March 13, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



421 



The Optical Rotating Power of Cam- 

 phor Dissolved in Inorganic Solvents: 

 Phosphorus Trichloride, Sulphur Di- 

 oxide, Sulphur Monochloride: Herman 



SCHLUNDT. 



Report of Committee on Atomic Weight 

 of Thorium: Chas. Baskeeville. 



New Syntheses in the Phenmiazine Group: 

 Marston Taylor Bogert. 



Some Picryl Derivatives of Phenols: H. 



W. HiLLYER. 



Nomenclature of Elements and Radicals: 

 W. G. Brown. 



Hydrochloric Acid as an Electrolytic Sol- 

 vent: E. C. Franklin. 



H. N. Stokes, 



Secretary. 



80IENTIFIG BOOKS. 

 The Development of the Human Body, A 



Manual of Human Embryology. By J. 



Playfair McMurrich. With two hundred 



and seventy illustrations. 12mo. Pp. 



xvi + 527. 



The author in his preface describes his book 

 as ' an attempt to present a concise statement 

 of the development of the human body and a 

 foundation for the proper understanding of 

 the facts of anatomy.' This attempt has been 

 so far successful that the volume is certainly 

 the best short treatise on human embryology 

 in English, and is not surpassed by any of the 

 text-books in foreign languages. It has the 

 distinguishing merit of including a number 

 of important results from recent investiga- 

 tions, which have as yet made their way into 

 no other manual. 



The work is really shorter and more con- 

 densed than might be supposed from the num- 

 ber of pages, for the type used is large and 

 open and the illustrations, owing to their large 

 size, take up much space. Some of the fig- 

 ures, like Fig. 54, are unnecessarily large. 

 They are, on the whole, well printed, although 

 the inli used is too heavy to give the best 

 efEect. The selection of figures has been ex- 

 cellent. Except for a series of diagrams. 



very few of them are original, by far the 

 majority of the illustrations being copies, 

 not, one is glad to note, from previous text- 

 books, but from the best recent researches. 



The author's style is well adapted to his 

 purpose, for it is both concise and clear, re- 

 vealing, indeed, a marked talent for lucid ex- 

 planations of , the complicated changes which 

 occiir in such rapid succession in the embryo, 

 and which render the study of embryology so 

 difiieult. 



The book would have certainly gained very 

 much had it been less a compilation from well- 

 chosen authorities, and more the outcome of 

 the author's personal study of human embryos. 

 As a compilation it is to be praised warmly, 

 but one misses somehow that vividness of ex- 

 position which direct familiarity with prepa- 

 rations, sections and dissections alone can im- 

 part to morphological descriptions. One 

 misses also the security of judgment which 

 can be derived from first-hand and intimate 

 acquaintance with the object. To this cause 

 we attribute the author's failure to utilize at 

 all adequately our knowledge of the histo- 

 genesis of the nervous system, to consider the 

 relation of the nails to the stratum lueidum, 

 to give any mention of the meninges which 

 offer such striking pictures in sections of em- 

 bryos, to remember that a mucous membrane 

 always comprises epithelium and mesoderm 

 (cf. p. 79), to describe correctly the degenera- 

 tion of the glandular epithelium in the preg- 

 nant uterus (p. 151, 153), etc. 



There are certain errors which mar the work. 

 In the history of germ-cells it is stated posi- 

 tively that the germ-cells produce the sperma- 

 tozoa, but so far as we know this has not been 

 proved as yet by direct observation to be true 

 of any animal. It is surely no longer correct 

 to speak (p. 122) of the ' branchiomeres ' as 

 divisions of the ventral mesoderm, since they 

 arise, so far as yet observed, always from the 

 dorsal segments. It is stated (p. 153) that 

 the decidua serotina ' loses its epithelium very 

 early ' — but portions of the epithelium are 

 always persistent. Or again the statement 

 that the processes of the vertebrae and ribs are 

 developed in the intermuscular septa hardly 

 concords with the actual history. 



