126 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



in tracing the steps by which the attitude of mankind towards nature 

 has been transformed from one of childlike wonder, expressing itself 

 largely in myth and fable, to one of mature admiration and pro- 

 gressive comprehension, expressing itself in accurate description, 

 scientific classification and reasoned theory. Apart from the element 

 of myth which has not yet wholly vanished from the " popular 

 science " of our own day the special interest of Aristotle's work 

 lies in such broad and illuminating general statements as that the 

 habits of animals are all related to the securing of progeny and the 

 securing of food, or that " there is enmity between such creations 

 as dwell in the same localities or subsist on the same food " : in such 

 vivid descriptions as that of the Wryneck, which " is somewhat bigger 

 than the Chaffinch, and is mottled in appearance ... is peculiar in 

 the arrangement of its toes, and resembles the snake in the structure 

 of its tongue . . . can protrude its tongue to the extent of four 

 finger-breadths and then draw it back again . . . and can twist its 

 head backwards while keeping all the rest of its body still like the 

 serpent " . . . ; and in the anatomical details to be found, most 

 notably, in the accounts of Cetaceans and Cephalopods. The 

 Professor has been very successful in giving a clear rendering of 

 Aristotle's Greek, and his notes both on text and matter are of great 

 value in elucidating obscure and often corrupt passages ; the table of 

 contents and the index will be found very useful. It is doubtful 

 whether anyone else living could have performed precisely the service 

 for English-reading men of science which Professor Thompson has 

 so efficiently rendered in the work under review. H. J. 



A MONOGRAPH OF THE BRITISH NUDIBRANCHIATE MOLLUSCA. 

 Part VIII. (Supplementary). Figures by the late Joshua Alder and 

 the late Albany Hancock, and others. Text by Sir Charles Eliot, 

 M.A., D.C.L., etc. Folio, pp. 198, with 8 coloured plates. Ray 

 Society, 1910. 



This is an important work, and supplies a real want long felt by 

 all interested in that section of our marine fauna to which it relates. 

 Alder and Hancock, it appears, contemplated the publication of a 

 supplement to their celebrated Monograph, but did not live to carry 

 out their purpose. They left, however, a number of drawings and 

 some notes, the former of which have formed the basis of the present 

 Part. The text is entirely from the pen of Sir Charles Eliot, who is 

 a recognised authority on the Nudibranchiata. 



Besides the systematic portion, which includes descriptions of 

 species added to the fauna of the British Isles since the issue of 

 Part VII. (1855), and a fresh Synopsis of families, genera, and 

 species, there are valuable chapters on Variation and Distribution, 

 Nomenclature, Bionomics, Embryology and Larval Stages, Anatomy, 

 Classification, and Affinities and Relationships. In the matter of 

 nomenclature, Sir Charles Eliot is not one of those extremists who 



