86 Scientific Intelligence. 



tav Fischer.) — This volume of about 500 pages contains the 

 German translation of twenty-five lectures on heredity treated 

 from the modern standpoint of biometry. The author apologizes 

 for bringing so much that is mathematical into these discussions, 

 but he claims that he has reduced the mathematical difficulties to 

 a minimum. Certainly he has presented the subject with thor- 

 oughness, and has not avoided the hard parts of what is essen- 

 tially a very recondite matter. The historical development of 

 the subject takes it for granted that the reader (or hearer) prefers 

 to begin with nothing much farther back than Darwin and Wal- 

 lace, although the author refers to Lamarck and others before 

 him. Hence this treatise is practically an exhaustive resume of 

 recent work, and as such will command serious attention from all 

 students of Genetics. The literature of heredity, of late, has 

 expanded enormously, and with comparatively little repetition 

 except in necessary citation, and promises to occupy soon the 

 greater part of the field of biology. In reading the most recent 

 works on this subject, one can hardly fail to be struck by the 

 important bearing the study of descent has upon the hard and 

 fast lines of many species which seemed to be safe within the con- 

 ventional limits. The examination of variant forms in polymor- 

 phous groups is working present havoc in systematic biology, 

 and no one dares longer to give the number of species belonging 

 to a genus ; but it is all in the direction of advance. The pres- 

 ent work by Professor Johannsen is a long step in that direction. 



G. L. G. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Publications of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, O. 

 H. Tittmann, Superintendent. Results of Observations made at 

 the Coast and Geodetic Survey Magnetic Observatory at Chelten- 

 ham, Maryland, 1901-1904; by Daniel L. Hazard. Pp. 206, 

 56 figures. The same at Baldwin, Kansas, 1901-1904. Pp. 138 r 

 4 figs.; at Sitka, Alaska, 1902-1904, pp. 129, 52 figs. ; at Honolulu, 

 Hawaii, 1902-1904, pp. 130, 53 figs. ; at Vieques, Porto Rico, 

 1903-1904; pp. 70, 2 figs. — The series of volumes, noted above, 

 has recently been issued giving the results of observations made 

 at our various magnetic observatories. It was not until 1899 

 that the Government appropriations were such as to allow of a 

 systematic magnetic survey of the country, and the establish- 

 ment in connection with this of magnetic observatories. The 

 first complete observatory at Cheltenham, Md., 14 miles south- 

 east of Washington, was begun in 1900 and Completed in April, 



1901. Observations were also made at Baldwin, Kansas, begin- 

 ning in June, 1900, and in 1901 observatories were constructed at 

 Sitka, Alaska, and near Honolulu, the records of which began in 



1902. In February, 1903, observations were begun at Vieques, 

 Porto Rico, where, four years later, a special building was con- 



