368 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 768 



the matter — it is, as we have already seen, utter 

 emptiness and instability besides.* 



Thus supplementing the Report of the Evo- 

 lution Committee of the Royal Society with 

 Hegel's " Doctrine of Being," it becomes clear 

 at once why biology has so long failed to 

 recognize that rose-comb is single comb plus 

 " roseness." It is because " opinion, with its 

 usual want of thought " has failed to perceive 

 that ordinary comb (an instance of "mere 

 being ") is " utter emptiness and instability." 



So logic scores again! 



W. E. RiTTER 



La Jolla, California, 

 August 11, 1909 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 PAPERS FROM THE TORTUGAS LABORATORY 



The Carnegie Institution supports three 

 laboratories devoted to biological research, the 

 Desert Laboratory in Arizona, the Station for 

 Evolution on Long Island, N. T., and the 

 Tortugas Station at the mouth of the Gulf 

 of Mexico, all of which are maintained in the 

 most liberal manner. The Tortugas Labora- 

 tory is due to the energy of the present di- 

 rector, Dr. A. G. Mayer, who examined many 

 points in our warmer waters in his endeavors 

 to find the best locality for the study of trop- 

 ical marine life, and at last decided on the 

 Dry Tortugas, not far from Key West. Each 

 summer he has taken a number of investiga- 

 tors with him and has supplied them with 

 every facility for work. These two volumes' 

 of 516 pages, 84 plates and numerous cuts are 

 the results of two seasons' work. 



A review of such volumes is difficult. Ade- 

 quately to criticize the separate papers is not 

 the task of any one person, so varied is their 

 scope. All that can be attempted here is a 

 brief summary of their contents. For this 

 purpose the nineteen papers may be grouped 

 under separate headings. 



Four articles, all in the second volume, deal 

 with animal behavior and can not easily be 



' " The Doctrine of Being," ibid. 



• " Papers from the Tortugas Laboratory of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington," Volume I., 

 1908; Volume IL, 1908. 



summarized. Dr. R. P. Cowles describes the 

 habits and reactions of the sand crab, Ocy- 

 poda, and Dr. Charles R. Stockard has a 

 similar paper on the walking-stick, Aplopus. 

 John B. Watson studied the habits of two of 

 the terns, while Frank M. Chapman discusses 

 the habits of the booby and the frigate bird. 



In Professor Reighard's paper on the colors 

 and habits of coral-reef fishes, which, as is 

 well known, are frequently conspicuously col- 

 ored, it is pointed out that the theory of warn- 

 ing colors usually advanced does not account 

 for all the facts observed and a theory of 

 immunity coloration is proposed as a substi- 

 tute, which is defined as follows: 



Coloration, not sexually dimorphic, which ren- 

 ders an organism in its natural environment con- 

 spicuous to vertebrates; which has no selective 

 value, since it does not aid the organism in es- 

 caping vertebrate enemies by concealment (pro- 

 tective coloration), nor in approaching its accus- 

 tomed invertebrate prey (aggressive coloration), 

 and when associated with disagreeable qualities 

 is unnecessary as a warning to vertebrate foes of 

 the existence of such qualities (warning colora- 

 tion) ; it is conceived to have arisen through in- 

 ternal forces under immunity of the organism 

 from the action of selection on its color char- 

 acters. 



In the first volume Dr. Mayer presents a 

 study of pulsation of medusas, in which he 

 concludes that the stimulation of pulsation is 

 caused by the formation of sodium oxalate in 

 the marginal sense organs. This reacts on 

 the calcium salts, precipitating calcium oxa- 

 late and setting free sulphate and chloride of 

 sodium which act as nerve stimulants. Espe- 

 cially interesting is the way in which a pulsa- 

 tion once started in a ring cut from the 

 medusan tissue may be made to continue in a 

 circular course for days without further stim- 

 ulation. 



Dr. Mayer also returns to his discussion of 

 the Floridan palolo worm, Eunice fucata, 

 which at regular dates casts off the hinder 

 sexual part of the body, these amputated por- 

 tions swarming at the surface in vast num- 

 bers. From observations extending over sev- 

 eral years, he points out that this occurs 

 commonly within three days of the last quar- 



