1887] Recent. Literature, 463 
garian treatises? Are they to be ignored? or must we all 
become polyglots? The writer recently asked an eminent Ger- 
man professor if he read Russian. His answer states the whole 
question. “No. Ifsome stupid writes his descriptions in Japanese, 
must I thereupon study Japanese ?” It is time to cry a halt in this 
direction. The possibility of a literature of science in Japanese 
is not so remote, unless there be some universal agreement in 
regard to the language in which scientific discoveries must be 
clothed in order to claim early recognition. 
We do not know the merits of “ Volapük” as a medium of 
scientific publication, but we suggest that the time is at hand 
when that or some other common language will have to be 
formally adopted by scientific authors. 
Dr. T. N. Git writes an article for the Forum (of New York) 
on the possible existence of a sea-serpent. He regards as unre- 
liable most of the stories of its alleged appearance, but says that 
if existing, it is more likely to be a snake-like Cetacean or shark 
than anything else. In the succeeding number, Professor R. A. 
Proctor, the astronomer, asserts the strong probability that the 
sea-serpent exists, and that, if so, it is likely to prove to bea 
remaining species of the Mesozoic saurians. If Professor Proc- 
tor were as good a zoologist as he is an astronomer, he would 
perceive that this supposition is quite outside the range of sci- 
entific probability, and that those of Professor Gill are much 
more likely to prove true. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Wortman on the Teeth of the Vertebrata."—We have in this 
ograph a work which students of odontography will find it to 
enable him to present the latest results of research among the ex- 
tinct as well as the recent Vertebrata. The subject is approached 
by analytic tables of the systematic arrangement of the various 
divisions of this branch of the animal kingdom. In the history 
of the origin of teeth he has sought ie latest embryological 
works, and gives us a well-digested account of the results. He. 
z Comparative Anatomy of the Teeth of the Vertebrata. By J. L. Wortman, M.D. 
Reprinted from The American System of Dentistry. Pp. 153. 1886. 
\ 
