July 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



105 



evolution of complex from simple structures. John 

 Hunter embodied this method in the arrangement of 

 his museum ; Gegenbaur developed it in his lectures 

 and his books. 



But many systematists, whose chief aim in life is 

 to studv the differences with which thev hedge round 

 their multitudes of species, view with suspicion a 

 method of studying- zoology which lays chief stress 

 upon the resemblances that help us to link together 

 the various members of the animal kingdom. 



Thus Prof. Butschli's text-book, continuing as it 

 does the best traditions of the famous Heidelberg 

 school, is sure of a warm welcome from the 

 morphologist, whatever view the species-monger and 

 the devotees of the type-system of teaching zoology 

 may think of it. 



It was with mixed feelings that those who had been 

 " brought up " on Gegenbaur's great book and had 

 come to revere the great master, read the new edition 

 of the Comparative Anatomy which was issued twelve 

 years ago, after he had passed three score and ten 

 years. When a man has reached that age it becomes 

 impossible to keep in touch with all the manifold 

 ramifications of such a science as morphology, even 

 when, as in the late Prof. Gegenbaur's case, he had 

 grown up with it and taken a principal, if not the 

 leading, part in making the new branch of learning. 



It required a younger man to write the new and 

 simplified book that was urgently wanted ; and no 

 one was more fitted to undertake this task than 

 Gegenbaur's pupil, who took charge of the course 

 of lectures in zoology at Heidelberg in 1884, when his 

 teacher relinquished the task. It is these lectures 

 which are embodied in the book under consideration. 

 The English student who may have spent weary hours 

 trying to puzzle out the meaning of some of Gegen- 

 baur's cryptic German and involved sentences will 

 appreciate the lucidity of Butschli's style and the ease 

 with which his meaning can be grasped. 



This volume represents only the first part of the 

 text-book, and consists of four sections : — (1) An in- 

 troduction, explaining terminology, and the scope and 

 general conceptions of comparative anatomy ; (2) a 

 very complete, yet concise, summary of the distinctive 

 features of all the considerable groups of animals ; (3) 

 the comparative anatomy of protozoa ; and, finally 

 (4), more than three-fourths of the volume are devoted 

 to the account of the tegumentarv and skeletal 

 systems. 



The integument and its various specialisations, 

 scales, hairs, feathers, and glands, receive very full 

 treatment. This is all the more welcome and valu- 

 able, as this branch of anatomy suffers from neglect 

 more often perhaps than any other. A great mass of 

 information concerning both invertebrates and verte- 

 brates is crowded into a comparativelv small space 

 without any sacrifice of clearness. 



After a general discussion of the nature of skeletal 

 structures and the forms they assume in invertebrates, 

 the early forms of the notochord are described, and 

 then a succinct account is given of the forms assumed 

 by each bone of the skeleton in the vertebrata. 



One of the great features of this book is the abund- 

 anc3 and the excellent educational value of the illus- 

 NO. 2178, VOL. 87] 



trations. Although they consist of semi-diagrammatic 

 line drawings or half-tone reproductions of simple 

 drawings, they are so free from unnecessary and con- 

 fusing detail, so clearly labelled and really illustrative 

 of the text, that the reader experiences no difficulty 

 in following and understanding the descriptions. 



Prof. Biitschli can be congratulated on having pro- 

 duced the first part of an introduction to comparative 

 anatomy which is both of exceptional scientific merit 

 and singularly well adapted to the needs of elementary 

 students. G. E. S. 



THE BENIN GROUP OF NEGROES. 

 Anthropological Report on the Edo-speaking Peoples 

 of Nigeria. By N. W. Thomas. Part i., Law and 

 Custom. Pp. 163. Part ii., Linguistics. Pp. ix4- 

 251. (London : Harrison and Sons, 1910.) 

 ^PHE Niger Delta, from Yorubaland on the west 

 -L to the Cross River on the east, is a field of 

 African ethnology which is only very slightly made 

 known to us at the present day, but promises to yield 

 some very interesting and important additions to our 

 knowledge of negro races, when fully worked. Owing 

 to its physical conditions, the area covered by the 

 delta of this river — some 260 miles by 100 — is still 

 unexplored in some portions; indeed, down to about 

 fifteen years ago the land everywhere at a distance of 

 one mile from the banks of the navigable creeks had 

 scarcely been seen by a European. Though there are 

 within the delta tracts of undulating, well-drained soil 

 much of the district is excessively swampy or covered 

 with very dense bush, scrub, mangrove thicket, or 

 magnificent but impenetrable forest. Mosquitoes and 

 large Tabanid flies swarm and the former serve to 

 inoculate the blood of the European with the germs 

 of malarial and black-water fever. Yet (I write from 

 old personal experience) where there is no native popu- 

 lation at hand to supply from its blood the malarial 

 bacilli, the Niger Delta is not necessarily unhealthy 

 to Europeans, and the stinking mud around the man- 

 grove swamps, though it smells mephitically, is not, 

 so far as we know, the cause of any disease. 



In addition to the great difficulties of land-transport, 

 which hitherto have limited the routes of the Delta ex- 

 plorers to the water-courses, the disposition of numer- 

 ous tribes is still very hostile to the European. Conse- 

 quently from one cause and another, a wholesome fear 

 of savage cannibals and poisoned arrows, of enormous 

 crocodiles, of thunderstorms, lightning, torrential rain 

 and tornadoes of wind, of a sunshine which is some- 

 times sickeningly hot, of sparsity of food supplies, 

 and dread of fevers and dysentery, we are still very 

 deficient in our knowledge of the tribes of the Niger 

 Delta. Rumours of late from well-informed sources 

 point to the existence in the region between the For- 

 cados and the Nun of a pygmy or dwarfish people 

 said to be yellow-skinned and steatopygous, and 

 speakers of a "clicking" language; from the Rivers 

 Pennington and Middleton comes a singularly savage 

 and prognathous type of negro, so wild and barbarous 

 that it is still (I am informed) difficult to get speech 

 of them. 



In addition to these unclassified folk of the least- 



