138 The American Naturalist. [March, 
surmounted by a bust was placed on the interior wall of the 
church, and services in honor of the philospher, in which sev- 
eral scientific men took part, were held at the time of the un- 
veiling. Priestly was not only one of the fathers of modern 
chemistry ; it was also as a philosopher and theologian, and as 
oneofthe founders ofthe first UnitarianChurch of Philadelphia, 
that he was honored on this occasion. Though this act of 
appreciation has come too late for him to enjoy, it will encourage 
others to contribute their share to the progress of mankind. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Lang's Comparative Anatomy.' — This is the beginning 
of an entirely new edition of Schmidt's Comparative Anatomy, 
and so far as one may judge from a single part, it is to be ranked 
among the best of the recent text books. On every page 
there is a freshness both in treatment and illustration which is 
pleasing, while the text reads almost like a story. There is 
one noticeable feature in the work ; it is logical in its arrange- 
ment. Thus we have as an introduction a couple of pages of 
an account of the cell followed by twenty on the Protozoa ; 
next the student is introduced to the ^gg and spermatozoan, 
cell complexes and tissues, a few words concerning the Met- 
azoa, and with this preparation we are lead to the Ccelenterates 
and thence to the higher forms. Several features, which 
though not exactly new, we do not recall in any text book, are 
introduced into the classification, and are usually to be regarded 
as improvements. Thus the division of the Cnidaria ( — Coe- 
lenterata s. str) into Hydozoa, Scyphozoa and Ctenophora and 
the limitation of the first two of these by the character of the 
oesophagus (ento, or ectodermal) is a valuable feature, though 
itdisarranges our preexisting ideas and transfers the Craspedota 
from the Hydrozoa to the neighborhood of the sea anemones 
and corals. So too the separation of the Plathelmintha from 
the Vermes is certainly to be warranted on morphological 
grounds. The present part of the work considers only the 
Protozoa, Coelenterata, Plathelmintha, and Vermes, but if 
iron Dr. Arnold Lang. Erste abthei- 
