your and yore are classed as identical in sound. Your, shore, and drawer are thus "phoneticised" into yawer, shawer, and drawer. These words are, indeed, often so pronounced in dialectic speech; but the science of phonetics must be retrograding instead of advancing when, in an "Introductory Science Text-Book," such differences can be ignored, and such mere negligences cited as examples of correct usage.

All short vowels stop sharply on consonant-R, as on other consonants, as in parrot, very, spirit, sorry, hurry; but long vowels take on the connective glide even before consonant-R, as in weary, fairy, wiry, gory, fury. Thus wea()ry, fai(ə)ry, wi(ə)ry, etc.

The vowel quality inherent in the mouth-cavity of R is that of er-ir in her, sir. Consequently, in such words as firm, yearn, the r has the effect of lengthening the syllable by making it contain two sounds of the same vowel. Let us put the words under the microscope:

fi ---- (ə)rm; yea- - (ə)rn.

Test this further by analyzing the syllable "word." If the r were "silent," the vowel would be sharply stopped by the consonant d. Thus, wo-d; but the true pronunciation of this syllable interposes a glide between the vowel and the d. Thus, wo----(ə)rd.

In forming this smooth transitional r the tongue is slightly lifted from the bed of the jaw; therefore when a vowel follows the r, the consonant sound of the letter is also developed; as in fearing fear ring There is a tendency among many speakers to finish all open vowels with this lift of the tongue, so that the consonant r is inadvertently interpolated between two words, as in "Pennsylvania-r-Avenue, "I saw-r-it all."

=

Nice distinctions like those which are the subject of this paper-are of no importance where mere intelligibility is concerned; for example, in the speech of the deaf. In such cases, the widest differences may be disregarded, so long as the words are understood. But in the study of phonetics, the most minute varieties require to be distinguished, because what in one case may be a distinction with but little difference, may in another become a very shibboleth.

I make no apology for introducing so small a topic to your attention. In a practical subject nothing is too small to be carefully investigated. The whole organism of speech is but small, and the differences of organic action from which the greatest elementary distinctions result are, in actual measurement, exceedingly small.

A MAGNETIC needle suspended so as to move freely in all directions will set itself tangent to the lines of terrestrial magnetic force. At any particular epoch it will have a definite direction. It wil make a definite angle with the meridian, which, measured in the horizontal plane, is known as its declination, also a definite angle with this plane, which, measured in the vertical plane, is termed its inclination or dip. About this mean position of equilibrium a variety of small periodic variations take place, accompanied at times by fitful or irregular ones, which occasionally become quite respectable. Concerning this we shall have nothing to say. But the needle undergoes another, and by far the largest excursion, requiring centuries for its fulfilment. Since its discovery in 1634 by Gellibrand, as exhibited in the secular variation of one of its co-ordinate angles, the declination, it has been the cause of no end of fruitless speculation. It has engaged some of the 1 Abstract of a paper read before Section A of the A.A.A.S., Aug. 18, 1892.

best minds and given rise to most ingenious theories, but the riddle is still unsolved.

As the needle assumes different positions for different epochs, it gradually sweeps out in space a cone, whose vertex is the centre of gravity of the needle. Or, if you describe a sphere having as a centre the centre of gravity of the needle, and prolong the axis of the needle until it intersects the sphere, the successive intersections will form some tortuous curve. The geome

tric nature of this cone, or of this tortuous curve, remains to be investigated. A preliminary analytical attempt was made by Quetelet in 1877. He used fifty years of continuous observations of declinations and dip made at Brussels, and found that a cone of revolution would best fit his observations, the period of a complete revolution being 512 years. Mr. Schott made a graphical attempt for an average New England station, using about fifty years of observation. The scantiness of his material prevented him from making any safe deduction as to the course of the needle.❜

2

To our knowledge, however, no attempt has as yet been made for the long series of observation which we possess at quite a number of stations. The usual custom is to discuss separately the secular variation of the different magnetic elements. as though they were different effects of forces acting, instead of component effects. We believe that this, in some measure, is the reason that with 100-300 years of observation no greater headway has been made in the conception of the requirements of the secular-variation problem.

