504 
NATURE 
[March 17, 1870 
Monographie der Molluskengattung Venus, Linné 1 
Band. Sub-genus Cytherea, Lamarck. Von Dr. 
Eduard Rémer. 4to. (Cassel, 1869.) 
NATURALISTS have been divided into those of the field 
and those of the closet. The author of this monograph 
may be classed in the latter category ; and he certainly 
shares the indefatigable industry of his countrymen. Such 
labour, however, when applied to subjects of natural his- 
tory, sometimes tends to an excessive multiplication of 
species ; and its utility is in that respect questionable. 
Professor Rémer, in a critical examination of the species 
of Venus which he published in 1857, enumerated 145 
species arranged in eight sub-genera. In the present 
work one only of these sub-genera is treated, and includes 
no less than 209 species. We may well ask, with Cicero, 
“ Quousque tandem abuteris patientia nostra?” A com- 
mon European species (Czrce minima) is described in two 
sections under different names ; and some of the author's 
new species seem to be merely the young. of well-known 
forms. The method in which he subordinates this host 
of species is unusual. Eight sections of the sub-genus 
Cytherea are named and described; and the specific 
names are applied, not to the genus or even to the sub- 
genus, but to each section. The sectional name is used in 
a generic sense ; so that Venus meretrix becomes Aere- 
trix meretrix, and V. Dione is converted into Dione Dione. 
The description of species is not in every case consistent 
with the sectional characters. In the first section, 77ve/a, 
the shape is stated to be “trigona ;” but in 7. n7tidula 
we find it is “ ovato-elliptica,” and in 7. xucaula “ cordato- 
ovata.” It would also be more convenient to have the 
descriptive characters given in the same order throughout. 
In the description of the first species colour takes prece- 
dence of sculpture; in that of the second species the 
order of these characters is reversed. The same confu- 
sion occurs as to the teeth and pallial scar as well as to 
other characters. But the excellence of the illustrations 
compensates to a great extent for the small blemishes 
which it is the unpleasant duty of a critic to point out. 
The plates are fifty-nine in number and contain many 
hundred figures, all of which are evidently truthful, admi- 
rably engraved, and exquisitely coloured. The mono- 
graph must be indispensable to collectors, who are better 
pleased with a redundancy than with a paucity of species. 
Dealers have the same feeling. 
; J. GWYN JEFFREYS 
Abstracts of Two Papers on the Geography of Disease. 
I. The Geographical Distribution of Heart Disease 
and Dropsy in England and Wales. II. The Geo- 
graphical Distribution of Cancer in England and 
Wales. By Alfred Haviland, M.R.C.S, Pp. 18. 
(London, 1869.) 
THIS pamphlet contains a reprint of two papers, in which 
the author has endeavoured to map out the districts in 
which the particular forms of disease above-mentioned 
are most frequently encountered. The subject of his 
geographical distribution of disease is a most important 
one in its bearings upon the great question of the causa- 
tion of disease. It is a subject, however, in which the 
facts should be many and the conclusions few, if he who 
draws them wishes to make lasting contributions to the 
science of medicine. 
Lecons sur la Physiologie Comparée de la Respiration. 
Par Paul Bert. (Paris: Baillitre. London: Williams 
and Norgate.) 
In his preface, the author to some extent apologises 
for the imperfections of this volume, on account of 
the difficulties, including “the singular penury of the 
laboratory over which he presided,” attending the 
delivery of the course of lectures of which it forms 
the report. No apology, however, is needed for an 
interesting and admirable series of discourses on a 
difficult and yet important topic. The book does not 
profess to be a complete Treatise on Respiration, but 
rather treats fully of certain selected points, such as the 
respiration of tissues, the gases of blood, the respiratory 
mechanism in various classes of animals, asphyxia, &c., 
&c. The “graphic method” is employed throughout, 
by far the larger number of the illustrations being repre- 
sentations of various respiratory movements. We would 
especially call attention to the chapters on the respiratory 
movements of fishes, amphibia, reptiles, and birds, in 
which the graphic method brings out many singular and 
interesting facts. Even in matters of science, national 
characteristics come to the surface ; and quite apart from 
the language, it is generally an easy matter to distinguish 
the work of a Frenchman from that of German or an 
Englishman. Prof. Bert’s work is no exception to the rule, 
though we must add, with singular pleasure, that it is far 
more cosmopolitan than many of the writings of his 
fellow countrymen. The author has evidently studied 
and appreciated the labours of countries other than his 
own. 
Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europadischen 
sweifliigeligen [nsekten. Von J. W. Meigen, Achter 
Theil, von Hermann Loew, Erster Band. Schmidt, 
Halle, 1869.. (London: Williams and Norgate.) 
PROFESSOR LOEW, who is to be regarded as the highest 
authority on European Diptera, contents himself in this 
book with supplying a sort of supplement to Meigen’s 
great work on the insects of that order inhabiting Europe. 
It is, perhaps, to be regretted that he does not rather 
direct his efforts to the production of a complete system- 
atic work on the subject, but he probably thinks that the 
time is not yet ripe for such an undertaking, and in the 
meanwhile the full and detailed descriptions of species 
detected since the publication of Meigen’s last volume 
will be most welcome to entomologists. The present 
volume contains descriptions of 182 species of two-winged 
insects, belonging to various families from the 7zpulid@ 
to the Dolichopodide, and especially of numerous forms of 
Asilide and Bombyliide. No fewer than 138 of the 
species are described as new, and the greater part of the 
remainder are species described by Professor Loew him- 
self in various scattered papers. 
Nachrichten von der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenchaften und 
dey Georg-Augusts Universitat zu Gottingen, aus 
dem Jahre 1869. 
THE volume of “ Reports of the Royal Society of Sciences 
and University of Géttingen,” for 1869, which has lately 
reached us, contains a great number of papers of con- 
siderable value, for the most part relating to mathematics, 
physics, and chemistry. There are also some memoirs 
relating to literary antiquities, but natural history receives 
little attention, the only papers being a notice of some 
marine animals and their metamorphoses by Dr. E. 
Mecznikow, and a revision of the Dutomacee, Funcacee, 
&c., collected by the Brothers Schlagintweit in Upper 
Asia by M. F. Buchenau, to which we may specially call 
the attention of botanists, as a good many new species 
are described in it. 
Via Medica. A Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the 
Medical Profession, in relation especially to Principals 
and Assistants; with Suggestions and Advice to 
Students on Preliminary Education. By J. Baxter 
Langley, M.R.C.S., F.L.S. Third edition. (London: 
R. Hardwicke. 1869.) 
TuiIs little work is full of most useful information con- 
cerning the subjects indicated on its title-page. That it 
meets a demand for information of this description is 
ets indicated by the rapid sale of the two previous 
editions, 
a 
