612 Scientific Intelligence. 



No. 17. The Orbit of 108 Hercules; by Zaccheits Daniel 

 and Louise F. Jenkins. Pp. 147-152; 1 fig. 



No. 18. The Orbit of 25 Serpentis ; by Frank C. Jordan. 

 Pp. 153-159; 1 fig. 



4. Laboratory Manual for Ihe Detection of Poisons and 

 Powerful Drugs ; by Wilhelm Autenrieth. Translation of 

 the 4th German edition by William H. Warren. Pp. xv. 320. 

 Philadelphia, 1915 (P. Biakiston's Sons & Co.). — Despite the 

 already enormous and steadily increasing number of books dealing 

 with appropriate topics in almost every field into which the science 

 of chemistry extends, it is difficult to find a dependable manual 

 of chemical toxicology. The volume by Professor Autenrieth, 

 which has now reached its fourth edition, has become one of the 

 really valuable works of reference on the subject of the detection 

 of poisons. Its usefulness is determined in good measure by the 

 fact that the analytical procedures selected by the author repre- 

 sent as a rule the methods which experience in a highly special- 

 ized department of chemistry has sanctioned. The directions are 

 sufficiently explicit to serve as a reliable guide to any careful 

 worker. Now we find the new American translation including a 

 consideration of several drugs which have grown in prominence 

 in recent years ; and the addition of details in respect to the 

 physiological aspect of some of the poisons enhances the useful- 

 ness of the book. Autenrieth's "Poisons" really "supplies a 

 want" and deserves a favorable notice. l. b. m. 



5. What is Adaptation f by R. E. Lloyd. Pp. xi, 110. 

 London, 1914 (Longmans, Green & Co.). — The author shows by 

 rather abstruse reasoning that adaptation is a primary attribute of 

 all living things, that it is entirely independent of natural selection, 

 and that the species of organisms are as perfectly adapted at the 

 time of their origin as at any later period. The theory of natural 

 selection is entirely rejected in favor of the more recent theory of 

 the origin of species by mutation. w. r. c. 



Obituary. 



Dr. Richard Lydekker, the English naturalist, geologist, and 

 traveler, died on April 19 at the age of sixty-five years. From 

 1874 to 1882 he was on the staff of the Geological Survey in India. 

 His publications include "Indian Tertiary Vertebrata," "Geology 

 of Kashmir," " Catalogues of Fossil Mammals, Reptiles, and Birds 

 in the British Museum," ten volumes; " Phases of Animal Life," 

 " The Great and Small Game of India, Burma, and Tibet," and 

 many other books chiefly in natural history. 



Professor A. A. W. Hubrecht, the eminent Dutch zoologist, 

 died at Utrecht on March 21 in his sixty-fifth year. 



Dr. Arthur Sheridan Lea, the English physiologist, died on 

 March 23 at the age of sixty-one years. 



