Monthly Microscopical"! 
Journal, June 1, 1869. J 
( 365 ) 
NEW BOOKS, WITH SHOKT NOTICES. 
An Introduction to the Classification of Animals. By Thomas Henry 
Huxley, LL.D., F.E.S. London : Churchill, 1869.— This work, 
the author tells us in his preface, contains the substance of the six 
lectures which form the first part of his treatise ' On the Classifi- 
cation of Animals.' In addition, it contains definitions of all 
the most important orders of the animal kingdom. It is brought 
out in its present form because it is likely to prove useful as 
a text-book, and because the work in which its matter first 
appeared is now out of print. We do not hesitate to say that, 
in reproducing this part of his lectures, Professor Huxley has 
conferred a great boon on both lecturers and students. Hitherto 
the student has had to wander in a very wilderness of text- 
books, most of them full of old and exploded doctrines, and many 
of them, even of recent publication, more remarkable for the 
startling character of the ideas they inculcate than for any 
sound philosophical teaching. But in the admirably-prepared and 
well-illustrated volume before us, the lecturer will find a work 
which he can conscientiously recommend to his pupil as embodying 
the latest research on those points in comparative anatomy which 
are concerned in the establishment of principles of classification, 
and as containing no " loose matter," but, on the contrary, most 
cautiously-worded and carefully-digested definitions and state- 
ments of fact. It is very much the custom among scientific men 
to jumble together a lot of facts with careless arrangement, and 
to call this kind of thing a text-book ; and, indeed, such treatises 
are the ruin of our schools. Of quite another stamp is the book 
of Professor Huxley. It is perfectly clear to even a casual 
reader that in everything that he has written for the student the 
author has weighed his words well, and that when a doubt has 
existed in his mind he has openly expressed it with the candour 
and precision which are so characteristic of all his writings. 
Perhaps some of our readers will think our criticism ecstatic, but 
from a long and painful experience of the miserably inexact nature 
of natural-science text-books, we are, we believe, not outstepping 
the bounds of impartial judgment when we pronounce this volume 
to be the best work for students that has yet appeared in our 
language. 
The system of classification adopted by the author is so well 
known to students of zoology that we need not enter upon it in 
these pages. Nor, indeed, need we do more in conclusion than 
point out the general features of the work. There are six 
chapters in the volume, and the titles of these are sufficiently 
indicative of the range of subject dealt with by Professor Huxley. 
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