Jilt 24, 1003.] 



SCIENCE. 



113 



by such gradual changes that a conservative 

 public may not be offended. In the present 

 instance the author's zeal does not seem to 

 have led him to the point of giving offense, 

 even though he may have laid himself open 

 to the charge of inconsistency. 



The book is comparatively free from minor 

 errors or infelicities. On page 90, the skin of 

 the earthworm is said to consist of three 

 layers, the cuticle and epidermis, no mention 

 being made of the derma. The coelcmic epi- 

 thelium is omitted in the enumeration of the 

 coats of the body wall. The description of 

 the papuls of the starfish as ' holes thru the 

 aboral wall from which extend slender pro- 

 jections of the thin, soft lining membrane 

 of the body cavity ' needs considerable re- 

 vision. The term ' digestive tube ' is used 

 when the cavity of the digestive tube, not 

 its walls, is meant. The statement that in 

 the echinoderms the digestive tube is ' distinct 

 from the body cavity ' is not very illuminating 

 as it stands. 



The illustrations are mostly well chosen, 

 and about forty of them are original. It is 

 unfortunate that greater care was not given 

 to matters of detail in some of the original 

 diagrams; thus the oviducts in the snake and 

 the oviduct in the pigeon are each incorrectly 

 represented as opening in front directly into 

 the cavity of the ovary. 



The capital press work of the descriptive 

 part contributes in no small degree to the gen- 

 eral excellence of the book. 



Part II., on ' Practical Zoology,' is a great 

 improvement over the original laboratory 

 guide with which teachers in secondary schools 

 are familiar. Full directions are given for 

 the observation of living animals in the field 

 and in captivity. 



This part, however, might be made much 

 stronger in respect to its teaching of morphol- 

 ogy, without greatly increasing its size. For 

 example, the attention of the student is not 

 called to the coelom of the earthworm either 

 in connection with the dissection or in the 

 study of the cross-section ; and the term body- 

 cavity is used loosely to apply to the enteric 

 cavity in Hydra and to the coelom in verte- 



brates. The directions for the study of the 

 brain, particularly that of the rabbit, are ex- 

 ceedingly inadequate. We are told that the 

 optic nerves ' directly enter the cerebrum ' ; 

 and both diencephalon and midbrain are ig- 

 nored. While this is in line with the popular 

 notion that the brain consists of only two 

 parts, it is not the sort of teaching that ought 

 to find place even in a very elementary text- 

 book. This part is remarkably free, however, 

 from positive errors, and can be heartily rec- 

 ommended as a laboratory guide for second- 

 ary schools; the descriptive part is an ele- 

 mentary text-book of unusual merit. 



John H. Gerould. 

 Dartmoith College. 



DlSCUSSIOy AND CORRESPOXDEXCE. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS \\1TH KITES AT 

 SEA. 



To THE Editor of Science : Under the titles 

 ' A Xew Field for Kites in Meteorology ' and 

 the above there were described in Vol. XIV. 

 of Science experiments by the writer and his 

 assistants of flying kites in calm weather from 

 a tug-boat and from a transatlantic steam- 

 ship. The demonstration that meteorological 

 observations might be obtained at high alti- 

 tudes, independently of the natural wind, over 

 the greater portion of the globe and where no 

 observations had been possible before, at- 

 tracted the immediate attention of European 

 meteorologists. The following brief accounts 

 show that their application of this new 

 method of meteorological research has been 

 both extensive and successful. 



The first to repeat the pioneer experiments 

 of the late Mr. Swectland and the writer dur- 

 ing their voyage across the North Atlantic 

 in 1901 were Messrs. Berson and Elias, of 

 the Prussian Meteorological Institute, who, 

 last August, made a voyage from Germany to 

 Spitzbergen and back, achieving satisfactory 

 results with their kites. Meanwhile Pro- 

 fessor Koppen, of the Deutsche Seewarte, 

 carried out analogous experiments on the 

 Baltic Sea. About the same time, Mr. Dines, 

 aided by grants from the Royal Meteorological 

 Society and the British Association, employed 



