Recent Literature. 43 



%ittxii IfitcratuR. 



Memorial Volume of Garrod's Scientific P'apers.* Garrod's work 

 is apparently not so well known in this country as it must eventually be- 

 come, forming as it does a permanent way-mark in the progress of the 

 science, and contributing indispensable material for the solving of the 

 most vexed problem in ornithology — we mean a sound, rational classi- 

 fication of birds, based on morphological data according to the theory of 

 genetic relationship, and as such one which any 'considerable number of 

 ornithologists can agree to adopt and stand by. As is well understood, 

 those of us who have no classification of our own to advance, fall back 

 upon some convention as make-shift, practically waiving the points at issue. 

 As far as taxonomy is concerned, the present attitude of ornithology is 

 thoroughly iconoclastic ; but, while we agree that much of what has been 

 set up must be upset, few claim to know what ought to replace the broken 

 images, and fewer still agree on that point. There is nevertheless a large 

 amount of material at hand, the soundness and utility of which no one 

 questions ; and of late years Garrod has been both indefatigable and suc- 

 cessful in setting bricks and mortar. Of the anatomical papers in the 

 present volume, some 73 in number, more than half relate to birds, de- 

 scribing conditions of the osseous, muscular, respiratory, vascular, diges- 

 tive and nervous systems which appear to promise most of value in 

 taxonomy, and discussing in candid and scientific spirit, from a vantage- 

 ground of long experience, the bearing of the anatomical points upon 

 classification. Of the accuracy and high rate of reliability of these papers 

 there can be no question ; they are i-ufliciently lucid to shine with their 

 own light, and there is a certain "finish" about them which is truly ad- 

 mirable. This is seen when the author is drawing the comparisons which 

 his extensive knowledge enables him to adduce, and summing his conclu- 

 sions. These are always clean-cut and luminous, so that we know exactly 

 where to find Garrod, whether we like him and agree with him or not. 

 It is scarcely possible that he has been exempt from the all but inevitable 

 tendency of the mind's eye to magnify the particular subjects there 

 focussed for the time, and so get them more or less out of perspective of 

 the whole range of vision ; but he seems to have known and guarded 

 against this most scrupulously, unless, perhaps the " ambiens" muscle 

 proved too much for him. On the whole, we do not think that even the 

 warm praise of the editor, his personal friend and admirer, is too much to 

 say, and we quote with pleasure : 



* In Memoriam. The Collected Scientific Papers of the late Alfred Henry Garrod, 

 M. D., F. R. S., etc. Edited, with a biographical memoir of the author, by W. A. Forbes, 

 B. A., etc. London: R.H.Porter: 6 Tenterden Street. 1881. i vol. 8vo. pp. xxvi, 

 538, pll.33, fiontisp. (portrait), and many cuts in text. 



