296 Professor Agasaiz on 



two first volumes of a work intended to embrace the history 

 of all the types of the animal kingdom which existed before 

 the present creation. An attempt of this kind requires the 

 possession of such varied knowledge, that, before giving an 

 account of the new publication of my learned friend, I think 

 it necessary to state his claims to the confidence of paleeonto- 

 logists. M. Pictet is Professor of Zoology and Comparative 

 Anatomy in the Academy of Geneva, and has neglected none 

 of the branches of natural history. His notices on the " Ani- 

 maux Nouveaiix ou peu connus du Musee de Geneve^ prove, that 

 the characters of the higher animals are as well known to him 

 as those of articulated animals. The osteological collections 

 with which he has enriched the museum under his superin- 

 tendence, bear witness to his zeal in obtaining all the neces- 

 sary materials for the realization of the plan he has projected. 

 Moreover, the collections of fossils of the Museum of Geneva, 

 of Deluc, of Saussure, and of Necker, the products of that 

 epoch when Geneva raised monuments to her glory in all the 

 doinains of science, will be an inexhaustible mine for the new 

 labours which M. Pictet has undertaken. 



The perusal of the two first volumes has convinced us that 

 this work will accomplish the object intended. It is by no 

 means a mere compilation which the author presents to us, 

 but it is in truth an animal kingdom of the epochs anterior to 

 the present, elaborated in a zoological point of view, and 

 founded on a thorough knowledge of all previous investigations. 

 Without making a parade of fastidious erudition, the author 

 shews, in every page of his work, that he is master of his sub- 

 ject ; and, by a happy choice of the examples he quotes, he in- 

 spires us with that kind of confidence which is at once pro- 

 duced by all works that are well conceived and well executed. 

 Another merit to which we are anxious to render justice, be- 

 cause it is essential in a book of this nature, is the clear and 

 drecise exposition of the most complicated phenomena, and 

 the talent so peculiarly possessed by the author, of bringing 

 out, with distinctness, the essential points of the subject of 

 which he treats, so as invariably to leave on the mind of the 

 reader an exact conception of the questions under discussion. 

 Although more particularly intended for the student, this work 



