many endemic species.

Tree ferns begin at 1,500 feet elevation, but they are much more abundant at 3,500 feet, the highest point reached by the expedition. There are no roads in the interior, only uncared for bridle trails, and there are absolutely no bridges. One stream was forded sixteen times in a distance of twelve miles. A thousand numbers of herbarium material were secured besides living plants and wood specimens.

Dr. Howe spoke of two months spent in Porto Rico collecting marine algæ. He found the species fairly numerous, but on the whole the marine vegetation was less striking and luxuriant than on some of the Florida keys. He visited the north, west and south sides of the island, but found less difference in their algal flora than he had expected. Nine hundred numbers were taken, but so far most of the material is unstudied.

Dr. Murrill reported on his visits to various European herbaria for the purpose of studying types of the species of the Polyporaceæ. Upsala, Berlin, Kew and Paris were visited and some time was spent in field work with Bresadola in the mountains of the Tyrol. Interesting comments were made on the different herbaria and the men who made or are now working with them.

Professor Underwood called attention to the fact that the different expeditions from the botanical garden during the past year had brought back fully 10,000 numbers of herbarium material from the West Indies.

Dr. Britton spoke of the recent death, after a long and painful illness, of Mr. Cornelius Van Brunt, who was one of the oldest members of the club. His work in the photographing of plants was unique, and he leaves a collection of over 10,000 studies on glass. He had done much in devising special lenses and appliances for this special work and his knowledge of photographic technique was remarkable. His earlier studies were with the diatoms, but failing eyesight prevented his work with the microscope and he turned to photography instead. Data are being gathered for a more extended notice of his life.

F. S. EARLE,

Secretary.

THE Section met in the large lecture hall of the American Museum of Natural History on Monday evening, October 19. Three hundred and fifty-two members and friends were present. The following papers had been presented by Dr. George F. Kunz for reading by title:

Bismuth (Native) and Bismite from San Bernardino County, Calif.

Californite (Vesuvianite), a New Ornamental Stones from Siskiyou County, Calif.

The meeting was devoted mainly to a paper by Dr. E. O. Hovey entitled 'Observations on the 1902-1903 Eruptions of Mt. Pelé, Martinique.' In this paper or lecture the author sketched the principal events in the volcanic history of the island during the past year and a half. He described the phenomena of the eruptions, the mud-torrents and mud-flows, the attendant and subsequent aqueous erosion on the slopes of the mountain, the rise and vicissitudes of the new cone of eruption and its wonderful spine or obelisk. The lecture was illustrated with about ninetyfive lantern slides from negatives taken by the author on the two expeditions which he has made to Martinique for the American Museum of Natural History since the eruptions began. EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, Secretary.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.

ANTEDATED PUBLICATIONS.

DURING recent years attention has been called so strongly to the evil of antedated papers published by museums and scientific societies that in general great care has been taken of late to have all brochures emanating from such sources bear the correct date of issue. It is hence all the more surprising to find one American institution of high standing still apparently careless or indifferent in the matter. We believe, however, that the impropriety about to be mentioned is due to either inadvertence or lack of appreciation of

its seriousness on the part of the responsible authorities.

In

During the last few months the Field Columbian Museum of Chicago has issued a number of papers, some of them describing new species and new genera, which bear, date 'June, 1903,' but which were not issued till late in August or early in September. some instances the authors' separata were not delivered to them till August 20. In one case at least there is internal evidence to show that the paper, dated June 1, 1903,' could not have been even printed till some time in July, since reference is made by the author to the July, 1903, number of the American Journal of Science, which was not published till July 1 or 2.

I am authoritatively informed that the authors are in no way responsible for the dates, or anything else, on the title pages of these brochures, and hence the responsibility for the antedating of papers which contain descriptions of new genera and species by from eight to ten weeks rests higher up. Presumably it is sufficient to call attention to the matter to have the fault promptly remedied. J. A. ALLEN.

