218 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 888 



are the most closely related forms. Between 

 punctatus and macarellus is a sharp break. 



An explanation of the distribution of the 

 forms is that affinis spread from the Indian 

 Ocean westward around the world. The form 

 diilerentiated in the Atlantic was rhonchus 

 and in the Pacific maru-adsi, species whose 

 range has since been restricted to Africa and 

 Japan and China, but still the westward mi- 

 gration continued, maru-adsi migrated into 

 the Indian where it became hurra, separated 

 by intermediate stages from the affinis, which 

 had been there since the beginning and still 

 pushing westward became punctatus in the 

 Atlantic and macarellus in the Pacific. 



With this theory as a view-point the thing 

 that immediately calls for explanation is the 

 relation to one another of the two final forms 

 punctatus and macarellus, and of their ranges. 

 The forms are so strongly differentiated as to 

 presuppose long separation by a barrier as of 

 land, yet they are the only adjoining members 

 of the series occurring in the same waters, as 

 they do in the Atlantic. A land connection 

 from Africa to South America would obviate 

 this difiiculty as the two forms would at once 

 have invaded one another's Atlantic ranges 

 when this barrier was removed. Also we 

 must explain the peculiar range of macarellus, 

 found in Atlantic and Pacific, but not in the 

 Indian, which may be readily done by sup- 

 posing that the North and South American 

 land connection is of recent origin. 



J. T. Nichols 

 American Museum of Natural History 



THE AMEBICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 The Effect of the Club Boot Disease upon the Ash 



Constituent of the Cabhage Boot: Howabd S. 



Eeed. 



The ash analysis of healthy and diseased cab- 

 bage roots reveals appreciable variations in the 

 amounts of certain constituents while others vary 

 but slightly. In the diseased roots there was an 

 appreciable increase in the amounts of calcium, 

 magnesium, phosphoric acid, potassium and sul- 

 phuric acid, i. e., an increase in the amount of 

 ' ' essential ' ' elements. 



The greatest increase of any single constituent 

 was in the case of potassium. The increase of 



potassium appears to be coupled with an increase 

 of protoplasmic substance and accumulation of 

 starch. 



The proportion of calcium to magnesium is 

 greater in the diseased roots. The same is also 

 true of the proportion of potassium to sodium, but 

 there is no material difference in the proportion 

 of magnesium to phosphorus. The differences in 

 the amounts and proportion of ash constituents 

 appear sufficiently well marked to indicate a more 

 or less definite correlation in the metabolism both 

 of healthy and of diseased plants. 

 Effect of Frost on the Aromatic Constituents of 



the Peppermint Plant: Frank Eabak. 

 The Volatile Leaf-oil of the Washington Cedar, 



Thuja plicata: Eobert E. Rose and Cabl 



Livingstone. 

 Absorption and Excretion of Salts by Boots, as 



Influenced by Concentration and Composition of 



Culture Solutions: I., Concentration Belations 



of Dilute Solutions of Calcium and Magnesium 



Nitrates to Pea Moots: E. H. True and H. H. 



Baetlett. 

 Creatinine in Plants and in the Medium in which 



they Grow: M. X. Sullivan. 

 The Effect of Temperature on the Bespiration of 



Fruits: H. C. Gore. 

 The Phosphorus Assimilation of Aspergillus niger: 



Arthur W. Dox. 



(From the Chemical Section of the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station.) 



The necessity for some form of phosphorus in 

 culture media for lower fungi has long been recog- 

 nized. Notwithstanding the variety of phosphorus 

 compounds occurring in nature, very few have 

 been tested with regard to their availability as 

 sources of this element for mold cultures. Among 

 the substances tested in this experiment were 

 phytin, sodium glycerinophosphate, sodium nu- 

 cleinate, lecithin, casein, ovovitellin, ortho-, pyro- 

 and metaphosphates, hypophosphites and phos- 

 phites. All but the last two, which contain 

 trivalent phosphorus, were readily utilized. 

 Fermentation and Putrefaction: Arthur I. EIen- 



DALL. 



(From the Department of Preventive Medicine 

 and Hygiene, Harvard Medical School.) 



As shown by the work of the author and others, 

 utilizable carbohydrates protect nitrogen from 

 attack by bacteria. This finds its analogue in 

 the metabolism of higher forms. Fermentation 

 takes precedence over putrefaction. For the pur- 

 poses of this paper, by fermentation is meant the 



