NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 495 



and it is much more fully illustrated than that of Professor 

 Gegenbaur. 



We would lay especial weight on the illustrations of this work 

 for two I'easons ; first, because correct figures are of enormous 

 assistance to the student, — we need not quote the well-worn 

 Horatian axiom, but all teachers know that good figures do sink 

 into men's minds, and leave an impress far beyond that of the most 

 lucid explanations of the best teachers ; and secondly, because 

 the text-books of Prof. Glaus best known to zoologists are without 

 illustrations : the subject of this translation was published last 

 year, and is of somewhat smaller size than the well-known 

 ' Grundziige der Zoologie,' which reached its fourth edition two 

 or three years ago. With regard to the work just mentioned, we 

 may say that it is within our knowledge that serious proposals 

 were made some seven years ago in Oxford as to its translation 

 into English, and that, only a little later, the same idea was 

 mooted in London ; and we may say, further, that one of the 

 chief reasons which led to the dropping of these proposals was 

 the fact that the work was without illustrations. 



We do not know what kind of representations, if indeed any, 

 were made to Dr. Claus with regard to the preparation of a well- 

 illustrated work; but we must say that, proposals or no proposals, 

 the volume before us contains as rich a supply of well-drawn, 

 well-engraved, and well-selected figures as ever man could desire. 

 The volume is admirably printed, and the whole enterprise reflects 

 the greatest credit on the publishers. 



The translation runs very smoothly, and is such that it will 

 be read with ease and i^leasure. That there are numerous faults 

 in the style we cannot deny, but these are for the most part those 

 of the author, and not of the translator. Indeed, if we use the 

 term style in the correct French sense, there is no style in the 

 book at all ; literary execution has been sacrificed to carefulness 

 of statement— that is much truly in a scientific text-book ; but 

 there is something to be said on the other side. Anatomical and 

 zoological works do want a little salt of good literary taste, and 

 the student of Prof. Huxley's anatomical— or of Prof. Foster's 

 physiological — text-books will have our sympathy, at any rate, 

 when he laments the absence from this book of the charm of 

 attraction that well-balanced sentences and well-constructed 

 paragraphs always have. 



