598 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. ! 



publication of Alder & Hancock's " British 

 Tunicata." He has since completed it through 

 the year 1910. He has added many titles to 

 Herdmann's bibliographic list in his Chal- 

 lenger reports, which has been the standard 

 bibliography for the Tunicata. 



The bibliography is in the form of an au- 

 thor's index with full titles, with page refer- 

 ences, and often with brief note as to contents. 

 There are included not only works which deal 

 exclusively or mainly with the Tunicata, as 

 indicated in their titles, but very many works 

 in which the reference to the Tunicata is not 

 the main theme, general text-books being in- 

 cluded in the list. Of course, no such list can 

 possibly be entirely complete, but in this in- 

 stance it is a remarkably full one and will be 

 of great value to students of the group. 



In several weeks' use of the bibliography 

 the reviewer has noticed no inaccuracies and 

 no omissions of any moment. It is a little 

 unfortunate that about a tenth of the titles 

 are placed in a supplementary list. 



Maynard M. Metoalf 

 Oberlin, Ohio, 

 October 1, 1913 



The Earth: Its Genesis and Evolution Consid- 

 ered in the Light of the Most Recent Scien- 

 tific Research. By A. T. Swaine. London. 

 Worthless is a very strong adjective to apply 

 to a book which is almost a model in paper, 

 typography and illustration. Yet just what is 

 the value of a book whose author believes that 

 vital force produces matter (p. 72), that thus 

 the earth is slowly growing larger (p. 263), 

 that the great cycles of sedimentation corre- 

 spond to a filling up of the great ocean depths, 

 a straw-colored siliceous ooze below 3,000 fath- 

 oms gnd red clays corresponding to the basal 

 quartzites and red beds (p. 20), that up to the 

 close of the Paleozoic the light and heat energy 

 of the sun had not been experienced on earth 

 (pp. 144-1.51), but that an increase in tempera- 

 ture of the earth's crust in cycles was due to 

 igneous activity and outflow of heat from the 

 interior, which evaporated a large amount of 

 the ocean (pp. 89, 95, 109, 174, 183, 193)? 

 Compared with these heresies, the theory that 



sedimentary rocks are fused sediments (p. 54), 

 that erosion and conglomerates are largely due 

 to the wash of the evaporated ocean condensing 

 again (p. 95) with the tidal waves caused by 

 earth movement paroxysms (pp. 186, 213), the 

 explanation of transgressive formations (p. 

 95), of laterite (p. 199) and of drumlins (p. 

 245) are but minor. The book shows, however, 

 a wide acquaintance with recent and the best 

 geological literature, though it is curious in a 

 book that dwells so much on geologic cycles of 

 sedimentation that no mention seems to be 

 made of Newberry or Schuchert. It contains a 

 mass of geological fact mixed with the author's 

 unique views put in an interesting way. 



Conceivably, it might be of use to give to a 

 rather advanced student, inclined to swallow 

 what he reads too easily, as an emetic, asking 

 him to show why the facts advanced by the 

 author do not support his theories. 



Alfred C. Lane 



SCIENTIFIC JOUBNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The first number of the new Journal of 

 Agricultural Research published by the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture was issued October 

 10. It consists of eighty-seven pages of letter- 

 press and line drawings and five plates, includ- 

 ing one color plate. The articles in the first 

 number are: 



"Citrus ichangensis, a Promising, Hardy, New 



Species from Southwestern China and Assam. ' ' 



' ' Cysticercus ovis, the Cause of Tapeworm Cysts in 



Mutton. ' ' 

 ' ' The Serpentine Leaf -Miner. ' ' 

 In the introduction, written by Dr. B. T. Gal- 

 loway, assistant secretary, the purposes of the 

 journal are explained as follows : " The recent 

 advances in the theory and practise of agricul- 

 ture have come almost entirely from scientific 

 research applied to agricultural problems. 

 Accumulated results of centuries of pains- 

 taking studies have been drawn upon, and it 

 has become evident that further improvement 

 in agriculture calls for continued investigation 

 of the most accurate and thorough nature. 

 The first recognition of the economic value of 

 progress in these investigations as well as the 

 initial application of theories to practical prob- 



