PicteVs Treatise on Palceontology . 297 



is also of a nature to interest that more numerous class of 

 readers who are anxious to keep up their knowledge of the in- 

 vestigations of modern science. Professional naturalists them- 

 selves will consult it as a good summary of the present state 

 of palaeontology, and one which, is much superior to all the 

 works of this description hitherto published. 



The first chapter is devoted to the history of palseontology. 

 We have afterwards an exposition of the nature of fossils, and 

 of the manner in which they have been deposited ; a chapter 

 on the classification of formations, another on the distribution 

 of fossils in the various formations, and on the succession of 

 animals at the surface of the globe ; and, lastly, an exposition 

 of the zoological principles of the classification of fossils. The 

 author next proceeds to the special history of the Mammifera. 

 It might be wished that, in this general preliminary view, the 

 information on geology properly so called, had been somewhat 

 more precise : for, however correct the statements generally are, 

 we can easily perceive by the omission of some proper names, 

 and by the order in which those quoted are placed, that the 

 work of M. Pictet is essentially a zoological and paloeontologi- 

 cal treatise, and not a history of the structure of the globe ; 

 and as such has been the object proposed to himself by the 

 author, we cannot make it a matter of reproach to him, that 

 more is not said on geological questions. 



Almost the whole of the first volume is devoted to the his- 

 tory of the Mammifera. It is not my intention to follow the 

 author in the details of the enumeration of the genera, the fa- 

 milies, and the species, which it has been necessary for him 

 to characterize ; and I shall content myself with saying, that 

 the characters which he has given invariably correspond to the 

 present state of our knowledge, and that the engravings which 

 accompany his descriptions, render them easy of apprehension, 

 without encumbering the work. The methodical enumeration 

 of all the known types of the Mammifera, compared, in an 

 ideal manner, with their living analogues, will, doubtless, con- 

 tribute much to render apparent the laws of the succession of 

 those animals in the series of formations ; and the author will, 

 no doubt, bring them prominently forward, in a tabular form, 

 in the last part of his book, in which he is to treat of the ap- 

 plication of Palaeontology to the study of the ages of nature. 



