1897] SOME NEW BOOKS 341 
genetic tree is also added. When Dr Pelseneer comes to study the 
gastropoda as systematically as he has done his own favourite bivalves 
we are convinced he will abandon the classification of the Prosobran- 
chiata that he at present takes from Bouvier (Ann, Sci. Nat., ser. vii., 
vol. iii, 1887), which classification is founded solely on the nervous 
system. He will also add some notice of Thyrophorella. 
The principal shortcoming, however, of the work as a whole is, we 
think, the scanty reference to the shell, which is after all an important 
feature of the mollusca, and in a treatise on zoology merits a place. 
In this respect the work is an exception to the generality of such pro- 
ductions where the animal is neglected. Curiously enough it is the 
Pelecypod shell that is the most curtly dismissed, and this in the light 
of Bernard’s researches is the more to be regretted. 
in the development of Pelecypods, too, we miss all reference to the 
second origin of gill filaments, by the splitting up of a previously ex- 
isting lamella, as shown to occur in Cyclas and Teredo by Korschelt 
and Heider, and again in Scioberetia by Bernard. Likewise our author 
appears to have overlooked the fact that the glochidial stage is not 
peculiar to the Unionidae, it having been found by Dall to occur in 
Philobrya. Other minor points for criticism are doubtless to be found 
by those who care to make diligent search for them, but the work all 
the same merits and will attain a high place in the estimation of those 
most competent to judge of it, and the praise we ventured to bestow 
on the first edition is yet more merited in the present one. It will be 
the author’s fault if subsequent editions do not carry us far towards an 
ideal work on the subject. 
It is only fair to add that a word of praise is but due to the 
printers and publishers for the excellent way in which they have 
carried out their share of the undertaking. The illustrations are, of 
course, those of the previous edition, enlivened in some cases by 
touches of colour to bring out the salient features they are intended 
to illustrate. There are two good indexes at the end of the part. 
“ (BVA 
THE VIVARIUM 
THE VIVARIUM, being a Practical Guide to the Construction, Arrangement, and 
Management of Vivaria. By Rev. Gregory C. Bateman. 8vo, pp. 424, with 
plates. London: L. Upcott Gill, 1897. Price, 7s. 6d. 
For very many years Mr Bateman has kept living batrachians and 
reptiles as pets, and the beautifully got-up little volume now before 
us embodies the results of his experience. The work, however, is far 
more than a practical handbook. The author has added to his own 
personal observations several illustrated chapters, in which the more 
striking forms of batrachian and reptilian life are described ina 
popular manner. He thus appeals to a much wider circle of amateur 
naturalists than those who keep vivaria. We can thoroughly re- 
commend the book to the general reader who desires a reliable, well- 
written, and non-technical account of the much neglected animals of 
which it treats. Our only complaint is that the illustrations are of 
very unequal merit, in many cases, indeed, far from accurate; and 
this is all the more to be regretted, since most of them are newly 
drawn, and might have been made admirable by a little more 
supervision of the artist. 