With the view presented of the problem, some of the interesting questions we may ask ourselves are: Will the orbit described by the north end, say, of the needle, be a closed curve or approximately so? That is, will the needle at the end of a certain period assume the same direction that it had before, and again sweep over the same curve in the same length of time? Or, will the needle never return to a previous position, and thus never fulfil a secular variation period? If we have such a thing as a true period, is it the same all over the globe? If we have to deal with different periods, as the discussions of declination observations at various stations would seem to indicate, are these local or independent, and thus belong to different systems of magnetic forces? Or, do they but indicate different stages in the development of the secular variation, whereby either the period itself is a fluctuting one, or the orbit consists of several branches or loops? If the secular waves travel from east to west, traversing the whole globe, then by making an instantaneous circuit of the earth in an easterly direction, shall we find the needle at every station farther along in its secular orbit? Shall we find a continuously progressive and consistent motion throughout our survey, thus correlating the stations and referring the cause to a common origin? If we find this to be but roughly so, then by selecting as a base station, one where we have a long series of observations, we may with the aid of the shorter series at other stations, by adopting a time-coefficient determined from a comparison of the curves, attempt to answer some of the questions propounded without waiting until centuries have given us a complete period? Finally, what is the law of force acting upon the needle to cause it to describe its orbit?

To carry on a study of the secular variation to the best advantage, it would be highly desirable that at all stations where we have a tolerably long series of observations they be put in the best shape possible by one familiar with the subject and the station. It would then be an easy matter to establish secular variation stations all over the globe, where future observations might be made. This would mean simply the inauguration of a grand scheme, the fruits of which might not be seen for centuries. While such a gathering of material has already been made for many stations, there is, however, abundant material left.

The first station selected for discussion is London, where we have the best series of observations of both elements. The declinations date with Boroughs's in 1580. They can be represented (within their probable error) by the following formula, derived 2 See Bulletins de l'académie royale de sciences etc. de Bruxelles, 47me année, 2me serie, T. xlv.

3 See U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Report for 1885, App. No. 6, p. 272.

from a least-square adjustment of all the observations between 1580 and 1890:

=

(1).

D= + 6.24° + 17.75° sin [0.7° (t − 1850) + 112.7°] · ±.10 ±.31 1.2 Where D stands for the declination at any time t, positive when 360° west, and 0.7° = = angular motion in one year. The dif514 ferences between the observed and computed values would seem to indicate a fluctuating smaller period of about 80 years, having a variable parameter of about 1°. Somewhat similar results were found at Paris by Mr. Schott, and at Christiania by Professor Weyer. No attempt was made at present to establish this second term, it lying within the probable error, which for a computed result is 20'.

The inclinations date with Norman's in 1576. The observations between this date and 1891 can be represented by the following formula :

=

Where I inclination at any time t and the period involved, 514 years apparently the same as for (1).

The probable error of a computed value is ±10', which, considering the material, is satisfactory. Both (1) and (2) apply to latitude 51° 30′ and longitude 0° 07′ west of Greenwich. The mean of the Greenwich and Kew observations was taken to apply to this station. Comparing (1) and (2), a remarkable result peculiar to this station will be noticed that the epochs are practically complementary, hence the following approximate relation between the declination and dip can be found:

(3).

6.24 and I-70.40.

From which it appears that for London the mean declination takes place about the epoch of maximum and minimum inclination, and vice versa.

With the aid of formula (1) and (2) the curve described in space by the north end of a free magnetic needle was now accurately constructed and graphically exhibited. It was shown that the first approximation of the curve could be taken as a spherical ellipse, the period being about 500 years. For Paris, a similar result was obtained and exhibited, using provisional formulæ. For both stations the curve lay to the greater part west of the true meridian, and the direction of the motion (standing at the centre of the needle and looking towards the north end) was that of the hands of a watch, or opposite to that of the earth. A rough survey was then made of the globe in an easterly direction approximately in the latitude of London, and elucidated by a diagram. It was found that the needle was farther along in its secular orbit at every station. The curves for some stations in the southern hemisphere were also exhibited.

The following conclusions were reached:

1. The direction of the secular motion of the north end of a free magnetic needle in both hemispheres is that of the hands of a watch.

2. That if the secular orbit is a single closed curve, then are the periods different for different stations.

3. That if the period is a common one, then must the orbit be a closed curve of two or more loops lying within each other. We are getting then, at present, a small loop in America and a larger one in Europe.

