November 2, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



683 



the book is given over to a historical summary 

 of the various voyages to the South Polar re- 

 gion. But that is no reason for closing this sec- 

 tion of the book with the following sentence 

 (p. 131) : 



"This survey indicates what parts of the 

 Antarctic regions have principally been visited, 

 and sums up how much or how little has been 

 achieved by each attempt. It will be the aim 

 of the subsequent pages to gather into a whole 

 the results of all these explorations so far as 

 their fragmentary nature renders such a task 

 possible." 



This portion of the book is followed by a de- 

 scription of the ' conformation of the surface 

 and geological structure,' which would be a 

 very acceptable piece of woi-k were it not for 

 the cumbersome English sentences which defy 

 all attempts to parse them. 



A splendid opportunity to offer a summary 

 of our knowledge of the climate, the structure 

 of the ice, the fauna and flora is simply anni- 

 hilated by such sentences as the following 

 (p. 250) : ' The non-melting of the snow is of 

 necessity accompanied by a change in its trans- 

 formation. ' 



Again, scientific men do not usually speak of 

 a species of animals being ' extirpated,' as they 

 are said to be on pages 270 and 273. 



The maps and charts are, however, the re- 

 deeming features of the book. They form a 

 very interesting collection of illustrations and 

 are worthy of a better fate than burial in such 

 ponderous and heavy verbiage. 



It is also to be regretted that in giving a list 

 of books, articles and maps upon this subject, 

 no attempt was made to make the list as 

 nearly complete as possible. In these days of 

 careful bibliographical work the preparation of 

 such a list would have been a comparatively 

 easy task. Furthermore, a labor of this char- 

 acter would have been very much appreciated 

 by the scientific world, and it is a pity that it 

 was not done. 



By what has been said above, it is not in- 

 tended to produce the impression that the book 

 is without merits. It will be a useful com- 

 pend for a person who desires to become ac- 

 quainted with the leading facts in connection 

 with Antarctic investigations, but it will never 

 be a book of popular interest. In the scientific 



summaries too little has been given to satisfy 

 the scientific man, and it is therefore evident 

 that there is still an opportunity left for a book 

 which will satisfy these conditions. 



William Libbey. 



Physiology for the Laboratory. By Beetha Mil- 

 LAKD Beown. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1900. 

 Pp. viii + 167. 

 A Syllabus of Elementary Physiology ivith Befer- 

 ences and Laboratory Exercises. By Ulysses 

 O. Cox. Mankato, Minn., Free Press Print- 

 ing Co. Pp. viii + 167. 



If one were to judge by the number of books 

 on ' Practical Physiology ' that appear yearly, it 

 would seem that the long-hoped-for day had 

 come in which Physiology had become a labora- 

 tory study in all academic grades from the 

 grammar school to the university. Even if it 

 fulfills the ideal of its author only, each book 

 in this field, if well done, is to be welcomed, 

 for it means at least an attempt in the right 

 direction. 



Of the two books now before us Miss Brown's 

 is the more modest. In less than 150 pages 

 there are given the essential experiments in a 

 course in^ Vertebrate Physiology, presumably 

 for the high school or normal school. A chap- 

 ter on the cell and one on the bacteria are 

 added. The matter is in large part purely 

 physiological, but the dissection of the various 

 organs is included. Vivisection is excluded ex- 

 cept the slight amount that is involved in a 

 study of reflex action in the brainless frog. 

 The directions simply point the way, and the 

 chosen ground is well covered. A few correc- 

 tions should be made : The chromosomes are 

 said to ' be scattered through the protoplasm ' ; 

 epidermis is ' the outer, dead skin ' ; the ex- 

 panded portion of the external ear is misnamed 

 the 'concha,' while the reflex character of the 

 knee-jerk is settled by requiring the student to 

 trace the course of the nerve impulse. 



The book by Mr. Cox consists of a syllabus 

 with references to reading, and a series of lab- 

 oratory exercises. The syllabus is a detailed 

 but crudely expressed classification of the con- 

 ventional subject-matter of Physiology, of which 

 students could make little use. The references 

 are chiefly to well-known American and English 



