178 = Reviews—F’. Priem —Brehm’s Marvels of Nature. 
not of family importance, I cannot see in them any sufficient reason 
for separating T'rissolepis from the Paleoniscidae, as they now stand, 
and when that enormous family comes to be subdivided, I should 
be inclined to place the genus in question not far from Amblypterus 
on account of the direction of the suspensorium and the form of the 
opercular apparatus. 
Anyway, Trissolepis Kounoviensis is a most interesting fish, the 
consideration of which leads us to imagine—what would the older 
writers who pinned their paleichthyological faith to Agassiz’s 
system, have said to a ‘‘Lepidoid” with round scales on its body 
and angular ones on its tail! But this is now not the only instance 
of such an apparent anomaly. 
The restored drawing of Trissolepis is indeed very nice, but it 
seems to me that he has put the orbit in an impossible position for 
a fish of its affinities. If Dr. Fritsch should prove correct in this 
detail, then it will have to be frankly conceded that the Trissolepidee 
do form a family quite sufficiently separated from the Paleoniscide. 
A curious feature of the genus is the presence of large, prominent, 
tooth-like gill-rakers attached to the branchial arches on their anterior 
aspect. Apropos of this, Prof. Fritsch observes in a footnote that, 
“die starke Bezahnung der Kiemenboégen lasst die Frage enstehen 
ob Harpacanthus fimbriatus, Traquair, nicht ein ahnlich bezahnter 
Kiemenbogen ist.” Now I can only answer that all Teleostomous 
ossified branchial arches, which I have ever examined, had a groove 
posteriorly for the branchial vessels and nerves, which is noé found 
in Harpacanthus ; secondly, that I never saw in any of them a 
central pulp cavity or canal, which 7s present in the spine to which 
I gave the above-mentioned generic name. The question need not, 
1 think, arise again. 
Such criticisms, notwithstanding Prof. Fritsch’s new part is a 
very valuable contribution to paleeichthyological science, and one on 
the production of which its author is certainly to be congratulated. 
R. H. Traquarr. 
I].—A. EB. Breum, Mervertirs De tA Nature: La TERRE, LES 
MERS ET LES CONTINENTS, GEOGRAPHIE PHysique, GLOLOGIE ET 
Minératociz; par Ferpinanp Prism. Paris, 1893. Royal 8vo. 
pp- 708, with 757 Illustrations. (J. B. Bailliére et Fils.) 
O many important works on Physical Geography have appeared 
during the last twenty-five years that one is led to marvel 
whence the source of supply of this perennial stream of literature 
can have been derived. 
We owe the initiation of this form of knowledge to the greatest 
naturalist and traveller of his time, Alexander von Humboldt, best 
known to English students by his latest work, “‘ Kosmos” (1848), 
in which he contemplates all created things as linked together and 
forming a perfect whole, animated by internal forces. Charles 
Darwin’s Journal of a Naturalist, in a voyage round the world, is 
another work which doubtless contributed to lay the foundations of 