The nomenclature of botany has always seemed to me to be more stable and uniform than that of zoology, for the reason, as I supposed, that the naming of new genera and species has, for the most part, been reserved to a comparatively few leaders in the science; and the same cause has contributed to the fixity of botanical classification, in comparison with the incessant taxonomic fluctuations which zoölogy has suffered.

With the late great increase in the number of working botanists, the distinction of a small select "caste" of authoritative namers and describers in botany seems to be breaking down, with the various good and evil results attending this transfer of power from a privileged oligarchy to more democratic rule.

I think that not improbably the botanists who are now exercised over names may examine with much confidence the canons of nomenclature lately formulated and rigidly enforced by the American Ornithologists' Union. These rules have been found to work admirably in practice. They may not be the best possible, but on the whole they are the best extant. A number of leaders in other departments of zoology, besides ornithology, as in mammalogy, herpetology, ichthyology, malacology, entomology, etc., have found them entirely available. If some two or three of the rules are not so acceptable as the rest, yet it seems to be generally conceded that it is better to abide by them all, than to dissent from the code as a whole on account of a few comparatively unimportant points that may not be liked so well as the rest are.

Referring to the excellent article of C. H. Tyler Townsend in Science of Sept. 16, it seems to me that the moot points he raises have all been considered carefully by the ornithologists, who have settled each of these questions to very general satisfaction; and that the considerations upon which their conclusions have been reached are entirely applicable to the botanical questions involved.

I wish to say a word respecting the somewhat epigrammatic rule, "once a synonym, always a synonym," for the form of which I am measurably responsible, if I remember rightly. Like any other curt sententious saying, the rule is, as I perceive by Mr. Townsend's remarks, liable to be misunderstood. There is no question that, as he correctly says, "If a form which had been described and then thought to be the same as some other species, is later proven to be a valid species, the name originally proposed should stand." Certainly it should. That is not the application at all of the phrase "once a synonym, always a synonym;" and I never heard before of its application to the case Mr. Townsend adduces. What the aphorism really means is best illustrated by a concrete example:

Let there be a genus Smithia in botany. Let a genus Jonesia

then be named. Let Jonesia then be found to be the same genus as Smithia. Then the name Jonesia "lapses into synonymy" and cannot be thereafter applied to any other genus in botany. That is all that is meant by the saying "once a synonym, always a synonym." In other words, if Jonesia is not good for what it originally meant, it is good for nothing; it is to be deleted absolutely, and cannot come into re-existence by transfer to any other genus.

Exactly the same principle holds for all specific names within their respective genera. Example: Let there be a Rosa Sm thi. Let some one then name a Rosa Jonesi. Let R Jonesi be considered to be the same species as R. Smithi. Then there can never be a R. Jonesi; that is to say, no other species of Rosa can be specified as Jonesi. But, of course, if anyone discovers, after this reduction of Jonesi to a synonym of Smithi, that what had been called R. Jonesi is a good species, then Jonesi revives as the name of that species; and the fact that it had been (erroneously) regarded as a synonym of Smithi is no bar to its use in its original

sense.

So the expression, "once a synonym, always a synonym," is seen to hold perfectly good in its proper acceptation The fact that a certain name has ever been wrongly regarded as a synonym does not make it a synonym; for it ceases to be such the moment the mistake is detected and corrected, and therefore is not amenable to the rule at all.

I think that, on this reconsideration of the subject, Mr. Townsend may be himself the first to affirm the validity of the now famous maxim, and I am sure that, if he does so, he will find it works well. ELLIOTT COUES.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Oct. 10.

Crayfish Attacked by Leeches.

WHILE walking on the beach at Lake Chautauqua one day, recently, I observed a crayfish about four inches in length lying just at the edge of the water, where it had apparently been thrown up by the waves.

On picking it up, I found that it had moulted but a short time previously, and that its new shell was still quite soft. As I lifted the animal, I was surprised to see five large leeches, the smallest of which in its semi-contracted position extended nearly three inches, hanging from the body, and upon a closer investigation observed that all five were attached to a single portion - the left chela. The part which had been attacked by the leeches was the area of attachment of the adductor muscle; and, if the work had not been interrupted by my examination, it would have resulted in the complete crippling of the pinching apparatus of that side. Other and seemingly less protected portions of the body were uninjured.

