96 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 916 



know that yellow fever and malaria are never air- 

 borne. Experiments have shown that bubonic 

 plague and Mediterranean fever are not. There 

 is no evidence that cholera and typhoid fever are 

 ever air-borne and much that they are not. The 

 spread of influenza out-of-doors does not take 

 place and perhaps not in-doors. The alleged evi- 

 dence that smallpox virus is air-borne around hos- 

 pitals is very weak. Careful observation in hos- 

 pitals has shown that typhus fever, cerebro-spinal 

 meningitis and poliomyelitis do not pass from 

 patient to patient in the same ward. The same is 

 true for uncomplicated scarlet fever and for diph- 

 theria except by contact or close droplet infection. 

 Probably measles and whooping cough, rubella, 

 mumps, chickenpox and smallpox are not air-borne, 

 even in the same room, but further observation 

 may show that such infection may rarely take 

 place. 



At the regular monthly meeting of the section 

 held at the American Museum of Natural History, 

 April 8, 1912, the following papers were read: 

 Sex-linked Inheritance in Poultry: T. H. Morgan. 



A summary of experiments carried out with the 

 collaboration of H. D. Goodale: relating especially 

 to the inheritance of the factor for barring in 

 Plymouth Kocks and Dominiques crossed to Lang- 

 shans. The paper is being published in the Annals. 

 The Spawning Habits of the Sea Lamprey, Petro- 



myson marinus: L. Hussakof. 



An abstract of this communication was pub- 

 lished in Science, March 22, 1912, pp. 460^61. 

 The speaker exhibited a small model of the lamprey 

 group now under construction in the American 

 Museum. 

 Notes on Cuban Marine Fishes: John T. Nichols. 



The speaker dealt with the resvilts of a brief col- 

 lecting trip to Cuba and exhibited various speci- 

 mens. He passed in review some of the Scombri- 

 form fishes. The king fish, Scomberomorus ca- 

 valla, is highly esteemed, but another species, 

 S. regalis, is said to be occasionally poisonous. 

 S. maculatus, the Spanish mackerel, was not seen. 

 While regalis and maculatus occupy more or less 

 distinct areas, cavalla is abundant both in Florida, 

 with maculatus, and in Cuba, with regalis; in 

 the speaker 's opinion these two last named species, 

 which are still closely related, have recently be- 

 come separated through the competition of cavalla. 

 Two very widely separated forms, Arbaciosa ru- 

 pestru and Gobius soporator, were found inhabit- 

 ing adjacent rock pools; both were eoncealingly 



colored and could have been confused until their 

 distinctive color patterns were noticed. 



At the regular monthly meeting of the section 

 held at the American Museum of Natural History, 

 May 13, 1912, the following papers were read: 

 Note on the Habits of the Climbing Cat-fish 



{Arges murmoratus) from the United States of 



Colombia: E. D. O. Johnson. 



Although living in streams of high grade and 

 torrential force these fish were enabled not only 

 to hold their place against the current, but even 

 to advance up-stream and to climb out of a steep- 

 walled, deep pot-hole. They did this by means of 

 curious sucker-like adaptations of the mouth and 

 ventral fins. The paper vrill appear in the Annals. 

 On the Changes in Behavior of the Mel {Conger 



malabaricus?) during its Transformation: Bash- 



POEB Dean. 



When at Misaki, Japan, the speaker had made 

 observations upon the structure and behavior of a 

 living leptocephalus larva which was kept alive in 

 an aquarium for over three weeks, during this time 

 undergoing its metamorphosis. Especially inter- 

 esting is the rapidity with which the behavior of 

 the young eel changes from day to day in its 

 methods of swimming and resting, response to 

 stimuli, etc. The speaker suggested that these 

 marked differences in behavior in successive stages 

 were correlated with kaleidoscopic changes in ele- 

 ments of the central nervous system; that when 

 more fully known this would probably afEord a 

 suggestive case of parallelism between psychic re- 

 actions and neurological conditions. The paper 

 will appear in the Annals. 



Notes on Certain Principles of Quadrupedal Loco- 

 motion and on the Mechanism of the Limbs of 



Hoofed Animals: William K. Gregory. 



The speaker gave a brief resume of a paper that 

 is being published in the Annals. 

 On the Dictyonema Fauna of Navy Island, New 



BrunsivicJc: F. P. Hahn. 



Bead by title. To be published in the Annals. 



The secretary gave an abstract of a communica- 

 tion from Dr. P. Baehmetjew, of Sofia, relating 

 to the physiology of Vesperugo pipistrellns and 

 Miniopterus schreibersii. In some cases these bats 

 had been thawed out and the heart action had 

 resumed even after the body had been cooled to 

 — 7° Cent, below the body temperature. 



The section adjourned until October 14, 1912. 

 William K. Gregory, 



Secretary 



