BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



A Text-Book of Biology. — Most of us have used and all of us 

 have admired Sedgwick and Wilson's text book General Biology. A 

 new volume' "based upon" this text book and written by Professor 

 Calkins raises high expectations but, upon reading, one is disappointed. 

 The book 1 is carelessly written and needs thorough and extensive 

 revision before it can be accepted as a substitute for the still very 

 usable older work. 

 The plan of the book is best told by the headings of the chapters: 

 Introduction. (Classification of the Biological Sciences.) 

 Chapter I. Living and Lifeless Matter. (Abstract treatment.) 

 Chapter II. Protoplasm and the Cell, and Organisms of One Cell. 

 (Yeast, Bacteria.) 



Chapter III. Organisms of One Cell, continued. {Amoeba, Flagel- 

 lates, Paramecium, Biological Problems i.e. Animals vs. Plants, 

 Spontaneous Generation, Age and Death, Fertilization.) 

 Chapter IV. Organisms of Tissues. (Hydra.) 

 Chapter V. Plants. (Nutrition, Pleurococcus, Sphaerella, Pteris.) 

 Chapter IV. Organs and Organ Systems. (Earthworm.) 

 Chapter VII. Homology and the Basis of Classification. (Lob- 

 ster.) 



Chapter VIII. Parasitism : Physiological Adaptation. (Tape-worm, 

 Phagocytosis, Immunity.) 



Chapter IX. The Perpetuation of Adaptations. (Heredity and 

 Evolution.) 



Excellent features in the book are its illustrations (except that on 

 p. 152 which shows inaccurately the sperm ripening pouches of the 

 earthworm, and figure 39 which shows too little to be of interest), 

 and its treatment of Mendelism and other phenomena of inheritance 

 in the last chapter. Its most serious defects are its frequent failures 

 to approach a subject first by concrete illustrations before presenting 

 a digest of the matter, numerous instances of inaccurate statements or 

 statements of doubtful validity, some instances of confusion of thought 



1 Calkins, Gary N., Biology. Pp. 241, figs. 101. New York, Henry Holt and 

 Company, 1914. 



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