276 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



discus, and Phoronis occupying a befitting position approximate 

 to the Bryozoa. 



The author is up to date in much of his information, and the 

 context of his book shows him to have consulted the original 

 literature first hand — his work being no mere reprint of scrappy 

 abstracts. He has been much beholden to other recent text- 

 books, notably that of Lang. The task of compiling a general 

 Text-Book of Comparative Anatomy is to-day so formidable that 

 inequalities are to be expected in the product, and the work before 

 us is no exception in this respect. The classification of the 

 Tunicata is, for example, very antiquated and insufficient, and 

 the chapter on Amphioxus, that "next to man the most important 

 vertebrate " is altogether behind the times. Had the author freed 

 himself from the trammels of von Lendenfeldism his chapter on 

 the Porifera would not have suffered ; and his book is none the 

 better for the incorporation of certain drawings and descriptions 

 of Paul Girod, many of which are bad, and misleading; had he 

 gone to the originals which inspired these he would have fared 

 better. The weakest portions of the work are those dealing with 

 histology and development, especially the former ; and while 

 many of the illustrative figures are of an altogether antiquated 

 type, the section of an ovary (p. 1156) may be cited as one of 

 many that are bad. The schematic figures of the nasal organs 

 of vertebrates (p. 1101) defy description, and the arrangement 

 which does duty (p. 844) for a transverse section of a long bone 

 may be perhaps approximately defined as a kind of cross between 

 a design for a bad chromatrope and a nightmare in dendritics. 

 There are intercalated with the text a series of eight coloured 

 plates, chiefly depicting the circulatory system of members of 

 the great classes, and for these the author acknowledges his 

 indebtedness to MM. Paul Mery and Bichard. They are by no 

 means so original as is implied; some of them are downright 

 slipshod, and a curious omission occurs in the non-representa- 

 tion of the arterial supply to the alimentary tract of those 

 vertebrates dealt with. We fear that the author's comment 

 that " all the world will appreciate the care and skill with which 

 they are executed" will hardly be taken as he desires it to be. 



Much labour has been bestowed upon the book, as is at 

 once evident from the Introduction, which deals with fundamental 

 principles. The author falls in with the Neo-Lamarckian school, 



