A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature Irusfs the mind which builds for aye." — Wordsworth 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, i8So 



THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE PUBLICATIONS 

 OF THE "CHALLENGER" 



FOUR years have elapsed since the Challenger re- 

 turned from her famous cruise, and the scientific 

 world has been looking, of late perhaps somewhat impa- 

 tiently, for the first instalment of the long series of 

 volumes which is to embody the results of the investiga- 

 tions of the best-equipped voyagers who ever left the 

 shores of England for the purpose of enlarging the 

 bounds of natural knowledge. 



But this is one of the many cases in which impatience 

 is more natural than justifiable. In the "General Intro- 

 duction " with which Sir Wyville Thomson prefaces the 

 " Reports " which are to appear in the first volume of the 

 great work for which he is responsible, he mentions 

 that the zoological specimens collected and preserved 

 in alcohol during the voyage filled 2270 large glass 

 jars, 1749 smaller bottles, 1S60 glass tubes, and 176 

 tin cases ; while 22 casks and 180 tin cases held objects 

 preserved in other ways. 



In dealing with this vast mass of material, Sir Wyville 

 Thomson justly considered it to be his duty to obtain, as 

 far as it was practicable so to do, the co-operation of the 

 best specialists in every department, irrespective of 

 nationality ; and it is gratifying to find that, in reply 

 to his invitations, many foreign men of science of great 

 distinction have willingly associated themselves with a 

 strong corps of English workers. This matter being 

 arranged, the specimens had to be distributed to their 

 destinations ; and the several workers, rarely men of 

 much leisure, found themselves embarked in months or 

 years of critical and laborious investigation. Along 

 with this went the slow process of writing out the 

 results, and the still slower of executing the illustrations 

 with due care, all of which had to be finished before the 

 printer could begin his operations. 



To those who are familiar with the amount of expendi- 

 ture of trouble and time whicb all these processes mean, 

 it will seem no small matter tl' ^t seven treatises, illustrated 

 by a large number of admirably executed plates, are now 

 Vol. XXIII.— No. 575 



ready for distribution, and that three more volumes of no 

 less magnitude are to be issued before the end of the 

 year ; so that the fifteen or sixteen volumes of which the 

 whole work is to consist may reasonably be expected to 

 be in the hands of the public by 1884, 



The " Zoological Reports," as these separate treatises 

 upon each group of specimens are termed, are printed as 

 they are completed, and are to be issued, without reference 

 to the order which they will eventually occupy, as soon as 

 sufficient matter to form a volume is ready. Each memoir 

 will be separately paged, and will have its own legend for 

 reference. This arrangement has been adopted in order that 

 working naturalists may have access to the '' Reports " as 

 early as practicable, and that the multiplication of synonyms 

 by the simultaneous publication of species by different 

 observers may be avoided. With this object in view, it 

 would perhaps have been even better to have issued every 

 " Report " as it was ready ; but it may be that there are 

 practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of this 

 course. 



The present writer, though a fairly swift reader, does 

 not profess to have perused the seven elaborate memoirs 

 now presented on behalf of the Challenger ; nor if he had 

 does he lay claim to 'that zoological omniscience whicli 

 would justify him in criticising them in detail. But as 

 ?>Ir. Brady deals with the Ostracoda, Mr. Davidson with 

 the Brachiopoda, Dr. Guntherv/ith the Shore Fishes, Prof. 

 KoUiker with the Pennatulids, Mr. Moseley with those 

 groups of Corals which he has made his special study, 

 Mr. Parker with the Development of the Chelonian 

 Skull, and Prof. Turner with the Cetacea, it is c^uestion- 

 able if any extant finite knowledge is likely to enable its 

 possessor to say anything more or better than they have 

 said on these respective topics. And, as has been already 

 remarked, there can be no sort of doubt as to the artistic 

 excellence of the 122 quarto plates which illustrate and 

 adorn the text. 



Sir Wyville Thomson's " General Introduction," ho\v- 

 ever, is extremely readable both in size and in substance, 

 and may be commended to that patient omnivore, the 

 General Reader, who will find in its earlier pages a readily 

 intelligible account of the fittings and appliances of the 

 Clutlleiij^er, and of the means by which the greatest 

 depths of the sea have been made to yield some, at any 



