July 21, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



79 



birth . . ." When, therefore, the foregoing 

 complete explanation was furnished Professor 

 Lewis he generously replied: "The chief inter- 

 est in anatomical publications is in the observa- 

 tions they record; and as to the interpretation 

 of the unusual specimens which you described 

 so clearly, we seem to be in entire agreement." 

 Leslie B. Aeey 



NOETHWESTEKN UNIVEESITY 



Medical School 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Reptiles of the World. By Raymond Ditmars. 



New York, The Maemillan Company, 1932. 



pp. xi plus 373; 90 plates, 1 colored. 



This book is a reprint ^ of the first edition 

 (1910), the only change being in the arrange- 

 ment of plates. I believe now, as I did in 1911 

 (Science, N. S., XXXIV, pp. 54-55), that it 

 is an excellent popular account of a group 

 that has been neglected by writers on natural 

 history, that it is rather well proportioned, and 

 that it contains much of interest to professional 

 zoologists and herpetologists. 



I made a few rather unimportant criticisms 

 in the review of the fli'st edition, viz., a few 

 typographical errors, absence of plate refer- 

 ences, too few headings, the amount of space 

 devoted to the habits of captive specimens, and 

 an antiquated nomenclature. Unfortunately, 

 since the text is an exact reprint, these criti- 

 cisms still apply, and it must now be added 

 that the book is decidedly out-of-date. Twelve 

 years see many additions to our knowledge of 

 even those groups which receive relatively little 

 attention, of which the Reptilia is one: more 

 forms are known, more information upon habits 

 and distribution is available, and the accepted 

 nomenclature is different than in 1910. Much 

 of the new information might well find a place 

 even in a popular book. 



It is not because I am interested in systematic 

 herpetology that I protest against the retention 

 in works of this kind of an obsolete nomencla- 

 ture. Admittedly it is not important in itself 

 to the amateur naturalist whether the racers 

 are called Bascanion, Zamenis or Coluber, and 

 it may be granted that the use of the latest 

 accepted names would often confuse the ama- 



teur natui-alist or beginning student who has 

 become familiar with the forms under other 

 names. However, it must also be admitted that 

 the retention of old names in recent popular 

 natural histories and text-books makes it 

 equally difficult for the student to read the 

 modern literature on particular groups. In 

 1910 there was some excuse for retaining an 

 out-of-date nomenclature, since there was not at 

 that time a recent check-list of the North Amer- 

 ican reptiles; but the present edition would be 

 much more valuable if the nomenclature were 

 based upon the excellent check-list of Stejneger 

 and Barbour, with the names used in the earlier 

 edition given as synonyms. 



In one respect the book is decidedly im- 

 proved. The total number of pages, including 

 plates, has been reduced from 463 to 419 by 

 printing the plates on both sides of the page. 

 The iirst edition was too bulky, and the present 

 one would be improved by the use of a thinner 

 text paper. 



As I pointed out in 1911, there is a distinct 

 need for a general book upon the natural his- 

 tory of reptiles. This one goes a long way 

 towards meeting this need; but it is sincerely 

 to be hoped that before another printing the 

 old plates will be discarded and the subject 

 matter brought up to date. 



Alexander G. Ruthven 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EXTREMELY 



SMALL CAPACITIES AND 



INDUCTANCES 



Hyslop and Carman^ have recently described 

 an undamped wave method of measuring small 

 changes of capacity such as are obtained by 

 introducing liquids as the dielectrics in the 

 capacity of an oscillating circuit. Thomas- 

 has applied this same beat-note oscillating cir- 

 cuit method to the measurement of the capacity 

 of transmission line insulators. 



The authors described' a method of using 

 the hot-cathode Braun tube as the detector of 



1 Phys. Rev., XV, p. 243, 1920. 

 ^Electrical Journal, XVIII, p. 349, 1921. 

 ^Fliys. Rev., XVIII, p. 331. 



