92 GENERAL REVIEWS. 



GENERAL REVIEWS. 

 Land and Freshwater Shells: an introduction to the study of Conchology. 



By J. W. Williams. cr. 8vo. pp. 112, 34 figs, in text. 3rd and revised 

 edition. London: 1901. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. , Ltd. 



We are pleased to welcome a further edition of this little handbook. The text 

 of Chapters i — iii, treating of the anatomy and physiology of a snail and a freshwater 

 mussel, have not been altered, excepting to make some slight corrections. In a 

 remarkably small space they give a clear and intelligent survey of their subject. 



Mr. J. W. Taylor has revised [?] the systematic part, and with Mr. Roebuck 

 contributes an imperfect census of the distribution of the land and freshwater 

 mollusca. We really cannot take Mr. Taylor's revision seriously nor the so-called 

 census. Mr. Williams would have been' well advised, if he had revised the system- 

 atic portion himself and entirely omitted the "census." 



Our Country's Shells and how to know them. A Guide to the British Mollusca. 

 By W. J. Gordon, pp. vii + 152, with 33 pits, and figs, in text. London: 

 [1901] Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co. , Ltd. 



We have carefully examined and read through this book, looking for some 

 redeeming feature, but our task has been in vain. It is such publications as this 

 which act rather as hindrances than helps, to the collector and student of popular 

 conchology. 



Shell Life an introduction to the British Mollusca. By Edward Step. cr. Svo. 

 pp. 414, 32 pits, and figs, in text. London: 1901. F. W^arne and Co. 



That there is an opening for a cheap and popular handbook treating of the 

 Mollusca of this country few will deny, but it is absolutely necessary that the author 

 of such, should be one possessing a practical acquaintance with his subject and the 

 literature thereon. Mr. Step possesses neither of these qualifications, with the result 

 that the present work is little more than a careless compilation. 



Good use has been made of Mr. Cooke's interesting work (Mollusca, Cambridge 

 Natural History), but where the author obtained the information that Limax tcncUus, 

 Nilss., was a British slug and that Amalia carinata, Risso, was the same as A. 

 marginata, Drap. , is more than we can tell, but such statements will serve to 

 illustrate the general inaccuracy. 



The almost entire absence of any references is a marked feature; as we have 

 stated time after time in this paper such a practice is most reprehensible, no author 

 is justified in making statements "as though he himself had investigated and was 

 responsible for the accuracy of these statements in virtue of his own observations 

 on the objects described, when all the time he is simply stating what this man and 

 that man have seen, and he has not seen, though he omits to mention the name of 

 those to whom he is indebted." 



Most of the figures on the 32 plates are good, many in the text, however, are 

 very poor. 



EDITOR'S NOTES. 



We regret to have to record the decease of Mr. Thomas Rogers (;f Manchester, 

 in his seventy-fourth year, who died on Helvellyn on May 30th, whilst making an 

 ascent of the mountain. 



As we go to press, we learn with deep regret that Mr. Martin F. Woodward, 

 while on a zoological excursion to the west coast of Ireland, was drowned on the 

 15th instant. 



