Bihliographical Notices. 501 



the enormous amount of original work now being done in science, 

 it may seem a heresy to assert that the days of learning for learning's 

 sake are over. Such is nevertheless the melancholy fact, the result 

 of the modern struggle for existence and competitive examina- 

 tions. For the vast majority of mankind education has become 

 simply a means to an end, Avhich is bread-and-butter. Were it not 

 so we should be inclined to consider these schedules superfluous, 

 and to hold it far better for the student that he should be able to 

 tabulate his knowledge for himself. As it is, any labour-saving 

 appliance, anything which renders the passing of examinations 

 easier, is for the good of the student, and for the sake of the student 

 we welcome this book. 



The book consists of some two hundred and thirty pages, blank 

 leaves included, though not numbered. As they are intended to be 

 used, it would have been far better if they had been. The first ten 

 pages are devoted to the Protozoa. We then come to a genealogical 

 tree, intended to exhibit the probable phylogenetic connexion of the 

 various classes of the Metazoa. This shows most of the orders usually 

 included under the comprehensive title " Vennes," distributed along 

 the various branches ; while in the centre we find the word " Vermes" 

 printed in large type and apparently springing from nowhere, though 

 the Chordata are shown as springing from it. The result is somewhat 

 confusing. On the next page we have a table likely to be of greater 

 value to the student, as it exhibits the chief typical differences in 

 the reproductive, blood-vascular, nervous, and other systems of the 

 Metazoan phyla. Another very useful table exhibits the chief facts 

 in the life-histories of the most important parasitic Trematodes and 

 Cestodes and other parasitic Worms. With the exception of the 

 last ten pages the rest of the book is devoted to classificatory 

 schedules, giving brief definitions of the phyla, classes, and orders, 

 illustrated with the names of and notes on the more interesting 

 and typical genera and species. We believe that the experience of 

 college tutors and others has shown that schedules such as these are 

 of much use to candidates for honours in natural science ; and these 

 schedules appear to us to be well done. Certain minor inaccuracies, 

 however, have caught our eye. For instance, since the nephridia of 

 Eotifera commence with flame-cells, it is wrong to speak of the 

 excretory tubes as " opening into an archicoelic body-cavity." 

 Again, the female gnat does not " sting ; " we might as well apply 

 the term to the cobra. Since the test of the Ascidian, one genus 

 excepted, is chiefly cellulose, it is not enough to define it as of a 

 " gelatinous or cartilaginous nature." In the Reptilia-schedule, 

 besides stating that Hatteria has "• biconcave vertebrae and no copu- 

 latory organs," mention might have been made of the ossification of 

 the quadrato-jugal cartilage, seeing that it is a feature found in no 

 other recent lizard. To speak of Coronella austriaca, the English 

 smooth snake, as the " smooth viper,'' is misleading, to say the least 

 of it. The last ten pages of the book are devoted to some Notes on 

 Distribution and a table showing the " Geological Range of the 

 chief Animal Groups." In the latter ^Mr. Davis has attempted to do 



