Book Reviews

Abstract

IN a former volume of NATURE (vol. xiii., p. 464) we have given some account of the origin of this meritorious work, of which the second portion is now before us. Like the former half of the first volume of the contributions the present section is chiefly occupied with memoirs based upon the collections made by Dr. A. B. Meyer during his well-known expedition to New Guinea and the adjacent islands. Herr Th. Kirsch, the entomologist of the Dresden Museum, commences with two articles upon the lepidoptera and beetles collected by Dr. Meyer in New Guinea. Of the former Herr Kirsch enumerates 167 species, of which 133 belong to the diurnal section. Several novelties are described and well figured. The next article is by Dr. Meyer himself, and gives us an account of a large series of Papuan skulls which he collected on the mainland of New Guinea and in the Island of Mysore, in the Bay of Geeldink. The collection, embracing altogether 135 examples, is, we believe, by far the finest of this branch of the human family ever made, and should, we suppose, lead to some definite results upon that somewhat mysterious subject —the differentiation of the various races of mankind by their skulls. A second article by Dr. Meyer relates to the specimens of anthropoid apes in the Dresden Museum. We cannotsay that the photographic plates of the stuffed specimens of these creatures are either elegant or likely to be of very great use, but it is satisfactory to have the vexed question of the identity of the celebrated “Mafoka”lately living in the Zoological Gardens at Dresden, and long supposed to be a gorilla, finally set at rest, as is done by von BischofiPs article on its anatomy, which follows that of Dr. Meyer. A memoir on the Hexactinellid Sponges collected by Dr. Meyer in the Philippine Seas, in the preparation of which Herr W. Marshall has given his assistance, concludes this interesting volume, of which we may say that it adds materially to the status of the Dresden Museum, and to the scientific fame of its energetic director.