460 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1298 



the expressions constant form (frequent in 

 Mendels paper) ard inconstant form. 



The proposed terms are simple, easily re- 

 membered and not spoiled by previous func- 

 tioning in the literature of plant or animal 

 breeding. They imply nothing as to the origin 

 of the zygote, thus eliminating any possible 

 suggestion that homozygous individuals nec- 

 essarily arise from pure-breeding and hetero- 

 zygous ones only from mixed breeding. The 

 ■word constant conveys the valuable impression 

 that there is a dependability in the germ cell 

 formation of the homozygote, but it 'will be 

 necessary to give warning that the vrord in- 

 constant is not meant to suggest complete law- 

 lessness in the breeding results of the hetero- 

 zygote. However the word heterozygote itself 

 and aU substitutes hitherto proposed are de- 

 fective in -that none of them gives a hint as to 

 the law of gamete formation in heterozygotes. 

 While inconstant is thus open to the ob- 

 jection that it might convey misformation, it 

 obviously emphasizes a point of essential im- 

 portance to the breeder. Hybrid and other 

 substitutes also require a word of explanation, 

 since many hybrids are popularly supposed to 

 breed true, but to retain such an impression 

 would be worse than suggesting excessive 

 irregularity. In short, the new terms if 

 adopted would derive much of their value 

 from the fact that a breeder will be quick to 

 realize which kind of individual he wants in 

 his herds or flocks and will thus be interested 

 in knowing how the two types arise. 



It is to be hoped that these two words or 

 similar inoffensive ones will be accepted or at 

 least not repudiated by professional genetic- 

 ists. Some sort of agreement — either by com- 

 mon consent or by general indifference — will 

 be necessary before the conscientious ex- 

 pounder may introduce the words to an au- 

 dience without mentioning their technical 

 equivalents. 



ISTothing in this note must be interpreted as 

 a desire to displace homozygous and heterozy- 

 gous or cognate forms from the technical 

 literature. 



Frank J. Kelley 



States Eelations Service, 

 TJ. S. Department or Agriculture 



SOME PORT HUDSON OUTCROPS IN LOUISIANA 



The Port Hudson beds, so named by Hil- 

 gard from their exposure at Port. Hudson, La., 

 consist for the most part of beds of clays, 

 usually bluish or black but occasionally yellow- 

 ish in color. At Port Hudson, La., the type 

 locality, the lower beds consist of black to 

 bluish tenacious clay with frequent logs, 

 stumps and fragments of wood, mostly cypress. 

 At St. Francisville, La., nine miles northwest 

 of Port Hudson, the black, cypress bearing 

 clays outcrop at Black Hill, one half mile east 

 of the town with the following section: 



20-25 feet of loess. 



4 feet of waxy black and browu tenacious clay 

 with fragments and limbs of cypress, Port Hud- 

 son. 



2 feet of masrive gray and brown sands with scat- 

 tering sub-angular chert pebbles, probably Ha- 

 fayette. 



The upper beds of the Port Hudson were 

 evidently eroded before the deposition of the 

 loess. The black clay lies uncomformably on 

 the Lafayette below with very sharp line of 

 contact. Apparently the same black clay bed 

 is to be seen in the bed of Scott Creek, near 

 Laurel Hill, La., about 21 miles north of Port 

 Hudson and 3 miles south of the La.-Miss. 

 line. Evidently the lower Port Hudson beds 

 in places underlie the western Florida parishes 

 of Louisiana and probably also the adjacent 

 southern counties of Mississippi. 



F. V. Emerson 



Louisiana State University 



QUOTATIONS 



THE RECOMPENSE OF SCIENTIFIC WORKERS 



We are very glad to hear that the Science 

 Committee of the British Medical Association 

 has elected a sub-committee to confer with 

 the British Science Guild and other bodies 

 " in the matter of the inadequate recognition 

 and recompense by the government and other 

 bodies of medical workers in the field of 

 science." We are also glad that the Science 

 Guild is nominating some of its members to 

 confer with this sub-committee of the British 

 Medical Association. The members are as 

 follows: For the British Medical Association, 



