120 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cance. Gross errors occur in places, as in the misrepresentation 

 of the eleventh cranial nerve and of the quadrate element of 

 the fowl. A glaring inconsistency presents itself in the intro- 

 duction of the humerus, femur, tibia and fibula (the latter 

 complete and distinct, sic) of the rabbit, to the exclusion of 

 the radius and ulna and the pedal skeleton ; and in this 

 (pi. xxxii.) and certain other plates, the reference numbers or 

 letters of some of the figures bear no relationship to the accom- 

 panying text. Although, in perpetrating these defects, the 

 author has cast his lot with that of many an aspiring predecessor, 

 he has carried the matter an interesting stage further. With 

 the exception of plates xxv. and xxx., which bear no acknow- 

 ledged authorship, all are admitted autogenous, with the help 

 of Chauveau, Cuvier and Valenciennes, Huxley, and a certain 

 Monsieur Beaunis, whose share in the responsibility can only 

 have been an altogether insignificant one. There is, however, 

 something very remarkable in the fact that the Huxleyan figures 

 should be chiefly (Fowl's skull) the most insufficiently and 

 erroneously lettered ones which the author could well have 

 chosen, and that conspicuous among those which he attributes 

 to his great countryman Chauveau, there should be a rabbit's 

 blade-bone (pi. xxxii. fig. 1) having a broken spine — whereby it 

 closely resembles that of a cat ! We would earnestly recommend 

 the latter very curious and fateful coincidence to the chef in 

 search of authority. 



The book abounds in minor incongruities and irregularities ; 

 and many of the illustrations bear unmistakable traces of the 

 published works of certain English anatomists, as aforesaid. 

 The author has apparently gone on the principle of copying with 

 acknowledgment, but without correction, where a great name 

 could be dragged in, and of copying with modification, and 

 consequent non-recognition, where a lesser one was concerned. 

 He has been curiously unfortunate in his first course, and has 

 succeeded in diminishing the accuracy and utility of some of his 

 best illustrations in his second. His attitude of mind is neither 

 novel nor scientific ; it is one, however, upon which the English 

 reader has long passed judgment. 



The book is the third published of a projected series of four, 

 the third in order of which has yet to appear ; and we earnestly 

 recommend the above criticism to its author's serious attention. 



