388 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1373 



sive in heredity, in wliicli it agrees witli the 

 behavior of the albino character. But if it is 

 crossed with the albino variety itself, offspring 

 are produced all of which are chinchillas, and 

 in later generations both chinchilla and white 

 young are to be expected. These facts indi- 

 cate that it is an alternative form or allelo- 

 morph of albinism. It constitutes the fourth 

 recorded albino allelomorph in raibbits, the 

 series in the .order of decreasing pigmentation 

 being (1) ordinary pigmentation, (2) chin- 

 chilla, (3) Himalayan albinism, (4) ordinary 

 albinism (snow white). A similar but not 

 identical series of albino allelomorphs was de- 

 scribed for the guinea pig several years ago by 

 Sewall "Wright.^ Chinchilla seems to be sub- 

 stantially equivalent to the guinea-pig albino 

 allelomorph seen in the red-eyed silver agouti 

 variety. A homologous albino allelomorph in 

 the rat has been described by Whiting and 

 King,- under the name of ruby-eyed dilute 

 gray. 



One defecrt of the new fur varieties of raib- 

 bits is their relatively small size. Furriers 

 desire larger, stronger pelts, such as can be 

 oibtained only from large-sized animals. In 

 the case of the chinchilla variety the desired 

 improvement can be obtained easily and speed- 

 ily. The desired size is found in varieties 

 raised chiefly for meat, such as the Flemish 

 Giant. Various color varieties occur in this 

 breed including the albino, known as " white 

 Flemish." By mating a pure chinchilla with 

 white Flemish rabbits, young will be obtained 

 all of which will be ehinchiilas in color yet will 

 have increased size, intermediate or a little 

 greater than intermediate between the sizes of 

 the respective parents. By further crossing of 

 the improved chinchillas with white Flemish, 

 still lai^er chinchillas may be obtained, and 

 in a very short time the full size of the Flem- 

 isih breed may be sulbstantially secured in a 

 rabbit having the chinchilla coat. In this 

 process of improvement there will be no 

 wasters, unless the fifty per cent, of whites are 

 so regarded, for the peculiar method of in- 



1 Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publica- 

 tion No. 241, 1916. 



2 Jour. Exp. Zool., 26, 1918. 



heritance renders all other young valuable, 

 since all will be chinchillas. W. E. Castle 

 BussET Institution 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF LITMUS IN 

 BACTERIOLOGY 



The writer is indebted to Professor F. G. 

 ISTovy, of the University of Michigan, for tlie 

 correction of a statement in a recent article 

 entitled " Chemical Criteria of Anaerobiosis 

 with Special Reference to Methylene Blue," 

 published in the Journal of Bacteriology^ 

 January, 1921, Volume 6, page 1. 



The statement in question is as follows: 



' ' The earliest authentic reference to the bacterio- 

 logical use of litmus appears to be that of "Wurtz 



(1892) who introduced litmus lactose agar as a 

 differential medium for Bact. coli and Baet. 

 typh-osum. It was impossible to confirm Novy's 



(1893) allusion (copied by Hunziker, 1902) to 

 Buchner (1885) and Cohen (?) as first to use lit- 

 mus acid and reduction changes respectively, the 

 last reference apparently being altogether erro- 

 neous. ' ' 



Professor Novy points out in a letter, which 

 is quoted by permission, that many of the 

 workers of that i)eriod, including himseK, had 

 used litmus for several years prior to the date 

 of Wurtz's paper. As Professor K"ovy says, 

 " Wurtz was a late comer." My reference to 

 Wurtz as apparently the first can be defended 

 only upon the admittedly uncertain grounds 

 that having attempted in vain to find a refer- 

 ence to litmus in Buchner's article as quoted 

 by Novy and Hunziker, and having failed 

 to find even an article by Cohen, I took what 

 seemed at the time the earliest authentic 

 reference. 



The following is quoted verbatim from Pro- 

 fessor Novy's letter: 



It is true that the references are not correct; 

 whether it be due to failure to send me proof, or 

 to my own carelessness I am unable to say. 



The only reference which I give to Buchner is to 

 E. Buchner, the chemist, and concerns his hydro- 

 gen culture work. My text (p. 597) mentioned 

 Buchner (unqualified) and, as was more or less the 

 custom of the day, it meant the bacteriologist, 

 Hans Buchner. Unfortunately, through some slip 

 no reference to his work is given. 



