NARPO TE 
569 
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1885 
15, 
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 
Comparative Anatomy and Physiology. By F. Jeffrey 
Bell, M.A., Professor of Comparative Anatomy at 
King’s College, London. (London: Cassell and Co., 
Limited, 1885.) 
HIS work is one of a series of ‘‘ Manuals for Students 
of Medicine,” each of which is to be “ compact and 
authoritative ”— embodying the most recent discoveries,” 
and also to “contain all the information required for the 
medical examinations of the various colleges, halls, and 
universities in the United Kingdom and the Colonies.” 
On behalf of those of our readers who may be unfamiliar 
with the demands of certain of the examining bodies 
referred to above, it may be well to state that nothing but 
a résumé of all that is known in the subject could meet 
the requirements of the case. That which the publishers 
demand, and which the public therefore has a right to 
expect under the conditions laid down, is an _ ultra- 
condensed digest of all authoritative work in zoology and 
physiology. Incredible though this may appear to any 
one acquainted with the bibliography of the subject, Prof. 
Bell’s manual is so far satisfactory that we cannot but 
congratulate the publishers upon their choice of an 
author, whose work in connection with the Fournal of 
the Royal Microscopical Society and the Zoological 
kecord render him far excellence the man for this opus 
mirabilis. When it is stated that there are but 548 pp. 
to the book it will be clear that it must be a vast collec- 
tion of facts, little being left as to style or originality 
for that criticism which the author invites. The method 
of treatment, however, is somewhat novel, and in our 
opinion open to comment. 
The author divides his work into fourteen chapters. Of 
these the first is introductory ; the second is devoted to 
the Amceba as a physiological study ; the third to “the 
general structure of animals,” that is, to a consideration 
of the “broader characteristics of the groups into which 
the animal kingdom has been divided.” Those which 
remain are devoted, each to one of the great systems of 
organs and to development. 
In estimating the value of this volume, it must be 
clearly borne in mind that it is a book intended for 
beginners. Chapter II. is written for biological babes, 
and it will be clear to any one who reads the volume 
that the author would have the student familiarise himself 
with the facts in the order in which they are presented to 
him. This being so, it is a pity that Chap. I. should 
have been so largely devoted to the subtle details of ceil- 
. structure; the beginner is lost in descriptions of the 
“ cytod” and the “cell,” for each of which broad differ- 
ences are dogmatically formulated, such as would tend to 
bias the mind of the average student. Draw hard lines 
by all means for the beginner, but not in such delicate 
mattersas these. Only by working from the known to the 
unknown, can the student of science ever hope for success ; 
the order of his elementary studies must be a recapitu- 
lation of that in which the science itself has advanced— 
he must here begin with gross anatomy, and we believe 
that to treat first of the subtle details of cell structure is 
VOL. XXXIL—NO. 833 
to do violence to the cause of inductive science. A some- 
what similar comment may be offered upon the manner 
in which the great phyla are dealt with in Chap. III. 
Having devoted nearly half the chapter to defining these, 
the author proceeds (pp. 58, 59) to deal with types of 
each. He prefers to commence with the Echinodermata, 
dealing thus “first of all” with the “most aberrant” 
phylum. If the Echinoderms are dismissed as a stumbling 
block, why not the Brachiopods, the Polyzoa, and certain 
other creatures well known to zoologists? These are all 
wisely relegated to the end of the chapter, as “ groups of 
animals which in the present state of our knowledge cannot 
be satisfactorily placed with any of the great phyla” (p. 
100). Just so, but why not put the Echinoderms there also 
If the student is to be allowed the exercise of any judg 
ment in the matter, he cannot be expected to deal with 
the aberrant before he is familiar with the normal, and 
more stereotyped grades of organisation. 
Although the work is professedly a text-book of com- 
parative anatomy and physiology, the latter branch has 
suffered much in the process of condensing, necessary we 
presume in order to keep the book within the prescribed 
limits. At the commencement of each chapter a concise 
definition of that system of organs to be dealt with com- 
paratively is given, together with a brief description of 
their functional activity; but the field of comparative 
histology is sorely neglected. The author neither fur- 
nishes the required information on this subject, nor does 
he take for granted that his readers have worked through 
even the broad principles of it. The student is occasion- 
ally referred (Ex. pp. 368 and 372) to Klein’s “ Manual of 
Histology ”—a fellow volume to the one now before us ; 
but as that work deals with the subject altogether from a 
special human-anatomist’s point of view, the reader is at 
a loss to make much of the subtle differences in the com- 
parative anatomy of, say, shells and teeth, until he knows 
more precisely than he is here informed what is involved 
in an exoskeleton and a tooth. Similarly, the statements 
made (p. 258) concerning the vertebrate excretory system 
are altogether too brief and dogmatic. The student is 
merely informed that Meso and Metanephros exist ; of 
their adult structure he learns little or nothing, and in the 
face of such descriptions of the essential structure of an 
excretory organ as are given, he would be at a loss to make 
much of that of the vertebrate at any rate for himself. 
Chapters V. and VI. are also at a disadvantage from 
this curtailing of the histological portion of the subject. 
The definition of the blood given (p. 181) would not 
convey to the beginne /’s mind a notion of its real complex 
nature ; he would rather infer that it is merely “ the result 
of the process of digestion,” in function “respiratory as well 
as nutrient.” Least successful of all the definitions given 
of great systems is that (pp. 393-94) of the nervous system, 
and it is exceedingly unfortunate that (p. 411) the nerves 
should be described as bringing or carrying “messages.” 
A fascinating conception of the nervous activity this may 
be, but it is a commonplace one, well known to every 
teacher of physiology ; the mischief attendant upon its 
use is patent, and it is highly desirable that special efforts 
should be made to secure its abolition. Its adoption in 
this work is therefore greatly to be regretted. 
Prof. Bell’s book is fully up to the date of writing, and 
the subject-matter is for the most part judiciously 
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