April 5, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



387 



which includes in all 420 titles, is most 

 valuable. Professor Call's estimate of the 

 value of these writings is a very kindly one. 

 Bad as it was, Rafinesque's work unques- 

 tionably entitles him to recognition as the 

 pioneer student of the ichthyologj- and con- 

 ehology of the Mississippi valley, and he 

 was also among the earliest to study its 

 bofainy and its prehistoric archa?ology. 



All the existing portraits of Eafinesque 

 are reproduced, as well as a specimen of his 

 handwTiting. and in the appendix is re- 

 printed his will, which aftbrds a better in- 

 sight into his character than all else he ever 

 wrote. 



The book is exhaustively complete, well 

 WTitten and beautifully printed, and in its 

 publication the author and the Filson Club 

 have accomplished admirably the task 

 which they had undertaken. They have 

 reared a noble monument to him wlio was 

 ' the first Professor of Natural Science west 

 of the Alleghanies.' 



G. Brown Goode. 



The Royal Xatural Hixfory. Edited by 

 Richard Lydekker. Illustrated bj' 72 

 colored plates and 1600 engravings. 

 Frederick Warne & Co., London and New 

 York. Royal S°. 1894-95. Issued in 

 monthly parts. 



The second full volume of this important 

 work is now out and, like the first, is de- 

 voted entirely to the ;Mammalia. The first 

 comprised the Apes, Monkej's, Bats, In- 

 sectivores and part of the Carnivores : the 

 second completes the Carnivores and in- 

 cludes also the Ungulates, ^Manatees and 

 Dugongs. The well-known reputation of 

 the editor and principal author, Mr. Lydek- 

 ker, gives special value to these parts. 



In general scope and plan of treatment 

 the work resembles Brehm's Tliierleben, of 

 which several editions have appeared in 

 Germany, and the Statxiard Xatural History, 

 published in this country. The illustrations 



are in the main borrowed from Brehm; they 

 were pirated bj- the Standard Natural Hidory 

 ten j'ears ago. and here appear for the third 

 time. Of counse this is not the fault of the 

 author ; but it is a pity original works can- 

 not have original illustrations. Good plates 

 are as much a part of a book as the text 

 itself, and should be allowed to stand un- 

 molested as monuments to the author. It 

 is not intended to deprecate the exchange of 

 technical figures or the judicious bringing 

 together of scattered cuts illustrating special 

 subjects — a very diflerent thing from the 

 wholesale reproduction of a jjrevious author's 

 pictures. 



The original cuts are not of high merit. 

 Those of the hooded seal and skull of the 

 cave bear are gross caricatures, and nearly 

 all the skulls and teeth are far inferior to 

 modern standards for such work ; and it is 

 not too much to say that Mr. Lj'dekker 

 himself, in previous publications, has done 

 much toward fixing these higher standards. 

 The colored plates are cheap chromos, in 

 striking contrast to the excellent and artistic 

 plates borrowed from Brehm. 



In quoting American writers on ' big 

 game ' the most authentic and best informed 

 writers are not always chosen. The one 

 book that is beyond all comparison the 

 best j-et written on our larger mammals — 

 I refer of course to Roosevelt's Wilderness 

 Hunter — is apparently nnknowni to the 

 editor. As a natural result some surprising 

 statements are made, as, for instance, when 

 Oregon antelope hunters are told that the 

 pronghorn has ' almost or quite disajjpeared ' 

 from their State. 



Some confusion arises from different 

 usages of the common names of animals. 

 The statement that in North America " the 

 range of the elJc appears to have extended 

 originallj' from about the 43d to the 70th 

 parallel of latitude, its northern limit being 

 marked by the southern limit of the so- 

 cixlled barren gi-ounds," will take the breath 



