582 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 745 



vised." The revision comprises, as expressed 

 by the author in its preface, " notes on three 

 more types of animal life and is bound in a 

 still more convenient form." Notwithstand- 

 ing the closing statement of the author as to 

 mode of binding, that of the former edition is 

 continued without modification. On this point 

 the reviewer had occasion to designate it as 

 " the rather crude, shoe-string method." A 

 more clumsy or inconvenient form of binding 

 for such a manual could hardly be devised, 

 and it is a pity the author's purpose of im- 

 provement might not have been realized. 



Certain errors pointed out in the former 

 review remain uncorrected in the present 

 edition. C. W. H. 



Ergebnisse und Fortscliriite der Zoologie — 

 herausgegeben von Dr. J. W. Spengel, 

 Professor der Zoologie in Giessen. Bd. I., 

 Heft 1, 190Y; Heft 2, 1908. Jena, Gustav 

 Fischer. 



The undertaking of Professor Spengel and 

 a corps of collaborators to present the results 

 and progress of zoological investigation in a 

 series of annual volumes will meet the hearty 

 approval of zoologists everywhere. The gen- 

 eral plan is to issue a series of parts as they 

 are ready, so aS' to make up a volume each 

 year of between 600 and 700 pages. The 

 parts before us at the present time contain the 

 following contributions: (1) "Die Chromo- 

 somen als angenommene Vererbungstrager," 

 by Dr. Valentin Hacker, 136 pages ; (2) " Die 

 verschiedenen Formen der Insectenmetamor- 

 phose, und ihre Bedeutung im Vergleich zur 

 Metamorphose anderer Arthropoden," by Dr. 

 Eichard Heymons, 53 pages; (3) "Die Scy- 

 phomedusen," by Professor Otto Maas, 50 

 pages ; (4) " Die Amphineuren," by Dr. H. F. 

 Nierstrasz, 68 pages; (5) "Die gegenwartige 

 Stand der Kenntnisse von den Copulations- 

 organen der Wirbeltiere, insbesondere der 

 Amnioten," by Dr. IJlric Gerhard, 96 pages. 

 If the parts are a good promise of those to 

 follow, it is obvious that the proposed series 

 wiU have an exceedingly wide scope, so that 

 the specialist in any particular field will not 

 find his subject represented very often. But 

 the object is rather to enable the student to 



obtain authoritative information of the state 

 of investigation in lines other than his own, 

 and this object will certainly be admirably 

 accomplished by such reviews with their full 

 lists of references. The writer would raise 

 the question whether it would not be better to 

 classify the separate contributions so as to 

 give each volume an individual character? 

 The pros and cons on this question are per- 

 haps sufficiently obvious, and it is also obvious 

 from the list of contributions to the first two 

 parts that the editor will not take the responsi- 

 bility of giving invidious precedence to any 

 subject. 



The publication has a field of its own 

 which is not covered by the Zoologische An- 

 zeiger, Zoologisches Centralblatt, the Concil- 

 ium BihliograpJiicum, the JahreshericMe, or 

 by Merkel und Bonnet's Ergehnisse der 

 Anatomie und EntwichelungsgeschicMe. The 

 separate contributions to the first two parts 

 are admirably concise, sufficiently complete 

 and critically excellent. One must admire the 

 enterprise of our German colleagues, who find 

 time in the midst of unremitting investiga- 

 tion to simi up and present to the world these 

 necessary records of progress, which contrib- 

 ute to the progress itself by the mere process 

 of organization. So long as German scien- 

 tists are willing to perform such necessary 

 functions in so admirable a way, we of a newer 

 country and culture are relieved of such duties 

 and should be properly grateful. American 

 science is no longer an undiscovered bourne in 

 Germany; on the whole, the contributions of 

 American zoologists to the subjects treated 

 receive adequate recognition. 



Frank E. Lillie 



University op Chicago 



SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY ON TRANSFORMA- 

 TION OF THE ELEMENTS 



In the course of his presidential address 

 before the Chemical Society, London, on 

 March 25, Sir William Eamsay said, as re- 

 ported in the London Times, that his subject 

 was the hypothesis that the genuine difference 

 between elements was due to their gain or loss 

 of electrons. The question was whether, to 

 take a concrete example, an atom of sodium by 



