501 
B ib l iocjraph tea l Notices . 
the enormous amount of original work now being done in science, 
it may seem a heresy to assert that the days of learning for learning’s 
sake are over. Such is nevertheless the melancholy fact, the result 
of the modern struggle for existence and competitive examina- 
tions. For the vast majority of mankind education has become 
simply a means to an end, wdiich is bread-and-butter. Were it not 
so we should be inclined to consider these schedules superfluous, 
and to hold it far better for the student that he should be able to 
tabulate his knowledge for himself. As it is, any labour-saving 
appliance, anything which renders the passing of examinations 
easier, is for the good of the student, and for the sake of the student 
we welcome this book. 
The book consists of some two hundred and thirty pages, blank 
leaves included, though not numbered. As they are intended to be 
used, it would have been far better if they had been. The first ten 
pages are devoted to the Protozoa. We then come to a genealogical 
tree, intended to exhibit the probable phylogenetic connexion of the 
various classes of the Metazoa. This shows most of the orders usually 
included under the comprehensive title 44 Vermes,” distributed along 
the various branches; while in the centre we find the word 44 Vermes” 
printed in large type and apparently springing from nowhere, though 
the Chordata are shown as springing from it. The result is somewhat 
confusing. On the next page we have a table likely to be of greater 
value to the student, as it exhibits the chief typical differences in 
the reproductive, blood-vascular, nervous, and other systems of the 
Metazoan phyla. Another very useful table exhibits the chief facts 
in the life-histories of the most important parasitic Trematodes and 
Cestodes and other parasitic Worms. With the exception of the 
last ten pages the rest of the book is devoted to classificatory 
schedules, giving brief definitions of the phyla, classes, and orders, 
illustrated with the names of and notes on the more interesting 
and typical genera and species. We believe that the experience of 
college tutors and others has shown that schedules such as these are 
of much use to candidates for honours in natural science ; and these 
schedules appear to us to be well done. Certain minor inaccuracies, 
however, have caught our eye. For instance, since the nephridia of 
Motifera commence with flame-cells, it is wrong to speak of the 
excretory tubes as 44 opening into an archicoelic body-cavity.” 
Again, the female gnat does not 44 sting ; ” we might as well apply 
the term to the cobra. Since the test of the Ascidian, one genus 
excepted, is chiefly cellulose, it is not enough to define it as of a 
44 gelatinous or cartilaginous nature.” In the Eeptilia-schedule, 
besides stating that Hatteria has 44 biconcave vertebrae and no copu- 
latory organs,” mention might have been made of the ossification of 
the quadrato-jugal cartilage, seeing that it is a feature found in no 
other recent lizard. To speak of CoroneUa austriaca , the English 
smooth snake, as the 44 smooth viper” is misleading, to say the least 
of it. The last ten pages of the book are devoted to some Notes on 
Distribution and a table showing the 44 Geological Mange of the 
chief Animal Groups.” In the latter Mr. Davis has attempted to do 
