598 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 228 



We heartily concur with Major Powell, in his 

 remarks on the undesirability of amateur col- 

 lectors and travellers. Unfortunately, many ex- 

 plorers are so little conversant with the elements 

 of ethnology, and so little able to consider natives 

 from any other point of view than that of our own 

 civilization, or to enter into their methods of 

 thinking, that they do more harm than good. 

 Any one who has studied ethnological literature 

 knows how true this is. It is an underestimation 

 of private work, however, when Powell says, 

 " Experience has shown that individual travellers, 

 unguided and without common system, have 

 failed to obtain the best results in examining 

 members of native tribes both as individuals and 

 as aggregations. " This affirmation is opposed to the 

 encouragement of private researches, which Powell 

 has so successfully made the policy of the bureau. 

 We do not doubt that scientists who are supported 

 by the moral influence and the means of the bu- 

 reau have better chances of success than those who 

 travel without such support ; but, as the bureau 

 of ethnology is not able to carry out all the field- 

 work that is necessary and desirable, researches 

 of scientists undertaken outside of the systemati- 

 cal plan of the bureau ought to be welcome. 



We consider the plan by which the researches 

 of the bureau are carried on a very successful one. 

 The principal idea is that the phenomena of eth- 

 nology and archeology must be studied from a 

 common point of view, and that a knowledge of 

 the former is indispensable for understanding the 

 latter, and that the supposition of sudden cata- 

 clysms, instead of that of a continuous develop- 

 ment, is only justified where clear evidence of 

 the occurrence of such phenomena can be shown. 

 The work of the bureau is of great importance not 

 only for science, but also for a successful method 

 of making the Indian a useful member of the 

 state and of human society. We cannot press 

 upon him our civilization. A thorough knowledge 

 of the Indian character is necessary to reach satis- 

 factory results in this line. Both scientists and 

 philanthropists nmst wish that the work of the 

 bureau be carried on as vigorously as possible, 

 and that its operations ought not to be hampered 

 by lack of means for extensive field-work and 

 publications. Dr. Franz Boas. 



THE ROTIFERA. 



In our previous notice of this work (vol. vii. 



p. 402) we based the favorable judgment, which 



we then expressed, upon the first two parts. We 



have now before us the completed work, the ex- 



The Rotifera ; or, Wheel-animalcules. By C. T. Hudson, 

 assisted by T. H. Gossb, RR.S. Parts iii.-vi. London, 

 Longmans. 8°. 



amination of which strengthens our previous 

 favorable opinion. The authors are not of those 

 whose studies are prompted by an insatiable 

 eagerness for knowledge, but rather, it appears 

 to us, are they lovers of Nature, w^ho seek the 

 closest intimacy with her to gratify their affec- 

 tions. They are pleased to quote upon the reverse 

 of their titlepage Shelley's lines : — 



" Those viewless beings, 

 Whose mansion is the smallest particle 

 Of the impassive atmosphere, 

 Enjoy and live like man." 



We do not mean that the characterization of 

 the species is vague and dreamlike. It would be 

 difficult for a biologist to determine the syste- 

 matic position of Shelley's 'viewless beings' from 

 the poet's description ; but Mr. Hudson's are sci- 

 entifically exact, although they are rendered in- 

 teresting by the addition of something of the liter- 

 ary flavor that alone is present in Shelley's beau- 

 tiful inexactitude. It is this combination of 

 qualities which imparts a double merit to Hud- 

 son and Gosse's monograph, and renders it accept- 

 able and welconae alike to the professional and to 

 the amateur naturalist. 



The work is a valuable contribution to science, 

 as every conscientious monograph must be ; for 

 it is indispensable to progress that we should have 

 from time to time, in regard to a given subject, 

 a comprehensive presentation of the accumulated 

 knowledge. A monograph of the Rotifera was 

 very much needed, for it is twenty-five years 

 since the revision by Dr. Arlidge. To execute the 

 task worthily, it was necessary that the many, 

 by no means always rare, species which had re- 

 mained undescribed should be properly investi- 

 gated, so as to be included in the monograph. 

 This laborious undertaking the authors have ac- 

 complished. Their work contains more than one 

 hundred and twenty species which were unrecog- 

 nized when Dr. Arlidge wrote : nearly all of these 

 have been added to science by the authors them- 

 selves, some eighty of them by Mr. Gosse. 



When Mr. Hudson passes beyond his role of ob- 

 servation and description, and occupies himself 

 with problems of morphology and of the affinities 

 of the Rotifera, he is less fortunate than we could 

 wish. Thus, he says in his preface that his dis- 

 covery.of the remarkable Pedalion mirum "has 

 put beyond question the fact that the Rotifera, in 

 one point at least, are closely linked to the Arthro- 

 poda." Now, Pedalion is a true rotifer, which has 

 six limb-like appendages, two of which are on the 

 median line (one being dorsal, the other ventral), 

 and four of which are lateral. The limbs have 

 terminal bristles. These appendages impart, in 



