614 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 722 



tympanum over it, while the thicker, more 

 fibrous, outer membrane is attached to the 

 bone around the mouth of the opening. The 

 air-bladder is further anchored anteriorly by 

 a stout Y-shaped ligament firmly attached to 

 the basioccipital. The otolith chamber opens 

 above into the brain chamber at about the 

 middle of its length by a rather small (as com- 

 pared with other fishes) foramen through 

 which the sacculus communicates with the 

 utriculus and the other auditory elements. 



Peculiarly Holocentrus suborhitalis Gill, a 

 hitherto supposedly closely related species, has 

 no posterior opening from the otolith chamber, 

 the chamber does not form a tube-like promi- 

 nence at the side of the cranium, the otolith 

 is comparatively small, and the air-bladder 

 does not extend forward to the cranium. 

 These characters seem of sufficient importance 

 to make suhorbitalis the type of a distinct 

 genus, for which the name Adioryx is pro- 



In a prepared dry cranium of Nematistius 

 there appears no long tube-like otolith cham- 

 ber at the side of the cranium, but at each 

 side and just below the occipital condyle there 

 is a sudden bulging of the basioccipital bone 

 containing the wide-open mouth of a long 

 tunnel leading upward to the brain chamber, 

 and opening into the latter in the same way 

 and at the same place that the otolith chamber 

 of H. ascensionis opens into it. In a dissec- 

 tion prepared from an alcoholic specimen a 

 small otolith is found in the upper end of the 

 tunnel. Into the lower part of the tunnel the 

 air-bladder projects, lining it with a delicate 

 membrane ; and near the middle of the tunnel, 

 at its narrowest part, the air-bladder closes it, 

 thus forming a delicate membranous pocket. 



The auditory connection in the case of 

 Nematistius, where a special tunnel is opened 

 through the bone to accommodate it, is obvi- 

 ously of a deeper-seated nature than in any of 

 the other examples where advantage is taken 

 of interossified areas even though these areas 

 have become somewhat specialized. The small 

 taxonomie value of the connection of the air- 

 bladder to the ear is illustrated in Adioryx 

 and nolocentrus, where in one case the con- 

 nection is absent while in the other it is 



present and with the cranial bones modified 

 to accommodate it. It can probably be used 

 only in showing relationship between species 

 or genera at the most. The condition as it 

 exists in Nematistius may prove of greater 

 value in this respect. 



Edwin Chapin Stares 



a new soil sampler 



A LABORATORY Study of the physical char- 

 acteristics of soils has come to be considered 

 of primary importance in soil investigations. 

 Much has been done within recent years 

 toward studying soils from this standpoint 

 with air-dried samples. Comparatively few 

 attempts, however, have been made to study 

 samples which possessed the texture, struc- 

 ture, moisture content and other features 

 found under field conditions. For many rea- 

 sons, investigators can not materially add to 

 our knowledge as long as data are secured only 

 from air-dried samples. Real progress in re- 

 search can begin only with the use of ap- 

 paratus designed to take samples of adequate 

 volume and of such character as will enable 

 the investigator to deal in the laboratory with 

 samples which possess essentially the same 

 physical properties as are possessed by the 

 soils in the field. 



Many devices and methods have been intro- 

 duced for soil sampling." For general phys- 

 ical and chemical analytical work the 

 standard methods of sampling are all essen- 

 tially the same and each of them has proven 

 more or less satisfactory for the purpose for 

 which it was devised. 



However, with one or two exceptions none 

 of the methods of sampling which have thus 

 far been introduced makes it possible to bring 

 to the laboratory a sample of soil in the condi- 

 tion in which it rested in the field. 



In the method of sampling proposed by the 

 investigators at Eothamsted, a steel or brass 

 frame, fitted with a keen cutting edge and 

 open at top and bottom is driven into the soil 

 by repeated blows with a wooden or iron 



' See Wiley's " Principles and Practise of Agri- 

 cultural Analysis," Vol. I., pp. 61-85, for a dis- 

 cussion of methods for sampling soils. See, also, 

 Hall's "The Soil," pp. 45^8. 



