Reviews and Book Notices. 411 



must be impressed with the extraordinary amount of thought, 

 ingenuity, accuracy and variety in unity which is compressed 

 within this small space. The fircone, of all natural objects, 

 appears to be the fittest symbol of Nature in her widest sense. 

 It is the spiral and not the circle which is written upon the face 

 of the Universe, and upon every particle therein. We ourselves 

 in our ceaseless journey around the sun, are describing a spiral 

 course, for the sun himself moves on — perhaps in some greater 

 unknown spiral of his own. 



The great central spiral upon which all things are strung 

 is ever being sought but never to be found by mortal man. 

 Darwin in his wonderful discovery of that great secondary 

 spiral, Evolution, was ready to believe that he had come upon it, 

 yet he came to recognise in the end that, great and almost in- 

 spired as his vision into origins was, it could not gather all into its 

 mighty coil. That which can do so must of necessity extend so 

 far above and beyond our little earth that it is futile for man to 

 expect to read and decipher it in his present state of existence. 

 The secondary spirals indeed often lie within our mental reach, 

 and in the study of their origin we may perhaps learn to infer 

 something of that wonderful rhythm which sings deep down in 

 the heart of things, the rhythm of the coil and the leaf, of the 

 upward movement and of life, the rhythm which, if we knew 

 it, would make all things plain for us, and all things in harmony. 

 This, at least, is the philosophj^ of the fircone. 



Palaeontology. Invertebrate, by Henry Woods, M.A. Fourth Edition. 

 Cambridge ; the University Press. 1909, 388 pp. 



The excellence and usefulness of this well-known handbook is proved 

 by the fact that a fourth edition has been called for in a comparatively 

 short time. Of its kind the book is the best. The numerous illustrations 

 are largely drawn in order to give the student an idea of the principal 

 features which require attention. A very helpful feature is the list of 

 monographs dealing with the various sections dealt with. 



History of the Geological Society of Glasgow, 1 858-1908. Edited by 

 P. Macnair and F. Mort, Glasgow, 303 pp. 



This work has obviously been a labour of love on the part of the Editors, 

 who are secretaries of the Society. Few provincial Societies can claim 

 as many prominent scientific men as members as can the Glasgow Society, 

 and its history is refreshing to read. A valuable feature is the biographical 

 portion, in which notices of many well-known hammer-men, past and 

 present, are given. The volume was issued to commemorate the Jubilee 

 of the Society, and contains chapters on the fifty years' work under the 

 heads of Physical and Dynamical Geology, Mineralogy and Petrology, 

 Stratigraphical Geology, Palaeontology, and Glacial Geology. There 

 are many portraits, including those of Kelvin, John Young, H. W. Crossley, 

 Dugald Bell, Sir Archibald Geikie, Prof. Lapworth, Dr.^B. N. Peach and 

 Dr. R. H. Traquair. We are sorry there is not one of Croll. 



1909 Dec. I. 



