380 THe MICROSCOPE. 
belie their name and are anything rather than elementary. 
They usually soar beyond the visual range of their selected 
group of spectators, and thus terrify and repel at the start. And 
few attract or even instruct by the use of the proper material for 
elementary description. Gibson’s “ Elementary Biology” sins 
in these ways. To begin the subject matter of elementary bi- 
ology, as Gibson does, with a study of Protameba, Protogenes and 
Protomyza, is worse than absurd. How many professors of bi- 
ology have ever seen Protameba or Protomyxa or Protogenes? To 
study these creatures demands careful work with high power 
objectives and the appliances of the advanced microscopist. 
Yet the beginner is expected to begin his biological career with 
Protomyxa and Protogenes, when he probably may know enough 
about the microscope to use a pocket lens improperly. 
This book starts its serious work with these lowly creatures, 
but what use can the ignorant young student have for it? To 
offer him the common Ameba would be bad enough in all con- 
science, but to decend among Heckel’s Protista and to expect 
him to follow, is asking rather too much. The author in time 
arrives at the Ameba, to which he devotes a page and a half, 
leaping thence to the Spirogyra of the fresh water Algze, then pro- 
ceeding to the salt water Algee, Fungi, Mosses, Ferns, and flower- 
ing plants, the greater portion of the volume being devoted to 
vegetable biology. Among the invertebrates he considers Obelia 
of the Hydrozoa, with somewhat extended reference to the fresh 
water Hydra, and the common earth-worm; among the verte- 
brates he selects Amphiorus, the common frog, of which an ex- 
tended description is given, with a concise account of the general 
physiology of animals, concluding with a short history of biology. 
The book is entirely worthless for its intended purpose, yet it 
is exceedingly valuable. No good teacher of biology would use 
it, and no novice in the study could. Yet for those who possess 
no more than a smattering of biological knowledge it will be one 
of the most useful reference manuals that he can select, and even 
the advanced observer will find that'it contains much edifying 
and profitable matter. As a reference book and as a text-book 
for somewhat advanced students it can be cordially commended, 
but the beginner in the science will do well to avoid it. It is not 
elementary in the true and praiseworthy sense of the term. 
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