Reviews — Darwin's Coral-reefs. 567 



:r, ±3 "V* X IE w s. 



I.— On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs; also 

 Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands and Parts 

 of South America. By Charles Darwin. [With a Critical 

 Introduction to each Work, by Prof. John W. Judd, F.K.S.] 

 Small 8vo. pp. 549. (Ward, Lock & Co., London, 1890.) 



G'i EOLOGISTS are much indebted to the editor and publishers 

 r of the " Minerva Library," of which this work forms the 

 eighteenth volume, not only for placing within the reach of all 

 the classical writings of a pioneer like Darwin, but also for enlisting 

 the co-operation of Prof. Judd in contributing three introductory 

 chapters, which are invaluable to the general reader and to the 

 student as yet on the verge of his subject. The book is practically 

 three volumes in one, each with a special introduction ; and though 

 the type is necessarily small, it is remarkably clear, and the only 

 evidences of cheap production are in some of the pictorial text- 

 figures. 



In the introductory remarks on Coral Reefs, Prof. Judd devotes 

 five pages to a brief review of the circumstances under which 

 Darwin's work was produced, and shows how the now well-known 

 theory, propounded in that volume, at once commanded the almost 

 universal assent of both biologists and geologists. The succeeding 

 pages relate, with equal clearness, the most recent views on the 

 subject, with sufficient references to literature to enable the ordinary 

 reader to follow the somewhat extended controversy. The Professor 

 points out that the objections to Darwin's theory have for the 

 most part proceeded from zoologists, while those who have fully 

 appreciated the geological aspect of the question have been the 

 staunchest supporters of the theory of subsidence. He urges the 

 undertaking of borings in coral reefs, adopting a suggestion of 

 Darwin's ; and he concludes by expressing the opinion that most 

 readers will rise from the perusal of recent works on the subject 

 fully convinced that, " while on certain points of detail it is clear 

 that, through the want of knowledge concerning the action of 

 marine organisms in the open ocean, Darwin was betrayed into 

 some grave errors, yet the main foundations of his argument have 

 not been seriously impaired by the new facts observed in the deep- 

 sea researches, or by the severe criticism to which his theory has 

 been subjected during the last ten years." 



In a similar introduction to the work on Volcanic Islands, 

 Prof. Judd gives an interesting resume of some of the fundamental 

 principles to the establishment of which Darwin's researches 

 specially contributed. Von Buch's well-known theory of elevation- 

 craters was satisfactorily disproved by the observations made in 

 the Atlantic Islands ; while the subsidence of crater-floors after 

 eruptions, recently noted by Dana, among others, in the Sandwich 

 Islands, was distinctly recognized in several cases. Darwin also 

 observed the arrangement of volcanic vents along great lines of 



