Marcu 15, 1912] 
warning is pronounced against a too wide 
generalization of the fact that a few species 
of fishes have been proved to react to tones. 
Sections are devoted to the chemical senses, 
with special reference to investigations on in- 
vertebrates, and to unknown senses. 
It is in the treatment of the nervous system 
that the author breaks farthest away from 
conventional paths and takes a partisan 
stand on debatable ground. The neurone 
theory is not accepted, but throughout the 
whole nervous system there is a complete con- 
tinuity of living substance. Neurofibrille are 
merely the skeleton of the nerve cell; the 
neuroplasm is the conducting part. Poisons 
have revealed the presence of at least six dif- 
ferent kinds of living substance in the nervous 
system: the irritability of the end-organs of 
eross-striated muscle, of the end-organs of 
glands, the cardiac branches of the vagus 
nerve and of smooth muscle, and of sympa- 
thetic ganglion cells being depressed by 
curare, atropin and nicotin, respectively; the 
irritability of motor cells, intercalated cells 
and sense cells being augmented respectively 
by phenol, by strychnine and by neither 
phenol nor strychnine. Motor differ from 
non-motor cells in possessing less fatiguabil- 
ity, less need of oxygen and less sensitiveness 
toward narcotics. The central type of nerve 
substance is sharply differentiated from the 
peripheral type by various characteristics, 
such as its power of summation, certain pecul- 
jarities of its conductivity, its greater tend- 
ency toward fatigue and its greater need of 
oxygen—all of these differences, however, 
being quantitative and capable of being over- 
come by experimental devices. The author 
discusses the “ adequate,” or normal, stimuli 
for the successive nerve elements that par- 
take in a reflex action, and raises the question 
whether internal secretions may not constitute 
the adequate stimuli for the cells of the 
sympathetic system. Reflex actions are dis- 
cussed and numerous examples are cited to 
illustrate their principles. Brief sections are 
devoted to tonus, to inhibition, as to the 
theory of which no definite stand is taken, and 
to instincts; and the chapter ends with a dis- 
SCIENCE 
419 
cussion of the motor reactions of animals, 
which cites Yerkes’s work. The final chapter 
deals with a comparison of organisms. 
Freperic 8. Ler 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
Star Lore of All Ages. By Witi1am Tyrer 
Otcott. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1911. 
Pp. xxii + 453, illustrated. 
The star groups or constellations, so fan- 
tastically figured in the ancient maps, are of 
unknown antiquity; they are found described 
in the earliest writers of the Greeks, and upon 
the tablets of Babylon. Around each group 
has collected a vast number of traditions, 
myths and legends; and these traditions Mr. 
Olcott has traced to their sources, the legends 
and myths he has collated, and has put all 
into a very readable form. The book is most 
attractively printed and illustrated and 
should be of interest to all who like to watch 
the stars. 
CuarbLes Lane Poor 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 
THE opening (January) number of volume 
18 of the TYransactions of the American 
Mathematical Society contains the following 
papers: 
H. Landau: ‘‘ Ueber eine idealtheoretische Funk- 
tion.’? 
R. G. D. Richardson: ‘‘Theorems of oscillation 
for two linear differential equations of the second 
order with two parameters.’’ 
E. J. Miles: ‘‘The absolute minimum of a defi- 
nite integral in a special field.’’ 
E. G. Bill: ‘‘An existence theorem for a prob- 
lem of the calculus of variations in space.’’ 
L. E. Dickson: ‘‘ Linear algebras.’’ 
R. L. Moore: ‘‘A note concerning Veblen’s 
axioms for geometry.’’ 
Joseph Lipke: ‘‘ Natural families of curves in a 
general curved: space of n dimensions.’’ 
F. R. Moulton: ‘‘A class of periodic orbits of 
superior planets.’’ 
O. D. Kellogg: 
Green’s integral.’’ 
‘‘Warmonie functions and 
Tue February number (volume 18, number 
5) of the Bulletin of the American Mathe- 
