April 15, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



367 



all accepted the invitation of the Interna- 

 tional Research Council to take part in this 

 common enterprise. 



The International Research Council has 

 initiated the formation of unions for the 

 conduct of scientific work. In the subjects of 

 astronomy, geodesy and geophysics, and chem- 

 istry such unions are actually at work, and 

 two others have been formed. Once an inter- 

 national union is established it becomes au- 

 tonomous, and conducts its work without 

 interference from the International Research 

 Council except in a few matters in which a 

 cortunon policy is desirable. 



Every one knows that the decisions of an 

 international conference are only advisory, 

 and have no binding force on the separate 

 countries. Representatives taking part in the 

 conference report to the home authorities 

 concerned, who act as they think fit, accept- 

 ing, no doubt, in general such recommenda- 

 tions as have secured practical unanimity. At 

 a recent meeting in Brussels certain countries 

 desired to initiate the formation of an Inter- 

 national Union of Biology, and their repre- 

 sentatives tentatively drew up some statutes. 

 These were submitted to a competent body in 

 this country, which reported unfavorably, and 

 there the matter ends so far as Great Britain 

 is concerned. This does not, of course, pre- 

 vent France, Italy, the United States, and 

 other countries from forming a Union of 

 Biology if they wish. I fail to understand 

 where the grievance of the Times comes in. — 

 Arthur Schuster, General Secretary of the 

 International Research Council, in Nature. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



THE TERRESTRIAL LIFE ASSOCIATED WITH 

 THE COALS OF NORTHERN FRANCE 



In a large, very detailed, and well-illustrated 

 memoir published by the French Ministry of 

 Public Works,^ Dr. Pierre Pruvost of the Uni- 



1 ' ' Introduction a. 1 'Etude du Terrain HouDler 

 du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais. La Fauna Continen- 

 tale du Terrain Houiller du Nord de la France. 

 MSniaires pour servir a 1 'explication de la carte 

 gfiologique dgtaillfe de la France," pp. 584 

 (quarto), 29 pis., 51 text figs., Paris, 1919. 



versity of Lille Museum, has given us the 

 most extensive work so far published on the 

 fresh-water and latid invertebrates of the Goal 

 Measures of northern France, that is, of the 

 Westphalian, the equivalent of our Pottsville 

 and Allegheny series. The memoir is based 

 on the "documents preserved in the museum 

 of the University of Lille . . . which never 

 could have been brought together without the 

 cooperation of the mining engineers and the 

 scientific men who are exploiting the basin of 

 the north," and its object is iso to define the 

 faunal zones .as to give to these same mining 

 men fixed points from which they can reckon 

 the stratigraphic position of their coals. 



From the 17 species heretofore known in the 

 fauna, the numlber is now increased to 116, 54 

 of which are neiw. They represent the follow- 

 ing classes: 13 bivalves, 1 tubiculous annelid, 

 6 ostracods, 5 phyllopods (3 new), 3 Malacos- 

 traca, 2 Syncarida, 53 specifically determined 

 insects (43 new), 1 eurypterid, 3 limulids, 7 

 spiders (3 new), 4 sharks, 6 crossopterygians 

 (2 new), and 12 ganoids (3 new). These forms 

 are found in 6,970 feet of Westphalian strata, 

 divided into 5 formations and 9 members, most 

 of which are of fresh-Tvater origin, since it is 

 only in the lower 2,350 feet that there is occa- 

 sional evidence of the sea, this being most de- 

 cided near the base. 



The common fossils with limited ranges and 

 therefore of value in correlating the various 

 horizons are shown to be (1) the bivalves 

 {Oarhonicola, Anthracomya^ Naiadites), (2) 

 the phyllopods {Esiheria, Leaia), and (3) the 

 scales and teeth of fishes. The ostracods Car- 

 honia and Cypridina and the annelid Spirorhis 

 are all long-ranging, while the insects, even 

 though they are of very short range — in fact, 

 but very few forms extend through more than 

 one zone — ^occur too rarely to be useful in de- 

 tailed stratigraphy, other than of a local basin. 

 It is interesting to note that the fresh-water 

 life has in its time duration about the same 

 zoning value as the plants, and that both 

 classes of organic evidence lead to the making 

 of the same general time divisions. With 

 these results attained, the author then paral- 



