136 Notice of Dr. ManteWs Medals of Creation. 



{evj authors and' compositors would find the above an exact de- 

 scription of their own case. 



An excellent summary is given of M. Adolphe Brongniart's 

 discoveries in fossil botany, and it is compressed into only three 

 pages. There is an interesting notice of the Flora of New Zea- 

 land, p. 202. The chapter on fossil infusoria is important. The 

 article on fossil zoophytes is very valuable ; being condensed from 

 a vast store of materials, it must have been very laborious, and 

 it is illustrated by beautiful drawings, particularly on page 279. 

 An excellent account is given of the Cephalopods, and of the 

 fossil fishes, especially of Agassiz, both requiring great labor and 

 skillful condensation ; but the effort has resulted in a lucid exhi- 

 bition of both these great departments. 



Thus, chiefly by making our author his own interpreter, we 

 have endeavored to present a full and intelligible view of his de- 

 sign. Our object has been to give a faithful analysis of an im- 

 portant and interesting work. In the execution, Dr. Mantell has 

 embodied a vast amount of results drawn from numerous re- 

 sources of the highest authority ; it is evidently a work of great 

 research and formidable labor, for which any one may well be 

 very thankful who desires to know, or both to know and to com- 

 municate, the great facts and beautiful philosophy of paleontolo- 

 gy. This vjork is a classic of high excellence, and must neces- 

 sarily be the companion of every geologist who is not willing or 

 has not the time or the means to study it out for himself, from a 

 wide range of research to which few are equal. 



In this cursory review, and within the limits of this Journal, 

 it is impossible to quote even a moderate proportion of the ex- 

 cellent cases selected by the author to illustrate the organic be- 

 ings now entombed in the earth. Although these pages have 

 been extended far beyond our original design, we have found it 

 possible to select only a few bright remarks and striking facts, 

 sufficient to induce the reader to purchase and study the work 

 for himself. 



We cannot however close our observations without again ex- 

 pressing our admiration of the perspicuity, method, and conden- 

 sation by which these volumes are distinguished. They are in 

 relation to the whole of paleontology what Professor Buckland's 

 incomparable Bridgewater Treatise is, for the splendid examples 

 which he had so happily selected, and so ably described and 

 illustrated. 



