784 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1144 



was to ensure the maximum, of output with 

 the minimum of fatigue. Overtime was an 

 elastic term, and not only imposed a severe 

 strain on the worker, but it curtailed unduly 

 the periods for rest and repose; it was un- 

 economical, physiologically extravagant, and 

 frequently resulted in lost time and diminished 

 output. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



The University of Chicago has received 

 from Mr. Frederick H. Eawson a gift of $300,- 

 000 for the construction of a laboratory build- 

 ing in connection with the plans for the med- 

 ical school. 



A provisional gift of $100,000 to the Uni- 

 versity of Vermont has been given by General 

 Rush C. Hawkins, of New York. The money 

 is given on condition that the university raise 

 an additional $200,000. 



Tulane University has received a bequest 

 of $60,000 for the School of Tropical Medicine, 

 available after the decease of the wife of the 

 late Colonel W. G. Vincent. 



The new gymnasium of the Stevens Insti- 

 tute of Technology was dedicated with appro- 

 priate ceremonies on November 18. The build- 

 ing, which was erected at a cost of over $125,- 

 000, is the gift of Mr. William Hall Walker, 

 of New York. 



Dr. L. V. Heilbrun has been appointed in- 

 structor in microscopic anatomy at the College 

 of Medicine at the University of Illinois. 



The School of Medicine of the University 

 of Alabama announces that two new all-time 

 professors have been appointed to the faculty. 

 Dr. Joseph M. Thiiringer, of the Harvard Med- 

 ical School, becomes head of the department of 

 anatomy, and Dr. Claude W. Mitchell, Ph.D. 

 (Nebraska, '13), M.D. (Chicago, '15), head of 

 the department of physiology and pharma- 

 cology. 



Mr. William George Palmer, B.A., for- 

 merly scholar, has been elected to a fellowship 

 at St. John's College, Cambridge. Mr. Palmer, 

 who came up from Guildford Grammar School, 

 took a first in each part of the Natural Science 

 Tripos, 1913-14, with distinction in chemistry, 

 and was awarded the Hutchinson studentship. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SYNCHRONISM IN THE RHYTHMIC ACTIVITIES 

 OF ANIMALS 



Two men walking together keep step so 

 easily that the keeping step seems automatic. 

 With a similar feeling of its naturalness we 

 keep time in various ways, as in marching or 

 dancing to music. Although these actions 

 seem so automatic, they all or nearly all were 

 learned by conceptual awareness of the rela- 

 tions between one's own actions and the actions 

 of others, and purposive imitation of the 

 latter. Such awareness of relations and pur- 

 poseful imitation have not been found in ani- 

 mals (with the possible exception of the Pri- 

 mates). Certainly in most of the behavior of 

 animals the tendency to keep time with an 

 external rhythm is conspicuously absent. 

 When two horses are driven abreast, each trots 

 in his own rhythm in sublime disregard of his 

 team-mate. Every circus has its so-called 

 dancing animals, but I never saw one that 

 really kept time with the music except as the 

 trainer prompted it. Some birds have wonder- 

 ful musical powers, but I never knew of a case 

 of two birds singing in unison, nor of a bird 

 singing synchronously with any external 

 rhythm. 



Nevertheless, although an animal can not 

 have a concept of the relation between two co- 

 inciding rhythms, it is supposable that some 

 animals might have an innate mechanism that 

 would bring them into synchronism with an 

 external rhythm, just as two pendulums or two 

 dynamos, if properly adjusted, maintain a 

 perfect synchronism. Let us review the ob- 

 servations that might substantiate such a sup- 

 position. 



Many animals are provided with lock and 

 key reflexes which produce an admirable 

 synchronism. Two cocks fighting jump at 

 each other at almost the same moment. 

 Many birds, notably some of the Limicolfe, fly 

 in close flocks and the whole flock turn appar- 

 ently at the same moment in their rapid evo- 

 lutions. But it is important to notice that 

 these actions are not rhythmical. To main- 

 tain such admirable synchronism and at the 



