No. 441.] NOTES AND LITERATURE. 627 



Ftirth's very extensive compilation will therefore be a welcome 

 guide in this growing field of research. Although von Furth's 



conservative lines. After a brief introduction, it deals with the 

 chemistry of the blood, respiration, digestion, excretion, animal 



sections of the old-fashioned human physiology. It seems really 

 remarkable that such a classification as this should have been 

 adopted, for if there is one lesson taught by comparative physiology 

 more clearly than any other, it is the non-essential character of the 

 blood. Large groups of the lower metazoa are complete organisms 

 and yet they are without this fluid. Why then should the blood be 

 chosen as a means of introducing the student to the chemical physi- 

 ology of these lower forms? But aside from this traditional treat- 

 ment of the sections, the substance of these sections is refreshingly 

 modern, and with their excellent bibliographies they form admirable 

 summaries of many new fields of work. The exhaustiveness of the 

 treatment is well indicated by the subject digestion which covers 

 over a hundred pages and takes up in sequence digestion in the 

 protozoa, sponges, cnidaria, echinoderms, worms, molluscs, crustace- 

 ans, and other arthropods, devoting a chapter to each. Such a work 

 as this, despite its defects, must find its way to the hands of every 

 advanced student of animal physiology. 



Mind in Nature. 1 — This little book is at bottom an argument for 

 a certain form of vitalism. The author, while admitting the value of 

 the chemico-physical descriptions of movements given by Loeb and 

 other investigators of similar interests and aims, insists that it is 

 impossible to account for those forms of movement which we usually 

 designate as action or conduct on this ground. He believes that 

 there is a gap in the physical series which must be bridged by some 

 such factor as the psychic if a complete description of action (Hand- 

 lung) is to be given. 



The work consists of a careful study of the forms of movement. 

 Reflexes are classified as : 

 I. Simple. 



II. Complex] 1 " Synchronous <a H omometachronous. 



2. Metachronous j b Heterometachronous< 



