594 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 432. 



physics and some geology; but we don't ex- 

 pect him to be a first-class proficient in all 

 three sciences. We judge him finally as an 

 engineer. So it must be in biometry. No 

 one can get on without some mathematics, 

 some biology and some field work in this new 

 science; but its workers must be ultimately 

 judged as hiometricians, and not as mathema- 

 ticians or biologists. Don't allow, however 

 great their reputation or authority, the pure 

 mathematician or the descriptive biologist, 

 who may never have done a stroke of biometric 

 work, to override biometric workers' claims to 

 recognition. Remember that we have here a 

 new branch of science, which has its own 

 methods and its own disciples. Like all young 

 things, it has its future before it, and no 

 amount of step-motherly treatment will, in 

 the long run, profit the reputation of the 

 scientific community which practices it. In 

 the matter of biometry, America has not yet 

 adopted a hostile attitude. I write in the 

 hope that it may never do so. 



Karl Pearson. 

 University College, London, England. 



the destruction of frogs. 

 Apropos to the note of Mr. Albert M. Eeese, 

 relative to the destruction of frogs, I will say 

 that I once witnessed the same thing in Co- 

 lumbus, Ohio, along the Neil Avenue Street 

 Railway. It was in spring, and the frogs 

 had evidently migrated from the Olentangy 

 Eiver, a short distance away and running 

 parallel with the avenue. I did not count 

 them, but there were very many that had been 

 crushed under the car wheels within a dis- 

 tance of perhaps one fourth of a mile. As I 

 recall, the frogs were crushed across the 

 middle. My observations were made in the 

 morning and I inferred that the migration 

 had taken place either in evening or early 

 morning. 



H. A. Weber. 



A RARE SCIENTIFIC BOOK. 



To THE Editor op Science: There is a copy 

 of Piirkinje's ' Commentatio de examine 

 physiologico,' etc. (concerning which Pro- 

 fessor Wilder inquires in the issue of Science 

 for April 3) in the Library of the Surgeon 



General of the War Department at Wash- 

 ington. P. W. Hodge. 

 Washington, D. C, 

 April 4, 1903. 



THE improvement OF THE MEETINGS OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE. 



To THE Editor of Science: The changes 

 in the arrangements for the meetings of the 

 American Association, proposed by Professor 

 Davis in Science, pages 428^30, and of 

 which I heartily approve, lead me to make 

 the following suggestion that can be carried 

 out easily by the secretaries of the sections. 



At the entrance to each sectional meeting- 

 place, let a doorkeeper write upon a black- 

 board the paper then being read or discussed, 

 and also the paper that will be called next. 

 It is usually impossible for a section to fol- 

 low the daily program, as printed, or even 

 to restrict the papers to the time allotted to 

 each; therefore, the expedient suggested will 

 obviate the embarrassment to the speaker, as 

 well as the distraction of his audience, caused 

 by the frequent entrance and exit of persons 

 who merely desire to ascertain what paper 

 is being read, and, by showing this at a 

 glance, it will aid such people as wish to 

 hear certain papers in several sections meet- 

 ing simultaneously. 



These bulletins of the current communica- 

 tions are commonly employed at the meetings 

 of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, where they are regarded as 

 so useful that there has been general com- 

 plaint whenever they have been inadvertently 

 omitted. If tried at the St. Louis meeting 

 of the American Association, I am convinced 

 that we also shall adopt this custom per- 

 manently. A. Lawrence Eotch. 



Blue Hill Obseevatort, 

 March IS, 1903. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



the occurrence of three INTERESTING FISHES 

 ON THE NEW JERSEY COAST. 



MANTID^. 



1. Manta manatia (Schneider). 

 1792. Baja, hirostris, rostro hifido Walbaum, 

 Pet. Arted. Gen. Pise, III., p. 535 (based 



