202 Bibliographical Notices. 



solace, but enlarged our knowledge of the evidence of Creative power 

 and design in the ancient physical revolutions of our globe, the 

 history of which is fraught with so much interest and replete with so 

 much instruction. Ten years have elapsed since the publication of 

 the first edition of the " Medals," which, it is not too much to say, 

 materially assisted the inquirer and student ; and many a person who 

 enjoyed the living representative, little thought until reading this 

 work that there was a lesson to be learnt from the worn cockle and 

 oyster shell or broken lobster's claw. 



So great has been the advance and so numerous the cultivators of 

 palseontological science of late years, that a new edition was requisite 

 for the student ; the present one has been entirely rewritten and ar- 

 ranged, and the first volume was nearly printed at the period of the 

 late author's decease. Fortunately for the public, and certainly for the 

 publisher, the second volume has been issued from under the mantle 

 of the able Secretary of the Geological Society, Mr. T. Rupert Jones, 

 and which, containing as it does the higher branches of the animal 

 kingdom, required much care in the collating and correcting. More- 

 over, we are glad to find that the editor has avoided the insertion 

 of passages that might be attributed either to egotism or envy in 

 the late author ; for it is lamentable that the jostlings of scientific 

 men, when sometimes engaged upon the same bone, should be con- 

 tinued in perpetual raspings. 



The volumes contain more than 900 pages and are profusely illus- 

 trated ; and the subjects are arranged in consecutive order. The work 

 is divided into four parts : the first part contains the nature and ar- 

 rangement of the British strata, with remarks on the contained fos- 

 sils and their mode of occurrence as regards petrifaction, silicification, 

 &c., with hints for collecting and preserving different fossils, more 

 especially the vertebrate forms. The second part is devoted to fossil 

 botany, and is considerably enlarged and improved, giving a general 

 history of the structure and affinities of the mineralized remains of 

 the vegetable kingdom, as well as interesting deductions respecting 

 the successive floras. The third part comprises fossil zoology, and 

 occupies thirteen chapters, treating successively of the Zoophytes, 

 Echinodermata, Foraminifera, Testacea, Cephalopoda, Articulata, 

 Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammalia. The geological distribution 

 of each group is given, as well as the principal British localities from 

 whence their remains have been obtained. 



e At p. 217 of the first volume we find the Bryozoa arranged under 

 tibe Zoophytes, contrary to the present received opinion that they 

 ought to be classed near the Mollusca, although it is fairly stated at 

 p. 265 that they are of a much higher order of organization than the 

 Anthozoa. By some inadvertence at p. 430 the genus SphtBrulites 

 is arranged with the univalve Mollusca, instead of among the Bivalves 

 and near the Chamidse, to which the recent researches of Mr. Wood- 

 ward have proved its affinity. In the second volume (from the 

 Cephalopoda to Mammalia) the editor has used every endeavour to 

 render this portion as complete as possible by citing the latest infor- 

 mation, and has also freely inserted many useful and good references 



