368 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1001 



has been followed in its developmental history in a 

 graded series of embryos and larval fishes to the 

 adult condition. The olfactory nerve and the 

 nervus terminalis are interpreted as arising to- 

 gether from the ectodermal nasal placode in the 

 same T7ay as was previously found in Amia and 

 Ameiurus. The ganglion of the nervus terminalis 

 can not be recognized with certainty until a late 

 embryological stage (about 100 hours from fertili- 

 zation) and later is divided into a compact central 

 ganglion and a more diffuse peripheral ganglion 

 in or near the nasal capsule. In the adult fish the 

 central ganglion is located on the ventral side of 

 the olfactory nerve anterior to the masticating 

 muscles about an inch rostral of the brain. It can 

 not be positively stated that there is fibrous con- 

 nection with the other cranial nerves, but a large 

 ramus of the fifth nerve runs in the same bony 

 channel. We have recently found more than two 

 hundred large ganglion cells associated with the 

 olfactory fila in adult man that have been inter- 

 preted as belonging to the nervus terminalis. 

 Full paper to be published in Journal of Compara- 

 tive Neurology and Psychology. 

 The Library of Congress as an Aid to Scientific 



Besearch: E. W. Gudger. 



The Library of Congress, the national library 

 in fact if not in name, contains about 2,000,000 

 books, including the priceless Smithsonian Col- 

 lection, and is the richest depository of the kind 

 in the new world. These books, including sets of 

 scientific periodicals and proceedings of learned 

 societies, are, under very liberal regulations and 

 restrictions, available for the use of those doing 

 serious scientific research work anywhere in the 

 United States. Further, the library maintains a 

 division of bibliography the services of which are 

 available to the research worker for the settling 

 of bibliographical questions, for perfecting in- 

 complete references, for compiling lists of refer- 

 ences, and even for copying out brief extracts. On 

 the other hand, to the scientific man, visiting Wash- 

 ington for the, purpose of making use of the Li- 

 brary of Congress, every facility for work is ac- 

 corded upon the presentation of proper credentials. 

 He is given a room or an alcove in which to work, 

 may even be admitted to the stacks, and if neces- 

 sary may have an attendant or stenographer, while 

 there is no limit to the number of books he may 

 have on his table for reference. In short, it is the 

 purpose of the librarian of congress and his as- 

 sociates to supply the unusual book for the un- 

 usual need, to make the national library the great- 



est reference library in America, and the speaker, 

 having during the past seven years borrowed hun- 

 dreds of books from it, is able to testify that this 

 purpose is not a matter of theoretical intention, but 

 of actual achievement. This being the nearest large 

 library to the South, it has seemed well, at a meet- 

 ing of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, held in a southern city and at- 

 tended largely by southern men, to call the atten- 

 tion of Section F and of the whole association to 

 the great function of this great library. 



A Demonstration of the Ears of Some White and 

 Colored People of New Orleans, La.: Eobeet 

 Bennett Bean. 



During the past three years and more I have col- 

 lected about 200 ears of colored people in New Or- 

 leans, and about as many more of white people, 

 some of which are preserved at the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and the remainder at Tulane Univer- 

 sity. I measured the ears after classifying them 

 according to my grouping of hyper, meso and 

 hypo forms, but I found that many of the ears of 

 the colored people were unlike any of the three 

 forms, and I call them negroid ears. I had previ- 

 ously collected the ears of Filipinos and placed 

 them in the Smithsonian Institution, and in addi- 

 tion to the ears that I have collected and measured 

 I have examined thousands of ears of Filipinos, Ne- 

 groes, white people and others, therefore, I feel 

 qualified to classify the normal ear. The ears of 

 the white people may be grouped into three forms 

 which will be described briefly as follows: The 

 hypo ear is a small round ear, that has a deep 

 concha, with a raised helix, that makes the ear look 

 like a shallow bowl. The meso ear is large, often al- 

 most rectilinear, and somewhat flattened, and not so 

 bowl shaped as the hypo ear. The hyper ear is 

 long, narrow and usually small, with everted 

 tragus, antitragus and anthelix and rolled back 

 helix. The meso ear seems to be the form from 

 which the others have been derived, and the hypo 

 and hyper forms have apparently undergone a 

 greater amount of retrograde metamorphosis than 

 the meso ear. The three forms are found among 

 the colored people in almost as great purity as 

 among the white people, but the most usual con- 

 dition of either form is to present a certain 

 amount of wrinkling of the helix as if it had been 

 shriveled, and in contracting the ear is distorted. 

 The ear of the Negro also appears in the form de- 

 scribed by Hrdlicka, which is small, almost square 

 and flat against the head. The ears of the colored 

 people are, as a rule, smaller than those of the 



