70 Zoological Society :— 
De la Beche, and Lyell were its associates, all honestly endeavouring 
“to seek the proper end of philosophy, by arranging multifarious 
and seemingly discordant facts into a chain of natural links.” (Bake- 
well.) The speculative geologists had not, at that time, ceased to 
strongly influence the rising science ; and Prof. Phillips, one among 
the best of observers, kept “the hypothetical aspects of many a well- 
ordered series of facts fully in view; and now even, in his manual 
for beginners, instead of describing the actual composition and state 
of the material of which he is treating (for instance, the atmosphere, 
p- 17, &c.), and giving the student useful practical information about 
it, he rather enters into a disquisition upon what he considers it was 
ages ago. Thus certain long-cherished hypothetical views as to the 
original conditions of land, water, and atmosphere are here as un- 
necessarily presented for the consideration of juvenile students as 
the “‘ Devonian”’ question is in Mr. Jukes’s little manual. 
In his account of geology, in the ‘Guide,’ Prof. Phillips first 
treats of the mass of the globe; 2, the crust of the earth, and its 
structure; 3, land and sea; 4, climate; 5, the series of life; 6, lapse 
of time; 7, succession of rocks in the crust of the globe, wie many 
useful little tables; 8, lithology. He does not figure the fossils in 
this little book, and indeed the woodcuts of manuals are of no use 
for the identification of species; but he judiciously illustrates his 
chapter on lithology, in which all the chief rock-substances and 
common minerals are clearly and concisely described according to 
their associations. 
There is no doubt that Professor Phillips’s ‘ Guide’ is fully trust- 
worthy, being very good, though occasionally rhetorical, and often 
apt to deal with problems that the philosophy of geology rather 
dreams of than understands. ‘The author, however, clearly states 
that he intends this little work to help, first, those inquiring what 
geologists think probable as well as certain in the history of the 
globe, and what the facts and reasonings are on which these suppo- 
sitions and conclusions are based; and secondly, the more earnest 
order of inquirers—real students of nature, desirous of adding to 
the facts, advancing the reasonings, perfecting the conclusions, and 
taking part in the actual progress of geology. 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
: ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Nov. 10, 1863.—E. W. H. Holdsworth, Esq., F.Z.S., in the Chair. 
Descriptions or THREE New GENERA OF MARINE FisHEs 
OBTAINED AT MaperrA. By JAMES YATE JOHNSON, Corr. 
Mem. Z.S. 
Order ACANTHOPTERYGII. 
Fam. Caraneip#, Giinther. 
DiRETMUS, gen. nov. 
Body much compressed and elevated, covered with small spinous 
