Septembeb 20, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



373 



training, their culture and their research 

 on mastery of the English language, it 

 being the basis in after life for work in 

 literature, scholarship, journalism, teach- 

 ing, the church, or any other profession 

 whatever. 



Lafayette is both a school of technology 

 and a college of liberal arts. It has this 

 year 225 students of engineering and 176 

 students in the arts courses. The future 

 of the work in engineering appears to be 

 more definite and assured than the classical 

 and general courses, due not to any defi- 

 ciencies in these courses, but to the general 

 tendencies of our civilization. Lafayette 

 may become a great university; it now 

 ranks midway among the hundred leading 

 institutions of the country, and we need at 

 least so many universities. Its situation, 

 as well as its history, gives promise to 

 which no limit need be set. But a man 

 can not by taking thought add one cubit 

 unto his stature, nor would it necessarily 

 be desirable to do so if he could. Loyalty 

 to Lafayette depends on what it was and is, 

 not on what it is not. And it is one of the 

 glories of the American college that it so 

 completely conquers the affection of its 

 students and alumni. Like Job, a man may 

 find new flocks and a new wife and new 

 children; but he can not choose a new col- 

 lege. The associations and memories of the 

 tmreturning past are awakened as we come 

 to these festivals— whether as prodigal sons 

 or as wise men bringing gifts— and the re- 

 newed piety enables each of us to go back 

 to bear with better courage his share of the 

 Atlantean load. 



J. McKeen Cattell 



COLTIMBIA UNTVEKSITT 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



H. M. Bernard's work on the poRiTm corals 



Catalogue of the Madreporarian Corals in the 



British Museum (Natural History). Vol- 



mne VI. The Family Poritidae. II. The 



Genus Porites. Part II. Porites of the 

 Atlantic and West Indies, with the Euro- 

 pean Fossil Forms. The Genus Goniopora, 

 a Supplement to Vol. IV. By Henry M. 

 Bernard, M.A. London, 1906. 

 This is the third and concluding volume 

 by Mr. Bernard on the Poritidse. Volume IV. 

 of the British Museuxn Catalogue of the Mad- 

 reporaria treats the genus Goniopora; Vol. V. 

 contains the Porites of the Indo-Pacific re- 

 gion, and the one 'under review gives an ac- 

 count of the Porites of the Atlantic and West 

 Indies, with the European fossil forms, and a 

 supplement to the genus Goniopora. These 

 volumes represent an enormous amount of 

 work, Vol. IV. containing pp. viii + 206, pis. 

 xiv; Vol. v., pp. ri + 303, pis. xsxv; Vol. VI., 

 pp. vi + 173, pis. X7ii, making a total of 699 

 pages and 66 plates' on this one family. 



Two phases of Mr. Bernard's work deserve 

 especial consideration: (1) His contributions 

 to the morphology of the hard parts of the 

 Poritidas, (2) his peculiar method of ajranging 

 and designating the various forms or varia- 

 tions of the corals that he has studied. 



Contributions to the Morphology of the 

 Hard Parts. — Mr. Bernard wasi the first to 

 point out that the septa are bilaterally ar- 

 ranged in the genus Goniopora. There are 

 in each calico two solitary directive septa, 

 opposite each other, one at each end of the 

 calice. These belong to the primary cycle; 

 the other four primaries are fused to secon- 

 daries; the tertiaries are shorter and fuse to 

 the sides of the secondaries.' The pali occur 

 on the inner ends of the secondaries or at the 

 points of fusion of the primaries and second- 

 aries. Porites is supposed to be derived 

 from Goniopora by the disappearance of the 

 tertiary septa. The growth form is elab- 

 orately discussed. It is stated. 



So far as growth form is concerned Goniopora 

 (and Porites) may be regarded as astreiform 

 perforates. 



Starting from what we have described as the 

 primitive form of colony, viz., the circular slightly 

 convex aatraeiform stock which would result from 

 the normal budding of the primitive parent calicle, 



' " The Genus Goniopora," p. 21. 



