No. 466.] NOTES AND LITERATURE. 751 
knowledge in these matters. The book, while necessarily somewhat 
technical at times, is by no means beyond the comprehension of the 
general reader, who knows even a little about plants. 
H. M. R. 
ZOÖLOGY. 
Sedgwick's Text-book of Zoülogy.'— The second volume of Sedg- 
wick's Zext-book of Zoology is devoted to amphioxus and the ver- 
tebrates. 'The volume, which contains over 7oo pages, may be 
described as a revised expansion of the vertebrate portion of Claus 
and Sedgwick. The expansion has been in part due to the addition 
_ of materials on fossil vertebrates which were very inadequately dealt 
with in the older text-book. The chapter on the Cephalochorda 
deals almost exclusively with Amphioxus lanceolatus, the structure 
and development of which is most admirably portrayed. Here, 
however, the description ends, for almost nothing of value is given 
concerning the natural history, distribution, or taxonomy of this im- 
portant and interesting group of animals. In fact we are told that 
the phylum contains only a single genus, Amphioxus, a statement so 
conservative as to be misleading. The remaining chapters treat of 
the vertebrates proper and contain as a rule well balanced descrip- 
tions of the larger and smaller groups of this phylum reminding one 
of the treatment accorded them in Claus's classic text-book except 
that Sedgwick gives us an adequate account of the fossil representa- 
 tives. In fact the striking feature of this new text is the complete 
absorption of paleontology into the body of zoólogy, a logical and 
natural consequence of the growth of these two sciences. In another 
respect, however, the new volume is strikingly out of touch with 
recent work; it is almost without reference to animal physiology. 
Although the recent results of comparative physiology are by no 
means as ripe for incorporation into à general zoólogical text as those 
of paleontology, they are certainly far too important to be omitted 
from such a work as Sedgwick's and they are assuredly as truly a 
l Sedgwick, A. A Student's Text-book of Zoilogy. Vol. II. London, Swan, 
Sonnenschein and Co., 1905. 8vo, xvi + 705 Pp» 333 figs. 
