Armour Institute of Technology. Year-Book, 1898-'99. Pp. 89.
Association of American Anatomists. Report of the Majority of the
Committee on Anatomical Nomenclature. Pp. 10.
Baillairge, Charles. Biographie. By E. La Selve. With Addenda by Léon
Sortie. Pp. 15, and papers.--In French: On Communism. Pp. 45; Report
on Engineering Works In Quebec. Pp. 90; Etymological Utility of Greek
and Latin. Pp. 48; The Club of Twenty-one in 1879, Biography for
Twenty Years. Pp. 12; Life, Evolution, and Materialism. Pp. 37;
Antiquity of the Earth and Man. Pp. 23; Bibliography. Pp. xv.--In
English: Technical Education of the People In Untechnical Language.
Pp. 42; Educational Word Lessons. Pp. 19; How best to Learn or Teach a
Language. Pp. 9; Address. P. 1.
Baker, Major-General, Royal (Bombay) Engineers. Visions of Antichrist
and his Times. St.-Leonards-on-Sea, England. Pp. 28.
Binet, Alfred, Beaunis, H., and Ribot, Th. L'Année Psychologique. (The
Psychological Year.) Fifth year. Paris, France. Libraire C. Reinwald.
Schleicher Frères. Pp. 902. 15 francs.
Bulletins, Reports, Transactions, etc. American Microscopical Society:
Twenty-first Annual Meeting, Syracuse, N. Y., August 31 and September
1, 1899. Transactions. Pp. 370.--Astronomical Observatory of Harvard
University: Vol. XXIII, Part II. Discussion of Observations made with
the Meridian Photometer during the Years 1882-'88. By E. C. Pickering
and O. C. Wendell. Pp. 100.--Johns Hopkins University: Circulars.
July, 1899. Pp. 10. 10 cents.--Michigan Monthly Bulletin of Vital
Statistics. April, 1899. Pp. 20.--Michigan Ornithological Club:
Bulletin. April, 1899. Pp. 12.--Minnesota: Fourth Annual Report of the
Chief Fire Warden. Pp. 148.--New York State Commission in Lunacy:
Rules and Suggestions as to Plumbing Work, Drainage, etc. Pp.
93.--United States Department of Labor. July, 1899. Pp. 124.--United
States Coast and Geodetic Survey: Notice to Mariners. No. 246. Pp.
14.--University of Tennessee: Record. Announcements for 1899, 1900.
Pp. 96.
Clayton, The, Air Compressors. Clayton Air-Compressor Works. New York.
Pp. 70.
Coulter, John M. Plant Relations. A First Book of Botany. New York: D.
Appleton and Company. Pp. 264. $1.10.
Crook, James K. The Mineral Waters of the United States and their
Therapeutic Uses. New York and Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. Pp.
588. $3.50.
Dalton, Captain Davis. How to Swim. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
133. $1.
Gerhard, W. P. Sanitary Engineering of Buildings. Vol. I. New York: W.
P. Comstock. Pp. 454. $5.--A Half Century of Sanitation, 1850-'99. Pp.
30.
Gildemeister, E., and Hoffmann, Fr. Die Aetherischen Oele. (The
Etherial Oils.) Prepared in behalf of the firm of Schimmel & Co.
Leipzig and Berlin: Julius Springer. Pp. 919.
Gould, the late Benjamin Apthorp. Cordoba Photographs. Photographic
Observations of Star Clusters. Lynn, Mass.: the Nichols Press. Pp.
533, with 37 plates. Text in Spanish and English.
Iowa Geological Survey. Annual Report. 1898, with accompanying Papers.
Samuel Calvin, State Geologist; H. F. Bain, Assistant State Geologist.
Pp. 572, with maps.
Kellerman, W. A. The Fourth State Catalogue of Ohio Plants. Systematic
Check-list of the Pteridophytes and Spermatophytes. Columbus, Ohio.
Pp. 65. 20 cents.
Leonard, John W. Who's Who in America. A Biographical Dictionary of
Living Men and Women in the United States, 1899, 1900. Chicago: A. N.
Marquis & Co. Pp. 822.
Long Island Hospital. Polhemus Memorial Clinic and Hoagland
Laboratory. Forty-first Annual Announcement, 1899.
Meunier, Stanislas. La Géologie Expérimentale. (Experimental Geology.)
