April 30, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



403 



described under circulatory organs. Perhaps the 

 author meant only that the excretory organ con- 

 sists of branching tubes or vessels, and is vascular, 

 according to the etymological, though not to the 

 technical, meaning of the word. Odd, too, is his 

 designation of the ciliated funnels as ' vibratile 

 tags.' 



Chapter ii. gives a succinct, well-prepared and 

 instructive history of the literature of the subject. 

 Chapter hi. discusses the classification, and, after 

 reviewing the previous systems, advocates a new 

 one, which is more convenient than its predeces- 

 sors, but, like them, artificial and arbitrary. The 

 new system may stand for the present, but only 

 as a convenient makeshift, pending the establish- 

 ment of the permanent and natural classification 

 upon a true morphological basis. Chapter iv. is 

 devoted to sketchy notes on the haunts and 

 habits. It concludes the first part. 



The second part is entirely concerned with the 

 monograph proper, and deals with the Flos- 

 culariadae and Melicertidae. The British species 

 are figured and described with considerable detail, 

 and several new ones are added. Concerning 

 most of them numerous and valuable observations 

 on the anatomy are also recorded, both in word 

 and picture ; for the authors have embodied re- 

 sults from their own original investigations so 

 largely as to give tHeir work importance as a con- 

 tribution to zoological knowledge. The foreign 

 species are also described, and in most cases 

 figures of them are reproduced. It results that 

 an urgent need is well met, for it is about quarter 

 of a century since the last general revision of the 

 rotifers w T as published in Pritchard's ' Infusoria.' 



The plates have the figures on quite a large 

 scale, and are partly colored. The drawings 

 represent characteristic appearances, and are in- 

 structive. The lithographer has done his work 

 quite, though hardly very. well. The printing of 

 the text is good, and several fonts are so employed 

 as to essentially facilitate the consultation of the 

 pages. 



To still further characterize the work, it must 

 be added that the style is simple, direct, and of 

 a distinctively literary quality. It is pleasant to 

 reflect that most English scientific writers avoid 

 both the pompous prolixity of the French and the 

 uncouth cumbrousness of the Germans. 



The morphologist will miss much from Hudson 

 and Gosse's treatise, for it is essentially descriptive 

 even when it touches upon anatomical matters. 

 We have found no indication that the authors 

 have considered the affinities of rotifers, nor the 

 remarkable demonstration by Hatschek of the fact 

 that they are the living representatives of the 

 ancestral form common to worms, mollusks, and 



bryozoans, — the ancestral form which is still 

 preserved to us in veligers, Loven's larvae, etc. 

 There can be little question that nearly all bilateral 

 animals, except the Echinodermata, are derived 

 from rotifer-like ancestors. It is this conclusion 

 which renders the investigation of the wheel 

 animalcules so important at present, and which 

 causes regret that Mr. Hudson does not apparently 

 include the morphological significance of the class 

 within his range of study. C. S. Minot. 



PROPER NAMES. 



The subject of proper names, on which we 

 have an extended scientific literature, has so far 

 not had the good fortune to fall into the hands of 

 a writer possessed of both philological training 

 and the talent for making his subject popular. 

 The author of the present work disclaims all pre- 

 tensions to have produced a philological treatise : 

 indeed, the specialist would very soon remark, 

 that, for such a task, Dr. Kleinpaul is hardly well 

 enough versed in the principles of the modern 

 school of philologians, if he makes such observa- 

 tions as this one : " Es fragt sich nur ob sosor ein 

 t eingebtisst oder schwester ein t eingeschoben 

 hat " (p. 51). Sosor (later soror) cannot have lost 

 a t, because st is about the most persistent com- 

 bination of consonants to be found anywhere, and 

 the t is never lost in Latin. 



Leaving out of the account a number of 

 ' philological ' excursions of this character, which 

 the author might have very well dispensed with, 

 as they have little or no bearing upon the subject, 

 we must admit that Dr. Kleinpaul has produced 

 an extremely readable book, based in its details, 

 in the main, upon the latest and best authorities 

 on etymology, with the exception of a few words 

 where the author adheres to antiquated deriva- 

 tions (cf. daughter) ; while the general treatment 

 and classification of the subject-matter are de- 

 cidedly interesting and original. The book is not, 

 like some others of similar pretensions, merely a 

 dictionary of curious names, like the puritan 

 What-ever-may-contrive - those - which-are-to-you- 

 contrarious-praise-God Pimpleton, or the aristo- 

 cratic Von-der-Decken - vom - Himmelreich - zuni- 

 Kuhstall, although such are also treated of in 

 their proper places ; but it is an attempt at a 

 logical, not a philological, classification of proper 

 names according to their origin ; and while, of 

 course, the list of names must necessarily be in- 

 complete, it seems that the author has overlooked 

 no important source from which names for in- 



Menschen- und volkernavien. Etymologische streifziige 

 auf dem gebiete der eigennamen. Von Rudolf Kleinpaul. 

 Leipzig, Reissner, 1885. 8°. 



