urge it as a suitable term to adopt into general usage.

A second term or expression, to which the writer desires to call attention, is the phrase transmitting power, to apply to the faculty which an individual organism has of transmitting its individual peculiarities to its progeny. This expression the writer has used in his papers for several years past,* but is not aware that it has been used in this connection by other writers, although it may have been, as it is an expression that would naturally suggest itself to any one thinking on this subject. Prepotency has been generally used in this sense, but this word has three well-recognized different meanings, namely,

1. The faculty which an individual has of transmitting its individual qualities to its progeny without variation or reversion, meaning in this case the strength of its hereditary

power.

2. The faculty which one species has of dominating another, with which it is crossed, in transmitting its characters.

3. The faculty which one kind of pollen sometimes possesses in being more potent in producing fecundation and offspring than another.

The first of these meanings is that for which the writer uses the expression transmitting power. Professor Hays, of the University of Minnesota, uses the expression (centgener) power in a similar manner, but this expression seems hardly applicable for use in any case other than where breeding is being conducted according to the centgener system used by him. In pedigree and grade breeding the transmitting power of the individual is the factor of prime importance that must be discovered by carefully following the performance of each individual in its progeny.

HERBERT J. WEBBER.

PLANT BREEDING LABORATORY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

A NEW SPHEROIDAL GRANITE.

GRANITES and diorites, among the deep seated rocks, occasionally develop spheroidal * Yearbook, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1902, p. 369.

or orbicular structures which are objects of considerable interest to petrographers, and which are exceptional and striking anomalies among the results of crystallization from fusion. Viewed merely as curiosities they would be of only moderate importance, but furnishing, as they do, an illustration of the order in which rock-making minerals separate from the molten magma and gather in aggregates of regular structure, they are the more worthy of attention. The best known of them have been met in Europe, notably at Fonni in Sardinia; Wirvik, Finland; Slätmossa in Sweden; and especially from Corsica, whose beautiful, spheroidal diorite has found a place in all the larger geological museums of the world. In America they are, if anything, less common. One granite, however, has been met in a boulder at Quonochontogue Beach, near Westerly, R. I., which compares favorably in perfection with those of Europe. A less perfect diorite has also been described from Rattlesnake Bar, El Dorado Co., California.

Last spring the writer came into possession of specimens of an exceedingly striking spheroidal rock, which had been discovered in a glacial boulder, by Mr. Horatio P. Parmelee, near Charlevoix, Mich., a town on Lake Michigan in the northwestern portion of the Lower Peninsula. The boulder was several feet in diameter and the largest piece in the possession of the writer is about fifteen inches wide by twenty inches long by eight inches thick. Through the middle runs a pegmatite vein five inches broad, but consisting of the same minerals as those in the spheroids. In fact, several of the spheroids pass imperceptibly into the pegmatite, their outer halves being normal and well-marked and their inner portions passing gradually into the latter.

The distinct spheroids are two to three inches across, and are usually ellipsoidal in shape, although nearly perfect spheres are not lacking. As is the general experience with these rocks the flattened ellipsoids suggest compression due either to flowing movements while the rock was yet plastic or else to dynamic crushes subsequent to consolidation,

The spheroids are a brilliant white in color and resemble albite alone, but the microscopic examination reveals considerable orthoclase in addition to the plagioclase, and also much quartz. The quartz fills interstices between the feldspars. The extinction of the plagioclase upon flakes parallel with the basal pinacoid is so slight that the species is in large part oligoclase, but the thin sections give ground for believing albite also to be present and possibly varieties even more basic than oligoclase. The reflections which are given by some broken nodules show that in instances much the greater portion consists of a single feldspar crystal. Others have but few, relatively large individuals; and still others are radiating aggregates. Where the constituent feldspars are coarse and few the core is marked by a few flakes of black biotite irregularly disseminated. They then cease and the main mass of the nodule is feldspar. Even the core may itself practically fail, the nodule becoming a mere ellipsoid of feldspar.

