3o8 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 1896. 



this all forms six lines of small type ; lastly, a synopsis of the orders, 

 in four lines of small type. Then follows the systematic treatment of 

 the first order — Aphrothoraca, under which head are the authorities, 

 a diagnosis, numbers of genera, synopsis, and key to genera. The 

 genera of the order are then dealt with in similar manner, and lastly 

 come the species, each with its references, synonyms, diagnosis, and 

 distribution. The part concludes with an alphabetical index to all 

 generic and specific names, synonyms being in italics. 



The work appears to be clearly and carefully carried out, but one 

 or two minor criticisms suggest themselves, mainly in the direction of 

 the saving of space. Seeing that the abbreviations of morphological 

 terms are explained under a boldly printed heading on p. 6, it was 

 surely unnecessary to repeat them on p. 7. The word " in " could 

 easily be omitted in such references as " Bory de St. -Vincent in: 

 Encycl. meth., v. 2 p. 614" — a colon is quite enough. And surely t 

 is unnecessary to give us the whole mouthful "Bory de St.-Vincent"; 

 " B. de St.-Vincent," or "St.-Vincent" alone, is all that is needed, 

 since the reference to Encycl. meth. prevents any possible ambiguity. 

 Such an expression as " M. coniluens Aim. Schneid. 1878 M.c, 

 Aime Schneider," etc., also appears ridiculously lengthy. It will be 

 noticed that Arabic figures only are used, and this necessitates the 

 introduction of v. for volume, p. for page, t. for plate (Tafel), and f. 

 for figure. All the abbreviations used are not explained, thus we find 

 " Durchm.," " ca.," " L.," "Br.," — of course these are readily intelU- 

 gible to those accustomed to German systematic writing, but we are 

 thinking of the others. The use of a | instead of a full-stop to 

 separate clauses in the synonymic lists is to be commended. Some 

 space is lost by the insertion of a rule and many leads between the 

 orders ; sufficient distinction would have been made by the use of 

 small capitals for the ordinal names. It is a little odd that neither 

 capitals nor small capitals are employed in any connection except as 

 initials. It must, however, be admitted that the pages present a 

 clear and pleasing appearance, and that the printing has been well 

 executed by A. Hopfer. 



Altogether the present part contains sixty species, both valid and 

 doubtful. These, with their indices, but excluding the title-pages, 

 occupy twenty pages — that is to say, three species go to a page. 

 Now, since the number of recent species has been calculated at not 

 less than 386,000, we may infer that " Das Tierreich " will occupy at 

 least 128,700 pages. The length of the complete work, exclusive of 

 the binding, will therefore be 12 metres 87 centimetres. The binding 

 will bring it up to 13 metres, and this is no exaggerated estimate. 

 Under these circumstances, we venture to think that every possible 

 suggestion as to the means of reducing this enormous bulk is of value, 

 and for this reason we have printed such suggestions as occur to us. 



All success to Professor Schulze and his collaborators in their 

 herculean task ! 



