61 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Mahch, 1902. 



proat extinct cJcntatt-s allied to Meijalo/herinm ami 

 Mylodon have hitherto been considered chiiracteristic of 

 South Atnorica, whore they ajipear to liavo <lied out within 

 the liistoric period. Monsieur Grandidier has, however, 

 reeentiv descrilied the lej,'-bone of wiiat ajipears to l)e 

 another member of the same fjroup from the superficial 

 deposits of Madagascar, under the name of Brailijlhirinm 

 moihigascarieiisc. Assuming, as seems jirobalile, that 

 these gii^antic edentates originated in the southern 

 hemisphere, the i>resent specimen, if its affinities be rightly 

 determined, affords evidence of a former land connection 

 between Madagascar and South America, and thus su])ports 

 the view that the latter continent was at one time in 

 connection Avith Africa. 



-♦ 



j^ottctg of Booltg. 



"The Star;; : A Srunv ni- nii: Univkrse." By Simon 

 Newcomb. Progressive Science Series. (Murray.) 6s. — We 

 opened this book with pleasurable anticipations ; we closed it 

 with something little short of amazement. Prof. Simon Xewcomb 

 is a deep thinker, a laborious worker, a most eminent astronomer. 

 But tlie readers of this book would never divine that it is by 

 such an author. It is superficial, and not worthy of the name it 

 bears on its title page. And yet, in his preface, Prof. Newcomb 

 says that he did not consider this task an easy one ; he had "to 

 study whole chapters of observations and researches on some 

 minute branch of the subject, and condense their gist into a few 

 sentences ; now to search volumes of periodicals, perhaps in 

 vain, to find who was first in the field, or what result some 

 investigator had reached ; now to do justice to the respective 

 works of students of the same subject ; now to recast or rewrite 

 passages in the light of some newly published research." We 

 can find hardly any trace of all this minute and deep research 

 in the work. All the information therein contained Prof. 

 Newcomb mu?t surely have known ; must have picked up in 

 the ordinary cour.se of his astronomical duties ; must have 

 breathed in almost with the air of his ordinary astronomical 

 life. When any investigation begins to get interesting we are 

 blocked by the stereotyped phrase, " the reasoning is too abstruse 

 and the results too mathematical to be easilj- presented in the 

 present work.'' But this elision of all reasoning that may not 

 be plain to the dullest, sometimes renders Prof. Newcomb's own 

 meaning obscure. For instance, in giving Myers' working out of 

 the system of the double star Beta Lyrae, he says, " Beta Lyrae 

 consists of two bodies, gaseous in their nature, which revolve 

 round each other so near together as to be almost in contact. 



They are of unequal size. Both are self-luminous 



This theory receives additional confirmation from the fact shown 

 by the spectroscope, that these .stars are either wholly gaseous or 

 at least have self-luminous atmospheres.'' On the surface it 

 would appear as if Prof. Xewcomb imagined that the stars were 

 in general solid or liquid bodies, or that they shone by reflected 

 light. The sense of disappointment which the book inevitably 

 produces is, however, almost entirely due to its falling so much 

 below the high reputation of its author. Had it been written 

 by someone whose acquaintance with the science was merely 

 literary, there would have been much in it to praise. And even 

 as it is, the last three chapters must be excepted from the 

 strictures pronounced on the book as a whole, as Prof. Newcomb 

 has taken in them a much more serious view of his task, and they 

 are consequently on a higher level than the greater part of the 

 work. 



"History of Geology and PAL.T,osTOLOf;y to the End of 

 TiiK Nineteenth Century." By Karl Alfred von Zittel, 

 Profes.sor of Geology and Paleontology in the University of 

 Munich. Translated by Maria M. Ogilvie-Gordou, D.sr., iii.o. 

 (Walter Scott.) (5s.-In 1899 Prof, von Zittel's " Geschichte 

 der Geologic und Paliiontologie " appeared .as a volume of 870 

 pages, closely i)rinted in the now archaic German type. Mrs. 

 Gordon's translation, under the auspices of the Contemporary 

 Scientific Series, puts in the hands of all readers a record of 

 progress and discovery which is of interest to workers and 

 thinkers far outside the special lines of geology and pahcontology. 

 The book has, however, been reduced in bulk, and this has in- 

 volved the removal of the very valuable lists of works refei red 

 to bj' von Zittel, which conclude each cliapter of the original. 



