92 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1387 



mutant in question. The metathorax of this 

 mutant has apparently reverted to a condition 

 approximating that occurring in the ancestors 

 of the Diptera, in having a well-developed 

 metanotum and other metathoracic sclerites, 

 while the wings of this segment of the thorax, 

 instead of being mere knobbed threads as in 

 practically all Diptera, have become developed 

 as comparatively broad wings, with a well- 

 defined venation. I am hoping to be able to 

 make a careful anatomical , study of the tho- 

 racic structures of this mutant in the near 

 future, and have offered this brief account 

 merely as a preliminary note of an investiga- 

 tion which will be given more in detail in a 

 later publication. 



G. C. Crampton 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College, 

 Amherst, Mass. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



JONSTON'S NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES 



Through the courtesy of Mr. Carl L. Hubbs 

 of the University of Michigan, I have been 

 able to examine a very rare book, seldom 

 recorded in bibliography, the particular edi- 

 tion apparently not at all. 



Its author is John Jonston, or as he writes 

 it, Johannes Jonstonus, M.D., and its title 

 page reads: 



Johann Jonstoni | Historiae Naturalis | de | 

 Piscibus I et Cetis | Libri V | tabulis quad- 

 raginta septem | ab illo eeleberrimo | 

 Mathia Mariano | aeri ineisis ornata | 

 ex scriptoribus tam autiquis | quam recen- 

 tioribus | maxima cura eollecti | quos | ob 

 raritatimi denuo | imprunendos suscepit. 

 Franciseus Josephus Eckerbrecht | 

 Bibliopola Heilbrunnensis | 

 MDCCLXVII. 



Following this and bound with it is another 

 volume, with the same title except for the 

 words " de Exangibus Aquatilis Libri IV., ta- 

 bulis viginti." This treats of invertebrates. 



As this work bears the nominal date of 1767, 

 subsequent to the " Systema Naturae, " it 

 merits consideration in the interests of stable 

 nomenclature. 



I find that it is throughout a compilation 



from earlier authors, the latest of which is 

 Piso's edition of Maregraye's " Historia 

 Naturalis Brasilise," printed at Leyden in 

 1648. The sources of information are care- 

 fully and apparently accurately given in sida- 

 headings. There is some evidence of a system 

 of classification. Book first, for example, 

 treats of marine fishes. Title of those which 

 are pelagic. Heading 1, of scaly pelagic fishes, 

 and Article 1, " de Asellis " of various " cods." 

 Most of the forms mentioned are indicated 

 by Latin nouns, the Greek form often added, 

 and occasionally a descriptive adjective gives 

 a binomial form. I find, however, no trace of 

 a binomial system of naming; the word 

 species I have not noticed and the word genus, 

 occasionally used, has no technical signif- 

 icance, meaning merely " kind." 



The names used by Jonston could not enter 

 scientific nomenclature even if the date of the 

 publication were subsequent to 1758, a matter 

 which may be open to doubt. 



In Bosgoed's " Bibliotheca Ichthyologia et 

 Piscatoria," 1874, page 9, is recorded a trea- 

 tise by J. Jonston, with a similar but more 

 extended title, said to be in five parts in two 

 divisions (" din.") with the dates 1650 to 1653, 

 issued at Frankfort on the Main. 



Apparently the volume before me is a re- 

 print of the second " dealing " of this general 

 work, as it bears a different date and the name 

 of a different publisher. Bosgoed speaks of 

 a new edition in Amsterdam in 1718, and an 

 edition in Dutch in Amsterdam in 1660, 

 translated from the Latin by M. Grausius. 

 In advance proof sheets of the second edition 

 of Dean's " Bibliography of Fishes," refer- 

 ences are given to about a dozen editions in 

 Latin or Dutch. One of these is dated 1677, 

 but none 1767. 



It may be questioned whether the date 

 " MDCCLXVII " given on Libri IV. and V. 

 alike is not a misprint for MDCLXVii. The 

 appearance of the book and the absence of 

 reference to any author later than 1648, 

 would point in this direction. In any event, 

 the names merit no consideration from 

 systematists as, if really issued in 1767, it is 

 merely an unmodified reprint of a pre-Linnsean, 



