88 



The Journal of Heredity 



the affected parts less different than 

 they previously were, though such 

 changes may give increased utility to 

 particular organs, and thus increase 

 the efficiency of the organism. With 

 such variations occurring rather fre- 

 quently, it may be considered that the 

 adaptive possibilities of the different 

 combinations of characters are being 

 tested automatically in relation to the 

 environment, and that under natural 

 conditions the species has the benefit 

 of any desirable modifications that 

 arise. The liability to metaphanic 

 variations enables the species to con- 

 duct, as it w^ere, a continual trying-out 

 of adaptive possibilities, not only of 

 all of the existing characters, but of 

 all of the stages and degrees of char- 

 acter-combinations. 



For purposes of evolutionary study, 

 two kinds of metaphanic characters or 



expression relations may be recognized, 

 those that may be considered as more 

 primitive, or in the nature or rever- 

 sions to earlier stages of development 

 when structures were less specialized, 

 and those that may be considered as 

 recent stages or of possible signifi- 

 cance in future evolution, if successful 

 combinations are made of characters 

 not previously associated. While the 

 intermediate or bud-scale leaves of the 

 walnuts and hickories must be con- 

 sidered as reversions to more primitive 

 forms, an advance appears to have 

 been made in building up the compound 

 leaves, by a jointed structure like the 

 stems developing in the leaves and 

 branches. It is desirable to have a 

 general name for the intermediate vari- 

 ations while the evolutionary status of 

 such characters is being determined. 



Meeting of the Eugenics Research Association 



The program committee of the Eu- 

 genics Research Association has set 

 Saturday, June 16 as the date for the 

 annual meeting this year. As usual, 

 it will be held at the Eugenics Record 

 Office, Cold Spring Harbor, Long 

 Island, N. Y. 



Judge Harry Olson, of Chicago, will 

 deliver the presidential address on 

 "Crime and Heredity." 



It is announced that "the 1923 

 meeting will have to decide several 

 important matters of policy, such as 

 that of incorporation, of planning de- 



finite scientific investigations, and the 

 cooperative division of the field logical- 

 ly covered by eugenics societies, with 

 particular reference to research, on the 

 one hand, and education on the other." 

 The executive committee announces 

 that on February 10 it "voted a small 

 stipend to Dr. Harrison R. Hunt to 

 aid in his studies on 'War and Eu- 

 genics.' This marks the first official 

 appropriation for specific research made 

 directly from the treasury of the 

 society." 



