NOTICES OF BOOKS. xlvii 



ought certainly to have been given. Where all has been so well done, 

 however, there is little room for criticism. The book is well up to date, 

 as passing reference to the researches of Grassi and Calandruccio on 

 the life-history of the Eels sufficiently testifies ; and its pages teem with 

 detail, set forth in pleasant and enthusiastic terms wholly destitute of 

 pedantry. Among those portions of the book deserving special 

 mention as incurring the lasting gratitude of the student and practical 

 worker are pp. 42-56 which deal with analyses of " pelagic life during the 

 various months " of the year, and pp. 462-463 which bear a " synoptic 

 table of the eggs of marine fishes " ; and it may be remarked of the 

 authors that they have utilised the practical fisherman to the best ad- 

 vantage, for example, as concerning the matter (p. 15) of the wholesale 

 devouring of herrings' eggs by the haddock. Their whole attitude is 

 that of devoted workers, men among men, anxious to press into the 

 service of their cause all who are likely to aid it; and to this end due 

 prominence is given to the statement of topics for immediate investiga- 

 tion. It is remarked on p. 66 that in the study of the subject in hand 

 " the zoological investigator is stimulated b}- the fact that all his labours 

 directly bear on the public welfare" and that although "the state has in 

 past years spent princely sums on more or less pure science, ... at the 

 present moment the public interests demand . . . the exhaustive investi- 

 gation of all that pertains to the food-fishes of our shores, since the pro- 

 blems connected therewith affect the prosperity of so large a portion of 

 the population ". While appeal is thus made to the state, an en- 

 thusiastic tone is struck which pervades the whole book. Under the spell 

 of this the intelligent reader feels himself imbued with an ambition to 

 work out some detail, if only in personal regard for authors who have 

 so nobly bestowed time, labour, and money upon their chosen occupa- 

 tion. And when we consider how vast a field lies unexplored and how 

 fascinating is the work to be done, pending the consideration of the 

 state, we could desire nothing more for the authors than that their book 

 should entice unto them the private workers whose aid they so fully deserve. 



Das Ellenbogengelenk unci seine Mechanik. Eine anatomische Studie, 

 von J. W. Hultkrautz. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1897. 



This study of 144 pages, by the Prosector in Anatomy to the Karolina 

 Medico-Chirurgical Institute of Stockholm, like so much in the domain 

 of comparative vertebrate anatomy which during recent years has ema- 

 nated from that city, bears the imprimatur of Professor W. Leche, since 

 to him and Professor Lindstrom the author acknowledges his indebted- 

 ness for the material upon which it is based. It is divided into four 

 sections, of which the first three deal minutely with the structure, move- 

 ments, and development of all parts of the human elbow joint, accom- 

 panying tables being introduced where necessary, while the fourth is 

 devoted to a comparative morphological study of the joint in representa- 

 tive members of the classes and orders of terrestrial vertebrata. The 

 work is necessarily of a very technical character, and is begotten of a 

 devotion to the cause of science nobly supported by Dr. Gustav Fischer* 



