of latitude, at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union, Cambridge, England, July, 1925. (3) The International Astronomical Union, assembled in congress at Cambridge (July 14-22, 1925), thanks the superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey of the United States of America for his efforts towards the reestablishment of the latitude station at Gaithersburg (U. S. A.) and hopes that he will continue his efforts because of the very great importance of the resumption of observations at that station. (4) The International Astronomical Union, assembled in congress at Cambridge (July 14-22, 1925), thanks the superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey of the United States of America for his efforts which established Ukiah as a permanent latitude station, under the direction of the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

THE Council of the British Institution of Civil Engineers has made the following awards for the session 1924-1925 in respect of selected engineering papers, published without discussion: A Telford Gold Medal to Dr. Andrew Robertson (Bristol); a Telford Gold Medal and the Indian Premium to Mr. S. A. S. Bunting (Bombay); Telford Premiums to Messrs. A. D. Swan (Montreal), C. H. Cruttwell (New Ferry), J. W. McLaren (Newfoundland) and J. L. Hodgson (Eggington), and a Webb Prize to Mr. A. R. Johnson (Penang); and in respect of papers read at students' meetings in London or by students before meetings of local associations during the same session: The James Forrest Medal and a Miller Prize to Mr. E. J. Rang (Tynemouth), and Miller Prizes to Messrs. D. Lloyd (Liverpool), H. F. Lea (Birmingham), H. A. Macnab (Glasgow), T. W. March (Rochester), C. R. Smith (Manchester) and W. C. Knill (Gatesheadon-Tyne).

A NEW Micronesian-Polynesian Hall, containing one of the most extensive collections from those two Pacific island regions in existence, was opened by the Field Museum of Natural History on November 2. The hall includes a large Maori collection presented by Arthur B. Jones, a Fiji collection made by A. B. Lewis, assistant curator of Melanesian ethnology while on a Joseph N. Field expedition in the South Seas, and several collections purchased by the muIt is on the ground floor of the museum just off the Egyptian Hall. Outstanding in the hall is a great Maori council house from New Zealand, 60 feet long, 20 feet wide and 14 feet high on the inside. It is probably the largest thing of its kind in any museum, and is one of the less than a dozen such houses in existence. The house, once used by the chiefs of a powerful tribe, is hand-carved and painted inside and out.

seum.

THE American Museum of Natural History, in cooperation with the commission of the Interstate Pali

sades Park, conducted this summer an interesting and successful experiment in out-of-door education under the direction of Dr. Frank E. Lutz. "Nature trails" were opened to the public in the Harriman State Park near Tuxedo, N. Y. One was a "training trail" along which were labels that did more than merely give the names of things; it was as though "a friend somewhat versed in natural history were taking a walk with you and pointing out interesting things along the way." On the other, the "testing trail," were merely numbered questions about the trees, shrubs and other things. Visitors were invited to test their knowledge and were scored according to the correct answers on file at the station for the study of insects, in connection with which this work was done.

ACCORDING to Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, at the September meeting of the Philadelphia section of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Walter T. Taggart, who is chairman of the committee to arrange for the September, 1926, meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia, outlined some features that had already been prepared for the comfort of the society. The meeting will be held from September 6 to September 10, and promises to be the largest meeting that the American Chemical Society has ever held. Besides being the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the American Chemical Society, it will be held in connection with the Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, and will be followed by the International Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Washington, D. C., one week later.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

NOTES

THE department of biological chemistry at the Harvard Medical School will receive $100,000 under the terms of the will of Dr. Richard D. Bell, who was assistant professor in the department.

THE General Education Board, of New York, has given the sum of $700,000 to the University of Virginia School of Medicine, which is half the amount needed for the erection and equipment of the new buildings planned. The gift is conditional upon the appropriation of $250,000 by the state and the raising of $450,000 by the university.

PLANS for a new pharmacy building at the University of Illinois, to be erected at Champaign at a cost of $375,000, have been approved by the university trustees.

