502 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The System o£ Animate Nature. By J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., LL.D. 

 [2 Volumes, pp. i-xi. and 1-687.] (London : Williams & Norgate, 

 1920. Price 305. net.) 



A BOOK by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson is always to be considered as a special 

 event in the zoological world, but we have no hesitation in saying that these 

 new volumes by Prof. Thomson constitute a mile-post marking the place of 

 the summarisation of biological thought of recent years. 



We have read these two comfortably sized volumes with true delight ; 

 we only sigh for more time and more students to undertake researches which 

 Prof. Thomson's fertile thinking have brought to the mind. The author 

 has dealt with the major philosophical pi-oblems of the universe in his own 

 inimitable style ; the central core of each problem has been stripped clear of 

 its surrounding superfluities, and laid bare for examination. Prof. Thomson 

 is far from being a " mechanist " ; those of us who had any sneaking hidden 

 regard for the Mechanistic Formulae will find cold comfort in these pages. 



The arrangement of the book is peculiar, and may we say, daring ? The 

 author takes such a subject as " Organism and Mechanism," or, " The 

 Problem of Body and Mind," discusses it, and at the end of the chapter or 

 lecture he gives a summary. 



We wish Prof. Thomson were more physiological ; with his gift for sifting 

 out the wheat from the chaff, we have no doubt that he covfld write a book 

 of great value on the physiological aspect of zoology. Let not this remark 

 be interpreted in any sense as disparaging of the present volumes — it emanates 

 merely from admiration of the way in which the author has handled philo- 

 sophical problems. Prof. J. Arthur Thomson is now giving his valuable 

 assistance to the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, and we hope 

 that the new results which are so rapidly accumulating will be embodied by 

 him in some future work on the physiological aspects. 



No matter in what subject the reader is interested he will certainly be 

 surprised at the complication of the by-ways to which the modern bio- 

 logical thought has run. It would be too much to attempt to deal here 

 with all the material collected and discussed by the author ; but we must 

 draw attention to the great breadth of the author's knowledge, and to the 

 skilful manner in which he has utilised the wealth of material dealt with by 

 him. 



J. Bronte Gatenby. 



Vertebrate Zoology. By Prof. H. H. Newman, Ph.D. [Pp. 432 + xii, with 

 217 figures.] (New York and London : Macmillan & Co., 1920.) 



This is intended as a textbook for the use of students in pre-medical classes 

 in the United States. It could be termed more accurately a book of Chordate 

 Zoology since it includes not only the Craniata but also the Cephalochordata, 

 the Urochordata and the Hamichordata. The natural history of the various 

 divisions of the Chordata are dealt with in a general way and certain forms 

 treated in some detail from the morphological, palseontological and embryo- 

 logical points of view. Throughout the book the evolutionary ecological and 

 physiological aspects are dealt with more fully than is generally the case in 

 books of this sort. 



The book is quite well illustrated and has a good index, C. H. O'D. 



The Sea Fisheries : History and Administration. By James Travis Jen- 

 kins, .D.Sc, Barrister-at-Law. [Pp. xxxi -f- 299, with numerous 

 illustrations.] (London : Constable & Co., 1920. Price 24s. net.) 



It is an easy task to review a book on a subject in which the author is an 

 acknowledged expert, and The Sea Fisheries, by J. T. Jenkins, D.Sc, Ph.D., 

 Barrister-at-Law, Gray's Inn, is no exception to the rule. The author — who, 



