No. 421.] NOTES AND LITERATURE. 65 
institutions and regulations relating to plant protection in different 
countries will interest American readers. 
The admirable method is followed of discussing the enemies under 
their respective food-plants, and over sixty pages are devoted to fruit- 
tree enemies. The San José scale receives more space than any 
other enemy except the grape phylloxera, and curiously enough the 
Aspidiotus ostraformis scale is called the “ yellow European pseudo- 
San José scale." Injurious mammals and birds are briefly discussed, 
and then fifty pages are devoted to “Gartenfreunde,” mostly the 
parasitic and predaceous insects. 
I know of no similar work in any language covering so much 
ground so briefly and yet so well adapted for its field. 
M. V. S. 
The Circulation in the Nervous System. — In a pamphlet of some 
hundred and fifty pages bearing the above title, Dr. Gasser! develops 
what to his mind *is the only true conception that is in entire 
harmony with the established order of facts in the world of thought " 
concerning the action of the nervous system.  Precisely what this 
conception is the author nowhere makes very clear, but so far as can 
be gathered his experience as a physician has profoundly impressed 
him with the belief that the nervous system works in a circular 
fashion. What circulates, whether matter or energy, and through 
what particular channels the circulation is accomplished, is left mostly 
to the imagination of the reader, though we are told that the evidence 
for this movement is as substantial as that for the circulation of the 
blood. As a figure of speech the circulation in the nervous system 
may be innocent enough; as a description of what actually takes 
place it is utterly without foundation. 
The Oarfish, Regalecus, on the Coast of Southern California. — 
On the 25th of February a huge “sea serpent," with bright colors 
and the conventional mane, was reported in the newspapers as hav- 
ing come ashore near Santa Ana in southern California. No part 
of the animal was preserved, so far as known, but a good photograph 
was taken by Mr. G. T. Peabody of Santa Ana. It evidently repre- 
sents an oarfish or herring king, some species of Regalecus. The 
fish was fifteen feet long and something over a foot in depth, weigh- 
ing about five hundred pounds. The dorsal is considerably injured, 
1 Gasser, H. The Circulation in the Nervous System. oe 
Publishing ee 1901. 156 pp. 

