FEBRUARY 16, 1912] 
the author’s earlier text-books. The section on 
human physiology (chapters KXXI-XXVIII.), 
by Miss McCracken, while interesting enough 
in itself as an abridged elementary account of 
human anatomy and physiology, stands al- 
most wholly unrelated to the rest of the text. 
To the reviewer, the present need seems 
rather to be for a text-book of zoology so 
thoroughly permeated with physiological in- 
terpretations and applications that the zool- 
ogy and physiology become a unit throughout 
the entire work. However, beyond the ques- 
tion of arrangement of material—a matter 
which will doubtless always remain largely 
one of individual opinion—the over-plentiful 
sprinkling of errors throughout the book lays 
it open to more serious criticism. For ex- 
ample, on page 32 in a description of the cray- 
fish we read that “In the female the genital 
pores are in the basal segments of the next to 
the last pair of legs.” On the same page liga- 
ments are spoken of when tendons are meant, 
the digestive gland is described as yellow 
whereas it is characteristically reddish or 
greenish in color, and four pairs of ostia (a 
dorsal, two lateral and one ventral pair) open- 
ing into the heart are called for. On page 35 
occurs a questionable usage of the term 
ureters. Again, in the light of recent investi- 
gations, we doubt if the statocyst of the cray- 
fish is very generally “believed to be an audi- 
tory organ” (pp. 30, 74). On the same page 
one reads that “the longer pair of append- 
ages are the antenne and the sense of smell 
is believed to be located in the fine hair-like 
projections upon the joints.” As a matter of 
fact, certain peculiar club-shaped organs on 
the outer ramus of the antennules have gen- 
erally been considered the chief olfactory end- 
organs. Recent researches of Holmes and 
Homuth confirm this but show that other 
parts of the body (mouth parts, tip of cheli- 
peds, inner ramus of antennules and the an- 
tennz) are also sensitive to olfactory stimuli. 
On page 41 we find this astonishing statement 
in an account of conjugation in Paramecia, 
« .. part of the macronucleus and micronu- 
cleus of each passes over to the other, and 
SCIENCE 
271 
the mixed elements fuse together to form a 
new macro- and micronucleus in each half.” 
In view of the wonderfully adapted mechan- 
ism in the amphibian heart for keeping the 
“pure” and “impure” blood at least approx- 
imately separated, the statement regarding 
the ventricle of the toad (p. 23) that “here 
the pure and impure blood are mixed,” might 
well be qualified somewhat. On pages 14 and 
15 quill feathers and contour feathers are set 
apart as two contrasting groups. On page 47 
occurs the statement that “in addition to the 
proteids protoplasm usually contains native 
albumins,” etc.; native albumins, of course, 
being proteins. Throughout the book the 
word proteid is used instead of the preferable 
protein. On page 100, speaking of the pairs 
of legs, the statement is made that “the 
order of their appearance differs in the toad 
tadpole and the frog tadpole.” One is led to 
suspect that the author had in mind rather 
anuran and urodele tadpoles respectively. 
On page 153 we are inaccurately informed 
that “hermit crabs all have the habit of 
carrying about with them, as a protective 
covering into which to withdraw, the spiral 
shell of some gastropod mollusc,” and in the 
same paragraph, speaking of the abdomen of 
the hermit crab, occurs the statement that 
“it has on it no legs or appendages except a 
pair for the hindmost segment, which are 
modified into hooks for holding fast to the in- 
terior of the shell’ As a matter of fact 
while generally absent from the right side of 
the abdomen (except on the sixth somite), the 
pleopods of the left side, though often much 
reduced, are present, and in the female are 
used for the attachment of the eggs. On 
page 154 in speaking of the acorn barnacles 
the “six caleareous plates” mentioned are 
characteristic of the family Hezameride 
only and not of all “acorn barnacles.” On 
page 170 we are told that “the cuttlefishes 
and octopi have no foot,” but on page 178 
that “the decapods, as their name indicates, 
have ten feet or arms,” ete. Aside from this 
contradiction in statement, the high school 
student might pertinently inquire what the 
