The Journal of Physiology. Edited by Michael Foster, with Co-operators in England and America. Vol. VI, Nos. 4 and 5. American Agency with Professor H. Newell Martin, Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore: Pp. 160, with Plates. Price, $5 a volume.
The "Journal of Physiology" is the recognized register of physiological research by English-speaking investigators, and presents as they are accumulated the results of the studies of those distinguished experimentists, on either side of the ocean, whose discoveries have been the means of contributing so much to the intelligent and efficient treatment of human affliction. The present number contains papers by G. F. Yeo and J. W. Barrett, S. Ringer, H. Sewall and D. W. Steiner, J. A. McWilliam and T. Wesley Mills, on various aspects of the heart; S. Ringer and D. W. Buxton, on contractile tissue, etc.; C. S. Sherrington on the spinal cord of the dog; E. F. Herroun and G. F. Yeo, on "The Sound accompanying the Single Contraction of Skeletal Muscle"; and transcripts from the Proceedings of the Physiological Society, 1885.
Revision of the Palæocrinoidea. Part III. First Section. By Charles Wachsmuth and Frank Springer. Philadelphia: William P. Kildare, Printer. Pp. 138, with Eight Plates.
Hardly any kinds of fossils are more attractive to the collector than the crinoids, with their endless variety of forms, each distinguished by its peculiar style of beauty and grace; and hardly any other kind offers a richer reward to the searcher for specimens who is so fortunate as to find a bed of them. Since the first part of this work was published, some five years ago, great progress has been made in the study of both the recent and fossil members of the order, and many new and interesting forms have been discovered and described. The authors of the monograph confess that their own knowledge of the subject also has grown. The present section of the work includes a discussion of the classification and relations of the Brachiate crinoids, with generic descriptions. A second section is promised in the "Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences" for 1886, to contain the Articulata and Quadrinata.
The Published Writings of Isaac Lea, LL. D. By Newton Pratt Scudder. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 278.
This is Bulletin No. 23 of the United States National Museum, and is the second of a series of bibliographies of American naturalists which the Museum is publishing. Dr. Lea is our oldest conchologist, and is one of the most laborious and fruitful devotees in that branch of research that our country has had. lie is still living, in his ninety-fourth year, and blessed with good health and unimpaired mental and physical faculties. The list of his publications, as given in this work, with full descriptions of each, includes 279 titles. His cabinet of Unionidæ in Philadelphia displays about ten thousand individuals, of different ages, so arranged that each may be separately examined, and it is unique in having many species arranged with a sequence from the youngest to the oldest, so that the student may see at a glance the aspect of their growth.
Bulletin of the Sedalia Natural History Society. Sedalia, Mo. No. 1, August, 1885. F. A. Sampson, Corresponding Secretary. Pp. 30.
The society was organized January 14, 1884, and has been able to report a year and a half of successful operation. This first number of its "Bulletin" contains its constitution and by-laws, list of officers, and acknowledgments of contributions; together with papers on the "Shells of Pettis County," by F. A. Sampson, and "Pettis County Pentremites," by Dr. G. Hambach.
Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences. Volume II. No. 5. C. W. Hall, Secretary, Minneapolis, Minn. Pp. 84.
The present number of the "Bulletin" includes papers from May, 1881, to December, 1882, the publication of which has before been unavoidably delayed. Among the more important papers are a report "On Some Tests of Building-Stones," by J. A. Dodge; a report on the "Mineralogy of the State, with Notes on the Bibliography of the Subject," by N. U. Winchell; and "Meteorological Statistics of Minneapolis for Eighteen Years," by William Cheney.
