No. 461.] NOTES AND LITERATURE. 341 
gest that this use of the book was far from the author's intentions. 
However commendable such a standpoint may be, it is almost in- 
variably assumed to the detriment of the really serious study of the 
subject. As an examination compendium the volume has much to 
recommend it; but as a contribution to the science of anthropology 
it is much less satisfactory. The illustrations are numerous but often 
crude and harsh. 
G H. P. 
Northern Plankton.!— The Hensen school of planktologists at 
Kiel have undertaken, under the leadership of Professor Karl Brandt, 
to issue a monograph of all the organisms found in the plankton of 
northern seas above 5o? N. Associated with the editor-in-chief in 
this undertaking are twenty specialists, each an authority on the 
group of organisms with which he deals. 
The literature which pertains to the complex of organisms com- 
posing the plankton is widely scattered and much of it inaccessible 
except in the large libraries at the great centers of learning. A com- 
prehensive manual of the plankton will therefore be most welcome, 
not only to the biologist at the seashore who wishes to acquaint him 
self quickly with pelagic organisms, but also to the beginner who 
for the first time beholds the marvels of the “tow.” The usefulness 
of this work is enhanced by the fact that nearly every species is 
represented by a “ Habitusbild ” or detail figure of diagnostic charac- 
ters. Although limited in its scope to the fauna of northern and 
arctic seas, and based largely upon the investigations along the 
coasts of northern Europe, it is not a work of merely local interest, 
useful only within the limits of latitude which the editors have 
chosen, for the organisms of the plankton are in many cases cosmo- 
. politan in their distribution and many species of the warm temperate 
Atlantic are carried by the Gulf Stream far beyond 50° N. 
The work is to consist of twenty-one sections numbered in zoólog- 
ical and botanical sequence, each with independent pagination, and 
issued in parts as rapidly as the papers are prepared. Part I con- 
tains five of these sections, the pelagic tunicates by Drs. Borgert, 
Apstein, and Lohmann; the Ostracoda by Professor G. W. Müller 
1 Brandt, K. Mordisches Plankton. Lipsius & Tischer, Kiel and Leipzig, 1903. 
Erste Lieferung. Sect. III, 21 pp. 24 figs.; VII, 15 pp-, 24 figs.; 
34 figs. ; XIV, 32 pp., 33 figs.; XV, 52 PP-» 56 figs. 1901. M. 6.— 
erung. Sect. XI, 7 pp-, 16 figs. ; XX, 29 pp» 25 figs.; XXL, 40 pp» !35 figs. 
M. 3.60. 
