22 



NATURE 



\Nov. 9, 1 871 



dentition includes the full number, but there remain \ 

 rnilk molars much worn and ready to be shed. Perhaps 

 the snag is developed before these are displaced. If so 

 the Cariacus is never a Subulo ; but there can belittle doubt 

 that the young Blastocerus belongs to that genus before 

 its adult characters appear." 



From the examples of inexact parallehsm we select 

 the second and eighth. 



" In both pcrissodactylous and artiodactylous mammalia 

 certain types develop their family character of canines 

 at the earliest appearance of dentition ; others, not till a 

 comparatively late period of life (Equus) ; and the extreme 

 genera never produce them" (p. 14). 



" In most serpents the left lung is never developed ; in 

 such the pulmonary artery, instead of being totally 

 wanting, remains as a posterior aorta bow, connected 

 with the aorta by a ductus botalli ; serpents without left 

 lung being, therefore, identical in this respect with the 

 embryonic type of those in which that lung exists." 



Under the head of " adult metamorphoses," in the second 

 chapter, Prof. Cope explains his law of retardation and 

 acceleration. It consists "in a continual crowding back- 

 wards of the successive steps of individual development, 

 so that the period of reproduction, while occurring 

 periodically with the change of the year, falls later and 

 later in the life-history of the species, conferring upon 

 its offspring features in advance of those possessed by its 

 predecessors. This progressive crowding back of stages 

 is not, however, supposed to have progressed regularly 

 On the contrary', in the development of all animals, there 

 are well-known periods when the most important transi- 

 tions are accomplished in an incredibly short space of 

 time (as the passage of man through the stages of the 

 aorta bows and the production of Umbs in the Batrachia 

 Anura) ; while other transitions occupy long periods, and 

 apparently little progress is made" (p. 37). 



On these and other similar grounds, the author con- 

 cludes, that " the transformation of genera may have been 

 rapid and abrupt, and the intervening periods of persis- 

 tency very long. As the development of the individual, 

 so the development of the genus " (p. 38). 



To the question — Has any such transition from genera 

 to genera ever been seen to occur ? Prof. Cope answers 

 in the affirmative, and gives eleven probable and six 

 ascertained cases, for the details of which we must refer 

 to pp. 42 — 46. 



Passing for want of space over the third and fourth 

 chapters, we arrive at the concluding one, " On Epochal 

 Relations, or those Measuring Geological Time," which 

 abounds in valuable matter. The comparisons of different 

 faunje " indicate that an inherent dilference between the 

 types of a continent exists at the present time, though the 

 difference is subordinated to a universal distribuiion of the 

 higher groups throughout the earth. Has this state of 

 things existed for any long period, or is it the result of 

 different progress in the same group since the human 

 period ? Thus the present fauna of Australia was preceded 

 in the post-pliocene and pliocene by forms possessing 

 similar peculiarities, and belonging to the same classes : 

 that is, by herbivorous and carnivorous marsupials and 

 monotremes, and by Varanid Sauria, all of greater size 

 than their predecessors. 



"The same fact is well known of the Neotropical region. 



its present peculiar Edentata having been preceded by 

 giants of the same type in the post-pliocene and pliocene." 



IntheNearctic, the later Patearctic,and the Paltxotropical 

 regions, the existing genera were similarly represented by 

 pre-existing types, sometimes wonderfully developed. 



" Prior to these fauna:' another state of things has, how- 

 ever existed. North America has witnessed a withdrawal 

 of a Neotropical fauna, and the Patearctic the retreat of 

 an Ethiopian type. During the post-pliocene in North 

 America, Neotropical genera were to Neartic as 12 to 29, 

 as the record now stands. In the pliocene beds of 

 Pikermi (Greece) antelopes, giraffes, rhinoceros, hippopo- 

 tamus, huge manis, monkeys, monitors, and other genera 

 and species of African relationship, are the prevailing 

 forms, and still earlier a strong mingling of Nearctic 

 and more of Neotropical types abounded in the Pate- 

 arctic " (p. "]"]). 



We have, then, three important terms from which to 

 derive a theory of the creation : — (i) The existing six 

 fauna; bear in many, of their parts developmental 

 relations to one another ; (2) They were preceded im- 

 mediately by fauna; similar to them in each case, but more 

 remotely by fauna; like those now in existence ; and (3) 

 the Southern Hemisphere is a geologic stage behind the 

 Northern one in progress, as is shown by its perfection in 

 types extinct in the Northern, and by its inferiority in 

 modern types prevalent in the Northern. 



For a fuller demonstration of the last point we must 

 refer our readers to pp. 78, 79 of this valuable monograph. 



G. E. D. 



MISS NIGHTINGALE ON LYING-IN 

 INSTITUTIONS 



Intiodiictory Notes on Lying-in Institutions. By Florence 

 Nightingale. Pp. 1 10. (Longmans, Green, and Co. 187 1.) 



MISS NIGHTINGALE tells us the story of this 

 book somewhat as follows : — The Committee of 

 the Nightingale Fund, with the view of extending the 

 usefulness of their Institution for training nurses, entered 

 into an arrangement with St. John's House and King's 

 College Hospital, by which a special ward was set apart 

 for the reception of poor women in childbed, and steps 

 were taken for training midwifery nurses to be employed 

 among the poor in their own houses. 



After the ward had been in use for several years, the 

 Committee were made aware that there had been many 

 deaths among cases admitted ; this led to inquiry, and 

 the ward was closed. 



The Committee being still desirous of continuing this 

 specialbranch of their work. Miss Nightingale deemed itad- 

 visable to inquire into t'ne whole subject of puerperal 

 mortality, and the result is now before us in a form which 

 we can all understand, and we will venture to say that to 

 the generality of readers the facts will bear the aspect of 

 an unwelcome revelation. These facts have been drawn 

 from the Registrar-General's reports, from reports of 

 public institutions in the United Kingdom and over most 

 European countries, affording relief to poor women in 

 their need, both at home and in lying-in institutions, and 

 also from records of private practice. 



They show that, while the death-rates for all England 



