Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/150

116 often shown us more than all our efforts and fatigues in search of bionomical observation, and this fact has been clearly recognized and made use of by our author. Why is it that in zoology the best and most patient observations are often made by ornithologists?

of us will call to mind the laconic answer given by Huxley to a controversialist of biological aspirations, "Take a cockroach and dissect it," and if we only studied animals by themselves first, and read the books afterwards, there can be little doubt of the vast advantage to our biological knowledge. To-day we too often only see what the books tell us to observe, while the books themselves are not unfrequently built up on other writings. Prof. Howes leaves no doubt as to his meaning. "Lecturing, which is mere recapitulation, in advance of facts to be later learnt by work in the laboratory, is useless, if not mischievous." This book is a guide to the Huxleyean "Type System," and the late Prof. Huxley, writing a preface to its first edition in 1885, observed: "No doubt the direct instruction of a teacher is very valuable; but with the aid of this Atlas, I think that an intelligent student, who is unable to obtain that advantage, will find no difficulty in working through 'The Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary Biology' by himself."

Twenty-four plates are given, detailing the anatomy and physiological organs of Frog, Crayfish, Earthworm, Snail, Fresh-water Mussel, Fresh-water Polyp, and some Unicellular organisms. The student who, with these easily acquired animals, these plates, a very moderate dissecting apparatus, and a pair of fairly intelligent eyes, does not find a key to the mysteries of animal life must have mistaken his vocation.

has great opportunities, and, as an ornithologist, he certainly tries to make the best of them. He has