NOTICES OF BOOKS. xxvn 



factory, and we hope in the next edition of this work to see it revised 

 by a specialist. Prof. Sedgwick has adopted many of Pelseneer's 

 beautiful figures, but he has retained one or two inferior ones, notably 

 fig 282, the nervous system of Paludina after v. Jhering, in which the 

 otocysts are represented as innervated from the pedal ganglion which, 

 as our author must be aware from his statement on p. 367, is a mistake, 

 and one which any one can verify in a moment by dissecting a. Paludina, 

 or by referring to Bouvier's great work on the nervous system of the 

 Gasteropoda (Ann. Sci. Nat. (3) iv., 1887), which might well have been 

 quoted here. In connection with the Mollusca, we should like to draw 

 Prof. Sedgwick's attention to a small mistake on p. 336, where in speak- 

 ing of the relation of the heart and rectum in certain Lamellibranchs he 

 states exactly the reverse of what he meant to say, the rectum in Ostrea 

 being dorsal to the heart and in Area, etc., ventral, and not the reverse 

 as stated. 



When one considers the enormous work involved in writing a book 

 of this description, one marvels at the accuracy and freedom from mis- 

 takes which this text-book exhibits, it should prove of great service to 

 all students of zoology. We must congratulate Prof. Sedgwick heartily 

 on the appearance of this volume, and hope soon to welcome vol. ii. 



Lehrbuch der Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Von Dr. J. 

 Kollmann, 0.6. Professor der Anatomie in Basel. 8vo, pp. xii., 

 658. With 386 figs. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1898. Price 15 marks. 



When we consider the somewhat limited material from which a 

 student of Human Embryology can draw his knowledge of this subject, 

 we must congratulate Dr. Kollmann upon the excellent work which he 

 has produced. But we fail to see the need of these large works upon 

 Human Embryology ; a short work suited to the needs of a medical 

 student we could appreciate, but large books like the present or such a 

 work as Minot's Human Embryology, if they really dealt with the human 

 subject alone, can fill no real void. It is the title of these works, 

 however, that is at fault, they are in reality text-books of vertebrate 

 embryology, making a speciality of the mammalia and including most 

 of what is known concerning the development of the human subject. 

 And this must necessarily be the case, for no matter what organ or 

 what developmental point of real significance we choose to study, it 

 would be impossible in the present state of our knowledge of Human 

 Embryology, and possibly always so, to understand the importance or 

 the real meaning of the facts which we might observe, without a 

 thorough knowledge of the Comparative Embryology of the verte- 

 brata generally. 



The present work, while introducing a considerable amount of 

 comparative embryology, especially in dealing with the formation of 

 the germ-layers and of the first rudiments of the organs, restricts itself 

 as far as possible to the human subject and deals very fully with the 



