The Zoologist/4th series, vol 6 (1902)/Issue 727/Notices of New Books
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
"We have tried in the following book to write an elementary treatise on Zoology which could readily be understood by a student who had no previous knowledge of the subject." This is the opening sentence of the preface. The word Zoology "denotes the science which concerns itself with animals, endeavouring to find out what they are, and how they came into being," is the definition given in the introduction. These two statements may be taken as admirable texts to a volume which should be in the hands of those many naturalists who are not in the strict sense zoologists.
After discussing the "fundamental" difference between animals and plants, which after all is perhaps less fundamental than relative, we come to a most pregnant sentence, which will well bear repetition and remembrance: "Since we can never learn much about the consciousness of beings with whom we cannot speak, zoologists content themselves with looking at animals entirely from the outside, without enquiring as to whether or no they are conscious." We believe that a communication with animal life will be the great zoological discovery of the future, though at present scarcely a single experiment is being made to aid a work which, like meteorology, can only make a start on the results of experiments and observations continuously made, and frequently verified. The very statement of our disability through this cause to really understand other animal life than our own is at once a mark of progress.
In reading these pages one cannot but appreciate the loss to bionomics that accrues by the neglect of observations on many lower forms of life. If we except the Phylum Arthropoda and the higher vertebrates, we shall find this volume describing animals which seem totally neglected by field naturalists. How many have observed a Starfish in the act of devouring a Mussel, of which an excellent illustration is given? (p. 241). A little practical zoology will also guide our observations and conclusions. All of us who have hunted Crocodiles will remember the sometime unpleasant proximity of the tip of snout, and that only to be seen, of one of these submerged saurians close to the small and deeply-laden canoe; but do all remember that this ruse is only possible by the fact of the choanæ or posterior nares being "situated very far back directly over the glottis, whilst the external nostril is at the tip of the snout"?
A feature in the classification is that of a large Sub-phylum of the Phylum Vertebrata, designated Craniata, distinguished by possessing a skull and brain. This is again divided into two divisions, that styled Gnathostomata including Pisces, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia. However, classifications are only propositions; but in studying these we frequently discern affinities of which we had no previous cognizance, and differences of whose existence we were ignorant. Our space debars further reference to this most interesting and important volume.
The Protozoa. By Gary N. Calkins, Ph.D.New York: The Macmillan Company.
In a hidden world—at least beyond the range of our unaided vision—live the Protozoa, unicellular organisms "not far removed from the colorless bacteria on the one hand, and the primitive green plants on the other." In the earlier works of Linnæus the existence of these animals was treated with complete scepticism, though in the later editions of the 'Systema Naturae' they were admitted under the significant generic name Chaos. Why, to-day, are these creatures so neglected by zoologists? Some are even known to menace the life of man, but it would be as difficult to find an ordinary child who was ignorant of the existence of the Tiger, as to discover one who could define what was meant by a Protozoön. The Protozoa are also of indirect injury to humanity. Among the Sporozoa the Sarcosporidiida produce morbid symptoms in domestic animals often leading to death, while the Myxosporidiida are a deadly scourge to fish and silkworms. Then again their relation to the problem as to whether plants and animals in primitive forms are capable of demarcation is a most important one, for, as Dr. Calkins points out, Buffon wrote as early as 1749: "We are led to conclude that there is no absolute and essential distinction between the animal and vegetable kingdoms."[1]
We might further digress on the many interests attached to the Protozoa. What are the bionomics of these living unicellular structures; and has not immortality been ascribed to their method of reproduction by simple division? But we will refer all enquirers to the book itself. It is a volume which describes what to most people is an unknown life in an unseen world, and is another instance of the good work now being done in America.
The second volume of this excellent monograph has appeared, and possesses a somewhat melancholy interest. Dr. Stark, the original author, and whose portrait is given as a frontispiece, was slain by a Boer shell during the siege of Ladysmith. The manuscript that was left behind by the deceased ornithologist has been placed in the hands of the Director of the South African Museum, who, with necessary revision and additions, has produced this volume, and will, we are glad to learn, bring the work to a conclusion in two final volumes.
The present publication continues the description of the Passeres, commencing with the Laniidæ, and concluding with the Pittidæ. It thus includes the Warblers, a group which in the Transvaal the writer of this notice found was very imperfectly known, and probably insufficiently collected. These birds only attract the attention of the earnest ornithologist, and as a rule are passed over by the ordinary collector; so that it is still probable for the present enumeration to be extended. If instructions were given for these small birds to be sent home in spirit much more would be known about them; for the tired waggon-traveller to keep awake and skin these small creatures is a thing to be hoped for rather than expected. In all orders, the smaller the species the more difficult to acquire—at least, in South Africa, where many a good sportsman, both Boer and Briton, will cheerfully take the trouble to procure you an animal of size, but will resent being asked to collect and skin Warblers.
We have heard of pianos accompanying our military columns to help while away the monotonous expeditions over a lonely veld. We would propose that this series of faunistic books should be supplied to every mess-room, whether peripatetic or otherwise. They are volumes that will be appreciated by every naturalist in our South African colonies, and especially by our military men who are now traversing the whole of a region yet somewhat imperfectly known to ornithologists.
Photography for Naturalists. By Douglas English. Iliffe & Sons, Limited.
Nature is ever seeking to be revealed. Sometimes she appears in the verse of Wordsworth, on another occasion in the magic prose of Ruskin, while painters have even often attempted to improve her on the inspiration of successive schools of art. Among naturalists a higher criticism is arising, a desire to see her portrayed as she is, or as she is to our perceptions. Photography is now invoked by the zoologist rather than the handwork of the artist, and the results, great as they are now, exhibit a still greater potentiality in the future. The present volume is designed as a means to that end, though it largely advocates a photography of natural objects "by control"—in other words, to photograph animals in captivity after making the artificial surroundings to look as natural as possible. This we consider a retrograde step, and one photo of an animal at large, and unaware of the attentions of the camera enthusiast, must surely be in every respect more close to nature than the scared or enraged appearance of caged animals; our sympathy is altogether with the Rat and its efforts to frustrate the intentions of the photographer, as described (pp. 38–41).
The illustrations in this book are of the most instructive character, those of fish and "twenty years a cat" being exceedingly successful. But for charm and beauty these pale before the lovely photographic landscapes taken by Mr. Charles Job, of which six appear in this volume.
We presume that this small publication is not addressed to ornithologists, by whom it might receive scant welcome, and we write this opinion in a mollient and not aggressive sense. It is apparently intended for those living in the country, who have little knowledge—if any—of the bird-life around them, who never acquired the wild lore of the schoolboy who happily nested and trespassed in many well-remembered nooks and preserves. Its usefulness may be found in its limitation; for those who know nothing, or next to nothing, about birds, after reading these pages, will probably go farther and seek to know more. The information given is concise, so far as the necessary superficial description is concerned.
- ↑ This view must have had considerable vogue in France, and is probably the derivation of the remark lately attributed by Lord Rosebery to Napoleon—"The plant is the first link in a chain of which man is the last" ('Napoleon, the Last Phase,' p. 170).
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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