124 



NATURE 



{June 17, 1875 



proportion as we proceed from the centre they are turned 

 outwards, being deflected to the right of the surface 

 winds ; in other words, they tend more and more to blow 

 out from the area of low pressure. On the other hand, 

 they converge upon the centre of the regions of high 

 pressure, cutting the isobars nearly at right angles. This 

 last point is interesting in connection with the circum- 

 stance pointed out some time ago by Hoffmeyer, that 

 surface winds in blowing out of the areas of high pres- 

 sure cut the isobars approximately at right angles. Charts 

 XXV. to XXXII. are selected to represent instances in 

 which Sweden lies between two storms, the one following 

 the other with only a short interval between them. In 

 these cases the behaviour of the upper currents from both 

 storms and the manner in which they blend together at 

 their contiguous margins are very instructive. 



The winds on the surface of the earth, as compared 

 with the upper currents, show, as is well known, inverse 

 relations to areas of low and high pressure— blowing 

 inwards upon areas of low pressure, and outwards from 

 areas of high pressure. Consequently, as the author 

 remarks, an area of low barometer is necessarily the 

 region of an ascending current, which, when it has risen 

 to a great height in the atmosphere, flows away from the 

 central space of low pressure towards regions of high 

 pressure, whence it sinks gradually down to the surface as 

 a descending current, and in this manner a vertical circu- 

 lation is constantly maintained between the surface of the 

 earth and the higher limits of the atmosphere. We very 

 strongly recommend that, as has been so successfully 

 carried out in Sweden, a thorough and systematic 

 observation of the cirrus cloud be generally inaugurated 

 in other countries, so that it may be possible to chart the 

 upper currents over a wide extent. Among the many 

 points suggested by M. Hildebrandsson's charts is the 

 question whether the extent and volume of the upper 

 currents flowing outwards from storm areas be consistent 

 with some of the views recently advanced on the theory 

 of storms and circulation of the atmosphere. We hope 

 meteorologists will soon take steps to occupy the impor- 

 tant field of observation now opened up. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



The Zoological Record for 1873. Edited by E, C. Rye 



F.Z.S. (London : J. Van Voorst, 1875.) 

 In the preface to the " Record" for 1872 Prof. Newton, 

 the editor, announced that having intimated to the Zoolo- 

 gical Record Association his intention to resign his post, 

 the Council had appointed Mr. Rye, Librarian to the 

 Royal Geographical Society, as his successor. From a 

 glance into the present volume it is evident that it is 

 Mr. Rye's intention to maintain the high standard of his 

 predecessors, notwithstanding the difficulties he has had 

 to encounter, especially in the loss of the services of Dr. 

 Gunther, whose increased duties, now that he has been 

 promoted to the post of Keeper of the Natural History 

 Department of the British Museum, prevent him from 

 undertaking the Mammalia, Reptilia, and Pisces, as he 

 has done for years. Mr. Rye has succeeded in obtaining 

 the services of Mr. E. R. Alston, F.Z.S, on the Mammals, 

 and of Mr. A. W. E. O'Shaughnessy on the Reptiles and 

 Fishes ; both which naturahsts have most creditably per- 

 formed their laborious tasks. Mr. R. B. Sharpe has 

 undertaken the Birds as before, whilst Dr. Ed. von 

 Martens, the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, Mr. Rye, Mr. 



Kirby, Mr. McLachlan, and Dr. Lutken, have devoted 

 themselves to their special subjects. The editor acknow- 

 ledges the grant of 100/. from the British Association, 

 50/. from the Zoological Society, and 100/. from the Go- 

 vernment Grant Committee of the Royal Society (this 

 being the first occasion that the Record Association has 

 been so assisted), towards the expenses of pubhcation. The 

 increasing necessity for the production of the volume is 

 yearly becoming more evident, at the same time that it s 

 contents are necessarily of such a nature that there can 

 never be a demand for it which will enable it nearly to 

 cover its expenses. The most important scientific results 

 of the year include the investigations of Leidy, Marsh, 

 and Cope on the fossil American Eocene Mammalia, and 

 Prof. Marsh's discovery of a new sub-class of fossil 

 toothed birds, respecting which all naturalists cannot but 

 regret that so little opportunity is given them of seeing 

 specimens or even drawings of the great number of 

 species now known to them by short descriptions only. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible Jor opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 'X 



Systems of Consanguinity 



I AM sorry to find that on some points I have misunderstood the 

 views of my friend Mr. Morgan (vol. xii. p. 86), and the more so 

 as, after reading his letter very carefully, I am not sure that I quite 

 comprehend them even now. Your reviewer is no doubt able to 

 reply for himself : but it certainly seems to me not remarkable 

 that both he and I should have been led into error. Indeed, I 

 do not exactly understand whether Mr. Morgan intends to say 

 that we have misapprehended his views in supposing that in his 

 opinion one of the two great systems of classification of relation- 

 ships is "arbitrary, artificial, and intentional." Mr. Morgan 

 admits that he himself used these terms in several places. There 

 are, he says, "three or four places, and perhaps more, in that 

 volume in which I speak of the system of a particular people as 

 'artificial and complicated,' and as 'arbitrary and artificial,' 

 without the qualification in each case which should, perhaps, 

 have been inserted." Thus your reviewer and I were, as he 

 himself allows, using his very own words, though I shall of 

 course omit them if my book should reach a fourth edition. 



Moreover, these descriptive epithets are not used casually, but 

 form the very basis of his argument. For instance, in p. 469 he 

 says : — 



" It may be remarked, however, that if the system is to be 

 regarded as exclusively natural and spontaneous, the argument 

 for unity of origin would be without force ; since, as such, it 

 would be the form to which all nations must insensibly gravitate 

 under the exercise of ordinary intelligence. But if to reach the 

 descriptive system these families have struggled out of a previous 

 system, altogether different, through a series of customs and 

 institutions which existed antecedently to the attainment of the 

 state of marriage between single pairs, then it becomes a result 

 or ultimate consequence of customs and institutions of man's 

 invention, rather than a system taught by nature." * 



But then, as I understand, he alleges that a different theory is 

 given in his concluding chapter. So far, however, from findLig 

 in that chapter any indication of a change of opinions, I see that 

 he reiterates the same view. After discussing the classificatory 

 system, he says : " There would seem to be but four conceivable 

 ways of accounting for the joint possession of this system of rela- 

 tionship by the Turanian and Ganowanian families ; and they 

 are the following : —First, by borrowing from each other ; 

 secondly, by accidental invention in disconnected areas ; thirdly, 

 by spontaneous growth in like disconnected areas, under the 

 influence of suggestions springing from similar wants in similar 

 conditions of society ; and fourthly, by transmission with the 

 blood from a common original source." f 



After negativing the two first hypotheses, he proceeds to dis- 

 cuss the third, namely, that of " spontaneous growth under the 

 influence of suggestions springing from similar wants in similar 



* Morgan's " Systems Of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human 

 Family," p. 469, t Ibid. p. 500. 



