December 3, 1886. J 



SCIENCE. 



523 



is injured, or the animal brought under the in- 

 fluence of an anaesthetic, it cannot be performed ; 

 that when the amputation is voluntaiy, the crab 

 loses but little blood, which is not the case when 

 the limb is removed by the experimenter, thus 

 going to show that the act is purely a protective 

 one, often saving the life of the animal with the 

 minimum amount of injury. 



Tlie power to perform the act with promptness 

 varies with the different species, and in any of 

 them, when the animal is fatigued, it is not apt to 

 resort to it. In experimenting with vigorous 

 specimens of Carcinus maenas, it was observed 

 that when the ten limbs were successively struck, 

 allowing sufficient time for each one to detach 

 itself before the next leg was struck, a far greater 

 number were thrown off than when they were all 

 struck together, or in very rapid succession. 



Then, in one hundred and ten specimens of the 

 same species, it was found that a second blow 

 upon the undetached claws would cause them, in 

 nearly all cases, to come away likewise, especially 

 after the animal had somewhat recovered from 

 the shock caused by the loss of its other limbs. 

 And when the same experiments are undertaken 

 in the case of only five of the limbs, the number that 

 come away was proportionately much greater. 

 Further, it was noted that the animal was more 

 successful in getting rid of its great claws, or 

 pincers, than it was with the ambulatory limbs. 



To sum up, then, M. Varigny believes this re- 

 flex function of defence, as performed among 

 crustaceans, consists in a voluntary amputation, 

 indifferently executed among those species where- 

 in the musculature of the limbs is but feebly 

 developed, and among individuals exhausted by 

 severe pain, as in such cases where all the limbs 

 have been simultaneously removed. 



As the hemorrhage is so much less as resulting 

 from the voluntary amputation, when compared 

 with what takes place after the removal of the 

 liinb by artificial means, it will not be questioned 

 but that this power as possessed by these animals 

 is one of service to them. 



Further investigations in this direction will be 

 not only interesting, but valuable. 



ELLIOTTS ALASKA AND THE SEAL 



ISLANDS. 

 TfflS handsomely illustrated and printed volume 

 is evidently intended for a popular audience. 

 Little of its contents is new. That which is origi- 

 nal with the author, and due to his personal 

 observation, is in great part a re-arrangement and 

 amplification of matter printed by him two or 



Our arctic province Alaska and the Seal Islands. By 

 Henry W. Elliott. New York, Scribner, V 86. 8°. 



three times previously, especially in the octavo 

 report on the 'Condition of affairs in Alaska,' 

 issued by the government in 1875, and in the quarto 

 document of the census series of 1880, relating 

 to the fur-seal fisheries and kindred topics, pub- 

 lished in 1882, from which part of the illustrations 

 of the present volume have been adapted or re- 

 duced. This, however, will not diminish the in- 

 terest or value of the work for those who are not 

 in the habit of consulting government documents, 

 or who read merely for general information. The 

 part of the work which is a re-arrangement of 

 matter original with others is naturally less satis- 

 factoiy than that on the Aleutian and Seal islands, 

 where the author is at home in the scenes be, for 

 the most part, very fairly and accurately describes. 

 Many of the illustrations are faithful and good, 

 especially those due to pen-and-ink sketches. From 

 these, however, the human figure-pieces must be 

 excepted : the faces in particular partake some- 

 what of caricature, are generally out of drawing, 

 and have absolutely no anthropological value. 

 The landscapes, excepting a few representing 

 mountains, are generally very good. In the copy 

 before us, Mount Shishaldin has disappeared from 

 the plate which claims to give a glimpse of it (p. 

 146) ; Mount Iliamna is represented with a slope 

 near the peak (p. 87) of about twenty -three degrees 

 from the vertical ; and Verstovia (p. 32) has hardly 

 more than forty-five. 



The book is to some extent a misnomer, the most 

 interesting and available part of Alaska lying be- 

 tween latitudes 50° and 60° north, as does the 

 greater part of the British Islands, which no one 

 would think of calling arctic. Tiie nomenclature 

 and transliteration of Russian words are very 

 irregular and often inaccurate, in no respect con- 

 forming to the systems generally adopted. Apart 

 from the biology of the fur-seals and birds of the 

 Seal Islands, the natural history of the book is 

 very shaky, and tlie anthropologj' almost a minus 

 quantity. But it is hardly worth while to lay 

 much stress on its deficiencies from a scientific 

 stand-point, since it is hardly likely to be consulted 

 for precise data of that sort. Its historical errors 

 are less numerous but more important. To give a 

 single instance, the author repeats the error of 

 Petroff in Bancroft's ' Alaska,' by stating that in 

 1868 Messrs. Hutchinson and Morgan passed the 

 season i7i exclusive control of the sealing on St. 

 George and St. Paul islands. As a matter of fact, 

 there were five or more competing companies. 

 There is an insufficient index ; and the map, though 

 well drawn and printed, in spite of the date, 1886, 

 which it bears, is destitute of all the more im- 

 portant geographical discoveries of the last few 

 years. 



