1885.] 
Analyses of Books. 
227 
Elementary Text-Book of Zoology. Special Part : Mollusca to 
Man. By Dr. C. Claus, Professor of Zoology and Com- 
parative Anatomy in the University of Vienna, and Director 
of the Zoological Station at Trieste. Translated and Edited 
by Adam Sedgwick, M.A., with the assistance of F. G. 
Heathcote, B.A. London : W. Swan Sonnenschein and 
Co. 
In considering this work v/e can take notice merely of what is 
officially before us. Consequently the author’s reasons for the 
classification he has adopted, and for the positions which he has 
assigned to certain groups, cannot here be brought into question. 
His position with reference to Organic Evolution must also be 
passed over as not distinctly apparent. 
Passing at once to the end of the book, we find the author’s 
views as to the place of mankind in the animal system mainly 
satisfactory. He states that the notion which formerly was so 
widely held, that man belongs to a special natural kingdom, 
above and outside the animal kingdom, — may now be completely 
put on one side as incompatible with the spirit and method of 
natural science.” He pronounces that the peculiarities of man 
as compared with the apes “ cannot be regarded as fundamental 
distinctions, but must rather be ascribed to gradual deviations, 
since there are still greater differences between the highest and 
lowest apes.” He supports this view by showing that the mor- 
phological points formerly brought forward in proof of a profound 
difference of kind between man and ape have all been found 
wanting. And though he diagnoses man as possessed of 
“ reason,” he yet concludes, with Wundt, that “ the mind of 
Man differs from that of beasts only in the degree of develop- 
ment which it has attained.” 
Still it may be contended that Prof. Claus does not assign to 
man any distinCt position. He appends him to the order 
Primates, justly cancelling the two delusive Cuvierian orders 
“ Quadrumana ” and “ Bimana.” But he places him neither in 
a family nor a genus of the highest, or Catarrhine, sub-order. 
The question whether Man is the highest mammalian form, 
as commonly supposed, or whether that position should be 
assigned to the cats, as contended by Profs. St. George Mivart 
and — we believe — by C. S. Minot, is not raised. 
Concerning the unity of human forms no opinion is given a 
prudent reservation. Nor have we any decision as to the num- 
ber of the characteristics of the human races. Prof. Claus 
merely quotes on this subject the views of Blumenbach and of 
Cuvier, and briefly mentions the efforts of Retzius to found a 
more scientific classification. 
A careful examination of this book will convince the reader 
that, as far as its compass allows, the morphology and the 
