A Student's Text - Book of Zoology. By Adam Sedgwick, M.A.., F.R.S.
Vol. I. (Swan Sonnenschein and Co. 18s.)—When Professor Sedgwick commenced this work he had intended simply to make it a new edition of Claus's " Lehrbuch," revised and brought up to date. But this plan was soon abandoned, for various reasons, and we have therefore a new and original book before us, as far as such a work, whioh even in the most com- petent hands must be more or less a compilation, can be original, by the nature of the case. A conscientious author, well ac- quainted with his subject, will always find, when trying to revise a work of this kind, that apart from the necessity of bringing it up to date, his own researches and reading, and his own indi- vidual methods of work and thought, will suggest to him so many improvements and modifications that the less he is forced to work on old lines the better. None know, but those who are seriously working at some special branch of natural history, the mass of new material and new ideas poured forth almost daily in all parts of the world, and in twenty different languages at least, necessitating constant watchfulness to avoid missing any- thing new of primary importance, even with the aid of all our modern bibliographies and compendiums. Fresh digests of such a subject as zoology are therefore constantly required by the student; and in the book before us Professor Sedgwick treats as fully as his space will admit, of the various forms of animal life. The present volume includes all but the Art hropoda, the Echino- dermata, and the Chordata, which will form the second volume; and a general treatise on the facts and principles of zoology, if room
cannot be found for it in the second volume, will form a third The first volume is illustrated by four hundred and seventy-two excellent figures in the text. About fifty of these are new, the others being taken from Claus's " Lehrbuch," and other works of acknowledged excellence. Zoological students owe a deep debt of gratitude to Professor Sedgwick for this excellent and very' comprehensive work.
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