Septembee 7, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



299 



tion of individuals having opposed char- 

 acteristics '1 If the characteristics typically 

 blend in the hybrid offspring, the theory of 

 unit characters loses its main support; but 

 if they typically do not blend, but reappear 

 in the hybrid offspring, each in its pristine 

 purity, then the theory of unit characters 

 is supported and its corollary — evolution 

 by mutation — follows. Hybridization of 

 poultry shows that most characteristics do 

 not blend and do reappear in subsequent 

 hybrid progeny almost unaltered — almost, 

 but not quite. 



The Egg-laying of Chiroiiomus annularis: 

 James G. Needham, Lake Forest, 111. 

 Chironomus annularis, one of the larger 

 midges of wide distribution in Europe and 

 North America, occurs in the campus pond 

 at Lake Forest College, where in May a 

 number of new observations were made as 

 to its manner of oviposition. The eggs are 

 extruded while the female is hanging up 

 among the leaves of the sedges at the 

 water's edge. There occurs a preliminary 

 flight back and forth across the water last- 

 ing fifteen to twenty minutes. This flight 

 ends well in-shore, where the female settles 

 and releases the egg masses upon the sur- 

 face. The egg mass gradually settles be- 

 neath the surface, but remains attached to 

 a little transparent float by a slender ad- 

 hesive gelatinous thread which stretches out 

 to a length of about six inches. The mass 

 then drifts until this suspensory thread 

 comes in contact with some submerged 

 sedge leaf or. other solid support, where 

 it remains until hatched. It contains 

 about 1,800 eggs, which hatch in about 

 three days. 



Some Notes on the Breeding Hahits of our 

 Ithaca Anura: A. H. Wright, Cornell 

 University. 



Of the eight local anura, there have been 

 identified the eggs of all in the field and 

 of six in captivity. The mating embrace 



has been photographed with all excepting 

 Bana cateshiana. 



C. JuDSON Herrick, 



Secretary. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Applied Sociology. By Lester F. Ward. 



Boston, Ginn and Co. 1906. 



The clearness, brilliancy and vigorous de- 

 fense of some pronounced doctrine which we 

 have learned to expect from Professor Ward 

 are characteristic of this book. It concerns 

 real facts, not verbal distinctions; it delights 

 by its cleverness of thought and style; it at- 

 tempts to rehabilitate a particularly unprom- 

 ising form of the Leibnitzian theory that 

 proper education can create a millennium. 



Very briefly, the argument of the book is 

 as follows: The welfare of people in general 

 (whom I understand the sociologists to mean 

 by the perilous word society) is improvable 

 by the control of inanimate and animate na- 

 ture, including people themselves, by reason 

 guided by science and ruled by justice. Jus- 

 tice means the satisfaction of every one's 

 wants, so far as they are not outweighed by 

 others' wants. There is reasoning capacitj 

 enough in all classes of society. Nature. then 

 does not to any degree worthy of considera- 

 tion limit this control; the cause of weal and 

 woe lies in nurture. The particular error of 

 nurture which people should now reform is 

 the inequality of knowledge; the many suffer 

 because they are ignorant. The equalization 

 of intellect will make happiness for all and 

 will multiply a hundredfold the men and 

 women whose eminent achievements in the 

 sciences and arts free life from undesired 

 labor, fear or sickness and add to it noble 

 impulses and the means to realize them. The 

 equalization of intellect will be secured by 

 giving all knowledge to all men through a 

 proper system of public education. 



That the present misery of people in gen- 

 eral is due largely to the unequal distribution 

 of knowledge is assumed with little or no dis- 

 cussion of evidence or of the contrary hy- 

 pothesis that one or two supermen who should 

 next week find cures for cancer, gout and 



