JuncZ, 1876] 



NATURE 



129 



have to be called into use in England) these corporations 

 are not allowed to make money by engaging in com- 

 mercial pursuits or the keeping of boarding-schools. 

 (3) The appointments are graduated in value from 80/. to 

 400/. per annum. (4) New members are chosen in any 

 one corporation by co-optation. The promotion of exist- 

 ing members is effected by the same process — one cor- 

 poration often inviting a member of another to leave his 

 old associates in order to enjoy an increased salary, or 

 increased facilities for research. This co-optation is 

 carefully supervised but not directed by the State 

 Government. (5) Since commercial operations, such 

 as the acquirement of a large revenue by any corporation 

 from the fees of pupils or wards committed to its care, 

 are out of the possibilities of the case — the sole motive 

 which affects the various corporations in their choice of 

 colleagues is a desire to secure colleagues of eminence in 

 the avocation which is assigned to the corporations, 

 namely, research, and in this way to maintain a high 

 reputation for the corporation and congenial association 

 for its members. (6) The result of this is, that the whole 

 stimulus which the prospect of a step-by-step accession of 

 income from 80/. to 400/. or 600/. per annum can bring 

 to bear upon the nature of man is constantly at work in 

 urging those who enter upon this career to give their full 

 energies to research, and research alone. The habit 

 of research so stimulated and fostered, remains even 

 after a career of twenty or twenty-five years — the length 

 of service which entitles the German professor to retire 

 upon full pension. 



The enormous fertility of Germany in all kinds of 

 research is the outcome of this simple and healthy 

 system. There does not appear to be any reason why a 

 parallel system applied in this country should not 

 produce parallel results. E. RvY Lankfster 



QU AIM'S ANATOMY 

 Quain's Elevients of Anatomy. Eighth edition, edited by 

 Dr. Sharpey, Dr. Allan Thomson, and Mr. E. A. 

 Schafer. Two Vols. (Longmans, Green and Co., 

 1876.) 



THE seventh edition of Quain's " Anatomy " appeared 

 nine years ago under the conjoint editorship of 

 Dr. Sharpey, Dr. Thomson, and Dr. Cleland ; in the 

 eighth Mr. E. A. Schafer's name is found on the title page 

 instead of that of the last-named anatomist. The new 

 edition contains much new matter, and with a larger as 

 well as a clearer type, covers nearly an extra hundred 

 and sixty pages. 



The arrangement of the subject-matter is considerably 

 modified in the direction of improvement ; the descriptive 

 account of the bones, joints, muscles, vessels, and nerves, 

 together with the surgical anatomy, occupying the first 

 volume ; the second, containing the general anatomy or 

 histology, the structure of the different viscera, the organs 

 of special sense, and the embryology. 



A much-needed advance has been made in the sections 

 devoted to osteology and myology, which consists in the 

 introduction of paragraphs on general morphology. 

 Teachers of anatomy are too apt to entirely neglect 

 those great strides that have been made in zoology, 

 many of which have an important bearing upon the way 

 m which the human skeleton and soft parts should most 



certainly be regarded. We, upon this view of the ques- 

 tion, are therefore glad to find among other innovations, 

 a classified list of the bones of the head, and their typical 

 component parts, the nomenclature adopted being that 

 employed by comparative anatomists. 



The introduction of nitrate of silver, osmic and chromic 

 acids, logwood, &c., as adjuncts to histological manipu- 

 lation, as well as the efforts of many able investigators, have 

 rendered corresponding changes necessary in the sections 

 of the work devoted to the microscopic structure of the 

 tissues and organs ; and Mr. Schafer has here introduced 

 several fresh illustrations, and much new matter, which 

 makes the '"'general anatomy" by itself an invaluable 

 summary of the most modern aspect of histolog}'. The 

 development of blood corpuscles, the ground- sub stance of 

 connective tissue, the ultimate nature of muscle, the 

 serous membranes and their lymphatics, have received 

 the greatest additions in this portion of the work. 



Dr. Allen Thomson has entirely re-written the chapter 

 on embryology, having embodied all the more recent 

 results in this rapidly advancing department of biolo- 

 gical science, arrived at by Foster and Balfour, Parker, 

 Mihalkovics, Waldeyer, and others. The whole forms 

 a most excellent account of human embryology, as far as 

 it can be known from the incomplete direct, and the much 

 indirect evidence which can be brought to bear upon it. 



The editors acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Gowers, 

 Assistant-Physician to University College, in the revision 

 of the paragraphs on the Cranial Nerves ; and in the 

 chapter on the Brain and Spinal Cord, Dr. Gowers has 

 introduced a valuable account of the cerebral convolu- 

 tions, together with some excellent drawings, more 

 elaborate than those of Ecker. The nature of the many 

 layers of the cerebral cortex is fully discussed, at the 

 same time that a careful abstract of the terminology of 

 Meynert is given, with additional figures. 



There is one minor zoological error which we have not 

 seen corrected in any anatomical or physiological text- 

 books. It is in the nomenclature of the animals with 

 peculiarly small blood-discs. The " Napu Musk Deer" 

 is said to possess the smallest blood corpuscles of all 

 mammalia. It is now known that the Musk Deer has no 

 special kindredship with the Chevrotains, or Tragulidae, 

 to which group the Javan Chevrotain {Tragulusjavamcus), 

 which formerly went by the name of the " Napu Musk 

 Deer," belongs. A reference to Mr. Gulliver's more recent 

 paper ^ also shows that in the Indian Chevrotain (7><7- 

 gulits 7neminna) the discs are equally minute. 



With reference to the typography we think it much 

 improved in all respects, but of the figures we cannot help 

 remarking that sufficient care has not been taken by the 

 printers in doing justice to the artists or the engravers. 

 Several of the older woodcuts are, no doubt, much worn, 

 but they, as well as the more recent ones, are printed 

 much too black, considerably darker than in the previous 

 edition. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Exercises in Electrical and Magnetic Measurement. By 



R. E. Day, M.A. (London : Longmans, Green, and 



Co., 1876.) 

 Mr. Day's little book on Electrical and Magnetic 

 Measurement seems to us likely to be of considerable 



J Proc. Zoolog. Soa, 1873, p. 492. 



