364 Notices of Scientific Works. [July, 



them in the anatomical theatre. In the first case the knowledge is 

 hearsay, in the second it is the result of close individual observation, 

 and is therefore real. 



Now it is the acquisition of a real and substantial basis of facts 

 ■ — facts which must be verified again and again by the observing eye 

 and sensitive touch — to which physical and biological science, as an 

 engine of education, should first prompt the student. In other studies 

 words come to him invested with the authority conferred by the name 

 of some master. In these he is to believe what he sees and can prove 

 by experiment. 



If it be asked why two such nearly related subjects as Anatomy 

 and Physiology should be studied so differently, and with such dif- 

 ferent results, we think the answer is near at hand. Comparative 

 anatomy, as a branch of scientific education, has, until recently, been 

 almost entirely neglected, and even now is not extensively taught. 

 Comparative physiology cannot be studied without a preliminary 

 groundwork of comparative anatomy. While, thirdly, almost all 

 advance in human physiology must depend on experiments made 

 on the lower animals. In these three statements we have indicated 

 what we conceive to be the true answer. Students cannot them- 

 selves work out the physiological problems connected with the nerves 

 in question, or any other similar part, because they are not suffi- 

 ciently familiar with their relative position in the only bodies on 

 which experiment is possible, viz. those of the lower animals. When 

 a course of comparative anatomy, carried out not merely by dry 

 lectures, but by actual dissections and demonstrations on familiar 

 representative animals, be considered an integral part of a medical 

 education, and not till then, will physiology be generally studied 

 according to a better method. 



But if an English student of medicine of to-day desires to fit 

 himself for pursuing physiological studies after the manner indicated, 

 or by practical dissection to enlarge his knowledge of those empirical 

 laws which underlie animal forms, whither is he to look for a guide 

 — such a guide as books on anthropotomy afford him in his prac- 

 tical study of the human body ? Except the book before us, we do 

 not know any that would serve his purpose. There are many books 

 of great value which give the results of comparative anatomy ; as, 

 for example, Professor Owen's great work ; or the remarkably lucid 

 and able ' Introduction to the Classification of Animals,' by Professor 

 Huxley. But their scope and aim are different. Professor Bolles- 

 ton's book does then, we think, supply a real want. 



By the aid of its very clear descriptions, and, if possible, still 

 clearer figures, the student is enabled to dissect and recognize all the 

 salient points in the anatomy of a rat, pigeon, frog, and many an- 

 other familiar and typical animal. The volume is not intended for 

 the mere reader of comparative anatomy, and will do him no good — 