PROFESSOR JOHN A. ALDRICH, formerly of Washburn College, Kansas, has been appointed professor of physics and astronomy at Oglethorpe University in Georgia. He succeeds John W. West, who last spring

DR. GEORGE A. BAITSELL has been promoted to an associate professorship of biology at Yale University.

DR. MARGARET L. CAMMACK, instructor in biochemistry at Columbia University, has been appointed associate professor of home economics at the University of Arizona. Dr. Cammack will have charge of nutrition work.

DR. EDWARD P. PHELPS, formerly of Cornell University, has been appointed associate professor of chemistry at Marshall College.

DR. CARL R. FELLERS, associate professor of food preservation at the University of Washington, has been appointed research professor of horticultural products at the Massachusetts Agricultural College and Experiment Station.

DR. H. ROGERS, professor of experimental pathology at the University of Paris, has been appointed to the chair of physiology in the university.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE THE MUSIC OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS

A RECENT article in SCIENCE directed attention to the similarity of Chinese and Indian languages. Certain peculiarities of the music of the American Indians may be interesting in this connection. The peculiarities were observed among the Papago and Makah, in my study of Indian music for the Bureau of American Ethnology, and resemble the music of certain regions of Europe and Africa. Three of these unusual peculiarities will be described.

Among the Papago of southern Arizona I heard a high drone sung by two or three women, during part of a song. The occasion was a dance held by the Indians on Christmas night, more than seventy miles from a town and near the Mexican border. When recording songs among the Makah on Cape Flattery I asked whether they used this drone. The reply was: "Makah women sometimes sing the drone if they are not sure of a song and are asked to help in the singing, but the Quileute women do it a great deal and call it the 'metal pitch' because it is like a piece of metal which can give only one pitch." George Kennan noted this drone and wrote of it as follows: "In some parts of European Russia, and all over the eastern Caucasus, in the wild recesses of the mountains where the native music had not felt the modifying influence of European culture, I heard songs with this peculiar droning accompaniment." He states that the drone was usually the initial tone of the melody and suggests that it may have been sustained in order to enable the singers to return to the original

is that the drone of the bagpipe may have been an imitation of the vocal drone. Among the American Indian tribes cited the drone appeared to be an embellishment to the singing and the ability to give it was regarded as a musical accomplishment. So far as known, this peculiarity has not been noted by other students of Indian music, and I have not found it among other than these tribes. Inquiry has not been made among the Indians of California. If they also have the drone, and if it reduces in importance from the north toward the south, this peculiarity may have an interesting bearing upon the migration of early Americans.

A resemblance was found between certain very old Papago songs and certain Arab songs which I obtained from Arabs of the Sahara Desert who were

temporarily in this country with a Garden of Allah company. The resemblance was noted between songs of the desert journeying of Elder Brother (Montezuma) and the songs of the Arabs when travelling across the desert on their camels, loaded with bags of coffee. These groups of songs have a peculiar swaying rhythm in a slow tempo, difficult to describe but different from other melodies and strongly contrasted with songs of other tribes. Is this a similar reaction to the environment?

A curious resemblance between a custom of the Yogi in India a tradition of the Papago was found in the description of a song. It was said that Elder Brother and his people went to the place now known as Casa Grande, drove out the former inhabitants and tore down their houses. A man named Sivarimaha and his daughter lived in the structure known as the Casa Grande ruin. When Elder Brother came to that place he found the man on top of his house, standing on one foot with the other foot on his knee. It was believed that the man had some mysterious power and that he could not be killed while he remained in that position.. His daughter stood on both feet. The death of the man was accomplished by means of a song. In the Yoga philosophy, before students undertake the "Asana positions," they are taught fourteen postures for balancing the body. The first posture requires the student to lift up the right foot with the left hand and stand on the left foot. Later he assumes the posture without the aid of the hand. Is it possible that beneath this narrative there lay, originally, an idea that the contradictory rhythm of the song destroyed the power given the man by his posture?

