and there have 
been other people who have conceived similar 
ideas, although different terms were used by 
them. I myself have emphasized in the 
article referred to by Dr. Cook, that I regard 
isolation only as a factor in species-making 
(speciation), and have quoted a paper of 
mine,’ where I have set forth my views in 
detail. Thus, five years before Dr. Cook’s 
first publication on this subject,’ I have ‘ per- 
ceived these elementary facts,’ that there are 
not only ‘two groups of phenomena belonging 
to entirely different categories,’ but that there 
are four of them. The first of them is varia- 
tion, which furnishes the material for the 
others, and must be taken for granted, no 
matter ‘what an Irishman might say.’ But 
this has not ‘saved the writing’ of Dr. Cook’s 
papers, for he apparently has not taken the 
trouble to ascertain what my views are. 
Moreover, I do not claim, by any means, to 
be the only one who was able to ‘ perceive this 
elementary fact’ that the origin of species is 
composed of several processes belonging to 
different categories, but I have always af- 
firmed that already Darwin, in the ‘ Origin of 
Species’ very properly distinguished them 
and discussed them, at least saw clearly that 
there are different questions involved. That 
Darwin has been misunderstood and misin- 


5 SolENcE, January 12, 1906, p. 71. 
° Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 35, 1896, p. 175 ff. 
"ScrEncE, 13, 1901, p. 969. 


AFRIL 27, 1906.] 


terpreted by those that have studied his 
writings, is to be regretted, but is excusable; 
that his views are judged upon without his 
works being read, as is sometimes the case, is 
inexcusable. 

Aside from the above objection to Dr. 
Cook’s use of the term ‘evolution,’ I wish to 
emphatically object to his idea of the ‘ actu- 
ating causes’ of ‘evolution’ (or variation). 
He believes that they are not to be sought in 
the ‘pressure of environment,” but that they 
are ‘inner’ causes, supported by interbreeding. 

This view zs not new at all, indeed we may 
say that, by this time, zt is venerable on ac- 
count of tts antiquity, for it is the view held 
by the earlier Weismannian school, which 
assumes that variation is due to inner causes 
(germinal variation, spontaneous variation, 
Keimyariation), aided by amphimixis (inter- 
breeding). I have demonstrated’ that this 
view, which, as it is proper to state, is not 
held any more by Weismann himself, is en- 
tirely illogical; but I do not see the necessity 

- of repeating here my arguments for Dr. Cook’s 
benefit. This much, however, may be said, 
that the assumption that only inner causes are 
‘actuating’ in the production of variation, 
expressly excludes a class of causes which is 
absolutely necessary for every process in this 
world, namely the ‘cause efficientes.’ That 
Dr. Cook has entirely forgotten what a ‘causa 
efficiens’ is is shown by the distinction he 
makes between occasion and the true, actu- 
ating cause.° But he may be excused on the 
ground that the discovery of the difference of 
these terms, and of the fact that what he calls 
Occasion, is no true cause, is not his: it is a 
perpetuation or repetition of a blunder com- 
mitted first by Weismann,” and by von Graff,” 
in making a distinction between Bedingung 
and Ursache, or condition and cause. 


*C. H. Merriam, Scimnce, February 16, 1906, 
p. 244. 

°“ Ueber Keimvariation’ in Biolog. Centralblatt, 
18, 1898, p. 139 ff. 

* Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., 1906, p. 305. 

**Ueber Germinalselection, 1896, p. 48, foot- 
note 2. 

¥* Zoology since Darwin’ in Ann. Rep. Smiths. 
Inst., 1896, p. 486. 


SCIENCE. 


669 


Indeed, it is too bad that this discovery of 
Dr. Cook, that the occasion (or condition) is 
no actuating cause, can not stand in the face 
of philosophical criticism. For, if the occa- 
sion of Dr. Cook is the same thing that is 
called causa efficiens (actuating cause) by 
people trained in logic, then, of course, ez- 
ternal influences must be admitted as the 
cause efficientes of variation. 

A. E. OrtTMANN. 

CaBNEGIE MusruM, PiTTsBuRG, Pa. 

April 2, 1906. 


THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. 


To the Editor of Science: The letter on 
page 545 of Sctmnce for April 6, 1906, from 
Junius Henderson, of Boulder, Colo., relates 
to a subject that has always had a personal 
interest for me. J can never forget the ad- 
vantages that I myself derived from the gen- 
erosity of a father who enabled me to begin 
the accumulation of a scientific library. 
Equally advantageous have been the gratui- 
tous publications of the government, and the 
comparatively cheap publications of scientific 
societies, as contrasted with the very high 
prices charged by many publishing firms for 
strictly technical scientific documents. It is 
to the best interests of our national gov- 
ernment, our state governments and our en- 
dowed universities that they should, in every 
way possible, stimulate the publication and 
distribution of researches that, taken collect- 
ively, mark the steady progress of man in 
wresting her secrets from nature. 

Perhaps to an equal degree is it the duty 
of the citizens, so far as is any way practi- 
eable, to stimulate the establishment of scien- 
tific and technical libraries in localities where 
they may be accessible to large numbers of 
students. The increase and diffusion of 
knowledge should not be left to the Smith- 
sonian alone, or to the government, or to the 
university as an organization, but has become 
the duty of each individual scholar. Many 
men haye considerable collections of valuable 
books that they should make accessible to stu- 
dents, rather than keep them locked up on 
their own shelves. I know of severcl! who are 


670 


looking about for the best university or li- 
brary in which to deposit their own scientific 
collections. If the wants of our universi- 
ties and observatories and research stations 
could be fully made known, through the col- 
umns of Sctmnce, they would find a ready 
response on the part of individuals who have 
been profiting by the generous distribution of 
expensive volumes during many years past. 
Such volumes, whether published by the gov- 
ernment or by societies, are, as it were, loaned 
in trust to past recipients, who, having bene- 
fited by them, should now in turn pass them 
on to others, rather than hoard them, or sell 
them as merchandise. 
CLEVELAND ABBE. 


THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALS. 


To THE Eprror or Science: I wish to learn 
at what age, under what circumstances and to 
what extent people of different climes, races, 
civilizations and temperaments have changed 
their views as to whence we came, whither we 
go, and what we are here for. Any statement, 
elaborate or short, regarding an individual’s 
mental development will be a welcome contri- 
bution to a proposed ‘ Natural History of the 
Thinker.’ I have been obliged to thus appeal 
to my contemporaries because autobiographical 
documents so far extant do not yield enough 
accurate descriptions of the inner life. To 
illustrate my purpose, I beg to refer to my 
article on ‘The Interpretation of a System 
from the Point of View of Developmental 
Psychology,’ in the Journal of Philosophy, 
Psychology and Scientific Methods, Febru- 
ary 15. 


Epwin Tauscu. 
Onto University, ATHENS, O. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
QUARTZ GLASS. 


Pure quartz when melted down to a glass 
has three properties which make it of immense 
value in the chemical and physical laboratory, 
and were it not for the technical difficulties 
attending its production, it would certainly 
displace ordinary glass wherever a transparent 
medium capable of withstanding heat is re- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 591. 


quired. It expands less than one tenth as 
much as common glass when heated; it can 
be heated to 1,000° C. without softening; and 
finally, it transmits ultraviolet light freely. 

It has not proved easy to make quartz glass, 
even in small quantities in the laboratory. 
Quartz is one of those peculiar minerals’ 
which show no sharp melting temperature, 
but soften very gradually, and when pure, 
never become thin liquids, even at the tem- 
perature of the electric are. Furthermore, 
quartz begins to vaporize rapidly in air at 
about the temperature of melting platinum, 
while it is still much too viscous to release 
the included bubbles. A mass of quartz frag- 
ments, when melted in air in the electric fur- 
nace, comes out resembling solidified sea-foam 
or voleaniec pumice. It is quite opaque, dirty 
and useless for mechanical or optical purposes, 
and very persistent efforts in a number of 
laboratories have so far failed to produce a 
clear product except from single fragments 
treated individually. Small globules of glass 
ean be obtained from single crystals, pieced 
together in the oxyhydrogen flame, and blown 
into thin quartz glass vessels such as are now 
in quite common use. Discs suitable for 
small lenses have also been obtained at Jena 
by heating small clear crystals with such 
rapidity as to produce a thin enclosing film 
of liquid before cracks develop in the body of 
the erystal, thereby preventing the entrance 
and subsequent enclosure of air. It is, of 
course, plain that such devices can have but 
limited usefulness. We must somehow man- 
age to melt larger masses of random fragments 
to a clear glass before the technical problem 
ean be regarded as solved. 

This problem is somewhat outside the proper 
scope of the Geophysical Laboratory, but our 
plant is perhaps better adapted to its solution 
than most others, and the demand for clear 
quartz glass is so general that it seemed best 
to spend a limited time in an effort to find 
the difficulty and to try to ascertain the direc- 
tion in which the solution lies. No effort at 
refinement of method has yet been made. 

1See Day and Allen, ‘The Isomorphism and 


Thermal Properties of the Feldspars, Publ. 31, 
Carnegie Institution. 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


When pure crystallized silica, either quartz 
or tridymite, is fused in graphite crucibles, 
there is no difficulty in obtaining quartz glass. 
The difficulty, as indicated above, is to free it 
from enclosed air. After a series of experi- 
ments at different temperatures, it became 
evident that there was no probability of ob- 
taining clear glass by direct fusion at at- 
mospheric pressure. It was, therefore, de- 
cided to study the effect of pressure upon the 
fusion of silica. 

The experiments were conducted in a large 
bomb furnace under a pressure of 500 pounds 
of compressed air, the heat being supplied by 
passing an alternating current through the 
walls of a thin graphite box containing the 
quartz. The heating was at first carried to a 
much higher temperature than was necessary in 
an effort to reduce the viscosity sufficiently to 
release the air bubbles in the normal way, but 
the attempt failed entirely—the viscosity is 
but slightly diminished at the higher tempera- 
tures, and enough silica is reduced to discolor 
the mass with free silicon. The appearance 
of the product also clearly showed that gas 
was being generated at the hottest points in 
the retaining walls, and the large bubbles 
formed by the rapid expansion of this gas 
were always lined with free silicon. At the 
highest temperatures (above 2,500° C.), there- 
fore, we not only did not get rid of the air 
bubbles enclosed in the glass, but introduced 
a new disturbing factor. 

The next step was, of course, to reduce the 
temperature and lengthen the time of heating. 
This produced blocks of quartz glass which 
were quite transparent but which contained a 
great number of small included bubbles which 
could not be displaced even when the time of 
heating was extended over several hours. No 
large bubbles appeared, however, and no dis- 
coloration. An effort to explode the enclosed 
bubbles by turning on the compressed air be- 
fore the heat was applied and then releasing 
the pressure while the material was still 
molten, also failed. The inflated material 
could not be brought back to a cake again. 

After a number of attempts of this char- 


SCIENCE. 


671 


actet, with slightly varied conditions of tem- 
perature and pressure, a charge was heated 
rapidly to a high temperature (considerably 
above 2,000°) before pressure was applied. 
After the quartz had begun to vaporize freely, 
it seemed reasonable to expect that the vapor 
would displace the air between the grains some- 
what as mercury vapor is made to displace the 
air in filling thermometers. Compressed air 
was then quickly applied to compress the melt 
into a compact mass, the temperature lowered 
to the point where it had been found safe to 
work without discoloration, and held there for 
perhaps a half hour, after which the current 
was turned off and the pressure yery gradually 
withdrawn. Plates of quartz glass 3x5x4 
inches were produced under these conditions 
which were almost entirely free from bubbles, 
and only occasionally slightly stained by free 
silicon. The residual bubbles are very small, 
not more than 4 mm. in diameter, and are 
not frequent enough (not more than two or 
three in a cubic centimeter) to interfere with 
the use of the glass for lenses, mirrors or 
other usual optical purposes. It is, further- 
more, very probable that a little more skill in 
handling, such as could readily be obtained 
with longer experience, would get rid of even 
the few remaining bubbles. 

Quartz glass is easily stained by very small 
quantities of other oxides when present as 
impurities. In particular, we found that as 
little as .3 of one per cent. of other oxides was 
sufficient to make the glass opaque and almost 
black. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to 
start with very pure material, but it does not 
require to be clear. Pure cloudy quartz serves 
quite as well. 

The volatility may be due to one of two 
causes: either the vapor pressure of liquid 
quartz is very great, or the carbon reduces the 
silica, with the formation of metallic silicon, 
which at once volatilizes and is subsequently 
reoxidized on passing into the surrounding 
atmosphere. This reaction, that is, the re- 
duction to the metallic state and subsequent 
volatilization, is a very common one at these 


672 


temperatures, and has misled several investi- 
gators into interpreting the volatilization of 
the oxide to be due to its vapor pressure, when 
in fact the oxide, heated in the absence of car- 
bon or reducing papers, shows little or no 
volatility. The volatilization of magnesium 
oxide is of this class. 

Whether the pressure which is essential to 
the preparation of good quartz glass in quantity 
acts upon the vapor pressure of the silica, or 
whether it affects the reduction of the silica to 
the metal, has not yet been determined. It is 
not unlikely that both reactions occur, and 
that the narrow temperature limits within 
which we found it practicable to work, lie be- 
tween the temperature of volatilization of the 
silica and that of its reduction by carbon. 
This question is not material to the successful 
production of quartz glass, and will be consid- 
ered in a later paper. 

One other conclusion appears to be reason- 
ably certain from our work, namely, that air 
once enclosed within the body of a charge of 
quartz glass can not be displaced, either by 
long-continued heating or by extremely high 
temperatures. 

Our experience did not suggest that we were 
approaching any necessary limit in the size of 
the charge which could be handled. A furnace 
of suitable size, provided with somewhat more 
power, would undoubtedly produce clear quartz 
glass in much larger units than we were able 
to do in our small furnace. 

Summing up the conditions for preparation 
of good quartz glass, we find them to be: An 
initial temperature of 2,000° or more, without 
pressure, to produce sufficient quartz vapor to 
drive out the air from between the grains, 
followed by pressure (at least 500 pounds), and 
a reduced temperature (perhaps 1,800°), with 
time for the quartz to flow compactly together 
without being attacked by the graphite. 


Artuur L. Day, 
E. S. SHEPHERD. 
GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY, 
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION, 
WasuHineaton, D. C., 
April 18, 1906. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 591. 


METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA ON MOUNTAIN 
SUMMITS. 


Mucs of our knowledge of the upper air has 
been obtained from observations made on the 
summits of mountains. With the single 
notable exception of the Prussian Aeronautical 
Observatory near Berlin, where, for several 
years, daily observations at great heights have 
been obtained with the aid of kites and bal- 
loons, we are still dependent upon the moun- 
tain observatories for information concerning 
annual and seasonal changes in the upper air 
at different heights, and for other data not 
easily secured except by means of continuous 
observations made at the same place. The 
chief error arising from any general applica- 
tion of such observations is caused by the un- 
known influence of the mountain itself upon 
the meteorological conditions in its vicinity. 
The results from observations in the free air 
do not show the same vertical changes that are 
observed on mountains, the diurnal periodic 
change of temperature noticeable on all moun- 
tains disappearing at a height of 1,000 meters 
in the free air. 

A few approximate comparisons have al- 
ready been made, of Ben Nevis (1,348 meters 
high) in Scotland by Mr. Dines, and of the 
Brocken (1,100 meters high) in Germany by 
Dr. Assmann, but in both instances the kite 
or balloon observations apparently were made 
at a distance exceeding 90 kilometers from the 
mountain observatory. Also, Mr. Clayton has 
compared the temperature on Blue Hill with 
that of the free air. 

The data obtained indicated that the tem- 
perature on mountain summits is lower than 
that of the free air at the same height. No 
information as to differences of humidity or 
wind velocity is available, although it appears 
quite probable that the wind velocity is higher 
on mountains than in the free air at the same 
height. 

During the last week in August, 1905, I was 
able to make a comparison of the weather 
conditions on Mount Washington, N. H., with 
those of the free air, by means of kites flown 
in the Ammonoosue Valley 16 kilometers west 
of and 1,500 meters lower than the summit of 


Apri, 27, 1906.] 


the mountain. This valley is open toward 
the west, whence come the prevailing winds, 
and there are ample open spaces suitable for 
kite flying. 

The meteorological data were obtained from 
four meteorographs constructed as nearly alike 
as possible in order to secure uniform action, 
all haying the same scales and each recording 
the temperature, atmospheric pressure, hu- 
midity and velocity of the wind upon a paper- 
covered cylinder rotated once in twelve hours 
by a clock. The time-scale was about 25 milli- 
meters an hour and data could be obtained 
every two minutes. ‘Two of these instruments 
were employed in recording the conditions on 
the summit of Mount Washington and at the 
kite station near Twin Mountain, and two 
were adapted for use in the kite experiments, 
being a modified form of the kite meteorograph 
devised by me for use at the Blue Hill Ob- 
servatory. All of the instruments were care- 
fully compared with standards. 

The meteorograph on the summit of the 
mountain was exposed in the north window 
of the office of the newspaper Among the 
Clouds, the editor, Mr. Frank H. Burt, very 
kindly volunteering to keep it in operation 
during the experiment. The exposure, so far 
as temperature, humidity and pressure are 
concerned, was very good. The anemometer, 
which recorded electrically, was placed on the 
roof of the office near the western end and was 
well exposed to the winds from all directions 
except those between northeast and southeast, 
which were obstructed by the other buildings 
on the summit. 

The kites employed were two Eddy kites 
respectively of 1.67 and 3.20 square meters 
area, and two ‘Blue Hill box’ kites, each 
having a lifting surface of 2.0 square meters. 
A ‘hand’ windlass containing 3,400 meters of 
No. 11 musie wire, and provided with accurate 
devices for indicating the length of line em- 
ployed and for recording the pull of the kites, 
was employed in flying the kites. The 
heights reached were chiefly determined from 
altitudes obtained by means of a transit, 
though intermediate heights could be obtained 
from the record of atmospheric pressure. 


SCIENCE. 


673 


It was intended to keep one of the kite 
meteorographs as nearly as possible at the 
same height as the summit of Mount Wash- 
ington, and the other about half as high, and 
in this way obtain a vertical section of about 
1,500 meters; the Twin Mountain station be- 
ing 427 meters and the summit 1,916 meters 
above sea level. 

The instruments at the summit and kite 
stations were compared with a standard ther- 
mometer three times each day and comparisons 
of the kite meteorographs were made at the 
beginning and end of each flight. 

After the apparatus was installed there re- 
mained but five days for the actual work of 
observation, and to my surprise, the wind was 
so exceedingly light throughout the entire 
period that but two flights could be obtained; 
during one of which, however, the upper 
meteorograph was carried to within 60 meters 
of the height of Mount Washington. An ac- 
cident to one of the kites prevented more than 
one observation at this height; but since this 
appears to be the first time such observations 
have been made so near a mountain observa- 
tory, it may be worth while giving the results 
in detail. 

AUGUST 24, 1905. 


ae ha Conditions on Mt. 

Conditions at Kite. Washington, 1,489 

| Meters above Valley. 

Time | = o es |) area 2 5) Seg 
ee |g | ofa | ses |e | gaa | Bes 

| 1 (= Hee a a 4 i= 

3:15 0) 22.2) 90 1) Cor 5? |} 19 
3:26 | 267/19.4| 90 6 7.2 6? | 19 
4:11} 456/156} 85 @) Gal 4? | 20 
4:17 658 }14.4; 100 | 13 6.1 20? 18 
4:38 | 970/11.7| 80 14 | 5.6) 25 17 
5:02 | 1,135 | 11.1} 75 12 6.1 | 28 17 
5:31 | 1,224 /)11.0| 65 12 | 6.1 30 15 
5:41 | 1,408 | 10.0} 65 13 | 6.1 30 16 
5:43 | 1,428 | 9.4| 65 3 | 61 33 16 


At 5:44 p.m. one of the two supporting kites 
collapsed and the other, not being sufficient to 
support the meteorograph and line until they 
were reeled in, fell into the forest on the north 
slope of the ‘Three Sugar Loaves’ (a small 
mountain 3800 meters higher than the kite 
station) and the flight came to an abrupt end. 


674 


Allowing for the difference of level of 61 
meters, the observations indicate a decidedly 
lower temperature and a much higher wind 
velocity on Mount Washington than are found 
in the free air. The hygrometers had not 
been tested below 40 per cent. and the com- 
parison of humidities, while indicating a 
lower humidity on the mountain, is not con- 
sidered trustworthy. 

Unusually clear, fine weather prevailed 
throughout the time that could be devoted to 
the experiments and the summits of the moun- 
tains were seldom hidden by clouds. On two 
successive days (August 25 and 26) the aver- 
age wind velocity on Mount Washington was 
less than three meters per second, and on sev- 
eral other days it was almost as low. The 
conditions for kite flying may not be more 
difficult near mountains than in other places, 
but the consequences of accidents to the kites, 
and the fall of the line and apparatus into 
the dense forests in these regions, demand that 
unusual precautions be taken to avoid mis- 
haps. A small gasolene motor for quick 
manipulation of the line during periods of 
light wind is almost a necessity. 

These experiments have also demonstrated 
the great value of a simple and compact 
meteorograph in obtaining data at a place 
like Mount Washington. The time required 
for changing the records of the instrument 
employed was about five minutes, or less, each 
day, the construction of the recording mech- 
anism of the anemometer being such that 
this operation could be performed at any time 
convenient to the observer, or even omitted 
for a day without loss of records by superim- 
posing. After the meteorograph was installed, 
on August 20, continuous records of the four 
elements already referred to were maintained 
until the close of the season on the summit. It 
was not practicable to record the direction of 
the wind on this meteorograph except by means 
of a device indicating only the eight principal 
directions; and while such approximate data 
are useful in studies of climate they are of 
small value in other meteorological researches. 

If cireumstances favor, this work will be 
continued during at least three weeks of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 591. 


summer of 1906, and, it is hoped, more 
definite results will be obtained than those de- 
seribed in this preliminary study. 

I am indebted to Mr. H. H. Clayton for the 
use of four Blue Hill box kites; to the staff of 
Among the Clouds, Messrs. Burt, Dunham, 
Libby and Duff, for their assistance in caring 
for the meteorograph on Mount Washington, 
without which these experiments could not 
easily have been made; to Mr. D. J. Flanders, 
of the Boston and Maine Railroad, for trans- 
portation over the Mount Washington Railway ~ 
for the purpose of installing the meteorograph 
on the summit; to the foreman at the Rose- 
brook Inn, and to Mr. Anderson, of the 
American Museum of Natural History, for 
valuable assistance in the kite flights. 


S. P. Ferausson. 
Hype ParK, MASs., 
February 25, 1906. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES. 


THE amended report of the condition in 
which Leland Stanford, Junior, University is 
left by the earthquake is most comforting. 
But if the first statement that its buildings 
had all been reduced to heaps of dust had 
proved true the university would not have 
been, as the headlines had it, ‘wiped out.’ A 
university does not exist in its material part. 
The plant is, in fact, the least part of it. 
Perhaps it would have been worth the sacrifice 
of the beautiful Boston-planned architecture 
of Leland Stanford, Junior, University rep- 
resenting Huispano-Mexican history and the 
semi-tropical local color of California as 
vividly as the architecture of Harvard and 
Yale represent the associations of old New 
England with Cambridge and Oxford univer- 
sities, if the impressive object-lesson had been 
conveyed to our ‘splendid materialism,’ that 
the buildings, though they may represent many 
millions and that in irreproachable good taste, 
too, do not make and can never make the uni- 
versity. The Leland Stanford Junior Uni- 
versity is what it is not by grace of Leland 
Stanford’s money, but by virtue of certain 
great and fearless minds, with their unwaver- 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


ing devotion to the highest, with their deep 
and comprehensive grasp of the relations of 
the present to the past, the local to the whole 
world of mankind; with their sense of duty to 
set the feet of the oncoming generations of 
Americans in paths laid out in accord with 
the true laws of growth as far as science can 
settle what the true course may be and in 
obedience to the highest and broadest moral 
and social purpose and responsibility. This 
direction has been maintained at Leland Stan- 
ford, Junior. 

Its endowment of thirty millions, its site 
covering nine thousand acres overlooking San 
Francisco and the Pacific, thirty miles away, 
are superb indeed, in all senses of the word. 


But the animating genius is that of David - 


Starr Jordan, a man with something very 
much like the physical, mental and spiritual 
endowment of Phillips Brooks. There would 
be no question raised to the statement that 
the building up and development of this uni- 
versity is due mainly to the work and the per- 
sonal equation of President Jordan, who has 
been its only president. We had last winter, 
in one of the Lowell Institute lecture courses, 
an interesting type of the Pacific coast college 
professor in Dr. Henry Morse Stevens, of the 
University of California, with his fascinating 
review in twelve lectures on the growth of 
humanitarianism in the world since Francis 
of Assisi and its developments in charities and 
corrections. It is still fresh in mind—the 
powerful impression produced here in Boston 
by this new authority for us—the scholarship 
and above all the social purpose revealed in a 
remarkable series of papers demonstrating 
from history, in a spirit of broad and dauntless 
optimism, that the state is constantly taking 
upon itself to see that the world does really 
grow better through feeling a closer responsi- 
bility for its defectives, and that patriotism 
must be expanded beyond a narrow national- 
ism in the scientific interpretation of history. 
With such enlightenment flowing forth daily 
upon the four or five thousand students of the 
great university patronized by Mrs. Pheebe A. 
Hearst, and similar influences shed from the 


SCIENCE. 


675 


greatmindedness of President Jordan upon 
about half as many in that endowed by Mrs. 
Stanford, a large proportion of all of whom 
are young women, it is to be gathered that 
the ‘Coast’ is taking on an intellectual and 
social culture deeper than anything that can 
be toppled into ruin by mere destruction of 
buildings.—The Boston Transcript. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


April 6, 1906.—A bill passed the Senate to 
incorporate the Archeological Institute of 
America. 

A bill passed the Senate to appropriate 
twenty-five thousand dollars for the establish- 
ment of a fish cultural station in the state of 
Kansas. 

April 9, 1906.—Senate bill, 3,245, creating 
the Mesa Verde National Park, after amend- 
ment, passed the Senate. 

April 11, 1906.—Senate bill, 4,487, granting 
to the state of Oregon certain lands to be 
used by it for the purpose of maintaining and 
operating there a fish hatchery passed the 
Senate. 

April 18, 1906.—The bill to incorporate the 
Archeological Institute of America, which 
passed the Senate, has been referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, in the House 
of Representatives. 

April 17, 1906.—A bill to prohibit aliens 
from fishing in the waters of Alaska passed 
the House, with amendments. 


THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue American Philosophical Society held 
an extremely interesting meeting last week in 
commemoration of the Franklin Bicentenary. 
The program has been printed in SCIENCE, 
and we hope to print later an official account 
of the proceedings. New members were elected 
as follows: The Hon. J. H. Choate, LL.D., 
Dr. H. H. Donaldson, professor of neurology 
in the Wistar Institute of the University of 
Pennsylvania; Russell Duane, lecturer in the 
Law School of the University of Pennsylvania 
and a lineal descendant of Benjamin Frank- 
lin; Dr. D. L. Edsall, assistant professor of 


676 


medicine in the University of Pennsylvania; 
Dr. ©. S. Hastings, professor of physics in the 
Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University; 
Dr. W. F. Hillebrand, chemist in the U. S. 
Geological Survey; Charles Rockwell Lan- 
man, LL.D., professor of Sanskrit and com- 
parative philology in Harvard University; 
Dr. F. P. Mall, LL.D., professor of anatomy 
in the Johns Hopkins University; the Hon. 
Elihu Root, LL.D., secretary of state; Dr. E. 
F. Nichols, professor of experimental physics 
in Columbia University; T. D. Seymour, 
LL.D., professor of Greek in Yale University; 
Dr. E. B. Titchener, professor of psychology 
in Cornell University; O. H. Tittmann, super- 
intendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, and Dr. A. G. Webster, professor of 
physics in Clark University. 

The University of Pennsylvania conferred 
the degree of doctor of science on William P. 
Hemszey, the engineer, and on James Gayley, 
the analytic chemist and trustee of Lafayette 
College. The degree of doctor of laws was 
conferred on King Edward VII.; Guglielmo 
Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy; 
Andrew Carnegie; George H. Darwin, pro- 
fessor of astronomy in Cambridge University; 
Edgar F. Smith, professor of chemistry in the 
University of Pennsylvania and president of 
the American Philosophical Society; Hampton 
L. Carson, attorney general of Pennsylvania; 
J. W. Mallet, professor of chemistry in the 
University of Virginia; Wm. B. Scott, pro- 
fessor of geology and paleontology at Prince- 
ton University; E. C. Pickering, professor of 
astronomy and director of the Harvard Col- 
lege Observatory; Hugo de Vries, professor 
of plant anatomy and physiology in the Uni- 
versity of Amsterdam; A. A. Michelson, pro- 
fessor of physics in the University of Chicago; 
Ernest Rutherford, professor of physics in 
McGill University; E. L. Nichols, professor 
of physics in Cornell University; W. K. 
Brooks, professor of zoology in the Johns 
Hopkins University; W. P. Patterson, pro- 
fessor of divinity in Edinburgh University; 
Professor H. A. Lorentz, professor of mathe- 
matical physics in the University of Leiden; 
Alois Brandl, professor of philology in the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No, 591. 


University of Berlin; Samuel Dickson, chan- 
cellor of the Law Association of Philadelphia. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

THE appalling disaster on the Pacific Coast 
has completely spared the University of Cali- 
fornia and the Lick Observatory. The build- 
ings of Leland Stanford Junior University 
have suffered severely, the loss being estimated 
at $4,000,000. The building of the California 
Academy of Sciences and its valuable collec- 
tions were destroyed. 


A DINNER in honor of Professor H. A. 
Lorentz, of the University of Leidén, was 
given by the Philosophical Society of Wash- 
ington, on the evening of April 21. 


Tur University of St. Andrews has con- 
ferred its doctorate of laws on Dr. A. C. L. G. 
Giinther, formerly keeper of the Zoological 
Department of the British Museum, and on 
Dr. A. H. Young, professor of anatomy at 
Manchester. 


Tur United States ambassador to Great 
Britain, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, presented the 
gold medal of the American Geographical So- 
ciety to Captain R. N. Scott, commander of 
the National Antarctic Expedition, on April 9. 


Dr. Hoparr Amory Hare and Dr. Francis 
Xavier Dercum entertained recently as guests 
of honor at dinner at the Art Club, Philadel- 
phia, Drs. KE. Anthony Spitzka and George 
McClellan, recently appointed professors of 
anatomy in Jefferson Medical College. 


Mr. H. H. Cayton, meteorologist of the 
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, has ac- 
cepted the position of professor in the U. S. 
Weather Bureau, and will assume his duties 
in Washington on about July 1. 


Mr. A. F. Criper, of the United States 
Geological Survey, has been appointed state 
geologist of Mississippi and professor of geol- 
ogy in the university of the same state. The 
line of work first undertaken by the state sur- 
vey will be an investigation of the cement 
resources, the clays and the lignites. 


Dr. Atrrep W. G. Witson has resigned his 
appointment as demonstrator in geology at 


AFRit 27, 1906.] 


McGill University to go into private practise 
as a consulting geologist in engineering and 
mining work. His present address is 197 
Park Avenue, Montreal. 

Nature states that at a meeting of the 
council of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
England, held on April 5, the Walker prize 
of £100, founded by the late Mr. C. C. Walker 
to encourage investigation into the pathology 
and therapeutics of cancer, was awarded to 
Professor C. O. Jensen, of Copenhagen. The 
committee appointed to advise the council in 
reference to the award of the prize was influ- 
enced, not merely by the actual work which 
Professor Jensen has done in investigating the 
nature of cancer and the effect of treatment 
upon it, but also by the extent to which he 
has opened up a field of research to those en- 
gaged in the study of cancer on certain lines, 
enabling them to carry out their investigations 
over longer periods of time and under better 
and more determined conditions than have 
up to the present time been possible. The 
Jacksonian prize for 1905 was awarded to 
Mr. R. C. Elmslie for his essay on ‘ The 
Pathology and Treatment of Deformities of 
the Long Bones due to Disease occurring 
during and after Adolescence.’ The prize- 
subject for the year 1907 will be ‘The Op- 
erative Surgery of the Heart and Lungs, in- 
cluding the Pericardium and the Pleura.’ The 
subject selected for essays to be submitted in 
competition for the Cartwright prize for the 
period 1906-1910 was ‘ Prevention of Dental 
Caries.’ The honorary medal of the college 
was awarded to Lieut. Colonel Sir Richard 
Havelock Charles, I.M.S., in appreciative 
recognition of his gift of anthropological 
specimens—an addition to the museum of 
special value and importance, not only on 
account of the number and variety of the 
specimens presented, but also because of the 
authentie particulars attached to them. 

PRESIDENT JORDAN, of Stanford University, 
gave recently the convocation address at the 
University of Wisconsin, the subject being 
“The Call of the Twentieth Century.’ 

Mr. A. Lawrence Rorcn, director of the 
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, gave an 


SCIENCE. 


677 


illustrated lecture before the Middletown Sci- 
entific Association, on April 10, entitled ‘ Re- 
cent Investigations at Great Heights above 
the American Continent and the Atlantic 
Ocean.’ 


Proressor Louis KanLenserc, of the Uni- 
yersity of Wisconsin, delivered, between April 
9 and 13, a series of five lectures in physical 
chemistry before the faculty and students of 
the College of Science at the University of 
Illinois. The subjects of the lectures were: 
“The relation between chemical action and 
electrical conductivity,’ ‘Osmosis and dialysis,’ 
“The réle of silicates in nature, ‘A study of 
the optical rotatory power of substances’ and 
“The nature of solutions.’ Throughout the 
series the lecturer argued for the recognition 
of solutions as chemical compounds according 
to variable proportions. On the evening of 
April 12, Professor Kahlenberg was given an 
informal reception by the faculty of the de- 
partment of chemistry. 


A SPECIAL number of the University of 
Chicago Record has been issued as a memorial 
to President Harper. The issue, which con- 
sists of ninety pages, contains appreciations, 
and also the chief addresses delivered at the 
various memorial services held at other Amer- 


ican universities. Four portraits are given. 


M. Pirrre Curis, professor of physics at the 
Sorbonne, Paris, eminent with Mme. Curie 
for the discovery of radium, was run over and 
killed by a wagon in Paris, on April 19. M. 
Curie was born on May 15, 1859. 


WE regret also to record the deaths of Dr. 
Tullio Brugnatelli, professor of chemistry at 
the University of Pavia and of the Swiss 
ornithologist, Victor Fatio. 


THE next meeting of the Astronomical and 
Astrophysical Society of America will be held 
at New York, in affiliation with the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
during convocation week, 1906-7. 


THE working library of Professor Meissner 
on internal medicine, and a botanical library 
of three hundred or more yolumes, consisting 
mainly of old and classical works on herbs, 


678 


have been given to the Newberry Library, 
Chicago, by Dr. Nicholas Senn. 


Tue American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences is the custodian of two funds, one known 
as the Rumford fund, the other, the Warren 
fund. The Warren fund consists of ten 
thousand dollars left to the academy by the 
late C. M. Warren, the interest of which, 
about four hundred dollars a year, is, accord- 
ing to the will of the donor, used for the en- 
couragement of chemical research. A com- 
mittee appointed by the academy, known as 
the C. M. Warren Committee, receives and 
considers applications for grants from this 
fund and reports its action to the academy at 
the annual meeting in May, for approval. 
Applications should be made to Professor 
Leonard P. Kinnicutt, Worcester Polytechnic 
Institute, Worcester, Mass., stating exactly 
the scope of the research for which aid is 
asked, and also a statement as to the way the 
money is to be used in carrying out the re- 
search. The recipients of aid from this fund 
are expected to send to the chairman of the 
committee, Professor Kinnicutt, at the end 
of each year, a report of the work accom- 
plished, and to mention in any publication of 
the research that aid had been given for carry- 
ing on the work from the C. M. Warren fund 
of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. 


ConsuL GrirritH, of Liverpool, transmits a 
report on the establishment of an institute of 
tropical research, the objects of which are the 
collecting and tabulating of all kinds of in- 
formation regarding tropical countries, their 
products, natural resources, industries and 
economic conditions, which can be of service 
either to commerce or science. The consul 
says that no provision has heretofore been 
made in Europe for dealing in a systematic 
manner with the scientific study of the tropics 
and of their economic aspects as a whole. The 
Liverpool institute represents the first effort 
to systematically collect and collate accurate 
knowledge concerning the tropics and place 
the result of this expert research work in an 
accessible form. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 591. 


We learn from The British Medical Journal 
that the governor general of the Soudan has 
appointed a commission to investigate the pos- 
sibility of the extension of ‘sleeping sickness’ 
into Soudan territory. The commission is to 
consist of Lieutenant-Colonel G. D. Hunter, 
D.S.0O., P.M.O., Egyptian Army; Dr. Andrew 
Balfour, director of the Wellcome Research 
Laboratories, Khartoum; a British medical of- 
ficer of the Egyptian Army, or a medical in- 
spector of the Soudan Medical Department, or 
such members as may be hereafter appointed. 
The points to be investigated are: (1) To as- 
certain the distribution of various species of 
tsetse flies or other biting flies in the Soudan; 
(2) to ascertain if the disease at present exists 
in Soudan territory—if so, to determine the 
exact areas, and to what extent the distribu- 
tion of the disease coincides with the presence 
of the tsetse or other flies in these areas; (8) 
a systematic investigation of the blood of a 
population in an infected district; (4) a 
thorough and complete research into the char-. 
acter of the disease, especially as regards its 
origin and spread. 


Tue following are the lecture arrangements 
at the Royal Institution after Easter: Pro- 
fessor G. Baldwin Brown, two lectures on 
Greek classical dress in life and in art; Pro- 
fessor William Stirling, three lectures on 
glands and their products; Dr. P. Chalmers 
Mitchell, two lectures on the digestive tract 
in birds and mammals; the Rev. J. P. Ma- 
haffy, two lectures on (1) the expansion of 
old Greek literature by recent discoveries, (2) 
the influence of ptolemaic Egypt on Grzco- 
Roman civilization; Professor William J. 
Sollas, three lectures on man and the glacial 
period; Professor Charles Waldstein, three 
lectures on English furniture in the eighteenth 
century; Sir James Dewar, two lectures on 
the old and the new chemistry; and Professor 
W. Macneile Dixon, two lectures on (1) the 
origins of poetry, (2) inspiration in poetry. 
The Friday evening meetings will be resumed 
on April 27, when Professor John W. Gregory 
will deliver a discourse on ore deposits and 
their distribution in depth. Succeeding dis- 
courses will probably be given by the Hon. 


APRIL 27, 1906.] 


Charles A. Parsons, Professor J. H. Poynting, 
Professor Arthur Schuster, Mr. Leonard Hill, 
Professor H. Moissan, and Sir James Dewar. 

A recent Friday evening lecture at the 
Royal Institution was given by Professor P. 
Zeeman, of Amsterdam University, on ‘ Re- 
cent Progress in Magneto-Optics.’? According 
to the London Times, Professor Zeeman gave 
a general review of the experimental researches 
on the relation betwen magnetism and light 
which had occupied him during the last few 
years. His observation, made in 1896, of a 
slight widening of the spectral lines of sodium 
under the influence of a magnetic field was, 
he said, the origin of his work, which he ear- 
ried on in the light of the theory of electro- 
magnetic and optical phenomena developed by 
H. A. Lorentz. In accordance with this 
theory he found that in a strong magnetic field 
certain spectral lines were divided into three 
components, when the magnetic force was at 
right angles to the direction of propagation of 
the light, and further, that the middle one of 
these components was plane-polarized in a di- 
rection different from that of the two outer 
ones. When the magnetic force was parallel 
to the direction of the propagation of the light, 
the lines split up into two components, each 
eireularly polarized but in opposite directions. 
From these phenomena it could be inferred 
that in a luminous gas all vibrations arose 
from the negative electrons, and the value 
deduced for the ratio of the charge to the mass 
of the electron was of the same order as that 
obtained from the study of the cathode rays. 
Professor Zeeman next considered the rotation 
of the plane of polarization close to an absorp- 
tion band, and then the double refraction and 
resolution of the absorption lines. Finally, 
he discussed the behavior of different spectral 
lines in the magnetic field. In many metallic 
spectra a number of the lines oceurred which 
were closely related and formed so-called 
It was found that all lines of the 
same series were split up in the same manner, 
e. g., all were resolved into triplets, or sextets, 
or nonets; moreover, not only was the general 
type of subdivision the same, but even the 


series. 


SCIENCE. 


679 


amount of separation, measured in oscillation 
frequency. A second law was that the corre- 
sponding series of different elements also 
showed the same type of resolution and the 
same amount of separation. The conclusion 
seemed to be that all the lines of a series were 
emitted by one oscillating system, and that, 
therefore, there were as many series in the 
spectrum of a substance as there were oscilla- 
ting systems in its atom; and that the oscilla- 
ting mechanism was the same in different ele- 
ments. He thought there could be no doubt 
that spectrum analysis and especially the 
magnetization of the spectral lines would give 
a clue to the inner structure of the atom. 


The Scottish Geographical Magazine states 
that for some time past preparations have 
been made for a French Colonial Congress, to 
be held at Marseilles in September next, under 
the presidency of M. J. Charles Roux, the well- 
known writer on colonial subjects. From the 
intimate connection which exists between 
marine and colonial affairs, it has been decided 
to extend the scope of the congress by the addi- 
tion of an exhibition, intended to illustrate 
all matters connected with the scientific study 
of the sea and its fisheries. Its organization 
was entrusted to M. Charles Bénard, president 
of the Oceanographical Society of the Golfe de 
Gascogne, who has done more than any one else 
to further the study of oceanography in France 
within recent years. In recognition of the 
fact that the sea knows no political boundaries, 
it was wisely decided to give the exhibition an 
international character, and the cooperation of 
the leading oceanographers of all nations was 
invited. A British committee was formed un- 
der the presidency of Sir John Murray, in- 
cluding representatives of the principal organ- 
izations connected with the study of ocean- 
ography and marine biology in this country, 
and under its auspices a representative British 
exhibit has been got together. The society 
will be represented at Marseilles by Captain 
Wilson Barker, and among other exhibits, has 
sent the model of the Antarctic exploring 
ship, Discovery, a special feature of the ex- 
hibition being the illustration of the great 


680 


scientific exploring expeditions. It will in- 
clude—besides examples of the best scientific 
instruments and appliances, charts, photo- 
graphs, ete-—a number of sections devoted to 
the industrial side of the subject: the equip- 
ment of fishing-vessels, appliances for the 
capture and preservation of fish, life-saving 
apparatus, and many other classes of objects. 
A congress of geographical societies and of 
the ‘ Alliance francaise’ (an association for 
the extension of the French language in the 
colonies and abroad) will also be arranged, 
the geographical section being under the 
presidency of M. le Myre de Vilers, president 
of the Paris Geographical Society. Its pro- 
ceedings will be devoted towards furthering 
the spread and advancement of geographical 
science. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tue University of California has received 
a gift of $100,000 from the widow of the late 
Judge John H. Boalt. 

Mr. Anprew Carwnecie has offered $40,000 
to Denison University for a new library build- 
ing on condition that a like sum be secured 
elsewhere for the endowment of the library. 
It is expected that the condition will be met 
and construction begun soon. 

TuroucH the generosity of Mr. Robert S. 
Brookings and Mr. Adolphus Busch, the Med- 
ical Department of Washington University 
(St. Louis) has received a gift of $50,000. 


Tue Studies and Examination Syndicate 
of Cambridge University has presented a re- 
port recommending that students of mathe- 
matics and science may be exempted from the 
entrance examination in Greek. Students of 
science would receive the degree of bachelor 
of arts and science and other students the 
degree of bachelor of arts and letters. 


Proressor ANDREW CunnINGHAM McLaucu- 
LIN, professor of American history in the 
University of Michigan, has been appointed 
professor and head of the department of his- 
tory in the University of Chicago. The head- 
ship of the department has been vacant since 
last summer, when Professor Jameson re- 
signed to become director of the bureau of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 591. 


historical research in the Carnegie Institution, 
the position previously held by Professor Mc- 
Laughlin. 

AT a recent meeting of the regents of the 
University of Wisconsin a number of appoint- 
ments were made and provision for additional 
professorships. Professor W. D. Pence, now 
head of the department of civil engineering at 
Purdue University, was elected to the chair 
of civil engineering, to fill the vacaney caused 
by the resignation of Professor W. D. Taylor, 
who has become chief engineer of the Chicago 
and Alton Railway. Dr. Edward B. Van 
Vleck, now professor of mathematics at Wes- 
leyan University, was appointed to the pro- 
fessorship of mathematics left vacant by the 
resignation of Professor C. A. Van Velzer. 
Upon recommendation of the regent commit- 
tee on the college of agriculture, George N. 
Knapp, assistant professor of farm engineer- 
ing, was removed. A number of other ap- 
pointments and several promotions were made 
at this meeting of the regents. Dr. Thomas 
S. Adams was promoted from assistant pro- 
fessor to associate professor of political econ- 
omy; Emmett D. Angell from instructor to 
assistant professor of physical culture; Eliot 
Blackwelder from instructor to assistant pro- 
fessor of geology; Boyd H. Bode from in- 
structor to assistant professor of philosophy; 
Charles W. Stoddart from instructor to assist- 
ant professor of soils. The new instructors 
appointed were: EH. R. Jones, soils; W. G. 
Marquette, botany; T. Sidney Elston, physics; 
George N. Northrop, English; Herman T. 
Owen, music; L. J. Pactow, history. The 
assistantships filled included: Julian P. Black- 
man, physiology; A. R. Harris, official tester 
in agricultural chemistry; J. G. Brandt, 
Latin; J. L. Conger, American history; D. R. 
Lee, Latin; James Milward, horticulture; and 
Charles W. Hill, chemistry. 

Proressor E. H. Sraruine has been ap- 
pointed to the Jodrell chair of physiology in 
the University of London. 

Mr. G. C. Gouan, B.Sc., has been appointed 
to the chair of natural history at the Royal 
Agricultural College, Cirencester, vacant by 
the resignation of Professor West. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fray, May 4, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The Work of Hugo de Vries and its Impor- 
tance in the Study of Problems of Evolu- 
tion. Dr. T. WAYLAND VAUGHAN......... 


Scientific Books :— 
Les tremblements de terre: Dr. C. E. Dut- 
TON. Houston’s Hlectricity in Hvery-day 
Life: Dr. SAMUEL SHELDON. Woods’s 
Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty: 
PRoFessok Epwarp L. THORNDIKE........ 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :-— 
The Geological Society of Washington: Dr. 
ArtTHUR C. SPENCER. The Torrey Botanical 
Club: Dr. Marsuatt A. Hower. The St. 
Louis Chemical Society: C. J. BORGMEYER. 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
A Plan to ensure the Designation of Generic 
Types: DR. CH. WARDELL STILES. Certain 
Plant Species in their Relation to the Mu- 
tation Theory: WITMER STONE. Isolation 
by Choice: Dr. AurreD C. Lane. Larval 
Conger Hels on the Long Island Coast: L. 
S. QuacKENBUSH. Should Our Colleges 
establish Summer Schools? Dr. ALFRED 
GotpsBoroucH Mayer. On the Origin of 
the Small Mounds of the Lower Missis- 
sippi Valley and Texas: Dr. Rost. T. HILL. 


Special Articles :-— 
The Availability of Celluloid in Illustra- 
ting Chromatic Polarization: Lutu B. 
JOSLIN. Ameba Blatte and Amoeboid 
Motion: Dr. Joun H. GrrouLtp. A Oulture 
Medium for the Zygospores of Mucor 
Stolonifer: Proressor J. I. HaAmaAkErR. 
The Effect of Fertilizers on the Reaction of 
Soils: F. P. Vetron. Carbonated Milk: L. 
L, VAN SLYKE and A. W. BoswortH...... 


Notes on Organic Chemistry :— 
Preparation of Pure Ethyl Alcohol by 
Means of Metallic Calcium; Notes on 
Esterification: Dr. J. BisHop TINGLE..... 


Current Notes on Meteorology :— 


Monthly Weather Review: PRoressor R. 
IDE OS WARD Se Eo chanel ey nicbeves teaie sitaetabate sea cin fore 


681 


691 
694 


695 


700 


706 


Renort of the Advisory Board of the Wistar 


TOS RIT GRORS EBC AD Ean CGO AG ernie hae 715 
The Harthquake at Stanford University..... 716 
Scientific Notes and News...............-. 717 
University and Educational News.......... 720 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of SciENCE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N.Y. 


THE WORK OF HUGO DE VRIES AND ITS 
IMPORTANCE IN THE STUDY OF PROB- 
LEMS OF EVOLUTION. 

As Professor Osborn, in his ‘From the 
Greeks to Darwin,’ has given an account 
of the development of the theory of evolu- 
tion in Europe, there is no necessity for 
me to repeat its history. However, I 
should like to remark im passing, that the 
speculations of the oriental philosophers, 
especially the early Hindoos, have not re- 
ceived in the occident the attention due 
them, and to express the hope that some 
scholar will present to us of the occident 
the results of the thinking of the eastern 
sages on these problems. 

That existing species of animals and 
plants have been derived from preceding 
species by natural processes is now univer- 
sally believed by biologists. The man most 
potent in establishing this belief on a firm 
foundation was Darwin. Here it is un- 
necessary to do more than allude to his 
doctrine of the struggle for existence and 
the survival of the fittest by means of nat- 
ural selection. Although I shall not pre- 
sent the data that he accumulated, I desire 


1An address delivered before the Biological So- 
ciety of Washington, on February 3, 1906. 


682 


especially to call your attention to the great 
number of instances of the utility of struc- 
tures and adaptation to environment ad- 
duced by him. There is a mass of evidence 
showing that organisms possess useful 
structures and are more or less in harmony 
with their environment. I, therefore, as- 
sume both the theory of evolution and that 
organisms are more or less perfectly adapt- 
ed to their environment. 

There are three hypotheses to account 
for the evolution of new species and their 
perpetuation. Hach one of the hypotheses 
recognizes the struggle for existence and 
the influence of natural selection. 

The first hypothesis is considered pe- 
culiarly the Darwinian, to which Weis- 
mann has added his theoretical supplement. 
According to this hypothesis, animals and 
plants are subject to fluctuating variations 
of small amount. Those individuals whose 
variation gives them an advantage over 
their competitors for life are preserved, 
producing a gradual amelioration. This 
process is continued until ultimately the 
descendants differ so widely from their 
progenitors that they are referred to a 
separate species. The Weismannian sup- 
plement denied the hereditary transmissi- 
bility of characters impressed on the indi- 
vidual by its environment, so that the ad- 
justment of organisms to their environ- 
ment would depend entirely upon the 
preservation of favorable fortuitous varia- 
tions. 

The second hypothesis, usually known as 
the neo-Lamarckian, called the dynamic by 
Dall, and that of direct causation by 
Nageli, for many years the rival of the one 
just stated, undertakes to account for the 
phenomena of adaptation by assuming that 
the organisms are directly molded into 
harmony with their environment by ex- 
ternal forces, or that adaptation may orig- 
inate through conscious effort, and that 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


changes in individuals so brought about 
are transmitted to their offspring. The 
principal defenders of this hypothesis in 
this country were Cope and Hyatt. Dall, 
although he proposed the term dynamic, 
I believe, never accepted Cope’s hypothesis 
of archesthetism, an idea first advanced 
by Lamarck. 

The third hypothesis is that of de Vries. 
He admits the struggle for existence, and 
recognizes fluctuating variation. He, how- 
ever, contends that this kind of variation 
will not give rise to a new species, basing 
this conclusion on a large amount of ex- 
perimental data obtaimed from the breed- 
ing of plants. According to him all that 
can be done by selecting the best indi- 
viduals is to ameliorate the race to a cer- 
tain point, beyond which no progress can 
be made, and that so soon as the process 
of continued selection is abated, regression 
toward the average variation of the species 
or variety ensues. De Vries also denies the 
permanency of the effect of natural selec- 
tion on the fluctuating variations of a spe- 
cies. Natural selection, he claims, can not 
accumulate variations of this type beyond 
a certain limit; and that if individuals of 
such a naturally ameliorated race be trans- 
ferred to another area they will regress 
toward the mean characters of the species. 
Natural selection has preserved certain in- 
dividuals of the species, but has not really 
changed it. From a study of the mode of 
the appearance of the permanent ‘varieties’ 
or ‘species’ of cultivated plants, de Vries 
was led to believe that new species do not 
originate either by the gradual elimination 
of unfavorable fluctuating variation or by 
the direct modifying influence of environ- 
ment, but by sudden mutation—the off- 
spring differing from their parents by dis- 
tinct lacune, breeding true and showing no 
tendency .to revert to the parental form. 
His acquaintance with cultivated plants 


May 4, 1906.] 


led him, as was stated, to this conclusion. 
He then conceived the idea of searching in 
nature for a species in a state of mutation. 
The story of his discovery of mutating in- 
dividuals of Lamarck’s evening primrose, 
@nothera lamarckiana, in the vicinity of 
Hilversum, Holland, need not be repeated. 
From specimens of this species he obtained 
by pedigree cultures seven new forms, six 
of which he has described as new species 
and one as a new variety. Besides this 
experimental evidence in favor of his 
hypothesis, de Vries compiled a large 
amount of data that give additional weight 
to his conclusion. 

These are the three principal hypotheses 
attempting to account for the origin of 
new species. J think that it is not neces- 
sary to give a special discussion of isola- 
tion as a factor in evolution, as it does not 
affect the validity or invalidity of any one 
of the hypotheses stated. Isolation is a 
passive, not an active factor; its impor- 
tance, however, is beyond question. 

On the leaf following the title page of 
‘Species and Varieties, their Origin by 
Mutation,’ are three quotations: 

“The origin of species is a natural phe- 
nomenon. ’— Lamarck. 

“The origin of species is an object of 
inquiry.’—Darwin. 

“The origin of species is an object of 
experimental investigation.’—De Vries. 

The history of any movement of thought 
is always from a greater or less indefinite- 
ness to greater definiteness and precision. 
The solution of any complicated problem 
must be preceded by the analytical work 
that discovers the factors involved. 

The following will indicate the tenden- 
cies and stages of such a movement: 

1. The accumulation of data, largely 
through mere curiosity. 


2. An attempt to discover some causal, 


SCIENCE. 


683 


relation underlying the phenomena, and 
the propounding of an hypothesis. 

3. The energetic accumulation of addi- . 
tional data, especially to controvert or 
sustain the hypothesis already propounded. 

4. A eritical reexamination of the ac- 
cumulated data to discover if they are sus- 
ceptible of a different interpretation, or if 
there may not be some previously undis- 
covered underlying principle. 

5. The announcement of a different in- 
terpretation or a new principle will pro- 
duce additional activity both in the accu- 
mulation of data and in the attempts to 
interpret them. 

6. There will be recurrent periods of the 
accumulation of facts with reference to old 
theories, and a continual critical reexamina- 
tion both of facts and of theories. These 
will lead to a more highly developed crit- 
ical faculty and more refined methods of 
research. 

Previous to Lamarck there were a num- 
ber of zoologists and botanists energetic- 
ally recording their observations, especially 
as a result of the classification and system 
of nomenclature proposed by lLinnzus. 
Lamarck proposed the theory of evolution 
that has been revived by the neo-Lamarck- 
ian school. Darwin correlated the data 
previously accumulated, supplemented by 
a stupendous number of observations of 
his own, aud gave us his ‘Origin of Spe- 
cies.’ The accumulation of data has con- 
tinued, and the critical examination of 
previously announced conclusions becomes 
more acute. With this more highly de- 
veloped critical faculty have come addi- 
tional methods of investigating the prob- 
lems of evolution. 

' De Vries’s book, ‘Species and Varieties, 
their Origin by Mutation,’ contains not 
only a vast body of highly important facts, 
but is pregnant from cover to cover with 
suggestions regarding important lines of 


684 


needed research. This volume is divided 
into six principal sections: 

I. The Introduction.—This section con- 
tains a brief review of the leading theories 
of evolution and a statement of his own 
method of studying the problem. 

IJ. Hlementary Swpecies.—According to 
de Vries the species of systematists are 
not single groups of individuals inter- 
grading among themselves and separated 
by lacune from neighboring groups, but 
are aggregates of such units. He, there- 
fore, speaks of ‘systematic species’ and 
“elementary species,’ an ‘elementary spe- 
cies’ being one of the units that go to make 
up the ‘systematic species.’ I think it very 
unfortunate that de Vries has introduced 
the term ‘elementary species’ as opposed 
to ‘systematic species.’ It clearly shows 
that he is not in touch with refined modern 
systematic work, for his ‘elementary spe- 
cies’ is the systematic species of all modern 
systematists with whose work I am fa- 
miliar, while his ‘systematic species’ has 
no status. However, his account of how 
species established by the older systematists 
are now being subdivided into smaller and 
smaller units as our studies become more 
detailed and more exact, is very interesting. 
He discusses elementary species not ouly 
in nature, but also among cultivated plants, 
and gives valuable information regarding 
the mode of their selection among the lat- 
ter, especially wheat. 

III. Retrograde Varieties.—1 think de 
Vries again unfortunate in his attempt to 
define a variety as an elementary species 
that has lost a character. According to 
the usually accepted definition of variety 
in this country there is intergradation with 
the typical form of the species: a variety 
would be represented by a secondary mode 
in the species curve. The inference from 
de Vries’s definition would be that we can 
not have retrogressive species. It is well 
known in paleontology that not only single 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


species, but whole groups of animals have 
undergone retrogressive evolution—the 
Baculites, for instance. In this section de 
Vries brings out a very important distine- 
tion between two classes of phenomena that 
have been characterized as atavism. Real 
atavism is defined as the reappearance of 
ancestral characters in a species that is 
pure bred. The other phenomenon, and 
the one that is usually designated atavism, 
is considered false atavism by him, and the 
name ‘vicinism’ applied to it. ‘ Vicinism’ 
is due to the crossing of species or varieties. 
A plant the result of such a cross, though 
apparently a pure strain, may produce off- 
spring of the type of the ancestor that it 
least resembles. This section contains 
much information on crosses, including a 
statement of Mendel’s law. 

IV. Ever-sporting Varieties.—The term 
“ever-sporting variety’ is used for those 
forms regularly propagated by seed, of 
pure, not hybrid, origin, but which ‘sport 
in nearly every generation.’ An interest- 
ing account is given of how he tried to 
obtain a pure striped and a pure red 
variety from a striped variety of snap- 
dragon, known as Antirrhinum majus lu- 
teum rubro-striatum, which sports into red 
flowers, but he was not successful. The 
seed of red individuals, or even seed from 
self-pollinated red flowers in a raceme of 
mostly striped flowers, would produce a 
certain number of striped flowers. The 
seed from striped individuals always gave 
a percentage of red ones. It is interesting 
to note that stocks producing double flowers . 
are grown from single-flowered individuals. 
These experiments are so interesting, and 
so suggestive of further research, that it is 
a great temptation to give a detailed ac- 
count of them, and also to describe the 
experiments in trying to get a race of 
five-leaved clover, and those with poly- 
cephalic poppies and monstrosities. His 
experiments with double adaptations are 


May 4, 1906.] 


immediately germane to the subject under 
discussion, and they can be more fully 
described. But before proceeding to a 
discussion of them, the factors that lead 
to the phenomena of ever-sporting should 
be analyzed. According to de Vries, 

The wide range of variability of ever-sporting 
varieties is due to the presence of two antagonistic 
characters which can not be evolved at the same 
time and in the same organ, because they exclude 
one another. Whenever one is active, the other 
must be latent. But latency is not absolute in- 
activity and may often only operate to encumber 
the evolution of the antagonistic character, and to 
produce large numbers of lesser grades. 


On a subsequent page, he says of the 
characters : 


They might be termed alternating, if it were 
only understood that the alternation may be com- 
plete or incomplete in all degrees. Complete 
alternation would result in the extremes, the in- 
complete condition in the intermediate states. 
In some cases, as with the stocks, the first pre- 
vails, while in other cases, as with the poppies, 
the very extremes are only rarely met with. 


De Vries says: 

Taking such an alternation as a real character 
of the ever-sporting varieties, a wide range of 
analogous cases is at once revealed among the 
normal qualities of wild plants. Alternation is 
here almost universal. It is the capacity of 
young organs to develop in two divergent direc- 
tions. 

These phenomena are illustrated by 
numerous illustrations drawn from those 
presented by wild plants. The water- 
persicaria, Polygonum amphibium, is the 
one first cited. This plant occurs in two 
forms, one aquatic and the other terres- 
trial. The aquatic plants, known as var. 
natans, “‘have floating or submerged stems 
with oblong or elliptical leaves, which are 
glabrous and have long petioles. The ter- 
restrial plants (known as var. terrestre or 
terrestris) are erect, nearly simple, more 
or less hispid throughout, with lanceolate 
leaves and short petioles, often nearly ses- 
sile.’’ These ‘‘two varieties may often be 


SCIENCE. 


685 


seen to sport into one another. They are 
only branches of the same stem grown 
under different conditions.”’ 

Numerous other instances of double 
adaptation are given. Those taken from 
alpine plants transferred to the lowland 
are in some respects the most interesting 
for our discussion. De Vries says: ‘‘It is 
simply impossible to decide concerning the 
real relations between the alpine and low- 
land types without experiments.’’ Some 
experiments are given by which the factor 
determining the change in character was 
discovered. 

In concluding his remarks on these phe- 
nomena, the statement is made: 

Useful dimorphism or double adaptation, is a 
substitution of characters quite analogous to the 
useless dimorphism of cultivated ever-sporting 
varieties and the stray occurrences of hereditary 


monstrosities. The same laws and conditions pre- 
vail in both cases. 


Interjected into this chapter is a consid- 
eration of the ‘Theory of Direct Causa- 
tion,’ first advanced by Lamarck, subse- 
quently advocated by Niageli, von Wett- 
stein, Strasburger and other German bot- 
anists, also by Hyatt, Cope and others in 
this country. The instances of double 
adaptation, of course, do not support this 
theory. De Vries gives an account of some 
plants that grow in the Desert of Kaits, 
Ceylon. These plants, although they have 
apparently grown in the desert for many 
centuries, have not become of the desert 
type, still possessing a thin epidermis and 
exposed stomata; and were shown by Hol- 
termann to lose the only desert character 
that they had, their dwarf stature, when 
erown on ordinary garden soil. These 
plants disprove the Nagelian contentions: 
(1) That extreme conditions change or- 
ganisms in a desirable direction; (2) that 
the only change induced by the dry soil, 
decreased stature, was not hereditary. 

V. Mutations.—Under this heading are 


686 


included the chapters treating of de Vries’s 
work on the production of the peloric toad 
flax, double flowers and new species and 
varieties of @nothera. He also presents 
his views, with his seven laws, on ‘the 
origin of wild species and varieties.’ The 
last four chapters are entitled Mutations 
in Horticulture, Systematic Atavism, Tax- 
onomie Anomalies and Periodic Mutations. 
Interesting data are presented in each one 
of these chapters. The phenomena of 
mutation in horticulture and taxonomic 
anomalies are in general in line with the 
general thesis being defended. 

The idea that the species are constant 
through extended periods of time, follow- 
ing which is a period of mutation with the 
production of new forms, those best ac- 
commodated to the environment surviving, 
is Important. 

Dall proposed the term saltatory evolu- 
tion in 1877, and suggested periodic muta- 
tion. His conclusions, however, did not 
rest on observed experiments. 

VI. The last section of the book deals 
with ‘fluctuations.’ An account is given of 
the means of the statistical study of varia- 
tion.  Quetelet’s law is stated, ete. In 
this section it is contended that fluctuating 
variation does not exceed certain definite 
limits, and that in cultivation, without the 
appearance of desirable mutations, it is not 
possible to ameliorate a species beyond a 
fixed degree. Ameliorated races, without 
continual selection, regress toward the mean 
of the species. In the last chapter of the 
book it is maintained that natural selection 
can do no more toward the creation of new 
species by an accumulation of fluctuating 
variation than can artificial selection. 

From this very defective review of de 
Vries’s work, it will be seen that he has 
investigated a wide range of phenomena. 
His method has mostly been by experi- 
ment; his results are such as to compel a 
critical reexamination of the views current 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 592. 


on the process of evolution. I shall hastily 
criticize the three theories stated in the 
beginning of this discussion. 

1. The Darwinian Hypothesis.—Accord- 
ing to researches into the variability of 
organisms, fluctuating variation is around 
a mean and never transgresses certain 
limits. It is not possible to ameliorate a 
particular species beyond a fixed degree, 
and it is, therefore, impossible radically to 
change it. If continued artificial selection 
is not practised, the ameliorated race re- 
eresses toward the mean of the species. It 
is contended by de Vries that the same is 
as true of wild species as of those in ecul- 
tivation. If the criticism can be sustained, 
this hypothesis must be abandoned. _ 

2. The Dynamical Hypothesis.—Dall, in 
his paper entitled ‘On Dynamic Influences 
in Evolution,’ said: 

Passing from these general considerations to 
those of a more special character, the contention 
of Weismann that ‘not a single fact hitherto 
brought forward can be accepted as proof’ of the 
transmission of acquired characters demands at- 
tention. 

In reply he says: 

If the dynamic evolutionist brings forward an 
hypothesis which explains the facts of nature 
without violence to sound reasoning, that hypoth- 
esis is entitled to respect and consideration until 
some better one is proposed or some vitiating 
error detected. 

Some years ago, while a student at Har- 
vard, I had the opportunity to attend a 
symposium on the hereditary transmission 
of acquired characters. The principals in 
the discussion were Professor Poulton, of 
Oxford, and Professor Alpheus Hyatt. 
The data presented by Professor Hyatt 
were subsequently published in his memoir 
entitled ‘The Phylogeny of an Acquired 
Characteristic.’ After the discussion, my 
conclusion was that Professor Poulton had 
shown that all experimental evidence was 
against the transmission of acquired char- 
acteristics; while Professor Hyatt pro- | 


May 4, 1906.] 


duced no direct evidence to sustain his 
contention. What he did, was to show 
that a body of facts were in harmony with 
the assumption that acquired characteris- 
tics were inheritable, but his facts were as 
fully in accord with the assumption of 
Professor Poulton: As Professor Poulton 
had a certain amount of experimental evi- 
dence and Professor Hyatt had none, I 
thought that Professor Poulton had the 
better of the argument, but he did not show 
that acquired characters could not be in- 
herited. 

Since hearing the discussion between 
those eminent men, I have made an effort 
to go over the arguments for and against 
the ‘Theory of Direct Causation.’ I have 
read much or most of what Spencer, Cope, 
Hyatt and Dall have written on the subject. 
Dall has stated the proposition fairly and 
unequivocally. The facts that they pre- 
sent can be explained on their fundamental 
assumption, but they produce no direct 
evidence that that assumption is correct. 
Nageli, von Wettstein and Strasburger 
represent in botany what Cope, Hyatt and 
Dall represent in zoology. As has already 
been stated, de Vries has collated a mass 
of evidence, all of which is against the 
views held by Nageli among the botanists. 
The positive evidence is against the ‘dy- 
namic theory’ or the ‘theory of direct 
causation. ’ 

But I wish to repeat the words of Dall: 

If the dynamical evolutionist brings forward an 
hypothesis which explains the facts of nature 
without violence to sound reasoning, that hypoth- 
esis is entitled to respect and consideration until 


some better one is proposed or some vitiating error 
detected. 


It should also be remarked, that while 
Weismann denies the inheritance of func- 
tional variation, causing atrophy or hyper- 
trophy of a part, he admits that climate 
may produce hereditary changes by acting 
on the germ-plasm. He, however, does not 


SCIENCE. 


687 


commit himself to the belief that such does 
oceur. 

I should like to enter into a full diseus- 
sion of the effects of temperature on the 
pupe of Polyommatus phleas in influ- 
encing the color of the wings of the adult, 
but time does not permit. However, ac- 
cording to Weismann there is a critical 
period, after which the raising or lowering 
of the temperature does not affect the wing 
color of the adult. Weismann has pointed 
out that in southern Hurope the golden- 
winged spring brood is derived from the 
pup of the dark-winged summer brood; 
while the dark-winged summer brood is de- 
rived from the golden-winged spring brood. 
An increase in temperature does affect the 
wing coloration, but there is no evidence 
to show that a permanent hereditary change 
is wrought. In fact the evidence is con- 
trary to such an assumption. The period 
of sensitiveness to temperature in these 
butterflies is comparable to the period of 
sensitiveness discovered by de Vries in de- 
veloping polycephalie poppies. Although 
the polycephalic poppies fiuctuate in the 
number of converted stamens from almost 
0 to 150 and over, de Vries found no in- 
stance of heads without indications of pis- 
tillody of the stamens, and in no instance 
were all the stamens transformed into pis- 
tils. The relative number of converted 
stamens, however, is largely determined by 
physical conditions; abundance of plant 
food and a sunny exposure are essential for 
the best results. The point of similarity 
between these experiments is that de Vries 
discovered in developing poppies and Weis- 
mann in developing Polyommatus a period 
of sensitiveness to external conditions. 
After this period is passed, varying phys- 
ical conditions do not affect the fully de- 
veloped adult. 

Weismann’s butterflies belong in de 
Vries’s category of ‘ever-sporting varie- 


688 


ties,’ and are comparable to the water per- 
sicaria and polycephalie poppies. 

Weismann speaks of Nageli’s experi- 
ments on Hieraciwm. He says: 

Many climatic varieties of plants may also be 
due wholly or in part to the simultaneous variation 
of corresponding determinants in some part of 
the soma and in the germ-plasm of the reproduc- 
tive cells, and these variations must of necessity 
be hereditary. Temperature, and nutrition in its 
widest sense, affect the whole body of the plant 
—the somatic as well as the germ-cells. 


De Vries shows that the species of 
Hieracium studied by Nageli exhibit the 
phenomena of double adaptation. There 
is no evidence that this attribute is origin- 
ated by the direct influence of physical 
environment. 

Although we have ample grounds for 
doubting the validity of the assumption of 
the adherents to the dynamic theory, we 
can not yet refuse their hypothesis respect- 
ful consideration. 

3. The de Vries Mutation Hypothesis.— 
This hypothesis rests upon a negative and 
a positive basis. The former is the nega- 
tion of the ability of the two preceding 
hypotheses to account for the origin of spe- 
cies, affirming that fluctuating variation is 
only between definite limits with reference 
to a mean, and that environment does not 
directly modify species. The positive ele- 
ment is the observation of new forms 
arising from older ones by mutation. Hach 
of these conclusions of de Vries is open to 
challenge. (1) Have sufficient data been 
accumulated to justify our discarding the 
hypothesis that new species may originate 
by the gradual accumulation of variations 
that tend in a certain direction? (2) Is 
the evidence submitted sufficient to war- 
rant the permanent rejection of the dy- 
namic hypothesis? (3) Are his supposed 
mutations really mutations? The parent- 
age of his Gnothera lamarckiana is not 
known. May not his new Gnothere be 
hybrids of some kind? 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


These different hypotheses present dif- 
ferent explanations of phenomena assumed 
to be true by each one. I think that they 
render necessary a more critical analysis 
of the biological facts cited to substantiate 
each one. 

At the last meeting of this society Dr. 
Merriam presented a paper, ‘Is Mutation a 
Factor in Evolution?’ His facts were that 
various regions are inhabited by subspecies 
of mammals or birds in accordance with 
their differences in physical conditions, and 
that the transition zone between two re- 
gions is occupied by intergrading forms. 
Take, for instance, two adjacent areas pre- 
senting different physico-geographic char- 
acters: one subspecies would be found in 
one area; in the other area, another sub- 
species. The physical conditions in going 
from one area to the other do not change 
abruptly, but gradually. The intermediate 
zone is not only intermediate in physical 
characters, but is occupied by individuals 
that are intermediate in their characters 
between the subspecies of the two different 
areas. As Dr. Merriam quoted the ham- 
mer and anvil simile of Dall, we are, I 
think, justified in placimg him in the eate- 
gory of the dynamic evolutionists. His 
conclusions were: 

1. There is evidence of the intergrada- 
tion between species. 

2. The direct influence of environment 
is the principal factor in the production of 
new species. 

3. In the higher vertebrates there is no 
evidence of the origin of species by ‘mu- 
tation.’ 

As to Dr. Merriam’s statements regard- 
ing the classification and distribution of 
the animals discussed in his communica- 
tion, we can say nothing, for all of us now 
of the many years that he has spent collect- 
ing and studying them and plotting their 
distribution with reference to geographic 
conditions. But I think his explanation 
of the phenomena open to question. 


May 4, 1906.] 


I will admit that Dr. Merriam’s explana- 
tion of his facts may be true, but he did 
not convince me of its correctness any more 
than Professor Hyatt convinced me of the 
correctness of his interpretation in his 
‘Phylogeny of an Acquired Characteristic.’ 
His facts seem just as plausibly explicable 
on the basis of the Darwinian hypothesis 
or that of de Vries. According to the 
former those variations tending to give the 
species an advantage in the struggle for its 
life would be preserved, while other varia- 
tions would be eliminated. This preserva- 
tion of certain individuals and the elimina- 
tion of others would cause divergence in 
the characters of the occupants of the re- 
spective areas. In the intermediate zone, 
as there would not be definite selection, 
there would not be distinct differentiation 
of type. 

The de Vries hypothesis will explain 
them just as well. The forms occupying 
the respective areas may have originated 
by mutation, and the intermediate zone 
may be occupied by hybrids. 

The evidence in favor of none of these 
hypotheses is conclusive. 

The facts presented by Dr. Merriam are 
a necessary foundation for the recognition 
of the factors involved in the problem, but 
they do not solve the problem. I should 
like to know: 

1. Something concerning the stability of 
the characters of the forms inhabiting the 
different areas. 

In this connection the following ques- 
tions may be asked: 

(a) Is the difference observed between 
the individuals oceupying the different 
areas caused by the direct influence of 
physical environment? If the difference 
is caused by such influence, is the change 
so wrought only superficial or is it hered- 
itarily transmissible? The feathers of 
birds exposed to strong sunlight are of 
lighter color than those of birds living in 


SCIENCE. 


689 


areas in which the light is weaker. From 
characters of this kind we can infer that 
the specimens exhibiting them lived under 
certain conditions. Do changes of this 
kind extend to the gametes of the imdi- 
vidual or are they only somatic changes, 
enabling us to infer that an individual 
lived under certain physical conditions, 
similar to the inference drawn from seeing 
a man with certain scars on his face, viz., 
that he has attended a German university ? 

Dr. Dall, in his review of Gulick’s 
‘Evolution, Racial and Habitudinal,’ says 
concerning the theory of segregation advo- 
eated by that author: 

To justify final acceptation an hypothesis must 
not only be capable of accounting for the facts, 
but it must be shown to be the only one by which 
they may be adequately explained. It is also 
necessary to determine how far the animals in 
question have arrived at that state of equilibrium 
which we recognize by the name of species. If, 
as has been held by some authorities, the small 
color groups are really only of a temporary na- 
ture, and liable to immediate change upon sub- 
jection to modified environment, then the au- 
thor’s hypothesis, while losing none of its truth, 
is not a contribution to the evolution of species 
so much as to the physiology of color variation. 


(6) Should the differences be gametic in 
origin, 2. e., not induced by the physical 
environment, is the selection between di- 
vergent variations of one species; or is it 
between two different species? 

I could present a series of observed phe- 
nomena in the Madreporaria parallel to 
some of the data presented by Dr. Merriam 
in his discussion of the distribution of 
mammals and birds. These instances could 
be drawn from several genera, but those 
from Turbinaria are especially a propos. 
Mr. Pace has carefully studied these corals 
in the Torres Straits; he, however, dis- 
eretely remarks: 

It will now be my endeavor to show that the 
variations of a turbinarian colony from the primi- 


tive cup-shape—the ‘crateriform’ type of Ber- 
nard—can be readily explained by reference to the 


690 


conditions under which the coral has grown; 
though it by no means follows that heredity plays 
no part in determining the form of the growth 
assumed by the corallum under any particular 
conditions, and it may well be that the tendency 
toward one type rather than another is inherited; 
this, however, can only be established by experi- 
ment. 


I have italicized the words: ‘this, how- 
ever, can only be established by experi- 
ment.’ 

2. Are the intermediate specimens in the 
intermediate area actually intermediate in 
character or are they hybrids? 

The followimg known occurrence of hy- 
bridization taken from de Vries suggests 
that a similar phenomenon might occur in 
the intermediate areas described by Dr. 
Merriam. Rhododendron intermedium is 
an intermediate form between the hairy 
and the rusty species from the Swiss Alps, 
R. hirsutum and R. ferruginewm, the 
former growing on chalky, and the other 
on siliceous soils. Whenever these types 
of soil occur in the same valley and these 
two species approach one another, the hy- 
brid R. intermedium is produced, and is 
often seen to be propagating itself abun- 
dantly. As is indicated by the name, it 
combines the essential characters of both 
parents. 

De Vries says: 

It is not to be forgotten, however, that all 
taxonomic distinctions, which have not been con- 
firmed by physiological tests are only provisional, 
a view acknowledged by the best systematists. 
Of course the description of newly discovered 
forms can not await the results of physiological 
inquiries, but it is absolutely impossible to reach 
definite conclusions on purely morphological evi- 
dence. This is well illustrated by the numerous 


discords of opinion of different authors on the 
systematic worth of many forms. 


Until various physiological tests of the 
kind referred to by de Vries have been 
made, more than an hypothetical explana- 
tion of the facts presented by Dr. Merriam 
is impossible. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


I now wish to reiterate my opinion as to 
the importance of the work of de Vries. 
The great value of his work consists in 
having shown that ‘The origin of species 
is an object of experimental investigation,’ 
and having furnished guidance not only as 
to what experiments should be made, but 
as to how they should be made. 

Davenport in his last report to the presi- 
dent of the Carnegie Institution says: 

The factors of evolution are three—variation, 
inheritance and adjustment. Studies may be 
made on any one of these factors or all three 


together; as a matter of fact, they can hardly be 
studied wholly independently. 


The discussion to follow will cover in its 
range each of these factors. 

As I have opened the discussion it might 
be expected that I should furnish specific 
data bearing upon these questions. I can 
furnish instances that I have gleaned from 
the writings of de Vries, Weismann and 
others, and those recently published in 
ScIENCE, but all of these rightfully belong 
to others; I have, however, cited some of 
them. Out of my own studies I can pro- 
duce evidence in favor of the general the- 
ory of evolution, I can present phylogenies 
of genera and species that, I think, will 
stand the test of rigid criticism, I can fur- 
nish examples of the adaptation of struc- 
tures, I can also show instances of varia- 
tions in accordance with varying physical 
conditions, but I do not know a single fact 
relating to the Madreporaria that would 
aid in forming a definite conclusion re- 
garding the origin of variation or the 
means by which adjustment is affected— 
I repeat, ‘or the means by which adjust- 
ment is affected,’ for the expression ‘nat- 
ural selection’ is mostly used to raise a 
cloud of mental dust behind which we 
escape into our ignorance. 

I should like to say that the controlling 
influences that govern the distribution of 
corals are being studied as assiduously as 


May 4, 1906.] 


possible by several men, and the subject 
has been given a certain amount of atten- 
tion by nearly all recent students of 
zoophytes. We are obtaiming more in- 
formation on the physical determinants in 
the distribution of these organisms, but 
no one will be able to furnish more than 
an hypothetical explanation of the facts 
now accumulating until the conclusions are 
tested by experiments. Corals that grow 
in shallow water are fortunately easily ex- 
perimented with, and I have hoped that 
the officials of the Carnegie Institution 
might undertake some work with them. 
Dr. C. Montague Cooke, of Honolulu, has 
told me that he intends undertaking a 
series of experiments on the reefs on the 
south coast of the Island of Molokai. 
Probably within a few years it will be 
possible to present definite data from the 
Madrepora on the questions now espe- 
cially under consideration. 


T. WAYLAND VAUGHAN. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Les tremblements de terre. Par F. pe Mon- 
TESSUS DE Battorr. Paris, Libraire Ar- 
mand Colin. 

In Vol. IV., 1900, of Beitrage fir Geo- 
phystk, Major de Montessus published a 
tabular statement of the seismicity of the 
various portions of the earth, divided into 
provinces. In the computation, 131,922 earth- 
quakes were used and 10,499 epicenters; num- 
bers far exceeding what had been compiled by 
preceding systematists taken all together. It 
was the work of many years, and from the 
mass of evidence distributively grouped he 
drew certain important conclusions. They 
were briefly as follows: (1) In a group of 
adjacent seismic regions, the most unstable 
(7. @., most affected by quakes) are those 
which present the greatest differences of 
topographic relief. (2) The unstable regions 
are associated with the great lines of corruga- 
tion of the terrestrial crust. (8) Rapidly 
deepening littorals, especially if they border 


SCIENCE. 


691 


important mountain ranges, are unstable, 
while gently sloping littorals are stable, es- 
pecially if they are the continuations of flat 
or slightly accidented coastal plains. (4) 
Though it is possible to indicate regions 
which present both voleanoes and earthquakes, 
there is no proof of interdependence between 
seismicity and voleanicity in general. While 
there are earthquakes which are certainly of 
voleanic origin, the one phenomenon does not 
necessarily imply the other. These views have 
been borne out and have been generally adopted 
by seismologists in the period of six years 
since they were promulgated. 

But de Montessus seems to have been un- 
willing to let the matter rest. The inferences 
he drew in 1900, indeed, have not been 
abandoned. They, however, express the rela- 
tions of seismicity to topography, and not to 
the causes of earthquakes, which were the real 
objects of his grand research. He has, there- 
fore, taken up the subject anew, rearranged 
his facts, added to their number and made new 
generalizations from a geological as well as a 
topographical standpoint. And the new gen- 
eralizations are of even greater interest and 
more striking than those of 1900. These are 
set forth briefly in the introductory chapter 
of the publication before us. 

According to this analysis, earthquakes oc- 
eur about equally, and almost exclusively, in 
two great circles or zones, which make with 
each other an angle of 67°. These zones are 
(1) the Mediterranean, or Alpine-Caucasian- 
Himalayan, which includes 52.57 per cent. of 
the quakes, and (2) the cireum-Pacifie Andean- 
Japanese-Malayan, which includes 38.51 per 
cent. of the quakes. These two zones coincide 
with the two most important lines of relief 
of the earth’s surface. The poles of these 
great circles are situated 45° 45’ N., 150° 30’ 
W., and 35° 40’ N., 23° 10’ E., respectively. 

This relation, which so far is purely 
geometric, calls for a geological interpretation, 
which may be read at once on the geological 
map of the world. The zones which include 
the seismic regions coincide exactly with the 
geosynclinals of the mesozoic age as they are 
figured by Haug in his well-known memoir, 
“The Geosynclinals and the Continental 


692 


Areas.’* This, in general, is the synthetic 
law putting seisms into direct dependence 
upon the principal recent movements of the 
earth’s crust, since it is along those zones that 
they have attained their greatest amplitudes, 
positive or negative. As a consequence of 
pure statistics and pure observation, without 
introducing any hypothesis, this law may be 
formulated as follows: “The geosynclinals, 
where the sediments deposited in the greatest 
mass have been energetically folded, dislocated 
and elevated in Tertiary time with the forma- 
tion of the principal existing mountain chains 
(or geanticlinals), contain within themselves 
alone, with two or three doubtful exceptions, 
all the seismic regions, which consequently 
characterize them.” 

The geosynclinals more ancient than Meso- 
zoic, which at various epochs have given place 
to plicated mountain chains, now eroded and 
hardly discernible in their present state of 
peneplains, present the peneseismic regions— 
the remains of ancient seismic regions which 
are now tending to stability. The continental 
areas (in the sense in which Haug uses the 
term), whose tabular architecture proves them 
to have always been the seat of collective 
movements of small amplitude and without 
large derangements of the subjacent strata, 
are very generally aseismic or barely pene- 
seismic. In fact, one may say tersely, “The 
folded architecture of the geosynclinals is 
unstable, and the reverse is true of the conti- 
nental areas, and the same has probably been 
true of all geological periods.” 

The body of the book is occupied with the 
discussion of the earthquakes of the different 
regions of the world, chiefly in their geolog- 
ical relations. It is a wonderful display of 
learning. To give any idea of it is entirely 
beyond the scope of this article. The only 
way is to buy the book and read it. 

C,. E. Duron. 


Electricity in Every-day Life. By Enwin 
J. Houston, Ph.D. 3 vols., 54 by 8 inches, 
containing respectively 584, 566 and 609 
pages. New York, P. F. Collier & Son. 


Bull. Soc. Geol. France, Iil., Series XXVIII., 
633. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


This book has been prepared with the evyi- 
dent purpose of being sold to the lay public 
irrespective of its possession of scientific 
knowledge, of education, or of taste for books 
that improve the mind. It is, therefore, a 
good example of the modern art of book- 
making. It is attractively bound in cloth, 
much as would be a modern novel. It is 
illustrated by a few full-page plates in color, 
by a number of full-page half-tones in black 
and white and by a profusion of ordinary cuts. 
The subjects of the color plates are ‘ Edison in 
his laboratory,’ ‘Franklin and his kite,’ 
“aurora borealis,’ ‘a central station, ‘the 
broomstick train,’ ‘electricity on the stage,’ 
‘Holz-machines in electro-therapeutics’ and 
‘landing a sub-marine cable.’ The black and 
white plates are of such subjects as electricity 
in the kitchen, the hat factory, the dairy, the 
tailor-shop, the mine and the composing-room. 
The other cuts will, many of them, be familiar 
to all those versed in the art, having many of 
them originated in S. P. Thompson’s ‘ Ele- 
mentary Lessons on Electricity and Magnet- 
ism,’ in Ganot’s ‘Physics’ or the catalogues 
of the makers of philosophical and scientific 
instruments. The first volume treats of the 
“Generation of Electricity and Magnetism,’ 
and the remaining two of the ‘ Electric Arts 
and Sciences.’ The second volume treats of 
dynamos, electric lighting and electric power, 
and the third volume of electro-chemistry, 
telephony, telegraphy, annunciators and 
alarms, electric heating and _ electro-thera- 
peutics. The style is popular, non-mathe- 
matical, clear, easy and attractive, considering 
the subject matter. Each chapter is intro- 
duced by a pertinent quotation from the 
classics or from the writings of men eminent 
in the profession. Marginal subject notes ac- 
company the more important paragraphs and 
are of great service to the reader. Hach 
volume has a very complete index. The early 
history of the various subjects treated is em- 
phasized and because of the giving of dates, 
references and frequent extensive quotations 
should render the book of considerable ser- 
vice to those interested in patent litigation. 


SAMUEL SHELDON. 


May 4, 1906.] 


Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty. By 
Freprrick ApaAmMs Woops, M.D. New York, 
Henry Holt. 1906. Pp. viii+ 312. 

Dr. Woods presents here in book form his 
investigations, reported originally in The 
Popular Science Monthly, of the family re- 
semblances and of the comparative importance 
of original nature and environment as deter- 
minants of human achievement in the case of 
some six hundred related individuals. These 
were selected at random and graded by at 
least approximately objective criteria for intel- 
lect and also for morality. Dr. Woods states 
the sources of his information and the nature 
of his procedure clearly and in full detail, 
so that any one who doubts his conclusions 
can repeat the research. 

These conclusions are presented in two 
ways, first by a series of descriptions of the 
facts of heredity in the leading stocks of 
European royalty and second by a more gen- 
eral account of the amount of resemblance 
found in related individuals and of the evi- 
dence which proves this resemblance to be due 
almost exclusively to the similarity in condi- 
tions of birth rather than of breeding. 

The descriptions of royal houses make up 
fourteen chapters, all excellent in substance 
but necessarily somewhat unattractive and 
difficult to follow in parts unless the reader 
already knows the history of European courts 
well or has a pronounced taste for genealogy. 
One hundred and four most interesting por- 
traits accompany these chapters. The com- 
ments on general issues, such as the supposed 

progressive degeneration of royal families, the 

“Hapsburg lip’ and prepotency, and the corre- 
lation of the eminence of ruler with the pros- 
perity of the ruled in the case of Portugal, 
are both excellent in substance and interesting 
and relieve the monotony of individual de- 
seriptions. In the general summary given in 
the two closing chapters, the following esti- 
mates of resemblance are given: 


In In- In Mor- 
tellect. ality. 
Resemblances of offspring to father .3007 2983 
Resemblances of offspring to grand- 
TENN? \Gopooods ocodopa2poUnoOS 1606 175 
Resemblances of offspring to great- 
EMEVAGbIBTE So couesveouoeadouc 1528 


SCIENCE. 


695 


The resemblance of husband to wife was 
found to be only .08 (with a possible error of 
.076) in the case of intellect. 

The resemblance of intellect and morality 
within the same individual was .3403. 

Dr. Woods gives as evidence that similarities 
in original nature are the cause of at least 
nine tenths of the resemblance in intellect 
and, perhaps, of an approximately equal pro- 
portion of the resemblance in morality the 
following facts: The resemblance to the ma- 
ternal great-grandfather equals .1528; the 
likeness in morality to the maternal grand- 
father is as great as to the paternal grand- 
father; eldest sons who inherit the opportun- 
ities of a sovereign show no higher achieye- 
ments than their brothers. 

Dr. Woods is conyinced that alternate in- 
heritance is the rule in mental qualities and 
even uses this as an accepted fact in arguing 
that environment must be comparatively un- 
important because children of the same nurture 
often differ markedly in intellect and morals. 
He fails, however, to submit the matter to any 
of the tests by which blended and alternate 
inheritance can be distinguished. 

There are throughout certain matters of 
method and of interpretation in respect to 
which historians and psychologists will differ 
with Dr. Woods. The only ones of much im- 
portance are his ignoring of the fact that all 
his data on morality concern moral super- 
iority or inferiority in comparison to the 
status of one period of civilization rather 
than absolute morality, his possibly hasty ac- 
ceptance of alternate inheritance in mental 
and moral qualities and his failure to give 
in any conyenient form the data which will 
permit any one to repeat the purely statistical 
portion of his work by possibly better methods. 
It is to be hoped with respect to the latter 
point that he will soon print somewhere tables 
of the individual relationships from which his 
mass results are calculated. 

On the whole we must all admire the energy 
and persistence which enabled Dr. Wood to 
carry through so elaborate a study and the 
general sanity and impartiality of spirit with 
which he has made his inferences. In the 
reviewer's opinion precise objective measure- 


694 


ments of living men and women will be our 
final criterion of the strength of mental in- 
heritance, but Dr. Woods’s work is an impor- 
tant contribution to psychology and a most 
admirable lesson to show that history may 
become a natural science. 


Epwarp L. THORNDIKE. 
TEACHERS COLLEGE, 
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


To the January-February Journal of Geol- 
ogy, the opening number of Volume XIV., 
Dr. 8. W. Williston contributes a paper en- 
titled ‘American Amphiccelian Crocodiles’ 
and Professor R. S. Tarr an article on ‘ Gla- 
cial Erosion in the Finger Lake Region of 
Central New York. EE. C. Andrews, of Syd- 
ney, New South Wales, discusses ‘The Ice- 
Flood Hypothesis of the New Zealand Sound 
Basins’ and S. W. McCallie describes some 
‘ Stretched Pebbles from Ocoee Conglomerate.’ 
This article is illustrated by three figures. 
Professor A. P. Coleman; in a paper entitled 
‘Pre-Cambrian Nomenclature,’ reviews cer- 
tain features of the report of the committee 
of American and Canadian geologists ap- 
pointed by the surveys of the two countries 
to decide upon a suitable nomenclature for 
the pre-Cambrian formations of the Upper 
Lakes. The number concludes with an inter- 
esting editorial on the revival of the Llinois 
Geological Survey. 

Tue April number (volume 7, number 2) 
of the Transactions of the American Mathe- 
matical Society contains the following articles: 

C. E. Srromaguist: ‘On geometries in which 
circles are the shortest lines.’ 

G. A. Buiss: ‘A generalization of the notion of 
angle.’ 

OswALp VEBLEN: ‘ The square root and relations 
of order.’ 

Epwarp Kasner: ‘The problem of partial 
geodesic representation.’ 

R. P. StepHens: ‘On the pentadeltoid.’ 

G. A. Minier: ‘The groups of order p, which 
contain exactly p cyclic subgroups of order pe.’ 

W. A. Mannine: ‘ Groups in which a large num- 
ber of operators may correspond to their inverses.’ 

OswaLp VEBLEN and W. H. Bussey: ‘ Finite 
projective geometries.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


W. B. Forp: ‘ On the analytic extension of func- 
tions defined by double power series.’ 

L. E. Dickson: ‘On quadratic, hermitian and 
bilinear forms.’ 

Paul STAcKEL: ‘Die kinematische Erzeugung 
von Minimalflaichen.’ 

Oskar Bouza: ‘ A fifth necessary condition for a 


strong extremum of the integral if; 7 F(a, yy ) da 
0 


G. A. Briss and Max Mason: ‘A problem in 
the calculus of variations in which the integrand 
is continuous.’ 


Tue April number (volume 12, number 7) 
of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical 
Society contains: Report of the February 
Meeting of the Society, by F. N. Cole; Report 
of the Fifty-fifth Annual Meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, by L. G. Weld; ‘A Proof of the 
Fundamental Theorem of Analysis Situs,’ by 
G. A. Bliss; ‘Determination of Associated 
Surfaces,” by Burke Smith; ‘Note on the 
Practical Application of Sturm’s Theorem,’ 
by J. E. Wright; ‘The Movement for Reform 
in the Teaching of Mathematics in Prussia,’ 
by J. W. A. Young; Review of Jahnke’s 
Vorlesungen iiber die Vektorenrechnung, by 
E. B. Wilson; Review of Moulton’s Introduc- 
tion to Celestial Mechanics, by A. O. Leusch- 
ner; Shorter Notices: Borel’s Géométrie, 
Premier et Second Cycle, by C. L. E. Moore; 
Schiissler’s Orthogonale Axonometrie, by Vir- 
gil Snyder; ‘Notes’ and ‘ New Publications.’ 

The May number of the Bulletin contains: 
Report of the February Meeting of the San 
Francisco Section, by G. A. Miller; ‘An Ap- 
plication of the Theory of Differential In- 
variants to Triply Orthogonal Systems of 
Surfaces,’ by J. E. Wright; ‘Surfaces gen- 
erated by Conics cutting a twisted Quartic 
Curve and an Axis in the Plane of the Conic,’ 
by Virgil Snyder; ‘Operation Groups of 
Order p71 p,m2u2” by O. E. Glenn; ‘A Defi- 
nition of Quaternions by Independent Pos- 
tulates,’ by Miss R. L. Carstens; ‘ Note on the 
Heine-Borel Theorem,’ by N. J. Lennes; Re- 
view of Borel’s Lecons sur les Fonctions de 
Variables Réelles, by J. W. A. Young; Shorter 
Notices: Hawkes’s Advanced Algebra, by G. 
D. Olds, Brioschi’s Works, by H. S. White, 


May 4, 1906.] 


Verhandlungen des dritten Mathematiker- 
Congresses, by H. S. White; ‘Notes’ and 
‘New Publications.’ 


The Botanical Gazette for April contains 
the second paper of Dr. E. W. Olive on 
‘ Cytological Studies on the Entomophthoreae,’ 
being a presentation of the nuclear and cell 
division of Empusa; a second paper by Pro- 
fessor V. M. Spalding on the ‘ Biological Re- 
lations of Desert Shrubs, in which the results 
of experimental work on the absorption of 
water by leaves is presented; descriptions of 
numerous new species of Californian plants, 
by Miss Alice Eastwood; and-a sixth paper 
on North American grasses, by A. S. Hitch- 
eock. The usual book reviews and notes for 
students close the number. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


At the 175th meeting of the society on 
February 14, the following papers were pre- 
sented : 


Paleozoic BatLey 

WILLIs. 

Mr. Willis presented certain stratigraphic 
results of the Carnegie expedition to China 
of 1903-4 for geological research. Strati- 
graphic sections were carefully observed in 
the northeastern province, Shan-tung, in 
northern Shan-si, and in the central region of 
south Shen-si and Ssi-ch’uan. In general, 
the Paleozoic system is extensively represented 
from late lower Cambrian to Carboniferous 
or Permian. The basement on which it rests 
is commonly a metamorphic complex of the 
general character of the Archean, but locally 
at least two pre-Cambrian systems, one of 
which resembles the Huronian and the other 
the Belt Mountain series, are distinguishable. 
In north China, north of latitude 34°, the 
Cambrian and Ordovician constitutes a con- 
tinuous sequence of limestones, with occa- 
sional interbedded shales, about 3,500 feet 
thick. The basal shale, 350 to 500 feet thick, 
is distinguished by the prevailing red color of 
the sediments. The unconformity at the 
bottom is one of marine plantation across a 


Stratigraphy of China: 


SCIENCE. 


695 


previously developed peneplain, and is very 
even. ‘There is no lithologic break at the top 
of the Cambrian, the passage to the Ordo- 
vician occurring in the body of limestones 
and being recognized only by the fossils. At 
the top of the Ordovician there is an eroded 
surface which closely parallels the bedding of 
the limestones, but exhibits hollows which are 
occasionally ten or fifteen feet deep and are 
filled with clay that is useful for pottery. 
Upon this surface rest shales which carry 
upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) fossils 
and contain coal beds. In the upper part of 
the coal-bearing measures basaltic flows are 
interstratified with shales. Cross-stratified 
red sandstones succeed, and above these come 
in sandstones with coals which carry Jurassic 
plants. The sequence resembles that of the 
Permo-Mesozoic of India. 

In central China the Paleozoic sequence 
differs from that in north China in several 
respects. At the base on the Yang-tzi there 
is a granite which may be Archean or Algon- 
kian. It is locally overlain by 150 feet of 
quartzite, upon which rests an early Cambrian 
glacial till. Limestones approximately 4,500 
feet thick rest upon the till and include in the 
lower layers a conglomerate containing pebbles 
derived from the till. These limestones rep- 
resent the Cambro-Ordovician sequence and 
carry at their top a rich fauna of Trenton age. 
They pass by transition into thin bedded 
shales which are in part Carboniferous, sug- 
gesting the Devonian black shale of the Ap- 
palachian region, and in part greenish shaly 
sandstone like the Chemung. This formation 
is about 1,800 feet thick and represents all the 
Middle Paleozoic. It is overlain in apparent 
conformity by a limestone 4,000 feet thick, 
which contains coal beds and about 1,000 feet 
above its base yielded upper Carboniferous 
fossils of late Pennsylvanian association. 
From a layer at the contact of the limestone 
with the shales a few obscure forms, which 
may be late Devonian or lower Carboniferous, 
were obtained. Above the Carboniferous 
limestone comes in the sequence of Red Beds 
with thin marine limestone and coal beds, 
which some 600 or 800 feet above their base 
contain Jurassic plants. Thus in central 


696 


China we seem to have a continuous sequence 
of Paleozoic strata with very meager develop- 
ment of the Silurian and Devonian, and with 
a great limestone in place of the Coal Meas- 
ures of Shan-si and Shan-tung. 


Natural Coke in the Wasatch Plateau: J. A. 

Tarr. 

Mr. Taff described the occurrence of natural 
eoke from two localities in the Book Cliffs 
coal field near the north end of the Wasatch 
Plateau in central Utah. The coal, of which 
there are extensive deposits, crops out in the 
Book Cliffs and eastern escarpment of the 
Wasatch Plateau. Along the outcrops the 
eoals have been extensively burned, presum- 
ably by spontaneous combustion fusing the 
overlying strata in places into vesicular slag- 
like masses. At one of these localities, about 
ten miles southwest of Castlegate, an outcrop 
of metamorphosed coal having the columnar 
structure and luster of coke was found in 
association with fused siliceous deposits. 

The second locality is at the Winterquarters 
mines, two miles west of Scofield. Dikes of 
an igneous rock ten feet in width have cut 
vertically across the coal bed, nine to sixteen 
feet thick, metamorphosing the coal into a 
coke-like substance to a distance of three feet 
on each side. The coal thus fused is dis- 
tinctly columnar, the columns standing per- 
pendicular to the face of the dike, and has a 
graphitic luster, but is not vesicular like arti- 
ficial coke. While it has the structure in 
part and the luster of artificial coke it has not 
the composition. The following are analyses 
of the coal and coke from the same mine, 
made by the U. S. Geological Survey. 


Coke, Coal, 

Per Cent. Per Cent. 
\iiGiicr oe ein oaee peiinainnag 0.32 8.10 
Volatile hydrocarbon ...... 20.38 40.20 
Fixed carbon ............. 65.90 45.91 
PAST Meecch verstcce te ieteoua tustereeneas 13.10 5.76 


The hypotheses presented in explaining the 
composition are: (1) that the coal at the time 
of the metamorphism was deeply covered and 
excluded from the atmosphere, thereby pre- 
venting the escape of all the volatile hydro- 
earbons; (2) that the metamorphosed coal 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 592. 


after having lost a large part of its volatile 
matter has become enriched to a certain ex- 
tent by the gaseous products emanating from 
the surrounding coal; (8) that the natural 
coke, a product of the metamorphism of coal, 
is arrested by the cooling of the igneous mass 
before sufficient time was given for the escape 
of all the volatile hydrocarbons. 


The Glaciation of certain Quartzite Ledges of 
Southeastern Wisconsin, and Boulder Trains 
derived therefrom: W. C. ALDEN. 

This investigation will be published by the 

Geological Survey. ‘ 


THE meeting of the society on February 28, 
1906, was devoted to a general discussion en- 
titled ‘The Early Paleozoic Succession in the 
Appalachians and the Effect of Barriers on 
the Distribution of the Formations and 
Faunas.’ The members contributing to the 
discussion were Messrs. Bassler, Keith, Ulrich 
and Willis. The interest of fully twenty-five 
members was aroused to such a degree that 
three special conferences have been held for a ~ 
continuation of the discussion. 

On March 14, the following program was 
presented : 


Maximum Glaciation in the Sierra Nevada 
(illustrated): Mr. Wittarp D. JoHnson. 


Geological Reconnatssance of the Coast of 
Olympic Peninsula Gllustrated) : Mr. RautpH 
ARNOLD. 

On March 28, under the head of ‘ Informal 
Communications,’ Dr. David T. Day described 
a sand storm observed by him in the Columbia 
River Valley in Oregon. In this district, 
though the ordinary so-called Chinook winds 
are continually moving the sands brought 
down by the river, the Oregon Railway and 
Navigation Company has been able to protect 
its tracks by placing boards inclined at an 
angle of 45° to the line of the tracks at critical 
points. The storm described was caused by a 
violent wind blowing in a direction opposite to 
that of the prevailing winds. The amount of 
sand moved was very large, a rough measure 
being furnished by the observation of four feet 
of sand accumulated in box ears standing with 
one door open toward the storm. From sam- 


May 4, 1906.] 


ples collected it was found that the greater part 
of the sand passed a one-hundred-mesh sieve, 
though sixteen per cent. of the material was 
coarser than twenty-mesh. In the latter por- 
tion, however, it is to be noted that there is a 
large amount of cinder, doubtless derived from 
locomotives. 

Dr. Geo. P. Merrill exhibited one of four- 
teen fragments collected by various parties 
from a meteorite of the peridotite type which 
fell near Fort Scott, Kansas, September 2, 
1905. Attention was called to the fact that 
the exterior of all the pieces of this meteorite 
which was seen and heard to explode are fused. 


Regular Program. Report of Mr. S. F. 
Emmons as U. S. Delegate to the Congress 
of Applied Geology held at Liége, Belgium, 
June, 1905. 

This was the first international congress 
devoted exclusively to economic geology, and 
its sessions were held simultaneously in four 
independent sections: mines, metallurgy, me- 
chanics and applied geology, only the last of 
which the delegate was able to attend. 

Liége is an appropriate place for the meet- 
ing of such a congress, being a center of old 
and well-established coal, iron and zine indus- 
tries, the seat of an important school of mines, 
and, during the past summer, the scene of an 
international exposition commemorative of the 
seventy-fifth anniversary of the independence 
of Belgium. 

Mr. Emmons presented a summary of the 
geological and industrial conditions of the 
valley of the Meuse in which the flourishing 
and picturesque city of Liége is situated, and 
gave an abstract of the more important papers 
discussed by the congress under the following 
heads: (1) tectonics, (2) coal and petroleum, 
(8) ore deposits, (4) hydrology. 

The first discussion had mainly to do with 
the structure of the Belgian coal basin in 
which the Paleozoic rocks are compressed into 
a series of anticlines and synclines, and com- 
plicated by many overthrust faults. It also 
considered the probable extension of the coal- 
basin rocks of Alsace-Lorraine beyond the 
boundary into France in the region where they 
are buried by the transgression of Mesozoic 


SCIENCE. 


697 


beds to depths of 2,000 to 2,500 feet. It is, 
of course, a question of great industrial im- 
portance to France whether the workable coal 
beds may be developed within their boundaries 
in that region. 

The question as to the origin of coal and 
petroleum was discussed in a most interesting 
manner by Professors Bertrand, of Lille, and 
Potonié, of Berlin, based on studies with the 
microscope and in the field; a brief statement 
was given of the latter’s theories, which are 
entirely on the autochthonous side of this 
much-mooted question. 

In metallic ore deposits the discussion 
touched the genesis of the zine ores of Bel- 
gium and ores of mercury and other metals 
in Italy, besides making a brief mention of 
platinum-bearing placers in the Congo. 

The discussion on hydrology involved the 
fresh-water-bearing dunes along the shores of 
the North and Baltic seas, from which in 
Holland the city of Amsterdam draws its 
supply of potable water. 

Interesting considerations were also pre- 
sented by French hydrologists on the influence 
of forests and deforestation in different Huro- 
pean countries on their resources of white fuel 
or water (la houille blanche). 


The Hamilton Mine, New Mexico: W. Linp- 

GREN. 

The Santa Fe Range, in northern New 
Mexico, consists chiefly of pre-Cambrian 
granites, gneisses and schists. Among the 
latter are many smaller masses of amphib- 
olites, evidently derived from pre-Cambrian 
intrusions of basic igneous rocks in the 
granite. Carboniferous beds, chiefly sand- 
stones and limestones, occupy large areas on 
the east side of the range on both sides of the 
upper Pecos River, and are separated from the 
pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks by a fault of 
great throw. The Hamilton mine is situated 
on the upper Pecos River about twenty-five 
miles east of Santa Fe, at the place where the 
erosion by the river has exposed a small part 
of the pre-Cambrian basement underneath the 
Carboniferous beds. The latter contain small 
but workable coal mines, and the fossils indi- 
cate a Pennsylvanian age. The amphibolites, 


698 


which strike in a northeasterly direction, con- 
tain a deposit of chalcopyrite, zinc blende and 
pyrite which has been worked intermittently 
since 1885. The workings consist of a shaft 
950 feet deep, together with drifts and cross- 
cuts extending for a short distance along the 
deposit. The ore minerals are directly im- 
bedded in the amphibolite and the gangue 
minerals consist of biotite, amphibole, tour- 
maline and quartz. Interest centers in the 
age of the deposit, which is clearly and un- 
mistakably older than the Carboniferous beds 
which cover the decomposed and oxidized 
croppings of the ores. Unquestionably it is 
also pre-Cambrian, for Cambrian strata are 
present in both southern Colorado and south- 
ern New Mexico. Their absence in this par- 
ticular region indicates simply -that this 
vicinity constituted a land area during the 
earliest Paleozoic times. 

Examination of other points in the ranges 
north of Santa Fe by the author and Mr. L. 
C. Graton, revealed the fact that at a great 
many other points pre-Cambrian deposits also 
exist, although in few cases was it possible 
to prove it so conclusively as was the case at 
the Hamilton mine. Details of these occur- 
rences will be described in a forthcoming 
reconnaissance report of the mineral deposits 
of New Mexico. Im general, there are two 
types of deposits, both of which most fre- 
quently contain chalcopyrite. The first con- 
sists of stringers and irregular lenses of quartz 
and calcite enclosing copper ores; the second 
forms disseminated ores or ‘fahlbands’ in 
schists, either amphibolites or gneisses. 

It has been known for a long time that the 
gold deposits in the southern Appalachian 
states are of early Paleozoic or pre-Cambrian 
The pre-Cambrian age of the Home- 
stake mine in South Dakota has also been 
firmly established. The author indicated some 
years ago the probability of pre-Cambrian de- 
posits occurring in Wyoming, and recently 
Dr. A. C. Spencer has shown that the copper 
deposits of Grand Encampment, in the same 
state, most likely also belong to the same early 
period. This leads to the inference that pre- 


age. 


- SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


Cambrian deposits must be present in Colo- 
rado. 

The pre-Cambrian deposits, as stated above, 
are apt to contain copper as the most valuable 
metal. Their tenor in gold and silver is usu- 


ally low. Arruur C. SPENoER, 


Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

THE meeting of November 29, 1905, was 
held at the New York Botanical Garden, with 
Vice-president Underwood in the chair. 
Twenty persons were present. 

Dr. D. S. Martin exhibited specimens of 
glassy cinders formed by the burning of masses 
of rice-hulls near Charleston, S. C., illustra- 
ting in a striking manner the presence of 
silica in these hulls. 

The announced paper of the afternoon was 
by Dr. N. L. Britton, under the title of ‘ The 
North American Cactacex.” The speaker re- 
marked that the Cactacee of North America 
were being carefully studied by himself in 
cooperation with Dr. J. N. Rose, of Washing- 
ton, in anticipation of preparing a systematic 
account of this group for the ‘ North Ameri- 
ean Flora.’ The Mexican forms have been ex- 
tensively collected by Dr. Rose and are being 
kept under cultivation in Washington and 
New York. Numerous species from Arizona, 
New Mexico, Lower California and the West 
Indies have been secured by expeditions sent. 
out by the New York Botanical Garden and 
now are under cultivation in New York. 
Herbarium material is, as a rule, peculiarly 
inadequate to a proper appreciation of the 
relationships of the members of this family 


_and it is hoped soon to have all of the North 


American species under observation in the 
living state. Herbarium specimens are being 
supplemented by photographs and by material 
preserved in fluids. 

The most recent of the more important 
papers on the classification of the Cactacezx is 
one by Berger, entitled ‘A Systematic Re- 
vision of the Genus Cereus Mill.’ and pub- 
lished in the Sixteenth Report of the Mis- 
souri Botanical Garden (1905). This paper 
has been based chiefly on the studies made in 


May 4, 1906.] 


Sir Thomas Hanbury’s famous gardens in 
Italy, and gives much importance to char- 
acters of flowers and fruit, characters which 
have been largely ignored in previous schemes 
of classification because unknown. The genus 
Cereus is divided into eighteen subgenera by 
Berger. The studies of the speaker and of 
Dr. Rose indicate that both in the old genus 
Cereus and in other groups of the cactus 
family, well-marked differential characters of 
flower and fruit are coordinated with those of 
the stem in such a way as to make the recogni- 
tion of several new genera natural and con- 
venient. After these introductory remarks, 
the meeting was adjourned to the propagating 
houses of the garden, where numerous living 
specimens of Cactacese were demonstrated and 
commented upon. Of the genus Cereus in 
the current sense, various types representing 
subgenera or possible generic segregates were 
discussed. Among these were Cereus peruvi- 
anus, the proper type of the genus Cereus; 
species of the Pilocereus group, with which 
the older Cephalocereus is historically iden- 
tical; Cereus Schottii of Berger’s subgenus 
Lophocereus; Cereus geometrizans, represent- 
ing Console’s genus Myrtillocactus; Cereus 
Pringlet of Berger’s group Pachycereus; 
Cereus sonorensis, representing Stenocereus, 
also of Berger; Cereus triangularis, a species 
much cultivated in the West Indies and south- 
ern Florida, with large beautiful nocturnal 
flowers, a member of Berger’s subgenus 
Hylocereus; Cereus grandiflorus, the best- 
known night bloomer, belonging in Berger’s 
subsection Selenicereus; the curious Cereus 
Greggu with slender stem and very large 
tuberous subterranean part, representing the 
subsection Peniocereus of Berger; the Central 
American Cereus baxaniensis of the group 
Acanthocereus; the Oosta Rican Cereus 
Gonzalez, of Berger’s subgenus Leptocereus; 
and also representatives of Engelmann’s sub- 
genus Hchinocereus. Other specimens were 
exhibited to illustrate the genera Phyllocactus, 
Lpiphyllum, Cactus, Echinocactus, Melocactus, 
Ariocarpus, Pelecyphora, Rhipsalis, Opuntia, 
Nopalea, and the curious Pereskia, with its 
leafy, vine-like or shrubby stems. 


SCIENCE. 


699 


THE meeting of December 12, 1905, was 
held at the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory, with President Rusby in the chair. 
Thirty-four persons were present. 

The announced paper of the evening was by 
Dr. Henry Kraemer and was entitled ‘Some 
Studies on Color in Plants and the Artificial 
Coloring of Flowers.’ The subject of color 
in plants was considered first from a morpho- 
logical and chemical point of view, and the 
speaker performed various illustrative chem- 
ical experiments involving changes of color 
in liquid media. The results of numerous 
experiments on the control of color in living 
plants and on the artificial coloring of cut 
flowers were given. Dr. Kraemer’s paper will 
be published in full in the Bulletin of the 
elub. The following is his abstract of the 
more important results of his observations and 
experiments : 

1. Unorganized or cell-sap color substances are 
distributed usually in largest amount at the 
termini of the branches, as in flowers and ter- 
minal leaves, or in roots, or in both tops and 
roots. Their occurrence in those portions of the 
plant, which are young and growing, points to the 
conclusion that they are not to be disregarded in 
the study of metabolic processes. Goebel holds 
a similar view. He says that it is ‘very prob- 
able that the feature of color which so often ap- 
pears when the propagative organs are being 
brought forth has some connection with definite 
metabolic processes, although till now we can not 
recognize what these are.’ 

2. The distribution of the so-called flower color 
substances in other parts of the plant than the 
flower also points to the same conclusion, and that 
the part which they play in attracting insects to 
flowers, is, if indeed they have any function of 
this kind, incidental rather than fundamental. 
The fact that certain colored flowers, as in the 
spruce and red maple of early spring, are polli- 
nated by the wind, would tend to confirm this view. 
The food in the nectar and pollen are no doubt 
sufficient attraction for insects and other animals. 

3. The occurrence of chromoplastids in a reserve 
organ, as in the tuberous root of the carrot, and 
the similar occurrence of chromoplastids and of 
reserve starch in the petals of the buttercup, lead 
to the inference that the petal of the buttercup, 
like the root of the carrot, has the function of 
storing nutrient material. In each case cells con- 
taining chromoplasts rich in nitrogenous sub- 


700 


stances are associated with cells containing re- 
serve materials. In the case of the carrot the re- 
serve materials are utilized by the plant of the 
second year, and in the case of the buttercup they 
are utilized in the development of the akene. 

4. The feeding of plants with chemicals for the 
purpose of controlling color, as certain iron, 
aluminum, potassium and other salts as well as 
certain organic acids, has not so far, in the au- 
thor’s experiments with carnations, roses and 
violets, produced any marked changes in the colors 
of the flowers, only some slight effects being noted 
which might be attributed to other causes. Know- 
ing that plants have a certain individuality and 
certain inherent qualities or tendencies, other 
than negative results could hardly be expected. 
On the other hand, the plant is a rather plastic 
organism, and for this reason experiments along 
the line indicated are more or less justified. 

5. Experiments in supplying plants and cut 
flowers with vegetable coloring matters and aniline 
dyes showed that none of the vegetable color sub- 
stances were taken up and that only a com- 
paratively few of the aniline dyes would color 
flowers. The fact that of thousands of dyes or color 
substances, only a few are carried as high as the 
flower, would tend to show that only certain chem- 
icals or substances would be taken up by the 
plant, and thus exert an influence on the coloring 
matter in the flower. If such profound changes 
‘occur in plants as are provided by the mutation 
theory, is it too much to suppose that certain 
definite changes might be produced by means of 
which we have knowledge or control? 


Dr. Kraemer’s remarks were illustrated by 
a hundred or more freshly cut flowers such 
as carnations, roses, hyacinths and eallas, 
which had been artificially colored in the few 
hours preceding the demonstration by placing 
the stalks of the flowers in solutions of cer- 
tain dyes. Numerous dried specimens of arti- 
ficially colored flowers of various plants were 
also exhibited. 

Dr. Rusby showed fresh fruits of the so- 
called ‘ tree-tomato,’ a species of Cyphomandra 
native to South America. 

\ : MarsHatt A. Howse, 
Secretary pro tem. 


THE ST. LOUIS CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


Tur regular meeting of the society on 
March 12 was devoted to a consideration of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


matters connected with the organization of 
the society. 

April 9. The paper of the evening, com- 
municated by the secretary, was entitled 
“Phosphorescent Zine Sulphide.” The paper 
dealt with phosphorescent zine sulphide pre- 
pared by Mr. John Esmaker. The method 
followed was detailed briefly, with a view to 
emphasizing the slight changes in procedure, 
which result in failure to obtain the phos- 
phorescent variety of zine sulphide. The 
changes in the method were so slight, that ap- 
parently they should have had no influence on 
the character of the result. The remainder of 
the paper, and the general discussion which 
followed, dealt with phosphorescence and sim- 
ilar phenomena, and endeavored to assign 
some reason for the observed effects. 


C. J. BorgMryer, 
Corresponding Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


A PLAN TO ENSURE THE DESIGNATION OF GENERIC 
TYPES. AN OPEN LETTER TO SYSTEMATIC 
ZOOLOGISTS. 


PROBABLY no other single factor has caused 
so much confusion in systematic zoology and 
nomenclature as has the failure on the part 
of some authors to definitely designate the 
type species for the new genera they have de- 
seribed. Such failure, indeed, so frequently 
produces confusion, that the suggestion has 
been made that a rule be inserted in the 
International Code of Nomenclature to the 
effect that no new generic name proposed after 
a given date, say December 31, 1909, may 
claim recognition unless its author definitely 
designates its type at the time of the publica- 
tion of the name in question. A rule of this 
nature, extreme though it may appear to some 
persons, seems to be fully warranted in view 
of the experience zoologists have had with 
genera proposed without types. It seems 
somewhat doubtful, however, whether the 
International Congress would see its way clear 
to adopt the proposition just referred to. 

Another plan has occurred to me by which 
practically the same result may be obtained, 
without recourse to the adoption of the pro- 


May 4, 1906.] 


posal mentioned, namely, by inducing journals 
and publishing societies to refuse publication 
to papers containing new genera for which the 
authors fail to designate types. This plan, 
unbeknown to me at the time, had already 
been adopted by the Washington Biological 
Society before I began to advance it. I have 
now brought the proposition before several 
organizations, all of which have agreed to 
insist upon the designation of a type for 
every new generic name submitted to them 
for publication, and instructions have been 
issued to the general effect that papers not 
complying with the rule will not be accepted 
for publication. The organizations which 
have notified me of the adoption of this gen- 
eral plan are as follows: 


U. S. Fish Commission. 

U. S. Geological Survey. 

U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

U. S. National Museum. 

U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Ser- 
vice. 

Smithsonian Institution. 

Biological Society of Washington. 

Entomological Society of Washington. 

American Museum of Natural History, New 
York. 


It is my intention to communicate with 
other organizations in the hope of inducing 
them to adopt this same plan. Such a move- 
ment, however, when dependent upon the ef- 
forts of one person, is necessarily somewhat 
slow. On this account I take the liberty of 
addressing the systematic zoologists, through 
Science, and of asking them to join in the 
movement by bringing the matter before any 
publishing organizations to which they belong 
and by urging its adoption not only by socie- 
ties, academies, surveys, etc., but also by 
zoological journals. 

I shall be under obligations if zoologists will 
notify me of any societies, journals, etc., 
which have already adopted this rule, or which 
adopt it in the future. 

Cu. WarbDELL STILEs. 


CERTAIN PLANT ‘SPECIES’ IN THEIR RELATION TO 
THE MUTATION THEORY. 

Av the last congress of the American Orni- 

thologists’ Union I presented a short paper 


SCIENCE. 


701 


on the ‘ Applicability of the Mutation Theory 
to Birds.’ My conclusions were entirely in 
accord with those of Dr. ©. Hart Merriam as 
presented in his most interesting address be- 
fore the American Association in New 
Orleans.* 

There is one point, however, not touched 
upon by Dr. Merriam which I brought for- 
ward as probably influencing de Vries or at 
least others who share his views. This is that 
we seem to have among plants certain forms 
which are, so far as their differential char- 
acters are concerned, comparable to subspecies 
among terrestrial vertebrates, but which are 
not restricted to any definite geographic life 
area or climatic zone, as is always the case 
with the latter. 

Any one at all in touch with modern botany 
is aware of the tremendous number of forms 
which are now being described as species. In 
order to learn something of the nature of these 
forms and their possible correlation with sub- 
species of birds and mammals, I selected the 
acaulescent violets and spent several years 
studying their variations in the neighborhood 
of Philadelphia.’ 

I found it possible to recognize a number 
of quite distinct forms, and yet every year I 
discover others of intermediate character; 
while every new section of country yields 
allied forms which do not fit exactly into any 
of my previously prepared diagnoses; yet each 
of these forms is reasonably constant in its 
own patch or neighborhood.* These are cer- 
tainly not species, neither are they subspecies 
as we understand them in yertebrates. More- 
over, it is hopeless to begin to ‘lump’ them, 
for we soon find ourselves forced to combine 
species of long standing and ultimately to 
have only one species of acaulescent blue 
violet’ and one white one! 

Just what these ‘forms’ are and what their 


*ScmEncE, XXIII., p, 241. 

* Cf. Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sct., 1903, p. 656. 

*Cf. Burgess, “ Biotian Asters, Mem. Torrey 
Bot. Club, XIII. Also Brainard, Rhodora, V1., 
213; VIII., p. 6 and 49, where hybridism on a 
large scale is advanced as the explanation of these 
forms. 

‘Exclusive of V. pedata of course. 


702 


origin may be I am not prepared to say, but 
they have no counterpart among birds and 
with a few possible exceptions none among 
other vertebrates. 

I may say that I do not regard them as the 
result of mutation as the followers of de Vries 
apparently do, but think it likely that they 
may be due to the action of immediate local 
environment, the exact nature of which it is 
practically impossible for us to detect. The 
extremely sedentary nature of plants, especially 
some groups, and the ease with which isolation 
may affect them would tend to emphasize the 
effect of local environment in producing dif- 
ferentiation. 

In terrestrial vertebrates we find among 
snakes certain forms with peculiar coloration 
occurring as colonies here and there within 
the range of the species which do not conform 
to any definite geographic habitat, and in some 
fossorial or semifossorial mammals similar ex- 
tremely local forms occur, as “Geomys 
colonus’® Bangs surrounded by the range of 
G. floridanus and tuza and in just the same 
sort of environment so far aS we can see; 
also ‘ Microtus rufidorsum’ Baird, which oc- 
curs in colonies within the range of WM. 
pennsylvanicus. 

These may be parallel cases to those ex- 
hibited in Viola, Crategus, Aster, Panicum, 
etc., and their sedentary nature seems to point 
similarly to elements in the immediate local 
environment as the probable cause of their 
differentiation. 

WITMER STONE. 

Acap. Nat. SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA. 


ISOLATION BY CHOICE. 


To THE Epitor or Science: The recent dis- 
cussion of isolation in SclmENcE reminds me 
of a popular article I wrote for The Outlook, 
emphasizing the psychic factor in evolution’ 
—the part that choice plays. We must, it 
seems to me, not forget the various factors 
that work together at the same time in pro- 
ducing species. <A fish with weak eyes would 
naturally prefer cave life, and thus isolated 
breed with others similarly equipped, phys- 
ically and mentally. Those that have the 

+ February 18, 1898. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


physical variation without the mental would 
soon feel the effect of their want of sense. 
The same principle applies in protective 
coloration. One may easily conceive of two 
habitats where the protective coloration would 
be quite different, and it is easy to see that 
the survival of those sensible enough to stick 
to the habitat best suited to them might 
quickly lead to intensification both of the 
tendency to seek the one habitat and of the 
coloration that adapts them to it. Indeed 
sexual selection may come in. Those haying 
a willingness to accept mates with an erratic 
tendency to the other habitat or less protective. 
coloration would have progeny less liable to 
prosper. Thus we may easily imagine two 
color races, species, arising, separated by a 
hereditary preference for different habitats, 
and for mates with all the peculiarities that 
those habitats have produced, while yet there 
is no physical barrier preventing the crossing, 
which may indeed go on to some slight extent. 


ALFRED OC. Lane. 


LARVAL CONGER EELS ON THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 


THE occurrence of larval conger eels in 
great abundance on the Atlantic coast has, as 
far as I am aware, not been recorded; ac- 
cordingly the following note may be of in- 
terest. 

On May 27, 1905, the ‘ Leptocephalus’ of 
a conger eel appeared in great numbers at 
Easthampton, on the south shore of Long 
Island, about twenty miles from Montauk 
Point. They were washed up by the waves, 
literally, in thousands, and continued to come 
ashore in greater or less quantity—being espe- 
cially abundant again on June 8—for about a 
fortnight. It was evident that this interest- 
ing harvest was due in some measure, at least, 
to a local storm and change of currents, which 
also brought in a number of bottom forms— 
e. g., Natica and its eggs. 

The larve were all of a uniform length of 
about four inches, and in a few cases appeared 
to be in normal condition; most, however, 
were found to be either dead or dying. Dr. 
Bashford Dean, who has seen my specimens, 
tells me that they are probably Leptocephalus 


May 4, 1906.] 


conger. A larva of the same species sent to 
Dr. Dean by Professor Grassi, who collected 
it at Messina, is five inches in length. 


L. S. QUACKENBUSH. 


SHOULD OUR COLLEGES ESTABLISH SUMMER 
SCHOOLS ? 


A NEw and important feature in the educa- 
_ tional scheme of our colleges is the growing 
tendency toward the establishment of summer 
schools. According to the report of the Com- 
missioner of Education there were in 1903 
over 11,000 students in the summer schools of 
-51 of our colleges. About two thirds of these 
students were women; mainly teachers of sec- 
ondary schools. The number of students now 
attending the summer schools is about one 
tenth as great as the total number enrolled in 
our colleges throughout the year, and is more 
than twice as great as the number studying in 
the graduate schools of our universities. 

The growth of these summer schools in 
America dates from 1874 when the religious 
assembly at Lake Chautauqua began the sum- 
mer training of Sunday-school teachers, and 
in 1878 this movement grew into the estab- 
lishment of a general summer school, aiming 


to disseminate culture chiefly among those 


who had not enjoyed the benefit of college 
training. In this the Chautauqua school has 
achieved well-renowned success, raised the gen- 
eral level of intelligent appreciation, and 
broadened the mental horizons of thousands; 
_thus exercising a beneficent influence upon our 
national life not to be overestimated. 

Such a summer school as that of Chautauqua, 
independent of any one college but dependent 
in a large sense upon all, aims chiefly to 
broaden rather than to deepen culture, and to 
maintain and develop the best standards of 
life and thought. It teaches, above all, that 
lives of the highest value to civilization may 
be devoted to the true and the beautiful rather 
than to the material side of progress. Its 
aim differs from that of the colleges in that 
it is extensive rather than intensive, broad 
rather than precise; developing thus a higher 
standard of general culture, rather than train- 
ing specialists for professional careers. 


SCIENCE. 


703 


Of late years, however, the summer school 
has become an established feature of the cur- 
riculum of our colleges themselves. These 
summer schools of the colleges are naturally 
centers of culture which as such must accom- 
plish much general good, but they often hold 
out a false hope to those who visit them de- 
siring to gain precise technical knowledge. 
One can not accomplish in six weeks what 
should be done in a year of patient study ac- 
companied by laboratory experience. The 
tendency of these college summer schools is 
to substitute superficiality for depth, and to 
inerease rather than diminish the number of 
half-trained specialists with which our coun- 
try is already over-burdened. 

But apart from their more or less beneficial 
effect upon the student I wish to call attention 
to an eyil influence they are beginning to ex- 
ert upon those who teach in our colleges. 

Until within a few years the college teacher 
looked upon his summer vacation as a season 
for research and broadening study; now fully 
one half of this once cherished period must be 
sacrificed to the labor of the dissemination of 
superiicial and elementary instruction. 

What can we hope from our universities if 
the spirit of research, which already lan- 
guishes, be killed within them. The intel- 
leetual achievement of our highest schools can 
be measured only by the standard of productive 
scholarship; not by the amount but by the 
quality of their instruction. 

Men are not machines to be loaded with 
knowledge at one brief period in their youth, 
and then to impart wisdom unchanged 
throughout the remainder of their days, and 
yet this development of the summer school in 
connection with the college is surely cutting 
down those precious hours when the teacher 
himself becomes a student. What more 
stimulating to the teacher or beneficial to the 
college than a vacation rightly used in re- 
search, intelligent travel or in contact with 
his fellow men beyond the college walls. 

Correlated with the growth of the summer 
school system is the tendency of the college 
itself to maintain low salaries for its instruc- 
tors, relying upon the fact that by teaching in 


704 


the summer school the young instructor may 
earn sufficient for his maintenance. 

In nearly all of our colleges the salary 
paid to the teacher below the grade of pro- 
fessor is so small as to render it all but neces- 
sary for him to devote at least a portion of 
the summer vacation to primary teaching. 
This evil chiefly affects the teacher who is 
neither old nor young, but who in the fullest 
possession of his newly developed abilities re- 
joices still in the full energy of youth, and 
yet is upon the threshold of that fuller knowl- 
edge which years alone can bring. Now if 
ever is he fitted for giving new thought to 
the world, and now of all times are his free 
moments precious. 

In my official connection with a laboratory 
whose purpose it is to afford unrivaled facil- 
ities for research to those best fitted to avail 
themselves of the opportunity, I find that fully 
one third of our ablest investigators feel 
obliged to decline invitations to pursue re- 
search work free of all expense; and answer 
that in order to provide adequate support for 
wife and family they must forego the attrac- 
tive prospect, and teach in the summer schools. 
And thus they must decline facilities for the 
solution of problems which years of training 
have best fitted them to solve, and to the solu- 
tion of which their thoughts must turn with 
hope and longing. 

Granted that research must generally be per- 
formed at a sacrifice to him who loves it, and 
that the genius of advancing thought flourishes 
best in adversity, is this an argument for 
rendering research well-nigh impossible, and 
for substituting the low achievement of ex- 
pounding well-worn facts for the glory of dis- 
covery ? 

Our colossal universities are weak in re- 
search when compared with those of Germany, 
and when we look upon the great names of 
those who were among us we see that produc- 
tive scholarship has not advanced with our 
material progress. 

We must have more of the spirit of Agassiz 
who knew of the hidden wealth by Lake Su- 
perior’s shore, but had not time to make 
money; of Henry who knew of the practical 
value of his electro-magnet but swerved not 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


from his path and ever studied science simply 
for his love of it, never asking of it the re- 
wards of wealth. 

Not the least of this evil of which we speak 
is the fact that our colleges are putting into 
the high place the ideal of mere money getting. 
The most inadequate measure of success is 
thus lauded as the highest, and it is a lament- 
able fact that a large number of our leading 
college professors have deserted research to 
enter upon commercial careers. 

Measure our universities by standards truly 
high. What character do they develop in 
their graduates, what love for research do they 
inspire, how thorough is their scholarship. 
Even small colleges may excel the great uni- 
versities in these things. This matter has 
been most ably discussed by Professor 
Miinsterberge in his book upon ‘ American 
Traits,’ giving as he does the deferential but 
nevertheless just opinion of one who as a 
visitor among us contrasts our achievements 
in higher education with those of his native 
land. 

It is to be hoped that one among our grad- 
uate schools may develop as an autonomous 
institution, with its own special faculty de- 
voted exclusively to the advancement of its 
aims, and substituting the standard of original 
work for that of mere erudition, and of quality 
for that of quantity. If one among them thus 
should raise its head, all others soon would 
follow. 

ALFRED GOLDSBoROUGH MayEr. 

MARINE LABORATORY OF THE CARNEGIE 

INSTITUTION, TORTUGAS, FLORIDA. 


ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SMALL MOUNDS OF THE 
LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND TEXAS. 


To THE Eprror or Science: Apropos of a 
communication under the above title by P. J. 
Farnsworth in your issue of April 13, 1906, I 
beg the privilege of a few remarks. 

From time to time a number of notes have 
been written upon this subject in Science by 
Messrs. Veatch, Branner, Bushnell and per- 
haps others, but unfortunately none of these 
papers are available to me except those of 
Messrs. Farnsworth and Bushnell. 

The mounds to which I allude are low, 


May 4, 1906.] 


circular eminences, averaging, say, twenty feet 
in diameter, seldom exceeding two feet in 
height, occurring thickly studded over exten- 
sive areas of both forest and prairie lands. 

For nearly twenty years I have been ob- 
serving these mounds in the second bottoms 
of the rivers of the southern coastal plain, 
the coast prairies of Louisiana and Texas, in 
southern Arkansas, Indian Territory and in 
the extension of the old valleys of the rivers 
toward the great plains. 

I do not believe that they owe their origin 
to the uprooting of trees, the handiwork of 
man, to glacial agencies, or the pressure of 
underground gases, as some of your corre- 
spondents and others have alleged. 

As to Mr. Farnsworth’s theory that they 
are the result of uprooting trees: while I have 
seen many mounds in the forests which 
have thus been made, this hypothesis can not 
apply as a general explanation, owing to the 
fact that millions of the mounds occur on the 
newly made coast prairie of the Texas region 
which is not and has never been inhabited by 
forest growth. Two weeks ago I drove 
through thousands of these mounds on the 
mainland of Texas opposite Galveston Island, 
and any one familiar with the conditions of 
that portion of the coast prairie will imme- 
diately abandon the uprooting tree theory. 

Mr. Bushnell’s theory that these mounds 
were made by man is also totally inadequate. 
I am well aware of the fact that in poorly 
drained flat areas of the old flood plains and 
second bottoms of the Mississippi Valley and 
its tributary laterals, mounds do exist which 
were constructed by aboriginal hands, but the 
mounds under discussion are not of this class. 
I have seen hundreds of these dissected by 
roadways and other cuttings and they show 
no trace of human work. Furthermore, they 
are so numerous and extensive that their con- 
struction by men would have required a larger 
population than has ever yet inhabited these 
regions, or than it could possibly support. 

The glacial theory can also be dismissed 
with the statement that in most instances 
these mounds inhabit non-glacial formations. 


SCIENCE. 


705 


Another theory, which has probably been 
mentioned by some of your correspondents, 
is that the mounds are produced by the 
ascending gas above oil pools, has wide 
local adherence and should be discountenanced 
because of its economic misapplication. In 
fact, the name ‘gas mound’ now being used 
locally by the people for this class of phe- 
nomena in Texas is the only specific one which 
I have heard applied. Many charlatans and 
even misguided honorable men are holding to 
the ‘gas-mound’ theory and express astonish- 
ment when any one disputes it, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that the identical mounds are 
found to occur in many districts where not 
the least sign of oil or gas has been discovered. 
This theory has cost useless expenditure of 
many thousands of dollars in drilling for oil 
pools. 

While frequently feeling, like Professor 
Forshey, as quoted in Mr. Farnsworth’s article, 
that the more familiarity I have with these 
mounds, the less explicable they seem to me, 
I am of the decided opinion that they are 
natural products of certain topographic, cli- 
matic and geologic conditions. 

It has been my observation that the mounds 
always occur upon areas of poorly drained 
sublevel surfaces in regions of abundant, 
periodic rainfall. They are also always un- 
derlain by formations of alluvial materials of 
relatively uncompact sands and clays. 

The rainfall upon these places, owing to 
absence of well-defined runways, stands until 
it is evaporated or absorbed. The materials 
have different capacities for absorption and 
transmission, retention and loss of water, re- 
sulting in the unequal settling of the ground 
and the formation of the mounds and their 
interspaces. In the dry season these mounds 
are frequently augmented in size by drifting 
sands. 

While writing upon this subject, I might add 
that last year I observed mounds exactly sim- 
ilar to those of the southern coastal plain region 
upon the Bayicora plain near the top of the 
Western Sierra Madre of Mexico at an alti- 
tude of nearly 7,000 feet. This plain, like the 
coast prairie, is an extensive flat upon which 


706 


the rainfall stands for a considerable time 


after falling. Rowman 
111 Broapway, NEw YorK, 


April 20, 1906. 


SPECIAL ARTIOLES. 


THE AVAILABILITY OF CELLULOID IN ILLUSTRATING 
CHROMATIC POLARIZATION. 


1. It is not unusual to find that celluloid 
shows brilliant colors between erossed nicols 
on the cut edges. This observation suggested 
the use of the material to illustrate the prop- 
erties of plates cut parallel to the optic axis, 
when seen in polarized light in the usual way. 
In fact, if astrip of celluloid is evenly 
stretched, fields of color vying in brilliancy 
with those of the natural crystal, may be ob- 
tained quite uniformly over an area an inch 
or more square, and variable at will through 
two or more well-defined orders; or the color 
of any given crystal may be similarly in- 
creased or decreased continuously in order. 
The well-known complicated figures seen in 
compressed or annealed glass are thus simpli- 
fied, in a way that is at once interpretable in 
terms of elementary optical theory. 

9. In the following experiment I used strips 
of clear celluloid, about 20 em. long, 1 em. or 
less broad (to avoid the need of excessive 
traction) and but .025 em. thick (for flexi- 
bility). They were mounted between rollers, 
very much in the manner used in film cameras, 
except that one roller was rigidly fastened 
while the other could be rotated by the aid of 
a lever and clamped. If many strips are to 
be simultaneously stretched, it is advisable to 
secure one end of the strip under a plate of 
brass, bringing the ends around the remote 
edge and holding them down under a second 
smaller plate, in order that the maximum of 
friction may be encountered. The roller in 
this case is preferably a strong hollow brass 
cylinder (say 2 em. in diameter) with a cen- 
tral longitudinal slot. Through this the ends 
are passed and wedged in place with a conical 
rod forced into the inside of the tube. About 
one complete turn should be taken to insure 
friction. For special purposes instanced be- 
low, a similar adjustment for stretching at 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 592. 


right angles to the preceding should be added. 
Screw apparatus or uniform loads are also 
useful in particular cases. 

3. As the two directions of vibration are 
parallel to the strain and at right angles to it, 
respectively, the nicols may be adjusted at 45 
degrees to the vertical and the pulls be either 
horizontal or vertical. The phase difference 
¢ for a thickness of strip, d, being 


¢=2nd(n—n’)d, 


where n and n’ are the two indices of refrac- 
tion for light of normal wave-length, X. The 
plan of experiment consists in varying n— n/ 
continuously from 0 by increasing stress as 
far as the breaking point of the strip, and to 
inerease d successively from the thickness of 
1 to that of four strips (d= .025 to .1 em.). 
The following results may be recorded: 

One strip, d= .025 cm. Colors whitish to 
middle of the first order. When the strip 
breaks, the efficiency does not much exceed 
a quarter wave-length plate. Such a plate of 
mica, where mean and minimum elasticities 
are involved, is but d=.0032 ecm. thick; a 
similar plate of selenite, where maximum and 
minimum elasticities occur, is .0027 em. thick 
for mean wave-lengths. Hence the efficiency 
of a strip of celluloid stretched nearly to the 
breaking point is for like thicknesses, about 
13 per cent. of that of mica and 10 per cent. 


‘of that of selenite. 


Two strips, d—=.050 em. The earlier whit- 
ish colors now become more and more satu- 
rated and the strips break about at the end 
of the order. 

Three strips carry the phenomenon (when 
stress is gradually increased) from colorless to 
the middle of the second order, extremely vivid 
colors overlying the whole visible area of the 
strip; four strips complete the first two series. 
If more strips are to be used the machine 
must be strong and quite perfect in its clutch, 
otherwise there is slipping and abrasion, by 
which the strength of the strips is decreased. 
Apart from this the experiments may be car- 
ried into higher orders of color at pleasure. 

4. Special Hxperiments.—Ilf three or four 
strips of successively decreasing width over- 
lie each other symmetrically, so as to form a 


May 4, 1906.] 


steplike double or single wedge in cross sec- 
tion, the appearance is very striking, each 
thickness glowing with its particular color. 

To produce a continuous wedge effect, the 
width of the strips should be gradually de- 
creased to the center of the field. Since stress 
is greatest where the cross-section is least, the 
higher orders of colors appear nearer the 
center. 

5. Compensation Effects—If a plate quartz, 
cut parallel to the axis and showing the warm 
ted between crossed nicols, is placed with its 
axis parallel to the lines of strain of the 
celluloid strip, the succession of colors is red, 
orange, yellow, green, blue or retrograde. The 
quartz effect is thus gradually more and more 
neutralized by the celluloid strip as its strain 
imereases. If the axis of the quartz plate is 
at right angles to the lines of strain, the order 
is red, purple, blue, green, yellow or direct. 
The quartz and celluloid effect coincide in 
sign. Hence the ray vibrating in the direc- 
tion of the lines of stress corresponds to the 
ordinary ray in quartz, which from the positive 
character of the wave surface, is the swifter. 
It follows that the ray vibrating parallel to 
the lines of stress of the celluloid strip moves 
with greater velocity than the ray vibrating 
normally to this direction. In other words 
the extraordinary ray is swifter and the wave 
surface of strained celluloid is negative: for 
on inclining the celluloid strip around the 
lines of stress as an axis, the succession of 
colors (due to increasing thickness) is direct in 
order; whereas on inclining the strip around 
an axis normal to the lines of stress the suc- 
cession is actually retrograde, showing that 
the optic axis is being rapidly approached, 
where double refraction ceases in spite of 
thickness. 

Similarly if a quarter wave plate of mica 
is inserted with the effective axis parallel to 
the lines of stress, the order of colors for 
crossed nicols is bluish, dark (neutral, com- 
pensation), bluish, yellowish, ete. (excessive 
celluloid effect), or clearly retrograde. If in- 
serted with the axis normal to the lines of 
stress the succession of color is bluish, yellow- 
ish, red, purple, blue, etc., or direct, all of 


SCIENCE. 


707 


which admits of the same interpretation as in 
the case of quartz. 

An equally interesting compensation is ob- 
tained by crossing two similarly stretched 
strips of celluloid at right angles. In this 
case the area where the strips overlap is quite 
neutral (dark between crossed nicols) while 
the four non-duplicated areas, extending out- 
ward from the square center, are vividly 
colored. The faster ray in one strip becomes 
the slower in the other, and vice versa. 

My thanks are due to Professor Barus, who 
suggested these experiments, for his aid 
throughout the whole course of the work. 


Lutu B. Josiin. 
BRowN UNIVERSITY. 


AMCGBA BLATTH AND AMCBOID MOTION. 


THE writer wishes to call the attention of 
teachers of biology to a form of Ameba that 
hitherto has been somewhat neglected in this 
country, but which is of much theoretical in- 
terest. It is, moreover, sufficiently plentiful 
and easily obtained at all seasons of the year 
to be adapted to the uses of small laboratory 
elasses. This is Ameba blatte Biitschli, which 
inhabits the intestine of the croton bug, or 
common cockroach, Blatta (Phyllodromia) 
germamca, a well-known immigrant from 
Europe that has established itself in our 
larger towns and, at least in the eastern states, 
in many country villages. Throughout the 
year this cockroach is active in bake-shops, 
creameries, sugar refineries and in the kitchens 
and basements of hotels, restaurants and pri- 
vate houses, where it may be found under 
sinks, about water pipes and in similar warm, 
dark places. 

Rhumbler,* in a recent paper in the ‘ Fest- 
sehrift’ commemorating Professor Ernst 
Ehler’s seventieth anniversary, describes fully 
the movements of this Ame@ba, as well as the 
methods that have been employed at Gottingen 
for obtaining it. The cockroaches are ether- 
ized, the heads and terminal segments of the 
abdomen clipped off, and the intestine care- 

*Rhumbler, L., 705, ‘Zur Theorie der Ober- 


flichenkrifte der Amében,’ Z. f. wiss. Zool., 83 
Bd., pp. 1-52. 


708 


fully pulled out with a pair of fine forceps 
into a few drops of one-half-per-cent. solution 
of common salt upon a glass slide. The intes- 
tine is then opened, and the contents scraped 
out and examined. 

A preliminary attempt by the writer and his 
assistants to use Ameba blatte as a laboratory 
subject with a class of a hundred and forty 
beginners did not meet with success, but little 
difficulty has been experienced in demon- 
strating it to small groups of students. Usu- 
ally at least one in every four or five of the 
cockroaches which we have examined this 
winter has proved to be abundantly infested 
with the ameba. 

Ameba blatte is a rapidly moving organism, 
without pseudopods, and is of especial interest 
from the fact, which Rhumbler has demon- 
strated and which I have been able repeatedly 
to confirm, that backward peripheral currents 
occur in the endoplasm in addition to the 
axial forward stream. 

