Apeil 21, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



573 



in the city of Honolulu, and all of these have 

 been introduced. In glancing through the 

 bird section, I note on page 326 the heading 

 " The Legend of Maui and the Alae," and this 

 reminds me to mention the fact that all 

 through the book are scattered native legends 

 which add greatly to its interest. 



Eeverting again to the extinction of native 

 forms, the statement is made on page 333 that 

 the island of Oahu can make the melancholy 

 boast that it has a greater list of extinct birds, 

 in proportion to the total number of species 

 known from the island, than any other like 

 area in the world. 



One of the most attractive fields of natural 

 history study in the islands is that of the 

 fishes. Fish have always been one of the chief 

 articles of animal food of the natives, and 

 many strange and beautiful species abound in 

 Hawaiian waters. The collection of native 

 fishing apparatus in the Bishop Museum is a 

 revelation to the modern fisherman. The 

 natives caught fish in many most ingenious 

 ways, and were expert in making a certain fish 

 poison known as holahola. They were expert 

 shark fishers in the olden times, and the use of 

 hiunan flesh as bait was in great vogue. The 

 person to serve as bait was killed two or three 

 days in advance of the anticipated fishing expe- 

 dition. His flesh was then cut up, placed in a 

 container and left exposed to the air to decom- 

 pose. Interesting but grewsome! In walking 

 through the markets of Honolulu to-day, the 

 visitor from the States is able to recognize 

 practically none of the fishes exposed. The 

 fish fauna of Hawaii is isolated from that of 

 other lands, although most of the common 

 families of sea fish have local representatives, 

 some of them excelling in flavor the species 

 which exist elsewhere. One is greatly at- 

 tracted by the " butterfly fish " on accoimt of 

 their bright colors. 



The chapters on native and introduced in- 

 sects are very interesting ; and of course every 

 naturalist knows the tremendous interest at- 

 taching to the land and fresh-water shells of 

 the islands, and their weight in the discussion 

 of evolutionary problems. 



There seems to be at least one striking ex- 

 ception to the general rule which we have men- 



tioned, of the easy adaptation of other forms 

 of animal life to the Hawaiian climate, in the 

 case of the eastern oyster, which has re- 

 peatedly been introduced, but which has never 

 become acclimatized. 



In the portion relating to sea life the book 

 is especially interesting, and the story of the 

 plants and animals from the coral reefs is 

 fascinating. 



Scientific men have been criticized fre- 

 quently in the columns of Science for bad 

 writing. The criticism can not hold for the 

 author of this book, since it is written in a 

 style which even the professor of English at 

 Harvard would, I think, like to claim for his 

 own. The writer of this note can not improve 

 upon a sentence which has been used by Pro- 

 fessor Vaughn MacOaughey in writing of this 

 " ISTatural History of Hawaii " : " It is a great 

 guide book to the life of the tropical Pacific; 

 it is encyclopedic in its wealth and precision of 

 detail, and philosophic in its breadth of treat- 

 ment." L. O. Howard 



Exercise in Education and Medicine. By E. 

 Tait McKenzie, B.A., M.D. Second Edi- 

 tion. W. B. Saunders Company. 1915. 

 Muscular exercise has played an important 

 part in man's history whether considered from 

 the standpoint of his health, growth and phys- 

 ical development, or his achievem.ents and prog- 

 ress in civilization. As a branch of science, 

 the application of exercise in education and 

 medicine is in its infancy. The extravagant 

 claims of dabblers and charlatans have done 

 much to coniuse the real issues and to retard 

 progress. 



Dr. McKenzie has made a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the subject by bringing together in 

 this volume all the available material repre- 

 senting the present status of our knowledge 

 concerning the application of muscular exer- 

 cise in education and medicine. Since the 

 appearance of the first edition four years ago, 

 this book has been the chief reference work on 

 the subject of exercise. The second edition has 

 been completely revised and enlarged to in- 

 clude all the new material which represents 

 the considerable progress made in the subject 

 during the past four years. 



