404 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



Every subscriptien will be promptly acknowl- 

 edged by a formal souvenir receipt, bearing the 

 portrait of Lavoisier in prison. The original 

 individual subscription papers will be bound 

 and deposited in the Archives of the Academy. 



While the American committee was rather 

 late in beginning its work, we are advised that 

 its efforts are slowly bearing fruit. Let every 

 one who reads these lines join in the good 

 work, giving money in accordance with his 

 means and his regard for the conquests of the 

 pioneer who wrought so well in laying the fun- 

 damentals of chemical science. 



Edgak F. Smith. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC LITER ATUBE. 

 List of the Vertehrated Animals now or lately liv- 

 ing in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of 

 London. London, Longmans, Green & Co. 

 Ninth edition. 1896. Pp. xvi4-724. 

 The preface to this work states that its prin- 

 cipal object is to facilitate the naming of speci- 

 mens and to render nomenclature uniform. It 

 is merely a transcript of the Society's register 

 of accessions illustrated by a few cuts from the 

 proceedings. Its value would have been greatly 

 increased had there been added statistics show- 

 ing the number of each species present, the 

 average life of each and the number and causes 

 of the deaths. As the volume treats of all ani- 

 mals that have been in the garden during 12 

 years past, and embraces 2,557 species, a vast 

 amount of information might thus have been 

 given which would have been of great benefit 

 not only to those having collections in charge, 

 but to pathologists and biologists generally. 



We are able to gather from the list some idea 

 of the number and kinds of animals born in the 

 gardens during this period and thus judge how 

 far the conditions were favorable for breeding. 

 Some rather unexpected results are met with. 

 We will consider the mammals only. The 

 lemurs breed much more freely than monkeys; 

 the lion is the only one of the cat tribe that is 

 prolific, though our own puma is credited with 

 five births. Among Esquimaux dogs there 

 were but 9 births ; the dingo has 15. From 

 an apparently large number of raccoons but 



8 were born, and among 52 squirrels {Sciunis 

 vulgaris, common to the British islands) 

 there were no births. On the other hand 14 

 beaver {Castor canadensis), 6 bison (B. amer- 

 icanus), 19 American elk, or Wapiti {Cervus 

 canadensis), 35 mule deer {Cariacns macrotis) 

 were born. The South African fruit bats 

 {Cynonycteris collaris) produced 44, and the 

 gerbilles, rat-like animals from western Asia 

 and North Africa, threatened to become a 

 nuisance, the birth of no less than 225 being re- 

 corded. Other notable births were 47 coypus, 

 13 yaks, 11 gayals {Bibos frontalis), 18 Hima- 

 layan sheep {Ovis burrhel) 15 Barbary sheep 

 (Ovis tragelaplms), 43 Japanese deer {Cervus 

 sika), many kangaroos and phalangers. 



Certain species that breed freely in American 

 zoological collections appear not to have bred 

 at all or but rarely. Among these may be men- 

 tioned our coyote, prairie dog and chipping 

 squirrel {Tamias striatiis) the collared peccary, 

 the Virginia deer, and even some domesticated 

 animals like the camel, the llama and the zebu. 

 Some of these results could doubtless be ex- 

 plained were the circumstances of each case 

 fully known. Fkank Baker. 



Smithsonian Institution. 



Genius and Degeneration. A Psychological 

 Study. By De. William Hiesch. D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co. 1896. 



This work is published in the same style type 

 as Nordau's ' Degeneration ' and is announced 

 as an answer to the latter work. An accom- 

 panying circular assures us that Dr. Hirsch 

 ' absolutely refuses to accept Dr. Nordau's 

 conclusions.' This at once removes a good 

 deal of tension from the inquiring critic and 

 leaves him the simpler tasks of finding out who 

 it is that thus deals in the absolute and what 

 are his reasons for so firm an implantation of 

 himself upon an adverse position. The open- 

 ing chapters of the book discuss the position of 

 modern psychiatry and the nature of insan- 

 ity and of genius. It is shown that neither of 

 these latter things represents a very definite psy- 

 chological concept. The author then takes up 

 the relations of genius aud insanity to each other. 

 He shows that they are not identical and that 

 "genius resembles insanitj' as gold resembles 