The currents resemble those of a drop of 
oil or of other non-living fluid, in which the 
surface tension is unequally distributed. Such 
a drop contains an axial current, which flows 
in the direction of a certain area upon its 
surface over which the surface tension is 
diminished, turns outward in front, and forms 
backward superficial currents like a fountain. 
Hence the term ‘fountain currents’ has been 
applied to this phenomenon. In A. blatie 
the backward superficial currents usually do 
not come to rest, as in the simpler fountain 
currents, but unite at the rear and enter the 
central forward stream, establishing thus that 
which Rhumbler ealls a ‘fountain whirl’ 
(‘Fontanenwirbel’). It is on the existence 
of such currents as these in Ame@eba and Pelo- 
myxa that Biitschli, Rhumbler and earlier 
writers have based the theory that amceboid 
movement is due to diminished tension over 
a certain area of the surface, since drops of 
non-living fluid, e. g., oil or chloroform, sub- 
merged in water and acted upon in such wise 
that the tension over a certain area of the 
surface is suddenly diminished, flow in pre- 
cisely the manner above described. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


The reader will recall that Jennings, in 
his recent paper on the ‘Movements and Re- 
actions of Amoeba,’ denies the existence of 
‘fountain currents. His careful and long- 
continued studies were based, however, prin- 
cipally on A. limaz, A. proteus, A. angulata 
and A. verrucosa, and did not include A. 
blatte or members of the genus Pelomyza, in 
which such currents have been found by other 
observers. 

Locomotion in Ameba verrucosa, and in the 
other species which came under Jennings’s 
observation, is a rolling forward, as of a blad- 
der half filled with water, or of a bag half full 
of shot, that is pushed over a flat surface. 
In this case the entire endoplasm continually 
streams forward, and the ectoplasm rolls on- 
ward around the endoplasm. A particle of 
soot, caught upon the surface of the advancing 
Ameba, is carried forward until it reaches 
the anterior edge of the animal, then down- 
ward beneath the body, where it remains quiet 
until the Ameba has passed completely over 
it, and it lies beneath the posterior edge. It 
is then carried upward and again forward to 
the anterior margin. 

Rhumbler concedes that this form of loco- 
motion can not be due to inequality in ordi- 
nary surface tension, and attempts to explain 
it as the result of unequal pressure at different 
parts of the surface, which is brought about 
by the unequal contraction of the ectoplasm 
as the result of gelatinization. The endo- 
plasm at the anterior end of an Ame@ba in 
motion, according to this view, meeting there 
less resistance than at other points from the 
pressure of the gelatinizing and contracting 
ectoplasm, tends to burst forth from its con- 
fining envelope, and to become transformed 
into ectoplasm. Elsewhere, particularly at 
the posterior end of the organism, the reverse 
is supposed to take place, viz., ectoplasm is 
converted into endoplasm. An explanation of 
the lessened resistance of the ectoplasm at the 
anterior margin is sought in the stretching of 
the outer layer in that region, brought about 


? Jennings, H. S., ’04, ‘Contributions to the 
Study of the Behavior of lower Organisms,’ Car- 
negie Institution, Washington. 


May 4, 1906.] 


by the friction produced by adhesion to the 
underlying surface, which acts in opposition 
to the forward pressure of the endoplasm. 

This theory is based mainly upon the 
analogous behavior of drops of chloroform 
which creep or roll spontaneously over a thin 
coating of shellac, with which the bottom of 
a glass dish is covered. After the shellac is 
dry, water is placed in the dish, and drops of 
chloroform are introduced with a pipette. A 
drop, under such conditions, rolls spontane- 
ously in the opposite direction from the side 
which first shrinks back from the surrounding 
shellac. The adhesion between one side of the 
drop of chloroform and the shellac results in 
dissolving away the latter, in the diminution 
of surface tension over this side of the drop, 
and a rolling motion in this direction. Thus 
the drop plows a path through the shellac, 
propelled onward by the diminution of sur- 
face tension at its forward margin, which in 
the drop is produced by adhesion to the shellac. 
The drop of chloroform soon contains shellac 
in solution which, under the influence of the 
surrounding water, stiffens into a ‘gel,’ the 
contraction of which is supposed gradually to 
replace surface tension, as the active agency 
which propels the drop. If the gelatinous 
coating is of unequal thickness and strength 
at different points, motion occurs in the direc- 
tion of a thin, weak point, where the contents 
burst through the superficial envelope. 

By this analogy Rhumbler finds support for 
the theory, long since put forth by Berthold, 
that ameboid motion, at least in the amebze 
without backward currents, depends upon a 
one-sided adhesion to the substratum, and also 


for his own idea that the rolling motion of . 


such ameebee is due to the centripetal pressure 
of the gelatinizing ectoplasm and the bursting 
forth of the endoplasm at the anterior end, 
which continues the adhesion to the sub- 
stratum and forms new ectoplasm. The 
analogy illustrates the possibility also that a 
gradual transition may occur ontogenetically 
and phylogenetically between the method of 
locomotion in amcebe with fountain currents 
and active interchange between endoplasm and 
ectoplasm, and that in others, like A. verru- 


SCIENCE. 


709 


cosa, with ‘ gelatinous’ ectoplasm, which move 
without backward currents. Such a transition 
would depend upon the degree of gelatiniza- 
tion that had been reached. This process 
might be supposed to take place in A. blatte, 
for example, until the backward peripheral 
flow should cease entirely, and the gelatin- 
izing ectoplasm should reverse the direction 
of its movement over its free surface, and 
turn forward. 

It is evident that Rhumbler’s theory rests 
largely on an analogy with the behavior of 
drops of non-living fluid under special condi- 
tions. Facts which indicate that a constant 
gelatinization and the opposite are actually 
taking place in ameebe with rolling motions 
are extremely meager. It seems highly prob- 
able that A. blatte moves in response to un- 
equal surface tension; but Rhumbler’s ex- 
planation of the more complicated (rolling) 
motions of other amcebe, though a useful hy- 
pothesis, needs the support of more facts 
drawn from direct observation of the organism 
itself, before it can be proved. 

Jennings describes the rolling movement as 
consisting of the outflow of a wave of pro- 
toplasm at the anterior end of the Ameba, 
which exerts a pull upon the upper surface, 
drawing it forward, while the hinder portion 
of the Ameba becomes released from the sub- 
stratum and contracts. Thus the ‘strong pull 
from in front and the slight contraction from 
behind’ cause the posterior end, and the inner 
contents, to flow forward. Jennings, accord- 
ingly, places emphasis upon the pull from in 
front, and looks upon it as a more important 
factor in locomotion than the contraction of 
the ectoplasm at the rear. 

Rhumbler’s theory at this point departs 
from Jennings’s interpretation of the facts. 
The supposed gelatinizing, or semigelatinous, 
covering of Ameba, according to Rhumbler, is 
constantly bursting at its anterior edge, which 
is attached to the substratum. Out of the 
breach the endoplasm flows forward, as the 
result of the contraction of the gelatinous 
covering of the upper and posterior surfaces. 
If these are the facts, there can be no strong 
superficial pull exerted from in front back- 


710 


ward such as Jennings describes, for, accord- 
ing to Rhumbler, the ectoplasm in front is 
stretched between the wis a tergo and the 
friction against the substratum, is weakened 
and broken. The upper ectoplasm with a 
broken front edge can hardly be imagined to 
pull strongly upon the body behind it. 

It is not expedient in this article to go more 
fully into the facts connected with this fa- 
miliar phenomenon, which appears to be by 
no means as simple an action as Rhumbler 
supposes, when he compares it to the rolling 
of a rubber tire by hand or to the creeping 
of a drop of chloroform over a shellac-covered 
surface. Both of the papers cited, however, 
deserve the careful attention of every teacher 
of biology who touches upon the subject of 
Ameba and ameboid motion, although the 
conclusions of neither writer can be accepted 
‘without some modification. 


JoHN H. Grrounp. 


A CULTURE MEDIUM FOR THE ZYGOSPORES OF 
MUCOR STOLONIFER. 

In the first edition of his ‘ Methods in Plant 
Histology’ Professor Chamberlain speaks of 
the zygosporice phase of Mucor as being ‘ rarely 
seen’ and requests information of anyone ob- 
taining it. In the recent edition of the same 
work he refers to the researches of Dr. Blakes- 
lee and then gives directions for making cul- 
tures for the zygosporie stage. The method 
described is rather haphazard and the tone in 
which it is stated indicates that the results 
would be doubtful. 

During the past three months the present 
writer has obtained the zygospores so fre- 
quently that he now feels confident of being 
able to secure them at any time within a week. 
With proper conditions of moisture and tem- 
perature, success 1s apparently dependent only 
on the nature of the substratum. The sub- 
stratum used is corn muftin bread, made, ac- 
cording to the baker, after the following 
formula: 


Cornimealirnaetavecacitsiere s 16 pounds. 
IPK ER ec onoG Ao hoon dua taen 3 pounds 
ILERYEl Soo oGouloagagdunonounaT 3 pounds 
SEI ieoratiotmonobe Gh.beed deeb ¥, pound 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 592. 
1 lets abtar Dae IE POE on 48 
Sweetie saeanie ers 3 gallons. 


18 ounces. 


Half a dozen crumbs of this bread of the 
size of a thimble in as many tumblers, will 
yield on the average four or five cultures pro- 
ducing zygospores in large numbers in from 
five to seven days. The atmosphere should 
be kept saturated, the temperature about ‘70° 
F. and darkness is favorable though not neces- 
sary. 

A series of experiments have been made and 
others are now under way to determine more 
exactly the conditions of zygospore formation. 


J. I. Hamaxer. 
CoLLEGE Park, VA. 


THE EFFECT OF FERTILIZERS ON THE REACTION 
OF SOILS.” 


Tue effect of fertilizers on the reaction of 
the soil has interested both the farmer and the 
scientist for many years, but little experi- 
mental work appears to have been done on the 
problem, however. It is frequently held by 
farmers that the continued use of fertilizers, 
particularly of acid phosphates, and also pot- 
ash salts and ammonium sulphate results in 
the failure of the red clover crop, a result 
which is attributed to the acid residues left 
in the soil by the selective action of plants in 
removing the essential elements from the salts 
in which they are applied. While there can 
be no doubt that certain fertilizing materials, 
notably ammonium sulphate, will produce an 
injurious degree of acidity, even changing the 
reaction of an alkaline soil, the evidence with 
regard to other fertilizers is not so positive. 
~ Only recently have methods giving definite 
results been devised by which the total acidity 
of a soil may be determined. It is possible 
to determine the acidity of soil within prac- 
tical limits by the lime-water method, and I 
have determined the present acidity of a 
known naturally acid soil which has received 
different fertilizing treatment, by this method. 

Dr. Thorne, of the Ohio Experiment Sta- 


1Published by permission of the Secretary of 
Agriculture. : 
2 Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc., 26 (1904), 637. 


May 4, 1906.] 


tion, has very kindly sent me samples from a 
number of the plots of the five years’ rotation 
experiments at Wooster, Ohio, where fertil- 
izing experiments on limed and unlimed land 
are being conducted. The fertilizing experi- 
ments were begun in 1894, while the lime ex- 
periments were begun with the corn crop of 
1900, each of the five series of plots being 
given 2,000 pounds per acre of lime (CaO) 
as it was prepared for corn. 

The lime was applied to the plowed ground 
and harrowed in before planting corn, and 
the plots were again plowed before the sowing 
of clover which was sowed in the wheat and 
timothy a year later. 

The reaction of a number of the plots, with 
otner data, is given in the following table: 


SCIENCE. 


es 


double those by the regular sodium chlorid 
method with this soil. 

The results here submitted have consid- 
erable interest. Bearing in mind the difficulty 
of securing representative soil samples, re- 
membering that the method will not give re- 
sults closer than fifty parts per million, it is 
still quite evident that several of the fertil- 
izers have had considerable effect on the reac- 
tion of the soil. This is most evident on the 
plots that have received large quantities of 
sodium nitrate alone, or with other materials. 
In these cases the natural acidity of the un- 
limed plots has been materially reduced. 
Smaller applications of nitrate with full rations 
of acid phosphate and of muriate of potash 
have had no apparent effect. Potassium 


f Acidity in Parts per Million, 
Ne reeeunent Total Fertilizer Applied in Two Rotations. Limewater Modified Sodium 
Method. Chlorid Method. 

2 No CaO _ | 640 Ibs. acid phosphate. 1,000 224 

3 Esai 520 Ibs. potassium chlorid. 1,100 224 

3 CaO oor aie es se Alkaline. Alkaline. 

4 No CaO | No fertilizer. 1,100 308 

4 CaO i id Alkaline. — 

5 No CaO _ | 960 lbs. sodium nitrate. 800 168 

8 Soe ue 640 lbs. acid phosphate, 520 Ibs. potassium chlorid. 1,100 308 

8 CaO “cc “cc e cc cc ce «é (73 800 56 
12 No CaO _ | 640 lbs. acid phosphate, 520 Ibs. potassium chlorid, 800 280 

1,440 lbs. sodium nitrate. 
17 Gigs 960 lbs. acid phosphate, 520 lbs. potassium chlorid, 1,100 280 
; 480 lbs. sodium nitrate. 
18 ee SH ee 32 tons barnyard manure. 1,000 364 
19 sees No fertilizer. 900 364 
19 CaO f 500 56 
24 No CaO) | 960 lbs. acid phosphate, 520 Ibs. potassium chlorid, 1,400 
CaO 360 lbs. ammonium sulphate. Alkaline. 
29 No CaO | 390 lbs. basic slag, 520 lbs. potassium chlorid, 960 700 102 
Ibs. sodium nitrate. 


No difference could be detected in the reac- 
tion of water extracts of these soils; all were 
practically neutral. 

For comparison, results by a modification 
of the sodium chlorid method* are also given. 
The modified method consists of treating 20 
grams of the soil with 200 e.c. of V/5 neutral 
sodium chlorid solution in a Jena flask, allow- 
ing it to stand over night, filtering, boiling to 
one half volume and titrating with N/10 al- 
kali. The results by this procedure are about 


* Bull. No. 73 Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Dept. 
of Agr. 


chlorid has not increased the apparent acidity 
despite the fact that the residue left by the 
salt is an acid, and the further fact that by 
double decomposition and absorption such 
salts give rise to acid reacting salts. Manure 
too has been without effect. Acid phosphate 
has, as it should when properly made, slightly 
reduced acidity. Practically the same story 
is told by the sodium chlorid results, plots 5 
and 29 showing considerable reduction in 
acidity. An interesting point here is that 
although enough soda and lime have been 
applied to these plots to make them alkaline 


712 


by this method the acidity has only been re- 
duced about half. On the other hand, the 
acidity of plot 24 to which ammonium sul- 
phate has been applied is materially increased, 
but Dr. Thorne writes me that the red clover 
grown on this plot is not visibly less than 
that grown on nearby plots to which nitrogen 
in linseed meal or dried blood was applied. 

No explanation can be offered at this time 
of the behavior to both methods of plots 8 and 
19 limed. 

It appears then that while sodium nitrate 
and basic slag have diminished acidity, no fer- 
tilizer or combination of the fertilizers used 
has measurably increased acidity on this soil 
except where ammonium sulphate was applied. 
We can not apply this conclusion, however, to 
soils of different character. While the acidity 
due to the residue left by the taking up of 
plant food may reasonably be supposed to be 
irrespective of the nature of the soil, the acidity 
produced by decomposition reactions between 
the soil components and added salts is not. 
While in this soil the attack of neutral salt 
solutions upon what I have elsewhere called 
‘non-acid silicates’ is small, with other soils 
it is very great, rising to 4,000 parts per 
million, and this fact must be kept in mind 
in attempting to measure the changes in soil 
reaction caused by the use of fertilizers. 

F. P. Verreu. 


CARBONATED MILK. 


In the course of an investigation relating 
to the chemistry of kumiss made from cows’ 
milk, the question arose as to whether there 
is any action of carbon dioxide on milk-casein. 
No action appears to take place when carbon 
dioxide is passed through milk simply at at- 
mospheric pressure; but, since in kumiss the 
gas is present under considerable pressure, it 
was decided to approximate this condition by 
treating fresh milk with carbon dioxide gas 
under pressure. Without stating here the 
detailed results of the work, it was noticed 
that the milk thus treated did not sour or 
eurdle readily, keeping ten days to two weeks 
at a temperature of 60° to 70° F., when the 
pressure used was sixty to seventy pounds. 
Pasteurized milk keeps still longer. Im addi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


tion to prolonging its keeping power, milk, 
when carbonated, makes a very palatable, re- 
freshing beverage. Before the detailed results 
are published, further work is being done, 
earbonating the milk at higher pressure and 
keeping it at different temperatures. 

L. L. Van Styx, 


A. W. Bosworts. 
New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 
Station, Grennva, N. Y., 
April 16, 1906. 


NOTES ON ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 


PREPARATION OF PURE ETHYL ALCOHOL BY MEANS 
OF METALLIC CALCIUM. 


Meratuic calcium having now become a 
regular article of commerce, several chemists 
have investigated its properties, in order to 
discover what advantages are likely to result 
from its use in chemical reactions. For ex- 
ample, in the chemical laboratory of the Johns 
Hopkins University, experiments are in prog- 
ress to determine how far it may be of service 
in promoting the condensation of ketones with 
esters (Claisen’s reaction). 

L. W. Winkler* has examined its behavior 
towards mixtures of alcohol and water. As is 
well known, there is no special difficulty in re- 
moving water from aleohol—say by means of 
quick lime and copper sulphate—until it is 
99.9 per cent. pure, but the elimination of the 
last 0.1 per cent. of water has been attended, 
hitherto, with considerable labor. By Winkler’s 
process commercial ‘absolute’ alcohol, con- 
taining usually several per cent. of water, is 
boiled for a short time with calcium and then 
distilled from it. About 20 grams of the 
metal, in the form of turnings, to each liter 
of aleohol should be used. The product con- 
tains only 0.1 per cent. of water, which is re- 
moved by another treatment with calcium, in 
the proportion of 0.5 per cent. of the weight 
of alcohol. A curious point about the be- 
havior of calcium and alcohol is that, if the 
latter contains less than 5 per cent. of water, 
the metal is attacked the more vigorously the 
less water is present, but, on the other hand, 
ordinary alcohol, containing more than 5 per 


1 Ber. d. Chem. Ges., 38, 3,612. 


May 4, 1906.] 


cent. of water, also attacks calcium with con- 
siderable rapidity. Alcohol absolutely free 
from water is not nearly so hygroscopic as is 
usually supposed; when 200 c.c. of it were ex- 
posed in a beaker to the air of a laboratory, 
during fifteen minutes, less than 0.1 per cent. 
of water was absorbed. 

Almost all .commercial alcohol contains 
aldehyde in varying proportion. The usual 
method of removing it is to boil the alcohol 
with potassium hydroxide until the aldehyde 
is converted into a colored resin, and then 
fractionate the liquid, the process being re- 
peated, if necessary. Obviously, this plan 
involves a great expenditure of time and 
material and yet aldehyde-free alcohol is 
often needed, for example, it is indispens- 
able in the analysis of fats and oils. Winkler 
removes the aldehyde by adding to the alcohol 
a little dry silver oxide, and then a small 
quantity of potassium hydroxide. The alde- 
hyde is oxidized to acetic acid and this is 
neutralized by the alkali. F. L. Dunlap, in 
a paper which followed Winkler’s, suggests 
that the silver oxide should be formed in the 
alcohol. This is accomplished by dissolving 
silver nitrate in a very little water, mixing 
the solution with the alcohol to be purified, 
then adding, without shaking, cold alcoholic 
solution of potassium hydroxide. In this 
manner a finely divided precipitate of silver 
oxide is obtained which, in the course of a 
few hours, completely oxidizes the aldehyde. 
The alcohol may be separated from the silver 
compounds by decantation or distillation; it 
gives no color with potassium hydroxide. 


NOTES ON ESTERIFICATION. 


THE constant use in the laboratory of the 
esters of organic acids renders any improve- 
ments in their methods of preparation a matter 
of considerable general interest. Two papers 
on the subject containing results of some im- 
portance, have been published recently. In 
the first A. Bogojawlensky and J. Narbutt* 
record their experiments made to test the ac- 
tion of various dehydrated metallic sul- 


2J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 28, 395 (1906). 
1 Ber. d. Chem. Ges., 38, 3344. 


SCIENCE. 


713 


phates on mixtures of alcohol and certain 
organic acids. Of the nine sulphates tried, 
potassium pyrosulphate and copper sulphate 
were found to be of the most service and, con- 
sequently, the majority of the experiments 
were made with them. The former salt acts 
equally well with both aliphatic and aromatic 
acids, the latter one is best suited for work 
with the aliphatic acids. 

One of the most interesting results brought 
out in the paper is the relatively great eftect 
on the yield of ester, of even small quantities 
of free sulphurie acid or anhydride, such as 
are almost always formed when a metallic 
sulphate is dehydrated. This is illustrated 
by the fact that in an experiment using or- 
dinary dehydrated ferrous sulphate, the yield 
of ethyl succinate was 85 per cent., whereas, 
when the salt, before use, was repeatedly ex- 
tracted with absolute alcohol, so as to remove 
traces of sulphuric anhydride, the yield of 
ester was only 34 per cent. 

In general, the best yield of esters was ob- 

tained by the use of a dehydrated salt to 
which about 3 per cent. of its weight of con- 
centrated sulphuric acid had been added; next 
in order comes the use of the dehydrated salt 
alone and, finally, sulphuric acid alone, as in 
the ordinary procedure. Another interesting 
point investigated was to see if a dehydrating 
agent, which is not acid and can not yield an 
acid under the conditions of experiment, is, 
nevertheless, capable of affecting the esterifi- 
cation. They selected the zeolite chabasite 
for this purpose, but found it to be without 
apparent influence on the course of the re- 
action. 
’ The method here sketched offers several 
other advantages besides the question of yield. 
It can be applied to substances which are de- 
composed by concentrated sulphuric acid, and 
the ester, when formed, may be removed by 
simply pouring from the salt, without the 
rather tedious process of neutralization being 
necessary. 

The esterification reaction has been investi- 
gated in another direction by J. Wade. He 
finds that the process may be made continuous, 


27. Chem. Soc., 87, 1656. 


714 


just as in the ordinary method for the prepa- 
ration of ether. The essential condition for 
success consists in maintaining the mixture 
under experiment at a temperature of 100°, 
thus quickly removing the water which is 
continuously formed in the reaction. The 
directions for the preparation of ethyl acetate 
will serve to illustrate Wade’s process: Three 
volumes of alcohol are mixed with two volumes 
of acetic acid, and two volumes of this 
mixture are added to one volume sul- 
phurie acid, in an Erlenmeyer flask which 
is immersed in a water-bath. As soon as dis- 
tillation commences, more of the mixture of 
alcohol and acetic acid is added by means of 
a funnel with a fine stem. Most of the excess 
of alcohol is recovered from the distillate. 
The process may be interrupted at any time 
without detriment, and there is no delay in 
restarting once the materials have regained 
the necessary temperature. 

In the case of esters having boiling points 
above 100° the operation is conducted under 
reduced pressure. The presence of a strong 
mineral acid is essential to the success of the 
process, but more than a small proportion is 
detrimental. Charring seldom takes place. 


J. BisHop TINGLE. 
JouNSs HopkKINS UNIVERSITY. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 


THE number of journals devoted to the dif- 
ferent branches of science has become so 
large that most men of science can with diffi- 
culty, if at all, keep up with the periodical 

_ literature of their specialties. Yet there are 
none of us who do not frequently, or at any 
rate occasionally, wish to refer to some note 
or article, published in some journal devoted 
to another science than our own. It is con- 
venient, for that reason, to have brought to 
our attention from time to time the more 
important articles, or at least the articles of 
most general interest, which are appearing in 
the various scientific periodicals of the world. 
It is with this feeling in mind that the com- 
piler of these ‘ Current Notes on Meteorology’ 
attempts to point out, from time to time, what 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


there is of interest to scientific men in the 
meteorological publications of the various 
countries. It is impossible to devote much 
space in Science to these notes, for they ob- 
viously concern primarily only a single sub- 
ject. But they may, perhaps, serve to help a 
fellow scientist, now and then, to learn of 
some meteorological publication which he has 
not seen or heard of, and which he may, at 
some time, find useful in his own work. 

The Monthly Weather Review of our own 
Weather Bureau becomes more valuable with 
each succeeding year, as a meteorological 
journal covering a wide field, and essentially 
of a ‘popular’ nature. So prominent has the 
portion of the Review devoted to articles and 
notes become that with the first number for 
1906, these articles occupy the first pages, 
instead of following, as they have done, sum- 
maries of climate and crop conditions, and 
accounts of the forecasts and storm warnings 
of the month. The last three numbers of the 
Review (November, December, 1905, January, 
1906) contain the following articles of general 
interest: 

‘The Rainfall of China and Korea, by T. 
Okada; reprinted from the Journal of the 
Meteorological Society of Japan; an impor- 
tant study of the climatic conditions of a 
region which is analogous in many respects 
to the eastern coast of North America. 

‘The Development of Meteorology in Aus- 
tralia,’ by Andrew Noble; prepared at the re- 
quest of Professor Cleveland Abbe, under the 
direction of the acting meteorologist otf New 


‘South Wales. 


‘Indian Summer,’ a note in which the sound 
and sane statement is made: “ Indian summer 
is an extremely indefinite season as to its 
date and its character. There has never been 
any determination of its average date and 
duration so far as we know. It is often de- 
seribed as a warm, dry, hazy period after the 
first severe frost in autumn, but it often fails 
to come at all.” 

“A Mistake about Atmospheric Dust’; com- 
menting on a statement which is going the 
rounds of the newspapers to the effect that 
‘rays of light go straight through all kinds 


May 4, 1906.] 


of gases,’ and calling attention to refraction, 
the importance of dust and of aqueous vapor 
in coloring the sky, ete. 

‘Air and Water Temperatures,’ by W. F. 
Cooper; a study of the effect of the water 
temperatures of Lake Michigan. 

‘The Climate of Madison, Wis.,’ by James 
L. Bartlett, observer, Weather Bureau; a good 
general account of the climate of an impor- 
tant city, with some reference to the weather 
eontrols and weather indications. 

‘Tornado Insurance,’ by H. E. Simpson, 
instructor in geology, Colby College; a paper 
written as a thesis in the course in General 
Climatology in Harvard University, and con- 
taining a number of facts not previously com- 
piled from the present point of view. 

‘Meteorology in India,’ containing notes 
from Mr. Gilbert T. Walker, now in charge of 
the Indian Meteorological Service. Of Mr. 
Walker’s seven monsoon forecasts, six have 
been right, and one negative. 

‘Meteorological Maps for School Use’; it 
is a satisfaction to note that the Weather 
Bureau now supplies blank outline maps of 
the United States, suitable for laboratory 
work, at $2.50 or $5 per thousand, the price 
depending on the quality of paper used. 

‘Asymmetric Cyclones and Anticyclones in 
Europe and America,’ by Professor F. H. 
Bigelow; the conclusions are somewhat start- 
ling, to wit: 

There is no evidence of the superposition of cold- 
center cyclones upon warm-center cyclones, as 
expounded by Clayton or by Bjerknes and 
Arrhenius, nor are there purely dynamic vortices 
in a rapid stream as supposed by Hann, nor are 
there cyclonic vortices caused by atmospheric is- 
lands of high pressure obstructing a rapidly flow- 
ing eastward drift as explained by Shaw, or by 
Hildebrandsson in his report to the international 
committee, 1905. 


‘Atmospheric Electricity, by G. C. Simp- 
son, the newly appointed lecturer in meteorol- 
ogy at the University of Manchester; deals 
with the latest aspects of the subject, chiefly 
in relation to meteorological problems. 

‘A Possible Extension of the Period of 
Weather Forecasts,’ by Professor E. B. Gar- 
riott; calls attention to the value of a study 


SCIENCE. 


715 


of the great permanent areas of low and high 
pressure in making forecasts. 

‘The Relation of Forests to Rainfall,’ by 
the late W. F. Hubbard; deals with the dis- 
tribution of rainfall and forests in California, 
showing the close relation between the mean 
annual rainfall and the forest cover. 


R. DeC. Warp. 


REPORT OF THE ADVISORY BOARD OF THE 
WISTAR INSTITUTE. 

THE advisory board of the Wistar Institute 
held its annual meeting in Philadelphia on 
Tuesday, April 17. The director’s report of 
the year’s work showed a decided step forward 
in the research work of the institute. The or- 
ganization of the neurological work with Dr. 
Henry H. Donaldson as chief and Dr. George 
L. Streeter and Dr. S. Hatai as associates was 
reported. A statement was made of the 
financial condition of the institute so that the 
board might better consider the problems 
which might be undertaken. Following this 
report Professor Donaldson outlined the neuro- 
logical work which he had under way and 
stated that some twenty pieces of research work _ 
were being actively pursued. Some of this 
work is already in press, some in manuscript, 
while a portion is being pursued in the labora- 
tory of the University of Chicago and a por- 
tion in the laboratory of the Wistar Institute. 
Dr. Donaldson reported the action of the Im- 
perial Academy of Science in Vienna in ac- 
cepting the Wistar Institute as the central 
institute for brain investigation in the United 
States and appointing Drs. Donaldson, Mall 
and Minot as delegates to the meeting of the 
Central Committee for Inter-academiec Brain 
Research to be held in Vienna this coming 
May. The advisory board considered the fol- 
lowing question of policy: “ With the under- 
standing that all plans may be modified more 
or less from time to time to meet conditions 
as they arise, the question is presented for 
consideration: Shall we conduct the work of 
the institute after the manner of the usual 
research laboratories in the universities or shall 
we endeayor to make the work of the institute 
unique and try to do some of those things 


716 


which the university laboratories have been un- 
able to accomplish.” The general sentiment 
of the board was that the Wistar Institute 
should maintain a small staff of investigators 
of the highest type and expend a large portion 
of its income in maintaining artists, modelers 
and other mechanical aids to investigation so 
that there will be unexcelled opportunity in the 
institute laboratories for men from other labo- 
ratories to come and finish their researches in 
a much more satisfactory manner than it is 
possible to do in their own laboratories. 

The question of furnishing material to in- 
yestigators was discussed and it was decided 
that this plan should be pursued whenever pos- 
sible. The neurological committee appointed 
last year was instructed to take steps for the 
further organization of neurological research 
in this country and it was suggested that, per- 
haps, a subcommittee of active neurologists 
should be organized in this country to meet 
occasionally and discuss the problems in their 
subject. 

The question of organizing a pathological in- 
stitute similar to that maintained in the state 
of New York was brought before the board 
and its various phases discussed. A com- 
mittee of three was appointed to consider the 
possibility of such an institution. This com- 
mittee consisted of Drs. Donaldson, LeConte 
and Piersol. 

A resolution was passed suggesting that the 
institute collect research material for the re- 
searches in comparative anatomy and embryol- 
ogy whenever opportunity presents itself. 


THE BARTHQUAKE AT STANFORD UNI- 
VERSITY. 

Tur injuries to Stanford University by 
earthquake of April 18 are, in brief, as follows: 

1. Wreckage of the Memorial Church by the 
fall of the heavy spire, which crashed through 
the naye, the air blowing off the upper part 
of both ends of the church. The walls gen- 
erally, of steel construction, are intact, but the 
building is ruined. 

2. Wreck of the unfinished library. The 
great dome and its steel supports are un- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


harmed, but their swaying completely wrecked 
the rest of the building. 

8. Wreck of the new gymnasium, of brick 
faced stone. 

4, Wreck of parts of the Art Museum which 
were made of brick faced with cement. The 
central part, of concrete strengthened by steel 
rods, is intact. 

5. The Stanford residence in San Francisco, 
a huge wooden structure, heavily built, was not 
harmed by the earthquake, but is completely 
consumed by fire. 

6. The inner quadrangle and engineering 
shops, of heayy masonry and one story high, 
are unharmed. 

47. The outer quadrangle contains four large 
buildings reinforced by steel, the laboratories 
of zoology, botany and physiology, with the 
temporary library and the Assembly Hall. 
These are virtually unharmed. 

8. The power house was wrecked by the tall 
stone chimney, which was snapped off like the 
lash of a whip. 

9. The memorial arch had its upper part 
snapped off and is split almost to the base so 
that it is an entire wreck. This structure was 
of brick, reinforced with steel and faced with 
stone. 

10. The chemistry building lost all its chim- 
neys and is externally damaged by the fall of 
part of its stone facing. The building and its 
contents are little injured. 

11. The four large buildings of the outer 
quadrangle, of brick unreinforced, and faced 
with stone, are somewhat damaged, the history 
building least, the incomplete mining building 
most. 

12. Roble hall, women’s dormitory, of con- 
erete with steel wires, is absolutely unharmed 
except for the fall of two ornamental chimneys. 

18. Encina hall, men’s dormitory, a very 
large, finely built stone building, was injured 
by the fall of stone chimneys, one young man 
being killed. The building also has a serious 
erack in each of two corners, but is other- 
wise unharmed. 

The wooden buildings on the grounds lost 
only chimneys and parts of plastering. No 
injury was done to books and yery little to 
apparatus or collections. The working part 


May 4, 1906.] 


of the university as distinct from its archi- 
tectural effects is little harmed. The most 
effective part of its architecture, the inner 
arcades with their Spanish arches and towers, 
is wholly undisturbed. D SF 


REPORT OF THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY ENGINEERS 
ON THE INJURIES TO THE CLASS ROOMS AND 
LABORATORIES FROM THE EARTHQUAKE 
OF APRIL 18, 1906. 

AFTER a careful examination of the build- 
ings used for university purposes, including 
Roble and Encina Halls, we find that the dam- 
age from the recent earthquake is much less 
than was anticipated. 

The buildings of the inner quadrangle, the 
one-story buildings of the outer quadrangle 
(with one exception), the zoology building, the 
physiology building, the assembly hall, the 
library, the old engineering building, the ma- 
chine shop, the foundry and the mechanical 
laboratory are substantially intact and can be 
used after a few minor repairs. 

The four corner two-story buildings and the 
small one-story physics building of the outer 
quadrangle, the forge shop, the woodworking 
shop and the chemistry building will require 
partial rebuilding of some of the walls. 

In Encina Hall the south walls of the east 
and west wings will require partial reconstruc- 
tion, also those portions injured by the two fall- 
ing stone chimneys. The fall of one of the 
chimneys, which tore through the floors to the 
basement, caused the death of one student. 
Aside from the damage noted above the build- 
ing as a whole is uninjured and perfectly safe. 

The damage to Roble Hall is confined to the 
two holes torn in the floors by the falling 
chimneys. The remainder of the building 
shows practically no evidence of having passed 
through an earthquake. 

In the opinion of the committee, such of the 
buildings mentioned above as are necessary for 
carrying on the university work can easily be 
made ready for occupancy and safe use in time 
for the opening of the university on August 23. 

Our full and detailed examination of the 
buildings from foundation to roof shows that 
the actual damage to their stability is less 


SCIENCE. 


CLG 


than might be inferred from external appear- 
ances, 
Signed by the committee: 
Cartes B. Wine, structural engineer, 
Wiu1am F. Duranp, mechanical engineer, 
ArtHurR B. CrarK, architect, 
Cuartes E. Honess, architect, 
Cuartes D. Marx, civil engineer, ch’man. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


At the Washington meeting of the Amer- 
ican Physical Society it was decided to hold 
the next meeting in Ithaca, N. Y., in con- 
junction with the meeting there of the Amer- 
ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, beginning on June 29. At this time 
also the new physical laboratory of Cornell 
University, which has just been completed, 
will be formally dedicated. 

Tue additional appropriation of $5,000 for 
the agricultural experiment stations, provided 
by the Adams bill, has now been paid. This 
bill increased the present appropriation of the 
agricultural stations under the Hatch and 
Morrill acts by $5,000 for the year ending next 
June, and by an additional $2,000 annually 
above the amount of the preceding year for 
the next five years. At the end of the five 
years this will amount to an increase of - 
$15,000, bringing the total appropriation to 
each experiment station to $30,000 annually. 
The funds are to be applied only to paying 
the necessary expenses of conducting original 
researches or experiments bearing directly on 
the agricultural industry of the United States, 
with due regard to the varying conditions 
and needs of the states in which the stations 
are located. 

Tur Osservatore Romano officially an- 
nounces that the Rey. John George Hagen, 
director of the observatory at Georgetown 
University, is in Rome and will be appointed 
director of the Vatican Observatory. 

Prorsessor Frortan Casori, dean of the En- 
gineering School and professor of mathematics 
in Colorado College, has recently been elected 
a member of the Italian Mathematical Society 
—Circolo Matematico di Palermo. Professor 
Cajori has about finished his researches on 


718 


the history of arithmetic, algebra, theory of 
equations and theory of numbers from the 
period 1759 to 1799, and the results will soon 
be published in Volume IY. of Professor 
Cantor’s ‘ Vorlesungen tiber Geschichte der 
Mathematik,’ 


In honor of Professor Trendelenburg, of 
Leipzig, the German Medical Society ar- 
ranged a special meeting at the Academy of 
Medicine, New York City, on April 30. Pro- 
fessor Trendelenburg delivered an address. 

Mr. A. Lawrence Rorcn, director of the 
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, has 
commenced a fourth series of experiments 
with ballons-sondes at St. Louis, from which 
it is hoped to determine the seasonal change 
of temperature at great heights in the free air. 
This investigation is being conducted with a 
grant from the Hodgkins fund, held by the 
Smithsonian Institution. 


Dr. Frepertck G. Novy, professor of bac- 
teriology in the University of Michigan, and 
Professor A. Laveran, of the Pasteur Insti- 
tute, Paris, are the official speakers on the 
subject ‘ Preventive Inoculations against Pro- 
tozoal Diseases’ before the Section on Pathol- 
ogy and Bacteriology of the Lisbon Interna- 
tional Congress of Medicine. 


Mr. D. Bratnarp Spooner, a graduate of 
Stanford University, now in Leipzig, has been 
appointed by the British government director 
of archeological investigations in northwest 
India. 

Dr. C. K. Epmunnbs, professor of physics 
and electrical engineering, Christian College, 
Macao, China, made magnetic observations 
during the winter vacation under the auspices 
of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism 
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington at 


ten stations in southeastern China and on the 
Island of Hainan. 


Mr. Epnear R. WaAITE, zoologist in the Aus- 
tralian Museum at Sydney, has been appointed 
curator of the Canterbury Museum at Christ- 
church, New Zealand. 


A message from Dr. Sven Hedin, the 
Swedish explorer, dated April 10, announces 
his arrival in Seistan after an extremely in- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


teresting journey via Jandak, Turoot, Khur, 
Tabbas, Naiband and Neh, in the course of 
which he crossed the Dasht-i-Kavir, the Great 
Salt Desert, three times. The explorer says 
he is in splendid health, and has collected 
material for a great work on eastern Persia. 
He has made a map of 162 sheets, has taken 
hundreds of photographs and sketches, and 
has formed a collection of specimens of rocks. 


Proressor Huco pe Vries delivered last 
week the third Spencer Trask lecture at the 
New York City College, his subject being 
‘ Association of Characters in Plant Breeding,’ 


Proressor Ernest RutTHerrorp, of McGill 
University, is to deliver the following lec- 
tures at the University of Illinois: April 30, 
“Cathode and Réntgen Rays’; May 1, ‘ Elec- 
tronic Theory of Matter’; May 2, ¢ Radio- 
active Substances and their Radiations’; 
May 8, ‘Passage of Electricity through 
Gases’; May 4, ‘Radium and its Transforma- 
tions’; May 5, ‘Radioactive State of the 
Earth and Atmosphere.’ 


WE regret to record the death, on April 18, 
of Walter F. R. Weldon, F.R.S., Linacre pro- 
fessor of comparative anatomy at Oxford 
University, and well known for his zoological 
researches, at the age of forty-five years. 


Tue United States Civil Service Commis- 
sion announces examinations as follows: On 
May 16, to fill such vacancies as may occur in 
the positions of laboratory assistant, assistant 
physicist, and assistant chemist in the Bureau 
of Standards, at salaries varying from $900 to 
$1,600 per annum, and vacancies as they may 
occur in any branch of the service requiring 
similar qualifications. On June 6, in the 
position of assistant in the laboratory, $1,200 
per annum, Bureau of the Mint, Treasury 
Department, and similar vacancies as they 
may occur. On June 6-7, six vacancies in 
the position of aid in the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, at $720 per annum each, and similar 
vacancies as they may occur in that survey. 
As the commission has experienced consider- 
able difficulty in securing suitable candidates 
to meet the needs of the service, qualified 
persons are urged to enter this examination. 


May 4, 1906.] 


Tue laboratories of the Rockefeller Insti- 
tute for Medical Research at Avenue A and 
East Sixty-sixth Street, New York City, will 
be opened on May 11, at 4.p.m. Addresses 
will be made by President Charles W. Eliot, 
of Harvard University; President Nicholas 
Murray Butler, of Columbia University; Dr. 
William H. Welch, president of the board of 
directors, and Dr. Luther E. Holt, secretary 
of the board of directors. 


Tuere will be a scientific exhibit at the 
Harvard Medical School in connection with 
the approaching Boston meeting of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association. Those who are 
willing to contribute to this exhibit should 
write either to Dr. F. B. Wynn, Indianapolis, 
or to Dr. W. T. Councilman, Boston. 


Tue New York Section of the Society of 
Chemical Industry will devote the meeting of 
Friday evening, May 25, to a symposium on 
color photography, at which meeting any new 
facts or specimens as examples of this new 
method of illustrating can be presented by 
applying to the secretary, Dr. H. Schweitzer, 
128 Duane Street, New York City, or to Dr. 
George F. Kunz, 405 Fifth Avenue. 


Nature states that on behalf of the family 
of the late Professor Manuelli, of Modena, 
Herr T. Waitzfelder has presented the Munich 

Museum with an interesting collection, in 
which are some original pieces of apparatus 
used by Galvani and other Italian investi- 
gators, together with some pieces of alchem- 
istic apparatus. 


A Congrés de VAlliance francaise et des 
Sociétés de Géographie will be held at Mar- 
seilles in the middle of next September, under 
the presidency of M. Charles Roux. The 
congress is to be held at the National Colonial 
Exhibition at Marseilles, which is open from 
April 15 to November 15. 


On April 17 the free alcohol bill was passed 
by the House of Representatives by a vote of 
224 to 7. 


Tue State Cancer Laboratory, Buffalo, will 
receive this year $21,000 from the state, $3,000 
of which will be devoted to meet the deficit of 
last year. 


SCIENCE. 


119 


ForricN exchanges state that a sum of 
$150,000 has been voted for the building of 
the new observatory at Bergedorf, with a 
further sum of $75,000, spread over two years, 
for equipment. 


ANNOUNCEMENTS of the work offered at the 
Lake Laboratory of the Ohio State University 
have recently been issued and show some de- 
cided additions to those previously available. 
The staff of instructors has been increased to 
seven, and includes besides the director Pro- 
fessor F. L. Landacre, O.S8.U.; Dr. W. E. 
Kellicott, Barnard College, Columbia Uni- 
versity; Professor L. B. Walton, Kenyon Col- 
lege; Professor Malcolm Stickney, Denison 
University; Professor E. L. Rice, Ohio Wes- 
leyan University, and Mrs. Harriet Gilbert, 
Painesville High School. Courses in general 
zoology, embryology, entomology, ichthyology, 
ornithology, invertebrate morphology, experi- 
mental zoology, vertebrate comparative anat- 
omy and research work in zoology, general 
botany, ecology and special courses in botany. 
The laboratory also offers free tables to in- 
vestigators who are prepared to do independ- 
ent work. The courses of instruction open 
on June 25 and close on August 3, but in- 
vestigators may use the laboratory for addi- 
tional time if desired. For detailed informa- 
tion as to courses or copies of the announce- 
ment, application should be made to the di- 
rector, Professor Herbert Osborn, Columbus, 
Ohio. 


Two parties consisting of 105 junior engi- 
neering students of the University of Wis- 
consin spent the Easter recess visiting a large 
number of the important electrical and ma- 
chinery plants in the east and the west. The 
western party, consisting of seventy-five stu- 
dents, inspected Chicago and Milwaukee car 
shops, electric plants, street railway and light- 
ing power stations, foundries, ship yards and 
telephone exchanges, and similar works at 
Lockport and Joliet. The eastern party of 
thirty made a tour of the electrical power 
stations at Niagara Falls and Buffalo; the 
Westinghouse electrical machine and air 
brake plant; the Nernst Electrical Lamp Co., 
Pittsburg; the Brooks Locomotive works, at. 


720 


Dunkirk; and the Homestead and McKees- 
port iron mills and furnaces. 


A RECENT paper by A. W. Rogers, director 
of the Geological Survey of Cape Colony, 
South Africa, on the ‘Campbell Rand and 
Griquatown series in Hay’ (Trans. Geol. Soc. 
S. Africa, IX., 1906, pp. 1-9) gives among 
other things an account of a newly discovered 
series of glacial beds in the Griquatown series. 
The boulders included have beautifully stri- 
ated surfaces, and the deposit itself is char- 
acterized as a very well developed glacial till, 
often thoroughly indurated, so that the boul- 
ders can not be broken from it. This deposit 
is of more ancient date than the Permian 
Dwyka formation, and is probably of early 
Paleozoic time; thus adding another curious 
problem to South African geology. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Ir is proposed, in connection with the open- 
ing next September of the new laboratories of 
the Harvard Medical School in Boston, to in- 
augurate a new system of advanced instruction 
in the medical sciences, designed especially to 
meet the needs of those desiring to pursue any 
of these branches as a profession. The system 
includes the organization of a new department 
of comparative anatomy, which has been 
placed in charge of Dr. Charles 8. Minot, 
whose appointment was recently announced in 
this journal. The instruction in this depart- 
ment will be confined for the present at least 
to electives for fourth-year medical students 
and for graduates. The position of instructor 
in comparative anatomy has been established 
with a salary of probably $1,200. Candidates 
for this appointment should apply to Dr. 
Charles S. Minot, Harvard Medical School. 
The instructor will have charge of animal dis- 
section, and will be expected to carry on orig- 
inal research subject to the approval of the 
head of the laboratory. The field of research 
will not be prescribed. The investigations 
already planned are in the domain of the com- 
parative morphology of vertebrates. The 
laboratory is large and will be well equipped 
and furnished with a good working library. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 592. 


There will be special facilities for work in com- 
parative embryology. 

THE board of trustees of the Connecticut 
Agricultural College has authorized the execu- 
tive committee of the board to receive and 
accept the Edwin Gilbert bequest consisting 
of a farm of 350 acres at Georgetown, Conn., 
together with a fund of $60,000 for the main- 
tenance of the farm. The tract of land is to 
be used for experimental purposes in connec- 
tion with the work of the agricultural college, 
but it is not intended in any sense to establish 
a branch of the college at Georgetown. 


Mr. Le Roy Asprams, assistant curator of 
the division of plants, U. S. National Museum, 
has been appointed assistant professor of sys- 
tematie botany at Stanford University. Dr. 
E. C. Franklin, associate professor, has been 
promoted to a full professorship of organic 
chemistry and Dr. H. S. Blichfeldt has been 
promoted to an associate professorship of 
mathematics. 

Dav SaMuEL SNEDDEN, associate professor 
of education in Leland Stanford Junior Uni- 
versity, has been appointed adjunct professor 
of educational administration in Teachers 
College, Columbia University; Dr. Kate Gor- 
don, associate professor of psychology in Mt. 
Holyoke College, has been appointed instruct- 
or in educational psychology, and Miss Jean 
Broadhurst, of the Trenton (N. J.) Normal 
School, instructor in nature study. 

TuHeE board of regents of the University of 
Nebraska has made the following promotions: 
G. R. Chatburn, professor of applied mechan- 
ics; E. L. Hinman, professor of philosophy; 
Benton Dales, associate professor of chemis- 
try; J. H. Gain, associate professor of animal 
husbandry; R. A. Lyman, assistant professor 
of pharmaco-dynamics;.L. W. Chase, assistant 
professor of farm mechanics; F. D. Barker, 
adjunct professor of zoology; G. A. Loveland, 
assistant professor of meteorology. Professor 
H. R. Smith has been appointed head of the 
department of animal husbandry; Professor 
T. L. Lyon has been made professor of agron- 
omy in the Agricultural Experiment Station, 
and F. D. Heald, professor of agricultural 
botany. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, May 11, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


Climatology of Tinajas Altas, Arizona: Dr. 
WWWare Der IVUG GN coer scraps sais abape eis pes aiah caver ets 721 


A Symposium on Chemistry Requirements: 


Proressor J. F. SELLERS................ 730 
Scientific Books :— 

Ward’s Status of the Mesozoic Floras of 

the United States: Proressor D. P. PEN- 

HWALLow. A Respiration Calorimeter: Dr. 

H. P. Armssy. JLoeb’s Studies in General 

Physiology: Dr. S. J. MELTZER........... 737 
Scientific Journals and Articles...........: 748 
Societies and Academies :-— 

The Torrey Botanical Club: C. SruartT 

GacEeR. The Michigan Ornithological Club: 

ALEXANDER BLAIN, JR..........-....-+-- 744 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

The Fallacy of the Mutation Theory: Dr. 

A. EH. Ortmann. Misrepresentations of Na- 

ture in Popular Magazines: PROFESSOR A. 

R. Crook. Alluvial Slopes: C. E. SIEBEN- 

TREUNG ipe's oo eS ode as Soo MEA EOM Akane patio 746 
Special Articles :— 

The Northern Limit of the Papaw Tree: 

Dr. Cuartes A. WHITE. The Parasitism 

of Neocosmospora: Howard 8S. REED. 

Effects of an Unbalanced Ration: W. M. 

MUN ONcaboobe onauee peo go onE So dimopOaoo. 749 
Notes on Organic Chemistry :— 

The Action of Ozone on Organic Com- 

pounds; Researches on the Amino Acids, 

Polypeptides and Proteids: Dr. J. BISHOP 

INXS 6 ood SOP ooo mb AaAnd boo pepe BU DOD 702 
The American Institute of Electrical Engi- 

neers and the Metric System............. 755 
The California Harthquake at Ukiah: Dr. 

Smpney DD. TowNLby.........5....-...-: 756 
Scientific Buildings and Collections at Stan- 

ford University: PRroressor VERNON L. KEL- 

IME seca kwwaresobpoopasnns acu bvooudaod 756 


The University of California and the Cali- 


fornia Academy of Sciences.............. 757 
Scientific Notes and News................. 767 
University and Educational News.......... 759 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of ScimNcE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


CLIMATOLOGY OF TINAJAS ALTAS, ARI- 
ZONA: PRELIMINARY REPORT. 


THE STATION. 


TinagaAs ALTAS (colloquially, Tinaxaltas; 
a Spanish term commonly rendered ‘high 
tanks’) may be described as a locality in 
extreme southwestern Arizona about forty 
miles east of the mouth of Rio Colorado 
and three miles north of the Mexican 
boundary. The name denotes a number of 
tinajas, or tanks (‘water-pockets’ in the 
vernacular of western America, ‘pot-holes’ 
in British geology), found in the bottom of 
a precipitous gorge on the northeastern 
side of Sierra Gila, a granite range extend- 
ing southeastward from Gila City and 
terminating in Sonora a few miles south 
of the international boundary. The tanks 
were well known to the aborigines in pre- 
historic times, and have been known to 
white men since Padre Kino passed by 
them in that notable expedition of 1699- 
1701 which led to the rediscovery of Rio 
Colorado and the subsequent mapping of 
the country beyond as a peninsula rather 
than an island. While California was a 
province of Mexico, one of the main over- 
land routes connecting it with the capital 


1 Published by permission of the chief of the 
U. S. Weather Bureau. 


722 


city touched Tinajas Altas as the sole 
permanent ‘water’ in the 125 hard miles 
between Rio Sonoyta and Rio Colorado— 
i. €., in ‘El Camino del Diablo’ which in 
the more fertile valleys of California be- 
came ‘H] Camino Real’—and ever since the 
supply has been deemed unfailing; though 
singularly enough the water was prac- 
tically exhausted in the summer following 
the exceptionally wet winter and spring 
of 1905, seemingly for the reason that the 
unusually prolonged and gentle precipita- 
tion served rather to fill the tinajas with 
sand than to sweep them clean and leave 
them brimming, as do the ordinary rains 
of the region. 

By trail the locality is 75 miles south- 
east of Yuma, by air-line 15 or 20 miles 
less; it is 35 or 40 miles south of Gila 
River at its southerly bend east of Gila 
City, and 40 or 50 miles north of the 
nearest shores of Gulf of California; the 
closest habitations are at the Southern 
Pacific station Wellton, some 30 miles away 
in an air-line, and more by any practicable 
route—there is no road. 

The altitude of the lowest tinaja and the 
adjacent mesa on which the station was 
established is about 1,400 feet; the contigu- 
ous gorge-walls and peaks rise precipitous- 
ly 750 feet, and some of the neighboring 
erests 2,000 feet higher (the United States 
and Mexican boundary survey maps locate 
near-by peaks above the 800-meter contour 
line). Albeit a low range, Sierra Gila is 
notably rugged and conspicuously sterile 
—it is, indeed, one of the most utterly 
barren mountain masses in America. From 
its western base a sandy plain, broken by a 
few low buttes and ranges, stretches south- 
westward to the Cocopa Mountains far be- 
yond the Colorado, inclining southward to 
the gulf; east of it lies a smooth valley- 
plain seven to twelve miles wide, bounded 
beyond by a parallel granite range—Sierra 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


de la Cabeza Prieta. Still further east- 
ward lie other more or less parallel ranges 
with intervening valleys; the Mohawk 
Range, Sierra Pintada, Sierra Pinecate (on 
the Sonora side), Ajo Mountain, Sierra 
Quijotoa and the Baboquivari being the 
more conspicuous elevations about which 
summer clouds are wont to gather. 

The station equipment comprised (1) 
a weather bureau instrument shelter of 
the type used by ‘volunteer observers’ 
(mounted on a base about four feet high, 
improvised from the packing-crate and 
grub-boxes and guyed with baling-wire) ; 
(2) maximum and minimum thermometers ; 
(8) a sling psychrometer; (4) a barograph 
(supplemented by a fine aneroid of French 
make); and (5) an improvised rain gauge. 


OBSERVATIONS AND GENERALIZATIONS. 


Observations were made and recorded 
twice daily, viz. 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. local 
time; the hour of observation being ad- 
vanced some minutes (in accordance with 
suggestions growing out of hourly obser- 
vations during the earlier days) to counter- 
balance the effect of the local topography: 
for the station occupied a deep gorge open- 
ing east-northeastward in which the rays 
of the morning sun were concentrated by 
reflection, while the afternoon sun set be- 
hind Sierra Gila at 4 to 4:15 p.m. The 
outfit reached the ground and the instru- 
ments were unpacked during the afternoon 
of May 20, and experimental observation 
began on the morning of May 21 and was 
well under way on May 23;? the observa- 
tions were continued until after sunset 
August 28, when the station was hastily 

?In the transcripts of the records and averages 
first made, the period of systematic observation 
was reckoned as beginning with May 23; but on 
finding that the total period of observation was 
exactly one hundred days reckoned from and in- 


cluding May 21, the experimental record was 
afterward incorporated. 


May 11, 1906.] SCIENCE. 723 


dismantled and the equipment transferred 
during the night to Wellton en route to 
Yuma. 

The observations comprised pressure (de- 
termined by barograph and aneroid), tem- 
perature, humidity, wind, precipitation and 
cloudiness. 

The barograph was used in accordance 
with a courteous suggestion by Sumner 
Hackett, U. S. weather observer at Yuma, 
in the hope that its record might throw 
light in the persistent lows of the Cali- 
fornia Gulf region. This record has not 
yet been compared and discussed. 

The wind observations were rendered 
practically worthless by local conditions; 
the atmosphere in the gorge was habitually 
disturbed by dust whirls driftmg in from 
the plain with intensity rapidly increasing 
as they caught the rock-warmed air-volume 
between the canyon walls, so that even the 
pressure was rendered unsteady (in one 
ease a single whirl of momentary duration 
caused the barograph pen to record a 
change in pressure of over twenty feet) ; 
while the arrangement of neighboring peaks 
and precipices so disturbed the general air 
currents that their direction could seldom 
be determined confidently without a 
journey of two or three miles eastward on 
the plain, or a three-hours’ climb up the 
granite precipices and peaks. 

From the beginning of experimental ob- 


TABLE I.—TEMPERATURE 


servation on May 21, the temperature rec- 
ords (both of the maximum and minimum 
and of the wet and dry bulb thermometers) 
seemed notable by reason of a relatively 
low diurnal range—a range considerably 
less than that previously noted by the sta- 
tion agent in connection with geologic and 
ethnologic work in Nevada, Sonora and 
southern-central Arizona. The minitude 
of the range, indeed, awakened a suspicion 
of inaccurate reading and led to the above- 
noted delay of two days in beginning the 
more formal record transmitted to the ob- 
server at Yuma; it also led to a series of 
experiments with coverings for the wet 
bulb of the psychrometer, resulting in the 
adoption of a somewhat thicker and more 
spongy covering and a longer period of 
swinging than more humid climates require. 
Before the middle of June, however, the 
record developed such consistency as to es- 
tablish the general accuracy of the observa- 
tions. The accompanying Table I., trans- 
seribed from the original field-sheets, illus- 
trates the lowness of diurnal and general 
ranges in temperature and also in moisture 
—ineluding rain as well as cloudiness (ex- 
pressed in tenths of total sky estimated for 
the visible and inferred for the invisible 
portions)—during the one hundred days 
from May 21 to August 28. As shown by 
this table, the extreme thermometric range 
during this period was but 62.8°, the range 


AND MOISTURE EXTREMES. 


Temperature. Moisture. 
Term. Self-reg. Therm’s. Dew-point. Relative Humidity. Rain | Cloudi- 
Max. Min. | Range. | Max. | Min. ; Range. | Max. | Min. | Range. | (i2.). ness. 
May (21-31) aA. M. 88.4° | 54.6°} 33.8° | 54.0°) 42.0°| 12.0° 62%| 25%] 37% | 0.00 7 
P. M. 96.0 | 54.6] 41.4 48.0 | 35.5] 12.5 56 18 38 -00 2 
June A. M. 97.4 | 65.4 | 32.0 52.0 | 25.0 | 27.0 37 10.5} 26.5 -00 7 
P.M. | 105.9 | 77.1 28.8 52.0 | 17.0} 35.0 32 6 26 -00 0+ 
July A.M. | 109.0 | 73.6 | 35.4 68.5 | 21.0 | 47.5 63.5 6 57.5 av 8 
P.M. | 117.4 79.7 | 37.7 62.0 | 12.0 | 50.0 54 4 50 T 3 
Aug. (1-28) a.m. | 102.0 | 73.9 | 28.1 42.0 | 29.0 | 43.0 v0) 8 6% .12 10 
P.M. | 110.2 | 77.4 32.8 66.0 | 40.0 | 26.0 48 12 36 .00 8 
Extreme ranges. 62.8 60.0 71 


724 


in dew-point only 60°, and that in relative 
humidity only 71 per cent.—ranges not in- 
frequently exceeded within twenty-four 
hours in certain desert localities. 

As the record developed, establishing a 
persistently low diurnal range in tempera- 
ture with consistent values for moisture, 
special attention was turned to the monthly 
means. Semi-daily means (including rain 
and also cloudiness expressed in tenths and 
fractions) are given in the accompanying 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


Even more striking than the semi-diurnal 
means are the daily means summarized by 
months; largely transcribed from the 
monthly records, these are recapitulated in 
Table III. As indicated by the table, the 
mean diurnal range for the one-hundred- 
day period varied between 20.1° and 24.5° ; 
and it may be noted that the greatest and 
least daily ranges in June were 30.4° and 
13.4°, the absolute range for the month 
being 40.5°, while the corresponding values 


Table II. As shown by this table, the ap- for July were, respectively, 28.0°, 13.9° 
TABLE I1.—TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE MEANS. 
Temperature. Moisture. 
Term. Self-Reg. Therm’s. Psychrometer. Humidity. Rain Cloudi- 
Max. Min. | Range.?| Dry Bl. | Wet Bl. | Deprsn. | Dewp’t. | Rel. H. | (2-) LEED 
May (21-31) a.m. | %8.5° | 64.4° | 14.1° | %3.4° | 58.2° | 15.2° | 46.8° | 40.6%] 0.00 1.2 
P.M. | 86.2 70.5 15.7 76.0 59.0 17.0 45.5 36.6 -00 5 
June A.M. | 90.6 74.7 15.9 83.8 59.4 24.4 38.8 21.6 .00 4 
P.M. | 98.9 86.1 12.8 89.6 60.4 29.2 34.4 15.9 -00 A 
July A.M. | 94.8 80.0 14.8 90.5 66.4 24.1 49.1 29.1 T 1.0 
p. M. | 102.2 90.1 12.1 93.8 66.0 27.8 45.9 22.6 T 4 
. Aug. (1-28) a.m. | 94.6 81.7 12.9 90.7 69.8 20.9 57.3 37.3 | 0.04 1.0 
Pp. M. | 101.8 90.4 11.4 94.0 69.6 24.4 54.8 28.5 -00 1.2 
TABLE III.—TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE SUMMARIES AND AVERAGES. 
Temperature. Moisture. 
Term. Days. Self-registering Therm’s. Psychrometer. Humidity. Rain | Cloudi- 
Max. Min. | Range. | Mean. | DryBl.| Wet BI. | Depr.‘| Dewp.| Rel. H. | (2-)- | mess.® 
May (21-31). 11 86.2° | 64.1°] 22.1° | 75.1°)} %4.7°) 58.6° | 16.1°) 44.8°] 38.6%) 0.00 0.6 
June. 30 98.9 | 74.4 | 24.5 86.6 | 86.7 | 59.9 | 26.8 | 36.6 | 18.5 -00 23 
July. 31 102.2 | 80.0 | 22.2 | 91.1 | 92.1 | 66.2 | 25.9 | 47.5 | 25.9 ate Sel 
Aug. (1-28). 28 101.8 | 81.7 | 20.1 91.3 , 92.3 | 69.7 22.6 | 56.0 | 32.9 .002! 1.2 
Averages for | 100 99.3 | 77.0 | 22.3 | 88.2 | 88.9 | 64.5 46.5 | 27.1 -001 .67 


proximate mean diurnal ranges in tempera- 
ture varied from 11.4° to 15.9°, the mean 
depression of the wet-bulb thermometer 
from 15.2° to 29.2°, and the relative 
humidity from 15.9 per cent. to 40.6 per 
cent.; ranges suggesting a moderately 
humid rather than a distinctively arid 
climate. 

3 Approximate values taken from means in this 
table. 

“ Approximate values taken from means in this 


table. 
5Taken from monthly summaries. 


and 43.8°, and for August 25.0°, 13.0° and 
36.3°. The psychrometriec and humidity 
means are consistent, and the ranges corre- 
spondingly low. (The average dew-point 
and relative humidity computed from the 
means in the table are, of course, not 
strictly accurate; the values corresponding 
to the means of 88.9° for the dry-bulb and 
64.5° for the wet-bulb thermometer would 
be respectively 49° and 25 per cent.) 
Although deemed of only moderate 
value, the records of precipitation and 


May 11, 1906.] 


cloudiness are consistent with those of tem- 
perature, and are hence of some signifi- 
eance. The total precipitation of the 
period comprised 0.11 inch on the morn- 
ing of August 9 and 0.01 inch on the morn- 
ing of August 27, as measured at the camp 
within a few yards of the instrument 
shelter. On both occasions the amount 
varied greatly in both vertical and hori- 
zontal directions, the zones of precipitation 
being narrow and the greater part of the 
initial volume being evaporated in the 
lower atmospheric strata—indeed, but a 
small part of the rain precipitated from 
the dark bases of the cumulus clouds ever 
_ reached the ground. In the heavier pre- 
cipitation of August 9 the rain diminished 
to a trace within 300 yards down the arroyo 
and some 60 feet below the level of the 
‘station, while on the gorge walls 300 feet 
south of and 200 feet above the station the 
fall was probably between 0.20 and 0.30 
inch.® 

The value of the cloud observations was 
impaired by the smallness of the visible 
sky, only about 50 per cent. of the total 
being in sight at the station. From E. to 
N. 30° H. the horizon was broken only by 
Sierra de la Cabeza Prieta some ten miles 
away, and the still remoter Mohawk Range; 
thence by north to west the skyline aver- 
aged some 20° above the horizontal, while 
the mean altitude of the southerly sky line 
was over 30°. Accordingly, stratus and 
other clouds toward the western and south- 
ern horizons were seldom seen. Some 90 
per cent. of the clouds observed gathered or 
drifted in northerly directions over Cabeza 
Prieta and other ranges east of the station; 


° This rainfall, especially on the rocks above the 
level of the station, served to partly refill the 
tinajas and so prolong the maintenance of the 
station; the evening before its occurrence the 
total quantity of water remaining was estimated 
at five gallons, or four days’ supply, with an extra 
gallon for the walk to Wellton. 


SCIENCE. 


. 725 


and but few cirrus and still fewer cumulus 
clouds formed or floated over Tinajas Altas 
and the neighboring portions of Sierra Gila. 
In general the cloudiness diminished some- 
what from the middle of May to near the 
end of June and then inereased during 
July and August (as indicated in Table 
II.) ; in general, too, the cloudiness was less 
in the evening during the earlier part of 
the period, with a tendeney toward becom- 
ing greater in the evening in the later part. 
Concurrently with the cloud and rain ob- 
servations a record was kept of thunder, 
lightning and haze, which were lacking in 
May and June, fairly frequent in later 
July, and quite frequent in August—in- 
deed during the later half of August more 
or less distant thunder was heard almost 
every afternoon and sheet or flash light- 
ning was seen during most evenings. By 
far the greater portion of the located 
thunder and over 75 per cent. of the visible 
lightning occurred in the east, 2. ¢€., over 
Cabeza Prieta and other ranges; and at 
least a dozen—perhaps a score—of rainfalls 
were seen in the same quarter. Occasional 
views were had of the entire horizon from 
the erests and peaks of Sierra Gila; and 
while clouds were sometimes seen over the 
valley of Rio Colorado and the Cocopa 
Mountaims beyond, these only confirmed 
the observations made at the station which 
served to locate a zone of precipitation 
passing in a northerly direction over Cabeza 
Prieta and neighboring ranges, 7. e., from 
some ten to fifty or one hundred miles 
further eastward than Tinajas Altas and 
Sierra Gila. There were no observations 
on dew, for the sufficient reason that 
throughout the entire period there was 
none; the greatest relative humidity at the 
hours of observation was but 75 per cent. 
and the maximum probably fell below 90 
per cent. even in the feeble rains—during 
which it was evident that evaporation fiom 


726 


fabrics, ete., proceeded nearly as rapidly 
as wetting. Similarly, no observations 
were recorded on mirages or other phe- 
nomena of refraction, of which there was a 
notable dearth; on a few occasions of light 
dust daze due to strong winds over the 
erests and broader valleys, Sierra de la 
Cabeza Prieta appeared magnified and 
brought near, though its angular altitude 
(determined by sighting over fixed points 
in rocks adjacent to the instrument shelter) 
did not vary perceptibly; and during the 
entire one hundred days not a single 
mirage of the type so common a few score 
miles further eastward was seen. In a 
word, the atmospheric phenomena in gen- 
eral, like the temperature records, denoted 
a condition of striking steadiness or sta- 
bility during the period of observation. 

Tinajas Altas was chosen primarily as a 
site for a study of light and its effects on 
desert organisms; and after unsuccessful 
efforts to obtain a satisfactory photometer 
a series of determinations of the intensity 
of light by means of a simple exposure 
ameter was planned. The record is of little 
value, partly because the paper used in the 
apparatus is sensitive to moisture as well 
as light, but in the inverse direction, so 
that the time of coloration gave merely an 
inseparable measure of aridity and lumin- 
osity. In general the record indicates a 
light intensity twice or thrice that of Saint 
Louis—a measure probably worth less than 
the common experience of photographers 
that in the arid region given plates ordi- 
narily require but one half to one fifth of 
the exposure needed in humid regions. 


COMPARISONS. 


Tinajas Altas was selected as a desert 
station, yet the records were found notably 
discordant with incidental recollections of 
and notes on climate in the more desert dis- 
tricts of Nevada, southern-central Arizona 
and central Sonora. The absolute and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


mean maximum temperatures were de- 
cidedly lower and the diurnal thermometric 
range much lower, while the mean tem- 
perature was rather higher and the abso- 
lute and mean minima much higher than 
anticipated; concordantly, the moisture 
(dew-point and relative humidity) was 
both higher and much less variable than 
previous experiences indicated as probable 
or even possible—it is, indeed, a striking 
fact that the entire range of relative 
humidity during a period of one hundred 
days should be no more than 71 per cent., 
and it is even more striking that, despite 
the considerable average humidity, the 
dew-point was never reached during the 
one hundred-day period. In short, while 
Sierra Gila and the adjacent plains are 
typical if not utter deserts, the climate of 
Tinajas Altas impresses the observer as 
subhumid rather than arid—and this de- 
spite the limited precipitation. 

As the record assumed form during July 
and August, definite comparisons were 
made with other stations in Arizona, espe- 
cially with the cooperative (until recently 
known as volunteer) stations in the western 
division of the territory; this bemg made 
easy through the monthly records issued by 
the ‘Arizona section of the climate and 
erop service of the Weather Bureau’ pub- 
lished by authority of the Secretary of 
Agriculture, under the direction of the 
chief of the Weather Bureau, by Lewis N. 
Jesunofsky, section director. Contrary to 
a widespread impression (first produced 
when Fort Yuma was the sole station in its 
region), these reports show that Yuma is 
(at least during summer) by no means the 
hottest station in the country—indeed, with 
the single exception of the mountain sta- 
tion Kingman, its temperature is both 
lower and more equable than that of any 
other station in western Arizona: Aztec, 
Mohave, Mohawk, Parker and Sentinel, 
with several other points in the southern 


May 11, 1906.] 


division, giving higher extremes, ranges and 
means. The temperature records of south- 
western Arizona (including Tinajas Altas) 
during the summer of 1905, in fact, fall 
into three groups or classes, viz: (1) the 
mountain class, represented by Kingman; 
(2) the interior plains class, comprising 
Aztee, Mohave, Mohawk, Parker and Sen- 
tinel; and (3) what may be called the Gulf 
class, represented by Yuma and Tinajas 
Altas. Denoted by their more striking fea- 
tures, these may be considered, respectively, 
the cool, the hot and the equable varieties or 
phases of southwestern Arizona’s summer 
climate. These are illustrated in the ac- 
companying Table IV., compiled chiefly 
from Jesunofsky’s report for July;** two 


TABLE IV.—CLIMATAL TYPES OF WESTERN ARIZONA. 


SCIENCE. 


727 


classes. The classes of climate or their 
districts might be defined also by moisture 
(vapor, precipitation, or both) though they 
intergrade; in general it may be said— 
though the qualifying factors are many— 
that the vapor-content decreases and the 
precipitation imereases east and northeast 
of the gulfward zone represented by Yuma 
and Tinajas Altas. 


GENERAL INFERENCES. 


Through earlier observations in Arizona, 
Sonora and California the coastwise zone 
commonly called the fog-belt—an irregular 
zone extending inland from three to 
twenty-five miles (according to local con- 
figuration) from the Pacific and Gulf 


(Defined by Temperature Records for July, 1905.) 


Extremes. Mean. 
Station. Altitude Max. R I 4s 

Highest. | Lowest. ee | Meximum.| Mini- | Range, | Monthly 

Day. Month. mum. Mean. 

Aztec. 492 125.0° | 65.0° 51.0° 60.0° 117.9° 74.50 | 43.4° 96.2° 

tenon Ft. Mohave. 604 124.0 65.0 52.0 59.0 117.7 73.3 38.4 92°5 
Plains Mohawk. 538 126.0 85.0 u u v 100.3 
Class Parker. 345 127.0 61.0 59.0 66.0 111.9 69.5 42.4 90.7 
i Sentinel. 685 122.0 82.0 G v o 94.5 
Gilabend.® 737 120.0 68.0 48.0 52.0 110.5 73.1 37.4 91.8 

Averages.® 567 124.0 64.819 | 52.5 59.2 113.0 72.6 40.4 94.3 

Mountain § Kingman. 3326 109.0 53.0 47.0 56.0 99.1 65.8 33.3 82.4 
Class. Cengress.® 3688 109.0 67.0 25.0 42.0 98.1 77.5 20.6 87.8 
Averages.® | 3507 109.0 60.0 36.0 49.0 98.6 alse 27.0 85.1 

Gulf Yuma. 141 116.0 66.0 41.0 50.0 104.4 74.0 30.4 89.2 
Class. Tinajas Altas. | 1400 117.4 73.6 28.0 43.8 102.2 80.0 22.5. 91.1 
Averages. ° 770 116.7 69.8 34.5 46.9 103.3 — 77.0 26.3 90.6 


typical stations of the southern division 
being introduced partly to illustrate the 
extension eastward of the two interior 

*Not given in Jesunofsky’s tables. 

* Introduced from adjacent ‘division’ for com- 
parison. 

* Computed from Jesunofsky’s figures (excepting 
Tinajas Altas). 

Excluding Mohawk and Sentinel 
in which actual minima do not appear. 

“ Published at Phenix, August 22,1905. Other 
monthly reports are entirely consistent, though 
mot accessible at this writing. 


records, 


coasts—was well known, and its dominant 
influence on flora and fauna was under- 
stood; and the recognition of this zone led 
naturally to inferences concerning the more 
striking climatic features of Tinajas Altas 
and Yuma. So the records were soon seen 
to indicate the existence of a zone parallel 
with and inland from the foe belt which 
may be both denoted and described as a 
vapor belt, 2. e., a zone in which the ag- 
eregate volume of aqueous vapor is con- 


728 


siderable, although by reason of the pre- 
vailing high temperature it remains far 
above dew-point and so persists in notably 
stable condition. The volume of vapor is, 
of course, due to the proximity of the 
Pacifie and the Gulf whence it is derived; 
its stability is due to the much higher tem- 
perature of the land surfaces over which it 
is carried by the prevailing air-drift, and 
the consequent warming of the air and 
rise of the dew-point. Of course the 
zone is atmospheric rather than terres- 
trial, meteorologic rather than geographic, 
and variable in position and character, 
with many factors of both configuration 
and climate; in some measure it grades 
into the fog-belt in both space and time; 
yet the observations, incomplete as they 
are, indicate that the vapor zone parallel- 
ling the Pacifie coast is a definite physical 
entity. 

On considering the relations of the vapor 
zone to the Californian Gulf, it was at once 
seen that the general climate and config- 
uration of the region must tend greatly to 
increase its extent and enlarge its efficiency 
as a factor affecting what may be called the 
continental climate of the interior. Dur- 
ing the summer the prevailing wind-drift 
over the region is eastward and northeast- 
ward, 2. e., from the open Pacifie over the 
prominent backbone of the peninsula of 
Lower California and thence over the gen- 
erally warmer waters of the enormously 
long trough forming the Californian Gulf, 
so that the volume of vapor would nat- 
urally exceed that drifting inland over an 
unbroken shore-line; then, once within the 
great sub-aerial trough, this vapor may not 
easily escape backward against, or in any 
other direction than with, the prevailing 
air-currents; it may not even flow down 
the trough to its open mouth 500 to 1,000 
miles away, by reason of the great distance 
and the internal friction of vapor and air; 
hence it must form a vast reservoir of 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


vapor overflowing (occasionally or steadily 
as conditions may determine) northeast- 
ward. ‘The effective capacity of this reser- 
voir must be greatly increased by the pre- 
vailing character of the land surface, of 
which from 50 per cent. to far more than 


‘90 per cent. is bare white sand or rock 


from which heat passes rapidly and con- 
stantly by reflection and radiation and 
convection into the atmosphere, so that the 
air is highly heated and the vapor firmly 
fixed within it; it must be imereased also 
by the augmented diathermancy of the at- 
mosphere and the resulting intensity of 
insolation on the land surface attending 
the relative drying of the atmospheric mass 
with its rise in temperature; the effective 
capacity must be still further increased by 
the barrier forming the western rim of the 
trough (the sierras making up the backbone 
of the Californian peninsula) which tends 
to retard and check the westward-moving 
atmospheric wave marking the semi-diurnal 
increase In pressure consequent on morning 
insolation. These factors culmimate in 
summer when insolation is strongest; and 
they would seem adequate to account for 
the persistent daily summer pressures in the 
eulf-trough which have already attracted 
the attention of climatologists.1* In short, 
the preliminary survey of the climatology 
of southwestern Arizona indicates that just 
as the Californian Gulf is one of the 
world’s greatest tide producers (its spring 
tides increasing from little more than two 

“The barograph was carried from Yuma to 
Tinajas Altas at the courteous instance of Ob- 
server Hackett and with the approval of Chief 
Moore in the hope of obtaining better light on the 
character and distribution of these summer pres- 
sures, and it is probable that when the records 
are discussed they will be found to corroborate 
the inferences from temperature and moisture ob- 
servations; although on looking backward over 
the summer’s work it is easy to see that the 
barograph records would be much more valuable 
had another instrument been kept at Yuma for 
comparison. 


May 11, 1906.] 


feet at its mouth to twenty-five feet at its 
head), so its aerial portion forms an eftfect- 
ive mechanism for promoting the flow and 
retarding the ebb of the atmospheric tide; 
and it may be noted that just as the oceanic 
tides produce astoundingly turbulent cur- 
rents in the gulf waters mid-length of its 
trough, so the air-vapor tide results in the 
astonishingly sudden wind storms and 
strong williwaws of Tiburon Island and 
the adjacent coasts. 

The extent of this vapor reservoir must be 
large, though variable from season to sea- 
son (greatest in summer, least in winter), 
and from day to day according to a variety 
of factors and conditions which—like those 
of climatology in general—are commonly 
cumulative in effect. The coastward 
boundary of the vapor zone must shift with 
the conditions governing the presence or ab- 
sence of fog, ete.; while the inland bound- 
ary must be determined from place to 
place by altitude, local configuration, pres- 
ence or absence of floral covering, and other 
factors infinencing temperature, dew-point, 
precipitation and storm centers. Tinajas 
Altas and Yuma would seem to lie in the 
vapor belt or reservoir, while Mohawk, 
Parker and other stations in the western 
division of Arizona would seem to lie with- 
out it. Proceeding from these points, with 
the guidance of the July and August storms 
in the ranges east of Sierra Gila, the sum- 
mer inland margin of the vapor belt or 
reservoir may be drawn southeastward 
from Rio Colorado at a point twenty-five 
miles above Yuma to Rio Gila ten miles 
east of Gila City, and thence to and along 
Sierra de la Cabeza Prieta, crossing the 
international boundary near the eastern 
line of Yuma County; and thence more 
nearly southward and roughly parallel with 
the gulf coast to Hermosillo (Sonora) and 
on—gradually approaching the gulf—to 
regions beyond the influence of this great 
geographic trough: though it may be noted 


SCIENCE. 


729 


that the general vapor belt (apparently so 
greatly expanded about the Californian 
Gulf) must parallel much of the Pacific 
coast wherever configuration favors, per- 
haps attaining next best development in 
western Peru, where broad Piedmont plains 
of distinctively desert climate intervene 
between the Andes and the coast. Within 
the expansion of the Californian trough 
the vapor belt would seem especially po- 
tent in its influence on continental climate, 
through the development of storm centers 
if not otherwise—indeed, a considerable 
proportion of the effective storm centers 
traced in their course across the country 
during recent years, through the observa- 
tions of the Weather Bureau, originate in 
this region. 

Incidentally, the observations at Tinajas 
Altas throw light on a question suggested 
by earlier notes on the climate of Arizona 
and Sonora, 7. e., the question as to rela- 
tion between what may be called the Cali- 
fornia type of climate, characterized by a 
winter rainy season and a summer dry sea- 
son, and the Sonora type, comprising a 
winter rainy season and a summer rainy 
season, with intervening dry seasons; for 
in the light of the Tinajas Altas records it 
would appear that the types correspond, 
except that in the Sonoran region the effect 


of the vapor reservoir above the gulf in 


summer (when the land surfaces are hot- 
test) is to develop storms drifting into the 
interior from the zone in which the vapor 
is for a time imprisoned. 


A CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTION. 

If the foregoing inferences are valid, it 
is manifest that the conditions existing 
about the Californian Gulf exercise impor- 
tant influence on the climate of the conti- 
nent, and are worthy of correspondingly 
careful consideration. Any investigation 
might properly begin with observations 
made at a few suitably located stations, 


730 


which, fortunately, may now be found; 
these should include either one or both of 
the new towns west of Yuma, Calexico and 
Mexicala, together with Caborca, the west- 
ernmost town in Altar District, Sonora (to 
which the Mexican government telegraph 
line has recently been extended), and 
Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora. Doubt- 
less cooperative stations might be estab- 
lished at these points; at the latter two per- 
haps in accordance with the law author- 
izing observations at points outside of the 
United States on Gulf of Mexico and 
Caribbean Sea. It would be well, too, wv 
establish a record station on Rio Colorado 
between Yuma and Parker, and if prac- 
ticable also at Quitobaquito (or Humboldt 
post-office) on the international boundary, 
some ninety miles east of Tinajas Altas. 
Records at these pomts would serve both to 
determine the limits and define the nature 
and influence of the vapor zone above the 
Californian Gulf. 
W J McGes. 


A SYMPOSIUM ON CHEMISTRY REQUIRE- 
MENTS-+ 

Tat charming and discerning essayist 
of to-day, Samuel M. Crothers, in a recent 
issue of The Atlantic Monthly, calls our 
attention to the delightful ease with which 
one may cultivate a good crop of fallacies 
by employing a heavy mulch of statistics. 
“‘The best way,’’ he suggests, ‘‘is to pre- 
pare circulars containing half a dozen ir- 
relevant questions, which you send to sey- 
eral thousand persons—the more the better. 
If you enclose stamps, those who are good- 
natured and conscientious will send you 
such odd bits of opinion as they have no 
other use for, and are willing to contribute 
to the cause of science. When the contri- 
butions are received, assort them, putting 

1Paper read at the meeting of the American 


Chemical Society at New Orleans, December 30, 
1905. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


those that strike you as more or less alike 
in long straight rows. Another way, which 
is more fanciful, is that of arranging them 
in curves. This is called ‘tabulating the 
results.’ When the results have been thor- 
oughly tabulated, use them in the manner 
I have described for the protection of your 
favorite arguments.”’ 

And yet it is less Crothers that speaks 
than his Scholasticus, a rather prosy, old- 
fashioned gentleman whose evident aver- 
sion for the times in which he lives and for 
the manners of those times forbids our 
taking him too seriously. 

The symposium method may, I think, 
like any other method under the sun in the 
wide field of thought-husbandry, be made 
to stimulate and protect the growth of 
sound arguments as well as of fallacies. Of 
what kind it has brought forth on this oc- 
casion I must leave it to my patient hearers 
to determine. 

It is both trite and untrue to assert that 
the south is backward in methods, but 
rather in lack of money to execute and 
realize methods. By careful inspection of 
the curricula of a list of southern institu- 
tions, even the smaller fresh-water colleges, 
we shall find that mention is nearly always 
made of the laboratory and of the library. 
Besides, a majority of these colleges are 
manned by competent instructors—young 
men educated after the most approved 
orthodox modern methods in American and 
European universities. This is especially 
true in the departments of the natural sci- 
ences, and particularly in chemistry. The 
erux of the situation is the poverty of all 
of our colleges, including state institutions, 
private foundations, and church colleges 
alike. 

Of the three requisites for a good college, 
competent teachers, eager students and 
adequate equipment, naming them in the 
order of their importance—I take it that 


May 11, 1906.] 


southern colleges possess the first two in a 
liberal degree. In our poverty, however, 
we have been consuming time in applying 
the first law of nature, that of self-preser- 
vation; and have often chosen to do those 
things which we should have preferred to 
alter or forego. 

With a desire to contribute towards 
bringing about a better understanding and 
feeling among the teachers of chemistry 
in the south, I recently sent out a number 
of inquiries, the answers to which should 
form a symposium on chemistry require- 
ments. The results have been most grati- 
fying. Of the forty-four teachers of chem- 
istry concerned, forty made prompt, candid 
and interested replies. 

The list of questions by no means covers 
the ground, but enables us to form some 
idea of the general trend of work done in 
the more important southern colleges. 

In order that the replies may be dis- 
eussed systematically, I have here ar- 
ranged the several queries servatim, as in 
the circular, with their corresponding re- 
plies. 

1. Should chemistry be taught in pre- 
paratory schools? 

Of the forty replies, twenty are affirm- 
ative, fifteen negative and five doubtful. 
My object in asking the question was to 
secure some justification of the decision 
of the Committee on Chemistry Entrance 
Examinations for the Association of Col- 
leges and Preparatory Schools of the 
Southern States. The committee is made 
up of Dr. Cameron Piggott, Sewanee; Dr. 
F. P. Venable, University of North Caro- 
lina, and myself. The majority of the 
committee were opposed to the study of 
chemistry in preparatory schools, and asked 
to be excused from service on that account. 
But at the earnest solicitation of the presi- 
dent of the association, the committee re- 
mained intact and submitted a list of col- 


SCIENCE. 


731 


lege entrance questions. From the replies 
to question 1 of the circular, it seems that 
the majority of southern chemistry teach- 
ers differ with the committee, and approve 
of the study of chemistry in preparatory 
schools. 

2. Does your first course in chemistry 
precede, accompany, or follow that im 
physics? 

The replies show that in ten colleges 
chemistry precedes physics; that im eight 
it accompanies physics; and that in twenty- 
two, it follows physics. These figures, 
however, are probably not expressive of the 
ideals of the respondents, but form rather 
a simple statement of facts and conditions 
as they find them. In many eases neither 
subject is required for entrance and both 
are postponed until after college is entered. 
In nearly all cases chemistry is begun in 
the college. In a large number of cases 
physics is begun in preparatory schools. 

I believe, personally, that physics should 
invariably precede chemistry. Hlementary 
physical phenomena are more easily ob- 
served and interpreted than those of chem- 
istry; and, besides, while very few physical 
problems involve chemistry, nearly all 
chemical problems require some physies for 
their solution. 

Another consideration to be reckoned 
with is that a beginners’ course in physics 
may be conducted more successfully and 
satisfactorily with limited equipment than 
a course in chemistry. In fact, I am rather 
strongly persuaded that the study of chem- 
istry should never be undertaken in any 
of our southern preparatory schools. The 
time spent in such schools should be de- 
voted to the humanities and the mental 
disciplinary studies, such as literature, 
language, pure mathematics, and sufficient 
nature study to give diversity and recrea- 
tion. When students begin chemistry, 
their minds should be able to grasp such 


732 


abstractions as the atomic theory, Avo- 
gadro’s hypothesis and so forth. 

3. (a) State your ratio of hours devoted 
to lectures and laboratory wm general chem- 
istry. 

(0) Should individual laboratory work 
invariably be required in connection with 
the study of general chemistry? 

The replies to (a) show general uni- 
formity in ideal and application. The 
theory seems to prevail that about equal 
time limits be afforded lectures and labo- 
ratory. In most cases the practise con- 
forms to the theory. There are some ex- 
tremes which, when paired, do not affect 
the average. One college gives the ratio 
three lectures to nine laboratories; another 
reports five lectures to one laboratory. 

I was glad the answers to (b) were made 
im absentia, for a majority were very em- 
phatic in their affirmative rephes—so much 
so that italics and exclamation points were 
in evidence. I should have been embar- 
rassed had I asked the question of an au- 
dience of chemists, and had their replies 
been as vociferous as I am led to suspect 
they would have been. The interesting 
feature of the symposium is that some 
answered directly in the negative, and other 
few in a modified affirmative. Dr. Cald- 
well, of Tulane, writes: ‘Some laboratory 
work is advisable; but laboratory work is, 
in my opinion, often overdone’; Dr. White, 
of the University of Georgia: ‘Not inva- 
riably’; Dr. Wait, of the University of 
Tennessee: ‘We do not require laboratory 
work.’ 

I am afraid we have made a fetish of 
laboratory work. The pendulum has 
swung too far. Twenty-five years ago 
some good chemistry was taught by masters 
to students who did the minimum of labo- 
ratory work. At that time Harvard, Yale, 
Princeton, Virginia and other similar and 
smaller colleges gave courses in general 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


chemistry with practically no laboratory 
work, It might be said that those times 
of laboratory ignorance could be winked at, 
but that now all chemists everywhere should 
be expected and urged to require laboratory 
work. 

In the evolution of chemistry teaching we 
are facing the same problem which, in lan- 
guage teaching, provoked a wordy wrangle 
among the German universities fifty years 
ago. Leipzig placed grammar before 
literature; Berlin placed literature before 
language. 

We must not lose sight of the fact that 
chemistry, while an experimental science, 
possesses likewise a large deductive value. 
Undoubtedly, we should require laboratory 
work in general chemistry; but if I were 
forced to accept an alternative, illustrated 
lectures without laboratory, or laboratory 
without lectures, I would choose the 
former, the lesser of the two evils. 

4, Does your course in qualitative anal- 
ysis accompany or follow that im elementary 
general chemuastry ? 

For the most part the consensus of cus- 
tom everywhere, including the south, is to 
let qualitative analysis follow general 
chemistry. I presume that in the ease of 
this question I am also open to eriticism 
from those who consider no other place for 
qualitative analysis. The object in asking 
the question was twofold: First, to em- 
phasize the fact that many text-books in- 
elude impossible and out-of-place courses. 
Just why qualitative analysis should be 
mixed with general inorganic chemistry I 
ean not understand. The short references 
to the subject are nothing more than an 
outline, and I have never known a teacher 
to use them in actual practise. 

The second purpose was to make a plea 
for legitimate qualitative analysis. The 
subject has been abused, it is true, and 
often authors and teachers have degraded 


May 11, 1906.] 


the science of chemistry to the art of detect- 
ing and separating acids and bases. In 
their over-ardor for brevity and tabulated 
schemes, they have emphasized the em- 
pirical and minimized the rational aspect 
of the subject, to its detriment as a factor 
in liberal education. The subject has a 
peculiar virtue if taught with the end in 
view that it is not technical but pure chem- 
istry. By devoting periodical hours to the 
interpretation of the chemistry involved, 
no branch of the science offers such delight- 
ful and profitable employment to students. 

I am aware that my view may possibly 
be regarded as old-fashioned, and that there 
is an effort to displace this subject from 
the college curriculum. Dr. Arthur Lach- 
man, in a recent address before the Amer- 
ican Chemical Society, referring to quali- 
tative analysis, said: ‘‘The chemists of the 
U. S. Geological Survey never carry out 
qualitative analyses of the rocks they in- 
vestigate. * * * The assayer never makes 
other than a quantitative analysis of gold 
and silver ores. For the food analyst, all 
is grist that comes to his mill—moisture, 
fats, carbohydrates, proteids and ash. 
Where then is our boasted art of qualitative 
analysis?’’ Hyidently the speaker has 
misinterpreted or forgotten the aim and 
genius of qualitative analysis. As an art 
it is useful only as a handmaid to the 
science. It is not technical chemistry, and 
I doubt whether Liebig or Fresenius ever 
considered it in that light. The mineral 
analyst does not rethresh old straw by in- 
vestigating the constitution of the positive 
and negative ions he discovers. This he 
learned in general chemistry. Nor does 
he waste his time in making a qualitative 
analysis of the average specimen; for ex- 
perience has taught chemists that most 
minerals are composed of only a few basic 
and acid radicals. The argument for the 
condemnation of qualitative analysis would 


SCIENCE. 


733 


apply with equal force to general chem- 
istry. 

The object of qualitative analysis is not 
so much the detection of certain ions in 
‘unknowns,’ but rather a systematic study 
of the chemistry involved in a well selected 
and progressive set of facts. I use the 
word ‘progressive’ advisedly, for though 
the arrangement is not that prescribed by 
Mendelejeff, it is the most practicable 
Known. Nor do we follow the periodic 
table in the study of general chemistry, 
for the apparent reason that oxygen, 
hydrogen, nitrogen and chlorine are more 
accessible and tractable than either lithium 
at the one end, or fluérime at the other end 
of the table. 

5. What number of hours do you devote 
to qualitative analysis? 

The average time calculated from these 
replies is six hours a week for one term or 
semester. I am glad to learn that there 
seems to be no desire nor expectation of 
limiting or abandoning qualitative analysis. 

6. What number of hours do you devote 
to quantitative analysis of typical com- 
pounds before attempting technical anal- 
ysis ? 

The language here is somewhat obscure, 
but as yet I am unable to formulate a 
sentence more clearly expressing my 
thought. Hardly any two authors or 
teachers would give identical lists of typ- 
ical compounds for courses in quantitative 
analysis; though probably all would in- 
clude in their lists a dozen or more common 
types. 

It is not surprising that a great diversity 
of opinion and practise is shown in these 
replies. After all, the desideratum is a 
thorough drill in gravimetric and volu- 
metric methods. Familiarity and practise 
with the balance and other essential appa- 
ratus, including calibration of graduates 
and preparation of reagents, are funda- 


704 


mental, but are attained by various indi- 
vidual methods. 

7. (a) Do you begin the study of or- 
ganic chemistry with a lecture cowrse 
merely, or with one combining lectures and 
laboratory work? 

(b) What nwmber of hours do you de- 
vote to orgame chemistry ? 

I happened to know of several southern 
colleges which give lecture courses in or- 
ganic chemistry without laboratory work. 
I was anxious to learn how general this 
practise is in the south; and accordingly 
used this opportunity of taking a census 
of southern colleges on this subject. 

Those which give no parallel laboratory 
work, though in the minority, are more 
than I had supposed. Just what the trend 
in this method of teaching organie chem- 
istry is I have not been able to learn. 
Whether the large number of lecture 
courses without laboratory is a protest 
against what some regard as a laboratory 
mania, or whether the majority of teach- 
ers following this practise have not ade- 
quate laboratory equipment or assistance, 
I am not prepared to say. I suspect, how- 
ever, that the latter is true, though the list 
includes several small colleges and a smaller 
number of universities and well-equipped 
schools of technology. The following are 
some of the institutions which offer or- 
ganic chemistry lectures without labora- 
tory: Tulane, Sewanee, Washington and 
Lee, University of Louisiana, University of 
Tennessee, University of North Carolina, 
Clemson College, A. and M. College of 
Texas. 

What was said regarding general chem- 
istry without laboratory may also, I think, 
be said in part of organic chemistry with- 
out laboratory. It is better in most cases 
to have the laboratory course, but often the 
deductive may precede the inductive with 
fair results. Another factor to be taken 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


into consideration is the stage of the stu- 
dent’s chemical education when the sub- 
ject is begun. If introduced early, before 
he has acquired the quantitative habit, I 
think that laboratory work should in- 
variably accompany lectures, the idea be- 
ing to reinforce theory with practise. If 
the student has had considerable training 
in both theoretical and practical inorganic 
chemistry, it seems reasonable to believe 
that he could assimilate lectures on organic 
chemistry without the laboratory. 

The average number of hours devoted to 
organic chemistry is three hours for lec- 
tures and two hours for laboratory a week 
for one term. 

8. (a) Do you offer cowrses in chem- 
istry for graduate degrees? 

(6) If so, please state the degrees. 

The majority of the institutions repre- 
sented offer graduate work in chemistry 
for the M.S. degree. This is noticeably 
characteristic of the southern state univer- 
sities. The most significant, and I think 
hopeful, development from the imvestiga- 
tion is the very small number of southern 
universities offering the Ph.D. degree. Of 
the forty institutions heard from, only the 
following offer the doctor’s degree: Uni- 
versity of Virginia, Washington and Lee, 
University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt, 
University of Mississippi, Tulane, Univer- 
sity of Missouri, Washington University. 
Of this number, four, while still offering 
the degree, indicate their intention of 
abandoning it. The small number is hope- 
ful, I think, in that it means a growing 
desire among our southern colleges and 
universities to accomplish only that work 
they are best fitted to do. Many have been 
pretending to do work for which they were 
not adequately equipped. The eause is 
less one of vanity or dishonesty than of 
history. Before the civil war, nearly 
every southern state had well-equipped 


May 11, 1906.] 


state and church colleges. Many of them 
were legitimately named universities and 
did what was then regarded as university 
work. The war destroyed their endow- 
ments and buildings, and left most of them 
with only one asset, their names. When 
they were reopened, after the war, it was 
hard for some of the universities immedi- 
ately to become colleges, and for the col- 
leges to become preparatory schools. In 
many instances their ante-bellum titles 
carried with them grants, franchises and 
endowments, rendering it practically impos- 
sible for them to assume more modest and 
significant names. JI am quite sure that 
the authorities of a majority of the so-called 
universities of the south would prefer 
that their institutions be called colleges; 
but for the reasons assigned and others, 
they have been largely powerless to change 
the titles. Furthermore, some institutions, 
which enjoyed merited reputations before 
the war have tried to justify their preten- 
sions by indulging in the hope that they 
may come into their own again. 

But whether we praise, apologize for or 
blame our institutions, the south is in this 
matter justly criticized, though pretence is 
rapidly disappearing, and most southern 
colleges are honestly trying to live up to 
their published standards. Some, how- 
ever, still continue to publish courses which 
either are not taught, or are conducted in a 
perfunctory manner. TI shall not call any 
names, but I am venturing the statement 
that ten of the forty institutions on the list 
publish courses in their catalogues differ- 
ent from those given in the circular now 
under discussion. 

I have already digressed, but must ask 
leave to wander a little farther yet. 

There are too many colleges in the south. 
It is a mistake to substitute quantity for 
quality. It were better for the south to 
have fewer, well-equipped colleges than so 


SCIENCE. 


735 


many with imadequate appointments. It 
is too late and impracticable now for each 
state to focus all of its higher state insti- 
tutions into one common plant. The pres- 
ent generation is not responsible for the 
mistakes of the past, and can not correct 
some of them; but it is responsible for the 
future. There should be no more dissipa- 
tion of our educational forces, and all fu- 
ture enlargement should be added directly 
to the central university. Probably no 
state in the south makes more liberal ap- 
propriations for higher education than 
Georgia. Two sets of schools and colleges 
for the two races must necessarily be sup- 
ported. We believe that this is funda- 
mental and should be maintained at all 
hazards. But is it educationally econom- 
ical for Georgia to provide seven separate, 
unarticulated institutions, so situated 
that students from no one of them can 
have access to the instruction and equip- 
ment of the others? Other states, espe- 
cially those in the west, are consolidating 
their public institutions into great univer- 
sity systems. 

9. What are your requirements in inor- 
ganic preparations ? 

10. What are your requirements in or- 
game preparations? Hy 

Hight of the list of colleges require both 
organic and inorganic preparations addi- 
tional to their elementary courses in these 
subjects; three of them, organic’ prepara- 
tions only; and two, inorganic prepara- 
tions only. One of the largest universities 
in the south, Tulane, has no formulated 
prescription for either organic or inorganic 
preparations. Dr. Dudley, of Vanderbilt, 
writes, ‘I never could see the necessity for 
imorganic preparations.’ 

Why so few southern chemistry teachers 
carry on research themselves, much less 
offer courses, is patent, when we consider 
their situation. They are so overloaded 


736 
with instruction or executive duties that 
they can not earry on original work in 
their own specialties. Nor are they sup- 
plied with adequate library or laboratory 
facilities for advanced students. 

11. (a) Do you offer technical courses 
im chemistry ? 

(b) If so, which do you emphasize? 

There are more southern colleges offering 
technical work than I had anticipated. 
Twenty-four of the list give technical 
courses in some form or other. Usually 
the special kind of technical work is con- 
trolled by local demands and natural sup- 
plies. For example, all of the colleges re- 
ceiving the Morrill fund make a specialty 
of fertilizer, soil and food control; the 
Louisiana colleges offer courses in sugar 
chemistry; the Alabama colleges, iron and 
coal analysis; and so forth. 

I consider this both pedagogical and 
profitable. While the study of chemistry 
should be considered fundamental, and 
should not be side-tracked for technical 
work too soon in a student’s chemical edu- 
cation, even from an educational viewpoint 
some technical application is helpful in 
reinforcing previous theoretical training. 
The same principle obtains in language 
study. Literature emphasizes and strength- 
ens the technique of grammar and rhetoric. 
Then, too, technical training is materially 
profitable. The reason why the familiar 
national trade-mark, ‘Made in Germany,’ 
is a valuable asset is because German 
manufactories are worked and superin- 
tended by graduates technically trained in 
the great universities. It is possible that 
the Germanophobia indulged in by our 
British cousins is caused by commercial 
rather than political jealousy. The two 
antipodal economic practises account for 
the apparent industrial decadence of Great 
Britain compared with the ascendency of 
Germany. Oxford and Cambridge—de- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


spite their admirable history of light and 
leading—have had little share in the affairs 
of the great industrial centers of Birmine- 
ham, Manchester and Sheffield. These in- 
dustries have been developed by the ap- 
prentice system. Under this system young 
men become skilled in the manipulation of 
old methods, but have no opportunity of 
contact with the new. In one German 
pharmaceutical plant alone, there are em- 
ployed two hundred university graduates, 
who by their superior skill and education 
not only perfect old methods of prepara- 
tions, but are earnestly devising new proc- 
esses. Although Great Britain and 
America manufacture more iron, and con- 
sume more coal, Germany, a less favored 
nation in these raw materials, converts the 
by-products from our coke ovens and gas 
plants into antipyretics and coal-tar colors, 
and returns the finished products to us. 

President Remsen in his inaugural ad- 
dress at Johns Hopkins said: “‘It is gen- 
erally accepted that the reason why Ger- 
many occupies such a high position in cer- 
tain branches of industry, especially those 
founded upon chemistry, is that the univer- 
sities of Germany have fostered the work 
of investigation more than those of any 
other country. * * * In Germany the 
chemical industries have grown to immense, 
almost inconceivable, proportions. Mean- 
while, the corresponding industries of 
Great Britain have steadily declined.’’ 

Once the American universities were rep- 
licas of the British system, but now the 
German university sets the standard. 

It is this shifting of method and manner 
that affords us of to-day, in the matter of 
the practical virtue of our courses in sci- 
ence, an assured guarantee of commercial 
and industrial progress. 


J. F. SELLERS. 
Mercer UNIVERSITY. 


May 11, 1906.] 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United 
States. By Lester F. Warp. Second 
Paper, with the collaboration of WILLIAM 
Fontaine, ARTHUR. Bippiys and G. R. WIz- 
LAND. U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph 
XLVIIL, 1905. Part I, text, pp. 616; 
Part IL., plates I-CXIX. 4to. 

This valuable contribution to the paleon- 
tology of North America, and particularly of 
the United States, appears as a sequel to an 
earlier publication on the Older Mesozoic," 
and forms the second in a series of which the 
third is yet to appear. Like the previous pub- 
lication, the present one deals with the floras 
of widely separated localities and with a some- 
what similar range of horizons. It is divided 
into three parts: Part I. deals with the Trias- 
sie Flora as presented by the Older Mesozoic 
of Arizona; Part II. discusses the Jurassic 
Flora of Oregon, Wyoming and the Black 
Hills, as well as the transition floras of 
Alaska, California, Montana and Oregon; 
Part ILI., which occupies the largest share of 
the volume, is devoted to the Cretaceous Flora 
as presented in the Queen Charlotte Islands, 
the Kootanie of Montana and British Colum- 
bia, the Lakota (Kootanie) of the Black Hills, 
the Trinity of Texas and the Older Potomac 
of Maryland and Virginia. The flora of the 
Black Hills having been dealt with somewhat 
fully in a previous paper, the present account 
is somewhat brief, discussing supplementary 
data which are, nevertheless, of considerable 
importance. If any estimate of comparative 
value were to be made, it would be in favor 
of Part III., because of the important results 
reached with respect to evidence bearing upon 
the correlation of the Potomac in various 
localities and its precise relations to the 
Jurasso-Cretaceous. 

The opening chapter deals somewhat briefly 


1Ward, Lester F., ‘Status ot the Mesozoic 
Floras of the United States.’ First Paper: The 
Older Mesozoic. U.S. Geol. Surv., XX., Part II., 
1898-1899, pp. 215-430, pl. XXI—CLXXII. 

?Ward, Lester F., ‘The Cretaceous Formation 
of the Black Hills as Indicated by the Fossil 
Plants. U.S. Geol. Sury., XIX., 1897-1898, pp. 
527-712, pl. LVII.—CLXXII. 


SCIENCE. 


737 


with the Triassic, or the Older Mesozoic flora 
of Arizona, based upon data secured by an 
expedition executed in May and June of 1901. 
While the results obtained were especially rich 
in yertebrate paleontology, some important 
observations were made with respect to the 
oceurrence of plant remains which were, 
nevertheless, found to be exceedingly scanty. 
This appears to be accounted for by the great 
abundance of gypsum that prevails through- 
out all the beds of the region, a material which 
is fatal to the preservation of more delicate 
plant remains, and in consequence it is only 
the silicified wood that seems to have escaped 
its influence. Furthermore, such silicified 
woods are mainly deposited in beds of sand, 
coarse gravel or conglomerate, which in them- 
selves are unfavorable to the preservation of 
plant impressions. As the petrified forests 
haye been reported upon at length on a former 
occasion,’ and as the structure of the woods 
has been worked out by Knowlton,* at least in 
part, they do not claim special attention. 
Nevertheless, there are frequent references to 
the abundant occurrence of fossil woods which 
would presumably afford an opportunity for 
an important extension of our knowledge re- 
specting extinct species; but the impression 
conveyed to the reader is that the investigator 
gave somewhat scant heed to this most im- 
portant material, attaching far more value to 
mere leaf impressions, fruit and other forms 
of remains. The impression thus gained is 
heightened by the want of any sort of refer- 
ence to the working up of the wood, except 
such as may be found in the statement that 
‘The only species that has yet been described 
from the silicified wood of Arizona is Arau- 
carioxylon arizonicum of Knowlton, based on 
specimens from these two trunks.” 

8 Ward, Lester F., ‘Status of the Mesozoic 
Floras of the United States U.S. Geol. Surv., 
XKX., 1898-1899, pp. 316-332. 

4 Knowlton, F. H., ‘New Species of Fossil Wood 
(Araucarioxylon arizonicum) from Arizona and 
New Mexico, Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus., XI., 1888, 
pp. 14. 

5This reference is to two great logs taken to 
the National Museum in 1880 or 1881, from 
Lithodendron Creek, by an expedition headed by 
Lieut. J. T. C. Hegewald in the spring of 1879. 


738 


The conditions prevailing in the petrified 
forest are interesting and deserving of some- 
what special notice. The deposits of the 
Grand Cafion region, usually spoken of as a 
single great group of beds, are reduced by 
Ward to three entirely distinct formations. 
The lowest, presenting their full development 
at the mouth of the Mcencopie Wash, are 
known as the Mcencopie beds; the second and 
thickest member of the series is termed the 
Shinarump—a name already employed in this 
connection by Major Powell; while the third 
and highest member is designated the Painted 
Desert beds. 

The Mcencopie beds are almost entirely bar- 
ren of animal and plant remains; for apart 
from reported fern impressions, the occur- 
rence of which could not be verified, the only 
evidence of plant remains were to be found 
in a few impressions from the very base of 
the formation, and possibly not Mcencopie at 
all, but of an earlier horizon. These pre- 
sented little evidence of structure, though 
they seemed to represent the characteristics 
of coniferous twigs and short branches, pos- 
sibly of an Araucarian type. 

The Shinarump formation within which the 
remains of trees are chiefly found, is separable 
into a lower or Lithodendron member, and an 
upper or Lereux member—the former em- 
bracing conglomerates, sandstones, clay and 
argillaceous shales forming brilliantly colored 
banded cliffs, while the latter consists at its 
base of a somewhat similar formation upon 
which are superimposed beds of sandstone, 
limestone, mortar beds with flints and cal- 
careous marls. Apart from silicified tree 
trunks, the only observable plant remains 
consist of raised casts of twigs lying in all 
positions, and stems with whorled branches, 
all of which show Araucarian structure. 
These forms occur on the faces of sandstone 
rocks and shales, and they are provisionally 
designated as Araucarites shinarwmpensis. 
The figures given of this material do not lead 
one to hope for any very definite knowledge 
of the plants they represent. The logs de- 
rived from the silicified trunks of trees do not, 
in all probability, represent the original dis- 
tribution of the forest, since, as shown in the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


original report (op. cit.), there is evidence that 
they were drifted some distance before being 
laid down; and in spite of previous statements 
to the contrary, there is little evidence to show 
that any of them are erect and in situ except 
in the variegated marls just above the con- 
glomerates, where a very careful examination 
led to the conclusion that a group of twenty 
or more stumps were actually in the places of 
original growth, although in a sedimentary 
bed. Many of the smaller buttes appear to 
have been developed by reason of the logs 
which weighted down the underlying marls 
and tended to prevent the latter from being 
blown or washed away, with the result that 
such logs may now be seen lying on the tops 
of the buttes, down the slopes of which the 
disintegrating material is continually rolling. 

One remarkable specimen which requires 
further explanation, is met with in certain 
remains designated as Araucarites monilifer,. 
in allusion to the peculiar necklace-shaped 
rows of resin drops which occur in the in- 
terior of the trunks, where they may often be 
seen in considerable numbers. According to 
the facts obtained, these bodies which have a 
stratiated surface, are resinous exudations 
into the interior of the stem, much as resin 
blisters are formed in the outer bark of the 
common balsam fir. 

In the Painted Desert formation, the only 
remains of trees appear to be represented by 
tree trunks, the original structure of which 
has been wholly replaced by black sand, so 
that they resemble deposits of manganese or 
limonite. 

The Jurassic Flora of Douglas County,. 
Oregon, by Professor Fontaine, occupies some 
99 pages of descriptive text and deals with no 
less than 77 species and varieties, of which 
fully 31 per cent. are new—the new species 
lying chiefly among the ferns and cycads. 
Among the conclusions to which a study of 
these plants points, we may note as of partic- 
ular interest that there is a remarkably large 
proportion which are also common to the dis- 
tant and widely separated regions of York- 
shire, England, and eastern Siberia. Pro- 
fessor Ward shows that there are fourteen 
species common to the Jurassic of Yorkshire, 


May 11, 1906.] 


and sixteen also common to the Jurassic of 
Siberia, a difference which will hardly justify 
conclusions based on numerical grounds alone, 
as to the probable connection between such 
regions. Professor Ward nevertheless infers 
from such evidence, that a definite land con- 
nection existed in Jurassic time, between Asia 
and northwestern America, and this opinion 
is strengthened by reference to the remarkable 
similarity with respect to number and kinds, 
of the types of Ginkgo found both in Siberia 
and Oregon. In this connection, however, it 
is instructive to recall the conclusions of Asa 
Gray with respect to similar relations as ex- 
hibited by the existing floras of the three 
regions mentioned. 

From a study of Japanese plants collected 
by the Perry Expedition in 1852-1854, sup- 
plemented by subsequent collections, he found 
that out of a total of 580 Japanese plants, 
about 120 also occurred in western North 
America; 134 in eastern North America, and 
157 in Europe. A further analysis of these 
relations showed that ‘there has been a pecul- 
jar intermingling of the eastern American and 
eastern Asian floras, which demands explana- 
tion’; but upon a critical examination of the 
positions occupied by representative species, 
there is found abundant evidence in support 
of the view also held by Bentham, that the 
‘interchange between the temperate floras even 
of the western part of the old world and of 
the new has mainly taken place via Asia.’ 
Gray further observes that such considerations 
“suggest an ancient continuity of territory be- 
tween America and Asia, under a latitude, 
or at any rate with a climate, more meridional 
than would be effected by a junction through 
the chains of the Aleutian and the Kurile 
Islands.’° Two independent chains of eyvi- 
dence are thus found to contribute to the same 
conclusion, while it is further clear from the 
paleobotanical evidence, that the continental 
connection thus indicated must have existed 
until at least the close of the Jurassic, and 
possibly later. As further justifying the posi- 
tion held by Professor Ward and also showing 
that the continental connection was not dis- 
turbed until after the close of the Jurassic, 

“Scientific Papers, II., p. 135 et seq. 


SCIENCE. 739 


attention may be directed to the fact ‘ that the 
Oregon strata rival those of eastern Siberia 
in the development of ginkgos; while nearly 
all the more important species made by Heer 
from the Siberian beds have similar forms 
in the Oregon strata,’ forms which also have 
been found to extend into the Lower Creta- 
ceous of the United States and British Co- 
lumbia. 

One noteworthy feature of the Jurassic 
Flora as now presented is the addition of some 
600 specimens of cycads from Wyoming, to 
the list previously reported by Ward‘ and then 
embracing descriptions of all the Jurassic 
Cyeads from Wyoming known at that time. 

In discussing a number of plants from 
Alaska, which show very strong evidence in 
favor of Lower Cretaceous age, but which are 
held to represent the Jurassic because of the 
strong representation of Jurassic types of 
Ginkgo, reference is made to some of the work 
of the late Sir William Dawson, with respect 
to which exception is taken to the identifica- 
tion of Ginkgo lepida Heer, a species which 
Ward holds must be a Baiera. Some doubt 
is also thrown upon the correct identification 
of Ginkgo sibirica Heer, both of these species 
having been recognized by Dawson in the 
Kootanie of Canada. Attention is drawn to 
this opinion at the present time because, as 
shown by recent studies of the Kootanie flora, 
Dawson’s determinations were correctly made; 
and although, as stated by Ward, the ginkgos 
had become nearly extinct on the American 
continent in Lower Cretaceous times, even in 
those parts where they had been so prominent 
in the Lower Oolite, there is not wanting 
abundant evidence to show that, even though 
the only ginkgos of the Lower Cretaceous of 
the northwestern region are to be found solely 
in the Kootanie of Canada, this formation 
bears a representation of the genus which 
shows a very important extension from the 
Jurassic, abundantly confirming the earlier 
conclusions of Sir William Dawson. Recent 
collections from the eastern slope of the Rocky 
Mountains as well as from the Crow’s Nest 
Pass, show an extension of the Kootanie flora 


7U. 8. Geol. Surv., XX., 1900, Part II., pp. 382- 
417. 


740 


not heretofore known. Among the well-de- 
fined species from these areas are a large 
number of ginkgos represented by leaves, male 
inflorescences and also by the fruit. The 
leaves, which furnish the most reliable data, 
show Ginkgo sibirica to be not only well char- 
acterized but abundant, while G. lepida is also 
present. A much less abundant, but none the 
less distinguishable type, is G. huttons 
(Sternb.) Heer. We can not, therefore, longer 
regard G. stbirica as the sole survivor of this 
genus in the Lower Cretaceous. It must never- 
theless be conceded that the occurrence of these 
three species in the Kootanie of British Co- 
lumbia and Alberta not only emphasizes the 
basal character of that formation, but it di- 
rects attention to the probability that its 
lowest portion may even represent a transition 
series—a conclusion which would bring it into 
agreement with the views recently expressed 
with respect to its equivalent in the United 
States, the Lower Potomac. 

Our knowledge of the Shasta-Chico series 
of California, originally defined in detail by 
Diller and Stanton,’ receives a fresh interest 
by virtue of the treatment of the Shasta group 
at the hands of both Professor Ward and Pro- 
fessor Fontaine. The more recent recogni- 
tion of this series in Oregon is of interest in 
‘connection with the lately made observations 
that it is also to be met with in British Co- 
lumbia, where a newly described element of 
the flora of this series as developed in Cali- 
fornia (Gleichenia: gilbert-thompsont Font.) 
has been recognized. 

In discussing the Kootanie formation, the 
valuable work of Sir William Dawson and Dr. 
George Dawson is fully recognized, and corre- 
lations with the United States horizons are 
established. The value of this discussion is 
greatly enhanced by the introduction of a list 
of all the Kootanie plants recorded up to 
1895. More recent studies of this formation 
have extended this list in important partic- 
ulars, while they have also brought out the 
fact that the Kootanie flora of British Colum- 
bia and Alberta is more widely distributed on 
the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains than 
has been hitherto recognized. 

* Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 1894, pp. 435-460. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 593. 


Somewhat less than half the entire volume 
(257 out of 599 pages) is devoted to a dis- 
cussion of the Older Potomac Flora, a term 
which is here employed in the same sense as 
in his previous paper on the Potomac Forma- 
tion (Fifteenth Ann. Rept. of the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey), representing in the main the 
Potomac as it occurs in Virginia, and includ- 
ing all beds of the same age occurring in other 
states, but excluding those higher beds in 
which the flora is mainly dicotyledonous. A 
very large proportion of this part of the sub- 
ject is devoted to an interesting and valuable 
historical survey of our knowledge of the 
Older Potomac Formation. 

In deriving conclusions from his examina- 
tion of the flora, Professor Fontaine endeavors 
to establish a correlation between the Potomac 
formations of Maryland and Virginia, and in 
doing so he points out that the term Lower 
Potomae, as consistently used by him, embraces 
the four members recognized by Ward as (1) 
James River, (2) Rappahannock, (3) Mount 
Vernon and (4) Aquia Creek—the second be- 
ing identical with what he had designated as 
Fredericksburg, and the last or fourth being 
the same as his Brooke beds. On the other 
hand, the Maryland Geological Survey has 
divided the entire formation into (4) 
Patuxent, (2) Arundel, (3) Patapsco and (4) 
Raritan in ascending order, but in neither of 
these is there a question of division into 
Lower and Upper Potomac. Under these cir- 
cumstances, Professor Fontaine finds it neces- 
sary to explain what is meant by Lower 
Potomac. The Potomac of Maryland differs 
from that of Virginia in the absence of the 
Mt. Vernon member, but the chief difference 
which appears to distinguish the formation of 
the two states seems to lie in the absence of 
the Raritan from Virginia, while it is in force 
in Maryland, and if the Raritan is to be re- 
garded as Potomac, about which Professor 
Fontaine appears to have some doubt, then it 
constitutes the Upper Potomac, while all be- 
low is Lower Potomac. This conclusion is 
apparently based upon the observation that 
there is essentially only one great break in 
the continuity of the flora, and that occurs in 
passing from the underlying beds to the Am- 


May 11, 1906.] 


boy Clays. There are, of course, well-defined 
changes between the lower beds of the 
Potomac, but such changes are gradual, due 
to the diminution of old types, accompanied 
by the imerease and introduction of more 
modern forms, while the flora as a whole 
presents essential continuity. But in passing 
to the Amboy Clays the case is wholly differ- 
ent, and a wholesale change occurs whereby 
few of the older types survive. At the same 
time a great number of new plants appear, 
and dicotyledons overwhelmingly predominate. 
In view of this very striking change in the 
character of the flora, Professor Fontaine puts 
the very pertinent question, ‘Why give the 
name Potomae to this Group?’ 

With respect to the much-debated question 
of the precise relation which the Lower 
Potomac bears to the Jurassic on the one hand, 
and to the Cretaceous on the other, there can 
be no doubt as to the transitional character 
of the flora as presented by many of its com- 
ponents, but the real ‘question as to the 
Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous age of the 
Lower Potomac hinges upon the position of 
the Wealden formation.’ Previous studies of 
the Lower Potomac plants by Professor Fon- 
taine’ had led him to express the opinion 
that they indicated a Lower Cretaceous age 
agreeing with the Neocomian. This con- 
clusion was based on the strong affinity of its 
flora with that of the Wealden, it being as- 
sumed that the view generally held as to the 
position of the Wealden is correct, that is, 
that it is the non-marine equivalent of the 
Neocomian. In spite of the view held by 
Professor Marsh, Professor Fontaine finds 
that there has been no evidence sufficient to 
cause a change of his former expression of 
opinion, but, on the contrary, a good many 
facts have come to light that confirm its cor- 
rectness. 

These studies of the Potomac flora indicate 
that the Potomac formation had a widespread 
development on this continent, since it is not 
only recognized in Virginia and Maryland, 
but to the south and west it extends to 
Tlaxiaco in Mexico; while on the north and 
west it reappears in the Shasta of California, 


°U. S. Geol. Sury., Monograph XV., 1889, p. 348. 


SCIENCE. 


741 


the Lower Cretaceous of Queen Charlotte Is- 
lands and in the Kootanie of Montana, British 
Columbia and Alberta. 


D. P. PENHALLow. 
MonrtTREAL, 
April 27, 1906. 


A Respiration Calorimeter with Appliances 
for the Direct Determination of Oxygen. 
By W. O. Arwarer and F. G. Benepicr, of 
Wesleyan University. Washington, D. C., 
The Carnegie Institution of Washington. 
1905. 4to, pp. 198, 49 figs. 

The apparatus for investigations in human 
nutrition described in this monograph has 
been in process of development for about 
twelve years and in its perfected form may be 
safely characterized as the most elaborate in- 
strument for physiological research at present 
in existence. Descriptions of the apparatus 
in its earlier form, and of the various improve- 
ments and modifications introduced from time 
to time, as well as accounts of investigations 
carried on with it, have been published by 
Professors Atwater, Woods, Rosa and Bene- 
dict as bulletins of the Office of Experiment 
Stations of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture and also as a memoir of the National 
Academy of Sciences. 

The apparatus as described in the publica- 
tions just mentioned consisted of a Petten- 
kofer, or ‘open circuit,’ respiration apparatus, 
the chamber of which was so constructed as to 
serve likewise as a calorimeter. With this 
instrument very accurate determinations were 
possible of the income and outgo of carbon, 
hydrogen, nitrogen, mineral matter and energy 
in man, but the results were incomplete, in- 
asmuch as no direct determination of the 
amount of oxygen consumed by the subject 
could be made. With the aid of a grant from 
the Carnegie Institution, therefore, the au- 
thors undertook a reconstruction of the appa- 
ratus with this object in view. 

For this purpose they have reverted to the 
earlier type of respiration apparatus, origi- 
nated by Regnault & Reiset and often desig- 
nated as the ‘closed circuit’ type, in which 
the air after leaving the chamber of the appa- 
ratus is freed from respiratory products, re- 


742 


plenished with oxygen and returned to the 
chamber. This type of respiration apparatus 
has always been recognized as being the most 
perfect in theory, but serious practical diffi- 
culties have been found in its use, and the 
more easily manipulated if less perfect 
Pettenkofer apparatus has been the type most 
commonly employed. It was a bold attempt, 
therefore, to reconstruct a complicated appa- 
ratus, in a scale sufficient for experiments on 
man, and the authors are to be congratulated 
upon their success in devising the first prac- 
ticable large apparatus of this type. 

It is, of course, entirely outside the scope 
of a review to enter upon even an outline 
description of the apparatus. A study of the 
monograph can not fail to impress the reader 
with two things—the ingenuity displayed in 
the devising of the various parts of the 
apparatus and the unusual amount of care 
which has been devoted to the search for 
sources of error and the determination of 
their probable magnitude. In the latter re- 
spect the volume affords an imstructive ex- 
ample of true scientific accuracy, consisting 
not in inerrancy, but in a critical estimate of 
the degree of approximation to the truth. 
Noteworthy, too, is the very interesting method 
of computing the results of the respiration 
experiments by which they are made to a large 
degree to check each other. Check tests of 
the accuracy of the apparatus as a calorimeter 
have been made, in which known amounts of 
heat were generated in it electrically, and 
also so-called alcohol check tests, in which 
known quantities of ethyl alcohol were burned 
in the apparatus and the evolution of carbon 
dioxide, water and heat and the consumption 
of oxygen were compared with the theoretical 
amounts. The observed results differed from 
the theory by less than one per cent., thus 
justifying the claim of the authors that the 
results approach in accuracy those of the most 
approved methods of chemical analysis. 

The monograph closes with a description of 
one of the numerous experiments on men 
which have been made with the apparatus, the 
experimental periods covering from one to 
thirteen days, and which have demonstrated 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


its entire practicability. American science is 
to be congratulated upon the addition to its 
resources of this exceedingly valuable instru- 
ment of research, and the Carnegie Institution 
has performed a great service in rendering its 
construction possible. 

H. P. Armspy. 


Studies in General Physiology. By Jacques 
Lors. The Decennial Publications, Second 
Series, Volume XY. Chicago, The Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press. 1905. 

These studies present a collection of widely 
scattered papers of Loeb on subjects of general 
physiology. The two volumes contain 37 
papers, monographs, essays and shorter papers, 
only 13 of which were previously published in 
English. The publications cover a period of 
fourteen years, from 1889 to 1902. Some of 
these papers were published in pamphlet formr 
and were quite inaccessible. These papers 
present by no means all the studies which this 
productive investigator has published during 
that period; nor are there included in this col- 
lection such studies which were published in 
conjunction with some of his associates and 
pupils—a fact which the reviewer can only 
regret. With the exception of two or three 
short papers, every study in this collection 
presents a more or less extensive original in- 
vestigation on some biological subject, invari- 
ably bringing to light new facts and new 
points of view. Although these studies deal 
with a great variety of diverse subjects, there 
is one apparent background to them all: it 
is the aim to discover the physical and chem- 
ical causes of living phenomena. ; 

The papers are arranged chronologically: 
the first of them dates from 1889 and the last 
was published in 1902. The great variety of 
subjects treated in these numerous papers 
might, perhaps, be classified in the following 
four groups: ‘ Tropism,’ ‘ Physiological Mor- 
phology,’ ‘ The Physiological Effects of Ions” 
and ‘ Artificial Parthenogenesis,’ intermingled 
with a few miscellaneous subjects not exactly 
belonging to any one of these groups. The 
chronology of these papers helps us to get an 
insight into the gradual development of the 


May 11, 1906.] 


diverse problems in which our author has done 
pioneer work. The following incident might 
give us perhaps the key to his starting point. 
From 1886 to 1888 Loeb was assistant in (ani- 
mal) physiology in Wiirzburg. At that time 
the chair of botany at that university was 
occupied by Julius von Sachs, one of the fore- 
most plant physiologists, who made a special 
study of tropism in plants and whose cele- 
brated lectures on plant physiology appeared 
in 1887 in a second edition. This great in- 
vestigator apparently exerted a lasting in- 
fluence upon the direction of Loeb’s searching 
mind. Thus we find that the first larger piece 
of work of our author consists in a pamphlet 
entitled: ‘The Heliotropism of Animals and 
its Identity with the Heliotropism of Plants.’ 
That pamphlet forms the first paper of this 
collection. Through a number of ingenious 
but simple experiments it is shown for the 
first time how the dependence of animal move- 
ments on light is in every point the same as 
the dependence of plant movements on the 
same source of stimulation. In the next paper 
it is shown that the same holds good also for 
the movements of sessile animals. In other 
papers which followed, the influence of gravity 
upon the movements of animals (geotropism) 
and the influence of contact irritability 
(stereotropism) were studied and were also 
found to be identical with the same influences 
in plants. The similarity of these phenomena 
in animals and plants demonstrated to Loeb 
their independence of a nervous mechanism, 
and in a paper on ‘Instinct and Will’ he 
comes to the conclusion that what has been 
taken for the effect of ‘will’ or ‘instinct’ is 
really the effect of light, gravity, friction, 
chemical forces, ete. Im a study upon 
“ Heteromorphosis’ he shows that by the above- 
mentioned physical influences, as in plants, 
the regeneration in some animals would lead 
to the production of an organ different in 
form and function from the original one. In 
this study the factor of turgescence, of hydro- 
static pressure is mentioned for the first time. 
In a further study on ‘Organization and 
Growth’ upon marine animals it was found 
that besides the above mentioned physical 


SCIENCE. 


743 


factors, the concentration of the sea water 
was an important factor, there was no growth 
nor regeneration in concentrations above 5.4 
per cent. nor below 1.3 per cent. ‘ Further- 
more, the presence of oxygen as well as of 
potassium and magnesium was indispensable. 
From now on we meet with studies in which 
the importance of oxygen and especially of 
osmosis as physiological factors were consid- 
ered in the first place. We meet them in the 
“Experiments on Cleavage,’ in the studies ‘On 
a Simple Method of Producing from one Egg 
two or more Embryos which are Grown To- 
gether, in the studies on the ‘Sensibility of 
Fish Embryos to Lack of Oxygen and Loss of 
Water,’ etc. Meanwhile the studies of Van’t 
Hoff, of Arrhenius and of Ostwald upon os- 
motie pressure and dissociation of electrolytes 
created a new epoch in the sciences of physics 
and chemistry, and we find Loeb henceforth 
profoundly engaged in unraveling the mys- 
teries of life with the aid of the newly estab- 
lished science of physical chemistry. The 
fruit of these new efforts we find laid down 
here in numerous papers on ‘ Artificial Par- 
thenogenesis,’ on the physiological effects of 
ions, on ion-proteids, on the effect of ions on 
contractility, on the toxic and antitoxic effects 
of ions, ete. It is, of course, impossible to 
give here any intelligible account of the mul- 
titude of important new facts laid down in 
these papers. We have here before us the 
fruit of a most indefatigable and ingenious 
investigator who has done pioneer work in 
many fields in biology. These studies will be 
a source of instruction and stimulation to 
many an earnest student in general physiol- 
ogy, and we ought to be thankful to the author 
as well as to the editors of the Decennial 
Publications of the University of Chicago for 
presenting to us the collection of these very 
valuable studies. 


S. J. Mentzer. 
ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for April con- 
tains but three papers: the first ‘The Fresh- 
water Copepoda of Massachusetts,’ by A. S. 
Pearse, adds seventeen species, two new, to 


744 


the eight previously recorded. James B. Pol- 
lock discusses at some length ‘ Variations in 
the Pollen Grains of Picea excelsa,” and A. 
M. Reese deseribes the ‘ Anatomy of Crypto- 
branchus alleghaniensis. Some comparisons 
are made between the skeleton of this species 
and that of the great salamander of Japan 
but no deductions are made as to their generic 
identity or differences. No reference is made 
to Cope’s description of the anatomy of 
Cryptobranchus, though this is given at some 
length with one or two good figures in his 
Batrachia of North America. 


‘The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
March contains a good account of ‘The New 
Zoological Institute at Breslau’ by W. E. 
Hoyle. The idea of preservation of material 
in the exhibition series is carried to the ex- 
treme, for the museum is open to the public 
but twice a week, and then for only two hours. 
J. T. Wilson gives a description of the rela- 
tions existing between the state and ‘ The Aus- 
tralian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales.’ 
Professor Wilson concludes that in Australia 
the only practicable form of museum admin- 
istration is by a board of directors, or trustees; 
that municipal control is quite out of the 
question, and that any autocratic form of 
administration by a director, in the case of an 
institution supported by public funds, would 
not be tolerated. Im this respect then Aus- 
tralia would seem to differ from other parts 
of the world where the best form of museum 
administration seems to be by a responsible 
director. Mr. Edward Lovett presents in some 
detail a scheme for a folk museum and there 
is a brief account of the meeting of the 
Swedish Museums Association. Among the 
notes is one stating that in the Hamburg 
Museum the group illustrating a North Sea 
oyster bank has been enlarged and reinstalled 
and cases added showing the growth of pre- 
cious coral and sponges. Hamburg is cer- 
tainly to be congratulated on having such a 
progressive institution. 


The Zoological Society Bulletin for March 
is styled the Aquarium Number and devoted 
entirely to the New York Aquarium or mat- 
ters thereto pertaining. Among other articles 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


it contains the following conundrums: ‘ Are 
Fishes Killed by Freezing?’ ‘Do Fishes 
Sleep?’ ‘Do Fishes Hear?’ ‘Have Fishes 
Memory?’ ‘The last three are answered in 
the affirmative, the first in the negative. And 
yet we have known every fish in a large but 
shallow pond to be killed during an unusually 
severe winter, though the possibility is that 
they died from lack of air. Fishes of the 
pike family may eat but little in an aquarium 
during winter, but in the New England states 
many more pickerel are taken through the ice 
than at any other season. There are interest- 
ing articles on the ‘ Remodeling of the Aqua- 
rium’; ‘ The Sounds Made by Fishes’; ‘ How 
Fishes Change Color’; ‘Four Years’ Change 
in the Axolotl, besides many notes. The 
number is profusely and well illustrated. As 
a parting shot we should iike to express our 
disbelief in green turtles or loggerheads ex- 
ceeding 1,000 pounds in weight and would be 
glad to see one of half that size. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


Tue club met in the American Museum of 
Natural History, March 13, 1906, at 8 p.m. 
President Rusby was in the chair and thirteen 
persons were present. 

A communication was read from Mr. Ells- 
worth Bethel, of Denver, Col., stating that he 
and Dr. Sturgis were at work on the fungi of 
Colorado, and would soon publish their first 
number, listing the Myxomycetes of the state. 

President Rusby presented the matter of 
public recognition by the club of the coming 
tenth anniversary of the establishment of the 
New York Botanical Garden, and the appoint- 
ment of Dr. Britton as professor emeritus of 
botany in Columbia, and of Professor Under- 
wood as Torrey professor. 

Motion was made and seconded that a com- 
mittee be appointed by the chair to make ar- 
rangements for such an event. The motion 
was carried, and the president appointed the 
following committee: Miss Vail, Miss Marble, 
Dr. Murrill, Dr. Curtis, Professor Richards, 
Dr. MacDougal and Dr. Barnhart. 

The first paper on the scientific program 


May 11, 1906.] 


was by Dr. P. A. Rydberg, entitled ‘ Botan- 
izing in Utah.’ 

The substance of this paper appeared in 
the Journal of the New York Botanical Gar- 
den, 6: 158. 1905. 

Many herbarium specimens were passed, 
illustrative of the paper. 

The last paper was by Professor E. S. 
Burgess, on ‘ Biotian Asters.’ 

This paper was an informal discussion of 
the Biotian section of the genus Aster, ac- 
companying the publication at this time of 
the author’s monograph on the Biotian Asters 
(constituting Vol. 13 of the Torrey Club’s 
Memoirs) with description and figures of 84 
species and 10 subspecies, and with informal 
description of about 250 less definite forms. 
The Biotian section of Aster is one of the 
most difficult and variable, and seems partic- 
ularly active in production of new forms, 
some other sections of Aster being quite stable 
in comparison. Most of the larger and more 
conspicuous species, with violet or lavender 
rays and glandular hair, constitute as a sub- 
section the Macrophylli, typified by the well- 
known Aster macrophyllus L. Specimens 
illustrating the principal species of this sub- 
section were exhibited and compared, and the 
speaker described the results of his method 
of continued observation on plant-colonies in 
unchanged natural habitat, with reference 
especially to the development of variations, 
and to distinction between certain changes 
apparently due to environmental conditions 
and other changes suggesting origin by mu- 
tation. 
illustrating the paper and especially the 
marked variations in this group of asters. 


THE club met at the Museum Building of 
the New York Botanical Garden, March 28, 
1906. In the absence of President Rusby, 
Dr. C. C. Curtis was called to the chair. 


Dr. J. K. Small presented the first paper’ 


on the scientific program, on ‘ Additions to 
the Flora of Florida” Specimens of the sur- 
face soil and subsoil, herbarium and alcoholic 
specimens, maps and photographs illustrated 
the paper. 

The second paper was by Dr. J. H. Barn- 


SCIENCE. 


Many herbarium sheets were shown, 


745 


hart, on ‘The Dating of Botanical Publica- 
tions.’ 

Dates of issue of publication have always 
been of more or less interest to bibliographers, 
but modern biological nomenclature, with 
priority of publication as one of its funda- 
mental principles, has emphasized to a marked 
degree the importance of determining ac- 
eurately the exact time when novelties are 
placed before the scientific public. 

The noyice usually accepts without question 
the date printed on a title-page. Soon, how- 
ever, he discovers a book with a clear, definite, 
unmistakable reference to one bearing a later 
date—perhaps a year or two, possibly many 
years. Here, then, he has evidence, amount- 
ing to convincing proof, that at least one of 
the books he has been consulting is incorrectly 
dated; but he may find it difficult to deter- 
mine which is wrong, and still more difficult 
to replace the erroneous date by the correct 
one. Few, even of experienced botanists, real- 
ize what a large percentage of the literature of 
our science is labeled with misleading dates. 

The purpose of the paper was to call atten- 
tion to some of the causes of this state of 
affairs, to furnish examples of various classes 
of erroneous dating, and to mention certain 
precautions the observance of which will re- 
duce the percentage of errors in the citation 
of dates. Many publications were shown to 
illustrate the paper. C. Stuart GacEr, 

Secretary. 


THE MICHIGAN ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 


THE annual meeting of the Michigan Or- 
nithological Club was held in conjunction with 
the annual meeting of the Section of Zoology 
of the Michigan Academy of Science in the 
Museum lecture room, Ann Arbor, on Friday, 
March 30, 1906. 

The meeting was called to order by Chas. 
C. Adams, vice-president of the section of 
zoology. The following were the papers pre- 
sented dealing with ornithology: 

FRANK J. PHILLIPS: 
Juniperus.’ 

Max M. Prer: ‘An Ecological Study of the 
Birds of Ypsilanti Bayou.’ 


‘Bird Dissemination of 


746 


Norman A. Woon: ‘ Twenty-five Years of Bird 
Migration at Ann Arbor, 

Norman A. Woop: ‘The Bird Life of Ann 
Arbor, Michigan, and Vicinity. (By title.) 

HK. H. Frorarnenam: ‘ Notes on the Birds of 
the Michigan Forest Reserve.’ 

R. A. Brown: “A Topographical Study of the 
Birds of the ‘ Overflow, at Ann Arbor, Mich.” 

Cuas. C. Apams: ‘An Keological Survey of 
Isle Royal, Lake Superior.’ : 

Orro McCreary: ‘The Heological Distribution 
of the Birds on Isle Royal. 

Max M. Prer: ‘The Fall Migration of Birds on 
Isle Royal.’ (By title.) 


Professor Walter B. Barrows, president of 
the academy and of the club, gave his presi- 
dential address before the academy, on ‘ Facts 
and Fancies in Bird Migration’ in the new 
lecture room of the physical laboratory on 
Thursday evening. 

A business meeting was held in the after- 
noon in the office of the curator of the uni- 
versity museum. The following officers were 
elected for 1906-7. 

President—Walter B. 
College. 

First Vice-president—J. Claire Wood, Detroit. 

Second Vice-president—Edward Arnold, Battle 
Creek. 

Third Vice-president—Norman A. Wood, Ann 
Arbor. 

Secretary—Alexander W. Blain, Jr., Detroit. 

Treasurer—Frederick C. Hubel, Detroit. 

Editor of the Bulletin—Walter B. Barrows. 

Associate Editors—Wm. H. Dunham, Kalkaska; 
R. A.:Brown, Kalamazoo. 


Barrows, Agricultural 


The meeting adjourned to meet at the De- 
troit Museum of Art on May 4, 1906. 
ALExaNDER W. Buatn, JR., 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE FALLACY OF THE MUTATION THEORY. 


Dr. C. H. Murriam has lately pointed out’ 
that mutation in de Vries’s sense is not a 
species-forming factor, and that it is rarely, 
if at all, observed among living animals. 
Major T. L. Casey objects’ to this sweeping 


1Sormncn, February 16, 1906, p. 241, chiefly pp. 
256 and 257. 
* Scrence, April 20, 1906, p. 632. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593.. 


condemnation of de Vries’s theory, and be- 
lieves that there ‘may be a good deal’ in the 
latter. 

I only can endorse Merriam’s view, and 
want to go on record as condemning even 
more emphatically the mutation theory for the 
following reasons: 

De Vries claims that the process of muta- 
tion forms new species, and that the individual 
mutations (mutants) are species. In order 
to demonstrate this, he has made a number of 
experiments, in which he tries to show that 
the mutations breed true, and he uses this fact 
as a test for the specific value of the muta- 
tions. No other test is admitted, or even 
mentioned, by him. 

This shows at a glance that de Vries’s con- 
ception of the term species is all wrong, that 
he does not know what constitutes a species, 
in spite of his lengthy discussion of this term. 
Of course, it is generally admitted that species 
should breed true: but this is also a necessary 
character that belongs to the concept of va- 
riety. What distinguishes species from vari- 
ties is the fact that a species is not connected 
by intermediate or transitional forms with the 
most closely allied species. This latter prin- 
ciple is the one made use of exclusively (Gf 
possible) by systematists, botanists as well as 
zoologists. In many cases, indeed, it can not 
be used on account of the insufficiency of our 
knowledge; but under such conditions new 
species are always described with the tacit 
understanding that the demonstration of the 
existence of intermediate forms will reduce 
them to the rank of varieties. 

De Vries has failed entirely to take notice 
of this fundamental principle, and to show 
that his elementary species and his mutations 
are not connected by intermediate forms with 
each other. But looking over the instances 
introduced by him, we see that such inter- 
mediate forms are recorded by de Vries him- 
self, and I know from personal experience that 
such are present among several of the poly- 
morphous genera mentioned by him (Vzola, 
Draba). : 

Further, according to the experimental 
records on (@nothera, given by de Vries, I 
can not see how he is in a position to main- 


May 11, 1906.] 


tain that the mutations have bred true. They 
surely did not do this in the beginning of the 
experiments, since they were throwing off, in 
each generation, additional mutants, and it 
was only after some time that de Vries suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a relatively pure strain. 

Consequently, de Vries’s contention that 
mutations are species is not supported at all 
by his experiments; whatever they are, they 
are not species, since they do not show the 
characteristic features of such. 

However, if de Vries had claimed that spe- 
cies might be made out of mutations, nothing 
could be objected to this view; but this is no 
new idea. Similar experiments have been 
undertaken by animal and plant breeders, and 
a large number are on record. Im fact, the 
breeding of domestic races has always been 
regarded as a process analogous to the one in 
nature by which new species are produced. 
But the main features of this process in 
nature as well as under domestication are 
selection and segregation. This is exactly 
what de Vries has done with his mutations: 
he selected and segregated them (preventing 
crossing), and thus he imitated nature’s way, 
and finally obtained more or less pure strains, 
which are analogous to natural species. But 
before he began this process of selecting and 


segregating, the mutations were by no means. 


species, but only varieties. 

Aside from the above claim, de Vries further 
maintains that it is the mutations, and not 
the variations, that give origin to new species, 
and he thinks that there is a fundamental 
difference between them. However, I have 
been unable to see where he draws the line 
between variations, constituting small steps, 
and mutations representing sudden leaps, and 
I do not think that he has solved the old 
sophistic problem of how much must be added 
to a small thing in order to make it a large 
one. His discussion of unit-characters does 
not offer any help in this respect, since in 
many cases he confesses himself that he does 
not know what should be regarded as a unit- 
character. 

Mutations are by no means as frequent as 
de Vries would fain make us believe. He 
concedes himself that he had considerable 


SCIENCE. 


747 


trouble in finding a fit object for his experi- 
ments, and, indeed, among living animals and 
plants in the wild state, mutations in de 
Vries’s sense are extremely rare, and in this 
respect I agree entirely with Merriam’s con- 
tention, not only with reference to animals, 
but also to plants. True mutations, that is to 
say, variations which represent sudden leaps, 
are found chiefly among domestic forms, and 
this fact, I think, is well established; and the 
form that finally furnished the material for 
de Vries’s experiments, @nothera lamarcki- 
ana, is a domesticated, a garden form, and 
not a native species of Europe. It is true, 
it lately has become a habit with some biolo- 
gists to hunt for mutations in nature, but the 
search has been quite unsuccessful, for the 
so-ealled mutations in part do not at all rep- 
resent sudden leaps; in part it was not consid- 
ered worth while to investigate whether the 
sudden leaps discovered were connected with 
the original form by transitions or not. 

Paleontological evidence for the former ex- 
istence of mutations should be excluded from 
the beginning, since it is in the very nature 
of paleontological facts to be fragmentary, 
and, in this connection, it is well to call atten- 
tion to the former use of the term mutation 
by paleontologists (Waagen, Neumayr, W. B. 
Scott) ; it means just the opposite of de Vries’s 
mutation, namely, a change during phylo- 
genetic development, which is characterized 
by slow, small, almost insensible steps. For 
this we possess positive proof. 

Thus we arrive at the conclusion that de 
Vries has not made good his claim that muta- 
tions are species, since his conception of spe- 
cies is defective. If he should change his 
view, and claim that species could be made 
out of mutations, he would be right, but then 
it is the selection, and chiefly the segregation, 
that has this effect; and further, this would 
be no new theory. If he claims that it is mu- 
tation as distinguished from variation that 
starts the species-forming process, we must 
point out that mutations are rare in nature, 
that there is no sharp line to be drawn between 
mutation and variation, and that mutation 
has always been regarded as a special form 
of variation (sporting, halmatogenesis). Con- 


748 


sequently, nothing is left, of de Vries’s muta- 
tion theory but the bare facts represented by 
his experiments, which, indeed, are valuable 
for the study of variation, but belong to a 
class that was already known to Darwin when 
he wrote his ‘ Origin of Species’ and ‘ Varia- 
tion under Domestication.’ For the rest, IL 
do not see that there is anything in the muta- 
tion theory which might advance our gen- 
eral knowledge of the factors cooperating in 
evolution. 
A. E. ORTMANN. 
CARNEGIE Musrum, Pirrspure, Pa., 
April 26, 1906. 


MISREPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE IN 
MAGAZINES, 


POPULAR 


From the numerous and conspicuous mis- 
takes made by the popular magazines when 
treating of geographical and geological sub- 
jects it would appear that there is occasion 
for more careful editing by men conversant 
with scientific affairs. 

Many of the mistakes are more than simply 
inaccuracies of statement or occasional exag- 
geration. They are often the most conspicu- 
ous thing in the magazine. 

Take, for example, the finely colored full- 
page picture in the Century (Vol. XLVIL., 
p. 553) entitled ‘Sulphur Deposits at the 
Crater Vesuvius.’ The fact is that there are 
no sulphur deposits at Vesuvius. Not only 
are there no deposits, but even a trace of 
sulphur is difficult to find. Unless the voleano 
changes its chemistry to accord with the 
Century there will be none from this last 
eruption. The artist evidently mistook the 
lava which had been bleached by chlorine to 
be sulphur; the editor allowed the mistake to 
pass; and all who gain their idea of Vesuvius 
from that source will have much to unlearn 
when they hear the facts. 

