Reviews — Mr. S. A. Miller — American Palaeontology. 277 



Rhizopodae." Again, after strenuously upholding the law of priority 

 (p. 92), he proceeds to remark a propos of Orophocrinus (p. 265), 

 " The definition was very imperfect and was made in a foreign 

 language, in a foreign country, and in a journal having no circulation 

 in America where the fossil occurs," and proceeds to conclude that 

 this name must give way to Codonites, Meek & Worthen, 1869 ! 



The list of families given at the head of each section is some- 

 times remarkable, those into which he distributes the Palaeozoic 

 Sponges is especially so. Some of these families have not yet been 

 described and are given with all their species marked "(in press)." 

 The Beatricidae (with the single type genus) and the Stromatoporidae 

 have long been removed from the Sponges, and Palaacis, here the 

 sole genus of a family, is generally considered to be a Coral. The 

 Pharetrones are calci-sponges, but not one of the four genera here 

 referred to them is. In the class Crinoidea, the genus Melocrhms 

 does not appear with the other genera under Melocrinidae, but under 

 Actinocrinidae, whilst Taxocrinus appears under two families — 

 Ichthyocrinidae and Taxocrinidae ! 



In the Gasteropoda the genus Turbo is illustrated by the type 

 species T. marmoratus, and fully described, the paragraph concluding 

 with the following gem : " Not an American Palaeozoic genus. The 

 species left here is, for want of material, to refer them to where they 

 belong"! 



Under "Lamellibranchiata" we learn that "Shells having a siphon 

 are always gaping at the posterior or anterior side, or at both " ! 

 Area is "unknown in the Palaeozoic rocks," and Cucullcea "is not a 

 Palaeozoic genus." Under " Pisces " we find the synonyms Meco- 

 lepis and Euryhpis given as distinct genera, and the species put under 

 the former all repeated under the latter. 



The palaeontological part of the work is extensively illustrated by 

 figures drawn from every available source, and consequently of very 

 unequal value, a few being as excellent as the majority are the 

 reverse. They will probably prove more useful as " reminders " to 

 the palaeontologist than as aids to the identification on the part of the 

 student. 



In this edition, whilst the etymology of the generic names is given 

 in the text, that of the specific is gathered into a glossary, endless 

 repetition being thereby avoided. Here emendation is as necessary 

 as in the rest of the volume. To find that ' adnatus ' means ' adnate,' 

 ' basalticus ' is 'basaltic,' and that 'chrysalis' is 'chrysalis,' may 

 be satisfactory to some minds, but can hardly be called explana- 

 tory. The translation of ' bipartitus ' into ' two-parted ' is not very 

 happy, whilst the rendering of ' perspicator ' by ' sharp-sighted ' is 

 hardly as correct as it should be. The inflections attributed to 

 certain comparative adverbs as ' minus, a, urn, less ' are novelties 

 that will interest the philologist without, however, instructing the 

 youth to whom the little book is dedicated. 



Notwithstanding all its faults, the book has considerable value as 

 a work of reference to the literature of North American Palaeozoic 

 Palaeontology, and in the hands of a moderately competent editor 

 would become a priceless treasure to the working palaeontologist. 



