190 
POPULAK SCIENCE KEYIEW. 
pleasurable emotion ; for it is a book which will give him in condensation, 
without the too frequent faults of dryness and imperfections of composition, 
an accurate and clear account of vertebrate comparative anatomy, such as 
he could only otherwise acquire by years of research, which he would not 
possibly have had the time to expend. 
Besides, if our argument appears weak to some, we may urge the more 
weighty reason that knowledge of the subject on which Mr. Mivart writes 
has become, from having been the study of the specialist, one of the most im- 
portant lines of everyday research. We say this seriously ; and if the reader 
will look to the United States of America, to Germany, France, and even to 
Norway and Sweden, he will see how much attention is given in these 
various States to the study of comparative anatomy. If the English student 
differs from his compeers on the Continent, to his shame be it said ; and this 
leads us to remark, en passant, that it is not so much the pupil as the examiner 
that is to blame; for in none of the medical boards, save those of a few uni- 
versities, is the candidate for a medical diploma required to know anything 
whatever of zoology, while in many cases a crude and most unscientific 
knowledge of botany is particularly demanded. 
Of the plan of Mr. Mivart’s volume a few words may be said. The 
greater amount of matter is given to the consideration of the osseous struc- 
tures, and we think with the author that this is right and proper, for 
the following reasons, which he thus expressly states : (1) The general i 
resemblance borne by the skeleton to the external form. (2) The close 
connexion between the arrangement of the skeleton and that of the nervous 
S 3 ’’stem, muscles and vessels. (3) The relation borne by the skeleton of ] 
each animal to the actions which it performs. (4) The obvious utility of 
the skeleton in classification and the interpretation of affinity. (5) Parts of 
the skeleton or casts of such are all we possess of a vast number of animals i 
formerly existing in the world, but now entirely extinct. After Mr. Mivart ' 
has dealt in a masterly manner with the skeleton of man and the several i 
groups we have already mentioned, to an extent which covers nearly 300 of ' 
the 600 pages which compose the volume, he then proceeds to treat of the j 
muscular organs, the nervous apparatus, and the circulatory, alimentary, and 
excretory systems. In these several chapters he deals as fully with the • 
organs of one animal as another, and by an ample series of illustrations — j 
over 400 woodcuts — gives examples of types and of those organs which are j 
specially set forth in the volume. Indeed these illustrations are remarkably i 
good, some of them being quite new, and many of them being rare even to I 
the student of comparative anatomy. j 
We object but to the last passage of the volume. It is certainly question- i 
able, and we do not see why it was introduced. Nothing short of a very I 
long essay could attempt its proof, even to those who are from the first likely 
enough to accept the dictum. To other readers it seems out of place, as it 
is equally beyond satisfactory evidencing. We refer to the expression of 
opinion as to the totality of man’s nature. But for this — indeed we may say 
notwithstanding this — we believe Mr. Mivart’s volume to be the best book 
that could have been produced upon the subject on which it treats. 
