REVIEWS. 361 



better described as a process than change. Nor is the classification of 

 secretion and excretion as simple as the author states. 



It would be very much better if the writers of text-books on histology 

 would not treat of amitosis as if it were an ordinary and common method 

 of nuclear division. To be able to state that cell-division is of two varie- 

 ties, direct and indirect, seems beautifully clear and simple and appeals 

 to our love of antithesis. As a matter of fact, the probabilities are that 

 the student of histology will never see an example of amitosis, and the 

 chances are that the instructor himself has seen very few cells actually 

 undergoing amitotic division. The student would get a very much more 

 correct idea of its unimportance/ if amitosis were only described in 

 connection with the tissues where it occurs, and if he were told that 

 amitosis is usually found in decadent or degenerating tissues, and that 

 there exist grave doubts of its being in any sense a normal process in 

 metazoan tissues. 



The author should have made it clear that the process of segmentation 

 described on page 42 is not the usual one observed in the animal kingdom, 

 but a very peculiar process limited to some of the mammals. 



The mechanical work of the book is done in a very satisfactory manner. 

 Some of the figures and diagrams are original and a few are improve- 

 ments on the ones usually published. On the other hand, some of the 

 figures copied from other text-books have suffered in the process. 



The principal criticism of the book is that it offers nothing which 

 other texts do not give in a better way. It escapes being a real quiz- 

 compend, but does not attain the dignity of a text-book, while it is certainly 

 not a laboratory manual. For the teacher who wishes to give as extensive 

 a course in histology as is outlined in this work, there exist several text- 

 books which are so much superior to it in the treatment of the subject, 

 that Doctor Eadasch's book can not be compared with them. 



Lawrence E. Griffin. 



