October 20, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



493 



will take precedence over the fixing of the 

 type by the first reviser. 



In the present bulletin, besides the original 

 text of the International Code, Dr. Stiles 

 gives pertinent discussions and illustrations, 

 for the purpose of making plain the reasons 

 for the rules adopted. He gives also a valuable 

 discussion of the proper application of various 

 names used in medicine as applied to animal 

 or bacterial parasites. Among these names are 

 Taenia, Echino coccus, Bacterium, Spirillum, 

 Spirodiscus, Bacillus, Dipylidium, Diliothrio- 

 cephalus and Monas. 



In conclusion we must congratulate Dr. 

 Stiles for this most useful bulletin, which 

 should be in the hands of every worker in 

 systematic zoology, and most botanists would 

 gain from its perusal. 



David Starr Jordan. 



Handhuch der Geographischen Ortshestim- 

 mung fur Geographen und Forschungs- 

 reAsende. Von Dr. Adolph Marcuse, 

 Privatdozent an der Universitat Berlin. 

 Braunschweig, Friederich Vieweg und Sohn. 

 1905. 8vo. Pp. 341 ; 55 illustrations. 

 The author has produced a useful and inter- 

 esting book which, according to the preface, 

 is intended primarily for the guidance of 

 geographers and explorers, but incidentally 

 also for teachers and students. Having in 

 naind the needs of the latter, he has included 

 in his manual many subjects by way of ex- 

 planation or suggestion which would not be 

 considered necessary in a work intended solely 

 as a guide for the determination of positions 

 with a degree of accuracy commonly consid- 

 ered sufficient for geographical purposes. 

 Thus five pages are devoted to an exposition 

 of the state of our knowledge of the variation 

 of latitude. By way of suggestion he refers 

 to the application of photography to the de- 

 termination of geographical positions, promis- 

 ing the publication of a manual of the photo- 

 graphic method on the completion of certain 

 experimental work which he apparently has in 

 hand, and which must have made very satis- 

 factory progress, to judge from his remark on 

 page 250 to the effect that longitude can 

 readily be determined by means of a portable 



photographic universal instrument to within 

 one second of time. He also holds out the 

 promise of success of some "longitude work 

 undertaken by Dr. Albrecht by means of wire- 

 less telegraphy. In this connection, it may 

 be remarked parenthetically that the coast 

 survey as early as 1901 obtained a satisfactory 

 graphic record of wireless time signals sent to 

 the Nantucket Station from the light ship for 

 the purpose of testing the method of wireless, 

 longitude. 



The requirements of the future are fore 

 stalled in an appendix on the determinatiom 

 of geographic positions by seronauts. He de- 

 scribes a quadrant which was actually used 

 during a balloon voyage and gives an example 

 of the results obtained. In connection with 

 the use of Sumner's method by aeronauts the 

 author calls attention to the advantages of the 

 use of 'Mercator's functions,' a name proposed 

 by Borgen, who elaborated the new method 

 of computation and published his formulae 

 and tables in the Archiv der Deutschen 

 Seeiuarte (1898). On account of its sim- 

 plicity and the avoidance of the usual log- 

 arithmic tables of the six circular functions, 

 the new method is to be highly commended to 

 navigators for whom it was devised. These 

 references to JMarcuse's book will be sufficient 

 to indicate that it is by no means a mere re- 

 arrangement of old formulae and methods. 



The first chapter gives an explanation of 

 celestial and terrestrial coordinates and of 

 the variations to which they are subject. 

 The second contains a very useful description 

 of the Ephemerides published by various gov- 

 ernments and evaluates their usefulness for 

 different purposes. It gives descriptive and 

 explanatory references to tables designed to 

 facilitate computations, to star maps and 

 celestial globes, etc. 



The third chapter, which is devoted to in- 

 strum.ents, gives a clear and very useful ac- 

 count of chronometers and their use. The 

 author does not attempt to describe all known 

 forms of instruments which might be used. 

 Sextants and reflecting instruments he leaves 

 to books on navigation. He recommends the 

 use of the portable universal as the standard 

 instrument which meets all requirements and 



