THE

AMERICAN

NATURALIS

A MONTHLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES

IN THEIR WIDEST SENSE.

MANAGING EDITO

Prors, E. D. COPE, PEERAA AND J. " ENGEL EY, Boston.

ASSOCIATE peie

Dr. C. O. WHITMAN, Chicago, EE be BESSEY, Lincoln, Neb., H. C. MERCER, Philadelphia, — '

PRor. C. M. WEED, Durham, N. H., n. or, W. S. BAYLEY, W nos. Maine, Pror, E. A. ANDREWS, Baltimore,

PROF. * H. HOBBS, Madison, Wis.

m XXVIII. JULY, 1894. No. 331.

CONTESTS.

PAGE, PAGE.

ANIMAL MECHANICS, Dr. Manly Miles: . 555 | New Island off Pantelleris —A . Correction—

THE MEANING OF TR&E-LirFE. Henry L. Clarke, 572 | Petrographical Provinces—Miscellaneous. '. . 60;

LEPIDOSIRENIDS AND BDELLOSTOMIDs. Botany —Thaxter’s Studies of the Laboul-

Theodore Gill, 581 | beniaces. . . s;

THE ORIGIN or PELAGIC LIFE, Zoology — The y EPERE Sense randi

From Professor W. K. M 585 | Insects—The Luminous Organs of HAE

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. |.. . 589 | this rueppelii Verany—Verril's Organ—Pre-

KECENT LITERATURE, —Gage's TERRE end liminary Descriptions of Some New South

Microscopical Methods —Shufeldt on Chap- American Characinidee —On the Species of

‘man’s Birds of Trinidad — Annual Report Himantodes D. & B—Zoological News.

Minnesota Natural History Survey for 1892. . 592 | £""/eme/egy—The Pear Leaf Blister, D :

Psi. Norns. trated) — Termite octets =: Habits of. the

i Pasco of Southern Geena on

Geology and Paleontology,—Schlosser on Amer- the Win

ican Eocene Vertebrata in Switzerland—The piles Antenuation of Viper puse.

| Skull oa Pisodus Medic oma pd The Secretion of Ure :

Cenoz . 994 Archeology and Etro gy olo pipes iie in

Mi ES ui ibutions to Swedish Miner | Shell-heaps of the St. John’s—Norse Remains

^ ema art I—Optical Methods—Isotypism— | in the Neighborhood of Boston mA x

basilar Structure in Quartz Crystals. . . . 597 | of field work in the Department of Am

Petrography—Contact Effects around Saxon and virion Archeeology of the University

` Granites—The Schists of the Malvern Hills— of Pennsylvani

A Soda-Rh yolite from the Berkeley Hills, Cal. PROCEEDINGS OF dine Socrernik coy 2c NN

—Diabases from Rio Janeiro, Brazil — The SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 4. i... v 09.59. 20 CENE

THE EDWARDS & DOCKER COS

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THE /5 9 Y

AM ERICAN NATURALIST

Vor. XXVIIL ^ July, A E 331

ANIMAL MECHANICS:

By Dr. Manty MILES.

Reference was made to a former lecture before the Michigan

Short-horn Cattle Association, in which the relations of hered-

ity and variation to the improvement of live stock were dis-

cussed, and attention was called to the flexibility of the con-

stitution of domestic animals that made them susceptible to

the modifying influences of the conditions in which they are

placed—so that variations are constantly produced by changes

in food and management, and constant care must be exercised |.

to select the animals presenting desirable variations to fix and

retain them as inherited characters.

In presenting these fundamental principles in the improve-

ment of animals, many important details were necessarily

omitted, and at the present time my purpose is to supplement -

the general subject of heredity and variation, by calling atten-

tion to some of the latest contributions of science to the

philosophy of feeding, and notice their relations to the prin-

ciples of selecting breeding stock, that are often overlooked by

inexperienced breeders in their efforts to improve their ani-

mals in special qualities.

In the lecture referred to, inin were compared to

machines for converting the vegetable products of the farm

_ 1Abstract of a lecture before the Michigan Association of Breeders of Improved

Live sunt. um 17, 1892,

Mo. Bot. Garden,

1598. 2 jus

556 The American Naturalist. [July,

into animal products of greater value. This simile, which is

often made, is of greater significance than at first sight would

appear, and if breeders will keep in mind the fact that they

are, in effect, providing machines for doing work in the man-

ufacture of meat, milk, wool, muscular power, or other animal

products, from the raw materials derived from the soil, the

means of improvement will be more readily understood.

From this point of view the breeders of live stock should

have a deep interest in the general progress of agriculture, as

any improvement in crop growing must be to their advantage,

from the larger supply of raw materials for the manufacture

of animal products, which should increase the demand for

animal machines to perform the work with the greatest econ-

omy, and at the same time turn out a finished product of a

quality than can be disposed of at renumerative prices in the

market.

This simile of a machine makes apparent the fallacy of the

old notion that the animal that eats the least is the best for

the farmer. It would certainly be a poor recommendation for

a machine to say that it could work up but a small amount of

raw materials. The object of the farmer is, profit, and in

every department of production the aim should be to obtain

the largest net return from the raw materials he has to dispose

of. The more the animal machine can do of useful work, the

greater its value to the farmer, if the results are obtained with

the greatest economy.

. Another popular error will be readily corrected by looking

upon animals as machines for doing work. The notion has

too generally prevailed that animals are composed simply of

flesh and blood and bones, etc., and that when they are furnish-

ed with food containing the materials which enter into the

composition of their tissues, it would, in some mysterious way,

be converted into animal substances. This is, however, a par-

tial or one-sided view, that does not represent the whole

truth.

. Farmers are constantly dealing with the forces of Nature,

and a knowledge of naturallaws cannot fail to aid them in

their mastery. The applications of the law of the conserva-

E 1894] Animal Mechanics. 557

| : tion of energy to animal and vegetable physiology, which

5 have recently been made, are of great assistance in giving

clear and correct notions in regard to the economy of living be-

ings, and we learn that the materials used in the constructive

| processes of plants and animals are not of greater importance

: than the motive power required to convert them into living

substances.

The law of the conservation of energy has revolutionized

| modern physies, and the industries have been directly bene-

fited by its applications, and its influence in agriculture when

rightly applied, can hardly be overestimated. Faraday pro-

| nounced it “the highest law in physical science which our

| faculties permit us to perceive," and it has been claimed to be

the most important discovery of the present century.

Energy has been defined as “the power of doing work, or

overcoming resistance." Its familiar manifestations we call

heat, light, motion, electricity, etc. "These different forms of

energy are mutually convertible, without gain or loss, or, in

other words, the energy of the Universe is a constant quantity

that is neither increased or diminished by the transformations

it undergoes.

All forms of energy may be transformed to heat, and this

furnishes a convenient unit or standard for measuring it. The

unit of heat is the amount required to raise one pound of

water one degree in temperature. Its mechanical equivalent

is 772 foot-pounds, which is the unit for measuring work.

‘That is to say, the heat required to raise one pound of water

one degree in temperature, is equivalent to the force required

toraise a weight of one pound 772 feet, or a weight of 772

pounds one foot, which is, conveniently expressed, as 772 foot-

pounds, the weight in pounds being multiplied into the dis-

tance in feet through which it is raised. Foot-pounds divided

by 2000 will give the result in foot-tons, which is often used.

When a weight of one pound is raised 772 feet, it represents,

in that position, 772 foot-pounds of potential, or stored energy,

and when this weight is allowed to fall the entire distance

without interruption, the stored energy is transformed into

active energy or motion, and when this motion is arrested on

TET eee ee

558 The American Naturalist. [July,

completion of the fall of 772 feet, heat is liberated sufficient

to raise one pound of water one degree in temperature, or, the

equivalent of the energy required to raise the weight to the

height from which it fell. This serves to illustrate what is

meant by the conservation of energy.

The transformation of food constituents into animal sub-

tance involves the performance of work by the animal

machinery of nutrition, which is carried on at the expense of

the stored energy of the food consumed. An expenditure of

energy in work is as necessary to convert corn or grass, into

animal subtance, as in the hauling of a load on the road, and

-the term work is as applicable, in the same sense, in the one

case asin the other. Sheep growing wool, cows giving milk,

and animals fed for the butcher, should, therefore, be recog-

nized as working animals, as well as those used in draft, or in

lighter, more rapid work on the road.

Internal work must be done in the first place to convert

vegetable substances into animal substance; and, in the next

place, an additional amount of work must be done in the

further conversion of animal substance into the special ani-

mal products of meat, milk, wool and muscular force, which

are the real sources of profit in feeding. Moreover, this inter-

nal work involves the wear and tear of the animal machine,

which unlike purely mechanical devices, makes its own repairs

at the expense of the raw materials it is its mission to convert

into animal products.

An important question here presents itself; how is the food

consumed by animals disposed of, and what purpose does it

serve in the animaleconomy? ‘The correct answer to this is

of great practical importance and interest to every farmer, and

especially to breeders of improved stock.

In the first place, materials are provided for growth, and

for the needed repairs of the system, but only a small propor-

tion of the food constituents are utilized for these purposes, as

will be seen from the following table giving the results of

experiments at Rothamsted.

Each 100 pounds of food constituents consumed by fatten-

ing animals were disposed of as follows :

VERSUS AT C Ne CREAN RU TS OA Ree Sap SCRI IMS o8 ee gk PME |

1894.] Animal Mechanics. 559

0 — — 1 — Bored in increase. | Voided in Excreta.

d si Food.

Ibs Ibs Ibs Ibs Ibs Ibs

otei | 41 4.2 13.5 95.9 | 95.8 | 86.5

Non-proteids 1 2:29 i | IM 143. 1. 84 |

Hie XM | 1-9 T Ww T 38 | ww» | wr Ww

Bubeame | 621. | RA | dM | MÀ ( WH9 | M

The food constituents not accounted for have served a use-

ful purpose in their liberated energy for the performance of

work, and their residues have been exhaled in the gaseous

form, and the surplus energy as animal heat. Growing ani-

mals, and cows giving milk, will retain, or utilize a larger

proportion of the food constituents, but even then much the

larger part of the material elements of the food are discharged

in the excreta.

In the next place, the potential or stored energy of the food

is made available in all of the work done by the system, and

it is the sole source of power in all of the processes of the ani-

mal machine.

From the prominence given to the chemical theory of nutri-

tive ratios in some of our agricultural papers, farmers are

asked to believe that success in feeding depends upon follow-

ing certain theoretical formulas, giving the proportions of food

constituents in the rations fed, while the animal machine

which does the work of manufacturing valuable animal pro-

ducts, and the motive power that makes it efficient, are

entirely ignored. I can only say in passing, that in the pres-

ent state of knowledge, we cannot formulate the constituents

of foods in chemical terms, to serve as practical guides in

feeding. The machine itself, is the most important considera-

tion, and its capacity, for doing the work required of it, is of

far greater significance than the proportions of the compara-

tively small amount of the so-called nutritive constituents

stored up, or used by the animal.

Let us for a moment consider the facts in regard to the con-

struction and repair of other farm machinery, as reapers,

mowers, threshing machines, etc. When we-take an exact

inventory of the items of cost, in the construction and repair

of these machines, we find that the materials of which they

. are made, or are used in repairing them, make but a small fig-

560 The American Naturalist. [July,

ure in the expense account, and that the work donein shaping

and fitting the materials in proper relations, represent a very

large proportion of the real cost of the machine or of the

repairs that may be made. In repairing a machine, a few

cents may pay for the iron or wood used, while several dollars

would be required to pay for the work done.

The same principle holds good with the animal machine,

both in its original construction and its repairs. But a small

proportion of the food constituents are utilized in the processes

of nutrition, and a very large amount of energy is constantly

expended in the work. of transforming these materials into

animal substance and animal products.

The real significance of these facts will best be seen by

making a quantitative estimate of the energy expended, and

the transformations it undergoes in organic processes, as repre-

sented in the following table giving an approximate state-

ment of the composition of one acre of corn, and of a fat ox

analyzed at Rothamsted.

PE TEENS AS E TD Tries oon ie een S ENS ale

FECE TE EUN.

SRE eee) MIR T PHP EN EM

SHOEI rere AA ae wd NM FS

RSEN ES PT MAT

Corn one Acre, io: '

cae | mer p qon qmi,

7200 Ibs. total bs. ).

Per cent. Lbs. Per cent. Lbs.

Carbon 39.7 2858 31.6 448

Sion 7.0 504 9.7 137

À Oxygen 48.8 3511 46.5 660

Nitrogen 1.3 90 24 m

— 3.3 237 3.9 55

Potash 1.10 79 0.18 2.6

Phos. Acid. 0.53 38 1.55 22

Water 17.1 1232 | 45.5 646

Proteids 7.8 562 || 14.5 206

Fat 3.3 237 || 30.1 427

Carbhydrates 68.5 4932 || 7

B Ash 3.3 37 — i 3.9 55

| Potash 1.10 79 | | 0.18 2.6

Phos. Acid} 0.58 "EN 1.55 22

1894.] - Animal Mechanics. 561

17 083 000 foot-tons, equiva- j 3, 381,000 foot-tons, equivá-

Stored umi d song

ork don

lent to the

day and night for 142 days,

continuously for 719 days.

A chemical analysis of the corn shows (division A of the

table), that it is composed of 2858 lbs. of carbon; 504 lbs. of

hydrogen; 3511 lbs. of oxgen; 90 lbs. of nitrogen; and

237 lbs. of ash, or mineral constituents, the most important of

which are potash 79 lbs., and phosphoric acid 38 lbs. "Theash

constituents and the nitrogen are alone derived from the

soil.

We have here the elements of which the crop is composed,

but division B of the table shows that they represent water

1232 lbs.; proteids 562 lbs.; carbhydrates 4932 Ibs.; and ash

237 lbs. "These are the facts furnished by chemistry in regard

to the composition of the acre of corn, but they do not repre-

sent the whole truth.

To transform the simple elements of division A of the able

into the complex organic compounds of division B, energy

must be expended and work done, and the energy so used is

stored up in the organic substances formed as an essential con-

dition of their constitution. The amountof this stored energy

is represented in division C of the table, and it is an import-

ant factor in the composition of the crop of corn, as it is one

of the essentials in animal nutrition.

This stored energy of the corn does not, however, represent

the total expenditure in the growth ofthe crop. Experiments

show that for each pound of dry organic substance formed by

the growing corn, about 300 lbs. of water will be exhaled, or

thrown off by the plants in the form of vapor. To convert

water into vapor involves an expenditure of energy, and this

for the acre of corn would be approximately equivalent to the

work of 24 horses for six months without intermission. Water

is likewise evaporated from the soil as one of the essential con-

ditions of fertility, and this calls for a further expenditure of

energy, which under our climatic conditions may be estimated

at about twice the amount expended in exhalation from the

plants themselves. Taking all of these processes together, the

562 The American Naturalist. [July,

energy expended directly and indirectly in Nature’s invisible

unobtrusive work of growing an acre of corn, must. be equiva-

Ient to the work of 76 horses, day and night, for six months.

This energy is all derived from the heat and light of

the sun. The importance of proper soil conditions to favor

the required transformations of energy in the growth of the

erop will readily be seen.

The motive power of the animal machine, in all of its pro-

cesses of nutrition and growth, is derived exclusively from the

stored or potential energy of their food, and we may ask how

this energy is liberated and made available in the animal

economy.

As the energy used in its construction is stored up by the

plant as an essential condition of its constitution, any disin-

tegration of its organie substance will liberate the stored

energy in the form of heat. This may be brought about in

several ways. 1.—The plant may be burned, and the heat

produeed represents its stored energy. 2.—Microbes feeding

on organic substances tear them apart and liberate the stored

energy in the form of heat. The heat produced in the famil-

iar processes of fermentation and putrefaction, all of which

are caused by microbes, is but the stored energy of the organic

substances on which they feed. 3.—The digestive processes

of animals involve a disintegration of the food constituents,

and liberate their potential energy for use in the processes of

animal nutrition.

Turning now to the table, for the composition of the fat ox,

we find it represented in division A, as consisting of simple

elements, and in division B the complex compounds built up

from these elements are given. It will be seen that work has

been done, and energy expended in transforming the simple

elements of division A into the complex compounds of divi-

sion B, and, as in the case of the corn, the estimated amount

of this expenditure of energy is given in foot-tons, and horse

power, in division C of the table.

The popular notion that the proteids, fat and carbhydrates

of the corn are directly converted into the proteids and fat of

the ox that eats them, (division B), does not take into account

E EE ern NU NEM REUNIR REE RA SE RECS RIP TIONS ERI ANGUS RORIS, UE IR CUNEO M OTE PO UITAE UN T Metaph EDS DS Dt

Mace E T. z ^

NR TN LAS PEREAT RAN TRUE ete RMR Be E a

LE EL AT Ne Oe LEER OS Me A ee ne fee ee Mle PRO ae Eee ena n

EE E AARE E ne RES RR RR Te Sg TS S eet em PPIE ERE MER E ENIE LE MINE I ee EH AT ERE RITE UTR RR RR ERE U RSE erm

1894.] Animal Mechanics. 563

all of the factors concerned. We have seen that energy must

be expended in work to convert vegetable substances into ani-

mal substances, and this energy can only be obtained by tear-

ing apart the vegetable compounds through the processes of

digestion, and liberating theirstored energy. In this process

the vegetable compounds of the food are resolved almost into

their elements, and from these

by means of the energy liberated, the proteids and fats of the

ox are manufactured.

The complex animal substances thus formed are continually

undergoing change. The wear and tear of the animal ma-

chine involves a disintegration of its organic substance, and

its stored energy is liberated as heat. This may in part be

used again in the processes of repair, but a large proportion

leaves the body as animal heat.

As in the case of the corn, the stored energy (division C of

the table), of the fat ox does not represent all of the energy

expended in building up its organic substance. A constant

process of repair has been going on to replace the waste

resulting from the wear and tear of thesystem, which involves

a continuous expenditure of energy—and the loss arising from

the energy thrown off from the body as animal heat, (radia-

tion), and expended in vaporizing the water exhaled from the

skin, (perspiration), must be replaced at the expense of the

stored energy of the food to keep the machinery of nutrition,

in efficient activity.

The facts presented are sufficient to show that the transfor-

mations of energy are important factors in the economy of

plants and animals, and that the materials of which they are

composed cannot be looked upon as the sole subjects of interest

in farm economy. The tendency to make the compounding

of food rations the prominent subject for consideration, con-

flicts with the interests of the breeders of improved stock, and

misleads the farmers who are induced to look upon it as the

real source of profit. This reference to the subject of feeding

is made with the two-fold purpose of ealling attention to the

fallacy of feeding experiments in which the chemical compo-

sition of foods is made the prominent or sole object of interest,

564 The American Naturalist. [July,

while the importance of the improvement of the live stock of

the farm is wholly ignored ; and to remind breeders that they

are fully warranted in claiming that improved animals are

entitled to the first place among the means of an improved

agriculture, as machines for manufacturing the crops grown

on the farm into marketable products.

The most serious obstacles to the progress of agriculture at

the present time arise from the one-sided and misleading

statements that are made in the name of science by those who

have but a superficial knowledge of Nature’s laws, and their

intimate relations to farm practice. The experiment station

reports, on the feeding of animals, fail to give a full statement

of all of the factors that may influence the results, and too

often the record is made to conform to hasty assumptions, or

false theories, so that it is difficult to find a grain of truth in

the mass of chaff that is scattered broadcast over the coun-

try.

As the remarkable progress made in other productive

industries has been largely owing to improvements in machin-

ery, so progress in agriculture must depend, to a great extent.

at least, upon the further improvement of the animal machines

that are so essential to success in the business of farming, and

we must look to the breeders of the pure breeds tó accomplish

this desirable object.

It will not answer to rest satisfied with the present high

development of the pure breeds and their more general diffu-

sion on the farms of the country, but the aim of every intelli-

gent breeder must be to still further increase their useful

qualities in special directions. Notwithstanding the decided

superiority of the pure breeds over the average farm stock,

there is still a wide margin for improvement, asthere are good

reasons for believing that even the best animals do not utilize

more than one-half of the available energy of their food in use-

ful work.

The largest profit can only be realized with animals that

have the ability to consume and utilize in useful work, an

amount of food considerably in excess of what is required in

the needed repairs of the system. This involves severe work,

POSH CUENTE DOSES ete eee Stee eS TI TTE IIR Te IRE TQ TRE EAE IIT ENTER RIEN PE TER

1894.] Animal Mechanics. 565

and one of the first essentials to be considered is that of

stamina and constitution, or, in other words, the capacity for

hard work and: powers of endurance, or the same qualities in

this respect that all working animals should possess.

These qualities are largely determined by heredity, and

selections for breeding purposes should be made with reference

to these qualities in the ancestors. Good sanitary conditions

must of course be maintained, to secure a continuance of

robust health and an active performance of the normal func-

tions of nutrition.

PREPOTENCY.

Strength of constitution or powers of endurance must not

be confounded with prepotency, or the quality of holding a

preponderating influence in the act of reproduction. Many

animals that are prepotentin transmitting their own qualities,

are deficient in constitution, and their offspring lack that

active and vigorous performance of the nutritive organs that

is essential to stamina and powers of endurance in useful

work. Prepotency arises from uniformity in the characteris-

tics of ancestors for many generations, and these characters

may or may not be desirable.

In the improvement of the pure breeds with their present

high development of valuable qualities, an accumulation of

slight variations must be the aim. We cannot expect to gain

any wide departure from present characters at a single step.

Progress can only be made by a succession of short steps, and

their sum will represent the real advantage gained. Small

items determine the difference between gain and loss in the

present activity of the industries, and in agriculture we must

recognize the importance of slight improvements in each

detail of general management as the only available method

of making real progress.

BREEDING TO A TYPE.

In making selections for breeding, an ideal type of excel-

lence representing definite valuable qualities, should be strictly

566 The American Naturalist. [July,

adhered to. "Thistype, in all cases, should represent the high-

est development of characters that indicate the posession of

the desired useful qualities. The form should be that which

represents a special adaptation to the particular purpose in

view. It is well known that the general form of animals is

correlated with particular functions. The form of the roadster

differs from that which is suited for heavy draft, and the type

for rapid meat production is different from that giving the

best results in the production of milk.

The law of correlation has, however, a further application.

There is not only an adaptation of the general form to the

kind of work that can best be done, but the different organs

of the body have correlated relations that are quite as signifi-

eant. An excessive activity, or development of one organ, or

set of organs, diminishes the activity or development of the

system in other directions. That is tosay, the system has a

capacity for utilizing a certain amount of energy, and if it is

largely expended in one direction there is less to be expended

for other purposes. If the tendeney to lay on fat predominates,

the milk producing functions must suffer a corresponding

diminution, and severe muscular work will diminish the ten-

dency to lay on fat, or produce milk.

To give permanency and uniformity to the ideal type that

has been adopted, selections for breeding must be strictly con-

fined to animals having the desired characters, within the

limits of a distinct breed, or of a single family of a distinct

breed. This is in effect establishing, or fixing, family charac-

ters in the particular breed. The constitution or physical

stamina of the family type should not be lost sight of in

attempts to secure other desirable characters, as on it will

depend the efficiency and profitable exercise of the special

functions that have been cultivated and fixed as family char-

acters.

All coarseness should be avoided. Improvements in all

breeds have been made by securing a greater refinement of the

system, or in diminishing the proportion of coarse parts.

Large bones, with apparent good reason, have been looked

upon as an indication of imperfect nutrition, and as a general

1894.] Animal Mechanics. - 567

rule, to which there are few, if any exceptions, they are corre-

lated with coarseness in other parts. The wear and tear of

the animal machine is greater in such cases, and a larger

expenditure of energy is required in its repairs.

INHERITED HABITS.

Aside from the general inherited habits of animals with

which you are all familiar, as the tendency to early maturity,

or the habit of milk production throughout the year, or in

what is called the trotting instinct, there are inherited habits

of the nutritive organs themselves which should not be over-

looked. ,

Habits are cultivated and established by their systematic

exercise, and the desirable habits of the nutritive organs can

only be cultivated and maintained by their constant exercise,

or, in other words, by liberal feeding, and the direction in

which the liberated energy of the food is expended must, at

the same time, be determined and promoted by cultivating

the general and special habits of the system. If, forexample,

milk is a leading object, in connection with a liberal supply of

food, from which energy is freely liberated through the inher-

ited activity of the nutritive organs—a sufficient capacity of

the udder and other organs concerned in milk production

must be provided—and a dominant tendency to the expendi-

ture of the available energy in the milk producing function

must be kept up by gentle treatment and regularity in milk-

ing and feeding. Judgment and skill must be exercised and

attention given to many details, all tending in the same

direction, to give the desired bias to the energies of the sys-

tem.

The application of general principles will be found a better

guide in practice than any specific empirical rules, and the

habits of the system developed by judicious exercise and cul-

tivation, must be fixed by systematic selection as hereditary

characters.

GENERAL PURPOSE ANIMALS.

We can only call attention to some of the principles already

presented to illustrate thisspecial subject. There is, undoubt-

568 The American Naturalist. [July,

edly, a greater difficulty in securing two qualities on a high

plane of excellence, than to obtain an extraordinary perma

ance in a single special direction.

Milk and meat production are not strictly incompatable,

and a high degree of excellence may doubtless be obtained

with both. Greater skill is, however, required to combine the

two qualities and retain them for any time, than to obtain a

high development of either of them alone. A certain bal-

ance, or equilibrium, in the expenditure of energy, must be

secured in the general purpose animal, or there will be a ten-

dency for some single quality to predominate.

A tendency to the expenditure of energy in one direction

during the period of growth, and in another direction when

maturity is reached, may be cultivated and fixed by heredity-

This principle is an important one for consideration in breed-

ing dairy stock. When a cow is giving milk the tendency, or

inherited habit of the organs of nutrition, may be to expend

the entire energies of the system in the milk producing func-

tion, and when she becomes “ dry,” the available energy may

be expended in laying on fat. The difficulty is, however, to

maintain a due balance of the two functions. If the fattening

tendency predominates, the period of giving milk may be

shortened and the activity of the function ultimately dimin-

ished. One of the best precautions against this is to retain in

perfection the milking type in the general form of the animal,

and to keep up the milk secreting function as long as possible

by proper management. Constant care in the selection and

treatment of the animals will be required to secure the most

desirable balance between the two functions, and prevent a

predominance of either.

EXERCISE AS A Factor IN IMPROVEMENT.

From the general principles already noticed, it must be seen

that the exereise of special organs, and of the general system,

are necessary to secure the highest excellence in the working

of the animal machine. We must keep in mind the fact that

the exercise of an organ or group of organs, involves an

expenditure of energy, and what is spent in one direction can-

enc a e i > E EAS eu in : $ ]

Birra EEE EEN PEIN ETE. a M ee tee due cie Em VD? ssim aire, Se i ei iy foe a MN Bar ae a betes VE ne ee ul bcn ci bd tds ERR

OSEE ee ee SERRE t URINE TT

MOTHER ea ee ane ee RR

;

1894.] Animal Mechanics. 569

not be used in another, that is to say, that work performed by

one organ diminishes the amount of energy to be expended

in work by another. Judgment is, therefore, required to

adopt the exercise, in a particular case, to the requirements of

the system for a special purpose.

The general exercise of the muscular system is undoubtedly

desirable in growing animals to secure the symmetrical devel-

opment of all organs, or parts of the body. Even in the pro-

cess of growth a bias, or tendency to the expenditure of energy

ina particular direction may be encouraged. This is illus-

trated in the Palo Alto training of youngsters. Culture and

heredity have given the remarkable development of the trotting

horse, and early culture, or training, is now looked upon as

one of the most encouraging factors in future improvement.

In the animal raised for meat production, early maturity is

essential, and the tendency to flesh forming may be encouraged

from birth. Exercise of the general system in the early stages

of growth should tend to promote the development of muscle,

or lean meat, and check the tendency to excessive fat product-

on.

While recognizing the advantages of muscular exercise dur-

ing growth, in promoting the formation of lean flesh, and a

symmetrical development of the system as a whole, we must

not overlook its unfavorable influence under other conditions.

In the case of a cow giving milk, or in that of a fattening

animal, muscular exercise must result in a diversion of energy

from the work of milk production or flesh formation. Any

considerable amount of muscular exercise by a cow giving

milk must tend to diminish both the quantity and quality of

the milk produced, or at least diminish the total amount of

the solid constituents of the product.

QUALITY oF MILK AND ENERGY.

A large mess of milk may be produced with but a small

quantity of solids, and a corresponding small expenditure of

energy. The best milk contains very much more potential

energy than poor milk, and it must cost a corresponding

expenditure of energy to produce it. In other words, more

570 The American Naturalist. [July,

work is done by the animal machine in making good milk

than in turning out an inferior article containing a larger pro-

portion of water.

Sex INFLUENCING THE TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY

CHARACTERS.

From the manner in which pedigrees are recorded in some

of the herd books, there is a tendency to overlook the char-

acteristics of the female ancestors, which, especially in the

dairy breeds, are of great importance. In the chapters on

“atavism,” and “the relative influence of parents” in my

“Stock Breeding,” a number of cases are collected showing

that sex has an influence on the transmission of characters.

A sexual alternation in the inheritance of dominant charac-

ters is often observed, female peculiarities being more strongly

transmitted to male offspring, which they in turn impress

upon their female offspring; and male characters are in the

same way transmitted by females. This should not be over-

looked in breeding dairy stock, as the milking qualities of the

grand dam frequently appear to be transmitted to her grand

daughters with greater intensity, and certainty, by her sons

than by her daughters. The female ancestors of the bull ina

dairy herd must, therefore, be of especial interest in his pedi-

gree, as an index of the qualities he will be likely to transmit

as dominant characters to his daughters.

The means of improving animals in useful qualities may be

expressed in a few general principles, and the success of the

breeder will depend upon their judicious application under the

circumstances presented in each particular case, and every

detail of practice must conform to them to secure the best

results.

The most valuable qualities of our domestic animals are the

outcome of highly artificial characters, representing a wide

departure from the original stocks from which they sprung ;

and if the same artificial conditions that produced them are

not maintained, and the selection of breeding stock is not lim-

ited to the animals that have the desired characters, they are

aii

1894.] Animal Mechanics. 571

readily impaired and finally lost. The old race characters,

under careless management, have an advantage over the more

unstable acquired characters that give the animal its greatest

value.

Pedigrees must be studied to ascertain whether all ancestors

have had the desired qualities. Cross breeding, in the widest

sense of breeding together animals of distinct breeds, would

not now be defended by any intelligent breeder, but the same

principle is frequently acted upon in breeding together differ-

ent families of the same breed, and unless there is a strong

prepotency on the one side, the advantages of such crossing

must be at least problematical.

Uniformity in hereditary characters, so far as we know, can

only be secured by breeding together animals having the

same characteristics.

The whole matter of successful breeding may be summed

up in the two words “culture” and "herédity," and in the

selection of breeding stock itis desirable that all ancestors

should have had the required form of culture, or training, in

order to secure uniformity in hereditary characters.

572 The American Naturalist. [July,

THE MEANING OF TREE-LIFE.

By Henry L. CLARKE!

(Continued from Volume 28, page 472).

It is a striking fact that the older fossil forest remains, at

least through the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic strata, present a

wonderful likeness in character the whole world over. The

wide scattering and spreading of types that this indicates, is to

be directly accounted for partly by the more frequent physi-

cal changes that took place in early geologic times, and the

constant changes and shiftings in the relative positions of con-

tinental surfaces, through upheavals and subsidences; and

in part by the wide wind-dispersion possible for the spores of

the Paleozoic Cryptogams. Past question geology makes

countless blunders in assigning strata in different parts of the

world to the same age because of likeness in their fossil flora

(and the statement holds almost equally true of fauna),

where likeness is in fact a positive proof that the strata

are not synchronous. But the chances for error in this

direction decrease from the latest to the most remote ages.

All evidences indicate more and more homogeneous climatic

and physiographic conditions as we trace the geologic record

farther and farther back.

When the low insular character of the early continents, and

the consequent increased humidity of the atmosphere extend-

ed a nearly sub-tropical climate to the poles, it is obvious

that the potency of the sun as a maker of the seasons and

and zones, counted for far less than now,—unless indeed the

sun itself were tremendously hotter then than now. But that

this last supposition is false within the history of vegetation

is proven by asimple fact. Were it true, the equatorial zone

would have been a region of such intense heat that it would

have formed an impassable barrier between the floras of the

1University of Chicago.

meee

1894.] The Meaning of Tree-Life. 573

north and south polar regions; whereas, on the contrary, we

find identical types to the far corners of both hemispheres.

It is a vitally important consideration that a slight increase

in general atmospheric humidity would have the effect of

converting the atmosphere into a heat-distributing oven.

We cannot indulge in the absurdity of asserting separate

centers of identically similar development, and we know that

the torrid zone of even the present would be impassable to per-

haps 99 7; of our far north temperate flora ; so here is proof suffi-

cient of relatively great homogeneity in the conditions of the far

past, and increasing heterogeneity thence down to the present.

Aside from the greater stability and ruggedness of modern

continents, the change that has wrought an all important

effect upon vegetation, has been the development of the

modern widely extended continental land-areas, producing a

secular diminution in the general humidity of the earth's

atmosphere, with the consequent full development of the great

climatic zones, the polar, temperate, and torrid. Probably in

the later Mesozoic and early Tertiary, this change began to

make its influence most strongly felt, and through the Tertiary

down to the present its effect has steadily and rapidly become

more and more obvious. The fact is of course not to be lost

sight of, that the highly specialized Mesozoic and Tertiary

floras would be far more susceptible than the more lowly

Paleozoie to climatie changes. But the working of these

changes has been all-powerful in making most of the problems

of geographie botany that are before us in the present, and so

we may here fittingly turn the course of our discussion in this

direction.

The progressive changes from the comparative homogeneity

of conditions in remote ages to the world-wide heterogeneity

of the present, have been recorded in the development of more

and more complex tension systems between the various factors

of vegetation. Of these systems, the most primitive was that

belonging to each individual forest, —a central stronghold of old

established types, merging into a tensional margin line of

newer, weaker forms. Wherever vegetation existed, this ten-

sion system must have existed; but while we see it in the

574 The American Naturalist. [July,

present world under an indefinite variety of aspects, probably

in Paleozoic times a study of the tensions of one forest would

have been, in the main, a study of all others. The far more

homogeneous climatic and physiographic conditions then pre-

vailing, must have meant almost as striking world-wide simi-

larity between all forest tracts, as there is now bewildering

diversity, New forms were far more rapidly dispersed from

the localities where they originated, and whereverthey migrated

they found conditions practically similar and hence equally

favorable. Thus within a comparatively brief range of time,

closely similar floras might have been found in widely separated

regions. But another factor came into play at an early period to

greatly complicate the problem—the physiographic irregulari-

ties in continental surfaces. The increasing stability of physio-

graphic features from remote toward modern times, has made

these features vastly more complicated and diverse now than

in ages past, and consequently their influence on vegetation

has become more and more profound. The earliest, as well as

all the subsequent manifestation of this influence, was

the development of a second great system of tensions—ten-

sions between the unlike vegetations of adjacent unlike coun-

try surfaces, between the swamp and the dryer plain, the flat

country and the hills the mountain sides and the valleys.

Here the tensional margin lines. of two diverse hosts of vege-

tation met and formed another tension line between their own,

and on this, the struggle for the mastery waxed fiercest, and

the evolution of highly specialized forms was most active.

Such were the two tension systems of preeminent import-

ance in the early history of plant-life; later a third came

upon the stage, brought into existence through the develop-

ment of the great climatic zones. Probably this first began to

assume decided importance,as has been pointed out,sometimein

the later Mesozoie, and increased the range of its influence

through the Cretaceous and Tertiary, till in modern times, it

has culminated in producing the broadest and most funda-

mental division of the world into great botanical realms.

That there were regions of glacial cold in Australia, India,

and Cape Colony in Carboniferous times is an undoubted fact;

1894.) . The Meaning of Tree-Life. 575

that there were regions of glacial cold in previous, as well as

several subsequent, ages is highly probable; but this does not

invalidate the general principle suggested here. The recon-

structive meteorology of the near future will probably demon-

strate that the geographical distribution ot the Carboniferous

glaciation, and of several other similar cases, is directly con-

nected with peculiar stages of continental evolution and

oceanic extension. And while such glaciations are of far-

reaching importance for their age, they are nevertheless

temporary “ perturbations ” that do not, in the long range of

time, break down the secular increase in the direct subordi-

nating of the zonal world-climate to astronomical, rather than

terrestrial, influences. From a nearly homogeneous climatic

condition throughout the world, there were gradually

developed five fairly distinct zones merging into each other

at their adjacent margins—a torrid equatorial, frigid polar,

and temperate intermediate. Their development inevitably

had a profound effect on vegetation. In the fossil forest

beds of Cretaceous times in far northern regions, there have

been found side by side Cycads, Conifers, Palms and Hard-

wood trees, a conglomeration utterly bewildering to the botan-

ist of to-day, but nevertheless a typical indication of the rela-

tively homogeneous climatic conditions of the age when such

a forest could have existed.

With such a suggestion of the Mesozoic world before us, let

us watch the great climatic zones develop. It is the tree-life

of the forests that tells the story most clearly; to it belonged

preeminently the all-important mission of remodeling the

aspect of the world’s vegetation. The trees moved their hab-

itats, and the herbaceous forms were carried along with them.

In the equatorial belt were all the conditions of heat and

moisture most favorable to the vigorous development of plant

life; in the polar regions that sternest foe, steadily increasing

cold; in the temperate belts, à compromise between the con-

ditions of the others. From the original mixed forest a

selection had to be made of the tree-groups that were to

hold dominion respectively over each of the new sets of con-

ditions. How? It will not do to say glibly, the Palms

576 The American Naturalist. |. [July,

loved the heat, the Conifers the cold, and the Hardwood trees

the happy medium. Conifers luxuriate to-day in the torrid

zone, and Hardwood trees and modern congeners of the Palms

once grew together in Greenland. No innate partiality for

heat or cold separated the three great groups, but the stern

laws of plant dynamies that determine the course of the

struggle for existence. The old established and all-powerful

tree-group, the patriarchs of the forest, were the Conifers, the

group best fitted to stem the tide of change and battle with

opposing conditions; next them in power, because most like

them in character, were the Diclinae; and weakest were

the Palms, the group whose foot hold was most precarious.

These last could hold their own against the powerful Conifers

and Diclinae only so long as climatie conditions were most

favorable. Consequently, as the cold advanced from the

polar regions the palms retreated toward the torrid zone.

Here they took their stand, their highly specialized structure

asserted its full power, and gradually they crowded out

the Conifers and Diclinae, and established preeminent domin-

ion over the equatorial belt. The Diclinae and Conifers

were crowded out, *not that they loved heat less, but tliat

they loved freedom more.” They were fitted to maintain

themselves against the cold of extratropical regions, and in

these regions they were relieved from the struggle with a.

powerful competitor, the whole family of Palms and its

associated rank luxuriance of tropical vegetation. In short,

the strength of the Palms when congested into the equatorial

belt, more than counterbalanced the loss sustained by the

coniferous and hardwood trees in the cooling of extra-

equatorial regions. And so the Palms, and with them the

remnant of their ancient allies, the Tree-ferns and Cycads,

claimed the tropics for their heritage. There was probably no

region of the world where Conifers had not gained a strong

foothold in the long course of ages; there is scarcely a corner

of the modern plant-world that does not hold some group of

them ; and it wasthe Conifere that obstinately held their own

against the cold of sub-polar lands, with the stubborn endur-

ance that four great eras of geologic time have helped to build.

1894.] The Meaning of Tree- Life. 577

The Diclinae retreated before the advancing cold into more

temperate climes, retreated in fact until they gathered strength

to wage equal battle with their mighty coniferous opponents.

Here, in the temperate zones, the Diclinae stood fast and

crowded the Conifers outward toward the polar regions, not

toward the equatorial, for there the odds againt the emigrants

would be tenfold increased. The record of this battle of the

trees is stamped upon many of the forest monarchs that we

marvel at to-day. A recent writer has well said: “Just as in

the formidable armor of some extinct armadillo one may read

somewhat of its struggles with its enemies, so in the one hun-

dred meters of solid trunk and in the massive girth of a living

Sequoia gigantea, the giant red-wood, one may learn of its

struggles in the ancient forests of Cretaceous and Tertiary

times, when its allies and competitors were alike more numer-

ous.”

The third great tension system is now unfolded before us.

We see the hardwood forests of temperate regions facing on

the one hand the congested luxuriance of equatorial vegeta-

tion, and on the other the ancient coniferous forest gathered

round the poles and step by step forced backward by advanc-

ing cold. There is a great equatorial pressure toward the

poles, and an opposing polar pressure, traceable to opposite

causes; and between them there is a broad tension line, the

temperate zones. Conway MacMillan, who was quoted just

above, has proposed a broadly generalized division of the

world into two great botanical realms, the Central Realm and

the Distal Realm. But the division should be carried a step

farther; taking the three great forest elements as a guide, we

may fully express the evolutionary history of plant dynamics

by recognizing three great divisions :—

The Central Tropical Realm, the Tensional Temperate

Realm, the Distal Sub-Polar Realm. The three merge into

each other and their elements are everywhere somewhat com-

mingled, but in the main they are fairly distinct. Such was

the general plan of the plant world of the late Tertiary,

proximate Preglacial times. The Glacial Period had a

wonderfully interesting effect in So the northern

578 The American Naturalist. [July,

portion of it. The story has been often told, but one

aspect of it will deserve further attention. Out of the various

forests of north temperate regions, we may recognize four that

are of peculiar interest. The European, the Northeast Asian,

the Appalachian, and the Pacific North American. All are

relics of the preglacial northern forest, but they are relics in

very different stages of preservation. The Northeast Asian is

a marvel to students of tree-life in the abundance and im-

mense variety of its forms. Evidently it has best preserved

the characters of the primaeval forest. The poverty of the

European forest is equally striking and has been well ex-

plained by the fact that the east and west mountain chains

and the Mediterranean to the south were fatal to the vegetation

retreating before the advancing glaciers. The Atlantic North

American, or Appalachian forest, on the contrary, was well

preserved by the physical characters of the country, and in its

perfection is second only to the Northeast Asian. But the

Pacific North American is an anomaly. It is preeminently a

forest of Conifers with an astonishing poverty of hardwood

types, although the latter are abundant as fossils in the Ter-

tiary strata of the region. But is this such an enigma as it

has often been considered? ‘The ice sheet that swept over the

Great Lakes and down into the Mississippi Valley did not

reach that Pacific forest region of the United States, but its

influence was felt there none theless surely. Before it retreat-

ed—first the Hardwood forest, and close on its heels the Coni-

ferae. The Coniferae invaded the strip along the western

slope of the Rockies, and also the great Northeastern Asian

forest region, and remained in both, about equally strong in

number of species. But in the case of the first named region

what became of the Hardwood forest that pushed ahead of the

Conifers? Behind it on the east were the Rockies ; before it

on the west the Pacific; and to the south the stern physio-

graphie obstacles of the Mexican coast. And again, what

was the character of the coniferous forest that invaded the

Pacific strip? We need only point to the two Sequoias, sem-

pervirens and gigantea, the * Big Trees" of California, the

culminating triumphs of vegetative energy in Coniferae. The

Ree a ent, Sele oe a” nD

1894.] The Meaning of Tree-Life. 579

Pacific strip became the refuge and stronghold during glacial

times of the mightiest phalanx in the North American coni-

ferous forest, and there they have stayed, simply because all

competitors perished before their invasion. Obviously the

conditions in the case of the Asian coniferous invasion were

vastly different ; while the comparative poverty of the conifer-

ous element in the Appalachian forest is directly traceable to

the strength of its hardwood element and the path of retreat

afforded the Conifers toward the north and northwest.

A remarkable example of the development of higher types

along the tensional margin-line was the glossopteris flora of the

Carboniferous glacial regions,—a flora an age ahead of that

of the rest of the world, and developed where the latter flora

was beaten back by the glacial cold.

Many details of great interest to the systematic botanist

might be outlined in this connection, but what has been

suggested suffices to show how vitally important is the

chapter of plant-history recorded in the world’s tree-life. It

will be found on comparison, that the record of the develop-

ment and migrations of shrubby and herbaceous plants closely

accords with the history of the tree-groups with which they

are most closely allied. But the stability of tree characters

vastly exceeds that of the characters of the lesser plant forms,

and hence it is these latter that vary most in passing from

one region to another. Still in this latitude we may clearly

observe that the more ancient herbaceous forms are the more

northerly in their range, and the newer the more southerly.

The equatorial belt has become the great center of develop-

mental activity, and out from its congested tension-margins

come the vanguard of our highest floral types. The coniferous

trees were all-powerful in the Mesozoic; the Hardwood trees

of the amentaceous and choripetalous Dicotyls seem to have

reached a climax of luxuriance in the late Tertiary; and out

of the great element of sympetalous Dicotyls that predominate

the herbaceous flora of the present world, there may be

developed another great tree group that shall rule the forest

of the far off future. The promise of this last is already to be

found in the arborescent Composite of certain of the Pacific

580 The American Naturalist. [July,

islands. But it is certain that forest development in the future

will follow no such clearly defined courses as in the past;

the wonderful complexity of the geographical botany of the

present has forever sealed the possibility of another distinctive

tree-group attaining such a world-wide prominence as either

the Conifers or the Diclinae or the Palms. These three must

stand alone asa unique monument to the struggle for existence

in the primaeval Mesozoic forest. For even as the conditions

of that age made possible a remarkably homogeneous plant

world, even so the great tension system of the earth’s present

vegetation makes diversity, to an equally or more remarkable

degree, the key-note of future development.

1894.] ; Lepidosirenids and Bdellostomids. 581

LEPIDOSIRENIDS AND BDELLOSTOMIDS.

By THEODORE GILL.

In the American NaruRALIST for November, 1893, Dr.

Howard Ayers has published an article “ on the genera of the

Dipnoi Dipneumones” which exhibits a characteristic—“ lump-

ing "—which, may sometimes be a virtue but which, in this

particular instance, has been exaggerated into a decided fault.

In 1885, Dr. Ayers created much astonishment among nav-

uralists familiar with the history of the Lepidosirenids by not

only refusing to admit the generic differentiation of Lepidosi-

ren and Protopterus, but by contending that the representatives

of the two genera were even specifically inseparable, and that

the American habitat of the type was doubtful !

In the article just cited, Dr. Ayers has given a reluctant and

grudging admission to specific rank of the two types but has

unqualifiedly denied their higher rank; grudgingly, because

he concludes that “if they had to be named as new discover-

ies to-day, and could be studied together in so doing, most

zoologists would include both animals in one genus, even if they

did not group them as varieties of one species” (p. cit., p. 922).

Dr. Ayers’ former article has been sufficiently answered by

Baur, Schneider, and Parker, and his last article fails to inval-

idate their contentions. I shall only add that, after a compar-

ison of the entire body as well as the skeleton of Protopterus

annectens with the descriptions and figures of the corresponding

parts of Lepidosiren paradoxa, I am convinced that no zoologist

of mature experience would hesitate to rank Lepidosiren and

Protopterus as very distinct genera.’ -

1Professor Ray Lankester, in ** Nature" for April 12, 1894, (p. 555), has an-

nounced that he recently obtained, “by purchase from a London dealer, speci-

mens of the Lepidosiren of the Amazon well preserved in spirit" (how many he

has not told). He has illustrated peculiarities in “the limbs of Lepidosiren par-

adoxa,” and we may soon expect more details from that accomplished naturalist.

582 The American Naturalist. [July,

il.

In the article in the NATURALIST (p. 923), Dr. Ayers claims

to “have ascertained that, taking all the Bdellostomids together,

they form a series in which the gill variation runs between

the minimum of 6 pairs and the maximum of 14 pairs, or a

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EXTREMES OF 8 PAIRS OF GILLS,

AND YET ALL THESE INDIVIDUALS NOT ONLY BELONG TO THE

SAME GENUS—THEY BELONG TO THE SAMESPECIES!” (Big type

and exclamation mark are Dr. Ayers’ own).

In “ Biological Lectures” delivered at Woods Holl in 1893,

lately published, is reproduced (pp. 125-161) a lecture by Dr.

Ayers on “ Bdellostoma dombeyi Lac.; A study from the Hop-

kins Marine Laboratory.” Therein Dr. Ayers has urged at

length the contention just cited and has categorically stated

that “the number of gills of individuals from different localities

varies from 6 on either side to 14 on either side, with the

observed intermediate stages” (p. 137).

Dr. Ayers’ own record of his observation (p. 140) and sum-

mary of those of his own as well as of others (p. 156) will be

an all-sufficient refutation of this claim.

“Tn the material which [he] was able to collect at Monterey,

the following proportions of the several variations prevailed :

104 individuals had 11 gills on both sides.

96 [11 [11 Tl ét [14

one side.

and 12 * * the other side.

+ 2U8 " had12 “ * both sides.

11 e " ID "- * ooo Hae

and 13 * * theother side.

8 T had13 *" * both sides.

354 total number of individmals counted.”

In his summary of observations on the number of gills, he

gives formulas for all observations as follows :—

Ee tie HIN og eee Me gee TERES E MER Oak. DR OS T Aer aes Ve Re EE e enm

ee ee a m TAMEN

UTE ns cor own usdea o beu Mc.» sbi Sos doe la cedo ligt ae iM i RC ak a ML en I al a

1894.] Lepidosirenids and Bdellostomids. 583

“Bdellostoma dombeyi 6 gills.

" » 6-7 indicating the sides of the body

« a 7.G [ Upon which the respective num-

bers occurs.

It will be noticed that there is a great gap from 7 to 10

which has been straddled, but for which there is not the

slightest observational basis. The logical fallacy involved is

too obvious to need more than pointing out,

On one hand out of 354 specimens examined by Dr. Ayers,

208 had 12 pairs of gills and 104 had 11 pairs of gills, while

26 had 11 or 12 on one side. Not a single one had less than 11.

No specimen with a smaller number than 10 has been record-

ed from the Pacific Coast.

On the other hand, of many specimens obtained in New

Zealand, South Africa, etc., all had 7 or 6 and none had more.

Are not these facts sufficient to prove the distinctness of the

two types?

(1) There is a gap of from 7 (maximum) to 10 (minimum)

at least, between the number of gills of the two types. (2)

The range of variation, considerable as it is, is limited in both

directions. (3) The differences in numbers are associated with

differences in geographical range. Certainly, then, the two

forms are specifically distinct. Are they not generically dis-

tinct ?

Dr. Ayers has truly remarked (p. 152) “It seems to have

become a settled belief among the large majority of zoologists

of both morphological and systematic proclivities, that the

number of gills found among vertebrates never rises above

584 The American Naturalist. [July,

eight pairs in existing forms.” The deviation from this

almost universal rule led me to propose the generic differ-

entiation of “ Bdellostomids with an increased number of

branchise" from those “ with typically 7 (sometimes 6).” Be

it recalled also that the former have * the base of the tongue

between the seventh or eighth pairs of gills," while the latter

have *the base of the tongue between the anterior pair of

gills.” The genera thus defined were named by me Polisto-

trema and Heptatrema (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1882, pp. 518, 520).

These have been accepted by Jordan, Gilbert, the Eigenmanns,

and others, and probably will continue to be. Dr. Ayers,

however, has urged that “these accounts all refer to the

varieties of what I shall call Bdellostoma dombeyi, adopting

Müler's genus on account of the inapplicability of Lacépéde's

Gastrobranchus, and of theinappropriateness of Cuvier's Hepta-

tremes, which could only be used for the seven-gilled form or

variety " (p. 155).

Gastrobranchus was a generic name formed for Myxine alone

and of course could not be perverted to a Bdellostomid. Hep-

tatrema can be used for the group to which it was applied with

perfect propriety, even though the species deviate in having

often 6 branchial apertures on one or both sides. A cor-

responding latitude of usage is so generally recognized by

modern zoologists, that a defense of such procedure is unnec-

essary. Even if such an extreme view prevailed, however,

there is the name Homea of Fleming available, and this was

proposed many years before Bdellostoma.

There are several other questions that deserve attention,

but I resist the temptation to consider them now.

?- The relation of the tongue muscle to the gills is of interest, and here again

we find great variability. Müller found it to lie entirely in front of the gills in

the 6 and 7 gilled forms from the Cape of Good Hope, and this condition obtains

in Myxine so far as known. In Bdellostoma with 10 or 11 gills, the base of this

muscle may lie between the 6th and 8th pair of gills according to Putnam. In

the 12 and 13 gilled forms, I have found it between the 5th, or at most, the 6th

pairs of gill-sacks.” (Ayres, p. cit., p. 139, 140). No observational basis has fill-

ed the great gap between the “front of the gills” and the interspace between

the 5th pair!”

1894.] The Origin of Pelagic Life. ; 585

THE ORIGIN OF PELAGIC LIFE.

(From Pror. W. K. Brooks.)

Chapters VII and VIII of Brooks Memoir on Salpa em-

brace a discusssion of this genus in its relation to the evolution

of life, and in order to clearly present its position and signifi-

cance in the economy of nature the author discusses at some

length the conditions under which oceanic life has been

evolved. He notes first that the marine animals are almost

exclusively carnivorous. They prey upon each other to an al-

most incredible extent, and were it not for the extraordinary

fertility of pelagic organisms the rapacity of the higher forms

of life would bring about their own extermination. Mr.

Brooks, in commenting on the abundance of marine life, in-

stances the great schools of mackerel, the hunters of herring,

which in turn swarm like locusts. In 1879, three hundred

thousand river herring were landed by a single haul of the

seine in Albemarle Sound; but the herrings feed upon cope-

pods, each one consuming myriads every day. In spite of

this destruction and the ravages of armies of medusæ, siphon-

ophores and pteropods, the fertility of the copepods is so great

that they are abundant in all parts of the ocean, and not only

on the surface, for banks of them are sometimes a mile thick.

On one occasion the Challenger steamed for two days through

a dense cloud formed of a single species. But upon what do

the copepods feed? And this brings the author to the impor-

tant factors in the food supply of the animals of the ocean.

The basis of all the life in the modern ocean is to be sought

in the microorganisms of the surface. They consist of a few

simple unicellular plants, and the globigerinæ and radiolaria

which feed upon them. These organisms are so abundant

and so prolific that they meet all demands made upon them.

They are not only the fundamental food supply, but, accord-

ing to the author, the primæval supply which has determined

the whole course of the evolution of marine life.

586 The American Naturalist. [July,

Sameness of environment and lack of competition for space

have tended to make pelagic plant life retain its primitive

simplicity, but existing apparently under the same conditions

is an infinite variety of animal life. How can this be ac-

counted for? In tracing the phylogeny of Salpa, Mr. Brooks

finds that the structure which is so well adapted for life on

the high seas has come to it by the inheritance of peculiarities

originally acquired by bottom animals in adaptation to the

needs of a sessile life. In this connection the author states

that the majority of the present pelagic animals have not been

produced at the surface of the ocean by gradual evolution

from a simple pelagic ancestor, but that part of their family

history has been worked out by individuals who colonized —

upon or near the bottom, or along the sea shore, or upon the

land, and the exceptions are all simple animals of minute size.

He reviews the chief groups of metazoa to demonstrate this

fact and gives, as notable exceptions, some of the veiled

meduse, a few of the primitive annelids, possibly, and the

copepods among the crustacea. Among the higher forms, the

fishes, which at first sight would seem to have been pelagic

from the beginning, so admirably are they fitted for life in

the open water, are found upon examination to be only sec-

ondarily adapted to a pelagic life, like the sea-birds and the

cetaceans.

Mr. Brooks bases these statements on evidence from paleon-

tology, from embryology, and from the structure and habits

of living animals.

In discussing the conditions under which the primitive pe-

lagic fauna lived, and the comparative results of pelagic and

bottom environment upon marine life, the author points out.

that while the animals which first settled on the bottom prob-

ably did not secure more food than did their floating allies,

they obtained it with less effort and were able to devote their

surplus energy to growth and multiplication. The rapid mul-

tiplication led to crowding and competition, prevented the in-

flux of newcomers from the open water, and finally resulted in

the elaboration and specialization of the types of structure al-

ready established. Evolution was rapid, for life at the bottom

Wome ia ate dU Y EET ER i a: dba ra METER NE

TWO ee ee ee TERI

1894.] The Origin of Pelagic Life. 587

introduced many and new opportunities for divergent modifi-

cations.

Another result was the escape of varieties from competition

with their allies by flight from the crowded bottom to the

open water above. The influence of these emigrants upon

strictly pelagic forms is seen in the evolution at the surface of

complicated forms like the siphonophores. But, on the whole,

ocean space is so great and conditions of life in open water so

easy that many of the pelagic organisms retain their primitive

simplicity, existing simultaneously with the large and highly

organized invaders from the shore and bottom.

The colonization of the bottom formed an important era in

the evolution of marine life and the author devotes a section

to a consideration of the characteristics of this primitive fauna

of which the following is a summary:

“1. It was entirely animal, and it at first depended directly

upon the pelagic food supply.

“2. It was established around elevated areas and in water

deep enough to be beyond the influence of the shore.

“3. The great groups of metazoa were rapidly established

from pelagic ancestors.

“4. There was a rapid increase in the size of the bottom

animals and hard parts were quickly acquired.

* 5. The bottom fauna soon produced development among

pelagic animals.

“6, After the establishment of the bottom fauna, elabora-

tion and differentiation among the representatives of each

primitive type soon set in and led to the extinction of the

connecting forms."

In comparing these characteristics with those of the earliest.

known fauna as sketched by Walcott, Mr. Brooks finds that in

going backward toward the lower Cambrian he finds a closer

and closer agreement with the biological conception of the

primitive life at the bottom. And while he does not regard

the Olenellan fauna as the first bottom fauna, since it contains

forms secondarily adapted to pelagic life, such as pteropods,

still, ^a biologist must regard it as an unmistakable approx-

imation to the primitive fauna of the bottom, beyond which

588 The American Naturalist. [July,

life was represented only by simple and minute pelagic organ-

isms.”

Mr. Brooks’ point of view, then, is that marine life is older

than terrestrial; it has shaped itself in relation to its food

supply; this food supply, the microorganisms referred to

above, is the only form of life which is independent and it

therefore must be the oldest; from these simple types the pe-

lagic ancestors of all the great groups of metazoa were slowly

evolved until the colonization of the bottom, when a rapid ad-

vancement took place; the present highly differentiated

forms which constitute the ocean fauna are the descendants of

the colonizers, while the lower pelagic forms are the lineal rep-

resentatives of the primitive forms, some of which are slightly

modified by the influence of the emigrants from the shore and

bottom.

1894.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 589

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

ABBOTT, W. L.—Notes on the Natural History of Aldabra, Assumption and

‘Glorioso Islands, Indian Ocean. Extr. Proceeds. U. S. Natl. Mus., Vol. XVI,

1893. From theauthor

ALLEN, J. A.—Description of a New Mouse from Lake Co., California. ——

Description of a new species of Geomys from Costa Rica. Extr. Bull. Am. Mus.

Nat. Hist., Vol. V, 1893. . From the author.

ASHMEAD, W. H.—Monograph of the North American Proctotrypidae. Bull.

No.'45, U. S. Natl. Mus, 1893. From the Smithsonian Institution.

Ayres, H.—On the M. Flexor Accessorius of the Human and Feline Foot.

Es a i 1893. From the author.

CHE, —Reply to Mr. F. M. Thom’s Specifications in opposition to the

nomination of p Bache for cm Superindency of the Coast and Geodetic Sur-

vey. Phila., 1894. From the author.

BRAZIER, J.—Catalogue of the Marine Shells of Australia and Tasmania. Pt.

III. mie Murex. Sydney, 1893. From the Australian Museum.

CHAPMAN, F. M.—On the Birds of the Island of Trinidad. Extr. Bull. Am.

Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. VI, 1894. From the author.

CLAYPOLE, E. J.—An Investigation of the Blood of Necturus and Crypto-

branchus. Extr. Proceeds. Amer. Micros. Soc., Vol. XV, 1893. From the

author.

Cook, O. F.—Notes on Myriapoda from Loanda, Africa, collected by Mr. Heli

Chatelaine, including a description of a new genus and species. Extr. Proceeds.

U. S. Natl. Mus., Vol. XVI, 1893. From the Smithsonian Institution.

Dames, H. W.—Ueber das Vorkommen von Ichthyopterygian im Tithon Argen-

tinens. Abruck. a. d. Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. geol. Gesell. Jahrg. 1893. From

the author.

Eisen, G.—On California Eudrilidae. Extr. Mem. Cal. Acad. Sci., Vol. II,

1894. From the Academy. :

ErLtis, H.—Democracy in the Kitchen. A Noviciate for Marriage. No date

iven.

GILL, T.—The proper Generic Name of the Tunnies. Extr. Proceeds. U. S.

vea EME Vol. XVI. From the author

t, M.— Observations sur les Restes s a Elephants du sud-ouest de la France.

fi la fin du quaternaire, dans le sud-ouest

dela France. Extrs. Compte rendu de = Soc. d’Hist. Nat. de Toulouse, 1893.

From the author.

Janes, L. G.—The Brooklyn Ethical Association. Its Objects, History and

Membership. Brooklyn, 1893. From the author

Keyes, C. R.—Crustal Adjustment in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Extr.

Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 5, 1894. From the Societ

Lypekker, R.—On some Bird-bones from the Mioi of Grieve-St-Alban,

F: Extr. Proceeds. Zool. Soc. London, June, 189.

. ——On a Mammalian Incisor from the Wealden of Hastings. Extr. Quart.

Journ. Geol. Soc., August, 1893. From the author.

590 The American Naturalist. [July,

Maps to accompany the Annual Report (new series) Vol. V, 1890-91. Geol.

Surv. of Canada. From the Survey

Mercer, H. C.—The Lenape Stone; or the Indian and the Mammoth. New

- York, 1885. From the author.

MERRILL, H. B.—The Structure and Affinites of Bunops scutifrons Birge.

Extr. Trans. Wise. Acad. Sci., IX. From the author.

MILLER, S. A. AND GURLEY, Wm. F. E.—Descriptions of some new species of

Invertebrates from the Paleozoic Rocks of Illinois and adjacent States. Bull.

No. 3, Ill. State Mus. Nat. Hist,, Springfield, Ill.. 1893. From the authors.

Mitsukuri, K.—On the Process of Gastrulation in Chelonia. Extr. Journ.

Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ., Japan, 1893. From the anthor.

Morean, T. H.—Experimental Studies on Echinoderm Eggs. Abdruck aus

Anat. Anz. IX, Bd., 1893. From the author.

MUYBRIDGE, E.— Descriptive Zoopraxography. Philadelphia, Pa., 1893. From

the author.

NuTTING, C. C.—Report of Committee on Iowa Fauna.—— Significance of eel

concealed Crests of Fly-Catchers. President's Address. Extr. Pr oceeds. Iow

Acad. Sciences. No date given. Fromthe author.

OsBoRN, H.—Fruit and Forest Tree Insects. Extr. Report of the Iowa State

Agric. Soc. 1892. From the author.

PACKARD, A. S.—Study of the Transformations and Anatomy of Lagoa cris-

pata, a Bombycine Moth. Extr. Proceeds. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol. XXXII, 1893.

From the author.

Penrose, R. A. F., Jr.—The Chemical Relation of Iron and Manganese in

Sedimentary Rocks. Extr. Journ. Geol, Vol. I, 1893. From the author.

Proceedings of The International Congress of Prehistoric Archeology and

Anthropology. 2d Session at Moscou, August, 1892. T. II, Moscou, 1893.

Proceedings Congrés International de Zoologie. Deuxiéme Session à Moscou

Aofit, 1892. Moscou, 1893.

Records of the American Society of Naturalists. Vol. I, Pt. 11. Boston, 1894.

From the Society.

Report of the Trustees of the Australian Museum for 1892. . New South Wales,

1893. From the Museum.

Risot, TH.— The Diseases of Personality. Chicago, 1894. From the Open

Court Pub.

Ripeway, R.—Catalogue of a Collection of Birds made in Alaska by Mr. C.

H. Townsend during the cruise of the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer Albatross

in 1888.

—— Description of a New Geothlypis from Brownsville, Texas. Extr. Pro-

ceeds. U. S. Natl. Mus, Vol. XVI. From|thefauthor.

Röse, C.—Contributions to the Histogeny and Histology of Bony and Dental

Tissues. Extr. Dental Cosmos, Nov. and Dec., 1893. From the author.

RoTHPLETZ, A.—Ein Geologischer Gensko durch die Ost-Alpen nebst

Anhang über die Sog. Glarner Doppelfalte. Stuttgart, 1894. From E. Schwei-

zerbart’sche Verlagshandlung.

SCHIMKEWITSCK, W. M.—On the Pantopodes Peta off the west coast of

— and in the Gulf of California, in charge of Alex. Agassiz, carried on by

the U. S. Fish Com. steamer Albatross, during Lr» Extr. Bull. Mus. Comp.

Zool. Harv. Coll, Vol. XXV, 1893. From the Muse

1894.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 591

SIEBENROCK, F.—Das Skelet von Uroplates fimbriatus Schneid. Separatabdruck

aus Ann. des K. K. Naturh. Hofmus. Band VIII. Wien, 1893. From the

uthor.

STEARNS, R. E. C.— Notes on Recent Collections of North American Land,

Fresh-water and Marine Shells received from the U. S. Dept. Agri. Extr. Pro-

ceeds. U. S. Natl. Mus., Vol. XVI, 1893. From the Smithsonian Institution.

STEJNEGER, L. -Description of a new species of Blind Snake ( Typhlopidae)

from the Congo Free Stat

——On some SEN of Reptiles and Batrachians from East Africa and the

adjacent Islands.

—— Remarks on Japanese Quails. Extr. Proceeds U. S. Natl. Mus, Vol.

XVI, 1893. From the Smithsonian enpa

TARR, R. S.—Notes on the Physical Geography of Texas. Extr. Proceeds.

Phil. Acad. Sciences, 1893. From re author.

TRUE, F. W.—Description of Sitomys decolpves from Central America.

the Relationship of Taylor’s ARE cpa taylorii. Extrs. Proceeds. U. S. Nat.

Mus., Vol. XVI. From the author.

TRUMBULL, M. M.—The Free teat in England. Open Court Pub. Company,

eme "eim From the Pub. Co.

N, T. B.—Ernst Heckel, His Works, Career and Prophecy. Evolu-

tion n Series x. 2. New York, 1891. From the author.

WAR . F.—Status of the Mind Problem. No date given. From the

author.

WILLIAMS, G. H.—The Distribution of Ancient Volcanie Rocks along the east-

ern border of North America. Extr. Journ. Geol, Vol. II, 1894. From the.

author.

. Woopwarp, A. S.—The Evolution of Sharks’ Teeth. Extr. Nat. Sci, Nov., .

1892. From the author.

592 The American Naturalist. [July,.

RECENT LITERATURE.

Gage's Microscope and Microscopical Methods.'—Some

years ago we noticed one of the previous editions of this work, prepared

for the use of the Students of Cornell University. The present, the

fifth edition, is greatly enlarged and forms a most valuable guide to

the microscope as an optical instrument, showing the use of each part,

the means of testing and using it, correcting its faults, ete. Follow.

ing this portion comes some more special directions for its use in

spectroscopic and polariscopic work and in photography, together with

a chapter on the mounting of slides in which every aspect of the sub-

ject, from the measuring of the thickeness of the cover glass to the

labelling and storage of the slides is discussed, excepting that the stain-

ing and sectioning of the specimen is left for a second part which is

announced as in preparation. This second part will deal with the use

of the Microscope in Vertebrate Histology, and with the two volumes

the student will not often meet with questions of technique in this line

which cannot be answered by referring to this vade mecum. The work

is well printed and is a credit to Comstock Publishing Company which

issues it. It is well illustrated with 103 cuts while the fact that every

_ other page is left blank, allows the student opportunity to add notes.

The work will doubtless be used in many other laboratories than that

for which it is especially preparared.

Shufeldt on Chapman’s Birds of Trinidad.—To the Editors

of THE AMERICAN NATURALIST:

DEAR Sirs :—In your issue for April, 1894, p. 332, I find a review

of a paper by me on Trinidad birdsin which, much to my surprise, the

reviewer charges me with an attempt to place all but Passerine birds

in the order Macrochires! I had intended in this paper to give the

names of the sixteen orders which have representatives in the Trinidad

avifauna, and under each order the families which most Ornithologists

now believe to belong in it. Ina vain endeavor, however, to hurry

my paper through the press before sailing on a second voyage to

Trinidad, the last half of the copy was unfortunately sent to the printer

before the slips giving the names of orders and families had been

1 The Microscope and Mi pical Methods by Simon Henry Gage. Ithaca,

1894, pp. viii, 165.—$1.50.

fy i sas al lh dl dl coe EE ta

SUPERINDE ag rd

1894.] Recent Literature. 593

inserted. I did not see proof and the error was noticed too late for

correction.

The fact that not only the names of orders but also those of families

are wanting after * Macrochires” and “ Trochilide,” should, I think,

have suggested to so practiced a reviewer that there was a lapsus some-

where.

It is certainly bad enough to be accused of trying to classify all but

the Passeries in one order, but when it logically follows—and in this

case it does—that one is also accused of attempting to crowd the. same

heterogeneous assemblage into the family Frochilid I must, in justice

to myself, plead not guilty.

Very truly yours,

| RANK M. CHAPMAN.

American Museum Natural History, New York City. May 24,

1894.

Annual Report Minnesota Natural History Survey for

1892.'—The important papers incorporated with this report are as

follows: The Geology of Kekequabie Lake with special reference to

an augite-soda granite, by Mr. U. S. Grant ; Report of a reconnoisance

in northwestern Minnesota in 1892, J. E. Todd ; and Field Observa-

tions of N. H. Winchell in 1892. A feature of general interest is a

table of comparative nomenclature prepared by the State Geologist.

This table gives the Minnesota Strata in order; the stratigraphy of the

Wisconsin reports issued under the direction of Prof. Chamberlain ;

the terms used by the present Michigan survey; and the general

terms used by the United States and Cananian geological surveys.

These separate series are arranged so that one can see at a glance the

supposed equivalents.

1The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. The Twenty-first

Report, for the year 1892. N. H. Winchell, State Geologist. Minneapolis, 1893.

594 The American Naturalist. [July,

General Notes.

GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.

Schlosser on American Eocene Vertebrata in Switzer-

land.'—Dr. Max Schlosser has recently’ reviewed the work of Prof.

Riitimeyer of Basel on the “ Eocene Fauna of Egerkingen.” In this

memoir Dr. Riitimeyer endeavored to show that there have been

found on the Eocene bed of Egerkingen, Switzerland, certain genera of

Mammalia which were previously discovered in North America, and

had not been known from any part of Europe up to that time. These

fossils he named as follows.

Tillodonta. Calamodon europeus.

Quadrumana. Hyopsodus jurensis ; Pelycodus helveticus.

Condylarthra. Phenacodus europeus; P. minor; Protogonia cartie-

vii; Meniscodon pictetit.

Dr. Schlosser makes the following critical observations on these

species.

He considers the Calamodon’ europæus to be well established.

Hyopsodus jurensis is probably an Artiodactyle allied to Dichobune.

The Pelycodus helveticus is a lemuroid, but of a genus different from

Pelycodus. Phenacodus minor is probably a Creodont, while the P.

europeus, Protogonia cartierii and Meniscodon pictetii, Dr. Schlosser

thinks belong to a single genus, which he thinks is Protogonia (Eupro-

togonia). He doubts whether the teeth, on which the three species

are founded, belong to distinct species.

Asa result Schlosser concluded that Riitimeyer in correct in determin-

ing the American genera Calamodon (Conicodon) and Protogonia, (Eu-

protogonia) as occurring in the Egerkingen formation. The lemuroids

and creodont are of types common to both continents, while the Dichob-

unid is European in relationship.

Schlosser further remarks, that a boreal fauna, such as exists at pre-

sent, was unknown during the Cenozoic ages. Europe was the home

1 Zodlogischer Anseiger, 1894, no. 446, p. 157.

? A genus of birds has been named Calamodus, a name which is in my opinion

abundantly distinct from Calamodon. As, however, there are persons who, like

the American Ornithologists Union, will make this resemblance an excuse for

changing the name, I suggest that they call it Conicodon, from the shape of the

as distinguished from those of Stylinodon.

See ATEA ee. RUNE Ph ee EER A I NR SAC se Om UT INIRE

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 595

of the Artiodactyla except Oreodontide and Tylopoda, of the true

Carnivora, and the Monkeys (except the S. American). North

America was the home of the Perissodactyla and Amblypoda, and the

ancestors of the monkeys and carnivora, during that time.

The Skull of Pisodus owenii.—It is now a well-established fact

that many types of Teleostomous fishes have undergone very little change

since the Eocene, or even since the latter part of the Cretaceous period.

Several well-defined genera seem to date back thus far, and others are

represented by forms that differ in but small particulars. Moreover,

a few of the most remarkable specializations in piscine skeletal anato-

my chatacterizing the existing faüna are already recognizable in certain

closely related Eocene types, and the progress of discovery is continu-

ally adding to the number of known examples. A most striking new

case has been lately met with by the present writer among the fishes

from the London Clay (Lower Eocene), and this forms the subject of

the following notes.

So long ago as 1845, Sir Richard Owen described and figured the

tritural dentition of an unknown fish form the London Clay of the Isle

of Sheppey under the name of Pisodus oweni (ex. Agassiz MS.). The

original specimen is preserved iri the Museum of the Royal College of

Surgeons, and exhibits an ovate pavement of small rounded or poly-

gonal teeth firmly fixed in shallow sockets upon a plate of true bone.

Appearances suggested to Sir Richard Owen that the fossil had been

attached to another bone of the skull, most probably, as in Glos-

sodus and Sudis, to a median bone of the hyoid system. Agassiz, who

first examined the specimen, supposed it might pertain to a so-called

Pyenodont Ganoid; and in Owen’s Paleontology (edit. 2, 1861, p.

174) Pisodus is also doubtfully quoted as a “Ganoid” of uncertain

position.

It now appears from a nearly complete skull in the British Museum

that the problematical fossil in question is the parasphenoid dentition

of a fish remarkably similar in eranial characters to the recent Clupeoid

"Albula. The fact has already been incidentally mentioned in a record

of the discovery of Pisodus in the Middle Eocene of Beligium; and it

only remains to justify, by a detailed description and figures, the recog-

nition of an Albula-like fish at so remote a period as that of the Lower

Eocene. Dr. Shufeldt's admirable description of the skull of the

recent Albula vulpes fortunately suffices for requisite comparison.

(Dr. Smith Woodward in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 6, Vol. XI, 1893.)

596 The American Naturalist. [July,

Geological News, Cenozoic.—In studying the origin of Lake

Cayuga, Mr. R. S. Tarr, has become a convert to the rock-basin theory

of lake formation. In a paper recently published he shows that the

preglacial tributaries to the Cayuga valley are rock enclosed and that

their lowest points are above the present lake surface. This the

author holds to be proof positive that Lake Cayuga is a rock-basin.

If this be true, a similar course of reasoning would suggest that Lake

Ontario is also a rock-basin, from the fact that the preglacial Cayuga

River flowed north and was tributary to a river which drained

Ontario, and whose channel was above the present surface of the lake.

(Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 5, 1894.)

The recognition of the extension of the Pine Barren flora of New

Jersey through Staten Island, Long Island, Nantucket, Southern

Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, suggests to Mr. Arthur Hollick a

theory of a continued existence of land connection between New Jersey

and southeastern New England, by way of Long Island, during a suffi-

cient time after the final recession of the glacier, for the pine barren

flora to have spread and become established there. This theory would

seem to be supported by the position and configuration of the chain of

islands to the east of Long Island Sound, and by the geological history

of this region. If Mr. Hollick’s views are correct Long Island, Block

Island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, etc., as we now know them,

have not been snbmerged since the final retreat of the glacier, and

their separation into islands is a comparatively modern phenomenon

due to erosion, and the depression of the costal plain. (Taans. New .

York, Acad. Sci. Vol., XII, 1893.)

A new theory of the origin of Drumlins has been advanced by Mr.

Warren Upham, viz.; they are the result of the accumulation of

englacial drift. The author offers the following explanation of the

manner of the accumulation. The upper current of the thickened

ice above the englacial bed of drift would move faster than the drift,

which in like manner would outstrip the lower current of the ice in

contact with the ground. Close to the glacial boundary the upper ice

must have descended over the lower part. This differential and shear-

ing movement gathered the stratum of englacial drift into the great

lenticular masses or sometimes longer ridges of the drumlins, thinly

underlain by ice and over-ridden by the upper ice flowing downward

to the boundary and bringing with it the formerly higher part of the

drift stratum to be added to these growing drift accumulations. The

courses of the glacial currents are not determined by the topography

of the underlying land, but by the contour of the ice surface. (Pro-

ceeds. Boston, Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXVI, 1893.)

SEE P OR

1894.] Mineralogy. 597

MINERALOGY.’

Contributions to Swedish Mineralogy, Part I:—In this

paper Sjögren? has given in English a very interesting series of crys-

tallographical studies. The well known but rare axinite from Nord-

marken is reexamined. In addition to the tabular crystals described

by Hisinger and v. Rath’s prismatic type, a third type of smaller

erystals is identified having neither the tabular nor the prismatic hab-

its and highly modified. —Hedyphane which is closely related chemi-

cally to the members of the apatite group, particularly mimetite, has

been supposed to possess monoclinic symmetry on the basis of Des

Cloiseaux’s determination in 1881. Sjógren has examined crystals

from the Harstigen mine in Wermland and finds that both crystallo-

graphically and optically hedyphane is hexagonal. The crystals

examined exhibited the forms oP, o» P, P, 4P, 2P, P2, 2P2, and clear-

ly belong to the apatite group. Another member of the apatite group

is discovered in Sjégren’s new mineral svabite, which occurs in scheffer-

ite at the Harstigen mine. Svabite is a hydrous calcium arsenate of

the composition indicated by the formula HO Ca, As, O,, in which the

hydroxyl appears to be part replaced by chlorine and fluorine. The

mineral is crystallographically like apatite and exhibits the forms

æ P, P, P2, oP. Thesame mineral was found at Jacobsberg, enclosed

in hausmannite. A very exhaustive study is made of the minerals of

the humite group, all of which are found at Nordmarken. No less

than 29 forms were observed on chondrodite from this locality, and

these include the six new forms, + 3P,—1P,--1P,—i P3,+ P2, — 5 Pi.

The humite of the locality showed 20 and the clinohumite 26 forms, all

of which have been observed on Vesuvian crystals. A probable

fourth member of the humite group which occurs at Nordmarken, is

announced in this paper. Three new analyses of longbanite are con-

tributed, on the basis of which the formula of the mineral is given as

m Sb,O, n Fe, O, p R'"R"O, in which R'—Mn and Si, and R"—Mn, Ca,

and Mg. Thesymmetry of the mineral is shown to be rhombohedral, this

and the chemical constitution indicating its isomorphous relation with

hematite and ilmenite. Adelite is the name given to a new basic

arseniate from Nordmarken, Jacobsberg and Longban, having the for-

1Edited by Dr. Wm. H. Hobbs, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

Bull. of the Geol. Inst. of Upsala, I; No. 1, (1892), pp. 1-64, pls. I-IV.

. 598 The American Naturalist. [July,

mula 2CaO, 2MgO, H,O, AsO, The symmetry of the mineral is

monoclinic and its relationships, both chemical and crystallographi-

cal, are with triploidite, wagnerite and sarkinite.

Optical Methods :—Friedel? has devised a new method for deter-

mining the double refraction in thin sections of minerals on the stage

of the ordinary petrographieal microscope. The method makes use of

the quarter undulation mica plate. The nicols are crossed and the

slide is raised a short distance above the stage on thin blocks, so as to

allow of the introduction of the mica plate between the slide and the

stage. The stage is now revolved until the directions of extinction

make 45° with the principal sections of the nicols. The mica plate is

introduced below the slide and carefully turned without moving the

stage until that portion lying outside the mineral plate is extinguished.

By now revolving the polarizer, the mineral can be extinguished or

given the same illumination as the mica plate. The observations are

made in monochromatic light. If the positive direction of the mineral

plate passes through the upper right quadrant of the field and the

positive direction of the mica plate coincides with the vertical cross

hair, the polarizer should be revolved to the right, the angle v required

to produce extinction, and the angle e, required to produce equal

illumination of mineral plate and mica plate, yielding ¢ the difference

in phase produced in the mineral section. The forutulas are ó— e,

and /—2e, The greater part of the paper is devoted to methods of

evaluating errors in the process.

Harker* has determined trigonometrically the values of the extinct-

ion angle in prismatie cleavage flakes of augite and hornblende, as

dependent on the optical angle and the extinction angle in the plane

of symmetry. His tables of values will be convenient for reference,

but as he points out, the variation in the values with 2V is not great

enough to determine the optical angle from measurements of the pris-

matic and clinopinacoidal extinction angles.

Isotypism :—Rinne’ compares crystals of the metals with crystals

of their oxides, sulphides, hydroxides and haloid compounds. He

points out that in this comparison we find strikingly close relation-

ships between bodies markedly different chemically, and these relation-

ships do not consist simply in identity of crystal symmetry, but in

*Bull. Soc. Franc. Minér., XVI; 19 (1893).

*Min. Mag., X (No. 47), p. 239.

5Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1894, (I) pp. 1-55.

PEER ee NN SORT

ie E

1894.] Mineralogy. 599

close approximation to a type as regard tal shape ( Krystallgestalt)

and interfacialangles. Even when the symmetry of two ‘substances i is

not identical, he makes comparison of the crystal shape as, e. g., between

a cube and a rhombohedron with polar edge approaching 90°. The

author distinguishes seven types as follows: I regular type (isometric),

II magnesium type (hexagonal and pseudo-hexagonal—orthorhombic),

III arsenic type (rhombohedral), IV quartz type (hexagonal tetarto-

hedral) V @ tin type (tetragonal), VI rutile type (tetragonal and

poeudo-tetragona]-orthorhombie), VII £ tin type (orthorhombic and

pseudo ). Every group but the fourth con-

tains metals and this type Rinne considers as derivable from the third

or arsenic type. Many oxides, etc., have their crystal forms to some

extent indicated in the forms of their contained metals. The term

isotypism is proposed to describe these crystallographical relations

between members of different divisions of the chemical mineral system.

The author further states, “ It must now be accepted as a fact that such

substances ” (elements, oxides, sulphides, haloid salts, and even silicates,

which have been grouped together under his various types) “ possess

equivalent or very similar crystal forms, and it follows that the chemical

differentiation into elements, oxides, salts, ete., finds no crystallograph-

ical expression, and therefore no independent, certain conclusion as to

the chemical group to which a compound belongs can be drawn from

its crystal form.”

Lamellar Structure in Quartz Crystals.—In an “additional

note on the lamellar structure of quartz crystals and the methods by

which it is developed,” Professor Judd* describes and figures a remark-

ably beautiful instance of lamellar structure in quartz, in which he

sees a close analogy with the “rippled fracture” which he finds can be

produced in quartz crystals by breaking them in a powerful vice along

a plane perpendicular to the optic axis. The appearance of such

fractures is very much like that of *engine-turned surfaces.” This

appearance is caused by ridges following the planes R and -R, which

are often curved and die out in the manner of plagioclase lamelle.

From a study of the lamellie in an equatorial section of quartz sup-

posed to be one of those investigated by Brewster, Professor Judd con-

cludes that quartz is dimorphous. What' he calls “stable quartz”

shows no tendency to assume a lamellar structure, whereas “ unstable

quartz" constantly exhibits such a tendency. ‘The latter variety is

usually amethystine. The lamelle consist of alternating bands of

"Min. Mag., X, p. 123.

600 The American Naturalist: [July,

right and left handed quartz. When they are bent or disturbed they

furnish biaxial interference figures. Many crystals are composed of

both stable and unstable quartz, the relative positions of which show

some relation to the symmetry of the crystal. ‘Such crystals, or crys-

tals composed entirely of unstable quartz, have the lamelle induced

by great mechanical stresses. The fact that the structure is only

faintly induced and that very near the fracture in artificially crushed

crystals, is explained by the short time during which the stress is

applied, permanent structure being produced only after a long applica-

tion of the stress.

1894.] Petrography. 601

PETROGRAPY:

Contact Effects around Saxon Granites.— The effects of the

granite and syenite of Lausitz, of the granitite of Markersbach and of

the tourmaline granite of Gottleube upon the rocks through which

they cut in the Elbthalgebirge in Saxony, are concisely described by

Beck? The members of the phyllite formation and the beds of Cam-

brian, Silurian and Devonian age, whatever may have been their

nature, have all undergone contact metamorphisen near ther junction

with the eruptives. During the process of altergtion there seems to

have been little addition of material to the metamorphosed rocks, as

all the contact products when originating from the same member of

the bedded series are the same, irrespective of the nature of the meta-

morphising eruptive. The great variety in the contact products of the

region is due solely to differences in the character of the originals of

the altered rocks. The phyllites have been changed to ‘Fruchtshiefer’

and into andalusite mica schists, chlorite gneisses into biotite gneiss,

and feldspathic quartzites into hornfels. The Silurian slates near

the contacts have become hornstones and knotty schists, carbonaceous

quartz schists have changed into graphitic quartzites, graywackes and

marbles have been made crystalline, and the latter rock has in many

cases been changed into a cale-silicate aggregate, which has been

impregnated with ore masses, presumably originally in the granitite

with which the limestones were in contact. Diabases and diabase

tuffs in proximity to the intrusive rocks have been amphibolized. The

Devonian rocks have suffered the same alterations as the corresponding

Silurian ones, and in addition there has been formed a gneiss-like rock

whose predecessor among the clastics is unknown. A large number of

contact minerals are discussed at length by the author, chief among

them being quartz, plagioclase, cardierite and graphite. The article is

full of instructive suggestions though nothing of striking novelty is

met with in it.

