effects of a brilliant theory like that of Dzierzon, backed by the weighty argumentation of a von Siebold, and the way it flatters our ineradicable tendency to formulate, conceptualize and schematize in advance of all exhaustive study of nature's processes.* I find the following observations on a fungus-raising ant, the 'Sauba' (Atta cephalotes) of Trinidad, recorded by Tanner:† The My 'B' nest had neither queen nor male when it was set up on the 4th July; a few larvæ and pupa were put into the nest at starting. last of these became an ant on the 14th August, 41 days after capture. The first eggs were seen 19 days after the capture, viz., on the 23d July. Very many small, medium-sized and large ants were matured from these eggs before its [the nest's] destruction on the 6th November, in periods of from 57 days for the smallest to 74 days for the larger ones. On the 20th October a male was matured, on the 3d November there were 25 males. On the 2d November a queen was matured, and another on the 5th, three days later, and their period was about 84 days. Thus, there are about 10 days for the egg, as a larva it varies from 27 days for the smallest workers, 44 days for the ordinary workers and 54 for males or queens and 20 days for the pupa stage. * It is, therefore, as far as this experiment goes, conclusive, that workers, taken as these were from a nest which had been living in community : * Absence of critical caution in accepting the Dzierzon theory is seen, for example, in works like Castle's 'Heredity of Sex,' when the author makes the following apodictic statement (p. 191) That the spermatozoon also bears sex is manifest in the case of animals like the honeybee, for the egg of the bee, if unfertilized, invariably develops into a male, but if fertilized into a female. Professor T. H. Morgan, in his recent work, Evolution and Adaptation,' pp. 424, 425, makes a similar statement: In the honeybee all the fertilized eggs produce females and the unfertilized eggs males'; although he proceeds to cite the conditions in an insect of the same natural order as the bees and ants, namely the currant-fly (Nematus ribesii), which may, under certain conditions, produce both males and females from parthenogenetic eggs. + Ecodoma cephalotes. Second paper. Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club, Vol. I., No. 5, December, 1892, pp. 123-127. with males, do lay eggs, and that from them they can produce males and queens. Tanner's observations go to show that the eggs of Atta cephalotes workers may give rise to ants of all three sexual forms, that is, males, females and workers of the different castes so remarkably developed in these large fungusraising ants. The implication in the last quoted paragraph, that the production of all these forms depended on the fertile workers having come from a colony containing males, may be gratuitous (vide infra). More important observations on this subject have been recently made by H. Reichenbach, a very conscientious worker.* I quote his results in full: In the spring of 1899 I placed in an empty artificial nest of the Janet pattern eleven workers of Lasius niger L., more for the purpose of showing my pupils the commonest of our ants, than for the purpose of conducting definite observations. I fed them with invert sugar and hashed meal-worms. Even after a few days I noticed several packets of eggs which had been laid by the workers. This was nothing new to me, and I expected that to happen which had happened in my other colonies, namely, that the larvæ hatching from such eggs would succumb to the cannibalism of the ants. At most I supposed that I might obtain males, since it has long been known that males arise from unfertilized eggs laid by workers, as in the case of the honey-bee and the social wasps. But to my astonishment, the larvæ pupated and produced typical workers, which agreed with their progenitrices even in size. A few days later they had acquired their mature coloration and began to take part diligently in the labors of the colony. Thus it is possible that workers may develop from unfertilized eggs laid by workers. A little later the number of egg-packets increased, and towards the end of June the number of workers had risen to over a hundred, and a number of larvæ and pupa were being busily carried about, assorted, fed and licked; the ants' appetite was excellent, the glass manger was found licked clean every morning; pupa-cases, remains of meal-worms, etc., were very neatly piled up in a particular corner of the middle chamber;-in brief, the life and activity of the ants were perfectly normal, notwithstanding the rather peculiar provenience of most of the inmates of the nest. During the normal course of colonial life the following occurrences were noticed: During the last week of August, as it were on the very day, when in the gardens and streets of Frankfurth, winged males and females of Lasius niger creep about as weary relicts of the nuptial flights, about a dozen fine, shining males hatched in my colony. When they had taken on their adult coloration, they sought the illumined chamber and walked about nimbly. Had it been possible for them to escape, they would certainly have joined in the nuptial flight of the mass of their species out-of-doors. The males lived only a few weeks; most of them met with an accidental death through becoming glued down with their wings. The colony passed the