810 Recent Literature. [ December, 
cessors, or their relations to lower forms of life, or to their envi- 
ronment; nor is anything said regarding the mode of develop- 
ment of these animals. However, as a compact, concise, clearly 
written and useful manual of the morphology of vertebrates, it 
is well adapted for the use intended by the author, viz: “ To 
present in as clear a form as possible the leading characters of 
vertebrate animals.” As such we recommend its use in colleges 
and high schools, and to the general reader, though in these days 
the latter class of book buyers desire, as a rule, a book com- 
bining morphology and biology, with general views of the rela- 
ion of animals to their surroundings, as well as their relations to 
fossil forms. It should, however, in justice be said, that all this 
could not be contained in a book of the size of the present one. 
While we have no fault to find with the matters of detail, we 
ould suggest that in the light of recent discoveries, it is old- 
fashioned and oo to regard the fourteen groups of 
carinate birds as “ order 
The wood-cuts are aaf well selected subjects, and are, with 
scarcely an exception, excellent, while the paper, press-work an 
binding render this little hand-book, like others of the series, 
both attractive and convenient, 
FOSTER AND LANGLEY’S ELEMENTARY PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY.’ — 
This well known book, so useful to students of anatomy, histol- 
ogy and physiology, has passed to a third edition, which differs 
from the preceding one chiefly by the introduction of a lesson on 
the structure of the ear, and by some additions to the lessons on 
the connective tissues. As it now stands the ‘book is indispen- 
sable for medical students, and for biologists who have used 
Huxley and Martin’s Biology and desire to extend their studies to 
histology and physiology. Its extensive use among natural’sts is 
most desirable, to draw them away from “ skin and bone” as well 
as systematic zoology, to a study of the living organism, and thus 
ultimately to the more general relations of animals to each other 
and their environment. 
IHERING’S PERIPHERAL NERVE-SYSTEM OF Vertesrates.*—This 
elaborate essay treats of the following subjects: The per ipheral 
vertebrates and invertebrates; a general phylogeny of the 
peripheral nerve-system and the formation of regions of 
the vertebral column. The chapters on these subjects are fol- 
lowed by a special account of these nerves in the different 
1A Course % yrn Practical Physiology. By M. FOSTER, M.D., F.R.S 
assisted by J. N. Langley, B.A. Third edition. London, Macmillan & Co. ” S78 
12mo, pp. 276. i 
_ * Das Peripherische Nervensystem der ponen als Grundlage für die Kenntniss 
o AE en tag f Wirbelsäule. Von HERMANN VON IHERING. Mit 5 tafeln 
oa 36 holzsch nituen. Leipzig, Verlag von Fc W, Vogel, 1878. 4'0, pp- 238- 
