1894,] Recent Literature. 409 
Of equal value is the exhaustive card catalogue of parasites and hosts 
kept by the Bureau. It is freely at the disposal of scientific workers, 
and by means of it one can refer to a desired species or to the entire 
literature on any parasite. Such an undertaking would be impossible 
save in the great libraries of the world, among which those at Wash- 
ington are rated. Any one who, like the reviewer, has had occasion to 
refer to this catalogue, will appreciate its value and will join in wish- 
ing that such work may be long continued under the patronage of our 
Department of Agriculture. 
Henry B. Warp. 
Clark’s Microscopical Methods.’—This volume is hardly up to 
the times, being apparently the production of a man ignorant of mod- 
ern methods of microscopical research. Thus we note an utter absence 
of any reference to such fundamental matters as serial sections, stain- 
ing on the slide, the use of any fixing and hardening reagents except 
alcohol. We meet continually sentences like this “ It is to be under- 
stood that the somewhat complicated processes of imbedding in paraf- 
fin and colloidin are not recommended for general use.” We can say 
the same of the book. 
Dodge’s Practical Biology.’—To the long list of laboratory 
guides, the new year addsanother. Professor Dodge has had consider- 
able experience in teaching both high school (Detroit). and college 
(Rochester Univ.) classes and this work is the outcome of his experi- 
ence. It is, as its name indicates, a guide to biology. It takes up first, 
the biology of the cell, treating of unicellular organisms and cells from 
the tissues of higher forms and then later, not in the sandwich manner 
but in the sequence which most teachers would adopt, takes up first the 
animals and second the plants. The directions for laboratory work 
are well and carefully drawn, and, a point which we note with pleasure, 
the student is told what to look for, not what he will find. He cannot 
answer the questions without recourse to the specimens, while the 
absence of illustrations renders it impossible for him to copy the dia- 
grams in the book. Not only is structure studied, but, to such extent 
as is possible with the average student and with average facilities, the 
physiology as well. 
*Practical Methods in Microscopy, by Charles H. Clark. Boston, D. C. Heath & 
Co., 1894, 120 pp., XIV-+219. : 
“Introduction to Elementary Practical Biology. A laboratory guide for high school 
pe college students, by Charles Wright Dodge. New York, 1894. 120 pp., xxiii, 
