July 4, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



27 



Clubs and secret societies occupy the fourth 

 chapter and nearly one third of the volume. 



The conclusions to be drawn from the con- 

 tents of the volume devoted to the existence 

 and the future of culture society are scarcely 

 touched, though they are so full of meaning. 

 The author hints that altruistic ethical phi- 

 losophy, on the strength of the facts here as- 

 sembled, demands now a radical revision, since 

 manifestly out of the sex and family impulses 

 on the one hand, and the pure and simple im- 

 pulses of social organizations on the other, two 

 quite different and frequently downright an- 

 tagonistic kinds of moral codes must arise. The 

 struggle between these has been frequently 

 remarked and treated in a poetic fashion, but 

 the knowledge of their true significance will 

 be made possible for the first time by the facts 

 here set forth, and not only in the realms of 

 custom, but in all the areas of human activity, 

 the two sets of impulses are playing against 

 each other and building up forms of society, 

 in order subsequently to pull them down and ■ 

 destroy them.. 



• There ought to be a good English transla- 

 tion of this work, which, ignoring the necessity 

 of promiscuity at any time in human society, 

 finds explanation of artificial social struc- 

 tures and functions in the inventive faculty, 

 which has been able to create innumerable 

 associations for men in their varied emer- 

 gencies. 



0. T. Mason. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



SECTION OP BIOLOGY. 



A REGULAR meeting of the Section of Bi- 

 ology was held on April 14, Professor Bash- 

 ford Dean presiding. The following program 

 was offered : 



J. H. McGregor, ' The Ancestry of the 

 Ichthyosauria.' 



A. G. Mayer, ' Color Patterns in Lepidoptera.' 



C. C. Trowbridge, ' The Function of Interlocked 

 Emarginate Primaries in Soaring Flight.' 



Dr. McGregor accepted Baur's view that 

 the Ichthyosauria are derived from Permian 

 Khynchocephalia, but stated that in a study 

 of the Belodontia he had found new evidence 



as to the nature of the intermediate forms. 

 The latter group is of undoubted Ehyncho- 

 cephalian origin, and may almost be consid- 

 ered as a subdivision including forms modi- 

 fied for aquatic life. A comparison of 

 Belodonts and Ichthyosaurs shows that both 

 have evolved in the same direction, though 

 modification has proceeded further in the 

 Ichthyosaurs, which were marine in habit. 

 Almost all of the skeletal features of the two 

 orders are reducible to a common type, and, 

 although not directly ancestral, the Belodonts 

 must be considered as standing very near the 

 line of descent of the Ichthyosaurs; the two 

 orders probably had as a common ancestor 

 some aquatic Ehynchocephalian of the upper 

 Permian or lower Trias. The Ichthyosauria 

 are thus brought into relation with the 

 Archosaurian branch of the Eeptilia. 



Dr. Mayer presented the results of his 

 study of the color patterns of 1,173 species of 

 Lepidoptera : 453 Papilio, 30 Ornithoptera, 643 

 Hesperidse, and 47 Castina. Counting sexual 

 differences, 1,340 individual insects were ex- 

 amined; 542 Papilio, 59 Ornithoptera, 688 

 Hesperidse, and 51 Castina. The number of 

 rows of spots, bands, or combination mark- 

 ings upon the wings were counted, and as well 

 the number of spots in each individual row, 

 and the number of interspaces over whicli 

 each band extended; the results show that each 

 row of spots or bands exhibits a decided tend- 

 ency to be of uniform color throughout, that 

 rows very rarely break at or near the middle 

 of their extent, and that the end spots of a 

 row are more variable than those spots near 

 the center. ' Frequency polygons ' were ob- 

 tained from the above-mentioned data, for the 

 rows of markings, for the number of spots in 

 each row, and for the extent of bands meas- 

 ured in interspaces. Eight such frequency 

 polygons were determined for the spots and 

 bands on the upper and lower surfaces of the" 

 wings in the group of Papilio + Ornithoptera, 

 Of the four representing the conditions in the 

 fore-wing, three exhibit two well-marked max- 

 ima, the numbers being arranged in descend- 

 ing series on either side of each. These 

 maxima are three' and nine spots, or bands 

 extending over three or nine interspaces. If, 



