954 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 285. 



exuberance in the earlier stages of European 

 education, the choice is frequently painful. It 

 is to be hoped that means may be found to 

 establish a happy mean between the two ; but 

 it is quite certain that among the subjects of 

 education conducive to that end, the history 

 of the intellectual evolution of mankind must 

 find a more conspicuous place than is assigned 

 to it in the latest scheme of higher education. 

 The titles bachelor and master of arts should, 

 in my view, together with the doctor of philos- 

 ophy, remain the badge of such broader edu- 

 cation ; and those who are content with narrow 

 lines should also be content to receive only a 

 corresponding degree. B. W. Hilgabd. 



TJniveesity of Califoenia. 



phosphoeescence in deep-sea animals. 



It is stated, among others, by Beddard in his 

 animal coloration that the brilliant and varied 

 colorations of deep-sea animals are totally de- 

 void of meaning, either by way of protection or 

 warning, for the simple reason that not enough 

 light penetrates to the depths of the sea to per- 

 mit them to be visible. But in a paper on the 

 ' Utility of Phosphorescence in Deep-Sea Ani- 

 mals,' in a late number of the American Natur- 

 alist, it is maintained by C. C. Nutting that the 

 quantity of phosphorescent light emitted by the 

 animals of the deep sea is very considerable — 

 so great, in fact, as to supply over definite areas 

 of the sea bottom a sufficient illumination to 

 render visible the colors of the animals them- 

 selves. This lighting up of the depths of the sea 

 would be of manifest benefit to the various ani- 

 mals which combine to bring it about — it 

 would serve much the same purposes as protec- 

 tive, aggressive, alluring and directive colora- 

 tions. For the free-swimming animals — fishes, 

 crustacese, molluscs, part of the ccelenterates, 

 most of the protozoa — the utility of phosphor- 

 escence is the more readily obvious ; but since 

 practically all deep-sea forms live exclusively 

 on animal food, and since it is well known 

 that light exerts a strangely attractive power 

 on widely different forms of animal life, the 

 fixed species would also enjoy at least the bene- 

 fit of attracting their prey. A very large num- 

 ber of crustaceans are phosphorescent, often 

 brilliantly so ; many of them have large eyes 



and are particularly active in movement and 

 voracious in appetite ; they feed on minute or- 

 ganisms for the most part, and it can hardly be 

 doubted that they often use their phosphores- 

 cent powers for the purpose of illuminating 

 their surroundings and revealing their prey. 

 Certain cephalopods secured by the Challenger 

 have been made out to have a highly special- 

 ized apparatus designed to reflect light from 

 their phosphorescent bodies downward to the 

 bottom over which it passes ; in this case there 

 is not only light but also a reflector, an efficient 

 bull's eye lantern for use in hunting through 

 the abyssal darkness. 



Among the ctenophores and medusse we en- 

 counter amazing displays of the 'living light'; 

 as these animals have eye-spots, and seem to be 

 able to distinguish light, their phosphorescence 

 may serve to keep them together in groups and 

 thus effect the same end as directive coloration 

 among vertebrates and insects. It is important 

 to note that blind species of groups normally 

 possessed of eyes are seldom if ever phospho- 

 rescent. Noctilucca and other allied Protozoa 

 are often found at considerable depths, and 

 hence come under the head of deep-sea forms, 

 but they differ from the organisms already men- 

 tioned in having no recognized organs of sight, 

 and also in an extreme simplicity of organi- 

 zation. They, however, occur in enormous 

 swarms and hence must have some means of 

 keeping together, and moreover, they have 

 been proved to be, although eyeless, extremely 

 sensitive to light. In fact, it is practically 

 certain that sensitiveness to light is a funda- 

 mental property of simple protoplasm. It is 

 easy to conceive, therefore, that in these little 

 creatures their phosphorescence is directive in 

 function ; the same thing is doubtless the case 

 with a medusa of the subtropical Atlantic, 

 which thickly covers hundreds of square miles 

 of surface, and which glows like a living coal 

 at night. C. L. Feanklin. 



Baltimoee, Md. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 balloon mbteoeology. 

 The rapid development of what may well be 

 called balloon meteorology has resulted in the 



