88 The Irish NaturalnU May, 



preservation from injury, as well as to provide rooms for 

 the staff of officials who looked after these objects. 



I would emphasise the desirability of including a lecture 

 theatre in any Museum building, and, in conclusion, would 

 call attention to what have been called " open air Museums," 

 Many interesting and valuable exhibits of earlier civili- 

 zations can be acconunodatcd in such establishments, and 

 thus saved from destruction. 



National ]\[useum. Dublin. 



REVIEWS. 



THE AMERICAN FAUNA. 



Distribution and Origin of Life in America. By Robert Francis 

 SCHARFF, Ph.D., B.Sc. Pp. xvi -i- 497. 21 Maps. London ; Constable 

 & Co., Ltd. IDS, 6d. net. 



Dr. Scharff's new book fully justifies the eager expectation with ^\hich 

 naturalists in this country and elsewhere have looked forward to its 

 appearance ever since the delivery of the series of Swaney Lectures on 

 which it is founded. The length of time that has elapsed between the 

 delivery of the lectures on the " Geological History of the American 

 Fauna " and the publication of the present volume is due to the fact that 

 Dr. Scharft has thought it advisable to amphfy and completely re-wTite 

 the original lectures. In doing so, he believes that he has been enabled 

 to bring out with greater clearness the points possessing most general 

 interest. We entertain no doubt whatever that in the main he has done 

 so, and the industry, care and argumentative force with which so vast 

 a number of facts has been marshalled and presented are beyond praise. 

 Yet we feel sure that all who attempt to follow the reasoning closely will find 

 themselyes much handicapped by the want of a summary of the author's 

 main conclusions. Each of the fifteen chapters of which the book consists 

 deals with one particular area, and with the conclusions to which a survey 

 of that area's past and present fauna seems to point. Greenland, for 

 example, is the subject of the first chapter, and Argentina and Chile oi 

 the last. There is nowhere a bird's-eye view of the general order in 

 time in which the author supposes the principal changes in the distri- 

 bution of land and water whose effects he sees in the various faunal inter- 

 changes to have taken place. It may be as" well to attempt to present 



