270 



NATURE 



[July 23, 1891 



supposed to be capable of easy transportation by aquatic 

 birds, should not have made its way into the other river- 

 systems. 



The fishes contributed by the Rhone fall into two 

 categories — one comprising those of the part of the River 

 Doubs which is within the political boundaries of Switzer- 

 land ; the other including the species of the Rhone 

 proper above the " Perte." The latter are computed to 

 be 20 in number, and do not call for special remarks. 



The fishes of the Po show a marked difference from 

 those of the Rhine and Rhone. This system is repre- 

 sented in Switzerland by the tributary Ticino, into which 

 23 species enter, out of a total number of 44 Po species. 

 Although there is no mechanical obstacle to their ascent, 

 the fishes of the Po, used to a warmer climate, avoid 

 ascending into the cold waters from the Alps ; and M. 

 Fatio observes, also, that generally these southern fish 

 do not ascend to the same high altitudes as those of the 

 Rhine. Eight of the Ticino species are strangers to the 

 rest of Switzerland, viz. a goby {Gobius), which has as- 

 cended from the sea ; five Cyprinoids, which may be 

 regarded as southern representatives of northern forms ; 

 Cobitis tccnia and Alosafinta. 



Of the 68 species belonging to the fauna of the Danube, 

 only four find their way into Switzerland through the 

 River Inn, viz. the miller's thumb, minnow, grayling, and 

 trout. This is owing to the great elevation of this river 

 at its entrance into the country (1000 metres). 



Ichthyologists will turn with particular interest to that 

 part of the volume which contains Dr. Fatio's views 

 on, and his treatment of, the Salmonids ; for my own 

 part, I could not help feeling some surprise at what ap- 

 pears to me a somewhat inconsistent mode of dealing 

 with this subject. Whilst the author distinguishes not 

 less than eight Swiss forms worthy of binominal designa- 

 tion in the genus Coregonus, he admits, besides one 

 species of char {Salmo umbla), two equivalent forms only 

 in the genus Salmo, viz. the salmon and the trout, for 

 which latter the collective term Salmo lacustrts is chosen. 

 If a student of the European fauna, or any part of it, 

 arrives at the conclusion that the various forms of river, 

 lake, and sea trout cannot, and should not, be held to be 

 deserving of specific distinction, no one will deny that 

 there are very strong arguments in favour of this view. 

 In my own experience it does not seem to be desirable 

 to adopt that course — first, because there are certain well 

 characterized and well localized forms which the practical 

 fisherman will always distinguish, and of which the 

 naturalist has, somehow, to take notice ; and, secondly, 

 because the ichthyologist who goes beyond the narrow 

 limits of a fauna, and has to deal with the trout of the 

 whole northern hemisphere, is compelled by technical 

 considerations to admit those distinctions. I myself go 

 a step further, and consider it a mistake not to separate, 

 specifically, from the extremely variable Salmo fario, 

 such strongly differentiated forms as Salmo lemanus, S. 

 marsitii, S. venernensis, or the Loch Leven trout of the 

 older authors. But if, as is Dr. Fatio's opinion, no taxo- 

 nomic value is to be assigned to the characters by which 

 those forms of trout are differentiate J, then I cannot see 

 why in Coregonus, a closely related genus of the same 

 geological age and distribution, similar organic modifica- 

 tions should be considered to have a different bearing. 

 NO. 1 134, VOL. 44] 



As is well known, there are some very obscure facts 

 in the life-history of Salmonoids which greatly contribute 

 to the difficulties of their study. Dr. Fatio discusses 

 them very fully, but we must pass over the deductions he 

 draws from them, with the exception of the phenomenon 

 of sterility as a cause of change in the outward appear- 

 ance of a fish. Sterility among Salmonoids is apparently 

 much more common in Switzerland than in British waters ; 

 but ever since Siebold has drawn attention to it, its 

 effects seem to me to have been exaggerated. At any 

 rate, I have received specimens as, and, indeed, with all 

 the outward characters of, the so-called sterile trout of 

 Lake Constance, which had fully matured ova. 



Like errata, appendices of works are only too often 

 overlooked ; I would therefore mention that the present 

 volume concludes with important supplements to those 

 which contain the Mammalia and Replilia. 



The volume is illustrated with four plates— one repre- 

 senting the Bondelle of the Lake of Neufchatel, the others 

 various details of structure, chiefly of Salmonoids. 



I trust that before many years Dr. Fatio will be able 

 to complete his work, for which, not only his countrymen, 

 but every student of the European fauna, owe him a debt 

 of gratitude. Albert Gunther. 



THE HISTORY OF MARRIAGE. 

 The History of Human Marriage. By Edward Wester- 

 marck. (London : Macmillan and Co., 1891.) 



BY " history " our author means " natural history " 

 (p. 19), and his reason for using the odd term: 

 "human marriage" is that "marriage, in the natural 

 history sense of the term, does not belong exclusively to 

 our species" (p. 6). According to him, "marriage is 

 nothing else than a more or less durable connection be- 

 tween male and female, lasting beyond the mere act of 

 propagation till after the birth of the offspring." In this 

 sense marriage is " an almost universal institution among 

 birds," and " occurs as a rule among the monkeys, espe- 

 cially the anthropomorphous apes, as well as in the races 

 of men" (p. 20). Among mankind it is universal, and in 

 all probability is " an inheritance from some ape-like 

 progenitor" (p. 538). In this book, therefore, marriage 

 is taken to mean what ordinary people call " pairing," 

 and the professed subject of the volume is the natural 

 history of the habit of pairing in the human race. But 

 surely, on any proper use of terms, marriage is not simple 

 pairing, but such pairing as is protected and regulated by 

 law, or by the public opinion which in rude societies 

 stands for law. And the history of an institution which 

 is controlled by public opinion and regulated by law is 

 not natural history. The true history of marriage begins 

 where the natural history of pairing ends. 



Mr. Westermarck's definition leads him to go at length 

 into various topics that really belong to natural history, 

 but have little or nothing to do with the history of 

 marriage in the ordinary sense of the word ; such as 

 sexual selection, and the means used by one sex to attract 

 the other. But he also deals with polyandry, kinship 

 through females only, infanticide, exogamy — nil of which 

 belong to the sphere of law and custom, within which his 

 definition of marriage is totally inapplicable. To treat 

 these topics as essentially a part of the natural history of 



