112 Journal of the Mitchell Society [December 



believer in that method of instruction which constantly calls for the 

 working of "originals", and this brochure should prove especially help- 

 ful and inspiring to both teacher and student in pursuing this plan. 



Wm. Cain 



The following three abstracts were pubhshed in the University of 

 North Carolina Record No. 179, Graduate School Series No. 2, August 

 1920. 



In Regard to Species and Sponges. By H. V. Wilson. The Scien- 

 tific Monthly, October, 1919. 



A comparative study of sponge species indicates that hereditary 

 characters are independently subject to variation such that in respect 

 to any one of them individuals and races occur which form close series 

 between far distant extremes. Such series are doubtless in many 

 cases phylogenetic ones in which the terms bear to one another the re- 

 lation of ancestral species and descendant. In other cases it would 

 seem that the terms of the series represent only different degrees in the 

 environmental stimuli which related protoplasms have made inde- 

 pendently of one another. 



It is recognized that the gene theory which assumes the existence 

 in the germ cell of minute units, representative of the hereditary char- 

 acters, is applicable to the facts stated above, as well as to the facts of 

 Mendelian inheritance in particular, if only we assume enough units 

 in the germ cell. In thus extending the theory to cover all forms of 

 heritable differences between organisms, it may be questioned whether 

 it retains any practical (pragmatic) value. Nevertheless it would 

 seem that symbolism of this sort does contribute to precision of think- 

 ing, if it be recognized for what it is, viz., conceptual symbohsm. 



It is called to mind that many today would remove the gene from 

 the conceptual world and give it a perceptible body, that is, they would 

 identify it with a chromatin granule. The known facts however do 

 not necessitate, according to some even contradict, this view as to the 

 nature of chromatin and chromosomes. 



Sponges ofBeaufort(N.C.) Harbor AND Vicinity. By W. C. George 

 and H. V. Wilson. Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, XXXVI, 

 Document 876. 1919. (Body of the paper accepted as a thesis for 

 the Ph. D. degree awarded to W. C. George, 1918). 



The paper includes a description of sponges present and in any de- 



