586 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. V^OL. XXVI. No. 670 



difficulty and national importance of which, 

 all will admit, I shall feel that I have not 

 been altogether unworthy of the honor of 

 occupying this chair. 



Philip Magnus 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Report on the Diatoms of the Albatross Voy- 

 ages in the Pacific Ocean, 1888-190^. By 

 Albert Mann. Assisted in the bibliog- 

 raphy and citations by P. L. Bicker. Con- 

 tributions from the United States National 

 Herbarium, Vol. X., Part 5. Washington, 

 Government Printing Office. 190Y. 

 According to the author, the object of this 

 report is, first, to contribute to the systematic 

 study of the diatoms, and, second, to call atten- 

 tion to the value of further investigations in 

 this field for throwing light upon certain 

 meteorological and geological problems con- 

 nected with marine investigations. There 

 also has been prepared a set of carefully iden- 

 tified specimens of all the species enumerated, 

 including types of all new species, which col- 

 lection has been deposited in the United States 

 National Museum. On account of the inade- 

 quate methods used in making the gatherings 

 from the Albatross, the number of species 

 listed is not nearly so great as might be ex- 

 pected. In fact, considering the large num- 

 ber of soundings and dredgings made and the 

 years over which the work extends, the results 

 are disappointing. It seems unfortunate that 

 the amount of enei'gy and time necessary to 

 properly examine gatherings of this kind 

 should have to be wasted upon barren samples, 

 when the adoption of other methods would 

 have undoubtedly resulted in rich hauls of 

 diatoms. Critical notes upon some three hun- 

 dred species, thirty-seven of which are new, 

 are given and a sufficiently full discussion of 

 the fifty odd genera concerned is included. 

 The account of the species discussed is con- 

 siderably more than a mere list, and is of such 

 worth that one regrets all the more the limita- 

 tions which have been put upon the work. A 

 most careful comparison of the views of vari- 

 ous authorities upon each species has been 

 made and should do much towards giving a 



really clear conception of the forms discussed- 

 When one considers the inaccessibility of a 

 large amount of the literature upon the dia- 

 toms, it seems probable that this part of the 

 report will be one of the most helpful fea- 

 tures. 



While it may not have been practicable 

 under the circumstances to prepare an abso- 

 lutely exhaustive list of the synonymy, there 

 seems to be no reason for the omission of 

 names elsewhere cited, even though " the 

 horde of synonjrms would be so great as to 

 become most misleading unless accompanied 

 by extensive explanations." Instead of such 

 a discussion " being quite foreign to the pur- 

 pose of this report " it would seem to be the 

 very place in which to set forth as fully as 

 might be necessary, the reasons for retaining 

 or rejecting names. Certainly the present 

 chaotic conditions of the nomenclature of the 

 diatoms can not be cleared up so long as this 

 tedious but necessary aspect of the subject is 

 disregarded. 



The number of stations from which diatoms 

 were collected was altogether too meager to 

 warrant any generalizations regarding either 

 the origin of the bottom from which they 

 came, or the course of the ocean currents 

 which carried them. However, the impor- 

 tance of planning future work with such an 

 end in view is very properly pointed out and 

 some good examples are given of specific 

 knowledge of this character being obtained 

 from a study of the diatoms of a given region. 



It is a satisfaction to know that all of the 

 species reported upon have been permanently 

 mounted in such a way as to make them 

 readily accessible to those who may have occa- 

 sion to refer to them. Not only is there a 

 series of group slides containing specimens of 

 all the forms gathered in a specific locality, 

 but each species has been mounted separately, 

 and the position definitely indicated so that 

 it may be instantly found under the micro- 

 scope. The value of such a set of slides can 

 only be appreciated by those who have had to 

 search for a particular species in the hetero- 

 geneous mass of diatoms and other organisms 

 with which it is usually mounted. 



J 



