REVIEWS. 



Archives de Tioologie Ewperimentale et Generale. Published 

 under the direction of Henri de Lacaze Duthiers. 

 Nos. 1 and 2, January and April, 1872. Paris : Germer 

 Bailliere. 



The foundation of this journal at the present time, and 

 the contents of the two numbers which have already appeared, 

 form a brilliant proof of the vitality of biological science 

 in France. The opinion has of late years been expressed, 

 both in this country and in Germany, that the great French 

 school has become exhausted, and that no successors of 

 Bichat or of Cuvier are likely to arise. This would, indeed, 

 be an irreparable loss, the scientific body of Europe would 

 be deprived of one of its senses, 



" And wisdom at one entrance quite sLut out ;" 

 for, with all its defects, of which Frenchmen are now begin- 

 ning to be conscious, their school of anatomy and physiology 

 had merits Avhich no other seems likely to supply. Yet the 

 ossibiHty of such a catastrophe was undeniable. In Italy, 

 the birthplace of these as of every other science, the great 

 anatomists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have 

 long ceased to have successors ; and in England, the school 

 of physiology founded by Hewson and Hunter, and con- 

 tinued by Bell and by Marshall Hall, has all but completely 

 died out. In France, the influence of the Second Empire 

 proved as evil for science as for every other department of 

 higher national life. With almost universal ignorance of the 

 great advances made in Germany during the last tAventy 

 years, the French savans neglected even to follow out the 

 paths they had themselves opened, and with rare exceptions 

 discovered no fresh ones. But now, under the restoring 

 breath of liberty, there is a revival of science, which promises 

 to preserve all their best national qualities, united Avith a 

 docility and a thoroughness which they have learned from 

 their late enemies. Already in England, and even in Ger- 

 many, we have much to learn from them. 



In one of the last discussions in the 'Academic des 

 Sciences ' before the war, our great English zoologist was 



