ZOOLOGY.

By Dr. A. S. PACKARD, Jr.,

PROFESSOR OF Zoology and GEOLOGY, BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

GENERAL ZOOLOGY.

From a review of the year's progress in general zoology, it appears that more and more attention is being paid to the embryology and histological anatomy of animals, especially in Germany and England. The most important discoveries in embryology are the elaboration, by Salensky in Germany, of the embryology of the sturgeon, his researches confirming Gegenbaur's view of the vertebrate theory of the skull. In this country, Agassiz has cleared up the early history, after hatching, of the gar-pike. In England, Parker has worked out the development of the snake. Important results in zoogeography, especially of birds, have been published by Coues. and others.

Mr. Francis Darwin has lately been discussing the analogies of plant and animal life. Some of the points of resemblance are purely analogical; nevertheless he attempts to show that "a true relationship exists between the physiologies of the two kingdoms. Until a man begins to work at plants he is apt to grant to them the word 'alive' in rather a meagre sense. But the more he works, the more vivid does the sense of their reality become. The plant physiologist has much to learn from the worker who confines himself to animals. Possibly, however, the process may be partly reversed-it may be that from the study of plant physiology we can learn something about the machinery of our own lives."

In a paper on the individuality of the animal body, Haeckel says that the actual organism (bion) is an unjointed bilateral person, without segments, with a few antimeres. In the Arthropoda (crustacea and insects) the mature physiological individual is jointed, two-sided or bilateral, with a few antimeres (limbs or appendages) and numerous segments. In these last there is an ideal psychic bond of a community of S

interests replacing the bodily social or polyp-stock or wormstock of the lower animals.

The subject of Fetichism in Animals is treated, by Mr. G. J. Romanes, in Nature, who believes that a sense of the mysterious exists in dogs, and that it is this sense which is the cause of the dread which many animals show of thunder. He relates a number of interesting anecdotes bearing on this subject.

Mr. Dall's Nomenclature in Zoology and Botany is a timely series of rules comprised in a report to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was the result of replies to a circular prepared by Mr. Dall, and sent to the leading systematists in this country. It may be considered as an authoritative code of rules, and should be followed as closely as circumstances and good judgment will dictate. With them should be read Professor Verrill's edition of the Rules of the British Association (American Journal of Science, July, 1869).

Treatises.

Among recent text-books on zoology, of value to the general student, is Schmarda's "Zoology," published in 1878, and beautifully illustrated with fresh wood-cuts. The introductory portion is especially valuable. Pagenstecher's "General Zoology" is not so well illustrated, but, as its name implies, is written from the side of general biology and comparative anatomy. It is incomplete; the third part is devoted wholly to the subject of respiration in animals. By far the most useful book, however, is the English translation of Gegenbaur's "Elements of Comparative Anatomy," the most authoritative German work. The style of treatment and the introduction of speculative questions into anatomical descriptions will be quite new to English-reading students.

There has appeared an American edition, revised for use in this country, of an excellent little treatise on the "Zoology of Vertebrates," by Professor Macallister, of Dublin.

Explorations.

Mr. Agassiz has, during the winter of 1877-78, explored the Yucatan Bank and other points, at great depths, with the dredge, aboard the United States Coast Survey steamer Blake. He discovered that the fauna of the Yucatan Bank is identical

with that of the Florida Bank, being characterized by the same species of echinoderms, mollusks, crustaceans, corals, and fishes. already so well known from shallow water on the Florida side. He also examined the great Alacran Reef. It resembles an atoll in full activity, the eastern slope being nearly perpendicular, rising in a short distance from twenty fathoms to the surface. "The whole structure of this reef shows its identity of formation with that of the main Florida Reef, and with that of the reefs on the northern coast of Cuba, where the line of distinct and powerful elevation can be still plainly traced by old coral slopes, and by the ancient coral reefs in the hills surrounding Havana and extending to Matanzas." It is an atoll, Agassiz claims, apparently formed in areas of elevation, though, according to Darwin's theory of the formation of coral reefs, atolls could not be formed in areas of elevation. Many interesting deep-sea forms were dredged, and the Globigerina ooze, from 1323 fathoms upward, was found to be rich in animal life. In 968 fathoms, specimens of the eyeless macrouran (Willemæsia) were obtained, which were identical, as were most of the deep-water species dredged, with those brought up from great depths in the Atlantic by the Challenger expedition; a gigantic isopod, more than eleven inches long, closely allied to Æga; in 1568 fathoms, an Umbellularia, and a transparent, brilliantly striped holothurian were secured. From shallower water a number of fine specimens of the extinct genus Conoclypus, of a brilliant lemon color, were dredged.

