NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 195 



Echinodermata, Vermes, Molluscoidea, Mollusca, and Arthro- 

 poda, the Vertebrata being reserved for the next volume. In 

 the introduction we are reminded how even in palaeontology we 

 have advanced beyond the Linnsean and Cuvierian conceptions, 

 when we read : " Those holding to the theory of descent, evolution, 

 or transmutation, look upon varieties, species, subgenera, genera, 

 families, orders, classes, and sub-kingdoms, as distinctions of 

 merely transient importance, corresponding to the state of our 

 information at the present time; it being assumed that by means 

 of gradual transmutation during the course of ages all organisms 

 have become evolved from a single primitive cell, or from a few 

 primitive types." 



This excellent German work, made accessible to the strictly 

 English reader under purely American supervision, forms a 

 work of reference that zoologists will find most useful to consult. 

 Even with its more than 700 pages of letterpress, containing 

 1476 figures, its subject matter is very far from exhausted, 

 and its value lies in its summarized information. This is 

 evident when we refer to the Insecta, revised by no less than the 

 greatest palseontological authority on the subject, Prof. S. H. 

 Scudder, and find that the information is compressed in ten pages. 

 Those who are familiar with the palseontological writings on this 

 subject by Prof. Scudder alone will not fail to comprehend that 

 even this portly volume is but a digest of the ancient history of 

 animal life. 



An Elementary Course of Practical Zoology. By the late T. 

 Jeffery Parker, D. Sc, F.R.S., and W. N. Parker, Ph.D. 

 Macmillan & Co., Limited. 

 However much in our daily life we may somewhat avoid the 

 too practical man, there can be little doubt we want more practical 

 zoologists. The average naturalist to-day is perhaps concerned 

 overmuch with the outsides of animals, and a very large pro- 

 portion indeed of conclusions and theories are based on animal 

 appearances. Surface zoology in a strict sense should rank very 

 little higher than surface geology; but how few of us have now 

 either the time, opportunity, or desire for undertaking even 



