June 25, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



951 



fauna, and in some places is divisible into a lower 

 gray, and an upper yellow division, not unlike 

 those which are coniinon in this country. 



The fauna of the lower, horizontally stratified 

 deposit is mixed, consisting of both laud and 

 fresh water mollusks. This part is not loess, and 

 is clearly aqueous. 

 Leaching of the Fleistocene Drifts of Eastern 



lotva: MoERis M. Leighton. 



This paper is a discussion of the process of 

 leaching of the calcareous constituents of the drift 

 in the area above stated. Attention is called to 

 the fact of a narrow transition from the leached 

 zone into the calcareous where limestone pebbles 

 reach their normal abundance, and the contention 

 is set forth that this may be a factor of slow per- 

 colation and rapid saturation. The contention ia 

 also set forth that the bottom of the zone of 

 leaching in the young drifts may not mark the so- 

 called permanent ground-water surface, as is com- 

 monly assumed, but that it may well be above the 

 latter. 

 Some Unique Niagaran Cephalopods; A New 



Crinoid Fauna from Monticello, Iowa; High 



Level Gravels in Floyd County, Iowa: A. O. 



Thomas. 

 The Inheritance of Syndactylism: Heney Albert. 



An instance 'bt thirteen eases of syndactylism (or 

 fused or webbe* fingers or toes), traced through 

 four generations was reported. The element of 

 heredity is obviously apparent. In view of the 

 recent report of a family with cases of syndactyl- 

 ism in which the inheritance of the abnormal 

 union of the digits apparently conformed to Men- 

 del 's law, as a dominant character, an effort was 

 made to determine if the Mendelian law also ap- 

 plied to the cases in question. It was determined 

 that although the disease was due to a factor 

 which was apparently dominant rather than reces- 

 sive, it did not conform entirely to Mendel 's law. 

 That it is not due to a Mendelian recessive char- 

 acter is shown by the fact that in three instances 

 the disease appeared in children, neither of whose 

 parents were affected by it, and in each instance 

 the family history of at least one of the parents 

 was negative for the disease in question. To have 

 a disease due to a recessive character appear in 

 an individual, neither of whose parents are af- 

 fected by it, we must assume that both parents 

 are hybrids as regards the condition in question. 



Nor does it entirely conform to a Mendelian 

 dominant character, since if it did we would ex- 

 pect that if the disease appeared in the offspring it 

 should be present in at least one of the parents. 



It is probable that the explanation for the lacl^ 

 of conformity of our eases to Mendel's law is due 

 to an inhibition of the activity of the determiner 

 for the disease in question by some other factor, 

 causing the disease in such cases to be latent. The 

 absence or non-operation of such inhibiting factor 

 may again cause the disease to appear. 

 The Fffect of Alcohol on the Liver as Shown Ex- 

 perimentally : A. L. Gkover. Introduced by 

 Henry Albert. 

 The Effect of Change of Lamp Voltage on Vision: 

 Wm. Kunerth. 



This paper is an experimental determination of 

 the change of lamp voltage permissible before it is 

 noticed, as also of the change permissible before 

 it really becomes objectionable to the patron. The 

 permissible change of voltage for the different 

 sizes of carbon lamps is determined, as also the 

 permissible change for vacuum tungstens and ni- 

 trogen-filled tungstens. 

 A Simple Device for Demonstrating the Tempered 



Scale: L. B. Spinney. 

 An Attempt to Detect a Change in the Seat Con- 

 ductivity of Selenium Crystals Under the Influ- 

 ence of Light: L. P. Sieg. 

 Notes on Certain Elastic Peculiarities of Phosphor 

 Bronze Wires: L. P. Sieg and A. J. Oehleb. 



On the Wave-length-sensiiility Curves of Isolated 

 Crystals of Selenium Between Wave Lengths 

 2000 A. U. and 4500 A. U.: F. C. Brown and 

 L. P. Sieg. 



A Design for Electrical Regulation of High-tem- 

 perature Ovens; Notes on Production, and Some 

 Electrical Properties of Tellurium Crystals: W. 



E. TiSDALE. 



A Besonance Method for Measuring the Phase Dif- 

 ference of Condensers: H. L. Dodge. 

 The Theory of Binaural Beats. — An Experimental 

 Contribution: G. W. Stewart and Harold 

 Stiles. 



The experiments here reported were performed 

 in order to secure evidence concerning the cause of 

 the additional maxima which occur in binaural 

 beats.i These additional maxima occur at certain 

 phase differences, and the change in these phase 

 differences should depend upon the frequency of 

 the tones, but not upon the frequency of the beats. 

 If the additional maxima are caused by interaural 

 conduction then, as it can be shown, the phase dif- 

 ferences should vary as the frequencies. If the 

 data are plotted, instead of the straight line- which 

 1 See G. "W. Stewart, Physical Beview, Series 2, 

 3, p. 146, 1914, for a description of the phenomena. 



