moves several long scales of the inner involucre by a clean cut close to the receptacle, thus exposing the plumed akenes, and then seizes a mouthful of these between the plumes and 'seeds,' lopping off the plumed pappus and swallowing the 'seeds.' The mutilation of the involucre by the sparrow's beak can be seen until the flower stalk dries and falls. Fully three-fourths of the dandelions that bloomed on the Department grounds during April and May, 1898, were mutilated by birds.

The English sparrow, in spite of the services it renders in consuming weed seed, is a pest because of its despoiling buildings, and because of its extensive pillaging of fruit and grain. The native sparrows, on the contrary, have no such noxious habits, and are much more efficient as weed-seed destroyers.

The several species of goldfinches are equally beneficial. The American goldfinch confines its attacks almost entirely to the Composite; the thistle, ragweed and dandelion being its favorites. Last October I observed a flock of fifty on a New Hampshire farm. A bird would alight on a bull thistle and the pappus would float away as it feasted. Under a thistle head I found over a hundred empty akenes that had been. split open on one side and had their seeds removed. These goldfinches alighted, several at a time, in a single ragweed plant and fed so busily that I could approach within a few feet of them. On another day this flock of birds fed upon the evening primrose. According to Mr. H. C. Oberholser the goldfinch also feeds upon beggar ticks (Bidens frondosa) and milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).

Dr. E. V. Wilcox has observed American goldfinches in Montana feeding in flocks of fifteen to twenty on the wild sunflower, which is a very bad pest in the West. In the same State he observed Juncos and red poll linnets eating the seeds of the Russian thistle.

The goldfinches and native sparrows are more beneficial to agriculture than a number of other species, such as the English sparrow and blackbirds, which at times injure grain and fruit, but there are, however, in the work of weed-seed destruction some fifty species of birds engaged, and the number of species of weeds which they tend to eradicate amounts to more than three score.

SYLVESTER D. Judd.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

THE BIOLOGY OF THE GREAT LAKES.

SCIENCE for July 1, 1898, contained a notice by Dr. H. M. Smith, of a proposed Biological Survey of Lake Erie to be carried out under the auspices of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries.

Unfortunately, none of the work of the season of 1898 could be entered upon until the middle of July, and it was discontinued about the first of September. Since the work outlined in the second paragraph of Dr. Smith's notice is of such a character that it must be carried on continuously, it must wait for the establishment of a permanent biological station on the lakes.

The work that could actually be undertaken was that outlined in the third paragraph of the notice. The shortness of the time (4-6 weeks) did not permit results to be reached in many of the problems under investigation; so that the results of the summer's work so far published are contained in three papers by Dr. Jennings, a brief notice of the occurrence at Put-in-Bay of Trochosphæra solstitialis, contained in SCIENCE, October 21, 1898, and two papers on 'The Motor Reactions of Paramecium' and the 'Laws of Chemotaxis in Paramœcium' in the American Journal of Physiology, May 1, 1899. Progress was, nevertheless, made in all the other lines of work. Some of the results are now awaiting publication

and others will be ready for publication during the coming autumn.

During July and August, 1899, work will be continued at Put-in-Bay. The party will consist of the writer, as director; Professor H. B. Ward, of the University of Nebraska; Dr. H. S. Jennings, of Dartmouth College; Dr. Julia B. Snow, and Mr. R. H. Pond, besides a number of assistants. The members of the party will continue the work undertaken last summer, and referred to in Dr. Smith's notice, except that Mr. Pond, who takes the place of Mr. Pieters, will undertake an experimental investigation of of the nutrition of the larger aquatic plants.

The entire party will work at Put-in-Bay during July. During August it is intended to divide the party. Those engaged in experimental work will remain at Put-inBay. The writer and Professor Ward, together with a number of assistants, to act as collectors, will make a tour of the lake for the purpose of making collections, and in order to study the distribution and constitution of the plankton in the different parts of the lake.

The locality at Put-in-Bay affords a variety of conditions and is rich in aquatic fauna and flora. The occurrence of the huge infusorian Bursaria truncatella and of Trochospara are of especial interest.

During August it will be possible to offer the facilities of the laboratory to a limited number of investigators. The United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries will furnish all apparatus, glassware and reagents and place the entire resources of the laboratory at the disposal of such investigators without charge. Those who wish to take advantage of this opportunity should communicate with the writer at Ann Arbor, Michigan, before July 1st; at Put in-Bay, Ohio, after July 1st.

JACOB REIGhard. ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICH.

THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.

THE Schedule of classification of writings relating to Geology and Geography which it is proposed by the International Catalogue Committee to adopt appears, on the whole, to have been well considered, though, as regards its details, it is evidently open to certain criticisms. Thus it will be noted that there is no recognition of any subdivisions of the Archæan. The matter of soils, clearly of much importance, finds no place in the list. It is hardly to be grouped under the heading of Denudation and Deposition. So, too, the matter of shore lines. appears to have fairly a share in a scheme where glacial geology is ranked by itself apart. It may also be remarked that the whole field of economic geology is not suggested by any of the headings, and surely deserves recognition in any catalogue. Were this heading adopted it would naturally include a large part of the papers concerning veins and other ore deposits. As it is, these phenomena appear not to have been thought of.

