April 2% 1878] 



NATURE 



503 



which would set at rest a question which, though I con- 

 sider it settled in my own mind, is yet, I believe, held to 

 be still doubtful by many interested in these matters. 



In what I have written I have touched only upon 

 obvious work suggested by the previous observations. I 

 have little doubt that the preparations of the skilled 

 astronomers of the United States include many surprises 

 and daring attempts among the solid work which we are 

 quite certain of. 



All here wish them the extremest measure of success, 

 v/hich I am sure their efforts will do more than command. 



J. Norman Lockyer 



ATLANTIC SHELLS 



Testacea Atlanticaj or, the Land and Freshwater Shells 

 of the Azores, Madeiras, Salvages, Canaries, Cape 

 Verdes, and Saint Helena. By T. Vernon Wollaston, 

 M.A., F.L.S. Royal 8vo, pp. 588. (London : L. Reeve 

 and Co., 1878.) 



IT is with a saddened feeling we take up our pen to 

 notice this valuable contribution to malacology ; for 

 ere its pages had left the hands of the binder, its talented 

 author had passed " into the shadowy land." 



The name of Wollaston is connected ancestrally with 

 more than one department of science, and the author of 

 the present work has well maintained the honourable 

 reputation of Dr. Wollaston, the discoverer of palladium 

 and rhodium, and the founder of the Wollaston Medal 

 and Award. 



Compelled in 1847 to visit Madeira on account 

 of his health, he commenced to collect the land- 

 shells of the various outlying islands and rocks of the 

 Madeiran Group ; and although (as he tells us) insects, 

 rather than mollusca, formed at that time the main object 

 of his researches, he was able to add a considerable 

 number of unmistakably new species to the careful and 

 elaborate catalogue which had previously been compiled 

 by his friend and companion, the late Rev. R. T. Lowe, 

 then chaplain at Funchal, Madeira, and to whom the 

 present work is dedicated. 



So interested did he become in the insects and land 

 snails of Madeira, that, although no longer compelled to 

 submit to exile on account of his health, yet he returned 

 again and again to Madeira and spent many weeks under 

 canvas high up among the mountains collecting. 



In 1858 he visited the Canaries in the yacht of his 

 friend, Mr. John Gray, and again in 1859. On both 

 these expeditions he was accompanied by Mr. Lowe. 

 He was thus enabled thoroughly to explore the numerous 

 and widely-scattered islands of the Canarian group under 

 the most fortunate circumstances for collecting. 



Under the same happy auspices he visited the Cape 

 Verdes in 1866, Mr. Lowe again being his companion. 

 In 1875 Mr. Wollaston sailed for St. Helena with Mr. 

 Gray, where he spent six months in investigating the 

 natural history of that remote little oceanic rock, being 

 on this occasion accompanied by Mrs. Wollaston ; the 

 Rev. R. T. Lowe, his friend of many past years, having 

 lost his life in 1874 on his outward voyage to Madeira. 



Mr. Wollaston has felt it desirable to place these facts 

 on record, in order to show that the several islands and 

 archipelagos treated of in the volume before us — with the 



exception of the Azores— had all been visited personally 

 by himself. 



Although this book contains descriptions of no fewer 

 than 558 species and varieties of land and freshwater 

 mollusca, the author does not claim for it the position of 

 a monograph, but rather a critical enumeration of all the 

 forms hitherto recorded, with special reference to habitat 

 in the several Atlantic archipelagos. 



Out of the large number of species and varieties 

 described in this work, there are only twenty-nine which 

 are claimed by the author as actual novelties j sixteen of 

 these are from the Canaries, nine from Madeira, two 

 from St. Helena, one from the Salvages, and one from 

 the Cape Verdes. Mr. Wollaston would have conferred 

 a still greater service on his fellow-workers had he given 

 short diagnostic characters of all the species enumerated. 

 This would greatly have facilitated the identification of 

 the various forms and saved the student much time and 

 avoided the necessity of referring in many instances to 

 other works. It is also much to be regretted that refer- 

 ences are not given to the excellent published figures of 

 most of the species which are to be found in Reeve's 

 "Conchologia Iconica" and the second edition of 

 Martini and Chemnitz's " Conchylien Cabinet" by 

 Kiister. Well-drawn and correctly-coloured figures are 

 almost indispensable for the accurate determination of 

 land-shells where form and colour are dominant charac- 

 ters. It is easy to see and identify the form, when care- 

 fully delineated, but almost an impossibility to convey it 

 to the mind in words. 



Mr. Wollaston has shown throughout the strongest 

 preference for the limitation of species — at times be- 

 coming extremely hypercritical— and in some instances 

 he seems to be altogether in doubt as to what constitutes 

 specific rank. For example, under Helix bicarinata 

 {vide p. 161), he states that he is far from certain that it 

 is more than a phasis of H. echiiiulataj yet a few lines 

 below he observes that he has never found a single 

 example among thousands which could be strictly 

 regarded as intermediate. 



Again (p. 209) Pupa fanalensis, ."this may be only a 

 depauperated state of the var. /3. anconostoma of the 

 Pupa umbilicata, which the latter has gradually assumed 

 through having found its way into the higher regions, 

 nevertheless I believe it to be truly distinct." 



It is strange to find a man with Wollaston' s admitted 

 talents and vast opportunities for observation struggling 

 hard against the accumulated evidence of more than 

 thirty years, and clinging tenaciously to the last to the 

 doctrine of the immutability of species. Thus in his 

 Summary (p. 561), when commenting on the difficulties 

 which arise in defining what is a "species" and what a 

 "variety," he adds, "these remarks are by no means 

 intended to insinuate that the lines of demarcation 

 between species, when correctly interpreted, are ever, in 

 my opinion, really confused or doubtful, the exact oppo- 

 site having' always been my firm belief." 



Eliminating what Wollaston calls "the European or 

 more distinctly Mediterranean forms" from the cata- 

 logue, so that only "the Atlantic element" remains, 

 " the actual species which range beyond the limits of a 

 single archipelago are marvellously few — about four or 

 five being common to the Madeiras and Azores, about 



