156 SOME NEW BOOKS [febbuaby 



VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY. 



Outlines of Vertebrate Palaeontology for Students of Zoology. By Arthur 

 Smith Woodward. 8vo, pp. xxvi + 470. Cambridge : University 

 Press, 1898. Price 14s. 



This is a work to which all students of vertebrate palaeontology have been 

 looking forward with lively interest, both because of the reputation of its 

 author, and of the peculiar advantages which the great collections of the British 

 Museum offer for fresh and original treatment of the subject. The volume is 

 to be read and reviewed for what it purports to be, as explained by the author 

 in the preface and elsewhere, namely, a brief sketch of the palaeontology of the 

 A'ertebrata, intended for students of vertebrate morphology and zoology, who 

 are desirous of examining in detail the palaeontological aspect of their subject. 

 It need not be placed beside works of a monographic character, nor even more 

 exhaustive educational works, such as Zittel's " Palaeontologie." And it is 

 greatly needed for the very purpose which the editors had in mind, namely, for 

 students of the various branches of vertebrate zoology, for it is becoming more 

 clear daily that the educational gap between living and dead vertebrates is 

 entirely unnatural ; that there are no vertebrates which can be thoroughly 

 understood without recourse to palaeontology. A notable instance of the 

 danger of ignoring palaeontological evidence is found in the numerous errors 

 which persist in the otherwise magnificent " Vergleichende Anatomie " of Gegen- 

 baur, recently published as the consummation of a lifelong work. 



In most respects the " Vertebrate Palaeontology " meets its purpose admir- 

 ably, and can be placed in the hands of students with the teacher acting as a 

 guide. In other respects it is somewhat open to criticism when compared with 

 the best models of didactic writing. Moreover, the prevailing knowledge of 

 Palaeontology is so limited, that the majority of teachers will not be able to 

 give the critical suggestions and corrections which are here and there necessary, 

 in order that the treatment may be transparently clear. This is due, perhaps, to 

 the fact that the author, as an eminent specialist who has not given particular 

 attention to teaching, overestimates the capacity of his student readers. It is 

 true that the style is lucid and admirable, the drawings are well selected and 

 beautifully executed — a very large number of them being original — but in many 

 cases there is an absence of the concise definition and sharp demarcation of the 

 characters of different groups which one finds in such a model work as Huxley's 

 " Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates." 



While the subject is logically developed, each section being introduced by a 

 concise description of some typical form, there is a looseness and uncertainty in 

 the use of scientific terms and nomenclature which would leave the average 

 student in a state of confusion. For example, the cartilaginous supports spoken 

 of as " endoskeletal rods" (page 19), are defined as " baseosts " (p. 20), where 

 they lie within the fin proper, and the same elements are termed " radial car- 

 tilages " later on (p. 30). Similarly, the rods lying within the body are defined 

 as "axonosts" (p. 20), as "basal cartilages" (p. 23) — a term readily confused 

 with baseosts — as " endoskeletal supports " (p. 24). 



The query " What's in a name % " so far as it applies to text-books, should be 

 answered by the rule : A single name is of value ; it should be once clearly defined 

 ■with its synonyms and then used consistently throughout. A similar indecision 

 is observed in the descriptions of the vertebral elements, especially in the 

 description of the unpaired or ventral vertebral elements, which are termed 

 "hypocentra" in describing the Fishes, "hypocentra or intercentra " in describ- 

 ing the Amphibia, "intercentra (hypocentra)" in describing the Reptilia, and 

 "intercentra" pure and simple in the later portions of the work. Parentheti- 

 cally it may be observed that, upon page 127, the paired ventral pieces of the 

 vertebrae of the Branchiosaurian and Microsaurian vertebrae are termed " hypo- 



