July 29, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



145 



efficacy, as we shall see, as well as a covenant. 

 The long wars with the Oanaanites and Baal 

 worshippers were conflicts with phallicism, to 

 the gross orgies of which the chosen people 

 were always lapsing. All early Hebrew his- 

 tory shows that while man knows how to breed 

 cattle, Jehovah could breed men, and it is a 

 study of human heredity far more effective 

 than Plato knew how to make it. The New 

 Testament begins with the annunciation and 

 conception from on high, and a nursery scene 

 of moving bucolic power, while Islam hypos- 

 tatizes only the former." And what strength 

 is added to a eulogy of wrestling by the last 

 clause of this sentence : " The very closeness 

 of body to body, emphasizing flexor rather 

 than extensor arm muscles, imparts to it a 

 peculiar tone, gives it a vast variety of pos- 

 sible activities, developing many alternatives 

 at every stage, and tempts to many undiscov- 

 ered forms of mayhem." These two samples 

 were taken practically at random, but one 

 puzzling association so rings in the reviewer's 

 ears that he must allow it a motor discharge. 

 It concerns the psychology of prison life and 

 is, " Not only men, but women fall* in a 

 school-girl mash, but women can not organize 

 or complot." Edward L. Thorndike. 



Teachees College, 

 Columbia IlKrvEESiTY. 



and 653,627 in the dorsal roots, these numbers 

 being in the ratio of 1 : 3.2. In the white rat 

 this ratio is 1 : 2.3 and in the frog 1 : 1.2, indi- 

 cating that probably the relative sensory sup- 

 ply increases as we ascend in the zoological 

 series. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

 The leading article in the Journal of Com- 

 parative Neurology and Psychology for June 

 is ' An Enumeration of the lledullated Nerve 

 Fibers in the Ventral Eoots of the Spinal 

 Nerves of Man,' by Charles E. Ingbert, a 

 direct continuation of the same author's for- 

 nier enumeration of the dorsal root fibers of 

 man. An extensive discussion of the areas of 

 the cross-sections of each root, the number of 

 fibers per square millimeter of the cross-sec- 

 tions and the relation between the dorsal and 

 ventral roots is followed by figures and tabula- 

 tions giving the data for each fascicle of each 

 nerve root. There are 203,700 medullated 

 nerve fibers in the ventral roots of the left side 



* The actual text is pall, which to the reviewer 

 makes a truer statement, but the context suggests 

 the correction. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 THE TOEEEY BOT.ANICAL CLUB. 



The meeting of May 10, 1904, was held in 

 the library of the New York College of 

 Pharmacy, Eev. L. H. Lighthipe presid- 

 ing. 



The first paper on the scientific program 

 was by Dr. H. M. Eichards, entitled, ' Notes 

 on the Peat Bogs of Ireland.' The peat bogs 

 have been variously estimated as covering 

 from one fifth to one tenth of the surface 

 of Ireland; probably the larger estimate is 

 excessive. 



Dr. Eichard's observations at several points 

 on the west coast including Donegal and Achill 

 Island were given. The basis of the bogs is* 

 not always the same, but in some cases it is 

 glacial gravel. The thickness of the peat 

 varies from one or two feet to forty feet, but 

 no exposures of more than twenty-five feet 

 thickness were seen. On the slopes and hill- 

 sides the peat is thinner, but becomes accu- 

 mulated in the lower situations so that the 

 thickness of the bog does not necessarily show 

 its age. Bogs have been known to burst, as 

 in Sligo, in 1831, and to do considerable dam- 

 age to houses below them. 



The peat is mostly vegetable matter and 

 yields veiy little ash. According to Lyell, its 

 formation is supposed to be due to the low 

 temperature preventing complete decomposi- 

 tion of the vegetable matter. Peat is not 

 formed in warm countries and the additions to 

 the beds are made in cold weather. In the 

 bogs seen there was standing water only in 

 the holes and ditches, but the soil was wet and 

 soggy. Comparatively little of the bog oak 

 is found. Some of the stumps are in place, 

 showing that they are not driftwood carried 

 into the bog. The dark color and hardness 

 of the bog oak are said to be due to the action 

 of a diatom, a Melosira, and the formation of 

 bog iron ore is supposed to be due to the same 



