JANUARY 4, 1901.] 
minute anatomical and embryological work 
that has played so great a role in the labora- 
tory methods of comparative morphology. 
These methods were a healthy reaction 
against the superficial character of much of 
the earlier work; they form the indispen- 
sable basis of all exact and thorough train- 
ing in biology ; but too often in our courses 
of instruction they have been carried to 
such a point that the student has lost him- 
self amid anatomical detail of a kind as dry 
and formal as that of the old-fashioned sys- 
tematic museum-study. Experimental re- 
search is already, I believe, exerting the 
happiest influence on our methods of teach- 
ing by showing how indispensable to a 
course in comparative morphology is the 
consideration of physiological phenomena 
and a study of the living organism. 
I cannot better close than with the words 
that an eminent zoologist—we of this com- 
pany have not far to seek him—has im- 
agined to be the comment of Aristotle, 
could he have surveyed some of the aspects 
of our. modern work in biology. ‘My 
teaching that the essence of a living being 
is not what it is made of, or what it does, 
but why it does it, has been rendered by 
one of your contemporaries into the state- 
ment that life is the continuous adjustment 
between internal relations and external re- 
lations. If this is true, is not the biology 
which restricts itself to the physical basis 
and forgets the external world, like your 
play of ‘Hamlet’ without the Hamlet? Is 
not the biological laboratory which leaves 
out the ocean and the mountains and mead- 
ows a monstrous absurdity? Was not the 
greatest scientific generalization of your 
times reached independently by two men 
who were eminent in their familiarity with 
living things in their homes?” I for one 
agree with the author of these words that 
such a comment would be good common 
sense and therefore good science. 
Epmunp B. Wizson. 
SCIENCE. 
23 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Report of the United States Commission of Fish and 
Fisheries. Part XXY., 1899. By GEORGE 
M. Bowers, Commissioner. Washington, 
Government Printing Office. Pp. clxiii + 
397. Plates XXIX + 21. 
The contents of this the twenty-fifth report 
is divided into two portions, of which the first 
relates to the official and more practical work 
of the fiscal year, and the second to the special 
or more scientific work, the preparation of 
which may have extended over a considerable 
period. 
In speaking of the general condition of the 
fishery industry, Commissioner Bowers states 
that the approximate value of the commercial 
fisheries of the United States in 1899 was $40,- 
000,000, to which the oyster industry contrib- 
uted about $14,000,000. In comparing the 
productiveness of the oyster beds of Chesapeake 
Bay and of Long Island Sound, Commissioner 
Bowers states that the natural supply of oysters 
is being exhausted, but that the areas of the 
sea bottom that are being artificially culti- 
vated are becoming more and more productive. 
There is sufficient evidence that the increased 
abundance of cod, in the inshore waters of the 
New England States, is due to the work of artifi- 
cial propagation carried on at Gloucester and 
at Woods Holl. Efforts are being made to re- 
habilitate the lobster fishery and to devise 
methods for increasing the number of sturgeon. 
Under the direction of Dr. Hugh M. Smith, 
the Department of Scientific Inquiry has in- 
augurated or continued several important lines 
of investigation. The systematic survey of the 
physical and biological conditions of Lake Erie, 
begun in 1898 by Professor Reighard, has been 
continued. Dr. B. W. Evermann has made a 
biological survey of the waters of the North- 
west; Dr. W. C. Kendall has continued his 
work on the fauna of the lake systems of 
Maine; and Dr. H. F. Moore has made a study 
of the physical conditions of Great Salt Lake, 
and has showed its absolute unfitness for main- 
taining any form of marine life. 
The laboratories at Woods Holl and at Put- 
in-Bay have been occupied by an enthusiastic 
corps of investigators, and a building was rented 
at Beaufort, N. C., to serve as a temporary lab- 
