Reviews— B. B. WoodivarcV s Life of the Mollusca. 79 



In. France Fischer's Manuel de Conchyliologie (Recent and Fossil), 

 in eleven fascicules (from 1880 to 1887), with 1,369 pages and 

 1,139 text-figures, embraces all Woodward's original work, besides 

 very much additional new matter. Chenu's large Manuel de Con- 

 chj/liologieis more valuable for its numerous and beautiful illustrations 

 (many in colour) than for its text. 



The establishment of the Malacological Society of London in 1893, 

 now in its twenty-first year, with a published journal of ten volumes, 

 speaks highly for the advance in the scientific study of the Mollusca 

 during the past half-century all over the world. 



In days of long ago our neighbours the Dutch were not only the 

 earliest voyagers, they also took the lead in collecting and purchasing 

 rare and valuable shells ; but they knew little or notliing about the 

 animals themselves. They were rather like the lady at the "Zoo" 

 who, seeing a hermit-crab in one of the tanks walking about in 

 a whelk-shell, remarked to her daughter how interesting it was to 

 know the little animals that made those shells. 



Even in the days of Robert Macandrew and Gwyn Jeffreys, to collect 

 shells and remove the animals without injuring the test was leather 

 the be-all and end-all of those early conchologists. Edward Forbes, 

 S. P. Woodward, Huxley, Lankester, Paul Pelseneer, Godwin-Austen, 

 B. B. and Martin F. Woodward, and the modern school of zoologists 

 have shown by their published works and lectures that a classification 

 of the Mollusca, based upon an accurate knowledge of the shells alone, 

 would be as satisfactory as a tailor's knowledge of a new client 

 derived from inspecting a suit of his cast-off clothes. 



In the present work the author tells us his object is "to give 

 a succinct account of what is known concerning the life of that branch 

 of the animal kingdom to which the snail, the oyster, and the cuttle- 

 fish belong — the Mollusca". But it is not an easy matter to express 

 in a few words the general characters by which anj- group or phylum 

 of the animal kingdom can be distinguished from its neiglibours. To 

 illustrate this difficult}' we may cite the fact that some fifty years ago 

 the Cirripedia, the Tunicata, the Brachiopoda, and some operculated 

 corals (^Calceola, Goniophxjllum, etc.) were included in the ^lolluscan 

 sub-kingdom. " Externally most molluscs possess a ' head ', a ventral 

 creeping organ, the 'foot', and a dorsal covering, the 'mantle', 

 which bears and secretes the shell. This shell forms a protection to 

 the more vital organs, and into it the animal can generally withdraw 

 for security from attack. The mantle does not usualh^ reach far 

 beyond the shell-margin when the animal is extended, but in some 

 cases it curls round over the shell (e.g. Natica), and even as in the 

 cowry [Cyprcea) meets on the top. h\ the more specialized Mollusca 

 there is a tendency to the reduction, even to disappearance, of the 

 shell, and in these there is a corresponding liability for the shell to 

 become moi'e and more enveloped pernumently in the mantle as the 

 animal becomes less and less able to use it as a place of retreat" (p. 2). 



It is surprising to find how full of interesting matter are the living 

 Mollusca when studied as a whole, not merely as dry shells in 

 a cabinet. Take, for example, chapter vii on the evolution of the 

 Mollusca, and quite a new set of ideas are presented to the student. 



