Bibliographical Notices. 299 



The remainder of the volume is occupied by the special Zoological 

 Reports of some of the separate Expeditions sent out to survey the 

 Pacific Railroad routes, — namely, of those under the commands of 

 Lieutenants Beckwith, Whipple, Parke, Williamson, and Abbott. 

 It would have been better, we think, to have merged all these Re- 

 ports into the General Report, and to have issued the whole in one 

 connected series. It is tiresome to be referred from the Special 

 Report to the General for the description of a species or the characters 

 of a genus, and from the General to the Special for remarks on the 

 habits of animals, their mode of propagation, &c. But it is easy to 

 criticize ; and all the points to which we have alluded detract but 

 little from the great general value of this work. We fear it will be 

 long before our own Government issues a series of "Blue-books" so 

 generally acceptable to the scientific world, or so likely to escape the 

 usual fate of the British article — being sold for waste paper. 



Animal Physiology. By William B. Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., 

 F.G.S., F.L.S. New edition, thoroughly revised and partly re- 

 written. Sm. 8vo. London, H. G. Bohn, 1859. 



Of the series of scientific manuals prepared many years ago by 

 Dr. Carpenter, and published by W. S. Orr and Co. of Amen Corner, 

 the treatise on Animal Physiology was certainly one of the best. It has 

 already passed through two or three editions ; and we have now to 

 announce the publication of a new edition thoroughly revised by the 

 author. 



The book has undergone considerable alterations in many parts, 

 in order to bring it up to the present state of science ; and three 

 chapters especially have been almost entirely re-written. These are : 

 the first chapter, treating " of the vital operations of animals, and 

 the instruments by which they are performed," which contains an 

 excellent digest of the distinctive characters of animals, with an ac- 

 count of the nature of their various tissues and the chemical consti- 

 tuents of the latter ; the second chapter, giving a general view of the 

 classification of the animal kingdom, which is greatly improved ; 

 and the last chapter, which treats of the phsenomena of reproduc- 

 tion. The changes in the latter are very extensive, as may be sup- 

 posed from the great progress made within the last few years in our 

 knowledge of these matters ; and the reader will find in it a very 

 good, although succinct account, not only of the ordinary develop- 

 ment of the ovum, but also of the alternation of generations, and of 

 the singular phaenomena to which Siebold restricts the term Par- 

 thenogenesis. On the whole, we may safely recommend the present 

 edition of Dr. Carpenter's little book as the best popular account of 

 the structure and functions of the animal body for the use of the 

 general reader. 



