264 
NATURE 
[May 16, 1912 
With regard to the subject of immigration, the 
author makes a somewhat startling proposal for 
legislative action, namely, that the Federal Govern- 
ment should organise an army of “field workers” 
in foreign countries who would inquire into the 
family histories of all intending immigrants in 
order to ascertain whether their germ-plasms are 
suitable for introduction into the United States. 
ES Bass 
STUDIES IN BIOLOGY. 
(1) Anleitung zum praktischen Studium niederer 
Tiere: Protozoa, Coelenterata, Vermes, Echino- 
dermata. By Dr. W. Schleip. Pp. vii+154. 
(Berlin: Gebriider Borntraeger, 1911.) Price 
3 marks 50 pfennig. (Bibliothek fiir naturwis- 
senschaftliche Praxis.) 
(2) First Book of Zoology. By T. H. Burlend. Pp. 
vili+159. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
1911.) Price 1s. 6d. (First Books of Science.) 
(3) More Animal Romances. By Graham Renshaw. 
Pp. x+252. (London and Manchester: Sherratt 
and Hughes, 1911.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
(4) Lehrbuch der Biologie fiir Hochschulen. By M. 
Nussbaum, G. Karsten, and M. Weber. Pp. xi+ 
529. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 10911.) 
Price 12 marks. 
HERE is something in these new biological 
books for every class of reader, except for 
those whose interest is bounded by the study of 
genetics in the narrower sense of the word. The 
amateur microscopist will find in the first volume 
helpful practical instruction. The organiser of 
education in country areas will do well to recom- 
mend the second to the teachers of nature study in 
his district. Those who seek a melodramatic pre- 
sentation of episodes in the wilds can have their 
fill of excitement by reading Dr. Renshaw’s latest 
volume; and lastly, there is the magistral essay 
with full references for the specialist and univers- 
ity worker in the remarkable work that stands 
last on this list, for, as is explained below, the 
book is quite unsuitable in its present form to be 
adopted as a text-book in high schools, and we are 
anxious that its great merits should not be over- 
looked, as indeed may easily happen if the inade- 
quacy of the title is not emphasised. 
(1) Dr. Schleip sets out to assist the beginner 
in methods of microscopical technique as applied 
to the study of accessible examples of simple in- 
vertebrates, and proceeds to give short descrip- 
tions of each example selected. He begins by 
showing how to collect, mount, and cultivate dif- 
ferent kinds of Amcebz, which are certainly not 
easy objects for a beginner to find or manipulate. 
From this starting point the author proceeds to 
NO. 2220, VOL. 89] 
other groups of Protozoa (including such unusual 
forms as the ciliates of the ruminant stomach), 
and then to a brief consideration of the Hydrozoa. 
Sponges and Turbellaria are dismissed with a few 
words, whilst. the more modified Cestodes and 
Trematodes are dealt with at some length. 
A curious mistake seems to have crept into the 
section on ‘“‘Earthworms-Nematodes.”’ It is an 
excellent idea to obtain these eelworms by allow- 
ing earthworms to decay, but the author improves 
upon this idea, and advises the worker to fill up 
the body-cavity with soil. He then will find in a 
few days that the earth contains many adult and 
young specimens of Nematodes belonging to the 
genera Diplogaster and Rhabditis. Two precau- 
tions are here overlooked. In the first place, the 
Diplogaster is almost certainly not an earthworm- 
nematode, but a soil-form which the experimenter 
has introduced. In the second, Rhabditis, whilst 
possibly a true earthworm-nematode, will only 
develop if Lumbricus is used, and will not appear 
(or only very rarely) if the equally common Allo- 
lobophora is employed as a nutritive medium. 
brief account of these Annelids follows, and the 
book closes with a very sketchy chapter on 
Echinoderms. Care has been taken to make the 
treatment throughout as simple as possible, and 
the book will be found useful to those who wish 
to begin the study of the lower animals. 
(2) Teachers of elementary biclogy in rural 
schools will be glad of Mr. Burlend’s brightly- 
written and well-arranged introduction to the 
study of animals. An attempt is made to interest 
the reader in such a way as to lead him or her to 
observe and record observations in an orderly 
manner. Many of the examples selected are such 
as are not usually described in so cheap a work 
(for example, the house-fly, garden snail, and 
brown trout), whilst all are obtained without diffi- 
culty. The figures appear to have lost something 
/of their sharpness of outline and detail in the 
f 
process of reproduction, but the three coloured 
plates are attractive. The remark about the dif- 
ferent disposition of the wings in moths and in 
butterflies during repose on p. 62 needs altering, 
and the word Fritillaries as synonymous with 
Nymphalidz is misleading, but these points do not 
detract from the value of the work as a means of 
stimulating powers of observation and of arousing 
an intelligent interest in the subject. 
(3) Dr. Renshaw is known to many readers as 
/ an ardent naturalist and an imaginative writer. 
In this volume, a companion to an earlier one of 
similar title, he attempts ambitiously to “restore ” 
the animal life of bygone times in a series of word- 
pictures, and he includes also a number of gor- 
geous descriptions of present-day episodes in dif- 
