REVIEWS 679 



Syn-oecology, which the reviewer has laid stress on in relation to British afforesta- 

 tion, and which is evident too from a perusal of Dr. Bews' recent work on South 

 African Grasslands. The author also points out that the intensive methods of 

 the cecologist are a necessary complement to the extensive, and, we may add, 

 often empirical, methods of the sylviculturist. 



In the tropics no less than in Europe the great need of the grower is a definite 

 knowledge of habitat factors and especially of their complex interaction, without 

 which empirical skill can make no great advance. This knowledge can, however, 

 only be acquired by an increased number of workers and augmented expenditure 

 of public funds together with the recognition that the bread thus cast upon the 

 waters may not return for many days, though return it sur61y will in manifold 

 measure. 



E. J. Salisbury. 

 ZOOLOGY 



A Textbook of Biology for Students in General, Medical, and Technical 

 Courses. By Prof. W. M. Smallwood, Ph.D. [Pp. xiv + 317, with 

 261 engravings and 10 plates in colour and monochrome.] (New York : 

 Lea & Febiger, 1916. Price $2.75.) 



This book, as its extended title indicates, is intended to be a general intro- 

 ductory course for students proceeding to more specialised lines of study, and 

 contains a great deal of useful information. The general portion of the book 

 treats of animals from both the physiological and morphological points of view, and 

 also of embryology, cytology, and histology. Further chapters treat of the 

 bacteria, moulds, and fungi, and the classification of plants and animals. Its 

 method of dealing with these subjects is naturally adapted to American university 

 courses and is not well suited to the requirements of British universities. The 

 second half of the volume, however, deals with aspects of biology that are only 

 too often omitted from textbooks, e.g. Biological Factors in Disease, Adaptations 

 and Animal Behaviour and its Relation to the Mind, etc. These chapters contain 

 much that is not usually accessible to the student, but which are, nevertheless, 

 of considerable interest and importance in the application of biology to the 

 various aspects of human activities. The book is well illustrated and contains a 

 good bibliography and glossary. 



C H. O'D. 



Medical Contributions to the Study of Evolution. By J. G Adami, M.D., 

 F.R.S., F.R.C.P. [Pp. xviii -f 372, with 7 plates and 18 figures in the 

 text.] (London : Duckworth & Co., 1918. Price \Zs. net) 



In this book are collected a number of short studies previously published by tht 

 author in various places from 1892 onwards, and re-issued in the one volume 

 because many of them have more or less direct bearings on certain biological 

 problems. It is divided into three parts : Part I. contains the Croonian Lectures 

 on "Adaptation and Disease," delivered to the Royal College of Physicians in 

 1917 ; Part II. consists of articles related to "Heredity and Adaptation"; and a 

 series of more strictly medical studies on " Growth and Overgrowth " constitutes 

 Part III. They naturally have not any great unity either of aim or treatment, but 

 will perhaps be accessible to a somewhat wider audience than if they had been 

 left scattered through the back files of different journals. 



The first part is in some ways the most interesting, since although, as the 

 author points out, it contains very little new matter, it is to a certain extent a 

 resume' of his previous conclusions and a general summary of his present position. 



