604 
that it is “highly probable that the coelom was origin- 
ally a series of segmental diverticula derived from inflec- 
tions of the hypoblast,” while no attempt at all is made 
to discuss the difficult question of the significance of 
germinal layers. The chapter on the placenta might 
perhaps have passed muster ten or fifteen years ago. 
The epiblastic origin of the pronephric duct is treated 
as an established fact, and the vertebrate kidney tubule 
compared to the nephridium of the annelids. 
The writer appears to have quite misunderstood the 
results of recent work on the segmentation of the verte- 
brate head. On p. 221, for example, it is said that the 
motor nerve of the fourth cranial segment, comparable, 
therefore, to the nerves which supply the muscles of the 
eyeball, is the seventh, and the chorda tympani its 
sensory root ; while'the last-mentioned is spoken of here, 
and in the diagram on p. 35, as pre-spiracular in position, 
a statement which, however true it may be for some 
reptiles, is certainly at variance with Broman’s careful 
account ofits development in the human embryo. 
Again, it would be gathered from the wording on 
p- 238 that the interventricular septum in Sauropsida is 
homologous with the similar structure in the mammals ; 
and in chapter xiv. the author has been completely led 
away by a very dubious theory, to say the least, of the 
origin of the rods and cones of the retina. 
Minor inaccuracies are the ascription of only one 
dentition to the marsupials (p. 67), the omission of any 
reference to the possible paired origin of the pineal eye, 
or to the paraphysis, the derivation of the Eustachian 
valve from the right valvula venosa alone, and the state- 
ment that in fishes the “ mesial element ” of the diaphragm 
is alone developed. 
Such work as this can hardly be taken as a serious 
contribution towards the solution of those problems 
which beset the vertebrate embryologist, and it would 
have been wiser for Dr. Keith, who appears to intend 
his book preeminently as a vade mecum in the hospital 
wards, to have resisted the temptation to deal with 
questions which are beyond the scope and cannot be 
answered by the methods of mere surgical anatomy. 
Still, as a practical handbook we hope that this treatise 
may be a success, especially when, in a future edition, 
certain orthographical slips—‘ epiphyseal,” “fasiculi,” 
“‘anastomatic,” “systematic” (for “ systemic”), “em- 
bryoes,” “ Turicee” (for “ Turcica”), “hypopophysis ”— 
are duly amended. 
AN EDUCATIONAL COMPARISON. 
The Making of Citizens. A Study of Comparative 
Education. By R. E. Hughes, M.A., B.Sc. Pp. viii + 
4o5. (London and Newcastle: The Walter Scott 
Publishing Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price 6s. 
ilar educationist anxious to keep pace with all that 
has been written on the very wide subject with 
which he is concerned has had an almost impossible task 
during recent years. The annual reports of the Com- 
missioner of Education, Washington, are so bulky—the 
last, that for 1899-1900, runs to 2348 pages—and the 
special reports of our own Board of Education are 
NO. 1720, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[OcTOBER 16, 1902 
published so frequently, that one is tempted to give up 
in despair the effort to master their contents. In addition 
to these official publications there are the books written 
by private persons who have studied foreign methods 
of education on the spot. Mr. Hughes has, in the book 
before us, endeavoured to meet this difficulty, and to pro 
vide students with “a complete and accurate account of 
the present position of education in the four principa 
countries of the world,” by which he means England, 
France, Germany and the United States of America. 
In the compilation of the volume, free use has been made 
of the official reports mentioned, and numerous quota- 
tions from many writers show that the author has a good 
knowledge of recent educational literature. 
The plan of the book is very simple. After some 
preliminary pages, separate chapters are devoted to the 
primary school systems of each of the countries under 
comparison ; after this a general view of the working of 
primary schools is followed by an account of higher 
elementary schools. The secondary schools of the four 
countries are allotted a chapter each, and the book is 
completed by a 7éswmé of the provisions made for the 
education of girls and for the training of defective 
children. 
With the wealth of material he had from which to 
select, it was not to be expected that Mr. Hughes would 
please everybody ; naturally the same subjects do not » 
appear of equal importance to all authorities. For in- 
stance, in our opinion too little attention is paid to the 
question of the science teaching in the schools de- 
scribed. The prominence given both in England and 
America to the need for rational methods in the teach- 
ing of science, and to the desirability of the inclusion 
of some instruction in the methods of science in 
schools of every grade, is scarcely mentioned by Mr. 
Hughes. We are told that the science side and 
master of the best English secondary schools are only 
tolerated (p. 307), and that chemistry is the favourite and 
first science taken up (p. 320), though it does not seem to 
be mentioned that this preference for chemistry as the 
initial science study is less marked year by year. It is 
pointed out that the German teacher relies upon the 
lecture rather than upon the laboratory method (p. 253), 
that the heuristic method is becoming the accepted way 
of teaching science in American high schools, and that 
in them it is usual to begin with the study of physics 
(p. 280); but these odd paragraphs exhaust all that is 
said on this important subject. 
In view of the influence which science has exerted 
upon manufacture, commerce and thought generally, a 
careful comparison of the place which science teaching 
takes in schools of every grade in the four countries 
concerned would have been most valuable. The book 
is intended, however, for the ordinary person with a 
general interest in education, and this may explain why 
Mr. Hughes has given more prominence to adminis- 
trative matters than to questions of curriculum. It only 
remains to be said that the author’s personal acquaint- 
ance with English education and his wide experience of 
schools have enabled him to bring together in convenient 
compass very much of interest and importance about 
American, French and German systems of education. 
