122 NATURAL SCIENCE. August. 



ago that this was one of the rarest genera in that formation, being 

 represented by very few specimens of only two species. On p. 405, 

 Plectrodus mhabilis, from the Upper Ludlow bone-bed, is described as 

 " the jaw and teeth of a predaceous " fish ; but it is many years since 

 this was proved to be simply the denticulated edge of a cephalaspidian 

 shield. The Cyaihaspis recently described by G. Lindstrom is 

 wrongly ascribed to the " Gothland Limestone," which Mr. Judd, on 

 another page, rightly makes the limestone equivalent of our Ludlow 

 beds ; the fossil was really found in shale correlated by Lindstrom 

 with the Wenlock Shale. Trimerella and Siphonotreta are far from 

 being confined to the Ordovician of Russia and North America : the 

 former comes from the Upper Silurian and, among other places, from 

 Gotland ; the latter is found in the Llandeilo and Wenlock beds of 

 our own island. 



Perhaps the foregoing examples are enough both for our readers 

 and for the author. Now, Professor Judd does not, we understand, 

 profess to be a palaeontologist ; but palaeontologists do exist in this 

 country, and, as they are not rich as a rule, one of them might have 

 been induced by a small fee to check the palaeontological portions of 

 this book so as to make them worthy accompaniments of the general 

 geology. We refuse to believe that "the convenience of the student" 

 is consulted by retaining an obsolete classification of animals, a 

 rejected nomenclature, illustrations that were necessarily made in the 

 absence of our modern knowledge, and a mass of errors that would 

 cause even an elementary student to be ploughed in his first examina- 

 tion. Let us hope that it will be long before Lyell vanishes from our 

 class-rooms, and that Professor Judd may be able to bring out yet 

 another edition on less conservative lines. 



The Evolution of the Hominid^. 



Ethnology. In two parts : I. Fundamental Ethnical Problems. II. The Primary 

 Ethnical Groups. By A. H. Keane. Cambridge Geographical Series ; 

 General Editor : F. H. H. Guillemard. Pp. xxx., 442, with illustrations. Cam- 

 bridge University Press, 1896. Price los. 6d. 



Cambridge University has the most laudable ambitions, the most 

 excellent intentions. Its scientific members are producing a series of 

 Manuals, a Natural History, and now a Geographical Series. This 

 last is under the editorship of so travelled a naturalist as Dr. F. H. H. 

 Guillemard, and it is, we gather, intended to introduce to English 

 readers the modern science of Geography, which hitherto we have 

 had to learn from peripatetic lecturers. The aim is worthy. 



The first volume of this new series deals with the science of 

 Ethnology, not with Ethnography, which is mere " literature " and 

 "purely descriptive," and not with Anthropology, which is more 

 " technical and special," while Ethnology is " more all-embracing." 

 The author at all events grasps the lofty ideals of the series, and 

 does not forbear to magnify his office. Evolution is his watchword, 

 his " golden skeleton key." " L'heure des grandes syntheses,'" he quotes, 

 " a deja sonne. Such a synthesis is here for the first time attempted 

 in the English language." There is much truth in all this ; a book 

 on these lines was wanted, and we applaud the attempt. 



But when we pass from promise to performance, we are dis- 

 appointed, perhaps just because the author "doth protest too much." 

 The subject is wide and complicated : the synthesis no easy task. 

 Mr. Keane's knowledge of linguistics and obviously wide reading 

 would have qualified him for it, if only they had been associated with 



