362 Scientific Intelligence. 



The Aquarium is proving a great success. The Biological Station 

 is getting into fine shape. (Signed) Louis L. Mowbray. 



Hamilton, Berrn., March 15, 1908. 



This remarkable discovery ought to settle the status of the 

 cahow, when the bones have been carefully studied by an expert 

 osteologist. The fact that the bird discovered is distinct from 

 the shearwater, found with it, is of itself an important point. 

 The colors of the cahow seems to have been similar to those of 

 the exceedingly rare, if not extinct, " Scaled Petrel." 



A. E. VERRILL. 



2. Principles of Breeding : A Treatise on Thremmatology, 

 or the Principles and Practices Involved in the Economic 

 Improvement of Domesticated Animals and Plants ; by E. 

 Davenport ; with appendix by H. L. Rietz. Pp. 13 + 727. New 

 York and Boston, 1907 (Ginn & Company). — The practical breed- 

 ing of plants and animals has long been influenced by so large a 

 degree of prejudice and tradition that the modern advances in 

 biological knowledge has left the subject far in the rear. Breed- 

 ing as it is being conducted by the professional investigator has 

 clearly demonstrated the rapid changes and improvements that 

 can be accomplished by the application of the theories resulting 

 from recent discoveries in biological science. The breeding of 

 animals and plants on the farm, however, is still largely in the 

 same condition as in the last century, when tradition, prejudice, 

 and the element of chance were important factors. 



The author aims to make a clear distinction between the estab- 

 lished facts and the traditional theories of the subject, and at the 

 same time to indicate lines of research which will be most likely 

 to result in further advances in the improvement of breeds. 

 Believing that the successful breeder of the future will be a book- 

 keeper and a statistician, a considerable amount of mathematics 

 has been introduced in the later chapters, and in order to make 

 the subject intelligible to all readers the principal mathematical 

 problems involved are elucidated in an appendix. 



The work will undoubtedly succeed in decreasing to some 

 extent the wide gap which has hitherto separated the professional 

 investigator from the practical breeder of plants and animals, and 

 while it is designed particularly to meet the needs of the student 

 in agriculture and the practical breeder, it will prove of equal 

 value to the professional biologist. w. r. c. 



3. Mechanismus mid VitaMsmus in der Biologie des neun- 

 zehnten , Jdhrhunderts : ein geschictlicher Versuch • von Dr. Karl 

 Braefnig. Pp. 111. Leipzig, 1907 (Wilhelm Engelmann). — 

 This work is not so much a new discussion of the worn-out argu- 

 ment as to whether the vital processes are dominated by mechan- 

 ical — that is, physico-chemical — forces or by some special kind 

 of force commonly termed " vital force" which is peculiar to liv- 

 ing bodies, as it is to show the historical course of events which 

 in the middle of the nineteenth century led to the overthrow of 

 the vitalistic doctrine and the almost universal adoption of the 



