JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY 119 
productive organs, development of the wings and legs of the 
moths, and the Malpighian tubules which were named after 
him. Now read about the interesting personality of the man! 
Reaumur was perhaps the greatest entomologist, and as an 
observer cannot be excelled, even today, except possibly Fabre, 
for his observations on the habits of insects, as described in the 
six volumes, Memoires pour Servir a l’histoire des Insectes, 
1734-1742. Reaumur was largely occupied in the industrial 
arts and general physics and other lines. He invented the 
thermometer which bears his name. 
Of greatest value, the lives of these men teach what two of 
our great Californian scientists—Dr. George E. Hale and Dr. 
Wm. E. Ritter—call and urge, the amateur spirit in science. 
Dr. Ritter defines it thus: ‘‘A spontaneous, perennial curi- 
osity; a wide-awakeness of perception; an openness of mind; 
and a nimbleness of imagination, as touching all sorts of 
objects and processes and incidents in one’s surroundings.’’ 
This, as he goes on to show, does not necessarily beget super- 
ficiality, as many present day biologists believe, but is a very 
useful quality to cultivate and overthrow the current profes- 
sionalism in science which is apparent especially in academic 
circles. The same idea is expressed in Dr. Jordan’s essay 
already quoted from: ‘‘And my message in its fashion shall 
be an appeal to enthusiasm in things of life, a call to do things 
because we love them, to love things because we do them, to 
keep the eyes open, the heart warm and the pulses swift as we 
move across the field of life.’’ F. Grinnell, Jr. 
A SYNOPSIS OF THE RECENT AND TERTIARY FRESH- 
WATER MOLLUSCA OF THE CALIFORNIA PROV- 
INCE, BASED UPON AN ONTOGENETIC 
CLASSIFICATION 
HAROLD HANNIBAL 
Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London, Vol. X, 
Pts. II and III, June and Sept., 1912; pp. 112-211, plts. V-VII. 
The author of this paper, a young and very enthusiastic 
Stanford student, has covered a good portion of the Pacifie 
