and reindeer are well known; still more remarkable are those from the Kessler hole, near Schaffhausen, in Switzerland. A sketch of a reindeer feeding, now in the Rosgarten Museum, Constance, and one of a horse, in the Schaffhausen Museum, both from this locality, are so true to nature that one is surprised that they could have been drawn by a person not regularly instructed. Yet the draughtsman lived Yet the draughtsman lived at a time when the Linth glacier covered the site of the present city of Zurich, and the musk-ox and reindeer pastured where now grow the vineyards of the Rhine.

Several curiously inscribed stones and shells have within the last few years been found in the eastern United States, regarded by their owners as the work of aboriginal artists. Two of them represent the mammoth; others, scenes from life, as battles. While not to be rejected at once, grave suspicion attaches to all such for obvious reasons, the first of which is the constant recurrence of frauds in American antiques. There is now no doubt that Professor Wright was deceived in the small terra cotta image from a great depth in Montana which he described; and it is very easy for an enthusiast to fall into such snares.

An Aboriginal Pile-Structure.

A late issue of the Peabody Museum of Archæology is a report upon pile-structures in Naaman's Creek, near Claymont, Delaware, by Dr. Hilborne T. Cresson. It will be remembered that in Science, Vol. XV., p. 116, etc., there was a correspondence on the character of the structure which these pile-remains indicated. The facts as set forth in the pamphlet now published show that at the mouth of Naaman's Creek three groups of pile-buts were discovered, in a line running from north to south across the creek. In the immediate vicinity, at various depths in the mud and gravel, about 700 stone implements were found, some quite rude, of argillite, others highly finished, of jasper, slate, quartz, etc.

As the mouth of the creek where it falls into the river was evidently a favorable camping and fishing ground for the natives, these implements might reasonably have been expected in such a locality. Was their presence in any way related to that of the piles? Dr. Cresson conjectures that the piles originally formed native fish-weirs. It may be so, but a careful study of the plans which he furnishes, and an inspection of the piles themselves at Cambridge, lead me to think they were intended as supports for some structure which rested upon them. Were they the rude piers of some early Swedish bridge across the creek? Were they the abutments of an ancient wharf? Were they the foundations of dwellings? The average size of the groups, about 12 by 6 feet, would answer the requirements of the latter theory; and palefittes were by no means unknown among the American aborigines.

MEDICAL BOTANY.

BY CHARLES FREDERICK MILLSPAUGH, M.D.

In looking over the prospectuses of the various medical colleges of the United States, one fails to find in a great majority of them anything to indicate that the important subject of medical botany is taught One wonders at the apathy of medical institutions in this respect when pausing to consider the fact that seven-tenths of the drugs in general use have a vegetable origin, and an action upon the animal economy analogous to their botanical relationship.

I fully agree with Professor Barnes' in his statement that, to the general public (and I am sorry to add, to the average

1 Science, Vol. XX., page 62.

Board of Instruction as well), the first thought arising to the mind when botany or botanist is mentioned, is a vague picture of "a sort of harmless crank," wandering about fields, woods, and bogs, picking insignificant weeds and carrying them home, principally to tear them in pieces when he gets there. I urge, with the professor, the necessity of modernizing botanical instruction in colleges and normals, and would add to the list pharmaceutical and medical institutions. Examine the text-books on materia medica used in these latter institutions, and what do you find? Simply an alphabetical arrangement of drugs. This does not meet the needs of the subject treated, for a student should be trained to study drugs in accordance with their analogy to other drugs, and not according to their indexial position in a language. In order to do this he must have, not a rudimentary knowledge of botany and vegetable chemistry, but a thorough and systematic attainment of the subject, not only as represented by the flora of the campus and surrounding woods and fields, but of the world at large. Upon opening these actual text-books we shall find atropine, an inflamatory poison, preceded by aspidium, an anthelmintic, and followed by aurantia, a simple carminative, none of these bearing the least rational relation to the others. An index would have found these drugs readily, while their disposal in this manner will teach the student nothing, nor will it in the least assist his memory to retain the uses of them.

