272 NATURAL SCIENCE. October. 



known species and had cited the authority for it. In the publica- 

 tions of Laurenti and of Fitzinger occasions for more than a score of 

 changes may be seen. The rulings also work injustice in the 

 synonymy ; because of omissions subsequent authors are credited 

 with discoveries actually made and published by others long before, 

 which can not fail to mislead any one not well versed in the literature. 

 Thus, for instance, Dasypeltis scabev and Pseiidechis povphyriciis of 

 Wagler, 1830, are omitted, and credit for the specific assignment of 

 the former is given to Smith (1842) [1849] , while the latter is passed 

 along to Giinther, 1858. Instances like these are many. The incom- 

 pleteness of the synonymy will be most productive of fault finding. 

 The literature of anatomy, etc., so useful in other catalogues, is 

 ignored ; authors like Nilsson, Malm, Jones, Rochebrune, and 

 Duvernoy, the last presenting fine illustrations of seventeen of the 

 species, receive no attention ; and among scattered references ignored 

 are species such as Crotalus cuinanensis, Crotahis Icejiingii, PlaUinis 

 vulcanicus, Pittiophis heermani, Alsophis fuscicauda, Dipsas diepevinkii, 

 Coluber (Natrix) subcarinata, Boa ambleocephala, and Dendvophis auvata. 

 Criticism will be provoked also, to become more accented in future 

 research, by a tendency to extend the limits of species and of 

 varieties too far, and thus to bury and lose in the synonymy too much 

 of what is known. The case of Crotalus confluentus, a rattlesnake 

 common west of the Mississippi river, is an illustration : the synonyms 

 given for this species include ? viridis, oregonus, lucifer, lecontei, atrox, 

 sonorensis, durissus (Wied.), exsid, and ruber, and the author remarks 

 " This species may be divided into two principal varieties, which are 

 not definable by any structural characters that I know of, viz. : the 

 typical form, with a dark temporal band extending to the commissure 

 of the mouth ; and the Texan C. atrox, in which a dark band descends 

 obliquely from the eye to the mouth far in advance of the commis- 

 sure." C. atrox and C. exsul, however, represent a group distinguished 

 from C. confluentus by the presence of but two scales in contact with the 

 rostral between the nasals and by the band from the eye in front of the 

 commissure, a group of varieties having closer affinities with C. durissus, 

 Linn. (C. adamantetis, Beauv.), of which species C atrox is the south- 

 western representative. C. exsul is a dwarf, individuals bearing a 

 dozen rings or more in the rattle being hardly larger than the young 

 C. atrox before acquiring its first ring. C. confluentus, of several varieties, 

 is distinguished from C. atrox and its closer allies by the presence of 

 three or more scales in contact with the top of the rostral between 

 the nasals and by the band from the eye to or behind the commissure. 

 Without space for further comment, we may add that the points 

 criticised seem the more prominent because of the general excellence 

 of the work in which they appear. 



A Jenner Celebration. 



What it Costs to be Vaccinated : The Pains and Penalties of an Unjust Law. 

 By Joseph Collinson. Pp. 46. London : William Reeves, 1896. 



This nicely got up little work is published for the Humanitarian 

 League ; it is excellently printed on good paper, and is singularly free 

 from printers' errors. There is a short preface by a Mr. Ernest Bell, 

 who candidly admits that the sul:)ject of vaccination is not one of 

 which he can pretend to any knowledge, but who is nevertheless able 

 to adduce two capital arguments against the practice : the first is the 

 unanimity of the medical profession in its favour, and the second the 

 " eager advocacy of the British Medical Journal.'' 



