208 



KNOWLEDGE 



[September, 1903. 



view which has beeu generally discredited ia Europe on 

 account of the specialised character of the fauna. 



According to Dr. E. Broom (Proc. Linn. Soc. New 

 South Wales, 1902, p. 4), considerable modification must 

 lie made with regard to the homology of certain bones in 

 the base of the skull of lizards and other reptiles and 

 am])hibians. Hitherto a pair of bones in the front of the 

 skull have been correlated with the mammalian vomer. 

 These, however, Dr. Broom calls prevomers, and identifies 

 with the so-called dumb-bell bone of the duckbill ; while 

 the true vomer is represented by the large sheet-like bone 

 t>n the hinder part of the base of the skull of amphibians 

 hitherto known as the parasphenoid, this bone being also 

 present in a rudimentary form in lizards. 



In the Zoologist for July Mr. Lydekker described the 

 Burmese representative of the gaur, or wild ox of India, as 

 a new race, under the name of Bos fjaiirus reaclei ; the 

 chief distinctions from the typical race being the presence 

 of a tuft of long hair on the dewlap and a difference in 

 the form of the horns. 



The form of the skull of the gigantic toothless ptero- 

 dactyle (Pteranodon) of the Cretaceous of Kansas gives 

 rise to the suggestion, according to Mr. G. F. Eaton 

 {Amer. Journ. Science, July, 1903), that these monstrous 

 flying reptiles were furnished with a cajjacious gular pouch, 

 comparable to that of the pelicans. This is in accordance 

 with the supposed fish-eating habits of Pteranodon. 



Great interest attaches to the discovery, during excava- 

 tions in the base of a house in Salisbury Square, E.C., of 

 the nearly perfect skidl, minus the lower jaw, of the woolly 

 Siberian rhinoceros. The specimen, which was found in a 

 bed of peat, is reported to be the finest and the most 

 nearly complete ever discovered in this country, being 

 rivalled in this respect only by examples from the Siberian 

 tundra. At a short distance from the skull were dug up 

 a half of a lower jaw, the head of a thigh-bone, and a 

 few riljs ; the former, it is said, pertaining to a species 

 other than the woolly Rhinoceros antiquitatis. 



In a recent issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 Prof. W. J. SoUas, of Oxford, demonstrates that the so- 

 called Palieozoic lamjsrey (Palasospondyhts gunni), from 

 Devonian strata, is in reality a primitive fish-like creature, 

 exhibiting signs of affinity with the lampreys, the sharks, 

 and the young of lung-fishes or amphibians. It pro- 

 bably diverged from the main stem previous to the 

 differentiation of the sharks and rays, and pursued an 

 altogether independent line of development. Prof. Sollas's 

 method of investigation was by making thin transverse 

 sections of a number of specimens. 



More than twenty years ago Prof. T. Eimer showed 

 that among lizards the following changes in colour-pattern 

 are very commonly observable. First there are longitu- 

 dinal stripes, which bi'eak up into spots; the latter coalesce 

 to foiin transverse bars, which finally disappear and leave 

 the skin of one uniform tint. In some lizards the whole 

 of these stages are passed through during hfe, but in others 

 only the second or even the first stage is reached, while in 

 yet others commencement is made with the second or some 

 later stage. From these facts Eimer advanced the theory 

 that the same series of colour -evolution has occurred in 

 the animal kingdom generally. Recently Di". H. Gadow, 

 of Cambridge, in a paper contributed to the Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society, has tested Elmer's observations in the 

 case of certain Mexican lizards, and finds that in the main 

 they hold good. It ajipears, however, that it is only in 



certain stations these changes take place, so that they are 

 limited to particular races or breeds, in which, moreover, 

 only some of them occur. It is believed that the 

 changes are due to differences in the amount of light 

 received in the habitat of these particular breeds, and 

 therefore thatthey are protective in their nature. 



If American methods are continued much further on the 

 present lines. Zoology, so far at any rate as mammals are 

 concei'ned, will become a weU-nigh impossible science to 

 all save specialists of the narrowest type. In addition to 

 others named during past years, Mr. G. S. Miller has 

 recently described no less than fifteen chevrotains, or 

 mouse-deer, from Malaysia as new species ; the form from 

 each islet being regarded as a distinct species. Those 

 named by Mr. Miller from 1900 to 1902 have already been 

 relegated to the rank of sub-species by Mr. J. L. Bonhote 

 in a paper published in the March issue of the Annals of 

 Natural History, and there is no doubt that this is the 

 right way of dealing with such local variations, as they can 

 then lie disregarded by all but the specialist. 



j^oticcs of Boolts. 



" R.\DIANT EnKRGY ami ITS ANALYSIS." By Edgdr L. 

 Larkin, Director Lowe Observatory, Echo Mountain, California. 

 (Baumgardt Publishing Company, Los Angeles, California. 

 1903.) — This work is different from any other text-book on 

 astrophysics which we have seen. TVe cannot say it is more 

 profound ; we cannot say it is more lucid ; but it is different. It 

 is, perhaps, because of our imperfect acquaintance with the 

 American language, but sometimes we could not do more than 

 make a shrewd guess at the meaning of some of the paragraphs. 

 For instance, on p. 17, we read: "These two, matter and 

 energy, or possibly one, is the sum total of all that has been 

 found during three centuries of incessant research in all that 

 portion of the universe visible in a forty-inch telescope armed 

 with the most powerful spectroscope ever made." We judged 

 that the first clause meant that perhaps matter and energy were 

 alternative forms of the same thing, but on page 41 we read : 

 " Thus the undulatory theory of light was proven, for matter 

 added to matter cannot destroy both — light is therefore not 

 matter." We had always understood that light is a form of 

 energy. And again on p. 289, " What mighty import hovers 

 round the word evolution. For giant modes of enei'gy wrought 

 and struggled in war. Matter was shaken, oscillated, kneaded, 

 boiled and trembled in the throes of chaos. Phantom forms of 

 nebulae were clutched in awful churning, in seething whirlpools, 

 and throbbed with energy. Absolute zero and darkness reigned, 

 useless indeed ; cold light can be in the most frigid space." 

 Evolution, indeed, he has found to be a blessed word, though we 

 cannot hazard a surmise as to what sort of fearful wild fowl 

 he considers it to be. In his summary on p. 293, he says , 

 "Tliat evolution set its mighty clutch on all existing matter 

 when it was in an excessively rare ultra-gaseous or corpuscular 

 state, filling all space now occupied by seas," and then in a page 

 of emphatic though somewhat obscure description he traces the 

 history of the Co-smos from that time until, " through contraction, 

 heat developed, .md light on small worlds after nearly all the 

 heat had vanished, water came, and coarse life, then more 

 refined, and lastly mind, along towards the close of evolution. 

 It contemplates the stupendous scene for a few seconds and dis- 

 appears." It may be from faulty proof-reading, or from the 

 peculiarity of the language, but in ver}' many instances the 

 verbs and nouns do not agree, and we think that the meaning 

 might be somewhat clearer if they did. But it is the index 

 that we find of most unexpected interest. In casually glancing 

 through the Ms, we found wedged between " Miss Maury, 

 Measurement of Graphs," and " Meridian Photometer," the 

 reference " Men, Pale and Faint." On turning to p. 285, 

 which was indicated, we read, " The new sun in Perseus last 

 year was seen to resolve into a chaotic nebula. Mystery 