Drugs of botanical origin are as closely allied to each other medically as the plants from which they are derived are botanically; therefore in the above illustration atropine should have been preceded by stramonium and followed by hyoscyamus. Again genera and families of plants have true and constant familial and generic drug action, and the individual species of these have idiosyncracies of action peculiar to themselves. To continue the same illustration, belladonna and atropa, with their atropa atropine; stramonium, with its datura-atropine; and hyoscyamus, with its hyoscyamine; together with other Solanaceae to which botanical family they belong- all cause delirium, but its character differs in each drug; they all dilate the pupil, but the expression of the face under the dilation is dissimilar; they all cause spasmodic action, but the spasms are varied; and among other symptoms they all cause an eruption of the skin, but in each case the eruptions may be readily distinguished. This study may be carried through the whole range of the drug action, not only in the family here presented, but through the whole natural plant system as well. This being true, should not the medical student's first training in materia medica be a thorough course in systematic botany?

Pure science in the collegiate study of drugs has of late been set aside for the greater study of the less useful questions of etiology and diagnosis. Of what immediate care to the patient are hours of scientific and exhaustive guesswork as to what caused him to be ill, when he knows that this is followed by but a moment's thought expended upon the more vital question of what drug should be employed to make him well again? Take up the first medical magazine at your hand; in it you will doubtless find a long dissertation upon some case in practice. Column after column will be found to be devoted to the elucidation of points of diagnosis and etiology, and suppositions, perhaps, of bacterial invasion and cell disintegration, then a line or two to therapy, then the post mortem.

Careful, comprehensive, differential, and comparative study of botany and vegetable chemistry in their relation to

materia medica must be followed in order to educate a good therapist, and the sooner our medical institutions make a requisite of this branch, the better it will be for patients treated by their graduates.

ON THE PRESENT TENDENCY TOWARDS HIGHER STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION. ONE cannot but observe with pleasure, in the present general advance and spread of higher education, that this advance is affecting not only the institutions of higher learning themselves and the general population, but also the strictly professional or technical schools. And whilst I wish in this short paper to refer more especially to law and medicine, my remarks will apply also to other-perhaps to all other-professions.

The medical education of this country has, deservedly enough, for many years been looked upon with little favor, and has ill stood the test of competition with the methods of other countries; but now we are observing a great change in this respect, and there is no doubt that before many years the degree of M.D. from an American university will be as valuable a certificate on its face as can anywhere be obtained. Medical courses of four years' duration are now being adopted, or have already been adopted, by the leading medical schools in the country. The requirements in preliminary education have also greatly increased, and one may hope that before long such subjects as botany and zoology may be added to the requirements of a good English and general education from the intending student of medicine. State legislation itself has not been idle, and we find in the State of New York, for example, that no person can practise medicine without undergoing an examination conducted by the State Board of Examiners. A requirement of preliminary education has also been added, and though as yet no more than an elementary education is required, we may hope for better things in future.

As regards the profession of law, the advance is perhaps even more marked; more marked, that is, as regards legal education, for we no not find that the advance in the requirements for admission to the bar has been so considerable as might be desired, though they have been by no means neglected. Three-year law-school courses, which not so long since were unheard of, have now become the rule rather than the exception; and even in those schools which still see fit to maintain a two-years' course for the degree of bachelor of laws, a graduate course has been commonly added. Towards the general extension of the study of law so as to include the Roman or Civil Law, the tendency is by no means general, caused no doubt by the non-requirement of this branch for admission to the legal profession. Some universities, indeed, in their college courses, offer instruction in this subject; but it must be remembered that the majority of law-students are not college graduates, and so the breadth of their legal knowledge will be measured by the instruction given in the law school, however the depth and extent of what subjects they do touch upon may be increased afterwards. Yale is, I believe, alone among the universities in this country which gives extended courses in the civil law, and encourages their study by the bestowal of a degree (that of D.C.L.); but even then the course is one taken by but few students, and, as the catalogue says, is intended for those who intend to be something more than practising lawyers. This is not as it should be, and we must look to the future for more general study of this subject, for without it

law can hardly be taught as a science, for law is-and should be known as a science.

Education preliminary to the study of law has also risen greatly. Latin is now a usual requirement, and we may doubtless soon see it a universal one.

