20 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 496. 



scientists tell us that diseases of all sorts — 

 at least the predisposition to them — are trans- 

 missible; that they run in families, and that 

 the probability is greater that the children of 

 diseased parents will fall heir to the par- 

 ticular maladies of the latter than that the 

 children of unaffected parents will be troubled 

 by them. It is true that in the case of appen- 

 dicitis, recent acquisition as it is to the cata- 

 logue of bodily ills, we have no exact data in 

 support of the belief that it is transmissible, 

 yet reasoning from analogy we have every right 

 to believe that it is so. A hereditary predis- 

 position to many other forms of inflammation 

 similar in all respects except that of the part 

 affected has been fully demonstrated and the 

 inference is certainly a logical one that ap- 

 pendicitis is no exception to the rule. 



But under the conditions of nature, such a 

 transmission of disastrous predispositions is 

 taken care of through the early death of the 

 individual with the consequent impossibility 

 of passing them to the descendants. If death 

 comes before the period of maturity is reached 

 the lack of offspring means the total annihila- 

 tion so far as the race is concerned, of disas- 

 trous consequence in that particular line of 

 descent. If it comes early in maturity such 

 annihilation is not absolute but only rela- 

 tive, the danger to the race increasing with 

 the length of life as measured by the number 

 of children. In any event nature demands 

 death without offspring on the part of the 

 individuals possessing racially disastrous pre- 

 dispositions. Yet that is what the prolonga- 

 tion of life through surgical intervention con- 

 troverts. All danger of death from the par- 

 ticular diseased part, so far as the individual 

 is concerned, is removed without lessening 

 seemingly one whit its disastrous effects upon 

 the race. A long life is assured so far as the 

 particular disease is concerned and, all other 

 things equal, a correspondingly large family 

 with all the laws of heredity potent, so far as 

 the probable transmission of the difficulty is 

 concerned. To believe that the surgical re- 

 moval of the diseased part does away with the 

 probability of the transmittal of the disease 

 would be to accept the theory of the transmis- 

 sion of mutilations. This, few thinking 



persons, familiar with the field of scientific 

 thought, are willing to do. Generations of 

 artificially misshapen heads among certain 

 savage tribes, of the mutilated feet of the 

 Chinese women without racial effect, to say 

 nothing of the lack of results of century upon 

 century of circumcision, are all in opposition 

 to it. And the corollary is that the good 

 offices of the surgeon — whom, by the way, we 

 shall probably continue to patronize in spite 

 of any disaster we may see impending future 

 generations — are the surest means of making 

 permanent his calling. That this is true in the 

 case of appendicitis is more easily seen than 

 for other surgically prevented diseases, for we 

 can not doubt that nature, left to herself, 

 would in time eliminate the vermiform appen- 

 dix altogether with the consequently disastrous 

 results to the surgeon's income. We need not, 

 however, impute to him any sordid motives 

 when we say that he is taking the surest 

 means of preventing such a catastrophe. 



Edwin G. Dexter. 

 The University of Illinois. 



' the tree-dwellers.' 



To THE Editor of Science : Since the two 

 articles which have appeared in recent num- 

 bers of Science regarding ' The Tree-dwellers ' 

 contain several statements not supported by 

 facts, and since the criticisms made rest large- 

 ly upon a hypothetical basis, it may not be out 

 of place to call attention to the same through 

 the columns of the paper in which the articles 

 appeared. The articles referred to are a letter 

 from Dr. E. C. Case, State Normal School, 

 Milwaukee, Wis., published in Science, April 

 1, and an article by Dr. Theo Gill, entitled 

 " ' Horses ' not Horses," appearing May 6. 



At the outset I wish to acknowledge an 

 indebtedness to Dr. Case, for it was his criti- 

 cism which first called my attention to the 

 possibility of making the startling interpreta- 

 tion which he makes of the illustration on 

 page 67, which he refers to as a Jurassic 

 dinosaur chasing an Eocene horse, and the 

 illustration on page 62 which he refers to as 

 ' a man in a tree watching a herd of the same 

 horses ( ?) that were pursued by the Jurassic 

 dinosaur ! ' Dr. Case continues, ' This makes 



