228 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 528. 



room, Tuesday, January 10, 7:30 p.m., the 

 following program being rendered: 



Professor William Cain : ' The Theory of 

 Metal or Reinforced Concrete Domes.' 



Tkofessob J. H. Pratt: 'Steel Hardening 

 Metals.' 



Alvin S. Wheeler, 

 Recording Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 the biting position of anopheles. 



It is a curious fact, as shown by Dr. J. B. 

 Smith's communication in Science for Jan- 

 uary 13, 1905, that no observer, from the 

 number cited, has noted the exact position of 

 this mosquito when biting. The writer, in 

 his communication in the December 2, 1904, 

 issue, based his statement upon observations 

 made in 1903 in the northern woods of Minne- 

 sota, where a number of individuals of A. 

 maculipennis were allowed to fill themselves 

 with blood from the hand, in an endeavor to 

 see how long a time was required by them to 

 digest a full meal (page 170 Eighth Annual 

 Report of the State Entomologist of l^linne- 

 sota). As I recall the experiment, my im- 

 pression is that these mosquitoes, when biting, 

 took a position somewhat resembling their 

 resting position, with body and beak more 

 nearly in line, and not at right angles as seen 

 in Culex. I shall have to include myself in 

 the army of non-observants to the extent of 

 saying that I am not absolutely sure of this. 

 This was made clear in my communication 

 on page 170 of the issue of SciENt:E referred 

 to, where I said, ' While we may be mistaken, 

 we are under the impression that this genus, 

 in biting, etc' As Dr. Smith very rightly 

 says in his letter ' I do not understand him 

 (Washburn) to say positively that the figure 

 is inaccurate, only that it had been his belief 

 that the biting position resembled the resting 

 position more nearly.' 



As I remember the chart at St. Louis taken 

 from an illustration of Nuttall & Shipley, the 

 biting Anopheles is shown with body horizon- 

 tal. This may be correct, but I note that Dr. 

 Herbert Johnson, who worked on Anopheles 

 for Dr. Smith, and who is quoted in the lat- 

 ter's communication, says with reference to 



the position of the body of Anopheles when 

 biting, ' It is always somewhat oblique.' It 

 was, I believe, this horizontal position with 

 beak at right angles, which caught my eye in 

 looking at Dr. Smith's most complete and ex- 

 cellent exhibit. 



At the same time it will possibly occur to 

 many that there may be individual variations 

 in the position of biting mosquitoes, due to 

 different configurations, greater or smaller, of 

 the surface at the immediate point where the 

 insect is working. The time is not far dis- 

 tant w'hen this feature in the activities of 

 Anopheles can be put bej'ond question. In 

 the meantime it is to be hoped that some more 

 observant workers, following Dr. Smith's sug- 

 gestion, will let us hear from them on this 

 point. F. L. Washburn. 



Minnesota State Experiment Station, 

 January 19, 1905. 



university registration statistics. 

 To the Editor of Science: The registrar 

 of the University of Wisconsin has called ray 

 attention to a discrepancy that occurs in the 

 figures furnished by him for the article on 

 ' University Registration Statistics,' jjublished 

 in Science, December 30, 1904. In former 

 years the short course and dairj' students, 

 who do not enter the university until De- 

 cember 1, were reported, whereas they were 

 not included in the 1904 table. Four hun- 

 dred and thirty-nine short course and dairy 

 students were enrolled on December 1, 1904, 

 and inasmuch as none attended the summer 

 session of 1904, 439 should have been added 

 to the total, giving a grand total for the 

 University of Wisconsin of 3,370 instead of 

 2,931, and consequently showing a normal in- 

 crease instead of the decrease represented by 

 the figures in the table. These additional 

 students were reported a fortnight after the 

 appearance of the article, but it seems only 

 fair to call attention to the omission. 



Rudolf Tombo, Jr. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 

 generic names of soft-shelled turtles. 

 In a recent paper ' On the Existing Genera 

 of the Trionychidffi ' (Proc. Amer. Philos. 