The day is not far distant then, let us hope, when the title Doctor or Lawyer will in itself mean an educated man. N. H.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

*⋆ Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith.

On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished free to any correspondent.

The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal.

The Elm-Leaf Beetle, Galeruca xanthomelæna Schr. IN Science, No. 492, for July 8, 1892, Dr. C. V. Riley records the facts, that at Washington, D.C., the imagos from the first brood of larvæ of the above insect had already appeared, and that eggs from beetles of this summer brood had been obtained June 28. In a letter dated July 27, Dr. Riley informs me that from these eggs larvæ had been obtained and that these larvæ were then pupating. Dr. Riley's observations are positive, and prove

FIG. 1.

that there are two broods at least of this insect at Washington, D.C. They prove also that the beetles will mate and oviposit readily in confinement, and that there is only a brief interval between the appearance of the beetles and oviposition for the second brood of larvæ. This means that the beetles of both sexes are sexually mature when they emerge from the pupæ, or that they mature very rapidly and copulate within a very brief period after assuming the imaginal form. The accuracy of these observations I do not question; but neither do I admit that I am in error in claiming that in New Jersey, north of New Brunswick, there is only a single brood of this insect.

My acquaintance with the beetle at New Brunswick began in 1889, in which year I protected the large number of elms in and near the college campus and about the Experiment Station by spraying with a London purple mixture. In the Report of the College Experiment Station for 1888, Dr. George D. Hulst, my predecessor in office, had stated that there were two broods of the insect annually; and on the appearance of the summer brood of beetles, I made ready to spray again as soon as the second brood of larvæ should begin to appear on the protected trees. They never did make their appearance, and I was unable to find a second brood on any other trees in the city. Dr. Hulst, in response to questions, informed me that he had noticed only one brood of larvæ in 1888; but there had been a cyclonic storm about the time they became mature, which freed the trees and covered the ground beneath them with thousands of the slugs, only a few of which ever found their way back to their food.

To this destruction he attributed the absence of the second brood which published accounts led him to expect. I recorded these facts in my Report for 1889, claiming positively that there was a single brood only at New Brunswick. My observations, carefully repeated in 1890 and 1891, simply confirmed this conclusion.

These observations were presented at a meeting of the Entomological Club of the A. A. A. S., and, though he could not gainsay my facts, Dr. Riley yet doubted the correctness of my conclusion, as his paper in Science also shows. I therefore resolved to repeat my work yet more carefully in 1892 and to make it conclusive if

FIG. 2.

possible. The first signs of the beetles were noticed on May 17, in the form of small round holes eaten in a few leaves; on the 19th a few of the beetles were seen, and after that date they increased rapidly in numbers for some time. The weather for a few days was cold and wet, the insects were sluggish, and no eggs were observed until May 29. For special observation I selected a small tree between my home and the laboratory, which I passed several times daily, could see all parts of easily, and which was a prime favorite with the insects.

Eggs began hatching June 6, while yet oviposition continued. After the middle of the month the hibernating beetles diminished in number, and on the 30th not a beetle could be found. June 29 the first pupa were formed and larvæ matured daily thereafter

FIG. 3.

in greater abundance. At this date a very few unhatched eggclusters were yet to be found, but of those collected, only one mass gave larvæ July 1. Since that date and up to date of writing (Aug. 1), there has not been a cluster of eggs on any tree that I have examined, and I have closely scanned many dozens, large and small. Early in July I gathered in over 200 pupa and mature larvæ under the observed tree, and placed them in breeding-cages and jars Adults began to appear July 8, and very rapidly thereafter in the open air as well as in my cages. It is interesting to note that on June 29, when I secured the first pupa, Dr. Riley

