SOME NEW BOOKS. 
ELEMENTS DE PAaLEoNTOLOGIE. By Félix’ Bernard. Premiére Partie. 8vo. 
Pp. 528, with 266 figures. Paris: Bailliére & Sons, 1893. Price 10 francs. 
THE position of Paleontology among the sciences is somewhat 
doubtful, and even a paleontologist may question its right to have 
a text-book at all. Do we not rather need books of the following 
kind ?—first, a systematic zoology, embracing all creatures whether 
living or extinct, and arranged, according to the best modern hghts, 
on a phylogenetic basis—a work that should illuminate the obscurities 
of the present by the light of the past, and show the true meaning of 
perished organisms by reference to their living descendants ; secondly, 
a good stratigraphical geology, correlating, as nearly as possible, the 
beds of different countries, without laying undue stress on those of 
theauthor’s native land, then tracing through these beds the histories of 
the various faunas all over the world, and, from the combined evidence, 
sketching out the evolution of land and sea masses from the earliest 
times to our own day. To such ends, at least, our endeavours are 
directed, and to the ultimate perfection of both these as yet unwritten 
books every paleontologist makes his contribution. The worth of 
that contribution is proportional to the amount of zoological and 
geological knowledge possessed by the contributor. It is idle to 
select from the garner of the zoologist just those facts relating to the 
hard parts of animals, and from the geologist’s note-book such infor- 
mation as bears only on locality and horizon. What is a palzeonto- 
logist without a knowledge of embryology, of geographical distribution, 
of marine life, sedimentation and currents, of some mineralogy and 
petrology, and of changes induced by metamorphism? And yet, even 
if it were possible, it would surely be absurd to collect all these diverse 
bits of information, however valuable, and, putting them between 
two bits of pasteboard, to call the whole a Text-book of Palzontology. 
Nevertheless, the present dearth of competent British palaeon- 
tologists—as evidenced by the failure of the Indian Survey to find 
other than Germans—when regarded in connection withthe abundance 
of pure zoologists and geologists, seems to show that paleontology, 
in practice, if not in theory, must have its special study. Let us, 
then, concede that it may be convenient for the student to have his 
special text-book, and let us consider what it should contain. The 
contents may be arranged under three headings :—(i.) The general 
principles of the science; in other words, the principles of biology 
and of geology so far as they affect the history of extinct animals. 
(ii.) Practical aids to research, including an account of the way to 
collect, clean, dissect, and investigate fossils, a guide to biblio- 
graphy, and hints on the working out of problems and the proper 
way of publishing results. (iii.) The main facts in the history of 
extinct animals, which should be related as to one already acquainted 
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