NOVEMBEB 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



685 



(Bergen), George K\rsten (Halle), Al- 

 BRECHT Pexck (Berlin), Carl Wesenberg- 

 LcND (Hillerod), Eichard Woltereck 

 (Leipzig) und Friedrich Zschokke (Basel). 

 Eedigiert von R. Woltereck. Bd. I., XXII., 

 900, 76 pp., 21 Taf . Leipzig, Verlag Dr. W. 

 Klinkhardt; New York, G. E. Stechert. 

 1909. M. 30. 



The past ten years have witnessed the origin 

 of more than a score of new journals or serials 

 of a periodical nature, primarily with zoolog- 

 ical contents or including zoology as one of 

 their main fields. Some of these are the or- 

 gans of institutions of research or of societies 

 of investigators, new and old. Others owe 

 their origin to single investigators or their 

 schools, and still others are the logical out- 

 come of the increasing tendency to specializa- 

 tion and represent particular fields of re- 

 search. The journal in hand, which is now 

 in its second volume, owes its origin in part 

 to the last-named cause, but even more to a 

 movement in the opposite direction of gener- 

 alization based upon the cooperation of in- 

 vestigators and coordination of results in the 

 different sciences concerned in the causal 

 analysis of the problems of the biology of 

 fresh waters and of the sea. Investigators in 

 these fields of marine and fresh-water biology 

 in which the sciences of botany, zoology, bac- 

 teriology, chemistry, physics, hydrography 

 and physical geography are all intimately con- 

 cerned, have long felt the need of a common 

 journal or clearing house where all results 

 bearing on the biological aspects of these 

 problems may be published and where com- 

 prehensive reviews written from the stand- 

 point of hydrobiology and an up-to-date 

 bibliography might be found with more con- 

 venience, completeness and certainty than in 

 scattered journals in these diverse sciences. 

 The Revue bids fair to meet this need and to 

 afford a most acceptable and efficient organ 

 for the coordination of these several sciences 

 by keeping each separate branch of study in 

 constant touch with the advances made in all 

 other departments, and to render effective serv- 

 ice in extending and stimulating work in its 

 field. 



The international character of the journal is 

 suificiently indicated by the list of coadjutors, 

 editors and contributors and the comprehen- 

 siveness of its scope is attested by its program, 

 which appears in full in the " Prospekt," 

 issued in 1908, which forms the introduction 

 to the volume. 



Above all, the editors recognize the necessity of 

 a synthesis of our biological and hydrographic- 

 geological knowledge of the waters. Tliese two 

 spheres of investigation are inseparable; since the 

 water, whether as river, lake or sea, is never a 

 factor in the shaping of the earth without being 

 also a medium of life, and on the other hand, is 

 never a medium for life without at the same time 

 having an important influence in the shaping of 

 the earth's surface. 



As the biology of the waters has now passed 

 from the description of what is found therein into 

 the causes and origins of the animal and plant 

 life and the phenomena accompanying it, the 

 absolute necessity has arisen for the biologist to 

 really understand the nature of the separate 

 waters, their physics and chemistry as well as 

 their form and the history of their bed. 



On the other hand, with the advance of marine 

 and fresh-water investigations (in brief, the study 

 of the waters), it has also become necessary for 

 the hydrographer and geologist to understand 

 something of the biological factors, which are 

 operative in the physico-chemical changes of the 

 water as also in the formation of coasts, land and 

 deposits. 



The editors justify the inclusion of both 

 fresh-water and marine fields in the same 

 serial on the ground that a synthesis of re- 

 sults in the two is desirable because of their 

 common, overlapping, or interdependent prob- 

 lems. They also express the hope " to bring 

 into existence a helpful synthesis of the re- 

 sults obtained by the pure sciences and the 

 practical or applied sciences." 



Of the nearly 1,100 pages in the volume, 523 

 are given to original articles, usually upon 

 topics of more general interest, 180 to sum- 

 maries and critical reports, 80 to bibliogra- 

 phies and the remainder to short notices on 

 scientific matters, on biological stations, ex- 

 peditions, surveys and university courses in 

 the field of the journal. 