The Schists of the Malvern Hills.—Callaway? has published

a final summary of the conclusions based on seven years work in the

Malvern Hills. He reiterates his belief that the schists of the region

'Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, roped University, Waterville, Me.

?Min. u. Petrog. Mitth. XIII, p

*Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., Xr p p. 398.

602 The American Naturalist. [July,

are squeezed eruptives, and discusses the physical, mineralogical and

chemical changes that have effected the alteration of the granites and

diorites into gneisses and schists of various kinds. His conclusion

that a sericite schist may be derived from diorite and that biotite is

often an alteration product of chlorite are both of great interest. In

the change of a massive into a schistise rock, the author states that the

former “ passes through the intermediate state of a laminated grit,

which thus simulates a true sediment, the subsequent stages of alter-

ation and cementation resembling the process of metamorphism in

some bedded rocks.” In the production of the foliation there is de-

composition of the original components of the massive rock and a re-

construction of new, minerals largely from these decomposition pro-

ducts. In the Malvern Hill rocks orthoclase has been replaced by

quartz and muscovite, plagioclase by quartz and muscovite, chlorite by

biotite and white mica, and biotite by a white mica. A number of

analyses appear in the paper to illustrate the chemical changes that

have accompanied the physical ones through which the respective

rocks have passed,

A Soda-Rhyolite from the Berkeley Hills, Cal.—In the

Contra Costa Hills near Berkeley, California, are occurrences of a

voleanie flow that has been investigated by Palache, who recognizes

three facies of the rock. In the first, the porphyritic phase, pheno-

erysts of quartz and feldspar are abundantly disseminated through a

micro-grauular aggregate of the same minerals. The second phase is

characterized by the possession of numerous small spherulites in a

glassy matrix, in which are a few small grains of magnetite and some

feathery aggregates of chaleedony. The third phase is a glass con-

taining tiny microlites of feldspar and grains of magnetite. Analyses

of the different types indicate that the material of each type has the

composition of a soda-rhyolite. The spherulitic variety which is inter-

mediate between the other two, in its acidity is composed as follows:

SiO, ALO, ar CaO MgO K,O Na,O H,O Total Density

75.46 13.18 95 .10 1.09 688 .93 = 99.50 2.42

Diabases from Rio Janeiro, Brazil.—Sections from a series of

twelve diabase dykes from Rio Janeiro, Brazil, have been investigated

by Hovey,’ with some interesting results. The chemical composition

*Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ, Cal., Vol. 1, p. 61.

5Min. u. Petrog, Mitth. XIII, p. 211,

1894.] Petrography. 603

of all the dykes is practically the same. Their mineral composition

and structure, however, vary. In the largest dykes the number of

constituents discovered is much greater than in the smaller ones. They

embrace the usual diabase components with the addition of a light col-

ored sahlitie pyroxene differing from the sahlite of Sala in the value

of its optical angle. In the Brazil mineral E,—32? 39’, while in the

Sala mineral it is 112? 30'. It is the oldest constituent of the rock

after magnetite, and, consequently it is that which approaches most

nearly to being idiomorphic. The structure of the large dykes is

gabbroitic and ophitie, whereas that of the small ones is porphyritic

and hyalopilitie, with the pyroxene figuring as the phenocrysts.

Quartz is not uncommon in the coarser rocks and granophyric inter-

growths of quartz and feldspar are frequently met with.

The New Island off Pantelleria—A Correction.—In these

notes for December® last, the statement was made concerning the

material of a recent eruption near Pantelleria, that it consisted of loose

blocks and of lava. Mr. G. W. Butler of Chertsey, England, cor-

rects thisstatement in a recent letter to the writer and declares that the

new island formed during the ernption was composed entirely of loose

scoriaceous bombs, which disappeared a short time after the eruption

ceased. ;

Petrographical Provinces.—Iddings*® gives a brief and, conse-

quently, a tantalizing account of the old voleano of Crandall Basin in

the Absaranka Range of Mountains in the Yellowstone National Park,

that has been eroded in a manner to give a good section of the cone

with the dykes and flows radiating from it. The different rock types

mentioned in the paper are simply alluded to, a full account of them

being promised later. The author's conclusion from his study is to the

effect that we have here proof that the texture of rocks and their[min-

eral composition is more directly dependent upon the rapidity with

which the rocks cooled, than upon the pressure to which they were

subjected during their solidification. The differentiation of rock mag-

mas is also well shown in the case of the volcano studied by the pro-

duction of many individual rock types.

Upon comparing thirty-nine of the best analyses of rocks occurring

in the eruptive areas around the Bay of Naples, Lang? concludes that

SAMERICAN NATURALIST, Dec, 1893, p. 1088.

"Cf. also G. W. Butler; Nature, April 21, 1892.

‘Jour. Geol, Vol. 1, p. 606,

?Zeits, $0 deutsch. geol. Ges, XLV, p. 177.

604 The American Naturalist. [July,

there are here three independent volcanic centers, represented respect-

ively by Ischia, Vesuvius and Mt. Nuovo. That they are on different

volcanic fissures is indicated by the differences in the character of the

lavas extruded from them, especially in their sodium and calcium con-

tents. Ateach center each magma became differentiated, and this dif-

ms geui explains the variety of the rock types discovered in each.

study in the consanguinity of eruptive rocks' is the title of an

article by Derby" in which is shown the fact that the occurrence of the

eleolite syenites, phonolites, monchiquites and other related rocks in

Brazil, point to the correctness of the notions of differentiation and

consanguinity as explanatory of the existence of different phases of

eruptive rocks within the same volcanic sphere. The author also shows

that, while not having formulated the theory, its principle has been

the guide in his work on the Brazilian rocks.

Miscellaneous.—Upon examining spherulites of lithium phos-

phate between crossed nicols, McMahon" finds that some of the group-

ings present apparently miaxial crosses which remain fixed in position

during a complete revolution, while in others the cross breaks up into

two hyperbolic branches resembling those of biaxial optical figures.

The phenomenon, the author regards as due to molecular strains that

affected the spherulites at the time of their crystallization.

Jour. Geol., Vol. 1, p. 579.

"Mineralogical Magazine, X, p. 229.

, 1894.) Botany. 605

: BOTANY:

Thaxter's Studies of the Laboulbeniacez.—Mr. Thaxter has

recently issued the fifth of his preliminary papers upon the Laboulben-

iacec preparatory to the monograph of that group upon which he is

engaged. In this paper he describes four new genera and fourteen

new species, and gives a synopsis of the described species of the group.

As it is indicated that the paper in question is to be the last of his

preliminary papers, a few words as to his work upon the group and the

effect which it seems likely to have may be timely.

Although the first representatives of the family were noticed as early

as 1852, and received their first systematic treatment in 1869, it isonly

within a short time that the group has been thoroughly studied and

any great number of forms discovered. In fact the great majority of

the forms have been found in this country by Mr. Thaxter. In the

first of his preliminary papers, in 1890, Mr. Thaxter states the total

number of described species at fifteen. In the present paper he enu-

merates in the course of his synopsis twenty-three genera and one

hundred and twenty-two species. The difference is mostly due to his

researches.

The Laboulbeniacee are parasites on the outer surfaces of insects,

principally of insects which live in or about the water. They grow

either singly or in a thick fur, and are very minute, the largest

not exceeding 1 mm., and most species being about 0.5 mm. in length.

They have no mycelium and consist solely of a short stalk and a re-

productive apparatus.

Reproduction in these fungi is of one sort only. Karsten was the

first to describe it and he compared it to the sexual reproduction in the

Floridee. Peyritsch afterward made more exact and extensive observa-

tions and came to the conclusion that the supposed abscission of sperm-

atia did not take place and that the sexual nature of the process was

doubtful. Since these observations little or nothing has been published

on the subject and for that reason the following statement made in the

present article is of great interest :

“ The writer’s observations, based upon an examination of several

thousand specimens illustrating more than one hundred species and

1 Edited by Prof. C. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska. _

606 The American Naturalist. [July,

more than twenty genera, appear to warrant the following con-

clusions.”

“The Laboulbeniacee, while showing no signs of any non-sexual

mode of reproduction are characterized by a well marked sexual type

closely resembling that of the simpler Floridec.”

He goes on to give a summary of the process, which cannot well be

abbreviated, and which is too long to be repeated in this place. Suffice

it to say that he has found that “the trichogyne varies from a simple

vescicular receptive prominence, or short filament, to a copiously

branched and highly developed organ,” that, however highly it may be

developed, it always disappears immediately after fertilization; that

the antherozoids are non-motile spherical or rod like masses of naked

protoplasm, which originate in two genera exogenously from special

branches and in other genera are produced endogenously in antheri-

dia; that the antheridia are either single specialized cells or highly

developed multicellular bodies, from which in either case the anther-

ozoids are discharged through a terminal pore. It appears also that

while the sexes are commonly present in the same individual, in some

species they are completely separated on specialized individuals.

Although the observations, on which the foregoing conclusions are

based, are not given, we may take it to be settled that the doubts as to

the nature of the reproduction in these fungi raised by the observations

of Peyritsch are set at rest. If so, several interesting questions arise.

There seems to be no doubt, as Mr. Thaxter remarked in a prior

paper, that these fungi are real Ascomycetes. Indeed their title to a

place in that group seems much better than that of some others which

are included with little hesitation. If they are Ascomycetes, the ghost

of the much vexed question of sexual reproduction in that group, which

it was supposed had been effectually laid by Brefeld, must soon begin

anew its visitations. And in any case, since the relationship of the

Laboulbeniacee to the Ascomycetes as a whole must be close, even

though they have no apparent relationship to any particular group of

them, the whole scheme of the relationship of the Ascomycetes framed

by Brefeld and his followers is placed on very shaky ground by the

conclusions which Mr. Thaxter has announced.

After it had been shown that there was no sexual process in the

Ascomycetes, the question remained, to what fruiting stage of the simpler

fungi does the ascus stage of the Ascomycetes correspond. Brefeld has

answered this by comparing it with the sporangium fructification of

the Mucoracee. The ordinary Ascomycetes, called Carpoasci, he derives

1894,] Botany. 607

through Thelobolus from the carposporangic Zygomycetes, as Mortie-

rella.

But the fact that in the Laboulbeniacee an ascus fructification is pro-

duced as the result of a sexual process throws grave doubt upon this

theory, if it does not wholly overthrow it. It seems clear that the

process of reproduction in these fungi, as outlined by Mr. Thaxter, in-

dicates that the comparison of the ascus to the sporangium of the

Mucorace is wholly erroneous and that DeBary was right in consider-

ing it homologous to the sexual fructification of the Phycomycetes,

whether or not he was wrong in believing it to be in many cases the

result of a sexual process. It is perhaps not without significance that

works like Von Tavel's Morphologie do not notice the Laboulbeniacee

at all.

Another and still more interesting question will be presented. ‘when

some one in the light of the development of the Laboulbeniacec ventures

to reopen the question of the formation of the spore-fruit in the As-

comycetes and to question the conclusions of Brefeld. That the evidence

must be reexamined seems to be clear if the conclusions announced by

Mr. Thaxter are sustained by his observations. We have come to

regard all accounts of sexual processes in fungi as doubtful since the

writings of Brefeld have produced a school of sceptics on such points.

If in a group which must be admitted to be immediately related to the

Ascomycetes, if not a veritable member of them, which it evidently is,

antheridia, antherozoids, and trichogynes—terms which the works on

the morphology of the fungi have agreed to discard for the higher

fungi—actually occur, we cannot rest content with any explanation of

the formation of the sporocarp in the Ascomycetes which leaves any

phenomenon apparently connected with those found in the Laboulbeni-

acee unaccounted for. '

Mr. Thaxter's brief sketch suggests many coincidences which serve

to convince one that the ghost of the DeBaryan theory as to the

Ascomycetes will not down and that we may expect it to visit our

slumbers nightly until we find some better means of reconciling the

Laboulbeniacew with current theories as to the Ascomycetes than at pre-

sent seems possible.

Mr. Thaxter's forthcoming Meine will be awaited eagerly by

all who are in any degree interested in the morphology and biology of

the fungi. It goes without saying that his previous work is a guaranty

that our expectations will be amply realized.

Roscor Pouxp.

608 The American Naturalist. [July

ZOOLOGY.

The Antennal Sense Organs of Insects.'—During his studies

carried on in Leuckart's laboratory on the peculiar sense organ in the

the base of the antenna of certain Diptera (Mochlonyz culiciformis,

Corethra plumicornis), Mr. C. M. Child found that the organ occurs

generally in Diptera, and, if not generally, at least very often in the

other orders of Insects.

In the wasp ( Vespa vulgaris) the organ occurs in the second joint of

antenna. Near the end of the first joint the main nerve of the antenna

gives off branches on all sides. "These run toward the periphery of the

second joint, connecting with ganglion cells, which in turn connect with

small rod-like bodies that end in the articular membrane between the

second and third joints. "These rods are gathered into groups each of

which ends in a pore in the membrane. On the outside of the antenna

no sense hairs are found corresponding to these pores, which seem to be

closed on the outside. Between the rods nuclear elements were found,

but whether they were of connective tissue or of nerve elements was

not determined. An organ similarly placed and of similar structure is

to be found in the genera: Melolontha (Coleoptera), Epinephele (Lep-

idoptera), Bombus (Hymenoptera), Pachyrhina, Tabanus, Syrphus,

Helophilus, Musca, Sarcophaga (Diptera) Sialis, Panorpa, and Phryga- |

nea (Neuroptera), Libellula (Pseudoneuroptera.)

Of the Hemiptera only the Homoptera were investigated. Here the

rods and ganglion cells are fewer in number. Periplaneta, Locusta

and Stenobothrus among Orthopteran genera have a structure in the

second antennal joint with ganglion cells and long fibrous rods.

Thysanura were not studied.

In certain Diptera (Culicids and Chironomide) the organ is somewhat.

different. At the base of the antenna of both sexes there is a nearly

spherical joint. This is larger in the male than in thefemale. In the

latter the nervous structure within this joint is much more readily com-

parable to the organ described for the wasp than that inthe male. But

even in the male the structure may be reduced to the general type. In

the female the rods instead of ending at the periphery of the second

joint are directed toward the middle of the long feeler. The large

antennal nerve runs chiefly to the ganglion cells, giving off two small

branches that run on into the other joints of the antenna. There is no

! Zool. Anz. XVII, p. 35, 1894.

1894.] Zoology. 609

sharp line to be drawn between the ganglion cells of the organ and the

brain. The rods are delicate and covered with small nuclei very well

supplied with chromatin.

To what has already been made known by Weismann and Hurst on

the general development of the antenna in these insects, Mr. Child

adds that the entire sense organ is formed from a fold at the base of

the invaginated hypodermal cavity, and that the differentiation of the

rods and ganglion cells takes place very early.

The organ he considers to be auditory in function, agreeing with

Johnston, Mayer and Hurst! Supporting this view is the fact that

the rods are so placed as to be affected by any slight motion imparted

to the distal part of the antenna, either by sound waves or otherwise.

It has been repeatedly shown by others that certain insects seem to

hear by means of their antenns. To offset the fact that the so-called

tympanum of certain Orthoptera is considered to be auditory he recalls

the experiments by Graber, who found that insects in which the

tympanum bad been destroyed still reacted to sound waves which

affected the antennz or in some cases the legs. The organ is of further

interest in that there is shown in it no marked difference between hear-

ing and touch.—F. C. Kenyon.

The Luminous Organs of Histioteuthis rueppellii Verany.

—Dr. Joubin has recently been making a study of the luminous organs

of a rare cephalopod, Histioteuthis rueppellii, found near Nice. The

animal belongs to the abyssal fauna and the specimen in question is

over a meter in length. "The author describes the outward appearance

of its phosphorescent organ, and its internal organization, comprising a

reflector, which the author calls a mirror and an apparatus for produc-

ing light. Mr. Jourbin offers the following theory of the use of the

luminous organ to the animal.

“ Ordinarly the light-producing apparatus does not function. It is

like a machine at rest. But if a living creature suitable for food

wanders into the vicinity of the cephalopod, this prey being of a higher

temperature than the water in which it floats emits caloric radiations.

These heat rays impinge on the reflecting mirror and are then concen-

AJ ohnston. PME Apparatus of the Culex Mosquito. Journ. Mier. Sci.

IH, old seri

Mayer. es chesin acoustics. Am. Journ. Sc. Series III, vol. 8.

Hurst.—The Pupal Stage of un Inaug.-Diss. Leipzig, 1890.—On the Life

History and Development ofa gnat. Trans. Manchester, Micro. Soc., 1890.

The Post-embryonic Development of Culex. Proc. Liverpool Biol. Soc. IV.

610 The American Naturalist. [July,

trated in the light-producing apparatus, causing there a sensation, and

the organ functions by reflex action. The surrounding medium is then

illuminated by rays perceptible by the eye of the animal. In a word,

these organs are the organs of a caloric sense. Heat sensations are the

only kind that can be felt in those abysses when the darkness is relieved

by occasional gleams of phosphorescent light. I add, finally, that I

have found in another cephalopod an extremely curious organ con-

structed in such a manner that it does not perceive light rays, but can

only receive heat rays, which confirms the hypothesis just advanced,”

(Bull. Soe. Sci. et Med. de l'Ouest France, t. IT, no. 1893.)

Verrill’s Organ.—In the funnel of certain Cephalopods, several

authors have noticed a peculiar cushion-like organ, situated a little

behind the valve, and this has, for very insufficient reasons, been called

Verrill’s Organ by Hoyle and others. Its function and homology have

been the subject of some discussion. Ferussac and D'Orbigny confused

it with a transverse muscle; H. Müller, in 1852, thought.it was a

stinging organ; Verrill, in 1882, considered it “ the true homologue of

the foot of gasteropods;” Laurie, in 1888, from rather insufficient

material, showed its glandular nature, and believed that it secreted

mucus, but his observations were criticised by Brock ; Hoyle, in 1889,

believed that it served to close the funnel. That it is really a mucous

gland is now proved by the careful observations of G. Jatta (Boll. Soc.

Nat. in Napoli, vol. VII, p. 45, 1893), who has observed it in 32

species belonging to 21 genera, thus bringing the number of genera in

which it has been found from 10 to 27. He describes and figures six

main modifieations of its arrangement, and gives excellent drawings

to show its microscopic structure in different stages of its development.

He concludes that this funnel organ is a mucous gland homologous

with the pedal glands of other mollusca. If this be so, the organ must

be somewhat archaic, and one would expect to find it in Nautilus,

where, to the best of our knowledge it has never been described. (Nat.

Sci., Feb., 1894.) P

Preliminary Descriptions of Some New South American

Characinide.—1l. Tetragonopterus heterorhabdus. This species is

related to T. schmarde Steindachner. It is readily distinguished from

T. schmarde by the conspicuous dark lateral band which has on the

anterior end an oval expansion resembling the humeral spot present in

in many species of Tetragonopterus. `

1894.] Zoology. 611

D. 10; A. 20-23; head 3}; depth 33, eye in the head 23 and once

in the inter-orbital; scales 32-34, the lateral line incomplete, only 6

scales perforated.

Maxillary toothless, extending nearly to the centre of the pupil of the

eye. The dark-brown lateral band, deepest colored anteriorly, edged

above with a conspicuous silvery band. No caudal spot. Dorsal

about midway between the tip of the snout and base of the caudal, and

over the space between the anal and ventral. Anal with first six rays

elongate. Many specimens from Brazil. Length 10-29 mm.

2. Tetragonopterus paucidens. Related to T. diaphanus Cope from

which it differs in having 1 to 3 maxillary teeth; in proportions and

in lateral markings.

Head 33; depth 23, in the length. Snout 33, diameter of the eye 3

in the head. The maxillary extends to the anterior border of the

pupil. A silvery lateral band and a diffuse caudal spot present. No

humeral spot.

D. 11; A. 19; scales 5-31-3; lateral line complete. Length 45 mm.

One specimen from Itaituba, 45 mm. long.

3. Tetragonopterus santaremensis. This species has much the appear-

‘ance of T. bellottii Steindachner: The scales of the lateral line are

perforated to the base of the caudal while in T. bellottii only 5 to 7

scales are perforated. The caudal spot is somewhat more rhomboidal

and extends to the end of some of the rays, otherwise the lateral band

and humeral spot are about as in T. bellottii.

Head 3? ; depth 31 in the body. D. 10; A. 20-22; scales 5-30-3.

Anterior dorsal and anal rays elongate. Snout short, 4 in the head.

Maxillary toothless, extends to the eye. Diameter of the eye somewhat

more than the width of the inter-orbital and 21 in the head.

Ten specimens from Santarem, 8-24 mm. lon

4. Tetragonopterus astictus. Related to T. Kiwis Günther. It

differs from that species in having no caudal or humeral spot, no red

margins on the anal and ventral fins and fewer rows of scales.

Head 33, depth 34, in the length. Eye 23 in the head and once in

the inter-orbital space. A silvery lateral band present, most distinct

posteriorly.

Lateral line complete, scales 5-35-33. D.10; A.30. Maxillary

toothless, extending a little past the anterior margin of the orbit.

One specimen 53 mm. long from Brazil.

5. Aphyocaraz maxillaris. Maxillary with minute teeth along its

entire margin. Intermaxillary with about ten teeth, the inner four

three-pointed. Mandible with a few conical teeth in front.

612 The American Naturalist. [July,

Depth 3-34; head 33. D.11; A. 22-23 scales; 30, tubes 6. Snout

very short, the maxillary extending beyond the anterior margin of the

A small circular humeral spot present, sometimes reduced to two or

three color cells. A large black spot on the upper half of the first

dorsal rays, the tips of these rays white. A small black spot near the

tip of the first fur and rays.

A. agassizi Steind. differs from A. mazillaris mainly in its larger

number of anal rays. Brazil, 10 specimens, 10-11 mm. long.

6. Aphyocarax heteresthes. Maxillary teeth six, conical. Intermaxil-

lary with eight conical teeth and two with lateral cusps on each side.

This species is related to A. agassizii Steindachner and A. eques Stein-

dachner. From the former it differs in having only the upper part of

the maxillary dentiferous and apparently in having the anal rays

graduated. From the latter it differs chiefly in having no humeral

spot.

Depth 3; head 33. D. 11; A. 27-30; scales about 31. Snout

very short, maxillary long, extending considerably beyond the ante-

rior margin of theeye. Eye twice the length of the snout, ? the length

of the head. Origin of the dorsal midway betweeen the tip of the snout»

and the base of the caudal. Upper half of the first five developed

rays of the dorsal black.

Brazil, 6 specimens, 14-17 mm. long.

7. Mylesinus macropterus. Body deep, 1? in the length. Head 33.

Abdominal serrations 11 behind the ventrals, the posterior four in

pairs, 22 to 25 smaller ones before the ventrals.

D.L16; A.36; V.7. Sealessmall, about 83 in the lateral line which

is deeply curved below the origin of the dorsal. Height of dorsal fin

23 times its length, the second and third rays greatly elongate, the

fourth ray about half as long. Anal without lobes.

Snout little more than half as long as the diameter of the eye, the

inter-orbital space a little more than the diameter of the eye. Lower

jaw greatly projecting. Teeth in the mandibles in one series, notched

and wide a

Brazil, 1 specimen 9 em. long.

ALBERT B. Urnzv, Bloomington, Ind.

On the Species of Himantodes D. & B.— This genus of snakes

is represented by numerous individuals in tropical America, and suffi-

cient material is now at hand to render it possible to determine the

number of species to which they belong. An examination shows that

1894.] Zoology. 613

the typical species H. cenchoa L., does not occur in Central America and

Mexico, the individuals which have been hitherto referred to it, re-

presenting another species, which I call H. semifusciatus. Of the seven

species, five belong to this region, and two to continental Soutb Amer-

ica.

I. A small additional superior preocular plate.

Scales in 17 rows; superior labials 4 and 5 in orbit; one scale in

first temporal row ; vertebral row enlarged; dorsal spots ontending to

gastrosteges throughout ; H. cenchod L.

II. One large preocular plate only.

8. Scales in 15 rows.

One scale in first temporal row ; superior labials 4, 5, and 6 bound-

ing orbit; vertebral row enlarged ; dorsal spots terminating in an angle

near gastrosteges; no lateral spots ; H. lentiferus Cope.

s5. Scales in 17 rows.

&. One scale in first temporal row.

[Two labials in orbit; vertebral seales enlarged ; on posterior two-

thirds the length the dorsal spots are small and lateral spots are present ;

exceptionally, H. semifasciatus Cope.]

Two labials in orbit; vertebral scales similar to the others, spots as

in H. semifasciatus ; H. gemmistratus Cope.

Bf. Two scales in first temporal row.

v. Dorsal spots continued to gastrosteges throughout.

Vertebral row enlarged ; superior labials 4 and 5 in orbit;

H. leucomelas Cope.

Vertebral row like other scales; superior labials 4, 5, and 6 in orbit ;

H. tenuissimus Cope.

vv. Dorsal spots reduced posteriorly ; lateral spots.

Vertebral row enlarged ; H. semifasciatus Cope.

[Vertebral row like others; exceptionally, „H. gemmistratvs Cope.]

III. A small inferior preocular plate. e

8. Two scales in first temporal row.

Scales in 17 rows ; vertebrals large, wider than long ; labials 4 and

5 in orbit; dorsal spots continued to gastrosteges throughout ;

H. anisolepis Cope.

Himantodes lentiferus sp. nov. Besides the characters already men-

tioned, this species exhibits the following: Labials eight above, ten

below. Seventh superior labial as high as long; temporals 1-2-3.

Postgenials in contact anteriorly, separated by two scales posteriorly.

3 Specimens from Brazil and E. Ecuador from Prof. Orton.

614 The American Naturalist. (July,

Superior postocular three times as large as inferior. Vertebral scuta

wider than long. While the dorsal spots are acute angled below gener-

ally, they are not so on the tail and anterior region ; on the latter many

of them are separated by a much smaller vertebral spot. Top of head

brown, brown spotted; lips and throat unspotted; other inferior

regions black speckled. Total length 622 mm.; tail 189 mm. _ Pebas,

Ecuador, J. Hauxwell; E. Equador, J. Orton.

The characters of this species are well marked, as compared with

those of the H. cenchoa. Of the latter I have four from Peru (Orton)

and one from Ecuador (Hauxwell.)

Himantodes semifasciatus sp. nov. The width of the vertebral series

of scales varies in the numerous specimens I have assigned to the H.

semifasciatus ; in some the width is nearly equal to the length, while in

others it is considerably less. The apices of the vertebral scales are,

however, always truncate, and never acuminate like the other scales, as

is seen in the H. gemmistratus. There are usually two scales in the

first temporal row in this species, while there is invariably only one in

the H. gemmistratus, but in three of the nine Costa Rican specimens

there is but one scale. The largest specimens belong to the H. semi-

fasciatus. One of these (No. 101) measures; total length 1125 mm.;

tail 380 mm.

Ten specimens from Costa Rica; Paso Azul, Santa Clara, Carrillo,

Alajuela, Monte Aguacate, and San José; from the Museo Nacional,

through Geo. K. Cherrie. Two specimens in Mus. Academy, Philada.

from Nicaragua.

Himantodes anisolepis sp. nov. Besides the characters already men-

tioned, the following may be noted. The small inferior preocular is

cut from the fourth superior labial; the labials number eight above

and ten below. The lower post-ocular is one-third the size of the supe-

rior. Temporals 2-2-3. The postgenials are entirely separated by

scales. Thirty-nine brown spots from the head to the vent, which ex-

tend nearly to the gastrosteges, with truncate or rounded inferior

border, on avery pale ground. Belly unspotted. Total length 420 mm.

of tail, 127 mm. Monte Aguacate, Costa Rica, G. Witting.

This slender species resembles in coloration the H. tenuissimus and H.

leucomelas. It differs sufficiently in scale characters from both.—E.

D. Cope.

Zoological News.—M. de Guerne recently reported to the

Société Acclimatation de France the capture in the open sea of a female

eel bearing mature eggs. (Rev. Sci. March, 1894.)

re eee aa OR ER TUMOR er ee NM S TE ISI AIRES

1894.] Zoology. 615

Prof. Carl Eigenmann is in receipt of a Ling (Lota lota maculosa)

from the Columbia River which does not show any specific differences

from those of Lake Michigan. This fish is found in all three of the

large water basins of the Atlantic slope—the Saskatchewan, St. Law-

rence and Mississippi, and its distribution is now extended to the

Pacifie Slope. (Science Vol. XXIII, 1894.)

Distomum leptodon, a new Trematode from the intestine of Aplodi-

notus grunniens (River Drum) has lately been described by W. G.

MacCallum in a paper before the Natural Science Association of

Toronto University.

616 The American Naturalist. [July,

ENTOMOLOGY `

The Pear Leaf Blister.—Mr. M. V. Slingerland has recently

rendered an important service to economic entomology by showing

that the injuries of Phytoptus pyri, the mite which causes the pear leaf

blister can be controlled by spraying the trees in winter with kerosene

emulsion. In a recent bulletin? he presents the most satisfactory

account of this pest that has yet been published, recording the experi-

ments which have led to the discovery of the remedy. The disease is

said to appear on the leaves early in spring “in the form of red blister-

like spots an eigth of an inch or more in diameter. During this red

stage of the disease, the spots are more conspicuous on the upper sur-

face of the leaves. About June 1, the spots gradually change to a

green color hardly distinguishable from the unaffected portions of the

leaf; this change takes place on the lower side of the leaf first, and

the spots may thus be r

above and green below. In

this green stage, which seems

to have been overlooked, the

badly diseased leaves present sz

a slightly thicker corky ap-

pearance; otherwise the dis-

ease is not readily apparent Fig. 1.—Phytoptus pyri. Magnified.

especially where not severe. This green stage lasts about a week or

ten days; and about June 15, the spots may be found changing toa

dark brown color beginning on the lower side of the leaf. The tissue

of the diseased parts or spots then presents a dead, dry, brown or black,

corky appearance. The spots are also more conspicuous on the lower

side and remain unchanged until the leaves fall in the autumn. They

occur either singly scattered over the surface of the leaves or often

coalesce forming large blotches which sometimes involve a large por-

tion of the leaf."

In describing the life history of the Phytoptus mite Mr. Slingerland

says: “The exceedingly minute oval grayish eggs are laid by the

females in the spring within the galls that they have formed, and here

! Edited by Clarence M. Weed, New Hampshire College, Durham, N. H.

*Cornell University Agr. Exp. Station Bull. 61, pp. 317-328

Wee OO Ce ere ae

DRE ia i ae a

1894.] Entomology. 617

the young are hatched. How

long they remain within the gall

of their parent has not been

they escape through the opening

in it, and seeking a healthy part

of a leaf or more often crawling Fig. $-geoion of leaf showing gall in

to the tenderer leaves of the new peq stage, n, n, normal leaf; o, opening

growth,they work their way into of gall; e, eggs. (After Soraué r).

the tissue and new galls are thus started. In this manner the galls on

a tree are often rapidly multiplied during the summer. The mites

live within the galls, feeding upon the plant cells, until the drying of

the leaves in the autumn. They then leave the galls through the

openings and migrate to the winter buds at or near the ends of the

twigs. Here they work their way beneath the two or three outer

scales of the buds where they remain during the winter. Fifteen or

twenty may often be found under a single bud scale. In this position

they are ready for business in the spring as soon as growth begins ; and

they doubtless do get to work early for their red galls are already con-

spicuous before the leaves get unrolled.

" The mites instinctively migrate from the leaves as soon as the latter

become dry. Whenever branches were brought into the insectary, as

soon as the leaves began to dry, the mites left them and gathered in

great numbers in the buds. It is impossible to accurately estimate the

number of mites that may live in the galls on a single leaf. Sections

of galls made while in their red stage would seldom cut through more

than two or three mites; but sections of the brown galls often showed

four or five times as many. Thus on a badly infested leaf there is

without doubt at least a thousand of the mites."

de.

EET

Fig. $i of the leaf Fiir. structure of gall in autumn; g, gall; n,

normal leaf; o, opening of gall.

The upper figure on the accompanying plate shows a cluster of

infected leaves representing the brown stage of the disease as seen

from below on three leaves and from above on one leaf; and the lower

one shows part of an infested leaf, seen from below, with several of the

galls considerably enlarged.

618 The American Naturalist. [July,.

Termite Societies.—Professor B. Grassi and Dr. A. Sandias have

investigated the nature and origin of the Termite society in Calotermes

flavicollis and Termes lucifugus. A Calotermes colony may include

(a) indifferent larve, capable of becoming soldiers or sexual members;

(b) larvee and pups of sexual members with rudiments of wings; (c)

soldier larvee and soldiers which may arise from a and b; (d) winged

sexual insects: (e) a true royal pair with vestiges of wings; (f) larve

of ‘reserve’ sexual members and the reserve kings and queens which

arise from these. These last larve may be developed from a or from

various stages of b.

n the Termes nest there is a specigl caste of workers and no dis-

tinetive royal pair. The society includes (a) very young indifferent

larvz; (b) larger larvæ and the workers and soldiers to which they

give rise; (c) winged sexual animals; (d) various stages of reserve and

complementary sexual animals.

The one type, that illustrated by Calotermes, is founded by a king

and queen, who may be replaced by a pair of reserve royal individuals,

i.e. by a ‘neotznic’ couple. The second less primitive type, illus-

trated by Termes, contains several ‘ neotznic' couples, while kings are

only temporary; in this ease the nest arises in a secession from an

older colony. :

One of the most interestsng results concerns the influence of nutri-

tion in producing polymorphism. Thus the reserve sexual members

are fed not only in the larval state but afterwards from salivary

secretion only, a nutritive diet which probably hastens the rapid devel-

opment of the reproductive system.—Journal Royal Mieroscopical

Society.

Habits of the Lering Ant of Southern Georgia.—In the

pine forests upon the sandy loam of Thomas County, near Thomas-

ville, Georgia, I discovered a nest of Atta brunnea (Odontomachus

brunneus Roger.) No hillocks were formed, the openings to the gal-

leries in the earth being at the surface level. The aperture was large

enough to have allowed queens as large as those of Oecodoma to have

passed, the workers (the only sex observed) of brunnea being much

smaller. The workers jump several inches when disturbed, the leap

being backwards and being caused by snapping the mandibles to-

gether.

The cocoon contains the pupa of the worker in September.

ATTA BRUNNEA (Roger). Georgia.

A. (0.) hematodes (L.) of the West Indies may prove to be a

ety of this.

j XVI.

PLATE

Work of the Pear Leaf Blister Mite.

1894.] Entomology. 619

$. Length 9mm. Ofa uniform brown color. Legs and sometimes

the tip of the abdomen and the head and thorax, especially beneath,

are paler. Mandibles finely serrate within; the tip tridentate, middle

tooth smallest. Palpi invisible, obsolete. *

Tibs all one-spurred. Scale of the petiole produced into a spine.

The thorax above is densely striate, the head above with finer stria-

tions.

ATTA CLARA Texas.

$. Uniformly honey-yellow. Scale smaller than in brunnea, not

forming a spine.

4. Length. 6 mm. Head ordinary, as wide as long. Eyes oval,

slightly sinuate both before and behind, black. Ocelli large, white.

Antennz long as body, not elbowed; brown, except first joint. Man-

dibles distant, minute, their tips touching. Palpi minute. Wings

clear, veins yellow, recurrent vein received in base of second submar-

ginal cell. Entire body and legs yellow. Abdomen hairy, second

constriction deep, claspers large, scale rounded.

Wm. Hampron Patron, Hartford, Conn.

Note on the Winter-Ant.—Since writing the article upon this

ant (Amer. Nar., Oct., 92) I have found the sexes paired in flight, at

Hartford, Conn., on the third of August. This indicates the existence

of a second or summer brood of the species. The male of Prenolepis

imparis (Say) Patton, measures only about one-eigth of an inch, the

female is twice as long and much more bulky. The sexes also differ in

color, the males being black, the workers dark brown, and the females

dark honey-yellow.

Wa. HAMPTON PATTON.

620 The American Naturalist. [July,

PHYSIOLOGY.

Attenuation of Viper Poison.—Ina commnnication published

in Revue Scientifique Feb., 1894, M. M. C. Phisalix and C. Bertrand

published the results of experiments made with the venom of vipers..

Fresh venom from Vipera aspis extracted from the glands rapidly

loses its virulence when subjected to a temperature of 75°-80°, and an

aqueous solution so treated exhibits energetic innoculating properties

against the venom itself.

They have also demonstrated that the blood of animals innoculated

with this echidno-venin becomes antitoxic, the injection of this defi-

brinated blood or of the serum into the peritoneal cavity of healthy

guinea-pigs, neutralized the effects of the venom.

They add that the blood of guinea-pigs protected by a poison habit,

that is, by injections of pure venom in increasing quantities, adminis-

tered at gradually decreasing intervals, is also antitoxic, but to a

less degree than that of animals protected by vaccination. Animals

protected by innoculation with antitoxic serum preserve their immu-

nity quite a long time.

heir observations are such as lead them to believe that this anti-

toxic serum will prove to be a therapeutic agent.

. Since then, M. Calmette, who had questioned the correctness of the

results of their experiments, but who later retracted his assertions, has

presented a note in which he annnounces “that one can protect ani-

mals against the venom of serpents by means of repeated doses of

poison, at first weak, but gradually increasing in strength ..... and

that the serum of the animals thus treated is at once protective, anti-

toxic and therapeutic.” This is precisely what M. M. Phisalix and

Bertrand demonstrated; but M. Calmette, not having cited their

researches, they think they should lay claim to priority in publishing

the important theoretical and practical consequences of this discovery,

having been able to give in logical sequence the facts upon which the

results are scientifically established. (Revue Sci., May, 1894).

The Secretion of Urea.—It is well known that urea exists

already formed in the blood when it reaches the kidneys, and that so

far as this substance is concerned, the kidneys function as eliminating

organs. But in what part of the organism then is the blood charged

m with the urea? The researches of M. Kaufman, who has been at work

ee ee eee hee ee = EE oe ae ae

eee reer ree eee ET

E Siete ices a oe

1894.] Physiology. 621

at this problem for several years, have furnished results from which

he draws the following conclusions:

1. The formation of urea does not take place in the liver alone; all

the tissues produce a certain quantity.

. The liver, however, is the most active secreter of urea in the

young animal.

3. The production of urea seems to accompany the phenomena of

nutrition which occur in the different tissues, and the phenomena of

elaboration and of preparation of nutritive materials constantly

poured into the blood by the liver. (Revue Sci., Mai, 1894).

622 The American Naturalist. [July,

ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.

Tobacco pipes in Shell-heaps of the St. John's.—By those

familiar with the archeology of Florida, it will be remembered that

the extended and careful researches of Professor Wyman among many

of the shell-heaps of the St. John's river yielded no pipes, fragmentary

or otherwise, intended for the smoking of tobacco, and that naturally

the conclusion was arrived at by him that in all probability the makers

of the shell-heaps were ignorant of its use."

During the first two years of our investigations on the St. John's

the negative results obtained by Professor Wyman awaited us also,

though at the conclusion of our third season, in the island shell-heap

constituting Mulberry Mound, on the southern border of Orange

County, near Lake Poinsett, we discovered at considerable depth from

the surface a fragment of a tube of earthenware, which we believed,

and which was pronounced by competent authority, in all probability

to be a portion of a pipe used for the smoking of tobacco.

In the small burial mound situate on the northern extremity of the

shell-heap we found two other fragments still more markedly indicating

a similar use when entire. Nevertheless, the shell-heap fragment and

those from the burial mound, assuming the contemporaneity of the two,

while strong evidence as to the presence of tobacco pipes in the shell-

heaps, were not final.

At the close of our fourth and last season of investigation of the

river mounds (April, 1894) we again visited Mulberry Mound, making

an excavation abont 16 by 24 feet and 16.5 feet in depth to the water

level.

At a depth ot 6 feet from the surface was discovered a tobacco

pipe of earthenware, complete in every part, of which we give à

representation. (Plate XVIL)

Thus we have positive evidence that the men under whose feet slowly

grew the great mass of powdered shell and other kitchen refuse now

known as Mulberry Mound were familiar with the use of tobacco.

It is fair to explain, however, as we have previously stated in the

NarunALIST, that Mulberry Mound is by no means a type of the shell-

heaps of the river, since the debris of which it is composed is compara-

! This department is edited by H. C. Mercer, University of Pennsylvania.

2 ** Fresh Water Shell Mounds of the St. John's River, Florida," page 59.

3 Naturalist, Aug. 1, 1893.

1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. 623

tively rich in relics connecting it with a period presumably much later

than most of the shell-heaps which yield little or nothing to the inves-

tigator, some even giving no evidence of the presence of sherds to the

most careful and prolonged search.

The failure to find tobacco pipes in the other shell-heaps after years

of investigation may at least suggest the question whether the smoking

of tobacco was practiced when the older shell-heaps were made. It

might be suggested, however, that, as in upwards of eighty sand mounds

of the river, the majority of which were leveled to the base by us, but

five tobacco pipes were met with, a proportionate infrequency of occur-

rence might be expected in the shell-heaps. To this we would reply

that we by no means concede the contemporaneity of the sand mounds

with the earlier shell-heaps; and even were a contemporary existence

shown one might expect pipes, or fragments of pipes, in greater numbers

in shell-heaps which represent longer periods of occupancy than in the

sand mounds. The deposit of articles and certain classes of articles in

the sand mounds was voluntary and dictated by custom; while into

the debris of shell-heaps objects found their way through loss, if

unbroken, and through rejection, if fragmentary or imperfect. Articles

discovered in the shell-heaps afford a fair idea of the possessions of the

men who made them. Most of us know to our cost the fragile character

of a tobacco pipe of earthenware, and it is quite evident that portions

of pipes accidentally broken, not to be expected in the sand mounds,

since these “high places” were not used for domicile during con-

struction, must be looked for in the shell-heaps whose makers lived

upon them. :

We are, therefore, of the opinion that the finding of a tobacco pipe

in so exceptional and in such a presumably late shell-heap compara-

tively as Mulberry Mound, does not establish the use of tobacco as

existing among the makers of the earlier shell heaps of Florida.

CLARENCE B. Moore.

Norse Remains in the Neighborhood of Boston Bay.'—

The late Professor E. N. Horsford was the first to call attention to the

evidences of the truth of ancient Sagas which claim for the old Sea

‘I received the following paper from Mr. Gerard Fowke, late of the Bureau of

Ethnology, Washington, last night (June 27, 1894).

Archeology must watch with keen interest and sympathy the work undertaken

by him for Miss Cornelia Horsford of excavation at the alleged sites of Norse

occupation in the Charles River Valley, Massachusetts. Much discussion on and -

prejudice has beclouded the important problem which he and Miss Horsford have ;

624 The American Naturalist. [July

Rovers of Norway the honor of discovering America nearly five cen-

turies before Columbus. He spent many. years in this study and found

dams, docks, wharves, artificial islands, ditches and canals, that could

not be accounted for by any known works of either English or Indians

—though this conclusion was not forced upon him until long after he

had begun his investigations. With untiring industry he collected

and pored over scores of ancient and almost inaccessible maps and

manuscripts, and went afoot over nearly every acre for miles in the

Valley of the Charles. Despite all this, his work is not known to the

world at large as it should be, nor appreciated at its value outside of a

very small circle of those who are ready to listen to proofs instead of

dismissing as groundless statements they will not be at the trouble to

verify by a slight outlay of time and labor.

Professor Horsford preferred not to make any excavations until

every other source of knowledge had been exhausted ; and it was not

until May of this year that careful examination was made of certain

places that seemed to promise good results.

Most important among these was the site of the house built by

Thorfinn, who planted the first colony in A. D. 1007, within a few

rods of the present site of the Cambridge Hospital. It was discovered

that the foundation wall had been made by digging a trench around a

rectangular space measuring about sixteen by sixty-four feet. In this

trench, which was about two feet in width, were placed stones varying

in size from small pebbles to boulders as large as man could readily

lift, and in sufficient numbers to prevent the logs or timber resting on

them from coming in contact with the earth below or at the sides; but:

they did not extend above the surface.

Within this foundation, at nearly equal distances from the ends and

from each other, were two circular pavements some four feet in diame-

ter, of small stones carefully laid in by hand. They were in the

proper position for hearths or fire-places, but although the earth under

and about them contained charcoal and ashes, the stones themselves

showed no marks of heat.

The building was very similar to the long houses of the Iroquois;

the same type may also be found among the timber cutters in our pine

forests.

before them, but the truth will now lie with him who digs without fear or favor-

If the Sea Rovers lived long there, and built many houses, if they buried many

dead there, then the sure evidence of arts known and practiced by Norsemen will

see the light, and Mr. Fowke will not ask his friends to agree with him till he

holds such proof in his hands.

x H. C. Mercer.

1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. 625

Another type of houses, of which there are numerous examples,

consists of a cellar-like excavation in a hill side, the floor being level

and the height of the back wall varying according to the slope of the

hill and the size of the house.

The first of these opened is near Stony Brook Station on the Fitch-

burg Railway. It is just at the foot of a kame, and at a point where

an ancient dam extends across a little brook a few yards away. At

the front was a wall about sixteen feet long of small boulders ; another

wall of similar stones was a foot within this, somewhat shorter than

the first and slightly curved. From the ends of these walls the ends

of the hut were marked by two rows of stones at irregular intervals,

four or five boulders similarly placed marking the line of the back

wall At the middle of the excavated area was a carefully placed

layer of pebbles, covering aspace seven feet long and three feet across.

This was very probably a hearth, though as in the case of Thorfinn’s

house there were no marks of heat. At the left front corner of the

house was a pavement four by five feet of cobblestones, extending

toward the end of the dam, but not reaching to it.

A short distance from this hut site was another not more than ten

feet square within the foundation walls. There was no continuous

wall in this; but at each front corner three or four stones had been

piled to make a support for the timbers, and a row of stones extended

for five feet back from one corner. One stone at the opposite side,

and two or three at the back formed the remainder of the foundation.

There was a small pavement of pebbles at the center but they were

not arranged in any order.

A third hut, not far from East Watertown, differed from all others

opened in being narrower at the back than at the front. Boulders

` were at each front corner, one on each side, and two at the rear. The

evidence was more distinct in this than in the others, thatthe roof had

been of sod or turf with a covering of small stones, as the interior

space was filled for more than a foot in depth with a mingled mass of

black earth and pebbles that could have come only from the caving in

of the top.

At several places, in the neighborhood of these houses are ancient

cemeteries, most of them on sloping ground, some of them on hill sides -

so steep as to be difficult of ascent. The grave sites are indicated by

cairns, generally about six feet in diameter, few of them varying a

foot from this size. It has been generally supposed that these stone

piles are due to the clearing up of the ground at some former time:

but many of them are on slopes so steep that no effort at cultivation

626 The American Naturalist. [July,

would ever be made; some are composed entirely of pebbles few of

which exceed a goose egg in size while all about them are large boul-

ders that would materially interfere with any farming operations that

might be attempted. In only one of the graves opened was there any

evidence of an excavation more than a few inches in the soil. It

appears that the body was laid on the surface with a coveriug of brush

or timber over which the stones were piled. It would seem scarcely

reasonable that a people as far along toward civilization as the Norse

were at that time would adopt such a mode of burial; but these cairns

were beyond doubt intended for this purpose, and it must be remem-

bered that in their native home the scarcity of soil made it necessary

that corpses be thus disposed of instead of being interred. People

tenaciously adhere to what is customary in such matters—as witness

the wide-spread opposition to cremation

. What has been so far done in the field is only a beginning; while

Professor Horsford has seemingly left little for any one else to do in

collecting maps and collating the evidence of history as embodied in

the Sagas, it is possible there may yet be among the old Scandinavian

and Icelandic records something that will throw unexpected light on

the subject. But there remains a great deal to do in the strictly

archeologic line. More of the hut sites are to be excavated, and the

soil immediately around them and the long houses is to be carefully

examined, as there is always a possibility of the preservation of some

object that will furnish indubitable proof of what is sought. This is

necessary not alone in the vicinity of Cambridge, but all along the

coast from Long Island Sound to the Saint Lawrence, as this whole

region is said to contain to some extent remains similar to those above

mentioned. A careful study is desirable also, of the sites of settle-

ments in other countries where these people have lived ; especially in

Greenland whence many if not a majority of the earliest settlers of the

Charles River Valley were derived.

GERARD FOWKE.

Progress of field work in the Department of American

and Prehistoric Archaeology of the University of Pennsyl-

vania.—The believer in Man's great antiquity in Eastern North

America is again called upon to explain a serious doubt. The easily

accessible broad and well lit shelter of the Forge Cave (1 mile below

Barren Springs, left bank of the New River, Pulaski County, Virginia),

as explored by us in February, 1894, has astonished us again with the

modern look of the evidence furnished.

1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. 627

Instead of several ancient midden beds interlaid with stalagmite

breccia or cave earth indicating the lapse of successive epochs and the

comings and goings of pre-Columbian peoples, our six-sectioned trench,

36x24x10 feet (Section 3 to rock bottom) at deepest, showed :

(1) Red earth left by nitre leachers in 1863-64, with bottle glass,

nails, domestic fowl bones, etc., 15-17 inches. (White Man).

(2) Charcoal and ashes in hearth layers, sometimes invaded by dig-

gings from above, sometimes undisturbed, with arrowheads, chips, un-

glazed pottery, and bone awls, 7 to 9 inches. (Predecessor of White

Man).

(3) Rough, unworn blocks of limestone, larger towards the bottom,

containing, for some distance down, infiltrations from layer No. 2, rest-

ing on the rock floor, 8 feet. (No trace of human or animal occu-

pancy).

Here then, as at the Nickajack and Lookout Caves in Tennessee

(explored in December, 1893), we had found but a single stratum of

human occupancy (no. 2) below the superficial glass, nails and domes-

tic animal bones of the White Man.

While in it (stratum 2), instead of a predominance of the relies of

extinet or probably ancient animals bedded in the fossil preserving

charcoal, we discovered the presumably modern remains (kindly iden-

tified by Professor Cope) of the Unio, Paludina, Catfish, Tortoise,

Frog, Domestie Fowl, Bird (undetermined), Turkey, Marmot, Ungu-

late (undetermined), Beaver, Lynx, Domestic Sheep, Elk and Deer.

Only in one instance gnawed by rodents and often interlaid between

undisturbed hearths, the presence and position of the bones and shells

demonstrated them to be the remains of a fauna preyed upon by Man,

while the 5 potsherds (3 showing decorative incisions), the 12 bone awls,

the triangular chert arrowhead and infrequent hornstone chips, found

in the midden layer, proved it the work of the same Indian, who, 8 miles

above had scattered his riverside camp site with bones of the Deer,

and had dropped pottery, earthen pipes, a polished celt, hornstone

chips, and hammerstones. At a surface feasting place twenty miles

below, I found the remains determined by Professor Cope to belong to

the Unio, Paludina, Trypanastoma, Catfish, Turtle, Soft Shelled Turtle,

Raecoon, Bear, an

This proof that no earlier people than the Indian resorted to the

Forge Cave (and the Lookout and Nickajack Caverns), may indicate

that no earlier people than the Indian ever inhabited the upper valleys

of the New River and the Tennessee. But further search is needed to

628 The American Naturalist. [July,

establish the conclusion, while objections to the final value of all such

cave layer tests for Man’s antiquity must be thoughtfully weighed.

The first is suggested by Professor Cope, that as the caves explored

by me lack fossil remains, the old (Plistocene) ends of caves with

their animal and, if we can believe it, human remains, have probably

been worn away. Caves, therefore, would not tell the whole human,

as they do not tell the whole animal story, since Man may have in-

habited parts of caves which have disappeared.

This, if true, would exclude the alleged Tertiary Man of Thenay or

Otta from caves, but would leave us our witnesses for any possi

Plistocene blade chipper of Trenton and Madisonville.

Another objection to cave evidence is advanced by Dr. Brinton.

Like the Veddas of Ceylon (who are supposed, on the authority of the

brothers Sarasin, to have avoided rock shelters), early Man, he sug-

gests, was probably arboreal and did not inhabit caves. But continual

avoidance of available and conspicuous natural shelters by primitive

peoples anywhere is hard to imagine. We have the trace of all kinds

of Paleolithie, Neolithic and post-Neolithie peoples in caves in Europe

and the evidence of explorers as to still existent savages visiting caves

is scanty and insufficient.

If we are not hunting “ Cave Dwellers,” and if proof of Man's pres-

ence is all we want, then a few surface gathered trouser buttons and

bottle chips will do for the White Man, arrowheads and bone needles.

for the Indian, and a breccia—let us suppose with Mylodon teeth and

* Turtlebacks"—for some one else. Nothing short of cave avoidance

by the savage will rob us of the evidence which a fire kindler or two

in a century would suffice to furnish.

. C. MERCER. March, 1894.

1894.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 629

PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

Entomological Society of Washington.—June 7, 1894.—The

100th regular meeting. Twenty-two members present. Mr. Charles

Palm, of New York City, elected a corresponding member. President

Ashmead made some brief remarks congratulating the Society upon

attaining its 100th meeting and upon its prosperous career and pros-

pects. The Recording Secretary, Mr. Howard, read a review of the

work of the Society during the past ten years. Mr. Pergande pre-

sented certain additional observations upon the habits of Ammophila

gryphus for publication. Mr. Benton read a paper entitled “ Obser-

vations on the Mating of Queens of Apis mellifica,” showing that the

queens mate twice. Discussed by Messrs Riley, Gill, Schwarz and

Pergande. Mr. Chittenden presented for publication some biological

notes on certain Coleoptera. Mr. Schwarz presented a paper on the

composition and extent of the Coleopterous fauna of Alaska, giving a

lengthy outline of the history of the entomological exploration of that

country, commenting upon the results of a trip taken by himself and

Mr. H. G. Hubbard in 1892 through parts of Oregon, Washington and

British Columbia, and showing that the Alaskan fauna predominates

along the coast range of Oregon and Washington. Discussed by Dr.

Gill Mr. Schwarz also read some notes on the West Indian Sugar-

cane Borer (Xyleborus perforans) and showed the difficulty of deter-

mining whether this insect really occurs in the United States. i

cussed by Messrs Riley and Howard. Under the head of short notes

and exhibition of specimens, Mr. Heidemann exhibited certain rare

Pentatomids and Professor Riley announced the rearing of perfect

females of Margarodes. He showed that Margarodes and Porphyro-

phora are synonyms.

* L. O. HOWARD,

Recording Secretary.

N. Y. Academy of Sciences, Biological Section, May 14.—The

following papers were read :—

Professor E. B. Wilson, * Experiments on the Horizontal Isotropy

of the Egg ;" Dr. Arnold Graf, “ On the funnels and vesiculae termi- —

nales of Nephelis, Clepsine and Autostoma ;” O. S. Strong, “On Lith- .

ium bichromate as a hardening reagent for the Golgi method." =

Basuronp DEAN,

- Rec. Sec. of Section.

630 The American Naturalist. [July,

Boston Society of Natural History, May 16.—The blo

paper was read:

Mr. A. W. Grabau: Ancient and modern channels of the Gina

River. Stereopticon views were shown.

SAMUEL HENSHAW,

Secretary.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

Professor G. J. Romanes.—We have to announce the recent

sudden death of Professor Romanes. He was born in Kingston, Can-

ada, in 1848, and graduated at Cambridge, England, in 1870. In

1873 he was Burney prize essayist, and Croonian lecturer in 1875.

His first important investigation was on the anatomy and physiology of

the nervous system of the Medusae, and he first placed our knowledge

of this subject on a definite basis. His works on the evolution of mind

in the lower animals and man are the best we have on the subject. He

was a prolific writer on evolution, and leaned sometimes to the Neola-

markian, sometimes to the Neodarwinian opinions. In his latest work

he revised the opinions of Weismann, and showed the important mod-

ifications which they have undergone. The death of Professor Romanes

is a serious loss to science. |

The Peary Auxiliary Expedition.—The members of this ex pe-

dition dined together at St. Georges Hotel, Brooklyn, June 17th, pre- |

paratory to taking passage on the steamer Portia for St. Johns, N. B.

A farewell dinner was given to Henry G. Bryant, the leader of the

expedition and his colleagues at the Art Club, Philadelphia, on June

18th by the members of the advisory committee of the Geographical

Club. At St. Johns they expect to be joined by the steam whaler

Falcon, on which they will sail for North Greenland to look for Lieut.

Peary and his party.

'The members of the expedition are Professor Wm. Libbey, Jr., of

Princeton University, geographer; Professor T. C. Chamberlin, of the

University of Chieago, geologist; Dr. Axel Ohlin, of Sweden, zoolo-

gist; Dr. H. E. Wetherill, of Philadelphia, surgeon; H. L. Bridgman,

of the Brooklyn Standard-Union; Emil Diebtsch, of Port Royal, S.

C., civil engineer.

When the Portia sails to-morrow she will have on board the usual

Arctic outfit of snow shoes, sledges, ice axes, tents, etc. The vessel

1894.] Scientific News. 631

will probably reach St. Johns about the 26th of this month, and by

the 4th of July, it is thought, the Falcon will sail for the far North.

It is hoped that Peary's headquarters in Bowdoin Bay will be

reached by July 25. If assured of the safety of Peary's party, some

of the members of the expedition will then pay a brief visit to Elles-

mere Land in their search for the missing naturalists, Bjorling and

Kallstenius, who were ship-wrecked on the Carey Island two years

The auxiliary expedition and the Peary party, it is expected, will

leave Bowdoin Bay, September 1, and sail on the Falcon for this city,

arriving here probably by the 15th of that month.

The Retirement of Professor Dana.— The resignation of Pro-

fessor Dana from the position he has long held in Yale University is

announced.

Professor Dana is eighty-one years of age, and is compelled to aban-

don further active work by feeble health. His resignation has just

been accepted. He graduated from Yale in the class of 1833, returned

to college as tutor and succeeded to a full professorship fifty years ago.

Since then he has had charge of the department of natural science.

Born in Utiea, N. Y., February 12, 1823, Dr. Dana early became

interested in the researches of Professor Benjamin Silliman, and

through them was attracted to New Haven. Under his guidance he

was graduated from Yalein 1833 and immediately appointed instructor

of mathematies to midshipmen in the United States Navy, and in this

capaeity visited the seaports of France, Italy, Greece and Turkey

while on board the warships Delaware and United States. In 1836-38

he was assistant to Professor Silliman in the department of chemistry

at Yale, and while thus engaged was appointed mineralogist and geol-

gist to the exploring expedition to the Southern and Pacific Oceans

under Captain Charles Wilkes. He was on the corvette Peacock,

wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia River. He returned in 1842

and spent some years on his portion of the report, which was partly

prepared in Washington. In 1844 Dr. Dana married Professor Silli-

man's daughter, Henrietta Frances, and he has since continued to

reside at New Haven. In 1850 Dr. Dana was appointed Silliman-

Professor of natural history and geology at Yale, and the same year

became associate editor of the American Journal Science and Arts,

founded by the elder Silliman in 1819., Later he became editor-in-

chief, with his son, Edward S. Dana, as assistant. In 1872 the Geo-

logical Society of London conferred on Dr. Dana its Wollaston med-

632 The American Naturalist. [July,

al,and in 1877 he received the Copley gold medal from the Royal

Society of London. He is a member of many of the leading scientific

societies of the world, and was President of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science in 1854. In 1872 the University of

Munich gave him the degree of Ph. D., and in 1886 at the Harvard

celebration he was awarded the degree of LL. D.

Professor Dana's principal works have been on Corals and Crus-

tacea, and in Geology and Mineralogy. His text-books of the latter

subjects are so well known as to require only mention here.

The Wistar Institute of the University of Pennsylvania.

—This important addition to the many courses of the University is

the gift of General Isaac J. Wistar, a son of Dr. Caspar Wistar, one

of the earliest professors of anatomy at this institution. The preserva-

tion and exhibition of the Wistar Anatomieal Museum is the princi-

pal object of the institute. There will also be added to it a complete

collection of all objects necessary for the successful study of biology,

anatomy and the historical development of the organs in man. ‘The

department will be so thoroughly equipped from a scientific stand-

point that it will be used not only for purposes of exhibition but also

for practical teaching. Advanced research will be the most striking

feature of the work.

In connection with the institute there will be established a course of

lectures which will give graduates of the medical department opportu-

nities for post-graduate courses and deeper research in the advanced

stages of anatomy and biology.

A periodical will be published, in which these subjects will be treated

by men who have become celebrated because of their knowledge of

these important subjects. In this building will be placed the present

museum of anatomy, known as the Wistar and Horner Museum,

which was presented to the University by the widow of Dr. Caspar

Wistar, which gift was afterward supplemented by those of Mr. Hor-

ner. In addition to this the museum now used in connection with the

Biological School will be placed in the building as soon as it is com-

pleted.

It has been decided to place the management of this institute under

the direction of a Board of Managers elected by the Trustees of the

University. In order that the memory of the founder of this depart-

ment may be perpetuated in fitting recognition of the appreciation felt

at the benevolence of General Wistar, it has been settled that one of

the managers shall be a descendant of the Wistar family. Thė other

1894.) Scientific News. 633

two will be the President and Vice-President of the Academy of Nat-

ural Sciences.

The University will elect a dean of the department, who will devote

his entire time and energies to the development of the manifold inter-

ests of the institute, which gives promise of being one of the greatest

of its kind not only in this country, but also will rank high among

similar departments in the European schools of anatomy. Fellow-

ships will be established in order to afford deserving students ample

opportunity for extended researches in this department.

Dr. Horace Jayne, the retiring dean of the college department of

the University, has presented his famous anatomical collection, pur-

chased some years ago from the renowned Collector Wade, to the

Wistar Institute. The collection is composed principally of mammals,

including a large number of alcoholic specimens and a complete set of

rhinoceros skeletons.

Work on the building was begun less than two years ago. It is

of buff brick, plainly but handsomely finished in buff terra cotta,

and so constructed as to permit of additions being made with

facility. The structure is thoroughly fire proof, and is provided with

the most approved fire-escapes. It has a depth of sixty-six feet on

Woodlaud Avenue, and a frontage of two hundred and thirty-seven

feet on Thirty-sixth Street. On the latter thoroughfare is the broad

entrance leading into a large vestibule eighteen by twenty feet. To

the left of the entrance the curator’s room is situated, and to the left

is the lecture room connecting with the professor’s room. The main

entrance from the vestibule leads into the main hall, the dimensions of

which are forty-four by thirty-six feet.

Passing through the hall to the left one will find the main museum

a roomy apartment of fifty by one hundred and ten feet, furnished

throughout with all the appliances necessary for an institution of the

sort. Two smaller rooms toward the Spruce Street end are reserved for

the reception of private collections.

The second floor will be devoted principally to work-rooms and pro-

fessors’ apartments. It will also contain a library and a museum cor-

responding in size to the one on the lower floor. Three more work-

rooms are located on the third floor, with quarters for the janitor.

There will also be another museum formed of galleries eighteen feet -

wide, overlooking the similar department on the floor below.

The basement will be devoted exclusively to work-rooms, all of x

bie will be furnished ne zines, flues and other mes moniy

634 . The American Naturalist. [July,

for dissecting work. The height of the basement is twelve feet, and

that of the other floors, fourteen, twelve and twelve respectfully.

At the opening exercises, there was a fair assemblage notwithstand-

ing the very unfavorable weather. Addresses were made by Provost

William Pepper, Director Harrison Allen, M. D., and Professor Wil-

liam Osler, M. D., of John Hopkins, biens A of the University of

Pennsylvania.

Major J. W. Powell has resigned. from the Directorship of the U. S.

Geological Survey, and Mr. C. D. Walcott has been appointed by the ©

President and Senate to take his place.

Professor H. 8. Williams formerly of Cornell University, takes the

place of Professor J. D. Dana in Yale University.

Among the books announced by MacMillan & Co. for early publi-

cation are :—“ A three peor eourse of practical instruction in Bot-

any" by F. O. Bower; a “Course in Experimental Psychology” by

J. McK. Cattell; “ Puvilitoyy for Beginners” by Michael Foster ;

“ Methods of Histological Research” by C. von Kahlden, translated

by C. Morley Fletcher; “Text-book of Invertebrate Embryology”

by Korscheldt and Heider, translated by E. L. Mark and W. M.

Woodworth; “Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology” by

Wilhelm Wundt, translated by J. E. Creighton and E. B. Tichener ;

and a series, the * Cambridge Natural Science Manuals” edited by A.

E. Shipley and containing * Elementary Paleontology—Invertebrate”

by Henry Woods; “ Practical Physiology of Plants" by F. Darwin

and E. H. Acton; “ Text-book of Physical Anthropology” by Alex.

Maeallister; * The Vertebrate Skeleton” by S. H. Reynolds; “ Fossil

Plants" by A. C. Seward; and * Elements of Botany" by F. Dar-

win.

We regret to learn that our contemporary “Science” has suspended

publication for want of sufficient financial support.

The Philadelphia Zoologieal Garden has received specimens of the

Indian cats, Felio bengalensis and F. viverrinus.

Errata in June Narurauist.—For Fig. 4, p. 530, read Fig. 2.

For Fig. 2, p. 529, read Fig.3. For Fig. 3, p. 530, read Fig. 4.

SER

PLATE XVII.

Tobacco Pipe of Earthenware from Shell-Heap, Mulberry Mound, Florida, (full size.)

ee ———

ADVERTISEMENTS. LI

Walker -Prizes in Natural History.

By the provisions of the will of the late Dr. William Johnson Walker

two prizes are annually offered by the Bosrox Socrery or NATURAL HISTORY

for the best memoirs written in the English language on subjects proposed by a

committee appointed by the Council.

For the best memoir presented a prize of sixty dollars may be awarded ; if;

however, the memoir be one of marked merit, the amount may be increased to

one hundred dollars, at the discretion of the committee.

For the next best memoir, a prize not exceeding fifty dollars may be

awarded.

Prizes will not be awarded unless the memoirs presented are of adequate

merit.

The competition for these prizes is not restricted, but open to all.

Each memoir must be accompanied by a sealed envelope enclosing the

author's name and superscribed with a motto corresponding to one borne by the

manuscript, and must be in the hands of the Secretary on or before Te ge 1st of

the year for which the prize is offered.

SUBJECTS FOR 1895 :—

(1) A study of the * Fall line" in New Jersey.

(2) A study of the Devonian formation of the Ohio basin.

(3) Relations of the order Plantaginaceae.

(4) Experimental investigations in morphology or embryology.

SUBJECTS FOR.1896 :—

(1) A study of the area of schistose or foliated rocks in the eastern United

States.

(2) A study of the developement of river valleys in some considerable

area or folded or faulted Appalachian structure in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or

Tennesee.

(3) An experimental study of the effects of close-fertilization in the case

of some plant of short cycle.

(4) Contributions to our knowledge of the general morphology or the

general physiology of any animal except man.

NoTE—In all cases the memoirs are to be based on a considerable body of original "— :

ás well as on a general review of the literature of the subject.

SAMUEL HENSHAW.

Boston Society of Natural History,

Boston, Mass, U. 8. As

tt ADVERTISEMENTS.

THE MONISI.

A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE

EDWARD C. Mee

Mary CARU

Vol. IV. APRIL, 1894. No. 3.

CONTENTS.

- THREE ASPECTS OF MONISM, ey cie C. Lloyd enit on chews ee

THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, Gen. M. M. Trum oe oy

MODERN PuvsioLocv, Prof. Max Vernon Jena, Ger

KaNr's DOCTRINE OF THE SCHEMATA, H. H. Wi Disi Daie of North Carolina.

THE EXEMPTION OF WOMEN FROM LABOR, Lester F. Ward, Washington D. C.

NOTION AND DEFINITION OF NUMBER, Prof. Hermann Schube rt, Maki; Germany.

ETHICS AND THE COSMIC ORDER, Editor.

s itor.

Editor: DR. PAUL CARUS. RED Associates ¢

KARMA AND NIRV

LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE—France, Lucien Arréa :

CRITICISMS AND Book. Logic as Relation Pes Rejoinder to M. Mouret. F.C.

Russell.

Boo k Have S.

Eao OF Coirkiets OF PHILOSOPHICAL PERIODICALS.

CHICAGO:

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.

Price, 50 cts.; YEARLY, $2.00.

London: WATTS & CO., 17 LU. s veia dre St, E €.

Price in England and U. P. 2s 6d.; y, 9s 6d.

The AMERICAN ANTEA and ORIENTAL JOURNAL.

Published at 175 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

Edited by STEPHEN D. PEET, Goop Horeg, ILL.

Bi-Monthly. Price, $4.00 Per Year.

The First Magazine Devoted to Archaeology and Ethnology established in America, It has now

reached its Sixteenth Volume, which promises to be the Best of the Series.

Among the Attractions for 1894 are the following:

- À series of articles, accompanied with maps, on the early migrations and locations of Indian tribes,

under the title of

** Footprints of the Aborigines, By Rev. William M. Beauchamp, Prof. A. F. Chamberlain, Dr.

Bees ep — Tooker, Lauf ae and myths ofthe Rev. "George Patterson, and nd her PUES Also a series of

. Brinton, Prof kd. Seler and others. Also on the Myths and d Folklore: by Ms. James

Joon cLean. Mr. A. Perry, of London, England, sirs. Zelia Nuttall and her T will write d

—— and — Antiquities. There will be articles on the AsrATIC deris ead ORIGIN of m

n Indians, and on Prehistoric Contact with Other Continents, by Dr. rus Thomas, Hon. Jam

Wikin sind e Staniland Wake and on certain ** — Co vee men Ber ions Relics” which have

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THE

! AMERICAN

+ NATURALIST

A MONTHLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES

IN THEIR WIDEST SENSE.

AGING EDITORS

Prors. E. D. COPE, akin i AND J. S. KINGSL EY, Boston.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS:

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Vol, XXVIII. AUGUST, 1894. No. 332

CONTENES.

a PAGE. PAGE.

= "THE ORIGIN OF THE VERTEBRATE SKELETON. Somma—Phonolites a me Black Hills—

J. i cingsley. 632 | The Origin of Nor Q The

COLOR-VARIATION OF TOMA CAPRODES = of the e Bioseiferner--Potrographiea

^ d SW. UR Meiner 641

NEO-LAMARCKISM AND NEO-DARWINISM, Bot o heal Plant Ovnis ae i

L. H. Bailey 661

ORNITHOPHILOUS POLLINATION, (lllustrated.)

Joseph L. Hancock 679

EpiroriAts.—The U. S. Geological Survey—

he Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. . 684

proaching Meeting of the A. A. A. S—The

Completion of Coulter’s Texan Flora. . . .7

Zoology — An Australasian Sub- mco of

Fresh-water Atherinoid Fishes. . . 708.

OIT ET Phylogeny —Deter

mination of Sex. |

RECENT BooKs AND PAMPHLETS. . . . . . . 687

Recent LITERATURE — The genus hus —

Bateson's QUANT of Variation. . . . 690 Psychology —Mutualists. . + +

GENERAL N Archeology and Ethnology—Ancient American -

d and Travels —Antarctiec PERE B — The making of New Jersey ;

ion . 693 | Shell "— in 1780—The nice Collect- NI

Mineralogy — Friedel' s nid de Mise Me ions. 7

— —Relation between Atomic Weight and Crys- Microscopy—New Method of PR in&

tal Angles—Spangolite from Cornwall—Eudi- Mixture of Celloidin and Paraffine—On the ee 3h

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Vor. XXVIII. August, 1894. — ps 332

THE ORIGIN OF THE VERTEBRATE SKELETON.

By J. S. KixcsrEy. a

Until a very recent date, not a doubt existed that any part

of the vertebrate skeleton was of other than mesodermal origin.

The cartilages were mesoderm, and in their further develop-

ment the cartilages were transformed into bone by means of

the cells from the same parent layer. The membrane bones of

the skull were also believed to mesodermal, since the re-

searches of Oscar Hertwig (’74) had shown that in the Batra-

chia especially, as well as in other forms, they arose from the

layer which formed the dentine of the teeth, and which was:

homologous with that which formed the dentine of the placoid -

scale. The details of this need not be given here, as they will

will be found in every text-book; the point to be emphasized -

is that dentine and its homologue membrane bone were as-

sumed to be, and even thought to be proved to be, of —

mal origin. :

One of the first papers to lay a foundation fora different view __

was one by Kastschenko (’88), which, while saying nothing vi me

the origin of the skeleton, pointed out that certain parts of the -

mesenchyme were of ectodermal origin. Next, another Rüs-' x

sian, Goronowitsch (92), showed that in the formation of the

* ganglionie folds" into the head, not all the tissues proliferated

from the ectoderm into the “ —— iii was -r es

636 The American Naturalist. [August,

the formation of nervous matter, but that some of it became

mesenchymatous and was possibly utilized in the development

of the skeleton. Other authors at about the same time con-

firmed more or less clearly this view that all mesenchyme was

not of entodermal, but that at least some of it was ectodermal,

in origin.

In 1893, Miss Julia B. Platt, in a preliminary paper, made

the noteworthy statement that the embryology of Necturus

showed that, at least in the head, the cartilages were derived

from the ectoderm. Necturus was especially favorable in this

respect, for its cells are larger and pigment is absent. At

about the stage of the formation of the ganglienleisten, the

differences between the entoderm and mesothelial tissues on

the one hand, and the ectoderm on the other, were very great,

the former being loaded with yolk granules, the latter contain-

ing comparatively few. Further, the layers readily differen-

tiated by staining with the Erlich-Biondi mixture. With the

formation of the ganglienleisten from the ectoderm, its cells

could be distinguished in the same way, and it was found that

only the dorsal portion of ridge becomes nervous, the lower

contributing its cells to the mesenchyme, while between the

two regions there was a portion which contributed to both tis-

sues. These ectodermal mesenchymal parts (mesectoderm, as

Miss Platt calls them) can readily be distinguished after their

separation from the parent layer by the peculiarities already

mentioned. From these proliferations tissue arises which later

forms the gill cartilages, while further in front, near the eyes

and the nose, similar ingrowths are seen, and especially in the

region where the mouth is to break through. From these last

arise at least the trabecular cartilages; the origin of the para-

chordals and otic capsule is not given.

In a second paper (93°), Miss Platt further elaborates some

of her earlier statements, illustrating the parts with three fig-

ures, one of which shows the downward growth of the mesecto-

derm, to use her extremely convenient term, between the gill

clefts and in the region of eye and nose.

Before the appearance of Miss Platt’s second paper, Gorono-

witsch published his detailed account (’93), fully confirming

Ri i a «i

1894.] The Origin of the Vertebrate Skeleton. 637

the statements of his preliminary, and showing that ectoder-

mal ingrowths occur in the birds in just such positions as to

justify the view that they gave rise to skeletal structures.

Some of these, according to Goronowitsch, found their destiny

in the cutis, a fact to be remembered while considering the

work of Klaatsch, outlined below. A little later (93*) Gorono-

witsch published a short note in which, among other points, he

claimed that Miss Platt had not made good her thesis that

these mesectoderm cells gave rise to the cartilage. Miss Platt’s

final paper will, we understand, soon appear.

The most important and most detailed paper of all is that of

Klaatsch, which appeared in April of this year. Its title—“ On

the Origin of the Scleroblasts. A Contribution to the Know-

ledge of Osteogenesis "—shows its scope. Wecan give but the

merest outline of the points detailed in the 90 pages of the

paper.

The first point considered is the development of the placoid

scale. 'This, as is well-known, consists of two portions, a

harder outer portion, the enamel secreted by the basal ends of

cells of undoubted ectodermal origin; and a deeper dentine

which, up to now, has been universally regarded as of true

mesodermal nature. Klaatch studied the development of the

placoid organ in several species of Acanthias, Mustelus and

Heptanehus. These presented various differences, but in

general, they agreed in the following features. In the earlier

stages the ectoderm is two cells in thickness, a flattened super-

ficial layer and a deeper cubical or columnar layer. Between

this last and the corium is a clear space, and there is no con-

tinuous basal membrane. A little later this deeper layer be-

gins to undergo modifications, cells being budded from it into

the clear space. These cells are readily seen to belong to the

ectoderm, not only from the directions of the mitotic spindles,

but from the fact that their nuclei are greatly larger than

those of the corium, the only other layers from which they

could arise. These cells are the scleroblasts. They are not

scattered irregularly through the clear space, but are more

abundant in some places than in others thus early marking

out the positions of the later placoid organs. With the modi- __

638 The American Naturalist. [August,

fications of the ectoderm described by Klaatsch, we have noth-

ing to do here further than is concerned in the scale develop-

ment. It is to be noticed that along with the formation of the

little patches of scleroblasts the overlying cells of the basal

layer become elongated, the first step in the development of an

enamel organ. The later stages in their general features are

much as described by Oscar Hertwig in his classic paper of

twenty years ago, and yet there are important differences to be

noted. The heaping up of the scleroblasts continues, the re-

sult being the formation of the dentine organs, carrying with

it the superposed enamel cells in the form of a pyramid. The

enamel organ is terminated on all sides by a groove, and even

at this stage the cells at the bottom of this groove are actively

engaged in proliferating additional scleroblasts which are

pushed into the still-growing dentine organ. The necessary

conclusion is not only is the enamel of the placoid scale an .

ectodermal derivation, but such is the nature of the dentine as

well.

Now placoid scales and teeth have long been regarded as

homologous structures, and so Klaatsch studies the history of

the latter. In the sharks he finds that the conditions of the

development of the scales are paralleled in the ontogeny of

the teeth. There is the same early proliferation of scleroblasts

into the clear layer, and later, when the enamel cap is formed,

its limiting groove is the seat of additional ingrowth of den-

tine-forming cells. In short, we must no longer regard the

teeth as structures derived from two germ layers—ectoderm

and mesoderm—but as purely ectodermal products.

In the fin of the shark are numerous horny rays, and their

history is followed. Earlier workers had universally regarded

them as belonging to the connective-tissue series, although in

1885 Krukenberg had shown that their organic base was differ-

ent from the chemical standpoint from the other connective

tissues. Klaatsch finds that here there is a similar inwander-

! It is to be noted that in the recent meeting of the Anatomische Gesellschaft at

Strassburg, May 13-16, Professor Rabl had a paper “ Ueber die Herkunft des Den-

tinkeims in den Placoidschuppen und den Zihnen der Selachier (gegen

Boo mee Me oe ont a eR imal ia. |” E cro

3 d yrs

1894.] The Origin of the Vertebrate Skeleton. 639

ing of ectoderm cells into the region between the basal epithe-

lium and the corium. From these cells are produced at first

extremely minute horny rods, and these, later, together with

their parent cells, sink through the corium into the position

they finally oceupy, where no one, not tracing their history in

detail, would suspect their ectodermal origin. Even in Tor-

pedo, where no horny rays occur in the paired fins of the adult

ingrowths of ectoderm into the axial portions of the fin exist.

Atthis point one author supports Rabl in his view that the

unpaired fins are not derived from the fusion of paired rudi-

ments. The opposite view is fastened upon Dohrn, regardless

of the fact that it was first shown to be probable by J. K.

Thacher and later supported by Balfour. Dohrn’s special

contention was that the fins, paired and unpaired, were deriva-

tives of the parapodia of the worms, and later, Paul Mayer

claimed to have found structures—“ parapodoids"— which rep-

represented these. These “parapodoids” are, according to

Klaatsch's view, the early placoid organs.

In studying the development of true bone, Klaatsch studied

Salmo salar. Here the earliest to appear were the opercular

bones, and but little later those of the shoulder girdle and

those arising in connection with the teeth, later those of the

cranium. The details of the formation of the scleroblasts for a

few of these bones is given, including the squamosal, opercu-

lum, clavicula, dentary, and the osseous fin-rays. In the case

of each, the osteoblasts are derivatives of the ectoderm. "The

squamosal is especially interesting, since it begins from out-

growths at the point of the infolding of the mucous canals, and

is developed in connection with these organs. At first it is

connected solely with them, and is plainly a membrane bone ;

later it comes into contact with the otic capsule. Klaatsch |

sides with those who would make no sharp distinction between

cartilage- and membrane-bones, and regards not only the

squamosal but the cranial roof and the ossifications which ap-

pear in the cranial roof and on the primordial cranium as

having their origin in bones developed, like the squamosal, for

protection of the cutaneous sense-organs.

640 The American Naturalist. [August,

After diseussing these, Klaatsch passes to the bony fin-rays

of the Teleosts and then to their scales, giving details which

our space will not allow us to repeat, but in each case he comes

back to the conclusion that in each and every case the so-

called mesodermal element is of ectodermal origin. Then a

few instances are taken from other groups—Salamandra and

Lepus. In the Batrachia he finds the same conditions as in

sharks and Teleosts. In the Mammals he fails to trace the

history of his scleroblasts, but he finds here, as elsewhere, pro-

liferations of ectodermal cells into the subadjacent tissues,

which, it is possible, may later form the skeletogenous cells.

It needs hardly be said that these various contributions thus

superficially summarized are most important, since, if they be

confirmed, they will tend to an overthrow of many ideas long

believed to be firmly grounded. The questions concerned are

far from settled, but we venture to predict that the subject will

occupy a prominent place in the morphological literature of

the immediate future.

LITERATURE CITED.

’92. N. Goronowitsch. Die axiale und laterale Kopf-

metamerie der Vogelembryonen. Anat. Anzeiger, VII.

'98. Untersuchungen über die Entwickelung der sog. Gang-

lienleisten der Vogelembryonen. Morph. Jahrbuch., XX.

'92*. Weiteres über die ectodermale Entstehung von Skelet-

anlagen im Kopf der Wirbelthiern. Morph. Jahrb., XX.

'88. N. Kastschenko. Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der

Selachierembryo. Anat. Anz., iii.

'94. H. Klaatsch. Uber die Herkunft der Scleroblasten.

Morph. Jahrb., XXI.

'93. Julia B. Platt. Ectodermie Origin of the Cartilages

ofthe Head. Anat. Anz., VIII

"93". Ontogenetic Differentiations of the Ectoderm of Nec-

turus. Anat. Anz., IX.

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 641

VARIATION OF NORTH AMERICAN FISHES.*

THE VARIATION OF ETHEOSTOMA CAPRODES

RAFINESQUE.

By W. J. MoENKHAUS.

Etheostoma is a genus of American Freshwater Percide. It

consists of about 100 species distributed in a number of sub-

genera. All the members of the genus are small. They are

distributed over approximately the entire Atlantic slope of

North America. The northernmost points are Fort Quappelle

and Montreal; the southernmost, Chihuahua. The most west

ern points are Colorado and Swift Current in Canada near

the 108th meridian.

The subgenus Percina includes the largest of the darters.

There are but two well-defined species. One, Etheostoma rex

is known from east of the Alleghany Mountains. The other,

Etheostoma caprodes is also found east of the Alleghanies, but

its chief habitat is west of these mountains, where it is found

from Lakes Champlain and Superior to the Rio Grande.

This latter species, Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, has been

studied with a view to ascertain the extent of its variation, the

relation of its variation to its geographical distribution, the

extent of variation in each locality, and the variation with

age. This species of the darters has been selected for its size,

and on account of its wide distribution and moderate abund-

ance within its limits. Its variability has been known for a

long time, and has given it a number of specific names.

The material examined is recorded in the table of measure-

ments and counts.

The greatest variation was found to be in the color. Slighter

variations were found in proportions and number of fin rays.

* Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of Indiana rins under ler

the direction of Carl H. Eigenmann, No. 10. [OA

642 The American Naturalist. [August,

Evolution of the Color Pattern.

As just stated, the point of greatest variability is the color

pattern. The colors in life are not taken into consideration,

but only the black markings which were preserved in alco-

holic specimens. On comparing living specimens with alco-

holic material, but little difference was noticed. In the matter

of color patterns, the specimens from any one locality agree to

a remarkable extent. This statement refers only to specimens

of the same size—differences, of course, existing between young

and adult stages.

The simplest pattern was found in specimens from Chocola

Cr., Ala. These were immature specimens, and do not represent

the adult condition. ;

In these specimens (30 and 33 mm. long., fig. 1), we have

a series of nine cross-bars extending from the back to below

the middle of the sides. The bars at the ends of the dorsal

fins are much emphasized, and all the bars are heaviest at

their upper and lower ends. There is a distinct round spot

at the root of the caudal. The color of the head need not be

taken into consideration in this specimen. The caudal spot

remains in all the specimens examined. The most compli-

cated pattern, that of fig. 7, is shown to-be derived by easy

stages and step by step from the condition figured in fig. 1.

The simplest pattern in adult fishes is found in specimens

inhabiting the waters of the Wabash River and its tributaries

in Indiana (Nos. 9, 40 and 44). The pattern here consists of

a series of long and short bars alternating. In the anterior

region, the short bars are usually as long as the long bars. A

better way to designate these is to term the long bars “ whole

bars," and the short bars “ half bars" The whole bars towards

the posterior end of the body spread slightly and become more

intensely colored toward their ventral extremity. The black

caudal spot is also present here. This spot does not vary in

any of the patterns figured. The head is colored black above,

and has a large spot on the opercle, taking the general form of

the opercle itself. The color on the top of the head is most

intense towards the posterior, as shown in fig. 9, and becomes

less less distinct as it extends forward to the tip of the snout.

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 643

Around the eyes are seen faint indications of three bars: one

extending forward ; the second downward, and the third back-

ward (fig. 2).

Comparing this pattern with the one in the young, we find

that the whole bars are homologous in the two, and that the

half bars have been added.

