Bibliographical Notices. 455 



the present one contains illustrations of the minute structure of the 

 skeleton of the vertebrate animals as developed by the microscope, 

 and is a catalogue of that not less valuable portion of the College 

 collection belonging to histology. The present volume bears the 

 similar impress of care and research as the former one, and like it, 

 if we may judge from the greater importance of the subject-matters, 

 will share the same complimentary fate, of being speedily out of print. 

 It is however to be hoped, that the Council of the College, under 

 whose auspices these volumes are prepared, will issue a new edition, 

 to which, we doubt not. Prof. Quekett can furnish many important 

 additions in vegetable and invertebrate structures, and which would 

 supply a desideratum to many investigators, who have not had the 

 good fortune to procure the first volume of the series. In speaking 

 of this work, it will be unnecessary, as well as useless, to enlarge 

 upon the value and importance of microscopical research. The 

 microscope has not only ceased merely to gratify our curiosity or 

 excite our wonder, but has become a source of high intellectual 

 amusement and of great practical value. 



" Time was," says Prof. Owen in the recently published Lectures 

 on the Invertebrata, " and not many years ago, in this country, when 

 that term. Microscopical Anatomy, was almost regarded as synony- 

 mous with the anatomy of the imagination ; but the numerous and 

 highly important discoveries which have been made and confirmed by 

 observers in almost every European state, by means of the greatly 

 improved microscopes at their command, have placed the value, 

 the indispensability, of that instrument to the anatomist, beyond the 

 necessity of vindication.'* 



This remark of the Hunterian Professor is not only corroborated, 

 but strengthened, in the publication of the volume before us, by his 

 colleague. Prof. Quekett. In a general notice, the value of this work 

 may be stated under two principal heads, — firstly, that of presenting 

 us with a series of terms of comparison of the differences which ob- 

 tain in the minute structure of the endo- and exo-skeleton of the four 

 classes of the vertebrate type ; and, secondly, in furnishing us with 

 numerous and accurate illustrations of the more important genera 

 and species in all those classes of Vertebrata. 



Independently of the comparative value to the anatomist of the 

 variations existing in the minute structure of bone, or the tissues or 

 the dermal covering of different parts of the same animal ; the differ- 

 ences in the minute structure of the skeleton in the four classes be- 

 come more interesting when such are known to exist. That these 

 differences can be fully shown, it is only necessary to consult the 

 admirable plates appended to this volume, drawn as they have been 

 by an experienced artist, from the microscope, by means of the 

 camera lucida. To those who, like the geologist, have always to 

 appeal to the comparative anatomist for the determination of the 

 remains of the fossil vertebrata, any further aid, especially when a 

 minute portion is concerned, as to the class-afiinity of the fragment, 

 becomes of extreme value ; and this the microscope fortunately yields 

 us. Those who remember the animated discussions respecting the 



