Decembku 25, 1003.] 



SCIENCE. 



S33 



viiluals from tlu'ir sisters. I have notiieil Unit 

 wlion eggs were being produced a large niiiiiber 

 of the ants were crowded together in one corner 

 of tlic nest, and only a few seemed to be on duty 

 as nurses. Whether this segregation has to do 

 with tlie egg laying or not I do not know. 



In this case no males have as yet made their 

 appearance. So accomplished an entomologist 

 as Mr.s. Comstoek could not have overlooked 

 either these or a queen in her colony, especially 

 as the latter sex in Lasiiis is very much larger 

 and more conspicuous than the worker. 



While the observations above quoted are by 

 no means final, they are, nevertheless, of suffi- 

 cient value to call a halt to all speculation 

 based on the Dzierzon theory formulated in 

 the usual text-book style. As thus expressed 

 this theory can at most be valid for the honey- 

 bee only. The probability that worker ants 

 can really piwduce other workers or even 

 queens parthenogenetically is of ominous im- 

 port, not only to some current views on sex 

 determination, but also to many fine-spun 

 theories of instinct and organic development. 

 It has been generally admitted that worker 

 insects have their own specific instincts (a 

 proposition not strictly true, as I have en- 

 deavored to show,* since the instincts of the 

 queen ant include all or nearly all the impor- 

 tant worker instincts), and that these insects 

 are smitten with such complete sterility as 

 to be absolutely incapable of transmitting 

 their inherited or acquired psychical or phys- 

 ical characteristics. Hence, it is urged, we 

 can exi)lain tlie existence of these worker 

 traits only by resorting to a natural selection 

 among the queens as bearers of characters 

 which they do not themselves exhibit or ex- 

 ercise. Hence the additional sets of ids, etc., 

 hypostasized in the germ-plasma of the queens. 

 Or, if we have an innate repugnance to natural 

 selection, we are requested to fall back on 

 something like orthogenesis, some Aristotelian 

 principle of perfectibility or Naegelian ' Ver- 

 vollkommnungsprincip.' But after reveling 

 in this tenuous atmosphere of hyjiothesis, 

 which I would bo the last to deprecate, since 

 it is the only free playground of the living 



•'The Compound and Mixed Xests of Ameri- 

 can Ants,' .4m. yaliiralist, 1901, p. 798. 



and stniggling scientific imagination, are we 

 not now bound to return to the cold facts and 

 the drudgery of experiment and observation, 

 if only to gain strength for another flight J 



Wll.LIAil iroRTO.V WlIEELEK. 



Amkhicax MfsEUM OF Natiral History. 



y 



QLOTATIOSS. 



THE CARNEUIE INSTITUTION. 



The trustees of the Carnegie Institution 

 held their second annual meeting at Wash- 

 ington on December 9. Nothing that has be- 

 come known in regard to this meeting will 

 tend to allay tlie anxiety with which men of 

 science are watching the administration of 

 this great trust. It is reported that Dr. Gil- 

 man presented a letter to the trustees an- 

 nouncing his intention to resign the presi- 

 dency at the close of next year. The 

 institution will consequently drift along for 

 another year, and its inmiediate future will in 

 large measure depend on the president then 

 chosen. There is no reason to doubt the 

 ultimate outcome, and even the present con- 

 ditions are only what might have been ex- 

 pected. Special creations are no longer re- 

 garded as feasible. The reply may be called 

 to mind of the little boy, who, on being asked 

 who made him, said ' God made me one foot 

 big, and I growed the rest.' A new fountla- 

 tion such as Mr. Carnegie's can only grad- 

 ually become a true organism adjusted to the 

 environment. 



Mr. Carnegie's original plan of establishing 

 a research university at Washington was com- 

 paratively plain sailing. The trustees are now 

 divided as to policy, some wishing to establish 

 certain laboratories at Washington, and others 

 perferring to distribute subsidies throughout 

 the country. The latter plan has been 

 adopted ; it has the obvious advantage of not 

 committing the institution as to the future. 

 No special objection can be made to the way 

 the subsidies have been allotted. It is quite 

 certain, for example, that the Harvard. Lick, 

 Ycrkos, Dudley and Princeton observatories 

 can spend to advantage any money that may 

 be entrusted to them. Almost any grant for 

 research made to men of science of e5tablished 

 reputation will bear fruit a himdredfold. 