Paris: Félix Alcan. Pp. 311.
Reprints. Adler, Cyrus. The International Catalogue of Scientific
Literature. Second Conference. Pp. 43.--Chamberlin, T. C. A Systematic
Source of Evolution of Provincial Faunas, and the Influence of Great
Epochs of Limestone Formation upon the Constitution of the Atmosphere.
Pp. 24; The Ulterior Basis of Time Divisions and the Classifications
of Geologic History. Pp. 161; Lord Kelvin's Address on the Age of the
Earth as an Abode fitted for Life. Pp. 20.--Croke, W. J. Architecture,
Painting, and Printing at Subiaco. Pp. 21.--Daly, Reginald A. Three
Days in the Caucasus. Pp. 15.--Harkness, H. W. Californian Hypogæous
Fungi. Pp. 56, with plates.--Hobbs, W. H. The Diamond Fields of the
Great Lakes. Pp. 16.--Lucas, Frederick A. The Fossil Bison of North
America. Pp. 12, with plates.--Manson, Marsden. Observations on the
Denudation of Vegetation. Pp. 18, with plates.--Mason, Otis T. The
Latimer Collection of Antiquities from Puerto Rico, and the Guerde
Collection of Antiquities from Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe. Pp.
837.--Pammel, Louis H. Anatomical Characters of Seeds of Leguminosæ.
Pp. 262, with tables and plates.--Ravenel, Mazyck P. The Resistance of
Bacteria to Cold. Pp. 5.--Veeder, M. A. Questions in regard to the
Diphtheria Bacillus. Pp. 6.--West, Max. The Public Domain of the
United States. Pp. 32.--Wilder, Burt C. Some Misapprehensions as to
the Simplified Nomenclature of Anatomy. Pp. 24.
Ripley, William Z. The Races of Europe. Accompanied by a Supplementary
Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of Europe. Published by
the Public Library of the City of Boston. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. Pp. 624, with plates and Supplement, Pp. 160. $6.
Stearns, Frederick, and Pilsby, Henry A. Catalogue of the Marine
Mollusks of Japan. Detroit: Frederick Stearns. Pp. 196, with plates.
Tilden, William A. A Short History of the Progress of Scientific
Chemistry within our own Times. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp.
276.
United States Department of Agriculture: Bulletin No. 19. The
Structure of the Caryopsis of Grasses with Reference to their
Morphology and Classification. By P. B. Kennedy. Pp. 44, with
plates.--No. 26. Lightning and the Electricity of the Air. By A. G.
McAdie and A. J. Henry. Pp. 74, with plates.--No. 56. History and
Present Status of Instruction in Cooking in the Public Schools of New
York City. By Mrs. L. E. Hogan. Pp. 70.
Vincenti, Giuseppi. La Fonografia Universale Michela, o La
Fono-Telegrafia Universale Vincenti. (The Michela Universal
Phonography, or the Vincenti Universal Phono-Telegraphy.) In Italian,
French, and English. Pp. 40, with plates.--Short Course in Michela's
Universal Hand-Phonographic System. (In Italian.) Pp. 24; New and
Partial Applications of Michela's Phonographic Table for the Use of
the Universal Alphabet. Pp. 6. (All published at Ivrea, Italy.)
Warder, George W. The New Cosmogony. New York: J. S. Ogilvie
Publishing Company. Pp. 293.
Warman, Cy. Snow on the Headlight. A Story of the Great Burlington
Strike. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 249. $1.25.
Weber, Adna F. The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century. A Study
in Statistics. (Columbia University Studies.) New York: The Macmillan
Company. Pp. 495. $3.50.
Yale University, Observatory of. Report for 1898-'99. Pp. 21.
Fragments of Science.
=Death of Dr. Brinton.=--By the death of Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, at
Atlantic City, N. J., July 31st, America loses one of the most
industrious and intelligent students of its ethnology, languages, and
antiquities. We think we may safely say of him that he did as much as
any other single man among us to organize and systematize these
studies and put them on a stable foundation and a broad basis. To them
he devoted his time, his heart, and his fortune. Dr. Brinton was born
in West Chester, Pa., in 1837; was a graduate of Yale College and of
Jefferson Medical College; served in medical departments in the United
States Volunteer Army during the civil war; was for several years
editor of the Medical and Surgical Reporter and of the Quarterly
Compendium of Medical Science; and was finally drawn predominantly to
the study of American ethnology and languages, to which he contributed
a long list of books, special articles, and paragraphs, a large
proportion of them fruits of his own investigations. For his work in
this department he received, in 1866, the medal of the Société
Américaine de France. He was Professor of Ethnology and Archæology in
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and of American
Linguistics and Archæology in the University of Pennsylvania, and was
President of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Philadelphia.
