254 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 
In his Pelagic Entomostraca of the Caspian Sea, Sars (13) dis- 
cusses eighteen species, of which thirteen are new. Six belong 
to the new genus Cercopdgis, meaning “ sling-tail.” Were these 
animals twelve feet long instead of a twelfth of an inch they would 
rank among the most striking objects in zoology. The eye is 
enormous. The thread-like caudal process is sometimes half an 
inch long, fully six times the length of the body. Near the end 
this lash is “ bent in a peculiar sling-like manner, the opposite edges 
of the sling armed with a double row of recurved denticles.” Fur- 
thermore, out of a kind of gastric sympathy, the intestinal tube 
forms also a sling-like flexure or loop. In the female the incubatory 
pouch rises abruptly from the back and inclines forward, this mon- 
strous sack of young ones being sometimes as large as the body which 
supports it. 
In the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (vol. 
xi, pp. 153-167, June 9, 1897), Miss Rathbun gives ‘A Revision 
of the Nomenclature of the Brachyura.’ It appears to be thor- 
oughly sound in principle, and is certainly based on wide and 
accurate knowledge. Only, in a few points of detail, one may be 
permitted to question the results arrived at, and to defend, for in- 
stance, the name Careinus for the shore-crab, Thelphusa for the 
river-crab, Macrocheira for the giant-crab of Japan, since the reasons 
for displacing these familiar names seem to be at least not impera- 
tive. Owners of Herbst’s Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse 
and of Leach’s Malacostraca Podophthalma Britanniae, will find in 
Miss Rathbun’s paper exceedingly useful tables, establishing the 
dates of the numerous parts of those works, the publication of 
which extended in the one case over two-and-twenty years, and in 
the other over no less than sixty. 
The excellent plan of printing the very day of publication on 
cover and title-page is followed in Miss Rathbun’s paper. Therefore, 
for her new generic name Ucides, in place of Latreille’s pre-occupied 
Uca, we know precisely that the date is June 9, 1897. But of Dr 
Ortmann’s Oedipleura, also a new name for Uca of Latreille, we can 
say nothing positively. Some supplementary notes of correction at 
the end of his valuable Carcinologische Studien are dated “ Princeton 
University, New Jersey, d. 29 Mai 1897.” This date was probably 
written on the proof copy. The paper was printed and published 
in Jena. It is for the publishers to tell us the exact date of 
publication. Until they do an expectant world cannot know for 
certain which has the priority, Ucides or Oediplewra. 
It should be understood that the above remarks touch only a 
small part of the papers mentioned, and also that they leave un- 
noticed contributions by many other well-known writers, highly 
worthy of attention, though the forms discussed may not happen to. 
