•'^08 Bibliographical Notices. 



tlie custom, in other catalogues of the kind, to give figures of anato- 

 mical characters used as a basis of chissification in the volume; but 

 no such aids are included in Mr. Boulenger's present volume — a fact 

 ■which is surely to be regretted. 



The figures which adorn these pages have for the most part 

 appeared already in Mr. Boulenger's ' Materiaux pour la Fauna du 

 Congo,' wherein they appeared in the form of lithogra])hs, and very 

 beautiful examples of their kind. But it is impossible to reproduce 

 such illustrations successfully by photography, and the attempt to 

 achieve this in the volume now before us it must be admitted fails 

 completely. 



A Treatise on Zoolor/y. Edited by Sir Rat Lankestee, K.C.B., 

 M.D., LL.D.. F.i{".S.— Part IX. Vertehrata Craninta (First 

 Fascicle : Cydostomes and Fishes). By E. S. Goodkich, M.A., 

 F.R.S. London : Adam and Charles Black. 1909. 



This scholarly work is making a most gratifying progress, and the 

 present volume most unquestionably maintains tlie high and dignified 

 standard which the earlier volumes led us to expect. Mr. Goodrich 

 has long since earned the reputation of one of the ablest morpholo- 

 . gists in this country, and his work in these pages in every way 

 sustains this reputation. He has given us the last word on the 

 anatomy of the Cydostomes and Fishes, for he has not only brought 

 together all that has been done by other workers, but he has added 

 much thereto of his own. On every page we find proof of laborious 

 research and a singularly well-balanced judgment as to what is 

 essential. It is a book for the advanced student, highly technical, 

 much condensed, but throughout clear and to the point. It forms, 

 in short, a solid, well-planned foundation on which to base the 

 remaining volumes on the Vertebrates. 



He traces, in lucid fashion, the evolution both of the eso- and 

 endoskeleton, and the relation thereto of the segmentation of the 

 body — themes which are singularly difficult to handle, and are 

 rarely successfully carried through when attempted. In no other 

 work of the kind will there be found so clear or so thorough an 

 account of the genital ducts or of the vascular and nervous 

 systems, while his treatment of the paired and median fins and of 

 the cranial and axial skeleton is most admirable. 



Here and there, perhaps, there is room for criticism. Thus it 

 seems to us that the classification is rather over-elaborate, while we 

 notice one or two omissions. Thus we have failed to find any 

 account of the quite remarkable vertebrse of the sword-fishes, or of 

 the annual increments of scale-growth or of scale-ecdysis ; and we 

 venture to think that larval forms might well have received more 

 attention than has been given them. These, however, are not very 

 serious omissions, and may even have been deliberate on the part of 

 the author. 



It is a work, in short, which will long remain the standard of its 

 kind. 



