LITERARY NOTICES. 



S^S 



hand ; reports his observations on clima- 

 tology and seasonal phenomena ; draws the 

 lessons to be learned from a ramble in " an 

 old road " ; exalts the man " behind the 

 eye " rather than the eye as the important 

 factor in observation, and the mental atti- 

 tude in " taking a walk " ; and presents 

 studies of mountain scenes, " butterfly psy- 

 chology," and the means by which the par- 

 tridge executes his "drumming." (Hough- 

 ton, Mifflin & Co., $1.25.) 



The Anatomy of Astrangia Dana, pub- 

 lished in quarto form by the Smithsonian 

 Institution, comprises six lithographs from 

 drawings made by A. Sonrel, under the di- 

 rection of Prof. Agassiz in 1S49, illustrating 

 the structure of that madrepore, the only 

 representative of the family in shallow New 

 England waters, with text explaining the 

 plates by J. Walter Fcwkes. Although there 

 has been a great advance in histological 

 methods since the figures were drawn, it has 

 hardly extended to the minute anatomy of 

 these creatures ; so that the representations 

 are nearly as fresh as if they had been drawn 

 to-day. Whatever may be lacking to bring 

 them up to the present state of knowledge 

 is supplied in Mr. Fewkes's descriptions, 

 which are based on studies of living speci- 

 mens. 



Studies of the Macrochires, Morphological 

 and otherwise, with the View of indicating 

 their Relationships and defining their Several 

 Positions in the System, by R. W. Shufeldt, 

 M. D., bear upon the comparative anatomy 

 and place of the swifts, whip-poor-wills, and 

 humming-birds. The author had already 

 proposed a separate order for the Trochili, 

 or humming-birds, and is more than ever 

 convinced of the correctness of his scheme. 

 In the present essay he proposes a new 

 group or order that of Cypseli for the 

 swifts. This order, were it represented by 

 a circle, would be found just outside the 

 passerine circle, " but tangent to a point in 

 its periphery opposite the swallows. 



In a monograph on The World's Supply 

 of Fuel, Prof. W J Me Gee describes rock 

 gas and its occurrence ; accounts for its for- 

 mation by the decomposition of the organic 

 matter contained in sediments ; answers in 

 the affirmative the question whether it is 

 still forming, and adds that it will probably 

 continue to form indefinitely, though at a 



decreasing rate; and predicts that it is 

 destined to be, after the coal has been ex- 

 hausted, the world's unfailing supply of fuel 

 and light. 



The address of Prof. Charles A. White, aa 

 Vice-President of the Geological Section of 

 the American Association, is devoted to the 

 survey and definition of Tlie North American 

 Mesozoic, particularly of the formation called 

 Triassic. There are doubts about the corre- 

 spondence of this with European forma- 

 tions ; and this and certain other facts give 

 occasion for the expression, with some full- 

 ness, of the opinion that we must not expect 

 to discover a precise correspondence, either 

 in time or character, in the geological history 

 of our own and other continents, or an ex- 

 act identity of formations in them. Hence, 

 with all respect to European classification 

 and names, which may still be used tenta- 

 tively in each of the great divisions of the 

 earth, and with reference to the ultimate 

 establishment of a universal system, it is 

 for North American geologists to elaborate 

 a scheme for the formations of our own con- 

 tinent. 



In a pair of papers on Meteorites and 

 what they teach us, Dr. H. Hensoldt sum- 

 marizes what has been learned about me- 

 teorites, and declares his own theory as to 

 their origin. This theory is based on the 

 presence of liquid carbonic acid in the cavi- 

 ties of these bodies. The fluid is ascer- 

 tained to be carbonic acid by the instanta- 

 neous change of form which it undergoes 

 between 30 and 31 C, which is character- 

 istic of that substance. Now, carbonic acid 

 can not be liquefied except under a pressure 

 which exists in nature only deep in the 

 earth. Hence the meteorites must have 

 been at some time subjected to such a press- 

 ure. It is therefore concluded that they 

 have come from the interior of some plane- 

 tary body which has been rent by an explo- 

 sion. 



Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natu- 

 ral History, Vol. XXIV, contains the reports 

 of the society and its proceedings, with the 

 papers read, from May, 1888, to May, 1889. 

 Prof. Hyatt's report as curator of the muse- 

 um shows that that institution is growing at 

 a healthy rate, and the arrangement of its 

 collections is going forward. The papers 

 relate to various topics of biology, geology, 