The Outing Magazine, edited by men who 
have more than an indoor acquaintance with 
nature, begins this year with a frontispiece 
(January number) entitled ‘Bridger was the 
first man to gaze on the Great Salt Lake’ and 
represents Bridger standing on the shore while 
his horse, with nose deep in the lake, is eagerly 
drinking! We have seen many wonderful 


_ SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


bronchos, but never one that could drink the 
water of Salt Lake. 

A well-written article in McOlure’s (Vol. 
XXV., p. 504) is illustrated by many pictures 
of the Grand Cafion of the Colorado. The 
coloring was evidently done by one who had 
never seen the region. It entirely misrepre- 
sents the cafion and must have annoyed the 
artist. But even the drawing gives a wrong 
impression of the greatest of caiions, just as 
would a picture of Broadway or of State 
Street which represented the high buildings 
sloping towards each other across the street. 
There are no narrow gorges in the cafion such 
as those pictured. This style of illustration 
is a recurrence of the type of picture fur- 
nished by Hglofistem in 1857 for the Ives 
Report published by the United States goy- 
ernment. It was hoped that misrepresenta- 
tions of that character would end with that 
century. 

Nature is as interesting and impressive as 
are exaggeration and misrepresentation. A 
picture may have the educational value of 
many pages of sentences, since it so readily 
catches the eye. Many people will see a pic- 
ture, while few read the text. Consequently 
it is important that pictures should represent 
facts and it behooves the popular magazines 
to have not only careful literary, but scien- 
tifie editing as well. 

A. R. Croox. 


ALLUVIAL SLOPES. 


One of the commonest topographic features 
of the western part of the United States, par- 
ticularly of the arid west, is the characteristic 
sloping plain which fringes the flanks of the 
mountain ranges and is formed by coalescent 
alluvial fans. Many terms have been used 
to denote this sloping plain, among which are: 
alluvial slope, alluvial apron, alluvial pied- 
mont plain, compound alluvial fan, wash 
apron, débris apron, detrital slope, wash plain, 
out-wash plain, foot slope, aggradation plain, 
boulder wash plain and others. It seems de- 
sirable that such a typical feature should bear 
a more specific appellation. The consensus 
of opinion of the geologists of the United 


May 11, 1906.] 


States Geological Survey, as recently ex- 
pressed, appears to strongly favor the use of 
alluvial slope, which thus takes its place in 
the genetically related series, alluvial fan, 
alluvial slope and alluvial plain. 

C. E. SmprnTHaL. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF THE PAPAW TREE. 


Wuite the. flora of the upper Mississippi 
Valley was yet in its primeval condition I 
had good opportunities to observe the north- 
ward geographical extension, and apparently 
the northern limit, of certain plants which 
reach full maturity of growth and fruitage 
farther south. Although the floral conditions 
which then existed in that region have been 
_in part modified by the progress of civilization, 
the chief of the following statements are based 
upon conditions which still exist. Among the 
plants referred to is the papaw, Asimina 
triloba, which reaches its maximum size, that 
of a small tree, and its most abundant fruit- 
age in the broad region of which the mouth of 
the Ohio River is near the center. Two of 
the many other trees which are associated 
with it there and which have accompanied it 
in their northward dispersion, are selected for 
special comparison. These are the persim- 
mon, Diospyros Virginiana, and the pecan, 
Carya oliveformis. 

It is of relevant interest to note that al- 
though these three species are commingled in 
the same flora in the valley of the upper Mis- 
sissippi, their post-glacial dispersion into that 
region seems to have been from a pre-glacial 
flora which occupied the papaw*area before 
mentioned and which was in part made up of 
trees from different districts. The districts 
which thus furnished the persimmon and 
pecan respectively are assumed to have been 
identical with their present respective areas 
of greatest abundance and fruitfulness. That 
is, the center of the area of greatest abundance 
and fruitfulness of the persimmon may be 
designated as within the state of Virginia, 
which is far east of the similar center of the 
papaw area, while it is in southern Texas and 
the adjacent part of Mexico, far from both the 


SCIENCE. 


749 


persimmon and papaw centers, that the pecan 
reaches its greatest abundance and perfection. 
The persimmon apparently spread westward 
into the papaw area and thence northward; 
while the pecan ranged up into the Mississippi 
Valley, traversing the papaw area, and thence 
at least as far north as the forty-first parallel 
of north latitude, a thousand miles from the 
region of its fullest development. The un- 
aided dispersion of the papaw seems to have 
been proportionately less than that of either 
the persimmon or pecan. 

In 1846, pecan trees of moderately large 
size were yet growing and bearing fruit in 
fair abundance ten miles above Burlington, 
Iowa, and a number of persimmon trees of 
moderate size were also then growing and 
bearing fruit in its season a few miles below 
Burlington, on the Illinois side of the great 
river. Neither of these two trees was then 
common in that region and, so far as I could 
ever learn, the localities mentioned constituted 
the northern limit of their dispersion. It is 
pertinent to my present purpose to mention 
that both of those trees retained their fruiting 
function unimpaired in their most northerly 
extension, although the case was very different 
with the papaw. During many years I ob- 
served the last-named plant growing as a part 
of the local flora at numerous localities along 
the banks of the Mississippi, from northeast- 
ern Missouri to the forementioned locality 
north of Burlington, where the pecan grew, 
the distance between the two extreme localities 
being about seventy-five miles. In the south- 
ernmost of the Missouri localities referred to 
the plant reached almost arborescent size and 
frequently, but never abundantly, bore and 
matured its fruit. From there northward, 
however, although the vegetative growth of 
the plants was apparently healthful, they never 
fruited, and gradually diminished in size to 
shrubs, a few feet in height. It is true that 
some thrifty specimens which grew upon the 
Iowa bank of the Mississippi River, a few 
miles above Keokuk, occasionally flowered, 
but, although I frequently examined them in 
the flowering and fruiting seasons, I could 
never find any evidence that fruit had been 
formed, or that any ovaries had ever become 


700 


fertilized. Northward from that locality to 
its most northerly one, a distance of fifty 
mniles, the papaw plants seldom flowered, and 
if one occasionally bore flowers, the ovaries 
never matured. 

Here, then, is the case of a plant losing its 
power of reproduction from some natural 
cause, but still growing thriftily at short in- 
tervals along a stretch of more than fifty miles 
beyond its fruiting limit. It is not necessary 
to my present purpose to inquire into that 
cause, but the unfruitfulness of the plant was 
no doubt due to the failure of one or more of 
the various devices which nature provides for 
the pollination of flowers; and that condition, 
as well as the diminishing stature of the plant 
toward the north, was perhaps correlated with 
climatic change. This case of the papaw, 
however, is so unusual that one naturally 
wonders how that northern portion of its geo- 
graphical dispersion could have been accom- 
plished without the aid of the function of re- 
production at every stage of its progress. It 
is necessary to assume that every one of those 
unfruitful papaw plants within the range men- 
tioned originated from seed which was brought 
from a southward locality by some biological, 
and not a physical, agency. That is, the 
transportation could not have been effected by 
either air or water currents because the large, 
oblong, flattened seeds of the papaw are too 
heavy to be borne by the wind, and all the 
fluviatile currents of that region are in an 
opposite direction. It is quite improbable 
that the seeds were transported by either birds 
or quadrupedal animals, because, while the 
ripe fruit-pulp would be greedily eaten by 
some of them, the seeds are evidently unsuited 
for the food of any; and because no frugivor- 
ous birds or other animals of that region have 
the migratory and garnering habits which 
such a suggestion requires. Moreover, the 
papaw ripens its fruit when southward, and 
not northward, bird-migration is impending. 
It, therefore, seems necessary to assume that 
the transportation of the seeds was effected 
by human agency; and because one fails to 
see how their germination and growth in 
those northern localities could have been ad- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


vantageous to any human interests it further 
seems necessary to assume that their dis- 
tribution was incidentally, but not intention- 
ally, connected with the nomadic habits of 
the Indians. This suggestion is not wholly 
satisfactory when one considers only the or- 
dinary conditions of Indian life, because the 
fresh, ripe fruit was never too abundant in 
any part of that region for immediate use, it 
is not suitable for preservation in camp, and 
the seeds have no obvious value. I, however, 
casually discovered what seems to be a sufii- 
cient explanation of the manner of transporta- 
tion of those seeds and of the circumstances 
of their germination beyond the geographical 
limits of the natural fruiting of the species. 

The Sae and Fox Indians were originally 
in possession of both banks of the Mississippi 
River from the confluence of the Missouri 
River to above that of Iowa River. This 
region includes the continuous range of the 
papaw from where it reaches full fruitage to 
the northernmost limit of its merely vege- 
tative growth which already has been men- 
tioned. Those Indians were in the habit of 
ranging all that portion of the great river in 
their canoes and of camping upon its banks. 
Upon one of my excursions I came upon one 
of their river-bank camps, when the men were 
away fishing or hunting and a small group of 
women were sitting in a circle on the ground 
playing a game which consisted of tossing a 
small number of papaw seeds in a basin. The 
hard, smooth seeds each bore a distinguishing 
artificial mark, upon one side only, the differ- 
ence in the form of the marks as they ap- 
peared after each throw, evidently indicating 
differences of value in counting the game. 
As I and my companion stopped to watch the 
game I said to him ‘those are papaw seeds.’ 
One of the women looked up with a smile— 
she was perhaps a winner in the game—and. 
said, ‘yes, papaw,’ and pointed to a quantity 
of the seeds that lay on a garment near her, 
evidently their stock for future games. With- 
out doubt that game had been practised by the 
Sae and Fox Indians for centuries, and it is 
easy to understand how they could have pro- 
cured the seeds by their southern journeys, 


May 11, 1906.] 


how a few of them might become lost at any 
camping place, and how they might germinate 
there by natural means. j 

It is true that all the floral districts of the 
earth contain plants the migratory introduc- 
tion of which has been caused by the agency 
of man. As a rule, those plants are self- 
perpetuated in their new habitats by their 
unimpaired function of reproduction; and if 
they have lost that function from any cause 
their preservation is due to man’s intervention 
for his own benefit. In the case of the papaw 
here mentioned its vegetative growth has ex- 
tended far beyond its fruiting limits, a con- 
dition which savage man could have no in- 
terest in preserving. His gambling habit 
seems, therefore, to have been the accidental 
cause of that part of the dispersion of the 
papaw which it would not have attained by 
merely natural causes. 


Cuartes A. WHITE. 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
April 21, 1906. 


THE PARASITISM OF NEOCOSMOSPORA. 

A witT disease was discovered by the writer 
in the ginseng gardens of Missouri in the 
summer of 1904, which proved to be caused 
by the fungus Neocosmospora vasinfecta var. 
nivea Sm. The fungus has been studied and 
described in a bulletin soon to be issued by 
the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion. In the course of the investigation sey- 
eral new facts were ascertained concerning the 
parasitism of the fungus, which may properly 
be mentioned in this place. 

The characters of this fungus have been 
studied principally by Atkinson and Smith. 
The former’ first described the fungus in 1892, 
believing it to be a species of Fusarium. He 
stated the belief that it was a weak parasite, 
since it usually infected only such plants as 
had been previously attacked by another dis- 
ease. Smith, in 1899, published a detailed 
account of the entire life history of the fun- 
gus, giving it the name Neocosmospora vas- 
infecta. He found that there were three dis- 
tinct physiological varieties which attacked 

Bul. 41, Alabama Agr. Exp. Sta., 1892. 

*Bul. 17, Div. Veg. Phys. and Pathol., U. S. 
Dept. Agr., 1899. 


SCIENCE. 


Tol 


cotton, watermelons and cow-peas, respective- 
ly, and that eross-inoculations always failed. 
In contrast to Atkinson’s assumption, Smith 
stated that all three varieties were parasitic, 
and especially the variety nivea. 

Although I failed to obtain the perithecia, 
yet in all other respects the ginseng fungus 
agreed with the variety nivea (the watermelon 
fungus of Smith). The results related in 
the bulletin soon to be issued go far toward 
establishing Atkinson’s theory that Weocos- 
mospora is a weak parasite and only attacks 
plants which are first weakened by the pres- 
ence of another fungus. 

The facts upon which this conclusion is 
based are as follows: (1) In the field the wilt 
disease never appeared except where the gin- 
seng plants had been previously attacked by 
an anthracnose. (2) Plants which were 
sprayed with the Bordeaux spraying mixture 
(and consequently free from anthracnose) 
were not attacked by Neocosmospora. (8) 
Watermelon seeds were planted in crocks of 
rich garden earth which certainly contained 
microorganisms, but had never been infected 
with Neocosmospora. Each crock received a 
test-tube culture of MNeocosmospora at the 
time of planting seeds and three weeks later 
the melon seedlings were attacked by the wilt 
fungus. Microscopical examination of the 
wilted seedlings showed the pink mycelium 
and spores of Neocosmospora in the fibrovas- 
cular bundles of the hypocotyls. Other crocks 
filled with the same kind of soil were sterilized 
by steam in an autoclave. When cool they 
each received a tube culture of Neocosmospora 
and were planted with watermelon seeds. The 
wilt fungus grew abundantly in the sterilized 
soil, but at the expiration of twelve weeks 
none of the watermelon plants showed the 
slightest indication of the wilt disease. 

These facts are interpreted to mean that 
Neocosmospora itself is a weak parasite, but 
when associated (as it usually is) with other 
fungi, e. g., Rhizoctonia, Pythium, ete., it 
gains entrance into the watermelon plant. In 
the case of ginseng, its entrance seems to 
depend upon an anthracnose caused by Ver- 
micularia Dematium. 


762 


Smith’s experiments with MNeocosmospora 
employed soil which was uninfected by that 
fungus, but apparently was not sterilized, and 
he states that Thielavia basicola was present 
in some of the experiments. To this fact I 
am inclined to refer the apparent active para- 
sitism which he found. At any rate, the form 
which I have isolated from the ginseng plant 
has not shown active parasitism, 


Howarp S. Resp. 
BoTanicaL LABORATORY, 
UNIVERSITY or Missouri, 
March 15, 1906. 


EFFECTS OF AN UNBALANCED RATION. 


In 1904 an obscure disease affected the fruit 
of certain trees in the orchard of the Maine 
Agricultural Experiment Station. No sim- 
ilar trouble had previously come under the 
notice of the writer, and this note is made 
simply as a matter of record. A careful study 
of the cause of the condition described is be- 
ing carried on at the present time. 

In August, when about the size of walnuts, 
the fruits began to crack and drop. Marked 
indentations, somewhat similar to those made 
by ecurculio, were abundant. No evidence of 
insect work could be discovered, however. 
When the fruit was opened the tissue under 
the indented parts was found to be dry and 
brown. Most of the fruits ceased to grow, 
‘and by the first of September the larger part 
of it was on the ground; though early in the 
season all of the trees were loaded. The 
leaves, however, appeared perfectly healthy. 

At the time of harvesting, October 10, most 
of the trees had lost all of their fruit. Such 
as remained on some of the trees was usually 
small and deformed; some was of medium 
size with one side cracked; and a small portion 
was without blemish. In all cases, however, 
the texture of the fruit was soft and spongy— 
about as might be expected in April or May. 
The surface of the fruit was also character- 
istic; there being numerous minute elevated 
‘pimples,’ corresponding to the grayish dots 
on the fruit. This feature was so noticeable 
that the workmen spoke of it in handling the 
fruit after removal to the cellar. 

Though a small portion of the fruit was 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


on the tree at harvest time, it dropped so 
easily that no attempt was made to save it 
for packing. The slightest jarring of the 
limbs would cause it to fall. 

The reason for the condition above indicated 
is, as already noted, very obscure. A careful 
microscopic examination was made without 
finding evidence of any fungous enemy, even 
in the brown dry tissue above mentioned. It 
was then observed that the condition existed 
only with certain trees included in a fertilizer 
experiment, in which an excess of available 
nitrogen is applied every year. The first tree 
noticed was on the plat receiving nitrate of 
soda and acid phosphate. Later it was found 
that every tree on the plat, as also on the 
adjoining plat which received nitrate only, 
was affected as described. In one or two in- 
stances check trees, which adjoined the nitrate 
plat, showed a tendency in this direction. 
None of the other trees in the whole orchard, 
however, gave the slightest indication of the 
trouble. The trees on a plat given muriate 
of potash and acid phosphate, and on another 
given muriate only, separated from the first 
by but a single row of trees, were perfectly 
normal. 

The supposition was made, therefore, that 
the trouble was physiological and due to the 
excessive amount of available nitrogen and 
the lack of potash. Of course this is a matter 
of conjecture and can be settled only by defi- 
nite and careful experiment. 

The outcome of a further study of this 
problem may be of interest and importance in 
connection with the rational fertilization of 
orchards, 


W. M. Munson. 
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE. 


NOTES ON ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
THE ACTION OF OZONE ON ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. 


Siyce the discovery of ozone by Schoen- 
bein, in 1840, many chemists have examined 
its action on organic compounds, but, hitherto, 
with very limited success. When a reaction 
did take place it resulted, almost always, in 
the formation of carbon dioxide and water, or 
in the production of highly explosive sub- 


May 11, 1906.] 


stances which were not suitable for investi- 
gation. 

Some time ago Professor C. Harries, in the 
course of an investigation of caoutchouc, 
studied its behavior towards ozone. The re- 
sults were not very conclusive, but they led 
him to take up the wider question of the in- 
teraction of ozone with organic compounds in 
general. He has published various brief 
papers on the subject, from time to time, dur- 
ing the interval and quite recently he has 
collected his results into a longer article’ 
which is of considerable interest. 

The first requisite was the provision of an 
adequate supply of ozone, of relatively high 
concentration, and for this purpose a special 
form of generator was devised by Siemens and 
Halske. The experiments were conducted as 
follows: The substance under investigation is 
dissolved in chloroform, or low boiling ligroin, 
the solution cooled in a freezing mixture and 
ozonized oxygen passed into it. To minimize 
the danger of explosion a current of carbon 
dioxide is directed through the apparatus, 
which must be thoroughly well dried; mois- 
ture in the materials must also be rigorously 
excluded. 

The experimental results lead to the conclu- 
sion that all organic compounds containing 
an ethylene linkage (double bond) add one 
molecule of ozone, giving rise to a new class 
of substances termed ozonides: 


>¢:C<+0,7>C—C<. 


66 


NY 
0) 


It will be observed that Harries formulates . 


the oxygen as tetravalent; he is, however, not 
wholly consistent on this point in his paper 
and, in any ease, the results can be just as 
accurately expressed by the bivalent formula. 
The ozonides are viscid oils, or colorless, vitre- 
ous syrups, more or less explosive and possess- 
ing an unpleasant, suffocating smell; some of 
them can be distilled under reduced pressure. 
They liberate iodine from potassium iodide 
and bleach indigo solution. 


1Ann. Chem. (Liebig), 343, 311. 


SCIENCE. 753 


The most interesting reaction of the ozonides 
is with water, with which they yield hydrogen 
peroxide and aldehydes or ketones: 


>C—C<+H.0 >> CO-+ > CO + H,0,. 


66 


\Y 


Thus, from allylamine hydrochloride, the cor- 
responding salt of aminoacetaldehyde is ob- 
tained: 


HCl . NH,CH.CH: CH, 
— HCl. NH,CH,CH — CH. 


b— 4 


\ F 
©) 


— HCl. NH.CH.CHO + HCHO. 


This method of work has already proved its 
value in permitting the comparatively easy 
preparation, in fairly large quantity, of many 
substances which were hitherto unknown, or 
could only be obtained with the greatest diffi- 
culty. Another, equally valuable feature of 
the research, is the application of the reaction 
to the determination of the constitution of 
compounds. Of many of the examples given in 
the original paper, one must suffice for quota- 
tion. According to Kekulé’s formula benzene 
has three double bonds, whereas, according to 
the ‘centric’ formula it has none. If the 
former be correct benzene should add 3 mole- 
cules of ozone and the resulting product, when 
treated with water, should yield glyoxal. This 
is exactly what really happens, the triozonide, 


which is first formed, yields, with water, 
30CHCHO. This constitutes one of the 
strongest, purely chemical supports for the 
Kekulé formula which has been discovered 
for many years. 


704 


The action of ozone on carbonyl derivatives 
(aldehydes or ketones) is hardly less interest- 
ing than its behavior towards unsaturated 
compounds. Under similar experimental con- 
ditions to those described above, ozone causes 
the addition of one atom of oxygen to each 
carbonyl group. 


> cO0+0,— > C:0:0+ 0.. 


These substances, which are peroxides, readily 
react with water forming hydrogen peroxide 
and regenerating the original carbonyl com- 
pound. It will be observed that the peroxides 
of aldehydes are isomeric with the acids which 
may be derived from these aldehydes; thus, 
heptoic aldehyde (cnanthol), 


CH,CH.CH.CH,CH.CH.CHO, 
yields the peroxide, OH,(CH,),CH:0:0, 


which is isomeric with heptoic (cnanthic) 
acid, CH,(CH,),COOH. It is found that 
such peroxides change spontaneously, after 
some time, into the corresponding acids, a fact 
which may have an important bearing on the 
theory of the oxidation of aldehydes to acids. 

In the case of carbonyl compounds contain- 
ing one or more ethylene linkages both the 
above reactions occur simultaneously, 7. e., 
one molecule of ozone is added to each double 
bond and one atom of oxygen to each carbonyl 
group. 

Harries finds that ether appears to be 
capable of absorbing unlimited quantities of 
ozone; the product is very highly explosive. 
These facts probably account for the mys- 
terious ether explosions which occur in labora- 
tories from time to time; ozone is produced 
during many reactions, such as occur in 
flames, is absorbed by ether and the explosion 
follows when the ether is heated. 


RESEARCHES ON THE AMINO ACIDS, POLYPEPTIDES 
AND PROTEIDS. 

Emit Fiscuer recently delivered a lecture, 
under the above title, before the German 
Chemical Society. The report of the lecture 
occupies more than eighty pages of the 
‘Berichte’* and contains the chief results of 


1 Ber. d. Chem. Ges., 39, 530 (1906). 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


his labors in the field in question during the 
past six years. It thus represents the cream 
of several dozens of papers, and although it is 
severely compressed, yet the author’s name is 
sufficient guarantee that the style is fasci- 
nating and the material of the highest order 
of merit. In this brief note it is, obviously, 
impossible to do justice to the lecture, yet 
some of Fischer’s results and conclusions are 
of such general importance that a brief out- 
line of them should be given. 

The hydrolytic cleavage products formed by 
the action of acids, bases, or enzymes on pro- 
teids are chiefly mixtures of various amino, 
hydroxyamino and diamino acids, belonging 
to the aliphatic series, although similar de- 
rivatives of the alicylic and aromatic series 
are not infrequently found. JF ischer’s first 
task was, therefore, to improve the methods 
for the synthesis of the above classes of com- 
pounds and to investigate their individual 
properties, so as to work out methods for the 
separation and identification of each sub- 
stance when present in the mixtures already 
mentioned. 

The second step consisted in the synthesis 
of ‘polypeptides,’ which are amide anhydrides 
of amino acids. Thus aminoacetic acid (gly- 
cocoll, glycine), H,NCH,COOH, yields the 
amide anhydride H,NCH,CONHCH,COOH, 
which is termed glycylglycine and is a dipep- 
tide. No limit can, as yet, be assigned to the 
number of such compounds which may be pre- 
pared; they usually crystallize well and are, 
therefore, admirably adapted for purposes of 
investigation. The most complicated one 
which has been obtained up to the present 
time is a heptapeptide. 

Synthetical polypeptides are, of course, 
racemic, but those which are obtained from 
proteids frequently exhibit optical activity. 
Fischer has worked out several methods for 
the resolution of his racemic compounds into 
their optical antipodes. The results are in 
complete accord with the current theory of 
the asymmetric carbon atom. 

Fischer’s efforts have not been confined to 
synthesis; he has also investigated the com- 
pounds formed by the resolution of some 


May 11, 1906.] 


twenty of the more important proteids. Here 
the methods of purification referred to above 
haye done admirable service, and their appli- 
cation has thrown much light on the products 
of the reactions in question. In this part of 
the work the ‘esterification method’ has 
proved to be of the greatest value. The mix- 
ture of crude amino acids is treated with alco- 
hol and dry hydrogen chloride, and the product 
fractionated under highly reduced pressure 
(0.5 mm.). 

Experiments on the peptones and albumoses 
have been made, but the results are not very 
definite; there is scarcely room for doubt that 
the substances obtained by the ordinary proc- 
esses, such as precipitation from saline solu- 
tions, are not pure, individual compounds, but 
are mixtures, and new methods will be re- 
quired for their satisfactory treatment. The 
peptones are probably complex mixtures of 
polypeptides. } 

Of the structure of these compounds little 
ean be said with certainty at present, and 
practically nothing of that of albumin, for 
the fruitful investigation of which entirely 
novel methods will have to be discovered. 

The number of new compounds which 
Fischer has obtained is already very large, and 
the thorough application of his methods will 
enormously increase it and will require the 
work of numerous chemists for many years. 
Of course this only represents a fraction of 
the actual quantity of work necessary, because 
new methods of synthesis and new combina- 
tions will undoubtedly be discovered. The 
question, therefore, arises, will the probable 
benefit be worth such a large outlay of time 
and money? ‘There can be no hesitation in 
answering this in the affirmative. Only by 
the painstaking, careful investigation of all 
possible permutations and combinations of 
the polypeptides and their cogeners, can a 
firm foundation be laid for a real knowledge 
of the proteids and related compounds such 
as enzymes, toxins, etc., the importance of 
which to the biologist it is difficult to over- 
estimate. The point may be put in another 
way: Suppose a true proteid were to be syn- 
thesized immediately, in some such simple— 


SCIENCE. 3 


705 


and brutal—way as the heating of an amino 
acid in presence of a dehydrating agent, what 
would be gained? The answer is, practically 
nothing for biology and hardly anything more 
for chemistry. 

All interested in science will join in the 
hope that Professor Fischer’s restoration to 
health may be sufficiently permanent to enable 
him to continue, for many years, his wonder- 
ful and valuable investigations. 


J. BisHop TINGLE. 
JOHNS HopKINS UNIVERSITY. 


THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL 
ENGINEERS AND THE METRIC SYSTEM. 


Tue following preamble and resolutions 
concerning the ‘metric system’ were favor- 
ably reported to the board of directors of the 
institute by the standardization committee at 
the directors’ meeting of March 23, 1906: 

WHEREAS, The Metric System of Weights and 
Measures offers very great advantages by its sim- 
plicity, consistency, and convenience in every-day 
use, as well as in engineering and scientific calcu- 
lations and computations; and 

WHEREAS, These advantages have already been 
demonstrated by the universal adoption and en- 
tirely successful use of the metric system in all 
civilized countries, except Great Britain and the 
United States; and 

WuereEas, All the electrical units in universal 
use, such as the volt, ampere, ohm, watt, etc., are 
metric units; and 

WHEREAS, The industrial use of these electrical 
units would be much facilitated by the general 
adoption of the metric system. 

Resolved, That this committee unanimously 
recommends the introduction of the metric system 
into general use in the United States at as early 
a date as possible without undue hardship to the 
industrial interests involved. 

Resolved, That this committee favors such 
legislation by Congress as shall secure the adop- 
tion of the metric system by each department of 
the national government as speedily as may be 
consistent with the public welfare. 


The board subsequently submitted the mat- 
ter to the membership for a letter ballot. Of 
the 3,300 associates and members residing in 
the United States, replies were received from 
1,747 up to May 5. Of these 1,569 voted in 
favor of the resolutions and 178 against them. 


756 


THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE AT UKIAH. 


Tue earthquake which wrought such de- 
struction in San Francisco and Santa Rosa, 
on April 18, was very severe in Ukiah, 160 
kilometers (96 miles) northwest of San Fran- 
cisco. Many chimneys were thrown down 
from two-story buildings but cottages escaped 
without injury. One new brick store build- 
ing, just nearing completion, was so badly 
eracked and thrown out of plumb that it is 
necessary to tear it down. 

At the Latitude Station no damage what- 
ever was done although the shaking was the 
most severe ever experienced by the writer. 
Dishes rattled, milk was spilled from pans 
but little more than half full, and fowls and 
other domestic animals were very much 
perturbed. There were a series of shocks and 
reliable estimates of their duration vary from 
twenty seconds to one minute. The general 
direction of the wave seemed to be from south- 
west toward the northeast, but others report a 
different direction. The Ukiah Valley is sur- 
rounded by mountains of considerable altitude 
and it is probable that some of the shocks felt 
were from waves reflected from the mountains. 
Hence it is that the earthquake is generally 
spoken of as a ‘ twister.’ 

The observatory clock was not stopped but it 
lost six seconds during the disturbance, which 
is equivalent to being stopped for that 
length of time and then set to going again. 
The observatory roof is built in two sections 
which roll upon horizontal tracks, east and 
west, giving an opening for observation of 
about 1.8 meters. When closed the two parts 
are fastened together by means of a hook and 
eye such as are used on sereen doors. The 
hook rests in a horizontal position and the 
bend of the hook in a meridian plane. The 
effect of the earthquake was to unfasten this 
hook and open the roof to a width of about 
twenty centimeters, my recollection being that 
the eastern half was moved about twice as far 
as the western. The pier upon which the 
zenith telescope rests is apparently not dam- 
aged but the telescope was thrown considerably 
out of adjustment. It was out about fifteen 
seconds of are in azimuth and the vertical 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


axis was out in both directions, but not much 
more than sometimes results from extreme 
changes in temperature. 

The first series of shocks was followed by 
three lighter ones and the observed data for 
each are as follows: 


Pacific Stand. Time Duration. Direction. Intensity. 
1906 Aprii 

18d 5h 13m00s A.M. About 40s S.W.toN.I. Severe. 

18 10 4 389 A.M. “« 10 S.W.toN.E. Medium. 

18 11 36 00 A.M. « 30 S.W.toN.E. Light. 

20 12 80 53 A.M, Very slizht. 


The times are correct within two or three sec- 
onds. 

I was in the observatory at the time of the 
second series of shocks, at 105 4™, and per- 
ceived the effect of the movement in the strid- 
ing level (east and west), of the zenith tele- 
scope. The bubble oscillated over about two 
divisions of the level. The value of one 
division is 2”.2 and as the distance between 
the east and west leveling screws of the in- 
strument is about 42 centimeters, the disturb- 
ance produced in the bubble was equivalent 
to the effect of raising and lowering one of the 
leveling screws by 0.0005 centimeter. This 
shock was felt very distinctly and it is prob- 
able that the north and south component of 
the motion was much greater than the east 
and west one. 

The fourth shock was not felt at all. It 
was detected during the progress of latitude 
observations by a movement of the bubbles of 
the latitude levels. The oscillation (north 
and south) was about one half of one division, 
and the value of one division is 1.0. 

Sipney D. Towntey. 

INTERNATIONAL LATITUDE OBSERVATORY, 

URKIAH, CALIFORNIA. 


SOIENTIFIC BUILDINGS AND COLLECTIONS 
AT’ STANFORD UNIVERSITY.* 

Tue scientific laboratories and collections 
at Stanford University were but slightly in- 
jured by the recent earthquake in Oalifornia. 
The buildings containing the departments of 
physiology, botany, zoology and entomology 
are uninjured structurally, and the apparatus 

*We print this note, although it reduplicates to 
a certain extent the information communicated to 
us last week by President Jordan. 


May 11, 1$06.] 


and collections suffered almost no damage. 
The chemistry building lost small parts of 
two walls, and the loss to apparatus and sup- 
plies amounts to a few hundred dollars. The 
present geological and metallurgic laboratories 
are, with their contents, practically unhurt. 
The large new geological building, nearly 
completed, suffered serious injury. The 
building in which the departments of physics 
and psychology are housed lost a part of one 
wall, but the equipment is but slightly dam- 
aged. The laboratories and shops of the vari- 
ous engineering departments show some in- 
Juries, all of which, however, can be easily and 
quickly remedied. The really wrecked build- 
ings are the famous church, great memorial 
arch, museum and the large new library 
and gymnasium buildings in course of erec- 
tion. University work will begin again (it 
has been suspended for the rest of the present 
semester, about four weeks) on August 23, 
the regular date for the opening of the next 
college year. 
Vernon L. Keioae. 


THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AND THE 
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
THE University of California suffered by 

the loss of San Francisco investments, but 

the buildings and their contents at Berkeley 
suffered very little damage. Academic work, 
interrupted for the present by relief work, in 
which nearly all of the members of the faculty 
are engaged, will shortly be resumed. We 
understand also that the buildings of the 
affiliated colleges in San Francisco were not 
seriously injured. The Anthropological Mu- 
seum is saved, and the building is undamaged, 
the loss to the collections is inconsiderable 
and altogether from earthquake. The most 
fragile pieces of value were efficiently pro- 
tected by appliances designed against earth- 
quake shocks. The university’s Mark Hop- 
kins Institute of Art in San Francisco was 
burned, but nearly all canvases were saved. 

The Bancroft library of books and manu- 

scripts relating to the history of the Pacific 

coast, which recently came into the possession 
of the university, has been saved. 
Among the direct losses by the fire which 


SCIENCE. 


757 


followed the earthquake in San Francisco 
were the building, library and natural history 
collections of the California Academy of Sci- 
ences. -The building was materially injured 
by the earthquake, its staircase in particular 
suffering severely, but this did not prevent an 
effort to rescue some of the more precious 
material before the fire reached it. A small 
party of curators and members climbed to the 
laboratories and library on the upper floor 
and brought away the type specimens in bot- 
any, entomology and herpetology, together 
with some manuscripts and the archives. 


SOIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Tue American Chemical Society will meet 
at Ithaca, N. Y., June 28-30. The following 
persons have been appointed as chairmen of 
the various sections: 


Physical Chemistry, W. Lash Miller. 
Inorganic Chemistry, L. M. Dennis. 
Organic Chemistry, G. B. Frankforter. 
Biological Chemistry, Waldemar Koch. 
Agricultural Chenustry, E. B. Voorhees. 
Industrial Chemistry, J. D. Pennock. 


A MEETING of those interested in the organ- 
ization of an American association, similar in 
scope to the Museums Association of Great 
Britain, will, as we have already reported, take 
place at the American Museum of Natural 
History, New York, on May 15, at 10:30 
o'clock. A large number of men from various 
parts of the country have expressed their in- 
tention of being present, and at the conclusion 
of the business of organization, it is proposed 
to attend to the reading of papers upon various 
museum subjects. On Tuesday luncheon will 
be served at the American Museum, and on 
Wednesday sessions will be held and luncheon 
will be served at the Botanical Garden. It is 
suggested that those who are strangers in New 
York will find convenient quarters at reason- 
able rates at the Hotel Endicott, corner of 
Ninth Avenue and Highty-first Street. 

THe Rumford committee of the American 
Academy has tecently made grants to the 
following persons in aid of the researches 
specified : 


758 


Arthur B. Lamb, of Harvard University. 
Specific Heat of Salt Solutions.......... 
John A. Parkhurst, of the Yerkes Observatory. 
For the purchase of a Hartmann photom- 

eter rs 
Professor Charles B. Thwing, of Syracuse 

University. Thermo-electrie Power of 

Metals (second appropriation).......... 
Professor Edwin H. Hall, of Harvard Univer- 

sity. Thermo-electric Properties of Metals 125 
Professor Frederic H. Kester, of the Ohio 

State University. Joule-Thomson Effect 

na CHseesbiondatbeobesoosoosuapoodcooged 50 


Dr. Henry Pickertnc Bowpireu, George 
Higginson professor of physiology in the Har- 
vard Medical School, has sent in his resigna- 
tion to take effect at the end of the current 
academic year. Dr. Bowditch graduated from 
Harvard College in 1861 and from the Medical 
School in 1868. He was appointed assistant 
professor of physiology in 1871 and professor 
in 1876. We regret to learn that Dr. Bow- 
ditch’s resignation is due to ill health. - 


Proressor W. Osrwaup, of Leipzig, has 
been elected a foreign member of the Danish 
Academy of Sciences. 


Proressor Lewis M. Haupt, A.M., Se.D., 
delivered a lecture on ‘The Panama Problem,’ 
on May 3, before the students of Muhlenberg 
College and the citizens of Allentown, Pa. 
He will address the Engineering Department 
of the University of Michigan on the subject 
of ‘The Emancipation of the Waterways and 
Commercial Highways’ the latter part of this 
month. 


Proressor Israrn Cook Russett, head of 
the Department of Geology at the University 
of Michigan, died on May 1, of pneumonia 
after a brief illness. He was born at Gar- 
rattsville, N. Y., in 1852, and studied at New 
York University and Columbia University. 
He was for a short time assistant professor of 
geology at Columbia University and became 
geologist in the U. S. Geological Survey in 
1880. This position he subsequently retained. 
In 1892 he became professor of geology in the 
University of Michigan. Professor Russell 
was vice-president of the American Associa- 
tion in 1904 and was president of the Amer- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXI1f. No. 593. 


ican Geological Association at the time of his 
death. 


Proressor GABRIEL OLTRAMARE, formerly 
professor of mathematics at Geneva Univer- 
sity, died on April 10, in his ninetieth year. 


Tue House Committee on coinage, weights 
and measures on April 27 voted down a mo- 
tion to report the Littauer bill establishing 
the metric system of weights and measures. 


Dr. Natuan C. ScHArrrer, president of the 
National Educational Association, writes from 
the executive committee in session at the 
Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, Ill., on April 28, 
“Tn view of the appalling calamity which has 
visited San Francisco it is impossible for the 
National Educational Association to hold its 
meeting this year in that city. After fully 
considering all the letters and telegrams 
which have been received from all parts of the 
United States, and after carefully weighing 
what is due the people of San Francisco, the 
executive committee, under the authority con- 
ferred upon it by the board of directors at its 
last meeting—the board of trustees, now in 
session, concurring—decides to postpone the 
annual convention of the National Educa- 
tional Association for one year, to a place yet 
to be determined. They join in the hope that 
the association may meet in San Francisco 
as soon as feasible.” 

THE annual meeting of the South African 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
will be held at Kimberley on July 9-14, under 
the presideney of Mr. G. F. Williams. 


THE eighty-ninth annual meeting of the 
Swiss Scientific Society will be held this year 
at St. Gall from July 29 to August 1, under 
the presidency of Dr. Ambihl. 


Berore the adjournment of the New York 
legislature Governor Higgins signed a bill 
creating the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Com- 
mittee, and appropriating $25,000 to be ex- 
pended by it for celebrating the tereentenary 
of the discovery of the Hudson River in 1609, 
and of the first use of steam in the navigation 
of the river by Robert Fulton in 1807. 


THE spring lectures given in the lecture 
hall of the museum building of the New York 


May 11, 1906.] 


Botanical Garden at Bronx Park on Saturday 
afternoons at 4:30 are as follows: 

April 21. ‘On the Correlation of Characters in 
Plants,’ by Professor Hugo de Vries. 

April 28. ‘A Day at Hammarby, the Home of 
Linneus, by Dr. W. A. Murrill. 

May 5. ‘A Historical Review of the Study of 
Fossil Plants,’ by Dr. Arthur Hollick. 

May 12. ‘A Glimpse at the Development of 
Botany in America,’ by Professor L. M. Under- 
wood. 

May 19. ‘The Effects of Radium on Plants,’ 
by Dr. C. Stuart Gager. 

May 26. ‘Some Botanical Features of Porto 
Rico,’ by Dr. Marshall A. Howe. 

June 2. ‘Orchids; their Botanical Features 
and Relation to Horticulture,’ by Mr. G. V. Nash. 

June 9. ‘The Wild Vegetable Foods of the 
United States, by Dr. H. H. Rusby. 

June 16. ‘The Origin and Adaptations of 
Desert Floras, by Dr. D. T. MacDougal. 

June 23. ‘The Botanical Exploration of the 
West Indies,’ by Dr. N. L. Britton. 


THE general assembly of the state of Mary- 
land, which has just adjourned, established a 
State Forestry Commission, composed of seven 
members. The governor, state comptroller, 
the president of the Johns Hopkins University 
and the president of the Maryland Agricul- 
tural College and the present State Geological 
Survey Commission comprise the- new board, 
together with the state geologist and two mem- 
bers interested in forestry matters who are to 
be appointed by the governor. Professor Wm. 
Bullock Clark, state geologist, will become 
the executive officer of the board, which has 
the appointment of a state forester who will 
continue the forest survey already started by 
the State Geological Survey. The new board 
has the right to accept as gifts and to purchase 
lands for state forest reservations and also to 
appoint wardens in the several counties to 
protect the forests from fire and preserve the 
game. 


ADDITIONAL legislation was obtained by the 
Maryland Geological Survey at the last ses- 
sion of the legislature, providing for the con- 
struction of a modern state road connecting 
Baltimore and Washington. The work on 
the road is to be taken up at once and com- 
pleted within three years. The State Geolog- 


SCIENCE. 


759 


ical Survey has charge of all state road work 
and under the State Aid Road Act of 1904 
has not completed its first year’s operations, 
having contracted for about forty miles of 
modern roads last season which are being built 
at the joint expense of the state and counties. 
The amount available annually for this work 
amounts to $400,000. 


A PRELIMINARY statement on the production 
of hydraulic cement in the United States dur- 
ing the calendar year 1905 has been issued by 
the United States Geological Survey. It 
shows that the total production of all kinds 
of hydraulic cement in 1905, including Port- 
land, natural-rock, and slag or Puzzolan ce- 
ments, was 40,894,308 barrels, valued at $36,- 
012,189. This was an increase of 9,219,051 
barrels, valued at $9,980,269, over the produc- 
tion of the previous year. Of the total 
amount of cement manufactured in the 
United States in 1905, 36,038,812 barrels were 
Portland cement, with a value of $33,326,523; 
4,473,049 barrels were natural rock cement, 
valued at $2,413,052; and 382,447 barrels were 
slag or Puzzolan cement, valued at $272,614. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mr. ANDREW CaRNEGIE has given $100,000 
to Lehigh University for the construction of 
a dormitory. 

A pREss dispatch states that the movement 
to increase the endowment of Victoria Uni- 
versity, Toronto, by $300,000 is now practically 
completed. That amount has been raised all 
but $12,000, counting the $50,000 given by 
Mr. Andrew Carnegie. The latter donation 
was conditional upon the raising of an addi- 
tional $50,000, but Chancellor Burwash is con- 
fident that there will be no trouble in fulfilling 
the condition. A new library building will 
be erected, capable of accommodating about 
300 students, and with a stockroom capacity 
of 50,000 volumes. 

Accorpine to the N. Y. Hvening Post Sir 
William McDonald, of Montreal, has given 
$55,000 for the purpose of erecting an exten- 
sion to Prince of Wales College, Charlotte- 
town, P. EB. I. Additional facilities will be 
provided for teaching nature study, domestic 


760 


science and kindred subjects, and for training 
teachers. 


We learn from English exchanges that the 
special board for mathematics has recom- 
mended important changes in the Cambridge 
mathematical tripos, which, they say, as at 
present constituted, exercises in several re- 
spects an unsatisfactory influence upon the 
course of study of the candidates. The board 
proposes that an examination of an elementary 
character be established to be called ‘ The 
Mathematical Tripos, Part I.’ This examina- 
tion would be taken by the better students at 
the end of the first year, and by others at the 
end of the second year. It would serve the 
two main purposes of relieving those who had 
passed it from the obligation of spending 
further time on the elementary parts of sub- 
jects contained in it, and of indicating a course 
and providing a test suitable to the needs of 
those students of engineering or physics whe 
are willing and able to spend part of their 
time in acquiring such a knowledge of pure 
and applied mathematics as the examination 
will test. The present Part II. would be dis- 
continued, the name ‘The Mathematical 
Tripos, Part II.’ being applied to an examina- 
tion to be taken at the end of the third year. 
It is proposed that the list of successful candi- 
dates shall be arranged in the three classes of 
-Wranglers, Senior Optimes, and Junior Op- 
times, the names in each class to be arranged 
alphabetically. The ablest students, being 
thus relieved from the necessity of competing 
for places in the examination, would be able 
to spend a considerable part of their time 
during the first three years on advanced work, 
whilst it is hoped that other students of some- 
what less ability would be encouraged to spend 
part of their time in this manner. 


AN official report on the University of Paris 
by M. Tannery, abstracted in The British 
Medical Journal, shows that the total number 
of students in the university last year was 
14,462, of whom 1,638 were foreigners. Of 
the whole number, 968 were women, and of 
these 518 were foreign. The teaching staff 
comprised 281 professors, professeurs agrégés, 
and lecturers. The number of students in the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 593. 


medical faculty was 3,482, being 93 less than 
in the previous year. The dean of the faculty 
is quoted as stating that ‘he would rejoice if 
the diminution were still greater.’ Of 109 
foreign women who were students of the 
faculty, 98 were Russians. In the faculty of 
law there were 6,086 students, showing an in- 
crease of 1,289 as compared with the previous 
year. Of the law students, 231 were foreign- 
ers, mostly Roumanians, Egyptians and Rus- 
sians. Of the representatives of the last- 
named nation, 29 were women. 


Dr. Francis R. Lane, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
has been appointed director of the Jacob Tome 
Institute, at Port Deposit, Md. He succeeds 
Dr. Abram W. Harris, who resigned to accept 
the presidency of the Northwestern University. 


Proressor FRANK TuHinty, who recently 
went from the University of Missouri to 
Princeton University as professor of philos- 
ophy, has been made professor of philosophy 
in the Sage Schdol of Philosophy of Cornell 
University, succeeding Professor E. B. Me- 
Gilvary, who was last year called to the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. 


THE trustees of Wellesley College have re- 
cently made the following changes and new 
appointments in the department of botany: 
Dr. Margaret C. Ferguson was promoted from 
associate professor in charge to professor and 
head of the department. The title of Clara 
E. Cummings was changed from professor of 
botany to professor of cryptogamic botany. 
Mary C. Bliss was reappointed with the title 
of instructor and curator of the museum. H. 
S. Adams was reelected instructor and con- 
sulting landscape architect. The new appoint- 
ments were: L. W. Riddle, instructor and 
curator of the phanerogamic herbarium; Mary 
F. Barrett, instructor; Caroline L. Allen, 
assistant. 

Mr. R. R. Gates, M.A., who has just re- 
ceived the degree of B.Sc. from McGill Uni- 
versity, and who during ‘the past year has 
been engaged upon special cytological work 
with reference to an elucidation of the laws 
governing hybridization, has received an ap- 
pointment to a senior fellowship in Chicago 
University. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fropay, May 18, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 
ment of Teaching. =... 10... ow ce es cree tn = 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 


Section D—Nechanical Science and Engi- 
neering: PROFESSOR WILLIAM T. MAGRUDER. 


Panama: A Discussion of Present Condi- 
tions and the Prospect: FuLtrrtTon L. 


The Movement in Prussia for the Reorganiza- 
tion of the Instruction in Mathematics and 
the Natural Sciences. in the Secondary 
Schools: Proressogr J. W. A. YoUNG...... 


Scientific Books :— 
Brggger on the Position of Raised Beaches 
in Southeastern Norway: DR. GEORGE 
Grant MacCurpy. Catalogue of the Fossil 
Plants of the Glossopteris Flora in the 
British Museum: Epwarp W. BERRY. 
Aschan’s Chemie der alicyklischen Verbind- 
ungen: Dr. J. BISHOP TINGLE............ 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— 
The American Mathematical Society: Dr. 
W. H. Bussey. 
California: Proressor A. L. KRorsrr. The 
Torrey Botanical Club: C. StuaRT GAGER. 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
C. 8. Rafinesque on Evolution: Dr. LEon- 
HARD STEJNEGER. The Influence of the 
Plasticity of Organisms upon Evolution: 
Proressor Maynarp M. Mretcatr. A Sim- 
ple Formula for Mixing any Grade of Alco- 
hol Desired: Dr. E. W. Bercer. Magnet- 
ism of Diamond Drill Rods: PRoressor D. 
Wie CORI ONGs 5 bo cancekbaeapaobeosa ae aus 


Special Articles :— 


The Terminology of the Parts of the Grass 
Spikelet: C. V. Prper. Note on the Molec- 
ular Forces in Gelatine: PROFESSOR ARTHUR 


Notes on Organic Chemistry :— 


New Analogues of Indigo: Dr. J. BisHoP 
AMER CIGD) enn Se OHO a naeD Hae ciolois cacoe pao 


Folk-lore Meetings im: 


7 


7 


7 


7 


tl 
7 


7 


61 


64 


69 


73 


78 
83 


85 


789 


rb 


Recent Museum Reports: F. A. L..........- 792 

Report on the Bolyai Prize: PROFESSOR GEORGE 
TBP OKO) EVN). Se GaanboasccascndacpoDoN 793 
The Congress of the United States......... 794 
A New Building for the Geological Survey.. 794 
University of the Pacific and the Earthquake. 795 
New York Observatory and Nautical Museum. 795 

Bills of Scientific Interest passed by the New 
Work) Legislatures. 0. \-.0 = le ae srs eels ee 796 

The American Association for the Advance- 
HUGO Off INGHAVEG, 5505 00beecoDDe God DonDADG 96 
Scientific Notes and News..............--- 797 
800° 


University and Educational News.......... 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of SclENcE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE AD- 
VANCEMENT OF TEACHING. RULES 
FOR THE GRANTING OF. RETIRING 
ALLOWANCES. 

Tur aim of the founder in the incor- 
poration of this foundation is clearly ex- 
pressed in the act of incorporation passed 
by the Congress of the United States, and 
approved by the president. 

This aim is there stated to be the founda- 
tion of an agency to provide retiring allow- 
ances for teachers in the universities, col- 
leges and technical schools of the three 
English-speaking countries of North Amer- 
ica, and to serve the cause of higher edu- 
cation by advancing and dignifying the 
profession of the teacher in these higher 
institutions of learning. By the terms of 
the act of incorporation sectarian institu- 
tions are excluded from the benefits of the 
foundation. Consideration of the ques- 
tion of the admission of state institutions 
has been deferred until some experience 


762 SCIENCE. 


has been had in the actual administration 
of the trust. 


EDUCATIONAL STANDARD. 

The term college is used to designate, in 
the United States, Canada and Newfound- 
land, institutions varying so widely in en- 
trance requirements, standards of instruc- 
tion and facilities for work, that for the 
purposes of this foundation, it is necessary 
to use, at least for the present, some arbi- 
trary definition of that term. The follow- 
ing definition, now im use under the re- 
vised ordinances of the state of New York, 
will be employed for the purposes of this 
foundation : 

An institution to be ranked as a college, must 
have at least six professors giving their entire 
time to college and university work, a course of 
four full years in liberal arts and sciences, and 
should require for admission, not less than the 
usual four years of academic or high school 
preparation, or its equivalent, in addition to the 
pre-academic or grammar school studies. 

A technical school, to be eligible, must 
have entrance and graduation requirements 
equivalent to those of the college, and must 
offer courses in pure and applied science 
of equivalent grade. 

To be ranked as a college an institution 
must have a productive endowment of not 
less than two hundred thousand dollars. 


SECTARIAN LIMITATION. 

Institutions of learning will be recog- 
nized as eligible to the benefits of this 
foundation, so far as sectarianism is in- 
volved, under the following conditions: 

1. Universities, colleges and technical 
schools of requisite academic grade, not 
owned or controlled by a religious organi- 
zation, and whose acts of incorporation or 
charters specifically provide that no de- 
nominational or sectarian test shall be ap- 
plied in the choice of trustees, officers or 
teachers, nor in the admission of students. 

2. In the cases of institutions not owned 


[N.8. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


or controlled by a religious organization, 
and in which no specifie statement concern- 
ing denominational tests is made in the 
charters or acts of incorporation, the trus- 
tees of such institutions shall be asked to, 
certify by a resolution to the trustees of 
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 
ment of Teaching that, notwithstanding 
the lack of specific prohibition in the char- 
ter, ‘no denominational test is imposed in 
the choice of trustees, officers or teachers, 
or in the admission of students, nor are 
distinctly denominational tenets or doc- 
trines taught to the students.’ Upon the 
passage of such resolution by the govern- 
ing bodies of such institutions, they may 
be recognized as entitled to the benefits of 
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 
ment of Teaching, so far as considerations 
of sectarian control are concerned. 


RECOGNITION OF INSTITUTIONS. 

Institutions of higher learning, whether 
universities, colleges or technical schools, 
whose educational standard is equal to, or 
higher than, that indicated in the forego- 
ing, and which comply with the conditions 
regarding sectarian control, may be recog- 
nized by the trustees of The Carnegie 
Foundation for the Advancement of Teach- 
ing, as entitled to share in the benefits of 
the foundation, and a list of such accepted 
institutions will be announced. This list 
will be provisional and to it additions will 
from time to time be made. 

To professors in these institutions the 
benefits of the foundation shall be extended 
through the institutions themselves, that 
is to say, once the rules upon which retir- 
ing allowances are granted are definitely 
determined, they shall work automatically, 
in what might be called normal eases, that 
is, In cases of old age or long service. Thus 
if a professor in such an accepted institu- 
tion has reached the age of x years, or if 
he has been in the teaching profession for a 


May 18, 1906.] 


period of y years, he would receive his 
allowance as soon as his institution applied 
for it. In eases outside of the normal 
age or service conditions, the reecommenda- 
tion of the accepted institution shall be 
considered by the trustees of The Carnegie 
Foundation for the Advancement of Teach- 
ing, and action taken upon the individual 
case, and once a grant has been made, pay- 
ment will be made as in normal eases, 
through the institution. 

No institution will be accepted which is 
so organized that stockholders may partici- 
pate in its benefits. 


RECOGNITION OF INDIVIDUAL PROFESSORS IN 
INSTITUTIONS NOT ON THE ACCEPTED LIST. 

The trustees realize that there are able 
and devoted teachers rendering admirable 
service to education in institutions which, 
owing to low entrance requirements, or for 
other reasons, are considered below the 
academic grade requisite to entitle them to 
a place on the accepted list of institutions. 
Individual professors of merit or of dis- 
tinguished service in such institutions may 
be granted retiring allowances, but in such 
eases the trustees will deal with the indi- 
vidual professor. Such-allowances can not 
be granted to professors in institutions 
deemed to be under denominational con- 
trol. 


CONDITIONS FOR THE GRANTING OF NORMAL 
RETIRING ALLOWANCES. 

1. Age.—To be eligible to retirement on 
the ground of age, a teacher must have 
reached the age of sixty-five and must have 
been for fifteen years professor in a higher 
institution of learning. Whether a pro- 
fessor’s connection as a teacher with his 
institution shall cease at an earlier or later 
age than sixty-five, is a matter solely 
within the jurisdiction of the professor 
himself and the authorities of the institu- 
tion in which he serves. 

2. Long Service.—To be eligible for re- 


SCIENCE. 


763 


tirement on the ground of length of service, 
a teacher must have had twenty-five years’ 
service aS a professor in a higher institu- 
tion of learning. It is not necessary that 
the whole of the service shall have been 
given in accepted colleges, universities or 
technical schools. 

In no ease shall any allowance be paid 
to a teacher who continues to give the 
whole or part of his time to the work of 
teaching, as a member of the instructing 
staff of a college or technical school. 


THE SCALE OF RETIRING ALLOWANCES. 


The trustees recognize that a fixed rule 
limiting the amount of an allowance—such, 
for instance, as a stated percentage of a 
professor’s salary—can not be adopted 
without working a serious hardship in 
many institutions where salaries are low, 
and under the best conditions must remain 
low for many years. They have, therefore, 
adopted a scale under which a teacher who 
is receiving a low salary is granted a much 
higher percentage of his salary than is 
granted to one receiving a higher salary. 
Thus, for a salary below sixteen hundred 
dollars a pension of $1,000 or a sum not to 
exceed ninety per cent. of the active pay, 
is granted as a retiring allowance. It is 
believed that this scale is a more just one 
to men on small salaries. It could scarcely 
dignify the calling of the teacher to allot 
to a professor who had served many years 
at twelve hundred dollars a year fifty per 
cent. of his pay, although that percentage 
might be a fairly generous allowance in the 
ease of a professor who had been receiving 
a pay of five thousand dollars. 


RULES FOR THE GRANTING OF NORMAL 
RETIRING ALLOWANCES. 

1. A normal retiring allowance is con- 
sidered to be one awarded to a professor in 
an accepted university, college or technical 
school, on the ground of either age or length 


764 


of service. The term professor, as here 
used, is understood to include presidents, 
deans, professors, associate professors and 
assistant professors, in institutions of high- 
er learning. 

2. Retiring allowances shall be granted 
under the following rules, upon the appli- 
cation of ,the institution with which the 
professor is connected, and in the applica- 
tion it should be clearly set forth whether 
the retiring allowance is recommended on 
the ground of age or service. 

3. In reckoning the amount of the re- 
tiring allowance the average salary for the 
last five years of active service shall be 
considered the active pay. 

4, Any person sixty-five years of age, 
and who has had not less than fifteen years 
of service as a professor, and who is at the 
time a professor in an accepted institution, 
shall be entitled to an annual retiring al- 
lowance computed as follows: 

(a) For an active pay of sixteen hun- 
dred dollars or less, an allowance of one 
thousand dollars, provided no retiring al- 
lowance shall exceed ninety per cent. of 
the active pay. 

(b) For an active pay greater than six- 
teen hundred dollars, the retiring allowance 
shall equal one thousand dollars, increased 
by fifty dollars for each one hundred dol- 
lars of active pay in excess of sixteen hun- 
dred dollars. 

(c) No retiring allowance shall exceed 
three thousand dollars. 

5. Any person who has had a service of 
twenty-five years as a professor, and who 
is at the time a professor in an accepted 
institution, shall be entitled to a retiring 
allowance computed as follows: 

(a) For an active pay of sixteen hun- 
dred dollars or less, a retiring allowance 
of eight hundred dollars, provided that no 
retiring allowance shall exceed eighty per 
cent. of the active pay. 

(b) For an active pay greater than six- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 594. 


teen hundred dollars, the retiring allowance 
shall equal eight, hundred dollars, increased 
by forty dollars for each one hundred dol- 
lars of active pay in excess of sixteen hun- 
dred dollars. 

(c) For each additional year of service 
above twenty-five, the retirmg allowance 
shall be increased by one per cent. of the 
active pay. 

(ad) No retiring allowance shall exceed 
three thousand dollars. 

6. Any person who has been for ten years 
the wife of a professor in actual service 
may receive during her widowhood one 
half of the allowance to which her husband 
would have been entitled. 

7. In the preceding rules, years of leave 
of absence are to be counted as years of 
service, but not exceeding one year im seven. 
Librarians, registrars, recorders and ad- 
ministrative officers of long tenure, whose 
salaries may be classed with those of pro- 
fessors and assistant professors, are consid- 
ered eligible to the benefits of a retiring 
allowance. 

8. Teachers in the professional depart- 
ments of universities whose principal work 
is outside the profession of teaching are 
not included. 

9. The benefits of the foundation shall 
not be available to those whose active ser- 
vice ceased before April 16, 1905, the date 
of Mr. Carnegie’s original letter to the 
trustees. 

10. The Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching retains the power 
to alter these rules in such manner as ex- 
perience may indicate as desirable for the 
benefit of the whole body of teachers. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


SECTION D—MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND 
ENGIN EBRING. 

THE meeting of the section for organiza- 

tion was held in the engineering building 


May 18, 1906.] 


of Tulane University. The following offi- 
cers were elected to serve during the mect- 
ing: 

Councilor—F. O. Marvin, professor of civil en- 
gineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kas. 

Member of the General Committee—G. W. Bis- 
sell, professor of mechanical engineering, lowa 
State College, Ames, Iowa. 

Member of the Sectional Committee, 1906 to 
1911—J. B. Webb, professor of mathematics, 
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N. J. 

The secretary of the section was elected press 
secretary. 

The vice-president of the section, Fred W. Mac- 
Nair, president, Michigan College of Mines, 
Houghton, Mich., served as chairman of the sec- 
tion. 

Owing to the small number of members 
in attendance, it was decided to combine 
the programs of Sections D and B in two 
joint sessions. These proved to be of gen- 
eral interest and value. The report of the 
papers offered in Section B will be found 
on pages 415 to 421 of the issue of SciENcE 
for March 16, 1906. 

The first paper was read by Fred W. 
MacNair, president, Michigan College of 
Mines, Houghton, Mich., and described ‘An 
Experiment on Hasterly Deviation beneath 
the Earth’s Surface,’ which he had made 


in the No. 5 shaft of the Tamarack Mine. 


A detailed report has already been pub- 
lished on page 415 of Scmmncz. It might 
be added, however, that the experiment of 
dropping a steel ball from the top of a 
shaft forty-two hundred feet deep and 
finding it lodged in the timbers at a depth 
of only eight hundred feet from the sur- 
face, adds but another example to the gen- 
eral experience that bodies which are 
dropped in a mine-shaft seldom reach the 
bottom. 

A paper by A. S. Langsdorf, professor of 
electrical engineering, Washington Univer- 
sity, St. Louis, Mo., on ‘A New Type of 
Frequency Meter,’ was read by the secre- 
tary and was published in The Electrical 
World, Vol. 46, page 1029, for December 


SCIENCE. 


765 
16, 1905. The device was originally de- 
seribed by the author.t It was independ- 
ently conceived by Mr. J. F. Begole, of 
the Wagner Electric Manufacturing Com- 
pany of St. Louis, and has recently been 
placed on the market. The principle in- 
volved in this instrument is based upon the 
fact that if an alternating (sinusoidal) 
electromotive force of EF volts and fre- 
quency »(— 277) is impressed upon a con- 
denser of capacity C farads the current 
will be 


I=EwC amperes. 


In other words, for a given value of 0, 
the indications of an ammeter will be pro- 
portional to the frequency, provided E' re- 
mains constant, in which ease the scale of 
the ammeter could be graduated to read 
directly in eyeles. 

It is of course evident that the assump- 
tion of constant electromotive force is not 
justifiable where commercial circuits are 
concerned. If the scale of the ammeter 
mentioned above were graduated to read 
eycles, a change in line yoltage would be 
recorded as an apparent change in fre- 
quency. This difficulty can be overcome, 
however, if the scale of the ammeter is it- 
self movable and pivoted on a line coaxial 
with that of the pointer or indicator of the 
ammeter; if the motion of the scale, due to 
a change of voltage, is made equal to, and 
in'the same direction as, that of the am- 
meter needle, there will be no relative mo- 
tion between the two, and the reading will 
remain unaltered. 

To secure this compensating scale mo- 
tion, the scale need only be attached to a 
wound bobbin which is constructed in all 
respects like that of an ordinary voltmeter, 
this voltmeter winding being then con- 
nected across the line. 

In the instrument as built the bobbin to 


* Proc. American Association for the Adwvance- 
ment of Science, Vol. LIII., 1904, p. 380. 


766 


which the pointer is fastened, and which 
carries the condenser current, is mounted 
either directly above or below the bobbin 
which carries a graduated scale. Advan- 
tage is taken of the fact, suggested by Mr. 
Begole, that the instrument is a combined 
voltmeter and frequency-meter. 

Carl Kingsley, of the department of 
physics, University of Chicago, presented a 
paper which was read by abstract on ‘A 
Critical Analysis of the Methods of Sup- 
plying Power to Branch Telephone Ex- 
changes on the Common Battery System.’ 
The five possible methods are considered, 
and three of these are chosen as most 
worthy of critical analysis. In each of 
the three cases the total costs are deter- 
mined in terms of the distance from the 
central and the total energy to be supplied 
at the branch exchanges. Three equations 
are obtained, each of which contains the 
three variables, cost, distance and energy. 
For any particular exchange, the method of 
Supply can be, therefore, readily chosen, 
which will give the minimum cost of opera- 
tion. Complete curves have been drawn 
and a graphical solution of the problem 
ean be obtained by inspection. 


D. S. Jacobus, professor of experimental 
engineering, Stevens Institute, Hoboken, 
N. J., read and illustrated a paper giving 
the results of his experiments on ‘The Dif- 
ference in the Coefficient of ‘Discharge of 
Steam through a Single Cireular Orifice 
in a plate and through a Number of Cir- 
cular Orifices in the Same Plate.’ 


The flow of steam through an orifice in a plate 
was determined and compared with that obtained 
when six orifices of the same size were placed 
near each other in the same plate. The flow per 
orifice was about 14 per cent. greater than with 
a single orifice. This shows how important it 
is to consider the conditions which exist on the 
exhaust side of the orifice. The experiments also 
showed that the position at which the pressure 
on the exhaust side of the orifice was measured 
was an important factor, as this pressure varied 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIIT. No. 594. 


considerably when measured at different distances 
from the orifice plate. 

The orifices were %” in diameter. The pipe 
conveying steam to the orifice plate and conduct- 
ing it away from the same was 2” standard size. 
The orifice plate was placed in a flange union. 
The single orifice was at the center of the plate 
and the six orifices were arranged with one orifice 
at the center and five midway between the 
periphery of the center orifice and the inside of 
the pipe. The pressure on the high-pressure side 
of the orifice was about 147 pounds per square 
inch, and on the discharge, or low-pressure, side, 
about 105 pounds per square inch. The pressure 
on the discharge side was measured at a consid- 
erable distance from the plate in order to avoid 
a jet action which existed at a point near the 
plate, which caused the pressure near the plate 
to be less than at some little distance from the 
plate. 


In a second paper he discussed the sub- 
ject of ‘Priming caused by Poor Circula- 
tion in a Boiler,’ and described experiments 
which he had made. 


A small vertical tubular boiler of about fifteen 
rated horse-power was employed in the experi- 
ments. This boiler was of the ordinary con- 
struction with a water heating surface enclosing 
a circular grate and with tubes leading directly 
upward from the combustion space above the 
fire to the upper tube sheet at the top of the 
boiler. The steam was taken from the boiler at 
a point in the outer shell near the top of the 
boiler. When the boiler was run under normal 
conditions the steam generated was dry for ordi- 
nary rates of combustion, and superheated when 
the boiler was forced to a high capacity. 


In this class of a boiler, the temperature of 
the flue gases escaping from the tubes near the 
center of the tube sheet is much higher than that 
of the gases from the outer tubes, and tests were 
projected to determine whether there should be 
a gain in the economy through placing retarders 
in the center tubes so as to more evenly distribute 
the work done by the different tubes. In these 
tests the retarders were so adjusted that the tem- 
perature of the escaping gases was made about 
the same for each of the tubes. After this was 
done there was an unexpected action through the 
boiler priming so severely that it was impossible 
to run it at other than a low capacity. The 
water level would be constant for a short time 
and the steam would be dry, when suddenly foam 
would appear in the gauge glass and water would 


May 18, 1906.] 


be thrown from the boiler along with the steam. 
On removing the retarders the priming disap- 
peared, and on replacing them it was again pres- 
ent. It therefore appeared that the retarders 
caused the priming, and it remains to explain 
how this could be so. 

It seems evident that the priming was caused 
through a lack of proper circulation in the boiler. 
Without the retarders the tubes near the center 
of the boiler were hotter than those near the side 
and caused an upward current of water at the 
center of the boiler, and a downward current 
at the sides, and the circulation was a brisk and 
definite one. With the retarders, however, all 
the tubes were at the same temperature and there 
was no tendency to produce a definite circulation 
so that the water was quiescent for a time, and 
after storing a certain amount of heat, it would 
foam up and some of it would be thrown from 
the boiler. 

A paper by Paul C. Nugent, professor 
of civil engineering, Syracuse University, 
Syracuse, N. Y., on ‘The Dual Degree for 
Engineering Courses’ was read by the 
secretary. 

In the College of Liberal Arts of Syra- 
cuse University, the best students are 
‘graduated with ‘honors’ of one of three 
grades. It has been suggested to adopt the 
practise in the college of applied science. 
Its object is to reward merit and to stimu- 
late the student to more strenuous efforts 
to gain a high standing in his class, and to 
thus result in graduating a better class of 
men. ‘The first purpose is in a measure 
fulfilled. It is doubtful whether the sec- 
ond is accomplished at all. 

He reviews the two systems for granting 
degrees now in use in engineering colleges, 
namely, granting the engineering degree 
at the end of a four years’ course, and sec- 
ondly granting the degree of bachelor of 
science at the end of the undergraduate 
‘course, and the full engineering degree on 
the completion of a year or more of post- 
graduate work, or two or three years of 
practical work and on presentation of a 
thesis. He is strongly in favor of grant- 
ing the full engineering degree at the end 


SCIENCE. 


767 


of the four years, and claims that engi- 
neering can be taught just as practically 
and just as professionally as is medicine, 
and that the engineering graduate is as 
much entitled to the professional degree as 
the medical graduate is to the medical de- 
gree and the title of ‘doctor.’ 

The author then suggests a fourth plan: 

At the end of the regular four-year course, let 
two degrees be granted, the B.S. being given to 
those who have passed in all required subjects, 
but have failed to attain a certain set grade for 
all the work of the last three years. This plan 
places the engineering degree on a higher plane 
than that occupied by the baccalaureate. It is 
thought that many students who would not care 
whether they graduated with ‘honors’ or not 
would redouble their efforts when it came to 
graduating as an ‘engineer. Another result 
would be that almost every engineering graduate 
would be a man to whom his college could point 
with confidence and pride. The B.S. men might 
be permitted to return for a year to obtain the 
full degree. The dominant thought of all such 
work should be quality and not so much the 
teaching of new things as the better teaching and 
more thorough teaching of the old: it should aim 
to produce better reasoning powers and general 
ability in the student, and failing that, the full 
degree should never be granted. 


The paper received considerable discus- 
sion and elicited much opposition. Engi- 
neering professors, as a rule, seem to be 
quite well satisfied with the present prac- 
tise of their respective institutions. 

A paper by Mr. Fullerton L. Waldo, of 
New York, N. Y., was next presented on 
‘Panama: A Discussion of the Present Con- 
ditions and the Prospects.’ The paper is 
true to its title, discusses the various re- 
ports of the present conditions, gives ex- 
amples of these conditions, shows why they 
are so, and then bears worthy tribute to 
the character, integrity and engineering 
ability of the canal commissioner, the late 
George S. Morison. 

Mr. Morison insisted that we must take two 


years to clean up the mess left by the French, to 
burn the hovels, to drain the swamps, to petrolize 


768 


the breeding places of the mosquito, and to build 
clean, wholesome houses for the men. He went 
down there himself and put his fingers into the 
dry-rot, and found there the seeds of his own 
mortal illness. Whitewash, either in engineering 
or in politics, could not fool him. Had he lived, 
he might have been able to check the tendency to 
‘hustle’ in the scrambling ambition to make dirt 
fly, simply that the foolable part of our country’s 
population might be deceived by the specious 
appearance of ‘something doing.’ All calamity 
howlers to the contrary notwithstanding, the 
canal is as sure to be built as that a natural 
law is certain of fulfilment; and those who to-day 
busy themselves trying to find arguments against 
it are going to be ashamed and sorry when the 
seas are eventually linked by the greatest engi- 
neering undertaking in the history of mankind. 


Mr. Waldo speaks knowingly and ‘makes 
clear the fundamental soundness of the 
Panama Canal proposition, and the nature 
of the temporary difficulties which haye 
hampered the execution of the plans.’ 

Mr. Worcester R. Warner, of Cleveland, 
O., who spent a week on the Isthmus in 
the winter of 1904-5 with the congressional 
committee, presented a paper on his “Ob- 
servations on the Panama Canal,’ which 
was read by the secretary, showing why he 
is more convinced than ever that the sea- 
level plan is the only one that our govern- 
ment ought to adopt. He states: 


The cause of the failure of the French Com- 
pany was primarily, and almost wholly, due to 
maladministration, which is indicated by the 
ruins of expensive machinery now lying along the 
route of the canal, more particularly near the 
Atlantic terminus. Twenty-five years ago, the 
control of the Chagres River was considered the 
difficult problem; now it is considered only ten 
or fifteen per cent. of the problem. Now the great 
difficulty is the excavation of the material from 
the Culebra cut. The great wonder of the canal 
is that so much of it is practically level. From 
Colon to Gamboa, the fall is only two feet per 
mile for twenty-eight miles. Ten miles at the 
Pacific end of the canal compares in grade with 
the Atlantic end. This leaves about ten miles 
through the Culebra cut, which can be considered 
as embodying practically all the difficulties in 
excavation. 

If a sea-level canal is constructed, a dam will 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 594, 


be required at Gamboa, where there is splendid 
foundation for it, and it would make an artificial 
lake with sufficient capacity to care for the lar- 
gest freshets whose waters would be drawn off 
towards the oceans by routes other than the canal 
bed. Sufficient water would be let into the 
canal to provide the necessary power for genera- 
ting electricity for lighting and power purposes. 
On the other hand, if a lock canal is constructed, 
a dam 2,000 feet long must be built at Bohio, 
and possibly another at Gatung, on foundations 
which are found only at 150 feet or more below 
sea level, and they can be constructed only with 
the greatest trouble and at an enormous expense. 
That a dirt dam at Bohio has been suggested 
seems hardly credible. 

When we consider that the maximum height 
of the canal at the beginning was less than the 
height of some of our modern buildings, and 
that the French Company reduced that height to 


150 feet above sea-level, which is practically 
the height of our nine or ten story buildings, and 


further, that this height extends only for less 
than ten miles, Mr. Warner is confident that if 
the present Congress does not direct a sea-level 
canal to be built, that the next one will, for our 
government engineering works in the past have 
not been conducted on the ‘ penny-wise and pound- 
foolish’ plan. 

One other argument should be men- 
tioned, and that is that without exception 
the great engineering works of the present 
generation have proven themselves too 
small and too limited. This is illustrated 
by the ‘Soo’ canal, the first locks of which 
were discarded years ago and larger ones 
built, which are soon to be replaced by 
others still larger. If the Panama Canal 
is built on the sea-level plan, it can be en- 
larged without interfering with traffic and 
without difficulty. On the other hand, if 
a lock system is used it is limited, and can 
not be enlarged without being rebuilt. 

The vice-presidential address was de- 
livered by Professor Jacobus in the as- 
sembly room of Gibson Hall. The subject 
which he chose was ‘Commercial Investi- 
gations and Tests in Connection with Col- 
leee Work.’ It was concurred in and 
heartily appreciated by the members of 
the section and association who had the 


May 18, 1906.] 


pleasure of listening to it. It was pub- 
lished in full in the issue of Science for 
January 19, 1906, and will be found on 
page 92. It was also published in the 
January issue of the Stevens Institute In- 
- dicator (Vol. XXIII, p. 7). The author 
quoted Mr. Walter C. Kerr, in connection 
with his work as trustee of Cornell Uni- 
versity, as being in favor of the plan that 
a professor shall be thrown upon his own 
resources and be compelled to work in the 
practical field one year out of seven. It 
seems that the author was misinformed as 
to Mr. Kerr’s real meaning, and that Mr. 
Kerr has called his attention to the matter 
in a letter which will be found in the April 
issue of the Stevens Institute Indicator. 
Mr. Kerr explains his ideas at some length, 
and includes a memorandum on the sub- 
ject which he made to President Schurman. 
Hight. other letters are included commend- 


ing the substance of this address and plead- 


ing for the more intimate connection of 
engineering professors with actual prac- 
tise. 

It gives the secretary much pleasure to 
state that the Society for the Promotion 
of Engineering Education has decided to 
meet at Ithaca June 29 to July 3 as an 
‘affiliated society’ of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. 
It is probable that one or more joint ses- 
sions will be held with Section D during 
the meeting. In view of this, the sectional 
committee has decided that there shall be 
a summer meeting of Section D. The 
members of the association are requested 
to submit their papers by abstract at as 
early a day as possible. Papers on the 
science of engineering education, its prob- 
lems and its advances, and on municipal 
ownership from the engineering point of 
view, are especially requested. 


Wm. T. Macruper. 
Onto State University, 
CotumMBus, Onto. 


SCIENCE. 


769 


PANAMA: A DISCUSSION OF PRESENT 
CONDITIONS AND THE PROSPECT. 

WHEN a certain prominent member of 
the engineer corps returned to New York 
in the fall, after a year’s residence at 
Panama, he declared the working force on 
the isthmus was badly demoralized on 
account of the defection of native labor, 
the resignation of John F. Wallace, the 
yellow-fever scares, and the excessive 
humidity, which decreases one’s vital en- 
ergy in the tropics fully fifty per cent. 
Tt is now about eight months, he said, since 
Wallace resigned, and the Shonts Commis- 
sion, with Stevens as chief engineer, took 
hold of the work. In May, 1905, the yard- 
age excavated had dropped to 70,000, as 
compared with 130,000 in April. The 
figures for June showed a further retro- 
gression. Accordingly, by order of Chief 
Engineer Stevens, all work was stopped on 
the canal excavations, and the energies of 
the force were diverted to sanitative work 
—the building of houses for the men, cis- 
terns and pipe-lines and reservoirs for 
drinking-water, sewers to drain a country 
which has been innocent of sewer-systems 
and plumbing for four centuries. This is 
the work which the distinguished engineer 
and canal commissioner, George S. Morison, 
said would have to be done in advance of 
canal excavation, and he allowed two years 
for it. Governor Magoon has built a reser- 
voir twelve miles from Panama and in- 
stalled a first-class system of water-works. 
Two thousand houses of the French have 
been repaired, new barracks built, and Dr. 
Gorgas has been doing a magnificent work 
in eradicating the breeding-places of the 
mosquito, and purging the whole region of 
the agglomerated filth of the Spanish oc- 
cupation. 

The necessary action of Chief Engineer 

*Read at the New Orleans Meeting of the Amer- 


ican Association for the Advancement of Science, 
Tuesday, January 2, 1906. 


770 


Stevens in postponing the excavatory work 
means that a lot of highly-paid specialists 
—transitmen, levelmen and others—have 
been practically without occupation, though 
still, of course, retained on the pay-roll. 
And of the fact that idleness, in a tropical 
country, breeds demoralization in a work- 
ing force, the history of the Panama Canal 
affords numerous instances. One of the 
first acts of the new administration was to 
abolish the quartermaster’s department 
under Capt. E. L. King, and turn over 
the matter of paying the laborers to the 
auditing department, who have handled it 
very badly. Frequently the laborers have 
been compelled to wait over two pay-days 
(more than a month), although they live 
on the credit system, and the Chinese store- 
keepers refuse to trust them beyond the 
first pay-day. 

With the shut-down of the work on the 
Culebra cut, a great many of the men from 
the states were sent home, and consequently 
skilled artisans have been scarce. Car- 
penters have been in brisk demand, but it 
has been difficult to induce a sufficient num- 
ber to remain upon the isthmus. In con- 
structive work, the great difficulty (as 
under the Wallace administration) has 
been to secure supplies. The department 
of supplies under Paymaster E. C. Tobey, 
U.S.N., has always been a great stumbling- 
block to the progress of any work on the 
isthmus, and it was the inefficiency of this 
department, as much as anything else, that 
led to Mr. Wallace’s throwing up his hands 
in despair. However, not all of the trouble 
has been on the isthmus. The Washington 
end of the department, under Colonel Ed- 
wards, of the Bureau of Insular Affairs of 
the War Department, is encumbered in its 
action by much red tape and meaningless 
routine procedure. 

Engineer Stevens has earned for himself, 
we are told, the title of ‘The Sphinx.’ (If 
he has, it seems to us a creditable nickname, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 594. 


in these days when public officers, as a rule, 
talk too much!) Stevens has discharged 
scores of men in an attempt to bring about 
changes for the better. There is much 
petty jealousy, which vents itself in fac- 
tional rows. The men sent on by the civil 
service are far below the standard of the 
men chosen by selection under the Walker 
Commission. As a glaring instance might 
be cited the case of a high engineering offi- 
cial who has been sent to the isthmus at a 
high salary, after having been discharged 
by the Walker Commission of 1901-2 for 
gross inefficiency as a transitman. This 
criticism applies not only to the specialists 
and the technical men, but to the mechanics 
as well. There are 11,000 men on the 
roster building houses and doing sanitary 
work for the sanitary department. At the 
present rate of progress it will take more 
than a year—perhaps two years—before it 
will be possible to think of actual canal 
building. The purchase of a few new 
steam shovels does not mean very much 
under the circumstances. Everything 
drags along at a snail’s pace. Mr. Shonts 
has told the advisory board that the ex- 
cavation work could not be done at the 
figures obtained under the Wallace régime 
(650,000 cubic yards were taken out in the 
first year at less than fifty cents per yard). 
The present administration fixes a price of 
not less than eighty cents per yard. 

At the Panama end, the engineer I have 
been quoting went on to say, work under 
Resident Engineer Harper is practically at 
a standstill, and has been very adversely 
affected by quarantine. At Culebra the 
engineer parties in the canal prism under 
Resident Engineer Nichols and the outside 
work under Ruggles have been accomplish- 
ing very little of interest, except some cross- 
section lines and some borings on the canal 
line. A gang of men are changing the 
railroad track from the high, narrow, Bel- 
gian rails to the heavier new rails. Prepa- 


May 18, 1906.] 


rations are being made to fill in the lock 
chamber excavated by the French at Ob- 
ispo and start in with steam shovels. 
Track has been laid out from the main line 
of the Panama Railroad. All idea of 
double-tracking this road has been aban- 
doned, and instead gangs of men are put- 
ting in sidings at all stations. Only fifteen 
trains a day now run, and the capacity of 
the single track ought to be three or four 
times as great as this, with proper handling. 
Lack of rolling-stock has been a serious 
drawback. The engineer party at Obispo 
has been cross-sectioning the tunnel-line to 
the Atlantic discovered by Engineer Boyd 
Ehle, but no further advantages have de- 
veloped, and the net result has been more 
topography. In general, most of the late 
surveys have been entirely of a dilatory 
nature; presumably they have been made 
in order to keep the large surplus of engi- 
neers to some extent employed. Work at 
the Colon end, in default of proper facili- 
ties for unloading vessels, has been of no 
consequence, and there seems to be a doubt 
as to the best course to pursue. Division 
Engineer Moltkey wants to take ships up 
the canal to a place where there is about 
thirty feet of water and soft-mud bottom. 
In the meantime the shipping has to be 
handled as before. 

According to this observer, the most dif- 
ficult thing to realize on the isthmus is 
what the 11,000 men are doing; certainly 
it amounts to very little. Here and there 
groups of workmen can be seen puttering 
away, but at the end of a week or a month 
there is a very inconsiderable result to 
show for it, and taking the present rate of 
progress aS a measure, it would seem as 
though the work might go on indefinitely. 
It is particularly disappointing to Amer- 
icans to realize that the French must have 
made a much better showing when exca- 
vating 70,000,000 cubie yards and building 


SCIENCE. 


al 


nearly 1,500 houses and quarters, in spite 
of great financial embarrassments. My in- 
formant is of the opinion that it has yet to 
be demonstrated that the Anglo-Saxon is 
better fitted for the task than the Latin, 
in spite of Chairman Shonts’s excuses. It 
is a notable fact, he says, that men new to 
the tropics need from six months to a year 
to comprehend the combined effect of the 
inertia due to climate, the inefficiency of 
labor, and the paralysis of energy due to 
bureaucracy and red tape. 

So much, then, for the statements of en- 
gineers who have recently returned from 
the isthmus. A certain allowance must 
be made for the personal equation. No 
one man—no group of men—can possibly 
know all that is to be known about the 
Panama Canal, and it is a common human 
tendeney to criticize when one, perhaps, 
does not quite understand. None of us is 
quite free from this tendency. Let us 
turn, then, for a moment, from the criti- 
cism of labor conditions to a brief state- 
ment of actual accomplishment at the isth- 
mus. In any difficult enterprise, when one 
gets discouraged at what has yet to be done, 
it is heartening to pause a minute and con- 
sider what has, after all and in spite of all, 
been done. 

The total yardage excavated on the 
Panama Canal to date is about eighty 
million cubic yards. The yardage that 
directly applies along the canal route as 
finally determined is about forty-one mil- 
lions. On the eighty-foot level plan, this 
means that about 28 per cent. of the big 
ditch has been dug; on the sixty-foot level 
plan, about 23 per cent.; on the thirty-foot 
level plan, about 19 per cent.; on the sea- 
level plan, about 16 per cent. In the 
roundest kind of round numbers, this leaves 
about 185,000,000 yards still to be exca- 
vated for a sea-level canal; 140,000,000 for 
the thirty-foot level; 110,000,000 for the 


772 


sixty-foot level. The time required, ac- 
cording to John EF. Wallace, is twelve, ten 
and eight years, respectively. The cost 
would be: sea-level, $230,475,725; thirty- 
foot level, $194,213,406; sixty-foot level, 
$178,013,406. The yardage cost, 54.7 cents, 
is based on the following figures: Installa- 
tion of plant, 1.5 cents; mining, 11.2 cents; 
loading material, 11 cents; transportation 
to dumps, 11.5 cents; dumps, 4.5 cents; 
maintenance of track, 8.4 cents; general 
expense, 6.6 cents. From May 1, 1904, to 
May 1, 1905, about 650,000 cubic yards 
were excavated. The United States as- 
sumed control May 24, 1904, so these fig- 
ures practically represent what was accom- 
plished during the first year of American 
occupation. 

The enemies of the canal project are 
legion, and to the friends of the inter- 
oceanic waterway—which has now become 
an accepted fact—the description I have 
just quoted of the conditions that obtain 
at Panama seems like a jeremiad of the 
kind the congressional obstructionists de- 
light in. But he who reads between the 
lines will not find in the generally trust- 
worthy and unbiased account of the engi- 
neer referred to any particular reason to 
be discouraged about the canal. What it 
all means is simply this: That on the first 
of July, 1903, the United States lost the 
greatest civil engineer our country has ever 
produced—George Shattuck Morison, a 
man who spared no effort to find out the 
facts about isthmian canalization, and then 
to lay these facts before the people in plain 
language. Somewhere still in the ‘sound- 
ing laborhouse vast,’ that ‘immense and 
brooding spirit’ must be observing, with 
something of his old, fine indignation, the 
frenzied haste with which men and supplies 
have of late been rushed to the isthmus, ere 
any adequate provision has been made to 
keep men well, and house them near their 


SCIENCE. 


\ 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


work. For instance, a party of engineers, 
whose work has been of the greatest impor- 
tance in determining the feasibility of the 
Gamboa dam—the only alternative for the 
practically discarded Bohio project—had 
to wait six weeks to get their transits and 
levels from the government storehouse. 
Personal appeal and written protest alike 
were unavailing. For another party, mos- 
quito-bars were needed. No attention was 
paid to a requisition, and finally the chief 
of party stole them. 

_ Mr. Morison, who saw things in a big, 
broad way, realized that when once the 
Americans took over the control of the 
canal zone, they would, with characteristic 
American impetuosity, be in altogether too 
much of a hurry to ‘make the dirt fly,’ 
adopting the popular slogan. In his nu- 
merous addresses delivered before scientific 
societies—in statements made at hearings 
before congressional committees—in short, 
at every public or private opportunity, in 
season or out of season—Mr. Morison dep- 
recated haste. He insisted that we must 
take two years to clean up the mess made 
by the Spaniards and the French—to burn 
the hovels, to drain the swamps, to petrolize 
the breeding-places of the mosquito; to 
build clean, wholesome houses for the men. 
He went down there himself and put his 
fingers into the dry-rot, and found there the 
seeds of his own mortal illness. Whitewash 
could not fool him, whether it covered the 
walls of a.pesthouse or whether it concealed 
some mishandling of canal affairs. A great 
many men, since Mr. Morison died, have 
paid tribute to his absolute honesty, and his 
passion for exact statement based on accu- 
rate observation. Had Morison lived, he 
might have been able to check the tendency 
to ‘hustle,’ in the scrambling ambition to 
make dirt fly simply that the foolable part 
of our country’s population might be de- 
ceived by a specious appearance of ‘some- 


May 18, 1906.] 


thing doing.’ All calamity-howlers to the 
contrary notwithstanding, the canal is as 
sure to be built as a natural law is certain 
of fulfilment; and those who to-day busy 
themselves trying to find arguments against 
it are going to be ashamed and sorry when 
the seas are eventually linked by the great- 
est engineering undertaking in the history 
of mankind. For a canal which saves nine 
thousand miles of ocean journey between 
San Francisco and New Orleans, six thou- 
sand miles between Yokohama and New 
Orleans, two thousand miles between Hong 
Kong and New Orleans and six thousand 
miles between Sydney and New Orleans, is 
an agency in bringing mankind nearer to 
mankind too vastly important to evade the 
sight of God and escape the desire of na- 
tions. But just now, rather than any state- 
ment of cubic yards excavated in August 
or September or October, one finds the fol- 
lowing figures significant: 

In June, 1905, there were 62 cases of 
yellow fever on the isthmus; in July, 42; 
in August, 27; in September, 6; in October, 
3. In August, 1905, with a force of 12,000 
men at work, the death-rate was two thirds 
of one per 1,000, whereas under the French 
régime, in August, 1882, with a force of 
1,900 men, the death-rate was no less than 
112 per thousand. These figures will ap- 
peal to the citizens of a community whose 
recent fight against yellow fever has been 
the admiration of the civilized world and a 
ereat object-lesson to uncivilized humanity ; 
an object-lesson in civic self-dependence, 
public spirit and uncommemorated heroism. 
A city that can pass through such an or- 
deal, a city that faces a great crisis as New 
Orleans faced the yellow-fever epidemie, is 
the surest guarantee that the nation of 
which that city is a part will do her duty 
by civilization, and build, expeditiously 
and economically, the Roosevelt Canal. 


FULLERTON L. WALDO. 


SCIENCE. 


773 


THE MOVEMENT IN PRUSSIA FOR THE RE- 
ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTRUCTION 
IN MATHEMATICS AND THE NAT-— 
URAL SCIENCES IN THE SEC- 
ONDARY SCHOOLS. 

For over a deeade, there has been a note- 
worthy movement in Prussia aiming at the 
improvement of instruction in mathematics 
in the secondary schools... The aim is not 
an increase of the amount of time given to 
mathematics, but a reorganization of the 
subject matter of the mathematical cur- 
riculum so as to bring it into closer con- 
formity to the needs of the times, in par- 
ticular by giving more attention to the ap- 
plications of mathematics, and by laying 
less stress in the earlier years on those more 
abstract phases of the subject which over- 
tax the pupils’ powers at that time. The 
most prominent leader in the movement is 
Professor Klein, of Gottingen, whose views 
are most readily accessible to American 
readers in a recent book collecting various 
addresses and papers of his on the teaching 
of mathematics.2 He is a pronounced ad- 
voeate of the introduction of the elements 
of the differential and the integral calculus 
into the work in mathematics in the sec- 
ondary schools of Prussia. 

This agitation has borne fruit in the new 
Prussian curricula of 1901, wherein de- 
cidedly more stress than previously is laid 
on conerete beginnings, on graphic meth- 
ods, on deferring the more abstract phases 
of the various subjects and on applications 
throughout to the affairs of practical life 


1This term is used as indicating the closest 
American equivalent. The German term is 
‘higher schools.’ Pupils are admitted to the 
schools at the age of nine, the course of instruc- 
tion coyers nine years, and the normal age of 
graduation is nineteen or twenty. In mathe- 
matics the ground covered is approximately that 
of our grades, secondary schools and freshman year 
in college. 

2 F, Klein, ‘ Uber eine zeitgemisse Umgestaltung 
des mathematischen Unterrichts an den héheren 
Schulen,’ Leipzig, 1904, pp. ii + 82. 


774 


and to the physical sciences. The elements 
of the calculus were, however, not intro- 
duced, even optionally, nor was there an 
increase in the small amount of analytic 
geometry to be given in the last year of the 
course; on the contrary, the option was in- 
troduced of proving synthetically instead 
of analytically such properties of the conic 
sections as might be taken up. In the ecur- 
ricula of 1901, the ground to be covered in 
the last two years is stated without speci- 
fying the portion to be taken up in each 
of the years. This would seem to leave it 
to the discretion of the teacher to determine 
at what point in the last two years the idea 
of coordinates should be taken up, but a 
remark in the general instructions seems 
to indicate that it is expected that it be 
taken up in the last year of the course, as 
formerly. 

While questions relative to the teaching 
of mathematics were thus being vigorously 
agitated, a no less vigorous agitation was 
taking place relative to the teaching of the 
natural sciences. During the last decade 
the large and influential Association of 
German Natural Scientists and Physicians 
has given extended consideration to these 
questions. At the annual session held in 
Hamburg in 1901, a joint meeting of the 
sections for botany, zoology, mineralogy 
and geology, and anatomy and physiology, 
over one hundred members present, unan- 
imously adopted a set of nine propositions 
relative to instruction in biology. These 
nine propositions soon became generally 
known as the ‘ Hamburg Theses,’ and read 
as follows: 

1. Biology is an experiential science which in- 
deed goes as far as well-grounded knowledge of 
nature will at the time allow, but no further. 
(Die Biologie ist eine Hrfahrungswissenschaft 
die zwar bis zur jeweiligen Grenze des sicheren 
Naturerkennens geht, aber dieselbe nicht iiber- 
schreitet.) For metaphysical speculations, biol- 


ogy as such has no responsibility and the school 
no use. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594, . 


. 2. Formally, instruction in the natural sciences 
is the necessary complement of the abstract sub- 
jects. In particular, biology teaches the art, 
elsewhere so neglected, of observation of concrete 
objects subject to continual change in consequence 
of the processes of life, and, like physics and chem- 
istry, proceeds inductively from observation of 
properties and processes, to the logical formation 
of concepts. 

3. As to content, instruction in natural history 
has the duty of acquainting the growing youth 
with the most essential forms of the organic 
world, to discuss the manifold phenomena of life, 
to present the relations of organisms to inorganic 
nature, to each other and to man, and to give a 
survey of the most important periods of the earth’s 
history. Upon the basis of the biologie knowledge 
acquired, the structure of the human body and the 
functions of its organs, together with the chief 
points of general hygiene, deserve special at- 
tention. 

4. Ethically, biologic instruction awakens re- 
spect for the structures of the organic world, an 
appreciation of the beauty and completeness of 
nature as a whole, and thus becomes a source of 
the purest enjoyment, untouched by any of the 
practical interests of life. At the same time, 
he who busies himself with the vital phenomena 
of nature is led to feel the incompleteness of hu- 
man knowledge, and to recognize his own limita- 
tions. 

5. Such knowledge of the organic world must 
be regarded as necessary part of the general 
culture which the times demand; it is not only 
useful to the future natural scientist or physician 
as preparation for his professional study, but is 
equally important for those graduates of the sec- 
ondary schools whose future occupation does not 
directly require study of nature. 


The remaining four theses relate more 
specifically to German conditions, pointing 
out that under the present curricula bio- 
logie study is excluded from the later years 
of the course, in which years alone the 
pupil is sufficiently mature to understand 
what is taught of the processes of life and 
the influence of environment; demanding 
that biologic instruction should be given, 
say two hours weekly, throughout the nine 
years of the school course; and making 
some specific proposals whereby it is 
thought this ean be accomplished. 


May 18, 1906.] 


A committee was formed to circulate the 
theses and the adhesion of about eight 
hundred scientists was secured. At the 
session of the association in Cassel in 1903 
this committee made a report and proposed 


that the Hamburg Theses be adopted by 


the general session of the association. This 
was done by the adoption of the following 
motion made by F. Klein, professor of 
mathematics in the University of Got- 
tingen: 

The Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und 
Aerzte unanimously accepts the Hamburg Theses 
of the committee for the advancement of biologic 
instruction in the higher schools, with the reser- 
vation that the totality of the questions relative 
to instruction in mathematics and the natural 
sciences be made the subject of comprehensive dis- 
cussion at the earliest opportunity. 


In consequence of this resolution, the 
general session of the association at Breslau 
in 1904, took up the topic, ‘Report and 
Debate on the Instruction in Mathematics 
and the Natural Sciences in the Higher 
Schools.’ 

Preparation was made for the session at 
Breslau in the discussions of various other 
societies, such as the Verein zur Forderung 
des Unterrichts in der Mathematik und 
den Naturwissenschaften, and the Verein 
deutscher Ingenieure, both of which also 
sent official delegations to the meeting at 
Breslau. 

At this meeting the following reports 
were presented : 

K. Fricke: ‘The Present Situation of Instruc- 
tion in Mathematics and the Natural Sciences in 
the Higher Schools.’ 

F, Kuetn: ‘Remarks on Instruction in Mathe- 
matics and Physics.’ 

F. Merxex: ‘ Wishes Relative to Instruction in 
Biology.’ 

G. LEUBUSCHEE: 
Hygiene.’ 


‘Considerations on School 


After discussion of these reports, all the 
questions involved were referred to a com- 
mission constituted as follows: 


SCIENCE. 


775 


Messrs. Gutzmer, chairman, representing the 
section for natural sciences. 

Schotten, representing the section of pedagogy. 

Leubuscher and Verworn, representing the med- 
ical section. 

Klein, representing the German Mathematical 
Association. 

Pretzker and Schmid, representing the Society 
for the Advancement of Instruction in Mathe- 
matics and the Natural Sciences. 

Poske, representing the German Physical So- 
ciety. 

Fricke and Kraepelin, representing the biolog- 
ical committee. 

y. Borries and Duisberg representing the inter- 
ests of engineers and practical chemists. 


The commission has now published a re- 
port? which is a document of great interest 
and well worth study beyond the confines 
of the kingdom with whose educational 
affairs it primarily concerns itself. 

The report consists of four parts: A 
general report by the chairman, and special 
reports on instruction in mathematics, in 
physics and in chemistry (mineralogy), 
zoology (anthropology), botany and geol- 
ogy. 

The commission set up unanimously three 
governing principles: 

I. The commission wishes that instruc- 
tion in the higher schools be neither one- 
sidedly linguistico-historical, nor one-sided- 
ly mathematico-scientific. 

II. The commission recognizes mathe- 
matics and the natural sciences as of equal 
culture value with the languages and ad- 
heres to the principle of specific general 
culture in the higher schools. 

III. The commission declares that the 
enjoyment in fact of equal rights by the 
three classes of higher schools is absolutely 
necessary and wishes its complete realiza- 
tion. 

In these three principles the commission 

8*Bericht der Unterrichtskommission der 
Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte 
tiber ihre bisherige Tatigkeit,’ pp. 57, Leipzig, 
1905 (F. W. ©. Vogel, publisher). 


776 


formulated what seems to be the central 
aim of the entire agitation, to secure recog- 
nition, in theory and in fact, of mathe- 
maties and the natural.sciences as of equal 
culture value with the linguistic and his- 
torical subjects. 

It may not be out of place to state in a 
few words the conditions as they exist in 
Prussia to-day. It has been stated above 
that the Prussian secondary or higher 
schools have a course of nine years to which 
boys are admitted at the age of nine. This 
makes the normal age of graduation about 
nineteen. There are three classes of these 
institutions, the Gymnasia, with Latin and 
Greek, the Realgymnasia, with Latin but 
no Greek, and the Oberrealschulen, with 
neither Latin nor Greek. Except in small 
cities, these are always separate institu- 
tions, and the choice of the type of educa- 
tion to be given the boy must be made at 
the age of nine. The curriculum for each 
type of school is entirely prescribed. A 
type of institution also exists known as 
Reformschule, which proposes to give the 
three types of education in the same insti- 
tution, basing all on the same work during 
the first three years, and then branching 
off into one or the other line. The idea has 
been favorably received, and the number 
of institutions carrying it out is growing, 
but this reform is still experimental and 
the chief problems of instruction relate to 
the three standard types of institutions to 
which the commission confined its work 
exclusively. : 

The curricula of 1901 distribute the 
work of the nine years among the different 
subjects in accordance with the following 
table, the unit being one hour per week 
throughout one year.* 


“For more detailed information concerning the 
German schools see: 

Russell, ‘German Higher Schools,’ New York, 
1898 (Longmans, Green & Co.). 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 

Gym- Realgym- Oberreal- 
nasium. nasium, schule. 
Religion, 19 19 19 
German, 26 28 34 
Latin, 68 49 = 
Greek, 36 — _ 
French, 20 29 47 
English, — 18 25 
History, 17 17 18 
Geog. (Pol. & Phys.), 9 11 14 
Mathematics, 34 42, 47 
Natural Sciences, 18 29 36 
Writing, ANNAN a 6 
Drawing, 8 16 16 
Total, 259 262 262 


The marked preponderance of the lan- 
guages will be noted even in the Oberreal- 
schule. Classifying geography in the his- 
torical group, where the character of the 
work done would place it, the distribution 
may be summarized : 

Linguistic—Historical, 195 171 157 


Mathematics and Nat. Sci., 52 71 83 
Writing and Drawing, 12 20 22, 


Total, 259 262 262 


The commission recognizes ‘the high cul- 
ture value of the linguistic-historical stud- 
ies, but asserts an equally high culture 
value for mathematics and the natural sci- 
ences, and in view of the great and grow- 
ing importance of the second group of 
subjects im the culture of our times, it 
denies the necessity that every type of 
liberal education should be preponderating- 
ly linguistic. In this it voices a sentiment 
that is widespread and deeply felt among 
the German people. It may be noted that 
amidst all this there is not the slightest 
tendency towards an elective system. The 
diversities of human aptitudes are recog- 
nized, and the commission urges that there 
are types of minds and eareers in life 
whose needs would be met best by a cur- 


Young, ‘Teaching of Mathematics in Prussia.’ 
New York, 1900 (Longmans, Green & Co.). 

Bolton, ‘German Higher Schools,’ New York, 
1902 (D. Appleton & Co.). 


May 18, 1906.] 


riculum laying more stress on mathematics 
and the natural sciences than any now in 
force, but no one seems to have suggested 
that it might be best to turn over to each 
boy the task of making his own curriculum. 
The attitude of mind on which elective 
systems are fundamentally based is quite 
foreign to the German temperament. , 

Passing to the detailed reports, the com- 
mission does not ask for an increase in the 
time devoted to mathematics, but recom- 
mends that still further changes be made in 
the same spirit as those introduced in the 
official curricula of 1901. While recog- 
nizing the formal value of mathematies, the 
commission believes that some of its more 
remote and technical phases may be dis- 
pensed with and the time thus gained util- 
ized in awakening and developing the 
ability to regard and interpret mathemat- 
ically the processes of nature and the oc- 
eurrences of human relationships. The 
most important office of the instruction in 
mathematies is to strengthen the power of 
space’intuition and to train to the habit of 
functional thinking. Logical training will 
not suffer if mathematical instruction be 
given this trend, but will even gain. 

A detailed curriculum is proposed em- 
bodying the ideas held by the commission. 
As compared with the curriculum of 1901 
now in force, the proposed curriculum cuts 
down somewhat the more complex caleula- 
tions and defers to later periods the more 
abstract topics and methods; on the other 
hand, it introduces conerete geometry a 
year earlier (at the age of ten instead of 
eleven), demands constant use of drawing 
and measuring, utilizes graphic methods 
throughout, brings the idea of functionality 
and of functional variation into the fore- 
ground early (at the age of twelve), and 
utilizes it freely thereafter, introduces the 
idea of coordinates, of plotting linear ex- 
pressions and the graphic solution of linear 
equations at the age of thirteen (four years 


SCIENCE. 


tit 


earlier than in the curriculum of 1901), 
permits the introduction of the idea of the 
derivative and of the integral in the next 
to last year of the course (age seventeen), 
and lays marked stress on the application 
of mathematics as widely as possible. A 
threefold final goal for the mathematical 
work as brought to a close in the last year 
is set up: 

1. A scientific survey of the organization 
of the mathematical material treated in the 
school. 

2. A certain power of mathematical per- 
ception and its use in the treatment of 
problems. 

3. Finally and above all, insight into the 
importance of mathematics for the exact 
cognition of nature. 

The reports on the natural sciences eall 
for more time in these subjects even in the 
classical schools, at least while, as at pres- 
ent, these schools far outnumber the others, 
and consequently their graduates in all 
influential walks of life furnish the great 
majority of those taking the lead. The 
commission ealls for three hours weekly 
throughout five years in physics, two hours 
weekly for four years in chemistry and two 
hours weekly for nine years in the biologic 
sciences (and geology). 

The report on physics sets up three fun- 
damental principles: 

1. Physics is not to be taught as a mathe- 
matical science but as a natural science. 

2. Physics is to be taught so that it may 
serve as a type of the manner in which 
knowledge is attamed throughout the do- 
main of the experimental sciences. 

3. Suitably planned exercises in observa- 
tion and experimentation by the pupil 
himself are necessary. 

Specimen courses in physics, in chem- 
istry with mineralogy, in zoology with an- 
thropology, in botany and in geology are 
given. Detailed discussion of these courses 
and the recommendations that accompany 


778 


them would be undertaken more appropri- 
ately and carried through more effectively 
by specialists in these subjects, so that this 
mention is allowed to suffice for the present 
report. 

The commission also discussed the ques- 
tion of geography, political and physical, 
and was of opinion that conditions are not 
yet ripe for the union of geography with 
the natural sciences, but that, nevertheless, 
the bases of geography in mathematics and 
the natural sciences should be taken up in 
connection with the instruction im these 
subjects in the higher schools. 

It is apparent from the above sketch 
that a movement of the first magnitude is 
in progress in Germany for the fuller 
recognition of the value of mathematics 
and the natural sciences, on the one hand, 
and for the reorganization within these 
subjects of the subject matter taught and 
the method of instruction, on the other, so 
as to adapt the work more fully both to 
needs and capacity of the pupil and to the 
demands of the times. The writer does not 
presume to classify the movement or esti- 
mate its import in any but his own subject; 
in mathematics, however, the movement is 
certainly of international significance. It 
is one in spirit and aim with the movements 
for the improvement of the teaching of 
mathematics in France, in England and in 
the United States, and while the Prussian 
problems surely differ in detail from those 
of other nations, the underlying principles 
are the same. Our American conditions 
are vastly different from those which the 
commission could presuppose, and conse- 
quently there could be no thought that the 
commission’s results as such would be ayail- 
able in America, still the consideration of 
the fundamental principles underlying this 
thoughtful report of some of Germany’s 
most eminent scientists can not fail to lead 
the American reader to ponder the same 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


fundamental questions as modified by our 
environment, and perhaps to stimulate him 
to evolve some proposal looking towards 
the accomplishment here of the same end— 
as sorely needed here as in Germany—the 
better adaptation of the instruction to the 
needs and capacity of the pupil and to the 
Spirit and requirements of our twentieth- 
century civilization. 
J. W. A. Youne. 


THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 
November 24, 1905. 


SOCIENTIFIO BOOKS. 


Strandliniens Beliggenhed under Stenalderen 
I Det Sydgstlige Norge. Af W.C. Bréacrr. 
Med Tysk Resumé, 11 Plancher, 2 Karter 
og 9 Figurer i Texten. Norges Geologiske 
Undersggelse, No. 41. Kristiania, i Kom- 
mission Hos H. Aschehoug & Co. 1905. 
The first step in the establishment of a rela- 

tive chronology for prehistoric times was 
taken by a Dane, C. J. Thomsen, of Copen- 
hagen, seventy years ago. Much of the sub- 
sequent progress along this line has been due 
to Seandinayians. Professor Brégger’s work 
on the position of raised beaches in south- 
eastern Norway during the stone and bronze 
ages is of such a character as to indicate that 
northern investigators are still among the 
leaders in the kind of research that tends to 
render our knowledge of prehistoric archeol- 
ogy more accurate. 

That the climate of the kitchen-midden 
period (first stone age in the north) in Den- 
mark was warmer than at present, is now well 
known. It has also been established by recent 
investigations in both Denmark and Sweden 
that the age of the kitchen middens of south- 
ern Scandinavia corresponds to the period of 
maximum postglacial submergence. 

A series of curves are plotted on a map so 
as to pass through isochronal raised beaches. 
The general course of these curves through 
southern Norway, southwestern Sweden and 
all of Denmark is from northwest to south- 
east. They show the postglacial submergence 
to have been greatest around Christiania, 
where the raised beaches marking the maxi- 


May 18, 1506.] 


mum submergence are 70 meters above the 
present beaches. To the south, it grew less 
and less, reaching the zero curve at Nis- 
sumfjord, Jutland, and Falster in Laaland. 
The submergence to the north of Christiania 
also decreased gradually till it reached the 
vanishing point in the region of Mjosen Lake. 
This regional submergence is considered as 
but an interruption in the general elevation 
of the land. 

The synchronism of the curves representing 
the maximum of submergence is determined 
through a study of the fauna in the correspond- 
ing shell heaps (with Tapes decussatus, etc.). 

The period between the maximum postgla- 
cial submergence (Littorina-Tapes-Sznkning) 
and the time when the beaches at Christiania 
were from 45 to 48 meters higher than at 
present is called the earlier Tapes period. It 
corresponds to the latter part of the ‘ Atlantic 
period’ of Blytt, Sernander, et al. The period. 
during which the elevation of the beaches 
dropped from 45 meters to 19-21 meters at 
Christiania (from 30 meters to 18-15 at the 
mouth of Christiania fjord) is called the mid- 
dle Tapes period. The climate of this period 
was colder than that of the preceding; perhaps 
colder, also, than during the following period. 
The last of the Isocardia clays belong to the 
middle Tapes period. 

The later Tapes period corresponds to a 
beach elevation of from 19 meters to 8 or 10 
meters above the present Christiania beaches 
(13 meters to 4 or 5 meters at the mouth of 
the fjord). The climate was comparatively 
mild, the shell heaps being characterized by 
a number of southern forms no longer to be 
found in the fjord. The Scrobicularia clay 
deposits belong to this epoch. 

The recent period goes back to a time when 
the beach line at Christiania was 8 meters 
higher than it is now. Only after the eleva- 
tion was complete did the climate become 
what it now is and the bivalve Mya arenaria 
make its appearance in the waters of Chris- 
tiania fjord. 

The remainder of the work deals with the 
relation of archeological finds to the various 
beach levels. The archeological classification 


SCIENCE. 


119 


corresponds in the main to Miiller’s classifica- 
tion for Denmark. Miiller’s time scale, how- 
ever, is somewhat shorter than Brggger’s. 

It was long ago observed that the kitchen 
middens of northern Denmark are well above 
the present beach lines. They contain the 
oldest stone industry to be found in Denmark, 
viz., flint flakes and paring knives (Skive- 
spalter). But in southern Norway, where 
flint is scarce, other stone was employed dur- 
ing this early period to produce the so-called 
Né¢stvet industry. Brégger’s researches have 
established the fact that this old industry 
occurs at a level corresponding to that of the 
raised beaches marking the maximum post- 
glacial submergence. It is nowhere found 
below that level and is, therefore, contem- 
poraneous with the early Tapes period. The 
N¢stvet industry is, on the other hand, rarely 
found much above the level of the highest 
raised beaches. The population must, there- 
fore, have been a coast population, deriving 
its sustenance largely from the sea. 

The axe with pointed pole never occurs at 
a lower level than that of the beach line mark- 
ing the close of the early Tapes period. It is 
a transition form connecting the first northern 
stone epoch with the second, the latter being 
the epoch of polished stone axes. The early 
part of the second stone epoch was character- 
ized by a variety of the axe with pointed pole; 
the latter part, by a flat-poled axe. During 
this epoch the habits of the people changed. 
They were engaged largely in the domestica- 
tion of animals and in agricultural pursuits. 
The minimum level of occurrence of this in- 
dustry is, then, no longer the dominant one. 
But there is sufficient evidence to prove that, 
at the close of the second stone epoch, the 
beaches at Christiania were from 23 to 26 
meters above the present beach level. 

The third epoch of the stone age is charac- 
terized by the thick-poled axe. These are 
found in Scrobicularia clay deposits as well as 
in graves. The position of some of these 
graves is such as to lead to the conclusion 
that, when they were built, the beach line at 
Christiania was not more than 13-15 meters 
higher than it is now. 


780 


The bronze age is divided into two epochs. 
The close of the first corresponds to a former 
beach elevation of not more than 3.5 meters 
higher than the present. At the close of the 
second epoch, the beach line was probably the 
same as it is now. 

Im an interesting table, Professor Brégger 
gives the results of his attempt to measure 
the lapse of time since the maximum post- 
glacial submergence. His basis of reckoning 
is as follows: (1) The rate of elevation was 
about the same at the beginning as at the 
close; (2) the rate during the middle period 
of elevation was greater than at the beginning 
or close; (3) the determining of the position 
of the beach lines at the beginning and end 
of the bronze age and at the beginning and 
end of the closing epoch of the stone age, com- 
pared with the estimates of archeologists as 
to the absolute length of the bronze age and 
the last epoch of stone, gives a standard of 
-measurement for the rate of elevation during 
the last period of the same. His results are: 
(a) For the stone age: 

First epoch, 4900-3900 B.c., or 1,000 years. 
Second epoch, 3900-2400 B.c., or 1,500 years. 
Third epoch, 2400-1900 B.c., or 500 years. 
(6) Bronze age, 1900-500 B.c., or 1,400 years. 
(c) Iron age, 500 B.c.1905 a.D., or 2,400 years. 
Total of 6,800 years. 

According to Sophus Miiller,” only about 
4,900 years have elapsed since the beginning 
of the stone age in Denmark. He places the 
duration of the first epoch of the stone age at 
a minimum of 500 instead of 1,000 years, and 
the beginning of the bronze age at 1200 B.c. 
instead of 1900 B.c. 

Grorce Grant MacCurpy. 

YALE UNIVERSITY, 

New Haven, Conn. 


Catalogue of the Fossil Plants of the Glos- 
sopteris Flora in the Department of Geol- 
ogy, British Museum (Natural History). 
By E. A. Newett Arper. London, 1905. 
Pp. Ixxiv + 255; pl. 8; text f. 51. 

This book as is indicated by the subtitle is 

a ‘Monograph of the Permo-Carboniferous 

Floras of India and the Southern Hemis- 


1 Nordische Altertumskunde. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 594. 


phere,’ and as such will prove not only a boon 
to the paleobotanist, but of inestimable value 
to the student of phyto-geography and the eyo- 
lution of floras. It will be welcome to the 
geological workers interested in the corre- 
lation of those perplexing series of strata so 
widely distributed in the southern hemisphere 
and should also be in the hands of those in- 
terested in Paleozoic glaciation. Locally the 
work will also have a large economic value in 
the hands of operators and prospectors for coal 
in the regions of which it treats. It embodies 
the first comprehensive treatment of this flora, 
and contains, not only a critical summary of 
previous knowledge heretofore widely scat- 
tered through an immense number of publica- 
tions, but also embraces considerable addi- 
tions to our knowledge. 

The oldest assemblage of land-plants suffi- 
ciently representative to be called a flora is 
that which appeared during the Devonian and 
became highly complex in the later Devonian 
and Lower Carboniferous time. This flora 
was a cosmopolitan one and discloses a remark- 
ably uniform character wherever plant-re- 
mains have been found in the rocks of these 
periods, from about latitude 75° north (Elles- 
mere Land and Bear Island) southward to 
Australia and Argentina. This flora included 
representatives of the following orders: 
Equisetales, Lycopodiales, Sphenophyllales, 
Filicales, Cordiatales and Cycadofilicales, the 
latter possibly including seed-bearing forms 
(Pteridosperme). In passing upward into 
the Upper Carboniferous we find three addi- 
tional orders, the Cyeadales, Ginkgoales and 
Coniferales; none of these however become of 
real importance until the dawn of the succeed- 
ing Mesozoic era. With the Upper Carbonif- 
erous, however, the world-wide uniformity of 
this ancient flora becomes broken and it is 
separated into sharply defined northern and 
southern floras each made up of types belong- 
ing to the six dominant Paleozoic orders, 
which present, nevertheless, an entirely differ- 
ent facies in the two regions. The southern 
flora, found in strata laid down immediately 
subsequent to widespread glacial deposits (the 
Talchir boulder bed of India, the Dwyka con- 


May 18, 1906.] 


glomerate of South Africa, the glacial de- 
posits of New South Wales, Queensland and 
Tasmania, of the Salt range of India and of 
Brazil) is usually known as the Glossopteris 
flora, so-called by Neumayr because of the ex- 
treme abundance of the undivided fronds of 
this fern-like plant. This flora is assumed 
to have been more or less completely isolated 
from the continental mass of the northern 
hemisphere, and to have flourished over a 
great southern continent termed by Suess 
Gondwanaland from the typical Glossopteris- 
bearing rocks of the lower part of the lacus- 
trine Gondwana system of India. 

This Glossopteris flora may be roughly char- 
acterized and contrasted with that which 
flourished to the north of it, in the following 
manner. In the order Equisetales the 
Calamites, which are dominant types in the 
north are replaced by Schizoneura and Phyl- 
lotheca, the latter dominant and widespread 
with several species, the former with but few 
species and not becoming a dominant type 
until the Mesozoic when it had spread beyond 
the confines of Gondwanaland. In the order 
Sphenophyllales one restricted species in India 
and possibly in South Africa is the sole repre- 
sentative of this common northern type and 
evidently is an introduced form. The Fili- 
eales are characterized by the genera Glos- 
sopteris, Gangamopteris, Neuropteridium and 
Paleovittaria, Gangamopteris appearing some- 
what earlier and replacing the former in Vic- 
toria and Brazil. 

Neuropteridiwm is very wide ranging but not 
abundant, while Glossopteris is exceedingly 
diversified, widespread, and very abundant 
numerically. The genus Teniopteris, while 
present, is not a characteristic or an abundant 
type until the succeeding Mesozoic era, while 
the various other fern genera which are present 
are too indefinite or rare to be important ele- 
ments in a discussion of the flora as a whole. 
In the order Lycopodiales the southern forms 
are similar to the northern (Lepidodendron, 
Bothrodendron, Lepidophlows, Sigillaria) and 
represent a southward migration to South 
Africa and South America over land connec- 
tions in those general regions. In the order 


SCIENCE. 


781 


Cordaitales the important northern type 
Cordaites is replaced by the genus Neggera- 
thiopsis which is widely distributed through- 
out Gondwanaland, reaching Tonquin and 
China in the Mesozoic. The Cycadales are 
few and of a doubtful nature. The Ginkgoales 
are represented by the indefinite forms re- 
ferred to Rhipidopsis and Psygmophyllum, 
and are also harbingers of the Mesozoic flora. 
The Coniferales are also few in number and 
somewhat indefinite in character and may be 
neglected here. We thus see that of the six 
dominant Paleozoic orders the Lycopodiales 
and Sphenophyllales were represented in the 
Glossopteris flora by only a few migrants. 
The essentially post-Paleozoic Cycadales, 
Ginkgoales and Coniferales are alike for both 
the northern and southern floras, and the chief 
contrasts are furnished by the fern-like plants 
and the members of the Equisetales. Land con- 
nections evidently became accessible toward 
the close of the period for we find Glossopteris 
and Phyllotheca in the Permian of northern 
Russia, while other survivors are found in the 
Mesozoic of Germany, Sweden, China, ete. 
The precise age of the Glossopteris flora 
has been a warmly disputed question for over 
half a century, such eminent paleobotanists 
as de Zigno, Schimper and Feistmantel claim- 
ing it to be Mesozoic (Jurassic), while Clarke, 
the Oldhams and the Blanfords held that it 
was of Paleozoic age. Arber’s conclusion, one 
largely accepted in recent years, is that the 
Glossopteris-bearing rocks are homotaxial 
with those of the Upper Carboniferous and 
Permian of America and Europe. It was 
found impossible to distinguish between the 
Carboniferous and Permian periods so that 
the epoch as a whole must continue to bear 
the somewhat indefinite title of Permo- 
Carboniferous. While it appears that isola- 
tion alone could not have produced the re- 
markable character of the Glossopteris flora, 
Arber refrains from discussing climatic con- 
ditions beyond the statement that the wide- 
spread glaciation immediately antecedent to 
the deposition of the earlier Glossopteris-bear- 
ing sediments probably had a marked influ- 
ence in this connection. It would have added 


782 


greatly to the interest of the work to have had 
a discussion of the climatic conditions based 
on the paleobotanical and other evidence at 
the command of the author. 

While largely a matter of speculation, it 
would seem that the question of an Antarctic 
continent rather than the more restricted 
Gondwanaland in lower latitudes might have 
been considered with profit, although such a 
discussion might possibly be out of place in a 
publication of this sort, at any rate, its omis- 
sion can in no wise be urged as a criticism of 
this admirable piece of work. 

In the matter of nomenclature Arber is 
cautious, one might say conservative, through- 
out, and scant space is devoted to those species 
founded upon fragmentary and indefinite im- 
pressions. This ‘lumping’ process does not 
seem to be a defect, as many believe it to be 
in some of the preceding volumes of the 
British Museum Catalogues, although un- 
doubtedly the actual abundance of species in 
nature is thereby probably underestimated. 

In the genus Glossopteris the great varia- 
bility of size and shape in the same species is 
emphasized, attention being called to the 
danger of founding species upon such charac- 
ters as the thickness or persistence of the 
midrib, the obtuse or acute apex, or differ- 
ences in the angles of divergence of the sec- 
ondary veins, all characters more or less 
closely correlated with the size and shape of 
variable fronds. The only characters which 
seem reasonably safe in systematic work, until 
internal structures are known, are the average 
shape of the areoles and the openness or close- 
ness of the secondary veins. In a revision 
from this viewpoint, confessedly artificial, the 
author reduces the large number of species of 
Feistmantel and others, to thirteen forms. 

Considerable space is devoted to what little 
is known of the fructifications of this genus, 
and many other items of botanical interest are 
found throughout the work. Mr. Arber is to 
be congratulated for the way in which he has 
completed a difficult task, and paleobotanists 
owe him a debt of gratitude for the thorough 
way in which he has organized and systema- 
tized the literature and nomenclature of this 
most interesting and heretofore least known 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 594, 


flora. Some ninety-two species besides a 
number of indefinite remains are catalogued. 
The illustrations are ample and well executed, 
there being 8 plates and 51 text figures in 
addition to a map showing the supposed land 
areas of the Permo-Carboniferous. The sys- 
tematic portion is preceded by a discussion of 
the botanical affinities of the flora, its distri- 
bution in space, its age and distribution in 
time, including specific and geologic tables of 
distribution and correlation, a historical 
sketch and a history of the collection. The 
bibliography is complete and the work taken 
as a whole merits nothing but the warmest 
praise. Epwarp W. Berry. 
MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 
BALTIMORE, Mp. 


Chemie der alicyklischen Verbindungen. You 
Osstan AscHan, A. 0. Professor an der 
Universitat Helsingfors. Braunschweig, 
Fr. Vieweg und Sohn. 1905. Pp. xlyvi+ 
1164. 
The alicyclic or polymethylene compounds, 

sometimes also called hexahydrobenzene de- 

rivatives, have, up to the present time, re- 
ceived rather stepmotherly treatment from 
text-book writers. Some of the substances 
have been described in connection with the 
aliphatic compounds, while others haye been 
placed in the aromatic section. In short, like 
most other transition forms, their classifica- 
tion was troublesome and, except in so far as 
they were of use in connecting the two great 
families of organic compounds, they were kept 
as much in the background as possible. To 
some extent this was unavoidable; it is only 
in more recent years that it has been possible 
to prepare well-defined, crystalline derivatives, 
the study of which could lead to valid conclu- 
sions regarding the constitution of the parent 
substances; indeed, the preparation, in a state 
of purity, of many of the latter is attended 
often with very great experimental difficulty, 
and yet a fairly large number of the alicyclic 
compounds which occur in nature, such as 
camphor and various terpenes, are of consid- 
erable technical importance. 

Professor Aschan’s book marks the termina- 
tion of this state of things, and already one of 


May 18, 1906.] 


the newest and best text-books of organic 
chemistry has its contents divided into the 
three sections of aliphatic, alicyclic and 
aromatic. } 

The author of a successful monograph must 
not only be an authority and expert in the 
subject, but he must make his collection of 
material as exhaustive as possible, arrange it 
clearly and systematically and indicate fresh 
lines of research; if, in addition, he possesses 
an attractive and concise style, such as is 
often not found in works of this kind pub- 
lished in the German language, the result of 
his labors is certain to be more than valuable. 
Professor Aschan’s book amply fulfils all these 
requirements, and therefore the thanks of 
chemists are due to him for his exertions, and 
their congratulations on the manner in which 
he has discharged his task. Some idea of its 
magnitude will be gained when it is men- 
tioned that more than 5,000 citations are em- 
bodied in the 1,200 pages which the book 
contains. These references to the literature 
of the subject are brought down to August, 
1905. Only an extended use of the work will 
show how free it may be from error; as yet 
the reviewer has failed to detect any. 

The book should certainly be obtained by all 
workers in organic chemistry, because they 
will find it most useful and interesting. Very 
appropriately, the author has dedicated it to 
Professor Adolf yon Baeyer, in commemora- 
tion of his seventieth birthday. 


J. BisHop TINGLE. 


SOLENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

The Museum News of the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute for April contains articles on ‘How In- 
sects are Protected’ and ‘ How to Collect and 
Preserve Insects,’ besides various shorter 
notes, one of which records the acquisition of 
a specimen of the rare African water-shrew, 
Potamogale. The collection of shells at the 
Children’s Museum has been rearranged with 
a view to add to its interest and attractiveness. 


The Bulletin of the College of Charleston 
Museum contains a brief sketch of Dr. Shecut 
and the origin of the museum, this being one 


SCIENCE. 


783 


of the papers dealing with the ‘ History of the 
Museum.’ There seems good reason to hope 
that the museum may obtain larger and more 
suitable quarters in the building known as the 
Thomson Auditorium. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


THE one hundred and twenty-eighth regular 
meeting of the American Mathematical So- 
ciety was held at Columbia University on 
Saturday, April 28, 1906. President W. F. 
Osgood occupied the chair. Fifty members 
attended the two sessions. The council an- 
nounced the election of the following ten per- 
sons to membership in the society: Rey. R. D. 
Carmichael, Hartselle, Ala.; Mr. F. L. Griffin, 
University of Chicago; Mr. W. R. Longley, 
University of Chicago; Mr. W. D. MacMillan, 
University of Chicago; Mr. F. W. Owens, 
Evanston Academy; Dr. J. J. Quinn, High 
School, Warren, Pa.; Mr. W. J. Risley, Uni- 
versity of Illinois; Dr. R. P. Stephens, Wes- 
leyan University; Mr. J. D. Suter, Iowa State 
College; Mr. A. M. Wilson, McKinley High 
School, St. Louis, Mo. Eighteen applications 
for membership were received. The total 
membership of the society is now five hundred 
and thirty. 

Professor W. F. Osgood was appointed a 
member of the editorial committee of the 
Transactions, to succeed Professor E. W. 
Brown, who retires after seven years’ service 
covering the entire period of existence of that 
journal. 

The by-laws were amended to provide that 
only members of at least four years’ standing 
shall be permitted to compound life member- 
ship. 

The following papers were read at the 
meeting: 

G. A. Miuer: ‘Groups in which all the opera- 
tors are contained in a series of subgroups such 
that any two of them have only identity in 
common.’ 

W. H. Rorveg: ‘Lines of force illustrated by 
rotating carriage wheels.’ 

W. H. Rorver: ‘Systems of lines of force whose 
differential equations take Bernoulli’s form in 
polar coordinates.’ 


784 


Virein Snyper: ‘On twisted curves contained 
in a linear complex.’ 

G. E. Wanuin: ‘ The number of classes of binary 
quadratic forms and ideals.’ 

R. G. D. Ricwarpson: ‘On the fundamental 
theorem in the reduction of multiple integrals.’ 

JAMES PirRPontT: ‘The notion of area of curved 
surfaces,’ 

E. R. Heprick: ‘Functions and their deriva- 
tives on given assemblages.’ 

E. R. Heprick: ‘Lipschitz’s condition in the 
case of implicit functions.’ 

Max Mason: ‘A necessary condition for an ex- 
tremum of a double integral.’ 

G. A. Buiss: ‘An invariant of the calculus of 
variations corresponding to geodesic curvature.’ 

Epwarpd Kasner: ‘A generalization of con- 
formal representation.’ 

EDWARD KASNER: 
dynamics of a particle.’ 

J. W. Youne: ‘On a generalization of a prob- 
lem of Tchebychev.’ 

C. J. Keyser: ‘Concerning the bond uniting 
elements into a space.’ 

C. N. Hasxins: ‘Note on the differential in- 
variants of a plane.’ 

E. C. Conprrrs: ‘On twisted quintic curves.’ 

W. ©. Breuxe: ‘On the differentiation of trigo- 
nometric series.’ 

I. C. Rasrnovircu: ‘The necessary and suffi- 
cient kinematic axioms-of geometry.’ 


‘Velocity curves in the 


In the interval between the sessions the 


members lunched together, and the informal - 


dinner in the evening, attended by some thirty 
members, afforded another welcome oppor- 
tunity for conference and renewal of ac- 
quaintance. 

The thirteenth summer meeting and fifth 
colloquium of the society will be held at Yale 
University during the entire week, September 
3-8, 1906. The first two days will be devoted 
to the regular sessions for the presentation of 
papers. The colloquium, which will open on 

- Wednesday morning, will include the follow- 
ing courses of lectures: ; 

Proressor E. H. Moore: ‘On the theory of 
bilinear functional operators.’ 

Proressor Max Mason: ‘Selected topics in the 
theory of boundary value problems of differential 
equations.’ 

Proressor E. J. WILCZYNSKI: ‘ Projective dif- 
ferential geometry.’ W. H. Bussry, 

Assistant Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


FOLK-LORE MEETINGS IN CALIFORNIA, 


THE seventh meeting of the California 
Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society 
was held in South Hall, University of Cali- 
fornia, Berkeley, on Tuesday, March 20, 1906, 
at 8 p.m. Mr. Charles Keeler presided. The 
minutes of the last meeting were read and 
approved. The following were elected to 
membership in the society: Dr. E. K. Putnam, 
Stanford University, and the Department of 
Education of Ontario, represented by the 
Honorable David Boyle, Toronto. Professor 
Vernon L. Kellogg, of Stanford University, 
gave an address, illustrated with lantern slides, 
on ‘In Samoa.’ f 


Tue fourth regular meeting of the Berkeley 
Folk-Lore Club during 1905-6 was held in the 
Faculty Club of the University of California 
on Tuesday evening, April 3. President A. 
F. Lange presided. On motion a committee 
‘consisting of Charles Keeler, A. H. Allen and 
P. E. Goddard was appointed to report on the 
feasibility of a special investigation of the 
folk-lore of Berkeley. Dr. P. E. Goddard 
then presented a paper entitled ‘Some Ex- 
amples of Tolowa Tales,’ which was discussed 
at length. A. L. Krozser, 

Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


THE meeting of April 10, 1906, was held at 
the American Museum of Natural History, 
with President Rusby presiding. Ten per- 
sons were present. 

President Rusby, in the absence of the 
chairman of the field committee, briefly out- 
lined the program for the spring excursions. 

The scientific program was an illustrated 
lecture, by Dr. Henry Kraemer, of the Phila- 
delphia College of Pharmacy, on ‘ An Experi- 
ment in the Growing of Wild Plants, and a 
Plea for the Preservation of Our Native 
Woodlands.’ 

The experiments in the growing of wild 
plants were carried on in what would usually 
be considered a very unfavorable situation— 
namely, a narrow strip of ground about sixty 
feet long and varying from seventeen to 
thirty-one inches wide on the northern side of 


May 18, 1906.] 


a city house, where the space between any two 
houses is not more that eight feet in width, 
so that it receives very little direct sunlight. 
Below the thin coating of sod the substratum 
is composed mostly of debris from the build- 
ing operations, such as pieces of tin, bricks, 
slate and pebbles. For two years an attempt 
was made to grow grass on this strip, but 
without success. 

In 1903, a number of wild plants including 
diminutive trees, small.shrubs and perennial 
herbaceous plants, in all about a hundred 
species were added. The plants have been 
distributed so as to give the best ornamental 
effect. At intervals of several feet through 
the middle of the strip the small trees and 
shrubs and larger herbaceous perennials, as 
blue cohosh and black snakeroot,-are planted. 
Between these are the smaller plants, the more 
attractive and those producing the most 
flowers being near the front, as violets, wild 
geranium, etc. A few rocks are placed near 
some of the ferns, columbines, and other 
plants which seem to prefer a rocky situation. 
There is a procession of flowers from early 
spring when the bloodroot, hepaties and spring 
beauties make their appearance, until fall 
when the asters and other plants are in bloom. 
Not only is there a succession of flowers, but 
the foliage is also of interest and beauty. 
The ferns and bloodroot are specially inter- 
esting when the leaves are unfolding, and in 
the late fall the yellow leaves of the spice 
bush and tulip poplar, the red leaves of the 
maple and dogwood, and also the red berries 
of the jack-in-the-pulpit and Solomon’s seal, 
the blue berries of the blue cohosh, are very 
attractive at a time when the flowering season 
has gone by. 

The desirability of preserving individual 
trees and strips of woodland in the suburbs of 
cities was considered, and the opinion ex- 
pressed that if a universal sentiment were 
created in favor of this, the means would be 
forthcoming for the purchase and protection 
of trees and wooded lots. In this connection 
the statement was made ‘that there is no 
item of taxation which the people of London 


SCIENCE. 


785 


more cheerfully pay than those for the main- 
tenance of small parks.’ 
C. Stuart GacsEr, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


-€. S. RAFINESQUE ON EVOLUTION. 

Recent discussions in Science relating to 
evolution, its nature and terminology, call to 
mind a very remarkable letter written in 1832 
by Rafinesque and published by him in the 
‘fifth number for the spring of 1833’ of his 
Atlantic Journal and ‘ Friend of Knowledge.’ * 
This letter, which in many respects reads so 
curiously modern, seems to deserve reproduc- 
tion here. The first part of it, it is true, has 
been quoted in Call’s ‘Life and Writings of 
Rafinesque’* but the last half of the letter is 
not the least interesting part. Asa Gray° also 
quotes a sentence of it, and Darwin‘ refers to 
two sentences in Rafinesque’s ‘ New Flora of 
North America,’* which show indication of 
Rafinesque being an evolutionist. The repro- 
duction here is not so much for the purpose 
of calling attention to the latter fact, but 
rather to emphasize the essentially modern 
phraseology employed. 

Copied verbatim, literatim et punctuatim 
it is as follows: 

124. Principles of the Philosophy of new Genera 
and new species of Plants and Animals. Hza- 
tract of a letter to Dr. J. Torrey of New York 
dated 1st Dec. 1882. . . . I shall soon come out 
with my avowed principles about G.[enera] and 
Sp.[ecies] partly announced 1814 in my principles 
of Somiology, and which my experience and re- 
searches ever since have confirmed. The truth is 
that Species and perhaps Genera also, are form- 
ing in organized beings by gradual deviations of 
shapes, forms and [p. 164] organs, taking place ~ 
in the lapse of time. There is a tendency to de- 
viations and mutations through plants and ani- 
mals of gradual steps at remote irregular periods. 
This is a part of the great universal law of 
PERPETUAL MUTABILITY in every thing. 


+Vol. I., Philadelphia, No. 5, pp. 163-164. 

?¥rom ‘ Herbarium Rafinesquianum,’ 1833, pp. 
11-15. 

*Silliman’s Amer. Jour. Sci. Art., XL., 1841, p. 
239. 

** Orig. Species,’ 4th ed., 1866, p. xvi. 

51836, pp. 6 and 18. 


786 


Thus it is needless to dispute and differ about 
new G. Sp. and varieties. Every variety is a 
deviation which becomes a Sp. as soon as it is 
permanent by reproduction. Deviations in essen- 
tial organs may thus gradually become N. G. 
Yet every deviation in form ought to have a 
peculiar name, it is better to have only a generic 
and specific name for it than 4 when deemed a 
variety. It is not impossible to ascertain the 
primitive Sp. that have produced all the actual; 
many means exist to ascertain it: history, local- 
ity, abundance, ete. This view of the subject 
will settle botany and zoology in a new way and 
greatly simplify those sciences. The races, breeds 
or varieties of men, monkeys, dogs, roses, apples, 
wheat . . . and almost every other genus, may 
be reduced to one or a few primitive Sp. yet ad- 
mit of several actual Sp. names may and will 
multiply as they do in geography and history by 
time and changes, but they will be reducible to a 
better classification by a kind of genealogical or- 
der or tables. 

My last work on Botany if I live and after 
publishing all my N. Sp. will be on this, and the 
reduction of our Flora from 8000 to 1200 or 1500 
primitive Sp. with genealogical tables of the 
gradual deviations having formed one actual Sp. 
If I can not perform this, give me credit for it, 
and do it yourself upon the plan that I trace. 

Cc. S. R. 


As we know, Rafinesque never worked out 
the plan he thus had traced, nor was his 
pathetic appeal to be given credit for it ever 
entertained. Call (J. c.) regards Rafinesque 
as a Lamarckian rather than a Darwinian, 
but we are now, perhaps, warranted to ask 
whether he was not really a de Vriesian. His 
curious distinction between ‘primitive spe- 
cies’° and ‘actual species’ is more pertinent 
in this connection than his use of the word 
‘mutation,’ though the coincidence is inter- 
esting enough. His ‘ genealogical tables’ also 
clearly foreshadow the ‘phylogenetic tree,’ 
and altogether the whole letter reads singu- 
larly prophetic. 

I am under obligation to Dr. Theodore Gill 
for the references to Asa Gray and Darwin. 


LEONHARD STEJNEGER. 
U. 8. Nationa Museum, 
WASHINGTON, D. C., 
May 3, 1906. 


*In another article in the same journal, p. 
173, he says that ‘almost every genuine or 
primitive species will be found to constitute a 
peculiar genus.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


THE INFLUENCE OF THE PLASTICITY OF ORGANISMS 
UPON EVOLUTION. 


In their discussions of ‘ organic selection,’ 
Morgan, Osborn, Baldwin and others have 
urged the importance of the plastic response 
of the individual members of a species in 
guiding the course of its evolution. I do not 
sée that one can doubt the reality of this in- 
fluence, but as to the extent and exact char- 
acter of the influence there seems room for 
discussion. 

In the case of a species whose members are 
highly plastic, responding promptly and ex- 
tensively, in certain particular ways, to the 
modifying influences of the environment, 
those individuals in which similar adaptive 
characters later appear as congenital varia- 
tions will have but slight advantage over the 
ontogenetically adapted, and selection must 
be comparatively ineffective. The only ad- 
vantage to the congenitally adapted will be 
in the fact that in their early life they have 
to pass through no period of education, and if 
the ontogenetic adaptation of other individ- 
uals be prompt and sufficient, it seems as if 
the latter would be at comparatively slight 
disadvantage. A high degree of plasticity 
hinders evolution by selection, of characters 
similar to those acquired by plastic response 
to the environmental influences. 

In the case of a species whose members are 
but slightly plastic, or are slow in their 
adaptive response, the congenitally adaptive 
may have a considerable initial advantage. 
It is doubtful, however, if slight plastic re- 
sponse will be highly effective in securing the 
survival of the individuals until the species 
could become congenitally modified in a simi- 
lar way. 

So far, then, as a single set of characters 
are concerned, we may say that a high degree 
of plasticity will probably retard evolution as 
much or more than it will guide, while slight 
plasticity, allowing only imperfect ontogenetic 
adaptation, may be ineffective in preserving 
the species. The guiding effect of ontogenetic 
responses upon the course of evolution can 
hardly be both very extensive and intimate 
(exact). 


May 18, 1906.] 


As has frequently, though not always, been 
recognized in discussions of organic selection, 
the guidance of evolution, through plastic 
modifications of the individual, is not exact. 
The frequently used illustration of the forced 
adoption of an arboreal habit by individuals 
of a monkey-like species, when environmental 
conditions became unsuitable for their per- 
sistence upon the ground, recognizes that this 
ontogenetic change of habit will not guide to 
the evolution of an innate tree-climbing in- 
stinct. For example, in Conn’s use of this 
illustration, the tree-climbing habit leads to 
the survival of individuals which show en- 
tirely different congenital adaptation, modi- 
fications in foot and hand structure. Here 
a change to a tree-climbing habit has had a 
general influence, making all adaptation for 
life in the trees advantageous. The effect is 
general and the effect upon evolution is gen- 
eral, not preserving congenital adaptations 
similar to the first ontogenetic adaptation, but 
preserving entirely different sorts of adapta- 
tions. The effect is vague and general. It 
is, however, no less real. 

In a species whose members are slightly 
plastic, or slowly responsive to modifying 
influences, innate characters, similar to those 
ontogenetically acquired, may be evolved, but 
in a species whose members are highly plastic 
and rapidly responsive, the adaptive innate 
characters which may later be produced, will 
probably be of a type different from that of 
those ontogenetically acquired. In other 
words, the greater the plasticity, the less inti- 
mate will be its guidance of the course of evo- 
lution, for a rapidly acquired and highly de- 
veloped ontogenetic adaptation is almost as 
beneficial as an innate adaptation of the same 
type. 

There is another possible influence of plas- 
ticity, which is worth considering. There is 
some paleontological evidence in favor of a 
belief that there are definite trends in evolu- 
tion, due to conditions within the organism, 
rather than to external factors. I have, in 
this journal, pointed out’ that the appearance, 


*Scrence, N. §., Vol. XXI., No. 531, March 3, 
1905. © 


SCIENCE. 


787 


generation after generation, of the same 
mutants of Gnothera lamarckiana, in num- 
bers far greater than could be explained by 
purely fortuitous variation, is a further indi- 
cation of some internal control over variation, 
making it somewhat determinate, instead of 
purely indeterminate. Weismann’s theory of 
germinal selection is an ingenious explanation 
of a possible way in which such trends in eyo- 
lution may arise and persist. I believe there 
is evidence that well-defined trends in eyolu- 
tion haye existed (paleontological evidence) 
and do exist (evidence from W@nothera la- 
marckiana). This question could be settled by 
sufficiently prolonged and sufficiently exten- 
sive observations in breeding, to see if varia- 
tions and mutations do tend to be grouped in 
particular directions rather than to be equally 
distributed in all directions from the mean. 

If it be true that trends in variation (or 
in evolution, the same thing) do exist, it 
suggests an interesting consideration in con- 
nection with plasticity. If such trends do 
exist, it is probable that they will appear in 
a species, persist for a time and ultimately 
die out. It is, therefore, possible that the 
adaptability of the individual members of a 
species might tide the species over a period 
of disadvantageous environmental conditions, 
giving time for some new and advantageous 
trend to appear. Such an effect is not only 
conceivable; it seems not unlikely that in 
numerous instances it may have been im- 
portant. Maynarp M. Merca.r. 

THE WomaAn’s COLLEGE OF BALTIMORE, 

March 6, 1906. 


_A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR MIXING ANY GRADE OF 


ALCOHOL DESIRED. 

Tuts problem of mixing different grades of 
alcohol recurs almost periodically to the work- 
er in biology, but at sufficiently long inter- 
vals for him to forget his method. I do not 
recall, on the other hand, that I have ever seen 
any wholly satisfactory rule or formula that 
was simple, easy to remember, and with which 
one could, at a glance, mix any desired 
quantity, or having given a certain volume of 
any grade of alcohol, that one could with readi- 
ness change the whole volume into the required 


788 


percentage. Nearly all rules and tables that 
have come to my notice limit the starting 
point either to 100 ce. of the alcohol on hand 
or to some other quantity which may not be 
a mathematical factor of the volume that one 
desires to change. Just one possible excep- 
tion to this statement has come to my notice. 
Professor John H. Schaffner in his book 
(‘Laboratory Outlines for General Botany ’) 
gives the general pharmaceutical rule which 
works out very well: ‘Take of the grade at 
hand as many volumes as the number of the 
per cent. you wish to make, then add to this 
enough volumes of pure water to make the 
total number of volumes agree with the num- 
ber of the per cent. at hand.’ This is quite 
simple and is really a special case of what I 
have to offer. While recently wrestling with 
this problem I determined to work it out 
algebraically, and I believe with success, evolv- 
ing a formula that is simple and which gives 
results in an abstract number, or multiplier, 
with which one can find the amount of water 
to be added to any given volume of the alcohol 
at hand, to obtain the per cent. desired. This 
simple formula is, v= (P— P’) — P’ and is 
translated into words at the end of this 
article. 

To get at the starting point of my formula 
I took a special case: Make 25 per cent. alcohol 
from 95 per cent. aleohol. Take 100 cc. of 
95 per cent. alcohol. This contains 95 per 
cent. of pure alcohol and 5 per cent. of water, 
or there are 19 parts of pure alcohol and one 
of water. To make 25 per cent. alcohol from 
one part of pure alcohol requires 3 parts of 
water. In order then to make 25 per cent. 
alcohol from the 19 parts of pure alcohol (in 
the 100 ¢.c. of 95 per cent. alcohol) we must 
multiply each part of pure alcohol by 3, ex- 
cepting the nineteenth part, which must be 
multiplied by 2, since there is already one 
part of water, namely the twentieth part pres- 
ent. In figures this gives 18X3+1X 
(3 —1) =—56 parts of water to be added. But 
we began with 19 parts (or 95 per cent.) of 
pure alcohol and 1 part (5 per cent.) of water, 
so that our total number of parts will be 
56 + 19 + 1=— 76 parts of 25 per cent. alcohol. 
Proof: 197625 per cent. as required. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


Or, using per cent., we have 90 per cent. < 
3-+5 per cent. X (3—1) +5 per cent. + 95 
per cent. = 380 per cent. 95 38025 per 
cent. as required. Now it is quite evident 
that a similar course of reasoning can with 
more or less difficulty be applied to any case 
imaginable. Therefore, let P represent the 
per cent. of the alcohol on hand, P’ the per 
cent. required, v the multiplier with which to 
multiply any volume of the alcohol on hand 
to obtain the volumes of water to be added, 
y the number of volumes of water to be added 
to a volume of pure alcohol to obtain the per 
cent. required, z the per cent. of water in the 
alcohol on hand, and 100 per cent. the volume 
taken of the alcohol on hand. Then, following 
our original course of reasoning we have: 
(P —z)y +zw—1)=v 100 per cent. (by 
definition), or Py—z—v 100 per cent. But 
z—=100 per cent.— P; y= (4100 per cent. — 
P’) — P’; substituting and simplifying we get 
Pv—=P—P’. This formula is clearly the 
pharmaceutical rule above quoted. Simplity- 
ing this we have, v= (P — P’) = P’, a simple 
formula, independent of any volume of alcohol 
that we choose to take, and easy to keep in 
mind, in which v represents the multiplier 
with which to multiply any volume of the 
alcohol P that we choose to take, to obtain 
the volumes of water necessary. for making 
alcohol P’. Or we may regard v as represent- 
ing the number of volumes of water to be 
added to one volume of P in order to make 
P’. Thus, if we desire to make 40 per cent. 
alcohol from 95 per cent. alcohol, (95 — 40) — 
40 =v —18 volumes of water to be added to 
one volume of 95 per cent. alcohol. 

