892 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL XXXIII. 
the almost total lack of any comparative physiological and histologi- 
cal statements. The absence of the former may be in part justified 
by the disorganized condition that the science of comparative physi- 
ology is still in, but no such excuse can be urged for comparative 
histology, which has already received good treatment in several 
text-books. 
To a foreigner the text seems generally free from typographi- 
cal errors, though occasional misprints, as Crincidi for Crinoidi 
(p. 217), are to be noticed. The text justifies a much better letter- 
press, and it is to be regretted that so many of the figures are 
spoiled by poor printing. In the map illustrating the zodgeographic 
regions (p. 72) the areas designated by different kinds of shading 
are scarcely to be recognized, and while many well-known islands 
have apparently sunk below the surface, numerous small archipel- 
agoes of printer’s ink have made their appearance in unexpected 
quarters. On the whole, the book deserves hearty commendation 
and ought to exert a stimulating influence on the study of zodlogy 
i0 Italy, G.-H. P. 
Jordan’s Manual of Vertebrates. — An eighth edition of this 
work is just issued from the press of A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. 
In it the nomenclature is brought to date, that of the fishes in an 
appendix, that of reptiles and birds by changes in the plates, and 
that of the mammals by a rewriting of the text. In the latter group 
special assistance has been given by Mr. T. S. Palmer of Washing- 
ton, and in the reptiles by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger and others. 
The volume now contains condensed descriptions of 1149 species 
of vertebrate animals native to the northeastern United States and 
arranged in 610 genera. Since the first edition in 1876 great 
changes have taken place in the nomenclature of these animals, 
not half the species retaining the scientific name then recog- 
nized. 
All these changes have been, however, in the direction of stability 
of nomenclature, and the specific names in twenty-nine cases out of 
thirty are now permanently fixed by the law of priority. 
Generic names must always vary with different views of con- 
venience in the valuation of groups. Unfortunately they still fluc- 
tuate through variations in the methods employed in the restriction 
of the collective groups of the older authors. 
The book is well printed, and the binding has improved with each 
consecutive edition. 
