Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/358

326 very staple industry of South Africa, and is of interest alike to the zoologist, farmer, and political economist. The paper on the Ostrich appeared in these pages last year.

This small volume forms one of "Longmans' Practical Elementary Science Series," and is intended as a guide to the elementary zoology required by the Science and Art Department. It might with advantage be used as a school course of zoological teaching, for its small compass would not make it too great a competitor with other studies, and its contents could be mastered by the teacher, which is after all the desideratum of an elementary book of science, if it is eventually to reach the pupil.

Mr. Beddard commences with the Amœba, follows on with the Hydra, and then discusses the Earthworm, on which he is so well known as an authority; to which succeeds the Crayfish, ever memorable from the classic of Huxley; the Cockroach, another type recently investigated by Miall and Denny; and successively treats of Insects and their metamorphoses, the Pond Mussel (Anodonta cygnæa), the Snail, the Frog, and thence to Vertebrates. We are not surprised to read that "the classification of the animal world adopted in this book will be found to differ from many schemes of classification in vogue," and most students will agree with the author that this may be "because of the uncertainty of our knowledge, and the consequent variability of opinions."

An elementary biological fact, not too often emphasised in elementary works, is clearly and tersely stated by Mr. Beddard with reference to the reputed distinction between animals and plants. "It is not possible to draw a clear line between plants and animals." How fundamental this appreciation is to any intelligent conception of organic evolution it is unnecessary to remark; to have it clearly stated in a primer is no small service. There are some apparent phenomena which, even now, ordinarily educated people only disbelieve because they are told to do so, such as the seeming movement of the sun; and such observers will feel little doubt of the essential life differences between an Ox