726 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 306. 



stituted one-third the list. Of the injured, 

 passengers were about eight per cent, only, the 

 employees nearer 80 per cent. A passenger 

 must travel, on the average, over 60,000,000 

 miles to lose his life ; in New England, how- 

 ever, he must travel 125,290,750 miles; in the 

 southwest he may lose it at the end of 84,327,- 

 929 miles. The average traveler is hurt after 

 traveling about 4,000,000 miles. 



The report is a most important one, and 

 should be carefully studied by all interested in 

 any phase of the subject. 



E. H. Thurston. 



A Book of Whales. By F. E. Beddaed. The 

 Science Series. Published by G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, New York, and John Murray, 

 London. 40 illustrations. 8vo. Pp. xv + 

 320. 



The seventh publication of this well-known 

 series is from the pen of the English editor, 

 and attempts to gather into a comparatively 

 small compass a general account of the Cetacea, 

 and ' to illustrate by means of the group of 

 whales a very important generalization, the 

 intimate relation between structure and environ- 

 ment.' 



In the absence of any other comprehensive 

 work on the subject, the book will receive a 

 hearty welcome. Teachers of anatomy and 

 custodians of museums have long felt the need 

 of some general work on the Cetacea, and there 

 is a growing popular interest in all matters that 

 relate to the life of the ocean. It is a pity, 

 however, that the author did not make a good 

 thing better by publishing a list of the more im- 

 portant papers bearing on his subject. Amer- 

 ican zoologists have contributed no small amount 

 to the literature of the Cetacea, and Professor 

 Beddard acknowledges the help he has received 

 from the works of True, Cope and Scammon. 



The introductory chapters make interesting 

 reading. They deal with the external form and 

 internal structure of whales, but assume that 

 the reader has a general knowledge of the group 

 and of comparative anatomy. The author him- 

 self is often not satisfied with the explanations 

 that he gives for the existence of certain struc- 

 tures. It is indeed a hard matter to give plaus- 

 ible reasons for the existence of many devices of 



nature, and phylogenetic explanations based on 

 hypothetical ancestors are not as convincing 

 now as they were a few years ago. 



The section on the stomach is especially in- 

 teresting, and one is almost overcome when he 

 reads of the amount of food that a hungry Ce- 

 tacean can devour. The stomach of a ' bottle- 

 nose ' contained ten thousand beaks of squid, 

 and a grampus contained thirteen porpoises and 

 fourteen seals, all perfectly whole and intact. 

 It is thought that large stones in the stomachs 

 of certain whales may perform the same func- 

 tion that gravel performs in the bird's gizzard. 



More than half the book deals with the 

 various groups of Cetacea. The treatment is 

 not technical, and the monotony of mere de- 

 scription is varied by anecdotes, historical 

 reviews and what is now known as natural 

 historjf. 



The press work is of a high order, although 

 the inversion of the figure of the right whale is 

 evidence of some carelessness and gives the 

 animal a most grotesque appearance. There 

 are some other indications of lack of care in 

 preparing copy and reading proof, but the 

 general appearance of the book is good, and the 

 text figures and many of the plates are excellent. 

 H. C. BuMPUS. 



GENERAL. 



According to a plebicite taken by the 

 London Academy the ' Life and Letters of Hux- 

 ley ' is the most interesting book announced for 

 publication this autumn. It is reported that in 

 addition to this volume the letters exchanged 

 between Huxley and Tyndall may be printed 

 in full. 



It is stated in the New York Evening Post 

 that an interesting manuscript autobiography of 

 the late Sir Richard Owen, the eminent paleon- 

 tologist, has been discovered among a lot of old 

 documents put up for sale in a London auction 

 room. The existence of this manuscript was 

 unknown and unsuspected, and it was only 

 when the documents came into the hands of 

 those familiar with the handwriting that its 

 authorship was identified. A singular feature 

 of the autobiography is that it is written, not in 

 the first person, but chiefly in the third person, 

 the author referring to himself as ' he ' or to 



