Makch 23, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



465 



simple consideration of the energy relations 

 involved. If the law were true, all reactions 

 which give oxygen at ordinary temperatures 

 should give it in the form of ozone. The fact 

 that some such reactions give ordinary oxygen 

 while others give ozone is doubtless connected, 

 in some cases, at least, with the structure of 

 the reacting compounds as well as with their 

 inherent energy. And no one has thus far 

 told us how a satisfactory account of matters 

 connected with chemical structure can be 

 given without the aid of the atomic theory. 



One hesitates to criticize a book of such 

 surpassing excellence and one destined to be 

 so very useful. But those very qualities which 

 have made Professor Ostwald so much beloved 

 by all of his acquaintances and which have 

 given him such an extraordinary hold on his 

 students, seem to lead some of them to accept 

 almost without question everything which he 

 writes and it seems right that a divergent 

 view should sometimes find expression. 



William A. JSToyes. 



8GIENTIFIG JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The American Naturalist for February con- 

 tains articles on ' The Unity of the Gnathos- 

 tome Type,' by Howard Ayers ; ' Old Age in 

 Brachiopoda — a Preliminary Study,' by H. 

 W. Shimer: and 'The Habits ot' Necturus 

 maculosus,' by A. G. Eycleshymer. Dr. Ayers 

 concludes that the Marsipobranchs are true 

 Gnathostomata and that the only living 

 Acraniate is Amphioxus. Dr. Shimer's article 

 gives a summary of the principal characters 

 that accompany old age in the brachiopods 

 and includes many illustrations of typical ex- 

 amples besides presenting suggestions as to 

 their origin and meaning. Professor Eycles- 

 hymer discusses the habits of Necturus at some 

 length, giving much new and interesting in- 

 formation in regard to its nests and breeding 

 habits. We quite agree with him that any 

 specimen over a foot in length is unusually 

 large. 



The University Bulletin, University of 

 Michigan, for December, 1905, contains the 

 report of the curator of the museum. Mr. 

 Adams is to be complimented upon having 



accomplished much with a small expenditure of 

 money and on having done much by collecting, 

 and rearranging and labeling the museum 

 collections, to promote its efilciency. The 

 chief accessions were 131 skins of mam- 

 mals, representing 23 species, and 298 birds of 

 111 si)ecies. 



Colorado College Publications, Science 

 Series, No. 46, is devoted to an annotated list 

 of ' The Mammals of Colorado,' by E. E. War- 

 ren. This contains a very considerable 

 amount of information compressed into a few 

 pages and is accompanied by a bibliography. 



The Quarterly Record of Additions to the 

 Museum of Hull, England, is an excellent 

 device for economical and extensive publica- 

 tion. Objects of interest are described in the 

 Eastern Morning News, electrotypes made of 

 the articles, and each quarter these are com- 

 bined and issued in pamphlet form as one of 

 the museum publications. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 412th regular meeting was held on 

 February 17, 1906, with Vice-president 

 Palmer in the chair and thirty-two persons 

 present. 



Professor Paul Bartseh presented a paper 

 on ' Variation in the Shell of Goniohasis vir- 

 ginica, with an Outline for Breeding Experi- 

 ments.' He described and illustrated with 

 lantern slides the wide diilerences among in- 

 dividuals of this species. Collections from 

 the vicinity of Mount Vernon in tidewater 

 subject to an occasional slight salinity are 

 constant in form. Those from the Shenan- 

 doah at Harpers Ferry likewise show little 

 variation, though plainly recognizable from 

 the Mount Vernon representatives of the 

 species. About Washington the shells show 

 extreme variation. Intergrades everywhere 

 exist and the subspecific groups all run 

 together. Without attempting to account for 

 these variations, experiments were proposed 

 calculated to throw light on the subject. 

 These consisted substantially in transplanting 

 the local forms and studying their progeny 

 under the new conditions. In the Shenan- 



