5o6 



NA TUBE 



S^March 31, 1887 



had been stripped (or rather had stripped itself) of both 

 characters. Moreover, Convocation would lose all im- 

 portance, and could not possibly retain the only powers it 

 at present possesses, of nominating certain members of 

 the Senate and accepting new charters. The Senate 

 would do its sole work, of choosing examiners and revising 

 their lists, as a small body of salaried Government officials 

 (probably in South Kensington), and no claim would 

 remain for the unconnected waifs and strays who passed 

 the examinations to take any part in the matter. No 

 charters would be requisite, nor any apparatus of library 

 or Senate House, laboratory or lectures. In fact all the 

 efforts of the past twenty years would be thrown away. 



Nevertheless, if the two original Colleges of the Uni- 

 versity secede, they will find the name, the prescription 

 and the influence of the Senate too strong for them to, 

 wrest its powers from the present holders. 



The medical corporations have far more influence and 

 far stronger grounds ; for the three or four strongest of 

 them are organised as complete Colleges in their own 

 Faculty, and give a more academic training to their 

 students in medicine than either University or King's 

 College does to students in arts, science, or laws. They 

 might, perhaps, succeed in gaining power to grant degrees 

 where the others failed, but this could only be by showing 

 that no reasonable concessions were made to their just 

 demands by the existing University. 



Hence it will be seen that the present University of 

 London, its two original Colleges, and the principal 

 medical schools, have each of them the power of check- 

 ing, if not of checkmating, each other's plans. Even if 

 they agreed to urge their several objects without opposi- 

 tion to each other, the result would be three Universities 

 existing together in London. One would have become a 

 mere examining Government Board ; another would con- 

 sist of two ill-endowed and ill-consorted Colleges, without 

 residence, with slender endowments, and compelled to 

 extend their proper functions by attempting the instruc- 

 tion of partial students ; the third would be a combina- 

 tion of two large professional corporations with Colleges 

 in one faculty only, two or three well equipped, several 

 very poorly furnished, and all of necessity rivals, scattered 

 over the country, none of them endowed, and only able 

 by the terms of their existence to give a second-rate 

 degree. 



What hope would there be of any one of these three 

 so-called Universities even approximating to what a Uni- 

 versity of London should be ? Each would be strong 

 enough to prevent the others succeeding ; none would be 

 strong enough to absorb its rivals. Meanwhile the higher 

 education would deteriorate rather than improve, endow- 

 ments would be indefinitely postponed, and the prospects 

 of the LIniversity laboratories, museums, and libraries of 

 London sending out worthy contributions to the progress 

 of human knowledge would become poor indeed. 



When the several separate movements now in pro- 

 gress are checked by the necessity of obtaining the sanc- 

 tion if not the support of Government, we may hope 

 that broader views will be taken of what is best for 

 the community, and more sober views of what is practic- 

 ally attainable. Believing in the public spirit and the 

 good sense of our countrymen, we have little fear but 

 that, with patience and mutual concessions, a combined 



result will be obtained which will benefit all the parties 

 to the new confederation, and promote the only interests 

 with which this journal is concerned — the national 

 interests of learning and of science, 



A JUNIOR COURSE OF PRACTICAL ZOOLOGY 



A Junior Course oj Practical Zoology. By A. Milnes 



Marshall, M.D., D.Sc, M.A., F.R.S., Professor in the 



Victoria LTniversity, assisted by C. Herbert Hurst. 



(London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 18S7.) 



NOTICE will be found in the columns of this journal 

 (vol. xx\iii. p. 24.2) of the second edition of a small 

 laboratory hand-book by the senior author of the above- 

 named work, entitled "The Frog; an Introduction to 

 Anatomy and Histology." In the preface to that we 

 read : " The second instalment of the work, containing 

 directions for the examination and dissection of a number 

 of animals chosen as types of the principal zoological 

 groups, is in active preparation, and will be published 

 shortly.'' The author further acknowledges "valuable 

 help from Mr. C. H. Hurst, Assistant Lecturer in Zoology 

 in the College." Mr. Hurst now appears as junior author, 

 and, although the work here under review differs in some 

 important respects from its predecessor above referred 

 to, we presume that it is the promised " second instal- 

 ment." 



The volume opens with an introduction, confined to 

 the consideration of practical hints as to methods of 

 working and manipulation ; then follow fifteen chapters, 

 each devoted to some one type of organisation, and the 

 whole closes with an appendix, dealing with the uses and 

 methods of preparation of reagents. Wo have, in all, a 

 most successful and important book of 42 1 pages. 



The work is largely akin, in its more salient features, 

 to many of its predecessors ; but it stands alone in respect 

 of certain methods of treatment, to which we shall refer 

 duly. Thick type has been employed throughout for the 

 various headings, and the authors adopt the plan, intro- 

 duced in the aforenamed smaller work, of printing the 

 directions for dissection in italics. In dealing with the 

 complications of the vertebrate skeleton, they have availed 

 themselves of the printer's art, by way of restricting 

 descriptions of homologous sets of elements to corre- 

 sponding and distinct types. 



The introduction is a model of perspicuity, and so 

 well set as to render it impossible for the veriest tyro to 

 obtain anything but full benefit therefrom. The advice 

 given is sound in the extreme, and such as could only 

 have embodied the results of a long and well-tried expe- 

 rience. The directions for injecting blood-vessels are, 

 perhaps, a little too elaborate, being worthy of the pri- 

 para/cur's art, rather than of the ordinary beg'nner ; 

 this, however, is a small defect on the right side. We note 

 that under the section on microscopical examination all 

 reference to the micrometer has been omitted. Direc- 

 tions for measuring objects under observation should 

 certainly be added to the next edition. 



The several chapters into which the book is subdivided 

 differ most conspicuously from those of certain earlier 

 works in the fact that the more general statements made 

 are diffused throughout the whole, except so far as they 

 serve to define an animal under consideration, or to set 



