330 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 541 



terizedas blue, red, green, etc. The joke was on a joung man 

 who happened to have a yellow voice. 



M. Pedrona says that his friend had perfect sight and hearing 

 and that he was in the best of health. With him a luminous 

 impression seemed to be made before he experienced the sonorous 

 impression. So keen was the chromatic sensitiveness that he 

 knew whether the sound was blue, red, yellow, or of other color, 

 before he could judge of its quality and intensity. He differed 

 in one respect from the Zurich student — he did not perceive a 

 change of color with every modification of tone. A sharp note 

 was only brighter, while the flat one was duller than the natural. 

 The same piece of music played upon different instruments pro- 

 duced different sensations. A melody played on a clarionet was 

 red and on a piano blue. The color was intense in proportiun to 

 the energy of the sound. The colored appearances of the sound 

 were perceived on the vibrating body, for instance, on the strings 

 of the guitar or over the keys of the piano. " The seat of color," 

 said the person who experienced these impressions, "appears to 

 me to be principally where the sound is made, above the person 

 who is singing. The impression is the same if I do not see any 

 one. There is no sensation in the eye, for I think of the same 

 color with my eyes shut. It is the same when the sound comes 

 from the street through the walls and partitions. When I hear 

 a choir of several voices, a host of colors seem to shine like little 

 points over the choristers; I do not see them but I am impelled 

 to look toward them and sometimes, while looking toward them, 

 I am surprised not to see them." 



This association of colors with sounds is more common than 

 has hitherto been thought by the few persons who have called 

 attention to the phenomena. It has been assumed that the ex- 

 periences were hallucinations. It is more probable that they re- 

 sult from some connection between the auditory and visual nervous 

 fibres. It is now known that there are motor nerve-centres which 

 perform particular functions, and it will probably be found that 

 near the acoustic centres are also chromatic centres, and that, in 

 such oases as have been described above, they echo to each other. 

 The fibres of the nerve of hearing may thus produce vibrations at 

 different periods of the chromatic fibres. 



According to the doctrine of evolution all the other senses have 

 come slowly into existence as so many modifications of feeling. 

 Indeed, hearing and sight, as well as taste, are modes of feeling. 

 Differentiation of feeling has, in the evolutionary processes, cor- 

 responded with the differentiation of physical structure. In the 

 lowest forms of life there are no developed and defined parts like 

 the organs of hearing, eight, smell, and none such as in the higher 

 animals make possible variety and sensitiveness through touch 

 alone. " The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine," exclaims 

 Pope. What a difference in the sensation of touch between the 

 speck of living jelly, homogeneous so far as it appears to the eye, 

 and a man with his differentiated structure, his several senses 

 through which 



Soft silence and the night 



Become the teachers of sweet harmony. 



THE GULL LAKE BIOLOGICAL STATION OF THE UNI- 

 VERSITY OF MINNESOTA. 



3T CONWAT MA.C MIliLAJi, TTNIVERSITT OF MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, 

 MINN. 



The establishment, during the present season of an inland 

 biological station, marks a new epoch in Americal biological in- 

 struction. While several excellent marine stations have already 

 been organized both upon the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and 

 most recently upon the Gulf of Mexico, up to the present time — 

 so far as known to the writer — there has been no inland station 

 provided for the free use of American investigators. The great 

 need of such a station, well equipped for every kind of biological 

 work, has long been pressing, and it is now hoped that a founda- 

 tion has been secured upon which to build as broadly as possible 

 for the best interests of American biology. The establishment 

 by individual enterprise of such a. private laboratory as the well- 

 known one at Milwaukee, has served to accentuate the need of 

 an inland station, access to which might be general. The Uni- 



versity of Minnesota proposes now to offer such a station, and a 

 party of twenty, representing at least four different institutions, 

 begin work early in June. The station is situated upon one of 

 the deep bays of Gull Lake, in Cass County, Minnesota. This 

 lake is about eighteen miles from Brainerd. and lies in the pine- 

 belt of central Minnesota. It is an attractive sheet of water, 

 about twelve miles in length and four miles in width, with irreg- 

 ular coast-line, and surrounded by hills, meadows, marshes, 

 promontories, swamps and smaller lakes. With a great diversity 

 of conditions in its vicinity and in its own waters, it is an excel- 

 lent spot for general inland biological work. Its situation, too, 

 as one of the innumerable lakes which form the general reservoir 

 in which the great central river of the continent takes its rise, 

 adds an interest to its study. As a region for the investigation of 

 the various problems of isolation it is peculiarly fine. Many of 

 the hundreds of lakes in Cass county were originally united, but 

 are now separated from each other by permanent divides. In 

 such waters, comparative study of the plankton, pelagic and lim- 

 netic groups of organisms can not but be productive of new and 

 important results. Both zoologically and botanically, Gull Lake 

 and its tributary country promise a rich field of investigation. 



The laboratory buildings form a cluster of cottages on the brow 

 of an abrupt hill, lying toward the east. The cottages number 

 five, and in addition there is a larger building, two stories in 

 height, with kitchen and dining room and sleeping apartments. 

 These buildings have been placed at the disposal of the biological 

 departments of the University through the courtesy of the 

 Northern Mill Company of Minneapolis. Until recently, they 

 formed a supply camp and headquarters for the company while it 

 was cutting timber in the vicinity of the west shores of Gull Lake. 

 The cottages are neatly plastered and papered, and form an 

 altogether admirable series of buildings for a summer station. 

 From Brainerd, the laboratories are reached by the Brainerd and 

 Northern Minnesota Railway, the ofHcials of which have assisted 

 much in the development of the plan of establishment. 



Apparatus of all necessary sorts has been shipped from the 

 University, and the investigators in the station will be given every 

 facility in the power of the University to pursue their work un- 

 der favorable and inspiring conditions. Boats have been put 

 upon the lakes, and a steamer belonging to the Northern Mill 

 Company has been placed at the disposal of the station for ex- 

 tended trips about Gull Lake itself. Dredges, nets, seines, col- 

 lecting apparatus of all sorts, both aquatic and terrestrial, have 

 been shipped to the station, and are in constant use. Abundant 

 opportunity for collection may be secured, and those who desire 

 are permitted to give their principal attention to such work, while 

 others are engaged more particularly upon lines of special re- 

 search. 



Tiie direction of the laboratory is under the professors of botany 

 and animal biology in the University of Minnesota, and thus 

 broadly organized there is no danger that the name will be a mis- 

 nomer for a special zoological or botanical station. The plan of 

 establishment contemplates the largest and most modern devel- 

 opment, and equipment for work in experimental embryology, 

 ©ecology, plankton study, etc., will be freely provided, as it is 

 demanded. 



To the botanists and zoologists of America it is not necessary to 

 explain or defend the establishment of such a station. Modelled, 

 as it is, somewhat upon the lines of its old world predecessor, 

 Plon, it hopes by its connection with one of the state universi- 

 ties to offer its advantages to a constantly increasing circle of in- 

 vestigators, at a cost much below that which might be possible 

 for any private institution of kindred nature. While still in an 

 inchoate condition, when the ultimate possibilities and expecta- 

 tions are considered, it will begin with a relatively large corps of 

 workers, under conditions highly favorable for a successful con- 

 tinuance. It will, during the first season, from June 1st to Sep- 

 tember 1st, welcome any serious student who may come to its 

 doors. While its accommodations are not unlimited, it can care 

 for such as give due announcement of their coming, and the di- 

 rectors will be glad to enter into correspondence with those con- 

 templating a visit. The address of mail should be as follows: 

 Stony Brook Landing, care of Northern Mill Co., Brainerd, Minn. 



