September 19, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



405 



59) are Crompton Oorang and his son, Eock- 

 ley Oorang. 



Practically all show dogs are placed at public 

 stud, and any champion, thanks to the adver- 

 tising his winnings give him, will be popiilar. 

 The 53 champions who never sired a champion 

 can not therefore be excused on the plea of 

 lack of opportunity. They would certainly 

 receive more bitches than a non-champion, un- 

 less this dog had made a great reputation as a 

 sire. 



The full table, showing the ancestry and get 

 of all Airedale champions, and a similar one 

 for Scottish terriers will be published in my 

 forthcoming book on dog breeding. 



Williams Haynes 



mitosis in the adult nerve cells of the 

 colorado beetle 



In a recent study of the development of the 

 nerve cells through larval, pupal and adult 

 stages in the honey bee, we had ample oppor- 

 tunity to note the method of division and 

 growth. After the very early larval stages 

 there is formed a regular mitotic figure in 

 each multiplying nerve cell. These division 

 figures are not equally abundant in all our 

 material, which may account for the assump- 

 tion that there is a rhythm in the normal 

 growth of nerve cells. Mitosis does not stop 

 at the end of the larval period, but continues 

 for a time in the pupal stage. We have ob- 

 served perfect mitotic figures in bees in the 

 early pupal stages of metamorphosis. These 

 figures are exactly like those occurring in the 

 larval stages. 



The larval life of the honey bee is relatively 

 inactive, which affords an interesting contrast 

 with the active existence of the common potato 

 beetle. The results of this comparison wiU 

 appear in a separate paper. While making 

 the comparative study of the larval as well as 

 pupal and adult stages in the growth of the 

 nerve cells we noted in some of the adult 

 material unmistakable evidence of nerve Oell 

 division. Close examination showed that 

 there were many nerve cells in one animal 

 dividing in the normal mitotic manner. Cen- 

 trosomes, spindle fibers and astral rays were 



all complete. The chromosomes were too 

 compactly massed to be counted. In one field 

 of the 2 mm. oil immersion objective we found 

 six cells undergoing division. Others ap- 

 peared in other parts of the ganglionic mass. 

 Our study upon the growth of the nerve 

 cells in the honey bee and the potato beetle 

 indicate that we may expect to find nerve cells 

 regularly dividing by mitosis through the 

 pupal and into adult life. 



W. M. Smallwood, 

 Charles G. Eogees 

 The Zoological Laboratory, 

 Syracuse University 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Sigma Xi Quarter Century Record and His- 

 tory 1886-1911. Compiled by Henry Bald- 

 win Ward, Secretary of the Society of the 

 Sigma Xi, with the assistance of the Chap- 

 ter secretaries. University of Illinois. Ur- 

 bana-Champaign. Pp. xii -|- 542. 

 A brief statement of the society whose 

 achievements for a quarter of a century are 

 given in the octavo volume which has just 

 been published under the above title will per- 

 haps best describe its importance. 



In the early spring of 1886 the feeling that 

 students of science who were not eligible to 

 election in the well-known honor college fra- 

 ternity. Phi Beta Ivappa,^ should organize a 

 similar honor society to which those worthy 

 followers of Agassiz, Darwin and Haeckel 

 should be admitted was clearly recognized at 

 more than one college, and especially at those 

 universities where science was made an im- 

 portant feature of the curriculum.^ 



Accordingly, at Cornell University in No- 

 vember, 1886, the society of the Sigma Xi was 



^ Organized in 1776 at William and Mary Col- 

 lege in Virginia. 



' Let me call attention at this point to the fact 

 that very early in the history of the School of 

 Mines of Columbia University in New York those 

 students who were able to enter the senior class 

 without conditions were given the privilege of 

 wearing the badge of crossed hammers in the 

 course of mining engineering, and of the Liebig's 

 potash bulbs in the chemical course. 