A step in advance is taken by the adult specimens from

Chocola Cr., Ala., fig. 3 (Nos. 76-82). These have the bars

alternately long and short along the entire length of the body.

The bars are considerably broader and more intense, and the

whole bars have their ventral extremities much broadened, so

as to form quite an apparent series of spots along the side.

An additional half bar is added by the union of the spot

above and the spot justin front of the black caudal spot. Here

the three bars radiating from the eye are somewhat more dis-

tinct than in the pattern already described. |

The next series of individuals are Nos. 45-55, 72, 73 and

75, in the list given below, and are represented by fig. 4. They

are found in the Green, Cumberland, Tennessee and Arkansas

River Basins. The color pattern here shows a greater irregu-

larity in its bars, and has developed in addition a still shorter

between each of the whole and half bars of the preceding

pattern, so that we have now whole, half and quarter bars.

'The series of lateralspots is present only along a part of the

body. The bar extending anteriorly from the eye is broken

into two shorter and less distinct ones.

Of considerable significance in the specimen figured in fig.

3 is the fact that in the bar between the dorsals, we have a

notch indicating that some of the color-cells are separating

from the whole bar. A similar condition is shown in thesame

region of fig. 4. The quarter bars are apparently split off

from the other bars. It is of interest that variations in the

direction of an increased number of bars is always, as far as

my specimens go, introduced at this point. Specimens inter-

mediate between this and the preceding form show that the

quarter bars always make their first appearance between the

seventh and eighth whole bars and the included half bar. -

644 The American Naturalist. [August, E 4

Other quarter bars are then added in front and behind this

region.

From the conditions represented in fig. 3, we have two P

diverging lines of development. The one line was discussed

in the preceding paragraph. The other line is found in speci-

mens, Nos. 82 and 83, taken from San Marcos Spring, Texas,

and is represented in fig. 5. We have here a splitting of the

bars without the regular result seen in fig. 4. The lower ends

of the whole bars have not split, in fact, they have increased .

in width, and form a very prominent series of spots along the

side. It will be seen that the bars radiating from the eye have

become much more pronounced.

'The pattern of fig. 6 can be easily derived from the preced-

ing one by assuming that the lower half of the whole bars of

the anterior part of the body have shifted their position back-

ward, so that they no longer extend extirely to the mid-dorsal

line. The 3d,4th and 5th whole bars show different degrees 1

of shifting. The lower part of the 4th has shifted, but still *

retains its connection with the upper part. In the 3d, the bar

is more nearly separated, while in the 5th the separation is

complete, and the original lower part of the bar becomes

simply a vertically elongated spot. The bars around the eye

are here again less developed. "The pattern of fig. 6 is the one

occurring in Etheostoma caprodes manitou Jordan, and was

drawn from a specimen taken from Torch Lake, Mich. Other

specimens, taken from the same lake and from other localities,

have the same color pattern with slight variations. Nos. 1-7,

and 41 of Table I, are this variety.

The line of development taken up by fig. 5 is continued in

figs. 7 and 8, representing the specimens from Obey’s River

and Eagle Creek in Tennessee, and from the Little South Fork

of the Cumberland River in Kentucky. These are Nos. 56-72

in the table. A single young specimen, No. 74, which prom-

ised to become this form, was also taken in the North Fork of

the Holston River, in Virginia. The two figures were drawn

from a younger and older specimen respectively, of the same

form. In the younger specimens, the bars have become more

split up, and have increased in irregularity. Almost all of

1894.] - Variation of North American Fishes. 645

the original bars, however, can be traced. The lateral spots,

too, are much more prominent than in the preceding pattern.

In the older individuals the bars have become so much split

up as to form a complicated network, and the original pattern

can be made out only in a general way. The spots are larger

and darker than in the younger, and form almost a continuous

lateral band. The radiating bars around the eyes are corre-

spondingly more developed, the one extending backward in

a slight curve beyond the head to the first lateral spot.

In the last pattern, the original simple whole and half bars

have reached their greatest modification, and the faint lateral

spots of fig. 2 have become the most prominent part of the

coloration.

The variation presents a piil modification in two divergent

lines from an original simplest pattern. Beginning with the

whole bars of fig. 1, we pass to the form having alternate whole |

and half bars,and an imperfect series of lateral spots. From

this form we pass on the one hand to the pattern having alter-

nate whole, half and quarter bars, and -on the other hand to

the pattern consisting of reticulated markings above, and a

very prominent series of spots along the sides. In the pattern

of fig. 6, we have a second divergent line of development from

fig.5. The radiating bars around the eyes become more devel- -

oped as we pass from the simple to the more complex patterns,

with the exception in fig. 6.

It will be seen from the localities at which each of the vari-

ous patterns occurred, that there is no definite serial relation

between the variations and the latitude at which they are

found. As already stated, however, the variations are remark-

ably definite fora given locality. T dA RR from the Wa-

bash waters can,almost without exceptio d from

those of the Cumberland River, for. instance, while those from

the Alabama River are distinguished by their invariably

broader bars. Both the patterns of figs. 4 and 6 occur in the

Cumberland and Tennessee River system, but both have not

been taken from the same tributaries of these streams.

The color pattern of Etheostoma caprodes is of interest when f

considered as to its bilateral symmetry. In most of the sim- —

646 The American Naturalist. [August,

plest patterns, the corresponding bars on the two sides are

exactly alike, and precisely meet each other in the mid-dorsal

tine. This almost perfect symmetry is not so prevalent in the

more complex patterns. The simplest cases of asymmetry

are found in the simplest patterns when some of the bars do

not exactly meet their fellows on the back. Fig. 8 shows an

instance of this kind. Both the asymmetrical and the sym-

metrical forms occur in the same locality, and the former

seems purely accidental, but in all cases observed, it makes its

first appearance in the bars along the spinous dorsal. From

this point it spreads backward along the soft dorsal until we

reach an extreme form of asymmetry, as represented in fig. 9.

Here the first three and the last four bars, together with the

bar between the dorsals, still preserve their symmetry, while

those along the entire length of both dorsals are quite asym-

metrica

_ In regard to variations in parts other than in the color pat-

tern, only those points of structure were examined that could

be most accurately made out on alcoholic specimens. One

very marked departure from the regular form exists in the

specimens from San Marcos Spr., Texas. This departure con-

sists, as shown in fig. 5, of an increase in the depth of the

body in the region of the spinous dorsal, as a result of the

unusual elevation of the back in this region. These belong

to the variety carbonaria, described from Texa, and are more

distinct in points of form than the varieties I examined from

any other locality.

No. 8 in Table I, taken by Dr. Meek at Cedar Rapids, Iowa,

differs materially from any of the specimens from other local-

ities. It approaches nearest the variety zebra in the color pat-

tern, and in having no scales before the spinous dorsal. The

scales, however, are larger, there being but 76 in the lateral

line. The head measures 33 in body and the number of rays

in anal is 12.

The following table will give the number of specimens, their

locality and the points of structure which have been examined.

The spines in the dorsal and anal fins are indicated by Roman

numbers and the rays by Arabic numbers. The length of the

Te ea! ada Sire es ae irre

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 647

- specimens are measured in mm. from the tip of the snout to

root of caudal. Only those scales of the lateral line are

counted which have the tribes developed in them. The local-

ities are arranged in the order of their latitude from north to

south.

TABLE I.

srd Ls]

E oe a fe g - E į

LOCALITY. BE is a p | E = a S£

aa cod Bee Aa;

BS | god § 4m à +

| ——M— E

1. Torch Lake, Mich ( Y 19 |445;| XIV,15 | 1,10 )

2. e " e ( 76 19 V,15 | 11,10 | 90

3 ” he Le ( 80 4 V,15 | I1,10 )

5 4, « & S e oir 6 15 18} | 47; | XV,15 | 11,10 )

5. « «c « ( 80. 20 XV,15 | 11,10 )

6. m « m ( 71 19 Ads. XIV,14 11,10 )

* 3 e te “u t 78 18 4 ly AY, 6 IL11 )

8. Rapids, Iowa 70 | 29 |3l | xtvi1s | Ib12 | 76

9. White River, joe eg Ind... XIV,16 | I10 )

10. Ra Mebcea, [nd............. 40 103 | 3% )

m c " NO C nt aa 42 3% )

7 mo s z E n ine 41 11 |3% )

E 13. Gosport, Ind 90 21 4 XV,15 | 11,10 | 90

1 14. " n 50 13 |3H | XIV IL10 j

1 Ib. d " 38 10 | 3% XV, 1L10 )

3 16. T n 47 18 {384 XV, 11,10 f

Tee. « 53 | 14 3H] XV,15 | ILIO | 90

18. Bean Blossom, Ind 7 17 | 344) XV,l ILIO [

9. “ a e $ 4 XIV. 1 IL1 1 )

REI E E s 24 i| XIV, IL11 j

: [71 rm ec j 4 224 S4 XV, 16 ILI 1 5

eo " " 21 | 39%) XIV,16 | ILI

, t « T: 113 4$, XV,15 iLi! 1

Lo " us 3| 184 | 344) XIV,16 | 11,10 3

) « u t ie 82 214 5 XIV, TI,10 à

) € [1 &€ 21 x ,16 I111 E

r « [rr t L 18 8. XIV, ) ILI 3

a " 61 16 sl XV,16 | I10

“ ge a T , 44 11 |4 XIV,16 | IL11 | 85

je " " 42 1l |9f., XV,I6|ILIO | 86

“ te 5 47 13 |3% | XIIL16 | 1,10 | 85

xt Ys " 96 94 14 XV,15 | U,11 `

. “ 7 3 18 |4| XIV,I6 | 0,10 j

d me s 3 17 |4 ,16 | 11,10 bo

“ “ «€ 1 5 10 3 ; : * RE

ko « Hels ast edes eR a 33 9 3 i P a

. Rushyille, Ind ‘ SR | 92 |4 | XIV,I5 | 1,10 | 90

. Wild Cat Creek, Kokomo, Ind....... 10 34 14A XV 85

648 The American Naturalist. [August,

i" b |f p E

ED pv 3 =

Be Sart BE ^ g 4

LOCALITY. Peia |. LA - -EEE

$9 | we | t8 |g $ = 5

s@ | & 5 $ 5 8 [8

be | 4 n m A <q 2

:89. Pike Creek, Ind 2 |107 26 |4% | XIV,16 | IL11 | 89

4, € s S 2 | 102 2 4A XV.16 ILII | 91

41. Illinois 2 65 15 | 43 XV,14 | ILIO | 89

.42. Nipisink Lake, Ils 2 XV,15 | ILIO | 85

43. « T T d XIV,15 | IL11 | 85

44. Monongahela River, Pa..............-. 4 96 23 | 45 | XV,15 | ILIO | 85

45. Hartford, Ky. 4 | 76 | 19 |4 | XVLI4 | IL10 | 88

aM ai « 4 | 76 | 19 |4 | XV,15 | ILIO | 87

a o e a 4 | 76 | 19 |4 | XIV,16 | 1110 | 88

mO oo ed aa e 4 | 78 | 1931/4 | XV.16 | ILI1 | 90

49 dine River, Greensburg, Ky... 4 85 20 | 4:5 ,15 | ILIO | 89

nw 4 | 90 | 213 4 | XV,I6 | I.11 | 92

Duldo Wo (WES «oe, cr 4 | 77 | 17 \4y5| XV5 | ILI1 | 85

52. Little Farren River, Osceola, ete 4 92 23:74 XV,15 | IL11 | 89

3 4 69 LF 4 XV,14 | IL11 | 89

er Yt "ono uw 69 17 | 427 | XVL15 | IL11 | 89

` wd t 69 17 | 47, | XIV,16 | IL11 | 88

56. Little S. Fork Canbala River

e Co., Ky 7&8|10 | 2 4b | X Lll | 92

57. Eagle Creek, Olympus, Tenn......... 7&8, 82 21 |811 XVIL14 | I11 | 87

.58. OE M Du d sq eres 7&8| 614| 16 |3Hi | XV Lik } 92

59. Obey’s River, ‘“ MEC eases 7&8|. 77 18 | 4°; |XVII,14 | II1 | 89

ae = " Oh iiec 7&8, 86 4r | XV,14 | IL10 | 86

Lh ^ x s co 7&8| 55 13} | 444 | XVI,15 | IL12 | 89

e 44 4 s E 7&8| 66 314 | XVLI15 | 11,12 | 90

d oo n X ae, 7&8| 62 | 15 | 44 XVII, | ILI2 | 87

e á - I e x Um 7&8 VILI15 | IL11 | 90

a d t € ue 7&8 | 65 | 164 | 838] XV,17 | ILU | 90

Go" T x $6 enana 7&8, 53 4 |3M| XVI, 1,11 | 89

ern «4 “ t Br hassel 7&8| 54 13 XVILI5 | IL12 | 86

«A ^ * « = Wr dealt ebie 7&8 60 15 XVIL15 | 11,12 | 91

e o " n E Hide 7&8, 514| 12} | 4f, |X VII,14 | 11,12 | 85

3A Gee Am we u NE 7&8| 534 | 18 XVII,15 | IL12 | 89

Wit e v: ine eee 7&8, 574 | 1444 |XVII,15 | Il11

72. Watauga River, EE on

4 |122 27 XVI,16 | IL11 | 92

"78. 4 21 XV,16 | IL10 | 92

74. North Fork Holston River, Salt- :

ville, Va. 7&8, 474| 18 ggs XVI,15 | 11,12 | 92

75. Eureka EN Ark 4 |112 24 XVI,15

76. Chocola Creek, Oxford, Ala.......... 3 94 21 ait XVI,15 | I11 | 91

"TA ie e * = EE sesveeeee 3 97 18 |44&| XV,17 | 1112 | 78

1 Eis e = - T boss 8 89 21 |44| XVI,17 | IL11 | 83

a * yi M x 78 17 |419| XV,15 | ILI1 | 90

so. San Marcos Spring," Tere, eat O 2) | 444 | XIII,15 | IL11 | 85

A e [oA P dee 5 |102 | 24 5 | IL

" a i - jenni 3 7 |3

hk 83. “ « « Ws os = 3 30 8 34 |

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 649

Table II presents all the combinations of dorsal spines and

dorsal rays, and the number of specimens having the given

combination. (But 76 of the specimens have been examined

for this table.) The combinations are arranged in the numer-

ical order of the spines from the lowest number to the highest.

In the third column are given the per cents. of specimens hav-

ing each combination. XV,15 is seen to be the commonest

combination ; XIV, 16 the next, XV, 16 and XVI, 15 the next,’

and soon. The largest per cent. of any combination does not

exceed 21.052.

TABLE II.

HE M

r TE

DORSAL FINS.

BÉ A

XIII, 15 1 1.315

XIII, 1€ 1 1.315

XIV, 1: 2 2.631

AV, i 6 7.895

XIV, 12 15.789

XIV T 1 1.815

XV, 3 3.947

XV, 16 1.05

AV, 184i uode Bain. 11 14.47

XV, 2 2.631

AVL 14 I 1.315

XVI, 15 9 11.841

XVI, 16 1 1.315

LVL It 1 1.315

XVII,14 3 3.947

XVII, 15 6 7.894

In Table III are arranged the varieties in the number of

-dorsal spines, the number of specimens representing each vari-

_ation, and the per cent, of all the specimens for each variation.

The average number of spines is 155, while the number of

-spines predominating is 15.

650 The American Naturalist. [August,

TABLE III.

b d

| ge 83

DORSAL SPINES. E É : z

A à

. |

XIII 2 2.631

AIV 21

XV 32 42.11

XVI 12 15.789

XVII 9 11.841

Average number of spines...... 1575

In Table IV the same data are given for the dorsal rays.

The average number of rays is 155, about the same as the

spines. Fifteen is seen to be the number in about 50 per cent.

of all the specimens examined. While 42.11 per cent. have

fifteen dorsal spines, and 50.007 per cent. have fifteen dorsal

.. rays, only 21.05 per cent. have a combination of fifteen npe |

and fifteen rays.

TABLE IV.

sg =.

: | DoRSAL RAYS. ii 3 i

a ©

z [s

Et 9 11.841

ug ^15 i i 50.007

16 omes oe

Tsai DOE : efe 5.262.

Average number of ray... 1575 ;

pe T

da o

"he Vistas: in | ds anal fn are given in n Table Vv. The d

anal fins dele 76 —— i E a

PLATE XVIII.

| A 77

CQ CA

Etheostoma caprodes, Raf.

PLATE XIX.

TTI SS

UAM E E

Etheostoma caprodes, Raf.

PLATE XX.

Etheostoma rex, Jordan.

PLATE XXI.

Distribution of Etheostoma caprodes.

ee ae ee ee ee KI 4 n.

oes

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 651

TABLE V.

3 E : E é

pn] =|

ANAL FINS. 2 S F :

z un x [7]

; II, 10. 30 39.47

; Saree E Spe h t 36 47.37

: LL 48 eiie > 10 13.15 í

Average number of anal rays....| - 101$ ^

1n Table VI are given the variations in the number of scales

in the lateral line. The scales were counted on 79 de i ee

Eighty-five was the number fonnd ina number having the

lateral line incompletely developed. Eighty-five, ee.

eighty-nine and ninety were found jin about 60 per cent. of

the specimens examined. pM 2

TABLE VI

sesesessessereee "sao eerte

89 LETITI D sirais vee

652 The American Naturalist. [August,

Table VII indicates the number of specimens, the average

number of dorsal spines, and the number of specimens with

thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen spines from

each of the localities from which specimens were examined.

The localities are arranged as they occur, from north to south.

It will be seen that the prevailing numbers occurring in the

more northern streams are fourteen and fifteen. As we go

farther south the usual number is fifteen and sixteen, and in

the most southern streams the numbers are fifteen, sixteen and

seventeen spines, the specimens from Texas are peculiarly poor

in the number of spines.

TABLE VII.

28 | 23 | ov] $9) 3S) 35

si | 54 [SLES | 83/2 | 25

cg agn cid a R SEL OE

- B oa H Sait ie

LOCALITY. 2$ FI. EE a3 EE FE E

LEBCSEHEHEHEHEE

Z < Z zZ Z * zZ

Torch Lake, Mich......... ................- 7 144 3| 4

Cadar Rapidi, T. coss isasce tenes daii] A 14 1

hoa River, at Indianapolis Nep 007 E 1 14 1

5 | 14 Il a4

San Blossom, Ind 17 BN B91 7

Rushville, 1 14 1

Wild Cat ot Ind 1 15 1

Pike Creek, 2 143 i11

Illinois 1 15 1

Nipisink Lak 2 144 PL

Monongahela Rives 1 15 1

4 5 1 2 1

Green River Greensburg, E —— pe 15 8

Barren River, Osceola, Ky......... 1 15 TL)

Little South Fork Ciebetland River,

Eagle e dedi y Ky 1 16 1 i

2 63 1

ay aie Lr loma, Tenn «oid Pete 13 o 2| 81 $

eer 2 15 1

North Pork Holsten n River, Saltville; Vero 16 1

1 16 1

Chest Cel, Oxf Oxford, Ala 4 15 21 3

San Marcos Springs, Nek. 2 isi II-1

T——ÉRR

NTC NE S RUNE NES EER NA

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 653

Table VIII contains the same data with regard to the dorsal

rays. In the last column is given the average number of dor-

sal spines and rays combined. The rays do not show the same

variation found in the dorsal spines, the number being the

same for localities north and south. ` The average number of

dorsal spines and rays combined consequently increases with

the dorsal spines.

TABLE VIII.

Sai (al Bul Bol de | ba | 55

ge (85) 8 | 28 | 28 ES) 33

SE | ag [e3|w3 93 [se ya] Se

RB of Teele Te? | et ret am

a 22 | #3 2422/22/22 (22) 2:

5% | Ss BB BH|BH|SH|SR| c8

zZ < Z4 zZ z z <

Torch Lake 7 15 14.5]. 1 294

Cedar Rapids, Ia 1 15 1 29

White River at Indianapolis......... 1 16 1 =

Bean eee Ind 17 1515 2|14| 1/30;

ille, Ind 1 15 i 29

Wild Cat bm Ind 1 16 1 31

In 2 16 2 30}

Illinoi 1 14 1 29

Nipisink Lake, Il 2 15 2 293

Monongahela River i| deer + 15 1 30

Hartford, y 4 | 15} Lire 3 30}

Green River T, ; Greensburg, Ky ee 3 154 21 1 804

Little Barren River, Osceola, Ky... 2 4 15 14 211 30

Little South Fork ee

rl a des RH uns 1 15 1 31

Eagle Creek, Ol a, Tenn.« n 2 14 Lido 31

Obeys Rives, «vage ttown, Tenn... 13 14:4 31:59 1| 31,

Watauga Riv 2 16 2 313

North hoe Tuki River, Sali

ille, 15 1 31

Eureka c ian Ark ea oe eei ta 1 15 i 31

Chocola Creek, ' Oxford, S. RREA 4 16 2 2 | 31}

` San Marcos Spring, 2 15 2

Table IX gives similar data on the anal fins. The spines

are not given since they were found to be two in all cases ex-

amined. In the anal rays we have, as in the dorsal spines, a

slight increase in their number from north to south. The —

654 The American Naturalist. [August,

most common number in the Indiana streams is ten, the num-

ber increasing to eleven and twelve in the most southern

specimens.

TABLE IX. :

, lapleplet

| 28/5/25) ES

35 | E8 |w8 s3|t*8

LOCALITY. ef | of | BEI BEI BE

E $8 |Zal2Za 2m

HENETMEHEHEE

A 4 aA ZAZA

Torch Lake 7-| 10i 8| 1

Cedar Rapids, Ia 1 12 1

dee River, at Indianapolis ] 10 I

, In Ə | 10 5

Bean Tiho, Ind 17 10,5; 8| 9 1

Rushville, Ind : 10 1 d

Wild Cat Creek, Ind 1] 1 7

Pike Creek, Ind * Hg 2 *

MARK E E A E diae eee deseo» scaususoesvysbevetiones! a ebd : 10 1 =

Nipisink Lake, I 2 I0. 1...

Monongahela Rives 0 tj

LC HAUS iia p e Med: e. 4 ld 3171

Green River, Greensburg, Ky 3 1 bius

Little Barren River, Osceola, Ky. B Liz 4

Little South Fork "Cumberland R,WayneCo,Ky.| 1 | dH 1

le lympus, 2 11 2

ade pi Elizabethtown, Tenn 13 115). 1). 8. 7

S xU 2 TAI

North Fork Holston River, Saltillo Mb ETE j 12 1

Ckocolk “reek, Orford Ala 4 114 24 41

San Marcos Springs, T 2 11 2

Synonymy, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DISTRIBUTION OF ETHEOSTOMA

CAPRODES RAFINESQUE.

Scixna caprodes Rafinesque, “Amer. Month. Mag. 1818,

534."

Etheostoma caprodes Raf., “Ich. Oh., 1820, 88.” Kirtland,

Zool, Ohio, 1838, 168, 192; Bost. Jour, Nat. Hist., III, 346,

1841. (Ohio); Storer, “Synop. Fish. N. A., 1847, 270-272.”

Evermann, Bull. No. 2. Brookville Soc. Nat. Hist., 1886, 8.

(Little Cedar Cr., Ind.); Evermann & Bollman, Notes on Coll.

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 655

Fish. from Monongahela R., 1886; Jenkins, Proc. Terre Haute

Sci. Soc., 1886. (Streams of Vigo Co. Ind); Evermann &

Jenkins, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus, 1888, 51-57. (Tippecanoe R.,

Wabash R., Deer Cr., Little Deer Cr., Wild Cat Cr., Fourteen

Mile Cr., Clarke Co., Ind.); Meek, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XI,

1888, 440. (Maumee R., Defiance Co., O.); Jordan, Bull. U.

S. Fish Com., 1888, 147, 153, 159, 164, 167. (White R.,at

Spencer, Ind.); Mackey's Ferry, Posey Co., Ind; Wabash R.,

Vincennes, Ind.; Patoka R., at Patoka, Gibson Co., Ind.;

Black R., New Harmony, Ind.; Wabash R., at New

Harmony, Ind.; Eel River, Logansport, Ind.; Swan-

nanoa R., at Asheville, N. C.; Watauga Rs, Elizabethton,

Tenn. ; North Fork of Holston R., (near Glade Spr.,Va.); Boll-

man, Bull. U. S. Fish Com., 1888, 224. (Cognac and Torch

Lakes, Mich.; Spencer Cr, Calhoun Co. Mich.); Henshall,

Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist, 1888, 80. (Little Miami R., and

Ross L., O.); Meek, Bull. U. S. Fish Com., IX, 1889, 123, 128,

130,139. (Gasconade R., at Arlington, Mo.; Spadra Cr. at

Clarkesville, Ark.; James R., near Springfield, Mo.); Gilbert,

Bull. U. S. Fish Com., 1889, 151, 155. (Ala. R., Tenn. R.);

Jordan, Bull. U. S. Fish Com., 1889, 18. (Arkansas R., at

Wichita); Jordan, Man. Vert., 1890, 126. (Gr. Lakes to Va.,

` Ala. and Texas); Kirsch, Bull U. S. Fish Com., 1891, 260,

261, 262, 264, 265, 266, 268. (Southern Trib. Cumb. R. in

Tenn. and Ky.) ; McCormick, Lab. Bull. No. 2, Oberlin College,

O., 1892. (Waters of Loraine Co., O.); Evermann & Kendall,

Bull. U. S. Fish Com., 1894, 84, 88, 93, 113, pl. XXXV. (Long

L., near Magnolia Point; Nechec R., east of Palestine.)

Pileoma caprodes Agassiz, L. Superior, 1850, 308; Le Vail-

lant, * Recherches sur les Poissons, etc., 1873."

Percina caprodes Girard. * Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1859,

66 ;” Putnam, * Bull. M. C. Z.,1863,5;” Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat.

Sci., Phila., 1865, 82; Cope, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila., 1869,

211; Jordan, Ind. Geol. Sur., 1874, 213; Man. Vert., 1876, 224;

Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Hist, 1876, 93; Jordan & Copeland,

Am. Nat., 1876, 337; Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Hist., 1876, 135;

Jordan, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1877, 44, 58, 54. (Low:

Wabash R., White R.); Jordan, Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. Hist, —

656 The American Naturalist. [August,

1877, 312, 373, 376. (Etowah, Oostanaula and Coosa Rivers,

Ga.; Rock Castle R., S. E. Ky.; White R., at Indianapolis);

Jordan, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 9, 1877, 15, 24. (Notes on

Nomenclature); Jordan, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 10, 1877, 15.

(Gr. Lake Region to Alabama); Jordan & Brayton, Bull. U.S.

Nat. Mus. No. 12, 1878, 45, 57, 73. (Ala. R., Tenn. R., Cumb.

R.); Jordan, Bull. 2 Ills. State Lab. Nat. Hist., 1878, 3. (Ver-

milion R., Calumet. R., Wabash R., Pine Cr., Mo); Jordan,

Geo. Surv. of Ohio, IV, 1878, 970. (Quebec to Georgia, Lake

Superior, and the Rio Grande); Jordan, Bull. U. S. Geo. Surv.,

1879, 438. (Gr. Lake Region to Ala.); Hay, Proc. U. S. Nat.

. Mus., III, 1880, 491. (Chickasawha R., Miss.) ; Bean, Proc. U.

S. Nat. Mus., IIT, 1880, 100. (Meadville, Penn., Racine, Wis.,

Columbus, O., Westport, N. Y., Poland, O., Yellow Cr. O.,

Madrid, N. Y., Ohio, Potomac R., Penn.); Cope, Report of

State Fish Com. Pa., 124. (Lake Erie and Allegheny R., east

to Lake Champlain); Hay, Bull. U. S. Fish Com., II, 1882, 60.

(Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss.); Jordan & Gilbert, Syn. Fish

North America, 499, 1883. (Gr. Lakes and streams of the

South and West); Forbes, Rept. Ills. State Fish Com., 1884, 65.

(L. Mich. to Cairo and Wabash Valley); Gilbert, Proc. U. S.

Nat. Mus, VII, 1884, 204. (Salt Cr., near Bedford, Ind.) ;

Jordan, Ann. Rept. Com. Fish and Fisheries, 1884,79; Eigen-

mann & Fordice, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1885, 411. (Bean

Blossom Cr., Ind.); Jordan & Eigenmann, Proc. U. S. Nat.

Mus., 1885, 68; Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886,

5, 8, 13, 21. (White R., near Eureka Springs; Trib. of Ark.

R., near Ft. Smith; Washita R., at Arkadelphia, and Saline

R., at Benton, Ark.; Rio San Marcos, at San Marcos, Tex. ;

Colorado R., at Austin, Tex.); Gilbert, 3d Series of Notes on

Kansas Fish, ed. 1887, 207. (Inokomo Cr., Kans.)

Percina nebulosa Haldeman,“ Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila.,

VIII, 1842, 330 ;” Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1859,

66.

Perca nebulosa DeKay, “ Fishes of N. Y., 1842, 7.”

Etheostoma nebulosa Storer, * Synop. Fish N. A., 1847, 270-

272.

————

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 657

Pileoma semifasciatum DeKay, N. Y. Fauna Fish., 1842, pl.

50, 162; Günther, I, 76,1859. (Lake Erie and Ohio.)

Etheostoma semifasciata Storer, “Synop. Fish N. A., 1847,

270-272.”

Percina semifasciata Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila.,

1859, 66; Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila.. 1860, 20.

Pileoma carbonaria Baird & Girard, “ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.,

Phila.,” 1853, 387 ; Girard, U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv, 10,

1859, pl. VIII, fig. 10-13. Rio Salado, Rio Medina, San Ped-

ro Cr. Tex.); Günther, I, 76, 1859. (Rio Salado, Tex.)

Percina carbonaria Girard, * Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila.,

1859, 67 ;" Jordan, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1877, 54. (Ala-

bama R.); Jordan, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 10, 1878, 15.

(Texas); Jordan, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. Nat. Hist., 1878, XI, 312,

(Alabama R.); Jordan, Bull U. S. Geo. Surv., 1879, 438.

(Texas).

Percina caprodes carbonaria Cope, Bull. 17, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

1880,31. (Trinity R., near Dallas, and Llano R., Kimble

Co., Tex.)

Percina bimaculata Haldeman, “ Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist.,

1843, 157.”

Etheostoma bimaculata Storer, * Synop. Fish N. A., 270-272,

1847.”

Pileoma zebra Agassiz, Lake Superior, 308, pl. 4, fig. 4, 1850.

(Lake Superior.)

Percina zebra Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1859, 66.

(Lake Superior); Jordan Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 10, 1877, 15.

(Gr. Lake Region.)

Asproperca zebra Heckel.

Percina caprodes zebra Jordan, Ann. Rept. Com. Fish and

Fisheries, 1884, 79.

Percina manitou Jordan, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1877,

53. (Lake Manitou in N. Indiana); Jordan, Bull. U. S. Nat.

Mus. No. 10, 1877, 15. (Indiana to Minnesota) ; Jordan, Bull.

9 Ills. State Lab. Nat. Hist., 1878, 3. (L. Manitou, Ind, Wis); _

Jordan, Bull. U. S. Geo. Surv., 1879, 438. (Indiana to Minne- oe

658 The American Naturalist. — [August,

sota); Jordan, Geo. Surv. of Ohio, IV, 1878, 971. (Lakes of

N. Ind., Mich. and Wis.)

Percina caprodes manitou Jordar? & Gilbert, Syn. Fish. N.

Am., 500, 1888. (Potomac R., Ills., Wis.) ; Jordan, Man.Vert.,

1890, 126. (E. and N. U. S.)

To illustrate the distribution, the localities contained in the

works quoted in the bibliography have been marked in the

aceompanying map.

The localities from which I examined specimens have

been marked 4. The areas inhabited by the various color

patterns, as determined by my specimens, and by reports

containing sufficiently minute descriptions, are indicated on

the map by broken lines. The patterns distributed in each

area is indicated by the number of the figure in the plates

representing the pattern. In some cases it could not be deter-

mined which pattern occurred at the locality. There are some

localities on the map, therefore, that are not included in any

of the marked areas.

In conclusion, it may be observed:

1. The variation between specimens of the same locality is

very slight.

2. The most complicated color pattern can be connected

with the simplest by a series of intermediate stages.

3. The variation in color pattern cannot be connected with

the latitude inhabited by the different varieties. The color

variation is determined, but not in a direct line north and

south. |

4. The simplest color pattern of the body, found only in im-

mature specimens, consists of nine transverse bars. ,

5. The simplest color pattern of adults consists of the nine

bars seen in the young plus half bars between each two of the

primary bars.

6. The next complieation arises by the addition of quarter

bars. These bars are first introduced in the region between

the two dorsals, from which region variation seems to radiate.

7. Another complication may be the splitting of the bars

into reticulations on the back and Rr intensification into

BC larger spots along the sides.

1894.] Variation of North American Fishes. 659

8. Another modification is brought about by the shifting of

the the lower half of the whole bars backward, which thus be-

come separated from the dorsal halves. In this, the northern-

most variety, the nape is naked.

9. In the simplest pattern, the two sides are usually sym-

metrical. If unsymmetrical, the asymmetry is introduced in

the region of the spinous dorsal fin by a shifting forward or

backward of the bars of one side in this region.

10. In the more complicated patterns the asymmetry has

become the rule, and has spread along the region of both

dorsals.

11. The variation in the combination of dorsal spines and

rays is promiscuous.

12. The variation in the number of dorsal rays is promis-

cuous. :

18. The variation in the number of dorsal spines is deter-

minate. The southern specimens having a larger number of

spines. Exception: the specimens from San Marcos Spring,

Texas.

14. The variation in the number of anal rays is also deter-

minate. As in the case of the dorsal spines, the number varies

with the latitude, the southern specimens having a slightly

larger number of rays.

EXPLANATION or PLATES.

Fig. 1. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 33 mm., Chocola Cr.

Oxford, Ala.

Fig. 2. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 83 mm., Bean Blos-

som, Ind. :

Fig.3. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, S8 mm., Chocola Cr.,

Oxford, Ala.

Fig. 4. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 102 mm., Green R.,

Greensburg, Ky.

Fig. 5. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 115 mm., San Marcos, —— 7 r

Spr., Tex.

660 = The American Naturalist. [August,.

Fig. 6. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 88 mm., Torch Lake,

Mich.

Fig. 7. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 86 mm., Obeys R.,

Elizabethtown, Tenn.

Fig. 8. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 115 mm., Lit. S. Fork

Cumberland R., Wayne Co., Ky.

Fig. 9. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 60 mm., Gosport, Ind.

Fig. 10. Etheostoma caprodes Rafinesque, 85 mm., Obeys R.,

Elizabethtown, Tenn.

ig. 11. Etheostoma rex Jordan.

ExPLANATION or Mar.

2. Pattern 2.

d " 3

4. x 4.

b. se 5.

6. A 6

1. Etheostoma rex Jordan.

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 661

NEO-LAMARCKISM AND NEO-DARWINISM.

By L. H; BAILEY:

It is difficult to accept the hypothesis of organic evolution

in the abstract. In the first place, there must be some reason

for the operation of a law of transformation or development ;

and this is found in the ever-changing physical or external

conditions of existente, which are more or less opposed to

established organisms. And it may also be said that the very

fact of the increase of organisms through multiplication must

impose new conditions of competition upon every succeeding

generation. Again, it is necessary to conceive of some means

or machinery by which the process of evolution is carried

forward. It was long known that all species vary, that is, that

no two individuals in nature are exactly alike; yet there was

lacking any hypothesis to show either why these varieties ap-

pear or how it is that some become permanent and some do

not. The first scientific explanation of the process of evolu-

tion was that made in 1809 by the now famous Lamarck. He

saw two factors which, he thought, were concerned in the trans-

formation of species—the habitat and the habit. The habitat

is the condition in which the organism lives, the environment.

This environment, subject to change with every new indi-

vidual, calls for new habits to adapt the organism to the new

needs—inducing greater exercise of some powers or organs

and less exercise of others. "This greater or less use gradually

strengthens or enfeebles the organ concerned, and the modifi-

cations thus acquired are preserved “through heredity to the

new individuals that are produced by them, provided the

chauges are common to the two sexes, or to those that have

produced these new individuals." "There are three things to

be considered in this hypothesis: 1. Changes in environment

or the conditions of life react upon organisms in the direction -

of their needs or functions. 2. Organs or powers thus affected

are modified to satisfy the new demands. 3. The modifications

! Extract from an address before the Philosophical Club of Cornell University. Ty

662 The American Naturalist. [August,

acquired by the individual are hereditary. This, then, is La-

marckism—that the controlling factor or process in evolution

is functional, and that acquired characters are readily trans-

missible. It is important that I still repeat Lamarck’s belief

in the transmission of a character obtained by any individual

during its own lifetime, for this is the starting point of the

definition of an “ acquired character” concerning the heredi-

tability of which the scientific world is now rent. “All that

nature has caused individuals to acquire or lose through the

influence of the circumstances to which their race has been

fora long time exposed," says Lamarck, * it preserves," etc.

And again, “ Every change acquired in an organ by a ħabi-

tual exercise sufficient to have brought it about, is preserved

thereafter through heredity,” etc. We shall presently observe

how far this definition of an acquired character has been main-

tained by recent philosophers.

Just fifty years after the publication of Lamarck's theory,

Darwin proposed a hypothesis which has had a greater influ-

ence upon the habit of scientific thought than any enunciation

since the promulgation of inductive philosophy. Darwin, like

Lamarck, saw that all forms of life vary; and like him, too,

he perceived that there must be a fierce struggle for place or

existence amongst the individuals of the rapidly succeeding

generations. This variation and struggle are particularly

apparent in cultivated plants; and Darwin saw that the gar-

dener selects the best, and thereby “improves” the breed. “Can

it, then, be thought improbable,” says Darwin, “seeing that

variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that

other variations useful in some way to each being in the great

and complex battle of life, should occur in the course of many

successive generations? Ifsuch do occur, can we doubt (remem-

bering that many more individuals are born than can possibly

survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight,

over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of pro-

creating their kind?" “This preservation of favorable indi-

vidual differences and variations, and the destruction of those

which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the

Survival of the Fittest.” This, then, is Darwinism—that the

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 663

controlling factor or process in evolution is selective: the sur-

vival, in the struggle for existence, of those individuals which

are best fitted to survive. But while this is the naked core of

Darwinism, there are various correlative or incidental hypoth-

eses attached to it. Darwin, for instance, accepted in some de-

gree the views of Lamarck as to the importance of functional

characters; he considered that sexual selection, or the choice ex-

ercised in securing mates, is often an important factor in modi-

fying species; he thought that variation is induced by the

modifications of environment, or the “changed conditions of

life ;” and he was a firm believer in the hereditability of ac-

quired characters. It is round these two great hypotheses—

the functional or Lamarckian on the ohe hand, and the select-

ive or Darwinian upon the other—in various forms and modi-

fications, that the discussions of the philosophy of organic

nature are at present revolving.

Before leaving the subject of Darwinism, I wish to touch

upon Darwin’s view of the cause of variation and his belief in

the transmission of acquired characters. We shall presently

see that the rehabilitation of the theories of Lamarck, under

the name of Neo-Lamarckism, is undertaken, very largely, for

the purpose of assigning the origin of variations to external .

causes, or to the environment, in opposition to those who con-

sider the source of variation to be essentially innate or at least

internal. But Darwin also believed that variation is induced

by the environment, and the chief factor in this environment,

so far as its reaction upon the organism is concerned, is prob-

ably excess of food supply, although climate, and other im- .

pinging circumstances, are potent causes of modification. He

marshalled arguments to support “the view that variations of

all kinds and degrees are directly or indirectly caused by the

conditions of life to which each being, and more especially its

ancestors, have been exposed,” and that “ each separate varia-

tion has its own proper exciting cause.” I do not understand

how it has come about that various writers declare that Dar-

win did not believe explicitly in the external cause of variation,

and that they feel obliged to go back to Lamarck in order to — vd

find a hypothesis for the occasion. It is true that Darwin be- - =

664 The American Naturalist. [August,

lieved that the nature or direction or particular kind of varia-

tion in a given case, is determined very largely by the consti-

tution of the organism, but variation itself, that is, variability,

proceeds largely from external causes; and the characters

arising in the lifetime of an individual may become hereditary.

I must hasten to explain, however, that Darwin clearly recog-

nized the importance of the union of sexes, or crossing, as a

cause of variation.

While Darwin believed that the effects of variability arise

“ generally from changed conditions acting during successive

generations," he nevertheless believed that the first increment

of change—that arising in the first individual of a given

series—might be directly carried over to the first offspring.

That is, he believed in the hereditability of acquired or new

external characters, a fact which is emphasized by his convic-

tion that certain mutilations, and even the effects of use and

disuse, may be transmitted. Yet, whilst Darwin accepted the

doctrine, he believed it much less thoroughly than Lamarck

did, and it is but an incidental part of his philosophy, while

it is an essential tenet of Lamarckism.

Thus far, the heriditability of all important characters had

not been disputed. In other words, heredity as a general law

or foree in the organie world, had been assumed. But with

the refinement of the discussions it became necessary to con-

ceive of some definite means through which the transmission

of particular characters or features should operate; and it was

soon found, also, that no philosophy of evolution can expect

to explain the phenomena of organic life unless it is connected

and co-ordinated with some hypothesis of the method of her-

edity. While, therefore,-a hypothesis of heredity need not

necessarily be associated with the abstract theory of evolution,

all such hypotheses which are now before the scientific world

have for their particular object the explanation of the assumed

progressive tendency of the forms of life.

It is incomprehensible that the minute fertilized ovum or

ovule should reconstruet the essential characters of the two

individuals from which it proceeds, unless it has in some way

derived distinct impressions from every part and organ of the

TET

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 665

parental bodies which it reproduces. It would seem as if it

must of itself be an epitome or condensation of its parents,

with the power of unfolding its impressions or attributes dur-

ing the whole life course of the organism to which it gives

rise. Several hypotheses have been announced to account for

the phenomena of heredity, of which, one of the most im-

portant is still Darwin’s theory of pangenesis. Darwin sup-

posed, provisionally, that besides the ordinary multiplication

of the cell, each cell may “throw off minute granules which

are dispersed throughout the whole system; that these, when

supplied with proper nutriment, multiply by self-division, and

are ultimately developed into units like those from which they

were originally derived." These granules, or gemmules, have

a natural affinity for each other, and they collect themselves

* from all parts of the system” to form the sexual materials or

elements. 'These sexual elements, therefore, which unite to

form the new individual, are an epitomized compound of the

parents. The value of this hypothesis, it seems to me, lies not

so much in the particular constitution and behavior of these

gemmules, as in the fact that it attempts to account for the

known phenomena of life by supposing each corporeal element

to be represented in the sexual elements. The hypothesis has

never gained wide support, because of the supposed physical

improbability of the gemmules and of their concentration in

sexual system ; yet it should be said that a simpler one, which

can account for the facts, has not yet been advanced, unless it

be the bathmic hypothesis of Cope, which supposes that each

body-cell transmits “a mode of motion” to the germ-cell.

For the present purpose, we need consider but one other

hypothesis of heredity—that advanced in 1883 by Weismann,

which has given rise to the philosophy now called Neo-Dar-

winism. Weismann’s point of view is interesting and unique.

He places himself at the threshold of organic life and contem-

plates what takes place in the reproduction of one-celled organ-

isms. These organisms multiply largely by simple division,

or fission. When the organism reaches a certain size, it be-

comes constricted near its middle, and finally parts into two — —

cells or organisms. It is evident that one organism is twin ——

666 The American Naturalist. . [August,

of the other, neither is older, neither is parent, but each

has partaken of the common stock of protoplasm. The pro-

toplasm again multiplies itself in the two organisms, and at

length it is again divided; and so, to the end of time, the re-

motest individual of the series may be said to contain a por-

tion of the original protoplasm ; in other words, the protoplasm

is continuous. And inasmuch as protoplasm is the seat or

physical basis of life, it may be said that the one-celled

organism is immortal, or is not confronted by natural

death.

In time, however, there came a division of labor—cells liv-

ing together in colonies, and certain cells performing one

function and certain other cells other functions. This was,

perhaps, the beginning of the many-celled organism, in which

certain cells developed the specific function of reproduction,

or eventually became elements of sex. As organisms became

more complex in their structure, there came to be great differ-

ences between this reproductive or germ portion and the sür-

rounding or body portion; and Weismann assumes that these

two elements are different and distinct from each other in

kind, and that inasmuch as the one-celled organisms propa-

gated their exact kind by simple division, that therefore the

reproduetive elements of the many-celled or complex body

must continue to perpetuate their kind or enjoy immortality,

while all the surrounding or body cells die and are reproduced

only through the reconstructive power of the sexual elements.

There are, then, according to this hypothesis, two elements or

plasms in every organized being, the germ-plasm and the

soma-plasm or body-plasm ; and every organism which pro-

creates thereby preserves its germ-plasm to future generations,

while death destroys the remainder. A vital point in this

hypothesis is the method by which the soma-plasm, or the

organs and body of the organism, can be so impressed upon

the germ that they shall become hereditary. At first it would

seem as if some assumption like that of Darwin's might be

useful here—that this germ-plasm is impressed by particles

thrown off from all the surrounding or soma-cells; but this

Weismann considers to be too unwieldy, and he ascribes the

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo- Darwinism. 667

transfer of these characters through the medium of the germ-

plasm to “variations in its molecular constitution." In other

words, there can be no heredity of a character which originates

at the periphery of the individual, because there is no means

of transferring its likeness to the germ. All modification of

the offspring is predetermined in the germ-plasm ; and if the

new organism becomes modified through contact with external

agencies, such modification is lost with the death of the indi-

vidual. “Characters only acquired by the operation of exter-

nal circumstances acting during the life of the individual,

cannot be transmitted.” “All the characters ee bites by the

offspring are due to primary changes in the germ.” It is ad-

mitted that the continued effect of impinging environment

may, now and then, finally reach the germ-plasm, but not in

the first generation in which such extraneous influence may

be exercised. In other words, acquired characters cannot be

hereditary.

It would seem as if this hypothesis precluded the possibility

of evolution or the continued modification of species, inasmuch

as it does not accept the modifications arising directly from ex-

ternal sources. But Weismann supposes that variation origi-

nates—or at least all variation which is of permanent use to

the species—from a union of the sexes, inasmuch as the unlike

germ-plasms of two individuals unite; and from the variations

thus induced are derived the materials upon which natural

selection works in the struggle for existence. “I am entirely

convinced," Weismann writes, “that the higher development

of the organic world was only rendered possible by the intro-

duction of sexual reproduction.” “Sexual reproduction has

arisen by and for natural selection, as the only means by which

the individual variations can be united and combined in every

possible proportion.”

It will be seen that Weismann is a Darwinian—a believer

in natural selection as the one controlling process of evolution;

but, unlike Darwin, he refers variation to sex and declares that

any new or acquired character originating in the body of the -

organism cannot be transmitted. The exact means or machi- ——

nery oe which he supposes Eee to act, is rather RU

44 8s

668 The American Naturalist. | [August,

more an embryological matter than a philosophical one. We

are particularly concerned in its results, which are the distin-

guishing marks of Neo-Darwinism—that variation is of sexual

or internal origin, and that acquired characters are not her-

editary.

In opposition to this body of belief, which has been upheld,

` particularly in England, with much aggressiveness, is Neo-

Lamarckism, which is a compound of both Lamarckism and

Darwinism, and which has an especially strong following in

North America. The particular canons of this philosophy are

the belief that external causes, or the environment, are directly

responsible for much variation and that acquired characters

are often hereditary. Other features of it, held in varying

degrees by different persons, are the belief in the transforming

effects of use and disuse, and in natural selection.

The one great schism between the Neo-Darwinians and the

Neo-Lamarckians is the controversy over the hereditability of

acquired characters, and just at present this question has come

so strongly to the fore that other differences in the two hypothe-

ses have been obseured. Itis worthy of remark that Darwinism

or Neo-Lamarckism sees first the facts or phenomena and then

tries to explain them; while Neo-Darwinism or Weismannism

assumes first a hypothesis and then tries to prove it. Ithink

that any one will be struck with this difference of attitude, if

he read Darwin's ehapter upon pangenesis, and then read

Weismann's essay upon heredity. The Neo-Darwinians areloud

in demand of facts or proof that aequired characters are her-

editary, and they attempt to throw the burden of proof upon

their opponents; while, at the same time, they give no proofs

of their own position, and confound their adversaries with

verbal subtleties. The burden of proof, however, lies clearly

upon the Neo-Darwinians, inasmuch as they have assumed to

deny phenomena which were theretofore considered to be estab-

lished.

A voluminous issue of polemics has occurred during the last

five or six years between the Neo-Darwinians and the Neo-

Lamarckians; but whatever may have been its effects upon

the older philosophy, it is clear, to my mind, that some of the

UN Ee ee ee a ae

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 669

attacks upon Neo-Darwinism are unanswerable in any rational

manner, and it is certain that they have forced Weismann into

a change of position with reference to some of his definitions.

Certain phases of this discussion appeal with particular force,

of course, to some minds, while they exert little influence upon

others. My own objections to Neo-Darwinism—and I admit

that my bias is strong against it—seem to be somewhat differ-

ent from those most commonly urged in opposition to it; and

the three which chiefly influence me I shall present very

briefly.

1. I cannot see that the non-transmissibility of acquired

characters is a necessary assumption to Weismann’s funda-

mental arguments. I have already explained his reasoning

from the reproduction of the one-celled organism. I cannot

attempt any opinion of the probable facts upon which the hy-

pothesis is founded. It may be said, in passing, that one of

the prominent objections to the fundamental basis of the the-

ory is the difficulty of deriving the mortal soma-plasm from

the immortal germ-plasm, a question to which, however, Weis-

mann has made a somewhat full reply.

When organisms became complex, it was necessary to assume

either that the soma-plasm does or does not directly influence

the germ-plasm. Weismann discarded the various hypotheses

which suppose that there is a vital and necessary connection be-

tween the body units and reproductive units, and then to avoid

the difficulties which the hereditability of acquired characters

would entail, he supposed that such characters are not heredi-

tary. His subsequent labors have been largely employed in

trying to show that they are not. This supposition was made

for the purpose of simplifying the hypothesis by removing the

cumbrous gemmules of Darwin and the similar bodies or move-

ments of other philosophers, and therefore by localizing the

seat of the germ-plasm. But he immediately encounters diffi-

culties quite as great as those which he avoids. In cases where

there are alternate generations of asexual and sexual organ-

isms, he must suppose that the germ-plasm is united with the

soma-plasm, and is probably, therefore, distributed throughout

the body. “There may be in fact cases,” Weismann writes,

DOM ae

670 The American Ni aturalist. [August,

“in which such separation [of the germ-plasm from the soma-

plasm] does not take place until after the animal is completely

formed, and others, as I believe that I have shown, in which

it first arises one or two generations later, viz.,in the buds

produced by the parent.” And he has been compelled to ad-

mit that in the case of begonias, which are propagated by

leaves, the germ-plasm is probably distributed throughout the

foliage; and he must make a similar admission for all plants,

for they can all be propagated and modified through asexual

parts. This is admitting, then, that there is no localized germ-

plasm in the vegetable kingdom and in some instances in the

animal kingdom; and if the germ-plasm is distributed to the

very periphery of the organism, why may it not be directly

affected by environment, the same as the soma-plasm is? Or

why is the hypothesis any the less objectionable than Darwin’s

pangenesis, which supposes that every organic unit can com-

municate with the germ ?

Weismann also supposes, as I have said, that the means by

which the germ-plasm is able to reconstruct the soma-plasm

in the offspring, is through some modification in its “ molecu-

lar constitution,” an assumption which was by no means novel

when Weismann announced it. “The exact manner in which

we imagine the subsequent differentiation of the colony to be

potentially present in the reproductive cell," he writes, “ be-

comes a matter of comparatively small importance. It may

consist in a different molecular arrangement, or in some change

of chemical constitution, or it may be due to both these causes

combined.” In whatever manner the germ-plasm receives its

somatic influences, there must be a direct connection between

the two, and it is quite as easy to assume the existence of gem-

mules as any less tangible influence. I am not arguing in

favor of pangenesis, but only stating what seems to me to be

a valid objection to the fundamental constitution of the Weis-

mannian|hypothesis—that it is quite as easy to assume, from

the argument, one interpretation of the process or means of

heredity as another. And if there is any vital connection

whatever between the soma-plasm and the germ-plasm—as the

1894,] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 671

hypothesis itself must admit—then why cannot the soma-plasm

directly influence the germ-plasm ?

Again, I wish to point out that modification and evolution

of vegetable species may and does proceed wholly without the

interposition of sex—that is, by propagations through cuttings

or layers of various parts. This proves either one of two

things—that the germ-plasm is not necessary to the species, or

else that it is not localized but distributed throughout the en-

tire body of the individual, as I have shown above; and either

horn of this dilemma is fatal, it seems to me, to Weismannism.

If the germ-plasm is not necessary to this reproduction, then

we must discard the hypothesis of the continuity of the germ-

plasm ; if the germ-plasm is distributed throughout the plant,

then we are obliged to admit that it is not localized in germ-

cells beyond the reach of direct external influences.

This sexual propagation of plants has been brought to Weis-

mann’s attention by Strasburger, who cited the instance of the

leaf-propagation of begonia, and said that plants thus asexually

multiplied afterwards produce flowers and seeds, or develop

germ- plasm. Weismann meets the objection by supposing

that it is possible for “all somatic nuclei to contain a minute

fraction of unchanged germ-plasm,” but he considers the be-

gonia, apparently, to be an exception to most other plants, in-

asmuch as he declares that “no one has ever grown a tree

from the leaf of the lime or oak, or a flowering plant from the

leaf of the tulip or convolvulus.” Henslow meets this latter

statement by saying that this has not been accomplished sim-

ply because “it has never been worth while to do it. If, how-

ever, a premium were offered for tulips or oak-trees raised

from leaf-cuttings, plenty would soon be forthcoming.” What

Weismann wishes to show is that the begonia is an exception

to other plants in allowing of propagation from leaf-cuttings,

although he should have known that hundreds of plants can

be multiplied in this way, and that—what amounts to the same

thing—all plants can be propagated by asexual parts, as stems -

or roots.

But there is another aspect to this asexual multiplication of

plants which I do not remember to hayi seen stated i n this

672 The American Naturalist. [August,

connection. It has been said that the asexually multiplied

plants may afterwards produce flowers and resume the normal

method of reproduction and variation. I now wish to add-

what I have already said, that plants may be continuously

multiplied asexually and yet the offspring may vary, and the

variations may be transmitted from generation to generation,

quite as perfectly as if seed production intervened. This has

been true with certain plants through a long period of time,

as the banana, and every intelligent gardener knows that

plants propagated by cuttings often “sport” or vary. Here

are cases, then, in which variation does not originate from sex,

unless Weismann is willing to concede that the result of pre-

vious sexual union has remained latent through any number

of generations and has been carried to all parts of the plant

by a generally diffused germ-plasm ; and if this is admitted,

then I must again insist that this germ-plasm must be just

as amenable to external influences as the soma-plasm with

which it is indissolubly associated. I have repeated this argu-

ment in order to introduce the subject of “ bud variations,”

or those “sports” which now and then appear upon certain

limbs or parts of plants and which are nearly always readily

propagated by cuttings. These variations cannot be attributed

to sex,in the ordinary and legitimate application of the Weis-

mannian hypothesis. Whilst these “sports” are well known

to horticulturists, they are generally considered to be rare,

but nothing can be farther from the truth. As a matter of

fact, every branch of a tree is different from every other

branch, and when the difference is sufficient to attract atten-

tion, or to have commercial value, it is propagated and called

a “sport.” This leads me to recall the old discussion of the

phytomer, or the hypothesis that every node and internode of

a tree—and we might add the roots—is in reality a distinct

individual, inasmuch as it possesses the power of leading an

independent existence when severed from the plant, and of

reproducing its kind. However this may be as a matter of

of speculation, it is certainly true as regards the phenome-

non, and shows conclusively that if the germ-plasm exists at.

all, it exists throughout the entire structure of the plant.

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 673

This conclusion is also unavoidable from another consider-

ation—the fact that plants are asexual organisms at all times

previous to flowering, and the germ-plasm must be preserved,

in the meantime, along with the soma-plasm. But this con-

clusion is inconsistent with Weismannism as taught at present,

and this alone would lead me to discard the hypothesis for

plants, however well it may apply to the animal kingdom.

Henslow has made a different argument to show that the

germ-plasm of plants may be directly exposed to external

influence (Origin of Floral Structures). The germ-plasm is

assumably located in the flower, and the egg-cell of the em-

bryo-sac and the sperm-cell of the pollen grain are close to

the surface, and are directly impressed by the interference of

bees and other external stimuli. Henslow endeavors to show

“that the infinite variety of adaptations to insects discoverable

in flowers may have resulted through the direct action of the

insects themselves, coupled with the responsive power of proto-

plasm.” And these characters must be in part acquired dur-

ing the lifetime of a given individual.

2. It seems to me, also, that the presumption, upon general

_ philosophical grounds, is against the doctrine that immediate

external influences are without permanent effect. If we ad-

mit—as all philosophers now do—that species are mutable,

and that the forms of life have been shaped with reference to

their adaptations to environment, then we are justified in assum-

ing that every change in that environment must awaken some

vital response in the species. If this response does not follow,

then environment is without influence upon the organism ; or

if it follows and is then not transmitted, it is lost just the same,

and environment is impotent. And it does not matter if we

assume, with the Neo-Darwinians, that this effect does not be-

come hereditary until the germ is affected—that is, until two

or more generations have lived under the impinging environ-

ment—it must nevertheless follow that the change must have

had a definite beginning in the lifetime of an individual; for

it is impossible to conceive that a change has its origin in two

generations. In other words, the beginning is singular; two

generations is plural And whether the modification is di- -

674 The American Naturalist. [August,

rectly visible in the body of the organism or is an intangible

force impressed upon the germ, it is nevertheless an environ-

mental character, and was at first acquired. If this is not

true—that the changed conditions of life exert a direct effect

upon the phylogeny of the species—then no variation is pos-

. sible save that which comes from the recompounding of the

original or ancestral sex-elements; and it would still be a

question how these sex-elements acquired their initial diver-

gence.

The Neo-Darwinians would undoubtedly meet this argu-

ment by saying that their hypothesis fully admits the import-

ance of these external influences, the only reservation being

that they shall have affected the germ. It is true that this is

a common means of escape; but it cannot be gainsaid that

the denial of the influence of the external or environmental

forces is really the fundamental difference between them and

the Darwinians or Neo-Lamarckians, as the following quota-

tion from, Weismann will show: “Our object is to decide

whether changes in the soma (the body, as opposed to the

germ-cells) which have been produced by the direct action of

external influences, including use and disuse, can be trans-

mitted; whether they can influence the germ-cells in such a `

manner that the latter will cause the spontaneous appearance

of corresponding changes in the next generation. This is the

question which demands an answer; and, as has been shown

above, such an answer would decide whether the Lamarckian

principles of transformation must be retained or abandoned."

If, then, to repeat, organisms are adapted to their environ-

ment, it must be equally true that this environment directly

affects its inhabitants; and considering the intense struggle

for existence under which all organisms live, it is highly prob-

able that any advantageous variation can be seized upon at

once. I cannot conceive that nature allows herself to lose the

result of any effort.

9. My third conviction against Neo-Darwinism arises from

the fact that its advocates are constantly explaining away the

arguments of their opponents by verbal mystifications and in-

genious definitions. This charge is so frequently made, and

1894.] Neo-Lamarckism and .Neo- Darwinism. 675

the fact is so well known, that it seems almost useless to refer

to it here; and yet there are some phases of it upon which I

cannot forbear to touch.

Weismann declares that he uses the term “ acquired charac-

ter” in its original sense. This term, or at least the idea, was

first employed, as we have seen, by Lamarck, who used it or

an equivalent phrase to designate “every change acquired in

an organ by a habitual exercise sufficient to have brought it

about.” In fact, the basis of Lamarck’s philosophy is the as-

sumption of the hereditability of characters arising directly

from use or disuse; and his idea of an acquired character is,

therefore, one which appears in the lifetime of the individual

from some externally inciting cause. Darwin’s notion, while

less clearly defined, was essentially the same, and he collected

a mass of evidence to show that such characters are transmis-

sible; and he even went farther than Lamarck, and attempted

to show that mutilations may be hereditary. Weismann’s

early definition of acquired characters is plain enough. Such

characters, that is, the somatogenic, “not only include.the

effects of mutilation, but the changes which follow from in-

creased or diminished performance of function, and those

" which are directly due to nutrition and any of the other exter-

nal influences which act upon the body.” Standing fairly and

squarely upon this definition, it is easy enough to’ disprove it

—that is, to show that some characters thus aequired are her-

editary. But the moment proofs are advanced, the definition

is contracted, and the Neo-Darwinians declare that the given

character was potentially present in the germ and was not

primarily superinduced by the external conditions—a position

which, while it allows of no proof, can neither be overthrown.

‘A cow lost her left horn by suppuration, and two of her calves

had rudimentary left horns; but Weismann immediately says,

“The loss of a cow’s horn may have arisen from a congenital

malformation.” Certainly! and it may not; and the presump-

tion is that it did not. A soldier loses his left eye by inflam- -

mation, and two of his sons have defective left eyes. Now,

“the soldier,” says Weismann, “did not lose his left eye be- RC D

cause it was injured, but because it was predisposed to become. Le

676 The American Naturalist. [August,.

diseased from the beginning, and readily became inflamed

after a slight injury”! This gratuitous manner of explaining

away the recorded instances of the supposed transmission of

mutilations and the like, is common with the Neo-Darwinians,

but it must always create the impression, it seems to me, of be-

ing labored and far-fetched ; and inasmuch as it is incapable

of proof, and is of no occasion beyond the mere point of up-

holding an assumed hypothesis, it is scarcely worthy serious

attention. It would be far better for the Neo-Darwinians if

they would flatly refuse to accept the statements concerning

the transmission of mutilations, rather than to attempt any

mere captious explanation of them ; for it is yet very doubtful

if the recorded instances of such transmissions will stand care-

ful investigation.

But perhaps the most remarkable example of this species of

Neo-Darwinian logic is produced by Weismann when he is

hard pressed by Hoffmann, who supposed that he had proved

the hereditability of certain acquired characters in poppies..

Weismann says: “Since the characters of which Hoffmann

speaks are hereditary, the term cannot be rightly applied to

them ;” thus showing that his fundamental conception of an

acquired character is one which cannot be transmitted! He

then proceeds to elaborate this definition as follows: “ I have

never doubted about the transmission of changes which depend

upon an alteration inthe germ-plasm of the reproductive cells,

for I have always asserted that these changes, and these alone,

must be transmitted.” Then he proceeds to say that it is nec-

essary to have “two terms which distinguish sharply between

the two chief groups of characters—the primary characters

which first appear in the body itself, and the secondary ones

which owe their appearance to variations in the germ, however

such variations may have arisen. We have hitherto been

accustomed to call the former ‘ aequired characters,’ but we

might also call them ‘ somatogenic,’ because they follow from

the reaction of the soma under external influences; while all

other characters might be contrasted as ‘ blastogenic,’ because

they include all those characters in the body which have arisen

from changes in the germ. * * * We maintain that the

1894.] | Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism. 677

‘somatogenic’ characters cannot be transmitted, or rather, that

those who assert that they can be transmitted, must furnish

the requisite proofs.” That is: changes in the soma-plasm

are not transmitted; acquired characters are changes in the

soma-plasm; therefore, acquired characters eannot be trans-

mitted! Or, to use Weismann’s shorter phrase, “Since the

characters * * * are hereditary, the term [‘acquired’]

cannot be rightly applied to them!” Surely, Neo-Darwinism

is impregnable!

Weismannism has unquestionably done much to elucidate

some of the most intricate questions of biology, and it has

weeded the old hypotheses of much that was ill-considered

and false. It has challenged beliefs which have been too easily

accepted. Its value to the science of heredity upon its biolog-

ical side is admitted, and its explanation of the meaning of

sex is one of the best of all contributions to the philosophy of

organic nature. It has suffered, perhaps, from too ardent

champions, and its great weakness lies in its stubborn refusal

to accept an important class of phenomena associated with

acquired characters, a sufficient explanation of which, it seems

to me, could be assumed without great violence to the

hypothesis.

Most Neo-Lamarckians accept much of Weismann’s teach-

ings. But, while there are comparatively few who believe

that mutilations are directly transmissible, there is a general

and strong conviction that many truly acquired characters are

hereditary, and there seems to be demonstrable evidence of

it; and while sex variation is fully accepted, it logically

follows, if acquired characters are hereditary, that much

variation is due directly to external causes. Perhaps the

habit of thought of most Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians

is something as follows:

All forms of life are mutable. Variation affords the mate-

rial from which progress is derived. Variation is due to

sexual union, changed conditions of life, panmixia or the ces-

sation of natural selection, and probably somewhat to direct

use and disuse. There is an intense struggle for existence.

All forms or variations useful to the species tend to m en e

678 - : The American Naturalist. [August,

the harmful ones tend to be destroyed through the operation

of the simple agent of natural selection. These newly appear-

ing forms tend to become permanent, sometimes immediately;

but the longer the transforming environments are present, the

greater is the probability, on the whole, that the tene

modifications will persist.

1894.] Ornithophilous Pollination. 679

ORNITHOPHILOUS POLLINATION.

" By JosgPH L. Hancock.

The position that some of the humming-birds occupy in

respect to the transference of pollen from flower to flower is

by no means subordinate to insects.

The common ruby-throated humming-bird (Trochilus colu-

bris) though not endowed with specialized structures for the

specific performanee of this office, bears upon careful study

evidence that the mouth parts and feathers have certain means

for the harboring of pollen quite beyond the ordinary views.

The anatomical peculiarities of this bird's head allows access

to flowers, covering a wide range of forms. A narrowing awl-

shaped cone 29 mm. long represented by a base of 10 mm.

admits of this latitude, as expressed more clearly in the ac-

companying plate, figures 2 and 3, of the head and skull. By

reason of some flexibility, the billis capable of probing to the

bottom of nearly all the forms of flowers commonly met with.

In the feeding process, familiar to almost every one, the flower

is often bent over to be relieved of its juices. The trumpet

honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) in the proper season, furn-

ishes an important part of the food of T. colubris. This vine

appears wild in the south, the corolla of the flower is long, see

figure 6, red and scentless. There is a way of accounting for

this latter condition. Fragrant odors are largely essential to

the attraction of bees and other insects, but as this plant does

not lean upon their aid for fertilization, but depends more

upon the humming-bird and larger moths for the interchange

of pollen, the absence of fragrance is accounted for. The two

last mentioned, from my own observations, depend for the

most part upon sight for the detection of food plants. A male

specimen of the ruby-throated humming-bird which wastaken

from a cat which had seized it in the act of feeding upon the

nectar of flowers, was sent to the writer by a friend. From

"To this power in birds the designation of ornithophilous pollination is proposed :

in contradistinction to entomophilous pollination.

680 The American Naturalist. [August,

this and other dead specimens was derived much of the pres-

ent knowledge. A cursory examination with the naked eye

of the head does not reveal with clear distinctness the import-

ant facts brought out by the use of the microscope, conse-

quently this instrument was brought into use in furthering

research. Pollen is carried in several ways by this bird. On

the lower mandible just in front of the angle of the mouth,

overshadowed by the nasal scale when the bill is closed, a

faint yellowish line marks the deposit of pollen grains resting.

in a small groove clustered together, see figure 5 at point b.

Here were found various kinds, but one small form rather

irregularly round in outline predominated. Pollen-grains work

their way free to the summit or vanes of the feathers about

where they were seen scattered, and as will be described further

on, caught up by the barbs of the feathers, along the sides of

the chin and lores ready to be deposited when a more suitable

surface presents. Under the lower bill, see enlarged view, fig-

ure 4, and also 5a, the deep median groove, the point of meet-

ing of the rami, which traverses along for nearly one-half its

length, acts as a second repository. This pollen repository

groove becomes divided backwards on either side for a short

distance. Pollen lodges in larger quantities here and can be

detected deep within the median portion of the groove. It is

interesting to note that pollen found deep in the recess of this

part bore evidence of greater age and possibly from foreign

plants unknown tome. ‘This fact opens up a line of investi-

gation which promises interesting results in the future. With

a needle the mass of grains which cluster together can be re-

moved and separated with care. A small mass, only a frac-

tional part of what still remained, showed with a focus of a}

inch objective hundreds of pollen-grains. The long shaft of

the bill also had upon its surface a few scattered ones. The

most noteworthy phase of this subject remains yet to be

recorded when the feathers are analyzed in greater detail, for

here is to be found the real means of scattering the pollen or

pollination. The chief repositories having been just described

as occurring below the angle of the mouth and in the median

ee a SERA

SEE eT eR

D PENNE

Eee Ao Ue eee eme e ee qep mere MT tret GR aR aE ae S

1894.] Ornithophilous Pollination. 681

groove under the lower mandible, it remains to mention the

part taken by the feathers.

There are four ways by which the pollen becomes engaged

or held by the feathers, which will be better understood after

the anatomy of the latter structures are touched upon. The

feathers from the sides of the head, lores and below, are

mainly instrumental in this work. In general they are much

like feathers of other birds, of the contour type, plumulaceous

at the base, composed of à short, weak calamus, a rhachis,

vanes, barbs and barbules; the latter being peculiar in that

at the extremity of the vane the barbules are armed with

sharp, thistle-like projections (barbicels) some of which are

somewhat curved. The vanes at the base of the feathers are

long and thread-like, near where they join the shaft are flat-

tened oar fashion as seen in figure 8. Little pointed barbs

divide these filimentous vanes at regular short distances. One

of the methods of carrying pollen is here met with between

two of the vanesasshown. The vanes of the upper part of the

main body of the feather, are made up of narrow acute plates

or barbs resting close together. The barbs of another vane

-often encroach or touch the barbs of a neighboring vane, so

that between them is found entrapped many pollen-grains as

demonstrated in figure 7. Another way by which pollen is

effectually engaged is between two of the barbs merely spread

apart, giving room for the grain to be held as in figure 9.

The fourth method observed of carrying these fertilizing

agents is an extraneous one, depending upon the glutinous:

secretion from the stigma of plants that adhere to the feathers,

thus assisting the pollen to stick fast to the feather. Through

a high magnifying power is seen the thistle-like ending of the

vanes, the barbules frequently matted together by the sticky

secretion referred to, gathered from the flowers while in search

of food. Attached to the many pointed and flattened surfaces

were seen pollen-grains of many kinds, chiefly of very minnte

size, ready to depart or taken on anew at the next visit to a

flower. In anemophilous flowers in which the wind is the

agency for carrying the pollen, the grains are usually small,

light, more or less dry and spherical, while in ME

682 The American Naturalist. [August,

. flowers, the pollen of which is carried from one plant to

another by insects in search of honey, are variously adapted to

cause the grains to adhere to the hairy underside of the insects

body to promote their dispersion. In ornithophilous pollina-

tion the pollen is carried in such diverse ways that this

together with other data combine to make it possible that the

humming-bird is the most wonderful distributor of pollen

known to the animal world. We are not content to leave the

subject without noticing, that as compared with insects, the

local range of flight of humming-birds is undoubtedly greater

and during the regular migrations they make extensive

flights? Their summer home in eastern North America ex-

tends from the Gulf of Mexico to half way across the British

Provinces and from the Atlantic Coast to beyond the Missis-

sippi River. In winter its range is southward, reaching into

Southern Florida, into Veragua and the western portion of

the Isthmus of Panama, about eight degrees north of the

equator. The equivalent of some 2000'statute miles is thus

represented in the migrations of this diminutive bird. The

pollen taken enroute during migration, as the humming-bird

takes its sip of nectar from flower to flower, may gather in its

repositories and be transported from place to place any where

throughout its range. That some strange pollen grains are found

entangled upon the bird is not surprising, especially in spring,

taking these suggestions into consideration, and what wonder

is it we are called upon to say that the phenomena of so wide-

spread and perpetual a means of pollination of plants is per-

haps unparalleled. |

ExPLANATION OF PLATE.

Fig. 1. Trochilus colubris taking food, drawn from memory.

Fig. 2. Head of T. colubris from nature.

Fig. 3. Skin removed from head to show skull.

*It will be observed that the author refers entirely to the ruby-throated hum-

ming-bird ( T. colubris) here, and what may be brought out by a further study of

other species as regards to the part they play in pollination is a matter for the

PLATE XXII.

d L. Hancock. Del,

Ornithophilous pollination.

Ornithophilous Pollination. 683

. Enlarged ventral view of lower mandible showing

pollen repository groove.

Head of T. colubris showing a, side repository, 5,

repository under the lower mandible.

Single flower of Trumpet Honeysuckle.

Two vanes side by side, from main part of a feather

of T. colubris, showing oneof the ways of carrying

pollen-grains.

Two vanes side by side of the same feather from the

base, showing another way of carrying pollen-grains.

One-half of a vane showing thistle-like structure at

end of a feather, also showing another method of

carrying the pollen-grains between two barbs. Pol-

len adheres to these feathers by aid of the sticky

secretion of plants.

684 The American Naturalist. [August,

EDITORIALS.

—TuE U. S. Geological Survey has entered on a new era of its his-

tory, and one which will have an important bearing on the study of

geology in this country. We look for a material improvement in the

' administration of this public trust, as compared with its history during

the past ten years. Major Powell, who has just retired from the posi-

tion of director, tried a good many experiments which were not judi-

cious, and proposed to try others which were fortunately suppressed.

It is to be greatly regretted that the Survey did not at the outset es-

tablish a modus vivendi with either the U. S. Engineers, or the Coast

and Geodetic Survey, so that the topographic work could have been

done by one or the other of these competent corps of men. They pos-

sessed the plant, both in men and in apparatus, but instead of arrang-

ing with one or the other of them, director Powell preferred to expend

a large part of the resources of the Survey on this branch of the work.

The topographic corps of the Survey constituted, perhaps, two-thirds

of the entire force, and the expenditures for it were of course pro-

portionately great. The new director, Dr. Walcott, inherits this incu-

bus from his predecessor. The problem of its continuation as a part

of the Survey's work is a serious one, in view of the reduced appropri-

ations now granted by Congress. It may be considered in connection

with the fact, that ultimately the geology of the United States will be

represented on maps of first class topographic quality. It is frequently

asserted that the maps hitherto produced by the Survey have not that

high accuracy which the subject demands, although not without value

for general purposes. The produetion of the best grade of map will

probably require a greater outlay than has been heretofore granted for

this purpose. Since the appropriations are less than heretofore, the

assumption of this work by one or the other bureaus of the Govern-

ment already mentioned would seem to be a necessity.

The importance of such a transfer is obvious from another point of

view. The department of paleontology was inexcusably neglected by

Major Powell, who had little appreciation of its importance to geology.

So far as concerns vertebrate paleontology, the Survey's publications

are distinguished by their absence, as based on collections in this depart-

ment, for which large sums wereexpended. This failure of the Survey

to render any equivalent for the expenditure, led Congress to restrict

definitely the appropriation for this object, which was a misfortune for

BN a EEEIEI A ia UI CICER ET E EE TIA RC ue LIST e der CUN SE

1894.] Editorials. 685

which Major Powell is responsible, since the management of that depart-

ment was of his own selection. The amount of work done in other depart-

ments of paleontology by the Survey is much less than it should have

been. It is not necessary to call the attention of the present director

of the Survey to the subject. An able paleontologist himself, he is not

likely in his administration to neglect a department which is the life-

blood of the science of geology. And, apart from its relations to

geology, it has an especial importance of its own, which it is the busi-

ness of a great government survey to foster.

In the later years of the Powellian period, the Survey made up for

lost time in the quantity and quality of its stratigraphic work. It

may be truthfully said that during the last five years no organization

of the kind has turned out so large an amount of excellent original

stratigraphie work at various and remote parts of the country. The

habilitation of the Columbia, the Appomattox and Tuscaloosa forma-

tions of the Atlantie slope, and the correlation of the older paleozoic

beds of the Appalachian Mountains must be credited to the geologists

of the Survey. S0 also the definition of the epochs of the Cretaceous

and Cenozoic beds of the coastal plain. The analysis of the strata

of the Sierra Nevada has been immensely advanced, and much work

has been done in the field of glacial geology. We look for a continu-

ation of this work; and if some of the omissions of the past are sup-

plied, the Survey will probably have the unanimous support of the

scientific world.

—TueE publication of the geological map of Pennsylvania by the

State Survey marks an era in the history of that organization. Pro-

fessor Lesley, the director, has issued an atlas containing the map of

the State in four sheets, together with detailed maps of Bucks and

Montgomery Counties, with maps of the bituminous coal areas of the

western counties, with others. An atlas of county maps is issued at

the same time. The geological maps are well colored, and are a credit

to the State. The amount of the appropriation did not permit of the

insertion of the topography by contour lines in either the State or

County maps. This is to be regretted, but may be left for some future

survey, which may issue a new edition. An important and obscure

problem has been greatly elucidated by Dr. B. S. Lyman, the author

of the Montgomery-Bucks map, i. e., the analysis of the red beds which

are generally referred to the Trias. His division of the formation into

several horizons will aid research, and we await the evidence of their

paleontology to determine the relations of some of them. Another

686 The American Naturalist. [August,

problem of even greater significance awaits the labors of the Survey.

This is the discrimination of the Cambrian and Ordovician beds of the

eastern border of the mountains. The Calciferous and Trenton lime-

stones both exist in this series, but they are stillincluded in one forma-

tion by the present survey, as they were by the first survey, as No. II.

Walcott has already made some progress in this direction, and it is

certain that many important results will be obtained by further re-

search.

s Eos " Sem

Mia: ee A m e CHEER d

1894.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 687

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

Aarsberetning for 1892. Stavanger Museum, Stavanger, Norway. From the

Trustees of the Museum.

Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, 1892. From the Museum.

Annals of British Geology, 1892. Introductory Review. From J.F. Blake.

Annuaire de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Bel-

gique. Bruxelles, 1894.

Bulletin Iowa Agric. Coll. Exper. Station, No. 23, 1893.

Bulletin North Carolina Agric. Exp. Station, Nos. 55 and 93, 1893.

LAKE, PRor.—On the Bases of the Classification of Ammonites. Extr. Nat-

ural Science, Vol. 3, 1893.

_ Bove, M.—Découverte d'un squelette d’ Elephas meridionalis dans les cendres

basaltiques du volcan de Senèze (Haute Loire). Extr. Comptes rendus des

séances de l’ Acad. des Sciences, Paris, 1892. From the author.

Brooks, W. K.—Salpa in its relation to the ee of Life. Studies from

the Biol. Lab. Johns Hopkins Univ.. Vol. V, 1

—Salpa. A monograph with 57 plates. wi a Supplementary Paper by

M: M. Metealf. Memoirs Biol. Lab. Johns Hopkins Univ., II, 1893. From the

author.

Coss, N. A.—Nematodes, mostly Australian and Fijian. Extr. Macleay Mem.

ee wn From the author.

ER, H.—Zur Histologie der Faltenzühne Paliiozoischer Stegocephalen.

Des XX XX fida der Abhandl. der math.-phy. Classe der Kónigl. Sichs. Gessell.

der M agree No. IV, Leipzig, 1893. From the author.

“Dames, Von W.—Uber die Gliederung der Flótzformationen Helgolands.

Siaha der König. Preuss. Akad. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1893

—— Ueber Zeuglodonten aus Aegypten und die Beziehungen der Archæoceten

zu den Uebrigen Cetaceen. Palaeontologlsche Abhandlungen, Neue Folge, Bd.

I, Heft. 5. From the author.

Doper, C. W.—Elementary Practical Biology. New York, 1894. Harper &

Brothers, dug From the Pub.

Drage, N. F. AND THomeson, R. A.—Report on the Colorado Coal-field of

Texas. Exiz. Fourth Ann. Rept. Texas Geol.Surv. 1892. Austin, 1893. From

the Survey.

` GAUDRY, A. L'Eléphant de Durfort. Extr. du Vol. Com. du Centennaire de

la fondation du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. de Paris, 1893. From the author.

Git, T.—A Comparison of Antipodal Faunas.—— Families and Boblamilies

of Fishes. Extrs. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., Vol. VI. From the Acad.

GOEBEL, |

—Gedichtnisrede auf Karl von Nägeli gehalten in der öffentlichen

Aus

Sitzung der k. b. Akad. der Wissensch. zu München am 21, Mürz, 1893.

Denkschrift der k. b. Akad. München, 1893. From the author.

HAECKEL, E.—Der Monismus als Band zwischen Religion und Wissenschaft.

Fünfte Auflage. Bonn, 1893. From the author.

688 The American Naturalist. [August,

JULIEN, A. A.—Notes of Research on the New York Obelisk. Extr. Bull.

Am. Geog. Soc., 1893. From the author

LAMPERT, Dr.—Bemerkungen zur Süsswasserfauna Wiirttembergs. Separat-

Abdruck aus Jahreshefte des Vereins fiir vaterl. Naturk. in Württ., 1893. From

the author.

LawcLEYv, S. P.—The Internal Work of the Wind. Smith. Contrib. to

Knowledge, 884. Washington, 1893. From the author.

Lrsoucg, HERR.—Zur plastischen Anatomie der Fersengegend bei den Anti-

ken. Abdruck aus Verhandl. der Anat. Gesell, Góttingen, 1893. From the

author.

LyDEKKER, R.—Note on the Coracoidal Element in Adult Sloths, with remarks

on its Homology. Extr. Proceeds. Zool. Soc., London, 1893. From the author.

Macleay Memorial aa Edited by J. J. Fletcher, Sept. 1893. From the

Linn. Soc., New South Wal

MARTE TEL, E. A. ET r kepsen G.—Note sur la Pte Gypseuse de Taverny.

Extr. Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes. No date

MERRIAM, C. H.—Preliminary Descriptions of ems new Mammals from south-

ern uoc collected by E. W. Nelson. Extr. Proceeds Biol. Soc., Washington

Dec., 1893.

Ni E. T.—On some new Reptiles from the ioe erige Extr.

Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Vol. 184, 18983. From the

PACKARD, A.—Further Studies on the Brain of dono: Joh phai with

notes on its embryology. Extr. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., Vol. VI. From the

Academy.

QutRoGA, Don Francisco.—Sobre la existence de la humita en algunas caliza

arcáicas de la Sierra de Guadarrama. Extr. Actas de la Soc. Esp. de Hist. Nat.

t. II, 1893.——— Estudio Petrográfico del Meteorite de Guareña, Badajoz. Extr.

Anal. de sm Soc. Esp. de Hist. Nat., t. XXII, 1893. From the anthor.

Ramonp, G —Geologie—Asie et Océanie. Extr. l'Ann. Géol. Universal, T.

VIII, set Paris, 1893. From the author.

Riveway, R. —Remarks on the Avian genus Myiarchus, with special reference

to M. yucatanensis Lawrence. Extr. Proceeds. U. S. Natl. Mus., Vol. XVI, 1893.

From the Smithsonian Institution.

Ritey, C. V.—Further Notes on Yucca Insects and Yucca Pollination. Extr.

Provedds: Biol. Soc., Washington, June, 1893.— Insects in — Entomology.

Reprint Insect Life, Vol. VI, 1893. From the author.

Scupper, S. H.—— The American Tertiary Aphididae. Extr. Thirteeth Ann.

Rept. of the Director U. S. Geol. Surv. Washington, 1894. From the author.

SHUFELDT, R. W.—Notes on the Trunk Skeleton of a Hybrid Grouse. Extr.

The Auk, Vol. X, 1893. From the author.

STILLMAN, J. D.—Natural System of Medecine. St. Louis, 1893. From the

1893. From the U. S. Geol. Surv

TULLBERG, TycHo.—Ueber einige Muriden aus Kamerun. Mitgetheilt aus der

Konigl. Gesell. der Wissensch. zu Upsala, 1893. From the author.

WnurrEAvEs, J. F.—The Recent Discovery of large Unio-like Shells in’ the

Suess, E.—The Future of Silver. Translated by Robert Stein. Washington,

rvey.

LS cae pe A t aaa O EE ere I PE EO aa

Oi O SNIPEE A EEIE EETAS, cedo rue nda EES

a eS Sm EE a ag i i Eph ok ia i cae ek TAT. re NT INOEREUARES T TE TV ar

1894.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 689

Coal Measures at the South Joggins, N. S. Extr. Trans. Roy. Soc., Can., 1893.

From the author.

Woopwarp, A. S.— Description of the Skull of Pisodus owenii, an Albula-like

Fish of the Eocene Period. Extr. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1893.

— — On the Cranial Osteology of the Mesozoic Ganoid Fishes, Lepidotus and

Dapedius. Extr. Proceeds. London Zool. Soc., 1893.

— —List of the Scientific Writings, 1882-1892. Hertford, 1893. From the

writer.

ZITTEL, K. A.—Handbuch der Paleontologie; I Abtheilung. Paleozoologie

Vertebrata; IV Band; 3 Lieferung; München und Leipzig, 1893. From the

author. : :

690 The American Naturalist. [August,

RECENT LITERATURE.

The genus Salpa.—The Johns Hopkins Press has issued the

second of the series of * Morphological Monographs," in the shape of

a magnificent treatise on the genus Salpa by Professor W. K. Brooks.

The monograph is an exhaustive one, without which no working

library can afford to remain. It includes a brief but valuable survey

of the anatomy of many species, a detailed account of the develop-

ment of the solitary form from the egg, and of the chain Salpa from

the stolon. The systematic position of Salpa with reference to other

tunicates is discussed, and this leads the author to a wide biological

consideration of the primitive pelagic fauna and the origin of the

Metazoa. The evidence on the origin of the Chordata, to be gathered

from the tunicates, is presented and is shown to be in opposition to the

annelidian hypothesis of the derivation of this group. Dr. M. M.