Rule: To find the number of volumes (v) 
of water to be added to one volume of alcohol 
of the grade per cent. (P) on hand, divide the 
difference between the number (P) denoting 
the grade per cent. on hand and the number 
(P’) denoting the grade per cent. required by 
the latter number (P’). Or, which is simpler, 
v= (P— P’) ~P’. 

E. W. Bercer. 

BroLoatcaL HAL, 

Onto STATE UNIVERSITY, 
February 22, 1906. 


May 18, 1906.] 


MAGNETISM OF DIAMOND DRILL RODS. 


THE fourth report of the Michigan Acad- 
emy of Science, 1904, contains a short paper 
by Dr. A. C. Lane on ‘ Magnetic Phenomena 
around Deep Borings,’ in which attention is 
called to the magnetism of iron or steel 
casings in deep wells due to their position in 
the earth’s magnetic field. Cases were re- 
ferred to in which the magnetism was sufii- 
ciently strong to hold large-sized spikes or 
even heavier wrenches, while difficulty was ex- 
perienced in lowering heavily weighted steel 
tapes into the wells, the tape being attracted 
and held against the side of the casing. 

An instance has recently come under my 
observation in which it appears that diamond 
drill rods have become quite strongly mag- 
netized because of their position in the earth’s 
magnetic field. While prospecting for bodies 
of magnetite in a basic hornblende-chlorite 
schist enclosed on either side by more acid 
rocks, the drillers found that the drill rods 
became strongly magnetic. They attributed 
the phenomenon to the influence of nearby 
ore bodies, and one mining engineer, in report- 
ing on the property, referred to the observed 
magnetic effects as a conclusive proof of the 
proximity of large bodies of magnetite in 
depth. At the time the magnetism was 
noticed and reported the drill was cutting 
through the acid series of rocks, practically 
free from magnetite. Similar effects were 
reported from two different borings, but not 
from other borings near by. 

Both of the drill-holes referred to are in- 
clined several degrees from the vertical toward 
the north, thus approaching parallelism with 
the lines of force of the earth’s magnetic field. 
As is well known, an iron bar held in this 
position becomes more strongly magnetic than 
when held in an east-and-west line. It seemed 
to me, therefore, that the conditions in the 
case of the drill rods were especially favorable 
for the production of strong magnetic effects. 
According to the reports of several witnesses 
the drill rods would hold heavy spikes, while 
the pull on heavier masses of iron was very 
noticeable. I did not observe the phenomena 
myself, the holes in question having been 


SCIENCE. 


789 


abandoned and a new one commenced at the 
time of my visit. D. W. JouNnson. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF THE GRASS 
SPIKELET. 


PERHAPS in no group of plants has there 
been more yariation in the use of terms than 
in the use of those employed in botanical de- 
scriptions of the grass spikelet. This multi- 
plicity of terms and the resultant confusion 
have been largely, but not altogether, the re- 
sult of confused morphology. This has been 
ably discussed by Bentham and his conclu- 
sions, as to both morphology and terminology, 
have been widely adopted. Of late years there 
has been more or less tendency to discard 
Bentham’s terms in favor of others. This 
has led the writer to investigate the whole 
matter with the end in view of adopting the 
terminology which best serves the purposes of 
description. 

Using as a starting-point such a spikelet as 
that of Bromus and the terminology of Ben- 
tham, we have first the two empty glumes at 
the base of the spikelet. The remainder of 
the spikelet consists of distichous lateral 
florets. Hach floret has a large outer scale 
or flowering glume. Opposite and above this 
is the two-nerved palet. Opposite and above 
the palet are the two delicate lodicules. Still 
above these are the reproductive organs, the 
whorl of three stamens and the pistil. 

Important modifications from this typical 
form of spikelet oceur as follows: 

The empty glumes may be entirely absent, 
as in Coleanthus, solitary as in Nardus, mere 
rudiments as in Homalocenchrus and Zizania; 
or the lateral spikelets may each have but one 
empty glume, while the terminal has two as 
in Monerma. In Umola and the Bambusez 
there are from three to six so-called empty 
glumes. These are most probably sterile 
flowering glumes and not proper empty glumes. 
Such is clearly the case in the so-called third 
empty glume of the Panicex, which often en- 
closes more or less rudimentary sexual organs. 
It is likewise very common for the terminal 
florets in the Festucee to be reduced to an 


790 


empty flowering glume. In Melica several 
such become strangely modified. 

The palet is frequently reduced to a rudi- 
ment, as in some species of Agrostis, or it may 
be entirely absent, as in other species of the 
same genus. 

The lodicules, two in most grasses, are three 
in number in many Bambusez and altogether 
wanting in Alopecurus and Anthroxanthum. 

As to the morphology of these organs, it is 
now generally agreed that the empty glumes 
and flowering glumes are bracts on the main 
axis, while the palet is a bractlet on a lateral 
branch. The lodicules have been supposed to 
be the vestiges of a perianth. 

The empty glumes are variously named by 
authors. Linneus and Adanson called them 
the calyx; Jussieu, Kunth and others the 
glume; Agardh the glume exteriores; Link 
the glume valve or perigonium externum; 
Scheuchzer the glume steriles; Trinius the 
glume calycine; Blumenbach the glume 
vacue; Schleiden the value glume; Watson 
the lower glumes. With Beauyois they con- 
stitute the tegmen; with Richard the lepicena; 
with Nash the empty scales; with Panzer the 
peristachyum; with Reichenbach the bractee. 

The two empty glumes have been commonly 
distinguished by the adjectives lower and 
upper, outer and inner, first and second, or 
their Latin equivalents. Watson, however, in 
the 1890 edition of Gray’s ‘ Manual’ ealls the 
upper the middle glume when the spikelets are 
but one-flowered. 

The flowering glume and the palet together 
constitute with Linneeus the corolla, or the 
valuule corolla; with Trinius the valvule or 
glume corolla; with Jussieu the calyx; with 
Reichenbach the calyx exterior; with Beauvois 
the stragula; with Richard and with Link the 
glumelle; with Malpighi, Schleiden, Lindley 
and others the palew; with Agardh the glume 
interiores; with Scheuchzer the folliculi; with 
Robert Brown the perianthium; with Link the 
perigonium internum. These likewise have 
been distinguished by the adjectives inferior 
and superior, exterior and interior, or their 
equivalents. 

With the use of the word flowering glume, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 594. 


the word palea or palet has by almost universal 
usage been confined to the organ opposite the 
flowering glume. However, Déll quotes the 
term spathella, said to be used by Turpin. 

The lodicules have also come in for their 
liberal share of names. They are, with 
Malpighi the loculi; with Adanson and most 
later authors the lodicule; with Linnzus the 
nectartia; with Jussieu the squame@; with 
Richard glumelle in common with the flower- 
ing glume and the palea; with Agardh the 
glume intime; with Reichenbach the calyx 
interior; with Schleiden the squamule; with 
Link the periphylla, paropetala or perigynium; 
with Turpin the phycostemon; with Gray in 
earlier writings the hypogynous scales; with 
Desvaux the glumellule; with Nees the peri- 
anthium. 

It would seem that with this large mass of 
terms and multiplied resulting combinations 
of terms, there is little excuse for intro- 
ducing a new one. And yet in all this flood 
of names no one seems to have realized the con- 
venience of having a simple and distinctive 
name for the organ most used for systematic 
purposes, the flowering glume. It has been 
called a valve of the calyx or corolla as the 
author conceived, or associated with the 
glumes below it or the palet above it, but never 
has it received an exclusive designation. 

This it seems to the writer is demanded not 
only by the taxonomic importance of the or- 
gan, but as matter of great convenience, in- 
cidentally limiting the terms glwmes strictly 
to the empty glumes, and obviating any con- 
fusion with the palet. Im a recent publi- 
cation I have, therefore, introduced the word 
lemma (Greek Aéayp, a husk or seale) for 
the ‘flowering glume.’ For the ‘empty glume’ 
the simple word glume is adopted. Palet and 
lodicule are used as heretofore. The so-called 
third glume of the Panicex is a sterile lemma, 
as perhaps are the supernumerary ‘empty 
glumes’ in Uniola and the Bambusez. 


C. V. Pirer. 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
NOTE ON THE MOLECULAR FORCES IN GELATINE. 


SoME time since, while engaged in a re- 
search on fluorescence it became necessary to 


May 18, 1906.] 


know the index of refraction of solid gelatine. 
As I failed to find the value in any book of 
constants to which I had access! I proceeded 
to make the determination. JI took a 90° 
totally reflecting prism of flint glass and on 
the long face dropped a few drops of the purest 
gelatine I could buy—dissolved in warm water. 
The liquid gelatine spread out and formed 
two disks of the gelatine about the size and 
thickness of silver dimes. JI then laid the 
prism away for the gelatine to dry and harden, 
expecting to determine its index by determin- 
ing the critical angle of glass-gelatine. But 
when I examined the prism a few days later 
I found it ruined. The gelatine had dried 
out and contracted, and had clung to the glass 
with such tenacity that some of the glass had 
been torn from the remainder of the glass— 
all the way around the circumference of the 
gelatine disks, forming an annular cavity 
from .01 em. to .1 em. deep. 

This experiment proves, in this instance at 
least, that the cohesive and contractile forces 
of gelatine, and the adhesion of gelatine for 
flint glass are greater than the cohesion of the 
glass. It proves more, for consider the rela- 
tively enormous force that must be exerted to 
pull a piece, say a disk of glass, from (out of) 
a large plane-faced block of glass where one 
must take into account the forces about the 
edge of the disk as well as those on its faces. 

I have lately repeated the experiment, using 
pieces of window glass instead of the prism. 
Several times the gelatine disks on drying 
sprung loose from the glass without injuring 
the surface. However, on taking extra pre- 
cautions to have the glass surfaces clean, the 
gelatine prepared in a clean vessel, and very 
little water used in dissolving it, patches of 
glass were pulled off by the gelatine drying 
and springing up around the edge of the disk. 

An unsuccessful attempt was made to meas- 
ure the tenacity of solid gelatine, unsuccessful 
because of the difficulty in getting a sample 
free from internal strain. Further experi- 
ments are in progress. 

ArrHur L. Fotry. 

PuHysics LABORATORY, 


INDIANA UNIVERSITY, 
April, 1906. 


SCIENCE. 


791 


NOTES ON ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, 
NEW ANALOGUES OF INDIGO. 


Tur importance of indigo in the arts is so 
great that considerable general interest at- 
tends the discovery of related compounds. 
Some years ago P. Friedlander and J. Neud- 
oerfer’ prepared a compound which they be- 
lieved to be represented by the formula, 


aC Ne Lane \E 
H Na ye 
if 


Friedlinder has now confirmed this result’ 
and has also obtained the corresponding thio- 
derivative, 


Be nA K 
BK H 
HS ST 


On comparing these formule with that of 


indigo, 
H H 
co CO 
NG Sone Nouns 
ANON NH?)\/ 


it will be observed that the two new com- 
pounds are to be regarded as indigo in which 
the bivalent imino (NH) group is replaced 
by an equivalent atom of oxygen and sulphur, 
respectively. 

Oxygen-indigo, as the first compound may 
be termed, is a red dye which is much more 
rapidly acted on by light than indigo. Its 
preparation is attended with considerable dif- 
fieulty. 

Thioindigo, on the other hand, can be ob- 
tained with comparative ease from thiosali- 
eylic acid. It also is a red, sparingly soluble 
dye, crystallizing in brown-red needles with a 
bronze luster. Its chloroform solution is red, 
with a shade of blue, and it exhibits a strong 
yellowish-red fluorescence and a characteristic 
absorption spectrum. At high temperatures 
thioindigo is more stable than indigo and may 
be sublimed and distilled. Thioindigo re- 
sembles indigo in its behavior with acids, re- 


1 Ber. d. Chem. Ges., 32, 1867 (1899). 
2 Ibid., 39, 1060 (1906). 


792 


ducing and oxidizing agents, but goods dyed 


with it surpass those dyed with indigo in” 


their stability to light and resistance to oxi- 
dation. It is, as yet, uncertain whether thio- 
indigo will have any technical value. 


J. Bisuop TINGLE. 
JOHNS HopKINS UNIVERSITY. 


RHECHNT MUSEUM REPORTS. 

In reading the Report of the U. S. National 
Museum for 1903-1904 one is struck with the 
liberality displayed in permitting the use of 
material and in publishing the results of the 
labors of others than its regular staff. The 
bibliography of papers based in whole, or in 
part, on its collections contains some eighty 
names. Much is done for the public at large in 
the way of furnishing information and identi- 
fying specimens. Perhaps these may be among 
the causes that have delayed the publication of 
the report for something over a year and a half, 
although the report proper was issued as a 
separate in 1905. Owing to this delay we have 
an account of the commencement of work on 
the new museum building when the basement 
story is now largely built. In view of the 
eramped quarters occupied at present and the 
need of extensive repairs to the roof of the 
old museum building it is to be hoped that 
work may progress rapidly. Among the more 
important accessions noted are ethnological 
and zoological collections from the Malay 
Archipelago and Philippines, obtained by Dr. 
W. L. Abbott and Dr. E. A. Mearns. The 
most extensive additions are in the depart- 
ments of botany and entomology, the rapid 
growth of the latter department during the 
past few years making the collection of in- 
sects one of the most important in the world; 
the collection of musical instruments is also 
in the foremost rank. This in spite of the 
fact that the museum has always been sadly 
hampered in obtaining desirable specimens by 
the small appropriation—$10,000—for their 
purchase. Even this paltry sum (paltry for 
a national institution) less than some mu- 
seums pay for a single object, was struck out 
of the appropriation for 1905. 

Attention is called to the smallness of the 
museum staff in comparison with the work 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


required of them, and it may also be said that 
this is all the greater owing to the compre- 
hensive scope of the museum collections. 
There are those who believe that this is 
greater than any one museum can justly cover, 
and consider that a readjustment of the collec- 
tions to form at least three separate museums 
would be advantageous and result in better 
support by congress. 

As usual the report includes papers based 
on the collections or work of the museum. 


_This year there are only three such articles, 


but one, ‘Contributions to the History of 
American Geology,’ by George P. Merrill, is 
a book in itself, giving a consecutive history 
of the rise and progress of geology in this 
country from 1785 to 1879. Furthermore, 
there are chapters on the ‘ Fossil Footprints 
of the Connecticut Valley,’ ‘The TEozoon 
Question,’ ‘The Laramie Question’ and ‘ The 
Taconic Question.’ There are portraits of 
many, if not most, of the well-known geolo- 
gists of the United States, the whole forming 
a most important, much-needed, and, withal, 
readable work. 

The Annual Report of the Director of the 
Field Columbian Museum for 1904-1905 
marks the steady progress of this institution, 
not the least important event being the con- 
sideration of the plans for a new building. 
It is to be earnestly hoped that this may be 
commenced without further delay to furnish 
proper housing for the collections. 

Important accessions are noted, especially 
by purchase, this being a most satisfactory 
way in which to acquire specimens since only 
those are obtained that are needed; many min- 
erals, botanical and ethnological objects were 
secured in this way. No less than thirteen 
field parties were sent out during the year, 
the expedition to the Bahamas resulting in 
many additions to the herbarium, while the 
department of geology secured important ma- 
terial from the White River Beds, including 
skulls of Brontops, Hyracodon, Aceratherium 
and various creodonts. From the results of 
collecting in former years one fine skull of 
Triceratops has been prepared and placed on 
exhibition and another partially worked out. 


May 18, 1906.] 


Considerable attention has been paid to the 
local fauna and important additions made to 
the series of nestlings; other work has been 
the preparation of series of skins to illustrate 
the progress of moult from beginning to end. 
In ethnology three halls, devoted to material 
from the northwest coast, have been opened 
and two others are in course of preparation. 
The report is illustrated by a number of ex- 
cellent plates, F. A. L. 


REPORT ON THE BOLYAI PRIZE. 
Havine just received from its author, G. 


Rados, of Budapest, the detailed report of the- 


Commission on the Bolyai Prize to the Hun- 
_garian Academy of Sciences, I venture to 
translate a few excerpts. 

On the occasion of the hundredth anniver- 
sary of the birth of John Bolyai was estab- 
lished in honor of this marvelous genius a 
prize of ten thousand crowns, to go every five 
years to the author of the best work in mathe- 
matics published during that lustrum, account 
being taken of the entire productivity of the 
winner. The first decision is as follows: The 
committee states first that the new view-points 
dominating modern mathematical investiga- 
tion have brought out a very notable number 
of mathematical works whose high worth the 
committee gladly recognizes; but just this cir- 
cumstance has made the committee’s problem 
of exceeding difficulty. 

The committee was convinced it should 
best fulfil the intention of the academy by 
deciding only to consider those works having 
the most important influence upon the general 
development of mathematics. In this spirit 
the committee could limit itself to the con- 
sideration of the works of two investigators 
whose merits are acknowledged on all hands, 
David Hilbert and Henri Poincaré. 

The committee now has reached the unan- 
imous decision to give the Bolyai prize to 
Henri Poincaré, taking into consideration, in 
the sense of the statutes, all his work, begin- 
ning in 1879 and now having completed a 
eycle of the entire domain of mathematics, 
opening everywhere to mathematical investi- 
gation new points of view. The committee 
has, however, at the same time decided, in 


SCIENCE. 


793 


order to give Professor Hilbert a very special 
mark of their high appreciation, to charge 
their reporter—contrary to the usual custom— 
to discuss Professor Hilbert’s works with the 
same detail as those of Professor Poincaré. 
For their universal significance is in full 
measure prized and the committee is con- 
vineed they are called to a réle of ever greater 
importance. 

Professor Rados now begins his report by 
saying Henri Poincaré is at the present mo- 
ment unquestionably the most powerful in- 
vestigator in the domain of mathematics and 
mathematical physics. His strongly marked 
individuality lets us recognize in him the in- 
tuitive genius drawing the inspiration for his 
wide-reaching researches from the exhaustless 
fountain of geometric and physical intuition, 
yet capable also of working this out in detail 
with marvelous logical keenness. With his 
brilliant inventive genius he is distinguished 
by the capacity for sharp and successful gen- 
eralization of mathematical relations, which 
oft empowers him to push far out the boun- 
daries of knowledge in the most widely differ- 
ent domains of pure and applied mathematics. 
This is shown even in his first memoirs on 
automorphic functions, with which he begins 
the series of those brilliant publications, which 
must be reckoned with the greatest mathe- 
matical achievements of all time. Rados 
plunges now into detail, finishing a necessarily 
fragmentary account of Poincaré’s more than 
300 publications, with a mention of his books, 
of which we will only name two, ‘ Science and 
Hypothesis’ (1902) and ‘The Value of Sci- 
ence’ (1905). 

Finally, he says, permit me to make men- 
tion of his last book, ‘The Value of Science’ 
(1905), in which he in a way has laid down 
the scientist’s creed. 

I wish from this intensely interesting book 
to quote a bit verbatim where he carries out 
in detail the contrast between the intuitional 
and the logical way of thinking. In regard 
to the logicians, then says Poincaré: 

Rejecting the aid of the imagination, which, as 
we haye seen, is not always infallible, they can 
advance without fear of deceiving themselves. 
Happy, therefore, are those who can do without 


794 


this aid! 
they are! 

Of these marvelous and rare ones is David 
Hilbert, the master of logical analysis in 
mathematics. Gifted with brilliant logical 
power of combination, he creates from out his 
very self, entirely by generalization, by sepa- 
ration, by union, by aggregation of mathe- 
matical concepts, so that no outer stimulus, 
dependent upon intuition, is recognizable. 
Logical rigor and elegance of demonstration 
are for him adequate requirements, and he 
is convinced that logical precision—rightly 
grasped—must lead, never to sterilization, but 
constantly to fruitful further development of 
mathematical ideas. He applies himself by 
preference in his investigations to the most 
difficult, long-unsettled problems, whose es- 
sence he with marvelous penetration is able 
so to seize, that his considerations not only 
completely solve these problems, but often 
bring to a final settlement also the whole 
theory to which these problems pertain. 

Mention is then made, among many other 
achievements, of the wonderful ‘ Grundlagen 
der Geometrie’ which seems destined to fix 
what men shall henceforth take as the axioms 
of geometry, and to establish the criterion of 
what shall be and shall not be elementary 
demonstrative geometry. 

All hail! Poincaré the supreme mathe- 
matician, Hilbert the supreme logician, philos- 
ophers, scientists both! 

Grorce Bruce HAtLstep. 

Kenyon COLLEGE, 

GAMBIER, OHIO. 


We must admire them; but how rare 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


May 7.—Under a suspension of the rules, 
House Resolution 18,4385 to authorize the See- 
retary of Commerce and Labor to cooperate 
through the Bureau of the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries with the 
Shell Fish Commissioners of the State of 
_ Maryland in making surveys of the natural 
oyster beds, bars and rocks in the waters with- 
in the State of Maryland passed the House of 
Representatives. 

May 7.—Under a suspension of the rules, 
House Resolution 13,548 for the protection 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


and regulation of the fisheries of Alaska, with 
amendments, passed the House of Representa- 
tives. 

May 10.—Mr. Perkins, of California, intro- 
duced a bill (Senate 6,119) for the protection 
of animals, birds and fish in forest reserves 
of California. Referred to the Committee on 
Forest Reservations and the Protection of 
Game. 


A NEW BUILDING FOR THE GHOLOGICAL 
SURVEY. 

Tue need of the United States Geological 
Survey for a new building in Washington, 
D. C., is most pressing, as every one who visits 
the survey in its present quarters must realize. 

This bureau gives permanent employment 
to about 1,000 persons, and temporary field 
employment, chiefly in summer, to nearly as 
many more. Of this force about 600 are en- 
gaged at times, and during all of every winter, 
on office work in Washington. For their ac- 
commodation two buildings are at present 
rented, one at 1330 F Street, N. W., for gen- 
eral office work, and one in the adjoining alley 
for the exclusive use of the division of en- 
graying and printing. The floor space occu- 
pied, including basement, amounts to 105,670 
square feet, which is quite inadequate. Even 
the corridors have to be utilized for desk space 
or map eases. It is necessary to supply quar- 
ters for some employees in the National Mu- 
seum and Smithsonian Institution and others 
are permitted for lack of proper office accom- 
modations to work at home. 

A large part of the survey office work is of 
such character as to demand much more space 
than that sufficient merely for the desks and 
chairs of employees. Chemists, physicists, 
photographers, petrographers, draftsmen, en- 
gravers, lithographers and other specialists 
must have room for their instruments, appa- 
ratus, maps, working specimens, drawings, 
lithographic stones, presses, etc. There is no 
doubt but that the degree of crowding to 
which the office force is now subjected dimin- 
ishes the quantity and depreciates the quality 
of their work. 

Eyen though the buildings now occupied by 
the survey were suficiently commodious, they 


May 15, 1906.] 


could never be made suitable for the purposes 
of the bureau. The delicate physical appa- 
ratus is constantly affected by vibrations from 
the heavy printing presses. At least twenty- 
five rooms in the main building are so dark 
that it is impossible to work in them without 
the aid of artificial light. In the darkest of 
these rooms forty-five persons are working 
from 9 in the morning until 4:30 in the after- 
noon by the help of electric light. Unless 
they are soon provided with better-lighted 
rooms their vision will be permanently im- 
paired and their capacity for work correspond- 
ingly decreased. 

Not the least important reason for housing 
the survey in a modern, fire-proof building of 
its own is the consideration that government 
property and records valued at approximately 
$6,000,000 are in constant danger of loss by 
fire. Recently, over $10,000 worth of property 
was destroyed in twenty minutes by a fire in 
the photographie laboratory on the top floor 
of the main building. The buildings contain 
over 100,000 square feet of varnished and in- 
flammable wooden partitions, along which fire 
could spread with great rapidity. Many of 
the records thus flimsily sheltered could not be 
replaced at any price. 

What the survey needs is a strong, fire-proof, 
well-lighted building containing a net avail- 
able space of at least 150,000 square feet, ex- 
elusive of basement and halls. Such a build- 
ing would cost about $1,200,000. The annual 
rent paid on the buildings now occupied is 
$34,900, which is nearly three per cent. on 
$1,200,000. 

A bill for such a structure as is required 
was introduced in the senate by Mr. Frank P. 
Flint, of California, on March 21 and in the 
house of representatives by Mr. James S. 
Sherman, of New York, on March 26. 


UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC AND THE 
HARTHQUAKE. 

THe University of the Pacific, San Jose, 
California, the oldest institution of higher 
learning on the Pacific coast, was damaged to 
the extent of about $60,000, net, during the 
recent earthquake. East Hall, a large four- 
story brick building, the only building on the 


SCIENCE. 


795 


campus seriously damaged, will be lowered to 
two stories. The fourteen rooms on the 
ground floor are occupied by laboratories. Two 
thousand dollars had just been put into addi- 
tional equipment; but the entire loss of appa- 
ratus, chemicals, ete., will not amount to 
more than $500. The Monday following the 
earthquake the laboratories were running as 
usual, as were the other departments of the 
university. The other buildings on the 
campus were not damaged except in the loss of 
plaster. The executive committee has de- 
eided to erect a two-story ‘ earthquake-proof ’ 
building to take the place of the upper half 
of East Hall. The Jacks-Goodall observatory 
on the southwest corner of the campus was not 
injured. Seven buildings owned by the uni- 
versity in San Francisco were entirely lost; 
but they will be rebuilt at once. The resi- 
dence of President McClish was destroyed, but 
it will be rebuilt. Among the professors, the 
residences of Dr. Hatzell and Dr. Sawyer were 
the only ones damaged, and those but slightly. 
No lives were lost, but two students were in- 
jured by falling bricks. 


NEW YORK OBSERVATORY AND NAUTICAL 
MUSEUM. 

PRELIMINARY plans have just been formu- 
lated for the organization of a great marine 
museum for the city of New York. It is ex- 
pected that this will mean to the navigator 
what the Metropolitan Museum means to the 
lover of art and the American Museum to the 
student of natural history. The new insti- 
tution will take its place as one of the three 
great museums of the city of New York, and 
in it one can study the tides, navigation and 
marine instruments at first hand. 

As the science of navigation is based on as- 
tronomy, it will be necessary to have an astro- 
nomical observatory as an adjunct to it. The 
capitals of Europe, London, Paris and Berlin, 
each has its magnificent observatory; and in 
the United States the cities of Washington, 
Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Pittsburg, 
have their big telescopes and finely equipped 
observatories. The commercial capital of the 
United States, the second largest city im the 


796 


world, has done very little for astronomy, and 
it is with profound satisfaction we learn that 
commerce and nayigation, on which the su- 
premacy of New York largely depends, is to 
be aided by the founding of the ‘New York 
Observatory and Nautical Museum.’ 

This institution will consist of two distinct 
departments : 

1. A Nautical Museum, where will be col- 
lected and exhibited models of all types of 
vessels, safety and signal devices, nautical 
instruments and methods of determining posi- 
tion, charts, marine engines and motors, and 
historic instruments and relics. The museum 
and collections will be open to the public and 
will be arranged so that properly qualified per- 
sons can avail themselves of the facilities there 
offered for investigation and research. 

2. An Astronomical Observatory, where will 
be made scientific investigations in the field of 
astronomy, navigation and kindred subjects, 
and for this purpose the observatory will be 
provided with a great telescope, for photo- 
graphic and visual work, astrophysical instru- 
ments for the investigations of interesting 
problems of the sun, magnetometers, seismo- 
graphs, ete. A time service will be instituted 
so that chronometers may be rated, all kinds 
of marine instruments will be tested, and tidal 
investigations will be taken up. 

The institution is to have an endowment of 
not less than $500,000, and in addition to this 
it is expected that the city of New York will 
provide a site in Bronx Park adjacent to the 
Botanical Garden and Zoological Park, and 
will also erect the museum building and the 
domes and smaller buildings for the observ- 
atory. 

The organization committee consists of 
such well-known New Yorkers as Frederick 
G. Bourne, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Edward S. 
Isham, George A. Cormack, J. D. Jerrold 
Kelley and Charles Lane Poor, and their back- 
ing means success. Dr. Poor, professor of 
astronomy at Columbia University, has made 
an enviable record for himself through his 
cometary researches, and by his recent dis- 
covery that the sun is a vibrating body con- 
tinually changing its shape. Further re- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. » 


searches carried out through a series of years 
will probably make clear the meaning of this 
change; and this will go a long way towards 
solving some of the outstanding problems of 
astronomy. 

There is every reason to believe that the new 
observatory will be founded and will at once 
take its place among the great observatories 
of the world. 


BILLS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST PASSED 
BY THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE. 

Tue New York legislature has passed a bill 
providing for a new building for the State 
Museum, State Library and the Hducation 
Department, to cost not more than four mil- 
lion dollars. The bill carries an appropria- 
tion for the acquisition of a site and the pre- 
paring of plans. For these plans twenty 
thousand dollars in prizes are to be awarded 
to the first, second and third choice of plans 
submitted to the commission having the erec- 
tion of the building in charge. 

The legislature also passed a bill to acquire 
Watkins Glen, one of the many ravines run- 
ning into the Finger Lakes of western New 
York, for a state reservation. 

The following legislation was passed in re- 
gard to the protection of Niagara Falls: Four 
inactive charters were repealed, leaving four 
others still outstanding, two of which are 
actively engaged in diverting water. The 
legislature also passed the Foelker bill to pre- 
vent any abstraction of water beyond the 
present chartered limits of abstraction. 

A referendum for a constitutional amend- 
ment to permit the flooding of parts of the 
state reservation in the Adirondacks for the 
manufacture of power by private corporations 
was also passed. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 
VANOEMENT OF SCIENCE. 

Tue work of the local committee in ar- 
ranging for the Ithaca meeting is approaching 
completion. In addition to the usual sessions 
for the reading of papers the program will in- 
clude the following events: 

Thursday evening, June 28, an informal 
smoker at the Town and Gown Club. 


May 18, 1906.] 


Friday evening, June 29, formal opening 
of the new Physical Laboratory, Rockefeller 
Hall, with short addresses by several well- 
known speakers. 

Saturday, June 30, special local excursions 
will be arranged for botanists, geologists, zool- 
ogists, entomologists, chemists, etc., also an 
excursion to the George Junior Republic and 
trips to local points of scenic interest. It is 
probable that a trip to Niagara Falls, return- 
ing Sunday evening, will be arranged. 

Monday evening, July 2, public meeting 
under the auspices of the local chapter of 
Sigma Xi in celebration of the twentieth anni- 
yersary of the founding of the society, with 
an address by some eminent man of science. 

The permanent secretary has arranged for 
a special railroad rate of one and one third 
fares plus twenty-five cents on the certificate 
plan, and other passenger associations are ex- 
pected to cooperate. Tickets may be obtained 
not earlier than June 25 and not later than 
June 30 and will be good for the return 
journey up to July 6. 

The preliminary program will be sent out 
about June 1. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue University of Edinburgh has conferred 
its doctorate of laws on Professor A. Graham 
Bell, who was born in Edinburgh in 1847. 

Dr. Morris K. Jesup, president of the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History, New York, 
has been elected a corresponding member of 
the Frankfort Society of Natural History. 


Dr. J. H. Finury, president of the College 
of the City of New York, has been elected 
president of the American Social Science 
Association. 

We are glad to learn that Mr. William T. 
Hornaday, director of the New York Zoolog- 
ical Park, who has been seriously ill from 
actinomycosis, supposed to have been con- 
tracted from a chimpanzee, is in an improved 
condition after an operation. 

Dr. Joun K. Reus, professor of geodesy and 
astronomy in Columbia University and direc- 
tor of the observatory, has been made pro- 
fessor emeritus. We regret that his retire- 


SCIENCE. 


797 


ment from active work is due to continued ill- 
ness following a stroke of apoplexy. 

Dr. L. O. Howarp, chief of the Division of 
Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
and permanent secretary of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
expected to return on the Oceanic, which was 
due in New York on the sixteenth. 

Amone the members of the U. S. Geological 
Survey in the neighborhood of San Francisco 
at the time of the recent earthquake was Mr. 
G. K. Gilbert, geologist, who has been en- 
gaged for several months in making hydraulic 
experiments in the mining laboratory of the 
University of California at Berkeley. In- 
structions were telegraphed him immediately 
to make as thorough a study as possible of the 
earthquake phenomena. 

Mr. F. H. Newest, chief engineer of the 
U. S. Reclamation Service, has recently re- 
turned from an inspection of the works under 
construction in the territories of Oklahoma, 
New Mexico and Arizona, and in the states 
of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and 
Kansas. Rapid progress is being made on 
construction. The work in its general magni- 
tude now stands well toward the front of 
publie undertakings. The expenditures on 
water storage and distribution systems agegre- 
gate about $1,000,000 a month. Most of the 
large engineering problems have been worked 
out. The present rate of construction and 
expenditure is probably at the maximum and 
will decrease gradually, many of the most 
expensive structures being now at the period 
of greatest activity. During his absence in 
the west Mr. Newell has been elected a mem- 
ber of the corporation of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, of which he is a 
graduate; also a member of the board of 
trustees of the Washington (D. C.) College 
of Engineering of the George Washington 
University. He has also been elected as one 
of the board of directors of the Washington 
Society of Engineers and chairman of the 
committee on meetings. 

Dr. JuLivs WIESNER, professor of the physi- 
ology and anatomy of plants in the University 
of Vienna, has been made a life member of 


798 


the upper house of the Austrian parliament. 


Ar the annual general meeting of the Insti- 
tution of Civil Engineers, held on April 24, 
Sir Alexander B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., was 
elected president of the institution. 


Tur Iron and Steel Institute of Great 
Britain awarded last week its Bessemer gold 
medal to M. Floris Osmond, of Paris. One of 
its Andrew Carnegie research scholarships-was 
awarded to Mr. F. Hess, of Columbia Univer- 
sity, but he was unable to accept. 


At the University of Colorado the annual 
Sigma Xi address was given by Professor 
Thomas H. MacBride, of the State University 
of Iowa. The subject was ‘The American 
Deserts.’ 


Proressor W. Nernst, of Berlin, whose ap- 
pointment as Silliman lecturer at Yale Uni- 
versity we have announced, will lecture in 
October on applications of thermodynamics in 
chemistry. 

Grorcr H. CwHapwick, of Rochester, has 
been appointed zoologist of the New York 
State Museum, to fill the vacancy left by the 
death of Dr. F. C. Paulmier. : 


Henry H. Gopparp, Ph.D. (Clark), of the 
department of psychology and pedagogy at 
the State Normal School, Chester, Pa., has 
been given charge of a department of research 
which has been established in the New Jersey 
Training School for Feeble-minded Girls and 
Boys at Vineland. This, we understand, is 
the first department of the kind that has been 
established in connection with a school for 
feeble-minded children. 

A BRONZE bust of the late Dr. Alexander J. 
C. Skene was unveiled near Prospect Park, 


Brooklyn, on May 5, when an address was 
made by Dr. A. Jacobi. 


Dr. Grorces BrELAzZ, professor of chemistry 
in the University of Lausanne, died on March 
15, at the age of seventy-five years. The death 
is also announced of Dr. Gustay Bauer, pro- 
fessor of mathematics at Munich. 


There will be U. S. Civil Service examina- 
tions on June 1 to fill the position of agricul- 
turist in dry-land agriculture in the Bureau 
of Animal Industry, at a salary of $2,750, and 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 594, 


of assistant agriculturist in the same bureau, 
at a salary of $1,000. 


Mr. Rosert Y. Cummines has given $20,000 
to the Field Museum of Natural History to 
defray the expenses of an ethnological study 
of the native tribes of the Philippine Islands. 


Tue cornerstone of the United Engineering 
Building on West Thirty-ninth Street, New 
York, was laid on May 8 by Mr. Andrew Car- 
negie, who gave one and a half million dollars 
for its erection to the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute 
of Electrical Engineers and the American In- 
stitute of Mining Engineers. The building is 
already in course of erection,-being about half 
finished. 

THE sixth International Congress of Ap- 
plied Chemistry was opened at Rome on April 
26 by the king and queen of Italy in the 
presence of the diplomatic body, the members 
of the cabinet, high officials of the state and 
about two thousand delegates. 


Tue first of the annual conversaziones at 
the Royal Society was held on May 9. 


Tue German government has issued invita- 
tions for an International Conference on 
Wireless Telegraphy to meet on June 28. 


A Locau section of the American Chemical 
Society has been organized at the University 
of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. Jt embraces the ter- 
ritory within a radius of fifty miles from the 
university. The following officers have been 
elected: 

Presiding Officer—Professor S. W. Parr. 

Vice-chairman and Councilor—Dr. H. 8. Grind- 
ley. 

Treasurer—Dr. A. T. Lincoln. 

Secretary—Dr. R. 8. Curtiss. 


The above officers were also chosen members 
of a general committee. The charter members 
number twenty-six, of whom all but three are 
resident at the University of Illinois. 


We learn from Nature that the Interna- 
tional Association for Testing Materials, 
which holds its congresses about every three 
years in industrial centers in various coun- 
tries, will this year meet in the Academy of 
Science at Brussels on September 3-8. The 


May 18, 1906.] 


king of Belgium has accorded the congress his 
patronage, while Prince Albert of Belgium 
will be one of the honorary presidents, as also 
will the ministers of finance, railways, war 
and trade, and the mayor of Brussels. Among 
the papers to be read will be one on the indus- 
tries of Belgium, by Baron EK. de Laveleve 
and M. Camerman. 


Tue Maryland Geological Survey has estab- 
lished a permanent State Mineral Exhibit in 
the old House of Representatives at An- 
napolis. The materials forming this exhibit 
have been gradually collected by the survey 
during the last few years, the nucleus being 
the Maryland mineral exhibit at Buffalo in 
1901. This was materially added to in the 
preparation of the state’s exhibit at Charleston 
the following winter and was still further in- 
creased for the Maryland exhibit for the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis 
in 1904. The latter display has again been 
much enlarged for the present purpose and is 
intended to thoroughly illustrate the mineral 
resources and industries of the state. The 
exhibit was opened the first of April at the 
time of the session of the legislature. 


Tue atlas published by the U. S. Geological 
Survey to accompany Monograph 32 on the 
Geology of the Yellowstone National Park is 
now available. Bound in paper the atlas 
costs $2.80, in cloth $3.75, in sheepskin $4.25. 
Whether his taste in bindings inelines by na- 
ture to the esthetic or by necessity to the 
utilitarian, the scientist may now have maps 
of the Yellowstone. The monograph, which 
the atlas is destined to accompany, is several 
years older, but costs less. It first saw the 
light in 1899, and it sells for $2.45. Only the 
second yolume, however, is published. Dr. 
Arnold Hague and his assistants had previ- 
ously brought out, in 1896, a geologic folio 
relating to the Yellowstone National Park, 
which has the distinction of being the only 
geologic folio that ever sold for 75 cents. The 
atlas contains six topographic maps, which 
cover the area of the Yellowstone National 
Park and a large portion of the Yellowstone 
Forest Reserve. The Yellowstone National 
Park is situated in the northwest corner of 


SCIENCE. 


799 


the state of Wyoming, but a narrow strip, 
about two miles in width, along the west side 
extends into Montana and Idaho, and the 
northern boundary lies in Montana, two miles 
north of the Wyoming state line. The scale 
of these sheets is nearly two miles to the inch. 
A combined map of the six large topographic 
sheets is also published as one double-page 
map. Six geologic maps of the same areas 
covered by the topographic work are included 
in the atlas. The six geologic sheets are also 
combined to form a double-page map, which 
shows the areal geology of the Yellowstone 
National Park and a portion of the Yellow- 
stone Forest Reserve. In the reserve is in- 
cluded the greater part of the Absaroka 
Range, a feature essential to the correct un- 
derstanding of the geology of the park. To 
the tourist this atlas will make a special ap- 
peal, as it makes available for the first time 
reliable maps of the various geyser basins in 
the park. The fact that these interesting 
natural phenomena have been mapped will 
have a tendency to reduce the number of 
names indiscriminately and confusingly ap- 
plied to them by guides, visitors and students, 
and to secure the general adoption of the 
place names used on the maps. The corps of 
assistants that aided Dr. Hague in the inter- 
pretation of this great area included Messrs. 
Joseph Paxson Iddings, Walter Harvey Weed, 
George M. Wright and T. A. Jaggar, Jr. 


We learn from the London Times that a 
resolution has been adopted by the council of 
the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and 
ordered to be submitted to the Secretary of 
State for India in Council. It is to the effect 
that, in view of the great regret felt in geo- 
graphical circles throughout the world that 
the proposed expedition down the Brahma- 
putra to Assam did not take place at the close 
of the Tibet mission, 1903-4, the council trust 
that the Indian government will now see their 
way to carrying out this exploration, which is 
of extreme interest and importance, on the 
following grounds: By it would be finally 
settled the question of the connection of the 
Sang-po of Tibet with the Dibong (Brahma- 
putra) of Assam. The known difference of 


800 


levels renders it certain that the river must 
descend from Tibet to the plains of India by 
great waterfalls exceeding all others in height 
and volume. If these falls (which are said 
by the Tibetans to exist) should be discovered, 
much light would be thrown on the geology of 
the region. In particular we might expect 
information as to the structure of the country 
traversed, and the relation borne by the vast 
Himalaya ranges to the elevated plateau 
against which they abut. Nothing is known 
at present of the tribes who inhabit the tract 
through which this patt of the river passes. 
Valuable collections of fauna and flora would 
probably be obtained. It is possible that a 
good route might be discovered leading from 
Assam into Tibet by the great river; such a 
route would have much importance in pro- 
moting British trade with Tibet. The resolu- 
tion is signed by the president, Professor 
James Geikie. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tr is reported that the University of Cali- 
fornia will lose $60,000 yearly by the destruc- 
tion of buildings owned by it in San Fran- 
cisco, and that it will lose a further sum of 
$50,000 yearly by the reduction in value of 
assessable property in the state. We may 
hope, however, that the loss of income on the 
San Francisco property is only temporary, 
and that the state will not permit the univer- 
sity to suffer from the decrease in the taxes. 

Cotume1a University has received $5,000 
for a mathematical prize, in memory of John 
D. Van Buren, Jr., a member of the class of 
203, given by Mrs. Louise T. Hoyt. Mr. 
Edward S. Harkness gave $2,700 to the mor- 
phological museum at the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, and Mr. Archer M. Hunt- 
ington gave $1,000 to support a lectureship in 
geography. 

On April 3, 1905, Mr. Andrew Carnegie 
offered Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, 
$50,000 on condition that they raise $150,000. 
On April 8, 1906, his conditions for the gift 
were satisfied, and a couple of weeks later 
Mr. Garnegie’s check was received. This adds 
$200,000 of productive endowment to the re- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 594. 


sources of the college. Mr. Carnegie has also 
given the sum of $50,000 to Drury College, 
at Springfield, Missouri, on condition that the 
college increase its resources by the sum of 
$200,000. About one third of this required 
sum has been raised since January 1. 


Inpiana University has been unable to pro- 
vide the library and laboratory equipment 
necessary to secure the two endowments for 
pathological research, recently offered it by a 
Chicago physician and by Dr. Benjamin 
Taylor Terry, of New York City. The com- 
bined value of the two gifts thus lost to the 
university is $20,000. 


Tue senior class of the Colorado School of 
Mines is now on its annual trip of inspection. 
The itinerary is much more extensive than 
that of previous years, requiring a month for 
its completion and covering the important 
mining and metallurgical sections of Colorado, 
Utah and Montana. The students have been 
received everywhere with marked courtesies 
and are finding the trip a valuable climax to 
their four years of study. Five instructors 
accompany the party. 

Dr. Franzuin H. Guipprines, professor of 
sociology in Columbia University, has been 
appointed professor of the history of civiliza- 
tion, filling the chair founded recently by Mrs. 
Maria H. Williamson with a fund of $150,000. 
Professor Harold Jacoby has been made ad- 
ministrative head of the department of as- 
tronomy and director of the observatory. 


Proressor Wituiam TuRNER, professor of 
philosophy in St. Paul’s Seminary, St. Paul, 
Minnesota, and the author of a ‘ History of 
Philosophy,’ has been ealled to a professorship 
of philosophy in the Catholic University at 
Washington. 


Dr. W. K. Harr has been promoted to the 
professorship of civil engineering in Purdue 
University. 

Acoorpine to a press despatch, the council 
of the Faculty of Sciences has confirmed the 
initiative of the minister of public instruction 
in appointing Mme. Curie to the chair of the 
University of Paris occupied by the late M. 
Curie. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frmay, May 25, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
Stanford’s Ideal Destiny: PROFESSOR WILL- 


PASM RAIMI 8 e)'5 co) er soya sake ighane/ot a slcheyls axel aveteneltebeie 801 
Plant Forms existing in Nature and Their 

Relation to Botanical Research: Dr. C. F. 

IPAVKE RB arah a ti aes pay celal slefevedavatteeaiaielarye ioral 804 
Scientific Books :— 

Haperimental Hlectrochemistry: PROFESSOR 

BID GUA HHT SS METOET aye catebe evenciss ye sualave eystee 812 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 813 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Geological Society of Washington: 

Dr. ArtHUR C. SPENCER. The Society of 

Geohydrologists: M. L. Funter. Boston 

Society of Natural History: Gtover M. 

JNTETEIOIN IS A I RU eer aR I So ea 814 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

A Few Notes on ‘Indian Mounds’ im Texas: 

Invine H. WentwortH.  Megaspore or 

Macrospore: PRoFESSOR CHARLES J. CHAM- 

BIRT AUINGG tagatepencveps geysers ay chaste) siete sete oe are ok 818 
Special Articles :— 

Dinosauriam Gastroliths: G. R. WIELAND. 

Deposit of Venus Shells in New York City: 

J. Howagp WILSON...........2--.0e0 eee 819 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 

The Teaching of Climatology in the Untted 

States; Lightning Conductors; Soil Tem- 

perature and Snow Cover; Volcanic EHrup- 

tions and Rainfall: Proressor. R. DEC. 

IVVPATR DD SUPerahanotis ec avai storage ee ebchatny ay rate nis, est ak 822 
English Vital Statistics................... 823 
The Congress of the United States.......... 824 
The California Academy of Sciences........ 824 
Scientific Notes and News................. 826 

831 


Unwersity and Educational News.......... 


MSS. intended for publication and books, ete., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


STANFORD’S IDEAL DESTINY. 

FOREIGNERS, commenting on our civiliza- 
tion, have with great unanimity remarked 
the privileged position that institutions 
of learning occupy in America as receivers 
of benefactions. Our typical men of 
wealth, if they do not found a college, will 
at least single out some college or univer- 
sity on which to lavish legacies or gifts. 
All the more so, perhaps, if they are not 
college-bred men themselves. Johns Hop- 
kins University, the University of Chicago, 
Clark University, are splendid examples of 
this rule. Steadily, year by year, my own 
university, Harvard, receives from one to 
two and a half millions. 

There is something almost pathetic in 
the way in which our successful business 
men seem to idealize the higher learning 
and to believe in its efficacy for salvation. 
Never having shared in its blessings, they 
do their utmost to make the youth of com- 
ing generations more fortunate. Usually 
there is little originality of thought in their 
generous foundations. The donors follow 
the beaten track. Their good will has to 
be vague, for they lack the inside knowl- 
edge. What they usually think of is a 
new college like all the older colleges; or 
they give new buildings to a university or 
help to make it larger, without any definite 
idea as to the improvement of its inner 
form. Improvements in the character of 
our institutions always come from the 
genius of the various presidents and 


1 Address given at Stanford University on 
Founder’s Day. 


802 


faculties. The donors furnish means of 
propulsion, the experts within the pale lay 
out the course and steer the vessel. You 
all think of the names of Eliot, Gilman, 
Hall and Harper as I utter these words— 
I mention no name nearer home. 

This is founder’s day here at Stanford 
—the day set apart each year to quicken 
and reanimate in all of us the conscious- 
ness of the deeper significance of this little 
university to which we permanently or tem- 
porarily belong. JI am asked to use my 
voice to contribute to this effect. How 
ean I do so better than by utterimg quite 
simply and directly the impressions that 
I personally receive? J am one among our 
innumerable American teachers, reared on 
the Atlantic coast but admitted for this 
year to be one of the family at Stanford. 
I see things not wholly from without, as 
the casual visitor does, but partly from 
within. Jam probably a typical observer. 
As my impressions are, so will be the im- 
pressions of others. And those impres- 
sions, taken together, will probably be the 
verdict of history on the institution which 
Leland and Jane Stanford founded. 

““Where there is no vision, the people 
perish.’’ Mr. and Mrs. Stanford evidently 
had a vision of the most prophetic sort. 
They saw the opportunity for an absolutely 
unique creation, they seized upon it with 
the boldness of great minds; and the pas- 
sionate energy with which Mrs. Stanford, 
after her husband’s death, drove the orig- 
inal plans through in the face of every 
dismaying obstacle, forms a chapter in the 
biography of heroism. Heroic also the 
loyalty with which in those dark years the 
president and faculty made the univer- 
sity’s cause their cause and shared the un- 
certainties and privations. 

And what is the result to-day? To-day 
the key-note is triumphantly struck. The 
first step is made beyond recall. The 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


character of the material foundation is 
assured for all time as something unique 
and unparalleled. It logically calls for 
an equally unique and unparalleled spirit- 
ual superstructure. 

Certainly the chief impression which the 
existing university must make on every 
visitor is of something unique and unparal- 
leled. Its attributes are almost too fa- 
miliar to you to bear recapitulation. The 
classic scenery of its site, reminding one 
of Greece, Greek too in its atmosphere of 
opalescent fire, as if the hills that close us 
in were bathed in ether, milk and sunshine; 
the great city, near enough for convenience, 
too far ever to become invasive; the eli- 
mate, so friendly to work that every morn- 
ing wakes one fresh for new amounts of 
work; the noble architecture, so generously 
planned that there is room and to spare 
for every requirement; the democracy of 
the life, no one superfiuously rich, yet all 
sharing, so far as their higher needs go, 
in the common endowment—where could 
a genius devoted to the search for truth, 
and unworldly as most geniuses are, find 
on the earth’s whole round a place more 
advantageous to come and work in? Dvie 
Luft der Fretheit weht! All the tradi- 
tions are individualistic. Red tape and 
organization are at their minimum. Inter- 
ruptions and perturbing distractions hardly 
exist. Hastern institutions look all dark 
and huddled and confused in comparison 
with this purity and serentty. Shall it 
not be auspicious? Surely the one destiny 
to which this happy beginning seems to 
call Stanford is that it should become 
something intense and original, not neces- 
sarily in point of wealth or extent, but in 
point of spiritual quality. The founders 
have, as I said, triumphantly struck the 
key-note, and laid the basis: the quality of 
what they have already given is unique in 
character. It rests with the officials of the 
present and future Stanford, it rests with 


May 25, 1906.] 


the devotion and sympathetic insight of 
the growing body of graduates, to prolong 
the vision where the founders’ vision termi- 
nated, and to insure that all the succeeding 
steps, like the first steps, shall single out 
this university more and more as the uni- 
versity of quality peculiarly. 

And what makes essential quality in a 
university? Years ago in-New England 
it was said that a log by the roadside with 
a student sitting on one end of it, and 
Mark Hopkins sitting on the other end, 
was a university. It is the quality of its 
men that makes the quality of a university. 
You may have your buildings, you may 
ereate your committees and boards and 
regulations, you may pile up your ma- 
chinery of discipline and perfect your 
methods of instruction, you may spend 
money till no one can approach you; yet 
you will add nothing but one more trivial 
specimen to the common herd of American 
colleges, unless you send into all this or- 
ganization some breath of life, by inocula- 
ting it with a few men, at least, who are 
real geniuses. And if you once have the 
geniuses, you can easily dispense with 
most of the organization. Like a con- 
tagious disease, almost, spiritual life passes 
from man to man by contact. Education 
in the long run is an affair that works 
itself out between the individual student 
and his opportunities. Methods, of which 
we talk so much, play but a minor part. 
Offer the opportunities, leave the student 
to his natural reaction on them, and he 
will work out his personal destiny, be it 
a high one or a low one. Above all things, 
offer the opportunity of higher personal 
contacts. A university provides these 
anyhow within the student body, for it at- 
tracts the more aspiring of the youth of 
the country, and they befriend and elevate 
one another. But we are only beginning 
in this country, with our extraordinary 


SCIENCE. 


803 


American reliance on organization, to see 
that the alpha and omega in a university 
is the tone of it, and that this tone is set 
by human personalities exclusively. The 
world, in fact, is only beginning to see 
that the wealth of a nation consists more 
than in anything else in the number of 
superior men that it harbors. In the prac- 
tical realm it has always recognized this, 
and known that no price is too high to pay 
for a great statesman or great captain of 
industry. But it is equally so in the re- 
ligious and moral sphere, in the poetic and 
artistic sphere and in the philosophic and 
scientific sphere. Geniuses are ferments; 
and when they come together as they have 
done in certain lands at certain times, the 
whole population seems to share in the 
higher energy which they awaken. The 
effects are incalculable and often not easy 
to trace in detail, but they are pervasive 
and momentous. Who can measure the 
effects on the national German soul of the 
splendid series of German poets and Ger- 
man men of learning, most of them 
academic personages? 

From the bare economic point of view 
the importance of geniuses is only begin- 
ning to be appreciated. How can we meas- 
ure the cash-value to France of a Pasteur, 
to England of a Kelvin, to Germany of an 
Ostwald, to us here of a Burbank? One 
main care of every country in the future 
ought to be to find out who its first-rate 
thinkers are and to help them. Cost here 
becomes something entirely irrelevant, the 
returns are sure to be so incommensurable. 
This is what wise men the world over are 
perceiving. And as the universities are 
already a sort of agency providentially 
provided for the detection and encourage- 
ment of mental superiority, it would seem 
as if that one among them that followed 
this line most successfully would quickest 
rise to a position of paramountey and dis- 
tinction. 


804 


Why should not Stanford immediately 
adopt this as her vital policy? Her posi- 
tion is one of unprecedented freedom. Not 
trammeled by the service of the state as 
other universities on this coast are tram- 
meled, independent of students’ fees and 
consequently of numbers, Utopian in the 
material respects I have enumerated, she 
only needs a boldness like that shown by 
her founders to become the seat of a glow- 
ing intellectual life, sure to be admired and 
envied the world over. Let her claim her 
place; let her espouse her destiny. Let 
her call great investigators from whatever 
lands they live in, from England, France, 
Germany, Japan, as well as from America. 
She can do this without presumption, for 
the advantages of this place for steady 
mental work are so unparalleled. Let 
these men, following the happy traditions 
of the place, make the university. The 
original foundation had something ex- 
centric in it; let Stanford not fear to be 
excentric to the end, if need be. Let her 
not imitate; let her lead, not follow. Espe- 
cially let her not be bound by vulgar tradi- 
tions as to the cheapness or dearness of 
professorial service. The day is certainly 
about to dawn when some American univer- 
sity will break all precedents in the matter 
of instructors’ salaries, and will thereby 
immediately take the lead, and reach the 
winning post for quality. I like to think 
of Stanford being that university. 
Geniuses are sensitive plants, in some re- 
spects like prima donnas. They have to 
be treated tenderly. They don’t need to 
live in superfluity; but they need freedom 
from harassing care; they need books and 
instruments; they are always overworking, 
so they need generous vacations; and above 
all things they need occasionally to travel 
far and wide in the interests of their souls’ 
development. Where quality is the thing 
sought after, the thing of supreme quality 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


is cheap, whatever be the price one has to 
pay for it. 

Considering all the conditions, the 
quality of Stanford has from the first been 
astonishingly good, both in the faculty and 
in the student body. Can we not, as we 
sit here to-day, frame a vision of what it 
may be a century hence, with the honors of 
the intervening years all rolled up in its 
traditions? Not vast, but intense; less a 
place for teaching youths and maidens 
than for training scholars; devoted to 
truth; radiating influence; setting stand- 
ards; shedding abroad the fruits of learn- 
ing; mediating between America and Asia, 
and helping the more intellectual men of 
both continents to understand each other 
better. 

What a history! and how can Stanford 
ever fail to enter upon it? 

WILLIAM JAMES. 


PLANT FORMS EXISTING IN NATURE AND 
THEIR RELATION TO BOTANIOAL 
_ RESEARCH. 

Any one who is familiar with the various 
schools of botanical thought and who has 
talked with many men in the various lines 
of research, can not but have been im- 
pressed by the diversity of opinions about 
the so-called plant ‘species.’ 

* * % * % % * * * 

The systematic botany of America to- 
day is, in some respects, in an almost irre- 
trievably chaotic condition, and this condi- 
tion is unquestionably due to the use of the 
various manuals which have been published 
down to the present day. Local workers 
everywhere determine the names of plants 
by comparison of six- or eight-line descrip- 
tions, and issue floral lists, make botanical 
surveys, frame ecological deductions, sepa- 
rate ‘new species,’ work out histological 
and embryological details, carry out im- 
portant physiological experiments—every- 
where using these manual names to label 


May 25, 1906.] 


their observations; and this is the frame- 
work over which the whole tissue of Amer- 
ican botany is spread. A remarkable fea- 
ture of all this is that any plant from any 
region can always be crowded in under 
some name found in the pages of the man- 
ual, or the six- or eight-line descriptions 
can always be interpreted so as to cover 
any plant. I have sent four specimens cut 
from the same bush to four reputable bot- 
anists and received four different names 
for my plant—names not followed by any 
question mark either! Three would have 
involved me in serious error in any future 
publication. Little wonder that those 
workers who have been brought up on the 
manual and never weaned to anything 
better should be thrown into confusion and 
consternation when the monographer—the 
indispensable pioneer in systematic botany 
—deseribes a whole grist of ‘new species’ 
among plants of his locality, well known to 
him. Personally, and as throwing light on 
my point of view, it may be remarked that 
I have never yet gotten up courage to de- 
pend upon the majority of determinations 
made from the manuals. My only point 
of departure has become an actual speci- 
men which has been compared with the 
type, or passed upon by some eareful phy- 
tographer who is familiar with the type. 
In the whole chaotic and discouraging con- 
dition, there is but one reasonable, safe and 
sure thing to tie to, and that is the type 
specimen. Specimens collected by botan- 
ists all over the country, and determined 
by the most careful and conscientious 
manual methods, quite commonly and nat- 
urally gravitate into the great herbaria. 
If any one needs an eye-opener to awaken 
him to the condition of American system- 
atie botany to-day, let. him go to one of 
these herbaria and pull down at random 
almost any species cover containing twenty- 
five or more sheets from various parts of 


SCIENCE. 


805 


the country. If he had previously thor- 
oughly learned his own flora with manual 
in hand, he is now both shocked and dis- 
tressed to find that the plant he has gath- 
ered so many ecological data concerning is 
not at all the same that X. in his region had 
written about, too, and he remembers scor- 
ing X. as an incompetent and careless ob- 
server. He pulls down another species 
cover and there stares him in the face the 
unmistakable fact that in his famous con- 
troversy with M. over the embryology of 
this other plant that, alas! he and M. did 
not really have the same plant in hand; 
and he blushes a little when he finds that 
neither he nor M. had the plant to which 
the name they had used was originally 
given. Were I to make ecological, or his- 
tological, or embryological studies or to pub- 
lish a floral list, I think I should prepare 
about thirty to fifty good herbarium speci- 
mens of the plant form or forms in ques- 
tion, and send them to all the great herbaria 
under a uniform set of numbers and notes; 
and then a good label for the studies would 
be, for instance: ‘Embryology of Physalis 
No. 250—perhaps lanceolata—deposited by 
me in all the greater herbaria.’ Then 
might the various ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’ 
call it anything they pleased—it would still 
remain my No. 250, and the whole world 
could know unquestionably the exact form 
to which my studies referred. Such a plan 
would be infinitely more scientific than to 
use unquestioned some more or less ques- 
tionable name from the manuals—as is 
usually done. Weshould at least be spared 
the spectacle furnished us in a recent bo- 
tanical publication where, in embryological 
work, one investigator questions another’s 
determination of Cucurbita pepo. 

As it is, a vast number of the published 
records, observations and studies of plants 
in American literature are so much wasted 
printer’s ink, except for the most general 


806 


purposes. The one thing that the authors 
could have done to save doubt and dispute 
and perhaps ultimate oblivion for their 
work—make good specimens of the plants 
they discussed and deposit them where 
others might examine them—they very fre- 
quently did not do. I know morphologists 
who have gone to all the trouble to work 
out the embryology of a garden plant and 
have labeled their hard-earned results with 
some name perhaps placed on the plant by 
an irresponsible gardener’s boy through 
comparison with pictures in the florist’s 
catalogue, afterwards holding themselves 
ready to criticize similar observations made 
under names obtained in a similar manner 
in other gardens. The very men who ex- 
ercise the extremest care in studying the 
minutest details of the changes in the em- 
bryo sac are apparently those most likely 
to be guilty of great carelessness in connec- 
tion with the identity of the plant they are 
handling. The highest form of systematic 
botany is, as some one has recently defined 
it—a condensed and systematic summary 
of all existing knowledge of plants, and 
based as surely upon the histology, em- 
bryology and physiology of the plants, as 
upon a study of their superficial characters. 
And what is being done to remedy our 
present unhappy condition in this connec- 
tion? Has there been any general move 
towards fuller descriptions and the making 
of really fine detailed illustrations of all 
the type forms, together with their inter- 
esting variations and mutations, something 
after the manner, for instance, of Barbey’s 
monograph of Epilobium? No—at least 
not among the American flowering plants 
—but the making of manuals goes merrily 
on, with some of the makers still talking 
of defining species from single specimens, 
in other words, attempting to define a 
whole that they have never seen, from a 
mere mummified fragment, which origi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 595. 


nally may have been some stray mutant 
and far from typical of the so-called 
‘specific’ group to which it pertains. 

* SENT ae * * SEA ME * * 


The anomaly of this old position is ‘most 
evident when preceded, as it often is, by 
the attempted definition of a species, in 
which it is often frankly acknowledged 
that a ‘species’ in most cases is a plastic 
and unknown quantity. Hven at this late 
date I have actually found curators of 
herbaria who consider each species suffi- 
ciently represented by a single specimen; 
and not long ago a bryologist: wrote me: 
‘Why do you collect these odd and variable 
forms which only confuse the taxonomist? 
You had better spend your time searching 
for good typical forms.’ He has not yet 
explained to me what good typical forms 
are. And if there is a group of plants in 
which the most extended studies of the 
comparative anatomy of individuals is 
more needed than among the American 
mosses, I should be interested to know of it. 

There is no intention here to decry the 
use of manuals, especially if they contain 
full references to certain specimens in cer- 
tain herbaria, in which case they are use- 
ful annotated catalogues. Even the gen- 
eral citation of exsiccati numbers for the 
older distributions is not to be depended 
upon, because the loose indefiniteness of the 
manuals strongly influences collectors also, 
and in numerous instances a number of 
wholly distinct forms have been sent out 
under the same number, rendering the 
citation of the herbarium also necessary. 

Those species with comparatively sharp- 
cut and unchanging lines are, as a rule, 
doomed unless quite perfectly isolated. 
They are of great interest. However, I 
can not conceive but that the supreme in- 
terest of the physiologist, the taxonomist, 
the ecologist and the morphologist must 
rest always with the numerous and usually 


May 25, 1906.] 


remarkably plastic ‘species’ which cover 
the face of the country in those places 
where the battle for existence is at its 
height. In the coast foot-hills near Stan- 
ford University there is a common, large, 
deep purple Trilliwm with richly colored 
foliage. It presents there many remark- 
able variations, some of which are appar- 
ently independent of locality—for instance, 
lobing of the leaves—but it is still the same 
old purple Trillium. Northward in the 
San Francisco peninsula is a deep, rich, 
isolated valley, in which the trilliums of 
this type are almost entirely pink or white, 
and the foliage is pale. Albino forms of 
most colored flowers occur frequently, scat- 
tered among the normal forms. But when 
a whole valley is filled with them, then 
there are general causes at work which are 
well worthy of careful study. Torrey 
named this form chloropetalum. Its origin 
from gigantewm seems indicated. Perhaps 
it has some ovatum blood intermingled— 
who shall say? Who has planted any seed 
of these things or tried any hybridizing— 
in fact, who has done anything but guess? 
I have heard the most emphatic opinion 
expressed about this form by men who had 


“never even seen it where it grew and cer- 


tainly intended to make no move to in- 
vestigate it. It fits quite well the ordinary 
definitions of species in common use. I 
had not the least difficulty in collecting 
fifty quite uniform specimens for distribu- 
tion and might have easily collected fifty 
thousand also fairly uniform in the same 
locality. I issued it as No. 431 of my 
West Coast Plants, and now it may be 
referred to as Trilliwm giganteum, gigan- 
tewm var. albiflorum, gigantewm var. chlo- 
ropetalum, chloropetalum, sessile var. chlo- 
ropetalum, or any of various other com- 
binations—I care not—it is still my No. 
431. Certain that nobody knows anything 
positive about its relationships, and that 


SCIENCE. 


807 


no one has added a single item of knowl- 
edge about it since Torrey called it distinct 
under the name chloropetalum—I prefer 
to put aside guess work for the time being, 
and follow Dr. Greene in calling it chloro- 
petalum, without any idea of the taxonomic 
status of the group of individuals included 
under the name and with no idea of worry- 
ing about its status or entermg into any 
controversy about it, and so it will rest in 
my mind, until some one gives the subject 
a little scientific investigation. There are 
hundreds, if not thousands, of groups of 
individuals in the United States, which 
must of a necessity be treated in exactly 
this same manner until something exact is 
known concerning them. I have not the 
opportunity here for the citation of more 
eases, or I could give many hundred very 
similar ones and of the utmost interest 


-and suggestiveness in Castilleia, Trifolium, 


Draba, Senecio, Amelanchier, Hschscholtzia, 
Platystemon, Rosa and numerous other 
genera. Ecology without the recognition 
of these forms would impress one like a 
lamp that gave no light, or a volume with 
faney binding from which half of the chap- 
ters had been cut. In a recent manual of 
ecology this feature is given a wholly sub- 
ordinate place, and is said to be amply pro- 
vided for by so-called ‘preliminary recon- 
naissances.’ Those who have been familiar 
with outside opinions of American botany 
for the past. twenty to forty years know 
that it is the preliminary reconnaissance— 
through the medium of the manuals—that 
has brought so much discredit upon our 
work. J maintain most emphatically that 
the only way to make soil physics and 
meteorology of living interest to botany is 
to combine them throughout every step 
with a minutely detailed and complete 
study of all possible livmg plant forms. 
The results of de Vries have only been 
possible through such methods and we 


808 


have at home a striking object lesson in 
the case of Dr. MacDougal’s calling in 
expert phytographers to enable him to 
record his own interesting results. It is 
only in Europe, where the fullest treatment 
has been given Rosa, Alchemilla, Rubus, 
Draba and other genera, that the literature 
of systematic botany furnishes any de- 
tailed assistance to the ecologist, of the 
sort that he absolutely must have. He who 
handles whole ‘specific’ groups as single 
entities is only competent to deal with the 
broadest aspects of geographical distribu- 
tion. Heology is a study of local condi- 
tions, and simultaneously a study of the 
plant products of those conditions within 
very limited areas and hence must involve 
congeries of individuals of much less than 
specific value. Heology is necessarily a 
comparative study—in which numerous 
comparisons of conditions are first made. 
Why do ecologists stop short of minutely 
comparative studies of the variable plant 
forms which are often the exact expression 
of these conditions? It would do injustice 
to say that no moves whatever have been 
taken in the right direction. I have only 
to refer to one of several articles published 


by Mr. M. L. Fernald—this one entitled > 


‘Some lithological Variations of Rzbes,’ 
and to the recent work of Dr. Sargent on 
Crategus. The work on Viola furnishes 
another striking example of what inter- 
esting investigations still lie before us in 
the direction of hybridizing and of growing 
wild plants under varying conditions and 
in various climates, with seed from known 
parents. 

I have tried to outline as clearly and as 
forcibly as possible the very serious condi- 
tion in American systematic botany—fa- 
miliar already to many. It is necessary 
now to find a solution of the difficulties and 
consider methods of reform which may re- 
lieve the situation at an early date. The 
most important and fundamental move in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


reform must come from the great herbaria 
where so many types are deposited. These 
must be more completely described and 
their anatomical details fully and eare- 
fully figured. Such data are absolutely 
essential to any proper determinations of 
plants, and such data for the flowering 
plants are almost wholly inaccessible to the 
majority of American workers to-day. To 
make anything like a safe determination of 
most plants a trip to New York and Cam- 
bridge is necessary. It is needless to say 
that the illustrations should be prepared 
only under the direction of an expert bot- 
anist and a minimum of reconstruction 
allowed. And to this end fresh material 
in the form of unquestioned topotypes 
should be used wherever possible—though 
in this there are abundant opportunities 
for error. What a pity such work could 
not have been done right, from the begin- 
ning, and eareful illustrations made from 
fresh material—or even wet specimens pre- 
served. In the present condition of Amer- 
ican botany I do not believe that we are 
justified in using unquestionably any plant 
name except as meaning that the plant to 
which it is applied agrees very closely with 
the actual type specimen, or if it differs 
appreciably this should be stated as an in- 
separable part of the determination, for 
instance ‘Paspalum pumilum, forma spicu- 
lis majoribus.’ If we allow the indiserim- 
inate application of names depending upon 
the individual’s ability at guessing—and 
prescribe no limits to the guessing—then 
just what is the value of the botanical bi- 
nomial as ordinarily used? To me the 
application of a binomial name to a plant 
is a very grave matter—it is a test of scien- 
tific honesty, of an ability to recognize 
anatomical details, and of competency to 
indicate to the world in a sign composed of 
two or three words the complete ensemble 
of clearly appreciable characters of the 
plant in question—in short, the whole 


May 25, 1906.] 


possibility of indicating any given plant 
so that other botanists may certainly recog- 
nize it. If I apply a name to a certain 
plant and my friend applies the same name 
to a quite different thing, one of us has 
perpetrated an untruth—and when we con- 
sider that a large part of American botan- 
ical literature is based upon one gigantic 
fabric of such untruths, the seriousness of 
the present situation may be appreciated. 

There has been so much undignified and 
unscientific haste to rush out ‘new species’ 
and gain priority, that good work has been 
impossible. A friend of mine ealls any 
field results in the way of specimens a 
‘orab’—and this name illustrates exactly 
the character of most of the field work 
being done in America to-day—‘ grabbing.’ 
Most collectors are satisfied with a single 
number to represent what they, in this 
rapid and very superficial glance, seem to 
recognize as distinct species. They have 
not yet learned that they can do more for 
American botany by concentrated and lo- 
ealized work than by diffuse ‘grabbing,’ 
over great regions in the space of a single 
season. So, of the larger part of the 
United States we may very truthfully say 
that the surface has been barely scratched. 
Tt does not seem possible that any proper 
work could be done except by actual resi- 
dence throughout the season in the single 
limited region to be investigated. I have 
found in the west that if a home camp be 
established in some favorable spot, one will 
have all that can possibly be attended to by 
one person during a single season within a 
day’s tramping distance of the camp. 
From such a limited area I have brought 
away 25,000 to 50,000 sheets of specimens 
within three months, and even then knew 
full well that but a fair preliminary survey 
had been made, and that during a second 
season I could take as many more of the 
host of interesting varieties and extreme 
rarities, and only then get near a possible 


SCIENCE. 


809 


interpretation of the flora as a whole. But 
here the single-specimen men usually step 
in and forbid me—and I am compelled to 
do as necessity dictates instead of what I 
know to be for the best interests of Amer- 
ican botany. 

I have never yet had the pleasure of see- 
ing an herbarium with a single species 
fairly represented even from the home lo- 
eality. There may be many specimens, but 
from widely separated points. These will, 
of course, show certain variations, on which 
erave studies of geographical distribution 
and taxonomy are often based, and all this 
when often in single spots a few feet square 
in the home locality, still wider variations 
might be discovered by the right kind of 
critical field work. In the herbarium we 
haggle over the difference of a few hairs— 
which must certainly indicate a necessity 
for more work on the hands and knees in 
the field. We must learn to sit down 
among the plants and patiently study them 
right where they grow, and we shall never 
have a systematic botany worthy of the 
name until we do. It may be safely said 
that when this method of work is generally 
adopted we shall all see the urgent neces- 
sity for a hundred herbarium specimens 
where one is considered sufficient now. 
Also, the time will surely come when an 
herbarium that is no more than a hortus 
siccus will be unreservedly condemned as 
an efficient aid to the best or the safest 
work. Such an herbarium belongs to the 
time of Linneus. Wet specimens for dis- 
sections, drawings and histological work 
must be prepared at the same time, from 
the same living plants, and under these 
same field numbers. likewise seeds and 
woods should be collected and carefully 
associated under the same numbers. If this 
can not be done, then it would be far better 
for botany as a whole, if all plants were 
left in the field and studied only there. 
What a wonderful thing work in an her- 


810 


barium would be where each species was 
represented by large series of complete and 
well-prepared specimens from each locality, 
with full field notes, and where one might 
refer by the same numbers to wet speci- 
mens of the flowers and fruit in all their 
original form, and to abundant material 
ready for the knife. An herbarium of this 
sort fairly complete for any region will do 
more for botanical science than any of the 
colossal catacombs of fragmentary and 
often quite unrecognizable mummies which 
are being built at the enormous expense of 
institutions and individuals. 

Suppose that individuals and institutions 
everywhere should undertake the right kind 
of field work and build broadly for the 
greatest and best in botanical science—the 
coordination of all their results would still 
remain a burning problem. They could, 
however, easily make a very perfect and 
immensely valuable coordination im one 
respect possible from the very beginning, 
with the use of a very little extra time and 
at scarcely any expense—a coordination 
that would benefit all alike, and not bury 
the results in the larger herbaria which 
must ever remain inaccessible to the vast 
majority of outside workers. All this could 
be accomplished by a well-organized and 
systematized cooperative exchange. Sup- 
pose that fifty institutions or individuals 
could be found to cooperate, and that, as an 
example, it was desired to more fully eluci- 
date the genus Viola. Suppose that each 
should collect fifty numbers of the violets 
of their neighborhood, in series of fifty 
specimens each, illustrating every possible 
form, from the so-called typical specimens 
to all the minor variations of flower and 
leaf, and accompany each with full field 
notes, with the determinations as the forms 
were understood by the collector. Of one’s 
own collecting this would mean an addition 
of fifty sheets to the herbarium. Through 
the cooperative exchange it would mean an 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


addition of 2,500 sheets in a single season 
in Viola alone—copious thoroughly anno- 
tated material from all parts of the coun- 
try, under the very names which botanists 
everywhere are using to label all sorts of 
field and garden and other observations. 
It is not necessary for me to dwell upon 
the extreme interest and widespread value 
of such a work to all interested in any line 
of botanical research. I have only to add 
that it is within easy reach of us—the 
material is at our very doors with which to 
carry it out and we shall all be healthier 
and happier for the little additional exer- 
cise the work will impose. It seems as if 
through a whole season any one might be 
able personally, or with the help of his 
students, to handle two hundred numbers 
of fifty specimens each. With fifty co- 
operators this would mean an addition the 
very first season of 10,000 sheets. It is 
only when we begin to handle them in such 
numbers that we shall ever know American 
plants as they are really existing in the 
field to-day, and cooperation in the work 
will enable us to reach important results 
in far less than the time it otherwise would. 

However, plants can never be considered 
statically only, with any just appreciation 
of their place in nature. Seeds must be 
planted, seedlings studied, the effect of 
varying conditions on the life and char- 
acters of the plant noted and work in sys- 
tematic hybridizing undertaken. I¢ will 
not serve the full purpose to grow the 
plants in one spot in a single garden—this 
would give us but very few of the more 
important data so much needed. Firstly, 
the parent of the seed must be known in its 
natural surroundings, and then portions 
from this single known parent planted 
under widely varying conditions and dis- 
tributed to widely separated points in dif- 
ferent climates, where they should be grown 
under various conditions through several 
generations—a series of specimens of all 


May 25, 1906.] 


the cultures being eventually reassembled 
on a single laboratory table and subjected 
to minutely critical comparison with each 
other and with a series from the original 
locality. This is experimental systematic 
botany or experimental ecology, as you 
please. It is an endeavor to trace under 
control and constant observation some of 
the ordinary every-day processes of nature. 
A number of years ago I found growing in 
the spruce woods on Cameron Pass in 
northern Colorado an enormous straw- 
berry. The plants were the most luxuriant 
I have ever seen, many of the tufts being 
more than a foot in height and the size of 
the flower and fruit clusters something 
quite remarkable. Its hardiness, fecundity 
and rapidity of fruiting were qualities 
which would have attracted any strawberry 
breeder at once. It differed widely from 
the other strawberries of these mountains 
and was named Fragaria prolifica. The 
following winter seeds of this species 
were planted in Alabama under Professor 
Harle’s direction, and when the plants were 
well started they were set out in an ex- 
posed place in one of the hot, clayey fields 
of that pine barren country. The plants 
survived and matured, but there are scarce- 
ly two species of the genus in the recent 
monograph by Rydberg, more strikingly 
distinct than were these from their parent 
form. In Alabama they were low, ex- 
tremely pubescent plants with reduced 
flower clusters and small leaves, not to be 
recognized by any botanist unaware of the 
circumstances as belonging with the moun- 
tain form. I believe that seeds of hun- 
dreds of high mountain ‘species’ are 
washed or carried down to lower levels, 
there to grow and reproduce and be known 
as other and well-distinguished species! 
And the seeds of many of these things will 
never go back up the hill agai. ‘This 
brings into consideration the whole subject 
of seed dispersal, not so much the dispersal 


SCIENCE. 


811 


in the immediate neighborhood of the 
parent as the distant voyages which are 
frequently made. I have gathered many 
notes on different aspects of this subject 
in years past—all very suggestive, none 
coneclusive—without ever being able to do 
the only thing that would count for more 
than circumstantial evidence, 7. e., plant 
seeds. I am told that specimens of Hu- 
calyptus grown from Australian seed in 
other parts of the world have been sent 
back to Mr. Maiden at Sydney without his 
being able to recognize them. What a pity 
that records could not have been kept of 
their exact parentage! With a little co- 
operation a most interesting and valuable 
series of experiments could easily be car- 
ried out by American botanists. A perma- 
nent high mountain botanical station must 
surely soon come in America—preferably 
several—dedicated to these cooperative ex- 
periments, which shall be associated with 
the best and broadest ecological work. 
Summer students at each station and a 
specialist to oversee the whole mountain 
end of the work, could surely be easily 
supported by the body of American bot- 
anists and their respective institutions. 
Needless to say, these stations could also 
be used in other important ways. From 
the parent plants of these mountain gar- 
dens could be supplied the uniform series 
of seed to be used by all caring to cooperate 
—in all parts of the country. And sim- 
ilarly many things could be sent from the 
lowlands for planting in the higher and 
highest altitudes. Some studies in gardens 
of plants at home have already been made 
in America. We now need very greatly 
investigation of their behavior away from 
home. 


It has been my endeavor to show that 


much of the future best success of Amer- 
ican botany in all of its branches depends 


812 


upon the more extended and critical study 
of plants and all their variable forms—in 
the field. Just as the origin of plant spe- 
cies does not depend solely upon hybridiza- 
tion, or mutation, or isolation, but upon all 
these agencies working together, so the sal- 
vation of botanical science does not rest in 
systematic botany, or in ecology, or in 
physiology or in morphology, but in the 
closer association of all these, and in more 
perfect cooperation between them. 


° ° é 
Qo on ° 
"@° : 

OLOz) Maka 
90 380 
Si 208 
-) (0) 
0° 
b ° °@ 
‘ (2 
(e) 
oe e cy 
Ge OE eS? o oO 
@, J 287- Sok 


The circles in this figure may be taken 
as representing groups of individual plants, 
or mountain tops, or meadows, or swamps, 
or islands in the sea, ete. For instance, 
A, B and C may represent well-recognized 
‘species’ of plants where they are most at 
home, 7. €., the ‘mother group.’ Outlying 
eroups in the different directions—a hun- 
dred feet or a hundred miles distant—vary 
from the typical form or the dominant 
form. At G@ two groups approach each 
other and hybrids may occur there, though 
the occurrence of these hybrids would not 
necessarily bring into question the utter 
specific distinctness of A and B unless some 
superficial investigator should, through 
lack of sufficient data, erroneously call them 
“intermediate forms.’ The younger group, 
D, evidently related to the others, perhaps 
arose by hybridization or mutation, its per- 
petuation perhaps due to sudden isolation. 
J may represent a descending ridge from 
the mountain at A. The groups J and K 
might be very different, and considered 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


specifically distinct if judged by hurried 
collecting, whereas careful work up the - 
respective cahlons towards the summit or 
center of distribution at C would establish 
their relationship. So changed may D 
have become as to make its relations to B 
and C, its nearest relatives, wholly prob- 
lematical, and an absence of individuals in 
intervening territory may prevent its ref- 
erence to either except perhaps after ex- 
perimental work. Hvidently there may be 
actually in the field a thousand degrees of 
relationship, and in a systematic botany 


_which shall mirror to some extent actual 


existing conditions, the terms ‘variety’ and 
‘race’ have a scarcely intelligible place. 
The term ‘form,’ however, may well be in 
constant use. I do not know of any Amer- 
ican species being charted in the above 
manner. Such work is rendered difficult 
by the superposition of hundreds of species 
—it will require a good eye, patience and 
steadfastness to a single object. 
C. F. BaKer. 
Estacion AGRONOMICA, 
SANTIAGO DE LAS VEGAS, CUBA. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Haperimental Electrochemistry. By N. Mon- 
ROE Hopxins, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of 
Chemistry in the George Washington Uni- 
versity. New York, D. Van Nostrand 
Company. 1905. 

This is an interesting book. Its author has 
so arranged it that it may be read previous to 
performing any experimental work, giving 
thereby an excellent picture of the historical 
development of electrochemistry. Any per- 
son adopting this plan will find himself in 
possession of many most interesting facts and 
helpful ideas, which are sure to prove in- 
centives to carrying forward experimentation 
in this very attractive field of chemical sci- 
ence. Here is a thought which every student 
who thinks at all of electrochemistry should 
carefully ponder: 

Electrochemical operations are essentially chem- 
ical and based upon purely chemical changes, and 


May 25, 1906.] 


it is only the man with a broad and keen insight 
into theoretical chemistry who can ever hope to 
make a successful electrochemist or electrochemical 
engineer. 

It is in this spirit that the book is prepared 
and arranged. One might perhaps regret 
that there are not more examples for the 
student to carry out in the laboratory, but 
when it is borne in mind that a vast subject is 
pretty thoroughly covered and that it seems 
to be the aim of the author to have those who 
follow him in his work obtain as complete an 
acquaintance as possible of the whole domain 
of electrochemistry, the word of seeming 
protest or advice remains unspoken. 

There are twenty chapters in the book. 
These occupy in all about 284 pages. In 
chapter I. the history and the important 
classic researches are considered. The theory 
of electrolytic dissociation is accorded two 
full chapters. Faraday’s law is given twenty 
pages. There then follow chapters on the 
preparation of potassium chlorate, nitric acid 
from the atmosphere, the isolation of sodium 
and potassium, of aluminium and of calcium. 
In regard to the last the author remarks 
‘the electrolytic isolation of metallic calcium 
is far from easy.’ The reviewer is disposed 
to differ on this point, as he has made it and 
had it made by students in his laboratory 
upon quite a large scale and with comparative 
ease. Further, the reviewer always encoun- 
tered difficulties in attempting to cage the 
metal in a cylinder of platinum-wire gauze 
that goes over the cathode wire. The furnace 
used by Goodwin has proved very satisfactory 
and is easy to operate. For barium and 
strontium wholly differently constructed fur- 
naces were found necessary. 

Electric furnaces, the preparation of or- 
ganic compounds, discussions on the primary 
cell, the secondary cell, electricity from car- 
bon, useful pieces of apparatus and a bibli- 
ography complete the remaining chapters. 
The author has endeavored ‘ to produce a book 
that will prove useful both in the lecture 
“room and in the laboratory,’ and the reviewer 
thinks that he has succeeded. 


Epear F. Smiru. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


SCIENCE. 


813 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for May opens 
with the ‘ Application of de Vries’s Mutation 
Theory to the Mollusca’ by Frank C. Baker. 
The article deals with some fresh-water forms 
and the author concludes that, while the theory 
seems to fit in nicely in many instances, it 
must not be applied too hastily to animal life. 
W. A. Kepner presents some ‘ Notes on the 
Genus Leptophrys,’ and E. A. Andrews de- 
seribes in detail the ‘ Egg-laying of Crayfish,’ 
the species observed being Cambarus ajfints. 
Glover M. Allen notes the occurrence of 
“Sowerby’s Whale on the Atlantic Coast’ and 
gives a list of the recorded occurrences of 
this species. The ‘Fresh-water Rhizopods 
of Nantucket’ are listed by Joseph A. Cush- 
man. Among the ‘ Notes on Literature’ is 
a large number of notes and reviews of papers 
on fishes. 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
April has for its leading article ‘Dublin Mu- 
seum. The Circulation Branch,’ by the di- 
rector, G. T. Plunkett. This contains a 
detailed account of the circulating collections 
in botany, zoology, industrial crafts, artistic 
erafts, etc., including the objects loaned, the 
size of the cases and methods of packing for 
shipment, with example of labels and explana- 
tory leaflets. The cases are loaned for periods 
of seven weeks or less. From the report we 
learn that the collections that have a direct 
relation to work that may be done by stu- 
dents seem to be in the greatest demand. The 
balance of the number is occupied with re- 
views and notes. 


The American Museum Journal for April 
is styled the Local-birds Number, as it con- 
tains the first instalment of ‘The Birds of 
the Vicinity of New York City’ by Frank M. 
Chapman, intended as a guide to the special 
collection of birds found within fifty miles of 
New York. The second instalment will ap- 
pear in the July Journal and the whole as 
Guide Leaflet 22; it will be a most useful 
little handbook. There is a notice of ‘The 
Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Presidency of 
Mr. Jesup,’ and of the publications resulting 
from the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, as 


814 


well as of various accessions and additions to 
the exhibition series. We note that the 
‘Warren’ mastodon is said by Dr. Dwight to 
be twelve feet high, but when properly mount- 
ed it will be decidedly under ten. In regard 
to the group of the crested ecassique the de- 
sirability of treating the bottom of the case 
as if it were the ground may be questioned. 
The impression will certainly be given, no 
matter what the label says, that the nests are 
close to the ground instead of high above it. 
It may not look well to leave the bottom of 
the case bare, but it is better to do this than 
to give a wrong impression. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


At the 179th meeting, April 11, 1906, 
Major C. E. Dutton gave an outline of his 
paper on ‘ Radioactivity and Volcanoes’ in 
advance of its formal presentation before the 
National Academy of Sciences. 


The Gold Field District, Nevada: Mr. F. L. 
RANSOME. 


Drainage of the Taylorsville Region, Cali 
fornia, during the Auriferous Gravel 
Period: Mr. J. S. Dmurr. 

The drainage system of the Taylorsville 
region, outlined by its deposits of auriferous 
gravels, includes the broad valley of a river 
heading south of Haskell Peak and flowing 
north through the Downieville quadrangle for 
nearly fifty miles across the fortieth parallel 
by Mount Jura into a lake or estuarine water 
body that covered the north end of that por- 
tion of the Sierra Nevada. This ancient 
watercourse is directly across the present 
drainage, which is west into the North Fork 
of Feather River. 

Though the exact head of the auriferous 
gravel stream is in doubt, it originated in a 
distinct mountain range near the source of 
the Yuba and American Rivers. Its course 
is clearly marked by numerous gravel deposits 
well exposed by hydraulic mining. The bulk 
of the material is gravel with some sand and 
boulders which indicate, as pointed out by H. 
W. Turner, a steeper grade for this stream 


SCIENCE. 


[N.8. Von. XXIIT. No. 595. 


than for those flowing down the west slope of 
the Sierras. 

The delta deposit at the mouth of the 

stream is nearly a dozen miles in length and 
breadth. Where thickest it has 400 feet of 
arkose sand beneath about 600 feet of gravel, 
and possibly represents the whole of the gravel 
period. Towards the top are rhyolitic tufis 
and andesitic breccias such as cover the earlier 
gravels of the west slope of the range. Its 
well-preserved flora is clearly that of the 
auriferous gravel period. 
’ Since the gravel period that portion of the 
range has been profoundly faulted and the 
gravels displaced at several points to the ex- 
tent of 2,000 feet. The fault along the Honey 
Lake escarpment runs out into a fold over 
which the gravel is lithified into solid con- 
glomerate and some of the pebbles are faulted 
and crushed in a remarkable manner. 


A Source of Hydrocarbons in the Ordovician: 

Mr. Davin WHITE. 

It having been observed that the zine de- 
posits in southwestern Wisconsin are largely 
coincident geographically with the distribution 
of certain carbonaceous or ‘oil’ shales; the 
examination of the latter was undertaken to 
determine, if possible, the origin and mode of 
occurrence of the hydrocarbons which seemed 
to have influenced the ore deposition. 

The shales, known as Plattville shales, of 
lower Ordovician (Black River?) age, lie at 
the base of the Galena limestone, regarded by 
Ulrich as Trenton. They occur in irregular 
patches scattered over an area of nearly 2,000 
square miles. The oil shales embrace thin 
black shales and thicker chocolate to buff 
shales mingled with caleareous sediments and. 
containing occasional marine invertebrate re- 
mains. The approximate analysis is reported. 
to show a loss of volatile of 21 per cent. from 
air-dried material, with an additional loss of 
about 8 per cent. by incineration. The rock 
yields a very porous light oil, 1.98 in specific: 
gravity, giving gas bubbles in water. The 
gas distilled from the oil shale gave Professor- 
Rollin T. Chamberlain: H,S, 6.79; hydrocar-- 
bon vapors, 11.11; CO,, 18.12; heavy hydro- 
carbons, 4.00; CO, 8.40; O,, .26; CH,, 35.98; 


“5 


May 25, 1906.] 


H,, 13.18; N,, 2.21; total, 100.05. The shales 
burn readily with a long yellow flame and 
slight bituminous odor. 

Thin sections of the light chocolate shales 
show thenr to contain minute, flattened, gen- 
erally oval and discoid, translucent bodies of 
a brilliant lemon-yellow color, and highly 
refractive, the refringence, as determined by 
F. E. Wright, being 1.619. These yellow 
bodies, varying from 8 to 62 microns in hori- 
zontal diameter and 5 to 20 microns in ver- 
tical, usually thinly lenticular and irregularly 
rounded at the edges but often nearly oval, 
are, in vertical section, seen to lie horizontally 
matted with other sediments, and crystals of 
later formation, precisely like the matting of 
forest leaves beneath the winter snow. While 
varying greatly in size, they accommodate 
themselves topographically when overlapping 
or surmounting the coarser rock material, and 
seem to preserve their individuality even when 
apparently in contact. They are incredibly 
numerous, constituting over 90 per cent. of 
the rock mass in the richest layers. 

Under proper microscopical manipulation, 
the larger of the yellow bodies appear to in- 
elude a number of horizontally oval figures, 
characterized by an extremely narrow and 
usually obscure marginal ring, and a small, 
roundish, or slightly irregular, denser, and 
often darker-colored mass near the center. 
These figures, averaging about eight microns 
in length and five microns in width, are sus- 
pended in the translucent yellow bodies, in 
which they are similarly compressed horizon- 
tally. They are regarded as probably corre- 
sponding to the contours of collapsed and flat- 
tened unicellular plants, the outer ring repre- 
senting the cell boundary, the inner, denser 
portion the residual contents of the cell, whose 
original gelosic envelope is preserved as the 
bright, lemon-colored, environing mass. The 
smallest yellow bodies appear to have con- 
tained a single oval, the larger ones, several. 
The yellow bodies are, therefore, interpreted 
as the fossil remains of microscopical, uni- 
cellular, gelosic alge, apparently comparable 
to the living Protococeales. They appear to 
have been somewhat enriched in bitumen after 


SCIENCE. 


815 


the cessation of bacterial disintegration, 
which, in the buff shales, does not seem to 
have progressed sufficiently to form a notice- 
able fundamental jelly. 

The black oil shale differs from the light 
chocolate and buff rock chiefly by the deeper 
color, probably due to greater humification and 
bituminization of the gelosic bodies, and, more 
particularly, by the suspension of the latter in 
a dark brown ground mass or fundamental 
jelly. The details of the oval figures and the 
included, denser, small, central masses are 
much more strongly defined and generally 
more deeply colored. The slightly smaller 
size of the yellow bodies in the black shale is 
regarded as due either to greater shrinkage 
under the influence of the bitumen, or to 
more extensive bacterial reduction. ‘The dark 
brown ground mass appears to consist of a 
fundamental jelly, largely filled with minute 
mineral matter and granulose fragmental 
debris or wreckage due to destructive bacterial 
action on the gelosic bodies, many of which, 
like the small fragments of larger forms of as- 
sociated aleze, are greatly corroded. Many of 
the gelosic bodies were doubtless completely de- 
composed. To this bacterial work on the or- 
ganisms is due, in the judgment of the author, 
the essential character of the somewhat humi- 
fied, fundamental jelly itself, to which there 
has probably been accession of attracted bi- 
tumen. The more extended bacterial action 
seen in the black shales is interpreted as ante- 
eedent and causally related to the greater 
bituminization of the organic matter rather 
than as merely incidental or accidental. 

The oil shales owe their volatile hydrocar- 
bon contents either directly or indirectly to 
the fossilized gelosic residues of microscopical 
organisms regarded as alga, which locally 
compose over 90 per cent. of the sedimentary 
material. These pelagic or floating alge fell 
in prolonged showers in quiet or protected 
areas where the water was presumably some- 
what charged with tannic or humic solutions 
conducive to the arrest of anaerobic bacterial 
decomposition. Possibly the bacterial action 
was arrested by its own products. The orig- 
inal deposits were doubtless several times as 
thick as those now remaining, since it is prob- 


816 


able that the organic residue represents as 
little as one twelfth of the original volume. 

The Ordovician, like the Carboniferous 
gelosic alg, appear to have exercised an at- 
tractive or elective influence on bituminous 
compounds, particularly those of illuminant 
values, and to have consequently been perma- 
nently somewhat enriched. Portions of their 
hydrocarbon contents have doubtless been lost 
at various periods, and the great shrinkage of 
the shale which caused the collapse of the 
overlying limestone strata probably marked 
one, perhaps the first, of these periods of 
hydrocarbon reduction after their original 
‘sedimentation. Presumably accelerated loss 
occurred at all times of rock folding in the 
region.- Such occasions might be favorable 
for the deeper zine deposition. 

The gelosic bodies found in the Ordovician 
oil shales of the zine region not only explain 
the localization and immediate source of the 
hydrocarbons which have affected the deposi- 
tion of the zinc ores in this part of the Missis- 
sippi Valley, but they also offer an hypothesis 
which it is believed will prove satisfactory, 
though subject to conditional modifications, 
in explanation of the origin of the oil and gas 
in rocks of Paleozoic age in other basins. 
There can be no doubt that similar organisms 
swarmed in other parts of the same sea or 
other seas, and that, whether or not they have 
been recognizably preserved as in the light 
chocolate shales near Plattville, they have con- 
tributed enormously to the hydrocarbon con- 
tents of their respective formations. 


Art the 180th meeting on April 25, the fol- 
lowing papers were read: 


A Map and Cross-sections of the Downtown 
District of Leadville: Mr. S. F. Emmons. 
The Downtown district includes the streets 

and buildings of the city. Its surface is cov- 

ered by 200 to 500 feet of glacial material, 
forming a gently sloping tableland which ex- 
tends to the Arkansas Valley and must be 
passed through by mine shafts before they 
ean reach the underlying rock in place. Very 
large bodies of ore, mainly in oxidized form, 
have been and are still being discovered in the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


underlying rocks, and it is to aid in their 
development that this map is being prepared 
in advance of the general map of the district. 

In the early surveys of the district, made 
in 1880-81, Mr. Emmons distinguished two 
divisions in the gravelly material that covers 
the rock in place: the lower, which is stratified 
and consists mainly of fine-grained sands and 
marls, was called ‘lake beds,’ while the upper 
division, which consists entirely of unstrati- 
fied boulders and clay, was called ‘ wash.’ 
The former beds were assumed to have been 
deposited in a glacial lake ponded back in the 
upper Arkansas Valley by the glaciers which 
issued from the lake fork of the Sawatch 
Mountains near Twin Lakes during the first 
glacial period. In the terms of modern physi- 
ography, these deposits would be for the most 
part more properly classed as glacial-fluvial 
beds, as has been claimed for the whole by 
glacialists who have recently been studying 
the Twin Lakes region; but Mr. Emmons still 
inclines to the belief that a lake covered a 
part, at least, of the upper Arkansas Valley in 
which the finer materials, issuing from he- 
neath the earlier glaciers, were deposited. 
The faulting of these beds, shown in the 
recent mine workings, proves a certain amount 
of uplift in the region back of Leadville since 
the glacial period. 

In the original survey it was shown that the 
slopes of the Mosquito Range, back of Lead- 
ville, consist of fault blocks successively up- 
lifted. toward the east along north and south 
striking faults, in which the sedimentary beds 
lie in shallow synclines, the faults themselves 
following the steeper limb of the anticline. 
Recent underground developments have shown 


‘that, while the main fault planes were cor- 


reetly located, their displacement was often 
distributed on several planes, so that the beds 
to the west of each fault zone descended not 
with the even slope of a syncline, but in a 
series of steps. Depths below the surface of 
the bottom of the basins, as determined on 
the syncline theory, were in general correctly 
given in the successive cross-sections of the 
original map. In the case of the block repre- 
sented by the down-town area, however, no 
shafts had penetrated the covering of glacial 


May 25, 1906.] 


deposits, and, while a shallow syncline in the 
underlying limestones was assumed to exist 
in this block as in the others, no facts were 
available from which the western limit of the 
synclinal basin could be determined. The 
finding of ore in this area was primarily de- 
pendent upon whether the ore-bearing lime- 
stones had been eroded off before the so-called 
Lake Beds were deposited; in other words, 
whether the slope of the rock surface beneath 
these beds is greater than the dip of the lime- 
stones. 

Mine workings opened in this area during 
the last ten or fifteen years have disclosed a 
number of more or less parallel faults by 
whose displacement the beds have been carried 
down as though by steeper dips than those ob- 
served, thus increasing the horizontal area of 
possible ore bodies. The vertical range of the 
beds has also been shown to be much greater 
than was originally supposed, the ore making 
at several different horizons, called ‘ contacts’ 
by the miners. While the possible extent of 
ore bodies still existing in this western basin 
is thus shown to be much larger than was 
originally supposed, no sufficient data from 
shafts or borings are yet available to accu- 
rately determine its western limit, though it 
is probable that to the southwest of the city 
there is a considerably wider extent of still 
uneroded limestone than was represented on 
the sections of the original map of Leadville. 

Mr. Emmons referred briefly to the criti- 
cisms that have been made of his original 
explanation of the genesis of the ores, and 
showed that, while these criticisms are based 
on misapprehension of his statements, the 
explanations offered as alternatives are diffi- 
eult to bring into accord with the observed 
facts. 


Observations on the Contact Deposits at Cop- 
per Mountain, Southeastern Alaska: Mr. 
Cuas. W. WRicHT. 


Changes in Level at Yakutat Bay, Alaska, 
due to 1899 Earthquake: Mr. Rateu S. 
Tarr and Mr. Lawrence Martin. (Pre- 
sented by Mr. Martin.) 

This paper will appear in the current vol- 


SCIENCE. 


817 


ume of the Bulletin of the Geological Society 
of America. ArtHuUR C. SPENCER, 
Secretary. 


THE SOCIETY OF GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 


THE eighth regular meeting of the society 
was held on April 18, 1906. The following 
papers were presented: 


Plans for Underground Water Investigation 
mn the West in 1906: N. H. Darton. 


Occurrence of Underground Waters in San- 
pete and Sevier Valleys, Utah: G. B. Ricu- 
ARDSON. 

Irrigation, depending on surface streams, 
has been successfully practised in these fertile 
valleys since the country was first settled, but 
the supply is insufficient and attention is being 
turned to developing the underground re- 
sources. Sanpete and central Sevier Valleys 
occupy structural depressions in the plateaus 
of central Utah. This part of the state is 
underlain chiefly by strata of Mesozoic and 
Tertiary age, which lie flat or are only gently 
inclined, except along lines of upheaval where 
locally the beds are sharply tilted. The valleys 
are filled with irregular lenses of gravel, sand 
and clay, largely, if not entirely, of fluvial 
origin, which contain abundant underground 
water. In the lowlands flowing wells are 
obtained, and over large parts of the valleys 
pumping plants using electricity developed 
from the adjacent mountain streams can be 
operated. Water is also available from bed- 
rock sources. A remarkable series of springs, 
yielding in all upwards of 95 second feet, 
occur along faults at the base of the moun- 
tains, and in places new flows have resulted 
from tunneling into the fault planes. There 
is also the probability of locally obtaining 
artesian wells from strata that dip towards the 
lowlands. 


THE ninth regular meeting, held on May 2, 
was devoted to the following discussion: 


Treatment of Water Problems in Folios: C. 
A. Fisuer, G. B. Ricnarpson, M. L. FuLuer 
and F. H. NEWELL. 

Mr. Fisher presented the results of a review 
of the folios of the Geological Survey, point- 


818 


ing out the general improvement in the treat- 
ment of underground water problems which 
has taken place in the last few years, but call- 
ing attention to certain western folios in 
which the water problems, although of para- 
mount importance, had not been treated, and 
emphasizing the need of more extended dis- 
cussions. Mr. Richardson enumerated the 
more important problems which the investiga- 
tions should cover, laying stress upon the need 
of accurate data relating to flow, head and 
quality of waters in addition to information 
as to their geologic occurrence. Mr. Fuller 
discussed the relative economy and thorough- 
ness of the hydrologic studies as conducted by 
geologists or geohydrologists, advocating the 
employment of the former if they could give 
the necessary time. Mr. Newell spoke on the 
desirability of having the hydrologic work of 
geologists referred to the division of hydrol- 
ogy for approval in the same way that the 
geology of hydrologists is referred to the 
geologic branch. M. L. Futter, 
Secretary. 


BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 


At the annual meeting of the society, May 
2, 1906, the following officers were elected: 

President—Charles Sedgwick Minot. 

Vice-presidents—Charles P. Bowditch, Henry 
W. Haynes, Edward L. Mark. 

Secretary—Glover M. Allen. 

Treasurer—Hdward T. Bouvé. 

Councilors for three years—Charles F. Bat- 
chelder, Hubert L. Clark, William M. Davis, W. L. 
W. Field, N. T. Kidder, William L. Underwood, 
Arthur W. Weysse, Miss Mary A. Willcox. 

The curator, Mr. Charles W. Johnson, in 
his annual report, called attention to the in- 
terest and activity shown in building up the 
New England collection which is henceforth 
to be the chief display of the museum. Two 
large exhibition cases have been installed dur- 
ing the past year and a pair of moose from 
Maine have been secured for one of these, 
while the deer and caribou are to be displayed 
in the other. A list of desiderata of New 
England birds and mammals has been printed 
with a view to aiding the society’s efforts in 
making its collection of these groups as nearly 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


complete as possible. A number of additional 
New England birds has been secured through 
the gift of Mr. Augustus Hemenway. The 
collection of New England invertebrates has 
also been largely augmented during the year, 
particularly through the efforts of the ento- 
mologists of the society. The Emily L. Mor- 
ton collection of Microlepidoptera, containing 
195 species and 755 specimens, largely from 
the vicinity of Newbury, N. Y., has also been 
received through Mr. H. H. Newcomb. 

Two Walker prizes were awarded in the 
annual competition for the best memoirs pre- 
sented on subjects previously announced. The 
first prize of $100 was awarded to Professor 
Amadeus W. Grabau, of Columbia University, 
for his essay on ‘ The Interpretation of Strati- 
graphic Series by the Principles of Sedimen- 
tary Overlap.’ The second prize of $50 was 
awarded to Professor Douglas W. Johnson, 
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
for his essay on ‘ Drainage Modifications in 
the Tallulah District. A Study in River 
Capture, 

The subjects announced for the Walker 
Prize competition, 1907, are: 

1. The structure and affinities of some fossil 
plant or group of fossil plants. 

9. The development of the gametophytes in 
any little-known representative of the Conif- 
erales. 

3. The anatomy and development of some 
order or group of the angiosperms. 

4. The functions and habits of animals in 
their relations to environment and to each 
other. 

5. The habits and structure of any species. 
of the Myriapoda. 

6. A contribution to a knowledge of the rate 
of speed at which birds travel. 

The paper of the evening was by Mr. George 
Carroll Curtis on ‘ Geographic Modeling from: 
the Naturalist’s Standpoint.’ 

Gtover M. ALLEN, 
: Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
A FEW NOTES ON ‘INDIAN MOUNDS” IN TEXAS. 


Normne an article written by Mr. P. J. 
Farnsworth, ‘On the Origin of the Small 


May 25, 1906.] 


Mounds of the Lower Mississippi Valley and 
Texas,’ in Scrnce, Vol. XXIII., pp. 583-4, 
leads me to say a few words on the subject. 
Mr. Farnsworth cites Mr. A. C. Veatch’s arti- 
cle published in this paper, Vol. XXIII, p. 35, 
and goes on to state that the numerous mounds 
existing through the region above mentioned 
were formed by the upturning of trees. I 
will not question his authority in making the 
assertion, not having ever lived in the local- 
ities he cites; all I wish to give are a few facts 
concerning the ‘ Indian mounds’ which I have 
met with in Kendall Co., Texas. 

Within a radius of five miles of my old 
home there, I know of four mounds. They 
are all of the same shape—elliptical, and meas- 
ure from twenty to forty feet long by ten to 
twenty wide by two to three high. They are 
about twice as long as they are wide, and 
_level on top. Two of them are located on 
high, hilly ground, and the other two in val- 
leys. They form no group, but are scattered 
widely over the country. They are made 
largely of stones about the size of a man’s 
fist, which appear to have been in contact once 
with fire, and from the small percentage of 
earth they contain compared with the sur- 
rounding ground, they give one an impression 
that they were formed by the piling up of 
these rocks. Arrow-heads are common around 
them, for which the people in the locality 
attribute their existence to the Indians, and 
hold that they were used as places of sacrifices, 
or torture, or cremation. 

TI will refrain from expressing any opinion 
as to their probable origin, leaving that to 
wiser heads than mine, for only the interest I 
take in the subject induces me to contribute 
the above. 


Trying H. WENTWorRTH. 
MarTrenuata, S. L. P., Mexico. 


MEGASPORE OR MACROSPORE. 


Ir is often asked why some botanists use 
the term megaspore while others call the same 
object a macrospore. Since those who say 
macrospore are likely to say macrosporocarp, 
macrosporophyll, etce., instead of megasporo- 
carp, ete., it is worth while to call attention 
to the comparative merits of mega and macro. 


SCIENCE. 


819: 


Mega, from the Greek péyas, means big, great, 
large; it is equivalent to the Latin magnus 
and is the opposite of micro. Macro, from 
the Greek paxpdés, means long; it is not the 
opposite of micro, as was doubtless imagined 
by those who first used the term, macrospore,. 
but is the opposite of fpazés, meaning short. 
No one would designate the larger spores of 
heterosporous plants as long spores. Why 
then should any one say the same thing in 
Greek? The misconception of the meaning 
of macro—a misconception which could never 
occur to a student of Greek—has become so- 
established that we even have a genus, Macro- 
zamia. The taxonomist doubtless thought he 
was constructing a word which should mean 
large Zama, but the word means long Zamia, 
while the plant itself is of the short tuberous 
type. I should not suggest a change to 
Megazamia, although much more radical 
changes in generic names are made with far 
less provocation. Botanists dropped the term,, 
rhizocarp, because it implied that the sporo-- 
carps were borne upon roots, an entirely in- 
accurate implication. The term, macro, ex- 
cept where it refers to length, is just as inac- 
curate. Let us say megaspore, megasporo- 
phyll, megasporocarp, megaphyllous, and, in 
short use mega wherever the idea is that of 
great size rather than great length. 
CHartes J. CHAMBERLAIN. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
DINOSAURIAN GASTROLITHS. 


THE occurrence of worn and_ polished 
quartz pebbles in such close association with 
plesiosaur skeletons of the Kansas chalk as 
to suggest that in life these reptiles were: 
pebble swallowers was first noted by Pro-- 
fessor Mudge and later by Williston.. More: 
recently these observations of Mudge and 
Williston have been confirmed in the most 
conclusive manner by Mr. Barnum Brown,” 
who found siliceous pebbles almost invariably- 
accompanying the plesiosaur skeletons, which: 


Field Columbian Museum Publication (Chi-- 
cago), No. 73, p. 75. 

? Science, N. S., Vol. XIX., No. 501, pp. 184,. 
185, August 5, 1904. 


820 


oceur in considerable number in the Niobrara 
shales of South Dakota. In some instances 
the pebbles were even found en masse, in one 
large specimen as many as a half bushel being 
present, ranging from the size of a walnut to 
four inches across. 

From the regularity of appearance and asso- 
ciation, Mr. Brown, as it seems to one familiar 
with the Dakotan Niobrara shales, is very 
correctly led to the conclusion that these peb- 
bles served as ‘stomach stones.’ Such attri- 
tion stones, I was some years since informed, 
are habitually swallowed by the Florida alli- 
gators, and doubtless the habit of swallowing 
stomach stones, or gastroliths, as I shall con- 
veniently call them, is and has been wide- 
spread amongst the reptilia, partly as in the 
birds. 

Furthermore, Williston in his most recent 
contribution on North American Plesiosaurs® 
adds the following remarks to his earlier state- 
ment: “It was with a specimen of an elas- 
mosaur (HZ. Snow) that Mudge first noticed 
the occurrence of the peculiar siliceous peb- 
bles which he described; and it was also with 
another, a large species yet unnamed from the 
Benton Oretaceous, that the like specimens 
were found described by me in 1892. That 
this habit was not confined to this type of 
plesiosaur, however, is certain, since I have 
also observed it in different species of Poly- 
cotylus and Trinacromerum, both relatively 
short-necked and Jlong-headed plesiosaurs. 
Much doubt and even ridicule have been 
thrown upon this supposed habit, and the use 
of pebbles by these reptiles. But the cumu- 
lative testimony of writers, both on this and 
the other side of the Atlantic, is quite con- 
elusive. It has been assumed that the plesio- 
saurs could not have utilized the pebbles as a 
means of digestion in a muscular stomach. 
Dr. Eastman, who has vigorously opposed the 
idea of the possession of such a bird-like 
structure on the part of the plesiosaurs, seems 
to have been quite unaware that the modern 
crocodiles have a real bird-like and muscular 
gizzard, and are so described by Dr. Gadow. 
The crocodiles have a similar habit, or at 


5 Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XXI., March, 1906, p. 226. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


least such a habit has been imputed to them, 
and it is not at all unreasonable that, strange 
as it may seem, the plesiosaurs had a real, 
muscular bird-like gizzard, which utilized the 
pebbles in whatever way the crocodiles may 
utilize them.” 

Certainly in connection with the foregoing 
facts it is of more than passing interest that 
at least some of the sauropodous Dinosauria 
were stone-swallowers. For one can not help 
eagerly scanning the record for every indica- 
tion of the true habits and structure of these 
extraordinary animals. The evidence for the 
use of gastroliths by the sauropods rests on at 
least one authentic instance—namely, that of 
a large sauropod observed at the northern end 
of the Big Horn Mountains by Mr. Charles 
Speer, of Billings, Montana. Mr. Speer found 
in immediate association with a considerable 
portion of the skeleton about two dozen quartz 
gastroliths, which, with various skeletal parts, 
he took back to Billings, where I saw all this 
material, September 19, 1902. These speci- 
mens were displayed in the window of the 
principal bank of Billings, of which Mr. Speer 
is cashier, and he has very courteously sent to 
the writer at the Yale Museum nine of these 
pebbles weighing a little over a kilogram in 
all, and varying from smaller forms to several 
inches in diameter. These flints vary from 
gray to brightly colored red and more or less 
mottled jasper, and include one very highly 
polished siliceous nodule quite filled with 
bryozoa and corals, and probably sponge spic- 
ules. 
ondary or gastral wear, its more depressed 
portions clearly displaying the original rough- 
er true pebble surface. The finely, and even 
highly, polished and fresh surfaces of all the 
pebbles would, however, immediately arrest 
one’s attention. In fact the entire surfaces 
are so surprisingly smooth and clear as to at 
first suggest a very recent origin, rather than 
ancient use. It is surmised, however, that 
immediately following the fossilization of the 
dinosaurian host, these gastroliths were in- 
cased in protecting calcite and clay, and that 
they were never subsequently disturbed till 
finally eroded out just previous to collection. 


This gastrolith shows the effects of sec- 


\ 


May 25, 1906.] 


Various rounded and notably smooth pebbles 
I observed when making the latter portion of 
the excavation from which I secured the type 
specimen of Barosaurus, in the summer of 
1898, now appear to indicate that gastroliths 
accompanied that fossil, and it is very prob- 
able that many instances of true gastroliths 
have been overlooked. 

The lizards, as I have been shown by Mr. 
A. Hermann, a most keenly observant lizard 
fancier, swallow pebbles when feeding on a 
pebbly cage floor; and he informs me that 
some of his species swallow very large pebbles 
for their size, these being soon passed. It can, 
of course, be that such pebble-swallowing is 
partly independent of stomach structure; but 
in view of the fact that the Dinosaurs retained 
and polished the pebbles, it is fair to assume 
that their gastrolithic habit establishes the 
presence of additional important structural 
analogies with the birds. 

G. R. Wie.anp. 


DEPOSIT OF VENUS SHELLS IN NEW YORK CITY. 

In excavating for the new building for the 
United States Express Company, on Rector 
Street, between Sixth and Ninth Avenue ele- 
vated, Mr. Daniel E. Moran, C.E., found rest- 
ing on the bed rock forty feet below the 
surface a small deposit of Venus shells, frag- 
ments of wood and some peaty matter. This 
deposit was covered by ten feet of glacial drift 
which in turn was buried under thirty feet 
of sand probably of post-glacial age. The 
fossiliferous deposit was apparently protected 
from the ice action in this spot by a local 
ledge or shelf of the bed rock. 

The Venus shells resemble very closely those 
of the recent V. mercenaria Linn. but differ 
from them somewhat and along a line which 
seemed to identify them with the variety 
antiqua of Verrill from the Pleistocene de- 
posits of Sankaty Head, Nantucket. The 
Manhattan specimens were compared with a 
number of these in the collections at Columbia 
University and the identification was found 
to be complete. The variety antiqua is an 
unusually massive and strongly sculptured 
variety, Professor Verrill’s description being 
as follows: 


SCIENCE. 


821 


The shell is rather obtusely rounded posteriorly 
and is thickly coyered with prominent concentric 
lamelliform ridges, which mostly extend entirely 
across the shell, but are often reflexed, appressed 
and more or less confluent over the middle region, 
where the ordinary variety is nearly smooth (ex- 
cept when young). 


Professor Verrill mentions var. antiqua as 
occurring in the ‘lower shell bed’ at Sankaty 
Head, but my work there in the summer of 
1904 showed that the typical specimens occur 
in the ‘upper shell bed,’ more nearly resem- 
bling recent forms as the ‘lower shell bed’ is 
reached.* 

The ‘ upper shell bed’ has a decidedly north- 
ern fauna probably driven south by the ad- 
vancing ice sheet, and as the recent form and 
not antiqua is found in the lower beds con- 
taining a fauna of rather southern range, it 
seems as if antiqua is either a northern 
variety or else has developed from the common 
form as a result of the change to much colder 
conditions. 

The identification of this V. mercenaria as 
the var. antiqua of Verrill correlates this 
Manhattan deposit with the upper beds at 
Sankaty Head and indicates the existence of 
these beds with their contained fauna as far 
west and south as the neighborhood of New 
York. 

The wood fragments were examined by Dr. 
C. C. Curtis, of Columbia University, but the 
original structure was so altered as to make 
identification impossible beyond the fact that 
they were from a deciduous tree. 

Some specimens of Ilyanassa obsoleta Say 
and an oyster fragment from the subway tun- 
nel beneath the East River were recently re- 
ceived at the university from Mr. J. F. San- 
born. They were found 2,000 feet from the 
Brooklyn side in the mud or silt thirty feet 
below the bed of the river or seventy feet 
below tide water, the river being here about 
forty feet in depth. The oyster fragment is 
probably from a specimen of our common 
species Ostrea virginiana Lister, and the 
Ilyanassa shells are apparently identical with 


~ *See ‘Pleistocene Formations of Sankaty Head, 
Nantucket, Jour. of Geol., Vol. XIII., No. 8, 
November—December, 1905, p. 728. 


822 


our recent forms from this region, so there 
seems little doubt that these shells as well as 
the deposit in which they were found are 
post-glacial in age. 
J. Howarp WItson. 
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 


THE TEACHING OF CLIMATOLOGY IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 


At the meeting of the Association of Amer- 
ican Geographers in New York last December 
a paper was read by Professor Cleveland 
Abbe on ‘The Present Condition in our 
Schools and Colleges of the Study of Cli- 
matology as a Branch of Geography, and of 
Meteorology as a Branch of Geophysics’ (ab- 
stract in Bull. Amer. Geogr. Soc., XX XVIII, 
121-123). It appears that about 1,000 graded 
schools teach the elements of climatology as a 
part of geography, receive the daily weather 
maps and give talks upon their use in fore- 
casting the weather. About 7,000 high 
schools, or seven eighths of the whole num- 
ber, teach the elements of meteorology and 
climatology in connection with physical geog- 
raphy or physical geology. 

The replies to a circular letter recently sent 
to 177 public normal schools in the United 
States indicate that in about 25 meteorology 
and climatology are taught in specific courses, 
in about 115 these subjects are taught in con- 
nection with physical geography or some 
other allied subject, and in the remaining 37 
these subjects are not touched upon. 

As to colleges and universities, out of 245 
replies 49 state that they have specific courses 
in meteorology, 95 teach meteorology in con- 
nection with some other subjects, and 101 pay 
no attention to the subject. The correspond- 
ing percentages are 20, 39 and 41; probably 
the replies from other colleges and universi- 
ties will not alter these ratios very much. 

In fully one half of these institutions, from 
the lower schools to the higher universities, 
some form of laboratory method is pursued— 
that is to say, students are required to make 
personal observations, experiments and de- 
«dluctions. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 


Buutetin No. 37, of the Weather Bureau, 
by Professor A. J. Henry, deals with ‘ Recent 
Practise in the Erection of Lightning Con- 
ductors.’ It presents a description of the 
lightning conductors on the Washington Mon- 
ument; the preface to the Report of the Light- 
ning Research Committee, by Sir Oliver 
Lodge; the rules for the erection of lightning 
conductors as issued by the Lightning Rod 
Conference of 1882, with observations thereon 
by the Lightning Research Committee of 1905, 
and brief statements of the latest practise 
abroad, in Holland, Hungary and Germany. 
In this connection reference may be made to 
a recent book, ‘Modern Lightning Conduct- 
ors, by Killingworth Hedges, in which some 
interesting illustrations are given of damage 
by lightning and of different methods of pro- 
tection. The recent studies of lightning have 
brought out some definite rules to be followed 
if proper protection is desired, and there need 
be no more of the haphazard, ineffective and 
often dangerous ‘ protection’ of years back. 


SOIL TEMPERATURE AND SNOW COVER. 


To the Deutsches Meteorologisches Jahr- 
buch for 1901, volume for Saxony, Professor 
Paul Schreiber, director of the section for 
Saxony, contributes a noteworthy practical, 
observational and experimental, as well as 
theoretical, discussion of soil temperatures and 
the effects of a snow cover. This study, which 
occupies nearly one hundred quarto pages, 
exceeds in completeness anything that we have 
yet seen on this subject. The distribution of 
temperature in the soil at readings over 32° 
F.; the snow cover and the effect of frost 
upon bare ground; and the theoretical aspects 
of the subject, are all discussed in great de- 
tail. A series of diagrams help to a better 
understanding of the text. 

We note in the same volume of the 
Deutsches Meteorologisches Jahrbuch a page 
devoted to facsimile reproductions of baro- 
graph and of thermograph curves which 
showed special peculiarities during the year 
1901. We suggest that similar diagrams 
would add greatly to the value of the annual 


May 25, 1906.] 


summaries of the different state sections of 
our Climatological Service of the Weather 
Bureau. 


VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND RAINFALL. 


THE eruption of Vesuvius draws attention 
once more to the supposed connection between 
rainfall and volcanic activity. Curiously 
enough, a recent number (Vol. III, No. 1) 
of the Bolletino of the Italian Meteorolog- 
ical Society contains a paper on this subject. 
It appears, from studies at Mt. Etna, that 
there is no evidence of any relation between 
the activity of the yoleano and local rainfall. 
In this investigation both the daily variation 
in activity during the 1892 eruption, and the 
whole series of eruptions whose dates are 
accurately known, are taken into account. 


R. DeC. Warp. 


ENGLISH VITAL STATISTICS. 


THE registrar-general’s annual summary, 
giving the births, deaths and causes of death 
in London and other large towns in 1905, has 
just been issued. According to the abstract 
in the London Times the 76 great towns of 
England and Wales dealt with in the weekly 
returns for 1905 contained an estimated popu- 
lation of 15,609,377 persons in the middle of 
that year. The births registered in these 
towns in the period of 52 weeks ended Decem- 
ber 30, 1905, numbered 438,360, and were equal 
to a rate of 28.2 per 1,000 of the population, 
the rates in the three preceding years having 
been 30.0, 29.7 and 29.1. The deaths regis- 
tered in the same period numbered 244,840, 
and corresponded to a crude rate of 15.7 per 
1,000, the rates in the three preceding years 
having been 17.4, 16.3 and 17.2. The death 
rate in 1905, calculated without reference to 
sex and age constitution of the populations, 
varied, as usual, considerably in the several 
towns, the lowest crude rate being 7.6 per 1,000 
in Hornsey, and the highest, 22.1, in Merthyr 
Tydvil. 

The 244,840 deaths at all ages included 
61,279 of infants in their first year of life. 
In the 76 great towns infantile mortality, 
measured by the proportion of deaths under 


SCIENCE. 


823 


one year to registered births, was 140 per 
1,000, the mean proportion in the preceding 
three years having been 150. Smallpox was 
the cause of 51 deaths in the 76 towns. Of 
these 10 belonged to London, 7 to Bradford, 
5 to Oldham, 4 to Southampton, 4 to Burnley, 
4 to South Shields and smaller numbers to 
11 other great towns. Measles was the regis- 
tered cause of 6,058 deaths, which correspond- 
ed to a rate of 0.39 per 1,000 living at all 
ages. Scarlet fever caused 2,082 deaths, which 
corresponded to a rate of 0.13 per 1,000 living. 
Diphtheria (exclusive of croup unless stated to 
be membranous) was the stated cause of 2,528 
deaths, corresponding to a mortality of 0.16 
per 1,000 of the population. Whooping cough 
accounted for 4,507 deaths and for a mortality 
equal to 0.29 per 1,000 living at all ages. Con- 
tinued fever, mainly enteric, was the regis- 
tered cause of 1,252 deaths, equal to a rate of 
0.08 per 1,000 of the population. Diarrhea 
Gneluding dysentery and English cholera) 
accounted for 12,877 deaths at all ages, and 
for a death rate of 0.83 per 1,000 of the popu- 
lation. 

The marriages in London during the year 
1905 numbered 39,631, corresponding to a rate 
of 16.9 persons married per 1,000 of the popu- 
lation at all ages. This rate was 0.1 per 1,000 
below the corresponding rate in 1904, and was 
1.0 per 1,000 below the average rate in the ten 
years 1895-1904. In the year 1894 the mar- 
riage rate was 17.0; from that date it gradu- 
ally rose to 18.8 in the year 1898, since which 
year it has declined almost continuously to its 
present leyel. The number of births regis- 
tered in London during the 52 weeks ended 
December 30, 1905, was 126,620. In propor- 
tion to the total population of both sexes and 
all ages, these births were equal to a rate of 
97.1 per 1,000. The birth rate in 1905, cal- 
culated in this way, was 0.8 per 1,000 below 
that in 1904, and was 2.2 per 1,000 below the 
average in the ten years 1895-1904. In the 
year 1895 the birth rate was 30.6 per 1,000, 
showing an increase on the rate in the preyvi- 
ous year. Since that date, however, the birth 
rate has gradually decreased, the rate in the 
year 1905 being the lowest on record. The 


824 


deaths recorded as belonging to London dur- 
ing the year 1905 numbered 70,442, and were 
equal to a rate of 15.1 per 1,000 of the esti- 
mated population; this is the lowest death rate 
in London since civil registration was estab- 
lished. It was 1.0 per 1,000 below the corre- 
sponding rate in 1904, and no less than 2.7 
per 1,000 below the corresponding average rate 
in the ten years 1895-1904. 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


May 11.—Mr. Smith, of California, intro- 
duced a bill (H. R. 19,234) for the protection 
of animals, birds and fish in the forest re- 
serves of California. Referred to the House 
Committee on Public Lands. 

Mr. Campbell, of Kansas, from the Com- 
mittee on the District of Columbia, to which 
was referred the Bill of the House (H. R. 
13,193) to prohibit the killing of wild birds 
and other wild animals in the District of Co- 
lumbia, reported the same with amendment, 
accompanied by a report (No. 4,207); which 
were referred to the House Calendar. 


THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. ~ 


THE most serious loss sustained by science 
in many years is the destruction of the Cali- 
fornia Academy of Sciences by the recent 
earthquake and fire in San Francisco. Two 
letters recently received from officers of the 
institution giving interesting details regarding 
the destruction of the academy are worthy of 
record as a part of the history of scientific 
work on the Pacific Coast. In addition to 
their general interest, they will appeal partic- 
ularly to those who have enjoyed the hospi- 
tality of the academy which for years has 
been the gathering place and headquarters of 
scientific men visiting the west coast. 

The first is from Mr. Leverett Mills Loomis, 
director of the academy, to whose initiative, 
energy and devotion were largely due its in- 
creasing growth and activity during the last 
few years, and upon whom now largely de- 
volves the important duty of reorganizing and 
placing it on a sound working basis. Mr. 
Loomis was living within the burned area not 
far from the academy and in addition to his 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S.. Von. XXIIT. No. 595. 


efforts for that institution was obliged to 
rescue from the advancing flames a helpless 
invalid father. He writes: 


I got down to the academy about 7 a.m. and 
found the bridge connecting the two buildings 
gone and the museum stairs badly wrecked. I 
managed to climb up to the top floor and got all 
the records together, and began to get them down 
when Miss Hyde [the librarian] came to my aid. 
Together we saved all the records. Miss Hyde 
also saved the MS. of Mr. Hittell’s history of 
the academy. Later Dr. Van Denburg [curator of 
reptiles] came and got out most of the reptile 
types. Then Miss Eastwood came with a friend 
and saved the greater part of the plant types. 
Miss Hyde also saved most of the insect types. 
Meanwhile the fires started by the earthquake 
were closing in on the academy. The pioneer 
building and the Emporium [both buildings joined 
the academy] were burning when I paid my visit 
to the Department of Ornithology. As a starter 
for the bird collection, I secured the type of 
Oceanodroma macrodactyla, and as the beginning 
of the bird library I took Des Murs’ Iconographie. 
As I wanted to be the first donor to the academy’s 
ornithological library, I put Brown’s illustrations 
under my arm as I passed the store room where 
my books were kept. So you see we had made a 
beginning before the end had come. The work 
accomplished by the Galapagos expedition has ex- 
ceeded our most sanguine expectations. Among 
the treasures are a series of Darwin’s rail and 
tortoises from islands where they were supposed 
to be extinct. The Galapagos collections will 
form a foundation of our new museum of the 
greater academy. Our plan of action is fully 
worked out. he library is the hardest thing to 
replace; the books will come slowly, but they 
will come. Have found good quarters and am 
now pushing the reorganization. ? 


The other letter is dated Berkeley, Cali- 
fornia, May 7, 1906, and is from Miss Alice 
Eastwood, curator of botany of the academy. 
Miss Eastwood has been in charge of the 
academy herbarium for the last twelve years. 
Her devotion to the work has been shown in 
many ways, even to the extent of using a large 
part of her salary as curator in the employ- 
ment of assistants. The collection contained 
a considerable number of plant types and 
during the past year Miss Eastwood had been 
segregating them from the general collection 


May 25, 1906.] 


and this fortunate circumstance made it pos- 
sible to save most of them. Writing of the 
herbarium she says: 


I do not feel the loss to be mine, but it is a 
great loss to the scientific world and an irrepar- 
able loss to California. My own destroyed work 
I do not lament, for it was a joy to me while I 
did it, and I can still have the same joy in start- 
ing it again. The botanists of the University of 
California have given me the use of their library 
and collections and even a room which for the 
present I can call mine. The kindness of my 
friends has been great. I did not know that I 
had so many or that their affection for me was 
so warm and sincere. I feel how very fortunate 
I am; not at all like an unfortunate who has 
lost all her personal possessions and home. 

To me came the chance to care for what was 
saved from the ruin of the academy, and with the 
help of my devoted friends I was able to do it. 
Nobody knew where the safe place was to be; for 
it seemed as if the whole city must go. * * * 

The earthquake did not frighten me as it was 
felt less where I lived than in other parts of the 
city. * * * After getting breakfast, I went down 
to the academy. I could not get in. The store 
next door was open and they were taking things 
out, and I knew there was a door of communica- 
tion with the front building. It was still as 
death. I had to climb over the demolished marble 
staircase at the entrance of the museum, but 
found the stairs going up the front building all 
right. When I reached the top a yawning chasm 
stretched between the two buildings as the bridge 
had been thrown down. I tried several doors but 
every one seemed to have deserted the place. I 
got out again and walked up and down Market St. 
* * * Everywhere buildings were in ruins. 
Presently Robert Porter came along, and when I 
told him my trouble he went back with me, but 
the door was still locked. We went to the back 
and saw that the fire was on Mission Street, and 
the police were driving the people from their 
homes. We again entered by the store next door 
and when we came to the front hall found Mr. 
Loomis, Mr. yon Geldren, General Foote, Mrs. 
Newell and John Carlton. Miss Hyde was in the 
library getting out the records, ete. Porter 
pulled me up the ruins of the marble staircase and 
we entered the museum, the door of which was 
now open. The marble staircase leading up to 
the top was in ruins and we went up chiefly by 
holding on to the iron railing and putting our 
feet between the rungs. Porter helped me to tie 


SCIENCE. 


825 


up the plant types, and we lowered them to the 
floor of the museum by ropes and strings tied 
together. Not a book was I able to save, nor 
a single thing of my own, except my favorite lens, 
without which I should feel helpless. We got 
all the things to the street and then it seemed 
as if we might have to leave them. ‘The building 
next door was on fire, the military was in com- 
mand, and nobody was allowed on the street. I 
rushed across to the safe deposit opposite, where 
I have a box, to implore them to take the things. 
There was a line of men there a block long and 
my place would be at the end, so with the per- 
mission of the officer in charge I dashed back. 
Porter then went and came back with word that 
an expressman on the corner of Stockton and Ellis 
would take them, but we had to carry them over 
as no vehicles were allowed on Market Street. I 
asked the man how much it would be and he said 
“A high price.’ I possessed $14.00 and feared it 
might not be enough. When he said ‘ Three dol- 
lars’ I almost fell off the seat. I paid him four 
and took all the things except a few to my place 
of residence, thinking it as safe as any. In the 
afternoon I went down to reconnoitre and see what 
the academy looked like. The back building 
stood, the staircase was still there, or rather the 
banisters, but everything within seemed burned 
up. * * * The fire was threatening. from two 
directions and I decided to move the ‘academy’ 
to Russian Hill that evening. With the help of 
friends this was done, though everything had to 
be carried. The plants were the heaviest and 
largest bundles. There were some boxes of in- 
sects, some bottles of reptiles which Dr. Van Den- 
burg had saved, the heavy record books of the 
academy, and several things I did not know about. 
It was hard work. I packed my own things when 
I returned to my home and laid down to rest, but 
not to sleep. It was bright enough to read by the 
red glow in the sky, and it might be necessary 
to leave at a minute’s notice. Only what one 
could carry could be saved, for there was either 
no chance to hire any kind of a conveyance or the 
charges were extortionate. Nobody seemed to 
be complaining or sorrowful. The sound of the 
trunks being dragged along I can never forget. 
This seemed the only groan the ruined city made. 
I took my things up to Russian Hill the next 
morning, and in the afternoon was able to have 
“The Academy’ removed to Fort Mason, where 
it was put in the care of Mrs. Hahn, whose hus- 
band is a captain there. I felt easy at last, for it 
seemed the safest place in the city, and returned 


826 


to Russian Hill. Mr. John Galen Howard in- 
vited me to take refuge in his home [at Berkeley], 
and I was glad to accept. 

All my pictures and books are gone and many 
treasures that I prized highly; but I regret noth- 
ing for I am rich in friends and things seem of 
small account. I have since moved the academy 
things back to Russian Hill, as it was saved by 
the great effort of the few people who live there. 
My only regret is that I left for Berkeley Thurs- 
day evening instead of staying to help them, but 
I never dreamed it was possible to save it. It is 
an experience I am not sorry to have had if it 
could have been without the terrible loss. There 
is not a reference library left in San Francisco. 
I am afraid that in the rush of rebuilding the 
city such essential, but apparently immaterial, 
things will be neglected. 

I am beginning already to recollect and intend 
to go to type localities as much as possible. I 
expect the academy will be able to give me but 
little aid for the present, but have a tiny income 
of my own and can get along, I feel sure. The 
botanical department of the academy has a fund 
of $5,000 of its very own. The academy is not 
ruined and still has resources, though most of its 
income is cut off. 


' The academy contained among other valu- 
able collections one of the best natural history 
libraries in the United States, a rich herbar- 
ium, and a superb collection of western water 
birds. In the bird collection was the finest 
and largest series of the waterfowl of the 
Pacific Coast extant, and the quality of the 
material and completeness of the series were 
unrivaled in the museums of this continent 
and, no doubt, in the world. Practically all 
of this accumulation of years was destroyed. 
At first it was feared by its friends that the 
academy might be irreparably ruined by the 
destruction of its building and contents, but 
fortunately this proves not to be the case. 
Now, although the academy still has some 
property with which to begin anew, it faces 
a serious problem in the absolute lack of a ref- 
erence library. Here is an opportunity for 
every one interested directly or indirectly in 
scientific work to show in a practical way 
their sympathy for the loss science has sus- 
tained on the Pacifie Coast, and their apprecia- 
tion of the admirable courage with which 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


those connected with the academy are facing 
the situation. 

If scientific societies, authors and other 
friends of science throughout America and 
abroad will each contribute according to their 
ability such sets or parts of sets of proceedings, 
books, pamphlets and authors’ separates as 
will be of use in a general scientific library, 
the aggregate will be a tremendous help toward 
placing the academy once more on a working 
basis. In addition to books, contributions of 
specimens in various branches, especially in 
biology, will be extremely helpful. Small 
packages of books or specimens can be sent 
direct by mail. To help in this work the 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, offers 
to receive all contributions of books or speci- 
mens for the academy and to forward them at 
its own expense. Packages from Eastern 
America should be addressed to the Smithson- 
jan and plainly marked ‘ For California Acad- 
emy of Sciences.’ Packages from abroad 
should be marked ‘Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, D. C., U. 8. A., care U. S. Col- 
lector of Customs, New York City. (For 
California Academy of Sciences.)’ 

The publications of the U. S. National Mu- 
seum and the’ Smithsonian Institution need 
not be sent as they will be supplied direct 
from these institutions. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


At the recent International Medical Con- 
gress at Lisbon, the Moscow prize was awarded 
to M. Laveran and the Paris prize to Pro- 
fessor Ehrlich. 

Tur International Congress of Applied 
Chemistry at Rome resolved that the seventh 
congress shall be held in London, with Sir 
William Ramsay as the president and Sir 
Henry Roscoe as honorary president. 

Tue sixteenth International Medical Con- 
gress will be held at Buda Pesth in 1909, 
under the presidency of Professor C. Miiller. 
Tt is likely that the following congress will be 
held in New York City. 

Dr. Francis P. Kiynicutt, of New York, 
has been elected president of the Association 
of American Physicians. 


May 25, 1906.] 


Dr. P. Buaserna, professor of physics at 
Rome, celebrated on April 30 the fiftieth anni- 
versary of his academic activity. 


Dr. Harry Fievpine Rem, professor of phys- 
ical geology at the Johns Hopkins University, 
has been selected by the University of Cali- 
fornia as a member of a commission to in- 
vestigate this summer the causes of the recent 
earthquake. 


Dr. Harry T. MarsHatt, instructor in pedi- 
atrics, Johns Hopkins University, has ac- 
cepted a position as pathologist in the Bureau 
of Science at Manila. 


Proressor Wm. H. Hosss has resigned the 
chair of mineralogy and petrology at the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, in order to devote his 
energies wholly to structural and dynamical 
geology and physiography, which subjects have 
largely constituted his field of research. Pro- 
fessor Hobbs expects to spend another year in 
Italy engaged in studies growing out of the 
late Calabrian earthquake. 

Dr. Henry E. Crampton, professor of zool- 
ogy in Barnard College, Columbia University, 
has returned from a scientific expedition of 
three months to the island of Tahiti, the So- 
ciety group. He went for the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History to study various 
species of mollusca which have undergone indi- 
vidual evolution in the isolated valleys of this 
island. 


Prorsessor Ropert Kocu, who returned to 
equatorial Africa in March in order to con- 
tinue the study of tropical diseases, has writ- 
ten to the Berlin Medical Society, saying that 
he has become so interested in his further re- 
searches, especially in connection with the 
“sleeping sickness,’ that he will not return to 
Germany for two years. Dr. Koch, therefore, 
resigns the presidency of the society. 


Proressor H. H. Horne has been granted a 
Sabbatical year of leave by Dartmouth Col- 
lege, which he will spend abroad in travel and 
reading philosophy. His place will be filled 
by Dr. Charles H. Johnston of the State Nor- 
mal School in East Stroudsburg, Pa. 


Dr. C. R. LAnMAN, professor of Sanskrit at 
Harvard University, will represent the uni- 


SCIENCE. 


827 


versity at the celebration of the four hundredth 
anniversary of the University of Aberdeen 
in September. 


Tue University of Edinburgh has conferred 
its doctorate of laws on Dr. EH. von Bergmann, 
professor of surgery at Berlin. 


Dr. G. Hapertanpr, of Graz, has been 
elected an honorary member of the Botanical 
Society of Edinburgh. 


Mr. W. C. Gorpon, who has been in charge 
of the Houghton Office of the Michigan Geo- 
logical Survey, has resigned, to take a posi- 
tion with the Steel Corporation. 


Proressor James F. Kemp, of Columbia 
University, has been delivering during April 
and May to the students in geology at the - 
Johns Hopkins University a course of lectures 
on ‘The Origin of Ore Deposits. The sub- 
jects of his lectures are: (1) The general prob- 
lem. (2) Underground waters. (3) Water- 
ways and places of precipitation. (4) Veins 
(structural features, methods of study, etc.). 
(5) Contact deposits. (6) Magmatie segrega- 


tions. (7) Secondary enrichment. (8) Sedi- 
mentary deposits. (9) Placers. (10) Geology 
in the law. 


Proressor FriepRicH Mier, of Munich, 
will deliver the Herter lectures on pathological 
chemistry at the University and Bellevue Hos- 
pital Medical College in the spring of 1907. 
The lectures will be given in English. 


Proressor Eire MertcHnikorr, of the Pas- 
teur Institute, will give three lectures before 
the Royal Sanitary Institute, London, on 
May 25, 28 and 80. The subjects are: (1) 
The hygiene of the tissues; (2) the hygiene 
of the alimentary canal; (3) syphilis. 


Dr. Eucrne RENEVIER, professor of geology 
and paleontology in the University of Lau- 
sanne, president of the Swiss Geological So- 
ciety, was killed, on May 5, by falling down 
an elevator shaft. 

Sir Davin Date, of Darlington, at one time 
president of the British Iron and Steel Insti- 
tute, died on April 28. The death is also 
announced in English journals of Mrs. Bright- 
wen, a popular writer on natural history and 


828 


a member of the Entomological and Zoological 
Societies. 


THERE will be a civil service examination 
on June 13 for the position of statistical clerk 
in the Geological Survey, at a salary of from 
$1,000 to $1,800 per annum, according to 
qualifications. 

Tuer Prince of Monaco has offered to give 
his Museum of Oceanography and Laboratory 
for the Investigation of the Seas, now at 
Monaco, to the city of Paris, with an endow- 
ment of $1,000,000. The institution is to be 
under the charge of an international com- 
mittee. 

By the will of Roland Hayward, of Milton, 
Mass., the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
of Harvard University will receive the testa- 
tor’s collection of Coleoptera. The Boston 
Society of Natural History is given the right 
of selecting any works on entomology that may 
be lacking in its library. The balance of the 
works on entomology is left to the Milton 
Public Library. 

Tue biological laboratory of the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries at Wood’s Hole, 
Mass., will be opened as usual this summer 
for a period of about three months, beginning 
June 15. A limited number of research tables 
are annually placed at the disposal of qualified 
investigators free of charge. Materials ~for 
various studies in marine biology are yielded 
by collecting expeditions continually in prog- 
ress. Candidates should apply as early as 
possible either to the Commissioner of Fish- 
eries, Washington, D. C., or to the director 
of the laboratory, Dr. F. B. Sumner, 17 Lex- 
ington Avenue, New York City. 

Tue Torrey Botanical Club held, on May 23, 
a meeting to celebrate the tenth anniversary 
of the beginning of work in the development 
of the New York Botanical Garden. The 
meeting was held in the museum building of 
the garden. Professor Henry H. Rusby, 
president of the club, gave an address on ‘ The 
History of Botany in New York,’ which was 
followed by an informal reception in the mu- 
seum halls, library and laboratories. 


Tue editor of the Monthly Weather Review 


invites librarians to address the Weather 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 595. 


Bureau, Washington, D. C., as to what num- 
bers or volumes are needed in order to complete 
their sets of this periodical. 


THE director of the Geological Survey has 
recommended in a letter to the Secretary of 
the Interior that the United States accept the 
invitation of the German government to join 
the International Seismological Association, 
provided that congress shall see fit to make 
the necessary appropriation. The total sum 
that congress is called on to appropriate an- 
nually is $1,300, which includes $800, the fee 
that the United States would be required to 
contribute to the association, and $500 for the 
expenses of the delegate. 


THE summer meeting of the Anatomical 
Society of Great Britain and Ireland will be 
held in Belfast on the first and second of 
June. Dr. Symington, professor in Queen’s 
College, Belfast, writes: “Should any of the 
American anatomists be on this side of the 
Atlantic at that time we should be very 
pleased to see them at our meeting, and if 
they let me know in time I will arrange to 
have them put up during their stay here. 
After the meeting there will be an excursion 
along the Antrim coast with a visit to the 
Giant’s Causeway.” It is to be hoped that 
some of our American anatomists will be able 
to take advantage of this kind invitation. 

THE eighty-ninth annual meeting of the 
Swiss Society of Natural Science will be held 
at St. Gall from July 21 to August 1, under 
the presidency of Dr. G. Ambuhl- 

THE German Bunsen Society held its meet- 
ing this week at Dresden. 

THE ninth annual meeting of the British 
Childhood Society was held on May 8, at the 
residence of the president, Earl Egerton of 
Tatton. Sir Edward Brabrook delivered an 
address. 

Tue twenty-eighth conference of the Amer- 
ican Library Association will be held at Nar- 
ragansett Pier, R. I., from Friday, June 29, 
to Saturday, July 7. 

Caprain Boyp ALEXANDER, writing from 
Angu, Africa, says the Alexander-Gosling ex- 
pedition has obtained the skin of an okapi, 


May 25, 1906.] 


and, furthermore, saw the animal alive. It 
will be remembered that the okapi is a girafte- 
like animal first described by Sir Harry 
Johnston. 

THE general totals of the Paris census, 
taken on March 4, and now published in the 
French press, show that the total population 
of the French capital is 2,731,728, as compared 
with 2,660,559 in 1901 and 2,511,629 in 1896. 
The increase during the last five years -is, 
therefore, less than half that of the preceding 
quinquennial period. 