Under the heading of Geography is a schedule of classification on a topographic basis, which is probably intended to serve also for the distribution of a portion at least of the works on geology, though this is not clearly stated. As a whole, the topographical classification which has been adopted commends itself to the reader. In places, however, the meaning is not clear, as in 'K Arctic Greenland and the area north of the Arctic Circle, or all the coasts of Continental America, Asia and Europe, whichever is farther north' (the italics are ours). It is possible, by systematic exegesis, to arrive at some conception of what the writer meant, but at first sight it seems to imply a variable northness of these several areas. It may also be noted that the category denoted by ea., viz., Asiatic Russia, is much too

large for convenience. In time a great literature will, doubtless, have to be referred to this division. The realm could be subdivided, perhaps, on the base of its drainage.

Under gb., gd., gd. and ge. the division is troublesome. First, we have Canada as a whole, then the Canadian Dominion west, including Yukon and British Columbia, Mackenzie, Athabaska, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Assiniboia; but gd., the Canadian Dominion east, includes only Newfoundland. In this specification Labrador and the neighboring districts seem to be left out. To add to the confusion comes ge., which takes in the Laurentian Lakes, with no statement as to the limits of the territory included in the category. Following down, we find, after the United States as a whole, a division which includes the northeastern field, i. e., all the States east of the Mississippi down in general to the Ohio and the Potomac, but omitting in the list Maryland and Delaware. The southeastern United States east of the Mississippi does not include a list of States. It may be intended to contain those last mentioned, but under the circumstances the names should be specified.

The subject classification under Geography is, as will be observed, much more detailed than the like grouping under Geology. It appears tolerably complete, but there again the matter of soils and of shores is omitted, though such matters as rocks, minerals and mines, which are less fitly to be regarded as geographic, find a place. It may also be noted that, while under Geology there is a seismic' division (including elevation and depression and mountain building), the matter of earthquakes is only mentioned in the geographic classification. We may fairly wonder whether this suggested difference in treatment was actually designed. In the geologic scheme volcanoes are included. They can come in again under

the head of volcanic phenomena under Geography. Again we wonder whether this arrangement is by chance or design.

If it is intended by this classification to demark the fields of geology and geography it is clearly open to objection from many points of view. Thus such matters as dunes, coral reefs, minerals, mines, etc., which find mention only under Geography, are, by common understanding, regarded as subjects for treatment under the head of Geology. N. S. SHALER.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

PHYSIOLOGY.

THE Editor of SCIENCE has kindly asked me to comment on the physiological part of the Catalogue of Scientific Literature, prepared by the Royal Society. I should like to call attention to a few points.

1. It seems to me that the space given to comparative physiology is not sufficient. Physiology is undergoing the same change that has taken place in morphology. The latter science was originally confined to man and a few of the higher vertebrates, but at present scientific morphology is identical with comparative morphology. The same change is taking place in physiology. It is true that the text-books of physiology have as yet taken no notice of this change, but a catalogue of 'scientific literature' cannot afford to ignore the development of physiology. The catalogue must take into consideration the fact that the field of comparative physiology is much wider than that of human physiology, and that, therefore, more space and a more prominent position is necessary for comparative physiology than is allotted to it in the provisional schedule.

2. It seems to me that physical chemistry has not received the consideration it deserves. It is hard to tell, for instance, in which part of the catalogue the effects of ions should be mentioned. There is a sub

division on isotony and other osmotic phenomena of the cell, and there is another subdivision in physiological chemistry on 'semipermeability and physiological properties of colloids,' but I am at a loss to find where experiments on the osmotic properties of muscles or connective tissues, etc., could be properly catalogued. It seems to me that It seems to me that fuller provision should be made for the whole realm of the application of physical chemistry to physiology.

3. It seems to me, further, that provision should be made for the facts of physiological morphology. By physiological morphology I mean the energetics of the phenomena of organization. Physiology has thus far chiefly been a study of the phenomena of irritability. But there can be no doubt that phenomena of growth, irritability and metabolism are so thoroughly interwoven that neither metabolism nor irritability can be fully understood without taking into consideration the phenomena of growth. For instance, only the active muscle is able to undergo hypertrophia. The resting muscle atrophies. It is evident that contractility and growth are in some way connected. In plants the heliotropic and other curvatures are connected with the phenomena of growth. It is even possible that our inability to explain contractility is due to the fact that we have not yet taken into consideration the phenomena of growth. Furthermore, I do not quite see where in the present catalogue such experiments on physiological morphology as those on heteromorphosis (the experimental substitution of one organ for another) could be mentioned. Physiological morphology includes also the physiological analysis of heredity. The field of physiological morphology is wider and certainly more fundamental than the present physiology of nerves and muscles.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

JACQUES LOEB.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

Talks to Teachers on Psychology, and to Students on some of Life's Ideals. By WILLIAM JAMES. New York, Henry Holt & Co. 1899.

