814 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 543. 



and it lias become vistigial in the general- 

 ized vertebrates, having disappeared alto- 

 gether in the higher. The speaker com- 

 mended Loey's paper as a model research, 

 displaying the 'five Cs, ' clear, consistent, 

 correct, concise and, so far as possible, com- 

 plete. 



Professor AVilder has long held that the 

 very difficulties of neurology demand its 

 early cultivation and that the elements of 

 this most abstruse natural science, like 

 those of astronomy, should be taught ob- 

 jectively in the primary schools. After 

 trying various forms he concludes that the 

 required pedagogic conditions are best met 

 by the sharks and rays, particularly in re- 

 spect to the ease with which they may now 

 be had from the supply departments of the 

 numerous marine laboratories ; he believed 

 it especially desirable that the beginner 

 should himself lay bare the specimen so as 

 to feel toward it an actual sense of owner- 

 ship like that of a discoverer. Since the 

 skulls of these fish are of cartilage, the 

 brain can be exposed with the simplest 

 instruments, even a .jack-knife, better a 

 small shoe-knife cut off obliquely. 



In concluding Professor Wilder declared 

 that the greatest mistake of his scientific 

 life occurred while working on these sharks 

 and rays in 1866-68 for the late Professor 

 Louis Agassiz; he persisted in devoting 

 himself to less noble and significant struc- 

 tures, notwithstanding the gently expressed 

 preference of his too considerate employer. 

 Since 1873 he has lost no opportunity of 

 preparing and dissecting selachian brains, 

 and hopes the present paper may arouse 

 interest in them and lead to the recog-nition 

 and elucidation of the numerous and com- 

 plex problems connected with them. 



The final event of this most successful 

 meeting was a dinner at the Bellevue-Strat- 

 ford on Friday evening. On this occasion 



Professor Edgar F. Smith, president of the 

 society, acted as toastmaster. Addresses 

 were made by President Smith ; Dr. Wood- 

 row Wilson, president of Princeton Uni- 

 versity, who responded to the toast 'The 

 Memory of Franklin'; Dr. Woodward, 

 president of the Carnegie Institution ; Dr. 

 H. W. Wiley, of Washington ; Professor W. 

 B. Scott, of Princeton, and Professor W. T. 

 Hewett, of Cornell. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 The Whaletone Whales of the Western North 

 Atlantic, compared with those occurring in 

 European Waters, with some observations 

 on the species of the North Pacific. By 

 Frederick W. True. City of Washington, 

 published by the Smithsonian Institution. 

 1904. Pp. viii + 332; 97 text figures; 50 

 plates. 



Those who are acquainted with the imper- 

 fect condition of our knowledge of whales, 

 and particularly of the larger species, with the 

 consequent multiplication of species and gen- 

 era, will appreciate this memoir as well as 

 realize the labor involved in its preparation. 

 The objects of the work are to definitely de- 

 cide the specific identity or difference of the 

 species of whales occurring on the coast of 

 Europe and America and to locate and iden- 

 tify the specimens on which the American 

 species were based. These problems proved 

 to be so involved that the subject of the dis- 

 tribution and migrations of the larger cetacea, 

 which first led Mr. True to study the whales, 

 had to be postponed. 



That the synonymy of the larger cetacea 

 should be involved is not surprising; owing 

 to the practical impossibility of systematically 

 collecting such animals, the greater part of 

 the species are founded upon specimens, often 

 fragmentary, that have accidentally come to 

 hand, with the result that observations have 

 been desultory and disconnected. 



The first chapter of Dr. True's memoir is 

 devoted to ' The Earliest References to Whale- 

 bone Whales in American Waters,' and this 

 is full of information and interest to both 

 naturalist and general reader, since it con- 



