112 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Amphibia; and other good authorities have assisted with re- 

 maining groups. Prof. Marsh was to have revised the Dino- 

 sauria, but this was prevented by the regretted death — or, as 

 Mr. Eastman writes, "the final passing " — of that distinguished 

 palaeontologist. 



This book is one for recognition rather than criticism. It is 

 one to which the zoologist may safely refer for nearly the last 

 word on palaeontology, and as such is a, or rather the, recognized 

 authority. Criticism can only be advanced by specialists on 

 special groups, and does not affect the main thesis. The volume 

 is now of a greater necessity to zoologists than it would have been 

 formerly. Zoology has become less restricted to a knowledge 

 of what is living, apart from what is dead ; to the present, with- 

 out reference to the past. Palaeontology — even with the imper- 

 fection of the geological record — is our principal key to the 

 method and course of evolution, and in a purely zoological and 

 taxonomic sense we may say with Wordsworth, and with a bio- 

 logical meaning, " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." 



Zoological Wall-Tables. Drawn and Edited by Paul Pfurt- 

 scheller, Ph.D. A. Pichlers Witwe & Sohn, Vienna and 

 Leipsic. 

 We have received Tables 4 and 5 of this series, intended for 

 the use of schools — where higher zoology is taught — and science 

 teachers. Tab. 4 represents Mustelus vulgaris, the ordinary species 

 of the genus, and the most frequently found smooth-skinned 

 Shark in the Mediterranean. This diagram is large, and portrays 

 a female specimen with its ventral side opened, exhibiting the 

 viscera and internal structure, and surrounded by sectional illus- 

 trations. One, magnified six times, shows the egg of a Scyllium, 

 with the embryo just emerging, and wearing the large vitelline 

 bag. Tab. 5 relates to theEchinoidea, and to Sphaerechinus sp., 

 and by the ample size shows not only the internal anatomy, but 

 also details of its complicated external structure. These large 

 wall-tables are coloured, thus drawing attention to the principal 

 organs, and are accompanied by descriptive leaflets printed in 

 the English language, which should prove useful alike to scholar 

 and teacher. 



