Apeil 30, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



685 



I would suggest also that the internal 

 secretions may possibly give the explana- 

 tion of the modifying influence of the male 

 element on the surrounding mother-tissue 

 forming the fruit in plants. Darwin notes 

 many cases of hybrids in which the fruit, 

 though composed of pui-ely maternal tissue, 

 nevertheless plainly shows paternal char- 

 acters. He explained these cases by the 

 wandering of the pangens. It is not im- 

 possible that his ' pangens,' not only here, 

 but in other cases, may be nothing else 

 than the internal secretions. There can be 

 little doubt, furthermore, that the internal 

 secretions from the foetus play a very con- 

 siderable part in the modification of the 

 maternal organism during pregnancy. 



The foregoing suggestions are difficult of 

 proof, but they do not seem to me inherently 

 improbable, since it is altogether unlikely 

 -that the metabolic coordination, which cer- 

 tainly exists in the adult organism, comes 

 into being only after the close of em- 

 bryonic development, and only in such or- 

 ganisms as possess a well developed vascular 

 system. It is well, too, to bear these in- 

 ternal secretions in mind in the study of 

 "the development of organisms. Such an 

 organ as the shell-gland of the molluscs 

 may be of vastly greater value to the or- 

 ganism as a manufacturer of an internal 

 secretion than as the maker of a protective 

 shell. 



Albert Mathews, 

 Former Fellow in Biology, Columbia University. 



Maebueg, Geemany. 



[Note : The above interesting suggestion 

 regarding the physiological role of internal 

 secretions in development is, as far as I 

 know, new. It is obvioiJs, however, that 

 the interpretation given of rudimentary or 

 "temporary organs in development is nearly 

 related to that of Kleinenberg, with which 

 the author is apparently unacquainted. 

 Xleinenberg long since held that the per- 



manent parts of the embryo might appear 

 and be guided in their development 

 ' through the stimulus or by the aid ' of 

 ' rudimentary ' as well as of obviously 

 functional organs ; and that ' when these 

 (the permanent organs) have attained a 

 certain degree of independence the inter- 

 mediary organ, having played its part, may 

 be placed on the retired list' {Lopadorhyn- 

 chiis, 1886, p. 223). Mr. Mathews' sugges- 

 tion has the great merit of supplying an 

 intelligible working hypothesis regarding 

 the nature of the ' stimulus ' or the ' aid ' 

 given by the intermediary organ, and it 

 seems well worthy the attention of experi- 

 mental embryologists. 



E. B. W.] 



A LAYMAN'S VIEWS ON SPECIFIC NOMEN- 

 CLATURE. 



Anything that Dr. Hart Merriam writes 

 is sure to be of great value. He is one of 

 the leading mammalogists and he has laid 

 all men interested in biology under a heavy 

 debt by reviving the best traditions of the 

 old-school faunal naturalist and showing 

 that among the students of the science of 

 life there is room for other men in addition 

 to the section cutter, the microscopist and 

 the histologist. There are a good many of 

 us who look forward to the publication of 

 his great work on the North American 

 Mammals, including their life histories, as 

 to something which will mark a real epoch 

 in scientific work on this continent. 



Having made this kind of preface, every- 

 one will naturally and rightly conclude that 

 I intend to say something in dissent from 

 some of Dr. Merriam's views. I have just 

 been reading his very interesting pamphlet 

 on the smaller North American wolves, 

 commonly called prairie wolves, or coyotes. 

 His facts and deductions are most impor- 

 tant ; he has shown for the first time how 

 many different races of coyotes there are, 

 together with their inter-relationships and 



