Mabch 19, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



463 



It remains now to point out certain really 

 bad defects in the work. In the first place 

 the title is misleading. From^ it a prospective 

 reader would anticipate a comprehensive 

 treatise — comprehensive, that is, in the sense 

 of reaching to the seas of the earth generally. 

 As a matter of fact the only indication the 

 book contains that the author knows of the 

 existence of oceans beyond that contiguous to 

 northwestern Europe is just enough reference 

 to others to impress the reader with the idea 

 that whatever such there chance to be, may 

 be ignored, except so far as they illustrate 

 the central truths, truths, that is, that center 

 in the North Sea. Think, for instance, of a 

 discussion of " The Productivity of the Sea " 

 that does not mention the cod-fisheries of 

 Newfoundland, the salmon-fisheries of Alaska, 

 and the fisheries generally of Japan and 

 China! 



How shall a professedly general treatment 

 of the problem of the depletion of the sea be 

 characterized that makes no reference to the 

 Alaskan salmon hatcheries or to the perennial 

 effort to save from destruction the fur-seal 

 herds of the Behring Sea? 



Had the author taken as his title " Condi- 

 tions of Life in the North Sea " or something 

 of the sort, he would have saved himseK from 

 the grave criticism, that must now be passed 

 upon him. Any moderately informed reader 

 will surely ask: Does the author not know 

 what has been and is being done in other 

 parts of the world on many of the problems 

 considered, or knowing does he deliberately 

 ignore? Desiring to be fair which alterna- 

 tive shall we reject as being the less credit- 

 able? 



Is an author's deficiency professional or 

 ethical, which permits him to discuss in a 

 general book the " Stratifications of the 

 Plankton " and make no reference to the work 

 of Alexander Agassiz? 



Professor W. A. Herdman and his col- 

 leagues of the Marine Biological Association 

 of Liverpool have contributed importantly to 

 the knowledge of the sea and its life, par- 

 ticularly of the western British seas. Does 

 Mr. Johnstone find nothing here deserving 



mention beyond the fact of footnote value 

 (p. 191), that Herdman has made "some in- 

 teresting suggestions as to the use of cope- 

 poda as human food?" 



Wherefore the book's deficiency in the use 

 of accumulated knowledge? The candid, 

 measurably informed reader is forced to this 

 question over and over again. 



Some of the chapters were turned over to 

 the printer while their English was yet sorely 

 in need of pruning and finishing. 



On account of the limited amount of food yolk 

 development is a rapid process and the little fish 

 usually hatches out from the egg in a week or 

 two, but is a very feeble and helpless creature 

 (p. 83). {Z1 words.) 



On account of the limited food-yolk de- 

 velopment is rapid and the little fish usually 

 hatches in a week or two, but is very feeble 

 and helpless. (27 words.) 



Ten useless words in thirty-seven are too 

 many. They make twenty-seven per cent, of 

 superfluity. On the score of mere physical 

 loading this is unfair to the printer, the pur- 

 chaser and the reader, to say nothing of the 

 writer. Furthermore, there are the literary 

 proprieties. Surely they deserve some con- 

 sideration even at the hands of the scientific 

 man. True no great number of sentences are 

 as hypertrophied as is this, but it is by no 

 means unique and those that approach it are 

 not rare. 



Despite these unsavory remarks brought 

 upon itself, the book's merits far outweigh its 

 defects. All English speaking people inter- 

 ested in the larger aspects of marine biology 

 should feel grateful to Mr. Johnstone for 

 having written it even though they can hardly 

 help wishing he might have made it better in 

 some respects. 



Wm. E. Eitter 



Manual of Practical Assaying. By the late 

 H. Van E. Furman, E.M. Kevised and en- 

 larged by William D. Pardoe^ A.M., Assist- 

 ant in Mineralogy, Princeton University. 

 Cloth, 8vo. Pp. xi -1-497. Price $3.00. 

 It was most gratifying to find that this 

 book, which has been considered as a standard, 

 and had been used extensively as a text- 