Metcalf contributes the final section, a careful study of the eyes and

subreural gland of Salpa.

The chapter on the egg development of the solitary Salpa is espe-

cially interesting and suggestive. An outline of this remarkable

development is as follows; The germ mass is present in the embryo

of the solitary form, and extends into the stolon as the latter grows

out. It is differentiated into a superficial epithelium and an inner

mass of ovarian ova, which in the mature stolon form a single row.

When the stolon is constricted to form the chain of salps, each Salpa

body gets its particular portion of the elongated germ mass. In most

species this consists of a single egg with its surrounding epithelium.

The latter is differentiated into testes, follicle, and fertilizing duct, i. e.

a tube attaching the egg to the dorsal wall of the chain salp, through

which the spermatozoa pass to reach the egg—the egg itself liesin a

blood sinus of the chain salp. It is evident from these facts that the

alternation of generations in Salpa differs from the typical alternation

of generations, in that the sulitary form does not arise from the chain

Salpa, but from an egg passed into the chain Salpa from the preceding

generation of the solitary form.

As the embryo grows, it pushes out of the blood sinus in which it lies

at first, into the cavity of the cloaca, driving the wall of the cloaca

before it. From the dorsal wall a complicated system of covering

"The genus Salpa, by William K. Brooks. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins

Press, 1893.

1894.] Recent Literature. 691

embryonic membranes is formed. The inner end of the embryo

remains exposed to the blood sinus of the chain salp, and from it the

placenta is formed. The placenta of Salpa is fundamentally different

from that of the Mammalia. It is merely a portion of the embryonie

body through which the blood of the chain salp circulates. Jt appears

to be exclusively a nutritive organ, not respiratory. The stream of

water constantly passing through the cloaca of the chain salp and

bathing the body of the embryo, makes a special respiratory organ un-

necessary. "The placenta performs its nutritive function in a way very

different from that of the corresponding mammalian organ. In Salpa

the placental blood current nourishes the placenta itself and causes the

cells to multiply. The latter migrate into the body cavity of the em-

bryo, where they degenerate and are used as food.

The very remarkable character of the egg development is due to the

peculiar behavior of the follicle. During the segmentation of the egg,

the follicle undergoes a considerable increase in size. Its cells prolif-

erate and the follicle assumes ashape, which may be likened to that of

a mature Graafian follicle of the vertebrate ovary. That is, there is

a superficial (or somatic) layer of the follicle, connected over a small

area with a central mass (visceral layer), the two elsewhere separated

by acavity. The blastomeres, which are forced apart by the growth of

the follicular tissue, lie in the visceral layer and the region where vis-

ceral and somatic layers are connected. The follicle now proceeds to

develop, as if it were going to form the embryo, while the blastomeres

remain few in number, scattered about in the midst of the mass of fol-

licular tissue. It is impossible without figures to explain the way in

which the follicular tissue is folded and-:hollowed out, to form the

various parts of what appears to be the embryo. It may be said in a

word that the follicular tissue gives rise to a body, which is a “ simula-

erum of the embryo.” In this body, pharynx, cloaca, gill and gill-

slits, are all developed, but are lined with the follicular cells of which

the great mass of the body is composed. As the various organs are

outlined in the follicular tissue, the blastomeres take up certain more

or less definite positions with reference to each organ. Finally the

blastomeres begin a rapid growth, and in each organ and throughout

the body they take the place of the follicle cells, the latter degenerating

and being ultimately used up as food. Thus in fact the Salpa embryo,

like that of other animals, is derived from the egg cell and not from

the follicle, as some investigators have held.

Professor Brooks suggests an explanation, which is probably the

true one, of the behavior of the follicle in the Salpa embryo. It is

well known that in many tunicates the follicle cells migrate in between

692 The American Naturalist. [August,

the blastomeres, more or less completely surrounding the latter, in

which position they are finally used up as food. And the peculiar

behavior of the follicle in Salpa is probably to be explained on the

theory that Salpa has had an ancestor in which the follicular tissue

persisted late in the development, and was so accurately disposed

around and between the organs as to form what might be called a cast

of the embryo.

In the modern Salpa, as in the hypothetical ancestor, the follicular

tissue develops into a cast of the embryo, but the blastomeres instead

of leading the way as they doubtless did in the ancestral embryology,

are now so retarded in their development that they do not begin to

build up the embryonic organs until the follicular cast is well nigh

completed. H. V. Wirsox.

Bateson's Dictionary of Variaton.'—In this work the author

has eollected a great many examples of variations from normal struc-

tures found in animals. These include both absolute abnormalities

and variations which are in the line of evolution. The work is a use-

ful one to all zoologists aud students of evolution, as furnishing exam-

ples of variation in groups with which they are not personally -famil-

iar. It will, however, not take the place with any specialist of his

knowledge of the subject matter of his own studies. It is not to be

supposed that its author intended that it should. A dictionary of vari-

ation of all animals would be a detailed work on zoology in general,

where the normal characters of all species should be stated, in order

that it might be shown what constitutes variation. Such a work could

only be produced by the cooperation of a large number of “species

naturalists.” Embryologists and histologists would be wholly unfit

for the task. Perhaps it was a sense of this deficiency which led Mr.

Bateson to prepare this work; for otherwise it is difficult to imagine

why an expert in any branch of zoological sciences should attempt the

task, unless it should be designed for amateurs and general readers.

While preparing the work, its author neglected one of the richest

mines of information as to normal variation. This is found in the

writings of American specialists in vertebrate zoology, where the sub-

ject has been treated in greater detail, and with greater wealth of ma-

terial than exists in the literature of any other country. The book is

well illustrated, which greatly enhances its value. We recommend it

for study to persons who are doubtful in their opinions on the subject

of organic evolution.

‘Materials for the Study of Variation treated with especial Regard to Discon-

tinuity in the Origin of Species. MacMillan & Co., London, 1894, pp. 598.

epee a ame deer A CIL. E ri eR i. A ei ht arp Mo gi e tree rtp pip enn ER er A I a ag

1894.] Geography and Travels. 693

General Notes.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.

Antarctic Exploration.—The most important geographical dis-

coveries made in the Antarctic regions since Ross traced a part of Vic-

toria Land’s coast, and saw its smoking mountains, fifty-two years ago,

have just been reported by an old and well-known Norwegian whaler,

Captain Larsen, who, by this time, is undoubtedly on his way home

with a cargo of seals. His discoveries were made in the latter part of

November and early in December last, on the steam whaler Jason.

Later he went north to the Falkland Islands, where he found an oppor-

tunity to send home his log for this period. He then returned to the

sealing grounds near the Antarctic Circle. His log was forwarded from

Norway by Mr. Christensen of Sandefjord to Dr. John Murray, the

well-known Scottish scientist and member of the Challenger expedition,

who has just published the extract from the Jason’s journal in the

Scottish Geographical Magazine. Only a few lines, including the lati-

tude and longitude attained, are given in the log to each day’s events,

and the narrative is therefore lacking in detail. When Capt. Larsen

returns to Europe, he will doubtless give a full account of his interest-

ing voyage.

If the reader will refer to a map of the Antarctic regions, he will see

a large land mass, known as Graham’s Land, lying across the Antare-

tic Circle, south of Cape Horn. Except Victoria Land, which lies on

the other side of the Antarctic area, Graham’s land is the largest bit

of terra firma that has yet been found in South Polar waters. It was

discovered by John Biscoe in 1831, and a brief allusion to the explora-

` tion there is necessary in order to understand what Larsen has achieved.

Biscoe skirted its lofty western coast for about 200 miles, and, landing

on little Adelaide Island, not far from the mainland, he was the first to

set foot on shore within the Antarctic Circle. No one ever saw any

other part of Graham’s Land except Ross, over fifty years ago, and the

Scottish and Norwegian whalers who were there in the season of 1892-

93. Capt. Larsen’s recent achievement was to steam for days along the

east coast of the unknown land, and when he was finally compelled to

turn north again, he could still see the lofty summit of the mainland

stretching south and east as far as the eye could reach. Dr. John Murray

694 — The American Naturalist. [August,

and other authorities believe that in those days he wasskirting a part of

the coast of the great Antarctic continent, and while he was adding to

our knowledge of the coast lines around the South Pole, he also dis-

covered some volcanoes in a highly active state, showing that Plutonic

energy in that part of the world has not yet died out, and that its

piles’ there is more widely distributed than we had any reason to

suppos

; The i ice conditions greatly favored Capt. Larsen, for he found a com-

paratively open sea, and was able to advance about one hundred miles

south of the Antarctic Circle. Only the year before the whalers had

found the sea packed with ice almost to the extreme northern part of

Graham’s Land. As they looked south they saw a chain of bergs

towering high above their ships, which effectually barred their progress

in that direction. After Ross, in his sailing ships Erebus and Terror,

had discovered Victoria Land and skirted its coast for hundreds of

miles, he spent almost the entire season of 1842-43 near the north end

of Graham’s Land trying in vain to push his way through the ice-en-

cumbered sea and the great chain of bergs. He was not able, however,

to advance toward the south until he went far east, out of sight of

Graham's Land, whose mystery he had hoped to solve. Larsen had a

very different experience in November and December last. The

weather was fine and warm, and there was plenty of sunshine and little

fog. The air and sea teemed with animal life, for many birds, whales

and seals were seen, and, best of all, the white, east coast of Graham’s

Land, rising here and there into lofty peaks, stood out clearly in view.

He followed it straight to the south, until, at its furthest point, he saw

it rising to still loftier heights and stretching away to the southeast and

east.

From Capt. Larsen's log, and from the observations of the whalers

at the north end of Graham's Land, in the previous season, we are able

to get some idea of this ferra incognita. According to his log, Capt.

Larsen steamed along this east coast for 230 miles, the coast line

stretching away a little east of south, a high, rocky shore, most of it a

few miles west of 60? west longitude from Greenwich. Right at the

Antaretie Circle is a very high peak, most of which is bare of snow.

The shore front is skirted with an ice barrier that runs about five miles

out to sea, and is from twenty-five to sixty feet high. The land is

covered with an ice cap and glaciers flow down the valleys, but in the

narrow, northern part of the land they are, of course, small, and do not

produce icebergs over sixty to seventy feet in height. In 1892-93 the

whalers saw in the neighboring waters bergs that were 200 feet or more

SS ge areata ie ES ee LEM a een gem

1894.] Geography and Travels. 695

in height, and their depth below the surface must have been at least

1,400 feet. It is certain that they come from some more southern part

of the Antarctic region.

Skirting the shores, Larsen saw numbers of islands and rocks, all

volcanic and mostly basaltic, rising out of the sea almost as perpen-

dicular as the icebergs, and presenting little surface on which snow can

rest. He succeeded, however, in landing on Seymour Island, and

pushed some distance into it, though the walk was most difficult across

the deep valleys and over the high rocks. Great numbers of penguins

had their nests there, and in the interior he found several dead seals.

These penguins are peculiar to the Antarctic regions, and their rook-

eries are very curious. They are occupied by countless numbers of the

common black-throated penguins, and the nests are crowded together

in square blocks formed by paths intersecting one another almost at

right angles. The whalers of the previous year said that these rooker-

ies, viewed through a telescope from the ship's head, had the appear-

ance of hair brushes, the penguins representing the bristles.

It was about eighty miles north of the Antarctic Circle that Larsen

discovered a chain of five little islands, extending in a straight line

from northwest to southeast. The most northern is about ten miles

from the mainland. Two of these islands are active volcanoes. The

captain and his mate fastened on their snow-shoes and crossed on the

ice to one of the islands. A large volume of smoke poured from both

of the voleanoes, but neither of them was ejecting lava or solid matter

at the time, though the ice in the neighborhood was strewn with vol-

canic stones that had recently been hurled out of the craters. There

was no snow on these volcanic masses.

On his journey south, Capt. Larsen saw many whales and seals. It

is well-known that the Dundee whalers turned their attention to the

Antarctic regions in 1892, in the hope of finding the true whalebone

whale, which Sir James Ross believed he saw there. The Dundee

fleet, however, saw neither this variety nor any sperm whale. They

saw any number of finners, which were so tame that the ships actually

struck them sometimes before they would get out of the way. Now

and then these enormous creatures, not less then eighty feet in length,

jump like a salmon, every portion of their bodies being clear of the

water. The hunchback whale, which was found there in great num-

bers, is another interesting species. The whalers say that neither sal-

mon nor trout fishing can equal the hunchback for sport. Larsen

hunted one which, on being harpooned, ran the five lines in the first boat

straight out and got free. Four additional harpoons and six —

696 The American Naturalist. [August,

were fired into it. It fought a thirteen hours’ battle and then escaped,

taking with it a good deal of line, two of the harpoons, and all of the

rockets. Larsen saw three other species of whales there, but none of

much commercial value, while the seals are desirable chiefly for their

oil.

. The most southern point reached by Capt. Larsen was in 68° 10

south latitude. Had he advanced a few miles further, it would have

been necessary to turn quite abruptly to the east, for he saw the shore

line bend around till it ran almost due east and west, and behind it

was high land covered with snow. He had followed the coast on the

east side of Graham’s Land as far as Biscoe had traced it on the west.

On the map the reader will find Alexander I. Land, which is due

west of the high land seen by Larsen when he turned his ship to go

north again. Dr. Murray believes that Alexander I. Land is a part

of the west coast of Graham's Land, and that this landmass, which

Biscoe and Larsen proved to widen rapidly toward the south, is only a

peninsula of the continent of Antarctica.

It is interesting to consider the geographical significance of Larsen's

voyage. Our maps show that all around the Antarctic area, in the

neighborhood of the South Polar circle, bits of land have’ been discov-

ered. It is noteworthy that scarcely one of these bits of land has been

explored in its whole extent. The explorers did not ascertain whether

the land they saw was islands or projections from some great land mass.

Discoverers have very rarely been able to effect a landing on account

of the belt of pack ice or ice floes, often ten to twenty miles wide, that

separated them from the shore. "There are several excellent reasons

why many of the leading geographers and geologists believe that these

various lands— Victoria, Graham, Wilkes, Adelie, Clarie, Sabrina and

Termination Lands and sonie others, are merely parts of theouter edge

of a large continent. To mention here only one of these evidences, the

Challenger expedition, sounding in Antarctic waters, brought to light

material which is regarded as strongly indicating the proximity of a

landmass of continental proportions. Ross believed this when he was

in the region where Larsen has made his reconnoissance. Ross said

that though the ice prevented him from taking his vessel south, he be-

lieved he could have landed and travelled over the continent. Larsen’s

work adds strength to the theory, for we see Graham’s Land rapidly

widening as its coasts are followed toward Victoria Land. A great

deal of the area within the Antarctic Circle may be covered with the

sea and still leave room there for a land of continental extent. It has

been observed, when possible to approach the land, that there is much

1894.] Geography and Travels. 697

similarity in the geological structure of the apparently detached masses.

Dr. Wild, of the Challenger expedition, has observed that Graham’s

Land and Victoria Land are remarkable for the height of their mount-

ain ranges, rising from the sea to 7,000 feet in the former, and 15,000

feet in the latter country, and the shores of both are guarded by numer-

ous islands, mostly of volcanic origin. Wild, Murray, and others say

that we are justified in concluding that Victoria Land, whose east coast

line was traced by Sir James Ross for more than 500 miles, must ex-

tend much further to the west and south, and that probably on its ice

cap will be found the present position of the South Magnetic Pole.

Dr. Murray points out that the summer excursion of Larsen’s little

whaler, shows what large additions might, in a short time, be made in

our geographical knowledge by a properly equipped expedition pro-

vided with steam power. British geographers will be more than ever

encouraged, now that the news of Larsen’s work has come to them, to

redouble their present efforts to induce their Government to send out

an expedition. The expenditure will hardly be justified unless the

proposed expedition is accompanied by scientific men and fitted with

all the apparatus of scientific investigation. Such a party and equip-

ment would enrich almost every department of natural science. There

is no doubt that the science of our day is demanding such an investiga-

tion, and, in all probability, it will be carried out within the next few

ears. Not only scientific men, but also a considerable part of the

public, would like to know the nature and extent of this Antarctic con-

tinent and what may be learned by pushing into its interior. It is

highly desirable, also, as the advocates of South Polar exploration

have shown, to ascertain the depth and condition of the ice cap, to

sound the ocean depths, to learn its various temperatures, from the sur-

face to the bottom, to trawl up the animals on the sea floor, and study

the nature of the marine deposits. These are among the questions that

explorers will be called upon to solve in the prolific field of South

Polar research.—Cyrus C. Apams, in New York Sun.

698 The American Naturalist. [August,

MINERALOGY.’

Friedel's Cours de Mineralogie.'— The first part of a text-book

of mineralogy by Charles Friedel covers the field of general mineral-

ogy. In the preface it is stated that a second part, devoted to special

or descriptive mineralogy, will be prepared with the assistance of M.

George Friedel, the author’s son. The book does not claim to be, the

author states, a treatise on crystallography or crystal physics, but a

practical method of determining minerals on the basis of their mor-

phological, physical, and chemical properties. It is intended for the

use of those students who are preparing for the examinations for

licentiate in physical sciences, and should therefore be adapted to the

needs of college students.

The book contains 416 pages with the subject matter distributed as -

follows: introduction (giving history of science and fundamental

definitions, 16 pages); organoleptic properties, 16 pages; crystallo-

graphy, 238 pages ; physical (and optical) properties, 59 pages; chem-

ieal composition occupies the remainder of the book and includes the

divisions, blowpipe methods, mineral synthesis, and mineral classifica-

tion. Under organoleptic properties are included among others,

structure, color, lustre, density, external form (with a consideration of

pseudomorphs), hardness, and streak. In treating crystallography

eight pages are devoted to an exposition of Hauy's théorie des décroisse-

ments. This is followed by sections on the law of rational indices

andsymmetry. After deriving the crystal systems, the author gives

eight pages to an exposition of Bravais’s theory of crystal structure.

No mention is made of the work of later writers on this subject, and

throughout the book a tendency to utilize mainly the work of French

writers seems manifest. The difficulties of translating Levy’s symbols

into those of Weiss, Naumann, Dana and Miller, makes it necessary

to devote thirty-seven pages to crystallographic notation. Twelve of

these are consumed by a table giving the equivalents of Levy’s sym-

bols in the other notations. An usually large amount of space for a

book of this sort is devoted to the representation of erytals, but those

which illustrate the book are very poor. Many of the figures are not

merely carelessly, but incorrectly drawn. Crystals having a principal

'Edited by Dr. Wm. H. Hobbs, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

"Cours de minéralogie professé a la faculté des sciences de Paris, par Charles

Friedel. Minéralogie générale, pp. iii and 416. Paris, 1893.

Eo MM Se equ ES ANB eee M m

trm Berg E d ue rel, UE TE UC be PAPER ERE REM UR set ai

1894.] Mineralogy. 699

axis are generally lopsided. Figures 70, 138, 224, 255 and 322 area

few of the incorrectly drawn crystals. Another bad feature of the

illustrations is that crystals are not always properly set up but are seen

from all directions. The best portions of the work are those which

treat optical mineralogy and mineral synthesis. The former is treated

without mathematics and in a simple and practical manner. The

section on the classification of minerals is very unsatisfactory. What

purports to be a history of the subject isgiven. The systems mentioned

are those of Werner, Hauy, Beudant, Delafosse and Dana. Groth’s

system is not mentioned nor is that of any other modern German

mineralogist. A considerable number of pages is devoted to detailed

ists of minerals as they appear in the schemes of Werner, Delafosse,

and Dana. With theexception of the latter, which Friedel adopts as

the one most in harmony with the present state of the science, these

lists seem out of place. The book is not provided with an index, but

has a somewhat extended table of contents.

As a text-book the work is subject to criticism on account of its

classification and arrangement of subject matter, its lack of perspec-

tive in the treatment of the different divisions of the subject, its ten-

dency to utilize mainly French investigations and systems, and its

faulty illustrations.

Relation between Atomic Weight and Crystal Angles.—

In a paper entitled, “Connection between the Atomic Weight of con-

tained metals and the magnitude of the angles of crytals of isomor-

phous series, a study of the potassium, rubidium and cesium salts of

the monoclinic series of double sulphates R,M (SO,), 6 H,O,” Tutton'

has given the results of a most careful and thorough erystallographi-

cal study of an isomorphous series of salts, to determine the kind and

degree of effect which the different bases exert upon the crystal angles.

The results are very interesting since they seem to show a relation be-

tween the atomic weights of the contained bases and the crystal

angles. "The work involved no less than 9,500 measurements. The

crystals were obtained by slow crystallization from cold solutions and

ten good crystals of each salt were selected for measurement from a

dozen or more different crops. The double salts of the formula RM

(809), 6 H,O containing as univalent metals either potassium, rubid-

ium, or cesium, and as bivalent metals either magnesium, zinc,

iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper, or cadmium, were always pre-

‘Jour. Chem. Soe, London, Trans., Vol. LXIII, (1893), pp. 337—423.

700 The American Naturalist. [August,

pared by mixing solutions of the two simple sulphates in equal molec-

ular proportions. The study shows that the bivalent metal exerts no

appreciable effect on the crystals, the predominant effect being due to

the univalent metal present. The crystals of the potassium, rubidium,

and cæsium salts have each a peculiar habit, that of the rubidium be-

ing intermediate between the other two. The axial angle £ increases

from the cesium, through the rubidium to the potassium salt, its value

in the rubidium salt being midway between the values in the cæsium

and potassium salts. This is in close correspondence with the differ-

ences between the atomic weights of those bases. Tutton says “The

relative amounts of change brought about in the magnitude of the

axial angle by replacing the alkali metal potassium by rubidium and

the rubidium subsequently by cæsium, are approximately in direct

simple proportion to the relative differences between the atomic

weights of the metals interchanged.” The other crystal angles of the

rubidium salts are likewise intermediate in value between those of the

potassium and cæsium salts, but they do not show the same relation to

the atomic weights of the alkali bases, the maximum deviation from

such a relation being found in the prism zone. As these angles are for

rubidium nearer to those of potassium than to those of cæsium, the

author thinks that as the atomie weight of the alkali metal introduced

gets higher, the effect of the metal on certain angles increases beyond

a mere numerical proportion. Professor Tutton announces that this

communication will be followed by another, which will discuss the

changes in the optical constants of the crystals due to the same chemi-

cal substitutions.

Spangolite from Cornwall.— Miers' has found in a collection of

Cornwall minerals presented to the British Museum, small crystals of

the new mineral spangolite described by Penfield in 1890. The Corn-

wall crystals show the hexagonal prism, pyramid, and base. Their

association is remarkably like that of Penfield’s spangolite, as they

occur with cuprite and its alteration products. From the characters

of the associated liroconite and clinoclase, Miers thinks that there ean

be no doubt that the specimen is from St. Day, near Redruth.

Eudialite from the Kola Peninsula.—The occurrence of eudia-

lite in the nephelene syenite and pegmatite of the Lujawr-Urt and

Umptek in Russian Lapland, recently mentioned by Ramsay, has

now been studied in detail.’ The crystals have developed on them the

*Neues Jahrbuch, 1893, TI, 174.

*Neues Jahrbuch, Beil. Bd., VIII, (1893) 722.

car ee ANS NS oe cent i Tus c E MK coal

Ss en: ee ee a II E

1894.] ~ Mineralogy. 701

forms R,—1R, 1R,—2R, œ R2, œR, and oR. The axial ratio is a:c

—1:2.1072. The mineral has good cleavage parallel to the base and

one varying from very good to poor runs parallel to the second order

prism. The color is usually cherry to garnet red. The crystals are

specially interesting because of a marked zonal structure and of a

division into sectors having differences in double refraction. Some of

these sectors have positive and others negative double refraction. Like

the eudialite from Magnet Cove the crystals are optically anomalous,

sometimes having biaxial character with optical angle as large as 15°.

On heating the sections of the crystals to a temperature at which

boracite had become isotropic, all the sectors of the field seemed to

give negative double refraction. Ramsay finds evidence that the differ-

ent zones of the mineral possess different specific gravities as well as

different double refraction, and he considers this to be due to isomor-

phous growth together of eudialite and eucolite. He shows that as

regards axial ratio, specific gravity, double refraction and optical char-

acter, there is a gradation from the eucolite of Aró through the eudia-

lites of Umptek and Kangerdluarsuk to the eudialite of Magnet

Cove.

702 The American Naturalist. [August,

PETROGRAPY.

The Ejected Blocks of Monte Somma.—Johnston Lavis’

has begun a thorough study of the ejected blocks of Monte Somma,

with especial reference to their petrography and the nature of the

metamorphic changes that have been produced in them by the lavas

by which they were enclosed. The druse minerals of the blocks have

long been known, but their nature as rocks has been left uninvestigated.

The author proposes to study in detail about 700 specimens of the

blocks, including many varieties. He begins by describing some 30

that were originally stratified Cretaceous limestones containing carbon-

aceous material The first stage in their alteration seems to be the con-

version of bituminous substance into graphite, and the crystallization

of the rock into marble. The crystallization has not destroyed the

original bedding bands, nor the most delicate structures exhibited by

them, hence it is assumed that fusion or softening of the rock did not

accompany the crystallization processes. A few olivines were formed

at this tisme, and these consequently are the first products of the

metamorphosing agency. They appear principally as inclusions in the

calcite. In the next stage of alteration the graphite disappears, and

a saccharoidal marble results. This contains more or less colorless

olivine, and passes rapidly into a mass of olivine, colorless pyroxene,

wollastonite and biotite, where impurities were present in the original -

rock. In the earlier stages of metamorphism the calcite and the sili-

cate minerals will exist in different bands, but in later stages silicates

and calcite intermingle, and finally a purely silicate rock results.

The order in which new minerals seem to develope is thought to be the

following ; olivine, periclase, humite, spinel, mica, fluorite, galena,

pyrite, wollastonite, garnet, vesuvianite, nepheline, sodalite, feldspar,

secondary calcite, tremolite, brucite. The article is illustrated by three

lithographic plates. It will repay close study by students of contact

action, as we have recorded in the blocks the effects of the action of a

magma upon a limestone, in all its stages.

Phonolites from the Black Hills.— The sanidine-trachyte

described by Caswell from Bear Lodge in the Black Hills, has been

‘Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Colby University, Waterville, Me.

"Tarns. Edin. Geol. Soc., VI, 1893, p. 314.

3U. S. Geog. & Geol. Survey of Rocky Mts. 1880. Cap. VII, p. 471.

1894.] Petrography. 103

reexamined by Pirsson,' who finds it to be a phonolite with phenocrysts

of anorthoclase and pyroxene, in a groundmass of the usual compo-

nents of phonolite. The anorthoclase has the composition :

BIO, ALO, Fe,9, CaO Na,O rer HO Total Sp. Gr.

66.44 19.12 tr 7.91 10 67 =99.70 2.585

The nepheline is all in the groundmass where it appears as idiomor-

phic crystals. The density of the rock is 2.582 and its composition :

SiO, TiO, Al,O, Fe,0, Ae MnO CaO BaO MgO Na,O K,O H,O CI SO, Total Cl

61.08 18 18.71 1.91 tr 1.58 .05 .08 8.68 4.63 2.21 12 tr=99.86—.03=99.83

A second occurrence of phonolite within the same region is in a dyke

just south of Deadwood. It consists of phenocrysts of reddish feld-

spars and black hornblendes that approach barkevikite in properties.

The rock from the Black Hills sold by the dealers as tinguaite is a

dense aggregate of pyroxene phenocrysts in a matrix of feldspar and

aegirine, with an occasional patch of nepheline.

| The Origin of Norwegian Iron Ores.— The iron and other

i ores of many of the Norwegian localities are connected genetically

with granites and gabbroitic eruptives. The iron ores in veins

| are supposed by Vogt?to be due to contact action between granite

and the surrounding rocks. Those connected with the gabbros are

basic accumulations, whose origin is ascribed to differentiation of the

| basic magma. In consequence of this differentiation, which is governed

largely by Soret's principle and the differences in density of the various

| differentiated products, the gabbro splits into labrador-rock and various

iron-olivine and iron-pyroxene compounds, and in these latter are

accumulations of magnetite and ilmenite large enough to constitute ore

bodies. Each of the iron-pyroxene rocks is described by the author

and the iron ores associated with them are characterized. The titanium

of the iron is thought to have originated mainly in the olivine and

other basic components of the normal gabbro.

The Tonalites of the Rieseferner.—The tonalites of the

Rieseferner in the Tyrol are again the subject of careful petrographi-

eal study. The normal tonalite (hornblende-mica-quartz-diorite)

* Amer. Jour. Sci., XLVII, 1894, p. 341.

5Geol. Fóren Stock. Fórh. 13 and 14.

5Becke: Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., XIII, p. 379.

704 The American Naturalist. — [August,

which is a coarse granular rock, on its periphery often becomes finer

grained and porphyritic. Large biotites and hornblendes are scattered

through its groundmass, which remains fine grained, and the rock

thus takes on a prophyritie habit. At other times the decrease in the

size of its constituent grains is accompanied by a decrease in the pro-

portion of plagioclase and quartz present in the rock and a large

increase in the orthoclase present, while hornblende disappears com-

pletely. It is unnecessary to give the petrographical details of the

author’s paper. It should be mentioned, however, that the feldspars

are very carefully studied by comparing the differences in their refract-

ing indices, and many new points are brought out concerning their

relations to each other. Some of the plagioclases were found to con-

sist of nuclei of basic plagioclase, enclosing areas of a more acid feld-

spar identical with an acid peripheral zone. The phenomenon is

thought to be due to corrosive influences. In addition to the various

phases of the tonalite mentioned, the author makes a careful study of

the veins cutting them, and of the slight alterations they have suffered.

and he refers to the existence of gneiss fragments occasionlly met with

in their peripheral portions.

Petrographical News.—McMahon’ cites, as evidence in favor of

the eruptive character of the Dartmoor granite, and in opposition to

the view of Ussher that it resulted from the fusion by pressure of pre-

existing pre-Devonian sedimentaries, the following facts. Its apophy-

ses cut the surrounding rocks. The metamorphic changes effected in

the latter are the result of contact action. Finally the other rocks

with which the granite is associated show no evidence of the great

pressure, to which they must have been subjected if the granite were

truly a fused sedimenta

Associated with the argillites, graywackes and other sedimentary

rocks of the Keewatin series near Kekaquabie Lake in Northeastern

Minnesota, Grant? has discovered volcanic fragmentals and amphibole

schists, the former of which are recognized as diabase tuffs and the

latter as their recrystallized representatives.

A quartz bearing leukophyre variety of diabase porphyrite, forms

intrusive layers in the Carboniferous schists at the Hernitz Mine near

Saarbrücken in the Pfalz? The rock was regarded by Weiss as a

melaphyre.

"Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., XLIX, p. 385.

Proc. Somerset Arch. & Nat recs "Soc, Vol. 28, p. 892.

*Science, XXIII, 1894, p. 1

*Laspeyres : Corr. Blatt. ge^ Ver. Bonn., 1893, p. 47.

1894.] Petrography. 705

The tuffs found with the nepheline leucite basalts of the Dauner

region in the Eifel are made up of augite, mica, and olivine fragments,

augite crystals, glass particles and lapilli cemented together by quartz

and felspar which represent an original glassy cement."

On the west coast of the Island of Celebes, Wichmann” finds boul-

ders of an epidote glaucophane-mica schist, supposed to be associated

somewhere in the interior of the island with mica quartzite.

JI, Schulte: Verh. d. Naturh. Ver. Bonn., 1893, p. 295.

!'Neues Jahrb. f. Min. etc., 1893, LI, p. 176.

706 The American Naturalist. [August,

BOTANY:

Abnormal Plant Growths.— Trillium grandiflorum Salisb., is

noted for its variableness, but a specimen brought in by one of our

pupils, this spring, exceeds anything I have seen in this respect. The

flower is double, having two sets of sepals, and two of petals. Both

sets of sepals are of the usual form and color. The outer petals are

striped like ribbon-grass, except the half of one which is white. The

inner ones are white, except a thread of green through the center of

one. There sre three stamens—one normal, one a filament without an

anther, and the other expanded into a half-sized petal, concave on one

* side where a thread of gold, about the length of the anther, seems to be

holding loyally to duty. The ovary is of usual size, the styles rather

small—one smaller than the others. Near the top of one of the carpels

arises an outgrowth about half an inch long, white, doubled together,

and drawn over at the top like a hood. To add to the general confu-

sion, there are, on the edges of this growth near the top, two pollen-

bearing lines about an eighth of an inch long.

A member of my botany class, Mr. Cheshire Boone, found a speci-

men of Hepatica acutiloba DC., with two flowers on one scape. The

second flower arises from the axil of a linear bract a little above the

middle of the scape. It is on a peduncle an inch long, and is about

half the size of the upper flower.

Another unusual form found this spring is Viola palmata L., var cu-

eullata Gray, with all of the petals emarginate.

State Normal School, Lucy A. OsBAND.

Ypsilanti, Mich., May, 1894.

The Approaching Meeting of the A. A. A. S.—The meeting of

the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this year,

from August 15th to 24th, promises to be of great interest to botanists.

It is to be held in Brooklyn, N. Y., within a few hours’ ride of the

homes and laboratories of probably one-half of the working botanists

of the country, which may be counted upon as insuring a large meet-

ing. Added to this is the fact that at this time will occur the first

meeting of the American Botanical Society, which must attract many

of our most earnest workers.

1Edited by Prof. C. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska,

1894.] Botany. 707

The Completion of Coulter's Texan Flora.—Within a few

weeks, botanists have received copies of Part III of Dr. John M.

Coulter’s “ Manual of the Phanerogams and Pteridophytes of Western

Texas," published by the Department of Agriculture, as one of the

Contributions from the U. 8. National Museum. A glance over its

pages shows it to be an important contribution to North American

botany, covering, as it does, a region whose botany has hitherto been scat-

tered through many different reports and papers. That the work is

well-done, need not be said of anything from the masterhand of Dr.

Coulter, who has here again shown his ability to make a much needed

book. This volume carries southward the area covered by Coulter's

“Rocky Mountain Botany," and gives to the author a kind of “ pre-

emption right" to a belt of botanical territory stretching from the

Canadian line on the north (N. Dakota, Montana and Idaho) to the

Mexican boundary on the south (Texas and New Mexico). It will

clearly be his duty to enlarge his * Rocky Mountain Botany," so as to

take in the territory of this Texan Flora; then by addingthe Arizona- ,

Nevada region, make it cover the whole of the Western Highlands,

from about the 100th meridian to, but not including, the Pacific Coast

Region. Such a “Botany of the Western Highlands” would, on

many accounts, be much more likely to be successful than the two or

three manuals which it now seems pr we are to have for this re-

gion.—CHARLES E. Bessey.

708 The American Naturalist. [August,.

ZOOLOGY. 5

An Australasian Sub-family of Fresh-water Atherinoid -

Fishes.—Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby, of the Australian Museum, of Syd-

ney, has recently sent me a photograph and description of a new

species of a genus called Aristeus by Castelnau. This genus is of

much interest from a morphological as well as geographical point of

view. Mr. Ogilby has asked, “Is it an Atherinid and allied to

Nematocentris ? or should a new family be formed of it?” Mr. Ogilby,

unlike the original describer, is quite happy in his appreciation of its

affinities.

The genus Me/anotenia was proposed by Gill in 1862 (Proc. Acad.

Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, p. 280) for a fish called Atherina nigrans by

Richardson, and was subsequently renamed Nematocentris (Peters,

1866), Strabo (Kner & Steind, 1866), and Zantecla (Cast., 1873). It

has been generally referred to the Atherinide, but Kner and Stein-

dachner were disposed to associate it with Pseudomugil in their family

Pseudomugilide, and Castelnau proposed a new family, Zanteclide, for

it. No satisfactory family characters were given.

The genus Aristeus was described by Castlenau in 1879, and by him

referred to the family Gobiide. Steindachner, in a notice of the

genus (Zool. Jahresber. 1879, p. 1061), happily hit at its relations i in

the words, “Aristeus N. G. Casteln. (wal

d. Ref.).” :

There are two specially interesting features of these genera.

(1) They deviate from the typical Atherinids in the elongated anal

fin which advances far forward, and with the advance are coordinated

an advanced position of the anus and of the ventral fins, whose roots are

little behind the bases of the pectoral fins.

(2) The species of both genera are confined to the fresh-waters of the

Australasian realm and the constituent group is thus one more of the

groups limited to a single realm.

The deviations of the genera from the typical Atherinide appear to

be sufficient to warrant their segregation in a peculiar sub-family

which may be named Melanoteniine. But confirmation by anatomi-

cal characters are very desirable. The sub-family may be defined pro-

visionally, as follows ;

MELANOTÆNIINÆ. Atherinids with a spinous dorsal, whose fore-

most spine is robust and rest weak, a very long anal, and thoracic

URIS Sg hl iS ER E E SC ce se ce ERU T pa a THEME ^

Ce ee ee

1894.] Zoology. 709

ventral fins. Inhabitants of the fresh waters in the Austrogean (Aus-

tralasian) realm.

The genera may be differentiated as follows:

MErANoTXNIA. Melanoteniines with a little compressed fusiform

body, slightly curved dorso-rostral contour, and a blackish lateral

band.

RuowBATRACTUS. Melanoteniines with a much compressed rhombo-

fusiform ventradiform body, emarginate dorso-rostral contour, and no

distinct lateral band.

Aristeus having been used in 1840 by Duvernoy for a genus of

Crustaceans, is unavailable for the group so-called by Castelnau, and

Rhombatractus is used as a substitute.

Rhombatractus has a curious superficial resemblance to a toxotid on

account of its compressed body, declining back and ventradiform con-

tour, but the head is that of an atherinid.

It may be that the Melanotzniines should be accorded family rank,

but further data are desirable before such a claim is recognized. One

of the subordinal characters of the Percesoces, in any case, must be

modified to fit these fishes.—THEODORE GILL.

710 The American Naturalist. [August,

EMBRYOLOGY."

Earthworm Phylogeny.—The great accumulations of anatomical

facts that the study of exoti t has brought into existence dur-

ing the past few years is now to be made more intelligible by the added

facts of comparative embryology. It isa fitting tribute to one who has

inspired so much of this recent exploration into this field that Bourne's

paper upon the development and anatomy of certain Indian earth-

worms should appear in the complimentary number of Lankester’s

Quarterly Journal.

When the study of exotic earthworms had shown that there might be

large numbers of micro-nephridia‘ present in any segment and

when it was even claimed that tubules of these micro-nephridia might

anastomose to form a connection from segment to segment, the view of

Lankester became less tenable as it became more probable that

the ancestral condition of the earthworm was not what the common

European earthworm had led one to expect.

It seemed probable that the ancestor of the earthworm might have

had a large number of nephridia and of setz and no definite segmental

arrangement of these structures.

. Now, however, we learn from Bourne's paper that in the development

of Mahbenus imperatrix and Pericheta the vexatious micro-nephridia

arise as out-growths from provisional mega-nephridia and are thus of

apparent secondary value. The ancestral condition of a pair of

nephridia for each segment being clearly indicated even in these cases.

The connection of nephridial tubes, the so-called “ plecto-nephric ”

condition does not, apparently, exist at all, certainly not in the embryo.

We learn also that in these exotic forms, such as Pericheta (which is

common with us in green-houses) the large number of setæ found in a

band around each segment are not to be regarded as of ancestral value

since they all arise from two germ bands that then give rise to matrices

which grow laterally in each segment and form the numerous setal

sacs by segregation of cells and by division of matrices. The setal

germ bands in turn are regarded as probably arising from Wilson’s

lateral teloblastes.

Besides thus throwing much light upon the probable ancestral con-

! Edited by E. A. Andrews, Baliimore, Md., to whom contributions may be

sent

” A. G. Bourne. Q. T. Mic. Anat., April, 1894.

1894] _ Embryology. 711

dition of seta of nephridia in the earthworm group the author’s more

detailed future work promises to add to our knowledge of other diffi-

cult points, such as the origin of the nerve cord, which it is here stated

arises from two distinct matrices.

Bourne is inclined to regard the germ bands as the source of all the

metameric structures. The body wall muscles would be of other origin.

The segmentation of the digestive tract a secondary state forced upon it

by the mesoblastic structures.

Determination of Sex.— What at first sight appears to be an

interesting and valuable addition to the facts tending to show that favor-

able conditions lead to the production of female offspring and unfavor-

able conditions to the production of male offspring is to be found in a

paper by F. Braem upon the development of a marine polychxtous

annelid, Ophryotrocha puerilis. Here, however, as in some other cases,

the evidence is really of little value as may be seen from the facts given

by Korschelt in a paper immediately following that of Braem.

Braem found in attempting some regeneration experiments in addi-

tion to his study of the ovaries and testes that in one case there was a

remarkable change of sex. A female annelid full of ripe eggs was cut

into two pieces, the anterior containing 13 and the posterior 22

segments. After three weeks the anterior part had regenerated seven

segments.

It had become smaller and appeared to be starving while the eggs

had disappeared. When sectioned it was found to have changed its sex,

containing only testes. A few cells remained that were ova in process of

formation before the sexual glands changed their character and began

to form sperms.

The author would refer this transformation into a male to the un-

favorable conditions, to the fact that the creature was not sufficiently

nourished to form ova as well as to regenerate the lost part of its body.

Now Korschelt in a careful study of the anatomy of this same small

annelid finds that besides males and females, there are also herma-

phrodites (in fact Braem found one such case) in which the same gland

makes both ova and sperms. Among 30 individuals 6 were female, 7

were male, 8 were apparently female but contained male cells buth

young and full formed, white the remaining 9 were apparently male

though containing ova in the testes. Thus the hermaphrodite state is

the more frequent one, to judge from these few cases.

* Zeit. f. wiss. Zool., 57.

712 The American Naturalist. [August,

Though there is no evidence that the male and female states may

normally succeed one another in the same animal, yet when this, appar-

ently, was the case in one specimen operated upon by Braem, we are

not justified in regarding this is as a result of the operation or as in any

way connected with it, since it may be that it would have taken place

under the normal conditions. Moreover, and this is more important,

the animal full of eggs may very well have been a hermaphrodite from

the first, and have merely re-absorbed2its*ova under the stress of re-

generation, so that we know nothing as to any real change from female

to male in this case.

1894.] Psychology. 713

PSYCHOLOGY.

Mutualists.—Many animals which are found associated with

-other animals and which are usually termed parasites are, in fact, true

mutualists. I mean by the term, mutualist, an animal which gives a

quid pro quo or specific beneficial service to the host which affords it

sustenance and domicile. A true parasite feeds on the food or the

physical juices and structures of its host without rendering auy recip-

rocal service whatever. Thus, the family Pediculide (P. corporis, P.

capitis, etc.), found associated with man, are true parasites, while the

family Ricinie, found associated with birds, are true mutualists. I am

fully aware of the fact that I antagonize the opinions of entomologists

(who regard all these little creatures as parasites which are to be de-

stroyed as soon as discovered, inasmuch as they consider them detri-

mental to the health of the animals upon which they are found), for I

consider most of them absolutely necessary to the health and well-

being of their hosts, and their absence to be an indication of disease in

some form or other in those animals on whose bodies they are not to

be found. Careful observation has taught me that these faithful little

hygeinic servitors immediately abandon the bodies of fowls which are

the victims of cholera and kindred diseases. Porcine mutualists be-

have in a like manner when their hosts become diseased. I had

thought with others until recently, that these corporal scavengers and

toilette assistants were parasites, but systematic and painstaking obser-

vation has taught me otherwise. In the first place, microscopic exam-

ination shows that these creatures have no suction apparatus like fleas

(Pulex) and lice (Pediculus) for the purpose of sucking up the blood

and juices of their hosts. Their jaws are usually armed with a simple

pair of incurvated scrapers with which they scrape the surface of their

hosts’ bodies. Their stomachs never contain the blood of their hosts,

but are always filled with exfoliated epithelium and kindred super-

ficial debris. Supported by these observations alone, the fact at once

becomes evident that these creatures are not true parasites; but there

is yet more testimony to be adduced in favor of these hitherto maligned

-coadjutors and promotors of animal hygiene. If one carefully separ-

ates the feathers on the body of a fowl and uses a good lens (10 diam.)

hé may observe Liothe pallidum, a true mutualist, busily engaged in

removing exfoliated epithelium (scarf-skin) from the body of its host.

It thoroughly cleans its allotted area, scraping away and swallowing

714 -© The American Naturalist. [August,

all of the waste products of the skin. Again, if the feathers them-

selves be examined, another mutualist ( Liothe saculatum) may be seen

freshening and beautifying their sheen by taking into its stomach all

dead epithelial cells, etc., with which it comes in contact. Mutualists

are found everywhere in nature, and wherever found are of essential

service and benefit to the animals possessing them. From the giant

cetacean to the microscopic rhizopod, from the savage lion to the timid

field-mouse, from the kingly eagle to the tiny humming bird, no ani-

mal is without them. Butler’s epigram:

* Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em;

And these fleas have other fleas and so ad infinitum.”

is mainly true, only I insist that no true mutualist ever bites its host.

Many mutualists never reside wholly with their hosts, but visit them

occasionally to render them needful service. The famous crocodile

bird visits its host in order to pick its teeth; Buphagus, the surgeon ofthe

buffalo, alights on the back of its host, and, with its sharp, lance-like

beak opens the cells of encysted larve and removes them; the Euro-

pean starling performs a like service in a " wolves ” from the

backs of cattle.

In matters of the toilette many animals are entirely dép demie on

the ministrations of mutualists. This is notably the case with many

of the fish family. I placed two gilt catfish, whose skins had been

thoroughly cleaned with a solution of salt water and borax, in a tank

of filtered water in which there were no eltes, the mutualists of

this species of fish. In two days their skins had lost their beautiful

golden sheen and had become dull and lusterless. "The fish themselves

clearly showed by their actions that they were not in good health.

They remained at the bottom of the tank almost without motion. I

then took them out and found that their skins were covered with a

slimy mucous exudate. I placed them for a few moments in a tank

of pond-water in which there were multitudes of Gyropeltes. After al-

lowing them to remain in this tank for a few moments, they were re-

moved and examined, and thousands of these mutualists were discov-

ered greedily devouring the mucous. After a day's residence in the

pond water their skins had recovered all their lustre and beauty, and

the fish showed by their aetions that they had regained their health.

A truly remarkable mutualist is found associated with the crayfish.

It belongs to the genus Histriobdella, and its office is analagous to that

of the vulture, the jackal, and the burying beetle which remove car-

rion. It is exeeedingly agile and is altogether one of the most unique

in appearance of all animals. It may be described as a two-legged

LUE ee ARR A o Eee s ghe Se ES T RR Svo Mey a

Moy reapse CS edet:

MOT CARA Su IURI T aer Le ERR

1894.] Paychology. 715°

worm, which has all the powers of a most accomplished contortionist.

The crayfish, after oviposition, carries its eggs beneath its tail, and the

Histriobdella lives among them. Its office or function is to devour all

blighted or unimpregnated eggs and dead embryos, the decay of which

might affect the health of its host and progeny. Van Beneden, de-

scribing the Histriobdella found associated with the lobster, says:

“ Let us imagine a clown from the circus, his limbs dislocated as far as

possible, we might even say entirely deprived of bone, displaying

tricks of strength and activity on a heap of monster cannon balls,

which he struggles to surmount; placing one foot formed like an air-

bladder on one ball, the other foot on another, alternately balancing

and extending his body, folding his limbs on each other, or bending

his body upward like a caterpillar of the family geometride, and we

shall then have but an imperfect idea of all the attitudes which it as-

sumes, and which it Varies incessantly.” I once saw one of these little

animals stand erect on its legs, then bend its body down between them

and, with a quick flirt, turn a complete summersault. I have re-

peatedly seen this mutualist insert its proboscis into the eggs of cray-

fish and devour them. Microscopic investigation always showed that

the eggs thus attacked were unimpregnated, consequently unfertile. I

might prolong this paper by introducing many other mutualists, but

think it hardly necessary. I have shown that these creatures subserve

a very useful purpose in nature, and that they do not belong to that

disreputable class—the parasites.— Jas. WEIR, Jux., M. D.

716 The American Naturalist. [August,

ARCH ZOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.

Ancient American Bread.—Mr. S. P. Preston, of Lumberville,

told me on April 1st, 1894, that he remembered his grandfather, Silas

Preston, telling him how the latter, when a boy living on the farm now

owned by Benjamin Goss, in Buckingham township, Bucks County,

Pa, had seen Delaware Indians, about the year 1780, encamped in

barked-roofed wooden huts near by, pound corn in stone mortars with

stone pestles. They mixed the meal with water, and patting the dough

into flattened balls with their hands, baked these cakes in the hot em-

bers of their open fires. He did not tell his grandson whether they

salted the meal, or—what was more important, if we want to try the

experiment—whether the corn grains were pounded when old and well

dried, which would be a diffieult operation; when green and soft,

whieh would be easier, or after previous parching, which would be

easiest of all.

Franklin (Harshberger on Maize, p. 140) speaks of Indians, prob-

ably Delawares, parching corn grains in dishes of hot sand and after-

wards grinding them to a fine powder, which kept fresh a number of

years. Captain John Smith saw Indians roasting corn on the ear

green, and when thus parehed crisp, bruising it in a * wooden mortar

with a polt and lapping it in rowles in the leaves of their corn, and so

boyling it for a dainty."

Parehing loose grains well stirred in an open iron dish does as well

as either of the above methods in my experience and gets over the first

and main diffieulty of producing the meal or dough with a stone mor-

tar and pestle. This meal, as I have made it, from freshly parched

grain, is the easily produced Mexican Pinol, carried invariably on long

desert journeys in Chihauhua and Sonora—sometimes seasoned with

herbs or parched cocoa shells and generally mixed with sweetened

water as a strengthening beverage.

The taste of cakes made of parched meal, I find on experiment, dif-

fers as much from that of others made from fresh grain as it does from

the flavor of bread made by Mexican Indians from Metate crushed

grains previously softened in hot lime water; but, given the meal, the

Lenape process of cooking the dough in the embers of an open fire is

that to-day in use by the negroes of Southern Maryland and Virginia.

In an ash cake baked in the embers before me at Egglestons’, Giles

county, Virginia, in February, 1894, they reproduced the mode of the

SR qeu cc ert he

1894.] Archeolog, and Ethnology. — 717

Lenape cook, while with their hoe cakes, originally baked by the corn-

field hands on hoe blades thrust into the wattle and clay fire places in

log cabins, another Indian cake, that cooked on flat heated stones is

imitat

The rie word * Pone" (pronounced by the pr PRE ach pone,

and meaning baked corn bread), much used in Virginia to mean all

kinds of corn bread, including the Johnny cake (baked on a greased

board like a planked shad), is not needed to show that maize bread

cooking—the best of it on the Atlantic seaboard, is a direct inheri-

tance from the Indian.

Virginians justly despise all corn bread made north of Mason and

Dixon’s line. We use red corn instead of white, say they, which spoils

the flavor, grind the meal coarse, which spoils the grain, and lastly,

bake the meal (sometimes at mills) to save the frequent grinding neces-

sitated in the South (once a week in summer and once in three weeks

in winter) to prevent fermenting which destroys the vitality.

These alleged reasons may not fully account for the abominable

corn bread of the North, but it is possible that the Indians had devel-

oped valuable modes of preparing the grain of their great plant, egi

neither Virginian nor Northerner have understood.—H. C. Mer

The making of New arm Coast Shell heaps in 1780.

—To learn from Mr. Preston that even these squatting, half-civilized

Lenape, in Buckingham, as lately as 1780, went over to the sea to

make shell heaps once a year, is to lessen our surprise at the man-made

shell deposits of the New Jersey coast, for if these conspicuous remains

of shell feasts were built up, not only by coast-dwelling tribes, but by

an Indian population from a good range of interior country, we need

not wonder that they are very large or suppose that they are very old.

The Indians were in the habit of going in a body several days' walk,

said Mr. Preston, the elder, in April or May to the clam banks of the

New Jersey coast, near New Brunswick. There they encamped for

several weeks to feast on clams, and when they retnrned, brought to

the old and infirm who had remained at home, bundles of clams slung

in skins on pairs of poles running from shoulder to shoulder of two

men.

Even their stone-pointed arrows were sometimes used, at that time

by these tolerated stragglers, who had sold the land they lived on in

1737, as when during mowing season, they shot robins and

“ flickers” (golden-winged woodpeckers) in black cherry trees with

bows and arrows and strung the birds on long cords. Land turtles

718 The American Naturalist. [August,

were cooked for food, as when Mr. Preston saw a woman throw an

apron full into an open fire, while another poked the tortured creatures

back into the coals with a pole till they were roasted. It was re-

membered as a good joke that during a boiling of lye and soap fat for

soft soap, an Indian woman coming to the kettle in the absence of the

cooks, was seen to grease her hair with the mixture.—H. C. MERCER.

The Hemenway Collections.—The trustees of the Peabody

Museum of Ethnology, in Cambridge, received a letter from Mr.

Augustus Hemenway offering them, on behalf of the trustees of the

estate of Mrs. Mary Hemenway, the incomparable collection of arche-

ological specimens gathered during the last seven years by Mr. Frank

H. Cushing and Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in Arizona and New Mexico.

These collections are not offered as a gift, but merely as a deposit.

The trustees of the museum have accepted the loan, and have offered

a sufficient space for its display. It is probable, however, that the

deposits will amount practically to a gift.

A condition of this deposit is that Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, who has

been in charge of Mrs. Hemenway’s archeological enterprises since Mr.

Cushing was compelled, on account of continued ill-health, to retire,

shall continue in charge of the collection, although, of course, under

the direction of Prof. Putnam, the curator of the museum.

The collection, which may be divided for convenience’s sake into

two parts, that formed by Mr. Cushing and that by Dr. Fewkes, is now

widely scattered.

The portion excavated in the vicinity of Phenix and Tempe, Ari., by

Mr. Cushing, is at present stored in Salem, Mass., while some of the

results of Dr. Fewkes’ expedition to the Moqui Indians of New Mexico

are stored at 42 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston, and the rest are on exhibi

tion in the National Museum in Washington.

How soon these portions will be united in Cambridge has not yet

been decided, but it is reasonable to suppose by next fall there will be

a fairly complete display open to the public at the Peabody Museum.

The indirect cause of these collections was the explorations which

Mr. Cushing carried on among the Zufiis of New Mexico. The Zufiis

seemed to Mr. Cushing to possess remnants of certain customs and

habits which might possibly be referred back to the prehistoric inhabi-

tants of the ancient pueblos or towns, the big, low, communal buildings

which lie in ruins throughout the southwestern part of the United

States.

A thoroughly equipped expedition, the entire expenses of which were

paid by Mrs. Hemenway, who had become interested in Mr. Cushing’s

project, started for Arizona in 1887. For three years a most thorough,

ee ee oe ee

1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. 719

careful and scientifically conducted expedition was carried on among

these pueblos under the direction of Mr. Cushing.

The collection of specimens, including almost every variety of pre-

historic implement, utensil and ornament in use among the ancient

dwellers, which Mr. Cushing obtained is the most valuable ever carried

out of Arizona. There is nothing from the same region comparable to

it anywhere. Even more valuable are the facts which Mr. Cushing

was enabled to learn from his explorations about the life and religious

habits of this heretofore mysterious race. As yet, however, the facts

have not been published by Mr. Cushing, who, since his illness, has

been employed by the national government.

* The explorations of Dr. Fewkes were made during the summers of

1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893. They were confined exclusively to the

Moqui and Zuñi tribes.

Much attention was paid to the | religious —— of the Zufiis. A

set of phonograph cylinders, songs, was obtained

during the summer of 1890. The cylinders, of course, are preserved

in the Hemenway collection.

A year or so later the magnificent Keam collection was acquired by

purchase. Keam had been a trader among the Moqui Indians for

twenty years. Like most Indian traders, he had acquired a collection

of utensils and religious paraphernalia, colleeted with an idea to sell

at some future day. He had refused to sell single pieces, keeping the

whole lot intact for some future purchaser. Every specimen was

labeled with a short description. In its numbers are included both

ancient and modern articles—blankets, basket ware, religious and

household pottery, kilts, dolls (which are made in the likeness of idols,

serving as a sort of kindergarten instruction to the children in religion), '

in fact, almost every type of old and new, of everything in use among

the Moquis and their predecessors. Not only is the collection the best

in the world, but it must always remain so, for the Moquis have by this

time become sophisticated by white civilization. Added to this Keam

collection are the valuable supplementary collections gathered by the

Hemenway expedition itself.

Thirty-five hundred specimens were beautifully arranged in the

exhibition held two years ago in Madrid to commemorate the four

hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America. These specimens

were intended to illustrate the habits of the natives of New Mexico

` at the time of the landing of Columbus. They gained Mrs. Hemenway

a personal letter of thanks from the Queen of Spain, and their curator

the decoration of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.

720 The American Naturalist. [August,

MICROSCOPY.

New Method of Imbedding in a Mixture of Celloidin and

Paraffine/—Messrs. Field and Martin recommend the following

method as an improvement on those proposed a few years ago by

Ryder and Kultschizky. The method permits of imbedding the ob-

ject directly in a mixture of celloidin and paraffine. The mixture is

prepared by using as a solvent, alcohol and toluol (toluéne) ; the lat-

ter, taking the place of ether, makes it possible to dissolve paraffine in

the celloidin solution. Proceed as follows:

1. Make a mixture of absolute alcohol and toluol in equal parts.

2. Soak some dry celloidin in toluol; after some hours, add a little of

thealcohol-toluol? The celloidin swells up and dissolves. The solution.

should have about the consistency of clove oil.

3. Finally, add to this mixture some shavings of paraffine, obtained

by scraping the surface of a block of this substance with ascalpel. In

order to hasten the solution and increase the proportion. of paraffine

the mixture may be heated a little. Above 20° to 23°, one runs the

risk of precipitating the celloidin, which separates in a —

granular mass.

These mixtures prepared, the process of imbedding is executed in

the following manner: The object, taken from absolute alcohol, is-

placed in the alcohol-toluol. It is easily and quickly saturated, and

is then placed directly in the imbedding mixture. The penetration is.

more rapid than in the ordinary celloidin solution. As soon as satura-

tion is complete, one may proceed to solidify the celloidin. This may

be done in two ways:

1. The object is transferred to a saturated solution of paraffine in

chloroform, and when the solidification is complete (2-3ds.), the imbed-

ding paraffine is carried out according to the well known method

Bütschli.

TEd. By Prof. C. O. Whitman, University of Chicago.

*Bull Soc. Zool de France, XIX, p. 48, Mar. 18, 1894, and Zeitschr. f. wiss.

Mikr., XI, 1, 1894

*?The alcohol-toluol is added after the tuluol has been turned off. About 45cc

is enough for 1 grm. of celloidin. This solution will dissolve about 4 grm. of

paraffine (melting at 56?) at ordinary room temperature.

1894.] Microscopy. 721

2. The object is placed in toluol containing some paraffine in solu-

tion. The alcohol diffuses in the excess of toluol, and the celloidin

solidifies. Imbed as before.

In both cases care must be takef to avoid shrinkage, which occurs

if the eelloidin is solidified in pure paraffine.

The object thus imbedded in paraffine is sectioned in the usual way.

The ribbons of sections are fixed to the slide by means of the ordinary

albumen fixative, or by the aid of pure water. In the latter case, the

strips cut to the length desired are placed on a clean slide slightly wet

with water. Then a little water is added by means of a brush, just

enough to barely float the sections‘ The slide is then heated so as to

soften the paraffine without melting it. The sections expand readily.

It remains only to drain off the water and let the slide dry completely.

If desired the celloidin may be removed by the mixture of alcohol

and toluol which dissolves at once both the paraffine and celloidin.

Then, after washing with toluol, the sections may be mounted in bal-

sam in the usual way. If they are to be colored on the slide, they

should be washed with alcohol and water.

On the Fixing of Paraffine Sections to the Slide.—A com-

bination of the water method of Suchannek and Heidenhain with the

albumen method of Mayer has been found very useful as it does away

with the slow-drying of the former method and still permits the ready

arrangement of the sections and their expansion and flattening.

A slide, cleaned with only ordinary care, is covered by means of the

finger with the least possible amount of Mayer’s Albumen. By means

of a small brush the upper surface of the slide is then flooded with

water and the brush, still slightly wet, is used for picking up and ar-

ranging the sections or ribbons. The brush may then be used for re-

moving the excess of water, and the slide slightly warmed fora few

moments on a water-bottle, care being taken that the sections do not

melt. The sections soon expand and float upon the water which

should be drained away and slide placed a second time upon the

water-bath. After remaining about fifteen minutes the paraffine may

be melted and the slide plunged into turpentine or some other solvent

of paraffine.—H. C. Bumpus, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods

Holl, Mass.

*The following note by Dr. Bumpus suggests an improvement.

222 The American Naturalist [August,

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

The work of the Michigan Fish Commission in 1894.

—After a careful study of various points along the coast, Charlevoix

has finally been decided upon as the location for the work of this year.

It lies on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan just north of Grand

Traverse Bay, within easy reach of numerous white fish spawning and

fishing grounds. Extensive fishing operations are carried on here

throughout the year, and varied conditions of shore and bottom are to

be found within easy reach. Opposite this point Lake Michigan

reaches a depth of 850 feet, and shallow water with reefs and islands

are not far distant. Numerous inland lakes of varying size are also

readily accessible and the variety of conditions is unsurpassed by any

point on this shore. In addition to this the Commission has already

at Charlevoix a hatchery which will furnish extensive aquaria for

keeping specimens alive and for experimental work. A carpenter

shop next door to the hatchery building has been rented for the sum-

mer and fitted out as a laboratory, with tables, shelves, reagents and

the necessary apparatus. The University of Michigan co-operates

with the undertaking as in former years, and has renewed its loan of

apparatus and of a special library. Several boats, including a small

steamer and all kinds of nets for shallow and deep water work and for

bottom and surface collecting, are at the service of the party.

The work will include a determination of the fauna and flora of Lake

Michigan at this point and of their vertical and horizontal distribu-

tion. This determination will be both qualitative and quantitative,

and will be particularly directed towards a study of the life history of

the white fish and lake trout. Since the life of the water constitutes,

first or last, the food of the fish in it, this determination will afford

some idea of the value of this locality asa breeding ground for fish

and of its adaptability as a planting ground for the fry. The temper-

ature, transparency and purity of the water and the character of shore

and bottom, as well as the currents and connecting Jakes will receive

attention as problems which affect most powerfully the welfare of the

fish.

The party at work in the laboratory will consist of Professor Henry

B. Ward, University of Nebraska, Director; Professor E. A. Birge,

University of Wisconsin ; Professor C. Dwight Marsh, Ripon College,

Wisconsin; Dr. Charles A. Kofoid, University of Michigan; Dr.

Robert H. Walcott, University of Michigan ; Mr. Herbert S. Jen-

nings, University of Michigan; Mr. Bryant Walker, Detroit, Michi-

1894.] Scientific News. 123

gan. In addition to these, a number of specialists will be guests of

the Commission for a longer or shorter interval.

The laboratory will be open during July and August, and visiting

scientists will be aecorded a most cordial welcome. To a certain ex-

tent it will be possible to offer the privileges of the laboratory to spe-

cialists who may wish to carry on investigations on special groups.

Notice of such cases should be sent to the director as early as possible,

that the necessary arragements may be made.

The Biological Station of the University of Illinois.—

'The field operations and the resources of thé'natural history depart-

ments of the University, especially those of zoology and botany, have

been notably increased during the last term by the establishment,

April 1, on the Illinois River, at Havana, of a biological station

devoted to the systematic and continuous investigation of the plant

and animal life of the waters of that region. This establishment,

authorized by the trustees of the University at their March meeting, is

under the direction of Professor Forbes, with Mr. Frank Smith, assist-

ant in zoology, in immediate charge of the work. Mr. Adolph Hem-

pel and Mrs. Smith also work there continuously, with an expert

fisherman as factotum.

The field work is now done from a cabin boat, chartered for the

summer, which carries the seines, dredges, surface nets, plankton appa-

ratus, and other collecting equipment, together with microscopes,

reagents for the preservation of specimens, a small working library, a

number of special breeding cages for aquatic insects, and a few aqua-

ria. This boat is provided with sleeping accommodations for four men,

and with a well-furnished kitchen.

In Havana itself are office and laboratory rooms supplied with run-

ning water and electric light, and provided with the usual equipment

of a biological laboratory, consisting of first-class microscopes, micro-

tomes, biological reagents, etc., and tables for five assistants. Profes-

sor Forbes and Mr. Hart, of the state laboratory of natural history,

visit the station frequently for special lines of work.

The boat is established in Quiver Lake, an elongate hay or

Illinois, two and a half miles above Havana. At low water this lake

is about two miles long with a steep sandy bank some fifty feet high

on the eastern side and a mud flat on the western. The banks are

wooded, on the east mostly with oak and hickory, and on the west with

the lowland species. — The locality is beautiful and healthful, and the

water excellent.

From the lake and the river selection has been made of a number ot —

124 - The American Naturalist. [August,.

typieal situations, and from these, and from Phelps and Thompson

Lakes a little distance away, collections of all descriptions are made:

at regular intervals for a comparative study of the organic life—the

relative abundance of the species at different seasons of the year, and

the general system of conditions by which it is affected.

* The plan of operation contemplates continuous work at this station

for several years, with especial reference to the effect of the enormous

overflow and rapid retreat of waters characteristic of the Illinois and.

the Mississippi system generally. Continuous studies are made of the:

food of all the species collected, with final reference to the feeding

habits and food resourges of the native fishes of the region. Temper-

atures are taken daily, and analyses of the waters of the lake and

river at the various stations are being made at regular intervals by the

chemical department of the University.

This station will be held open for graduate students in zoology and

botany wishing to take their advanced degrees in zoological or botani-

cal lines. Such students, choosing to pursue their studies at Havana

will be furnished with every facility for the original investigation of a

large variety of subjects, and arrangements will be made by whiclr the

other studies of their postgraduate courses may be carried forward

without embarrassment.

The station is further capable of sufficient expansion to accommo-

date other investigators from the University and from the University

summer scnool, for whose benefit excursions will be arranged as may

be found profitable.

This is the first inland aquatic biological station in America manned

and equipped for continuous investigation ; and the first in the world

to undertake the serious study of the biology of a river system.—From

the Illini, June 6, 1894.

Cook's Excursion to Greenland.— The excursion to visit

Greenland organized by Dr. Frederick A. Cook, anthropologist of

Peary's first expedition, consists of fifty persons, of whom a good part

are students of science. They have chartered the steamer Miranda

and will sail directly for the far north, stopping at Cape Breton, and

at two or three places in Labrador and Southern Greenland, reaching

Inglefield Gulf about the first of August. Among the scientific mem-

bers are Professor W. H. Brewer of Yale College, who will go the

whole round; Professor B. C. Jillson of Pittsburg, Pa., who with Pro-

essor G. F. Wright and son, of Oberlin, O., and a party of six, will

stop off in Umenak Fiord about latitude 71, to study the border of the

ice sheet, the neighboring glacial deposits, the glaciers entering the

1894.] Scientific News. 725

fiord, the Tertiary deposits of the vicinity, "id make a collection of

the plants and animals.

Professor L. L. Dyche, at the head of the department of Zoology

and Taxidermy at the State University of Kansas, is the official nat-

uralist of the expedition, and will go the full round. He will make a

specialty of collecting Birds and Mammals. He will have under

him Mr.S. P. Orth of Oberlin, O., botanist, and B. F. Stanton of

Oberlin, assistant naturalist, to make general collections. Mr. E. A.

Mellhenney of Louisana, goes as an ornithologist.

Professer C. E. Hite of Philadelphia with three assistants is to stop

offin Labrador for general exploration. Professor E. P. Lyon of

Chicago goes for the general student of biology. The expedition ex-

pects to return about September 20th.—G. F. W RIGET.

The Forty-third Meeting of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science, will he held in Brooklyn, New

York, August 15 to 24,1894. The following officers will bein charge:

President, Daniel G. Brinton, Media, Pa.

Vice-Presidents, A.—Mathameties and Astronomy, George C. Com-

stock, Madison, Wis.; B.— Physics, Wm. A. Rogers, Waterville, Me. ;

C.—Chemistry, T. H. Norton, Cincinnati, O. ; D.—Mechanical Science

and Engineering, Mansfield Merriman, South Bethlehem, Pa.; E.—

Geology and Geography, Samuel Calvin, Iowa City, Iowa; F.—Zool-

ogy, S. H. Seudder, Cambridge, Mass. (Resigned) ; G.— Botany, L. M.

Underwood, Greencastle, Ind.; H.—Anthropology, Franz Boaz, New

York; I.—Economie Suse and Statistics, Henry Farquhar, Wash-

Siete, D. C.

Permanent Secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge (office, Salem),

Mass.

General Secretary, H. L. Fairchild, Rochester, N. Y.

Secretary of the Council, James Lewis Howe, Louisville, Ky.

Dr. August von Klipstein, formerly Professor of Mineralogy at

Giesson, died, A pril 16, 1894, in his 93d year.

The news of the appointment of Sidney J. Heckson of Downing Col-

lege, Cambridge, to the Chair of Zoology at Owens College, Man-

chester, will prove welcome to his many friends.

Science in Persia! "The Shah has instituted a zoological garden.

Dr. J eim Hyrtl, the anatomist, died, July 17, 1894. He was born

on Dec. 7, 1811, at Eisenstadt, Hungary, and studied at Vienna,

where he staked, at the age of twenty-one, the position of preparator.

He was chosen in 1837 as professor in the University of Prague, and

726 The American Naturalist. [August,

in 1845 returned to Vienna as professor of anatomy at the university

there. In 1857 he became a member of the Imperial Academy of

Sciences. He was one of Austria’s most distinguished anatomists and

the author of two works which have come to be accepted as standard

authorities throughont the world—* The Manual of Physiological and

Practical Anatomy” and “The Manual of Topographical Anatomy

atd Its Applications.” Dr. Hyrtl, being very skilful in the art of

preparing anatomical specimens, established in Vienna an anatomical

museum, of which he published a most interesting description. He

had enriched most of the anatomical collections of Europe with models

of rare perfection. One of his collections, that of the skeletons of

fishes, was purchased by Prof. Cope of Philadelphia. He was for a

time director of the Ecole Superieure, resigning the position in 1874.

Dr. George Huntington Williams, professor of geology at Johns

Hopkins University, whose death occurred in July, founded the de-

partment of mineralogy and geology at the Johns Hopkins in 1888,

and since that time had acquired a wide reputation among scientific

men for his intimate knowledge of the geology and topography of

Maryland. He was also a collaborator of the United States Geologi-

eal Survey, and prepared a number of special reports for the survey

during his summer vacation. He was born Jan. 28, 1856, at Utica,

N. Y. His connection with the Johns Hopkins dates from March,

1883, when he entered the university as a fellow by courtesy. In

October of that year he was added to the faculty as an associate in

mineralogy. In 1885 he was made an associate professor, and iu 1892

was chosen to the chair of inorganic geology. His writings include

nearly a hundred geological and mineralógical papers in scientific

journals, more than one-half of which treat of the geology of Mary-

land, especially in the vicinity of Baltimore. He wrote “The Ele-

ments of Crystallography,” and had been engaged for a number of

years in preparing a new geological map of Maryland for the United

States Geological Survey. He was one of the judges of the mines and

mining exhibit at the World’s Fair, an editor of the Standard Diction-

ary, recently issued, and of Johnson’s Cyclopedia, now in press. He

was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a vice-president

of the Geological Society of America, and a member of the American

Institute of Mining Engineers, the Washington Geological Society and

other scientific bodies.

Johannes Nill, founder of the Stuttgart Zoological Garden. died in

that city May 20, 1894; hisson, Adolf Nill, is his suecessor in the

management of the garden.

| adi ae aS a T OTE

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JUNE, 1889. RALEIGH, N. C.

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THE MONISI.

A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE

_Editor: DR. PAUL CARUS.

di nisier à EDWARD sd ams.

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Vol. IV. APRIL, 1894. No. 3.

CONTENTS.

THREE ASPECTS OF MONISM, Vade C. Pere or Chines T e ME

THE oF RELI , Gen. M. M. Tra » Chi

of, mad Vernon Jena, Ger

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N FROM Laon: Lester , Washingto

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A series of articles, accompanied with kao on the early migrations and loeations of Indian tribes,

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** Footprinís of the Abori T ig Rev

William Wallace Tooker, Mr. J. A. Wat

m eauchamp, Prof. A. F. Chamberlain, Dr.

kins, Rev. "George Patterson, and other specialists, Also a

articles on the customs, symbols and droid chs of the

series of

Pueblos re ciitr Dwellers, y J. yit of the Hemingway puteo, E M. Ste-

phens, of Keam’s Canon, and sire Mere “Ch aracteristics of the American Lange pe by | Dr D.

G. Brinton, n, Prof. Ed. Seler and others. Alsoo on Pubs Mane and Folklore; byi Mr.

Jonn McLean. Mr. A. Perry, of London, England, «irs. Zelia A Dorsey will write upon

Mexican,and Peruvian Antiquiti en. E

ve here will be tots on a paio dos "PoLyNESIAN ORIGIN of the

American Indians, and on Prehistoric Con i pa Other Continents, by Dr. C rus Tho mas, Hon. James

Wickersnam and C. Staniland Wake and p gent n “ Bronze, Co opper and Rare Stone Relics” which have

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eT R. Sutter, H. I. Smith, William R. Seever, and S. H.

Montgomery. Notes

Discoveries in Palestine and Egypt. by Prof. T. F. Wri of —— rr and Rev. W. C.

Winslow, D. D. Explorations in Polynesia, ANM: Babylonia, ir China, in Classic Lands. by

competent scholars

The editor of the American Antiquarian is publishing a series of books on PRE-

CURA TIMES, and now offers the Sil wike to the public

l. He Mound- rien eio Works and pres, a. .Prioe, $3.50

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ILANDRO VICENTINI, M. D., Chie ti, Italy.

ag cod ad: TS, APRIL, 1894.

A by Aie Trip to Jers

The Extent of the Ann Ted and the Function of the different parts of the Sporangium of

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The Sense-Organs on the ute of our White Ants, Termes fiavipes. Joach "rr ^1

oam Preparations xri with Chloral Hydrate.

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Bacteria of the Koos. ae ab EE Flora of the Mouth. (Large mco cm e

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Normal Histology. (Ilustrated.

The Technology of Diatoms. (With Plate.) M. J. Tempere.

w Amplification

The Royal Natural aae (Illustrat ted.)

Combination Hot Filter and Steam Steriliser. (With Plate) F. W. Malley.

The Solandi oe of is ipsu

Notes for Beginners in Mic Reynolds, M. D.

What is the Use of the Btady c of vi Dese: en "A. C. Smith.

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re ode of Demonstrating Microbes.

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UBTERRANEAN FAUNA OF

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AMERICAN NATU RALIST

— XXVIII. _ September, 1 "m 333

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SUBTERRANEAN FAUNA

OF NORTH AMERICA.

Bv ALPHEUS S. Packarp.!

Having, in my essay on the Cave Fauna of this continent,

attempted to bring together as many facts as possible bearing

on this subject, in now addressing the members of this Con-

gress on the topic assigned me, it will be well to first give a

résumé of the general subject and then to call attention to the

additional facts and conclusions relating to this interesting

topic.

In that work I took the view that the cave fauna of this

country, and presumably of the world in general, was formed

of emigrants or colonists from the surrounding regions of the

upper world. I may be permitted to give an extract from

what I published in 1888, in order to call attention to the

scope of the inqui

“The conditions of existence in caverns, subterraneous

streams and deep wells, are so marked and unlike those which

environ the great majority of organisms, that their effects on

the animals which have been able to adapt themselves to such

conditions at once arrest the attention of the observer. To

such facts as are afforded by cave-life, as well as parasitism,

the philosophic biologist naturally first turns for the basis of

1 Read at the meeting of the Zoological Congress of the World’s Auxiliary

Congress of the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1894.

728 The American Naturalist. [September,

his inductions and deductions as to the use and disuse of

. organs in inducing their atrophy. It is comparatively easy to

trace the effects of absence of light on animals belonging to

genera, families, or orders in which eyes are normally almost

universally present. As we have seen in the list already given

of non-cavernicolous animals, the eyes are wanting from causes

of the same nature as have induced their absence in true cave

animals. No animal or series of generations of animals,

wholly or in part, loses the organs of vision unless there is a

physical, appreciable cause for it. While we may never be

able to satisfactorily explain the loss of eyes in certain deep-

sea animals from our inability to personally penetrate to the

abysses of the sea, we can explore caves at all times of day and

night, of winter and summer; we can study the egg-laying

habits of the animals, and their embryonic development; we

can readily understand how the caves were colonized from the

animals living in their vicinity ; we can nicely estimate the

nature of their food, and its source and amount, as compared

with that accessible to out-of-door animals; we can estimate

with some approach to exactitude the length of time which has

elapsed since the caves were abandoned by the subterranean

streams which formed them and became fitted for the abode of

animal life. The caves in Southern Europe have been ex-

plored by more numerous observers than those of this coun-

try, and the European cave fauna is richer than the Ameri-

can, but the conditions of European cave-life and the effects of

absence of light and the geological age of the cave fauna are a

nearly exact parallel with those presented in the pages of my

memoir. Moreover, the cave-life of New Zealand and the forms

there living in subterranean passages and in wells, show

that animal life in that region of the earth has been affected in

the same manner. The facts seem to point to the origin of the

cave forms from the species now constituting a portion of the

present Plistocene fauna; hence they are of very recent

origin.”

The advances in our knowledge of cave-life made since 1886

and 1887, may be referred to under the following heads:

ME RT

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 729

I. The fauna of caves, subterranean waters and wells, and

their origin, investigated by H. Garman, Herrerao, Girard,

Bolivar, Cope and Stejneger.

II. New facts regarding blind non-cavernicolous or lucifu-

gous forms, comprising the anatomical and physiological in-

vestigations of Eigenmann, Hess, Kadyi, Schlampf, Ritter, and

others.

III. Embryological observations on the conditions of the

eyes in the young or in the embryos, tending to prove the

origin of blind forms from normal eyed ancestors, by Teller

and by Eigenmann.

IV. Theoretical discussions, by Weismann, Herbert Spencer,

Lankester, and others.

I. It is very desirable to make a thorough survey of the ani-

mal life living at present in the region around the entrances

of caves, in order to ascertain the eyed forms from which the

blind ones may have originated. This Professor Garman has

begun to do for the cave-region of Kentucky. In his article in

“Science,” on the origin of the cave-fauna of Kentucky,” while

he remarks that “ the geological evidence is all that could be de-

sired for proof of a recent origin of the caves themselves," he

dissents “from the conclusions which have been drawn from

this proof, as to the recent origin of the blind animals,” claim-

ing that animals which burrow in the soil everywhere show a

tendency: to loss of the organs of vision,” and that “ the origin-

als of the cave species of Kentucky were probably already ad-

justed to a life in the earth before the caves were formed,”

and adds, “I cannot believe that there has been anything

more than a gradual assembling in the caves of animals

adapted to a life in such channels. In this view of the mat-

ter the transformation of eyed into eyeless species appears to

have been much less sudden and recent than has been sup-

posed.” He illustrates his point by the “ definite example of

the blind crustacean, Caecidotaea (Asellus) stygia, which, though

first discovered in caves, is also widelyjdistributed in the upper

Mississippi Valley, occurring as far east as Pennsylvania. “It

is, throughout its range, a creature of underground streams,

and is nowhere more common than on the prairies of Illinois

730 The American Naturalist. [September,

(the last place in the country in which one would expect to

find a cave), where it may be collected literally by the hun-

dreds at the mouths of the tile-drains and in springs. In

Kentucky also it is not more abundant in the cave region than

elsewhere, being very frequently common under rocks in

springs and in streams flowing from them, even during its

breeding season. It is only natural that such a crustacean

should have found itself at home in Mammoth Cave when this

cave was ready for its reception.”

“T scarcely see what grounds there are for supposing that

the present cave species are older than the remaining Qua-

ternary fauna. All the blind and eyeless or partially eyed

species must, in the beginning, have descended from normally-

eyed forms, while the loss of vision or the disappearance of

eyes, even where the rudiments of eyes remain, may, in some

cases, have been comparatively sudden (by which we mean

after several generations, or less, say, than a hundred), or in

others have required hundreds of generations. In some cases,

as in that of Caecidotaea, forms living in subterranean streams

or under stones or buried in the soil, may have become already

modified before being carried, or before migrating into the

caves.”

Mr. Garman then refers to the blind fishes, giving some new

facts regarding their distribution. Finally he writes of the dis-

tribution of the blind beetles of the genus Anophthalmus, and

gives an interesting account of a new species (A. hornii) discov-

ered in fissures in the Trenton limestone of Lexington, Ky.

This is an interesting example of the way in which a species liv-

ing in conditions intermediate between an out-of-door life under

stones orin the soil and in caves, becomes gradually adapted to

a cavernicolous existence. The author also states his belief “that

there appears to have been, after the Champlain period, a

migration towards Mammoth Cave of cave insects from the

south and east, when the continent had not been so greatly

affected by changes of level as was the Mississippi Valley. Mr.

Garman also sees nothing to indicate that cave animals bave

ever been more completely isolated than they are now, a view

with which we agree. This does not conflict with the general

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 731

view we have expressed that isolation is an important factor

in the evolution of the fauna of caves, of subterranean waters,

and of other dark situations.

Other additions to our subterranean fauna have been noticed

by Mr. S. Garman, who finds in the caves of southwestern

Missouri, in which are subterranean streams, besides Tiphlich-

thys subterraneus Girard a new species of blind crayfish (Cam-

barus setosus Faxon); what “seems” to be Ceuthophilus sloanii

Pack. and Asellus hoppiae Garman, “ from Day’s Cave, in mud

under stones;” the latter form seems to be a genuine, eyed

Asellus, and allied to an undetermined species represented on

Pl. IV, fig. of our memoir, collected from a brook near Lan-

caster, Ky. The six other species of invertebrates mentioned

belong to common out-of-door species, including a dragon-fly,

a Dineutes, and a Hydrotrechus, and need not have been men-

tioned in connection with cave insects, as multitades of insects

naturally occur at or near the mouth of caves.

Here might be mentioned the interesting discovery by Mr.

Nathan Banks of the common Phalangid of Wyandotte Cave,

Scotolemon flavescens Cope, * under stones on the Virginia shore

of the Potomac near Washington, D. C," which, he says,

“does not differ from cave specimens.”

A blind Salamander has also been discovered in this coun-

try by Mr. Stejneger. In the Rock House Cave, Missouri, on

the walls, about 600 feet from the entrance, occurred a blind

salamander (Typhlotriton spelaeus), forming a new genus and

species of the family Desmognathidae. In the single adult

captured the eyes are said to be “ concealed under the continu-

ous skin of the head.” A larva was found, but, strangely

enough, the condition of the eyes in the young is not referred

to.

Passing out of our territory into Mexico, Professor Alfonso

L. Herrera describes the results of his researches on the fauna

of Cacahuamilpa Grotto, in Mexico. The new or more inter-

esting forms are the following:

*The Phaiangida Mecostethi of the United States. Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc.,

XX, 149-152. June, 1893.

732 The American Naturalist. (September,

INSECTS.

Choleva cacahuamilpensis (Ch. spelaea Bilmk.).

Tachys cacahuamilpensis (Bembidium unistriatum Bilmk.).

Ornix cacahuamilpensis (Ornix impressipenella Bilmk.).

Pholeomyia cacahuamilpensis Herrera.

Phalangopsis cacahuamilpensis Herrera (Ph. annulata Bilmk.).

Lepisma cacahuamilpensis Herrera (L. anophthalma Bilmk.).

ARACHNIDA.

Phrynus cacahuamilpensis Herrera (Ph. mexicanus Bilmk.).

Drassus cacahuamilpensis Herrera (D. pallidipalpis Bilmk.).

Nesticus cacahuamilpensis Herrera (Pholcus cordatus Bilmk.).

MYRIOPODA.

Scutigera cacahuamilpensis Herrera.

. CRUSTACEA.

Armadillo cacahuamilpensis Bilmk.

I have received from Professor Herrera an eyeless Asellid

crustacean taken from a well at Montery, Leon, Mexico. It

shows no traces of eyes, and apparently belongs to a new genus,

the species also being undescribed.

II. New Facts REGARDING BLIND, NoN-CAVERNICOLOUS, OR

Luctrucous Fors.

Although not a cave-dweller, the blind goby of the Califor-

nian coast lives in similar conditions and tells the same story

as the blind Proteus of the cave of Adelsberg or the blind sal-

amander of the Missouri Cave, of the loss of eyesight by dis-

ease. The blind goby (Typhlogobius californiensis Steindachner)

occurs abundantly at Point Loma, San Diego, under rocks be-

tween tide-marks in holes made by “crabs” (more properly,

shrimps). As Professor C. H. Eigenmann tells us, in his paper —

on the “ Fishes of San Diego:” “It has been found nowhere

else about San Diego, but has been taken at Ensenada. Its

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 733

habitat is, as far as known, quite limited. In its pink color

and general appearance it much resembles the blind fishes in-

habiting the caves of southern Indiana. Its peculiarities are

doubtless due to its habits. The entire bay region is inhabi-

ted by a carideoid crustacean which burrows in the mud. It,

like the blind fish, is pink in color. Its holes in the bay are

frequented by Cleavelandia, etc., while at the base of Point

Loma, where the waves sometimes dash with great force, the

blind fish is its associate. . . . . In the bay the gobies

habitually live out of the holes, into which they descend only

when they are frightened, while at Point Loma this species

never leaves its subterranean abode, and to this fact we must

attribute its present condition.

