120 



KNOWLEDGE. 



March. 1911. 



iXortoit'.f Stiir Atlas and Telescopic Handbook. — By 



ARTHt'K P. NoRTO.\. B.A. 20 pages. 16 maps. 



lli-in.XSj-in. 



(.Gall and Inglis. Price 5 - net.) 



This is a star atlas on good paper of convenient size and 

 weight. The author has evidently taken great care and spent 

 much time in attaining the production of a useful atlas suitable 

 to possessors of telescopes of moderate size. A map of the 

 moon is given as a frontispiece, and x'arious information 

 relating to the relative magnitudes of stars, terms and abbre- 

 viations used in astronomy, notes on star nomenclature, sun. 

 moon, planets, stars, nebulae, comets, and meteors : care 

 and use of the telescope, hints on observing, and Arabic 

 names, are given on the first nineteen pages; then follow 

 si.xteen maps, or rather eight double maps, for the northern 

 sUy is given on the right-hand side, and the southern skv is 

 continued on the left-hand side. On the back of each map is 

 abundant information concerning tlie principal double stars, 

 variable stars, clusters and nebulae. There is also, at the 

 beginning, a replete index of contents and. at the end, an inde.N 

 to the constellations with the dates of culmination for 9 p.m. 

 and midnight. The obvious faults are three : ia) the maps 

 err by containing too much information in gi\ing star catalogue 

 references, no doubt convenient for day use, but tending tn 

 render the stars on the maps less conspicuous in a dim light at 

 night ; ib) giving the maps for epoch 1920-0 is needless for 

 such small scale maps ; much better have made the epoch 

 1900-0, they would then have agreed with the International 

 Survey maps and catalogues, and still have been sufficiently 

 accurate for general use for many years to come; (c) binding 

 the equatorial portion of each map in the back of the atlas is a 

 serious inconvenience and loss of an important part of the sky ; 

 a different form of binding, an unprinted space in the fold of 

 each double map, or the mounting of the maps on guards would 

 have prevented this loss. F. A. B. 



BIOLOGY. 



Si(rvival and Reproduction — .4 Xac Biological Outlook. — 



By Hermann Reinheimer. 410 pages. Si-in. x 5i-in. 



(John M. Watkins. Price 7/6 net.) 



This book is a continuation of " Nature and Evolution," in 

 which the writer claims to have propounded a broader and 

 more apposite theory than that of " natural selection " to 

 explain evolution, and in the introduction we are given ninety- 

 eight points and propositions which are contained in the 

 previous volume. Mr. Reinheimer, so far as we are able to 

 make out, seems to have set up in his mind some sort of rules 

 of behaviour to which he considers that creatures should 

 conform. For instance, after comparing beetles with the less 

 numerous lepidoptera, he says : — " Now the construction that I 

 wish to place on these facts is to the effect that as soon 

 as the law of animal alimentation is seriously infringed 

 — as soon as animals habitu.'ite themselves to feed on animal 

 instead of vegetable matter — multiplication of individuals and 

 frequently of groups termed species proceeds at a dangerous 

 and chaotic rate (pathologically). in\-olving violent clashes and 

 struggles between organisms w-hich are of their own making." If 

 this be true we should not expect a declining birth-rate among 

 meat-eating people. In another place he presents the case of 

 cannibalism among whelk embryos as a " striking picture of 

 parasitic retribiUion." and with this we are asked to compare 

 "the rectitude of life" in the higher organisms. 



Many interesting biological facts are mentioned in the book, 

 but we are not convinced by the arguments. 



BOTANY. 



Alpine F/oK-cr.s- and Rock diirilens. — Described by Walter 



P. Wright, with notes on ".Alpine Plants at Home," by 



William Gka\i;son. 292 pages. 4 coloured plates. 



15 figures. 9|-in. X 6j-in. 



(Headley Brothers. Price 12 6 net. I 



Garden lovers w-ill welcome another helpful volume from 



the pen of Mr. Walter P. Wright. Of late years Alpine 



plants have greatly gained in popularity, probably owing in 

 no small degree to increased facilities for travel, and con- 

 sequent interest in mountain flora. A rock garden has many 

 obvious advantages, not the least being that the space required 

 need not necessarily be extensive, and hence, given the 

 reijuisite knowledge, it is quite possible to possess a successful 

 and \ery interesting rock garden even in the suburbs. 



