286 
area, particularly to the south-east, northerly winds ruled, 
and as a consequence temperatures fell below the normal. 
Thus at Algiers during these days temperature was con- 
stantly under the mean, varying from 2°'9 to 675, the 
whole period showing a mean deficiency of 5°0; and 
from the 13th the mean deficiency was 3°°8 at Malta, and 
5°°6 at Constantinople. On the other hand, over the 
north of Europe, which was during this time outside the 
calm anticyclonic centre, and marked with moderate baro- 
metric gradients, westerly and southerly winds prevailed, 
in some cases in considerable force, as on the occasion 
when a storm appeared in the Arctic Sea to the north, 
This region was therefore characterised almost through- 
out ky abnormally high temperatures, the mean excess at 
Haparanda, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, being 
21°9 for the week ending Saturday last. 
Thus, with barometers equally, or all but equally high 
the most diverse temperatures prevailed, the conditions 
determining the temperature in any locality not being the 
height of the barometer but the position of the locality 
with reference to the areas of high and of low pressure 
which prevailed over Europe at the time; or putting the 
result into the simplest words, it was not the height of 
the barometer, but the direction and force of the wind, 
which determined the temperature. 
The highest barometer noted in the Weather Charts 
as having occurred in the British Islands during this 
time was 30°970 inches at 8 a.m. of the 18th at Oxford. 
Higher barometers than this even were recorded in 1808, 
at Gordon Castle, Banffshire, by Mr. James Hoy, he 
having noted 31'007 inches at 9 p.m, of February 24 of 
that year ; and again 31046 inches at 11 p.m. of January 
8, 1820, this last reading being in all probability the 
highest reading yet recorded in these islands. 
MR. MIVART ON THE CAT 
The Cat. An Introduction to the Study of Backboned 
Animals, especially Mammals. By St. George Mivart, 
Ph.D., F.R.S. With 200 Illustrations. (London: 
John Murray, 1881.) 
HE author of the present volume tells us in his 
preface that it “is expressly intended to be an intro- 
duction to the natural history of the whole group of dack- 
boned animals; but the subject has been so treated as to 
fit it also to serve as an introduction to Zoology generally, 
and even to Biology itself.”’ By serving as a guide to 
the structure, as ascertained by dissection, and natural 
history of the cat, it will, it is hoped, “give the earnest 
student of biology the knowledge of anatomy, physiology, 
and kindred sciences which is necessary to enable him to | 
study profitably the whole class” of Mammals, the natural 
history of these generally being, we are told, to be treated 
of in a companion volume. 
After a somewhat careful study of the bulky volume of 
550 pages before us, it is with some regret that we doubt 
if Prof. Mivart’s intentions are likely to be realised, as, 
trying to attain two very desirable ends, it is not evident 
that he has succeeded in either. 
The student of anatomy will, we think, find that much 
of the descriptive part of the present work is too sketchy 
to be of real service as a text-book of Mammalian anatomy, 
and the almost complete absence of references—even to 
NATURE 
~ P f. 
>. moe” 
: eat 
[Fan, 26, 1882 
Strauss-Durckheim’s elaborate “ Anatomie descriptive et 
comparative du Chat,’’ published, with excellent illustra-— 
tions, at Paris so long ago as 1845—also seriously detracts 
from its value in thisrespect. On the other hand, any one 
taking it up with a view to understanding the main prin- — 
ciples and objects of {biological science will, even if he 
succeed in his endeavour, be liable we fear to be disgusted 
by the large amount of “dry” and quite unreadable 
detail contained in it. Nor can we always speak very 
highly of the accuracy and style displayed in the volume 
in question. 
After an introductory chapter, eight chapters are de- 
voted to the consideration of the various organs of the 
cat, the anatomical structure of each system being accom- 
panied by an account of its histology and functions. As 
already indicated, the descriptions of many of the parts 
concerned strike us as rather too brief and wanting in 
preciseness, whilst in some parts that we have tested we 
find considerable omissions. Thus in the account of the 
cranial nerves in Chapter IX. we find no mention of such 
interesting nerves as the vidian and recurrent laryngeal; 
in the myological portion, no account at all is given of the 
important subject of the nerve-supply of the various 
muscles described, which is only indicated later on when 
considering the distribution of the nerves themselves. 
With regard to the histology of the various tissues, it 
would be more satisfactory as convincing the reader that 
it zs the cat, and not some other mammal the structure of 
which is being described, if the illustrations were not so 
frequently taken from the pig or the well-known figures 
of Quain’s Anatomy. 
Chapter X. is devoted to the “ Development of the 
Cat,” and here it would have been still more desirable 
that the author should have stated explicitly how much, 
or how little, of its contents apply to the cat, or at least 
have given references to the authorities for some of his 
statements. The account given seems, as far as we can 
judge, intended to be a résumé of the principal facts 
ascertained as regards the development of J/ammalia 
generally, but if so some of the views put forward are 
rather startling. 
Thus on p. 320 we are told that “ the first indication of 
the embryo is the appearance of a longitudinal depression 
or furrow, termed the medullary groove.’ Fig. 145, to 
which reference is made, pretty clearly shows that what 
is meant is, in reality, the primitive streak (in fact it is 
called, in the explanation, though zo¢ in the description, of 
that figure the “ primitive groove’’)—a structure of quite 
a different order and significance, as surely Prof. Mivart 
must know, from the real medullary groove. The heart 
is said to be formed by ‘“‘ove vessel, tubular and 
rhythmically contractile”; in fact, in Mammals, as in 
Birds, it always arises from ¢wo tubes, which only unite 
subsequently (Cf. Balfour's “Embryology,” vol. ii. pp. 
522, 523). In the account of the development of the 
nervous system the statement made that “the white 
matter of the spinal cord is formed by transformation of 
the cells of the adjacent MESOBLAST’’ (p. 356), is quite 
opposed to all that we know of the development of that 
system in Vertebrates, and we are left to infer that the 
“(mass of the nerves’ are also derived from mesoblast, 
in contradiction to the observation and views of our most 
distinguished embryologists. The account of the deve- 