A reference to the original is desirable on account of the 

 introduction by the translator of phrases and sentences 

 which undoubtedly modify the work. We are firmly of 

 opinion that such changes shoidd always be made within 

 brackets or in footnotes. What we want to know is how von 

 Zittel, a dispassionate author of singular reserve and judgment, 

 regards this or that movement, or this or that influence, at 

 work in helping on our science. Von Zittel him.self seldom, 

 however, allows his own opinions to obtrude themselves ; hence 

 the words " feine Beobachtung und logische Schlirfe," " von 

 stdtener Originalitiit," or, on the other hand, " von geringer 

 Wichtigkeit," have from him a meaning far above the ]ihrases 

 of ordinary controversy. But this fact makes it especiallj' 

 undesirable to import similar phrases into his "translated" 

 work ; and we may regret, from this point of view, even the 

 fine passage on Hutton in.serted by Jlrs. Ogilvie-Gordon on 

 page 72. The chapter on the Triassic Period suffers especially 

 from changes of this kind ; and subtle little adjectives creep 

 in, and even accusations of carelessnes.s, tending to the 

 discredit of one of the most dignified members of the Viennese 

 school, in contrast with his brethren in Bavaria. 



The author himself is partly responsible for some points 

 which may be rectified in the next edition. In so comprehen- 

 sive a treatise the titles of books may occasionally go astray, as 

 when " Felsarten "' is written for " Gesteine," in a reference to 

 Zirkel on page .'530, and " Lithographia Wiirceburgensis " for 

 " Lithographife Wirceburgensis specimen primum," on page 18. 

 We have, however, " Das Flutxr/ebirf/e Wiirtemhergn," 

 " Pennant's Buol- of Travel " — a title that it would be difficult 

 to trace in a library — and other slips, some of which are due 

 to the unfortunate i)ractice adopted by the translator, and 

 occasionally even by von Zittel, of giving the titles of memoirs 

 in a language other than that used by their authors. When 

 some of these titles are translated from English into German 

 and back into English, the possibdity of error is apparent. As 

 an example, we suspect that Carpenter's " Introduction to the 

 Study of the Foraminifera '' is meant to be referred to on page 

 383 ; the title .as given is a modified translation of a general 

 ])hrase written by von Zittel. 



The translator's intimate knowledge of German, and her own 

 wide range of geological work, have equipped her well for a task 

 involving very considerable labour. We hence find amazingly 

 few slips in nomenclature — the " phosphorus beds," on p. 420, 

 should be "phosphorite'' or "phosphate'' beds, and on p. 73 

 "carbonic acid" is said to have become "converted under this 

 pressure into a granular substance resembling marble. " On 

 p. 243, "diatoms ' are substituted incorrectly for the "Algen" 

 of the original ; the organisms somewhat vaguely discussed by 

 Weed are filamentous forms. 



Where notable departures from the original have been 

 occasionally made, we might, perhaps, have expected the intro- 

 duction of new matter in the form of notes or addenda here and 

 there. On p. 424 or 541, a reference to Dubois and Pithe- 

 cnnthrnpus would seem natur.al in the year lyi.U : it is high time 

 for the geologist, and even for our cautious Geheimrat, to 

 accept responsibility for dealing in a systematic way with the 

 precursors of the human race. On p. 337, again, the earnest 

 persistence of English petrographers, notably Judd, in urging 

 that geological age was practically valueless in any scheme of 

 classifying igneous rocks, is not done justice to when we are 

 told thart " Rosenbusch (I) removed the final judgment of 

 petrography from the laboratory to the field.' The phrase is 

 almost as emphatic in the original ; and German writers, at any 

 rate, may easily be excused for beUeving that the introduction 

 of the microscope threatened the "natural history'' aspect of 

 petrography in other countries as completely as in their own. 

 Von Zittel's review, however, of the relations between Prof. 

 Rosenbusch and MM. Fouque and Levy is one of the best 

 illustrations of his extraordinary grasp of the range of geological 

 research. 



Another small correction which it seems extremely difficult 

 to introduce, even into English treatises, is the substitution of 

 the English chemist's name, Sonstadt, for Ihoulet (p. 333) as 

 the first who used the solution of mercury and potassium iodides 

 in refined specific-gravity determinations. On j). 334, " Breon " 

 is a slii), in the original, for " Brauns,' who proposed the use of 

 methylene iodide. In conclusion, let us be grtitef ul for a handy 

 book which has justly taken the place of all previous attempts 

 to deal with the history of geology. 