winter in good condition, and in the spring of 1900 a rapid increase again took place from eggs laid by the workers. On the 1st of August I was able to announce to our natural history society that the nest again contained 300 workers and two to three dozen males. This year, also, the appearance of the males coincided with the swarming time out-of-doors. During the year 1901 the same events were repeated, with the difference that the number of individuals had fallen off; still there were a few males towards the end of July. By the spring of 1902 only about twenty workers survived; larvæ were still being reared, but towards the end of April, for some unknown reason, the whole colony became extinct. Worthy of note, therefore, is the coincidence, three times in succession, in the appearance of males at the typical time of swarming for our neighborhood. From this we must conclude that the conditions in my colony did not depend on degenerative or similar causes. On the contrary, this decided periodicity points to normal processes, which probably also occur in wild colonies, whose workers, in all likelihood, take part in producing males. Of course, these conditions require further investigation. He who takes for granted the completeness of our knowledge of propagation in ants, more particularly of mating and fertilization, will regard all the workers of my Lasius colony as having developed from unfertilized eggs. But the question arises, whether, after the males made their appearance, some kind of copulation could not take place within the nest, or whether, in fact, some of the eleven workers that founded the colony were not fertilized. Many will deny this with indignation and horror; but one is becoming accustomed to surprises, especially in sexual phenomena. Moreover, fertilization always occurs normally within the nest in the case of Anergates atratulus Schenck, which exhibits strict in-and-in breeding. Forel also opens up this question (Les Fourmis de la Suisse,' p. 401). At any rate, a careful anatomical and microscopic analysis of the ovipositing workers, which are perhaps to be regarded as ergatogynous females, and their eggs, is in every respect important, and this alone would give value to the above observations. That Reichenbach's supposition of a fertilization of the workers by their male progeny in his nest is unnecessary, is shown by the following observations kindly sent me by Mrs. A. B. Comstock, and published with her con sent: About the middle of August I colonized some ants of the species Lasius niger L. var. americanus Emery, in a glass nest in my room for the purpose of giving my pupils in nature study an opportunity for observing the habits of ants. I found this species common under the stones on a dry side hill, and I brought in, with the workers, pupæ and larvæ of two sizes and some eggs still unhatched. My prisoners soon put their nest in order and placed the pupa in two separate heaps, and separated the larvæ into two groups according to size, and also placed the eggs by themselves. After a day or two the eggs hatched and these young larvæ were kept in a group away from the others. A few days later more eggs appeared. I at once looked for the queen but found none. No one ant in my colony was any larger than her sisters, and I was mystified as to the source of these eggs. However, they continued to appear; and there have been reared in this nest up to date at least three complete broods. We naturally expected that the eggs which were evidently laid by workers would produce males as is the case with bees. But this theory was wrong, for all the eggs laid by the workers in this nest have developed into workers. I have never been able to observe the actual process of egg laying. I am rather inclined to believe that the eggs were usually produced during the night. There was nothing in actions or appearance that enabled me to distinguish the egg-laying indi viduals from their sisters. I have noticed that when eggs were being produced a large number of the ants were crowded together in one corner of the nest, and only a few seemed to be on duty as nurses. Whether this segregation has to do with the egg laying or not I do not know. In this case no males have as yet made their appearance. So accomplished an entomologist as Mrs. Comstock could not have overlooked either these or a queen in her colony, especially as the latter sex in Lasius is very much larger and more conspicuous than the worker. While the observations above quoted are by no means final, they are, nevertheless, of sufficient value to call a halt to all speculation based on the Dzierzon theory formulated in the usual text-book style. As thus expressed this theory can at most be valid for the honeybee only. The probability that worker ants can really produce other workers or even queens parthenogenetically is of ominous import, not only to some current views on sex determination, but also to many fine-spun theories of instinct and organic development. It has been generally admitted that worker insects have their own specific instincts (a proposition not strictly true, as I have endeavored to show,* since the instincts of the queen ant include all or nearly all the important worker instincts), and that these insects are smitten with such complete sterility as to be absolutely incapable of transmitting their inherited or acquired psychical or physical characteristics. Hence, it