Abstract
IT is just as well to state at once that this is a scientifically-arranged description of the animal kingdom, profusely and beautifully illustrated with twenty coloured plates and 469 figures in the text. The illustrations are certainly among the finest of their class, and one cannot help regretting that, as the text is in German, the work can only have a limited sale in England. We can console ourselves, however, with Mr. Lydekker's “Royal Natural History,” now being published, and which is rather more popular than the volume under review. The order in which Dr. Haacke treats his subject is uncommon. The book is.divided into two parts, one dealing with the various forms of animal life from the point of view of their development, while in the second part the characteristics of different groups of animals are described. The first part is thus chiefly concerned with embryology and palæontology in their relations to zoological affinities; with the functions of organs and the influence of environment; and with the distribution of animal life upon the earth. In the second part, invertebrated and vertebrated animals occupy two separate sections, and life is traced from the protozoa up to the higher forms. From this brief sketch it will be seen that the book has the theory of evolution as the basis of its construction. It is therefore a work in which the facts of natural science are presented in scientific order, and as such deserves high commendation.
Die Schöpfung der Tierwelt.
Von Dr. Wilhelm Haacke. Pp. 552. (Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1893.)
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Die Schöpfung der Tierwelt. Nature 51, 149 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051149c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051149c0