Miscellaneous Intelligence. 485 



contents of the Library of Congress in 1914 shows a total of 

 2,253,000 books and pamphlets, 142,000 maps and charts, 663,000 

 volumes and pieces of music, 377,000 prints, and a large number 

 of manuscripts. The accession of books and pamphlets for the 

 year was 125,000, which is a larger total than for any previous 

 year in the history of the Library, except 1909. The most 

 important part of these additions was a second gift of Semitica, 

 4,200 volumes, presented by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, to increase the 

 collection given by him in 1912 ; the library is thus in a very 

 strong position as to Jewish literature. The librarian also notes 

 in detail many other additions of value and considerable interest. 

 He further shows that in order to make the Library thoroughly 

 useful and of benefit to Congress, a corps of experts is called for 

 to give the members promptly information on legislative subjects 

 and specifically as to laws already enacted not only at Washing- 

 ton but also by other jurisdictions, domestic and foreign. It is 

 satisfactory to note that an appropriation of $25,000 for 1914-15 

 provides for the employment of "competent persons to prepare 

 such indexes, digests and compilations of law as may be required 

 by Congress." 



3. Text-book of Embryology ; edited by Walter He ape. 

 Vol. I, Invertebrata, by E. W. MacBride. Pp. xxxii, 692, with 

 468 figures. London, 1914 (Macmillan and Co.). — This work is 

 not limited to the descriptions of the developmental stages of 

 various groups of animals customary in books on this subject, for 

 the author's aim is so to correlate structure, function, and ancestry 

 as to elucidate the significance of the successive stages through 

 which the different animals pass during the course of their devel- 

 opment. 



The present volume illustrates the life history of one or more 

 examples of each of the important groups of invertebrates ; two 

 additional volumes will be required for the vertebrates. 



In order to be of the greatest possible service to the student in 

 Europe and America, those forms which are widely distributed 

 and which can be most easily secured are chosen for description, 

 and for each organism are given the methods by which the mate- 

 rial may be prepared for study. The descriptions aim to show 

 the exact state of our present knowledge, and wherever conspic- 

 uous gaps occur the author points out the problems that remain 

 unsolved with suggestions as to how they may be attacked. Spe- 

 cial emphasis is placed on the general principles which underlie 

 the science of embryology. Experimental work is also given 

 much attention. 



This work forms a most important addition to the very few 

 books of its kind, and brings together a vast amount of well assim- 

 ilated information which would otherwise be available only by the 

 study of a large number of original publications. The advanced 

 student will gain a clear and broad conception of the science, while 

 the investigator can hardly fail to receive an incentive to further 

 productive work. w. r. c. 



