NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 399 



widely circulated book on Fermentation, translated from the 

 French, we are told that French and Germans are satisfied 

 to drink beer made with " inferior yeast" ; * there is nothing so 

 bad in the present work; and so far Mr. Tuckey is to be 

 congratulated. 



The title of this English translation is somewhat mis- 

 leading ; it only contains an account of the breeding habits 

 of Amphioxus at Faro, near Messina, and of the development of 

 the fertilised egg as far as the formation of the mouth and first 

 gill-slit. The account given is admirably systematic and clear, 

 and the figures are good and numerous, though in some cases too 

 small to be readily interpreted, for they are reduced to half the 

 diameter of the originals. But to place on the right-hand cover 

 the word " Amphioxus " is seriously to mislead the unwary. A 

 good text-book under such a title would give, in a continuous 

 form, the anatomical structure and full development of Amphi- 

 oxus, as completed by Prof. Kay Lankester's researches, and 

 those of his pupils ; and this is so great a desideratum that our 

 satisfaction in obtaining this book in English is marred by the 

 fear that it may preclude the appearance of the other. 



M. H. 



The Great Sea Serpent : an historical and critical treatise. By A. 

 C. Oudemans. Eoyal 8vo, pp. i — xv, 1—592; with 82 

 Illustrations. Leiden: E.J. Brill. London: Luzac & Co. 



This voluminous treatise is in many respects disappointing. 

 The subject is a good one, and, with the materials so industriously 

 collected by the author, ought to have furnished something more 

 satisfactory in the way of result. Mr. Oudemans seems to have 

 collected every printed report and story of a Sea Serpent that he 

 could lay his hands upon, good, bad, and indifferent, and arranged 

 them chronologically, from the 'History' of Olaus Magnus, a.d. 

 1555, down to a Dutch weekly newspaper (' De Amsterdammer ') 

 of July, 1890. While he was about it, seeking for observations by 

 ancient authors, he might as well have quoted Pliny (Hist. Nat. 

 lib. viii. cap. 14), but he would have done better had he omitted 

 more than half the stories he has reprinted, as being quite 



* "Bottom yeast " is the correct expression for " levure inferieure," 