Nature says: “ After being closed for a very 
considerable time, the fish gallery of the 
British Museum (Natural History)—or, to be 
accurate, the southern half of it—has just been 
reopened to the public in what may be termed 
a metamorphosed condition. In place of a 
dismal crowd of ill-mounted specimens, faded, 
for the most part, to one dull uniformity, the 
public has now a small but well-assorted selec- 
tion of specimens, colored artificially to imi- 
tate, so far as practicable, their appearance in 
life, and arranged in such a manner that they 
ean be seen to the very best advantage. De- 
seriptive labels—of which only a portion are 
yet printed—will render the exhibit about as 
perfect as is at present possible, and the 
gallery as a whole will enable the public to 
gain the greatest possible amount of informa- 
tion about fishes with the least possible trouble. 
As regards the advisability of coloring ex- 
hibited specimens of this nature there can 
scarcely be two opinions, for, although with 
our present methods and our present lack of 
knowledge of the appearance of many fishes 
in life it is impossible to imitate nature closely, 
yet such an approximation to natural coloring 
as is practicable to make is infinitely better 
than no color at all.” 


Tue report of the council of the London 
Zoological Society was presented to the annual 
meeting on April 30. According to the re- 
port in the London Times the Zoological 
Record, beginning with the literature of 1906, 
has been provisionally amalgamated with the 
‘International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 
ture’; the high level of the society’s publica- 
tions has been maintained; three editions 


SCIENCE. 


829 


(81,665 copies) of the Garden Guide have 
been sold, and the fourth has just been issued. 
Naturalists im increasing numbers have 
availed themselves of the advantages of the 
library in Hanover-square, to which important 
additions have been made. Valuable scientific 
work has been done by the prosector, Mr. F. E. 
Beddard, and the pathologist, Dr. Seligmann. 
Mr. Beddard has earried out anatomical re- 
searches, supplied material to anatomists and 
museums and superintended the preservation 
of surplus material; Dr. Seligmann has taken 
over the post mortem investigations, and re- 
ported on the cause of death of 206 mammals 
and 218 birds in 1905. There were practically 
no deaths among the monkeys in outdoor 
cages, whereas there was a marked mortality 
among those in the house. The total number 
of animals in the collection on December 31, 
1905, was 2,913, as against 2,552 on the cor- 
responding date of 1904; in consequence, the 
food bill went up £95—from £3,423 to £3,518. 
This contrasts favorably with £4,858, the cost 
of provisions in 1902, when the number of 
animals was 2,783. At the end of 1905 the 
roll of members stood at 3,702, the largest 
number of fellows in the history of the society. 
The income last year was £30,421, and the 
ordinary expenditure £25,288. Out of the 
balance of over £5,000 the whole of the cost 
(£4,281) of the improvements at the gardens 
for that year has been paid. The work of re- 
organizing the gardens began in 1903, and 
over £11,000 has been spent in providing new 
buildings or enclosures. If the assets, which 
now stand at £62,000, be not taken into ac- 
count, there was at the end of 1902 a cash 
deficit of over £3,700. During the last three 
years, in spite of the large expenditure for 
improvements, this deficit has only increased 
by about £500, the difference having been paid 
out of income. 


Aw account of Dr. Koch’s travels in the 
northern Amazon Basin was given by Dr. 
Koch before the Berlin Geographical Society 
at the close of 1905, and has since appeared in 
the Zeitschrift of that body (1906, No. 2). 
It appears from the abstract in the Geograph- 
ical Journal that Dr. Koch’s researches were 


830 


primarily devoted to ethnological subjects. 
Ascending the Rio Negro, he made his head- 
quarters at Sao Felippe, just below the junc- 
tion of the Isanna with the main stream, a 
well-ordered settlement in which a good deal 
of real civilization has been introduced by 
Don Germano Garrido y Otero, a native of 
the north of Spain. A first journey led up 
the Isanna, and its tributary the Aiari, which 
was ascended to a point where it approaches 
so close to the Uaupes as to permit the journey 
from one stream to the other to be made in 
three and a half hours, across a quite low 
water-parting. This near approach of one 
river-system to another seems to be a char- 
acteristic of the region, for other instances 
were subsequently brought to light, the most 
remarkable being the separation of the Tikie, 
a western tributary of the Uaupes, from the 
system of the Yapura by a low water-parting 
that could be crossed in as short a time as fifty 
minutes. On the second journey, Dr. Koch 
descended the Rio Negro to the mouth of the 
Curicuriari, whence he ascended the mountain 
of the same name, with which many legends 
are associated by the natives. The path led 
through magnificent virgin forests, and in- 
volved much toilsome work, but the view from 
the summit over the boundless forests was full 
compensation for this. The few resident 
Indians of this region are emigrants from the 
Uaupes—mostly Tukanos—who have here 
found a refuge from the advance of so-called 
civilization. There are also wandering In- 
dians—the Maku—on a much lower level of 
culture. Dr. Koch ascended the Curicuriari 
for a considerable distance, afterwards making 
a portage across a low divide to another 
tributary of the Uaupes, and ascending the 
Tikie, already referred to, almost to its source. 
The Tikie, like most of the rivers of this re- 
gion, is broken by falls, among them the Pari 
Fall, reached by Count Stradelli in 1881. 
Dr. Koch collected much ethnological material 
among the tribes visited, some of whom had 
never seen a white man. He alludes to the 
remarkable way in which the black- and white- 
water streams alternate without apparent rea- 
son, the two kinds occurring sometimes only a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 595. 


few hundred yards apart, though flowing 
through the same forest and over the same 
soil. Like other travelers, he found a reputa- 
tion for fever ascribed to the white-water 
streams, while those with black water are 
immune. The third journey was in some 
ways the most important, as it led up the 
main stream of the Uaupes or Caiari (Uacaiari 
of Wallace), past the turning-point of that 
traveler at the mouth of the Cuduiari (Codi- 
ari), and the Jurupari Fall reached by 
Stradeli, to a station of Colombian rubber 
collectors on its upper course. The many falls 
involved great labor, but after the Jurupari 
the river presented a quite different character, 
flowing sluggishly through periodically water- 
logged lands, entirely uninhabited. Above 
his furthest point it is said to be formed by 
two branches, one from the west, the other 
from the open savannahs near the sources of 
the Guaviare in the north. On the return 
voyage Dr. Koch ascended the Cuduiari to 
the more open country near its source (though 
this is rather thin scrub than true savannah), 
and visited some extensive underground cham- 
bers and passages carved by natural agencies 
out of the sandstone. When finally leaving 
the country on his return to Europe, he ex- 
plored the route from the Tikie to the Yapura 
system before alluded to, descending the latter 
river to the Amazon. The navigation of the 
small streams leading to the Apaporis branch 
of the Yapura was a matter of difficulty, and 
the country here was still quite a virgin field, 
the tribes met with having not previously seen 
a white man. Dr. Koch concludes with a 
sketch of the ethnology of the region, and 
especially the dances, of which he made a 
special study. 


AT a meeting of the Geological Society, 
London, on May 9, a paper giving a scientific 
account of the recent great eruption of Mount 
Vesuvius was read by Professor Giuseppe de 
Lorenzo, of the Mineralogical Museum in the 
Royal University of Naples, a foreign corre- 
spondent of the society. According to the 
report in the London Y%mes Professor de 
Lorenzo stated that after the great eruption 
of 1872 Vesuvius lapsed into repose, marked 


May 25, 1906.] 


by merely solfataric phenomena, for three 
years. JF issuring of the cone and slight out- 
pourings of lava began in May, 1905, and con- 
tinued until April 5, 1906, when the fourth 
great outburst from the principal crater oc- 
curred, accompanied by the formation of 
deeper and larger fissures in the southeastern 
wall of the cone, from which a great mass of 
fluid and scoriaceous lava was erupted. After 
a pause the maximum outburst took place 
during the night of April 7 and 8, and blew 
3,000 feet into the air scorie and lapilli of 
lava as fragments derived from the wreckage 
of the cone. The southwesterly wind carried 
this ash to Ottajano and San Giuseppe, which 
were buried under three feet of it, and eyen 
swept it on to the Adriatic and Montenegro. 
At this time the lava which reached Torre 
Annunziato was erupted. The decrescent 
phase began on April 8, but the collapse of 
the cone of the principal crater was accom- 


panied by the ejection of steam and dust to a 


height of from 22,000 feet to 26,000 feet. On 
April 9 and 10 the wind was northeast, and 
the dust was carried over Torre del Greco and 
as far as Spain; but on April 11 the cloud 
was again impelled northward. The ash in 
the earlier eruptions was dark in color and 
made of materials derived directly from the 
usual type of leucotephritic magma; but later 
it became grayer and mixed with weathered 
clastic material from the cone. The great 
cone had an almost horizontal rim on April 
13, very little higher than Monte Somma, and 
with a crater possibly exceeding 1,300 feet in 
diameter; this cone was almost snow white 
from the deposit of sublimates. Many deaths, 
Professor de Lorenzo states, were due to as- 
phyxia, but the collapse of roofs weighted 
with dust was a source of much danger, as 
was the case at Pompeii in a.p. 79. The lava 
streams surrounded trees, many of which still 
stood in the hot lava with their leaves and 
blossoms apparently uninjured. ‘The sea level 
during April 7 and 8 was lowered six inches 
near Pozzuoli, and as much as twelve inches 
near Portici, and had not returned to its 
former leyel on April 13. The maximum 
activity coincided almost exactly with full 


SCIENCE. 


831 


moon, and at the time the volcanoes of the 
Phlegrzan Fields and of the islands remained 
in their normal condition. Professor de 
Lorenzo believes that this eruption of Vesu- 
vius is greater than any of those recorded in 
history with two exceptions—those of a.p. 79, 
the historic eruption which destroyed Pompeii 
and Herculaneum, and of 1631, when Torre 
del Greco was overwhelmed and 4,000 persons 
perished. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Union THeEoLocicaL Seminary has received 
two anonymous gifts amounting to $325,000 
toward the cost of its building to be erected 
on a site adjacent to Columbia University. 


ALBION COLLEGE is now building a new bio- 
logical laboratory, 45 to 60 feet, four stories 
high, which is expected to be completed in 
time for the opening of the college year in 
September. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has pledged 
$20,000 to the endowment fund of the college 
on condition that $80,000 additional be raised 
for the purpose. Mr. Carnegie has also given 
Kenyon College $25,000 to aid poor students. 


A NEw scholarship of $5,000 has been given 
to Barnard College, Columbia University, by 
Mrs. George W. Collord in memory of her 
brother, George W. Smith. 


THE council of New York University has 
decided to buy the Schwab property, of about 
thirty acres, adjoining the campus on the 
south. 


Lapy Jepp has given Cambridge University 
a fund amounting to upwards of £3,500 in 
memory of the late Sir Richard Jebb. The in- 
come of the fund is to be paid to Lady Jebb 
during her lifetime, and afterwards to be de- 
voted to such object, related to classical or 
other literary studies, as the university may 
select. 


Accorpine to the New York Evening Post 
a project is well under way for the estab- 
lishment of a university in British Columbia. 
Lieutenant-Governor Dunsmuir offered to en- 
dow a department of mineralogy, metallurgy 
and mining to the extent of $125,000, with 
subsequent annual subscriptions for its sup- 


832 


port, upon condition that a similar amount be 
contributed by other Victorians. Mayor 
Morley says he has obtained donations within 
the last fortnight which will bring the sum 
up to the quarter-million mark. The city will 
also be asked for an endowment of $250,000. 
In addition, Lord Strathcona has offered to 
give a site in the Hudson Bay park land, at 
Cadboro Bay, comprising some twenty acres, 
but a short distance outside the corporation 
boundaries. 


THERE have been regularly enrolled during 
the past year in the three schools of engineer- 
ing of Purdue University 1,236 students, and 
the prospect is that for a time, at least, the 
number will steadily increase each year. In 
anticipation of such a result, and to better 
provide for those already enrolled, the facilities 
for engineering work are now being greatly 
increased. A new building to be devoted en- 
tirely to the School of Civil Engineering is 
approaching completion and will be furnished 
ready for occupancy by the beginning of the 
next school year. An addition to the Electrieal 
Laboratory, now under construction, will sup- 
ply a new lecture room and extensive addi- 
tions to the laboratory floor space of this de- 
partment. 


A NEW course in pedagogy will be estab- 
lished at Swarthmore College next year. The 
work will be in charge of Dr. Martin G. 
Brumbaugh, professor of pedagogy, of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, Professor Edward B. 
Rawson, principal of the Friends’ Seminary, 
of New York City, and Dr. Bird T. Baldwin, 
professor of psychology at the West Chester 
State Normal School. 


Nature says: “ The report of the committee 
of the school of geography for 1905 shows that 
the school now holds a strong position in the 
university, and is doing valuable work in en- 
couraging the study of geography and sur- 
yeying, and in providing special courses of 
geographical lectures suited to the require- 
ments of the different final honor schools. 
Both the lectures and practical instruction 
were well attended throughout the year, al- 
though there were only a few candidates for 
the diploma. This year, in addition to the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 595. 


ordinary work during term, a special course 
lasting three weeks, specially suited to those 
who are engaged in teaching, is being ar- 
ranged for August. The instruction will be 
both practical and theoretical, and there 
ought to be no lack of support for so useful 
an innovation.” 


Tue following appointments are announced 
at Harvard University: L. J. Johnson, pro- 
fessor of civil engineering; Albert Sauveur, 
professor of metallurgy and metallography; 
James L. Love, assistant professor of mathe- 
matics; J. L. Morse, assistant professor of 
pediatrics; George G. Sears, assistant pro- 
fessor of clinical medicine; E. E. Southard, 
assistant professor of neuropathology, and J. 
K. Whittemore, assistant professor of mathe- 
matics. 


Dr. Epwarp L. STEVENSON, professor of his- 
tory at Rutgers College, has been appointed 
lecturer on historical geography at Columbia 
University. 


At Williams College Dr. James Graham 
has been promoted to an associate professor- 
ship of mathematics. Mr. Elmer Shepard, | 
instructor in mathematics, is granted leave of 
absence for next year. 


Dr. Cuartes H. Ricwarpson, formerly of 
Dartmouth College and now carrying on re- 
search work at the Johns Hopkins University, 
will give courses in geology at the summer . 
school of Syracuse University. 


Mr. S. P. Haves, fellow in psychology at 
Cornell University, has been appointed to 
take charge of the psychological laboratory 
of Mount Holyoke College, in place of Dr. 
Kate Gordon, who has accepted a position in 
Teachers College, Columbia University, for 
next year. 


Dr. S. A. MircHett has been promoted 
to an instructorship in astronomy at Columbia 
University. 

Accorpine to the daily papers, Miss Mary 
KE. Byrd, professor of astronomy at Smith 
College and head of the observatory, has re- 
signed because of conscientious scruples re- 
garding the acceptance of certain gifts by 
the college. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frpay, June 1, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


Benjamim. Franklin: as Printer and Philos- 
opher: PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT..... 


An Empirical Study of College Entrance Ex- 
aminations: PRoFESSOR Epwarp L. THORN- 
DIKE 


833 


839 


Scientific Books :— 
Sherman's Methods of Organic Analysis: 
DR ACH GumVVOOD MAIN: tetet-plelelst= (cl cheledelekeley sys 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :-— 
Society for Hxperimental Biology and Medi- 
cine: Dr. WILLIAM J. GiES. The Ameri- 
can Chemical Society, New York Section: 
RaW EOE OUGH cust y-leleepelctieionsl<llsiausielet 


Discussion and Correspondence :-— 
The Origin of the Small Sand Mounds in 
the Gulf Coast Country: PRoressor J. A. 
UDDEN 


Special Articles :— 
Recent Harthquakes recorded at Albany, 
N. Y¥.: Dr. Davin H. NEwnanp. Para- 
physes m the Genus Glomerella: Dr. JouN 
Iby TSOP LE Senses eunGades soe babs Sic 


845 
846 


846 


849 


851 


Current Notes on Meteorology :-— 
Kite-flying over the Atlantic? Meteorolo- 
gische Zeitschrift; Clean Air after Thun- 
derstorm,; Kite-flying at Barbados; Rain- 
making m the Yukon; Notes: PROFESSOR 


BEVAI GD CHR VVIARD cei cesta laa aialay wetadsunlalsienyelens 852 
Botanical Notes :-— 

An Alpine Botanical Laboratory: PROFESSOR 

CHABLES E. BESSEY..................--. 853 
Royal Society Conversazione............... 854 


The Mikkelsen Bapedition to the Beaufort Sea 856 


Mosquito Hxtermination: PrRoressor JOHN 
BED SH DUN SISO G flnicea yale peti a Me EN ic aia 857 


The American Association of Museums...... 859 
The Ithaca Meeting of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science...... 861 
Scientific Notes and News................. 861 
University and Educational News.......... 864 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of Sctmncr, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: AS PRINTER AND 
PHILOSOPHER. 

THe facts about Franklin as a printer 
are simple and plain, but impressive. His 
father, respecting the boy’s strong disin- 
elination to become a tallow-chandler, se- 
lected the printer’s trade for him, after 
giving him opportunities to see members 
of several different trades at their work, 
and considering the boy’s own tastes and 
aptitudes. It was at twelve years of age 
that Franklin signed indentures as an ap- 
prentice to his older brother James, who 
was already an established printer. By 
the time he was seventeen years old he had 
mastered the trade in all its branches so’ 
completely that he could venture with 
hardly any money in his pocket first into 
New York and then into Philadelphia with- 
out a friend or acquaintance in either place, 
and yet succeed promptly in earning his 
living. He knew all departments of the 
business. He was a pressman as well as a 
compositor. He understood both news- 
paper and book work. There were at that 
time no such sharp subdivisions of labor 
and no such elaborate machinery as exist 
in the trade to-day, and Franklin could do 
with his own eyes and hands, long before 
he was of age, everything which the print- 
er’s art was then equal to. When the 
faithless Governor Keith caused Franklin 
to land in London without any resources 
whatever except his skill at his trade, the 


* Address before the meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society to commemorate the two- 
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin 

Franklin, Philadelphia, April 20, 1906. 


834 


youth was fully capable of supporting him- 
self in the great city asa printer. Franklin 
had been induced by the governor to go to 
England, where he was to buy a complete 
outfit for a good printing office to be set up 
in Philadelphia. He had already presented 
the governor with an inventory of the ma- 
terials needed in a small printing office, 
and was competent to make a critical selec- 
tion of all these materials; but when he 
arrived in London on this errand he was 
only eighteen years old. Thrown com- 
pletely on his own resources in the great 
-eity, he immediately got work at a famous 
printing house in Bartholomew Close; but 
soon moved to a still larger printing house, 
in which he remained during the rest of his 
‘stay in London. Here he worked as a 
‘pressman at first, but was soon transferred 
-to the composing room, evidently excelling 
his comrades in both branches of the art. 
‘The customary drink money was demanded 
of him, first by the pressmen with whom he 
was associated, and afterwards by the com- 
positors. Franklin undertook to resist the 
‘second demand ; and it is interesting to learn 
that after a resistance of three weeks he 
was forced to yield to the demands of the 
men by just such measures as are now used 
against any scab in a unionized printing 
office. He says in his autobiography: ‘‘I 
had so many little pieces of private mis- 
chief done me by mixing my sorts, trans- 
posing my pages, breaking my matter, and 
so forth, if I were ever so little out of the 
room * * * that, notwithstanding the mas- 
ter’s protection, I found myself obliged to 
comply and pay the money, convinced of 
the folly of being on ill terms with those 
one is to live with continually.’’ He was 
stronger than any of his mates, kept his 
head clearer because he did not fuddle it 
with beer, and availed himself of the liberty 
which then existed of working as fast and 
as much as he chose. On this point he 
says: ‘‘My constant attendance (I never 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


making a St. Monday) recommended me to 
the master; and my uncommon quickness 
at composing occasioned my being put upon 
all work of dispatch, which was generally 
better paid. So I went on now very agree- 
ably.’’ 

On his return to Philadelphia Frank- 
lin obtained for a few months another 
occupation than that of printer; but this 
employment failing through the death 
of his employer, Franklin returned to 
printing, becoming the manager of a small 
printing office, in which he was the only 
skilled workman and was expected to teach 
several green hands. At that time he was 
only twenty-one years of age. This print- 
ing office often wanted sorts, and there was 
no type-foundry in America. | Franklin 
succeeded in contriving a mold, struck the 
matrices in lead, and thus supplied the 
deficiencies of the office. The autobiog- 
raphy says: ‘‘I also engraved several things 
on occasion; I made the ink; I was ware- 
house man and everything, and in short 
quite a factotum.’’ Nevertheless, he was 
dismissed before long by his incompetent 
employer, who, however, was glad to re- 
engage him a few days later on obtaining 
a job to print some paper money for New 
Jersey. Thereupon Franklin contrived a 
copper-plate press for this job—the first 
that had been seen in the country—and cut 
the ornaments for the bills. Meantime 
Franklin, with one of the apprentices, had 
ordered a press and types from London, 
that they two might set up an independent 
office. Shortly after the New Jersey job 
was finished, these materials arrived in 
Philadelphia, and Franklin immediately 
opened his own printing office. His part- 
ner ‘was, however, no compositor, a poor 
pressman, and seldom sober.’ The office 
prospered, and in July, 1730, when Frank- 
lin was twenty-four years old, the partner- 
ship was dissolved, and Franklin was at 
the head of a well-established and profit- 


JuNE 1, 1906.] 


able printing business. This business was 
the foundation of Franklin’s fortune; and 
better foundation no man could desire. His 
industry was extraordinary. Contrary to 
the current opinion, Dr. Baird of St. An- 
drews testified that the new printing office 
would succeed, ‘for the industry of that 
Franklin,’ he said, ‘is superior to anything 
I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at 
work when I go home from the club, and he 
is at work again before the neighbors are 
out of bed.’ No trade rules or customs 
limited or levied toll on his productiveness. 
He speedily became by far the most suc- 
cessful printer in all the colonies, and in 
twenty years was able to retire from active 
business with a competency. 

One would, however, get a wrong impres- 
sion of Mranklin’s career as a printer, if he 
failed to observe that from his boyhood 
Franklin constantly used his connection 
with a printing office to facilitate his re- 
markable work as an author, editor and 
publisher. Even while he was an appren- 
tice to his brother James he succeeded in 
getting issued from his brother’s press bal- 
lads and newspaper articles of which he 
was the anonymous author. When he had 
a press of his own he used it for publishing 
@ newspaper, an almanac and numerous 
essays composed or compiled by himself. 
His genius as a writer supported his skill 
and industry as a printer. 


The second part of the double subject 
assigned to me is Franklin as philosopher. 
The philosophy he taught and illustrated 
related to four perennial subjects of human 
interest: education, natural science, poli- 
tics and morals. I propose to deal in that 
order with these four topics. 

Franklin’s philosophy of education was 
elaborated as he grew up, and was applied 
to himself throughout his life. In the first 
place, he had no regular education of the 
usual sort. He studied and read with an 


SCIENCE. 


835 


extraordinary diligence from his earliest 
years; but he studied only the subjects 
which attracted him, or which he himself 
believed would be good for him, and 
throughout life he pursued only those in- 
quiries for pursuing which he found within 
himself an adequate motive. The most 
important element in his training was read- 
ing, for which he had a precocious desire, 
which was imperative and proved to be 
lasting. His opportunities to get books 
were scanty; but he seized on all such op- 
portunities, and fortunately he early came 
upon the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ the Specta- 
tor, Plutarch, Xenophon’s ‘Memorabilia,’ 
and Locke ‘On the Human Understanding.’ 
Practise of English composition was the 
next. agency in Franklin’s education; and 
his method—quite of his own invention— 
was certainly an admirable one. He would 
make brief notes of the thoughts contained 
in a good piece of writing, and lay these 
notes aside for several days; then, without 
looking at the book, he would endeavor to 
express these thoughts in his own words as 
fully as they had been expressed in the 
original paper. Lastly, he would compare 
his product with the original, thus discover- 
ing his shortcomings and errors. To im- 
prove his vocabulary he turned specimens 
of prose into verse, and later, when he had 
forgotten the original, turned the verse 
back ‘again into prose. This exercise en- 
larged his vocabulary and his acquaintance 
with synonyms and their different shades 
of meaning, and showed him how he could 
twist phrases and sentences about. His 
times for such exercises and for reading 
were at night after work, before work in 
the morning, and on Sundays. This severe 
training he imposed on himself; and he was 
well advanced in it before he was sixteen 
years of age. His memory and his im- 
agination must both have served him well; 
for he not only acquired a style fit for nar- 
rative, exposition or argument, but also 


836 


learned to use the fable, parable, para- 
phrase, proverb and dialogue. Thirdly, he 
began very early, while he was still a young 
boy, to put all he had learned to use in 
writing for publication. When he was but 
nineteen years old he wrote and published 
in London ‘A Dissertation on Liberty and 
Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.’ In after 
years he was not proud of this pamphlet; 
but it was, nevertheless, a remarkable pro- 
duction for a youth of nineteen. So soon 
as he was able to establish a newspaper in 
Philadelphia he wrote for it with great 
spirit and in a style at once accurate, con- 
cise and attractive, making immediate ap- 
plication of his reading and of the conver- 
sation of intelligent acquaintances on both 
sides of the ocean. His fourth principle 
of education was that it should continue 
through life, and should make use of the 
social instincts. To that end he thought 
that friends and acquaintances might fitly 
band together in a systematic endeavor 
after mutual improvement. The Junto 
was created as a school of philosophy, mo- 
rality and politics; and this purpose it 
actually served for many years. Some of 
the questions read at every meeting of the 
Junto, with a pause after each one, would 
be curiously opportune in such a society at 
the present day. For example, No. 5, 
“Have you lately heard how any present 
rich man, here or elsewhere, got his estate?’ 
And No. 6, ‘Do you know of a fellow-citi- 
zen * * * who has lately committed an 
error proper for us to be warned against 
and avoid?’ When a new member was 
initiated he was asked, among other ques- 
tions, the following: ‘Do you think any 
person ought to be harmed in his body, 
name or goods for mere speculative opin- 
ions or his external way of worship?’ and 
again, ‘Do you love truth for truth’s sake, 
and will you endeavor impartially to find, 
receive it yourself, and communicate it to 
others?’ The Junto helped to educate 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 596. 


Franklin, and he helped greatly to train 
all its members. 

The nature of Franklin’s own education 
accounts for many of his opinions on the 
general subject. Thus, he believed, con- 
trary to the judgment of his time, that 
Latin and Greek were not essential subjects 
in a liberal education, and that mathe- 
matics, in which he never excelled, did not 
deserve the place it held. He believed 
that any one who had acquired a command 
of good English could learn any other 
modern language that he really needed 
when he needed it; and this faith he illus- 
trated in his own person, for he learnt 
French, when he needed it, sufficiently well 
to enable him to exercise great influence for 
many years at the French court. As the 
fruit of his education he exhibited a clear, 
pungent, persuasive English style both in 
writing and in conversation—a style which 
gave him great and lasting influence among 
men. It is easy to say that such a train- 
ing as Franklin’s is suitable only for 
genius. Be that as it may, Franklin’s 
philosophy of education certainly tells in 
favor of liberty for the individual in his 
choice of studies, and teaches that a desiré 
for good reading and a capacity to write 
well are two very important fruits of any 
liberal culture. It was all at the service 
of his successor Jefferson, the founder of 
the University of Virginia. 

Franklin’s studies in natural philosophy 
are characterized by remarkable directness, 
patience and inventiveness, absolute candor 
in seeking the truth, and a powerful scien- 
tific imagination. What has been usually 
considered his first discovery was the now 
familiar fact that northeast storms on the 
Atlantic coast begin to leeward. The 
Pennsylvania fireplace he invented was an 
ingenious application to the warming and 
ventilating of an apartment of the laws 
that regulate the movement of hot air. At 
the age of forty-one he became interested 


June 1, 1906.] 


in the subject of electricity, and with the 
aid of many friends and acquaintances 
pursued the subject for four years, with no 
thought about personal credit for inventing 
either theories or processes, but simply with 
delight in experimentation and in efforts to 
explain the phenomena he observed. His 
kite experiment to prove lightning to be an 
electrical phenomenon very possibly did not 
really draw lightning from the cloud; but 
it supplied evidence of electrical energy in 
the atmosphere which went far to prove 
that lightning was an electrical discharge. 
The sagacity of Franklin’s scientific in- 
quiries is well illustrated by his notes on 
colds and their causes. He maintains that 
influenzas usually classed as colds do not 
arise, as a rule, from either cold or damp- 
ness. He points out that savages and 
sailors, who are often wet, do not catch 
cold, and that the disease called a cold is 
not taken by swimming. He maintained 
that people who live in the forest, in open 
barns, or with open windows, do not catch 
cold, and that the disease called a cold is 
generally caused by impure air, lack of 
exercise or overeating. He came to the 
conclusion that infiuenzas and colds are 
contagious—a doctrine which, a century 
and a half later, was proved, through the 
advance of bacteriological science, to be 
sound. The following sentence exhibits re- 
markable insight, considering the state of 
medical art at that time: “‘I have long been 
satisfied from observation, that besides the 
general colds now termed influenzas (which 
may possibly spread by contagion, as well 
as by a particular quality of the air), 
people often catch cold from one another 
when shut up together in close rooms and 
coaches, and when sitting near and con- 
versing so as to breathe in each other’s 
transpiration; the disorder being in a cer- 
tain state.’’ In the light of present knowl- 
edge what a cautious and exact statement 
is that! 


SCIENCE. 


837 


There being no learned society in all 
America at the time, Franklin’s scientific 
experiments were almost all recorded in 
letters written to interested friends; and 
he was never in any haste to write these 
letters. He never took a patent on any 
of his inventions, and made no effort 
either to get a profit from them, or to es- 
tablish any sort of intellectual proprietor- 
ship in his experiments and speculations. 
One of his English correspondents, Mr. 
Collinson, published in 1751 a number of 
Franklin’s letters to him in a pamphlet 
called ‘New Experiments and Observations 
in Electricity made at Philadelphia in 
America.’ This pamphlet was translated 
into several Huropean languages, and estab- 
lished over the continent—particularly in 
France—Franklin’s reputation as a natural 
philosopher. A great variety of phenom- 
ena engaged his attention, such as phos- 
phorescence in sea water, the cause of the 
saltness of the sea, the form and the tem- 
peratures of the Gulf Stream, the effect of — 
oil in stillmg waves, and the cause of smoky 
chimneys. Franklin also reflected and 
wrote on many topics which are now classi- 
fied under the head of political economy,— 
such as paper currency, national wealth, 
free trade, the slave trade, the effects of 
luxury and idleness, and the misery and 
destruction caused by war. Not even his 
caustic wit could adequately convey in 
words his contempt and abhorrence for war 
as a mode of settling questions arising be- 
tween nations. He condensed his opinions 
on that subject into the epigram: ‘There 
never was a good war or a bad peace.’ 

Franklin’s political philosophy may all 
be summed up in seven words—first free- 
dom, then public happiness and comfort. 
The spirit of liberty was born in him. He 
resented ‘his brother’s blows when he was 
an apprentice, and escaped from them. As 
a mere boy he refused to attend church on 
Sundays in accordance with the custom of 


838 


his family and his town, and devoted his 
Sundays to reading and study. In prac- 
tising his trade he claimed and diligently 
sought complete freedom. In public and 
private business alike he tried to imduce 
people to take any action desired of them 
by presenting to them a motive they could 
understand and feel—a motive which acted 
on their own wills and excited their hopes. 
This is the only method possible under a 
régime of liberty. A perfect illustration 
of his practise in this respect is found in 
his successful provision of one hundred and 
fifty four-horse wagons for Braddock’s 
force, when it was detained on its march 
from Annapolis to western Pennsylvania 
by the lack of wagons. The. military 
method would have been to seize horses, 
Wagons and drivers wherever found. 
Franklin persuaded Braddock, instead of 
using force, to allow him (Franklin) to 
offer a good hire for horses, wagons aud 
drivers, and proper compensation for the 
equipment in case of loss. By this appeal 
to the frontier farmers of Pennsylvania he 
secured in two weeks all the transportation 
required. To defend public order Frank- 
lin was perfectly ready to use public force, 
as, for instance, when he raised and com- 
manded a regiment of militia to defend the 
northwestern frontier from the Indians 
after Braddock’s defeat, and again when 
it became necessary to defend Philadelphia 
from a large body of frontiersmen who had 
lynched a considerable number of friendly 
Indians, and were bent on revolutionizing 
the Quaker government. But his abhor- 
rence of all war was based on the facts, 
first, that during war the law must be 
silent, and secondly, that military dis- 
cipline, which is essential for effective 
fighting, annihilates individual liberty. 
““Those,’’ he said, ‘‘who would give up 
essential liberty for the sake of a little 
temporary safety deserve neither liberty 
nor safety.’’ The foundation of his firm 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


resistance on behalf of the colonies to the 
English Parliament was his impregnable 
conviction that the love of liberty was the 
ruling passion of the people of the colonies. 
In 1766 he said of the American people: 
““Hvery act of oppression will sour their 
tempers, lessen greatly, if not annihilate, 
the profits of your commerce with them, 
and hasten their final revolt; for the seeds 
of liberty are universally found there, and 
nothing can eradicate them.’’ Because 
they loved liberty, they would not be taxed 
without representation; they would not 
have soldiers quartered on them, or their 
governors made independent of the people 
in regard to their salaries; or their ports 
closed, or their commerce regulated by 
Parliament. It is interesting to observe 
how Franklin’s experiments and specula- 
tions in natural science often had a favor- 
able influence on freedom of thought. His 
studies in economics had a strong tendency 
in that direction. His views about re- 
ligious toleration were founded on his in- 
tense faith in civil liberty; and even his 
demonstration that lightning was an elec- 
trical phenomenon brought deliverance for 
mankind from an ancient terror. It re- 
moved from the domain of the supernatural 
a manifestation of formidable power that 
had been supposed to be a weapon of the 
arbitrary gods; and since it increased man’s 
power over nature, it increased his freedom. 

This faith in freedom was fully developed 
in Franklin long hefore the American 
Revolution and the French Revolution 
made the fundamental principles of liberty 
familiar to civilized mankind. His views 
concerning civil liberty were even more re- 
markable for his time than his views con- 
cerning religious liberty; but they were not 
developed in a passionate nature inspired 
by an enthusiastic idealism. He was the 
very embodiment of common sense, moder- 
ation and sober honesty. His standard of 
human society is perfectly expressed in the 


JUNE 1, 1906.] 


description of New England which he wrote 
real UTTAR AE thought often of the happi- 
ness in New England, where every man is 
a freeholder, has a vote in public affairs, 
lives in a tidy, warm house, has plenty of 
good food and fuel, with whole clothes 
from head to foot, the manufacture per- 
haps of his own family. Long may they 
continue in this situation!’’? Such was 
Franklin’s conception of a free and happy 
people. Such was his political philosophy. 

The moral philosophy of Franklin con- 
sisted almost exclusively in the inculcation 
of certain very practical and unimagina- 
tive virtues, such as temperance, frugality, 
industry, moderation, cleanliness and tran- 
quility. Sincerity and justice, and resolu- 
tion—that indispensable fly-wheel of virtu- 
ous habit—are found in his table of virtues; 
but all his moral precepts seem to be based 
on observation and experience of life, and 
to express his convictions concerning what 1s 
profitable, prudent, and on the whole satis- 
factory in the life that now is. His philos- 
ophy is a guide of life, because it searches 
out virtues, and so provides the means of 
expelling vices. It may reasonably deter- 
mine conduct. It did determine Frank- 
lin’s conduct to a remarkable degree, and 
has had a prodigious influence for good on 
his countrymen and on civilized mankind. 
Nevertheless, it omits all consideration of 
the prime motive power, which must impel 
to right conduct, as fire supplies the power 
which actuates the engine. That motive 
power is pure, unselfish love—love to God 
and love to man. ‘‘Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart * * * and 
thy neighbor as thyself.’’ 

Franklin never seems to have percéived 
that the supreme tests of civilization are 
the tender and honorable treatment of 
women as equals, and the sanctity of home 
life. There was one primary virtue on his 
list which he did not always practise. His 
failures in this respect diminished his influ- 


SCIENCE. 859 


ence for good among his contemporaries, 
and must always qualify the admiration 
with which mankind will regard him as a 
moral philosopher and an exhorter to a 
good life. His sagacity, intellectual force, 
versatility, originality, firmness, fortunate 
period of service, and longevity combined 
to make him a great leader of his people. 
In American public affairs the generation 
of wise leaders next to his own felt for him 
high admiration and respect; and the 
strong republic, whose birth and youthful 
erowth he witnessed, will carry down his 
fame as political philosopher, patriot and 
apostle of liberty through long generations. 
CHartes W. Evior. 


AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF COLLEGE EN- 
TRANCE EXAMINATIONS. 

Every one who is acquainted with the 
present arrangements for admission to col- 
lege through entrance examinations recog- 
nizes the need for accurate information 
concerning the exact function served by 
them. The expenditure of energy by stu- 
dents and teachers in the course of specific 
preparation for these examinations, by 
students and their parents in worry before 
and after, by college admission boards in 
preparing, giving, scoring and recording 
such examinations is obvious. The opin- 
ions of supposedly equally competent ob- 
servers range from certainty that such ex- 
aminations have no correspondence with 
intellectual merit to equal certainty that 
they are a reliable measure of fitness for 
college and a chief safeguard of the stand- 
ards of collegiate work. The practises of 
the fifty most efficient colleges in the coun- 
try vary from a practically absolute re- 
quirement of such examinations as the con- 
dition of entrance to the freshman year to 
an exemption of almost every candidate 
from any such examination. 

The present report will not offer any 
opinions concerning the general rationality 


840 


of the arrangements for entrance to Amer- 
ican colleges, but will give without com- 
ment or inferences the facts concerning the 
actual significance of a student’s achieve- 
ment in entrance for his later achievement 
in college work, and also certain facts of 
importance concerning the entrance marks 
themselves. 

I have recorded the entire entrance rec- 

ord and the entire college record through 
1905 of every student entering Columbia 
College in 1901, 1902 and 1903 who took 
in whole or in part the entrance examina- 
tions given by the College Entrance Board 
of the Association of Colleges and Prepara- 
tory Schools of the Middle States and 
Maryland. These facts enable one to 
measure precisely enough for all practical 
purposes the relationship between success 
in the entrance examinations (in any one 
or in any combination of subjects) and 
success in college (in any one subject or 
year or combination of subjects or of 
years). 
_ I shall, for the sake of brevity, refer 
here only to the 130 students for whom I 
have complete records through junior year. 
For each of these I have such a record as 
the following: 


INDIVIDUAL X. 


Entrance. 

English: Reading, Credited. 
Study, \ 80 

Latin: Grammar, 62.5 
Composition, 60 
Cicero, 62.5 
Vergil, 95 
Sight Translation, 95 

Greek: Grammar, - 73 
Composition, 75 
Xenophon, 73 
Homer, 90 

French: Elementary, 78 

Mathematics: Algebra to Quadratics, 100 
Quadratics, 100 
Plane Geometry, 97 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 596. 


College. 

Freshman: English, 
Latin, 
Mathematics, 
German, 
Physics, 

Sophomore: English, 
Latin, 
Mathematics, 
History, 
Physics, 

Junior: English, 
German, 
Economics, 
History, 


© 
i=] 
for) 
is) 


HyoeaaawaAavawta 
g : 
a 
Q 


A and B 


In transmuting the A, B, C records into 
more convenient quantities I have taken 
A=6, B=4, C=3, D=1 and F—0. 
Perhaps A=10, B=7, C=5, D=2 
and KF —0 would be a trifle closer to the 
real values of these conventional measures 
of relative position. The entrance scores 


have been used in their original form. The 


use of marks given in the conventional 
way by examiners or instructors as meas- 
ures of either quantity of ability or rela- 
tive position in comparison with other 
students is a matter involving many com- 
plex and delicate questions of statistical 
method. A too naive procedure may in- 
troduce variable and constant errors of 
considerable moment. It would take too 
long to defend the author’s methods and 
would interest only the critical student of 
mental measurements. Suffice it to say 
that the author is cognizant of the prob- 
lems and will state no result which would 
have been essentially changed by the adop- 
tion of any rational method of treating the 
marks. 

The most important question is, of 
course, the general relation between stand- 
ing in entrance examinations and standing 
in college work. The facts are given in 
Tables I., II. III. and IV. The relation- 
ship is only moderate even in the case of 
the work of freshman year and dwindles 
steadily, the coefficients of correlation be- 


June 1, 1906.) 


ing in order .62, .50, .47 and .25. An 
examination of the tables and individual 
records reveals such facts as the following: 

Tables I., 11., III. and IV. show for each individ- 


ual the relation between entrance standing and col- 
lege standing. Horizontal position denotes the rank 


Tasre I. 
Entrance Mark. 
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 


f Seni 
eee 
oo na 
yo 
Pe FR ee 
Pee eet 
pe 
pe 


24) 11 2 


TaBLeE II. 
Entrance Mark. 
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 9 


ir 

i 
an 
[ 


518 11 1 
11 


ra 
© 
- 
Pop wr fF 
wee 
H 


S22 11 1 


No Peo OHH 


28| 1 3 3 PX oa, call os ae 
BO ital 


in entrance (the median of the highest eleven 
marks obtained); vertical position denotes the 
rank in college studies (the average of the five 
highest marks obtained—in senior year in Table 
I., in junior year in Table II., ete. Hach figure 
entered in the table means so many students. 


ab abil at pyab ival 


SCIENCE. S41 


Thus in Table I. the 1 at the upper left-hand 
corner means that one student scoring 60 in en- 
trance scored 4 in the college work of senior year. 
The other 1 in the same column means that one 


Taste IIT. 


Entrance Mark. 


60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 
1 pee Gen 
2 
3 
4 1 
5 i iii 
6 
7 2 1 = 
8\1 iil) > il 1 
HO 1 2 2 
$10) 1 1/2 1 
tht 1 2 
012 Heel 1 
813 1 Moa) iit ih iin 1 
814)1 mah 183 
gl 1}o11/5 Li 
216) 1 Tet) | Deepal: i. || il 1 
B17 1 2 1 1 
18/1 1 3 1 12 141 {1 
219 11 3 bal 11 
120 1 Dill 214 
E21 emote 2) 1 
22 1 1 PT 25.1] aL 
23) 1 2 
24 2 Deets 2) 11 
25 i |p 
26 1/31 4 2 
27 1 
28) 1 1) 1 yt shall al 
29 
30 1 1 |2 11 
TABLE IV. 
Entrance Mark. 
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 
3 
4l1 1 
5 1 il 
6 ter 2elun|2 
7 il _ 
8 1 1 
9|1 1 2 1 1 
+10 3 a il 
Sit 1 lt 11 
pil2) 11 116 1 aoa 1 
13 1 TU TUBy ih a 
qi 11 Die Stele | 2 1 1 
Bp) Diem 2a 21 
16 1 Debate lene iL) dp 
E17 2 2 i ik: |pa 
18 1 1 iil Wye it 1 
S19 1 2 13 1 
420 1. PR 1/3 211 
Epa 1 1 i Wp. a 1p 1 
So 1 1 nal 1 
23 1 12 ill il 
24 1 ip hh 
25 
26 1 1 1 itl iil 
27 1 
28 1 ite iil 
29 
30 1 2 11 


student scoring 60 in entrance scored 21 in col- 
lege work. The 1 in the next vertical column 
means that one student scoring 61 in entrance, 
seored 24 in college work. The vertical column un- 
der 70 would read:—Of 10 students each ranking 


842 


70 in entrance examinations, one ranked 15 in 
the college work of senior year, one 16, four 18, 
one 19, one 21, one 22 and one 27. 

The values 60, 61, 62, ete., up to 95 of the hori- 
zontal scale are directly obtained from the en- 
trance marks which are given on the ordinary 
scale of from 100 down. The values 4, 5, 6 up to 
30 of the vertical scale are obtained from the 
collsge records of A, B, C, D and F by taking 
A=6, B=4, C=3, D=1 and F=0. Thus 
30 = five A’s, 28=four A’s and one B, 27 = four 
A’s and one C, 26=three A’s and two B’s, 25= 
three A’s, one B and one C, or four A’s and one 
D, ete. 


Six students out of the 130 received the 
same average entrance mark, 61. In their 
college work of junior year one averaged a 
trifle above D, one half way from D to C, 
one a little above C, and two received A 
in four subjects out of five and B in the 
other. In freshman and sophomore year 
the range was nearly as great. 

Hleven students of the 130 received in 
the entrance examinations marks averaging 
70 in each case. In their college work of 
junior year they averaged all the way from 
D to A. 

Of the students who were in the lower 
half of the group in the entrance exam- 
inations nearly forty per cent. are found 
in the upper half in the last three years 
of college. 

Of the dozen students who ranked high- 
est In entrance, some were in the lowest 
fifth of the class by junior year. 

If, knowing that 50 individuals ranked 
in the order Jones, Smith, Brown, ete., in 
their entrance marks, one were to wager 
that in the college work of, say, junior 
year, they would rank Jones, Smith, 
Brown, ete., as before, he would lose his 
bet in 47 cases out of the 50. 

The record of eleven or more entrance 
examinations gives a less accurate prophecy 
of what a student will do in the latter half 
of his college course than does the college 
record of his brother! The correlation 
between brothers in intellectual ability is 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 596. 


approximately .40, but that between stand- 
ing in entrance examinations and standing 
in college is only .47 for junior year and, 
.25 for senior year. 

The lack of perfect correlation between 
standing in entrance examinations and 
standing in, say, junior year of college is 
presumably due to several causes. First, 
the relative standing of a boy among his 
fellows in any mental capacity or combina- 
tion of capacities varies from year to year. 
That is, the correlation between John’s 
condition in 1900 and John’s condition in 
1903 is not perfect. In the second place, 
the standing in entrance does not. even os- 
tensibly measure the same capacities as 
does his standing in junior year. This 
accounts for part of the lack of correlation 
because there is a general departure from 
perfect correlation amongst different ca- 
pacities in the same individual, for in- 
stance between mathematics and the rhe- 
torical gifts. In the third place, the en- 
trance record is not a perfect measure of 
the capacities it ostensibly measures. 
Hence the relation of the two facts, en- 
trance mark and college mark, is not so 
close as the relation between entrance abil- 
ity and college ability would be. 

This analysis is of no significance so far 
as concerns the adequacy of the entrance 
examinations as a test of fitness for college, 
but it is important when such facts as those 
presented here are used in reasoning about 
the general problems of individual and 
genetic psychology. 

It is possible from the data to answer 
the question, ‘‘Of the examinations in the 
different entrance subjects, which is most 
prophetic of an individual’s success in eol- 
lege work?’’ The author hopes to make 
the necessary calculations when he has 150 
or more records complete through senior 
year. A rough treatment of the facts in 
the case of English, Latin, mathematics 
and science shows no impressive differ- 


JUNE 1, 1906.] 


ences; so far as the facts go they show a 
slight advantage in favor of the science 
examinations and a slight inferiority of 
the mathematics examination. The facts 
are given in Table V. 

The reliability of any one single exam- 
ination mark from the dozen or more given 
as the test for entrance is practically im- 
portant because the disrepute into which 
entrance examinations have fallen in the 


SCIENCE. 


843 


tional knowledge of the cleverness of each 
candidate’s coaching. But the general fact 
that the entrance examinations do not 
measure at all accurately the candidate’s 
capacity can be demonstrated from two 
lines of evidence—the great variability of 
the marks of the same individuals in dif- 
ferent special branches of the same subject 
(such as—Vergil and Cicero in Latin) and 
in precisely the same subject, in the case of 


TABLE VY. 


Class of 1905. 


Correlation of Separate Hntrance-Subjects with College Work. 


Science 


Latin English and History Mathematics 
Entrance N. Entrance N. Entrance N. Entrance N. 
Freshman marks, ol (80) 43 (84) 48 (84) 84 (34) 
Sophomore marks, 40 (73) 43 (77) 19 (77) 13 (33) 
Junior marks, 43, (66) 51 (68) .28 (68) 43 (28) 
Senior marks, 59 (56) 25 (56) 22 (56) 19 (23) 
Average, 43 .40 30 BS) 
TABLE VI. 


Class of 1901. 


Correlation between Entrance Mark m Vergil 


and College Work in Latin. 


Entrance Mark in Vergil. 


34 36 33 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 


“ F il 
g 

S D 

BC D> D 

2c 8 
2 Cc 

= BSC 

A B 1 

wm A B C 

z eB 

fo) 

2 A 


il 


opinion of high school teachers is largely 
due to the failure in some examination of 
a pupil known to be of first-rate ability in 
the subject. I give in Table VI. the facts 
concerning the relation of the entrance 
mark in Vergil of one class to achievement 
in college Latin courses as a sample. The 
correlation as caleulated is almost zero. 

Tt is the opinion of many sagacious ob- 
servers that one defect of the traditional 
entrance examinations is that they meas- 
ure the cleverness of the student’s coaching 
rather than his own fundamental capaci- 
ties. This hypothesis as it stands can not 
be tested by my records without the addi- 


60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 
il 

DE ea LE 1 

1 

1 

2 Dae Sy Dito aw ligy Aeolian Ot are lets. 1 
ical 
Chueaksn ab 1 1 2 4 1 
1 1 
1 
1 1 al 


examinations repeated because of initial 
failure. 
The average range of difference of the 


TaBLe VII. 
Range of Difference of the Same Indwidual’s 
Separate Hntrance Marks in Latin. Only 
last trials used. Class of 1905. 


Amountof Frequency. Amount of Frequency. 
Difference. Difference. 
O- 4 1 40-44 3 
5- 9 2 45-49 3 
10-14 10 50-54 3 
15-19 16 55-59 2 
20-24 11 60-64 4 
25-29 6 65-69 3 
30-54 8 70-74 3 
35-39 8 75-79 1 


844 


TABLE VIII. 


Difference between First and Last Trials of an 
Entrance Examination. Class of 1906. 


: cI A 3 o¢ 
3 4 Wai se 8 oi 3s 
se og ME Oe EO 
eS ee ses ea ee 
BOO Se See ge. ae) eee 
Za & on OBR 3h 3a 
& oF oF le) S38 
= ee H He 
Et & =| 
0 2 1 1 
1 
2 2 1 1 
3 3 1 2 
4 2 1 1 
5 3 1 2 
6 3 1 1 1 
7 4 1 2 1 
8 2 1 1 
9 
10 9 3 4 2 
11 3 1 2 
12 2 1 1 
13 2 1 1 
14 
15 8 3 3 1 1 
16 
17 3 2 1 
18 2 1 1 
19 5 2 2 1 
20 5 2 3 
21 2 2 
22 3 1 2 
23 1 1] 
24 1 1 
25 if 1 6 
26 1 1 
27 2 1 1 
28 4 2 2 
29 2 1 1 
30 8 3 3 2 
31 1 1 
32 2 1 1 
33 3 1 2 
34 2 2 
35 5 4 1 
36 4 1 1 1 1 
37 4 1 3 
38 4 1 1 2 
39 1 1 
40 5 1 1 3 
40-49 10 3 3 4 
50-59 «5 3 1 1 
60-69 $3 3 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


marks of an individual’s separate examina- 
tions in Latin, for instance, was over 30 
in the case of the class of 1901, the dis- 
tribution ofthese differences being given 
in Table VII. (the scale of marking being 
always the common one from 100 down). 

In 140 cases of repeated examinations 
chosen at random the average difference 
between a candidate’s first and his second 
trial of precisely the same examination 
was over 22, the distribution of these dif- 
ferences being given in Table VIII. 

It should be noted that this defect (not 
measuring capacity) of the examinations 
of the Middle States Board probably exists 
to a greater extent with the examinations 
given independently by single colleges, for 
in the former case the examination ques- 
tions are planned and the papers rated 
with great care. The eccentricities of in- 
dividual examiners play a relatively minor 
role, and the nature of the examination 
can probably not be prophesied in advance 
so accurately as in the case of the examina- 
tions arranged by some one college. 

The inaceuracy of prophecy of achieve- 
ment in college from achievement in en- 
trance examinations becomes intolerable in 
individual cases. For instance, there were 
10 men out of the 130 who in their junior 
year got A (the highest mark given) in at 
least five studies. Their average marks at 
entrance were in some eases in the lowest 
tenth of the 130, barely above the passing 
mark. Had the passing mark been set the 
least bit higher, one of the very best stu- 
dents of the three college classes would 
have been debarred from entrance. ‘There 
is every reason to believe that of those stu- 
dents who did yet worse in the entrance 
examinations and so were shut out, a fairly 
large percentage would have done better in 
college than a third of those who were ad- 
mitted. Sooner or later some one will be 
barred out who would have been the best 
man of his class. 


JUNE 1, 1906.] 


The inferences concerning the inade- 
quacy of the traditional entrance examina- 
tions as tests of merit and their great in- 
justice in many individual cases are too 
obvious to need comment. The author’s 
suggestions for the improvement of the 
conditions of entrance to eastern colleges 
have been stated briefly in the Educational 
Review for May, 1906.1 In place of any 
practical suggestions I may be allowed to 
eall attention to the general problem of 
which the college-entrance problem is but 
one particular instance. 

The whole matter of the means of se- 
lecting students for continued education is 
in great need of scientific study. 
are eliminated from special forms of edu- 
cation and from formal education of any 
sort at all ages and by all sorts of arbitrary 
selective agencies, some permitted and 
others deliberately created by our educa- 
tional system. The traditional college en- 
trance examination is but one of a hundred 
agencies that decide which individuals 
shall progress to a given kind of educa- 
tional opportunity. 

In an ideal system these agencies would 
secure to each individual continued educa- 
tion to such extent and in such directions 
as would be for the greatest welfare of the 
most deserving. Under present conditions 
they are at times administered to suit the 
personal convenience of school principals, 
college faculties and the like, and are 
almost always administered without the 
guidance of scientific knowledge. It is the 
duty of scientific men to apply the same 
methods of thought to this question of so- 


+The gist of these was the recommendation that 
schools be credited on the basis in each case of a 
systematic record of the actual success im college 
of candidates endorsed in the past by the school, 
the records of success in college being sent in 
from all colleges to some central board. 


SCIENCE. 


Pupils . 


845 


cial policy that they would demand in their 
special science. 
Epwarp L. THORNDIKE. 


TEACHERS COLLEGE, 
CoLtuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Methods of Organic Analysis. By Henry C. 
SHERMAN, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of An- 
alytical Chemistry in Columbia University. 
New York, The Macmillan Co. 1905. 

In this volume of 240 pages is comprised 
a very considerable amount of information 
regarding methods of proximate organic 
analysis. An idea of the scope of the work may 
be gained from an enumeration of the topics 
treated. Methods of ultimate organic analysis, 
analysis of ash, the determination of the 
nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus of or- 
ganic compounds, are first taken up. ‘This 
preliminary treatment is followed by descrip- 
tions in considerable detail of selected methods 
for the estimation and examination of such 
classes of organic bodies as alcohols, alde- 
hydes, carbohydrates, acids, oils, soaps, pro- 
teids and milk. Special prominence is given 
to processes bearing on food analysis. 

Commendable features are: the free use of 
references, in the form of both foot-notes and 
bibliographical compilations; the carefully 
worked-out procedures; the clear and perti- 
nent notes and discussions.. The isolated stu- 
dent or casual worker in methods of organic 
analysis will find the book of especial value 
in pointing out original and often scattered 
sources of information. 

Naturally. there are some particulars in 
which every chemist would. not coincide with 
the author’s experience or conclusions. Such, 
for example, are the rather unsatisfactory 
methods described for the detection of borates 
and of fluorides on pages 232 and 233, and the 
summary way in which the two common 
methods for estimating fusel oil are dismissed 
as equally unsatisfactory (p. 35). It would 
have been of interest to food analysts, espe- 
cially, to have had something from the au- 
thor’s experience with either of these two 
methods. Such minor points, however, de- 


846 


tract nothing from the general excellence of 
the book, of which it is, perhaps, sufficient to 
say that it is in keeping with what would be 
expected from one of Professor Sherman’s 
high rank as a teacher and investigator in 
this field of analytical chemistry. 

The mechanical part of the work is well 
done, the book being of convenient size, well 
printed and bound. Personal experience with 
the index for several months has shown that 
for the practical purposes of an index it leaves 
much to be desired. A. G. Woopman. 


SOIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ANATOMY. 


AT a meeting of the board of editors of the 
American Journal of Anatomy on April 18, 
1906, Dr. Lewellys F. Barker resigned, and 
Dr. Charles R. Bardeen, professor of anatomy 
at the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Henry 
H. Donaldson, professor of neurology of the 
Wistar Institute, were elected editors. 

The contents of Vol. V., No. 2, May, 1906, 
are as follows: 

Ross G. Harrison: ‘Further Experiments on 
the Development of Peripheral Nerves. With 
five figures. 

Abert C. EycLesHymEeR and J. M. WItson: 
“The Gastrulation and Embryo Formation in 
Amia Calva.’ With four double plates. 

C. F. W. McCrure: ‘A Contribution to the 
Anatomy and Development of the Venous System 
of Didelphys Marsupialis (L.)—Part II., Develop- 
ment.’ With twenty-sevén text figures and five 
double plates. 

Proceedings of the Association of American 
Anatomists, Nineteenth Session, August 6-10, 
1905, and Twentieth Session, December 27-29, 
1905. 

List of Members of the Association of Anato- 
mists. 


SOCIZTIES AND ACADEMIES. 


SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. 


THE sixteenth meeting of the Society for 
Experimental Biology and Medicine was held 
in the new building of the Rockefeller Insti- 
tute for Medical Research on Wednesday, 
April 18. The president, Simon Flexner, was 
in the chair. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


Members Present—Atkinson, Auer, Beebe, 
Buxton, Calkins, Dunham, Emerson, Field, 
Flexner, Foster, Gibson, Gies, Herter, Lee, 
Levene, Lusk, Meltzer, Meyer, Murlin, No- 
guchi, Opie, Parker,’ Pratt, Salant, Schwyzer, 
Sherman, Terry, Wolf, Wood. 

Members Elected—Charles R. Bardeen, G. 
H. A. Clowes, N. B. Foster, J. H. Kastle, 
Ralph S. Lillie, D. T. MacDougal, J. J. R. 
Macleod, Robert M. Yerkes. 


Abstracts of Reports of Original 
Investigations? 


On the Digestion of Gelatin: P. A. LEVENE 
and W. A. Bratry. 

The authors used phosphotungstic acid to 
effect separation of the amino-acids produced 
from proteins by hydrolysis. Tryptic digestion - 
of gelatin resulted in the formation of a sub- 


stance apparently identical with prolinglyeyl 
anhydrid (C,H,,N,O.). 


The Reactions of Amphiozus to Light: G. H. 

PARKER. 

When strong light was thrown into a basin 
of sea-water containing many amphioxus, the 
whole assembly swam about in wild confusion. 
This has been taken to indicate that amphi- 
oxus is very sensitive to light. But when 
twenty individuals were illuminated singly 
only twelve responded. The wild confusion 
in the first experiment is due quite as much 
to tactile stimulation as to light. When a 
strong, well-cireumscribed beam of light was 
thrown on the tail of amphioxus the animal 
almost always reacted by a slight forward 
spring. When the light was thrown on the 
middle of the body there was usually no reac- 
tion, though sometimes a backward movement. 
When the light was applied to the head end, 
there was always a backward spring. This 
sensitiveness was not lost or impaired by cut- 


* Non-resident. 

*The abstracts presented in this account of the 
proceedings have been greatly condensed from ab- 
stracts given to the secretary by the authors them- 
selves. The latter abstracts of the communica- 
tions may be found in current numbers of The 
Journal of the American Medical Association, 
American Medicine and the New York Medical 
Journal. 


June 1, 1906.] 


ting off the anterior end, including the so- 
called eye-spot. When cut into halves, amphi- 
oxus retained sensitiveness to light in the an- 
terior half, but not in the posterior half, 
though the latter was normally reactive to 
stimulation from very weak acid. This indi- 
eates that though amphioxus is without a 
brain proper, the anterior portion of its medul- 
lary tube is related to the posterior portion 
somewhat as the brain and cord are in the 
higher vertebrates. The distribution of the 
sensitiveness of amphioxus to light corre- 
sponds to the distribution of the ‘light’ cells 
(Hesse) in its medullary tube and is probably 
not connected with the skin. Specimens of 
amphioxus tend to collect in the darker parts 
of an aquarium. They also swim away from 
a source of light. Amphioxus is, therefore, 
negatively photodynamic and negatively pho- 
totropic. 


The Relation of Blood Platelets to Thrombus 

Formation: JosepH H. Prarv. 

In frogs and rabbits experimental thrombi 
three to ten minutes old were studied. In 
the youngest thrombi there was agglutination 
of blood platelets or spindle-cells and agglu- 
tination of erythrocytes without evidence of 
fibrin formation. The fusing and distortion 
of the erythrocytes were marked. The ery- 
throcytes were sometimes broken up into small 
granular masses which simulated blood plates. 
By the use of a sodium metaphosphate solu- 
tion it was possible to distinguish the blood 
platelets from the degeneration products of 
the erythrocytes. : 


On the Conditions of Bacterial Activity in 
the Intestine in Cases of Advanced, Ap- 
parently Primary, Anemias: C. A. Herter. 
The author reported results of the coor- 

dinated studies of fifteen cases of apparently 

primary advanced anemias, in ten of which 
the blood picture was that of pernicious 
anemia. The studies related to the occur- 
rence of phenol in the urine and in the feces; 
of indol in the feces and indican in the urine; 
of skatol in the feces; to the Ehrlich aldehyde 
reaction of the urine; to the Ehrlich aldehyde 
reaction of the feces; and to the hydrobili- 
tubin reaction of Schmidt. In the ease of 


SCIENCE. 


847 


indol, phenol and skatol, quantitative studies 
were made. The observations established the 
fact that in so-called primary pernicious and 
allied anemias the indications of excessive 
putrefactive decomposition are almost reeu- 
larly pronounced. These changes are asso- 
ciated with definite and characteristic depart- 
ures in the bacterial activity of the intestinal 
flora studied in fermentation tube experi- 
ments. A careful study of the microscopical 
fecal fields, of the sedimentary fields in fer- 
mentation tubes, of the anerobic plates from 
the sterilized feces, and of the results of a 
modification of Welch’s incubation test for 
the gas-bacillus, indicates that in nearly every 
instance examined the peculiar Saccharo- 
butyric type of bacterial decomposition here 
found is dependent upon B. Welchii (B. 
aerogenes capsulatus). Evidence is further- 
more brought forward to show that this or- 
ganism is a prominent and perhaps specific 
factor in advanced ‘primary’ anemia. The 
overgrowth of the gas-bacillus is associated 
with a partial disappearance of B. coli. Dur- 
ing convalescence the gas-bacillus recedes 
numerically and B. coli resumes a dominant 


position. abe: 


Absorption of Typhoid Bacilli from the 
Peritoneal Cavity: B. H. Buxvron and J. 
C. Torrey. 

Shortly after injection of typhoid bacilli 
into the peritoneal cavity of a rabbit the 
organs in most experiments are found to be 
invaded by the bacilli, more particularly the 
liver and spleen, in which there may be enor- 
mous numbers, By means of injection of 
lamp black, the peritoneal path for this rapid 
rush to the organs is shown to be by way of 
the anterior mediastinal lymphatic trunks. 
Even in five minutes after injection the 
trunks and the anterior mediastinal lymph 
nodes are markedly blackened. 

On plating out the lymph nodes after injec- 
tion of typhoid bacilli, they are often found 
to contain many millions of bacilli, and as a 
general rule if there are many bacilli in the 
lymph nodes there are also many in the 
organs. 


848 


On the Dicrotic Elevation at Different Points 
of the Arterial Tree—A preliminary com- 
munication: Prrcy M. Dawson. (Pre- 
sented by J. R. Murlin.) 

The author has observed considerable local 
variation of the dicrotic elevation in many 
arteries in dogs. The pulse wave was studied 
by means of the Hiirthle manometer. The ob- 
servations were made on numerous arteries. 
A satisfactory explanation of the local varia- 
tions observed will be sought through further 
experimentation. 


The Influence of Subcutaneous Injections of 
Deutrose wpon Nitrogenous Metabolism: 
Frank P. UNDERHILL and Oniver HB. Cuos- 
SON. 

In experiments with glucose similar to those 
described by Scott the authors confirmed his 
observation that nitrogenous metabolism is in- 
creased and a greater excretion of oxalic acid 
results. In no case, however, was there observed 
a significant change in the proportion of the 
various forms of excreted nitrogen. The in- 
creased proportion of ammonia in the urines of 
Scott’s dogs is attributed by the authors to the 
fact that most of the animals were suffering 
from severe cystitis due to catheterization. ‘The 
authors conclude that subcutaneous injections 
of large quantities of glucose do not give any 
evidence of toxic action and they suggest that 
such injections of glucose may be useful as a 
method of parenteral feeding, since quantities 
equal to seven grams per kilo may be thus ad- 
ministered to dogs and rabbits without elimi- 
nation in the urines of more than mere traces 
of the sugar. 


Diffusion into Colloids and a Biological 
Method for Testing the Rate of Diffusion: 
Smion Fiexner and Hipryo Noeucut. 

The experiments summarized in this report 
were made with hemolytic substances sus- 
pended in isotonic saline solution and in agar- 
agar and gelatine jelly. The rate of diffusion 
eould be measured by the depth and degree of 
hemolysis produced in a jelly containing in 
suspension susceptible red blood corpuscles. 
The experiments were varied: the red corpus- 
eles were suspended in the warm jelly, which 
was permitted to congeal. The blood jelly 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 596. 


was overlaid with the hemolyzing agent dis- 
solved in saline solution or this agent was also 
contained within a solidified jelly. The 
hemolyzer was made to diffuse both down- 
wards and upwards, according as the blood- or 
hemolyzer-jelly was above or below. More- 
over, the hemolyzer was placed in the jelly and 
made to diffuse upwards into a watery solu- 
tion, the amount of diffusion being measured 
by the degree of hemolysis caused by the fluid 
removed at given intervals. Two factors were 
always considered: extent or degree of hemol- 
ysis, and time. 

Acids, alkalies, salts, glucosides and toxine 
diffuse into 0.9-per-cent. watery NaCl solution 
more quickly than into a similar solution con- 
taining agar-agar and gelatine. This reduc- 
tion in rapidity of diffusion increases with 
increase in concentration of the jelly. Ten- 
per-cent. gelatine exerts a greater inhibition 
than 2-per-cent. agar-agar, and 25-per-cent. 
gelatine exerts greater restraint than 10-per- 
cent. gelatine. The ratio between the rate of 
diffusion and the concentration of the colloidal 
suspension is, in the case of gelatine, nearly 
inversely proportional to the square root of 
the concentration of the colloid. In the case 
of agar-agar, with which the possibility of 
varying the concentration is far less than with 
gelatine, the inhibitory influence is less 
marked and does not conform to this rule. 
Voigtlinder’s results are applicable to the 
special ease of agar-agar jelly. 

The influence of colloids upon the injurious 
effects produced by bile salts upon the pan- 
creas is due, apparently, to a modification by 
reduction of the diffusibility of the bile salts, 
which result diminishes the concentration of 
the salts brought in contact with the pancreatic 
tissues in a unit of time. 

Wituiam J. Girs, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NEW YORK SECTION. 

THE seventh regular meeting of the season 
was held at the Chemists’ Club on Friday, 
April 6, at 8:40 p.m., Chairman Dr. F. D. 
Dodge presiding. The following papers were 
presented : 


JUNE 1, 1906.] 


On a 3-Amino Quwinazoline and the Corre- 
sponding 3, 3'-Diquinazolyl: M. T. Bocsrt 
and H. A. Sei. ; 

By condensing 6-nitro acetanthranil with 
hydrazine hydrate, the authors obtained an 
amino quinazoline and a diquinazolyl. The 
same diquinazolyl was prepared by condensing 
the amino quinazoline with another molecule 
of the anthranil. The properties of these 
compounds and of several of their derivatives 
were described. 


The Determination of Rosin in Shellac— 
second paper: A. ©. Lanemur. 

In the author’s first paper published in the 
Journal of the Soc. Chem. Ind., January 16, 
1905, the iodine absorption of shellac under 
certain specified conditions was taken at 18 
per cent. and that of rosin at 228 per cent. 
A large number of tests during the past year 
on a great variety of shellacs and rosins con- 
firm the values taken at that time. The 
Hanns solution may be used in place of the 
Wiji solution, and the same values hold good. 
The Hubb solution still advocated by Parry 
should be abandoned, as its use in the deter- 


mination of rosin has all the inaccuracies’ 


established in the case of fat analysis and to 
a greater extent. 


An Electrical Resistance Furnace for the 
Measurement of Higher Temperatures with 
the Optical Pyrometer: ALEXANDER LAMPEN. 
The substance under investigation is intro- 

duced into a small graphite capsule, which is 

put in the end of a graphite sliding tube, and 
this is slipped into a fixed horizontal tube 
heated in a resistance furnace. The pyrom- 
eter is sighted on the capsule through the 
sliding tube. A rough regulation of the tem- 
perature is made by varying the current and 
the fine regulation by moying the capsule to 

a hotter or cooler zone of the tube. Tempera- 

tures up to 2500° C. can be obtained. Besides 

melting points of several refractory materials, 
the following temperatures were determined. 

Reaction point between C. and SiO, about 

1615° C. Crystallization temperature of C. 

Si—between 1900° and 2000° C. Decomposi- 

tion point of C. Si—between 2200° and 2240° 


SCIENCE. 


849 


C. Reaction point between C. and CaO about 
1725° C. 


The Measurement of Temperature in the 
Formation of Carborundum: S. A. TuckrRr 
and ALEXANDER LAMPEN. 

The purpose of this investigation was to 
determine the temperature for the formation 
of carborundum, and its decomposition into 
graphite. The furnace was built on the gen- 
eral plan of a large scale carborundum fur- 
nace, and was provided with a graphite tube 
passing transversely through the core and 
eharge. This tube contained a graphite plug 
which could be pushed to any desired position 
in the tube. On running the furnace, the 
plug is raised to a certain temperature de- 
pending upon its position in the tube. For 
different positions this temperature was de- 
termined by an optical pyrometer. After 
taking down the furnace, measurements were 
made of the layers of carborundum, graphite, 
siloxicon, and thus gave the temperature at 
which these changes take place. It was found 
as an average that the temperature for the 
formation of carborundum was 1950° C., and 
for its discomposition in graphite and silicon 
2220° C. 

F. H. Pouex, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE SMALL SAND MOUNDS IN THE 
GULF COAST COUNTRY. 


To THE Epitor or Science: Allow me to 
express my assent to Professor R. T. Hill’s re- 
jection of some theories recently advanced to 
explain the origin of the small sand mounds 
in the gulf coast country. No one who is 
familiar with the appearance of the mounds 
formed by uprooted trees would for moment 
regard the sand mounds in the south as haying 
been produced by such a process. Nor do I 
believe they can be the product of human 
industry. 

Hill’s notes on their geographic occurrence 
are interesting. Allow me to add some data, 
which I secured relative to these mounds 
three years ago, near the little village of Olivia 
in Calhoun County, Texas. I measured the 


850 


diameter and the height of fifty-nine mounds, 
located on an area of about a hundred acres 
of ground near Keller’s Bay, northwest of 
Olivia post-office. The land has an elevation 
of some thirty feet above the water in the 
bay and consists of clay sediments alternating 
with some sand. The following table shows 
the variations of diameters and heights of the 
mounds measured: 


MEASUREMENTS OF FIFTY-NINE MOUNDS NEAR 
OLIVIA, TEXAS. 


Diameter of Rum evobMounds ais Pica ue 

Mounds, in Feet. ines of Different Sizes, 
S in Inches. 
Less than 10 13 2.5 
From 11 to 20 14 4.5 
Co OAC 30) 20 ; 7.0 
«81 ‘ 40 6 10.0 
Al ** 50 3 12.0 
51 “ 60 2 13.0 
90 1 18.0 
Average 23 Average 4.0 


About one third of these mounds thus had a 
diameter of from twenty-one to thirty feet. 
About forty-six per cent. had a smaller diam- 
eter than this and only twenty-one per cent. 
had a diameter exceeding thirty feet. The 
extremes were three feet and ninety feet. Their 
height ranged from two inches to eighteen 
inches, and it averaged only a little more than 
four inches. I noticed that their apparent 
height was* quite deceptive. Measurements 
invariably fell below my first estimates on 
this dimension. f 

Observations on two other features were 
also made: on the presence of sunken pits on 
the mounds, and on live anthills. The former 
increased in frequency with the size of the 
mounds and the latter decreased. One fifth 
of the mounds exhibited sunken pits. In 
most cases there was only one pit on each 
mound, sometimes there were two, and in one 
instance there were three. The shape of 
these pits is irregular, and they have a tend- 
ency to occur near the center of the mounds. 
The anthills,-on the contrary, often have a 
peripheral situation. Of the forty-five mounds 
noted as having anthills three mounds had 
two and the others had only one each, thus: 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 
CONDITION OF FIFTY-NINE MOUNDS NEAR OLIVIA, 
TEXAS. 
a 33 A Ex 
Pausch SS a ne wae 
Sa | Bee | ae | Sage 
Diameter of Sg ofa Qe | SSH” 
Mounds, in Feet. FI 39 q is) aon 
3B Sem | Sag | 5 Rue 
4s O84 | Boo |e seh 
a 5s ° a es 
iw = 
10 and less 0 0 14 100 
11 to 20 1 7 11 79 
21 ‘ 30 4 25 15 75 
31 ‘ 40 1 17 4 67 
41 “ 50 3 100 1 33 
51 ‘* 60 2 100 0 0 
90 1 100 0 0 
Averages. _— 20 — 76 
Totals. 12 — 45 — 
The clay on which these mounds occur is 
evidently a lagoon sediment. It is red and 


greenish-blue and too uniform in texture to 
be a stream alluvium. 

I was informed by several parties that un- 
der these mounds the sand continues down for 
some distance below the surface of the sur- 
rounding ground, while the rest of the sub- 
soil is clay. It has also been found that when 
land with such mounds has been inundated 
for a rice crop, the water sinks so rapidly 
through the sand under them, that this land 
can not be used for such purpose, if the 
mounds are too numerous. 

It seems to me that from what is at present 
known of these mounds the following views 
may merit consideration, if we wish to apply 
the method of multiple hypothesis in their 
study: 

1. Differential settling of coarse and fine 
sediments, as suggested by Hill. The cause 
of the localization of such action then re- 
quires a separate explanation. 

2. The anthill hypothesis. Some of the 
mounds seem too large to be accounted for 
in this manner, but my own observations 
rather support it. 

3. The wind-drift hypothesis. The persist- 
ent circular form is an objection to this hy- 
pothesis, as is also the downward continuation 
of the sand. 

4. Vertical brisk seepage of water under 
hydrostatic pressure through thin clay strata 
underlain by water-bearing sands, might re- 


JUNE 1, 1906.] 


sult in the formation of irregular chimneys 
of sand in such clays. This hypothesis ap- 
pears to require so exceptional conditions as 
to be almost irreconcilable with the wide dis- 
tribution of the mounds. J. A. UppEN. 
AUGUSTANA COLLEGE, 
Rock IsLanp, ILL., 
May 15, 1906. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
RECENT EARTHQUAKES RECORDED AT ALBANY, N. Y. 


Unner the direction of Dr. John M. Clarke, 
state geologist, a seismograph has been in- 
stalled at Albany, N. Y., and was placed in 
operation early in March, this year. The 
instrument belongs to the Bosch-Omori hori- 
zontal-pendulum type. It is mounted on a 
concrete pier in the basement of Geological 
Hall. Special care has been taken to isolate 
the pier, so far as practicable, and to protect 
the instrument from artificial disturbances. 
There are two pendulums which record the 
north-south and east-west components of mo- 
tion. The elevation above sea level has not 
been determined, but it is somewhat less than 
100 feet. 

Up to April 22, three seismic disturbances 
had been recorded, one on April 10 and two 
on April 18, the date of the destructive earth- 
quake at San Francisco. 


1. April 10, Pp.m.t 
East-West North-South 


Comp. Comp. 
hem. (s Jee Gs Eh 
Beginning, 42915 4 29 
Beginning principal part, 4 41 4 4] 
End principal part, 4 46 4 42 30 
End, 5 27 4 58 
Maximum amplitude, 35 mm. 25 mm. 
Period of maximum waves, 24 7 
2. April 18, a.m. 
Beginning, 8 21 30 8 21 30 
Beginning principal part, 8 32 30) 68 33 
End principal part, 8 42 8 42 
End, 11 05 9 37 
Maximum amplitude, 48mm. 65 mm 
Period of maximum waves, 20 18 
3. April 18, P.M. 
Beginning, 748 30 7 48 


End, 8 7 57 
Maximum amplitude, 
1 Eastern standard time. 


SCIENCE. 


851 


The multiplying ratio of the pointers was 
twelve on April 10 and ten on April 18. The 
period of both pendulums was about 30s. The 
instrument has been in good working order 
since its installation, though on April 10 the 
east-west pointer (registering north-south com- 
ponent) showed an abnormal displacement due 
probably to its being in slightly unstable equi- 
librium. The displacement was coincident in 
time with the arrival of the larger waves. 
Again on April 18 (a.m.) the record made 
by the same pendulum showed a greater ampli- 
tude for the maximum wave than that regis- 
tered by the north-south pendulum, but this 
was apparently due to the seismic disturbance 
itself, as the preceding and subsequent waves 
on the former record were much smaller. 

It is interesting to note that the duration 
of the preliminary tremors was about the same 
in the earthquake of April 10 and im the 
larger one of April 18, which, if the former 
came from the west, as seems probable, would 
indicate that the two had a common origin. 

; Davi H. Newuanp. 

GrorocicaL Hatt, 

ALBany, N. Y. 


PARAPHYSES IN THE GENUS GLOMERELLA. 


ATKINSON was probably the first investigator 
to obtain a perfect or ascigerous stage from 
a species of Glwosporium. Stoneman, one of 
his students, continued this line of investiga- 
tion, and, as a result of her studies, described 
a new genus which she called Gnomoniopsis, 
containing five species, one of which was con- 
sidered doubtful. She did not happen to 
obtain the ascigerous stage from what was 
then Inown as Gleosporium fructigenum 
(Glomerella rufomaculans), although she grew 
it in cultures, but Clinton did about four 
years afterward, and several other investiga- 
tors have since, among them being Spaulding 
and von Schrenk, who changed the name of 
Stoneman’s genus from Gnomoniopsis to 
Glomerella. 

With the exception of Stoneman’s doubtful 
species, there is no evidence that any of these 
investigators saw anything suggesting para- 
physes. On the contrary, Clinton says in his 
bulletin on the rots of apples, ‘There was no 


852 


sign of paraphyses,’ and Spaulding and von 
Schrenk in describing the genus Glomerella 
say that it is ‘ aparaphysate.’ 

In some cultures of a Gleosporium from 
guavas the writer obtained an ascigerous stage 
much like the one described for Glomerella 
rufomaculans. The essential difference no- 
ticed at the time was the presence of para- 
physes, which G. rufomaculans was not sup- 
posed to have. The repeated occurrence of 
paraphyses in the ascigerous stages obtained 
from Gleosporiums and Colletotrichums, from 
other sources besides the guavas, suggested 
the possibility that G. rufomaculans might 
also be paraphysate. Cultures of this fungus, 
isolated from a Baldwin apple, produced peri- 
thecia containing long, slender paraphyses, 
apparently identical with those obtained from 
the other cultures referred to. Besides the 
paraphyses obtained by means. of artificial 
cultures, others were obtained when conidia of 
a Gleosporium were inoculated into rose 
eanes; they have also been found in perithecia 
growing naturally in the leaves of a species 
of Dracena. 

In general, the paraphyses from the differ- 
ent sources were long, slender, tapering, and 
more or less wavy. They were usually more 
abundant at the time when the asci were de- 
veloping, but were often present with the 
mature asci. Like the asci, they were some- 


h ious. 
wives Suen cats JoHN L. SHELDON. 


WEST VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL 
EXPERIMENT STATION, 
Moreantown, W. Va. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
KITE-FLYING OVER THE ATLANTIC. 

REFERENCE was recently made in these 
‘Notes’ to some of the results of the investi- 
gation carried out last summer over the North 
Atlantic under the direction of Messrs. A. 
Lawrence Rotch and Teisserenc de Bort. A 
second report on this expedition is published 
in Nature for March 8 and deals chiefly with 
the kite results. Mr. H. H. Olayton’s study 
of the data collected in the tropics points to 


the existence of three strata between sea level 
and 4,000 meters. The trade, about 1,000 


_ SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


meters in thickness, is damp; usually carries 
cumulus or strato-cumulus clouds in its upper 
portion, and varies between north and east in 
direction. Above the surface trade is a cur- 
rent about 2,000 meters in depth, varying be- 
tween northeast and northwest, but coming 
always from a direction to the left of the 
lower wind when facing it. This second cur- 
rent is very dry, and potentially warm, and its 
velocity is usually much greater than that of 
the lower wind. The third stratum begins at 
a height of about 3,000 meters; comes from a 
direction between east and south or southwest, 
being generally from the east in equatorial 
regions and from the south between latitudes 
15° and 30° N. 


METEOROLOGISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT. 


THE numbers for February and March of 
the Meteorologische Zeitschrift contain ar- 
ticles of special interest as follows: ‘ Cirrus 
Studien,’ a detailed study of cirrus move- 
ments, by Professor Klein; ‘Der Pulsschlag 
der Atmosphire,’ by Hann, containing com- 
ments on Dr. W. N. Shaw’s recent article in 
Nature, December 21, 1905; a very interest- 
ing, unique, graphic representation, by S. 
Zollner, of the daily insolation in’ different 
months and latitudes, undertaken at the sug- 
gestion of von Bezold; a summary by Hann 
of the meteorology of the north polar basin, 
based on the results of the Nansen expedition; 
a further study of cirrus, especially of the 
cirrus cap over cumulus, by M. Moller; a brief 
discussion of the warm wave of January 20— 
24 last, in the eastern United States, by Dr. 
S. Hanzlik. 


CLEAN AIR AFTER THUNDERSTORM. 


In a recent number of Nature (March 22, 
1906) Mr. John Aitken notes the effect of a 
thunderstorm rain in bringing clean air. 
While making some meteorological observa- 
tions with his dust-counter on the Eiffel 
Tower, at Paris, a heavy thunder-shower 
occurred. Before the rain the number of 
dust particles was large and showed that the 
impure air of the city came up in great quan- 
tities to the top of the tower. After the 
shower the number of dust particles was so 


JUNE 1, 1906.] 


far reduced that the air finally became as free 
from dust as any that Mr. Aitken ever tested 
on the mountain tops of Switzerland. This 
inerease in purity is ascribed to the ‘ dragging 
down’ of the upper air to the level of the top 
of the Eiffel Tower, for the reason that ‘rain 
ean not wash the air to anything like that 
purity.’ 
KITE-FLYING AT BARBADOS. 

The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Me- 
teorological Society, XXXII., 1906, 29-82, 
contains an account of some kite flights car- 
ried out last year at Barbados by C. J. P. 
Cave, the results having been discussed by 
W. H. Dines. The humidity traces generally 
show about 60 per cent. at the surface, rising 
to 80-90 per cent. at 1,000-2,000 feet, and then 
falling again in some cases to 50 per cent. 
or less as the height increases. It is inferred 
from this that there is some descent of the 
atmosphere over the region of the smaller 
West Indian islands in April and May. 


RAIN-MAKING IN THE YUKON. 


The Toronto News of March 23 contains 
notice of a contract made by the Yukon 
Council with one Hatfield, a ‘rain-maker,’ 
whereby Hatfield is to receive the sum of 
$10,000, provided he makes rain to the satis- 
faction of a board of seven men. If he fails, 
he is to receive his traveling expenses. Com- 
menting on this matter, the Ottawa Hvening 
Journal of March 238 says editorially: “ There 
is no questioning the details * * * as the 
unique document is on file in the government 
offices in Dawson.” 


NOTES. 


PwHorToGRAPHS of the aurora borealis, taken 
by the Russo-Swedish expedition to Spitz- 
bergen in 1899-1900, are reproduced in the 
Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Academy of 
Sciences (phys. math. class), Vols. XI., XIV., 
Nos. 9 and 5, 8th series. : 


THE aquameter, a new instrument for 
measuring the amount of aqueous vapor in 
the atmosphere by measuring the reduction 
of volume produced by the absorption of the 
water vapor by phosphoric anhydride, is de- 


SCIENCE. 


853 


seribed in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal 
Meteorological Society, XX XII., 1906, 11-18. 
R. DeC. Warp. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 


AN ALPINE BOTANICAL LABORATORY. 


For some years an alpine botanical labora- 
tory has been growing from small beginnings 
into considerable importance on the easterly 
slope of Pikes Peak, Colorado. The first 
serious work was done in 1899, although pre- 
liminary work and reconnaissances date back 
half a dozen years further. As finally estab- 
lished, it stands on the southeasterly slope of 
Engelmann’s Canyon, a mile and a half from 
Manitou, at an altitude of 8,500 feet above 
the sea. As the altitude of the treeless plains 
(seven to eight miles away to the eastward) 
which extend to the foot of the mountains 
is nearly 6,000 feet, the laboratory is fully 
2,500 feet above them, while westward about 
the same distance the Peak itself rises more 
than 5,000 feet higher (14,147 feet), far above 
timber line. The lower mountains and the 
near-by foothills of the neighborhood afford 
intermediate altitudes, while marsh and lake 
vegetation is found in abundance in and 
about Lake Moraine and the Seven Lakes. 
The sides of Engelmann’s Canyon and its 
branches are covered with spruce forests and 
their accompanying vegetation. A hundred 
feet below the laboratory is the dashing moun- 
tain stream, Ruxton Brook, and by its side is 
the cog-railway from Manitou to the summit 
of the Peak. 

In such surroundings for seven years, Dr. 
Frederic E. Clements, of the University of 
Nebraska, has carried on his study of the 
vegetation of the region. The laboratory 
proper consists of a single house, large enough 
to shelter the instruments, apparatus, etc., 
and if need be, several persons also. More 
room is needed, but the narrow quarters have 
not yet seriously inconvenienced those who 
have worked at the laboratory. Some have 
taken rooms in the summer cottages in the 
neighborhood; some have clubbed together 
and hired a cottage for the summer, taking 
their meals at the Halfway House, or making 


854 


a picnic of it, boarding themselves, while still 
others have brought their tents and ‘ camped 
out.’ It is already arranged that eight to ten 
advanced students in botany are to spend the 
coming summer at the laboratory, giving their 
time chiefly to the study of ecological prob- 
lems. 

During these seven seasons Dr. Clements has 
carried on his own investigations upon those 
ecological problems which present themselves 
in mountain regions, and with these he has 
joined a critical study of the elements of the 
Colorado forest vegetation. Formal instruc- 
tion was given during two summers, but for 
the last few years instruction has been quite 
informal, and for the most part to graduate 
college students. Three candidates for the 
doctor’s degree in the University of Nebraska 
have done the greater part of their field work 
at this laboratory. 

The published results of the laboratory 
include the following titles by Dr. F. E. 
Clements: ‘Herbaria Formationum Colora- 
densium,’ 1902; ‘Nova Ascomycetum Genera 
Speciesque,’ 1902; ‘Development and Struc- 
ture of Vegetation,’ 1904; ‘Formation and 
Succession Herbaria,’ 1905; ‘Research Meth- 
ods in Ecology,’ 1905; ‘Cryptogamae Forma- 
tionum Coloradensium,’ 1906; ‘Novae Fun- 
gorum Species Generaque,’ 1906 (in press). 
And the following by others: ‘The Relation 
of Leaf Structure to Physical Factors, Dr. 
E. S. Clements, 1905; ‘The Movements of 
Petals,” Dr. E. P. Hensel, 1905; ‘A Study of 
the Vegetation of the Mesa Region East of 
Pikes Peak, Dr. H. L. Shantz, 1906. 

The principal problems which are now 
under investigation are the following: 

1. The Causes for the Dwarfing of Alpine 
Plants.—It has already been determined by 
means of simultaneous readings of light and 
humidity at three different altitudes that light 
is not the cause of alpine dwarfing, as com- 
monly supposed, and that this is probably due 
to differences in humidity. It is hoped to 
publish the results in detail after the work of 
the coming summer. 

2. The Origin of Mutants in the Fireweed, 
Chamaenerium angustifolium.—This is a 
problem in experimental evolution to deter- 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


mine whether the many forms of this species 
arise by variation or mutation. 

3. Studies in Experimental Evolution—The 
method used here is essentially new. . Plastic 
and stable species are moved from their orig- 
inal homes to areas of very different char- 
acter. The physical conditions of both homes 
are carefully measured, and the resulting 
modifications of the plant followed in detail. 
This work should throw light upon how new 
forms originate, and also upon the relative 
importance of adaptation, mutation and varia- 
tion in the origin of new forms. 

4. The Vegetation of Colorado—The study 
of the, development and structure of Colorado 
vegetation was begun in 1896, and has been 
carried on continuously since 1899. It is 
hoped to bring the study to completion after 
the summer of 1907, and then to publish the 
results as soon as possible. 

The record of the work of this unendowed 
laboratory, which has not even been subsidized 
by any institution, is certainly most credit- 
able, and it shows that work of the highest 
order may be done with an inexpensive plant, 
and the expenditure of very moderate sums of 
money. That more might be accomplished 
with some greater expenditure for apparatus, 
and an enlargement of the building, is no 
doubt true, and desirable, and will certainly 
be realized some day. In the meantime, the 
economical plan and successful management 
of this laboratory are to be commended, and 
should encourage other botanists to like un- 
dertakings in similarly interesting regions. 

Cuarures E. BEssey. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE- 


Tue first of the two annual conversaziones 
of the Royal Society, that confined to men, 
was held on May 9 in the society’s rooms in 
Burlington House. Guests were received by 
the president, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., with 
whom were the treasurer, Mr. A. B. Kempe, 
and the secretary, Professor J. Larmor. 

The exhibits were very numerous, too nu- 
merous, indeed, to notice in detail. To a 


+The London Times. 


June 1, 1906.] 


large extent they were rigidly special, confined 
to certain restricted departments of science, 
mainly physical. There were a certain num- 
ber of chemical exhibits, and a few—some of 
them specially interesting—in the domain of 
biology. There was much that was fasci- 
nating and in some cases almost oppressively 
suggestive. As might have been expected, 
Professor Milne was prepared to exhibit some 
of his remarkably instructive seismograms of 
the recent earthquakes which have been so 
numerous and wide-spread. The diagrams 
which he showed related to the Formosa earth- 
quake of March 16, the Californian earth- 
quake of April 18, and the Columbian earth- 
quake of January 31 of this year. Other 
similar records were exhibited by the Royal 
Observatory, Edinburgh, from various parts 
of the world. Another interesting series of 
records was that from the Meteorological 
Office, consisting of charts and diagrams 
showing some of the physical, meteorological 
and other results of the National Antarctic 
Expedition. Many of the exhibits which may 
be classed as physical were of an optical, 
spectroscopic and photographic character. 
Dr. W. Marshall Watts’s exhibit of a binocu- 
lar spectroscope, which might otherwise be 
described as a spectroscopic opera-glass, by 
means of which both eyes may be used in 


spectroscopic work, constituted a new depar-— 


ture. Of special interest in connection with 
the recent mining disasters in France were 
the oxygen rescue apparatus and other appli- 
ances shown by Messrs. Wallach Brothers, 
used by the rescue parties at Courriéres. It 
is known as the ‘ Evertrusty’ oxygen appa- 
ratus, and an adaptation of it may be used 
in case of carbonic-oxide poisoning and after 
inhalation of poisonous fumes, ete. Mr. C. 
V. Boys’s gas calorimeter, a somewhat com- 
plicated but imgenious arrangement, must 
have interested many, as it is the instrument 
by which London gas is officially tested. From 
the Solar Physics Observatory at South Ken- 
sington came various eclipse photographs, 
stellar spectra, barometric curves and photo- 
graphs and diagrams illustrating the work 
done on the orientation of some British stone 
circles, also some barometric curves in differ- 


SCIENCE. 


855 


ent parts of the world, which seem to suggest 
a key to the apparent difference of periods. 
Some very interesting photographs of the 
solar corona, taken in Spain on the occasion 
of the eclipse of August 30, 1905, were shown 
by the Rey. A. L. Cortie. Another interest- 
ing astronomical exhibit, sent by the Royal 
Astronomical Society, consisted of six remark- 
ably brilliant photographs of the Milky Way, 
taken in 1905 by Professor Barnard at Mount 
Wilson, California. The specimens of color 
photographs and photomicrographs, shown by 
Mr. Edwin Edser and Mr. Edgar Senior, 
were wonderfully beautiful specimens of this 
process. 

Another notable exhibit was Mr. W. Dud- 
dell’s mechanical and electrical phenomena 
occurring in the telephonic transmission of 
speech, which was an attempt to show the 
various phenomena which take place between 
the transmission and reception of a telephonic 
message; the difference in the vibrations 
caused by the sounds of the different vowels 
was most striking. Worthy of inspection was 
Professor George Forbes’s model of naval 
gun sight, giving correct elevation for any 
variations of muzzle velocity, air density and 
time of flight, as arranged for the six-inch 
B. L. gun, Mark XI., under construction at 
Elswick, for trial in H. M. S. Africa. Mr. 
W. Rosenhain’s improved metallurgical mi- 
eroscope, of somewhat complicated construc- 
tion, is likely to be of practical value, as also 
Sir James Dewar’s metallic jacketed vacuum 
vessels, filled with liquid air, the vacuum be- 
ing produced by the use of cooled charcoal. 
The series of picrates of Dr. Silberrad and 
Mr. Phillips was of interest as the salts of 
picric acid have been the probable cause of 
some of the most disastrous lyddite explosions 
on record. Many of the specimens exhibited 
were in many cases prepared in the course of 
exhaustive investigations recently carried out 
at the research laboratories of the Royal 
Arsenal. Mr. E. G. Rivers’s new electric 
heater deserves attention as an entire depart- 
ure from the principle of construction usually 
adopted, the object being to secure a large 
heating surface at a moderate temperature. 
Sir Oliver Lodge and Dr. Alexander Muirhead 


856 


exhibited a portable pack-transport ‘ wireless’ 
telegraphy apparatus for military field pur- 
poses, available for communications across 
country up to 50 miles, or 150 miles over sea. 
Perhaps one of the most important exhibits, 
from both a scientific and a practical point 
of view, was Dr. P. E. Shaw’s electrical meas- 
uring instrument. This machine gets rid of 
several objections to those ordinarily in use. 
From the director of the Imperial Institute 
came a large and yaried exhibit which may 
be taken as a substantial evidence of the use- 
ful practical as well as scientific work which 
is being done under Professor Wyndham 
Dunstan’s direction. The exhibit included a 
variety of new and rare minerals from Ceylon 
and several minerals from Canada, as also 
specimens of cyanogenetic plants, illustrating 
an investigation which has been conducted by 
Professor Dunstan and Dr. T. A. Henry, to 
throw light on the origin of the prussic acid 
which is produced by certain plants. 

As usual, from the Marine Biological Asso- 
ciation came quite an interesting exhibit, con- 
sisting of a small collection of living fishes 
from the shore and from shallow water, to 
illustrate the differences in habit and mode 
of life adopted by different species. Mr. J. 
Stanley Gardiner showed some of the many 
valuable results obtained by his recent very 
successful expedition for the investigation of 
the Indian Ocean. These consisted of photo- 
graphs illustrative of the vegetation of the 
Seychelles Islands, and some rocks dredged 
off Providence Coral Reef, 844 fathoms. 
From the director of Kew Gardens came an 
attractive exhibit in the shape of some speci- 
mens showing the precocious flowering of 
plants, and some exalbuminous grass seeds. 
The exhibit by Mr. J. E. S. Moore and Mr. 
C. E. Walker, showing recent researches in 
cell-division, was evidence of the good work 
which continues to be done at Liverpool Uni- 
versity. Two of the most notable, attractive 
and suggestive exhibits were Mr. K. A. Tar- 
rant’s photographs of electric discharges and 
Dr. Albert A. Gray’s spectroscopic photo- 
graphs of the membranous labyrinth of the 
ear in different animals. There were many 
other exhibits of solid scientific interest, but 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 596. 


we have only space to refer to the varied speci- 
mens of work from the National Physical 
Laboratory, including a great variety of photo- 
micrographs, an apparatus for the test of the 
strength of materials at very high tempera- 
tures, the Picou permeameter designed for 
testing the magnetic permeability of rods or 
strips and a bifilar galvanometer, free from 
zero creep. Sir William Crookes exhibited 
ultra-violet spectra of the metals photographed 
with a quartz train of five double prisms and 
some remarkable stereoscopic photographs 
taken in South Africa. The demonstrations 
in the meeting-room by means of the electric 
lantern proved, as usual, to be the great at- 
traction of the evening. Mr. G. W. Lam- 
plugh showed some very striking photographic 
slides of the Batoka Gorge of the Zambesi 
River, while the slides and miniature demon- 
strations by Professor Silvanus Thompson of 
the electric production of nitrates from the 
atmosphere were remarkably brilliant and 
striking. They were intended to illustrate a 
process for obtaining from the air products 
of great value for agriculture and in the dye- 
stuff industry. 


THE MIKKELSEN EXPEDITION TO THE 
BEAUFORT SHA. 

We have received from Mr. Mikkelsen a de- 
tailed statement of his plans for the expedi- 
tion to the Beaufort sea, to which frequent 
reference has already been made in the Jour- 
nal, and on which he proposes to sail from 
Victoria about the middle of May. The vessel 
which he has acquired for that purpose has 
been renamed the Duchess of Bedford, in 
honor of a prominent supporter of the expedi- 
tion. She is a sailing craft of 66 tons, with 
a length of 674 feet, 18 feet 9 inches beam, 
and 74 feet depth of hold, and is built of cam- 
phor wood, the outside planking being of heart 
quakewood, which again is sheathed with gum- 
wood above and below the water-line, and with 
iron plating at the bows. The ship was built 
as a sealer, and is specially strengthened by 
bulkheads, ete., to withstand ice-pressure. As 
already mentioned, Messrs. Leftingwell, Ste- 
fansson, and Ditlevsen will proceed down the 


1From the Geographical Journal. 


June 1, 1906.] 


Mackenzie, while Mr. Mikkelsen will take the 
ship through Bering Strait, visiting the coast 
of Siberia for the purpose of collecting dogs 
and one or two ponies; then pushing his way 
along the northwest coast of Alaska, and, if 
possible, avoiding the pack-ice by keeping in- 
side the shoals, which the slight draught of the 
ship (8 feet) should enable him to do. Beyond 
Point Barrow special attention will be paid, 
so far as time permits, to tidal observations, 
which are here of particular interest by reason 
of the sudden change of twelve hours in the 
tide constant which seems to take place be- 
tween Harrison Bay and Herschel Island. It 
is hoped that the whole expedition of ten men 
will be united at the mouth of the Mackenzie 
by about August 20. Proceeding eastward 
past Cape Bathurst, it will cross over to Prince 
of Wales Strait, and endeavor to establish a 
depot of provisions abreast of Princess Royal 
Island. Retracing its course, it will establish 
winter quarters on Minto Inlet, where as much 
scientific work as possible will be carried on, 
while some of the men will procure fresh meat 
by hunting. In the spring of 1907, two men, 
lightly equipped and making use of the depot 
already formed, will endeavor to cross to Mel- 
ville Island, and thence to Prince Patrick Is- 
land, afterwards making a trip of some 60 
miles over the ice, and, if possible, obtaining 
an idea of the configuration of the sea-bottom 
by means of soundings. Meanwhile the scien- 
tific workers will have been extending their 
knowledge by means of trips from the ship, 
which, as soon as the ice opens sufficiently, 
will cross over to Nelson’s Head, and endeavor 
to follow the coast of Banks Island to Burnet 
Bay, where she will unship the provisions and 
remain either until the autumn of 1907, or, 
if supplies permit, until the summer of 1908, 
being then sent home. In the spring of 1908, 
a party of three men, with the dogs and pony, 
will start west-northwest over the ice, with 
provisions for a hundred and forty days, keep- 
ing this course as nearly as possible, until 
soundings show that the edge of the conti- 
nental shelf is passed, or land is found, or the 
position of 150° W., 76° 30’ N., is reached. If 
the first-named eventuality is realized, an en- 


SCIENCE. 


857 


deavor will be made to reach the edge of the 
shelf on a southward course, and to determine 
its trend as far as possible, the party making 
for the nearest coast when provisions run 
short. If land should be met with, it will be 
examined as far as possible; but if neither 
this nor the edge of the shelf should be found, 
the explorers will push on as near as possible 
to the position mentioned, whence they will 
either endeavor to reach Wrangel Island, or 
make for the nearest coast, as circumstances 
may decide. In case the ship remains a sec- 
ond winter, as much scientific work as possible 
will be carried on at Burnet Bay, but in any 
ease the observers left here will take the ship 
home independently of the other party. 


MOSQUITO EXTERMINATION. 


Tue following is the full text of the law 
enacted at the last session of the New Jersey 
State legislature and recently signed by the 


governor: 
CHAPTER 134. 


An Act to provide for locating and abolishing 
mosquito-breeding salt-marsh areas within the 
state, for assistance in dealing with certain in- 
land breeding places, and appropriating money 
to carry its provisions into effect. 

BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General As- 
sembly of the State of New Jersey: 

1. It shall be the duty of the director of the 
state experiment station, by himself or through 
an executive officer to be appointed by him to 
carry out the provisions of this act, to survey or 
cause to be surveyed all the salt-marsh areas 
within the state, in such order as he may deem 
desirable, and to such extent as he may deem 
necessary, and he shall prepare or cause to be 
prepared a map of each section so surveyed, and 
shall indicate thereon all the mosquito-breeding 
places found on every such area, together with a 
memorandum of the method to be adopted in 
dealing with such mosquito-breeding places, and 
the probable cost of abolishing the same. 

2. It shall be the further duty of said director, 
in the manner above described, to suryey, at the 
request of the board of health of any city, town, 
township, borough or village within the state, to 
such extent as may be necessary, any fresh-water 
swamp or other territory suspected of breeding 
malarial or other mosquitoes, within the jurisdic- 
tion of such board, and he shall prepare a map 


858 


of such suspected area, locating upon it such 
mosquito-breeding places as may be discovered, 
and shall report upon the same as hereinafter 
provided in section eight of this act. Requests 
as hereinbefore provided for in this section may 
be made by any board of health within the state, 
upon its own motion, and must be made upon the 
petition, in writing, of ten or more freeholders 
residing within the jurisdiction of any such board. 

3. Whenever, in the course of a survey made as 
prescribed in section one of this act, it is found 
that within the limits of any city, town, town- 
ship, borough or village there exist points or 
places where salt-marsh mosquitoes breed, it shall 
be the duty of the director aforesaid, through his 
executive officer, to notify, in writing, by personal 
service upon some officer or member thereof, the 
board of health within whose jurisdiction such 
breeding points or places occur, of the extent and 
location of such breeding places, and such notice 
shall be accompanied by a copy of the map pre- 
pared as prescribed in section one, and of the 
memorandum stating the character of the work 
to be done and its probable cost, also therein pro- 
vided for. It shall thereupon become the duty 
of the said board, within twenty days from the 
time at which notice is served as aforesaid, to 
investigate the ownership, so far as ascertainable, 
of the territory on which the breeding places oc- 
eur, and to notify the owner or owners of such 
lands, if they can be found or ascertained, in 
such manner as other notices of such boards are 
served, of the facts set out in the communication 
from the director, and of the further fact that, 
under chapter sixty-eight of the laws of one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eighty-seven, as amended 
in chapter one hundred and nineteen of the laws 
of one thousand nine hundred and four, any water 
in which mosquito larye breed is a nuisance and 
subject to abatement as such. Said notice shall 
further contain an order that the nuisance, con- 
sisting of mosquito-breeding pools, be abated 
within a period to be stated, and which shall not 
be more than sixty days from the date of said 
notice, failing which the board would proceed to 
abate, in accordance with the act and its amend- 
ments above cited. 

4. In case any owner of salt-marsh lands on 
which mosquito-breeding places occur and upon 
whom notice has been served as above set out, 
fails or neglects to comply with the order of the 
board within the time limited therein, it shall be 
the duty of said board to proceed to abate under 
the powers given in section thirteen and fourteen 
of the act and its amendments cited in the pre- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No, 596. 


ceding section, or, in case this is deemed inex- 
pedient, it shall certify to the common council or 
other goyerning body of the city, town, township, 
borough or village the facts that such an order 
has been made and that it has not been complied 
with, and it shall request such council or other 
governing body to provide the money necessary to 
enable the board to abate such nuisance in the 
manner provided by law. It shall thereupon be- 
come the duty of such governing body to act upon 
such certificate at its next meeting and to con- 
sider the appropriation of the money necessary 
to abate the nuisance so certified. If it be de- 
cided that the municipality has no money avail- 
able for such purpose, such decision shall be trans- 
mitted to the board of health making the certifi- 
eate, which said board shall thereupon communi- 
cate such decision forthwith to the director of the 
agricultural experiment station or his executive 
officer. 

5. If, in the judgment of the director afore- 
said, public interests will be served thereby, he 
may set aside out of the moneys appropriated by 
this act such an amount as may be necessary to 
abate the nuisance found existing and to abolish 
the mosquito-breeding places found in the munici- 
pality which has declared itself without funds 
available as prescribed in the preceding section. 
Notice that such amount has been set aside as 
above described shall be given to the board of 
health within whose jurisdiction such mosquito- 
breeding places are situated, and said board shall 
thereupon appoint some person designated by said 
director or his executive officer a special inspector 
of said board for the sole purpose of acting in its * 
behalf in abating the nuisance found to be exist- 
ing, and all acts and work done to abate such 
nuisances and to abolish such breeding places 
shall be done in the name of and on behalf of 
such board of health. 

6. If in the proceeding taken under section four 
of this act the common council or other governing 
body of any municipality appropriate to the ex- 
tent of fifty per centum or more of the money re- 
quired to abate the nuisance and to abolish the 
mosquito-breeding places within its jurisdiction it 
shall become the duty of said director of the 
agricultural experiment station to set aside out 
of the moneys herein appropriated such sum as 
may be necessary to complete the work, and in all 
cases preference shall be given, in the assignment 
of moneys herein appropriated, to those munici- 
palities that contribute to the work and in the 
order of the percentage which they contribute; 


JunE.1, 1906.] 


those contributing the highest percentage to be in 
all cases preferred in order. - 

7. In all cases where a municipality contributes 
fifty per centum or more of the estimated cost of 
abolishing the breeding places for salt-marsh 
mosquitoes within its jurisdiction, the work may 
be done by the municipality as other work is done 
under its direction, and the amount set aside as 
provided in section six may be paid to the treas- 
urer or other disbursing officer of such munici- 
pality for use in completing the work; but no 
payment shall be made to such treasurer or other 
disbursing officer until the amount appropriated 
by the municipality has been actually expended, 
nor until a certificate has been filed by the direc- 
tor or his executive officer stating that the work 
already done is satisfactory and sufficient to ob- 
tain the desired result, and that the arrange- 
ments made for its completion are proper and 
can be carried out for the sum awarded. 

8. In all investigations made under section two 
of this act the report to be made to the board of 
health requesting the survey shall state what 
mosquitoes were found in the territory complained 
of, whether they are local breeders or migrants 
from other points, and, in the case of migrants, 
their probable source, whether the territory in 
question is dangerous or a nuisance because of 
mosquito breeding, the character of the work 
necessary to abate such nuisance and ‘abolish the 
breeding places, and the probable cost of the work. 
Said board of health must then proceed to abolish 
the breeding places found under the general powers 
af such boards, but if it shall appear that the 
necessary cost of the work shall equal or exceed 
the value of the land without increasing its tax- 
able value, such board may apply to the director 
aforesaid, who may, if he deems the matter of 
sufficient public interest, contribute to the cost of 
the necessary work, provided that not more than 
fifty per centum of the amount shall be con- 
tributed in any case, and not more than five hun- 
dred dollars in any one municipality. 

9. All moneys contributed or set aside out of 
the amount appropriated in this act by the direc- 
tor of the agricultural experiment station in ac- 
cordance with its provisions shall be paid out by 
the comptroller of the state upon the certificate 
of said director that all the conditions and re- 
quirements of this act have been complied with, 
and in the case provided for in section five pay- 
ments shall be made to the contractor upon a 
statement by the person in charge of the work, 
as therein prescribed, attested by said director, 
showing the amount due and that the work has 


SCIENCE. 


859 


been completed in accordance with the specifica- 
tions of his contract. 

10. For the purpose of carrying into effect the 
provisions of this act, the said director of the 
state agricultural experiment station shall have 
power to expend such amount of money, annually, 
as may be appropriated by the legislature; pro- 
vided, that the aggregate sum appropriated for 
the purposes of this act shall not exceed three 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The comp- 
troller of the state shall draw his warrant in 
payment of all bills approved by the director of 
the state experiment station, and the treasurer of 
the state shall pay all warrants so drawn to the 
extent of the amount appropriated by the legisla- 
ture. 

11. This act shall take effect November first, 
one thousand nine hundred and six. 

Approved April 20, 1906. 


The appropriation bill makes only $13,500 
of the total amount available for the fiscal 
year beginning November 1, 1906, and as that 
date is so near to the close of the season that 
little if anything can be done before the 
marshes freeze up, the beginning of actual 
work will probably be delayed until the spring 
of 1907. JoHN B. SmirH. 

New Brunswick, N. J., 

May 23, 1906. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF 
MUSEUMS. 

THE assembly which convened on May 15 
at the American Museum of Natural History 
in New York for the purpose of organizing 
an association of the museums of North and 
South America, was very largely attended. 
Among those who came from great distances 
in order to testify to their interest in the 
movement were Mr. W. A. Bryan, of the 
Bernice Pauahi Bishop’ Museum, Honolulu; 
Mr. J. E. Talmage, of the Deseret Museum, 
Salt Lake City; Professor EK. H. Barbour, of 
the University of Nebraska; and Mr. P. M. 
Rea, of the Museum of the College of Charles- 
ton, S. C. The Field Museum of Chicago, 
the Art Institute of Chicago, the St. Louis 
Public Museum, the various museums and art 
institutions of Boston and vicinity, the mu- 
seums of various kinds located in the vicinity 
of New York, as well as the museums of 


860 


Philadelphia, Pittsburg and other leading 
cities, were well represented. 

The meeting was called to order at 10:30 
AM. by Dr. W. J. Holland, and upon his 
motion Dr. Hermon C, Bumpus, the director 
of the American Museum of Natural History, 
was made temporary chairman. Dr. George 
A. Dorsey, of the Field Museum of Natural 
History in Chicago, was made temporary sec- 
retary. A committee on permanent organiza- 
tion, consisting of Dr. W. J. Holland, of the 
Carnegie Museum; Dr. Wm. M. R. French, 
of the Art Institute of Chicago; Professor P. 
. M. Rea, of the College of Charleston; Dr. 
James EH. Talmage, of the Deseret Museum of 
Salt Lake City; and Dr. W. P. Wilson, of 
the Philadelphia Commercial Museums, was 
appointed. 

Many interesting papers were read and dis- 
cussed. Luncheon was served at the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History during the 
first day’s session. 

The second session; held on May 16, con- 
vened at the Museum of the New York Botan- 
ical Garden in Bronx Park. A final organ- 
ization was effected by the election by ballot 
of Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus as president, Dr. 
Wm. M. R. French as first vice-president and 
Dr. W. J. Holland as second vice-president. 
Dr. George A. Dorsey was chosen secretary 
and Dr. W. P. Wilson treasurer. Councilors 
were elected as follows: To serve for three 
years—Dr. Richard Rathbun, of the United 
States National Museum; Professor E. S. 
Morse, of the Peabody Academy of Sciences, 
Salem, Mass. To serve for two years—Dr. 
N. L. Britton, of the New York Botanical 
Garden; Professor J. EH. Talmage, of the 
Deseret Museum, Salt Lake City. To serve 
for one year—Mr. F. A. Imeas and Dr. 
Wm. H. Goodyear, both of the Brooklyn 
Institute. 

The officers and the six councilors constitute 
the council of the association, which formally 
assumed the name of ‘The American Asso- 
ciation of Museums.’ A temporary constitu- 
tion was adopted. All persons who were pres- 
ent and participated in the meeting, as well 
as all persons who by letter had signified their 
adhesion to the movement, were by formal 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


vote constituted charter members. This gives 
the association a large membership at the out- 
set, which it is hoped will be very rapidly 
increased. 

It is provided in the constitution that all 
those who are actively engaged in the work 
of museums may become “ active members’ of 
the association upon payment of the sum of 
two dollars annually. 

Museums contributing not less than ten 
dollars per annum may become ‘ sustaining 
members, and shall be entitled to vote through 
their chief executive officers, if present at the 
meeting, or by a formally appointed delegate. 

Provision is made in the temporary consti- 
tution for “associate members, consisting of 
those who are not actively engaged in the 
work of museums; “honorary members, the 
number of whom shall be restricted to fifteen, 
and “ patrons. ; 

Active members may upon payment of 
thirty dollars at one time be exempt thereafter 
from the payment of annual dues. 

It is proposed to initiate, so soon as the way 
may be clear to do so, a journal, or publica- 
tion, in the interest of museums. 

A very gratifying feature was the receipt 
of a number of letters from the heads of 
museums in South America, giving in their 
adhesion to the movement. A congratulatory 
telegram from Dr. W. E. Hoyle, on behalf of 
the British Museums Association, was re- 
ceived with much applause. 

A rising vote of thanks was given to Dr. W. 
J. Holland for his services in bringing about 
the formation of the society. 

The luncheon given by the New York 
Botanical Garden to the delegates, at ‘the 
Hermitage,’ near Bronx Park, was a most 
delightful affair, and Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus 
and Dr. N. L. Britton won the hearts of all 
by their most gracious hospitality. 

The gathering was declared by all who were 
present to be most successful, and it is doubt- 
ful whether any movement for the formation 
of an international association of this kind 
has ever been larger or more enthusiastic. 

The association adjourned to meet at the 
eall of the council in the spring or early sum- 


JuNE 1, 1906.] 


mer of 1907 at the Carnegie Museum in ‘the 
city of Pittsburg. 


THE ITHACA MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 
MENT OF SCIENCE. 


EXCURSIONS. 


THE surroundings of Ithaca in summer are 
peculiarly attractive and it is proposed to 
make short trips to neighboring points of in- 
terest a feature of the coming meeting. 

Some sections intend to make this essen- 
tially a field meeting and the local committee 
on excursions has arranged the following list 
of expeditions for their benefit. 

Botanical Hacurstons—Friday morning, 
June 29, a brief excursion in the immediate 
vicinity of Ithaca. 

Saturday, June 30, an all day excursion to 
the morainic region near Cortland, to visit the 
peat-bog formations and also the marl ponds, 
This excursion will be by rail or by carriage. 

Monday, July 2, an all day excursion to 
Enfield Gorge some five miles from the uni- 
versity. The conveyance will be by carriages 
and tally-hos. 

Details of these excursions will be given in 
the program of Section G. 

Chemical EHxcursions—Thursday, June 28, 
excursions in charge of several committees 
have been arranged from 4 to 6 P.M., to visit 
various points of interest in the buildings and 
upon the grounds of the university. 

Friday, June 29, an afternoon excursion has 
been arranged for the members of the Chem- 
ical Society in the nature of a boat ride on 
Cayuga Lake with dinner at Sheldrake. 

Geological Hxcursions—Friday, June 29, an 
excursion conducted by Mr. R. H. Whitbeck 
to Turkey Hill, by carriage or on foot, for a 
general view of surface geology. A paper on 
“Cycles of Erosion’ will be read by Mr. P. 
¥F. Gulliver. 

Saturday, June 30, an all day excursion to 
points of interest about the south end of 
Cayuga Lake will be conducted by Professor 
G. D. Harris. 

Monday, July 2, Professor Harris will con- 
duct a party to the points of interest at the 


SCIENCE. 


861 


north end of Cayuga Lake, including a visit 
to Cayuga to see the lowest rocks exposed in 
this region, 7. e., the Eurypterus beds, and 
other points of interest. A printed guide to 
the region will be furnished gratis to each 
member by the conductor. 

Tuesday, July 3, an excursion to Enfield 
Glen by carriage will be conducted by Mr. 
Whitbeck, and a paper on the geography of 
the region will be read by Professor C. R. 
Dryer. 

Fuller details of these excursions will be 
printed in the preliminary announcement and 
in the programs of the sections. 

Excursion to the George Junior Republic.— 
This excursion will be arranged at the time 
most convenient to the visitors and will be of 
both general and special interest. 

Opportunities will be afforded also to visit 
Taughannock Falls, the highest water fall in 
the state of New York, Enfield Falls and other 
of the numerous glens in the vicinity of 
Ithaca. 

Steamers make two round trips daily, Sun- 
days included, the entire length of Cayuga 
Lake. Watkin’s Glen may be reached by rail, 
via Geneva or by a twenty-mile carriage drive 
from Ithaca. 

The excursion announced above by the 
American Chemical Society on Friday after- 
noon will take place after the dedication of 
the new Physical Laboratory. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. Joun M. Cuarxe, of Albany, and Dr. J. 
J. Sederholm, director of the Geological Sur- 
vey of Finland, have been elected foreign 
correspondents of the Geological Society of 
London. 


Proressor Davin Hitgert, of Gottingen, and 
Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, have been elected 
honorary members of the Academy of Sci- 
ences at Copenhagen. 


Tue University of Gottingen has awarded 
the income of the Valbruch foundation of the 
value of $3,000 to Professor Ossian Aschan, of 
Helsingfors, for his work on the alicyclic com- 
pounds. 


862 


In addition to a chair in the University of 
Paris, the French government has given Mme. 
Curie a pension of 12,000 frances. 


Proressor WILHELM Ostwap has resigned 
the professorship of chemistry at the Univer- 
sity of Leipzig, having earned the right to re- 
tire with a pension. 


Tuer family of the late Professor Langley, 
of the Smithsonian Institution, has given over 
to the institution the medals and decorations 
that had been presented to him in recognition 
of his scientific researches. 


Tux class of 1909 of the Cornell Medical 
School, on May 18, presented to Dr. Austin 
Flint a silver loving cup in memory of his 
retirement from the chair of physiology. Pro- 
fessor Flint celebrated his seventieth birthday 
on March 28. 


Mr. Cuas. C. Apams, curator of the Univer- 
sity Museum of the University of Michigan, 
has accepted a curatorship at the Cincinnati 
Museum. 


Dr. Gust. EprrHarD has been promoted to 
the position of observer in the Astrophysical 
Observatory at Potsdam. 


Prorussor RretcHENow, curator in the Zoo- 
logical Museum at Berlin, has been appointed 
assistant director, and Dr. Vanhoeffen, of 
Kiel, has been appointed curator. 


At the sixth annual session of the Ameri- 
can Association of Pathologists and Bacteriol- 
ogists, held last week at the Johns Hopkins 
Medical School, officers for next year were 
elected as follows: President, Dr. William H. 
Welch, Johns Hopkins University; vice-presi- 
dent, Dr. A. S. Warthin, University of Mich- 
igan; secretary, Dr. H. C. Ernst, Harvard 
Medical School; treasurer, Dr. H. W. Will- 
iams, University of Buffalo. 


Proressor Francis Gano BEeEnepicr, pro- 
fessor of chemistry, Wesleyan University, ad- 
dressed the Washington Academy of Sciences, 
on May 17, on ‘The Respiration Calorimeter 
and Factors of Human Nutrition,’ illustrated 
by lantern slides. The paper was discussed by 
Dr. J. B. Nichols, Professor E. B. Rosa, Dr. 
C. F. Langworthy and others. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


Dr. L. A. Bauer, as lecturer on terrestrial 
magnetism, gave the following course of il- 
lustrated lectures at the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, May 23-25: 

1. ‘ Principal Phenomena of the Harth’s Mag- 
netism.’ 

2. “Magnetic Surveys of Land and Oceanic 
Areas.’ 

3. ‘Magnetic Observatory Work (Variation of 
the Earth’s Magnetism, Magnetic Storms, Harth- 
quake and Voleanic Effects) .’ 

4. “Recent Analyses of the Earth’s Magnetic 
Field.’ 

THE annual oration before the Medical So- 
ciety of London was delivered by Professor 
Kocher, of Berlin, on May 21. Professor 
Kocher spoke on some contributions to the 
pathology of the thyroid gland. Subsequently 
a conyversazione was held. 


Proressor Danirt S. Martin, of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., lectured recently before the College of 
Charleston Museum on ‘The Occurrence of 
Precious Stones in the United States.’ 


PrEesWENT JAMES B. ANGELL, of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, will give the baccalau- 
reate address at Purdue University on June 
8. The address at the graduating exercises on 
June 5 will be given by Professor Albion W. 
Small, of the University of Chicago. ; 

THE 327th regular meeting of the Middle- 
town Scientific Association was held in the 
Scott Laboratory of Physics, Wesleyan Uni- 
versity, on May 15. Norman Everett Gilbert, 
professor of physics in Dartmouth College, 
gave an address, illustrated with lantern slides, 
on ‘The Observation of a Solar Eclipse.’ 

Dr. Don Armour, demonstrator of anatomy 
at the Rush Medical College, has been ap- 
pointed senior assistant surgeon in the Na- 
tional Hospital, London, England. 


Mr. Marcont has been very ill during the 
last month, but is now recovering. 


Tuer vice-presidents of the Royal Institution 
for next year are as follows: Lord Alverstone, 
Sir William Huggins, O.M., Lord Kelvin, 
O.M., Dr. Ludwig Mond, Lord Sanderson, 
Sir James Stirling, Sir James Crichton- 
Browne (treasurer) and Sir William Crookes 
(honorary secretary). 


June 1, 1906.] 


THE trustees of the College of Charleston 
Museum have elected the following as hon- 
orary curators: Professor Daniel S. Martin, 
of Brooklyn, N. Y., honorary curator of min- 
erals, rocks and invertebrate fossils; Mr. Wm. 
G. Mazyckm, of Charleston, 8. C., honorary 
curator ot recent shells; Mr. Arthur T. Wayne, 
of Mt. Pleasant, S. C., honorary curator of 
birds. 

Dr. TH. Mortensen, of the Zoological Mu- 
seum at Copenhagen, is at present in the 
United States. During a year’s leave of ab- 
sence he has been studying the fisheries in 
the West Indies, and for several weeks has 
been working in the National Museum in 
Washington. 

Tue Journal of the New York Botanical 
Garden contains a notice of the recent expedi- 
tion of the director-in-chief, Dr. Britton, to 
Porto Rico. Dr. Britton and Dr. Howe, ac- 
companied by Professor W. M. Wheeler, of 
the American Museum of Natural History, 
spent ten days in the early part of March on 
the island of Culebra, where the facilities of 
the U. S. Naval Station were courteously 
placed at the disposition of the party. In the 
collections made at this point the Cactaceae 
and marine algae were especially well repre- 
sented. Mrs. Britton, Miss Delia W. Marble 
and Mr. John F. Cowell, in the meantime, 
explored the mountains and foothills in the 
neighborhood of Mayagiiez in the western part 
of Porto Rico, afterward joining the rest of 
the party at Arecibo for a trip across the 
island over the Adjuntas road. A stop of a 
week was made at Utuado, where two of the 
higher mountains of the island were climbed. 
From Ponce, on the south shore, the return 
to San Juan was made over the military road. 
The dried specimens of plants secured by the 
expedition are represented by about 1,700 num- 
bers and in addition a large amount of living 
material was brought back. 

Proressor ANGELO HetnpriIn, who recently 
returned from the island of Martinique and 
from an extended journey into the forest re- 
gion of British Guiana, made the descent into 
the crater and partial ascent of the still-steam- 
ing dome of Mount Pelée, on February 27, 


SCIENCE. 


863 


last. The dome is covered by a wilderness of 
boulders, some of them of giant size, coming 
from the fallen obelisk, and the fragments, 
where examined, were in all cuses found to be 
a compact and non-vesicular andesite. Pro- 
fessor Heilprin does not believe that the evi- 
dence justifies Professor Lacroix’s views as to 
the method of formation of the volecano’s 
unique execresence. A scattered vegetation of 
diminutive tree-ferns has already appeared on 
the dome itself, in most cases bordering the 
steam-vents (so-called fumaroles) of the east- 
ern face. 


In its account of the exhibition of the Royal 
Academy the London Times says: “In the 
place in Room LY. where we last year saw the 
Blenheim family group, we have now a mar- 
velously fine composition with full-length 
portraits of four professors in the Johns Hop- 
kins University, Baltimore. Messrs. Welch, 
Halstead, Osler and Kelly are all well-known 
figures in the world of learning and science, 
but each and all may adopt with truth the 
phrase that Gladstone used about Millais’s 
portrait, and say that Mr. Sargent has im- 
measurably increased their chances of immor- 
tality. The necessary vates sacer has appeared 
in the form of a master of the brush, and has 
preserved for posterity their form and linea- 
ments; while on us of to-day, even if the men 
themselves are little more than names, the 
painter has conferred the pleasure that a first- 
rate work of art must always give. It is a 
little sombre in color, but that is perhaps in 
keeping with academical dignity, while the 
dexterous way in which the artist has used the 
hoods, the books and the globe to relieve the 
gloom of gowns and backgrounds is beyond 
praise.” 


A FACULTY committee has been appointed to 
look into the possibility of securing a portrait 
of the late Professor Shaler to be hung in the 
faculty room of Harvard University. The 
committee is endeavoring to secure recent pho- 
tographs and has sent a request that any 
graduate who may have such a photograph, 
mail it to Professor John E. Wolff, University 
Museum, Cambridge, who will acknowledge its 


864 


receipt, and who will be responsible for safe 
keeping and ultimate return. 

On August 13, 1906, Professor M. J. de 
Goeje, of the University of Leyden, will cele- 
brate his seventieth birthday. In view of the 
valuable services that Professor de Goeje has 
rendered to Oriental science, and which have 
secured for him his present position as the 
leading Arabic scholar of the day, a central 
committee has been organized in Holland with 
representatives in other countries to arrange 
for a celebration that will be worthy of the 
occasion. The central committee, after care- 
ful deliberation, has decided that the worthiest 
tribute to Professor de Goeje would be the 
establishment of a de Goeje memorial fund, 
the interest of which should be used for fur- 
thering Oriental researches through stipends 
to worthy students of Oriental lore, through 
subventions to scientific publications and 
through grants for travels and explorations. 
In order to earry out this plan, a fund of 
$5,000 is to be raised. Of this sum $2,000 
have already been secured in Holland. Eng- 
lish scholars and others interested in the sub- 
ject have up to the present forwarded to the 
central committee about $1,500 and from 
Germany about $1,000 have been contributed. 
A committee has been formed in the United 
States, which wishes to collect one thousand 
dollars as a contribution to the memorial. 
Subscriptions should be sent to the secretary, 
Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Proressor Grorce A. WENTWORTH, who was 
professor of mathematics at Phillips Exeter 
Academy from 1859 to 1892 and was the 
author of well-known text-books on mathe- 
matics, died, on May 24, of heart failure, 
aged seyenty-one. 

Proressor BucHenav, known for his work 
in botany, died in Bremen on April 23, at the 
age of seventy-five years. 

Dr. F. M. Caruiyski, emeritus professor of 
astronomy and director of the observatory at 
Cracow, died on March 21, at the age of 
seventy-five years. 

Tue senate passed, on May 24, the bill ad- 
mitting free of duty alcohol denaturized for 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 596. 


industrial purposes. The provision will take 
effect on January 1, 1907. 


THE Cornell chapter of Sigma Xi is pre- 
paring to celebrate the twentieth anniversary 
of the foundation of the society. A public 
address is to be given on the evening of July 
2, to which all members of The American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
and of affiliated societies who are in attend- 
ance at the Ithaca meeting will be invited. 
After the address there will be a dinner at 
which all visiting members of Sigma Xi will 
be the guests of the parent chapter. 

Tue International Astronomical Society 


will hold its twenty-first meeting at Jena 
from September 12 to 15. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


TuE new buildings of the Harvard Medical 
School will be dedicated on the afternoon of 
September 25 and the morning of September 
26. 


Yate University has received an anonymous 


gift of $5,000 to the forestry school, the im- 


come of which is to be used for the publica- 
tion of works on forestry by graduates and 
members of the faculty. 

Proressor Ernest W. Brown, M.A., D.Se. 
(Cambridge), of Haverford College, has ac- 
cepted the chair of applied mathematics at 
Yale University, but will remain at Haverford 
during the coming academic year. 

Dr. Joun W. Bair, instructor in psychol- 
ogy at the Johns Hopkins University, has 
accepted a similar position in the University 
of Illinois. 

Proressor Birp T. Batpwiy, Ph.D. (Har- 
vard, 1905), of the West Chester State Normal 
School, during the coming year will have 
charge of psychology and educational psy- 
chology at Swarthmore College, where a new 
training school for teachers is being organ- 
ized. 

Dr. J. T. Porter, instructor in physics in 
Williams College, has been appointed adjunct 
professor of physics in Randolph-Macon Col- 
lege. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fray, JUNE 8, 1906. Scientific Notes and News................. 890 
University and Hducational News.......... 895 
CONTENTS. psa eae 
i i 4 MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
Leno peUinOmIn Cn: LIE, VWMUTED IEICE IE review should be sent to the Editor of SclENCE, Garrison-on- 
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler............... 869 Hudson, N. Y. 


Scientific Books :— 
FPrick’s Physical Technique, Miiller-Pouil- 
let’s Lehrbuch der Physik: PRoFessor J. 8. 


PANNE Else ists 2) curate wiaiithe cueue Sealers nals eiasCemsteres shiva § 872 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 873 
Societies and Academies :-— 

The Torrey Botanical Club: Dr. C. Stuarr 

GacER. The Philosophical Society of Wash- 

ington: CHARLES K. Wrap. The Elisha 

Mitchell Scientific Society: PRoressor A. 

S. WHEELER. The Missouri Society of 

Teachers of Mathematics and Science: Dr. 

NEIL) SOP ASMAENS rece a8) hatssece ish ne chore) Om cnekenener ete Scat 873 
Discussion and Correspondence :-— : 

A Plea to make the Smithsonian Institu- 

tion a National Institute of Research: 

DAVID MHVATR GHUMUD Ryeiayeyctetereie stay stovrreleeveicteuciave . 876 
Special Articles :— 

A Machine for compounding Sine Curves: 

Proressok W. G. Capy....... sseucoodeos 877 
Quotations :— 

The Teaching Profession; The Geological 

PSALMD OU lavas suevate her teal cnelaiaee) sp scaiage el eine makes 881 
Astronomical Notes :— 

Suggestions for a Theory of the Milky Way 

and the Olouds of Magellan; The Magellanic 

Clouds; The Solar Origin of Terrestrial 

Magnetic Disturbances; Photometric Deter- 

mination of the Stellar Magnitude of the 

Sun; Recent and Coming Total Eclipses 

of the Sun: Proressor 8. I. Barny...... 884 
JTL DOSEEBA AS cinco ae a OB AOU OL Se rIR OLS 886 
The International Geodetic Association..... 887 
The Congress of the United States......... 887 
The California Academy of Sciences........ 887 


The Ithaca Meeting of the American Associa- 
CLOT SNS Mveaeie evap siereecv sale eevee aE RE ae 888 


PUEBLO ENVIRONMENT. 


THe southern portion of the Rocky 
Mountain Highland has two chief geo- 
eraphic features, the one a depression 
called the Great Interior Basin and the 
other the Pueblo Plateau. The latter may 
be subdivided into the Rio Grande Valley, 
the Colorado Plateau and the Gila Slope, 
lying in the four political divisions named 
Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. 

This plateau, which contains the bulk of 
the elevation on the western half of the 
United States, is mainly embraced in the 
triangle lying between the eastern side of 
the Rocky Mountains and the Rio Colorado, 
the western side being bounded by the Great 
Basin. Its slope is from north to south in 
the eastern portion where the Rio Grande 
drains the trough lying just east of the 
continental uplift, but the main slope is 
toward the southwest and is drained by 
the Colorado and its affluents. The plateau 
lies from four to ten thousand feet above 
sea level, but there are great contrasts in 
elevation from 14,000 feet above to 300 feet 
below the datum. In this region the north 
and south ranges of the Rockies break up 
and form a complex of mountains running 


* Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section H—American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, New Orleans, December, 
1905. 


866 


east and west, plateaus, plains, basins, 
buttes, broad valleys and narrow canyons 
giving great diversity of the most remark- 
able natural features to be found in the 
world. 

The geology is that of later rocks, prin- 
cipally the easily eroded Cretaceous and 
other Mesozoic formations. Tremendous 
voleanie activity in former times has 
poured out vast floods of lava which, to- 
gether with tufas or agglomerated ash, 
form the most noticeable physiographic 
features of the region. 

Latitude, elevation and natural barriers 
here conspire to produce modifications in 
climate. This is seen in the convolutions 
of the isotherms of 50°, 59° and 68° cross- 
ing the region, the scanty rainfall occur- 
ring in the winter and summer months, the 
excessive insolation, the extremes of day 
and night temperature, the high winds and 
rarefied air, which characterize the arid 
environments. 

The fitness of the southwest to sustain 
biotic forms depends mainly upon rainfall, 
which itself is regulated by cosmic and geo- 
graphic conditions. Thus the uprush of 
heated air from the sun-baked plateaus dur- 
ing the summer draws in the moisture-laden 
air from the oceans, producing rains which 
are unequally distributed ; the higher moun- 
tains, acting as condensing centers, receive 
the most, while the plains are scantily 
watered. The receptivity of the land must 
also be considered, the mountains covered 
with vegetation storing water, and the bare 
land shedding it into the rivers, which must 
carry at times vast floods and during long 
periods remain perfectly dry. Everywhere 
is evidence of the colossal agencies which 
are at work reducing the land to sea level. 
This workshop is littered with the bones of 
the mountains, and the dust that is sorted 
by water and wind moves freely to lower 
levels or is blown higher to again resume 
its gravitational course. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXITI. No. 597. 


Despite the generally adverse conditions 
set forth, there flourishes here a flora of a 
peculiar character which forms the basis 
of subsistence for an extensive fauna, and 
also the newcomer, man, who has pinned 
much of his faith to nature’s supply. The 
region is not in any part a desert in the 
true sense of the term, which is applied 
to lands deserted because of an inhibition 
of life, but it is rather a semi-arid environ- 
ment, in which a preponderance of desic- 
eative and other factors have restricted and 
minimized life. These restrictions are ob- 
served in full force among the plants fixed 
in the earth, and therefore played upon 
by all the natural forces, to which they 
must adapt themselves by slower changes 
than are required by higher biotic forms. 
The characteristic climatic flora is thus 
xerophytic where the leaves are small, with 
structures for preventing too rapid evap- 
oration, stems contain chlorophyl and act 
when leaves fall away, ete.; these are adap- 
tations which give some plants the freedom 
of the desert. Other plants are succulent 
and spring to quick fruition when rains 
occur; other plants have perfected water- 
storing organs in stem, root and branches, 
as the eacti, yucca, atriplex, sarcobatus, 
ete., and still others can live in soils con- 
taining an excess of mineral salts. 

Most of the desert plants bear witness to 
the struggle with sun, wind, rarefied air 
and inhospitable soil; thus they present a 
enarled, wrinkled and bizarre appearance, 
often simulating trees dwarfed by the 
gardener’s art. Unlimited opportunity is 
here for isolation by natural boundaries, 
which, if not a factor in the origin of spe- 
cies, at least powerfully aids in their pres- 
ervation,” 

* Discussion by Jordan, Bailey and others, in re- 
cent numbers of Screncr. The Desert Labora- 
tory of the Carnegie Institution, near Tucson, 


Ariz., is attacking these problems with en- 
thusiasm. 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


Much that is observed as to plant life is 
true also of animal life, giving a facies by 
which Merriam’s austral regions may be 
characterized. 

In all discussions of this environment, 
little or no attention has been paid to the 
effects of light, which is here at its maxi- 
mum. Without entering into detail as to 
the physiological sequele of light from 
other parts of the spectrum, the rays from 
the violet end may be considered. These 
rays affect all life submitted to them in a 
harmful manner by checking or prohibit- 
ing cell growth or metabolism. It will be 
found that many of the protective features 
of xerophilous plants and of animals which 
are attributed to aridity, rarefied air, soil, 
ete., are adaptations due to avoidance of 
dangerous rays of light. This is to be 
noticed in the habit of some delicate plants 
which thrive in the shade of hardy plants, 
the protective covering and nocturnal hab- 
its of animals, and the architecture and 
shelter instincts, as well as skin color of 
the ancient and modern Indians who lived 
in caves, cliff shelters or cavate houses, or 
whose pueblos as a whole or as to the indi- 
vidual houses were constructed to admit a 
minimum of light, but from far different 
causes, though still environmental pueblos 
were generally oriented with reference to 
the east; first, for the utilitarian purpose 
of receiving the early morning sun, grate- 
ful after the chilly nights of the high 
regions; and second, on account of the im- 
portance of the rising sun in heliolatry. 

Such were the general features of the 
ereat area under consideration and on the 
whole the characteristics are constant to the 
present time, but it is difficult to realize 
the immense modification of animal and 
vegetal life which the white man has 
wrought in this region during the thirty 
years of his active occupancy. At the be- 
ginning of this period the region was well 
grassed and supplied with other vegetation 


SCIENCE. 


867 


adequate to the needs of vast herds of ante- 
lope, elk and deer; rodent animals and 
birds were plentiful and carnivores had 
abundance of prey. As a result of vegeta- 
tion a humus had formed on all protected 
situations, rainfall was absorbed and equal- 
ized in distribution and the terrific denuda- 
tion which gashes the land at present was 
not begun. 

The country was adapted to grazing and 
especially favorable on account of tempera- 
ture and latitude, and at once yreat herds 
of cattle, horses and sheep were introduced 
from Texas where pasturage had failed. 
The result was that the range became over- 


_ stocked, the grass disappeared under the 


tongues and hoofs of myriads of domestic 
animals; shrubs and trees were browsed 
and destroyed or swept away by fires; from 
certain regions species of plants vanished; 
and the land lay bare to the augmented 
winds and torrential rains. Trails became 
profound arroyos, the humus vanished 
into the streams and the surface of the 
country was stone, sand and gravel. Not 
the least of this baneful influence was the 
drying up of springs and other sources of 
water, and more than one observer col- 
lected data going to prove the progressive 
desiccation of the pueblo region. These 
facts must be borne in mind in discussion 
of the environment of the southwest. As 
an example, it may be stated that in the 
exploration of one ancient pueblo at Wins- 
low, Ariz., the bones of thirty-seven species 
of animals were taken from the house 
refuse; it is not probable at present that a 
naturalist could collect five of these species 
from the environment. Wherever the ex- 
plorer’s spade has been put into the ancient 
ruins, facts of this character come to his 
notice, even if he has not heard the story 
from the early settlers or Indian tradition- 
ists. 
There is no doubt that cycles of dry and 
wet seasons occur in the southwest, but the 


868 


periods have not been definitely observed. 
Inferential data have been secured from ex- 
ploration in the ancient ruins that render 
it possible to explain the migrations of 
early populations. 

The conditions of the environment briefly 
recapitulated are: 

1. A plateau of considerable elevation 
isolated geographically. 

2. Slight rainfall, locally distributed ; 
absence of cloud blanket; excessive light, 
radiation and evaporation; high winds, 
dust storms; rarefied air. 

3. Forested mountains, plains with xero- 
phytic, hydrophytie and halophytie vege- 
tation; plant colonies; desert animals. 

Within this general enclave we have sev- 
eral subenvironments which may be con- 
sidered from the point of view of the avail- 
ability for habitation by man. 


Subenvironments: 

1. Prohibitive to man and in great de- 
gree to animal and vegetal life. 

2. Precarious except to man in low grade 
of culture, as roving, hunting and primi- 
tive tribes. Animal and vegetal life suffi- 
cient. 

3. Habitable by man acquainted with 
agriculture, but more or less precarious. 

4. Favorable for agriculture and pro- 
duction of economic surplus. 

The subenvironments more favoring in 
the struggle for existence are: 

1. Mountains at sources of rivers. Here 
are narrow valleys for agriculture with oc- 
easional irrigation; game, nuts, fruits and 
plants; timber, building material, ete. 
The temperature cold, with short growing 
season. 

2. High plateaus with marshes, lakes, 
ponds. Land lying well for catchment of 
water. Temperature as in 1. 

3. Mesa country, with broad plains and 
valleys; springs; streams flushed at seasons. 

4, Riverain lands in lower stream valleys 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


suitable for irrigation by canals or warp- 
ing. 

The effect of this environment upon 
plants is to reduce them to their lowest 
terms; animals, to modify them in impor- 
tant ways; man, to subject his mind to the 
stress of severe conditions, reacting notice- 
ably on his body, and mightily on his 
thought and material progress. 

The environment was suitable, or extinc- 
tion of tribes followed or a movement was 
made to a new subenvironment. Thus the 
constant and seemingly erratic migration 
of tribes which have covered the Pueblo 
region with remains of ancient towns may 
have been due to natural causes which dis- 
environed them, such as earthquakes, fail- 
ure of springs, ete. The final localization 
of the Pueblos is an index, in large meas- 
ure, of the regional fitness. 

It is probable that the tribes coming into 
the pueblo environment were at first con- 
fined to mountain regions where there is a 
permanent water-supply and natural sub- 
sistence, and that gradually they spread 
along the watercourses and into all the 
subenvironments. With the imerease of 
population, the building of permanent vil- 
lages of stone, the beginning or extension 
of the agriculture of maize, which cereal is 
a major factor in the distribution and per- 
maneney of tribes, the settlement of the 
Pueblo region went on apace. 

It is apparent that in the advanced cul- 
ture stage of the Pueblos the privations 
of environment had less restrictive char- 
acter than in earlier stages. Gradually 
they attained superiority to the environ- 
ment which had worked on them to the 
extent of its capabilities, and this has been 
the history of the growth of mankind. 

Thus the regions least favored, in fact 
prohibitive to tribes who had not the school- 
ing of experience, became the seed-fields of 
advanced tribes. Given unfailing springs 
as a starting point, the waste sand flats of 


JuNE 8, 1906.] 


streams occasionally and temporarily filled 
with water became corn-fields which yield- 
ed bountiful returns to the Indian agricul- 
turist. These regions gave the surplus 
which is necessary for the building of an 
advanced civilization and here rather than 
in the favorable subenvironments arose the 
true agriculture of cereals, on which basis 
the civilizations of the world now rest. 

The environment determined largely the 
methods of application of water to land. 
North of the great ridge which crosses the 
southern portions of Arizona and New 
Mexico, forming the watershed of the Gila- 
Salt River, are found the more primitive 
methods of irrigation, that is by simple 
canals diverting water from streams to the 
nearest land and by warping or spreading 
by means of slight temporary barriers a fan 
of water from a point in the stream where 
the bank and bed of the stream are at a 
uniform level. South of the ridge which 
absorbs the cloud moisture and diverts it 
into the Gila is found a more complicated 
system in the trunk and lateral canals of 
great extent employed by the Indians who 
inhabited this region. Here the rivers lent 
themselves to irrigation and the agricul- 
tural tribes were led to employ the facili- 
ties to their betterment. 

The somatology and culture of the 
Pueblo Indians in ancient times are known 
to have presented a remarkable uniformity, 
and here may be found an argument for the 
compelling, panurgic force of the environ- 
ment. Time and isolation must be consid- 
ered as concomitant factors in the forma- 
tion of a Pueblo type under the peculiar 
transforming character of the environment, 
which, while it produced uniformity in 
many respects, may have tended to per- 
petuate the five language stocks that pre- 
vail in the region. 

The most obvious effects of Pueblco en- 
vironment are those connected with irriga- 
tion, architecture, arts and religion, and in 


SCIENCE. 


869 


the last the fullest sway of its causation 
is shown. 

Without doubt the following of these 
and other lines of inquiry relating to the 
habits and customs of the Pueblo Indians 
will be productive of valuable material on 
this subject, necessarily but sketched in 
this communication. 

Water Houcu. / 


NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER.* 


IN ever-growing measure for over forty 
years, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler made 
himself part of our life and gave the serv- 
ice of an intensely active personality to 
the college and the country. j 

He had an unusual range of experience 
in contact with the world of men and work: 
a boy in a slave-holding community, a 
young officer of the Union army in the civil 
war, later the director of a survey in his 
native state and member of various com- 
missions in the state of his adoption, prac- 
tised field geologist in many parts of this 
country, observant traveler abroad, expert 
in two bureaus of the national government, 
adviser of mining enterprises in the south 
and west, writer in many fields, orator and 
poet on our days of celebration, he thus 
gained that wide acquaintance with ex- 
ternal affairs which made him so invalu- 
able a Harvard man: student at eighteen, 
lecturer at twenty-three, professor at 
twenty-seven and dean at fifty. 

He was impatient of seclusion in his 
work, and therefore related himself, but 
without a trace of self-seeking intrusion, 
to all phases of university life. Confident 
and courageous, abounding in initiative, he 
gave direction to work around him and 
turned the course of events. Inventive 
and independent, strikingly individualized, 
he worked to best advantage as a leader or 
alone, not as one of two; if other names 


Minute adopted by the Faculty of Arts and 
Sciences of Harvard University. 


870 


have occasionally been linked with his, the 
association showed his generosity rather 
than his need. 

