March 19, 1903] 



NA TURE 



459 



frequently desirable to make a determination of the 

 total nitrogen in an effluent, if only as a check on the 

 estimation of the nitrogen in its various forms of 

 ammonia, nitrate, &c. We would, therefore, suggest 

 these points for a future edition, which will no doubt 

 shortly be called for. 



Mr. Fowler is to be congratulated on having com- 

 pressed a great deal of valuable information within 

 short compass, and at the same time in a clear and 

 pleasant style. G. M. 



ANOTHER TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 



Lehrbuch der Zoologie. By Dr. Alexander Goette, 

 Professor of Zoology in the University of Strass- 

 burg. Pp. xii + 504; 512 figs. (Leipzig: Engel- 

 mann, 1902.) Price 12s. net. 



WHAT the illustrious and experienced author pro- 

 poses in his preface is a text-book for 

 University students — presumed to be serious — a 

 scientific work, a synthetic presentation of the results 

 of analysis, an evolutionist outlook, an exposition in 

 which structure, function, and relationships are to be 

 considered essentially " als Erfolge einer geschicht- 

 lichen Wandlung." This is a noble ideal of a text- 

 book, and to say that the outcome falls short of it 

 is only to say that Dr. Goette is human — a busy in- 

 vestigator and teacher, with much more urgent tasks 

 than writing text-books. 



The volume begins with a commendably terse intro- 

 duction of twenty-five pages, in which the author dis- 

 cusses with clearness the basis of a genetic classifica- 

 tion ; the concepts of analogy, homology, and homo- 

 plasy (" Homoidie ") ; the essential facts regarding 

 cells and protoplasm ; the progress of modern zoology ; 

 and the evolution theory. He lays emphasis on the 

 intra-organismal causes of the constitutional variations 

 on which natural selection plays the part of the 

 pruning-knife. It is a lucid introduction, but pro- 

 bably too terse and abstract to rivet the attention 

 of the University student, who desires a wealth of 

 concrete illustration and a non-dogmatic mode of 

 argument. In a subsequent chapter, introductory to 

 the Metazoa or Polyplastids, Goette discusses the be- 

 ginnings of " body-forming " and the associated tax 

 of " natural death," the differentiation of tissues and 

 organs, and the nature of sexual reproduction. 



The author's method is to follow the systematic 

 order, and we wish to refer to his classification, which 

 seems ultra-conservative. Thus in the phylum of Mono- 

 plastids or Protozoa, he recognises two classes — the 

 Rhizopods and the Infusorians. The Sporozoa appear 

 as an appendage of the Rhizopods and the Suctoria 

 as an order of Ciliata. We do not find that Goette 

 gives any reasons for this maltreatment. In the 

 next section, which deals with radially symmetrical 

 animals (" Radiata "), the Sponges are discussed 

 in an elementary fashion in four pages, and classified 

 as horny, flinty, and calcareous — again without a 

 hint of phylogenetic relationships; and while the 

 NO. I 742, VOL. 67] 



Cnidaria or Ccelenterates are more fully discussed, 

 divided into Hydrozoa and Scyphozoa (including 

 Ctenophora), we get no picture of the possible evolu- 

 tion of the phylum. We have the same comment to 

 make throughout, that although the treatment of the 

 various classes and subclasses is clear and terse, 

 there is little of that evolutionary discussion of the 

 phyletic affinities which the preface led us to expect. 

 Goette divides bilaterally symmetrical animals into 

 Hypogastrica and Pleurogastrica, the former includ- 

 ing Vermes, Arthropoda and Mollusca, the latter in- 

 cluding Vermiformia. Echinoderma and Chordata. 

 His scheme is as follows : — 



HYrOGASTRICA. 



Pleurogastrica. 



Arthropoda. Mollusca. Chordata. Echinodermata. 



Vermes. 



Vermiformia. 



Spongiae — Radiata — Cnidaria 



Polvplastida 



I 

 MONOPLASTIDA 



In Hypogastrica, the gastrula is elongated in the 

 direction of its transverse axis, and its slit-like blasto- 

 pore (prostoma) lies ventrally, and coincides anteriorly 

 with the formation of the mouth; in Pleurogastrica 

 the gastrula is elongated in the direction of its longi- 

 tudinal axis, and the compressed prostoma usually 

 becomes the anus, the mouth being a new formation 

 anteriorly. 



In the phylum Vermes, the Nemerteans are ranked, 

 without argument, as a third order of Turbellaria ; and 

 the Nematodes are placed as a class beside Annelids 

 in the subphylum Ccelhelminthes, though the cavitv 

 of the nematode body is spoken of distinctly enough 

 as a pseudocoel, not a coelom. Echiurids and Sipun- 

 culids are slumped together as Gephyrea, and the 

 appendix to the Vermes includes (1) Bryozoa, (2) 

 Rotifers, and (3) Brachiopods. 



There is less eccentricity in the treatment of Arthro- 

 pods and Molluscs, which receive a full and yet ad- 

 mirably terse discussion. The Trilobites are ranked 

 as an appendix to Entomostraca, the Eurypterids 

 and King-Crabs as a third subclass of Crustacea. The 

 author's Vermiformia, with which the pleurogastric 

 group of phyla begins, include Chastognatha and 

 Enteropneusta, with Cephalodiscus and Rhabdopleura 

 appended to the latter. After a clear account of the 

 Echinoderma, Prof. Goette passes to chordate 

 animals : he dignifies Ascidiae, Appendicularias and 

 Salpae as separate classes of the subphylum Tuni- 

 cata; the Lancelets represent the second subphylum, 

 and Vertebrata the third. Cyclostomes are ranked 

 as a class of Pisces, but distinguished sharply from 