In his first chapter Professor James discusses the relation of psychology to the teaching art. We have so many statements from non-psychologists concerning what psychology may do for teaching that it is pleasant to hear what a psychologist himself has to say on the subject. In the first place, it is pointed out that sciences do not directly generate arts. The study of logic does not make a thinker, nor that of grammar a correct speaker; so the study, even the mastery, of psychology does not insure success in teaching. A science and its corresponding art can be brought together only by means of a mediator; that is, a mind full of tact and invention for the application of the rules of the science to the practice of the art. Given a skilful mediator, psychology can be of the greatest aid to teaching. This is especially true in this country, where the system is so elastic that it becomes a vast laboratory for educational experiment. To this advantage we have the concomitant circumstance of a body of psychologists anxious to instruct another body of teachers eager to learn.

Incidentally, in this chapter, Professor James attempts to allay the pangs of bad conscience

in those teachers who have been made to feel that they must contribute to child psychology or be unworthy their calling. He heartily agrees with Professor Münsterberg that the psychologist's attitude toward mind must be abstract and analytical, whereas the teacher's should be concrete and ethical. Haunted by Emerson's lines

"When duty whispers lo, thou must,
The youth replies, I can,"

the conscientious teacher is pained that she does not. But Professor James eases this pain by intimating gently that obligation is obviated by inability.

The second chapter contains an abridgement of Professor James's well-known description of the Stream of Consciousness, while the third and fourth chapters are devoted to conduct as the outcome of education.

Chapters five, six and seven show the nature and need of spontaneous and acquired reactions. This discussion is new, forceful and illuminating. Not all of these things can be said of the succeeding chapter on the laws of habit. This is taken almost bodily from the author's 'Psychology.' That it is brilliant and sound will be attested by many. Yet what shall we say of the man who can produce new books, but who simply copies his old ones verbatim in the most. important parts? Professor Patten, in his 'Development of English Thought,' declares that geniuses are always lazy. Professor James can bear this double imputation, yet one can hardly excuse him when he says he needs to offer no apology for copying his own books. The apology is needless only because it is useless. An author should treat himself as well as he treats other authors. He would not incorporate their matter without transforming it by the force of his own thinking; no more should he repeat himself without subjecting his older thought to the transforming influence of a new point of view. Who wants to buy the same book twice?

The chapters on Interest and Attention are among the best and most typical in the book. The treatment is eminently popular and general, yet none the less helpful on that account. If it is much less rigid than that of Dr. Dewey, it is perhaps as useful to the ordinary teacher. The difference is that which exists between a diagram and a demonstration; the one is æsthetic, the other intellectual.

Apperception is described at some length in chapter fourteen, the discussion making no pretension to scientific exactness. Indeed, Professor James has always given the topic a step-motherly treatment, viewing the word apperception as a blanket term in psychology, and following the older traditional division into sensation, perception, memory, etc. Yet even from the standpoint of psychology itself, the researches of Wundt and others have shown that there are distinct advantages in treating apperception as an elemental process in psychic life; when we come to education the advantages of this procedure are great and unquestionable. It is to be hoped that Professor James will some day give his mind to a thoroughgoing scientific

exposition of the subject. If one may be permitted to cut out work for his neighbor, one may perhaps suggest to Professor James that a monograph upon apperception in its educative bearings would be gratefully received by American teachers.

Of the significance and value of this volume as a contribution to the cause of education there can be no question. Like everything that Professor James writes, it is at once lucid and interesting. If the treatment is popular and general, it is, at all events, founded on scientific insight, and, so far as it goes, may be confidently trusted as sound. If it ridicules 'brass instrument' study of children, it yet tends to awaken sympathy with childhood. If it disappoints the seeker after 'scientific' study of education, it, at least, satisfies the heart of the earnest teacher. Finally, this book is to be welcomed because it shows that in educational theory, as in treatises upon subject-matter, the writing of books is passing from the hands of professional bookmakers into those of the real leaders of thought. In this fact we find the brightest hope of our educational progress.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

CHARLES DEGARMO.

Wetterprognosen und Wetterberichte des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts. No. 12, Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten über Meteorologie und Erdmagnetismus herausgegeben von PROFESSOR DR. G. HELLMANN. Berlin, A. Asher & Co. 1899.

In this volume, which is the latest and largest of the series, Dr. Hellmann explains the origin and growth of weather predictions in almanacs, etc., and the practice in the different countries of describing remarkable meteorological phenomena, illustrating both subjects by facsimile reproductions of printed documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As Dr. Hellmann remarks, the art of foretelling the weather has always been the object of meteorological research, but it has been practiced in various ways according to the theoretical knowledge that existed of the occurrences in the atmosphere. Among the Greeks, at the time of Meton, public placards announced the past and expected weather. Later, astrology controlled