346 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [11.7 — Oct., 1915 



nation stimulated by the numerous cuts. There is no more 

 marvellous story than that portrayed by the fossil series that the 

 palaeontologists have succeeded in getting together in the various 

 museums. The fairy stories devise no more incongruous animals 

 than actually lived in past ages on the earth. The plants are no 

 less interesting, even if they are less strikingly different from the 

 present plant life. The book takes up the various plant and animal 

 groups in order, gives enough of the anatomy of present day plants 

 and animals so that even the beginning student can appreciate the 

 significance of the various fossil types discussed. The book is well 

 written. Necessarily it is condensed but there is given at the end 

 of the book an excellent bibliography which will enable one to 

 follow up any particular line of interest with considerable ease. 



Spencer Fullerton Baird, a biography by William H. Dall. Pp. xvi 

 + 462. J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.50. 

 This book will go on the shelf of the American biologist along 

 with the life of Agassiz, for Baird and Agassiz were two of the most 

 important personal factors in the development of biology in 

 America. This biography is admirably written by one who was 

 intimately associated with Professor Baird, and who writes with 

 discrimination and sympathy. Baird was the second secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution and the organizer and the first com- 

 missioner of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. 

 Every American biologist who has been to Woods Hole will remem- 

 ber the great granite boulder bearing the tablet to the memory of 

 the father of the Commission the chief station of which is located 

 in this Massachusetts town. The book contains many excerpts 

 from Baird 's letters which give an insight into the sturdy loyal 

 character of the man; they also give a history of some of the 

 important practical phases of biology in this country. As a young 

 man, Baird was professor of Natural History in Dickinson College. 

 While here, his biographer says "he instituted a series of outdoor 

 rambles on Saturday afternoon during which collections were made 

 of objects of natural history, and the boys gained a practical 

 knowledge from nature herself of great value. This of course is 

 very customary now, but was a startling innovation at that time," 

 (1846). Baird had a knack of gathering about himself always 

 groups of young men to whom he was a source of inspiration. His 

 success as head of the Fish Commission was in no small measure 



