84 
REVIEWS. 
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL LABORATORY".* 
T HE progress of the study of Biology which has been made in this 
country during the past ten years is indeed vast, and it is, we should 
suppose, to a certain extent due to the various text -books that have been 
published and popular lectures that have been delivered, as well as to the 
movements made by the Universities, and the Government through South 
Kensington, that such a happy result has been achieved. But much as has 
been done, we fancy that the future looks brighter than ever, for we do not 
think we shall exaggerate its importance when we assert that the book 
which has been issued by Professor Huxley will do more to spread a 
general taste for biological pursuits than anything that has heretofore been 
published. Eor though the system described is of course that which has 
been followed in Professor Huxley’s laboratory, yet we must remember, 
firstly, that in order to have access to that fountain-head the student must 
necessarily be living in London; and secondly, that even if he were a 
townsman, and a young one, he would have the extreme difficulty of 
surmounting those narrow prejudices which have been raised against liberal 
teaching by distinguished members both of the Churches of England and 
Rome. For it i3 idle to pretend that the discouragement which these two 
Churches have offered to free and non-sectarian scientific teaching have not 
been attended by the most injurious results. And it must be openly con- 
fessed, that great as has been the success of the admirable system of teaching 
carried out at South Kensington, it has not had that full and complete 
measure of beneficial results which would have accrued had it not been 
distinctly, if not overtly, opposed by the two sections of the religious 
world to whom we have already referred. It is, therefore, for these reasons 
that we believe that a book like that now published will do much toward 
the spread of natural science — and not mere bookworm cramming — for it 
will enable anyone who masters its details to say that he has got no incon- 
siderable knowledge of the science of Biology. We do not know why 
Professor Huxley did not issue the book with his own name alone upon the 
title-page, for we are sure that most of the work is from his pen. But, be 
* “ A Course of Practical Instruction on Elementary Biology.” By T. 
H. Huxley, LL.D., Sec. R.S. : assisted by H. N. Martin, B.A., M.B., &c. 
London : Macmillan & Co. 1875. 
