February 28, 1901] 



NA TURE 



415 



the radius vector. An effort to bring into quantitative 

 correlation such constants as density, eccentricity, or in- 

 clinations of axis, must end in failure for Kant. He will 

 be judged, not by details, but on the general principle by 

 which he claimed to have arrived at a just comprehension 

 of a complete cosmogony. Similarly, one may pass over 

 his genesis of satellites and the formation of Saturn's 

 ring. Of the former it is sufficient to say that both 

 Kant and Laplace saw in the existence of satellites the 

 repetition on a small scale of the formation of the solar 

 system. We know now the extreme probability that the 

 moon owes its existence to a quite unique arrangement, 

 and it would be hazardous to affirm that any one process 

 has been operative in more than ong planet. With regard 

 to the latter, if the existence of a ring about Saturn is< 

 suggestive of the manner in which planets came into 

 existence, neither Kant nor Laplace could give sufficient 

 reasons to account for the stable condition of the ring in 

 that system and the instability in others. 



The problem of the ordered solar system is one around 

 which much future controversy will arise, and possibly 

 the ambition of neither the astronomer nor the physicist 

 will go further than to suggest how it might have been 

 effected on a plan that does not contradict any known 

 physical laws or inferences. This is very different from 

 saying how it actually " rose out of chaos." Prof. Hastie 

 quotes with approval a remark of Kant, " that it is more 

 difficult to explain the genesis of a caterpillar than the 

 origin of a world." If this be true, it may be due to the 

 fact that we know less about the fabric of the Universe 

 than of the caterpillar, and it is consequently easier to 

 be convicted of error in the smaller than in the greater 

 matter. Kant, together with all makers of cosmogonies, 

 enjoys the advantage that the accuracy of the theories 

 cannot be submitted to any adequate test. W. E. P. 



THE HERPETOLOGV OF NORTH AMERICA. 

 77te Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America. 

 By E. D. Cope. Reprinted from the Report of the 

 U.S. National Museum for 1898, pp. 153-1270. With 

 woodcuts and 36 plates. (Washington, 1900.) 



THE eminent position held by the late Prof. Cope 

 among workers on the taxonomy of vertebrates in 

 the latter half of the past century is chiefly due to the 

 fact that, as has been the case with Prof. Gegenbaur 

 in the field of comparative anatomy, he applied the 

 teachings of the evolutionary theory from the very out- 

 set, at a time when other zoologists, imbued with the 

 Cuvierian and Miillerian principles, were still striving at 

 natural arrangements on physiological bases. The ideas 

 set forth in the revolutionary essays on the classification 

 of Batrachians and Lizards, by which he first made his 

 name known, though at first received with little favour 

 by his fellow- workers in Europe, have gradually made 

 their way, and may be said to have well stood the test of 

 time. Although considerably modified in many points 

 both by himself and by others in the intervening thirty- 

 five years. Cope's views hold the field to a greater 

 extent than those of any other taxonomist of the same 

 period. Later in his career, similar attempts at the 

 general classification of Reptiles and Fishes have, in 

 the opinion of the reviewer, been equally successful. 

 NO. 1635, VOL. 63] 



The quick perception of the importance of apparently 

 trivial anatomical details, the veritable instinct with 

 which he realised their phylogenetic bearing and 

 selected them for the purpose of connecting forms widely 

 remote in the systems of his predecessors, and led to 

 conclusions which have, in many instances, ultimately 

 been confirmed by palaeontological discoveries, have ren- 

 dered his name famous in Europe as well as in America. 

 During the later years of his life, however, hasty and 

 careless work, a constant striving at originality, to a 

 certain extent marred the productions of his never-ceas- 

 ing activity. This may be said of his latest attempts at 

 improving the classification of the Lizards and Snakes, the 

 results of which are incorporated in the thick volume of 

 over 1 100 pages nowissuedby the Smithsonian Institution. 

 It is not stated by whom the work has been seen through 

 the press, nor whether and to what extent the original 

 MS. has been touched up, an omission through which it 

 appears uncertain whether the late author or the editor is 

 responsible for various startling errors which one feels 

 disinclined to ascribe to the former. 



The present volume forms part of a series of mono- 

 graphs intended to illustrate the cold-blooded lung- 

 breathers of North America, a work which was devised 

 many years ago by the late Prof. Baird, whose MS. and 

 a number of carefully-drawn figures were placed in 

 the hands of Prof. Cope in 1864. The Batrachians 

 appeared in 1889, the Chelonians were to have been 

 described by Prof. Baur, whose death so nearly followed 

 that of the author of the present treatise, dealing with 

 the remaining orders, viz., Loricata (Crocodiles) and 

 Squamata (Lizards and Snakes). 



As regards the first of these two orders, which includes 

 only two North American living types, Alligator 

 mississippiensis and Crocodilus americamts, it seems 

 surprising that so advanced a reformer of classification 

 should still have adhered to the inclusion of the 

 ParasiicJiia among the Crocodilians. These Triassic 

 types differ in so many respects from the later Eusuc/tia, 

 and have so much in common with the Rhyncho- 

 cephalians and the Sauropodous Dinosaurs, that their 

 separation as a distinct order (Thecodontia) appears 

 imperative if exact definitions of the allied groups are to 

 be attempted. 



Prof. Cope's arrangement by which the Lacertilia, or 

 Sauria as he prefers to call them, and Ophidia, form- 

 ing the bulk of the fauna, are brigaded under Squamata 

 is well in accordance with the present state of knowledge, 

 the supposed characters on which the two groups were 

 formerly allowed ordinal rank being quite insufficient 

 for that purpose. But, in the opinion of the reviewer, a 

 classification in which the Rhiptoglossa (Chameleons) are 

 regarded as a mere super-family of Lizards, equivalent 

 with the Pachyglossa {Agamidae, Iguanidae), Nyctisaiira 

 {Geckonidae, Eublepharidae), Uroplatoidea^ Thecaglossa 

 ( Varanidae), Helodermatoidea, Diploglossa {Zonuridae, 

 Pygopodidae, Anguidae, Xenosauridae), Leptoglossa 

 {Teiidae, Xantusiidae, Lacertidae., Gerrhosauridae, Scin- 

 cidae, A contiidae, Dibamidae, A nelytropidae), A nnielloidea 

 a.ndi Annulati{Amphisbaenidae), absolutely fails to express 

 the degree of relationship between them and the members 

 of other families ; and if one turns to the synopsis on 

 pp. 200 and 201, in which the distinctive features of the 



