August 15, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



211 



Another discovery of the utmost impor- 

 tance was that in certain Hemiptera an odd 

 number of chromosomes may be present in 

 the divisions of the spermatocytes, but he 

 just missed the discovery that this phe- 

 nomenon is associated with the determina- 

 tion of sex, though after this discovery was 

 made by McClung, Stevens and Wilson, his 

 later work did much to confirm it. His 

 discrimination of the different kinds of 

 chromosomes and his terminology for these 

 (62) has been widely accepted and now 

 forms part of the science of cytology. 

 His studies on nucleoli, particularly his 

 great work on the morphology of the nu- 

 cleolus (48), contain a wealth of observa- 

 tions on these structures in a great number 

 of animals, and this work did much to 

 establish the conclusion that the nucleolus 

 is a relatively unimportant part of the 

 nucleus. When he had reached this con- 

 elusion he turned his attention at once, and 

 with characteristic directness, to those 

 parts of the cell which he considered most 

 important, viz., the chromosomes. 



It was in studies of natural history and 

 general zoology that he took greatest de- 

 light and his work in these lines was par- 

 ticularly valuable. His early training 

 gave him a fondness for, and facility in, 

 taxonomic and faunistic work. He de- 

 scribed many new species of nemerteans, 

 hairworms, rotifers and spiders; he made 

 faunistic lists of these animals as well as of 

 birds and certain insects ; he loved museum 

 work and had the systematist's veneration 

 for "type specimens." But his taxonomic 

 work was much more than a bare descrip- 

 tion of species; it usually involved a thor- 

 ough study of the anatomy and histology 

 of the forms described, and to this he 

 added, whenever possible, a study of their 

 life histories and habits. He maintained 

 that taxonomy of the right sort was one 

 of the most inclusive and fundamental 



branches of zoology, since it involved prac- 

 tically all other branches of the science. 



His studies on the behavior of animals 

 are especially important. With great pa- 

 tience and enthusiasm he would spend days 

 and nights studying the habits of different 

 animals. His observations on the feeding 

 habits of owls (13) are a model of their 

 kind, and his studies of the habits of spi- 

 ders (31, 37, 38, 41, 42) are worthy of the 

 great masters of natural history, whose 

 best works they recall. 



He was a naturalist before he was a 

 laboratory scientist, and he looked forward 

 to the time when he could direct all his 

 researches to the study of spiders as 

 Wheeler had done for ants. The character 

 and methods of his work were his own and 

 in many instances can be traced back to 

 his early training as a naturalist. He al- 

 lowed no one to bring him "material" for 

 study; indeed, the animals he studied were 

 never mere "material" to him, but he did 

 his own collecting. To all his friends the 

 many newly turned stones in the fields 

 about Woods Hole were a sign that Mont- 

 gomery had been collecting there. 



Although he held tenaciously to the 

 value of the old zoology, he was quick to 

 grasp the importance of work in new fields 

 and bold and independent in entering them 

 and in reaping their harvests. This ap- 

 plies especially to his work in cytology, for 

 which he had made no special preparation, 

 but in which he probably achieved his 

 greatest successes. He clearly distin- 

 guished large problems from small ones, 

 and he went straight to the center of each. 

 He was keen in seeing the theoretical sig- 

 nificance of his observations, and critical 

 but just in estimating the value of the 

 work of others. He was peculiarly inde- 

 pendent in his work and was not in the 

 habit of discussing it with others nor of 

 asking advice, and it often happened that 



