198 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 971 



cretions. These topics in turn are followed 

 by sections on absorption, the elimination of 

 wastes, metabolism, reserve stuffs, and the 

 phenomena of starvation. This list of regu- 

 lars, now and again is lengthened to accommo- 

 date some special structural or functional re- 

 lation. 



Professor Jordan's work inevitably courts 

 comparison with Winterstein's great coopera- 

 tive handbook, but unfortunately both are in- 

 complete, and the contrast between them in 

 their present state is more apparent than real, 

 for in Winterstein the section on the nutri- 

 tion of invertebrates is also the product of a 

 single pen. For the present, therefore, the 

 relative merits of team work versus individ- 

 ual play in the production of physiological 

 encyclopedias must remain uncertain. 



On the whole, Winterstein offers more of 

 immediate interest to the general physiologist, 

 nevertheless, the space devoted by Jordan to 

 comparable sections is nearly the same. Pos- 

 sibly some day some one may read one or the 

 other from cover to cover, but the normal func- 

 tion of each of these books will probably be 

 that of a Thesaurus to be tapped when occa- 

 sion requires. 



Jordan makes access to the wealth of ma- 

 terial treated by him more convenient than 

 Winterstein, not only on account of a greater 

 regularity of treatment, but by the employ- 

 ment of heavy-typed captions of various sizes, 

 together with elaborate subject and author 

 indices for which we are not made to wait 

 until the bitter end. 



No work of this character ever comes off the 

 ways without its share of misprints, mis- 

 labeled figures, misinterpretations, misquota- 

 tions '^nd sins of omission as well as com- 

 mission. Numerically most of these types of 

 defect fall well below the average, though one 

 of them is quantitatively as well as qualita- 

 tively thoroughly characteristic of the great 

 German text, for it appears to be a law of na- 

 ture that the mind of the continental book- 

 maker is selectively impermeable to the efforts 

 of American investigators. This is as true of 

 Jordan as it is of his predecessors, and in con- 



sequence there is no group treated by him 

 which here and there could not have been 

 treated a bit better if he had drawn a little 

 on our experience. Considering the numerous 

 phases of nutrition in invertebrates and the 

 number of Americans who have devoted years 

 to the study of special groups, the omission 

 of some of them, or the bare mention of 

 others, shows that our work either does not 

 reach the European, or is not assessed at the 

 value placed upon it here. This may apply 

 justly to some of our work ; on the other hand, 

 the discounts levied against certain men who 

 might be mentioned are absurd. 



The attempt to cover single-handed a field 

 as large as the physiology of invertebrates is 

 not symptomatic of the age, but the attempt 

 to do so at all certainly is. Whoever knows 

 the highly dispersoid condition of the litera- 

 ture and realizes how largely observation and 

 experiment have been incidents in the work 

 of morphologists and systematists, knows also 

 the value of a reliable inventory of the facts. 

 The importance of this for any special physi- 

 ology needs no comment, whereas to those who 

 agree with Winterstein that comparative 

 physiology should be an independent science, 

 rather than a method, the whole matter is ob- 

 vious. However, we may relate special, com- 

 parative and general physiology, Jordan's 

 book, like Winterstein's, will do good, but in 

 a somewhat different manner, for it is aimed 

 more directly at teachers of zoology, and for 

 them appears admirably suited. 



One of the worst faults of zoological 

 courses on invertebrates is their over-emphasis 

 of structure, a method grounded historically, 

 and based on the belief that the best scientific 

 use to which an organism can be put is to de- 

 termine its relatives. No doubt this is im- 

 portant, yet how the related things manage to 

 live is also worth knowing. With its well-or- 

 ganized material and superior illustrations 

 Jordan's book shows beautifully how anatomy 

 and physiology can be taught as one subject. 

 " Proofs of Evolution," " Evidences of Eela- 

 tionship " and " Bases of Classification," how- 

 ever, will not readily cede their places, but 



