i8 9 6. SOME NEW BOOKS. 205 



the interest of the Palaeozoic Palseoniscid fishes as the probable 

 ancestors of the modern sturgeons and their allies. The new part of 

 this work, which completes the third volume, is again devoted to 

 these fishes as represented in the Permian rocks of Bohemia, and 

 summarises the author's general results. The systematic descriptions 

 are continued in the usual manner, with numerous drawings of 

 technical points and a few restorations of species of Amblyptems. 

 There are also some beautiful drawings of the ornamented head-bones 

 of the latter genus. 



The largest known Palaeoniscid fish, more than a metre in length, 

 is the gem of the collection described. It is named Acrolepis gigas, 

 and exhibited in the Royal Bohemian Museum, Prague. 



Among the general observations it is interesting to note that the 

 cranial bones are proved to be thickest when least ornamented, 

 thinnest and most irregular when the ganoine is best developed. 

 Large otolites appear in at least one species of Amblyptems. There 

 is no undoubted evidence of calcifications in the sheath of the 

 notochord. 



We are glad to add that, having now completed the considera- 

 tion of the Vertebrata, Dr. Fritsch will next proceed to the description 

 of the Invertebrata of the Bohemian Permian rocks ; and there will 

 be a supplement at the end of vol. iv. to complete the whole work. 



Mens insana in Cokpore insano. 



The Diseases of Personality. By Th. Ribot, Professor in the College de France. 

 Pp. viii., 162. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1895. 



Professor Ribot has written sensibly and with adequate knowledge 

 and caution on a subject of great interest and difficulty. He takes his 

 stand upon the complex unity of consciousness as correlated with the 

 complex unity of the normal and healthy organism. He shows that 

 by a suppression of elements or derangement of elements in this com- 

 plex unity, under abnormal or morbid conditions, the personality 

 undergoes proportional modification. He works his way onward, in 

 a treatment which is always lucid and sometimes brilliant, from cases 

 in which the modification is slight and superficial to cases in which it 

 is profound and conspicuous. We welcome this book in its Englished 

 form and express our conviction that, though much still remains 

 unexplained, the author rightly indicates the direction in which 

 explanation is to be sought. C. Ll. M. 



Caves and their Inhabitants. 



Les Cavernes et leurs habitants. By Jules Fraipont. 8vo. Pp. viii., 334, with 

 89 illustrations in the text. Paris : Bailliere, 1896 [1895] . Price 3ir. 50c. 



Professor Fraipont has added to the Bibliothcque scientifique contem- 

 poraine a useful little book detailing the state of our present knowledge 

 on caves and their contents from the various points of view of geology, 

 zoology, anthropology, history, and folklore. He devotes special 

 chapters to the periods of Elephas antiquus and Rhinoceros merckii, the 

 Reindeer and the Neolithic periods, and further deals with the age of 

 metal and with historic times. An account is also given of legends 

 and popular traditions attached to caverns. There are plenty of 

 references to previous authorities, and this renders the book most 

 useful to the reader ; but mention should have been made of the 

 important discoveries by Benjamin Harrison in the Plateau gravels 

 of this country. 