Where the core is well developed it is due to a considerable richness either of biotite or hornblende, both having been observed, but each in different spheroids. They may, however, and probably do occur together. Wellmarked rings of biotite or hornblende may also appear half way or two thirds the way from the center to the circumference.

There is no marked outer border to the nodules such as appears in other cases, the contrast being due to the fact that the general matrix is a very dark aggregate of biotite, hornblende, the two feldspars and quartz. The dark minerals are in very large amount, so that the brilliant white nodules stand out with great distinctness.

It appears from the relations of the minerals that the dark silicates first crystallized, together with some feldspar and quartz, and formed the cores. Next followed a period of formation of little else than feldspar and quartz, varied occasionally by a slight separation of the dark silicates. Finally the residue,

During the crystallization the pegmatitic streak also formed, and along its borders developed in part as half spheroids. It does not appear to be a phenomenon subsequent to the development of the nodules, and is not very sharply delimited from the spheroidal rock.

The home of the boulder lies somewhere to the north, probably in Ontario, but, so far as known to the writer, no similar rocks have yet been recorded in this region. Acknowledgments are due, in closing, to Professor A. W. Grabau, through whose kind offices the material was secured. J. F. KEMP.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.

PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF DAIMONELIX.

Daimonelix when first discovered, in 1891, was thought to be confined to the elevated tablelands of central Sioux County, Nebraska. In the meantime its range has been extended and it is now known almost throughout the entire Arikaree formation, a tract probably about five hundred miles in diameter, situated in Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. The more fibrous forms of Daimonelix constitute a character so constant as to justify the name Fibrous Arikaree for the upper half of the formation. The writer has traced these fossils as represented by the fibrous forms as far south as Benkleman, on the Kansas-Nebraska line, as far east as Fullerton and Long Pine, Nebraska; as far north as Eagle Nest Butte and White Clay Butte, in the Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota; and as far west as Lusk, Guernsey and Bates Hole, in Wyoming. Wellauthenticated reports would include northeastern Colorado, but those places only are mentioned which have been visited personally by the writer. Daimonelix proper is much more restricted than are the fibrous forms. However, its range has been extended beyond the highlands of central Sioux County as far west as Lusk, Wyoming, and as far east as Eagle Nest Butte, South Dakota..

This does not change essentially the original limits ascribed to Daimonelix, for outside of Sioux County, where they occur in enormous numbers, they are found sparingly.

In its wider distribution this singular fossil is thought to be represented by a specimen found in Peissenberg, Germany, and described by Dr. Ludwig von Ammon, Geognostischen Jahresheften,' 1900, under the title Vorkommen von Steinschrauben' (Dæmonhelix) in der Oligocänen Molasse Oberbayerns.

ERWIN H. BARBOUR. THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA,

December, 1902.

CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY.

RAINFALL OF INDIA.

THE latest volume of the valuable series of Indian Meteorological Memoirs' (XIV., fol., Calcutta, 1902) is a compilation of the rainfall data for 457 Indian stations through the year 1900. In Volume III. of the 'Memoirs,' Appendix A, Blanford had previously given the monthly rainfalls for various periods ending with December, 1886. The present publication will for some years be the authority on Indian rainfall statistics. Considerable interest has always attached to the rainfall at Cherra Poonjee (as the spelling is in the report under consideration), in the Khasi Hills, north of the head of the Bay of Bengal, which has held the record for the heaviest annual precipitation. According to the latest average, carried through 1900, the mean annual rainfall at this station is 457.80 inches. A new subdivision into the northeast monsoon and the southwest monsoon rainfalls, coming respectively in December-April and May-November, will be found useful by students of special problems in connection with the climatology of India.

