Ar the University of Manchester the following appointments have been made: A. G. Ogilvie, reader in geography; J. MacMurray, lecturer in philosophy; A. Gardner and R. L. Newall, demonstrators in anatomy.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE A PROPOSAL OF TWO NEW MIOCENE FORMATIONAL NAMES

In the summer of 1916, I organized, with the help and encouragement of Professor G. D. Harris, a paleontological expedition to Santo Domingo, with the hope of differentiating the Yaqui Valley Tertiary beds. These had been indiscriminately called Miocene by Professor Gabb in 1874, and in recent years referred by Dr. Dall and Dr. Pilsbry to the Oligocene. The members of the exploratory party were Mr. Karl Paterson Schmidt, Mr. Axel Olsson and the writer, the actual collecting being very efficiently done by the two gentlemen. The collections were chiefly made from bluffs along tributary streams flowing northward through the Samba Hills into the Rio Yaqui. Our most important collections and sections were made on the Rio Cana near Caimito, the Rio Gurabo near Los Quemados, and the Rio Mao near Cercado.

While proceeding up the Rio Gurabo, Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Olsson observed a sudden change in the fauna of the bluffs near Los Quemados. They felt confident that this indicated a different formation from that further down the stream.

A careful and detailed study of the mollusca we had collected was made by the writer and the presence of two formations verified, the results being published in 1917.1 I then designated these two formations by index fossil names, calling them the Lower or Aphera islacolonis formation, and the Upper or Sconsia lævigata formation.2 This was to contrast them with the Orthaulax inornatus formation. I referred the Orthaulax formation to the

1 Bulletins American Paleontology, Nos. 29 and 30.

2 Bull. Amer. Pal., No. 30, p. 40, and Correlation Table facing p. 44.

Upper Oligocene of Tampa; the Lower or Aphera formation to the Lower Miocene; and the Upper or Sconsia formation to the Middle Miocene.

It now, however, seems desirable to apply geographical names, in conformity with modern stratigraphical nomenclature, to these formations. I therefore propose for the Upper or Sconsia lævigata formation of my 1917 report, the name Gurabo Formation. This includes primarily our Zones A to F on Rio Gurabo near Los Quemados and our Bluff 1 on Rio Mao near Cercado. For the Lower or Aphera islacolonis formation of my 1917 report I now propose the name Cercado Formation. This includes primarily our Bluffs 2 and 3 on Rio Mao near Cercado, our Zones H and I on Rio Cana near Caimito, and our Zone G on Rio Gurabo near Los Quemados. The Cercado formation also includes a set of fossils from Bulla river loaned to me for study by the American Museum of Natural History.

CARLOTTA J. MAURY

PALEONTOLOGICAL LABORATORY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

SNOW DOUGHNUTS

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: To the descriptions of snow-rollers which have appeared in recent numbers of your journal may the following be added?

During the winter of 1916-17 a heavy snow fell in Monongalia county, West Virginia, which provided for a short period an opportunity for travel in sleighs. The snow drifted to depths of several feet in places and formed along some roadside fences steepwalled drifts which were, here and there, overhanging at their tops. The writer traveled in a sleigh for several miles along the side of Chestnut Ridge, the westernmost of the Allegheny Mountain ridges in this region. The snow was at this time fresh and unpacked.

At the foot of these steep-walled drifts and also lying part way down their slopes were, in many places, numbers of small snow rings resembling doughnuts in appearance. The rings were a little slenderer than the average

doughnut and the writer's impression is that they were from two to four inches in diameter and about a half inch in thickness. Each had left behind it a track in the snow which led from the foot of the overhanging portion of the drift wall down its side into or nearly to the road. A few curved, columnar pieces of snow were also found which had fallen from the top of the drift and had rolled down the side without forming rings.

It was evident that the rings and columnar pieces had been formed from small tongues of snow which had been built out over the steep side of the drift at its top by the wind. These tongues had separated from the snow wall first at the top and had bowed themselves over until their free ends nearly or quite touched the snow at their bases with the result that they broke away and rolled down the bank.

As in the case of the attainment of large size by the "rolls" described by Karl M. Dallenbach in your issue of October 17, so in this instance the completion of the ring form was a matter of balance during the process of bending forward and rolling down since a few fragments had broken away and rolled on their sides without having attained the ring form.

While the wind seems in this case to have operated in building out the tongues of snow until they became too heavy to maintain their equilibrium it was probably not involved in the rolling process which seems to have been due altogether to gravitational attraction. W. ARMSTRONG PRICE WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA

VARIATION OF FISHES ACCORDING TO
LATITUDE

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In the number of SCIENCE for April 4, Professor Starr Jordan discusses the generalization that in certain families of fishes species living in cold waters have a large number of vertebræ, while the related ones of warm waters have a small number. He interprets this as being the result of a general phylogenetic process which is favored either in warm or in cold water,

depending upon whether the large or the small number of vertebra is considered as more primitive. He has attempted to determine which is the more primitive by investigating the ontogeny of the metameres in Sebastodes, but has failed in this, because, as seems to be generally the case, the number of metameres characteristic of the adult is attained at a very early stage.

