February 6, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



231 



•writer, who is an acute botanist as well; but 

 just as he concludes these interesting pages 

 he comes upon Miss Tilden's paper on bota- 

 nizing in the Hawaiian Islands, and is fascin- 

 ated again. So it is with all the articles. 

 There is not a dull paper in the seven, and the 

 editor is to be congratulated upon his skilful 

 selection. He has achieved something literary 

 in this volume, while at the same time adding 

 not a little to our botanical knowledge. It is 

 one of the very few botanical books which 

 possess a distinctly literary flavor, and for 

 this reason, in addition to its botanical merits, 

 it is to be highly commended. 



Chables E. Bessey. 

 The Uni\-ersitt of Nebbaska. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 364th meeting was held Saturday, Jan- 

 uary 10. 



Walter H. Evans stated that a bill had 

 just been passed making a forest reserve of 

 that portion of Porto Eico containing the only 

 tract of primitive forest now remaining on 

 the island. 



Mr. L. O. Howard exhibited a series of 

 lantern slides giving a pictorial history of the 

 recent investigation of the etiology of yellow 

 fever by the Army Yellow Fever Commission 

 and the subsequent Board of Health of 

 Havana. The slides included photographs 

 of Major Reed, Drs. Carroll, Lazier and 

 Agramonte, Dr. Carlos Finley, and Dr. Guit- 

 eras, as well as of Camp Lazier, the Las 

 Animas Hospital and laboratories, and a 

 number of others. He spoke eulogistically of 

 the work of the commission and dwelt on the 

 enormous value to humanity of the results of 

 their work.' He referred to the deaths of 

 Drs. Reed and Lazier, and mentioned the me- 

 morial raised to the latter, and that now in 

 progress for the former, as deserving in the 

 highest degree of contributions from all scien- 

 tific men. He also stated that in honoring 

 the immortal dead we must not forget the 

 living, and reminded the society that Dr. 

 James Carroll, one of the society's members, 

 was a member of the commission and in the 

 thick of the struggle had been attacked with 



yellow fever but fortunately had recovered, 

 and that he should receive the highest honor 

 for the rest of his life. 



S. F. Meek spoke on ' The Geographic Dis- 

 tribution of the Fresh-water Fishes of Mexico,' 

 illustrating his remarks with lantern slides. 

 He stated that four distinct fish faunas were 

 represented in Mexico — that of the Rio Grande, 

 with 80 species ; the Colorado, with 9 species 

 in western Sonora; the Lerna basin, with 49 

 species ; and a tropical fauna with 1.37 species. 

 The fauna of the Lerna basin was the most 

 remarkable, for of the 49 species not one was 

 found in any other river, while 9 of the 18 

 genera were peculiar to this basin. Sixteen 

 of the species belong to the salt-water family 

 AtherinidaB, and were the only salt-water fishes 

 represented on the Mexican plateau. Seven- 

 teen species, including one Gambusia, belong 

 to the Poecilidje, and all are viviparous. With 

 the exception of the Gamhusia these have the 

 first six rays of the anal fin short and stiff, and 

 having the same position in the males and 

 females, while the viviparous Pajcilidse pre- 

 viously known have the anal fin slender and 

 placed well forward. The speaker noted that 

 the tropical fishes extended northwards in a 

 belt on the east and west coasts, reaching the 

 highest latitude on the east. On the west 

 coast the Cichlids extend to Mazatlan, and . 

 the Characins reach only to the Balsas, while 

 on the east coast the Characins are the most 

 northerly. He was of the opinion that the 

 fish fauna of the Rio Grande region was de- 

 rived from the Mississippi Valley, and that of 

 Sonora from the Colorado. As for the Lerna 

 region he believed that it was an island with 

 a well-established fauna before a rise of the 

 continent made it part of the mainland, and 

 that it has since been a center of distribution. 



O. P. Jenkins discussed ' The Rate of the 

 Nervous Impulses in Certain Invertebrates,' 

 saying that so recently as fifty years ago the 

 most diverse opinions prevailed regarding the 

 speed of nervous impulses, and that it had 

 even been thought to exceed the speed of light. 

 The experiments of Helmholtz showed that 

 the rate was comparatively slow, being in 

 the frog but ninety feet a second. Mr. 

 Jenkins then detailed his own experiments 



