Apri. 8, 1897 | 
NATURE 
539 
division ; and, also, laboratories for pharmaceutical 
purposes and agricultural chemistry. 
From this sketch it will be gathered that the courses of | 
instruction are not only well provided for as regards 
laboratory equipment, but are thoroughly suited to the 
requirements of the students in every subject included in 
the syllabus. 
SCIAGRAPHS OF BRITISH BATRACHIANS 
AND REPTILES. 
Os May 5 last, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., reading 
"a paper before the Zoological Society of London, on 
“Some little-known Batrachians from the Caucasus,” 
Fic. r. 
announced (cf P.Z.S., 1896, p. 552) the first outcome of 
the application of the Réntgen rays to herpetological 
investigation, having by their aid settled the systematic 
position of a unique batrachian without injury to the 
specimen. The event aroused in the minds of Messrs. 
Green and Gardiner a determination to repeat the experi- 
ment on a larger scale, with the result now before us— 
viz. a series of sciagraphs of all the British Batrachians 
and Reptiles, including the rare Smooth Snake (Coronella 
austvtaca). © 
Two or three of the plates are indefinite, perhaps as 
1“ Sciagraphs of British Batrachians and Reptiles.” Thirteen plates 
mounted, with portfolio. By J. Green and J. H. Gardiner. (Wallington, 
Surrey, 1897.) With an introduction by G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. 
NO. 1432, VOL. 55] 
the result of light printing, but the majority, for clearness 
and sharpness of definition, mark a very considerable 
advance upon anything of the kind yet published, and 
enable us the better to judge of the possibilities of the 
method as an aid to zoological and anatomical study. 
The plate of the Crested Newt (Fig. 1), which we repro- 
duce, is especially noteworthy in this respect, and for the 
clearness with which the ossific nuclei of the carpus 
and tarsus are recorded. In the case of bones which, 
like these, are well isolated, and of those which are 
rod-like and dense, the method leaves little to be 
desired for purposes of general study and orientatior. 
of parts. Where thin flat bones exist, however, detail 
Is not recorded; and as concerning the cranium, to 
which this remark especially applies, the appearances 
Fic. 2. 
presented by some of the plates suggest delimitation 
of brain structure rather than anything that is osteo- 
logical. Be this as it may, it is important to observe 
that marked indications of the soft parts occur in some 
of the prints—most conspicuously in the case of the 
large intestine, especially when fully laden with egesta 
largely composed of the elytra of beetles ingested as food. 
The area of overlap of the segments of the limbs and of 
not a few of the individual limb muscles is also rendered 
evident. ; 
Detail is greatest in the figure ot the Natterjack Toad, 
which we also reproduce (Fig. 2). Its lungs (like those of 
the frog of which a sciagraph by Messrs. Reid and Kucnen 
