110 REVIEWS. 



form." Now, we do not mean to query the truth of this reform among the 

 Littorinidae ; they, undoubtedly, wanted some change. We know that one 

 of the authors of the British Mollusca was of opinion that some of the 

 species above quoted might be varieties of each other ; but still we cannot 

 say we are quite satisfied at some eighteen or nineteen pages of Messrs. 

 Forbes and Hanley's works being so very roughly handled, particularly by 

 an author who seems hardly to be aware of when he has made up his 

 mind upon a subject, and when, for all we know to the contrary, we may 

 find him at some future time telling us that, on reconsideration of the sub- 

 ject, he has found himself unable to make two species out of one. 



We do not wish to be harsh in our criticism of this book, but there is 

 about it an undigested look, which detracts much from its value as a scien- 

 tific work, and much from its author's reputation as a modern malacologist. 

 Many of the memoirs in this volume have been published in the " Annals 

 of Natural History" from time to time, and are reprinted in exactly the 

 same form as they appeared in that journal ; so that, when opportunities 

 presented themselves of examining the mollusc, and mistakes were dis- 

 covered, they, instead of being incorporated in the text, are appended to it ; 

 and hence we are frequently annoyed, after reading the account of an animal, 

 to find just at its close the words " since the above was written ;" and then 

 follow statements that not unfrequently are diametrically opposite to the 

 ones we have been perusing. A curious instance of this occurs in the 

 author's description of the branchiae of Pandora obtusa. We find in the 

 British mollusca of Forbes and Hanley, a note, by Mr. Clark, stating that 

 this animal possesses " two palpi, one branchial lamina, and (perhaps) an 

 obsolete one, on each side of the body;" but as fresh specimens were 

 examined, we find that (see p. 151 of the present work) he can now say, 

 beyond dispute (sic), that there are two palpi and two branchiae on each 

 side, and that he has preparations that can prove it ; whilst in the appendix, 

 in spite of saying and proving, our author returns to his original opinion! 

 For our author's credit, we may say, en passant, that this is the worst 

 case our ingenuity could find ; but we do meet, and that frequently, with 

 cases where old opinions are made, and that without ceremony, coolly to give 

 place to new ones. Now, new or old, which is the reader to patronize ? 



The system followed is based on sexual organization ; and following his 

 predecessors in this method (for it is, by no means, of Mr. Clark's devising), 

 he gives us the following divisions: Hermaphrodite sine concubitu, 

 Hermaphrodita sine congressu, Hermaphrodita congressu, (and here 

 we find the Trochida : what will malacologists say to this ?), and, lastly, 

 Bisexual the most obvious meaning of this latter word is the very 



