January i i, 1900J 



NA rURE 



245 



the Siegfried who overcame "the monstrous theory 

 rmhoUemcnt, not only false in itself, but one jealously 

 uding the problem of development and preventing all 

 , cess to it." The author points to an analogy between 

 the rise and progress of prajformationist and Darwinian 

 r^chools, which, agreed in maintaining a transformation 

 of the simpler into the more complex have neither suc- 

 v-eeded in demonstrating how that process is achieved. 



The three lectures which remain are somewhat more 

 special than the rest. That by Dr. Watase on phos- 

 phorescence gives welcome support to the theory of 

 Quatrefages that this is intimately associated with con- 

 tractility, and that a common cause would appear to 

 underlie the two processes. Dr. Watas^ has been for 

 years engaged upon this fascinating subject. His 

 treatment of it has been no less original than that of 

 other topics upon which he has left his mark, and we 

 sincerely hope, now that he has returned to Japan, he 

 will promptly give us the definitive treatise of which we 

 are expectant. Prof. W. B. Scott, whose patient, con- 

 sistent work upon the paUt'ontology of the American 

 Artiodactyles has for years been eagerly followed by all 

 interested in mammalian descent, has in the lecture 

 which he contributes to the present volume built up a 

 masterly defence of the principle of convergence— the 

 first comprehensive defence from the paheontological 

 side — by lack of appreciation of which it has long been 

 patent to anatomists that not a few of our accepted 

 classificatory schemes and conceptions of afifinity are 

 erroneous. He deals chiefly wiUi recent discoveries in 

 jthe now famous Uinta formations, and his 'thesis, like 



le work upon which it is based, is thoroughly English 

 n method. By contrast to the bulk of the volume 

 before us, it comes as a set off to the too frequent in- 

 dications of that " Germanising " to which our American 

 brethren appear somewhat prone. His chief deduction 

 that "all the strictly indigenous North American seleno- 

 donts are branches of the great tylopodan stem " is 

 replete with interest. 



Finally, there is a lengthy lecture by Prof. C. O. 

 Whitman on " Animal Behaviour," setting forth in de- 

 tail, and with comment which is exemplary in its 

 moderation and cautiousness, a series of experiments 

 on the phenomena of response exhibited by certain 

 American creatures under his hand (especially a Clepsine, 

 Necturus, and certain pigeons). He frames a thought- 

 ful argument, which leads to the conclusion that " in- 

 stinct precedes intelligence," and that its primary roots 

 lie in " the constitutional activities of protoplasm," which^ 

 as he justly remarks, relieves us of the inconsistencies 

 " involved in the theory of instinct as lapsed intelli- 

 gence." His aphorism that "organisation shapes be- 

 haviour" would seem destined to bear the fate of his 

 truism, "organisation precedes cell formation," now pro- 

 phetic ; and to him, the guiding spirit in the work which 

 necessitated the publication of the present volume, as to 

 all his collaborateurs, we offer our hearty congratulations. 

 A little more work and a little less theory would be 

 acceptable in some cases, but so long as the connection 

 between the two is maintained to the extent exemplified 

 in the present volume, we shall remain content. 



The book closes with a series of short obituary 

 NO. 1576, VOL. 61] 



notices, whi( h include tho^e of the former Assistant 

 Director at Wood's HoU and of the author of one of 

 the lectures, together with a passing reference to the 

 death of W. R. Harrington, an enthusiastic young 

 American, well known and greatly respected on the 

 European side of the Atlantic, who recently met his 

 death in a second attempt to secure the young of 

 the Bichir {Polypterus). G. B. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Darstellung der 32 moglichen Krystallklassen. By Prof. 



H. Baumhauer. Pp. 36. (Leipzig : Wilhelm Engel- 



mann, 1899.) 

 Prof. Baumhauer discusses the symmetry of crystals 

 in accordance with recent views, and employs the axes 

 of symmetry to distinguish the classes. Weiss and 

 Mohs first recognised that crystals fell into seven groups 

 depending on the relative lengths and inclinations of the 

 crystallographic axes. The older school of crystallo- 

 graphers, following the lead of Naumann, commenced 

 with the class of highest symmetry in each system, and 

 derived the remainder by removing elements of sym- 

 metry. The logical method, as was pointed out by 

 Gadolin, is to start with the class of lowest symmetry 

 and add elements of symmetry until the most compli- 

 cated class is reached. Each class is, in reality, quite 

 independent of any other, even if in the same system. 

 Groth adopted this view in the last edition of his 

 " Physikalische Krystallographie,"and rejecting all ideas 

 of hemihedrism, introduced a nomenclature which has 

 been here employed by Prof. Baumhauer. He, however, 

 differs from the Munich professor, but joins Schonflies 

 m dividing the thirty-two classes into groups depending 

 on the axes of symmetry present. This method splits 

 up the monoclinic system, two classes of which join the 

 rhombic system to form the digonal group {i.e. the 

 group with at least one axis of two-fold symmetry), 

 whilst the third, which possesses a plane of symmetry 

 only, remains by itself in the monogonal group. The 

 triclinic class, according to the author, forms the anaxial 

 group ; Schonflies, on the other hand, splits it up and 

 gives the holohedral class to the digonal group, and the 

 other to the monogonal group. The latter arrangement 

 is certainly more logical, though there is something to 

 be said for Prof. Baumhauer's objection that a "2- 

 zahlige Spiegelachse " being in any direction, and .there- 

 fore not necessarily parallel to a crystallographically 

 possible edge, cannot be said to exist. The author 

 follows Schonflies in placing the classes represented by 

 phenacite and calcite respectively in the hexagonal 

 group, whereas Groth includes them in the trigonal 

 group. These two groups, however, might well -be re- 

 garded as one. 



A word must be said for the excellent diagrams, which 

 show very clearly the symmetry of each class. At the 

 end is given a description of illustrative models, to be 

 obtained from Dr. F. Krantz, of Bonn. 



The Essex Naturalist : the Journal of the Essex Field 

 Club. Edited by William Cole. Vols, ix., 1895-6, and 

 X., 1897-8. (Essex Field Club, 1899.) 

 The Essex Naturalist has long been known as the ably 

 conducted journal of one of the best field clubs in exist- 

 ence. Full accounts of the meetings and excursions of 

 the Essex Field Club are given, and, in addition to these, 

 any observations of interest to naturalists made within 

 the limits of the county are recorded, and when necessary 

 illustrated. The term naturalist is quite properly used 

 in the very widest sense, so that the journal includes 



