Mat 29, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



855 



cussions there appeared a feature wliicli struck 

 me as of the greatest value. With us the dis- 

 cussion is rarely, if ever, reported, but at 

 Berlin as soon as a speaker had finished his 

 diseiission, a page handed him a folio of card- 

 board with pencil, paper and blotting paper 

 (there are fountain pens in Germany), and the 

 substance of his remarks was at once jotted 

 down and handed to the secretary. For any 

 society which wishes to publish a full account 

 of its proceedings some such method would be 

 of great importance, while any one who has 

 ever acted as secretary and has later tried to 

 get together abstracts of the discission will 

 at once recognize its value. 



J. S. KiNGSLEY 



Pabis, 



April 28, 1908 



DATES OF EARLY SANTORIN AND ISCHIAN 

 ERUPTIONS 



Owing to conflicting literary sources and 

 the difficulty of reconciling them, the chronol- 

 ogy of early volcanic eruptions in islands of 

 the Mediterranean, especially those of the an- 

 cient Thera and Pitheeusse, is involved in 

 much uncertainty. The dates assigned to the 

 first two or three eruptions of Thera have been 

 the subject of much discussion, as it is a 

 matter of some historical importance that they 

 should be determined with as much precision 

 as possible, in order thereby to fix divers 

 contemporary events. 



A welcome contribution to the literature of 

 this subject is to be found in a recent number 

 of Hermes (43, p. 314), in an article by Pro- 

 fessor A. Elotz, of Strassburg, entitled " Die 

 Insel Thia." Reasons are given by him for 

 regarding the following as authentic dates of 

 the first three outbreaks of the Santorin group 

 known to have taken place during continuous 

 history: B.C. 196 and 66; a.d. 46. Through a 

 misunderstanding of Pliny's text the last of 

 these is commonly referred to the year 19 a.d., 

 and the intermediate one is seldom mentioned 

 in geological treatises. For a list of eruptions 

 occurring during our present era one may 

 consult the writings of Fouque and Alfred 

 Philippson, the latter in volume 1 of " Thera " 

 (1899). These two geologists, and also H. S. 



Washington,' have discussed the physical evi- 

 dence for estimating the time-interval since 

 the earliest eruption of all which can be asso- 

 ciated with a period of human culture, and 

 find reason for assigning it to the proto- 

 Mycenaan, or roughly speaking, 2000 B.C. 



Early Ischian eruptions have likewise af- 

 forded material for debate. A list of all 

 known disturbances is given by Fucha in his 

 elaborate monograph, " L'Isola d'Isehia," and 

 a slightly different chronology is proposed by 

 Ettore Pais in his recent volume on " Ancient 

 Italy" (1908). According to this author, we 

 have authentic accounts of four eruptions of 

 Epomeus during classical antiquity, as fol- 

 lows : (1) a very early one which drove out 

 the Eretrians and Chalcidians; (2) that which 

 occurred shortly after 474 B.C., and caused the 

 Syracusans to leave the island; (3) that which 

 took place shortly before the birth of Timsus 

 (ante 352 B.C.) ; and (4) one in 91 B.C., which 

 is mentioned by Julius Obsequens. The same 

 author also undertakes to identify the circular 

 lake described by Pliny as having been formed 

 by an earthquake, with the modern Porto 

 d''Ischia. 



C. E. Eastman 



Haevaed Univeesitt 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 

 A NOTE ON THE PROPORTION OF INJURED INDI- 

 VIDUALS IN A NATURAL GROUP OF BUFO 



In " Darwinism To-Day " (p. 84) KeUogg 

 draws attention to Conn's reference to a 

 maimed frog which was able, in its natural 

 environment, to survive so serious a loss as the 

 whole of both feet, as illustrating the idea 

 that " selection is not so rigid as to eliminate 

 all VLB&t individuals." Probubly every nat- 

 uralist could cite from his own experience 

 many analogous instances of survival after 

 more or less severe injury. Little is known, 

 however, regarding the actual proportion of 

 maimed individuals in a given group. 



In making a study of correlation^ in the 

 common toad (Bufo lentiginosus americanus, 

 LeC.) I had the rather unusual opportunity 



^ Amer. Journ. Arch., 9, p. 504. 

 ''Jour. Exp. Zool., IV., 4, 1907. 