We would refer to the fact that such variations in number of vertebræ with temperature occur within the limits of a single species, as Heincke1 has shown for Clupea harengus. Both sea-herring and coast-herring show a decrease in (1) number of vertebræ, (2) breadth of skull, (3) number of keeled scales, and (4) length of body, as one goes from the open ocean into the Baltic. We would suggest that this shows the adaptation of the large type with many vertebræ to water of great density (very saline and cold) during the critical and sensitive early stages of development, and of the small type with few vertebræ to water of low density (brackish and warm); that is, that certain characteristics connected with a large number of vertebræ make the young of the large type develop successfully in water of high density and that other characteristics connected with a small number of vertebræ make the young of the small type develop successfully in water of low density. The adults are comparatively hardy and able to seek water of suitable density. In the species Hippoglossoides platessoides, Collett has shown that northern specimens have more rays in the dorsal and anal fins than have southern specimens. We have not been able to find that the individuals of this species on this side of the Atlantic have the numbers of fin rays varying according to latitude. Nor does the variation of fin rays correspond with the temperature or density of the bottom water in which the adults live. There are however indications that it corresponds with the density of the surface water in which the

1The Natural History of the Herring," 17th Ann. Rep. Fishery Board for Scotland, 1899, p. 282.

2 "Fishes," Norweg. North-Atlant. Expedn., Zoology, Vol. III., 1880, p. 148.

eggs develop. A fruitful field for investigation is open in this direction.

A. G. HUNTSMAN

CONSTANTS AND VARIABLES IN BIOLOGY TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have read Mr. Frank J. Kelly's letter on the substitutes for the words "homozygous and heterozygous." His argument appeals to me very particularly because we are constantly confronted with variously constructed new terms to express scientific theories. It seems to me it is by far best to give a special and restricted meaning to the ordinary words of the English language as is done in mathematics.

In this science the word "constant" is used to express a stable quantity and "variable " one that is subject to change. Why could not these two terms be bodily lifted from mathematical language into biological? The second term would quite adequately cover what Mr. Kelly calls "inconstant form."

J. R. DE LA JORRE BUENO

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Animal Parasites and Human Disease. By ASA C. CHANDLER, M.S., Ph.D., Instructor in Zoology, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon. xiii +570 pages. 6X9. 254 figures. Cloth, $4.50 net.

The work aims to present the subject of parasitology and especially its relations to the problems of human disease in such form as to make it attractive to the generally educated reader, and also useful to those less technically trained persons who have reason to utilize information in this field. The author's efforts have certainly achieved a good measure of success. His style is attractive and his presentation clear and reasonably complete. The work will be used by many who would not be inclined to refer to a more extended and more critical presentation of the subject.

After an introduction, outlining the significance of the subject and a discussion of parasitism in general, the first part of the work is devoted to a consideration of protozoa. These organisms have been grouped according

to their systematic relationships. Under each heading, however, the particular organism is treated with reference to its significance in producing disease. The chapters included in this part are entitled: Introduction to Protozoa, Spirochetes, Leishman Bodies and Leishmaniasis, Trypanosomes and Sleeping Sickness, Intestinal Flagellates and Ciliates, Ameba, Malaria, Other Sporozoa, and Obscure or Invisible Parasites.

This is the largest and certainly the most valuable part of the work, for it brings together a mass of material not readily available in this form in any other work. It points out in striking fashion the significance of recent discoveries concerning protozoa and disease. On the whole the treatment is well balanced and there are no important omissions. The author has included studies of recent date and perhaps has gone to the extreme in giving a place to discoveries so recent that their significance might well be considered doubtful, even if the observed facts are conceded to be correct. As an example of this may be cited the entry, in a note at the end of the chapter on spirochetes, of a discovery of one of these organisms in the kidney in cases of typhus and the comment that certain other bodies possibly are stages in the life history of the organism. One may reasonably doubt whether such conjectures regarding a complex and difficult field are really in place in a brief discussion intended to give the general reader clear and correct views of the present status of knowledge on these questions. It is only necessary to recall the number of organisms that have been at times supposed to be causes " of certain diseases to see the questionable advisability of listing such suggestions before they have been thoroughly tested by other investigators.

Part II. on the Worms can not be regarded as equally successful. The chapters included in this part are entitled: Introduction to the "Worms," The Flukes, The Tapeworms, Hookworms, Other Intestinal Roundworms, Trichina Worms, Filiariæ and Their Allies, Leeches.

The material called for here is really better

worked up and better known and yet its presentation in this work leaves much to be desired. The author's discussion of the zoological significance of the term "Worms" is hardly on a level scientifically speaking with the work in other sections of the book. Furthermore it has no particular place in a treatise of this character where the parasitic organisms related to human diseases are the only ones under consideration. These are easily classified in certain generally recognized branches or subdivisions of other rank; they can be reasonably clearly defined without a discussion or even mention of those groups of uncertain relationships that make the subdivision of "worms 29 so difficult to handle. The introduction of this material serves also to confuse the student of health problems for it can hardly be intelligently handled by any one without considerable technical training in zoology. The general discussion of the significance of the parasites in this group is clearly inferior to that which has been printed in recent works like Braun or Fantham, Stephens and Theobald. The treatment of the separate subdivisions of this topic, while interesting and fairly complete, has not reached the standard set by the author in the first section of the work.

