212 



SCIENCE 



N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 763 



crown of the affected plant, and frequently 

 occur an inch or two up on the stem. Though 

 usually small, or in an irregular divided mass, 

 they may be round and unbroken, and three or 

 four inches in diameter. The interior of the 

 gall is composed of small, irregular cavities 

 in the hypertrophied tissue, the chambers be- 

 ing filled with masses of brown resting spores 

 about forty micro-millimeters in diameter. 



A more detailed account of the disease as it 

 occurs in California will be published shortly. 

 Elizabeth H. Smith 



Depabtment of Plant Pathology, 

 Untveksity of Califoknia, 

 June 2, 1909 



THE WEST INDIAN SEAL AT THE AQUAEIUM 



The New York Aquarium received on June 

 14, 1909, an adult male and three yearling 

 specimens of the rare West Indian seal 

 (Monachus tropicalis). One of the latter was 

 in a weak condition and died the day after ar- 

 rival. The others are apparently doing well. 

 The specimens were procured from a dealer in 

 live turtles at Progresso, Yucutan, who re- 

 ported the species as a great rarity. They were 

 presumably captured at either the Triangle or 

 the Alacran islets in the Gulf of Oampeachy, 

 the only known resorts of the species at the 

 present time, so far as I am aware. 



They are probably the only specimens of this 

 nearly extinct species now living in captivity. 

 Its original range included the coasts of Cuba, 

 Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas. For the 

 last half century it has apparently been re- 

 stricted to the islands of Yucatan. It was 

 well known to the sailors of Columbus and 

 was later the basis of a seal fishery. 



In Science for April 13, 1906, 1 recorded the 

 killing of a specimen at Key West, Florida, on 

 February 26, 1906. The species had not been 

 seen in Florida for about thirty years. 



The New York Aquarium received two speci- 

 mens in 1897, one of which lived in the 

 aquarium until 1903. Both of these animals 

 had the singular habit of filling their cheeks 

 with water and blowing it suddenly and with 

 considerable force into the faces of visitors 

 leaning over the pool. It will be interesting 

 to discover whether the specimens now in the 



building develop this trick, which for years 

 excited the amusement, and sometimes the 

 wrath, of visitors. Unlike the other Phocidae 

 kept on exhibition here, Monachus is noisy, the 

 young often roaring harshly. 



0. h. townsend 

 New Yoek Aquakium 



8GIBNTIFI0 BOOKS 

 Scientific Papers. By SiK George Howard 



Darwin. Cambridge, at the University 



Press. Vol. I., pp. siv + 459 ; Vol. II., pp. 



xvi -|- 514. 



The task of the reviewer who undertakes the 

 consideration of a republication of matter 

 which has been for some years before the pub- 

 lic in an accessible form, is not particularly 

 easy. He may, of course, take refuge in state- 

 ments more or less detailed of the contents of 

 the volumes before him and say little more 

 than the intelligent reader can glean by turn- 

 ing over the pages himself. Or he may write a 

 few paragraphs on the history of the subjects 

 treated, showing the author's relation thereto 

 and his place in their development. More 

 often he seizes a few points of a controversial 

 character and in discussing them simply adds 

 to the literature of the subject. No one of 

 these methods appears to be satisfactory from 

 the point of view of the reader. Brief reviews 

 not intended for serious study, although they 

 may be the result of such study, should, it 

 seems, be written chiefly to save time and labor 

 for the reader and perhaps to express the 

 opinions of the reviewer, since in scientific 

 journals at least the editorial " we " has ceased 

 to be even a disguised fiction. Such reviews 

 thus necessarily pass into the class of ephem- 

 eral productions which may have value at the 

 time of publication, but which only add to the 

 labor of future students if they contain mat- 

 ter belonging properly to the development of 

 the subject. 



If a writer accepts this view and takes to 

 the criticism of matters beyond the mechanical 

 detail of form and arrangement, an estimate 

 of the writer and his work, however dangerous, 

 is necessarily the main topic. After all, such 

 criticism is merely a single opinion as to 

 whether the attitude of the scholar towards his 



