74 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1386 



frey) and others discussed by Kerner, and 

 I greatly appreciate having my attention called 

 anew to such an authoritative support of my 

 thesis as is given by Kerner. 



M. L. Fernald 

 Gray Herbaeidm, 

 Harvaed UNrvERSirr 



ALBINISM IN THE BLACK BEAR 



Several notes on albinism in wild animals 

 and birds have been published in Science. 

 An interesting reference to albinism in the 

 bear is given in a rather rare work upon the 

 adventures of John Tanner during his thirty 

 years' residence among the Indians.^ While 

 living on the Assinneboin River he had the fol- 

 lowing experience : 



Shortly after this, I killed an old she bear, which 

 was perfeetly white. She had four cubs, one 

 white, with red eyes, and red nails, like herself; 

 one red [brown?], and two black. In size, and 

 other respects she wa-s the same as the common 

 black bear, but she had nothing black about her 

 except the skin of the lips. The fur of this 

 kind is very fine, but not so highly valued by the 

 traders as the red. The old one was very tame, 

 and I killed her without difficulty; two of the 

 young I shot in the hole, and two escaped into a 

 tree. I had but just shot them, when there came 

 along three men, attracted, probably, by the 

 sound of my gun. As these men were very hungry, 

 I took them home with me, fed them, and gave 

 each of them a piece of meat to carry home. 



An interesting feature of this case is the 

 fact that one of the young also was albinistic. 

 Had albinism been a recessive trait, the albin- 

 istic mother could hardly have produced albin- 

 istic young unless mated to an albinistic in- 

 dividual or to another individual carrying 

 albinism recessive. This latter supposition 

 indicates prior cross and persistence of albin- 

 ism in the same locality. 



It is interesting to note the high fertility 

 of this albinistic individual. 



Paul C. Standley 



U. S. National Museum 



1 A narrative of the captivity and adventures of 

 John Tanner (U. S. interpreter at the Saut de Ste. 

 Marie), during thirty years residence among the 

 Indians in the interior of North America, prepared 

 for the press by Edwin James, New York, 1830, 

 page 131. 



BECHHOLD'S " CAPILLARY PHENOMENON " 

 IN AGRICULTURE 



H. Bechhold recently observed^ the inter- 

 esting capillary phenomenon that when a por- 

 ous mass (such as a lump of earth or a block 

 of plaster of Paris) is soaked in the solution 

 of a salt and then dried, the salt collects al- 

 most quantitatively at or near the exterior 

 surfaces. W. Kraus- has shown that this 

 transfer of the salt is dependent upon evapo- 

 ration at the exposed surfaces. 



The above observations seem to me to give 

 the scientific reason for the well-recognized 

 value of cultivation or tilth in agriculture. 



When the surface of the soil is stirred or 

 broken up by a cultivator, hoe, or rake, be- 

 sides killing weeds and " hilling up " the 

 plants, a greater total surface is exposed to 

 evaporation, and evaporation is therefore fa- 

 cilitated. The sub-surface water in rising, 

 brings with it towards the roots, soluble sub- 

 stances which serve as plant food, though of 

 course selective adsorption and diiferential 

 diffusion effect some segregation. This cap- 

 illary rise of water also accounts for the 

 curious fact well known to farmers, that in 

 dry weather cultivation will to a considerable 

 extent furnish moisture to the growing crop. 

 Jerque Alexander 



RiDGEPiELD, Conn., 

 June 21, 1921 



QUOTATIONS 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION 



In these days of grandiose state expenditure 

 and trifling result, the history of the Royal 

 Institution seems almost miraculous. It has 

 occupied its present quarters in Albemarle- 

 street since 1799, when it was founded by a 

 few fellows of the Royal Society, of whom the 

 American, Count Rumford, also founder of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, 

 provided the initial funds. Its purpose was 

 severely practical — to " diffuse knowledge of 

 useful mechanical improvements," to " teach 

 the application of science to the useful pur- 

 poses of life." But ^its wise governors soon 

 found that teaching tends to be barren if it is 

 divorced from research, and its laboratories, at 



1 Kolloid Zeitschrift, 27, 229 (1920). 



2Kolloid Zeitschrift, 28, 161 (1921). 



