1896. SOME NEW BOOKS. 347 



now that they have so ready a means of reference put within their 

 reach, may occasionally be glad to pay some attention to the work of 

 their colleagues on extinct animals, which they have hitherto been 

 rather apt to treat as " out of sight and out of mind," to the serious 

 detriment of their own work. There are, however, signs that this 

 state of things is passing away, and one of them is the constant 

 presentation of palaeontological papers to societies or periodicals that 

 deal with zoology in preference to those that deal with geology. 

 Another sign is the gradual incorporation of palaeontological matter 

 in text-books of zoology, and the preparation of such works as 

 Dr. Bashford Dean's book on fishes, reviewed in our last number. 

 We hope the day will come, we beUeve it is not far distant, when the 

 text-book of palaeontology will be a thing of the past, and when the 

 zoological text-book will treat all animals alike, whether they be living 

 or extinct. The errors into which zoologists have been led through 

 the habit that the circumstances of their training and the facts of 

 nature rendered inevitable, the habit, namely, of treating as typical 

 representatives of the various sub-divisions, forms that the palaeonto- 

 logist sees to be aberrant, degenerate, or extremely modified — these 

 errors, we say, have left their trace in almost every branch of zoology, 

 and it will be long before a truer conception of the relationships of 

 the animal kingdom can gain a hold on the minds of men. Nobody 

 is to be blamed for this : it was the obvious path for science to take, 

 but she has been led by it along an obscure and a devious route. 



The wedding-day of palaeontology and geology has, however, not 

 yet arrived. The engagement is likely to prove a long one, and in 

 the meanwhile we may profitably employ our time in studying the 

 works of Professor von Zittel. It is, therefore, good news to hear 

 that an English translation of the present book is being prepared by 

 Mr. C. R. Eastman, of Harvard, and that the translation is being 

 revised and added to by numerous specialists, both English and 

 American. It is, we believe, to be issued in two volumes, of which 

 the first may be looked for very shortly. 



A Dutch Paleontology. 



De Gewervelde Dieren van hex Verleden. By Dr. T. C. Winkler. Pp. vii. 

 291, illustrated. Haarlem, 1893. 



We have received from Dr. T. C. Winkler, the well-known curator 

 of the Teyler Museum, Haarlem, 'a copy of the above popular work, 

 " The Vertebrate Animals of the Past." Though dated 1893, ^^^ 

 have not previously had the opportunity of perusing this interesting 

 volume, which is admirably adapted to give the Dutch public a 

 general idea of the results of vertebrate palaeontology. Holland is 

 fortunate in possessing perhaps the richest of the smaller palaeonto- 

 logical museums of Europe, the institution over which Dr. Winkler 

 has presided for so many years. Here is preserved the original 

 " Homo diluvii testis," and it is accompanied by numerous other 

 unique examples of fossil vertebrata. The present volume naturally 

 makes special reference to these specimens and to the writings of Dr. 

 Winkler himself ; it is precisely the handbook to be read by anyone 

 interested in fossils after seeing the Teyler collection. There is a 

 copious index and numerous woodcuts ; but the latter are very 

 inferior, and might well be replaced by " process " copies of similar 

 blocks published elsewhere. Were we reviewing the book we should 

 differ from the author on a few points ; but on the whole it was 

 remarkably up to date at the time of its issue three years ago. 



