
Fuly 27, 1871 | 
NATURE 
239 

We are now entering on quite a new phase of research, 
and commencing a survey of the hitherto unknown 
world beneath the waters. Regarded not merely in a 
biological, geological, or physical aspect, but also as a 
basis of sound education, these investigations ought not 
to be neglected by any civilised nation, especially by 
Great Britain, which, it is hoped, will never cede her well- 
earned maritime prestige, and her laudable ambition of 
discovery. This has been forcibly urged as a duty on the 
Government in an admirable article which appeared in 
the Sfectafor of the 22nd of July. In the pages of 
NATURE (meaning, of course, the present periodical, and 
not the mythical book to which fanciful writers are wont 
to allude), some of the results obtained in our deep-sea 
explorations of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean 
have been already noticed ; and next year will in all pro- 
bability inaugurate an expedition on a more extensive 
scale, and worthy of this rich and intellectual country. 
Sweden has performed her part most nobly, by sending 
out, in 1869, the Fosephine frigate for the exploration of 
the sea-bed lying between the coast of Portugal and the 
Azores, and this year a corvette and tender to Baffin’s 
Bay and Davis’s Straits. Russia despatched, last year, a 
frigate to New Guinea for a similar purpose, under the 
scientific charge of an experienced naturalist, Mr. N. M. 
v. Maclay. We are now informed on good authority that 
Drs. Noll and Grenacher, two German naturalists, are 
projecting a dredging expedition along the coasts 
of Portugal and Morocco to the Canaries. Even 
France, in the midst of her troubles, devoted some 
of her energy and vast resources to the peaceful ob- 
ject of dredging in the lower part of the Bay of 
Biscay, under the personal superintendence of the Mar- 
quis de Folin, the Commandant at Bayonne. In Canada 
a Government schooner has been lately placed at the 
disposal of the Natural History Society of Montreal for 
dredging the deeper part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
But the United States, not content with the laurels she 
had gained in the Gulf of Mexico, has this year promoted 
two separate expeditions ; one, under the charge of the 
veteran and celebrated Professor Louis Agassiz, and 
Count Pourtales, to proceed along the south-eastern coasts 
of the Atlantic from Bermuda, through the Straits of 
Magellan to the Galapagos and San Francisco, dredging 
all the way ; and the other, under the charge of Mr. Dall, 
the author of the Report above cited, has already gone 
from California to the Aleutian Islands. 
The Brachiopoda, which form the subject of the present 
Report, are usually considered an abnormal class of the 
Mollusca; although some systematists place them in 
another group or sub-kingdom, the Molluscoidea, along 
with the Tunicata and Polyzoa. Mr. Morse, an Ameri- 
can naturalist, has recently endeavoured to show that the 
Brachiopoda are Annelids. This is a very debateable 
matter of classification. I am, for one, disposed to let 
the Brachiopoda remain among the Mollusca, to which 
they appear to be allied through the Azomiéa family. 
Their mode of reproduction, bivalve shells, and 
general habits, evince a much closer affinity to the 
Conchifera than to the Tunicata, Polyzoa, or Anne- 
lida. Other points of resemblance between the Brachio- 
poda and the three last-named groups may savour of 
analogy, not of homology. The author has exe- 

cuted in a most scientific and conscientious spirit the 
somewhat difficult task allotted to him ; and he has con- 
tributed much valuable information to our scanty know- 
ledge of the life-history of these remarkable animals. I 
regret that I cannot accept his conclusions as to the 
difference of certain so-called species (7erebratula vitrea 
and cubensis, T.septata and flovidana), nor asto the generic 
value of 7erebratu/ina and Waldheimia. But this is not 
the place for discussing such questions, That part of the 
Report which treats of the Craniide and Discinide is 
equally well done, and the plates are capital. 
J. GWYN JEFFREYS 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Year-Rook of Facts in Science and Art, By John 
Timbs. Pp. 288. (London: Lockwood and Co. 1871.) 
Annual of Scientific Discovery, or Year-Book of Facts 
in Sctence and Art for 1871. Edited by John Trow- 
bridge, S.B., aided by W. R. Nichols and C. R. Cross. 
Pp. 349. (Boston : Gouldand Lincoln, London: Triib- 
ner and Co. 1871.) 
THE opinion that we expressed on a former occasion re- 
garding the relative value of these Year-Books, remains 
unaltered. Mr. Timbs, as of old, still wields the scissors 
and the paste-brush with unabated zeal, and his Year- 
Book for 1870 presents all the faults of its predecessors, 
Considering that “Science and Art” are not the only 
subjects to which Mr. Timbs devotes his attention, but that 
a new book on (we may almost say o/) “‘ Popular Errors,” 
or on “ Curiosities,” seems to be always springing from 
his fertile pen, his ‘‘ Year-Book” does him no discredit, 
although non-critical readers may wonder at some of the 
“Facts,” as well as at some of the omissions, which they 
encounter. Why he should place “The Entozoa Egg,” 
(on which we suspect his ideas are somewhat obscure,) 
“Protoplasm,” the ‘“Germ-Theory of Disease,” and 
“Sleep,” under the head of “ Natural Philosophy ;” or 
“Snuff-Taking: a Preventive for Bronchitis or [and ?] 
Consumption,” under that of “ Chemical Science,” we 
cannot pretend to say ; but, possibly, the following para- 
graph, taken from the heading “ Astronomy and Meteoro- 
logy” may afford a clue to his mysterious system of clas- 
sification :—* Dr. F. G. Bergmann has projected from his 
own consciousness the beings from which the human race 
developed itself. Their name is ‘Anthropiskes, and they 
lived in Central Africa. They developed out of apes,” 
p. 265. The appalling idea cannot be repressed that the 
intellect 0. our venerable instructor in “ Science and Art” 
must be fai:ing from over-work, so as to lead him to con- 
found Anthropology with Astronomy ! 
The American Annual has the great advantage over its 
British. rival of being compiled by men who understand 
the subjects on which they are engaged. The editor, John 
Trowbridge, S.B., is Assistant Professor of Physics in 
Harvard College, and one of his assistants, W. R. Nichols, 
is Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. The subjects embraced in this 
volume are nearlythe same as thoseincluded in Mr. Timbs’s 
Year-Bock : Mechanical and Useful Arts, Natural Philo- 
sophy, Chemistry, Natural History or Biology, Geology, 
and Astronomy and Meteorology, being common to both, 
while the present work has additionally Geography and 
Antiquities,and the English annual makes Electricity a 
separate subject. 
Unless the editor enters more fully in future volumes 
into the subject of “ Geography and Antiquities,” we should 
recommend the suppression of this department. On the 
present occasion it is simply compiled from the proceed- 
ings of the Geographical Section of the British Association, 
