34 8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and it is pointed out that it is unsound to build theories on hope. In a general 

 way this last statement may be true, but in the particular case taken the hopes 

 have been fulfilled in a wonderful manner. When the revelations of palaeontology 

 in the Karoo, in North America, in the Fayoum, and in the Siwalik deposits are 

 considered, we can only gasp at the presumption that, ignoring all these things, 

 can suggest that the measure of hope of the early palaeontologists has not been 

 filled to overflowing. 



In concluding this chapter the author refers to a figure of Haeckel's in which the 

 skeletons of the hands of nine animals are given and states that with the same 

 anatomical reasons together with a correctly interpreted palaeontology " et in- 

 tervertissant l'ordre, je dis que la taupe, la chauve-souris, le dauphin, le chien, 

 l'orang et le gorille descendent de nous." To say that an evolutionist maintains 

 that man is descended from the bat or the dolphin is absurd, and the converse 

 statement is even more ridiculous. 



So one could be wearied by going through this book page by page, hardly a 

 sentence of which, save the quotations from other authors, would pass without 

 challenge. The illustrations, with one or two exceptions, are poor. 



This volume was taken up with hope but laid aside with great disappointment. 



C. H. O'D. 



Typical Flies. A Photographic Atlas of Diptera, including Aphaniptera. 

 By E. K. PEARCE. [Pp. xii + 47, with 155 illustrations.] (Cambridge 

 University Press, 191 5. Price $s. net.) 



The title of Mr. Pearce's unpretentious little book indicates both its contents and 

 scope sufficiently so as to reduce further explanation to a minimum. For those 

 commencing the study and collection of flies, however— and for such the work is 

 primarily intended — many useful hints and suggestions regarding the collecting 

 and preservation of these insects will be found in the preface. With the same 

 object an outline sketch of Brauer's classification of the Diptera is given, together 

 with the more important characters of the larger divisions and an enumeration of 

 the families assigned to each. The fleas are here placed as the first family of the 

 Nematocera, and a footnote informs us that " there is no reason whatever for 

 separating the Fleas or Pulicidas from the Diptera." To this statement, however, 

 exception must be taken, as these pests are sharply differentiated by their structure 

 and habits from the flies proper, and apparently are not very closely related to any 

 other insects. The illustrations are arranged according to the second edition of 

 Verrall's List of British Diptera. One hundred and twenty species of flies (often 

 both sexes) and four species of fleas, representing in all thirty-three families, are 

 depicted, and in addition three views are given showing the type of habitat usually 

 selected by Asilus crabroniformis and Hcematopota pluvialis. As far as possible 

 brief remarks on the habits and haunts of both adults and larvae are included 

 under the figure of each species. The illustrations themselves are, on the whole, 

 excellent, and the wing venation — so important, yet often so difficult for the 

 beginner to interpret from descriptions — is usually clearly discernible. In a few 

 cases only are the reproductions lacking in detail. Certain errors occurring in 

 some of the legends to the figures are, perhaps, worthy of attention. The names 

 of the fleas represented in figs. 3 and 4 should be, according to Rothschild 

 (March 191 5), respectively Ceratophyllus styx and Palceopsylla minor; the author 

 of the specific name Theobaldia annulata (fig. 16) is Schrank not Meigen, and 

 Culex cantans, Meig. (fig. 17), is stated by Edwards (1912) to be a synonym of 

 Ochlerotatus {Culex) maculatus, Meig. The notes concerning the reproductive 



