242 



NA TURE 



{Jan. 14, 1 886 



This aspect of the matter is treated of ia the original 

 preface, but we regret to see that it has been o.iiatel from 

 tire EngHsh version. This is an injury to the book from 

 the point of view of science, and an injustice to the 

 reader, who would value the opinion of so careful an 

 observer as M. Henry Vilmorin. It must suffice here to 

 say that although he recognises the " unstable and per- 

 petually changing characters " of plants, especially when 

 submitted to cultivation, this variation, vast as it is, 

 does not, in his opinion, affect either the number or 

 the position of "legitimate species." W, Vilmorin's 

 natural qualifications and his exceptional opportunities, 

 of course, entitle him to be heard with very great respect, 

 but we suspect most Englisli botanists and cultivators 

 would arrive at dili'erent conclusions from the same 

 premises. 



Of the value of this book to practical men it is not 

 necessary to speak here : it is because it offers so valuable 

 a storehouse of carefully observed facts of value to the 

 biologist that we have alluded at such length to a volume 

 which might at first be thought to be of interest to 

 gardeners only, but which, we may repeat, is eminently 

 worthy the attention of all those interested in the vast 

 questions connected with variation and inheritance. 



There are many points on which we should have liked 

 to have commented, but the exigencies of space forbid. 

 We have only to add that the translation has been well 

 done by l\Ir. W. Miller, that some practical details have 

 been added to adapt the book for English use, and that a 

 very copious index is provided. 



MA.XWELL T. JVlASTERS 



PROFESSOR MARSHALL ON THE FROG 

 The Froo ; all Introduction to Anatomy and Histology. 

 By Prof. A. Milnes Marshall, M.D., D.Sc, M.A., 

 F.R.S., Beyer Professor of Zoology in Owens College 

 Manchester. Second Edition. (Manchester : J. E. 

 Cornish, 1835.) 



THE teaching of biological science never received a 

 greater impetus than that which took its origin in 

 the establishment, fourteen years ago, of the laboratory at 

 South Kensington, now associated with the Normal 

 School of Science and Royal School of Mines ; and the 

 publication, some three years later, in connection there- 

 with, of Huxley and Martin's " Elementary Biology,'' 

 marks an epoch no less definite or important. The large 

 number of teaching laboratories which have since been 

 foiuided, wherever the English tongue is spoken and even 

 on the Continent, have almost without exception been 

 modelled directly or indirectly upon the Kensington plan. 

 Practical directions for working have been issued in con- 

 nection with most of them, compiled along the lines of 

 Huxley and Martin, but specially adapted to the require- 

 ments of the individual schools. Of these, most are still 

 alone used in the dissecting rooms for which they were 

 written ; some few have, however, been published sepa- 

 rately, the volume before us being one of their number. 



The author's name is a guarantee of the thoroughness 

 of the work, and he has done well in taking such a 

 prototype for a guide. We read in the preface that the 

 book is a first instalment, to be followed by a second 

 dealing with " types of the principal zoological groups ; " 



as tl:e ultimate success of the project will depend upon 

 the selection of these types, and especially upon the 

 evenness of balance maintained in dealing with them, 

 we reserve full criticism until t'lc completed work is 

 before us. 



The present edition is mainly noteworthy for the intro- 

 duction of illustrations — fifteen in number. The original 

 ones are for the most part somewhat rough, though accu- 

 rate in detail, and they have the merit of representing the 

 structures as they will meet the eye of the student. Fig. 

 10, however, would bear recutting, for if the bones are 

 '■ represented black " why not the columella-auris ; and 

 continuity should certainly be shown between the brain 

 and very sketchy labyrinth. The maxillo-palatine com- 

 missure — described (p. 84) in its proper place — should 

 also find a representative in Fig. 13, and in connection 

 with the renal-portal vein of Fig. 4 afferent renal 

 branches might bo advantageously introduced. The 

 relation of the mesentery to the kidneys in Fig. 2 also 

 needs looking into. 



The text bears the mark of a writer in full sympathy 

 with the difficulties which beset a beginner ; more im- 

 portance might, however, well be given to a consideration 

 of those matters of symmetry, locality, and general utility, 

 which must be mastered before studying anatomy proper. 

 The customary restrictions put upon at least the terms 

 anterior, posterior, lateral, should be clearly set down in 

 addition to those given on p. 13 and elsewhere, and the 

 positions of the organs sliould be described accordingly. 

 If this were so, the description of the liver given on p. 17 

 would, for example, be more accurately rendered than 

 it is. 



It would facilitate the demonstration of the bile ducts 

 in so small an animal, if the student were directed to 

 simply squeeze the gall-bladder after having opened up 

 the intestine, instead of risking the insertion of a destruc- 

 tive bristle as advised on p. 20. 



A special feature has been made of the histological 

 section of the work, but, granting its thoroughness, 

 we would fain see some of the frog's tissues retained 

 for those supplemented from other animals, especially 

 in the case of bone, where so highly instructive 

 an example as that of the long bone is to hand. 

 In describing the nerve fibre the nodes of Schmidt 

 have been overlooked, but here our author is not alone ; 

 considering the years that have elapsed since their dis- 

 covery, it is strange that they should only recently have 

 found mention in our English text-books. Reflecting on 

 the doubtful nature of the so-called non-medullated nerve- 

 fibres, it is a pity that the ultimate ramifications of a 

 meduUated fibre in so out-of-the-way a place as the 

 cornea should be made (p. 89) to do duty for them. 



The book is neatly and carefully got up, but a future 

 edition should not be published without an index. The 

 description of the mesentery in relation (p. 18) to the 

 alimentary canal, and those of the attachments of the 

 corpus adiposum and testes (p. 17) might well be much 

 modified ; and the like is true of the statement that the 

 skeleton gives (p. 45) " precision to the movements " of 

 the body. The heading (p. 48), " peculiar vertebrae," is 

 bad, and olfactory sacs reads on p. 49 " olfactory nerves," 

 in error. A somewhat remarkable typographical error is 

 the " mpanic cavity " of p. 98. 



