58o 



NATURE 



{April 1 8, 1889 



Of this immense volume, which will always remain a 

 memorial of the patient research and labour of the author, 

 just 640 pages are devoted to the bibliography. It is, 

 perhaps, the most elaborate ever written as a preface to 

 any form of a Report, and meeting one on the first open- 

 ing of the pages, seems to challenge a few words of 

 comment. 



The importance of a bibliography to a student no one 

 will refuse to acknowledge. A list of the works written 

 on the subject of a Report not only shortens the refer- 

 ences in the necessary quotations under the genera and 

 species, but, when not required for this purpose, it helps 

 to furnish material for further workers. Whether the list 

 of works published should be arranged under the dates 

 of publication or under the authors' names, alphabetic- 

 ally placed, has been a matter on which differences of 

 treatment have occurred ; in the present case they are 

 arranged chronologically. The bibliography begins with 

 the fourth century before Christ, when Aristotle wrote 

 his " De Animalibus Historiae," and is carried down to 

 the present time, and is illustrated with woodcuts. 



Under the date of publication, the author's name, and 

 particulars of his birth and death, are given ; these are 

 followed by the full titles of his work, and then comes an 

 analysis of the contents of the work, so far as these 

 relate to Amphipod Crustacea. All of these analyses are 

 of interest ; all, or at least most, of them involved great 

 skill and patience in their compilation ; and many of 

 them will be of service to future students. But still, it 

 may very legitimately be doubted whether all this enormous 

 mass of details as to the writings of the Milne Edwardses, 

 Spence Bate, Boeck, &c., was necessary in a Report of 

 the nature of the one before us, or whether it be in keeping 

 with the regulations laid down for the guidance of those in- 

 trusted with the preparation of these Reports. In the 

 printed suggestions made by the first Superintendent of 

 these Reports, Sir Wyville Thomson, and, to the best of 

 our belief, also approved of by Dr. Murray, was one " that 

 no printing shall be unnecessarily repeated of matter 

 which has already been printed elsewhere." This, it was 

 added, does not apply to the preliminary Reports, leave 

 to print which in various journals had been given. 



If the important bibliographical list of Axel Boeck had 

 been brought up to date, the student would have been 

 benefited, and space would have been enormously saved ; 

 but the aim of the author seems rather to have been " to 

 produce a record, after the annalistic method, of the 

 progress of knowledge in this branch of natural history" 

 — a very worthy aim, no doubt, and, as far as we can 

 judge, well accomplished, but one outside a Report on 

 the species taken during the Challenger cruise. 



One hundred and eighty species are described as new, 

 and thirly-one new genera are defined. The author feels 

 sure that our knowledge of the group is still very imper- 

 fect, and calls attention to the fact that a few weeks' stay 

 at Kerguelen yielded forty-eight species from this small 

 region, previously supposed to be barren in Amphipods ; 

 and still none of the shore-frequenting species, mentioned 

 by Dr. von Willemoes Suhm as " everywhere under 

 stones," were apparently collected, so that still further 

 additions to the Amphipod fauna may be expected. 



As to the bathymetrical distribution of the Amphipods, 

 there must be a good deal of uncertainty, as with other 



groups of animals taken in the trawls and tow-nets ; some 

 were undoubtedly taken at or near the bottom, while 

 others were as certainly taken in the surface and sub- 

 surface waters : still, there seems some significance in 

 the fact that, of twenty-eight species of the group of the 

 Gammarina, said to be from depths of from 300 to 2300 

 fathoms, twenty-five genera are represented, of which ten 

 are new, and twenty-six of the twenty-eight species are 

 also new. 



Many of the species described as new are as interesting 

 as novel, but the details relating to them do not admit of 

 being particularly referred to. In the introductory re- i 

 marks, the author states that he believes the two well- 

 known species of Gammarus, G. pidex and G. locusta, 

 to be the representatives of an ancestral form of 

 Amphipod. 



" Far more than any other Amphipod, Gammarus 

 pulex appears to have spread itself over the fresh-water 

 streams of the world, and Gammarus pulex is connected 

 by the very closest ties with Gammarus locusta. It is 

 clear, from the general distribution of the Gammarina, 

 that the chief nurseries whence they issue are the 

 weeds of the coast. From these, the rivers are acces- 

 sible, as well as the ocean ; yet in the rivers the species 

 of Amphipoda are few, while in the ocean they are multi- 

 tudinous. This admits of a simple explanation, if we 

 accept Gammarus locusta as representing the ancestral 

 form which at one time occupied the world without the 

 competition of other species of Amphipoda. 



" In order to enable the family to extend its range over 

 the fresh waters of the world, no further change was 

 needed than such as would enable some of the progeny 

 to pass from salt water to brackish, and from brackish to 

 fresh. But, the section of this genus having once ob- 

 tained command of the rivers, by the capacity of living 

 vigorously in the river water, would have an immens2 

 advantage over all rivals attempting in the future to 

 make a lodgment in the stream while their capacity for 

 life therein was in its initial stages and only feebly 

 developed." 



There is an atlas of 212 plates, the figures on which 

 have all been drawn by the author in a most satisfactory 

 way. It is to be regretted that there are no detailed 

 descriptions of these plates ; perhaps with the 640 pages 

 of bibliography, and sixty of index, this was too much to 

 expect. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Magnetism and Electricity. By Edward Aveling, D.Sc 



(London: Chapman and Hall, 1889.) 

 As most intending candidates for London Matriculation 

 will be aware, the new regulations affecting the science 

 subjects have been in force since last June. Chemistrj 

 and natural philosophy have been replaced by mechanicSj 

 which is compulsory, and chemistry, light and heat, 01 

 magnetism and electricity, at the option of the student. 

 To meet these new requirements Dr. Aveling has pre 

 pared a series of text-books on the specified subjects, ol 

 which the book before us is one. The book is of necessitj 

 planned on examination lines ; and, although the authoi 

 hopes " that the matter and method may be of servici 

 in the introduction of students generally to the subject! 

 considered," we could hardly recommend it to those wh< 

 do not require it for examination purposes. However, i 

 completely covers the syllabus, and gives accurate, thougl 

 often scanty, information. In the chapter on " Terrestria 

 Magnetism," for example, some very useful data are given 



