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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLin. No. 1104 



pended upon to enhance the value of the fac- 

 tor of equipment undertaken by any certain 

 laboratory. 



A definite statement of the objects to be 

 sought as well as regulation of the various ac- 

 tivities would, of course, be necessary, as well 

 as the establishment of a basis of values and 

 rules governing exchanges of materials which 

 might or might not be for monetary consider- 

 ations. The establishment of such regulations 

 could well be placed in the hands of a secre- 

 tary or committee of the parties to the agree- 

 ment. J. P. GiVLER 



SODTHWESTEEN COLLEGE, 

 WiNPIELD, KaNS. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



A Revision of the Cestode Family Proteocepha- 

 lidee. By George Eoger LaEue. (Contri- 

 butions from the Zoological Laboratory of 

 Illinois, No. 33.) 



The graduate school of the University of 

 Illinois is to be congratulated on the publica- 

 tion of this monograph, which, we are in- 

 formed, is a " Thesis submitted in partial ful- 

 fillment of the requirements for the degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy." 



Dr. LaRue has, in this thesis, made a con- 

 tribution to the literature of helminthology of 

 a kind that is much needed. He has performed 

 the drudgery of examining the literature of 

 his subject with skill and patience and at the 

 same time has achieved noteworthy success in 

 bringing order out of confusion. The labor 

 of identifying species by future investigators 

 should be much lightened on account of this 

 contribution. 



The monograph is a large voltune of 350 

 pages and 16 plates containing 199 figures. 

 The figures are simple line drawings, largely 

 diagrammatic, but, so far as the writer has 

 tested them, clear in diagnostic features and 

 free from confusing or unnecessary details. 

 Methods of technic are incorporated in the 

 introduction, which should be of value to pros- 

 pective workers on the anatomy of the cestodes. 

 Hematoxylin mixtm-es are found to yield more 

 satisfactory results than carmine. " It is note- 

 worthy that the carmine stains give beautiful 



preparations of trematodes in toto, but fail 

 almost entirely for cestodes. For the cestodes 

 these stains fail because they do not sharply 

 and clearly outline the sexual organs as they 

 do in the trematodes, though not better than 

 do the hematoxylins. In the judgment of the 

 writer the use of carmine stains in cestode 

 material has been responsible for many errors 

 in the interpretation of cestode structures." 

 An important introductory section deals with 

 the anatomy and histology of the Proteocepha- 

 lids. In this section the literature of this 

 phase is reviewed critically. It is interesting 

 to note that while insisting that the anatomy 

 and finer structure of the internal organs fur- 

 nish the most valuable characters for diag- 

 nostic purposes, the author remarks that more 

 value should be given than is given to data as 

 regards the host, the locality and habitat of 

 the host, which data are always of value. 



The insertion of a key to the better known 

 genera and species of Proteocephalidse is to be 

 highly commended. The literature of the Ces- 

 toda is much scattered and there is need oi 

 synopses and keys if acquaintance with the 

 distribution of species with all that goes along 

 with that knowledge is to be extended and 

 made accurate. 



The bulk of the monograph is made up of 

 the description of species of Proteocephalids, 

 of which there are 33 from fishes and 18 from 

 amphibians and reptiles. These descriptions 

 are, from the nature of the case, of unequal 

 proportions. For example, ProteocepJialus fili- 

 collis (Rudolphi) and P. torulosus (Bartsch), 

 neither foimd in this country, are given about 

 eleven pages each. Extracts are made from 

 French and German authorities and from the 

 Latin of Rudolphi. There is perhaps justifica- 

 tion in these instances for inserting descrip- 

 tions in the languages in which they were orig- 

 inally written, although as a general practise 

 the reviewer would advise against it. LaEue 

 has not been content with simply reviewing the 

 literature of such species as those just men- 

 tioned, but has studied material obtained from 

 European helminthologists, and, having had 

 the use of Dr. Ward's extensive collection, has 

 been able to review the literature with an in- 

 telligence and authority that inspires confi- 



