220 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
COMPAKATIVE OSTEOLOGY.^ 
I T seldom happens that the man who gives himself up to original observ'a- 
tion is also capable of occasionally assisting in the diffusion of that mass 
of knowledge which he has spent years in acquiring. Of course all who are 
familiar with the doings of the science world are aware, that when an original 
discovery has been made, or the anatomy of a creature has been worked out, 
the results are communicated to some of the learned societies. But, unfortu- 
nately, the information either remains locked up in the dusty volume of 
Transactions in which it was originally published, or else is taken up by some 
unskilled or unscrupulous vendor of what has erroneously been termed 
“ popular ” science, and so is transmitted to the public in a confused and 
mutilated condition. This we are sorry to think is the general rule ; but 
there are exceptions to it. Here, for example, in the volume under notice is 
an instance. Professor Huxley, notwithstanding the extensive nature and 
number of the original inquiries in which he is continually engaged, sends us 
out now and then a proof of his desire to teach those who are outside le 
monde scientijique. He does not present himself like some persons we could 
name, in order to air his scientific reputation, and drown the earnest beginner 
in a flood of metaphysics and Greek derivations. He comes forward honestly 
to explain to the utmost of his abilities the great truths of philosophy, and, 
with as intense a contempt for what has been wrongly termed “ popular 
science ” as the stiffest of buckram savans could desire ; he combines an 
equal scorn of barbarous technicalities, and a power of writing in such a 
manner as to leave his meaning within the grasp of the merest tyro : his 
lectures on “ The Origin of Species,” and his “ Man’s Place in Nature,” are 
convincing proofs of this. The object of the present Atlas is “ to aid students 
in comprehending the general arrangement of the bony framework of the 
vertebrata, and some of its most important modifications and this aim, we 
think, has been admirably achieved in the publication of the series of plates 
lying on our table. The arrangement of the figures is a good one, and is 
calculated to show at a glance the differences in the arrangement of the bones 
comprising the several apparatus depicted. The first five plates (each of 
which is a double quarto) are devoted to the representation of the crania of 
the different class of vertebrates. In them we find each skuU viewed in 
several positions ; seen from above, from below, from the side including 
mandible and in vertico-longitudinal section. Moreover, the crania of the 
different species delineated being represented side by side comparison is 
effected with considerable ease. In these five plates we observe drawings of 
the skulls of the following animals : — The dog, horse, sheep, pig, man, orang, 
baboon, howler monkey, Saimiri, hare, guinea-pig, ostrich, foetal chicken, 
tortoise, turtle, tench, carp, alligator, lizard, boa-constrictor, menopoma, siren, 
* “ An elementary Atlas of Comparative Osteology,” in twelve plates ; the 
objects selected and arranged by Professor Huxley, E.E.S., and drawn on 
stone by B. Waterhouse Hawkins, Esq. London : Williams & Norgate. 
1864. 
