NOTES AND LITERATURE. 
ZOÓLOGY. 
A New Comparative Histology.'— The enormous mass of obser- 
vations accumulated by histologists during the last decade has been 
greatly in need of such a treatment as would reduce its essentials to 
a compact and serviceable form. Schneider’s Lehrbuch der vergleich- 
enden Histologie, though a most excellent book in many respects, can 
scarcely be said to attack the problem from this standpoint, for its 
treatment of the subject on the basis of the descriptive histology of 
a series of representative animals has given to it so strongly an indi- 
vidual bent that it is a voluminous contribution from the author to 
comparative histology rather than a résumé of our present knowledge 
of that field. The Zraité d’ Histologie by Prenant, Bouin, and Mail- 
lard! on the other hand is a most successful attempt at this almost 
Herculean task. The work is planned for two volumes, of which the 
first, complete in itself, has just been published and the second is 
promised before the close of this year. 
The first volume, whose subtitle is General and Special Cytology, 
is divided into three parts. The first of these includes Book I, deal- 
ing with protoplasm and the cell in general; Book II, giving the 
general morphology of the cell; Book III, taking up cellular physi- 
ology; and Book IV, indicating the lines of cellular differentiation. 
The second part, which contains Books V to VIII, has to do with the 
various forms of differentiated cells: sensory, muscular, nutritive, and 
The third part includes Book IX on cell multiplication, 
and XI on cellular degeneration and 
has received an exhaustive and 
sustentative. 
X on individual reproduction, 
death. Each of these subjects 
thorough treatment and not only are the facts concerning a given 
form of tissue well recorded but the present stand of the appropriate 
theoretic questions is unusually well stated. From the standpoint of 
a comparative histology which seeks to give the reader the main facts 
of the science and to orient him so far as the chief theoretic questions 
are concerned, the volume is without an equal and should prove a 
great boon to all histologists. 
1Prenant, A., Bouin, P., et Maillard, L. Traité d Histologie. Tome 1, Cyto- 
logie générale et spéciale. Paris, C. Reinwald, 1904. xxxii + 799 pP- 791 figs. 
845 

