BOOK NOTICES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2057, 27 July 1893, Page 28

BOOK NOTICES.

William Kitchen Parker, F.R.S., sometime Hunter ian Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Itoyal College of Surgeons of England : A Biographical Sketch. By his son, T. Jeffjuby Parkeb. London : Macmillan ; p.p. 145. Danedin : J. Braithwaite. It is with infinite pleasure that we have perused the biographical sketch of Professor Parker presented to the public by bis son, Dr T. J. Parker, who for so many years has filled, with credit to himself and advantage to ourselves, the position of Professor of Biology in the Otago University. Dr Parker has executed his task with much ability, but, as it appears to us, with too much brevity, and we hope that if a second edition of this little work be called for this fault will be corrected. Professor Parker was no ordinary man. He took high rank amongst his compeers. Possessed of untiring energy and a passionate devotion to that branoh of biological study to which he was specially attached, he has left behind him such a mass of original research— chiefly contributed to the Transactions of the Royal Society— as might represent the work of two ordinary men. When it is further remembered that much of this work was done in the intervals of a laborious medical practice, and until latterly without the refined aids to modern research, our admiration for the worker is increased ; and if tbe definition of genius be the capacity for taking infinite pains, then indeed may the name of William Kitchen Parker be adduced as cne of the examples V His only tools were a microscope, a box of dissecting instruments, a razor, a few mounted needles, a pocket magnifier, and an eld foot-rule." With these he would conduct the most delicate observations on, say, the early stages of the tadpole and the chick, and then illustrate his results by most exquisite drawings. Professor Parker's scientific career began before the term " biology " had been invented, at a time when the vast and important field of embryology had but just been entered, and whenthe name and renown of Richard Owen were giving a special direction to transcendental zoology. To Owen'B attractive theory of the archetypal skeleton young Parker lent an attentive ear. It was supported by all the wealth of illustration and' language which Owen was so well able to bring. Shortly put it supposed that in the vertebrata the backbone was the key or foundation of the osseous system, that the bones of the skull were modified vertebias, and that the lower jaw, rlts, upper and lower limbs, &c ? were but appendages developed and off shooting from these vertebras. The first destructive blow to this theory was given by Huxley 35 years ago, and it was immediately followed up by Parker, who undertook a long and laborious series of researches into the nature of the skull. In these he was aided and encouraged by Huxley, who was his ardent friend, admirer, and fellow worker. When 50 years of age he was electee to fill the high position of Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and was thus relieved from the labours of medical practice, and enabled to pursue his researches with unabated fervour and increased facility. Eight years before this he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, an honour which was immediately followed by his receiving one of the two gold medals annually given by the Queen on the nomination of tbe society. His fellow recipient on this occasion was Dr Huggins, the celebrated astronomer and physicist. Space forbids us to give even an outline of tbe contributions made to science by Professor Parker. His son appends an excellent list which contains the titles of no less than 104 published works. We do not, however, see noted his last work, which was read before the Linnean Society three months prior to his death — " Oa the Morphology' of the 1 Galllnacc as." Tbe glimpses we get of his private life are veiy entertaining.- He was genial, lovable, and unconventional; his piety was deep and unaffected. He was an excellent talker, and with great cunning and skill could generally lead his least-interested visitor into a region of bones and homolcgies, and there leave him charmed and wonderstricken. His literary style was often most peculiar, and as a result "his works are to a great extent a sealed book to all but specialists." Of it Professor Huxley said: "It was said that Shelley .wrote poetry for poets ; Mr Parker writes anatomy for anatomists." Amongst tbe many references to Huxley, we are treated to one wherein, with characteristia and amusing badinage, he rallies his friend Parker upon his peculiarities of style. But the book must tell its own tale. Whilst its pages show the reverence of an able son for an able father, we have a feeling of regret that Dr Parker has not told us more of the man whose footsteps and example he himself is so successfully following. Transactions and Proceedings of tlie New Zealand Institufe, 1892. Vol. XXV. Edited by Sir James Heotob, K.O M.G., F.R.S., &c. Wellington : Samuel Costall, Government Printing Office. '.This is a bulky Bvo. volume of some 750 pages, which might have been, oat down to

