i893. SOME NEW BOOKS. 309 



an adequate systematic zoology, even though he confine himself to 

 animals no longer living ; the field is far too vast, the literature 

 cannot be coped with, and the pity of it all is that young men fresh 

 from the examination-room can only be taught their own presumption 

 by a fatal experience. 



Despite its inevitable faults, we recommend this book to students 

 for the value of its introduction, and for its numerous good illus- 

 trations ; while, to more advanced workers, it may prove useful as 

 setting forth the views of the French school on many subjects, some 

 here published for the first time. We will only warn the unsuspecting 

 against the specific names at the foot of many of the figures ; the 

 misprints, which this book shares with others issued by the same 

 publishers, they will discover for themselves. 



F. A. Bather. 



Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel : xix. Monographie ; Pelagische 

 COPEPODEN. By Dr. W. Giesbrecht. 4to. Pp. 532, pis. 54. Berlin : Friedlander 

 and Sohn, 1892. Subscription price 50 marks. 



The magnificent series of " Naples Monographs," of which the pre- 

 sent is the latest, shows no symptoms of a falling off either in excel- 

 lence of matter or in the beauty of illustration and printing. Nor do 

 the volumes decrease in size ; in fact, they seem to get bulkier with 

 increasing age. Those of us who are interested in the work of the 

 Marine Biological Association's Laboratory at Plymouth naturally 

 feel some envy at the sight of the nineteen volumes which represent 

 the industry of those who are officially connected with the Naples 

 Station, or have enjoyed the great facilities for work there offered. 

 It is greatly to be regretted that the hst of subscribers to the funds of 

 the Marine Biological Association is too small to permit of a suffi- 

 ciently large expenditure of money upon publications. It is rather 

 tiresome, too — the writer is naturally expressing his individual opinion 

 only — that so much purely utilitarian work has to be done, to the 

 partial, but, fortunately, not complete, exclusion of the more interesting 

 lines of Biological enquiry, so admirably developed at Naples. 



Dr. Giesbrecht's work is illustrated by fifty-four double plates, 

 of which the first five are devoted to the representation of the living 

 Crustacea with all their natural colours. These plates are so splendid 

 that we feel ourselves unable to praise them adequately without 

 indulging in language of too fulsome a character. The brilliancy of 

 colour often developed in these small creatures is most marvellous ; 

 but while some, such as SappJiirina ovato-lanceolata (pi. i., fig. 7), 

 exhibit literally all the colours of the rainbow, others are quite plain. 

 We wait anxiously to hear authoritatively the reasons for this display 

 of adornment. The variety of colour even extends to the eggs ; they 

 are blue, green, red, olive, or purple — in fact, they are only rivalled in 

 variety by the eggs whose use is peculiar to that season of the year 

 which has just passed. The remaining plates illustrate chiefly a 

 collection of detached appendages of the various species dealt with. 

 The development of these appendages is often quite extraordinary, 

 while the long plumed hairs which they and the body-surface 

 frequently produce are doubtless suggestive of the larval forms of the 

 higher Crustacea. The volume is entirely systematic and faunistic 

 in scope ; the anatomy will be treated of in a second part. 



