502 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1136 



conditions where the paths of the component 

 rays may have any length whatever. It is 

 thus an essential extension of the same method 

 as used for reserved spectra, heretofore, and 

 also of the methods in which the paths are 

 essentially small. 



13. On the Inheritance of Certain Glume 

 Characters in the Cross Avena Fatua XA. 

 Sativa Var. Kherson: Frank M. Surface, 

 Biological Laboratory, Maine Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. 



A study of inheritance of certain characters 

 particularly directed toward revealing phe- 

 nomena of linkage. 



14. A Comparison of the Bates of Regenera- 

 tion from Old and from New Tissue: 

 Charles Zeleny, Zoological Laboratory, 

 University of Illinois. 



The data as a whole show clearly that there 

 is no essential difference between the rate of 

 regeneration from new cells and from old 

 cells. The rate of regeneration seems there- 

 fore to be under central control. 



15. The Effect of Successive Removal upon the 

 Rate of Regeneration: Charles Zeleny, 

 Zoological Laboratory, University of Illi- 

 nois. 



Apart from the slowing due to age there is 

 no indication of the amount of new material 

 that may be produced by regeneration. The 

 actual limitation comes not from the using up 

 of regenerative energy, but from changes in 

 the non-regenerating part associated with age. 



16. The Geologic Role of Phosphorus: Eliot 

 Black-welder, Department of Geology, Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin. 



Phosphorus appears in nature in many 

 forms and in many situations. Its numerous 

 transformations, however, follow an orderly 

 sequence — in a broad way form a cycle — 

 which is here discussed in some detail. 



17. Dominantly Fluviatile Origin under Sea- 

 sonal Rainfall of the Old Red Sandstone: 

 Joseph Barrell, Department of Geology, 

 Yale University. 



Geologists have differed so widely in their 

 conclusions in regard to the nature of the 

 habitat of the early vertebrate faunas whose 



remains are found in the formations of the 

 Old Bed Sandstone, that the author is led to 

 examine critically the criteria for the inter- 

 pretation of the facts. He comes to the con- 

 clusion that the deposits which make up the 

 Old Bed Sandstone, although they undoubt- 

 edly contain lacustrine beds and other beds 

 laid down in shifting, shallow and variable 

 bodies of water, are dominantly fluviatile in 

 origin. The Great Valley in California may 

 therefore in the present epoch, both in physi- 

 ography and in climate, be cited as a striking 

 illustration of the nature of the Old Bed 

 Sandstone basins. 



18. The Influence of Silurian-Devonian Cli- 

 mates on the Rise of Air-Breathing Verte- 

 orates: Joseph Barrell, Department of 

 Geology, Tale University. 



The evidence for the hypothesis of the con- 

 tinental origin of fishes has been examined 

 and seems to prevail over that for their ma- 

 rine origin. The author also believes that 

 natural selection, although discredited as a 

 cause determining specific variations, appears 

 nevertheless to be a major factor in evolution. 



19. Density of Radio-Lead from pure Nor- 

 wegian Cleveite: T. W. Eichards and G. 

 Wadsworth, 3d, Wolcott Gibbs Memorial 

 Laboratory, Harvard University. 



The density of this lead is found to be 

 11.273, distinctly less than the density (11.289) 

 of Australian radio-lead and still less than 

 that (11.337) for ordinary lead, the decrease 

 being almost exactly proportional to the de- 

 crease in atomic weight in these samples, so 

 that the atomic volume (18.281) is constant. 



20. National Research Council. 



A preliminary report to the president of the 

 academy by the organizing committee recently 

 printed in full in Science. 



Edwin Bidwell Wilson 

 Mass. Institute or Technology, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



IMBIBITIONAL SWELLING OF PLANTS AND 

 COLLOIDAL MIXTURES 



The swelling of gelatine in distilled water, 

 alkali and acid has long been used as refer- 



