136 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[June 1, 1900. 



inclined to think those later sections might be improved by a little 

 condensation, if not rearrangement. Once more, the subject of 

 thunder-storms ;ind atmospheric electricity is hardly touched upon. 

 Having said this much in criticism, we heartily commend the work 

 as one likely to be of real service to the school teacher and others. 

 The " get up " of the book is e.xcellent. There is an appendix con- 

 taining suggestions to the teacher, and another on the equipment 

 of a meteorological laboratory. 



'' Animal Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution for the jear ending June 3(llh, 1897." Report of the 

 United States National Museum. Part I. (Washington Governnient 

 Printing Olfice.) This report consists of two piirts, the first being 

 the report of the acting assistant-secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution in charge of the Xational Museum, the second emliracing 

 papers describing and illustrating collections in the museum. The 

 report forms a lunidsonie volume of over a thousand pages, with 

 upwards of five hundred illustrations. It is distributed gi'utuitously 

 with lavish munificence, as many as ten tlunisand copies being in this 

 way disjioeed of. If, in face of facts like these, it is permissible to 

 offer a kindly criticism, we should like to suggest that the world has 

 been reminded by the gi'catest of ethical authorities tliat the heathen 

 will not be heard by reason of their much speaking. It is similarly 

 possible to write too voluminously, and there is, we think, a dis- 

 position on the part of our American contemporaries to suppose that 

 the imjiortance of a publication is magnified by increasing its lengtli, 

 rather than concentrating its contents. But there can be no question 

 of the value and importance of tliis latest addition to a wholly valuable 

 series. The descriptive catalogue of recent foraminifera wliieli Dr. 

 Flint lias conipiled, with the eiglity beautiful plates accompanying tlie 

 monograph, will prove a mine of wealth for students of this interesting 

 branch of tlic protozoa. The account of tlie pipes and smoking customs 

 of the American aborigines, based upon the material in the I'nited States 

 National Museum, which Mr. Joseph D. McG-uire contributes, runs to 

 nearly three hundred pages, and being provided with well over two 

 hundred pictures, exhausts, we should suppose, nearly evcr\ tiling that 

 can be said on the subject. Mr. Wert Tassin writes in a similarly ex- 

 haustive manner on the " Properties and Classification of Minerals." 

 Mr. George II. Cooke deals with " Easter Island," aiul Dr. Otis Tufton 

 Mason with the man's knife among the North American Indians. 

 The remaining part of the volume is occupi<'d with an account of the 

 arn>w points, spear-heads, and knives of prehistoric times, by Dr. 

 Thomas Wilson. A mere statement of the contents of the volume 

 indicati'S the wide range of subjects comprised, but to impart anything 

 like an ailcquate conception of the sumptuous character of the 

 feast which is here set before the reader is quite impossible in a short 

 review. We can only hope it will be possible fur students to examine 

 the volume itself in one of our national libraries, since it is only in 

 this way that an ap]ireciation of how things are done in America is 

 possible. 



"Practical Zoologv." An Elementary Course of Practical 

 Zoology. By the late T. J. Parker and W. N. Parker. Mac- 

 millan's ilanuals for Students. London. 1900. Price 10s. 6d. It 

 is sometimes made a reproach to the zoological workers of the 

 present day that they deal too much with " outside zoology " ; but 

 the publication of a volume like the present does much to remove 

 this reproach, at least so far as a .selected series of typical animals are 

 concerned. The work before us is indeed essentially of the " section- 

 cutting " type ; and puts before the student in a lucid manner the 

 mechanical construction of rejiresentatives of the leading groups of 

 animals, together with the functions of the different organs de- 

 scribed. The work is to some extent an exjiansion of the plan 

 followed in the second half of the late Prof. Rolleston's " Forms of 

 Animals," but gives a much greater preponderance to the Verte- 

 brates as compared with the Invertebrates. Since, however, tlie book 

 is intended for medical students (among otliers) the large amount 

 of space devoted to the foimer group is an advantage rather than 

 otherwise; and in any case, as the authors themselves state, a 

 cfimparative study of tlie several types of Vertebrates forms as good 

 a training for beginners as can be desired. Whether, however, the 

 title chosen for the work is altogether a happy one, may be an open 

 question. In our own opinion the term " practical zoology " is at 

 least as applicable to the description of the external forms of 

 animals, and the observations of their habits in the field (the true 

 work of the naturalisti, as it is to section-cutting in the labora- 

 tory ; and " Practical Anatomy " would better have expressed the 

 nature of the subject of the present work. Commencing with a 

 general sketch of the scope of biology, the authors take the frog 

 as an example from which to illustrate the structure of animals in 

 general. After treating its anatomy in great detail, they then take 

 a series of animal types to illustrate the gradual progression from 

 the simjile to the complex, beginning with the Amoeba, and ending 

 with the rabbit. After describing the Monads and Bacteria in one 

 chapter, and the Rotifers and their allies in a second, the Messrs. 

