i98 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS, 



Text-book of Zoology. Fifth Edition. Ke- written and enlarged. 

 By H. A. Nicholson, Kegius Professor of Natural History 

 in the University of Aberdeen. 8vo. Blackwood & Sons, 

 Edinburgh and London. 1894. 



This volume, when compared with its predecessor of 1886, 

 shows an increase of 13 chapters, 177 pages, and 94 woodcuts. 

 This is found to be mainly due to extension of the section 

 dealing with the Vertebrata, and more particularly of the 

 chapters devoted to Pisces and Mammalia. These show an 

 increase of 20 and 64 pages, or 100 and 120 per cent, respec- 

 tively; an analysis which renders perfectly clear the author's 

 special acknowledgments of indebtedness to the recently pub- 

 lished work on the Mammalia by Sir William Flower and 

 Mr. Lydekker. And further perusal of the work justifies the 

 suspicion, which this circumstance arouses, that it is a com- 

 pilation of mere text-book knowledge. 



The faulty nature of the earlier editions of this treatise and 

 its more advanced associate the ' Manual of Zoology,' has been 

 in the past notorious ; but their author, adhering to his original 

 scheme with true British pluck, has so far emended and 

 improved the succeeding issues, that both books are now pre- 

 sentable and reliable. Their chief weakness has all along been 

 due to insufficient recognition of the study of development, and 

 the leading novelty in the present volume is the incorporation 

 of a chapter on " Beproduction and Development of Metazoa," 

 presumably designed to overcome this. This chapter extends to 

 14 pages only, and deals in a most elementary and out-of-date 

 fashion with the earliest stages of the developmental process. 



Evidence is forthcoming that this work is primarily designed 

 for the use of the horde of medical students who yearly flock to 

 the Scottish universities, to come under the influence of a 

 system, under which, time that might be better spent in the 

 wards is devoted to lengthy courses in botany and zoology. In 

 the progress of his career the Scottish medical student is 

 subjected to a recurring diet of " Embryology," in both the 

 purely scientific and strictly professional departments of his 

 study. We question, however, whether the " too many cooks " 

 do not here spoil the (embryological) broth, and whether the 



