NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 159 
Elementary Text-Book of Zoology. Vol. Il. Special Part: 
Mollusca to Man. By Dr. C. Cuaus; Translated and 
Edited by A. Sepa@wicx, M.A. Sonnenschein & Co. 1885. 
In noticing the appearance of the second volume of Mr. 
Sedgwick’s edition of Prof. Claus’ Text-book we cannot, we regret 
to say, speak in the terms of unqualified admiration which we 
were able to use of the first volume (cf. Zool. 1884, p. 494). 
To put the matter summarily, we would say that it would have 
been just as well if the part relating to the Vertebrata had never 
been translated at all. This will seem to be a severe judgment, 
but we think we can justify it, even if we cannot place it beyond 
the range of criticism. 
Firstly, Prof. Claus adopts systems of classification which 
everybody knows to be based on false views of facts, and when we 
say everybody we include the author himself; for example, he 
makes the Leptocardu, of which Amphioxus is the type, the 
Cyclostomi, of which the Lamprey is the type, orders of the 
group Pisces, equivalent in value to the Selachi or Teleostev. 
The author justifies this course on the ground that it is more 
convenient “to preserve the unity of the class Pisces”; but a 
class in which you have forms with brains and without, with and 
without lower jaws, is about as compact a class as Mr. Gladstone 
used to think the Turkish Empire was in 1876. The truth of 
the matter is that the class Pisces is most definite and distinct 
the moment you take away the cephalo-chordate Amphioxus and 
the round-mouthed Lamprey, or, in the words of Lord Beacons- 
field, “‘consolidate” it. So, again, the division of the Mammalia 
into Aplacentalia and Placentalia requires to-day only to be 
mentioned to be condemned. Prof. Claus might answer, if one 
said that it was a little late in the day to reproduce with but 
one modification the old Cuvierian classification of Birds, that 
ornithologists are unable to come to any agreement among 
themselves; this would not be a very dignified kind of answer, 
and at any rate it would only be a part of the truth, for all 
ornithologists are, for example, satisfied that Swallows and Swifts 
are not to be placed next to one another even in a linear classifi- 
cation. And, lastly, there are not only more modern, but more 
satisfactory classifications of the human race, than that of 
Blumenbach. , 
