Fan. 26, 1871] 
NATURE 
253 

understand the conditions presented, the author steps 
beyond the limits of the class Mammalia and exhibits 
the condition of the manus in a water tortoise (Chelydra 
serpentina). At the end of the work is a chapter on 
“The Correspondence between the Bones of the Anterior 
and Posterior Extremity and the Modifications of the 
Positions of the Limbs,” and this is the only speculative 
and theoretical portion of the book. All the rest is a 
plain and clear statement of observed facts. 
Some may be disposed to regret that there is not more 
“theory” in the work, but the reviewer believes that, 
considering the scope and object of the treatise, the in- 
troduction of theoretical views would be a blemish rather 
than a gain. 
The work is addressed to students who are in earnest 
and really want to learn “ Comparative Anatomy.” Do 
such need to be attracted or encouraged by brilliant or 
startling theories, or will, on the other hand, they follow 
teaching which is simply the clear expression of actual 
facts? To this question it may be replied so/uvztur ambu- 
fando. Last year Professor Flower delivered in the theatre 
of the Royal College of Surgeons the very lectures which 
are now being reviewed, and the attendance of students 
was most remarkable, not only as to numbers who came 
but also as to their perseverance and constancy in at- 
tending. 
The book is eminently a student’s book. Obscurities 
of expression and unnecessary technicalities are carefully 
avoided ; and any youth who provides himself with the 
bones of a dog, and reads it patiently, referring with care 
to his dog-bones all the while, may become a respectable 
osteologist. While if such a youth has access to amuseum 
like that of the College of Surgeons, he may, with this 
work in his hand, lay the foundation of a really good 
knowledge of comparative anatomy ; for every anthropo- 
tomist and teacher of human anatomy will admit how 
readily a knowledge of “soft parts” is acquired by one 
who thoroughly “ knows his bones.” 
An excellent exercise for a student would be to take 
the skull of a rabbit and a pig, and write out a detailed de- 
scription of each, modelled on the author’s description of 
that of the dog. 
Although the work is of such moderate bulk, yet owing 
to its convenient arrangement, and the thorough know- 
ledge of his subject which the author professes, it is 
possible, by referring to it, to get an answer to almost 
any ordinary question respecting the bony structure of 
any mammal. 
Professor Flowers new human bone, the ¢ymfano- 
Ayal ‘first described by him at the Liverpool meeting 
of the British Association), is shown to exist in other 
mammals, being very large, ¢.g. in the horse and the 
sheep. 
a raise so great a mass of facts, it is impossible but 
that there should not be some inaccuracies, without the 
slightest discredit thereby accruing to the author ; for the 
laws of animal structure being but empirical, a “ black 
swan” is at any moment liable to turn up and falsify the 
simplest and most useful generalisation, Thus it may 
turn out that the generalisation, “the Szzzza are remark- 
able in never having an ossified stylohyal,” is not strictly 
accurate, but the author having examined hundreds of 
skulls and never having found one so furnished, was 
amply justified in making the assertion. Any attempt to 
depreciate a work by carping criticism upon details 
of that kind can result only in discredit to the critic 
himself. 
In conclusion, the reviewer is of opinion that Prof. 
Flower’s “ Osteology ” should be warmly recommended to 
all students of comparative anatomy ; while even to many 
advanced zoologists it will prove a work not only of much 
interest, but one conveying substantial, important, and 
trustworthy information. 
BE. RS. 



NOTES 
So far as the delegates are concerned, the amalgamation of the 
Ethnological and Anthropological Societies is complete, under 
the name of the Arthropological Institute of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and the separate societies have ceased to exist. All 
property, effects, debts, and liabilities are to be taken over by the 
new society. The new officials taken from the two societies are : 
President, Sir John Lubbock (E.), Vice-Presidents, Prof. Huxley 
(E.), Tylor (E.), Prof. Busk (E.), Dr. Charnock (A.), Dr. Beddoe 
(A.), G. Harris(A.). Treasurer, Flower (E.). Council. —Blackmore 
(E), Bohn (E.), Archibald Campbell (E.), Hyde Clarke (E., A.), 
Boyd Dawkins (E.), Dunn (E.), David Forbes (E.), Col. Lane 
Fox (E., A.), T. M‘K. Hughes (E.), M‘Lennan (E.), Pusey 
(E., A.), Braybrooke(A.),W.C. Dendy (A.), Dr. King(A.), F. G. 
H. Price (A.), Dr. Harcourt (A.), Des Ruffieres (A.). Director, 
C. Staniland Wake (A.) ; Assistant-editor of the Journal, F. W. 
Rudler (E.). The last meeting of the Ethnological was held on 
Tuesday, and the last meeting of the Anthropological will be 
held on Tuesday next, when the old arrangement will cease, and 
other meetings will be fixed by the new council. 
A DETERMINATION to take advantage of any opportunity for 
making scientific inquiries, is the principal feature of the present 
crisis among French scientific men. It is carried so far that the 
French Institute has appointed a committee to inquire into the 
effects of the shelling as well on the buildings as on the inhabi- 
tants. The specialities presented by the wounds have been re- 
viewed in a very able essay, written by Baron Larey, in the 
Revue des Cours publiques, published by Bailli¢re, but which has 
not appeared regularly. Some other essays on the same subject 
haye been written by different medical men in the same periodi- 
cal, and in some political papers. 
THE increase of the mortality is a feature of the present crisis 
in Paris. The winter number of deaths is generally 1,000 or 
I,200 a week ; but in the last few weeks it has amounted to 3,000, 
This is not owing to any particular epidemic, although the small- 
pox has destroyed many victims. The larger amount of fatal 
cases is owing to the exposure, the want of proper food suited 
for infants and invalids, and the scarcity of fuel. Moral causes 
have also seriously affected invalids and old persons to a very 
large extent. A ffections of the lungs are prevalent in that portion 
of the population. 
THE large conservatory for Orchidacee in the Fardin des 
Plantes at Paris has been destroyed by a Prussian shell. The 
glass-work was broken, and the plants, which are so delicate, 
were lost without any hope of recovery. The losses are very 
serious, as the collection had many valuable specimens ob- 
tained from the occupation of Mexico, and from the exertions 
of the French Scientific Commission, which had been sent to 
America to explore the Empire of the unfortunate Maximilian. 
M. Chevreuil, the Director of the Museum, has addressed to the 
Academy of Sciences the following protest :—‘‘The garden of 
medicinal plants, founded in Paris by an edict of King Louis XIII., 
dated January 3, 1626, became a Museum of Natural History on 
the 23rd May, 1794. It was bombarded in the reign of William 
I., King of Prussia, Count Bismarck being Chancellor, by the 
Prussian army, on the night of the 8th-gth January, 1871. Until 
then it had been respected by all parties, and by all national and 
foreign authorities. Paris, January 9, 1871.” The Academy 
has determined that the protest of M. Chevreuil shall be printed 
at the head ofits reports, and the Committee of Professors of the 
Museum have decided that a marble monument, with an inscrip- 
tion of the protest, shall be placed in one of the galleries ot the 
building, surrounded with projectiles thrown from the enemy’s 
batteries. 