TORNADO AT GAINESVILLE, GA., JUNE 1, 1903. In an account of the Gainesville tornado of June 1 last, published in the Monthly Weather Review for June, mention is made of two facts which show clearly the effect of the sudden expansion of the air in enclosed spaces. In one case the walls of a mill fell outward, and

the roof was lifted into the air and held suspended for several seconds.' The other concerned a standpipe, fifty feet off the ground, and about fifty feet high. This standpipe was about forty feet in diameter, and covered with a sheet-iron cupola. The latter, 'weighing several tons, was lifted bodily from the top of the standpipe, carried high into the air, and dropped about a hundred feet in front of the mill, killing several persons who had thus far escaped danger.'

WEATHER REPORTS FROM VESSELS AT SEA.

IN the same number of the Review, Professor A. G. McAdie notes that daily meteorological reports were received at San Francisco from the cable ship Silvertown, while this vessel was laying the American transPacific cable. The first report was received when the vessel was 90 miles off shore, and the last when she was about 2,000 miles away. These reports proved of value in making the weather forecasts at San Francisco.

R. DEC. WARD.

THE MOSELEY EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION.

THE members of Mr. Alfred Moseley's commission have arrived in this country to study our educational system. The commission is informal in character, although it includes official delegates from various institutions. It is expected that about two months will be spent in visiting the chief educational centers of the country, attention being paid to the public school system and to higher education. The members of the commission, all of whom, except three who are expected later, have spent the past week in New York City, are as follows:

Arthur Anderson, J.P., Alderman, and Chairman of Technical Instruction Committee of the West Riding County Council. (Nominated by the County Councils Association.)

W. F. Ayrton, F.R.S., professor of physics in the Central Technical College, ex-President Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Thomas Barclay, LL.B., ex-President Paris Chamber of Commerce.

A. W. Black, J.P., mayor of Nottingham; Chairman of the Nottingham Educational Committee.

R. Blair, M.A., B.Sc., assistant secretary for Technical Instruction of the Department of Agricultural and Technical Instruction, Ireland. (Nominated by Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.)

J. Rose Bradford, M.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.S., professor of medicine, University College, London. G. J. Cockburn, ex-Chairman of the Leeds School Board.

The Rt. Reverend, the Bishop of Coventry, exChairman of the Birmingham School Board.

Harry Coward, president of the National Union of Teachers. (Nominated by the National Union of Teachers.)

The Rev. Professor Finlay, S.J., F.R.U.I., member of the Technical Education Board, Ireland; professor of political economy, University College, Dublin. (Nominated as official representative of the Board of Agriculture and Technical Education of Ireland.)

Percy Frankland, Ph.D., B.Sc., F.R.S., professor of chemistry in the University of Birmingham.

T. Gregory Foster, B.A., Ph.D., assistant professor of English in University College, London, and Secretary to the college.

W. C. Fletcher, M.A., late fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge; Head Master of the Liverpool Institute.

W. H. Gaskell, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge; university lecturer in physiology.

The Rev. H. B. Gray, D.D. (Oxford), warden of Bradfield College.

W. P. Groser of the Inner Temple, representing the Parliamentary Industry Committee, and to inquire into legal education.

C. J. Hamilton, B.A. (Cambridge), F.S.S., lecturer in political economy, University College, Cardiff; Secretary to the Commission.

J. R. Heape, Chairman of the Rochdale Technical School.

The Rev. A. W. Jephson, M.A., member of the London School Board.

William Jones, M.P. for Arfon Division of Carnarvon, representing the Parliamentary Industry Committee.

Magnus Maclean, M.A., D.Sc., professor of electrical engineering in Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, Glasgow. (Nominated official representative by (1) Glasgow and West

Scotland Technical College; (2) Edinburgh School Building; (3) the Technical and Secondary Education Committee of the Ayrshire County Council.)

The Rev. T. L. Papillon, M.A., Vicar of Writtle, Essex. Late fellow and tutor of New College, Oxford; formerly fellow of Merton College.

Herbert R. Rathbone, B.A., Barrister-at-law, member of the Education Committee, and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Elementary Education, Liverpool.