.Apart from the wealth of information contained in this 

 book, its great charm lies in the beautiful coloured photo- 

 graphs of rock plants in their native haunts, which occur 

 e%ery few pages, the brilliant colouring of the flowers on the 

 brow n mounts making the volume exceedingly attractive. 



GEOLOGY. 



Siiiitlisoniiin Miscelliincoits Collections. Vol. 5j. No. 6. — 



Cambrian Geology and Palaeontology. Olenellus and 



other Genera of the Mesonacidac. — Bv C. D. Wai.cott. 



Pages 231-422. 22 plates. 



No. 7. I're-Canibrian Rocks of the Boic River Willey. 

 Alberta. Canada.— IW C. D. \\'alcott. Pages 423-431. 



J plates. 



Vol. ri7. No. 1. — Ciunbi-iiHi Geology and Palaeontology. II. 



.Abrupt .Appearance of the Cambrian Fauna on the Xorth 



.Autencan Continent. — By C. D. Walcott. Pages 1-16. 



1 Map.' 6J-hi.xgj-in. 



(Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1910.) 



These three publications are in continuation of the lifelong 

 work of Dr. C. D. Walcott on Cambrian and Prc-Cambrian 

 geology and palaeontology. The first is a complete mono- 

 graph on Olenellus and its allies. Under the family 

 Mesonacidae are included the genera Xcvadia. Mesonacis. 

 Elliptocepliala. Callavia, Holniia. Wanneria, Pacden- 

 mias. Olenellus. Peachella. and Olenelloides. with thirty- 

 three sjiecies at present known. Nevadia is the most primitive 

 foriu : from it spring two lines of descint. one through 

 Callavia. Holmia. and Wanneria. probably- leading on to 

 the Middle Cambrian Paradoxides ; the other through 

 Mesonacis. Elliptocepliala. Paedetiniias and Olenellus, 

 becoming extinct in Lower Cambrian times with the degenerate 

 form Olenelloides. .All known species of the Mesonacidae 

 are confined to the Lower Cambrian. This fine monograph 

 is illustrated by twenty-t-wo excellent plates, containing tw-o 

 hundred and fifty-eight figures. 



In publication No. 7, Dr. Walcott describes his field work 

 on the Pre-Cambrian of the Bow Valley. .Alberta. These 

 rocks are unaltered sediments lying unconformably beneath the 

 Cambrian, and. as far as known, are unfossiliferous. The 

 formation names Hector and Corral Creek (in descending 

 order), are proposed for them, and they are correlated with 

 the Camp Creek and Kintla-Sheppard series of Montana. 

 South-Western -Alberta, and South-Eastern British Columbia. 



The fascinating topic of the abrupt appearance of indications 

 of life in the Cambrian period is discussed in the last publi- 

 cation under review. This paper is Dr. Walcott's contribution 

 to the debate on " The abrupt appearance of the Cambrian 

 Fauna," at the eleventh International Geological Congress, at 

 Stockholm, this year. Brook's views as to the origin of life in 

 the open ocean are adopted. This pelagic life is believed to 

 have become adapted to littoral and shore conditions during 

 the period of .Algonkian continental elevation, which w-as of 

 sufficient duration to permit of the development of the types 

 now found in the basal Cambrian rocks. The sediments and 

 fossils of the Lipalian era (i.e., the period between the forma- 

 tion of the Algonkian continents and the earliest encroachments 

 of the Lower Cambrian sea), are absent from our present land 

 areas, the continents having been high above sea level during 

 the development of the Pre-Cambrian fauna. The Lipalian 

 sediments are probably still buried beneath the oceans. This 

 theory depends primarily on the absence of a marine fauna in 

 the known .Algonkian rocks, most of w-hich. such as those of 

 the Cordilleran geosyncline, are believed to have been deposited 

 in fresh or brackish waters. It appears to depend also on a 

 rigid acceptance of the theory of the permanence of ocean 

 basins and continental areas. 



