Septembee 4, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



311 



present the novelty of viewpoint which is 

 peculiar to parts of books such as those by 

 Bunge and Abderhalden. The element of 

 propaganda is nowhere present; but as an 

 orderly arranged storehouse of contributions 

 to the literature it remains unsurpassed. 

 Many of us have learned to depend upon 

 Hammarsten's "Physiological Chemistry" as 

 a reliable help of almost cyclopaedic compre- 

 hensiveness. Both the author, on the eve of 

 his retirement from active teaching, and the 

 translator have rendered a further useful and 

 creditable service. 



Lafayette B. Mendel 

 Yale Univeesity 



Devonic Fishes of the New York Formations. 



By Charles R. Eastman. New York State 



Museum, Memoir 10. Albany, New York 



State Education Department. 1907. Pp. 



1-236, plates 1-15. 



This is unquestionably the most important 

 contribution to the study of American fossil 

 fishes since the publication of Newberry's 

 classic monograph nearly two decades ago. 

 It embodies the results of years of painstaking 

 research; is carefully elaborated, beautifully 

 illustrated and, like everything else from Dr. 

 Eastman-'s pen, clearly and interestingly 

 written. 



It is, of course, out of the question to at- 

 tempt here a discussion of the many novel 

 facts and interpretations in which the memoir 

 abounds. We may only touch here and there 

 upon some point of special importance. 



One of the valuable features of the memoir 

 consists in the large number of new forms 

 and new localities that are put on record. 

 The most noteworthy among these, perhaps, is 

 that of the discovery in America of the genus 

 Asterolepis. This is represented by only a 

 single armor plate, unfortunately, but the 

 figures and description leave no doubt that 

 the specimen is an Asterolepis. It comes 

 from a lower Devonic horizon (Chapman 

 sandstone of Maine) — a circumstance of high 

 importance; for inasmuch as all the European 



^ " The Paleozoic Fishes of North America," 

 Monograph U. S. Geol. Survey, XVI., 1889. 



species' of Asterolepis have come from the 

 Upper Devonic, the present specimen carries 

 the history of the genus farther back in time 

 than hitherto known. It proves, too, that the 

 organisms of the antiarchan style of structure 

 attained high specialization as early as the 

 Lower Devonic, when they were already rep- 

 resented by three genera, Asterolepis, Fterich- 

 thys and Microirachius, thus making almost 

 positive the indication that the ancestors of 

 the Antiarcha may one day be discovered as 

 far back as the Upper or Middle Siluric. 



There are also described a new species of 

 Ptyctodus, one of Machwr acanthus, one of 

 Cladodus: the last, represented by a tooth 

 from the Middle Devonic of Ohio which is 

 declared to represent the oldest cladodont 

 shark yet known (p. 62). Judging by its 

 size one must infer that the cladodonts of 

 that early day had already taken on goodly 

 proportions. 



Among arthrodiran " fishes " an interesting 

 small dinichthyid is described, Dinichthys 

 dolichocephalus; a new Glyptaspis, and a new 

 genus Protitanichthys. In connection with 

 this new genus, the type of which (a cranial 

 shield) I have had the opportunity of exam- 

 ining, thanks to the kindness of Dr. Eastman, 

 I regret that I can not put myself in accord 

 with the interpretation given by the author. 

 Dr. Eastman regards this form as a primi- 

 tive TitanicMhys — chiefly because the head 

 shield has a pineal element that is broader 

 than long. But this fact, in the reviewer's 

 opinion, is rather inadequate proof that the 

 species is a Titan. TitanicMhys is not the 

 only Arthrodire with an abbreviated pineal. 

 Dr. A. S. Woodward having long since shown 

 the presence of such a pineal in Phlyctcenas- 

 pis.' And, moreover, a careful study of the 

 type specimen shows the pineal to be really 

 elongated as in typical coccosteids. What 

 Dr. Eastman figures as the posterior suture 

 of the abbreviated pineal, I am convinced, is 



'With the reservation indicated by Eastman 

 (p. 40, foot-note), in favor of the obscure frag- 

 ments described by Pander from the Siluric of 

 the Baltic provinces. 



° Geological Magazine, Vol. IX., 1892, pi. i, 



