1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 3G7 



American Fossil Brachiopoda 



Despite the many valuable monographs that have been issued of 

 late years by our American colleagues, the study of the fossil 

 Brachiopoda has hitherto been a task to be undertaken with trepi- 

 dation. The labours of James Hall, J. M. Clarke, C. E. Beecher, 

 and Charles Schuchert have considerably changed our views as to the 

 inter-relationship and classification of these animals, and have 

 rendered necessary extensive revision of nomenclature. But while 

 we had an uneasy feeling that the names in our text-books and the 

 labels in our museums were of too ancient a kind, we shrank from 

 the difficult duty of resorting and renaming. The magician prepared 

 to substitute new lamps for old arises in the person of Mr Charles 

 Schuchert, who essays the task for the American fossil species ; and, 

 since North America seems to have been the gathering-place of the 

 brachiopod clans in Palaeozoic times, much of this welcome light is 

 also available for European species. 



The book that forms the necessary keystone to previous writ- 

 ings is entitled " A Synopsis of American fossil Brachiopoda, including 

 bibliography and synonymy," and has just been issued from "Wash- 

 ington as Bulletin, No. 87, of the United States Geological Survey. 

 It has, however, been prepared after official hours, and represents 

 the work of eleven years. The main part of the book is the " Index 

 and Bibliography of American fossil Brachiopoda ; " which occupies 

 227 pages and contains about 10,000 references. All names that 

 have ever been applied, rightly or wrongly, to fossil brachiopods of 

 North and South America, are here given in alphabetical order. The 

 names accepted by the author, after careful research, as valid, are 

 printed in bolder type, and under each is given the geological age, 

 chief localities, and a list of synonyms. Under each generic name is 

 quoted the name of the species, whether American or not, that 

 served as the original type of the genus ; Mr Schuchert calls this the 

 ' genotype.' 



The index is preceded by some useful and interesting chapters 

 on general questions, accompanied by some elaborate tables. These 

 chapters are : — " I. Geologic development and geographic distribution 

 of American fossil Brachiopoda." " II. Brachiopod terminology, 

 applied to fossil forms " — practically an alphabetical glossary of 

 terms. " III. Biologic development of the Brachiopoda " — an ex- 

 ceedingly important chapter. " IV. Morphology of the Brachia," 

 contributed by Dr C. E. Beecher. " V. Classification of the 

 Brachiopoda," in which the point of chief importance is the entire 

 dismissal of the old division into Lyopomata and Arthropomata 

 ( = Inarticulata and Articulata), as discordant with the facts of race- 

 development. 



