314 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 477. 



The discussion of evolution has long since 

 passed the stage when particular facts could 

 be used to prove general conclusions. The 

 diiEculty with the current hypotheses of evo- 

 lution through selection and mutation -is that 

 while apparently supported by some facts, they 

 are as definitely contradicted by others; a 

 theory which can accommodate both series of 

 phenomena has a larger basis of probability 

 than either. From the standpoint of the 

 kinetic theory the rejection of selection as the 

 actuating cause or principle of evolution does 

 not require the denial of selective adaptation. 

 The recognition, on the other hand, that muta- 

 tions are not caused by environment, does not 

 mean that they are definitely predetermined. 

 The abrupt and striking but more or less 

 sterile aberrations of heredity which occur 

 under inbreeding do not show that evolution 

 depends upon segregation. Neither do they 

 afford evidence against the view that evolu- 

 tionary progress goes forward through the 

 gradual accumvilation of lesser and more nor- 

 mal variations, independent of environment, 

 but not beyond selective influence. The 

 kinetic theory affords the explanation, hitherto 

 lacking, of how selection produces adaptation. 

 It does not set stationary organisms in motion, 

 but it may, at times, determine which varia- 

 tion shall most affect the direction of the mo- 

 tion of the species. 



O. P. Cook. 



Washington, D. C, 

 January 14, 1904. 



(Science, N. S, 19: 112, January 1.5, 1904) that 

 albino mice of mixed ancestry are more prepotent 

 or less recessive than those of pure breed, a re- 

 sult contrary to that which should follow under 

 the p.ure-germ-cell, character-unit theories of 

 Bateson,. Wilson and Castle. The improbability 

 of these meclianieal hypotheses was already evi- 

 dent, however, from the fact, known since the time 

 of Darwin, that the crossing of two ' recessive ' 

 inbred ' mutations ' may bring a return to the an- 

 cestral type. The tendency to disregard older 

 data seems to indicate that the recent DeVriesian 

 and MendeHan mutations of terminology are pre- 

 potent in closely segregated evolutionary investi- 

 gations, but the ancestral facts are still vigorous 

 and likely to reassert themselves whenever a wider 

 intercourse of ideas is resumed. 



THE ANIMAL PARASITE SUPPOSED TO BE THE 

 CAUSE OP YELLOW FEVER. 



In Science of January 1 there appeared a 

 letter signed II. W. Eobinson, which purported 

 to be a defense of one of the members of the 

 working party which I arraigned in my article 

 under the above caption in Science of October 

 23, 1903. 



In reference to this letter I beg to state that 

 I am not expected to give any attention to 

 what one has to say whose knowledge of the 

 matter is second-hand, but that I am fully pre- 

 pared to defend whatever I have written in my 

 article, whenever any of the working party 

 answers to my arraignment of its members. 

 J. C. Smith. 



New Orleans, La., 

 January 25, 1904. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 

 A FISH NEW TO FLORIDA WATERS. 



While dredging off the coast of Florida in 

 1902, the steamer Fish Hawk collected four 

 specimens of a fish whose occurrence in that 

 region was most unexpected and whose known 

 distribution is thus extended in a most inter- 

 esting direction. The fish in question is the 

 snipe-fish or bellows-fish, Macrorhamphosus 

 scolopax (Linmeus), which is common in the 

 Mediterranean and has occasionally been 

 found as far north as the southern coast of 

 England, inhabiting depths up to 170 fathoms. 

 The Fish Hawk specimens were taken at two 

 stations in the Gulf Stream off Key West 

 at depths of 98 and 109 fathoms, respectively. 



There is one other known occurrence of this 

 fish in American waters, recorded by Storer in 

 the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History for 1857 (Vol. VI.), a speci- 

 men having been found at Provincetown, 

 Massachusetts. 



H. M. Smith. 



NOTE ON A RUBBER-PRODUCING PLANT. 



Eecent experiments have shown some in- 

 teresting facts in regard to the products of 

 Picradenia odorata utilis, Okll., Bulletin 

 "Colo. College Museum, December, 1903, a 

 plant belonging to the Compositas and growing 

 abundantly in the neighborhood of Buena 



