No. 600] SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



757 



use the same argument that " heterozygous individuals sometimes show 

 the recessive character/' we might, if necessary, use the same argument 

 to prove the dominance of cataract. On the assumption that congenital 

 cataract is dominant instead of recessive it might be maintained that in 

 those cases where both parents of affected individuals seem to be normal, 

 one of them is, after all, heterozygous — and affected children are there- 

 fore to be expected (p. 444). 



Perhaps Danforth would be willing to consider another expla- 

 nation which he suggests, that somatic cataracts of a congenital 

 origin are not uncommon. If one of the parents in question had 

 a somatic cataract the appearance of normal children would be 

 expected but not of affected children unless the parent was also 

 heterozygous for hereditary cataract. A probability which would 

 be rather remote but not impossible. 



From the data as they have been gathered up to this time it 

 seems impossible to arrive at an explanation of the mode of in- 

 heritance of cataract which will be entirely satisfactory. While 

 more proof is awaited, we believe that the assumption of con- 

 genital cataract as a single, recessive, unit character has the best 

 support from the facts at hand. The article by Danforth has 

 brought out several important considerations which we neglected. 

 It is regretted that in this paper which at first sight makes out a 

 strong case against our recessive hypothesis there is nothing 

 offered towards a different solution of the problem. 



D. F. Jones 

 S. L. Mason 



THE STATUS OF FOWLER'S TOAD, BUFO FOWLERI 

 PUTNAM 



S. P. Fowler, of Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts, ap- 

 pears to have been the first to recognize the fact that this toad 

 differed in many respects from the common toad. In a letter 1 

 to Prof. F. W. Putnam, Fowler gave a very accurate and com- 

 plete account of the song and habits of this toad as he had ob- 

 served it around Danvers. 



Cope (see loc. cit.) discussed in much detail Bufo lentiginosis 

 fowleri (Putnam). Little was known of this toad at the time 

 Cope wrote. In fact, Cope stated that it was confined to a few 



iCope, E. D., ''The Batrachia of North America," Bull. 34, IT. S. 

 National Museum, 1889, pp. 279-281. 



