198 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
y, General. 
Experimental Morphology.* * * § — Mr. C. B. Davenport lias published 
the first of four volumes which are to bear this title, and which have for 
their aim to explain what may be called the physiology of growth and 
development. The present volume deals in a careful and scholarly 
manner with the reactions of protoplasm to external influences, chemi- 
cal, mechanical, and dynamic, and with the modifications which these 
influences sometimes induce. In spite of the author’s preface, we cannot 
agree that he has found the correct title for his book, which, however, 
promises to be a very useful one. 
Problems of Biology. f — Mr. G. Sandeman has published a book 
which may be called a criticism of some of the categories of biology. 
After a chapter on biological method, the author criticises three familiar 
postulates : — (1) That the qualities of the individual are discrete, numer- 
able, constituent elements, of which the organism is the total sum ; 
(2) that all the qualities of the organism and all its stages are the mani- 
festation of, and are related to one another only through an agent or 
system of agents within the known body ; (3) that everything organic 
exists only by reason of, and is to be explained only in relation to, some 
special external use which it now has, or which a similar structure has 
had in former times. The fifth and last chapter discusses the unity of 
the organism, which is the central idea of the book. Even by those who 
maintain that biology has nothing to do with philosophy, and vice versa , 
Mr. Sandeman’s book will be found stimulating ; while those who believe 
that to science without philosophy the world remains a broken mirror, 
will welcome it warmly. And even the least ambitious of biologists 
may realise from this little book that in his use of the most familiar 
words, such as “ organism,” “ function,” “ development,” “ evolution,” 
he is dealing with big and difficult concepts of which progress demands 
an ever-recurrent criticism. 
Bionomics of Australasian Animals. :f — Dr. R. Semon has given a 
popular account of the journeyings which he undertook in order to 
obtain the young stages of Ceratodus, Echidna , &e. From a review § of 
the book we select a few illustrations. The chief food of Ornithorliyn- 
chus consists of a bivalve, Corhicula nejpeanensis. The Monotremes repro- 
duce once a year. Ripe and fertilised eggs are found only in the left 
oviduct. When the egg of Echidna is placed in the pouch it measures 
5 mm. in length, the newly hatched embryo measures 15 mm., the young 
one remains in the pouch until about 80-90 mm. in length. It is pro- 
bable that the dingo is responsible for the disappearance of Thylacinus 
and Sarcophiius. A remarkable circular nest of stones is made by Arius 
australis. The importance of drift wood in distribution is very great. 
In many west- Javanese animals (e.g. Manis javanica, Ptychozoon homalo- 
cephalum ) there seems to be no special reproductive season. Under the 
* ‘ Experimental Morphology,’ The Macmillan Co.. New York, 8vo, 1896, xiv. and 
280 pp., 74 figs. f ‘Problems of Biology,’ 8vo, London, 1896, 213 pp. 
X ‘Im Australischen Busch und an der Kiiste des Korallenmeeres. Reise- 
Ergebnisse und Beobachtungen eines Naturforschers in Australien, Neu-Guinea und 
den Molukken,’ 8vo, Leipzig, 569 pp., 85 illustr., and 4 maps. 
§ Zool. Centralbl., iv. (1897) pp. 84-8. 
