Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/313

Rh a people. If this is true of humanity, how equally certain is the application of the principle to other animals than man. The great conclusions that have been drawn from zoological studies—especially during the last fifty years—have been based on a nomenclature which has frequently misled and generally hampered the student who sought to philosophise on the teachings of specialists. According to one authority, a genus may be peculiar to an island; to another such a genus is considered as a synonym of one which ranges over more than a single continent. Some have actually been unable to treat a species as cosmopolitan, and have seized minute local characters for specific division; others have failed to see differences where such exist. It is thus evident that the right conclusions on zoo-geography depend upon some finality in nomenclature. Such a monograph as the present—for it is more than a catalogue—is the type of publication which, while assisting the lepidopterist, will prove a boon to the much distracted naturalist.

have received this Descriptive Guide to the Collection of Corals on view at the South London Art Gallery, a collection lent for the purpose by Mr. John Morgan, of St. Leonards. We were quite surprised to find, instead of the usual type catalogue—as much at home with an exhibition of wax figures as a collection of zoological objects—a most readable pamphlet on life-histories of the polyps themselves. This small publication contains two good plates, some twenty-eight pages of printed matter, a reference to some "popular works on Corals," and is sold for one penny. With such a guide any person of average intelligence, though without a previous knowledge of the subject, can follow each specimen in the collection, and at the same time learn some of the mysteries of Coral existence. This is a very good move in a right direction.