In the rhythmic songs of the Indian medicine men when treating the sick we find a coincidence with the mantras concerning which it is said (in the Yoga philosophy): "They are combinations of letters producing a sound, and that sound has a certain rhythmic

Several estimates of the length of post-glacial time are commonly known. Taylor, following Lyell, Spencer and others, estimated the period occupied on the recession of Niagara Falls. DeGeer2 reached his conclusions from his studies of varied clays. Other estimates have been based on the erosion of the pedestals beneath erratics and on the comparative weathering of drift materials of different ages. The variation in these estimates emphasizes the importance of additional methods of calculating the PostPleistocene time interval.

At Yellow Springs, Ohio, there is located a chalybeate spring which has built at its point of issuance in the Cedarville (Niagaran) limestone a large mound of ferriferous travertine which extends some hundred yards into the Yellow Springs Creek valley. The valley lies nearly north and south and is located within the most extended moraines of the Wisconsin glaciation; not, however, within the terminal moraines of the last Wisconsin invasion. The ice moved from a northwesterly direction; the deposit is located on the east side of the valley-hence, it is reasonable to suppose that any preglacial deposit would have been removed by ice abrasion. The erosion by the enlarged streams from the melting ice, one of which occupied the valley, undoubtedly aided in eliminating previous and contemporaneous travertine deposits.

1 Taylor, F. B., Niagara Falls Folio, United States Geological Survey Folio, No. 190, 1913.

2 DeGeer, Gerard, "A geochronology of the last 12,000 years," Cong. Int. Geol. Compte Rendu, XI, 1910, pp. 241-253, 1912.

Theoretically, the volume of the present deposit divided by the rate of accumulation should yield the length of time of accumulation as a quotient. The method, as will be readily recognized, involves several complex factors, chief of which are variations in spring flow and in amount of solid material deposited, each influenced in turn by rainfall, temperature and variations in the subsurface spring channels.

Accurate observations extended over a considerable period of rainfall, spring flow, air and water temperatures, together with studies of the differences in quantity of solids in solution at different points within the area of deposition, should provide a basis for a reasonable estimate of the present rate of deposition. A careful collection of the encrusted vegetation should provide an index of climatic variation, which in turn influenced the rate of deposition in the past.

A detailed instrumental survey of the bedrock structure has already revealed the presence of a small flexure, or possibly a fault, which undoubtedly explains the location of the spring and leads also to the conclusion that the spring has been relatively per

manent.

The first estimates of the age of the Yellow Spring travertine mound must be regarded as purely tentative. The figures obtained, namely 20,000 to 30,000 years, are intermediate between those given by Taylor and DeGeer. Since trustworthy results of the study of the spring deposit must await the passing of some months, and possibly years, of observation it seemed worth while to publish this method of estimating postglacial time. It is undoubtedly applicable to many similar travertine deposits. The study of a number of them, in various situations relative to morainal deposits, should contribute materially to the knowledge of the length of the Recent epoch.

ANTIOCH COLLEGE, YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO

LUMINESCENCE IN SPONGES

CASES of luminescence in sponges have several times been recorded. Noll (Zool. Anz., 1879, p. 402) described luminescent larvae of Reniera, which had been reared in a table aquarium. The light was manifested upon a slight mechanical disturbance in the water of the aquarium. He states that the light is produced by a luminous fluid accumulated in the body of the larva, but the observation is too crude to be of much value. Since the aquarium had contained several other animal organisms, such as annelids, crabs, etc., and at the same time, it is quite doubtful if the luminous larvae really belong to the sponge. Pagenstecher (Allg. Zool., Bd. 4, 1881, p. 14) and Peron

(s. Mongold, 1910, p. 245) also described luminosity in sponges. Dahlgren (J. Franklin Inst., 1916, p. 243) examined luminous sponges at Naples and proved that the worms and protozoa living in their canals were the actual source of the light. The matter is, however, different in Grantia sp. as observed by Harvey (Biol. Bull., 1921, p. 286) at Friday Harbor. According to this author the sponge produces a good luminescence in the dark and gives a luminous slime when squeezed. The organisms living in its canals are not luminous. Harvey is of the opinion that the light of this species of sponge is an autogenous luminesThus, there is uncertainty and diversity of statement as to the fact and the probable source of the luminosity in sponges, and we lack careful observation and study affording either positive or negative evidence on the subject.

cence.

