778 Bihliograph ical Notice, 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



The Life of Crustacea. By W. T. Calman, D.Sc. With 32 Plates 

 and 85 Figures. London : Methuen & Co. 



If we may judge by the appalling annual output of hooka on 

 "Popular" Natural History, the thirst for information, on the 

 subject of animal life especially, must be insatiable. This apparent 

 demand for more, and yet more, books of the kind is probably born 

 of unsatisfied desire, for there can be no question but that the 

 bulk of the volumes which flood the market are. worthless, or 

 worse than worthless, being the product of mere compilers, few of 

 whom have even an elementary first-hand knowledge of the themes 

 on which they write. That the remedy for this unfortunate state 

 of affairs is in the hands of the trained zoologists may be true 

 enough, but most of those so qualified are men to whom leisure 

 is unknown and whose literary efforts are absorbed in preparing 

 essays of a highly technical character. As a consequence, even 

 when so minded, such men commonly prove but indifferent expositors 

 when they address themselves to the layman. That Dr. Caiman 

 is a happy exception to the rule is found by his volume on the 

 ' Life of the Crustacea,' which is a model of what such a book 

 should be ; and his success is all the more to be applauded 

 because the Crustacea appeal probably more to the palate than to 

 the sentiments of the layman. To him the toothsome lobster, 

 the crayfish, the crab, and the shrimp are not " Crustacea " but 

 "shellfish," and to him the only other "shellfish" are oysters 

 and the like ! But even to those who are by no means unfamiliar 

 with the " Crustacea '" Dr. Caiman's book will prove hardly less of 

 a revelation, for he has contrived to crowd these most seductive 

 pages with facts that are to be found elsewhere only in learned 

 treatises and clothed in unfamiliar language. 



In a small octavo volume of less than 300 pages it is obvious 

 that Dr. Caiman has had to exercise no little care and ingenuity 

 in the selection of his material ; and a very cursory glance through 

 his pages will sufiice to show that in that selection he has displayed 

 a singularly discriminating judgment, for he seems to hit upon just 

 that aspect of his subject wliich is bound to interest his readers. 



It is difficult in the case of a volume where the standard of 

 excellence is so high to single out any particular chapter as being 

 one of more interest than another, and still more difficult to select 

 particular facts from any particular chapter as especially deserving 

 of comment. Any such selection must always be determined by 

 the leanings of the critic. Let it suffice, then, to say of this volume 

 that its aim is to set forth the salient features in the life-history of 

 the Crustacea, and that therefore purely morphological facts are 



