6o"? 



NA TURE 



[April 26, 1900 



He would therefore spend an additional sum on the pump 

 itself rather than on the purchase of boilers and in 

 stoking, and he might even be sufficiently far-seeing to 

 capitalise the value of the coal he would save, and spend 

 part of that amount also upon the pump. 



In conclusion, the opinions expressed by our author to 

 the effect that a pump placed in a chamber underground 

 is for that reason necessarily neglected, and subjected to 

 rough and unskilful treatment, that it cannot be so econo- 

 mical as an engine working on the surface, that steam 

 pipes in the shaft heat the workings, and so on, all tend 

 to betray a want of knowledge of the practice of educated 

 and observant engineers and managers of the present 

 day. They sound rather like an echo from the un- 

 instructed past, or a dirge of the days that are now 

 passing rapidly away. W. Galloway. 



THE PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE 



INVERTEBRATA. 



Text-Book of Palaeontology. By Karl A. von Zittel. 



Translated and edited by Charles R. Eastman, Ph.D. 



Vol. i. Pp. viii + 706 ; with 1476 woodcuts. (London : 



Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1900.) 



ENGLISH-SPEAKING geologists and palseontolo- 

 gists have awaited with eagerness the long pro- 

 mised translation of Prof. K. A. von Zittel's well-known 

 " Grundziige der Palaeontologie " which appeared early 

 in 1895. At last we have received the first volume, 

 which completes half the work, namely, to the end of the 

 Invertebrata. It proves, however, to be much more than 

 a translation of the German original. It is illustrated by 

 the same beautiful woodcuts, with few additions ; it is 

 also similar in general plan ; but most of the chapters 

 have been entirely rearranged and rewritten, to express 

 the views of the various American and English authors 

 who have co-operated with Dr. Eastman. It is, there- 

 fore, virtually a new work, and the scheme of classifica- 

 tion adopted is very different from that accepted by the 

 eminent Professor of the University of Munich. 

 , The only part of the "Grundziige" which remains 

 almost unchanged in the present translation comprises 

 the admirable introductory chapter and the account of 

 the sub-kingdoms Protozoa and Ccelenterata. Here the 

 student will find Prof, von Zittel's own summary of his 

 important researches on the structure and classification 

 of the fossil sponges, which it is well to have left un- 

 touched. Changes begin with the Echinodermata, and 

 attain their maximum in the Cephalopod Mollusca, 

 becoming less noteworthy again in the Arthropoda, 

 which conclude the volume. 



Of the Echinodermata, the Crinoidea and Blastoidea 

 were revised by the late Charles Wachsmuth. He added 

 much new matter, and described and classified the crinoids 

 in accordance with Wachsmuth and Springer's " Mono- 

 graph on the Crinoidea Camerata of North America," 

 which is here said to be " as yet unpublished," but really 

 appeared in 1897. The sections on Asterozoa and Echi- 

 nozoa have been extended, and in some respects much 

 improved, by Mr. Percy Sladen, who has completely 

 rearranged the Euechinoidea in accordance with the 

 NO. I 59 I, VOL. 61] 



researches of the late Martin Duncan. The short de. 

 scription of the Vermes has been revised and slightly 

 enlarged by Dr. G. J. Hinde. The chapter on Bryozoa 

 is no longer that of Prof, von Zittel, but the work of Mr- 

 E. O. Ulrich, who has added many new figures. It is 

 not quite up to date, there being no references to Dr, 

 Gregory's " British Museum Catalogue " or his memoir on 

 early Tertiary Bryozoa, published by the Zoological 

 Society. The Brachiopoda, revised and partly rewritten 

 by Mr. Charles Schuchert, are arranged according to 

 Beecher's classification, which is described in von Zittel's 

 original as " one-sided," being based only on embryology. 

 The rearrangement of the Mollusca has been undertaken 

 by Messrs. Dall, Pilsbry and Hyatt, who deal respec- 

 tively with the Pelecypoda, Gastropoda and Cephalo- 

 poda. Here it is difficult to recognise any of the original 

 "Grlindziige" except the figures. In the description of 

 the Arthropoda, Prof. Charles E. Beecher has added 

 much important new matter to the section on Trilobita, 

 which students will be glad to have. The treatment of 

 the higher Crustacea and Merostomata is also much 

 changed by the revision of Profs. Clarke and Kingsley ; 

 but the Arachnida, Myriopoda and Insecta, edited by 

 Mr. Scudder, remain almost as in the original German 

 work. 



With so many collaborators, it has naturally been im- 

 possible for Dr. Eastman to obtain uniformity of style 

 throughout the volume ; and the judgment which 

 teachers and original workers will pass upon it depends 

 largely on the section which they happen to consult. On 

 the whole, we are disposed to prefer the original volume 

 in the form in which it was issued by the distinguished 

 teacher who prepared it. .With all due deference to the 

 eminent specialists who have devoted so much labour to 

 the translation and revision, we cannot refrain from ex- 

 pressing our opinion that they have converted an ad- 

 mirable student's manual into little more than an index- 

 to certain technical memoirs, which are as yet by no 

 means accepted classics in pala:ontology. As Prof, von 

 Zittel himself remarks in his preface, many of these 

 memoirs are founded on certain embryological and phylo- 

 genetic considerations, which may soon prove co be base- 

 less assumptions ; while the old methods of comparative 

 anatomy are often almost abandoned in favour of some 

 one-sided hypothesis. We would also note that a large 

 proportion of the generic names adopted are quite un- 

 known in the original v/orks on geology and palaeontology 

 which the average student will have to consult at the 

 beginning of his career. In short, if the translators and 

 revisers had devoted more attention to the correction 

 of errors or the incorporation of new facts, and dis- 

 played less eagerness to infuse their own personal 

 idiosyncrasies into the work, they would have done, 

 much more valuable service than they have actually 

 accomplished. 



The subject is too technical to enter into detailed 

 criticism, and it must suffice merely to allude to three 

 points in illustration of the difficulties which are placed 

 in the way of the student. 



One of the first fossils which every student must learn 

 to know is the brachiopod Terebratula. Accordingly, 

 Prof, von Zittel, in his " Grundziige," gives a concise 



