Reviews — Report on the U.S. National Museum. 419 



Osborn's theory of successive invasions of an African fauna into 

 Europe seems at first siglit a very bold one. " It thus appears 

 that the Probosciclea, Hyracoidea, certain edentata, the antelopes, 

 the giraffes, the hippopotami, the most specialized ruminants, and 

 among the rodents, the anomalures, dormice, and jerboas, among 

 monkeys the baboons, may all have enjoyed their original adaptative 

 radiation in Africa." Three, or rather four, successive migrations 

 are supposed to have taken place, the first in the Upper Eocene, 

 the last in the Upper Pliocene. A similar theory cannot, of course, 

 be imagined if the permanence of continents and oceans is main- 

 tained, so that Osborn's theory is in the main a clever elaboration of 

 the ' Lemuria' hypothesis, in its original form, as conceived by P. L. 

 Sclater.^ This is the second of the two papers above referred to as 

 having been omitted by the author. A southern origin has, moreover, 

 been advocated for the Proboscidea in Neumayr's " Erdgeschichte," 

 and for the Cercopithecidce in the Geological Magazine (1896, 

 p. 436), partly with the same arguments advanced by Osborn (p. 58). 



But, if South Africa is a great centre of independent evolution 

 (p. 57), and has supplied South America with the edentates, as well 

 as the " stem forms of its Ungulates " (p. 54), why leave it in the 

 Arctogasa, whilst ' Neogfea ' is made to stand apart ? This is our 

 reason for objecting to ' Neogsea.' C. F. M. 



III. — Annual Eeport of the Board of Eegents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for the Year ending June 30, 1897. 

 8vo ; pp. 38 and 1,024. S. P. Langlby, Secretary Smithsonian 

 Institution. (Washington, 1899.) 



Part I. Eeport upon the Condition and Progress of the U.S. 



National Museum during the year ending June 30, 1897, by 



Charles D. Walcott, in charge of the U.S. National Museum. 



pp. 1-246. 

 Part II. Papers Describing and Illustrating Collections in the U.S. 



National Museum. 



(A) Eecent Foramiuifera. A descriptive Catalogue of specimens 

 dredged by the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer " Albatross," by 

 James Flint, M.D., U.S. Navy, Hon. Curator Division of Medicine, 

 U.S. National Museum, pp. 247-350, and 80 plates. 



(B) Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, based 

 on material in the U.S. National Museum, by Joseph D. McGuire, 

 Ellicott City, Maryland. pp. 351-646, 4 plates, a frontispiece, 

 and 239 figures in the text. 



(C) Catalogue of the series illustrating the Properties of Minerals, 

 by Wirt Tassin, Assistant Curator of Mineralogy, pp. 647-688. 



(D) Te Pito Te Henua, known as Eapa Nui ; commonly called 

 Easter Island, South Pacific Ocean. Latitude, 27^ 10' S. ; longitude, 

 109° 26' W. By George H. Cooke, Surgeon U.S.N, pp. 689-724. 



1 " The Mammals of Madagascar " : Quart. Journ. Science, vol. i, pp. 213-219 

 (1864). The four cautiously worclecl deductions at which Sclater amved may be 

 almost entirely endorsed at the present day. 



