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310 NEW PUBLICATIONS.
nience of reference might well be made a primary object. An arrange-
ment by organs would also Lave done away with a considerable part
of the repetition which is a somewhat marked feature of the volume,
though under any treatment some repetition is unavoidable, as several
deviations from customary structure frequently coexist.
The author arranges all abnormal conditions under four great
primary heads:—1. Deviations from ordinary arrangement; 2, from
ordinary form ; 3, from ordinary number ; 4, from ordinary size and
consistence. Under the first head are included cases of unusual
cohesion and adhesion, of fission, dialysis, and solution, as well as
the numerous forms of prolification and the production of adventitious
organs. In the second class are placed examples of the persistence
of early conditions (stasimorphy), incomplete or excessive development
(including regular and irregular Peloria), and the various kinds of
metamorphy of organs or perversions of development, including the
usual conditions in double flowers, as well as many deformities and
irregularities not due to disease or parasites. In the third division we
find cases of multiplication of parts, and of diminution or non-develop-
ment, whilst in the fourth are grouped enlargements (not patholo-
gical), outgrowths (enation), atrophies, and degenerations. Under
each of the smaller sections the examples are arranged in an anatomi-
cal series, and lists are often given of the species particularly subject
to the anomaly under observation ; bibliological references are copi-
ously inserted, and show how extensive is Dr. Masters's acquaintance
with the literature of his subject, and how desirous he is to give accu-
rate information.
The chief object of the study of "monsters" is, as was long ago
discerned by Bacon, to obtain light on the trae nature of ordinary pro-
ductions. This is kept in view throughout the book ; indeed the
author urges the claims of teratology to be considered of equal import-
ance with the study of development, in framing a true morphology,
since the laws regulating the two are the same. "Already," he says,
" teratology has done much towards showing the erroneous nature of
many morphological statements that still pass current in our text-books.
. . . Thus organs are said to be fused which were never separate, dis-
junctions and separations are assigned to parts that were never joined,
adhesions and cohesions are spoken of in cases where, from the nature
of things, neither could have existed " (p. xxxiv.). It must, liowcver,