Further dredgings were afterwards carried on by the same party in the Florida Channel during March and April last. Large numbers of Pentacrinus were obtained-twenty perfect specimens in all. The Marquesas Islands were found to have been formed in the same manner as the great Alacran Reef —¿. e., it is an atoll. It was found that the deep-water fauna on the western slope of the great Florida Bank corresponds with that of similar depths on the eastern slope of the Bank of Yucatan, and that this deep-water fauna extends over the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, until the line running from the 100-fathom line in the latitude of Tampa Bay towards New Orleans strikes the Mississippi River slope. Here, owing to the presence of dark, rich mud, the former was very different; while the hauls in still deeper water off the Mis

sissippi yielded no specimens of importance. Throughout the cruise, below 500 fathoms, forms characteristic of deep water in all the deeper basins of the ocean were obtained, while the species characterizing different local faunæ occurred at a lesser depth. It was found that the most striking characteristics of the Gulf of Mexico are the two great banks extending, the one to the west of the Florida Peninsula and northward of the Florida Reef, the other northward of the peninsula of Yucatan; the 100-fathom line in both cases running in a general way parallel to the shore-line, and forming the edge of the steep slopes of the deeper parts of the central portion of the Gulf of Mexico. The depth increases rapidly to the north of the Tortugas, and to the northward and westward of Alacran Reef, as shown by the proximity of the 100- and 1800-fathom curves, the eastern and southern edges of the central basin of the Gulf of Mexico having thus very steep sides, while the western and northern slopes are far more gradual. The north slope off Cuba is also quite abrupt, while the southern slope of the Florida Reef into the trough of the Gulf Stream is comparatively gentle. The soundings taken the past year developed a remarkable extension of the southeast end of the Yucatan Bank within the 1000-fathom curve, in the direction of the Tortugas, with a depth of 500 to 700 fathoms for over 100 miles. "The greatest depth of the Yucatan Channel is a little over 1100 fathoms, so that the temperature of all the water which finds its way into the Gulf of Mexico is necessarily at its deepest point (2119 fathoms) only the temperature of the bottom of the Straits of Yucatan (1127 fathoms)-namely, 39° Fahr. The depth of the channel through which the water of the gulf finds its outlet is very much less—not more than 350 fathoms; and the Straits of Bemini are not half the width of the Straits of Yucatan, while the temperature of the water at the bottom is much higher, with a far greater velocity at the surface than that of the current flowing into the Gulf of Mexico through the Straits of Yucatan."

During his five months' exploration last year in Costa Rica, Mr. A. Boucard, a well-known ornithologist of Paris, collected about 1000 specimens of birds, representing 250 species; among them two new to science.

Dr. Streets's Contributions to the Natural History of the

Hawaiian and Fanning Islands and Lower California (Bulletin, No. 7, of the United States National Museum) contains notes on the habits and distribution of the birds, reptiles, fishes, crabs, etc., collected in the Pacific Ocean.

The researches of Professor G. Brown Goode, carried on for six months last winter in the Bermudas, are partly reported in a preliminary catalogue of the Reptiles, Fishes, and Leptocardians, in the American Journal of Science and Arts for October. Four species of fishes thought to be new to science are described.

Among the many interesting discoveries made during the past summer by the United States Fish Commission is the discovery of a new species of Macrurus (M. bairdii, Goode and Bean). It was trawled in 160 fathoms, 44 miles east of Cape Ann. Another interesting form, described by Messrs. Goode and Bean in the American Journal of Science and Arts, is a new species of Lycodes (L. verrilli), trawled in 90 fathoms, near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Since the establishment of the famous zoological station, founded by Dr. Dohrn, at Naples, nearly a hundred zoologists have worked in this seaside laboratory. The results of their labors are in part to be published in octavo form under the title of "Mittheilungen aus der zoologischen Station zu Neapel," while the quarto series of more pretentious memoirs will be issued under the title of "Fauna und Flora des Gulfes von Neapel," etc. In the first part of the "Mittheilungen," there is, says Nature, an account of the habits of a large number of the various animals living in the aquarium; also of the periodic appearances of pelagic animals in the Bay of Naples during the past two years; and the third is a list of the breeding-times of the marine forms inhabiting the Neapolitan seas. There is also a paper, by Dr. Eisig, on the Segmental Organs of Annelids; one by Dr. Meyer, on Some Points of Crustacean Anatomy; and two botanical papers. Dr. Dohrn gives the results of his studies on certain marine mite-like forms (Pycnogonida).

Besides its zoological laboratory in Vienna, the university of that city has founded a zoological station on the Adriatic Sea, at Trieste, the director of which is Professor Claus. Under the title of "Work done at the Zoological Institute of the Vienna University, and at the Zoological Station in Tri