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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



An Introduction to Zoology. By Egbert W. Hegner, Ph.D. 

 New York. The Macmillan Company. 



To adequately understand the scope and purview of this 

 volume, it is well to give the opening paragraph to the preface : 

 " This hook has been ivritten for the use of students taking the 

 introductory course in Zoology in Universities and Colleges. It 

 has been prepared especially for the zoological part of the ivork in 

 General Biology at the University of Michigan, and is expected to 

 supplement the one lecture and four hours of laboratory ivork per 

 iveek during the first half-year.'' 



The treatise thus represents a more or less individualistic 

 standpoint, and is intended to supplement a particular course of 

 instruction. It is confined to the consideration of invertebrates 

 alone ; the writer states : "No originality is claimed for this text- 

 book," and that " the majority of the figures have been borrowed 

 from other textbooks and from original articles in scientific 

 periodicals." It is, however, a publication that teachers should 

 peruse and students carefully read with profit and instruction. 



In the attempted definition of what is understood as a species, 

 a very apt remark is quoted of a "prominent zoologist" who, 

 when asked to give such a definition, said it was " somebody's 

 opinion." The chapter on historical zoology is illustrated with 

 portraits of Aristotle, Linnseus, Cuvier, Harvey, Von Baer, 

 Johannes Miiller, and Darwin, which add to its interest and 

 value, while a subsequent chapter on general considerations of 

 zoological facts and theories gives a compressed digest (in many 

 instances a most difficult performance) of most of the generali- 

 zations and theories which have now become household words in 

 biological and evolutionary conceptions. An appended biblio- 

 graphy gives references to two hundred and eighty books and 

 publications, an excellent selection, and there is also a glossary 

 of many of those terms now used in zoology and in biological 

 theories and suggestions, which to completely remember and 

 fully understand should in science be considered as a mark of 

 " polite education." 



