September 15, 1910] 



NATURE 



quality of the research which has issued from it, is the 

 second and purely scientilic one. I never maintained that 

 Wood's Hole was the sole station in the States, but the 

 number of stations there is far less in proportion to the 

 number of universities than it is in this country. Prof. 

 Loeb and the senior Chicago students for years spent 

 every summer in Wood's Hole, although Chicago and 

 Wood's Hole are looo miles distant, a striking commentary 

 on Prof. Herdnian's complaint of the distance of Plymouth 

 as a bar to its usefulness to Liverpool students. 



One word, finally, as to the Canadian stations. Prof. 

 Herdman states that when he left Quebec last October 

 there were three stations, not one as 1 had led readers of 

 N.-iTUUE to suppose. As for ten years I was a member of 

 the board under whose charge these three stations were 

 placed, I can claim to know something about them, and 

 I reiterate my statement that there is only one properly 

 equipped station in Canada, which is situated in Si. 

 Andrew's, New Brunswick, and which was constructed 

 in 1907 as the successor to a movable station which for 

 seven years had been moved from place to place in eastern 

 Canadian waters. Of the other two stations, one is 

 situated on Lake Huron, and is very insufficiently equipped, 

 and no work of any consequence has as yet been done 

 there. The third is on Vancouver Island, and when last 

 X heard of it (in the spring of 1909) it consisted of a 

 wooden shanty, a boat, and one local naturalist, but all 

 three stations were supervised by one board, an ideal far, 

 as vet, from attainment in Great Britain. 



E. W. MacBkide. 



The Origin of the Domestic "Blotched" Taboy Cat. 



SiNXE writing my previous letter I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing Mr. Pocock, and was glad to hear that 

 he himself had brought the question of the origin of our 

 ■domestic cats before the Mendelians. 



Mr. Pocock has also brought to my notice an instance 

 i]i which complete segregation has taken place in the first 

 feneration in the case of a cross between the Nubian 

 donkey {Equus asinus) and the dziggetai (E. hemionus), in 

 ivhich the offspring was praclically indistinguishable from 

 the African species, with this exception, that the dorsal 

 stripe was rather broader. There seems to be a general 

 tendency for ass hybrids to resemble one parent more 

 closely than the other. Curiously enough, I have myself 

 since come across another such instance in the Chrysomelid 

 genus Leptinotarsa. 



Mr. W. L. Tower (Biol. Bull., Wood's Hole, xviii., 

 1910, p. 296, PI. iv.), in experimenting with L. undecem- 

 JineataxL. signaticollis, discovered that under certain 

 conditions of temperature the individuals produced in the 

 first generation were indistinguishable from the female 

 parent, and, what is stranger still, when interbred con- 

 tinued to produce this type for six generations ! Different 

 conditions of temperature gave different results ; for 

 instance, one experiment involving the same parentage gave 

 " a single class of adults intermediate between the two 

 parents, a mid-type." No consistency of gametic behaviour 

 is here observable as is the case with our domestic cats, 

 except in so far that certain conditions of temperature are 

 always associated with one particular result. 



Previous discussion on the origin of our domestic cats 

 has certainly been concerned more with the sylvestris type, 

 and the present interest in the catus type is entirely the 

 result of Mr. Pocock's work in this direction ; at the same 

 time, the same writer says (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1907, p. 

 146), " of ' tabby ' cats, as fanciers well know, there are 

 two kinds." From the first I have appreciated the differ- 

 ence between dimorphism of colour and pattern, and the 

 case of the leopard was brought forward as comparable 

 " in its gametic behaviour " to the case of the " blotched " 

 and " striped " tabby, though I freely admit this may not 

 have been very clearly expressed in my letter. 



The question of greater variation under domestication 

 than in a state of nature rests more on botanical than on 

 zoological evidence ; I do not, however, push the inference 

 further than being of some conditional value. Conserva- 

 tion of type is, however, an important factor in nature. 

 We must, I think, for the p1-esent concur with Mr. Pocock 

 in having an open mind and preserving an agnostic 

 attitude on this subject. H. M. ViCKERs. 



81A Princes Street, Edinburgh, September 10. 

 NO. 2133, VOL. 84] 



THE REFORM OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY. 



I N the course of last year, Lord Curzon, as Chan- 

 ^ cellor of the University of Oxford, published a 

 weighty memorandum on the "Principles and Methods 

 of University Reform." The various proposals 

 therein contained have formed the subject of exhaus- 

 tive deliberations by the Hebdomadal Council, some 

 of the results of which have been from time to time 

 made public in the Oxford University Gazette. The 

 committees entrusted by Council with the task of con- 

 sidering in detail the measures of constitutional and 

 administrative reform suggested by the Chancellor's 

 memorandum have in nearly ever}' instance presented 

 their report ; and these reports, having been fully 

 discussed, and accepted, with modifications, bv Council, 

 are now published in a volume which has lately been 

 distributed to all members of the Congregation of the 

 University.' 



The conclusions arrived at by Council, which now 

 await the verdict of the larger legislative bodies. 

 Congregation and Convocation, are summarised by 

 the Chancellor in an ably written introduction, 

 couched in moderate and statesmanlike language. The 

 changes advocated, though not revolutionary, are far- 

 reaching in character, and bear evidence of very care- 

 ful consideration of all the various interests and 

 conditions involved. The first matter dealt with is the 

 constitution of the University. On this head it is pro- 

 posed to abolish the arrangement by which Council, 

 the bodv which has the sole power of initiating legis- 

 lation, is composed, as to its elected members, of 

 heads, professors, and members of Convocation in 

 equal proportions. The election is in future to be 

 thrown open without distinction of "orders." Con- 

 gregation is to be made more completely representa- 

 tive of the teaching and administrative elements in 

 the University and colleges by the doing away with 

 the qualification of mere residence. Convocation, the 

 ultimate legislative authority, is to remain, as at 

 present, the general assembly of all members of the 

 Universitv who have taken the M.A. degree and re- 

 tained their names upon the books. The powers of 

 Convocation are to be in some respects restricted, but 

 it is provided that fuller opportunities of exercising the 

 franchise shall be accorded than at present exist. 



An important series of proposals, which have been 

 embodied in a draft statute, relates to the reconstitu- 

 tion of the existing faculties and the creation of a 

 general board of faculties which shall relieve Council 

 of much of its present business with regard to 

 examinations, and shall control the administration of 

 the Common University Fund at present managed by 

 a special delegacy. The changes suggested under 

 this head, if carried out, will have the effect of limit- 

 ing to some extent the independent action of the 

 colleges, and of putting greater power, under the 

 general supervision of the LTniversity itself, into the 

 hands of the whole body of teachers in a given sub- 

 ject. It is a serious attempt towards improved co- 

 ordination. 



.\ measure which is likely to be discussed with 

 much keenness, and to meet in some particulars with 

 vigorous opposition, is the suggested establishment of 

 an entrance examination to be passed before coming 

 into residence; with which provision there is linked an 

 assertion of the principle that Greek should no longer 

 be required as a necessary subject for a degree in 

 arts. It -is perhaps not generally realised that 

 although each college exacts its own requirements, 

 differing in different cases, there exists at present 



1 Principles and Melhods of University Reform. Report of the 

 Hfbdom.id.-il Council, with an introduction submitted on behalf of the 

 Council by Lord Curzon of Kcdleston, Chancellor of the University. 

 Pp. xli+98. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, igro.) 



