October 27, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



563 



length of time during whicli it has been in 

 operation. 



I have delayed submitting this note in the 

 expectation that others would be as ready to 

 convey information regarding air in water as 

 they have been concerning water in air ! 



Percy Norton Evans 

 IjAPATEtte, Indiana, 

 September 18, 1911 



THE INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY AND OF ENVIRON- 

 MENT IN DETERMINING THE COAT COLORS 

 IN MICE 



Professor T. H. Morgan,' in an interesting 

 paper, has lately published the results of his 

 breeding experiments with mice. Among 

 other questions he considers certain curious 

 coat patterns on black animals resulting from 

 a black X chocolate (brovTn) cross. 



Such coat patterns, which appear to consist 

 of well-defined regions of light and dark hair, 

 he considers due to heterozygosis between the 

 black and brown coat colors. 



That such patterns are not due to hetero- 

 zygosis of black and brown is, I believe, shown 

 by the following three facts which I have been 

 able to record: 



1. That in mice, brown (chocolate) animals 

 may possess these coat patterns while changing 

 coats. These animals are by experiment 

 proved to be free of all black pigment. 



2. That in rabbits, black animals may show 

 these coat patterns with extraordinary clear- 

 ness. There is no brown (chocolate) rabbit 

 recorded. 



3. That the common gray squirrel frequently 

 shows distinct coat patterns of this nature, 

 when changing coats. This wild species is 

 undoubtedly homozygous for its color pattern. 



Morgan further suggests that these coat 

 patterns in mice may be due to heterozygosis 

 of intensity and dilution of coat pigmentation. 

 This, I think, is disproved by the fact that I 

 have obtained clearly defined patterns on the 

 coats of dilute pink-eyed brown (chocolate) 

 mice. These animals are the lowest reeessives 

 in the series of colored mice. They have been 



^Annals N. Y. Acad, of Science, 1911, Vol. 

 XXI., pp. 87-117. 



found, by experiments, to lack the ability to 

 produce black pigment, intensity of coat pig- 

 mentation and dark eyes. 



It would seem then that the coat patterns 

 recorded by Morgan as well as those men- 

 tioned above are the result of physiological 

 conditions of the animals incidental to the 

 coat-changing period, and that they can not 

 be considered of any value as indicating the 

 gametic composition of the animal on which 

 they appear. C. C. Little 



BussEY Institution, 

 Habvabd University, 

 October 5, 1911 



QUOTATIONS 



CONGRESS OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF THE BRITISH 

 EMPIRE 



A FURTHER meeting of the vice-chancellors 

 of the home universities who constitute the 

 Home Committee to make arrangements for 

 the Congress of the Universities of the Em- 

 pire, which is to be held in London next year 

 on July 2, 3, 4 and 5, was held recently at the 

 University of London under the chairman- 

 ship of Sir William Collins, vice-chancellor 

 of that university. The meeting was also at- 

 tended by Sir Charles Lucas, head of the 

 Dominions Department of the Colonial Ofiice; 

 Sir Theodore Morison, a member of the Coun- 

 cil of India; and Dr. Heath, of the Board of 

 Education. In November last year an invita- 

 tion was extended to the fifty-one universi- 

 ties in the British Empire to send representa- 

 tives to the congress, accompanied by an inti- 

 mation that the topics to be considered would 

 fall under the following heads, but inviting 

 suggestions: (1) University organization; 

 (2) universities in their relation to teachers 

 and undergraduate students; (3) universities 

 in their relation to post-graduate and re- 

 search work; and (4) universities in their 

 relation to schools and to agencies for higher 

 education. At the recent meeting the sug- 

 gestions received from oversea universities 

 were considered, and Dr. E. D. Eoberts, secre- 

 tary to the congress, made a report upon a 

 preliminary conference of representatives of 

 the Canadian universities, held at Montreal 



