362 



NA TURE 



[February 15, 1900 



studying magic than in ruling his kingdom. It is quite 

 clear, when we look at the history of the period, that 

 the kingdoms of the Medes, Persians, Babylonians, 

 Assyrians, and Egyptians had become effete, and that the 

 time for the coming of the Macedonian hero had arrived. 

 As soon as Alexander began to attack them they fell 

 before him like corn before the sickle, and the Oriental 

 nations, exhausted by centuries of luxury, formed a com- 

 paratively easy prey for the warlike Greeks. 



Such, in brief outline, is a sketch of the contents of 

 M. Maspero's interesting volume. In the limits of a 

 short notice it is impossible to discuss details, much 

 less differences of opinion, and now the work is done it 

 is easy to see where improvements could have been made. 

 In matters relating to Egyptology, M. Maspero's opinion 

 is generally sound ; but it goes without saying that when 

 he finds it necessary to refer to cuneiform literature, he 

 is obliged to do so at second hand. There is no discredit 

 attaching to him for this necessity when discussing 

 native records of Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia ; only 

 the reader of the work before us must remember that 

 M. Maspero merely repeats what experts in cuneiform 

 have written in their books. The references are full and 

 are honestly given ; and if the reader seeks further in- 

 formation, it is only necessary for him to consult the 

 authorities whose names are given m the notes, when he 

 will be in a position to judge for himself. Whether it 

 was wise for M. Maspero to attempt to cover such a 

 vast field of study — a work which to do successfully 

 involves a good knowledge of several difiicult Oriental 

 languages — is a matter which we do not care to decide ; 

 but there is no doubt that he has written an interesting 

 book, and one which will give the reader a good general 

 view of a most eventful period in the history of the 

 world. 



AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY. 

 The Fishes of North and Middle America : a Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Species of Fish-like Vertebrates found 

 in the Waters of North America, North of the Isthtniis 

 of Panama. By David Starr Jordan and Barton 

 Warren Evermann. Part I. Pp. lx+1240 (1896). 

 Part II. Pp. XXX+1241-2184 (1898). Part III. Pp. 

 xxiv + 2185-3136 (1898). (Washington : U.S. National 

 Museum.) 



THIS work forms No. 47 of the Bulletin of the 

 United States National Museum ; the third volume 

 reached this country last year ; and a fourth, which will 

 contain a complete table of contents of the whole work, 

 addenda, and a representative selection of illustrations, 

 is still to come. 



The present work is, in some measure, a revision of 

 the " Synopsis of the Fishes of North America," which 

 the senior author published in conjunction with Dr. 

 Gilbert in the year 1882 as No. 16 of the Bulletin men- 

 tioned, and which, up to the present time, has been of 

 such great service to the student of North American 

 fishes. In this " Synopsis," however, all fishes were 

 excluded from south of the boundary between the 

 United States and Mexico, and no distinct attempt was 

 made to draw a line between the marine fishes of the 

 VO. 1581, VOL. 61I 



Southern States and those of the West Indies. The 

 present work has a much wider scope : the marine fauna 

 is extended southwards to the equator, and that of the 

 freshwater to the Isthmus of Panama ; the whole of the 

 West Indies, the Caribbean Sea, the waters of the Gulf 

 Stream, and the Galapagos Archipelago are included. 

 Towards the north, the fishes not only of the Alaska 

 Sea, but also those which are known from Kamtchatka 

 and the Kurile Islands, form part of the work. Thus, 

 the number of species that had been described in the 

 "Synopsis" is nearly doubled, and amounts to 3127 in 

 the present catalogue, besides about a hundred which 

 are added in a supplement at the end of the third 

 volume. The pagination runs continuously throughout 

 the three volumes, a plan the advantage of which is 

 doubtful, as, in referring to a species, it will not enable 

 us to dispense with noting the volume in addition to the 

 page. Some 260 pages of the last volume are taken up 

 by an artificial key to the families of "true fishes," a 

 glossary of terms, and a general alphabetical index ; the 

 latter seems to have been prepared with great care, and 

 has never failed us on the occasions we had to refer to 

 the work. 



The mode of treatment of the subject is uniform 

 throughout the work. A diagnosis is given of each of the 

 genera and higher divisions, and followed by a key to 

 their constituent parts. The species are concisely, some- 

 times more fully, described, either from actual specimens 

 or from previously published accounts, with a few notes 

 on their geographical range or their economic import- 

 ance. We shall subsequently refer to the synonymy. 



It will be apparent from these notes that the work 

 initiated by Dr. Jordan was a serious and very laborious 

 undertaking. It could be successfully carried through 

 only by men who through long and patient inquiry 

 and study had acquired an intimate acquaintance with 

 both the fishes and the literature of their country, 

 who had at their disposal the large accumulations 

 of specimens in the museums of the United States, 

 and who at the same time possess in a rare degree 

 the gifts of methodical work and energetic applica- 

 tion. These conditions were amply fulfilled in Dr. 

 Jordan and his coadjutor. Dr. Jordan seems to have 

 commenced his ichthyological studies as far back as 

 1875, and we see from a list dated 1890 that in the inter- 

 vening fifteen years he published more than two hundred 

 papers on North American Ichthyology, many of them of 

 considerable extent. Of his pupils and colleagues he 

 imbued some with his own love of ichthyology, and when 

 we consider that his duties as President of the Indiana, 

 and later of the Stamford University, and as Commis- 

 sioner of the Fur Seal Fisheries, must have taxed his 

 time to the utmost, we cannot be surprised that he found 

 it beneficial for the progress of the work under review, to 

 join forces with Dr. Evermann, himself an author of 

 many original papers on American fishes. 



Two features of the work characteristic of American 

 Ichthyology, to which the European student, at any rate, 

 the writer of this notice, will be scarcely reconciled, 

 obtrude themselves too forcibly to be passed over in 

 silence. One is the excessive subdivision into families 

 and genera: the 3127 species are relegated to no less 

 than 223 families and 1077 genera, leaving out of con- 



