By CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN Second edition, revised and much enlarged; 272 pages, with 88 illustrations, 8vo, cloth; net $2.25, postpaid $2.39 TH 'HE first complete manual to be published on the subject of botanical microtechnique. It contains detailed directions for collecting and preparing plant material for microscopic investigation, setting forth the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods. "Will no doubt find a place in every well-regulated library, and will be found very useful by private A World. "It is an excellent book for the individual worker and for classes in colleges." Education. A Laboratory Guide in Bacteriology By PAUL G. HEINEMANN 158 pages, interleaved, with 37 illustrations, 12mo, cloth; net $1.50, postpaid $1.61 CLEAR and concise presentation of bacteriological technique, designed principally as a manual for the medical student, but highly useful also as a reference book for the biological teacher and investigator, as well as for practical workers in the fields of medicine and hygiene. "The instruction given is clear and accurate, and the practical exercises are well selected." The Lancet (London). "A book such as this must facilitate very greatly the practical class work, for which it is most excellently adapted."— American Journal of Medical Sciences. THE "The directions are clear and concise, and every stage is described so carefully that it is hard to see how the student can go astray. Physicians who are rusty in bacteriology cannot do better than buy this little book. The book is beautifully printed and bound." - American Journal of Clinical Medicine. Animal Micrology: Practical Exercises in Microscopical Methods By MICHAEL F. GUYER 250 pages, 8vo, cloth ;"net $1.75, postpaid $1.88 HE title of this book will explain its scope. It is intended as a laboratory manual for textbook use. Its aim is to introduce the student to the technique of microscopic anatomy and embryology, emphasizing details of procedure rather than descriptions of reagents or apparatus. Sufficient account of the theoretical side of microscopy is given to enable the student to get satisfactory results from his microscope. The directions are simple, explicit, and complete. — American Journal of Clinical Medicine. The medical student will find it very useful as a guide to microscopic work. - Journal of the American Medical Association. This is one of the cleanest works on microscopical technique we have ever seen, and is especially suitable for the beginner. It is full of points, tricks of technique not mentioned in other works, and is one that every student and physician should have.- Medical Century. This valuable book is strong through its rigid exclusion of the trite and the conflicting. It is lucid and helpful, because a man long practiced in practical work has given what he believes the most expeditious and reliable method of obtaining a definite and comprehensive result. - Medical Notes and Queries. Chicago A concise, eminently practical, and well-classified treatment. - Science. The expositions of the methods recommended are admirably clear. - Nature. One of the best and most practical works upon microscopic technique with which we are acquainted. — American Naturalist. As a textbook it can hardly be improved. The research worker will find in this book just the information he frequently needs in preparing material with which he is not familiar. - School Review. It does present in very clear form a judicious selection of methods, including an excellent untechnical account of the microscope and its optical principles, adequate for the undergraduate course in histology. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. ADDRESS DEPT. 62 The University of Chicago Press New York A Monthly Journal, established in 1867, Devoted to the Advancement of the Biological Sciences with Special Reference to the Factors of Organic Evolution and Heredity CONTENTS OF THE APRIL NUMBER Heredity of Hair Color in Man. GERTRUDE C. DAVENPORT and CHARLES C. DAVENPORT. A Mechanism for Organic Correlation. Professor G. H. PARKER. Recent Advances in the Study of Vascular Anatomy. Vascular Anatomy and the Reproductive Structures. Professor JOHN M. COULTER. The Progress of Plant Anatomy During the Last Decade. Professor EDWARD C. JEFFREY. Shorter Articles and Correspondence: A Note on the Degree of Accuracy of the Biometric Constants, DR. RAYMOND PEARL Pure Strains as Artifacts of Breeding. O. F. COOK. Notes and Literature: Heredity-The Nature of "Unit" Characters, DR. W. J. SPILLMAN. EnvironmentDR. FRANK E. LUTZ. Experimental Zoology-Hybridology and Gynandromorphism, Professor T. Å. MORGAN. Echinodermata-Red Sea Crinoids, DR. AUSTIN HOBART CLARK. CONTENTS OF THE MAY NUMBER The Categories of