REVIEWS. 
175 
ANIMAL MORPHOLOGY. * 
S OME three years ago Prof. Macalister, of Dublin, published what was 
intended to be the first part of an introduction to the Morphology of 
Animals, in which he treated of the Invertebrata. The second part, relating 
to the Vertebrates, is now published, but as an independent work, forming 
■part of the “ Dublin University Press Series.’ , It is, we think, to be re- 
gretted that this sort of separation should have been made between what 
ought to bave been the two volumes of one book, but we presume that financial 
considerations have had some influence in leading to the adoption of such a 
course, and if so, we must not quarrel with the author on this account. 
Professor Macaiister’s present volume, like the former one, is literally an 
introduction to the morphology and broader classification of the animals of 
which it treats ; the habits of the animals, their geographical distribution, 
-and other matters relating to their natural history, are almost wholly un- 
noticed, and thus the book, whilst admirably fitted for a student’s text-book, 
will prove disappointing to anyone who mistakes it for a general treatise on 
zoology. 
It is, however, as a student’s text-book that the author intends his book to 
.serve, and its raison d'etre is explained in the following passage from his 
preface, in which he justifies the use of the word u Introduction” in its title, 
at which, it seems, some reviewers have cavilled. u I remember when a 
student,” he says, u that I found the gap between most manuals then exist- 
ing and the monographic literature of zoology to be so great, that, passing 
from the first to the second was practically entering an unknown region ; 
and hence in this work I have tried to make each part sufficiently compre- 
hensive to enable the student, who wishes for additional knowledge of any 
forms, to pass from a general study of morphology into the region of detail, 
without any great intermediate gap.” 
This quotation sufficiently explains the object Prof. Macalister had in 
view in writing this book, and in most respects he has well fulfilled it. 
Starting with a short statement of the general characters common to all 
vertebrate animals, he next indicates the characteristics of the two primary 
groups, Acrania and Craniota, the former now represented only by that 
singular creature the Amphioxus ; and then proceeds to describe the structural 
modifications exhibited by the classes, orders, and subordinate groups recog- 
nised by the most recent writers on the different sections of vertebrates. 
The classification is carried as far as the families, of which, however, very 
brief characters are given. 
Throughout, so far as we can judge, Prof. Macalister has given an excel- 
lent summary of the structural characters of all the great groups of verte- 
brate animals, including in all cases the history of the development of the 
embryos, which occupies so important a place in all recent morphological 
work. The special groups founded for the reception of fossil forms are also 
described in connection with those including their existing allies. 
As a matter of course it would be easy to raise objections to some parts of 
* An Introduction to the Systematic Zoology and Morphology of Verte- 
brate Animals. By Alexander Macalister, M.D., & c. 8vo. Dublin : 
Hughes, Foster, and Figgis. London : Longmans. 1878. 
