830 



ISCmNCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 233. 



Society's gardens,' appears on the ' sec- 

 ondary slip,' under tlie form 'Various points 

 of anatomy of Manatus inungiiis and lati- 

 rostris.^ Such an example misleads, result- 

 ing in inaccurate citations, and sanctions 

 the loose manner in which, unfortunately, 

 citations of literature are much too fre- 

 quently made. Instead of adopting the 

 most direct and natural method, there has 

 been an attempt to introduce a certain 

 ' Schematismus,' which is impractical, how- 

 ever, because it is not rigidly adhered to. 

 But the new ' Catalogue ' is to he in English, 

 in contrast to the plans elaborated by the 

 OfiBce international de bibliographie in 

 Brussels and by the Congres international 

 de bibliogi'aphie held at the same place in 

 the year 1895, which the Committee of the 

 Royal Society has regarded simply as non- 

 existent. This use of English (ignoring 

 of the work of others) extends even to the 

 specification of the size of the cards (which, 

 of course, differs from that of the cards now 

 in use) in English inches and lines, not in 

 the metric scale, which is more and more ex- 

 tensively used even in the scientific circles of 

 England (v. Report, p. [15], 22). It is a 

 great satisfaction that Professor W. E. 

 Hoyle, who has attained high scientific emi- 

 nence and possesses experience in biblio- 

 graphic and library matters, criticises the 

 proceedings of the Royal Society quite as 

 harshly as M. Richet (v. his communica- 

 tion in Natural Science, Vol. IX., Julj', 1896, 

 p. 43, and the addendum of the editor of 

 the periodical, p. 48-52). 



It would be going too far to go into de- 

 tails ; certain points, however, may be of 

 interest. Under the Division L (Zoology) 

 35, ' Taxonomy and Systematic,' it is ex- 

 presslj' stated that the book-edition of the 

 catalogue is to present a complete system- 

 atic record of the literature of the year, 

 " similar to that which is at present carried 

 out in the ' sj'tematic' sections of the Zoolog- 

 ical Record." Therefore, there are to be 



added to the cards, with the names of new 

 genera and species, statements as to the 

 families and orders to which they belong, 

 and as to the locality where they are found ; 

 valuable information about genera and 

 species already known is also to be given. 

 Fossil species are to be treated in the same 

 way (notwithstanding that there is likewise 

 an elaborated system of Paleozoology). 

 The Book Catalogue in this I'espect differs 

 from the Card Catalogue. The latter con- 

 tains only the General, the Taxonomic and 

 the Phylogenetic ; it is to contain the names 

 of new families, sub-families and other im- 

 portant groups, as w^ell as synonymic re- 

 marks. The separation of the two editions 

 — one of which is to be issued in card form, 

 whereas the other, giving details of the 

 new genera and species, is to be employed 

 only in the preparation of the book-edition 

 — is very artificial and arbitrary. The ar- 

 rangement of other divisions of ' Zoology' 

 is also extremely unnatural and wanting in 

 comprehensiveness. Under L 11, ' Physi- 

 ology,' are found in motley array : " Par- 

 thenogenesis, Psedogenesis, Dissogony, Her- 

 maphroditism, Function of the Sense Organs, 

 Function of Special Structures, e. g., of 

 Glands, Environmental Effects, Regenera- 

 tion, Change of Function." This is cited 

 as an example of what in Zoologj' may come 

 under the heading ' Physiology. ' If one 

 compares with this 'N Physiology,' which re- 

 ceives the qualification ' (animal) ,' the latter 

 (animal) is found to contradict the adopted 

 classification ; for the whole division is es- 

 sentially human or vertebrate physiology, 

 with everywhere additions concerning the 

 pathological conditions of the organs and 

 the effects of drugs, and only a few chapters, 

 rather as appendices, on lower animals. 

 The existence of an elaborated scheme for 

 Physiology by Ch. Richet is passed by 

 with the same silence as is the zoological 

 scheme worked out by me in the Zoologischer 

 Anzeiger. Whether the branches embraced 



