October 29, 1891] 



NA TURE 



611 



so prepared have been preserved in their entirety in the 

 National Museum. 



After the formation of the Palaeontographical Society, 

 a large number of Mr. Edwards's Mollusca were mono- 

 graphed by him from 1849 to i860 (five parts), and con- 

 tinued by S. V. Wood, 1861 to 1877 (four parts) ; and 

 papers were published in the London Geological Journal, 

 the Geologist, the Geological Magasine, and the Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society of London. 



The unpublished labour which Mr. Edwards expended 

 on his cabinets greatly exceeded that which he devoted to 

 the publication of a part of their contents, as may readily 

 be seen by a study of his collection ; and when it is 

 known that this work was all performed in the leisure 

 hours of a busy life as a Master-in-Chancery, hearing and 

 deciding law cases in Chambers all day, one is astonished 

 to find how much he was able to accomplish. 



The collection contains no fewer than 39,191 spe- 

 cimens, referred to 1805 species of Mollusca, divided into 

 the following classes : — 



85 genera and 648 species of Lamellibranchiata, 

 162 ,, 1 1 27 ,, Gasteropoda, 



2 ,, 14 ,, Scaphopoda, 



6 ,, 16 „ Cephalopoda. 



1805 



Of this number 585 are manuscript species, proposed by 

 F. E. Edwards, which have not yet been described ; so 

 that nearly one -third has to be deducted from the above 

 total if we would arrive at the actual number of species 

 already figured and described. 



It may be objected that these manuscript names ought 

 not to have been printed ; but Mr. Newton points out, in 

 the preface to his catalogue, that these have got into cir- 

 culation abroad in lists published by German and French 

 palaeontologists, with whom Mr. Edwards had corre- 

 sponded, until, like some paper-currencies, they have 

 obtained for themselves an artificial value, and it would 

 he inconvenient to omit to mention them in a list of Mr. 

 Edwards's own collection. Mr. Newton, moreover, pro- 

 mises shortly to describe and figure them, thus giving 

 them their full specie-value, a promise which we sincerely 

 trust he will find leisure to perform. 



In addition to the specimens in F. E. Edwards's own 

 collection, figured and described by himself and others, 

 all those in the Brander, Sowerby, Dixon, Bowerbank, 

 and Wetherell collections are duly recorded ; so that much 

 valuable information as to the whereabouts of these types, 

 and references to the works in which they are recorded, 

 has been carefully brought together in this volume by 

 Mr. Newton. 



yVpart from the vast variety, as well as the rare beauty 

 f form, by which the Mollusca of the Eocene period at 

 once arrest the attention of even the most unlearned, to 

 the student of palasontology they afford unmistakable 

 evidence of the existence in this earliest Tertiary period 

 of subtropical marine conditions over this portion of 

 the earth's surface, which now forms South-eastern Eng- 

 land. Several extinct forms of Nautilus and Cuttlefishes, 

 associated with huge species of Cerithiutn, Cowries, 

 Cones, Volutes, and such genera as Rostellaria, Mitra, 

 Marginella, Cancellaria, Oliva, Ovula, and Seraphs, 

 NO. I 148, VOL. 44] 



with Terebra, Pircnia, Phorus, Solarium, Nerita, and 

 Chiton, make up a rich display of Mollusca belong- 

 ing to the warmer seas of the globe, and if we add 

 such genera as Pholadomya, Spondylus^ Crassafella, 

 and many of the other bivalves, they tell the same 

 tale. Crustacea, Echinodermata, and Corals were also 

 present, together with numerous Turtles, whilst along 

 the shores of the rivers huge Crocodiles patiently awaited 

 the Palaoiheria and Anoplothcria from the neighbour- 

 ing lands. Terrestrial vegetation, washed down from 

 the Eocene continent, also proves to be of a tropical kind 

 — Palms, Cacti, Dryandra, Maple, Azalea, Acacias, with 

 others, belonging to more temperate latitudes, forming a 

 part of the vegetation of our island to day. Nor were 

 the terrestrial Mollusca unaffected by the increased tem- 

 perature, for we find large Bulimi and Helices unlike 

 those now living in this country, whilst the species of 

 Limnea and Planorbis were both large and very abun- 

 dant, and were associated with Potamides, Melania, and 

 other exotic genera in its streams. That there must 

 have been at that time a close connection between our 

 English Eocene area and the much larger Eocene area 

 of France, cannot be doubted, for the beds of the Paris 

 basin and those of Hampshire and London are capable 

 of close correlation, and many genera and species are 

 common to both areas. 



Mr. Newton has fortunately obtained the co-operation 

 of Mr. George F. Harris, who has, in an appendix, added 

 some valuable tables, showing the probable equivalent 

 horizons of our several English Tertiary beds with those 

 on the Continent, in France, Belgium, and Germany, 

 and as far east as Austria and Italy, and southwards to 

 Spain. These tables will prove of the greatest value to 

 the student who seeks to understand, and even to map 

 out, the former geographical extent of the several succes- 

 sive Tertiary deposits of Europe, with their varied land, 

 freshwater, and marine records of past life, both animal 

 and vegetable. 



Most of the points dealt with by Mr. Newton in the 

 introduction to his list have reference to questions of 

 priority in names, and explanatory notes in justification of 

 some which have been abolished — either because the 

 name had been pre-occupied for a genus of fishes, or 

 birds, or reptiles, &c , or because it had been discovered 

 that another author had previously described the same 

 shell, and had at an earlier date given it another name. 

 Many old favourites have thus been relegated to obscurity, 

 whilst fresh names, dug up from some forgotten corner, 

 have, by the law of priority, taken their places. Thus : — 

 Meretrix, Lamarck, 1799, takes the place of his better 

 known Cytherea of 1806, the latter having been applied 

 by Fabricius, in 1805, to a dipterous insect. Triton, De 

 Montfort, 18 10, gives place to Lampusia, Schumacher, 

 1817, "having been applied by Linnaeus to a Cirripede in 

 x'jdl^ But as no genus of Cirripedes is known by that 

 name at present, this is a needless and undesirable altera- 

 tion, especially as Mr. Newton remarks, "the genus 

 Triton still continues a favourite name among concho- 

 logists " ; we would add, " long may it continue " so. 

 Darwin says : " I cannot doubt that the Triton de- 

 scribed by Linnaeus was only the exuvice of some 

 Balanus (probably B. porcatus), Linnaeus mistaking the 

 proboscidi formed penis for the mouth of his imagined 



