NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 119 



Manipulations de Zoologie, Animaux Vertebras. Par le Dr. Paul 

 Girod, Professeur-Adjoint a la Faculte des Sciences de 

 Clermont-Ferrand. Paris: J. B. Bailliere et Fils. 1892. 



The above-named volume is an Atlas of 32 process-plates, 

 large octavo; and, except for the use of colour in the delineation 

 of blood-vessels, it may be described as in method a sort of cross 

 between Howes' 'Atlas of Elementary Biology' and Smith and 

 Norwell's ' Illustrations of Zoology,' with few of the bad points of 

 the latter. Indeed, many of the leading figures in the volume 

 bear conspicuous traces not only of the influence of the first- 

 named work, but of other well-known English laboratory-books. 



The animals dealt with are as follows : — The Frog (9 plates), 

 the Perch (7 plates), the Fowl and Rabbit (each 8 plates) ; they 

 are presented in the order named, in accordance with a system 

 which the author rightly defends in his preface. Each plate is 

 accompanied by a concise description of its contents ; and the 

 first page or two of each section of the book are devoted to a 

 short account of the habits of the animal under consideration, 

 and of the best methods of capture, domestication, despatch, 

 and preservation, with especial hints for manipulation in the 

 laboratory. The more general directions for work, together with 

 lists of apparatus, preservative fluids, &c, are embodied in the 

 first thirteen pages of the book ; but, while perfectly sound and 

 thoroughly practical, they present no special novelties. The 

 worker following this book will find Wickersheim's fluid a needless 

 luxury, but the incorporation of directions for its preparation can 

 do him no harm. He will be prone to enquire the reason of the 

 needlessly gruesome directions for killing the unfortunate fowl 

 and rabbit, after the experience he will have gained at the expense 

 of their more lowly brethren. 



The plates are exceptionally unequal, both in merit and in 

 effect. The more diagrammatic among them are unquestionably 

 the best ; and in the needless elaboration of unimportant details 

 the direct aim of many figures is lost. For example, in one 

 case (pi. xi. fig. 1) the cut edge of a body-wall arrests the 

 attention as an all-important structure ; in another (pi. xxi. figs. 

 2 and 3) no one but an experienced anatomist could discriminate 

 between the different parts depicted; while in a third (pi. xxvi. 

 fig. 3) the area especially described as delineating characteristic 

 structural detail, reveals a mere flufllness of no certain signifi- 



