Literary Notices. clvii 



jects will be found to be totally inadequate even for elementary in- 

 struction. The book cannot therefore be recommended as a general 

 text-book, though it might serve as an introductory reading book. Its 

 usefulness even here, however, is greatly diminished by the absence 

 of sufficiently numerous references to the larger works and original 

 memoirs. 



The author writes truly : "The important role which micro-or- 

 ganisms play in nature, both beneficent and harmful, their direct rela- 

 tion to certain diseases, and their very wide distribution in the earth, 

 make it essential that we should know the principal facts in the life 

 history of these influential beings," yet the chapter on the biology of 

 micro-organisms is one of the least satisfactory in the book. The in- 

 troductory sentence states, " There are three general classes of micro- 

 organisms, known as bacteria, yeasts and moulds," and the remain- 

 der of the chapter is written in the same slip-shod fashion. It is to 

 be regretted that fundamental biological principles are not brought into 

 greater prominence throughout the work. The general instruction in 

 many of our best medical schools seems to the reviewer to be faulty 

 along this same line. The young physician is prone to regard the 

 body as a machine whose parts when out of order require to be tink- 

 ered, rather than as an organism whose vital equilibrium is the all-im- 

 portant prerequisite to proper functioning. 



The Comparative Morphology of the Brain. 



The year just closing has brought forth many papers on the 

 morphology of the lower brains from the standpoint of phylogenetic 

 relationships. It is our purpose to notice here a few only of these 

 papers. 



An interesting discussion was opened by Dr. Burckhardt in a 

 paper which we have already noticed (p. xxii) and of which a reduced 

 copy of the figure was given by Mr. Sorensen (p. 157, Fig. 3). Two 

 months later he published another article on the Homologies of the 

 Diencephalic Roof in Reptiles and Birds. 1 In studying these types 

 (Lacerta and Corvus) in median section he was struck with their simi- 

 larity to Petromyzon. In the diagram of Lacerta (also reproduced 

 by Mr. Sorensen, p. 156, Fig. 2) we are struck by the great develop- 

 ment of the " Zirbelpolster " and paraphysis. He concludes, "From 

 these observations it follows that the parts of the lower brains exposed 



J Die Homologien des Zwischenhirndaches bei Reptilien und Vogeln. Anat. 

 Anz.y IX, 10, Feb., 1894. 