Part III. of the book is devoted to the

Arthropods. After an introduction covering general features chapters are devoted to mites, ticks, bedbugs and their allies, lice, fleas, mosquitos and other blood-sucking flies, fly maggots and myiasis. The importance of these forms as agents in the transmission of diseases and their relations to specific maladies are clearly presented. The work will be a most convenient compendium despite the appearance of several recent more comprehensive works on medical entomology that cover in fact the same field as this section of Dr. Chandler's book.

It is difficult to agree with the author in his total elimination of references to those investigators who are responsible for the work outlined in the various parts of his book. While it may be true that extended references to original sources are out of place in so brief

a presentation as his, yet it does injustice to the student if to no one else, that the author should present even a brief statement of the problem without any indication of the place in which the student interested can follow up the subject. I should not neglect to state that the author has included at the close of his book six pages of general references under the heading "Sources of Information." The list is very short and by virtue of the contractions employed might be difficult for some persons to use, while at the same time it is certainly unattractive in appearance on that account. Furthermore, there is no indication whatever of the significance of individual items beyond that contained in a very general subheading. In the opinion of the reviewer such a list is of very little use to the general student, and the same amount of space devoted to a citation of the major sources of information would have been of real value if the items had in one way or another been brought into definite connection with the specific discussions of the text.

The author's figures are not always particularly happy and some of them, such as Figs. 13 and 109, are little more than caricatures. It is difficult to believe that as good a scientific investigator as Dr. Chandler should have prepared a drawing like that represented in Fig. 120, where the size of the young trichinæ in the muscle fibers is apparently radically unlike the conditions as reported by many competent observers. Some of these little defects may be due to the rapidity with which the work was prepared. It is to be hoped that they can be corrected in a later edition. Many persons will find the book both interesting and useful, for it covers the field in a way not otherwise

Nashville, Tenn., President L. C. Glenn presiding. The program of papers was as follows:

Memorial sketches of Dr. Brown Ayres and Professor Samuel M. Bain, by Dr. C. H. Gordon. Annual address of the president, "Geography of the North Carolina-Tennessee boundary line, by Dr. L. C. Glenn.

"Recent oil and gas development work in Tennessee," by Wilbur A. Nelson.

"Luck, by Dr. F. B. Dresslar.

"The elimination of errors in a mental maze,” by Professor Joseph Peterson.

"Archeology: new discoveries in the middle south," by W. E. Myer.

"Notes on the early history of the development of the mineral kingdom," by A. W. Evans.

"The feeding of the American army and some civilian applications," by Dr. Lucius P. Brown. "Some entomological problems, "" by A. C.

Morgan. "Remarks on the orthoptera of Clarksville, Tenn.," by Henry Fox.

At the conclusion of the president's address a committee was appointed to recommend to the academy at its next meeting the adoption of a general name for the mountains of the Tennessee-North Carolina boundary line, taking into consideration all the different names that have been used and selecting the most authentic. This committee consists of Professor A. E. Parkins, of the department of geography, Peabody College; Dr. C. H. Gordon, of the department of geology, University of Tennessee, and Mr. Wilbur A. Nelson, state geologist of Tennessee.

The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows: President, Dr. L. C. Glenn, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.; Vice-president, Miss Jeanette M. King, Middle Tennessee State Normal School, Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Editor, Dr. C. H. Gordon, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.; Secretary-Treasurer, Roscoe Nunn, U. S. Weather Bureau office, Nashville, Tenn.

ROSCOE NUNN, Secretary

THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

VI

ORGANIC DIVISION

Lauder W. Jones, Chairman

H. L. Fisher, Secretary

Cymene as a solvent: A. S. WHEELER.

The action of basic reagents on certain Schiff's bases: A. S. WHEELER AND S. C. SMITH.

Structural problems of the aniline derivatives of citric acid: J. R. BAILEY AND E. B. BROWN.

The anilanilde isomeric with III. can be made from citranilic acid I. The proof of structure of the two aniline derivatives of citric, II., and III., is typical of the theoretical deductions to be made concerning a number of correlated substances, the structures of which prior to the investigation of Bailey and Brown were in doubt. The detailed results of this work, when completed, will be submitted to the Journal of the American Chemical Society for publication.

The synthesis of capric acid: G. D. BEAL And J. B. BROWN.

The action of phosphorus trichloride on ketones and aldehydes: JAMES B. Conant and A. D. MACDONALD.

Condensation of acetylene with benzene and its derivatives in the presence of aluminum chloride: OTTO W. COOK AND VICTOR J. CHAMBERS. Benzene, in addition to sym. diphenylethane and traces

1 Ann., 82, 92 (1852). 2 Ann., 82, 87 (1852).