February 16, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



257 



inasmuch as sudden or sport variations are 

 exceedingly rare while slight variations are 

 exceedingly common, does it not follow that 

 the vast majority of species must originate 

 from slight variations? My argument is 

 not that species of plants may not in rare 

 cases arise by the perpetuation of sport 

 characters, as de Vries believes they do, 

 but admitting this, my contention is that 

 the overwhelming majority of plants, and 

 so far as known all animals, originate in 

 the generally recognized way, by the grad- 

 ual development of minute variations. The 

 theory of the origin of species by muta- 

 tion, therefore, far from being a great prin- 

 ciple in biology, as some seem to believe, 

 appears to be one of a hundred minor fac- 

 tore to be considered in rare cases as a pos- 

 sible explanation of the origin of particular 

 species of plants, but so far as known not 

 applicable in the case of animals. 



C. Hart Merriam. 

 U. S. Biological Survey. 



HEGTWN F— ZOOLOGY. 

 Section F was organized at the New 

 Orleans meeting with the following offi- 

 cers: 



Vice-President — Henry B. Ward, Lincoln, Nebr. 



Secretary — C. Judson Herrick, Granville, Ohio. 



Councilor — Herbert Osbom. 



Meniber of General Committee — B. L. Seawell. 



Press Secretary — C. Judson Herrick. 



Sectional Committee — C. H. Merriam, Vice- 

 president, 1905; Henry B. Ward, Vice-president, 

 1906; C. Judson Herrick, Secretary, 1905-6; C. 

 H. Eigenmann, for one year; Henry B. Ward, for 

 two years; Frank Smith, for three years; W. E. 

 Ritter, for four years ; A. M. Bleile, for five years. 



On the afternoon of December 29 the 

 vice-president's address was delivered by 

 C. H. Merriam, on the subject, 'Is Muta- 

 tion a Factor in the Evolution of the 

 Higher Vertebrates ? ' The section met for 

 the reading of papers on December 30, and 

 joint sessions were held on January 1 with 

 the Section of Physiology and Experi- 



mental Medicine, and on January 2 with 

 the Association of Economic Entomologists. 

 The following papers were read before the 

 section : 



Preliminary Observations on the Varia- 

 tion of Utethesia venusta, Dolman: Mel. 

 T. Cook, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. 

 The literature recognizes three species 

 {TJ. iella, U. venusta and V. ornatrix) and 

 three varieties {hyirida, terminalis and 

 stretchii) of this genus. These species 

 cover a very wide range. The distinctive 

 characters are primarily color characters. 

 After examining a large number of speci- 

 mens, many of which were reared in cap- 

 tivity, the writer concludes that inter- 

 gradations are such as to reduce these three 

 species and three varieties to one species. 



Filaria loa, a Study on the Dispersal of 



Parasites: Henry B. Ward, University 



of Nebraska. 



Of the African eye worm {Filaria loa) 

 the author has recently published a list of 

 86 old and 8 new cases. The first six cases 

 on record were from the West Indies, as 

 also twelve in the first 21. But since 1845 

 no cases have been recorded there, its intro- 

 duction having ceased with the cessation of 

 the slave trade. All cases were in negroes 

 and most had recently come from West 

 Africa. Five cases reported from France 

 all originated in the French Congo, as also 

 cases from Switzerland and Belgium. One 

 specimen removed in Germany came from 

 Kamerun, and five in England from Old 

 Calabar. 



Eight cases in North America since 1890 

 were all in missionaries and all but one 

 came from Kamerun. Thus all extra- 

 African cases are distinctly traceable to a 

 known or a possible infection in the west- 

 ern part of that continent where the para- 

 site is endemic. Here the review of cases 

 indicates clearly that the parasite is dis- 

 tributed over the entire coast from about 



