638 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 20 



two days was over. We had been provisioned for 

 thirty-five." 



To add to their miseries, upon tlieir arrival at 

 Fort Garry they learned that the steamer had 

 broken down : so the return journey was made 

 overland in a Red River ox-cart. However, it 

 must have had its pleasant side, or our author 

 could not have looked back with so much evident 

 pleasure to the experience. Not the least striking 

 part of the volume is a set of views contrasting 

 the state of things then at Fort Garry with the 

 bustle and noise of a street of the present Winni 

 peg. The old Selkirk settlement has disappeared. 

 But is not something better in its place ? 



COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY. 



Students of vertebrate and invertebrate anato- 

 my,, both in this country and Great Britain, and 

 other parts of the world where the English tongue 

 is spoken, have much to be thankful for of late 

 years ; for during the last four or five of them 

 have appeared in their language, either through 

 original contribution or by translation, an ex- 

 ceptionally fine series of helpful handbooks of 

 their science. Chief among these we notice upon 

 our shelves the compact though useful little volume 

 by Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell : the admirable manuals 

 of Professors Martin and Mosle ; the welcomed 

 and invaluable translation of Claus's ' Text-book 

 of zoology,' by Adam Sedgwick, in two volumes ; 

 the popular series contributed by Prof. A. S. 

 Packard ; a carefully revised third edition of 

 Flower's excellent work on the osteology of the 

 Mammalia ; the favorite of all students of verte- 

 brate anatomy, Mivart's ' Cat ; ' the best of little 

 books, T. J. Parker's • Zootomy,' the work of the 

 younger representative of a house the members 

 of which now hold an unrivalled place in the 

 science of modern times, which their extraor- 

 dinarily fertile and brilliant contributions to ver- 

 tebrate morphology have easily gained for them. 

 And now comes a welcome volume from the pen 

 of the senior son of this same family, an English 

 translation of Wiedersheim's famous handbook of 

 vertebrate anatomy. 



It is to this last handsomely gotten up, and, 

 almost without exception, exquisitely illustrated 

 work, that we would here now devote a few 

 words by way of comment and criticism. We 

 find the book bound and printed with all that 

 care for which the firm of Macmillan & Co. are 

 so justly famous, and which they invariably bestow 

 upon all their scientific publications. The work 

 itself is divided into two parts, the first of which. 



Elements of the comparative anatomy of vertebrates. 

 Tr. by W. Nkwton PARKER. New York, Macmillan, 1886. 



entitled the ' Introduction,' comprises fifteen pages 

 only, while the second or 'Special part' claims the 

 remainder of the volume. 



One of the principal points open for criticism 

 in the introduction lies in its extreme brevity, and 

 it must stand to reason that much must be sacri- 

 ficed when one attempts to present the structural 

 characters in general, and the mode of develop- 

 ment in so important a group as the Vertebrata, 

 in so limited a space. The great wonder is, that, 

 notwithstanding this, the subjects treated in this 

 part have been rendered so clearly and so thor- 

 oughly comprehensible. Nine excellent figures 

 illustrate it, and it is completed by a helpful 

 ' Table showing the gradual development of the 

 Vei-tebrata in time.' 



We find the ' Special part ' divided up into 

 sections, leading off with ' A. Integument ; ' fol- 

 lowed by ' B. Skeleton ; ' then ' C, Muscular sys- 

 tem ; ' ' D. Electric organs ; ' ' E. Nervous sys- 

 tem;' ' F. Organs of nutrition;' 'G. Organs of 

 respiration ; ' ' H. Organs of circulation ; ' and, 

 finally, ' I. Urinogenital organs.' These several 

 sections are found appropriately subdivided into 

 other parts ; and this plan has been found to 

 answer the purposes both of the student and 

 anatomist most admirably. Following as a natural 

 sequence to such an arrangement as this, it af- 

 fords, so far as the make-up of a volume is con- 

 cerned, an excellent opportunity to offer a concise 

 and convenient table of contents, presenting us 

 with the several headings and divisions of the 

 treatise, which has been done in the present 

 instance. And to one at aU familiar with the 

 subject, this table of contents, supplemented, as it 

 here is, by a wonderfully well-arranged and com- 

 plete index (which latter contains but few omis- 

 sions), leaves but little to be desired on this score. 

 One word, however; for students are critical, 

 and all are not thoroughly informed upon ana- 

 tomical synonymes : so in future editions of this 

 work it would be better to have index and text 

 agree in every particular, and such errors, for 

 instance, as indexing 'adrenal, 161,' and on p. 161 

 find ' suprarenal ' only referred to, removed. 



The section devoted to the treatment of the 

 integument, though very brief, is excellent, and 

 has been fully brought up to our present knowl- 

 edge of the morphology of this structure and its ap- 

 pendages, in the several groups of the Vertebrata. 



As we might expect, a considerable share of 

 the work (pp. 30-111) is devoted to the ' Skeleton,' 

 and it is ably dealt with under two headings ; 

 viz., (I.) Dermal skeleton (pp. 30-33), and (II.) 

 The endoskeleton. Under the latter we are pre- 

 sented with a capital discussion of the ' Theory of 

 the segmentation of the skull,' a fitting introduc- 



