528 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VI., No. 149. 



sence of the calcareous shells of some of the 

 pelagic species at different depths and in different 

 localities is connected with some of the most im- 

 portant problems in oceanography. It was of the 

 greatest importance that all questions relating 

 to geographical and bathymetrical distributions 

 should be discussed with reference to a thorough 

 understanding of the relations of all existing forms ; 

 and it was, indeed, a fortunate thing that a natu- 

 ralist so familiar with the Foraminifera as Mr. 

 Brady should have undertaken this work. 



Mr. Brady, referring to certain views held by 

 Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter and his colleagues concern- 

 ing the existence or non-existence of true species 

 amongst the lower Protozoa, which are, he ad- 

 mits, " from a purely biological stand-point, for 

 the most part incontestable,'' holds that they really 

 embody only one aspect of the subject. Although 

 in some families, not merely reputed species, but 

 reputed genera, are connected by a close array of 

 intermediate modifications and dimorphous forms, 

 and all sharp demarcations have ceased to exist, 

 in others the successive modifications aj^pear to be 

 less closely connected, and to possess distinctive 

 characters of greater persistence. " Admitting," 

 he writes, " the intimate relationship which often 

 prevails throughout an entire generic group, ad- 

 mitting even that all the members of a genus may 

 be refen-ed to a common ancestral tyiDe, the ques- 

 tion still remains how the different terms of each 

 series are to be recognized. The various modifi- 

 cations which have been referred to differ not 

 merely in details of form and structure, but in 

 habit. They are met with under diverse conditions 

 as to latitude, depth of water, nature of sea-bot- 

 tom, and the like, and their modes of life are often 

 totally distinct ; furthermore, fossil specimens, 

 with similar peculiarities, appear to have existed 

 under precisely corresponding cu'cum stances. 

 Whether ' species ' or not, the more important of 

 them possess characters which afford means of 

 easy identification, and it is obviously necessary 

 that they should be provided with distinctive 

 names." He admits the value, as a method of 

 study of the plan proposed by Parker and Jones, 

 in their memoirs on North Atlantic Foraminifera, 

 of grouping the almost endless varieties of the 

 Foraminifera around a small number of typical and 

 sub-typical species, but denies that this plan may 

 be made a basis of nomenclature. The binomial 

 system must be retained, and it is impossible to 

 deal with the multiferous varieties in this group 

 without a much freer use of distinctive names 

 than is permissible among animals endowed with 

 more stable characters. 



The chapter on the chemical composition of the 

 tests of the Foraminifera possesses considerable 



interest in connection with the study of bottom 

 deposits. That upon pelagic species would be 

 much more satisfactory to the reader if rather 

 more definite conclusions could have been attained 

 by the author of the memoir in a manner satisfac- 

 tory to himself. 



Eozoon is admitted to a place in the synopsis, 

 but Mr. Brady does not commit himself to any 

 opinions. In the introduction to his bibliography, 

 he states that many of the titles of the less im- 

 portant contributions to the Eozoon controversy 

 are admitted. The American names in the bibli- 

 ography are those of Isaac Lea, the earliest, 1833, 

 S.G. Morton, J. W. Bailey, E. de Verneuil, J. HaU, 

 Meek and Hayden, G. G. Shumard, W. M. Gabb, 

 J. W. Dawson, Count Pourtales, J. P. Whiteaves, 

 C. A. White, H. A. Jolmson and B. W. Thomas, 

 T. A. Conrad, Angelo Heilprin, and J. Leidy. 



The publication of the results of the Challenger 

 is evidently being forwarded as rapidly as the limi- 

 tations of iDainstaking research will permit. It is 

 much to be regretted that the French zoologists 

 who have the work of the Talisman and Travail- 

 leur in charge do not profit more by this example. 



G. Brown Goode. 



U.S. national museum. 



DROUGHT AND WEATHERCOCKS. 

 A WRITER in Symons's meteorological journal 

 calls attention to a connection between drought 

 and weathercocks. The connection does not 

 always exist. Some weathercocks are entkely 

 independent of drought or floods, and some 

 are very seriously affected. The former are 

 those which do not carry any of the usual letters 

 N, E, S, W, or which are wholly of metal, and 

 carried on metal or stone supports. The weather- 

 cocks which suffer from drought are those which 

 have the cardinal points indicated by the letters, 

 and which (though themselves of metal) are car- 

 ried at the summit of a tall pole. The pole, under 

 the influence of sun and drought, splits, and the 

 cracks run nearly along its length, but not pre- 

 cisely. They are slightly inclined, and all run 

 parallel. If the drought is prolonged, they become 

 numerous, and, though no one crack may be a 

 tenth of an inch, the aggregate amount becomes 

 large. We have ourselves measured one on 

 which the letters were, during the July drought, 

 carried round 44° ; the S letter was carried around 

 until it pointed almost exactly S.W. With sub- 

 sequent moisture the cracks have partly closed, 

 and possibly by November the letter S will be 

 nearly back in its true position ; but as to this we 

 have no knowledge. It is evidently necessary for 

 observers to watch for the occurrence of this 

 somewhat strange error. 