He was always devoted to the develop- 
ment of his own department,.which grew 
and flourished under his leadership; he 
foresaw success for other departments 
which came into existence under his foster- 
ing care; he made the summer months edu- 
cationally useful as they had never been 
before; he brought new life into an old 
school, and he inspired and guided the cre- 
ation of a new and greater school to be, of 
which he was marked for the first officer. 
So wide a distribution of academic inter- 
ests might well have weakened the efficiency 
of a less active man; but he was vigilant 
and faithful even to the details of his 
varied administrations; discerning and cau- 
tious in action where risks were great, yet 
ever ready to essay new methods and bold 
in taking risks where judgment advised a 
venture; unceasingly alert in his endeavors 
for the betterment of all our work; untir- 
ingly ingenious in the invention of new 
devices for enriching the opportunities of 
the university and for extending the influ- 
ence of learning; cheerfully assured that, 
however great the task to be done, strength 
would always be found to do it. 

While he was indifferent to the conven- 
tions of fashion and to whatever seemed to 
him hollow or excessive in forms or cere- 
monies, he was sincerely courteous in man- 
ner, and he therefore carefully retained 
some formalities in daily intercourse which 
others have carelessly abandoned. He was 
simple in his tastes, and his house and 
household were simply and genuinely hos- 
pitable. It was as much his courtesy as 
his appreciation of good business methods 
that made him punctilious in keeping all 
appointments. He was unaffectedly, un- 
consciously original and picturesque in 
bearing and in speech; to the end a staunch 
Kentuckian, though citizen of another com- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


monwealth for nearly half a century. He 
was outgoing in his relations alike with 
friends and with strangers, seldom waiting 
for others to make advances, yet unre- 
servedly responsive if they did; valuing the 
enlivenment of ideas that springs from free 
discussion and the mental exhilaration that 
comes of hearty laughter in good company, 
and always finding the good in any com- 
pany that he met; possessed of a retentive 
memory that brought pertinent events from 
the crowded past, fresh and glowing, into 
the service of the present; fond of remin- 
iscence thus abundantly supplied, and of 
citing the bearing of former adventures on 
the case just now in hand, but this in the 
most natural manner, without conceit or 
selfishness, and therefore always entertain- 
ing to his listeners, who never failed to 
make him the center of their group. 

Beyond his university duties he had a 
keen sense for outside business affairs, and 
his advice was often sought by practical 
men on practical matters. He was more 
mindful of his civic duties than most of us 
are, and well known to his fellow towns- 
men of all stations, who did not fail to 
testify in fitting manner to this exceptional 
departure from the unintentional reserve 
of absorbed professors. 

He was a good judge of men, for he had 
scrutinized many members of his vast ac- 
quaintance; he was loyal, encouraging and 
trustful with his associates, a lover of every 
reasonable liberty of individual judgment 
and conduct, and serviceable to many of us 
through his broad sympathy, his helpful 
suggestions and his interested inquiries. 
He was vigorous, even vehement, in the 
outspoken expression of his opinions, some- 
times overriding his opponent with confi- 
dent assertion—‘traversing,’ he used to 
eall it—but expecting as frank and direct 
treatment in return. To the open antag- 
onist he showed respect, even when most 
engaged in controversy, and a warm gener- 


June 8, 1906.] 


osity which outlasted many a sharp differ- 
ence, for he wished to be fair-minded even 
when most a partisan. He was displeased 
with unspoken opposition, and affronted 
by circuitous methods, denouncing in un- 
measured terms what seemed to him the 
unfair indirection of certain legal and 
political devices. 

How warm was his greeting to old 
friends, on meeting them again; how hearty 
his welcome to the newcomer, whether col- 
league, student or passing stranger. No 
one here had more numerous or more 
beneficent personal relations with all sorts 
of persons, within and without the univer- 
sity. He had an intense fondness for 
young men, and took every opportunity of 
aiding them to idealize their lives, for he 
was genuinely solicitous for their welfare. 
He gave his time freely to consider the case 
of each student who applied to him for 
counsel, always preferring to act on the 
basis of individual judgment rather than 
under the guidance of rule or precedent. 
He was deeply sympathetic towards all suf- 
ferers, and made it his own affair to succor 
and relieve them. Yet he was unsparing, 
even scathing, in his condemnation of those 
whose conduct seemed to him dishonorable. 

One might have thought, in view of his 
plans and committees for the reception of 
new students at the beginning of the year, 
and in view of his weleome for them at his 
house all the year round, that to make 
Harvard more hospitable was his chief aim, 
were it not remembered at once that he had 
many chief aims; for besides his extraor- 
dinary power of engaging effectively in an 
uncommon variety of practical tasks which 
drew largely on his day’s work, he had an 
eager and watchful interest in the scientific 
study of the facts and processes of nature, 
regarding which he was always a thought- 
ful observer, an independent inquirer and 
a most ingeniously speculative theorizer. 
Thus at once naturalist and humanist, he 


SCIENCE. 


871 


exemplified the wider interests of an earlier 
time, before specialization had been forced 
upon us. Yet with all the diversity of his 
activities, he loved the unity of science as 
he loved the unification of university work. 
It was largely from the point of unity and 
continuity that he revealed the order of 
nature to the thousands of students who 
attended his lectures these many years; the 
interaction of the sun, winds, oceans, lands 
and life being the main theme in his pres- 
entation of geology, while his treatment 
of paleontology was directed to describing 
the ancient forms of life, not merely for 
themselves, but as the ancestors of the pres- 
ent inhabitants of the earth. He never 
limited his attention closely to one line of 
inquiry, but was always keenly interested 
in a wide variety of natural and human 
phenomena; and one sign of this was the 
manner in which he would consult his col- 
leagues on unexpected topics. He was es- 
pecially fond of tracing the connections 
which bind together the various regions of 
knowledge, showing at once the naturalist’s 
love of detail and the philosopher’s fond- 
ness for large problems. 

Truth in matters of science attracted 
him for much the same reason that made 
him love fidelity of conduct; for through 
both the individual human life is kept in 
closer touch with the life of the universe. 
He loved to dwell on whatever showed that 
human nature is deep-rooted in universal 
nature, the outcome of a long process of 
evolution. Those who gained the great 
privilege of close acquaintance with him 
found, beneath a thousand other things, a 
deep reverence for humanity, and learned 
that a great zeal for the dignity and eleva- 
tion of his fellow men was the center of his 
life. It seems strange that a man so 
strongly imbued with a feeling for others 
as to have been the center of a warm affec- 
tion in his wide circle of friends, so effect- 
ive in reaching others as to have impressed 


872 


his personality on college and community 
more profoundly than any Harvard teacher 
of his generation, should have sometimes 
been overcome by the hopelessness of try- 
ing to express one’s personality at all. 
This but reveals the delicate elements of 
his inmost character; a warmth of emotion 
hardly to be expected of one prevailinely 
so cheerful, a sensitiveness to misunder- 
standings and estrangements hardly to be 
looked for in so aggressive a man. These 
qualities only made him the more humane 
in his dealings, and led him to set a higher 
value on whatever might help towards sym- 
pathy and mutual knowledge. Hence he 
urged the deliberate study of men all 
through the gamut of human qualities, 
from those who are held in prisons to those 
who dwell in palaces; for he knew the profit 
as well as the difficulty of such study, and 
he regretted that the segregating action of 
a highly developed social order should re- 
quire men commonly to know only those 
who are of about their own grade. ‘‘Per- 
sonally,’’ he wrote, ‘‘I value what I have 
been so fortunate as to gain of acquaint- 
ance with very diverse sorts of men more 
highly than all else that I have won in the 
way of knowledge.’’ That is a summary 
of Shaler’s life-work in his own words. It 
is a happiness to know that he thus valued 
what he gained from others, for so we all, 
officers, students and friends of the uni- 
versity, and countless others in the great 
outer world besides, may feel that we made 
some return for the great gain that we 
have had in knowing him. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Dr. J. Frick’s Physical Technique. Seventh 
edition. By Dr. Orro LeHMANN. Vieweg, 
Brunswick. 1905. Vol. I., Part II. 


This publication completes Volume I. of 
the seventh edition of this well-known work, 
the first part of which was reviewed in this 
magazine (Volume XX., p. 670, 1904). This 


SCIENCE. 


[N.. Vou. XXIII. No. 597. 


second part of the first volume contains ex- 
actly 1,000 pages and is enriched by nearly 
2,000 illustrations. : 

The first part of this first volume was de- 
voted largely to a description of the necessary 
equipment of a physical laboratory, together 
with a description in detail of various tech- 
nical processes such as soldering, glass blow- 
ing, construction of delicate apparatus, ete. 
This second part begins with an ‘ introduction 
to physical demonstrations,’ which is followed 
by twelve chapters devoted to the various sub- 
divisions of mechanics and heat. 

In the introduction the author begins by 
stating what he considers to be the object of 
physics, and by describing the method fol- 
lowed by him in presenting the matter to his 
classes. The first subject treated, therefore, 
is that of forces, which is followed by a de- 
seription of the meaning of units of length, 
time and mass, each of these being accom- 
panied by rather elaborate descriptions of the 
best methods of making measurements. With- 
out going into details, it may be interesting 
to state the order in which the subjects of 
physies are taken up. These are as fol- 
lows: statics, solid bodies, hydrostatics, fluids, 
aerostatics, gases, temperature, quantity of 
heat, dynamics, hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, 
thermodynamics. Under the head of each of 
these, lecture experiments are described in 
full, which are designed to illustrate the 
varied phenomena and at the same time to 
enable measurements of the various quantities 
to be made on a large scale before the classes. 
The author attempts to give in each case in- 
formation concerning the experiments and 
apparatus, so that, if a laboratory is not 
equipped with the apparatus as furnished by 
the large commercial houses, it is possible for 
the instructor himself to make simple and 
accurate apparatus. In some respects the 
book is a most admirable text-book for classes, 
and no one can read it without gaining much 
information in regard to both the theoretical 
and the practical side of the subject. 

One has only words of praise to say of the 
object of the work, of the manner in which 
this has been carried out by. the author, and 
of the admirable spirit in which the publisher 


JuNE 8, 1906.] 


has fulfilled his share of the work. It must 
be confessed, however, that one misses in 
every chapter, almost on every page, a refer- 
ence to the work which has been done on 
similar lines by the famous teachers and lec- 
turers of England and America. It is doubt- 
less true that the apparatus described in this 
book is that most generally available for Ger- 
man teachers; but in countless cases various 
improvements made by lecturers of other 
countries would be of great advantage in the 
teaching of physics in German institutions. 


Miiller-Powillet, Lehrbuch der Physik. Edited 
by Leoponp Praunpter. ‘Tenth edition. 
Volume I. Vieweg, Brunswick. 1905. 

In this tenth edition of this well-known 
standard book on physics, the editor has re- 
ceived the cooperation, in various chapters, of 
Lummer, Wassmuth, -Perntner, Drucker, 
Kaufmann and Nippoldt, and undoubtedly the 
entire work when it is published will be much 
more complete than in the past. In the vol- 
ume before us, which is devoted to ‘ Mechanics 
and Acoustics,’ the number of pages and num- 
ber of illustrations are less than in the pre- 
vious edition; but the size of -the pages has 
been enlarged, and the illustrations are all 
that could be desired. The book is designed 
not specially for students of physics, but for 
students of natural history, medicine and 
pharmacy as well, and also for use by makers 
and designers of physical apparatus. It fulfils 
its purpose admirably, giving many interest- 
ing details in regard to the construction of the 
apparatus and the theory of the experiments. 

In this first volume it is impossible to give 
unlimited praise, owing to the almost complete 
absence of reference to the work of English 
students, and also to the fact that so few 
references are given to recent work. To a 
student who wishes to become acquainted with 
the main phenomena of physics, and who is 
not specially imterested in the most recent 
theories, this volume will prove most valuable. 
The former edition of this treatise on physics 
_ has long filled a place of its own in all li- 
braries, and it is undoubtedly true that the 
present edition will be even more acceptable. 


J. S. Amzs. 


SCIENCE. 


873 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Tur May number of the Journal of Nervous 
and Mental Disease opens with a study of 
cerebellar tumors and their treatment by 
Drs. J. J. Putnam and G. A. Waterman. A 
number of operations for the relief of such 
tumors are reported, in three of which the 
results were decidedly satisfactory. Dr. E. 
B. Angell contributes a paper on hypesthesia 
and hypalgesia and their significance in func- 
tional nervous disturbances, and under the 
title, ‘The Coming of Psychasthenia’ Dr. 
Blumer discusses the importance of nomen- 
clature in nervous and mental disease and 
advocates the adoption of Janet’s ‘ Psychas- 
thenia.’ 


THE first attempt to list and classify the 
Diptera of Minnesota has been made this year 
in the shape of the Annual Report of the 
Minnesota State Entomologist. The report is 
illustrated with drawings of various species of 
flies and two excellent colored plates. Since 
this work has come from the press seventy-five 
additional species have been collected within 
the boundaries of the state. These have been 
named and listed, and sent to entomologists 
and others likely to be interested. Any one 
who has not already received the report and 
the appendix who desires them can obtain the 
same by writing to Mr: F. L. Washburn, State 
Experiment Station, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 
Cloth-bound report requires eight cents for 
postage, paper-bound copies six cents. 


Tuer Gebriider Borntraiger, of Halle, an- 
nounce the publication of a Zeitschrift fir 
Gletcherkunde, which is to be the organ of 
International Glacier Commission and will 
be edited by Professor Edouard Briickner, of 
the University of Halle. The journal will 
appear at irregular intervals, the subscription 
price being sixteen Marks for a volume of 
five numbers. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

Tue club met on April 25 in the museum 
building at the New York Botanical Garden. 
President Rusby presided and there was an 
attendance of sixteen. 


874 


Notice of the coming botanical symposium 
to be held from July 2 to 9, 1906, at Mountain 
Lodge, Little Moose Lake, Old Forge, N. Y., 
was read. 

Mr. H. A. Gleason presented a paper illus- 
trated by many photographs, on ‘Some Phy- 
togeographical Features of the Prairies.’ 

An eastern extension of the great western 
prairies reaches across Iowa into Illinois and 
Indiana and portions of the adjoining states. 
Its flora is characterized by large numbers of 
western plants, although a majority of the 
species are of eastern distribution and consti- 
tute a derived element of the flora. The origin 
of the prairies has been. referred to the char- 
acter of the soil, the distribution and amount 
of rainfall, the direction of the prevailing 
winds, the grazing of bison and to forest fires. 
Each of these has probably had some influ- 
ence in accelerating or retarding the invasion 
of the prairie or forest after the retreat of the 
continental ice sheet, but the most important 
factor of all is historical rather than physical 
in nature. At the close of the glacial period 
the territory since occupied by prairies was 
opened first to invasion from the southwest, a 
region of climatic prairies, and subsequently 
to invasion from the climatic forests of the 
southeast. The two floras, on meeting, ad- 
justed themselves to each other and to the 
physical factors of the environment, so that 
the forests occupied the bluffs and valleys 
along the streams, and the prairies the high 
lands between them. The climate and soil 
were adapted to the growth of the forest, so 
that, until extensive cultivation was begun, 
the prairie was gradually being displaced. 

A comparatively restricted area along the 
Illinois River is occupied by sand deposits 
covered with a vegetation essentially similar 
to that of the sand-hill region of Nebraska, 
and entirely different from that of the dunes 
at the head of Lake Michigan. 

After an interesting discussion of Mr. Glea- 
son’s paper, Dr. Rusby exhibited various plants 
used as food by the Indians. Among these 
were young shoots of the cat-tail, specimens 
of bitter-root used by the Indians of the north- 
west, and Kouse—which consists of several 
species of Lomatium (L. Canbyi and L. Kous) 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


and is an important article of Indian diet. 
Dr. Rusby also spoke of the use by the Indians 
of the young buds of the beech tree, which are 
edible, when cooked, at any date after the first 
of January. 

Dr. N. L. Britton exhibited fruits of the 
palm Acrocomia media Cook, recently col- 
lected by him in Porto Rico,, and remarked 
on the relationships and distribution of this 
species, referring to the fine specimen of the 
plant growing in the palm collections of the 
garden, brought by Mr. Perey Wilson from 
that island several years ago. He stated that 
his observations on this tree showed that the 
trunk does not invariably bulge above the base 
as thought by Mr. Cook at the time he de- 
scribed the species (Bull. Torrey Club, 28: 
566), a small proportion of the trees being 
quite columnar from the base up. He further 
reported that the Acrocomia of St. Kitts, 
collected by Mr. Cowell and himself in 1901 
is identical with the Porto Rico species, and 
that it also occurs on the French Antilles, as 
illustrated by specimens received from Pére 
Duss. The tree is altogether different from 
the spindle-shaped Acrocomia fusiformis of 
Cuba, and seems to be more closely related to 
the Jamaican A. aculeata. 

C. Stuart Gacer, 
Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 617th meeting was held on April 7, 
1906, with President Abbe in the chair. 

Mr. W. D. Lambert presented ‘A General- 
ized Trigonometric Solution of the Cubic.’ 

In the trigonometric solution of the cubic 
each case is solved by a device peculiar to 
itself. If an attempt is made to apply any 
method to a ease for which it is not intended 
the angles corresponding to the trigonometric 
functions become complex or imaginary. I, 
however, we have a means of calculating these 
angles from tables of trigonometric and hyper- 
bolic functions the method could be general- 
ized, and would apply even when the coefi- 
cients are complex. Expressions—not new, 
but not generally known—for the angle cor- 
responding to a complex sine were deduced. 
By the use of these, the method heretofore 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


confined to the ‘irreducible case’ will apply 
to all cubies, and for numerical calculation 
- this process is as short as any other trigono- 
metric solution, and has the advantages of a 
uniform procedure. If, in order to use only 
trigonometric functions, we introduce the 
auxiliary Gudermannian angle to calculate 
the hyperbolic functions that occur, the for- 
mulas reduce, in the case of real coefficients, 
to the ones commonly given for cases other 
than the irreducible. 

Mr. A. Press spoke by invitation on ‘Some 
Problems in Electrical Design.’ 

The question of heat-flow and temperature- 
rise was dealt with for the direct-current 
dynamo, the alternater, turbo-alternater and 
induction motor. It was shown that each 
type of machine comprises an entirely dif- 
ferent physical problem, and that the enor- 
mous discrepancies between ordinary theory 
and practise rested on an incomplete applica- 
tion of Fourier’s theorem of conservation of 
heat-flow. The closed types of machines were 
also pointed out as again offering a new series 
of problems. 

With respect to sound problems of dynamo 
electric apparatus very little work had been 
done, although a satisfactory theory of these 
phenomena would be greatly welcomed by the 
engineering profession. In all probability 
there were radial vibrations set up in the 
lamin of the cores, and, by virtue of the 
alternating character of the air-flow stream 
lines in the cores, sounds induced thereby 
superimposed upon the other sounds gave the 
chief characteristic difference between the 
kind of note emitted by the alternating types 
of machines and that by direct current types. 
There were problems of air-flow that also 


needed elucidation. These latter had in- 
timate relationship with temperature-rise 
problems. The method of attack in factory 


work has necessarily to be modified in accord- 
ance with whatever tests have already been 
made, rather than have the experiments made 
to comply with some preconceived plan. In 
consequence of this the physical constants 
may be very wide of the truth. 

Problems dealing with the determination of 
self-induction and resistance for very high 


SCIENCE. 


875 


frequencies (2,000 per second) had also to be 
attacked. As far as known only two types of 
conductor-arrangements have been completely 
solved. ‘They are, respectively, the round con- 
ductor in free air and the rectangular con- 
ductor surrounded on three sides by iron. 
Frictional problems were also discussed, air 
friction and bearing friction being more spe- 
cifically dealt with. 

This paper led to an interesting discussion, 
especially with respect to the relative con- 
tributions made by the theoretical students of 
electricity and the constructors of machinery. 

Informally Mr. White spoke of the galvan- 
ometer as a motor. 


THe meeting falling due on April 21 was 
omitted on account of the meeting on April 
20 and 21 of the American Physical Society. 
A luncheon was served by the Philosophical 
Society on Saturday at the Bureau of Stand- 
ards, and in the evening a dinner in honor of 
Professor H. A. Lorentz, of Leyden, was at- 
tended by about fifty persons. Vice-president 
Bauer presided and Professor Newcomb was 
toastmaster. 


Tue 618th meeting was held on May 5, 
1906. 

It was announced that the society had ac- 
cepted an invitation to be represented at the 
semicentennial celebration of the St. Louis 
Academy of Sciences on March 10, and had 
appointed Dr. W J McGee to represent it; a 
brief report from him was read and the medal 
sent by the academy was exhibited. Also the 
invitation to be represented at the bicentennial 
Franklin celebration in Philadelphia on April 
18-20 had been accepted and the president 
had been appointed in response to it; he made 
an oral report. 

Mr. W. J. Humphreys described some ‘ Re- 
cent Experiments on Are Spectra under Heavy 
Pressures.’ The Zeeman effect leads to the 
conclusion that an atom must have a magnetic 
field; therefore, a change in pressure should 
cause a change in the spectrum. ‘The older 
experiments with high pressures were very 
unsatisfactory, being tedious and the are un- 
steady. The speaker used a steel bomb, with 
a quartz window and a rotating electrode, and 


876 


a Rowland concave grating with photographic 
appliances; the work was comparatively rapid 
and the results highly accurate. Nearly all 
the metals had been used. The displacement 
of the lines toward the red as the pressure in- 
ereased came out very clearly in the lantern 
slides and the magnitude of the shift was 
stated to be related to the periodic law. 

Mr. N. E. Dorsey discussed ‘A Possible 
Relation connecting Surface Tension, Mol- 
ecular Weight and Dielectric Constant.’ He 
pointed out that KM°T/D* is of the same 
order of magnitude for all the liquids for 
which sufficient data are obtainable, and gave 
reasons for suspecting that such should be the 
ease. Here K =dielectric constant, T= sur- 
face tension, 1 molecular weight and D= 
density. 

The president presented informally the un- 
solved physical problem of the formation of 
_ hailstones. Cuartes K. Wea, 
Secretary. 


THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

Tue 164th meeting was held on Tuesday 
evening, March 13, at 7:30 o’clock. Dr. F. P. 
Venable, president of the university, addressed 
the society on ‘The Progress of Chemical 
Research in the United States. Dr. Venable 
gave this address recently in New Orleans 
before the American Chemical Society as its 
retiring president. 

The 165th meeting was held on Tuesday 
evening, April 10, at 7:30 o’clock. Professor 
William Cain, professor of mathematics and 
a civil engineer, gave the society a most in- 
teresting account of ‘The Panama Canal.’ 

The 166th meeting was held on Tuesday 
evening, May 8, at 7:30 o’clock. The follow- 
ing papers were given: 

Mr. N. C. Curtis: ‘An Architectural Scheme 
for the University Buildings.’ 

Proressor C. H. Herty: ‘Recent Work in 
Osmosis.’ A. S. WHEELER, 

Recording Secretary. 


THE MISSOURI SOCIETY OF TEACHERS OF 
MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE. 
Tue second annual meeting of the Missouri 
Society of Teachers of Mathematics was held 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


in Columbia, Mo., May 5, 1906. This society 
was organized a little over a year ago exclu- 
sively for teachers of mathematics. In re- 
sponse to the request of many teachers of 
science steps were taken which resulted in 
the adoption at the last meeting of amend- 
ments to the constitution, enlarging the scope 
of the society so as to include teachers of 
science, and providing for meetings of a divi- 
sion of mathematics and a division of science 
in addition to joint meetings. Provision was 
made to send delegates to cooperate in the 
completion of the organization of a national 
society. A committee was appointed to coop- 
erate with committees from similar societies 
to discuss matters relating to instruction in 
elementary physics. 

The program of the day consisted of a 
business meeting and a forenoon and after- 
noon meeting of each of the two divisions. 
Mr. H. C. Harvey, of Kirksville, presided at 
the business meeting and at the division of 
mathematics. Mr. F. N. Peters presided at 
the division of science. Mr. J. W. Withers 
was elected president for the coming year. 
In addition to individual papers in each divi- 
sion, a round-table discussion of the teaching 
of elementary algebra was held which was 
participated in also by a number of teachers 
of physics. On the whole, a very encouraging 
interest was manifested in the work of the 
society. 

A complete program and abstracts of the 
papers presented will be published in School 
Science and Mathematics, the official organ of 
the society. 

L. D. Amzs, 


Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND OORRESPONDENCE. 


A PLEA TO MAKE THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
A NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH. 


THERE is great need in this country to-day 
of a place where advanced investigators can 
go, as they can to the great German universi- 
ties, and carry out researches in an atmosphere 
of investigation, such as is only created by 
the friction of young and vigorous but trained 
intellects. 

In our universities the pedagogic element is 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


predominant to a degree quite unknown in the 
German university and the body of investiga- 
tors in them in any one field is too small to 
ereate that which is the most stimulating 
thing in all research—an atmosphere of in- 
vestigation. 

I venture to say that there is not a single 
American investigator who has occupied one 
of the tables of the Smithsonian Institution 
at Naples (in that wonderful research labora- 
tory of the Biological Station) who will not 
bear me out when I state that the stimulus 
of research of that institution comes from the 
contact that is there encouraged between the 
investigators of all Europe. 

Any institution composed only of a number 
of men with fixed salaries will gradually be- 
come conservative and cease to be productive 
of great results. It is the young men with 
the spur of ambition and necessity that create 
new things in science. 

Why not recognize this great factor and do 
for science what West Point has done for the 
army? Let the Smithsonian Institution start 
the movement and get together from the vari- 
ous states a hundred picked men who do not 
want to be taught but each one of whom has 
an idea of his own that he is anxious to work 
out in an atmosphere that is stimulating to 
research, and where he can be in close touch 
with other minds that are interested in sim- 
ilar lines of work or at least are broad enough 
to grasp the importance of the problem that 
he is absorbed in. 

Spend all the money necessary in the selec- 
tion of these men. Organize the machinery 
by which this selection is done and, if it is 
advisable, apportion them out among the dif- 
ferent states and make the senators respon- 
sible for those from their states. Have each 
applicant present a definite problem to be 
solved and in addition, by references and ex- 
amination, if necessary, show his fitness to 
hold a table in the institution. In addition, 
appoint a committee that shall make a study 
of each applicant proposed for admission and 
let their decision as to the man’s fitness for 
the place be final. Give this committee every 
faeility to study the problem of selecting men 


SCIENCE. 


877 


who have the sacred fire of the investigator in 
them. 

Have each table fully equipped with all the 
necessary apparatus and give to each state 
investigator a sum of money each year that 
he ean live on comfortably. 

Fix the terms of occupancy of the tables at 
two years, but give to the board of directors 
the right to retain for two years longer such 
men as in their estimation have shown marked 
ability or whose researches are of suflicient 
promise though not completed to warrant a 
longer stay. 

Get men of prominence in the various lines 
of research as permanent investigators, with 
the understanding that they are not to be 
teachers but will be given the means with 
which to carry on their investigations, at the 
same time imposing on them the work of keep- 
ing up the spirit of the institution, and assist- 
ing in the details of its administration by 
means of board meetings just as colleges are 
managed. 

Divorce from the Smithsonian Institution the 
museum idea. Create a separate office to have 
charge of the collections and the expositions 
of applied science and put in this office a man 
whose tastes are those of an administrator. 

Once separate, the Smithsonian Institution 
proper should become the great national insti- 
tute of research and to be at its head should 
be a compliment not only to scientific accom- 
plishment but to one’s devotion to the great 
spirit of discovery. 

The man for the head of an institution of 
research such as I have deseribed would be 
one preeminent in his line of work but in 
addition, like the great Ostwald, of Leipzig, 
a believer in the great value of free laboratory 


discussion. Davin FaimcHinp. 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
A MACHINE FOR COMPOUNDING SINE CURVES.” 


THE instrument about to be described was 
designed primarily for use in a class in alter- 
nating currents. It has proved itself well 


+ Presented before the American Physical So- 
ciety, February 24, 1906. 


878 


adapted for this purpose, and might perhaps 
also be employed to advantage in illustrating 
some of the wave-forms that occur in other 
branches of physics. It does not compound 
simultaneously a large number of curves of 
different periods, as does the machine of 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 597. 


harmonic, and can be quickly adjusted to give. 
any desired amplitude and phase relation. 
The curves are large enough to be seen dis- 
tinctly from all parts of a good-sized lecture 
room. The whole instrument is very compact 
and easily portable. Much praise is due to 


R 


Fig. 1. 


Mach, Michelson’s harmonic analyzer, or the 
arrangement recently devised by Lord Ray- 
leigh for illustrating the nature of white 
light. It is, however, capable of drawing 
accurately the resultant of a fundamental sine 
curve and either its second, third or fifth 


* Pogg. Ann., 129, p. 464, 1866. 

‘A brief description of the harmonic analyzer 
is given in Michelson’s ‘Light Waves and their 
Uses.’ 

* Phil. Mag., 11, p. 127, January, 1906. 


Mr. F. H. J. Newton, the college mechanician, 
for the skill with which he has carried out the 
details of construction. 

Fig. 1 shows front and side elevations of 
the instrument, somewhat simplified for clear- 
ness. Fig. 2 is from a photograph of the 
entire instrument. The lettering is identical 
in both figures. 

A hard rubber dise A 21 ecm. in diameter, 
mounted at the end of a horizontal shaft, 
carries a smaller dise B, to which a short pin 


June 8, 1906.] 


P is attached. P fits in a slot in a movable 
horizontal bar 8, to which is rigidly attached 
the vertical rod R. The latter slides up and 
down inside-a slotted tube U (Fig. 2), so that 
the vertical component .of the motion of P is 
transmitted to a pencil mounted on # at T. 
A large gear wheel G mounted on the shaft 
O (Fig. 2) engages in a rack on the under 


SCIENCE. 


879 


A. If the pin P is set so as to lie in the axis 
Q, around which B rotates, the fundamental 
curve of amplitude OQ will be traced. For 
any ether position of P, the second, third or 
fifth harmonic, of amplitude PQ, is super- 
posed upon the fundamental curve. When 
the disc B is shifted so as to make the dis- 
tance OQ equal to zero, the harmonic alone is 


edge of a vertical board, 66 x 31 em., to which 
a sheet of paper is fastened. When the shaft 
is turned by means of a crank, the board is 
advanced horizontally between wooden guides 
and the pencil 7 traces a curve, whose form 
depends upon the setting of the dises A and B. 

By means of gearing to be described pres- 
ently, the dise B can be made to rotate either 
two, three or five times for each revolution of 


Any phase relation can be produced 


drawn. 
between the fundamental curve and its har- 
monic. 

Fig. 1 shows the train of gear wheels that 


rotate the disc B. a represents a stationary 
two-inch (5.08 em. diameter) gear wheel 
serewed to the bearing through which the 
shaft O passes. The teeth of this wheel en- 
gage those of a second gear wheel b of the 


880 


same size, which is rigidly attached to a short 
shaft WM passing through the dise A. At the 
other side of A are mounted side by side on 
this shaft three gear wheels, of pitch diameters 
7.62, 8.12 and 8.71 em., respectively. These 
engage three smaller wheels, of diameters 2.54, 
9.03 and 1.45 em., which are mounted loosely 
on the shaft Q of the disc B. A pin C fitting 


in a longitudinal slot cut in this shaft can be 


thrust in or pulled out, so as to lock any one 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


OQ any desired value from zero to twice OM. 
NN is clamped to the brass plate F', which is 
serewed to the dise A and is-so shaped as to 
bridge over the gear wheels, bringing the axis 
of NN in line with the axis M. The plate F 
is partly visible in Fig. 2. It will be noticed 
that the sizes of the three concentric gears on 
shaft Q, and of the three corresponding gears 
on shaft M, are such that MQ is 5.08 cm., 
the same as OM. The period of the funda- 


— 
S—— 


if 
i Se 


Fig. 3. 


of the three small gears on to the shaft. In 
the front elevation (Fig. 1) only one of the 
three pairs of gears is represented. When the 
dise A is rotated, the gear b rolls around on a, 
and, as is seen from the relative diameters of 
the two sets of gears mentioned above, the 
disc B is caused to rotate two, three or five 
times for each turn of A, according to the 
setting of pin C. 

The shaft Q is carried by the arm NN, 
which can be swung around M as a center 
and clamped so as to give to the distance 


mental curve is represented by a distance of ; 
48 cm. on the paper. 

The pin P, instead of being attached di- 
rectly to the disc B, is held by a small brass 
block that slides in a grooye on the bridge H 
which spans the dise. Space is left below this 
bridge for the pin that locks the gears on 
shaft Q, and the pin P can readily be clamped 
so as to give to the harmonic wave any ampli- 
tude up to 8 em. The bridge is provided with 
a set of graduations. To adjust the phase of 
the harmonic, it is only necessary to loosen 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


two screws DD on the dise B, when the bridge 
can be swung around on Q as a center as far 
as is desired. 

To aid in setting the amplitude of the 
fundamental curve, a series of graduations is 
provided on a dise carried by the swinging 
arm JV, which enables the distance OQ to be 
read off directly (see Fig. 2). Before a curve 
is drawn, the dise A may be rotated so as to 
begin with any desired phase of the funda- 
mental. Great care has been taken to avoid 
unnecessary backlash on the part of the vari- 
ous gears, so that the curves are practically 
free from any irregularity due to this cause. 

The two side posts marked V in Fig. 2 
serve as guides to keep the bar S parallel to 
the paper. The bent rod H can be swung 
around so as to hold 8 in its mean position. 
A base-line can then be drawn by simply 
sliding the board along without rotating the 
discs. Im drawing curves before a class, the 
lecturer stands behind the instrument. For 
ease in making adjustments, the machine is 
mounted on a swivel, so that it can be rotated 
about a vertical axis, adjusted and turned to 
face the class again.’ A pencil of soft graphite 
is most convenient for drawing curves, though 
a pen can be used. The curves reproduced in 
Fig. 3 were obtained directly with pens made 
from glass tubing. 

In Fig. 3 I. represents a group of second 
harmonics of various amplitudes and phases. 
Any one of these might, of course, be com- 
bined with the fundamental curve. In II. 
the third harmonic is drawn alone, then com- 
pounded with the fundamental; and in III. 
and IV. similar curves for the fifth harmonic 
are seen. 


W. G. Capy. 
Scorr LABORATORY OF PHYSICS, 
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE TEACHING PROFESSION. 


No greater evil could befall the educational 
system of this country than that of becoming 
definitely crystallized into the type of organ- 
ization exemplified by mercantile and cor- 
porate enterprise. The evil is imminent, and 
sometimes seems inevitable, so pervasive are 


SCIENCE. 


881 


the influences that tend to make educational 
administration a matter of business, and so 
persuasive is the argument from analogy when 
addressed to ears predisposed by every familiar 
association to accept its validity. Material 
and commercial modes of thinking prevail so 
largely in our national consciousness, and im- 
pose themselves so masterfully upon our nar- 
rowed imagination, that most people are ready 
to accept without hesitation their extension 
into the domain of our intellectual concerns, 
particularly into that of the great concern of 
education. Why, it is naively asked, why 
should not the methods that we apply with 
such pronounced success to the management 
of a bank or a railway prove equally efficient 
in the management of a system of schools or 
a university? Why should there not result 
from their employment here the same sort of 
efficiency that results from their employment 
elsewhere? Why should not the educational 
fruits of autocratic control, centralized ad- 
ministration and the hierarchical gradation 
of responsibility and authority be similar to 
their fruits in the field of commercial activity ? 

These questions are not difficult to answer, 
but it is difficult to frame the answer in terms 
that the successful man of affairs will find. 
intelligible. The subject is one that he ap- 
proaches with a prejudiced mind, although his 
bias is not so much due to perversity as to 
sheer inability to realize the fundamental 
nature of the question at issue. He is so 
fixed in the commercial way of looking at 
organized enterprise that he can not so shift 
his bearings as to occupy, even temporarily, 
the professional point of view. Now the idea 
of professionalism lies at the very core of 
educational endeavor, and whoever engages in 
educational work fails of his purpose in just 
so far as he fails to assert the inherent pre- 
rogatives of his calling. He becomes a hire- 
ling, in fact if not in name, when he suffers, 
unprotesting, the deprivation of all initiative, 
and contentedly plays the part of a cog in a 
mechanism whose motions are controlled from 
without. Yet the tendency in our country 
is to-day strongly set toward the recognition 
of this devitalized system of educational ac- 
tivity as suitable and praiseworthy, and the 


882 


spirit of professionalism in teaching is en- 
gaged in what is nothing less than a life-and- 
death struggle. When a university president 
or a school principal can indulge unrebuked 
in the insufferable arrogance of such an 
expression as ‘my faculty’ or ‘one of my 
teachers,’ when school trustees are capable of 
calling superintendents and principals and 
teachers ‘employees, it is time to consider 
the matter somewhat seriously, and to inquire 
into the probable consequences of so gross a 
misconception of the nature of educational 
service. 

There is one general consequence which 
subsumes all the others. It is that young 
men of character and self-respect will refuse 
to engage in the work of teaching (except as 
a makeshift) as long as the authorities in 
charge of education remain blind to the pro- 
fessional character of the occupation, and deal 
with those engaged in it as objects of sus- 
picion, or, at best, as irresponsible and un- 
practical theorists whose actions must be kept 
constantly under control and restricted by all 
manner of limitations and petty regulations. 
Membership in a profession implies a certain 
franchise, an emancipation from dictation, 
and a degree of liberty in the exercise of 
judgment, which most members of the teach- 
ing profession find are denied them by 
the prevalent forms of educational organiza- 
tion. And the denial is made the more ex- 
asperating by the consciousness that these 
rights (which are elementary and should be 
inalienable) are withheld by persons whose 
tenure of authority is more apt to be based 
upon the executive energy or the ability of 
the schemer or the success of the man of 
practical affairs than upon expert acquaint- 
ance with the conditions of educational work. 
The ‘business’? president or administrative 
board is bad enough, and the ‘ political’ presi- 
dent or board is worse; yet upon the anything 
but tender mercies of the one or the other 
most men who deyote their lives to the noble 
work of teaching must in large measure de- 
pend. 

The inevitable consequence of this condi- 
tion is, as we have said, that a process of 
natural selection is constantly tending to 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 597. 


drive the most capable men into professions 
which may be pursued upon professional 
terms, and to make the teaching profession 
more and more the resort of the poor in spirit, 
to whom the words of the Beatitude must have 
a distinctly ironical ring. To become a 
teacher in this country is, except in the case 
of a few favored institutions or systems, to 
subordinate one’s individuality to a mechan- 
ism, and to expose one’s self-respect to indig- 
nities of a peculiarly wanton sort. It is no 
wonder that the young man of parts is not 
over-anxious to enter a profession so forbid- 
ding to every professional instinct, and that 
he turns aside from the educational field, 
however strong his natural inclination to enter 
it, when he gets sight of the artificial obstacles 
to its proper cultivation. 

It is often urged that the money rewards of 
the teaching profession are insufficient to at- 
tract to it the better class of men. This is 
undoubtedly true up to a certain point, but 
to insist upon it overmuch is to take a more 
cynical view of human nature than we are 
willing to take. Inadequate compensation is 
a grievous fault of our educational provision, 
but it is not so grievous as the faults that 
undermine professional self-respect, and sap 
educational vitality at its very root. Yet 
these graver faults are easily remediable, and 
would be promptly remedied if we could once 
rid ourselves of the obsession of the commer- 
cial or military type of administrative organi- 
zation. If the educational laborer is worthy 
of his hire, he is even more worthy of the 
trust and confidence that necessarily apper- 
tain to his delicate and specialized duties, 
and to refuse him these is to degrade his 
effort into the mere journeyman’s task. The 
whole question of the relative importance of 
compensation and consideration was thus 
stated by one of the speakers at the [linois 
Trustees’ Conference of last October: “ Young 
men of power and ambition scorn what should 
be reckoned the noblest of professions, not 
because that profession condemns them to 
poverty, but because it dooms them to a sort 
of servitude. * * * The problem is not one 
of wages; for no university can become rich 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


enough to buy the independence of any man 
who is really worth purchasing.” 

The more closely the business analogy is 
examined the more apparent is its failure to 
fit the conditions of education. Efficiency in 
business is achieved by the subordination of 
individual initiative to centralized direction. 
A highly capable manager makes all the plans, 
and transmits his ideas, through his heads of 
departments, to the host of workers, who are 
expected to do exactly as they are told. Now 
this arrangement, entirely proper in a depart- 
ment store or a railway company, becomes 
almost worthless when fitted to a university 
or a system of public schools, for here the one 
essential factor of success is that the teachers, 
who are in this case the host of workers, 
should be left unhampered by specific direc- 
tions, and free to apply their own specialized 
intelligence to their work. Every attempt to 
shape that work from above, except in such 
mechanical or formal matters as the allotment 
of duties and the arrangement of programs, 
especially every attempt to impose tests or 
dictate concerning methods, is likely to work 
direct injury, and is certain in time to elim- 
inate from the body of workers the very per- 
sons whom it is most desirable to retain. For 
it can not be said too often or too emphatically 
that teaching is the personal concern of in- 
structor and student, and that any meddling 
with this delicate and intimate relation will 
work much more mischief than good. So the 
commercial ideal of high-priced imperious 
management and low-priced docile labor can 
have no place in educational work, where the 
ideal should be rather that of cordial coopera- 
tion between all the forces engaged, with the 
distinct admission that educational policy (as 
far as such a thing is found desirable) must 
proceed from the established teaching relation 
rather than from the doctrinaire mandate of 
the executive theorist. 

We know very well the clamorous objections 
that will be raised against the fundamental 
propositions above outlined. ‘Chaos is come 
again’ will be the outery whenever education 
is sought to be rearranged upon these condi- 
tions. To such rigidity of mind haye the 
majority of educational leaders been reduced 


SCIENCE. 


883 


by the ideal of regimentation and the fetich- 
worship of system and uniformity that they 
are honestly incapable of realizing the indi- 
vidualist attitude or of sympathizing with the 
more humane and rational principles which 
we have endeavored to set forth. Jealous 
enough of professional privilege on their own 
account, they take a slighting view of the 
equally valid claims to professional considera- 
tion made by the body of actual teachers. 
They are so impressed by their smoothly- 
working machinery as to forget completely 
that the fashioning of souls is a very different 
affair from the manufacture of watches or 
other products of the mechanic arts. To their 
view, the alternative offered in place of their 
elaborate systems of executive control and the 
graded devolution of authority may well seem 
to deserve the name of chaos, but intelligent 
minds will not be terrified by a word which 
means, in this instance and in the last an- 
alysis, nothing more than a recognition of the 
fact that teachers and students are alike in- 
dividuals, and that prescription en masse is 
the poorest possible way of dealing with diffi- 
culties that concern individuals alone. 
Aside from the ery of chaos, every plea for 
the rehabilitation of the teaching profession 
is sure to be met by the assertion that large 
numbers of those engaged in it are unfit for 
the burden of professional responsibility. 
This is probably true. Jt would be surprising 
if it were not true, when we consider the 
meagerness of the rewards hitherto held out 
to the rank and file of the profession, and the 
constant growth of the regulative tendency 
which unfailingly operates to deter the best 
men from becoming teachers, and to drive 
from the ranks the best of those already en- 
listed. The situation, moreover, as respects 
the sort of ability, the type of outstanding 
personality, most to be desired, tends con- 
stantly to grow worse rather than better 
through the continuous operation of the same 
malign influences. But was there ever a more 
vicious circle of argument than that which 
defends the persistence in a system productive 
of such unfortunate results by urging that 
the personnel of the profession has now been 
brought so low that the restoration of its in- 


884 


herent rights would entail disastrous conse- 
quences? Very possibly it would, and evils 
of this sort might have to be faced, but they 
would be in their nature temporary, and not 
nearly as disheartening as the lasting and 
deepening evils involved in the perpetuation 
of an administrative policy which is an affront 
to every professional instinct. Professor 
Joseph Jastrow, in a remarkably forceful 
and enlightened discussion of this subject in 
its bearings upon university administration 
(Science, April 13), puts the whole matter in 
a nutshell when he declares for the substitu- 
tion of ‘government by cooperation’ for ‘ gov- 
ernment by imposition.’ This is surely the 
ideal toward which everyone having at heart 
the interests of education as a professional 
matter should strive, in fields both high and 
low, and we haye observed numerous recent 
indications of a reaction in this sense from 
the military or corporate ideal which has 
hitherto had things its own way. But the 
enemy is still strongly intrenched, and his 
position will not easily be foreed—The Dial. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

Tun National Geological Survey has prop- 
erly taken alarm at the radical cut which 
Mr. Tawney, the new chairman of the House 
committee, has made in the appropriation for 
its work. He proposes to reduce the annual 
charge from $1,400,000 to $1,050,000, a cut 
which falls with especial severity upon certain 
of the survey’s operations. The allowance for 
the measurement of streams for water-power 
purposes and to aid in settling other questions 
of municipal and domestic importance, in 
which New England is so vitally interested, 
has been cut from $200,000 to half that sum. 
The coal-testing plant at St. Louis, recently 
described in the Transcript, will be asked to 
get along on half rations. The division of 
mineral resources, and the Topographical Sur- 
vey, have also felt the committee’s pruning 
knife. 

While it has long been evident that the 
Geological Survey was expanding far too 
rapidly, in common with various other func- 
tions of government, so radical a cut as this 
is neither necessary nor desirable. .The sur- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 597. 


vey has trained its own scientists for their 
various lines of work, and such a reduction 
as Mr. Tawney proposes would break up a 
corps that could not in years be reassembled. 
In view of the expenditures for war, like the 
$100,000,000 a year in time of profound peace, 
for the navy, it seems little short of ridiculous 
to be disturbed over a great civil establish- 
ment, whose work is counting for civilization 
and progress in a score of directions, at an 
annual cost which equals that of the navy 
for only four days. So long as the govern- 
ment can spend freely for some things, it 
seems unreasonable to hold other agencies 
down to the strict rules of economy. The 
survey is now moving vigorously to get the 
House or, if not that body, certainly the Sen- 
ate, to restore its appropriation, in part, at 
least. Every new chairman of the appropria- 
tions committee makes a similar attempt. 
Mr. Cannon did, when he went into that serv- 
ice, and so did Mr. Hemenway, and now comes 
Mr. Tawney. 

The national irrigation enterprise which is 
conducted by the Geological Survey, though 
not carried in its appropriations, is now at 
full tide. More ditch digging is probably in 
progress under its direction than at Panama, 
for the records show that the reclamation 
service is employing four thousand persons 
directly, and that the contractors working 
under it employ seven thousand more. Irri- 
gation expenses have now reached one million 
dollars a month, paid for by the sales of public 
land, and at this rate expenditure will go on, 
it is safe to predict, for some years. These 
enterprises bring differing problems, and al- 
though no one of them is so difficult as that 
at Panama, they present in the aggregate 
questions to be solved, engineering, mechan- 
ical and financial, probably not less serious 
than at the Isthmus.—T7he Boston Transcript. 


ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 
SUGGESTIONS FOR A THEORY OF THE MILKY WAY 
AND THE CLOUDS OF MAGELLAN. 

Mr. Artuur R. Hings, of Cambridge, Eng- 
land, has published an interesting pamphlet 
on ‘Suggestion for a Theory of the Milky 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


Way and the Clouds of Magellan.’ Mr. Hinks 
contends, and we think with good reason, that 
the facts do not support the Spencerian view, 
that the stars and nebule are so definitely 
separated that they must be regarded as com- 
plementary parts of a general scheme, a view 
which implies the symmetrical condensation 
of stars upon the plane of the Milky Way, 
and of nebule toward its poles. The author 
suggests as a working hypothesis, that the 
stars are distributed in a series of more or 
less independent star clouds about the plane 
of the Milky Way, and the nebule (not 
gaseous), in a series of nebula clouds out of 
the Milky Way, but not symmetrically con- 
densed toward its poles. The Small Magel- 
lanie Cloud becomes by this plan a distant 
star cloud, and the Large Magellanic Cloud, 
a combined star and nebula cloud. The theory 
of Mr. Hinks certainly seems to satisfy recent 
investigations in distribution better than 
older and more rigid schemes. 


THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 

From many standpoints the Magellanic 
Clouds are unique. To the naked eye they 
appear as detached portions of the Milky Way, 
faint luminous clouds which disappear in full 
moonlight. By no means, however, should 
they be regarded as merely irregular exten- 
sions of the Milky Way. They have some 
striking peculiarities. The Milky Way is 
characterized by enormous numbers of faint 
stars and the absence of small nebule in 
general, especially spirals. It has been shown 
by Professor Pickering that the Milky Way 
is probably composed entirely of faint stars of 
the first type, together with the greater part 
of the stars of the fifth type, which are 
numerically unimportant. The type of spec- 
trum of the faint stars of the clouds has not 
been determined, but it is noteworthy that 
all fifth-type stars not found in the Milky 
Way are in the Magellanic Clouds. The 
Small Cloud resembles the Milky Way in the 
large numbers of faint stars and in the pres- 
ence of numerous clusters. It also contains 
few nebul, but one of these is a bright-spiral. 
It is strikingly different from the Milky Way 
in the presence of great numbers of variable 


SCIENCE. 


885 


stars, nearly 1,000 having been found on the 
Harvard plates. The Large Cloud shows less 
tesemblance to the Milky Way. It is true 
that there are great numbers of faint stars, but 
also there are great numbers of faint nebulz. 
These nebule}> however, do not appear to be 
spiral on the Harvard photographs. Variable 
stars are numerous. These clouds apparently 
contain within themselves all the different ele- 
ments of our universe, and may well be im- 
agined to constitute independent galaxies, if 
such exist. 


THE SOLAR ORIGIN OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETIC 
DISTURBANCES. 


It has been believed for a long time that 
terrestrial Magnetic phenomena were more or 
less intimately associated with the sun, but 
Mr. E. Walter Maunder, of the Royal Observa- 
tory at Greenwich, has discovered a new phase 
of the problem which marks an epoch in this 
department of solar and terrestrial physics. 
He has shown conclusively that not only are 
magnetic disturbances related to the sun, but 
also that they are related to the sun’s rotation. 
From a study of magnetic phenomena, extend- 
ing from 1848 to 1903, including 726 disturb- 
ances, he has pointed out that whenever a 
magnetic disturbance occurred when a given 
heliographic longitude was at the center of 
the sun’s apparent dise, there was a tendency 
for another disturbance to follow after one 
revolution of the sun brought again the same 
longitude to the center. So much seems sure. 
Certain conclusions, also, follow from these 
observations : 

1. That the sun’s action, of whatever nature, 
is not from the sun as a whole, but from re- 
stricted areas. 

2. That the sun’s action is not radiated, but 
restricted in direction. 


PHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF THE STELLAR 
MAGNITUDE OF THE SUN. 


In A. N. No. 4065, M. Ceraski, director of 
the Astronomical Observatory of Moscow, 
gives the results of a new determination of the 
stellar magnitude of the sun. The mean 
value obtained is — 26.59. M. Ceraski, how- 
eyer, objects to the use of the term minus for 


886 


stars whose brightness is greater than that cor- 
responding to magnitude zero, and suggests 
instead the word supermagnitude. The sun, 
therefore, becomes 26.59 supermagnitude. 
This value is based upon the Potsdam magni- 
tudes of Polaris, Alpha Canis Min., and 
Sirius, which are 2.15, 0.56 and —1.09. The 
corresponding Harvard magnitudes are 2.12, 
0.48 and —1.58, the use of which would, of 
course, have led to slightly different results. 
The sun sends us about seventeen billion 
times as much light as Sirius, the brightest 
star in the heavens. 


RECENT AND COMING TOTAL ECLIPSES OF THE SUN. 

Tue total eclipse of August 30, 1889, was 
in many respects a favorable one. - Skilled ob- 
servers from various countries took up sta- 
tions at so many widely separated places along 
the belt of totality, that the phenomenon 
could not well escape them all. Although 
clouds prevented observations in Labrador, 
elsewhere—in Spain, Algeria and Egypt—ob- 
servations and photographs were obtained, 
which should increase substantially our knowl- 
edge of the sun, when the results have been 
reduced and compared. 

Professor David P. Todd and Mr. R. H. 
Baker, of the Amherst Observatory, have is- 
sued a pamphlet, calling attention to the next 
favorable eclipse. Although there will be six 
total eclipses during the next six years, that 
of January 13-14, 1907, seems to be most 
favorable. This eclipse, however, presents 
some difficulties, since the track of totality 
lies in Turkestan and Mongolia. Neverthe- 
less, it will doubtless be observed by some en- 
thusiastie astronomers. The duration of 
totality will be about two minutes. 

S. I. Bamey. 


FLUID LENSES. 


A report from Oonsul-General W. A. 
Rublee, at Vienna, states that after experi- 
ments extending over a number of years a 
Hungarian chemist has succeeded in producing 
optical lenses by a simple and cheap process 
that are not only quite as good as the best 
massive glass lenses at present used, but that 
can be manufactured of a size three times as 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 597. 


great as the largest homogeneous glass lens 
heretofore made. 

The importance of this invention in the 
field of astronomy is obviously very consider- 
able. The largest glass lens heretofore manu- 
factured out of massive glass for astronomical 
purposes has a diameter of about 1.50 meters, 
and it required several years to make it, while 
the price was several hundred thousands of 
marks. Such a lens can be manufactured by 
the new process in a few weeks at a cost of 
9,000 or 3,000 marks. The price of a glass 
lens of the best German manufacture, with a 
diameter of 25 centimeters, is now about 7,000 
marks, whereas the price of a similar lens 
made by the new process is about 150 marks. 
Lenses of smaller diameter for photographic 
purposes, for opera glasses, reading glasses, 
ete., can be produced at correspondingly 
smaller cost. The lens consists of a fluid 
substance inclosed between two unusually hard 
glass surfaces, similar to watch crystals, in 
which the refractive power and other charac- 
teristic properties are so chosen that the glass 
surfaces not only serve to hold the fluid, but 
also combine with the fluid to overcome such 
defects as are scarcely to be avoided in ordi- 
nary lenses. It is for this reason also that 
the lens is achromatic. 

The fluid contained in the lens is hermet- 
ically closed, so that no air can enter and ex- 
ercise a damaging effect. The fluid does not 
evaporate, and its composition is such that its 
properties are not affected by time or by tem- 
perature. The coefficient of expansion, both 
of the glass and of the fluid, is approximately 
the same between the temperatures of 15 de- 
grees of cold and 60 degrees of heat. Another 
advantage of the lens is that, on account of 
the fact that the fluid is not dense and the 
glass crystals are thin, the whole lens com- 
bination through which the light must pene- 
trate is very slight. 

These fluid lenses are already manufactured 
in Austria, and are attracting attention both 
on account of their utility and the small price 
at which they are sold. Patents have been 
taken out in other countries, and they are 
soon to be introduced. 


JuNE 8, 1906.] 


THE INTERNATIONAL GEODETIC 
ASSOCIATION. 

THE 15th general conference of the Inter- 
national Geodetic Association will meet in the 
hall of the Academy of Sciences at Budapest 
on September 20, 1906, and the following pro- 
gram has been arranged to cover the work of 
the conference: 


1. Opening of the conference. 

2. Report of the perpetual secretary. 

3. The extension of the convention of 1895 for a 
new period of ten years. 

4. The selection of a committee on finance. 

5. The report of the director of the Central 
Bureau on the work of the bureau during the 
triennial period 1903-1906. 

6. Report on the observations of latitude in the 
northern hemisphere. 

7. Report on the observations of latitude in the 
southern hemisphere. 

8. Discussion on the continuation of the observa- 
tions of latitude. 

9. Report of the Central Bureau on the deter- 
minations of gravity at sea and on the coasts. 

10. General reports. 

(a) On triangulation. 

(b) On the measurement of base lines. 

(ce) On leveling of precision. 

(d) On the measurement of tides. 

(e) On the determination of longitude, latitude 
and azimuth. 

(f) On deflections of the vertical. 

(g) On the determinations of gravity. 

11. Presentation of national report. 

12. Discussion of the following subjects proposed 
by the Association of Academies: 

(a) Levels of precision in mountain chains 
subject to earthquakes with a view of deter- 
mining whether such mountain chains are 
stable or subject to movements either of 
elevation or depression. 

(b) Measures of the value of gravity for the 
purpose of throwing light on the internal 
distribution of terrestrial masses and on 
the rigidity or isostacy of the coast of the 
globe. 

13. Program of the director of the Central Bureau 
for work to be undertaken during the fol- 
lowing years. 

14. Report of the committee on finance. 

15. Estimate of expenses for the following years. 

16. Election of a president, vice-president and 
perpetual secretary for a period of ten years. 

17. Miscellaneous communications. 


SCIENCE. 


887 


THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


May 21.—A bill to authorize the Secretary 
of Commerce and Labor to cooperate through 
the Bureau of the Coast and Geodetic Survey 
and the Bureau of Fisheries with the Shell- 
fish Commissioners of the State of Maryland, 
in making surveys of the natural oyster beds, 
bars, rocks and waters within the State of 
Maryland, passed the Senate. 

May 24.—The bill for the preservation of 
American antiquities passed the Senate. 

May 28.—The resolution to prohibit the kill- 
ing of wild birds and other wild animals in 
the District of Columbia passed the House. 

May 28.—The bill incorporating the Arche- 
ological Institute of America was approved by 
the President. 

The Honorable George M. Bowers was nom- 
inated for reappointment as Commissioner of 
Fish and Fisheries. 


THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


We take pleasure in publishing a letter 
addressed by the Academy of Natural Sci- 
ences of Philadelphia to the California Acad- 
emy of Sciences and resolutions adopted by 
the Botanical Society of Washington in 
commendation of the services of Miss Alice 
Eastwood: 


THe AcAanEMy or NATURAL SCIENCES 
OF 


PHILADELPHIA. 
LOGAN SQUARE. 
May 31, 1906. 
Me. J. O. B. Gunn, 


Corresponding Secretary 
Academy of Sciences: 
Sir:—The Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, sympathizing with the California 
Academy of Sciences in the affliction resulting 
from earthquake and fire, as an evidence of appre- 
ciation of the work done for the advancement 
of knowledge during the last fifty-three years, 
and in admiration of the fine courage which does 
not succumb to a calamity of even such magnitude, 
desires to assist in the process of resurrection. 
The council of this academy has, therefore, 
directed that, if required, as complete series as 
possible of its publications, together with a col- 
lection of duplicate books, be sent to the Cali- 
fornia Academy as a contribution toward the re- 
placing of its library. 


of the California 


888 


The proposed gift will consist of upwards of 
1,800 volumes and will be forwarded on receipt of 
advice as to its acceptability and suggestion as 
to the best time and mode of transmission. 

With hearty wishes for a brilliant future, I re- 
main, on behalf of the Academy, 

Yours sincerely, 
Epwakrp J. NOLAN, 
Recorder of the Council. 


WASHINGTON, D. C. 
May 29, 1906. 
Resolved, That the Botanical Society of Wash- 
ington commends the scientific spirit and bravery 
shown by Miss Alice Eastwood in entering the 
partially wrecked academy building at San Fran- 
cisco, California, at the time of the earthquake 
and fire, and saving the valuable types in the 
herbarium in the California Academy of Sciences. 
That we appreciate the forethought and wisdom 
of having the types previously segregated. 
That the society sends personal congratulations 
and best wishes for the future of the academy. 
Resolved, That a copy of Miss Eastwood’s letter 
to Dr. Edward L. Greene, giving the details of 
this occurrence, be filed with these resolutions; 
and that a copy of these resolutions be sent to 
Miss Eastwood, and to SCIENCE. 
(Signed ) 
President, M. B. WAITE. 
Vice-president, J. N. Ross. 
Recording Secretary, C. V. PIPER. 
Corresponding Secretary, A. S. HiTcHcocK. 
Treasurer, CARLETON R. BALL. 


THE ITHACA MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANOE- 
MENT OF SCIENCE. 

A SPECIAL summer meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
will be held in Ithaca, N. Y., June 28 to July 
3, 1906, in the buildings of Cornell University. 
In affiliation with the association there will 
meet the American Physical Society, the 
American Chemical Society and the New 
York Section of the Society of Chemical In- 
dustry, the Society for the Promotion of En- 
gineering Education, the American Microscop- 
ical Society and the American Fern Society. 


GENERAL PROGRAM. 


The program for the entire meeting will be 
issued on Friday, June 29. The following 
events may be announced in advance: 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 597. 


Thursday, June 28, 1906, at 10 a.m., the 
register for the Ithaca meeting will be open 
at the office of the permanent secretary, Ithaca 
Hotel. 

At 12 M., the regular meeting of the execu- 
tive committee of the council, consisting of 
the general secretary, the secretary of the 
council and the secretaries of the different 
sctions, will be held in the rooms of the per- 
manent secretary, at the Ithaca Hotel. 

At 8:30 p.m., informal smoker at the Town 
and Gown Club. 

Friday, June 29, 1906, at 9 a.m., meeting of 
the council in the Ithaca Hotel. 

At 10 a.m., first general session of the asso- 
ciation in the Armory, Cornell University. 
The meeting will be called to order by the 
president of the association, Dr. W. H. 
Welch. Addresses of welcome will be de- 
livered by Dr. J. G. Schurman, president of 
Cornell University, by Hon. Andrew D. 
White and by the mayor of Ithaca. Reply by 
President Welch. Announcements by the 
general, permanent and local secretaries. 
Agreement on the hours of meeting. 

At 1 p.mM., luncheon in the Armory. Ad- 
journment of the general session, to be fol- 
lowed by the organization of the sections in 
their respective halls. 

At 2 p.m., formal opening of Rockefeller 
Hall, the new Physics Laboratory of Cornell 
University, with short addresses by eminent 
men of science. 

At 8 p.m., in Sibley Hall, President David 
Starr Jordan, of Stanford University, will 
give an illustrated lecture on the San Fran- 
cisco disaster. 

Saturday, June 30, 1906, at 9 a.m., meeting 
of the council in Boardman Hall. 

At 10 a.m., meeting of the sections in their 
respective halls. 

At 1 p.M., luncheon in the Armory. 

At 2 p.M., meeting of the sections in their 
respective halls. Afternoon excursions. 

At 8 p.M., a lecture, illustrated with lantern 
slides, on ‘ The South African Meeting of the 
British Association for the Advancement of 
Science,’ will be delivered in Sibley Hall by 


. 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


Professor Henry S. Carhart, of the University 
of Michigan. 

Monday, July 2, 1906, at 9 a.m., meeting of 
the council im Boardman Hall. 

At 10 A.M., meeting of the sections in their 
respective halls. 

At 1 p.m., luncheon in the Armory. 

At 2 P.M., meeting of the sections in their 
respective halls. 

At 8 p.m., a lecture illustrated with lantern 
slides, on ‘The Great Canals of the World,’ 
will be delivered in Sibley Hall by Major Gen- 
eral George W. Davis, U.S.A. Public address 
under the auspices of the local chapter of 
- Sigma Xi commemorative of the founding of 
the society. After the meeting the visiting 
members of the society of the Sigma Xi will 
ke the guests at a dinner given by the Cornell 
Chapter. 

Tuesday, July 3, 1906, at 9 am., council 
meeting in Boardman Hall. 

At 10 a.M., meeting of the sections in their 
respective halls. 

At 2 p.m., closing session in Goldwin Smith 


Hall. 
SECTIONAL MEETINGS. 

Section A will hold no session at this 
meeting. 

Section B will hold a meeting for the read- 
ing of papers in connection with the Ameri- 
can Physical Society. 

Section C will hold a meeting for the read- 
ing of papers in connection with the American 
Chemical Society. 

Section D will hold a meeting for the read- 
ing of papers in connection with the Society 
for the Promotion of Engineering Education. 

Section E will hold a meeting principally 
for field work. 

Section F will hold a meeting for the read- 
ing of papers in connection with the Amer- 
ican Microscopical Society. 

Section G will hold a meeting principally 
for field work. 

Section H will hold no session at this 
meeting. 

Section I will hold a meeting for the read- 
ing of papers. 


SCIENCE. 


889 
Section K will hold no session at this 
meeting. 


HOTEL HEADQUARTERS AND ACCOMMODATIONS. 


Ithaca Hotel (Headquarters) will accom- 
rodate 100; prices on American plan, $2 
(two in room), $2.50 (one in room), $3 with 
bath. : 

Clinton House will accommodate 50; prices 
on American plan, $2 to $2.50. 

Sage College on the campus—especially con- 
venient for members accompanied by ladies or 
for ladies unaccompanied—will accommodate 
100 for lodging and 250 for table board; 
price, $1.50 a day for lodging, breakfast and 
dinner, $1 a day for breakfast and dinner. 

Fraternity Houses.—Through the courtesy 
of the chapters various fraternity houses on 
and near the campus will be thrown open for 
the accommodation of visiting members of the 
association and affiliated societies. Excellent 
quarters for about 200 visitors unaccompanied 
by ladies will thus be available. Assignments 
will be made in advance by the local secretary 
to those making application. Price will be 
the same as at Sage College, namely, $1.50 a 
day for lodging, breakfast and dinner. 

Information concerning board and rooms in 
private houses may be had by application to 
the local secretary. Excellent rooms may be 
secured in the neighborhood of the campus 
and table board may be had at Sage College. 

ITuncheon—Through the kindness of the 
university a simple lunch will be served daily 
in the Armory. 


RAILROAD RATES. 

A reduction of one fare and one third for the 
round trip, on the certificate plan, has been 
secured for those attending the Ithaca meet- 
ing from the Trunk Line, Eastern Canadian, 
New England, Central, and Southeastern 
Passenger Associations. No reduction has 
been granted by the Western and Southwest-- 
ern Associations. The following directions 
are submitted for your guidance: (1) Tickets 
at full fare for the going journey may be 
secured within three days (exclusive of Sun- 
day) prior to and during the first three days 


890 


of the meeting. You can obtain your ticket 
not earlier than June 25, nor later than June 
30. Be sure when purchasing your going 
ticket you request a certificate, and do not 
make the mistake of asking for a receipt. On 
your arrival at the meeting present your cer- 
tificate to R. S. Clifton, assistant secretary, 
general registration office, Goldwin Smith 
Hall, Cornell University. A special agent of 
the Trunk Line Association will be in attend- 
ance to validate certificates on June 30 and 
July 2. <A fee of twenty-five cents will be 
collected for each certificate validated. If you 
arrive at the meeting and leave for home prior 
to the special agent’s arrival, or if you arrive 
later than July 2, you can not have your cer- 
tificate validated and will not get the benefit 
of the reduction. No refund of fare will be 
made on account-of failure to have certificate 
validated. It must be understood that the 


reduction on the return journey is not guar- - 


anteed, but is contingent on an attendance of 
not less than one hundred persons holding 
certificates showing payment of full first-class 
fare of not less than 75 cents. If the neces- 
sary minimum is in attendance and your cer- 
tificate is duly validated, you will be entitled 
up to July 6 to a continuous passage ticket to 
your destination by the route over which you 


make the going journey at one third the lim- 
ited fare. 


LOCAL COMMITTEE. 

The officers are: 

Honorary Presidents: Jacob Gould Schur- 
man, Andrew Dickson White. 

Chairman: Edward L. Nichols. 

Secretary: Willard W. Rowlee. 

Committee on Hotels and Accommodations: 
Abram W. Kerr. 

Committee on Hucursions: George F. Atkin- 
son. 

Committee on Transportation: Rolla C. 
Carpenter. 

Committee on Finance: Henry S. Williams. 

Committee on Places of Meeting: Frederick 
Bedell. 

Committee on Entertainment of Visiting 
Ladies: Anna B. Comstock. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 597. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Dr. L. A. Bauer has accepted the permanent 
directorship of the Department of Terrestrial 
Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington. Since the formation of this de- 
partment on April 1, 1904, he has directed its 
work in addition to the duties devolving upon 
him as in charge of the magnetic survey and 
observatory work of the United States under 
the auspices of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 
vey. However, as soon as conditions will 
permit, after July 1, he will relinquish the 
charge of the latter work and deyote his en- 
tire time to the magnetic work of the Car- 
negie Institution, which has been expanded 
so that a ’general magnetic survey of the 
globe is contemplated. 

Proressor W. H. WetcuH, of the Johns Hop- 
kins University, and Professor Nicholas Senn, 
of the University of Chicago, have heen 
elected honorary members. of the Imperial 
Medical Society of Vienna. Professor J. J. 
Abel, of the Johns Hopkins University; Dr. 
John ©. Hemmeter, of the University of 
Maryland; Professor ©. A. Herter, of Co- 
lumbia University; Dr. Graham Lusk, of the 
University and Bellevue Hospital Medical 
College; Professor L. Emmett Holt, of Co- 
Iumbia University, and Professor Jacques 
Loeb, of the University of California, were 
elected corresponding members. 

McGitt Untversiry will confer its doctorate 
of laws on Dr. Donald Macalister, Linacre 
lecturer of physics at Cambridge and presi- 
dent of the General Medical Council. 

THE honorary degree of doctor of civil law 
has been conferred at a special convocation 
of Durham University on Baron Takaki, the 
Japanese surgeon-general. 

Tue French government has appointed a 
commission on agricultural hygiene, with Dr. 
Bruardel as president. 

Proressor A. E. Kennetty, of Harvard 
University, has been appointed by the Amer- 
ican Institute of Electrical Engineers as a 
delegate to the International Commission for 
the standardization of nomenclature and 
ratings of electrical machinery to meet this 
summer in London. 


JuNE 8, 1906.] 


Sm Anexanper B. W. Kennepy has been 
elected president of the British Institution of 
Civil Engineers. The council of the institu- 
tion has made the following awards for papers 
read and discussed during the past session: 
A Telford gold medal to Mr. J. A. Saner, a 
Watt gold medal to Mr. G. G. Stoney and a 
George Stephenson gold medal to Dr. I. E. 
Stanton; Telford premiums to Mr. Leonard 
Bairstow, Mr. H. S. Bidwell, Mr. J. J. Webster, 
Mr. Catheart W. Methven, Mr. H. A. Mavor, 
Sir Frederick R. Oppeott; and a Manby pre- 
mium to Mr. D. E. Lloyd-Davies. 


Dr. Braptey M. Davis has been spending 
the spring in Cambridge, completing a text- 
book of botany in co-authorship with Mr. 
Joseph Y. Bergen. His connection with the 
University of Chicago will end on July 1. 
He will be at Woods Hole through the 
summer. 


Dr. W. C. Farasesr, of the anthropological 
department at Harvard University, with three 
students, will next year conduct a research 
expedition about the headwaters of the Ama- 
zon. For a time a base will be established at 
Arequipa, Peru. The party will be gone 
three years. j 


Dr. Henry S. Prircuert, president of the 
Carnegie Foundation, will give the commence- 
ment address at the Rhode Island College on 
June 12, his subject being ‘The Essentials of 
Good Administration.’ 


At the recent meeting of Phi Beta Kappa 
at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. William 
Trelease, director of the Missouri Botanical 
Garden, made the address. 


Proressor W. J. Souuas began on May 24 
a course of three lectures at the Royal Insti- 
tution on ‘ Man and the Glacial Period.’ The 
Friday evening discourse on May 25 was de- 
livered by Mr. Leonard Hill, on ‘ Compressed 
Air and its Physiological Effects.’ 


PREPARATIONS have been made for cele- 
brating on May 15 the fiftieth anniversary of 
the entrance on his life’s work as teacher of 
zoology of Professor Eugene Renevier, of the 
University of Lausanne, whose death we were 
compelled to report last week. 


SCIENCE. 


891 


Tup trustees of the American Science and 
Historic Preservation Society have recently 
presented to congress a memorial in which 
they ask that a monument be erected at some 
place near the Grand Canyon of Colorado 
River to Major John Wesley Powell and his 
companions in the exploration: of the canyon 
in 1869. 


Tue death is announced of Dr. Darwin D. 
Eads, who had practised medicine for forty 
years at Paris, Ky., and had made valuable 
botanical collections in the central states; and 
of Francis Louis Sperry, a mining engineer 
and mineralogist. 


Dr. WILHELM MryerHorer, docent in chem- 
istry in the University of Berlin, died on 
April 21; Dr. K. Pape, formerly professor of 
physies at the University of Konigsberg, has 
died at the age of seventy years; and Dr. 
Ernst Schellwien, adjunct professor of geol- 
ogy and paleontology at Kénigsberg, has died 
at the age of forty years. 


It is a matter of considerable interest to 
scientific men that the Postal Union Congress 
which met recently at Rome has increased the 
weight of foreign letters requiring five cents 
postage from 15 to 20 grams. The reduction 
will be still greater for us, as the limit will be 
made one ounce. The cost for each further 
ounce will be reduced to three cents. The 
proposal has also been made to reduce the 
letter rate between Great Britain and the 
United States to two cents. This would not 
require further action by the union, and may 
be carried into effect by negotiations between 
the two countries. 


Mr. Grorce EHasrman, of Rochester, N. Y., 
has subscribed one thousand dollars annually 
for the next three years to enable the con- 
tinuance of research work in photography at 
the Yerkes Observatory of the University of 
Chicago. The investigations will be carried 
on by Mr. R. James Wallace, photophysicist 
at the observatory. 


Tue College of Charleston Museum has ac- 
quired the valuable conchological collection of 
the late Dr. Edmund Ravenel, of Charleston, 


892 


which contains some 3,500 species of land, 
fresh water and marine shells. 


Tue Danish Arctic Biologic Station will be 
open for investigators for the first time during 
the summer of 1907. Application for a table 
should be sent to the Danish ministry of edu- 
eation (Kultusministerium), through the con- 
sulate of the United States, Copenhagen, Den- 
mark. 


THE astronomical observatory of La Plata 
has been affiliated with the new National Uni- 
versity of La Plata, recently inaugurated by 
the minister of public instruction of the 
Argentine Republic. 


Ir is announced that the issue of the Index 
Medicus, published by the Carnegie Institu- 
tion, has been unavoidably delayed, owing to 
the recent printers’ strikes. For this reason, 
the number for March has not as yet been 
published. On account of the strike the gen- 
‘eral index of the Geologist has also been de- 
layed and will not appear until some time in 
June. 


Tuer German Zoological Society and the 
German Botanical Society are meeting this 
year at Marburg, beginning on June 5. 


THe Reale Instituto Veneto di Science, 
Lettere ed Arti has decided to commence a 
systematic scientific study of the geophysical 
phenomena which concern directly and indi- 
rectly the lagoon of Venice. With this object 
a special committee has been appointed, and 
the preliminary investigations, bearing prin- 
cipally on the tidal waves in the upper Adri- 
atic and the rivers flowing into it and into 
the lagoon of Venice, have been intrusted to 
Dr. Giovanni Piero Magrini, who is to be 
assisted by Professors Luigi de Marchi and 
Tullio Gnesotto of the University of Padua. 


Tuer Paris correspondent of the London 
Times reports that at a meeting of the Acad- 
emy of Medicine on May 16, Professor 
Metchnikoff supplemented his previous state- 
ment as to his prophylactic treatment of 
syphilis by important observations concerning 
some objections made against his method by 
Professor Neisser, of Breslau. Dr. Metchnikoff 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXITI. No. 597. 


and Dr. Roux discovered by a number of ex- 
periments that infection by inoculation of the 
syphilitic virus in monkeys and men was ar- 
rested and nullified by application of the 
calomel ointment within an hour of the intro- 
duction of the virus. Professor Neisser, ex- 
perimenting with Java monkeys, obtained by 
the same method results that were less satis- 
factory. He had only one hundred successful 
eases out of two hundred. Dr. Metchnikoft 
gave an explanation of this fact. Professor 
Neisser, he affirms, makes his scarifications 
too deep, by which method he completely alters 
the conditions of the experiment. In the 
majority of cases of normal syphilitic infee- 
tion the virus penetrates by purely epidermic 
—that is to say very superficial—erosion. If 
it be artificially introduced into the lower tis- 
sues, the absorption takes place in less than 
an hour and the prophylactic treatment ar- 
rives necessarily too late. Dr. Roux and Dr. 
Metchnikoff, while practising scarifications 
certainly deeper than those which give rise 
to syphilitic infection in life, carefully 
avoided applying the virus too far below the 
surface. 


We learn from Nature that the Republic of 
Uruguay has recently established a National 
Institute for Weather Prediction, with its 
central observatory at Monte Video; the 
meteorological observatory at that place was 
founded by the municipal authorities in 1895. 
Observations have been made at several sta- 
tions for some years, and the new institution 
has commenced its operations by the collation 
and discussion of the means and extremes 
already available, and by the investigation of 
the characteristics of the severe storms which 
affect the navigation of the estuary of the 
Rio de La Plata. The most dangerous storms 
are those from the southeast, as they usually 
oceur with a rising barometer, in connection 
with anticyclonic conditions over the Atlantic, 
and are frequently accompanied by thick fog 
on the coast. The first number of the bulletin 
of the institute contains an exposition of the 
hydrography of the estuary, and tables show- 
ing, inter alia, the effect of the various winds 
upon the tides of the river. 


JUNE 8, 1906.] 


We learn from the London Times that the 
senate of the University of London has in- 
vited representatives of the University of Paris 
and of the Collége de France to visit London. 
These representatives will be accompanied by 
the highest officials of the French Ministry of 
Public Instruction, and by a number of repre- 
sentatives of the French provincial univer- 
sities. The Société des Professeurs de 
Langues Vivantes and of the Guilde Inter- 
nationale will be simultaneously entertained 
by the Modern Language Association, and the 
university has arranged for the representation 
of all these bodies at the various ceremonies. 
The French delegations will be headed by M. 
Liard, the vice-rector of the University of 
Paris. The king has expressed his desire to 
receive a number of the French visitors at 
Windsor on Thursday afternoon, June 7. 
The general program includes the following: 
Monday, June 4, an informal dinner at the 
Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington, where the 
guests of the university will stay. Tuesday, 
June 5, a reception at the foreign office by 
Lord Fitzmaurice and Mr. Lough, M.P., 
parliamentary secretary of the board of edua- 
tion, at noon; luncheon at the university; 
addresses at the university by the vice-chan- 
celor, M. Liard, Sir Arthur Riicker and Pro- 
fessor Sadler. Wednesday, June 6, visits to 
Westminster Abbey, to Westminster School 
and to some of the London County Council 
educational institutions, followed by a luncheon 
to be given by Mr. Evan Spicer, chairman of 
-the County Council, at Belair, Dulwich; in the 
eyening, a dinner at University College and 
various private dinners, followed by a recep- 
tion by the French ambassador at the French 
embassy. Thursday, June 7, addresses by the 
deans of the Faculties of Arts and Science of 
the Universities of London and Paris, by Pro- 
fessor Sir William Ramsay and by representa- 
tives of the Collége de France, the French 
provincial universities and the French Modern 
Language Association; in the eyening a con- 
‘wersazione at the university. A number of 
the French guests will, on Friday, June 8, visit 
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 


SCIENCE. 893 


Tue Journal of the American Medical Asso- 
ciation reports that it is the purpose of Health 
Commissioner Dr. Dixon to destroy the breed- 
ing places of mosquitoes in Pennsylvania. 
The task will involve the examination of 
all places holding or capable of holding 
water in which the species can breed. Dr. 
Dixon has employed an expert entomologist to 
take up the work and map out all the malarial 
districts in the state. The report of the 
entomologist will give all conditions supplying 
the environment necessary to support the lives 
of the variety of mosquito which carry the 
poison from one person to another. That 
this work shall prove most economic, it is pro- 
posed that the-country surrounding the larger 
centers of population be investigated and the 
most dangerous pools and streams be mapped 
out, starting with the built-up municipalities 
in the southern part of the state, where 
malaria is most prevalent. ‘For the purpose 
of mapping the breeding places it is proposed 
that the United States Geological Survey maps 
be used. 


Tne following letter, dated May 1, has been 
sent by the post-office to the Decimal Associa- 
tion: ‘“‘ With reference to your further letters 
of April 11 and 27, concerning the treatment 
of letters for places abroad prepaid a single 
rate of postage and weighing more than half 
an ounce, but not more than 15 grams, I am 
directed by the postmaster-general to acquaint 
you that such letters for any foreign country 
included in the postal union are sent forward 
for delivery uncharged. The same treatment 
would be applied to any letter weighing more 
than 15 grams which might happen to be 
posted with 5d. prepaid on it, and so on for 
other weights. I am, Sir, your obedient ser- 
vant, H. Buxton Forman.” In forwarding a 
copy of this letter to the London Times the 
Decimal Association adds: “The 
weights and measures have, according to this 
communication, been adopted by the post- 
office for foreign letters, and it is difficult to 
understand how the representative of the 
British post-office at the Postal Congress in 
Rome, could have stated there that ‘ under 


metric 


894 


no condition would Great Britain adopt the 


metric system.’ ” 


A Map representing parts of California and 
Mexico has recently been published by the 
United States Geological Survey which is of 
unusual interest at this time. The area cov- 
ered is widely known as the Salton Sink, a 
great depression in the Colorado Desert which 
has been much discussed lately, owing to the 
threatened formation of a large inland sea 
where there is now a thriving community. 
About 8,000 people have settled in that part 
of the basin known as the Imperial Valley 
and are raising excellent crops of barley and 
alfalfa. Stock farms are numerous and ex- 
periments in raising the date palm are in 
progress. The freight shipments from Im- 
perial, a town only four years old, rival those 
of Los Angeles in value, and are said to ex- 
ceed those of any other town in southern Cali- 
fornia. The existence of this peaceful com- 
munity is however seriously endangered by 
Colorado River which strangely enough is 
also the source of all its prosperity as it is 
this stream which furnishes water for the 
irrigation system. The absence of any con- 
trolling works at the head of the main canal 
has resulted in diverting the river from its 
old channel and permitting the entire flood 
flow to enter the irrigation system. This is 
causing great damage to the ditches and crops, 
and is forming a large lake, which now covers 
about 250 square miles, at the lowest part of 
the sink. The Southern Pacific Railroad has 
been obliged to rebuild many miles of tracks. 
The map of this region, which is called the 
Salton Sink special, shows on a scale of about 
eight miles to an inch, all the principal towns, 
roads, canals and drainage lines. Contour 
lines also indicate what the future sea may 
cover at different altitudes. The usual price 
of five cents a copy will be charged for this 
map, which was made by Mr. W. Carvel Hall, 
under the direction of Mr. R. B. Marshall 


A report from Consul-General George W. 
Roosevelt describes a series of experiments 
arranged by the meteorologic service of Bel- 
gium to be made with balloons for the purpose 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


of determining the pressure of the atmosphere 
and the temperature and moisture of the air. 
In the subjoined report Consul-General Roose- 
velt furnishes the result of the first experi- 
ment. The trial was made at 7:21 a.m., April 
5, with two balloons coupled together meas- 
uring respectively 1.90 meters and 1.35 meters 
in diameter. The balloons rapidly ascended, 
quickly attained a very high altitude, and 
disappeared in a south-southeast direction. 
About 10 a.m. they descended at Wancennes, 
a village some 113 kilometers from Brussels. 
The altitude was about 15,000 meters, where 
the atmospheric pressure as registered by an 
aneroid barometer was only 86 millimeters. 
During the trial the velocity of the wind on 
land registered 2 meters per second and 10 
meters in the upper air. The culminating 
point of ascension was reached between 8:20 
and 8:26 a.M., but the lowest temperature 
(— 57.4°) was registered a little later, at 8:37 
A.M., by 110 millimeters, barometric pressure. 
The balloons passed through the same zone 
of intense cold at 8:09 a.m. Temperature, 
— 56°; pressure, 104 millimeters. When the 
balloons were sent up the relative degree of 
atmospheric humidity was 80 per cent., but 
rapidly diminished, and at 9:13 a.m. descended 
to 32 per cent. Small balloons sent up simul- 
taneously with the two sounding balloons took 
a direct easterly direction, one going as far 
as Duren, Germany, a small town situated be- 
tween Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, about 193 
kilometers from Brussels. 


Tue London Times says: “Through the 
courtesy of the president of the Iron and 
Steel Institute (Mr. R. A. Hadfield) we are 
enabled to refer to some of the arrangements 
which have been made for the reception of 
the American Society of Engineers on their 
visit to this country in July. The executive 
committee of the Iron and Steel Institute, 
among whom are to be numbered the presi- 
dent, Sir James Kitson, Mr. Andrew Carnegie 
and Sir Hugh Bell, may be trusted to show a 
due appreciation of the very high altitudes 
attained by American hospitality and a de- 
termination that nothing shall be wanting in 
a proper emulation of the exertions which 


JuNE 8, 1906.] 


have been displayed by our neighbors in the 
entertainment of guests from this country. 
The members of the Iron and Steel Institute 
have on two occasions been entertained by their 
confréeres on the other side of the Atlantic. 
The 200 members or so who went to the United 
States, the expedition being headed in the first 
instance by Sir James Kitson and in the sec- 
ond by Mr. Carnegie, found the pleasures 
spread for their delectation so profuse, and 
every one possessed with so consuming a de- 
sire to afford them entertainment, that they 
had little leisure for the calm and collected 


examination of those productive resources in 


the American iron and steel industry the in- 
spection of which were the ostensible purpose 
of the journey. The American Society of 
Engineers are assured of the heartiest welcome 
in this country. We can not hope to emulate 
their hospitality on the scale upon which it 
was extended to the members of the Iron and 
Steel Institute; for a tour of 12,000 miles 
within the area of our shores is impossible 
unless it were conducted in a circular direc- 
tion. But in spirit we can fairly vie with 
our American colleagues, and the heartiness 
of our welcome to them will not be inferior to 
that given by them to our own countrymen.” 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


It is announced that Mr. David Rankin, of 
St. Louis, has decided to give $2,000,000 to 
found an industrial and manual training 
school in St. Louis. 


THE college of agriculture of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, the attendance of which 
has increased very greatly during the past two 
years, is to receive two important additions in 
the form of an agronomy building and agri- 
cultural engineering building. The plans for 
both structures have just been completed, and 
the contracts, which are about to be made, 
provide for their completion before the be- 
ginning of the short course in agriculture 
next winter. 


At the commencement exercises of the Uni- 
versity of Nevada, May 31, 1906, President 
Stubbs announced that Mr. Clarence H. 


SCIENCE. 


895 


Mackay and his mother, Mrs. John W. 
Mackay, have together given $50,000 for the 
immediate erection of a building for the Col- 
lege of Mines. This building is to house the 
department of mining and metallurgy and 
that of geology and mineralogy and has been 
planned according to the recommendations of 
the heads of these departments. A recent 
state appropriation for the metallurgical 
laboratory has provided the university with a 
new ore-treating equipment which will be suit- 
able for installing in the new quarters. The 
building will also contain a geological mu- 
seum. Furthermore, Mr. F. M. Smith has 
arranged to provide an income of $1,000 a 
year to be used for the support and encourage- 
ment of students in the Mining School. This 
will in general be divided into five annual 
scholarships of $200 each to be known as the 
F. M. Smith scholarships open to deserving 
students irrespective of citizenship or resi- 
dence. 


THE preliminaries for the establishment of 
a Hindu University are making progress. 
Offers of service are coming in from the prin- 
cipals and professors of the leading colleges 
of India, and the Munshi Madho Lal, who 
gave $100,000 to the endowment, has been 
conferring on the details of the foundation. 
A deputation will be sent to collect subscrip- 
tions throughout India. 


Nature states that steps are being taken for 
the provision of a permanent endowment to 
place the Balfour library in a secure position. 
The library owes its origin to the generosity 
of the family of the late Professor F. M. Bal- 
four, who after his death in 1882 presented 
his scientific books to Cambridge University 
for the use of the zoological laboratory. The 
library so constituted was housed in a room 
adjacent to the laboratory, and has ever since 
been freely open to all members of the uni- 
versity and to others qualified to make use of 
it. The library has been maintained hitherto 
out of the fees paid by students attending the 
classes; and the burden which it thus places 
upon the resources of the laboratory is unde- 
sirable. A committee has, therefore, been 
formed for the purpose of collecting subscrip- 


896 


tions, and of establishing a fund to be called 
the Balfour Library Endowment Fund, with 
the object of putting the library on a secure 
and satisfactory basis. The committee at its 
first meeting agreed that the fund, when estab- 
lished, ‘be offered to the university at such 
time and under such conditions as the sub- 
seribers shall hereafter determine, provided 
that the management be closely connected 
with the zoological laboratory, and that the 
library be freely open to students.’ Subscrip- 
tions may be paid to the Balfour Library 
Endowment Fund, at Messrs. Barclay’s Bank, 
or to the treasurer, Mr. Adam Sedgwick, 
Zoological Laboratory, New Museums, Cam- 
bridge. The sum already received or prom- 
ised amounts to about £500. 

Sir Donatp Curriz, through whose gift of 
upwards of $500,000 the buildings are being 
erected, will lay the foundation-stone of the 
School of Advanced Medical Studies, Nurses’ 
Home and Maternity Students’ House, in con- 
nection with University College Hospital on 
June 11. 


Tue fifty-third commencement of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin will be held from Sun- 
day, June 17, to Wednesday, June 20. About 
450 students will be granted the bachelor’s 
degree on this occasion, 38 the master’s degree 
and 12 the doctor’s degree, making a total of 
over 500 degrees to be conferred, the largest 
number that has ever been awarded at any 
commencement. 


THE corporation of the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology has postponed the election 
of a president to succeed Dr. Henry S. Prit- 
chett, who will retain the presidency until the 
autumn. 


Dr. H. S. JENNINGS, now of the University 
of Pennsylvania, has been appointed associate 
professor of physiological zoology at Johns 
Hopkins University. 

By recent action of the executive committee 
of the board of trustees of Cornell University, 
the title of Professor R. 8. Tarr’s chair has 
been changed from dynamic geology and 
physical geography to physical geography, and 
he has been given charge of the newly created 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 597. 


department of physical geography, which has ~ 
been separated from the department of geol- 
ogy. 

Cotorapdo CoLiEcEe has established a school 
of forestry, with Dr. W. C. Sturgis as dean. 


Tue faculty appointments at the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology for 1906-7 
are as follows: Associate Professors William 
O. Crosby, Frederick S. Woods and Harry M. 
Goodwin appointed professors of geology, 
mathematics, physics and electrochemistry, 
respectively. The following assistant pro- 
fessors have been promoted to associate pro- 
fessorships: Augustus H. Gill in technical 
analysis, Arthur G. Robbins in highway en- 
gineering, Frank A. Laws in electrical testing, 
Charles EK. Fuller, William A. Johnston and 
Charles F. Park in mechanical engineering, 
Frank P. McKibben in civil engineering. 
Nathan R. George, Jr., Archer T. Robinson 
and Charles E. Locke have been promoted 
from instructorships to assistant professor- 
ships in mathematics, English and mining 
engineering and metallurgy, respectively. 


At Dartmouth College, Dr. John H. Ger- 
ould has been promoted to an assistant pro- 
fessorship of biology and Dr. John M. Poor 
to an assistant professorship of astronomy. 
Mr. Ralph M. Barton has been appolnice in- 
structor in mathematics. 


Avr Clark College, Dr. Fred Mutchler has 
been promoted to an assistant professorship 
of botany and Dr. Millet T. Thompson to an 
assistant professorship of zoology. 


Assistant. Proressor W. J. Mors, of the 
botanical department of the University of 
Vermont, will go on July 1 to the University 
of Maine, as botanist of the experiment sta- 
tion. Professor Morse’s work at Vermont will 
be divided between two younger men, Mr. H. 
A. Edson being appointed instructor in botany 
and Mr. N. J. Giddings botanical assistant in 
the experiment station. 


A. S. Eve has been appointed assistant pro- 
fessor in mathematics in McGill University; 
Dr. S. B. Leacock, assistant professor of po- 
litical science and history; and Dr. H. T. 
Barnes, associate professor of physies. 


 SoCIE NCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


(| 


Fripay, JuNE 15, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 


The Medical Profession and the Issues that 
Confront it: DR. WM. J. Mayo........... 897 
The Keeping of Tobacco: Dr. James M. Brett 904 


Scientific Books :— 
Picard Sur le développment de Vanalyse et 
ses rapports avec diverses sciences: PRO- 
FESSOR MaxIMe BOCHER................. 912 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 912 


Societies and Academies :— 
The American Physical Society: PROFESSOR 
Ernest Merritt. The Biological Society 
of Washington: M. C. Marsu. The Geo- 
logical Society of Washington: Dr. A. C. 
Spencer. The Philosophical Society of 
Washington: CHaRtes K. Wrap. The St. 
Louis Chemical Society: C. J. BoRGMEYER. 
The Colorado Conference of Science Work- 
ers: PROFESSOR FRANCIS RAMALEY....... 913 

Discussion and Correspondence :— 
A Persistent Error: Dr. H. Foster Ban. 
The Northern Limit of the Pawpaw Tree: 
FRANK LEVERETT, Proressor J. A. UppEn. 919 

Special Articles :— 


Parallel Development in Brachiopoda: S. 
8. Buckman. Geological Section of New 


.Mexico: PRESIDENT CHARLES R. Kryes... 920 
Botanical Notes :-— 

Studies of Island Vegetation; Another 

Nomenclature Rule; Seaside Laboratories ; 

Notes on Recent Botanical Papers: Pro- 

FESSOR CHARLES H, BESSEY.............. 922 
The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Pro- 

BING SOR eee tay © ONAN enn pala, ean ere 924. 
The Danish Arctic Bapedition............. 925 
Scientific Notes and News. i... 00). 0.5.5... 925 
University and Hducational News.......... 928 


MSS. intended for publication and books, ete., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of ScteNcE, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND THE 
ISSUES WHICH CONFRONT I7T2 

Tur American Medical Association be- 
gins its fifth-seventh annual session under 
the most auspicious circumstances. After 
an interval of forty-one years it again meets 
in Boston, the guest of this great common- 
wealth which has ably upheld the highest 
medical traditions since the founding of 
New England. 

Another cause of felicitation—the sec- 
tional differences in New York have been 
overcome and the Empire State for the 
first time in twenty-five years presents a 
unified delegation. 

The house of delegates of the American 
Medical Association (which technically is 
the American Medical Association) repre- 
sents directly about 55,000 and indirectly 
the 120,000 regular practitioners of medi- 
cine in the United States. The official 
organ, the Journal, reaches each week over 
43,000 subscribers, and under the able 
editorship of Dr. George H. Simmons, has 
become the leading professional magazine 
in the world. 

The medical profession is to be congratu- 
lated upon these evidences of a useful or- 
ganization, but much remains to be done. 
In his individual capacity the medical man 
has not been found wanting. Go where 
you will in civilized lands, you will find 
the doctor, self-sacrificine, patient and 
charitable, upholding the honor and 
dignity of his noble calling. Collectively, 
medical men do not have the influence 


‘Address of the president of the American 
Medical Association, Boston, June 5, 1906. 


898 


which we might expect and without which 
ereat movements for the welfare of hu- 
manity can not be carried on. A lack of 
unity has prevented a realization of our 
hopes and if we are to gain and maintain 
the preeminent position to which we are 
entitled, we must unite for the common 
good. 

The present organization of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association is but a begin- 
ning; we must further the interests of this 
body unselfishly, not for ourselves alone, 
but that we may better fufill our sacred 
obligations to mankind. The people must 
be educated up to a point where they can 
understand the broad humanitarianism of 
modern medicine. Society appreciates the 
saving of a sick person’s life by the skilled 
physician, but fails to see the priceless gifts 
to the human race made by preventive 
medicine and sanitary science. It views 
everything in detail and misses the per- 
spective. We have failed to secure the 
support of the mass of the people to much 
needed sanitary reforms because we have 
appealed to them as one individual to an- 
other without the weight of an authorita- 
tive organization. 

That the people are ignorant of medical 
affairs is due to bad education rather than 
prejudice. They are more than two de- 
eades behind advanced medical thought; it 
is our duty to keep them better informed. 
The theory of medicine did not contain the 
essential principles of a science until with- 
in the last quarter of a century. Orig- 
inally a part of priesteraft, the profession 
has its beginnings in a time of mysticism 
and superstition. Anatomy, gross pathol- 
ogy and chemistry were among the early 
foundation stones which made progress pos- 
sible. Clinical treatment was based upon 
a very few specific remedies and a con- 
siderable number of drugs of proved value 
in the cure or alleviation of disease. But 
lacking a sound theory of causation, the re- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


sults were not much better in the average 
self-limited malady than those claimed by 
the various ‘systems’ based upon the giv- 
ing of inert or useless remedies which, like 
the incantation of the Indian medicine 
man, kept the patient and friends inter- 
ested until cure came about through nat- 
ural processes. The laity found that the 
large majority of sick persons got well 
under any, all or no treatment, and not 
rightly understanding the reason have 
never been able to comprehend why one 
method or form of treatment, as long as it 
apparently yielded about the same average 
of results, was not as good as another. 

The germ theory promulgated by Pasteur 
and given surgical significance by Lister, 
strengthened our foundation by adding to 
it the long-sought-for causation of the ma- 
jority of diseases and this, with the aid 
of experimental research, has led the prac- 
tise of medicine out of the wilderness and 
established it as one of the exact sciences. 

New and fundamental truths have fol- 
lowed each other so rapidly that we have 
searcely been able to digest them and 
much less can we expect the public to have 
kept pace. The layman’s view is that of 
twenty-five years ago. He accepts with 
avidity new dogmas and ‘pathys’ based 
upon theories incredibly foolish in the ight 
of modern investigation, and we have al- 
lowed him to become fixed in these beliefs. 
We have permitted the public to be edu- 
cated by patent medicine advertisements 
and the voluble charlatanism of the com- 
mercially interested. In return we are 
classed with these schemers, and efforts for 
the general good are believed to be selfishly 
inspired. 

The Utopianism of our profession is too 
idealistic for ready comprehension in this 
commercial age. The time has come for 
the public to be taken into our confidence ; 
if we wish better results we must enlighten 


JuNE 15, 1906.] 


the people, for with them les the final 
word. 


THE PROFESSION AND THE PUBLIC. 


General sanitary matters of the great- 
est importance are becoming understood 
through medical influences. The public 
has been and is being educated in regard 
to ‘the great white plague,’ tuberculosis, 
and statistics are beginning to show the 
effect of this diffusion of knowledge. In 
Massachusetts and some other states a com- 
mittee has been appointed in each district 
to promulgate measures for the relief and 
control of tuberculosis. This should be 
imitated in every state in the union. 

We can already see the good which has 
resulted from the teaching of the habits 
of mosquitoes, the short distances they 
travel from their breeding places, and es- 
pecially the necessity for the quarantine of 
patients afflicted with yellow fever and 
malaria, not directly to protect mankind, 
but to prevent infection of the little pests 
who act as carriers of the contagious micro- 
organisms. 

Society must be taught the early symp- 
toms of cancer, the greatest foe of human- 
ity, that its manifestations may be recog- 
nized while in the curable period. A 
propaganda of this kind, maugurated by 
the profession of Germany, has borne fruit. 

The typhoid fever crime of cities 
through polluted water supply is not the 
least of the many branches of popular edu- 
cation. There is no reason why a man who 
has become infected with typhoid from a 
city’s neglect should not sue for damages 
as he would for personal injury sustained 
from falling through a defective sidewalk. 
Unavoidable sickness is bad enough, but 
when we stop to consider that the life of 
the individual is worth $5,000 to the state, 
and that those who recover undergo great 
disability and expense, the continuance of 
unsanitary conditions is criminal. The ex- 


SCIENCE. 


899 


perience of Vienna, which was converted 
from a typhoid center to one of freedom 
from such outbreaks by bringing in a pure 
water supply, has now been repeated over 
and over again in every civilized land. 
Yet hundreds of deaths from this prevent- 
able source yearly attest that the lesson has 
not yet been learned. 

How ean this work of education be best 
continued? The answer, as shown by our 
very efficient national organizer, Dr. J. N. 
McCormack, is through the local society. 
Occasional meetings to which the public 
shall be invited, must be devoted to ques- 
tions of general interest, and the proceed- 
ings published in the local newspapers. 
The county society must become the unit, 
and the allied professions of pharmacy and 
dentistry urged to attend and take part in 
the deliberations. 

To the Ladies’ Home Journal and Col- 
lier’s Weekly the public owe the successful 
crusade against poisonous substances and 
intoxicating beverages which are sold under 
the guise of patent medicines, ‘patent’ only 
in the sense that the name is copyrighted; 
the constituents can be changed at any 
time and in any way. 

Do you think that our American mothers 
will continue to give ‘Kopp’s Baby’s 
Friend’ and ‘Mother Winslow’s Soothing 
Syrup’ to their babes when they find that 
these mixtures contain opium and that in- 
stead of securing rest the little ones are 
narcotized and that many deaths are di- 
rectly attributable to this cause? 

Will the American people continue to 
use bromo-seltzer and similar dangerous 
preparations to an extent which causes 
them to exhibit blueness of the skin sur- 
faces from poisonous coal-tar products, or 
become victims of drug habits from cocaine 
catarrh cures, when they discover the 
harmful and dangerous character of these 
agents? 

Will our prominent people, statesmen, 


900 


politicians, ministers and ladies of note 
continue to allow their photographs over 
signed testimonials to be published, telling 
their fellow-citizens how much better they 
have felt after taking Peruna, Warner’s 
Safe Cure and the various nervines and 
tonies, when they find that most of these 
preparations depend upon alcohol for the 
stimulating effects which they describe? 
The success of most patent medicines de- 
pends upon the fact that they contain 
drugs and stimulants which create a crav- 
ing and must be repeated. Once get the 
public conscience awakened and we shall 
have a demand that every patent remedy, 
before being sold, shall have its exact com- 
ponent parts printed upon its label, and its 
claims to cure verified by scientific investi- 
gation. The action of the post-office de- 
partment in denying the use of the mail 
service to some of the worst offenders 
against common decency is to be com- 
mended. 


PUBLIC HEATH LEGISLATION. 


One of the few misfortunes of the indi- 
vidual freedom afforded by a republican 
form of government is that it enables the 
most ignorant man through prejudice to 
interfere with and delay needed legislation, 
with the result that, by the time the law 
can be passed, the immediate object to be 
obtained has disappeared. 

In Germany compulsory vaccination has 
practically caused small-pox to disappear 
from the army and country, a person prop- 
erly protected being immune. In the 
state of Minnesota inability to enforce vac- 
cination in the late small-pox epidemic per- 
mitted from a few sources, 27,876 persons 
to become infected with this disorder; all 
due to a small but vociferous band of anti- 
vaccination agitators. 

Contagious disease in any place is not a 
matter of local or state interest alone, as 
the ease and freedom of transportation 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. . 


render local control impracticable and 
properly place it mm the hands of the gen- 
eral government. 

The keenness with which the American 
people are watching the affairs at Panama 
argues well for the future. The communi- 
cation of Dr. C. A. L. Reed awakened pub- 
lic interest. His portrayal of red tape and 
obstruction to sanitation in the Canal Zone 
has resulted in obtaining for that most 
able army medical officer, Colonel Gorgas, 
power to carry out the necessary reforms 
and has made the Canal Zone the most 
sanitary place in Latin America. 

Compare our record in the Spanish 
American War with that of the Japanese 
in the war with Russia. We had fourteen 
deaths from disease to one from wounds 
and more than 95 per cent. due to disre- 
gard of the simplest problems in sanitation, 
therefore, unnecessary and avoidable. In 
the Japanese army there were four deaths 
from wounds to one from disease, a differ- 
ence of fifty-six to one. This was not due 
to the fact that the Japanese had superior 
knowledge, but that their medical officers 
were thoroughly organized and in sanitary 
matters were supreme. The knowledge 
which they. used was obtained in western 
institutions and was the product of the 
occidental, not the oriental civilization. 

The army and navy medical departments 
have worked intelligently against over- 
whelming odds. Their individual mem- 
bers have international reputations honestly 
achieved. Their schools for the special 
training of their men are in the highest 
degree efficient and deserving of every 
praise; but the departments have been so 
small as to be unable to act even as nuclei 
about which in time of war competent 
forees could be gathered and the militia 
of our country enter into conflict fearfully 
handicapped. The indications, however, 
are that these matters will now be rectified, 
and if so it will guarantee to the patriotic 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


American that, should he again be called 
upon to serve his country, his enemies will 
be in front and that he will not be de 
stroyed by his own side through neglect of 
sanitary laws. 

The public health and marine hospital 
service has been and is doing splendid 
work in sanitation. Its skilled investigators 
have revolutionized quarantine measures 
and have placed preventive medicine on a 
solid basis. Their powers should be ex- 
tended so that such unnecessary outbreaks 
as occurred in New Orleans shall not be 
repeated. They should be given control 
of national quarantine in all its phases. 


MEDICAL EDUCATION, STATE LICENSURE AND 
RECIPROCITY. 


What is needed is a higher standard of 
requirements and more and better super- 
vision of professional schools. The council 
on medical education is working hard and 
is now im a position not only to show what 
should be done but to initiate reforms. No 
more important work has ever been taken 
up by the profession. At the present time 
medical education is uncontrolled and each 
state has its own standard of requirements. 
We can not rid ourselves of dogmas and 
‘pathys’ until we can secure a universal 
primary law as to the minimum amount 
of knowledge on fundamental branches. 
To accomplish this the American Medical 
Association must cooperate with and en- 
courage medical colleges to do better work. 
The profession owes it to itself to investi- 
gate in some manner what the schools are 
actually domg and to make it known 
whether or not they fulfill their obligations 
to the student. No well conducted college 
could object to such reasonable supervision. 

Another question of great importance is 
that of reciprocity in medical license. The 
conditions now are well-nigh intolerable 
and restrain the individual freedom guar- 
anteed by the constitution. The bound- 


SCIENCE. 


901 


aries between states are imaginary lines; 
yet a physician on one side of a border can 
not relieve human suffering on the opposite 
side without becoming amenable to the law 
or subjecting himself to vexatious exam- 
inations which he has already successfully 
passed in his own state. This must be met 
and speedily by agreement between ex- 
amining boards as to the minimum of re- 
quirements. After all this is but a part 
of the educational problem. If we could 
solve this, all licensing boards could at once 
adopt more uniform examinations and 
reciprocity. 


RELATIONS TO INSURANCE COMPANIES, 
CORPORATIONS, ETC. 


We come now to consider some abuses 
from which the physician suffers. It is a 
matter of professional pride that, in the 
general condemnation of the life msurance 
companies, although every other part of 
the control has been shown to be cor- 
rupt, no breath of scandal has touched the 
medical department. Yet the local ex- 
aminer has the most cause of all to be dis- 
satisfied. The New York Life, some years 
ago, cut the fee for examination forty per 
cent., apparently not as a matter of econ- 
omy, for at that time the most corrupt 
practises existed, but rather to enable the 
agent more easily to pass ‘new business’ 
at any cost. This action has lately been 
imitated by the Equitable and some others 
and has resulted in forcing the resignation 
of many of their best examiners. The gen- 
eral officers have taken great credit upon 
themselves for voluntarily reducing their 
salaries twenty per cent. It is a rank in- 
justice that the one body of men who have 
emerged clean from the insurance scandals 
should suffer the most for the crimes of 
others. A thorough medical examination 
to prevent fraud by the admission of un- 
safe risks is essential. With few excep- 
tions the line companies pay a fair fee and 


902 


less should not be accepted. The casualty 
companies, such as the Maryland, are the 
worst offenders, and some concerted action 
should be taken to compel them to mend 
their evil ways. 

Lodge practise is another scheme by 
which officers of an association draw 
salaries ostensibly to give medical services 
at a figure below the possible point at 
which a professional man ean live and con- 
tinue his education. The people are badly 
served, as competent physicians can not be 
secured to do the work, and the whole 
scheme is properly condemned by the 
various medical associations all over the 
country. 

Public service corporations abuse hos- 
pital privileges in a way that is no more 
or less than an open scandal. In Pittsburg 
the steel companies pay $1 a day for the 
care of their injured men at the hospitals 
and for the class of patients under discus- 
sion this can not be provided for less than 
$1.60 per day. The companies pay the 
surgeons at the hospitals absolutely noth- 
ing for their services to its injured, which 
amount to thousands of dollars a year. 
The same conditions exist with many of the 
large railroad and street-car companies and 
other public corporations. 

Hospital abuse by patients who are able 
to pay, through the neglect and indiffer- 
ence of the trustees, is prevalent; and 
thereby the profession is robbed of just re- 

turns for labor and the funds of charitable 

persons misused to an extent which is al- 
most beyond belief. All hospitals should 
have competent individuals whose business 
it is to see that no one secures free treat- 
ment who is able to pay. 

Some great hospitals go still further and 
receive any patient, rich or poor, allow him 
to have a suite of rooms and bath and sev- 
eral nurses if he can pay for the same; but 
will not allow him, even if he is willing to 
do so, to pay the surgeon who operates 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 598. 


upon, or the medical man who takes care 
of, him. If the patient is disposed to be 
more just than the trustees of the hospital, 
he can do so only by giving a gratuity at 
Christmas, as would be done with a servant. 
Such indignity should be resented by every 
right-feeling man. 

It is a misfortune that the large majority 
of hospitals have no physicians among their 
directors. Hospital management is often 
extravagant and wasteful, due to official 
influence in furnishing comfortable berths 
for incompetent relatives or unfortunate 
friends in some salaried executive position. 

Fortunately, the list of grievances is not 
large and I believe that they can be har- 
moniously adjusted if taken up with the 
proper authorities in a conciliatory spirit. 
Our first object must be to see that no poor 
person shall be subjected to the slightest 
inconvenience or annoyance and that every 
worthy charity shall have our united sup- 
port; but we must look to it that the 
charitable practitioner’s time, knowledge 
and skill shall not be misused. 


THE PRACTISE OF MEDICINE AS A BUSINESS. 


It is a hard matter to adjust the financial 
side of the practise of medicine; that doc- 
tors are poor collectors and bad investors 
is a notorious fact and makes them the 
easy prey of the various investment ‘gold 
bricks.’ A physician owes it to himself, 
to his family, to his profession and espe- 
cially to the community at large, to man- 
age his finances well. Otherwise he can 
not pursue his studies and give to the sick 
his best efforts which they have a right to 
expect and demand. No sensible man en- 
ters upon a medical career with a view of 
making money. I have never known a 
physician who has become rich solely from 
this source, and it is better so; for beyond 
that reasonable competence which leaves 
him free to pursue his life work, the care 
of money interferes with the highest aims 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


of the true physician and few who have 
been burdened with wealth have reached 
their ideal in a calling which makes no dis- 
tinction between the rich and the poor. 

One of the demoralizing tendencies in 
this commercial age is the money standard 
of success. Physicians are not called or 
chosen; accident or environment brings 
about their choice of a profession. While 
professional life broadens the mental hori- 
zon and increases sympathy it can not 
change man’s nature, and men who are 
unfair in business affairs are to be found 
in our midst. 

The one erying evil, which fortunately 
is not widespread, is the giving of commis- 
sions, in other words, the selling of the con- 
fidence which the patient has in his practi- 
tioner to some specialist who will divide the 
fee in return for reference of the case. The 
one secretly takes money from the patient 
without his consent, and the other, in order 
to complete the bargain, charges more than 
he should. This is equally harmful to the 
one who receives and to the one who gives. 
Such matters can not be kept secret and I 
have personal knowledge of men of good at- 
tainments and remunerative practise who 
have been ruined through losing the confi- 
dence of their communities by this perni- 
cious traffic. Some attempts have been 
made to justify it, but the very fact that it 
is secret shows that both parties -are 
ashamed to have it known and is an ac- 
knowledgment of its moral obliquity. 

Our relations with the allied profession 
of pharmacy are not on as ethical a footing 
as they were twenty years ago. Then the 
druggist was the faithful friend of the phy- 
sician. To-day in putting up from fifty to 
sixty per cent. of the prescriptions sent to 
him, the educated pharmacist cannot use 
his skill as a chemist but simply acts as a 
distributor of copyrighted preparations 
which the physician calls for a few times 


SCIENCE. 


903 


only to take up with something new and 
leave the shelves of the druggist filled with 
the unused remnants. 

Many physicians compound their own 
prescriptions to the detriment of the phar- 
macist. The proprietary medicine people 
have managed this very cleverly; to the 
physician they are continuously calling out 
that the druggist is ‘substituting’; with 
one hand they have given the physician 
remedies to dispense himself, and with the 
other furnished the druggist with patent 
medicines with which to compete with the 
physician, and these two natural allies have 
drifted apart. The average pharmacist can 
not live on physicians’ prescriptions alone, 
but he should be treated justly, and both 
physician and druggist would profit by 
mutual concessions to the great benefit of 
the public. 

The higher grade of pharmaceutical 
houses already see the danger to honest 
pharmacy in the forced promotion of ‘ethi- 
eal’ and fake nostrums under catchy names, 
and it is to be hoped in the future, will con- 
fine themselves to the open compounding 
of legitimate preparations; and these and 
these only should be found on the advertis- 
ing pages of reputable medical journals. 


MEDICAL PROGRESS. 


Graduation from college is merely a com- 
mencement of a life study of medicine. 
Therefore young men without special train- 
ing under competent teachers should not 
be encouraged in wanton assaults on major 
surgical diseases unless justified by neces- 
sity. The future will demand schools for 
advanced training for those who desire to 
do special work. 

The recent graduate in medicine should 
begin in his county society by contribu- 
tions to the newer methods which will be 
interesting to the older men. This should 
be his kindergarten; from there he will 
carry his papers to the district meetings; 


904 


and at the end of five years he will be com- 
petent to bring useful material to the state 
society and later to the sections of the 
American Medical Association. 

In the practise of medicine the student 
days are never over. There is so much to 
be learned that a long and industrious life 
leaves one with the feeling that he is but a 
beginner. The most important habit a 
young man can form is the ‘ daily study 
habit.’ Let him put in even one hour a 
day with the reading of journals and books 
of reference and much can be accomplished. 
He should keep an account of the time and 
if something interferes for a day he should 
charge himself up with it. A two weeks’ 
vacation means fourteen hours to be made 
up. Most men can do more and no man 
has a right to do less, no matter how busy 
he may be. ‘The leaders in our profession 
make a daily average of three or four times 
this amount of study the year round in ad- 
dition to the demands of an active practice. 

The practitioner must make frequent 
trips away for the purpose of observation. 
In no other way can he avoid the rut of 
self-satisfied content which checks advance- 
ment and limits usefulness. No amount of 
diligence as a student can take the place of 
personal contact with men in this same line 
of work. 

What are the rewards of so laborious a 
life? They can not be measured because 
there is no standard of comparison. To 
realize that one has devoted himself to the 
most holy of all callings—that without 
thought of reward he has alleviated the suf- 
ferings of the sick and added to the length 
and usefulness of human life, is a source 
of satisfaction money can not buy. I know 
many a man grown gray in the profession 
with little of a tangible nature to show as a 
result of his work, but who is not only con- 
tented with his lot but proud to have served 
in the ranks, and who looks back upon a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXITI. No. 598. 


life of privation and hardship for the bene- 
fit of humanity as a privilege which he is 
thankful has been vouchsafed him. 

Let us continue to strive as individuals 

for the honor and dignity of our profession. 
In this we but follow out the aims and 
ideals of those who have gone before and 
prepared the way. But the great moye- 
ments of the future can not be brought 
about by individual action. They must be 
initiated and controlled by united effort, 
and in no other way can the epoch-marking 
truths of preventive medicine be made to 
bear fruit. Unity is the spirit of the times; 
it marks the difference between the old and 
the new. 
The vital need of the medical profession 
is a harmonious organization—an organiza- 
tion that will encourage right thinking and 
good usage among ourselves, help to secure 
needed medical reforms, compel redress of 
grievances and promote and encourage the 
highest interests of its individual members: 
and in this lies the future usefulness of the 
profession as a whole. 


Wim J. Mayo. 
RocHESTER, MINN. 


THE KEEPING OF TOBACCO: 


THE smoking quality of cigars and to- 
baccos depends in a large measure on their 
physical condition, the moisture condition 
being an important factor. A green, un- 
seasoned cigar does not develop that pe- 
euliar aroma which is the delight of all 
fastidious smokers, and a cigar which has 
been allowed to become too dry burns too 
rapidly, most of the aroma being lost in 
the rapid combustion. Every manufac- 
turer or dealer aims to bring his stock into 
exactly the right moisture condition and 
then to maintain it in that condition. 

The public taste for cigars varies in dif- 
ferent localities and countries and in all 


*Published by permission of the Secretary of 
Agriculture. 


JuNE 15, 1906.] 


the large factories cigars are conditioned 
to suit the demands of the country to which 
they are to be sent. In Europe, more espe- 
Gially in the British Isles, the consumer of 
cigars requires that they should be dry, in 
fact, almost brittle. It is a common inci- 
dent in that country to see a smoker take 
his cigar and place it to his ear to see if it 
will give forth a cracking sound; and if it 
does not crackle the cigar is considered too 
moist. Pipe smoking tobaccos, however, 
are required very moist. In the United 
States the proper condition for cigars and 
pipe smoking tobaccos is just the reverse. 
The American smoker requires his cigars in 
such a condition that the wrapper, binder 
and filler will yield to the pressure of the 
fingers without cracking or breaking the 
wrapper; while on the other hand the 
smoking tobaccos, especially the granulated 
tobaccos, must be moderately dry. 

Various methods are employed for keep- 
ing cigars and tobaccos in the proper con- 
dition, but up to the present time no 
method has been devised that will act auto- 
matically. Both manufactured tobacco and 
cigars are susceptible to climatic conditions, 
and it requires the constant attention of 
the manufacturer and dealer to regulate 
the moisture in his stock cupboard or show 
ease. In retail stores great trouble is ex- 
perienced in keeping the air in the show 
cases in the proper condition, especially 
when these are constantly being opened. 
In warm, wet weather more moisture is 
admitted than is needed, while during the 
cold winter months the cigars are apt to 
become too dry, especially in the upper 
part of the show eases. 

Until recent years the common practise 
was to have a tray fitted with felt pads 
_ moistened with water placed in the top of 
the cupboard. This proved rather unsatis- 
factory, as evaporation took place too rap- 
idly and the pads required constant mois- 


SCIENCE. 


905 


tening, especially during the winter months. 
These felt pads have given way to a large 
extent to asbestos wool which, when satu- 
rated with water, conserves the moisture 
for a much longer period. The constant 
opening and closing of show eases causes a 
constant replacement of the air in the case 
by the outside air. When the outside air 
is moist, as during wet weather, the pads 
have to be removed from the eases, for 
otherwise the air would become too moist. 
When the outside air is dry, the pads are 
used in the cases to compensate for the 
moisture lost at every opening of the case. 

Several mechanical devices for regulating 
the proper amount of moisture in a cigar 
vault or stock room have been placed on 
the market, the principle of most of these 
being to drive a current of air over a vessel 
of water or damp pad either of felt or 
asbestos, thereby circulating a current of 
moist air in the room. Another device has 
been to spray water into the surrounding 
air. Both these devices are subject to the 
same objection as the use of damp pads, 
namely, that they do not automatically con- 
trol under all climatic conditions the mois- 
ture content of the atmosphere with which 
the cigars or tobaccos are in contact. 

As the present methods for the keeping 
of cigars and tobaccos in the proper con- 
dition of moisture are at best haphazard 
and as the aroma of a cigar depends to a 
very great extent upon the degree of damp- 
ness, a more precise method was sought, 
which should automatically maintain the 
proper degree of humidity of the air with 
which the cigars or tobaccos are in contact. 
Tt was with the object of determining what 
percentage of moisture in the air would be 
the best for the required purpose that these 
experiments were undertaken, or, using 
more technical language, the vapor pressure 
was sought at which the cigars or tobaccos 
maintained their proper physical properties. 


906 


It is a principle of physical chemistry 
that everything, even the most infusible of 
metals, has a vapor pressure, although this 
is so small as to be negligible in some cases. 
In other words, every object tends to keep 
the air space around it saturated with the 
vapor of that object. Thus, a body of 
water will continually evaporate into the 
air if the air be unsaturated with water 
vapor at that temperature, and conversely 
when the air becomes saturated with water 
vapor and then is cooled for any reason, 
precipitation ensues as cold saturated air 
contains less water vapor than warm satu- 
rated air. This vapor pressure of water is 


a perfectly definite quantity at any tem- - 


perature, the pressure of the water vapor, 
or percentage of water vapor in the air, 
being greater at high temperatures than at 
lower temperatures. A solution of a solid 
in water has also a perfectly definite pres- 
sure, the more concentrated the solution the 
lower being the pressure. If for any rea- 
son the quantity of water vapor is greater 
than that with which the solution can exist 
in equilibrium, the solution gains in weight 
due to the condensation of the excess of 
water vapor from the air, and thereby be- 
comes more dilute, and will continue to be- 
come more dilute until equilibrium is es- 
tablished between the solution and the 
vapor. Thus, if a beaker containing a 
dilute solution of sugar, and a beaker con- 
tainine a more concentrated solution of 
sugar be placed under a bell-jar, the dilute 
solution tends to maintain a greater mois- 
ture content in the air space than does the 
more concentrated solution. Consequently 
there is a slow continual evaporation from 
the dilute solution to the more concentrated 
one, and this process will continue until 
the vapor pressure of the two solutions be- 
comes identical, that is, until the percent- 
age composition of the solutions is the same. 
In like manner, if the beakers contain solu- 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No. 598. - 


tions of salt and sugar, respectively, of un- 
equal vapor pressures, there will be a dis- 
tillation from the solution of higher vapor 
pressure to that of lower vapor pressure, 
the distillation continuing until the two 
solutions have acquired equal vapor pres- 
sures. In like manner, salts contaiming 
water of crystallization have definite vapor 
pressures depending on the temperature. 
If the vapor content of the gaseous phase 
falls below this vapor pressure, the hy- 
drated salt gives up vapor sufficient to re- 
store that vapor pressure, some of the an- 
hydrous salt, or of a salt of a lower degree 
of hydration, being formed. If the content 
of the gaseous phase increases for any rea- 
son above the vapor pressure of the hy- 
drated salt, there is no change until the 
vapor pressure of the saturated solution of 
the salt is reached, at which point the salt 
deliquesces, or becomes damp, due to the 
formation of a film of the saturated solu- 
tion on the surface of the crystals. The 
saturated solution of magnesium chloride 
(MegCl,.6H,O) has a lower vapor pressure 
than the pressure of the water vapor or- 
dinarily present in the air about us. Con- 
sequently, when the erystals of this salt are 
exposed they soon become moist and if left 
long enough they will dissolve completely 
in the water which has been condensed 
from the air. A hydrated salt, which is 
not deliquescent, will prevent the vapor 
pressure from diminishing below a certain 
amount, but will not prevent it exceeding 
that same amount. The vapor pressure of 
water in capillary openings differs very 
ereatly from that at a free surface, and so 
porous substances, like paper and textiles, 
will hold water even when the vapor pres- 
sure of the air is below that of water at a 
free surface. 

The moisture absorbed from a damp at- 
mosphere by tobacco may form a solution 
with the salts present, it may form hy- 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


drated salts, it may be held by capillary 
forces in the leaf, or it may be in all three 
conditions. This question of the condition 
of the moisture in tobacco will not be dis- 
cussed in this paper. That tobacco may be 
considered to have a ‘vapor pressure’ may 
be safely assumed from every-day experi- 
enee, for if it is kept in a dry atmosphere 
it dries, and if in a moist atmosphere it 
becomes moist. The object of this investi- 
gation was to determine the magnitude of 
this vapor pressure. When this had been 
determined the next step was to find some 
material which would automatically main- 
tain that vapor pressure. 

Over two years ago the following experi- 
ments were conducted by the author under 
the direction of Professor Wilder D. Ban- 
eroft, of Cornell University. A plug cut 
tobacco (Old Gold) was used and the ob- 
ject of the first experiments was to find 
under what conditions the weight of the 
tobacco would remain the same as when 
the box was first opened. As the vapor 
pressure of sulphuric acid- solutions had 
been determined quite accurately and over 
a great range of concentrations, solutions 
of sulphuric acid were employed in the 
tests. A number of solutions were pre- 
pared havine densities varying from 1.24 
to 1.38, and a large quantity of each (about 
300 ¢.c.) was used so as to avoid material 
changes in composition. It was already 
known that the vapor pressure of tobacco 
probably lay between the vapor pressure of 
the two end solutions. These solutions 
were put into desiccators, such as are used 
in chemical laboratories, and the tobacco 
was placed on a watch glass which rested 
on a wire tripod, which in turn rested upon 
the shoulder of the desiccator. The weight 
of each sample of tobacco had previously 
been determined by weighing on the tared 
watch glass. After standing for two weeks 
in the closed desiccator the watch glass and 


SCIENCE. 


907 


the samples of tobacco were again weighed. 
Approximately the same quantities of to- 
bacco were used in each desiccator, so that 
the surface exposed should be nearly the 
same throughout. 

The samples of tobacco, which stood over 
solutions which tended to maintain in the 
air a greater percentage of moisture than 
the tobacco, would gain in weight, and on 
the contrary the solutions having the less 
vapor pressure than the tobacco would 
cause the tobacco to lose in weight. Also, 
the greater the difference between these 
pressures the faster would the loss or gain 
occur. The following are the results of 
this set of experiments: 


TABLE I, 


Change in the weight of plug-cut tobacco standing 
over sulphuric acid solutions of different 


strengths. 
No, [Specific Gravity vacant of |iAter twelln OrGamua,, 

Tobacco. Weeks. Weight. 
1 1.376 2.4016 2.2630 5.76 loss. 
2 1.354 2.4070 2.2844 5.01 ‘‘ 
3 1.325 2.0810 2.0162 Bullit 6 
4 1.296 2.5570 2.5290 ig) 9 S8 
5 1.283 2.6730 2.6802 0.27 gain. 
6 1.272 2.7264 2.7568 TTI 1786 
7 1.250 2.2100 2.2856 3.43 “ 
8 1,237 2.6170 2.7414 4.74 ‘ 
9 No liquid | 2.3004 2.2908 0.42 loss. 


present. 


In the accompanying figure (1) the per 
cent. loss or gain in weight has been plotted 


3% gain 
0 
SZ loss 
6% loss 
136 13S 1.30 125 L22 
Density of H, SO Solutions. 
Fie. 1. Showing the loss or gain in weight in (Old 


Gold) plug cut tobacco after two weeks. 


908 


against the density of the acid solution. 
Both the table and the diagram indicate 
that the solution of sulphuric acid which 
would be best for keeping that particular 
tobacco in the condition in which it is put 
on the market, has a density lying between 
1.283 and 1.296, rather nearer the former 
figure than the latter. Reading from the 
curve, the solution which causes no loss or 
gain in the weight of the tobacco has a 
density of 1.285. 

No precautions were taken in the above 
experiment to control the temperature, and 
I have assumed that the temperature was 
20° C., which is very close to the mean 
temperature of the laboratory at that sea- 
son. The vapor pressures of solutions of 
sulphuric acid at different temperatures 
have been determined by Richards? and 
from his tables, the solution of sulphuric 
acid, having a density of 1.285, has a vapor 
pressure of 10.8 mm. at 20° C. The result 
of the experiment has been to show that 
for that particular tobacco a solution hav- 
ing a vapor pressure at 20° of 10.8 mm. 
will keep that tobacco (Old Gold plug cut) 
in the same condition of moisture as it had 
when the box was opened. 

Now there is no automatic method of 
regulation of the composition of this solu- 
tion, and so some method for this regulation 
had to be found. Here the principles of 
physical chemistry suggested the use of a 
saturated solution of some salt, which solu- 
tion must have the proper vapor pressure. 
A saturated solution automatically controls 
the vapor content of the air space above it, 
for if the vapor pressure is above that of 
the solution, there is condensation tending 
to dilute the solution; but, as there is al- 
ready solid salt present in the solution, it 
goes into solution until saturation is again 
reached. Conversely, if the vapor pressure 
of the air space is below that of the solu- 

2 Proc. Am. Acad., 38, 23 (1897-98). 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


tion, there is evaporation from the surface 
of the solution, causing some of the salt to 
erystallize out. Thus a saturated solution 
containing some of the crystals of the salt 
is a means of preserving a constant vapor 
pressure in a confined space. A dry to- 
bacco will absorb water and a very moist 
tobacco will lose water, the salt solution 
acting as a control. 

There is, of course, this requirement to 
be filled, that the solid shall not itself 
evaporate and give any unpleasant taste or 
odor to the tobacco, such requirement being 
filled by almost any inorganic salt. From 
the measurements of Lescoeur*® the follow- 
ing vapor pressures of solutions saturated 
at 20° have been taken: 


Taste Il. 


Vapor pressure of satwrated solutions of various 
salts at 20°. 


Vapor Pressure 
Salt. of Saturated Solution 

at 20° 
Potassium i0dide.................0e++ 11.2 
Sodium sulphate.....................0+ 12.0 
Sodium acetate ............sscececesees 11.3 
Barium bromide..............-.0-.++ 10.7 
Cadmium bromide............. ....+ 10.0 
Manganese sulphate..............+++ 11.3 
Sodmmpnitratemecsseseseceseeeseoetee 11.15 
Cadmium nitrate.........0.s..0--.eeeee 10.0 


The saturated solution of barium bro- 
mide has a vapor pressure very nearly 
equal to that which was found for the 
tobacco, and Lescoeur’s results also show 
that the solid salt (BaBr,.2H,O) has prac- 
tically the same vapor pressure. Professor 
Baneroft has kept cigars for a long time 
in a desiccator containing barium bromide 
with very good results. This procedure 
has another advantage, for it not only 
keeps cigars and tobacco in good condition, 
but it may also be used to bring to a prop- 
er moisture condition, tobacco and cigars 

SAnn. Chim. Phys. (6), 16, 378; 19, 35, 533; 
21, 511; 25, 423; 28, 237; (7) 2, 78; 4, 213; 7, 
416; 9, 587. 


June 15, 1906.] 


which have become dry and also those 
which are too moist for consumption. Mr. 
BH. S. Shepherd, formerly of Cornell Uni- 
versity, has successfully used this method 
to bring to a proper degree of moisture 
some cigars which had become thoroughly 
dried out. Similar results have been ob- 
tained in this laboratory. A box about 
three feet long, eighteen inches high, and 
twelve inches deep was provided with three 
shelves made of slats, so as to allow free 
circulation of the air inside the box. Sey- 
eral large evaporating dishes, each con- 
taining a saturated solution of sodium 
nitrate, and also an open box of cigars, 
which had become thoroughly dried out, 
were placed in this larger box. After a 
couple of weeks the cigars were examined 
and were pronounced by Mr. MeNess, who 
is in charge of the tobacco investigations of 
this Bureau, as well as a number of others, 
to be in prime condition. The vapor pres- 
sure of saturated sodium nitrate solution 
is slightly greater than that of the barium 
bromide solution and will, therefore, keep 
the cigars rather moister than the latter 
solution. 

By the use of solutions other than those 
which have been employed, the cigars may 
be made drier or moister, depending upon 
the solution employed. In this way the 
individual tastes of the consumer may be 
satisfied, some people preferring quite 
moist tobacco and others preferring it quite 
dry. By the proper choice of the solution, 
any degree of moisture in the tobacco may 
be attained and maintained. The use of 
solutions containing more than one salt 
offers possibilities of all gradations be- 
tween a very wet and a very dry tobacco. 

Experiments have been carried out in 
this laboratory using cigar wrapper, binder 
and filler tobaccos. Of course, the mois- 
ture content of these tobaccos in the proper 
condition for manufacture is different 
from that when the cigars are in proper 


SCIENCE. 


909 


condition for consumption. The object 
of these experiments has been to determine 
the proper condition under which the dif- 
ferent cigar tobaccos must be kept prepara- 
tory to manufacture. A series of four 
desiceators contained different strengths of 
sulphuric acid and weighed samples of each 


TABLE IIT. 
Change in weight and condition of cigar filler 
tobacco. 
ns Bs SINR a 
8D 4 2 one 
bs | gs | coe | 988 
Bo ES Sa S52 Condition. 
a ge Sa | BSE 
a 28 = = 7 A 
1.0555 |40.96 gm. |45.07 gm. |+10.0) Slightly water- 
stained, very 
slightly mouldy. 
1.1190 /38.53 ‘* |39.43 “ |+ 2.3) Fair condition. 
1.1795 |39.44 ‘“ |38.91 ‘* |— 1.3] Good condition, 
no damage. 
1.2445 |46.49 ‘* |41.43 ‘ |—10.9| Too dry. 
TABLE LV. 
Change in weight and condition of cigar binder 
tobacco. 
a ka a 
2) oS Sos | #3 
oo poA & snen 
es ES ag. | S35 Condition. 
ad ers don | 3SE 
a | 35 | Bes | ag 
Be < 
1.0555 |18.43 gm. |20.17 gm. |-++ 9.4) Mouldy on mid- 
rib, leaf tender. 
1.1190 |11.75 ‘* |11.96 ‘* |+ 1.8) Goodcondition, 
no damage. 
1.1795 }11.01 “* |10.74 “* |— 2.5) Slightly dry. 
1.2445 15.53 ‘* |13.83 ‘ |—10.9| Entirely toodry 
TABLE V. 
Change in weight and condition of cigar wrapper 
tobacco. 
Pe a 
S BS Soa Sate 
oe CRS) 52a & bp 
&S Es 235 iS) ao Condition. 
ad Sa S85 Brat 
A p= a= Pa 
Be 4 
1.0555 |10.22 gm. |11.53 gm. |+12.8| Water-stained. 
1.1190 18.95 “* |14.87 “ |+ 6.6| Slightly water- 
stained and slight 
white mould. 
1.1795 |10.61 ‘* |10.49 ‘“* |— 1.2| Goodcondition, 
no damage. 
1.2445 | 7.95 ‘¢ | 7.12 ‘ |—10.4| Too dry. 


910 


kind of tobacco which were originally in 
fair condition were placed in each desicca- 
tor. After eighteen days the samples were 
again weighed, and the condition of the 
tobacco was carefully examined. The 


tables give the results of these experi- 
ments. 


A Gigar filler tobacco 
B Cigar bin#lertobacco 
C Cigar wre pper tobacco 
PS ee 


$ 


Per ceqr gain In weight. 
(o) 


LOS 110 LS 120 125 
Density of H, 50, Solutions 
Fie. 2. Showing the loss or gain in weight in 


various cigar tobaccos. 


From the above tables and Fig. 2 it will 
be seen that the filler and wrapper tobaccos 
are brought to a good physical condition 
by acquiring the same vapor pressure as a 
sulphuric acid solution of density about 
1.18. The binder tobacco requires a some- 
what weaker solution, 1.12. From the 
tables of Richards* for the vapor pressure 
of sulphurie acid solutions at 20°, the 
vapor pressure of a solution of density 1.16 
is 15 mm. and of a solution of density 1.31 
is 10 mm. A solution of sulphurie acid 
of density 1.18 has a vapor pressure of 
about 14 mm., while a solution of density 
1.12 has a vapor pressure of about 16 mm. 
A solution of density 1.16 would probably 
keep all three kinds of tobacco in good 


4 Toc. cit. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


condition. Lesecoeur’s results’ have been 
consulted to find saturated solutions which 
yield vapor pressures at 20° in the neigh- 
borhood of 15 mm. The following table 
gives these figures. 


TaBLe VI. 


Vapor pressure of saturated solutions of various 
salis at 20°. 


Vapor Pressure 


Salt. of Saturated Solution 


at 20 
Potassium sulphate..............-..-+ 14.4 mm. 
Ammonium sulphate................. 14.8 
Potassium nitrate ........2..0+e0eeeeee 15.0 
Zinc sulphate...........c.:seeecseeeeeee 15.3 
Copper sulphate............-....-..... 15.2 
Sodium sulphate..................2+++- 15.7 


Of the above salts, zine and copper sul- 
phate are ruled out on account of their 
toxie action, if by any accident the salt 
should come in contact with the tobacco. 
Sodium sulphate has a rather high vapor 
pressure and is, therefore, best suited for 
the binder tobacco, while potassium sul- 
phate with a vapor pressure below 15 mm. 
is best suited for filler and wrapper 
tobacecos. The best salts for all three are 
probably ammonium sulphate and potas- 
sium nitrate. Saturated solutions of am- 
monium sulphate have been used in the 
box which has been described and samples 
of the three cigar tobaccos which were very 
dry were placed on the shelves. At the 
end of ten days these tobaccos were pro- 
nounced by Mr. MeNess, of this Bureau, to 
be in prime condition. 

Thus, to bring cigar tobaccos into a 
proper condition of moisture preparatory 
to manufacture it is sufficient to place 
these tobaccos in a confined space in which 
there is exposed a large surface of a satu- 
rated solution of ammonium sulphate or 
potassium nitrate. After the cigars have 
been made up, they may be brought to a 
proper condition of moisture for consump- 


5 Loe. cit. 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


tion by placing them in a confined space in 
which there is exposed a large surface of a 
saturated solution of sodium nitrate. 

The following table gives the results of 
experiments upon Virginia  fire-cured 
tobacco using the same solutions as had 
been used for the experiments upon cigar 
tobaccos. 

Taste VII. 
Change in weight and condition of Virginia fire- 
cured tobacco. 


= GS wy S aS: 
28 fag mss | O88 Condition. 
Ae < 
1.0555 |42.21 gm. |48.78 gm. |+15.6} Mid-rib very 
mouldy, leaf ten- 
der and covered 
with green mould. 
1.1190 |45.26 ‘‘ |48.06 ‘* |+ 6.2} Very mouldy 
and water-stained, 
leaf tender. 
1.1795 |42.63 “* |48.29 ‘* |4+ 16) Less mouldy 
than above sam- 
ple, but water- 
stained and ten- 
der. 
1.2445 |37.45 ‘* |32.27 ‘ |—13.9| Good condition, 
no damage. 


Originally this tobacco was in a very wet 
condition and it was expected that the 
sample in the best condition would suffer 
a great loss in weight, and this is actually 
what happened. The atmosphere in con- 
tact with this tobacco must be very much 
drier than that in contact with any of the 
cigar tobaccos, and the solution which pre- 
serves this tobacco in good condition is a 
little less concentrated than the acid which 
kept (Old Gold) plug-eut tobacco in the 
same condition as it was when taken from 
the box. 

It will be observed that different tobaccos 
require vastly different treatments to bring 
them to the proper moisture condition for 
manufacture or consumption. This work, 
however, brings out certain generalizations. 
All cigar tobaccos, whether filler, wrapper 


SCIENCE. 


911 


or binder, previous to manufacture require, 
within certain limits, very much the same 
treatment, 7. e., they are brought to the 
proper physical condition for manufacture 
by remaining a few days in an atmosphere 
which has acquired the concentration of 
water vapor, which is given off by a satu- 
rated solution of ammonium sulphate or of 
potassium nitrate. The second generaliza- 
tion is that all tobaccos, whether cigar or 
pipe, can be brought into proper physical 
condition for consumption by remaining a - 
few days in an atmosphere which has ac- 
quired the concentration of water vapor 
given off by a saturated solution of sodium 
nitrate or some salt whose saturated solu- 
tion gives approximately the same vapor 
pressure. 

The principles enunciated in this paper 
might also be employed for the keeping of 
paper and other absorbent materials whose 
physical condition is affected by humidity. 


meen 


SUMMARY. Pe a he 

1. It has been pointed out that the pres- 
ent methods for keeping tobaccos in proper 
condition for use, and for bringing them 
to the proper condition are haphazard and 
unsatisfactory. 

2. Solutions have been found which keep 
tobaccos in the required condition for man- 
ufacture and use. This method is auto- 
matic, for the composition of a solution, 
contaming some of the solid salt, does not 
change upon evaporation or condensation 
of moisture, until all the water has evapo- 
rated from the solution, or until all the 
solid has been dissolved by condensed mois- 
ture. The solutions which have been pro- 
posed will not only preserve a proper de- 
eree of moisture, but will also bring wet or 
dry tobaccos into a proper moisture condi- 
tion. The solutions which have been pro- 
posed are quite expensive. 

3. Practical tests have been made of the 


912 


proposed solutions upon wet and dry 
tobaccos, always with satisfactory results. 
JAmEsS M. BEuu. 
BUREAU OF SOILS, 
U. S. DEPARTMENT oF AGRICULTURE, 
WasuHINGTOoN, D. C. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Sur le développment de Vanalyse et ses rap- 
ports avec diverses sciences. By Emine 
Picarp. Paris, Gauthier-Villars. 1905. 
In this little volume of 167 pages Professor 

Picard has republished the lectures which he 
came to America to deliver at the decennial 
celebration of Clark University in 1899 and 
at the St. Louis Congress of Arts and Science 
in 1904. The book thus has a special interest 
for American readers, but quite apart from 
this it will prove stimulating to all lovers of 
mathematics who feel the need from time to 
time of taking comprehensive views of the 
great divisions of their subject under the 
guidance of a master. 

Parts of these lectures give information of 
a general character concerning some of the 
most recent advances in such subjects as the 
theory of differential equations and of alge- 
braic functions of two variables, in both of 
which fields M. Picard is one of the leading 
workers. These sections, which necessarily 
presuppose a considerable mathematical train- 
ing on the part of the reader, have been 
brought down to date by footnotes added 
since the lectures were delivered. They would 
be even more useful than they are if provided 
with more precise bibliographical references. 
Other sections will be found accessible to 
readers of much less mathematical attainment, 
and we can not indicate the kind of inspira- 
tion and enjoyment to be derived from them 
better than by giving a few typical quotations. 

Without wishing to generalize too much, it may 
be said that mistakes are sometimes useful, and 
that during really creative periods an incomplete 
or approximate truth may be more fruitful than 
the same truth accompanied by the necessary re- 
strictions (p. 5). 

After having explained that it is not always 
wise to restrict one’s attention to analytic 
functions (that is to functions which may be 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No, 598. 


developed by Taylor’s theorem) in spite of the 
fact that these functions are-in- a certain 
sense sufficiently general for all ‘practical’ 
purposes and that their theory forms an ele- 
gant mathematical system complete in itself, 
the author goes on: 

In general, let us admire highly systematized 
theories, but let us distrust a little their scholastic 
appearance which is in danger of stifling the in- 
ventive impulse (p. 30). y 

In speaking of the development of mechan- 
ics in the eighteenth century the author says: 

Formal mathematical developments played at 
that time the main part; and the language of 
analysis was indispensable for the greatest de- 
velopment of these principles. There are moments 
in the history of science, and perhaps of society, 
when the mind is upheld and carried forward by 
the words and symbols which it has created, and 
when generalizations present themselves with the 
least effort (p. 131). 

True rigor is fruitful, and is thereby distin- 
guished from another kind of rigor, purely formal 
and tiresome, which casts a shadow on the prob- 
lems which it touches (p. 148). 


Those who had the privilege of hearing M. 
Picard when he was in America will miss 
from this volume only the charm of the 
spoken word, while finding there all the at- 
tractive qualities of style for which the author 
is so justly noted. 

Maxime Bocuer. 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Tue May number of the Botanical Gazette 
contains the following papers: A. D. E. Elmer 
contributes his third paper on ‘ New and Note- 
worthy Western Plants,’ describing numerous 
new species from California; J. Y. Bergen 
discusses certain strand plants about the Bay 
of Naples, chiefly in reference to the toxic 
effect of sodium chloride, and shows wide 
variation in this regard; H. D. House de- 
seribes with the help of illustrations new and 
noteworthy North American species of clover; 
Charles E. Lewis describes the basidium of 
Amanita bisporigera, having traced the nu- 
clear divisions in connection with spore- 
formation. The number closes with the usual 
full review of current literature. 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 


THE spring meeting of the Physical Society 
was held at Washington, D. C©., on Friday, 
April 20, and Saturday, April 21, 1906. 
President Barus presided. 

The Friday session was held at the Cosmos 
Club, and the Saturday sessions at the Na- 
tional Bureau of Standards. 

On Saturday afternoon Professor H. A. 
Lorentz, of Leyden, addressed the society on 
the subject of ‘ Gibbs’s Statistical Mechanics.’ 

The program was as follows: 


C. B. Tuwine: ‘Measurements of the Internal 
Temperatures of Common Materials.’ 

J. G. Corrin: ‘On the Influence of Frequency 
upon the Self-inductance of Cylindrical Coils of 
Any Number of Layers.’ (Read by title.) 

HE. B. Rosa: “On the Geometric Mean Distance 
of Square Areas and their Use in the Calculation 
of Inductances.’ 

L. A. Baurr: ‘Cheltenham Magnetic Observa- 
tory Registration of Effects from Electric Cars 
over Twelve Miles Distant.’ 

EH, B. Rosa and F. W. Grover: 
densers as Standards of Capacity.’ 

L. W. Austin: ‘The Electrolytic Wave De- 
tector.’ : 

C. W. WatpNER and G. K. Burerss: ‘On the 
Determination of Melting Points by Radiation 
Methods.’ 

H. P. Hype: ‘Talbot’s Law as Applied to the 
Rotating Sectored Disk.’ 

H. B. Brooks: ‘A New Potentiometer.’ 

I. A. Woutrr: ‘Direct Reading Methods for 
Resistance Comparisons.’ 

S. J. Ammen: ‘The Velocity and Ratio e/m for 
the Primary and Secondary Rays of Radium.’ 

A. H. Prunp: “ New ‘ Reststrahlen.’ ” 

A. H. Prunp: ‘Study of Polarization Phenom- 
ena in the Infra-red.’ 

W. W. CoBLENTZ: 
Radiometer.’ 

R. W. Woop: ‘ Fish-eye Views.’ 

R. W. Woop: ‘Interference Colors of Chlorate 
of Potash Lamine.’ 

R. W. Woop: ‘Fluorescence and Magnetic Ro- 
tation of Vapors.’ 

R. W. Woop: ‘ Resonance Radiation of Fluor- 
escence of Sodium Vapor.’ 

KE. B. Rosa and N. EH. Dorsey: ‘The Ratio of 
the Electromagnetic and Electrostatic Units.’ 


