December 13, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



833 



shown of tills work in Mesa Verde Park, 

 McElmo Canyon, Monument Park and Grand 

 Gulch, the latter containing several hundred 

 cliff-dwellings of the "Basket Makers." The 

 work in New Mexico was concentrated on a 

 large ruin in the Puye, where 120 rooms were 

 cleared out and a collection secured numbering 

 3,500 artifacts. The paper was discussed by 

 the president, Dr. Hrdlicka, and Mr. Eobin- 

 son. Walter Hough, 



General Secretary 



THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



The 177th regular meeting of the Chemical 

 Society (Washington Section) convened at the 

 Cosmos Club, November 14, at 8 p.m., Presi- 

 dent Fireman presiding. Two councilors, L. 

 M. Tolman and F. K. Cameron, were elected 

 to represent the section at the general meeting 

 of the society. 



The following paper by C. A. Crampton and 

 L. M. Tolman, " The Changes taking Place in 

 Whiskey during Storage in Wood," was read 

 by Mr. Tolman. Graphic illustrations showed 

 the chemical changes in whiskey during nine 

 years' study. The attendance was about 

 eighty. J. A. LeClerc, 



Secretary 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE HOLOTHUEUN IN DREW'S INVERTEBRATE 

 ZOOLOGY 



The laboratory guide written by Dr. Gilman 

 A. Drew with the aid of members of the 

 zoological staff of instructors of the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory at Woods Holl, like its 

 predecessor by Dr. Bumpus, has many excel- 

 lent features. Since it is probable that a 

 number of teachers will place this work in 

 the hands of their students before a new edi- 

 tion can be issued, I venture to make a few 

 suggestions concerning the description of 

 Thyone, the type representing the Holo- 

 thurioidea. 



On page 69 the paragraph numbered 2 re- 

 lates that " Ten forwardly directed canals 

 leave the water-ring and pass into the ten- 

 tacles." Some of the older text-books affirm 

 this error, while others do not state clearly the 

 origin of the tentacles but most of the newer 



works on zoology like Parker and Haswell, 

 Delage and Herouard, Goodrich in Lankester, 

 Lang and others properly describe the ten- 

 tacular canals arising from the radial canals. 

 Ludwig, in 1891, demonstrated in the embry- 

 ology of Cucumaria planci that the tentacles 

 arise from the radial canals and not, as 

 previously given, from the circular canal 

 (water-ring). The student should be directed 

 to inject the water vascular system with 

 Eanvier's Prussian blue through one of the 

 Polian vesicles. After cutting away the 

 oesophageal wall he can see the tentacular 

 canals branching from the radial canals just 

 before the latter bend over the radial pieces of 

 the calcareous ring. He will thus understand 

 that the tentacles are simply modified pedicels. 



Since in the study of holothurians it is im- 

 portant to distinguish the ambulacral append- 

 ages with suckers, as pedicels, from those 

 without, as papillw, it would be better, on 

 page 67, to substitute cylindrical pedicels for 

 " papillifomi ambulacral suckers." The term 

 sucker could then be limited to the terminal 

 sucking disc. 



Under Digestive System (p. 68) the calca- 

 reous ring should be substituted for " a car- 

 tilaginous structure." 



Under Reproductive System (p. 68) the 

 gonad should be described as made up of two 

 brushes, one on either side of the dorsal 

 mesentery. 



It is to be regretted tha1> no mention is 

 made of the paired bands of longitudinal 

 muscles, so characteristic of holothurians, and 

 of the five powerful retractor muscles possessed 

 by Thyone and the other members of the 

 family Cucumariidse. For comparison with 

 the skeleton of the other Echinoderma de- 

 scribed by Drew something should be said of 

 the spicules, in the form of tailes, found in 

 the walls of the pedicels of Thyone. The stu- 

 dent can easily examine these spicules under 

 the microscope after placing a few pedicels in 

 caustic potash for a short time. 



Charles L. Edwards 



the " census of four square feet " 



Concerning Nathan Banks's recent notice* 

 1 Science, N. S., XXVI., p. 637. 



