278 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Sense of Touch in Mammals and Birds, ivith special reference 

 to the Papillary Ridges. By Walter Kidd, M.D., F.Z.S. 

 Adam & Charles Black. 



This is a very useful book ; if it does not propose or support 

 a theory, or is somewhat inconclusive in result, it still becomes, 

 by its illustrations and descriptions, a text-book on the subject. 

 The impressions of the palmar and plantar surfaces of many 

 mammals, especially Primates, will afford quite a new study to 

 some zoologists ; while the literature on the subject, given in an 

 appendix, is a most welcome addition. It is in the literature 

 relating to the study of evolution that these books find their 

 place ; this one, having no novel theory, nor leading to any 

 startling conclusion, may possibly and probably be little known 

 beyond the ranks of a few students. The general reader requires 

 a sensational summary. How many, to whom the name of 

 Darwin is a household word, and ' Natural Selection ' and the 

 ' Descent of Man ' accepted axioms, have really studied the facts 

 on which those conceptions are founded ? 



According to Mr. Kidd, the Orang has a hand which ap- 

 proaches nearly to the shape of the human hand. The Gorilla 

 has a hand and foot of more powerful appearance than any other 

 Anthropoid Ape, the hand resembling a clumsy human hand, 

 while the foot is more powerful than that of the Orang. The 

 hand of the Chimpanzee is most human of all in general form, 

 but less complex as to patterns than the Gorilla or Orang, but 

 more so than the Gibbon. The result of Mr. Kidd's method of 

 enquiry points out that the Anthropoid Apes are distinguished 

 from all the Primates below them by marked simplicity of palmar 

 and plantar pattern, and by higher development of apical pads 

 in the Orang and Gorilla, the former change being common to 

 the whole group, the latter to only two out of the four. 



Mr. Kidd seems to place a very high value — perhaps too high 