“ How long these fishes have lived after their present fashion

it would be hard to conjecture. The period which would pro-

duce such decided structural changes can not be a brief one.

The scales have entirely disappeared, the color has been re-

duced, the spinous dorsal has been greatly reduced ; not only

have the eyes become stunted, but the whole frontal region of

the skull, and the optie nerves have been profoundly changed.

“The skin, and especially that of the head, has become

highly sensitized. The skin of the snout is variously folded

and puckered and well-supplied with nerves; the nares are

situated at the end of a fleshy protuberance which projects

well forward, just over the mouth. At the chin are various

short tentacles, and a row of papillae, which very probably

bear sensory hairs similar to those represented in Figs. 15 and

16 (Plate XXIII), extends along each ramus of the lower jaw,

and along the margin of the lower limb of the preopercle.

The eye is, however, the part most seriously affected. In the

young, Fig. 7, it is quite evident, and is apparently functional.

Objects thrust in front of them are always perceived, but the

field of vision is quite limited. With age, the skin over the

eye thickens, and the eyes are scarcely evident externally. As

far as I could determine, they do not see at this time, and cer-

tainly detect their food chiefly, if not altogether, by the sense

of touch. A hungry individual will swim over meats, fish or

a mussel, etc., intended for its food without perceiving it by

734 The American Naturalist. [September,

sight or smell, but as soon as the food comes in contact with

any portion of the skin, especially of the head region, the slug-

gish movements are instantly transformed, and a stroke of the

fins brings the mouth immediately in position for operations.”

Here, again, it may be observed that this blind fish is prob-

ably not older than the beginning of the Plistocene period,

since we know that the coast of California has been rising since

the Pliocene epoch, and therefore the coast lines have materi-

ally changed since tbe end of the Tertiary.

For a very full and elaborate account of the degenerate eyes

of this blind fish we are indebted to Mr. W. E. Ritter, in an

essay published during the present year. Besides the eyes he

treats histologically of the integumentary sense papillae, and

of the integument of this animal, giving a summary of his re-

sults on pp. 96 and 97, which we in part reproduce.

1. In the smallest examples of the blind goby studied, the

eyes, though very small, are distinctly visible even in pre-

served specimens, the lens being plainly seen. In the largest

specimens, on the other hand, they are so deeply buried in the

tissue as to appear even in the living animals as mere black

specks, while in preserved ones they are, in many cases, wholly

invisible.

2. As is the case with rudimentary organs in general, the

eye is subject to great individual variation in size, form, and

degree of differentiation.

3. The only parts of the normal teleostean eye of which n»

traces have been found are the argentea, the lamina suprachor-

oidea, the processus falciformis, the cones of the retina, the

vitreous body proper, the lens capsule, and, in.one specimen,

the lens itself.

4. In the parts present the rudimentary condition of the

organ is seen in the very slight development of the choroid; in

the fact that the choroid gland is composed entirely of pigment;

in the fact that the iris, though of fully the normal thickness,

is almost entirely composed of pigment; with great propor-

tional thickness of the pigment layer of the retina and the en-

tire absence in it of anything excepting pigment; in the min-

ute size of the optic nerve, and finally in the small size of the

motores oculi.

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 735

5. The surest evidences of actual degeneration are found,

first, in the greatly increased quantity of pigment, and secondly,

in the presence of pigment in regions where none is found in

the normal eye, as in the hyaloid membrane.

6. On comparing the eyes of all blind vertebrates that have

been most carefully studied, all may, in a general way, be said

to be passing along the same degenerative path.

7. The eyes of blind vertebrates furnish very little evidence

on the question whether structures in undergoing actual de-

generation in ontogeny follow the reverse order of their phylo-

geny.

Ritter also states that from the works of European authors

it is possible to make a detailed comparison of the eyes of

Typhlogobius with those of Proteus anguinus and of the Euro-

pean mole, which he proceeds to do. On the whole, the eye of

Proteus is more rudimentary than that of either Typhlogobius

or Talpa, the lens being absent in the cave Amphibians. All

authors, except Semper, are agreed that the optic nerve is

present in both Proteus and Talpa, but Ritter finds no account

of it ever having, in either of these animals, a pigment-sheath

in its passage through the retina, such as occurs in Typhlo-

gobius.

III. ÉMBRYOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDITION OF THE

EYES IN THE EMBRYO OR IN THE YOUNG, PROVING THE

ORIGIN OF THE BLIND OR EYELESS FORMS FROM

NORMALLY-EYED ANCESTORS.

No complete observations have, so far as we are aware, been

made on the embryology of cave animals, nor on that of eye-

less non-cavernicolous forms, except in the few cases which we

proceed to mention. In our essay on the Cave Fauna of

North America (p. 159), we record the fact that in the young

of the blind crayfish (Orconectes pellucidus), the eyes of the

young are perceptibly larger in proportion fo the rest of

the body than in the adult, the young specimen observed

being about half an inch in length. Previously to this, Dr.

Tellkampf, in 1844, remarked that “ the eyes are rudimentary

in the adults, but are larger in the young." Mr. S. Garman

736 The American Naturalist. [September,

states, regarding the blind Cambarus of the Missouri Cave:

“ Very young specimens of C. setosus correspond better with the

adults of C. bartonii; their eyes are more prominent in these

stages, and appear to lack but the pigment.” In the blind

cave-shrimp (Troglocaris) of Austria, Dr. Joseph discovered

that the embryo is provided in the egg with eyes.

In this connection should be recalled the observations of

Semper in his Animal Life (p. 80, 81) on Pinnotheres holothuriae,

which lives in the “ water-lungs” of Holothurians, where, of

course, there is an absence of light. The zoéa of this form has

large, “ well-developed eyes of the typical character. Even

when they enter the animal, they still preserve these eyes; but

as they grow they gradually become blind or half-blind, the

brow grows forward over the eyes, and finally covers them so :

completely that, in the oldest individuals, not the slightest

trace of them, or of the pigment, is to be seen through the

thick skin, while, at the same time, the eyes seem to undergo à

more or less extensive retrogressive metamorphosis."

In this connection may be mentioned the case of the burrow-

ing blind shrimp (Callianassa stimpsonii) which has been found

by Professor H. C. Bumpus, at Wood's Holl, Mass., living in

holes at a depth of between one and two feet. He has kindly

given me a specimen of the shrimp, which is blind, with

reduced eyes, smaller in proportion to the body than those of

the blind crayfish. He has also obtained the eggs, and has

found that the embryos are provided with distinct, black, pig-

mented eyes, which can be seen through the egg-shell.

Recently, Zeller has studied the embryology of the Proteus

of Adelsberg Cave, and has confirmed the statement of Micha-

. helles, who, in 1831, discovered that the eyes of this animal

are more distinct in the young and somewhat larger than in

the adult. We quote and translate from Zeller's acecount :

“The development of the eyes is very remarkable; they are

immediately perceived and present themselves as small, but

entirely black and clearly drawn circular points with a slit

which is very narrow and yet, at the same time, well-defined,

and which penetrates from the lower circumference out to the 2

middle.

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 737

“ Indeed, one can hardly doubt that this astonishing devel-

opment of the eye has been accomplished by the influence of

light as has also the pigmentation of the skin, the reddish-

white ground color of which appears thickly studded with

very small brownish-gray points mixed with detached white

ones, over the upper surface of the head and over the back

down over the sides of the yellowish abdomen. Even on the

edge of the fins (Flossensaum) the pigment is found. On the

other hand there is a whitish spot over the snout as is likewise

the case in the adult creatures which have been colored by the

light. Both the under surface of the head and the entire ab-

domen are shown free from pigment like the limbs.

“ T cannot specify very exactly as to when the digmentation

of the skin begins, but, in any case, it is very early and often

earlier that the first beginning of the eyes can be discovered.

The latter occurs toward the end of the twelfth week, at which

time a thin, light gray line, which still appears overgrown,

may be perceived, forming a half circle open underneath.

Then while this line subsequently becomes clearer and darker

and its ends grow further under and towards each other, there

also takes place simultaneously a progression of the pigment

larger towards the middle point, and the circle finally seems

closed and filled up to the narrow slit mentioned above, which

proceeds from the lower circumference and penetrates to the

middle of the eye.” (p. 570, 571.)

But the most striking discovery bearing on this subject is

that of the condition of the eyes in the embryo and young com-

pared with the adult of the blind goby of San Diego.

In his essay on the Fishes of San Diego, Professor Eigen-

mann briefly refers to and gives four figures (Pl. XXIV) of

the embryo of Typhlogobius, Mr. C. L. Bragg having been for-

tunate enough to discover the egg in the summer of 1891.

“The eyes.develop normally, and those of Fig. 4 differ in no

way from the eyes of other fish embryos.” In this case, then;

we have the simplest and clearest possible proof of the descent

of this blind fish from individuals with eyes as perfect as those

of its congeners.

We have been permitted by the Director of the United

States National Museum to reproduce Professor Eigenmann’s -

738 The American Naturalist. [September

excellent figures on the embryo, which tell the story of degen-

eration of the eye from simple disease of the organ, the species

being exposed to conditions of life strikingly different from

those of its family living in the same bay.

Before the discovery of the eggs, the youngest individual ever

seen is represented in Pl. XXIII, fig. 7, its eyes being though

small, yet distinct, and “ apparently functional."

From these data it is obvious that future embryological

study on cave animals will farther demonstrate their origin

from ancestors with normal eyes.

IV. THEORETICAL RESULTS BEARING ON THE THEORY or DE-

SCENT, AND MORE ESPECIALLY ON THE NEOLAMARCKIAN

PHASE OF THE THEORY, INCLUDING THE DOCTRINE OF

THE TRANSMISSION OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS.

It is evident that the cases just cited afford the strongest

possible proof of the theory of evolution in general, and do not

militate against the truth of the Neolamarckian phase of the

theory, which holds that by a change of environment, induc-

ing disuse of the eyes, such variations, especially atrophy of a

part or whole of the eyes and optic nerves and ganglia have

become established, so as to result in the origin of new species

and even new genera.

In the case of the blind goby, the burrowing Callianassa,

the blind shrimp of Adelsberg Cave, and, in fact, nearly, if not

quite all the blind forms now known, it is easy to see that the

causes of variation are quite direct and appreciable, and that

we do not need to invoke the principle of natural selection.

And this is the view of Darwin himself?

Besides the factors of change of environment and of disuse,

the influence of the isolation of these forms from their out-of-

doors’ allies should not be overlooked. Take the case of the

blind goby of San Diego Bay, or the Callianassa of Buzzard's

Day. Living in habitats remote from their congeners, obvi-

* In our work on the Cave Fauna of North America we have discussed the bear-

ing of the facts of cave-life on the Darwinian and Lamarckian phases of evolution

and have attempted to show that natural selection is inoperative in such cases as

these, quoting Darwin's own words when referring to the loss of eyes in such

animals: “ I attribute their loss wholly to disuse.” (p. 137-143).

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 199

ously as soon as their ancestors took up a burrowing mode of

life, they were prevented from crossing with others of their

species, and, probably, when in sporadic cases it did occur, very

soon the swamping effects of intercrossing wholly ceased, only

those in which the eyes had begun to degenerate interbreed-

ing. Aftera few generations, therefore, owing to this isolation,

the partially blind forms became fixed by heredity and by the

very force of circumstances a blind or eyeless generation re-

sulted.

These cireumstances are paralled by the results of the inter-

marriage of deaf-mutes. Professor A. Graham Bell‘ has

pointed out the danger of the establishment of a distinct

variety of deaf-mutes with a special sign language of their

own, since owing to their peculiar social environment and iso-

lation in society there has lately arisen a strong tendency of

deaf mutes to intermarry. The result, so far as gathered from

a tolerably wide range of facts, shows that this incipient deaf

mute strain or variety may have originated in two genera-

tions, since it seems probable, as Mr. Bell remarks, “that the

oldest deaf mute in the country whose parents were both deaf

mutes is now only a little past middle age.”

Moreover, the cases we have cited tend to show that the

origination of new species and genera of subterranean, as well

as deep sea forms and others living in darkness, may have

been induced after comparatively few generations. Future

observations should be directed to this point. The moment

that several individuals became isolated in dark holes or in

caves, and more or less confined in such narrow limits, the

effects of darkness would at once begin to be experienced, and

some degree of adaptation to their changed conditions would

immediately begin to operate. The individuals of this gener-

ation, i, e., the new comers in the cave, or those gobies which

by burrowing in the mud had penetrated out of reach of their

* On the formation of a deaf variety of the human race. Memoirs National

Academy of Sciences for 1883, Washington, ii, 179-262, 1884. The author points

out the means of isolation ot deaf mutes through asylums and national, state and

city associations for

He also gives “ specimen n cases to prove that in ‘many different parts of the coun-

try deafness has been transmitted by heredity.” (p. 210).

740 The American Naturalist. [September,

congeners, would doubtless become used to life in darkness.

Their offspring of the first generation might or might not

suffer some alteration in the visual organs, but doubtless some

slight degree of physiological change would result; this might

or might not be latent in the next generation, or it might -

crop out and become manifested in the first generation, or, if

not in the first, in the second or third. As soon as the degen-

eration in the eye-sight began to become fixed by heredity,

the process must, have gone on rapidly, and, in a few genera-

tions, perhaps a dozen or twenty, or fifty, rather than many

hundreds or thousands, or * numberless generations," as most

writers since Darwin claim.

Now as deaf mutes already appear to breed true to their in-

cipient strain or variety, whether congenitally deaf or rendered

so by disease during the lifetime of either or both parents, it

seems most probable that animals not at first congenitally

blind, might have acquired, after having been carried into,

and after living for some months or even years in darkness,

the tendency to blindness, and have transmitted to their off-

spring such first steps in adaptation to their Cimmerian en-

vironment. It is difficult for any one, it seems to us, not hide-

bound by theory to imagine any other mode of procedure.

The steps in the process are these: 1, The change in environ-

ment from normal conditions to partial or total darkness; 2,

At first a slight degree of adaptation to such change, if the ani-

mal survived at all; 3, Becoming gradually habituated to the

darkness, compensation for the loss of eyesight would result in

the stimulation of the senses of touch and smell; 4, Mean-

while the physiological change from loss of eyesight would

react on the physical structure and the eye would begin to

degenerate, and very rapidly, after a few generations, the optic

nerves in some forms, or the optic lobes and nerves in others,

would disappear, the vestiges of the outer structures of the

eyes remaining in some forms long after the nervous connec-

tions between the eyes and the brain had become effaced ; 5,

Meanwhile, segregation would prevent intercrossing with new-

comers provided with perfect eyes, and consequently would

prevent the swamping of the new characters resulting from

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 741

disuse; 6, The new variety or species or genus, as the case

might be, would become persistent, as long as the conditions

of total or partial darkness continued.

Now these factors, so simple, so easily appreciated, that as

early as 1802, Lamarck could see their force, though he only

cited the case of the mole, for he knew nothing of cave ani-

mals—these factors would seem to be adequate for the pro-

duction of these eyeless forms. These results of disuse seemed

adequate to Darwin himself, the founder of the doctrine of

natural selection; and yet the extreme Darwinians or Neo-

darwinians of the present day push aside or are purblind to

these fundamental factors of organic evolution, and insist that

the vera causa of the evolution of these blind forms is either

natural selection or panmixia, and they likewise deny that

there is any ground for the operation of the principle of trans-

mission of acquired characters.

Weismann, who has rendered such eminent service to

biology, in establishing the principle of heredity on a physical

basis, as is well-known, pushes aside all these factors and ex-

plains the blindness of cave animals by a negative cause,

“ panmixia," i.e, the absence of natural selection. In his

“ Essays on Heredity " (1889) he claims that the small eyes of

moles and of other subterranean mammals can be explained

by natural selection, and remarks: “I think it is difficult to

reconcile the facts of the case with the ordinary theory that the

eyes of these animals have simply degenerated through disuse "

(p. 86). He assumes that the degeneration of the eye of

Proteus “is merely due to the cessation of the conserving in-

fluence of natural selection," and, he adds farther on, “this

suspension of the preserving influence of natural selection may

be termed Panmixia.” And he even goes so far as to express

the opinion that “that the greater number of those variations

which are usually attributed to the direct influence of external

conditions of life, are to be attributed to panmixia.” He thus

substitutes for the positive, tangible factors of change of en-

vironment, disuse and isolation, the negative and hypothetical

one which he calls “ panmixia.”

742 The American Naturalist. [September,

In his discussion on this subject, as well as those of others

who have adopted his views, Weismann, and his English

translators, do not always give evidence of having carefully read

the statements of those who have paid some practical attention

to cave animals, Weismann only referring to the cases of the

mole and of the Proteus. For instance, he remarks, “ If disuse

were able to bring about the complete atrophy of an organ, it

follows that every trace of it would be effaced (pp. 90 and 292).

Now in our “Cave Fauna of North America,” published two

years before the issue of the English translation of Weismann’s

essays, we have shown from microscopic sections that in the

different species of blind beetles (Anopthalmus) not only is

every trace of the optic ganglia and of optic nerves wanting,

but also every trace of the eyesthemselves. Also in the blind

myriopods of Mammoth Cave, Scoterpes copei, no traces of the

optic ganglia, optic nerves, or of any part of the eyes, includ-

ing the pigment of the retina or the corneal lenses, were to be

discovered. While in the blind crayfish the degenerate eyes

are retained, in some individuals of an Asellid (Caecidotaea

stygia), the eyes may be entirely effaced as well as the optic

ganglia and optie nerves. On p. 118 of the memoir referred

to there is a summary view of the effects upon the eyes, optic

ganglia, and optic nerves, of different Arthropods resulting

from living in total darkness.

Again, on p. 87, Weismann makes the following somewhat

loose statement: “blind animals always possess very strongly

developed organs of touch, hearing and smell" We have

laid special emphasis in our essay on compensation by the de-

velopment of tactile and other organs for the loss of eyesight

or of eyes in cave animals, and while Weismann's assertion 1s

true as regards the tactile and olfactory senses, it is curious

that, from the direct and repeated observations of Dr. Sloan,

which we quote, the blind fish oceurring in Wyandotte Cave

is, contrary to Wymar S and to Cope's suppositions, not sensi-

tive to soun

'The blind asayah of Mammoth Cave, ånd also the species

(Orconectes hamulatus) of Nickajack Cave, have, as we have

ascertained by anatomical investigation, degenerate ears, £O

PLATE XXIII.

A NN

Typhlogobius, Eie.

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 743

that the sense of hearing is, with little doubt, nearly, if not

quite, obsolete (p. 128).

While, then, Weismann claims that there is a cessation of

natural selection in the case of cave animals, another writer,

Lankester, in a brief note in Nature, asserts that the blindness of

eave animals is due to natural selection, remarking: * This in-

stance can be fully explained by natural selection acting on con-

genital fortuitous variations. Many animals are thus born with

distorted or defective eyes, whose parents have not had their

eyes submitted to any peculiar conditions. Supposing a number

of some species of Arthropod or fish to be swept into a cavern or

to be carried from less or greater depths in the sea, those indi-

viduals with perfect eyes would follow the glimmer of light

and eventually escape to the outer air or to the shallower

depths, leaving behind those with imperfect eyes to breed in

the dark place. A natural selection would thus be effected.

In every succeeding generation (bred in the dark place) this

would be the case, and even those with weak but still seeing

eyes would, in the course of time, escape, until only a pure

race of eyeless or blind animals would be left in the cavern or

deep sea."

This explanation seems, however, vague and speculative, as

well as inadequate, when we compare the kind of natural selec-

tion here invoked with such direct, powerful and readily

appreciated factors as partial or total darkness (no plants being

able to grow in caves, and only a very scanty fauna); added

to the disease of organs whose very existence was originally

due to the stimulus of light, and where, were it not for their

enforced isolation, the swamping effects of crossing with eyed

forms would constantly tend to prevent the permanent exist-

ence of blind or eyeless forms. Besides, how can the varia-

tions be fortuitous when the overshadowing and all-prevailing

influence is darkness, this cause inducing a change primarily

in a single organ, and, in a single sense, due to a single cause,

urging the variation in a determinate way? Indeed, it may

be questioned whether variations are ever “ fortuitous” in the

sense that they can arise independently of and are not con-

trolled by the ever active forces of nature.

744 ; The American Naturalist. [September,

It is apparent that both of the last named writers, who have

not themselves had a practical experience in collecting and

studying cave animals and their surroundings, nor have care-

fully read the recent literature on the subject, are overmastered

by speculative views, and prefer to make an extremely vague,

unscientific and a priori speculation, rather than adopt an

opinion based on the inductive method.

In refreshing contrast are the views of the veteran English

philosopher, Mr. Herbert Spencer, who, like Darwin, fully ap-

preciates the direct bearings of disuse as a fundamental factor,

and, with his rare good sense and penetration, recognizes the

probability of the active agency of the principle of the trans-

mission of acquired characters in the origin of cave life.

Indeed, in caves, deep holes or burrows, or in dark subter-

ranean streams and wells, to which the blind are restricted,

we have conditions very closely parallel to those which obtain

in asylums for the deaf and dumb. The array of facts pre-

sented by Professor A. Graham Bell and the danger which

exists of the formation of a distinct deaf-mute variety of man-

kind, and the suggestions which he offers as to the most prac-

ticable way to arrest the further development of the incipient

variety, all afford an interesting and striking parallel to the

case of blind animals which are to be found living in caves

and similar places.

The cave fauna, as a whole, is composed of individuals, all

existing under the same conditions, living in partial or total

darkness, and with eyes either defective or absent. Now, how

did they come there? We occasionally find, all over the

world, creatures with defective sight or imperfectly-developed

eyes, but such cases are sporadic, and are not numerous enough

in proportion to the normal population to breed together and

to multiply. Where, however, individuals with more or less

defective eyes should breed with normal mates, any tendency

to the transmission of such defects would be wiped out by the

swamping effects of crossing, owing to the immense preponder-

ance of normal, vigorous forms with perfect vision. The

whole tendency in nature in the upper world of light is to

weed out such sporadic, defective forms. But in limestone

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 745

regions honeycombed with caves and permeated with subter-

ranean streams, like those in the Mediterranean regions,

France, Spain, and Austria, or in those of southern Indiana, Vir-

ginia, Kentucky and Missouri—in such regions as these, there

exist the conditions favorable to the origination and perpet-

uity of blind forms. To give an example, eyed geodephagous

beetles, such as the species of Trechus, of which there are so

many in southern Europe, accustomed to burrowing in the

soil under stones, when carried down by various accidents into

dark crevices or into caves from which they are unable to ex-

tricate themselves, and too hardy and vigorous to succumb to

the deadly effects of a life in perpetual darkness, and with, per-

haps, already partially lucifugous habits, such forms under

these changed conditions survive, breed and multiply, finding

just enough food to enable them to make a bare livelihood, and

with just enough vigor to propagate their kind. We can easily

imagine that in time, and indeed no very long period, the

neweomers would soon become adapted to their new surround-

ings, an environment abnormal both from the absence of light,

and from the lack of predaceous forms to devour them ; and

they would live on, weak, half fed, half blind, forced to make

their asylum in such forbidding quarters.

Where are there, in such cireumstances as these, any of the

conditions which would imply that any struggle for existence

or processes of natural or sexual selection in these trogloditic

societies are possible? On the contrary, it seems to us that in

such unwonted conditions as these, darkness, lack of suitable

food, and lack of destructive, carnivorous forms, other than

the blind species themselves, we are brought face to face with

the more powerful, primary, purely physical agents, which have

produced changes chiefly operating in a single direction, i. e.,

to destroy the vision and to more or less completely abolish

the eyes. Here we see exemplified in a typical way the direct

action of the Lamarckian factors, viz.: Change of surround-

ings, coupled with disuse of parts useless in such altered con-

ditions, and then the enforced isolation, especially marked in

the cases of the Proteus and of the blind crayfish, etc., which

never occur out of caves, however it may be;with[those species

746 The American Naturalist. [September,

living in dark wells or subterranean streams, which have a

more or less direct connection with the upper world.

As regards the problem of the transmission of acquired char-

acters, it would appear that the case with cave animals is

paralled by that of deaf mutes collected together in asylums,

and united by various social organizations. It has been

shown in a striking way by Mr. Turner, as quoted by Bell,

that “ before the deaf and dumb were educated, comparatively

few of them married.” Bell concludes, from an examination

of the records of deaf mute asylums in the United States,

“that of the deaf mutes who marry at the present time, not

less than 80 per cent marry deaf mutes, while of those who

married during the early half of the present century the pro-

portion who married deaf mutes was much smaller.”

It was also clearly indicated that “a hereditary tendency

towards deafness, as indicated by the possession of deaf rela-

tives, is a most important element in determining the produc-

tion of deaf offspring,” and “ it may even be a more important

element than the mere fact of congenital deafness in one or

both of the parents.”

It appears, then, that it is the segregation of deaf mutes, in-

including nearly half of the deaf mutes who became deaf from

accidental causes, which has led to the apparent increase of this

incipient strain or breed of human beings. And the statistics

and conclusions given by Mr. Bell appear to almost demon-

strate the fact of the transmission of characters acquired dur-

ing the lifetime of the individual, and that it is difficult to

draw the line between this phenomenon and the transmission

of congenital characters; the latter being, at present, the more

frequent and therefore normal law of heredity, though it was

not so in the beginning. For, as Bell, after a careful study of

statistics, remarks, “ The numbers of the non-congenitally deaf

are evidently subject to great and sudden fluctuations on ac-

count of the epidemical diseases which cause deafness, whereas,

the growth of the congenitally-deaf population seems to be

much more regular.”

Premising that heredity does not, at the best, always uner-

ringly act, that its results are sometimes uncertain, even where

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 747

those with congenital variations breed together or intermarry,

it is also to be taken for granted that it may, at times, be im-

possible to draw the line between the transmission of congeni-

tal and of acquired characters.

When a number, few or many, of normal, seeing animals

enter a totally dark cave or stream, some may become blind

sooner than others; in others there may be developed only a

tendency to blindness, the eye itself being imperceptibly mod-

ified by disuse, while a certain percentage may possess the

tendency plus a slight physical defect, either functional or

organic, in the eyes, especially in the optic nerves and ganglia.

The result of the union of such individuals and of adaptation

to their stygian life would be broods of young, some with vis-

ion unimpaired, others with a tendency to blindness, while in

others there would be noticed the first steps in degeneration of

nervous power and of nervous tissue. Even in a succeeding

brood, or in a third brood, we might have a few individuals

which were born blind or partly so, and were compelled to feel

their way about the cave, while the far more numerous mem-

bers of the colony would only exhibit a tendency to the disuse

of their eyes, attempting to see their way rather than to feel it.

Thus, after a few, or only several generations, the society of

troglodytes, vertebrate and invertebrate, might be compared

to a newly-established asylum of deaf mutes or to an asylum

for the blind, if they interbred in the same proportions.

At first, then, the number of cases of those not congenitally

blind, but which, after living for most of their life time in

darkness and becoming so modified that they could dispense

with the use of their eyes, pari passu becoming more and more

dependent on the exercise of their tactile organs—at first, such

individuals as these would greatly preponderate.

So all the while the process of adaptation going on, the an-

tennae and other tactile organs increasing in length and in

the delicacy of structure of their olfactory and tactile struc-

tures, while the eyes were meanwhile diminishing in strength

of vision and their nervous force giving out; after a few gen-

erations, (perhaps, Judging by what we know of the sudden

production of deaf mutes in human societies, only two or

748 The American Naturalist. [September,

three,) the number of congenitally blind would increase, and,

eventually, they would, in their turn, preponderate in num-

ers.

It is also possible that the longevity of cave animals, owing

to the absence of ordinary enemies and of casualties, such as

occur in the upper world, even though the supply of food were

greatly restricted, would be much greater than in epigaean

regions. If this be so, then there is a more favorable oppor-

tunity for the development and fixation of the myopic condi-

tion in subterranean situations.

It thus appears that while the heredity of acquired charac-

ters was, in the beginning, the general rule, as soon as the con-

genitally blind preponderated, the heredity of congenital char-

acters became the normal state of things, the inhabitants being

all blind, and for generations breeding true to their specific

and generic characters.

On the other hand if the conditions should be changed, and

the cave become opened to the light, then we should expect a

gradual reversion to their eyed ancestors. This process would,

of course, be due to causes exactly opposite to those producing

the blind form, i. e., the presence of light, etc. In such a case,

neither natural selection: nor panmixia would be the factors,

although some one might give a high-sounding, “scientific”

name to the supposed process. And this shows how inopera-

tive can be natural selection or panmixia as true working

causes of the transformation of species, compared with the

operation of the fundamental factors of organic evolution

postulated by the Neolamarckian.

List or Essays AND ARTICLES RELATING TO BLIND OR CAVE

ANIMALS PUBLISHED Since 18875

A. The general subject, including anatomical, physiological, and

theoretical considerations.

Ciaccio, G. V. Osservazoni intorno alla membrana del

-Descemet e al suo endotelio con una descrizione anatomica dell’

5 This list is supplementary to that te in my essay on the Cave Fauna

of North America Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, 1889, and

includes some titles omitted in that bian many of which are copied from

Ritter’s work.

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 749

occhio della Talpa europea. Mem. Acad. Sci. Instituto di

Bologna. Ser. 3, Tom. v, p. 501, 1875.

Edwards, W. F. De? influence des agents physiques sur

la vie (pp. 12 et 41-62). Paris, 1824.

Hermann, L. Handbuch der Physiologie. Bd.iv,ii, 1882.

Hertwig, O. Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des

Menschen und der Wirbelthiere. Jena, 1890.

Hess, C. Beschreibung des Auges von Talpa europea und

Proteus auguinus. Archiv. für Ophthalmologie, Bd. xxxv,

p. 1, 1889.

Hoffman, C. K. Zur Ontogenie der Knochenfische. Archiv

für Mikro-Anat., Bd. xxiii, p. 45, 1883.

Kadyi, K. H. Ueber das Auge der Maulwurfs ( Talpa ewropxa)

in vergleichend-anatomischer Hinsicht (Polisch.) Denkschr.

Akad. d. Wissens. Krakau, Math.-Naturhist. Abtheil. Bd. iv,

p. 124, 1878.

Kessler, Leonhard. Zur Entwickelung des Auges der

Wirbelthiere. Leipzig, 1877.

Kohl, C. Einige Notizen über des Auge von Talpa euro-

æa und Proteus anguinus. Zool. Anzeiger. Bd. xii, pp.

383, 405 ; 1889.

Krause, W. Die Retina, II. Die Retina der Fische. Inter-

nat. Monatschr. für Anat. u. Histol., Bd. III, p. 8, 1886.

Michahelles. Oken's Isis, 1831, p. 501 (Eyes in young more

distinct and somewhat larger than in the adult) (Vide Boulen-

er).

j ai er, Johannes. Vergleichende Anatomie der Myx-

inoiden. Abhandl. Akad. Wissensch. zu Berlin, 183

Parker, S. H. The eyes in blind ic cat Bull. Mus.

Comp. Zool. Harvard Behe XX, No. 5., pp. 153-162,

1890.

Schampp, K. W. Die Augenlinse des Proteus auguinus.

Biol. Centralblatt. Bd. XI, No. 2, p. 40, 1891.

Das Auge des Grottencinies (Proteus auguinus).

Zeitschr. für Wissen. Zool., Bd. LIII, p. 537, 1892.

Spencer, Herbert. Inadequacy of Natural Selection. 1893.

Wallace, Alfred Russel. Darwinism. 1889.

750 The American Naturalist. [September,

Zeller, Ernst. Ueber die Larve des Proteus anguineus.

Zool. Anzeiger, No. 290, XI, Jahrgang, 8 Oct., 1888, pp. 570-

572, and Jahresh. Ver. Naturk. Wiirtt., xlv, 1889, p. 131

(colored plate of the larva).

Zuntz, W. Handbuch der Physiologie (Hermann). Bd.

IV, Th. 2, p. 144, 1882.

B. American Cave Animals.

Cope, Edward Drinker. On a Blind Silurid from Penn-

sylvania. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. XVI, p. 231. 1864.

Eigenmann, Carl H. The Point Loma Blind Fish and its

Relations. Zoë., Vol. I, p. 65, 1890.

The Fishes of San Diego. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.

XV, pp. 123-178, 1892.

Smith, Rosa. Note on Typhlogobius Californiensis. Zoë.

Vol. I, p. 181, 1890.

Garman, H. The Origin of the Cave Fauna of Kentucky,

with a description of a new Blind Beetle. Science.

Garman, S. Cave Animals from Southwestern Missouri.

Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., p. 240, Oct. 28, 1892. No. 6, p. 225-

240. Cambridge, Dec., 1889.

Girard, Charles. Ichthyological Notices [ XIII], Proc. Acad.

Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. XI, p. 63, 1859.

Lockington, W. N. Walks around San Francisco. Amer.

Nat., Vol. XII, p. 786, 1880.

Garman, H. On a Dipterous Larva from Mammoth Cave.

Bulletin Essex Institute, xiii, 1891.

A Silk-Spinning Cave Larva. Science, xxii, No.

546, July 21, 1893, p. 33.

Smith, Rosa. Description of a new Gobioid Fish (Othonops

eos) from San Diego, California. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1881.

Vol. IV, p. 19; also Smithsonian Misc. Collections, Vol. XXII,

: Packard, Alpheus Spring. Notes on the epipharynx, and

the epipharyngeal organs of taste in mandibulate insects.

Psyche, Vol. V, April, 1889, p. 198-199. (Taste organs of

Hadenecus subterraneus from Mammoth Cave).

tas

VE RT OTe ae IE

mee ee moe EE ee M

1894.] Subterranean Fauna of North America. 751

Stejneger, Leonhard. Preliminary description of a new

genus and species of blind cave Salamander from North

America. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XV, pp. 115-117. No. 894.

Washington, 1892.

C. Cave Animals in other Countries.

Bolivar. Annales Société Entomologique de France. 1892.

Chilton, C. On thesubterranean crustacea of New Zealand,

with remarks on the fauna of caves and wells. Linnean So-

ciety of London, 1893.

D. Theoretical Discussions.

Anderson, A. Blind Animals in Caves. Nature, March 9,

1893, p. 439.

Boulenger,G.A. Blind Animals in Caves. Nature, Apr.

27, 1898, p. 608.

Cunningham, J. T. Blind Animals in Caves. Nature,

March, 9, 1893, p. 439; Apr. 6, 1893, p. 537.

Lankester, Edward Ray. Art. Zoology, Encyl. Brittanica

and The Advancement of Science, 1890. Blind Animals in

Caves. Nature, Feb. 23, 1893, p. 389.

Spencer, Herbert. The Inadequacy of Natural Selection.

Contemporary Review, Feb., March and April, 1893.

Weismann, August. Essays upon Heredity. Oxford, 1889.

752 The American Naturalist. [September,

THE NUMERICAL INTENSITY OF FAUNAS:

By L. P. Gratacap.

In the various aspects of the Development of Life upon the

earth the attention of the student has been principally directed

to the question of form, as a problem of derivation. The ex-

ternal configuration of the enclosing frame-work or envelopes

of organisms, or the modified outlines of internal skeletons

have been closely compared, and species have been defined

upon their differences, and the record of the march of specific

change, group segregation and class development compiled

from their study. The enumeration of species as they multi-

ply, or decrease and disappear has been made, and the succes-

sive expansions and contractions of the lineal avenues of

descent extensively elaborated. The student has less fre-

quently been brought to consider the question of number, the

numerical increase of forms, or to attach any biological sig-

nificance to the arithmetical rise or decrease of species. It is,

upon a little reflection evident that the subject of numbers, if

it admits of any determination, may have or must have, a

direct connexion with the ease and spontaneity with which a

new or old species maintains itself, and may prove an index of

the severity of competition or of the difficulty of living in its

field of zoological activity.

Assuming the rate of increase uniform, the apparatus and

impulse to procreation identical in a number of species, that

one, of course, will survive in the greatest numbers whose life

is attended with the least friction, against whose functions and

habits the smaller array of obstacles active and passive exist.

The comparison of species in this respect, so far as it is used to

make out the comparative adaptation of species to certain con-

ditions, assumes of necessity an identical fecundity in each

species, and the comparison has, therefore, valid probability

between species of the same families, or genera or perhaps

classes.

‘Paper presented at Brooklyn Meeting of the Amer. Ass. Ad. Sci, Aug., 1894.

1894.] The Numerical Intensity of Faunas. 753

On the other hand a more recondite suggestion is made in

this inquiry. Favorable conditions for the multiplication of a

species, such as temperature, food-supply, freedom from

enemies, habitability of station, etc., naturally assist numerical

increase. But the speculation suggests differences in the time

required for a species to attain momentum, the time required

for it to reach the maximum rate of increase, when its vitality

has attained such force as to most effectually overcome hamper-

ing conditions, and is recorded in the number of individuals

produced at one period. This question touches the surmises

made as to the manner of specific introductions. Does a

species make its appearance in one example—as an individual

—on the world's stage or, if dicecious, in pairs, and then pro-

ceed to establish its currency, and so in geometrical ratio of in-

crease engage itself in subjugating its environment and dispers-

ing or suppressing its competitors? Or do species appear in

numbers, and from separated points of occupation begin spread-

ing, until their divided areas coalesce, and their geographical

coincides with their numerical maximum? Or finally does

the manner of their entrance into life vary for different species,

or the species of different groups in both these ways? Itseems

probable that the higher orders of animals—especially the

vertebrates—are sporadic in their appearance, viz., differentiate

as individuals, while the lower are massive, viz., differentiate

in hosts.

Conditions being equal the invertebrates should reach their

numerical maxima quicker than the higher vertebrates, and

their maxima should, comparatively, reach enormously higher

figures. What the functional activity of procreation in

a new species is, cannot be determined. It would seem prob-

able that if specific variation were a process of insensible or

slightly sensible changes in forms or external physical features,

the correlated disturbances of function would be imperceptible

and the new species would earry on the work of self-propaga-

tion with the same energy as the allied species amongst whom

it makes its appearance. The actual numerical results would

be at first low, because of the smaller number of individuals of

the new species and would increase as that number enlarged,

154 The American Naturalist. [September,

and the opportunities or occasions of procreation multiplied.

Again it is necessary to consider a reversal of this. The

sterility of the offspring of crossed parents of different species

points to the fact that there are or may be functional changes

in the powers of generation, and that the new species, is, by this

law, made dependent for its successful extension, upon the

intercourse of similar individuals. It is likely that in connect-

ion with the rise of a new species those organs concerned in

reproduction have become modified, and the system of seminal

secretion, which carries with it the power of perpetuating the

new forms, has itself been more or less profoundly affected.

From such considerations it seems fairly probable that new

species appear in limited numbers, and acquire after time the

full power of propagation until with increasing numbers the

maximum of their numerical rise is reached, and then that

decadence begins which ends in their disappearance. It will

be understood that by “limited numbers” we mean such re-

presentations of species as are much below their later and

more normal development.

It then appears from such considerations, without further

detail, that the factors of numerical increase are two, the exter-

nal or physical conditions of life, and the internal or biogenet-

ic force of propagation. As regards the first, the external or

physical conditions of life, it may be assumed that the appear-

ance of a species must take place under favorable conditions,

if we are to accept the Darwinian hypothesis, that specific

origination means that very thing, the better adaptation of new

species to reigning conditions than any other, for it is its pre-

ponderant aptitude for life under these conditions that brings

the new species into existence. So that as regards the encour-

agement to increase given by the external conditions it is un-

exceptional or adequate, and the rate of multiplication is then

made dependent upon the physiological factor, the power and

provision for propagation. These favorable conditions will

be temporary. They will be succeeded by others less favor-

able, and the species, started under way under the best exter-

nal auspices will begin to work against physical detriments

and brakes that will lower its vital momentum, and, unless

Sea AS MOTHER

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1894.] The Numerical Intensity of Faunas. 755

the biogenetic factor keeps up or even becomes intensified, the

species begins its downward course, since numerical diminu-

tion means final extinction. The biogenetic factor, the influ-

ence of propagation, will, in all probability, decline with any

changes in external conditions which affect the physical well-

being of the organism, so that the sum of influences springing

from external circumstances and internal conditions work

conjointly to exhilerate or depress the life of the animal.

Furthermore, although a new species responds more fittingly

to its environment and possesses peculiar advantages over its

companions, this species, it may be assumed, survives because

it is less at odds with its surroundiugs, not because it is most

appropriately placed. As it becomes more and more part of

the new status which brought it into existence, its organism

more and more nearly attains its limital fecundity.

The list of possible combinations of conditions upon the

emergence of a species would then be four.

First—Favorable Environment and High Vitality—pro-

creative activity.

Second.—Unfavorable Environment and High Vitality.

Third.—Favorable Environment and Low Vitality.

Fourth.—Unfavorable Environment and Low Vitality.

The discussion of these four as limital expressions, covers the

varying phases under which a species attains its numerical

maximum. And this discussion assumes, for the sake of reach-

ing definite results, that the species is considered as restrained

by the boundaries of a limited area, an assumption not very

much at variance with facts.

Favorable Environment and High Vitality—In this case the

species would rapidly rise to its numerical maximum, and

maintain it as long as the environment and its own vitality

remained propitious. But this very intensity of development

would lead to the deterioration of the species, and bring about

its own extinction. The competition between its own repre-

_ sentatives would become exasperated through their great

number, and this would drain the food-supply, while the

excessive productivity would reduce procreative power. The

zoological consequence, in this instance, would be quick

756 The American Naturalist. [September,

numerical expansion followed by a more or less abrupt decline.

Darwin says (Origin of Species Chap. X, 1860). “There is

reason to believe that the complete extinction of the species of

a group is generally a slower process than their production ; if

the appearance and disappearance of a group of species be re-

presented as before by a vertical line of varying thickness, the

line is found to taper more gradually at its upper end, which

marks the progress of extermination, than at its lower end,

which marks the first appearance and increase in numbers of

the species.” In the case of favorable environment and high

vitality the line would probably begin suddenly with a thick-

ened end, continued and increased for some distance, and slope

steeply to its termination. Two examples in paleontological

history illustrate this; the Trilobitic fauna of the Upper Cam-

brian, the Potsdam of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the

successive Ammonitic faunas of the Jura-Lias in Europe.

Prof. Hall recognized and tentatively separated three hori-

zons of the trilobitic beds of Wisconsin and Minnesota; the

earlier trilobites were referable in numbers to the genus Cono- |

cephalites while Dicelocephalus emerges in the middle beds and

becomes numerically important through these and the higher

beds. Prof. Hall was struck with their extreme abundance,

and records his own impressions in these words; “ the multi-

tude of individuals of a few species is really wonderful; for in

some beds the layers may be separated at every inch, or even

half inch, and yet the entire surface is covered with the dis-

membered parts of these ancient trilobites.” As to the

Ammonites of the Jurassic they are celebrated for the sharp-

ness of lines of demarkation between beds abounding in great

numbers of the different species.

Unfavorable Environment and High Vitality—In this case .

there would result a variable numerical abundance according

to the equilibrium established between these discordant factors,

but the average result would be a numerical uniformity ex-

tended over a considerable length of time. The procreative.

power would replenish the losses by death, and keep up, at

least at first, a uniform amplitude of life. The unfavorable

environment would work a defeating influence upon procrea-

AISE ETER Ae P ERAS VENAT TIT AIRERA Ns

1894.] The Numerical Intensity of Faunas. 757

tion, and after a length of time, bring about a low vitality

which in conjunction with the uncongenial surroundings

would wind up the species.

Of course the term unfavorable is here used comparatively,

not meaning inimical, because a new species upon the doctrine

of adaptation could not arise in hostile circumstances, but

meaning less favorable than the most auspicious surroundings.

The result as measured in numerical estimates would be a low

mean, which perhaps as the environment improved might

increase. Itis only likely that such conditions are present

when a species migrates, or is invaded by a change of physical

conditions less advantageous than those it has previously en-

joyed. A new species with high vitality is hardly consistent

with unfavorable environment at the beginning, and the

category we are considering would only be exemplified in the

numerical exhibit of species whose habitat has been affected

unfavorably. The repression of great numbers of individuals

at any one time would tend to lengthen the life of the species,

inasmuch as it would relieve it from struggle in its own midst,

and this would have a tendency to extend its days.

In the paleontological record the case of Atrypa reticularis

seems to illustrate this numerical constancy. From the Upper

Silurian in the Niagara through the Lower Helderberg, Oris-

kany Schoharie and Upper Helderberg it keeps up a more or

less uniform though not excessive representation until diverg-

ing in the Devonian into A. vexata and A. spinosa it becomes

itself more numerous seeming then to pass under the condi-

tions of the first category—high vitality and favorable environ-

ment—and declining rapidly terminates in the Upper Hamil-

ton. Atrypa reticularis, as is well known, does not attain a

large size in the Silurian, but, according to Hall, exhibits con-

siderable variety of form. It is in the stage of “ oscillation,”

not yet having attained specific fixity and this fact of formal

instability points to a lack of congruity between itself and its

environment and leads us to consider it an example under this

heading. :

Favorable Environment and Low Vitality.—By * Low Vitality "

we here designate a certain sluggishness in fecundity in cer-

758 The American Naturalist. [September,

tain animals though the value of the procreative energy con-

sidered at the instant of its exercise may be high. Evidently

for such animals their duration in time will be conditioned

largely upon favorable circumstances of life and without these

they must undergo extinction. The numerical representation

must always be small; it is essentially limited by their intrin-

sic predisposition to be slow breeders. This assumption seems

applicable to species which without any apparent change in

their environment become subject to a progressive failure in

numbers. The history of invertebrate life on the earth’s sur-

face emphasizes this. Throughout similar conditions or what,

from lithological evidence, seem identical conditions, species

dwindle and disappear. On what hypothesis can this gradual

vanishment be explained, except that the living momentum

has run down, a physiological deterioration has set in, which

must, no matter how auspicious be the physical requirements,

compass the discomfiture and suppression of the species. Low

vitality might also reasonably imply a certain functional weak-

ness which affects the organic intregrity of a species. Under

either implication, that of low procreative power or functional

weakness, favorable environment fictitiously prolongs the life

of the species and gives a deceptive appearance of stability to

a species internally disintegrating. Its numerical ratio must

be a reduced one.

Unfavorable Environment and Low Vitality—This category

symbolizes the rapid decline of a species, and is symptomatic

of the final stages in its life-history. Where unfavorable con-

ditions combine with intrinsic decrepitude the doom of a

species is quickly sealed, and it vanishes from the scene

scarcely noticed amidst the on-coming armies of new and

intense competitors.

These four categories which we have epitomized, embodying

the relations of vitality to environment and applied to the

phenomena of the numerical abundance of a species, may be

generally regarded as the formal stages of a species’ decline.

And we observe that the succession of these stages may follow

one of two directions as divergent lines from an original con-

dition. That original condition is Favorable Environment and

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1894] The Numerical Intensity of Faunas. 759

High Vitality, for while these terms may not be co-existent

upon the first appearance of a species they must quickly be-

come so. A species originates, if we are to accept the Darwi-

nian hypothesis by reason of its preponderant adaptation to

new conditions, and if at first that adaptation is tentative or

accidental, it soon becomes assured and necessary, upon the

settling down of species and environment into a complete reci-

procity. We then may expect two similar but contrasted

stages to succeed this original, initial state, as is seen in the

subjoined diagram; these stages presenting equivalent numer-

ical zones, to be followed by two similar and identical stages,

which in turn precede the extinction of the species.

Favorable Environment and High Vitality.

— — na and ó © Unfavorable Environment

M" T High Vitality.

prseter Ei o) bier um

ronm

Extinction. Extinction.

The conjecture here delineated shows a species beginning

under the favoring conjunction of vitality and adapted environ-

ment, rising in numerical intensity until a weakening of these

elements sets in, and the species begins to decline in numbers.

It may decline along a line of lessening vitality with environ-

ment constant, or, it may decline along a line of increasingly

hostile surroundings with vitality constant, and it may be

gue a stage of equipoise may be reached along either

760 The American Naturalist. [September,

of these lines wherein, however, the factors of environment

and vitality are oppositely related. There would then be two

stages of equal numerical efficiency, opposite in conditions

but equivalent in effects, favorable environment and low

vitality, and unfavorable environment and high vitality, and

succeeding these as an inevitable sequence comes at the end of

either road of retreat, the final stage of unfavorable environ-

ment and low vitality and the extinction of the species. Along

either of the avenues of deterioration the numerical intensity

is supposed to decline similarly but this superficial resemblance

covers a radical contrast of agencies and we are brought to

consider two kinds of strain; the strain of internal weakness,

and the strain of external disparity. This introducesa crucial

question we think in reference to the Darwinian hypothesis.

That hypothesis assumes that species are perpetuated by the

concordance declared between them and their surroundings,

and it seems enclosed in this wide opening statement, that the

Darwinian must allow a certain power of provocation upon

organisms from exterior conditions, viz., that the inherent

variability (fully emphasized by Darwin) of organisms is

stimulated by changing environment while it should be more

quiescent under unchanged circumstances of life. Without at

present pressing this question the inference, we think, is rea-

sonable. Therefore, in establishing a line of numerical decline

for a species we have in this suggestion a form of test as to

whether that decline arises from changing environment or

changing vitality. If it proceeds from changing environment

it will be, upon the Darwinian theory, accompanied by specific

offshoots, and the disappearing species will sink from sight

amidst the emergence of related species; but, if it proceeds

from devitalization it will display a species dying as it were

alone, unattended by the growth of related varieties, and pass-

ing away without those bequests of derivative forms which, in

the other instance, represent the yet internally vigorous species

struggling to maintain its empire under the guise of modified

offspring. These propositions will, it may perhaps be con-

ceded, repay more careful and detailed application to zoological

history, as it has been written in the successive ages of geology.

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna wilsonii. 761

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WING OF STERNA

WILSONII.

Bv VIRGIL L. LEIGHTON.

Although various students have investigated the structure

and the development of the wing of the bird, many points

still remain unsettled, and prominent among them, the rela-

tionsof the carpal elements, the number of digits present and

the comparison ofthese digits with those of the normal penta-

dactyl manus. Professor J. S. Kingsley suggested to me to

attempt the solution ofsome of these problems and the studies

detailed below were carried out in the Biological Laboratory

of Tufts College under his direction. To him I owe the ma-

terial—embryos of various stages of Wilson’s tern, Sterna wil-

80nii from the Island of Penekese, Mass.—which formed the

basis of my work.

The alcoholic material was studied both in toto by clearing

with oil of clove, and by means of serial sections. The latter

proved far preferable and much more dependence can be placed

upon results obtained in this way, especially with the younger

embryos than by the more common methods of dissection and

clearing in essential oils. The figures of structural details

which illustrate the paper were obtained from reconstruction

projections of the sections and are magnified twenty diameters.

I am not able to state the ages of the various embryos, but

this is a matter of little importance since the approximate

development can readily be made out from the figures of the

various stages, each natural size. The numbering of the sep-

arate stages is entirely arbitrary.

I might state here, incidentally, that I have also studied to

some extent the foot of the tern and I find in it, as has already

been pointed out by other observers, (Miss Johnson, Studer,

W. K. Parker and others) a fifth metatarsal present.

STAGE I, (Fra. 1).

At this stage (fig. a) the principal elements of the wing are

becoming differentiated. The radius and ulna are entirely

762 The American Naturalist. [September,

cartilaginous, except a small portion at their distal ends where

they are least developed. In the proximal row of carpals are

two masses of rapidly forming cartilage (radiale and ulnare)

each of which appears to have two centers of chondrification.

The larger (the radiale, re) is almost divided into two parts;

of these the larger and outer one is somewhat triangular in

shape and is fitted upon the distal end of the radius, the smaller

and inner one is nearly cireular and is contiguous to the in-

ner margin of the distal end of the ulna. "The ulnare is com-

posed of two oval centers, the proximal beiug about half the

diameter of the distal one, thus giving the whole element a

wedge-shaped appearance with its narrow end passing just

outside the outer margin of the ulna.

. The distal carpals are represented only by a thickening of

tissue, or “ procartilage” of Parker, showing as yet no differen-

tiation into separateelements. There are four radiating digits

represented for the most part by “ procartilage,” but metacar-

pals II' and IV are becoming cartilaginous at their proximal

ends and metacarpal III is two-thirds cartilage.

Stace II, (Fie. 2).

This stage (fig. b) is but slightly more developed than the

last. The cartilage is a little more pronounced, and digits II,

1For the numbers to be given to the digits, see below.

abe abe REVO ae Sea eB oh Na rer:

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna wilsonii. 763

III and IV have become longer, III and IV being segmented.

The fourth digit has become free from the central mass, and

more nearly approximated to digit IV. In the distal carpal

series there are two masses of cartilage: on the radial side a

mass which represents the combined carpales II and III, and

on the side of the ulna carpale IV, an oval mass contiguous

proximally to the distal lobe of the ulnare and distally to its

own metacarpal.

Srace III, (Fro. 3).

In this stage (fig. c) there are several things to be noted.

The spreading of the digits is not so great and the whole

manus is beginning to flex towards the ulnar side, thereby dis-

placing some of the carpals from their normal position. The

elements are now all perfectly distinct, the radiale has entirely

lost its bibobate appearance, and is now of an irregular shape,

touching the radius and ulna and the approximate surface of

the conjoined carpales II and III. The ulnare is now entirely

outside the ulna, but, what seems most remarkable, its proxi-

mal portion is now about twice the size of its distal lobe,

while in the stages previously described it is about half as

large. The distal lobe is circular, the proximal wedge-shaped,

with the small end proximal. Carpale II--III is the last car-

pale to chondrify, but is now all cartilage except a very small

portion of its proximal end. It isan elongate mass, placed

somewhat diagonally to the present axis of the limb. It is

contiguous distally to the approximate surface of metacarpals

II and III and carpale IV ; proximally to the radiale. Carpale

IV retains the same relative position as in earlier, except that

it has approached closer to metacarpal III. Digits II and IIT

have each added a segment, that of the former is partly car-

tilaginous, the latter is all procartilage. Metacarpal IV has

approached metacarpal III and its single phalanx is entirely

cartilaginous. Metacarpal V has the same appearance as in

previous stages, but is farther from metacarpal IV.

Srace IV, (Fie. 4).

The specimen which forms the subject of this stage (fig. d)

is in some respects slightly more developed than stage III, in

764 The American Naturalist. [September,

other respects less so. The manus is not flexed so much, and

consequently the ulnare has not been pushed so far outside the

ulna. In this specimen, unlike the others, the two lobes of

the ulnare are about equal in size, the distal one oval, the

proximal wedge-shaped. The radiale retains its bilobate ap-

pearance as described in stage I. Carpale IJ+III forms a

lunate mass of fully developed cartilage about the head of

metacarpal III. Carpale IV is slightly smaller relatively than

in the previous stage; the digits are essentially the same.

Stace V, (Fia. 5).

In the specimens (fig. e) which forms the basis of this stage,

the manus now assumes very nearly the form which it has in

the adult bird. The radiale is irregular in shape and fitted to

the distal end of the radius, the inner distale margin of the

ulna and the approximate surface of carpal II-III. The dis-

tal lobe of the ulnare is here at à minimum in comparison

with the proximal lobe; it is now closely appressed to carpale

IV which is wedged between it,and carpale III. Metacarpal

II has approached metacarpale III and on its radial side is

developed a large projection or “trochanter.” Its proximal

phalanx is entirely cartilaginous, its distal one is just begin-

ning to appear. Metacarpal III now bears three phalanges,

the distal one not yet cartilaginous. Metacarpal IV has

assumed a position parallel to metacarpal III, but is not yet

united to it. Metacarpal V has approached metacarpal IV

near its proximal end.

SrAGE VI, (Fra. 6).

In birds of this age (fig. f), carpales IT, III and IV have

entirely coalesced, and, together with metacarpal II, form a

solid socket into which fits the head of metacarpal III.

Metacarpal II bears two phalanges; metacarpal III three,

their distal phalanges being unequal. Metacarpal V now

touches metacarpal IV and is not so near the proximal end as

in earlier stages.

AIR ED Um

CPC Sab URDUN

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna wilsonii. 765

Srace VII, (Fro. 7).

There is little in this stage(fig. g) to note except metacarpal

V. This is now an oval disk closely applied to the ulnar

flexor surface of metacarpal IV, about one-ninth of the dis-

tance from the proximal to the distal end. It no doubt finally

unites with metacarpal IV at that point.

COMPARISONS.

INTERMEDIO-RADIALE. In Sterna in the earlier stages these

two elements are distinct (fig. 1); later they become so com-

pletely fused that they cannot be distinguished, although,

exceptionally, (fig. 4) they partially retain their individuality

for a considerable time. Similar conditions have been noted

in several birds, e. g., Opisthocomus, Fulco tinnunculus and

chick by Parker and Cypselus melba by Zehntner (90). In

other birds the separation has not been described, possibly

from the fact that the proper stages have not been studied.

ULNARE-CENTRALE. My observations here closely agree

with those of Parker on the ducks and auks, there being the

same tendency to subdivision of the cartilage mass into two

elements which he shows. One of these is, beyond doubt the

ulnare, but I confess I am not so certain of the other which I

call centrale in deference to his better opinions. The condi-

tions shown in fig. 1 where the two portions of this element

are clearly shown, leads one to the conclusion that the distal

lobe may possibly belong to the series of carpales, in which

case it would be that of the fourth existing digit. In fig. 5

again the arrangement is such as to support such a view,

while on the other hand, in none of the earlier specimens

have I seen it in such a position as to indicate that it should

be regarded as a centrale. In Chloéphaga poliocephala Parker

(90) describes this bone as divided into three portions, the two

distal of which he terms centrale 1 and 2. It would rather

seem as if we had here to do with a true centrale, while Park-

er’s centrale 1—clearly, according to position, equivalent to

the single one which I find—must be regarded as a fourth

carpal. (Cf. Parker '90, pl. 5, fig.14). Studer, according to the

766 The American Naturalist. [September,

single figure copied by Wiedersheim, has different ideas. He

has no such projection from the ulnare, but in his figure car-

pale I+II projects np between radiale and ulnare and the pro-

jecting portion is the centrale. Zehntner, on the other hand,

(90) has the intermedium united to the ulnare, the centrale to

the radiale, conditions which certainly do not occur in Sterna.

Carpats. Unless we regard the “centrale” of the preced-

ing paragraph as in reality a carpal, Sterna never possesses

more than two distinct elements in the distal carpal series.

Of these that on the radial side is the larger. When chondri-

fication begins it occupies a position (fig. 2) at the base of met-

acarpal IIL; later (figs. 3, 4) it extends radially towards meta-

carpal II, and even at times (fig. 4) exhibits a marked bilobate

appearance. From these facts as well as its subsequent his-

tory I regard it as a compound body, the carpales II--III of

the normal pentadactyle hand, the distal carpal II of Parker

and most other students of Avian osteology. Concerning the

.'* pentosteon " of Shufeldt I can say little. This author (’82°

p. 691, footnote) gives this name to a small bone found by him

in Centrocercus lying at the base of the plantar surface of the

second (my third) metacarpal. The name was given because

it was the fifth carpal bone discovered, and because it was non-

committal as to its homologies. Parker now finds the same

bone in ducks and auks, occupying the same position, and re-

gards it as carpale I. This interpretation, however, seems to

me faulty, as the bone is not in the proper position for such

identification, nor have we any torsion or stress which could

account for such translation. It would appear rather to be-

long to the same category as the pisiforme, but since I have

not found it in Sterna I can offer no further observations upon

it. |

The other free carpal element, carpale IV, is clearly but a

single element and not a compound structure like that de-

scribed by Zehntner, Rosenberg and others. Studer, in the

penguin, also figures a broad element in this position which

he doubtfully regards as compound. In Sterna this element

at its first differentiation is no wider than the fourth metacar-

pal, and as long as it retains its free condition it remains re-

E vt em

Du M LEM E VELIE

ee ge i

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna wilsonii. 767

latively of thesame size. Later (fig. 6) it becomes united with

carpale II--III, the whole forming a single piece equivalent to

the separate os magnum and unciforme of some birds.

Metacarpats. The only metacarpal which requires notice

is V (IV of many authors). This has been more or less per-

fectly described by several students since its first discovery by

Rosenberg (73). "This author describes it in the chick as a

distal process of à common mass of cartilage which clearly

contains two carpal elements, IV 4- V, since to it is also joined

metacarpal IV. In the case of his figures there can be no

doubt that this distal prolongation is a true digital element, as

it is clearly homonomous with the other metacarpals. It is

to be noted that according to Rosenberg this new metacarpal

lies at a lower level than the others, being flexed towards the

palmar surface. Zehntner (90) finds the same element in

Cypselus melba, but existing there, as in Sterna, as a piece dis-

tinet from the basal (carpal) element with which it is at first

joined in thechick. According to Zehntner after 9 or 10 days,

this metacarpal "geht... bei Cypselus einen vollstündigen

Atrophie.” This is certainly not the case in Sterna, nor is it

in those forms studied by Parker. Here it retains its discrete

nature for sometime and in the fowl, toucan and cariama it

even becomes ossified before its final union with the basal end

of metacarpal IV.

That this is a true metacarpal is, I think beyond question.

Owing to the method of study adopted by Parker he failed to

recognize its earlier conditions, and his observations, unsup-

ported by other evidence might be interpreted, as has been

done by several, in another way. However, the evidence ad-

dueed by Rosenberg, Zehntner and myself, clearly removes

this from the category of tendinous ossifications, the pisiforme

and the like.

Naturally the structures which I have described should be

compared with those of the reptiles, but this to be at all ade-

quate would require a detailed knowledge far greater than I

possess. It isto be noted, however, that if, as contended in

the next section, the avian “pollex” is not the first digit of

the pentadactyle hand, a portion of the reasons adduced for

768 The American Naturalist. [September,

regarding the Pterodactyls as widely removed from the birds

is removed.

Tue HOMOLOGIES or THE DIGITS.

In the wing of the adult bird only three digits at most at-

tain full development, and, since the birds have descended

from pentadactyle forms, it becomes a matter of some import-

ance to compare these three with those of the normal hand;

in other words to ascertain which digits have been lost in the

process of evolution. Naturally many attempts have been

made to solve the problems involved, and within the last

decade four different views have had their advocates, though

naturally some of these ideas of homology date back to a

more remote period.

Thus Gegenbaur (’64), reasoning from the apparent ten-

dency towards reduction of the digital elements on the ulnar

side of the crocodilian manus, concludes that the persistent

digits of the bird wing are the I, II and III of the normal

pentadactyle hand. In this he has had many followers,

among them Rosenberg (’73), Huxley (’71), Jeffries (’81),

Jackson (’88),and Parker (’88). For this view there are many

more arguments than the one mentioned above, and Dr. Jef-

fries has given an able summary of them.

A second view is that of Owen, according to which the

digits in question are II, III and IV. This is based partly

(36) on the fact of the absence of the radial artery, which

would indicate reduction on the radial side of the manus; and

partly (62) on features supposed to exist in the British Museum

specimen of Archeopteryx. In this there are apparently four

digits present in connection with the right wing, but as these

show considerable dislocation, one may, as suggested by Pro-

fessor Owen, have belonged to the other side. This view has

fewer supporters than the other, among them Morse and Coues.

Morse (’72) contributes not a little in support by his advocacy

of the law of digital reduction asa valid argument in this

connection. That Coues supports the same view I take partly

on the statement of others and partly from the fact that, while

in the text of his “ Key " ('87), he gives both views, the num-

RUTIBORECS ONE p

Peewee te ee em EMT EE E

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna wilsonii. 769

bering of the digitsis II, III, IV. In an earlier paper (’66) he

accepts the numbering I, II and III. Here, too, must be

enumerated Shufeldt, who states (82, p. 616) that he has

always adhered to this view, but adds “the fact, however, that

the first phalanx of the manus of aves is the homologue of the

pollex of the pentadactyle limb seems to be gaining ground."

I have not found any further reference to this subject in his

subsequent osteological contributions further than this usual

reference to the radial digit as the pollex.

Mr. Hurst (93) has advocated a third system of numbering

according to which the digits are III, IV and V. An analysis

of his reasons will be given immediately when dealing with

the arguments for the enumeration adopted in the present

paper.

The fourth system is that of Tschan (89) who according to

Zehntner (90) proposes to regard the permanent digits as I, II

and IV. He bases this on the discovery by Parker (789) of a

slip of bone in chick, Musicapa and many Galline as occur-

ing between the second and third of the persisting digits.

This, says Tschan, is the true digit III. But Parker further

describes similar slips as occurring on the outside of the “ pol-

lex" and between the first and second permanent digits as

well as a true fourth metacarpal on the ulnar side of the hand.

Tschan suggests that the first of these might be the “ prepol-

lex" but even with the admission of this doubtful element,

there would be one superfluous digit. This together with the

utterly anomalous type of reduction which it presupposes—the

disappearance of digits in the middle of the manus—is suffi-

cient to discredit this view.

That there is developed a fourth digit in the avian manus is

beyond question, and the fact that this comes upon the ulnar

side of the three permanent fingers is sufficient to invalidate

the nomenclature, IIT, IV and V of Hurst. Hurst refers to

Parker's fourth digit as appearing to be the os pisiforme, and

since Parker had only the later stages, there would be some

plausibility in this view. This possibility, however, disappears

"It was discovered, as Parker points out, long before by Te (’20, pl. IV

f. 10) in the chick, persisting for sometime as a separate

770 The American Naturalist. [September,

when westudy not only my figures 1 and 2, but the figures of

Rosenberg and Zehntner. In the figures just cited the tem-

porary digit is just as prominent as is the “pollex” and no

one without a theory to support would regard it other than a

digit. Then too, as Rosenberg’s figure shows, it bears no con-

nection to the ulnare, but isa distinct outgrowth from the

outer distal angle of carpal III--IV.

We are then left to choose between the formule I, II and III

and II, III, IV, and though the apparent weight of authority

is in the other direction, I am strongly inclined towards the

second alternative, for the following reasons: First comes the

law of digital reduction advocated by Morse, by which in

other groups digit I is first to disappear and then V. Fur-

ther, when further reduction occurs in birds, and a single digit

is left as in the Apteryx and the Cassowaries, the reduction has

oceurred on both sides of the persisting digit, which, according

to my nomenclature, would be digit III. This implies a sym-

metrical reduction, the other view involves the disappearance

of digits I, III, IV and-V, a condition, so far as Iam aware,

without parallel. :

Then too, Archaeopteryx, in the light of Hurst’s later

studies presents some evidence. As noted above, Owen

thought he had found evidence of a true digit I in the British

Museum specimen, but on the discovery of the Berlin speci-

men this idea was dropped and the conditions presented by

the new example form the chief argument in Jeffries’ summary

already alluded to. It would, however, appear that most recent

figures of the Berlin specimen and the conclusions based upon

them are not to be relied upon. This can be at once seen by

comparing for instance the figure of Archaeopteryx given by

Zittel in his Paleontologie with the photographic reproduction

which illustrates Hurst’s article? In the Berlin specimen

three digits in the wing are clearly visible, and it has been

assumed that these were the only ones. Hurst, however,

points out that the position of the feathers is such that they

could not have been borne on these digits as in ordinary birds,

"The plate in the Standard Natural i ( Vol. IV, facing p. 22, — ap-

proaches very closely the figure of Hurs

p Re eee re en Aiea ene cs i anne DORE Ler aie RNC A onde

x E OLAN T AE ES E a A A E SD cata A RANDA

Na E A T EM t a ai AE a rM a Sek E ai — MERE VT NETS r T

MEET ee

Sa a i a

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna wilsonii. 771

but that there must be (at least one) digits buried beneath the

feathers, and in just the place where the missing finger or fingers

should come is an evident ridge in the stone.

If we may call upon the effects of use and disuse, the con-

ditions presented would also tend to favor the reduction of the

digits on the radial side, for it is the ulnar phalanges which

must bear the stress of the wing; the fingers on the radial

side, having but few small feathers, would be most likely to

disappear.

Jeffries invokes also the distribution of the nerves, but to

my mind his evidence is not conclusive; besides it is directly

negatived by the distribution of the blood vessels as was

pointed out above.

We may conclude, then, that the only conditions possible

are either I, II and III, or II, III and IV, and that until some

evidence be found of the actual appearance of a fifth digit on

the ulnar side, that there is at least as much reason for the

second as for the first formula. In regard to the first, Hurst

remarks, it “isin no ease, so far as I am aware, supported by

any evidence whatever. I believe it to have originated from

the pre-Darwinian statement that the Ala spuria is ‘ analo-

gous to the thumb; while the other two digits are called

simply ‘second’ and ‘third ; that is, second and third digits

not of the pentadactyle but of the tridactyle fore-limb. Such

phrases written on the then undoubted hypothesis of special

creation and of fixity of species, could obviously not mean

that the three digits called ‘thumb’ and ‘ second’ and ‘ third’

had been evolved from the digits T, IT, III of the pentadactyle

fore-limb of an ancestor; the author did not believe that

birds ever had such an ancestor. The transcription of such

phrases into post-Darwinian treatises, without consideration of

the new meaning which they would thus gain from the new

context, appears to have been the origin of the error."

CONCLUSIONS.

Carpats. There are at least seven elements in the carpus.

In the proximal row there are two free elements (intermedio-

radiale and centralo-ulnare) both of which are divided in the

772 The American Naturalist. [September,

early embryo, and represent, morphologically, the radiale,

intermedium, centrale and ulnare. In the distal series there

are also two free elements, one of them (carpal II-III) being

evidently compound.

Diaorrs. There are four distinct metacarpals. The first (II)

supports two phalanges, the second three, the third one, and

the fourth none. The distal phalanges of m. c. II and III

are furnished with claws. M. C. V arises as a distinct digit,

subsequently becomes free, and finally unites with m. c. IV.

NuwBERING OF Diaits. The persistent digits of the birds

wing are either I, II and III or II, III and IV, the bulk of

evidence being in favor of the latter enumeration.

LITERATURE CITED.

'66 Coues, Elliott. The osteology of Colymbus Me :

with notes on its myology. Memoirs Bost. Soc. N. Hist.,

131, 1866.

'87 Coues, Elliott. Key to North American Birds. Third

Edition. Boston, 1877.

'00 Heusinger, C. F. Zootomische Analekten. II. Ein Bei-

trag zur Metamorphose des Vogel-Flügels. Meckel's Archiv f.

d. Physiol., vi, 546, 1820.

"2 Huxley, Thomas Henry. A manual of the anatomy

of vertebrated animals. London, 1871.

'93 Hurst, C. Herbert. Biological Theories, VIII. The

digits in a bird's wing; a study of the origin and multiplica-

tion of errors. Natural Science, iii, 275, 1893.

'88 Jackson, W. Hatchett. Forms of Animal Life... by

thelate George Rolleston. Second Edition. Oxford, 1888.

'83 Johnson, Alice. On the development of the pelvic gir-

dle and the skeleton of the hind limb in the chick. Quar.

Journ. Micr. Sci., xxiii, 399, 1883.

'81 Jeffries, J. A. On the fingers of Birds. Bulletin

Nuttall. Ornith. Club, vi, p. 6, 1881.

"2 Morse, Edward S. On the Tarsus and Carpus of

Birds. Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist., N. Y., x, 1872.

'06 Owen, Richard. Aride * Aves" Todd’s Cyclopedia

of Anatomy and Phys., i, p. 265, 1836.

CN EE eer

— EET NO PPRICUN

e SUR TESTES a ini

Pe Te E AT

1894.] Development of the Wing of Sterna Wilsoni. 718

'68 Owen, Richard. On the Archeopteryx of von Meyer,

with a description of the fossil remains of a long-tailed speci-

men, from the lithographic stone of Solenhofen. Phil. Trans.,

Vol. 153, p. 33, 1863.

'89 Parker, William Kitchen. On the structure and de-

velopment of the wing in the common fowl. Phil. Trans.,

Vol. 179B, p. 385, 1889.

'90 Parker, William Kitchen. On the morphology of the

duck and auk tribes. Royal Irish Academy, * Cunningham

Memoirs," No. VI, 1890.

'97 Rosenberg, Alex. Ueber die Entwicklung des Extrem-

ititen-Skelettes bei einigen durch Reductionen ihrer Glied-

massen characterisirten Wirbelthieren. Zeitsch. wiss Zool.,

xxiii, 116, 1873.

'82* Shufeldt, R. W. Osteology of Speotyto cunicularia

hypogeea. 12th Rept. U.S. Geol. Survey, (Hayden) p. 593,

1882

’82° Shufeldt, R. W. Osteology of the North American

Tetraonide. t. c., p. 653, 1882.

’89 Studer, Th. Die Forschungsreise S. M. S. “Gazelle”

in der Jahren 1874 bis 1876. Herausgegeben von den hydro-

graph. Amt der Admiralitüt. III Theil: Zoologie und Geolo-

gie. Berlin, 1889. (Cited from R. Wiedersheim, 1893).

’°89 Tschan, Alfr. Recherches sur l'extremité antérieure

des Oiseaux et des Reptiles. Dissertation, Genéve, 1889.

(Cited from Zehntner, 1890).

93 Wiedersheim, Robert. Grundriss der vergleichenden

Anatomie der Wirbelthieren. Dritte Auflage. Jena, 1893.

'00 Zehntner, Leo. Beiträge zur Entwicklung von Cypse-

lus melba nebst biologischen und osteologischen Details.

Archiv für Naturgeschichte LVI, I, 189, 1890.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES.

The illustrations in the text show the embryos natural size.

It is to be noted that fig. A, showing a smaller embryo, had a

wing more developed than fig. B. Allother figures are pro-

jections of camera drawings and are each magnified 22 diam-

eters. ‘

774

The American Naturalist. [September,

REFERENCE LETTERS.

c carpale m. c. metacarpal.

h humerus u ulna.

r radius ue ulnare.

re radiale II-IV and I-IV digits.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

Manus, stage I, showing carpus and digits as pro-

cartilage with several cartilaginous elements. Digit

V is plainly shown.

Manus, stage II. Three carpals are now seen and

metacarpal V has become distinct from the carpal

mass.

Manus, stage III. The digits are now broken into

phalanges and the flexure of the hand to the ulnar

side is forcing the ulnare out of its normal position.

Manus, stage IV. The radiale shows tendency to

division into radiale and intermedium.

Manus, stage V. Elements now beginning to ossify.

igits II and III are terminated with claws.

Carpals and metacarpals, stage VI. Carpals united ;

metacarpal V approximate to metacarpal IV.

Conditions just before hatehing. Metacarpal V

joined to metacarpal IV.

PLATE XXV.

1894.] Dr. Anthony Robinson.

A LITTLE KNOWN JAMAICAN NATURALIST, DR.

ANTHONY ROBINSON.

By T. D. A. CocKERELL.

There are, in the library of the Institute of Jamaica, some

interesting old manuscripts, together with a number of draw-

ings which constitute almost the sole record we have of the sci-

entific labors of Dr. Robinson intheisland. The drawings are

original but the manuscripts are copied from the papers left

by the learned doctor, which latter appear to have been lost.

The following notice is appended to the copy:

“ This [is a] faithfull transcript of Mr. Robinson’s loose un-

connected and detach’d papers, by Rt. Long, who has revised

the whole and corrected the errors of copyist thro-out. Septr.,

1769.

“ Anthony Robinson, Chirurgeon, formerly of Sunderland

by the Sea in Durham, but lately of Jamaica.”

In the Jamaica Institute is a pencil drawing of the doctor,

by Edward Long, in connection with which Mr. F. Cundall

has written the following biographical note:

“Anthony Robinson, surgeon and botanist: a native of

Sunderland, England, where he was apprenticed to his father,

a surgeon and apothecary: early turned his attention to bot-

any: came to Jamaica: made a collection of several hundred

figures and descriptions of Jamaica plants and animals: the

drawings are in the Institute of Jamaica, with a copy of the

MS. made under the supervision of his friend, Robert Long.

(The original MS. is lost). His notes were used by Lunan in

his * Hortus Jamaicensis,” and by Gosse in his “ Naturalist's

Sojourn” and “ Birds of Jamaica.” The House of Assembly

voted him £140 in 1767 for his discovery of the method of

making soap from the juice of the Coratoe. d. 1768." (Journ.

Inst. Jamaica, Vol. 1, p. 327).

Although Dr. Robinson did not himself publish, some of his

notes have been used by later writers, as stated above. The

776 The American Naturalist. [September,

greater part of the manuscript, however, is still unpublished,

and not long ago it was debated whether the ornithological

observations should not be issued by the Institute, accompan-

ied by a selection from the colored drawings. This project

after consultation with an experienced ornithologist, was

abandoned, at least for the present, as so large a portion of the

manuscript consists of elaborate descriptions which would

practically duplicate those in existing works. Had these de-

scriptions been published when Dr. Robinson wrote them,

their value would have been very different.

The extracts from the manuscript by Gosse in his well

known works sufficiently testify to the scientific zeal and

knowledge of Dr. Robinson, although his methods were rather

those of an age now past. I brought with me from Jamaica

copies of several unpublished portions of the manuscript, and

will give a few extracts, both to illustrate the character of the

man and put on record observations which, although so old,

have not lost their value.

1. The Alligator (so-called) of Jamaica, Crocodilus ameri-

canus. The following selections are from a long account of

this animal :

“ A very small alligator was put into rum by Mr. Walker,

then of Old Harbour, now of Kingston, and according to the

nicest reckoning with a watch or other time’s measure, liv’d

about a quarter of an hour in that spirit.”

Of another specimen, “the stomach’s contents were bird’s

feathers (aquatic most probably), joints of crabs claws, and

little living white slender worms, with some small pebbles.”

The parasitic worms deserve attention; have they been de-

scribed? In the horned lizard (Phrynosoma) of this part of

the world (N. Mex.) one finds also such worms.

Dr. Robinson proceeds to describe the crocodile’s external

features and anatomy: “The guts measuring from the stom-

ach to the end of the intestinum rectum were fifteen feet long,

uncoil’d.

“The time the young alligator continued under water was

to the outmost but two minutes, as we proved by repeated

trials, puddling and disturbing the water in order to keep him

under thro’ fear as long as his nature would admit. —

Pee RS SE Rt Cad »

—————— —E€— — —————

TS DP EARS TRO MIO diede Mea p ui

ARES RE ER RT DET HE

1894.] Dr. Anthony Robinson. 777

“ He seldom raised more than his nostrils above the water,

he ever delv'd at the near approach of any person.

“Taken out of the water, the creature breath’d or made an

indraught of air to his lungs, from five to ten slow and regu-

lar respirations, and at the end of the fifth, or the tenth time,

was a total cessation from breathing for about one minute.”

In another place he writes: “Once this animal was observ'd

to continue under water upwards of ten minutes.

" I turn'd the alligator on his back and while I staid by him

he lay as if lifeless without the least motion, as I observ’d liz-

ards do when turn'd on their backs; I retir'd for about three

minutes out of his sight, and on my return he had recover'd

his first situation.

“ The tail’s extreme I caus'd to be broil’d on the creature's

dying, and ate of it. The flesh was extremely white, firm,

Sweet, moist and juicy, as turtle in whiteness but not so dry,

not the least musky in taste or smell. My little spaniel dog

ate very greedily of it." This alligator was a young one.

The true alligator, it should be remarked, is not found in

Jamaica.

2. Elaps, probably E. fulvius ; not Jamaican.

“A snake known by the name of the poison snake among

the Indians, but among the Europeans by that of Barber's

pole. The Indians have no cure for the bite of this creature,

it being mortal in 10 or 15 minutes, the patient bleeding at

mouth, eyes, and nose, and thus letting out his life."—(Charles

Harris).

“The gentleman who wrote the above is son to Revd. Mr.

Harris, late Rector of St. Elizabeth [Jamaica] who was in

company with an Indian that died from a bite of the above

snake, which he takes to be a species of that received from

Walrond Teason, Esq., which came from the Spanish main. I

have described it the Ring Snake because its body is sur-

rounded with black and yellow rings. Mr. Harris saw the

above on the Moskito shore."

The snake is now commonly called the coral snake, but the

title mentioned, “ Barber's pole,” is more suggestive of its ap-

pearance. No poisonous snake inhabits Jamaica.

778 The American Naturalist. [September,

3. Names of lizards. Dr. Robinson writes Guana uniformily

for what is now called the Iguana; and for what Gosse writes

Galliwasp (Celestus occiduus), Robinson has Gully Wasp. In

another place Robinson calls the same lizard Gully Asp,

which explains at once the origin of the name. He observes:

“The lizard tribe in general have nothing poisonous in their

bite, but the Gully Wasp isstrongly suspected. Cattle and

mules are said to be often bit by them and so swell and die."

‘This notion reminds one of that current in New Mexico, of

the fatal effects of Phasmids on cattle when eaten by them.

4. The Gully Asp, Celestus occiduus.

“The Gully Asp inhabits morasses and the banks of rivers,

and gullys in the plains and mountains. They live upon fish,

* fruit and even human excrements. They stand upon the

banks of rivers, etc., and watch for the fish coming within

reach, when they suddenly spring upon them into the water

and bring them out in their mouths to the shore, where they

eat them. I have been informed that they are oviparous and

lay eggs as big as those of a pullet, but I have not yet seen

them. I have often been inform’d that no animal will eat the

carcass of this creature, and the following instance seems to

prove them unwholesome :

“ Dr. David Miller inform'd me that a few days ago an ac-

quaintance of his in his way to Mr. Miller's happen'd to kill a

small Gully Wasp of about fifteen inches long and brought

him to his house and flung him into an inclos'd square where

he kept a young alligator of about five feet long. "The alliga-

tor immediately swallow'd the Gully Asp. This was about 11

o'clock in the forenoon. About four hours after, the alligator

(Robinson writes it aligator) was observ'd to jump and flounce

about the square, knocking its head and tail against the stock-

ades, seeming to be quite mad and frantie with pain, and con-

tinued in the manner till night, when he died. "Therefore,

the Dr. concluded that the Gully Asp had poison'd him; he

says besides that no creature will touch the dead Gully Asp.

it should seem that most animals by a natural instinct shun

the carcass, and therefore avoid the certain Gepienetion that

would happen to them by eating them.

iere a woke ea

PEAS Mi c

1894.] Dr. Anthony Robinson. 779

* Yet I believe it is not the flesh of the Gully Asp that is

pernicious for two reasons. First, because the negroes at

Egyp(t) Plantation often eat them, and secondly, I cannot

think that any of the fleshy part could be dissolved in the

cold stomach of the alligator in so short a space of time as

four hours, besides the hard scales of the Gully Asp’s skin

would hinder the digestion not a little. What part of this

animal is poisonous? perhaps the viscera, but which? This

might be known by giving some creature, as a dog or cat, the

different parts of the animal to eat at separate times.”

Gosse does not admit that this lizard has any injurious

properties. The above anecdote about the alligator (crocodile

rather) though interesting, is hardly conclusive by itself.

Later, Dr. Robinson writes :

“ May the 25th, 1760. I was at St. Tooley's, where the over-

seer, Mr. Watson inform'd me that the Gully Asps about that

estate were very fierce and would seize a man, and that their

bite, he assur'd me, was certainly venomous. Memorandum

to inquire more strictly into this matter.” Later he writes:

“ A gentleman in St. Elizabeth's informs me that in the

niountains there they have a Gully Asp entirely black, which

is said to be poisonous, and that if it bite either man or beast

they certainly die. He gave me an instance of one biting a

girl on the toe (I think), who expir'd a few hours after receiv-

ing it. . . . However, this gentleman and almost all other |

considerable persons in this parish and the next seem to look

upon the Great Morass Gully Asp, which I think it may prop-

erly be call’d, as an inoffensive creature; the above-quoted

person tells a story of a person who while he slept in the

morass one night, laid hold of his cap and endeavour'd to pull

it off. The gentleman observing this after the first tug, lay

close, and quite mistaking it for a negro, resolving to wateh

him; and the next pull the Gully Asp gave he laid fast hold

of him, but perceiving his error throw him backwards some

yards. He says he has often fed them with offal, when he has

been eating, and suffer'd them to run over his legs."

5. The following observations on a Ccelenterate which I will

not pretend to determine, seem to have a bearing on some

quite recently published researches.

780 The American Naturalist. [September,

“Small, clustering Actinea. Amongst the surrounding

rocks of Booby Quay, Actinia minima viride racemosa, the clus-

tering small green Actinea. These grew many together, they

were about an inch long, of a round form like an earthworm.

Their arms extended themselves to the diameter of one's

thumb-nail, and nothing could be more pleasing than to lean

down and observe some hundreds of these animals with their

arms extended in the form of a stellate flower with its disc,

which the mouth represents, and its rays the extended arms

of a various green color as deeper and paler in circles, sup-

ported by deep green pedicels smaller than the fore-quill of a

goose, and waving to and fro by the undulating motion of the

water.

“From their bases are produc'd young ones, and from

thence others which never fall from the mother or parent ani-

mal, asin the polypus, by which means, they grow in vast

numbers, together so thick as to hide the rocks they grow

upon entirely, and may be rais'd up as one body, where their

bodies are observ'd to unite to one another. "Their bodies are

firmer and harder in handling than those of the common Ac-

tinea, nor do they shrink so much but only close their arms.

They growing upon naked rocks so that they are always visi-

ble and taken by the incuriose (sic) to be a kind of sea-moss;

at low water many of them are bare, at such times they never

disclose or expand their arms.”

Perhaps some reader will be able to supply the name of this

“ Actinea.”—Agricultural Experiment Station, Las Cruces,

New Mexico, March 4, 1894.

