REVIEWS 709 



Economic Zoology : An Introductory Text-book in Zoology, with special 

 reference to its application in Agriculture, Commerce, and Medicine. 



By Herbert Osborn, M.Sc. [Pp. xv. +490, 269 text figs.]. (New York : 

 The Macmillan Company, 1908. 8^. 6d. net.) 



We had imagined that Prof. Osborn's name was a sufficient guarantee on the 

 title-page of any book for thoroughness and efficiency. A careful perusal of 

 the work before us leaves us, however, disappointed, to say the least. 



To couple with a text-book of this character the words Economic Zoology is 

 a misnomer, and a reprehensible one, for the economic side of the science of 

 zoology is treated of in such a casual and perfunctory manner that it is practically 

 useless to the would-be student of that subject. A text-book on Economic 

 Zoology this certainly is not, and has no claim to be regarded as such, whatever 

 claims it may possess to be regarded as an introductory text-book of zoology. 



For a really carefully planned and well executed text-book on the subject 

 there is undoubtedly a great demand, but it would be a work as different from 

 the one before us as it is possible to imagine. 



The space which the author has devoted to the different phyla, groups, etc., 

 evidences a complete lack of appreciation of the importance of the different 

 divisions from the standpoint of their economic importance, thus twenty-two pages 

 are devoted to the Hydrozoa, seventeen to Echinodermata, twenty-seven each to 

 Mollusca and Crustacea, but such important classes, economically, as Cestodes 

 have twelve pages, Nematodes nine, about one to Acanthocephala, and two to 

 Myriapoda. In the chapter treating of the Insecta the economic portion is 

 meagre in the extreme and not up-to-date, as also that on fishes and birds. 



In the review of the orders of the Insects, the Collembola are wrongly 

 included in the order Thysanura. 



The nineteen orders recognised might very conveniently have been reduced 

 to twelve or thirteen, whilst the names chosen are not always the happiest of those 

 by which modern entomologists know them. 



The descriptions of the different animal phyla are already available in a host 

 of zoological text-books, but careful summaries of the hundred and one problems 

 that are receiving the attention of economic zoologists are as yet very scarce ; it 

 is these that we look for in vain, or indeed anything in the way of summaries that 

 would be useful to the student. With the general principles of zoology he is 

 already well provided, but of those of its economic aspects or bionomics he is not, 

 and we regret to state that this work does not help him. 



The illustrations are numerous, but not always well chosen, and the author 

 fails in many cases to ascribe the source to the original author. In short, the 

 work gives us the impression of having been hurriedly compiled, with little care 

 and a very indefinite object ; as a result it is disappointing as an introductory 

 text-book in zoology, and almost useless as one on economic zoology. 



W. E. Collinge. 



The Transformations of the Animal World. By Charles Deperet. Being 

 the authorised translation of " Les Transformations du Monde Animale. " 

 Edited by F. Legge. [The International Scientific Series, Vol. xciv.] 

 (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., 1909.) 



Prof. Deperet is one of the most distinguished of living French palaeonto- 

 logists, and he possesses in a high degree that faculty of lucid exposition which 

 is one of the gifts of his race. His book, " Les Transformations du Monde 