650 with advantage. The " transactions" of any learned soolety or group of societies like the New Zealand Institute should contain only such papers as are of permanent value. In the volume before us we find such papers as the following: — "Sanitation and Ventilation as required in a Modern Honse," " On After-imageß," "Analogy between Light and Sound," " On Causes of Fires in Ships," &c. Some of these are worthy of an average debating society, others are on subjects well worthy of discussion, but none are likely to contain any permanent additions to our knowledge, and hence do not deserve to be preserved in a permanent record. Seeing that severe economy has to be exercised in the publication of this annual' volume, all such ephemeral papers might well be left ont. Perhaps, the most conspicuous feature of the book before us is the faulty character of the illustrations. A good drawing is often worth page 3of - description, ' but no illustrations are better than bad ones. The most irritating part of it to authors is that they may send in carefully executed drawings, which are often spoiled, in tbe reproduction. Even the best of the plates in the present volume* are roughly executed, and some are very bad. Opposite page 410, for example, is what appears to\ be a hazy representation of an overgrown wool bale which has burst in the packing. According to the text it represents a sun 1 fish, a fact which would hardly have dawned on anyone looking at it. Several other plates— eg, those illustrating feather-pits on moa skulls— are so obscure in' their details as to be almost valueless. This matter of defective illustration is a standing grievance with many who contribute papers, to the institute, but improvement seems as far off as ever. Of the 76 papers—some very short — which are printed in the present volume no less than 45 are biological, 30 being nnder the head zoology and 15 under botany. Geology claims a doubtful seven, and chemistry only two^both of the latter by Mr Skey, 6olonial ' analyst. Of course much of the good work done in the colony in these two branob.es of science by the Geological Survey department is published in a separate form ; it is, however, a noticeable fact that the university colleges furnish very few papers in these subjects. No less than eight papers deal in some way or another with the moa. That by Dr Parker on tbe presence of a crest in these birds bas been already referred to in theie columns; In a recent postscript he expresses the opinion that the crest is distinctly a sexual character, as in examples of the same species some specimens have crests while in others there is no trace. Dr Parker has also a brief paper on that burning question the classification of the Dinonitbidaa, in which he differs from tbe views set forth by Captain Hutton in his valuable paper on the moas, published, in last year's volume. While Dr Parker has' based bis . opinions on a study of the skull, Captain Hutton bas relied mainly on the relative length and girth of some of the principal bonesv of the skeleton. The latter class of measurements, taken per se, appears to constitute too arbitrary a basis on which, to found a system of classification,' and Captain Hutton appears to have ignored the wellknown fact that in every group of organisms a very considerable limit of variation— of ten '• amounting to 20 or 30 per cent., in rVative size, &c. of organs— has to be allowed for. In the volume before us Captain Hutton' has added no fewer than five species to those .already described, most of ' them, it seems to us, founded on somewhat insufficient characters. That CapHutton's views on this question will be subjected to severe criticism outside of the colony is certain. Meanwhile it is matter for regret that the penchant , for speciesmaking should have already, introduced so much debatable matter into the classifica- > tion of this group. An article on "Moas/and the Moa Hunters," by Mons. A. de Quatrefages, communicated to the Wellington Philosophical Society by Sir Walter Buller, was an interesting risumi of tbe subject at the time it waswritten. Unfortunately it is rather stale, having originally appeared in the "Journal dcs Savants "in 1883. Its resuscitation now, and the reason for its appearance in the "Transactions," are not explained. Mr .A. Hamilton's paper on "Avian Remains in Southland "is a valuable one.. The bones of 21 species of birds, some of extinct others of still living forms, were unearthed by the author from a fissure in the limestones of Castle Rock. This find is of great interest and value, were it only for the fine examples of the great extinct eagle, Harpagornis, which it contains. Two plates marked Karpagornis moorei accompany Mr- Hamilton's, p^per, without, however, any further indication as to what they are intended to represent. But for the name on Jibe first of these, it might be taken for a figure of some antique type of spearhead ; the second would have puzzled even the late Jonathan Oldbuck. »

There are several othtr valuable snolog'cal papers in this volume. Sir Walter Bailer contributes notes "On the Macri Rat" (in which he is at oomplete varianoewith the ; opinions expressed by Mr W. Colenso in another paper in the same volume), "On the Bats of, New Zealand," and "On New Zealand Birds." Mr W. W. Smith has a long and learned paper " On New Zealand Earthy worms," in whioh he summarises Mr Beef dard's anatomical researches, and tupplements them by his own olose and accurate observations made in the field. ' Mr Smith is an example to all naturalists in the colony. - There is probably no one doing so mnoh good and intelligent work as a collector. In ' nearly every branch of biological science he has accumulated much knowledge, and has always shown himself ready to assist any worker who applies to him for material. Mr H. Suter, of Christohurch, and Mr O. Hedley, pi Sydney, contribute papers on terrestrial and fresh-water mollusca. Mr Hudson and Captain Brown on insects, Mr Urquhart describes a score of new species of spider?, while Mr W. M. Maskell supplies another of his valuable papers on tbe Ooocida). The eight plates illustrating this paper are much the best ia the book ; unfortunately they do not bring much consolation to other authors who send in drawings, for Mr Maskell happens to be at headquarters, and can himself supervise, the execution of the plates. Sir James Hector, contributes two short papers

