September 20, 1901.] 



SCIENCE 



455 



it is probable that a longitudinal splitting of the 

 chromosomes takes place. Doflein does not 

 find any evidence of such in process. In the 

 absence of conclusive proof it is impossible to 

 decide which of these two accounts is correct. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Plant World for August contains, besides 

 short articles, notes and reviews i 'August 

 Days,' by John Burroughs ; ' Notes from West- 

 ern Kentucky,' by Sallie F. Price, and, under 

 the caption ' A Scanty Flora, a description of 

 that of Bird Rock, Gulf of St. Lawrence,' by 

 Henry E: Baum. But three species of plants 

 are found on this islet : Poa compressa, Achillea 

 borealis and Plantago maritima. Pauline Kauf- 

 man continues ' Orchids in Central Park,' and 

 John Giflford describes ' The Dwarf Mistletoe, 

 Bazoumofskya Prusilla.^ L. H. Pammel dis- 

 cusses 'Rare Plants and their Disappearance,' 

 the drying up of sloughs and the overpasturing 

 of the woodlot being accountable for the small 

 numbers of the plants mentioned. In the sup- 

 plement devoted to ' The Families of Flow- 

 ering Plants,' Charles Louis Pollard describes 

 the Trigoniacese and other families of the Ger- 

 minales and begins the description of the 

 Sapindales. 



The News Bulletin of the Zoological Society 

 of New York appeared in new form with its 

 last (July) issue, having been reduced to a small 

 quarto about the size of Science. Besides a 

 number of views of animals living in the park, 

 there is a cut showing the state of the monkey 

 house in June. The completion of a restaurant 

 and of the Service Building is announced, and 

 many improvements in the buildings and 

 grounds are noted. Six species of mammals, 

 twelve of birds and eight of reptiles were born 

 in the park this present season. A special fea- 

 ture of the New York Zoo is its collection of 

 reptiles, and the additions to this have been 

 numerous during the first six months of the 

 year. 



The Osprey for July brings this periodical 

 nearly down to date, and the August number is 

 promised at an early day. The present issue 

 contains besides shorter articles ' Camping on 

 the Old Camp Grounds, ' by Paul Bartsch ; 



'Stephen's Whip-poor-will,' by J. H.Riley; 

 ' The Malar Stripe of Young Flickers and the 

 Moult,' by William Palmer; ' The Blue Gros- 

 beak in Eastern Kansas,' by Walter S. Colvin, 

 and the sixth instalment of ' The Osprey or 

 Fish-hawk ; its Characteristics and Habits,' by 

 Theodore Gill. 



Scientific journals are not often sold, and 

 it is consequently a matter of interest that the 

 market value of a special journal has been 

 ascertained by the sale of the Botanisches 

 Centralblatt to the International Association of 

 Botanists. According to the Compte Rendu of 

 the recent congress the price was 37,500 Marks, 

 and the present editor, Dr. Uhlworm retains 

 his position for five years, and if subsequently 

 superseded receives an indemnity. About half 

 the amount has been subscribed, and the bal- 

 ance has been advanced by the publisher, J. E. 

 Brille, of Leipzig, who is to be paid 4 per cent, 

 interest. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



DISCOED AND PSYCHOLOGY. 



To THE Editor of Science : In the issue of 

 Science for August 30 'Mr. Max Meyer calls 

 attention, in a discussion of 'Discords and 

 Beats,' to a supposed error in my review of a 

 recent book on physics, where I referred to 

 Mayer's law expressing the duration of the 

 residual auditory sensation as a function of vi- 

 bration frequency. He is right in thinking it 

 rare to find physicists well up with current psy- 

 chological literature, a fact necessitated by the 

 immense mass of literature now in all depart- 

 ments. This fact excuses Mr. Meyer for having 

 apparently failed to read the investigations of 

 Professor Mayer on this subject, which were pub- 

 lished in the American Journal of Science (Oct., 

 1874, April, 1875, and Jan., 1894). This physi- 

 cist did notassume that discord was necessarily 

 due exclusively to beats. His own conclusions 

 were tested in 1875 by a trained musician whose 

 deliverances were given without considering 

 anything else than the perception of discord. 

 This was a purely psychological investigation, 

 therefore, so far as musical sensation was con- 

 cerned. If the psychologists have some time 

 since agreed that discord cannot be defined by 

 beats, this negative conclusion does not estab- 



