Febrdaky 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



219 



How much better will a sophomore under- 

 stand the general conditions governing res- 

 piration after reading this book, in which the 

 references in index are to animal respiration 

 only, than from selected portions of two books 

 showing that exchange of gases takes place 

 both in plants and in animals? 



Or what will a student understand from the 

 statement (p. 226) that " in plants the sup- 

 porting structure is, as a rule, developed better 

 than in animals." Wherein is the oak " bet- 

 ter " than the horse, in respect to its support- 

 ing structure? 



Again what would a thinking student make 

 of the statement (p. 234), " there are other 

 materials made by the plants, like wood and 

 leaves, which can not serve as food for ani- 

 mals," when he sees boring insects in wood, 

 reads of beavers and their winter supply of 

 tree trunks, and observes animals grazing on 

 the leaves of plants? 



And if any members of a domestic science 

 class should notice the definition of yolk, page 

 249, as " deutoplasm (Gr. deuteros ^ second -\- 

 p?asma = substance), deposited in the egg for 

 the nourishment of the young," when in all 

 their cooking experience concerning eggs they 

 are taught that the yolk is at the center, 

 while albumen or " white of the egg " is 

 deposited about this — what conclusions would 

 they draw from " biology " ? 



No doubt a number of these misstatements 

 are chargeable to the printers, but they should 

 be eliminated in a second edition. 



In the review signed M. M. one side of the 

 subject is presented; in the above note, an- 

 other viewpoint is taken — botany and zoology 

 as constituting biological science. 



Frederick H. Blodgett 



Texas Experiment Station 



As this work, lately reviewed in Science, 

 will probably be used in many colleges, it may 

 be well to point out a paragraph on distribu- 

 tion which certainly needs amendment : 



The high mountain ranges are perhaps the most 

 eflfectual barriers of all. Praotically no animal or 

 plant is able to cross over the higher mountain 

 ranges. The Roeky Mountains effectually separate 



the eastern from the western slope, and the life 

 on the two slopes of these mountains is quite dif- 

 ferent, though the climate may be much the same 

 (p. 381). 



It would be difficult to write anything more 

 misleading. The life on the two slopes of the 

 Eocky Mountains is not " quite different," 

 except when climatic (especially moisture) 

 conditions differ on the two sides. The state- 

 ment as given is nearly true for freshwater 

 fishes in Colorado, but quite untrue for the 

 great majority of plants and animals. 



Several other things in the book should be 

 corrected. It is certainly misleading to 

 write " primrose," instead of evening prim- 

 rose, for (Enothera (p. 357). I do not under- 

 stand why Onychophora (p. 378) are said to 

 be centipedes. These and other such things 

 are of course small matters in comparison 

 with the large amount of excellent material 

 in the book ; but there should be no flies in the 

 biological soup prepared for college students. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL 



University or Colorado 



THE REFORM OF THE CALENDAR 



To THE Editor of Science: With reference 

 to my article on the reform of the calendar 

 published in your number for May 6, 1911, 

 Vol. XXXIIL, pp. 690-2, I desire to call the 

 attention of those who took part in the dis- 

 cussion at that time to further developments 

 in the matter. 



In the December number of the Esperanto 

 Scienca Gazeto, published in Paris by Hach- 

 ette & Co., Ch. Verax, editor, we are told that 

 the Swiss government actually appointed the 

 commission referred to in my article and since 

 that time have received 30 difl^erent projects 

 for the reform of the calendar, 14 of which 

 were written in Esperanto and the other 16 

 in seven different national languages. 



The commission is still open for additional 

 proposals and it is to be hoped that all those 

 who took part in the discussion in Science 

 will send their proposals without delay to the 

 address " Conseil federal " or " Schweizer- 

 ischer Bundesrat " (Federal Council), Bern, 

 Switzerland. 



