June 7, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



915 



ably rounder and smoother at the surface. 

 From this experiment eighteen more or less 

 spheroidal masses were obtained, some of 

 which measured one half millimeter in di- 

 ameter. They were similar to the small plas- 

 modial masses produced in this species (and 

 in Stylotella) when the sponges are allowed 

 to remain quietly in aquaria. As already 

 stated, it is only in Stylotella that I have di- 

 rectly proved the regenerative power of these 

 masses. 



Maas has just announced' that calcareous 

 sponges iSycons) when exposed to sea water 

 deprived of its calcium imdergo marked de- 

 generative changes, which may be of such a 

 character that the living tissue quite separates 

 from the skeleton and breaks up into compact 

 cords of cells showing active amoeboid phe- 

 nomena. The cords further constrict into 

 rounded masses the likeness of which to gem- 

 mules is pointed out. Maas states that he is 

 not yet in a position to say whether these 

 masses have the power to transform into 

 sponges, but adds that some of his observa- 

 tions induce him to believe that this is pos- 

 sible. 



It is evident that Maas, working on very 

 different forms, has independently met with 

 the same degenerative-regenerative phenomena 

 as are described in this communication, the 

 essential facts of which were presented (to- 

 gether with an exhibit of gemmule-like de- 

 generation masses and young sponges into 

 which such masses had transformed) at the 

 recent December meeting of the American 

 Society of Zoologists. I may add that more 

 than two years ago at the end of the summer 

 of 1904, in my official report (unpublished 

 since the research was still in progress) to the 

 Bureau of Fisheries on the investigation 

 under my charge, I described the degenerative 

 phenomena in Microciona and Stylotella, i. e., 

 the formation under certain conditions of 

 confinement of minute masses presenting a 

 likeness to gemmules, and emphasized the 



' ' Ueber die Einwirkung karbonatfreier imd 

 kalkfreier Salzlosungen auf erwachsene Kalk- 

 schwamme und auf Entwicklungsstadien derselben. 

 Archiv fur Entwickluagsmeehanik der Organis- 

 men,' Bd. XXII., Heft 4, December, 1906. 



probability that these masses were able to re- 

 generate the sponge. It was not, however, 

 until the summer of 1906 that I was able to 

 demonstrate the truth of this view. 



H. V. Wilson 

 Univebsitt of Nokth Cabolina, 

 Chapel Hill, N. C, 

 February 16, 1907 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The honorary freedom of the City of Lon- 

 don is to be conferred on Lord Lister. 



The gold medal of the Linnean Society, 

 London, has been awarded to Dr. Melchior 

 Treub, director of the Botanical Garden at 

 Buitenzorg. 



A COMMITTEE has been appointed to arrange 

 for the presentation to the Medical Depart- 

 ment of the University of Pennsylvania of a 

 portrait of Dr. John Guitaras of Havana, 

 formerly professor of pathology at the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania. The portrait will be 

 painted by Mr. Armando Menoeal of Havana. 



Dr. W J McGee has been elected secretary 

 of the Inland Waterways Commission, re- 

 cently appointed by President Eoosevelt. 



Professor Elijah P. Harris, A.B. (Am- 

 herst, '55), Ph.D. (Gottingen, '59), since 1868 

 professor of chemistry at Amherst College, has 

 retired from active service. 



Professor Ernest Rutherford, whose call 

 from McGill University to the University of 

 Manchester was announced some time since, 

 has now gone to Manchester. 



Dr. J. Halm, assistant at the Eoyal Ob- 

 servatory, Edinburgh, has been appointed first 

 assistant at the Cape Observatory, in succes- 

 sion to Mr. S. S. Hough, F.R.S., who was 

 recently promoted to succeed Sir David Gill 

 as H.M. Astronomer at the Cape. 



The Chicago Chapter of the Sigma Xi 

 Society has held three meetings during the 

 year 1906-7. The following papers were read : 



December 3, 1906 — ' Some Glimpses of Mexican 

 Vegetation,' by Professor C. R. Barnes, of the 

 University of Chicago. 



February 21, 1907 — ' The Conduct of Research,' 

 by Professor H. H. Donaldson, of Wistar Insti- 

 tute, Philadelphia. 



