2gS 



NATURE 



\yuly 1 8, 1878 



to by the distinguished biologists present. In the evening 

 a pleasant excursion was made into the surrounding 

 country. 



A splendid album had been manufactured at Vienna 

 for presentation to Schwann, containing the photographs 

 of almost all living biologists. Unfortunately it arrived 

 too late to be formally presented at the ceremony. The 

 expense of the bust was defrayed by subscriptions in 

 Belgium, though a few strangers (among them Mr. 

 Darwin) had an opportunity of contributing. 



The whole ceremony was extremely interesting and 

 successful, and we trust the hero of it may still lire many 

 years in which he may have the pleasure of looking back 

 upon his jubilee, and of feeling that his labours have been 

 appreciated by his age. 



A TRANSLATION INTO GERMAN 

 CrundzUi^e der Anatoviie der wirbellosen Thieve. Von 

 Thomas H. Huxley, LL.D., F. R. S. Autorisirte deutsche 

 Ausgabe, von Dr. J. W. Spengel. (Leipzig, 1878.) 



SO far as we know, amongst the many German text- 

 books on anatomy and physiology there is not a single 

 one which is at all carried out on the plan of Huxley's 

 Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals. The 

 great merits of the work appear to us to be, firstly, that it 

 combines up to a certain point the features of a treatise on 

 comparative anatomy and on zoology, and secondly, that 

 by the introduction of a description of a type selected from 

 each group, the learner is both greatly assisted in the prac- 

 tical study of animal morphology and also supplied with 

 certain definite centres round which to group the multitu- 

 dinous facts which he learns in the course of his reading. 

 We flattered ourselves that by the translation of this 

 work into German we should to some extent repay 

 -our Teutonic neighbours for the many text-books we 

 have received from them. Our belief that this work was 

 likely to be appreciated in Germany has, however, been 

 -very rudely dispelled. We learn from the distinguished 

 naturalist who has undertaken the translation, and 

 whose large experience (we believe his name has 

 been before the public for so long a period as two or 

 three years) gives corresponding weight to his opinion that 

 the work is neither a handbook nor a text-book. He 

 informs us in his preface that ''he has decided not to give 

 the work the title of handbook, in order to avoid labelling 

 it with a title which it does not deserve "(um dem Buche 

 nicht einen Anspruch unterzuschieben, den es nicht 

 erheben will). *' It is," he goes on to say, "no handbook 

 in the sense customary with us, and indeed can be re- 

 garded as a text-book (Lehrbuch) only in the sense that 

 it is intended for learners." In fact, on the unimpeach- 

 able authority of Dr. Spengel, Prof. Huxley's Manual of 

 Invertebrata, which has already become the acknowledged 

 handbook in England, is quite unworthy of such a 

 -position. In this country we have been accustomed in our 

 simplemindedness to think that Prof. Huxley possesses a 

 singular talent for exposition, while his reputation amongst 

 us as an anatomist is based on our belief that his know- 

 ledge of anatomical facts is as wide and extensive and 

 as well kept up as his critical judgment is acute, and his 

 treatment of morphological problems broad and original. 

 We have for some time past been under the idea that 



Prof. Huxley has had a good deal to do with the progress 

 of animal morphology during the last twenty or thirty 

 years. But we live to learn, and we feel very grateful 

 that a man of Dr. Spengel' s standing should show us 

 how imperfect and unequal (liickenhaft und ungleich- 

 massig) is Prof. Huxley's treatment of the subject to 

 which he has devoted his life. 



So impressed apparently was Dr. Spengel with the 

 faults of the work which he had obtained permission to 

 translate, that, as he explains in his preface, he asked 

 Prof. Huxley to rewrite the work, in order that the 

 German translation might appear more worthy of the 

 translator's reputation. Singularly enough. Prof. Huxley, 

 with an indifference to the appearance of any translation 

 at all, which must have seemed strange to the trans- 

 lator, declined this modest request. And we gather that 

 he invited Dr. Spengel to modify the earlier chapters 

 (written long ago) in accordance with the views based on 

 later researches, and expounded in the later chapters. 

 The labour involved in such a change was apparently, 

 not congenial to Dr. Spengel, whose energies seem more 

 at home in writing prefatory remarks. 



It is with the illustrations, however, even more than 

 with the text of the original, that Dr. Spengel is of- 

 fended. He expresses the view that the choice of these 

 must have been made on grounds of economy. The 

 larger number are, he says, "derived from the older works 

 of Huxley, and the remainder from the well-known hand- 

 book of Owen (aus dem bekannten Owen'schen Hand- 

 buche), and other sources." We find some difficulty in 

 understanding the translator's preface at this point. 

 We presume that by " the handbook of Owen " he refers 

 to Owen' s " Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy of 

 Invertebrates." We should very much like to know 

 what illustrations are referred to, since, as far as the 

 editions of Owen's lectures obtainable in this country are 

 concerned, none of the figures of that work have been 

 borrowed for Prof. Huxley's Invertebrata. 



The translator informs us that he has thought fit to 

 set aside many of Huxley's figures and to add new ones 

 from well-known sources. He has, moreover, had a con- 

 siderable number of the figures redone. In some of these 

 cases we admit that some improvement has been effected 

 by the alteration of the figures. The two figures copied 

 from Ludwig to illustrate the anatomy of Comatula are 

 excellent, and the substitution of Butschli's figures of 

 Pilidium, for the somewhat erroneous ones of Leuckart 

 and Pagenstecker, effects a decided improvement. In 

 other instances the translator, in his zeal to make the 

 figures clear, appears to have forgotten that it is also 

 desirable to make them true to nature. Thus Fig.''77 does 

 not appear to us to be so true a representation of the 

 appendages of Astacus as the original figure of Huxley, 

 which the translator has set aside ; and in Fig. 80 the 

 heart and vessels of Astacus are very far from being as 

 true to nature as they should be. We think also the 

 translator, in adding new figures, should be careful about 

 the references. In the first two figures he has substituted 

 for those of Huxley— Fig. 9 and 35-37— we find wrong 

 references. On the whole the improvement is not so 

 great as might have been expected. Every one is aware 

 that for years past the illustrations of German scientific 

 works have been far superior to those of English ones. 



