Junk 23, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



877 



Vienna white {Columba alba) and a common 

 ring dove {Turtur risorius). Stie was remark- 

 able for her unusual appearance and manner, 

 and upon dissection the ovary was found to be 

 abnormal. The first thing in the structure of 

 the ovary to strike the attention was the large 

 number of double eggs, that is, two or more 

 eggs lay within the common follicle ; they 

 might or might not be separated by a distinct 

 membrane. 



Most of the larger eggs were vacuolated, the 

 vacuoles always appearing in connection with 

 the substance of the sphere or yolk-nucleus. 

 This sphere substance seemed to be also closely 

 related to the membrane separating double 

 eggs. 



The nuclei in many cases were shrunken and 

 seemed to be degenerating. Nucleoli were 

 frequently present, but in many cases were in- 

 distinct and irregular in outline. Mitotic di- 

 vision of the nucleus was never observed, al- 

 though one or two centrosomes were often 

 present. Many of the eggs, especially the 

 larger ones, were undergoing resorption by 

 means of phagocytes which were the trans- 

 formed follicle cells. Instances were found 

 where the follicle cells had disappeared along 

 part of the periphery of the egg, leaving behind 

 a deposit of pigment. The doubling of the 

 eggs seemed to be due in most of the smaller 

 ones to division of the primordial egg cell, and 

 in the larger Ones to fusion of contiguous cells. 

 The cause of such abnormalities is not known. 

 Some connection with hybridization may be 

 shown later. 



Michael F. Guyee. 



Titles of papers given during the two Quar- 

 ters : 'Life-History of Dicyema,' Professor 

 W. M. Wheeler; 'Abnormalities in Ovigene- 

 sis,' M. F. Guyer ; 'Recent Literature on An- 

 nelid Morphology,' R. S. Lillie ; 'Experimental 

 Production of Meroblastic Cleavage in the 

 Frog's Egg (O. Hertwig), Dr. C. M. Child; 'Re- 

 cent Experimental Work on the Ctenophore 

 Egg' (Fischel & H. E. Zeigler), Dr. C. M. 

 Child ; ' Some Native Americans ' (illustrated), 

 A. L. Melander & C. T. Brues ; ' The Formation 

 of Giant Embryos in Ascaris' (Zur Strassen), 

 H. H. Newman; 'Blind Fishes,' Professor C. H. 

 Eigenmann, of the University of Indiana ; 'In- 



stincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps (Peckham), 

 Miss M. M. Enteman ; ' The Evolution of the 

 Color-pattern in the Pigeon's Wing,' Profes&or 

 C. O. Whitman ; ' The Excretory Organs of 

 Petromyzon,' Professor W. M. Wheeler; 

 'The Excretory System of Turtles,' Miss E. R. 

 Gregory ; ' A Review of the Phosphorescent 

 Organs of Animals ' (illustrated). Professor S. 

 Watase; ' Hybridism in Pigeons,' M. F. Guyer. 



DISCUSSION AND GOBEESPONDENCE. 

 TOTEMISM. 



To THE Editor of Science : Totemism 

 has been a most obscure subject, and it is 

 only of late that any real light has been 

 thrown on it by the publication of Bald- 

 win-Gillen's ' Native Tribes of Central Aus- 

 tralia,' which is ably discussed by Mr. J. G. 

 Frazer in the April and May numbers of the 

 Fortnightly Revieiv. Among the Australians an 

 Emu group, e. g. , is that who by refraining from 

 killing and eating emus show that by their 

 friendship with emus they acquire power with 

 them, and identify themselves with the emus by 

 blood ceremonies and by masquerading as emus. 

 Now, all this we may interpret as a trap, a bit 

 of animistic cunning like that of the hunter 

 stalking. The Emu men are specialized as a 

 group to a control over the emus by magic 

 rites, making them multiply and be convenient 

 food for the rest of the tribe. Totemism is a 

 cooperation primarily for food supply; ''you 

 Grub men get grubs for me by your special 

 kinship with grubs, and we Emu men likewise 

 will get emus for you." The Totemic method 

 is a sly specialization by which a tribe of men 

 get the best of their animistic fellows — emus, 

 grubs, rain, etc. — for their own advantage, and 

 so the Totemic organization is not a religious, 

 but wholly an economic, socialization. 



It appears to us that this interpretation, as 

 we have just expressed it, is sufficient, and Mr. 

 Frazer's remark about the motive of 'incon- 

 sistency ' which restrains from eating Totem, as 

 a cannibalism, presumes too much on the logical 

 power of the native. And cannibalism is a 

 common thing in nature ; but among men and 

 most animals is reduced to eating one's enemies 

 or persons of another tribe ; hence when the 