THE 27-DAY PERIOD IN AURORAS AND ITS CONNECTION WITH SUNSPOTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: During the last few months in New England there has been an interesting example of the tendency of auroras to return after intervals of 27 days. The report of the New England Climate and Crop Service' shows that auroras were observed in New England on July 25 and 27, the 26th being rainy. Twenty-seven days later auroras were observed on August 21 and 22. The next return of the twenty-seven-day period was September 17 to 19. General rain fell on September 17, but auroras were observed on the 18th and 19th. Twenty-seven days later was October 14 to 16. Auroras were observed on the 13th and possibly on subsequent dates (the reports are not yet in).

Another group of auroras began on August 26, was observed again on September 21 and was due on October 19.

Each of these auroral displays was connected with sunspot activity and may have preceded the first appearance of the spot. A fine group of sunspots crossed the surface of the sun next the earth on October 5 to 17, passing the sun's meridian about October 13. A second smaller isolated spot crossed the sun's meridian on October 18 or 19.

About November 1 a very large sunspot crossed the meridian of the sun next the earth and with it apparently began a new series of auroras which were very brilliant on the early morning of November 1 and again on the evening of the same day.

According to the theory of Arrhenius, which has much to sustain it, auroras are caused by small highly electrified particles of matter carried outward from the sun by the pressure of light when the sun is in a high state of activity. These particles are intercepted by the earth's atmosphere and from them is derived the electrical charge which gives rise to auroras and magnetic currents ('Lehrbuch der kosmischen Physik,' page 920).

The twenty-seven-day period in the aurora arises from the fact that it takes twenty-seven days for a center of disturbance on the sun to rotate around and face the earth in the same relative position again. The period is not a permanent one, the disturbance at any given point lasting usually only for a few solar rotations, and is then displaced by a disturbance at some other part of the sun with which another series of auroras is connected.

There is, however, a twenty-seven-day period of auroras connected with the siderial revolution of the moon. This, however, is of minor importance and can only be detected by a long series of averages (American Journal of Science, Vol. V., 1898, p. 81).

If the auroras described here were of solar origin they were probably visible over a large part of the northern and southern hemispheres. Some of them were very brilliant. The aurora of August 21 was described in the Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LXIII., pp. 563–564, by A. F. A. King, and in Vol. LXIV., pp. 87 and 88, by Alexander Graham Bell.

HENRY HELM CLAYTON.

SHORTER ARTICLES.

MONT PELÉ FROM MAY TO OCTOBER, 1903. THE changes which have taken place in the new cone of Mont Pelé within the last few months have been very considerable, and are worthy of record. The wonderful growth of the spine upon the top of the cone has been fully described by Professors Lacroix, Heilprin and Sapper and the author. The author's article in the American Journal of Science for October brought the detailed history of the cone down to the month of April last. There was at that time a tremendous spine or tooth more than 1,000 feet in height, rising from the side of a cone-shaped base, the top of which was higher than the old altitude of Morne Lacroix. The tip of the spine was about 600 feet above the highest part of the new cone. Since the first of May there have been considerable variations in the activity of the volcano and in the form and altitude of the cone and spine. It is the purpose of the present note to give the readers of SCIENCE a condensed statement of the facts as they have been observed by the French commissioners during the past six months and reported by Professor Giraud and Captain Perney in the Journal Officiel de la Martinique published at Fort de France.

During the month of May the apex of the spine rose slowly until the thirtieth, when there occurred a loss of about fifty meters. Considerable incandescence was observed at night, when the condition of the clouds permitted observations to be made, and there were several eruptions of steam to an altitude of from 3,000 to 4,500 meters. Most of the dust clouds thrown out by the mountain pursued the familiar course down the valley of the Rivière Blanche. There was marked increase in the energy of action during the last week of the month, which diminished, however, during the first week of June. During June the spine rose again with varying degrees of rapidity, until it seems to have regained much of the altitude lost at the end of May. Minor eruptions were numerous during the month, and the dust-flows, of Nuages Denses' of Lacroix, rushed with violence and great velocity down the valley of the Prêcheur, as well

