July 5, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



27 



of contents. The technical nomenclature de- 

 parts little from accepted usage, though it may 

 be noted that the name Cabassous McMurtrie, 

 1831, is substituted for Tatu Blumenbach, 1799, 

 Manatus Storr, 1780, for Trichechiis Linnseus, 

 1758 (as applied to the manatee), and Dlcotyles 

 Cuvier, 1817, for Tayassu Fischer, 1814. The 

 name Trichechus, though based on the manatee 

 alone, is applied to the walrus. Aplodontia is 

 altered to Haplodontia to conform with rules ir- 

 relevant to nomenclature, but Beithrodontomys, 

 Cynomyonax, tridecemlineatus and doubtless many 

 others, which on the same ground might be 

 changed, are left in their correct original form. 

 A single new name is proposed, Balsenoptera 

 velifera copei (page 13). As if to compensate 

 for the brevity of the text, the book is illustrated 

 with a profuseness hitherto unknown in similar 

 works. The plates and text figures contain 

 half-tone reproductions of photographs of the 

 skull and teeth of at least one representative of 

 nearly every genus and subgenus. The stand- 

 ard of excellence of these figures is very high, 

 and no equally successful application of photog- 

 raphy to zoological illustration on so extensive 

 a scale has hitherto been made. 



Gerjbit S. Miller, Jr. 



the maryland eocene book. 

 Those who have had to deal with official 

 geologic surveys know how frequently it is 

 argued that publications of a character so 

 purely scientific as paleontology appeal to a very 

 limited audience, too limited, it is often urged, 

 to justify the expenditure necessary for their 

 proper production. The counter-argument, 

 however, gets at the facts. Toward the close 

 of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsyl- 

 vania, after a cloud of volumes upon tectonics, 

 economics and devitalized stratigraphy had been 

 issued, Dr. Lesley prepared a 'Dictionary of Fos- 

 sils,' profusely illustrated, suffused with impor- 

 tant facts, amusing fancies and pages of errata, 

 but a work of great usefulness. The demand 

 created by the appearance of this book was so 

 much greater than the supply that the edition 

 was gone while its reportorial predecessors 

 were resting on the shelves waiting for inquir- 

 ers. In New York, Ohio and Illinois the ex- 

 perience has been very much the same. 



'Maryland Geological Survey: Eocene' is 

 the title of the first of a series of monographs 

 upon the historical geology of Maryland, that is 

 to say, its stratigraphy and fossils, in other 

 words its paleontology. It seems eminently 

 appropriate that the Eocene is chosen as the 

 subject for the initial volume of this series in 

 view of Professor Clark's exhaustive acquaint- 

 ance with this formation. The state geologist, 

 though takiug a leading part in the composi- 

 tion and execution of the work has brought 

 into cooperation with himself a number of ex- 

 perts in various special lines of research. Thus 

 the leading chapter on Eocene stratigraphy 

 and sequence, ' The Eocene Deposits of Mary- 

 land,' is by W. B. Clark and G. C. Martin. 

 Under the part assigned to descriptive paleon- 

 tology the chapters are as follows : Reptilia, 

 by Case ; Pisces, by Eastman ; Arthropoda, and 

 Bryozoa, by Ulrich ; Mollusca, Brachiopoda and 

 Echinodermata, by Clark and Martin ; CcBlent- 

 erata, by Vaughan ; Protozoa, by Bagg, and 

 Plant^e, by Hollick. Ten plates of maps and 

 half-tones illustrate the first part of the work, 

 and fifty-four process plates, largely of McCon- 

 nell's fine pen-and-ink drawings, are devoted 

 to the fossils. Like the other volumes of Pro- 

 fessor Clark's survey this is exquisitely con- 

 structed on finished lines and commends itself 

 to lovers of well-made books, who will all pray 

 that the supercalendered wood-paper used 

 for the plates may last until the world has 

 no further need of the facts registered upon 

 them. 



It is an admirable achievement, bringing to- 

 gether in one place all that is now known of the 

 Eocene stratigraphy and fauna in an important 

 political division, and long after the present 

 quarry workings, coal mines and clay pits of 

 Maryland shall have been exhausted and aban- 

 doned, and all the economic products of the 

 State shall have been converted into cash, the 

 facts here brought together will endure, with a 

 never-lessening value to the sum of human 

 knowledge. The book will receive a welcome 

 from paleontologists and merits the cordial ap- 

 preciation of the citizens and students of the 

 State for whom it has been specially pre- 

 pared. 



John M. Clarke. 



