December 12, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



853 



a grasshopper; but more careful examination 

 will show that there are various parts of 

 AmpMoxus mixed into the grasshopper in a 

 most remarkable way. These structures are 

 so inconspicuous in themselves that they might 

 have escaped notice if they had not been so 

 plainly indexed, and if the question had been 

 upon the anatomy of the grasshopper instead 

 of the other animal. 



the book is not dominated by the conception 

 that, notwithstanding details, there is a clear 

 path of advancement in biological thought. 



The preface, and his estimate of some of the 

 more prominent men, indicate that the author 

 had this conception in mind, but it is not 

 clearly carried out. The observations of 

 capital importance are not separated from 

 those of subordinate interest, nor are the chief 





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That the figure was not drawn as a joke 

 seems evident from the fact that the student 

 failed to pass the examination, and would 

 not, of course, take the chance of having one 

 question thrown out completely. Perhaps the 

 joke is on the instructor, after all. 



A. M. Reese 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Early Naturalists: Their Lives and Worh 



{1530-1789). By L. C. Miall, D.Sc, F.E.S. 



London, Macmillan & Co. 1912. 



This book, by a practical naturalist of honor- 

 able attainment in the field of research, is a 

 useful book of reference. It has the merit of 

 being written from a thorough examination of 

 the original sources and is a work of great 

 industry and patience. It covers the period 

 from 1530 to 1789 during which the sciences of 

 organic nature were in the process of making. 

 Many of the contributions of the time were 

 mixed, and, taken together, they are more in 

 the nature of vague foreshadowings of what 

 was to come rather than specific additions to 

 any science that had already taken definite 

 form. This circumstance makes it most diffi- 

 cult to convey to the general reader a unified 

 picture of progress, and it is to be said that 



results of investigation sufficiently emphasized 

 to exalt them above those of secondary signifi- 

 cance. 



In its method the book is analytical rather 

 than synthetic, and does not exhibit the selec- 

 tive and combining power that is necessary 

 to convert the details into a lucid story of 

 progress. Dr. Miall gives, with thoroughness 

 and accuracy, summaries of the researches of 

 the naturalists of the period and of their 

 views on a variety of questions. His volume 

 is a compendious reference rather than an 

 illuminating treatment of tendencies and cur- 

 rents of thought, and seems, to the reviewer, 

 to be of greater service to the naturalist than 

 to the general reader. 



His section on " The Minute Anatomists " 

 is the most interesting and the best assimilated 

 part of the book. Here, the author writes with 

 an evident command of the subject, as might 

 be presumed from his familiarity with insect 

 anatomy, as well as his excellent account of 

 Malpighi, Swammerdam and other devotees of 

 minute anatomy, in Miall and Denny's " The 

 Cockroach." 



The title " The New Biology " for the first 

 section of the book is suggestive and inviting, 

 but it does not appear to be a happily chosen 



