460 



NATURE 



[March 20, 1902 



nerves should be determined by means of serial sections. 

 Rather too much this to expect from the ordinary 

 student I especially when it is seen that the classification 

 discriminates between five systems (viz. — somatic-afferent 

 and -efferent, viscero-afferent and -efferent, and acustico- 

 lateral) "each delimited by a uniformity of peripheral 

 termination and a special characteristic origin in the 

 brain," and each liable to " appear in a variable 

 number of cranial nerves as a component of those 

 nerves." Our authors tell us they have adopted 

 this method for the plaice, and in proceeding to the 

 systematic description of its cranial nerves they deal with 

 them in order of functional association. The olfactory, 

 optic and eye-muscle nerves are first considered ; then 

 the fifth and seventh ; after the study of their root-ganglia, 

 the eighth, ninth and tenth, completing the series. With 

 the spinal nerves, the fourth is described first, and the 

 first three later in order of succession, because they are 

 less typical and by virtue of their especial relationships 

 to the pectoral member. It is impossible here to go 

 more fully into the details of this very technical subject ; 

 sufifice it to say that all is most admirably set forth, and 

 that while a really good description of the sympathetic 

 system is given which may serve as a model to writers 

 of the future, both the giant cells of the cord and the 

 most recently revived Reissner's fibre are described and 

 discussed with full bibliographic treatment. Special 

 discussion is given to the question of the innervation of 

 the pelvic member, in its bearings on translocation and 

 nervous substitution, as a guide to homology. The 

 authors' arguments under this head have an especial in- 

 terest, in the recent announcement by Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward of the startling discovery that, in Cretaceous 

 times, teleostei of the clupeoid type had already trans- 

 located the pelvic fin into the jugular position. 



Following this are sections dealing with the sense 

 organs. Kyle's discovery of a pleuronectid with a naso- 

 pharyngeal aperture and Holt's "recessus orbitalis " meet 

 with due recognition, and here again all is admirable and 

 fully up to date. The aforementioned thesis on asym- 

 metry is conveniently introduced at this point, and 

 there follow sections on the ear and reproductive 

 organs, with a rhtinU of the present state of our know- 

 ledge concerning the sexual organs of the female 

 teleosteans in general, in which Huxley's terminology 

 is employed. 



The book closes with an appendix, containing valuable 

 information on spawning and the spawning season, on 

 the maturation and structure of the egg, on oviposition, 

 fertilisation, development and metamorphosis. Rate of 

 growth, the nature and causes of migration and distribu- 

 tion, are duly dealt with, and there follows a brief sketch 

 of the plaice fishery in northern European waters, 

 with some sound advice to the practical fisherman. In 

 not a few pages in the book there are hints as to the 

 work of the future, as, for example, at the very outset, 

 where there are described a sporozoon and a myxo- 

 sporidian yet to be determined. 



Of the eleven plates, all are admirably clear, and 

 figures useful as are those of the cranial nerve s, the 

 olfactory sacs and the sympathetic system are most 

 welcome. It is well known that in the production of 

 this series of memoirs the cost of illustration has been 

 NO. 1690, VOL. 65] 



largely defrayed by private donation. In the present 

 case the publication committee of the \'ictoria University 

 have performed this graceful task, and we congratulate its 

 members upon their bargain. A better treatise on a single 

 animal form there hardly exists, and while we would 

 tender to editor, authors and all interested or concerned 

 our heartiest thanks, we cannot refrain from an expression 

 of national pride, in the extent to which it is evident from 

 the pages of this work that the science of comparative 

 ichthyology is essentially English. The book reflects the 

 influence of the schools in which its authors were trained, 

 and is a credit to them and to science in Britain. Our 

 only fear concerning it is that it will be found too 

 voluminous for the mere student, of whom so much is 

 expected in so short a time. There is a danger that at 

 first glance he would be repelled by the great amount of 

 detail, and that thereby the subject of zoology might 

 suffer. Selection can, however, always be arranged under 

 a competent teacher, and for those desirous of special- 

 ising in ichthyology we could recommend nothing better. 

 The book is healthy in the extreme, and while it will 

 educate the student on sound lines, it will arouse in him 

 the desire for reinvestigation and research, no opportunity 

 of directing attention to which has been lost. 



THE GOLD OF OPHIR. 

 The Gold of Ophir : W/iemc Brought and hy Whom ? 

 By A. H. Keane. Pp. xviii -f- 244. With one 

 plate and one map. (London : Stanford, 1901.) Price 

 1$. net. 



IN the little volume before us Prof A. H. Keane has 

 undertaken an inquiry into the vexed question of the 

 site of Ophir, and the source of the gold which the 

 Hebrew Scriptures assure us was brought from that 

 place to Solomon, son of David, by ships of Tarshish. 

 The author himself feels that some apology to the reader 

 is necessary, and that some explanation is due to him for 

 having taken up the subject at all, and it is our duty to 

 say at the outset that we wish he had left it for discussion 

 to the class of people who triumphantly assert that Rho- 

 desia is Ophir, and that Britons inherit this colony 

 (which was founded by masterful Mr. Rhodes) as their 

 natural right because they are descendants of some of 

 the tribes of Israel. Prof. Keane thinks that so much 

 evidence has accumulated on the subject during the last 

 thirty years that it is time the question was reopened, 

 and not only reopened, but decided once and for all. 

 The evidence he refers to consists of the results obtained 

 from the exploration and study of Rhodesian remains, 

 from the Himyaritic inscriptions found in central and 

 southern Arabia by Glaser and others, and from the 

 explorations of the "Arabian frankincenseland" by the 

 late Mr. Bent, and from parallels between the social and 

 religious customs of the Malagasy inhabitants of Mada- 

 gascar and "their Himyaritic, Phcenician and Jewish 

 masters from the northern hemisphere." Incidentally 

 we may mention that Dr. Carl Peters, in 1 901, enunciated 

 the extraordinary view that, not only was the site of the 

 Ophir of the Bible to be found in Rhodesia, but that 

 Ophir was to be identified with the Punt of the Egyptian 

 inscriptions. 



Prof. Keane has devoted several chapters of , his little 



