New-York tribune., 1905-11-12
MONSTERS OF YORE.
Fantastic Products of Natures S
Sporti0e Moods.
EXTINCT ANIMALS. BY e Ray Lancaster, NJ
A. LID. T. r. s. With 2iS illustrations. Svo,
pp XIV ssf Henry Holt & Co.

EXTINCT ANIMALS & BY e ~ Ray Az. Iankester srd
PIP. xiv. ssf. Henry Holt & Co.
There once an Ichthyosaurus
Who lived when the world all porous;
When he first heard his name,
He tainted with shame
-(St. Nicholas.
There is doubtless much to deplore in the
world to-day but evidently there is also much
to be thankful for Poverty, the trusts an
archy and Tamnlany Hall are still extant; but
the ceteosaurus the pteredactyl pternandon,
the inostranseivia, and the Jurassic dinosaur
Stesosaurus are extinct. Nevertheless, it Is
exceedingly interesting TO read what Professor
Lancaster has TO say about them; all the more
So since we are assured that there is no danger
of meeting any of them Unexpectedly on
dark night The pictures of these and many
other departed monsters. as they are quite
likely to have appeared, with which his book is
plentifulIy besprinkled, give rise to the belief
that Nature must have passed through a pc
culiarly sportive, not to say bizarre mood be
fore she settled down to her modern day routine
and created Man. to whose freaksh fancy she
appears to have relegated the task of making
the fantastic Frankenstens, social, economical
and political the suppression of which occupies
SO great a portion of his remaining energies
The contents of Professor Lankester's book
consists of a corrected shorthand report Of
-ago during the Christmas holidays, to a juve-
nile audience and the illustrations half
tone and direct process plates from the Ian
tern slides which he used in the lectures The
volume. accordingly, is Of popular rather than
of a technical nature, but Of sufficient sclenuhc
consequence to make it appeal to TIE adult gen.
eral reader as well as to the younger tribe to
whom the talks We're originally addressed Tne
author starts out by describing those animals
that have most recently become extinct and
works backward through the ages to the earliest
trilobftes of which any record is found in the
stratified deposits nade-so many million of
years ago that thu attempt to enumerate them
convavs no COMPREHENSIVE idea TO human intel
lieence The purpose of the lectures and so Of
the book was less 10 satisfy curiosity in re-
gard to the wonders and horrors Of the past in
r natural history than to excite interest in the
rrarvels and beauties Of the present Professor
Lancaster does not hold with those educators
who believe that knowledge should be presented
10 the young in logical order. and that begin
ners should learn all about living animals be-
fore they take up the study of extinct animals.
ami not then until they have acquired a knowl-
edge of the history of the earth's crust, in
which the remains of extinct animals are found
He maintains that:
The whole art of education consists in exciting
fni. mysterious, astonishing and marvellous dug
from earth beneath feet. may awaken
the desire 10 understand and learn more about that
thing The stranFeaess of the bones and teeth Of
animals VIII lead boy girl on to learn
ing bout the bones and teeth OF living animals in
order make a comparison and thus TO learning
more concerning the strange remains dug up.
Certainly if the degree of interest excited
bears any relation to the astonishment created
Professor Iankester's book should prove pow
erfuI incentive TO natural history study Weird
as the capricfous fantasms of nightmare, and
rivaIing in extravaganza Of shape and feature
the delirious imaginings Of an alcoholic VICTIM
are some OF the beasts and reptiles that roaned
the earth in long ago times. There were no
snanshot cameras then to take their portraits
no sEiIflIl artists to linn their outrageous FORMS
but their bones have been found, their skele-
tons reconstructed and reasoning by analogy
from those creatures now extant which most
closely perpetuate the characteristics OF their
interior structure it has not been difficult to
depicf " hat they may have looked like, II not
precisely what they did look like
Arousine thus a desire for information about
the strange beasts that have passed away, the
au+bor nroceeds to satisfy il in simple language
touching on the general subjects of geology
the origin OF species, and other related topics
giving enough to make his thesis clear, while
orening up world Of new interest and stirn-
mating a desire for still deeper knowledge and
entity inciting the reader to original fnves1-