NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
Such a series of publications on zoology—text-books, handbooks, introductions, manuals, &c.—is now appearing, that it seems only possible to suggest at present what shall be considered canonical, and what not. And this estimate becomes more difficult every day, especially when, as in the present work, the bionomical element is a pronounced feature; for now many brilliant, some hazardous, and a multitude of strange theories more or less enter the purview of every author. The editor—Mr. Cunningham—in his preface, opines that even in this volume, in reference to colouration, the author's idea is perhaps carried too far. But Dr. Schmeil advances no particular theory, and is anxious throughout to exhibit adaptability in structure to environmental conditions in a way that could have met with the approval of the—presumably—defunct teleologist, that ought not to offend the strictest "selectionist," and may be countenanced by the "neo-Lamarckian."
But these remarks, though legitimate to a general consideration, in no way express the aim of the book, which is one of the most interesting and suggestive to place in the hands of school-children, to whom zoology is not an end, but a part of a liberal education. It has the merit of producing thought, rather than the necessity of remembering details. Most children can repeat that a Cat "has nine lives," but how few can explain the operation of what is styled "always falling on its legs." Dr. Schmeil comes to the rescue:—"When a man in falling tries to support himself on his arms, he may easily break them; for, as he possesses clavicles, and needs them, his arms are firmly (without elasticity) connected with the shoulder-girdle, so that
