828 
The results may be inferred. I can exemplify 
them no better than by giving some of the 
actual answers to questions in physiology by 
high school candidates who had just been 
passed in physiology in the grammar grades. 
‘Pleurisy is a disease of the skin ’—‘an in- 
dication that some nerve has been affected.’ 
‘Alcohol, tobacco and opiates thicken the 
blood of the nerves.’ 
‘The respiratory center is in the heart.’ 
‘The heart is the center of respiration.’ 
‘ Residual air is the air in the heart.’ 
‘The body should be bathed frequent ’— 
‘should be bathed at least once a year.’ 
‘Appendicitis and pleurisy is a condition of 
the throat.’ 
‘The blood is carried to the liver through 
the right and left auricles.’ 
‘The meatus auditorius is in the intestines’ 
—‘is an artery leading from the heart’—‘is 
in the eye’—‘is a tube in which the blood 
passes through before entering the stomach.’ 
‘The patella isa network of small blood 
vessels’ —‘is the lining of the abdomen’— 
‘isa tube in the chest’—‘is a muscle over 
the knee.’ 
‘The motores oculi is in the veins’—‘is an 
organ of voice.’ 
‘The mitral valve is at the lower end of the 
stomach ’—‘is located in the liver.’ 
‘Excretion is mingling with saliva,’ 
etc. 
Such absurdities are by no means rare in the 
Kansas schools. For several years it was the 
writer’s duty to pass upon the papers in physi- 
ology of candidates for the State teachers’ 
certificate, and many answers as ridiculous 
as any of the above, were observed. Thus: to 
the question ‘Why does the human body cease 
to grow in stature after about the twenty-fifth 
year?’ the reply was almost invariably, ‘ Be- 
cause it has got its full growth.’ Four out of fif- 
teen answered the question as to what the lym- 
phatic system is by saying that it is a system of 
vessels that take up the impurities of the 
blood and discharge them into the kidneys ! 
It was the rare exception that the papers came 
up to the standard of a respectable high school. 
The worst of it all is that many intelligent 
people defend such ignorance by saying that 
etc., 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII.’ No. 334. 
you must not expect teachers in the public 
schools to be experts in physiology. Is it not 
time that such ‘science’ is banished from the 
public schools? Ido not know whether Kansas 
is an exception in this particular, as it is per- 
haps in some others, to the other States of the 
Union. Certain it is, however, that such de- 
fects cannot be ascribed to the public school 
system of the State in general, for I honestly 
believe that this stands on a higher plane than 
in a majority of the other States. Is public 
school physiology everywhere a farce? 
S. W. WILLISTON. 
NW 
yy SHORTER ARTICLES. 
UNILATERAL COLORATION WITH A BILATERAL 
, EFFECT. * 
WHILE describing the larval eels or Lepto- 
cephali belonging to the United States National 
Museum two specimens claimed especial atten- 
tion. Structurally these two specimens are 
very different and might readily be referred to 
distinct species. In one the nares are approxi- 
mated, and the pectorals are well developed, in 
the other. the nasal openings are wide apart and 
the pectorals have disappeared. The index 
that pointed to the probability that the two 
specimens were different stages of the same 
species is their unique coloration. There are 
eight large black spots much larger and much 
more conspicuous than the color markings of 
any other Leptocephalus. One of these is lo- 
cated over the alimentary canal a short distance 
in front of the anus. The others are along the 
side. Each one of these spots is formed by a 
single enormous chromatophore extending lat- 
erally over three or four somites. Sometimes 
a few minute chromatophores are to be found 
at the margin of the large one. ‘There are 
three of these large chromatophores on the 
left side of the body and four on the right. In 
each case the spots of one side are arranged at 
irregular intervals, but in both cases the spots 
of the one side alternate with the spots of the 
other side, so that together they form, even in 
the alcoholic specimens of these transparent 
* Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of 
the Indiana University, No. 45. 
