278 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the collection of thallophjtes, 16,420 

 specimens, making in all about 222,420 speci- 

 mens. It also has received considerable col- 

 lections of wood wedges, thin veneers of 

 woods mounted as transparencies, and the 

 set, so far as issued, of Prof. Nordlinger's 

 sections. The scientific papers published in 

 the report comprise a study of the Venation 

 of Willows, by Dr. N. M. Glatfelter ; Material 

 for a Monograph on the Tan Woods, by J. 

 Christian Bay; The Sugar Maples, with a 

 winter synopsis of all North American Maples, 

 by Dr. Trelease ; Notes on a List of Plants 

 collected in Southeastern Missouri, by B. F. 

 Bush : and some papers of a more special and 

 technical character by Dr. Trelease and J. C. 

 Whitten. 



A posthumous work by M. A. de Quatre- 

 facffs, entitled Les Emules de Darwin (the 

 Rivals of Darwin), is published by Felix 

 Alcan, Paris, in two volumes. In it the 

 learned author, after examining the work of 

 Darwin and his French predecessors, passes 

 in review the conceptions of those who were 

 his rivals or perhaps we might better say 

 his co-workers in bringing the new doc- 

 trines to the attention of naturalists, or in 

 trying to perfect the doctrine of the master. 

 These imides are Alfred Russel Wallace, 

 M. Naudin, Mr. Romanes, Carl Vogt, Felippi, 

 Haeckel, Huxley, Owen, Mivart, Gubler and 

 Koelliker, D'Omalius d'Halloy, and Erasmus 

 Darwin, of whose work full reviews and as 

 "impartial as possible" are given. From 

 this examination the author receives but one 

 impression that of our impotence to re- 

 solve the great problem which so many emi- 

 nent men have attacked in vain. This re- 

 view is preceded by a preface by M. Edmond 

 Perrier, in which the work of Quatrefages is 

 summarized at length, and by a eulogy or ad- 

 dress on his life and labors, delivered by M. 

 E. T. Ilamy at the opening of the course in 

 anthropology of the Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, Paris, in May, 1892. These biograph- 

 ical notices occupy about half of the first 

 volume. 



The Jnnual Report of the Unitad States 

 National Mimeuni for the year ending June 

 30, 1802, gives the number of specimens in the 

 collections as at that time 8,223,941, showing 

 that in ten years from what was practically 

 the date of occupancy of the museum build- 

 ing the collections had increased sixteen 



fold. The institution is crowded for space, 

 and will soon be compelled, unless it is re- 

 lieved, to discourage rather than seek addi- 

 tions. It has already lost several large and 

 important collections on this account. Be- 

 sides the reports of the assistant secretary 

 in charge. Dr. G. Brown Goode, and of the 

 curators of the several departments, the vol- 

 ume contains papers on Japanese Woodcut- 

 ting and Woodcut Printing, by T. Tokuno ; 

 the Relation of Biology to Geological In- 

 vestigation, by Charles A. White ; Scientific 

 Taxidermy for Museums, by Dr. R. W. Shu- 

 feldt; The Shofar, by Cyrus Adler; The 

 Crump Burial Cave, by Frank Burns ; Minute 

 Stone Implements from India, by Thomas 

 Wilson; and Comparative Oology of Noi-th 

 American Birds, by Dr. Shufeldt, with a 

 bibliography and list of accessions. 



In A Study of Certain Figures in a Maya 

 Codex, Mr. J. Walter Fewkes takes up a 

 peculiar figure in the Codex Cartesianus, 

 which is known as that of the "long-nosed 

 god," and inquires into its meaning. A re- 

 lationship is traced with the rain god, and 

 certain features in the arrangement of the 

 figures are supposed to represent the four 

 world-quarter symbols. 



The students of Leland Stanford Junior 

 University should have a thoroughly intelli- 

 gent appreciation of the functions of law and 

 development in Nature if they properly digest 

 the course of lectures on Factors in Organic 

 Evolidion given by President Jordan with 

 the assistance of some of the other profess- 

 ors. This we can infer from the syllabus, 

 which comes to us as a volume of one hun- 

 dred and forty-nine pages printed on one side 

 of the paper, and gives the subheads treated 

 in each of the fifty-eight lectures. The scope 

 of the course may be gathered from the fol- 

 lowing subjects of some of the lectures : The 

 Unrolling of the Universe ; Heredity : the 

 Great Conservative Force in Evolution ; The 

 Meaning of Sex ; Ontogeny and Phylogeny ; 

 The Origin of the Eye ; Law of Self-activity ; 

 Evolution of Plants ; The Way out of Pes- 

 simism ; The Fool-killer and his Mission ; 

 The Evolution of the Idea of God ; and The 

 Evolution of the Common Man. A list of 

 books recommended for reading is added. 



The eleventh volume of the Bulletin of 

 the United States Fish Commission for 1891 

 contains papers on A Reconnaissance of the 



