September 30, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



435 



Himalayan region. The possibilities of the 

 biogeographic vista of remote antiquity opened 

 up to us by the existence of Antarctica are 

 enormous, and quite equal to the task of ex- 

 plaining the many hitherto perplexing prob- 

 lems of bio-distribution present and past. 



It remains to establish the existence of the 

 former contacts of Antarctica with the south- 

 ern continents during times past, and the 

 duration of those several contacts until the 

 last one was severed and the present complete 

 isolation of the continent effected. Such con- 

 tacts are indicated by a study of the faunae of 

 to-day. Their former existence may be estab- 

 lished by the determination of epicontinental 

 seas, continental platforms and submerged 

 ridges, in and about the regions in question. 

 Their duration may be revealed by a study of 

 the geological history of organisms coupled 

 with that of present-day biogeography. We 

 may look forward with the liveliest interest to 

 the mueh-to-be-desired paleontologic results 

 which should be forthcoming from the further 

 south polar expeditions now outfitting. Cer- 

 tainly here is the field for fruitful investiga- 

 tion of the phylogeny of late and early forms 

 of life, can one but withstand the rigors of its 

 present climate. 



It would now appear that the question of 

 the one-time existence of the fabled continent 

 Gondwana, furnishing an east-and-west con- 

 nection between South America, Africa and 

 Australia, may be relegated to oblivion; the 

 more decidedly so in view of the quite cer- 

 tainly established permanence throughout 

 geologic time of the present ocean basins. 

 Antarctica is doubtless the real Gondwana, but 

 in another quarter — the southern ! 



Charles H. T. Townsend 



PruBA, Peru, 

 July 4, 1910. 



THE INFLUENCE OF NUTRITION UPON THE 

 ANIMAL FORM 

 The above-named paper by H. J. Waters, 

 presented at the thirtieth meeting of the 

 Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 

 Science, is reviewed because it appeared in 

 an agricultural publication and may not other- 

 wise come to the attention of the experimental 



morphologist and others to whom it may be 

 of considerable interest. Mr. Waters reports 

 some experiments that were made at the Agri- 

 cultural College of the University of Missouri. 

 A number of young beef steers were kept dur- 

 ing the growth period on different planes of 

 nutrition. One group were fed so as to allow 

 a gradual increase in weight (supramain- 

 tenance) ; a second group were so fed that 

 they kept a constant weight (maintenance) ; 

 a third group were fed so that they gradually 

 lost weight (submaintenance). The animals 

 were measured carefully at regular intervals 

 during the experiment. The results show that 

 even in the submaintenance animals the skele- 

 ton continues to grow for a long time, but its 

 growth is retarded and after several months 

 checked completely. The point of greatest 

 interest is the disproportionate growth of the 

 skeleton in the underfed animals. The ratio 

 of the total increase in the width of the hips 

 to the total increase in height at the withers 

 during the entire experiment is approximately 

 as follows : in the supramaintenance group, 

 1:2; in the maintenance group, 1:3, in the 

 submaintenance group, 1 : 5. Underfeeding 

 retards the increase in the width of the skele- 

 ton at the hips much more than it retards its 

 increase in height. In other words the skele- 

 ton of a beef steer grows much wider in pro- 

 portion to its height when the animal is well 

 fed than when it is poorly fed. The author 

 is inclined to attribute the expansion of the 

 skeleton typically seen in beef cattle to the 

 continuous pressure of the distended alimen- 

 tary canal. 



It is interesting to note that the ancestral 

 type, from which the modern beef animal has 

 been derived, corresponds in the shape of the 

 skeleton to the underfed animals described 

 above. Stockmen have insisted for many 

 years that the best bred beef animals, when 

 kept under range conditions, will assume in a 

 few generations what is commonly known as 

 the " sun-fish " type, or an approximation to 

 the ancestral type. The narrowing of the 

 skeleton in response to an inadequate food 

 supply may be a physiological adaptation, or 

 it may be a case of reversion. E. T. Bell 



