RevieiDs — F. Chapman'' s Foraminifera. 175 



but yet clear, instructive, and impartial. While we may agree with 

 the author that " With specialisation in geology and palseontology, 

 ■Ihe spring-time of the science was over," we must differ from him 

 when he says, " The period was past when a man could mentally 

 survey the whole field," for this is what he has done. 



In his introduction the author deals with the First Pei-iod, or 

 geological knowledge in the ages of antiquity ; with the Second 

 Period, or beginnings of palaBontology and geology ; with the Third 

 Period, or heroic age of geology, 1790-1820 ; and more briefly 

 with the Fourth Period, or modern geology. In the following six 

 chapters the progress in various branches of geology is discussed, 

 and there the labours of the heroes and all later workers are as fully 

 acknowledged as possible. It is not a work, however, of which 

 a summary can be given. It is itself a summary. Works of all 

 kinds that have aided the progress of science are dealt with. Thus 

 u considerable space is rightly given to Lyell's works and to the 

 history of them, and reference is made to De la Beche's Geological 

 'Observer, " which is full of new observations and facts." In this 

 connection we miss only the name of John Morris, whose Catalogue 

 of British Fossils was surely worthy of mention. 



In the references, however brief, there is generally some useful 

 criticism or information ; thus we read : " Following Eiitimeyer's 

 method, W. Morris Davis depicted the different stages in the 

 development of a valley " ; or again, " After Suess and Hyatt had 

 •opened the gates for the creation of new genei'ic names, the 

 palseontological literature of the Cephalopoda was inundated by 

 innumerable new genera and species, most of them only narrowly 

 defined." 



A work so full of information, historical, geological, and even 

 biographical, is unquestionably one which should be kept for 

 reference by every geological worker. The translator has given 

 thirteen portraits, including the author, von Buch, Cuvier, Murchison, 

 Lyell, Owen, von Richthofen, Agassiz, and Suess ; and we may 

 heartily congratulate her on the production of a volume which, 

 while it adds to the interest of geology, cannot fail to assist in the 

 advancement of the science. H. B. W. 



II. — The Foraminifeka : an Introduction to the Study of 

 THE Protozoa. By Frederick Chapman, A.L.S., F.E.M.S., 

 Palseontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne. 4to 

 (28 X 18 cm.) ; pp. xvi, 354, with 15 Plates and 42 Figures. 

 (London : Longmans & Co., Feb. 1902. Price 9s. nett.) 



THANKS to Frederick Chapman, who has devoted so many years 

 to the study of fossil and recent Foraminifera, and the rocks 

 largely built up of them, we have now a volume dealing with the 

 general subject. Of its usefulness there can be no possible doubt, 

 for up to the present one has had to search for a special point 

 through very nearly 4,000 tracts and separate publications. In 

 this volume Mr. Chapman has digested all these various works into 

 readable and accessible form, and rearranged the principal items 



