72 : THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
have never taught geography, and probably never shall, I hope that 
Dr. Fairbanks will produce other books of this high quality and pro- 
gressive type. Crbaeke 
LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY PHySIOLOGY. By Thomas Huxley. Sixth 
Edition. Revised by Joseph Barcroft. Macmillan & Co. 
This book, by no means so very elementary as its title might indi- 
cate, begins with a “General View of the Structure and Functions of 
the Human Body.” It first considers the functions and form of the 
body as a whole, and then of the various parts, closing with two most 
interesting sections, “Life and Death” and “Modes of Death.” (There 
follow sections on the circulatory organs, the lymph and lymphatic 
system, the composition, qualities, and functions of blood, respiration, 
alimentation, and kindred subjects. The section on motion and loco- 
motion considers those activities in their intimate connection with bodily 
structure; the sections devoted to the sensory organs deal also with 
the senses produced by them, the coalescence of sensations, and cer- 
tain oustanding facts of consciousness. The one dealing with nerves 
and innervation is especially complete and clearly written. It should 
be of value not only to the student of physiology, but to those who wish 
a general physiological groundwork for studies in psychology. 
The book is one which, from beginning to end, shows careful, pur- 
poseful organization. There is no trace of padding in any chapters, 
and yet there is a sufficiency of detail for a book of its general and 
introductory character. It is worth a place on the bookshelf of any. 
zoologist or physiologist, and in these days, when we hear so much of 
mechanistic concepts of man, “man as an adaptive machine,” and so 
on, it is not without value to the generally educated layman. 
; CL. 88 
How To KNow TREES. By Henry Irving. Funk and Wagnalls. 
This is a convenient little volume, written in popular and most attrac- 
tive English. It treats the common trees of Great Britain, both native 
and introduced, in a manner that seems to satisfy the demand of Oliver 
Wendell Holmes when he said: “What we want is the meaning, the 
chaarcter, the expression of a tree, as a kind and as an individual.” 
There are no artificial keys; no hard, unbeautiful diagrams. Each tree 
is described with necessary detail, but without technicality. The illus- 
trations, which are excellently selected, show these characters of the 
trees which can most readily be distinguished by the layman who, 
though interested in the facts of nature, does not care to systematize 
them and so become a scientist. Someone would do well to write a sim- 
ilar volume on American trees, or the trees of some particular area of 
this continent. ‘ C. L. F. 