He was President of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science in 1894. He established a library and publishing house of
aboriginal American literature, and one of his most noteworthy works
was the publication in this library of a series of original texts in
the languages of North and South American tribes, with commentaries
and translations, in the preparation of which he called in other
Americanists to assist him. In this way he contributed much to save a
literature and a history that were fast disappearing. A few months
ago, as was mentioned in the Monthly at the time, he presented his
entire collection of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, many original
and some unique, relating to the aboriginal languages of North and
South America, to the University of Pennsylvania.
=Nebraska as a Home for Birds.=--Mr. Lawrence Bruner introduces his
Notes on Nebraska Birds with the expression of a belief, founded on
his own observations for twenty-five years, together with those of
about fifty other persons to whose notes he has had access, that
Nebraska, although a prairie State, has an unusually large bird fauna.
The notes show 415 species and subspecies as visiting the State, while
there are records of 227 species breeding within its borders, and of
more than 700 winter residents. "When we learn that only about 780
species are recorded for the whole of North America north of the
Mexican boundary, it certainly seems astonishing that from among them
we should receive so large a percentage. If, however, we take into
consideration the variations in altitude above sea level, the
differences in surface configuration, climate, etc., that pertain to
our State, its location, and the relation which it bears to the
country at large, perhaps the wonderment will become less." The
southeastern corner of Nebraska is only eight hundred feet, the
western border almost six thousand feet, above tide water. The State
is divided into timber, prairie, and plain regions. It lies in the
middle of the United States, with a high mountain chain to the west
and a giant water way along its eastern boundary. In fact, eastern,
western, northern, and southern fauna meet in Nebraska, and it also
has a fauna of its own. Forms are found there that belong to low and
high altitudes, to wet and dry climates, to prairie and timbered
countries, and to semi-desert and alkali regions.
=The Power of the Imagination.=--The following interesting experiment
is described in the Psychological Review for July by E. E. Slosson, of
the University of Wyoming: "I had prepared a bottle, filled with
distilled water, carefully wrapped in cotton and packed in a box.
After some other experiments in the course of a popular lecture I
stated that I wished to see how rapidly an odor would be diffused
through the air, and requested that as soon as any one perceived the
odor he should raise his hand. I then unpacked the bottle in the front
of the hall, poured the water over the cotton, holding my head away
during the operation, and started a stop-watch while awaiting results.
I explained that I was quite sure no one in the audience had ever
smelled the chemical compound which I had poured out, and expressed
the hope that while they might find the odor strong and peculiar it
would not be disagreeable to any one. In fifteen seconds most of those
in the front row had raised their hands, and in forty seconds the
'odor' had spread to the back of the hall, keeping a pretty regular
'wave front' as it passed on. About three quarters of the audience
claimed to perceive the smell, the obstinate minority including more
men than the average of the whole. More would probably have succumbed
to the suggestion, but at the end of a minute I was obliged to stop
the experiment, for some on the front seats were being unpleasantly
affected, and were about to leave the room."
=Government Scientific Work.=--Mr. Charles W. Dabney, Jr., of
Knoxville, Tenn., while having a very high opinion of the scientific
work of the Government, finds it greatly scattered and confused, and
often multiplied, among the departments. There are three distinct and
separate agencies for measuring the land of the country, four
hydrographic offices in as many departments, and five separate and
distinct Government chemical laboratories. The Coast Survey, the Naval
Observatory, and the Weather Bureau are all engaged in studying the
magnetism of the earth. Three distinct branches of the Interior
Department are engaged in irrigation work, and the census has
published a report on the subject, while the report of a board
appointed to examine into the matter shows that eight bureaus of the
Interior and Agriculture Departments must co-operate in order to
accomplish any thorough work on the great problem of irrigation. The
statistics of the natural resources and the products of the country,
of exports and imports, of populations, schools, etc., are collected
and compiled by eight or ten different agencies in five or six
different departments. Mr. Dabney's remedy for this condition is the
consolidation of all the scientific work under a single department, to
constitute a National Department of Science. This seems hardly
necessary. The scientific work of the departments has grown under the
pressure of their necessities, relating chiefly to the examination of
an unsettled and unexplored country. So long and so far as such work
is essential to the legitimate work of the department it will have to
be done within it. All work beyond this can be left to the Smithsonian
Institution, the universities and scientific academies, and individual
effort. The Government of the United States is not a scientific body.
