Apkil 8, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



339 



siderations of atmospheric conditions and 

 health, there are the broader and more gen- 

 eral aspects of climate and the treatment of 

 certain diseases. Professor Ward, in the 

 address earlier referred to, emphasized the 

 correct understanding of the characteristics 

 of climate and the judicious selection of 

 climates to suit the particular ailments, for 

 there is no " perfect " climate that will be 

 equally beneficial for all ills. 



Eiforts have been made frequently to give 

 graphical representations of climatic char- 

 acteristics, especially with regard to tempera- 

 ture and humidity, and some of these have 

 been very successful. Perhaps the cliniograph 

 of Dr. GriflBth Taylor, of Australia, is the 

 most noteworthy example. Mr. B. M. Var- 

 ney^ says: 



One scarcely need point out the great usefulness, 

 to the geographer, the business man, the physician, 

 the teacher, any device which helps to create liv- 

 ing conceptions of the nature of climate and 

 waather, so leading to a better estimate of the 

 effect of a given atmospheric environment on hu- 

 man affairs. 



That is what the climograph seeks to 

 do. It is a chart in which wet-bulb tempera- 

 tures are plotted against relative humidity, or 

 air temperature (dry-bulb) against relative 

 humidity. Mr. Varney has chosen to mark 

 certain regions of his climographs " raw," 

 " keen," " scorching," " muggy," etc., to indi- 

 cate bodily sensation. The line joining the 

 points in the diagram wanders about among 

 these regions and thus indicates the char- 

 acteristics of the weather or climate under 

 consideration. 



Dr. Carrol E. Edson, president of the 

 American Climatological and Clinical Asso- 

 ciation, at the meeting of the Meteorological 

 Society mentioned above, gave the following 

 questions as being worthy of study by the 

 meteorologist, and referred to them as gaps in 

 present medical knowledge: 



1. Is basic metabolism different in people liv- 

 ing at high altitudes from that of people living at 



8 ' ' Some Further Uses of the Climograph, ' ' 

 Monthly Weather Review, September, 1920, pp. 

 495-497. 



low altitudes? A study of this might be called 

 ' ' Climatic physiology. ' ' 



2. What is the effect of sudden changes — 

 changes of altitude, itemperature, mxMsture, wind, 

 etc.? Experimental solution of this question is 

 possible. This is "Physiologic meteorology." 



3. Lastly, there is the study of the adaptability 

 of the diseased mechanism to meet sudden changes : 

 ' ' Medical climatology. ' ' 



These are a few of the aspects of the rela- 

 tions between meteorology and health, and 

 indicate what an extensive field there is for 

 investigation, both for the meteorologist and 

 the physician. C. LeRoy Meisinger 



Washington, D. C. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A NEW TYPE OF INHERITANCE 



In a recent contribution from the Carlsberg 

 Laboratory ,1 J. Schmidt has described a new 

 type of inheritance found in " the millions 

 fish," Lehistes reticulatus, from Trinidad. A 

 conspicuous black spot occurs on the dorsal 

 fin of the male in one race of this species, but 

 it is wanting in all females of the species and 

 also in males of a second race with which 

 crosses were made. This spot was transmitted 

 to all male offspring of the spotted fish, re- 

 gardless of the mother's ancestry, but it was 

 not found in the female offspring, nor did it 

 reappear in the male offspring of such females, 

 when they were mated with males which 

 lacked the spot. 



Further, sons of the spotted male, trans- 

 mitted the spot to all their male offspring, not 

 to half of them, as would be the case with an 

 ordinary dominant Mendelian character. The 

 inheritance of the character appears to be ex- 

 clusively from father to son, females neither 

 possessing nor transmitting it. Evidently the 

 sperm is the sole vehicle of its transmission. 

 It does not get into the ^g at all. Moreover 

 it is apparently transmitted by only half the 

 sperm cells, those namely which are male 

 determining in function. It therefore has, as 

 Schmidt points out, exactly the distribution 

 of a T chromosome, and he suggests that a Y 



1 C. B. Travaux Laboratoire Carlsberg, Vol. 14, 

 No. 8, Copenhagen, 1920. 



