REVIEWS. 
187 
volume. It Las furthermore a particular interest arising from the author’s 
wide acquaintance with the subject, and from his introduction of accounts of 
curious structures that he himself has described before the Royal and other 
scientific societies. One of the facts recently introduced relates to the 
structure of hair j and on this point the author quotes from an article which 
appeared as a reprint in the “ Monthly Microscopical Journal” for March 
or April 1873. Mr. Gosse, Jhowever, quotes it from the “ English Me- 
chanic” of May 1873 — a journal which, of course, copied part of the paper 
from the “ Microscopical Journal,” evidently without acknowledging the 
source. This, of course, is only of importance to the reader ; for in this instance 
he is referred by Mr. Gosse to the “English Mechanic ” or the 11 New York 
Medical Journal j” and as the English journal did not most probably quote 
it in full, the reader is compelled to refer to a foreign journal, not knowing 
that it is to be found fully reprinted in an English one. 
In Mr. Gosse’s chapter on Blood an account is given of the peculiarity of 
the circulation in Perophora , one of the Tunicates, which is an animal that 
he exhibits to his imaginary audience. This creature has certainly a curious 
mode of propelling its blood. In almost all animals the blood travels 
invariably in the same direction, but in this one it is very different. In the 
author’s words : — “ After we have watched this course followed, with regu- 
larity for perhaps a hundred pulsations or so, all of a sudden the heart 
ceases to beat, and all the globules rest on their circling course, that we had 
supposed incessant. Strange to behold ! after a pause of two or three 
seconds the pulsation begins again, but at the opposite end of the heart, and 
proceeds with perfect regularity, just as before, but in the opposite direc- 
tion.” In fact, there has been a complete reversal of the current of the 
circulation. His remarks on the tongues of mollusca are also of considerable 
interest, though, of course, not novel to the comparative anatomist. We 
quite agree with him when he says that “it sounds almost like a fable to 
be told that the great spotted slug, which we sometimes find crawling in 
damp cellars, carries a tongue armed with 26,800 teeth.” Yet there is, as he 
afterwards observes, no doubt whatever of the fact. 
We may observe that the author makes a slight mistake in referring to 
Professor Greene’s excellent “ Manual of the Animal Kingdom.” Indeed, 
if the reader were to make enquiry, we doubt whether any ordinary book- 
seller could tell what he wanted. Professor Greene has written but two 
volumes ; these are respectively entitled the Manuals of the Sub-Kingdom 
Protozoa and Coelenterata. Undoubtedly they do possess — and that first in 
order — the title of “Manual of the Animal Kingdom ; ” but that heading 
has fallen altogether into disuse, because the original intention to complete 
the series likewise became non-performed. Thei;e is but one other point to 
which we will allude ere we close our observations, and that is with regard 
to Mr. Gosse’s remarkable discovery of the curious ring of curious animals 
surrounding the pure chitonous material of the mouth of the tube of the 
Sabella. This ring is figured in the book, and it is certainly a most startling 
resemblance to a series of human naked figures standing together in a ring, 
and thrusting their arms above and below their heads in a state of intense 
gesticulation. It is really a most singularly life-like representation of a 
group of human beings. The author, who could not tell to which group to 
