DECEMBER 27, 1918] 
character of deposition to slight changes of 
sea-level. Downwarped in Sabine times (in 
areas where now accessible) it remained 
flooded till into St. Maurice times without 
showing very rapid, or well-defined, sharp 
changes, faunal or lithological. 
Vertebrate paleontology assures us that the 
holaretie waters have been somewhat drained 
off now and then during Tertiary times, else 
land areas have risen out of the seas, furnish- 
ing bridges for mammalian migration between 
the New and Old worlds. The correlation of 
holaretic with Gulf age tides is a fascinating 
problem for contemplation, if not for solution 
by present-day earth-science workers. Perhaps 
our co-workers on the West Coast may have 
arrived at some general conclusions regarding 
tide-level conditions there during the Eocene 
ages. These, it seems to the undersigned, 
might be of vast importance for working out 
the physical history of our Eocene series. 
G. D. Harris 
PALEONTOLOGICAL LABORATORY, 
CorNELL UNIVERSITY, 
December 5, 1918 
HEREDITARY DEFICIENCIES IN THE SENSE 
OF SMELL 
Biakestee! has recently drawn attention to 
the fact that two individuals may exhibit 
marked degrees of sensitivity to the fragrance 
of verbena flowers. A given person, asked to 
judge between the blossoms of two plants, A 
and B, may declare the former fragrant but 
not the latter. From a second person we 
may get exactly the opposite response. To 
him B is fragrant but not A. 
These differences which were found repeat- 
edly and which seem to have been constant, 
suggest numerous interesting problems. They 
also serve to recall that practically nothing is 
known, or if known, at least not readily ac- 
cessible to the general reader, on the herita- 
bility of differences in the sense of smell. 
I have been asked on several occasions what 
might be expected from a mating involving a 
1‘*Unlike Reactions of Different Individuals 
to Fragrance in Verbena Flowers,’’ A. F. 
Blakeslee, Sctzncre, N. S., Vol. XLVIII., p. 298. 
SCIENCE 
647 
normal person and one devoid of a sense of 
smell and, until asked the first time, I did not 
know that there are people who not only can 
not recognize the difference between odors, but 
can not recognize odors at all. 
Not long ago, an instance of this sort fell 
into my hands and though the family history 
‘is fragmentary, it may possibly, when pieced 
in with other fragments, acquire some little 
value. 
The case in point is that of a young Russian 
Jew, a fugitive from Kiey. This man, M. is 
quite unable to distinguish odors in the usual 
way. Alcohol, or anything with a sufficiently 
high percentage of alcohol, is simply “ felt.” 
The same thing is true of illuminating gas. 
Ether and chloroform, when very concentrated, 
“choke” ; when dilute, they produce a “ feel- 
ing” similar to that caused by flowers. The 
latter, also, he is aware of, but not in the 
ordinary way. They emit, very decidedly, 
“something delicate”; but this something is 
registered as “a gentle sensation like breath- 
ing balmy air.” Pepper, again, has “no 
odor,” but it is irritating and its application is 
followed by the usual effects. 
The M. family, one characterized inciden- 
tally by much stammering; by an early and 
complete loss of the incisors; by frequent 
hernia; a thumb nearly twice the normal 
width; excessive sex interest; and, very con- 
siderable mental powers, contains several in- 
dividuals abnormal in their sensitivity to 
odors. 
Among the immediate sibs of M.’ himself, 
two sisters are normal in this respect. One 
brother exactly duplicates M. and another has 
some slight capacity in detecting odors. The 
mother of these sibs was unable to detect odors 
and her father, in turn, is reported to have 
been similarly deficient. 
Off-hand there are certain resemblances here 
to sex-linked inheritance. It is necessary only 
to assume that the mother had the necessary 
double dosage in order to have a fairly typical 
case. Moreover the likelihood of this inter- 
pretation being correct is enhanced by a cir- 
cumstance which to some may appear to cloud 
