Decembek 29, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



877 



THE PROPOSED BIOLOGICAL STATION IN GREENLAND. 



To THE Editor of Science: It was my 

 pleasure some time ago to communicate to 

 the readers of Science that the money for the 

 erection of a biological station in Greenland 

 is donated by a citizen of Denmark. I am 

 now able to add further that it is donated by 

 Herrn Justitsraad P. Hoick, of Copenhagen. 

 He has donated 35,000 Kroner (about $10,000) 

 for that purpose, which is the estimated 

 cost, according to Magister M. P. Porsild's 

 plan. It now remains for the Danish govern- 

 ment only to appropriate money enough for 

 its running expenses, which, according to Mr. 

 Porsild's plan, will amount to 11,000 Kroner 

 (about $3,000) a year. 



To show the great interest which scientists 

 have taken in Magister Porsild's plan I could 

 mention the numerous articles in Danish, 

 Swedish, German and American scientific 

 journals, and the recommendations from lead- 

 ing biologists and polar explorers, as Professor 

 Fridthof Nansen, Sir Clements Markham, 

 Professors Yanhoffen, von Drygalski, Aug. 

 Warming, K. Y. Steenstrup and F. Jungersen, 

 Drs. Gunnar Anderson and Georg Brandes, 

 and many others. In the United States it 

 has been highly recommended by Professors 

 E. B. Wilson, C. O. Whitman, J. Loeb, T. H. 

 Morgan and Mr. Pehr Olsson-SefPer, Ph.D. 



Sir Clements R. Markham, president of the 

 Royal Geographical Society in London, says : 

 "Your proposal to establish a biological ob- 

 servatory is, in my opinion, deserving of sup- 

 port. I believe that the science of geography 

 would be advanced by it, and would derive 

 important results. * * * I wish you all pos- 

 sible success in your efforts to secure that 

 result ever." 



Professor Dr. Yanhoffen, in Petermann's 

 Geogr. Mittheilungen, says : " A kind of 

 biological station was established in Green- 

 land in the time of Holbolls and Rinks, the 

 former remained there eighteen years, the 

 latter twenty years. They were the central 

 figures in the exploration and investigation 

 of Greenland. Especially Mr. Rinks knew 

 the people of Greenland well and we have as 

 a result his classical work, ' Gronland, geo- 

 grafisch und statistisch besehrieben.' " After 



a longer description of Mr. Porsild's plan, he 

 states : " It is a very extensive plan that the 

 leader of the future arctic biological station 

 has; but, without doubt, great results are to 

 be expected from such a station." 



The north polar explorer Professor Eridt- 

 hoff JSTansen says: "A biological station in 

 Greenland will be of immense value for scien- 

 tific research. Especially the investigation 

 of its fauna and flora can not help to give 

 results of utmost importance to biological 

 science." 



As soon as the Danish government has de- 

 cided to appropriate money for the support 

 of the station I shall publish an article and 

 describe the proposed function and the oppor- 

 tunities offered to investigators in the first 

 arctic biological station. 



At present we can only express our sin- 

 cerest thanks, high respect and gratitude to 

 men of science in foreign countries who have 

 shown their interest in this Danish scientific 

 undertaking, which we hope will add greatly 

 to the universal advance of biological, geolog- 

 ical and geographical science. 



M. E. Henijiksen. 



Columbia Univeesity, 

 December 1, 1905. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 



THE ASSUMED PURITY OF THE GERM CELLS IN 



MENDELIAN RESULTS. 



CuENOT has recently published^ in the fourth 

 note of his important series of experiments 

 with mice, certain results with yellow mice 

 that are of fundamental importance as bear- 

 ing on the question of the assumed Mendelian 

 purity of the germ-cells. His results and his 

 interpretation of them are briefly as follows: 



Wishing to obtain ' pure ' yellow mice, he 

 crossed yellow mice known to be heterozygotes 

 ii. e., containing recessive gray or black in 

 this case). According to the Mendelian 

 formula he should have obtained the following 

 results : 



CYCC X GYCa = 1 CYGY + 2 CYCG + 1 OGCa. 



Yellow Yellow Gray 



^ ' Les Race Pures et Leur Combinaisons cliez les 

 Souris,' Arch, de Zool. Exp. et Gen., 1905, Vol. 

 III., Notes et Revue, page cxxiii. 



