September i6, 1915] 



NATURE 



potamus with which the Museum catalogue of 

 Ung-ulate Mammals is concerned in its fourth 

 volume. This work closes the scientific career of 

 Richard Lydekker. Its accuracy is giiaranteed by 

 the trusty supervision of Oldfield Thomas. The 

 facile unwearying: pen of its actual author writes 

 no more. A preface by Dr. Harmer com- 

 memorates Lydekker's devotion to work, and the 

 esteem in which he was held by his colleag-ues. 



The volume has one feature challenging- at least 

 1 note of admiration. It abounds in such names 

 as Moschus moschiferus moschiferus, Odocoileus 

 virginianus peruvianus, Hylochoerus meinertz- 

 hageni meinertzhageni I Surely "when ghost 

 meets ghost " in the Elysian fields Linnseus will 

 pertinently ask the newcomer, "Who is re- 

 sponsible for this violence to the serene simplicity 

 of my binomial nonicnclature? " 



(4) "Nature and Science on the Pacific Coast," 

 by thirty highly qualified writers, is a handbook 

 of which it is not too much to say that quotations 

 could agreeably and instructively fill many 

 columns. Within a limit of fewer than 300 pages 

 for the whole, each author has had to condense 

 his wealth of information into the smallest possible 

 compass. From the theory of earthquakes and 

 the origin of petroleum to the war between benevo- 

 lent bugs and pestilent scale-insects, from the 

 history of the Panama Canal to the " influence of 

 natural conditions upon legal and political institu- 

 tions," nothing seems to have been forgotten. 

 Geology and astronomy, flora and fauna, indus- 

 tries and amusements, have each their turn, with 

 indices to literature for information beyond what 

 can be compressed into a nutshell. Fishes receive 

 more notice than mammals, and an extract from 

 their record may be usefully quoted. 



"Besides the trout and salmon, California has 

 many other game fishes. First of these is the 

 great tunny or leaping tuna, which ranges from 

 150 pounds to half a ton, and finds, its greatest 

 abundance about Avalon. This wonderful bay of 

 Avalon has many other roving fishes, taken with 

 the trollmg spoon, such as the yellow-tail (Seriola 

 dorsalis), the albacore (Thunnus alalnnga), the 

 yellow-fin, or Japanese albacore {Thunnus macro- 

 pterus) and the huge bass called Jew-fish 

 (Stereolepis gigas), with a head as large as a 

 bushel basket— apparently nearly all head. The 

 sword-fish (Xiphias gladius), and the Japanese 

 spear-fish (Tetrapturus mitsukurii), are al-o 

 sometimes taken off the Santa Barbara Islands. 



"These noble fishes deserve protection from the 

 amateur angler who catches a dozen or a hundred, 

 has them hung up and photographed, himself 

 beside them, then hires the guide to burv them 

 while he goes away to have fun in his own fashion 

 somewhere else." 



Thomas R. R. Stebbixg. 

 NO. 2394, VOL. 96] 



AN 



ITALIAN TEXT-BOOK OF 

 PHYSIOLOGY. 

 Human Physiology. By Prof. L. Luciani. Trans- 

 lated by F. A. Welby. Vol. iii. — Muscular and 

 Nervous Systems. Edited by Dr. G. M. Holmes. 

 Pp. x + 667. (London: Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1915.) Price i8s. net. 



THE third volume of the English version of 

 Luciani 's "Human Physiology," translated 

 from the Italian original published in 1913, deals 

 with the general physiology of muscle, the 

 mechanics of locomotion, phonation, and articula- 

 tion, and the general and special physiology of the 

 nervous system. 



The chief characteristics of Luciani 's work have 

 already been referred to in the reviews of 

 the first two volumes. The first chapter of 

 the present volume gives an excellent account 

 of the general physiology of muscle. The 

 successive stages in the historical develop- 

 ment of the subject are described with great 

 clearness and unusual fullness. Although an 

 admirable account is also given of the most re- 

 cent work, further details regarding the physico- 

 chemical theories of muscular activity might 

 possibly have been included with advantage. For- 

 tunately the bibliography given at the close of the 

 chapter offers excellent guidance to students de- 

 siring fuller knowledge of the latter views. In 

 the discussion of the nature of voluntary muscular 

 contraction, no reference is made to the important 

 results obtained by Piper and others with the aid 

 of the string galvanometer. • The use of the latter 

 instrument has enabled these observers to analyse 

 the discontinuous character of voluntary muscular 

 contraction more accurately than was possible by 

 means of earlier methods. 



A very full and clear account of the mechanics 

 of the locomotor apparatus is given in chapter ii. 

 The subjects of phonation and articulation are 

 discussed much more thoroughly in chapter iii. 

 than in most English text-boks of physiology, 

 and the editor has found some abridgment desir- 

 able in the interests of students. 



An exceedingly interesting summary of the 

 most recent work on the metabolism of the 

 nervous system is given at the close of chapter iv. 

 The remainder of the volume is devoted to the 

 special physiology of the central nervous system, 

 and of the sympathetic system. A brief review 

 cannot do justice to the clearness and completeness 

 of the presentation given by the author. The very 

 full account of the physiology of the cerebellum 

 has a special value as the work of one of the 

 greatest authorities in this field. 



The English rendering given by Miss Welby 



