Reviews and Notices oj BooTcs, 455 



coal, yet I have found specimens whicli show that in the coal, 

 seams themselves true woody tissues have sometimes been im 

 bedded unchanged, and converted into structureless coal, forming 

 like the coniferous trees converLed into jet in more modern for- 

 mations, thin bands of very pure bituminous material. The pro- 

 portion of woody matter in this state differs in different coals, and 

 is probably greatest in those whicli show the least mineral char- 

 coal ; but the alteration which it has undergone renders it almost 

 impossible to distinguish it from the flattened bark, which in all 

 ordinary cases is much more abundant." 



Along the Atlantic coast there is a vast series of slates and 

 quartzites which Dr. Dawson thinks may be a continuation of 

 the Primordial zone of Newfoundland. We are strongly inclined 

 to the belief that this supposition will yet turn out to be well 

 founded. This tract being composed of intensely plicated rocks 

 will be difficult to work, but the discovery of a Paradoxides or a 

 Pulaeopyge would amply repay the observer for any amount of 

 search. Just now when Darwin's theory is attracting so much 

 attention, any organic thing, that can be exhumed from such a 

 vastly ancient resting place must possess an extraordinary interest. 



Elements of Chemical Physics ; by J. P. Cooke, Jr., Irving Professor 

 of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard University. Little, Brown 

 & Co., Boston. 1860. 



This woik demands commendation for its superiority to the 

 generality of American text books on science. It does not come 

 up to our ideal of a scientific exposition of the subjects on which 

 it treats, and yet it is far in advance of any work upon the same 

 or kindred topics published on this side the Atlantic, and merits 

 and we trust will have large success. Its defects are so to speak 

 necessary. The author has not felt warranted in assuming any 

 more extended acquaintance with mathematics, on the part of 

 his readers, than is implied in a knowledge of the methods of 

 solving simple equations, and a familiarity with the rudiments of 

 geometry. It is obvious that many demonstrations in physics 

 are thereby rendered prolix, and some impossible, so that in this 

 work principles, the legitimate consequences of others previously 

 assumed or demonstrated, have to be established by an appeal to 

 experiment, the process of deduction being too tedious — if not 



