1888.] MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 97 



The location is convenient, accessible, and within easy reach of Cleveland, where the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science meets the succeeding week. 



President Kellicott has appointed an efficient and enterprising committee on working 

 session. These gentlemen have accepted the appointment. This insures the success 

 of an important part of the programme, though of course the hearty aid of the mem- 

 bers is expected. 



Champaign, 111., March S, 1888. 



Washington, D. C. — E. A. Balloch, Secy. 



At the 72d meeting Mr. F. T. Chapman read a paper on soap-bubble films. It will 

 appear in our May number (p. 81). 



Prof. Seaman showed a lamp and vertical illuminator. He said : — ' You may remem- 

 ber that some time ago I showed a vertical illuminator made by Mr. Chas. Fasoldt, of 

 Albany. 1 have here a slide of his rulings which contains nineteen bands, from 5,000 

 to 120,000 to the inch, which is no doubt a very excellent specimen of this kind of 

 work similar to the celebrated Nobert plates. I have no hesitation in saying that on 

 an object of this kind with an immersion lens the definition obtained by this illumi- 

 nator is superior to anything I have ever seen, and that by its means the human vision 

 may be pushed to its utmost limit.' 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



A Course of Elementary Instruction in Practical Biology. By T. H. Huxley and H. N. 



Martin. Revised edition by G. B. Howes and D. H. Scott. London and New 



York. Macmillan & Co. 1888. pp. 512. 

 There is probably no text-book which has done so much to turn the course of study 

 in a direction both new and most fruitful of good results as Huxley & Martin's Prac- 

 tical Biology, first published in 1875. It is the first of a very large number of practical 

 guides which have now largely replaced the older text-books — those in which the facts 

 were stated in a direct narrative, and of which Gray's First Lessons in Botany is a 

 good example. The purpose of this newer method has been to lead the student to 

 work out the knowledge for himself. By giving him a series of separate but definite 

 tasks or directions he is kept constantly upon the subject in hand, and great benefit 

 is secured thereby. He knows exactly what he is to do, and he either succeeds or 

 he fails. The value of this method has Ijeen fully tested, and the many works which 

 have appeared since and have applied the plan in various departments show how 

 perfectly it meets the needs of the day. Important as was the benefit conferred on 

 teachers by Huxley's Practical Biology in its method, it was still more valuable for the 

 subject-matter which was brought to light and impressed upon the user. It marks 

 the beginning of a new era in studies upon living organisms — an era where the study 

 of isolated parts was largely discontinued and the organism began to be studied in its 

 entirety. In this regard it seems to us that the Practical Biology is far superior to 

 most of the later works which have been designed to partially or wholly supplant it. 

 The days for studying bones or lingual ribbons or scales or any other isolated parts 

 are being deferred. Classification, which should be the latest step in true science, is 

 ceasing to be studied first, and biological study is beginning to mean the investigation 

 of form, structure, and function. The best thing about this book is the extent to which 

 it keeps physiology in sight. We should be glad if it did so more. In so far as the 

 student is. kept to a notion of any organism as a whole body, though he may not 

 of course take up all the details, he gets a view of a living unit, and not of a fragment. 

 Biologists should insist upon this as the minimum in a course of study on any organ- 

 ism. Later as many forms or as much detail may be studied as time permits. Of 

 course we are not to be understood as meaning here that such must be the course in 

 primary instruction or in the use of the microscope merely as a means of amusement. 

 In the latter case studies upon morphological topics are often most useful. 



The revision and extension which has now appeared adopts the same excellent 

 plan of treatment as its predecessor, but differs from it in these particulars, first, the 

 arrangement of the matter, and second, the number of types studied. There are also 

 some changes in the descriptions of the old forms. The change in order of studies 

 was found advisable by Professor Huxley shortly after he had put the book into his 

 classes, because of the difficulties encountered in the minute forms involving often 

 the handling of the microscope, and so the acquirement of a ' new sense.' The 



