284 



the limits of Oxford, and may we hope attract new pupils to 

 his laboratories. 



This book is not a book for the very youngest beginners, 

 but it is a book for all who wish to push well into the 

 study of zoology. A special feature in its plan is its prac- 

 tical character. It is not a book to read quietly through 

 with easy reference to figures and diagrams, but it is a boolc 

 to grapple with and to master, and when this is done the 

 student will have obtained a sounder and more adhesive 

 knowledge of comparative anatomy than he can from any 

 other bouiv we know of. The first part gives descrijjtions of 

 the large groups of the animal kingdom, which may be read 

 as easily as the author's style will permit ; the second and 

 third being detailed descriptions of actual dissections or of 

 drawings, require carefid comparison with preparations and 

 specimens to which it is absoIiiteJij essential for the student 

 to gain access, either in some museum, or by his own dissec 

 tions, as far as possible. We allude above to the author's 

 style, which no doubt will appear a difficulty to many in 

 reading the book, on account of the dense packing of words 

 and allusions into a single sentence. But let us not be 

 understood as objecting to this style ; its very difficulty has 

 advantages, it arrests the attention and demands the thought 

 of the student, and it is greatly preferable to the mystifying 

 and wearisome verbosity of some writers on biological sub- 

 jects. Let us take an example from a part of the work relating 

 to microscopic organisms. " The Gregarinse would by most 

 writei's be considered, as they are here, to be the lowest of 

 the Protozoa. Their ento-parasitic habits, however, which 

 will account for much of the simplicity or degradation of their 

 organism, must not cause us to overlook their close affinity 

 to certain forms of Rhizopoda, esj^ecially the amoibiiia ; and 

 it has been rather from considerations of convenience, which, 

 in the absence of any actual demonstration of genetic affinity, 

 have weight in classification, that they have been here sepa- 

 rated from that class. The Rhizopoda are by some writers 

 placed higher, by others lower, in the scale of life than the 

 Infusoria ; but the ' polymorphismus ' of their more complex 

 forms, amongst which the Uadiolaria are usually included, 

 may be considered in some sense to counterbalance the higher 

 grade of specialisation to which the Infusoria in virtue of 

 their digestive, reproductive, and motor organs must be 

 allowed to have attained. The Spongiadte should, for the 

 same reason, and in the same sense as the Rhizopoda, be 

 placed in co-ordinate rank with the Infusoria." This quo- 

 tation gives an idea of the suggestive manner in which the 



