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8GIENGE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 743 



doubt. The volume is a timely contribution 

 and is characterized by all the excellencies 

 which one is led to expect from a knowledge 

 of the other publications of this careful and 

 experienced teacher. Pedagogieally consid- 

 ered, aside from its lopping off of superfluities, 

 its greatest virtue lies in the manner in which 

 the student is impelled to get at the subject 

 interpretatively instead of blindly following 

 descriptions. The method is not wholly in- 

 ductive, however, since the student is ex- 

 pected to know what is said in his text-book 

 or lectures on a given siibject; nevertheless, 

 through a judicious use of questions he is 

 forced to think for himself and not simply to 

 verify statements. 



One great aim of the author has been to do 

 away with the numerous irrelevant procedures 

 at which the student is likely to fritter away 

 his time and to lead him at once to see and to 

 accomplish the real work that is to be done. 

 The main idea has been to have him so utilize 

 his time as to cover thoroughly the greatest 

 possible amount of ground in the time allotted 

 to the course. The outlines are the outgrowth 

 of the author's own experience as a teacher 

 and having been revised and corrected year 

 after year, in their final form they represent, 

 therefore, just what in his experience may 

 most advantageously be undertaken by the 

 average class in histology working three 

 three-hour periods per week throughout one 

 school year. 



In case a school can not give three after- 

 noons a week to the course, however, the work 

 is so arranged that it can be given conven- 

 iently in two separate years. The reviewer 

 is of the opinion, indeed, that the third sec- 

 tion might well be reserved for the second 

 year as it in itself constitutes a complete 

 course in the gross and microscopic anatomy 

 of the central nervous system and the organs 

 of special sense, and includes work of con- 

 siderably greater difficulty than that of the 

 other two sections. 



The author rightfully insists throughout 

 the work upon the importance of having the 

 transition from the macroscopic to the micro- 

 scopic detail made with sufficient fulness for 

 the student to get a complete mental picture 



of the structure as a whole instead of the 

 mere fragments he too often gets when 

 stained and sectioned material chiefly is used. 



The arrangement of topics and the classifi- 

 cation of structures is made mainly upon an 

 anatomical and functional rather than an 

 embryological basis. The practical utility of 

 stxch an arrangement would seem sufficient to 

 justify it even though an embryological ar- 

 rangement would leave the student with a 

 clearer morphological perspective of the gen- 

 eral field. For the medical stiident, at least, 

 the imperative demand is for the functional 

 rather than the morphological conception. 

 The embryological side, however, has not been 

 slighted, for the principles and processes of 

 development are kept well in the foreground 

 and there are frequent demands for the study 

 of sections of embryos and preparations of 

 developing tissues and organs. 



A valuable chapter is that by Dr. A. W. 

 Lee on Laboratory Drawing in which a very 

 enlightening discussion of drawing materials 

 and methods is given. As Dr. Lee himself 

 expresses it, " The individual who ' can't 

 draw' has constantly been kept in mind; in 

 fact, this chapter was undertaken solely for 

 his benefit." Such a clear and non-technical 

 discussion of laboratory drawing has long 

 been a desideratum and it should not be re- 

 served for those who study histology merely 

 but should be brought to the attention of all 

 biological students. Original drawings in 

 varying stages of completion are employed as 

 an aid in illustrating more graphically the 

 principles involved. Unfortunately, by what is 

 clearly a typographer's error, the block for 

 figure 13 has been rotated ninety degrees with 

 the result that the parallel which the author 

 intended to show between this and the pre- 

 ceding figure is somewhat obscured. 



A few of the seemingly inevitable typo- 

 graphical errors have crept into the volume 

 here and there, but none is of great magni- 

 tude. Some of the most noticeable are as 

 follows : page 40, formation for information ; 

 page 45, aquamous for squamous; page 54, 

 glyerin for glycerin; page Y2, cosmic for 

 osmic, and the same on page T3 ; page 73, non- 

 modullated for non-medullated ; page 139, 



