826 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 751 



The earliest stage at which I have observed 

 the accessory cleavage is the four-cell. It 

 takes place outside of the area occupied by the 

 primary cleavage, and the planes of the fur- 

 rows usually coincide with radii of the disc. 



T-T 





Y\--^'^ 



Eight-cell stage of the hen's egg. The egg was 

 taken about twenty hours before the time of lay- 

 ing, a. c, accessory cleavage furrows; a. c. c, a 

 small accessory cleavage cell. The dotted line 

 represents the limit of the area of primary 

 cleavage. 



The number of accessory cleavages is at no 

 time great. The greatest number so far ob- 

 served is shown in the accompanying sketch. 

 The actual number, however, may be slightly 

 greater than is indicated by surface views, 

 because in the sections of at least one egg, I 

 have found that not all of the cleavages come 

 to the surface, but some occur in a horizontal 

 plane. That these cleavages are accessory is 

 evidenced by the fact that their accompany- 

 ing nuclei greatly simulate the supernumer- 

 ary sperm-nuclei figured by Harper for the 

 pigeon. 



Shortly after the stage figured above the ac- 

 cessory cleavages disappear. A detailed study 

 of sections will have to determine whether 

 their disappearance is to be correlated with 

 the degeneration of the supernumerary sperm- 

 nuclei, as reiwrted for the pigeon. 



In conclusion it may be said that poly- 

 spermy, accompanied by accessory cleavage, 

 normally occurs in the hen's egg. If the 

 number of accessory cleavage furrows may be 

 taken as a general index to the number of ac- 

 cessory sperms entering the egg, it is evident 



that polyspermy in the hen is not nearly so 

 great as in the pigeon. 



J. Thos. Patterson 

 Univeesity of Texas 



THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



The general meeting of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society was held at the hall of the so- 

 ciety on Independence Square, Philadelphia, on 

 April 22, 23 and 24. The opening session b^an 

 at two o'clock on Thursday, April 22, with Presi- 

 dent Keen in the chair, and morning and after- 

 noon sessions were held on Friday and Saturday. 

 Vice-president Michelson was in the chair during 

 the session devoted to the papers in physics and 

 Vice-president Scott at that at which the geolog- 

 ical papers were considered. The evening of Fri- 

 day, April 23, was devoted to a Darwin celebra- 

 tion commemorative of the centenary of Charles 

 Darwin's birth and of the fiftieth anniversary of 

 the publication of the " Origin of Species," at 

 which addresses made by the Right Honorable 

 James Bryce, the Buttish Ambassador, on " Per- 

 sonal Reminiscences of Charles Darwin and of the 

 Reception of the ' Origin of Species ' " ; by Pro- 

 fessor George Lincoln Goodale, of Harvard, on 

 " The Influence of Darwin on Natural Science," 

 and by Professor George Stuart FuUerton, of 

 Columbia, on " The Influence of Darwin on the 

 Mental and Moral Sciences." 



On Saturday afternoon there was a symposium 

 on earthquakes at which papers were presented 

 by Professor Edmund O. Hovey, Professor William 

 H. Hobbs and by Professor Harry F. Reid. Aside 

 from the three papers presented at the Darwin 

 celebration on Friday evening, forty-four papers 

 were read at the morning and afternoon sessions. 

 A list of these papers with a brief summary of 

 their contents follows: 

 The American-British Atlantic Fisheries Ques- 



ticm: Thomas Willing Balch, of Philadelphia. 



This controversy, which is more than a century 

 old, will shortly be submitted to The Hague Inter- 

 national Court for settlement. As in the case of 

 the Alaska frontier, where Canada's land claims 

 grew greater with the passing of years, so in this 

 fisheries dispute the position of America on the 

 one hand and of Great Britain, Canada and New- 

 foundland on the other, is admirably summed up 

 in the words with which the Russian plenipoten- 

 tiary, Count Nesselrode, defined the positions 

 and arguments of Russia and England when they 

 were discussing the Russo-British American fron- 

 tier : " Thus we wish to conserve and the English 

 companies wish to acquire." 



