594 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. Na 1304 



worked up and better known and yet its 

 presentation in this work leaves much to be 

 desired. The author's discussion of the 

 zoological significance of the term "Worms" 

 is hardly on a level scientifically speaking 

 with the work in other sections of the book. 

 Furthermore it has no particiilar place in a 

 treatise of this character where the parasitic 

 organisms related to human diseases are the 

 only ones under consideration. These are 

 easily classified in certain generally recog- 

 nized branches or subdivisions of other rank; 

 they can be reasonably clearly defined without 

 a discussion or even mention of those groups 

 of uncertain relationships that make the sub- 

 division of " worms " so difiicult to handle. 

 The introduction of this material serves also 

 to confuse the student of health problems for 

 it can hardly be intelligently handled by any 

 one without considerable technical training in 

 zoology. The general discussion of the sig- 

 nificance of the parasites in this group is 

 clearly inferior to that which has been 

 printed in recent works like Braun or 

 Fantham, Stephens and Theobald. The 

 treatment of the separate subdivisions of this 

 topic, while interesting and fairly complete, 

 has not reached the standard set by the author 

 in the first section of the work. 



Part III. of the book is devoted to the 

 Arthropods. After an introduction covering 

 general features chapters are devoted to mites, 

 ticks, bedbugs and their allies, lice, fleas, 

 mosquitos and other blood-sucking flies, fly 

 maggots and myiasis. The importance of 

 these forms as agents in the transmission of 

 diseases and their relations to specific mal- 

 adies are clearly presented. The work will 

 be a most convenient compendium despite the 

 appearance of several recent more compre- 

 hensive works on medical entomology that 

 cover in fact the same field as this section of 

 Dr. Chandler's book. 



It is difficult to agree with the author in 

 his total elimination of references to those 

 investigators who are responsible for the work 

 outlined in the various parts of his book. 

 While it may be true that extended references 

 to original sources are out of place in so brief 



a presentation as his, yet it does injustice to 

 the student if to no one else, that the author 

 should present even a brief statement of the 

 problem without any indication of the place 

 in which the student interested can follow up 

 the subject. I should not neglect to state 

 that the author has included at the close of 

 his book six pages of general references under 

 the heading " Sources of Information." The 

 list is very short and by virtue of the con- 

 tractions employed might be difficult for some 

 persons to use, while at the same time it is 

 certainly unattractive in appearance on that 

 account. Furthermore, there is no indication 

 whatever of the significance, of individual 

 items beyond that contained in a very general 

 subheading. In the opinion of the reviewer 

 such a list is of very little use to the general 

 student, and the same amount of space 

 devoted to a citation of the major sources of 

 information would have been of real value if 

 the items had in one way or another been 

 brought into definite connection with the 

 specific discussions of the text. 



The author's figures are not always par- 

 ticularly happy and some of them, such as 

 Figs. 13 and 109, are little more than car- 

 icatures. It is difficult to believe that as 

 good a scientific investigator as Dr. Chandler 

 should have prepared a drawing like that 

 represented in Fig. 120, where the size of the 

 young trichinae in the muscle fibers is ap- 

 parently radically unlike the conditions as re- 

 ported by many competent observers. Some 

 of these little defects may be due to the 

 rapidity with which the work was prepared. 

 It is to be hoped that they can be corrected 

 in a later edition. Many persons will find 

 the book both interesting and useful, for it 

 covers the field in a way not otherwise 

 available. 



Henry B. Ward 



Universitt of Illinois 



THE TENNESSEE ACADEMY OF 

 SCIENCE 



The eighth annual meeting of the Tennessee 

 Academy of Soience was held on November 28, 

 1919, at George Peabody College for Teachers, 



