856 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 780 



The mule-footed hog difl'era in no important 

 particular from the common breeds of swine save 

 in the solid instead of cloven hoof. The foot 

 character is probably made by the coalescence of 

 the ungual phalanges. The metacarpals, basilar 

 phalanges and middle phalanges are separate as 

 in ordinary hogs. The claim of breeders that the 

 mule-foot possesses hog cholera immunity is not 

 borne out. Four such hogs at Indiana University 

 died after exposure to this disease. The writer 

 had gathered, though from study of but few 

 specimens, that the foot character is on the whole 

 disadvantageous, especially in heavy hogs. The 

 breed is widely distributed in the United States, 

 especially in the middle west and south, and two 

 breeding associations for the registration of mule- 

 foots have been formed. Evidence at hand indi- 

 cates that solid-hoofed hogs have come down from 

 ancient times, and perhaps the character has been 

 found in certain strains of hogs since these ani- 

 mals were first domesticated. 



In crosses between mulefoots and ordinary 

 breeds the mulefoot character is more or less 

 dominant. Some mixed-bred hogs have at birth 

 solid hoofs which split apart usually at about 

 nine months of age, and in some the rear toes 

 split apart, while the front toes remain solid 

 through life. 



A Phylogenetic Tree Adapted for Use in Schools: 



W. P. Hay. 



Professor Hay distributed large cards on which 

 were printed botanical and zoological phylogenetic 

 trees. The groups were illustrated by figures of a 

 typical animal or plant with the enlargement or 

 reduction indicated, and the figures of microscop- 

 ical forms indicated by enclosure in a circle. He 

 explained his use of the trees in teaching, and 

 called attention to their defects and limitations 

 as an expression of relationship. The subject 

 excited general discussion. 



The Migrati(ms and Recent History of the Eskimo 



Gurlew: W. W. CoOKE. 



The Eskimo curlew is almost extinct. Two were 

 shot August 27, 1908, at Newburyport, Mass.; a 

 few were reported by Dr. Grenfell on the Labrador 

 coast the fall of 1906; Bigelow spent the entire 

 fall of 1900 on this coast and saw only five birds 

 and heard of about as many more. The last pre- 

 vious record in the United States is that of two 

 at Nantucket, Mass., August 18, 1898, and the 

 last specimen known from the interior of the 

 United States was taken by Paul Bartsch at 

 Burlington, la., April 5, 1893. 



Yet this species was once exceedingly abundant. 

 All writers from Cartwright in 1770 to Coues in 

 1860 testify to their enormous numbers in fall 

 migration on the Labrador coast. Packard in 

 1860, speaks of a flock a mile long and a mile 

 wide. 



The Eskimo curlew had an elliptical migration 

 route; it nested on the barren grounds of Canada, 

 went southeast to Labrador and Nova Scotia, then 

 straight south across the Atlantic Ocean more 

 than 2,000 miles at a single flight to the Lesser 

 Antilles and South America; it wintered on the 

 pampas of Argentina and in spring went north 

 by way of Texas and the Mississippi Valley in a 

 narrow belt on both sides of 97°. 



It retained its former abundance until the late 

 seventies or early eighties and then in about ten 

 years the species became almost extinct. Some of 

 this diminution is probably due to the fact that 

 during these years the part of the Mississippi 

 Valley through which it migrated was largely 

 brought under cultivation. But the most potent 

 factor has been the changing of its winter home — 

 where it spent one half the year on the pampas 

 of Argentina — from sparsely settled grazing lands 

 to enormous wheat lands. During the years 1878- 

 1892 Argentina increased its wheat production 

 flfty-fold and the pampas-loving Eskimo curlew 

 sufi^ered. 



M. C. Maesh, 

 Recording Secretary 



THE AMEEICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 NOETHEASTEBN SECTION 



The ninety-fourth regular meeting of the sec- 

 tion was held at the Twentieth Century Club, 

 Boston, on October 22. Dr. W. D. Harkins, of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an ad- 

 dress upon " Smelter Smoke " described the nature 

 and extent of the damage done by arsenic and 

 sulphur dioxide emitted from the large copper 

 smelters of this country, and commented on the 

 various methods which have been tried for lessen- 

 ing these evils. 



Dr. G. S. Forbes, of Harvard University, pre- 

 sented a paper upon " The Relation between Wave- 

 lengths of Light and Photo-chemical Action." 

 After summarizing the most recent experimental 

 work in this field and stating the theoretical 

 deductions, the speaker dwelt upon the vast oppor- 

 tunity for investigation offered in the study of 

 the role of light in bio-chemical reactions. 



K. L. Mabk, 

 Secretary 



