July 12, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



45 



mainly a book knowledge of the group ke was 

 monographing. 



The section on Protozoa written by Marcus 

 Hartog has a great deal of interesting matter, 

 and the various physiological activities of the 

 unicellular animals, such as digestion, secre- 

 tion, etc., and the relations of nucleus to 

 cytoplasm and the like, are considered in a 

 broad and suggestive way. The fact that the 

 treatment in all such matters is strongly col- 

 ored by this author's often unique ideas is 

 only to say that it was written by Professor 

 Hartog, and, although always interesting and 

 on the surface convincing, the generalizations 

 can not always be accepted. We meet again 

 the time-worn discussion on spontaneous 

 generation (gotten up apparently to contro- 

 vert Bastian's recent outburst), and on ani- 

 mals and plants, but we do not find sufficient 

 emphasis on the more important modern 

 features that are characteristic of the pro- 

 tozoa, such as the physiological importance of 

 the life cycle and the morphological im- 

 portance of chromidia and nucleus. 



The section on sponges by I. B. J. Sollas is 

 not as well written as the other sections 

 and the meaning is frequently hidden in ob- 

 scurity of the construction. The classifica- 

 tion adopted is that of W. J. Sollas and 

 Biitschli, Minchin and Maas are followed in 

 assigning the Porifera to the division Parazoa, 

 apart from the other metazoa and from the 

 protozoa. Morphology and relationships of 

 the spicules are carefully worked out, but wc 

 find very little on sponge development. This 

 section is full of matters of popular interest, 

 examples of which are afforded by the sug- 

 gestion of the therapeutic value of the com- 

 mon house sponge on account of its iodine, 

 and a popular description of the origin of 

 flint. 



The account of the Coslenterata and 

 Ctenophora by S. J. Hickson is little more 

 than a list of families and can scarcely be 

 described as interesting reading. The monot- 

 ony of almost straight taxonomy is broken a 

 bit by a discussion of corals and coral islands, 

 biTt the work for the most part is devoid of 

 general interest. With all the valuable and 

 biologically interesting data afforded by the 



ccelenterates we feel that Professor Hickson 

 has lost here an opportunity to present a read- 

 able account of one of the most fascinating 

 groups of invertebrates. 



E. W. MacBride has given a much more 

 general account of the Echinodermata, al- 

 though here, too, a wealth of biological facts 

 has scarcely been touched, while details of 

 structure fill page after page. The gToup is 

 taken up somewhat differently than is cus- 

 tomary in that the Asteroidea are regarded 

 as the most primitive of the echinoderms, 

 while the Holothuroidea are considered as a 

 continuation of the same line of development 

 that led to the Echinoidea. Unlike the other 

 contribiTtors, MacBride has given more em- 

 bryology, although his account of the develop- 

 ment of an echinoderm taken by itself is not 

 full enough to give a clear picture to one 

 unfamiliar with the complicated metamor- 

 phosis of these forms. 



We do not see why the Echinodermata 

 should be included with the above lower 

 groups of invertebrates unless it is a char- 

 acteristic devotion to the tradition of Cuvier's 

 Radiata, or indeed, mere expediency. Cer- 

 tainly it seems poor logic to speak of echino- 

 derms as intermediate between coelenterates 

 and higher invertebrates (page 428) and then 

 to point out the probable common ancestry of 

 Echinodermata and Vertebrata through di- 

 pleurula and tomaria larvae (page 617). 



The volume is beautifully gotten up and 

 has a wealth of tables and keys of classifica- 

 tion and is invaluable to the student of ani- 

 mal taxonomy although disappointing here in 

 that it will not carry him into genera and 

 species. Q. N. C. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The Journal of Comparative Neurology and 

 Psychology for May contains three papers. 

 The first, " Concerning the Intelligence of 

 Raccoons," by Professor L. W. Cole, is based 

 upon the study of thoroughly domesticated 

 animals which were reared in captivity. They 

 are found to be more docile than cats and able 

 to form much more complex associations, 

 though they are inferior to monkeys. They 

 do not imitate their fellows, but learn various 



