"The Excretion of Salicylate in Various Clinical Conditions," by R. W. Scott (by invitation), T. W. Thoburn (by invitation) and P. J. Hanzlik.

"Salicylate Oedema," by R. W. Scott (by invitation), J. L. Reycraft (by invitation) and P. J. Hanzlik.

"The Favorable, Antagonistic Effect of Magnesium Sulphate against Poisonous Doses of Sodium Oxalate," by F. L. Gates and S. J. Meltzer.

"Further Observations on the Pathological Changes in the Tissues of the Rabbit, as a result of Reduced Oxidation," by G. H. Martin (by invitation), C. H. Bunting (by invitation) and A. S. Loevenhart.

DECEMBER 29, 2.00-5.00 P.M.

Joint Demonstrations by the Pharmacological and Physiological Societies

"A Signal Magnet which writes either upwards or downwards," by W. Hale.

"Some New Apparatus," by D. E. Jackson. "An Improved Lever for Frog's Heart and Muscle Strips," by A. H. Ryan.

"The Inhibitory Effect of Stimulation of the Central End of the Vagus Nerve upon the Contractions of an Active Expiratory Muscle in the Chicken," by A. L. Meyer (by invitation).

"Demonstration of a Gas-Analysis Apparatus,'' by Yandell Henderson.

"The Motion Picture as an Aid in Teaching Physiology," by J. A. E. Eyster and W. J. Meek. "Pathescope Films used to illustrate Physiological Demonstrations to Students," by Alexander Forbes.

"Motor Phenomena of the Stomach and Cap as observed Roentgenographically," by Gregory Cole (by invitation).

of

"Photographs representing the Growth Chickens Fed with Definite Mixtures of Foodstuffs under Laboratory Conditions which have heretofore not led to Success," by Thomas B. Osborne and Lafayette B. Mendel.

"Microscopic Demonstration of Absence of Chromatolytic Change in the Central Nervous System of the Woodchuck (Marmota Monax)," by A. T. Rasmussen (by invitation) and J. A. Myers (by invitation).

"Glycogen in the Blood Vessels of the Liver," by G. Carl Huber and J. J. R. Macleod.

"A Method of Recording Fundamental Heart Sounds Directly from the Heart," by Carl J. Wiggers and A. Dean, Jr. (by invitation).

"Exhibit of Photographically Recording Apparatus for studying the Dynamics of the Circulation," by Carl J. Wiggers.

DECEMBER 30, 9.30-12.00 M.

"Studies on Tolerance and Cumulation: Experiments with Tartrates, Citrates and Oxalates,' by W. Salant and A. M. Swanson (by invitation). "The Effect of Morphin and Opium on Psychological Reaction Time," by D. I. Macht and S. Isaacs (by invitation).

"On the Drug-fastness of Spirochetæ against Certain Arsenical, Mercurial and Iodid Compounds in Vitro," by H. Noguchi and S. Akatsu (by invitation).

"On the Relative Toxicity of Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan," by L. Pearce and W. H. Brown. "The Action of Ethylenediamin," by H. G. Barbour and A. M. Hjort (by invitation). (Read by title.)

"The Influence of Eserin upon the Partially Excised Sphincter Pupillæ," by D. R. Joseph.

"The Mutually Antagonistic Actions of Adrenin and Eserin upon the Sphincter Pupillæ," by D. R. Joseph.

"The Effects of Pituitrin and of Adrenin of the Pupil of Gangliectomized Rabbits," by T. S. Githens and S. J. Meltzer.

"The Prolonged Reaction of the Blood Vessels of the Rabbit's Ear to the Local Injection of Adrenin," by J. Auer and S. J. Meltzer.

"The Effect of Ergotoxin on the Temperature of Rabbits," by T. S. Githens.

"A Respiratory Factor in the Production of Adrenin Pulmonary Edema in Rabbits," by F. L. Gates and J. Auer.

At the second executive session of the society on Friday noon, December 29, a vote of thanks was unanimously tendered the authorities of Cornell Medical School for their hospitality and efficient arrangements and to the local committee for its efforts in behalf of the visiting members and guests. JOHN AUER, Secretary

ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES THE TENNESSEE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE THE seventh meeting (fifth annual meeting) of the Tennessee Academy of Science was held on December 1, 1916, at George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn. President Samuel M. Bain presided. The following papers were read and discussed:

"The Development of Transportation on the Great Lakes," by Professor A. E. Parkins, Peabody College, Nashville.

"An Apparatus for Moisture Determination,''

by Professor A. S. Eastman, University of the South, Sewanee.

"Chemists' Present Opportunities and Duties,'' by Dr. J. I. D. Hinds, Castle Heights School, Leb

anon.