as that of the Rivière Blanche. The latter fact is of interest in connection with observations made in February and March, that the northwestern side of the new cone had become continuous in slope with the exterior of the old cone of the mountain.* The V-shaped gash in the old crater has long ceased to be the sole exit for the flows of dust-laden steam, or the principal factor in guiding their course. The records show that the western side of the spine kept losing material constantly, so that late in June and early in July it was even more pointed and blade-like than in March. Between July 5 and 7, however, there was a loss of altitude amounting to fifty meters, and another fifty meters was lost in the succeeding week. On the 18th it was observed that eighteen meters more had disappeared. This diminution continued into August, a measured loss amounting to twenty-five meters having occurred by August 6.

On August 17 Professor Giraud saw the mountain free from clouds for the first time in several days, and perceived that the dome of the cone surmounting the crater had undergone profound modification, the central portion having risen twenty-seven meters within ten days. Reddish-brown clouds frequently appeared in the midst of the blue and white vapors which were continually rising from the crater. During the night the dome sometimes showed itself incandescent; some of the luminous points persisted throughout the whole night, and there were frequent discharges of incandescent blocks. The increase of activity continued in marked degree for several days, and the main mass of the dome, as distinguished from the spine, continued to rise. There were numerous dust-flows down the valley of the Prêcheur and of the Blanche, and on the 22d, in the direction of the Lac des Palmistes and Grand' Rivière as well. Night after night the top and slopes of the new cone or dome were incandescent, and often sufficiently so to cast a strong illumination upon the clouds. Fumaroles were active in the valley of the Sèche, as well as in the valley of the Blanche. The growth of the great dome continued rapid, one hundred and * Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XVI., p. 277, October, 1903.

four meters being the measured increase from August 21 to 31. The eruption of September 2 caused a loss of thirty meters, and the succeeding five days saw thirteen meters of this regained; a gain, however, which was only temporary, fifteen meters being lost upon the following day. During the remainder of the month there was an irregular increase of thirty-one meters, with a loss between the 15th and 18th of five meters. The total increase in height of the dome for the six weeks ending the first of October was about one hundred and twenty-seven meters.

The great spine which was such a wonderful part of the mountain from November, 1902, to June, 1903, had practically disappeared early in August when the main mass of the cone, or the 'dome' as it may well be called, began to rise so rapidly. The first spine rose from the northeastern quarter of the new cone. On September 8, after four days in constant cloud, the summit appeared and it was seen that the dome culminated in a sharp tooth or spine rising from its northwestern portion. Within a week this new spine was pushed up twenty meters, but an eruption on September 17 destroyed it. At the end of the month (September) the highest part of the dome was at the south.

During about six weeks in August and September the activity of the volcano was so great as to cause serious fears of the recurrence of great eruptions, and several warnings were sent out by the geological commission to the inhabitants of the northern and northeastern parts of the island of Martinique. On September 12, at 2 P.M., there was an eruption, the dust cloud of which covered the Lac des Palmistes and rapidly descended the eastern slopes of the mountain toward the village of Morne Balai to the altitude of about seven hundred meters; that is to say, it reached the limit of the zone devastated by the eruptions of May, 1902. A week later three such clouds followed one another in quick succession nearly to the same extent. On September 16 an eruption cloud rose vertically to the extraordinary altitude of 7,000 meters. During the latter part of September, however, the activity diminished again, and is recorded as being

very feeble on September 30. The bulletins from October 1 to 19, the date of the latest received, indicate only feeble activity of the volcano, with occasional persistent luminosity of the dome. The seismographs which were installed in the observatory at Morne des Cadets in the fall of 1902 had recorded no earth tremor by April 1. Light earthquake shocks made their imprint on these instruments on July 23 and August 28, and others have been noted by the observers at Assier. EDMUND OTIS HOVEY. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, November 3, 1903.

THE HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURE.* THE fourth annual Huxley memorial lecture of the Anthropological Institute was delivered in the lecture theater of Burlington House by Professor Karl Pearson, F.R.S. The president of the institute, Mr. H. Balfour, occupied the chair.