already had eggs of a second brood. The beetles bred by me fed readily and abundantly for nearly three weeks, and then more slowly, until at this time they refuse to feed entirely. During all this time there has not been a copulation nor an egg-mass in any jar, nor have I observed a copulation or an egg-mass in the open air. On July 30 I observed a disposition on the part of my insects to refuse food and to hide among the dry leaves. I therefore selected a considerable number of them of both sexes for examination. In all, the sexual structures were immature or undeveloped. In the male it was difficult to get the testes, because they were mere empty thread-like tubes. In the females the ovaries were mere bundles of tubes without even partially-developed eggs. I gathered rather more than forty specimens from the trees, and found the same state of affairs, except that in one specimen the ova had begun to develop. This morning I selected a few fresh and fat specimens - all females, as it proved - and though the abdomen was much distended, the distension was caused by the fully-dilated crop and stomach, and the ovaries were yet less developed than in any previously examined. Soon after the beetles appeared in May, I examined a number of them and found that in all the sexual structures were fully matured. In the males the testes were quite rigid coils, which were easily removed entire, while in the females the ovaries so completely filled the abdominal cavity that it was impossible to open it without detaching or crushing some of the eggs. The beetles earliest matured are now seeking winter quarters.

I consider my observations, now carried on for four years in succession, as conclusive of the fact that at New Brunswick, N.J., there is only a single brood of this species annually. I present herewith figures of part of one ovary (Fig. 1) of a beetle taken May 25, in which the oviduct and part of the developed eggs are removed; of the ovaries of a beetle taken July 30 on the trees, in which they were best developed of all those examined (Fig. 2); and of the ovaries of a specimen three weeks old (Fig. 3), with which all the others that were examined agreed in that they were at least no more developed. All the figures were made by the use of a camera with a Zentmayer binocular stand, 2-inch objective, a eye-piece, and drawing-board six inches from camera. The vagina is not shown in Fig. 3, but is as large as that shown at the base of Fig 2, and this is the only structure that has the full size. I have not considered it necessary to figure the male organs, though the difference between spring and summer beetles is equally striking. In none that I examined did I find anything like a developed testicle. JOHN B. SMITH, SC.D.

Rutgers College, Aug. 1.

Wheat Rust and Smut.

As a general rule the Bulletins issued from the various State Agricultural Experiment Stations, while not notable for the amount of original matter they contain, are fairly accurate in their statements, and their recommendations are to be relied upon. Occasionally errors creep in, some of them the result of haste in compilation, others the result of not being conversant with the latest information on the subjects discussed. In the former category must be placed the statement made in Bulletin No. 83 of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station that wheat rust can be successfully treated by what is known as the Jensen hot-water method; that is, immersing the seed in water having a temperature between 132° and 135° F. Wheat rust has been long under investigation. It has caused a loss of about £2,000,000 sterling annually in Australia, and it is safe to say that there is not a country or a State where wheat is grown that has not suffered from its ravages. The fact is that while wheat rust is described and illustrated in the Bulletin in question, the treatment for prevention of wheat smut is given. It is needless to say that what s applicable to one is not to the other. Farmers who expect to prevent wheat rust by the hot-water treatment will be sorely disappointed. Perhaps their disappointment will result in making them question, without cause, however, the benefits to be derived from treating for smut. Between the two diseases there is a vast difference; one (rust) attacks the leaves, the other (smut) attacks the grain. In the latter case treatment of seed will be

beneficial. In the former it will do no good whatever. This is mainly because in the former infection takes place probably by means of spores disseminated by the wind, so that whole fields soon become infected. It cannot be denied that an effectual remedy for wheat rust is still a great desideratum.

Washington, D. C., Aug. 5.

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JOSEPH F. JAMES.

The Ancient Libyan Alphabet.

IN Science, July 15, Dr. Brinton has some remarks on this subject, which I have read with surprise. The old Libyan alphabet, he says, appears to have been in common use among the Berber tribes of north Africa long before the foundation of Carthage (1), . . . and in its forms is almost entirely independent of the Phoe nician letters (2). It is composed of consonants called tifinar (3), and vowel-points, known as tiddebakin. The latter are simple dots (4), the former are the lines of a rectangle, more or less complete (5). Several of them are found in the oldest Etruscan inscriptions (6). ... The writers who have given especial attention to this littleknown subject are Faidherbe, Duveyrier, Halévy, Bissuel, and, recently, Dr. Collignon (7)."

To avoid repetition, and facilitate reference, I have numbered the points in this passage on which I should like to offer a few observations.

