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NATURE 
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[Fune 11, 1885 
matters of affinity between living birds and reptiles should 
be overlooked. The characters of the mesotarsal joint 
and of the tarso-metatarsus are imperfectly defined, and 
those of the pelvis of Apteryx ignored ; while among the 
extinct forms, the Dinosauria—several of whose features 
we are told on p. 220 “recall mammals, especially the 
Pachydermata”—the Ornithoscelida, and the Odontor- 
nithes, are all dismissed in a few lines. Little would the 
student, taking his text from this work, dream of the 
noble array of direct affinities to be found among even 
living birds and reptiles. 
The translators have evidently realised that the state- 
ments reproduced on pp. 198 and 215, concerning the 
lizard’s quadrato-jugal arcade are contradictory, and a 
supplemental paragraph of their own on p. 198 only 
serves to increase the perplexity. Chapter IX. is devoted to 
the Mammalia, but 69 pages of it starting with the asser- 
tion (p. 282) that the Monotremes’ hemispheres are “still 
smooth,” is poor fare. The cutting down of every group 
of mammals toa minimum would be in a sense pardonable, 
if only concise diagnoses were given such as should cover 
the broad lines of modification ; but when, bearing in mind 
certain of the more glaring defects of this chapter referred 
to at the outset, we read (p. 306) that the Whales approach 
the Ungulates “through the Sirenia,” and that the 
“Sirenia are intermediate, so far as their form is con- 
cerned, between the whales and seals” (p. 309), our faith 
is shaken in that which remains. There is the usual con- 
fusion concerning the position and movements of the 
hind-limbs of the Pinnipedia, the condition of the parts 
in the eared seals being entirely overlooked. In diagnosing 
a group of animals for purposes such as are here required, 
where the living and the extinct are both under considera- 
tion, it is but fair to assume that special attention should 
be paid to the hard parts, the teeth not excepted ; 
but we look in vain for statements such as shall em- 
body the extremes of modification of these parts in any 
one group of living mammals—for example, in dealing with 
the Rodents the utmost sketchiness prevails, the modi- 
fications of even the fibula are not hinted at, and while 
Hydromys is placed among the mice with grinders 3, 
Heliophobius is not mentioned. No wonder, then, that 
Hycemoschus should go unnoticed, that Hyrax should 
here be found under the order Proboscidea (with a cau- 
tion, it is true), and that the Carnivora, Cheiroptera, 
Lemurs, and Primates should be treated with disrespect. 
We are told (p. 301) that the epipubes support the mar- 
supial pouch, and there is no reference at all to the most 
important facts concerning the marsupial dentition. 
There is something so specifically English about gross 
vertebrate anatomy that we search in vain for bare men- 
tion, not to say recognition, of discoveries bearing upon 
the above, and many similar matters of first importance. 
From what has been said it will be obvious to Eng- 
lish students that the vertebrate section of Prof. Claus’s 
manual is weakest where works on the subject already 
current in our language are strong ; and, with all 
respect to our Continental cousins, we are of opinion 
that the market is becoming overstocked with translations 
such as that before us. Their period is past ; the English 
student in earnest must sooner or later fit himself for 
access to the originals, and the repeated production of 
English versions serves only to prolong the fatal day. We 
cannot but regret, though reluctantly, the publication of 
this work in its present form, the more so as it threatens 
to encourage the growing tendency to under-estimate the 
value of gross vertebrate anatomy, a field of labour 
essentially English, but still the verv backbone of zoo- 
logical science. 
Mr. Sedgwick has performed the task of translation 
with a thoroughness and skill deserving the thanks of his 
countrymen. Some few passages in the original, at best 
clumsy, might have been better rendered than they are ; 
and settings such as the “above together,’ on p. 16, 
might be advantageously modified. The translators give 
in Vol. I. a list of English synonyms for the geological 
terms employed in the original, but these are not always 
adopted in Vol. II.; thus we find the Jurassic beds re- 
ferred to again and again as the “Jura,” a rendering 
certainly not that of English geologists. The original illus- 
trations are for the most part excellent, and those which 
remain are admirably selected. That on p. 284, however, 
certainly does not illustrate the anatomy of the human 
ear, and the figures selected from the classic of Johannes 
Muller, in illustration of the anatomy of the lamprey’s 
skull (p. 154) do scant justice to the work of a great 
genius, and he a German. GSB 
CLIFFORD'S EXACT SCIENCES 
The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences. By the late 
W. K. Clifford. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and 
Co., 1885.) 
NCE more a characteristic record of the work of a 
most remarkable, but too brief, life lies before us. 
In rapidity of accurate thinking, even on abstruse 
matters, Clifford had few equals; in clearness of exposi- 
tion, on subjects which suited the peculiar bent of his 
genius and on which he could be persuaded to bestow 
sufficient attention, still fewer. But the ease with which 
he mastered the more prominent features of a subject 
often led him to dispense with important steps which had 
been taken by some of his less agile concurrents. These 
steps, however, he was obliged to take when he was 
engaged in exposition; and he consequently gave them 
(of course in perfect good faith) without indicating that 
they were not his own. ‘Thus, especially in matters con- 
nected with the development of recent mathematical and 
kinematical methods, his statements were by no means 
satisfactory (from the historical point of view) to those 
who recognised, as their own, some of the best “ nuggets” 
that shine here and there in his pages. His A zmematic 
was, throughout, specially open to this objection :—and it 
applies, though by no means to the same extent, to the 
present work. On the other hand, the specially important 
and distinctive features of this work, viz. the homely, yet 
apt and often complete, illustrations of matters intrinsic- 
ally difficult, are entirely due to the Author himself. 
The Editor, in his Preface, tells us the whole story of 
the difficulties he had to face in completing the volume 
for press. All will sympathise with him when they find 
that he had to furnish one entire chapter, and large por- 
tions of two others, in addition to thorough revisal of the 
whole. For Clifford’s style is here entirely sud generis. 
The track to his homely yet hardy expositions often lay 
in regions where but a single careless step would have led 