Variation. Professor S. J. HOLMES. The General Entomological Ecology of the Indian Corn Plant. S. A. FORBES. Notes and Literature: Biometrics-Some Recent Studies on Growth. DR. RAYMOND PEARL. Brperimental Zoology-Cuénot on the Honey Bee, Professor T. H. MORGAN. The Upholding of Darwin-Poulton and Plate on Evolution, V. L. K. CONTENTS OF THE JUNE NUMBER Heredity and Variation in the Simplest Organisms. Professor H. S. JENNINGS. The Color Sense of the Honey Bee Is Conspicuousness an Advantage to Flowers? JOHN H. LOVELL. Variation in the Number of Seeds per Pod in the Broom, Cytisus scoparius. Doctor J. ARTHUR HARRIS. Present Problems in Plant Ecology: The Trend of Ecological Philosophy. Professor The Present Problems of Physiological Plant CONTENTS OF THE JULY NUMBER Selection Index Numbers and their Use in Breeding. Dr. RAYMOND PEARL and FRANK M. SURFACE. A Contribution to the Theory of Orthogenesis. Dr. ALEXANDER G. RUTH VEN, The "Presence and Absence" Hypothesis. Dr. GEORGE HARRISON SHULL. Present Problems in Plant Ecology: Vegetation and Altitude. Professor CHARLES H. SHAW. Shorter Articles and Correspondence: Pleistocene Swamp Deposits in Virginia. Dr. EDWARD W. BERRY. Notes and Literature: Heredity-A Case of Non-Mendelian Heredity. Dr. W. J. SPILLMAN. The NATURALIST will be sent to new subscribers for four months for One Dollar THE SCIENCE PRESS Garrison, N. Y. Sub-Station 84: NEW YORK Lancaster, Pa. MSS intended for publication and books, etc., intended for review should be One hundred reprints of contributions are supplied to authors free of charge. Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to the publishers. The Lancaster, Pa. THE SCIENCE PRESS NEW YORK: Sub-Station 84 Garrison, N. Y. Entered as second-class matter, April 2, 1908, at the Post Office at Lancaster, Pa., under the Act of Important New Scientific Books PUBLISHED BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Botany The Origin of a Land Flora. A Theory based upon the facts of Alternation. Cloth, gilt top, xi+727 pp., illus., index, 8vo, $5.50 net. NOTE.-A profound study in the morphology of the lowest forms of plants, with special reference to the development of their reproductive systems. The author endeavors to show that the present land flora has originated from an aquatic ancestor, and traces the methods of specialization to the land habit, and the establishment of the forms of the higher plants. A book of the highest importance not only to botanists but to biologists in general. NEW AND STANDARD HAND-BOOKS ON AGRICULTURE, ETC. Cloth, xvi+329 pp., illus., appendix, glossary, index, 12mo, $.75 net. NOTE. This is a thoroughly modern treatise on farming as practiced in the Gulf States, from the point of view of the scientific agriculturist. It is adapted to school use, but is of practical service to any farmer in that part of the country. The author is vice-director of the Texas Experiment Station. Re-issues of the highly valued Hand-Books known as the Garden Craft and Rural Science Series, edited by L. H. BAILEY, of Cornell University, Editor of "Cyclopedia of American Horticulture," "Cyclopedia of American Agriculture," etc. The Principles of Fruit Growing. By L. H. BAILEY. Tenth Edition, $1.50 net, by mail $1.65. Irrigation and Drainage. By F. H. KING. Fifth Edition, $1.50 net, by mail $1.68. Bush Fruits. By FRED W. Card. Tenth Edition, $1.25 net, by mail $1.38 Farm Poultry. By GEO. C. WATSON. Sixth Edition, $1.25 net, by mail $1.49 Published The Macmillan Company By 64-66 5th Ave., New York THE AMERICAN NATURALIST VOL. XLIII November, 1909 No. 515 THE AMERICAN TOAD (BUFO LENTIGINOSUS AMERICANUS, LECONTE) A STUDY IN DYNAMIC BIOLOGY NEWTON MILLER CLARK UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION FOR Some years it has been my desire to inaugurate a series of university theses aimed distinctively at studying important American species as forces in nature. This kind of work has seemed to me logically the next step in the advance of American natural history. In fact, it is hard to imagine any other line of real advance possible. Species are not discovered, determined, named and classified for the mere sake of making it possible for people to learn their names. No matter how common the species, when we ask the questions: What does it do in the economy of nature? What position does it occupy in the vital organization of American natural history? What are its relations to human interests? In short, what expression have we of the species as a force in nature? When we ask these questions of the commonest animals, we find ourselves almost as near the verge of human knowledge as with an undiscovered species. No less a man than Darwin himself led off in the field of dynamic biology with his study of "Earthworms and Vegetable Mould." A |