136 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII.' No. 161,, 



own district to some other portion of the em- 

 pire, the Incas made it a point never to oblige 

 people accustomed to a high altitude to live at 

 sea-level, nor to make those who were used to 

 living at a low altitude live far above sea-level. 

 In every case the transfers were made to dis- 

 tricts where the climatic conditions were as 

 nearly as possible the same as those to which 

 the conquered people had become accustomed. 

 One of the most interesting contrasts in the 

 climates of Peru is seen in the difference be- 

 tween the desert costal strip of the provinces 

 bordering on the Pacific and the forested 

 Amazonian provinces in the northeast. In 

 the former the dry climate prevents vege- 

 table growth, except where man has provided 

 irrigation, and there must be a constant strug- 

 gle against Nature in order that anything green 

 may grow. In the well-watered Amazonian 

 provinces, on the other hand, vegetation is 

 altogether too abundant, and man must here 

 struggle to keep down what Nature produces 

 too freely. In fact, the exuberance of the 

 vegetation is such as to interfere with the 

 habitability of the region, for almost as soon as 

 a clearing is made in the forests it is again 

 overgrown. In the rainy provinces, therefore, 

 habitability is almost precluded by the super- 

 abundance of vegetation, while in the barren 

 desert strip man can only live where his own 

 labor has provided a water supply sufficient for 

 the needs of vegetation. The contrast is a strik- 

 ing one. 



R. Dec. Ward. 

 Lima, Peru, December 27, 1897. 



AN INTERESTING MONSTROSITY. 



My attention was recently called to the 

 monstrosity pictured in the enclosed photo- 

 graph. It is a cock, of no pure breed, though 

 carrying some Plymouth Rock blood, having no 

 signs of spurs upon the tarsi, but with well 

 developed ones upon the head, on either side 

 of the comb, just above the eyes. These spurs, 

 neither of which is quite normal in shape, are 

 symmetrically placed, and have every appear- 

 ance of horns. The right spur, which is less 

 malformed than its mate, is fifteen-sixteenths of 

 an inch in length from its perforation of the 

 skin, and about three-sixteenths of an inch at 



that point, tapering somewhat unequally to a 

 blunted point, the whole curved so as to some- 

 what resemble the horn of a Texas steer. 



The left spur, which in diameter and length 

 would be nearly identical with the right, is 

 bent forward so as to form a nearly complete 

 circle, approximately one-half inch in diameter, 

 the point of the spur being in contact with the 

 base of the comb. Both of the spurs are entirely 

 disconnected with the bony structure of the 

 skull, being attached only to the skin and easily 

 movable in all directions. 



I could not ascertain from the owner of the 

 cock, in whose possession it had been but a 

 short time, whether this looseness of attach- 

 ment was congenital or had been brought about 

 by contact with the coop or by fighting. 



What makes this specimen extremely inter- 

 esting is the fact that it is neither a case of 

 dichotomy nor of supernumerary parts nor of 

 atavism, but one in which the normal part is 

 found in an abnormal position without any 

 vestige of representation in its usual place. 



In the limited amount of material at my com- 

 mand, I have been unable to find any accounts 

 of cases in many respects similar to this, al- 

 though Sutton, in his ' Evolution and Disease ' 

 (Contemporary Science Series), mentions the 

 successful transplanting (artificially) of the spurs 

 of cocks to the excised comb. I am awaiting 

 with interest the result of interbreeding this 

 specimen, in the hope that more of its peculiar 

 kind may be secured, from which a fertile 

 variety of monstrosities may be obtained. 



Edwin G. Dexter. 



Colorado State Normal School, 



Greeley, Col. 



correction. 

 Objection having been made to my use of 

 the term ' respiration ' in the article ' Some Con- 

 siderations upon the Functions of Stomata ' in 

 Science, January 7, 1898, page 15, second 

 column, line 12, I wish to substitute for it the 

 expression ' the passage of gases. ' Plant physi- 

 ologists, for very good reasons, wish to restrict 

 ' respiration ' to the gaseous exchange which 

 has to do with the catabolic activities of living 

 cells, excluding that exchange taking place in 

 those anabolic activities (known as photosyntax) 



