June 24, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



989 



ginuings of race homicide among the more 

 cultivated members of the race. College pro- 

 fessors must be presentable socially and as 

 befits their learned station. They have not 

 the means to rear their families. 



If the plight of the professors is evil, that 

 of the assistant professors is worse. Consul- 

 tation of Bradstreet's tables shows that the 

 cost of living has increased 50 per cent, dur- 

 ing the period in which the assistant pro- 

 fessor must serve before being promoted. The 

 young men who choose a career in a univer- 

 sity must, of course, and gladly do, abandon 

 expectation of riches. But they should be 

 permitted to live, not merely to exist, on a 

 wage that is exceeded by the bricklayer's. 

 After a general and specific investigation 

 Professor Guido H. Marx, of Stanford Uni- 

 versity, recently reported in Science that as- 

 sistant professors have found their salaries 

 inadequate to support them comfortably as 

 celibates, and many are seriously debating 

 whether to resign their positions. 



There is something unsound in university 

 administration when the faculties are so ill- 

 paid. Possibly competition with the state 

 universities, which are steadily voting per- 

 centage increases of salary to their faculties, 

 will stir the majority of privately endowed 

 institutions to action. But their trustees 

 have been too long asleep. — N. T. Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904. 

 Natural Plistory, Vol. V. London, British 

 Museum, 1910. Seal Embryos, by Dr. H. 

 W. Marrett-Tims. 21 pp., 2 pi. Tuni- 

 cata, by Professor W. A. Herdman. 26 pp., 

 1 pi. Isopoda, by T. V. Hodson. 77 pp., 

 10 pi. Nemertinea, by Professor L. 

 JouBiN. 15 pp., 1 pi. Medusae; by E. T. 

 Browne. 62 pp., 7 pi. Lichenes, by Dr. O. 

 V. Darbishire. 11 pp., 1 pi., 4to. 

 The fifth volume of the reports on the Nat- 

 ural History of Captain Scott's expedition to 

 the Antarctic edited by Mr. Jefl'rey Bell has 

 now appeared and the preface states that 

 another volume will probably conclude this 

 series of reports which has contained ao 



much of value and so many additions to our 

 knowledge of the Antarctic region. 



The seal embryos all belonged to Wed- 

 dell's seal and from the data accompanying 

 them it seems that the period of gestation is 

 about nine months, the young being born in 

 October or November. They are covered at 

 birth with a coating of hair which is shed 

 during the first month. After the second 

 coat appears the young seal may take to the 

 water, though it is not weaned until some 

 time later. The vibrissse precede the body 

 hair in appearance and were distinctly visible 

 in an embryo four inches long. In a very 

 early embryo what is regarded as a trace of 

 an external ear was detected. The examina- 

 tion of the muscular system seemed to lend 

 some additional support to Mivart's sugges- 

 tion of a Lutrine origin for the Phocidse. 



The collection of Tunicata contained 

 twenty-two species; excluding the pelagic 

 forms there are thirty-three specimens be- 

 longing to fourteen species. 



The Antarctic tunicate fauna is character- 

 ized by the abundance and large size of the 

 individuals of a comparatively few species. 

 Our knowledge of the fauna is still too 

 limited to allow of a critical comparison with 

 that of the Arctic, but a certain similarity of 

 families and genera is noticeable. The 

 strictly Antarctic region, south of latitude 

 60° S. has already furnished some fifty 

 species of Tunicata, of which Professor Herd- 

 man gives a list. Ten new species are de- 

 scribed, of which one is probably the largest 

 Styela known. 



No less than twenty-five species of isopods 

 were captured. Remarkable sexual variation 

 was noted among the Arcturidse. An inter- 

 esting feature, first pointed out by Miss 

 Richardson, is the presence of long peduncles 

 supporting the eyes; these have now been ob- 

 served in seven Antarctic species. Mr. Hod- 

 son gives a list of the known isopods of the 

 Antarctic region of which twenty-nine out of 

 one hundred and eleven are strictly Antarctic, 

 seven are also found in the Arctic regions, 

 and the remainder belong to the subantarctic 



