194 EDITORIAL ARTICLE. 



of the animal. The argonaut-shells which had been perforated or frac- 

 tured hy Madame Power, and subsequently repaired whilst in her posses- 

 sion, went very far towards convincing us that the two kinds of repairing 

 material which we have described on a former occasion 1 are deposited by 

 one and the same mollusc, being merely different stages of a continued 

 secretive process. Perhaps, however, the most convincing argument put 

 forward by Mr. Owen, is this. The young cephalopod grows rapidly, 

 and a uniform correspondence is found between its size and that of the 

 shell which it inhabits; consequently, upon the parasitic hypothesis, the 

 young Ocythoe must be engaged in waging continual warfare with the 

 hypothetical true constructors of the argonaut shell, and the number of 

 these hypothetical true constructors must infinitely exceed the number 

 of the hypothetical parasitic occupiers; now from the abundance in 

 which Madame Power has procured cephalopods and shells, the hypo- 

 thetical true constructors ought to swarm in the port of Messina, and yet 

 this great desideratum in the science of Malacology has not only evaded 

 her observation, but the observation of all other collectors who have ex- 

 plored the coasts of the Mediterranean. 



The entire summary of Mr. Murchison's researches upon the group of 

 ancient fossiliferous rocks, to which he has applied the term " Silurian 

 System," has appeared in two quarto volumes, accompanied by a splendid 

 suite of maps and illustrations. Altogether we think this work must be 

 regarded as the most important memoir, of a purely geological character, 

 that has ever appeared in this, or perhaps any other country. Nothing 

 but the high reputation with which Mr. Murchison's name must always 

 be associated wherever Geology is known as a science, in connection with 

 the " Silurian System," can in any way recompense him for the labour it 

 must have cost in its production. We make this casual allusion to the 

 appearance of the work, reserving for another occasion a more extended 

 notice of its contents. 



The Report by Mr. De la Beche on the Geology of Devon, and criti- 

 cal notices of many other geological works acknowledged on our wrap- 

 per, and with which our library table is almost covered, are, from the 

 pressure of original articles, postponed for the present. 



A work has beeD published within the last few days, entitled ' Proceed- 

 ings of the Botanical Society of London, from July, 1836, to November, 

 1838.' We imagine that the majority of metropolitan botanists would 

 feel somewhat indignant if the condition of botanical science in the ca- 

 pital of Britain were to be, in any way, tested by the contents of this vo- 



' Mag. Nat. Hist.' n. s. vol. i. page 528. 



