102 Notices of Books. (January, 
fication adopted is neither geological—according to the forma- 
tions in which the remains have been found—nor zoological— 
according to their structural affinities—but alphabetical. ‘The 
descriptions are necessarily of the briefest, and the localities are 
sometimes extremely vague, as, ¢.g., ‘‘ South America,” ‘* North 
America,” &c. Controversial points are, in general, avoided, 
though the author thinks it ‘“‘impossible to imagine how all the 
different races of mankind could have descended from one pair 
of ancestors in the comparatively short period of 6000 years.” 
The extreme conciseness of the book has certainly one advan- 
tage: circumstances which might have been lost to the reader 
amidst copious descriptions, stand out here in startling relief. 
Among these we may mention the very small number of mam- 
malian forms whose remains have hitherto been discovered. 
Where so much has evidently disappeared, no valid argument 
can be built upon the non-occurrence of any particular type, e.g., 
an anthropoid intervening between the lowest man now known 
and the highest ape. In apes our fossil fauna is remarkably 
poor. Yetamong the comparatively few forms which have reached 
us, how many are evidently “ connecting links ” between groups 
now existing in isolation. 
We cannot help asking whether the work would not have been 
more useful to the student had the author extended his plan so 
as to include all the vertebrates? Even then it would have been 
far from bulky. For the purposes mentioned in the preface the 
work will doubtless be useful. 
Sulphur in Iceland. By C. Carter Buaxe, D. Sc. Londen: 
E. and F. N. Spon. 
Tue importance of sulphur in industrial chemistry can scarcely 
be conceived by the outside public. Perhaps if we say it plays 
a part in the chemical arts something analogous to that of iron 
in mechanical operations, we may give some idea of its value. 
In its uncombined, elementary state, it is largely used in the 
manufacture cf gunpowder. Burnt in the air, and thus con- 
verted into sulphurous acid, it serves to bleach woollen goods 
and straw. But it is in the form of sulphuric acid, when com- 
bined with the largest possible amount of oxygen, that its appli- 
cations are widest and most important. It enables us to decom- 
pose common salt, and thus to obtain a series of products, ot 
which soda-ash, caustic soda, soda crystals, bicarbonate of soda, 
hydrochloric acid, bleaching-powder, soap, and glass, are the 
most prominent. By its aid we act upon certain insoluble 
minerals, such as coprolite and apatite, and convert them into 
valuable manures, or obtain from them phosphorus, essential to 
the match-trade. In numerous chemical processes we require, 
