May 17, 1901.] 
suggesting at once comparisons with childhood 
and the phenomena of genius, is the marked 
alternation of intense activity and complete 
repose—activity measured by hours, inter- 
vals of rest measured by days. Equally 
noteworthy is the rapidity of change from 
one state to the other. According to Dr. 
McGee, ‘‘the Seri are at once the swiftest and 
the laziest, the strongest and the most inert, 
the most warlike and the most docile of tribes- 
men ; and their transitions from rdle to rdle are 
singularly capricious and sudden”? (p. 156). 
This throws a new light upon the question of 
savage laziness and hints how unfair some of 
the earlier writers have been in picturing prim- 
itive man as uniformly inert. This essay is 
emphatically a valuable addition to the scien- 
tific literature about primitive man. The ap- 
pearance of the author’s companion study of 
the Papagos will be awaited with great interest. 
ALEXANDER F, CHAMBERLAIN. 
CLARK UNIVERSITY, 
WORCESTER, Mass. 
Verhandlungen der deutschen Zoologischen Gesell- 
schaft auf der zehnten Jahresversammlung zu 
Graz, den 18 bis 20 April, 1900. Im Auftrage 
der Gesellschaft herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. J. 
W. Spengel, Schriftfiihrer der Gesellschaft. Mit 
in den Text gedruckten Figuren. Leipzig, 
Verlag von Wilhelm Englemann. 1900. Pp. 
170. Preis M. 6. 
The most important matter brought before 
the tenth meeting of the German Zoological 
Society at Graz was the report of Professor 
Franz Ellhard Schultze, editor-in-chief of Das 
Tierreich. The year preceding the report wit- 
nessed the publication of several sections of this 
great work upon systematic zoology, the most 
notable being that of Labbé upon the ‘Sporozoa’ 
and that of Michaelson upon the ‘ Oligocheta.’ 
That substantial progress will be made in the 
near future is seen in the fact that the following 
manuscripts were ready for the press: ‘Hy- 
drachnida’ by Piersig, ‘ Halicarida’ by Loh- 
mann, ‘Nemertina’ by Burger, the first divi- 
sion of the ‘Amphipoda’ by Stebbing, the 
‘Palpigrada’ and ‘Solifuga’ by Kraepelin, 
the ‘Libytheida’ by Pagenstecher. The fol- 
lowing sections are now in the process of edi- 
SCIENCE. 
783 
torial revision : calcareous sponges by Breitfuss, 
the second division of the ‘Copepoda’ by Gies- 
brecht and Schmeil, the second division of the 
‘Decapoda’ by Ortmann, the first division of 
the ‘Formicida’ by Emery, the ‘ Pueumono- 
poma’ by Kobelt, the ‘Rodentia’ by Troues- 
sart, the ‘ Rhizopoda reticulosa’ by Rhumbler, 
and the first division of the ‘ Apida’ by Friese. 
To insure prompt publication of the accumu- 
lating manuscript is a problem for whose solu- 
tion the recommendation is made that a com- 
petent ‘Superreviser, Secretar, and Bureauchef?’ 
be appointed to assist the editorial bureau in 
the laborious work of securing uniformity in 
matters of terminology, nomenclature and bib- 
liography, and to maintain the unity of this 
monumental work which the German society 
has undertaken. Arrangements were consum- 
mated whereby in the future the Tierreich will 
be issued conjointly by the Society and the 
Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, as will be 
shown by the title page of future issues. 
The principal address of the session was given 
by Professor Karl Heider on ‘Das Determin- 
ationsproblem,’ a masterly review of the whole 
subject of experimental morphology. In a 
second paper Professor Heider calls attention 
to anew and strange genus of trematodes para- 
sitic in the dolphin. This new type, Braunina, 
is peculiar in possessing a pedicel and a mantle 
developed to a degree hitherto unknown in the 
group, while suckers are entirely lacking. 
Herr Kunkel has investigated the capacity of 
Limax for the absorption of water which enters 
the body not only through the mouth, but also 
through the skin by absorption. The volume 
of the slug may be increased by this process as 
much as 209% while the specific gravity is 
correspondingly decreased and feeding activi- 
ties are suspended until the water is reduced. 
The consumption of oxygen in respiration was 
studied and the rate of exhaustion of the air 
was found to be 0.36 cem. per hour for each 
cubic centimeter of the slug’s body. The 
respiratory process is carried on not only in the 
air-chamber, but also on the surface of the 
body. 
Dr. Hans Rabl finds no evidence to support 
the ectodermal origin of the pigment cells in 
embryos of cephalopods. From their first 
