the Annales des Sciences Naturelles for 1880, bears particularly on the histology and embryology of the sea-anemonies and the coral Balanophyllia, and should be studied in connection with the brothers Hertwig's nearly contemporaneous work on the histology of the Actiniæ, now brought to a close in the Jena Zeitschrift.

BASTIAN'S THE BRAIN AS AN ORGAN OF MIND.'-One of the author's objects in the preparation of this book was to show that not the brain alone, but the entire nervous system, is the organ of the creature's "mind," and this is shown by reference to the lower animals as well as the vertebrates. He also attacks Ferrier's conclusions as to the localization of the different intellectual powers in the human brain, believing that our knowledge is too imperfect to decide that. But while these are salient points which give tone to the book, the author has presented us with a most useful work upon the nervous systems of animals in general and the correspondence between the structure of the brain of the different classes of vertebrates and their mental powers, which is both novel and useful.

After treating of the nervous system of mollusks, worms and arthropods (crustacea and insects), the author reviews the data derived from a study of the nervous system of invertebrates, and claims that in insects the sense of smell is "marvelously keen," while that of hearing is "developed to a very slight extent." Here we may say that Dr. Bastian has not apparently availed himself of the latest studies on the internal structure of the brain of crustacea and insects by Dietl, Flögel and Krieger, and his own countryman, Mr. E. T. Newton; nor do we think he treats with sufficient detail or comprehensiveness the intellectual powers of insects. He is evidently more at home in the comparative structure of the brain of vertebrates, and here his conclusions and general views appear to us to be well grounded and sound.

As regards the vertebrates, beginning with an account of the brain of fishes and of Amphibia, he goes on to that of the reptiles and birds, and with these as a standard of comparison, pauses to consider the scope of mind in general, of reflex action and unconscious cognition, sensation, ideation and perception, and then discusses consciousness in the lower animals, the nature and origin of instinct, and of nascent reason, emotion, imagination and volition. These subjects will be interesting to, those biologists who may be engaged in studying the habits and psychology of animals.

Dr. Bastian regards the whole nervous system as the “organ" of mind, the brain being merely its principal component part. According to his view, instead of supposing that mind and consciousness (in its ordinary acceptation) are co-extensive, mind should include all unconscious nerve actions as well as those

1 The Brain as an Organ of Mind. By H. Charlton Bastian. With 184 illustrations. New York, 1880. D. Appleton & Co. 12m0,, pp. 708.

which are attended by consciousness. These views differ in one or other respect, he claims, from those of Spencer, Lewes and Bain, and still more widely on the other hand from the generality of metaphysicians who habitually regard mind as an entity, and speak of the "mind" using the brain as its instrument.

While the Medusa and organisms only a little above them, such as mollusks and worms, act unconsciously, the intellectual processes being but a few degrees more complex than those which may take place in a sun-dew or other sensitive plant, the author brings forward reasons for the belief that as the nervous system increases in complexity from the lowest animals to the fishes, reptiles and birds, so the mental and motor phenomena of which such organisms are capable, show a similar tendency to increase in complexity. Consciousness first seems to appear, according to the author, in insects, Cephalopods, fishes, reptiles and birds. "These organisms are so high in the scale of organization as to leave no room for doubt that some of their nerve actions are attended by conscious states, but it is impossible for us definitely to decide which are and which are not so endowed."

He ascribes little reason to insects, believing that "while the instincts of birds are perhaps less elaborate, their adaptive intelligence or reason and the strength and definiteness of their emotions are unquestionably far superior to those presented by the social insects." Moreover, the author logically claims that reason, imagination and volition are "mere higher developments arising out of previous processes," such as the automatic actions of the lower animals.

Bastian then describes the brain of mammals, especially Quadrumana, and claims that there is a progression in mental capacity from the lower mammals to the monkeys and apes: "The development of intelligence, emotion and volition, which becomes so obvious in lower Quadrumana, is, however, recognizable in a still more striking degree when we come to the so-called manlike apes, viz., the gibbons, the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orang-outang."

The concluding half of the book is devoted to the human brain and human psychology. The chief interest of the book to us is the fact so well brought out that the leading features of the mind of man have their germs in the mental processes of the lower animals, and that there is, on the whole, a progressive development from invertebrates to man.

