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original edition while largely used in this country did not, on account 

 of being in a foreign language, meet all the wants of American stu- 

 dents, particularly the younger ones. No department of science has 

 been more in need of a good English text-book than palaeontology. 

 Educators in general will owe to Dr. Eastman a deep debt of gratitude 

 for providing our colleges and higher schools with a " translated, revised 

 and enlarged edition" of the best manual on palaeontology that has 

 ever been written. Professor von Zittel is to be congratulated not 

 only for the improvement presented by his new text-book, but also, as 

 shown by the results, for having entrusted the preparation of the trans- 

 lated edition to such excellent hands. 



To one accustomed only to the standard English works on palaeon- 

 tology, or even to the majority of foreign ones, the style and mode of 

 treatment adopted by the author must seem a welcome innovation. 

 The plan on which it is written is in fact original with Professor von 

 Zittel, and was first adopted by him in the larger work, for which he is 

 famous, the Handbuch der Paldontologie. It may be regarded as the 

 best method yet devised for treating, in one and the same book, not 

 only the main facts of the science as viewed from the biological side, 

 but also systematic palaeontology. Authors of zoological text-books 

 are confronted with the same difficulty, how to relegate to the systematic 

 and the general part each its due share of attention, without confusing 

 the student nor presupposing for him too much technical knowledge. 

 The great success of von Zittel's method has been demonstrated during 

 the twenty years his larger treatise has been in use, and justifies its 

 extension to an elementary work. 



Another feature which the present text-book shares in common 

 with the Handbuch is its richness of illustration. Its figures are neces- 

 sary to the advanced student, and everyone knows for himself how 

 dependent he is on good figures for an understanding of new forms ; 

 how much more essential is it that the beginner be supplied with an 

 abundance of illustration. Perhaps in no department of science is the 

 need of pictorial representation so great as in palaeontology, owing to 

 the fragmentary or distorted condition of the bulk of the fossil material. 

 The German edition, which comprises 950 pages, is provided with 

 2500 woodcuts ; the translation promises to increase this number to 

 upwards of 3000. Part i, which forms the immediate subject of this 

 notice, has fifty-five illustrations more than the corresponding portion 

 of the original. Great discretion has been exercised to select typical 



