486 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 148. 



legislative, administrative, technical, and practical 

 problems of irrigation, in course of preparation and 

 publication, by William Ham Hall, state engineer, 

 California." This outline is 304 pages in length, 

 and is an exhibit of the character of the report in 

 preparation, which will be in seven books, form- 

 ing five or six volumes, of five hundred pages 

 each, or from 2,500 to 3,000 pages in all. How 

 the compilers are paid is not stated ; but judging 

 from the following sentence, — " Great public works, 

 such as national roads, railroads, basins and docks, 

 canals and the canalization of rivers, whether 

 enterprises of the state, of departments, com- 

 munities, or of particular companies, whether toll 

 is to be charged in any way or not, or whether a 

 subsidy of treasure is to be granted or not, or 

 whether any part of the public domain is to be 

 used or not, can only be executed by virtue of 

 special law, which can be passed only after an 

 administrative inquiry has demonstrated the feasi- 

 bility and desnability of the work, and a report 

 has recommended it," — which is a fair sample of 

 the book, we presume they are paid by the 

 word ; the idea evidently being that of quantity, 

 and not quality. A thorough investigation of the 

 problem of irrigation, as developed in the old 

 world, with reference to the new, would be of 

 almost inestimable value ; but the work should 

 be concise, stating briefly the old laws, the work 

 done in each country, the necessity and uses of 

 irrigation as drawn from these examj^les, the 

 land to be irrigated in California, and the plan to 

 be adopted. If the book had been written with 

 these ends in view, it would have been generally 

 read and widely useful. Now few will read it, 

 for it is necessary to look for the facts in a volume 

 of words as you would for a needle in a hay- 

 mow. We trust the legislature of California will 

 thoroughly revise the work, and see that it is 

 made less expensive and more useful. 



Although there has been within recent years 

 a great multiplication of biological journals in 

 Europe, many of which, from the character of 

 the articles they have published, take high rank, 

 yet they have nearly all been in fact, if not 

 in name, confined almost exclusively to physiology 

 and morphology. This is especially the case with 

 the zoological periodicals, none of the best of 

 which touch, except incidentally, upon the sys- 

 tematic, geographical, or biological departments 

 of the science. In three fields there are special 

 journals, with their clientele principally among 



amateurs. We refer to entomology, ornithology^ 

 and conchology. There is certainly a great deal 

 of work in zoology, of great value and interest, 

 and quite outside of either morphology or physiol- 

 ogy. It would be a great convenience if there 

 could be a journal which included a large fraction 

 of the work of the character indicated. 



We are glad to learn that such a journal is to 

 be inaugurated in Germany, under the title 

 Zoologische jahrbiXcher, and the sub-title Zeit- 

 schrift fur syste^natik, geographie und biologie der 

 thiere. It is to be edited by Dr. J. W. Spengel of 

 Bremen, and published by Fischer at Jena. It is 

 desired to give it a distinctly international char- 

 acter, and it is hoped to secure the co-operation of 

 American zoologists. The editor justly attributes 

 special value to thorough monographs, either of 

 large or small groups, from any part of the animal 

 kingdom, and to faunal papers. The division of 

 the journal devoted to the life-histories of animals 

 ought to prove pecuHarly interesting and valuable. 

 It is high time that something more was made of 

 these than mere curiosities — which, in most cases,, 

 is all they pretend to be. Those who intend con- 

 tributing will be pleased to know that articles will 

 be published in German, French, English, or 

 Latin ; and that the authors are furnished with 

 forty reprints of them, besides being paid a small 

 sum. That the new journal will be of a high 

 character, the editor's name assures us. Dr. 

 Spengel is one of the best-known and ablest of the 

 younger German zoologists. His memoirs on the 

 urogenital system, and on BoneUia viridis, are of 

 altogether exceptional value, and are familiar to 

 all scientific morphologists. 



THE MODE OF ADMISSION INTO THE 

 ROYAL SOCIETY.' 



Our contemporary Science, in the last number 

 which has reached this country, makes some 

 remarks concerning the admission of candidates 

 into the Royal society, against which, in the in- 

 terests of truth and accm-acy, it is our duty to 

 protest, the more especially as it is also implied 

 that the Fi'ench system of canvassing those who 

 are already feUows of the society is also adopted. 



The statements actually made are, 1°, that there 

 is an "actual competitive examination, on the 

 result of which a certain number of successful 

 candidates are annually chosen: " and, 2°, " that the 

 English method has the additional disadvantage 

 1 From Nature of Nov. 19. 



