122 



NA TURE 



[December i i, 1902 



telescopes, and have nothing exactly corresponding to a 

 vast emporium such as that of Max Kohl. All the more 

 reason, therefore, for the association and discipline urged 

 on his French colleagues and co-workers by Cornu. 



R. T. G. 



AMERICAN FOOD AND GAME FISHES. 

 American Food mid Came Fishes: a Popular Account 

 of all the Species found in America North of the 

 Equator, '«.'/'/// Keys for Ready Identification, Life 

 Histories awl Methods of Capture. By David Starr 

 Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann. Pp. 1 -f 573 ; 

 illustrated with coloured plates and text drawings, and 

 with photographs from life. (London : Hutchinson 

 and Co., 1902.) 



DRS. JORDAN AND EVERMANN, who have re- 

 cently enriched science by the publication, under 

 the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, of a great 

 work in four volumes describing in detail the 3300 species ' 

 of fishes distinguished by them in North and Central 

 America, reviewednot long ago in the columns of Nature, I 

 have now prepared another book, intended to 



" furnish that which well-informed men and women, and 

 those who desire to become well informed, might wish 

 to know of the food and game fishes which inhabit 

 American waters." 



This book, teeming with interest from the full accounts, 

 presented in a charming manner, of the habits, dis- 

 tribution and uses of the more important forms from 

 the point of view of the angler, has been lavishly got 

 up in America. The coloured pictures, as well as the 

 photographs taken from life with marvellous success by 

 Mr. A. Radclyffe Dugmore, could not be surpassed in 

 excellence, and the numerous "process-blocks" which 

 have already appeared in various American publications 

 will, thanks to the perfect accuracy with which the fishes 

 have been delineated, greatly facilitate identifications. 

 Authors and publishers are to be congratulated on the 

 production of such a book, which will undoubtedly have 

 the effect of enlisting a more scientific interest in fishes 

 on the part of many who have hitherto looked upon 

 them as mere objects of sport or curiosity, and to whom 

 the use of the more technical treatises on the subject 

 would be distasteful. In deference to such readers, the 

 systematic aspect has been reduced to # the narrowest 

 limits that appear compatible with the proper recognition 

 of the numerous genera and species dealt with. It is to 

 be hoped that not a few whose interest is sure to be 

 awakened by a perusal of this charming book will later 

 turn to the more technical work by the same authors, 

 and improve their knowledge through a study of the re- 

 lationships existing between the various families of fishes, 

 which are here merely defined without any allusion to the 

 higher groups into which they fall. 



American taxonomists have always shown a particular 

 predilection for reducing all divisions of the system to the 

 narrowest possible limits. This tendency is carried to 

 the extreme by Messrs. Jordan and Evermann, who 

 inform us in the introduction that not only the lampreys 

 and hags are to be excluded from the class Pisces, 

 but also the sharks and rays, the lung-fishes and 

 NO. 1/28, VOL. 67] 



Polypterus, which they regard as only fish-like creatures, 

 fishes in the broad sense of the term, but not " true fishes," 

 and are therefore excluded from the work. Ganoids, on 

 the other hand, are still maintained among fishes proper. 

 In conformity with this method of excessive multiplication 

 of systematic divisions of all grades, the various forms of 

 Salmonidae which are usually regarded as subspecies, 

 such as the land-locked salmon and the varieties of 

 Salmo clarkii, gairdneri a.ndfonti?ia/is, are all dealt with 

 as distinct species — twenty-six species instead of the four 

 admitted by the same authors in their previous work. 

 True, a few pages before, the authors pertinently remark 

 that 



"The non-migratory species (subgenus Trutta) occur 

 in both continents, are extremely closely related and 

 difficult to distinguish, if, indeed, all be not necessarily 

 regarded as forms of a single exceedingly unstable and 

 variable species. The excessive variations in colour and 

 form have given rise to a host of nominal species. 

 European writers have described numerous hybrids 

 among the various species of Salmo, real or nominal, 

 found in their waters. We have thus far failed to find 

 the slightest evidence of any hybridism among American 

 Salmonida: in a state of nature. Puzzling aberrant or 

 intermediate individuals certainly occur, but such are not 

 necessarily hybrids."' 



Bearing in mind the authors' tendency to excessive 

 multiplication of species and higher divisions, it is not a 

 little surprising to read in the introduction that the "true 

 fishes "of the whole world are estimated at only 12,000 

 species, arranged in about 200 families. A careful com- 

 putation which has recently been made by the reviewer, 

 applying somewhat different canons of classification, has 

 resulted in numbers that are not very different, viz. 11,200 

 for the species and 160 for the families. The number of 

 species in the American authors' estimate is even far 

 below that given in the article "Ichthyology" in the 

 supplementary volumes of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," 

 viz. 17,000. 



The usefulness of the work is enhanced by special 

 chapters on the external characters of fishes from the 

 descriptive point of view, on fly-fishing (by Mr. E. J. 

 Keyser), a glossary of technical terms, and an artificial 

 key to the families of American food and game fishes. 



The copy received for review bears the mark of a 

 London publishing firm. But the identical book was 

 issued in May last by Messrs. Doubleday, Page and Co., 

 at New York. G. A. B. 



HUMAN ANATOMY. 

 Text-Book of Anatomy. Edited by D. J. Cunningham, 

 F.R.S. Pp. xxix + 1309 ; 824 wood engravings from 

 original drawings. (Edinburgh : Pentland, 1902.) 



AT the present time the human anatomist tries to sit 

 as comfortably as he may on the two stools of 

 science and practice. It must be admitted that few do 

 it with success. While his posture evokes the indulgent 

 smile of the man of science, the professed zoologist and 

 morphologist, the man of practice, the surgeon and 

 physician, regards it as altogether unprofitable and im- 

 practicable. To reconcile the views of these two con- 

 tending factions, to make the theory of anatomy assist in 

 its practical application to the sick and the facts of 