“Mica Con- 


“Note on a New Form of 


SCIENCE. 


913 


I. J. Bares: ‘Spectral Lines as Light Sources 
in Polariscopic Measurements.’ 

W. W. Cobnentz: ‘Water of Crystallization 
and Water of Constitution.’ 

E. Ruruerrorp: ‘ Distribution of the Intensity 
of Radiation from Radioactive Substances.’ 

L. E. Woopman and H. W. Wess: ‘The Dis- 
persion of Electric Waves.’ 

C. W. CHAMBERLAIN: ‘ Note on the Compound 
Interferometer.’ 

W. P. Wuite: ‘The Constancy of Platinum 
Thermo-elements and other Thermo-element Prob- 
lems.’ 

W. P. WHITE: ‘Some Properties of Moving 
Coil Galvanometers.’ 


The next meeting of the society will be at 
Ithaca, N. Y., June 28 to July 3, in connec- 
tion with the summer meeting of the Amer- 


ican Association. 
Ernest Merritt, 


Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tur 415th meeting was held on March 381, 
1906, Vice-president Palmer in the chair and 
twenty-nine persons present. 

Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles offered the first 
paper, ‘A Plan to Insure the Establishment 
of Type Species of Genera’ He exhibited 
various sections of the card catalogue on med- 
ical and veterinary zoology, and explained the 
system adopted of using different colored 
cards to aid the memory in systematic zoology, 
nomenclature and geographic distribution. 

He also explained a proposition he is now 
submitting to various organizations in order 
to insure the designation of type species for 
new genera. This proposition involves the 
adoption of a rule by publishing organizations 
to the effect that no papers containing new 
generic names will be accepted for publication 
unless the author designates the type species 
for every new generic name used. It was 
adopted independently by the Washington 
Biological Society, which was the first organ- 
ization to set up the rule. 

In reply to a question, Dr. Stiles stated in 
reference to Ashmead’s genera described in 
keys and citing a type species that, even in the 
absence of any separate specific description, he 
considered these genera as valid; the case is 


914 


identical with those numerous cases in which 
authors describe a new genus based upon a 
specific description, without separate generic 
diagnosis, but headed X-us albus new genus, 
new species. 

In reply to a question relative to the cor- 
rect date of a genus based upon a generic 
deseription, but without accompanying specific 
name or specific description, he stated that he 
considered the date of publication of said 
genus the correct date. He saw no difficulty 
in taking a later specific name as type of an 
earlier generic name; such action is common, 
for instance, in case of renamed species, and 
no confusion arises therefrom. Thus, lance- 
atum (1896) is lanceolatum (1803) renamed, 
and is type of Dicrocelium (1845). In all 
eases, however, the species in question must 
have been included in the genus from the 
standpoint of the author of the genus. An- 
other case in point is Dioctophyme (1802), 
which, as the illustrations and habitat show, 
was clearly based upon renale (1782), although 
renale was not mentioned by name. 

In reference to the arrangement to be fol- 
lowed in publishing genera, he stated that as 
secretary of the International Commission he 
had been obliged to consult numerous articles 
by various authors in fields outside of his own 
specialty, and that he had found the plan pro- 
posed by Dr. Evermann and as adopted by 
President Jordan and his coworkers to be the 
most convenient of any arrangement he had 
seen. Only one improvement occurred to 
him, namely, to give a reference to the family 
in connection with every generic diagnosis. 
He suggested the following as an ideal plan 
which would enable any author to comprehend 
the writings on groups with which he was not 
thoroughly familiar and as aiding the indexer 
in indexing the genera: 


Equus Linneus, 1758. 
1758: Hquus Linneus, 1758, 73-74, Syst. nat., 10 
ed. (type caballus; Eurasia) ; equus Latin, 
horse. 


1815: Caballus Rafinesque, 1815, 55, Analyse de 


la Nature (Hquus 1758 renamed, type 
caballus) ; caballus Latin, horse. | Generic 
diagnosis.—Equidie (p. — [refer here to 


page of family diagnosis]): [write generic 
diagnosis here]. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


The object of this arrangement is to enable 
a zoologist who is not acquainted with the 
recognized systematic position of a genus or 
with any possible differences of opinion on 
this point, to find the information he desires 
in the shortest possible time. 

Further, many authors do not give in their 
entire article any clue to the family, ordinal 
or even class disposition of,the new genera 
they publish or their idea as to the position 
of old genera. 

The family diagnosis should give a clue to 
the order in which the family is classified. 
If this arrangement were adopted, any author 
could begin with a species and trace its sys- 
tematie position without the slightest diffi- 
culty. 

Dr. B. W. Evermann urged the desirability 
of Dr. Stiles’s scheme and read the following 
rules, which have been promulgated by the 
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries as requirements to 
be observed by authors submitting to the 
bureau papers containing names of new gen- 
era or species: 

New Genera. 

1. Designate the family in which the pro- 
posed new genus belongs. 

2. Designate the species taken as the type 
of the new genus. 

New Species. 

3. A single specimen shall be designated as 
the type of the species. 

4, Other specimens studied at the same time 
and believed to be conspecific with the type 
should be designated as cotypes. 

5. The size and condition of the type, the 
museum in which it is deposited, and the 
number which it bears on the register of said 
museum shall be given. 

6. The type locality, collector and date of 
collecting must be given. 

The same rules apply to subgenera and 
subspecies. 

The types of all new species first described 
in the publications of this bureau will, except 
in exceptional cases, be deposited in the U. S- 
National Museum. 

The second paper was by Dr. Rodney H. 
True on ‘The Cultivation of Tea in the 
United States,’ and was illustrated with lan- 


June 15, 1906.] 


tern slides, and by samples of tea in both the 
rolled and tablet form. 

Owing to the large and steady demand for 
tea in the United States, both the government 
and private parties have from ‘time to time 
given more or less attention to the propaga- 
tion of tea with reference to the possibility 
of bringing up an industry. The most serious 
attempt in this direction was begun by Dr. 
Charles U. Shepard, at Summerville, S. C., as 
a private enterprise some years since. This 
enterprise has been in part supported by the 
Department of Agriculture in cooperation 
with Dr. Shepard. Attention has been given 
not only to the cultivation of the plant under 
the conditions of the Carolinas, but also to the 
introduction where possible of machine meth- 
ods. This has resulted in the invention of a 
number of very useful labor-saving devices, 
which have placed a large part of the work 
connected with the manufacture of tea on a 
machine basis, with a considerable consequent 
reduction of the cost of production. 
general outcome of the experiments during 
the last season, it may be stated that the crop 
amounted to about five and a half tons of 
high-grade tea, which has been satisfactorily 
disposed of through the usual channels of tea 
commerce. 

Recently the broken tea-leaf has been most 
satisfactorily utilized in the form of tablets. 
The tea powder contains sufficient oily ma- 
terial to cement the mass under high pressure 
into firm tablets, which readily fall apart when 
treated with hot water. The compact form of 
the tablets does not interfere with the de- 
sirable qualities of the tea and makes a prod- 
uct which is proving very popular where com- 
pactness is desired. 

The question of the commercial production 
of tea at this location seems to be in a fair 
way toward ultimate favorable solution. A 
number of important problems, however, still 
remain to be solved. 

The Department of Agriculture has estab- 
lished another tea farm at Pierce, Texas, 
where about forty acres are now planted with 
young tea. Matters have not progressed far 
enough as yet to warrant any statement re- 


SCIENCE. 


As a- 


915 


garding the probable outcome of this feature 
of the experiment, beyond the mere statement 
that some small samples of tea made from the 
young bushes form a product of very high 
quality. 

Laboratory studies at Washington and at 
Summerville, S. C., in connection with Dr. 
Shepard’s work, have demonstrated some im- 
portant scientific facts which have a distinct 
bearing on the tea industry. The process of 
fermentation, which produces a product char- 
acterized by the general qualities of so-called 
black tea, is due to oxidizing enzymes present 
in the tea leaf operating on other bodies pres- 
ent in the leaf, resulting in the development 
of compounds giving the characteristic color, 
taste and odor of the black tea. In green tea 
this fermentation process is prevented by the 
destruction of the oxidizing enzymes by the 
application of heat to the newly picked leaves. 
Further investigations, carried on in coopera- 
tion with Dr. Edward Kremers, of Madison, 
Wis., indicate that the aromatic qualities of 
the tea leaf are not due, as is currently be- 
lieved, to preformed volatile oils found in the 
leaf, but to aromatic bodies developed in the 
tea leaf by the factory processes, particularly 
during the firing process. 

M. C. Marsu, 
Recording Secretary. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


At the 18ist meeting of the society on 
May 9, the following papers were read: 


Normal Faulting in Northern China: Mr. 
Batey WILLIs. 


A Type of Vein Structure in the Southern 
Appalachians: Mr. L. C. Graton. 


Two Occurrences of Graphite: Mr. Guo. Otis 

SMITH. 

Mr. Smith deseribed two occurrences of 
graphite in western Maine which had been 
visited by him in 1905. These illustrate two 
modes of origin and the genetic relationships 
have a direct bearing upon the question of 
economic value of the deposits. 

At Madrid, the graphite occurs locally in 
schist at the contact with irregular bodies of 
pegmatite. Some of the schist beds are rela- 


916 


tively barren and this variation in graphite 
content is believed to express the original dif- 
ference in percentage of carbon in the sedi- 
ments. The graphite grains are minute and 
intimately associated with muscovite and 
quartz. The Madrid graphite is regarded as 
the product of the conversion and concentra- 
tion of carbonaceous particles of sedimentary 
origin through the agency of heated vapors 
from the pegmatite magma. 

In Yarmouth, the graphite is found within 
a pegmatite dike which cuts a large granite 
mass. The graphite in flakes and large masses 
is a well-distributed constituent of the peg- 
matite, and with the quartz and feldspar 
forms the usual mosaic. No evidence was 
noted of any source of the carbon of the 
graphite other than in the molten rock which 
intruded the granite itself, the graphite being 
as much an essential and original constituent 
of the pegmatite as is the quartz or the 
feldspar. 


Copper Deposits of the Zuni Mountains, New 

Mexico: Mr. F. C. Scuraper. 

The Zuii Mountains form a group about 
twenty miles long and fifty miles wide, situated 
some eighty-five miles west of Albuquerque. 
They are composed of pre-Cambrian schists, 
gneisses and granites, and are flanked on all 
sides by gently upturned strata regarded as 
of upper Carboniferous age — the ‘red beds’ 
of the Colorado Plateau region. Mount 
Sedgewick, the highest summit of the group, 
rising 2,000 feet above the surrounding pla- 
teau, reaches an elevation of 9,200 feet. The 
topography is for the most part not rugged 
and nearly every portion of the district may be 
reached by wagons. The drainage goes to the 
Rio Grande by way of the Blue Water and 
San Jose rivers on the north, and the Agua 
Fria on the south. The trend of the moun- 
tains and of the dominant structure in the pre- 
Cambrian rocks is a little north of west, and 
the foliation of the schists and gneisses dips 
steeply toward the south. 

Copperton, the principal mining camp, is 
situated in the heart of the mountains about 
twenty miles west of the Atlantic and Pacific 
Trans-Continental Railway. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 598. 


Copper deposits are found both in the pre- 
Cambrian rocks and in the lower strata of the 
“red beds.’ In both situations the ores thus 
far revealed consist almost entirely of second- 
ary copper minerals including green and blue 
carbonates and copper glance. Chalcopyrite, 
though present, is uncommon. ; 

In the Pre-Cambrian the ores occur along 
sheeted zones in the schists or gneisses, some- 
times associated with quartz in irregular yein- 
like bodies, but to a greater extent dissemi- 
nated through the rocks of the mineralized 
zones. ‘These zones vary in width, the widest 
observed being 800 feet across. They are 
often persistent for considerable distances, and 
in several instances the presence of workable 
amounts of rock carrying above three per cent. 
metallic copper has been demonstrated. The 
usual minerals associated with these ores are 
quartz, specular iron, limonite, galena, and 
pyrite. Gold values are said to run from one 
dollar to four dollars per ton. 

The basal strata of the ‘red beds’ which 
carry copper minerals are from thirty to sixty 
feet in thickness. At the bottom is an arkose 
conglomerate and above this there are layers 
of sandstone and shale. In the northwest 
part of the district the conglomerate may be 
seen resting: upon the basset edges of the erys- 
talline pre-Cambrian rocks. The ore minerals 
are locally disseminated through the rocks, and 
where occurring in the conglomerate appear 
to have been deposited with the sand and 
gravel which compose the rock. If this sug- 
gestion is correct, the copper minerals were 
probably derived by erosion from the pre- 
existing deposits in the crystalline forma-_ 
tions. The ore-bearing strata, and especially 
the shaly beds, contain considerable amounts 
of fossil wood, and this material has been 
very largely replaced by copper carbonates and 
glance, and cuprefacts produced in this way 
form an important portion of the ‘red bed’ 
ores. 

The district has been under development for 
about five years, but as yet there are no ship- 
ping mines. Annual assessment work is done 
on some 200 claims controlled by about 75 in- 
dividuals. The region is well watered and 
forested, and the climate is a pleasant one. 


June 15, 1906.] 


Ar a special meeting on the evening of May 
18, the following illustrated papers were pre- 
sented : 

Epitome of the Geologic History of the Cali- 
fornia Coast Ranges: Mr. F. L. Ransome. 
Evidence of Geologically Recent Movements 
near San Francisco: Mr. Gro, H. ASHLEY. 
Location and Character of the Faults in the 

Earthquake Region: Mr. RaueH ARNOLD. 

Lantern views showing some effects of the 
earthquake: These views, sent by Messrs. G. 
K. Gilbert and W. C. Mendenhall, were ex- 
hibited by Mr. Ashley. 


Seismograph and Magnetograph Records of 
the San Francisco Earthquake: Mr. L. A. 
Bauer. 

Comparative Intensities of the New Madrid, 
Charleston and San Francisco Harthquakes : 
Mr. M. L. Futter. 

While all conclusions regarding the San 
' Francisco shock must necessarily be pro- 
visional until the publication ‘of accurate 
scientific data, sufficient evidence is at hand 
to warrent certain general conclusions as to its 
intensity as compared with the New Madrid 
earthquake which shook the Mississippi Val- 
ley in 1811-12 and the Charleston disturb- 
ance of 1886. Considering first the area af- 
fected by fissuring, we find such phenomena 
have been reported to extend at least 125 
miles both north and south of San Francisco 
and throughout a belt 50 miles wide. At 
New Madrid the length of the disturbed area 
was 110 miles and the width about 60 miles, 
while at Charleston it was only 30 miles long 
and 20 miles broad. Jt should be noted, how- 
ever, that at San Francisco the fissuring oc- 
curred only at widely separated points where 
the conditions were peculiarly favorable, 
while in the New Madrid and Charleston 
areas the entire surface within the limits 
mentioned was affected. 

The main San Francisco shocks appear to 
have lasted only about one and one-fourth 
minutes, with slighter tremors for a few hours 
and occasional light shocks for several days. 
At Charleston the severe tremors were like- 
wise confined to a few hours, but at New 
Madrid they continued at short intervals for 


SCIENCE. 


917 


over a year, nearly 2,000 shocks, 53 of which 
were severe, occurring in the first three 
months. The effect on buildings was also 
greatest at New Madrid, even low cabins being 
shaken down, but at Charleston relatively few 
of even the larger buildings were destroyed 
although many were injured. The destruction 
at San Francisco was somewhat greater, but 
the better class of buildings, especially the 
steel structures, generally escaped. The mag- 
nitude of the surface undulations was greater 
at Charleston than at San Francisco and 
greatest of all at New Madrid, in which re- 
gion considerable areas of forest were thrown 
down even on the level ground, while the bluffs 
were literally shaken to pieces, the resulting 
landslides converting them into jumbles of 
earth heaps and tree trunks for a distance of 
100 miles. Such landslides were absent at 
Charleston, but occurred occasionally at San 
Francisco, although much less frequent and 
conspicuous than at New Madrid. 

Tidal waves were practically absent both at 
San Francisco and at Charleston, but at New 
Madrid the Mississippi was disturbed by great 
waves which destroyed much of the shipping 
and the current even retrogressed in certain 
localities. Cracks and eraterlets, with pos- 
sibly one or two exceptions, seem to have been 
absent in the San Francisco region, but were 
common at Charleston and New Madrid. In 
the former locality the cracks were usually less 
than an inch across, but in the latter were 
often many feet in diameter. Craterlets 
abounded in both localities, but both in the 
area covered and in number and amount of 
sand and water extruded, New Madrid stands 
first. The courses of the streams were little 
affected at San Francisco or Charleston, but 
in the New Madrid area the courses of many 
were changed, the water following new cracks 
instead of the old channels. Others were de- 
flected by the warping of the surface, while 
still others were obstructed by faults or sharp 
folds giving rise to extensive marshes or large 
lakes of open water. In fact the New Madrid 
area seems to be the only one of the three in 
which the general level of the land was notably 
affected. 


918 


Various other lines of evidence all point to 
the same conclusion—that every type of 
earthquake phenomena was more pronounced 
in the earlier than in either of the more recent 
shocks. The destructiveness, owing to geo- 
logic conditions, was somewhat greater at San 
Francisco than at Charleston, although the 
actual intensity of the Charleston shock was 
greater. 

The New Madrid earthquake is believed to 
have been due to faulting produced by local 
overloading of the crust by the Mississippi 
embayment deposits. Evidences of prehistoric 
shocks have been found and it is known that 
the readjustment is still in progress. Shocks 
are to be expected in the future which may be 
disastrous to the small towns near the Mis- 
souri-Arkansas line, if not to the cities of 
Memphis and Cairo, and possibly to St. Louis. 


The cause of the Charleston shock was prob- - 


ably similar to that at New Madrid, but 
there are no indications of earlier disturb- 
ances, and none of importance have occurred 
since 1886. 
not threatening. The San Francisco shock 
was due to the readjustment of one or more 
faults due to mountain-building forces which 
have long been in operation. Evidences may 
be seen of past disturbances far greater than 
the present, and, while possibly the present 
generation may have little to fear owing to 
the temporary equilibrium which has been 
established, there will almost certainly be as 
great or greater disturbances in the future as 
in the past. ArtTHurR C. SPENCER, 
Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Tue 619th meeting was held May 19, 1906, 
Vice-president Bauer in the chair. 

Announcement was made of the election of 
ten new members. 

Memorial papers were read on three de- 
ceased members, all connected with the Coast 
and Geodetic Survey: On Mr. H. G. Ogden 
and Mr. E. D. Preston, prepared by invitation 
by Mr. W. B. Chilton, and on Mr. F. M. 
Little, by Mr. L. P. Shidy. Further remarks 
and personal tributes were added by Messrs. 
Bauer, Hayford and Gore. no 


SCIENCE. 


The conditions at that point are 


[N.S. Von. XXIII, No. 598. 


Several informal communications were then 
made: : 

Mr. Burbank had investigated the radio- 
active substance in the atmosphere and finds 
about twenty-five per cent. of it to be thorium. 

Mr. Wead pointed out the similarity be- 
tween the increase in wave-length of spectral 
lines in dense gases, found in Humphries’s 
experiments, and that indicated by the or- 
dinary formula for vibration with high damp- 
ing, and suggested new experiments. 

Mr. Hayford read a letter from M. Guil- 
leaume, of the International Bureau, describ- 
ing the recent measurement in the Simplon- 
tunnel of a twenty-kilometer base-line in three 
days and nights, using his nickel-steel bars. 

Mr. Rosa called attention to the two illog- 
ical terms in the table of lengths—the tenth- 
meter and yp; the logical series with ratio 
1,000:1 would be: 


km, m, mm, P> Mp, pp. 


The society then adjourned till October 13. 
Cuartes K. Weap, 
Secretary. 


THE ST. LOUIS CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 

At the meeting of the society on May 14, 
Mr. J. J. Kessler presented a paper entitled 
‘The Physical Structure of Metals and AI- 
loys.’ The speaker dwelt on the light shed 
on the mystery of alloys by physical chem- 
istry and by microscopic examinations. The 
minute structure of a material can not be re- 
vealed by purely chemical examination, but it 
is revealed in the microscope. The speaker 
then explained the preparation of the surface 
for microscopic examination by polishing and 
etching. The paper was profusely illustrated 
by excellent slides made from microphoto- 
graphs of all phases of structure of both pure 
metals and alloys. C. J. BoremEyer, 

Corresponding Secretary. 


COLORADO CONFERENCE OF SCIENCE WORKERS. 


A svaTE conference of science workers was 
held in Boulder at the University of Colorado 
on May 4 and 5, 1906. The program of the 
conference was as follows and all papers were 
presented by the authors. 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


G. L. Cannon: ‘The Necessity for Science Con- 
ferences in Colorado.’ 

Junius Henperson: ‘The Collecting of Mol- 
lusks in Colorado.’ 

T. D. A. COocCKEBELL: 
Florissant.’ 

A. E, BEARDSLEY: 
tado.’ 

H. KE. Sovereren: ‘Apparatus illustrating the 
Laws of Electromagnetic Induction.’ 

A. N. Finn: ‘A Report on the Quantitative 
Analysis of Uranium and Vanadium.’ 

J. ARTHUR BircHiEy: ‘A Study of the Kater 
Pendulum.’ 

Wm. Duane: ‘New Kinds of Radiation.’ 

G. S. Dopps: ‘The Projection Microscope for 
Work in Botany and Zoology.’ 

W. D. Eneie: ‘The Effect of Bile on the Sur- 
face Tension of Water. 

Grorcr I. Frnury: ‘Recent Geological Correla- 
tion Work in the Caiion City Field’ 

Puitip Fircu: ‘A Review of the Development 
of the Modern Kinetic Theory of Gases as a Basis 
for the Study of Radioactivity.’ 

F. L. Assorr: ‘Producer-gas and Producer-gas 
Engines.’ 

J. Vincent Daniets: ‘A Report on the Forma- 
tion of Malic Acid by Fermentation.’ 


All of the institutions in the state of col- 
legiate grade were represented by delegates, 
and a number of the larger high schools as 
well. A public address was given by Pro- 
fessor Thomas H. MacBride, of the State Uni- 
versity of Iowa, his subject being ‘The Re- 
sponse of Plants.’ Francis RAMALEY, 

Secretary, Local Committee. 


‘The Fossil Beds of 


“The Crustaceans of Colo- 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
A PERSISTENT ERROR. 


My attention has recently been called to an 
error in the use of geologic names, which, 
since I am inadyertently responsible, it seems 
desirable I should correct. 

The terms Des Moines and Missourian have 
been in use for some years, especially in the 
publications of the Iowa and Missouri Sur- 
veys, for the lower and upper coal measures 
of the older classification. When I prepared 
for the 22d Annual Report of the U. S. Geolog- 
ical Survey a brief discussion of the western 
interior coal field, I. was located in a mining 
camp with no opportunity for stenographie 


SCIENCE. 


919 


services. The report was, therefore, written 
out in long hand and sent down to Washington \ 
to be copied. Instead of being returned to 
me it went through the press, and I had no 
opportunity to examine it until the printed 
copies came to hand. It seems that in one of 
the early pages of the manuscript, by some in- 
advertence I had transposed the terms. The 
editor with painstaking care transposed them 
through all the remainder of the manuscript 
to correspond to this one wrong usage, and 
they appeared in this form in the published 
paper. The mistake was to my mind so 
obvious, and the usage so well established, 
that I never considered it worth while to make 
the correction. However, it misled Dr. Buck- 
ley, of the Missouri Survey, and in his report 
on the quarry industry the terms are accord- 
ingly misused. His attention having been 
called to this, the following note was made in 
the Geology of Moniteau County, page 8: 

Attention is here called to the names Missourian 
and Des Moines, in the use of which there is evi- 
dently some confusion. In the earlier reports 
of the Iowa and Missouri Geological Surveys the 
term ‘ Missourian’ has been applied to the upper 
coal measures, and the term ‘ Des Moines’ to the 
lower coal measures. In the late reports of the 
U. S. Geological Survey (22d Annual Report, 
part 3, plate 22, page 341), their use has been 
reversed, the term ‘ Missourian’ being applied to 
the lower coal measures, and the term ‘ Des 
Moines’ to the upper coal measures. These 
names were first applied in the Missouri reports 
during the Keyes administration, and there ap- 
pears to be no good reason for reversing their 
application. 

This would seem to have been sufficient to 
make the matter clear, but in the report of the 
coal-testing plant of the U. S. Geological Sur- 
vey, Professional Paper 48, page 74, the wrong 
usage again appears. JI desire, therefore, to 
enter protest in public against the persistence 
of the usage, which was a typographical mis- 
take to begin with, and for which there is, 
as Dr. Buckley says, no good reason. 

H. Foster Bar. 


THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF THE PAPAW TREE. 


Tue article by Dr. C. A. White in the May 
11_issue of ScreNnce on the northern limit of 


920 


the papaw in the Mississippi Valley overlooks 
the occurrence of this tree at a point much 
farther north. The writer has noted its oc- 
currence in the valley of Carroll Creek near 
Mt. Carroll, Ill., about five miles north of the 
forty-second parallel of latitude, or nearly one 
hundred miles farther north than the limits 
given by Dr. White, and the tree there bears 
fruit. A letter received to-day from A. B. 
Hostetter, of Mt. Carroll, states that the fruit 
seldom ripens, but that in favorable seasons 
members of his family have gathered and 
eaten the ripened fruit. The papaw in that 
locality seems to be restricted to the rocky 
gorge of Carroll Creek, a situation somewhat 
sheltered. 

It may be of interest to note in this con- 
nection that the papaw has been reported by 
Wesley Bradfield, of the United States Forest 
Service, to extend as far north as Grand 
Traverse Bay in Michigan, or to about lati- 
tude forty-five degrees, and it is of common 
occurrence as far north as Grand Rapids, 
Mich., in latitude forty-three degrees. 


FRANK LEVERETT. 
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, 
May 17, 1906. 


Arter having read the communication from 
Dr. C. A. White in Science for the eleventh 
of May this year, relative to the northern limit 
of the papaw tree, I deem it my duty to in- 
form the readers of your journal that this tree 
grows under a high bluff of sandstone on the 
south side of the Mississippi in the west end 
of Rock Island County, near a place known 
as Drury Landing. 

Two weeks ago I saw these trees in bloom. 
I sought information regarding the ripening 
of the fruit and the testimony was unanimous 
by the residents in the neighborhood that the 
fruit may and does ripen even in this northern 
locality. It is known to have been offered for 
sale on the market in Muscatine, on the op- 
posite side of the river. So far as the distribu- 
tion of this plant along the Mississippi is 
concerned, it does not seem necessary to ac- 
count for this by a hypothesis involving hu- 
man ,agency, although we may take it for 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


granted that man has been an agent of some 
consequence in the dispersal of its seeds. 


J. A. Uppen. 
Rock Istanp, ILt., 
May 21, 1906. 


SPHOIAL ARTICLES. 
PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT IN BRACHIOPODA. 


‘Bracuiopop Homeomorphy: Pygope, Anti- 
nomia, Pygites’—The writer has presented a 
paper with the above title to the Geological 
Society of London, and it was read on March 
91. It deals with the diphyoid Terebratule, 
of which so many species have borne the name 
Terebratula diphya (Colonna). It is noted 
that this name is pre-Linnean, and can, there- 
fore, only date from the time when it was re- 
vived by L. von Buch, 1834. Prior to that 
several names had been given to these shells. 
The first were Terebratula cor and T. pileus 
given by Bruguiére in 1792 in the Journ. His- 
toire Naturelle. This paper has been entirely 
overlooked by workers on these shells. Bru- 
guiére’s names indicate a perforate and an 
imperforate species, respectively. Considera- 
tion is then given to the synonymy of certain 
diphyoid species: 7. triangulus, Valenciennes 
in Lamarck, which was actually founded on 
Bruguiére’s own figures of his 7. pileus, re- 
produced in ‘Encye. Meth”; TY. triquetra, 
Parkinson, which includes two species, a per- 
forate and an imperforate; and 7. antinomia, 
Catullo, which covers various species. These 
and others all antedate 7. diphya, von Buch. 

Terebratula diphya is not the type of the 
genus Pygope, as all text-books say; for Link, 
the author of the generic name, referred only 
to T. antinomia, Catullo. Reasons are given 
for taking as the type of Pygope one of the 
forms of 7. antinomia which is considered to 
be the same species as 7’. deltozdea, Val. Then 
the later generic name Antinomia, Catullo, is 
diseuSsed. The genus was founded on five 
species; and one of them is now selected as the 
type —the genolectotype. This is A. dilatata, 
Catullo, supposed to be eqitivalent to T. antz- 
nomia, Catullo, that is, to what is now selected 
to be the type of that species. In that case 
the species would bear the name Antinomia 


JuNE 15, 1906.] 


antinomia (Cat.). The two generic names 
Pygope and Antinomia are employed, because 
they are supposed to indicate two independ- 
ent parallel genetic series, whose members dif- 
fer in size and position of the perforation, and 
in characters of the lateral margin. But there 
is yet another series of diphyoids, typified by 
Terebratula diphyoides, @Orb. It is pointed 
out that, although the species covered by the 
name diphyoides are very like Pygope as now 
used, yet they all differ in having particular 
characters in the preperforate stage — a dorsal 
ridge and a ventral suleus. Jor this series 
de Haan’s MS. name Pygites is used; and it is 
supposed that there are three genetic series of 
diphyoids which have developed independently, 
and that the remarkable perforate form, with 
its two lobes joined, has been evolved three 
times over. The three series develop from the 
glossothyridoid, to the bifidate, to the perforate 
(ordinary J. diphya) stage; and two series 
are supposed to finish by losing all trace of 
the perforation, the lobes completely coalesc- 
ing (the imperforate stage), represented by 
T. pileus, Brug. =T. triangulus, Val. in La- 
marck. 

In compiling synonymies of the species in 
the three genera there have been found two 
other papers overlooked by Brachiopod bib- 
liographers—one by E. Newman in the Zoolo- 
gist, 1844, p. 679, naming T. Duvali, and one 
by Catullo. S. S. Buckman. 


GEOLOGICAL SECTION OF NEW MEXICO. 


Untit within the past year no connected 
view of the geological formations of the New 
Mexican region has been possible. From the 
literature alone little of an exact sequence of 
‘geological formations could be made out. 
Since the work of the geological and mineral 
survey of New Mexico, under the direction of 
the School of Mines, at Socorro, has been 
undertaken much new and much-desirey in- 
formation has been obtained, until now a very 
satisfactory and correlated scheme of the rock 
succession has been constructed. The section 
is instructive on account of—(1) its com- 
pleteness, (2) its easy parallelism with the 
better known sections of other parts of the 


SCIENCE. 


921 


continent, (3) the great development of cer- 
tain of the major formations, and (4) the 
many great unconformities which represent 
long erosion intervals. 

Nearly every one of the twenty-five larger 
formations, those haying a taxonomic rank of 
series, are separated by marked unconformi- 
ties. The recognition of these erosion in- 
tervals explains many hitherto unsolved phe- 
nomena regarding the relationships of the 
various formations, and enables exact correla- 
tions to be made in a way that is impossible 
among the terranes of most other localities, 
and largely without the use of organic re- 


mains. ‘The section is as follows: 


GENERAL GEOLOGICAL SECTION OF NEW MEXICO. 


Age. Series. del Rocks. 
in Quaternary 200 | Gravels. 
8 200 | Shales. 
© | Terti Arriban 500 | Sandstones. 
|| aa Wasatchan 1,700 | Sandstones. 
S Nacimientan 800 | Shales. 
Laramian 3, 600| Sandstones. 
Montanan 1,500) Shales. 
Cretaceous | Coloradan 1,000} Shales. 
2 Dakotan 500) Sandstones. 
N Comanchan 100 | Sandstones. 
n 
g : Morrisonian 200 | Shales. 
2 | Jess Zunian 1,200 | Sandstones. 
Triassic Shin4rumpan ‘1,500! Shales. 
Cimarronian 1,000 | Shales. 
Guadalupan 2,500 | Limestones. 
Carbonifer- | Maderan 1,000 | Limestones. 
ous. Manzanan 1,000 | Limestones. 
2 Ladronesian 200 | Shales. 
SI Socorran 300 | Limestones. 
3 Devonian 400 | Limestones. 
Silurian 100 | Limestones. 
Ordovician | E] Pasan 1,200 | Limestones. 
Cambrian 300 | Sandstones. 
Proterozoic 3,000 | Quartzites. 
Archeozoic 5,000 | Schists. 


The most noteworthy features are the great 
development of the Tertiary and Cretaceous 
deposits, the presence of rocks of the Jurassic 
horizon, the completeness of the Carboniferous 
sequence, the representation of all systems of 
the Paleozoic, and the differentiation of the 


922 


Proterozoic clastics and the Archeozoic ecrys- 
tallines. 
Cuartes R. Keyes. 
New Mexico Scnoou or Mines. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
STUDIES OF ISLAND VEGETATION. 


Two contributions to Atlantic island floras 
have recently appeared dealing with the plants 
of the Bahamas and the Bermudas respect- 
ively. Dr. Charles F. Millspaugh’s ‘ Con- 
tributions to a Flora of the Bahamian Archi- 
pelago’ issued (under the title ‘ Praenunciae 
Bahamenses, I,’) by the Field Columbian 
Museum in February, 1906, is the first of a 
proposed series intended thoroughly to cover 
the flora of these islands. A large amount of 
material collected by many botanists has been 
brought together for the use of Dr. Millspaugh 
in his study of the species. The principal 
collectors represented are L. J. K. Brace (1875 
to 1905); N. L. Britton (1904-5); E. G. Brit- 
ton (1905); W. OC. Coker (41903); Wm. 
Cooper (1859); A. H. Curtiss (1903); F. S. 
Farle (1903); M. A. Howe (1904-5); C. F. 
Millspaugh (1904-5); G. V. Nash and N. 
Taylor (1904); A. R. Northrop (1890); J. T. 
Rothrock and A. S. Hitchcock (1890); A. E. 
Wright (1905). The families of plants rep- 
resented in this paper are Amaranthaceae, 
Euphorbiaceae, Rubiaceae, Verbenaceae and 
Solanaceae. New species are described in 
each of these families, aggregating fourteen 
in all, and two new genera of Verbenaceae 
are characterized. It is noteworthy that both 
generic and specific descriptions are in Latin, 
in accordance with the growing feeling among 
botanists that all new descriptions should be 
so written. 

The second paper is a ‘ List of Plants Col- 
lected in Bermuda in 1905’ by Albert H. 
Moore. It is the result of collections made 
by Mr. Moore in Bermuda in July and Au- 
gust, 1905. The specimens (with few excep- 
tions) were determined by comparison in the 
Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. As 
a result we have a list of 221 species, two of 
which are new to science. The latter are 
illustrated by reproductions of photographs. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXITI. No. 598. 


Eleven species are listed as endemic in Ber- 
muda, including three ferns, a juniper, two 
sedges, a palm, a Sisyrinchiwm, an EHlaeo- 
dendron (tree of a new species), a Statice, 
and an Hrigeron. The descriptions are in 
Latin here also, and the nomenclature is in 
accord with the rules adopted in the Vienna 
congress last year. 

From the other side of the world we have a 
pamphlet of about one hundred pages devoted 
to Philippine plants, and containing five 
papers, viz.: ‘New and Noteworthy Philippine 
Plants, IV.’; ‘Notes on Cuming’s Philippine 
Plants in the Herbarium of the Bureau of 
Government Laboratories’; ‘ Notes on Philip- 
pine Gramineae’; ‘Scitamineae Philippen- 
ses’; ‘Philippine Acanthaceae’ Many new 
species are described, two of which are of 
especial interest, viz: Acer philippinwm and 
Fraxinus philippensis. Neither one of these 
genera had been known previously on the 
islands. The Gramineae are treated by 
Hackel, the well-known agrostologist of Gratz, 
Austria. 

In this connection mention should be made 
of The Philippine Journal of Science, the 
first number of which was issued by the 
Bureau of Science of the Government of the 
Philippine Islands in January of the present 
year. Its purpose is the publication of the 
researches of the Bureau of Science. There 
are to be ten numbers a year, aggregating ap- 
proximately one thousand pages, and these 
are to take the place of the bulletins hitherto 
issued by the government laboratories. The 
subseription price is placed at five dollars per 


“year. 


ANOTHER NOMENCLATURE RULE. 


In his ‘ Leaflets’ issued April 10, 1906, Dr. 
E. L. Greene prints a timely and vigorous 
protest against the dedication of more than 
one genus to any man, however eminent, and 
calls attention to the practise of some of the 
earlier masters of botany, who promptly sup- 
pressed duplicate names. Thus Dr. Torrey 
rejected Wittea, proposed by Kunth in honor 
of De Witt Clinton, with the comment ‘it 
would be inadmissible to bestow two genera 
on the same person,’ holding that Clintonia 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


fully satisfied the demands in the case. Dr. 
Green approves of this decision of Torrey’s, 
and speaks of the principle involved as ‘a law 
so plain that it never seemed to need formal 
and verbal enactment until within the last 
decade.’ He holds that it is far better: ‘to 
name one good genus after a man’ than ‘to 
use his name as a merely convenient founda- 
tion for the making of a dozen different 
names’; the first he considers to be a real 
honor, while of the latter he asks ‘is not that 
to openly dishonor him?’ ‘Thus he accepts 
Washingtonia, but rejects Neowashingtoma, 
which he characterizes as ‘impossible in any 
but a weak and degenerate system of nomen- 
clature.’ 
SEASIDE LABORATORIES. 


Attention is now directed to the increasing 
opportunities for the study of plant [and 
animal] life at waterside laboratories. For 
those who can make the trip probably no more 
attractive combination of camp life and a 
study of an unfamiliar vegetation can be 
found than is afforded by the Minnesota Sea- 
side Station on the westerly shore of Van- 
couver Island, whose session begins July 8, 
and closes August 18. It is under the di- 
rection of Professor MacMillan, of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota. — Much like it, but 
much nearer, is the Biological Laboratory on 
Long Island, at Cold Spring Harbor, where 
from July 5 to August 18 instruction will be 
given in various lines of botany, especially of 
the lower forms. The botanical work here is 
under the direction of Professor Johnson, of 
Johns Hopkins University. — At Woods Hole, 
Massachusetts, the nineteenth session of the 
Marine Biological Laboratory is announced 
to open June 1 and to extend to October 1, 
with instruction in botany from July 5 to 
August 16. The opportunities for investiga- 
tion in this long-established laboratory are 
such as should induce many an advanced stu- 
dent to spend the summer there. The botan- 
ical work the present season is to be under 
the supervision of Dr. George T. Moore, of 
Wshington, D. C. 


NOTES ON RECENT BOTANICAL PAPERS. 
Among noteworthy botanical papers may be 


SCIENCE. 


923 


mentioned Professor Pond’s ‘Incapacity of 
the Date Endosperm for Self-digestion’ in 
which the author shows by a series of careful 
experiments that, contrary to the views of 
many botanists, the endosperm of the date is 
not capable of self-digestion, and that such 
digestion as takes place in the seed is due 
to the enzymes in the embryo. — Botanists 
will remember Dr. A. F. Blakeslee as the dis- 
coverer of the secret of zygospore formation 
in the Black Moulds (Mucorineae), and will 
learn with interest that he has been studying 
in Germany at the University of Halle, where 
he has continued his work on these interesting 
plants. His distribution of the + and — 
sexual strains of Phycomyces nitens and 
other species of Mucorineae has made it pos- 
sible for botanists everywhere to have zygo- 
spores for laboratory study. The paper ac- 
companying the specimens, entitled ‘ Studies 
in Mucorineae,’ is mainly an abridgment of 
the full paper published a year or so ago in 
the Proceedings of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences. With it he gives, also, 
a brief summary of an interesting paper on 
‘Zygospore Germinations in the Mucorineae’ 
originally published in the ‘Annales Myco- 
logici’ early this year, in which he shows 
that such zygospores require a period of rest 
before germination, and determines the sta- 
bility and instability of the sexual strains in 
Sporodinia and Mucor.— Professor Under- 
wood’s paper, ‘ American Ferns, IV.’ (reprint- 
ed from the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 
Club, 1906, pp. 189-205), includes notices of 
forty species of Pteridophytes which have been 
added to the flora of the United States smece 
the publication of the last edition (1900) of 
his book ‘Our Native Ferns and their Allies.’ 
— Professor Blankinship has brought together 
a mass of interesting information in his paper 
on the ‘ Native Economie Plants of Montana,’ 
published as Bulletin No. 56 of the Montana 
Experiment Station. He has given especial 
attention to the uses of these plants by 
the Indians.—M. A. Howe’s ‘ Phycological 
Studies,’ I. and II. (reprinted from the Bulle- 
tin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 1905 and 
1906) include new Chlorophyceae and Rho- 


924 


dophyceae from Florida and the Bahama 
Islands. A dozen good plates, partly photo- 
graphic, accompany these studies. — Recent 
papers by Professor F. L. Stevens include 
“The Science of Plant Pathology’ (a popular 
discussion, first published in the Popular Sci- 
ence Monthly, September, 1905), ‘ Oogenesis 
and Fertilization in Albugo ipomoeae-pan- 
duranae’ (a cytological study from the 
Botanical Gazette, October, 1904), ‘A Nature- 
Study Lesson with the Moulds’ and ‘A Sim- 
ple Experiment on Spontaneous Generation’ 
(both popular articles for teachers and pupils 
in the public schools, originally published in 
the Natwre-Study Review). — Dr. E. J. Dur- 
and’s recent papers on fungi include ‘ The 
Genus Sarcosoma in North America,’ ‘ Three 
new Species of Discomycetes’ and ‘ Peziza 
fusicarpa and Peziza semitosta, all from the 
Journal of Mycology.— Professor Halsted’s 
“Report of the Botanical Department for 
1905,” published by the New Jersey Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, is as usual a marvel 
in the way of containing the results of an 
astonishing number of experiments and ob- 
servations. Many fine half-tone reproductions 
of photographs add much to the usefulness of 
this admirable report. 


CHarues EK. Bessey. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


THE WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. 


THe Worcester Polytechnic Institute has 
just awarded a contract for the erection of a 
new building to be used exclusively for elec- 
trical engineering. It is designed to have this 
building put up as rapidly as possible so that 
it may be used during as large a portion of 
the next school year as possible. The building 
has been designed by the firm of Peabody & 
Stearns, Boston, architects. Professor A. W. 
French, the head of the civil engineering de- 
partment at the Worcester Institute is to act 
as consulting engineer and superintendent of 
construction. 

The plans for this building have been under 
consideration for some time and it is the in- 
tention of the trustees to make it the most 
thoroughly equipped and up to date elec- 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 598. 


trical engineering laboratory anywhere in this 
country. 

The large general laboratory will have a 
length of 200 feet and a width of 55 feet. 
This with three galleries which form a part 
of the plan will give a floor area of 19,400 
square feet and will constitute what is un- 
doubtedly the largest electrical engineering 
laboratory in the world. This laboratory will 
be served by a ten-ton electric controlling 
erane covering the entire central portion of 
the laboratory between the galleries. The 
galleries will be served by two-ton controlling 
hoists covering their entire length. The usual 
lecture rooms, recitation rooms, and design 
rooms and special laboratories and workshops 
are to be found in the building; but the fea- 
ture upon which the greatest amount of 
thought has been expended and the feature 
which will undoubtedly attract the greatest 
amount of attention is the electric railway 
testing laboratories. The Worcester Polytech- 
nice Institute is a pioneer in this kind of work 
and is at the present time the only institu- 
tion in the United States where an inde- 
pendent chair in electric railway engineering 
has been established. Connection will be 
made with the tracks of the Worcester street 
railway system, so that electric cars can be 
run directly into the laboratory and the tests 
conducted there. 

Ample facilities are also to be provided for 
work in connection with insulation and with 
high potential transmission. The equipment 
of the laboratory will permit the use of volt- 
ages of any desired frequency and potential 
up to 750,000 volts for the study of the vari- 
ous problems of long-distance high potential 
power transmission and the dielectric and 
electrostatic phenomena of insulating and 
other material. 

The plans as drawn by Peabody and Stearns 
provide for an attractive building architec- 
turally. In its location the building will front 
on Salisbury Street, directly opposite Institute 
Park, thus giving it one of the most beautiful 
locations to be found in the city. 


L. L. Conant. 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


THE DANISH AROTIC EXPEDITION. 


Frew Arctic expeditions, if any, have been 
more carefully planned and prepared than the 
forthcoming Danish or ‘Danmark’ expedi- 
tion, as it is officially called. The necessary 
funds, about 250,000kr., have been raised 
partly by a government grant and partly by 
private subscriptions. Mr. L. Mylius-Erich- 
sen, the leader of the expedition, distinguished 
himself by his determined pluck and energy 
as leader of the Danish Greenland expedition, 
which made its way across Melville Bay to 
the Cape York Eskimo settlement on the west 
coast of Greenland; and he has been uni- 
versally complimented by Sir Clements Mark- 
kam, Professor Fridtjof Nansen, and other 
eminent authorities for the plan he is now 
about to realize. 

Leaving Copenhagen on July 1, the Dan- 
mark will proceed to the east coast of Green- 
land and try to make its way through the ice 
as far north as possible, further north than 
where Sabine and Clavering landed in 1823. 
The first problem which will present itself to 
Mylius-Erichsen will be to ascertain whether 
Eskimo are to be found further north; if not, 
what has become of them, and by what 
route have the Eskimo made their way to 
East Greenland. From the place of land- 
ing the expedition will proceed by sledges 
along the east coast, winter en route, and 
push ahead to the northernmost point of 
Greenland, the most northerly land in the 
world. This, in Mylius-Erichsen’s opinion, is 
the most favorable place from which to make 
an attempt at the Pole; the latitude is a high 
one, about 84 degrees, and, what is of the 
greatest importance, these parts are singularly 
rich in game, musk ox, ice-bear, ete., a fact 
which will enable a sledge expedition for the 
Pole to set out with strong, fresh dogs, fed on 
natural food. The expedition will return to 
the ship in time to winter there the second 
year. 

Te most interesting and adventurous un- 
dertaking of the whole expedition yet remains 
—namely, what Mylius-Erichsen, who is not 
given to strong expressions, himself calls the 


1The London Times. 


SCIENCE. 


925 


fairly daring plan of traversing, by means 
of ski, dog-sledges and automobile, the inland 
ice of Greenland on the broadest portion of 
this continent. Nansen’s famous crossing of 
Greenland took place much further south, 
where Greenland is much narrower; and 
Peary, who followed the northern slopes, had 
the great advantage of being in touch with the 
coast. 

Mylius-Erichsen’s plan is this: About 
March, 1908, he sets out, accompanied by one 
of his staff and two Greenlanders, belonging 
to the crew, the other members of the expedi- 
tion, with fully-loaded sledges, going with him 
the first third of the journey. When they 
return, Mylius-Erichsen and his three fol- 
lowers proceed into the entirely unknown ‘ ice- 
dome’ of the interior of Greenland, which 
rises to as much as 10,000 feet above the level 
of the sea. It is completely devoid of vege- 
table and animal life, and here one of the 
northern hemisphere’s cold-poles is supposed 
to be found. At the coldest season man can 
probably not live there. Therefore, Mylius- 
Erichsen has chosen the months of March, 
April and May for this expedition. By means 
of ski, dog-sledges, and motor-car, which 
Nansen thinks can be used there with ad- 
vantage, Mylius-Erichsen hopes to compass 
this exceedingly venturesome journey in about 
two months and a half. 

From the west coast the four men proceed 
by a special vessel to a place on the southern 
part of Greenland’s east coast, where they join 
the Danmark, which has in the meantime 
gone further south, and returned to Denmark. 
The expedition numbers 22 Danes as well as 
two German scientists, all specially fitted for 
the work, officers, artists, scientists, etc., some 
of them members of former Greenland expedi- 
tions, and all will be treated alike, receiving 
the same pay, ete. Motor-boats and wireless 
telegraphy will be special features of the 
equipment. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. JosepH D. Bryant, of New York City, 
has been elected president of the American 
Medical Association. 


926 


Oxrorp University will, on June 20, confer 


the degree of doctor of science on Dr. Alex- 
ander Graham Bell. 


PRELIMINARY announcements have been sent 
out by the secretary in regard to the joint 
meeting of Section B of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science and 
the American Physical Society, which will 
be held at the time of the summer meet- 
ing of the Association at Ithaca, June 29 
to July 3. The announcement calls attention 
to the fact, already noted here, that the formal 
opening, with appropriate ceremonies, of the 
new physical laboratory of Cornell University 


will take place on the evening of Friday, June 
29. 


At the celebration of the twentieth anni- 
versary of the founding of the society of 
Sigma Xi, which is to be held at Ithaca on 
July 2, during the meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
Dr. J. C. Branner, vice-president of Stanford 
University, is to give an illustrated lecture 
under the auspices of the society. His sub- 
ject will be ‘The Great California Farth- 
quake.’ 


THE committee appointed by Governor 
Pardee to investigate the causes of the recent 
earthquake has presented a preliminary re- 
port. The committee includes Professor 
Andrew ©. Lawson, of the State University; 
Professor G. K. Gilbert, of the United States 
Geological Survey; Professor Harry Fielding 
Reid, of the Johns Hopkins University; Pro- 
fessor J. C. Branner, of Stanford University ; 
Professor Charles Burckhalter, of the Chabot 
Observatory, and Professor W. W. Campbell, 
director of Lick Observatory. 


Mr. Witu1aMm M. Cuasr has undertaken to 
paint the portrait of President Angell, which 
will be presented to the University of Mich- 
igan. 

WE learn from The Botanical Gazette that 
Dr. E. N. Transeau, Alma College, Michigan, 
has been appointed a member of the staff 
of the Station for Experimental Evolution, at 
Cold Spring Harbor. THe will work at evolu- 
tionary problems from the ecological side. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


Dr. E. von Duncern, professor of bacteriol- 
ogy and hygiene at Freiburg, has been ap- 
pointed director of the scientific section of the 
Krebs Institute, Heidelberg. 

Proressor Frmrana Cayara has been made 
director of the Botanical Gardens at Naples. 

Dr. J. F. Payne, Harveian librarian of the 
Royal College of Physicians, has been elected 
to an honorary fellowship at Magdelene Col- 
lege, Oxford. 

M. Paut Bruarpet, professor of medical 
jurisprudence at the University of Paris, has 
presented his resignation in view of the fact 
that he will shortly be seventy years of age. 

Proressor D. E. Smirx, of Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University, has sailed for 
Spain, where he will spend the summer in 
seeking for early mathematical manuscripts 
and text-books. 

Arter January 1, 1907, the collection of 
copper statistics for the United States Geo- 
logical Survey will be in the hands of Mr. L. 
C. Graton. During the coming summer Mr. 
Graton will visit the principal copper camps 
of the country, including those of the Lake 
Superior, Bingham and Butte districts, as 
well as the four great camps of Arizona at 
Clifton, Bisbee, Globe and Jerome, and the 
district about Redding, Cal. 

Dr. A. S. Wartuiw and Dr. F. G. Novy, of 
the University of Michigan, have been invited 
to give papers before the British Medical 
Association at its meeting in Toronto in 
August. 

PRESIDENT Wooprow WILson, of Princeton 
University, and Dr. Albert Shaw, editor of 
The Review of Reviews, have agreed to lec- 
ture on American politics at Columbia Uni- 
versity in the academic year 1906-7. The 
lectures are made possible by the gift of $150,- 
000 by Mr. George Blumenthal, to establish a 
chair of polities. 

Dr. W. H. R. Rivers will deliver the 
Croonian lectures before the Royal College of 
Physicians of London on June 12, 14, 19 and 
21, the subject selected being the action of 
drugs on fatigue. 

In order to perpetuate the memory of the 
late Professor Charles Emerson Beecher, who 


JUNE 15, 1906.] 


was professor of paleontology in Yale Uni- 
versity and a member of the governing board 
of the Sheftield Scientific School from 1897 
to the time of his death in 1904, the friends 
of Professor Beecher have established a fund 
of $10,000 to be known as the Charles Emer- 


son Beecher Memorial Fund. The income of’ 


this fund is to be devoted to the interests of 
instruction or research in natural history 
studies in the Sheffield Scientific School, but 
during the life time of Mrs. Beecher and her 
children the income of the fund is to be paid 
to them. 


Dr. Kart Ropert Epouarp von HArTMANN, 
known for his philosophical and literary pub- 
lications, died at Berlin on June 6, at the age 
of sixty-four years. 


We learn from Nature that Baron C. R. 
von der Osten Sacken, author of numerous 
books and papers on the classification of 
Diptera, died at Heidelberg on May 20 in his 
seventy-eighth year. 


CotumsBia UNiversity is to have a 63-inch 
equatorial, suitable for student work. The 
glass has been presented by Mrs. Wilde, and 
completely refined and refigured by Messrs. 
Alvan Clark’s Sons, of Cambridgeport. 


Mr. Cuarence B. Moors, of Philadelphia, 
who has spent many years in exploring the 
mounds of Florida, has made a gift of a large 
part of his archeological collection to the 
museums of Stockholm, Berlin, Yale and Har- 
vard. 


ARRANGEMENTS have been completed, under 
a plan outlined by Alfred Mosely, to send, 
between November and March, five hundred 
British teachers to the United States and 
Canada to study the educational systems of 
the two countries. 


THE committee on food standards of the 
Association of! Official Agricultural Chemists, 
which has been commissioned by Congress to 
collaborate with the secretary of agriculture 
in fixing standards of purity for foods and de- 
termining what shall be regarded as adulter- 
ations, will hold its next meeting on June 
18, at the bureau of chemistry, Washington, 
D. C. 


SCIENCE. 


927 


We learn from The British Medical Jour- 
nal that a General Institute of Psychology, 
specially intended for the study of the phe- 
nomena of subconsciousness, the investigation 
of the causes of criminality and the discovery 
of means of curing social evils will shortly 
be formally constituted in Paris. Among 
those to whom the initiation of the scheme 
is mainly due are Professors Brouardel, 
d@’Arsonval and Gariel, and MM. Boutroux, 
Giard and A. Picard. In January last M. 
Dubief authorized a lottery of four millions 
of franes, the product of which will be ap- 
plied to the purchase of a site for the pro- 
posed institute and the erection of a build- 
ing containing a series of fully-equipped 
laboratories, a library and a museum. 


Own June 5 the senate bill for the preserva- 
tion of American antiquities passed the House 
of Representatives. The senate bill to regu- 
late the landing, delivery, cure and sale of 
sponges, passed the House of Representatives 
with amendment. 


The British Medical Journal says: “ Mr. 
Henry S. Wellcome is organizing an exhibi- 
tion in connection with the history of medi- 
cine, chemistry, pharmacy and the allied 
sciences. It is his aim to bring together a 
collection of historical objects illustrating the 
development of the art and science of healing 
throughout the ages. The exhibition, which 
will be strictly professional and scientific in 
character, will not be open to the general 
public. For many years Mr. Wellcome has 
been engaged in researches respecting the early 
methods employed in the healing art, both 
among civilized and uncivilized peoples. In 
particular it has been his object to trace the 
origin of the use of remedial agents. There 
is a considerable amount of information scat- 
tered throughout the world in folk-lore, in 
early manuscripts, and in printed books, but 
the difficulties of tracing out and sifting the 
evidence are great. Mr. Wellcome will great- 
ly value any information sent him in regard 
to medical lore, early traditions or references 
to ancient medical treatment in manuscripts, 
printed works, ete., and he undertakes that the 
greatest care shall be taken of any objects of 


928 


historical medical interest lent for the exhi- 
bition.” 


UNIVERSITY AND BDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tue Woman’s College of Baltimore has re- 
ceived gifts amounting to $580,000. Of this 
amount $500,000 was needed to clear the col- 
lege of debt and $80,000 will be added to the 
’ endowment fund. Mr. Andrew Carnegie gave 
$50,000; the Massey estate, through Mr. 
Chester D. Massey, Toronto, Canada, $50,000; 
other gifts range from small amounts to $30,- 
000. The treasurer of the college puts the 
assets of the college as follows: Grounds, 
buildings and equipment, $701,000; endow- 
ment, $719,135. 

Governor Hiccins has approved a bill ap- 
propriating $80,000 for a school of agriculture 
at St. Lawrence University, with an addi- 
tional $12,000 for maintenance. This school, 
it is understood, will be managed in coopera- 
tion with the authorities of the State College 
of Agriculture at Cornell University. 

By the will of Catherine L. R. Catlin, of 
New York, $60,000 is left to religious and 
charitable institutions, including $10,000 to 
New York University. 

Tue administration building at Vanderbilt 
University, which was destroyed by fire on 
April 20 of last year, involving a loss of over 
$250,000, is nearing completion again. The 
walls are of stone, brick and terra-cotta, and 
the floors, ceilings and roof are of reinforced 
conerete so that destruction by fire will not 
again be possible. 

Tue electors to the Linacre professorship 
of comparative anatomy, vacant by the death 
of Professor Weldon, will proceed to an elec- 
tion in the month of July. Candidates are 
desired to send in their names so as to reach 
the registrar’s office not later than July 7. 
No testimonials are to be submitted, but can- 
didates are invited to send in with their names 
eight copies of a brief statement of their 
career and of their scientific work and ex- 
perience. 

At Yale University the following appoint- 
ments have been made: Leo Frederick Rett- 
ger, M.A., Ph.D., assistant professor of bac- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 598. 


teriology and hygiene in the Sheffield Scien- 
tific School; William Ebenezer Ford, Jr., 
Ph.D., assistant professor of mineralogy in 
the Sheffield Scientific School. 

In the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Columbia University, Dr. Philip Hanson 
Hiss, Jr., has been promoted to a chair of 
bacteriology and Dr. F. C. Wood to a chair 
of clinical pathology. 

At Barnard College, Columbia University, 
Dr. Herbert M. Richards has been promoted 
to a professorship of botany; Dr. Edward 
Kasner, to an adjunct professorship in mathe- 
matics; Dr. Ida H. Ogilvie and Miss Margaret 
A. Reed have been appointed tutors in geology 
and zoology, respectively; Dr. Vivian A. C. 
Henmon has been appointed lecturer in psy- 
chology. 

THE non-resident professors engaged for the 
summer session of the University of Wiscon- 
sin are Miss Jane Addams, Hull House, Chi- 
cago; Professor Gilbert A. Bliss, mathematics, 
Princeton; Professor Albert Perry Brigham, 
geology and natural history, Colgate; Pro- 
fessor Louis H. Burch, manual arts, Western 
Tilinois Normal School; Professor Henry R. 
Fairclough, Latin, Leland Stanford Junior 
University; Professor Edward J. Lake, art 
and design, University of Illinois; Professor 
Thomas K. Urdahl, political and social sci- 
ence, Colorado College; Professor Claude H. 
VanTyne, American history, University of 
Michigan; Professor William H. Williams, 
mathematics, Platteville Normal School. Be- 
sides these non-resident professors a large 
number of the regular members of the uni- 
versity faculty will give courses in the sum- 
mer session, including Professors Munro, Bar- 
deen, Ely, Harper, Hohlfeld, Pyre, Shower- 
man, Trowbridge, Voss, Kahlenberg, Daniels, 
Elliott, OC. E. Allen, Laird, Lathrop, Frost, 
McGilvary, Slichter and Tressler. 

Dr. Aucustus G. Pontman, of Buffalo, has 
been appointed associate professor of anatomy 
in Indiana University. 

Dr. Kyicht Duntap, instructor in psychol- 
ogy at the University of California, has been 
elected instructor in psychology at the Johns 
Hopkins University. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


(| 


FRAY, JUNE 22, 1906. 


CONTENTS. 
The Franklin Bi-centenary................. 929 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 943 


Societies and Academies :— 
The North Carolina Academy of Science: 
Proressor F. L. Stevens. The Anthropo- 
logical Society of Washington: DR. WALTER 
Hover. The American Chemical Society, 
New York Section: Dr. F. H. PoucH. The 


Torrey Botanical Club: Dr. C. Stuart 


GacEeR. The California Branch of the 
American Folk-lore Society: PROFESSOR 
PAV SE Ege CRORBER/ lee-rciepaieis!tharcis dinisiae areca ene 3 944 


Discussion and Correspondence :— - 
Facts and Theories in Evolution: Dr. A. BE. 


CHIMUR Sopp oonoo sede geosodegcoddoaNS 947 
Special Articles :— 

Corpuscular Radiation from  Cosmical 

Sources: PROFESSOR CARL Barus. 952 
Recent Museum Publications: F. A. L....... 954 
The Preservation of American Antiquities.. 955 


The Report of the Committee on the Walter 


Heed: MOnWnent © J. 22 velo ee ne ae Sele eee ssi 956 
The Shaler Memorial Fund................ 956 
The Ithaca WIGAN 3 Sot poo Oo ODO AO ES 956 
Scientific Notes and News................. 958 
Uniwersity and Educational News........ .. 960 


MSS, intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of ScteNcz, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENARY. 


“THE celebration of the two-hundredth 
anniversary of the birth of Benjamin. 
Franklin was held in Philadelphia in con- 
junction with the annual general meeting 
of the American Philosophical Society, on 
April 17 to 20, inclusive. 


TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 17. 

The opening session was held in Wither- 
spoon Hall at eight o’clock and consisted 
of an address by Vice-provost Smith, of 
the University of Pennsylvania, in his 
capacity as president of the society. In 
welcoming the delegates and visitors Presi- 
dent Smith outlined the history of the so- 
ciety, dwelling on those who, like its 
founder, attained distinction im electricity. 

The various delegates from learned so- 
cieties and institutions of learning, to the 
number of about 180, were next received 
and many of them presented more or less 
formal addresses. 

In the name of the University of St, 
Andrews, its lord rector, Mr. Andrew Car- 
negie, conferred the honorary degree of 
doctor of laws upon Miss Agnes Irwin, 
dean of Radcliff College. 


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18. 
Meeting for the reading of papers on 
subjects of science, in the hall of the so- 


_ ciety, on Independence Square. 


Morning Session—10 o’clock. 

The Statistical Method in Chemical Geol- 
ogy: FRANK WIGGLESWORTH (CLARKE, 
Se.D., of Washington. (Illustrated: by 
lantern slides. ) 


J30 


The statistical method in chemical geol- 
ogy was a development of his earlier work 
upon the relative abundance of the chem- 
ical elements. 
the igneous rocks, as computed by Clarke 
and others, was compared with that of the 
sedimentaries. It was shown that in the 
decomposition of the igneous rocks, and 
the reconsolidation of the detrital products, 
the new rocks would consist of about 
five per cent. limestones, fifteen per cent. 
sandstones and eighty per cent. silicates, 
roughly classed together as shales. It was 
also shown that all of the sodium in the 
ocean and the sedimentaries would be fur- 
nished by the decomposition of a shell of 
igneous rock, completely enveloping the 
earth, less than one half mile thick. We 
thus have a statistical estimate of the total 
mass of the sedimentary rocks, and the pro- 
portions of their chief classes. Dr. Clarke 
also discussed, briefly, some of the uses 
which had been made of his former aver- 
age for the igneous rocks, especially by 
Van Hise and by Joly. His criticisms 
~vere directed towards conservatism, and 
against drawing larger conclusions from 
the figures than their accuracy would war- 
rant. The data need to be much more 
fully developed before any large use can 
be made of them. 


On a Possible Reversal of the Deep-sea 
Circulation and its Effect on Geological 
Climates: Professor THomas C. CHAm- 
BERLIN, of Chicago. 

The preservation of a narrow range of 
temperature and a limited variation of at- 
mospherie constituents throughout the mil- 
lions of years of the biologic past was es- 
sential to organic evolution. Continued 
preservation for millions of years to come 
seems equally a condition precedent to an 
intellectual and spiritual evolution com- 
mensurate with the physical and biological 


SCIENCE. 


The average composition of ' 


(N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 599. 


evolutions that have preceded it. It has 
been customary to assign to the primitive 
earth a climate quite beyond the Miltonian 
conception of Gehenna in its fiery intensity 
and to forecast a final refrigeration 
searcely inferior in its antithetic intensity. 
This is deduced from a gaseous nebula con- 
densing through gravitation. Such a der- 
ivation has seemed to some of us incon- 
sistent with the dynamics of the present 
solar system and an alternative view has 
been developed. This view involves a slow 
growth of the atmosphere to about its pres- 
ent volume, after which it was controlled 
by opposing agencies which maintained the 
narrow limits requisite. The agencies of 
restramt are molecular velocities, chemical 
combination and condensation. By virtue 
of the first, the lighter constituents are re- 
duced to a minimum and all constituents 
are restricted within certain large limits. 
By virtue of the second, the chemically 
active factors are kept down to states of 


‘ dilution compatible with organic evolution, 


while the inert elements have probably been 
permitted to inerease steadily. By the 
third, the excess of water-vapor has been 
condensed into the ocean, which has prob- 
ably imereased rather than diminished 
through the ages. The postulated agencies 
of atmospheric supply are accessions from 
without and emanations from within, of 
which Vesuvius is just now giving us an 
impressive illustration. 

Subsidiary to this control within narrow 
limits, pronounced variations must be rec- 
ognized. In most geologic periods warm 
climates seem to have prevailed as high as 
70° and 80° of latitude. How life of 
subtropical types could have survived the 
long polar nights is one of the most ob- 
durate puzzles of the earth’s climatology. 
But between the warm polar stages there 
were episodes of glaciation in strangely 
low latitudes. Extensive glaciation oc- 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


eurred in India, Australia and South 
Africa in the later coal-forming stages of 
the Paleozoic era, the areas even lapping 
upon the Tropies of Cancer and Capricorn; 
yet figs and magnolias have grown in 
Greenland since. We are thus compelled 
to face oscillations ranging from subtrop- 
ical congeniality within the polar circles 
to glaciation in low latitudes, and these in 
alternating succession, while none of the 
oscillation was permitted to swing across 
the narrow limital lines of organic endur- 
ance. ‘There is little doubt that the ocean 
is one of the most potential agencies in con- 
trolling these oscillations and it is one of 
its climatic functions that invites our pres- 
ent attention. The carbonation of the 
ocean is subject to wide variations and the 
rapidity of this seems to be dependent 
chiefly on deep-sea circulation. In an en- 
deavor to estimate the rate of this, it was 
found that the agencies that worked in op- 
posite directions in promoting deep-sea cir- 
culation were very nearly balanced, whence 
sprang the suggestion that if their relative 
values were changed as much as geologic 
data imply, the direction of the deep-sea 
circulation might be changed, and that this 
might throw important light on some of 
the strange features of geologic climates. 

The abysmal circulation is now domi- 
nated by polar agencies, as shown by the 
low temperature of the bottom waters even 
beneath the tropics. Cold waters creep 
slowly along the depths from the polar 
seas equatorward, where they gradually 
rise to the surface and return on more 
superficial routes. 

The several influences of the winds, of 
atmospheric transfer of water, of differ- 
ences in salinity and of differences of tem- 
perature, including freezing and thawing, 
were then discussed. Charts of the exist- 
ing temperatures and salinities showed a 
close struggle between these opposing 
agencies. More saline but warmer waters 


SCIENCE. 


931 


both overlie and underlie less saline but 
colder waters. Computation of salinity- 
effects and temperature-effects also indi- 
cates a very close balance between the op- 
posing agencies. ; 

Now in the majority of geological periods 
the evidence of life indicates the absence 
of very low temperatures in the polar re- 
gions. Hence the inference that, at such 
periods, the balance would lie on the side 
of salinity and that therefore the deep 
oceanic circulation would be actuated by 
the dense waters of the evaporating tracts. 
These are supposed to have slowly de- 
scended and crept poleward, where they 
rose to the surface and gave their warmth 
to the atmosphere. Aided by the en- 
shrouding mantle of vapors that must have 
arisen from such a body of water, it is con- 
ceived that the mild temperatures requisite 
for the maintenance of the recorded life 
through the polar nights may have been 
thus maintained. 


Elementary Species in Agriculture: Pro- 
fessor Hueco DE Vrins, of Amsterdam, 
Holland. 


An International Southern Observatory: 
Professor EDWARD C. PICKERING, of 
Cambridge, Mass. 

A plan, possessing some novel features, 
for a telescope of the largest size was pro- 
posed, in which the best location, form of 
instrument, cost, administration and dis- 
cussion of results were considered in turn. 
The best location in the world is desired, 
and is probably in South Africa, west of 
Bloemfontein, or in Peru. The relative 
advantages of reflectors and refractors 
were compared, with the conclusion that a 
reflector of seven-feet aperture and forty- 
five-feet focal length would be the best. 

The great observatories of the world have 
each a plant costing two or three hundred 
thousand dollars, and an annual income of 


932 


about fifty thousand dollars.- Capitalized, 
this would represent about a million and a 
half. For one third of this sum, or half 
a million dollars, the plan here proposed 
could be carried out with results which it 
is believed would advance astronomy in 
almost every department. The expense 
could be reduced by $100,000, or to $400,- 
000, by giving the telescope to Harvard, 
which would then assume the cost of ad- 
ministration. The principal item, $250,- 
000, would be required to provide a per- 
manent annual income of $10,000. This 
would permit the telescope to be kept at 
work throughout every clear night, and in 
the proposed location almost every night 
would be clear. The remaining $150,000 
would be spent on the telescope, and this 
estimate is based on the cost of the 24-inch 
reflector recently built for Harvard at an 
expenditure of $4,000. It was assumed 
that the expense of the drawings, plans and 
computations would increase as the first 
power, the hand and machine work as the 
square, and the material as the cube of the 
dimensions. 

The special novelty of the plan was the 
method of discussing the results. While 
the principal work would be photographie, 
the use of the telescope visually, in various 
departments, was considered. The photo- 
graphic results would be far greater than 
could be discussed by a single individual 
or institution. Therefore, it was proposed 
that an international committee should pre- 
pare a plan of work, and that copies of the 
photographs should be given to any one 
who could advantageously use them. As- 
tronomers could doubtless be found in all 
parts of the world who would discuss these 
photographs, and could thus be furnished, 
without charge, with material of the high- 
est grade, which could otherwise be ob- 
tained only at an expenditure of many 
thousands of dollars. So far as possible, 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No. 599. 


they would be aided also by subsidies for 
paying salaries of assistants, for publica- 
tion, ete. The donor would be guided in 
spending his money to the best advantage, 
not by a single astronomer, but by the as- 
tronomers of the world. His name, which 
would always be attached to the telescope 
and its work, would thus be known for all 
time, and throughout the world, rather 
than merely locally. It was urged that no 
better time could be found for inaugura- 
ting this scheme than when celebrating the 
memory of Benjamin Franklin, the great- 
est and most practical of American men 
of science. 


The Figure and Stability of a Liquid Satel- 
lite (with lantern slides of diagrams) : 
Sir George Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S., of 
Cambridge, England. 


Form Analysis: Professor Apert A. 

MicHEuson, of Chicago. 

The analysis of forms of natural objects 
has been the subject of such careful and 
thorough treatment, that it would seem 
futile for one who can only claim to be an 
amateur in the science of morphology to 
attempt to add anything of real interest. 

The work of Haeckel, to whom more than 
to any other, the greatest advance in the 
science is due, contains a very complete 
and detailed system of classification which 
applies to animate and inanimate forms; 
but with due deference to so great an au- 
thority, I would venture to propose some 
modifications in the nature of an extension 
of the accepted idea of symmetry. 

The biologists generally restrict this idea 
to the forms ordinarily described as ‘bi- 
lateral,’ or ‘dorsiventral’ or to ‘regular 
radial’ forms. In a sense which among 
mathematicians is coming into use, the idea 
is extended to all forms in which congru- 
ence of parts is effected by any transforma- 
tion which retains the essential character- 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


istics; but it would be a less radical depart- 
ure if such transformations or ‘operations’ 
were limited to 

A. Rotation (through 180°). 

B. Reflection (in a plane). 

C. Translation (in a straight line). 

The corresponding subdivision of sym- 
metrical forms would read: 


A. Odd symmetrical. 

B. Even symmetrical. 

C. Rhythmic. 

D. Partial. 
tions. ) 


(Requiring at least two opera- 


Another modification which I should sug- 
gest is an extension of the idea of ‘radial’ 
symmetry to include forms which radiate 
from a point not in the center of the figure. 


SYSTEMS OF SYMMETRY. 
I. Radial Symmetry. 

II. Axial Symmetry. 

III. Plane Symmetry. 

I. Radial Symmetry. 

1. Central. (Radiant in center of figure.) 

2. Ovoid. (Radiant in axis but not central.) 

3. Hacentric. (Radiant not in an axis.) 

Il. Azial Symmetry. 

1. Circular.) (Corresponding points on the same 

2. Elliptic. perpendicular through axis.) 

3. Oval. (Corresponding points not on the 
same perpendicular.) 

Ill. Plane Symmetry. 

1. Triplanar. 

2. Biplanar. 

3. Bilateral. 

Unsymmetrical forms may be regular; 
and such may be represented by simple 
mathematical formule. 

The study of form relations may appro- 
priately include-the graphs of analytical 
expressions, and the forms of physical phe- 
nomena—such as interference patterns; 
vortex forms of liquids, ete. These last 
often present close and suggestive analogies 
with biological forms. 

The various kinds of symmetry and 
regularity were illustrated by lantern pro- 
jections of forms selected from graphs of 
mathematical expressions, from physics, 


SCIENCE. 


933 


from crystallography and from botany and 
zoology. Most of these last were taken 
from Haeckel’s beautiful ‘Kunst-formen 
der Natur.’ 

Before reading his paper, Sir George 
Darwin presented to the society a medal- 
lion of Franklin made by Josiah Wedge- 
wood, Sir George’s grandfather. 


Executive Session—12:30 P.M. 


Stated Business—Candidates for mem- 
bership were balloted for, and the follow- 
ing were elected as members of the society: 


RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


Hon. Joseph Hodges Choate, LL.D., D.C.L. 
(Oxon), New York. 

Henry Herbert Donaldson, Ph.D., Philadelphia. 

Russell Duane, Philadelphia. 

Dayid Linn Edsall, M.D., Philadelphia. 

John W. Harshberger, Ph.D., Philadelphia. 

Charles S. Hastings, Ph.D., New Haven, Conn. 

William Francis Hillebrand, Ph.D. (Heidel- 
berg), Washington. 

Charles Rockwell Lanman, LL.D., Cambridge, 
Mass. 

Franklin Paine Mall, M.D., LL.D., Baltimore. 

Ernest Fox Nichols, D.Se., New York City. 

Hon. Elihu Root, LL.D., Washington. 

Thomas Day Seymour, LL.D., New Haven, Conn. 


Edward Bradford Titchener, M.A. (Oxford), 
Ph.D. (Leipsic), Ithaca, New York. 

Otto Hilgard Tittmann, Washington. 

Arthur Gordon Webster, Ph.D. (Berlin), 


Worcester, Mass. 


FOREIGN RESIDENTS. 


Adolf Engler, Ph.D., Berlin. 

Dr. Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Leyden, Holland. 
Dmitri Ivanovitch Mendeleff, St. Petersburg. 
Theodor Nildeke, Ph.D., Strassburg. 

August Weismann, Freiburg. 


Afternoon Session—2 o’clock. 

The Present Position of the Problem Con- 
cerning the First Principles of Scientific 
Theory: Professor Jostsm Royce, of 
Cambridge, Mass. : 

The Human Harvest: President Davi 
SrarR JORDAN, of Stanford University, 
Cal. 


934 


On Positive and Negatwe Electrons: Pro- 
fessor H. A. Lorentz, of Amsterdam. 


The Elimination of Velocity-Head in the 
Measurements of Pressures in a Fluud 
Stream: Professor FrANcIs H. NiIPHEr, 
of St. Louis. 

Experiments made on a railway train 
with a Pitot tube show that when the wind 
blows across the mouth of the tube, the 
rarefaction produced is greater than the 
compression when the mouth is directed 
towards the wind. When the mouth is 
directed at an angle of 60° with the wind, 
there is neither compression nor rarefac- 
tion. When thus set, a Pitot tube will 
respond to the actual pressure in a pipe 
carrying a fluid stream. Velocity effects 
are eliminated. An improved form of the 
disk collector previously described by the 
author was also described and the two col- 
lectors shown were presented to the society. 
This collector also eliminates velocity ef- 
fects. 


Old Weather Records and Franklin as 
a Meteorologist: Professor CLEVELAND 
ABBE, of Washington. 

This paper emphasizes the fact that some 
of our earliest weather records are due to 
the influence of Benjamin Franklin, and 
that he himself must be recognized as the 
first of American meteorologists. From 
boyhood he distrusted the supernatural 
and the superstitious explanations of nat- 
ural phenomena. The animus of his whole 
life was a searching study of the motives 
of men and the forces of nature. His 
meteorological work began with a daily 
record and accompanying explanatory 
notes. He entertained every plausible 
hypothesis and tested it by experiment, 
logic and analogy. His study of the light- 
ning and thunder-storm by experimental 
methods, and his study of northeast storms 
by the collection of reports from all parts 
of the country (equivalent to the modern 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vox. XXIII. No. 599. 


graphic daily weather map) were but a 
fraction of his many studies of the atmos- 
phere. 

The paper collects together some pub- 
lished and unpublished items illustrative 
of the great variety of work that Franklin 
did bearing on meteorology, closing with 
his study of the cold winter of 1783-4 in 
Europe, and the prediction (which was 
perfectly well verified) of the cold winter 
of 1786-7 in Pennsylvania and New Eng- 
land. This last effort, based on sound 
physics and logic, entitles him to be recog- 
nized as the first long-range forecaster 
whose methods were in complete harmony 
with the present state of physical science. 


Was Lewis Evans or Benjamin Franklin 
the Furst to recognize that our Northeast 
Storms come from the Southwest? Pro- 
fessor Witti1AmM Morris Davis, of Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

In 1747 Lewis Evans, of Philadelphia, 
prepared a description of the ‘Middle Brit- 
ish Colonies in America,’ illustrated by 
a map, on which, among other explanatory 
legends, the following statement occurs: 
“All our great storms begin to leeward; 
thus a NE storm shall be a day sooner in 
Virginia than in Boston.’ This brief state- 
ment has been taken to be the earliest 
recognition, as it certainly is the first pub- 
lished statement, of the progressive move- 
ment of storms, on which the modern art 
of weather prediction so largely depends. 
A second edition of the essay and map was 
published in 1755; and as more topograph- 
ical material had then been collected, the 
statement concerning storms above quoted 
was omitted. Evans’s publishers were 
Franklin and Hare, and there is good rea- 
son for thinking that it was Franklin and 
not Evans who supplied the statemient on 
the map about storms, along with some 
account of lightning and electricity; sub- 
jects which Evans does not treat elsewhere, 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


but which were just then much in Frank- 
lin’s mind. A reference to the letters in 
Sparks’s ‘Life of Franklin’ leaves no 
doubt on this point. It there appears that 
in 1747 Franklin wrote: 

We have frequently along the North American 
coast storms from the northeast, which blow 
violently sometimes three or four days. Of these 
I have had a very singular opinion for some years, 
viz: that, though the course of the wind is from 
northeast to southewest, yet the course of the 
storm is from southewest to northeast; the air is 
in violent motion in Virginia before it moves in 
Connecticut, and in Connecticut before it moves 
at Cape Sable. 


Tt appears from the evidence of later let- 
ters that Franklin’s first attention was 
called to this matter in connection with 
attempted observations on an eclipse of the 
moon which occurred in 1743, and which 
he failed to see because of the clouds of a 
northeast storm, yet which was seen by his 
brother in Boston, where the storm began 
somewhat later. From this simple hint 
Franklin followed up the matter with his 
customary acuteness, and established the 
point to his satisfaction. He seems to have 
added the statement to Evans’s map with 
no claim whatever for recognition of his 
discovery; and to have allowed its erasure 
on the second edition of the map without 
remonstrance. Generous as he thus showed 
himself to the point of indifference, it is 
still fitting that we at this time should take 
pains to give credit where credit is due. 
Yet even if the source of the temporary 
item about storms is transferred to Frank- 
lin, the memory of Evans as a geographer 
need not suffer, for his descriptions of the 
‘Middle British Colonies’ are really ad- 
mirable, and show great power of observa- 
tion and generalization. 


Notes on the Production of Optical Planes 
of Large Dimensions: Dr. JouHn A. 
BrasuHpar, of Allegheny, Pa. 


SCIENCE. 


935 


A New Mountain Observatory: Professor 
George EH. Haun, Pasadena, Cal. 


Evenng Session—8 o’clock, at Wither- 
spoon Hall. 

Franklin’s Researches in Electricity: Pro- 
fessor Epwarp L. Nicuots, Ph.D., of 
Ithaca. 

In the life of Franklin electricity was 
merely an episode. He was forty years 
of age at the time when the news of the 
discovery of the Leyden jar reached Amer- 
ica and he appears to have taken up the 
subject as an amusement or hobby. That 
Franklin, whose investigations were all per- 
formed within a few years, should have 
become the foremost electrician of his time 
was extraordinary. The success of his 
‘Letters on Hlectricity,’ which were trans- 
lated into all the languages of Europe, was 
doubtless due in great part to the epi. 
grammatie terseness, the clearness and 
simplicity of style, the naive frankness and 
inimitable humor which characterize them. 

Franklin’s experimental achievements 
were confined chiefly to his observations on 
the powers of pointed conductors to dis- 
charge electrified bodies, his studies of the 
Leyden jar and his determinations of the 
character of the electrification of thunder 
clouds. In spite of his strongly utilitarian 
bent and his fondness for invention he 
was able to find in the field of electricity 
no application which could be of use to 
mankind. It is true that he invented the 
lightning rod, but this was a device for the 
protection of man from injury and not for 
the utilization of electricity. 

That Benjamin Franklin should be the 
author of the one theory of electricity 
which, of all the views entertained on this 
subject by the men of his time, comes 
nearest to our twentieth century idea may 
seem strange, for electricity was with him 
merely a form of intellectual diversion into 
which he was drawn by accident in middle 


936 


life and which he soon abandoned for other 
and, as it seemed to him, more practical 
things. We need not, however, be aston- 
ished -that he left his impress upon the 
science of his time. A man who in the 
middle of the eighteenth century rejected 
the doctrine of action at a distance and in- 
sisted upon the necessity of a universal 
medium pervading all space, and who, at 
the very zenith of Newton’s fame, repu- 
diated the corpuscular theory and thought 
of light as transmitted by a vibratory mo- 
tion, must be recognized as possessing a 
native endowment unequaled by any of 
the intellects of his day. 


The Modern Theories of Electricity and 
their Relation to the Frankiman 
Theory: Professor ERNEST RUTHERFORD, 
F.R.S., of Montreal. 


Of the four days’ celebration, one morn- 
ing, that of Thursday, April 19, was given 
over to the University of Pennsylvania. 
It devoted that time to making the celebra- 
tion memorable by the bestowing of hon- 
orary degrees upon distinguished men, 
Europeans as well as Americans. Dr. 
Hampton lL. Carson, ’71 C., 74 L., 706 
LL.D., attorney-general of the common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, made the oration 
of the day. After the academic procession 
had entered, the prayer was read by Rey. 
Dr. Alexander Mackay-Smith, Episcopal 
Bishop-Coadjutor of the Diocese of Penn- 
sylvania. ‘Alma Mater’ was then sung, 
and the class of 1906 college presented a 
memorial tablet to Franklin, which will 
be placed on the walls of the Houston Club. 
It was presented through A. R. Ludlow, 
president of the class, and received by 
Vice-provost Edgar F. Smith, ’99 Sce.D., 
06 LL.D., in behalf of the university and 
the Houston Club. ‘Ben Franklin’ was 
sung, and then the honorary degrees were 
conferred. Provost Charles Custis Har- 
rison, *62 C., made the presentation ora- 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 599. 


tions, and bestowed the degrees, Dr. Whar- 
ton Sinkler, 68 M., announcing the names 
of the recipients and escorting them, with 
Samuel F. Houston, ’87 C., Joseph B. 
Townsend, Jr., *82 C., and George H. 
Frazier, ’87 C., all of the board of trustees, 
as aides, to the provost. Vice-provost 
Smith was the first to receive his degree, 
doctor of laws. The provost’s presentations 
of the degrees, with the degrees received, 
follow, in the order of presentation: 
Epe@ar F. SurrH—President of the American 
Philosophical Society. Worthy successor of 


Franklin, Rittenhouse, Jefferson, Bache. Eminent 
chemist; distinguished for his original work upon 


electrolysis. | Vice-provost of the University of 
Pennsylvania. Humane. Beloved of God and 
men.—LIL.D. 


WitiamM BrrgyMAN Soorr—Interpreter of 
world changes. Historian of the rocks and of 
past forms of life. Traveler over many lands, 
without the aid of the physicist; at times, however, 
using him, but not in accord with him. Lineal 
descendant of Franklin, and agreeing with him 
that sense is preferable to sound. Distinguished 
professor of geology and paleontology at Princeton 
University.— LL.D. 

Epwakp CHARLES PicKERING—Professor of as- 
tronomy and director of the Harvard College Ob- 
servatory. ‘It was on no earthly shore his soul 
beheld the vision,’ but with reverent observation 
the stars in their courses have been, through him, 
a light to us from pole to pole. Student of the 
relation of stellar distance to the intensity of il- 
lumination. Distinguished founder of the first 
physical laboratory in America.—LL.D. 

Huco DE VRiEsS—King of the plant world. Fore- 
most investigator. Research contributor to the 
knowledge of the physiology, heredity and cross- 
breeding of the vegetable kingdom. Distinguished 
also for his publications and reputation over two 
continents upon species variation. Professor of 
plant anatomy and physiology at the University 
of Amsterdam.—LL.D. 

AupeRT A. MicneLson—Head professor of 
physics in the University of Chicago. To be 
to-day considered the foremost physicist in the 
United States. Noted especially for his mathe- 
matical and experimental contributions upon the 
nature and properties of light—LL.D. 

Ernest RutHERFoRD—McDonald professor of 
physics at McGill University, Montreal. First of 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


the physicists of Canada. Doubtless the leading 
authority in the world upon radioactivity, the 
latest and most important development in physical 
science.—LL.D. 

Epwarp LEAMINGTON NicHoLsS—Hspecially 
noted for his investigations on radiation and upon 
matter at low temperature. His researches have 
shed light upon the strange property of certain 
substances to become self-luminous by day or by 
night. Professor of physics at Cornell Univer- 
sity.— LL.D. 

WILLIAM KrirH Brooks—Distinguished for his 
biological exploration of our Atlantic coast and 
of the West Indies; for the depth of his contribu- 
tions to marine zoology; for his permanent studies 
in heredity and evolution and for his classical 
and philosophical essays thereon. Professor of 
zoology at the Johns Hopkins University.—LL.D. 

WILLIAM PatEeRSON PareRSoN—Professor of 
divinity in Edinburgh University and sometime 
professor of systematic theology at Aberdeen. 
Welcome to the privileges of a son of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. From Aberdeen came 
Pennsylvania’s first provost; from Edinburgh, our 
medical school—whose emblem has always been 
the thistle. Sincere teacher of the knowledge of 
things divine; comprehended briefly in that un- 
dying question: ‘What does the Lord require but 
to do justly and to love merey and to walk 
humbly.’—LL.D. } 

HENDRIK ANTOON LoRENTZ—Facile princeps 
amongst the physicists of Holland, and peer of 
any of his scientific associates upon the continent 
of Europe. Noted especially for his work on 
mathematical physics and upon the ‘electron 
theory.’ Professor of mathematical physics in 
the University of Leiden.—LL.D. 

Atois BrRaNnpit—Professor of philology in the 
University of Berlin. Representative of the 
Batayian Society for experimental philosophy, a 
society of which Benjamin Franklin himself was a 
member. Shakespearean scholar. Student of 
“the nature and history of man as disclosed by 
speech. His personality as charming as his 
scholarship.—LL.D. 

Sir GerorcE Howarp Darwin—Distinguished 
son of an illustrious father. Astronomer and 
mathematician. Plumian professor of astronomy 
and experimental philosophy at the University of 
Cambridge, England. Student of the effects of 
tidal friction upon the earth and moon. ‘The 
name and fame of father and son will endure un- 
til ‘ Tideless sleep the seas of time! ’—LL.D. 

Witi1am P. Henszey—Theoretical and prac- 


SCIENCE. 93 


tical engineer. Notable for his contributions to 
civilization, through his scientific work in the 
evolution of the modern American locomotive. Of 
great judgment and foresight in the solution of 
difficult mechanical problems. Through his 
efforts all the world becomes akin.—Sce.D. 

JAMES GAYLEY—Noted for his contributions to 
the advancement of the science of analytical chem- 
istry. Metallurgist. Combining in himself, in 
the highest degree, the rare qualities of scientific 
knowledge, and the power of transmuting this 
knowledge into practical results. Distinguished 
alumnus and trustee of Lafayette College.—LL.D. 

Hampron L. Carson—Able student. Master 
of legal, historical, constitutional and political 
science. Great power of orderly massing of facts. 
Attorney-General of the commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania. Loyal and devoted son of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania.—LL.D. 

Joun WiLLiaM Matiet—Distinguished chemist 
of the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas 
Jefferson, one time president of the American 
Philosophical Society. Happy coincidence of the 
meeting of the chief chemist of the university 
founded by Jefferson and of the chief chemist of 
the university founded by Franklin—truly notable 
ancestors. His hitherto activity as chemist upon 
the scene of war has been devoted to the more 
faithful application of his great energy in the 
ways of peace.—-LL.D. 

In Absentia—GuGLizLMo Marconi—Investiga- 
tor, theoretical engineer, inventor. Born under 
the shadow of that ancient university, Bologna, 
in the land where dwells the Eternal City. Post- 
master-general for thousands who ‘go down upon 
the sea in ships,’ and soon for the world.—LL.D. 

SamugEL Dickson—Chancellor of the Law Asso- 
ciation of Philadelphia. Learned in the law. Fit 
successor of Tilghman, Rawle, Ingersoll, Hopkin- 
son and Sergeant—all college graduates, as he, 
of the University of Pennsylvania. Independent 
thinker.—LL.D. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE—Lord Rector of the Univer- 
sity of St. Andrews. Thou hast sought and thou 
hast found; thou hast knocked and it hath been 
opened unto thee; thou hast given of what thou 
hast received. World benefactor.—LL.D. 

Epwarp VII.—King, Defender of the Faith, Em- 
peror of India—Represented by the person of his 
Ambassador [Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, ’05, 
LL.D.].—LL.D. 

At the Court of St. James’s, upon the twelfth 
day of August, 1763, His Majesty King George II. 
being present at the King’s Most Excellent 


938 


Majesty in Council, it was ordered that the Right 
Honorable the Lord High Chancellor of Great 
Britain do cause Letters Patent to be prepared 
and passed under the Great Seal, authorizing the 
first provost, William Smith, to collect funds 
from all well-disposed persons for the assistance 
and benefit of the College, Academy and Charitable 
School in Philadelphia; and upon the ninth day 
of April, 1764, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to- 
gether with Thomas and Richard Penn, addressed 
a joint letter to the trustees of the college, con- 
gratulating them upon the great success which 
had attended the efforts of the first provost, 
through His Majesty’s Royal Brief. 

The trustees of the University of Pennsylvania 
—the successors of the trustees of the same 
foundation—bearing in mind the interest which 
His Majesty, the then King of England, so 
graciously showed in the infant Institution in the 
Colony of Pennsylvania, now confer upon His 
Majesty, Edward VII., impersonating England, 
the highest degree in their power to bestow. 


This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, 
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars; 

This other Eden, demi-paradise; 

This fortress, built by nature for. herself, 
Against infection, and the hand of war; 
This happy breed of men, this little world; 
This precious stone set in the silver sea, 
Which serves it in the office of a wall, 

Or, as a moat defensive to a house, 

Against the envy of less happier lands; 


This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Eng- - 


land. 


Then followed the address of Dr. Carson, 
which we have not space to print. It had 
to do not only with Franklin’s achieve- 
ments, but with that of all the noteworthy 
sons of Pennsylvania from his day to ours. 
‘Hail Pennsylvania’ was sung, the benedic- 
tion was pronounced, and Pennsylvania’s 
official celebration of its founder was at an 
end. 

In the absence of J. Hartley Merrick, 
90 C., secretary of the board of trustees, 
Louis C. Madeira, ’72 C., was master of 
ceremonies. Henry Budd, ’68 C., was 
chief marshal, and the associate marshals 
were William H. Klapp, ’76 M., ’86 A.M.; 
Theodore M. Hitting, 65 C., 79 L.; J. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 599. 


Willis Martin, ’79 C.; H. S. Prentiss 
Nichols, ’79 C.; H. Laussatt Geyelin, 77 
C., °79 L.; Walter H. Rex, 75 L.; J. Wilks 
O’Neill, ’77 C.; Ewing Jordan, ’68 C., ’71 
M.; J. Somers Smith, Jr., ’87 C.; Henry R. 
Wharton, 773 C., ’76 M.; John H. Packard, 
00 C., 53 M.; Frank M. Riter, ’78 L.;. 
William J. Taylor, "82 M.; John Douglass 
Brown, 779 C., ’81 L.; Bernard Gilpin, 775 
C., °78 L.; Charles Claxton, 79 C., 82 M.; 
William 8. Wadsworth, ’97 M.; Frank P. 
Prichard, ’74 L.; Edward L. Duer, ’60 M.; 
Charles F. Gummey, 784 C., ’88 L.; 
William 8. Ashbrook, ’87 C.; and George 
M. Coates, 794 C., ’97 M. 


AT CHRIST CHURCH BURYING-GROUND, FIFTH 
AND ARCH STREETS, 4 P.M. 


Ceremonies at the grave of Franklin un- 
der the auspices of the Grand Lodge of 
F. & A. M. of Pennsylvania. The dele- 
gates and members assembled in the hall 
of the society, on Independence Square, at 


_4 o’elock and proceeded to the grave of 


Franklin. 
In honor of the occasion, the following 
organizations paraded to the grave: 


The First Troop of the Philadelphia City Cavalry. 

A battalion of United States Marines. 

A battalion of United States Sailors. 

The First Regiment of Infantry of the National 
Guard of Pennsylvania. 

The Veteran Corps of the same regiment; 

A provisional battalion of 800 United States 
Postmen. 

The Veteran Firemen’s Association. : 

A deputation from the Grand Lodge of Free and 
Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. 


The parade was under the charge of Col. 
Benjamin C. Tilghman, as grand marshal, 
and Major George EH. Kemp, Major Charles 
T. Creswell and First Lieutenant Henry 
Norris as aides. 

The parade formed on the west side of 
Broad Street, facing east, the right of the 
line being opposite the Masonic Temple, 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


and moved at 4 p.m. over the following 
route: 

South on Broad to Market, passing to 
the east of the City Hall, east on Market to 
Twelfth, south on Twelfth to Chestnut, 
east on Chestnut to Fifth, north on Fifth 
to Arch, east on Arch to Fourth. 

When the head of the column arrived at 
Fourth and Arch, the column halted and 
was formed to the right. 

Wreaths were then placed on the grave 
of Franklin— 


On behalf of the nation, by the President of the 
United States, through his specially appointed 
representative, Commander R. MeN. Winslow, 
U.S.N. i 

On behalf of the state of Pennsylvania, by the 
governor of the state, through his specially ap- 
pointed representative, Mr. Bromley Wharton, 
private secretary. 

On behalf of the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, by its president, Dr. Edgar F. Smith. 

On behalf of the University of Pennsylvania, 
by Provost Charles C. Harrison. 

On behalf of the Library Company of Philadel- 
phia, by its presiding director, Mr. Edwin S. 
Buckley. 

On behalf of the Pennsylvania Hospital, by its 
president, Mr. Benjamin H. Shoemaker. 

On behalf of the Philadelphia Contributionship 
for the Insurance on Lives by Loss from Fire, 
by Mr. J. Rodman Paul, acting president. 

On behalf of the Grand Lodge of Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons of Pennsylvania, by the Right 
Worshipful Grand Master, George W. Kendrick, Jr. 

On behalf of the Kénigliche Gesellschaft der 
Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, by its delegate, Dr. 
Emil Wiechert. 

On behalf of the Kénigliche Preussische Akad- 
emie der Wissenschaften (Berlin), by its delegate, 
Dr. Alois Brandl. 

On behalf of the Manchester Geographical So- 
ciety, by its delegate, J. U. Brower. 


A wreath was also deposited in the 
name of the Pennsylvania Society of the 
Daughters of the Revolution. 

As the wreaths were placed upon the 
grave, a national salute was fired by the 
U. S. battle-ship Pennsylvania, anchored 
at the foot of Arch Street, and the troops 


SCIENCE. 


939 


in line presented arms, and the unarmed 
bodies in line uncovered. 

Brief addresses were then made under 
the direction of the Grand Lodge of Penn- 
sylvania, as follows: 

Invocation, by Frank B. Lynch, D.D. 

Franklin in Masonry, by George W. Kendrick, Jr. 

Franklin as a Free Mason, by James W. Brown. 

Franklin as a Diplomatist, by John L. Kinsey. 

Franklin as a Scientist, by Peter Boyd. 

Benediction, by Robert Hunter, D.D. 

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the 
parade again formed in column and the 
march was resumed south on Fourth Street 
to Walnut, and then west on Walnut to 
Broad Street, where the parade was dis- 
missed. 

At nine in the evening a general recep- 
tion was given by the society to its friends 
and to the visiting delegates, at the 
Bellevue-Stratford. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 20, AT THE AMERICAN ACAD- 
EMY OF MUSIC, 11 A.M. 

The delegates, invited guests and mem- 
bers met in the foyer of the academy at 
10:45 a.m. and proceeded in a body to oc- 
cupy the seats assigned them. 

Addresses in Commemoration of Benjamin Frank- 
lin: 

“As Citizen and Philanthropist,’ by Horace 
Howard Furness, Litt.D. (Cantab.). 

“As Printer and Philosopher, by President 
Charles William Eliot, LL.D. 

‘As Statesman and Diplomatist,’ by the Hon. 
Joseph Hodges Choate, LL.D., D.C.L. 
Presentation of the Franklin Medal to the Re- 

public of France (in accordance with the Act 

of Congress), by the Honorable Elihu Root, 

Secretary of State (by direction of the Presi- 

dent). 

Reception of the Medal, by His Excellency, M. J. 

J. Jusserand, the French ambassador. 


IN THE HALL OF THE SOCIETY ON INDEPEND- 
ENCE SQUARE. 

Meeting for the Reading of Papers on Sub- 
jects of Science, 3 P.M. 
Repetition and Variation in Poetic Struc- 
twre: Professor FRANCIS Barton GuM- 

meERE, of Haverford, Pa. 


940 


The primitive form of poetry everywhere 
is verbal repetition in exact rhythm. The 
complicated forms of verse spring from 
this exact repetition by means of variation, 
which in some eases, notably the Anglo- 
Saxon, achieves a permanent and dominant 
principle. Curious survivals occur even in 
Shakspere. Other forms of poetry, how- 
ever, move towards the freedom of prose. 


The Herodotean Prototype of Esther and 
Sheherazade: Professor Pauu Haupt, of 
Baltimore, Md. 

In the ninth edition of the ‘Hncyclo- 
pedia Britannica,’ Vol. XXIII., pp. 316- 
318, De Geeje showed that Sheherazade was 
identical with Esther. There is, however, 
one difference: Sheherazade is determined 
to save the daughters of her people at the 
risk of her life; her father tries in vain 
to dissuade her. Esther, on the other 
hand, hesitates; but her foster-father urges 
her to risk her life to save her people. The 
exchange of messages (Hst. IV., 5-17) be- 
tween Esther and her foster-father, which 
led to the execution of Haman, bears a 
striking resemblance to the exchange of 
messages between Phadymia and her father 
Otanes, as related by Herodotus (IIL., 68), 
which led to the assassination of Pseudo- 
Smerdis. 

Just as the stories in the ‘Arabian 
Nights’ are accommodated to a framework, 
so Herodotus’s history of Xerxes’s invasion 
of Greece is but the framework for a vast 
mass of legendary, antiquarian and eth- 
nological lore. The stories in the ‘ Arabian 
Nights’ may be classified in three cate- 
gories: fables, fairy-tales and anecdotes. 
The fables are ultimately Babylonian; the 
fairy-tales, Persian; and the anecdotes, 
Arabie. Some of the tales are evidently 
transformed myths. 

The story of the antagonism between 
Haman and Vashti, on the one hand, and 
Mordecai and Esther, on the other, may 


SCIENCE. 


[N.8. Vox. XXIII. No. 599. 


ultimately be a nature-myth reflecting the 
victory of the deities of spring over the 
frost-giants of winter. 


Heredity and Variation, Logical and Bio- 
logical: Professor WM. KerrH Brooks, 
of Baltimore. 


Notes on a Collection of Fossil Mammals 
from Natal: Professor Witu1Am B. 
Scorr, of Princeton. 

The director of the Natal Geological Sur- 
vey, William Anderson, Hsq., has sent me 
for examination and report a series of 
mammalian bones, which were collected by 
him on the coast of Zululand, South Africa. 
Concerning the mode of occurrence of these 
fossils, Mr. Anderson writes me as follows: 

The fossils were scattered over a large out- 
crop of shales, which occurs below the level of 
ordinary low-water marks, and is only exposed 
under the exceptional circumstances of a strong 
southeasterly gale and a neaptide, when the large 
covering of sand is removed. Overlying this bed 
are a series of shales with a few scattered bones, 
and crustacean and fish remains. Above these 
a thin layer containing foraminifera and then a 
foot or so containing marine mollusca, which Mr. 
Etheridge referred to the Tertiary period; above 
this a thick series (probably over 100 feet) of 
false-bedded sands of various colors covered by 
the recent sand dunes. 

So far, I have been able to make only a 
cursory examination of these fossils, which 
were much injured by their long journey 
and are still in the preparator’s hands. 
They are heavy, dark in color and more or 
less completely mineralized. In character, 
the mammals are specifically South African 
and appear to represent a late Pliocene 
fauna. The species seem to be all different 
from those now living, though referable to 
recent genera. The list includes an ele- 
phant nearly allied to the modern species, 
a hippopotamus of very large size, a buf- 
falo (Bubalus) and two or three antelopes. 
In addition to these mammals, the collec- 
tion contains several fish and a very large 
erocodilian vertebra. 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


Interesting as these fossils are from many 
points of view, they are disappointing in 
that they throw little light upon the prob- 
lems of faunal origins and migrations in 
the southern hemisphere. 


The Use of Dilute Solutions of Sulphuric 
Acid as a Fungicide: Professor HENRY 
KRAEMER, of Philadelphia. 

It is stated by Bloxam that finely divided 
sulphur is gradually oxidized and converted 
into sulphuric acid when exposed to moist 
air. It is well known that sublimed sul- 
phur contains a certain amount of sul- 
phurie acid. Not only is this true, but it 
is claimed that if the sublimed sulphur be 
not dried after washing it to free it of acid, 
sulphuric acid is again formed. Further- 
more, it has been pointed out by Polacci 
that sulphur when mixed with the soil is 
changed directly into sulphuric acid. 

As a fungicide and insecticide, sulphur 
is applied directly in the powdered form, 
or it is applied in the form of a paste to 
the heating pipes in greenhouses, or it is 
gently heated on a sand bath, when it is 
sublimed and distributed over the plants 
in a finely divided state. 

The fact that sulphur is used in the 
several ways indicated led to the question 
as to whether sulphuric acid is not pro- 
duced under these conditions and as. to 
whether it is not the active agent, destroy- 
ing the fungus but not injuring the host. 

Experiments were first carried on to 
determine what compounds are formed 
when sulphur is slowly heated. An appa- 
ratus was constructed for heating the sul- 
phur and collecting the gases formed, and 


it was found that when sulphur is slowly — 


vaporized with access of air that as much 
as fifteen per cent. of the vaporized sul- 
phur may be converted immediately into 
sulphuric aeid, little or no sulphurous acid 
resulting. 

It being thus pretty well established that 


SCIENCE. 


941 


sulphuric acid is formed under the condi- 
tions in which sulphur is used in green- 
houses, another series of experiments was 
carried on to determine the strength of 
solution which would not be toxie to the 
host plant. It was found that practically 
under all conditions, including variation in 
temperature and susceptibility of different 
plants to the action of the acid, a solution 
containing approximately one part of sul- 
phurie acid to 1,000 parts of water could 
be used as a spray without any injury to 
the plants. The solution is best applied 
late in the afternoon after first sprinkling 
the plants with water. 

The efficiency of dilute sulphuric acid 
as a fungicide has been shown by applying 
it to roses which were badly affected with 
mildew. Plants growing outdoors as well 
as in the greenhouse have been treated suc- 
cessfully. The roses were uninjured by 


the acid solution and they immediately be- 


gan to develop new leaves and young 
shoots entirely free from mildew after 
three to six applications on alternate days. 
The acid solution seems to exert a beneficial 
action on the plants apart from the fungi- 
eidal action. 

Should subsequent experiments confirm 
these observations, the use of sulphuric 
acid will have certain advantages over the 
use of sulphur, as it does not discolor the 
foliage as sulphur does, its employment is 
more easily controlled, and it does not have 
the odor of the other compounds associated 
with sulphur. 4 


Franklin and the Germans: Professor M. 

D. Learnep, of Philadelphia. 

While Franklin’s importance as a cul- 
tural mediator between the German and 
English colonists in America has never 
been clearly recognized by the English, the 
Germans have given the highest praise to 
his services and perpetuated his name, 
rather than that of their most cherished 


942 


German names, in the first German college 
of the colonial time, Franklin Academy, 
founded at Lancaster in 1787. 

Franklin had a large share in the print- 
ing of German works for the Germans in 
the Colonies, having been second only to 
Bradford and a close competitor of Chris- 
toph Saur. So German did his firm, Ben- 
jamin Franklin and Johann Bohn, become 
that his name was written Franklin in the 
German fashion. Franklin’s attitude to- 
ward the Colonial Germans finds various 
expression in his works. ‘The earliest of 


these utterances is found in his Plain Truth’ 


(1747), where he calls them the ‘ brave and 
steady Germans.’ In 1751 he comes out 
strongly against the upper Germans, call- 
ing them ‘ the Palatine Boors ’ and classify- 
ing them among the ‘ tawny ’ races. Again 
in 1753 he deplores their disrespect for 
their ministers and teachers and their un- 
willingness to become ‘ anglified,’ or to 
adopt the English language, and their 
indifference in siding with the English 
colonists against the French, although he 
commends them for their industry and 
frugality. Franklin’s relations with the 
continental Germans are illustrated by the 
honors he received at the University of Got- 
tingen (1766) by the clever Jeu d’esprit 
of 1777, the ‘Dialogue between Britain, 
France, Spain, Holland, Saxony and 
America,’ and the letter ‘ From the Count 
de Schaumbergh to Baron Hohendorf,’ etc., 
the latter bemg an interesting companion 
piece to Schiller’s ‘ Kabale und Liebe.’ 
Another interesting illustration of 
Franklin’s influence in Germany is found 
in a batch of some eighty unpublished 
German letters directed to him by Germans 
of all sorts advocating schemes and solicit- 
ing information and aid. These letters are 
soon to be published by the writer of this 
paper. The first tribute to Franklin, per- 
haps in any language, is that given by 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 599. 


Herder, the great friend of Goethe at 


‘Weimar, in his ‘Letters for the Further- 


ance of Humanity’: ‘The mind devoted to 
the true and useful, the teacher of man- 
kind, the director of a great society of 
men.’ 


The Use of High-exploswe Projectiles: 
Professor CHARLES EH. Munroe, of Wash- 
ington. 

In 1885, the author discussed in Van 
Nostrand’s Engineering Magazine various 
experiments made in testing the use of high 
explosives in projectiles, and in conclusion 
stated the conditions essential for effi- 
ciency. He has now reviewed the experi- 
ences of the intervening years and finds his 
conclusions of 1885 fully confirmed. 


Ammomacal Gas Inquors: Professor 
CHarLes H. Munros, of Washington. 
In preparing a report on the gas in- 

dustry of the United States for the census 

of 1905 it was found that manufacturers 
gave the strength ofthe ammoniacal liquors 
in a great variety of units, such as degrees 

Twaddell, per cents. of NH® or ammonium 

sulphate and ‘ ounce strength,’ the latter 

being the favorite. In an investigation 
looking toward finding a means of reducing 
these to a common basis it was found that 

“ounce strength’ as used in the United 

States has a different meaning from what 

it has abroad, for in adopting this method 

of measurement here it has been appled 
to the United States gallon instead of the 

Imperial gallon, for which it was devised. 

This tends to explain the apparent differ- 

ence in the yields from coals in the United 

States as compared with European coals. 


Chromosomes in the Spermatogenesis of the 
Hemiptera Heteroptera: Professor THos. 
H. Monteomery, Jr., of Austin, Texas. 
The spermatogenesis of forty species of 

this group was described in detail, with 

especial regard to the history of the 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


chromosomes. Chromosomes are classified 
into the following kinds: awtosomes, the un- 
modified chromosomes, and allosomes, the 
modified chromosomes. Of the latter, two 
kinds may be distinguished in the Hemip- 
tera: diplosomes, those that occur in pairs 
in the spermatogonia, and Mmonosomes, 
those that occur single there. The diplo- 
somes may conjugate in the synapsis stage 
and divide in the first maturation mitosis 
reductionally, in the second equationally, 
as previously described by the writer ; or 
they may divide in the reverse order with 
a conjugation in the second spermatocytes, 
as deseribed by Wilson. Both kinds may 
occur in the same cell The monosomes 
usually divide equationally in the first ma- 
turation division and do not divide in the 
second; more rarely they divide in the re- 
verse order; im one species the monosome 
does not divide in either of these mitoses. 
The same species may have two kinds of 
monosomes as well as diplosomes. In 1901 
the writer proved that the chromosomes oc- 
cur in pairs in the spermatogonia, that of 
each pair one element is of paternal and 
one of maternal origin, and that in the 
synapsis stage is accomplished a conjuga- 
tion of maternal with paternal elements. 
Here a still greater series of evidence is 


brought in support of this contention, show-- 


ing that for almost all the species examined 
the determination of the pairs in the 
spermatogonia is facile; and further, evi- 
dence is now brought that the two chromo- 
somes of a pair are not exactly similar in 
volume, but apparently constantly slightly 
different in this respect, sometimes also in 
form, so that it is possible to distinguish 
which is the paternal and which the ma- 
‘ternal element. The sum total of the 
chromosomes of a cell, that is, of the 
chromatin and linin, must be regarded as 
forming a single nuclear element, of which 
the chromosomes, though they undoubtedly 


SCIENCE. 


943 


preserve their individuality, are only sub- 
divisions; a particular chromosome repre- 
sents a particular set of hereditable ener- 
gies, the sum total of them all the energies 
of one individual, that is to say, the sum 
total of them when in the reduced number. 
This state of division of labor may be 
termed chromosome differentiation. In 
the Hemiptera there is given the possibility 
of following the behavior of any single 
chromosome through a great series of cell 
generations, as well as of deciding whether 
it be paternal or maternal, which brings us 
nearer the analysis of the hereditable sub- 
stance than has been possible heretofore. 


A banquet at the Bellevue-Stratford on 
Friday evening was the closing feature of 
a most memorable occasion. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

Dr. E. W. Taytor contributes to the June 
issue of the Journal of Nervous and Mental 
Disease an article on the clinical course and 
pathological anatomy of multiple sclerosis, 
illustrated by twelve complete case reports and 
a number of cuts showing the microscopical 
findings. He reaches the following conclu- 
sions: (1) The rarity of the disease in this 
country has been over-estimated. A more 
careful examination of atypical cases and a 
more open mind in diagnosis is desirable. (2) 
The importance of observing and properly 
estimating minor symptoms of the disease, 
particularly unexplained spasticity and ocular 
disorders, must be emphasized. (38) The eti- 
ology remains obscure. The pathological 
anatomy is still a hopeful field for study. 
Present evidence points towards a primary 
destruction of the myeline with either a sec- 
ondary or coincident proliferation of the 
neuroglia. An exhaustive bibliography of the 
subject for the years since 1903 is appended. 
Dr. G. A. Moleen reports an interesting case 
of subcortical cerebral gumma, accurately 
localized in the comatose state, and Dr. Alfred 


*Gordon follows with a brief contribution to 


the study of the ‘ paradoxic reflex.’ 


944 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE NORTH CAROLINA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
Tue fifth annual meeting of the North 
Carolina Academy of Science was held at West 
Raleigh, May 18 and 19. The following off- 
cers were elected for the ensuing year: 


President—Dr. Collier Cobb, of the State Uni- 
versity at Chapel Hill. 

Vice-President—Professor J. L. Lake, of Wake 
Forest College. 

Secretary-Treasurer—Dr. F. L. Stevens, A. and 
M. College, West Raleigh, N. C. 

Members of the Haxecutive Oommittee—Mr. 
Franklin Sherman, Jr.; Dr. W. C. Coker, of 
Chapel Hill, and Professor John F. Lanneau, of 
Wake Forest College. 


The following papers were presented: 


Autophytographs: CouLizr Cops. 

Name suggested by C. H. White (Am. Jour. 
Sci., March, 1905) for a plant record formed 
by the extraction of coloring matter through 
decay of plant, or a black deposit reproducing 
perfectly the leaves of plants, illustrated by 
specimens from the neighborhood of Wilkes- 
boro, N. C., and elsewhere. Such records 
should also have been made in geological past, 
and Dr. Cobb reported fern autophytographs 
on Carboniferous rocks from near Pottsville, 
Pa., exhibiting two different specimens of the 
same. 


Notes on the Variation in the Number of 
Hggs or Young produced by some American 
Snakes: C. S. Brimury. 

This paper gave the largest, smallest and 
average number of eggs or young produced, 
according to the author’s experience, by the 
following species of North American snakes— 
Butenma sirtalis, Hutenia saurita, Natria« 
sipedon, Haldea striatula, Storeria dekayt, 
Storeria occipitomaculata, Virginia valerie, 
Bascaniwm constrictor, Heterodon platyrhinus, 
Ophibolus getulus, Cyclophis estivus, Coluber 
quadrivittatus, Oarphophiops amenus, An- 
cistrodon contortriz, Ancistrodon piscivorus. 
Comments are also made on the confusion 
caused by the application locally of the same 
popular or local name to different species of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 599. 


snakes in different places, and by different 
names being applied to the same species. 

Dr. W. C. Coker explained with blackboard 
drawings the development and the nuclear 
changes within the embryo sac of the ordinary 
poplar tree, Lirtodendron. The special point 
of interest was that though this tree is very 
ancient geologically, yet its embryo sae pre- 
sents no unusual features. 


Sugaring for Moths: C. S. Brimiry. 

The author’s experience in sugaring for 
moths in July, August and September, 1905, 
were given. Names the mixtures employed 
and how applied, and what species of moths 
and other insects were captured. Notes that 
a very large proportion of the attracted moths 
were species of economic importance, v2z., the 
army-worm and cutworm moths, which do 
considerable injury to field and garden crops. 
Notes what imsects were attracted to the 
sugared patches in the daytime and also that 
rough-barked trees were better to sugar than 
smooth-barked ones. 


Rhetic Flora of Moncure Shales: Cottier 

Coss. 

Specimen of Lariodendron(?) reported from 
Deep River Trias in 1904 in association with 
Macroteniopteris, and then regarded by 
speaker as Lower Trias, led to the tracing of 
this bed eight miles northeastward through 
Lockville to Moncure, and to the discovery 
of one nearly complete Liriodendron leaf and 
several fragments in association with lycopods, 
conifers and equisetacexe, with many examples 
of more modern plants yet to be determined, 
constituting what is probably a transition 
flora. Many of the specimens were from a 
well recently dug by the Seaboard Air Line 
Railway. 


The Influence of Citrous Stocks on Scions: 

Mr. C. F. Reimer. 

An investigation was made in Florida to 
determine whether the stock influences the 
scion in. any way. The following outline 
covers most of the work which was done: 

1. Influence on rate of growth—(a) in diam- 
eter, (b) in height. 

2. On shape of tree. 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


3. On hardiness. 

4. On diseases. 

5. On fruit—(a) amount, (6) quality, (c) 
season of ripening, (d) color, (e) dropping. 

Interesting results were obtained which will 
appear in ScIENCE in full at a later date. 

Mr. J. C. Temple discussed the bacterial 
flora of cow manure, showing the average 
number of germs present in fresh manure 
and in manure of different ages. The rela- 
tion of these various germs to the nitrogenous 
material of the manure. He also presented 
important results concerning the distribution, 
abundance and variation of the colon bacillus. 

A paper by Lewis T. Winston in his absence 
was presented by Dr. F. L. Stevens on ‘ Bac- 
terial Analysis of the Various Lithia Waters,’ 
in which it was stated that while most of the 
lithia waters are above reproach from a bac- 
terial view point, some of them are of such 
condition that if submitted to the ordinary 
board of health analysis they would be con- 
demned. 

Dr. ©. W. Coker discussed ‘ Types of Liver- 
worts Especially Useful in Elementary Classes 
in Botany.’ 

Mr. W. C. Etheridge explained a series of 
tests which he had made concerning the vari- 
ous methods of analysis of milk, to determine 
the effects of various media, various ages of 
plate, different degrees of acidity, and effect 
of ventilation upon the bacterial count. 

Mr. C. 8. Brimley presented a paper on the 
‘Zoology of Lake Ellis, Craven County, N. C.’ 

Mr. W. C. Coker gave the results of his 
investigation upon the cytology of the endo- 
sperm of the Pontederiacez. 


Food Adulteration: Mr. W. M. Auten. 

This paper showed the great effect of the 
adulteration of human foods on mankind; how 
it effects both the health and the wealth. 

It seems that the greatest danger to health 
lies in the use of chemical preservatives in 
fresh meats and sausages by butchers and 
meat men, often ignorant, having no concep- 
tion of what they are dispensing to their 
customers. 

The meeting was well attended and an in- 
terest was manifest. Jt is probable that the 


SCIENCE. 


945 


next meeting will be held at Chapel Hill one 
year from the present date. 
F. L. Stevens, 
Secretary. 


THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE society has had a very successful year 
under the presidency of Dr. George M. Kober, 
whose address, ‘The Health of the City of 
Washington,’ was a striking exposition of the 
value of practical anthropology in vital ques- 
tions. 

The following is a list of papers read: 

“The Mound Builders of Eastern Mexico,’ 
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes; ‘The Work of Blind 
Indians,’ Dr. A. Hrdlicka; ‘Coins and Coin- 
age,’ Colonel Paul Beckwith; ‘The Develop- 
ment of the Talking Machine and its Utiliza- 
tion in Anthropology,’ George C. Maynard; 
“Mechanical Aids to the Study and Recording 
of Language,” Dr. P. E. Goddard; ‘The 
Naming of Specimens in American Archeol- 
ogy, C. Peabody and K. Moorehead; ‘ Diseases 
of the Indians, more especially of the South- 
west United States and Northern Mexico,’ Dr. 
A. Hrdlicka; ‘The Introduction of Reindeer 
among the Natives of Alaska, Dr. Sheldon 
Jackson; ‘ Archeological Explorations on the 
San Francisco River, Arizona and New 
Mexico,’ by the general secretary; ‘ Helen 
Keller, her Life, Associates and Achieye- 
ments, John Hitz; ‘A Native Moxa (Cautery) 
among the Klamath Indians,’ F. V. Coville; 
“Anatomical Vestiges in Human Organisms,’ 
Dr. D. S. Lamb; ‘The Babylonian Code of 
Laws or Hammurabi and the Laws of Moses,’ 
I. M. Casanowiez; ‘Existing Shadows of 
Primitive Conditions,’ C. H. Robinson; ‘ Re- 
cent Archeological Investigations on the 
Pajarito Plateau,’ Professor E. L. Hewett; 
“The Family in Social Organization, J. N. B. 
Hewitt; ‘ Critical Remarks on Social Organ- 
ization,’ Dr. John R. Swanton; ‘ The Remains 
of Prehistoric Man in North Dakota,’ Pro- 
fessor Henry Montgomery; ‘ The People of the 
Philippines, Dr. Albert E. Jenks; ‘The 
Igorote of Luzon,’ W. E. Safford; ‘ The His- 
tory of Anthropology in the District of Co- 
lumbia,’ Professor O. T. Mason; ‘ The Inter- 
relations of the Sciences,’ Dr. Max West; 


946 


Fragments of - Californian Ethnology: ‘A 
Mortuary Ceremony and other Matters,’ Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam; ‘Human Illusions,’ A. R. 
Spofford. At the closing meeting for the 
year, obituary notices of deceased members 
were read as follows: 

Dr. Washington Matthews, by James Mooney. 

Dr. Swan M. Burnett, by Dr. D. S. Lamb. 

Col. Weston Flint, by J. D. McGuire. 

Mrs. Hannah L. Bartlett, by Mrs. Marianna P. 
Seaman. 

Mr. S. H. Kauffmann, by Professor W. H. 
Holmes. 

Mr. W. H. Pulsifer, by the general secretary. 


The society proceeded to the election of 
officers, with the following results: 

President—Mr. J. D. McGuire. ~ 

Vice-presidents—(a, somatology), Dr. A. 
' Hrdlicka; (b, psychology), Dr. J. Walter Fewkes; 
(ce, esthetology), Professor W. H. Holmes; (d, 
technology), Dr. Walter Hough; (e, sociology), 
Mr. James Mooney; (f, philology), Mr. J. N. B. 
Hewett; (g, sophiology), Miss Alice C. Fletcher. 

General Secretary—Dr. Walter Hough. 

Secretary to the Board of Managers—Dr. John 
R. Swanton. 

Treasurer—Mr. George C. Maynard. 

Curator—Mrs. Marianna P. Seaman. 

Oouncilors—F. W. Hodge, J. R. Swanton, J. W. 
Fewkes, I. M. Casanowicz, Paul Beckwith, J. B. 
Nichols, J. N. B. Hewett, James Mooney, W. E. 
Safford and Mrs. Sarah §. James. 

Watter Hoven, 
General Secretary. 

THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. NEW YORK 
SECTION. 


Tue eighth regular meeting of the New 
York Section was held Friday evening, May 
11, at the Chemists’ Club, Dr. F. D. Dodge 


presiding. The following papers were read: 


The Insoluble Chromi-Cyanides: F. V. D. 

Cruser and E. H. MiLuer. 

The paper reviews the work done many 
years ago on the chromi-cyanides, gives an 
improved method for the preparation of potas- 
sium chromi-cyanide and describes the prop- 
erties and analysis of this salt. The only in- 
soluble chromi-cyanides are those of silver, 
cadmium, mercurous mercury, nickel, cobalt, 
cupric and cuprous copper, zinc, manganese 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vox. XXIII. No. 599. 


and ferrous iron. ‘These precipitates were 

found to have the normal composition whether 

Cr(CN)6 or cathion was in excess. 

The Dissociation of Water Vapor and Carbon 
Dioxide at High Temperatures: Irvine 
Langmuir. 

It is shown that, when carbon dioxide 
or steam is passed slowly over glowing plati- 
num wires, these gases are dissociated to an 
extent corresponding to the true chemical 
equilibrium at the temperature of the wire. 
The degree of dissociation was determined 


“with considerable accuracy for temperatures 


ranging from 1,000° to 1,300°, and was found 
to agree closely with the van’t Hoff formula. 
The temperature was determined from the 
change of electric resistance of the glowing 
wire, the temperature coefficient having been 
determined in an electric furnace. 


The Condensation of 4-Nitro Acetanthranil 
with Diamines: W. Kuaser and M. T. 
Bocert. 
4-nitro acetanthranil can be prepared rap- 

idly and readily, in any desired amount, from 

o-toluidine. It was condensed with hydrazine 
hydrate, ethylene diamine hydrate, and with 
guanidine. With hydrazine, both amino 
quinazoline and diquinazolyl were obtained. 

With ethylene diamine and guanidine, various 

quinazolines and intermediate amides were 

isolated. 

The Synthesis of 6-Nitro-2-Methyl-4-K etodi- 
hydroquinazolines from 5-Nitro Acetan- 
thranil: E. P. Cook and M. T. Bocnrr. 
The authors prepared 5-nitro acetanthranil 

from 5-nitro acetanthranilic acid, and, by con- 
densing this anthranil with various amines, 
obtained the 6-nitro-2-methyl-4-ketodihydro- 
quinazoline, together with its 3-methyl, 3- 
ethyl, 3-phenyl and 3-amino derivatives, as 
well as the diquinazolyl corresponding to the 
latter. Both the amino quinazoline and the 
diquinazolyl carry acetic acid of erystalliza- 
tion. ; 

On the Alkyl Oxygen Ethers of Alpha Oxy- 
quinazolines and the Isomeric 3-(N)-Alkyl 
Derivatives of the Corresponding Alpha 
Quinazolons: H. A. Spm and M. T. Bocerr. 
On treating various alpha oxyquinazolines 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


with alkali and methyl iodide, the N-methyl 
derivative resulted in every case. With ethyl 
jodide, both O- and N-derivatives were ob- 
tained, while with the higher iodides the O- 
compound was the chief product. The pure 
N-alkyl compounds were prepared from the 
acyl anthranils, and the pure O-compounds 
from the corresponding chlorine derivatives 
and sodium alcholates. A large number of 
isomers were prepared and examined, both of 
nitrated and unnitrated quinazolines. 
F. H. Pouex, 
Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

THE meeting of May 8, 1906, was held at 
the American Museum of Natural History 
at 8 p.M., with President Rusby in the chair. 

The scientific program was an illustrated 
lecture by Dr. Grace E. Cooley on ‘ Forestry.’ 

The lecture considered the relation of for- 
ests and forest products to man, and the 
consequent importance of an intelligent com- 
prehension of the principles and economic 
bearings of forestry. The nature of various 
important species of trees was treated of from 
the standpoint of silviculture, treating the tree 
as an individual plant; forestry, considering 
tree groups, or forests; physiography, discus- 
sing the relation of trees to the landscape and 
physiographic processes, and also from the 
point of view of economics and esthetics. The 
historical development of the U. S. Bureau of 
Forestry was briefly traced from the early be- 
ginning when a few interested persons met 
regularly at the home of Mr. Gifford Pinchot 
for discussion and instruction until the pres- 
ent organization of the national forest service. 
Forestry in other countries was also alluded 
to, and its long recognition and advanced 
stage of perfection abroad, standing in con- 
trast to its rather tardy development in the 
United States. 

C. Stuart GaGEr, 
Secretary. 


THE CALIFORNIA BRANCH OF THE AMERICAN 
FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. 
THe eighth meeting of the California 
Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society 


SCIENCE. 


947 


was held at Cloyne Court, Berkeley, Tuesday, 
April 17, 1906, at 8 p.m. .Mr. Charles Keeler 
presided. The minutes of the last meeting 
were read and approved. Dr. J. W. Hudson, 
having been approved by the council, was 
elected to membership in the society. On 
motion, Charles Keeler, A. H. Allen and P. 
E. Goddard, previously appointed by the 
Berkeley Folk-Lore Club as a committee to 
report on the feasibility of making a special 
study of the folk-lore of Berkeley and vicin- 
ity, were elected to represent the California 
Branch and to secure the cooperation of the 
two societies in the undertaking. A report 
reviewing the work of the society during the 
first year of its activity, which closed with 
this meeting, was read by the secretary. Dr. 
H. du R. Phelan, captain U. S. Volunteers, 
gave the address of the evening on ‘The 
Peoples of the Philippine Islands,’ based on 
a sojourn of several years in different parts 
of the archipelago and illustrated with numer- 
ous ethnological specimens. At its conclusion 
Dr. Phelan’s talk was discussed by the mem- 
bers. The acting president thereupon an- 
nounced the conclusion of the first year of the 
society’s existence and the meeting was ad- 


journed. Forty-five persons attended the 
meeting. 
A. L. Krorser, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
FACTS AND THEORIES IN EVOLUTION. 


WitH reference to the writings of Weis- 
mann, I wrote in 1896, that he has constantly 
mixed up the origin of species and variations, 
and the origin of adaptive characters. This 
holds good also at the present time, and may 
be said of other writers. The confusion is 
partly due to Darwin’s phrase: origin of spe- 
cies, which was intended to include the whole 
process of evolution; but we must bear in 
mind that the latter is composed of several 
distinct processes. 

In a recent article in Science, Dr. F. Way- 
land Vaughan gives a review of de Yries’s 


Pr. Am. Philos. Soc., 35, 1896, p. 191. 
* Science, May 4, 1906, p. 681. 


948 


mutation theory, and although, in general, his 
remarks and criticism appear to me well sup- 
ported, he does not emphasize enough the fact 
that de Vries has entirely wrong ideas with 
regard to the process of species-making (spe- 
ciation), and that he confounds it with 
variation. Indeed, Vaughan points out (p. 
684) that de Vries’s conception of species 
(elementary species) is inadequate; but he 
fails to see that this is a vital part of the mu- 
tation theory, and that the latter stands and 
falls with it. 

In addition, I should like to express here a 
few opinions, which differ slightly from those 
set forth by Vaughan, and which I shall try to 
substantiate in the following paragraphs. The 
first is, that I think the theories of Darwin 
and of Weismann to be fundamentally differ- 
ent, Weismann always having incorrectly un- 
derstood Darwin’s view; thus it is impossible 
to regard the theory of Weismann as a kind 
of an amendment to that of Darwin, and to 
oppose both to the Lamarckian view; the 
second is, that I believe that the inheritance of 
acquired characters is an assumption that is 
“entitled to respect and consideration’ (Dall) 
not only because it is apt to explain certain 
facts, but chiefly so because it is the only theory 
that is based upon sound philosophical prin- 
ciples, the alternative theory being logically 
deficient. Besides, there is a third point, to 
which I object, namely, that Vaughan claims 
that ‘the great value of de Vries’s work con- 
sists in having shown that the origin of species 
is an object of experimental investigation.’ I 
do not need to diseuss this here again, since 
I have shown lately® that de Vries’s experi- 
ments have no relation at all to the making of 
species (speciation), but only to the question 
of variation, and that they belong to a class 
of experiments that was known long ago. 

I. The Darwinian theory has always been 
misinterpreted by Weismann in so far as he 
claimed that the emphasis laid by him upon 
natural selection, the ‘all-sufficiency’ of the 
latter, is the original Darwinian idea. But 
a perusal of Darwin’s writings shows that, al- 
though he emphasizes natural selection as a 
new principle discovered by himself, he does 

*Screncr, May 11, 1906, p. 746. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XXIII. No. 599. 


not mean to say that it is the only factor in 
evolution." This is seen at once by the fact 
that three chapters (1, 2, and 5) of the 
“Origin of Species’ are devoted to another 
factor, variation, while the struggle for life 
and natural selection are treated in the chap- 
ters 3 and 4; and on p. 100 (‘ Origin of Spe- 
cies’), at the end of the fourth chapter, Dar- 
win condenses his ideas upon half a page in a 
summary, mentioning three factors: varia- 
tion; struggle for life (resulting in natural 
selection); and inheritance. 

I have shown previously’ that Darwin also 
perceived that another question was to be 
settled, that of the differentiation into species 
(speciation) ; but with regard to this his ideas 
were somewhat hazy (‘Origin of Species,’ 
chapters 12 and 13). In my opinion, this 
point in Darwin’s theory is the one that 
needed further elucidation, and this lack has 
been supplemented by M. Wagner by his sepa- 
ration theory. 

That Darwin has been correctly understood 
by others in so far as it was seen that evolu- 
tion is influenced by different, independent 
factors, is clearly shown by the exposition of 
his views as given, for instance, by Haeckel. 
I remember well, almost a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago, when I attended Haeckel’s lectures 
on general zoology, that he made it a special 
point to bring home the idea that evolution 
as a general process in nature is not a theory, 
but a logical deduction from three well-estab- 
lished facts. The same view is found in 
Haeckel’s ‘ Natuerliche Schoepfungsgeschich- 
te’ (8d ed., 1872), where he mentions (p. 
139) inheritance (Erblichkeit) and variation 
(Veraenderlichkeit)° as the fundamental prop- 
erties of the organisms, to which should be 
added Darwin’s principle of the struggle for 
life (p. 144). 

The same three factors in evolution are 
mentioned by Davenport (quoted by Vaughan, 
I. c., p. 690) as: variation, mnheritance and 


*See Ortmann in Pr. Am. Philos. Soc., 35, 1896, 
p. 187, 190. 

5 Tbid., p. 182. 

® Haeckel uses variation and adaptation as 
synonyms (see l. ¢., p. 197), which should be borne 
in mind. 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


adjustment, and it is probably better to use 
the latter word (or adaptation), if we want to 
emphasize that these factors are empirical 
facts; adjustment is a fact directly observed 
in nature, while the struggle for life is an 
inference drawn from other observations. 

I am prepared to accept this view in its 
full meaning, namely, that we have to deal 
here with facts, which may be observed in 
nature, and the logical consequence of the 
operation of these facts is evolution, that is 
to say, the change of the organic world, or its 
transmutation. But this does not exhaust all 
the existing phenomena, for we observe in na- 
ture a fourth fact, namely, that the chain of 
organisms is cut up in species. This we may 
eall, with O. F. Cook, speciation, and thus we 
obtain altogether four facts: variation, wm- 
heritance, adjustment, speciation. These four 
facts would satisfactorily explain the whole 
of the organic world, if the causes of each of 
them were known: the process of evolution, 
consequently, is undeniable, and our investi- 
gations should be conducted so as to discover 
the causes of each of the main factors in 
evolution. As we shall see presently, the dis- 
cussion in evolution, and the differences of 
opinion have hinged chiefly upon this question 
of the causes of these facts, and while in two 
of them the causes are very clear, in the other 
two they are much disputed. 

It is the chief shortcoming of some of the 
modern writers, for instance Weismann and 
de Vries, that they are oblivious of this fun- 
damental idea of evolution, and the conse- 
quence has been an utter confusion in their 
views. For me it is simply past comprehen- 
sion, how it was possible that the writings of 
Weismann and de Vries have come to be 
looked upon favorably, and to be regarded as 
worthy of serious consideration. 

I have always regarded segregation (isola- 
tion, separation), as introduced by M. Wagner, 
as the cause of speciation. This is, in my 
opinion, the most vital improvement upon 
Darwin’s theory, and it is not opposed to it, 
but rather an amendment or addition to it. 
In this line, I have done some work myself, 
chiefly by trying to show the real extent of 


SCIENCE. 


949 


the term segregation (Gulick). I shall not 
go into detail here,” and only want to point 
out that I consider speciation as fully ex- 
plained by biological segregation. The latter 
is a fact which, although it has not been 
demonstrated in all cases, is now supported 
by a sufficient number of actual observations, 
and what is most important, a case that is 
opposed to it has never been found, namely, 
that two closely allied species occupy abso- 
lutely the same range under identical ecolog- 
ical conditions. Many other writers concur 
with me on this point, and I name, aside from 
M. Wagner, J. T. Gulick, G. Baur, D. S. Jor- 
dan, J. A. Allen, C. H. Merriam. 

As the causes of adjustment, we are to re- 
gard the struggle for existence and natural 
selection consequent to it. Vaughan (I. c., 
p. 690) objects to the use of ‘natural selec- 
tion,’ and possibly rightly so, considering how 
this term has been abused, preeminently on 
the part of Weismann. But the real value, 
and the correct conception of natural selection 
has been indicated by G. Pfeffer in a paper’ 
which generally seems to have escaped atten- 
tion. If we use natural selection in Pfeffer’s 
sense (not as the survival of the fittest, but as 
the survival of fit individuals), I do not see 
why this term should be objected to or dis- 
earded. The struggle for life, which causes 
natural selection, and consequently adaptation 
or adjustment, is a logical deduction from 
observations in nature, for we always see that 
more individuals are produced than finally can 
find place in the economy of nature. This 
has been amply demonstrated by Darwin and 
others, and thus the causes of adjustment are 


7See my publications: Grundziige der marinen 
Tiergeographie, Jena, 1896, p. 33. On Separa- 
tion, and its bearing on Geology and Zoogeog- 
taphy (Amer. Jowrn. Sci., 2, 1896, p. 63). On 
Natural Selection and Separation (Pr. Amer. 
Philos. Soc., 35, 1896, p. 182). Isolation as one 
of the factors in Evolution (Science, January 12, 
1906). A Case of Isolation without Barriers 
(Scrence, March 30, 1906). 

8*Die Umwandlung der Arten, ein Vorgang 
functioneller Selbstgestaltung’ (Verhandl. Natur- 
wiss. Ver. Hamburg (3), 1, 1894). 


950 


to be considered as well known, being repre- 
sented by indisputable facts. 

Inheritance is a fact which can not be de- 
nied, but the causes of inheritance are un- 
known. However, we possess theories with 
regard to it, one of which is Weismann’s 
germ-plasm theory. I am not going to dis- 
cuss this here. The latest investigations on 
the minute processes in fertilization, as well 
as experiments on heredity, go far to advance 
our knowledge as to the causes of inheritance, 
but at present it is impossible to say to what 
end they finally may lead. 

Variation is antagonistic to inheritance, and 
is also a fact. For a long time its cause 
seemed to be plain, and Darwin held the opin- 
ion that it is due to changes of environment, 
and he believed at the same time that changes 
thus produced might become hereditary 
(‘Origin of Species,’ in the very beginning 
of chapter 1, p. 5; further on, p. 8, and then 
again in chapter 5, p. 103). In this respect 
Darwin was entirely upon the standpoint of 
Lamarck, who was the first to express the idea 
of evolution in consequence of inheritance of 
acquired characters, chiefly by use and non- 
use (here we have the recognition of two 
principles: inheritance and variation). Later, 
a different opinion began to prevail, namely, 
that acquired characters, such as are due to 
external stimuli, are not transmitted, and that 
only variations of another class, which have a 
different cause, are inherited. These are the 
so-called ‘spontaneous,’ ‘germinal’ or ‘ con- 
genital’ variations. This view was chiefly 
defended by Weismann, although he was not 


the first to propose it. Finally, de Vries main-- 


tains that it is mutation, and not variation 
that is inherited,’ or more correctly that it is 
only a certain form of variation that is trans- 
missible (connected with the species-making 
process), namely, that which is represented by 
sudden leaps. 

Thus we see that the main dispute was with 
reference to the causes of variation, and we 
can distinguish three chief theories, which do 


®°This is all that remains of de Vries’s views 
after they have been stripped of their most obvious 
fallacies. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 599. 


not entirely correspond to the scheme given 
by Vaughan. 

1. Dynamic theory (Dall). Evolution is 
started by variation due to external stimuli; 
these variations are transmissible to the off- 
spring. K 

In this general view, we have to distinguish 
a development in four steps, each representing 
an improvement upon the older ideas, but not 
being contrary to them. 

(a) Lamarckian view: two factors are recog- 
nized—variation and inheritance. Variations 
are called adaptations. 

(b) Darwinian view: three factors are recog- 
nized—variation, inheritance and natural se- 
lection (struggle for life). Variations are not 
always adaptations, but may be disadvanta- 
geous. The struggle for life disposes of them. 
A fourth factor (speciation) is also indicated 
by Darwin, but not clearly recognized. 

(c) Wagnerian view: addition of the fourth 
factor segregation (separation) as producing 
speciation. 

(d) Pfeffer’s correction of Darwin’s concep- 
tion of natural selection. 

2. The view that not all variations are 
caused by external stimuli, and that not. all 
variations are transmissible, but only those 
that are due to ‘inner’ causes. This view 
was held formerly by Weismann, but is now 
abandoned by him practically, although not 
protessedly. This view is at present often 
called the Darwinian hypothesis, but wrongly 
50. 

3. The view of de Vries. He also contends 
that only a certain class of variations is trans- 
missible, that is to say, may start the forma- 
tion of new species. This class is what he 
calls mutations. As to the causes of muta- 
tion de Vries is noncommittal. 

I, for my part, accept the dynamic theory 
with all its amendments. I decline to con- 
sider the two other views, the third for reasons 
set forth recently.” -I have also given my 
reasons for rejecting Weismann’s views, but 
it might be well to condense here again, why 
I believe that the theory of the transmission 
of acquired characters possesses a better title 

Science, May 11, 1906. 

4 Biolog. Centralblatt, 18, 1898, p. 139 ff. 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


to respect and consideration than that of 
Weismann. 

II. Vaughan claims that there is no experi- 
mental evidence for the transmission of ac- 
quired characters. This is not so, there is 
evidence. For instance, the experiments of 
Weismann with Polyommatus phle@as, quoted 
by Vaughan, are evidence, when properly in- 
terpreted. 

With reference to the latter, I have said:~ 

What the Lamarck-Darwinian theory maintains 
is that external stimuli acting upon an individual 
may produce changes in its characters, and that 
these changes are transmissible, 7. €., may reap- 
pear in subsequent generations. But this is now 
exactly the view of Weismann. To quote his 
example, in the butterfly Polyommatus phlaeas, 
increased temperature (external stimulus) effects 
darker color (change of character), and Weis- 
mann further believes that this character (dark 
color) may reappear in subsequent generations in 
consequence of the increase of temperature. 

For the hereditary transmission of such ac- 
quired characters Weismann has his own the- 
ory, but this theory does not deal any more 
with origin of transmissible variations, but 
as a theory of inheritance (I. c., p. 155). 

I think this settles the point: we see that 
characters reappear in the offspring that have 
been acquired by the parents. Observations 
to this effect are known, and, furthermore, I 
believe that all variations are due to external 
stimuli, and that there are no variations due 
to so-called inner causes alone. For there is 
a grave logical error in the latter assumption 
(1. c., p. 144). The conception of spontaneous 
variation implies that a certain class of causes 
does not act in variation, namely, the cause 
efficientes. Now, every process in nature must 
haye three kinds of causes: cause materiales, 
cause efficientes, and cause finales. The ex- 
clusion of the second class, while only the first 
and third are admitted, renders this assump- 
tion illogical: we need a causa efficiens, or 
external stimulus. That is to say, no germinal 
or spontaneous variation is thinkable, unless 
there is an external stimulus. Each and every 
variation must be consequent on an external 
stimulus, which necessarily precedes it in time. 


* Biolog. Centralblatt, 18, 1898, p. 153. 


SCIENCE. 


951 


An objection often made in cases ahene the 
transmission of acquired characters seems 
probable is that the acquired character again 
disappears in subsequent generations, after 
the external influence has ceased, that is to 
say, that the variations revert to the original 
form. Of course, this should happen. As I 
understand the dynamic theory, its claim is 
that external influences permanently change 
organisms only when they remain permanent 
in their action, and that it takes time, and, if 
the expression is permitted, effort on the part 
of the environment to render any change more 
or less stable. But just this latter effect is 
due to inheritance, and repeated inheritance 
only is able to fix a character to such a degree, 
that it in turn obtains the necessary inertia 
to be classed with the stable, that is to say, 
inherited, characters, which offer a certain re- 
sistance to additional changes of environment. 
In this respect, J. A. Allen’s remarks are per- 
tinent,* where he emphasizes the simultaneous 
and permanent action of external conditions 
upon large numbers of individuals. A change 
in the external conditions must act upon a 
multitude of animals, and they all must vary, 
and if they are more or less uniform in or- 
ganization, they must vary in the same or a 
similar direction. This is the real starting 
point for any transformation that is to become 
permanent. I do not believe that in nature 
single chance variations (due to unusual 
stimuli acting but once) ever become the 
parents of a similarly changed offspring, but 
I think it is always a large number of speci- 
mens, in fact practically all that live under 
the changed environment that begin to vary: 
the environment simply forces them to do so. 
This fact, and we have evidence for it (see 
Allen, I. c.), goes far to furnish direct proof 
for the action of external stimuli in variation, 
and the phrase ‘ pressure of environment’ in- 
troduced by C. H. Merriam” for this fact, the 
permanent and irresistible application of cer- 
tain external forces upon a multitude of or- 
ganisms, expresses this identical view. This 
pressure, generally, does not stop again after 


18 ScreNcE, November 24, 1905, p. 667. 
4 Scrmnee, February 16, 1906, p. 244. 


952 


it has once begun, and thus a permanent 
change is brought about. If we consider this, 
then the objection that sometimes the changes 
of the organisms have disappeared after the 
normal conditions had been reestablished, does 
not hold good; in fact, this was to be expected 
(compare Naegeli’s experiments with Hver- 
acium; also de Vries’s experiments furnish 
examples). 

This way of looking upon the ‘ pressure of 
environment,’ as producing a certain tendency 
to vary in a definite direction, easily explains 
it that we have evidence of definite variation. 
M. M. Metcalf is inclined to believe that 
such instances are in favor of the assumption 
of the action of inner causes; but I do not see 
why this should be so. A repeated or constant 
action of the same external stimulus should 
produce in any organic form the tendency to 
react upon this stimulus in a definite way. 
This has been called orthogenesis by Eimer. 
Such cases are known, and I do not hesitate 
to attribute them to a permanent action of the 
same external force upon a multitude of indi- 
viduals. Of course, as soon as this process is 
well started, inheritance begins also to play a 
part, and it is this latter factor that finally 
firmly establishes the new characters. 

