189 
EEVIEWS. 
ELEMENTAEY ANATOMY* 
T here are some to whom doubtless the title of a work which expresses, 
as the title of Mr. Mivart’s hook does, that it deals with elementary 
anatomy, will imagine that it treats only of ,that driest of all branches of 
science, human dissection. Such, however, will he hut those whose ex- 
amination of the hook before us does not extend beyond the cover. To him 
who looks into its pages there will he opened up a glimpse such as he has 
seldom seen before ; a grand view in outline, less or more, of the anatomy 
of the whole vertebrate sub -kingdom. We have said an outline, because to 
imagine anything more would have been to have had a poor conception of 
the limits of comparative anatomy. But assuredly the student — and he 
must be an advanced one — will find in this volume what he has never seen 
in a work addressed to students before : an admirable sketch of the anatomy 
of man contrasted in its several sections with the anatomy of the several 
typical forms — mammalian, avine, reptilian, batrachian, and piscine — from 
the higher to the lower.of vertebrate living forms. And this too in no 
mere popular manner, but with a degree of minuteness and accuracy, and 
with a terseness and lucidity of style, which are not too often met with in 
works of this description. The book is intended as a companion to 
Huxley’s admirable little manual of Physiology, which is published in the 
same series ; and indeed we think^that it is well worthy of, not superior to, 
the rank in which it is placed. Whether from the nature of its matter, its 
style, or the exceeding perfection of its illustrations, we know indeed of very 
few compeers ; while from its being in point of fact an essentially new book, 
we were quite ready to accept those many imperfections which are so 
characteristic of any novel* form. But indeed the faults of the book do not 
present themselves to our vision, unless it endeavours to accomplish 
too much, and its matter is too deep for the majority of students. On 
this score we fancy the critic can have little to say ; for those who know 
aught of students, and of medical students in particular, are aware that they 
are of two distinct groups, almost without a connecting link : those who 
work, and those who don’t. And from a long experience of these, we feel 
certain that the working student will hail Mr. Mivart’s manual with the most 
* Lessons in Elementary Anatomy. By St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 
Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at St. Mary’s Hospital.” London: 
Macmillan & Co., 1873. 
