2g2 
Analyses of Books. 
I May, 
There are, no doubt, animals literally dumb, devoid of sound- 
organs and of auditory appliances, and therefore incapable of 
mutual communication through the sense of hearing ; devoid 
also of antennae or feet, which might subserve a language of 
signs or touches. Between the absolute no-language of such 
animals and the rudimentary speech of birds and Mammalia 
there is a greater divergency than between the latter and the 
languages, e.g., of the Veddahs of Ceylon. 
We cannot help feeling some surprise that a work like that of 
Dr. Schiitz should appear at the present day, especially in Ger- 
many, where accurate observers in Natural History are so 
abundant. 
The Natural History of British Fishes. By Frank Buckland. 
London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
This work is intended not merely as a treatise on fish-lore, but 
as a manual of the art of fish-raising, The author rated highly, 
perhaps over rated, the importance of fish as an article of diet, 
and he exerted himself long and ably on behalf of the propaga- 
tion and protection of such species as are particularly useful. 
Far be it from us to deny the value of his labours. Still, it seems 
to us that no possible increase in the multitude of food-fishes 
will make them fairly available for the great mass of the nation 
unless a scheme is devised for crushing out the middlemen who 
have seized upon the traffic, robbing alike the producer and the 
consumer and keeping up a system of artificial prices sometimes 
by dint of destroying whole cargoes. 
The first thing which strikes us in the book is the account of 
a Nottingham “ worm-farm” which sends to London 400,000 
worms annually ! The author believes that two young worms 
are sometimes produced out of a single egg. 
Sewage, Mr. Buckland shows, is not necessarily deadly to fish. 
He states that “immense numbers of bleak can be seen at 
Oxford, at the point where the town sewer joins the Thames 
near Folly Bridge,” and considers that they do an “ immense 
amount of unpaid labour,” doubtless by eating the putrescent 
solids. He observed the same fish also at the mouth of a sewer 
at Shrewsbury where the water was inky black from waste dye. 
The viviparous character of the Blenny ( Blennius zoacces), is 
a curious feature. Mr. Buckland recommends the young as ex- 
cellent objects for the microscope for showing the circulation of 
the blood. The bull-head, it appears, sometimes proves fatal to 
king-fishers, as the spines on either side of the gill covers stick in 
the throat of the bird and choke him. Concerning the chub we 
read this singular passage : — “ Why a chub has such a remark- 
