July 26, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



to the suTDScrilsers, my friend Desor remembered the 

 trick lie had played on his amanuensis. A special 

 card had to be inserted in place of the objectionable 

 passage. The conclusion may easily be drawn — 

 four proof-readers had read the article ^vithout con- 

 sciously taking knowledge of its contents. ' ' 



I suppose that every author who has 

 published much must have felt disgusted at 

 finding some glaring error in a paper of 

 which he had read the proofs and yet failed 

 to detect. Such failure is not very surpris- 

 ing, however, as attention is concentrated 

 on form and typography. But it is sur- 

 prising that four men of such learning as 

 Agassiz, Desor, '(G.)' and Vogt should 

 all have passed unnoticed the evident ab- 

 surdity quoted by Prof. Vogt. Perhaps the 

 fact they did so may reconcile others to 

 their blunders. I offer this balm (which 

 has been of service to me ! ) for those inter- 

 ested. Yours truly, 



Theo. Gill. 



Washington", July 11, 1895. 



THE GENERIC NAME ANISONYX PRE- 

 OCCUPIED. 



In the first number of the new series of 

 Science (Vol. I., No. 1, Jan. 4, 1895, 18-19) 

 I called attention to the fact that the ge- 

 neric name Anisonyx of Rafinesque (1817) 

 antedates Spermophilus of Cuvier by eight 

 years, and seemed to be the earliest avail- 

 able name for the ground squirrels. Fortu- 

 nately, however, Anisonyx is preoccupied. 

 In a rare work by Latreille entitled Genera 

 Crustaceorum et Insectorum, and published in 

 1807, the name Anisonyx was proposed for 

 a genus of Coleoptera, thus antedating Ea- 

 finesque's use of it by ten years. 



C. Hart Merriam. 



correction. 

 In the review of the Twenty-third An- 

 nual Eeport of the Geological Survey of 

 Minnesota, etc., in Science of July 5, p. 

 23, first column, near top, the Keewatin 

 rocks are referred to the Upper Algonkian, 



of the TJ. S. Geological Survey, whereas 

 they should have been referred to the Loiver 

 division. Eugene A. Smith. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Les aurores polaires. By Alfred Angot. 

 Paris, Felix Alcan. 1895. Bibliotheque 

 Scientifique Internationale. 230 pages 

 with an appendix catalogue and many 

 illustrations. 



The well known meteorologist of the 

 Bureau Central Meteorologique takes occa- 

 sion to say, in the introductory chapter of 

 this book, that the lack of any volume in 

 French dealing exclusively with the aurora, 

 since the time of Bravais, 1839, was a prime 

 consideration in the issue of this volume. 

 Information concerning the aurora had to 

 be sought in stray notes, miscellanies, etc. 

 Our author attempted a partial remedy by 

 contributing in 1882 to ' La lumiere elec- 

 trique ' a series of ten papers giving a gen- 

 eral view of our knowledge of the aurora ; 

 and the present volume consists practically 

 of these ten papers expanded and brought 

 up to date. Appearing in 1895, some men- 

 tion of Lemstrom's ' I'Aurore boreale ' 

 (1886) and Paulsen's ' Contribution a notre 

 connaissance de I'aurore ' (1889) might 

 have appropriately been made; and the 

 omission is the more noticeable in that the 

 former work is referred to in the chapter on 

 the physical character of the aurora. 



The illustrations are chiefly reproductions 

 of sketches made by French observers in 

 high latitudes; but it must be confessed 

 that sketches made m 1839, 1870 and 1879 

 seem a trifle antiquated. No mention is 

 made of the fact that the aurora has been 

 photographed. Tromholt made an attempt 

 as early as 1885 to do this. Very fair pho- 

 tographs considering the conditions were 

 obtained in 1892 by Dr. Martin Brendel 

 and Herr O. Baschin at Bossekop. 



The form and appearance of auroras, their 

 physical character, frequency, relation to 