In the evening of August 25, 1919, the writer, while engaged in examining the dredgings from the bottom of the Sagami Sea at a depth of about one thousand meters, observed a large specimen of Crateromorpha meyeri Gray to be brightly luminous. The whole body of the sponge glowed for several hours after being brought into a dark room. The luminescence consisted of a thousand spots of a blue light resembling the stars in the sky. On dipping the sponge into fresh water the light shone particularly brightly, but at the same time the luminous spots were observed to be transferred from the body of the sponge into the surrounding medium. Each spot proved to be a small annelid belonging to the family Alciopinae. More closely examined, the sponge itself showed numerous individuals of this same annelid filling the entire.canal system. After the annelids were entirely removed the sponge gave no more light, while the removed organisms themselves glowed momentarily on stimulation. The light of Crateromorpha is apparently a secondary luminescence.

Whether or not other luminous sponges are analogous to this is an open question, but it is a usual feature that annelids and other small organisms live in their canals. I am inclined to believe that sponges do not produce autogenous luminescence. PARIS, FRANCE

Yô K. OKADA

THE FAMILY CLIONIDAE THE name Clionidae was adopted by Topsent in 1887 for a family of sponges which bore into the shells of molluscs. The type genus was Cliona of Grant. However, the name Clionidae (Gray, 1840) has long been in general use for a family of Pteropod molluscs, with Clione Pallas as the type genus. The sponge family may be called Thoosidæ, from Thoosa Hancock, the next oldest genus.

T. D. A. COCKERELL

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

SOME NEW BOOKS ON GENETICS Genetics in Plant and Animal Improvement. By D. F. JONES. viii + 568 pp., 229 figures. John Wiley & Sons, N. Y. Price $4.00. 1925. Principles of Genetics, an Elementary Text with Problems. By E. W. SINNOTT and L. C. DUNN. xviii+431 pp., 140 figures. McGraw-Hill Book Co., N. Y. Price $3.50. 1925.

Animal Genetics, an Introduction to the Science of Animal Breeding. By F. A. E. CREW. Xx +420 pp., 67 figures. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. Price 15/- 1925.

THREE new text-books on genetics have recently been published. There was no dearth of texts before. Apart from the pioneer and standard books by Bateson and Punnett in England, followed by those of Lock, Doncaster and Darbishire and the German texts by Baur, Goldschmidt and Johannsen, there had been published in America alone books by Babcock and Clausen, Castle, Conklin, Coulter, Morgan and Walter, besides several texts dealing primarily with eugenics. It would seem to be a bold author who would seek to extend the list. Yet at the present time genetics is of such general interest in biology that a variety of treatments of the subject is required to meet all needs, and our knowledge of genetics has been increasing so rapidly that no text remains up-to-date unless it is frequently revised or rewritten. In this state of affairs a fresh and original treatment of the topic is welcome and any new contribution to the only-partly-solved problem of how successfully to teach genetics is thrice welcome.

Jones has produced one of the best text-books on genetics that has yet appeared. He approaches the subject from the viewpoint of one interested in the increase of the world's food supply consisting of plant and animal products. He recognizes that the area available for agriculture is already largely occupied and can not be extended much further. It is therefore incumbent on the farmer to utilize to its fullest capacity the agricultural land now available. This can be done in part by better methods of farming and by improved machinery. It is possible also to discover or produce better varieties of cultivated plants and of domestic animals than those now in use. This last can be done best by an intelligent use of the principles of genetics. Those principles Jones proceeds to develop in an orderly way, beginning with the simplest case of Mendelian heredity and proceeding by gradual steps to more complicated and debatable cases, not however giving the reader occasion to doubt for a moment the complete adequacy of Mendelism to explain all cases. One wishes at times that Jones were less of a "fundamentalist" in his devotion to Mendelism; perhaps a dash of scepticism as to some

