( 443 ) 
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
ee 
A Classification of Vertebrata, Recent and Extinct. By Hans 
Gapbow, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. Adam and Charles Black. 
Tuts volume, written by a well-known Cambridge zoologist, 
appeared opportunely a little before the meeting of the Zoological 
Congress at that University town. It is a classification of the 
Vertebrata based on the sound foundation of that which preceded 
as well as that which exists. It of course naturally follows that 
the osseous structure is all that we certainly know of the past 
vertebral life, though Dr. Gadow argues “it would be pedantic to 
exclude all soft perishable parts on the plea that they are 
unknown in the fossil forms. Here discretion is to be used. We 
do not ‘know’ that the paleozoic Fishes did possess an entirely 
venous heart, nor has it yet been shown that the embryos of 
Dinosaurs were surrounded by an amnion; but we feel never- 
theless certain, because of the laws of correlation which compa- 
rative anatomy allows us to deduce from the study of recent 
creatures.” This proposition will be generally accepted, and is 
distinct from the question of antecedent colouration, a subject 
still in the domain of probabilities. This method will perhaps 
be best exemplified by reference to our own relationships, which 
Dr. Gadow thus arranges :— 
*“‘ ANTHROPOIDZ.—Caudal vertebre transformed into a coccyx. 
Walk erect or semi-erect. 
Hylobates.—S.E. Asia. ‘ Gibbon.’ 
Pliopithecus.—Miocene of Europe. 
Simia satyrus.—‘ Orang Utan.’ Sumatra and Borneo. 
Troglodytes gorilla and T'. niger.—West Equatorial Africa. 
T’.. swwalensis.—Pliocene, Punjab. 
Dryopithecus.— Miocene, France. 
Pithecanthropus erectus.—Plistocene, Java. 
Homo sapiens,—Cosmopolitan.” 
