1392.] Recent Literature. 1021 
their sounds with the vocal organs, and modulate them with the teeth, 
tongue and lips. The fundamental sounds appear to be pure vowels, 
but faint traces of consonants are found in many words, especially 
those of low pitch. 
The experiments made by Mr. Garner have been conducted in an 
ingenious and careful manner, and his results appear to be of value to 
science. He has the spirit and capacity of the original investigator, 
and his researches are of much interest to the specialist as well as to 
the general reader. It is when he turns to the large questions outside 
of his immediate field of research that it is evident that he has not 
yet mastered the achievements of human thought. This he will prob- 
ably do in future, as he has a clear idea of the problems involved. A 
judicious use of the scissors would have benefited the latter half of the 
book as it is. 
Mr.Garner has gone to Africa with the phonograph with the inten- 
tion of recording the voices of the gorilla and chimpanzee. It may 
be questioned whether these animals will be as amenable to social 
intercourse in the wild state as they are when confined behind the bars 
of a zoological garden. The gorilla, especially, will not treat with the 
respect they deserve Mr. Garner’s efforts to engage in conversation. 
We, however, wish him success in his enterprise, not only with regard 
to these, our distant relations, but also our nearer of kin, the Africans 
of the native tribes. 
Elementary Biology.’ —A book written by a teacher for stu- 
dents. The general plan of the work is to familiarize the student 
with ideas through the medium of facts. In the author’s opinion these 
ideas are best understood when arrived at by the study of concrete 
types of animals and plants. The types chosen to illustrate a particu- 
lar e of organization must be simple. In view of this last prin- 
ciple considerable attention is given to the Protozoa ; only a brief 
reference is made to Hydra and to the sexual process in Penicillium ; 
Nitella is described instead of Chara, and Polygordius instead of the 
earthworm. In the chapter devoted to the higher groups of animals 
and plants brief descriptions of types are given in terms of Polygor- 
dius and the Fern respectively. As occasion offers special lessons 
on such subjects as biogenesis, evolution, origin of species, etc., are 
introduced in order to give a fairly connected account of the general 
principles of biology. 
*Lessons in Elementary Biology, by T. Jeffery Parker, B. Sc., F. R. S., professor 
of biology in the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, with eighty-nine 
illustrations; Macmillan and Co., London and New York, 1891. 
