August 21, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



235 



94-186. Eoyal 8vo. Schleicher Preres, 



Editeurs. Paris. 1907. 



The existence in Europe of hundreds of 

 Quaternary and prehistoric stations yielding 

 copious remains of men and animals occasions 

 the desire on the part of the archeologist to 

 study for himself the bones which he may have 

 exhumed from grotto or lake dwelling. 

 Hitherto, in order to identify these remains 

 he has had to take them to some museum hav- 

 ing a large osteological collection, or to search 

 through the literature for illustrations of par- 

 ticular groups, or to have recourse to the 

 general works of Cuvier and of DeBlainville, 

 which are not always accessible and which 

 were designed rather for the morphologist than 

 for the archeologist. 



To facilitate the identification of such col- 

 lections M. Hue has placed in the hands of 

 the student this veritable " Musee Osteo- 

 logique " containing no less than 2,187 orig- 

 inal figures of mammalian bones. The 

 diawings have been very skillfully and ac- 

 curately made from nature by the author him- 

 self, the mechanical form and the arrangement 

 of the book are excellent, and the price (24 

 fr.) is moderate. Eorty-one recent mammals 

 are represented, including the principal types 

 whose ancestors are found in the Quaternary 

 of Europe. The work is divided into three 

 parts. Part I. treats of osteometrical methods, 

 Part II. figures the cranium and dentition. 

 Part 111. the limb bones. 



In Part I. the author endeavors to put the 

 osteometry of the mammalia upon a practical 

 basis. Hitherto, he thinks, the measurements 

 given in different works upon Quaternary 

 mammals are too frequently unsatisfactory 

 because each author has followed his own 

 system of measurements. Owing to the frag- 

 mentary character of most Quaternary crania 

 and limb bones, the important longitudinal and 

 transverse diameters are often unattainable, 

 and the effective comparison of any two simi- 

 lar fragments is limited by the number of 

 exactly corresponding measurements given. 

 Hence the justification for multiplying meas- 

 urements and for the present effort to stand- 

 ardize the mensuration of the mammalian 

 skeleton in general. 



For this purpose the well-established meas- 

 urements and ratios of physical anthropology 

 are not sufficient. Measurements and ratios 

 applicable to all mammals are needed, and, by 

 reason of the divergence in type, additional 

 standard measurements for each order. 



Selecting the skull and lower jaws of the 

 dog as a representative mammal, the author 

 establishes, defines and illustrates (PL 1-7) a 

 long series of paired points, between which 

 measurements may be taken in normal mam- 

 malian skulls. 



The author then takes up the different orders 

 in turn and establishes similar paired points, 

 which are especially characteristic in the 

 Carnivora, Eodents, Euminants, Equidse and 

 Suid». Standard measurements for the 

 dental system are then established and the 

 subject of cranial indices is discussed and 

 illustrated. The mensuration of the limb 

 bones and vertebrae is similarly treated (pp. 

 28-50, pi. 8-21). 



In the third part (pi. 79-186) the limb 

 bones are figured in the same systematic 

 manner, the Euminants again being very fully 

 represented. As all the drawings of each part, 

 e. g., the humerus, are brought together, one 

 can very quickly identify a specimen by glan- 

 cing over a few plates. On the other hand, 

 one can readily follow up the osteology of a 

 single form by consulting the alphabetical 

 table of species. The smaller crania and 

 practically all the teeth are represented as of 

 the natural size, the larger objects are always 

 given in some convenient scale and centimeter 

 scales are given in many of the plates. 



The reviewer has gone over the plates with 

 some care, but has not noticed any material 

 errors, though it can scarcely be hoped that 

 none are there. On the contrary, the many 

 admirable features of the work become very 

 apparent. For instance, the roots as well as 

 the crowns of the teeth are represented, a 

 feature more or less neglected even in the 

 best odontographies. The grouping of the 

 same part in different animals, and the repre- 

 sentation of each object in orthogonal pro- 

 jection, bring out the underlying family re- 

 semblances and differences, accentuating 

 diagnostic characters which would not be 