 Parker follow on with Hydra as an example of the Ccelenterata ; 



while the earth-worm does duty for the Annulata, the cray-fish 

 for the Arthropods, and the pond-mussel for the MoUuscs ; the 

 lancelet, the dog-fish, and the rabbit (in addition to the frog) 

 serving as illustrations for the Vertebrates. A better selection 

 could not have been made ; and the extensive experience of both 

 authors in teaching has enabled them to bring into prominence just 

 those points on which the attention of the students should be con- 

 centrated. And as the descriptions of the dissections are (with the 

 help of the illustrations) admirably adapted for their purpose, the 

 book should command a large circulation among the zoological 

 students of our science schools. 



" The Standard Intermediate School Dictionary of the English 

 Language." By .faiiics C. Feriiald. (Funk and Wagnalls Co.) Tins 

 nicely jirinted si'liool ilictionary, witli its 8l»0 pii-torial illustrations, is 

 an abridgiMcnt of Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary. It gives 

 the orthography, pronunciatioii, meaning, and etymology of about 

 38,0tHJ words and jihrases which are common in the language and 

 literature of Englisli-speaking people. It is already widely used in 

 the schools of America, where it was first published. There are, 

 however, already so many good school dictionaries in this country that 

 we suspect tliat it is not likely to attain a great jiopularity with our 

 schoolmasters. A want of precision is exhibited in the meanings 

 assigned to certain scientific terms we have looked up, e.g., " asteroid" 

 is defined as " one of a group of small bodies between Mars and 

 Jupiter," but, as children in secondary schools are more familiar with 

 Roman deities than with the planets, the vagueness of the explanation 

 is likely to cause confusion. Or, again, " basalt " is said to be " an 

 igneous rock of a dark colour and often of columnar structure," but 

 the .same thing is more or less true of igneous rocks which no one 

 would call basalts. 



" The Makers of Modern Prose : a popular Handbook to the 

 greater Prose writers of the Century." By W. G. Dawson. (Hodder 

 & Stoughton.) 6s. This is the second volume of Mr. Dawson'.s 

 projected series on the makers of modern English, and it forms in 

 the main an acute and discerning appreciation of some of the 

 makers of modern prose, beginning M'ith Johnson and concluding 

 with F. W. Robertson. The writer appears to have included Froude 

 in his selection for no other reiison than to exhibit that unhajqiy 

 writer as an example to be avoided. He sliould have been more 

 ajipropriately included in the last volume of the work, which is to 

 deal with the makers of modern fiction. 



" The Natural History of Echinoderms." A Treatise on Zoology. 

 Edited by E. R. Lankester. Part III. The Echinoderma. By 

 F. A. Bather, assisted by J. W. Gregory and E. S. Goodrich. 

 (London : A. & C. Black.) 1900. Cambridge having started a 

 " Natural Histoiy " of its own, the sister University has deemed it 

 advisable to enter the same field with a work bearing the more 

 liretentio'is title of a " Treatise on Zoology," or as the editor would 

 ajiparently prefer to call it, a " Treatise on Animal Mori)hography." 

 The Cambridge series is written on somewhat pojiular lines, while 

 the present one, as is stated in the editorial preface, is addressed 

 to the serious student of zoology. And there can be no question 

 but that the authors of the present volume, which is the first of the 

 series to ajjpear, have treated their subject m a very serious manner 

 indeed. No one but the student who desires to master a very 

 technical subject in all its details is at all likely to be tempted 

 to dip into the pages of the volume before us. For the advanced 

 student of the palaeontology and morphology of the Echinoderms 

 (that is to say, sea-urchins, star-fishes, sea-cucumbers, stone-lilies, 

 and their extinct allies) the work seems, however, to be all that 

 can be desired, and will doubtless long remain the standard treatise 

 on the subject. For a " Treatise on Zoology " the present volume 

 is remarkable for the large amount of palaeontology it contains ; 

 no less tlian 169 out of a total of 332 pages being devoted to groups 

 which are for the most part entirely extinct. In the case of a 

 group like the Echinodennata (as we prefer to call it) such a treat- 

 ment was inevitable if the subject was to be made anything like 

 complete ; and this bold disregard of pojiular ])rejudices affords 

 testimony, if such were required, of the Editor's comprehensive 

 view of the meaning of " zoology." The Echinoderms have 

 indeed suffered almost more severely at the hands of time than any 

 other group of animals that is still strongly represented at the 

 present day ; and no proper understanding of the existing represen- 

 tatives of the group can bie gained without an intimate acquaintance 

 with the liard anatomy of their fossil predecessors. As we learn 

 from the preface, the series of works is to be written, so far as 

 jiractieable, by graduates of Oxford ; and it is a fortunate circum- 

 stance that, while possessing this qualification, Mr. F. A. Bather, 

 in this country at least, is facile princeps in his knowledge of the 

 extinct classes of the Echinoderms. The portion of the work dealing 

 with the Cystids, Blastoids, Crinoids, etc., has accordingly been 

 assigned to him ; wliile he has also written the chapter on 

 Holothurians. On the other hand Dr. J. W. Gregory is responsible 

 for the account of the Star-fishes, Brittle-Stars, and Sea-urchins. A 

 feature of the voliune is the number and beauty of the illustrations, 