=American Indians and Mongolians.=--In answer to Major Powell's
theory, recently expressed anew, that while there may be a unity of
species in the ancient physical man, the civilization, arts,
industries, institutions, languages, and opinions of the American
tribes were autochthonous, and owed nothing to Old-World influences;
Mr. James Wickersham, of Tacoma, Washington, maintains that our
Indians are connected in blood with the Mongolian stock of East Asia
and none other, and that their arts, etc., were derived thence in
comparatively recent times. In the comparison he makes, for argument,
between the two races he finds a considerable number of features that
were common and peculiar to both. Of both, the Chino-Japanese and the
Americans, he says: "The most civilized tribes spoke a monosyllabic
language, others spoke an agglutinative tongue; their writing was
ideographic and written from right to left, from top to bottom; their
systems of numeration were based upon the digital count, and their old
numerals up to nineteen were practically identical; their calendar
systems were alike in principle, and nearly so in details; both
divided time into cycles and quarters thereof; the solar year in both
regions began at the winter solstice, and the solstices were
celebrated in both lands on the same day by the same national
festivals; both prepared almanacs on paper of national
manufacture; the good or evil power of every day was fixed by the
priest-astronomer, and each almanac also contained medical receipts
and astrological formulæ and a table of religious festivals; the same
elements, colors, viscera, birds, seasons, and planets were assigned
in the same general scheme to the cardinal points." Like similarities
are traced in constitutions, laws, ecclesiastical institutions,
monastic orders, and physical aspects.
=The Teaching of Bows and Arrows.=--What the study of so simple a
subject as bows and arrows may reveal is illustrated by Mr. Herman
Meyer's paper in the Smithsonian Report for 1896 on Bows and Arrows in
Central Brazil; an introduction giving a general outline of a
contemplated larger work which intended to set forth for the
circumscribed region of the Matto-Grosso, how, through the harmonizing
of different tribal groups, ethnographic types arise; what share the
several associated tribes have had in this creation of groups; and, on
the other hand, what ethnographic development within the group each
tribe has undergone. While the South American Indian tribes have
different special methods of capturing wild animals, they all have as
the chief weapon the bow and arrow, which even the gun can not
supplant. The tribes that are now sedentary, which practice hunting
along with agriculture only for amusement, exercise still the greatest
care upon the preparation of this weapon, and know how to use it with
skill. In their sagas the bow and arrow still play an important part.
They are regarded almost as sacred, and are frequently used as cult
objects. When bows and arrows are exchanged for other weapons the
children keep up the old reminiscences, and hold on to the bow and
arrow as playthings. The South American Indian is accustomed to
recognize the tribe by its arrow. A grouping by these weapons, a
separation of forms according to specific marks of structure, is
possible for the study of the tribes. The feathering, which seems to
be capable of unlimited variation, is of great importance. A great
deal of care may be bestowed on the fastening of the feather, on the
wrapping of the shaft with thread, or upon the manner of fitting the
feather. The wrapping of the feathered end or shaftment offers
excellent opportunity to preserve certain textile patterns, perhaps
the one remaining survival of the old tribal peculiarity. The
fastening of the point to the shaft or to the foreshaft also affords a
safe datum for discriminating, and the shape of the point furnishes a
guide for differentiations.
=An Aztec Pictorial Record.=--The forty-four paintings of the _Mapa de
Cuauhtlantzinco_ were executed in oil colors on European paper by an
artist named Tepozetecatl, and are of high importance in the history
of the conquest of Mexico. The Pueblo of San Juan de Cuauhtlantzinco,
to which they belong, is situated between the cities of Pueblo and
Cholula, and is inhabited by about fifteen hundred people, who still
speak the Aztec language. The pictures, each about sixteen by twelve
inches in size, were discovered about thirty years ago by Padre D.