As to the value of experiments in the study 
of variation, I want to call attention to the 
difficulty in interpreting the facts, when such 
experiments are made under artificial and 
unnatural conditions, as, for instance, in the 
botanical garden, or with domesticated forms. 
Here it is apparent that such a complexity 
prevails, not only a few, but a large number 
of conditions being different from those in 
nature, that the experiment becomes a be- 
wildering maze. In my opinion, experiments 
should be made in close touch with nature, 
changing, if possible, only one or a few of the 
conditions, so that we may be able to record 
the effects of each single changed factor in 
the environment. But I do not believe that 
this is an easy task. On the other hand, we 
should bear in mind that nature has made and 
is making these experiments for us: the proc- 
ess of variation is going on continuously, and 


*® SciENcE, May 18, 1906, p. 787. 
Ny P 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 599. 


the effects of former variation are seen in 
nature, and may be studied in the shape of 
the actually existing variations, varieties and 
species, and their relation to the environment 
(ecology). This work naturally falls within 
the scope of the systematist, and is largely 
field work; specimens of this kind of work 
have been furnished by Merriam, Allen and 
others, and the modern ecological researches — 
are just what is wanted. But we must con- 
fess that so far we have only the beginning 
of this study, which should be encouraged and 
enlaiged. For ecology teaches us what the 
different types of environment are, and how 
the different elements in the environment af- 
fect each other, and how changes of environ- 
ment may effect changes in the organization 
of the different forms of life dependent on it. 


A. E. Ortmann. 
CaRNEGIE MusruM, Pirtspure, PA., 
May 28, 1906. 


SPHCIAL ARTICLES. 
CORPUSCULAR RADIATION FROM COSMICAL SOURCES. 
In my address * before the Physical Society, 
I gave an account of observations made sey- 
eral times daily since May 9, 1905, in a search 
for the possible occurrence of an ultra- 
mundane radiation. The work was there 


.Summarized as follows: 


Using the most sensitive condensation method, 
i. €., that depending on the depression of the 
limiting asymptote of mnon-energized, ‘dust-free 
air, no change of the quality of scrupulously 
filtered atmospheric air has thus far been de- 
tected. * * * Naturally (ions) would vanish 
during the slow passage of air through the filter, 
but fresh ions should be reproduced within the 
fog chamber by the same agency which generates 
them without * * *. Probably, therefore, the 
coronal method is as yet inadequately sensitive 
to cope with the variations of the small nuclea- 
tions specified. 


The ions, which are relatively large nuclei, 
withdraw much of the available moisture 
which would otherwise be precipitated on the 
colloidal nuclei of dust-free air. Hence the 
size of the terminal corona is diminished. 


Physical Review, XXII., p. 105, 1905; also ’ 
p. 109 on ‘ radiant fields.’ 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


The advantage of the method is its independ- 
ence of the drop in pressure if this exceeds a 
certain value. 

Since the announcement by A. Wood and 
A. R. Campbell? of the probability of cosmical 
radiation as evidenced by the existence of a 
daily period of the same, showing maximum 
ionization between 8 and 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. 
and 1 A.M., minimum ionization at about 2 


SCIENCE. 


953 


rapidly with the pressure difference and hence 
with the barometer, ete., and great care must 
be taken with these details. This, however, 
has been done and the results obtained are 
given in the following figure. The ordinates 
show the angular diameter, s, of the successive 
coronas, from which the number of efficient 
nuclei, n, per cubic centimeter may be ob- 
tained. Observations were made at about 9 


Noujet mnrates\ Semen eT 


9 Bl 


dune? 4 6 


Upper curve: Relative values of the angular diameters of coronas for the same drop of pres- 
sure, on the days and hours given by the abscissas. The branches a are in agreement with the Wood- 


Campbell discovery; the branches e show a tendency to inversion; r denotes rain. 


Lower curve: 


nucleations in ten thousands of colloidal nuclei per cubie centimeter of dust-free air computed 


from the preceding curve. 


p.M. and 4 a.m., I have taken the subject up 
again. It seems possible that I overestimated 
the sensitiveness of the earlier method. I 
have, therefore, changed it in the present ex- 
periment, replacing the large terminal coronas 
by the small coronas very near the fog limit. 
The observations, in other words, are now 
made with a drop in pressure but just suffi- 
cient to produce coronal condensation on the 
larger colloidal nuclei of dust-free air 
(8p 21 cm.). The sizes of coronas vary 


2 Nature, 1906, Vol. 73, p. 583. Reference is 
also due to the work of Burton and McLennan. 


AM. and 3 P.M. (as near the time of the Wood 
and Campbell maxima and minima as my 
duties permitted) on the successive days and 
hours given by the abscissas. 

The figure shows, in the first place, that 
minima and maxima of nucleation would gen- 
erally have to appear at about the time at 
which Wood and Campbell observed maxima 
and minima of ionization, respectively; or 
that an inyersion of Wood and Campbell’s re- 
sults is in question, since there is usually in- 
cremented nucleation in the afternoon as com- 
pared with the morning. This, however, may 


954 


be explained, if the ions are large even in 
comparison with the larger gradations of 
colloidal nuclei. Fewer of these will, there- 
fore, be captured in proportion as the ioniza- 
tion is larger. Hence the figure shows at a 
a corroboration of Wood and Campbell’s re- 
sults; at e€ an omission or inversion of the 
periods. But the e’s are much fewer in num- 
ber, and in comparison with the amplitude of 
the a’s the e’s are frequently neutral. 

In the second place the high nucleations 
during the period of rain are noteworthy. Here 
then few ions were present. As there is a 
modification of the atmospheric potential 
gradient during this time, one would favor 
an explanation on similar lines to the ideas 
suggested by Richardson.” From the above 
I could merely infer, however, that a region 
of rain is opaque to the cosmical radiation, 
though the periods are not wiped out. More- 
over, the interpretation here is not straight- 
forward and much must be left for future 
determination. 

Since last August (1905) a systematic com- 
parison between the dust contents and the 
ionization of the atmosphere has been carried 
out in this laboratory by Miss L. B. Joslin. 
As the paper is soon to appear in the Physical 
Review, I will merely state that no relation 
between the two curves of monthly ionization 
and the nucleation curve is discernible. Ion- 
ization and dust contents of the atmosphere 
are, therefore, not only to be referred to totally 
different sources, but are independent of each 
other. The origin of the former is, therefore, 
essentially non-local. Again the positive and 
negative monthly ionizations show curiously 
opposed periods in the successive months 
(August to March) which may be of relevant 
interest. 

I may add in conclusion that if the final 
isothermal drop of pressure in the fog cham- 
ber, instead of being observed as was my cus- 
tom heretofore, is computed from the volumes 
of the fog and vacuum chamber and the corre- 
sponding pressures, the data for the colloidal 
nucleation of dust-free air found in my large 
coronal chambers agree with the data which 


® Nature, LXXIIL., p. 607, 1906. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No, 599. 


I endeavored to deduce from the dise colors 
seen by Wilson in his small and unique appa- 
ratus. In other words, the condensational 
efficiency which I have reached in spite of size 
is now surpassed by no other form. 


Cari Barus. 
Brown UNIVERSITY, 
PROVIDENCE, R. I. 


RECENT MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS. 


Report of the American Museum of Nat- 
ural History for 1905.—It is difficult in re- 
viewing the work of so large an institution, 
whose growth extends along many different 
lines, to select the more salient features of the 
year, but the completion of the work of pre- 
paring and mounting the skeleton of the great 
dinosaur Brontosaurus may be regarded as 
the feature of 1905. This one piece is prob- 
ably responsible for a goodly portion of the 
565,489 visitors, but the fine bird groups, one 
of flamingoes and one of the bird life of the 
San Joaquin Valley have attracted many. 

As usual, many important fossil vertebrates 
have been secured during the year, including 
portions of the great carnivorous reptile 
Tyrannosaurus. 

Special attention has been given to the 
public schools by preparing loan collections 
and by lectures; no less than 600 bird skins 
and 1,800 insects were purchased for the prep- 
aration of loan collections and 400 cabinets 
are now available for circulation. 

In concluding his report President Jesup 
notes that this marks his twenty-fifth year of 
service and calls attention to the progress of 
the museum made possible by the support of 
the citizens of New York. 

The Fourth Annual Report of the Horni- 
man Musewm notes a falling off in the num- 
ber of visitors, primarily due to discouraging 
irresponsible and frivolous visitors from using 
the museum as a promenade. A noteworthy 
feature of the museum is the very considerable 
number of living animals, vertebrates and in- 
vertebrates, shown during the year, although 
this must necessitate much work on the part 
of attendants. On the other hand. living 
animals are very popular and instructive. The 
various little handbooks issued are very good 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


and sold at the practically nominal price of 
one penny each. 

The Hull (England) Musewm Publications 
30 and 31 are mainly devoted to a description 
of recently acquired whaling relics and con- 
tain much information as to whaling between 
1598 and 1868. The whaling fleet of Hull at 
one time numbered 60 vessels, averaging per- 
haps 825 tons each; the average number of 
whales taken in 1821 was 14 to a ship, which 
gives a good idea of the former abundance 
of the right whale. It is interesting to specu- 
late on the effect produced on the balance of 
life by the wiping out of these great animals, 
and the consequent sparing of billions of the 
minute invertebrates on which they fed. 

Notes on Some Recent Additions to the 
Hxhibition Series of Vertebrate Fossils in the 
U. S. National Museum figures and briefly 
describes several important specimens, in- 
eluding erania of Triceratops calicornis and 
Diceratops hatcheri, both types. The sugges- 
tion, made by Professor Lull, that the lateral 
vacuities in the frill of this last species, were 
the result of injuries does not seem tenable. 
The skeleton of the female mastodon from 
Michigan is most admirably mounted and the 
measurements given show the animal to have 
been about two feet lower than the adult male. 

The Preservation of Antiquities, by Dr. 
Friedrich Rathgen, issued by the Cambridge 
University Press, while not a museum publi- 
cation, is of very general interest. The 
chapters of special value relate to the develop- 
ment, so to speak, and subsequent preservation, 
of objects of bronze and iron, and the figures 
show some very striking results that have 
been obtained by the processes described. It 
is to be noted that, as in other branches of 
museum work, care, and above all, patience 
are necessary adjuncts. Zapon, so often al- 
luded to, is the subject of an article in the 
Scientific American for June 2. 


F. A. L. 


THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN 
ANTIQUITIES. 
WE print below the bill passed by congress 
and signed by the President in the preserva- 
tion of American antiquities. Regulations, 


SCIENCE. 


959 


in accordance with the provision of Section 4, 
are now being formulated. 


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
gress assembled, That any person who shall 
appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any 
historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or any 
object of antiquity situated on lands owned or 
controlled by the Government of the United 
States, without the permission of the Secretary 
of the Department of Government having jurisdic- 
tion over the lands on which said antiquities are 
situated shall, upon conviction, be fined in a sum 
not more than five hundred dollars or be im- 
prisoned for a period of not more than ninety 
days, or shall suffer both fine and imprisonment 
in the discretion of the court. 

Sec. 2. That the President of the United States 
is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare 
by public proclamation historic landmarks, his- 
toric and prehistoric structures, and other ob- 
jects of historic or scientific interest that are 
situated upon the lands owned or controlled by 
the Government of the United States to be na- 
tional monuments, and may reserve as a part 
thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all 
cases shall be confined to the smallest area com- 
patible with the proper care and management of 
the objects to be protected: Provided, That when 
such objects are situated upon a tract covered 
by a bona fide unperfected claim or held in private 
ownership, the tract, or so much thereof as may 
be necessary for the proper care and manage- 
ment of the object, may be relinquished to the 
Government, and the Secretary of the Interior is 
hereby authorized to accept the relinquishment 
of such tracts in behalf of the Government of 
the United States. 

See. 3. That permits for the examination of 
ruins, the excavation of archeological sites, and 
the gathering of objects of antiquity upon the 
lands under their respective jurisdictions, may be 
granted by the Secretaries of the Interior, Agri- 
culture, and War, to institutions which they may 
deem properly qualified to conduct such examina- 
tion, excavation, or gathering, subject to such 
rules and regulations as they may prescribe: 
Provided, That the examinations, excavations, and 
gatherings are undertaken for the benefit of repu- 
table museums, universities, colleges, or other 
recognized scientific or educational institutions, 
with a view to increasing the knowledge of such 
objects, and that the gatherings shall be made 
for permanent preservation in public museums. 


956 


See. 4. That the Secretaries of the Depart- 
ments aforesaid shall make and publish from time 
to time uniform rules and regulations for the 
purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act. 


THE REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON THE 
WALTER REED MONUMENT. 

THE committee on the Walter Reed me- 
morial fund desire to submit, as is required, 
their report, and, as their work is practically 
finished, would ask to be discharged. 

The amount subscribed to the fund up to 
May 1, 1906, as reported to the committee by 
General Calvin DeWitt, secretary of the 
Walter Reed Memorial Association, is $20,- 
943.64. The amount paid in is $19,730.64, 
leaving subscribed, but not yet paid, $1,213. 

It was the desire of the committee and also 
of the Walter Reed Memorial Association that 
the sum of $25,000 should be raised. The 
committee regret very much indeed that Amer- 
ican cities and towns which have been dev- 
astated by yellow fever have contributed much 
less than $1,000 all told, and nothing in the 
way of public, municipal or state subscrip- 
tions. They still further, and especially re- 
gret that the sum total from Cuba has been 
only $25. It seems to the committee that the 
country from which yellow fever was eradi- 
cated after having been continually present for 
140 years, and which has had pointed out to it 
clearly the way in which future epidemics can 
be absolutely avoided, should certainly have 
made some substantial acknowledgment of the 
services of a surgeon who not only made a 
contribution of enormous value from the sani- 
tary point of view, but who has established its 
future commercial prosperity. 

The committee can not tell precisely the 
amount subseribed by the medical profession, 
but it is a very large proportion of the nearly 
$20,000 collected to date. It gives us pleasure 
to eall attention to the fact that while few 
business men have recognized the enormous 
money value of Dr. Reed’s services, to say 
nothing of the saving of human lives, his own 
profession has given such substantial recogni- 
tion of the worth of his services in preventing 


*Presented at the Boston meeting of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 599. 


a disease which has committed such dreadful 
havoc in the past, but will never do so again. 
JosEPpH D. Bryant, 
A. C. Cazort, 
T. S. Cunien, 
Victor C. VAUGHAN, 
Rosert F. Wer, 
W. W. Keen, Chairman. 


THE SHALER MEMORIAL FUND. 


Tue following circular has been sent by a 
committee of alumni of Harvard University 
to the graduates of the College and the Scien- 
tifie School: 


Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, §.D., LL.D., pro- 
fessor of geology and dean of the Lawrence Scien- 
tifie School, died in Cambridge, April 10, 1906, 
after more than forty years of faithful work at 
Harvard. 

Professor Shaler’s remarkable personality made 
a profound impression on the college and the 
community. The names of over 6,000 students 
have been enrolled in his classes. In recognition 
of his great services to the university, the execu- 
tive committee of the Alumni Association has 
appointed the committee named below to secure 
a Shaler memorial fund, the form of the me- 
morial and the disposition of the principal and 
income of the fund to be determined by the com- 
mittee. 

It is believed that many Harvard men, to 
whom the members of the committee are unable to 
write personally, will wish to subscribe to this 
memorial. This circular is therefore sent to all 
graduates of the college and the scientific school. 
Those who desire to contribute to the fund are 
requested to send their subscriptions, large or 
small (in the form of checks made payable to the 
Treasurer of Harvard University), to the chair- 
man as soon as possible, in order that a good 
report of progress, stating the number of sub- 
scriptions as well as the total amount subscribed, 
can be made on commencement day, June 27. 


THE ITHACA MBETING. 

THE meeting of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science and the affili- 
ated societies at Cornell University next week 
is an event of importance in the history of 
scientific organization and the advancement 
and diffusion of science in this country. The 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


association held both a summer and a winter 
meeting in 1850, but thereafter until 1902 
held a single meeting, usually in the month of 
August. The useful work of the association 
reached a culminating point some twenty-five 
years since. At the meetings held in Boston, 
Montreal and Philadelphia, in 1880, 1882 and 
1884, the attendance was between 900 and 
1,000. But thereafter there was a decline, 
until the attendance at Springfield, Buffalo 
and Detroit, in 1895, 1896 and 1897, was 368, 
3380 and 268. ‘The Boston meeting of 1898, 
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary, was large, 
but on the whole the association was losing 
ground. This was mainly due to the increased 
specialization of science and the formation of 
societies for the different sciences. 

The American Society of Naturalists was 
organized in 1883 to hold winter meetings 
limited .to professional students of science. 
The special societies subsequently formed for 
different natural sciences held meetings in 
affiliation with the Naturalists, and these 
meetings were nearly as large and had prob- 
ably more valuable scientific programs than 


An 


American Mathematical Society was also 


the summer meetings of the association. 


organized, holding its annual meetings at 
Christmas, and the societies formed later for 
physics and astronomy tended to aftiliate with 
it. The special societies had a more compact 
organization than the American Association, 
due to their professional membership coming 
mainly from adjacent centers on the Atlantic 
seaboard. The more amateur and scattering 
membership of the association was thus em- 
phasized. The association would have suf- 
fered severely if it had not been for the affilia- 
tion with the American Chemical Society. 

If the association were to remain the cen- 
tral organization for the advancement and 
diffusion of science it was necessary for it to 


SCIENCE. 957 


enter into affiliation with the special societies, 
and if its annual meetings were to be the 
chief clearing-house for the scientific research 
and scientific organization of the country it 
was necessary to hold the principal meeting 
in winter. If the association had not done 
these two things one or more new combina- 
tions of societies would have arisen, and they 
would have worked more or less at cross pur- 
poses with the association. There have nat- 
urally been difficulties to overcome, but on the 
whole the convocation week meetings have 
justified themselyes. There were nearly a 
thousand members of the association and 
probably fifteen hundred scientific men at the 
Washington and the Philadelphia meetings. 
But the transfer of the meetings of the 
association from summer to winter left one 
annual meeting where there had previously 
been two, and this at a time when the mem- 
bership of the association had more than 


doubled. 


so much take the place of the summer meet- 


The large winter meetings do not 


ings as fill an entirely different function. It 
may almost be said that they substitute busi- 
ness for pleasure. 

It is fortunate that the association now 
finds itself strong enough to supply both. 
Nothing can be pleasanter than a summer 
meeting in a university town amid beautiful 
surroundings, and Ithaca and Cornell supply 
ideal conditions. In addition to the regular 
programs of scientific papers addresses of gen- 
eral interest are promised, and excursions cer- 
tain to be both enjoyable and profitable have 
been arranged. The new physical laboratories 
of Cornell University will be formally opened 
and Sigma Xi will celebrate the twentieth 
anniversary of its foundation. No more fa- 
vorable opportunity will occur to see a great 
university, to visit a region both beautiful 
and scientifically interesting, to listen to spe- 


958 


cial scientific papers and more general ad- 
dresses, to meet friends and form acquaint- 
ances, than the meeting of the American 
Association and the affiliated societies which 
begins at Ithaca informally on Thursday even- 
ing of next week and formally on the follow- 


ing day. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue Ordre pour le Mérite has been con- 
ferred on Professor Robert Koch by the Ger- 
man Emperor. 


Tue Society of Arts has awarded its Albert 
medal to Sir Joseph W. Swan, F.R.S., ‘ for 
the important part he took in the invention 
of the incandescent electric lamp, and for his 
invention of the carbon process of photo- 
graphic printing.’ 

Proressor F. E. NipHer has been elected a 
foreign member of the Physical Society of 
France. 


Cotumpia University has conferred its doc- 
torate of science on Daniel Giraud Elliot, 
curator of zoology, Field Museum of Natural 
History, and on Baron Kanehiro Takaki, sur- 
geon-general (reserve) of the Japanese navy. 


Syracuse University has conferred the de- 
gree of doctor of laws on Professor Lucien M. 
Underwood, professor of botany at Columbia 
University. 

St. Lawrence University has conferred its 
doctorate of science on Mr. Willis L. Moore, 
chief of the Weather Bureau. 


At its recent commencement, Union College 
conferred the honorary degree of doctor of 
science on C. J. H. Woodbury, of the Amer- 
ican Bell Telephone Company, Boston, Mass.; 
on E. W. Rice, Jr., of the General Electric 
Company, Schenectady, N. Y., and on Charles 
S. Prosser, professor of geology in the Ohio 
State University. 


Tue Western University of Pennsylvania, 
at its commencement on June 12, conferred 
the honorary degree of Sc.D. upon Mr. Will- 
iam T. Hornaday, the director of the New 
York Zoological Garden at Bronx Park. 
Owing to recent illness Mr. Hornaday was 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXITI. No. 599. 


not able to be present, and the degree was 
received for him by Dr. W. J. Holland, the 
director of the Carnegie Museum, who said: 
“Mr. Hornaday is to-day one of the very 
foremost men in his calling. He it was who 
first suggested the establishment of the Na- 
tional Zoological Park in Washington, and 
from the very beginning until the present 
hour he has watched over and guided the 
development of the Zoological Garden in New 
York until it is to-day the most perfect, the 
most beautiful and most generously supported 
institution of its kind upon the globe. His 
aim has been to popularize knowledge of the 
animal world. His latest work, ‘The Amer- 
ican Natural History,’ is a splendid book. In 
honoring Mr. Hornaday the university is hon- 
oring herself.” i 


Tur Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
which has subsidized the horticultural work 
of Mr. Luther Burbank for a term of years, 
has recently taken additional measures to ex- 
tend and facilitate the development of this 
project. Dr. George H. Shull, of the depart- 
ment of experimental evolution, has been sent 
to Santa Rosa to begin a study of Mr. Bur- 
bank’s horticultural operations. It is pro- 
posed to prepare a volume descriptive of note- 
worthy products and to examine all available 
results of breeding experiments with respect 
to their bearing on questions of hybridization, 
selection, heredity and variation. The entire 
investigation is in charge of a committee con- 
sisting of President Woodward; Dr. C. B. 
Davenport, director of the department of ex- 
perimental evolution; Dr. D. T. MacDougal, 
director of the department of botanical re- 
search, and Dr. A. G. Mayer, director of the 
department of marine biology. The commit- 
tee has recently returned from a conference 
with Mr. Burbank, during the course of which 
an inspection was made of the breeding 
grounds and plantations at Santa Rosa and 
Sebastopol. 


Proressor R. S. Tarr, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, will conduct an expedition to Alaska 
during the coming summer, with four assist- 
ants and a number of packers. This expedi- 
tion will study the Malaspina and Bering 


JUNE 22, 1906.] 


Glaciers and make a reconnoissance survey of 
the bed-rock geology of the region between 
Yakutat and Controller Bays. 


Proressor H. L. Farcump, of the Univer- 
sity of Rochester, secretary of the Geological 
Society of America, will spend the summer 
on the Pacific coast, and will thereafter at- 
tend the International Geological Congress at 
the City of Mexico. 

M. Pierre JANET, professor of experimental 
psychology in the Collége de France, has been 
appointed lecturer at Harvard University next 
year, and will give a course on the symptoms 
of hysteria. 

Mr. Evisu Root, secretary of state, has 
been elected Dodge lecturer at Yale for 1907. 
He will lecture on the responsibilities of 
citizenship. 

Dr. W. H. Manwarine, of Indiana Univer- 
sity, will give a series of twenty-four lectures 
entitled ‘An Introduction to Pathological 
Physiology,’ before the students of Rush Med- 
ical College, during the summer quarter. 


Tue American Medical Association will 
_ meet next year in Atlantic City either imme- 
diately before or after the meeting of the 
Congress of Physicians and Surgeons at 
Washington. The chairmen of the sections 
are: Obstetrics and Diseases of Women—Dr. 
J. Wesley Bovée, of Washington, D. C.; 
Hygiene and Sanitary Science—Dr. Prince A. 
Morrow, of New York City; Diseases of Chil- 
dren—Dr. J. Ross Snyder, of Birmingham, 
Ala.; Pathology and Physiology— Dr. W. L. 
Bierring, of Iowa City, Ia.; Laryngology and 
Otology—Dr. S. M. Snow, of Philadelphia; 
Ophthalmology—Dr. G. C. Savage, of Nash- 
ville, Tenn.; Pharmacology and Therapeutics 
—Dr. H. C. Wood, Jr., of Philadelphia; 
Stomatology—Dr. Schamberg, of Philadelphia. 


A com™irrEEe has been formed with the ob- 
ject of establishing a memorial of the late 
Sir William Wharton, K.C.B., F.R.S., who 
died at Cape Town in September, after the 
British Association meeting in South Africa. 

Dr. Mary Purnam Jacost, a well-known 
physician and author of works on medicine 
and hygiene, died on June 10, at the age of 


SCIENCE. 


959 


sixty-three years. Mrs. Jacobi was the wife 
of Dr. Abram Jacobi, emeritus professor of 
the diseases of children in Columbia Uni- 
versity. 


THE death is announced of Dr. James 
Blyth, professor of natural philosophy in the 
Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical 
College. 


Tue Royal Geographical Society of Aus- 
tralasia, Queensland, will celebrate the twenty- 
first anniversary of its foundation in the last 
week of June. 


THe Selborne Society's annual conver- 
sazione was held in London, on May 25. 
About 800 guests were present. In the 
smaller halls there was a collection of exhibits, 
including natural history specimens shown un- 
der microscopes by fellows of the Royal 
Microscopical Society, members of the Quekett 
Club, North London Natural History Society 
and others. Lord Avebury gave the presi- 
dential address. The society now numbers 
over 1,800 members, and several new branches 
have been formed during the year. 


Tue new Cecil Duncombe Observatory at 
Leeds was opened on May 4 by Professor 
Turner, of Oxford University, who is a native 
of Leeds. 


Nature states that the German Bunsen So- 
ciety for Applied Physical Chemistry held its 
annual general meeting in Dresden under the 
presidency of Professor Nernst on May 20-23. 
The business of the meeting included some 
thirty-five papers, in a group of five of which 
the value and methods of the fixation of nitro- 
gen for industrial and agricultural purposes 
were discussed, in another group colloidal 
bodies were considered, whilst other subjects 
brought forward were such as technical meth- 
ods for examining explosives, radiation laws, 
ete. 


On June 11, the bill for the protection of 
animals, birds and fish in the forest reserves 
of California was reported to the senate by 
the committee on forest reservations and the 
protection of game without amendment. The 
house resolution to protect birds and their 
eggs in game and bird preserves was reported 


960 


in the senate by the same committee. The 
bill appropriating $25,000 for the establish- 
ment of a fish-culture station for the propaga- 
tion of shad and other fishes on St. Johns 
River, Florida, passed the senate. On June 
12 the house resolution for the protection and 
regulation of the fisheries of Alaska passed 
the senate with amendment. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Av the graduating exercises of the Brooklyn 
Polytechnic Institute President Atkinson an- 
nounced that the trustees had subscribed 
$800,000 toward the $2,000,000 necessary to 
endow the proposed extension of the institute, 
affording facilities for more advanced work. 


Mr. anp Mrs. Jacos TurTeLLout, of Minne- 
apolis, have offered to give $400,000 to build 
and endow an academy for the town of 
Thompson, Conn. 


Dr. Henry M. Saunpers, of New York, a 
trustee of Vassar College, has given $75,000 
for the erection of a building, yet undesig- 
nated, as a memorial to his wife. 


Tue Drapers’ Company has offered £5,000 
towards the buildings of the department of 
agriculture in the University of Cambridge, 
on condition that an equal sum be raised by 
the end of the year. The Duke of Devonshire, 
Lord Rothschild, Lord Strathcona and Sir 
Ernest Cassel have promised £1,000 each. 
The Goldsmiths’ Company have presented 
£5,000 to the university for the present needs 
of the library. 

THe cornerstone of the new chemical labora- 
tory of Colgate University was laid on June 
3 in connection with the commencement exer- 
cises. At the same time Lathrop Hall was 
dedicated. 

Ir is reported that the Andoyer Theological 
Seminary is likely to be merged with the 
divinity school of Harvard University. An- 
dover has considerable endowments, but only 
fourteen students. 

Ar the University of Colorado, the following 
degrees were conferred on June 6: B.A., 66; 
B.S., 14; M.D., 17; LL.B., 12; M. A., 9; Ph.D., 
3; total, 121. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8S. Von. XXIII. No. 599. 


At Harvard University, D. W. Johnson, 
S.B. (Mexico), Ph.D. (Columbia), assistant 
professor of geology at the Massachusetts In- 
stitute, has been appointed assistant professor 
of physiography; F. T. Lewis, A.B., A.M., 
M.D. (Harvard), has been promoted to an 
assistant professorship of embryology. 


At the Johns Hopkins University, associate 
professor Duncan 8. Johnson has been pro- 
moted to a professorship of botany and asso- 
ciate Caswell Graves to be associate professor 
of zoology. 


Dr. Apspert Ernest JENKS, recently chief 
of the Ethnological Survey of the Philippine 
Islands, has been elected to an assistant pro- 
fessorship in the department of sociology at 
the University of Minnesota. The courses pre- 
sented will be largely ethnological. 


Grorce A. Hanrorp, A.B., Ph.D. (Yale), 
has been advanced to the position of associate 
professor of chemistry and physiological chem- 
istry and director of the chemical laboratory 
in the medical department of Syracuse Uni- 
versity. 


Dr. E. S. Hatt, research assistant in chem- 
istry at the University of Chicago, has been 
appointed assistant professor of chemistry, and 
George Winchester, of the University of Chi- 
cago, has been elected professor of physics at 
the University of Washington (Seattle) for 
the ensuing year. 


Tue following instructors have been ap- 
pointed at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology for the coming year: M. W. Dole, in 
mechanical engineering; R. Haskell, in theo- 
retical chemistry; A. F. Holmes, in mechan- 
ical engineering; G. W. Eastman, in physics; 
Charles Field, 3d, in organic chemistry; G. F. 
Loughlin, in geology; OC. H.- Mathewson, in 
analytical chemistry. The following have 
been appointed as assistants: H. 8. Bailey, in 
technical analysis; J. F. Banash, H. P. Holl- 
nagel and ©. S. McGinnis, in physics; S. H. 
Grauten, C. D. Richardson and E. B. Rowe, 
in electrical engineering; B. W. Kendall, in 
electrochemistry; J. F. Norton, in organic 
chemistry; G. F. White and F. H. Willcox, in 
analytical chemistry. 


SAE NCE | 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 


FRAY, JUNE 29, 1906. 
TOROS EE 
CONTENTS. 
The California Harthquake................. 961 


The Royal Society of Canada: Dr. H. M. Ami 967 


The International Meteorological Conference 
at Innsbruck: Dr. A. LAWRENCE RoTCH... 975 


Scientific Books :— 
The Belgian Antarctic Expedition: Dr. WM. 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :— : 
The Society of Experimental Biology and 
Medicine: Dr. WitLiamM J. Gres. The Uni- 
versity of Colorado Scientific Society: PrRo- 
FESSOR FRANCIS RAMALEY................ 979 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 
College Entrance Examinations: Dr. J. Y. 
BERGEN. Sermons in Stomach Stones: Dr. 
Coe OAC Ne Meine Bain Oe Mage ob om ane 981 


Special Articles :— 
The Future of the Crayfish Industry: PrRo- 


FEssoR E. A. ANDREWS.................. 983 


Two Letters of Dr. Darwin, the Early Date 
of his Evolutional Writings: PROFESSOR 
IDASHIOA)) IDI hooedoobedonucodauedos 726 


Statistics ‘of Mortality. |<) en ace ence 


The Seventh International Zoological Congress 987 


Minute of the Faculty of Medicine of Harvard 
University on the Retirement of Professor 


BOUGCUCH Ven see EAI ee EO Gene 988 
Scientific Notes and News. ..222..2.)...... 988 
University and Educational News.......... 991 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of Sctencr, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 


THE CALIFORNIA HARTHQUAKE. 

THREE days after the earthquake of April 
18, Governor Pardee appoimted a com- 
mittee of inquiry consisting of Professor 
A. C. Lawson, of the State University; 
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the U. S. Geological 
Survey; Professor Fielding Reid, of Johns 
Hopkins University; Professor J. C. Bran- 
ner, of Stanford University; Professor A. 
O. Leuschner, of the State University ; Pro- 
fessor George Davidson, of the State Uni- 
versity; Professor Charles Burckhalter, of 
the Chabot Observatory, and Professor 
William Wallace Campbell, director of the 
Lick Observatory. Professor Lawson was 
elected chairman and Professor Leuschner 
secretary. The results of the inquiry com- 
municated to Governor Pardee on May 31, 
are as follows: 

One of the remarkable features of the 
Coast Ranges of California is a line of 
peculiar geomorphie expression which ex- 
tends obliquely across the entire width of 
the mountaious belt from Mendocino 
County to Riverside County. The peculi- 
arity of the surface features along this line 
lies in the fact that they are not due, as 
nearly all the other features of the moun- 
tains are, to atmospheric and stream erosion 
of the uplifted mass which constitutes the 
mountains, but have been formed by a dis- 
location of the earth’s crust, or rather a 
series of such dislocations, in time past, 
with a differential movement of the parts 
on either side of the plane of rupture. In 
general this line follows a system of long 
narrow valleys, or where it passes through 
wide valleys it lies close to the base of the 


962 


confining hills, and these have a very 
straight trend; in some places, however, it 
passes over mountain ridges, usually, at 
the divide separating the ends of two val- 
leys; it even in some cases goes over a spur 
or shoulder of a mountain. Along this 
line are very commonly found abrupt 
changes in the normal slope of the valley 
sides giving rise to what are technically 
known as scarps. These scarps have the 
appearance of low precipitous walls which 
have been usually softened and rounded 
somewhat by the action of the weather. 
Small basins or ponds, many haying no 
outlet, and some containing saline water, 
are of fairly frequent occurrence and they 
usually lie at the base of the small scarps. 
Trough-like depressions also occur bounded 
on both sides by searps. These troughs 
and basins can only be explained as due to 
an actual subsidence of the ground or to 
an uplift of the ground on one side or the 
other, or on both sides. The scarps sim- 
ilarly can only be ascribed to a rupture of 
the earth with a relative vertical displace- 
ment along the rupture plane. -Frequently 
‘small knolls or sharp little ridges are found 
to characterize this line and these are 
‘bounded on one side by a softened scarp 
‘and separated from the normal slope of the 
valley side by a line of depression. In 
many cases these features have been so 
modified and toned down by atmospheric 
attack that only the expert eye ean recog- 
nize their abnormal character; but where 
their line traverses the more desert parts 
of the Coast Range, as for example in the 
Carissa Plains, they are well known to the 
people of the country and the aggregate 
of the features is commonly referred to as 
the ‘earthquake erack.’ 

This line begins on the north at the 
mouth of Alder Creek near Pomt Arena 
and extends southeasterly nearly parallel 
with the coast line to a point about two 
miles below Fort Ross, a distance of forty- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 600. 


three miles. Here it passes outside of the 
shore lime and is again met with at the 
point where Bodega Head joins the main- 
land. Thence it appears to continue south- 
ward through Tomales Bay and Bolinas 
Lagoon. Beyond Bolinas Lagoon it passes 
outside of the Golden Gate and enters the 
shore again at Mussel Rock, eight miles 
south of the Cliff House. From this point 
it is traceable continuously along the val- 
ley line oceupied by San Andreas and 
Crystal Springs Lakes, past Woodside and 
Portola, over a saddle back of Black Moun- 
tain, thence along Stevens Creek Cafion, 
passing to the southwest of Table Moun- 
tain and Congress Springs to the vicinity 
of Wrights, on the narrow-gauge railway 
between San José and Santa Cruz. From 
Wrights it continues on in the same course 
through the Santa Cruz Mountains to the 
point where the Southern Pacific Railway 
crosses the Pajaro River near Chittenden. 
From the crossing of the Pajaro the line 
extends up the valley of the San Benito 
River, across the eastern portion of Mon- 
terey County, and thence follows the north- 
eastern side of the valley of the San Juan 
River and the Carissa Plains to the vicin- 
ity of Mount Pinos, in Ventura County. 
The lne thus traced from Point Arena 
to Mount Pinos has a length of 375 miles, 
is remarkably straight, and cuts obliquely 
across the entire breadth of the Coast 
Ranges. To the south of Mount Pinos the 
line either bends to the eastward following 
the general curvature of the ranges or is 
paralleled by a similar line offset from it 
en echelon; for similar features are re- 
ported at the Tejon Pass and traceable 
thence though less continuously across the 
Mojave Desert to Cajon Pass and beyond 
this to San Jacinto and the southeast 
border of the Colorado Desert. The prob- 
ability is that there are two such lines, 
and that the main line traced from Point 
Arena to Mount Pinos is continued with 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


the same general straight trend past San 
Fernando and along the base of the remark- 
ably even fault scarp at the foot of which 
lies Lake Elsinore. But, leaving the south- 
ern extension of the line out of considera- 
tion as somewhat debatable, we have a very 
remarkable physiographic line extending 
from Point Arena to Mount Pinos which 
affords every evidence of having been in 
past time a rift, or line of dislocation, of 
the earth’s crust and of recurrent differ- 
ential movement along the plane of rup- 
ture. The movements which have taken 
place along this line extend far back into 
the Quaternary period, as indicated by the 
major, well degraded fault scarps and their 
associated valleys; but they have also oc- 
curred in quite recent times, as is indicated 
by the minor and still undegraded scarps. 
Probably every movement on this lne pro- 
duced an earthquake, the severity of which 
was proportionate to the amount of move- 
ment. 

The cause of these movements in general 
terms is that stresses are generated in the 
earth’s erust which accumulate till they 
exceed the streneth of the rocks composing 
the crust and they find a relief in a sudden 
rupture. This establishes the plane of 
dislocation in the first imstance, and in 
future movements the stresses have only to 
accumulate to the point of overcoming the 
friction on that plane and any cementa- 
tion that may have been effected in the 
intervals between movements. 

The earthquake of the eighteenth of 
April, 1906, was due to one of these move- 
ments. The extent of the rift upon which 
the movement of that date took place is at 
~ the time of writing not fully known. It is, 
however, known from direct field observa- 
tions that it extends certainly from the 
mouth of Alder Creek near Point Arena to 
the vicinity of San Juan in San Benito 
County, a distance of about 185 miles. 
The destruction at Petrolia and Ferndale 


SCIENCE. 


963 


in Humboldt County imdicates that the 
movement on the rift extended at least as 
far as Cape Mendocino, though whether the 
rift lies inland or offshore remains as yet 
a matter of inquiry. Adding the inferred 
extension of the movement to its observed 
extent gives us a total length of about three 
hundred miles. The general trend of this 
line is about N. 35° W., but m Sonoma 
and Mendocino counties it appears to have 
a slight concavity to the northeast, and if 
this curvature be maintained in its path 
beneath the waters of the Pacific it would 
pass very close to and possibly inside of 
Capes Gordo and Mendocino. Along the 
185 miles of this rift where movement has 
actually been observed the displacement has 
been chiefly horizontal on a nearly vertical 
plane, and the country to the southwest of 
the rift has moved northwesterly relatively 
to the country on the northeast of the rift. 
By this it is not intended to imply that the 
northeast side was passive and. the south- 
west side active in the movement. Most 
probably the two sides moved in opposite 
directions. The evidence of the rupture 
and of the differential movement along the 
line of rift is very clear and unequivocal. 
The surface soil presents a continuous fur- 
row generally several feet wide with trans- 
verse cracks which show very plainly the 
effort of tortion within the zone of the 
movement. All fences, roads, stream 
courses, pipe lines, dams, conduits and 
property lines which eross the rift are dis- 
located. The amount of dislocation varies. 
In several instances observed it does not ex- 
ceed six feet. A more common measure- 
ment is eight to ten feet. In some eases 
as much as fifteen or sixteen feet of hori- 
zontal displacement has been observed, 
while in one case a roadway was found to 
have been differentially moved twenty feet. 
Probably the mean value for the amount 
of horizontal displacement along the rift 
line is about ten feet and the variations 


964 


from this are due to local causes such as 
drag of the mantle of soil upon the rocks, 
or the excessive movement of soft incoher- 
ent deposits. Besides this general hori- 
zontal displacement of about ten feet there 
is observable in Sonoma and. Mendocino 
counties a differential vertical movement 
not exceeding four feet, so far as at present 
known, whereby the southwest side of the 
rift was raised relatively to the northeast 
side, so-as to present a low scarp facing the 
northeast. This vertical movement di- 
minishes to the southeast along the rift 
line and in San Mateo County is scarcely 
if at all observable. Still farther south 
there are suggestions that this movement 
may have been in the reverse direction, but 
this needs further field study. 

As a consequence of the movement it is 
probable that the latitudes and longitudes 
of all points in the Coast Ranges have been 
permanently changed a few feet, and that 
the stations occupied by the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey in their triangulation 
work have been changed in position. It 
is hoped that a reoceupation of some of 
these stations by the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey may contribute data to the final 
estimate of the amount of movement. 

The great leneth of the rift upon which 
movement has occurred makes this earth- 
quake unique. Such length implies creat 
depth of rupture, and the study of the 
question of depth will, it is believed, con- 
tribute much to current geophysical con- 
ceptions. 

The time of the beginning of the earth- 
quake as recorded in the Observatory at 
Berkeley was 5"12™6* a.m., Pacific stan- 
dard time. The end of the shock was 
52 13™11* a.m., the duration being 1™55. 
Within an hour of the main shock twelve 
minor shocks were observed by Mr. S. 
Albrecht of the Observatory and their time 
accurately noted. Before 6552™ p.m. of 
the same day thirty-one shocks were noted 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXIII. No. 600. 


in addition to the main disturbance. These 
minor shocks continued for many days 
after April 18, and in this respect the 
earthquake accords in behavior with other 
notable earthquakes in the past. The 
minor shocks which succeed the main one 
are interpreted generally as due to sub- 
ordinate adjustments of the earth’s crust 
in the tendency to reach equilibrium after 
the chief movement. 

The collection of time records necessarily 
proceeds slowly. The purpose of the 
coseismal curves based upon these records 
is in general two-fold. In ordinary earth- 
quakes it is one of the means of locating 
the seat of the disturbance when there is 
no surface manifestation of the rupture in 
the earth’s crust. In the present instance, 
however, the rupture has declared itself 
in an unmistakable rift observable at the 
surface, and coseismals are, therefore, un- 
necessary for the determination of this im- 
portant factor in the general problem, so 
far at least as regards the main disturb- 
ance. It is probable, however, that so 
radical a change in the equilibrium of the 
stresses of the earth’s crust would induce 
secondary ruptures and consequently see- 
ondary earthquakes closely associated with 
the chief shock. The careful plotting of 
the time records may, therefore, be useful 
in revealing the location of these secondary 
disturbances, such for example as the one 
which affected southern California on the 
afternoon of the eighteenth of April. The 
second purpose of securing time records is 
the determination of the velocity of propa- 
gation of the earth wave; and the data for 
this which are likely to be most serviceable 
are the records obtained at various quite 
distant seismographie stations. 

The destructive effects of the earthquake 
are in the main distributed with reference 
to the line of rift. The exact limits of the 
area of destruction have not yet been 
mapped, but it is known to extend out 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


about twenty-five or possibly thirty miles 
on either side of the rift. On the south- 
west side the greater part of this area to 
the north of the Golden Gate lies in the 
Pacific. This area extends from Eureka, 
in Humboldt County, to the southern ex- 
tremity of Fresno County, a distance of 
about four hundred miles. 

Beyond this area of destructive shock 
the earthquake was felt in its milder mani- 
festations over a wide territory. Our re- 
ports to date show that it was felt in 
Oregon as far north as Coos Bay and on 
the south as far as Los Angeles. To the 
east it was felt over the greater part of 
middle California and eastern Nevada, 
particularly along the eastern flank of the 
Sierra Nevada. It was felt at Lovelocks, 
and we have unconfirmed reports of its 
haying been felt at Winnemucca. Far be- 
yond the region within which it was ap- 
parent to the senses, however, the earth 
Wave was propagated both through the 
earth and around its periphery; and some 
of the most valuable and most accurate 
records of the disturbance which we have 
are those which were registered at such dis- 
tant seismographic stations as Washington, 
D. C.; Sitka, Alaska; Potsdam, Germany; 
and Tokyo, Japan. 

Within the area of destructive effects 
approximately four hundred by fifty miles 
in extent the intensity varied greatly. 
There was a maximum immediately on the 
rift line. Water pipes, conduits and 
bridges crossing this line were rent asunder. 
Trees were uprooted and thrown to the 
ground in large numbers. Some trees 
were snapped off, leaving their stumps 
standing, and others were split from the 
roots up. Buildings and other structures 
were in general violently thrown and other- 
wise wrecked, though some escaped with but 
shght damage. Fissures opened in the 
earth and closed again, and in one ease re- 
ported a cow was engulfed. A second line 


SCIENCE. 


965 


of maximum destruction lies along the floor 
of the valley system of which the Bay of 
San Francisco is the most notable feature, 
and particularly in the Santa Rosa and 
Santa Clara valleys. Santa Rosa, situ- 
ated twenty miles from the rift, was the 
most severely shaken town in the state and 
suffered the greatest disaster relatively to 
its population and extent. Healdsburg 
suffered to a nearly similar degree. San 
José, situated thirteen miles, and Agnews, 
about twelve miles from the rift, are next 
in the order of severity. Stanford Uni- 
versity, seven miles from the rift, is prob- 
ably to be placed in the same category. All 
of these places are situated on the valley 
floor and are underlain to a considerable 
depth by loose or but slightly coherent 
geological formations, and their position 
strongly suggests that the earth waves as 
propagated by such formations are much 
more destructive than the waves which are 
propagated by the firmer and highly elastic 
rocks of the adjoining hill lands. This 
suggestion is supported by a consideration 
of the destructive effects exhibited by towns 
and single buildings along the same valley 
line which are situated wholly or partly 
on rock. Petaluma and San Rafael, 
though nearer the rift than Santa Rosa, 
suffered notably less, and they are for the 
most part on, or close to, the rocky surface. 
The portions of Berkeley and Oakland 
which are situated on the alluvial slope 
suffered more than the foothills, where the 
buildings are founded on rock. The same 
suggestion is further supported from a 
consideration of the zone of maximum de- 
structive effect on the southwest side of 
the rift. This zone lies in the Salinas 
Valley. The intensity of destructive ac- 
tion at Salinas was about the same as at 
San José, and the town is situated on the 
flood plain deposits of the Salinas River. 
Along the banks of the Salinas River and 


‘extending from Salinas to the vicinity of 


966 


Gonzales, so far as our reports at present 
show, the bottom lands were more severely 
ruptured, fissured and otherwise deformed 
than in any other portion of the state. 
The Spreckels Sugar Mill, situated on the 
banks of the river, suffered more severely 
probably than any other steel structure in 
the state. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, 
which is on the same side of the rift, and 
atthe same distance from it, but which is 
built on rock for the most part, suffered 
much less damage. In the northern 
counties along the coast the most severe 
effects were felt at Ferndale, on the south 
margin of the flood plain of the Hel River, 
and at Petrolia, on the bottom land of the 
Mattole. Fort Brage was severely shaken 
with very destructive effects, but our re- 
ports do not yet indicate the character of 
the ground upon which it is situated. 

In the facts which have been cited we 
seem to have warrant for a generalization 
as to the excessively destructive effect of 
the earth wave as transmitted by the little 
coherent formations of the valley bottoms. 
But it must be borne in mind that by far 
the greater number of structures subject to 
destructive shock are situated im the valley 
lands and that there has not yet been time 
for a detailed comparison of the effects in 
the valleys with those in the hills, where 
the buildings are founded on firm rock 
except in a few notable instances. 

The most instructive of these instances is 
the city of San Francisco, and the facts ob- 
served there are entirely in harmony with 
the generalization above outlined. In the 
city of San Francisco we may recognize for 
preliminary purposes four types of ground: 
(1) The rocky hill slopes; (2) the valleys 
between the spurs of the hills which have 
been filled in slowly by natural processes; 
(3) the sand dunes; (4) the artificially 
filled land on the fringe of the city. 
Throughout the city we have a graded 


scale of intensity of destructive effects 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 600. 


which corresponds closely to this classifica- 
tion of the ground. The most violent de- 
struction of buildings, as everybody knows, 
was on the made ground. This ground 
seems to have behaved durmeg the earth- 
quake very much in the same way as jelly 
in a bowl, or as a semi-liquid material in 
a tank. The earth waves which pass 
through the highly elastic rocks swiftly 
with a small amplitude seem in this ma- 
terial to have been transformed into slow 
undulations of great amplitude which were 
excessively destructive. The filled in ma- 
terial and the swampy foundation upon 
which it rests behaved, in other words, as 
a mass superimposed upon the earth’s sur- 
face, rather than as a part of the elastic 
erust itself. Im a less degree the same 
thing is true of the sand dune areas, where 
the ground was frequently deformed and 
fissured. In still less degree the naturally 
filled valleys between the hill spurs were 
susceptible to this kind of movement, and 
the destruction of buildings was corre- 
spondingly less, but still severe, depending 
very largely on the character of the build- 
ings, the integrity of their construction, ete. 
In portions of these valleys, however, the 
original surface of the ground has been 
modified by grading and filling, and on the 
filled areas the destruction was more thor- 
ough than elsewhere in the same valley 
tracts. On the rocky slopes and ridge tops, 
where, for the most part, the vibration 
communicated to buildings was that of the 
elastic underlying rocks, the destruction 
was at a minimum. On some of the hills 
chimneys fell very generally and walls were 
eracked ; on others even the chimneys with- 
stood the shock. 

While this correlation of intensity of de- 
structive effect appears to hold as a gen- 
eralization, there are well known exceptions 
which find their explanation in the strength 
of the structures. Modern class A steel 
structures with deep foundations appear to 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 
have been relatively passive, while the 
made ground in their immediate vicinity 
was profoundly disturbed. Thoroughly 
bonded and well cemented brick structures, 
on similarly deep and solid foundations, 
seem to have been equally competent to 
withstand the shock, except for occasional 
pier-like walls not well tied to the rest of 
the building. The weak points in wooden 
frame structures were in general the faulty 
underpinning and lack of bracing, and 
chimneys entirely unadapted to resist such 
shocks. With these faults corrected, frame 
buildings of honest construction would suf- 
fer little damage beyond cracking of plaster 
in such a shock as the eighteenth of 
April, save on the made ground, where 
deep foundations and large mass appear 
to be essential for the necessary degree of 
passivity. 

Pipe lines and bridges crossing the rift 
line present a peculiar, if not quite unique, 
engineering problem which will doubtless 
be solved in the near future. Pipe lines on 
low swampy ground or in made ground are 
in much greater danger of destruction from 
earthquake shocks than those on high 
ground underlaid by rock, except in the 
immediate vicinity of the rift, where noth- 
ing could be constructed which would with- 
stand the violence of the earth movement. 

One of the lessons of the earthquake 
which seems peculiarly impressive is the 
necessity for studying carefully the site of 
proposed costly public buildings where 
large numbers of people are likely to be 
congregated. In so far as possible such 
sites should be selected on slopes upon 
which sound rock foundation can be 
reached. It is probably in large measure 
due to the fact of their having such a rock 
foundation that the buildings of the State 
University, at Berkeley, escaped practically 
uninjured. The construction of such build- 
ings as our public schools demands the most 


earnest attention of the people and of the 


SCIENCE. 


967 


authorities charged with their construction. 
A great many of our schools proved to be 
of flimsy construction and ill adapted to 
meet the emergency of an earthquake shock 
of even less severity than that of the eight- 
eenth of April. 

The commission in presenting this brief 
report has had in mind the demand on the 
part of the people of the state and of the 
world at large for reliable information as 
to the essential facts of the earthquake. 
It has, therefore, not presumed to engage 
in any discussion of the more abstruse geo- 
logical questions which the event naturally 
raises. It leaves such discussion for a 
more exhaustive report which can only be 
prepared after the campaign of data col- 
lection is complete, and that may be some 
months hence. 

Very respectfully submitted in behalf of 
the commission. 

ANDREW C. LAWSON, 
Chairman. 

A. O. LEUSCHNER, 
Secretary. 


THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 


THE twenty-fifth annual meeting of the 
Royal Society of Canada was held in 
Ottawa, Ontario, from Tuesday to Thurs- 
day evening, May 22-24, under the presi- 
deney of Dr. Alexander Johnson, M.A., 
LL.D., D.C.L., emeritus professor of mathe- 
matics in McGill University, Montreal. 
There was a large attendance of fellows. 
This society, which is of a distinctive na- 
tional character, comprises four sections, 
each numbering thirty members or fellows 
selected and elected from any of the prov- 
inces of the Dominion of Canada. Section 
I. and Section II. are more distinctively 
literary and historical and comprise French 
and Enelish writers, while Section III. and 
Section IV., devoted to the mathematical, 
physical and chemical sciences, as well as 
to the geological and biological sciences, 


968 


furnish material more within the scope of 
the readers of Scrmncr. In Sections I. 
and II., however, it may not be out of place 
to note that there were several papers pre- 
sented that are of special interest from the 
exploratory side of historical researches, 
e. g., ‘The Suecessors of de la Vérendrye 
under the French Régime: 1743-1755,’ by 
the Hon. L. A. Prud’Homme, in which the 
suecessors of the first discoverer of the 
Rocky Mountains and their enterprises are 
described, and Dr. Sulte’s ‘General Index’ 
to the twenty-four volumes of the Royal 
Society of Canada already published, will 
form a most valuable contribution. 

Amongst sociological studies of a high 
order may be ranked Mons. Léon Gérin’s 
monographs on the French Canadian hab- 
itant—two types from the southern plain 
of the St. Lawrence. Gérin’s descriptions 
of the three types from the north shore of 
the same river are too well known to be 
commented upon. 

Monsieur Errol Bouchette discusses the 
relation between social progress and pri- 
mary education. 

Dr. N. EH. Dionne gives a chronological 
list of the volumes, pamphlets, newspapers 
and reviews published in the English 
tongue in the Province of Quebee from the 
first introduction of printing in 1764 to 
1906. In a previous volume of the Pro- 
ceedings and Transactions of the Royal 
Society of Canada Dionne prepared a sim- 
ilar and very exhaustive work for all 
similar writings in the French language. 

In Section Il. R. W. McLachlan gave a 
sketch of the life of Joseph Fleury Mesplet, 
who first introduced printing in Canada, 
whilst Professor W. F. Ganong, corre- 
sponding member of the society, gives fur- 
ther contributions to his invaluable mono- 
graphs on the province of New Brunswick. 
Dr. S. E. Dawson has a paper ‘On the 
Birds met with by Cartier on the North- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 600. 


eastern Coast of America and especially 
of the Great Auk, now Extinct.’ 


SECTION III. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICAL AND 


CHEMICAL SCIENCES. 

Then come the papers and addresses de- 
livered before the third section, with Pro- 
fessor Alfred Baker, of Toronto Univer- 
sity, president of the section. 

The following papers of scientific in- 
terest were presented and discussed: 

Dr. EH. Deville’s paper, entitled ‘Abacus 
of the Altitude and Azimuth of the Pole 
Star,’ explains the theory and constitution 
of a diagram for finding, without caleula- 
tion, the altitude and azimuth of the pole 
star when the sidereal time is known. The 
diagram was prepared for the use of the 
surveyors who have to subdivide townships 
in the northwest territories. 

‘Notes sur la Mécanique céleste, les 
Mathématiques, le caleul différential et 
l’Algébre,’ by Docteur Arthur Duval. 

‘On the Metallic Currency of the British 
Empire,’ by Thomas Macfarlane, M.E., 
F.R.S.C., F.C.S., Dominion analyst. 

‘On the Analysis of Wheaten Flour’ 
and ‘On the Conservation of Nitrogen in 
Manure,’ by Thomas Macfarlane, M.E., 
F.R.S.C., F.C.S., Dominion analyst. 

Professor R. B. Owens, of MeGill Uni- 
versity, Montreal, contributed a paper ‘On 
a New Form of Frequeney Indicator.’ 

Mons. C. Baillargé, of Quebec, con- 
tributed no less than six papers on varied 
topies, including (a) ‘The Simplification 
of Geometrical Teaching’; (6) ‘The In- 
commensurability of the Bushel and Gallon 
Measures as Used in Canada’; (c) ‘The 
Duration of the World Rationally Consid- 
ered’; (d) ‘The Humanitarian Question 
of how to Prevent Accidents to Children 
or Persons Taking Fire from Becoming 
Fatalities’; (¢) ‘On the Spontaneous 
Origin of Forest Fires’; (f) ‘A Retro- 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


spective View—Twenty-fifth Anniversary 
of the Foundation of the Royal Society.’ 

Professor C. H. McLeod and Dr. Howard 
T. Barnes, both of McGill University, Mon- 
treal, contribute a joint paper entitled 
‘Differential Temperature Records in Me- 
teorological Work.’ This paper contains 
further results obtained with the electric 
recorder and thermometers at different 
levels, an account of which was presented 
two years ago before Section III. of the 
Royal Society. Much evidence has been 
obtained to show that the traces may be 
used to advantage in temperature fore- 
casting. 

‘An Aluminum and Magnesium Cell,’ 
by Mr. G. H. Cole and Dr. H. T. Barnes 
(MeGill), deseribes a cell which has proved 
to be of some interest in its behavior on 
short cireuit. It illustrates very well the 
effect of dissolved gases on metal surfaces. 

“Nocturnal Radiation’ was then discussed 
by Dr. H. T. Barnes himself, in which the 
following two points of special import are 
given: (a) Differential temperature traces 
have been obtained of the radiation at night 
from the surface of a specially prepared 
thermometer; (b) the effect of a clear or 
cloudy atmosphere is shown, and the ab- 
sorption of the heat rays in some materials 
is given. This paper is followed by an- 
other one by Dr. Barnes on ‘Radiation as 
the Cause of Anchor Ice Formation.’ 
Further evidence is given in support of the 
view that radiation is the main cause of 
anchor ice formation. It is shown that 
water and ice are apparently transparent 
to the long heat rays beyond 80p. 

Mr. R. W. Boyle’s two papers, namely, 
(a) ‘The Effect of Tensile Stress on Spe- 
cifie Resistance’ and ‘Effect of an Electric 
Current on the Modulus of Elasticity,’ 
introduced by Professor Barnes, reveal 
interesting results with the new resistance 
alloys, manganin, constantin and rheotin. 


SCIENCE. 


969 


A few of the pure metals are also studied 
in comparison. 

Then follow a series of further contri- 
butions to physics, entitled: 

‘On Deficient Humidity of the Atmos- 
phere,’ by Dr. T. A. Starkey and Dr. H. T. 
Barnes. 

It is shown by accurate hygrometric tests 
that the air in an ordinary building, heated 
by the hot-water system, may be almost 
devoid of water vapor in the winter time. 
The ill effects of this on the respiratory 
tract are discussed. A comparison of 
various hygrometers is given. 

‘Mass of the a Particles expelled from 
Radium,’ by Professor H. Rutherford, 
E.R.S. 

‘Some Peculiar Effects resulting from 
the Distribution of the Intensity of the 
Radiation from Radioactive Sourees,’ by 
Professor EH. Rutherford, F.R.S. 

‘A New Product of Actinium,’ by O. 
Hahn, Ph.D., presented by Professor Ruth- 
erford. 

“The Origin of the 8B Rays from Radio- 
active Substances,’ by W. Levin, Ph.D., 
presented by Professor Rutherford. 

Then follow a series of researches in 
physical chemistry carried out in the Uni- 
versity of Toronto during the academic 
year, 1905-06, communicated by Professor 
W. Lash Miller. 

‘The Detection and Hstimation of Cer- 
tain of the Oxidation Products of Naphtha- 
lene,’ by M. C. Boswell; ‘ The Mechanism 
of the Oxidation of Naphthalene by Nitric 
Acid and by Chromic Acid,’ by M. C. Bes- 
well; ‘The Intermediate Compound Theory 
in Chemical Kineties: the Reaction between 
Bromic, Hydriodic and Arsenious Acids,’ 
by Fred. C. Bowman; ‘Tautomeric Forms 
of the Keto-esters,’ by R. H. Clark; ‘The 
Mechanism of the Aceto-acetic-ester Syn- 
thesis,’ by R. H. Clark; ‘Analysis of the 
Reactions leading to the Formation of 
Phthalonic Acid from Naphthalene,’ by R. 


970 


A. Daly; ‘‘The ‘Method of Effective Aver- 
ages’ for Dealing with the Equations of 
Chemical Kinetics,’ by R. EH. DeLury; *In- 
duction of the Reaction between Arsenious 
Acid and Chromic Acid by Hydrogen 
Iodide,’ by R. E. DeLury; ‘The Formation 
of Acetic Acid by the Action of Chromic 
Acid on Alcohol,’ by C. F. Marshall; ‘The 
Mechanics of the Reaction between Iodine 
and Starch,’ R. B. Stewart. 

And the papers of Section III. close 
with the following: 

‘Isomorphism as Illustrated by Certain 
Varieties of Magnetite,’ by Dr. B. J. Har- 
rington. 

‘An Investigation on the Value of the 
Indentation Test for Steel Rails,’ by H. K. 
Dutcher, and introduced by Professor 
Henry T. Bovey. 


GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL 

SCIENCES. 

Not less than twenty-nine papers or con- 
tributions were recorded on the work of 
this section last week. They include the 
following: 

‘Illustrations of the Fossil Fishes of the 
Devonian Rocks of Canada, Part III.,’ by 
Dr. J. F. Whiteaves. 

This paper is mainly a revision of the 
author’s previous well-known papers on the 
Upper and Lower Devonian fishes of Seau- 
mence Bay, Quebec, and of Campbellton, 
New Brunswick. 

‘The Form and Structure of Lamp- 
organs in Certain Fishes,’ by Professor 
Edward E. Prince. 

The author describes the minute micro- 
scopic structure of certain phosphorescents, 
notably those of Maurolicus, and is unable 
to support von Lendenfeld’s view that 
clavate cells are an essential feature in 
them. The emission of light observed by 
the author, and the lamp-like arrangement 
of the parts of these organs (including 
phosphorescent adenoid material, a silvery 


SECTION IY. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 600. 


reflector, and a clear bull’s-eye lens), all 
indicate the purpose of these curious struc- 
tures in the deep-sea fishes referred to in 
the paper. 

‘New Points in the Structure and De- 
velopment of the Pharyngeal Teeth in 
Fishes,’ by Professor Edward H. Prince. 

The author finds, from the study of sec- 
tions of the pharyngeal teeth of fishes, in 
early stages of development, that their 
structure is more complex than is usually 
admitted. Goodsir, Tomes and other 
eminent authorities have described invelu- 
tions of the buceal epithelium to form the 
external and internal enamel organ, but 
Balfour’s surmise is correct that the whole 
dental sae is endodermic, at any rate in 
pharyngeal teeth in fishes. In each sae 
may be distinguished: a delicate external 
stratified layer or sae-well; a layer of 
cubical epithelial cells (the external enamel 
organ) which are infolded to form the in- 
ternal enamel organ; and a papilla or cen- 
tral dental pulp. A cone of clear dentine, 
which is readily stained with carmine, is 
developed from the papilla; while the large 
palisade epithelium forming the inner 
enamel organ secretes the clear bright mat- 
ter, which is determined to be enamel. Dr. 
J. Beard found, even in the teeth of low 
fishes, like Myaxine and Bdellostoma, all 
the features referred to, recalling the de- 
tails given by O. Hertwig, in Amphibian 
teeth. The distinctness of the inner den- 
tine and the outer or enamel layer is.so 
marked that Owen’s view can not be ac- 
cepted that all dental tissues im fishes are 
modifications of dentine only, and Hert- 
wig’s statement that enamel is a secretion, 
and not as Tomes held, transformed epi- 
thelium eells, is confirmed. 

‘On Amyzon brevipinne Cope, from the 
Amyzin Beds of the Southern Interior of 
British Columbia,’ by Lawrence M. Lambe. 

In this paper a description of Amyzon 
brevipinne Cope is given, based on a sec- 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


ond specimen of this species that the writer 
recognized in a small collection of fishes 
from the Tertiary deposits of Horsefly 
River, B. C. This second specimen is much 
more perfect than the hitherto only known 
specimen and type from the north fork of 
the Similkameen River. The other speci- 
mens from Horsefly River, found in asso- 
ciation with the second specimen of Amyzon 
brevipinne, are referred to A. commune 
Cope, the characteristic fish of the Amyzon 
beds of Colorado. With the discovery of 
a scale from the Similkameen beds, refer- 
able to A. commune, a fish fauna of two 
Species common to the Similkameen and 
Horsefly beds is completed. The assign- 
ment of an equal age to the Horsefly and 
Similkameen deposits follows, and Cope’s 
correlation of the latter beds with the 
Amyzon beds of Colorado and Nevada is 
strengthened. The beds near Tranquille, 
Kamloops Lake, holding remains of A. 
commune are also regarded as belonging to 
the same horizon. 

‘Observations on and Criticisms of 
Microchemical Methods,’ by Dr. A. B. 
Macallum. 

‘The Structure of the Mesoglea in the 
Meduse, Aurelia flavidula and Cyanea 
arctica,’ by Dr. A. B. Macallum. 

‘On the Structure of an Abnormal Chick 
Embryo,’ by Professor R. Ramsay Wright. 

The case discussed is an interesting one 
of Duplicitas anterior, which supplements 
those previously recorded. It shows no 
indication of a second primitive streak, but 
otherwise resembles most closely those de- 
seribed by Hoffman and Kaestner. 

‘A Chapter in Comparative Physiology 
and Psychology,’ by Dr. T. Wesley Mills. 

The paper treats of the habits of a 
hawk and a crow as observed in confine- 
ment in the laboratory, together with an 
account of some physiological experiments 
made with a view to throw light upon the 


SCIENCE. 


971 


nature of the brain and the psychic organi- 
zation of the bird. 

‘South African Iron Formations,’ by 
Professor A. P. Coleman. 

During the visit of the British Associa- 
tion to South Africa, rocks formed of iron 
ore interbanded with jasper or granular 
silica were studied at Johannesburg and 
Salisbury, while similar specimens were ob- 
tained from other parts of the subconti- 
nent, all very like rocks of the iron forma- 
tion of northern Ontario and the Lake 
Superior region. In South Africa these 
iron-bearing rocks are in general not so 
ancient as in America, though lower than 
the lowest known fossiliferous rocks. The 
conditions under which they were deposited 
in these two regions, so widely separated, 
seem to have been much the same; and 
conditions of the same kind have appar- 
ently not been repeated in later ages. 

‘Some Experimental Investigations into 
the Flow of Rocks,’ by Professor Frank D. 
Adams. 

The paper gives a brief account of 
some experimental work bearing upon the 
behavior of rocks when submitted to great 
pressure and under conditions similar to 
those which exist in the deeper parts of 
the earth’s crust. 4 

‘Gypsum Deposits of New Brunswick, 
with Special Reference to their Origin,’ by 
Professor L. W. Bailey. 

The gypsum deposits of New Bruns- 
wick are among the most important to be 
found m Canada, and have long been the 
basis of large and profitable industries, the 
annual export from a single locality, that 
of Hillsboro, in Albert County, to the 
United States, having been, for some years, 
not less than 20,000 barrels of manfactured 
plaster, in addition to from 25,000 to 
50,000 tons of crude gypsum, besides a 
large amount used for Canadian consump- 
tion. The very extensive operations here 
referred to, carried on below as well as 


972 


upon the surface, afford unusual facilities 
for the study of rock plaster in all its 
varied forms, and for the consideration of 
the theories which have been proposed to 
account for the origin of the latter. One 
of these theories, strongly advocated by Sir 
William Dawson, supposed the gypsum to 
result from the reaction of sulphuric acid, 
an indirect product of volcanic action, 
upon limestone; while a second supposes 
the same product to have resulted from 
direct precipitation from sea water in shal- 
low land-locked basins, under conditions of 
high temperature and aridity. While the 
latter view, based on observations of in- 
land salt sea, like those of Utah, is now 
generally accepted, much diversity of opin- 
ion still exists as to the separate origina- 
tion of gypsum and anhydrite, some main- 
taining the former and some the latter to 
have been the original and antecedent rock, 
while still others suppose that either or 
both may be deposited from the same solu- 
tion, according to varying conditions of 
temperature, depth of water, presence of 
saline salts, ete. It is the purpose of the 
present paper to consider some of these 
views, and especially such as relate to the 
occurrence and origin of gypsum and 
anhydrite (soft and hard plaster) in the 
light of observations recently made by the 
author in the Hillsboro quarries, with in- 
cidental references to those found else- 
where in the province. 

‘Features of the Continental Shelf off 
Nova Scotia,’ by Dr. H. 8. Poole. 

_This paper treats of the preglacial drain- 
age when the country was much elevated, 
where the mouth of the ancient St. Law- 
rence River was one hundred miles east- 
ward of Cape Breton, theorizes on the 
origin of the Strait of Canseau, and sug- 
vests that the ice sheet extended well be- 
yond the present shore line. 

‘Notes on Tertiary and Cretaceous 
Plants,’ by Professor D. P. Penhallow. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XXITI. No, 600. 


The basis of the present paper is found 
in several collections of plants from local- 
ities in British Columbia, placed in the au- 
thor’s hands by the geological survey for 
determination in the spring of 1905. Only 
the names of the identified species have so 
far been reported, and as it seems desirable 
that some of them should be dealt with 
more in detail, and the correlation of geo- 
logical horizons indicated, they are now de- 
seribed at length. It is shown in connec- 
tion with more recent studies that both the 
Tertiary and the Cretaceous forms may 
be definitely correlated with previously 
Inown floras, and that they are chiefly of 
Oligocene and Shasta-Chico age, respect- 
ively. 

The author also directs attention to some 
recently studied material from the Pleisto- 
cene of Elmira, New York. This material 
consists of two specimens of the common 
white elm, and one specimen of a maple 
which can not be correlated with any ex- 
isting species. It is, therefore, designated 
as Acer newtownianwm in reference to the 
Newtown Creek, in the gravel banks of 
which the woods were found. Attention 
is directed to the occurrence of leaves of 
Acer pleistocenicum Penh., in the Pleisto- 
cene clays of the Don Valley, and the pos- 
sible connection between the extinet species 
represented by wood, and the one now 
represented wholly by leaves, is pointed 
out. 

‘Review of the Flora of the Little River 
Group, Part I., the Calamarie,’ by Dr. G. 
F. Matthew. 

The writer will give in this paper and 
later ones, the result of the revision of the 
plant remains, studied and deseribed by 
the late Sir William J. Dawson, that were 
found in plant-bearing strata in and near 
St. John, N. B., Canada. In this examina- 
tion will be embodied the revision of the 
types of this flora returned by Sir William 
to the Natural History Society of New 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


Brunswick, as well as the study of new 
material collected later by Messrs. Wilson, 
Stead, McIntosh, Leavitt and others. This 
new material, it is hoped, will give more 
completeness to the results. 

The need of a reexamination of these 
plants is forced upon us not only by the 
changes in nomenclature that have been 
accepted since Sir William wrote his classic 
essays on this subject, but also by the fact 
that eminent paleobotanists have ques- 
tioned the reference of these plants to the 
Devonian age, and have asserted that they 
were Carboniferous. 

The writer does not propose to take up 
at present the stratigraphical evidence. upon 
which is based the reference of the terrane 
which holds these plants to the Devonian 
age, but only to study the plants themselves 
and note the beds from which they have 
come; the stratigraphy may be left to a 
later oceasion. It was in connection with 
the labeling of the types of Sir William’s 
species, in the Museum of the Natural His- 
tory Society of New Brunswick, that such 
revision was found to be necessary. 

Since Sir William’s work was performed 
new species have been found in these 
beds, including some novel types of the 
calamariz and the ferns (as well as in- 
sects and myriapods). These will be de- 
seribed and figured in this series of articles 
and the writer hopes may prove of interest 
to paleobotanists. 

The terrane in which the plants are 
found is thought to cover a considerable 
interval of time and not to be confined to 
the Middle Devonian as Sir William Daw- 
son’s determination of the flora has led 
many to suppose. While there is a group 
of species of wide range of time (e. g., 
Calamites Suckovi) im these beds, there 
are others that are confined to special por- 
tions of the terrane and it is these species 
which give character to the fauna. 

‘On some Fossils from Northern Canada, 


. SCIENCE. 


975 


collected by Commander Low, during the 
Expedition of 1903-04, together with 
Notes on the Geological Horizons to which 
they Belong,’ by Dr. H. M. Ami. 

This paper contains descriptions of 
the species of fossil organic remains sup- 
posed to be new from Beechy Island, Cape 
Chidley, and from Southampton Island, 
collected by Commander A. P. Low, during 
the cruise of the steamer Neptwne in 1903 
and 1904, in the Arctic regions and other 
portions of northern Canada, together with 
notes on other forms occurring in that por- 
tion of the Dominion. The geological 
formations to which the fossils known to 
occur in that portion of Canada belong 
will also be discussed and an attempt made 
to correlate them with geological horizons 
elsewhere in the Dominion. 

“Note sur les Bassins Hydrographiques 
des Riviéres Montmorency et Ste. Anne,’ 
by Abbé J. C. K. Laflamme. 

A rather remarkable anomaly exists re- 


garding the quantity of water in the val- 


leys of the Ste. Anne and Montmorency 
Rivers. The two hydrographic basins ap- 
pear to be about equal as regards areas 
drained, and, moreover, they are side by 
side. They both receive the same quantity 
of precipitation. The paper deals with the 
probable reasons for the differences in the 
amount of water each carries. 

‘Notes on the Mineral Fuels of Canada,’ 
by Dr. R. W. Ells. 

This paper discusses the various kinds of 
mineral fuels found in Canada, including 
the various kinds of coals, from anthracite 
to the newest lignite, anthraxolite, albertite 
bituminous shales, petroleum, natural gas, 
peat, ete., with their distribution in so far 
as at present known in all the provinces of 
the Dominion, mode of occurrence, extent 
and economic value. 

‘A Remarkable Outgrowth from the 
Trunk of a White Birch,’ by Professor D. 
P. Penhallow. 


974 


At the time of the recent forestry con- 
vention at Ottawa, my attention was di- 
rected to a remarkable growth said to have 
been found in New Brunswick. Subse- 
quently a specimen was submitted to me 
for examination by the Hon. T. G. Loggie, 
of the crown lands department, in whose 
museum the original specimen was de- 
posited. 

The specimen, described as being twenty 
feet in length, was found to consist of a 
flattened cord of tissue, with a perfectly 
normal outer bark like that of the white 
birch, and within it was composed of cork 
tissue which had resulted from the rapid 
transformation of living bark structure. 
The fact that this cord was attached to the 
tree by the upper end only, and that it 
therefore hung altogether free for its entire 
length, presented a problem of an unusual 
character with respect to the growth of 
trees in this latitude; but it is shown that 
the phenomenon may be accounted for on 
the supposition that an injury to the bark 
had given rise to an outgrowth presenting 
extraordinary rapidity of development, and 
that the growing tissue was converted into 
cork as fast as projected. 

‘Critical Notes on the Geometride of 
British Columbia, with Descriptions of 
Fourteen Species,’ by Rev. G. W. Taylor. 

Introductory observations on the present 
state of our knowledge of the group, and 
review of the work of previous writers. 
List of the species known to occur in 
British Columbia, with critical notes on 
the nomenclature, distribution and life his- 
tory of each species. Description of forms 
new to science. Bibliography. 

‘Distribution of Bacteria in Canadian 
Cheddar Cheese,’ by Professor F. C. Har- 
rison, presented by Dr. Fletcher. 

‘Legume Bacteria,’ by Professor F. C. 
Harrison, presented by Dr. Fletcher. 

‘Studies in Canadian Fungi.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 600. 


(1) ‘The Imperfect Fungi,’ by John 
Dearness, communicated by Dr. G. U. Hay. 

(2) ‘The Hydnums and their Allies,’ 
by Dr. G. U. Hay. 

‘Some Unsolved Problems in Immunity,’ 
by Dr. A. G. Nicholls, presented by Pro- 
fessor Wesley Mills. 

A short historical réswmé of the develop- 
ment of our modern ideas as to the nature 
of immunity. The two opposing schools 
and their explanation of the phenomena of 
the healing of infectious disease. An ac- 
count of the recent experimental work 
tending to reconcile their divergent views. 
Methods by which the resisting power of 
the animal organism may be inereased. 
Natural and artificial immunity. An at- 
tempted rational explanation of the proc- 
esses of healing. 

‘On the Sleeping Sickness; with Micro- 
scopic Illustrations,’ by Sir James Grant. 

The recent discovery during the past 
year of protozoal parasites in the blood of 
different animals, in addition to many new 
species of Trypanosoma, is of much in- 
terest, owing to the close affinity of these 
discoveries with sleeping sickness, the epi- 
demic area of which is confined to parts of 
equatorial Africa. 


BIBLIOGRAPHIES. 

‘Bibliography of Canadian Geology and 
Paleontology for the Year 1905,’ by Dr. 
H. M. Ami. 

‘Bibliography of Canadian Zoology, Hx- 
elusive of Entomology, for the Year 1905,’ 
by Dr. J. F. Whiteaves. 

‘Bibliography of Canadian Entomology 
for 1905,’ by Rev. Dr. C. J. S. Bethune. 

‘Bibliography of Canadian Botany for 
the Year 1905,’ by Dr. A. H. MacKay. 

The presidential address was delivered 
on the evening of Tuesday, May 22, in the 
assembly hall of the Provincial Normal 
School, where all the sessions also were held. 
Besides giving an excellent review of the 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


progress and advancement made in physics, 
Dr. Johnson referred to the semi-jubilee 
celebration of the Royal Society. <A 
public and popular evening lecture, one of 
the features of the society meetings, was 
delivered on the following evening, by 
Professor ©. C. James, of Toronto, on the 
subject, ‘The Downfall of the Huron Na- 
tion.’ The lecture was illustrated through- 
out with numerous views projected on the 
sereen. 

Some interesting functions were held— 
notably a dinner at the Russell House, 
Ottawa, and a reception and garden party 
at the observatory, where the public and 
the society had an excellent opportunity of 
visiting the beautiful building recently 
erected by the Canadian government, in 
charge of the Dominion astronomer, Dr. 
W. F. King. 
; H. M. Ami. 
Orrawa, May 31, 1906. 


THE INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL 
CONFERENCE AT INNSBRUCK. 

AurHouGH several months have elapsed 
since this meeting, the fact that no account 
of it has appeared in America prompts the 
writer, who was the English-speaking sec- 
retary, to give a brief statement of its 
nature and proceedings. 

The directors of the various meteorolog- 
ical services and observatories of the world, 
to the number of fifty, met last September 
at Innsbruck, Austria, for the purpose of 
discussing questions of common interest, 
but without authority to pledge their re- 
spective governments to any action. 

The chief of the United States Weather 
Bureau and Professor Bigelow were un- 
able to attend, and, in their absence, 
Father Algué, of Manila, and the under- 
siened represented the United States. 
Similar conferences had been held at 
Munich in 1891 and at Paris in 1896, but 
the meeting there during the exposition of 


SCIENCE. 


975 


1900 was open to all meteorologists. These 
reunions are arranged by the International 
Meteorological Committee, a permanent 
organization, composed of seventeen per- 
sons, who are generally the heads of meteor- 
ological services in their respective coun- 
tries. At the present time the president 
of the committee is M. Mascart, director 
of the Central Meteorological Bureau of 
France, and the secretary is Professor 
Hildebrandsson, director of the meteorolog- 
ical observatory at Upsala. The members 
are chosen at meetings of the directors, 
and although vacancies or resignations 
may be filled by the committee itself, the 
fact that the committee had been in office 
during nine years made it advisable to con- 
voke this meeting of directors in order to 
elect a new committee. Since 1896 the 


“permanent committee has met three times 


and has received the reports of four sub- 
committees, appointed mostly from outside 
its own body to further special investiga- 
tions. 

The conference at Innsbruck was or- 
ganized by choosing Professor Hann, of 
Vienna, its honorary president, and Pro- 
fessor Pernter, also of Vienna, its presi- 
dent, in place of M. Mascart, who was 
prevented from coming to Innsbruck. 
Professor Hildebrandsson, of Upsala, and 
General Rykatchef, of St. Petersburg, were 
elected vice-presidents. In his opening 
address Professor Hann reviewed the great 
progress which meteorology had made since 
the first conference at Leipzig in 1872, 
chiefly through the exploration of the upper 
air, which, by the erection of mountain 
observatories, and especially through the 
use of kites and balloons during the last 
decade, has led to new and unexpected re- 
sults. At the present time meteorology is 
facing such important problems as the con- 
nection between weather periods of long 
duration and solar conditions, a considera- 


976 


tion which is suggested by the decrease of 
the Antarctic ice and by the retreat of the 
glaciers in various parts of the world. 
About forty questions had been sub- 
mitted to the conference and most of them 
were considered by special committees 
formed of persons interested in the follow- 
ing subjects: first, international compari- 
sons of normal barometers; second, a new 
edition of the standard cloud-atlas; third, 
reduction of the barometer readings and 
weather telegraphy; fourth, international 
cooperation in the study of squalls. The 
reports of these committees were generally 
accepted by the conference. Among the 
subjects considered directly by the confer- 
ence were observations of solar and terres- 
trial radiation, which were recommended 
to be made with Angstrém’s compensation 
actinometer; the causes of heavy rainfall 
over large areas and historical imvestiga- 
tions relating to extraordinary meteorolog- 
ical phenomena; the designation of the shift 
of wind in cyclonic storms and the study of 
small dust-whirls, especially in the south- 
ern hemisphere; also the importance of 
homogeneous observations at certain secu- 
lar stations in each country. The follow- 
ing matters were referred: to the interna- 
tional committee, viz., the classification of 
meteorological stations and the definitions 
of the different kinds of frost-formation ; 
the establishment of rules governing the 
international and subcommittees and the 
convening of meetings, which rules are to 
be presented to the next conference for 
ratification. It was voted to codify all 
the resolutions that had been adopted by 
the conferences and to publish them in 
German, French, English and Spanish. 
Besides the discussions and resolutions, 
several scientific communications that re- 
quired no action were presented. Chief 
among them were descriptions of the or- 
ganization of the meteorological services in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 600. 


Brazil and China, by Mr. Silvado and 
Father Froec, respectively, and of the new 
aeronautical institute near Moscow by Gen- 
eral Rykatchef; preliminary results of the 
exploration of the high atmosphere over 
the tropical Atlantic, obtained by the expe- 
dition of the Price of Monaco and Pro- 
fessor Hergesell and by that of M. Teis- 
serene de Bort and Mr. Rotch. 

The conference elected the following 
members of the International Committee: 
Messrs. Chaves (Portugal), Davis (Argen- 
tine), Eliot (India), Hellmann (Germany), 
Hepites (Roumania), Hildebrandsson 
(Sweden), Lancaster (Belgium), Mascart 
(France), Mohn (Norway), Moore (United 
States), Nakamura (Japan), Palazzo 
(Italy), Paulsen (Denmark), Pernter 
(Austria), Russell (Australia), Rykatchef 
(Russia) and Shaw (Great Britain). 
Three of the subcommittees had their 
powers renewed by the conference, namely: 
the commission for terrestrial magnetism 
and atmospheric electricity, with General 
Rykatchef, of St. Petersburg, as president 
and Dr. A. Schmidt, of Potsdam, as secre- 
tary, whose special duty is to coordinate the 
magnetic and electrical observations over 
the globe; the commission for scientific aero- 
nautics, under the presidency of Professor 
Hergesell, of Strassburg, which undertakes 
the study of the free air by simultaneous 
ascensions of balloons and kites; and the 
commission for solar radiation, which, 
under the leadership of Professor Ang- 
strom, of Upsala, promotes measurements 
of solar radiation and centralizes the re- 
sults. Im 1904 the solar commission was 
formed, with Sir Norman Lockyer, of 
London, as president, and Sir John Eliot 
as secretary, for the purpose of investi- 
gating the relations between meteorology 
and solar physics. The same officers were 
reelected at Innsbruck and the membership 
was enlarged. The establishment of ob- 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


servatories in the north of Siberia and in 
America was recommended, as well as sta- 
tions on selected islands, and a form for 
publishing all the data was prescribed. 
As the Innsbruck meeting was devoted 
to serious work, formal social functions 
were wisely omitted. The president, how- 
ever, entertained his colleagues in the 
characteristic German manner on one even- 
ing, and between the sessions excursions 
were arranged to some neighboring por- 
tions of the Tyrol. Unusual sociability 
prevailed from the fact that almost all the 
members of the conference lodged in the 
same hotel where meals were taken together, 
and in this way old acquaintances were 
strengthened and new ones formed, the 
personal relations being, after all, the chief 
advantage to be derived from these re- 


unions. 
A. LAWRENCE ROTCH. 


Brut Hirt MerrTeoroLocicaL OBSERVATORY, 
June 8, 1906. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
THE BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
Résultats du voyage du S. Y. “ Belgica’ en 

1897-1898-1899, sous the commandement de 

A. DB GERLACHE DE GomeErRy. Rapports 

scientifiques. Botanique: Les Phanéro- 

games des Terres Magellaniques. Par HE. 

DE Wi~pMAN. Anvers. 1905. 4°, 222 pp., 

xxi pls. Travaux hydrographiques et in- 

structions nautiques. Par G. Leconte. 

ler fascic. Anvers, 1905. 4°, 110 pp., 

xxix pls. and atlas of charts. 

During the short stay of the expedition in 
the Magellanic region M. E. Racovitska ob- 
tained rather exhaustive collections of the 
flowering plants of this region. The flora is 
not very numerous in species, but is of interest 
from the point of view of geographical dis- 
tribution, since it establishes for some species 
a singularly wide distribution. A glance at 
the charts of the Magellanic archipelago will 
show the conditions leading to an intimate 
connection between the continental South 
American flora and that of the archipelago. 


SCIENCE. 


977 


The posthumously published essay of the 
late Nicholas Alboff (1897) contained some 
important discussions of the relations of the 
Fuegian flora. In this connection Alboff ob- 
served that if it were no longer possible to 
base one’s ideas of Antarctic plant distribu- 
tion on Hooker’s memorable ‘ Flora Antare- 
tica’ alone, without falling into error, it is 


_also true that the considerable additions ‘to 


our knowledge of that flora which have since 
been made (including his own) are still insut- 
ficient for the purpose. Investigations since 
Alboff’s paper have all tended, as he expected, 
to connect the flora of the archipelago more 
and more closely with that of the continent. 
M. de Wildman concludes from his study of 
the Racovitska collections that it is still too 
early to attempt to discuss the general ques- 
tion of the geographical subdivisions into 
which it is probable the Fuegian flora will 
ultimately be subdivided. He gives tables, 
however, at the end of his memoir by which 
the reader may rapidly obtain an idea of what 
is known of the distribution of the species 
enumerated. 

The memoir divides itself into a systematic 
enumeration of the phanerogams collected by 
the Belgica; a similar enumeration of the 
known phanerogamie flora of the region, and 
the statistical tables. The work is published 
in the elegant style heretofore noted in the 
reports of this expedition, and the plates are 
particularly fine and detailed. 

The sheets of the hydrography by Com- 
mander Lecointe were printed as early as 1903, 
but owing to the pressure of duties devolving 
upon him as director of the Royal Observa- 
tory, the proposed plan has not been fully 
worked out. It was, therefore, thought best 
to issue the sheets as far as printed without 
waiting any longer. They comprise the hy- 
drography of the voyage from Europe to 
Terra del Fuego and thence to Bransfield 
Strait; an account of the operations in Ger- 
lache Strait; and lastly the subsequent pro- 
ceedings. 

One does not expect to find much of interest 
in the computations of chronometer rates, or 
observations for position, however necessary; 


978 


but in the present case the lay reader will be 
agreeably rewarded if his curiosity leads him 
to open the pages of the memoir, by the ad- 
mirable and interesting series of reproductions 
from photographs of Antarctic scenery which 
appear upon the plates. The charts, as might 
be expected, are of the first class. 
Wm. H. Dati. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


THE June number (volume 12, number 9) of 
the Bulletin of the American Mathematical 
Society contains the following articles: ‘ Re- 
port of the April Meeting of the American 
Mathematical Society,’ by F. N. Cole; ‘ Re- 
port of the April Meeting of the Chicago 
Section,’ by H. E. Slaught; ‘ Groups in Which 
All the Operators are Contained in a Series 
of Subgroups such that any Two have only 
Identity in Common,’ by G. A. Miller; ‘ Note 
on the Factors of Fermat’s Numbers,’ by J. 
C. Morehead; ‘Theoretical Mechanics’ (re- 
view of Whittaker’s Treatise on the Ana- 
lytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid 
Bodies; with an Introduction to the Problem 
of Three Bodies), by E. B. Wilson; ‘Some 
Recent Foreign Textbooks’ (Course in Prac- 
tical Mathematics, by F. M. Saxelby; and 
the following three books by Gustav Holz- 
miller: Die Planimetrie fiir das Gymnasium, 
Methodisches Lehrbuch der Elementar-Mathe- 
matik, Worbereitende Einfiihrung in die 
Raumlehre), by D. E. Smith; Notes; New 
Publications. 

The July number (concluding volume 
12) contains: ‘Note on the Numerical 
Transcendents S, and s,—S,—1, by W. 
Woolsey Johnson; ‘On Certain Properties 
of Wronskians and Related Matrices, by 
D. R. Curtiss; ‘Significance of the Term 
Hypercomplex Number,’ by J. B. Shaw; ‘ How 
Should the College Teach Analytic Geom- 
etry?’ by H. S. White; ‘Four Books on the 
Calculus’ (Schréder’s Die Anfangsgriinde der 
Differentialrechnung und Integralrechnung; 
Fricke’s Hauptsitze der Differential- und 
Integralrechnung; Junker’s Repertorium und 
Aufgabensammlung; Thomae’s Sammlung von 
Formeln und Sidtzen aus dem Gebiete der 
elliptischen Funktionen), by H. E. Slaught; 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XXIII. No. 600. 


Shorter Notices (Stolz and Gmeiner’s Hinlei- 
tung in die Funktionentheorie; Bortolotti’s 
Lezioni sul Calcolo degli Infinitesimi; Vah- 
len’s Abstrakte Geometrie), by Oswald Veblen, 
(Cunningham’s Quadratic Partitions), by J. 
C. Morehead; Errata; Notes; New Publica- 
tions; Fifteenth Annual List of Papers Read 
before the Society and Subsequently Pub- 
lished; Index to Volume 12. 


Bird-Lore for May-June contains arti- 
eles on ‘The Whip-Poor-Wills, by A. D. 
Whedon; ‘Stray Birds at Sea,’ by F. M. Ben- 
nett; ‘Photographing a Bluebird’s Nest by 
Reflected Light,’ by R. W. Hegner, and ‘ The 
Amount of Science in Oology,’ by Thos. H. 
Montgomery, Jr. This article deprecates the 
ordinary collecting of eggs and calls attention 
to the small amount of really valuable work 
done by ‘oologists’; oddly enough no men- 
tion is made of Nathusius and his studies of 
the microscopical structure of egg shells. 
There is the sixteenth paper, entirely devoted 
to statistic of dates of arrival, on the ‘ Migra- 
tion of Warblers,’ by W. W. Cooke. 

The section devoted to the Audubon So- 
cieties gives a résumé of the various laws en- 
acted, or that failed to pass, by various state 
legislatures during the past session. The 
“leaflet? contains an account of the rose- 
breasted grosbeak. 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
May is largely devoted to a discussion of ‘ The 
Relation of Provincial Museums to National 
Institutions’ and is interesting reading even 
if the matter does not apply to the United 
States. Incidentally it gives some idea of the 
work of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 
From the notes we learn of the reinstallation 
of the exhibition series of fishes in the British 
Museum, the old, dried, dingy specimens hay- 
ing been replaced by others colored from na- 
ture. In the United States we believe the 
Smithsonian Institution was the first to ex- 
hibit a series of casts of fishes, colored after 
nature, at the Exposition of 1876. Such casts, 
and fishes mounted by Denton’s methods, seem 
to be the best methods of displaying fish at 
present. The British Museum has also re- 
cently placed on exhibition a group showing 


JUNE 29, 1906.] : 


the gardener bower bird of New Guinea with 
its natural surroundings. 

The American Naturalist for June con- 
tains the following articles: ‘ Observations 
and Experiments on Dragon Flies in Brackish 
Water,’ by R. O. Osburn; ‘ Reactions of 
Tubularia crocea (Ag.),’ by A. S. Pearse, and 
“The Pressure and Flow of Sap in the Maple,’ 
by K. M. Wiegand. This reviews the various 
theories that have been propounded and gives 
a summary of the recorded facts and their 
probable explanations, osmotic phenomena be- 
ing considered the cause of the observed pres- 
sure with the resulting flow of sap. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. 


THE seventeenth meeting of the Society for 
Experimental Biology and Medicine was held 
in the laboratory of the Department of Health 
of New York on Wednesday evening, May 23. 
The president, Simon Flexner, was in the 
chair. 

Members present: Atkinson, Auer, Dunham, 
Ewing, Field, Flexner, Gies, Hatcher, Lee, 
Levene, Mandel, J. A., Meltzer, Meyer, Norris, 
Opie, Park, Richards, Salant, Terry, Wads- 
worth, Wallace. 


Abstracts of Communications. 

Analogies between the Phosphorized Fats Ob- 

tained from the Brain and Kidney, with 

exhibition of products: Epwarp K. Dunnam. 

The author has found that substances close- 
ly related to the lipoids derived from the brain 
may be obtained by similar methods from the 
kidney. In this communication the author 
gave chiefly his analytic data for kidney prod- 
ucts resembling Thudichum’s sphingomyelin 
and paramyelin. 


*The abstracts presented in this account of the 
proceedings have been greatly condensed from ab- 
stracts given to the secretary by the authors them- 
selves. The latter abstracts of the communica- 
tions may be found in current numbers of The 
Journal of the American Medical Association, 
American Medicine, the New York Medical Jour- 
nal and yolume three of the Society’s Proceedings. 


SCIENCE. 


979 


The Toxicity of Indol: A. N. RicHarps and 

JoHN HowuLanp. 

A series of experiments on rats, guinea pigs 
and rabbits have shown that if the capacity of 
the cells of utilizing oxygen is diminished as 
by potassium ecyanid, or chloroform, the in- 
tensity and duration of symptoms following 
the injection of definite doses of either indol 
or phenol are increased. 

The experiments were made as a part of a 
study of the etiological factors in recurrent 
vomiting in children. At the beginning of 
these seizures there are signs of diminished 
oxidation (increased elimination of uric acid, 
neutral sulfur, lactic: acid, aceton bodies) 
and an abnormally intense indican reaction. 
It is believed that failure to oxidize com- 
pletely substances of the type of indol, results 
in the production of distinct mental symp- 
toms and in the partial excretion of the sub- 
stances into the gastro-intestinal tract. The 
disturbance induced by such substances is 
capable of producing nausea and vomiting. 


The Formation of Urea: L. B. Stooxmy and 
A. §S. Grancer. (Presented by R. A. 
Hatcher.) 

Subcutaneous injection of liver-extracts . 
(dog) was found to lead, in the dog, to an 
increased elaboration of nitrogenous end- 
products into urea. Liver-extracts which had 
been heated to 55° C. were not found to pos- 
sess this stimulative action. These results 
might indicate an enzymatic formation of 
Further experiments are in progress. 


The Effects on Embryonic Development of the 
Roentgen Rays Acting on the Spermatozoa 
of the Toad Previous to Fertilization: C. R. 
BARDEEN. 

The results of the author’s experiments may 
be briefly summarized as follows: 

1. The spermatozoa of the common toad re- 
tain power of movement and fertilization for 
from one half to nearly three hours in a dish 
of lake-water at room temperature. On hot 
days they die sooner than on cool days. 

2. Spermatozoa when under exposure of 
Roentgen rays die sooner than when not thus 
exposed. 

3. When spermatozoa are exposed to the 


urea. 


980 


rays so long that very few are capable of fer- 
tilizing ova, the eggs thus fertilized usually 
do not develop into larvas, but they may do so. 

4, When spermatozoa have been exposed for 
a considerable period to the Roentgen rays and 
yet are still capable of fertilizmg a consider- 
able proportion of eggs placed in the same 
dish, the eggs seem to develop normally at 
first, but beyond the gastrula stage the devel- 
opment becomes retarded and the resulting 
larvas are markedly deformed. These de- 
formities are quite varied. Jn one larva, for 
instance, a considerable part of the central 
neryous system and the gills were undeyel- 
oped on one side, while the abdominal viscera 
were developed only on that side. In another 
the central nervous system was abnormal on 
both sides and the alimentary canal quite de- 
fective. Considerable further study is neces- 
sary to determine accurately the nature of all 
the abnormalities present in the various mon- 
sters the author has preserved. Apparently 
all are defect abnormalities. From the re- 
sults obtained it may also be concluded: - 

1. That nuclear material may be so influ- 
enced by exposure to the Roentgen rays that 
after a latent period it will call forth marked 
abnormalities in development. 

9. That injury to spermatozoa capable of 
fertilizing ova may cause the development of 
monsters from the ova thus fertilized. 


A Vago-esophageal Reflex: S. J. Metrzer 
and Joun AUER. 

The general knowledge of the contractions 
of the esophagus is confined to the peristaltic 
movements, that is, the consecutive contrac- 
tions of the successive parts of the esophagus 
following a normal deglutition, or, as it was 
described by Meltzer at a previous meeting of 
this society, after an injection of liquid or 
insufflation of air directly into the esophagus. 
A simultaneous contraction of the entire 
esophagus can be produced only by stimula- 
ting the peripheral end of the vagus when cut 
in the neck. 

The authors discovered that in dogs a 
tetanic contraction of the entire esophagus 
can be caused also by reflex ways. When the 
vagus is cut in any part of the neck, an elec- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XXIII. No. 600. 


trie stimulation of its central end causes a 
prompt longitudinal and circular contraction 
of the entire esophagus, which lasts as long as 
the stimulation continues. Particulars and 
other interesting facts connected with this 
observation will be, reported later. 


Ion Protein Compounds, with Hahibition of 
Products: WiLu1aM J. Giss. 
The author drew attention to the desirabil- 

ity of studies of definite compounds of pro- 
teins, and described a method of preparing 
dissociable inorganic salts of glucoproteins 
and nucleoproteins. Numerous lines of inves- 
tigation that have been opened by this obser- 
vation were discussed and are in progress. 


Some Facts Showing that the Brain Educts 
Termed Phrenosin (1874) and Cerebron 
(1900) were Practically the Same: WiLL1AM 
J. Gis. 

A careful study of the chemical facts re- 
garding phrenosin and cerebron has convinced 
the writer that these two brain educts were 
essentially the same. The name cerebron ap- 
pears to be superfluous, although the prepara- 
tion called cerebron has been studied more 
thoroughly than the other. 


A Simple Electrical Annunciator for Use in 
Metabolism Experiments, and in Connection 
with Filtration, Distillation and Similar 
Operations, with Demonstration: WILLIAM 
H. Weiker. (Communicated by William 
J. Gies.) 

The annunciator shown to the society con- 
sists of two square boards (44x44x% inch) 
securely fastened together with a piano hinge 
on one side, and kept apart by a spring per- 
pendicularly arranged at the opposite side in 
such a way as to permit a definite pressure to 
force the surfaces of the boards together. The 
spring can be adjusted so as to imerease or 
decrease, within considerable limits of weight, 
the amount of force (weight) required to 
bring the boards in contact. In the opposed 
surfaces of the boards platinum electrodes 
(plate and points) are so placed that perfect 
contact between them is effected when the 
boards are brought together and the cireuit is 
closed. The electrodes connect with binding 
posts on the hinged side. A small dry cell is 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


used. The entire apparatus, including bell 
attachment, may be placed on a surface 5x 
81 inches. The bell employed directly with 
the apparatus is a small one with delicate 
musical sound. Its ringing does not disturb 
the animal. It is obvious, of course, that the 
apparatus may be connected with a bell in a 
room some distance from that in which the 
animal is kept. 

In the demonstration it was shown that the 
apparatus announced the deposit in an ordi- 
nary urinary receiver placed on it of volumes 
of water less than 5 ¢c.c. The apparatus may 
be adjusted to announce delivery of a volume 
as small as 1 cc. and may be made, in larger 
sizes, to announce the deposit of masses of 
any desired weight. 

The annunciator was made especially for 
use with Gies’s metabolism cage, in connec- 
tion with its urine receiver. 


Some Observations on the Presence of Al- 
bumin in Bile: WituiaM SaLant. 

The author’s results thus far, although not 
uniform, make it seem probable that the al- 
buminocholia that results from poisoning with 
ethyl or amyl alcohol, as observed in animals 
with permanent fistulas, might have been due 
to irritation of the bladder and perhaps only 
slightly to lesions in the liver. The question 
whether albumin passes more readily into the 
bile than it does into the urine was also 
studied. The results in every instance ex- 
amined showed considerable quantities of al- 
bumin in the urine after poisoning with amyl 
alcohol. 

More decided effects were obtained with 
ricin, which seemed to cause the appearance 
of considerable albumin in the bile. 


WiuiaMm J. Gigs, 
Secretary. 


THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 


Durine the months of April and May the 
society held seyen meetings, at which papers 
were presented as follows: 

Proressor E. C. Hirus: ‘Esperanto, the new 
Universal Language.’ 

Dr. F. R. Spencer: ‘The Prevalence of Near- 
sight and the Reasons for its Development.’ 


SCIENCE. 


981 


PROFESSOR CHARLES B. Dyke: ‘ Hawaii and its 
People.’ 

PROFESSOR JOHN 
Problem.’ 2 

Dr. H. B. Leonarp: ‘Practical Results of 
Higher Mathematics.’ 

Dr. O. M. Grrerr: ‘Death due to Hmbryonie 
Structures.’ 

Mr. G. S. Dopps: ‘ The So-ealled Artificial Crea- 
tion of Life.’ i 


B. Puirtips: ‘The Divorce 


Officers for the coming year were elected as 
follows: 
President—Professor William Duane. 
Vice-president—Dr. O. M. Gilbert. 
Secretary—Mr. G. S. Dodds. 
Treasurer—Professor John A. Hunter. 
Francis RAMALEY, 
Secretary. 

BOULDER, COLo., 

June 1, 1906. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS. 


To vue Eprror or Science: Professor 
Thorndike’s article on ‘College Entrance Ex- 
aminations’ in SclENCE for June 1 seems to 
me so timely and so important that teachers 
who agree with the general substance of it 
may well say so. An experience of something 
like twenty-five years, mostly in secondary 
schools, has led me to take the same view of 
the matter which Professor Thorndike has so 
thoroughly set forth. It would be worth 
while to get the principal of some large fitting 
school to give in considerable detail his ex- 
periences in regard to the inadequacy of the 
entrance examination to test the boy’s fitness 
for college. I will not in this place under- 
take to give detailed evidence, but only to cite 
a few instances which occur to me at once in 
regard to the imperfectness with which ex- 
aminations test the attainments of the stu- 
dent. I have known of a class in science in 
a very highly respected private preparatory 
school securing the signature of the instructor 
to the laboratory note-books before his de- 
parture for Hurope some weeks before the end 
of the school year. After the signature was 
affixed, the ablest boy in the class completed 
by himself a large portion of the whole year’s 


982 


laboratory work. The remaining pupils copied 
his notes and the whole class passed into col- 
lege triumphantly as regards the subject 
in question on the high quality of these 
note-books. I have known somewhat similar 
instances in the same subject in one of the 
most celebrated public fitting schools in the 
United States. I have known of a young man 
getting a mark of 30 per cent. on his entrance 
examination paper in advanced Latin which 
he copied in the examination room and which 
was pronounced by two experienced Latin 
teachers to whom he submitted his duplicate 
copy to be an admirable paper, worth 80 per 
cent. or more. The same student in the same 
entrance examinations, failed in his elemen- 


tary geometry and was eredited as haying. 


passed in a year’s advanced mathematics and 
a year’s advanced Greek, neither of which 
subjects had he ever studied, and in neither 
of which was any paper presented. He also 
received a higher mark in advanced French 
than in elementary French. 

This, of course, was pure blundering on the 
part of the college office, but such blunders 
are neither unprecedented nor uncommon. 

As regards examinations in college, I have 
known a boy to pass his examination on a 
half-year laboratory course in botany on 
twelve private lessons without laboratory work, 
the boy having been rusticated during the 
time when the course was carried on. In 
another instance, in a course in the history 
of Greek art, a student, whom we will call X, 
had attended less than 5 per cent. of the lec- 
tures and had read no text-book, did not even 
know what the text-books were. After about 
twenty hours’ tutoring from a student friend, 
the two young men took the examination and 
X received a mark of 85 per cent. His friend 
Y, who had tutored him, received a mark of 
55 per cent. The instructor, on being ques- 
tioned by the two students as to how their 
marks could have been as reported, professed 
himself perfectly unable to understand the 
situation, but it appeared that the inferior 
penmanship and rather prolix paper of Y had 
caused his paper to receive very scanty con- 
sideration. At the mid-year examination Y 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 600. 


received a mark of 30 per cent., mainly be- 
cause his paper contained a summary of all 
the important facts that had been presented 
by the instructor, and was, therefore, intoler- 
ably long. 

The reasons why examinations fail to rate 
students properly may be briefly summed up 
as follows: 

1. It is extremely difficult for any one but 
the person who has taught a class to set a 
paper which shall fairly test the work done 
by the class. Every teacher can recall many 
instances where his examinations have failed 
to call out the knowledge which he knew the 
class to possess. 

2. There is, as Professor Thorndike sug- 
gests, an enormous factor of unknown value 
to be attributed to the influence of coaching. 

3. There is a broad field for the perpetra- 
tion of blunders which vitiate the whole record 
of the results of the examinations. 

4, There is the constant allowance to be 
made for actual dishonesty on the part of the 
students examined, for it is a well-known fact 
that examinations are regarded by the average 
boy, and by the occasional girl, as game which 
may be stalked and shot down by the aid of 
any amount of trickery. Not infrequently 
epidemics of cheating run through a large 
school, and I well remember one which in- 
fected a very important institution during the 
entire school life of one set of pupils. 

The remedy for the evils due to unchecked 
grading by examinations, in school or college, 
must consist in a partial return to the old- 
fashioned system of recording in some fashion 
the instructor’s impressions of the daily work, 
in making examinations briefer and more fre- 
quent, and giving them at wholly unexpected 
times. College entrance examinations should 
at any rate be balanced by the school’s report 
of the pupil’s standing in his several subjects, 
and the schools should be held to so strict an 
account for their recommendations that such 
a set of certified note-books as that above de- 
scribed should be absolutely impossible. 


J. Y. Brercen. 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 


June 8, 1906. 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


SERMONS IN STOMACH STONES. 

Mo.mre presents to us in one of his come- 
dies the father of a dumb girl who wants to 
know why his daughter is dumb. ‘ Nothing 
is more easy to explain,’ says the pretended 
physician Sganarelle; ‘it comes from her 
having lost the power of speech.’ ‘ Yes, yes,’ 
objects the father, ‘but the cause, if you 
please, why she has lost the power of speech?’ 
Sganarelle is at no loss for an answer: ‘ All 
our best authors will tell you that it is the 
impeding action of ‘the tongue.’ 

Somewhat similarly, if one asks the defini- 
tion of a ‘stomach stone,’ one is told that it 
is a ‘gastrolith’;* and our best authors de- 
clare sapiently that gastroliths are pebbles 


that have been swallowed by fossil reptiles of | 


“lithophagous proclivities.*  Predilection for 
this hard fare is accounted for by ascribing 
to the reptiles in question a bird-like gizzard; 
and the upshot of the matter is that we find 
evidence ‘of additional important structural 
analogies with the birds,’ quod erat uvenien- 
dum. Much the same method of reasoning 
led the jovial Tom Hood, in his ‘ Geological 
Excursion to Tilgate Forest, a.p. 2000, to 
affirm that Mylodon subsisted upon a diet of 
‘raw potatoes and undressed salads.’ 

We have no wish to impugn the worth of 
stomach stones, nor of related bodies known 
as uroliths and coprolites, as a fit subject for 
scientific inquiry, and as a means of satisfy- 
ing hunger and thirst after knowledge. All 
are capable of large returns, as witness, for 
example, the fecund results of M. Bertrand, 
whose memoir of 150 odd pages, illustrated 
by fifteen plates, is at once edifying, delect- 
able and digne; that is, fully commensurate 
with the materials. The argumentation em- 
ployed is informed with severest logic, in 
which undisciplined imagination has no place; 
and the author seeks to test, verify, or at least 
fortify, his conclusions as far as possible by 
the experimental method. An evident long- 
ing to get at the bottom of things is shown in 


+ Science, Vol. XXIIT., p. 820. 

2 Tbid., Vol. XX., p. 565. 

’*Les coprolithes de Bernissart.’ 
Roy. @’Hist. Nat. Belg., T. I., 1903. 


Mém. Musée 


‘SCIENCE. 


983 


the sections entitled by him ‘Etude de la 
pate fécale,’ and ‘Résumé de quelques ex- 
périences sur la destruction de divers types 
de crottins,’ the latter including a notable 
eategory. Our foreign colleague is conspicu- 
ous for his firm grasp of the subject-matter, 
and his ornate handling of it sets an example 
which might well be emulated by his brethren 
on this side of the water. But then, as Seneca 
observes, speaking with all due respect: 
‘“Gallum in suo sterquilinio plurimum posse.’ 
C. R. Eastman. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE FUTURE OF THE CRAYFISH INDUSTRY. 


CrayYFISH in the United States form so small 
a part of the food supply that we are apt to 
rank them with mussels and snails as eaten in 
Europe only. But while France so highly 
appreciates them as to carry on the business 
of rearing them to increase the natural supply 
coming from her own waters and those of 
neighboring countries; there is actually a grow- 
ing consumption of crayfish as food in the 
United States. In New York, New Orleans, 
San Francisco, Chicago and other cities cray- 
fish are sold both as food and as garnish, as 
bait and as material for school and college 
courses in zoology. 

While the actual status of the crayfish in- 
dustry is difficult to determine, the following 
facts show that if a complete census were 
taken it would show the existence of a much 
larger use of crayfish than is at all suspected. 
One small region, the Potomac from Wash- 
ington to Fort Washington, was recently esti- 
mated by one of the most intelligent fishermen 
on the Maryland side to send annually to New 
York a half million of crayfish, while the U. S. 
Fish Commission publications in 1884 asserted 
that Montreal and Milwaukee also shipped 
crayfish to New York. More recent reports 
of the commission state that in 1902 the cray- 
fish catch in New Orleans County, Louisiana, 
was 16,000 pounds, of a value of $615, and of 
Monroe County, Florida, 55,664 pounds, of a 
value of $3,282. 

All the above crayfish and many more 
eaught for the markets of Chicago and other 


984 


central cities belong to the American genus 
Cambarus, which oceurs in the United States 
and Canada only. The Potomac supplies C. 
afinis; Chicago, C. virilis; New Orleans, C. 
Blandingii; and Montreal, C. Bartoni. Of 
late, however, a considerable fishery has de- 
veloped in the Pacific states where the cray- 
fish are all of the genus Astacus and more like 
the crayfish of England, France and Europe 
in general. From the statistics of the Bureau 
of Fisheries we learn that in Oregon 116,400 
pounds of crayfish, worth $7,760, were caught 
in 1899. The detailed tables, however, as- 
sign 63,000 pounds, worth $420, to Clackamas 
County, where they are taken in the tributaries 
of the Willamette River along a stretch of 
only a few miles; 5,400 pounds, worth $360, to 
Columbia County; 15,000 pounds, worth 
$1,000, to Multnomah County; 15,000 pounds, 
worth $1,000, to Washington County; and 
18,000 pounds, worth $1,200, to Yamhill 
County. This would make a total of 165,000 
pounds in place of 116,400 pounds. 

The center of the wholesale crayfish busi- 
ness was Portland, in Multnomah County, 
where the sales were 39,232 dozen crayfish, 
weighing 117,696 pounds and worth $19,556.* 


The catch is made in the sloughs of the Colum- 
bia and its tributary streams between March and 
September. A large part of the catch is used 
at Portland, with a considerable demand from 
Seattle, Tacoma, San Francisco and as far east 
as Salt Lake City and St. Louis. The average 
weight is three pounds to the dozen. As pre- 
pared for shipment the crawfish is placed alive 
in a composition of white wine and spices and 
boiled for about ten minutes. The crawfish and 
liquor in which it has been boiled are next 
packed in tin buckets holding from two to three 
dozen each. 


Despite the incompleteness of the above 
data it is evident that considerable numbers 
of crayfish are sold and that they find a market 
even in Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf states, 
where they compete with salt-water crustacea; 
in San Francisco with the spiny-lobster and 
erab, in New Orleans with the shrimp and 
in New York with the lobster. 


+* Notes on Fisheries of the Pacific Coast in 
1899,’ p. 545. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Von. XXIII. No. 600. 


The future of this crayfish industry will 
obviously depend upon both demand and sup- 
ply. The demand should increase; with the 
growth of cosmopolitan populations that ap- 
preciate such food as is used in Europe; with 
the growth of large populations too remote 
from sea coast to obtain fresh sea food; and 
with the increasing inadequacy of the marine 
erustacea to supply the needs of even those 
consumers who dwell near the coast. Thus 
the lobster industry has been strained till the 
use of young specimens as food to take the 
place of the exterminated large ones has be- 
come very extensive. At present some mil- 
lions of ‘ short-lobsters,’ six to ten inches long, 
are sold to summer visitors to the New Eng- 
land coast and many more millions are used 
as bait. 


No doubt, in time, the demand for crayfish ; 


will exceed the natural supply and this in- 
dustry will tend to run the same retrograde 
course as that of the lobster, oyster, clam and 
many more important fisheries till the real, 
or assumed, value of the crayfish as food, war- 
rants legislative control and scientific aid 
such as alone makes possible the continuance 
of more and more of our once ‘ inexhaustible’ 
food supplies. 

Soon or later the supply of crayfish will 
need to be made greater. In addition to 
legislative restrictions and controls three 
lines of work suggest themselves as suitable 
for trial when the supply becomes deficient or, 
if one is to profit by experience in other fish- 
eries, now, before the supply is deficient. 
First the artificial breeding of native species 
in the market region; second, the introduction 
and propagation of better species than those 
naturally occurring; and thirdly, the improve- 
ment in size and flavor by culture and cross- 
breeding. 

Crayfish amongst crustacea, like “earp 
amongst fish, lend themselves readily to pond 
culture and breeding. Experiments carried on 
here in the laboratory have demonstrated the 
ease with which the young of C. affinis can be 
reared and have shown two facts of economic 
value, namely, that the young reared from 
eges laid in the spring may become sexually 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


mature and lay eggs the following spring 
when not quite one year old, and also that a 
female may lay eggs in two successive years. 
As each lays from two hundred to six hun- 
dred eggs, a few breeding females would fur- 
nish a large stock of young. These young re- 
spond readily to feeding and the resulting size 
seems as much dependent upon the food as 
upon the age of the individual. Large indi- 
viduals and large races might be expected 
from proper culture. 

Though the eggs are best cared for by the 
mother, it was found possible to hatch them 
in McDonald fish-hatching jars and thus rear 
them under artificial conditions from a very 
early stage. 

As each male is capable of fertilizing several 
females and, moreover, as it was found that 
in Cambarus the sperm may be kept all winter 
in the receptacle of the female and used by 
her to fertilize the eggs in the spring, few 
males are needed for breeding and these could 
be used as food in the winter before the 
spring, when so many of them die. 

This kind of crayfish grew in the laboratory 
to a length of four inches in three and a 
quarter years and was of marketable size, 
three inches, at the end of the second summer 
from the egg. Probably in the open it at- 
tains its maximum size in four or five years. 

A second method of improving the supply 
of crayfish, the introduction of other species, 
seems a promising field for experiment, for it 
has been found here that the eggs of the large 
Oregon crayfish, Astacus, may be hatched in 
the laboratory and reared as readily as in the 
case of (. affinis, the native species. These 
young Oregon crayfish grew here under such 
artificial conditions to a length of 60 mm. in 
five months from eggs hatched in the spring. 
This large species has been sold for twice the 
price of the eastern or the southern erayfishes, 
and besides its larger size and weight it has 
the advantage of more attractive and lobster- 
like appearance, so that its introduction into 
the east should be most acceptable. In fact, 
large specimens brought here and kept alive 
in the laboratory were as long as the six-inch 


», ‘short-lobster’ now used as food, and if these 


x 


SCIENCE. 


985 


crayfish were available in quantity they might 
be used as a substitute for such young lobsters 
and thus protect the lobster industry. 

As the scientific study of the geographical 
distribution of crayfish leads to the conclu- 
sion that the Oregon crayfish, Astacus, is ab- 
sent from the whole eastern and central states 
because its ancestors never got there and not 
because of any natural obstacle to its living 
there when once introduced, it would seem 
well worth the while for the Bureau of Fish- 
eries, and for private individuals, to introduce 
large numbers of young and adult Astacus 
into waters near markets not now supplied 
with this superior article of food. Should it 
be found that this large Astacus may be ac- 
climated in the east to compete with Cam- 
barus, say in the Potomac, or better to talte 
the vacant places not now occupied by any 
crayfish at all (such as the Connecticut River) 
the catching of such introduced forms would 
be a lucrative business that would add an ac- 
ceptable article to the food drawn from fresh 
waters. Hven the artificial rearing of these 
larger crayfish in central and eastern waters 
awaits but the developments of time to be a 
profitable side of fresh-water farming. 

A third means of increasing the available 
food supply—the origination of larger races 
of crayfish—may remain for a later stage of 
the industry, but as we have more than sixty 
species of Cambarus besides several species of 
Astacus in this country and nine or more other 
genera in other countries, the chances would 
seem good for some future production of new 
forms from crossing and selection. 

In France as far back as 1865 a successful 
crayfish farm supplied Leon Soubeiran with 
the data for making out the life history of 
Astacus, and as we have found the habits of 
Cambarus here so similar there seems no ob- 
stacle to the establishment of crayfish farms in 
the United States except the lack of a suffi- 
cient demand for crayfish as food. 

The needs of both Astacus and Cambarus 
have been shown in this laboratory to be 
simply air, a small amount of fresh water and 
organic food which may be a variety of refuse 
animal and vegetable matter. The artificial 


986 


culture of crayfish will be profitable as soon as 
the market price is greater than the small 
cost of food, the inexpensive farm and the 
value of the little labor involved. The intro- 
duction of the large Oregon erayfish with its 
attractive colors and large claws might con- 
ceivably so stimulate the general demand as 
soon to raise the market value to such a profit- 
able level. 


E. A. ANDREWS. 
Ba.trmoreE, May, 1906. 


TWO LETTERS OF DR. DARWIN: THE EARLY 
DATE OF HIS EVOLUTIONAL WRITINGS. 


SEVERAL letters of Erasmus Darwin have 
lately come into my possession, and two of 
them seem worthy of publication, if only for 
the reason that reference to his evolutional 
ideas seldom occur in his correspondence. In 
this regard, for example, Charles Darwin 
states in his introduction to Dr. Krause’s 
‘Erasmus Darwin,’ that ‘most of the letters 
[of his grandfather] which he possessed or 
had seen, are uninteresting and not worth 
publication.’ 

The earlier letter, I may note, has the merit 
of referring to Dr. Darwin’s work on the 
anatomy of plants, and to his ingenious effort 
to show closer correspondence between the 
organs of the higher plants and the higher 
animals. Indeed, as we know from other 
sources, he even expected ultimately to find 
in plants the homologues of the animal nerves, 
ganglia and sense organs. Accordingly, we 
are not surprised to find that he refers here, 
in quite a matter of fact way, to the ‘blood’ 
and the ‘two systems’ of a plant. And he 
gives us also a glimpse of laboratory methods, 
and of his interest in getting in prompt touch 
with the results of foreign workers. 

The first of these letters is addressed to 
‘Sir Joseph Banks, Bar* Soho Square Lon- 
don.’ and is as follows: 


RADBURN Mar. 16—82 
Dear Sir, 


I return’d your sixth volum of the Ameenit. 
academ. & thank you for the loan of it. I should 
have sooner sent it, but hoped to have received 
another copy of Murray, & also that Dr. Linneus’s 
supplementum would have been procured from 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox, XXIII. No. 600. 


abroad, & thence meant to have returned them 
together. 

Mrs. Blacburn favor’d us with a copy of Murray, 
but desired it to be returned in three months, 
which it was to a day; & as I could procure but 
one other, & our society was not all resident at 
Lichfield, we were distressed on this account, but 
are still flatter’d with daily hopes of more copies 
being imported. I am sorry you say the re- 
mainder of the supplementum is not likely soon 
to be had. 

Qn looking over Malpighi, & Grew, & Hales, 
the physiology of plants appear’d to me, not to 
have hitherto been under the attention of any one 
perfectly acquainted with the animal economy. 
Last summer I contrived to inject the absorbent 
system of the Picris with a colour’d liquor; & as 
the blood of that plant is white, these two sys- 
tems were beautifully apparent to the eye. On 
reading a manuscript translation of Mr. 
a Sweedish naturalist, I found the authors, I 
mentioned to you in my last, had made a set of 
similar experiments; & I had designed to have in- 
vestigated this subject, so little understood at 
present, farther during the summer. 

This however I have now laid aside, for perhaps 
more important, tho’ less ingenious occupations; 
& shall therefore decline giving you the trouble 
of sending me the books you are so kind as to 
offer, both in your last, & in a former letter of 
yours, I am ST’. 

with great respect 
your obed*. seryt*. 
E. DaRwin. 


The second letter is of livelier interest. He 
denies having ‘stolen’ his ‘ Botanic Garden,’ 
or of even having heard of its prototype, prob- 
ably the ‘ Universal Beauty’ of Brooke (1735). 
And he modestly predicts of the effect of his 
evolutional ‘conjectures.’ Finally, he refers 
to the ‘ Zoonomia,’ as having been on his work 
table—or rather ‘lain by him’ for ‘nearly 
twenty years’—. e., since about 1771. That 
the work here referred to is the ‘ Zoonomia,’ 
there can be no doubt; he obviously means an 
extended evolutional work, and, in a letter to 
a son, dated the following year (cited in the 
introduction to ‘Erasmus Darwin,’ aboye re- 
ferred to, page 102), he says, that “he is 
studying his ‘Zoonomia.’” It is, of course, 
well known that this work was long intended 
for posthumous publication. But the exact 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


time when the first draft of this pioneer evo- 
lutional treatise was completed is not known. 
Charles Darwin says, in the Introduction, that 
it was intended for posthumous publication as 
early as 1775; and, according to the remark 
in the present letter, it may have been fairly 
complete several years earlier. There is no 
evidence, however, that it antedated the evolu- 
tional writings of Buffon (1765). 

This second of these letters is addressed to 
‘Dr. Percival Physician Manchester,’ and 
reads as follows: 


Dear Sir, 

I am much obliged to you for the kindness of 
your letter; & thank you for your inquiry into the 
merits of a poem, from which the Botanic Garden 
was supposed to have been stolen; an accusation 
which however I had not heard of, & am the more 
indebted to you for shewing the falsity of it. 

The first part, which you are so obliging as to 
inquire after, is nearly printed; & I suppose will 
be out, if not delay’d by the engraver, in 3 or 4 
weeks. It is longer than the other, & if you are 
at the trouble to read it, I shall be glad of any 
remarks, which may improve a second edition of 
it; if such should be called for. 

I hope you will be amused, tho’ not convinced, 
by the conjectures in the notes on coal (“upon 
geology,” stricken out), on the winds of this 
climate, & on the use of the honey to the vege- 
table economy. 

Was I sure of such candid readers, as yourself, 
I should be tempted to print another work, which 
‘has lain by me nearly 20 years. Adieu. 

I am, dear S*. 
Your much obliged 
& obed*. serv'. 


E. Dagwin. 
Derby 


Jun. 18—91. 
BasHrorp DEAN. 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


STATISTICS OF MORTALITY. 


Tue Bureau of the Census has published a 
report presenting mortality statistics for the 
United States for the five calendar years 1900 
to 1904. This report was prepared under the 
supervision of the late William A. King, chief 
statistician for vital statistics. 

rhe number of deaths reported in the regis- 
tration area in 1900 was 539,939, and the death 


SCIENCE. 


987 


rate per 1,000 of population was 17.6. In 1901 
the rate declined to 16.6 and in 1902 to 16. 
The rate increased in 1903 to 16.2 and in 1904 
to 16.7. The average annual rate for the five 
years was 16.6 per 1,000. The corresponding 
rates in certain foreign countries are shown in 
the following table: 


NUMBER OF DEATHS PER 1,000 OF 
POPULATION: 1900 TO 1903. 
CouNTRY. 3 g 
B= | 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 
ae 
4 
Registration area of 
United States...... 16.6 | 17.6 | 16.6 | 16.0 | 16.2 
England and Wales.) 16.7 | 18.2 | 16.9 | 16.2 | 15.4 
Scotland ............... 17.5 | 18.5 | 17.9 | 17.2 | 16.6 
Treland ....... .-.--| 18.1 | 19.6 | 17.8 | 17.5 | 17.5 
Germany .............. 20.7 | 22.1 | 20.7 | 19.4 | (2) 
JERSE cgsconcoacsnce 20.3 | 21.8 | 20.5 | 19.2 | 19.8 
Norway ....--..-2-.2.. 14,9 | 15.9 | 14.9 | 13.9 | 14.8 
Sweden\setse ee srcse 15.8 | 16.8 | 16.1 | 15.4 | 15.1 
Hungary........ 2... 26.3 | 26.9 | 25.4 | 27.0 | 26.1 
Netherlands........... 16.7 | 17.8 | 17.2 | 16.3 | 15.6 
Belgium ...........+.+. LAC 193s LEZ Ese LO 
Switzerland ........... 18.0 | 19.3 | 18.0 | 17.2 | 17.6 
Hee 26.9 | 28.9 | 27.7 | 26.1 | 25.0 
vice 22.5 | 23.8 | 22.0 | 22.1 | 22.2 


The average annual death rate in the regis- 
tration states was 17.8 per 1,000 in the cities 
of 8,000 or more population in 1900 and 14.3 
per 1,000 in rural districts, which, as the term 
is here used, includes everything outside these 
cities. The average annual rates were lowest 
in St. Joseph, Mo. (7.6) ; Owosso, Mich. (10.1) ; 
Lincoln, Nebr. (10.4); and St. Paul, Minn. 
(10.5); and highest in Charleston, S. C. 
(31.3); Wilmington, N. ©. (28.2); and Jack- 
sonville, Fla. (28.1). 


THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL ZOOLOG— 
ICAL CONGRESS. 

Tue sixth International Zoological Con- 
gress, which met at Berne in 1904, accepted 
the invitation of the American Society of 
Zoologists to hold the seventh congress in 
America in August or September, 1907, under 
the presidency of Mr. Alexander Agassiz. 

The arrangements for the seventh congress 
are in charge of a committee of the American 
Society of Zoologists, consisting of Messrs. 
Alexander Agassiz, chairman; Samuel Hen- 


988 


shaw, secretary; W. K. Brooks, H. C. Bumpus, 
E. G. Conklin, C. B. Davenport, C. H. Higen- 
mann, L. O. Howard, D. S. Jordan, J. S. 
Kingsley, F. R. Lillie, E. L. Mark, C. S. 
Minot, T. H. Morgan, H. F. Osborn, G. H. 
Parker, R. Rathbun, J. Reighard, W. E. 
Ritter, W. T. Sedgwick, C. W. Stiles, A. E. 
Verrill, C. O. Whitman, E. B. Wilson and 
R. R. Wright. 

The meetings will open in Boston, where 
the scientific sessions will be held, and from 
which excursions will be made to Harvard 
University and to other points of interest. At 
the ¢lose of the Boston meeting the congress 
will proceed to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 
visiting the Station of the United States Bu- 
reau of Fisheries, the Marine Biological Labo- 
ratory and the collecting grounds of the ad- 
jacent seacoast. The journey to New York 
will be by sea through Long Island Sound. 
In New York the congress will be entertained 
by Columbia University, the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History and the New York 
Zoological Society, and excursions will be 
made to Yale University, to Princeton Uni- 
versity and to the Carnegie Station for Ex- 
perimental Evolution. From New York the 
members will proceed to Philadelphia and 
Washington. Tours will be planned to Niagara 
Falls, to the Great Lakes, Chicago and to the 
West. It is hoped that arrangements can be 
made for reduced transportation for members 
of the congress on transatlantic lines and on 
the American routes. 

The first formal circular announcing the 
preliminary program of the congress will be 
issued in October, 1906. All inquiries should 
be addressed to G. H. Parker, Seventh In- 
ternational Zoological Congress, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, U. S. A. 


MINUTE OF THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE 
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY ON THE RE- 
TIREMENT OF PROFESSOR BOWDITCH. 
Iy parting with their colleague, Henry 

Pickering Bowditch, the members of the fac- 

ulty of medicine of Harvard University wish 

formally to express to him their feelings of 
affection and respect. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XXIII. No. 600. 


They desire to record their recognition of 
the great value of his researches in physiology, 
the wide range and originality of his work, 
his public service as a courageous defender 
of the freedom of research, and the inspira- 
tion given to his pupils now teachers in other 
schools in this country. 

They feel under especial obligation to him 
for his leadership in their councils, for his 
efficient aid in the reform of medical educa- 
tion, and for that good judgment and fore- 
sight which through many years have aided 
them in developing a school of medicine of a 
character deserving the position it holds in the 
science and civilization of their day. 

It is a source of gratification that his life’s 
work has been recognized by many great cen- 
ters of learning; but by no body of men has 
it been more thoroughly appreciated than by 
his comrades of the medical faculty. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science opens its special summer 
meeting at Ithaca on June 29, under the 
presideney of Professor William H. Welch, of 
the Johns Hopkins University. Excellent 
programs are promised by the sections de- 
voted to physics, chemistry, mechanical science 
and engineering, zoology and social and eco- 
nomie science. The sections devoted to geol- 
ogy and geography, and to botany will be con- 
cerned especially with field work. Reports of 
the meetings of the association and of the 
affiliated societies will be reported in subse- 
quent numbers of ScIENCE. 


THE announcement has been made of the 
resignation of Dr. William T. Harris, com- 
‘missioner of education, and of the nomination 
of his successor, Professor Elmer E. Brown, 
of the University of California. Dr. Harris’s 
retirement has been made possible by a re- 
tiring allowance from the Carnegie Founda- 
tion for the Advancement of Teaching. This 
action was taken by the trustees of the founda- 
tion under one of their rules which permits 
of such action in the case of extraordinary 
and unusual service to education. Dr. Harris 
has been the commissioner of education since 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


1889 and has, perhaps, had a larger and more 
intimate connection with the whole body of 
teachers than any other man. The offer to 
him of this retiring allowance was an act of 
the highest regard for his work and places his 
name at the head of the list of distinguished 
men who have accepted such retiring allow- 
ances from the Carnegie Foundation. 


Dr. W. W. Battery, professor of botany at 
Brown University, has retired from active 
service. His colleagues have presented to 
him a loving cup bearing the following in- 
scription: “Presented to William Whitman 
Bailey, A.M., LL.D., professor of botany, by 
his associates in the faculty, in loving recog- 
nition of twenty-nine years of honorable serv- 
ice in Brown University, June, 1906.” 


Dr. D. T. MacDoueat, director of the de- 
partment of botanical research of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington, has been elected a 
foreign member of the Hollandsche Matschap- 
pij van Wetenschappen. 


Princeton University has conferred its doc- 
torate of science on Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., 
lecturer in zoology at the University of Cam- 
bridge. 5 

Dr. Auexis Carrel, of the University of 

Chicago, has accepted a position in the Rocke- 
feller Institute for Medical Research, New 
York, and Dr. C. C. Guthrie, also of the 
physiological department of the University 
of Chicago, has accepted a call to St. Louis 
University. 
» Mr. Howarp 8. Resp has resigned his posi- 
tion as instructor in botany in the University 
of Missouri and has taken an appointment in 
the Bureau of Soils of the U. S. Department 
of Agriculture. He will be engaged in study- 
ing problems in plant physiology in connection 
with the fertility investigations of the Bureau 
of Soils. 


Mr. Harotp A. Wuirtaxer, A.B. (Wiscon- 
sin), has been appointed assistant bacteriolo- 
gist for the state of Ohio. 


Proressor J. G. McKennprick has resigned 
the chair of physiology at Glasgow, which he 
has held for thirty years. 


SCIENCE. 


939 


Dr. Kart von pen SreIneN has retired from 
an associate professorship of ethnology in the 
University of Berlin: and the curatorship of 
the museum of ethnology in order to devote 
himself to scientific exploration. 

Mr. Hatpanse, M.P., British secretary of 
state for war, opened the electrical laboratory 
of the National Physical Laboratory on June 
25. 

Masor Lronarp Darwin will lecture next 
winter at Harvard University on ‘ Municipal 
Ownership and Public Service Industries.’ 

THE course of Lane medical lectures of the 
Cooper Medical College of San Francisco, be- 
ginning on August 20, 1906, will be given by 
John C. MeVail, M.D., of Glasgow, Scotland. 
The subjects of the lectures will be ‘ Practical 


“Hygiene, Epidemics and Preventive Medicine.’ 


Dr. W. H. Manwarine, of Indiana Univer- 
sity, has been invited to give a paper before 
the British Medical Association. at its meeting 
in Toronto in August. 

Proressor K. Birkevanp, of Christiania, 
will read a paper before the Faraday Society, 
London, this month, entitled ‘Oxidation of 
Atmospherie Nitrogen by Means of the Elec- 
tric Are.’ 

We learn from Nature that Dr. Bernhard 
Mohr, of London, recently presented to the 
museum of the German Chemical Society 100 
letters written by the famous Liebig to Dr. 
Mohr’s father, the late Professor Friedrich 
Mohr, of Bonn, during the years 1834 to 1869. 

Dr. Harrison Epwixy Wesster, formerly 
professor of natural history at Union College, 
professor of geology and natural history at the 
University of Rochester and president of 
Union College, died on June 16, at the age 
of sixty-five years. 

Grorce J. SNELLuS, F.R.S., a British metal- 
lurgist, known for his improvements in the 
manufacture of steel, died on June 20, at the 
age of sixty-nine years. 

Dr. Rupotr Kyietscu, the director of the 
Badiseche Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik, who ren- 
dered important service in developing the 
preparation of synthetic indigo, died on May 
28 at the age of fifty-two years. 


990 


Proressor Danie Grore LrypHacen, the 
Swedish astronomer, died on May 5, at the 
age of eighty-seven years. 

Dr. Turopor Poutieck, formerly professor 
of pharmacology at Breslau, died on June 1 
at the age of eighty-four years. 


Dr. F. Hecrnmarer, honorary professor of 
botany at Tiibingen, has died at the age of 
seventy-two years. ; 

Tue death is announced of M. Bischoffs- 
heim, founder of the observatory near Nice. 


Tur German Botanical Society offers a 
prize of 1,000 Marks for a monograph on 
‘Polymorphism in the Algae.’ 

Av the meeting of the council of the Royal 
Astronomical Society, held on June 1, the 
following resolution was unanimously agreed 
to: “ That the council learn with deep concern 
of the danger threatened to the Royal Ob- 
servatory, Greenwich, from the erection of a 
large electric generating station near the ob- 
servatory and desire to represent to the ad- 
miralty at the earliest opportunity their con- 
viction of the paramount importance of main- 
taining the integrity and efficiency of Green- 
wich Observatory, which has been adopted as 
the reference point for the whole world.” 


THE spring series of ballons-sondes ascen- 
sions at St. Louis, conducted by Mr. Rotch, 
director of the Blue Hill Observatory, proved 
very successful, since twenty of the twenty-one 
instruments despatched have been recovered, 
most of them with good records of barometric 
pressure and temperature. The experiments 
were in charge of Mr. S. P. Fergusson, mech- 
anician of the observatory, and were witnessed 
by Professor O. L. Fassig, who will undertake 
similar investigations for the United States 
Weather Bureau. 

At the instance of the late Professor I. C. 
Russell, of Michigan, the Geological Society 


of America recently invited the cooperation 


of the government surveys of the United 
States, Canada and Mexico in the preparation 
of a geologic map of North America. The 
immediate object was to make such a map 
available at the approaching international 
geological congress in the City of Mexico. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vox. XXIII. No. 600. 


The map is being prepared in the office of the 
United States Geological Survey under the 
direction of Mr. Bailey Willis, and will be 
published in connection with a professional 
paper. The map will be about six feet by 
four and a half feet in size, and may be used 
as a wall map or as a pocket reference. 


THERE has just been published, by act of 
congress, a report on the geology of the Owl 
Creek Mountains in central Wyoming, which 
contains a description of a but little-known 
portion of the Rocky Mountain region. It is 
the result of an exploration made during the 
past summer, by N. H. Darton, of the U. S. 
Geological Survey, partly for the purpose of 
ascertaining the mineral resources of the por- 
tion of the Shoshone Indian Reservation to 
be opened to settlement on August 15 this 
year. The report is Senate Document No. 
219, 59th Congress, First Session, and may be 
obtained by application to senators and repre- 
sentatives; the Geological Survey will not 
have the report for distribution. 

Proressor H. H. Turner, of Oxford Uni- 
versity, addressed a letter on June 2 to the 
editor of the London Tvmes, in which he says: 
“The board of visitors of the Royal Observa- 
tory at Greenwich found themselves con- 
fronted, at their annual meeting yesterday, 
by a grave anxiety. The London County 
Council have established in the Greenwich 
meridian and within half a mile of the ob- 
servatory a large station for generating elec- 
tricity: There are already two chimneys, 
250 feet high, which rise from the river bed 
above the domes of the observatory, in spite 
of the 150 feet of hill on which the latter is 
placed; as well as two other chimneys some- 
what smaller. The disturbance caused by the 
hot air and smoke from all these chimneys 
can not fail to be serious, though it is at 
present impossible to estimate it quantita- 
tively. But there is another source of dis- 
turbance of an alarming kind of which direct 
evidence has already been obtained. In spite 
of various precautions taken, the engines of 
the generating station are so powerful that 
they shake the observatory. The delicate ob- 
servations for nadir, which furnish the refer- 


JUNE 29, 1906.] 


ence points for Greenwich time and for ter- 
restrial longitudes, indicate a state of constant 
vibration while the engines are running, which 
will be greatly increased if the full proposals 
of the London County Council are carried 
out. By the invitation of the Astronomer 
Royal, I paid a special visit to Greenwich on 
Tuesday and was able to compare for myself 
the state of matters during the running of 
the engines and after they had been stopped 
(2. e., after midnight). The observations left 
no room for doubt as to the seriousness of the 
disturbance.” 


Nature states that Messrs. R. B. Woosnam, 
D. Carruthers and A. F. R. Wollaston, three 
members of the zoological expedition sent to 
Africa under the auspices of the Natural His- 
tory Museum, South Kensington, have made 
the following ascents in the Ruwenzori range. 
On April 1 they ascended Duwoni, the peak 
rising to the northeast of the Mubuku Glacier. 
This peak has two tops of apparently equal 
altitude; the southern top, which was reached, 
was found to be 15,893 feet. On April 3 they 
ascended Kiyanja, the peak at the western end 
of the Mubuku group of peaks. The altitude 
was found to be 16,379 feet. (The altitudes 
were taken by aneroid and by the boiling-point 
thermometer.) Both these peaks have been 
thought by different explorers to be the highest 
points in Ruwenzori, but from the summit of 
Kiyanja a still higher peak with two tops 
was seen in a northwesterly direction. The 
weather at this season of the year is very un- 
favorable, the mountains being almost con- 
stantly buried in clouds with frequent snow- 
storms, which prevented the party from ma- 
king further explorations. 


THE advance made during the last five years 
in the manufacture of various forms of appa- 
ratus for lighting purposes has developed a 
use for metals and metallic oxides such as 
tantalum, cadmium, zirconia, thoria, yttria, 
and cerium, lanthanum and didymium oxides. 
With the exception of cadmium, all these ma- 
terials are now used commercially in the man- 
ufacture of different lamps and are obtained 
from the following minerals: monazite, zir- 
con, gadolinite, columbite and tantalite. A 


SCIENCE. 


991 


brief report on the production of these min- 
erals during 1905 has been written by Dr. 
Joseph Hyde Pratt and will be published in 
the forthcoming volume of the U. S. Geolog- 
ical Survey, entitled ‘Mineral Resources of 
the United States, 1905  Monazite is the 
mineral which contains the oxides used in the 
manufacture of mantles for the Welsbach and 
other incandescent gaslights. Although mon- 
azite has been found sparingly at many loeali- 
ties throughout the United States, the Caro- 
linas are still the only states that are pro- 
ducing this mineral commercially. During 
1905, however, a probable new source of supply 
of this mineral has been worked out by the 
investigations that have been carried on at 
the concentrating plant of the United States 
Geological Survey at Portland, Ore., which 
has been testing systematically the black 
sands of the Pacific slope as to their mineral- 
ogical contents. The results of this investi- 
gation have shown the presence of some mon- 
azite and more zircon in many of these sands, 
especially in those from Oregon and Idaho. 
By using the Wetherill magnetic separator an 
almost perfect separation can be made of both 
the zircon and the monazite. The production 
of monazite, zireon and columbite during 
1905 amounted to 1,352,418 pounds, valued at 
$163,908, as compared with 745,999 pounds, 
valued at $85,038 in 1904, an increase of 606,- 
419 pounds in quantity and of $78,870 in 
value. From one sixth to one fourth of the 
monazite mined in 1905 was exported to 
Germany. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


At the commencement of Brown University 
it was announced that $162,000 had been sub- 
scribed for the John Hay memorial library, 
thus securing the additional gift of $150,000 
by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. 


Mr. D. W. Goopsprep, secretary of the 
board of trustees of the University of Chicago, 
has announced a gift of $260,000 from Mr. 
John D. Rockefeller for currentexpenses for 
the year beginning July 1. 


At the recent commencement ‘of Olivet 
College gifts aggregating $265,000 were an- 


992 


nounced. Of this amount $215,000 applies 
toward the Carnegie endowment, leaving only 
$35,000 to be raised to ensure receiving Mr. 
Carnegie’s gift of $250,000. 

By the will of the late Professor George A. 
Wentworth, of Phillips Exeter Academy, $10,- 
000 is bequeathed to the academy. 


Tur New York Hvening Post states that 
Sir William Macdonald has completed his ar- 
rangements for transferring to the governors 
of McGill University all the property of the 
new Macdonald College at St. Anne de Belle- 
yue, near Montreal, valued at between $2,000,- 
000 and $3,000,000. It is the founder’s wish 
that Macdonald College shall rank as a college 
of McGill University. The funds, apart from 
the lands and buildings, amount to $2,000,000. 


Liverroot University has formally accepted 
from Miss Isabella Gregson, of Bournemouth, 
formerly of Liverpool, the gift of the Gregson 
Memorial Institute and Museum situated in 
Garmoyle street. The gift is to be utilized 
for university extension purposes, and repre- 
sents in money value, with an endowment of 
£5,000 added by the foundress, about £300,000. 


Tur Goldwin Smith Hall of Humanities of 
Cornell University was dedicated in connec- 
tion with the recent commencement exercises. 
Professor Goldwin Smith, who is in his eighty- 
third year, made one of the addresses. 


Tue University of Greifswald will celebrate 
in August the four hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary of its foundation. 


Tue University of California announces 
the establishment of two Flood fellowships in 
economics, of an annual value of four hundred 
dollars each. These fellowships are open to 
all properly qualified university graduates 


wishing to engage in economic study and re- 


search at the University of California. 


By vote of the president and fellows, con- 
firmed by the board of overseers on June 18, 
the ninth statute of Harvard University has 
been amended as follows: For the degree of 
‘civil engineer’ is substituted the degree of 
“bachelor in civil engineering’; the following 
new degrees are established: bachelor in 
mechanical engineering, bachelor in electrical 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vox. XXIII. No, 600. 


engineering, bachelor in architecture, bachelor 
in landscape architecture, master of science in 
forestry, master of science in chemistry, mas- 
ter of science in physics, master of science in 
zoology, master of science in geology. 


Tue daily papers state that Professor 
George E. Fellows, of the University of 
Maine, has been offered the presidency of the 
Pennsylvania State College. 


At Cornell University, Mr. E. E. Haskell, 
chief engineer of the U. S. Lake Survey, has 
been elected director of the College of Civil 
Engineering. Professor T. Littleton Lyon, of 
the University of Nebraska, has been elected 
to a chair of agriculture in the experiment 
station. Dr. W. W. Rowlee has been pro- 
moted to a full professorship of botany. 


Dr. GrorGE BLuMeER has been appointed to 
the chair of the theory and practise of medi- 
cine in Yale University to succeed the late 
Dr. John S. Ely. Dr. Blumer was formerly 
director of the Bender laboratory at Albany, 
and professor of pathology at the Albany 
Medical College, and was subsequently pro- 
fessor in the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of California. 


In the botanical department of the Ohio 
State University the following new appoint- 
tments have been made: Robert F. Griggs has 
been promoted from fellow to assistant pro- 
fessor; Miss Freda Detmers, recently acting 
as assistant, in place of Walter Fischer, who 
resigned to take up work in the United States 
Department of Agriculture, has been made in- 
structor in botany; Miss Opal J. Tillman, 
fellow in botany, resigned to accept a position 
as teacher of botany in the University of 
Arizona, and as her successor for the year 
1906-7 Mr. L. A. Hawkins, of Iowa, was 
appointed. 


Dr. E. von Drycatski, of Berlin, has ac- 
cepted a call to a newly-established chair of 
geography at Munich. 

Proressor WaLTer Nernst has been offered 
the chair of physical chemistry at Leipzig, 
vacant by the retirement of Professor Wil- 
helm Ostwald, but has decided to remain at 
Berlin. 


IAPC 


3 9088 01301 4378