It would be interesting to ascertain whether the point of attack in this case was accidental or determined by intelligence, but the appearance was that the leeches, appreciating that their prey was just at this time incapable of protecting itself, had deliberately attacked the animal in such a way as to prevent it from protecting itself in case its shell should sufficiently harden before they had succeeded in killing it. The right chela had one slight perforation in it, in the same location, and it is possible that a leech had begun there also, but dropped off unnoticed when the crayfish was raised from the ground. I should be glad to learn of any other observations on the way in which leeches attack their prey. H. T. FERNALD.

State College, Centre County, Pa., Sept. 27.

A Wasp Study.

NEAR my summer home we have large numbers of the small solitary wasp (Eumenes smithii). The mother-wasp digs a passage and cell, usually in the open sandy pathway: our pathways show hundreds of these wasp holes, about one-half an inch in diameter, while the work is going on and before the cells are closed. The egg having been laid, the mother-wasp provides a caterpillar or two, which she leaves in the nest in a state of coma or paralysis; this coma lasts until the young wasp is hatched, when it finds fresh living food ready for it.

About the time when the Eumenidæ are busy with home-building and egg-laying, we usually have on our wild cherry-trees and young poplars large numbers of the nests of small caterpillars. This year I noticed a remarkable absence of caterpillars; scarcely a web-nest was to be seen. It did not occur to me to wonder what food Madame Eumenes would provide for her babes in this famine of caterpillars, until one day I was treated to a curious spectacle. I saw a slender blue-black wasp about an inch long, carrying off a large gray grasshopper. The grasshopper was fully two inches long, large and heavy in proportion to its length, a handsome insect of a greenish-gray, with some pale yellow touches and markings.

The wasp lay upon the caterpillar, its thorax upon the thorax of the caterpillar, and its sharp-pointed black head resting exactly between the large, full eyes of the captive. The small fore-legs of the wasp clasped the upper part of the caterpillar's thorax; the wasp's third pair of legs lay along the thighs of the large hindlegs of the grasshopper. Clasping its prize firmly with its first and second pairs of legs the Eumenes flew, carrying the grasshopper. Each flight was short, not over from five to ten yards; then the wasp settled, and before flying again made some little progress between walking and flying, dragging the grasshopper beneath it in the position just described. The course of the wasp was in a direct line. It followed the path for a time, but where the path curved or deflected the wasp moved directly over bushes, stubble, and long grass.

Meanwhile, the grasshopper was absolutely quiescent, and had I not known the wasp's penchant for living prey, I should bare believed it to be dead. I followed captor and prisoner for some fifty yards, and then seized them both. The wasp clung t› her prey, and seemed so absorbed in that as to be heedless of capture. I took the two home in my hand, holding by the body of the grasshopper, put them on a plate under a goblet, and proceeded to examine the case.

The wasp was not biting or stinging the grasshopper, but merely held it firmly clasped, the rigidity of the heads of both insects being very noticeable. The extremity of the abdomen of the wasp trembled slightly; the eyes of the grasshopper had a very peculiar, dull, unseeing expression, like those of a person in a state of coma; occasionally the grasshopper's large thighs quivered, and constantly there was a slow expansion and contraction of the abdominal rings. Finally I forcibly removed the wasp from the back of the grasshopper, and placed the latter on the floor in a draught of air. In a moment or two it seemed to recover itself slightly, stretched all its legs, and gave a feeble hop. I then set the wasp free within a foot of the grasshopper, and seeming to recognize its booty, it dashed upon it, and took the same position as before. There was no biting of the head of the grasshopper. I watched both closely. After this second capture the grasshopper rapidly succumbed: its first pair of legs curled up closely; the second pair folded together into a kneeling posture; the hind-legs were extended, quivered no longer, and the abdominal expansion and contraction were feebler and slower.

