2i8 NATURAL SCIENCE. March. 



;^5oo a year for carrying on the work in Dr. Burdon Sanderson's 

 Physiological Laboratories. Sir Henry regrets that no Hving plants 

 or animals are kept in connection with the Museum. " Life in action, 

 with the habits thereto pertaining, is a study as worthy as is the 

 machinery which makes, preserves, and brings it to a close. It is a 

 fault in most museums that only the mechanism of life and not its 

 living actions are displayed." 



What follows is of sufficient importance at the present juncture 

 to quote in full. " These general thoughts may seem strange to those 

 in Oxford who, from imperfect knowledge, desire to change the 

 Museum into a so-called ' medical school.' They perhaps have not 

 reflected on the loss that they will inflict on the Profession of Medicine 

 if they succeed. Forty years ago it was hoped to add to the wide 

 Philosophical, Historical, Theological life of the old University the 

 means for similar study of the material Universe considered alike in 

 its Unity and in its special parts. It was felt that this would 

 harmonise with, and supply the missing link in the aims of the old 

 education. The opportunities were to be open to all, for whatever 

 walk in life destined. Adapt it only to one profession such as 

 medicine, you rob all others of the larger opportunity, and — what is 

 even worse — persuade future Oxford graduates that medicine has no 

 relation to science as a whole ; that it is a specialism, grounded on 

 itself alone, and that the essence of its education is to prepare by 

 schedules for passing examinations. No greater educational fallacy 

 can exist. To give colour to it is a cruelty to all our youth. Our 

 best students already feel this to be so. The foundation by them of 

 the Robert Boyle Lecture is a proof. Wider views are held by the 

 best thinkers, even for our elementary and Government schools. The 

 conception is a relic of days of ignorance." 



Like all works to which Mr. Ruskin's name is attached, this one 

 is beautifully produced. One of the two exquisite plates represents 

 the capital of a pillar in the central court of the Museum, while the 

 other is a charming portrait of the two authors. 



NoviTATES ZooLOGic^ : A Journal of Zoology. Edited by the Hon. Walter 

 Rothschild, Ernst Hartert, and Dr. K. Jordan. Vol. i., no. i. Imp. 8vo. 

 Pp. 266 and three plates. Issued January 30, 1894, ^^ the Zoological Museum, 

 Tring. 



This handsome publication, to which the yearly subscription is one 

 guinea, has been started mainly for the purpose of describing 

 new species, and, we presume, of thereby adding to the type- 

 specimens in the Rothschild Museum, The species-mongering is, 

 however, not to be done rashly, or at the mere caprice of writers ; it 

 is to be subject to certain principles which are laid down by the 

 Editors in an introductory note. " The basis of truly scientific, 

 systematic work is the knowledge of the species and their geographical 

 distribution. Therefore we ought to distinguish between the different 

 forms, even if their differences are very ^slight,' provided they are 

 constant. If very closely allied forms are connected by intermediate 

 specimens (as is often the case in the countries where their areas 

 meet or overlap), it is practically not advisable to admit them as 

 distinct species, but they ought to be degraded to the rank of sub- 

 species. Island forms, however slight may be their differences, will, 

 in most cases, be more readily recognised as worthy of specific rank 

 than similarly closely allied forms with a mainland distribution. The 

 term 'variety,' especially among entomologists, has been indiscrimi- 



