240 



NATURE 



{Jan. 25, 1872 



the new genera or species described, and this notably in 

 the case of the last work of the illustrious Claparcde, and 

 again in the case of Van Beneden's memoir, where we are 

 told, simply enough, that " a number of new and little- 

 known cestoid and other parasitic worms are described 

 and figured." A whole page is taken up with a list of the 

 Annelids referred to in a paper by Prof. Grube, but the 

 list is quite useless, as it wants the remarks as to their 

 S)nonyray. 



Prof. Traquair's portion of the Record appears to have 

 been very well executed. We wish he had given us the 

 list of the Echinoderms from the Dutch East Indies, as 

 described by Herklots. It would have been much more 

 valuable than the list given of very common species from 

 the East Frisian coast ; and although we notice an omis- 

 sion of a paper or two among a group (the Coelenterates) 

 somewhat familiar to us, yet this portion of the volume 

 leaves very little to be desired. 



No one individual could write an exhaustive criticism 

 on such a work as this Zoological Record. We have not 

 even attempted it. The moment the volume reached us 

 we cut its pages, and in noting its contents the re- 

 maiks that we have now made recurred to us; but 

 in addition to these there was also present to us the 

 thought of how much we owed for ihe successful publica- 

 tion of this work to its accomplished editor and his well- 

 qualified and trusty staff of friends. E. P. W. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



I. Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Moiintai)i-building, three 

 articles published in the " North American Review," 

 1869 — 1871. By J. D.Whitney. 8vo, pp. 107. (Univer- 

 sity Press, Cambridge, United States, 1S71.) 



II. Historical Notes on the Earthquakes of New England, 

 1638— 1869. By William T. Brigham, A.M., A.A.S. 

 4to, pp. 28. (Boston, 1 87 1.) 



The first of these works is a small volume containing 

 three reviews, or essays, as they might be more correctly 

 termed, reprinted from the " North American Review," and 

 written by the well-known geologist Mr. Whitney, formerly 

 director of the Geological Survey of California. They are 

 well worthy of perusal, not only from the easy, somewhat 

 popular style in which they are written, but more especially 

 from their containing a tolerably fair summary of the 

 opinions held by most of the later scientific writers who 

 have treated of the phenomena of earthquakes, volcanoes, 

 and mountain-building, as it is here termed, drawn up by 

 one who is evidently well-read in the literature of these 

 subjects. 



To give in its turn a summary of the author's opinions 

 as far as we are able to understand them from a perusal 

 of these three essays, we might state, in the first place, 

 that he lays considerable stress on the geographical dat.i, 

 which show that the area within which the greater earth- 

 quakes have been mainly confined is also to a great ex- 

 tent coincident with that of the greatest displays of active 

 volcanic forces ; and on the observations showing the ac- 

 tion which the moon, or rather of the sun and moon com- 

 bined, exert on the number and intensity of earthquakes, 

 which, if accepted, indicate an internal condition of fluidity 

 in our globe ; he believes both in the chronological suc- 

 cession of volcanic rocks, and in thtir having pro- 

 ceeded from some common or connected source within 

 the earth, but does not agree with those who legard the 

 access of water as the great agent in volcanic cataclysms; 

 disbelieving (in opposition to some elaborate calculations 

 to the contrary) that the force capable of being developed 



by steam at such immensely high temperatures, could be 

 sufficient to account for the phenomena of ejection ; and 

 although admitting the proximity of volcanoes in general 

 to the sea, points out that some of those in South and 

 North America are situated inland, several hundred miles 

 distant from the ocean. 



Regarding the differences in texture between the granitic 

 rocks and those of recent volcanic origin as due mainly 

 to the different conditions of our globe in the early periods 

 in which they were erupted, Mr. Whitney protests against 

 the hypothesis, so much brought forward of late, that the 

 former are merely sedimentary deposits, brought within 

 the action of, and softened or liquefied in, some unaccount- 

 able way by internal heat, and with respect to the origin 

 of mountains, regards the external action of rain and 

 rivers, now so all-absorbing in the minds of most English 

 geologists, as altogether secondary to more powerful inter- 

 nal forces, believing, whilst mountain- building is to a great 

 extent the result of an antagonism between subsiding and 

 stationary masses of the earth's crust, that in all the great 

 chains of mountains we have ample proof that this is at 

 the same time accompanied by the intrusion of eruptive 

 rocks from below, as a necessary consequence. 



The second brochure by Mr. Brigham is reprinted from 

 the memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History ; 

 it appears to be the first part of a more lengthy communi- 

 cation to the Society, and is entitled " \'olcanic Manifesta- 

 tions in New England ;" it is an apparently exhaustive 

 catalogue of all the principal earthquakes which have taken 

 place, or rather been recorded, since the discovery and 

 settlement of the country until the commencement of last 

 year, bearing evidence of much industry, and appearing to 

 be a v.aluable contribution to the records of American 

 Seismology. D. F. 



Astronoinische Tafeln und Formeln. Herausgegeben 



von Dr. C. F. W. Peters, Assistant der Sternwarte in 



Altona. (Hamburg: W. Mauke, 1871 ; London: 



Williams and Norgate.) 

 A USEFUL collection of auxiliary astronomical tables com- 

 piled by the son of the well-known_ editor of the Astrono- 

 mische Nachrichten. It brings under one cover many 

 tables for which the computer has ordinarily to resort to 

 different books ; and in some cases the tables are exhibited 

 in a more expanded form than that in which they are 

 usually printed. It contains copious tables for converting 

 time into arc, sidereal into solar time, hour and minute 

 intervals into decimals of the day, refraction and hypso- 

 metric tables, tabular data referring to the figure of the 

 earth, tables of squares and trigonometrical functions, 

 and many others for facilitating the reduction of astro- 

 nomical observations. It his also a collection of formula; 

 in common request, goniometrical, trigonometrical, and 

 astronomical. The collection is based upon, and is in 

 many respects closely similar to that made by Schumacher 

 in 1822, and which was re- edited and enlarged by Warn- 

 storff in 1S45. Dr. Peters has, however, add^d m my new 

 tables, and modernised others where necessary. We could 

 wish that a little more care had been bestowed upon the 

 printing ; the figures on some of the pages are very in- 

 distinct, and would tease a computer sorely. The defect 

 is not accidental to a single impression of the work, for 

 two copies have come before us, and in both the same 

 pages are faulty. J. C. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 communications. ] 



Zoological Statistics and the Hudson's Bay Company 



Amo.vg the " Notes" in N.^ture of December 28, there is 

 one in which mention is made of the great dearth of martens 

 imported into London this last season from Hudson's Bay, also 