VENE ES iE E : x: :

MEL Ru catty wipes LL cuacadir ming rol eng eM

1894.] Editorials. 781

EDITORIALS.

—Tue Forty-Third Meeting of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science took place in Brooklyn, commencing on

August 15. The weather was propitious and members attended to

the number of 475. Many meritorious papers were read, and the ad-

dresses of the Vice-Presidents presented science in its varied aspects.

The introductory address, in reply to the welcome of the citizens of

Brooklyn, by the President, Dr. D. G. Brinton, was an admirable ex-

position of the methods and aims of science. Four lectures were deliv-

ered in the evening—the address of the retiring President, Professor

Harkness, and three by Messrs Fernow, DuChaillu and Cope. The

citizens of Brooklyn entertained the Association with unusual hospi-

tality in the matter of excursions. The neighborhood of New York

offers many opportunities in this direction, of which the Association

freely availed itself.

The Association has, for several years, missed from its meetings an

important contingent of the workers of the country. We refer espe-

cially to the anatomists, embryologists and physiologists. The princi-

pal object of the Association is to present to the American public an

illustration of the work done by the investigators of the country, that

they may, in some degree, understand its value. The absence of these

gentlemen reduces the value of the Association as an object lesson, and

detracts from the force of the impression which the Association should

make. Their absence diminishes the prestige of the workers in sci-

ence in this country. Original research is but little endowed in Amer-

ica, and it is likely to remain so unless the investigators make them-

selves and their needs known.

The newspapers of Brooklyn gave good reports of the meeting, but

those of New York, with some few exceptions, burlesqued the Associa-

tion. This shows that mental degeneracy is not confined to the rulers .

of Néw York, but has gotten a strong hold on the alleged intelligence

of the city, viz.: the Press. As New York, however, is not the United

States, this matters little, except to New York.

Tue tariff bill which has just passed Congress contains the follow-

ing provisions, which benefit scientific work in this country. The Con-

gressional Committees which have. prepared it have been interviewed

from timeto time by members of the committee appointed for that pur-

782 The American Naturalist. [September

pose by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with

the result of placing on the free list the following items: Scientific books

and periodicals devoted to original scientific research, and publications

issued for their subscribers by scientific and literary associations or acad-

emies, or publications of individuals for gratuitous private circulation,

and public documents issued by foreign governments; books and pam-

phlets printed exclusively in languages other than English.

All manufactures of metals not otherwise provided for, reduced from

45 to 35 per cent. ad valorem, or a reduction of 22 per cent.

These provisions almost remove the onerous and disgraceful tax on

education and science, which characterized the McKinley bill. It only

remains to continue the work, so well begun, of the removing the

tax on philosophical apparatus. The Association continued the

committee.

Tue address of Lord Salisbury at Oxford before the British Associa-

tion for the Advancement of Science, as its President, is a general

review of the present status of selected leading questions in all of the

great departments of scientific research. "These are treated in a sim-

ple and straightforward manner, so as to be fully comprehensible to the

lay member. The value of such an address, in informing the publie

of the nature of the problems which have been solved and are await-

ing solution by scientific research, is great. It wili also benefit the

cause of science in England that so distinguished a member of the

ruling class should espouse it in so conspicuous a manner. Lord Salis-

bury adopts the hypothesis of organic evolution, but, like Lord Kel-

vin, declines to regard Darwinism as a full exposition of it. Against

it he appeals to the evidence of intelligent design to be seen in the or-

ganic world. He does not refer to the doctrine of kinetogenesis, which

so well explains the nature of design. He is not, however, prepared to

accept as a necessary corollary of the fact of evolution, the origin of

man from preéxistent Quadrumanas, but calls it “not proven.” This

is probably as much as we can expect at this time from any one who

is not a specialist in biology.

We understand that among the animals imported from India by W.

K. Vanderbilt for his park near Newport, R. L, are several mangooses.

It is important that these animals should not escape from confinement,

as they will inflict great injury on the native and domesticated fauna

should they do so. They multiply rapidly and devour every living

thing sufficiently important to serve them as food, whether they live

under the ground, on the ground, or at a distance above the ground to

a a le TUTTA

1894.] Editorials. 783

which they can climb. Having no natural enemies in the country,

they would become a much greater evil than the English sparrow.

Their importation, except for zoological gardens, should be forbidden.

Some industrious persons are endeavoring to utilize parts of the

great Palisade dyke of the Hudson for paving-stone. The New York

journals are publishing protests against this vandalism, which will, we

hope, have the effect of preserving this imposing feature of the scenery

of that region.

784 The American Naturalist. [September,

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

Bateson, W.—Materials for the Study of Variation, treated with special —

regard to the discontinuity in the origin of species. London and New York,

1894. From Macmillan and Co. Publishers

Biological vci delivered at the Menos Biol. Lab. Wood's Holl, 1893.

From the Laboratory.

Bulletin Cornell Univ. Agric. Exp. Station, No. 58, 1893.

Bulletin Wyoming Experiment Station. No. 14, 1893.

CALVERT, P. P.—Catalogue of the Odonata (Dragon-flies) in the vicinity of

ot dies an Introduction to the Study of this Group of Insects. Extr.

m. Soc., Vol. 20, 1893. From the author.

CAMPBEL CE beating in the Nervous Organization of Man and Woman.

London, VeL From H. K. Lewis, Publisher.

Cross, W.—Intrusive apre Dykes in Granite. Extr. Bull. Geol. Soc.

Am., Va. V,1894. From the Society.

Fepororr, E.—Nouvelle merca pour l'étude goniométrique et optique des

cristaux appliquie à la mineralogie et à la Erie dt Mém. du Comite Géol.,

Vol. X, 1893. From the Geol. Surv. of Russ

FriNT, W.—Statistics of Public Libraries in cde United States and Canada.

Bureau of Ed., Cir. Inform., No. 7, 1893. From the Bureau of Education.

Gace, S. P.—The Brain of Diemyctylus viridescens from Larval to Adult Life,

and comparisons with the Brain of Amia and Petromyzon. Extr. Wilder

Quarter-Century Book, 1893. From the author.

HAECKEL, E.—Metagenesis und Hypogenesis von Aurelia aurita. Ein Beit-

rag zur Entwickelungsgeschichte und zur Teratologie der Medusen. Jena, 1881.

——Zur Phylogenie der Australischen Fauna. Abdruck aus Semon, Zoolo-

gische Forschungsreisen in Australien und dem malayischen Archipel. Jena,

HARSHBERGER, J.—Maize. A Botanical and Economic Study. Contr. Bot.

Lab. Penn. Univ., 1893. From the author.

Howes, G. B.—Notes on the Variation and Development of the Vertebral and

Limb-skeleton of in Amphibia.—— Notes on the Abnormal Sternium of Hapale

jacchus oceeds. London Zool. Soc., 1893..—On the Mammalian Pel-

vis with pilil ilaia to the young of Ornithorh; cade anatinus. Extr.

Journ. Anat. and Physiol., Vol. XXVII, 1893. From the a

LANE, A. C.—Geologic Activity of the Earth's Ado Dei Gases.

Extr. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. V, 1894

Lawson, A. C.—The Aietes of the Minnesota Coast of Lake Superior.

— The Laccolite Sills of the Northwest Coast of Lake Superior, with a Prep-

atory Note on the Norian of the Northwest. Bull. No. 6, 1893. Minn. Geol.

and Nat. Hist. Surv. From the Survey.

LINTNER, J, A.—Fourth and Fifth Reports on the Injurious and other Insects

of the State of New York. Extr. 41st Rept. New York State Mus. Nat. Hist.

From the author.

eta T Selita

Conus fioi es i

S Nd

kc ru Fi gane

E S E

CRESS M dp ES PRIME IE M ER DU

ee Ne ee a ET NES ee

1894.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 785

Lockwoop, S.—Some Phenomena in Exuviation by the Reptiles. New York,

1893. From the author.

Lupin, D. A.—Proposition Revolutionizing the Distribution of Wealth, Sacra-

mento, 1893. From the author.

OssoRN, H. F.—Fossil Mammals from the Upper Cretaceous Beds. Extr.

Bull Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, Vol. V, 1893.—— The Rise of the Mammalia in

North America. Extr. Proceeds, A. A. A. S., 1893. From the author.

PirLiNG, J. C.— Bibliography of the Chinookan Languages, including the

Chinook Jargon. Washington, 1893. From the Bureau of Ethnology.

SHUFELDT, R. W.—Nesting Habits of Galeoscoptes carolinensis. Extr. Auk,

893.

SIEBENROCK, F.— Zur Osteologie des Hatteria-Kopfes. Aus den Sitzungsb. der

kaiserl. Akad. der Wissensch. Wien. Mathem-naturw. Classe, 1893. From the

author.

SMITH, E. F.— Experiments with Fertilizers for the Prevention and Cure of

Peach Yellows, 1889-92. Bull. No. 4. U. S. Dept. Agric. Div. Veg. Path.,

Washington, 1893. From the Dept. Agric.

SurTH, J. B.—Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Superfamily Noctuidae found

in Boreal America. Bull. U. S. Natl. Mus. No. 44, 1893. From the Smithso-

nian Institution.

SMITH, J. P.—Age of the Auriferous Slates of Sierra Nevada. Extr. Bull.

Geol. pin dyes Vol. V, 1894.

SokoLow, N.—Die Untertertiaren Ablagerungen Siidrusslands. Mém. du

Comité Geol, Vol. IX, 1893. From the Geol. Surv. of Russia.

Tarr, R. S. —Economic Geology of the United States. New York, 1894.

Macmillan and Co., Pub. From John Wanamaker’s.

ToriNARD, P.—L’ Anthropologie aux Etats Unis. Extr. de l'Anthropol,

1893.

Traquair, R. H.—On Cephalaspis magnifica.—— Achanarras revisited. Extrs.

Proceeds. Roy. Phy. Soc. Edinburgh, Vol. XII. From the author.

TSCHERNYSCHEW, TH.—Die Fauna des unteren Devon am Ostabhange des Ural.

Mém. du Comité Geol., Vol. IV, 1893. From the Geol. Surv. of Russia.

WHITMAN, C. O.— The Inadequacy of the Cell-Theory of Development. Extr.

Journ. Morph., Vol. VIII, 1893. From the author.

Woops, H.—Elementary Paleontology. Cambridge, 1893. From Macmillan

Co.

and

WonTMAN, J. L.—On the Divisions of the White River or Lower Miocene of

Dakota.

———AND EARLE, C.—Ancestors of the Tapir from the Lower Miocene of

Dakota. Extrs. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. V, 1893. From the author.

ZITTEL, K. A. voN—Die geologische Entwickelung, Herkunft und Verbreitung

der Sáugethiere. Aus den Sitzungsb. der math.-phy. Classe der k. bayer Akad.

d. Wiss., 1893. Bd. XXIII. From the author.

786 The American Naturalist. [September,

RECENT LITERATURE.

Louis Agassiz: His Life and Work; by Chas. Frederick

Holder, M. D! In this volume we have an appreciative history of

Agassiz, in which the characteristics of the man, and the nature and

progress of his work are most happily woven together. His ambitions,

while still under the parental roof in Neuchatel, are recounted, and

his biographer shows how early tbe dominant bias of a man's life may

appear. We are told how his persevering devotion to his favorite pur-

suit did not prevent him from preparing for the practice of the medical

profession, as a means of livelihood ; and how, later, the opportunity

of studying and reporting on the fishes brought home by Von Martius

from Brazil, determined his future course. Every naturalist has been

introduced to his life work in the science by especial facilities enjoyed

for the study of some particular group. To Agassiz this group was

the fishes, and his first works after that on the fishes of Brazil, were

those on the fresh-water fishes of Europe, and the Fossil Fishes. But

his highly appreciative mind was directed to all the problems offered

by nature to human thought, and he quickly saw the importance which

attached to the study of the Swiss glaciers. "The far-reaching results

of this work are now common knowledge; as it contains the key to the

superficial geology of the temperate regions of the earth. The appli-

cation of the glacial phenomena in geology is Agassiz's greatest achieve-

ment.

The history of Agassiz's work in the United States is interestingly

told, and the narration of the Brazilian expedition is charming. The

volume closes with a reprint of some of the memorials which expressed

the feelings of naturalists at the time of his death, and with a bibli-

ography.

The work is handsomely illustrated, largely from photographs made

during the Brazilian expedition. It is a pity that better figures of the

Brazilian fishes and turtles could not have been copied, as those in this

book are mostly bad.

The personal characteristics of Agassiz are pleasantly described, and

for this reason among others the book will be a valued souvenir to the

friends who knew him. The author dwells especially on his great mer-

!8vo, pp. 327, illustrated. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York and London,

1893.

DAE

ibo

open Se a a ar a ee a ls ee Senn nee

1894.] Recent Literature. 787

its as a teacher, which, indeed, cannot be exaggerated. He greatly

popularized the pursuit of science in America, and the effect of his life

and labors in this direction has been greater than that of any man,

probably of many men. The pursuit of science was to him, as it

should be to all, a duty undertaken for the elevation of human thought.

That the visible nature is the material expression of the thoughts of

God, was Agassiz’s oft expressed belief. Doubtless he was correct, but

the proof of it comes in a way different from that which this great

naturalist anticipated ; that is, through the direction of evolutionary

descent. Perhaps if Agassiz had lived longer, he would have adopted

this view, and embellished it as he did all his teachings.—C.

Nuttall’s Ornithology.'— This hand-book of ornithology is pub-

lished in two handsome volumes 8vo, of some 400 pp. each. It is prac-

tically a new edition of Nuttall's Manual, which has been out of print

for several years, to which the editor has added brief notes relating the

results of recent determinations in distribution and habits. The intro-

duction is given exactly as it appeared in Nuttall's second edition, and

the text of the biographical matter has been changed but little. To

this Mr. Chamberlain adds a description of the plumage, nest and eggs

of each species.

In his treatment of the subject, the author covers the entire area of

the Eastern Faunal Province from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic

Ocean. The nomenclature adopted is that of the Check List issued by

the American Ornithologists’ Union. The illustrations are mostly

drawn especially for the work. They are of excellent quality and are

of size appropriate to that of the pages.

Nuttall’s Manual was fora long time the only text-book of American

ornithology available to pockets of limited resources. Its style and

treatment of the subject are most attractive, and it has probably done

more to diffuse a knowledge of the subject than any other work. Boys

read it who had access to no other, and many naturalists of to-day

date their interest in their science to the charm of its pages. Although

the excellent works of Coues and Ridgway have made us better ac-

quainted with the science of ornithology, nothing has superseded Nut-

tall’s work as a delineator of habits and manners of birds. It was a

happy thought that resulted in the publication of this new edition un-

der Mr. Chamberlain’s editorship.

? A Popular Hand-book of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada,

based on Nuttall’s Manual. By Montague Chamberlain. Boston: Little, Brown

& Co., 1891.

788 The American Naturalist. [September,

Seeley on the Fossil Reptiles: II. Pareiasaurus; VI. The

Anomodontia and their Allies; VII. Further Observations

on Pariasaurus.’—Professor H. G. Seeley has again made the scien-

tific world his debtors by his descriptions of new forms of South Afri-

can fossil reptiles; by his extensive comparisons of the characters of

these, the oldest known members of the class; and by his very full

study of that remarkable form, the Pariasaurus of Owen. These works

are valuable to students of the Reptilia of corresponding age in other

parts of the world, and especially to those of the American forms. The

descriptions are elucidated by cuts and plates.

Prof. Seeley has shown that the genus Pareisaurus is allied to the

American Diadectidx, and that it represents a distinct family of the

same order, the Cotylosauria. His proposition of a new ordinal name,

Pariasauria, is perhaps due to the fact that the original definition of the

Cotylosauria was defective in one respect. The corrected definition

was published later, and in the same year as the proposal of the new

name by Dr. Seeley.

Several important points of both anatomy and taxonomy are pre-

sented in these memoirs, on which I propose to touch. In the first

place, no one had, at the time that these memoirs were written, distin-

guished between roof-bones and the bones of the brain case, in the Rep-

tilia. Although the two series are to be entirely distinguished in all

vertebrates which possess them, the same names have been used vari-

ously for opposite or adjacent elements of both. The names squamosal,

epiotic and opisthotic have thus been used in double senses. For the .

posterior bones of the temporal roof I have adopted the terms zygo-

matic, supratemporal, supramastoid* and tabulare? The supratem-

poral is called squamosal by Seeley. But the squamosal is a bone of

the lateral wall of the brain case, and cannot be identified with any

one of the three possible post-orbital bars of the Reptilia, which may

be composed posteriorly of either the zygomatic, supratemporal or sup-

ramastoid. The epiotic of Seely and of some others is the tabulare m.,

and has nothing to do with the original epiotic of Huxley.

Prof. Seeley describes the Placodontia as possessing two occipital

condyles, which have the position of zygapophysial articulations. The

basioccipital he describes as presenting “a thin film of bone” poster-

iorly on the middle line. Perhaps the basioccipital bone with its con-

? From the Philosoph. Transac. Royal Society of London, 1888, p. 59; 1889, p.

215, and 1892, p. 311. Illustrated.

* Transac. Amer. Philosoph. Soc., 1892, 11.

5 Proceeds. Amer. Philosoph. Soc., 1894, 110.

1894.] Recent Literature. 789

dyle is caducous, as it is in the Diadectidx, and has been lost from the

specimens Dr. Seely has examined. It is this peculiarity that led me

into error in my first diagnosis of the Cotylosauria.

Prof. Seeley makes quite full comparisons with the forms of the

American Permian. ,He seems impressed with reptilian affinities in

Eryops. But this genus is a true Stegocephal in every respect, and

has no greater affinity with the Cotylosauria than any other member of

the order. In quoting my description of the tarsus of the Clepsydro-

pide, he falls into error in stating that I allege that “the tibials and

centrals united to form an astragalus." I have stated that the inter-

medium and centrals unite to form the astragalus. He also states that

I have not figured the intercentra of the Pelycosauria. He will find

that my figures of Clepsydrops and Dimetrodon represent them.

Dr. Seeley shows that the structure of the vertebral column and pel-

vic arch have a close similarity in the Cotylosauria, Anomodontia and

Theriodonta of South Africa. I have discovered the same characters

of these regions in the Cotylosauria and Pelycosauria of North Amer-

ica. For the order which is to include these divisions, Seeley, like

Lydekker, retains the name of Anomodontia of Owen. But Owen

originally proposed this name for the group which includes the genera

Oudenodon, Dicynodon and Lystrosaurus (Ptychognathus Owen). Fur-

ther, in his work of 1876* on these reptiles, he continued this use of

the name, making it of equal rank with the Theriodonta. It being

evident that the entire division required a name, I gaveit that of Thero-

morpha (Proceed. Amer. Philosoph. Soc., 1880, p. 38); (subsequently

altered to Theromora, on account of preoccupation.) The use of the

name Anomodontia for this order has no support in the rules of nomen-

clature.

Dr. Seeley discusses the possible relation of the Pelycosauria of the

American beds with the African Theriodonta. There are important

resemblances between these groups. Unfortunately, corresponding

parts of the two are in several cases unknown. Thus the shoulder

girdle and tarsus of the Theriodonta have not been yet obtained. Un-

til these lacun: are made good we cannot determine the mutual affin-

ities of the two. We naturally look to Prof. Seeley for more light on

this subject. It is possible, also, as I have suggested, that the postor-

bital arch of the Theriodonta is the superior arch (supratemporal),

and not the inferior arch (zygomatic), as in the Pelycosauria.

NoTE.—In my paper on the Plesiosaurian skull (Proceeds. Amer. Philos.

Soc., 1894, p. 111, line 10), by a lapsus calami, I wrote Proterosauria for

* Description of the Fossil Reptilia of South Africa in the British Museum.

790 The American Naturalist. [September,

Procolophonina. In my paper on the postorbital bars of Reptilia (Trans.

Amer. Philos. Soc., 1892, p. 16, bottom) I refer to the postorbital bar of

the Theriodonta, meaning the Pelycosauria. This is due to the premature :

assumption by English authors, to which I at the moment assented, that

the two groups are identical.—E. D. COPE.

Scott on the Mammalia of the Deep River Beds.'—In this

handsome memoir of 130 pages we have recorded the results of the

Princeton College expedition of 1891. The region explored is the val-

ley of Deep River, one *of the upper tributaries of the Missouri in

Montana. This formation was observed to contain fossils by Grinnell

and Dana in 1875, and was explored by a party sent by the present

reviewer in 1878. The latter reported from it twelve species of Mam-

malia all of which were new except a Prothippus of Loup Fork age,

and a Protolabis of uncertain species. The Princeton expedition ob-

tained twenty-two species, of which eight are new to science. Prof.

Scott prefers to call this formation by the name of Deep River, rather

than the Ticholeptus bed, as it was originally named by Cope. This

is because the name Ticholeptus, as a paleontological term, is a syno-

nym of Merychyus. However, as applied’ to a formation, it was not

preoccupied, and it is doubtful whether, under the rules, it can be

changed.

The new forms belong to the following orders : Carnivora, 2 ; Glires,

1; Perissodactyla, 2. Artiodactyla, 3. The most important addition

to the Carnivora is a new genus of Canidz, Desmatocyon, which agrees

with Canis, except in the possession of three longitudinal convolutions

of the cerebral hemispheres. The Glires are represented by a new

Steneofiber. The most important novelties are two species of three-

toed horses, which are named respectively Desmatippus erenidens and

Anchitherium equinum, the latter the largest known American species

of its genus. Prof. Scott takes occasion to present a new classification of

the genera of American three-toed horses, distinguishing four genera

in species formerly referred to Anchitherium. These are Mesohippus,

Miohippus, Desmatippus (nov.) and Anchitherium. Scott has already

shown that Mesohippus differs from the other genera in the absence of

pits of the ineisors, and he assumes that Miohippus, named but not

distinguished by Marsh, possesses those pits, although he states that its

upper incisors are not known. I can state that this supposition is per-

fectly correct, as they are present in the species I have called Anchi-

‘From the Transactions of the American Philosophicel Society, 1894, Vol.

X VII, p. 55.

ES.

NS s dca dE

Willan a> nh lpia) o adh OE PES

sl dup | te a ich ie ia E ES hg Sas e mer E EST Rr RI Rela NEN S O Sa

1894.] Recent Literature. 791

therium equiceps, A. longieriste and A. praestans, from the John Day

Beds of Oregon, the horizon of Miohippus. The separation of Mio-

hippus from Anchitherium is proposed by Prof. Scott, on the relative

size of the conules of the molars, on the form of the external face of

their external wall, aud on the separation or confluence of the posterior

transverse crest with the latter. The first two characters do not appear

to me to be of generic value, while the third is probably a valid one.

On this basis the John Day Anchitheria equiceps, brachylophum, and

longicriste must be referred to Miohippus, while A. praestans is an An-

chitherium. Thatis, supposing Marsh’s type of Miohippus possess the

character referred to, which is unknown. The same character will re-

fer Desmathippus to Anchitherium ; and the other characters regarded

by Prof. Scott as distinguishing the two, do not seem to the reviewer

to be of sufficient value to forbid such reference.

The Anchitherium erenidens (as we would call it) presents especial

interest in the strong crenation of the anterior border of the metaconule,

offering the earliest example of this structure known, and pointing to the

origin of the similar structure seen in later horses of several genera.

In the A. equinum we have the American form nearest to the European

A. aurelianeuse. The American (White River) A. exoletum Cope (not

A. cuneatum, as stated by Scott) has superior molars of similar char-

acter.

In the Artiodactyla, the most important discovery is the presence of

an ossified thyroid cartilage, and a probable rudimental clavicle in am

Oreodontid, which but for these characters would be an Eporeodon.

To this form Prof. Scott gives the name of Mesoreodon.

We expect thorough and intelligent work from Prof. Scott, and im

this memoir we are not disappointed. It is by papers of this kind

that our knowledge of the evolution of organie life is really advanced.

The illustrations are every way worthy of the text.—E. D. Corr.

Von Jhring on the Fishes and Mammals of Rio Grande do

Sul.'—These two brochures are valuable as bringing the subject of

which they treat up to a later date than the papers of Hensel, who

wrote in 1870-2-9. The species are not all described, and some of the

notices embrace descriptions of habits, while the known distribution

is given, with pretty full references to the literature. The species of

5 Die Süsswasser Fische von Rio Grande do Sul; von Dr. H. von Ihring, 12mo,

36 pp. ; Rio Grande, Jan. 1893.

Os Mammiferos do Rio Grande do Sol, pelo Dr. Herman von Ihring, 12mo, pp-

30; Rio Grande, Apl. 20, 1892.

792 The American Naturalist. [September,

fishes enumerated are chiefly those of the Atlantic streams. They are

included in the following orders: Nematognathi, 23 sp.; Plectospon-

dyli, 14 sp.; Holostomi, 1 sp.; Percomorphi, 8. A new Gobius is

described. The Mammalia number 92 species, of which 11 are Marsu-

pialia, 5 Edentata, 23 Glires, 16 Chiroptera, 20 Carnivora, 17 Diplar-

thra, 3 Quadrumana, and 2 Cetacea. An interesting feature is the

number of species of Didelphyidae, of which a new species is described.

The author includes without hesitation the Felis braccata Cope in the

F.jaguarondi, probably because in the original description it is said to

be allied to that species. As matter of fact, however, it is very little

allied to that species, and has no close relationships to any other. It is

remarkable for the large size and pointed outline of its ears, which are

sharply bicolor on the upper surface. The mounted skin shows faint

oblique bands on the sides. Its very obscure colors render it easy of

concealment, which, perhaps, with its apparent rarity, accounts for its

having so long escaped the observation of naturalists. Von Ihring also

asserts the identity of the Sphingurus sericeus with the S. villosus. If

the latter is, as generally asserted, identical with the S. insidiosus, the

S. sericeus is distinct enough.—E. D. Corr.

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 793

General Notes.

GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.

Geologic Time indicated by the Sedimentary Rocks of

North America.—Various geologists have speculated as to the age of

the earth, basing their estimates on both geologic and paleontologic data.

The latest contribution to the subject is from Dr. Charles Walcott. His

unit is the aye of the Paleozoic rocks of the Cordilleran area in western

North America. A careful consideration of all the factors of denuda-

tion and deposition leads him to consider that it would have required

17,500,000 years for the deposition of the calcium and the mechanical

sediments of Paleozoic time. He concludes his paper as follows:

“ Taking as a basis 17,500,000 years for loce we inen the time

ratios 12, 5 and 2 for Paleozoic, M g Plisto-

cene) respectively, the Mesozoic is given a time duration of 7, 240, 000

years, the Cenozoic of 2,900,000 years, and the entire series of fossiliferous

sedimentary rocks of 27,650,000 years. To this there is to be added

the entire period in which all of the sediments were deposited between

the basal crystalline archean complex and the base of the Paleozoic.

Notwithstanding the immense accumulation of mechanical sediments

in this Algonkian time, with their great unconformities and the great

differentiation of life at the beginning of Paleozoic time, I am not

willing, with our present information, to assign a greater period than

that of the Paleozoic—or 17,500,000 years. Even this seems excessive.

Adding to it the time period of the fossiliferous sedimentary rocks, the

result is 45,150,000 years for post-Archean time. Of the duration of

Archean or pre-Algonkian time, I have no estimate based on a study

of Archean strata to offer. If we assume Houghton’s estimate of 33

per cent. for the Azoic period and 67 per cent. for the sedimentary

iin Archean time would be represented by the period of 22,250,000

yea

" T estimating for the Archean, Houghton included a large series

of strata that are now placed in the Algonkian of the Proterozoic of

the U. S. Geol. Survey; and I think that his estimate is more than

one-half too large; if so, ten million years would be a fair estimate, or

rather conjecture, for Archean time.

794 The American Naturalist. [September,

Period. Time Duration.

Cenozoic, including Pleistocene . i à . 2,900,000 years.

Mesozoic, : ; : : : : : 7,240,000 =

Paleozoic, . x i i > : : e 110500000 .*

Algonkian, ‘ A : : i 4 : 17,500,000 “

Archean, . ‘ ‘ : i : i . 10,000,000(?) “

* [tis easy to vary these results by assuming different values for area

and rate of denudation, the rate of deposition of carbonate of lime,

etc. ; but there remains, after each attempt I have made that was based

on any reliable facts of thickness, extent and character of strata, a

result that does not pass below 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 as a minimim

and 60,000,000 to 70,000,000 as a maximum for post-Archean geologie

time. I have not referred to the rate of development of life, as that is

virtually controlled by conditions of environment."

* [n conclusion, geologic time is of great but not of indefinite duration.

I believe that it can be measured by tens of millions, but not by single

millions or hundreds of millions of years" (Journ. Geol, Vol. I,

1893.)

For the latest estimates as to the duration of the Glacial period see

AMERICAN NATURALIST, March, 1894, p. 263.

The Lignites of Southern Chili.—After having made a field

study of the lignitic formation in the southern part of Chili, M. Noguès

reports to the Société Scientifique of Chili that these lignites certainly

do not belong to the Permo-carboniferous age, as has been stated, but

are of a much later age. They constitute a long band extending in a

north and south direction, parallel with the Pacific Ocean, and have

been dislocated by a complex series of faults. M. Noguès extended

his observations to the schisto-arenaceous system, which is found around

the river Bio-Bio and its affluents, La Quilacoya and the Rio Grande,

and which contains beds of true anthracite coal. Paleontological evi-

dence shows that this system corresponds with the lower beds of the

lignitic formation above mentioned. Like the lignite, also, it rests

unconformably upon granite rocks and the old schists of the Cordil-

leras, and been subjected to movements which have produced folds,

swellings and anticlinals. (Actes de la Soc. Sci. du Chili, Santiago,

1894.)

Lower Cretaceous Fossils from the Black Hills of

Dakota.—A recent]find of cycadean trunks near Hot Springs, South

Dakota, led Mr. Lester Ward to investigate that locality with the view

re nae

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 795

of determining the stratigraphical position of the beds in which the

fossils occur. The whole of this region consists of a series of sandstones

that have been treated in the Black Hills report as the “ Dakota Group.”

In examining a locality two miles west of Minnekahta Creek, Mr. Ward

found, interstratified with the sandstones, some argillaceous shales con-

taining a fossil flora of ferns, coniferous twigs and cycadean remains,

which the author refers to the Lower Cretaceous. A further study of

the plants by Prof. Fontaine and Prof. Knowlton confirms this refer-

ence. Between the horizon where these fossils were found and that of

the true Dakota Group there are some hundreds of feet of sandstone

and shales. (Journ. Geol., Vol. II, 1894.)

Lower Eocene Mammals near Lyons, France.—A pre

liminary note published by M. Charles Deperet in Comptes Rendus,

April, 1894, states that a remarkably rich deposit of Eocene Verte-

brates has been discovered in a quarry at Lissien, near Lyon. The

author proposes to make these fossils the subject of a special memoir,

but meanwhile, he gives the following brief summary of the most im-

portant facts :

“ The [Perissodactyla] are the most numerous. At the head of the

list stands Lophiodon, represented by three forms: one, having molars

of the type named by M. Riitimeyer, L. rhinoceroides, but the body not

quite so large. A second species resembles in form L. isselense, but is

distinguished by its inferior premolors which have the cingulum very

attenuated, recalling in this particular L. euvieri of Jouey. The third

form has a large premolar furnished with a rudimentary internal pos-

terior cusp, as in L. lautricense.

“The American genus Hyrachyus is represented by a type that I

believe to be identical with Lophiodon cartieri Egerkingen, and also a

species of Argenton, named by M. Filhol Hyrachyus intermedius.

“The group [Lophiodontidae] is still more abundant. I can only

mention two Paloplotheria, one large (P. magnum Rütimeyer), the

other hardly larger than P. codiciense Gaud. to which it is evidently

related, from the structure of the premolars.

“The genus Propalaeotherium is represented by two species, one

large, indentical with P. isselanum Cuv.; the other small, suggesting

P. minutum Egerkingen. A small Anchilopus seems to be related to

A. desmarestii Gerv. Finally, there are some inferior molars which

correspond to those of the ill-defined genus Lophiotherium Gerv.

“Among the Artiodactyla I have noticed the molars of Acotherulum

saturninum Gerv., and one fine demi-mandible of a Dichobune smaller

than D. leporinum.

796. . The American Naturalist. [September,

“Of the group of primitive ruminants, there are only some molar

teeth which seem to be identical with Dichodon cartierii Egerkingen.

“But the most interesting discovery among the Ungulates is a single

upper molar, differing only by its smaller size from that of the animal

of Egerkingen, referred by Rütimeyer to the American genus Phena-

codus, under the name P. ewropeus.

“The Carnivora are represented by several types, among others a

Pterodon, a primitive Viverra, with the heel of the sectorial tooth very

short, as in V. angustidens.

“ Finally, of the group of rodents, there is a fine demi-mandible of a

Sciuroides, related to Sc. siderolithicus of Egerkingen.

“ Among the undetermined species are some bones of Birds and

Reptiles.”

Geological News, Paleozoic.—According to Mr. C. Schuchert,

a collection of fossils, comprising about thirty species, most of which

are corals, demonstrate the undoubted presence of middle Devonian

deposits in northern California. All the fossils studied are from lime-

stone, nothing as yet being known from a sandstone or shale fauna.

The localities in which these collections were obtained have been

examined by Mr. J. S. Diller. They are in Shasta and Siskiyou coun-

ties, California, and as the general strike of Devonian rocks near Ken-

nett is in a line with outcrops of Hazel Creek and Soda Creek, over

thirty miles away, it is thought that these rocks may be continuous.

This would be an additional evidence for Mr. Diller's theory previously

stated “that the axis of folding joins the Klamath Mountains to the

Coast Range rather than to the Sierra.” (Am. Journ. Sci., June,

1894.)

Dr. Ludwig von Ammon has published a memoir on the Stegocephali

of the Rhein-pfalz known to him. These include nine species which

are referred to the following genera: Branchiosaurus, 2; Apateon, 1 ;

Anthracosaurus, 1 sp.; Archegosaurus, 2 sp.; Sclerocephalus, 2 sp. ;

Macromerium, n. g. von Ammon, 1 sp. The most abundant remains

belong to Sclerocephalus, which includes also the the largest species.

Macromerium gumbelii von Amm. was also a large species. The mem-

oir (published at Munich) is in 4to, and is handsomely illustrated.

Dr. Hermann Credner published in the XXth Volume of the Ab-

handlungen of the Royal Saxon Society of Science a beautifully illus-

trated memoir on the histology of the teeth of the Paleozoic Stego-

cephali with plicate dentition. The investigation is confined to the

a E a ee UE S

ONT A Cae AEA

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 797

genus Sclerocephalus. By removal of the osseous structure, Credner

obtains beautiful casts of the vascular structures of the teeth. From this

study Dr. Credner concludes that the large teeth of the Stegocephali

are formed by the fusion of small teeth, such as are frequently present

on the palatine and splenial bones of these animals.

Mesozoic.—The eastern boundary of the Connecticut Triassic is

defined, according to Messrs. Davis and Griswold, by fault-lines—a

combination of several intersecting faults, rather than asingle irregular

fault. The inferred faults may be divided into two sets, those of one

set trending about north and south, and represented by three members;

those of the other set trending northeast and northwest, and including

two members. All five faults are believed to extend beyond the parts

of the border line that they determine into the area of the crystalline

or Triassic rocks. (Bull. Geol. Soc. Ann., Vol. V, 1894.)

In a paper in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy, Prof. Cope

describes several Pycnodont fishes from the Wichita Cretaceous bed of

western Oklahoma, and a Lepidotid from the Trinity formation of

Texas. He also describes part of a tarsometatarse of a bird from a

probable neocene bed of Vancouver Island, under the name of Cyphor-

nis magnus. He thinks it is allied to the Pelicans, but the bone is as

large as the corresponding part of the American Ostrich.

A collection of Neocomian invertebrates from Kansas yields upon

examination 17 new and 4rare species. Among them is a large, appar-

ently nereid, worm, and a well-preserved specimen of Trochus texanus

Roem. The fossils are described and figured by Prof. F. W. Cragin

in the Am. Geol., Vol. XIV, 1894. Prof. Cragin also reports from the

same formation two new reptiles, Pleisiosaurus mudgei and Plesiochelys

belviderensis ; and three fishes hitherto undescribed, Mesodon abrasus,

(? Lamna) quinquilateralis and Hybodus clarkensis. "am Ann. Pub.

Col. Sci. Soc., 1894.)

Cenozoic.—In the fourth part of the * Materiaux pour l'Histoire

des Temps Quaternaires,’ MM. Gaudry and Boule describe bones of

Mammalia from the caves of Gorgas in the Hautes Pyrenées. They

found there Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta maculata spelaea, and Canis lupus.

They embrace the opportunity of showing the graduated dentition of

the Canidae from Canis through Hemicyon and Hyaenarctus, of which

they give instructive figures.

138 The American Naturalist. [September,

M. Harlé calls attention to the discovery of fossil Hyaenas of the

striped type, in the grotto of Montsaunés (Haute-Garonne). With the

exception of a specimen found in the grotto of Lunel-Viel by Marcel,

at the beginning of this century, there is no record of this Hyaena

having ever been found in a cavein France. (Comptes-Rendus, Paris,

1894.)

Professor Dames, of Berlin; describes some remains of a Zeuglodon

from Fayoum in Egypt in the Paleontological Abhandlungen for 1894.

They consist of a left mandibular ramus and vertebrae of a species of

medium size, which he regards as belonging to a species previously un-

known. He calls it Z. osiris. He makes some suggestions as to the

systematic of the Cetacea, proposing to divide the order primarily on

the characters of the teeth. This view will not, however, probably

replace the customary one, which regards as of more importance the

skeletal characters of the Archsroceti, and relegates the dentition to a

place of secondary value.

Dr. G. Capellini had added much to our knowledge of the extinct

Cetacea of Italy in a number of illustrated papers. He describes sev-

eral species of Ziphius and Mesoplodon, some of which are new; a

Delphinoid with along muzzle; a Tursiops; and the Balena etrusca

Cap. He also describes the remains of a new Halitherium (Metaxy-

therium), and a crocodile with a slender muzzle, which he refers to the -

genus Tomistoma, under the name of T. calaritanum Cap. The latter

is represented by a fine skull, and some vertebre and dermal scuta,

and other important pieces.

POM EY SUPE TIDE

——a —————

Se eee

1894.] Petrography. 799

PETROGRAPY:

In a long and extensive article, Miigge’ treats of the keratophyres of

the Lennethal in Westphalia, and the neighboring regions, and their

tuffs. The rocks have been considered as fragmental schists by some

observers and as squeezed eruptives by others. They are known gen-

erally as the Lenneporphyries. Miigge finds that some of them are

genuine eruptives and some are the tuffs of these. The massive rocks

are keratophyres and quartz-keratophyres, sometimes carrying large

phenocrysts of quartz and feldspar and at other times free from these.

The groundmass of the keratophyres is made up of bleached biotite,

sericite, feldspar, opal and glass, with traces of spherulitic structure.

Schistose varieties of the quartzose varieties have become foliated

through pressure, as shown by the fractured quartzes and feldspars

that occur so abundantly in them, the presence of lenticular areas of

quartz mosaic and the greater abundance of sericite. The most char-

acteristic of the lenneporphyries are tuffs in which the ash structure

is very well exhibit. The typical tuff structure is described by the

author as due to the accumulation of glass particles with concave

boundaries. These are mingled with complete and broken crystals of

various minerals and often with sedimentary material. Rocks com-

posed of intermingled volcanic and sedimentary fragmental material

the author would call tuffites; when metamorphosed, tuffoids. Many

of the rocks in the Lenne district have suffered dynamic metamor-

phism with the production of secondary quartz, feldspar, sericite, car-

bonates and chlorite. They are, therefore, tuffoids. The new material

was formed partially from the decomposition of the rock’s materials

and partially with the aid of alkaline solutions originating outside of

the metamorphised rocks.

Nepheline-Melilite Rocks of Texas.—Osann’ finds a melilite

nepheline basalt occurring as dykes in the Cretaceous of Uvalde Co.,

exas, and nepheline basanites forming buttes and hills in the same

region. The basalts are typical melilite varieties, containing pheno-

erysts of olivine and micro-porphyritie crystals of melilite with all

the characteristic features of this mineral. Perofskite is a common

' Edited by Dr. W. S. Bayley, Colby agerem Waterville, Me.

*Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc. B. B. viii, p. 525

*Jour. Geol, Vol. I, p. 341.

800 The American Naturalist. [September,

accompaniment of the melilite. The basanites have an andesitic habit

and since they contain more or less sanidine, they approach phonolite

in composition. Hornblendes, two monoclinic augites and nepheline

are common as phenocrysts, while sanidine, plagioclase and olivine are

scarce. The rock of Pilot Knob, near Austin, is a porphyritic neph-

eline basalt.

Eleolite Syenite from Eastern Ontario.—Adams, while

making a geological reconnaissance in the township of Dungannon,

Ontario, discovered a large area of eleolite syenite in the Laurentian

of the region. The rock is notable especially for the fresh scapolite

and calcite present in it and for the fact that its feldspathic constituent

is an albite. Petrographically the syenite is an aggregate of the min-

erals above mentioned and hornblende, biotite, sodalite, garnet and

zircon. The nepheline is fresh. It occurs in large quantity, and

sometimes in individuals two and a half feet in length. Its composi-

tion according to Harrington is

SiO, ALU, Fe,O, s MgO K,O Na,O Loss Total

43.51 33.78 15 tr 540 1694 .40— 100.34

The mica is a dark yellow-brown variety. It is present in small

quantities only. Hornblende is also comparatively rare. It occurs in

two varieties in different specimens. One variety has a large optical

angle and a pleochroism of deep green and pale yellow tints. The

other is allied to arfvedsonite. It has a small axial angle, and is pleo-

chroic in deep bluish-green and yellowish-green tints. The scapolite

is inlarge colorless grains that are fresh and seem to be original, and

the calcite in more or less rounded individuals, often included within

the other constituents. The feldspar is largely albite. A small quan-

itity orothoclase occurs, especially associated with the sodalite. This

orothoclase is thought to be secondary.’ An analysis of the sodalite

gave:

SiO, ALO, FeO NaO KO Cl SO, xx Ins. — Total

36.58 31.05 .20 2481 .79 688 19 2 80 = 101.50

O= Cl 1.55 — 99.95.

Petrographical News.—The basic dyke material at Hamburg,

Sussex Co., N. J., which was thought to be leucite tephrite by Hus-

*Amer. Jour. Sci., 1894, XLVIII, p. 10.

*Cf. also Geol. Surv. of Can., Vol. VI, Pt. J

A rianan td onis r pd i

1894.] Petrography. 801

sak* and declared by Kemp’ to be an aggregate of pyroxene, biotite

and analcite has been examined at another place by the last named

geologist. It has been found by him to contain leucite. Hussak’s

determination is thus confirmed. The rock is a leucite tephrite.

A spherical granite from a boulder discovered on Qonochontogue

Beach in Southwestern Rhode Island is described by Kemp’ as a

eoarse granitite, with nodules from two to three inches in diameter

scattered through it. These consist of a center of coarse plagioclase

with a little quartz, surrounded by a concentric zone of biotite and

magnetite, and a peripheral one of radiating plagioclase, whose laths

end sharply against the granite matrix. The author explains the nod-

ules as centers of crystallization.

The rocks that have for the past few years been called muscovadite

by the Minnesota Geological Survey have recently been examined by

Grant," who finds among them several distinct rock types. Some of

muscovadites are fine grained aggregates of pyroxene, quartz and

feldspar, containing in their midst large flakes of biotite. Others are

composed of quartz and biotite, etc. These are considered as contact

rocks. A second class of the muscovadite comprises granulitic gab.

bros and norites.

The siliceous oolite of State College, Pa., is composed of radial

spherules of fibrous chaleedony forming bands around fragments and

rounded grains of quartz. Between the spherules are bundles of

chalcedony fibres placed normal to the surface of the spherules nearest

them, and intermingled with these are granular chalcedony and quartz.

An oolite from the Tertiary beds of New Jersey is an aggregate of

sphero-crystals of chalcedony, usually without nuclei. Occasionally

a cone of fine grained quartz is to be seen, but thisis rare. The

matrix between the spherules is partly chalcedony and partly quartz.”

Dupare and Mrazec" refer very briefly to the mineralogical compo-

sition of an occurrence of Serpentine at Geisspfad in the Swiss Alps.

The rock now contains hornblende, chromiferous diopside, diallage and

some secondary substances in addition to serpentine. The rock was

probably originally'a Lherzolite.

*Amer. Naturalist, 1893, p. 27

Tb. 1893, p. 563.

*Amer. Jour. Sci, XLVII, 1894, p. 333.

"Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., XIII, 1894, p. 140.

1'21st Ann. Rep. Minn. Survey, p. 147.

NE. O. Hovey: Bull. Geol. Soc. page Vol. 5, p. 627.

"Bull. Soc. Frane d. Min., XVI, p. 2

802 The American Naturadist. [September,

Phillips? has analyzed specimens of Pele’s hair (I) and of lava

stalagmites (II) from the caves of Kilauea, Hawaii, with these results:

SiO, Alo, FeO, FeO MnO P,O, CaO MgO Na,O K,O Total

50.76 14.75 2.89 9.85 .41 26 11.05 6.54 2.70 .88 — 100.09

51.77 15.66 8.46 6.54 .82 9.56 4.95 2.17 .96 = 100.89

Lacroix" finds specimens of nepheline basalt from Saint Sandoux,

Puy-de-Dom, France, in an old collection preserved in the College of

France.

Some of the trap dykes of the Lake Champlain region are campto-

nites. Others consist of monchiquite, fourchite or bostonite. All are

described by Kemp and Marsters” in a recent Bulletin of the Survey

Amer. Jour. Sci., XLVII, p. 473.

“Bull. Soc. Fred Min., XVII, p. 43.

Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 1 107.

3539 aim a 2 cha o Ca

————

gE ee A PNET Ra ON ARA Mc one

1894.] Botany. 803

BOTANY.

Notes on a Few Shrubs of Northern Nebraska.—Of 50

shrubs that grow in the northern tier of counties west of Antelope

County, some few have interested the writer and may prove of general

interest. The observations extend over a period of six years. They are

likely to be continued with equal profit in the years to come. The

order followed is that of Professor Bessey's * Native Trees and Shrubs

of Nebraska."

The only shrub representing the Coniferae is Juniperus communis L.

I have seen it only in Hat Creek Basin, Sioux County. There it grows

in prostrate ascending form, exactly like the juniper of Connecticut,

in dry pastures. I have no specimen of the latter, but suppose it to be

var. alpina.

Corylus americana Walt. is chiefly remarkable for its absence in

this region. I have found it only in Cherry County, ten miles east of

Valentine and 20 miles southwest on the Niobrara and its tributaries.

It is flourishing and abundant where it occurs. Its lack of distribution

may be partly accounted for by the late frosts of this high altitude

(2600 ft.), which, as this year, destroy the flowers.

Salix tristis Ait. is very common over the sand-hill portion of Cherry

County, also in Brown and Holt Counties. When it was sent to Mr.

M. S. Bebb from Long Pine, Brown County, he stated that that was its

western limit, so far as he knew. It is probable that Cherry County

furnishes the limit sixty miles further west. Gray’s Manual gives

the height * 1-13 ft. high.” It grows 5 feet high at Long Pine, in the

brush.

Salix cordata is represented by var. angustata Anders., though the

State claims var. vestita Anders. in the other portions. Mr. Bebb

(Coulter's Man.) says: “It is altogether incredible, however, that any

form of S. cordata ever attains tree-like size." I have a specimen at

Ewing, Holt Ccunty, about twenty feet high and eight inches in diam-

eter—a pretty sizable shrub! I shall measure it and take specimens

this season. I will state, however, that it retains its shrubby character

by branching ten or fifteen times just above this diameter, some of the

branches being five or six inches through.

!Edited by Prof. C. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska,

804 The American Naturalist. [September,

Rhus toxicodendron L. As an instance of adaptability to environ-

ment, this species is noteworthy. It is very common on the sandy

prairie of this region, perfectly upright, seldom over one foot high,

with no tendency to creep, fruiting freely. Even in the brush you will

seldom see it as a climber. It deserves more attention than most col-

lectors would care to give it.

The wild crab is represented in these counties by Pyrus ioensis

(Wood) Bailey. It has been commonly called, heretofore, P. coronaria

L. but is much too white-wooly. It forms large patches covering

several acres in extent, and, when not browsed by cattle, produces use-

ful fruit. Its western range, so far, is northern Brown County.

Crataegus coccinea L. also represents the family with its beautiful

scarlet clusters of edible fruit. While stray trees have been found in

Cherry County, probably coming south from Rosebud Agency, where

it is said to be common, I have not found it common west of Holt

County.

Amorpha microphylla Pursh. is a new shrub in Nebraska. I found

it last year (1893) on the gumbo hills of Holt and Boyd Counties,

very common, but quite confined to that soil. It was reported also

from another section of the State.

Up to the present time, no species of Oenothera has been reported

as shrubby so far as my reading extends. I have seen indications in

past years that caused me to suspect Oenothera serrulata Nutt of having

the character, to some extent. This year, I have abundant confirma-

ion. Here at Valentine. after a dry, hard winter that has killed whole

timber claims of forest trees by freezing dry, a plant of this species has

bloomed vigorously on shoots six inches long, starting from last year's

stock five to six inches above the ground. The situation was fully ex-

posed to all the rigors of the season. I have found several other plants

sprouting vigorously two and three inches above ground. It shows

about the same degree of hardiness as half the plants of Amorpha

canescens Nutt., and quite as much as Gutierrezia euthamiae Torr. &

Gray in this climate, both of which have long been classed as shrubs.

ee Neb. —J. M. BATEs.

Botany at Brooklyn.—The recent scientific meetings in Brook-

lyn brought out a good number of botanists, whose papers and discus-

sions touched upon nearly all parts of the subject of Botany, from

Bacteriology to Paleobotany. That all were of a high order of merit

could not be truthfully affirmed, but that all were creditable, and some

of unusual interest is true. The botanists of the country have no rea-

1894.] Botany. 805

son for feeling ashamed of their work as represented in these meet-

ings.

In the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science nearly

every paper dealt with some question more or less botanical. Here of

course, the treatment was economic rather than strictly scientific, and

yet in every case there was much of interest to the botanist. Thus

there were papers on “The Vitality of the Seeds of Red Clover”

(Beal); “The Russian Thistle in Nebraska ” ( Bessey) ; “ A possible

Relation between Blights and Exceptional Weather” (Halsted) ;

“The Growth of Lettuce as affected by Physical Properties of the

Soil” (Galloway) ; ete., ete.

The Botanical Club of the Association held several interesting ses-

sions, and took active part in a delightful excursion by boat to Cold

Spring Harbor on the north shore of Long Island. Among the

notes presented before the club were the following: “The Prothal-

lium of Marsilia vestita" (Bessey); “Notes on Oat-Smut” (Jones) ;

“The use of Formalin as a Preservative Agent ” (Galloway) ; “ Spo-

rangial trichomes on Ferns” (Durand) ; “ The Significance of Stipules

from the standpoint of Paleobotany ” (Hollick); * A Plea for the bet-

ter Pronunciation of Botanical Names” (Bessey) ; “ A Species of

Olpidium parasitic on Spirogyra” (Durand) ; * A method of making

pure cultures of Fungi” (Smith) ; etc., etc.

A Committee on the pronunciation of Botanical Names was ap-

pointed ‘consisting of Charles E. Bessey, N. L. Britton and E. L.

Greene. The officers for the next year are Douglas H. Campbell, of

Palo Alto, California, and Frederick C. Newcomb, of Ann Arbor,

Michigan.

Twenty-six papers were read before Section G, beginning with the

opening address by Vice-President Underwood, upon * The Evolution

of the Hepatiez." In this the speaker traced in a masterly way the

evolution of the several groups of the liverworts, pointing out their

mutual relationships, as well as their affinities with higher and lower

plants.

The other papers were as follows:

B. T. Galloway, “The Growth of Radishes as affected by the Size

and Weight of the Seed”; Katherine E. Golden, * The Movement of

Gases in Rhizomes”; A. D. Hopkins, “Some Interesting Conditions

in Wood resulting from the attacks of Insects and Woodpeckers ” ;

W. J. Beal, “The Sugar Maples of Central Michigan”; John

M. Coulter, “Some Affinities among Cactaceæ "; Charles E. Bessey,

“Simplification and Degeneration ” ; Frederick C. Newcomb, “ Regu-

806 The American Naturalist. September,

[Sey ,

latory Growth of Mechanical Tissue”; Charles E. Bessey, “ Further

Studies of the Relationship and Arrangement of the Flowering

Plants"; Erwin F. Smith, “The Watermelon Disease of the South " ;

L. H. Bailey, * The Relation of Age of Type to Variability "; L. H.

Bailey, “ The Struggle for Existence under Cultivation " ; “George F.

Atkinson, “ Relation between the Functions of the Vegetative and

Reproductive Leaves of Onoclea”; H. H. Rusby, “ Lophopappus, a

new genus of Mutisiaceous Composite and Fluckigeria, a new genus of

Gesneriacee " ; George F. Atkinson, “On the Swarmspores of Pythium

and Ceratiomyxa” ; Elizabeth G. Britton, * A Revision of the genus

Scouleria" ; B. G. Wilder, * Evidence as to the former existence of

large trees on Nantucket Island” ; N. L. Britton, ‘ Notes on Primary

Foliage and the Leafscars in Pinus rigida" ; Byron D. Halsted,

“Notes upon Chalara paradoxa” ; Elizabeth G. Britton, * A Hybrid

among the Mosses”; Byron D. Halsted, * Notes upon a Root-rot of

Beets”; N. L. Britton, “On Torreya as a Generic Name" ; Elizabeth

G. Britton, “Some Notes on the genus Encalypta” ; Jed. Hotchkiss,

“The Growth of Forest-trees illustrated from marked corners 107

years old”; Mrs. F. W. Patterson, “Species of Taphrina parasitic

upon Populus”; Albert Mann, “ Products of Metamorphosis and

Monstrosities " (by title only).

Reports of progress were made by several of the Committees ap-

pointed last year, and they were continued for further work.

The Committee of the charter members of the Botanical Society of

America held several meetings persuant to a call of the Chairman, Dr.

Trelease, and perfected the organization of the Society. Much time

was spent in discussing the details of the organization, and in per-

fecting plans for work. The officers for the ensuing year are as fol-

lows: President, William Trelease, St. Louis; Vice-President, N. L.

Britton, New York; Secretary, Charles R. Barnes, Madison, Wis.;

Treasurer, John D. Smith, Baltimore.

Provision was made for a meeting sometime during the sum mer of

1895, the time and place to be announced later by the Executive

Committee.

CHARLES E. Bessey.

1894.] Zoology. 807

ZOOLOGY.

On the Vertical Distribution of Pelagic Crustacea in

Green Lake, Wisconsin.—Green Lake is the deepest body of

water in the State of Wisconsin, having a maximum depth of about 60

meters. Because of its great depth it has not only the litoral and pela-

gic faunz of the shallower bodies of water, but also the true abyssal

fauna which is characteristic of the deeper lakes. In fact, the crusta-

cean fauna of Green Lake is almost identical with that of the great

lakes.

In the deeper waters of Green Lake are found fifteen species of crus-

tacea. Of these, twelve may be fairly considered as belonging pecu-

* liarly to the deep water fauna. Most of these can be captured in very

large numbers at night by means of the skimming net. During the

day, very few are found at the surface, some few never come to the

surface, and are only obtained by dredging in the deep water.

Of course, an open dredge, dropped from the surface to the bottom

and then hauled up, will collect from all depths. After a little experi-

ence, the collector has no difficulty in distinguishing between pelagic

and abyssal species, and can even draw inferences, with a reasonable

degree of accuracy, in regard to the general vertical distribution of

species. So far as I know, however, very little exact work has

done to determine the vertical limits of the various species. By means:

of dredges which could be closed at any required depth, it has been.

found that in the deep sea there is a surface fauna and a deepwater

fauna, but that the immediate intermediate region is barren of animal

life. According to Agassiz, the surface fauna extends to the depth of

200 fathoms, and the bottom fauna is limited to about 60 fathoms.

Is there a similar condition in the waters of our lakes? With a view

to answering this question, I made some preliminary collections in the

summer of 1893.

I used, for the collections, a vertical dredge, so constructed that it

could be closed at any desired depth. The collections upon which this

paper is based were made in the latter part of August, at all hours be-

tween five o’clock in the morning and nine o’clock at night. Each

series included collections for every five meters in depth. Of course,

until a much larger number of collections is made, and at different sea-

sons of the year, no final conclusions can be drawn. But the results

808 j The American Naturalist. i [September,

thus far are interesting, and I think later collections are not likely to

modify, to any great extent, the conclusions I have formed.

'The results were a little disappointing to me at first, I must confess.

I had made up my mind that I should find the three regions character-

istic of the deep sea—the pelagic, intermediate and abyssal. It was

rather discouraging, then, when I found material in my dredge from

all depths. Not only that, but when I began to examine the collec-

tions under the microscope, I found certain species, which I had con-

sidered peculiar to the surface—like Diaptomus minutus—occurring all

the way from the surface to the mud of the bottom. The barren inter-

mediate zone, then, does not exist in Green Lake. It is true, however,

that the numbers of individuals are less at intermediate depths than

near the surface or near the bottom, and that some species are vastly

more numerous in the upper zone, while others are almost entirely con-

fined to the lower.

I counted the number of individuals in each haul, and after reduc-

ing the numbers to percentages, tabulated the results. :

I will give brietly the conclusions I reached in regard to those spe-

cies which are found most commonly.

The species which is found in the greatest numbers is Diaptomus

minutus. In one haul this was associated with D. sicilis (a somewhat

rare form in Green Lake), and in my computation I did not separate

the two, as their habits are identical. On the average, 46 per cent of

this species is within five meters of the surface, and 59.4 per cent within

ten meters. Within ten meters of the bottom are only 7.37 per cent.

It is evident that more than one-half of the individuals of these species

are found within ten meters of the surface, and that from that point to

the bottom, the numbers steadily decrease.

Daphnella is more exclusively pelagic—79 per cent being found

within ten meters of the surface, and only 5.6 per cent at the bottom.

Epischura is still more distinctly pelagic—81 per cent being in the

first ten meters, and 3.3 per cent in the last ten.

Leptodora, Bosmina and Cyclops fluviatilis are also found much more

abundantly near the surface. Leptodora rarely goes below fifteen

meters.

Daphnia kahlbergiensis seems somewhat erratic in its distribution.

On the average, nearly 43 per cent are found within the first ten

meters, but nearly 25 per cent are found in the last ten. Generally

speaking, they appear more numerous near the surface and the bottom,

but less so at intermediate depths. But they may occur at all depths,

and sometimes quite numerously in the intermediate region.

1894.] i Zoology. 809

Limnocalanus macrurus rarely, if ever, comes to the surface, and is

found most abundantly within.20 meters of the bottom. Nordqvist

states that he found L. maerurus in Finland, in June, most abundant

at twelve meters below the surface, where the total depth was 25 to 26

meters. j

Pontoporeia and Mysis live at the bottom, and belong to the true

abyssal fauna. :

In regard to the diurnal migrations of the pelagic species, I found it

difficult to fix any exact limits. As has been before stated, they come

to the surface at night. In the daytime, few of them go below ten

meters. Daphnia kahlbergiensis, however, seems to be an exception,

for, apparently, its migrations are limited only by the depth of the

lake, and sometimes from 40 to 80 per cent are in the last ten meters.

As a result of these collections, I was led to doubt the value of

“ Plankton” determinations, at least so far as crustacea are concerned,

All such determinations must start with the assumption that the life of

the deeper waters is distributed uniformly. If this were true, succes-

sive hauls in the same depth of water would contain approximately the

same number of individuals. This was far from the case in my collec-

tions. The position in the successive collections varied only as the

boat drifted very slowly; yet the number of Diaptomi varied from

291 to 2,966 ; Daphnella from 0 to 122; Daphnia kahlbergiensis from 6

to 103, and Epischura from 7 to 105. It seems probable that they are

present in swarms, and that the positions of the swarms are continually

changing.

Zacharias, in his last report from the biological Station at Plón, has

reached the same conclusions, not only in regard to the crustacea, but

also the other pelagic organisms. “Plankton” determinations, in order

to have much value, must be almost infinite in number.

Beginning with the fall of 1894, systematie work of a more detailed

character will be carried on at Green Lake, as the Trustees of Ripon

College have made an appropriation for the purpose.

—C. Dwicur Marsa, Ripon College, Wisconsin.

Rotatoria of the Great Lakes.—The Michigan Fish Commis-

sion have issued, as Bulletin No. 3, a list of the Rotatoria found in

Lake St. Clair and some of the inland lakes of Michigan, prepared by

Mr. H. S. Jennings. Of the 122 rotifers named in the list, 6 are here

described and figured for the first time. Strongly swimming forms,

commonly found in the open water, are designated pelagic ; those found

among the vegetation of the shores and bottom, littoral. Of the former,

810 The American Naturalist. [September,

20 were observed in Lake St. Clair. In the case of the inland lakes,

collections were made from the shore only. The most abundant pelagic

species are Polyarthra platyptera Ehrbg., Anuraea cochlearis Gosse,

and Asplanchna priodonta Gosse, which agree, in this respect, with

the condition found in European lakes.

The Internal Anatomy and Relationship of Pauropus.—

According to Peter Schmidt, whose preliminary paper appeared in the.

Zoologischer Anzeiger, the internal anatomy of Pauropus allies it most

closely with Polyxenus among the Diplopoda. The absence of trachea,

of malpighian tubes and of a circulatory system, together with the

presence of a rather complicated genital apparatus in the male, seem to

show that it is very degenerate. That it belongs along with the Dip-

lopoda—a fact that has been questioned—the presence of the ovary

below the intestine, of the genital openings in the third body segment

behind the second pair of legs, and of only two pairs of oval append-

ages, abundantly testify. The biramose antenns may possibly be ex-

plained by a comparison with the sense papilla at the end of the

terminal joint of the Diplopod antenna, the more readily, too, since,

according to Schmidt, the distal portions of the rami, the geisseln of

Latzel appear to be finely ringed and not segmented.

Several peculiarities are interesting. The mid-gut is without a mus-

cularis and its epithelial cells are filled with rhomboid crystals with

double refractive powers. The supra- and sub-cesophageal and the

first body ganglia are fused into one mass which is pierced by a very

short fore-gut. The small processes on the first segment bre rudi-

mentary legs and possibly function in respiration like

the abdominal sacs of Thysanura, Symphyla and cer-

tain Diplopods. The sense organ of the antenne,

the globulus of Latzel, consists of an outer and inner

capsule with the intervening space filled with a fluid.

The whole is surrounded by ten or twelve bristles

while the nerve passes into the inner capsule and ex-

pands into a nail-like head. (Fig: 1.) Fig. 1.

The female genital apparatus consists of an unpaired ovary lying,

beneath the intestine, an unpaired receptaculum seminis and an oviduct

opening to the exterior by an unpaired opening to the one side of the

median line in the third segment. In the male there is an unpaired

testis above the intestine, a complicated pair of ducts, a pair of seminal

‘Zur Kenntniss des inneren Baues des Pauropus huxleyi Lubb. Zool. Anz.,

XVI, 189

1894.] Zoology. 811

glands, and a pair of genital openings. Near the middle the testis

communicates with the two small vasa deferentia that open into two

deac, depe Ava. vs

Diagrammatic representation of the n Pauropus huxleyi Lubb.

A. From the left side, II-IX the coxa pos the II-IX | kein legs; t, testis; v.d, vas

deferens ; W.S., FAEN seminales ; an, anastomosis; d.e.p., Ductus E pos-

terior ; o, opening between the d.e.p. ; d.e.p.c., Duct. ejac. post. communis ; d.e.a.c.,

Duct. ejac. anterior communis ; gl., glandula accessoria ; d.e.a. um ejac. anterior;

£9, genital opening ; nis.

B. From the right, Pulvis shortened.

C. The anterior part from above.

large tubes which are bent upon themselves. These open posteriorly into

two ducts that run forward beneath the intestine. The anterior half of

each of them is double. In the fourth segment they unite into a short

tube on the side of the body. This communieates with a transverse tube

into which the seminal vesicles open, and which opens to the exterior

by two openings.

The spermatozoa are pod-like. —F. C. Kenyon.

Thysanura from the Cave of Central France.—M. R.

Moniez describes three new species of Thysanoures from the grotto of

Dargilan in the Department of Lozére, France. The first, Qampodea

dargilani, appears to be the third of a series of forms adapted progres-

sively for a life in darkness. That is, the characters of C. staphylinus,

the type of the genus living in open air, are more accentuated in C.

eoopei, a cave form, and are carried to an extreme in C. dargilani.

The second, Sira eavernarum, is white, covered with transparent scales,

and is entirely blind. The third, Lipura cirrigera, is characterized by

812 The American Naturalist. [September,

tufts of 6 or 7 cirrhi at the base of the second joint of the attenne.

These cirrh: are spaced at their insertion and recurved. These organs

are jpresent in the other Lipurae, but in so rudimentary a state that

they have heretofore escaped observation. (Revue Biol. de Nord.,

Dec., 1893

Result of a Comparison of Antipodal Faunas.—Prof. Gill’s

paper on a comparison of the piscine fauna of the British island with

that of the New Zealand waters contains some important deductions.

An analysis of a tabulated list of the families of these two regions

shows that twenty-five families are represented in the New Zealand

seas and not in the British; of these eleven are peculiar to the South-

ern Hemisphere; four are represented in the Northern Pacific, but not

in the North Atlantic; and ten, although not represented in the Brit-

ish seas, have quite a general distribution.

Of the fresh-water species, those characteristic of the Northern

Hemisphere are, with the exception of the Argentinidae, entirely un-

represented in the Southern, while the Antipodal types are wanting in

the Northern zones.

According to Professor Hutton, the New Zealand Fishes belong to

no less than six distinct geographical realms: Notalian, Antarctalian,

Pelagalian, Bassalian, Tropicalian and Ornithogsan. A consideration

of these various elements and comparison of them with those of other

regions leads Dr. Gill to the following conclusions :

e main marine fauna of New Zealand is derived from represen-

tatives of the general stock which has become developed in the great

Notalian realm. The number of species apparently peculiar to the

province, and, therefore, modified from other or earlier representatives,

indicates a long period of isolation in accordance with its distance

from the nearest continents and the depth of the intervening ocean.

The percentage of such peculiar species seems to entitle it to rank as a

distinet region (or subregion) rather than as an integral portion of the

Notalian region composed of the isothermal portions of Australia and

Tasmania, as has been generally done. A more extended study and

actual comparison of the species of the two regions may, however, com-

pel a reconsideration of this view."

“ The fresh-water fishes must have been derived from the same com-

mon source as those of the isothermal portions of Australia (of course,

including Tasmania) and South America. There may not have been

a continuity of land at any one time between South America, Austra-

lia and New Zealand, but, at more remote period in the past, it is, at

1894.] Zoology. 813

least, possible that there was a region in which the Galaxiids and

Haplochitonids were developed, and subsequently representatives of

those families might have found their way into the regions where they

now abound."

In the discussion of the possibilities of the origin of the present

types of the fresh-water fishes of New Zealand, it appears that Dr. Gill

is of the opinion that “community in type must be the expression of

community of origin, and the presence of fishes of long-established fresh-

water types must imply continuity or at least contiguity of the landsin

the midst of which they occur at some time or other.” He then adds:

“ We may be permitted to postulate (fishes being congeneric in New

Zealand, Australia and South America), that there existed some ter-

restrial passageway between the several regions at a time as late as the

close of the Mesozoic period. The evidence of such a connection

afforded by congeneric fishes is fortified by analogous representatives

among insects, mollusks, and even amphibians. The separation of the

several areas must, however, have occurred little later than the early

Tertiary, inasmuch as the salt-water fishes of corresponding isotherms

found along the coasts of the now widely separated lands are to such

a large extent specifically different. In general, change seems to take

place more rapidly among marine animals than fresh-water represen-

tatives of the same class.” (Fifth Mém., Vol. VI, Natl. Acad. Sciences.)

The Carotid, Thymus, and Thyroid Glands form the sub-

ject of a rather lengthy paper by A. Prenant.’ He had a good series of

embryos, and studied carefully the histological changes during de-

velopment. According to him the carotid gland originates from the

third entodermal branchial pouch, and at first becomes closely con-

nected with the primitive carotid artery, but later loses this connection

and becomes united with the head of the thymus. In regard to the

lymphoid transformation of the thymus, he says that in embryos, from

25 and 85 mm. in length, there appear small nuclear elements among

the primitive epithelial cells, which stain deeply and are comparable

to lymphocytes. The thymus in embryos of 85 mm. and upwards be-

gins to differentiate itself into an outer cortical portion and an inner

medulary portion. "The latter is clearer, looser in texture and poorer

in lympathie elements than the cortical portions. This further be-

comes differentiated into a peripheral and an inner portion. The

former stains less, is richer in karyokinetic figures than the latter. It

"Contribution à l’etude de développement organique et histologique des Thy-

mus de la glande thyroid, et de la glande carotidienne. A. Prenant, La Cellule, X.

814 The American Naturalist. [September,

is doubtless a germ of proliferation. Nothing surrounding the organ

authorizes the supposition that this is a muscular connective tissue

which produces the lymphocytes that fill the organ. It is probable

that epithelial cells after multiplying actively by mitosis, give rise to

the lymphocytes by simple division (stenose). For large nuclei with

small buds frequently occur and small nuclear bodies may be seen by

the side of large nuclei and within the same. This mode of division is

more common in the earlier stages. In older embryos the lymphocytes

are formed karyokinetically. The epithelial cells that probably persist

even in the completely developed organ he compares with the cells

forming the matrix of the testis and the coveys of lymphocytes aris-

ing from them with the seminal elements.

The lateral portions of the thyroid develop from the fourth entoder-

mal branchial pouch, which is forked. From the angle of this there

grows up an organ that in structure and appearance is comparable

with the carotid gland. This he calls the glande thyroidienne. It

finally comes to lie outside of the vascular-connective hilum of the thy-

roid. During development an anfractuous cavity appears in the thyroid

and is prolonged in every direction by deep diverticula. At first its walls

are stratified and then simple. The superficial cells disappear after a

transformation comparable to that which occurs in the internal assizes

of the epithelium of the esophagus. The wall produces around itself a

cellular reticulate structure of dense aspect, which later disappears.

Whether the lateral gland gives rise to buds that become confusingly

anastomosed and eventually transformed into thyroid vesicles, or

whether the lobes of the median gland solder themselves to the tissue

of the lateral gland, it is impossible to say.

There is very little of a comparative nature in the paper beyond an

attempt to introduce a formula to represent the number and position of

the glands in invertebrata. This is not nearly as readily understood

as a simple diagramatic figure; moreover, it is entirely unnecessary.

Of possible interest in connection with the work of Prenant is a

short paper by J. Beard on the Development and Probable Function

ofthe Thymus? In Raja he declares that the epithelial nature and

appearance of the cells composing the gland is lost very soon after their

formation. Their nuclei stain intensely, and the cell-body, i. e., the

protoplasm, is very scant from the start. It is clear that there is no in-

wandering of lymph cells, but that these elements are the direct off-

spring of the epithelium of the gill cleft.

*Anat. Anz., IX, p. 476.

Wis

Bc E ea ET

BC ECRIRE Eee ee ene

1894.] Zoology. 815

As to the function of the gland, bearing in mind the observations of

Stóhr and Killian on the tonsils, he concludes that the thymus exists in

fishes for the protection of the gills from bacteria, etc., by the forma-

tion of leucocytes. With the disappearance of the gills of fishes and

perrennibranchiate amphibians, the gland undergoes a restriction in

the area of its formation and its functions are transformed to other

organs. In the higher vertebrates this protective function is trans-

ferred to the tonsils at the opening of the respiratory passage.

—F. C. Kenyon.

816 The American Naturalist, ~ [September,

ENTOMOLOGY.

On the larvæ and pupæ of Hololepta and Pyrochroa.—

Aside from those of direct economic importance, the larvæ of North

American Coleoptera have received too little attention from entomolo-

gists, and many of our common beetles are quite unknown in their early

stages, while others have received passing notice in text-books or agri-

cultural reports, with here and there a figure, and sometimes a few words:

of description, more or less vague. Many of the injurious ones have

been, however, investigated in the most thorough manner by our best

students of insect life.

The two species treated of in the present paper have not before been

given space in our literature beyond, in one case,a short note. It has,

therefore, been thought fit to furnish detailed descriptions and figures

for the use of those who may wish to indentify specimens in their pos-

session.

HoroLEPTA FossULARIS Say. Plate XXVI, figs. 1, a, b, c, d.

Color of larva nearly white, head chestnut, prothorax with a trian-

gular space, occupying most of the upper surface, a little lighter than

the head. Back with a dark line for the greater portion of the length

where the viscera show through.

Form elongate, somewhat flattened ; length 17.5 mm.

Head castaneous, quadrate, broader than long; above strongly flat-

tened, with four impressed lines on the front and an impressed space

near the base of each antenna, from which a line of punctures runs to

the base. Anterior margin produced, truncate in front, and with a lobe

over each mandible. Beneath, less flattened, with a broad, deep im- -

pressed space on the gular region, extending in the form of a narrow

groove to the base.

Antenne arising from the sides of the head, immediately behind the

base of the mandibles, four-jointed, the first joint very short, sunken,

the second long, the third shorter, subtriangular, with three papillz at

end, fourth joint again shorter, elongate oval. There are, apparently,

no bristles, except two short and inconspicuous ones at the tip of the

last joint.

Eyes are, apparently, altogether wanting.

! Edited by Clarence M. Weed, New Hampshire College, Durham, N. H.

1894.] Entomology. 817

Mandibles stout, rather long, curved, with a strong, rounded tooth

before the middle.

Maxillz composed of a long, stout basal piece, heavily bristled, es-

pecially on the inside, a shorter second joint, which bears a one-jointed

appendix, tipped by a bristle, on the outside; third, fourth and

fifth joints subequal, the last two, however, a trifle longer and more

slender.

Mentum borne on a tuberculiform base, elongate, wider near the tip,

palpi two-jointed terminal joint longer.

Prothorax corneous, transverse, sides and base somewhat rounded,

apex nearly truncate, median line distinct, rather deep, a deeper i impres-

sion each side external to which isa vague foveate impression. Beneath

with two deeply impressed lines strongly convergent anteriorly, poste-

rior to which are two foveæ.

Meso- and metathorax much shorter than the prothorax, membran-

ous with a long, crescentic, horny scute at middle, both above and be-

low, and smaller ones at sides. Each of these segments bears a lateral

bristle.

Abdomen of nine segments, which are protuberant near the middle

of the sides and transversely wrinkled, armed with two lateral and one

ventro-lateral bristle on each side. Each segment except the last is

granulato-spinose on the scutes of the under surface; the last bears two

bi-artieulate appendages, each armed with five bristles, as shown in the

figure. The anus is inferior.

Spiracles in nine pairs, the first situated beneath the anterior meso-

thoracic angles, the others in segments 1 to 8 of the abdomen, near the

anterior margins and somewhat ventro-laterally.

Legs small, weak. slender. The cox are rounded, imperfectly chit-

inized, the trochanter distinctly marked, femur somewhat creased on

the edges, tibi: shorter, slightly bristled, claw single with two short

bristles at about the middle of the length

The pupa is white, 10 mm. in length and of the same general shape

as the beetle, but with a more pointed abdomen; the meso-metasternal

area is coarsely punctured.

Nearly full-grown larve of this species were found under the bark

of an old cottonwood log near the end of March, between the thin

layers next to the wood. In captivity they fed upon the pups of

Diptera taken in the same situation. After several days the largest

one constructed a case of small pieces of bark; the dimensions were

14 by 7 mm., the outside rough, but the inside perfectly smooth. In

this case the change to a pupa took place after a rest of above a

week.

818 The American Naturalist. [September,

PvROCHROA FLABELATA Fabr. Plate XXVI, figs. 2, a, b, c, d, e, f.

Color of full-grown larva clear, light yellow, the head, especially the

mouth parts, and theterminal processes castaneous.

Form elongate, much depressed, sides sub-parallel, slightly broader be-

hind, segments with dorso- and ventro-lateral bristles. "Terminal seg-

ment corneous with two stout processes directed upward and backward.

Length 34.5 mm.

Head corneous, free, the sides strongly rounded, front produced at

middle, labrum distinct, tip sinuate more prominent at middle, anterior

margin strongly bristled, suture very slightly sinuate. Top of head

with a depressed space surrounding a large tubercle, anteriorly with

transverse striations and two tolerably distinct longitudinal lines.

Eyes consist of four ocelli on each side of the head, just posterior to

the antenne. The three anterior ones in each group are arranged in

a slightly oblique curved line, back of the middle of which the fourth

is placed.

Antenne lateral, situated behind the base of the mandibles, four-

jointed, the first joint stout, short, the second long, third and fourth

subequal, together somewhat longer than the second. The fourth joint

is much more slender than the third, and all are strongly bristled.

Mandibles extremely stout and heavy, deep, the tip emarginate, inter-

nally strongly toothed, as shown by the drawing.

Maxillz large, strong corneous ; the lobe is sinuate on the inner mar-

gin and armed with bristles, those near the end arrayed in rows, the

inner apical ones recurved. The palpi are stout, the second and

third joints about equal and separately longer than the first; all are

ristly.

Mentum of the form shown in fig. 2 f£. The shaded portion is

thicker and more perfectly chitinized than the remainder, and has

every appearance of being divided by sutures from the underlying and

superimposed pieces.

Prothorax about equal in width to the head, the sides nearly straight,

except at the angles, where they are abruptly directed inwards. Median

line distinet with a fovea each side anterior to the middle and crossed

in front of these by a fine transverse line. Beneath with two strongly

impressed lines which, originating between the coxæ, diverge strongly

in front and attain the margin near the anterior angles, the triangular

space thus enclosed being also bistriate at middle.

Mesothorax broadest near the base, more convex than the prothorax,

with distinct median line, and, on each side of this, a vague double fovea,

1894.] Entomoiogy. 819

slightly behind the middle. Anteriorly there is a fine transverse line

crossing the median one at right angles. Beneath is a smooth subquad-

rate space, usually bounded at sides and behind (except for a short dis-

tance at middle) by broad, deeply impressed lines.

Metathorax similar, but the lines beneath effect a junction at the

middle.

Abdomen with the first seven segments quite similar in form, suban-

gulate at the sides, median dorsal and anterior transverse lines distinct,

the former more so. Beneath is a very well marked submarginal plica.

The eighth segment is larger, longer, more perfectly chitinized, sides

slightly rounded. Median dorsal line very distinct, with a less distinct

oblique one on each side. Beneath there is an impressed median line

which has posteriorly a slightly elevated carina on each side; external

to this is a sinuous broader line each side, and outside of this again a

very deep impression which extends from a point distant about one-fifth

from the basal lateral margin to the posterior angle of the segment.

The anal segment is small, carinate, more distinetly at base, visible

only from beneath, being overlaid by a corneous plate bearing two spi-

nose and granulate processes. Viewed from above the space between

these processes is somewhat semicircular in outline, and the two cu/-de-

sacs between them are distinctly visible. From beneath the processes

look almost straight and the cul-de-sacs do not appear. The accompany-

ing figure will give a much better idea of this complicated structure

than a description can conve

Spiracles in nine pairs, the iret situated in the mesothorax under

the anterior angles, the rest abdominal. The pair on the first abdom-

inal segment is dorso-lateral, the next lateral,and the remainder (in

segments 3 to 8) are ventro-lateral; all except the last pair, which are

behind the middle, are placed nearer the anterior than the posterior

margin of the segment.

Legs stout, cox: not very prominent, femora strong, broader at tip

and compressed within, tibial pieces subcylindrical, claws single, long,

curved, with an indistinct blunt tooth and a bristle near the base. The

suture between the femur and trochanter is well marked, and these as

well as the tibiz are rather sparsely bristled.

Larvs of the above mentioned species were taken at Iowa City on

the 13th of April from beneath the bark of a rotting elm log. On the

7th of May one of them changed to an elongate white pupa, 16 mm.

in length, which had the power of moving very rapidly about on its

back, tail foremost. It was very sensitive, a slight touch on any of

820 The American Naturalist. [September, ,

the bristles sufficing to set it in motion. The beetle appeared on May

16th.

In a short note on page 76 of the third volume of Psvcnr, Mr. H.

L. Moody has given us a means of distinguishing the larve of four of

the species of the family Pyrochroide that he has raised. The larva

of Schizotus cervicalis he says is of a smoky tint, while the remaining

three (mentioned hereafter) are yellow ; of these, Dendroides canadensis

has long, slender, curved processes nearly one-third longer than the

basal portion, and the cu/-de-sacs not visible from above; D. concolor

has stouter, nearly straight processes hardly longer than the basal por-

tion, and the tips are obliquely cut off on the inner side, while the cul-

de-sacs are just visible (by the projecting lower margin) from above. In

Pyrochroa flabellata the processes are nearly straight on the inner edge

when viewed from below, and short, strongly dentate; the cul-de-sacs

are very large, plainly visible from above. I notice that the length of

the processes is subject to some little variation, but no doubt these char-

acters will hold good in general.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE.

Fig.1. Hololepta fossularis Say, larva; a, pupa; b, mouth and an-

tenna from below ; c, anterior leg; d, caudal appendix.

Fig. 2. Pyrochroa flabellata Fabr., larva; a, pupa; b, antenna; c,

mandible; d, terminal portion of abdomen from below; e, maxilla; f,

mentum.

H. F. WicknaM, Iowa City, Iowa.

usc nme se

1894.] Archeolog, and Ethnology. 821

ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.

Gailenreuth Cave in 1894.— Dr. Zittel says (Beiträge zur An-

thropologie und Urgeschichte Baierns ii, p. 226) that the remarkable

discoveries in the English and French caves about 1875, caused the

comparatively recent exploration, notably by Dr. Fraas (about 1877),

of caverns in the limestone valleys of the upper tributaries of the Main

(in the Franconian Switzerland, Bavaria) and along the northern con-

fluents of the Danube (in Würtemberg). But, as he explains, J. F.

Esper (Ausführliche Nachricht von neuentdeckten Zoolithen, 1774),

had scientifically examined several of the Wiesent Valley caves (in

Franconia) more than a hundred years before, and, as far as is known,

had anticipated all investigators—even the Rev. McEnery, the long-

neglected explorer of Kent's Hole—in the discovery of human remains

associated with the bones of extinct Plistocene mammals.

The cave map of Bavaria (Beitrüge zur Urgesch. Bai. 2, plate 14)

is thickly dotted with the red signs for caverns in the mill region north

of the right Danube bank between Ulm and Ratisbon, here and there

in the Alpine valleys of the Iller, Isar and Saal far to the southward,

but thickest of allalong the upper Main Valley by the Wiesent, Ails-

bach and Püttbach tributaries, about a spot twenty miles to the south-

west of Bayreuth. Here it was, in the hill-top cave, one-quarter of a

mile from the Castle Gailenreuth (left bank of Wiesent, two miles

above Muggendorf ), that Esper’s most important work was done. The

entombed bones of legendary Dragons and Unicorns, the extraordinary

teeth exhumed during the Middle Ages to be ground into medical nos-

trums, had not yet been rearranged into the now well-known shapes of

Mammoth, Cave Bear, Hyena and Rhinoceros. Human prehistoric

work in stone was unrecognized, and the existence of River Drift and

Cave Men was unsuspected, when at Gailenreuth, on finding a human

jaw with three teeth and a shoulder-blade in a layer of “Antediluvian "

bones, Esper made the memorable observation :

“Since they (the human remains) lay under the animal bones with

which the Gailenreuth Cave was filled ; since they were found in what,

in all probability, was their original layer, I infer, not without adequate

ground, that these human relics were of like age with the animal re-

mains above them."

This remarkable inference, in 1774, making Gailenreuth classic

ground for the cave explorer, was carried no farther by Esper. Nor

* This department is edited by H. C. Mercer, University of Pennsylvania.

822 The American Naturalist. [September,

did it impress Buckland who, though he visited the cave in 1816, and

carried a skull afterwards found (now in the Oxford Museum) to Eng-

land, seems to have regarded with indifference the similar observations

of McEnery at Kent’s Hole. No further cave exploration was under-

taken in the Franconian region until 1878.

The Gailenreuth Cave or “ Zoolithenhóhle" enters the top of a gentle

hill separated from the brink of the widest gorge (about 290 feet deep)

by a level plateau. Cold and wet as I found it, in August, 1894, and

accessible from the stream only after a steep climb, with an entrance

(now walled up) invisible from the valley, and not at all conspicuous

from the plateau above, the remote forest-hidden cavern, like Hartman’s

Cave in Pennsylvania, had the look rather of an animal den than a

possible habitation for primitive savages.

Esper found its two spacious chambers as now level-floored with the

entrance and ending in two or more chasms 20 feet deep by 6 to 10 feet

in diameter in the rear. His description makes it uncertain whether

he dug his trenches at the bottom of the chasms or on the chamber

floors, how deep he went, and whether he reached rock bottom. In his

search for bones the following points were noted :

(1) The pottery—The whole cave floor (chambers and chasms) was

covered with a bed of charcoal, above which rested a layer of potsherds.

These he divided into four kinds: (a) rude hand made of red brick

clay mixed with coarse sand ; (b) of rude, sandy clay, with fragments

of quartz ; (c) of finely worked potters' clay, smoked dark and glazed

outside and in; and (d) of carefully worked, fine red potters' clay.