At the end of twenty minutes I removed the wasp, carried her to the other side of the house and set her free. She departed as if reluctantly "enforced to go and seeming still unready," evidently all her mental powers, whatever they might be, were concentrated upon that grasshopper. I returned to the grasshopper, and found it giving no signs of life except the abdominal motion. I then sprinkled it thoroughly with ice-water. It recovered a little, moved its thighs several times, but the contraction of the first and second pairs of legs, and the motionless, stiffened state of the antennæ, were very marked. In whatever position I put the insect there it remained, on back or side, or propped up on its bent, "kneeling" fore-legs. The slight reviving produced by air, water, and freedom from its enemy did not last. The grasshopper grew more rigid and the ring expansion less and less marked. I desired to keep the creature to discover how long it remained uncorrupted in this state, but a sharp gust of wind blew it from my hand into grasses where I could not recover it.

The manner of the carrying of the grasshopper by the wasp, the strength exhibited by the wasp. its absorption in its prize, the peculiar resting of its head motionless upon the upper portion of

the grasshopper's head, and the singular state to which the grasshopper was reduced, all seemed to me worthy of notice,

Evidently the grasshopper was carried off to serve for the food of the young larva, instead of the caterpillar usually provided. Had the grasshopper been paralyzed by a sting or bite? Was it mesmerized or hypnotized by its vigorous little enemy? Whatever had been done to it, it was absolutely quiescent and making no manner of fight for itself. JULIA MCNAIR WRIGHT. Fulton, Missouri.

Auroras versus Thunder-Storms.

DURING September just past sun-spots were very numerous and large. Nevertheless, auroras during the month were without exception comparatively inconspicuous. In this case certainly large sun-spots have not been attended by bright auroras, as some have held to be the rule. The explanation of this anomaly, which appears to be justified by systematic records in my possession, is that thunder storms took the place of auroras. It has been found that not unfrequently thunder-storms become widely prevalent upon dates upon which auroras should fall in accordance with their periodicity corresponding to the time of a synodic revolution of the sun. When this happens, it robs them of their brightness, wholly or in part. The relation between these two classes of phenomena appears to be reciprocal or substitutive, the one taking the place of the other under conditions which are only just beginning to be understood, and which are in process of investigation. M. A. VEEDER.

Lyons, N.Y., Oct. 8.

European Origin of the Aryans.

IN reference to Dr. Brinton's note in Science, Sept. 16, I certainly have not read all D'Halloy's writings, which seem to me to have no present scientific value, possessing merely a faint historical interest. I only professed to have read those passages which Dr. Brinton cited in his lectures.

The extract which Dr. Brinton now gives from the article of 1848 only confirms me in my conclusions. D'Halloy's mention of an Himalayan origin, and his allusion to the hypothesis that the Indo-Germanic languages were derived from Sanscrit, point rather to an acquaintance with Adelung's Cashmere theory of 1806 than to any adequate knowledge of the Central-Asian hypothesis of Pott, Lassen, and Grimm, which dates from 1847-48. At the time when D'Halloy, in his "Éléments d'Ethnographie," appended a note to this article, he must have heard of the Central-Asian theory; but the “ Éléments d'Ethnographie" I had not looked at, as it was not one of the works cited by Dr. Brinton.

However, the matter is so unimportant that if Dr. Brinton still wishes to maintain his view, we may agree to differ.

Settrington, York, England, Sept. 29.

Change of Diet in Birds.

ISAAC TAYLOR.

EVERYONE who has a garden must have noticed the manner in which the common sparrow destroys the flowers of the yellow crocus. The earliest mention of this which I can find is in Science Gossip for 1865. The question is, Was the bird previously in the habit of thus destroying crocus flowers, I do not say eating,— or is it a new departure?

Since then I have observed that the common yellow primrose is similarly injured by sparrows. Seeing a crowd of sparrows busy among some primrose plants in my garden, I made a close examination of their work. Some of the flowers had been entirely plucked off; in others the entire cradle and some of the petals had been bitten off and dropped on the ground, but nothing appeared to have been eaten. I examined a number of the flowers carefully, first with the naked eye and then with lenses of different powers, but I could find no traces of insects which the sparrows might be supposed to have been seeking.

The main point is, then, What is the motive of the sparrows in thus singling out the crocus and the primrose for attack? London, England, Sept. 29.

W. SLATER.

BOOK-REVIEWS.

The Speech of Monkeys. Webster & Co. 8°.

By R. L. GARNER. New York, Chas. L. 233 p. $1.

