Reviews — Harris and Burrows — Paris Basin Mollusca. 553 



undergone, it would be no exaggeration to say that numbers of these 

 genera have now as many aliases as a notorious pickpocket or a 

 crack burglar. 



If opinion as to the lines upon which alterations of names should 

 be made was only unanimous, much labour would be spared. Some 

 Naturalists hold that a name used for a genus of Vertebrates, as 

 Paloionincus, Blainville, 1818, for a genus of fossil fishes ; and 

 Paltsoniscns, Milne-Ed w., 1843, for a genus of fossil Isopods, need 

 never disturb our peace of mind or our nomenclature ; but it seems 

 to be considered desirable that such repetitions should as far as 

 possible be eradicated from the Index Zoolugicus. 



Names, once familiar as household words, are now constantly being 

 swept away, and all our ancient landmarks cast down. But we are 

 told it is for our good, and, like the "nasty doctor's stuff," we are 

 bound to swallow it. We would like, however, to see these changes 

 effected with more reverent and careful hands, and without that 

 indecent haste which too often marks the action, as if the alteration 

 of a name were a noble achievement in science, whereas it too often 

 simulates, but in a more humble sphere, those barbarian conquerors 

 of Egypt or of Nineveh, who erased every preceding monarch's 

 name on temple and on palace and substituted their own. There is 

 something more in science than a name, and those who would earn 

 the gratitude of posterity may do so by adding to the walls of her 

 ever-rising temple some well- worked stones : let whoever will, after- 

 wards, cut or scratch his name thereon, he will at least have the 

 nobler satisfaction of having done a piece of solid work. 



The Introduction deals with the alterations in nomenclature made 

 by the author; there is a gooil Bibliography (pp. 299-325), followed 

 by a very useful Appendix prepared by Mr. George F. Harris, 

 F.G.S., "On the Correlation of British with Continental Tertiary 

 Strata," illustrated by a series of small tables and a large folding- 

 table, which gives the equivalents for each horizon, as far as possible, 

 for English and Foreign localities where Tertiary fossils have been 

 obtained. This cannot fail to prove most useful to all students and 

 workers in these deposits and is an excellent piece of work. 



We congratulate Mr. Newton on the completion of his Catalogue, 

 and hope he will follow it up with figures and descriptions of the 

 new or little known species of Eocene shells in the Edwards 

 Collection in the British Museum. 



II. — The Eocene and Oligocene Beds of the Paris Basin. By 



George F. Harris, F.G.S., and Henry W. Burrows, A.R.I.B.A.. 



(A Paper read before the Geologists' Association April 3, 1891). 



Published by Edward Stanford (Price 3s.). 8vo. pp. viii. and 



130. September 23rd, 1891. Illustrated by a Geological Map 



and numerous Sections. 



ri'^HE Geologists' Association can no longer be spoken of as a young 



_L Society, and hardly deserves the title of a Society of Amateur 



Geologists. It was established in 1859, and is consequently in its 



thirty-third year, and numbers amongst its 550 members a large 



proportion of the most eminent and accomplished geologists and 



