Our Book Shelf

Abstract

THIS “Lehrbuch” is the ninth edition of E. Oscar Schmidt's well-known “Handbuch.” It has been thoroughly revised —indeed, in parts rewritten. As might be expected from the Professor of Phylogeny at Jena, the subject is treated from a quite modern standpoint. We have first the systematic arrangement of the tribes, orders, and classes of each group or sub-kingdom, with the characteristics of each. This is succeeded by some general observations on the group, then the general morphology is described, next we have the details of the various systems; the illustrations to the descriptive part of each chapter being selected with great care and judgment, and being in most cases refreshingly new. This first part of the volume commences with the Protozoa and ends with the Vermes. With the immense advance of zoological knowledge it may be regarded as impossible that any one person can have an equal knowledge of all the groups into which the animal kingdom is now divided; and while at once acknowledging the care which has been shown in the compilation before us, one has only to study the chapters on the Plathelminthes and Vermes to find how the author's special and great knowledge of these groups has made this the most valuable portion of the present part. The Protozoa are divided into three classes—the Monera, Sarcodina, and Flagellata; among these last, such genera as Pandorina, Stephanosphæra, and Volvox are included without a hint being given that many regard them as plant forms. The Cœlenterata are divided into the Gastræadæ, Porifera, and Cnidaria, and the former class is made to include not only the Orthonectidæ and Dicyemidæ, but also the Physemaridæ. In the quoted literature on this group no reference is made to Prof. Ray Lankester's very impartial paper on a species of Haliphysema. These facts are referred to, not as criticisms on this valuable addition to an already large list of introductions to a study of the comparative anatomy of the animal kingdom, but rather as in their way indicating the standpoint from which this one has been written. The printing is excellent, and the style of the work is worthy of the house of Gustav Fischer, of Jena.

Lehrbuch der Vergleichenden Anatomie zum Gebrauche bei vergleichend anatomischen und zoologischen Vorlesungen.

Von Dr. Arnold Lang, Inhaber der Ritter-Professur für Phylogenie an der Universität Jena. Erste Abtheilung. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1888.)