100 Scientific Intelligence. 



2. Notes on the Ontogeny of Paradoxides, with the descrip- 

 ion of a new species from Braintree, Mass.; and Notes on the 

 Ontogeny of Isotelus gigas Dekay ; by Percy E. Raymond. 

 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. lviii, No. 4, pp. 225-244, with 1 

 plate ; No. 5, pp. 247-263, with 3 plates, 1914. — In these excellent 

 papers the author presents all that is known regarding the 

 ontogeny of the genus Paradoxides and the species Isotelus gigas, 

 his studies being based largely on a wealth of material in the 

 Agassiz Museum of Harvard University. Incidentally a number 

 of species are more clearly delimited or described as new. In the 

 youngest or protaspis stage of Paradoxides, this genus is seen to 

 be closely related to Olenellus. On the other hand, when Isotelus 

 gigas has a length of from 3 to 5 mm it has " almost exactly the 

 same form as an adult specimen of JBasilicus barrandi, thus 

 providing an excellent example of recapitulation, for the begin- 

 ning of the range of Basilicus antedates that of Isotelus. Another 

 interesting fact is that while Isotelus gigas is the most specialized 

 species of the genus, it is one of the first to appear, and apparently 

 one of the first to die out, while the ones which survived to the 

 end of the Ordovician were the more primitive forms, Isotelus 

 maximus and I. iowensis" (p. 247). I. gigas in its development 

 passes through the Basilicus, Ogygites and Isotelus stages into 

 that of the species I. gigas. c. s. 



3. Acceleration of development in fossil Cephalopoda ; by 

 James Perrin Smith. Leland Stanford Junior Univ. Pub., 

 Univ. Ser., 1914, 30 pages, 15 plates. — Professor Smith in this 

 paper discusses, with an abundance of illustrations, the principles 

 of the biogenetic law as shown among the goniatites and ammon- 

 ites. The more this study is pursued, the more intricate it 

 becomes, and the author fears that he will be thought to be leav- 

 ing the " Hyatt school " of paleontologists. In conclusion, how- 

 ever, he adds : " The writer is still a firm believer in the biogenetic 

 law, but that law is not such a simple thing as it was once 

 thought to be. In the j^outh of every theory everything is 

 beautifully clear, and ideally simple. As time goes on we are 

 compelled to drop one idea after another, until it almost seems 

 that the whole will be lost. When sceptics concerning the recap- 

 itulation theory throw up to us that ontogeny does not always 

 recapitulate phylogeny, we are prepared to admit this, even to go 

 further and admit that it does not often recapitulate. In fact, the 

 writer would be prepared to go still further, and to state that, in 

 the sense in which the term has been used by most adherents of 

 the theory, it never recapitulates. Our over-zealous friends have 

 claimed too much, and have done more to prevent general accept- 

 ance of the theory than a host of enemies " (p. 26). c. s. 



4. The Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Tanner's Creek 

 section of the Cincinnati Series of Indiana; by E. R. Cumings 

 and J. J. Galloway. Thirty-seventh Ann. Rept. Dept. Geol. 

 Nat. Res. Indiana, 1912. 1913, 87 pages, 20 pis., 18 figs. — This 

 paper is especially valuable for the great care with which the fos- 



