68 NEW BOOKS, WITH SHOKT NOTICES. 



which is already published. We speak in this matter from the most 

 perfectly disinterested motives, but we cannot see a really capital work 

 spoiled through the proprietor's neglect of modern work and modern 

 writers. On the whole, it strikes us that the numbers now upon our 

 table are better than their predecessors. There has been more effort 

 to bring new light upon the subject than was shown in the commence- 

 ment, and we can only rejoice that it is so. We notice, for example, 

 that the subject of Diatomaci has been more fully dealt with than 

 we had expected. A good deal of space has been given to this 

 subject, but, in our opinion, not enough, so important is it if only 

 regarded in the light of the test of microscopic power. It appears to 

 us, too, as if the subject were dealt with by one who was deeply in 

 love with tbe old notions, and could only give the more modern views 

 as other ideas, but by no means the correct ones. Still, this section 

 is evidently written by one who is a master, and we are glad that he has 

 even stated the views of more recent authorities. A good " diatom " plate 

 accompanies the tenth portion of the Dictionary, in which, however, 

 it must be observed that the writer's views of structure are distinctly 

 adhered to. The allied subject of Desmids is not so fairly dealt 

 with. A good deal of foreign work has been clone upon this branch 

 of late years, yet we find nothing whatever of it in the Dictionary. 

 Elastic tissue is by no means satisfactory. The illustrations are all 

 old, and the idea of treating of the branches of the subject as though 

 distinct, is manifestly antique. Endosmosis, too, is a subject which 

 requires to be much more fully dealt with than it has been under the 

 present heading. Entomostraca is wonderfully well treated, the 

 remarks being terse, to the point, and modern ; whilst the refer- 

 ences to work done at the subject by others is both full and modern. 

 Entozoa, too, is not bad ; but, in our opinion, it will be regretted if it 

 is not dealt with in the succeeding parts of the Dictionary more fulty. 

 Eozoon Canadense is, of course, a new paragraph. It is, however, 

 extremely short, and gives no very full description of this interesting 

 fossil. We should have wished to have seen a plate with some of 

 Dr. Carpenter's admirable drawings of this remarkable Bhizopod, but 

 as yet none has appeared. The cuts throughout the pages are too 

 manifestly those only of two or three groups ; why, we cannot say, but 

 clearly it is a somewhat prejudicial and unfair distribution. The 

 plates, too, are immensely too crowded ; in most instances they 

 contain some of Tuffen West's best drawing, and these, of course, are 

 in most cases excellent, but in other instances they are not so well 

 executed ; and further, they in some degree but very poorly repre- 

 sent the progress which has been made. With these several defects — 

 and of course we have dwelt upon them — the book is, nevertheless, an 

 improvement on the old edition, and we doubt not that the succeeding 

 parts will be even better far than those which have already been 

 published. 



Various foreign memuirs : — ' Nuove Ricerche sull' interna tessitura 

 dei Tendini del Prof. G. V. Ciaccio.' Bologna, 1872. — In this paper, 

 which the author has been kind enough to send us, there is given a 