The lecturer's subject was 'The Inheritance in Man of Moral and Mental Characters,' a subject to which he has devoted many years of close and constant study, and the importance of which, as he observed, from a national point of view can hardly be exaggerated. It was a question of vital importance, he observed, as to how far mental and moral characters were inherited as compared with physical characters. Few denied the inheritance of physique in man, as in animals, but few too applied the results of such acceptance to their own conduct in life. We were agreed that good homes and good schools were essential to national prosperity, but were apt to overlook the possibility that the home standard was itself a product of parental stock, and that the relative gain from education depended to a surprising degree on the raw material. Since the publication of Francis Galton's epoch-making books it was impossible to deny in toto the inheritance of mental characters. But it was necessary to go a stage further and ask for an exact quantitative measure of the inheritance of such characters and a comparison of such measure with its value for the physical characters. Accordingly he had some six or seven years ago set From the London Times.

himself that problem, which really resolved itself into three separate investigations— namely, a sufficiently wide inquiry into the actual values of inheritance of the physical characters in man, and this was carried out by the measurement of upwards of 1,000 families; a comparison of the inheritance of the physical characters in man with that of the physical characters in other forms of life; and an inquiry into the inheritance of the mental and moral characters in man. In respect of this last set of investigations children were taken in schools of different sorts all over the country, and the opinions of teachers were asked upon the characters of their pupils in respect of the physical, mental and moral resemblances between brother and brother, sister and sister, and brother and sister. Six thousand circulars were thus sent out to about 200 schools. In respect of physical characters the data included the cephalic index-i. e., ratio of the length to the breadth of the head, the span, color of eye and hair, curliness of hair, athletic power and health. In respect of all these the measure of the fraternal resemblance, indicated by the well-known regression line, was as two to one-that is to say, that if one of the pair exceeded the mean by a certain amount, the other of the pair tended to exceed the mean by half that amount; and similarly in respect of defect from the mean. This was always true for all the physical characters yet worked out in man. Now, seeing there was this surprising uniformity in the inheritance of the measurable physical characters, could these results be extended to psychical characters? Could we that was the whole problem-get a corresponding regression line of two to one in steepness or slope in respect of mental and moral charA very large number of observations made on 1,918 pairs of brothers as to vivacity, assertiveness, introspection, popularity, conscientiousness, temper, probity, handwriting and general ability showed that while the line of regression was one to two or 50 to 100 in respect of physical characters, the smaller number was represented in respect of mental and moral characters by 51; while in respect of a large number of pairs of sisters it was

acters.

52, and these two numbers tended to approximate to 50 with an allowance for probable error. Hence there could be small doubt that intelligence or ability followed precisely the same laws of inheritance as general health, and both followed the same laws as cephalic index or any other physical character. There was a true line of regression in each case (.5 or 1 to 2), and it could safely be said that general health in the community was inherited in precisely the same manner as head-measurements or body-lengths. What results followed therefrom? By assuming our normal distribution for the psychical characters, there was found, in addition to self-consistent results, the same degree of resemblance between physical and psychical characters; and that sameness involved something additional-namely, a like inheritance from parents. We inherited our parents' tempers, conscientiousness, shyness and ability, even as we inherited their stature, forearm and span. Again, within broad lines, physical characters were inherited at the same rate in man and the lower forms of life. The irresistible conclusion was that if man's physical characters were inherited even as those of the horse, the greyhound or the water-flea, what reason was there for demanding a special evolution for man's mental and moral side? If the relation of the psychical characters to the physical characters was established, what was its lesson? Simply that geniality and probity and ability might be fostered by home environment and by provision of good schools and well-equipped institutions for research, but that their origin, like health and muscle, was deeper down than those things. They were bred and not created. It was the stock itself that made its home environment, and the education was of small service unless it were applied to an intelligent race of men. Our traders had declared that we were no match for Germans and Americans. There did seem to be a want of intelligence to-day in the British merchant, workman or professional man. The remedy was not in adopting foreign methods of instruction or in the spread of technical education. The reason of the result was that the mentally better stock in the