222 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1393 



purgative acting by irritation of the bowels 

 might cause such peristalsis as to allow the 

 pin to become caught in the contracting 

 action in such a manner as to become per- 

 manently imbedded. The removal by natural 

 action is deemed best, aided by the feeding 

 of much bulky food to stimulate natural 

 peristaltic action, and to form encasement for 

 the foreign object. 



In accordance with these principles the 

 child was induced to eat as much bulk-form- 

 ing food as possible, as shredded wheat, oat- 

 meal, bread and milk, potatoes, carrots, 

 spinach and celery. Milk was allowed after 

 the appetite had become satiated with the 

 solid food. 



In order to make more certain the removal 

 of the object, as well as to hasten the action, 

 it was conceived that the addition of agar to 

 the diet would be highly beneficial. Since 

 agar is not digested and swells to several 

 times its bulk its effect would be not only to 

 hasten peristalic action by natural stimula- 

 tion, but its added bulk would assist in en- 

 casing the object and in carrying it along. 

 It was reasoned that its effect would be of 

 especial value in those portions of the digest- 

 ive tract in which the digestible food is in 

 the state of emulsification. 



At evening and morning meals therefore, 

 there was added to a little of the prepared 

 cereal, three heaping teaspoonfuls of choco- 

 late-coated granular agar. This was eaten by 

 the child readily and with relish. 



As the child tended somewhat toward con- 

 stipation, the removal of the previous fecal 

 matter was hastened by the use of a glycerol 

 suppository. The later actions were wholly 

 normal. The first feeding occurred in the 

 evening, soon after the swallowing of the ob- 

 ject. Bowel action occurred as follows : 16 

 hours, 23 hours, 40 hours, at which time the 

 pin appeared. The stools were copious and 

 of a moist, compact, firm structure — an ideal 

 consistency to carry a foreign object. As 

 bowel action occurred twice daily, instead of 

 the usual once; and as the bulk of each was 

 at least twice normal; it is evident that the 



bowel content had been increased by four- 

 fold, due in a large measure to the agar. 



It is not to be supposed that the safe re- 

 moval of the object was due wholly to the 

 agar, though this probably at least hastened 

 its removal. As the experiment was wholly 

 satisfactory however it would lead to the 

 recommendation of the use of agar for this 

 purpose. In the case of the removal of ob- 

 jects more dangerous, or more difficult of 

 removal, it might prove a decisive factor. 



LeEoy S. Weatherby 



Depastment of Chemistry, 



University op Southern CALiroRNiA 



AN INCONSISTENCY IN TAXONOMY 



In the classification of animals we are often 

 very inconsistent in the use and evaluation 

 of characters as we apply them to different 

 groups. This is more apparent between widely 

 separated groups than closely related ones. 

 Thus in the subgrouips in one class of the 

 vertebrates, osteological or other anatomical 

 characters may be largely used, while in an- 

 other class such internal characters may be 

 almost entirely subordinated to external ones. 

 Sometimes, to be sure, certain characters have 

 not the same value in one class that they have 

 in another, but the main reason for the incon- 

 sistency lies in the less skilful or less thorough 

 handling of one group as compared with 

 another. The truth is, classification became 

 unfashionable long before the groups, especi- 

 ally the larger ones, were well formulated. 

 Among groupis as small as genera there are 

 probably few cases so extreme as the following. 



There are two genera of sharks, Mustelus 

 and Cynias, that are strikingly similar in all 

 external characters. We refer them to differ- 

 ent genera because they differ in regard to a 

 modification of the yolk sac in the young. In 

 Mustelus the yolk sac is modified to function 

 as a placenta by which the young forms a 

 connection with the walls of the mullerian 

 duct of the mother. This so-called placenta 

 is absent in Cynias, or, more correctly speak- 

 ing, the yolk sac is unmodified. 



On the other hand, we place two mackerel 

 together in the genus Scomber even though 



