The deaths in 1912 were what might be considered normal and inevitable. In that season there were only 113 idle bulls and the fighting was a negligible factor. The deaths occurred as a result of accidents inherent in the crowded condition of harem life. In 1916, however, we find the deaths among bulls quadrupled; among cows, almost trebled and among pups, increased 134 per cent. Moreover, this is with only between two and three thousand idle bulls. What will be the result when the 60,000 to 70,000 idle bulls begin six to eight years hence to bring their pressure to bear upon the breeding grounds?

In my report for 1913 I attempted, without effect, to bring this unfortunate aspect of the fur-seal law of 1912, which could readily be foreseen, to the attention of the Bureau of Fisheries in the following words:

The bull fur seal is an animal of about 500 pounds weight; his mates are animals of 80 pounds weight; the pup at birth is a weak thing of 12 pounds. The harem life of the seals is crowded at best and subject to commotion. The mother seal takes no thought of the time and place of labor. Newly born pups are trampled and smothered under the best of circumstances. Anything which creates turmoil and fighting in the vicinity of the breeding grounds is necessarily fraught with danger to the young. Fighting among the bulls arises from attempts by idle bulls to steal cows from their more successful neighbors. In these contests cows are torn and injured and pups trampled. . . .

...

GEORGE ARCHIBALD CLARK STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIF., January 23, 1916

PROFESSOR CURTIS'S REVIEW OF PETRUNKEVITCH'S MORPHOLOGY OF INVERTEBRATE TYPES

THE review of Professor Petrunkevitch's "Morphology of Invertebrate Types" by Professor W. C. Curtis in SCIENCE for December 1 is rather misleading. The method of presentation in Professor Petrunkevitch's book is certainly one for which many teachers of invertebrate zoology have been waiting. Commendation of the principles upon which the book is founded and explanation of the necessity for such a work have been very ably put forth in Professor Curtis's review. However the method of presentation of subject-matter and type forms taken up for consideration are but two of the many points to be considered in determining the value of a book as a text for student use. It has been my experience, and I am sure it is shared by others, that one of the most difficult things to accomplish with the student in science is an appreciation of the necessity for clearness of expression. Mistakes in grammar and in English are too frequently looked upon as of no consequence to the scientist. In view of these facts I feel that the reviewer has omitted some points to which attention should have been called.

When Professor Curtis makes the remark that "the book is well done, clear, concise and to the point..." he very evidently does not consider such passages as:

Place a specimen in a white dish with water on its right side and make a drawing twice natural size showing the left side (page 155).

On page 8 the student is directed to

Label anterior and posterior end, dorsal and ventral surface.

Another example of what does not appear to be either clear or concise is found on page 39, where the reader is told that

The circular canal follows the edge of the disc between every rhopalium.

I do not believe that a zoology text could be written in sufficient detail to eliminate the necessity of a teacher, but I do think that a large percentage of the average undergraduate class in studying the anatomy of Molgula would require an explanation on the part of

the instructor of the exact relations existing between the two structures "the tunique" and "the tunic" when that explanation could be avoided through greater consistency in the use of terms in the text.

Errors of a nature more serious than those just cited are not wanting in the text. In the discussion of the earth-worm the sperm sacs or seminal vesicles of the male reproductive system are called spermathecæ (misspelled spermothecæ three times on page 94). In so far as I have been able to determine the term spermathecæ is applied by morphologists and by specialists in the oligochates to that part of the female reproductive system which Petrunkevitch calls the receptacula seminis. I doubt that readers of a review would consider errors of this type "of such a minor nature that to mention them might seem like petty criticism."

The all too frequent misspellings of words and inconsistencies in punctuation, in capitalization, and in the indiscriminate use of or omission of the hyphen in identical combinations of words, while items in themselves of but minor importance, impair the value of the book as one to be placed in the hands of undergraduate students, whose carelessness along these lines would tend to be accentuated. For some of these errors it is probable that the publishers are in some degree responsible. Granted that "it is not a work which gives the impression of having been carelessly put together," yet more care in proofing, in making certain of the correctness of the statements, and in the form of the expression would have added considerably to its value.

H. J. VAN CLEAVE

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Discovery, or the Spirit and Service of Science. By R. A. GREGORY. New York, Macmillan and Co. Price $1.75.

The appearance of this book could not well have been more timely. At the present date when all English-speaking peoples are in greater or less degree reaping the bitter fruits

of their past indifference to the welfare of

66

scientific investigation, a widespread awakening to the more immediate utilitarian advantages of scientific discovery is finding expression in the formulation of far-reaching governmental plans for the furtherance of technical research, research in other words that pays." Our governors and leaders utterly lacking the viewpoint of the investigators and any consciousness of the larger import and ultimate aims and utilities of science are of course as indifferent as ever to the welfare or outcome of the more fundamental and farreaching problems of research, for these can not be guaranteed within any defined period to return the several hundred or thousand per cent. which the political or commercial public naturally expects as the outcome of any investment in research. There is a manifest danger that the welfare of scientific investigation will actually suffer by reason of the new-born and ill-directed interest of the politician. This is an occasion, therefore, when it is more than ever necessary to undertake a definite campaign of popularization of the true aims and aspirations and methods of the scientific discipline of thought.

The educator, no less, perhaps, than the politician, requires instruction in the true aims and inspiration of science. In the words of our author, "The following pages will perhaps show that the spirit of scientific research has inspired the highest ethical thought and action, as well as increased the comforts of life and added greatly to material welfare. We seek to justify the claim of science to be an ennobling influence as well as a creator of riches; and therefore as much importance is attached to motive and method as to discovery and industrial development, however marvellous or valuable these may be." It may be added that the citations in this little book will perhaps serve to show our "humanistic " colleagues that science has been able to inspire literature which will bear comparison in nobility of thought and beauty of expression with the literary standard of the "humanities."

