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NOTICES OF EECENT BOOKS. 



Faune Ehizopodique du Bassin du Leman. By Dr. Eug6n& 

 Penard. 12| x 9^ in., 714 pages, numerous figures in the 

 text. Geneva, 1902: H. Kiindig. Price, 56 francs. 



One of the most curious facts about the pursuit of microscopy 

 is the almost utter neglect, by both amateurs and professed 

 biologists alike, of several important groups of microscopical 

 organisms. There are cases, no doubt, where there is some 

 excuse for this, owing it may be to the difiiculty of the study 

 or to the fact that the literature of the subject is very scattered 

 and written in a perfect babel of foreign tongues. In the case 

 of the fresh-water Rhizopods, however, this neglect is rather 

 difficult to understand. The creatures are by no means rare,, 

 they are easily examined, and many of them are among the most 

 beautiful of the smaller microscopic objects. In addition to this, 

 we possess in Leidy's " Fresh-water Phizopods of North America " 

 a text-book of the highest class, with the most beautiful 

 illustrations. 



Leidy's book, however, was published in 1879, and even for 

 that time the author took perhaps an unnecessarily conservative 

 view as to the validity of many of the species ; at any rate, it 

 seems certain that some of the forms grouped together under a 

 single name by Leidy are as much entitled to specific rank as- 

 any of those admitted by him as good species without question. 

 A considerable amount of additional knowledge has also been 

 obtained since Leidy wrote, and those few who were interested in 

 the subject were beginning to think that a supplementary book 

 would be very useful. Such a book has now appeared, for Dr. 

 Penard's work is much more than a mere catalogue of the forms 

 found in Lake Geneva and its immediate neighbourhood : it is 

 really a monograph on the whole group (exclusive of the Heliozoay 

 which are to be dealt with, we understand, in a separate treatise), 

 for, in addition to detailed accounts of all the species recorded 