Repeating the notion of cremation of bodies, he supposed that the

potsherds were the remains of the urns in which food had been placed

near sacred fires built by Huns or Wends to the spirits of their kins-

folk 800 to 1000 years before.

This pottery is still abundant. I scratched out several pieces in

the disturbed earth at the bottom of one of the chasms. Esper says

that it does not occur at a greater depth than three feet.

(2) The immense number of animal bones—The fauna afterward

identified, given by Ranke, consisted of Mammoth, Giant Elk, Rein-

deer, Cave Bear (dominant), Gray Bear, Brown Bear, Cave Lion,

Cave Hyena, Woolly Rhinoceros,’ Wolf, Fox, Beaver, Glutton, Cave

Rat and Ground Squirrel. The bones lay in confusion at the bottom

of the chasms and in a thick bed under the potsherds on the chamber

? Ranke (Beiträge 2, p. 196), quoting Dawkins, does not mention Woolly Rhi-

noceros, Glutton (Gulo spelaea), Beaver, Arvicola spelaea, and Squirrel, but I

found them labelled from Gailenreuth in the Schloss Museum at Bayreuth.

Cu. MORE ORARE EIS es a S

PLATE XXVI.

4c.

‘

Hololepta and Pyrochroa.

1894] - r3 eo Archeology and Ethnology. Wie 823

1 . . floors, and how they got there has remained a puzzle to the present day.

I found the gnawed fore-leg bone of Ursus spelaeus at the hottom of

one of the chasms, but the Carnivora or men could not have brought in T OM

the fossils, since none, it seems, have been mentioned as split for the *

marrow and very few gnawed.

If water washed them in (and this has seemed likely from the peb-

bles found mixed with them), then we must imagine a valley nearly

the size of the Niagara Gorge, as yet uneroded, with the Wiesent some- K

how sweeping into the cave the bones and not the carcasses of animals ss p

à that had perished along its shores. e"

Animals often go into caves to die, but Esper urges they could not

|: . have done so in this case, as he found no skeletons entire. He suggests

an immense flood driving them to the cave for refuge, where, being

drowned, their remains were washed about and broken by surging

waters. But, after fairly stating the objections to this and other

theories, he gives up the problem in despair.

sper based his notion of the immense number of animals represent-

ed, not on the fragments found, but upon a white, chalky layer of de-

composed bones, which he does not describe as continuous, discovered

by him in several parts of the cavern. If we give this up as a test of

quantity, we have only left for a witness of the often alleged prodigious

number of individuals im Gailenreuth, the thickly scattered fragments

from 3 to 6 inches long, and in the proportion of about 15 to a half _

bushel of earth, which I saw on seratching with a hoe, at the tete of

| | the chasms

Spite of all the bone hunting done in the cave, there are peobeblg as

.. many of these pieces (which no collector would want) as ever. Andif , |

it is fair to guess at the ratio of bones to earth from them, and from

the odds and ends set in the growing stalagmite of the walls, the num-

|. ^... ber of entombed animals, though great, was not extravagantly so. ut

aoe (3) The human bones.—The jaw and shoulder blade Esper found

at a depth, not exactly stated, of several feet under an extending ledge —

: of rock at'a point not since identified. They were bedded in a layer

u one foot thick of fossils mixed with pebbles, which underlaid the white 5 %

i chalky stratum of decomposed bones above-noted, and have been, un- . a

- fortunately, lost. I found no description of the position of the skull —

mentioned by Ranke as afterwards found in the cave, and taken to -

England by Buckland. —

e Potsherds, according to Esper, were found at depths of three fet, ——

|. . and without more conclusive evidence, it must remain doubtful whether | m

. jn this ease the human bones were not intrusive and to be referred toa

| later time than t that of the fossi] PNE co on 5

4 T BA The American Naturalist. [September,

In the bottom of one of the chasms, which had evidently been dis- `

turbed by previous digging to a considerable depth, my scratching

brought to light two teeth, a lower jaw and leg bone of Ursus spelaeus.

The wet stalagmitic walls of the rift were scantily bedded with bone

fragments, and I saw many pieces set in loose fragments of breccia

which recent fossil hunters had gouged out of the walls and found not

worth taking away. No doubt crusts of stalagmite projecting here and

there from the walls over the cave earth had been broken through, but

I saw no signs of previously-existing floors of large extent in the

chasm.

Here, where some loose bones steeped in carbonate of lime were hard

as stone, while others projected from the drip looked comparatively

fresh,’ the value of breccia, of fossilization, and of stalagmitic crusts

covering underplaced layers as tests of age seemed small. Still more

was I inclined to reject such criteria when, a few days later, I was -

shown stalactites 60 centimeters long produced in fifteen years on the

reservoir roof at Bayreuth, and when Professor Adami, of Bayreuth, =

told me that he had seen, in 1884, stalactites in a tunnel between Zel-

fenkasten and Conters (in Switzerland) 6 inches long and forty years

old. It was soon apparent that a great deal of digging had been done

in the cave. No doubt the searchers for “ Unicorns horns” had been

there before Esper. Doubtless * Neuhaus Hans " of recent local fame

had found profit in the contents of down-reaching fissures. But, in

` spite of the frequent overturning of mould and breccia, it might not be

impossible still to demonstrate the meaning of the layers at Gailen-

reuth. The bottoms of the chasms have probably, owing to the cramped

space, never been reached, and several places may well exist in the up-

per chamber floors that have not been disturbed at all. However that

may be, Gailenreuth, the starting point of modern cave exploration,

shows well the bearings and the difficulties of real work done in cav- -

erns, and suggests many of the puzzles which still perplex the investi-

gator. . C. MERCER.

3 Like the Cave Bear and Lion skulls in the Schloss Museum at Bayrenth.

1894], Microscopy. . 825-

MICROSCOPY?

Notes on Gold Impregnation Technique.—The following

method of using formic acid and gold chloride is a modification, or

adaptation of a method used by Miss Julia B. Platt and kindly sug-

gested by her to me. She refers it to Professor Mark of Harvard

University. I have used it in tracing the nervous system of Nephelis

lateralis and have found it reliable. In leech tissues, it differentiates

all nerve tissue, though the histology of other tissues is poor. After

more than a year's use of this method without a complete failure

among my preparations, I feel that Lee's characterization of the other

methods of gold staining does not apply to this method.

It has been used successfully on larval vertebrate material as well as

on leech tissue, by varying the strength of the formic acid, or the time

of its applieation. "The other factors are to a great extent indifferent

as to strength used or time employed. If maceration occurs, lessen

the action of the formie by weakening or by shortening the time. If

the impregnation is slight, increase the action. The thickness of the

piece stained should not exceed 5 mm., and the tissue must be living.

The following i is the process euiployed with Nephelis :

The leech is put into twenty or thirty times its bulk of 10% formie

acid and left from 3 to 5 minutes. It dies well extended. Transfer

without washing to 1% Gold chloride (of commerce) for 25 minutes; -

then without washing into 1% formic acid for 24 hours, or until reduc-

tion is complete. This is indicated by a rich purple color over the

whole specimen. Wash slightly in tap water; run up through the

alcohols to chloroform; to chloroform saturated with hard paraffine.

My sections are usually cut 16% thick. * When the impregnation

appears to be very light—almost a failure, stain the sections on the

slide with erythrosin or some other deep red anilin stain for contrast. .

These sections will often show the most exquisite details. |

Transparent larve 5 to 10 mm. long require a milder treatment,

— such as the following: 5% formic acid 2 or 3 minutes, 1% or }% gold

chloride 10 minutes, weak formic 1 to 4 hours. If the specimens are

= watched from time to time under the dissecting lens, it will be seen :

that the central nervous system stains first and then the peripheral. —

The reduetion of the gold chloride: may POUE of course, at any

point by transferring to alcohol.

‘Edited t by C. O. Whitman, University of Chicago.

8360 . The American Naturalist. [September,

All the operations described above were conducted in diffuse day-

light and the gold chloride solution was exposed to sunlight for some

time before using. This may not be an essential factor to the process,

but Dr. L. Lindsay Johnson, in the third edition of Lee's Vade

Mecum, suggests that failure to’ ripen the solution by sunning may be

the cause of many of the failures in gold staining.

| C. L. BRISTOL.

University of Chicago, April 14, 1894.

Gold Chloride-Formic Acid Staining of Sections after

Fixation in Sublimate Alcohol.—S. Apathy in the the Zeitschrift,

für Wissenschaftliche Mikroskopie. Bd. X, 1893, p. 348.

The following method i is extracted from an article on the muscle

fibres of Ascaris. -

_ Take equal parts of a saturated solution of corrosive sublimate in a `

a 3 per cent solution of common salt and absolute alcohol ; or dissolve 3

| per cent of corrosive sublimate and 3 per cent common salt in 50 per

-eent alcohol. Use the liquid boiling hot for Ascaris, cold for leeches,

and leave the animals i in it for 24 pours, or at least 12 hours. Wash

out in 50 pe l untilt y-brown color of an iodine-

* aleohol | solution. remains Quee for a few days. Free the tissues |

-Imbed in paraffin, using chloroform

for the transferring. medium, and fix the sections on the slide. Free

. them completely from paraffine and chloroform, and finally : wash

— Slightly with distilled water.

Put the slide in a 1 per cent gold chloride solution and keep i in the.

dark for 24 hours. Drain the slide and lightly apply a smooth-faced `

blotting paper to take up the surplus liquid. A yy percent solution — —

of gold chloride will answer, and is, of course, cheaper. Without Dt

further washing put the slide i in a large bulk of 1 per cent formic —

x E and leave it for 24 hours. The longer diffuse daylight acts on -

the sections, the better the results. Wash. in distilled water and |

mount in balsam. The sections may be cut very thin or thick—from |

ol ^, but the author mma oue best results from. sections. 2 or 2i

"d eie T

"By thie simple p em ced i jb i foo «edi Wu dees d

produced the most beautiful pietures of the crores of various |

tissues, but especially muscle and nerve. fibres. - ‘he various elements :

paid honest in different tints from rose to cherry red or

1894.] Microscopy. 827

A Rapid Method of Hardening and Sectioning.’ —Every D

practical pathologist must be convinced of the great importance, in i t

many cases, of at once supplementing and completing the naked eve

examination of struetures by a thorough microscopic examination.

Microscopic examination in the fresh state, by teasing up parts of tis-

sues, or by means of scrapings from the cut surface, is in most cases im-

perative if the finer details of the cellular elements are to be fully ap-

preciated, but sections are no less necessary in many cases if the rela-

tions of the various constituents, and the structure with the tissue as a

whole, are to be determined. In order to do this the method óf freez-

ing the fresh tissue, and cutting sections with the microtome is frequent- =>

ly adopted, but it must be the general experience that such sections

are often very unsatisfactory. They are so loose and lacking in cohe-

sion, and the process of freezing alters the tissue so much, that they are

difficult to manipulate and often difficult to interpret. I have occa-

sionally met with errors in diagnosis made by incompetent observers

from the use of such sections. — In order to obtain satisfactory results,

the proeesses of hardening, embedding, section-cutting, staining, and

mounting are all necessary, and these commonly extend over several

days. If the process can be so shortened that the whole investigation

can be completed at one sitting, then a considerable practical advant-

age will be obtained. How often does it happen in the course of a

pathological investigation of parts either obtained post-mortem or from

operation that we wish to be satisfied on the spot as to the realsignific- —

ance of some particular appearance. If the structure is put. aside to `

harden, there is considerable likelihood of some of the points being for-

gotten, and, at any rate, it is not taken up with the freshness of the — —

first examination. I believe also that for purposes of surgical diagnosis | &

an examination made within an hour's time would often be found of E

great value. xp

~ The method I have now to » describe has no claim except as a prac- i

tical working procedure. I have ti -

. have met with a general expression ofi its usefulness. - have used it

pene. — for more than a year, and am. perfectly satisfied that it ful-

fils its purpose. The principles of the method are: (1) rapid harden- —

TT esi in alcohol; (2) eutting with the microtome without | removing the Pe

> alcohol and without freezing the tissue; (3) rapid Msn o

|... 1. The hardening is effected by : absolute alcohol, keptata SANAA ;

bus about. that. of the animal. body. In examining the fresh ;

| Journ, Pathology ar and I Bacteriology; 1, Ne 4 i 1894. oa

828 * The American Naturalist. [September,

with the naked eye the pathologist makes up his mind as to what

exact parts he desires to submit to microscopic examination. With a

sharp knife he takes a thin slice of such a part, not more than two to

four millimetres in thickness and of comparatively small superficial

area. The piece of tissue is placed in a test-tube containing some

cotton-wool at the bottom, and half-filled with absolute alcohol. The

slice is so placed in the tube that it shall lie flat and not be distorted

or curved. The vessel is now to be placed at a slightly elevated tem-

perature, for which purpose a water bath is most suitable. I use a

hand basin, the hot tap of which is left running so as to keep the water

at a temperature which may be judged of by the hand. The slight

current in the water is a distinct advantage. If the piece be at all

bulky it may be well to renew the alcohol after a short interval. In |

the course of half an hour or three quarters the slice of tissue will |

generally be found sufficiently hardened to be proceeded with further. :

2. In the next stage advantage is taken of the fact that anise-oil

freezes at a comparatively high temperature (45° to 70° Fahr.), and

—. that the presence of alcohol does not interfere with the process of freez-

ing. My attention was called to this agent by a paper by Kühne.

. This author recommends anise-oil as an embedding material, but I

have not found the method which he recommends very successful. I

use the anise-oil, not to penetrate the tissue, like celloidin or paraffin,

but rather to hold it and fix it on the plateof the microtome. Having

taken the slice of tissue from the alcohol, I dry it with blotting-paper

or an absorbent cloth. I then pour a few drops of anise-oil on the

plate of the freezing microtome, and place the piece of tissue in the

midst of the oil. It is better to have the oil making one convex drop

with the specimens in the middle of it, asin cutting the sections the less

- oil you take with you the better. A few systoles of ho ether pex

bellows suffice to freeze the oil into a white solid mass. The knife

now used with a considerable sweep, and the section may be cut dry if

dts superficial area be small. lfthis cannot be done without risk of £3

-and any microtome with a sliding knife will serve. “Ibis possible, by ;

. this method, to obtain sections. sufficiently thin for most purposes,

. although not equal, of course, to those Which tioy, be got alter a em-

bedding i in celloidin or in paraffine. “a

.. In regard to the size of the piece of tissue to ie cut, iti is aiy *

etter: to have it of small dimensions, but the method is. perfectly ap- —

re plieable to such a piece as would involve, say, the whole Hk of the :

^ ved ro ds cortex x and dore

VENE ee eee eae re e e ETE RR N eer OUR

zr af NUI AURA au

E with a sharp knife.

1894.] Mieroscopy. 829

After the sections are made they are placed in alcohol, which dis-

solves the anise-oil.

The sections so obtained may be stained with any of the ordinary

agents. I used Biondi's fluid a good deal ; itis rapid and differentiates

well. Perhaps the most generally useful stain is Mayer's carmalum.

This has all the advantages (and they are many) of alum-carmine, and

has some additional ones of its own. Thus it is much brighter in tint,

and so forms a better contrast. "This is of special service when Gram's

or Weigert's method is used for the detection of microbes, as the blue

tint of alum-carmine is often objectionable when the microbes are

stained blue. I commonly use picric acid.as a contrast stain with the

carmalum. The solution used consists of alcohol seventy parts, satur-

ated watery solution of picric acid 30 parts, and hydrochloric acid i

part. I find the results obtained to be much better than those yielded

by picrocarmine in my hands. The whole process of staining by

carmalum and picric acid need not take many minutes. If necessary

a gentle heat may be used to hasten the action. An excellent method

of staining, in many respects, is that described by Nicolle. It is intro- -

duced as a method of staining microbes which do not stain by Gram’s

method. The staining agent is Kiihne’s or Sceffler’s blue. I have

used, chiefly, Kühne's blue, which acts very rapidly, a few seconds

being usually enough. It is so very vigorous, that dilution is

sometimes necessary. The section is then washed in water and treated

with a 10 per cent. solution of tannic acid. This has the effect of fix-

ing the blue color in nuclei and microbes, so that subsequent treatment

with alcohol and oil of cloves will not remove the color. The section

is taken from the tannin solution, washed in water, dehydrated with

alcohol, cleared with oil of eloves, washed in xylol, and mounted in

Canada balsam in the usual way. If a contrast stain he desired, then

eosin or acid fuchsine may be added to the tannin solution. v

To summarise the method it may be put as follows: - quels

1. Select an illustrative part of the fresh tissue, and remove a slice —

2. Place in absolute aleohol and heat the vessel in » water bath to

| S about 40? C. for half an hour to an hour. —

3. Dry the tissue and place on the freezing plate of the microtome

dn a large drop of anise-oil. fe

moistened with alcohol while cutting. - :

5. Place in alcohol to remove aniseoil. —

6. Float out in water and place on slide for staining.

4. Freeze and cut sections. The upper surface of the knife may be

d. Stain by any approved rapid method, and inounk «Joerg 4 dac

The America: an Naturalist. [September,

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

Walker Prizes in Natural History.—Two prizes are annually

offered by the Böston Society of Natural History for the best memoirs

written in the English language on the subjects given below. For

the best memoir presented a prize of sixty dollars may be awarded ; if,

however, the memoir be one of marked merit, the amount may be in-

creased to one hundred dollars, at the discretion of the committee.

i the next memoir, a prize not exceeding fifty dollars may be

arded. Prizes will not be awarded unless the memoirs presented are.

of adequate merit. The competition for these prizes are not restricted,

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. Subjects for 1895 :—(1) A study of the “ Fall line" in New J ersey;

P D A study of the Devonian formation of the Ohio basin; (3) Re-

JN lations of the order nat uA (4) Experimental investigations -

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. some plant of short cycle; (4) Contributions to our knowledge of

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What is the Use of the Study ot Diatoms? ? Rev. A. C. Smith.

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- NATURALIS

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Vol. XXVIII. OCTOBER, 1894. No. 334

CONTENTS.

! PAGE: AG AGE.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF SNAKES, WE Sei red —New Sulphosinnate from Bolivia —Allanite Pa!

z- D. Cope. 831 | from FranklinFurnace—Miscellaneo 870

Limits OF BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT Geology a oou Origin of the Tril-

Dr. Manly Miles. 845 | obites—Some Nw Red Horizons—The Gosau .

- ABALONE OR deae ur SHELLS OF THE CALIFOR , Beds in the Ausian Salzkammer rga t~ Geology

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PLATE XXVII.

pru S EE

QM EUN ES oU d € E RES ——

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y gee tat reel ‘ee m%

aed Lt aai an S

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— Hes EE eee Miers

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| Hemipenes of Ophidia.

AMERICAN NATURALIST

Vor. XXVIII. October, 1894. 334

THE CLASSIFICATION OF SNAKES.

By E. D. Cort.

Owing to the absence of limbs and other points in which

diversity is usually apparent, the classification of the snakes

has always presented difficulties to the zoologist. An order

which dates from Cretaceous time and has spread over the en-

tire world, must have differentiated in structure, if its history

has been like that of other orders of Vertebrata. Yet the re-

searches of anatomists have only resulted in finding characters

which define five suborders, and about a dozen families. Of

the natural groups thus defined, one family, the Colubridæ,

embraces three-fourths of the species, and is of cosmopolitan

distribution. So long as this was the principal result attained,

it remained clear that the stronghold of the order had not yet

been taken.

The primary divisions above referred to, are defined by

peculiarities of the skeleton, and these were mostly originally

described by Johannes Müller. In the preparation of their

Herpetologie Générale, Duméril and Bibron made a full study

of the dentition. The results they obtained were important,

but they were very far from expressing an exact and clear eut

classification. The greatest defect of their definitions based on

the teeth is that they too often fail to define. One type passes

by easy gradations into another, so that in many cases it isim-

832 The American Naturalist. [October,

possible to determine what type a given dentition represents.

In most cases it is clear that, among Colubrid snakes at least,

no higher groups than genera can be predicated on dentition,

and frequently not even these. Under such circumstances

further structural characters had to be sought for if we are to

have any clear idea of the affinities and phylogeny of this

curious branch of the Reptilia. In any case no systematic

arrangement can be regarded as final until the entire anatomy

is known.

In 1864' I pointed out that certain snakes, notably the water

snakes, have the vertebral hypapophyses continued to the tail,

as in the truly venomous forms. Boulenger has since found

this character in a good many forms which I had not examined,

and which have no affinity to the water snakes. This char-

acter, while important, presents the same evanescent stages in

certain types that the dental characters before noticed exhibit.

It had long appeared to me that the only prehensile organs pos-

sessed by serpents, the hemipenes, might probably present

structural variations expressive of affinity or diversity. In

1893’ I examined these structures in many of the leading

types, and was gratified by the discovery of a great many

structural characters. In fact these organs exhibit a variety

of ornamentation and armature beyond any part.of the

anatomy in the Ophidia, and I am satisfied that they furnish

more important indication of near affinity than any other part

of these reptiles yet examined. No one hereafter can be sure

of the place of a serpent in the system until the hemipenis has

been examined.

Still another part of the structure remained to be studied.

The assymmetry of the lungs of snakes had often been noted

by anatomists, but very little was known as to the range of

variation. Accordingly the present year,’ I undertook a study

of the pulmonary organs. I was able to confirm observations

previously made by Schlegel and Stannius, and to correct some

others, and to add a great number of facts as to species not

! Proceedings Academy of Natural Sciences, Philada.

? American Naturlist, 1893, p. 477.

-3 Proceeds. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1894, p. 217.

dd MEME C E cma

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1894.] The Classification of Snakes. 833

previously examined. I cannot give here all the details ob-

served, for which I refer to the papers quoted, but I give a

general view of the results. One of these is that I am able to

confirm the conclusion of Boulenger; i. e, that the Colubriform

venomous snakes, the Proteroglypha, (cobras, Elapes, etc.), do

not differ in any fundamental respect from the non-venomous

Colubride, and that they can not be characterized as a sub-

order. The suborders then are:

Catodonta (Type Glauconia).

Epanodonta (Type Typhlops).

Tortricina (Ilysiide and Rhinophidz).

Colubroidea (Peropoda, Asinea, and Proterogylpha).

Solenoglypha (Typical venomous forms).

The hemipenis is a projectile organ in the form of a hollow

tube whose base is on one side of the middle line, and which

opens into the anus. When retracted it lies beneath the tail,

extending for a greater or less distance, and terminating in a

cylindrical muscle. This has considerable length, and is

finally inserted on a caudal vertebra. When the organ is pro-

jected this muscle is drawn forwards, so as to evaginate the

tubular organ. Thus the inside of the tube becomes the out-

side, and the entire organ projects freely from its base ante-

riorly. It finds its way into the corresponding oviduct of the

female (Plate XXVIII, v), and when oncein place it cannot be

tracted in most species, without invagination. This is per-

formed by the contraction of the now internal retractor muscle.

This is inserted on the internal face of the apex, and draws it

inwards, so that it soon assumes the original ensheathed posi-

tion beneath the tail It cannot be withdrawn from the

oviduet without invagination, because it is generally set

with strong bony spines which diverge backwards. They

have a perfect grip on the walls of the oviduct, and would

in some instances lacerate that organ if the two bodies

should be forcibly drawn apart. In other cases the hemi-

penis would be torn off at the base. Snakes sometimes partially

project this organ, apparently in some instances for defence,

. aS the spines are very pungent, and are sometimes curyed

like cats claws. Such at least would seem to have been the

| $34 ^ The American Naturalist. [Ocicber,

‘ease with two Heterodon platyrhinus, (spotted adders), which were

i brought to me with the organs projected so as to present the

spines. They were caught by a cat, and were represented -to

"me as fighting their captor in this and other ways. Snakes

are, however, very careful not to present these organs fully

evaginated so as to expose the delicate structures near the apex.

I have never seen this to be the case in an alcoholic specimen,

(with one possible exception), and I should judgethat this was

the general experience, from the figures given by authors. It

is said that male snakes may be compelled to project the hemi-

penes by holding them before a fire, but I have not seen this.

The hemipenis of the Ophidia is traversed by a groove which

divides the superficial investment to the internal integument

(or external integument when the organ is retracted), which

‘commences at the base internally, and soon turns to the exter-

. nal side of the organ and continues to its extremity. This is

the sulcus spermaticus (ssin Plate xxvii) This sulcus is

always bifureated in venomous snakes, and I find it to be

equally bifurcated in many harmless snakes (Figs. 2, 3, 7).

The investing tissues may or may not correspond with this

bifurcation. Thus the hemipenis may be more or less bifur-

cate (Figs. 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11). Schlegel states that it is bifurcate

in venomous snakes, but it is not so in the sea-snake Hydro-

phis hardwickii, nor in Bungarus semifasciatus, Hoplocephalus

coronatus, ete., while it is bifurcate in many non-venomous forms.

Next to the bifurcation of the sulcus in importance, is the

nature of the surface of the external investment (internal when

retracted). In the most perfect types both venomous and non-

venomous, this surface is reticulate like tripe, the enclosed

areas forming calyces, which may have a suctorial function

(Figs. 6, 9, 10, 11). Their borders are often papillose, and are

sometimes so deeply divided into papille as to lose their

original character. These papille may be the seat of osseous

deposit, becoming bristles or spines, (sp), which become larger

toward the middle of the length, and lose their mutual mem-

branous connections. These isolated spines may extend to the

apex, but they rarely extend to the base. The surface may,

however, be laminate and not reticulate, and the laminz may

a es

Te aa A ar ee ee a ee ee Oe a

1894.]. The Classification of Snakes. 835.

be longitudinal (Figs. 4, 7) or transverse (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5). In

either of these cases they may not be spiniferous. The apex.

or apices of the organ may be furnished with a rigid papilla

(Fig. 5) or awn.

In the Tortricina and Peropoda (the constrictors), the hemi-

penis is not spinous, and the sulcus is bifurcate (Figs. 1, 2, 3),

and in the Boidae the hemipenis is bifurcate also, although in

some genera (Xiphosoma, Ungualia) the branches are very

short. The external integument is never reticulate, but is

always laminate with elongate papille at the extremities, in

Epicrates (Fig. 2), Xiphosoma, and Ungualia. The lamin: are

pinnate from the sulcus as an axis, in Morelia, Enygrus, Lich-

anura and Eryx, and are transverse (flounced), in Charina

(Fig. 3. In Ilysia they are pinnate (Fig. 1), with a few lon-

gitudinal plicæ below.

Similar gradations in the characters of the hemipenis are to

be seen in the types of venomous snakes. Thus in the Pro-.

teroglypha this organ is spinous to the tip, on a calyculate

basis, in Hydrophis, Elaps, (surinamensis); Dendraspis. It. is

reticulate at the extremities and spinous below, in Callophis

(bivirgatus) ; Naja (Fig. 9); Acanthophis; Bungarus and Sepe-

don; the apex smooth in the two genera lastnamed. In Elaps

nigrocinctus the organ is smooth below, with spines at the

apex.

In Solenoglypha the genus Atractaspis is spinous to the

apex, apparently on a longitudinally laminate basis. In the

Viperide and Crotalidz the spines are on a flounced basis,

The apices are calyculate in Bitis, Clotho (Fig. 10), and Vip-

era, and spinous in Cerastes. They are calyculate in Crota-

lide in Bothrops, Ancistrodon, Crotalophorus, Crotalus and

Uropsophus (Fig. 11). In Crotalus (durissus ofthe Neotropical

fauna), the papillae are not ossified; in all the other genera

they are spinous.

The condition of knowledge as to the lungs of snakes was

stated by Stannius, in 1856, as follows: “The detailed ac-

counts as to the single or double chardeter of the lungs

leaves much to be desired. Among Ophidia Angiostomata

there possess a single sack, Rhinophis and all Typhlopida

836 The American Naturalist. [October, |

which have been examined; as to the Tortricide [Ilysiide],

there are apparently species with two lungs (T. zenopeltis)

[=-Xenopeltis unicolor], and others with a single lung (T.

scytale) [=Ilysia scytale]. Among Eurystomata, all the Per-

opoda (Boa, Python, Eryx) possess apparently two lungs.

The Calamarina that have been investigated have one lung.

Among Colubrina and Glyphodonta, there are great varia-

tions. All the Coronelle of Schlegel possess, according to

Schlegel, a single lung. I find the lung single in Rhachiodon

séaber [ Dasypeltis]. Tropidonotus natrix [ Natrix vulgaris] has a

very small rudiment of a second lung. Coluber [Spilotes] vari-

abilis possesses, according to Schlegel, the rudiment of a second

lung. According to the statement of Meckel, this rudiment is

common in Coluber. The Xenodons have, according to

Schlegel, a single lung (X. severus and X. rhabdocephalus). In

Heterodon I find a rudimental second lung. The Lycodons,

according to Schlegel, possess a single lung; as also do Psam-

mophis and Homalopsis. In Dendrophis colubrina Schlegel

found the rudiment of the second lung. In Dipsas, according

te Schlegel, there are variations; but he states that D. multi-

maculata, D. levis and D. annulata [Sibon annulatum], have but

one lung. The Achrochordina have but one lung. Among

Hydrophide I found in three species of Hydrophis the lung-

sack simple. Meckel states that Platurus has a very small

rudiment of a second lung. Among the remaining poisonous

snakes there is an insignificant rudiment of the second lung

in the Elapina and Crotalina; while the Viperina possess an

entirely simple lung.”

An examination of about one hundred and fifty species of

nearly all types yielded the following results.

The snakes with rudimental posterior limbs (Peropoda),

show in the character of their lungs, what they show in the

rudimental limbs themselves, and in the hemipenis, the near-

est relationships to the Lacertilia. They possess, with an

exception to be noted later, two well-developed lungs, one of

which is larger than the other. The smaller lung lies to the

right side and ventrally, while the larger one lies to the left

side and dorsally. In some species the dorsal and ventral

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1894.] The Classification of Snakes. 837

relation is more pronounced than in other. In the Colubroidea

the right or ventral lung is generally present, but of very

much reduced proportions, the usual size being from two to

five millimeters in length (Plate XXVIII RL). Itis connected

with the other lung by a foramen which perforates the tracheal

cartilage at a point a little beyond the apex of the heart, and

opposite to the proximal part of the dorsal lung. It is some-

times connected to the dorsal lung by a short tube, in which

cartilaginous half rings are seen in but two of the genera ex-

amined, viz., Heterodon and Conophis. The lumen of the

rudimental lung may be lined by the same reticulate structure

as is seen in the dorsal lung, or its walls may be smooth. In

some Colubroidea the rudimental lung is absent, but such

species are relatively few.

The dorsal lung may present proximally alongside of the

trachea an auricle or pocket, and this is so developed in the

genus Heterodon (Plate XXVIII), as to reach to the head, with-

out communication with the trachea, other than that furnished

by the normal’ portion of the lung. In the Solenoglypha,

without exception, this extension of the dorsal lung is present,

and extends to the head, and its lumen is continuous with the

trachea throughout its length. The same structure exists in

the genera Hydrus and Hydrophis; and also in the West

Indian'peropodous genus Ungualia, which differs besides from

other Peropoda in having but one posttracheallung. Finally

the tracheal lung, as I shall call it, is distinct from the true

lung in the water snakes Platurus and in Chersydrus. In the

former of these genera the trachea is not separate from the

lumen, while in Chersydrus it is distinct. It, however, com-

municates with the cells of which the lung consists in this

genus by a series of regularly placed foramina on each side.

There is no lumen in the tracheal lung of Chersydrus. In the

blind burrowing Typhlops we have a still further modifica-

tion of the tracheal lung. It is without lumen, and is com-

posed of coarse cells of different sizes. These have no com-

munication with the trachea or lung that I can discover. It

. has occurred to me that this structure, which extends from the

heart to the throat, may not be a pulmonary organ.

838 The American Naturalist. [Oetolier,

I have referred to the dorsal and ventral positions of the two

lungs. The rudimental lung is to the right of the dorsal lung

in the Colubroidea, but in the Ilysiide it is to the left. It is quite

questionable which lung this rudiment in this family really

represents. In the Typhlopide, the single lung is on the right

side and extends from the heart to the liver. It has the posi-

tion of the rudiment lung of the Colubroidea, and may repre-

sent it. I cannot decide this question without further material.

In Glauconia there is but one true lung, and this is ventral in

position, and originates to the right of the heart, so that in

this genus also it may represent the rudimental lung of the

Colubroidea. There is here no tracheal lung or organ.

I have no doubt of the propriety of the separation of the

Ungualiide from the other Peropoda, on account of its pul-

monary characters. Nor is there any doubt in my mind of

the necessity of the separation of the Leptognathinz from the

Xenodontinz, on account of its large tracheal lung. The genus

Heterodon differs very much from other Xenodontinz, in the

possession of an enormous diverticulum of the lung, but as it is

not present in the allied genus Lystrophis Cope, its wider dis-

tinction may be a questionable proceeding. The very marked

characters of the genus Chersydrus characterize the family, as

well as the osteological characters. It remains to be seen

whether the family I termed the Nothopidex, but which Bou-

lenger unites with the Chersydridi, agrees with it in pulmo-

nary characters. The remarkable tracheal lung or gland dis-

tinguishes the .Epanodonta from the Catodonta, emphasiz-

ing the differences observed in the osteology of the skull.

The value of the rudimental right lung as a character of the

Colubroidea is increased by my investigations. In only two

genera have I found it present or absent, viz, Halsophis and

Pityophis. Iam not sure but that I may yet find it in the

P. melanoleucus, where I have failed hitherto, but I am sure

that it is present in some species of Halsophis and wanting in

others. A natural group of American Colubrins, appears fo

be characterized by its absence, viz., Rhinochilus, Cemophora

and Ophibolus; all genera with an entire anal shield. The

development of cartilages in the bronchial foramen or tube of

ee a TST SON ee ene TRIN

PE ee EPIRI THE

1894.] The Classification of Snakes. 839

the rudimental lung is not a constant character. I found it

in one Heterodon platyrhinus and not in another; it is present

in Conophis pulcher, but absent in C. sumichrastii.

The rudimental lung is often concealed from view and diffi-

cult to discover.. The best test of its presence is the foramen

which connects it with the trachea, which will generally be

found piercing the cartilage of the latter near the apex of the

heart. The rudimental organ may then be found by inserting

a bristle, and observing its destination through the more or

less transparent tissues. In but one instance have I found a

rudimental lung without a connecting foramen, viz, in the

Mexican Ficimia olivacea. On the other hand, the foramen

may terminate in a small blind sac.

The pulmonary characters may be determined without

much dissection. The position of the heart must be first as-

certained, and a longitudinal median incision made in the

abdominal wall In all forms except the Epanodonta and

Catodonta, the trachea will be found passing to the left side of

the heart, and entering the lung near its apex. By splitting

the trachea, not too near its abdominal border, on turning the

free margin upwards as the snake lies on its back, the foramen

bronchiale will be seen and its lumen can be explored. The

trachea is concealed by the cesophagus, which must be drawn

to the left side of the body in order to make the examination.

The examination of the tracheal lung requires the division

of the abdominal wall farther towards the head.

The tracheal lung greatly extends the surface available for

blood aération. This is necessary to snakes for the reason that

the huge masses of food which they ingest, so compress the

true lung that another organ is necessary. Most snakes

whether they have a tracheal lung or not, have the pulmonary

organ greatly elongated, so that while one portion is compressed

by the contents of the alimentary canal, another part is free to

function. The tracheal lung enables the snake to inflate the

anterior part of the body. This is conspicuous in the true

venomous sp lypha) Inthesame way Heterodon

inflates its huge diverticulum. In the marine water snakes

Chersydrus and the Hydrophidae, these organs serve as floats.

840 The American Naturalist. - [October,

In the fresh-water snakes (Natricine) there is no tracheal

lung. The hemipenis of this group is very characteristic;.

(Plate XXXVII fig. 8).

As an illustration of the modifications in classification

necessary in view of the characters which I have observed, I

give an analysis of the genera of the group which I have

called the Xenodontinze. These genera belong mainly to the

southern Hemisphere, and chiefly to the Neotropical Realm, a

few genera occcuring in Africa and North America. The

characters of the division are as follows.

Hemipenis with bifurcate sulcus spermaticus, and armed

with well developed spines, which are developed from the

marginal papille of calyculi, when the latter are present.

Hypapophyses of the vertebre generally present only anter-

iorly.°

. A. Lung without large proximal diverticulum.

I. Apex of hemipenis without calyces or spines but with a

membranous disc. (Disciferi Fig. 7),

e. Rostral plate not recurved.

Hemipenis undivided, no scale-pits ; Aporophis Cope.

Hemipenis divided ; no scale-pits ; Opheomorphus Cope.

Hemipenis divided; one scale-pit ; Xenodon *Boie.

vv. Rostral plate recurved.

Hemipenis divided; one scale-pit ; Lystrophis Cope.

II. Hemipenis transversely plicated (divided): (Flabellati).

Plicæ not pappillose ; diacranterian ; Helicops Wagl.

Plicee not pappillose ; isodont ; Pseudoeryx’ Fitz.

Plicze pappillose ; isodont ; Rhabdosoma’ D. & B.

III. Calyeulate, and not capitate (Calyculati).

v. Hemipenis undivided.

Fusiform ; isodont ; Carphophiops Gerv.

Colnbriloria : madoni. two nasals; Diadophis B. & G.

Colubriform ; diacranterian; one nasal; Amastridium Cope.

* American Naturalist, 1893, p. 481.

5In Helicops they are continued to the tail.

5 Including Liophis Wagl.

t Dimades Gray.

8 Catostoma and Adelphicus are closely allied.

1894.] The Classification of Snakes. 841

Colubriform ; diacranterian ; two nasals; Hypsirhynchus Gthr.

esc. Hemipenis double.

Fusiform ; isodont; Farancia Gray.

Colubriform ; diacranterian; no scale pits; ^ Dromicus Bibr.

Colubriform ; diacranterian ; one scale pit; JMonobothris Cope.

Colubriform ; diacranterian ; two scale pits; ^ Halsophis Cope.

. IV. Capitate (or pocketed) (Capitati).

gy. Hemipenis undivided.

Scale pits single; scales smooth ; Pliocercus Cope.

No scale pits; scales smooth ; Rhadinza Cope.

Scales keeled; prenasals in contact; Tretanorhinus D. & B.

ev. Hemipenis divided.

Rostral normal; isodont ; Ninia B. & G.

V. Pappillose at apex. (African) (Papillati).

Hemipenis single; ayia Gthr.

Hemipenis bifurcate ; Theleus" Cope.

. VI. Calyculate with spinous bands to apex. adr ttt

Subisodont ; attenuate ; omacer D

VII. Exclusively spinous to apex ; (diacranterian). cedes

Anterior teeth wanting; — Cope.

Anterior teeth present; anal divided; no scale pits

Echinanthera Cope.

Anterior teeth present; anal entire; one seen pit ;

Acanthophallus Cope.

À A Left lung with a proximal diverticulum, extending to

the throat.

. VIII. Calyculate and capitate.

Rostral recurved ; hemipenis divided ; ——ÀÀ

terodon Beauv.

CARY one familiar with these genera will perceive that they

are not represented in a linear series in the table. He will

also observe that genera of probably not very close affinities

? Gen. nov. Type, Dromicus chamissonis Auct.

19 Amer, Naturalist, 1893, p. 482.

1 Gen. nov.; type- Aporophis eyanopleurus Cope. This species is thought by

Boulenger to d Natrix melanostigma Weg; bat that pecie is represented

as unicolor above. T} t l bands, one median

Lu E

and one on each side.

842 The American. Naturalist. [October;

are placed close together, as for instance Tretanorhinus and

Helicops" and their associates. This is, however, a necessity

of an artificial key and is not new in zoólogy. The charac-

ters presented by the hemipenis are more readily determinable,

and are more constant that those to be found in any other

part of the structure.

In furthez illustration of the same subject I present a

synopsis of another tropical group, this time entirely Amer-

ican, which only differs from the Xenodontine in the grooving

ofthe posterior maxillary tooth, i. e., the Scytalinz.

. I. Apex without calyces or spines, but with a membranous

disc. (Disciferi).

Hemipenis divided ; Erythrolamprus Boie.

IL Hemipenis transversely or obliquely plicate ; (divided).

(Flabellati).

No calyces ; rostral plate normal ; Jaltris Cope.

Calyces at apex ; rostral plate produced ; Conophis Peters.

III. Calyeulate and not capitate. (Calyculati).

e. Hemipenis divided.

Rostral recurved ; Rhinostoma W agl.

Rostral normal; pupil erect; Oxyrrhopus Wagl.

Rostral normal; pupil round ; Philodryas Wagl.

gg. Hemipenis undivided. _

Rostral normal ; Thamnodynastes Wagl.

IV. Capitate (also calyculate). (Capitati).

Hemipenis undivided; colubriform; ^ Coniophanes? Hallow.

Hemipenis undivided ; fusiform ; Hydrocalamus Cope.

V. Spinous to apex ; (divided). (Spinosi).

Two nasal plates ; Tachymenis Wiegm.

One nasal plate ; Tomodon D. & B.

VI. Apex smooth, or with one row of spines; (divided).

(Levi).

Urosteges one rowed ; a band of minute advan: Scytale Wagl.

Urosteges two rowed ; no calyces; Lygophis“ Tsch.

1? Helicops is certainly to be placed in this family and has no relationship to the

Natricine with which it has been hi therto rto associat ted.

p 5 PY oe T y Py SUNG | E E with

which I have proposed to unite it. j

“Type Lygophis elegans Tsch.— Dryophylax poecilostornus Cope.

PTs Se A =

1894.) The Classification of Snakes. - 843

Comparison of this table with that of the genera of Xeno-

dontinz, shows. that ‘both present identical modifications

of structure in the case of five of the subdivisions. Only

_ two types, (V.and VI), of the Xenodontine have not been

found in the Scytaline; and one, (no. VI), of the latter group

has not been found in the Xenodontine.”

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

PraTE XXVII.

(From an unpublished Bulletin of the U. S. National

Museum). Hemipenes of distinct types of Ophidia. The

organ is split and the entire surface exposed. The student

must remember that the lateral borders are artificial, and are

continuous on the middle line behind the center of the figure

in the projected organ. When the organ is bifurcate, but one

branch is split; (figs. 1- 2-7-9-10-11)

Fig. 1. Ilysia scytale L. Brazil.

Fig. 2. Epicrates angulifer D. & B. Cuba.

Fig. 3. Charina botte Blv. Oregon.

Holarchus ancorus Gird. Philippine Ids.

Oligodon subquadratus D. & B. Java.

Bascanium constrictor L. N. America.

Opheomorphus alticolus Cope. Peru.

Natrix fasciata sipedon L. N. America.

Naja haje L. melanoleuca Hallow. W. Africa,

Fig. 10. Clotho arietans L. S. Africa.

Fig. 11. Uropsopus confluentus Say. Texas.

Rano os

O oN Dop

LETTERING.

ss. Sulcus spermaticus; f, flounces; p, papillæ ; cl, calyces

or calyculi (ruches); /, laminæ ; sp, spines; spl, spinules.

Pirate XXVIII.

(From the Proceedings of the American Philosophical

Society, 1894). Viscera of Heterodon platyrhinus Beauv. The

% Reflection has caused meto drop the major division Xenodontide, and to refer

its two subfamilies to the Colubride.

844 The American Naturalist. [October,

heart is turned partly over, and the esophagus is separated by

being drawn to the left of the other viscera. One oviduct is

split at the base so as to disclose the vaginal portion. In con-

sequence the rectum is displaced to the right. The lettering

is as follows.

Tr, trachea; Car, Carotid artery; Hy sheath containing

hyoid cornua; Oe, oesphagus; Vr, vertebral artery: A. P,

arteria pulmonalis; L. L, left lung; R L, right, (rudimental)

lung; H, heart; A R, left aorta root; V C, vena cava ascend-

ens; JZ, liver; St, stomach; G B, gall bladder; Sp, spleen;

F, fontanelle of oviduct; J, intestine; Ov, ovary ; C A, corpus

adiposum; K, kidney; Od, oviduct; R, rectum; U, ureter;

V, vaginal portion of oviduct; CI, cloaca.

EDEN Tae uL

1894.] Limits of Biological Experiments. 845

LIMITS OF BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS:

By Dr. Manty Mies.

The proposition to test theories in evolution by direct exper-

iments on living organisms which has been favorably noticed,

and the numerous futile feeding experiments that have been

made at the Government experiment stations, raise the ques-

tion as to the probable limits of direct experimental methods

in dealing with biological problems. The “whirligig of time,”

in connection with a certain uniformity in the outcome of the

modified processes of nutrition and reproduction in a number

of individuals, must be regarded as essential elements in

bringing about the gradual aggregation and perpetuation of

the minute changes in living organisms which we recognize as

processes of evolution.

Aside from these significant factors, which cannot be

neglected, the exceedingly complex conditiens involved in all

biological activities appear to be formidable difficulties to

‘overcome in attempting a direct experimental verification of

theories relating to the various agencies concerned in evolu-

tion, or, in determining the relative value of foods in the pro-

cesses of nutrition.

Intelligent breeders of domestic animals have no doubts in

regard to the heredity of acquired characters, which, in the

light of their experience, they look upon as a fundamental

principle in stock breeding and one of the most important

factors in the available means of improvement. The direct

proof of this principle by experimental methods must, how-

ever, be difficult, if not impossible, notwithstanding the

cumulative and apparently conclusive evidence presented in

the history of the improved breeds, and the experience of suc-

cessful breeders who have recognized its importance in the

improvement of their animals.

The dominant influence of other known biological factors

may completely obscure well marked special characters that

‘(Abstract of a paper read at the Brooklyn meeting A. A. A. S., Aug., 1894).

846 _. The American Naturalist. [October,

have undoubtedly been inherited, as in the familiar facts of

atavism, and they must effectually prevent the detection of

the initialstages in the development of any new characters

under investigation, which may in fact have been potentially

transmitted for a number of generations.

Reversion, prepotency, and the influence of a previous im-

pregnation, are conspicuous obstaclesin the way of tracing the

immediate, or incipient indications of the inheritance of any

particular acquired character which it may be desirable to

perpetuate by judicious selections.

In many of the arguments relating to the heredity of

acquired characters it appears to be tacitly assumed that each

particular character is transmitted as an entity, regardless of

its interdependent relations to other parts of the organism,

and especially with the specific functional adaptations of the

organs of nutrition which have made its development possi-

ble.

As pointed out in a paper read in Section F, at the Rochester

meeting of the Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., physiological changes in the

organism must precede any manifest modification of structural

characters, and the transmission of a morphological peculiar-

ity must, therefore, involve the transmission of the functional

activities through which it has its origin. It was also shown

that a habit or bias of the nutritive processes in a certain

direction, may be transmitted for a number of generations

without any visible morphological evidence of its existence,

and that, in thelapse of time, it may lead to the development

of obvious structural changes that are recognized as new

characters. Experimental methods in biology are too crude

to admit of a recognition of these preliminary steps in the

development of new characters, which must be taken into

account in making a satisfactory verification of any of the

processes of evolution.

The artificial conditions to which our domesticated plants

and animals are subjected, intensifies their susceptibility to

variation, and there appears to be a constant tendency to re-

version when any unfavorable conditions prevail in their

treatment. Underordinary management, repeated systematic

PLATE XXVIII.

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Son

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LAS 5E ie

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Heterodon platyrhinus Latr.

1894.] Limits of Biological Experiments. : 847

selections are necessary in order to maintain the highest

development of the most desirable characters, and: a consider-

able number of individuals will be required to make any

marked improvement in special qualities, as all do not respond

alike to the artificial modifying conditions of their environ-

ment.

There are also individuals that retain a tendency to the pre-

potent transmission of the old race characters, notwithstand-

ing the high development of the particular improved charac-

ters they possess, and a pedigree, showing that all known

ancestors have had the desired qualities, is looked upon as a

valuable index of the dominant inherited characters.

Even the best established breeds fail to exhibitthe uniform-

ity in their general characteristies which prevails in wild spe-

cies that have been subjected to the more rigorous and dis-

eriminating processes of natural selection. The methods of

artificial selection in the breeding of animals, are lacking in

the inexorable consistency and comprehensiveness that char-

acterize natural selection. The breeder of improved animals

is unable to perceive all of their innate and acquired physio-

logical tendencies, and his selections are made with reference

only to the most obvious peculiarities, or qualities, and he

overlooks and neglects many of the factors concerned in deter-

mining the correlated relations*of the sum of their charac-

ters.

Feeding experiments to ascertain the relative nutritive

value of different articles of food and the advantages of dif-

ferent methods of feeding, or, to determine the relative merits

of different breeds, are especially liable to mislead, from the

complexity of the problems presented—the small number of

facts under observation—and the practical difficulties in the

way of tracing the obscure relations of the most significant

factors in the phenomena under investigation, to say nothing

of the fallacious and obsolete chemical theories of nutrition

that are too often adopted in a popular discussion of the re-

sults. ;

It is not my purpose to enter upon an exhaustive discussion

of the limits of experimental biology, but to point out some

848 The American Naturalist. [October,

of the practical difficulties involved in its methods and results.

Without further reference to particulars, it must be evident

that biological activities have such complex interdependent

relations, that theories relating to evolution cannot all be veri-

fied, or practical problems in nutrition — solved, by

direct experimental methods.

ee ee eye RET ae ty NE RENT

[

;

ee ee RATED TNI CUPIS

1894.] Abalone or Haliotis Shells of the Californian Coast. 849

ABALONE OR HALIOTIS SHELLS OF THE CALIFOR-

NIAN COAST.

Mns. M. Burton WILLIAMSON.

Although the coast of California produces, as a rule, dull or

sombre tinted shells, yet in one family of molluscs the Califor-

nian province stands preéminent. This family is composed of

shells familiary known on the West Coast as Abalone or

pearly-ear shells. Among scientists the shells are called Hal-

totis and the family Haliotide. In the size of all its species of

Haliotide California rivals the world. Japan has one fine

species Haliotis gigantea Chemnitz, that compares very favor-

ably with the large shells of California, and this species is also

represented on the West Coast of the U. S. by a variety.

Another fine shell that compares favorably with the Califor-

nian shells is Haliotis mide, the first shell of this family named

by the great Linneus or Linné, who described it in 1758.

Australia also produces a large species, but for the most part

shells collected on other coasts are small, ranging from four

to one inch in length.

In the geographical distribution of this family, the “ center

of distribution is in the Australian and adjacent seas." Be-

sides those collected on the coast of California and Lower Cal-

ifornia, these shells are found as far north as Alaska, also on

the coasts of Kamtchatka, Japan, China, Philippine Islands,

New Hebrides, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Aukland, Id.,

Australia, Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, Red Sea, West Coast of

Africa and at the Cape of Good Hope, Canary Islands, Medit-

erranean and Adriatic Seas, French and English Coasts of the

Atlantie, and also at the Cape region of South America. It

has often been remarked that “not a single species " has been

“found upon either coast of South America, or upon the East

Coast of North America," but, in 1869, Pourtales dredged a

small Haliotis in 200 fathoms nearthe Florida reefs The

1Pilsbry.

850 The American Naturalist. [October,

shell was named by Dr. Wm. H. Dall Haliotis pourtalesii, but

in the great fire of 1871 in Chicago, this little specimen to-

gether with the “ entire collection of Pourtales and Stimpson,”

was burned. In 1887-88 the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer

Albatross dredged a number of shells on the West Coast, and,

at the Galapagos Islands, in the Pacific, on the West Coast of

South America, two specimens of Haliotes were dredged. And,

what is remarkable, the shell found in Florida from the bed

of the Gulf Stream and the one from the Galapagos group were

pronounced by Dr. Dall the same species with scarcely a

-doubt. The latter did not contain the animal and was not

quite one inch in length.

In the Manual of Conchology, Mr. H. A. Pilsbry says of the

family Haliotide in geologic ages: “Of the genealogy of the

family little is known. A few fossil forms not differing

materially from the recent ones, have been discovered in the

Pliocene and Miocene and one in the upper Cretaceous of Ger-

many. Others will probably be found when the Australian

Tertiary and secondary strata are more fully explored.” Two

species of Abalones are found in the Quarternary or Plisto-

cene formation in Southern California.

There are about 85 species and well defined varieties of

shells in this family. On the Californian coast six distinct

‘species are collected and also two or three varieties. Some of

these species are found as far south as Cape St. Lucas, Lower

California, and one species extends to Alaska; this is supposed

to be a variety of the Japanese species, reaching the Califor-

nian coast by way of Alaska. The species is Haliotis gigantea

Chemnitz var. H. kamtchatkana Jonas. Besides this northern

species, H. rufescens Swainson, H. fulgens Philippi; H. corrugata

ray, H. cracherodii Leech and H. assimilis Dall are collected.

The last named is a deep water species.

The generic name Haliotis was also given by Linné in 1758.

It is from the Greek hals, sea and ous ear, but wherever

these shells are found they have local names. In California

they are popularly known as “ Abalone,” of “uncertain ety-

*See Preliminary Report on Albatross Mollusca by William Healey Dall, Curator

Dept. Molluses. (Proc. Nat. Mus., Vol. XII, )

1894.] Abalone or Haliotis Shells of the Californian Coast. 851

mology.” Some writers think the name is of Spanish origin?

but a well known Spanish scholar, one of the Jesuit Fathers,

told me he thought the name was a “ provincialism." It is

said these shells are called * Awabi"in Japan. The local

names given to the shell in different countries refer usually to

the shape of the shell, and, being translated, mean ear-shell,

ear-of-the-sea, Venus' ear, etc.; also on aecount of its nacreous

lining, Mother-of-pearl-shell, and because of the holes in the

shell, “six eyes.” The beautiful nacre or mother-of-pearl in

the interior of these shells, and the rich colors visible when

the epidermis or outside layer has been removed, has given

rise to color names. The most beautiful shell, in the interior,

is the green abalone (Haliotis fulgens). The green and blue

nacre is as effectively blended as the colors in a peacock, and

is indiscribably rich in tone. The centre is especially rich in

iridescent effect. This center is scientifically known as the

“ muscular impression " for it is at this place that the animal

is firmly adherent to its shell, though young shells are not

marked by this “ area of the muscular impression." In some

specimens it is horse-shoe-shaped. In an article on the Aba-

lone Fishery in “ The Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the

U. 8.” (U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries 1887), Earnest

Ingersoll says in referring to this muscle sear: “In aged spe-

cimens the part to which the muscle is attached is raised

above the level of the rest of the interior and presents a

roughened or carved surface of irregular shape, often fancifully

imitative of some other object. The writer has seen one which

thus contained a singularly correct profile of Napoleon I."

Instead of the muscular impression being “raised above the

level," my observation has led me to conclude that with age

the muscle scar is, as a whole, depressed.

. The red abalone (H. rufescens) does not receive its name from

the eolor of its mother-of-pearl, as does the green shell, but

from the red margin that outlines the aperture and the beau-

tiful red displayed on the outside when the shell is decortica-

ted by the use of acids or the grindstone. Another species

(H. cracherodii, named for a Mr. Cracherod) when submitted

3From au/on or aulone.

852 The American Naturalist. [October,

to the same treatment shows a black exterior and this is the

“black abalone.” It is also called the “white abalone” in

reference to its pearly interior and exterior, if the calcareous

layers have been ground off leaving only the mother-of-pearl

on the outside, as is often the case. A species with corruga-

tions (H. corrugata) presents a reddish-purple color when

ground off by a skillful workman. All these shells take a

beautiful polish, but, while the shells are made more attract-

ive to the popular taste, scientifically their value is depreciated

after they fall * victims," as Carpenter expresses it, ^to the

grindstone and acids" Physicists tells us that the play of

tints visible in the nacre or mother-of-pearl is caused by the

action upon light of the tiny layers composing the nacre.

“These layers are microscopically corrugated and their edges

meet the rays of light and partly decompose them as do the

rain drops in a rainbow producing a play of colors" (I once

dissolved the inner layers of an abalone shell in muriatic acid,

the dish was placed aside for,several hours and on seeing it

again I wassurprised to find a beautiful sediment of iridescent

mother-of-pearl; pressure was applied, and the play of colors

was gone. The result was new to me at that time and was a

pleasant surprise).

Typical shells of the Gastropoda (so named because the

" under side of the body forms a muscular foot for gliding

along”), the class to which abalones belong, are spiral in their

form. Although these shells appear flat,a close inspection

shows a well developed spire, but in most species, the spire is

small and the basal or body-whorl is unusually developed and

depressed, and this gives the shell an appearance as though it

were only one valve of a bivalve, for which it has often been

mistaken when seen by persons unacquainted with these

forms. The shells have a row:of open holes usually from five

to nine, on one side, but these vary in number as the animal

grows older; the holes close, until old shells have been seen

with only one or two holes left open.* These holes are on the

left side of the shell and through them the tentacles of the

animal are often protruded. When the animal is resting upon

*A California Conchologist has a shell with 2// the holes closed.

1894.] Abalone or Haliotis Shells of the Californian Coast. 853

a rock, a slight blow upon the shell often causes the shell-fish

to adhere more firmly to the rock and at the same time dis-

charge jets of water out of every hole. When entirely at rest

the abalone adheres to the rock and is as completely covered

by his shell as a watch would be under an inverted saucer,

excepting thatthe five or more holes in the shell admit the

entrance and exit of water. 'The large muscular foot with its

epipodial ridge bordered with cirri extends outside of the

shell when the animal is gliding along. This foot is to all

appearances only a muscular expansion of the body. The

animal has no operculum or trap-door, as in most families of

this class, as it is like the limpet in having no use for an

opereulum. Abalones have a short head and eye peduncles.

The gills or branchia, intestines, etc., are all on the same side

of the shell as the holes, and the * columellar margin is pro-

duced into a flattened spiral plate," that forms a ridge suffi-

ciently broad to protect all the digestive organs. The heart

has two lateral auricles. The mantle is cleft at the row of

holes extending thus “as far back asthe last open hole.” The

odontophore or radula is large, and the variety and size of the

teeth on this lingual ribbon can be seen without the aid of a

microscope. A section of the odontophore makes one of the

most attractive mounts furnished by the radula of molluses.

Reference was made to the fact that sometimes old shells

had only one or two holes open when the animal was very old;

when such is the case the shell is usually covered with a

growth of vegetation, worms, or other molluscs. Whole colo-

nies of Serpulorbis attach themselves to one shell making a

very heavy load for a shell-fish to carry, even one so muscular

as the abalone. Although they do travel somewhat, it is not

improbable that with age the animal becomes more and more

sedentary until almost incapable of locomotion. An abalone

brought from the Pacific, about 24 miles away, after it had

shown very little appearance of life, crawled from a pail of

sea water, eighteen inches in one night, where it was found

dead in the morning. The abalone marks his passage by a

5The ondontophore, sometimes called the **tongue" or “lingual ribbon" is set with

rows of sharp siliceous teeth. In a large abalone it is about 3 inches in length.

854 The American Naturalist. [October,

trail of mucus in the same way that a land snail (Helix)

leaves a trace of secretion in his wake. Besides the extra-

neous growth on these shells, they are the home of numerous

pholads which burrow into the shell the same as into soft rock.

The little domiciliary squatters often cause protuberances in

the interior of the shell where the borer has drilled through

the epidermis and calcareous portions into the nacre, which is

always supplied sufficiently to resent the encroachments of

domiciliaries. Dr. Robert E. C. Stearns of the National

Museum has written an interesting paper on animals that

encroach. on the domain of others,’ and it is illustrated with a

plate showing these protuberances in an abalone shell. A red

abalone that showed, on the inside, the raised nodule or pro-

tuberance indicative of the presence of a small rock-borer, on

the outside of the abalone showed no perforation as usual, but,

instead, there was a round depression of nacre, the pholad

(? Penitella parva Tryon) had been completely covered with nacre,

but a hammer and a chisel discovered the little bivalve that

had been sealed up in his own domicile. AsI broke the little

pholad in getting it out of the abalone shell it could not be

identified otherwise than doubtfully.

As pearls consist of coatings of nacreous secretion they are

sometimes found in abalone shells. "These will not compare

with pearls found in the pearl oyster, as the latter areunrival-

led. Pearls in abalones are often pear-shaped and green in

color, in fact some of these so-called “pearls” are peculiar

rather than beautiful. One fine pearl baroque (irregular) was

taken from under the columella margin of a green abalone.

It is the property of Mrs. Prof. Lowe of Pasadena, S. Califor-

nia, and is about 2? inches long; it is three-cornered in shape,

and atthe widest and thickest part it is 2} inches around.

As is well known the habitat of abalone is among rocks,

where, at very low tide, they may be found huddled together

in a corner of a rock in a rock pool, or hedged in between fis-

sures of immense rocks, always as though hiding from the

rtain Parasites, Commensáls and Domicilíaries in the Pearl Oyster, etc.

eed € 1886, pages 339-344, with three plates).

PIG MT asit Ar ee

1894.) Abalone or Haliotis Shells of the Californian Coast. 855

light. Their dingy exterior almost of the same color as the

rocks on which they rest, make them scarcely noticeable save

for the protuberances that are visible on the rocks from which

they are very difficult to remove, a trowel or wedge, ete., being

necessary to dislodge them. Fishermen and Chinamen are

the principle collectors of abalones. To illustrate the strength

of muscle developed in this shell an anecdote is sometimes

told of a man who was collecting some shells, when one of the

shell-fish drew his shell so closely to the rock the man’s hand

was securely pinned to the rock and he was drowned. At

one time the man is a Mexican, at another a Chinamen; the

occurrence at one period is at Santa Barbara, at another San

Pedro, but, the story always begins with “I have heard, etc.”

Any one who has collected these muscular fellows would be

wary about allowing even a finger to be in close proximity to

the shell, nor is it necessary to do so, the trowel or tool used

to dislodge the shell is all that is needed. That men have

lost their lives while collecting these shells there is no doubt

at all, as the tide sometimes comes with fearful force on the

slippery rocks. Three or four years ago the local papers re-

ported the drowning of a young fisherman while getting aba-

lones at San Pedro, Last spring a San Francisco paper told

how a coyote was entrapped in a Haliotis which the coyote

found partly raised from a rock, and, on inserting his muzzle

underneath to secure a breakfast, the abalone had “ closed

down on him and kept him a prisoner.’

As an article of food it is the general impression that the

Chinese are the only consumers, but this is a mistake, although,

as an article of commerce only the Chinese seem to value it

highly. Ata lonely “point” in one of the Palos Verdes Hills

we once found a large number of abalone shells around a de-

serted camp-fire, the fish had evidently been cooked on the

fire, then eaten from the shell by the fishermen. A slice of

abalone, before it is cooked, laid upon a platter might easily

be mistaken for a slice of fish. They are pounded before

cooking. As a soup this shell-fish is said to be very palatable

and it has frequently been mistaken, by the uninitiated, for

clam soup. Asan export the fish is dried after being removed

856 The American Naturalist. [Oetober,

from theshell I have seen three and four dozen abalones

dried and strung on a cord, in Mexican grocery stores, hung

beside dozens of strings of red peppers or chilles so gratifying

to the Mexican palate. Abalones, when dried, have the ap-

pearance of leather, excepting that they are oily in their ap-

pearance. In shape they are nearly oblong and two or three

inches thick. The great muscular foot slopes backward over

an inch before it is enlarged by the epopodial ridge with its

numerous cirri, and this contraction is noticeable in the dried

fish.

As an article of commerce the shells are of considerable

importance, or rather have been, as it is said, the immense

traffic has almost “stripped the coast as far south as Cerros

Island,” Lower California. Three hundred tons are said to

have been shipped from the coast in one year. Fifty tons

being handled by one man in a month’s time. “The greater

portion of these are (in 1889) collected on the coast of Lower

California. The Chinese are the principal gatherers, notwith-

standing they are probibited by the Mexican laws. The

shells are sold at $20 to $35 per ton, according to the quality.”

When shells are sold by the bulk there is always a large per-

centage of dead and imperfect specimens, as the best shells.

are picked out and sold to retail dealers on the coast. A shell

that is perforated by worms or molluscs is of no value as a

polished shell. When the animal has been removed from the

shell and the latter has laid on the beach subjected to the sun

and the weather, the mother-of-pearl becomes dull and unat-

tractive, and such shells are known as dead shells.

In California dead shells collected on the beach are often

used, instead of stones, for rockeries, and also as borders for

flower beds. It would be impossible to enumerate the orna-

mental uses to which abalones are applied. “In China they

are broken up and used for inlaying in connection with lac-

quer work for which the Chinese are famous. The Mosaics of

Europe are often adorned in the same way.” Although the

pearl oyster (Maleagrina margaritifera) is used where a pearly-

white tint, such as seen in the pearl handles of silver table

"The West Amer. Scientist, April, 1889, p. 12. :

1894.] Abalone or Haliotis Shells of the Californian Coast. 857

knives, etc. is desired, yet in mosaies and work enriched by a

display of iridescent tints the nacre of abalone shells stands

preéminent. Inlaid work is so universally used that an enu-

meration of articles ornamented in this way is unnecessary,

but mention may be made of one use of these shells in lac-

quer that to an American or European may seem unique; its

use in a “ pillow end." When we think of a pillow we imag-

ine a billowy roll all done up in white, but, a Japanese or

Korean has a very different idea. In the Korean collection in

the U. S. National Museum are some small pillows and the

following description is given of the ends of. two of them ê

“ Pillow end (Be-ga-mo). Circular piece of wood, lacquered,

incrusted with Haliotisshell. Figures represent a tiger under

a pine tree; along the border is a band of arabesque.” “ Pil-

low end (Ja-ga-be-ga-mo). Disk of wood fastened in the end

of a cylindrical pillow case, in black lacquer with Haliotis

shell. Subject, the great dragon rising from the sea into the

sky in the spring season.” In describing these pillow ends

Mr. Walter Hough says: “The Korean pillow is a cylindri-

cal case stuffed with hair or rice straw. It has ornamented

ends. The first one mentioned is 8} inches in diameter, but

is ‘not part of a regular pillow, being used as a ‘ arm-rest.’

The second one is 8 inches in diameter.”

As a medium for trade among the Aborigines of North

America, abalones have been highly esteemed both for their

beauty and importance when used as ‘shell money. The shells

in the latter case being cut “into oblong strips from one to

two inches in length, according to the curvature of the shell,

and about as third as broad as long.” These were strung on a

string and were used both as money and ornaments. Dr.

Robert E. C. Stearns, Adjunct Curator of Molluses in the

National Museum, has written a comprehensive monograph

upon the use of shells by the Indians, entitled “ Ethno-Con-

chology, a study of Primitive Money,” and in it is figured

money made from abalones, which the Indians termed “ Uhl-

lo.” In the recent excavations at the old historic town of

*Report of the U. S. National Museum, 1891, page 465.

858 The American Naturalist. [October,

Pachacamac, near Lima, Peru? squares of mother-of-pearl

were found in the graves of the Incas. These squares are

only half the length of those figured in Dr. Stearns’ paper.

The pieces look like the nacre of abalones and each square has

two holes drilled in it. As the graves, or burial place of

Pachacamac is supposed to be over four hundred years old,

these shell pieces are very interesting, revealing also the fact

that the Incas considered shell ornaments valuable enough to

be buried with their bodies. As these strips of solid silver,

done up in a loosely woven cloth, were found in a mummy’s

hand, the pieces of shell were evidently not used as money,

the silver having been cut for that purpose.

Dr. Stearns instances the purchasing power of an abalone

from the fact that in New Mexico a horse had been traded for

a shell. I was relating this incident toa friend who had

spent some years with the Pueblos in New Mexico, and my

friend said that that was not surprising, as, when she first went

to New Mexico, some years ago, her brother bought her a good

Mexican horse for $6.00, and the Indians were always as glad

to receive attractive shells as money. This would not bea

very extravagant price for an Indian to pay for a fine Haliotis,

as a shell dealer once listed to me H. fulgens as high as $10.00.

Whether any conchologist paid such price is unknown to me,

but, a red abolone, when decorticated, has sold in Los Angeles

for $5.00, but it was a large specimen and beautifully pol-

ished.” Like other commodities abalone shells are variable

in price according to the demand, as well as quality.

%In the private collection of C. F. Lummus, Los Angeles, Cal.

“It is related that as high a price as $25.00 has been asked for an abalone having

a peculiar muscular impression outlined in the interior of the shell.

Med eme EE PM

1894.] The Duration of Niagara Falls. 859

THE DURATION OF NIAGARA FALLS.

By Dr. J. W. Spencer.

For the past century Niagara Falls has been considered a

time measurer, but its greatest interest has risen since the

growth of our knowledge of the Ice Age on acconnt of the

expectation that in some way it can be made to tell something

of the date of that period and indirectly of the advent of

man, or his restrictions on account of the glacial conditions.

The paper of which this is an abstract was primarily a physical

study, setting forth the changing episodes in the history of the

falls, and computing the age of the river, but leaving to others

the application of the results in the question of early man.

The method of determining the age of the falls is the appli-

cation of the mechanics of the river to the various conditions

during the changing episodes of its history, in a large measure

discovered by the author during the last fifteen years. The

investigation differs from those of other writers who have

simply divided the length of the chasm, excavated by the re-

treating falls, by the imagined or measured rate of the reces-

sion of the cataract. At a glance, even the most superficial

reader can understand that if the height of the cataract be first

reduced to one-half, and then again doubled, or if the volume

of the river be reduced to one-fourth, such variations are

bound to produce as great changes in the rate of recession as

are indicated by the mechanical laws; and that if the condi-

tions have not always remained constant, then the present rate

of retreat has not always obtained—sometimes slower and

sometimes faster. It is this question that the paper considers

for the first time. In the much written, but, until recently al-

most unknown, history of Niagara River, we find that an ap-

proximately correct estimate of the age of the falls was made

half a century ago by Lyell, upon a conjecture of the rate of re-

1 Abstract of a paper read before the Am. As. Ad. Science at Brooklyn,

August, 1894.

860 The American Naturalist. [October,

cession now known to be wholly erroneous. Again, within the

last eight years, there have been several writers who have been

using corrected céefficients of retreat, still their results are

more inaccurate than the guesses, as to the age of the falls,

made a hundred years ago, yet they may be said to have ap-

proximated the truth within their observations, but the obser-

vations have become enlarged.

A hundred years ago, Andrew Ellicott estimated the age of

the falls at 55,000 years. Forty years later, Bakewell made

the falls about 12,000 years old. Over fifty years ago, Lyell

conjectured the age at 35,000 years, and this estimate was

commonly accepted until about a decade ago. The founda-

tions for the measurements of the retreat of the cataract were

laid by Professor James Hall, when he made the first preserved

instrumental survey of the cataract in 1842. Since then,

measurements have been repeated in 1875 by the Lake Survey?

in 1886 by-Professor W. S. Woodward, and in 1890 by Mr.

Aug. 5. Kibbe. From these surveys the mean rate of modern

recession of the falls is found much more rapid than was form-

erly supposed, as it amounts to 4.175 feet a year, and if the

history of the falls had been uniform, then the age would

have been only 9,000 years—not so different from the guess of

half a dozen years ago, which took the maximum medial re-

treat of the cataract, and made the age only 7,000 years. Had

the gentlemen taken the mean rate as then known, which the

scientific, methods dictated and since supported by the action

of the river, they should have made the age of the falls 11,000

years, near which estimate some did. This point is noticed on

account of many secondary writers finding the number 7,000

years as agreeable to their theories.

Owing to some structural variations, I have taken 3.75

feet a year as the mean rate to be adopted for the retreat

_ of the falls mechanically applied to the different conditions of

the river. These have been occasioned by the changing

heights of the falls and the volume of the water. With regard

to the latter point, it has been found that for three-fourths of

the duration of the river, the drainage of Lake Huron and the

upper lakes was by way of the Ottawa River, and not by way

B tes Oa ee eae eS

1894.] The Duration of Niagara Falls. . 861

of Lake Erie and the Niagara. Under these conditions only

Yr of the present discharge of the Niagara River cascaded over

the falls. The episodes of the river are as follows: First epi-

sode: water descending 200 feet, volume j4 of the present

(when the falls was of about the magnitude of the present

American cataract) chasm excavated (as shown by the posi-

tion of terraces) 11,000 feet; time required, 17,200 years.

Second episode: descent of the river in a series. of three cas-

cades aggregating 420 feet at first with only the Erie drainage

(during the recession of 3,000 feet) and afterwards the present

volume of water (when the recession amounted to 7,000 feet)

duration 10,000 years. Third episode: river descending 420

feet in one cascade with the present volume; time required,

for the recession of 4,000 feet, only 800 years. Fourth episode

was somewhat complieated, with the water mostly descending

920 feet, and during this condition the falls have receded

11,500 feet, and required a period of 3,000 years. Thus the

age of the falls has been computed at 31,000 years. Butat the

beginning, the river flowed from lake to lake without a falls,

and this time has been taken as 1,000 years; accordingly, the

age of the river is computed at 32,000 years. The record

of the changing levels may be seen in the deserted beaches

now high above the lakes which have already been described

in scientific journals. The investigations doubtless contain

some errors which may be corrected in the future, but in

the history of the lakes the present computations are very

strongly confirmed by much cumulative evidence so that the

present results appear to be approximately correct. It is fur-

ther estimated that with the earth movements continuing as

at present, the end of the falls will be effected by the change of

the drainage from the Niagara River to the Mississippi, by way

of Chicago, owing to the rise of the eastern rim of the Erie

basin above the barrier now separating the lake waters from

the Mexican drainage. With the present rate of elevation con-

tinuing, the future life of the river ought to be 5,000 or 6,000

years.

In regard to the relation of Niagara River to the Ice Age, I

estimate that the lake epoch commenced from 48,000 to

9602 Ci The American Naturalist. [October,

64,000 years ago, and that for several thousands cf years before

the birth of the river there was open water far northeastward

of the river. Some writers think that the St. Lawrence Valley

was obstructed by ice until a late date. This is a question to

be determined; but however it may be, there has been free

communication for the drainage of the Ontario basin for at

least 14,000 years. Whether the end of the Ice Age were

60,000 or 14,000 years ago, all glacial obstructions had re-

treated to at least from 400 to 600 miles to the north and east

of the Great Lakes fifty milleniumsago. The lake region was

roamed over by mastodons, elks and beavers, but we do not

know of the presence of man. If such be found, anthropolo-

gists will have all of these years to consider in fixing the an-

tiquity of man. The story of Niagara River forms an interest-

ing chapter in the physical growth of the lakes, and gives us

an approximate idea of the duration of the lake epoch which

was characterized by the last touches in the fashioning of the

continent, and fixes the height of the Ice Age a very long time

ago.

One point more should be noticed. An error has prevailed

for fifty years in that it was supposed that the ancient Niagara

drainage was by way of the Whirlpool, (St. David’s) Ravine.

This has been found erroneous, owing to the occurrence of rock

across the Whirlpool Ravine at an elevation of about 170

feet above the surface of Lake Ontario.

+ AOS ion cs Te TEL Md

1894.] Recent Books and Pamphlets. 863

ie aena T BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

R, H.—Alternating Generations. A Biological Study of Oak Galls and

ene Taria and Edited by Mr. C. R. Stratton. Oxford, 1894. From

the Pub., McMillan & Co.

ANDREWS, C. W.—On some Remains of Æpyornis in the British Museum (Nat.

Hist.). Extr. Proc. Zool. London, 1894. From the author.

BATHER, F. A.—Natural Science in Japan. Extr. National Science, Vol. IV,

1894. From the author.

BITTNER, A. VON.— Zur neueren Literatur der Alpinen Trias. Separat. Ab-

druck aus dem Jahrb. z k. k. geolog. Reichsanstalt, 1894. Bd. 44, Heft. 2.

Wien, 1894. From the a

Brown, A. P.—A a rs d of the Chemical Behavior of Pyrite and

Marcasite. Reprint, June 19, 1894, from Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Vol.

XXXIIL From the author.

Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission, Vol. XI,-1891. Washington, 1893.

From the Smithsonian Institution.

CHAMBERLAIN, M.—A Popular Handbook of the Ornithology of the United

States and Canada, based on Nuttall’s Manual. Vol. I, Land Birds; Vol. II,

Game and Water Birds. From the author.

Congrés Géologique International, Compte Ten de la 5me Session, Washing-

ton, 1891. Washington, 1893. From the Burea

Davis, W. M. AND GRISWOLD, L. "psi ene Mousdnty of the Connecticut

Triassic. Extr. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 5, 1894. From the author.

Dereret, C.—Sur un gisement siderolithique de Mammifères de l'éocéne

moyen à Lissien, prés Lyon. Extr. Comptes-Rendus, Paris, 1894. From the

author.

Fifth Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. St. Louis, 1894.

From the Trustees of the Garden.

Gace, S.—The Microscope and Microscopical Methods. Ithaca, 1894. From

the author.

* Garman, H.—The Orthoptera of Kentucky. Extr. Sixth Ann. Rept. Ky.

Agric. Exper. Station. No date given. From the author.

Geological Maps of Schuylkill, Carbon, Berks and Dauphin Counties, Pa.——

Topographical Map of the Blue Mt. and Port Clinton, Pa., in two sheets, 1891.

— Atlas Summary Final Report, 1893. From the Posstinnls Geol. Surv.

Pase E.—Découverte d'ossements d'Hyénes rayées dans la grotte de Mont-

saunés (Haute-Garonne) Extr. Comptes-Rendus, Paris, 1894. From the

author.

Keyes, C. R.—Coal Deposits of Iowa. Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. II. Des

Moines, 1894. From the author.

Lypekker, R.—Life and Rock. London, 1894. From the author.

. Lyman, B. S.—Some New Red Horizons. poe? June 19, 1894, fen. Pron:

Amer. Philos. Soc., Vol. XXXIII. author.

Mason, O. T.—Migration and the Food Quest. i aid inthe Peopling of

America, Extr. Amer. Anthrop., 1894. From the

864 The American Naturalist. [October,

Merriam, C. H.—Abstract of a Study of the American Wood Rats, with

Descriptions of fourteen new species and subspecies of the Genus Neotoma.——

Preliminary Descriptions of eleven New Kangaroo Rats of the genera Dipodomys

and Perodipus. Extr. Proc. Biol. Soc., Washington, 1894. From the author.

NEHRLING, H.—Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, Vol. I. Milwaukee,

1893. From the author

NissET, J.—Studies in F Foray. Oxford, 1894. From Macmillan & Co.,

PACKARD, A. S.—On the Inheritance of Acquired Characters in Animals with

a Salas Metamorphosis. Extr. Proc. Amer. Acad., 1894. From the author.

Ravurr, H.—Paleospongiologie; in Paleontographica herausgegeben von K. A.

v. Zittel. Vierzigster Band, 56 Lief. Stuttgart, 1894. From Herr von Zittel.

Report of the Commissioner of Réunion 1890-91, Vol. I, Vol. Il. Wash-

wem 1894. From he Bureau of Ed.

OMANES, G. J.—Darwin and after Darwin. Chicago, 1893. From the

Scott, D. H.—Structural Botany. Flowering Plants. London, 1894. From

Macmillan & Co, Publishers

SCUDDER, X. H. .—Tertiary Tipulidae, with Special Reference to those of Floris-

sant, Olvido. Extr. Proceeds. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol. XXXII. From the

author.

SPRATT, L. Manin Continuation at this earth of a Nature of Reality Through-

out the Universe by "um of that Reality from its Original Universe of

Force. ie Gites

Tenth Annual Report of Ethnology, 1888, 1889. Washington, 1893. From

the Smithsonian Institution.

E. 8. T.—Two Spheres or Mind versus Instinct. London, 1894. From the

author

Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the State Horticultural Society of —

1898. Jefferson City, 1894. From the Soc.

Topp, J. E.—Pleistocene Problems in Missouri. Extr. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am.

Vol 5, 1894. From the Society.

Twelfth Annual Report of the U. S. vem Survey, 1890-91. Part I,

Geology; Part II, Irrigation. From the U. S. Geol. Surv

UDDEN, J. Aciadiiedon ; Transportation and Sediaientatíon Performed by the

Atmosphere. Extr. Journ. Geol, Vol. II, 1894. From the author.

Vines, S. H.—A Student's Text-Book of Botany. London, 1894. From Mac-

millan & Co., Publishers.

Warn, L. ¥—The Cretaceous Rim of the Black Hills. Extr. Journ. Geol.,

Vol. II, 1894. From the author .

^. WATERS, B. H.—Some additional points on the Primitive Segmentation of the

heit peer MK Abd. aus dem Zool. Anz., No. 362, 1891. From:the

1894.] Recent Literature. 865

RECENT LITERATURE.

The Colorado Formation.'—This memoir by T. W. Stanton is

published as Bulletin, No. 106 of the U. S. Geol. Survey. It comprises

the descriptions and illustrations of all the species that can now be as-

signed to the fauna, thirty-nine of which are believed to be new to

science. In an introductory chapter the author defines the Colorado

formation, describes local sections, and gives faunal lists that show

the vertical range and areal distribution of most of the species. This

formation has been recognized by means of its characteristic fossils in

Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming,

Montana, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Emquivalent strata exist in

Texas and the adjacent regions, and over large areas in British Amer-

ica. As yet it is unknown east of the Mississippi, but it may have an

equivalent on the Pacific coast, as one of its most characteristic fossils,

Inoceramus labiatus is reported from the Upper shales and sandstones

of the Queen Charlotte Island.

= Mr. Stanton considers the fauna, a as a whole, the taxonomic equiva- -

lent of the Turonian, as first pointed out by Co

The memoir is richly illustrated with 45 page plates of drawings

carefully finished in detail.

Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty.’—This work by Mr.

Nehrling is designed to awaken a love for nature among young people

and particularly to interest them in bird-life so that they will not only

` protect it, but they will also study the habits and learn the haunts of

birds with the view of fostering them by providing suitable nesting-

places. Itis issued in quarto form and the publishers have left nothing

to be desired in the way of paper, type, and all that goes to present a

book in an artistic form. The complete work will be a treatise on all

the native North American Birds from the Thrushes to the Parrots.

Vol. I, which is now at hand, carries the reader through the Swallows.

An introductory chapter contains brief remarks on birds prized for

their song or beauty, their habits, migration, their utility, their enemies,

their protection ; and the acclimatization of exotic birds. Then follow

E The Colorado Formation and Invertebrate "men By T. W. Stanton. Bull.

of the U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 106. Washington,

? Our Native Birds of hd and Beauty. Vol. E D Henry N — Mil-

"^waukee, 1893.

866 The American Naturalist. [October,

descriptions of species and with each description the author gives an

account of the habits and habitat, based chiefly on his own observations.

In every case the loca] name is given in addition, and no effort is

spared to combine scientific accuracy with popular diction. The plates

by Ridgway and Miitzel are admirable specimens of color printing.

Cartailhac’s Prehistoric France.’—This work forms one of the

Bibliothéque Scientifique Internationale Series, and like the rest of

that set aims to embody the leading facts of the subject treated in brief

essay which shall be at once both popular and scientific. M. Car-

tailhac’s opening chapter is a history of the progress of the science of

archeology, and contains a resumé of the important discoveries made

in France. Then follows a discussion of the evidence for the existence

of preglacial man, and a presentation of the undoubted facts concern-

ing his PAORO during cany Pae Under the "-— * artistic

manifestations," are described t] ings and t y primitive

man, and the conclusions drawn from a comparison of the ‘work with

that of uncivilized man of the present day. A chapter on human bones

discovered in the Alluvium and another on the mortuary customs as evi-

denced by the position, condition and surroundings of the skeletons dis-

covered in caverns and burial-places closes the history of Paleolithic

man.

Of Neolithic man M. Cartailhae makes alongerstory. The grottoes,

both natural and artificial, used as sepulehres, and the strange megali-

thic crypts, are very fully described, together with the funeral rites of

the ancient Gauls. Ethnographic comparisons are made with living

races, particularly as to the custom of erecting stones as monuments.

Finally a discussion of the type of Neolithic man as revealed by the

Cro-Magnon and other skulls found within the last few years brings to

a close this interesting work on prehistoric man.

The volume forms one of the series edited by M. Lanessan, and it is

of importance as furnishing a review of what has been discovered in

that richest of all fields, France.

Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1892.'— This report

comprises the Reports of the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian

Institution upon the condition and progress of the Museum ; Reports of

the Curators; Paper’s illustrative of collections in the Museum; A

Bibliography ; and List of Accessions. Shufeldt’s Paper on scientific

*La France Agree ti les Sépultures et les Monuments. Par

EmileCartailhac. Paris, 18

1894.] Recent Literature. 867

taxidermy is beautifully illustrated. The author criticises the results

attained by workers in the Museum, viewing the subject from the

standpoint of an artist and biologist. Other important and interesting

papers are Dr, White’s discussion of Biology in its relation to geological

investigation, and a description of Japanese Wood-cutting and Wood-cut

Printing by T. Tokuno, chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Print-

ing of Japan. This paper is also finely illustrated.

Marsh on Tertiary Artiodactyla.’—In this paper we have an-

other characteristic production of its author. Thirteen alleged new

species, three alleged new genera, and three alleged new families, are

named. To point out how far they are described, and are not duplica-

tions of other work, is the object of the following pages. The

three * new " families are not described at all, not a single character

being assigned to any of them. No reasons are given to show that they

differ from each other or from familiesalready known. The three new

genera are described, but are not compared with genera already known

out of North America. One of them (Agriomeryx, p. 270) is identical

with the Coloreodon Cope, described in 1879* and figured in 1884 and

1858". In addition to these three genera, references are made to nine

other alleged genera named by the author in previous publications,

Taking these up seriatim, the first in order is called Eohyus, which

name was used without accompanying description in an address

delivered by Prof. Marsh and published in 1877. The introduction of

this and other new-names in this way in that address gave them no

authority, and other names applied to the same types at subsequent

dates, if accompanied with a description, would necessarily be used,

But if not so replaced, this rehabilitation afterseventeen years, should

be such as to satisfy the rules of nomenclature. But what is now offered

tous? The only diagnosis of Eohyus vouchsafed to us, is that “ the

type specimen is a last upper molar and the characters of its crown are

well shown in the figure," which accompanies the text. This will

scarcely do as a generic diagnosis, and no other specimens represent the

species and genus! Yet on the strength of this material he bases the

“new” and undefined “family Eohyid:e." The spécimen comes A

the Wasatch of New Mexico. He then d tly, and

without figure, an alleged second species from the Puerco a

- *Report of the U. S. National Museum for the year ending June 30, 1892.

