56 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 



to meet with the statement on page 467 that there are no special 

 genital ducts in the Polychaeta. Such organs have long been known 

 to exist in the Capitellidae, and are indeed mentioned on page 486 by 

 the author himself. 



Mr Sedgwick very wisely rejects the group Gephyrea, placing the 

 Echiuridae with the Annelida, and the Sipunculidae and Priapulidae 

 by themselves. On the other hand the Entoprocta are still retained 

 in the Phylum Polyzoa with the Ectoprocta. This treatment in- 

 evitably leads to inconsistencies such as the following : the Polyzoa 

 are defined as animals " with coelom " ; turning to the definition of the 

 Entoproctous group, we find it stated that " there is no body-cavity." 



Good accounts are given of Phoronis, Sagitta, and the Brachiopoda, 

 together with very interesting discussions of their affinities. The one 

 on the Brachiopoda seems to us a model of what such a discussion 

 should lie in a text-book of this kind — clear and definite without 

 being biassed, interesting and suggestive without being controversial. 



We have perhaps already indulged too much in adverse criticism ; 

 it is so easy to find fault. There is, however, just one more point to 

 be mentioned. Mr Sedgwick considers that the resemblance between 

 Phoronis and the Polyzoa Phylactolaemata is not real, that the line 

 between the mouth and the anus in the first case is dorsal, and in the 

 second ventral. "We must confess that the arguments brought for- 

 ward to support this view seem to us quite inadequate, and we 

 believe few zoologists will agree with the author in this matter. 



The volume is well got up, excellently printed, and illustrated by a 

 large number — nearly 500 — of well executed, clear, useful figures. The 

 majority of these are quite familiar, being chiefly drawn from Glaus' 

 ' Lehrbuch ' ; but there are some 50 new illustrations, generally well 

 selected, except fig. 398 of Arenicola, which is both ugly and inaccurate. 



We hope the second volume will soon be published. If it is as 

 good as the first, this work, when completed, will form one of the 

 most useful and reliable Text-books of Zoology vet written. 



E S. G. 



For Museum Curators 



Museums Association : Report of Proceedings, with the Papers read at the Eighth 

 Annual Meeting held in Oxford, July *> to 9, 1897. Edited by James Paton. 8vo, 

 124 pp. London : Dulau & Co., 1897 [? !]. Price, 5s. 



The Superintendent of Corporation Museums and Art Galleries at 

 Glasgow succeeds the secretaries as editor of this publication, and 

 succeeds them also in their curious habit of publishing on the very 

 title-page a statement hardly consistent with strict accuracy. We do 

 not know how the most casuistical of Scotchmen could reconcile the 

 imprint "London, 1897," with the review of various publications that 

 certainly were not issued before 1898. Our copy was received on 

 April 22. 



Last year the Association visited Oxford, and the president was 

 Prof. Pay Lankester. His address is chiefly remarkable for a much 

 needed attack on " that enemy of the human race, the eminent 

 architect . . . who deliberately and habitually perverts the funds 

 entrusted to his discretion, so as to produce a showy and expensive 

 building, whilst ignorantly and shamelessly neglecting the essential 

 purpose for which the building is required." Following up this idea, 



