March 17, 1887] 



NA TURE 



459 



work to do is called an organ, and its work is its function. 

 The earthworm has many organs, but few functions. 

 Apply this principle to man and an ape. Each has four 

 limbs. The ape is called four-handed, but has no good 

 hands ; he cannot handle things well. He has not good 

 feet ; he cannot walk well. What is the one thing he 

 can do well with his four foot-hands.' How many dis- 

 tinct functions has man with his hands and feet ? Multi- 

 plication ofparts without corresponding variety of structure 

 and function mark an animal as low in rank." In strivingfor 

 originality,theauthor has heregone astray ; and with regard 

 to the study of classification in all its branches, we are of 

 opinion that it ought not to form a primary object in a 

 work of purely educational value. For the advanced 

 student, consideration of it must come as a matter of 

 course sooner or later : for the beginner it is better that 

 it be dealt with at the hands of the teacher, and that with 

 the utmost caution. 



On p. vi. of the introduction we read : " If the main 

 object of this study is the mere acquisition of facts, full 

 descriptions of most animals can be elsewhere obtained ; 

 but if the more important part in education is to lead the 

 pupil to see and think for himself, then some such method 

 as this" (above cited) " should be used." It is under the 

 influence of this desire to "educate" the mind of the 

 student that the author's plan is most novel and his 

 labour most successful. One example will illustrate. On 

 p. 124 the student is directed, when examining the lungs 

 of the mammal, as follows : " Keeping the eyes fixed on 

 the lung, prick a hole through one side of the diaphragm, 

 and note the collapse of the lung." Then follows the 

 question, " Is the lung on the other side affected by this 

 operation?" A forcible means, this, of bringing home a 

 fundamental fact of lung-structure, which, though so 

 simple, is, as any teacher of experience knows to his 

 sorrow, so generally overlooked by the beginner. It is 

 here introduced in a manner which cannot fail to bring 

 home conviction or to create a lasting impression ; and 

 the student who shall have thus learned it will some day 

 wake up to the fact that he has made an important dis- 

 covery. Many other charmingly simple examples of the 

 kind might be cited. In one or two cases the idea is 

 overdone. In others the student is misled for want of a 

 technical term ; and speculating upon the probable nature 

 of the retort which might be in such a case elicited, the 

 writer is reminded of a reply obtained from a beginner 

 who had worked out most satisfactorily the mammalian 

 portal vein, in ignorance of the conventional nomencla- 

 ture. The question, " What do you call this vein ? " was 

 met by the rejoinder, " Stomacho-liver." More technical 

 terms might, with advantage, be introduced into this 

 book. The acquisition of a technical nomenclature must 

 go hand in hand with that of the fundamentals of a 

 science, and we are of opinion that, until such are rightly 

 and fully mastered, the student must be, as a tool in the 

 hands of his teacher, guided with an unfailing precision. 



In consideration of the pernicious rubbish which, even 

 yet, occasionally finds its way into our own elementary 

 schools under the guise of the elementary text-book of 

 science, it is pleasant to reflect upon the merits of this 

 work. The author is fortunate in being unhampered i with 

 the everlasting syllabus ; he performs his experiment in 

 his own manner, and it is worthy of a fair trial. We 



question, however, the advisability of making the study 

 of insects the focal point. The author asserts that his 

 work " has usually begun with the fall term. At this time 

 insects are abundant, and many kinds may be easily col- 

 lected ; they therefore serve well to show how animals 

 are classified." We presume, therefore, that he adopts 

 the inevitable. He further claims that " insects are 

 attractive : from insects the student passes on to 

 forms which, if taken up at first, would perhaps be 

 distasteful to him." This may be, but we doubt it. 

 For the analogous use of flowers as a means of intro- 

 duction to the study of botany much more is to be said. 

 This book is written for special use upon special ground 

 and under special circumstances ; it forms part of a 

 system, and its success can only be rightly judged by 

 someone cognisant of the whole. The task which the 

 author has in hand is one, of its kind, the most difficult, 

 and at the same time the most pleasing, of which we can 

 conceive. In it he is honoured, and his plan of work 

 must, like all which have preceded it, have its short- 

 comings. That these will be made good with a ripening 

 experience we doubt not. 



It remains to call attention to one or two matters 

 standing in need of immediate reconsideration. On p. 169 

 we find the heresy of the evaginated hydra revived, with 

 much emphasis. P. 71 bears the extraordinary statement 

 that " a fish whose body is flattened from side to side is 

 said to be ' compressed ' ; the word ' flat,' when used in 

 describing a fish, means flattened from above downwards, 

 and is applied to such a fish as the flounder." Directions 

 are given (p. 120) for injecting the blood-vessels of the 

 mammal, but they are wholly superfluous, as more than 

 that which is required for the purpose in hand can be made 

 out without it, while the process is involved in difficulties 

 which are beyond the pale of such elementary students. 



The author's directions for killing most of the animals 

 are surprisingly novel ; those for despatching the turtle 

 and pigeon being worthy of the modern executioner. 

 P. 102 reads : "with a strong pair of pinchers seize the 

 head " (of the turtle), " pull it well out, and chop itoflf; 

 examine the mouth ; are there teeth present?" No ex- 

 perienced zoologist needs to be reminded of the effects 

 which this repulsive piece of butchering would produce ; 

 but even that pales beside the injunction (p. 105) to " open 

 the pigeon's mouth, and insert a pipette containing about 

 a teaspoonful of chloroform into the opening of the glottis, 

 at the base of the tongue " (this has to be found by the 

 student), " blow the chloroform into the lungs, being 

 careful that the point of the pipette does not slip out of 

 the glottis." Never was insult worse than this added to 

 injury. These things must be speedily altered if in- 

 tended for the juvenile who is "to see and think for 

 himself." G B. H. 



THE DUTCH COLONIES IN SOUTH AMERICA 

 AND THE WEST INDIES 



Westitidische Skiz::eii : Reise-Erinneruiigen. Von K. 

 Martin, Professor fiir Geologie an der Universitat zu 

 Leiden. vii.-i86 pp. 8vo, with 22 Plates and i Map. 

 (Leiden; E.J. Brill, 1887.) 



TOWARDS the close of 1884 several learned Societies 

 in Holland granted collectively the means for a 

 scientific mission to the Dutch colonies in South America 



