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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIII 



gate it is enough. " Further observations are needed . . . 

 especially with reference as to whether," etc. "Why the "as 

 to"? This sentence is bungling. But worse than bungling is 

 the statement that "organic data function" in controlling, etc. 

 Such expressions as this can not be let off on the plea of hasty 

 composition, imperfect proof reading, established usage within a 

 special field, or something of the sort. They mean hazy think- 

 ing. Literary form is not a vital thing especially to technical 

 science. Nevertheless, considerable attention to it pays in the 

 long run for effort in this way is promotive of clean, clear 

 thought. 



It seems to the reviewer that the word "reaction" is being 

 overworked by some students of animal behavior. What more 

 is there in a medusa's "fishing reaction" than in its plain 

 fishing? And what is the gain in speaking of a bird's alighting 

 on a stake as a "reaction"? There is a quality seemingly pos- 

 sessed in some degree by all minds, that tends to accept a new 

 name for an old familiar phenomenon as in some way more 

 explanatory of that phenomenon than the old name. Anything 

 that encourages this tendency is not good for objective science. 

 More, perhaps, in science than in any other domain of knowl- 

 edge is there need of vigilance against bondage to words. 



The subjects treated in the collection may be ranged under 

 these heads: Cytology, normal development, regeneration, faunal 

 zoology and animal behavior. Some of the papers fall exclu- 

 sively under one head while others contain matter belonging to 

 two or more. Such notice and comment as can be made here 

 will be ranged under these headings. 



Cytology: H. E. Jordan ("The Germinal Spot in Eehinoderm 

 Eggs") concludes that the chromosomes in Echinaster crassispina 

 are derived from the nucleolus, and that they arise inconstantly 

 in different species of eehinoderms from any part of the germinal 

 vesicle that contains the chromatin material, such containers 

 being either the nucleolus or nuclear reticulum or both, and that 

 nothing in this research supports the theory of individuality of 

 the chromosomes. The same author ("The Spermatogenesis in 

 Aplopus mayert") finds an accessory chromosome in the phasmid 

 studied and believes the "history of this accessory chromosome 

 gives evidence that it at least possessed a strict morphological 

 and probably also a physiological individuality." One would 

 like to know whether this statement implies that there might be 



