November 18, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



679 



The essence of Mendelism in inheritance is 

 its alternative character. In this it is op- 

 posed to blending inheritance (as in human 

 skin color), which has been regarded as the 

 typical sort of inheritance. At the Station 

 for Experimental Evolution of the Carnegie 

 Institution certain new cases of non-blending 

 inheritance have already been found. Among 

 sheep it appears from Dr. Alexander Graham 

 Bell's records that the offspring of two black 

 sheep are (probably always) black, although 

 one or more of the grandparents were white. 

 It looks as if black color (like albinism) might 

 be recessive. Among canary birds it is found 

 that, of the offspring of crested and of plain 

 headed birds, some are crested and some are 

 not. Poultry have been studied because of 

 the numerous characters they exhibit. When 

 a Japanese long tailed, clean legged cock was 

 crossed on a white bantam hen, the two sur- 

 viving offspring were highly colored like the 

 father and had abundant feathers on the legs 

 like the mother. The crested characteristic 

 of poultry is peculiar, being sometimes dom- 

 inant, and sometimes (apparently) blending 

 with the crested condition when the cross is 

 made. 



7. On the decomposition products of epineph- 

 rin. John J. Abel and K. de M. Tavean. 

 (Presented by William J. Gies.) 

 The empirical formula, CjoHj.NOj • ^H.O, 

 adopted by Professor Abel for that member of 

 the epinephrin series which he has called epine- 

 phrin hydrate (the adrenalin of T^kamine) is, 

 at present, the subject of an acute controversy. 

 In this report special attention was drawn to 

 the fact that the | H„0 of the above formula 

 has always been regarded by Abel as water of 

 constitution and not water of crystallization, 

 as his opponents have apparently taken for 

 granted. The basic substance, CgHjIST^O, which 

 is obtainable equally from both forms of epi- 

 nephrin, has been decomposed, by treatment 

 with caustic potash, into ammonia (NH,), 

 methylamin (CH^-NH,), and methylhydrazin 

 (CH, • NH : NH,) . The last degradation prod- 

 uct is of great importance in throwing light 

 on the chemical constitution of the new 

 base, CjHjlSr^O. Its appearance, tmder the 

 circumstances referred to, proves that the two 



nitrogen atoms of this base are directly com- 

 bined one with the other, and suggests, among 

 other things, for this base a ring structure 

 such as is found in bodies of the pyrazolon 



(If — n 



\CH • CHj • CO / 



Small quantities of skatol 

 • /C(CH3)^^ 



series. 



I QHj' 



~^NH 



» 



have been obtained on fusing epinephrin hy- 

 drate with caustic alkalies. Further investi- 

 gation, particularly an analytic study of epi- 

 nephrin hydrate prepared in an atmosphere 

 of hydrogen, is in progress. 



William J. Gies, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



The writer was recently dining with friends, 

 none of whom is engaged in scientific work 

 in the narrower sense of the term. The Amer- 

 ican Association came up for discussion, and 

 one of them said that he would like to become 

 a member, but did not know how to arrange 

 it. I said that I should be glad to nominate 

 him for membership, and then asked the 

 others if they would consent to be proposed 

 for membership. There were in all seven; 

 four consented to join the association, one 

 was already a member, one took the matter 

 under consideration and one declined. They 

 were all surprised, so far as I remember, to 

 learn that the dues were only three dollars 

 and that Science is sent without charge to 

 members. I venture to communicate this 

 experience to Science because it seems to me 

 that the conditions would be similar in any 

 group of .intelligent people. If' each member 

 of the association would ask two of his friends 

 to join the association, at least one of them 

 would be likely to accept, and the membership 

 of the association would be doubled, much to 

 the advantage of the association and the prog- 

 ress of science in America. 



X. 



