348 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 531. 



Thus he finds it convenient to separate prob- 

 ablj' related groups such as the Pinnipedia and 

 the Carnivora, Polyodon and the sturgeons, 

 but, on the other hand, he thinks the orders An- 

 seres, Steganopodes, Tubinares, Longirostres, 

 Pygopodes, Impennes ' might well stand as a 

 subclass — the web-footed swimmers.' What- 

 ever mnemonic value there may be in his 

 classification of the fishes (which is based 

 chiefly upon visible external characters), it 

 must be admitted that the scheme is arbi- 

 trary, not expressive of kinships and far from 

 representing the present state of ichthyology. 

 The physostomous and physoclistous orders 

 are scattered about indiscriminately the elec- 

 tric eel (Symh ranch lis, which is almost cer- 

 tainly an eel-like ofl^shoot of the characincs) 

 is cited as a typical example of the order 

 Apodes; the Pediculates are widely separated 

 from the spiny-finned group and placed next 

 to the ' foot of the subclass of bony fishes,' 

 which place of slight esteem is assigned to 

 the eels and to the sea-horse group! 



W. K. Gregory. 



SCIEyTIFIC ./OUUyALS A^D ARTICLES. 



The February number of the Botanical 

 Gazette contains ' The theory of respiration,' 

 by C. R. Barnes, being an address as retiring 

 president of the Botanical Society of America, 

 and published also in Science of February 17. 

 — H. N. Whitford has begun a discussion of 

 the forests of Flathead Valley, Montana, be- 

 ing the results of his work as a collaborator 

 in the U. S. Bureau of Forestry. The paper 

 discusses the conditions that determine the 

 appearance and nature of the forests of that 

 region, and inferentially the nature of the 

 conditions of forest development in other re- 

 gions. — Theo. Holm publishes a study of Mun- 

 roa squarrosa, both from the standjioint of its 

 general characters and its anatomy. — C. J. 

 Chamberlain presents tlie view of a botanist 

 as to alternation of generations in animals, 

 his theory being that the egg with the throe 

 polar bodies constitutes a generation com- 

 parable with tlie female gametophyte in 

 plants; that the primary spermatocyte with 

 the four spermatozoa constitute a generation 

 comparable with tlu; male gametophyte in 



plants; and that all other cells in the animal 

 constitute a generation comparable with the 

 sporophyte in plants. His lines of evidence 

 are the gradual reduction of the gametophyte 

 in plants, with the constantly diminishing in- 

 terval between the reduction of chromosomes 

 and the process of fertilization; and the phe- 

 nomena of chromatin reduction in both ani- 

 mals and plants. — W. F. Ganong, in continu- 

 ing his descriptions of new precision-appli- 

 ances for use in plant physiology, describes 

 an autographic transpirometer, an adjustable 

 leaf clasp, and a leaf-area cutter. 



The February number of the Journal of 

 Nervous and Mental Disease opens with an 

 article by Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, on 

 the course of the sensory fiber's in the spinal 

 cord as evidenced by a case of section of the 

 cord. Dr. Prince discusses the function of 

 the posterior columns with a leaning toward 

 the view that they are largely for the con- 

 duction of muscular rather than tactile sense, 

 and that at least one of the paths of conduc- 

 tion of tactile sense is in the lateral part of 

 the cord. He goes over the reports of varioiis 

 experiments on animals, and then presents 

 very carefully the case in point, resulting 

 from a brawl between a couple of Italians and 

 amounting practically to a vivisection experi- 

 ment on a human being. Lack of space pre- 

 vents giving his conclusions in full, but among 

 them might be noted : It is proved that tactile 

 sensations are conducted by other paths than 

 the posterior columns, and this is probably 

 although not positively true of pain as well. 

 A path for sensibility must cross the cord. 

 In the second article Dr. Frank R. Fry, of 

 St. Loiiis, reports two cases of syphilitic dis- 

 ease of the cervical spine, belonging to a type 

 characterized by a stiif neck with one or more 

 points of tenderness on deep pressure, severe 

 neuralgic pains, often not sharply localizable, 

 no objective sensory changes, and no paralysis. 

 Dr. F. X. Dercum, of Philadelphia, reports a 

 case of trauma of the foot of the second frontal 

 convolution, followed by ataxia, nystagmus 

 and epilepsy, which improved after surgical 

 interference. The October meeting of the 

 Philadelphia Neurological Society and the 

 November meeting of the New York Neuro- 