is urged, we can explain the existence of these worker traits only by resorting to a natural selection among the queens as bearers of characters which they do not themselves exhibit or exercise. Hence the additional sets of ids, etc., hypostasized in the germ-plasma of the queens. Or, if we have an innate repugnance to natural selection, we are requested to fall back on something like orthogenesis, some Aristotelian principle of perfectibility or Naegelian Vervollkommnungsprincip.' But after reveling in this tenuous atmosphere of hypothesis, which I would be the last to deprecate, since it is the only free playground of the living *The Compound and Mixed Nests of American Ants,' Am. Naturalist, 1901, p. 798. and struggling scientific imagination, are we not now bound to return to the cold facts and the drudgery of experiment and observation, if only to gain strength for another flight? WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. QUOTATIONS. THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. THE trustees of the Carnegie Institution held their second annual meeting at Washington on December 9. Nothing that has become known in regard to this meeting will tend to allay the anxiety with which men of science are watching the administration of this great trust. It is reported that Dr. Gilman presented a letter to the trustees announcing his intention to resign the presidency at the close of next year. The institution will consequently drift along for another year, and its immediate future will in large measure depend on the president then chosen. There is no reason to doubt the ultimate outcome, and even the present conditions are only what might have been expected. Special creations are no longer regarded as feasible. The reply may be called to mind of the little boy, who, on being asked who made him, said 'God made me one foot big, and I growed the rest.' A new foundation such as Mr. Carnegie's can only gradually become a true organism adjusted to the environment. Mr. Carnegie's original plan of establishing a research university at Washington was comparatively plain sailing. The trustees are now divided as to policy, some wishing to establish certain laboratories at Washington, and others perferring to distribute subsidies throughout the country. The latter plan has been adopted; it has the obvious advantage of not committing the institution as to the future. No special objection can be made to the way the subsidies have been allotted. It is quite certain, for example, that the Harvard, Lick, Yerkes, Dudley and Princeton observatories can spend to advantage any money that may be entrusted to them. Almost any grant for research made to men of science of established reputation will bear fruit a hundredfold. There is, however, an obverse to the shield. Such grants inhibit individual initiative and local support; they are likely to produce a certain subserviency to the powers that deal out money, and may lead to jealousy and intrigues. Their It is perhaps scarcely fair to object to a board of trustees consisting chiefly of prominent politicians, lawyers and business men, who meet once a year, and can not be expected to give much attention to the affairs of a scientific institution, nor to have much knowledge of its scope and possibilities. Such boards are an established American institution, controlling universities, banks, etc. principal duty is to select efficient officers of administration. But the Carnegie Institution has been unfortunate in its first officers. Three men were largely instrumental in persuading Mr. Carnegie to make the original gift, and they have assumed control of its administra tion. This triumvirate has been at the same time autocratic and feeble, and has by no means worked in harmony. Antony may be supposed to say to Octavius: And though we lay these honors on this man, An Whether after the ensuing war Antony, Octavius or another will or should become Cæsar need not here be considered; but in the meanwhile and perhaps thereafter science will suffer. The fundamental difficulty is that no method has been found for consulting the consensus of opinion of scientific men. American university has an absentee board in nominal control and a president as benevolent despot; but there is a faculty, which after all is the real university. The Carnegie Institution has no similar body; and until it is formed, it will drift along without compass or rudder.-The Popular Science Monthly. THE RHODES SCHOLARS. MR. W. S. MACGOWAN, Principal of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, Cape Colony, writes to the London Times: In the Times weekly edition of September 25 you print a letter from South Africa' dealing with Dr. Parkin's proposal to select the Rhodes scholars from students who shall have pursued a two years' course at some American or colonial university. When Dr. Parkin was in Grahamstown a short time ago, he explained his views at some length, but he was careful to tell his audience that they were only partially formed and necessarily incomplete, inasmuch as his colonial tour was not yet finished, although he had completed his investigations in the United States. I think that, when Dr. Parkin comes to present his report to the Rhodes Trustees, it will be found that it is America rather than the Colonies which will be found making this demand. To quote Dr. Parkin's own words to me: "The American