334 Scientific Intelligence. 



Agassiz. Memoirs of the Mus. Comp. Zoology, Cambridge, 

 Mass., vol. xxviii, iv, 4to, in five parts, 236 plates. — This extensive 

 work is the result of the scientfic explorations carried on by Mr. 

 Agassiz in the steamer Albatross, August, 1899, to March, 1900. 

 The numerous illustrations are mostly heliotype reproductions of 

 photographs made by members of the party. There are also 

 numerous charts of the regions visited, and two colored plates of 

 coral islands drawn by Mr. J. H. Emerton, from sketches by Mr. 

 Agassiz and Dr. Mayer. The plates show very perfectly the 

 character and structure of the very numerous reefs and islands 

 visited, which include the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Society, Tonga, 

 Fiji, Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and other groups of islands. Mr. 

 Agassiz finds that there is far more diversity in the structure and 

 modes of formation of these islands than Darwin, Dana, and 

 other former writers supposed. In general, his observations do 

 not sustain the current theories of the enormous thickness of the 

 coral reefs, due to continuous upward growth during long periods 

 of subsidence. This great work must long remain a standard 

 treatise on the geology and physiography of the Pacific coral 

 islands. a. e. v. 



/ 12. Index Animalium ; by C. Davies Sherborn. 1195 pp. 

 Cambridge University Press. (New York : The Macmillan Com- 

 pany.) — 'The objects of this work are (a) to provide zoologists 

 with a complete list of all the generic and specific names that 

 have been applied by authors to animals both fossil and recent 

 since 1758 ; (b) to give an exact date for each page quotation ; 

 (c) to give a quotation for each reference sufficiently exact to be 

 intelligible alike to the specialist and to the layman.' The 

 present volume includes the years 1758-1800. Mr. Sherborn has 

 shown remarkable patience and tireless effort in amassing the facts 

 essential to such a book. 



13. Andrews's Botany all the Year Mound ; by E. F. Andrews. 

 8vo, 302 pp. (American Book Company, New York, Cincinnati, 

 and Chicago.) — This book is admirably adapted for botanical 

 work in the average high school, and requires no expensive equip- 

 ment. The lessons are so arranged that each subject is taken up 

 at the time of year when the material for it is most abundant. 



Obituary. 



Rear-Admiral William Harkness, U.S.N, (retired), the emi- 

 nent astronomer, president of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science in 1893, died on February 28, of typhoid 

 fever, in his sixty-sixth year. 



