122 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 



maintaining a ridiculous contest, not in natural history, but in myth- 

 ology, to determine whether this genus of prawns ought rather to be 

 named after the wife of Minos, or, by an Ovidian circumlocution, 

 after her infamous daughter. The moral is that one name is as good 

 as another — and a great deal better, if people would only leave off 

 meddling. 



After this emphatic discussion of a small blemish, it is pleasant 

 to offer, for what it is worth, my earnest testimony to the high 

 scientific merit and substantial excellence of Mr. Faxon's volume. 



Thomas R. R. Stebbing. 



Contrasts from Cambridge. 



Peripatus. By Adam Sedgwick. Myriapods. By F. G. Sinclair (formerly 

 F. G. Heathcote). Insects. (Part I.) By D. Sharp. Being vol. v. of the 

 "Cambridge Natural History," edited by S. F. Harmer and A. E. Shipley. 

 8vo. Pp. xi. and 5S4, 371 figures in text, and a map. London : Macmillan, 

 1895. Price 17s. nett. 



The third volume of the " Cambridge Natural History," dealing with 

 the MoUusca and Brachiopoda, has been followed at no long interval 

 by the present volume — the middle one of three to be devoted to the 

 Arthropoda. It is a natural course that each volume should be issued 

 as it is ready ; and no objection could be taken to the irregularity of 

 the order, if the editors of the series were but careful to fulfil the 

 promise of the prospectus that each volume should be complete in 

 itself. But the promise has not been kept. The " Cambridge 

 Natural History" is said to be intended in the first place for the 

 instruction of persons without a knowledge of scientific language. 

 What amount of instruction is likely to be conveyed by the two 

 opening paragraphs (in which Mr. Sedgwick sets forth the reasons for 

 classing Peripatus with the Arthropoda) to readers who are not told 

 what an arthropod is ? It is to be presumed that they must await 

 the appearance of the fourth volume for information on this point. 

 Meanwhile, they will doubtless joyfully agree that Peripatus is an 

 arthropod when they read that it possesses "a vascular body-cavity and 

 pericardium (ha^mo-coelic body-cavity)." Similarly, Mr. Sinclair's 

 opening paragraph tells that the Myriapoda are "Tracheata with 

 separated head and numerous segments." But for a definition of 

 "Tracheata," the volume may be searched in vain. 



It was inevitable that the section on Peripatus should have been 

 entrusted to the naturalist whose brilliant researches on the structure 

 and development of that animal have helped to spread the fame of 

 the Cambridge science school. The twenty pages which Mr. Sedgwick 

 has contributed, illustrated with well-chosen figures, mostly from his 

 own memoirs, and with a map showing the distribution of the 

 animals, will prove of value to the zoological student, but will 

 hardly tend to enlighten the general reader. Many of the paragraphs 

 are taken word for word from Mr. Sedgwick's monograph in the 

 Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science ; and the style of writing 

 appropriate to the pages of that magazine is out of place in a book 

 intended to instruct the intelligent layman in the facts of zoology. 

 Technical terms are constantly used without explanation. There are 

 people who want to be told what a gastrula is. Tracheae and 

 nephridia are described, but not a word is said about the use of either 

 set of organs. The editors of the series should surely make it their 

 business to see that each contributor at least attempts to fulfil both 

 the functions — work of reference and popular exposition — claimed for 



