April 3, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



545 



Mr. W. S. Sutton, in a paper on ' Chromo- 

 somic Eeduction in its Eelation to Mendel's 

 Law,' pointed out that the processes of syn- 

 apsis and reduction in the germ-cells of the 

 grasshopper, Brachystola, are such as to indi- 

 cate strongly that they are the causes of the 

 character-reduction which forms the basis of 

 the Mendelian principle of heredity. Prob- 

 ably the reducing division in Brachystola 

 does not effect a separation of chromosomes 

 into maternal and paternal groups, but the 

 chromosome-series of the mature germ-cells 

 is made up of a chance combination of chro- 

 mosomes from the two parents. This is in 

 accord with the results of Mendel and others 

 who have shown that hybrid offspring exhibit 

 a chance combination of characters from the 

 two parental lines. 



Professor Graham Lusk discussed the 'In- 

 fluence of Nutrition on the Growth of Young 

 Mammals,' basing this paper upon experi- 

 ments conducted in his laboratory by Dr. 

 Margaret B. Wilson {Amer. Jour. Phy., VIII., 

 197, 1902), whose results support his own 

 earlier work. It was shown that new-born 

 pigs develop normally when fed with skimmed 

 cow's milk, or with the same milk to which 

 three per cent, of dextrose or lactose has been 

 added. The growth is proportional to the 

 calorific value of the food — always supposing 

 sufficient proteid to be present. This agrees 

 with the results of other workers who have 

 studied the growth of children and other 

 young mammals. The growth of the pigs was 

 on the average about 215 grams growth for 

 1,000 calories in the food. Eighteen to nine- 

 teen per cent, of the energy of the food was 

 retained in the body as new tissue. 



The third paper, ' On the Colors and Color- 

 -JPatterns of Certain Bermuda Fishes,' by Pro- 

 fessor C. L. Bristol, dealt with correlations 

 between habits and appearance with reference 

 to warning and protective coloration of these 

 fishes. An abstract wiU soon appear in 

 Science in the proceedings of the American 

 Morphological Society. M. A. Bigelow, 



Secretary. 



KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



The 35th annual meeting of the Kansas 

 Academy of Science was held in the Museum 



room of the academy at Topeka, December 

 31, 1902, and January 1 and 2, 1903. There 

 was a large attendance of members and 

 twenty-five new members were elected. The 

 reports of the officers for the past year showed 

 that the academy was in a prosperous condi- 

 tion. New and comfortable quarters have 

 been recently given to the academy by the 

 state. 



These rooms are in the Capitol building 

 at Topeka and include office and museum 

 rooms, well furnished. At the sessions of the 

 academy forty-three papers were presented on 

 biological, chemical, geological and physical 

 subjects. Most of these papers wiU appear 

 in the eighteenth volume of the academy 

 Transactions, now in press. 



Among the papers presented, the following 

 might perhaps be noted as of general interest : 

 ' The Flora of Kansas,' by B. B. Smyth and 

 J. H. Schaffner; 'Further Notes on Loco 

 Weed,' by L. E. Sayre; 'Food Habits of 

 California Sea Lions,' by L. L. Dyche; 'Ionic 

 Velocities in Liquid Ammonia Solutions,' by 

 E. C. Franklin; 'Crystalline Liquids,' by 

 Fred S. Porter ; ' Examination of Some Kan- 

 sas Petroleum,' by Edw. Bartow and E. V. 

 McCoUum; 'The Extent and Thickness of 

 the Oklahoma Gypsum,' by C. N. Gould; ' On 

 the Alkyl Sulphates,' by F. W. Bushong; ' The 

 New Washburn College Telescope,' by H. I. 

 Woods ; ' Experiences with Early Man,' by 

 Chas. H. Sternberg. 



A number of valuable papers on Kansas 

 entomology were presented by two Kansas 

 authorities, Warren Knaus and Dr. F. H. 

 Snow. The disputed subject of gold in Kan- 

 sas was discussed in a paper by Professor J. 

 T. Lovewell. The public address was given 

 by the retiring president, J. T. Willard, on 

 the subject, ' The Mission and Limitations 

 of Science.' 



The following were elected officers for 1903 : 



President — J. C. Cooper, Topeka. 



Vice-Presidents — Edward Bartow, Lawrence 

 and J. A. Yates. Ottawa. 



Treasurer — Alva J. Smith, Emporia. 



Secretary — G. P. Grimsley, Topeka. 



The next meeting of the academy wiU be 

 held near the close of 1903 at Manhattan. 



