862 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 574. 



count of the principal facts relating to the 

 structure, classification, and life history of 

 Fishes ' and is ' intended to meet the require- 

 ments of those who are desirous of studying 

 the elements of Ichthyology; to serve as a 

 book of reference to zoologists generally; and, 

 finally, to supply those who, like travelers, 

 have frequent opportunity of observing fishes, 

 with a ready means of obtaining information ' 

 (preface) . Guenther's ' Introduction ' has 

 continued the only work of its sort. Indeed, 

 of comprehensive works on fishes, there have 

 appeared, aside from popular natural histories, 

 only Dean's excellent ' Fishes, Living and . 

 Fossil' (1895), a strictly morphological work, 

 and the seventh volume of the ' Cambridge 

 Natural History' (1904), containing Bridge 

 and Boulenger's admirable 620 pages on fishes. 

 The latter treatise is almost as extensive as 

 Guenther's ' Introduction ' and will largely 

 supersede it. 



In 1900 President Jordan (with Dr. Ever- 

 mann) completed his monumental but strictly 

 systematic ' Fishes of Middle and North 

 America.' In 1902 he (again with Dr. Ever- 

 m^ann) published the popular ' American Food 

 and Game Fishes.' 



The present work, the first large work on 

 fishes to be independently undertaken by the 

 writer, is of nearly twice the extent of Guen- 

 ther's ' Introduction ' or of the ' Cambridge 

 Natural History ' and like them " treats of 

 the fish from all the- varied points of view. 

 * * * The writer has hoped to make a book 

 valuable to technical students, interesting to 

 anglers and nature lovers, and instructive to 

 all who open its pages " (preface) . In scope 

 and in the circumstances leading up to its 

 writing Jordan's book suggests comparison 

 with Guenther's. Like its predecessors, it 

 falls into two parts. The first twenty-four 

 chapters (459 pages) form an introductory or 

 general treatise on fishes while the remainder 

 of the work deals descriptively with the vari- 

 ous subdivisions of the group. The following 

 chapter headings indicate the scope of the 

 general part : I., The Life of the Fish ; II., 

 The Exterior of the Fish; IIL, The Dissec- 

 tion of the Fish; IV., Skeleton; V., Morphol- 



ogy of the Fins; VI., Organs of Respiration; 

 VII., Nervous System; VIII., Organs of 

 Sense; IX., Organs of Reproduction; X., 

 Embryology and Growth; XL, Instincts, 

 Habits, and Adaptations; XII., Adaptations; 

 XIII., Colors; XIV., Geographical Distribu- 

 tion; XV., Isthmus Barriers Separating Fish 

 Faunas; XVL, Dispersion of Fresh-water 

 Fishes; XVIL, Dispersion of Fresh-water 

 Fishes, continued; XVIIL, Fishes as Food 

 for Man; XIX., Diseases of Fishes; XX., 

 Mythology of Fishes; XXL, Classification; 

 XXIL, History of Ichthyology; XXIIL, The 

 Collection of Fishes; XXIV., The Evolution 

 of Fishes (paleontological). 



The author's interests as a taxonomist and 

 student of geographical distribution seem to 

 be reflected in his allotment of space. Thus 

 in chapters I. to V. and XII. and XIIL, about 

 134 pages, or nearly one third of the general 

 portion, are devoted chiefly to the external 

 morphology and the skeleton, the structures 

 most used by the systematist. Geographical 

 distribution occupies 83 pages and the history 

 of ichthyology 42. The subjects mentioned 

 thus take up more than one haK of the intro- 

 ductory part of the book. On the other hand, 

 respiration is dismissed with 18 pages, the 

 nervous system and sense organs with 15 and 

 the reproductive organs with Y, while five lines 

 are given to the kidneys and they are not 

 referred to in the index. The ' Cambridge 

 Natural History,' with but half the space of 

 the present work, gives 36 pages to respiration, 

 30 to the nervous system and sense organs and 

 24 to the urinogenital organs. While it is 

 true that external features and particularly 

 external adaptive features are of peculiar in- 

 terest to the general reader, yet much that 

 President Jordan has included on the skeleton 

 and external morphology is not treated from 

 the point of view of adaptation and is prob- 

 ably of less general interest than much that 

 might have been added on internal structures. 



In writing that the book is meant for tech- 

 nical students, anglers and nature lovers, the 

 author clearly does not wish us to understand 

 that all parts of it have been so written as to be 

 useful to each of these classes of readers, but 



