January 24, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



man. In the domestic horse there are five 

 regions where whorls occur — i. e., the frontal, 

 inguinal, pectoral, post-humeral or axillary, 

 and cervical. These are due, the author shows, 

 to the traction of the underlying muscles. It 

 is interesting to observe that they are absent 

 in the zebra, and are apparently the result of 

 the movements and work done by the horse in 

 a state of domestication. 'It is difficult,' the 

 author concludes, 'to see any explanation of 

 the formation of whorls, featherings and 

 crests in the hairy coats of mammals other 

 than a dynamical one.' His reasons for the 

 dynamical view are as follows: 



1. They all occur, except that on the vertex, 

 in regions where opposing traction of under- 

 lying muscles is found. 



2. They never occur over the middle of a 

 large muscle, and seldom in any place where 

 there is not a hollow or groove in the superfi- 

 cial anatomy. 



3. They are most uniform and most marked 

 in animals with very strong muscles, and 

 those that are actively locomotive. 



4. Their constancy appears to depend upon 

 range of action and activity of function of the 

 muscles in the part and individual animal 

 affected. This is especially shown in the three 

 regions of the domestic horse — pectoral, post- 

 humeral and inguinal. 



As regards the hair slope, the aiithor arrives 

 at the following conclusions : 



1. To understand the disposition of hair 

 on living animals, it is necessary to look upon 

 it as a stream, and this is very plastic. 



2. In man, and various groups of animals, 

 the great majority of the peculiarities here 

 noted are congenital. 



3. Certain peculiarities of hair-slope are at 

 present in process of development. 



4. The hair streams are disposed in the 

 lines of least resistance. 



5. The mechanical conditions required for 

 the production of both the general and the 

 special hair-slopes are in present operation. 



6. The hair-slope can be modified during the 

 life of an individual. 



Y. Selection (whether natural, sexual or ger- 

 minal) is incompetent to produce these pecul- 

 iarities of hair-slope. 



8. If these are not originally created with 

 the forms of life which present them, they 

 must have been produced in ancestors by use 

 or habit. 



The author seems to have made out a good 

 case and to have been led by the legitimate 

 use of the inductive method to what seem to 

 be valid and natural conclusions. 



A. S. P. 



Some Fossil Corals from the Elevated Beefs 



of Curasao^ Arube and Bonaire. By T. 



Wayland Vaughan. Sammlungen des Geo- 



logischen Eeichs-Museums in Leyden, Ser. 



11, Bd. 11, Heft. 1901. 



Mr. Vaughan makes his report upon the fos- 

 sil corals from the Dutch West Indies, col- 

 lected by Professor K. Martin, director of the 

 Leyden Geological Museum, part of an elabo- 

 rate study of the history and synonymy of the 

 West Indian corals. The paper is companion 

 to another by the same writer, shortly to ap- 

 pear, upon the stony corals of Porto Rico col- 

 lected by the recent survey of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission. The latter will contain photo- 

 grapihic reproductions of most of the living 

 species of West Indian corals. Both papers 

 are subsidiary to a larger work upon the post- 

 Eocene Corals of the United States, now in 

 the course of preparation. 



The author is preeminently qualified for the 

 task he has undertaken. In addition to hav- 

 ing access to the large accumulations of 

 corals at the U. S. National Museum and 

 Geological Survey, including the type speci- 

 mens of Dana, he has visited the collections 

 in .London, Paris, Berlin, Turin and other 

 centers, where are contained the types of 

 Milne-Edwards and Hainie, Ehrenberg, Klun- 

 zinger, Duncan, Duchassaing and Michelotti, 

 and other workers on the corals. In some way 

 the present revision is a continuation of the 

 work of Professor J. W. Gregory on the fossil 

 corals of Barbados. 



The result is what might have been ex- 

 pected. With the further accumulation of 

 material for study, enabling the possible 

 variations within the limits of a species to be 

 estimated, and the comparison of the type 

 specimens of different investigators, either 

 side by side, or by the aid of photographs, it 



