1889.] MICK0SC0P1CAL JOURNAL. 157 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES.* 



Electric Light in Marine Collecting. — The Liverpool Marine 

 Biology Committee, during the month of April last, repeated the experi- 

 ments of last year, with some variations, to determine the effect of a 

 powerful electric light upon the animals that are taken by various forms 

 of collecting apparatus. After dark two arc lights of 2000 candle power 

 each were suspended over the deck of the steamer used by the Com- 

 mittee and incandescent lights of 50 candle power were fastened in the 

 mouths of the nets that were to be used for collection below the surface. 

 Both the surface and deeper collections showed a much larger propor- 

 tion of crustaceans than in collections made in the same place the pre- 

 vious day. Cumacea were particularly abundant in these collections, 

 though almost entirely wanting in collections made during the day. 

 The reports do not state whether or not collections were made at similar 

 times without the electric lights. 



Experiment Station Work. — The A?nerican Naturalist for 

 March contains a summary of recent reports of the various experiment 

 stations as regards botanical investigations. We give those of special 

 interest to our readers, and the station and number of the bulletin in 

 which they are found : 



" The Structure of the Potato Tuber," Indiana, No. 15 (Prof. J. C. 

 Arthur) . 



" A Popular Account, of the Organs for the Fertilization of Plants, 

 with Special Reference to the Artificial Pollination of Cultivated 

 Plants," Minnesota, July, 188S. 



" Fungi which Kill Insects," Minnesota, No. 4 (Otto Lugger). 



" Chinch-bug Diseases {Empusa sp. and Micrococcus insectorum) ," 

 Iowa, November (C. P. Gillette). 



"Some Injurious Fungi" (Apple Blight, Potato Rot, Grape Rot, 

 and Ergot), do. (Mr. Crozier). 



" Club Root," from Worthington Smith's " Diseases of Field and 

 Garden Crops," and 



" Sorghum Blight" {Bacilhis sorghi, Burrill), Kansas, December 

 (Kulst) . 



" Frosted and Rusted Wheat," Minnesota, January (Otto I. Lugger). 



" Spotting of Peaches" ( Cladosporiuni carpophiluin^ Thuem) and 

 cucumbers {Cladosporium cucumerin?,im,¥,. & A.) , Indiana, January 

 (Prof. J. C. Arthur). 



o 



A Plea for Candor. — The discussions which are going on among 

 medical practitioners, regarding the cause of contagious diseases, is even 

 now interesting, and will form one of the curious chapters in the history 

 of the progress of biological knowledge, to which scientific men of the 

 next decade will turn with amusement. The spirit of the discussion 

 even now has a savor of the past. Why should a new theory of the 

 cause of any great evil or calamity be presented or rejected in a spirit 

 of pugilism? If facts well known and thoroughly established by num- 

 erous and crucial experiments lead those men who are conversant with 

 the rapid progress of biological knowledge to suppose that a much 



*This department is conducted by Prof. J. H. Pillsbury. 



