AvaustT 16, 1918] 
his professorship in Johns Hopkins to become 
director of the new institution. During 1917 
steady progress was made in campaigns against 
hookworm, malaria and yellow fever, in pro- 
moting better health administration, in secur- 
ing reform in sanitary legislation, in persuad- 
ing governments to increase their expenditure 
for preventive medicine, and in encouraging 
public health education. In China the founda- 
tion is promoting modern medical education 
and hospital administration. In September 
last the Chinese Minister of Education laid 
the corner stone of the Peking Union Medical 
College, which is being built in the Chinese 
capital. The program also includes a medical 
school and hospital at Shanghai, but the war 
has interrupted the prosecution of this scheme. 
The growth of the Rockefeller Institute for 
Medical Research has called for increasing 
sums for equipment and current expenses, and 
£400,000 was appropriated during 1917 as an 
addition to its endowment.—British. Medical 
Journal. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
Fresh-water Biology. By Henry Bautpwin 
Warp and Grorce CHANDLER WHIPPLE, with 
the collaboration of a staff of specialists. 
New York, John Wiley & Sons. 1918. 8vo. 
1111 pp., 1547 figures in text. 
At last American students of fresh-water life 
are provided with a handbook and guide that 
will enable them to acquaint themselves with 
the forms of life found in their native lakes, 
ponds and streams. Ward and Whipple are 
the editors, and they themselves contribute five 
of the thirty-one chapters. Ward writes the 
general introduction and two chapters on para- 
sitic worms, and one on Gasterotricha, and 
Whipple writes the concluding chapter on 
Technical and Sanitary Problems. There are 
two further introductory chapters, one by Shel- 
ford on conditions of existence, and an alto- 
gether excellent and practical chapter by 
Reighard on methods of collecting and photo- 
graphing. The remaining chapters discuss the 
principal groups of aquatic organisms and are 
written by well-known American specialists in 
the several groups. All are prepared with evi- 
SCIENCE 
171 
dent care and with due regard for the needs of 
the general student and all are adequately il- 
lustrated. 
Three of these chapters are for reading pur- 
poses only—the ones on bacteria by Jordan, on 
the higher plants by Pond and on aquatic ver- 
tebrates by Eigenmann. These are excellent 
summarized statements of the chief biological 
phenomena of these groups and are most inter- 
esting reading. 
The volume is much more than a text-book 
for the remaining groups (to which 26 chap- 
ters are devoted) : it is a handbook and guide. 
and a means of identification, and this is its 
peculiar merit. Each chapter gives, besides an 
introductory account of the group, an illus- 
trated key, that is adequate for the determina- 
tion of the forms and that is convenient and 
workable. No such set of keys has hitherto 
been available anywhere. The clear and co- 
pious illustrations are placed alongside the 
reading matter relating to them in the text, 
and are adequate for the interpretation of the 
characters used. 
This book will at once take its place as the 
most indispensable reference work for students 
of freshwater biology; and it is likely to hold 
that place for a long time. 
James G. NEEDHAM 
Equide of the Oligocene, Miocene and Plio- 
cene of North America. By Henry Fat- 
FIELD OsporN. Memoirs of the American 
Museum of Natural History, Volume II., 
Part I., issued June 10, 1918. 
Aw extensive memoir of two hundred and 
seventeen quarto pages, illustrated by one 
hundred and seventy-three figures, and fifty- 
four plates reviews our knowledge, from a sys- 
tematic standpoint, of the “Equide of the 
Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of North 
America.” 
The present revision of the fossil horses “ is 
iconographic in the sense that all the original 
type figures of authors are reproduced in 
facsimile, and all unfigured types, especially 
those of Marsh, are now figured for the first 
time. .. 2’ The work is based largely on the 
collections at Yale and at the American Mu- 