José Vicente Campos, who, to save them from decay, had them pasted on
cotton sheeting and mounted in two frames. They contain scenes from
the conquest--not badly executed--and portraits of aborigines. Each
bears a text in Nahuatl, which Padre Campos translated into Spanish
and appended the translation to the original. Another series of
ancient paintings somewhat like these was preserved for a long time at
Tlaxcala, but, according to Prof. Frederick Starr, they were less
personal and less local. They are called the _Lienzo de Tlaxcala_, and
picture all the important events of conquest from the time when Cortes
came into contact with the Tlascalans till the city of Mexico was
captured. The Mapa de Cuauhtlantzinco deals with but little space;
perhaps Texculco and Chalco and Quimistlan describe its limits. The
pictures and the texts in Spanish and English have been copied by
Professor Starr, who publishes them for their ethnological interest,
in that they illustrate a practice, common at the time of the
conquest, of painting representations of important matters; that they
in many cases present successful portraits; that they are, in
conception and execution, truly native works of art; that they give
considerable information relative to daily life and customs; and that
they are psychically interesting in showing the feelings of the
natives shortly after the conquest toward their conquerors and toward
the newly introduced religion. The town of Cuauhtlantzinco appears to
have been settled between 1519 and 1528 by refugees from Cholula, who
were driven away because they had gone to Tlaxcala to visit Cortes and
invite him to come to their pueblo.
=Permanence of the Fish Supply.=--A Scottish fish commission has been
for fifteen years conducting an experimental research on the capacity
of the sea to bear the drain upon its resources made by the growing
industry of trawl fishing along shore. Some first-class fishing
grounds along the coast were closed for several years, in the
anticipation that the fish, freed from molestation, would breed and
multiply in them. The conclusion reached from examination of the
results has been that fishing or no fishing makes no difference
whatever. "On the preserved grounds there are no more fish, and no
less, than when the trawls were daily dragged across the bottoms of
the bays. For the rest of the areas frequented by trawlers beyond the
three-mile limit the happy conclusion is that there are as many fish
in the sea as ever, and that the supply does not diminish, in spite of
the increased and increasing number of ships engaged in the fisheries
and their fine equipment." The equipment of steam trawlers for the
North Sea and the open ocean has become an immense industry in the
east of England. Never have so much capital and labor been spent in
harrying the fish since the fishing began. "Yet the take steadily
increases as the boats increase. 'The great labor and expenditure of
the last ten years prove that the balance of Nature in the neighboring
seas is steadily maintained, and that there is no need for anxiety
concerning the continuance of every species of good fish.' ... It is
now clear that life in the sea is not dependent on what takes place
near the shore. In other words, it is difficult to destroy marine
life, so far as fish are concerned, by mischief done near the coast.
Their area of propagation and reproduction is too large for land
creatures like us, who can only invade the sea in boats, seriously to
injure it." Yet the experiments and experience of the United States
Fish Commission show that we are able to increase the supply
immensely.
=Relative Power of Fungicides.=--Mr. F. L. Stevens has published, in
the Botanical Gazette, an account of experiments made for the purpose
of establishing with some degree of accuracy the strengths of various
solutions which are necessary to prevent the growth of fungous spores.
The bearing of this question upon the relation of a fungicide to its
efficiency is apparent. As among the general results the author finds
that mercuric chloride is the strongest chemical used in its toxic
effect upon the fungi, while potassium cyanide is remarkably weak
considering its great toxic action on animals. Alcohol and sodium
chloride have a stimulating effect. Various fungi offer different
resistance to poisons, and the limits of resistance will vary in the
same species. The spores of fungi are less susceptible than the roots
of seedlings. A chemical may be twice as powerful as another against
one fungus, while in acting upon another fungus an entirely different
ratio may be sustained. An occasional spore may germinate and grow
quite normally in a solution that prevents hundreds of normal spores
around it from germinating. Penicillium as a nutrient medium offered
greater resistance to poisons than did any of the other fungi worked
upon. Uromyces did not diminish in vigor of growth with the increased
strength of the poison, but the percentage of spores that germinated
was diminished. In general, the results of the action of the chemicals
were in accord with the theory of hydrolytic association. Incidentally
new evidence bearing upon the theory of the hydrolytic dissociation of
the molecule was adduced, together with facts that may throw some
light upon the structure of the cell wall.
