EDITOR'S TABLE. 



7\9 



PROGRESS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



A COMPREHENSIVE German work on 

 natural history, entitled a "Hand-Book 

 of Zoology," by Prof. Carus, assisted by 

 Prof. Gerstacker, has just been com- 

 pleted. Its publication by Engelmann, 

 of Leipsic, was begun in 1863, and the 

 last volume has been recently issued. 

 The work is reviewed in Nature by 

 Prof. E. Eay Lancaster (editor of 

 Haeckel's great work, soon to be is- 

 sued), and of the general merits of the 

 Hand-book he speaks as follows : 



" As the latest complete systematic trea- 

 tise on the animal kingdom, and one executed 

 with the exercise of most conscientious care, 

 and a very exceptional knowledge of the 

 vast variety of zoological publications which 

 now almost daily issue from the press, this 

 work Is one which is sure to render eminent 

 service to all zoologists. We can speak to 

 the usefulness of the earlier volume, from 

 an experience of some years, and there is 

 every reason to helieve that the one just 

 completed will be foimd as efficient." 



Having pointed out, with some de- 

 tail, the scope and characteristics of 

 Prof. Carus's treatise. Dr. Lancaster pro- 

 ceeds to estimate it with more special 

 reference to the later advances of biolo- 

 gical theory, and his remarks upon this 

 subject are so opportune and instruc- 

 tive, that we quote them at length. 

 They afford an excellent illustration of 

 the broad applicability and practical 

 bearing of these modern doctrines in 

 relation to life, doctrines which are still 

 characterized by many as "unfruitful 

 speculations." 



"Prof. Carus suffers in this book as in 

 his ' History of Zoology,' from the unphllo- 

 sophic conception of the scope and tendencies 

 of that division of biology which its early 

 history has forced upon modern science. In 

 England our newest and most conservative 

 university continues to draw a broad dis- 

 tinction between what is called comparative 

 tiuatomy and what is called zoology. By 

 some accident zoology Is the term which has 

 become connected with the special work of 

 arranging specimens and naming species 

 which is carried on in great museums, and 

 which has gone on in museums since the 



days when ' objects of natural history,' and 

 other curiosities, first attracted serious atten- 

 tion in the sixteenth century. Accordingly, 

 zoology, in this limited sense, has taken the 

 direction indicated by the requirements of 

 the curators of museums, and is supposed to 

 consist in the study of animals not as they 

 are in toto.^ but as tliey are for the purposes 

 of the species-maker and collector. In this 

 limited zoology, external characters, or the 

 characters of easily-preserved parts which 

 on account of their conspicuousness or dura- 

 bility are valuable for the ready discrimina- 

 tion of the various specific forms, have ac- 

 quired a first place in consideration to which 

 their real significance as evidence of affinity 

 or separation does not entitle them. 



"From time to time the limited zoolo- 

 gists have adopted or accepted from the 

 comparative anatomists hints or conclusions, 

 and have worked them into their schemes 

 of classification. But it does seem to be 

 time in these days, when pretty nearly all 

 persons are agreed that the most natural 

 classification of the animal kingdom is that 

 which is the nearest expression of the ani- 

 mal pedigree, that systematic works on zool- 

 ogy should be emancipated from the heredi- 

 tary tendencies of the old treatises, and 

 should present to us the classes and orders 

 of the animal kingdom defined not by the 

 enumeration of easily-recognized ' marks,' 

 but by reference to the deeper and more 

 thorough-going characteristics which Indi- 

 cate blood relationships. We have to note 

 in the ' Handbuch ' the not unfrequent cita- 

 tion of superficial and insignificant charac- 

 teristics In the brief diagnoses of taxonomic 

 groups, which seems in so excellent a work 

 to be due to a purposeless survival of the 

 features of a moribund zoology that would 

 know nothing of 'insldes,' and still less of 

 the doctrine of filiation. For instance, the 

 very first thing which we are told of the 

 vertebrata, in the sliort diagnosis of the 

 group, is, that they are 'animals with later- 

 ally symmetrical, elongated, externally un- 

 segmented bodies ; ' of the fishes, that they 

 have the ' skin covered with scales or plates, 

 seldom naked ; ' of the mollusca, that they 

 have a ' laterally symmetrical, compressed 

 body devoid of segmentation, often inclosed 

 in a single (generally spirally-twisted) or 

 double calcareous shell.' 



" It would be unjust to suggest that Prof. 

 Carus, who long ago did so much to estab- 

 lish zoological classification on an anatomi- 

 cal basis, is not fully alive to the necessity, 

 at the present day, of taking the wide bio- 

 logical view of animal morphology ; but cer- 



