xxvin SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



building-up of the human organs and traces them to their definite form.. 

 Especially excellent in this respect are the sections dealing with the 

 blood vessels, the urinary and genital organs ; in the latter we find 

 the recent work of Keibel given due prominence. That, however,. 

 dealing[with the development of the genital products is not so good, 

 the formation of the spermatozoa being treated with undue brevity and 

 its comparison with the maturation of the ovum being overlooked. 



We should have thought that some of Heape's work on the germ- 

 layers in the Mole might have been included with advantage in this 

 book, and surely also the student of human embryology should know 

 something about the condition of the ovum in the Monotremata which 

 throws so much light on the peculiar processes met with in the seg- 

 mentation of the ovum of the Placentalia. 



A large series of beautiful process blocks, many of which are 

 coloured, illustrate this work, and among them we find many new and 

 useful figures, especially in the more anatomical part of the book. 



The book should be of great use to the student of human anatomy 

 and embryology, but it is too specialised and lacks the comparisons 

 necessary to any one making a general study of vertebrate embryology. 



The Romanes Lecture, 1898: Types of Scenery and Their Influence on 

 Literahire. By Sir Archibald Geikie, D.C.L., F.R.S. London: 

 Macmillan & Co., 1898. 



The question treated in the Romanes lecture for the current year is- 

 one possessed of a more directly human interest than is the case with 

 many scientific discussions. Sir Archibald Geikie traces, with necessary 

 brevity, the influence of scenery on the minds of some of our great 

 writers. None can doubt the reality of such an influence on all 

 persons with a spark of imagination in their composition, but it is 

 interesting to find it carefully followed and proved in the case of writers 

 like Cowper as the type of the English lowlands and of Burns as repre- 

 senting the Scotch lowlands. The author classifies the characters of 

 scenery into Lowland, Upland and Highland. In his treatment of the 

 last-named group he adduces the poems of Ossian for Scotland and of 

 Wordsworth for North-west England. If it is not possible to criticise in 

 detail a lecture into which, as Sir Archibald himself says, subject matter 

 for a whole course has had to be compressed, it is needless to add that it 

 will be found full of interest for the general reader, and that merely as 

 a study of English composition and style it will well repay a perusal. 



