874 Recent Literature. [ October, 
The author is over-sanguine when he says in the preface that 
“no boy or girl should leave school without at least as much 
knowledge of the life about us and of our relations to the animal 
world as should be found in a book of this sort.” 
here are several statements in the text which should be mod- 
ified or changed, and one or two figures which ought to disappear 
in subsequent editions. 
A revision of the glossary would greatly improve the book. 
The introduction of many names of large groups of animals 
without any other notice, and fragmentary mentions of others, 
may require explanations from the teacher if the pupil is expected 
to master the book. 
On the whole the “First Lessons” is one of the best text- 
books of its kind with which we are familiar, and will doubtless 
prove of great service in those schools where it is used 
The book gives a good picture of the science of zoology: 
There is a great amount of information in its pages, and the text 
is clear and concise. The language is free from technicalities, 
and the figures as a general thing well chosen.—/. W. F. 
_ STUDIES FROM THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES OF THE OWENS 
Cottece!—The biological department of the Owens College, 
Manchester, England, under the able direction of Professor A. 
Milnes Marshall, has just published the first volume of its “ Stu- 
dies.” It contains reprints of several articles by the professor 
and his students as well as some which are new. /\mong these 
latter are Mr. Marshall Ward’s paper on an aquatic Myxomy" 
cete found growing on the roots of hyacinths; Mr. A. Det 3 
paper on the regeneration of the visceral mass in Antedon ; met 
Mr. C. F. Marshall’s studies of the physiology of the nervou 
~ system of the lobster. 
REcENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 
Amer. Asso. Adv, Sci.—Proceedings of the A. A. A. S., 34th meeting, 
Arbor, Michigan, Aug., 1885. From F. W. Putnam. 
Montgomery, E.—The Substantiality of Life. 
—Ueber das Protoplasma einiger “ Elementar-organismen.” 
——Zur lehre von der Muskelcontraktion. 1881. 
——Causation and its organic conditions. 
——The dependence of quality on specific energies. 
e ania of the organic individual 1, 1. Extract from 
a T. 
held at Ann 
“Mind.” Al from the 
. an 
Froriep, A.—Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Wirbelsiule, 1. Beobachtung 
Hiihnerembryonen. Ext. Arch. f. Anat. & Phys. hor. 
ho B ht 5 Sa tł t Ext. idem. Both om > i Hyp” 
Albrecht, P.—Ueber die morphologische Bedeutung der Penischis Epi- u” 
spadie des Menschen, 1886. Ext. Biologische Centralblatt. ie na- 
: ess 
——Snur la non-homologies des pneumons des vertebrés pulmonés avec la v 
tatoire des poissons. 
i E ts ; n ; z — pei 
— - nes gt a Biological Laboratories of Owens College. Vol. 1, pp- 32% 
sit arid ni ce enemas 
| 
