622 - Recent Literature. [ September, 
for scientific generalization as well as for economic statistics. 
From both points of view the volumes before us justify the wis- 
dom of the creation and support of the Second Geological Sur- 
vey of Pennsylvania. ; 
FOURTEEN WEEKS IN ZoöLocy, BY J. DormMAN STEELE.—The 
following facts in Natural History, which will be new to most 
readers of the NATURALIST are taken from Steele’s “ Fourteen 
eeks in Zodlogy,’!a work by a “born school-book writer,” 
lately published to “ meet the popular demand” for instruction in 
Zoology. 
“ Lophiide (crested)—The Fishing frog has the ventral fins 
forward of the pectoral. The latter serve as legs and enable it to 
hop about upon the beach. Upon the head are three spines—the 
first, with a shiny membrane at the tip, fastened by a ring-and-staple 
joint and able to move in every direction; the other two turning 
‘only backward and forward. The sluggish creature lies in the 
mud at the bottom of the water, and waving the first spine, . 
attracts the curious fishes with this glistening bait; but, as they 
nibble, the rear spines knock them into its capacious mouth ” 
p. 190). 
“ Percide (dusky)—Ferch are found both in salt and fresh 
water. Their operculum is so constructed that they can be kept 
alive in the air for hours by occasionally pouring water upon 
their gills” (p. 191). ; 
“ Siluride—The Cat-fish, or Horned pout, has a naked skin, 
and the mouth surrounded by tentacles” (p. 195). , 
“The Hydrozoa (water-dragon animals) or Jelly fishes, have no 
mesenteric spaces, and the eggs are developed on the external in- 
stead of the internal surface of the body wall. Interspersing the 
tentacles and other parts of the -body are cells containing long, 
spirally-coiled threads, barbed and serrated, which dart forth with 
inconceivable velocity to lasso their prey. * * * Mere trans- 
parent masses of jelly and only visible because of their brilliant 
colors, they move through the water rapidly and lasso their prey 
with great precision” (p. 271). And so on wherever one opens 
the book. 
It seems to me, that we who believe in the study of nature as a 
“means of grace,” ought to protest earnestly against such bur- 
lesques on science as this work and its companions. “I told them 
that I was not the man for such work, and I told them, too, that 
the less of such work that is done the better. It is not school- 
=- books we want, but students. The book of nature is always 
open, and all I can do or say shall be to make them study that 
_ book and not to pin their faith to any other ” (Acassiz).—D. ST 
| Fourteen Weeks in Zoölogy. By J. DORMAN STEELE, Ph. D., F. G. S., author of 
the Fourteen Weeks Series in Natural Science. A. S. Barnes & Co. New York, 
go and New Orleans, 1877. __ ; 
© 
