April 27, 1871 | 
NATURE 
5©5 

searches of Mr. Parker, Prof. Huxley, and antecedent 
Continental authors are ignored, and the essential affinity 
between the embryonic mammalian skull and its perma- 
nent condition in Batrachians and cartilaginous fishes is 
passed over in silence. 
Similar incompleteness is to be found in treating of 
single organs in single classes. Thus, in speaking of the 
swimming bladder, its homology with the lung is only 
faintly alluded to in terms hardly of approval, and nothing 
is said of its interesting condition in Polypterus. 
As to Birds, the inquirer who consults this manual only 
will fail to acquire any really adequate knowledge of the 
class, from the absence of all description of its two very 
distinct existing types—the struthious and the carinate 
birds. As regards the omission of any notice of the 
Archzopteryx, it may be pleaded that it is a fossil form ; 
still a manual of zoology must be reckoned as singularly 
incomplete which fails to call attention to a form so im- 
portantly aberrant. 
In the highest class of Vertebrates we miss any adequate 
statement of the very great gap which exists between the 
Monotremes and the higher Mammals. 
Prof. Flower’s careful labours regarding the corpus 
callosum are utterly ignored. Thus we read, “In those 
Marsupial tribes that form the connecting links between 
the oviparous and placental Vertebrata, the brain still ex- 
hibits a conformation nearly allied to that of the bird, 
and the great commissures required in the more perfect 
encephalon are even yet deficient; but in the simplest 
brain of a Placental Mammifer the characteristic differ- 
ences are at once apparent.” The student is left entirely 
in the dark as regards the large anterior commissure cf 
the lower forms which compensates, as it were, for the 
reduction of the corpus callosum, while presenting such a 
contrast to the brains of birds and reptiles. 
The facts here mentioned will enable the zootomically 
instructed reader to appreciate the defects which unhappily 
characterise this last production of Prof. Rymer Jones, 
As we have said, they do not prevent the volume being 
replete with both interest and instruction, and a large 
number of readers may study it with advantage, though it 
is not calculated for young students who wish to be az 
courant with the latest views and those received by the 
most esteemed biologists. The prevailing character of 
the book miy be summed up by saying that we have in it 
almost a maximum of physiological anatomy with a 
minimum of morphology. 
Turning to the much smaller work of Dr. Nicholson, 
we feel refreshed by coming in contact with a body of 
more modern views and less-known facts put forth con- 
cisely and in a form really useful tothe student. There is 
a copious glossary, the utility of which will far more than 
compensate for some inaccuracies. There is also (what 
no book of the kind should lack) an alphabetical index, 
the want of which will be sadly felt by those who use Prof. 
Rymer Jones's volume. Nevertheless, Dr. Nicholson’s ma- 
nual, though serving as a stop gap to supply an urgent need, 
is not, by any means, all that could be desired. Some of the 
very glaring omissions we have noticed in the large work 
are also defects in the smaller one. Thus we have again 
the absence of any reference to the Rhizocephala, but that 
larval Ascidian structure is noticed “which has been 
paralleled with the chorda dorsalis of Vertebrates.” 


The Brachiopoda are relegated to the vicinity of the 
Polyzoa, and removed from the Mollusca proper. The 
Batrachia are associated with the fishes, the Reptila with 
the Birds. Man is put back into the order Bimana, which 
appears to us a mistake when he is considered from the zoo- 
logical point of view only. Investigations and discussions 
of recent date have abundantly demonstrated that in bodily 
structure he differs far less from the higher “so-called ’ 
Quadrumana than do these latter from the lowest membeis 
of that order. In connection with recent investigations it 
must be remarked that Dr. Nicholson does not sufficiently 
acknowledge how largely his work reposes on the labours 
and teachings of Prof. Huxley. That Professor's system 
and arrangements are almost entirely adopted, even to 
the location of the class Echinodermata in the sub- 
kingdom Annuloida. 
It is much to be regretted that the last-named eminent 
naturalist has not ere this given to the world the results 
of his labours in his own clear and terse language, and 
published a model handbook for the use of students. In 
the absence of such a desideratum we feel sure that Dr. 
Nicholson’s work will, for a time, be deservedly popular 
and widely used. More than this we cannot, however, 
anticipate for it without careful and copious additions and 
emendations. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
A History of the Birds of Europe, including all the Spe- 
cies inhabiting the Western Palearctic Region. By ®. 
B. Sharpe, F.L.S., &c., and H. E. Dresser, F.Z.S., &c. 
Part I. (London: published by the Authors.) 
THIs work will supply a great want, since it will give in a 
convenient form and at a moderate price, a really good 
coloured figure with a full and accurate description ani 
history of every European bird. The talent of Mr. Sharpe 
for publications of this nature has been sufficiently shown 
by his beautiful work on the kingfishers, which we have 
already noticed, while his colleague, Mr. Dresser, is an 
enthusiastic student of European birds. In M. Keule- 
mans they have secured an artist who bids fair to rival 
Wolf in the delineation of bird character ; and if the work 
maintains the standard of its first part (and we have eveiy 
reason to believe it will do so), its subscribers will have 
cause to be satisfied. We find in the part now issued 
eight species of birds beautifully figured, and about forty- 
six pages of letterpress, crowded with information from 
every available source on the habits and distribution cf 
the species. The series of charming pictures of the most 
graceful of all living things which this work will give, must 
render it a general favourite ; and it will assuredly help to 
extend the growing taste for natural history, by rendering 
it comparatively easy for the traveller or resident on the 
Continent to determine the species and refer to an outline 
of what is known about any bird he may meet with during 
his rambles in the country or in the markets. To the 
home naturalist, also, it will prove far more interesting 
than a work on British birds alone; for he will here fird 
how far over the globe his feathered friends are accustomed 
to range, and will make the acquaintance of many mem- 
bers of their several families who, although they live per- 
manently abroad, yet retain a strong likeness to their 
English relations. We heartily wish Messrs. Sharpe and 
Dresser success in their bold and laborious undertaking. 
R. W. 
A Treatise on the Action of Vis Inertia in the Ocean. 
By W. Leighton Jerdan, F.R.G.S. (London: Longmans.) 
THIS book is a lamentable instance of misconception 
and error. It is founded on a denial of the first law 
