242 GENETICS [Bot. Absts., Vol. VI, 



degrees of intergrading, which revealed all conceivable intermediate stages with maleness 

 and femaleness blended and not in sexual mosaics as in gynandromorphs, and showed that the 

 degree of maleness in different parts of a single individual varied; (2) selection within inter- 

 grade stocks descended from one original mother toward pure femaleness, which has given 

 results in direction of selection. Banta has continued comparative studies on cave animals 

 raised in light and epigaeal animals raised under cave conditions. C. C. Little, using records 

 of Sloane Maternity Hospital of New York, found ratio of male to female birth from parents 

 of same race to be 106.27, while in "hybrid" matings this ratio was 121.56; it would seem 

 from this that male-producing sperms are less likely to be eliminated. Little has also reviewed 

 literature on cats, doves, and canaries to see how completely facts of inheritance agree with 

 general crossing-over and non-disjunction hypotheses. With Miss E. E. Jones he has 

 studied heredity of color in dogs, basing conclusions on stud books of American Kennel 

 Club; three double allelomorphic and one triple allelomorphic series have been found. Ge- 

 netical experiments have been pursued also on sheep, mice, and poultry. Oscar Riddle, with 

 collaborators, has completed demonstration of nitrogen reduction in eggs accompanying qui- 

 nine dosage, and of fact that brains of ataxic birds lack chemical differentiation. Of work 

 of Eugenics Record Office reference is made to H. J. Banker's studies; to C. B. Davenport's 

 studies of statistics on drafted men for Surgeon General's Office, Washington; to Davenport 

 and Scudder's contribution on naval officers, which showed that hereditary traits — i.e., 

 hyperkinesis, thalassophilia, and nomadism — determined superiority; and to Miss M. M. 

 Sturges's investigation of isolated inbred communities. H. H. Laughlin has prepared a 

 work on eugenical sterilization in the United States, and has made statistical inquiries on 

 elimination of mongrel blood in pure-sire system of out-breeding. Much eugenical material 

 has been added to archives during the year. — James P. Kelly. 



1658. Davenport, C. B. Hereditary tendency to form nerve tumors. Proc. Nation. 

 Acad. Sci. 4: 213-214. Aug., 1918. — Multiple neurofibromatosis, a condition due mostly to 

 the proliferation of connective tissue in nerve sheaths, shows a strongly familial tendency. 

 It is not limited to either sex and is generally transmitted after the fashion of a Mendelian 

 dominant. In a few instances a generation has been skipped, but these occurrences are 

 probably to be explained on the basis of an occasional failure of dominance. The symptoms 

 of the disease are diverse, but within a given family they are generally rather uniform. The 

 fact that these neurofibromata are hereditary tends to strengthen the view that cancers in 

 general have an hereditary basis. — C. H. Danforth. 



1659. Duarte d'Oliveira, Jose. Sur la transmission de la fasciation et de la dichotomic 

 a la suite de la greffe de deux vignes portugaises. [The transmission of fasciation and dichoto- 

 mous branching through the grafting of two Portuguese varieties of grapes.] Compt. Rend. 

 Acad. Sci. Paris 170: 615-616. 1920.— See Bot. Absts. 6, Entry 1151. 



1660. Duerden, J. E. Inheritance of callosities in the ostrich. Amer. Nat. 54: 289-312. 

 7 fig. July-Aug., 1920. — Author describes several callosities appearing regularly on body of 

 the ostrich, distinguishing three classes: (1) those inherited (because constantly present be- 

 fore hatching), and functioning under certain circumstances as cushions bearing the weight of 

 the bird, or as friction pads; (2) those inherited, but not now functioning; and (3) those which 

 are direct individual responses of the skin to contact, involving pressure and friction, with 

 hard substances. Callosities of latter class may be developed on the skin of other parts of 

 body, and presumably on any part. Callosities of all three classes are similar in structure. 

 The author suggests that those of classes 1 and 2 originally arose as adaptive responses, 

 which have since become transmissible. Those of class 2 are no longer used, owing to certain 

 structural changes in body. Those of class 3, necessitated by same structural changes, have 

 :is yet not become heritable. He states that "a character may become transmissible without 

 necessarily being germinal, in the sense of having factorial representation in the germ plasm;" 

 and that "acquired characters are such somatic modifications as are produced as responses 

 of the organs and tissues to stimuli, and are without direct representation in the genu plasm." 

 — William A.I 