Finally the author states his belief that "every higher intellectual and moral process-just as much as every lower sensorial or perceptive process-involves the activity of certain related celland-fibre networks in the cerebral cortex, and is absolutely dependent upon the functional activity of such networks." He claims that "consciousness or feeling must be a phenomenon having a natural origin, or else it must be a non-natural, non

material entity." On the other hand, he is decidedly opposed to the doctrine of automatism held by some extreme evolutionists, closing his book with these words: "But we certainly should not, on this account, allow ourselves to be mentally paralyzed by a belief in the existence of a metaphysical gulf between what is termed the subjective and the objective-the 'Ego' and the 'Non-Ego.' Yet, even some believers in the philosophy of evolution have thus been led to deny the natural origin of conscious states, and have, as a consequence, found themselves forced to hold a doctrine of thoroughgoing 'Automatism'-one in which all notions of free will, duty and moral obligation would seem, from this theoretical basis, to be alike consigned to a common grave, together with the underlying powers of self-education and self-control."

As to the moral nature, Bastian believes that it originated in savage life, after society developed, and says nothing as to the possible existence of the germs in the animals below man.

MASON'S MICROSCOPIC STUDIES ON THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM OF REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS.1-The author here deals with the form of the spinal cord, and especially that of its enlargement; the nuclei of the nerve cells, and variations in their shape, size, etc., in the same individual: the number of ganglionic bodies in the spinal cord, and their relations to the roots of the spinal nerves, and the difference, if any, which may be determined by sex. After stating the methods of preparation of his sections, Dr. Mason, as a result of very extended examinations of a large number of what we can testify to be beautiful sections of the spinal cord of the frog and different reptiles, concludes as follows:

1. The central canal of the spinal cord of frogs is more nearly cylindrical in shape than has been generally supposed. The oval contour is not seen in cross sections below the second pair of nerves, when the membranes are not removed before hardening.

2. The nuclei of the large nerve-cells are more generally oval in form than are those of the smaller cells.

3. The nerve-cells of the crural enlargement are as abundant as those of the brachial enlargement, if not more so. Their nuclei are larger, as are also the surrounding masses of protoplasm or cell bodies.

4. No difference in structure can be made out in the upper portion of the cord, corresponding with the sexual function in the male. The long-continued and violent tonic spasms of the anterior extremities, must be explained by local hyperæmia influencing the same structure as those which exist in the female.

5. The relation which is generally believed to exist between the

1 Microscopic Studies on the Central Nervous System of Reptiles and Batrachians. The spinal cord of the frog, Rana pipiens, Rana halecina. By JOHN J. MASON, M. D. (Reprinted from the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Jan. 1880.) Chicago, 1880. 8vo, pp. 8.

so-called motor-cells and the inferior (anterior) roots, can be demonstrated in the frog more readily than in any other animal. We shall look with much interest for future contributions by the author to our knowledge of the histology of the nervous system of the lower vertebrates, as it is a field greatly neglected in this country, Dr. Dean's monograph on the general subject not having been succeeded by similar works until the present time; these studies, moreover, have a great interest in connection with the views of Lewes and Bastian.

RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.-The Geology of Hudson county, New Jersey. By Israel C. Russell. (From the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. II, No. 2.) From the author.

The Antiquity of Man and the Origin of Species. By J. W. Dawson. (From the Princeton Review.) From the author.

List of papers communicated to the American Philosophical Society. By Pliny Earle Chase, LL.D. From the author.

The Mica veins of North Carolina. By W. C. Kerr, State geologist North Carolina. (From Transactions of the American Institute Mining Engineers, 1880.)

Topography as affected by the rotation of the Earth. By W. C. Kerr, State geologist North Carolina. (From Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1873.)

Notes on the Vertebrata of the Pre-glacial Forest Bed Series of the East of England. By E. T. Newton, F.G.S. (Ext. from the Geological Magazine, Decade II, Vol. VII, No. 9, p. 424. London, 1880.)

Revision of the Land Snails of Paleozoic Era, with descriptions of new species. By J. W. Dawson. (From the American Journal of Science, Vol. xx, November, 1880.)

