Decembeb 28, 190G.] 



SCIENCE. 



847 



tory of these functional systems are illustrated 

 by clear diagrams. The mastery of these 

 simple diagrams will give the student the 

 principal landmarks for all of his subsequent 

 study of cerebral morphology. 



While this work is primarily a text-book of 

 the morphology of the nervous system, its 

 great merit lies in the fact that its facts so 

 far as they go also express the functions of 

 the parts, so that comparative physiology and 

 comparative psychology will both find in it an 

 immediate point of departure for their special 

 researches. It will form the natural prepara- 

 tion for such courses and also for courses in 

 human neurology, for it is not designed to 

 take the place of any of the manuals on the 

 human nervous system. Very little space is 

 devoted to the human brain alone except in 

 the chapter on the neo-pallium, yet every 

 chapter is essential to the comprehension of 

 the corresponding human structures, a claim 

 which can hardly be made for any previous 

 work on comparative neurology. 



This book is an outgrowth of the work on 

 nerve components inaugurated by the Amer- 

 ican school of comparative neurologists and 

 no estimate of the validity of the conclusions 

 arrived at is possible without a study of the 

 series of memoirs on nerve components and 

 functional divisions of the brain upon which 

 it is based. This work is still so incomplete 

 that any attempt to summarize its results is 

 necessarily fraught with the dangers of too 

 hasty generalization. And it would be rash 

 to claim that all of Johnston's suggested 

 homologies will stand the test of time. This 

 much may be said, that they are not out of 

 harmony with the facts as at present known, 

 and where his conclusions can not be regarded 

 as definitely proved they are sure to be stimu- 

 lating and helpful in pointing the way toward 

 the truth; for the basis of the work is sound 

 and the leading conclusions abundantly sup- 

 ported by the singularly concordant results 

 of the studies of the new school of compara- 

 tive neurologists. 0. Judson Herrick. 



Denison University. 



The Loose Leaf System of Laboratory Notes. 

 By Theo. H. Scheffer, AM., Kansas State 



Agricultural College. P. Blakiston's Son 



and Company. 



The laboratory note-book is a subject of 

 more or less interest and importance to every 

 laboratory teacher. In some cases its value 

 may be underestimated, and as a consequence 

 the note-book, as an index of the laboratory 

 work of the student, is an almost negligible 

 quantity. On the other hand, there is the 

 tendency to exaggerate its value and over- 

 estimate its importance, with the result that 

 it may become the inflated repository of 

 elaborate compilations from every available 

 source, including elaborately detailed draw- 

 ings, artistically executed, and involving an 

 immense outlay of time and energy, and 

 finally bound up in morocco covers. 



Between these extremes are to be found all 

 sorts of intermediate ideals and practises, 

 somewhere among which the ' Loose Leaf 

 System ' under review may be listed. Briefly 

 distinguished, it consists of a series of printed 

 laboratory directions for the study of some 

 twenty-one types of animals, from protozoa 

 to birds, the whole loosely tied up in binders' 

 boards, and so arranged as to allow the inclu- 

 sion of the students' notes in connection with 

 directions given for each type. 



So far as the directions themselves are con- 

 cerned they furnish about what every labora- 

 tory teacher provides, namely, a manual of 

 directions, either printed or typewritten, to 

 facilitate and systematize the students' work. 

 The directions here provided furnish a fairly 

 adequate outline for an elementary course in 

 zoology of perhaps a single semester. The 

 chief criticism, from the writer's point of 

 view, is that the directions follow too closely 

 the verification method of the older manuals, 

 rather than the interrogatory method; that is, 

 the student is too fully advised as to what is 

 to be seen and how^ instead of suggestively 

 presenting him with a series of problems for 

 solution, or opening before him avenues of 

 discovery. 



In general, the subjects are well presented, 

 and with comparatively few errors of state- 

 ment. One such may be pointed out in con- 

 nection with the study of the medusa, Goni- 

 onemiis, where it is said that ' like all hydroid 