The work of Mr. Garner upon the " Speech of Monkeys" is already well known through the public press, and all who have become interested in this extremely suggestive subject will be pleased that he has summarized in a neat little volume the important results of his work up to the present time. Nearly all of the facts published in this volume have already been given to the public through the pages of the Cosmopolitan, The Forum, The North American Review, and other publications; but in this volume he has brought together all of the important facts given in these various places. Mr. Garner has been at work upon the subject of monkey language for some eight years, and, although a number of interesting facts were seen earlier in his observations, it was the application of the modern phonograph to the study which for the first time put the subject upon a scientific basis.

The present work is divided into two parts. The first part gives an outline of the facts as he has observed them, and his methods of experiment. As one reads this part he receives two impressions. The first is as to the exceeding scantiness of the definite results. It is perhaps a little disappointing to find that the speech of monkeys as thus far made out by Mr. Garner seems to be confined to a few sounds, nearly every one of which has a variety of meanings, or rather does not seem to have any exact significance. This is, after all, not to be wondered at. Mr. Garner himself recognizes that he has only made a beginning in his researches, and it must be remembered that he has had absolutely no guidance from the previous work of others. Moreover, it is to be expected from their general grade of intelligence that the speech of monkeys will be confined to a few ideas, and those ideas of the widest general signification. The second impression that we receive as we read the book is, that Mr. Garner's work, so far as it has gone, is reliable and that he is dealing with facts rather than fancies. We cannot but feel that the few facts which Mr. Garner has made out are well authenticated. It is very striking when we learn that Mr. Garner has so far discovered the speech of monkeys as to have learned the password into their good graces, and we cannot but be interested in his ability to attract the attention of monkeys by saying to them, in their language, the word which means food. His ability to thus obtain their good-will by the use of a word of their own language; the fact that monkeys always use this word in connection with food; the very fact that the meaning of the word is vague, being used in connection with food or drink, or "any kindly office done them;" the fact that other actions of monkeys are also always accompanied by a perfectly definite sound, which Mr. Garner has in many cases been able to imitate; the fact that a repetition of these sounds in all cases will produce similar actions in other monkeys of the same species; the fact that monkeys of different species do not use the same sounds under the same conditions; the fact that occasionally one monkey learns a word used by another species of monkeys for certain purposes; the fact that monkeys do not use these words when alone but only when they have some one to talk to; and many other incidental occurrences combine to give us the feeling that, so far as Mr. Garner has gone, his belief that monkeys have speech is well substantiated.

As one reads this work, he is at some loss to know in his own mind whether to predict that Mr. Garner is going to be able to develop the speech of monkeys to a great extent, and is only on the threshold of important discoveries, or whether he has already nearly reached the limit of their speech. Their language, of course, cannot advance beyond their knowledge, and it may be that their speech will be confined to the vague expression of a few of their crude conceptions of nature. Mr. Garner believes, however, that there is very much to be still discovered, and that the speech of monkeys is of more importance to them in expressing their ideas than their gestures.

The second part of the work is of considerably less interest, being more in the line of speculation. It gives the theoretical deductions which Mr. Garner is inclined to draw from the facts he has already seen, and some few speculations as to the origin

and significance of language. In this part of the work we must find the chief interest in the fact that we have an attempt to theorize as to the origin of speech from the standpoint of its beginning in the lower animals, rather than from the standpoint of its more developed conditions in man. The study of language hitherto has been to reduce human language to its lowest and simplest form. Mr. Garner for the first time attempts to develop language from its simpler conditions in the lower animals, and if Mr. Garner's conclusions differ in some respects from the ideas that have hitherto been in vogue, it is not surprising.

On the whole, the work of Mr. Garner is extremely interesting and suggestive. As a piece of book-making it is open to criticism. It is sketchy; it is not very logically arranged, containing a miscellaneous mixture of observations on the intelligence, habits, gestures, affections, and general mental attributes of monkeys, some of which are new, but most of which are not especially new, and have little relation to the subject of monkey speech. The observations on the actual speech of monkeys, which is of course the really valuable part of the work, fills only a small portion of the book. We must look upon this volume and the work it describes simply as an outline sketch of the beginning of a series of results which may be carried to a successful issue in later years. The thanks of science are certainly due to Mr. Garner for open ing to us a new line of research and a new realm of suggestive thought. H. W. CONN.

