1 88 2.] Recent Literature. 35 



February, January 25, [881 ; March, February 24; April, March 

 25 ; May, April 16; June, May 19; July, June 22; August, July 

 27 ; September, August 23 ; October, September 23 ; November, 

 October 28 ; December, December 3. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Mivart's The Cat. 1 — The principle underlying the method of 

 modern scientific, particularly biological study, is to examine one 

 animal thoroughly, in order to lay the foundation for further ad- 

 vanced and more comparative studies. So we have books de- 

 voted wholly to the anatomy of a few common animals, typical 

 forms, as the frog, the butterfly, or as in the present work, the 

 cat. The tendency is thus to extreme analytical and special 

 views, and such books should be of course used with the under- 

 standing that the student will never make a broad, philosophical 

 naturalist unless his studies be made comparative. But it is bet- 

 ter to thoroughly know all that can be learned from one kind of 

 cat, than to have a superficial knowledge of cats in general, or 

 mammals at large. Cats are very unequally distributed, and! 

 there is always a superfluity of material in our cities, so that the 

 incipient medical student need not lack for material for dissection 

 preliminary to his laboratory practice on the human cadaver. 

 For this class of students this book is all important, while it is 

 also designed for use in colleges and higher schools, or those be- 

 ginning the study of zoology, as an introduction to the study of 

 vertebrate animals. 



After describing clearly and simply, with the aid of abundant 

 and most excellent wood engravings, the skeleton, muscles, or- 

 gans of alimentation, circulation, respiration and secretion, of 

 reproduction, the nervous system, with the physiology of these 

 organs in sufficient detail, a full and adequate account is given of 

 the cat's development. 



This important subject appears to be well treated, and is, in 

 part, the result of the author's own observations, a number of the 

 diagrams and illustrations having been prepared for this work. 



These chapters occupy about two-thirds of the book, and are 

 succeeded by chapters on the psychology of the cat, and on the 

 different kinds of cats ; while the work closes with essays on the 

 cat's place in nature, the cat's " hexicology," or its relations to 

 the world about it and to fossil cats, and finally, Professor Mivart 

 gives us his opinions as to the pedigree and origin of the cat. 



In his discussion of the nature of the cat's mind, the young 

 student will be liable to be unduly biassed by Mr. Mivart's dog- 



1 The Cat. An introduction to the study of backboned Animals, especially Mam- 

 mals. B y St. George Mivart, Ph.D., F.R.S. With 200 Illustration,. New 



