174 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



this appears as the main support of any theory. Such evidence must from its 



nature be fragmentary. It is maintained that the great classificatory groups are 



not often united by fossil links, and Deperet is quoted with approval when he says 



that intermediate forms are lacking between Amphibia and Reptiles, and that 



mammals are also isolated. This, however, is not the case, and Deperet, excellent 



as are many of his conclusions, is not to be followed in this. The large amount 



of modern work on Therapsida and on the early Reptilia instead of endorsing this 



view is rendering it more and more difficult to draw a line of demarkation between 



the Reptilia and the Amphibia on the one hand and the Mammalia on the other : 



the three classes grade almost imperceptibly into one another. 



This criticism only applies to quite a small portion of the work, which, taken 



altogether, is a much-needed and well-written addition to morphological literature. 



No similar work is available to the English reader, and the author is to be 



congratulated on the careful and complete way in which he has sifted such a mass 



of literature. It is certainly a book to be read by all interested in the science of 



Morphology and by the layman who wishes to become familiar with the trend 



of morphological ideas. 



C. H. O'D. 



A Naturalist in Borneo. By the late R. W. C. Shelford, M.A., F.Z.S. 

 Edited by E. B. Poulton, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. [Pp. xxviii + 331, with 

 32 illustrations.] (London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1916. Price 15^. net.) 



THE late R. W. C. Shelford, who was generally recognised as a leading authority 

 on the insects belonging to the cockroach family, had the advantage of being for 

 seven years the curator of the Sarawak Museum maintained by Rajah Brooke. 

 He utilised to the full the exceptional opportunities that this position offered, and 

 the present volume is an account of his observations on the fauna of that region, 

 particularly the Insecta, but also including the Vertebrata and some anthropology. 

 Unfortunately the author died before the MS. was completed, and the result is a 

 certain amount of inequality in the various chapters ; for this of course the editor, 

 who has performed his task with great thoroughness, is in no way to blame. 

 The completed chapters, e.g. those on beetles and cockroaches, give an indication 

 of what might have been expected from the others. This criticism must not be 

 taken to imply that any of them are uninteresting — quite the reverse; but one 

 feels in reading them how much more would have been included had the work 

 been completed. As it is, however, the book is a very interesting one and gives a 

 vivid account of the many sides of animal life in a very rich region, by one who 

 was both a keen observer and naturalist. The chapters on the relations between 

 ants and certain plants and on mimicry call for notice as they deal with two 

 controversial matters, and as the author had ample chance of observing the 

 phenomena at first hand he consequently handles them in a manner far removed 

 from that of the laboratory biologist. 



The last chapters contain attractive accounts of some of the author's journeys 

 "up country," and a good series of illustrations is finished by a series of photo- 

 graphs of Kuching from negatives taken by the author during his residence there. 



C. H. O'D. 



The Morphology of Invertebrate Types. By A. Petrunkevitch, Ph.D. 

 [Pp. 263 + xiii, with 50 text figures.] (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1916.) 



This is a book designed for a course of practical work on invertebrate forms for 

 use in the United States of America. It contains far more types than are dealt 



