78 Bibliographical Notices. 



tions, are generally excellent ; and, besides lists of the more impor- 

 tant works relating to each great division, there is a useful glossary 

 and copious index. 



Notwithstanding every possible care, a text-book embracing so 

 wide a field as the present one must occasionally present some 

 shortcomings or omit some details which may be considered neces- 

 sary ; still the subjects are placed before the reader in a clear and 

 concise manner by the author, himself a practical geologist and 

 experienced teacher, fully conversant with the requirements of the 

 student ; and in this respect we consider he has succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a very useful and well-arranged Manual of Pala'ontology. 

 At the same time we cannot but regret that, even with the increased 

 size and additional woodcuts, the publishers have so greatly ad- 

 vanced the price as probably to preclude its acquisition by some of 

 those for whom it was specially intended. 



An Introduction to Animal Morphology and Systematic Zoology. — 

 Part I. Invertehrata. By Alexander Macalister, M.B. &c. 

 8vo. London: Longmans, 1876. 



An Introduction to the Systematic Zoology and Morphology of Verte- 

 brate Animals. By Alexander Macalister, M.B. &c. 8vo. 

 Dublin, Hodges ; London, Longmans, 1878. 



These two books, although published at an interval of two years 

 and under different titles, really constitute the two volumes of a 

 single work. The author, no doubt for cogent reasons, having taken 

 advantage of an offer, on the part of the Board of Trinity College, 

 to bring out his second part as one of the " Dublin University Tress 

 Series," was compelled so to modify it and its title as to convert it 

 into a separate treatise ; and although the existence of a first part 

 without a formal successor is always to be regretted from a libra- 

 rian's point of view, we do not know that in the present case the 

 students for whose use these books are specially intended need be 

 very loud in their complaints. 



The author's motive in preparing this work was to furnish 

 students with a text-book of animal morphology, compiled, as he 

 himself tells us, from the most recent and authoritative writings 

 upon the various groups of the animal kingdom. Thus he makea 

 no pretence to originality, but has brought together from scattered 

 sources the information that appeared to him necessary to convey a 

 clear idea of the structure of animals, and the classification founded 

 upon its peculiarities and differences, in order, as he says himself, 

 to bridge over, as far as practicable, that gap which he finds not 

 unnaturally to exist between ordinary manuals of zoology and the 

 " monographic literature " of the subject. That he has done this 

 with considerable success must be admitted : and the success is well 

 deserved ; for the labour expended in bringing together such a mass 

 of material must have been immense, even leaving out of conside- 

 ration the further task of working up the materials when collected 

 into a compact whole, in the mode of performance of which we see 



