There is an air of ultimate truth assumed throughout the essays, which the conclusions hardly warrant; and the author would probably write a better book if he exercised his dogmatic tendencies less and cultivated a clearer style more.
Report of the Condition of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, on moving into its New Edifice, Southwest Corner of Race and Nineteenth Streets. By W. S. W. Ruschenberger. Philadelphia: Collins, Printer. Pp. 56.
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia dates from the year 1812, and, at the close of that year, consisted of fourteen members, who assembled on the second floor of a house devoted to millinery purposes. Although their progress was slow, yet, in 1817, the publication of their Journal was commenced, and in 1820 they sought more spacious accommodations in a Swedenborgian church. Twenty years later a new building was erected, more space was given to the collections, and an increased number of visitors continued to be attracted. It again outgrew its quarters, and ten years ago a movement was started which resulted in the present edifice. The Academy is now free from debt; it possesses a building constructed with reference to architectural beauty and to the ends for which it was designed, and is apparently in a very flourishing condition. Its cabinets of birds and shells of mollusks are nowhere surpassed in extent and completeness, and in other departments the collections are valuable, though, as yet, comparatively small.
The Structure and Relations of Dinichthys; with Descriptions of Some Other Fossil Fishes. By J. S. Newberry. Columbus: Nevins & Meyers.
Dr. Newberry has reprinted this memoir from Vol. II. of the "Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio," of which we gave a notice last month, and it is accompanied by seven lithographic plates and many woodcut figures. The Dinichthys, to which the body of the pamphlet is devoted, is a huge ganoid fish, occurring along the Lake Erie shore in the Huronian shales, and peculiar among its allies in its massive mandibles and in its dentition, which closely resembles that of living Lepidosiren. Other resemblances between the-m are so close as to warrant the belief that in the Lepidosiren we have a dwarfed representative of the great fishes which populated the Devonian seas. Dr. Newberry discusses minutely the anatomy and relationships, homologically and generally, of these monarchs among ancient fishes, and describes several additional species. The latter half of the book is occupied with descriptions of new fossil fishes' from the carboniferous rocks of Ohio, belonging to various orders and families, all the points of which are elaborated with the close attention characteristic of this distinguished geologist.
In a paper read before the Detroit meeting of the American Association, and now reprinted, Prof. Aug. R. Grote explained the effect of the glacial epoch on the distribution of insects in North America. He endeavors—successfully, we think—to show that arctic forms of insects, the White Mountain butterfly, for example, came southward with the gradual extension of the ice-sheet, and, when the ice-sheet retreated, followed it backward; but some, straying away, or lingering about the local glaciers of high mountain-ranges, gradually followed the declining cold to the high summits, where only could they find a congenial climate. Meanwhile, the surrounding lowlands having become warm, they could not follow their congeners to the arctic zone, but were imprisoned, as it were, on their mountain-tops, and have there remained, undergoing modifications caused by the exigencies of their surroundings. Some such process, Prof. Grote judges, has determined the distribution of most of our Alpine insects.
The Report of the Director of the Central Park Menagerie, Mr. W. A. Conklin, for the past two years, shows that, in spite of the lack of encouragement afforded it by the Park Commissioners, that commendable institution continues prosperous, and is visited by increasing crowds of spectators—among others whole schools, with their teachers, attesting its educational value. The appropriations for it allow of little more than the care of the inmates, but many animals are received on deposit from their owners, and births are constantly oc-
