March 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



473 



one occasionally finds specimens witli two or three 

 oral ends and several bands of cilia, but never any 

 which are more abnormal. Each oral apparatus 

 is functional in these creatures. I have seen speci- 

 mens swallow three paramecia at a time. If they 

 are isolated and kept in shallow dishes with 

 plenty of paramecia they thrive and reproduce 

 rapidly. Ordinarily normal specimens are cut off 

 at each oral end and the original individuals 

 remain as they were, but in some cases there is a 

 tendency to form more complicated abnormalities 

 due to incomplete fission. 



Many of these are unable to swim and conse- 

 quently lie on the bottom. If there are numerous 

 paramecia and the water is shallow, they persist 

 indefinitely, and many abnormal specimens are 

 formed as well as normal ones. Under natural 

 conditions, however, such specimens are at once 

 eliminated, for they sink to the bottom while the 

 paramecia on which they feed remain near the 

 surface. Natural selection is thus seen to operate 

 in preventing the perpetuation of these monsters. 

 Variation in Urosalpinx: H. E. Walteb, Brown 



University. 



Over 50,000 shells of the oyster drill, Urosal- 

 pinx cinereus, which were collected at various 

 times between 1898 and 1908 from various locali- 

 ties both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, were 

 carefully measured and the variation, as shown 

 by standard deviation, computed. So far as the 

 statistical method is able to reveal, it is extremely 

 doubtful whether or not this mollusk when intro- 

 duced into a new habitat, as happened when they 

 were accidentally transplanted with oysters to the 

 Pacific coast from the Atlantic, exhibits greater 

 variability than in its new habitat. The change 

 of variability appearing in successive fortnights 

 in shells in the same locality, as well as the 

 change showing itself in the August shells of the 

 same locality for successive years, is pronounced 

 enough to indicate plainly the working of an 

 ontogenetic variability independent of environ- 

 mental modification, that is, a time factor as dis- 

 tinguished from a place factor. In consequence 

 of this, it is practically impossible to collect 

 homologous lots of these shells upon which the 

 place (or environmental) factor may be accurately 

 determined. 



Some Results of a Study of the Inheritance of 

 Barring in Poultry: R. Peakl and F. M. Sub- 

 face, Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 Certain results obtained by reciprocally cross- 

 ing Barred Plymouth Rock and Cornish Indian 



Game fowls were described. It was shown that 

 the barred plumage pattern is inherited in these 

 hybrids in a sex-limited manner. The cross 

 Barred Plymouth Rock ^ X Cornish Indian Game 

 5 gives all barred offspring, in both se.xes. The 

 reciprocal cross gives barred males and solid black 

 females. It was shown that the degree or inten- 

 sity of pigmentation (apart from pattern) is not 

 inherited in these hybrids in the manner to be 

 expected if there were a simple blending of the 

 degrees of this character manifested in the 

 parents. The complete paper will shortly be 

 published elsewhere. 

 Ophiurans and " Jordan's Law " : Hubert Lyman 



Clark, Harvard University. 



The study of a large collection of ophiurans 

 from the North Pacific Ocean has shown that 

 closely related species are often found occupying 

 the same area. In several instances, a given 

 species was taken two or more times, in the same 

 trawling, with its nearest known ally. These 

 facts are counter to that principle of the extreme 

 importance of geographical isolation which has 

 recently been formulated and designated as " Jor- 

 dan's law." An illustration of a form of physi- 

 ological isolation was offered, found among West 

 Indian ophiurans, which suggests a possible rea- 

 son why geographical isolation is relatively unim- 

 portant in the class. 

 0)1 the Geographic Distribution of some Pelagic 



Organisms: H. B. Biqelow, Harvard University. 

 The Distribution of Flies in Providence: G. F. 



Sykes, Brown University. (Introduced by H. 



E. Walter.) 



During the summer of 1909 a series of investi- 

 gations was begun in Providence, R. I., for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the actual importance of 

 the " house flies " as a factor in the spread of 

 enteric diseases. The following results were ob- 

 tained : ( 1 ) the fly nuisance is local ; ( 2 ) the 

 geographic distribution of pestiferous flies is de- 

 termined by local sanitary conditions; (3) the 

 seasonal distribution is conditioned by meteorolog- 

 ical influences (temperature and sunshine) ; (4) 

 over 99 per cent, of all the flies caught (in three 

 kitchens) were Musca domestica, the remaining 

 fractional per cent, were Lucilia cwsar; (5) the 

 plotted curve for typhoid cases did not show a 

 close relation to the fly curve, but did show a close 

 parallel to the temperature curve; (6) the high- 

 water mark for deaths from diarrhoea antedated 

 that for the fly season by fully three weeks, and 

 followed from one to two weeks after a noticeable 