H. R. Reichel, LL.D., late fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford; Principal of University College of North Wales, Bangor, and member of the Welsh Intermediate Education Board. (Nominated as official representative of the University College of Cardiff, Aberystwyth, and Bangor.)

John Rhys, LL.D., professor of Celtic in the University of Oxford; member of the British Academy and of the Oxford Education Committee. Sometime H. M. Instructor of Schools.

W. Ripper, M.I.S.E., professor of engineering in University College, Sheffield. Member of the Sheffield Education Committee.

Charles Rowley, M.A., J.P., member of the Manchester Education Committee and of the Manchester School of Technology, chairman of the Manchester School of Art.

Sir Albert Kaye Rollit, LL.D., D.C.L., M.P., Vice-President of the London Chamber of Commerce. (Nominated by the Association of Municipal Corporations.)

A. J. Shepheard, chairman of the Technical Education Board of the London County Council. A. Edmund Spencer, B.A. (Oxford), barristerat-law, director of Plymouth Girls' High School; member of Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, Executive member of Committee of the Mount Edgecombe Industrial Training Ship. Representing Plymouth.

John Whitburn, member of the Education Committee of Newcastle-on-Tyne.

THE ST. LOUIS MEETINGS. REFERENCE has been made several times in the course of the year in the columns of SCIENCE to the scientific meetings to be held in St. Louis in convocation week, beginning on December 28. The American Association for the Advancement of Science and most of the bodies which commonly meet in affiliation

with the association decided last winter to hold their next meeting in St. Louis, and it was expected that, in continuation of the effort that has been made for the last two years, the American Society of Naturalists and most of the bodies of professional men who have met in affiliation with that society would decide to hold their coming meeting at the same place. Unfortunately the American Society did not reach a decision as to its meeting place until autumn, and in the meantime some of the affiliating bodies had decided on an eastern meeting, though the larger number of them are expected to meet in St. Louis, with the Naturalists, at the time of the American Association meeting.

Desiring and anticipating a large attendance, the scientific and educational interests of St. Louis have organized an efficient local committee, and this committee is now at work on arrangements for the meeting. To facilitate these arrangements, it is desirable that the secretaries of the different sections of the American Association, and of all the other bodies that are to meet there in convocation week, write at the earliest possible date to the local secretary, Professor A. S. Langsdorf, of Washington University, St. Louis, letting him know the estimated seating capacity needed for their meetings, as well as the equipment that will be necessary or desirable, so that the subcommittee on equipment may secure ample provision for each.

It is probable that the meetings will be held in the Central High School, with a possible overflow into adjacent suitable buildings, but there is every reason to believe that if the committee is given prompt and definite information on which to make its arrangements all the meetings can be held so close to one another that those desiring to pass from one section to another or from either to the ses

sions of any affiliated society can do so without loss of time, thus avoiding some of the difficulties of the meetings last winter. The High School is a modern building with interior telephone service and other conveniences; adequate telephone, mail, express and other facilities will be provided and if it is wished a local telegraph office can be established in it; a considerable number of the rooms are provided with lanterns as a part of their regular equipment, and enough others to secure reasonable convenience for sections that only occasionally use this adjunct can be provided; and arrangements are being made to ensure adequate and reasonably cheap hotel accommodations in the vicinity of the High School, which is within easy reach by trolley service of the railroad station and downtown hotels, while the grounds and buildings of the World's Fair, Washington University, the Academy of Science and the Missouri Botanical Garden are all readily reached from this point, which is centrally situated with respect to the extensive trolley service of the city. Every possible courtesy will be extended to those in attendance at the meetings, by the citizens of St. Louis and the exposition authorities, and it is expected that the transportation committee will secure rates that will make it possible for those living at a considerable distance to attend the meetings without serious expense. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the secretaries of the sections of the American Association and of the Society of Naturalists and all of the societies that are to meet in connection with these organizations will work in cooperation with each other to prepare a general program that will possess the greatest possible homogeneity and convenience and that the local committee may promptly be placed in possession of definite data on which they may provide ample accommodations for all.