No. 391.) REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 621 
of the neck often induces a fusion of ring with ring. The cartilage 
support for the bronchial tubes may be in the form of a spiral band, 
traceable well into the substance of the lung. Most of these adapta- 
tions are obviously means for resisting the enormous pressure of the 
water on the gas-filled cavities of the lungs, etc. aap 
Reptiles of North America. — Under the title of Contributions to 
North American Heérpetology, Mr. Robert Baird McLain, of Wheeling, 
W. Va., has published privately three memoirs on the collections of 
reptiles in the Museum of Stanford University. They are entitled 
«Contributions to Neo-tropical Herpetology,” “ Notes on a Colléc- 
tion of Reptiles made by C. J. Pierson at Fort Smith, Kansas,” 
and “Critical Notes on a Collection of Reptiles from the Western 
Coast of the United States.” All bear the date of February, 
1899. 
These papers are full of misprints; the form of statement is 
often crude, and the references to other authors, as Professor Cope 
and Dr. Van Denburgh, are characterized by the sweeping severity 
which extreme youth frequently displays towards the masters. 
It might fairly be inferred from the nature of their contents that 
these papers had received the criticism and approval of the instruct- 
ors of Stanford University. It is well to state, therefore, that they 
represent merely the laboratory notes of an undergraduate student 
who had free access to the museum shelves. That publication 
of these notes was contemplated was not learned until after Mr. 
McLain had left the institution, and their appearance in print is con- 
trary to the advice of the officers of the museum, and despite their 
protest. One new species Zhamnophis steinegeri (misprinted rfeine- 
geri) is described and well figured. As the material has not yet been 
critically studied, the value of the species is yet to be determined. 
DSJ 
Zoölogical Notes. — Dr. Oscar Loew, who has recently been called 
to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, has just published 
at Munich a timely and valuable book of some 175 pages, entitled 
Die chemische Energie der lebenden Zellen. 
« Movement of the Nervous Elements” (Act. Soc. Scient. Chili, 
Tome VIII, pp. 71-76) is the title of a critical review by Daniel 
Monfallet, of the more recently discovered facts and their bearings 
on the theories of Rabl-Ruckhard, Tanzi, and Ramon y Cajal, as to 
