August 12, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



211 



most original and valuable in the book, and 

 the student who does the work outlined in it 

 can not fail to get a much better insight into 

 many things in the world about him. The 

 local distribution of plants and animals is first 

 taken up and the student is set to study plant 

 societies and the particular habitations and 

 habits of the animals of a restricted locality. 

 There is a section on pond life, with directions 

 for the study of the animals found in the 

 pond. Then comes a discussion of symbiosis, 

 parasitism and pollen production as affected 

 by its mode of distribution. The third sec- 

 tion of the chapter is devoted to the adapta- 

 tions of aquatic insects — forms admirably 

 fitted to illustrate adaptation — and a consid- 

 eration of animal coloration as cryptic, warn- 

 ing and mimetic. 



The final chapter deals with the responsive 

 life of organisms. Beginning with the be- 

 havior of the protozoa the author proceeds to 

 consider reflex action, the general architecture 

 of the nervous system, instinct and the sim- 

 pler modes of learning through trial and error. 

 The last part of the chapter is concerned with 

 the natural history of man and various human 

 institutions — a subject which naturally can be 

 dealt with in only the briefest way, although 

 the discussion may serve its purpose of giving 

 a general notion of the relation of man and 

 human society to the rest of the animal crea- 

 tion. 



The course of instruction which Dr. Need- 

 ham's book outlines is quite different from the 

 usual introduction to biology. Morphology is 

 given but a subordinate place. The student 

 is not set to work on a series of forms to 

 acquire a foundation of knowledge whose sig- 

 nificance may appear some time in the future ; 

 he is plunged at once into a study of biolog- 

 ical principles and introduced to the facts 

 upon which they are based. It is a common 

 practise to study several type forms and use 

 them, so far as they are adapted to the pur- 

 pose, for the inculcation of matters of general 

 biological import. Dr. Needham, on the other 

 hand, starts with the general subject or prin- 

 ciple to be studied and rummages through the 

 plant and animal kingdoms for good illustra- 

 tive material. There is little gathering of 



irrelevant information. Selecting a number 

 of the most fundamental and significant fields 

 in biology, he sets the student at work in them 

 on concrete facts. " Ecological and evolu- 

 tionary phenomena," the author says, " are 

 just as available for practical studies as are 

 morphological types," and every teacher of 

 biology can derive many useful suggestions 

 from the way in which the studies of these 

 subjects are outlined. 



The relatively large amount of attention 

 devoted to field work is one of the most salient 

 characteristics of the book, and constitutes 

 one of its chief merits. The selection of 

 material for study, so far as the reviewer can 

 judge, is judiciously made, and in the hands 

 of a teacher who knows plants and animals in 

 their natural environment the book will doubt- 

 less prove a valuable introduction to the study 

 of animate nature. 



The book is well printed on good paper, but 

 very poorly bound. A considerable propor- 

 tion of the figures are new and the portraits of 

 several eminent biologists add to the general 

 attractiveness of the volume. 



S. J. Holmes 



Handhuch der Vergleichenden Physiologie, 

 herausgegeben von Hans Winterstein in 

 Eostock. Band II. (in part). Physiologie 

 des Stoffwechsels. Jena, Gustav Fischer. 

 1910. 



The day has passed when the study of com- 

 parative physiology requires a defense at the 

 hands of its devotees. If one asks, however, 

 why so little organized progress has been made 

 in this field in comparison with related do- 

 mains, the answer is perhaps to be found in 

 the peculiar associations under which animal 

 physiology and zoology have developed until 

 quite recently. Physiology was long looked 

 upon as a science which could only be fostered 

 successfully in connection with a medical cur- 

 riculum; as a result of this the more practical 

 ends of the applied science always forced them- 

 selves to the front and led as a natural conse- 

 quence to that splendid development of the 

 study of mammalian functions which is well 

 known. The activities of the lower forms 



