Degembbb 20, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



853 



veloped should have been maintained.* f In 

 the second place accuracy of skin localiza- 

 tion is always a function of the mobility of the 

 part. Where anatomical structure varies within 

 narrow limits the sensation areas are small. As 

 the tongue is far more mobile (the mobility is 

 highly useful) than the finger tips, it could more 

 readily develop and retain tactual sensitiveness. 



In all cases where the structure or function of 

 an organ is useful to the individual it may be at- 

 tributed to the survival of variations or the inher- 

 ited effects of use, and it does not seem that tact- 

 ual discrimination helps to decide the all-suffici- 

 ency or relative importance of one of these factors. 



When Mr. Spencer says that the sensitiveness 

 of the tongue has been developed by involun- 

 tary and useless rubbing over the teeth, he 

 seems to betray a complete misapprehension of 

 the facts of psychology. The skin becomes less, 

 not more sensitive by continual rubbing of the 

 clothes, the contact of air, blood and food does 

 not develop the accuracy of local discrimina- 

 tion in the inner organs of the body, etc. 



I scarcely know a worse argument than this 

 of Mr. Spencer's : (1.) That the blind are 

 shown to have greater tactual sensitiveness than 

 the seeing. [This would not be proved by Mr. 

 Spencer's experiment but was well known.] 

 (2.) That in these cases the practice of the 

 blind has developed new anatomical structures 

 of the peripheral and central nervous system. [A 

 greater increase in accuracy of local discrimina- 

 tion can be developed with five minutes' jirac- 

 tice.] (3.) That the anatomical structure ac- 

 quired by use is hereditary. [This begs the ques- 

 tion at issue.] (4.) That the relative sensi- 

 tiveness of the skin cannot be accounted for by 

 the survival of useful variations. [It is amply 

 accounted for.] (5.) That useless sensitiveness 

 has been developed by continual stimulation. 

 [This is nonsense.] J. McKeen Cattell. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICAN 

 PALEONTOLOGY. 



One of Mr. Van Ingen's criticisms in a late 



* It may be remembered that Mr. Spencer thinks 

 that organe will not disappear through ' natural selec- 

 tion ' wheu they become useless. 



t The nose is also used as an organ o£ touch by the 

 lower mammals, aod naturally remains more sensi- 

 tive than the top of the head. 



number of Science, on the recently issued 

 Bibliography of North American Paleontology, 

 1888-1892, suggest that one of the errors into 

 which he has fallen might also apply to others, 

 particularly authors in paleobotany whose 

 names have been omitted and of which a num- 

 ber are given as not being listed. The paleo- 

 botanical papers were omitted intentionally for 

 the reasan that they were already receiving at- 

 tention for publication in the U. S. National 

 Museum when the work on the Bibliography 

 was commenced. This fact should have been 

 perhaps emphasized in the preface. But that 

 there is so large a number of omissions as is 

 claimed cannot be for a moment believed until 

 substantiated by facts. In case the latter are 

 forthcoming it would save much trouble in look- 

 ing them up. Several, at least, of the ' valuable ' 

 additions made by Mr. Van Ingen as appearing 

 during the period, while they do bear an in- 

 cluded date on the title pages, were not received 

 until sometime afterward, as library records 

 clearly show. 



As to many of the titles not being given in 

 ' full,' as it is claimed by Mr. Van Ingen to be 

 promised in the preface, it need only be stated 

 that if he had turned his naked eye to the Bibli- 

 ography instead of his microscope, he would 

 have found some 800 other titles not given ' in 

 full,' in place of the half dozen cited as ex- 

 amples of ' wrong copying. ' In a listing of the 

 papers all articles and often unimportant adjec- 

 tives were purposely omitted, for reasons 

 obvious to everyone familiar with bibliographic 

 matter. ' Full ' is clearly used in contradistinc- 

 tion to the usage in the secondary references 

 where abbreviation as great as possible is 

 necessary. 



The regret expressed by Mr. Van Ingen that 

 the Bibliography was not printed on one side 

 only is no doubt sharM by many ' working pa- 

 leontologists,' even though Uncle Sam could 

 not anticipate the utility of printing so valuable 

 a work in colors to suit each prospective peruser. 

 The special defect mentioned is, however, readily 

 overcome by transmitting 20 cents to the direc- 

 tor of the U. S. Geological Survey for a second 

 copy of the work, that the ' pasting on cards ' 

 may go on uninterruptedly. 



Charles K. Keyes. 