"Some Practical Applications of Bacteriological Research,'' by Dr. Herman Spitz, Nashville.

"The Raison d'être of the Tennessee Academy of Science," by Dr. Samuel M. Barton, University of the South, Sewanee.

"The Origin of Reelfoot Lake," by Dr. A. H. Purdue, State Geological Survey, Nashville.

"Following the Compass across Sahara," by Dr. D. W. Berky, University of the South, Se

wanee.

"James M. Safford," by Dr. J. T. McGill, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.

"West Indian Hurricanes: Their Origin, Movement and Extent," by Roscoe Nunn, U. S. Weather Bureau, Nashville. (Discussed by R. S. Maddox, State Forester, Nashville.)

Annual address of the president: "The Interrelation of Plant and Animal Pathology," by Professor Samuel M. Bain, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows:

President, Samuel M. Barton, University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.

Vice-president, Archibald Belcher, Middle Tennessee State Normal School, Murfreesboro, Tenn. Editor, A. H. Purdue, State Geologist, Nashville, Tenn.

Secretary-Treasurer, Roscoe Nunn, U. S. Weather Bureau, Nashville, Tenn.

The president appointed as members of the executive committee, Dr. Brown Ayres, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn., and Dr. John T. McGill, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. ROSCOE NUNN, Secretary

NASHVILLE, TENN.

THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON THE 560th meeting of the society was held in the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club, Saturday, November 18, 1916, called to order by President Hay at 8 P.M. with 86 persons in attendance.

On recommendation of the council, Irwin Hoffmann was elected to active membership.

Under the heading, brief notes, exhibition of specimens, Dr. O. P. Hay exhibited one of the cervical vertebræ of a deer from a deposit in Florida. He called attention to the fact that the

remains of Florida deer have usually been referred to the existing species, Odocoileus osceola. A comparison of this vertebra with the corresponding one from recent deer, other than the Florida deer, showed that possibly the extinct Florida deer was a different species from the existing deer. Dr. Hay said that there were no examples of cervical vertebræ of Florida deer for making comparisons, and until such examples were seen the identification of the extinct deer must remain doubtful.

Under the same heading Dr. Paul Bartsch called attention to a hybrid duck which he had lately seen exposed for sale in the markets. It was a cross between the black mallard and the domestic duck.

The regular program consisted of two papers: H. Pittier: "Forests of Panama," illustrated by lantern slides.

Professor Pittier gave first a condensed review of the results to the present date of the botanical part of the biological survey of Panama, undertaken under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. Then he showed how the distribution of the main ecological types of vegetation is dependent upon the régime of the winds and of the rainfall. Mixed dicotylous forests cover at least six tenths of the area of the Isthmus, the rest being occupied by savannas and park-like formations. Rain-forests with evergreen foliage extend over the entire northern watershed and part of Darien on the south side. Other forests of the southern slope belong to the type called monsoon-forest and are characterized by the presence of many species with deciduous foliage. The xerophytic character of the vegetation is more marked in the broken forests of the savanna-belt, without, however, assuming an extreme degree. The change in the composition of the vegetation with the increase in altitude has been dwelt upon by several travelers and botanical explorers of the Isthmus; it is very gradual but nevertheless very radical. Several genera of trees observed at high altitudes are gregarious; there are, for instance, oak-forests, subtropical or even temperate in their general appearance. Lantern slides illustrating types of forest, or of individual trees and flowers, were shown at the conclusion of the lecture.

J. H. Paine: "Scientific Photography in the Study of Insects," illustrated by lantern slides. During the last half of the meeting Dr. H. H. T. Jackson was acting secretary.

M. W. LYON, Jr., Recording Secretary

in the offspring. Such arguments were very common in biology before the experimental method was recognized as necessary to test the validity of our assumptions. Since experimental tests were made we have learned that eyes do not degenerate when animals are kept in the dark. Thus Payne raised sixty-nine successive generations of Drosophila in the dark without noticing any trace of degeneracy in the eye or its function. Uhlenhuth found that eyes when transplanted into the back of salamanders will (after a transitory degeneration) regenerate completely, and remain normal no matter whether the animals are kept in the dark or in the light. Hereditary blindness (e. g., hereditary glaucoma in man) is apparently due to a mutation (probably a chemical change in one chromosome) which originates, as far as our present facts show, independently of use or disuse of the eye. We know through Morgan's observations that insects with mutilated or rudimentary wings may arise suddenly as mutations from parents which used their wings. Lack of the practise of flying does according to our present knowledge no more lead to the hereditary disappearance of wings than darkness leads to hereditary degeneration of the eyes. The statement, that a nation by not going to war will lose any of its inherited "virile virtues" is not supported by our present biological knowledge.

