428 Scientific Intelligence. 



by William B. Phillips. 9S pp. 8vo, with a map. 1892. — The gold 

 belt described occurs in the counties of Chilton, Coosa and Talla- 

 poosa. 



3. Annual Report of the Arkansas Geological Survey for 

 1892, vol. i. 152 pp. 8vo. — This volume consists of a report on 

 the Iron Ores of Arkansas by Dr. R. A. F. Penrose. 



4. On the Osteology of Poebrotherium, a Contribution to the 

 Philogeny of the Tylopoda. 74 pp. 8vo, with 3 plates : On the 

 Osteology of Meso hippies and Leptomeryx, with Observations on 

 the mode and factors of Evolution in the Mammalia. 104 pp. 

 8vo, with 2 plates; by W. B. Scott, College of New Jersey, 

 Princeton. From the Journal of Morphology, v, Nos. 1 and 3, 

 Boston, 1891. — These papers are the first and second parts of a 

 Memoir bearing on questions in mammalian evolution. The 

 osteological character of Poebrotherium, Mesohippus and Lepto- 

 meryx are presented in detail after a thorough study of the large 

 collection at Princeton, and made the basis of comparisons between 

 them and the near and more distantly related species in and near 

 the successional lines severally of the Carnal, Horse and Tragu- 

 lus. The specimens in the Museum include a nearly complete skele- 

 ton of Poebrotherium labiatum of Cope, from the White River 

 beds, a restoration of which is given, and also numerous bones 

 illustrating the other genera. From his critical studv, Prof. Scott 

 draws conclusions as to the changes which took place in the course 

 of development, and thence deduces principles as to "the modes 

 and factors in the evolution." His method is the only right one, 

 and it is used with great caution and excellent judgment. The 

 closing part of his chapter on Evolution takes up the question as 

 to factors ; and in the introductory remarks he expresses his dis- 

 sent from Weissmann's theory of the continuity of the germ- 

 plasm, and says that in his opinion " so far from rendering the 

 phenomena of heredity more intelligible, it tends to confuse them 

 still further, and to end logically in a system very like the old 

 preformationism. As Lloyd Morgan has very pithily put it, 'I 

 cannot but regard Weissmann's doctrine of the continuity of 

 germ-plasm as a distinctly retrograde step. His germ-plasm is 

 an unknowable, invisible, hypothetical entity, material though it 

 be, it is of no more practical value than a mysterious and mythi- 

 cal germinal principle.' " Prof. Scott in summing up the results of 

 his examination says, that it is clearly seen " that transformation, 

 whether in the way of the addition of new parts, or the reduction 

 of those already present, acts just as if the direct action of the 

 environment and the habits of the animal were the efficient cause 

 of the change, and any explanation which excludes the direct 

 action of such agencies is confronted by the difficulty of an 

 immense number of the most striking coincidences." 



5. On Palceaspis of Claypole. — A paper by Mr. Claypole on his 

 genus Palceaspis was read before the Geological Society of Lon- 

 don on the 22nd of June. In it he " describes two specimens 

 from the Onondaga group (referred to the Lower Ludlow), which 



