Januabt 28, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



147 



the results are not always satisfactory either 

 to authors or readers. In the present case, the 

 results must be regarded as remarkably satis- 

 factory, when looked at from the point of view 

 of the common run of students. It is to be ex- 

 pected that the book will not satisfy the de- 

 mands of everybody, but teachers of geology 

 will agree that brevity has its advantages as 

 well as its disadvantages. For example, the 

 condensed statement of the three principal 

 theories regarding the origin of the earth is 

 the best we have seen, though it does not, of 

 course, do away with the necessity of studying 

 their fuller discussion elsewhere. The book is 

 not, however, a simple condensation of the 

 larger work, for the results have been gleaned 

 and added from many papers published since 

 the larger work came out. 



In our opinion the authors have done well 

 to lump dynamical and structural geology to- 

 gether and to treat it as a whole. 



The chief faults that can be found with the 

 work are matters of editing, and consequently 

 are of no great importance. 



The several maps showing the land and 

 water areas at different periods have the 

 rather annoying defect of lacking explana- 

 tions of the conventional shadings. Refer- 

 ences are made, to be sure, to preceding cases, 

 but inasmuch as such a book is seldom read 

 consecutively, one finds it pretty tiresome to 

 have to back up, as it were, from page 830 

 clear to page 445 to be sure that he is inter- 

 preting the conventionals properly. 



Many of the effective illustrations of physi- 

 ographic forms used in the larger works are 

 given in this volume also. It seems unfor- 

 tunate that some of the political boundaries 

 that belong in the originals from which these 

 extracts are taken have been left to mar these 

 excellent illustrations. For example, in Plate 

 XI., opposite page 172, are fragments of two 

 such lines that are entirely meaningless in the 

 plate. In Plate IX., opposite page 156, the 

 international boundary might advantage- 

 ously be omitted entirely, as it is already 

 omitted in part. In Plate VIH., opposite 

 page 133, the line down the middle of the 

 stream in Pig. 1 might well be cut out. Op- 

 posite page 96, Plate I., Fig. 1, is another such 



line that is over conspicuous and meaningless 

 as the illustration stands. Of course these 

 lines in some instances serve some purpose, in 

 others they do not. The work of cutting them 

 out of the engraving is very little, even if they 

 are not " stopped out " in making the plates. 



At page 288 the shading of Fig. 186 to rep- 

 resent the land seems to have been overlooked. 

 At page 240, Fig. 196, a photograph of the 

 Fiescher glacier, is labeled " Aletsch glacier." 



The larger work by these authors must long 

 remain as a landmark in North American 

 geology and the work of reference for all 

 serious students and for all teachers and work- 

 ers. But the " College Text-book " meets the 

 larger demand of a larger number of readers 

 both in our institutions of learning and out- 

 side of them. 



The appearance of this new and important 

 book again calls attention to the shortcomings 

 of some of our best American publishers. 

 When are we to have in this country a book 

 on geology as well manufactured as Geikie's 

 text-book? We have the geologists competent 

 to prepare the text, but our publishers seem 

 to be afraid that the cost of a really well-made 

 book will shut it out of the market. We can 

 not believe it. It is true that we have more 

 text-books on geology than we need, but not 

 more by such men as Chamberlin and Salis- 

 bury than we need. 



J. C. Branner 



Stanfobd University, Cal., 

 December 10, 1909 



A Revision of the Entelodontidw. By O. A. 



Peterson. Mem. Carn. Museum, Vol. IV., 



No. 3, 1909, pp. 41-146, with Pis. LIV.- 



LXII. and 80 text figures. 



In this important memoir Mr. Peterson dis- 

 cusses at length the remarkable group of 

 swine-like forms generally known as the Elo- 

 theres. In his introductory remarks, however, 

 the author replaces the more familiar family 

 name Elotheridse Pomel by that of Entelo- 

 dontidse Amyard on the ground of inadequate 

 description, no illustrations and loss of type by 

 Pomel, though the name he proposed may have 

 appeared first. 



