November 17, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



573 



this control was distinctly different from the 

 zonal climatic aiTangement of to-day, as mani- 

 fested by the climatic phenomena recorded in 

 Permo- Carboniferous and in Pleistocene times. 

 The greater part of the "plexus of problems 

 of unparallel difficulty" presented in the Per- 

 mian is involved in the attempts to fit Permo- 

 Carboniferous glaciations and the concurrent 

 climatic phenomena to the unproved assump- 

 tion of solar control. This is true of all glacia- 

 tions, and of the reglaciations following inter- 

 glacial warmth which so distinctly contradict 

 solar control that it is difficult to understand 

 why the assumption of solar control has been 

 held with such rigid orthodoxy. Neither critic 

 meets the prime question of a dual versus a 

 solar control of geologic climates. 



Marsden Manson 

 Berkeley, California, 

 October 9, 1922 



THE EFFECTS OF CAPTIVITY ON A SEX 

 CHARACTER 



Late last winter I noticed a gravid female 

 in a tank containing European 'brown trout at 

 the New York Aquarium, and suggested that 

 she be removed and sti-ipped. 



As is well known, the males of many sal- 

 monidae, including salmon and most trout, de- 

 velop a hook on the lower jaw in the breeding 

 season, which is serviceable in their fights at 

 the spawning grounds. Specimens with hooked 

 jaws were therefore selected from the brown 

 trout tank for milt to fertilize the eggs. 



Then it was discovered that a hook-jawed 

 individual might be a female. This phenom- 

 enon was unknown to us, and as far as we 

 know has never been recorded. But we soon 

 found that we had made no unique discovery, 

 for about the time the brown trout eggs were 

 changing into fry in the hatching troughs, the 

 Aquarium received a visit from Dr. Francis 

 G. Macnaughton of Dunshire, St. Andrews, 

 Scotland, who has experimented largely with 

 European trout. When the writer told him of 

 the females with hooked jaws, he said that in 

 Europe this phenomenon has not infrequently 

 occurred as a result of captivity. 



Precisely what effect captivity may have 

 upon the somaplasm to bring about this curious 



condition, we leave to conjecture; but what a 

 startling biological event it would be if a lion- 

 ess were to grow a mane and other female 

 ■animals in cajptivity developed the secondary 

 sexual charaicters of the male! 



Ida M. Mellbn 

 The New York AQUAsruM 



MISUSE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE 



To THE Editor off Science: A questionnaire 

 is being mailed to "pei-sons whose addresses 

 are given in the book 'American Men of 

 Science' " to ascertain "what proportion of 

 American men of science are believers in the 

 current religion, what proportion are not," etc. 

 As the questions are in many cases like the 

 famous "Will you leave off beating your 

 mother?" probably the majority of us will 

 ignore them. The bias of the questionnaire is 

 so obvious, it might well be ignored were it 

 not that we shall probably hear, before many 

 months that 97 per cent, of American men of 

 science are utterly without religious beliefs, 

 "as shown by a recent careful investigation." 

 Hence I wish to make this early protest against 

 this particular questionnaire and the possibility 

 of drawing any reliable conclusions from the 

 replies received. 



Hubert Lyman Clark 



October 25, 1922 



QUOTATIONS 



MOTORLESS FLIGHT IN ENGLAND 



The French airman, M. Maneyrolle, won the 

 prize of £1,000 offered by tihe Daily Mail, by a 

 wind flight on October 21 lasting three hours 

 and twenty-two minutes. The notable suc- 

 cesses registered during the recent French eon- 

 tests, and especially during the German con- 

 tests, raised the question whether British fliers 

 could rival the feats of their foreign colleagues, 

 and the offer of a prize of £1,000 hy the Daily 

 Mail led to the organization, at Itford Hill 

 and Firle Beacon on the South Downs, of the 

 fljst British gliding contests since the war, 

 which commenced on October 16 and continued 

 through the week. Additional prizes were 

 offered by the Royal Aero Club and others. 

 The entry of British machines and pilots was 



