November 17, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



633 



scribed and an interesting comparison is made 

 with ' the standard California type forma- 

 tions.' The concluding paper, the ' Arapahoe 

 Glacier in 1905,' is by Professor Junius Hen- 

 derson. 



The American Naturalist for October con- 

 tains articles on ' A Peculiar Variation of 

 Tereiratalia transversa Sowerby,' by H. W. 

 Shimer; 'Studies on the Plant Cell, VIII.,' 

 by Bradley M. Davis; and ' Diadasia Patton; 

 a Genus of Bees,' by T. D. A. Cockerell. The 

 article on the plant cell is the final one of the 

 series and it is noted that the author has a 

 number of complete sets of reprints, and that 

 enquiries concerning them may be addressed 

 to him at the University of Chicago. Pro- 

 fessor Cockerell's article includes a table for 

 the identification of all the species of the 

 genus. 



The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 

 October has for its leader an article on ' Local 

 Museums,' by J. Willis Bund, one of several 

 papers dealing vpith this subject that vpere read 

 at the last meeting of the Museums Associa- 

 tion. The matter is one that should be spe- 

 cially commended to the attention of our 

 schools and colleges, local museums being all 

 too rare in the United States, vphere ranch 

 time and effort is throvpn away in the attempt 

 to make a small museum cover the universe 

 instead of devoting its energies to the imme- 

 diate locality. Among the notes American 

 readers will blush to find the prominence 

 given to some comparatively recent occur- 

 rences at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 



The closing (October) number of volume 

 6 of the Transactions of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society contains the following papers : 



Maurice Feechet : ' Sur recart de deux courbes 

 et sur les courbes limites.' 



John Eiesland: ' On a certain system of conju- 

 gate lines on a surface connected with Euler's 

 transformation.' 



L. P. EiSENHART : ' Surfaces of constant curva- 

 ture and their transformations.' 



N. J. Lennes : ' Volumes and areas.' 



E. O. LovETT : ' On a problem including that of 

 several bodies and admitting of an additional 

 integral.' • 



F. R. Sharpe : ' On the stability of the motion 

 of a viscous liquid.' 



A. LoEWY : ' Ueber die vollstiindig reduciblen 

 Gruppen, die zu einer Gruppe linearer homogener 

 Substitutionen gehOren.' 



W. B. Carver : ' On the Cayley- Veronese class of 

 configurations.' 



This number also contains : Notes and Errata, 

 volumes 5, 6; Table of Contents, volume 6. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 THE philosophical SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 604th regular meeting was held Oc- 

 tober 7, 1905, with President Littlehales in 

 the chair. 



The evening was devoted to a paper by Pro- 

 fessor W. D. Miller, of the University of 

 Berlin, on ' Symbiosis.' He defined symbiosis 

 as a life relationship existing between differ- 

 ent kinds of animals or plants, or between 

 animals and plants. The relation of the 

 mistletoe to the tree on which it grows, for 

 instance, is a symbiosis. According as ad- 

 vantage or disadvantage accrues to one or the 

 other or to both of the parties concerned the 

 symbiosis is designated as parasitism, com- 

 mensalism and true or mutualistic symbiotism. 



By parasitism we designate that type of 

 symbiosis in which one individual lives at the 

 expense of the other, doing it some harm 

 without making any return; the first being 

 called the parasite, the latter the host. Such 

 is the relation of fleas, lice, bugs, tapeworms, 

 etc., to the human being. By. far the most 

 important of this type is that existing between 

 bacteria and the human subject. 



By commensalism (con, mensa) we desig- 

 nate a symbiosis in which the one party lives 

 from the superabundance or from the crumbs 

 of the table of the other, deriving thereby a 

 benefit from the relationship, but doing no 

 harm and also making no return. In true 

 symbiosis hoth parties derive an advantage 

 from the relationship. Such is the symbiosis 

 between the hermit crab and the sea anemone, 

 between ants and plant lice, etc. 



Especial attention was called to the tripar- 

 tite symbiosis existing between animals, higher 

 plants and bacteria, all animals being de- 

 pendent upon plants for their food, the higher 



