NOVBMBEB 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



767 



(e) By the endings ensis and iensis to a 

 geographical name, as timorensis, timoriensis. 



Art. 36 : Omit from the examples — Macro- 

 don, Microdon; ccsruleus, cceruleus, ceruleus; 

 silvestrisj sylvestris, silvaticus, sylvaticus; 

 litioralis, liioralis; autumnalis, auctumnalisj 

 dama, damma. 



Appendix F : In the English and German 

 texts, substitute the words transliteration and 

 transliterated for transcription and tran- 

 scribed. 



Appendix G: In all three texts, substitute 

 paragraph for rules, and omit from the head- 

 ing in French text the words Regies de la. 



Italian Translation. — The commission has 

 voted to issue an official Italian edition of the 

 international rules. 



Ch. Wardell Stiles, 

 Secretary of Commission 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



PRELIMINAEY NOTE ON THE PERMEABILITY TO 

 SALTS OP THE GILL MEMBRANES OF A FISH 



It is known that when marine fishes are 

 placed in fresh water there is a gain in weight 

 supposed to be due to the absorption of water. 

 Sumner (1905) has obtained evidence tending 

 to show that the water enters the body chiefly 

 through the gill membranes. Experiments by 

 one of the authors of this note tend to confirm 

 this. Sumner (1905) has also compared the 

 chlorine content of such fishes (analyzing the 

 ash obtained by fusing the entire fish) with 

 the chlorine content of the normal fish and 

 has reported a loss in chlorine, indicating that 

 while there was a movement of the fresh water 

 into the body of the fish through the gills there 

 was at the same time a passage of salts out- 

 ward — in other words the gill membranes 

 seemed to be permeable to salts. 



In a series of experiments carried out at 

 the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Bureau 

 of Fisheries at Woods Hole, Mass., the au- 

 thors have obtained further evidence along this 

 line, experiments of the following nature be- 

 ing most significant. A quantity of blood was 

 taken from the caudal artery of a large speci- 

 men of Mustelis canis. The specimen was 

 then placed in a sea-water tank (the caudal 



part of the body not being immersed and loss 

 of blood being prevented) and a stream of 

 fresh water was then turned into the tank, the 

 salt water being turned off so that it was 

 replaced by the fresh water in about fifteen 

 minutes. The specimen was kept in this 

 fresh water for thirty minutes, when a second 

 sample of blood was obtained from the caudal 

 artery. The specimen was then returned to 

 the fresh water for forty-five more minutes 

 and a third sample was then taken. Analysis 

 of the blood was begun in each case imme- 

 diately after the sample was obtained. Fol- 

 lowing are the results : 



Sample 1. Normal blood (i.e., from fish 

 just taken from sea-water). 



Sample 2. Blood from same specimen after 

 immersion in salt-fresh to fresh water for 45 

 minutes. 



Sample 3. Blood from same specimen after 

 immersion in fresh water for 45 minutes more. 



GRAMS FEB 1,000 GKAMS OF BLOOD 



Water Organic Matter Chlorides 



Sample 1 = 868 118 6.041 



Sample 2 = 881 110 4.132 



Sample 3 = 885 104 3.590 



The greater amount of water in the second 

 sample shows a dilution of the blood. The 

 blood is further diluted in the third sample. 

 There is no question then about the absorption 

 of water. Since the blood is diluted we should 

 expect to find less organic matter. This de- 

 crease is shown in the second column and was 

 obtained by subtracting the weight of the 

 ashed sample from the weight of the dried 

 sample and reducing to grams per 1,000. The 

 actual amount of chlorides was obtained by 

 the Volhard method and then reduced to 

 grams per 1,000. The results are shown in 

 the third column. Since we should expect a 

 diminution of the salts, provided water is 

 added to the blood, the diminution shown 

 above may be partially explained in this way. 

 But it can be seen at a glance that the chlo- 

 rine reduction is out of proportion to the 

 decrease in organic matter. If the organic 

 matter is reduced from 118 to 110 by simple 