professors deprecate any denationalization of their young men." This is, of course, quite right and perfectly natural, but surely in a British colony such a consideration as this is somewhat lacking in weight. I have not yet seen Mr. Hawksley's letter, and only know from Reuter that he has written one on this subject; but, apart from the legal aspect of the question, with which he is so amply qualified to deal, there are several reasons against tinkering with the plan that Mr. Rhodes evolved with a view to securing that his scholars should be bona fide undergraduThe first of these is a financial one. ates. If the suggestion now being canvassed were universally adopted, viz., that every candidate for a scholarship should take a preliminary two years' course at his home university before proceeding to Oxford, there would instantly be swept from the field all boys whose parents could not afford for them more than an ordi nary secondary education. There are many in this colony who could never go to Oxford at all if they were compelled to spend two years at the Cape University first. Again, if the trustees agree to extend the usual university age in the case of Rhodes scholars, they will be running counter to Mr. Rhodes's vigorously expressed desire that these young men should have the benefits of the influences of Oxford University at the most critical period of their lives.' If their characters are already formed, they are far more likely to alter the tone of Oxford than Oxford is likely to develop them. Now, as to the desirability of this I offer no comment, I am only concerned with Mr. Rhodes's intention. He desired that poverty, religion, race-nay, even the lack of scholarship' itself should not bar a boy of strong physique and moral character from obtaining one of these splendid prizes. Yet here is a scheme apparently gaining ground where poverty and the lack of scholarship will practically disqualify a candidate, and the application of the character test as outlined by the testator is rendered nugatory. But it may be said that Mr. Rhodes only defined his ideas in respect of the South African scholarships. That is quite true, but he gave his intimates to understand that his motive was the same in all cases, viz., uniting of the Anglo-Saxon race.' That unity will be postponed if educational experts, in their very natural desire to secure the benefit of these great endowments to produce scholars, arrange the regulations in such a way as to eliminate possible leaders of men such as Rhodes was himself. He wanted picked potentialities, but, if I understand his mind aright, they were to be men of action rather than scholars. RECENT ZOOPALEONTOLOGY. VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. THE following abstract is published with the permission of the Geological Survey and covers the progress which has been made during the year 1903 on the work which was substantially begun July 1, 1882, by the appointment of Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, of Yale University, as paleontologist on the survey. As is well known, Professor Marsh devoted years to the collection and preparation of materials for a series of elaborate monographs. The work on these was most unfortunately interrupted by his death, but at that time lithographic plates of three monographs, namely, the Brontotheriida (60 plates), the Sauropoda (90 plates) and the Stegosauria (54 plates), were completely prepared and printed, together with hundreds of text illustrations. The drawings for the fourth monograph, the Ceratopsia, are on stone but not as yet printed. Practically none of the manuscript for these volumes was ready. In appointing Professor Henry F. Osborn as Professor Marsh's successor, it was understood that the latter should receive full credit for the years of labor which he devoted to these monographs. The appointment of Professor Osborn was originally as paleontologist, June 30, 1900; in January, 1901, the appointment was changed to geologist and paleontologist. The unfinished work was begun at once, and has been carried on in two lines: First, the preparation and supervision of the four paleontological monographs; second, the planning of geological field work connected therewith, the latter being of great importance, in order that the vertebrate paleontology of the survey may render service in connection with the stratigraphic history of the continent. Professor Osborn undertook the preparation of the Titanothere and Sauropoda monographs himself; Mr. J. B. Hatcher, now of the Carnegie Museum, was entrusted with the preparation of the monograph on the Ceratopsia; and Mr. F. A. Lucas, now of the United States National Museum, was entrusted with the preparation of the Stegosauria monograph. More in detail, the actual work on hand and accomplished is as follows: mono 1. Titanothere Monograph.-This graph, begun January 2, 1901, has required more time than was anticipated, partly due to Professor Osborn's interruptions by other duties, partly to the unexpected expansion of the subject by the discovery, both in the Oligocene and Eocene, that the titanotheres embraced at least four entirely distinct and independent phyla. To learn the origin, history, succession and extinction of these animals it has become necessary to trace the materials scattered through many museums, at home and abroad. Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Ot |