August 15, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



167 



had elapsed since the last feeding time, it was 

 only by continuous and patient effort that the 

 rats were induced to come forward and take 

 bits of cheese offered. Instead of jumping to 

 some corner to enjoy the morsel undisturbed, 

 however, they huddled together in one place, 

 intermittently whining. An hour later they 

 had eaten their cheese but had not moyed from 

 the corner and one was still whining. 



A simple test was made in the following 

 manner. The cat was handled and petted a 

 few moments and then an attempt was made 

 to secure a male rat from a near-by cage. 

 The rats are handled so frequently that they 

 ordinarily climb over the hand and lightly 

 bite here and there in search of food. On 

 this occasion, however, the behavior was ex- 

 actly comparable to that foxmd with the fe- 

 males. In the first case the response might 

 have been to the situation — unfamiliar olfac- 

 tory and auditory stimuli; and in the second 

 to the situation — unfamiliar odor. 



The rats here observed represent ten gen- 

 erations of inbreeding. The writer is positive 

 that during the time he has worked with them 

 no cat has been in the room or near the room. 

 Some such odors may have been carried in the 

 clothing of experimenters, however, but this on 

 close examination seems unlikely. At no time 

 or under any other circumstances has he ob- 

 served such a specific and definite reaction to 

 a situation as here illustrated. A few hours 

 later the behavior of all the rats was experi- 

 mentally normal in every way. This observa- 

 tion has suggested the desirability of pursuing 

 a definite experimental method in the problem. 

 An effort will be made to control all the va- 

 riable factors attending a chance observation 

 and to make some definite statement as to the 

 specific original behavior in this particular 

 situation. It may be that a similar reaction 

 can be evoked by a distinctively strange stim- 

 ulus. That is, the behavior here illustrated 

 may not be specifically related to the situation 

 — certain unfamiliar qualities of olfactory and 

 auditory stimuli. Any other new stimulus 

 may arouse such reactions, the necessary com- 

 ponent of the total perception being just the 

 unfamiliarity or strangeness and not the spe- 



cific feline odor. It will be quite possible to 

 take a litter of young and provide appropriate 

 stimuli, the responses to which can be scrupu- 

 lously noted. Variations in age and sex, va- 

 riations in the situations provided, variations 

 in feeding periods, etc., and a comparative 

 study of the behavior of the wild ISTorway rat 

 mider similar conditions, should throw some 

 light on this particular form of original be- 

 havior. 



Coleman E. Griffith 

 University of Illinois 



THE AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES SEC- 

 TION OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY 

 ASSOCIATION 



A MEETING of the Agricultural Libraries Section 

 of the American Library Association was held at 

 Asbury Park, N. J., June 26, 1919. About forty 

 persons were present, including representatives from 

 the Agricultural College libraries of Indiana, Iowa, 

 Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New 

 Jersey, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia 

 and thirteen from the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



Miss Dixon sketched the accomplishments of the 

 Agricultural Libraries Section since its first meet- 

 ing at Mackinac in 1910, among the most notable 

 which was the bringing about of the publication 

 of the Agricultural Index by the H. W. Wilson 

 Company. 



Mr. Milton J. Ferguson, librarian of the Cali- 

 fornia State Library, in a paper entitled "Get- 

 ting Books to the Parmer in California, ' ' described 

 the county library system, the latest development in 

 the state system, which includes all library activi- 

 ties, municipal, state and others, and which shows 

 the energy, foresight and cooperative spirit, which 

 the state of California exhibits in so many fields. 



The paper by Miss Marjorie P. Warner, bib- 

 liographical assistant. Bureau of Plant Industry, U. 

 S. Department of Agriculture, on "Bibliographical 

 Opportunities in Horticulture," discussed the need 

 of research in connection with the history of culti- 

 vated plants and of horticulture; giving illustra- 

 tions from work which has been done, specifying 

 certain undertakings which should appeal to agri- 

 cultural librarians, and concluding with a plea for 

 more scholarly research in bibliography both as an 

 individual asset and as adding to the reputation of 

 our libraries. 



