NA TURE 



[December 2t, 1898 



endless modifications are in many cases followed back to 

 more primitive conditions. It is scarcely necessary to 

 say that Gegenbaur himself initiated this treatment, 

 culminating in tlie elaborate researches of Fuerbringer 

 and Ruge. 



The grouping of the cranial nerves is also quite new, 

 but any attempt to arrange the cranial and cranio-spinal 

 nerves without reference to their origin in the central 

 ganglionic columns, must needs lead to failure ; and that 

 is the case here. The metamerism of the cranial nerves 

 implies a problem which is not only morphological but 

 essentially physiological, and here was a chance for the 

 morphologist to join hands with his physiological brother, 

 instead of the usual complaint about the abstaining 

 attitude of the latter, and absolutely ignoring his 

 histological and experimental work. 



Whilst discussing the modifications of the visceral 

 arches, concerning the formation and the homologies of 

 the ear ossicles (this vexed question has entered a new 

 phase, far from being at rest), he makes the following 

 remark : " Although none of these cases [certain reptilian 

 modifications] are immediate preparations for the mam- 

 malian condition, they nevertheless appear as attempts 

 towards this new modification." This is by no means the 

 only instance of his speaking of attempts, or preparations, 

 precocious and aborted, anyhow unsuccessful in one group, 

 foreshadowing arrangements in others ; e.g. bipedal gait 

 of Dinosaurs with reference to birds. 



The last 127 pages are devoted to thesenseorgans. After 

 a masterly general introduction follows a most interesting 

 chapter on the organs of 'the " Hautsinn," taste, ear, eye, 

 nose, each with an invertebrate prolegomenon, full of 

 descriptive detail and all turned into a broadly conceived, 

 well composed and carefully finished picture. 



There is no book like this one on comparative anatomy. 

 In broadness of plan, depth of conception, and critical 

 execution it cannot be surpassed. Instead of being a 

 fund of detailed facts, as some of its predecessors, it is a 

 mine of wealth of most suggestive ideas. 



If we have in some respects found fault with the book, 

 the explanation suggests itself that the architect and 

 master-builder has too trustingly taken over his material 

 as sound and flawless from the bricklayers, carpenters, 

 and other helpers. But the partial disappointment may 

 also perhaps be a fault of our own, of those who expected 

 too much from their old master, whom they look up to 

 with a gratitude and reverence bordering on veneration. 



H. Gadow. 



ELEMENTARY QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS. 

 An Introduction to Practical (Jtiantitati'i'e Analysis. 



By H. P. Highton, M.A. Pp. 211. (London: 



Rivingtons, 1898.) 



MR. HIGHTON appears to belong to the growmg 

 class of teachers of chemistry who believe that 

 the practical work of beginners should be of a quantita- 

 tive character. Qualitative analysis may, it is true, he 

 made an excellent drill ; it attracts most young students, 

 and its practice, if it be properly taught, undoubtedly 

 promotes the formation of orderly habits, develops the 

 powers of observation, and encourages the use of the 

 NO. I 52 I, VOL. 59] 



reasoning faculties. But if it be ill taught, few studie» 

 are of less value. 



It has been pointed out again and again that when ihe 

 classes are large and the teachers few, when the avail 

 able time for study is brief, and if the students come 

 unprovided with a fair elementary knowledge of 

 chemistry qualitative analysis is sadly apt to degenerate 

 into the futile pursuit known as test-tubing. More- 

 over, this branch of work does not offer a very good 

 selection of clear and simple illustrations of the funda- 

 mental laws of chemistry ; and it is these, after all, which 

 we especially want to impress upon the minds of those 

 young students who learn chemistry for the sake of its 

 educational eftect, and not, at first, in order to become 

 chemists. 



These and other similar considerations, as we alt 

 know, have led many schoolmasters to postpone quali- 

 tative work to a later stage than that at which it was 

 formerly commenced, especially in schools where it 

 is the practice to turn whole classes of young boys 

 into the laboratory, instead of making them listen to 

 lectures of a more or less formal and didactic character 

 in the lecture-room, according to the older practice. It 

 is natural, therefore, that of late years many attempts 

 should have been made to produce a book suited to the 

 needs of the juniors of to-day, as the "Small Roscoe" 

 and "Little Miller' provided for those of earlier gener- 

 ations, in the times when the number of school labor- 

 atories might have been counted on the fingers of a single 

 hand. .-Xnd although nothing seems yet to have been 

 produced which exactly supplies the existing need, several 

 of the new books have been helpful and suggestive. 



Mr. Highton's little book certainly takes rank with 

 this latter class. It contains eighty-six carefully selected 

 experiments, which have all been performed by boys 

 in the Rugby Laboratory. These eighty-six experi- 

 ments cover a fairly wide field, they are clearly described 

 and illustrated by a number of helpful diagrams, they 

 include several exercises in those parts of physics which 

 are of the most direct importance to students of ele- 

 mentary chemistry, and several of them are quite easy : 

 but their character as a whole suggests that they will be 

 found to be more suitable for the senior boys, than for 

 beginners in the lower forms. For the former they ought 

 undoubtedly to be useful, in spiteof a certain want of sug- 

 gestiveness, in the arrangement of the book, which seems 

 likely to impair the educational value of the course, by 

 leading the student to look upon the experiments as 

 mere bits of manipulative and mental gymnastic, and to 

 overlook their relation to the science as a whole. This 

 is a defect, however, which may be remedied by the 

 teacher, by means of verbal discussions of the results 

 obtained, and by rearranging the order of the experiments 

 to suit his methods of teaching. 



Whether .Mr. Highton's book will soon find a suffi- 

 cient field of usefulness, we cannot say. We hope it 

 may, but we fear it may not ; for, alas I too many 

 teachers are still very much at the mercy of the 

 examiner, and qualitative analysis still rules supreme in 

 many of the leading examinations at which public school 

 boys compete. Doubtless it is very difficult to make 

 fundamental changes in an examination syllabus, and 

 it must be admitted that the E.\amining Boards would 



