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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 776 



musculature. The author also fails to cite 

 certain important memoirs, such as Gaubert 

 on the lyriform organs, Wagner on the audi- 

 tory hairs and moult, Lamy on the respiratory 

 organs, and Menge on copulation and sperm 

 transfer. The treatment of the habits (46 

 pp.) is excellent on the whole, for here Mr. 

 Warburton is much more in his element, 

 though few literature references are given; 

 there is considered the moulting, behavior of 

 the newly-hatched, architecture (especially 

 good on the orbicular nares), poison, fertility, 

 natural enemies, protective coloration and 

 mimicry (at places these two are confused, 

 and also the latter with aggressive coloration), 

 the senses, intelligence and mating habits. 

 With regard to hearing he concludes : " If 

 there be any true hearing organ in spiders its 

 location is quite uncertain " ; it is strange he 

 does not even refer to the work of Wagner, 

 Dahl and Pritchett. Chapter XV., 38 pp., is 

 the taxonomic treatment of all the aranead 

 families, with notes on habits and distribution, 

 the classification adopted being that of Simon ; 

 only a few of the families are illustrated by 

 figures. 



The chapter on the Tardigrada, 11 pages, by 

 Shipley is excellent. He concludes " there 

 can be no doubt that the Tardigrades show 

 more marked affinities to the arthropods than 

 to any other group of the animal kingdom," 

 which is well in accord with our present knowl- 

 edge. Shipley also contributes a brief but 

 good chapter on the Pentastomida. 



In 42 pages the Pycnogonida are well con- 

 sidered by D'Arcy Thompson, with a good 

 account of the structure. There is an excellent 

 figure of the male of Boreonymphon carrying 

 the young. All the families are described. As 

 to the genetic affinities he believes " that such 

 resemblances as the Pycnogons seem to show 

 are not with the lower arachnids but with the 

 higher; they are either degenerates from very 

 advanced and specialized Arachnida, or they 

 are lower than the lowest. Confronted with 

 such an issue, we can not but conclude to let 

 the Pycnogons stand apart, an independent 

 group of Arthropods." 



We can say of this volume that what is 



given is given fairly well, the errors are 

 mostly of omission. The most serious omis- 

 sion is the lack of description of the embry- 

 ology, for in certain of the groups no mention 

 at all is made of the development, and in 

 others nothing except a few larval stages are 

 described. The reader might be led to believe 

 that many of these animals do not have onto- 

 genies! It may be fairly asked, how can any 

 one form a good concept of an animal's struct- 

 ure without a knowledge of its development? 

 At least short resumes of the ontogenies 

 should have been presented. It also occurs 

 to the reviewer that it would have been much 

 better to have devoted two volumes to the 

 groups treated in this one, just as two volumes 

 have been given to the insects. Had this been 

 done, the treatment of each group could have 

 been much more comprehensive, the errors of 

 omission avoided, and the work thus made 

 much more valuable for reference. 



Great praise is certainly due to the chapters 

 on the Arachnids, for they help to fill a long- 

 felt want; this group has always received 

 scanty, treatment in text-books, and the larger 

 works are not accessible to most students. 

 Prom most text-book accounts one would 

 gather that the Arachnids are mostly scorpi- 

 ons ! It is to be hoped that this last volume of 

 the Cambridge Natural History will arouse 

 wide interest in the group of the spiders, so 

 interesting in structural specialization and 

 instincts, and will lead, in our teaching, to the 

 supplanting of the alcoholic scorpion by the 

 living spider. And it is also hoped it wiU 

 stimulate more students to investigate those 

 neglected aberrant groups, the tardigrades, 

 pentastomids and mites. 



Thos H. Montgomeey^ Jr. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrohi- 

 ologie und Hydrographie. Unter Mitwirk- 

 ung von Albert, Furst von Monaco, Alex- 

 ander Agassiz, Carl Chun, P. A. Forel, 

 Viktor Hensen, Eichaed Heetwig, Sir 

 John Murray, Fritjof Nansen, Otto 

 Pettersson und Aug. Weismann. Heraus- 

 gegeben von Bjoen Helland-Hansen 