1 and 2. What authority has Dr. Brinton for referring this alphabet to pre-Carthagenian times, and for stating that its forms are almost entirely non-Phoenician? I have hitherto regarded the Punic origin of the Libyan letters as an established fact accepted by all epigraphists of weight, and notably by Mommsen, who unhesitatingly recognizes their Semitic descent: "The Libyan or Numidian alphabet now as formerly in use amongst the Berbers in writing their non-Semitic language is one of the innumerable offshoots of the primitive Aramæan type. In some of its details it seems even to approach that type more closely than does the Phoenician itself. We are not, however, therefore to conclude that the Libyans received it from immigrants older than the Phoenicians. It is here as in Italy, where certain obviously more archaic forms do not prevent the local alphabet from being referred to Greek types. All that can be inferred is that the Libyan alphabet belongs to the Phoenician writing older than the epoch when were composed the Phoenician inscriptions that have survived to our time" (History of Rome, iii., 1).

It follows that the Numidian ancestors of the Berbers received their writing system from the Carthaginians, earliest Phoenician settlers on the north African sea-board, and, consequently, that the Libyan alphabet had no currency "long before the foundation of Carthage." The archaic forms referred to by Mommsen were the forms in use in Tyre and Sidon in pre-historic times, whereas the extant Phoenician inscriptions date from historic times; hence the discrepancies between the latter and those preserved by the Berbers, most conservative of all peoples.

3. Not the consonants alone, but the whole system (mainly, of course, consonantal as being Semitic) is called "tifinar," or rather "tifinagh." The sounds gh and rh interchange in the Libyan dialects (Ghet and Rhet; Melghigh and Melrhırh, etc.), so that it is not always easy to decide which is the original sound. But here there is no doubt that gh is organic; and Barth, for instance, always writes Tefinagh, plural Tefinaghen: "There was in particular a man of the name of Sáma, who was very friendly with me. On reading with him some writing in Tefinaghen, or the native Berber character, I became aware that this word signifies nothing more than tokens or alphabet. For as soon as the people beheld my books, and observed that they all consisted of letters, they exclaimed repeatedly, 'Tefinaghen - ay - Tefinaghen!'" (Travels, V., p. 116). There is, however, more in this word than Barth was aware of. When stripped of the common Berber prefix te, it reveals the "Finagh," i.e., "Phoenician," or "Punic" origin of the letters in their very name. Note the stress still falling on the root fin, as in Pœni.

4. F. W. Newman explains Tidebákka (pl. Tidebákken) to mean “a dot on or under the letter" (Vocab.), in fact any diacritical mark of the kind, and not merely vowel signs. Some, however,

are doubtless used to voice the consonants, as in Hebrew. Like other Semitic alphabets, Tefinagh had originally no vowels, but only three breathings, transformed in some systems (Greek, Italic) to pure vowels, in others (Cufic, Arabic) to semi-vowels and vocalic bases. But all this merely tends to strengthen the view that the Libyan is a Semitic alphabet.

5. This statement is to me unintelligible. In the published Libyan alphabets (Fr. Ballhorn, "Alphabete orientalischer und occidentalischer Sprachen," p. 8; Hanoteau, "Essai de grammaire de la langue tamachek," and others) curves occur quite as frequently as straight lines, while acute decidedly prevail over rightangles. Of the eight letters copied by Barth (I., p. 274) two only can be described as "more or less complete rectangles," forms which are certainly less common than, for instance, in Hebrew and Estranghelo.

6. It would be strange if resemblances did not occur between the Libyan and the characters of the oldest Etruscan inscriptions," seeing that both have a common Semitic origin, the former directly through the Phoenician, the latter indirectly through the archaic Greek. But such resemblances obviously lend no color to Dr. Brinton's peculiar views regarding Libyco-Etruscan linguistic affinities.

7. Of the writers here referred to, Faidherbe and Halévy alone can be regarded as specialists. On the other hand, there are serious omissions, such as Dr. Oudney, who in 1822 first discovered the existence of the Berber alphabet; F. W. Newman, "Patriarch of Berber philology;" Mommsen and Hanoteau, as above; lastly, A. Judas, who was the first to clearly establish the Phoenician origin of these characters in a paper entitled "De l'Ecriture libycoberber," contributed to the Revue Archéologique for September 1862. A. H. KEANE.

Broadhurst Gardens, London, N. W.

