xxviii SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



we understand the study of the living in action. Verworn, fully realising all this, has 

 boldly taken the initiative, and, studying organisms and the cell, rather than mere organs, 

 availing himself to the utmost of the comparative method, he has laid the foundations of a 

 Modern Physiology. Some of his most cherished views will meet with ready dissent, notably 

 his aforementioned conception of the contractile function; but it is only natural that this should 

 be so. Is function the result of structure, and what are the molecular forces which determine 

 it ? The problem remains still unanswered, but that Verworn's method of attacking it is novel 

 and well-founded it must be frankly admitted. 



Verworn's Cellular Physiology looms upon us at a time when renewed attempts are being 

 made to apply statistical 1 and experimental methods to the study of the structural variation of 

 animals and plants, and there is something deeply to be regretted in the manner in which 

 advocates of these methods declaim against those of their predecessors and contemporaries. 

 Work, steady work, be it along the " old " or the "new" lines, is what is wanted ; and, as in the 

 past, so in the future, with the progressive accumulation of facts there will now and again 

 reveal themselves those, more stupendous than the rest, which, carrying their own refrain, 

 mark the real development of the science, and, stated in generalised form, constitute what is 

 known as a " Law of Nature ". 



Lehrbuch der Zoologie. Von R. Herwtig. Dritte umgearbeitete Auflage. Jena : Gustav. 



Fischer, 1895. 



The third edition of this book is a considerable improvement upon its predecessor, well 

 known and adopted in this country. Of its 585 pp. 146 are devoted to a consideration of the 

 history of zoology and of the general principles of morphology and distribution ; and of the 

 422 pp. which remain 137 are given over to the Vertebrates, and the remainder to the Inverte- 

 brates, the great groups being taken in ascending order. In this marked inequality of treat- 

 ment, and consequent wholesale ignoring of most important animal forms, the author is in the 

 fashion of the times, which counts it more profitable to deal with possibilities (largely deduced 

 from the study of ontogeny) concerning what may have happened in the evolution of living 

 organisms, than to countenance what has happened, as testified by palaeontology. Although 

 the Vertebrata are thus inadequately dealt with, important classes of Invertebrata receive 

 scant attention; e.g., the Bryozoa and Brachiopoda, which with the Tunicata (sic) are crowded 

 into a Supplement to the Section on Worms. What there is in the book, however, is mostly 

 good, as might be expected ; but there is not a little that is behind the times, and that to the 

 well-trained English student is insufficient. Limulus is properly placed in proximity to the 

 Trilobites. The Enteropneusta are classed as Vermes, and Cephalodiscus and Rhabdopleura 

 are not considered. No wonder, therefore, that the grossly conceived " Class Hemichordata " 

 is not upon the list. The author indulges neither in fantastic terminology nor in unwarrant- 

 able generalisation, and his book justifies its title, i.e., betokens a laudable desire to present 

 to the student mind a well-arranged digest of what is important in the whole subject with 

 which be deals. 



The work is adorned by 568 well-executed illustrations. 



Short Studies in Nature Knowledge. By William Gee. London: Macmillan & Co., 1895. 

 The number of small books devoted to the description of natural phenomena is in- 

 creasing by leaps and bounds, and we often wonder where the flood is to find its limits. It is 

 also a matter of difficulty in the majority of cases to discover the reason why the books ever 

 came into existence, as they serve no useful purpose, and their number simply bewilders the 

 beginner anxious to learn the elementary facts of natural science. 



Occasionally, however, there occurs an exception to the rule, and such seems to be the 

 case in the present instance, for the book forming the subject of the present notice, although 

 small, yet contains an immense amount of description calculated not only to instruct, but 

 also to educate. 



The more important sections of Physiography are in turn treated in a bright and attractive 

 manner, well calculated to interest and to stimulate further inquiry. The illustrations, as must 

 always be the case in a book like the present, are many of them familiar ; nevertheless they 

 are as a whole well selected and to the point, though several of the process blocks compare 

 unfavourably with the woodcuts, and rather make one wish that the progress of photography 

 had not been so rapid. 



1 The term " Mathematical Biology" appears to us an unfortunate misnomer. 



