232 
NATURE 
[Fuly 21, 1870 
let by Mr. Banting, who, although not at all what we 
should call a fat man, nevertheless, so suffered from fat 
in the chest that he could not walk forwards downstairs, 
or stoop to buckle his shoe. There is no doubt that in 
his case there was a necessity for immediate relief, and 
he obtained it by abstaining from articles of food which 
supply fat to the system. 
When persons weigh much aboye their height, it is 
obviously a matter of importance that they should as 
much as possible relieve the tax put upon their muscular 
and circulating system by diminishing their weizht. 
Fortunately, this is not a very difficult thing to do, but it 
should be done with caution. ‘To Bant”*with success 
requires caution. The immediate withdrawal of all fatty 
food, and the substances, such as starch and sugar, which 
produce fat, is frequently attended with dangerous re- 
sults. Mr. Banting’s diet, although so beneficial in his 
case, was not altogether a judicious one, and we have no 
doubt that many of our “stout” friends have found an 
early grave by their determination to reduce themselves 
to the standard of weight for their height. With regard 
to stout people, or those who weigh more than their 
height, it should be recollected that if they have suffered 
no inconvenience from their weight, it is better to leave 
well alone. There are few people living in the scientific 
circles of London who are not well acquainted with the 
portly forms and genial faces of well-known men from 
seventy to eighty years of age. It would be folly on the 
part of the men who have thus achieved the normal age 
of threescore years and ten to commence any system of 
artificial diet, when their natural instincts have guided 
them, in spite of their weight, to their present green old 
age. 
When studied from a judicious point of view there is 
no doubt that an estimate of the height and weight of an 
individual ought to enter into every estimate of the pos- 
sible chances of life. In medical practice it may become 
the deciding point of the treatment of disease; whilst 
in those estimates which Assurance offices are obliged to 
make of the prospective value of life, it is of the utmost 
importance. Whenever the weight is below the height 
there is a fair suspicion of scrofulous or tuberculous 
disease, which no Insurance office is justified in over- 
looking. Whilst, on the other hand, when the weight is 
greatly in excess of the height, there is a tendency to 
those sudden impairments of muscular and especially 
circulating powers, which may lead to premature and 
unexpected death. E, LANKESTER 
LOSSTL MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 
The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Ne- 
braska, together with a Synopsis of the Mammalian 
Remains of North America. By Dr. Leidy. With an 
Introduction on the Geology of the Tertiary Forma- 
tions of Dakota and Nebraska; witha map. By Dr. 
Hayden. (Philadelphia, 1869. London: Triibner 
and Co.) 
1H 
Te the preceding article the Miocene portion of Dr. 
Leidy’s great work has been reviewed. That part of 
it relating to the Pliocene and the Quaternary still remains 
for analysis. That we are able to classify the American 
Mammalia as the Miocene, Pliocene, and Quaternary, we 
owe to Dr, Leidy; and his definitions of the two former of 
these are amply supported by the results arrived at by the 
Geological Survey of the district, under the direction of Dr. 
Hayden. The Pliocene strata on the Niobrara River, and in 
the valleys of the Platte and Loup Fork Rivers, rest on the 
Miocene beds, which furnished the Mammalia treated of 
in the first essay. And thus there is evidence that the one 
series is of later age than the other. Palzontologically, 
also there is a most remarkable break. Not one species 
and only one or two genera, namely, Rhinoceros and 
Castor (Aceratherium ?), are common to the two. With this 
exception, all the Miocene Mammalia had disappeared 
during the time that intervened between the formation of 
the two lacustrine deposits in that region. This fact 
implies that the one formation is separated from the 
other bya shorter interval than their European analogues; 
for in the latter miny genera, such as the Mastodon, Hip- 
parion, Hyena, Elephant, and others, pass from Miocene 
into Pliocene in such a way as to cause one group of life 
gradually to shade off into the other, and to render it 
sometimes impossible to define the last stage of the one 
from the first of the other. 
In the American Pliocenesa Ruminant, the AZerycohyus, 
possessed of a full complement of teeth, represented the 
family to which the Oreodon of the preceding epoch 
belonged. One species, JZ. elegans, was about the size 
of a sheep, while a second, J7. wezdzus, was rather larger, 
Since the latter is founded only on one upper and 
three lower molars, it is rather hard to follow Dr, Leidy 
when he defines the animal as being “one half larger in 
diameter than JZ. edegans, and intermediate in size be- 
tween the lama and camel.” 
miss, any exact estimate of the size of the animal must 
be worthless. The camel tribe were represented by three 
distinct genera. The Procamelus is distinguished from 
the camel by the presence of an additional premolar in 
the upper, and two in the lower jaw. One species, P. vo- 
bustus, was about the size of the living camel. The Ho- 
mocamelus is remarkable for its large canine, and for the 
isolated position of the first upper premolar; while the 
Merychodus necatus had. molars without an accessory 
column between the lobes, as in the sheep. The deer is 
represented by one small species, Cervus Warren, with 
antlers small and bifurcating, like those of the C. ¢végo- 
nalts, tizured by M. Gervais from the French Pliocenes, 
and the C. dicranoceros from the Suffolk Crag, and the 
Miocene of Eppelsheim, One small bifurcating antler, 
or horncore, may possibly be the solitary evidence of the 
presence of the antelope in America, but it more probably 
belongs to a species of deer. In none of the living ante- 
lopes is the horncore prolonged into the branch of the 
horn. 
in proof of the range of those herbivores as far as North 
America. ‘ 
The Pliocene American Rhinoceros (Acerathere ?) R. 
crassus, belongs to the brachydont division, characteristic 
of the Pliocenes and Miocenes in Europe. The Mastodon, 
MW, mirificus, was devoid of tusks in the lower jaw, and be- 
longed to the tetralophodont section of Dr. Falconer. A 
species of elephant (Z. zferator Leidy) was also living 
during the American Pliocenes. So far as the fragmentary 
condition of the molar will admit of decision, it belongs 
From such a slender pre- 
Cosoryx furcatus therefore cannot fairly be quoted ~ 