BOOK-REVIEWS.

Handbook for the Department of Geology in the U. S. National Museum. Part I. Geognosy.- The Materials of the Earth's Crust. By GEORGE P. MERRILL. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1892. 89 p. 12 pl.

THE U. S. National Museum is probably the greatest institution of its kind in this country. The museums located in New York, Cambridge, Boston, Philadelphia, and other large cities present to the residents of those places and to students many facilities for study. This is particularly the case with the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge. But neither one of these has been planned upon so extensive a scale, or is destined to attain such mammoth proportions, as the National Museum at Washington. The country at large is familiar with some things to be found at the museum from the numerous expositions at which displays of its treasures have been made; but no one who has not visited and lingered long in its great but crowded quarters at the National Capital can adequately realize the broad foundation upon which it is based, or the immense variety and scope of its collections. There are gathered together here materials which cover all human arts and all the natural sciences - anthropology in its widest sense, from the rude, chipped-flint implement of palæolithic man to the delicate Sevres china of civilized man; rocks and fossils from the most ancient formations to the most recent; animal forms from the minutest insect that flies to the hugest creature of land or sea. Scarcely an object, indeed, in which man has had aught to do, or to find interest in, but is to be found here.

The collections are not, either, lying idle. A large corps of curators is constantly at work, either arranging the old collections or studying and comparing the new. The results of these studies appear from time to time in the Proceedings of the Museum

repository for the national collections, these reports touched but lightly upon the vast amount of material stored away. Within the past five years, however, and since the National Museum has become recognized as the place where all government expeditions shall deposit the material collected by them, a large volume has been annually devoted to this branch alone. Those which have been issued are filled with information upon a great variety of subjects, although special attention seems to have been devoted to ethnology. Naturally, other matters are treated of, and it is likely that, in the future, place will be given to all departments as fast as the several curators find time or see fit to devote their attention to making the collections under their charge known to the outside world.

The article under review, for it is merely an excerpt issued under a separate cover from the Report of the Museum for 1890, and covering pages 503–591 of that report, is one which, while designed to be a handbook for the collections, is in reality a condensed account of the rocks forming the earth's crust. In it one will find concise descriptions of the sixteen principal elements that go to make up rock masses; a list of the original and secondary minerals of these rocks; an account of the macroscopic and microscopic structure of rocks; the chemical composition (in brief) and the color. The most extensive portion of the handbook, however, is that which deals with the kinds of rocks. Under this head we have described the four varieties of (1) aqueous, those formed through the agency of water either as chemical precipitates or as sediments; (2) colian, those formed from wind-drifted meterials; (3) metamorphic, those changed by dynamical or chemical agents from an original aqueous or igneous origin; and (4) igneous (eruptive), those brought up from beneath the surface in a molten condition. It is not necessary to go into details as to all these classes, or to mention the various divisions made of them; an extract or two will serve to show the character of the remarks. For example, under Chlorides we read: —

"Sodium chloride, or common salt, is one of the most common constituents of the earth's crust. From an economic standpoint it is also a most important constituent. It occurs in greater or less abundance in all natural waters, and, as a product of evaporation of ancient seas and lakes, it occurs in beds of varying extent and thickness among rocks of all ages wherever suitable circumstances have existed for their formation and preservation. Salt-beds from upwards of a few inches to thirty feet in thickness occur in New York State and Canada, while others abound in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and Louisiana. There are also numerous surface deposits, of great extent, in the arid regions of the West" (p. 533).

Under the head of Siliceous group, infusorial or diatomaceous earth, we find the following:

"This is a fine white or pulverulent rock composed mainly of the minute shells, or teats, of diatoms, and often so soft and friable as to crumble readily between the thumb and finger. It occurs in beds which, when compared with other rocks of the earth's crust, are of comparatively insignificant proportions, but which are nevertheless of considerable geological importance. Though deposits of this material are still forming, e.g., in the marshes of Yellowstone Park, and have been formed in times past at various periods of the earth's history, they appear most abundantly associated with rocks belonging to the Tertiary formations.