In the botanical Bection Mr Kirk has a paper on " Heterostylism in New Zealand Fuchsias," in which he shows that in at least two of our spesies, F. excorticata and F.pro~ cvmibqns trimorphism prevail?, while" so far he jia sonly observed a dimorphic condition in F. colensoi. He is in error, however, when J§ etatea that Mr G. M. Thomson and other southern botanists failed to distinguish between F. colensoi and F. procumbens. The latter is only known as a pot plant in this part of New Zealand, and apparently only one of the heterostyled forms-Js common. Mr Petrie has a paper on "New Native Plants," in which he adds eleven species to the flora. By the way, Mr Petrie's name appears on pp. ix, 559, and 592, as Mr D. Pelin— Barely a piece of careless editing. Mr B. Brown and Mr T. W. Naylor Beckett have added largely to our knowledge of the moss flora, a field in which there is much work to be done ; the/figures illustrating their papers are, however, very rough. Sir W. Buller has a short but interesting note on " A New Insectivorous Plant," ths common and wellknown fungus Aseroe rubra, 4 The subject wants fuller investigation. ' ■ In" a paper "On the Extinction of the Moa," Mr Tregear seeks to prove that there is nothing in Maori tradition to show that the Natives knew the Dinornis, their word " moa " being the common Polynesian word for a fowl. We fear, however, that a bushel of such negative evidence will not Weigh much with those who have examined the remains of the moa in proximity with kitchen middens, &o. A paper by Dr Karl Mueller, of Halle, criticising Dr H. vdn Jhering'B paper In last year's volume of the " Transactions," will "hardly commend itself to naturalists generally. The author, after pointing out certain similarities between the faunas and floras of Australia and South America, and the difficulties which such facts present to all students of geographical distribution, cuts the gordian knot by claiming that the apparently closely allied forms have arisen independently in like conditions of environment in widely-separated centres. In a paper on \" Rainbows," by Majorgeneral Schaw— one of those which should have been left out of the present volume— is an illustration of a reflected rainbow observed by Mr A. Koch at the entrance of Wellington Harbour. We commend this to the local Art Society as worthy of careful study. Other papers in the volume are : " Artesian Water Prospects at Wanganui," "Artesian Wells, Wanganuj," and "Discovery of Artesian Water Supply, Ruataniwha Plain," all by Mr H. Hill;"' "On the Occurrence of Granite and Gneissic Rocks in the King Country," by Mr J. Park ; " The Earthquake o£ 4th December, 1891," by Mr G. Hogben; "On an Olivine-andesite of Banks Peninsula," by Mr R. Speight ; "On a Diatom Deposit near Pakaraka, Bay of Islands," by Mr A. M'Kay ; On the Nature of Stinkstone (antbraconifce)," and " On the Oxidation Gold," by Mr W. Skey ; " Maori Nomenclature," by Mr T. H. Smith; "The Effect of Current Electricity upon Plant Growth," by Mr H. N. M'Leod— apparently rather a crude piece of research ; " Notes on Some Bone Combs Found in Otago," " Notes on Some Old Flax Mats," " On Two Bone Pendants," and " Notes on Maori Necklaces," all fonr by Mr A. Hamilton ; and " Observations on the Native Dog of New Zealand," by Mr W. Oolenso. Reference has not been made to Mr Oolenso's botanical papers, because these are a standing grievance to all botanists in New Zealand. It is matter for regret that one who has done so much and such good work in so many branches of scientific research should in these latter days have become a mere species- maker. While on the whole the present volume contains many valuable papers, it would have been vastly ' improved by the rejection of several, and the expenditure of more care on the illustrations. Tnere are— as in the pastnumerous printer's error?, and this state of things will not be remedied as long as authors are not entrusted with the final revision of their own oroofs. : Otago is" not particularly well represented ia the present volume, but the papers contributed are of sterling merit.' ln conclusion, we regret to see that so few of the rising generation are to be found among the contributors. Young New Zealand does not seem to value knowledge for its own sake ; and though our university is antiually-turning out numbers of raw graduates, .the majority appear to value the knowledge they have acquired chiefly in its relation to* pounds, shillings, and pence. <■ , [ ■: