Apbil 19, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



619 



criticism, namely, whether in the vast body of 

 admirable and trustworthy information, which 

 makes the book a veritable cyclopedia, the 

 essentially didactic and disciplinary aspects of 

 the subject have not suffered an undesirable 

 and unnecessary eclipse. If the primary aims 

 of physiology in the schools be informational, 

 and the importance of this will not be ques- 

 tioned, then some subordination of those meth- 

 ods of observation and experiment so distinct- 

 ive of science may in measure be justified. 

 But even in that case it may well be questioned 

 whether these very methods do not afford a 

 distinctive type of information, more vital and 

 impressive, and at the same time incomparably 

 more abiding; and this the reviewer believes 

 to be the case. It is much to be regretted, 

 therefore, that at least some provision had not 

 been made in the body of the text and through- 

 out for pertinent experiment and demonstra- 

 tion. The almost total absence of anything 

 savoring of laboratory directions is hardly 

 atoned for in the brief prefatory statement 

 that varying facilities in different schools 

 made this less imperative. The very presence 

 of such directions would have served to pro- 

 mote a larger and more uniform system of 

 judicious laboratory practise. 



Upon the whole, the book is easily among 

 the very best now available, and indeed far 

 and away superior to the average text-book 

 of similar scope. It marks a decided step in 

 advance, and will doubtless find a wide and 

 growing field of usefulness, both in the upper 

 years of the high school and beginning courses 

 in college. 



In its typography and other mechanical 



aspects the book seems exceptionally free from 



glaring defects, and maintains the high repute 



of the publishers in this line of book-making. 



C. W. H. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The American Naturalist for March con- 

 tains but three papers, though these are of 

 considerable length. The first, ' Studies on 

 the OpKioglossacem' by D. H. Campbell, deals 

 mainly with the morphology of the peculiar, 

 fertile leaf segment, or sporophyll. R W. 

 Shufeldt discusses 'Polygamy and Other 



Modes of Mating among Birds,' the object 

 being avowedly to throw some light on the 

 question of mating among mankind. A large 

 number of statements are made, the bearing 

 of which is to be given in another paper. 

 Outram Bangs writes 'On the Wood Rails, 

 Genus Aramides, occurring North of Pan- 

 ama,' describing as new one form from Mexico 

 to which the name Aramides albiventris 

 mexicanus is given. 



The American Museum Journal for March 

 has illustrated articles on the mounting of 

 ' The African Lion Hannibal,' ' The Naosau- 

 rus, or Ship-Lizard,' and 'A New Eskimo 

 Exhibit,' and contains the lecture schedule for 

 the month. The mounted lion, and the bizarre 

 skeleton of Naosaurus are respectively tri- 

 umphs of the taxidermist and preparator of 

 fossils. 



The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 

 February has various articles on museum 

 eases ; the first, by H. Bantry White on ' Some 

 Improvements in Museum Cases,' describes 

 methods of making iron cases by which their 

 cost has been greatly reduced. F. A. Lucas 

 gives briefly his ideas relative to ' The Struc- 

 ture and Arrangement of Museum Cases,' 

 finding a lack of effect in iron cases and em- 

 phatically endorsing the bay system of 

 arrangement. ' The Liverpool Museum Ex- 

 tension ' deals with the rearrangement of the 

 zoological and anthropological collections in a 

 consecutive, educational plan. The view of 

 the zoological hall impresses one with the idea 

 that it is a little too narrow for the brat 

 results. 



The Springfield Museum of Natural His- 

 tory has issued a ' leaflet ' entitled ' Bird Mi- 

 gration,' giving the dates of arrival of one 

 hundred species of birds found within ten 

 miles of Springfield, during the springs of 

 1901 to 1906, with spaces reserved up to 1910. 

 The list is arranged chronologically f©r 1901, 

 although there is considerable variation in the 

 dates of arrival of the species subsequently. 



The Bulletin of the Charleston Museum for 

 March is mainly devoted to an excellent article 

 by Mrs. Paul M. Eea on ' The Relation of the 

 Museum to the Schools.' 



