406 
NATURE 

[ Sept. 21, 1871 

a doubt could occur to the mind of any intelligent reader, re- 
duced heights being invariably employed in the chapter in which 
the passage occurs, and in the book generally. 
The charge of inconsistency which the Reviewer urges with 
so much gusto, is based on the following passage in my Preface, 
at the beginning of Part 1 :— 
‘« There is great danger in the present day lest science-teaching 
should degenerate into the accumulation of disconnected facts and 
unexvlained formulze, which burden the memory without culti- 
vating the understanding. Prof. Deschanel has been eminently 
successful in exhibiting facts in their mutual connection ; and his 
applications of algebra are always judicious.” 
Which, the Reviewer thinks, justified the expectation that I 
would omit as many as possible of Deschanel’s applications of 
Algebra. It is not surprising that a writer accustomed to this 
style of inference should have an aversion to exact reasoning, and 
should characterise the solution of problems by the application 
of a little algebra as ‘‘intricite formule, which burden the 
memory without cultivating the understanding.” 
I may remark, with reference to my former discussion with 
W. M. W. in your pages, that the adoption of concrete units of 
mass, and derived units of force, has now received the official 
sanction of Sections A and G of the British Association, who 
have appointed 2 committee to frame a system of nomenclature 
on this basis. J. D. Everett 

Newspaper Science 
KNOCKED up with work, I reluctantly followed the advice of 
my medical man, and crossing the Channel so as to be more out 
of the way, resolved to eschew everything scientific for the next 
few weeks at least, in order to recruit before the winter’s labours 
commenced. Even here, however, I soon found that the desired 
result was not so easily attainable as I had imagined, for the 
first thing this morning, on entering the reading room of 
the bathing saloon, a. French acquaintance, placing the Glode 
(of Monday evening, September 11) before me, directed my 
attention to its leading article on Prussian Artillery, adding 
significantly—‘‘ Viola, mon ami, a specimen of English scientific 
opinion !” 
I must confess that it was not without a feeling of shame that 
T read an article, of which the following extracts will suffice to 
give a correct idea. 
“* Altiough the unchequered course of the late war was due to 
many causes, still it is now admitted on all sides that when the 
Krupp guns were brought into the field the conclusion was prac- 
tically foregone.” ‘‘ The first public exhibition of what is now 
known as the Krupp gun was the gigantic specimen of a breech- 
loading steel gun sent to our Exhibition of 1851. The steel of 
which this gun was made differs entirely from our Sheffield gun 
metal or from Bessemer metal, and is a composition invented by 
Krupp, and the result of a special process. ‘The iron is alloyed 
with certain clays and also with a preparation of plumbago. 
There are 100,000 ‘ creusets’ of this metal always in active em- 
ployment in the factory, and each ‘cveuset’ contains from twenty 
to forty kilogrammes. The metal ina fluid state is poured into 
large cy indrical moulds, where it remains for two hours till it 
has completely hardened. But the chief difficulties of the process 
lie in subjecting it to the steam hammer. For years the hammer 
of greatest power in the factory had a force of 25,000 £#/ometres,” 
(od 
The italics are mine, and any one conversant with such sub- 
jects will perceive that no further comments are required. It 
only remains fur me to express my astonishment at seeing such 
rubbish appear in the leading article of any newspaper of stand- 
ing, and I am sure your readers will agree with me that it is 
high time that journals specially devoted to science should pro- 
test energetically against such representations being conveyed to 
the public at home and abroad as expressions of English technical 
or scientific opinion. DaviD FORBES 
Boulogne-sur-Mer, September 13 


THE NEW GANOID FISH (CERATODUS) 
RECENTLY DISCOVERED IN QUEENSLAND 
Ne the beginning of last year news reached Europe 
that a large “ Amphibian resembling LePidoszren ” 
had been discovered in Australia, and the curiosity of 
naturalists was still more excited when it was stated that 
this creature was provided with teeth extremely similar to 

the fossil teeth (from the Jurassic and Triassic formations) 
known under the name ot Ceratodus. 
The interest attached to such a discovery will be easily 
understood, if we review briefly the history of Lepidosiren, 
and show the advance made by zoology in consequence 
of our acquaintance with this animal. 
The discovery is due to the well-known Austrian 
traveller, Natterer, who sent two examples from Villa 
Nova on the Amazon River and the Rio Madeira to the 
Vienna Museum inthe year 1837. Fitzinger, then Curator 
of the Collection of Reptiles, gave a somewhat superficial 
description of it under the name of Lepidosiren paradoxa, 
referring it without hesitation to the class of Reptiles. 
Nearly at the same time a very similar animal was found 
by Mr. Th. C. B. Weir, in Senegambia; he presented 
two small examples to the Royal College of Surgeons ; 
and Prof. Owen, then Curator of the Hunterian Museum, 
published a full description of them under the name of 
Lepidosiren annectens, in the year 1839, explaining the 
reasons which induced him to regard this creature as a 
Fish. This view elicited further examination of the internal 
structure of the American species by Profs. Bischoff and 
Hyrtl, the former inclining to the opinion expressed by 
Fitzinger, the latter confirming, to the satisfaction of 
nearly all zoologists, the correctness of the conclusion 
arrived at by Owen. 
Before the discovery of Lefzaosiren, zoologists distin- 
guished the class of Reptilia from that of Fishes by the 
organ of respiration, the former being provided with 
membranous lungs extending into the abdominal cavity, 
the latter breathing by gills only. Although the Batrachian 
reptiles were known to breathe by external gills, as fishes, 
during the early stage of their metamorphosis, and although 
some of them retain those gills through the whole period 
of their life, yet the development of lungs in the adult 
state and the co-existence of these organs with gills in the 
Perennibranchiates, were considered to be sufficient indica- 
tions of their class-distinctness from fishes, among which 
no air-breathing organ was known. It is true Harvey and 
Hunter had pointed out that the air-bladder of the fish 
was homologous with the lung of higher vertebrates ; but 
functionally it could not be compared to it, as it receives 
arterial blood like any other abdominal organ, returning 
it in a deoxygenised condition. 
Now Lepidosiren was found to be provided with gills, 
anda most perfect paired lung communicating by a ductus 
pneumaticus and glottis with the cesophagus, receiving 
venous blood by strong arteries, and sending it back 
directly to the heart in an oxygenised condition, There- 
fore, in this respect it did not differ from an Amphibian, 
and dogmatical believers in the stability of our zoological 
systems felt themselves quite justified in referring this 
creature to the Reptilians. 
Nevertheless, the presence of certain other peculiari- 
ties of structure indicated rather an ichthyic than a rep- 
tilan affinity. The notochordal skeleton, and the apo- 
physes arranged as in many fishes, and not as in Amphi- 
bians ; the organ of hearing enclosed in the cartilaginous 
capsule of the skull; the dentition extremely similar to 
that of a Chimera ; the intestinal tract traversed by a 
spiral valve ; peritoneal outlets near the vent ; no nasal 
canal to conduct air ; finally, the skin covered with scales, 
the fins supported by finrays. All these are characters 
not found in Batrachians, and connect Lefidosiven with 
the class of Fishes ; but it was admitted that it makes 
the nearest approach in that class to the Perennibranchiate 
Amphibians. 
The question had next to be settled, what place in the 
class of Fishes should be assigned to Lefidosiren ; andas 
the view entertained by Joh. Miiller is that adopted by the 
majority of zoologists, we think it sufficient to refer to it 
alone. Having determined that all Ganoid Fishes agree 
with the Sharks and Rays in having an additional muscular 
division of the heart at the origin of the aorta, named bu/dus 