Washington, 1893.

5 Description of — Artiodaetyles by O. C. Marsh. Amer. Journ. Sci.

Arts, 1894. Sept., p. 25 .

. *Proceedings iban Philosoph. Society.

868 The American Naturalist. [October,

which he, as usual, calls the lower Wasatch, (again in defiance of the

rules) thus assuming that a genus of this group is common to the two

formations, an assumption only to be made on far better evidence than

is here offered. He next states that the name of the Puerco genus

Periptychus Cope is“ preoccupied,’ but does not point out how or

where. Scudder’s Index shows that a division (not a genus) of

Lepidoptera has been called Periptyches, which is not preoccupation.

The entire proceeding is an attempt to make something out of noth-

ing and is unworthy of a place in a scientific Journal.

The next genus mentioned is called Parahyus Marsh, which name

was given in 1876. Osborn has regarded it as identical with Achz-

nodon Cope, 1873, and no characters have been assigned which will

distinguish them. The next name is Homacodon, which was given by

Marsh without generic diagnosis in 1872. Two “new species” are

named, but not described, but they are supposed to be introduced to

science by figures of two astragali! The author asserts that the genus-

which I described, also in 1872, under the name of Pantolestes, includes.

species of * Homacodon.” As the type of Pantolestes is from the same

horizon as Marsh’s specimens, it is probable that Homacodon is a

synonym of that genus. If so, the superior molars are quadritubercular,.

since Marsh so figures them in the present paper. It is, therefore

necessary to give the tritubercular form from the older Wasatch horizon

another name. For this genus, whose type is the Pantolestes brachy-

stomus Cope, I propose the generic name of Trigonolestes. The proper

description of the Homacodon vagans by Marsh in 1872 would have

prevented the reference to the same genus of the Wasatch forms in

1884.

The next genus proposed is Nanomeryx, which is defined. The type

and only species is called .N. caudatus, but is not described, except by

the statement that it is half as large as the Pantolestes (Homacodon)-

vagans, and by reference to figures of the inferior end of the tibia, and

the astragalus. Rather hard lines for paleontologists who shall here-

after desire to identify the species! We next reach the so-called genus

Helohyus, which Marsh on a previous occasion alleged to be identical

with Phenacodus. He does not repeat this statement in this paper, but

says that it is suilline and therefore a member of another order,

Two figures show that the two forms are also very distinct as to dentition,

The name was originally proposed by Marsh in 1872 without generic

diagnosis, and no diagnosis is given now, so that the field is still open

to any one who may be able to properly characterize it. The abortion

of another generic name given by himself by its union with

“ Helohyus," is a step made by the author in the right direction.

1894.] Recent Literature. 869

Our author next enumerates certain selenodont Artiodactyla from the

Eocene system. Here we have an attempt to rehabilitate three

generic names, enumerated, but not sufficiently or not at all described

in the address of 1877 before referred to, and without mention of type

species. The first of these (Eomeryx) has been since well described by

Scott and Osborn, (in 1889), who show that the form is allied to Oreodon.

'Their name, ( Protoreadon), has the right of first description and should

be retained. The next genus, Parameryx, is described sufficiently to en-

sure its adoption, if it is distinet from the various allied European forms,

with which, as usual, no comparison is made. The species (“ P. laevis”)

is not described, but future students are expected to identify it from

two figures, one of an upper molar, and tbe other of the astragalus. A

second supposed species is very insufficiently deseribed. Unfortunately

for the adoption of the name Parameryx, the genus was, according to

Marsh, described by Scott and Osborn in 1889 under the name of

Leptotragulus. This publication contained the first description of the

genus, hence the latter name must be retained. The third name of

the address was * Oromeryx." - It was not described, nor was any type

species mentioned. ‘The omission as to description is now supplied, but

specific and family characters are confused by being mixed with the

generic.

Under the head of Miocene Artiodactyles, we find the genus Colore-

odon Cope redescribed under the name of Agriomeryx as already

noted. The only species named is not described, but a part of the skull

is figured, which does not offer any difference of specific value from the

C. feror Cope. The next form referred to is the suilline genus named

but not described by Marsh in 1875 as Thinohyus. It has been im-

possible hitherto to locate this genus from Marsh's paper, but the

figures of a few molar teeth now given throw somelight on the subject,

but as hitherto, no distinct description of the genusis given. Next fol-

lows a fuller description than usual of a new species of Lepto-

choerus Leidy. The author says that the molar teeth resemble those

of the alleged genus Helohyus, but the figures show that they are very

different. A suspicion of this seems to have been present to the author,

who proposes to place the genus in a new family the “ Leptochoeride,”

which as usual, he does not characterize. The last feat of Prof. Marsh

which I shall notice, is that of naming a supposed new species of Pro-

camelus on a figure of the caleaneum only! He states that the bones

were found in the Pliocene of the John Day region of Oregon, meaning

probably Loup Fork. Plivcene beds do not contain the genus Pro-

camelus.—E. D. Corr.

870 The American Naturalist. [October,

General Notes.

MINERALOGY:

Crystallization of Enargite.—Pirsson’ has studied enargite

from two new Colorado localities, viz., the Ida Mine, Summit District,

and the National Belle Mine, Red Mountain. At the former locality

the mineral is deposited in cavities left after the kaolinization of feld-

spar phenocrysts in porphyry. These crystals are tabular parallel to

o; Po, and are bounded by the forms œ P®, oP, oP, and œ P».

At the latter locality two types of crystals are found. One of these is

in thick, striated prisms bounded by the same forms as the Ida

Mine crystals and sometimes in addition PX, Poo, oo P;, and another

brachydome. ‘The second type of crystals from this locality is tabular

parallel to the base and shows hemimorphic development. The forms

observed on this type are oP, o» P o», «P, o P5, Px, ł Ps.

Crystallization of Scolecite and Meta.scolecite.—Rinne'

has investigated crystals of scolecite from Iceland and shown that the

mineral erystallizes in the rare inclined-faced hemihedral division of

the monoclinie system. This fact was developed by etching and bv

study of the pyroelectric properties. The front faces of the prism

have different etched figures from the rear faces, while in twinned

crystals with the twinning plane the ortho-pinacoid, front and rear

faces of the prism have the same figures. In simple individuals the

front and rear faces are pyroelectrically positive and negative poles

respectively. In twinned crystals all prism faces are positive and a

negative zone follows the twinning line on œ P'zz with neutral bands

on either side.

When crystals of the mineral are heated much above 120? C they

become cloudy, and the crystal structures seems at first sight to be

lost, but by brightening up in oil it is found that a molecular re-

arrangement has taken place. This new mineral Rinne calls meta-

scolecite. The inclined-faced hemihedrism of the monoclinic system is

retained, but a remarkable revolution of the molecular groups through

- 'Edited by Dr. Wm. H. Hobbs, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

~ *Am. Jour. Sci., (3) xlvii, pp. 212-215.

?Neues Jahrb. f. Mineral., etc., 1894, II, pp. 51-68..

1894.] Mineralogy. ~ 871

an angle of 90° about the `c axis has taken place. The ortho-pina-

coid has become the clino-pinacoid and vice-versa, The twinning

plane of twinned crystals has undergone the same revolution. By

heating crystals beyond-the temperature required for producing the

first meta-scolecite, the double refraction of the substance steadily de-

creases and the symmetry approaches more and more closely to the

orthorhombic. Below red heat the structure breaks down. As scolecite

possesses three molecules of water of crystallization, Rinne suggests

that the first meta-scolecite contains two, the second one molecule of

erystal water, the crystal structure being lost when all the water has

been removed.

Crystallization of Herderite.—Penfield' has made a study of

herderite from the known localities as well as from a newly discovered

locality at Paris, Me. The herderite from the latter locality as well

as that from Hebron, contains scarcely any fluorine, its place being

taken by hydroxyl, and the author proposes for it the name bydro-

herderite. As the Stoneham herderite contains hydroxyl and fluorine

in the proportions of 3:2, the one apparently replacing the other iso-

morphieally, the name hydro-fluor-herderite is proposed for such inter-

mediate varieties between theoretical fluor-herderite and hydro-herde-

rite. In the crystallographic study the fact is brought out that the

mineral is monoclinic instead of orthorhombic as has been supposed.

This is proven not alone on Paris specimens but on specimens from

the other localities, which were reexamined for this purpose. The

crystals, however, approach closely to the orthorhombic system, the

hydro- fluor-herderite being more nearly orthorhombic than the hydo-

herderite, the substitution of fluorine for hydroxyl tending to increase

the crystallographical axial angle and to shorten the clino-diagonal.

It likewise diminishes the mean index of refraction and the optical

angle.

Composition and Related Physical Properties of Topaz.—

Jannatsch and Locke? have shown that topaz contains water of consti-

tution, from a chemical study of specimens from San Louis Potosi,

Ilmen Mts., Schneckenstein, and Brazil. Penfield and Minor’ have

independently established the same fact by a larger number of analyses,

and shown how this greatly simplifies the formula of the mineral on

* Am. Jour. Sci., (3) xlvii, pp. 329-339.

5Am. Jour. Sci., (3) xlvii, pp. 386-387.

*Ibidem, pp. 387-396.

872 The*American Naturalist. [October,

the assumption that hydroxyl and fluorine are isomorphous. Their

results show that whereas the ratio SiO, : A1,O,: F varies from 1:1:

1.50 to 1: 1: 1.84, the ratio SiO,: ALO, : (F. OH) is constant and 1:

1:2,s0 the formula of topaz becomes (Al'[F. OH] ), SiO, or (Al

[F. OH], Al SiO, Their study of the physical properties of the

mineral establishes a definite relation between them and the per cents

of fluorine and water present, clearly indicating the isomorphous

character of the fluorine and hydroxyl The hydro-topaz has the

smaller optical angle and the smaller specific gravity. The same fact

is brought out by the determined values for a, f, and y, and by exact

. measurements of interfacial angles. The optical anomalies of some

Brazilian erystals are explained by zonal growth of topazes of different

composition.

Composition of Chondrodite, Humite, and Clinohumite.—

Penfield and Howe' have undertaken the study of the composition of

the members of the humite group with the result not only of bringing

order out of chaos, but also of establishing the fact that chondrodite,

humite, and clinohumite constitute an homologous series both in a

chemical and in a crystallographical sense. Sjögren has assumed that

fluorine and hydroxyl are isomorphous, and derived new formulas for

the members of this series, but as the authors point out the older

analyses which Sjógren utilized are low as regards water, and Sjogren

neglected to take into account the replacement of magnesia by ferrous

iron and the consequent lowering of the silica percentage. The for-

mulas derived by the authors, reckoning ferrous iron as magnesia, are

as follows:

Chondrodite Mg, (Mg [F. OH), (SiO),

Humite Mg, (Mg [F. OH], (SiO),

Clinohumite Mg, (Mg [F. OH], (SiO)),

The common difference of this homologous series is a molecule of

chrysolite, Mg, SiO, As shown by Sacchi and vom Rath, if the `c,

axis of ‘crystals of chondrodite be divided by 5, that of humite by 7, and

that of clinohumite by 9, the axial ratios of the three minerals become

practically identical. Now these divisors, 5, 7, and 9, are the same as the

number of magnesia atoms in the formulas of the corresponding min-

erals. A most interesting relation is thus brought out connecting the

erystal forms and chemical compositions of the members of this group.

The authors think it probable that other members of this series will be

discovered, such as a mineral of the composition Mg (Mg [F. OH].

"Am. Jour. Sci., (3) xlvii, pp. 188-206.

1894.] Mineralogy. ` 873

SiO,. This compound should have either orthorhombic or monoclinic

symmetry, with £ equal to 90° and an axial ratio a: b: c=1.086: 1:

1.887. i

Leucite from New Jersey.—Kemp* argues for the presence of

partially decomposed leucites in a dyke rock at Rudeville, Sussex Co.,

N. J., from a micro-chemical test indicating the presence of potassium,

and from remains of leucite twinning, in spheroids now largely made

up of analcite, calcite, feldspar, and other supposed secondary pro-

ducts.

Variscite from Utah.—Packard?® gives an analysis of a specimen

of compact or cryptocrystalline variscite from a quartz vein near Lew-

iston, Utah. The analysis is as follows:

H,O 22.95 P,O, 4440 . ALO,(By difference) 32.65.

Utilization of Auerbach Calcite for Nicols.—An attempt

has been made" to utilize the clear calcite from Auerbach on the

Bergstrasse, Germany, for Nicol's prisms. Four ordinary Nicols with

inclined end faces were prepared by Schmidt & Haensch of Berlin,

and although these are equal to the medium quality Nicols prepared

from Iceland spar in the matter of extinction, they nevertheless con-

tain inclusions, air bubbles, etc., which are visible even to the naked

eye. Dr. Hoffman, the owner of the Auerbach quarries, still hopes to

secure material pure enough to take the place of Iceland spar. The

material already tested will suffice for technical purposes.

Crystallization of Willemite.—Willemite has been supposed to

have rhombohedral tetartohedral symmetry from the similarity of its

rhombohedral angles to those of phenacite. Penfield” studies crystals

from the Merritt Mine, N. M., Sedalia Mine, Salida, Col., and Frank-

lin, N. J. In the specimens from the first and last mentioned locali-

ties, rhombohedrons of the second and third orders were observed and

measured, showing that the system is what has been supposed. On

the crystals from the Merritt Mine the second and third order rhombo-

hedrong are# P 2! and $ P$! respectively. One of the types from the

4 a1

Franklin Mines is terminated by a third order rhombohedron 3717

alone, thus resembling the phenacite crystals from Mte. Antero, Col.

*Am. Jour. Sci., (3) xlvii, pp. 339-340.

*Am. Jour. Sci., (3) xlvii, pp. 297-298.

Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde, 14te Jahrgang (1894), p. 54.

Am. Jour, Sci., (3), xlvii, pp. 305-309.

874 The American Naturalist. [October,

The authof shows that the cleavage of willemite is like that of troost-

ite, indistinct cleavages parallel to both the base and prism being

made out in willemite.

Composition of Staurolite and Arrangement of its Inclu-

sions.—Exceptionally pure material for analysis was obtained by

Penfield and Pratt’ from St. Gothard, Switz., Windham, Me., Lisbon,

N. H., and near Burnsville, N. C. A powder of uniform specific grav-

ity was obtained in each case by the use of fused silver nitrate as a

separating fluid in a specially constructed apparatus, the heavier and

lighter portions of the powder being in this way removed. Reckoning

MnO and MgO as FeO, and Fe,O, as Al,O,, the four specimens yield

results that agree well and indicate clearly that staurolite has the em-

pirical formula H Al, Fe Si,O,, as already suggested by Groth. The

silica alone does not agree closely with this formula, being in every

case about one per cent too high, and the authors think that this is due to

the presence of inclusions of quartz too minute to be separated from

the powder. Carbonaceous inclusions are in the staurolite from Lis-

The explanation of the authors is that the crystals of staurolite in

growing in a solid rock, find it difficult to exclude foreign substances,

the tendency to include them being greatest at the crystal edge and

greatest where the interfacial angle is largest.

Determination of Quartz and the Feldspars in thin Sec-

tion.—Sometime since Becke described a method of distinguishing

quartz from feldspar by treatment with hydrochloric acid and subse-

quently tinting. He now" applies the same method to distinguish

orthoclase from plagioclase and to determine the particular plagioclase

species. Orthoclase is less affected by acid than plagioclase, and the

soda rich plagioclases are less affected than the lime rich species. In

rocks containing quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase, the slide is etched

until by tinting the plagioclase shows an intense color. The orthoclase

will then be faintly tinted and the quartz entirely unaffected

Continuing his study Becke'* has devised methods for the same deter-

minations based on differences of refractive index. The first method

consists in the examination of a perpendicular contact plane between

P Am. ime Sci., z xlvii, pp. 81-89.

Tscherm. min, u. petrog. Mitth. = Heft 3, p. 2 (Notizen).

MSitzungsber. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. i. Wien, Math. Naturw. Classe, Bd. 1,

Abtk. I, pp. 358-376, July, 1893.

1894.] Mineralogy. 875

the two minerals with a cone of illumination of small angle. When

properly focused, this contact appears asa sharp line. On raising the

tube of the instrument, the focus is disturbed and a light band appears

on the side of the contact toward the more refractive mineral, which

band widens and finally fades out as the tube is raised higher. If, on

the other hand, the tube be lowered, the same phenomena appear on

the other side of the contact. The best results are obtained with the

use of high powers and with a cone of illumination of small angle.

Becke recommends the use of the 7risblende furnished with the newer

instruments of Fuess. I have obtained good results with a small

Voigt and Hochgesang instrument by removing the weak convex

lens which covers the polarizer. Becke’s Schlierenmethode makes use

of inclined illumination, which is obtained with the Jrisblende or

with Abbe's Beleuchtungsapparat. With inclined illumination, that

side of a section of strongly refracting mineral toward the direetion

from which thelight comes, shows a light band against the less strongly

refracting mineral surrounding it, while the opposite side shows a dark

band. The author statesthat this method suffices to determine ortho-

clase, quartz, and a plagioclase when they are present together in a

holocrystalline rock, but suggests that it be supplemented by the

Fürbung method. The method of determining the species of plagio-

clase depends on the comparison of the double refraction of the feld-

spar with that of quartz sections. By making per cents of An the

abscissæ, and indices of refraction the ordinates, curves are obtained

for a, f£ and y within the feldspar series. These curves are inter-

sected by the horizontal curves of w and e in quartz. If now a and

y be the less and the greater values respectively of the refraction for the

two principal directions in any section of plagioclase, a' being between a

and 5 and y between £ and y, the curves obtained indicate the follow

ing relations:

Parallel Position Crossed Position Composition.

ec cv boy oy c7» z2' Ab —Ab, An,

ll: w> 6! eom y E d € >’ Ab, An, —Ab,An,

Hb ose ey o xy e>. Ab, An, —Ab,An,

IV wae’ e=7 omy ee Ab, An—Ab, An,

Vaan’ y o< yf e==c’ Ab,An,—Ab An,

Vl oxu’ e« y o< y e<e’ Ab, An—An,

It is seen that these subdivisions of the plagioclases correspond in a

general way to the earlier one of Tschermak, I being albite, II and III

oligoclase, IV and V andesine, while VI includes labradorite, bytoun-

ite and anorthite. As Tschermak's later and more equable subdivi-

876 The American Naturalist. [October,

sion of the series has not been generally accepted, Becke thinks the

harmony between his natural table and the olderscheme of Tschermak

a reason for retaining the original classification. The practical method

of utilizing the results in his table, consists in finding contiguous sec-

tions of quartz and plagioclase which extinguish nearly parallel to

one another. By means of the quartz wedge it is then determined

whether the double refraction of these sections is of the same or of

opposite sense. If the former, they are said to have parallel position

and will indicate some of the relations of the first column of the table,

and, if the latter, they have crossed position and their relations will

correspond to something in the second column of the table. The

quartz section always yields w and a value varying but little from e.

This method applies only to holocrystalline rocks which contain

quartz, but it is a discovery of much importance which will doubtless be

of much service in the study of the crystalline schists. The author

has applied the method to the determination of the feldspar in many

rocks of the Rosenbusch collection of B. Stiirz, and printed his list of

determinations. An excellent photogram also accompanies the paper.

Fluid Enclosures in Sicilian Gypsum.—The Cianciana gyp-

sum contains cavities filled with liquid, some of which are 3 cm. in

extent. Sjögren” has analyzed the liquid with the following results:

K,O Na,O CaO MgO Cl SO, Total O deducted for Cl, pen ec

21 409 41 39 449141 110.0 10.1

Corresponding to

K,SO, NASO, CaSO, NaCl MgCl, Total

3.7 11.4 9.7 66.2 9.0 100.0

The saline constituents were 4.023 per cent of the solution. This

fluid is a fossil water of Miocene age, and differs from ocean water

chiefly by containing a greater percentage of sulphates. It agrees

fairly well with the water of some sulphur springs. The author thinks

that the quantity of sulphates present in the water of the enclosure

shows that the gypsum and sulphnr cannot have been derived from a

lagoon of sea water in which organic matters have reduced sulphur

from the contained sulphates. Whether they-are the product of sul-

phur springs or of emanations of H,S in a lagoon of sea water in

which sulphur has been deposited and sulphates formed by action of

.. SO, on marls, the author is unable to determine.

!5Bull. Geol, Inst. Upsala, I, (1893), No. 2, pp. 1-7.

OE WT T AES ee NTR aer E

1894.] ‘ Mineralogy. ; 877

New Sulphostannate from Bolivia.—In 1893 Penfield de-

scribed a new isometric germanium mineral from Bolivia, which had

the formula Ag, Ge S, and which he named.canfieldite. This he

showed to be identical chemically with Winkler’s Freiberg mineral

argyrodite, which that chemist had given the formula Ag, Ge S, and

which Weisbach had considered monoclinic. Weisbach has since

found that his earlier determination of the symmetry was incorrect, it

being isometric tetrahedral and identical with the Bolivian min-

eral whith should hence bear the name argyrodite. Penfield now

transfers the name canfieldite' to a new sulphostannate of silver from

La Paz, Bolivia, having isometric symmetry. A part of the tin is re-

placed by Germanium. The formula of the mineral is Ag, (Sn Ge) S,

argyrodite being Ag, Ge S, The two minerals have similar physical

properties, and are evidently isomorphous.

Allanite from Franklin Furnace.—Eakle" has made a crystal-

lographical study of the allanite from the Trotter Mine, Franklin

Furnace, N. J. The crystals occur in a granite dike associated with

zine ores. They are variable in habit and exhibit in all fourteen forms,

none of which are, however, new to the species. The same author de-

scribes the tourmalines* from Rudeville and Franklin Furnace.

Miscellaneous.—Model” has found molybdenite and molybdite

in the serpentine of the Rothenkopf, Zillerthal—. Carnot” has made

an examination of the composition of wavellite and turquoise. In

four analyses of wavellite from Cork, Ireland; Clomnel, Ireland;

* Chester, Etats unis" (probably from Pennsylvania); and Gar-

land, Arkansas, the fluorine was found to be 1.90, 2.79, 2.09 and 1.81

per cents respectively. Carnot proposes for the mineral the formula

2 (P,O, Al,O,)+Al, (0O,F;)--13 H,O, but in the light of the recent

work of Penfield, it seems more probable that part at least of the

water present, is water of constitution, and thatthe fluorine replaces hy-

droxyl and not oxygen. In two specimens of turquoise of mineral

origin (from Persia and Nevada respectively) no fluorine was found,

Two specimens of occidental turquoise (odontolite) yielded each over

three per cent of fluorine. The entrance of fluorine into odontolite

during its derivation from fossil teeth, the author was led to expect

from his study of the composition of fossil bones of the different

geological ages.

, Am. our, Sci., [8], xlvii, pp. 451-4. : "i

Tra i s N. Y. al ^ L9, xii, p. 102; also Am. Jour. Sci, [3] xlvii, pp.

"Am. Jour. Sci., [3], xlvii, p. 439.

Tscherm. min. u. rog. Mitth., were

Comptes rendus. cxviii, pp. 995-8

878 The American Naturalist, [October,

GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.

Origin of the Trilobites.—A study of the appendages of Trilo-

bites leads Dr. Walcott to views confirmatory of those of Bernard in

regard to the origin of the Trilobites. Dr. Walcott considers the

modern Crustacea as “ descendants of the Phyllopod branch, and the

Trilobita form a distinct branch." (Geol. Mag., May, 1894).

Bernard's lastest communieation on the subject, is to the effect that

the great variability in the number of segments shown by Trilobites,

the formation of the head by the gradual incorporation of trunk seg-

ments, the bending round ventrally of the first segment, the * wander-

ing " of the eyes, the existence and modification of the * dorsal organ,”

and especially the character of the limbs, all serve to connect the

Trilobites with Apus. That Apus lies low in the direct line from the

original annelidan ancestor towards the modern Crustacea, and the

Trilobites probably branched off laterally from this line, anterior to

the primitive Apus, as forms specialized for creeping, with the protect-

ion of a hard imbricated carapace. This carapace resulted from the

repetition on trunk segments of the pleurae of the head segments, which

together form the head shield. (Proceeds. London Geol. Soc., March,

1894).

Some New Red Horizons.—A survey of Montgomery and

‘Bucks Counties in Pennsylvania, has shown that the New Red in the

former county is 27,000 feet thiek. This unexpected result harmonizes

with the recorded facts in other States. A study of this region has

been made by Dr. B. Smith Lyman with the view of a better under-

standing of the relative geological position of the different horizons

from which fossils have been reported in the “ so-called American New

Red” of the eastern part of the United States. Mr. Lyman recog-

-nizes in the Montgomery series five distinct horizons which he names

and defines as follows, beginning with the oldest :

Shales mostly soft and red, but in small part dark gray or green, or

blackish with. beds of brown sandstone, and of gray sandstone and

pebble rock, at rita and eastward, about 6,100 feet ; Norristown

Shales.

Shales, in great part hard, dark or greenish-gray and blackish,

partly dark red, at the Gwynedd and Pheenixville tunnels, with traces

of coal, about 3,500 feet; Gwynedd Shales.

————Pá

a ee E smsamssnanoniens

aie

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 879

Shales, mostly soft and red, at Lansdale and near it, about 4,700

feet; Lansdale Shales.

Shales, in great part hard and green, partly blackish and dark red,

with some small traces of coal at the Perkasie tunnel and near it, about

2,000 feet ; Perkasie Shales.

Shales, mostly soft and red, at Pottstown and northeastward, about

10,700 feet; Pottstown Shales.

The kator then, from fossil records, traces these horizons in other

Atlantic border States. In Maryland he finds the Gwynedd and

Lansdale Shales represented. In Virginia, while the total New Red

thickness is not so great as in Pennsylvania, there seems to be all five

divisions represented.: The North Carolina fossils all appear to belong

to the Gwynedd Shales. In New Jersey the divisions are traced quite

across the State with the exception of a dozen miles north, south and

west of Somerville where the indications are not quite certain. In

this State it is noticeable that the thickness of the New Red diminishes

toward the northeast, and the variation is due to the absence of the

upper beds, The diminution ‘extends into Connecticut in greater

degree, and still more so in Massachusetts. Almost all of the fossils in

these two States represent the Gwynedd Shales. A list of all the

recorded New Red fossils, arranged by the author according to the

different horizons, facilitates comparison.

Mr. Lyman concludes his valuable contribution to geological litera-

ture with the following remarks:

“Tt is not improbable that the Norristown Shales, with the great

calamite near Doylestown, the apparent Lepidodendron at Newark

and Belleville, and the Palaeophycus at Portland, may after all prove

to be at least as old asthe Permian. It seems highly probable that

the well ascertained great thickness of 27,000 feet in Montgomery

County should represent more than one limited paleontological period,

and not only that it should include the Permian, but that the very ex-

tensive upper third of that space, hitherto almost devoid of reported

fossils, should turn out to be much newer than the Triassic. Those

upper beds have also shown here and there imperfect fossil traces, and

as there are occasional beds of green shale among the predominant red

ones, there is reason to hope that more abundant and perfect fossils

may some day be found.”

As for the trap, the author thinks it impossible to doubt that all the

conformable trap sheets are overflows contemporaneous with the sedi-

mentary beds, and not subsequent intrusions. (Proceeds. Amer.

Philos. Soc., Vol. XX XIII, 1894).

880 The American Naturalist. [October,

The Gosau Beds in the Austrian Salzkammergut.— The

extensive literature of the Gosau Beds is a proof of their importance

from a geological point of view. Since 1832 this remarkable forma-

tion with its unique fauna has been under discussion among European

geologists. In a paper published in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,

1894, Mr. H. Kynaston brings together the results of previous investi-

gation on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Gosau Beds, and

gives an account of his own observations made with referenceto fixing

their geological horizon. The beds are divided into an upper and

lower group, the latter extremely fossiliferous, while the former is

almost devoid of organic remains. On both stratigraphical and pale-

ontological evidence, the author correlates the Lower Gosau Beds with

the Turonian amd Senonian of the south of France. These in turn

represent the English Middle and Upper Chalks. The Upper Gosau

Beds being non-fossiliferous, cannot be located definitely, but the prob-

ability is that they represent the Danian of other districts and are on

the same horizon as the chalk of Maastricht and Aix-la-Chapelle.

Geology of the Rocky Mountains between the Saskatche-

wan and Athabasca Rivers.—During the summers of 1892 and

1893, some explorations were made in the Rockies between Howse

Pass and the Athabasca Pass. This tract of mountains, including

some of the grandest mountain scenery in North America, has been

neglected by scientific observers, so that, maps hitherto published repre-

sent it incorrectly. New lakes and rivers were discovered, heights of

peaks determined, and paleontological collections made. The results

of a geological reconnaisance of this region are summarized as follows

by Professor A. P. Coleman:

“To sum up the geological features of the region examined, we may

describe the southeastern portion, well displayed along the Brazean

River, as consisting of a series of seven or more minor ranges, each

striking northwest and southeast, and tilted 25°-45° toward the coast

line of the Pacific. These blocks, consisting of thousands of feet of

quartzite and conglomerate, often overlain by thousands of feet of

Devonian limestones, appear to have been thrown into their present

attitudes by a series of reversed faults, as described by McConnell in

Bow Pass. The rare folds observed in this portion of the mountains

represent, perhaps, the dying out of such faults. Though no Creta-

ceous rocks have been proved to overlie the Devonian strata, it is

probable that the faulting which produced the mountains took place

IL RM ee CN ee a RE oe nt eee Tee

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 881

since Cretaceous times, for the foothills of Laramie sandstones give

evidence of parallel faulting and tilting.

“ On approaching the watershed of the Rockies west and northwest

of the region just referred to, the regularity of the structure largely

disappears. The direction and amount of dip vary, folds are not un-

common, and the rocks become more or less micaceous and metamor-

phosed ; slates and sericite schists underlie the quartzites and conglo-

merates, and fossiliferous beds were not observed. The apparent

absence of eruptive or plutonic rock is a feature worthy of note in a

region where faulting has taken place on so huge a scale.

“ The evidence of the action of Dr. G. M. Dawson’s Cordilleran ice

mass is distinct; the time which has elapsed since the Tce Age has been

comparatively short, and the innumerable glaciers of the region re-

present the shrinking remnants of the ice sheet."

American Tertiary Aphidae.—It would hardly seem that plant-

lice with their gauzy wings and soft bodies could be preserved in rocks.

Yet they are not infrequently found. In Europethey are reported from

four localities as well as from the Baltic amber. They have even been

found in Mesozoie rocks. In America, Florissant, Colorado, has yielded

107 specimens, and they have been found at Green River, Wyoming, and

Quesnel, B. C. The American Tertiary Aphidae have been described

and figured by Dr. Seudder, and he has recently compiled a list of the

species known, presenting them in a way to render their study compar-

tively easy and their diversity apparent. In the introduction he states

that but one immature plant-louse has been found fossil in America,

all the others are winged and belong to 32 species, divided into fifteen

genera, of which 11 fail into the Aphidinae, the remaining four, with

only five of the thirty-two species, into the Schizoneurinae, which have

but a single branch to the cubital vein.

A characteristic feature of the American Tertiary Aphidae is a

peculiarity in the neuration which is found also in the only wing known

from the Mesozoic rocks. This feature is the great length and slen-

derness of the stigmatic cell. As a rule also the wings are long and

narrow and the legs exceedingly short. Mr. Scudder calls attention

also to the extraordinary variation in the neuration of the wings, which

is strikingly greater than among living forms. (Thirteenth Ann.

Rept. Director U. S. Geol. Surv. for 1891-92).

The Restoration of the Antillean Continent.—The following

paper was read before the Brooklyn meeting of the Geological Society

882 The American Naturalist. [October,

of America. It isa difficult subject of unusual interest, and it promises

to be epoch making in the department of dynamical and recent geology.

Two previous papers by myself have been published by the Society upon

topics leading up to the present investigations, which take into considera-

tion the characteristices of the valleys both of the southern mountains

and the coastal plains,and show how the valley directly due to atmos-

pheric erosion. All of the land valleys become miles in width in their

lower reaches, where they are buried by recent accumulations of sand,

ete., to considerable depths. Off the coast there are broad submerged

plateaus or terraces marking the pauses in the changes of sea level.

Across these plateaus are numerous drowned canons or fjords shown

to reach to very great depths. From their resemblance to the land val-

leys, they are regarded as of atmospheric or erosion origin, After

passing the limits of the sands shifted by the coastal currents and fill-

ing the valleys, it may be said that every great valley has its fjord-like

continuation through the submerged margin of the continental mass,

even to depths of 10,000 or 12,000 ft. or more. From the natural infer-

ence that these valleys were formed above sea level, it would appear

that the land had stood as high as the fjords are deep. But this state-

ment is modified, for the movements have been in unequal undulations,

the amount of which can often be calculated, and thereby the extreme

depth has been reduced so that it seems that the former elevations of

the West Indian region and adjacent parts of the continent may not

have stood more than from 8,000 to 12,000 feet higher than now,

according to the locality. The undulations of the earth’s crust have

been exaggerated by mountain folds in places, but in the great majority

of the drowned valleys, such has not obtained for their direction is not

parallel to the mountain ridges, but across that of the continental mass.

Consequently there is no escape from the conclusion that the late con-

tinental elevation is measureable, but the movement has proved to be

vastly greater than had hitherto been supposed, enough to change the

whole physical geography of the region, the climate and the conditions

of life. During the epochs of elevation, the Mexican Gulf and the

Caribbean Sea were dry plains which extended to and were drained

into the Pacific Ocean. The Antillean Islands formed a plateau-bridge

connecting the two Americas.

At the close of the Miocene period, the Antillean and Central

American lands were represented by only small islands. Then suc-

ceeded the Pliocene period during the earlier and mid portion of which

the great elevation occurred. This was succeeded by the subsidence

about the close of the Pliocene period, long enough to allow the

1894.] Geology and Paleontology. 883

accumulation of the Matanzas limestones (of Spencer), but in amount

not exceeding a depression of from 100 to 1300 feet below the present

level. There was a late Miocene mammalian fauna on the continent,

but it did not extend into the Pliocene period, for no mammals of that

date are known east of the Mississippi River. As the fauna flourished

when the continent was at about the same altitude as now, the great

change in elevation, causing the subtropical climate to become subare-

tic, may have been sufficient reason for the restriction of the earlier

life, whose descendants would have been extinguished by the drowning

of the now insular region and 250,000 square miles of the continent.

Again the continent rose to an altitude about as great as that of the

Pliocene days, when it suffered an enormous erosion. During this ear-

lier portion of the Pleistocene period, there was a rich mammalian

fauna of horses, elephants, tapirs, camels, ete., but these were exter-

minated by the succeeding depression which carried down the Antil-

lean lands to the proportions of small insular masses, and reduced the

plains of the northern continent by 150,000 square miles. Since that

time there have been reélevations and minor undulations, but no con-

nection between the islands and the continent, so that the modern

types of mammals have been unable to reach the West Indies.

The changes which have occurred in the West Indies and those of

the adjacent portion of the continent have been nearly identical, but

the movements in the Antillies appear to have been somewhat more ener-

getic, and the geographical evolution of the continent is best studied

from the West Indian phenomena, but neither region is complete with-

out the other. The general problem could not have been elucidated

until the investigations which I have made upon the fjords.

The connection of the Antillean waters with the Atlantic and the

separation from the Pacific Ocean should be noticed. There was free

communication between the two oceans about the close of the Miocene

riod. The Pliocene union of the two continents separated the two

oceans, although there may have been an enclosed sea between Cuba

and Jamaica. With the subsidence of the land at the close of the

Pliocene period, there was only a narrow and shallow communication,

between the Antillean waters and the Pacific, but the connection with

the Atlantic was more complete than now. These connections were

again closed during the Plistocene elevation. With the depression of

mid-Plistocene days, the Atlantic was again admitted to the Mediter-

ranean Seas, and it is also probable that there were two or three shal-

low passages leading to the Pacific. During the later Plistocene and

modern days there have been no change of level which have effected

884 The American Naturalist. [October,

the oceanic connection. The changes of level have been of two char-

acters ; (a) the epeirogenic or continent-making movements, which

produce broad but gentle undulations, depressing basins or raising up

barriers, but not distorting the topographic features so as to render

them unrecognizable, and (b) orogenic or mountain-making move-

ments, which are most energetic over limited zones, and produce disfig-

uring barriers. Whilst the Antillean region was sinking with gentle

undulations, the Central American mass was slowly rising, but it was

farther deformed by the great mountain making movements and the

late voleanic accumulations, which have completed the separation of

the Antillean Seas and the Pacific Ocean.

The phenomena are extremely suggestive, and from the evidence

brought out it appears that many problems of physical geology will

need readjustment in the light of the changed continental condition,

ocean currents, climate and distribution of life. The subject is important

as a contribution to the structure of land features in their inter-

pretation of geological history.

J. W. SPENCER.

The Drainage of the Great Lakes into the Mississippi

River by way of Chicago.'—I now add another short chapter

to the history of the Great Lakes. The highest beach south of

Chicago is 45 feet above the lake and there are several beaches

just above the present lake level. The divide between the lake and

the Mississippi drainage is only eight feet abovethe lake, and this at

a point 25 miles southwest of Chicago. The succession of beaches

at the head of the lake has led to confusion, as there is an enormous

lapse of time between, for the highest amongst the oldest shore lines of

the later region from its level the lake shrinks to a plain 300 feet below,

whilst the waters were being drained by way of the Huron Basin and the

Ottawa River. Afterwards terrestrial deformation raised the northeast-

ern river of the basins and turned the Huron waters into the Erie

and Michigan basins, and for a time overflowed the Chicago divide,

which became drained about 1500 years ago by the recession of Niagara

Falls through Johnson Ridge. With the terrestrial deformation con-

tinuing as in the past, it is estimated that the drainage of all the upper

lakes may be turned into the Mississippi in about 5000 or 6000 years.

J. W. SPENCER.

Geological News. GrNERAL.— Professor T. C. Bonney calls at-

tention to the possibility that a rock of igneous origin can be so

‘Abstract of paper read before the American Assoc. Adv. Science.

"ev AU TT

1894.] .. Geology and Paleontology. 885

changed by pressure and indirect consequences as to be readily mis-

taken for a compact and not very much altered sediment. He instances

particular cases of schistose green rocks in the Alps which upon exam-

ination prove to be the result of crushing without shearing. The

author suggests that modified igneous rocks may form a large part of

the Grüne Shiefer of the Swiss geologists. (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,

May, 1894).

ARCHEAN.—Evidence is presented by Mr. J. E. Spurr for correlat-

ing the Thompson slates, which occupy an extensive area in eastern

Minnesota, with the Keewatin of the Mesabi Range rather than with

the Animikie of that district. If the suggested correlation is correct,

it will follow that the erosion interval between the Animikie and the

Keweenawan was very great. (Am. Journ. Sci., Aug., 1894).

CENozorc.—M. L. Cayeux calls attention to the presence in the

precambrian formations of Bretagne of Foraminifera of a relatively

complex form associated with a large number of Radiolaria. The

rocks which contain these organisms are quartzites and phtanites

interstratified with the precambrians of Saint Lo. (Revue Scientif.,

1894).

'The discovery of certain fossil corals in Shasta and Siskiyou Coun-

ties in California, demonstrates the undoubted presence of middle

Devonian deposits in that region. Notes on these fossils are given by

Mr. Schuchert in Am. Journ. Sci., June, 1894, together with some cor-

relations of the beds in which they were found with those of other

regions. The Shasta County fossils are believed to indicate the Corni-

ferous terrane as developed in New York, Kentucky, Michigan and

Ontario. Those of Siskiyou County are of younger age, and agree in

a few cases specifically with those of the Devonian of the White Pine

Mining District in Nevada.

Mr. A. Smith Woodward records four new fossil fishes from the

Karoo Formation. The descriptions are accompanied by plates show-

ing the specimens natural size. Three of the fossils are Palaeoniscidae

and the fourth belongs either to that family or to the Platysomidae.

(Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1893).

Newberry’s genus, Spiraxis, is represented in the Devonian of Bel-

gium. M. Stainer in describing this curious spiral fossil agrees with

Newberry in supposing it to be the remains of a species of alga, and

gives it the name Spiravisinterstrialis. (Bull.Soc. Belge de Geol. Pal.

886 The American Naturalist. [October,

et Hydrol., 1894). Dr. Hollick, however, shows that the bodies thus

deseribed are the casts of the spiral intestine of Cladodont sharks.

(New York Acad. Sciences.)

Mrsozorc.—Aceording to M. Lechien, the invertebrate fossils

found in the bed from which the famous Iehthyosaur of Arlon was

taken, indicate a'formation belonging to the middle Lias instead of

lower, as was at first supposed. (Bull. Soc. Geol. Bruxelles, 1894).

CENozorc.— The old theory first advanced by Shaler in 1870, of

the origin of drumlins by a destructive process, that is, a working

over of morainic or other drift deposits, have been revived by Prof. R.

S. Tarr. He brings forward facts to support it, and discusses three ob-

jections to it, but concludes on the whole that this theory forms a good

working hypothesis, even if it is not accepted as the most probable

theory. (Am. Geol., June, 1894).

Mr. Warren Upham offers, as an explanation of the Plistocene

climatic changes, the epeirogenic theory of the Ice age thought out

and formulated by Dana, Le Conte, Wright, Upham and Jamieson.

He conceives the Ice age to have been essentially one and continuous,

with important fluctuations. Soundings off the West African Coast

record a submerged channel of the Congo extending eighty miles into

the ocean to a depth of more than 6,000 feet. Another deep sub-

marine valley having soundings of 2,700 feet is known on the African

Coast 350 miles north of the equator, and there is a similar valley in

the southern part of the Bay of Biscay. These remarkable valleys

beneath the sea level indicate that probably the entire Atlantic side of

the Eastern Continent has been greatly uplifted within late geologic

time. (Geol. Mag., Aug., 1894).

In regard to the “ Black Earth” of Russia, Dr. W. F. Hume sug-

gests (1) the position of Loess has been determined by the manner and

conditions of its origin, and (2) Black Earth is merely a special clos-

ing feature in the sequence of a long history of Loess, and it is merely

that deposit rich in humus resulting from the decomposition through

long ages, of generations of grasses and steppe plants. (Geol. Mag.,

Aug., 1894).

The Yellow Gravel of New Jersey is made the subject of special

discussion in the report of Prof. Salisbury upon the surface geology of

that State. After giving its distribution and its history as inferred

1894.] Geology and Petrography. 887

from its character and position, the author states that the study of this

formation leads to the following conclusions:

(1) The original yellow gravel is Pre-plistocene. (2) The time of

its deposition was followed by an epoch of elevation and extensive

erosion of long duration. (3) Then came a period of depression dur-

ing which the Columbia deposits were made, equivalent in age with the

first glacial deposits. (4) Again an epoch of elevation' and erosion,

when the degradation and redistribution of the original formation went

forward. (5) An epoch of slight depression. (6) Subsequent eleva-

tion to the extent of forty to sixty feet, followed by the present subsi-

dence. (Ann. Rept. Geol. Surv. New Jersey for 1892).

888 The American Naturalist. [October,

ZOOLOGY.

Parthenogenesis among the Acari of Feathers.—In a com-

munciation to the Entomological Society of France, Dr. Trouessart

states that he has observed a parthogenetic manner of reproduction in

the plumicolous Sarcoptide under such conditions as to preclude the

possibility of mistake. In 1888 Dr. Trouessart described an Acarian,

Syringobia chelopus, which is found in the tubes of the feathers of

Totanus calidris, a bird of passage through France in the Spring and

Fall. A study of the life history of this species has developed the

following facts.

In the Spring little colonies of the Acarian are found in the tubes of

the feathers of the migrating wader, evidently having wintered in those

narrow quarters feeding on the pith of the feather. Their numbers

are small rarely exceeding ten or twelve in each colony. The composi-

tion of the colonies is variable, but taking 25 or 30 of the principal

feathers of the wing together there will be found the following eleven

forms. (1) Eggs with a shell; (2) Naked eggs; (3) Normal larve ;

(4) Abnormal larvæ; (5) Normal nymphs; (6) Abnormal nymphs;

(6) Sexually developed females or secondary nymphs ; (9) Abnormal

females; (10) Normal males or heteromorphs ; (11) Abnormal males or

homeomorphs. All of the forms are not found together in the same

feather. The normal form and the abnormal form (which I have

called syringobia) live in separate feathers, and the naked egg belongs

to the latter form. The males in the abnormal series are very rare, only

one or two for one hundred females in that series; while in the normal

series the proportion is one male to three females. Neither normal

males or eggs with a shell are found with the syringobial females.

These lay naked eggs covered only with the thin hyaline membrane

which forms the inner covering of the shelled eggs

In a general way the syringobial form, is distinguished from the

normal by its large cheliceres and by the thin, transparent skin over

the posterior part of the body. The syringobial female is larger and

more elongate than the normal type

The skin left after the final salt, which transforms the syringobial

nymph into an adult female, is totally wanting in the post-anal opening

which corresponds to the copulatory pouch and which is perfectly plain

in the secondary normal nymph or sexually developed female.

The life-history as traced by Dr. Trouessart proceeds as follows:

TRE RETI T vu Ee PT OTe ee A Te ee ee ee TNNT aues

^ ini AM aaa a a a a fame iene

oo o n Vot em emt e.

NT ee ee See eee eS Co NOTET TEST

1894.] Zoology. R89

At the time of the autumn moult which preceeds the departure of

the birds for the warm countries a certain number of young larvæ

or nymphs of Syringobia penetrate the tube of the feather through the

ombilic supérieur. Three or four are thus installed in each feather.

If there is one or more males in the colony the development is normal,

and the fertilized females lay shelled eggs. On the contrary, if there

are no males, the female nymphs having attained the age of the second-

ary nymph, instead of being transformed into normal females continue

growing until the body is nearly double the size of the normal second-

ary females, assuming more and more the characters of the syringobial

form; then they undergo a final moult and are transformed into par-

thenogenic females laying eggs without shells. From these eggs are

developed larvæ, which reproduce the parthenogenetic form during the

migration of the bird. At the end of the journey, either immediately or

during the stay in the warm region, the young issue from the two series

(the normal egg and the parthenogenic egg), leave the interior of the

feather and make their home on the plumage. In fact, Syringobia is

found on the plumage of birds killed in the warm countries, but they

are found in the feather only during migration.

Parthenogenesis, in this case, according to Dr. Trouessart is the

result of the segregation of individuals and the death of males. It is

probable that this phenomenon is more frequent in this group than

has been hitherto supposed. (Bull. Soc. Entomol. Paris, 1894.)

Trionyches in the Delaware drainage.—Turtles of this family

have been supposed to be absent from the Delaware drainage, but the

two following instances show that this view is no longer tenable. In

the latter part of August a specimen of the “ soft shelled turtle”

was captured in the Paulins Kill at Hainesburg, Warren, Co., N. J.

and sent to the museum of the Wagner Institute by Mr. E. B. Allen.

The mounted specimen measures as follows: Total length 18 inches.

Length of carapace 12 inches, width 9 inches. Length of plastron

8inches. The tough integument has shrunken somewhat and its

true measurements exceeds these by about one inch. Color a dark

brown, with black spots, many of these ocellate, under surface white,

feet dark yellow irregularly marked with black.—Cuas. W. JOHNSON.

Nore oN THE ABovE—Two individual Trionychidæ were cap-

tured in a pond near Woodbury, N. J. about a year ago, and are now

living in captivity. I have not seen them, but there is no doubt as

to the fact. —E. D. COPE.

890 The American Naturalist. [October,

The Femoral Gland of Ornithorhynchus and Its Secre-

tions.—At the July meeting of the Linnean Soc. N.S. W. a paper on

the secretions of the femoral gland of the Ornithorhynchus was pre-

sented by C. J. Martin and F. Fidswell The paper contained also

notes of an experimental enquiry concerning the toxie action of these

secretions.

The gland is deseribed as belonging to the compound racemous

variety with large alveoli possessing a wide lumen, and somewhat re-

calling the appearance of a mammary gland. The alveoli com-

munieate with ducts which eventually join at the hilus of the gland to

form the duct leading to the spur.

'The gland is surrounded by a capsule of fibrous tissue, exterior to

which is a thin layer of smooth muscle fibres. A marked difference in

the minute structure of the gland was noted in animals killed in June

and those in April respectively, the former showing the appearance

characteristic of an actively secreting gland, whereas the latter suggested

that of a mammary gland when it had undergone retrogressive meta-

morphosis.

Examination of the poison showed it to consist principally of

albuminous bodies, and the introduction of these into rabbits produced

very marked poisonous results. When injected under the skin, local

swelling and general depression and rise of temperature followed, but

in three days the animal was well again. When the poison was intro-

duced directly into the vascular system, small quantities (3 grain)

caused death in under half an hour. Larger doses so introduced pro-

duced almost immediate death, by producing nearly universal clotting

of the blood whilst travelling in the blood vessels. Such clotting na-

turally soon put an end to all circulation.

In summing up, the authors compare the action of gas lens oh

poison with that of the venousof Australian snakes

to be diluted 5000 times. (Nature, Sept,, 1894) -

Change of Color in the Northern Hare.—From the study of »

75 specimens of Lepus americanus collected for the express purpose of

investigating the seasonal change of color, Mr. J. A. Allen arrives at

the following conclusions :

(1) The change of color, both in autumn and in the spring, is due to

change of pelage, and not to a change in the hair itself.

(2) The change is gradual, occupying many weeks.

(3) The method of change, as regards the parts first affected is the

reverse in spring in the order characterizing the autumnal change.

Bes ree ere) WE V.

;

1894.] Zoology. 891

(4) In the early part of spring, after the white overhair has been

shed, the pelage consists of the heavy coat of soft winter underfur. This

gradually disappears as the summer coat thickens.

(5) In spring the moult occurs quite as early and proceeds just as

rapidly in the females as in the males, and the moult is practically com-

pleted before the young are born.

These conclusions differ widely from views hitherto entertained by

both scientifie and non-scientific writers. (Bull Amer. Mus. Nat.

Hist., 1894.)

Zoological News. Morrusca.—The characters in the shell of

Nautilus pompilius, described as sexual by J. Van der Hoeven, are

believed by Messrs. Bather and Buckman to be due to age rather than

to sex. In that case a strong point in favor of sexual dimorphism in

Ammonite shells has lost its value. (Nat. Sci., Vol. VI, 1894.)

In a discussion of the geographic and hypsometie distribution of

North American Viviparid:e, Mr. E. Call recognizes four genera, viz.,

Tulotoma, with two species; Lioplax, with two species ; Vivipara, with

four species; and Campeloma, with nine species. This arrangement is

based upon the examination of several thousand specimens. Of these

species, Campeloma decisum Say has the widest range and Vivipara

troostiana the most restricted. The latter is abundant in a small stream

near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and there is no record of its being found

elsewhere. Vertically, the most of the species lie between 100 and 700

feet altitude. Here again Campeloma decisum has the greatest range.

(Am. Jur. Sci., Vol. XLVIII, 1894.)

Crustacea.—A_ new species of Tanais (T. robustus) is described by

Mr. H. F. Moore. It inhabits minute tubesin the crevices between the

scales of the carapace of Thalassochelys caretta. (Proceeds. Phila.

Acad. Sci., 1894).

A blind cray-fish from Florida is described by Dr. Lónnberg under

the name Cambarus acherontis. The specimens we obtained from a

subterranean rivulet struck about 30 feet below the surface of the

ground in Orange County. They represent the fourth species of Cam-

barus found in the United States. (Zool. Anz., 1894.)

VERTEBRATA.—Dr. Boulenger describes 13 new species of fresh-

water fishes from Borneo. They are referred to 9 genera of which

one, Nematabramis, is new. Three species, Nemachilus olivaceus, N.

saravacensis and an Acanthophthalmus are of special interest as the first

Cobitines described from Borneo. (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, Vol. XIII,

1894.)

892 The American Naturalist. [October,

Prof. E. D. Cope has recently published a paper on Reptiles and

Batrachians from Costa Rica in which he enumerates fifteen new

species, distributed as follows ; 1 Urodela, 4 Salientia, 3 Lacertilia, and

7 Ophidia. Among them are two new genera; Levirana, identical

with Ranula, but without vomerine teeth, and Pogonaspis, more nearly

allied to Tantilla than to any other genus, but differs from it in the

large single genial plate. (Proceeds., Phila. Acad., 1894.) -

A preliminary list of the Reptiles and Batrachians of the Island of

Trinidad prepared by Messrs. Mole and Urich shows a total of 76

species distributed as follows: Tortoises 6; Lizards 25; Snakes 33,

Batrachians 12. Of these species 21 are recorded for the first time

from the Island and two are new to science. The latter are described

by Boettger under the names Spherodactylus molei and Hylodes urichit

(Journ. Trinidad Field Naturl. Club.)

A small collection of reptiles and fishes from Lake Tanganyika ex-

amined by Dr. Gunther includes a new genus of snakes, Glypholycus,

of which one species only is described, G. bicolor. Two new species of

Mastacembelus which appear to connect the Asiatic species with the

West African, and three species referred to Chromis. (Proceeds.

London Zool. Soc., Nov., 1893.)

According to Dr. Shufeldt the fibula in many birds is complete, nor-

mally reaching the ankle-joint. He cites as examples in the Stegano-

podes, the Snake-bird Plotus anhinga, Phalacrocorax — bieristatus

(almost complete), Sula piscator, S. cyanops, S. bassana, SS. gossii and

Fregata aquila. Judging from the literature upon the subject, this

fact concerning avian anatomy is not generally known. (The Ibis,

July, 1894.)

Among the mammals of Baltistan and the Vale of Kashmir, presented

to the U. S. Natl. Mus. by Dr.W. L. Abbott, are three species of Arvicola,

A. fertilis, A. montosa and A. albicanda, which are new, and also a new

geographical race of Mus arianus. Sminthus concolor in this collection

extends the range of that species a thousand miles. (True in Proceeds.

U.S. Natl. Mus. Vol. XVII, 1894.)

In his studies of North American Mammals Mr. F. W. True finds it

necesssary to place Brewer's mole in a new genus, Parascalops. In the

same paper are given diagnoses of an undescribed race of Albert's

squirrel, S. aberti concolor, a new lemming, Myodes nigripes, and a lem-

ming-like mouse, representing a new genus, Mictomys innuitus. (Pro-

ceeds. U. S. Natl. Mus., 1894.)

1894.] Entomology. 893

ENTOMOLOGY

North Ameridan Ceutophili.—This interesting group of wing-

less locustarians has been monngraphed in a very satisfactory manner

by Mr. S. H. Scudder.’ “ With the exception of the genus Troglophi-

lus Krauss, with two species from European caverns, and the genus

Talitropis Bol., with a single species from New Zealand, placed respect-

ively at one and the other end of the series, they are known only from

America; and with the further exception of Heteromallus Brunner,

with two species from Chili, they are all peculiar to the United States

and Northern Mexico. Here they include six genera and sixty-seven

species, the genus Ceutophilus al taining above fifty species.

larger proportion of them, if not all (excepting Udeopsylla nigra) fre-

quent dark places, such as burrows, pits, caverns, wells, hollow trees,

and especially the crevices beneath fallen logs.” Thirty-eight new

species are characterized in the present paper, in which the treatment,

except for the absence of illustrations, is all that could be desired.

The Plume Moths.—A study of the biological relations of the

earlier stages of the plume months convinces J. W. Tutt’ that these

insects belong to two distinet families, the Pterophorina and the

Alucitina. The latter (called Orneodine by Fernald and others) “be-

long to the Pyraloid section of the Obtect:e, the larva of which has a

complete circle of hooks to the ventral prolegs, and the pupa of which

is smooth and rounded, laterally solid, inner dissepiments flimsy. The

free segments in both sexes are the fifth and sixth abdominal.

“The Pterophorina belong to the Incomplete and have no affinities

with Alucitina. Both groups have under the same or similar necessi-

ties developed plume wings and this is the only connection. The pupa

is attached by a cremaster, less solid and rounded, appendages often

partially free. Free segments may extend up to the third abdominal."

In emphasizing the necessity of biological studies in classification,

Mr. Tutt quotes with approval, the recent dictum of W. H. Edwards:

“There never will bea final authoritative revision of any genus of

butterflies till the preparatory stages in every species of it are

known."

! Edited by Clarence M. Weed, New Hampshire College, Durham, N. H.

"Proceedings Amer. Acad., VXXX, pp. 17-113.

*Ent. News, V, 209.

894 Th American Naturalist. [October,

New Use for Bisulphide of Carbon.—Professor J. B Smith

acting on the suggestion of Professor H. Garman finds by experiment

that bisulphide of carbon can be used to advantage against aphides on

plants above ground. By covering infested melon vines with a tub or .

other closed vessel, and allowing a drachm of bisulphide to evaporate

in a shallow dish beneath it, the pests were killed at the end of one

hour. The coverings were then removed.

Mimicry in Diptera.—Mr. C. J. Wainwright reports‘ interesting

observations ou mimicry of Diptera flying in England in early spring.

Two species of the Syrphid genus Cheilosia so resembled bees of the

genus Andrena as to make it very difficult to distinguish them. “They

particularly resembled Andrena fulva, and we netted far more of the .

bee than of the Dipteron in our efforts to get the latter. The resem-

blance is very strong, color, size, and (to a considerable extent) shape

being much the same; when at rest on a flower the Dipteron curls its

body under a little as the bee does, and folds its wings over its back in

the same manner."

There was also present a species of Echinomyia of the family Tach-

inide, which had a bee-like appearance, differing in this respect from

other members of its genus. “It, however, resembled no species in

particular ; it bore a general resemblance to Bombus muscorum in size,

shape and color, but it was not so hairy and did not fold its wings bee

fashion.”

In commenting on these observations Mr. Wainwright says: “There

is very little doubt that in the spring, when insects are not very num-

erous, and when, therefore, we may reasonably infer that their enemies

are unusually alert in discovering and capturing them, that it must

even more necessary than during the summer, for those insects

which do appear, to be well protected.in some way from their foes, and

especially if they happen to be species which, through feeble reproduc-

‘tive powers or other similar causes, are limited in numbers to commence

with. Now, the two Cheilosiae are distinctly species which are limited

in numbers, in fact, they are somewhat rare species, and may be de-

scribed as occurring singly ; they are not robust species, in fact, rather

the reverse, and, therefore, they are just such species one would expect

to find protected by mimetic resemblances. In every way they may be

said to present all requirements of an ordinary case of mimicry.

“The Echinomyia, however, does not present so ordinary a case. It

isa wonderfully strong and robust species, belonging to a group of

*Ent. Monthly Magazine.

1894.] Entomology. 895

parasitic species, all of which are strong and robust, and ordinarily

neither need nor possess any such protection as a mimetic resemblance.

It is well protected on the body by strong hairs, answering, to some

extent, the purpose of spines, and is very strong on the wing; it is

very large, too, many specimens being 8 or 9 lines long. It, however,

occurs at this time (March) when other insects are scarce, and it must be

conspicuous and so tempt its foes, and although common on this par-

ticular occasion at Wyre Forest, I do not think it is usually a common

species, at least, I never saw it before; altogether, although it does not

answer the usual requirements of a mimetic species, yet there are ob-

viously good reasons why a resemblance to the strong and usually un-

molested Bombi would be an advantage to it. We accordingly find

that it does possess some such resemblance, though imperfect, and it is

just this imperfection which is its most interesting feature, and it is to

some extent the reason for these notes.

* Many or all of the opponents of the theory of mimicry urge very

strongly the difficult question, how does the resemblance arise? In

early stages it can be of no use to its possessor. But here, I think, we

have a case showing how mimicry may arise, and even the early stages

be of use. The Tachinide do not, as a rule, resemble in the least de-

gree any Hymenoptera, they are quite unlike bees. The Echinomyia

are a genus of unusually large and well developed Tachinids, some of

which (fera and ferax for example) are simply ordinary Tachinids in

appearance, though unusually large, and quite unlike bees; they are

summer species; Ursina, however, a spring species, though closely al-

lied to these others by a comparatively slight alteration in color, a

development rather than an alteration, and the inerease of its hairs in

number and size, at once and unexpectedly somewhat resembles Bom-

bus museorum, and almost certainly must derive some protection from

even this superficial resemblance, at a time when food is being so

eagerly sought by insect foes. It only needs a still further increase in

hairiness, and to fold its wings over its body, and it would be an

almost perfect mimic; and supposing its nearest allies to be lost, we

should wonder how the early stages arose.

Description of a New Pelecinus from Tennessee.—The

genus Peleeinus forms a peculiar family allied to the Proctotrupidze, in

the Antigynea, among the highest Aculeate hymenoptera. The costal

vein in rare instances is not developed, showing a transition to the

higher non-aculeate monotrocha or Hymenoptera minuta. The larval

habits are unknown, although the imago has been observed issuing

896 The American Naturalist. [October,

from the ground and locust eggs are possibly its food. The discovery

of a new species is therefore of interest.

The antennz are fourteen-jointed in both sexes, those of the male

longer. The mandibles, armed with a tooth near the apex within, and

the labial palpi show no sexual difference. The maxillary palpi, long

in the female, are not visible in the male. The middle and the hind

tibiæ are two-spurred in both sexes; the hind tibiz greatly swollen in

the female, are no more swollen than the femora in the male. The

first joint of the hind tarsi in both sexes is as short as the last joint.

The abdomen of the female is elongate, cylindric, six-jointed, with a

seventh dorsal joint connate with the sixth; sting minute; the abdo-

men of the male is cup-shaped, likewise six-jointed ; claspers directed

forwards beneath. In the male abdomen the first segment is three times

as long as all the rest combined, gradually enlarged towards the ex-

tremity; the third and fourth segments are longer above than beneath ;

the fifth and sixth segments are vertical, invisible from above.

PELECINUS BRUNNEIPES, n. Sp.

Female.—Size of dichrous. Dise of propodeum behind puncto-

retieulate. An oblong brown cloud in the first submarginal cell

behind the stigmal cloud. Legs piceous-brown ; middle and fore.tibise

and tarsi clay-yellow. "Tenth and apical half of ninth joints of atenne

whitish. The whole insect otherwise shiny black.—One specimen col-

lected at Marysville by Prof. E. M. Aaron.

In P. polycerator, which is of larger size, the disc of propodeum behind

is transversely arcuately rugose, the depressions punctate; there is no

separate cloud in the wing; and the legs, except tarsi, are entirely

black.

PELECINUs DICHROUS Klug.

Specimens of this South American species, kindly sent me by Prof.

Carl Berg, of Buenos Ayres, show the dise of the propodeum behind

transversely rugose in the female and longitudinally rugose in the

male. The female has the ocellar tubercle, the clypeus, a spot above

clypeus, a spot at base of mandibles, the thorax (especially above) red;

the legs more or less brownish; the tenth joint and apex of ninth joint

and base of eleventh joint of &nténüs orange. 'The male has none of

the red shown in the female and the atenn:e are entirely black.

Wm. Hampton PATTON.

Flight of Locusts.—Mr. C. B. Mitford pra. an interesting ac-

count’ of what was, he says, a m any he has ever

1894.] Entomology. 897

seen. The changed appearance of the “bush” at Freetown, Sierra

Leone, on the 25th of November, 1893, led him to call the attention of

a native, who told him that locusts were coming. Ina short time

huge black clouds appeared above the hills, and these first seen gave

the idea that the whole of the sides of the hills, three miles off, were

on fire; at 2.45 p. m. these supposed clouds reached Freetown and

proved to be a continuous mass of locusts, which passed without in-

termission till 5.10 p. m. Myriads settled, but made no apparent dif-

ference in the size of the swarms. The whole town was covered with

their excrement. At 9.45 a. m. the next day the stream began again,

but not in such dense masses, and continued up to 1 p.m. The spe-

cies has been found to be Pachytylus migratoroides originally described

from Abyssinia.—Journal Royal Microscopical Society.

5Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1894, p. 2.

898 The American Naturalist. [October,

PSYCHOLOGY.

The Habit of Amusement in the Lower Animals.—In some

former papers which have already been published in this journal and

elsewhere, I have shown that animals exceedingly low in the scale of

animal life possess the five senses, sight, smell, taste, hearing, and

touch, or senses akin to them; also that these animals evince a high

degree of intelligence, One would naturally expect to find in animals

biologically so akin to man, some evidences of enjoyment other than

the mere gratification of animal desires. This expectation or surmise

is undoubtedly correct, and it is the purpose of this article to demon-

strate this truth. We are all familiar with the pastimes of the higher

animals such as the dog, the cat, the horse, the squirrel, the rabbit, the

monkey, etc. We do not question the fact that these animals

do amuse themselves in many a frolic and wild romp; they form

a part and parcel of our lives, consequently their pastimes are not con-

sidered remarkable. I propose, however, to show that animals much

lower in the scale of life—animals so low and so minute that it takes

a very high-power lens to make them visible, likewise have their pas-

times and amusements. Also, that many insects and even the slothful

snail are not so busily engaged in the struggle for existence that they

can not spare a few moments for play. In our researches in this field

of animal intelligence we must not attribute the peculiar actions of the

males in many species of animals when courting the females, to simple

pastime, for they are the outward manifestations of sexual desire, and

are not examples of psychical amusement. I have seen, in actinophor-

ous rhizopods, certain actions, unconnected with sexual desire or the

gratification of appetite, which lead me to believe that these minute

microscopic organisms have their pastimes and moments of simple

amusement. On several occasions while observing these creatures, I

have seen them chasing one another around and around their minature

sea. They seemed to be engaged in a game of tag. This actinophrys

is not very agile, but when excited by its play, it seems to be an entirely

different creature, so lively does it become. These actions were not

! North rid Review: ** The Senses in the Lower Animals."

American Naturalist: ** Animal M ”

Atlantic Sera Contrib. Club: “ Animal Letisimulants."

Worthington's Magazine: ‘‘ The Emotions in the Lower Animals.”

1894.] Psychology. 899

those of strife, for first one and then another would act the pursuer and

the pursued. There were, generally, four or five actinophryans in the

game. One of the rotifers frequently acts as if engaged in play. On

several occasions I have observed them perform a kind of dance, a pas

seul, for each rotifer would be alone by itself. Their motions were up

and down as if exercising with an invisibleskipping-rope. They would

keep up this play for several minutes and then resume feeding or

quietly remain at rest. This rotifer goes through another performance

which I also believe to be simply a pastime. Its tailis armed with a

double hook or forceps. It attaches itself to a piece of alga or other

substance by this forceps, and then moves its body up and down in the

water for several minutes at atime. The snail (H. pomatia) likewise

has its moments of relaxation and amusement. The following instance

of play may be considered to be gallantry by some, but I do not believe

that I am mistaken, however, when I consider it an example of animal

pastime. Two snails approproached each other, and, when immedi-

ately opposite, began slowly to wave their heads from side to side.

They then bowed slightly several times in courtly salutation. This

performance they kept up for quite a while and then moved away in

different directions. At no time did they come in contact, and careful

observation failed to reveal any excitement in the genitalia. I have

witnessed the embraces of snails, and the performance described above

does not resemble in the slightest degree, the manouvres executed at

such times by mating individuals.

Swarms of Diptera may be seen on any bright day dancing in the

sunlight. Naturalists have heretofore considered this swarming to be

a mating of the two sexes. This is not the case, however, in many

instances. On numerous occasions, and at different seasons of the year,

I have captured dozens of these insects in my net and have examined

them microscopically. I found them all to be unimpregnated females ;

l have never yet discovered a male among them. In some of the

Diptera the males emerge from the pupa state after the females; I

therefore believe that the females await the presence of the males, and,

while waiting, pass the time away in aerial gambols.

Forel, Lubbock, Kirby, Spence and other naturalists have declared

that ants, on certain occasions, indulge in pastimes and amusements.

Huber says that he saw a colony of pratensis, one fine day, “ assembled

on the surface of their nest, and behaving in a way that he could only

explain as simulating festival sports or other games." On the 27th of

last September, the males aud females of a colony of Lasius flavus

emerged from their nest; 1 saw these young kings and queens con-

900 The American Naturalist. [October,

gregate about the entrances of the nest and engage in playful antics

until driven away by the workers. The workers would nip their legs

with their mandibles until they were forced to fly in order to escape

being bitten. On the 19th of this month (July) I saw several Lasius

niger come out of their nest accompanied by a minute little beetle

( Claviger foveolatus) ; the ants caressed and played with this little insect

for some time, and then conducted it back into the nest. Many little

animals are kept by ants simply as pets. Lubbock says of one of them,

a species allied to Podura, and for which he proposes the name, Beckia.

“Tt is an active, bustling little being, and I have kept hundreds, I may

say thousands, in my nests. They run in and out among the ants,

keeping their antennz in a perpetual state of vibration." I have fre-

‘quently noticed an insect belonging to the same species as the above,

in the nests of F. fusca and rufescens. They reminded me very much

of the important-looking little dogs one sees running about in the

midst of a crowd on market-day. In the November issue of the Na-

_turalist, I describe a spider which indulgesin a peculiar pastime. This

spider spins a web where the rays of the early morning sun strike.

Through the long diameter of the web, she spins a narrow ribbon, and,

as soon as the sun shines upon it,she goes out on this ribbon and prom-

enades up and down. She never takes food caught in this web; her

hunting- or trap-web is generally several feet away, but connected with

her pleasure resort by a bridge.

Sometime ago I witnessed a bit of malicious sport, in which, the

participants were fleas. I was observing a Pulez sleeping beneath the

‘short hairs of a dog's axilla. | My lens was a good one and I could

-clearly make out the body and limbs of the little sleeper. Suddenly ,

there appeared another flea, which stopped short as soon as she dis-

covered her sleeping comrade. She remained quiet for several seconds

and then nimbly bounded on the others back. Clasping her body with

her hind legs, she began vigorously “to touzle the hair” of her surprised

‘sister. She then sprang away into the thicker hair, closely pursued by

the thoroughly aroused and evidently angry victim of her sport.

The females of the coleopterous Coccinelle frequently congregate

and indulge in performances that can not be anything else save

pastimes. A beech tree in my yard is called “ladybug tree" be-

cause, year after year, these insects collect there and hold their

curious conventions. They caress one another with their antennse,

and gently shoulder one another from side toside. Sometimes several

will get their heads together and seem by their actions to be holding a

-confidential conversation. These conventions always take place after

enim ee "e

1894.] Psychology. 901

oviposition, and careful and repeated observation has shown me that

they are not connected with procreation or alimentation. I have

witnessed many other instances of true psychical amusement in the

lower animals but do not think it necessary to detail them here. Suf-

fice it to say, that I believe that every living creature, at some period

of its existence, has its moments of relaxation from the cares of life

when it yc the gratification of true psychical amusement.—J As.

LL»

WEIR, JUN.,

902 The American Naturalist. [October,

ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.’

Dr. Brinton on the Beginning of Man.’—Dr. Brinton con-

tributes a characteristically readable and inconsistent article to the

Forum on this subject, which is the most important and interesting

among the many presented by the science of biology. It is also at the

same time a prime question among archeologists, but as the archeologi-

cal materials do not lend themselves to its solution, the cultivators of

that science have not generally devoted much time to its investigation.

Archeology begins, as Dr. Brinton says, with the evidence of human

industry ; that is, it begins after man had become man, and not before.

It, therefore, commences where paleontologic biology leaves off, and

does not embrace the question of his ancestry, which belongs to the

latter science. Nevertheless, Dr. Brinton, well known as a distin-

guished archeologist, discusses the question of the ape-ancestry of man

in an entertaining, and to some bere —Ü ——ÀÓ But I

have some fault to find with h t, and

as it is caleulated to encourage some uode i olives, I propose to

state them.

First there is to be noticed throughout, the flavor of Virchoffism,

which has been so vigorously exploited by Haeckel. Virchow appears

to be unalterably opposed tothe hypothesis of the ape-ancestry of man,

and he uses frequent opportunities of casting ridieule on it. He even

oes so far as to ignore, when convenient to his argument, such evi-

dence as there is in support of it, in a way which does not impress me

with his capacity for fairness. His conspicuous fallacy is his neg-

lect of the biological evidence for the doctrine of creation of organic

species by descent, so far as regards man. This isso overwhelming, that

biologists area unit in Meery in it. are cannot be excluded, for his

zoological affinities with th Man

is not an example of an isolated type, of which many can be found among

animals and plants, but his relatives are conspicuously close to him in

structure, so that if evolution is true, man is one of the most evident

illustrations of it. Yet Brinton says “a dozen years ago when Dar-

winism was at its height, an advanced scientific thinker would have

felt compelled to maintain that the species man was necessarily a de-

| This department is edited by H. C. Mercer, University of Pennsylvania.

"The Beginning of Man and the Age of the Race by Dr. D. G. Brinton; Zhe For-

um, Dec., 1893, p. 452.

1894.] |». Archeology and Ethnology. 903

velopment of some lower mammal.” I do not hesitate to say that

Darwinism (i. e. evolution) was never at a greater “ height " than it is

at present. It is also highly uncomplimentary to the “scientific

thinker ” to charge him with holding views on account of the “height”

ofany opinion, rather than on the evidence.

The type of man of the paleolithic age, is stated by Brinton to be a

fiction which “ furnished imaginative writers with the compound creat-

ure they pictured in their books as our commou ancestor,” etc. e

then proceeds to discredit this “compound " by showing that some

mistakes were made by some investigators in some points, although

when he says that that the Neanderthal remains belong to a visibly dis-

eased subject, he asserts more than has been proven. He also alleges

that the depressed forehead and prominent superciliary ridges of

various paleolithie skulls that have been discovered, are no indication

of pithecoid origin, since they can be found occasionally among men

of existing races! An argument of no value whatever, since if all

ow types necessarily disappeared, man would be the only animal ; no

monkeys ought to exist; no insects,no Amoebas! Evolution does not

attempt to prove that nothing has stood still! But our author has

nothing to say about the jaws of Naulette and Shipka, and the man

and woman of Spy. It ison just these important remains that Virchow

is silent also !

But he does have something to say on the tritubercular superior

molar? and the lemuroid affinities of the Anthopomorpha (man and

ape). Referring to the author of the present review, he says: “ An

eminent naturalist discovered that in a considerable number of people

the tubercles on the teeth resemble those of lemurs more closely than

those of monkeys. Hence he promptly drew the concluslon that

the descent of man was directly from the lemurs and not from the

monkeys, as the prevailing impression has been.” Dr. Brinton has

advanced in his views alittle. He at one time declared that this state-

ment as to the structure of the molar teeth in the higher as compared

with the lower races and the apes had been “ refuted " by Allen and

Virchow. Soon after this, my statements were entirely confirmed by

Topinard, who after a full examination of six hundred dentitions de-

3 The reviewer of my paper in the April, ’93 Naturalist on The Genealogy of Man,

says of the tritubercular molar, that it is only the long known ‘‘ microdontie " of

civilized races, (Archiv. für Anthropologie, 1893). The reviewer evidently does

not know what the tritubercular molar is nor what it signifies. It is not necessarily

microdont, nor is it confined to civilized man. He has evidently not read my paper on

the subject or he would not have remarked that I give no figures as toits predominant

occurrence in the Esquimaux. (See Am. Journ. Morphology, July, 1888).

904 The American Naturalist. [October

clared that man from having had four tubercles above and five below,

would in some distant future have three above and four below. But

he added that the theory of descent from lemurs is “ not sustained ” or

“is premature.” This latter question is one for paleontological biolo-

gists to decide, and Prof. Topinard did not even discuss the evidence

from this standpoint. There is, however, good reason to suppose that

the anthopoids (not man only) did descend from lemuroids and not

from monkeys. Since Dr. Brinton’s article was written, Dr. Forsyth

Major has described an extinct plistocene lemur from Madagascar

nearly as large as a chimpanzee, with tritubercular superior molars. I

look for future discoveries to demonstrate the truth of the lemurine

descent of the Anthropoids, and that the monkeys (Ceropithecidae) are

a side branch and not in the direct line.

The descent of man from the Anthopoidsis antagonized by Virchow

because some of the pithecoid characters of man are not prenatal, but

only appear in later growth stages and cannot therefore be inherited

And if he can find a mechanical cause for the character, so much the

more certain is this conclusion in his opinion. An example of this is

the ape-character found among various men ancient and modern,

the platyenemic or compressed tibia. This Virchow alleges is not

a mark of affinity to the apes, where it is universal, but that it is

produced by a peculiar use of the muscles of the lower leg,

especially of the anterior ones. This, however, only transfers the

evidence from the bones to the muscles. The tibial form of the apes,

it may be inferred, is produced in the same way as in man, and if it is

so produced in men, we learn that in such cases the muscles and their

use are like those of the apes. Prof. Virchow does not probably

know, that if inheritance be believed, the entire osseous skeleton of the

vertebrata has been moulded by the strains, pressures and impacts to

which it has been subjected, and that these are directly or indirectly

due to muscular contraction. The supposition that prognathism is

not inherited from apes because it is not present in the foetus, is

equally untenable. The change of shape of the relations of the

cranial bones called prognathison, is common to all vertebrata, and is

only delayed, more in apes, most in man.

.. But Dr Brinton, like many other objectors to evidence of a plain and

unadorned character, has his Deus ex machina. “ Genius is ever inex-

plicable” he says. True; but the shapes of bones and teeth are not,

and the brains of the geni tain the structural for their funct-

ions, although we have not yet seen them. “A family of, we know not

which of the higher mammals, perhaps, the great tree ape, which then

a ee a dium actum: c o MiCAMdE ii od UE

1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. . 905

lived in the warm regions of central France, may have produced a few

* sports,’ widely differing physically and mentally from the parents,

and these ‘ sports’ were the ancestors of man." Here we have a the- |

ory submitted to biologists, which is not supposed to be Darwinism or

apeism, and yet it bears a strong family resemblance to both. To my

vision, it appears inconsistent with some of what has gone before. Its

special mission appears to be, to get rid of the “ missing link.” But

he cannot be gotten rid of so easily’ “This is a theory " Brinton says

“which is as good as another.” But it is not as good as another, until

all the ape characters of man, recent and paleolithic, are explained

away. In fact I suspect that the “sporting ” is altogether confined to

the theory! for paleontology does not give any ground for supposing

that sports have any part in the general advance which we call

evolution. The process has been by the gradual accumulation of

increment after increment. Besides, the “tree ape” turns out to

have been a baboon!

E. D. Core.

906 The American Naturalist. [October,

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

The Danish government has decided upon a deep-sea exploration of

the waters of Greenland and Iceland. The work will be carried on

during 1895 and 1896. A botanist will accompany the expedition.

The American Museum of Natural History has organized an expe-

dition, under the direction of Professor Rudolph Weber, to make col-

lections and a scientific exploration of the Island of Sumatra.

An expedition has been organized in Australia for a scientific ex-

ploration of the mountains of Macdonnell near the centre of the con-

tinent. The party will be equipped and directed by Mr. W. Astin

Horn, a wealthy colonist. The scientific corps is strong and numbers

among its members Mr. Winnecke, geographer; Mr. E. C. Strisling,

naturalist ; Professors R. Tate and Baldwin Spencer, paleontologists ;

Mr. J. A. Watt, mineralogist.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has

again subscribed $100 for a table at the Marine Biological Laboratory

at Woods Holl. Last year it did the same, but, we learn, some of

those who should have been consulted concerning its disposition were

left in absolute ignorance of any award. This year the table has cer-

tain conditions attached, which it is hoped will settle the question of

responsibility. These conditions are :

1. That the table shall be known as the American Association for

the Advancement of Science table.’

2. That the table shall be awarded by a committee of five, consist-

ing of the vice-president and secretary-elect of each of the two sections

(F and G), and the director of the Marine Biological Laboratory

(at present, Dr. C. O. Whitman).

3. That any member or fellow of the Association may. apply for the

table (an applicant for membership to the Association will be consid-

ered as a member and is therefore eligible).

4. Applications for the table are to be made to the permanent secre-

tary of the Association (F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, Mass.), who will

forward them to the chairman of the committee of award, the chairman

being the senior vice-president of sections F and G, seniority being de-

termined by continuous membership.

1894.] Scientific News. 907

9. Holders of the Association's table will be expected to give due

credit in published results of investigations carried on at the Associa-

tion's table.

The death of the venerable D. C. Danielssen of Bergen, Norway, on

July 13th, removes one of the ablest of the Scandanavian systematists,

Most of his zoologieal work was done on the marine Invertebrates and

was of an exceedingly careful character. He was besides a physician

in regular practice, was the chief of the Leprosy Hospital at Bergen,

and since 1864 has been the president of the Bergen Museum. He

was born in 1815.

Gustave Honoré Cotteau, the well known paleontologist is dead,

aged seventy-six. His principal work was done in the Echinodermata,

of which subject he was the leading student in France.

Two of the American Arctic exploring expeditions have come to

grief. The vessel of the Chicago newspaper enterprise under Wellman

was crushed in the ice and some of the party returned to the Spitzber-

gen islands, while the leader with others was picked up and landed at

Tromsoe, Norway. The Cook expedition which consisted mostly of

scientific men, went in an iron vessel in oppostion to the advice of ex-

perienced arctic navigators. In her first contact with the ice a hole

thirty feet long was torn in her side. She subsequently ran on a rock near

to Sukkertappen and subsequently sank. The passengers were

brought to Labrador by a passing vessel, but lost all their property.

The Salt Lake Literary and Scientific Association, a body incorpo-

rated for scientific pursuits, with headquarters at Salt Lake City,

Utah, has recently endowed a chair of Geology in the University of

Utah. The endowment is made in the handsome sum of $60,000, the

proceeds of which are to be used in the support of the professorship.

The chair has been named the “ Deseret Professorship of Geology,”

and Dr. James E. Talmage has been appointed to the position. The

rich collections of the Deseret Museum, belonging to the Salt Lake

Literary and Scientific Association, have been placed at the disposal

of the growing University of Utah. Such a movement is commenda-

ble. Utah isa rich field for the geologist, and any substantial en-

couragement of the science there is an effort wisely directed.

Dr. Chas. L. Edwards, lately of the University of Texas has been

eleeted Professor of Biology in the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati,

Ohio.

The American Naturalist.

reg As the year 1894 is now drawing to a close we would

respectfully ask the many delinquents to send in.

their subscriptions, that we may close our books for

. the year with a clean bill.

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Vol. IV. APRIL, 1894. No. 8.

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THREE ASPECTS OF MonisM, Professor C. Lloyd Morey ve Sa tea

THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, Gen. M. M. Tru ste E

MODERN PHysIoLoGY, Prof, Max Vernon Ios. Gere

KANT’S DOCTRINE OF THE SCHEMATA, Willi arg S Dierdtt of North bari

THE EXEMPTION OF WOMEN FROM LABOR, n ester F. Ward, Washington

` NOTION AND DEFINITION OF NUMBER, Prof. Hermann Schube rt, Hamburg, MK

C itor.

LITERARY DE a saPonpanclis Pian: Lucien Arréat. i

ads iic AND Discussions, Logic as Relation Lore. Rejoinder to M. Mouret. F. C.

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mong the Attractions for 1894 are the following

A series of articles, accompanied with ee on the early migrations and locations of "tide tribes,

er the title of

_** Footprints of the Aborigines," By Rev. Neng M. Beauchamp, Prof. A. F. Chamberlain, Dr.

bes iam Wallace T ooker, € VA. Watkin Ray George Patterson, and other specialists. Also a series of

Fusbjes and Cliff ote cdm by E Waher Fewkes, of - eye ingway Li. pese. Mr. A. M. Ste-

heus, of Keam's Canon, and others. he ** Characte the Am ain, anguages ” by Dr. D.

Brinton, Prof. Seler and ed ge pow e Myths a d Folklore; by Mr. J

Loss cLean ‘A rry, of London, England, Lirs. Zelia Nuttall and G. Deciey will write upon

exican and PeruviangAntiquities. There will be articles tme or Poi vas C DUM of the

American Indians, and on Prehistoric Contact with Other Conti b n. James

Wickersnam and C. Staniland Wake and on certain ‘ oen Copper. d Rare deo Relics” * which a

recently come to light, Fad Dr. J. D. Butler, J. R. Sutter, H. I. Smith, William R. Seever,

Montgomery. Not

Discoveri «ios Palest tine and Egypt, by Prof. T. F. Wright, of Harvard College, and Rev. W. c.

n. ,D.D. mid cama in Polynesia, Assyria, Babylonia, Tío, China, and in Classic Lands. by

The editor of the American Ant s publishing a series of books on PR.

COLUMBIAN TIMES, and now offers the p orden to the public

l. The Mound-Builders—their 2 and gg ll . ^. Price, $3.50

ll. Animal Effigies and Emblematic Mounds, Qi 1 AN

HI. Native Myths and S risa MAA ished, o S00

IV. Cliff Dwellers and Pyramid Builders with the Antiquarian, '* 6.00

Price per Vol. $4.00 or with American Naturalist $6.00.

The American Antiquarian will be furnished with The American

Naturalist for $6.00.