19 DECEMBER 1914, Page 24

No more readable introduction to biology could be desired than

Professor J. Arthur Thomson has supplied in The Wonder of Life (Andrew Melrose, 12s. 6d. net), which illustrates " the ever-growing wonder of animated Nature" with equal lucidity and charm.—Numerous excellent photographs form the most conspicuous feature of Marvels of Insect Life, edited by Edward Step (Hutchinson and Co., 10s. 6d. net).—Among more technical contributions to biology we can only mention the publication by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. of the first volume of an important Text-Book of Embryology, edited by Mr. Walter Heape, in which Professor E. W. MacBride deals

with the invertebrata (25s. net); Professor R. W. Hegner's lectures on The Germ-Cell Cycle in Animals (7s. 6d. net) ; and Professor Henry H. Dixon's essay on Transpiration and the .Ascent of Sap in Plants (5s. net).-We may also note a valuable monograph on Water .lkptiles of the Past and Present, by Professor S. W. Williston (Cambridge University Press, for the University of Chicago Press, 128. net).