1899] DESCENSUS TESTICULORUM 241 



mation which it contains, although the author explains that he issued the book 

 on the eve of assuming the leadership of a Netherlands Deep Sea Expedition to 

 the Indian Archipelago. 



With the exception of a few pages the work is devoted to a study of the 

 descent of the testicles of mammals, for which the mere collection of the neces- 

 sary material could not have been accomplished without the exercise of much 

 patience. 



At the outset, Dr. Weber gives an admirable summary and criticism of the 

 diverse structures which different writers have included under the term 

 " gubernaculum," and suggests that this word should be allowed to fall into 

 disuse, since "es hoffnungslos ist, das Wort Gubernaculum zu gebrauchen, ohne 

 dass es Anlass zu Missverstandnissen giebt." He prefers to use terms which 

 have a precise significance, such as ligamentum testis, ligamentum inguinale 

 (lig. rotundum), conus inguinalis, cremaster sac, etc. 



Details are given of dissections of animals representative of all the 

 mammalian orders, followed by chapters, on the position of the testis, the 

 position of the vasa deferentia, the ligamentum inguinale, and the chorda 

 gubernaculi. 



In a very interesting table the author distinguishes between (1) mammals 

 whose testes lie at least temporarily external to the true abdominal cavity, and 

 (2) those whose testes remain permanently within the abdominal cavity. To 

 this latter group he applies the name " Testiconda," and again subdivides it 

 into (a) those in which the inguinal canal and the ligamentum inguinale are 

 wanting — True Testiconda — and (b) those in which the inguinal canal is 

 obliterated to different degrees, and the ligamentum inguinale at the most is 

 still present in rudiment — False Testiconda. 



In discussing these conditions Dr. Weber considers that the true testicond 

 mammals acquired the characteristic at a time when the descensus was still in 

 process of evolution, and as yet only a slightly stereotyped arrangement. 

 Among the Marsupials and the majority of Monodelphia this new arrangement 

 improved more and more, the different stages being still existent among recent 

 mammals ; while Testiconda became the stereotyped arrangement with isolated 

 ones, others (Cetacea, Dasypodidae) lost the descensus which had already 

 reached completion, and thereby became Testiconda secondarily. From this 

 point of view true Testiconda ought to be regarded as a return to the primitive 

 condition, not as a return to embryonic conditions, although it must be granted 

 that the embryonic condition is a reiteration of the primitive. 



The remainder of the book is taken up with three interesting papers on the 

 elephant, in which the construction of its feet, the peripheral organ of smell, 

 and its brain are respectively dealt with. D. H. 



A WIDE RANGE. 



Biological Lectures, delivered at the "'Marine Biological Laboratory of Wood's 

 Holl, 1896-97. 8vo, pp. 242, with figures. Boston: Ginn and Co., 

 1898. Price 8s. 6d. 



A Course of Lectures whose aim is merely defined as being the free discus- 

 sion of " unsettled questions " in Biology, must necessarily, we suppose, allow 

 to individual lecturers considerable freedom of choice. Certainly the eleven 

 lectures contained in the present volume range over a large number of subjects, 

 and treat these from very different standpoints. From the literary point of 

 view two papers are especially noticeable — one by Prof. C. O. Whitman on 

 "Some of the Functions and Features of a Biological Station," and the other 

 on " The Methods of Palaeontological Inquiry," by Prof. W. B. Scott. Prof. 

 Whitman's paper is a charming discussion of the ideal biological station, which 

 incidentally involves scathing criticism of modern methods, and ends in the 



17 HAT. SC. VOL. XIV. NO. 85. 



