342 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1345 



that would be requisite. Adequate prepara- 

 tion of a scheme may take several years, per- 

 haps in the circumstances a fortunate delay. 

 Por a new " Challenger " expedition will be 

 very costly, and we trust that the govemment- 

 and the national finances will then be in a 

 'better position to undertake what certainly 

 should be a national enterprise. — The London 

 Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Principles of Animal Biology. By A. Frank- 

 lin Sh0LL, with the collaboration of George 

 E. La Rue and Alexander G. Ecthven. 

 McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., ISTew York. 

 Most teachers of elementary zoology have 

 for some time acknowledged that the almost 

 exclusively morphological texts fail to give the 

 beginner in the science a fair introduction to 

 the field of zoology. Several recent texts and 

 revisions of some of the older ones have en- 

 deavored to meet the demand for a more 

 thorough treatment of the underlying prin- 

 ciples of the subject. For one reason or 

 another most of these attempts have failed to 

 meet with general approval. In many in- 

 stances they have remained predominantly 

 morphological with intercalated sections on 

 the principles. The Principles of Animal 

 Biology by Shull, La Eue and Euthven prom- 

 ises to meet the requirement for a text deal- 

 ing with the fundamental biological principles 

 far better than any other that has appeared to 

 date. 



Throughout the text there are brought to- 

 gether distinctly modern view points regard- 

 ing the various subsciences of zoology. The 

 book is not only well written so that the reader 

 is fascinated by the smoothness of the narra- 

 tion but in addition it has all appearances of 

 being so organized that it may be easily as- 

 similable by the beginning student. In only 

 a few instances does the treatment seem to be 

 beyond the grasp of the average student. In 

 the discussion of the physiology of cells (Chap- 

 ter III.) the extent of chemical knowledge as- 

 sumed to be possessed by the student is rather 

 great. The structural formulas and the 



highly technical chemical terminology would 

 not be intelligible to the average freshman, but 

 this is not any fundamental criticism of the 

 book for most teachers are coming to realize 

 that a certain amount of consideration must 

 be given the unusual student. 



The book ds distinctly the result of a reac- 

 tionary movement away from the more stolidly 

 morphological and taxonomic treatment of the 

 subject of zoology. A point might be raised 

 as to whether it is not possible that the tax- 

 onomic aspect has been curtailed to the extent 

 of impoverishing the opportunity of citing 

 comprehensible instances of the principles for 

 the average student. Correlation of labora- 

 tory work and text assignments might easily 

 obviate this possible difficulty. Content of an 

 elementary course and the relative emphasis 

 to be placed upon the various phases of the 

 science are by no means matters of universal 

 agreement among zoology teachers. Conse- 

 quently a criticism like the foregoing may in 

 the end prove to be either a valid judgment of 

 the text of an ultimate criticism of the one 

 offering it. 



H. J. Yan Cleave 



IJNrvERsiTT or Illinois 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF RIBES AS 



A CONTROLLING FACTOR IN THE SPREAD 



OF WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST' 



Most authorities will now admit that the 

 complete eradication of the white pine blister 

 rust from the country is not possible, but they 

 consider it both possible and feasible to con- 

 trol the disease to a certain extent and to 

 protect certain definite areas of pine. It is 

 also agreed that such protection must be 

 exercised through the eradication of rihes. 



Under these conditions, the control of the 

 white pine blister rust, or rather the pro- 

 tection of the white pine, depends on a defi- 

 nite knowledge of the habits of rihes, espe- 

 cially of the wild plants, and their reactions 

 to different treatments. Projects were there- 



1 Published with the approval of the Director as 

 Paper No. 209, of the Journal Series of the Minne- 

 iota Agricultural Experiment Station. 