Bulletin of U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terrs. F. V. Hayden, Vol. v, Nos. 3, and 4.

Classification of the Cryptogams. By Alfred W. Bennet. Reformed System of Terminology in Thallophyta. By Alfred W. Bennett and George Murray. (From the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 1880.) From the authors.

Nouvelles Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles, découverts par M. Alby A. Licata en Sicile. Par M. H. E. Sauvage. From the author.

Sur un Reptile très perfectionné, trouvé dans le terrian permien. Par M. A. Gaudry. (From Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Oct., 1880.) From

the author.

De la Nécessité D'Une Zoographie Apropos de la Phytographie de M. A. de Candolle. Par Dr. E. L. Trouessart. (Extrait du Journal le Naturaliste, No. 31, Ier Juillet, 1880.) From the author.

The Gold Gravels of North Carolina; their structure and origin. By W. C. Kerr, State geologist N. C. (From Transactions of the Amercian Institute of Mining Engineers.) From the author.

Report of the Committe Mutual Improvement Society of Queenwood College, 1880.

Ueber Geusérs und nebenan entstehende verkieselte Bäume. Von Dr. Otto Kunke. (From Ausland, 1880.) From the author.

Sur le Terrain silurien supérieur de la presqu'ile de Crozon. Par le Dr. Charles Barrois. (Ext. Ann. Soc. Geol. du Nord, 1880.) Svo, pp. 12, 1880. From the author.

On the Structure of the Orang Outang. By H. C. Chapman, M.D. (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1880,) 8vo, pp, 16, pls. 7. From the author.

The Placenta and Generative Apparatus of the Elephant. By Henry C. Chapman, M.D. (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1880.) 4to. pp. 10, pls. 4. From the author.

Beiträge zur Palæontologie von Oesterreich Ungarn. Edited by Dr. Edm. von Mojsisovics and Dr. M. Neumayr, 1880. Prospectus. From the editors.

GENERAL NOTES.

BOTANY.1

RELATION OF ELEVATION TO CHANGE OF COLOR IN FLOWERS. -Having seen many speculations on elevation as occasioning a change in the color of flowers, and Gilia aggregata having been mentioned as an example, I will state that I found, this summer, at the border of Idaho and Oregon, lat. 47°, on Coplen's butte, a hill of considerable elevation, large numbers of specimens growing near each other, varying from almost scarlet to a nearly clear white. They seemed equally vigorous, and were so intermingled that no difference of slope or elevation would account for the variation. Near Hood river, Oregon, at a much lower elevation, I found only specimens of a deep pink, approaching crimson.Jos. W. Marsh, Forest Grove, Oregon.

INSECT-DESTROYING FUNGI.-Every one has doubtless often seen in the autumn and early winter, dead flies adhering to the ceiling and various objects in the room, and which, upon close inspection, are seen to be swollen, with the abdomen covered with a white powdery substance. Dissection of fresh specimens of such flies reveals a great number of short, colorless, branching nonseptate hyphæ, whose granular protoplasm contains numerous oil globules. These hyphæ are the vegetative organs of a parasitic plant to which the name Empusa musca is frequently given, and under this name it may be found briefly described in many books on fungi. It is now, however, pretty well established that we have here again another instance of a very common mistake in cryptogamic botany, that is, a description and classification based upon a knowledge of only one stage of the plant. Cohn ten years ago suspected this to be the case, but it remained for Brefeld and Nowakowski to demonstrate it, which they did in 1877. The latest contribution to our knowledge of the group of plants to which the fly fungus is now referred, is by Giard (Deux espèces d'Entomophthora nouvelles pour la Flora Française) in the Bulletin Scientifique du Département du Nord.

The results of these several investigations are that the old genera Empusa and Tarichium are now to be considered as respectively, the asexual and sexual stages of low forms of the order Saprolegniaceæ, and Giard proposes that the two old names be retained to designate the stages, and that the much more applicable name Entomophthora, proposed by Fresenius, be used to designate the genus. The fly fungus will accordingly be known as Entomophthora musca Fres.

The life-history of the Entomophthoræ may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. Empusa stage. The short colorless branching hyphæ ramify through the tissues of the host, their swollen extremities eventu1 Edited by PROF. C. E. BESSEY, Ames, Iowa.