i897. SOME NEW BOOKS. 131 



for its manner of publication. It is not correct to say that "in order to 

 obtain its Reports application must be made to members of Congress." 

 No bond fide worker who applies direct to the secretary is likely to 

 meet with refusal. 



With its January number the Photogram enlarges its monthly 

 issue to 32 pp., and introduces improvements in paper and printing. 

 The present number contains an article by John Mills on spectrum 

 photography for beginners ; but even when the Photogram contains 

 nothing that comes within the scope of Natural Science, it remains 

 of interest and value. 



The Engineei'ing News for November 10, contains an account by 

 John S. Denis of the photographic methods used in the Canadian 

 Topographic Survey. This method is especially valuable in broken 

 and difficult country. 



Some results of the expedition organised in 1891 by Professor 

 F. W. Putnam to the ancient city of Copan in northern Honduras, 

 are given by C. C. Willoughby, of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, 

 in the Scientific American for December 26, 1896. The article is 

 illustrated with an admirable photograph of the amphitheatre with 

 the temples in the background. The age of these massive and 

 magnificent ruins cannot be certainly decided ; they are, says Mr. 

 Willoughby, unquestionably prehistoric, and the builders of this 

 city belonged to the same civilisation as the constructors of the temples 

 and pyramids of Yucatan (see Natural Science, vol. viii., p. 159, 

 March, 1896). 



We have received the Final Report of the British Association 

 Committee on the Marine Zoology, Botany, and Geology of the 

 Irish Sea. It consists for the most part of a list of the species 

 recorded from that area. The Committee do not regard their work 

 as finished, but feel that it will in future be carried on at Port Erin 

 by the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee. We do not know 

 whether this report is really published or not. It bears no imprint or 

 date other than " Section D. — Liverpool, 1896," and no price or 

 publisher's name is marked on it. Neither does it contain any 

 reference to the Report of the British Association, of which the 

 volume for 1896 is not yet issued. We should like to ask Professor 

 Herdman, who is responsible for this Report, whether he considers 

 • such conduct to be consistent with the resolutions unanimously 

 passed by the British Association Committee on Zoological 

 Bibliography and Publication, of which we see that he is a member. 



We have received the Journal of the Institute of Jamaica for 

 July 1896, which was issued on November loth. It contains the 

 following contributions to the fauna and flora of Jamaica : — Dragon- 

 flies, by G. H. Carpenter; Lizards, Scorpions and Myriapods, by 

 J. E. Duerden, and the Melastomaceae by W. Fawcett. We also 

 find notes by H. L. Clark on the life-history of Synapta vivipara, a holo- 

 thurian concerning which very little has hitherto been known ; on the 

 marine zoology of Kingston Harbour by J. E. Duerden, who also 

 contributes an interesting note on phases in Jamaican natural history, 

 dealing with the remarkable change in the fauna that took place 

 after the introduction to the island of the mongoose in 1872. 

 Originally brought to destroy the rats, themselves introduced by 

 man, the mongoose also destroyed the majority of the snakes, lizards, 

 turtles, and birds of the island, thus leading to an excess of many 

 injurious insects, so that in 1882 a very bad state of aff'airs was 

 chronicled. Now, however, it appears that in all parts of the island 

 the mongoose is not so plentiful as formerly, and is beginning to be 



