JUNE 17, 1915] 
NATURE 
443 

is reached. The process of tempering and annealing 
steel is exothermic, and conversely hardening is an 
endothermic process. 
Dr. M. H. Jacobs: ‘‘ Heredity in Protozoa.” 
In the higher animals, characters are not for the 
most part directly transmitted from one generation 
to the next, but develop anew in each generation from 
the germ-plasm. In the protozoa, on the other hand, 
‘there is a mixture of direct transmission and new 
development that has interesting consequences in the 
ease of the inheritance of newly-acquired characters. 
In this connection a race of Paramecium with three 
contractile vacuoles instead of the usual number of 
two is discussed, and the means described by which 
the unusual number is kept from disappearing. The 
factors concerned seem to be: (a) direct transmission 
of the extra vacuole; (b) a tendency to adhere to 
ancestral racial traits; and (c) a new tendency of the 
protoplasm to produce extra vacuoles. 
Prof. G. H. Parker, Harvard University: ‘‘ The 
Problem of Adaptation as Illustrated by the Fur Seals 
of the Pribilof Islands.” 
The Alaskan fur-seal is a pelagic animal that breeds 
in summer on the Pribilof Islands, Behring Sea. 
About equal numbers of males and females are born. 
At the breeding age one male, the bull, becomes 
associated with a number of females, the cows, thus 
constituting a harem. A harem may contain as many 
as 120 cows and probably averages about thirty. As 
a result of this disproportionate relationship as com- 
pared with the proportion of the sexes at birth, there 
are to be found at most breeding grounds many 
so-called idle bulls. These are a measure of the in- 
efficiency of organic adaptation. Contrary to the 
opinion held by many biologists, adaptation is not 
always a relation of great exactitude, but is often, to 
use the words of Bateson, a poor fit. 
Dr. George H. Shull: ‘ Heterosis and the Effects 
of In-breeding.” 
Physiological processes are stimulated and rate of 
growth and total amount of growth increased through 
the union of gametes having unlike constitution. This 
physiological effect of the differences in uniting 
gametes is heterosis. In-breeding lessens heterosis by 
gradually lessening the differences between the uniting 
gametes. The application of this principle to some 
of the problems of practical breeding is discussed. 
Prof. Bradley M. Davis, University of Pennsylvania : 
“‘The Significance of Sterility in Génothera.’” 
Studies on the seed, ovule and pollen sterility in 
CEnothera show that there are species with a high 
degree of fertility and species in which fertility is 
low, also that hybrids may exhibit a wide range in 
comparative fertility. These conditions suggest the 
possibility that hybrids may at times continue in- 
definitely as impure, or heterozygous, species through 
a failure to produce homozygous zygotes, or through 
the mortality of zygotes having homozygous consti- 
tutions. C&nothera lamarckiana is a form with low 
seed fertility and a high degree of pollen and ovule 
sterility and may be representative of an impure 
species, hybrid in character, which for the most part 
breeds true, but occasionally and repeatedly produces 
other types, the so-calied mutants. In genetical work 
with Génotheras a method of germinating seeds must 
be employed which will give trustworthy proof that 
a culture has produced all the seedlings possible 
from a sowing of seed-like structures. 
Dr. George F. Atkinson: ‘‘ Morphology 
Development of Agaricus rodmani. 
Agaricus. rodmani, which is closely related to the 
cultivated mushroom, Agaricus campestris, has a 
thick, double annulus, divided into an upper and 
NO. 2381, VOL. 95] 
and 


lower limb by a broad, marginal groove nearly reach- 
ing the stem. This annulus, especially the lower 
limb, has suggested a resemblance to the volva of the 
Amanitas. While it arises from the surface of the 
pileus margin, and is composed to some extent of a 
portion of the blematogen, it is not strictly com- 
parable to the volva, since the blematogen in the 
species of Amanita thus far studied is separated from 
the pileus by a distant cleavage layer, while in 
Agaricus it remains ‘‘concrete’’ with the pileus. The 
pileus and stem fundaments are differentiated by the 
appearance of an internal, narrow zone of young, 
slender hyphz, rich in protoplasm, the primordium of 
the hymenophore and pileus margin. These hyphee 
are directed obliquely downward. The rapid increase 
in the elements of this primordium produces a tension 
on the ground tissue below it, which now lags behind 
in growth, so that it is torn apart, forming an annular 
cavity in the angle between the stem and pileus. The 
pileus margin and the hymenophore primordium in- 
crease in a centrifugal direction. The palisade stage 
of the hymenophore begins next the stem. In certain 
individuals it also extends partly down on the stem. 
The hymenophore primordium consists of a zone of 
parallel, slender hyphae, the ends of which are not 
crowded. The transition to the palisade stage occurs 
by the increase in number of these hyphe and the 
broadening of their free ends. The lamellz originate 
as radial, downward-growing salients of the palisade 
zone, beginning next the stem, in some individuals 
also arising on the upper part of the stem. Since 
the growth and increase of these parts of the hymeno- 
phore, as well as that of the pileus margin, is centri- 
fugal, all stages of the young hymenophore are there- 
fore found in a single individual during an inter- 
mediate stage of its development, the zone of gill 
salients next the stem, followed by the palisade zone, 
and outside of this the primordial zone. 
E. Plaut and M. T. Bogert: “Syringic Acid and 
its Derivatives.” 
In the bark and leaves of the lilac (Syringa vul- 
garis), and in the bark of the privet (Ligustrum vul- 
gare), there occurs a substance which has been called 
“syringin,” ‘‘lilacin,” or “ligustrin.”” When this sub- 
stance is oxidised with potassium permanganate, it 
yields glucosyringic acid, and this latter is easily 
saponified to dextrose and syringic acid. The authors 
obtained their syringic acid by treating trimethyl 
gallic.acid with fuming sulphuric acid, and have pre- 
pared therefrom and studied a number of new deriva- 
tives, among them being bromo-, nitro-, amino-, and 
hydroxy-syringic acids, esters, acetyl derivatives, and 
ortho-condensation products. 
Prof. C. Baskerville. ‘‘The Rate of Evaporation of 
Ether from Oils and its Application in Oil-Ether 
Colonic Anzesthesia.” 
The rate of evaporation of oil-ether mixtures con- 
taining 25, 50, and 75 per cent. of the latter was 
determined at the temperature of the body. The oils 
used were olive, peanut, corn, cottonseed, soya bean, 
cod liver, and lanolin. The speed at which the ether 
evaporated from the 75 per cent. mixture was found 
clinically to be the best for introducing and maintain- 
ing anesthesia in the human body by insertion in 
the colon. The technique is indicated for operations 
about the head, mouth, and the buccal cavity. Re- 
cords are given of more than a thousand cases with 
different operators without a single case of post- 
anzesthesia pneumonia and with nausea reduced to the 
minimum. 
Prof. Douglas W. Johnson, Columbia University : 
‘““Physiographic Features as a Factor in the European 
War.” 
