Mabch 17, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



429 



ensure male offspring. To allow the spermatic 

 fluid to flow to the left side means female 

 offspring. 



Besides the main thesis, Mrs. Calhoun takes 

 up the general subject of heredity, with quota- 

 tions from leading authorities, matters likely 

 to be interesting and helpful to those for 

 whom the book is written, much of this being 

 addressed especially to women. A new the- 

 ory, caUed telegyny, is suggested, the effect of 

 the first female on the male, a theory which is 

 probably as well founded as its prototype, 

 telegony, the supposed effect of the first male 

 on the female, a scantily supported hypothesis, 

 thus far lacking adequate verification. 



Mrs. Calhoun writes in a frank, modest, 

 friendly style, which disarms technical criti- 

 cism. The present writer is not convinced 

 that the theory in question is correct. But to 

 say this is only to say that one of the central 

 problems in biology stiU awaits a final de- 

 cision. 



David Starr Jordan 



Stanfoed Univebsity 



QUOTATIONS 



THE ANTIVIVISECTIONISTS 



Because a woman, crazy about eats, sub- 

 sidized a lawyer and a press-agent for an in- 

 definite length of time, the state of New York 

 must face every year some bill aimed at sci- 

 entific research. There are various organiza- 

 tions of this type, varying in the amount of 

 absurdity and of harm. The Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has pos- 

 sibly put an end to its usefulness by swinging 

 over to the antiexperiment camp. The act 

 which has been introduced this year shows 

 that the American societies, defeated again 

 and again, have taken a lesson from England 

 and are now asking for investigation instead 

 of restriction. Pasteur and Koch could not 

 have done their work as the British law 

 stands to-day. Of course, investigation is a 

 plausible term. As a matter of fact, what the 

 opponents of scientific progress object to is 

 experiments which are fully set forth in sci- 

 entific publications. Investigation would be a 

 mere form of sentimental agitation. The 



scientists make no concealment of what they 

 are doing. On the contrary, they give it all 

 the publicity they can obtain. We can hardly 

 believe that the present is a favorable moment 

 for these dangerous sentimentalists to suc- 

 ceed. The death-rate from meningitis only 

 two or three years ago was from seventy to 

 eighty per cent. Now the rate, counting all 

 cases, is twenty-five per cent., and in the cases 

 where the serum is given early it runs as low 

 as six to eight per cent. Among those cases 

 which were called cured before the serum was 

 discovered were the long-drawn-out and most 

 painful ones which left imbecility or some 

 frightful deformity. These cases now have 

 absolutely disappeared. As this triumph over 

 one of the most terrible and agonizing dis- 

 eases, from which the principal sufferers are 

 children, is so fresh in the mind of the public, 

 it hardly seems possible that a backward step 

 should be taken. Dr. Flesner and the Rocke- 

 feller Institute, in conquering meningitis, 

 used twenty-five monkeys and about two hun- 

 dred guinea-pigs and rabbits. 



There is one dreadful and destructive dis- 

 ease which men hesitate to name. It struck 

 dovm not only the guilty, but millions of inno- 

 cent women and millions of innocent chil- 

 dren. That disease has within a few months 

 been mastered by a drug, the most perfect 

 drug antidote in the world. The cost of con- 

 quering this disease was a few rabbits and a 

 few mice. 



Dr. Carrel, only a short time ago, perfected 

 the delicate operation of transfusion of blood, 

 which is now saving many lives. The cost 

 here was a few kittens; the societies would 

 much rather have had the kittens put into a 

 bag and thrown into the river. 



Infantile paralysis filled this country with 

 terror a few months ago. The experiments 

 which have taken place since then mean that 

 this disease will be handled much better next 

 summer, and there is every promise that be- 

 fore long it will be exterminated. Doubtless 

 in the process a few animals wiU meet their 

 death in the service of science, instead of in 

 the ordinary form. There are a number of 

 mice now suffering from cancer in order that 



