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REVIEWS. 



General Outline of the Organization of the Animal Kingdom. 

 By Thomas Rymee Jones, F.R.S. Third edition. London: 

 Van Voorst. 



This work has been, for many years, the most complete 

 manual of comparative anatomy in onr language, and we are 

 glad to find tliat the demand for such a volume has led to 

 the publication of a third edition. Although but a limited 

 number of the subjects embraced in a complete survey of the 

 animal kingdom demand investigation with the aid of the 

 microscope, yet we imagine, at the present day, that few per- 

 sons study comparative anatomy without using the microscope; 

 and that those who use this instrument do not confine them- 

 selves to the study alone of those structures and forms which 

 are invisible to the naked eye. It is on this account that we 

 would draw the especial attention of our readers to this new 

 edition of Professor Jones' book. As a complete survey of 

 the whole field of animal structure, it has long occupied a 

 prominent place in the scientific literature of this country ; 

 but it is the extensive additions and alterations, more par- 

 ticularly in the microscopic organisms, in which the work 

 claims more particularly the attention of the student of the 

 microscope. In the opening chapters devoted to the lower 

 organisms, a reai'rangement of these forms is presented, and 

 a large quantity of new matter is added. Professor Jones 

 does not follow in this Avork any particular system of classi- 

 fication, but satisfies himself with indicating the characters 

 and structure which belong to certain great groups of recog- 

 idsed objects. This has enabled him to dispense with a good, 

 deal of discussion, and leaves the student free to construct 

 his zoological arrangement from other sources. There 

 may be a diflPerence of opinion as to the desirability of 

 this course, but we have no doubt that each plan has its 

 merits and demerits. It would be impossible, in a volume 

 like the present, to bring together all the observations that 

 have been made on any particular group of organisms ; but 

 taking the Protozoa and Infusoria as examples, we think that 

 Professor Jones has been very happy in his selections. We 

 are reminded by his chapter on the Infusoria, that he was 

 one of the earliest writers in this country to throw doubt 

 upon some of the conclusions of the great Ehrenberg. Since 

 the first edition of this book Avas written an immense advance 

 has been made in our knowledge of microscopic organisms, 

 and the great family of Infusoria of Ehrenberg have been 



