858 



SCIENCE 



LN. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 857 



tions and systematic qualitative analysis, witli 

 a few carefully chosen quantitative experi- 

 ments afford the best background for the 

 theoretical development of the science." They 

 have, in order to avoid superficiality, cut the 

 number of experiments dovm to a minimum, 

 necessary for the understanding of the sub- 

 ject in its elementary phases. They have 

 given more experiments than can be done in 

 the normal year's work in school or college, 

 hoping to stimulate the ambitious student to 

 further work. 



They have selected 33 typical experiments 

 which includes the preparation of the com- 

 mon gases and acids and the preparation of 

 several salts. This is followed by a study of 

 the typical reactions of the metals and a 

 course in qualitative analysis. The book also 

 contains a few pages devoted to the quantita- 

 tive proof of some of the fundamental laws 

 upon which the science of chemistry is based. 

 The material given is well selected and clearly 

 stated, though, as the authors state in the 

 preface, they have introduced little that is 

 new. The question that each teacher must 

 solve is whether it is better to cover a limited 

 field thoroughly or to cover a broad field by 

 selected examples. If a student's knowledge 

 of chemistry is to be gained by one year's work 

 this book could be used no doubt to advantage 

 in connection with a text-book and a course of 

 lectures; but if the subject is to be pursued 

 further each one of the separate fields covered 

 here would have to be gone over again in 

 greater detail in order to attain a suitable 

 ground for more advanced work. 



J. E. G. 



A Naturalist in the Bahamas. By John I. 

 Northrop. October 12, 1861^une 25, 1891. 

 A memorial volume edited with a biograph- 

 ical introduction by Henry Fairfield Os- 

 BORN. New York, The Macmillan Co. $2.50. 

 The present volume brings together the 

 papers of the late Dr. John I. Northrop, de- 

 scribing the zoological, botanical and geolog- 

 ical results of his sis months' collecting on the 

 Bahama Islands. It includes also a narrative 

 of the expedition eoatributed by Mrs. Nor- 



throp; a report upon the Bahaman crusta- 

 ceans by Professor William H. Eankin; on 

 the actinians, by Professor J. Playf air McMur- 

 rieh; on the shells by Professor William H. 

 Dall; on plants by Mrs. Northrop, Mr. Prank 

 S. Collins and Dr. O. P. Cook; and a paper 

 describing the new oriole Icterus northropi, 

 by Dr. J. A. Allen. All of these papers are 

 carefully republished ■ and the volume forms 

 altogether a substantial contribution to Amer- 

 ican zoological literature. . . . One closes the 

 book with the feeling of keen regret that the 

 life of Dr. Northrop could not have been 

 spared. If his early promise brought together 

 both from his own pen and from those of his 

 associates the present results, what may not 

 his years of maturity have contributed? He 

 was another Lycidas and zoologists will re- 

 member him with such men as Harrington, 

 Budgett and Balfour. 



Bashford Dean 

 / 

 THMEE FOSMICID NAMES WHICH HAVE 

 BEEN OVERLOOKED 

 Mr. S. a. Eohwer has kindly called my 

 attention to two generic names which have 

 been overlooked by all recent myrmecologists, 

 including Dalla Torre, the author of the 

 " Catalogus Hymenopterorum." One of these 

 names is Typhlomyrmex, which was given by 

 Gistel in 1856^ to Myrmica typhlops Lund. 

 On referring to Lund's paper^ I find that 

 M. typhlops is mentioned without a descrip- 

 tion, and since the insect is certainly not a 

 Myrmica in the modern sense and can not be 

 identified from the few notes on its habits 

 (moving in files and carrying isopods), the 

 name must be regarded as a nomen nudum 

 and hence without any standing in nomen- 

 clature. And since Gistel cites no characters 

 for his genus Typhlomyrmex but merely 

 bases it on an invalid name, it, too, is without 

 standing. Mayr, without knowing of Gistel's 

 work, described in 1862 a genus Typhlomyr- 

 mex for a neotropical ant, T. rogenhoferi 



^ ' ' Mysterien der europaisehen Insectenwelt. ' ' 

 ' ' ' Lettre sur les Habitudes de Quelques Fourmis 



du Bresil, addressee a M. Audouin, " Ann. Sci. 



Nat., XXIII., ]83a, p. 113-138. 



