414 Notices of Books. [July, 
for in a work which aims at giving a general view of morphology, 
a sketch of animal geography, and a structural survey of the 
Invertebrates from the Protozoa up to the Hymenoptera, within 
the compass of some 400 pages. But the space at command 
has been skilfully utilised. Perhaps the' 1 least commendable fea- 
ture of the book is the intensely technical character of its 
language, which in many passages must be simply unintelligible 
to the private student. It has often struck us that the Germans 
have a great advantage in the circumstance of having at com- 
mand technical terms formed from their own language and not 
borrowed from the Latin and Greek. The lesser flexibility of 
the English tongue prevents our imitating them fully in this 
respeCl, but we are confident that in many cases plain English 
terms might be found to supersede the foreign terminology now 
in vogue, and which is upheld by a prejudice resembling that 
which induces physicians to write their prescriptions in Latin, 
and lawyers to cultivate a peculiarly incomprehensible jargon. 
We are glad to find that Prof. Macalister avoids the Cuvierian 
error of placing the mollusca above the articulata. We think 
that there is evidence sufficient to warrant us in regarding the 
antennas of inseCls as organs of smell, even if that should not 
be their only function. Like all authorities on animal classifi- 
cation, Prof. Macalister fails to see that the so-called orders of 
inseCts have a strong claim to be regarded as groups of a higher 
rank. The conflicting views on the origin of species are briefly 
stated, without any account of the arguments on either side. 
The important truth that species, genus, &c., must be looked on 
as more or less arbitrary, ideal conceptions, is clearly brought 
forward. Into descriptive natural history the author, of course, 
cannot enter; but one faCt, incidentally mentioned, may interest 
our readers. The arm of a cephalopod of the genus Architeuthis 
• — which would be commonly called an oCtopus, or sea-devil — 
driven ashore on the west coast of Ireland in the year 1875 
measured 30 feet in length. This, as the author hints, furnishes 
some basis for the old Scandinavian legend of the Kraken. 
For all students who are in a position to have its technical 
language explained this work will prove a most valuable text- 
book. For the benefit of those less favourably situated we 
should venture to suggest the addition of a glossary. 
Bubbles from the Deep. By Arthur Greaves. Halifax (Nova 
Scotia) : M. A. Buckley. 
On receiving this little volume we were somewhat perplexed at 
its title. However, in these days the name of a book is not 
always intended to throw any light upon its subject. So we 
