100 
NATURE 
[ Fune 8, 1871 

are other streamers, pointing obliquely to planets or comets; 
that the zodiacal light is the general stream of elec- 
trical influence emanating from the sun and embracing all 
his planetary children; and that the sun-spots and the 
hydrogen prominences are due to electrical outbursts. We 
have had similar hypotheses put forth in England, but 
not so well argued as by Prof. Serpieri. Like the rest, he 
fails, however, to supply us with any explanation of the 
source of such tremendous electric energy. We may have 
the cylinder, the prime conductors, the insulators, the 
Leyden jars, and all the apparatus of a fine electrical 
machine ; but we shall get no sparks unless somebody 
turns the handle. We obtain no electrical force with- 
out an expenditure of equivalent mechanical power. 
In the battery we must oxidise an equivalent of zinc for 
each equivalent of electricity produced. We know some- 
thing about the laws of electrical excitation ; and those 
who assume the existence of such huge electrical forces 
without indicating their origin in accordance with these 
known laws, only carry the problem of the source of solar 
energy one stage further back without advancing a single 
step towards its solution, Among the other papers are 
Lannetti on Etruscan Crania, and some on Pathology and 
pure Mathematics. 
The Annals of Chemistry, compiled by Dr. Polli, is a 
carefully collected and valuable record of the progress of 
Chemistry, in which the subjects are classified under the 
heads of Pharmacy, Hygiene, Dietetics, Physiology, 
Toxicology, Pathology, Therapeutics, and Miscellaneous. 
It is published monthly in octavo fasciculi of sixty-four 
pages, each containing abstracts of papers from native and 
foreign journals. It sells at rather less than one shilling. 
As our Philosophical Magazine, with eighty pages of the 
same size, scarcely pays expenses at 25s. 6c., we may infer 
that the Azali di Chimica, of Milan, has a better circu- 
lation than its old-established scientific contemporary of 
“London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.” 
W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS 

SEELEY ON THE ORNITHOSAURIA 
Index to the Fossil Remains of Ornithosauria, Aves, and 
Reptilia from the Secondary Strata, arranged in the 
Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. By Harry Govier 
Seeley. 8vo. pp. 144. (1869. Cambridge: Deighton.) 
The Ornithosauria, an Elementary Study of the Bones 
of Pterodactyles. By Harry Govier Seeley. With 12 
plates. 8vo. pp. 136. (1870. Cambridge : Deighton.) 
HANKS to the activity of the “ Coprolite ” workings 
in the Upper Greensand around Cambridge, the 
Woodwardian Museum possesses particularly rich series 
of interesting reptilian remains, especially those belonging 
to the Orzithosauria or Pterodactyles (Flying Lizards) 
of the Secondary rocks ; to which the second work with 
its twelve plates is entirely devoted, as is also a large part 
of the Catalogue first published. 
The “ Index to the Fossil Remains” is introduced to 
the attention of the student and anatomist by a prefatory 
notice from the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Pro- 
fessor, who, although in his eighty-fifth year, evinces still 
considerable remains of his wonted fire, when taking up 
his pen to write of the treasures contained in the Museum 
of his Alma Mater. The cost of preparing these works 
has been borne by Prof. Sedgwick, but the printing of both 

books has been defrayed out of the funds of the Syndics 
of the University Press. 
1. The first book is intended to serve as a guide to the 
student in the examination of the remains of the extinct 
birds and reptiles preserved in the Woodwardian Museum, 
each case, shelf, and bone being numbered so as to cor- 
respond with the catalogue in which it is described. The 
list of specimens from the Cambridge coprolite bed occu- 
pies about half the book. 
Many new forms are here announced by the author for 
the first time, as Exaliornis (a new bird) several new Jch- 
thyos.wri, a new Crocodile, 3 species of Steveosaurus, 2 new 
Chelonians ; so that we have altogether 70 species from 
the Cambridge Greensand. There are also Chalk (8 sp.), 
Gault (2), Wealden (12), Purbeck (7), Potton beds (18), 
Portland (1), Kimmeridgian (10), Coral rag (3), Oxford clay 
(8), Oolites (4), Lias (20), foreign reptiles (24), making a 
total of 187 species. 
2. In the second work, that. on the Ornithosauria, the 
author enumerates the materials at his disposal, namely, 
500 bones in one collection, and 400 in another, probably 
representing not fewer than 150 individuals, which well 
displays the richness of the area, 
The bones from the coprolite diggings are much broken, 
but they retain sufficient character to be readily deter- 
mined by the comparative anatomist. 
Probably, no group of animals have caused more conten- 
tion between Naturalists than the Ornithosaurians. They 
have been regarded as bats (SOmmering), as intermediate 
between birds and reptiles (Goldfuss), amphibians (Wag- 
ner), and so on. Herman von Meyer, who has paid more 
attention to them than any other anatomist, concludes 
them to be reptiles, though with strong avian affinities, 
Prof. Owen maintains that they are Saurians. 
Mr. Seeley combats these views, and contends that the 
Pterodactyles were more nearly allied to birds than rep- 
tiles,and he refers them all to anew genus, Ornithocheirus. 
He contends against the cold-blooded view taken of 
them by Prof. Owen, and asserts that they were warm- 
blooded, chiefly founding his opinion on the form of the 
brain. There is a very strong objection to be made against 
the retention of the terms “cold-blooded,” and “ warm- 
blooded,” for it seems to us that the heat developed by 
the animal’s body is in direct proportion to the work to 
be performed. Thus, in aérial locomotion, the efforts of 
the pectoral muscles to sustain the body in the air, necessi- 
tate also a correspondingly more rapid action of the heart 
and lungs, producing, therefore, more rapid circulation, 
and an increased bodily temperature. We are therefore 
inclined to agree with Mr. Seeley on the grounds that, in 
proportion to the rapidity and the sustained action of the 
great motor muscles of the body (whether of legs or wing) 
so will be the rapidity of the action of the heart and lungs, 
and consequently the acceleration of the temperature of 
the whole body. 
The bones from the Cambridgeshire Greensand are very 
often so fragmentary that their determination requires the 
most exact anatomical skill, and we think the plates would 
have been more useful if in a few instances (perhaps in 
all) the missing parts and processes had been indicated 
in outline, so as to help to the better understanding 
thereof by the student. 
H. WOODWARD 
