540 



NA TURE 



[October 2 1, 1922 



to show the citizens of Hull the many points of interest 

 their city possesses, and of which they are the trustees. 

 The wealth of illustrations considerably adds- to 

 the interest of this work. Future compilers of the 

 British Association local handbook will do well to 

 study carefully the Hull model. \Y. E. C. 



Our Bookshelf. 



The Biology of the Seashore. By F. W. Flattery and 

 ('. L. Walton. Pp. xvi + 336 + 16 plates. (London : 

 Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd., 1922.) 165. net. 

 The study of zoology from the ecological standpoint 

 has made rapid strides in America under the energetic 

 leadership of Dr. Adams and Dr. Shelford, and there 

 has been a steady output of text-books and popular 

 books on Nature study written from this point of view. 

 In this country, zoological ecology has received very 

 little attention, and we welcome, therefore, if only on 

 these grounds, this excellent work on the biology of the 

 seashore. As the authors point out, their book is not 

 intended to supersede but to supplement previous 

 works which halve been written on classificatory and 

 morphological lines. In fact, they demand a previous 

 knowledge of classification and external morphology 

 in those who use their work. Given this the authors 

 have directed special attention to functional biology 

 and to the adaptations which organisms present to 

 marine life in all its phases. 



The book is an exhaustive summary of the known 

 facts of marine biology from the ecological point of 

 view, and reveals a wide knowledge of the literature 

 of the subject. The illustrations are good and adequate, 

 and the advice given on the methods of ecological 

 research should be most useful to students. The 

 authors, however, have not been content merely to 

 summarise known facts. The book bristles with 

 suggestions for research and further inquiry, and in 

 this respect is most stimulating. It should be in the 

 hands of all students of marine biology. With its help 

 more real knowledge of life in the sea will be obtained 

 than from any other text-book we know. It is not 

 enough to know the mere population of the sea ; some 

 knowledge of the laws governing life there, and of the 

 actions and interactions of organism and environment 

 is vastly more interesting and stimulating, and the 

 work under notice supplies the right kind of guidance 

 in this inspiring field of study. 



Catalogue oj the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and Draioings 



in the British Museum {Natural History). Vol. 6. 



Supplement: A-I. Pp. iv + 511+48. (London: 



British Museum (Natural History), 1922.) 2I. 155-. 



The Library of the British Museum of Natural History 



is probably one of the most complete, and certainly one 



of the most important, libraries of works on natural 



history in the world. The publication of a catalogue 



of its contents has been of immense service to scientific 



workers, who find in it a valuable guide to the literature 



of their subject and a wealth of bibliographical detail 



which is of the greatest value in settling vexed questions 



of priority and ensuring accuracy of reference. The 



first half of the supplement to the main catalogue has 



NO. 2764, VOL. I ioj 



now been issued and serves to give some idea of the 

 natural growth of this splendid library. Like the pre- 

 ceding volumes, it has been prepared by Mr. B. B. 

 Woodward with the same meticulous care and accuracy, 

 and includes as before the results of much biblio- 

 graphical research by the author and Mr. C. D. Sher- 

 born. The 48 pages of " Addenda and Corrigenda " to 

 the main catalogue consist almost entirely of additional 

 bibliographical information which has accumulated 

 since the catalogue was published. 



The expenditure of public money on the publication 

 of a catalogue of this kind is more than justified by its 

 extreme value and usefulness, though it is a pity that 

 so valuable a work as this supplement should have 

 been sent out in a paper cover. For its own value and 

 for the sake of uniformity it is worth a binding similar 

 to its predecessors. Scientific workers are grateful to 

 Mr. Woodward and to the trustees of the British 

 Museum for having made the resources of their library 

 known in this readily accessible form. 



Obras completas y correspondencia cientifica de Floren- 

 tiuo Ameghino. Volumen 3. La Antigiiedad del 

 Hombre en el Plata. Dirigida por Alfredo J. 

 Torcelli. Pp. 821. (La Plata : Taller de Im- 

 presiones Oficiales, 1915.) n.p. 

 The third volume of the handsome collected edition 

 of the late Florentino Ameghino's geological and 

 palgsontological works now being issued by the govern- 

 ment of the province of Buenos Aires, is a reprint of his 

 treatise on the antiquity of man in La Plata originally 

 published in 1880. Francisco Moreno had then 

 just founded the Anthropological and Archaeological 

 Museum at Buenos Aires (afterwards removed to 

 La Plata), and Ameghino himself was studying with 

 Henri Gervais in Paris, where he exhibited part of his 

 collection at the Universal Exposition. The author 

 was thus well furnished with materials, and had un- 

 usual opportunities of making himself acquainted with 

 the latest advances in the subject of the antiquity of 

 man. While describing the results of his own re- 

 searches, he therefore took the opportunity of making 

 many references to European and North American 

 work which were illuminating. His volume is a most 

 exhaustive discussion of the remains of the handiwork 

 of prehistoric man discovered in Argentina, illustrated 

 by twenty-five large plates. Of the skeleton of man 

 himself no important fragments had at that time been 

 found. The geological observations are particularly 

 valuable and interesting, and Ameghino seems to make 

 it quite clear for the first time that the man of the 

 pampas was a contemporary of the extinct glyptodonts 

 or giant armadillos, and actually used their large bony 

 carapaces as roofs for his lowly habitations. Although 

 naturally out-of-date, the whole treatise is a valuable 

 record of facts and observations, in which the reprint 

 will stimulate renewed interest. A. S. W. 



Le Pole Sud : Histoire des voyages antarctiques. Par J. 



Rouch. Pp. 249. (Paris : Ernest Flammarion, 



192 1.) 7 francs net. 

 M. Rouch was one of the officers of the Pourquoi Pas ? 

 in Dr. Charcot's second Antarctic expedition, and 

 familiarity with the conditions of navigation and the 

 privations of wintering in the Far South has given him 



