July 9, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



61 



told the work at Princeton as illustrated by 

 the contribution under review, marks an im- 

 portant advance in this department of 

 astronomy. Joel Stebbins 



An Index to the Museum BoUenianum. By 

 William Healey Dall. Smithsonian Publi- 

 cation No. 2360. 1915. 8vo. Pp. 64. 

 Earely has the credit of a great life's work 

 approached more perilously near oblivion and 

 still be enrescued and enshrined in proper set- 

 ting, than did that of the conchologist J. F. 

 Bolten, of Hamburg. His life was practically 

 his collection, systematically arranged, large, 

 beautiful. In the arrangement of his collec- 

 tion he followed his own system, far in advance 

 of that proposed previously by LinnsBus. An 

 outline manuscript was prepared of this system, 

 and some illustrations were prepared by an 

 artist-friend, Schulze by name, but death de- 

 prived the work of the artist's aid, and Bolten's 

 infirmities prevented the prosecution of the 

 undertaking. The outline of the system pub- 

 lished by the family in 1Y98 after Bolten's 

 death would only have been of value to the 

 world as showing the size of the Bolten col- 

 lection had not a second friend, Roeding by 

 name, seen to it that speciiie names were ac- 

 companied by references to Gmelin's "Sys- 

 tema" and to the figures in the Conchylien 

 Cabinet and elsewhere. In 1819 another edi- 

 tion serving as a sale catalogue was published; 

 but both editions have long ago become very 

 scarce and well-nigh forgotten. Again, a third 

 friend, Dr. Dall, in a distant land, united a 

 private donation with a small grant from the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science and had the same turned over to Sher- 

 born and Sykes of the British Museum (Nat. 

 History) who brought out a phototypic copy 

 of the edition of 1798 (1906). Now, we have 

 before us finally an elaborate and convenient 

 index to this edition prepared by the same 

 thoughtful friend and published as noted 

 above by the Smithsonian Institution. It is 

 naturally to be regretted that funds did not 

 permit of the publication of the index with the 

 volume, but nevertheless there is real satis- 

 faction in feeling that the work is now in 



available form and the labors of Bolten shall 

 not be forgotten. G. D. Harris 



Paleontological Laboeatoet, 



COENELL UnIVEESITY 



TEE FROCBEDINGS OF TEE NATIONAL 



ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



(NUMBES 6) 



The sixth number of Volume 1 of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

 contains the following articles : 



1. Confirmatory Experiments on the Value of 

 the Solar Constant of Radiation: C. G. 

 Abbot, F. E. Fowle and L. B. Aldrioh, 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 

 Observations at Mt. Wilson from sunrise 



until ten o'clock and records obtained by a 

 recording pyrheliometer attached to sounding 

 balloons rising to the altitude of 24 km. con- 

 firm the value 1.93 calories per square centi- 

 meter per minute previously obtained for the 

 radiant energy received by the earth from the 

 sun. 



2. Variation of Flower Size in Nicotiana: 

 T. H. GooDSPEED and E. E. Clausen, De- 

 partment of Botany, University of Cali- 

 fornia. 



During five years of study of the inheritance 

 of flower-size in Nicotiana, it has been found 

 that the flower-size is not so constant as it has 

 been assumed to be, but is affected by a num- 

 ber of conditions, some of which may not eifect 

 the length and the spread of the flower in the 

 same manner. 



3. Retention in the Circulation of Dextrose in 

 Normal and Depancreatized Animals, and 

 the Effect of an Intravenous Injection of an 

 Emulsion of Pancreas upon this Retention: 

 I. S. Kleiner and S. J. Meltzer, Depart- 

 ment of Physiology and Pharmacology, 

 Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. 

 In normal animals the circulation possesses 



the ability to get rid readily of a surplus of 

 dextrose injected intravenously. This ability 

 is impaired in the absence of the pancreas, but 

 can be temporarily restored by intravenous 

 injections of pancreas emulsion. Such injec- 

 tions, moreover, are capable of reducing the 

 hyperglycemia due only to depancreatization. 



