Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/405

Rh strong staff, amongst the names of whom we notice enrolled our own countrymen, G. Mann of Oxford, J.A. Thomson of Edinburgh, and B. Windle of Birmingham. Each reference is in the form of a lengthy abstract and signed by its compiler, and the whole subject is distributed under sections which bear the names of the familiar studies which are now reconstituting the aims of Zoology. As we glance through these resumes of thought and work going on as it were beneath the surface of our own arena, the question arises whether we do not now only constitute the remnant of the "Old Guard," and that the Zoology of the future will be an edifice of which our hardly wrought bricks will form but the foundation. We welcome the appearance of the first volume of this excellent contribution to a knowledge of current Biology, and trust the work may annually increase its usefulness.

once a playmate for the curious, a reference for the collector, and the strength of a popular museum, is fast becoming one of the most serious of sciences. The anatomy and physiology of animals is too often neglected; in fact, one sometimes remembers the jest made by Edward Forbes and related by Huxley, to the effect that the pure systematic zoologist was unaware that the stuffed skins he named and arranged ever had contained anything but straw. It is perhaps better, however, that we have specialists who devote themselves to each branch of our study, while our pages still remain that "home for destitute truth" relating to the natural history of living animals.

The Nemertine worms (Nemertinea) are described by Prof. Louis Joubin. In writing the word "described" we are not referring to specific diagnosis, but to the description of the worms themselves, their exterior characteristics, anatomy, physiology, and life-history. The principles of their zoological classification are well set out, followed by an "Index bibliographique" and a very full general index. The illustrations are numerous and, we may add, excellent, and, with the recent