president's address. 211 



say with certainty what parts of tlie Trias may be represented by the 

 Ceratite formation of the Salt Range." The greater part of the work 

 is devoted to the Cephalopoda, and many new genera and species 

 are described. Dr. Dieuer's monograph describes the " Schlaginweit 

 Collection in Munich, Griesbach's in the Geological Museum of 

 Calcutta, with Blanford's and Stoliczka's type-specimens"; and last, 

 but not least, tlie large number of fossils collected in 1892 by the 

 expedition to Johar, Panikhanda, and Hundos, in which Griesbach, 

 Middlemiss, and Diener took part. A new genus (^B udcihaites) is 

 described, besides a great number of new species; and the work, like 

 that of Waagen heforementioned and all the volumes of the 

 " Palajoutologia ludica," is exceedingly well illustrated. 



In the " Denkschrift" ^ of the Vienna Academy, Dr. E. Mojsisovics 

 von Mojsvar, who has already done so much excellent work on 

 the Cepbalopod fauna of the Trias, particularly of Austria, describes 

 in full that of the Upper Tiias of the Himalayas. The material 

 forming the basis of the work consists of the collections of 

 Dr. Diener and Messrs. Griesbach and IMiddlemiss, made during their 

 abovementioned expedition to the Himalayas. As was to be expected, 

 the author describes many new species, and institutes new genera, 

 subgenera, and large subdivisions. His descriptions are accompanied 

 l)y numerous plates, executed in the finished manner to which we are 

 accustomed in his writings on the Austrian Trias. 



The work, I believe, is being translated, to appear subsequently in 

 the " Pahieontologia Indica," where it will probably form Pait I 

 of a series of monographs on " Himalayan Trias Fossils," of which 

 Dr. Diener's work on the Muschelkalk of the same region forms Part II. 



G. Holm has pulilished a work on Endoceras, in which, ^ briefly 

 reviewing the literature, he passes to the desciiption of the apex. 

 He recognizes two types, but considers a division of (he genus im- 

 practicable, since the apical poi'tion is known in but few examples, and 

 not at all in the type-species. He groups the species exhibiting the 

 conical apex into two subgenera, for one of wdiich he adopts the name; 

 JVdDHo, previously used generically by Claike, and afterwards adopted 

 by Hyatt, and for the other he proposes Suecocera.f. 



One regrettable feature of the year's work has been the tendency 

 towards reversion to the trinomial system and the too rigid adherence 

 to rules of priority. When, in an age in which science is popular, 

 Aphjsia becomes Tetliys, and rice versa, and, in one of overcrowding of 

 literature, it is thought desirable to discriminate between 'types,' 

 ' paratypes,' and other sorts of types, it were no wonder did the way- 

 side naturalist turn from us in despair. For the purists Jclifl/i/osaurns 

 ought to go. Troglodytes becomes Anthropopithecm. Convenience and 

 the fitness of things must be considered. The effects of extreme 

 specialization are here but too evident ; one man describing as tlie 

 result of a life's labours 'characters' which it requires the 



1 M. E. Mdjsi.sovios von Mojsvnr, Denksdir. Aknd. Wion, 'Hil. !\iii. 

 - G. IIoliii, Geo!. Furt'U. i tStockliohu Forliaiullg., lid. xviii, p. 3'J-l. 