By a pardonable oversight on page 103 the Yerkes Observatory is situated in California.

T. BRAILSFORD ROBERTSON

The Relations of Mollusks to Fish in Oneida Lake. By FRANK COLLINS BAKER. Technical Publication No. 4, New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. Pp. 366.

The New York College of Forestry, under the leadership of Dr. Hugh P. Baker, takes a broad view of the subject in including not only the waters conserved by the forests, but also their animal life and economic resources. The present volume is concerned primarily with the molluscan food of fish, but a large part of it discusses the relations of mollusks to the rest of the fauna and the flora, the distribution and associations of species and other topics interesting to zoologists concerning themselves with fresh-water faunas.

It appears that mollusks form 31.5 per cent. of the food of 25 of the most important food and game fishes of the state. About half of the species of fish found in Oneida Lake are in some degree mollusk feeders. The fauna of the lake comprises upwards of 62 species and varieties of shellfish, nearly all of which are known to contribute to the piscine menu, but in varying degree. The little clams of the family Sphæriidæ appear to be a favorite article of diet, also such diminutive gastropods as Valvata and Amnicola, as well as the larger Physa and Planorbis, all these appearing in the food lists of many species. The large mussels, Unionidæ, are used by a smaller number of fishes. The whitefish, catfishes and pumpkinhead are notable for the large number of species of mollusks eaten.

The areas rich in life are confined to the shallows along the shores, usually not exceeding three fourths of a mile wide and twelve feet deep, affording an area of approximately 8,343 acres for feeding and breeding grounds for fish. In deeper water, vegetation is scarce or absent, and only scattered individuals of three species of mussels were taken with the crowfoot dredge. Possibly the total absence of gastropods was due to the form of dredge used; yet the same poverty of deep water was noted by Miss Maury in Cayuga Lake. It seems likely that the mollusks of these post-glacial lakes have not had time to become adapted to

deep water conditions, as they have in the Swiss lakes and many other bodies of fresh water.

No general valuation of the total molluscan fish food of the lake is attempted, but there are some interesting estimates of limited areas, from counts made of selected plots of a foot square. A bowldery station 300X 500 feet has a mollusk population of 7,650,000 individuals. On a sandy bottom area 1,000 × 500 feet the counts indicated 65 million. Finally, in the outlet, where there is a uniform area of fully 3,500 500 feet, there are estimated to be 304 million mollusks.

The chief species are illustrated by photographic figures. Mr. Baker's work is well done, as we should expect from his long experience with freshwater mollusks, and his excellent volume on the North American Lymnæas. The book will be found a useful addition to the literature of freshwater zoology.

HENRY A. PILSBRY ACADEMY OF Natural SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA

SPECIAL ARTICLES

THE OVERLAPPING OF THE LEAF SHEATH AND ITS LACK OF VALUE FOR DESCRIPTIVE BOTANICAL LITERATURE

DURING the crop season of 1916 the writers grew, at Texas Substation No. 8, Lubbock, Texas, uniformly tall and dwarf plants of milo from the same seed, by varying the time of planting and the environmental conditions. Measurements were secured from both the tall and the dwarf plats, by taking ten consecutive main plants in an average row and recording the internode and sheath lengths. The total number of internode and sheath measurements amounted to 78 in the tall group and 93 in the dwarf group. The results showed the mean internode length in the tall group to be 13.33

.061 centimeters, as against a mean internode length in the dwarf group of 6.88 ± .048 centimeters. The mean sheath length was 17.46.050 centimeters in the tall and 15.95 .026 centimeters in the dwarf.

Tall and dwarf plats of kafir were also grown from the same seed and a similar set of measurements, totaling 106 in the tall and 100 in

the dwarf, recorded in each case. The results in the case of kafir showed a mean internode length of 12.00 3.599 centimeters in the tall group, as compared with a mean internode length of 6.89.532 centimeters in the dwarf group. The mean sheath length in the tall group was 18.01 ± 3.81 centimeters and in the dwarf group 18.02.322 centimeters.

It is seen that in both milo and kafir the internode length varies widely when the plant is grown under different environmental conditions, but that little variation has occurred in the length of the sheath.

From these data it would seem that overlapping of the leaf sheath may show wide variation in other Gramineæ in the same variety and plant from year to year, depending on environment, and that a statement of the overlap of sheath in descriptive botanical literature is of doubtful value.

A. B. CONNER, R. E. KARPER

Dr.

1916

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

THE AMERICAN

ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE REPORT OF THE TREASURER FOR 1916 IN compliance with Article 15 of the constitution, and by direction of the council, the treasurer has the honor to submit the following report showing receipts, disbursements and disposition of funds and securities of the association for the year 1916 up to December 20, inclusive.

Receipts have come into the keeping of the treasurer from the following sources: (a) From interest on deposits with the United States Trust Company of New York, N. Y. (b) From the executor of the estate of Richard T. Colburn.

(c) From interest on securities purchased for the association during the year. The total of cash receipts during the year is $54,760.24; and the appraised value of the securities received from the Colburn estate is $25,740. The grand total of cash receipts and appraised value of securities received is $80,500.24.

Disbursements made in accordance with directions of the council amount in the aggregate to $77,027.87. These include $75,733.98 paid for $80,000 worth, par value, of securities purchased for the association and held as an investment.