Febeuaey 5, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



221 



and central Europe seem to have been 

 more or less connected during and since 

 the Cambrian period, with intermigra- 

 tions of life-forms. This connection, with 

 probable interruptions, appears to have 

 continued down to the early centuries of 

 the Quarternary. Also, from what little 

 we know of the extinct animals and of 

 the present relations of the plants and 

 animals of the continents south of lati- 

 tude 20° north, several observers have 

 been led to suppose that these continents 

 were more or less intimately united, and ' 

 that possibly there were land connections 

 with a former Antarctic continent. From 

 maps, though naturally very hypotRetical, 

 published by de Lapparent and Koken, 

 showing the probable distribution of land 

 during the Middle Devonian, South 

 America, Africa, southern Asia and Aus- 

 tralia were possibly connected. Towards 

 the end of the Carboniferous period there 

 was probably a more or less continuous ex- 

 tent of land over what is now South 

 America, Africa and Australia. This land 

 connection between what are now separate 

 continents appears to have persisted 

 throiigh the early Mesozoic age (Trias and 

 Jura), though towards the end of the 

 Jurassic Australia became widely sepa- 

 rated by the Indian Ocean from Africa, 

 while South America and Africa remained 

 united. Our studies on the distribution of 

 Neogffiic and African (Ethiopian) Cer- 

 atocampidfB and two related families point 

 to a connection in Cretaceous or early Ter- 

 tiary times between Brazil and western 

 Africa, thus bearing out the views of Iher- 

 ing, Gill, Ortmann and others. The former 

 connection of these Antarctogasie con- 

 tinents (whatever may be said of their 

 possible connection with Antarctica) is 

 borne out by the well-known facts in the 

 distribution of certain terrestrial worms, 

 land and fresh-water mollusks, insects, 

 fresh-water fish. Dipnoi, Peripatiis, am- 



phibians, reptiles, birds and' mammals.. 

 Our results also suggest that Africa south, 

 of the Sahara should properly be regarded 

 as a zoological realm (for which the word 

 Afrogsea is proposed), and not a depend- 

 ence or region of Arctogeea. 



C. JuDSON Heeeick, 



Secretary. 



AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ZOOLOGISTS, 

 CENTRAL BRANCH. 



The first annual meeting under the pres- 

 ent organization was held at St. Louis,. 

 December 29 and 30. The following of- 

 ficers were elected for the ensuing year : 



President — Professor C. H. Eigenmann. 



Vice-President — Dr. S. J. Holmes. 



Secretary and Treasurer — Professor F. R. Lillie.. 



Additional Members of the Executive Committee 

 — One year, Professor G. A. Lefevre; two years,. 

 Professor T. G. Lee; three years, Professor Her- 

 bert Osborn. 



The titles and abstracts of the papers 

 presented appear together with those pre- 

 sented by Section F of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, in 

 Professor Herrick's report printed above. 

 Feank Smith, 



Secretary. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Evolution and Adaptation. By Thomas Hunt ■ 



Morgan. The Macmillan Company. 1903. 



Pp. 470. 



The modern evolutionist is obliged to con- 

 fess, and somewhat painfully, that the proc- 

 esses connected with ' Darwinism ' continue to 

 receive different and conflicting explanations 

 • — this, too, in the face of a mass of documents 

 which an ever-increasing number of investi- 

 gators have been bringing together during the 

 past decades. In token of this lack of concord 

 in interpretation witness two volumes, not 

 mere tracts, which have lately appeared. In 

 the first of these, Plate,* following Darwinian 



* ' Ueber die Bedeutung des Darwin'schen Se- 

 lectionsprincips und Problems der Artbildung,' 

 Zweite, vermehrte Auflage, 1903, Engelmann, pp. 

 247. 



