January 24, 1895J 



NA TURE 



291 



post-tertiary (neo-volcanic) is maintained, the Plutonic 

 rocks are admitted to be of all ages. 



Geologists will, alas, look in vain in this work for 

 any indication that they may hope for a speedy termina- 

 tion of the terrible confusion that has so long prevailed 

 with resrect to petrographical nomenclature. On the con- 

 trary, they will find that in addition to having to reckon 

 with the schools of Paris and Heidelberg, as they have 

 done in the past, they will now have to take account 

 of a third — that of Leipzig ! With some of Prof. 

 Zirkel's criticisms of contemporary pateontological 

 literature, English and American geologists will heartily 

 sympathise. The employment of such terms as granitite, 

 ^^ranpphyre, &c., with significations different from 

 those given to them by the authors of th names, 

 ! annot but fail to lead to almost endless confusion, 

 and ve aie glad to see that the authority of Prof 

 Zirkel is thrown into the scale against such principles of 

 nomenclature being adopted ; but in other cases we can- 

 not but think that his objections to the nomenclature of 

 other authors are not likely to be sustained by future 

 workers in this branch of science. 



Whether the confusion that now exists can be removed 

 y any friendly discussion between the representatives 

 of rival schools — such as those of the international 

 committee proposed at the late Geological Congress at 

 Zurich — time alone can show. If this be impossible, 

 and writers in France and Germany, respectively, 

 continue to ignore the terminology employed in other 

 countries than their own, then it appears to us that, if 

 science is to maintain her cosmopolitan character, only 

 one method of escape is possible. We must follow the 

 example of the other natural-history sciences in adopting 

 the test oi prioiity as absolute and final in our termin- 

 ology of rocks. That many inconveniences must result 

 from such a course may be readily admitted ; and it will 

 not be easy to fix upon the Linnaeus of our science — or 

 to decide upon the date at which exact petrographiral 

 literature may be supposed to have commenced. But 

 almost any trouble and difficulty of this kind is worth 

 encountering, if we may hope that geologists in the future 

 will, in speaking of rocks, attain that great desideratum 

 of "one thing — one name." 



In the meanwhile, we are not ungrateful to the author 

 of the work before us for the enorinous labour and pains 

 he has taken in wading through the great mass of 

 petrographical literature ; in furnishing; us with correct 

 statements concerning the origin and history of terms ; 

 and in placing on record the decisions he has arrived at 

 upon miny of the difficult problems that confront us. 

 The " Lehrbuch der Petrographie " has always been a 

 standard work of reference ; and, in its new form, it has 

 become more indispensable than ever. J. W. J. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Pithecanthropus Erectus, eine Menschenaehnliche 

 (Jc/>e\i;iiHi:s/or!n aus Jaiia. By E. Dubois. 410, pp. 

 40, illustrated (balavia, 1894.) 



Java, from its geographical situation, being just one of 

 those court -les where tlie remains of a connecting form 

 between man and the higher apes would be extremely 

 likely to or ..ur, zoologists have naturally been attracted 

 by the title ol the work before us, which proclaims in no 



NO. 1317, VOL 51] 



uncertain tones that such a missing link has actually 

 been discovered. A feeling of disapf ointment will, 

 however, probably come over the student, when he finds 

 how imperfect are the remains on the evidence of which 

 this startling announcement is made ; ard when he has 

 submitted them to a critical examination, he will probably 

 have little difficulty in concluding that they do not 

 belong to a wild animal at all. The specimens described 

 are three in number, and were discovered in strata of 

 presumed Pleistocene age near a spot called Trinil. 

 The first of these is a last upper molar tooth, found 

 during the drying up of a river-bed in the autumn of 

 i8gi. A month later, the roof of a large cranium was 

 discovered in the same bed, at a distance of only 

 about a yard from the spot where the tooth laid. 

 Finally, in August 1S92, at a distance of some sixteen 

 yards higher up the stream, a Ie(t femur was disinterred, 

 which is stated to present much more human resem- 

 blances than either of the other two specimens. The 

 bed from which this bone was derived is stated to have 

 been the same as that from w-hich the oiher two 

 speciinens were obtained. The author is confident that 

 all are referable to a single animal ; and we are content 

 to accept this view. 



Especial stress is laid on the femur as indicative of 

 human affinities ; and here again we are in agreement 

 with the author, only we would go one step further, and 

 say that it actually is human. As is pointed out in the 

 text, this bone has a large exostosis below the lesser 

 trochanter ; and we believe that such slight differences 

 as it shows from normal human femora, are due to this 

 diseased condition. With regard to the skull, which 

 shows a marked human facies, but an extremely small 

 development of the brain-cavity, the absence of ridges 

 on the calvarium clearly shows that it can belong to no 

 wild anthropoid ; and there apjiears every reason to 

 regard it as that of a microcephalous idiot, of an un- 

 usually elongated type. The molar, so far as we can see 

 from the figure, may likewise perfectly well be human. 



Haeckel's '■^Pithecanthropus^' may, therefore, be 

 relegaied to the position of an hypothetical unknown 

 creature for which it was originally proposed ; while the 

 specific name ^'erectus" must become a s)non)m of the 

 frequently misapplied "ja//^«.f." R. L. 



The Planet Earth. An Astronomical Introduction to 

 Geography. By R. A. Gregory, F.R.A.S. (London : 

 Macmillan and Co., 1894.) 



It is, perhaps, one of the consequences of the antiquity 

 of astronomy that it is not now usually presented to the 

 youthful mind in a thoroughly scientific mrnner. The 

 established truths of the science, in so far as they con- 

 cern the earth's place as a planet, though once so astound- 

 ing to mankind, are now so commonpl.ice that the edu- 

 cational advantages of a study of the phenomena which 

 brought them to light are frequently overlooked alto- 

 geiher. .\s In the case ol geography, information rather 

 than education appears to be the princlp.il aim of astro- 

 nomical teaching when it is not carried beynd the 

 elementary stage which it reaches in schools ; although, 

 when properly handled, there is no subject better cal- 

 culated to lead the mind into a scientific groove. 



We therefore cordially welcome this attempt to 

 indicate the lines which should be followed (or a pro- 

 fitable study of that portion of astronomy which deals 

 with the earth as a planet. The bald statmients as 

 to the earth's dimensions and movements, so frequently 

 appearing in the text-books ot gcograpln, furnish the 

 sole astronomical knowledge which many acquire ; but 

 they are, as Mr Gregory remaiks, quite inadequate. 

 I he de-ign ot the little book before U';, is first to 

 direct the students' attention to observations which 

 they may generally make tor themselves, and then to 

 show how such phenomena can be accounted for. Thus, 