His

of the orthodox doctrines might give relish to the dish. It should be stated, however, that there is little to criticize in Jones's treatment of his subject. He develops it in an orderly and interesting way. statements are clear, his information full and authentic; his examples are well chosen, apt and adequate, but never superfluous, in many cases taken from his own extensive and fundamental researches. He speaks from the fullness of first-hand knowledge, but never to impress the reader with its extent. He has gathered and imparts in an entertaining way much information about the history of cultivated plants and domestic animals. The information is particularly full about what has been done in the way of crop improvement in the agricultural experiment stations of the United States. This feature makes his treatise preeminently useful as a text-book in the agricultural colleges. His chief original contribution is probably found in the discussions of the subjects of inbreeding and crossbreeding to which his own studies have added much. In this connection may be noted a fondness of the author for a pet theory of his own about hybrid vigor (heterosis), that it is only the summated inheritance from the two parents, not due in the slightest degree to the crossbred state itself. The reader will find it difficult to reconcile this view with the high praise bestowed upon "grading," wherein common stock is crossed with pure bred stock, resulting in the production of offspring superior to either. On the whole, Jones has produced an excellent book. Of course there is the occasional slip to which every author is liable, as where on page 7 he refers to the zebu and water-buffalo as one and the same animal. In Chapter II, "training" is treated as coordinate with inheritance and environment, a third factor in determining the character of the individual. This seems of questionable propriety, particularly as regards plants. On page 64, an example of Mendelian inheritance in guinea-pigs is credited to a German plant-breeder, although it was worked out by an American zoologist.

Sinnott and Dunn have written the latest book on genetics, a good one, too, primarily pedagogical in its aims and origins, and for this reason more likely to meet the needs of the teacher than most books on the subject. Much attention has been given to the preparation of "problems" presented at the end of each chapter, with the aim of giving the student practise in applying the principles discussed in the text. This is perhaps a worth-while way to try to get the student to think, but it is doubtful whether it is in any sense a fair substitute for a laboratory course in which the student handles the live material, gathers his own data and feels his way along toward conclusions. Most biological problems involve in their solution other powers of the mind than those used in arithmetic or

elementary algebra. For training in scientific method the student should, if possible, be given real problems, rather than hypothetical ones.

The text of Sinnott and Dunn is an extremely clear and well-balanced discussion of "principles of genetics" illustrated by well-chosen examples, many of them taken from materials with which the authors themselves have worked, one of them being a botanist, the other a zoologist. A wide range of subjects is covered and the very latest discoveries in genetics are reported with a due sense of the proportion demanded in an elementary treatise. The chapters on "inheritance in man" and the "problems of eugenics" are naturally based on the least percentage of established fact and the largest percentage of speculation of any part of the book. They present eugenics as the eugenicist would have it, the inevitable Edwardses growing in goodness as the plumule of a seedling grows upward, and the Kallikaks going to the bad as the root of a seedling grows down. It is assumed that heredity (not environment) made the Edwardses and Kallikaks what they are reported to have been, but the text does not make it clear, as it should, that this is largely assumption. Also the professional and moneyed classes are assumed to be "abler" than the industrial and laboring classes, and as the former have fewer children it is assumed that the general level of ability is declining. But again the reader is not informed that this conclusion rests on a string of assumptions.

Crew's book is written exclusively from the viewpoint of an animal breeder and makes no use of botanical material, except in connection with the classical experiments of Mendel on garden peas. He does not limit himself, as do Jones and Sinnott and Dunn, to a presentation of principles with a limited number of illustrative cases. He attempts rather an inclusive summary of the more important work to date on animal genetics with especial reference to farm animals, because of their economic importance, and of Drosophila because of its scientific import

ance.

His book will be found harder reading, especially for the beginner, than either of the other books mentioned, but will be valuable to more advanced students and particularly in America because it includes much material and many references not found in other texts. He gives particular attention to questions of sex-determination, sex-linked inheritance and sex modification, more than a third of the book being devoted to these and related topics. The discussion of Mendelism and its illustration by cases among farm and laboratory animals, with which the book begins, is not particularly lucid, being overloaded with symbols, diagrams and tables, which weary rather than assist the reader. One gets the impression that the writer has not thoroughly assimilated his material or he