Supplement to ""Nature," October ii, 1906 



IX 



author's course of leaching, and owes its existence 

 rather to the desire to emphasise that experience than 

 to the supposed existence of a gap in anatomical 

 liiirature which it may be held to fill. 



As the writer desires attention to be directed to 

 misstatements or improvements, we may limit our 

 remarks to matters of detail, since of such accurately 

 known types as those he has chosen the bulk of the 

 descriptions can hardly be other than correct. In 

 serial order, then, we note the following points on 

 which revision is required. 



The mucous canals of the dog-fish are termed sensi- 

 organs (p. 2), instead of the tubes containing the 

 sense-organs ; water is said to enter the spiracle as 

 well as the mouth ; the anus is described as the out- 

 let of the cloaca (p. 3) ; and an e.ir-opening is affirmed 

 and denied in the same paragraph (p. 15). But it is in 

 coimection with the nervous system that we encounter 

 the least satisfactory description. No mention is 

 m.ide of the pre-olfactory nerve which has been 

 demonstrated in elasmobranchs, nor of the buccalis 

 branch of the lateral line system ; whilst the old and 

 incorrect statement that the lateralis nerve is a branch 

 of the vagus is again repeated. The spinal nerves 

 and limb-plexuses, to which so much attention has 

 lately been directed, are omitted. 



In the description of the perch the account of the 

 nervous system is equally unsatisfactory, and there 

 is the same absence of any attempt to delimit the 

 nerves of the lateralis group or to point out their 

 function and distribution. In this respect the work 

 is very much behind the times. A serious slip occurs 

 on p. 45, where, in connection with the ear of the 

 perch, it is stated : — 



" At the anterior end of the sacculus is a small 

 pocket containing a minute otolith called the lagena ; 

 this is the structure which in mammals becomes the 

 cochlea." 



As it stands the sentence is nonsense, since, of 

 course, the pocket, and not the otolith, is the lagena. 

 .\ similar slovenliness of composition is responsible for 

 such sentences as (p. 67) " Note the position of the 

 limbs in reference to the trunk, which in Necturus is 

 of a primitive character," in which it is hard to say 

 whether the position or the trunk is referred to; or 

 this, " If the human arm be extended straight out 

 from the body with the thumb up . . . the back of 

 the hand will be dorsal . . . ." We should have 

 thought in the position referred to the hand would be 

 vertical. 



The description of the frog and of the turtle call 

 for no special remark, but in his prefatory account of 

 the pigeon the author states : — 



" Another effect which has been correlated with 

 the loss of teeth in the bird is the development of a 

 greater intelligence. Inasmuch as the weight of the 

 head is strictly limited by the conditions of the 

 animal's existence, a larger brain could develop than 

 would have been possible if the teeth which charac- 

 terised primitive birds had not disappeared." 



.\ larger brain and greater intelligence are certainly 

 not convertible terms, and it is as misleading to 

 NO. 1928, VOL. 74] 



speak of " primitive " birds in this connection as it 

 is to assume that birds' brains have enlarged since 

 Cretaceous times. Such a statement, however, is 

 pardonable in comparison with the explanation of 

 the air sacs on p. i6g : — " Their function is somewhat 

 obscure but they probably help supply (sic) the 

 lungs during rapid flight." The need for revising 

 the physiological statements made in this book may 

 be .shown by this further quotation : — " it is largely 

 because of the development of feathers that birds have 

 become warm blooded "! (p. 166). 



The use of the book would have been aided by 

 putting practical directions into special type, and by 

 giving fuller instructions for the injection of blood- 

 vessels. But, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the 

 work remains as a useful guide to those teachers who 

 wish to arrange a course in comparative anatomy. 



F. W. G. 



TARIFF REFORM AND THE EMPIRE. 



Compatriots' Club Lectures. First Series. Edited by 

 the Committee of the Compatriots' Club. Pp. 

 vi + 327. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 

 1905.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 



THIS volume consists of a series of papers and 

 lectures given at meetings of the Compatriots' 

 Club, a non-partisan body, " constituted " (as the 

 prefatory note states) " in March, 1904, with the object 

 of advancing the ideal of a united British Empire, and 

 of advocating these principles of constructive policy 

 on all constitutional, economic, defensive, and educa- 

 tional questions which help towards the fulfilment of 

 that ideal." 



.Although the club is non-partisan, the same cannot 

 be said of the papers in this volume. They are 

 mostly controversial in tone, and too frequently adopt 

 the vocabulary of the political platform. The object 

 throughout is to advocate Mr. Chamberlain's Tariff 

 Reforin proposals. The two most prominent writers 

 on economic subjects among the contributors are 

 engaged in almost purely personal conflicts with their 

 opponents on the fiscal question. Prof. Ashley, in 

 "Political Economy and the Tariff Problem," gives 

 an interesting, and indeed masterly, sketch of the 

 progress of economic science from Adam Smith and 

 Friedrich List to the present time, with the main 

 object, howeveri of providing a counterblast to the 

 manifesto on the fiscal question by fourteen English 

 economic experts, which appeared some two years 

 ago. Dr. Cunningham, in " Tariff Reform and 

 Political Morality," attacks the same manifesto on 

 the curious ground that it was an attempt to " provide 

 the public with excuses for apathy " — " to undertake 

 to do their thinking for them." He makes a similar 

 complaint, with perhaps more point, about another 

 manifesto, signed by some eminent ecclesiastics, which 

 appeared in the Guardian, and, incidentally, comes 

 into conflict with Mr. Harold Cox and the editor of 

 the Echo. 



Mr. J. L. Garvin's paper, read at the inaugural 



