SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, February 16, 1906. 



CONTB-NTS. 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Is Mutation a Factor in the Evolution of 

 the Higher Vertebrates? Section F — Zool- 

 ogy : Ds. C. Hast Mebriam 241 



Section F — Zoologi/ : Peofessok G. Judson 

 Hebrick 257 



Scientific Books: — 



Thorndike's The Elements of Psychology: 

 Pkofessoe E. B. Delabaere. Rutherford 

 on Radio-activitiy : Professor C. Baeus . . 260 



Scientific Journals and Articles 262 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington: 

 Chables K. Wead. The Biological So- 

 ciety of Washington: E. L. Moeeis. The 

 Geological Society of Washington: Arthur 

 C. Spencee. The Society of Geohydrol- 

 ogists : M. L. Fuller 263 



Discussion a/nd Correspondence: — 



A 'New World for the Blind: Dr. Geoege 

 'M. Gould. Color-associations with Nu- 

 merals: De. Edwaed S. Holden. The 

 Yellmc Fever Mosquito: Fredeeick Knab. 268 



Special Articles : — 



The Primeval Atmosphere: Peofessoe 

 Ealph H. McKee 271 



Current Notes on Meteorology : — 



Temperature in Cyclones and Anti-cyclones ; 

 A hahoratory Matiual; Notes: Peofessoe 

 R. Dec. Ward 274 



A Colorado School of Forestry 276 



The Geological Survey of Illinois 276 



The Memorial of Major Walter Reed 277 



Scientific Notes and News 277 



University and Ediicational News 280 



MSS. Intended for pablioation and books, etc., intended 

 tor review ehould be sent to the Editor of Science, Garri . 

 eon-on-HndBon, N. Y. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR TEE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SGIFNCE. 

 IS MUTATION A FACTOR IN THE EVOLU- 

 TION OF THE HIGHER VERTEBRATES^ 



The stir created among botanists and 

 horticulturists by the recent work of de 

 Vries, particularly by his Berkeley lec- 

 tures (1904) on 'The Origin of Species 

 and Varieties by Mutation, ' has led certain 

 zoologists to believe that species of animals 

 as well as plants may arise by the sudden 

 assumption of new characters. Thus 

 Davenport, in a recent review, expresses 

 the conviction that 'as good an argument 

 might be made from the zoological side as 

 de Vries has made from the botanical.' 

 The promulgation of these views by so 

 eminent a student of evolution as Daven- 

 port, in connection Avith the circumstance 

 that more or less similar views are held by 

 others, has led me to reexamine certain 

 groups of birds and mammals, of which I 

 had previously made systematic studies, 

 for the purpose of discovering evidence, if 

 such exists, of the formation of species bj^ 

 mutation. - 



But first let us be sure of de Vries 's 

 meaning. He states that individual plants 

 of a certain species of evening primrose 



^ Address of the vice-president and chairman of 

 Section F — zoolog}' — at the New Orleans meeting 

 of the American .\«.-:;r''i< ion fir the Advancement 

 of Scienec. » 



" It is important that the terms used by de Vries 

 should be understood. What we systematists have 

 been in the habit of calling spontaneous variations 

 or ' sports ' he calls ' mutations '; what we call 

 'individual variaiions' he calls ' fluctuatiotis ' ; 

 and what we call the ' characters ' of species he 

 calls ' qualities.' 



