SCIENCE. 



Editorial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickering, As- 

 tronomy ; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics ; R. H. Thurstox, Engineering ; Ira Remsen, Chemistry ; 

 Joseph Le Coxte, Geologj'; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Marsh, Paleontology; W. K. 

 Brooks, Invertebrate Zoology ; C. Hart Merriam, Vertebrate Zoology ; N. L. Britton, 

 Botany ; Henry F. Osborn, General Biology ; H. P. Bowditch, Physiology ; 

 J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology ; 

 Daniei. G. Beinton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, March 8, 1895. 



CONTENTS: 



Current Notes on Anthropology (IV. ) : D. G. Brin- 



TOX ' 253 



Current Nolc» on Phyaingriipliy {II.): W. M. 



Davis 257 



Laboratonj Teaching of Large Classes — Zoology: 



Hermox C. Eumpus 260 



Notex on the Biolof/i/ of the Lobster : Francis H. 



Herrick '...'. 263 



The Ncicark System I. C. Russell 266 



Death of George N. Lawrence: C. Hart Mer- 



RIAM 268 



Scientific Literature : — 269 



GreenhilVs Mechanics: R. S. WOODWARD. 

 BechhoVVs Cheinisehe Ih/namik : H. C. JOXES. 

 Bernthseii's Organic Chonistry: FELIX Leng- 

 FELD. nneckel's I'hylogenic: GARY N. CAL- 

 KINS. Geology. 



Notci and News : — 275 



Forestry and Economic Botany; Entomology ; Rus- 

 sian Science ; The Cold Spring Harhor L(dioratory ; 

 Washington Lectures; A Proposed National Uni- 

 versity; General. 



Societies and Academies 279 



Scientific Journals 280 



New Books 280 



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 for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison on Hudson, N. Y. 



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CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY {IV.) 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VARIATIONS IN THE 



HUMAN SKELETON. 



It is a little odd that two papers on the 

 same suhject, with almost the same title, 

 prepai-ed independentlj' at the same time, 

 should agree in defending a new view of 

 the significance of variations and anomalies 

 in organic forms. 



The one of these is that which I read be- 

 fore the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science in August last, pub- 

 lished in the American Anthropologist for 

 October, entitled Vnriations of the Human 

 Skeleton and their ('ai(i<es; the Other was the 

 Shattuck Lecture, delivered before the Mas- 

 sachusetts Medical Society by Dr. Thomas 

 Dwight, Professor of Anatomy at Har- 

 vard University, with the title, the Range 

 and Sifjnlficance of Variation in the Human 

 Skeleton. 



The two papers, although (b-awing their 

 material ft-om wholly independent sources, 

 and reasoning along different lines, reach 

 quite the same conclusion, to wit: That 

 variations, which in the human skeleton re- 

 semble forms in lower animals, are not to be 

 interin-eted as ' reversions ' or ' atavistic 

 retrogressions,' but that other laws should 

 be invoked to account for them, such as 

 nutrition, mechanical action, etc. 



ITr. Dwight adds the following significant 

 words : '' The opinion is growing daily 

 stronger among serious scholars that if 

 man's body came from a lower form it was 

 not by a long process of minute modifica- 

 tions, but by some sudden, or comparatively 

 sudden transition." 



This is the opinion which, under the name 

 heterogenesis, I have defended for many years 

 (see my Races and Peoples, pp. 80. 81 ) . It has 

 lately received strong support from some of 

 Bateson's admirable studies in variation. 