Outlines of Zoology. By J. ARTHUR THOMSON. Edinburgh and London, Young J. Pentland, 1892. 655 p. Ill.

BRIDGE, JOHN From Tilbury to Torbay. London,

Gilbert & Rivington. 16°. 154 p.

44 p.

DE VARIGNY, HENRY. Experimental Evolution. London and New York, Macmillan & Co 12°. 283 p. $1.50. HOLM, THEO. Notes on the Flowers of Anthroxanthum Odoratum L. Washington Government. 8°. 5 p. MAINE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. Seventh Annual Report. Augusta, State Printers. 8°. paper. MUELLER, FERD. VON. Select Extra-Tropical Plants. 8th ed. Melbourne, Australia, Government. 8°. Paper. 602 p. RAMSAY, ALEXANDER. The Scientific Roll, Nos. 1, 2, 3, Climate, Baric Condition. London, W. E. Bowers. 8°. Paper. SMYTH, BERNARD. B. Check. List of the Plants of Kansas, Topeka. Bernard B. Smyth. 8°. Paper. 34 p. TOMPKINS, C. R. The Woodworker's Manual, Dover. N. H. The John A. White Co. 8°. Paper. 60 p. Ill. U. S. GEOL. SURVEY. Bulletin No. 79. Washington Government. 8°. paper. 39 p. WRIGHT, G. FREDERICK. Man and the Glacial Period. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 12°. 401 p. $1.75.

Reading Matter Notices.
Ripans Tabules: best liver tonic.
Ripans Tabules cure jaundice.

Cabinet Specimens, Collections, and alogists, collectors, colleges, schools, and chemists. Send for 100-page catalogue, paper bound, 15 cents; cloth bound, 25 cents; supplement. 2 cents. GEO. L. ENGLISH & Co., Mineralogists, 788 & 735 B`way, NY.

MINERALS. material by the pound, for miner

who wishes his students to have a good reference book in their possession hardly knows where to turn when the said students combine a comparative ignorance of German with thinly-lined pocket-books. Under these circumstances, the prospect afforded

by the announcement of Mr. Thomson's book was distinctly attractive.

It may be said at the outset that the book to a large extent responds to favorable anticipations. Mr. Thomson, while not much known as an original investigator, has made a record for himself in the hardly, if at all, less useful role of abstractor and collator of the work of others, while his occasional essays and his work with Professor Geddes on the evolution of sex have shown him to possess an agreeable literary style. The "Outlines of Zoology" is an exceedingly readable book, and perhaps the only criticism that can be made upon its style is that it occasionally degenerates into flippancy. Professor Forbes was quite justified in making his joke about the "wink of derision" which Luidia gave him as it passed over the side of the boat after breaking off its arm; but it is hardly desirable to waste space in repeating the joke in a text-book. A good many examples of this kind might be quoted.

Mr. Thomson wisely, we think, follows the example of Claus, Boas, and other writers in devoting a considerable amount of space to general matters. The first ninety pages of the book are occupied with an account of the functions of animals, the meaning of organs, tissues, and cells, methods of reproduction, fertilization, segmentation, etc., palæontology, distribution, and the principles of evolution. Evidently these subjects must be treated in the briefest possible way; but the result is on the whole not unsatsfactory. The first chapter, however, which takes for granted a knowledge of the meaning of such words as "cells," for example, would be a pretty tough morsel for the average student beginning zoology without any biological training. Of the remaining 514 pages (excluding index), 343 are taken up with invertebrates, and 171 with vertebrates an arrangement which, for a general textbook, surely gives too much space to the vertebrates.

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GRADUATE of the University of Pennsylvania and a practical mineralogist of twenty years' experience desires to give his services and a cabinet of 25,000 specimens, all named, with about the same number of duplicates, in minerals, crystals, rocks, gems, fossils, shells, archæological and ethnological specimens and woods to any institution desiring a fine outfit for study. The owner will increase the cabinet to 50,000 specimens in two years and will act as curator. Correspondence solicited from any scientific institution. J. W. Hortter. M.D., Ph.D., San Francisco, Cal., General P.. Delivery.

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