368 EXPEEIMENT STATION KECOKD. 



(6) a cage of perforated zinc which can be drawn in and out of the flask; (7) 

 tubes for an air supply to the inside." 



In operating this calorimeter the temperatures of the water are taken by 

 means of the thermocouple just at its entrance and exit. The observed differ- 

 ence in temperature multiplied by the quantity of water flow per minute gives 

 the heat in calories. The Dewar flask used as a calorimeter chamber is 

 mounted in a box of sawdust, and the water used to take up the heat gen- 

 erated passes around a lead coil outside the flask before passing around the 

 coil inside the flask. " Thus the outside is kept permanently at the tempera- 

 ture of the water which goes in, and it is then found that by this differential 

 arrangement the heat loss is proportional to the actual galvanometer deflec- 

 tion; for 1° C. registered by the galvanometer there is a loss of some 2.9 cal- 

 ories per 1 minute." 



Electrical check tests show a very close agreement between the calculated 

 and observed heat production. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



General review of zoology, I. M. Caullery (Ret\ Gen. 8ci., 23 (1912), Nos. 

 9, pp. 353-359; 10, pp. 395-402). — This is a review of the literature published 

 in 1910 and 1911 on heredity, variation, evolution, Mendelism, predetermina- 

 tion of sex, and related topics. 



The mechanistic conception of life, J. Loeb (Pop. Sci Mo., 80 (1912), No. 1, 

 pp. 5-21). — It is pointed out that the controversy between the vitalists and 

 mechanists is of little importance as regards the progress of biology, but is of 

 vital interest when the results of biological studies are aiTiilied to ethical and 

 sociological problems. , Recent work has shown that the activation of the egg 

 by the spermatozoa is a chemico-physical process; that individual life begins 

 with the ncceleration of the oxidation in the egg, and is not determined by the 

 entrance of a metaphysical life principle; and that the study of heredity is 

 to-day the study of an exact science, and "not merely the field of the meta- 

 physician and rhetorician. 



■ These results have been obtained by physico-chemical research, and are 

 cited in support of the mechanistic conception of life, which the author states 

 is the only one compatible with ethics because instincts are based on chemical 

 mechanism. 



The comparative physiology of response in animals, J von TJEXKtJLt 

 (Umwelt und Innemvelt der Tiere. Berlin, 1909, pp. 259; rev. in Science, n. 

 ser., 31 (1910), No. 791, pp. 303-305; Nature [London], 83 (1910), No. 2116, pp. 

 331, 332). — ^A summary of studies on the relation of the organism to its en- 

 vironment, which is of interest to the physiologist and psychologist. The topics 

 discussed are the nature of protoplasm, the conversion and differentiation of 

 fluids into organs, and the comparative physiology of refluxes in the lower 

 animals. 



The behavior of chicken sarcoma implanted in the developing embryo, 

 J. B. Mtjephy and P. Rors (Jour. Expt. Med., 15 (1912). No. 2, pp. 119-132, 

 pis. 6). — ^Among the conclusions reached are the following: "The direct 

 inoculation of a sarcoma of the fowl into the developing chick embryo or its 

 membranes has yielded growths in many cases. The best results have been 

 obtained with grafts of the living tumor tissue, but, as in the adult, growths 

 can be engendered with dried tissue or with the Berkefeld filtrate of a tumor 

 extract. When living tumor tissue is used, an actual transplantation occurs 

 . . . Relatively speaking, the embryo seems much more favorable than the 

 adult as a host for the sarcoma." 



