NOTICES OF BOOKS. xvii 



Ktnekoskias and Ascorhiza. We could have wished also a fuller treat- 

 ment of the lophophore and epistoma, especially as concerning their 

 probable non-homology throughout the Brachiopoda and Polyzoa, and 

 at least a mention of spicule formation. 



The use of the " etc." is in a scientific work indefensible. The 

 term " trochosphere " might have been advantageously replaced by 

 " trochophore " throughout, and mention might have been made of the 

 important observations of Goto upon Diplozoon, and of Hill upon the 

 development of the cysticercoid in Polycercus and Monoccrcus, and of 

 the scolex in SyubotJiriuiii. We note with pleasure the recognition of 

 Goto's masterl}' monograph upon the Trematoda monogenea of Japan — 

 foremost among the productions of the East in systematic Zoology, and 

 could have wished full reference to Martin Woodward's observations 

 upon the numerical variation of the ovaries in the common Earthworm. 

 Wilson's alleged discovery of the opening of the head-kidney of the 

 larval Hydroidcs into the proctodasum should have been recorded, 

 together with a number of other discoveries by contemporary investi- 

 gators, recapitulation of which is in these pages impossible. 



Zoology, like most things, is now suffering from the effects of the 

 scramble of life which has overtaken all men ; and it is interesting, 

 though accordingly not surprising, to note that during the publication 

 of this work the mysterious TrochosphcEva has turned up in the Havana 

 river, that living Land Nemertines have been found in New Zealand, 

 and that Tower has unravelled the detailed structure of the Cestode 

 nervous system. And we find ourselves unable to decide whether the 

 recent discovery of the entoparasitic Myzostomn arteiiiia was or was 

 not announced in time for incorporation in the volume. Burger's 

 revolutionary classification of the Nemertines has just come in time for 

 incorporation, and we hail with delight that of Kowalevsky's work on 

 the wonderful germs Acantlwhdclla. 



There are many parts of the book which might be extended, but it 

 must first be tried in its present form. Phronis is rightly placed ap- 

 proximate to the Polyzoa, but Cephalodiscus and Rhnhdopleuva stand 

 over for treatment with Balanoglossiis and the vertebrata. We could 

 have wished it otherwise, and we await with interest in this connection 

 the volumes on the Echinodermata and Chordata. Professor Hartog 

 rejects the time-honoured comparison of the Rotifera with the Trocho- 

 phore, with its familiar refrain, in preference for a Pilidium larva 

 association, which seems to us even less justified. The biporal stage 

 in the development of Amphioxns suggestive of the remarkable Snlinella 

 appears to be passed through by some Echinoderms ; all the more 

 reason therefore that the Mesozoa should have been dealt with 

 independently. Indeed, with regard to the inter-relationships between 

 the present volume and its predecessors, we would have preferred the 

 treatment of the Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Rotifera, and Geph3Tea, with 

 Phoronis, in one volume, and the reservation of independent volumes 

 for the rest of the " Vermes " and the Mollusca. 



B* 



