Abstract
THIS forms the seventh volume of the series known as “Das Wissen der Gegenwart,” the object of which is to give, in an attractive and popular form an outline of the “science of the day.” Metamorphosis and development are always interesting subjects, and we are of opinion that Dr. Taschenberg has contrived to place them before his readers in a specially clear manner by choosing a few types in each class of the animal kingdom upon which to dilate, leaving the blanks to be filled in by more advanced students than those for whose instruction this elementary treatise is intended. The author goes in this manner through the entire animal kingdom, and so far as we can see he is well posted up in most of the latest discoveries and theories bearing upon his subject; we miss, however, any allusion to the disputed position of Limulns, although the metamorphoses of that remarkable animal are not entirely overlooked. A work such as this is naturally to a large extent a compilation, and in all such works the good or bad influence exercised depends upon the acumen of the author in his choice of subjects and authorities. In the present instance our author seems usually to have consulted the best and most modern authorities. The numerous illustrations are mostly very good; some of them are superlatively so. In these, as in the text, various works have been laid under contribution; and probably to no work is the author under greater obligation than the text-book on embryology by the lamented F. M. Balfour, but due acknowledgment is always made.
Die Verwandlungen der Tiere.
Von Dr. Otto Taschenberg, Privat-dozent in Halle. Pp. 268, with 88 Illustrations. Small 8vo. (Leipzig: G. Freytag, 1882.)
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Die Verwandlungen der Tiere . Nature 28, 100 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/028100a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/028100a0