150 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 6S2 



the evolution of the titanotheres is based on 

 thousands of measurements, of the skull and 

 teeth especially, and on comparisons of an 

 exceptionally rich series of specimens in suc- 

 cessive geological levels. So far as they have 

 gone they appear to confirm the hypotheses of 

 the separate and combined operation of the 

 four factors on different classes of characters. 

 A few illustrations only may be given of re- 

 sults which will be set forth very fully in the 

 monograph. 



1. Heredity appears to dominate the origin 

 of new cuspules in the teeth because they arise 

 in the form of rectigradations, that is, with a 

 slow, definite, and continuous origin, in an 

 adaptive direction and controlled by ancestral 

 afiinity. That is, the same results appear in- 

 dependently in descendants of the same an- 

 cestors. 



2. Ontogeny rather than heredity appears to 

 be in part an initial factor in fashioning the 

 form of the cranium. We can not regard this 

 as controlled by ancestral afiinity, because de- 

 scendants of the same ancestors give rise to 

 different results, that is, to extremely divergent 

 broad-skulled and extremely long-skulled 

 forms. 



3. Environment, besides its indirect action 

 through hei'edity and ontogeny, seems to act 

 broadly upon such change as the continuous 

 increase of size, which independently favors 

 the increase in size of the members of four 

 series of titanotheres in contrast to a fifth 

 which is dwarfed in size. 



4. Selection (by our definition not an initia- 

 tive factor), while generally operating on the 

 whole sum of characters or the sum total of 

 the organism, seems in this case to have 

 operated especially on fluctuations in skull 

 breadth cjr skull length respectively, in rela- 

 tion to the browsing or grazing habit; these 

 congenital fluctuations being connected with 

 ontogeny and organic selection. 



The above is a very brief statement of the 

 results of analysis of the evolution processes 

 in general, and of the application of these 

 processes to titanothere evolution in particu- 

 lar. It applies especially to the origin of new 

 characters, with the clear appreciation of the 

 end result that all such characters, or the 



potentiality of giving rise to them, finally 

 become germinal or hereditary. 



Henry Fairfield Osborn 



QUOTATIONS 



THE CONCILIUM BIBUOGRAPHICUM 



We learn that at the recent meeting of the 

 International Congress of Zoology held in 

 Boston a committee was formed to raise an 

 adequate endowment fund for the Concilium 

 Bibliographicum. With the one exception of 

 the final settlement of the question of nomen- 

 clature — if, indeed, such a settlement be pos- 

 sible — there is no step which the congress 

 could have taken of such importance as this 

 for zoologists in general, nor are there many 

 which could have anything like its economic 

 importance. The literature of zoology is at 

 once the most extensive and the least access- 

 ible of all those of the natural sciences. It 

 is estimated that the number of persons en- 

 gaged in zoological investigations of one kind 

 or another amounts to several thousands, 

 while — to ignore altogether works published 

 independently — there are more than 3,000 

 periodicals, written in over 20 different 

 languages, which may contain matter of in- 

 terest for the naturalist. Unfortunately, the 

 difiiculty of the situation is made greater by 

 the refusal of most of these journals to limit 

 the matter they publish to any one branch of 

 zoology and also by the importance which 

 claims of " priority " may give to articles that 

 have appeared in the most obscure periodicals. 

 Moreover, it is precisely those papers which, 

 directly or indirectly, are of the greatest eco- 

 nomic importance (whether to economic ento- 

 mology, to the study of fisheries, or to 

 parasitology) that are the hardest for the 

 working zoologist to hear of and to obtain. 



The Concilium Bibliographicum was 

 founded in 1896 under the auspices of the 

 International Congress of Zoology. Its of&ces 

 are situated in Zurich and its staff of librar- 

 ians and clerks is under the direction of Dr. 

 H. H. Field. The work of the Concilium is 

 to examine as many of the periodicals of the 

 world as are accessible to it, to make abstracts 

 of their contents, and to publish the results 

 of its labors in the form of a card catalogue 