3. The biology of which the war enthusiasts make use is essentially antiquated, and so we need not be surprised to find that they consider war to be based on what they call the "biological law of nature," the "struggle for existence," or the "survival of the fittest." Such ideas are expressed by war enthusiasts in America as well as in Europe and we may be permitted to make the following quotation without giving the name of its author.

The struggle for existence is in the life of nature the basis of all healthy development. All existing things show themselves to be the result of contesting forces. So in the life of man the struggle is not merely the destructive but the lifegiving principle. . . . The law of the stronger holds good everywhere. Those forms survive which are able to procure for themselves the most favorable conditions of life and to assert themselves in the universal economy of nature. The weaker succumb. This struggle is regulated and restrained by the unconscious sway of biological laws and by the interplay of opposite forces. In the plant world and the animal world this process is worked out in unconscious tragedy. In the human race it is consciously carried out, and regulated by social ordinances. The man of strong will and strong intellect tries by every means to assert himself, and in this effort the individual is far from

...

...

being guided merely by the consciousness of right. The nation is made up of individuals. . The motive which influences each member is prominent in the whole body. It is a persistent struggle for possessions . . . and right is respected so far only as it is compatible with advantage.

The "struggle for existence" and the "survival of the fittest" are no "laws of nature" in the sense in which the term law is used in the exact sciences. We speak of

a law of nature when we are able to express a phenomenon as a mathematical function of its variables. We thus speak of a law of gravitation, of Ohm's law, or in biology of Mendel's law of segregation. As long as biologists did not realize that their statements needed not only a qualitative experimental test but also a quantitative verification they talked in a loose way, and this did not change until the methods of physics and physical chemistry began to invade biological research. The progress made by Mendel lay in this, that he introduced the quantitative method of the physicist into the investigations of hybridization and he was ignored because the zoologists and botanists of his time did not grasp the fact that the progress of science depends upon the invention or application of such methods.

The terms "survival of the fittest" or "struggle for existence" were never more than poor metaphors to express the fact that the chemical compounds required for the growth of organisms are restricted in quantity and that as a consequence unlimited reproduction of organisms is impossible. Aside from the limitation of food, the physical conditions (e. g., too low or too high a temperature) existing on the different parts of the globe, act as a restricting influence. The methods by which the stronger "conquer" weaker nations have nothing in common with the fact that salt water fish die when put into fresh water or that microorganisms can not multiply unless they have their proper culture medium. The majority of organisms, e. g., plants, bacteria of the soil, and many others, can in no way be called predatory organisms. Of course, there are animals which are as brutal and predatory as the war enthusiasts think human beings should be-but this is a different thing from calling this brutality a universal law of living nature. Fortunately the normal human being does not belong to this brutal type.

There is a wide quantitative difference in the development of instincts and of the power of inhibition in different human individuals, and these differences may be hereditary. Individuals with a strong homicidal mania, who just manage to suppress their paranoic tendencies, will welcome war since it removes for them the burden of constant inhibition, and unfortunately such poorly balanced individuals have rather too frequently been the leaders of governments. No human society can be expected to exist unless the necessity of suppressing or curbing the harmful and pathological instincts of individuals is recognized, and a nation is liable to pay a high price for the privilege of having a semipathological individual at the head of its government.

4. The war enthusiasts also derive from what they are pleased to call the "law of nature" the statement that "superior races" have the right of impressing their civilization upon "inferior races.' The information concerning the relative value of races is furnished by a group of writers who call themselves "racial biologists." This "racial biology" is based on quotations from the erudite statements of theologians, philologists, historians, politicians, anthropologists, and also occasionally of biologists, especially of the nonexperimenting type. The method of standardizing the different races is consequently neither quantitative nor experimental, for, as the best known "race biologist,' Houston Chamberlain, says, "there is something in the world besides compass and yard measure. Where the learned fails with his artificial construction, one single unbiased glance can illuminate the truth like a sunbeam." A few quotations from Chamberlain will show how this method of “sunbeams" is applied in special cases. Chamberlain tries to prove that the Celtic Bretons in France are really Germanic.

Thus

These Celtic minds of former centuries, teeming with strength, are not merely free and not merely pious any more than the Breton seamen of to-day, but they are both free and pious and it is this very combination that expresses what is specifically Germanic, as we observe it from Charlemagne to Queen Louise.

And as a sop to biology, Chamberlain states:

Let us therefore not be in too great a hurry to assert that Germanicism does not lie in blood; it does lie in it; not in the sense that this blood guarantees Germanic sentiment and capacity but that it makes these possible. This limitation is therefore a very clear one: as a rule that man is Germanic who is descended from Germanic an

cestors.

It will not be necessary at a meeting of biologists to state that Mendelian characters are generally inherited singly and in