=National Forest Reserves.=--The report of the Secretary of the
Interior for the year ending June 30, 1898, mentions thirty forest
reservations (exclusive of the Afognac Forest and Fish-Culture Reserve
in Alaska) as existing by presidential proclamation under the act of
March 3, 1891, embracing an estimated area of 40,719,474 acres. The
patrolling of the reserves has shown that fire is the paramount danger
to which they are exposed. Next to fire, sheep-raising is the most
serious difficulty to be considered in administering the reserves.
Yet, as it is not considered expedient to prohibit so important an
industry throughout the reserves, special efforts have been directed
toward ascertaining the particular regions in which the conditions
demand the exclusion of sheep, and toward learning what restrictions
may be necessary in other regions. The institution of a national
system of timber cutting to be economical in all directions is under
consideration, but it is acknowledged that the work will require a
certain degree of experience and training on the part of forest
officers. A forest system inaugurated by the department in August,
1898, in which the reserves are placed under the control of a graded
force of officers, has already shown good results; the reports
received from the forest officers indicate that the patrolling has
limited both the number and extent of fires. During the eighteen
months previous to the preparation of the report in November, 1898, a
great advance was made toward a comprehensive administration of the
public forests. A marked change in public sentiment toward forest
policy is noticed, with a subsidence of the opposition to the reserves
and a tendency among the people in the localities directly interested
to take a deep and approving interest in the matter.
=Sloyd as an Educational Factor.=--Mr. Gustaf Larsson, of the Sloyd
Training School, Boston, represents, in his Bulletin, that Sloyd is
steadily gaining ground, and has been introduced, during the past
year, into city schools, colleges, and charitable institutions, and
that many clubs and social organizations are becoming interested in it
as an educational factor. The Sloyd principles seem to meet a cordial
welcome wherever they are adequately presented. Mr. Larsson insists
that in Sloyd instruction the teacher should enter into the child's
point of view, and must never forget, he says, that it is the real
work which appeals to him, and not the particular exercise or the
typical use of the tool. As Dr. Henderson says, it is not necessary to
be forever suggesting to him that he is being educated. "We must see,
feel, and think with the worker, and so introduce our disciplinary
exercises that he practices them correctly while still carrying out
his own dearest desire. In this way only can he get the greatest
benefit from any exercise. We must constantly bear in mind that we are
aiming at a well-developed producer rather than a perfect product....
Whenever a piece of work, however poor in itself, stands for a child's
best effort, it is a highly satisfactory production from the true
teacher's point of view. He must remember also to keep constantly
before us the fact that independence and self-reliance are to be
cultivated from the outset." Sloyd claims to be peculiar in aiming at
ethical rather than technical results, and at general organic
development rather than special skill; in employing only pedagogically
trained teachers; in using rationally progressive courses of exercises
applied on objects of good form which are also of special use to the
worker; in striving after gymnastically correct working positions in
encouraging the use of both the left and right sides of the body; and
in giving to each individual opportunity to progress according to his
peculiar ability. These points have been emphasized in Sloyd from its
beginning in Sweden more than twenty-five years ago.
=Hawaiian Reptiles.=--It is shown, in a paper on the subject by Dr.
Leonhard Stejneger, published by the United States National Museum,
that there are no true land reptiles in the Hawaiian archipelago other
than a few species of lizards, all belonging to the cosmopolitan
families--the geckoes (four species) and the skinks (three species).
All of these, except one of the geckoes, belong to species widely
distributed over the Indo-Polynesian island world, while the gecko
excepted has close relatives in New Caledonia, Java, Sumatra, and
Ceylon. This distribution is regarded by the author as not sustaining
the theory of a once continuous land connection between the various
island groups, but rather, by the limited number of species, as
indicating that at the time of the immigration of the lizards the
islands were separated from other lands. Yet these land creatures
could not have been distributed over thousands of miles of ocean by
ordinary means, and the agency of man has to be invoked. From various
considerations it is permissible to conclude that they came to the
islands with the ancestors of the Hawaiians. No records are known of
any of the marine snakes having been taken at the Sandwich Islands.
Marine turtles live in the seas surrounding the archipelago and breed
upon some of its outlying islands, but little is known of them. There
are no indigenous batrachians in the group, but frogs and toads are
said to have been brought, intentionally, from China, Japan, and
America to assist in the fight against mosquitoes.