104 
shall be examined by the Geological Survey and a 
report made to the Secretary of Agriculture, 
showing that the control of such lands will pro- 
mote or protect the navigation of streams on 
whose watersheds they lie. 
Those who are familiar with the eventful 
history leading up to the passage of the 
Weeks Act know that the principle invoked in 
section 6 was absolutely essential both to in- 
sure the constitutionality of the measure and 
to secure its passage. The administrative 
officer, however keenly hé may appreciate the 
spirit which encouraged the movement for the 
preservation of the Appalachian forests, can 
not disregard the plain letter of the law on the 
statute book. Gro. Otis SmirH 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLEVELAND MEETING 
To THe Eprror or Science: Regarding the 
preparations for the meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
at Cleveland next year, I desire to suggest the 
advisability of concentrating the places of 
meeting so far as practicable, in order that the 
meeting rooms may be more conveniently 
found, and persons who wish to pass from 
one meeting place to another in order to hear 
a large number of papers read, may be able to 
do so. 
Much of the benefit of these meetings de- 
pends on easy access afforded them. For this 
reason, the best arrangements in many years 
was that provided in the Central High School 
at St. Louis. .There the basement, and the 
first- and second-floor classrooms were used 
for the different sections. Geographers could 
in a minute’s time pass out of their meeting 
place to hear a paper in the session of the 
economist and statistican, or vice versa. 
Strangers coming in the building found the 
directory at the entrance, which told where 
each section was meeting and the room. 
There was no wandering about the campus, as 
at Chicago where some of the sections were 
located on the third floor of buildings; nor 
was there any fear of intrusion or collision 
with professors who had classes to hear, as at 
the Institute of Technology, Boston; nor was 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 890 
there any wandering about the streets to find 
where particular sections met, as in Baltimore. 
A central building with wide hallways, the 
posting of a large directory at some outside 
point on a thoroughfare and the placarding of 
rooms, with the placard standing at right 
angles to the door when closed, with some- 
body at hand to make additional placards as 
needed—these suggestions seem to me worth 
while considering to help make our Cleve- 
land meeting one of the best, if not the best 
on record, JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL 
CHROMOSOMES IN WHEAT AND RYE 
In my paper entitled “ A Theory of Men- 
delian Phenomena”* I referred to rye as 
having a small number of chromosomes— 
“six, I believe,” while wheat has “40 or 
more,” and called attention to a possible rela- 
tion of these supposed facts to the great dif- 
ference in variability of these two species. 
This reference to chromosome numbers was 
made on the basis of a statement made to me 
some years ago by a student who had made 
some studies of the subject. Mr. Orland E. 
White, of the Bussey Institution, calls my 
attention to the studies of Overton and of 
KXoerniche, which indicate that wheat has six- 
teen chromosomes (2X number). 
W. J. SPILLMAN 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
HOW A FALLING CAT TURNS OVER 
To rue Eprror or Scrence: In your last 
issue Professor W. S. Franklin mentions hay- 
ing given a valid explanation of how a eat is 
able to light on his feet when he is dropped 
back downwards. He does not state what this. 
explanation was; but gives in full a different 
valid explanation offered by Professor J. F. 
Hayford. No statement is made as to which 
explanation agrees with the actual perform- 
ance of the cat, so it may be of interest to: 
eall attention to a set of kinematograph pic- 
tures of a falling cat, published as Plate II. 
of H. Crabtree’s “ Spinning Tops and Gyro- 
scopic Motion.” These pictures corroborate: 
1 American Breeders’ Association, Report VI. 
