ArcusT 2, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



145 



perature too higli for it to assume non-metallic 

 properties. 



So that the metallic and non-metallic conditions 

 are simply phases, which all kinds of matter pass 

 through as the temperature increases from zero 

 upwards. 



His explanation of osmotic pressure and 

 solubility given in Chapter III. is worthy of 

 note. 



There are numerous misprints in the book. 



We would end finally by a quotation from 

 the preface and would give warning that the 

 author's speculations are not confined to the 

 preface and the appendices: 



In appendix C is discussed from this point of 

 view the habit of alcohol drinking, and it is sug- 

 gested that it may be the beginning of an organic 

 tendency that will ultimately lead to the elimina- 

 tion of water in living matter, and its replacement 

 by the more mobile alcohol, in order that as the 

 temperature of the earth and sun falls the aqueous 

 fluid in living matter may be replaced by alcoholic 

 fluids which will remain liquid under conditions 

 which convert water into a solid state. 



It is indeed a very curious fact, which has 

 never been adequately explained, that men seem 

 almost instinctively to avoid the use of pure water 

 as a beverage. They drink either tea, beer or 

 alcoholic liquids, but only water when they are 

 either very thirsty or when other liquids can not 

 be obtained. There must be some scientific cause 

 underlying this tendency, and I think that ap- 

 pendix C opens out a very curious possibility as 

 to what this tendency may ultimately lead to. 



J. E. Mills 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The Journal of Experimental Zoology, Vol. 

 rV., No. 2 (June, 1907), contains the follow- 

 ing papers : " The Influences of External 

 Factors, Chemical and Physical, on the 

 Development of Fundulus heieroclUus" by 

 Chas. E. Stockard. The eggs of Fundulus 

 were found to produce definite types of 

 embryos when treated with various salt solu- 

 tions. The most striking tjrpe being the one- 

 eyed monsters resulting from the use of sea- 

 water solutions of MgClj. Osmotic pressures 

 resulting from the use of sugar solution 

 affected the eggs much more violently when 

 they were being developed in fresh water than 



in sea-water. The effects of a weak salt solu- 

 tion are augmented by the addition of sugar to 

 the solution. The embryos develop in a per- 

 fectly normal manner entirely out of water if 

 kept in a moist amosphere, though they are 

 unable to hatch unless put into water; then 

 they very promptly break through the egg 

 membrane and swim away. " Movement and 

 Problem Solving in Ophiiira hrevispina," by 

 O. C. Glaser. " 0. hrevispina moves in prac- 

 tically all of the ways possible for a penta- 

 radiate animal; exhibits no sign of improve- 

 ment from practise in the performance of the 

 righting reaction or of freeing its arms of 

 encumbrances. The behavior, in spite of its 

 complexity, can not be considered a sign of 

 intelligence." " Occurrence of a Sport in 

 Melasoma (Lina) scripta and its Behavior in 

 Heredity," by Isabel McCracken. " In this 

 paper the author records the results of a breed- 

 ing experiment carried through a series of 

 seven generations, under controlled conditions 

 of a dichromatic species of beetle in which a 

 " sport" is of occasional occurrence. The re- 

 sults show that the sport, although inherently 

 stable, as evidenced by its breeding true 

 through selection, is entirely dominated by 

 each of the dichromatic extremes of the species 

 in a first cross, and is gradually eliminated 

 from the lineage of each of these in successive 

 crosses. " The Energy of Segmentation," by 

 E. G. Spaulding. The paper presents the ap- 

 plication, by means of experimental methods, 

 and not simply as a postulate, as has heretofore 

 been the case, of the first and second laws of 

 thermodynardics in their generalized form to 

 the event of segmentation. These methods 

 were " compensation " methods ; cleavage, in 

 sea-urchin eggs, was inhibited by means of 

 osmotic pressure, and from the values thus 

 obtained and with volumes and surfaces known 

 the energy-change was computed. The con- 

 clusion is reached, that, with these laws valid 

 for the organic as well as the inorganic realm, 

 these two realms fall as species within the 

 same " natural classification " in which the 

 principles stated by the two laws form the 

 highest genus. " Experiments in Transplant- 

 ing Limbs and their Bearing upon the 



