1919] ANIMAL rRODUCTION. 267 



Is vitamin identical with secretin V B. C. P. Janben {Medcd. Gcneesk. Lab. 

 Meltevrcden [Dutch East Indies^, 3. Ser. A, No. 1-2 (1918), pp. 09-104).— To 

 determine whetlier the water-soUible vitamin is of the nature of secretin, 

 its stimulating effect upon the secretion of pancreatic juice of dogs was 

 tested by the temporary fistula method. While repeated secretin injections 

 caused repeated secretion of the juice the vitamin, in the form of a water 

 solution of an alcoholic extract of rice bran, had no perceptible effect. Tin; 

 conclusion is therefore drawn that the water-soluble vitamin is not identical 

 with secretin. 



The presence of calcium in the red blood corpuscles of ox and man, D. M. 

 CowiE and H. A, Calhoun (Jour. Biol. Chem., 37 (1919), No. 4, pp. 505-509).— 

 By the use, with slight modifications, of the Lyman method for the deter- 

 mination of calcium in blood (K. S. R., 37, p. 207), the red blood corpuscles 

 of men and of oxen were found to contain calcium, but in somewhat smaller 

 concentration than the serum. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



Scientific principles applied to breeding, S. Wright (Breeder's Gaz., 15 

 (1919), No. 8, pp. 401, 402). — The importance of the more modern concepts 

 of heredity in clearing away mystical beliefs and their service in interpret- 

 ing the complicated facts of animal improvement are briefly set forth in this 

 paper, and a modest claim made for genetics as a useful guide in modifying 

 current practices. A short statement is presented of some results of the 

 inbreeding experiments of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture -which are now being conducted by the aiilhor. 

 In these experiments, which involve over 26.000 guinea iiigs, a number of 

 families have been maintained for 19 generations without any very obvious 

 degeneration. 



"There has been, however, some decline in constitutional vigor, size, and 

 especially fertility. On crossing together inbred families there is marked 

 improvement in all respects, suggesting that the different families have 

 usually deteriorated for different reasons, [thus] enabling each i^arent in 

 a cross to supply most of what the other lacks. The detailed study of the 

 separate families bears out this view. Marked hereditary differences in 

 average vitality, size, fertility, and the like are in fact characteristic of the 

 different families. It is nlso found that vigor in one respect is as likely as 

 not to be associated with weakness in another. Again, certain families 

 remained practically constant in average vigor throxighout the experiment, 

 while others degenerated so rapidly in one or more respects that they became 

 extinct in spite of all efforts to keep them going." 



Applications of mathematics to breeding problems, II, R. B. Roubins 

 (Ge)wtics, 3 (1918), No. 1, pp. 73-92).— Continuing his studies (B. S. R., 38, 

 p. 367) of the theoretical distribution of Mendelian characters in succes.sive 

 generations of an ideal population, the author in the first section of the pres- 

 ent paper investigates a single sex-linked character luider (1) random mating, 

 (2) assortative mating, (3) brother and sister mating, both at random and as- 

 sortative, and (4) parent and offspring mating. In the second section he deals 

 with a single typical factor when offspring are systematically bred back to their 

 parents. A lai'ge number of algebraic formulas are developed to express the 

 theoretical conditions in any generation. The results are mainly generaliza- 

 tions of special cases discussed by Jennings (E. S. R., 34, p. 764). 



Some applications of mathematics to breeding problems. III, R. B. Rob- 

 BiNs (Genetics, 3 (1918), No. 4, pp. 375-389 ) .—Extending the investigations 