"The celebrated Bohemian deposit is some fourteen feet in thickness, and is estimated by Ehrenberg to contain 40,000,000 shells to every cubic inch. The Australian specimen exhibited is from a deposit four feet in thickness. In the United States, beds are known at Lake Umbagog, New Hampshire; Morris County, New Jersey; near Richmond, Virginia; Calvert and Charles Counties, Maryland; in New Mexico; Graham County, Arizona; Nevada; California; and Oregon. The New Jersey deposit covers about three acres, and varies from one to three feet in thickness; the Richmond bed extends from Herring Bay, on the Chesapeake, to Petersburg, Virginia, and is in some places 30 feet in thickness; the New Mexico deposit is some six feet in thickness and has been traced some 1,500 feet; Professor LeConte states that near Monterey, in California, is a bed some 50 feet in thickness; while the geologists of the fortieth-parallel survey report beds not less than

66

300 feet in thickness of a pure white, palebuff, or canary-yellow color as occurring near Hunter's Station, west of Reno, Nevada. The earth is used mainly as a polishing powder, and is sometimes designated as tripolite. It has also been used to some extent to mix with nitro-glycerine in the manufacture of dynamite. Chemically the rock is impure opal" (p. 540).

It is in such books as these that the young student finds his best helps. The information given is accurate; the paths are made pleasant; the rough places are smoothed. It is greatly to be desired that the other departments of the Museum may have as useful descriptions of their contents. JOSEPH F. JAMES.

Washington, D.C., Aug. 8.

Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present. By R. LYDEKKER. London. Longmans, Green & Co. 8°. $1.50.

THIS admirable series of essays, which was originally published in Knowledge, has been reprinted in an attractive form both as regards typography and illustrations. The essays are concisely written, and reveal a wealth of knowledge on the part of the author. The explanations of scientific discoveries and conclusions are neither too elementary nor too technical, and the essays will be read with pleasure as well as profit by anyone interested in zoological lore.

The earlier and the closing chapters of the book are devoted to the consideration of various morphological adaptations, such as protective armor, the modifications of limbs for flying and swimming, and the forms of teeth and horns. The author then takes up the fossil reptiles, describing the characteristics of the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and dinosaurs, and explaining the differences between them. Other chapters relate to the tortoises, the extinct gigantic birds, the egg-laying and marsupial mammals, and other animals whose structure and history are of special interest. There is for the most part no close connection between the various topics, but they are all important and worthy of attention.

In the treatment of morphological subjects Mr. Lydekker makes use of certain metaphorical expressions which may possibly mislead the unwary reader. Various modifications are spoken of as if they resulted from the conscious, intelligent action of the animals concerned. It is stated, for example, that the ancient mailclad fishes " appear to have come to the same conclusion as the more advanced divisions of the human race, that a massive armor for the protection of the body is an encumbrance" (p. 7). Again, the reptiles" held divided opinions as to whether a bony coat of mail was or was not a thing to be retained as a permanency." Such expressions are calculated to induce a wrong way of looking at things unless, indeed, the Lamarckian idea that modifications result directly from the efforts of organisms is to be accepted.

One is surprised to find in the writings of so good a naturalist as Mr. Lydekker the statement, or insinuation, that the separation of the amphibians from the reptiles is due to "that tendency to multiply terms for which they (the naturalists) are so celebrated" (p. 8). Mr. Lydekker, of course, well knows and, indeed, takes pains to explain, that the separation was made on account of the fact that the typical representatives, at least, of these two groups are very different both in structure and mode of development. There have undoubtedly been many instances in which naturalists have coined new names unnecessarily, but this is certainly not a case in point.

These are small defects, however, and are entirely overbalanced by the excellencies of the book. It deserves and. will repay perusal.

AMONG THE PUBLISHERS.

"THE Delaware Indian as an Artist" is the subject of a fully illustrated paper by Dr. Charles C. Abbott, to appear in The Popular Science Monthly for September. The objects of art which are represented include carved-stone gorgets, a wooden spoon-handle, wooden masks, and other carvings, many of them showing much skill. Professor J. S. Kingsley will describe "The Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Holl," giving pictures of its building and interior arrangements. Something is told also of its neighbor, the laboratory of the United States Fish Commission. Surgeon George M. Sternberg, U.S. A., will have a paper on "In