260 



SCIENCE. 



[^r. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 581. 



The Relation between the Nerves of Taste 

 and Touch in Fishes: C. Judson Her- 

 BiCK, Denison University. 

 It has been shown that certain teleosts, 

 notably catfish and carp, are provided with 

 taste buds freely distributed in the outer 

 skin, that the fishes taste with these organs 

 and habitually localize their food by the 

 combined action of cutaneous organs of 

 touch and taste. Inasmuch as these sense 

 organs belong to totally distinct systems 

 (somatic and visceral, respectively) whose 

 peripheral nerves and primary cerebral 

 centers are wholly unrelated, considerable 

 intei-est attaches to the question of the cen- 

 tral relations of the tactile and gustatory 

 systems of neurones with one another. The 

 gustatory reflex paths within the brains of 

 these fishes have been fully worked out, 

 and the present paper reports the discovery 

 of a broad and complex area of correlation 

 with the tactile centers in the funicular 

 nuclei at the lower end of the medulla ob- 

 longata. 



The Prohlem of Wing Origin and its Sig- 

 nificance in Insect Phylogeny : Herbert 

 OsBORN, Ohio State University. 

 The origin of the insect wing is a difficult 

 problem to solve, since on account of its an- 

 tiquity the evidence, both morphological and 

 developmental, is much obscured. Fossil 

 forms show the occurrence of winged insects 

 as far back as the Paleozoic, and the struc- 

 ture must, of course, Jiave arisen at some 

 time prior to or during that period. The 

 reduction of types of venation to a common 

 form indicates a common origin for wings 

 of all orders, and the inclusion of traehes 

 suggests a respiratory function. A respira- 

 tory function indicates aquatic life in the 

 ancestral form, a suggestion which is cor- 

 roborated by the method of musculature and 

 the development so far as it can be traced. 

 That they are not to be associated with any 

 ■existing forms of aquatic insects is believed 



to be shown by the secondary character of 

 aquatic adaptation of modern orders. The 

 explanation of aquatic origin becomes con- 

 ceivable, however, if we assume a primitive 

 tracheate form, perhaps peripatoid in char- 

 acter, which became adapted to aquatic life 

 before or during Paleozoic time, this primi- 

 tive aquatic form returning to terrestrial 

 habit and the tracheated respiratory gills 

 being modified to wings. Of the existing 

 orders then arising, some have become in 

 part or quite entirely aquatic by adapta- 

 tion in more recent time. Diagrams indi- 

 cating the appearance of the different or- 

 ders of insects in time and their lines of 

 derivation as suggested by this conception 

 of the evolution of the Pterygota were 

 shown. 



C. Judson Herrick, 



Secretary. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 The Elements of Psychology. By Edward L. 



Thorndike. Pp. xix -|- 351. New York, A. 



G. Seller. 1905. 



Hardly a year passes now-a-days without 

 the appearance of several new text-books of 

 psychology. One's first impression in noting 

 this fact is that there must be as yet in this 

 still youthful science comparatively little 

 agreement among its individual expositors as 

 to the body of facts to be presented, or as to 

 the laws which account for the existence of 

 the facts, or as to the best manner of presenta- 

 tion. Professor James, indeed, in a justi- 

 fiably laudatory introduction to this book by 

 Thorndike, maintains that these many text- 

 books " so far as students go, are practical 

 equivalents for each other. * * * The differ- 

 ences in them are largely of order and em- 

 phasis, or of fondness on the authors' parts 

 for certain phrases, or for their own method 

 of approach to particular questions. It is one 

 and the same body of facts with which they 

 all make us acquainted." This is certainly 

 true. There is a large body of facts with 

 respect to which there is general agreement. 

 Yet after all, the mere presentation of facts 



